Blog #6: August 6th

1.)   The first, of five things to be done about education, I would say, is to communicate a wake up call about the reality of data. What I mean by that is, inform anyone who is anyone, parents, teachers, students, that data is not essentially everything, and sometimes cannot prove everything. Ravitch herself states, “Data are representations of reality, not reality itself” (281). Not just political figures, but many people in just our general population have bought into this idea that data, the hard numbers, the test scores truly show the reality of where education is. I would argue that most people do not discuss the implications of these tests, whether or not we can accept that they accurately assess our students’ abilities. I think it may be true, that many parents and children accept the standardized tests as if they have been created by some all foreseeing power that is so accurate, precise, and prestigious that one does not question its accuracy, I think to do so does not even come into play for a lot of people. However, when given this thought, and being told that it is okay to question the validity of the standardized tests, what they actually measure and the potentially negative implications they could have on the educational process throughout a school year, I think people would absolutely begin to see what Ravitch is seeing, what I’m seeing, and what other teachers have grown to see through our teaching. Therefore, what I would do would be to urge the president to make this known. To communicate the fact that humans make these tests, and humans are not without error. This wouldn’t be with the intension of creating a rift, audacity, or blame, but rather an awareness of reality that many people, I think, may not look into because the state, and the government are seen as above us. We question laws that we vote on, so we most certainly should question the tools that are given to assess our students’ learning. I think creating an awareness of this would be the first step in helping guide people away from this immense focus on data.

2.)   Along with this I would want to address with the public the idea of authentic assessments for teachers. Since NCLB was instated there has been full accountability and responsibility on teachers. NCLB makes it easy for those who don’t question, and don’t know the potential holes of NCLB to point the finger at the teacher. It seems to strip all accountability from students and factors that would potentially influence their performance, which could never be accurately assessed by NCLB. The reality is that a teacher can be an expert teacher, doing everything necessary to help a student achieve, but if a student is dealing with a number of home, family, personal issues that stem from poverty, abuse, whatever, then that teacher is going to be seen as fully accountable for the failure of that student, regardless. This is something people need to be aware of. So a main response from me, to the president, would be first and foremost to create awareness.

3.)   I think the next most important thing would be to get rid of assessing teachers based on student test scores. The standardized tests are completely subjective, and teachers are being regulated based on a one sided perception or understanding of success. What needs to be decided first, is who even has the right, the authority, and the specific professionalism to assess teachers. I would argue that this would absolutely have to be people with teaching experience, and reputability. A person without teaching experience, or who does not understand or know the world of education, cannot be the overseer determining what is success in this business. Education is a complex business and must take into account individuality on a multitude of different levels, therefore no number can ever provide an accurate representation of the reality, learning, progress, and growth that happens in a classroom, because some of these dimensions can not be measured by a multiple choice test, and many of the things we think are measurable by this test, can not always be accurately measured. The test is not 100 percent reliable for all facets of growth and intelligence which good education and good teachers foster. True growth and learning can only be assessed through continuous observation, and analysis of thinking that students produce, whether it is spoken or written. Students do not have the opportunity to explain their thinking on a multiple choice test, so how can we truly evaluate with a bubble test, the complex mental process and reasoning that a student is making? This all must be understood in order for the population and political sector to understand that teachers cannot be effectively and truly valuated by such a process as the one that is currently instated.

4.)   If we truly care about education and success, it can’t be a quick process. People want numbers and hard data from the test because then it is easy to see “who is learning, who isn’t learning,” and “who is teaching effectively, who isn’t.” When I’m thinking of the problem with standardized tests, I’m thinking of the issues specifically related to assessing students’ thinking skills in English. In an English class, the essay is the most powerful and most telling testing tool. Any English teacher, I think, would argue that we can evaluate true student learning by what they produce in writing (or out loud). The goal is to communicate clearly and effectively, yet STAR never requires them to articulate any thought whatsoever. I think effective testing for English would then have to incorporate writing, to be evaluated by professional English teachers. That being said, perhaps teacher education programs do need to be more rigorous as far content areas and grading. Every teacher should be able to be considered a true professional in his or her field and qualified to evaluate the assessments given to their students. Therefore, the people who I think should be evaluating student learning, are teachers. Not government officials who interpret a set of numbers and take them for fact and reality. I don’t know enough about other subject areas to confidently say that this same system could be implemented for those disciplines, however I think that it could. We need to see the evolution of thought that takes place in a students mind, and somehow assess every student individually, not according to a standard addressed for all students within a specific age group. That grouping creates numerous issues, due to the fact that all students are bringing to the classroom a wide variety of circumstances that can either positively or negatively affect their learning. The reality is that thee circumstances need to be accounted for and considered.

