No Curriculum Left Behind

The last time I blogged about the nationalization of American education: a year ago, almost exactly. A year ago, it was ratcheting-up-rhetoric. But words have a way of translating into action:

Maryland and several other states are pushing rapidly toward adoption of new academic standards proposed Wednesday for English and math, adding momentum to the campaign to establish common expectations for public school students across the country.

The District also is on track to adopt the common standards drafted by experts in a project led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. However, it is possible that Virginia will not join the apparent surge toward approval.

I should point out that my home state--the "other" Washington--is part of the effort. And what might it mean?

Widespread adoption of common standards would mark a watershed for schools, triggering consequences for curricula, textbooks, testing and teaching. Some critics say common standards amount to a thinly disguised ruse to establish national standards under federal control -- an allegation that state and federal officials deny.

They don't have to be a "ruse" to have the eventual--and seemingly inevitable--effect of a national curriculum. Unless the feds dismantle NCLB, which simply isn't going to happen, there will always be a reason to federalize.

Added: a blog-neighbor questions the Common Core standards.

toward smarter teaching

It's winter break, which, of course, means two weeks for teachers to relax, unplug, unwind and... think about teaching.

1. Are you one of those "brain-based" teachers? If so, how much of your curriculum is based on reproducible empirical research, rather than intuition and anecdote?

For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready.

But recent research has turned that assumption on its head — that, and a host of other conventional wisdom about geometry, reading, language and self-control in class. The findings, mostly from a branch of research called cognitive neuroscience, are helping to clarify when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts.

In one recent study, for instance, researchers found that most entering preschoolers could perform rudimentary division, by distributing candies among two or three play animals. In another, scientists found that the brain’s ability to link letter combinations with sounds may not be fully developed until age 11 — much later than many have assumed.

[Link via Venice Buhain.]

2. Speaking of assumptions, "learning styles" is another educational buzzword that seems intuitive, until you start testing your intuitions.

In almost every actual well-designed study, Mr. Pashler and his colleagues write in their paper, "Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence," the pattern is similar: For a given lesson, one instructional technique turns out to be optimal for all groups of students, even though students with certain learning styles may not love that technique.

Read the whole thing to find out why, and why "learning styles" proponents aren't thrilled with Pashler's research. The strongest finding, which no one in educational research will dispute, is that single-mindedly employing the same teaching method--day after day, subject after subject--is pedagogically unsound.

visualize data, visualize success

Blog-neighbor The Science Goddess, who is leading the charge in Washington state toward standards-based grading, shares some of her research-based data visualization practices. The upshot:

When I look at this with my teacher eyes, I see so much more of a story appearing about each student. It is no longer a sea of numbers. Now, these fancy-dancy charts won't help me know what to do next (e.g. If students are still below standard, what should the intervention be?), but it may be a better start for identifying issues.

Absolutely. I'll go one step further:

Have students visualize their own data.

Google Docs offers a basic spreadsheet program with enough chart-generating bells and whistles to make it effective for student use, provided enough teacher input. Here's how I set it up: first, I create a spreadsheet with a title row, formulas, and a blank chart inserted. Then I make copies, renaming each after its intended student, and share that copy with that student.

Then, with a little guidance, I have them input data that they've recorded on paper--gotta have a backup!--and the chart appears as if by magic.

It ends up looking like this:



I'll report back at the end of the semester as to whether it's an effective strategy for tracking progress in reading fluency. My gut says it's working, but then, my gut also thinks bacon is a food group.

Update: The Science Goddess adds Part II, with a sample report card.

Federal Way lawsuit fails

In a 9-0 decision, the State Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling and rejected the Federal Way School District's suit against the state for, among other things, failure to equitably and amply provide funding. The Washington State Constitution provides for a "general and uniform" public school system, which, in practice, is anything but. However, the Court argued that disparities have lessened, and that Federal Way is a victim of its own success, since its higher test scores (relative to lower-funded neighbors) are evidence that its funding is adequate.

Today's loss is a practical disappointment, but a legal inevitability. It remains to be seen whether a similar lawsuit in King County, to which the Olympia School District is a party, will fare any better.

Obama plans to ruin your summer vacation

Kids who creepily sang Obama's praises the other day: might want to rethink that. Obama wants to amputate your summer break.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

Just give the plan a snappy title--No Child Left Outside?--and watch it sail through Congress.

In all seriousness, reconfiguring the summer break is way, way overdue.

Gregoire rides the wish-horse of reform

Today Governor Gregoire signed a galloping reform bill.

