Education talk

[count2infinity]

I think it'll either take reform from one of three places:

1. parents, like we've said
2. teacher's union
3. the school will be brave enough to step up and do it themselves

Testing isn't going anywhere if it's up to the government.

[MWB]

Think it has to be 1 and 3. You see some districts here and there fighting it. A couple states as well. I don't know that the unions can really do much. As powerful as people think they are, look at how easily this was implemented and how teacher evaluations are now.

[MWB]

I guess the role of the unions needs to be to support teachers who refuse to administer the test. If teachers in schools could organize a refusal to administer, that would lead parents to follow suit. I've yet to talk to a parent who supported testing as it is now. Teachers could do that if they knew the threat of termination was limited. This article addresses it a bit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ans ... -students/

[count2infinity]

I think the tables have turned on testing. When they came out it was a very anti-teacher environment. Teachers make too much to only work 9 months a year, they can't get fired, they are just giving worksheets and collecting a paycheck, there's no way to hold bad teachers accountable, etc... many of those arguments have faded (maybe it's because I'm out of the profession and don't have kids) and with that, the support for testing has died.

As far as the testing is concerned, I actually like the new keystone test system that they're moving to in PA. I don't know the full details, but from what I understand there are going to be certain exams that every student in the state must pass to graduate (things like Algebra, English, biology) and then they have a certain number of other exams they can pass. Essentially it's something like 9 out of 13 tests they need to pass to graduate. What's so much different is that these exams are given at the end of the year in the class that they are given and are part of the student's grade. So how is that so different? Well...

When I taught 11th grade chemistry (everyone in the high school I was at had to take and pass chemistry to graduate), at the end of the year, I had to give them the science PSSA. What was on the science PSSA? Subject (year they're taught that subject): Chemistry (11), Biology (10), Intro physics (9), Astrology (8), Geology (8), Environmental (7), Ecology (7). So in 11th grade, they're expected to recall things from 7th grade. With the new testing system, they'd take the test at the end of the year in the class they're currently enrolled. Also by making it a part of their grade and requirement for graduation, the "accountability" everyone is clamoring about is no longer just on the teacher, now the students have a bit of accountability as well to try their hardest on the exam.

[MWB]

I agree, that testing sounds a lot better, for the reasons you cited. I hope more districts and states do this. Do they still have to do the PSSA? Here in NC, they have to do an End of Course test for specific subjects in middle school, much like you're describing. That continues in high school. However, they still have to take the general End of Grade test. So my daughter, who is in advanced classes for language arts and math, had to go through a couple weeks of "remediation" to make sure they were prepared for the state test on material they covered a couple years ago. So they missed out on their classes like art and gym. It's ridiculous.

As far as the tide changing, it is a little on some levels. However, federal mandates are pushing even harder for tying teacher evaluations to testing. I'll be interested to see what some of the presidential candidates have to say about this. Not that it really matters. There's money in testing and there's money for schools who "Race to the Top." And we get to use those tests to evaluate teachers in some obscure "value added" formula. in fifth grade, students take a science assessment for the first time. They somehow have a projected score for this, and my evaluation is partly based on how far they deviate from this magical score. Since teacher evaluation is so important and testing is so lucrative, the two will stay tied together.

[count2infinity]

Currently they are in a switch over kind of process. They are implementing the Keystone Exams one at a time, but still have the PSSAs in place as well... unfortunately for the students they're getting hit hard right now with tests because they have to take both.

[count2infinity]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/0 ... acebook_sf

Comedian Stephen Colbert announced Thursday that he would fund every existing grant request South Carolina public school teachers have made on the education crowdfunding website DonorsChoose.org.

[Avyran]

That's pretty awesome.

[MWB]

That's pretty awesome.

[DigitalGypsy66]

You know what would also be awesome? If the dimwitted legislators and governor of SC would adequately fund education in South Carolina so Colbert wouldn't have to do something like this in the first place.

[count2infinity]

One of the weird things about public schools (at least in PA... not sure how it works in other states) is mostly funded via local taxes, not state, nor federal.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Yes, most of ours come from local property taxes collected at the county level. However, state legislators can rewrite the tax code to allow for more spending on schools.

My property taxes for a 1900 sq foot house, built in 2007, on 2/3 of acre is $900. That's less than what my parents paid in 1989 in Allegheny County for a slightly larger house. Our governor and legislators (of both parties) refuse to raise any type of tax increase. They've had two major SC manufacturer's CEOs - Boeing and BMW - tell them that further growth is dependent on increasing the crumbling infrastructure, and they still can't reach a consensus on how to pay for it without increasing taxes. Any increase in one area must be offset in income or other taxes, or the governor won't sign a bill into law.