5.)   My final suggestions would be to focus on curriculum, as Ravitch has stated a number of times that there is too heavy a focus on results and not enough on what we actually want our students to learn. Similarly important, we can’t ignore that poverty is a major issue and that much of what we see in the achievement gap can be attributed to poverty and the affects of poverty. I would suggest that we need an economic turn around, and, as idealistic as it may sound, some way to rescue our youth from poverty. And charter schools are not the way to do it. Charter schools promote selection, unintentionally perhaps, in the fact that its availability and promises couldn’t possibly be made known to everyone, especially those in intensive need. It seems that we, as people involved in education, and the government, need to take on a greater responsibility in providing what students need in order to learn, and quality of live and family support are those things. The bigger question I would propose, would be, can we tackle this? Is it within the realm of possibility to change every child’s circumstance? Are their factors that we have to accept, but just do our best to fight against? And if those are the questions, then one would see at the same time, that we certainly can not assess teacher ability by scores from tests that exclude individuality and personal factors from the scope of evaluation.

2.) One of the most meaningful things I learned from Ravitch, which would be something I would say to the president as well but I chose to save it for this question, would be her discussion and explanation of private investors and the Billionaire Boys’ Club. This was one of the most meaningful things I learned from her book because, unlike the problems with NCLB, and problems with skewed data, I had never before realized or understood what is taking place when people with a lot of money choose to donate to or fund education. Because it is their money, they are able to essentially dictate how that money will be spent, and if the schools want in on the money, they will essentially embrace the ideas of the donors in order to receive those funds. The problem is, again, we have people with a lot of money with their own, and often uninformed and biased, philosophies on education come in with in idealistic solution. There is no way a lot of the time, for that donor to know or understand the ramifications of reforms that they think are necessary. However, teachers usually, as the ones on the frontlines, are the first ones to be able to detect potential problems and successes of new reforms. However, they’re not the ones with the money and their voice is essentially lost. So we are left with this problem of people with money opening small schools, supporting charters, and doing all these things that they think will help education, but studies and when these ideas are put into action show failure, problems, and an overall undermining of the education system. At this point we have people who are not professionals making major decisions about education, and as Ravitch had said, with no one to hold them accountable for anything (201). This information was extremely valuable to me because it was something I was unaware of. I really dislike the idea that people who are not professionals in the teaching field can have such a huge weigh in on how to fix education just because they have the money with which to entice a school or a district.

3.) As a teacher, and as a citizen, considering the current state of American education, I have to do whatever it takes to help my students succeed. To me that success is attributed to personal and mental growth, pushing potential, sparking creativity, and, dare I say it, how to take a multiple-choice test. The reality is that there are going to be multiple-choice tests in many of these students’ futures. Whether they decide to take the SATs, go into the education field, medical field, law enforcement, fire fighting. All of these professions require testing like this. So, in my opinion, all I can do is support my students to the best of my ability so that they can achieve success now and in the future. It is tough, but I don’t think it is impossible to teach students organically, holistically, and allow room for creativity, while incorporating test taking strategies, and formative assessments that mirror STAR questions so that students get used to the format. A strategy that I’ve used in the past that I actually really loved was to present students with a multiple-choice quiz, only five questions. However, they had to explain in writing on the test why they chose each answer. We would then go over the quiz as a class and discuss everyone’s answers and rationales for choosing what they chose. We would examine how some answers were “more right” than others, but sometimes, I would get a student who made a brilliant case for an answer that was said to be incorrect by the test. In this case I would be honest with my students. I gave my students credit where credit was due, and let them know that humans make these tests, not God, not a computer that is perfect and above all flaw, but someone with a subjective viewpoint, and unfortunately, we as other people are subjected to those flaws, and we can only do the best we can. I would even tell my students that it is unfortunate they can’t express their rationale for a different answer, because their rationales are often brilliant. I think that what they learned in this lesson, beyond English, was a lesson on life and reality. Sometimes we are confined and limited momentarily, and we have to play the game until we can find a way to change it. But I don’t think that dealing with these circumstances of American education are all bad, we just have to teach our students to be aware, to be smart, and to always do their best. But I think letting giving them affirmation for a technically “incorrect” answer, lets them see and know that there are no limits to what they can do, and one day they could spark or create change. We have to let them know that there are flaws in the system and that they are subject to those flaws, we all are. But I think that is a really powerful lesson for students as far as knowledge, motivation, and empowerment.