The plan would create smaller classes, full-day kindergarten and a longer high school day to give students a chance to meet higher credit requirements.

It would also distribute state education dollars based on a new formula, but does not include a plan for paying for the changes....

In a room filled with supporters of the reform bill, the governor echoed the sentiments of its critics by also speaking about what was missing from the legislation: a way to pay for it....

Lawmakers and government officials have estimated the reforms could add as much as $4 billion a year to the just under $7 billion the state already spends on K-12 education annually.

Gregoire noted that the Legislature is working to address the lack of money by phasing in the reforms over about eight years and assigning a Quality Education Council to make sure the financing system is put in place.

"If wishes were horses," goes the old saying, "beggars would ride." Step one was beggaring education. Now we get our wish-horse.

a call for grading reform

In the pages of the vaunted Onion A.V. Club blog, noted educational theorist Josh Modell provides one of the best possible arguments for grading reform.

Letter grades are relative, and nowhere on the site (or in our reviewers' minds, I don't think) does an A or A- mean that a movie (or CD or book or videogame) is one of the best ever made. I certainly don't believe that Crank 2 is one of the best movies ever made. But what that A- did signify, and what I think high grades on The A.V. Club generally signify, is success. In my eyes (and in the eyes of Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias, who both enjoyed Crank 2), the movie was successful at what it was trying to be: weird, almost parodic, and over-the-top. Those seemed to be its goals, and it delivered. It was certainly never boring or cliched, and much of the time it was actually pretty incredible. For people who like these types of movies (and I can think of very few analogs for this particular movie), Crank 2 was pretty great. So what grade do you give to a movie that you think is highly entertaining and successful but exists in a genre that's not allowed a high grade?

That gets into what I like to think of as "genre profiling." You haven't seen the movie, and yet you know it's not possible that it deserves an A-. To some degree I agree with you: Action movies (even outliers like this one) are, by definition, incapable of being among the greatest films of all time. And that's fine, but it's a bit unfair to ghettoize them so much that an A (or even a B) grade is off the table. It's like deciding that the fat kid in gym class couldn't possibly do better than a B-, and then grading him accordingly. (What if he's a phenomenal goalie?) All of our writers understand--and I think our readers are sharp enough to understand--that Crank 2 isn't even in the same universe of greatness as The Godfather or (insert your all-time fave here).

It's true that A or A- grades in film are pretty rare at The A.V. Club, and I appreciate that that makes them more trustworthy. What I tell the music writers is that if something is getting an A or A-, it should be one of their personal favorites--top 10, if not higher--of the year. Crank 2 could very well end up one of my favorite movies of 2009. (And no, I'm not some sort of action junkie--my faves of last year were Synecdoche NY, Ballast, Snow Angels, Dear Zachary, and Wendy & Lucy, and I think this year's action hit, Taken, is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It got a C-.)

By now you've guessed that Modell isn't actually an educational theorist. Which is too bad.

the report card, 167 years later

Last week, while visiting the Cabildo, a New Orleans museum chronicling the history of Louisiana, I chanced across a report card from 1842:

PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- SECOND MUNICIPALITY
Monthly Account of George Leahy from Monday, March 7, to Saturday, April 8, 1842

Credit Marks for Correct Lessons, 67 --duty requires 96
Merit Marks for Correct Conduct, 17 --duty requires 21
Checks for Misconduct,
Absent, 6 days Tardy, times
Remarks:--

The Parent or Guardian is requested to signify that he has examined this account, by signing it below the Teacher's name and returning it.

A few random thoughts.

1. I would love to see a report card coming from a contemporary public school that uses the word "duty" in any context.

2. Do public schools do "merit marks" these days? Mine sure doesn't.

3. As the Washington legislature plans to return education to 1842 funding levels, perhaps we oughtta return to 1842 pedagogy, too. Slates! Primers! Corporal punishment! (Double bonus: no more Dornian pseudo-WASL.)

Barack Obama hearts merit pay

Perhaps as a way to help Americans escape from their economic nightmares, Obama's talking about merit pay. It's working.

In his first major speech on education, Obama said the United States must drastically improve student achievement to regain lost international standing.

"The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens," he said. "We have everything we need to be that nation ... and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us."

His solutions include teacher pay and charter school proposals that have met resistance among members of teachers unions, which constitute an important segment of the Democratic Party.

I am--gulp--a union member who sees room in educational compensation for merit pay. I know this means coming out of a closet of sorts, but if research connects teacher quality to student achievement, and teacher longevity to competitive compensation, then some reasonable form of merit pay combines the best of both worlds.