[MWB]

Pittsburgh ESL teacher takes a stand against the PSSA:

It is with these students in mind, and many others, that I have asked the principal of my school to re-assign me during PSSA testing. I can no longer, in good conscience, administer the PSSA. I am ready to become a defender of my students — a conscientious objector.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/201 ... 1504220023

[count2infinity]

Pretty cool humans of New York post today:

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyor ... =1&theater

In today's hyper-over the top "everyone is a winner" environment, many boys are left with little motivation to do well. They want competition, they want to win, that's when they're learning best. I loved doing review games when I was teaching because I saw kids that couldn't care less about chemistry actively studying and reading notes before the question got to their group just so they can get the answer right. By far and away the favorite game was that I had one of those little nerf guns with the suction cups on the end. They had to shoot at a target on the board. You wouldn't believe how hard they worked just to get a chance to shoot at the target. Heck girls did it too. Everyone loved the competition, and the reward was a dum dum... I bought a huge back at the beginning of the year and you'd be amazed at how hard kids (these were 11th graders, mind you) will do for a dum dum.

[obhave]

I love when HoNY highlights teachers and educators.

[MWB]

Definitely agree about the competition and candy. They love candy.

[obhave]

I remember stickers so being a huge motivator when I was growing up. Worked for the people I was TAing as well.

[cheesesteakwithegg]

I recently became employed at Bobby Mo, and I can say without a doubt that I love working for a university. Not in a sports related job or anything, but it is fun times so far.

I worked at Bobby Mo for 8 years. Left and went to a corporation, and am now back in higher ed. The difference between higher ed and corporate is night and day, and I will most likely retire in higher ed. While my job can be stressful now, it is nothing like I dealt with when working for a company.

[MWB]

Columbia posted one in the politics thread, but thought the full list was worth it.

As the American education system continues to place more emphasis on standardized testing to measure academic achievement, critics have argued that it can be more harmful than helpful to students’ development in the long run. Here are some of the pros and cons of standardized testing:

PROS

Every student measured against same narrow, irrelevant set of standards
Holds teachers personally accountable for success of large, monolithic testing organizations
Western tradition of critical thinking best embodied in bubble-sheet format
Keeps students quiet for upwards of 90 minutes
Repeated testing carefully develops teachers’ cheating skills
Only biased against kids who couldn’t afford college anyway
Data. More data.

CONS

There are easier ways to measure parents’ income
Takes up time that could be used to teach toward additional standardized tests
Standardized test–scoring machines kill and maim more than 200 workers annually
Allows U.S. students to be compared with those of other developed nations
Fails to measure attractiveness, which will have far greater impact on future success or failure
Students may in fact become too prepared for future
Probably could be more profitable
.

[Pavel Bure]

What I like about accounting class: when both sides balance nicely

What I don't like: when they don't balance nicely and despite reworking them 5 times I can't find the error.

Hopefully ???: 16,700 is acceptable

[Reveutopique]

I saw this on Facebook. Looks long but it sucks you in.

Also, in an effort to start bare and basic I tried to use Khan academy on YouTube to learn intro to quantitative analysis. It was the first time in my life I understood how a formula is derived. Then I hit a roadblock and realized I have to retake algebra. I didn't realize how fun it was before.

I never thought I'd put that on record. Math is fun.

JENNIFER Ellison:
This is a thing I wrote about a thing we did. Please read:

RISE

About three months ago, I decided my students should learn how to code. I teach 4th, 5th and 6th graders who live in poverty. I thought it would be great if they could learn to code now, create an app and sell it on iTunes. They could break free of the chains of poverty now.

So I found some excellent coding lessons on Khan Academy and set them all to work. You should see those kids coding! It's amazing. I love watching my fourth graders, their heads all bent together next to that computer screen saying things like, "Have you tried plus, plus?" Or "No, dude, you need four parameters!" It's beautiful.

And then one day, a little button popped up on my coach screen. "Do you want to add this class to Learnstorm2015?" And I clicked yes.

LearnStorm is a pilot math competition in which students earn points by mastering math skills at their grade level. And so, I set them all to work. I watched in amazement as they dug in and fought their way through new concepts and through practice and determination they began to master math skills. I told my good pal Will, our 6th grade math teacher all about it.

"That's awesome!" He said with a typically huge Will grin. He was impressed with their progress and effort. "It will be cool to see how they do."