4.) The first website is: The National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.ncte.org/

On the website there is an email account you can sign up for to receive newsletters. There is also a free web seminar about speaking out to support teaching. There are links for professional development and the NCTE Annual Convention. There are links to resources, ways to get involved, a link to join, as well as a link to shop for books, journals, or various memberships. On this page there are also links to a multitude of English aspects such as poetry, and writing. There is a calendar on the home page, as well as a list of how to get involved, and specially featured items for teaching such as books and compilations of lesson plans.

The second website is: The English Teachers Association. http://www.englishteacher.com.au/

On this website there are a number of links to all different aspects of teaching English. These links appear to lead to lesson plans and books on each topic, but one must be a member in order to access those tools. The association also has a magazine called , “The Latest mETAphor.” It appears that this association is based in Australia. However, if one is willing to take the time to match up standards, or notice similarities between standards, then perhaps some of the tools and links offered on this website could be beneficial to any English teacher. The English basics are the same, so I like that it is really easy to search by English topic on this website. There seems to be easily accessible information on anything I would need to teach pertaining to English in general.

6.)   Over the next three years, if I could, I would…

a.)   still like to see in the Bay Area: how teachers are teaching and incorporating diversity in places such as San Francisco. I would also like to see as many cultural exhibits and museums as possible. In conjunction with that I would like to take my students on field trips to these museums and exhibits and help integrate understanding and appreciation for cultural diversity through that active experience. In class, Tanya referenced a theatre company that performs Shakespeare plays in Indian culture. I would love to see this and use one of these performances to enhance students understanding of a Shakespeare play, and how Shakespeare transcends time and cultures. The last thing I would like to do, and may still try to do this even though it would be challenging, would be to interview people who direct and/or work at the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco. Their goal is to help create a better future for Latino families in general, and since supporting those families, and creating better situations for those families could help close the achievement gap (as I have gleaned in light of some of the empirical research I have done).

b.)   I would still like to read: The Chicanos (Paperback) by Gilberto Lopez y Rivas, Changing Patterns of Family and Ideology among Latino Cultures in the United States, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, Essay Writing for High School Students: A Step-by-Step Guide by Newsweek Education, Writing Smarter: Over 100 Step-By-Step Lessons With Reproducible Activity Sheets To Build Writing Proficiency in Grades 7-12.

c.)   I would still like to investigate:

Nariman-Jahan, R., & Rahimpour, M. (2011). The Effects of Planning and Proficiency on Language Production of Writing Task Performance. Educational Research (2141-5161), 2(9), 1528-1537.

Danzak, R. L. (2011). The Interface of Language Proficiency and Identity: A Profile Analysis of Bilingual Adolescents and Their Writing. Language, Speech, And Hearing Services In Schools, 42(4), 506-519.

d.) I would still like to attend: A conference with the NCTE: March 13–16, 2013 CCCC Annual Convention, "The Public Work of Composition,” and Asilomar 61: Why Literature? What Literature? How? September 28-30, 2012 Pacific Grove, CA e.) I would still like to see Cambridge University, Oxford University, the closing of the achievement gap between white students and black and Latino students. I would like to see students taking more risks with their writing. Lastly, I would like to see libraries that contain the hard copies of the first newspapers and letters in American history. Perhaps copies of these would suffice. I think it would be really fascinating for students to be acquainted with and examine how our language has evolved since the birth of our country.