What I haven't seen is a merit pay scheme that is truly fair. I can't see any worthwhile use of test scores. For example, as a high school teacher with two vastly different sets of classes--say, two periods Remedial Math and three periods AP Calculus--then roughly 60% of my performance is not directly comparable to the other 40%. Furthermore, I'm standing on the shoulders--or running with the parachutes--of 10 or more elementary and middle school teachers.

Show me a sophisticated metric to fairly compensate performance, Obama team, and I'll be on board.

Until then, I'll remain cautious, optimistic, and--yep--hopeful.

(Charter schools? Evidence of their success is pretty thin. But I'm open to persuasion.)

HB 1410, SB 5444 die in committee

Neither HB 1410 nor SB 5444 made it out of the Education and Finance committee on Cutoff Day, The Olympian reports.

Despite those bills dying, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Haigh, who serves as the chairwoman of the House Education Appropriations Committee, both said they expect a big-picture measure to pass into law this year.

And Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said she thinks elements of the task force plan will survive — particularly a piece that would pay for a more uniform accounting and financial-tracking system for schools.

It's too bad in a way; HB 1410 might have been amended into something useful. But as it stood, it was biting off a gargantuan morsel of reform steak, and ended up choking on its own ambition.

HB 1758, Running Start, and the death of high school

A while ago, Running Start was in danger of stumbling before the finish line. The current budget mess seemed to present an opportunity to sideline the program, or at least scale it back, but lawmakers seem intent on further strengthening it.

HB 1758, discussed by the Times' Chantal Anderson (no relation), is a case in point.

Running Start students juggling both college and high school may soon be able to graduate from both without completing high school requirements, as long as they complete an Associate's Degree, technical program, or receive a professional certificate....

The Washington Education Association supports the bill.

"If getting an AA degree at an accredited Washington State community or technical college, or completing a professional technical certificate isn't proof of proficiency in basic skills then I think we might as well just give up," said Wendy Rader-Konofalski lobbyist for the organization. "Because I believe that would in fact satisfy those requirements."

Some will complain that this only cements the status of community colleges as High School Plus, and hastens the demise of the traditional high school. I don't know what's so wrong with that--especially if it means that something smarter arises in its place.

replace the WASL... with what, exactly?

Randy Dorn has already started the chainsaw of WASL reform. That tree's headed for the lumber yard. Gerald Bracey on the plan:

Dorn wants to replace the WASL with shorter, multiple-choice tests. Bad idea. And he wants the tests to be more "diagnostic." Dorn's impossible dream.

First off, in a KUOW interview, Dorn said the new tests would still be valid. He cannot know that. Validity is always an empirical question. Usually, if you make a test shorter, it becomes less valid. Of course, I've oversimplified in that statement. The question really is, valid for what? It's relatively easy to judge the content validity of test items — do they measure what they claim to measure? From the released WASL items I've seen, I'm not certain those items do....

But the bigger validity question is: Does the test make any difference? Are college professors more pleased with students who have passed the test? Are employers? The answer is a resounding, "We don't know." States are afraid to ask this question because, if the answer comes up, "No," they will be seen to have spent millions, even billions, of dollars for nothing. But informal studies by journalists have yet to turn up a positive instance. So forget all the fear-mongering rhetoric that we need these tests in order to compete with China and in the global economy.

The solution is taking the sting out of the WASL. Right now, our school uses a WASLesque reading assessment to help place students in appropriate instruction. It's given on computers, adaptive, and offers near-instant results. It's not perfectly valid for everything, but that's not its point. It's part of a battery of assessments, and it's not a graduation requirement. Its utility has nothing to do with its lack of "high stakes" motivation.

According to Bracey, what alder of progress should arise in the WASL's place? He concludes with a catkin of a recommendation:

What Washington should pursue is a course like Nebraska's, where testing ideas originated with teachers (remember them?) and evolved into something we might call instruction-driven measurement. Right now, what we have is measurement-driven instruction and it is a disaster, both in Washington and in the nation at large.

Bzzt. False dichotomy, five yard penalty. Intelligently-crafted assessment should drive instruction, and instruction should inform assessment. No either-or about it.

crrrrrazy ed reform in HB 1410

The WEA is steamed about HB 1410 (2009-10), all 111 ed-reforming pages of it. (Really. You want to read the entirety of the 111-page bill? Go right ahead [pdf].)

What has the WEA in a froth is, primarily, the bill's destruction of the state salary schedule. Adios, degree-based salary advancement (pp. 36ff):

The salary schedule shall not provide increased salaries based on continuing education credits or academic degrees.