This conversation was about two weeks into LearnStorm and I had already been convinced of its greatness. I had begun to work on my own math skills -- starting in kindergarten and working my way forward. Will laughed when I told him about my own math journey, but he also encouraged me. "You can learn it all, I bet."

And after three months of daily struggle-- after school Khan Club meetings, Saturday school sessions -- we have reached the end of LearnStorm. My students understand grit -- they have lived it out. They struggled and worked. They've hit a wall. "Mrs. E! I'm never gonna get this last skill!" I've hit my own wall and lived it for them to see. Sometimes, I would work on my own math lessons on the big screen so they could see me try and fail and try again and learn.

About six weeks in we began the real fight. We had mastered all the "easy" skills and were smack dab in the land of new learning. I was amazed to discover that ALL of my students needed to learn how to tell time, and measure, and I don't even want to talk about fractions! But then the most amazing thing began to happen -- our school was on the leaderboard. We made our way into the top five for the whole Bay Area. 69,000 kids and mine were showing up on the Leaderboard.

Determination.
Drive.
Grit.

We dug deep, encouraged each other and kept moving forward. Five of my students have their names in the top 100. One of my 4th grade girls is number 14 -- out of the whole contest. I've never been so proud.

As for myself, I've mastered 438 math skills as of today. I got bogged down at the end of 6th grade math --don't laugh-- there is some seriously tough stuff in 6th grade now.

The last two weeks, we've held steady in 2nd place. My students. The same kids who spoke no English in kindergarten, who have no internet access at home, who I start each day asking one question, "Have you eaten?" -- these kids are number two. They understand grit. They understand hard work and now they are witnesses to the benefit of it.

This Saturday, I am taking five of them to a final event at Google headquarters. They will be recognized and encouraged. One of my girls didn't want to go. "It's an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity!" I told her. "You have to go!"

Her response reminded me of the crippling effects of poverty. "I don't ride in cars much." She said. "It is far. What if I get sick?" She's ten years old, and doesn't often leave her neighborhood. Her family shares a car with her cousins. They walk almost everywhere. Driving an hour away might as well be the moon.

"I'll sit next to you." I promised. "You can do this."

She turned in her permission slip and asks me daily if I really will sit with her. I will.

I cannot express how far they have already travelled and now five of them will go a little further -- and hear Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy's, himself, praise their hard work.

"Mrs. E, y'a think that Sophia from the coding lessons will be there?" One of them asked me.

"I don't know." I told her.

"I hope so. That would be cool. If I heard her talking, I'd know it was her. I've listened to her lots!"

They have found new rock stars to admire. Sophia, Jessica, Sal. They look up to academics who've taught them to code, animate and tell time on a "regular" clock. I wish I could bring all 355 of my students, but I hope the five I do bring will be ambassadors to the rest -- showing them there is a world outside their impoverished neighborhood.

And if anyone could understand this massive achievement, it would be my buddy Will. He was so excited about the contest and so proud of our students. But just four days after I told him about the contest, he died suddenly - a good man taken from us too soon. And so, it was with broken hearts my students dug deep determined to do well in the contest. "We gotta do it for Mr. B!" They said to encourage one another. "He wouldn't want us to quit!"

I don't know the end of our story. We will go to finals on Saturday. We will step onto that campus and for my students it will be like Neil Armstrong standing on the moon -- a new world never seen before full of endless possibilities.

LearnStorm taught us about hope, endurance and grit. We learned to persevere even through grief and that even broken-hearted we can build something good. It taught us to encourage one another because everyone struggles. It taught us that you can learn anything. It taught us that we are capable of more than we can imagine.

Oh, and we learned some math, too.

[MWB]

Yeah, but can those kids fill in bubbles?

Thanks for sharing that... Great story, and I'll be checking out LearnStorm tonight. And yes, Khan is also good. Just loaded the app for that on my students' computers.

[MWB]

“People still don’t get it,” Woodard said. “They think it’s play time. They think it’s touchy feel-y. But it’s undeniable what music, painting, [and] movement do to the brain. It becomes more receptive to scientific ideas.”

Woodard says pushback to investment in the arts is at times puritanical. “It can’t be that good, because it makes us feel free and happy.”

But art facilitates the learning of everything else.

“You cannot be an innovator in any category,” Woodard said, “unless that creative instinct is exercised.”

Good article on the importance of arts in education.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/ar ... on/373640/

[count2infinity]

Students aren't allowed creativity in normal classes anymore, it's all test, test, test, and now they're taking away another creative outlet.

[dodint]

Art/music past 7th grade was a complete waste for me. I had journalism as an outlet though.