No grandfathering, mind you, for the teachers who dutifully went along with the old ways, spending hours, days, weeks, months, or years of their time to get that master's (pp. 41ff):

23 NEW SECTION. Sec. 205. TRANSFER TO NEW SYSTEM.
(1) Certificated instructional staff whose first employment with a school district commenced before the 2012-13 school year have the option to make an irrevocable transfer to the compensation system with salary allocations provided under section 204 of this act....

(3) Any employee subject to this section who has not transferred to the new compensation system by November 15, 2021, shall be automatically transferred effective September 1, 2022.

So you've got ten years to milk that master's for all it's worth. Yet the bill makes it seem like the state is trying to model compensation after the wider professional world, including...

19 (a) Results of the preliminary labor market survey and analysis conducted under this section and other information about average salaries for noneducators in comparable occupations in Washington, including noneducators at the beginning of their careers and various types of educational staff associates working in noneducational settings;

Here's a tip: in other professions, advanced degrees mean a higher salary. Heck, many companies pay for their employees' schooling.

There's more, including a fun phrase, "academic watch," that turns the bill into a miniature NCLB Act, rubrics aplenty, "team-based bonuses," recommended class sizes, Core 24 and much, much more.

The bill's status: it's been sent to the Education Appropriations committee. Here are their phone numbers and emails. They met tonight for a public hearing at 6:00. I wasn't there.

I was too busy reading the bill.

Capital gets a visit from the accreditation team

As I was scrambling to get my senior writing class settled in the computer lab, the accreditation man appeared, out of the void, and stood at my side, watching the class, filing away mental notes. He wore a floral tie, a navy blue suit, and a serious look.

"This is an English course?" he asked. Uh-huh.

"Where'd you earn your degree?" Master's in teaching from Evergreen.

"How long've you been teaching here?" Six years.

"Did you see the article this morning about the WASL not being the hurdle we thought it would? Something like six students in the district aren't passing?" I thought, See it? I'm going to blog about it. I said, well, it's not too surprising, since math was no longer included. But I'm more concerned with the dropout rate. It's never specifically addressed in the article, and, I fear, gets short shrift in state discussions.

He nodded. He stood for a while, then left, off to another class.

I wondered if I made the grade.

a time for heterodoxy

The problem:

While the basic education funding from the state follows the student to the new district, the bill to the student's home district is determined with a formula that takes into account the amount of the high school district's levy, said John Molohon, fiscal assistant superintendent of Educational Service District 113.

So, when the levy rises in the high school district, the smaller district's bill also rises, whether or not its taxpayers would have approved the levy, Brannam said.

That's a situation that's applies only to high school students who live in areas without a high school, he said.

If a transfer student comes to Griffin — as 20 percent of its students do — they are funded only through state basic education funds, leaving the district to cover the rest.

The solution:

"We wouldn't be so reliant on our special levies as we are if the state funded us at the right level," [WSSDA's John Dekker] said.

Amen and amen. Simple majorities are a bandaid, but the wound's still bleeding.

"Take the Lead" vs. the race to the bottom

Via the good doctor, some depressing news:

Newly released national education statistics show Washington's average teacher salaries have dropped even further behind the national average and remain dead last among West Coast states. The average Washington teacher earns $12,000 less than the West Coast average.

Washington's class sizes are ranked 46th in the nation.

A separate report from the Washington State Institute for Public Policy(page 15) shows that Washington now ranks 45th in the nation in per-pupil spending, which indicates a further slide in support for Washington's public school students.

Or is it? What I said about relative rankings a year ago still holds true:

First, can we forever banish 50-state ranking statistics, throw them in the burn barrel where they belong? Someone has to be ranked fiftieth, unless all states spend the same amount, dollar-for-dollar, which will never happen. Imagine if every state spent upwards of $15,000 per student per year. Would the citizens of Mississippi really care if they ranked last at that point? Furthermore, rankings that don't factor in cost-of-living adjustments are worse than useless. Let's talk about benchmarks, baselines. Relative assessments are essentially meaningless.

I'm all for improving compensation--I want to attract more, better teachers--but not in favor of misleading or dubious rankings to help us get there. Show me the absolute numbers, give me the ideal reference point, and let's set a goal and get it done.

skipping out on the WASL--alternative

Maybe they don't know, maybe they've forgotten, or maybe they just don't wanna:

Friday is the deadline for seniors who want to sign up to submit a portfolio with a "collection of evidence" as an alternative to passing the math, reading or writing sections of the test, commonly called the WASL. The portfolio is due in February.

As of Wednesday, no students who still need to pass the math portion have signed up for that option in Olympia or Tumwater, and one student signed up for it in North Thurston, district officials said. More students are taking the portfolio option for writing and reading.

The other option is to take the ACT or SAT, or score highly on AP tests. Which, of course, makes one wonder why we can't just make the SAT mandatory and skip the costly, time-consuming, late-result-ridden WASL.

Running Start: running out of funds?

Running Start, an enormously popular program that allows high school students to receive college and high school credit for taking community college courses, is low on funds.

A statewide program offered at South Puget Sound Community College that allows high school students to take college classes for free has grown 15-fold since the college piloted the program in the early 1990s.

But it turns out the program's popularity has created a $34.5 million budget shortfall at Washington's community and technical colleges. At SPSCC, the gap is about $1.5 million....

"It puts more of a squeeze on us to figure out how we're going to pay for things that cost us more," said Nancy McKinney, the college's vice president for administrative services.

The legislature will likely take up the funding issue this coming spring.

The comments to the article--all 80 and counting--are decidedly partisan. RS students (and their parents) praise the program, while current CC students blast "immature" high schoolers for "filling up" their classes. There's truth on both sides: almost 700 students now take advantage of South Puget Sound Community College's program, and are happy with the results--but that's 700 more students filling a finite space. The funding shortfall means that the colleges can't keep up with the amount of classrooms and professors and administrators needed.

Meanwhile, back at the high schools, Running Start accelerates ability grouping. Junior year, a divide between IB/AP and regular offerings becomes a three way split, leading to a perception that American Literature and senior electives are a less rigorous offering--leading more and more students to abandon them for IB/AP and RS, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And that doesn't even factor in the online / correspondence option, which is also growing in popularity.

It all adds up to the death of the traditional "comprehensive" high school, which seems to be approaching sooner and sooner every year.

four reasons to support simple majorities for levies

Co-blogger and blog neighbor Ryan takes Angie Dorman to task for opposing Resolution 4204, the "Simple Majority" bill just aching to become law.

By all accounts, Ms. Dorman is a sensational teacher. There's no disputing the good that she's done for kids in a tough, tough environment. By standing against the simple majority she's working to deny other kids throughout Washington the same things that she would want for her own students, and that's morally indefensible.

How does Ryan reach that conclusion? Click through to find out.

board members: face the budget crisis now

Bob Shirley and Russ Lehman are proposing that the Board tackle the impending budget crunch now, instead of in the spring, The Olympian reports. I'll look at their proposals in turn.

•Eliminate up to $1 million in expenses not supported by state funds. In particular, the two board members cited student transportation as a potential area to make cuts.

This would potentially involve reducing routes for students who live within 1 mile of school. I'd suggest a tiered approach: cut service to secondary-level students who can walk to school, and thus combine elementary routes, given the freed-up seats. (Hey, maybe it could work.)

•Create a new performance- and skills-based compensation program for principals. Under the two board members' proposal, such a program should reward leadership and acquisition of knowledge and skills.

I believe it was Lehman who floated this idea when the Board was deciding on the last budget (he and Shirley, if you recall, voted against). I'm initially skeptical that this would fly with principals, who face different situations across the district and might see this solution as creating inequities in compensation.

•Create a teaching schedule that has one half-day each week devoted to teacher collaboration and skill development and one half-day each week devoted to classroom preparation. The two board members' proposal states that the district doesn't have the money to create this type of schedule now but should plan for the future.

We recently ended our D schedule collaboration days. I'm not sure anyone really misses them. The existing option for collaborative staff development could be expanded without creating another disruption to the schedule (and bus routes and parents' lives).

•Choose additional budget cuts now that will take time to implement.

Forward-thinking is a plus. I'd like to see what Shirley and Lehman recommend.

•Join the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools' lawsuit. That's the coalition of community groups, school districts, and state and local education associations that sued the state this year, claiming Washington has not upheld its constitutional obligation to fully fund public education for all children.

Lehman floated this a while ago; it's worth bringing back as the lawsuit plows ahead.

Whether starting early will help the Board make better decisions is an open question. At least, though, we can provide time for community members to have their say.

The Olympian notes:

The Olympia School Board has a study session to discuss budget process issues planned for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Knox Administrative Center, 1113 Legion Way S.E., Olympia.

The meeting is open to the public, but public testimony won't be taken.

The proposal can be read here [Word file].