By Tom

There are good laws and there are bad laws. And there are some laws that seem to cause exactly what they were designed to prevent. This year I got to see what that looks like.

Eight years ago, No Child Left Behind dramatically amplified the federal government’s role in public education. In an attempt to eliminate the Achievement Gap, schools in which students do not meet “adequate yearly progress” are now subject to increasingly severe sanctions. Meanwhile, the target for all schools climbs ever higher, until the year 2013, at which point every student in the country is supposed to be reading and doing math at grade level; something that’s never happened in our country’s history, and probably never will, since “grade level” is essentially determined by finding the mid-point in a range of data.

Instead of supporting our struggling schools, this law punishes them. First they’re publicly identified. Then the parents are “invited” to send their students to a better-performing school, at the district expense. If that isn’t possible, the district is responsible for hiring tutors for the students. If these schools keep failing, they’re eventually shut down.

The law was well-intentioned. No one wants their child to perform below grade level, and no one likes the fact that poor children and children of color consistently under-perform on achievement tests.

By Mark

The press was briefly abuzz recently when President Obama mentioned his ideas for extending the school year. While this seems to be far from a concrete policy decision, it reopens a discussion to which we seem to return every so often. 

Is Obama out of line? Aside from the cute arguments of fifth graders who want their summer break, why do people resist this concept so vehemently? If we can't change this, how can we change anything else about our faltering education system?

I love my "three months paid vacation and a month off at Christmas" (as if), but am for extending the school year. What are your thoughts?

Greetings avid Stories from School readers. The school year is off and there are many exciting topics popping up in the world of education. Stay informed and join us in the discussion of what impacts children.

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By Kristin

My district is trying something new and daring in order to either lower the graduation requirements and help more children graduate, or raise them.  It's hard to tell which.  The most controversial part of the plan is to lower the GPA required for graduation from a C average to a D average - a 2.0 to a 1.0.  D for Dismal, some say.  Others argue that if a D is passing, it should be good enough to earn a diploma.  But like all things in education, it's more complicated than that.  The district is also moving from a point system that doesn't average failing grades into a student's GPA to one that does.  Sound messy?  It is.

by Travis

Just the word school will conjure emotions. For some, the word elicits sunny days and the warm feeling of heading off to school with new clothes and a box of supplies. Others made have a visceral reaction to the word school. One that is not pleasant.

Schools have not been about individualized learning until recently. The goal of school was to create a shared belief in a system. For most, there were three lessons to learn:

Behave
Conform
Do

 By Brian

My district has two elementary schools, one middle school, and a single high school.  Three of the four schools did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), and are now designated as  Schools in Improvement by the federal government.  (One of our elementary schools did hit the mark.) This happens when a school does not meet standard in one of the categories the federal government uses to parse the student population; for example too few students from low-income families pass the test.  Out of 2,133 schools in Washington, 1,286 did not make AYP.  That's 60%, a supermajority.  There are over 1,100 Schools in Improvement in Washington State.  Remember Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average?  Evidently we're not there.

By Nancy

Educators are urged to bring 21^st Century skills into their classrooms, and the world wide web has become part of our lives. Teachers are charging ahead, pushing out the classroom walls, and You Tube, Facebook, Flickr, and blogs provide a wealth of resources that are timely, engaging, and free. So the debate comes up at every gathering of educational tech users: how much should districts filter the internet? Or should districts filter at all?

by Luann

     I just completed 20 years of classroom teaching.  My goal is never to become one of those "old" teachers, sneering at innovation while pulling an ancient worksheet from a dog-eared folder. I've asked younger colleagues to alert me should they observe these tendencies in my practice.  I stay in tune with the world, and my profession. I listen to students, with a focus this past year on the (lack of) skills of a particularly interesting class of intentional non-learners. 

     I actively seek out and employ practices that I identify as the best practice for my students at the time and in their setting. I can smell a gimmick that will make students roll their eyes from a mile away.  I take risks in my classroom so long as the risks lead to student learning, er, being able to meet a standard.  I threw out my worksheet collection awhile back when I noticed that no student ever wrote, in an end-of-course review, "I really enjoyed doing all those amazing worksheets and I learned so much from them, too. I know they will help me to be successful in my future career." Lately, though, I've been questioning more and more emergent strategies being labeled as best practices. Is the voice in my head directing me to the retirement line or is my well-seasoned malarky detector speaking?  Do years of formal education, classroom experience, and professional development not make me qualified to choose appropriately for my students?  Apparently they do not.....  

By Rena

Why do some teachers choose to develop curriculum, while others do not?  Teaching is a very complex endeavor.  Each teacher's knowledge, skills and experiences affect the interactions of students and materials in ways that neither students nor materials can.  The current trend by some school districts that want teachers to use published and purchased materials with fidelity - page by page, and usually scripted, is in conflict with constructivist learning, monitoring and adjusting, and teaching based decisions on your knowledge of students.

By Mark

We have some new leadership in my building that is making me very optimistic. One of the movements being promoted by our leadership is the concept of PLCs, or Professional Learning Communities. We've had these in our building for a while, but the current push involves analyzing student data to assess past practice and inform future endeavors.  Makes good sense, prompts a good deal of collaboration, and seems to be ready to push teachers toward improving practice. If it sticks, I see good things on the horizon.

Not too long ago I talked to a retired teacher whose building in a different state had attempted PLCs in her last few years of teaching. "We dumped that pretty quick," she explained. When I asked why, she explained that it didn't seem to be doing any good. When I asked her how she knew that, she couldn't really answer the question, but she knew that she and her colleagues didn't really like it. They said their principal called it "reforming" their school culture...they knew it was just another passing education fad.

This small is example is all you need in order to see why major education reform will always fail.

by Brian

My apologies to the gender police, but it seems appropriate to borrow the title of Tolstoy's wonderful short story to ask the question.  Because as Pakhom tragically found out, we need far less than we think.  The State Board of Education has increased the amount of math needed to graduate from 2  to 3 credits for this year's incoming freshmen class. The requirement for the class of 2013 is for every student to take Algebra and Geometry, and pass an end of course exam in both.  Then they will have to take and pass Algebra 2, or take an alternative course after a conference with their parents and an administrator approves of the plan.  I teach high school math.  I generally try to avoid sarcasm, but what have these people been smoking?

Our first day of school was last week Wednesday.  I love the first day of school.  I love meeting all my new students.  I love all the excitement and the nerves.  I love to remember first impressions during the year as I get to know my students better.  Usually, the first day is a whirlwind.  I’ve planned twice as much to cover in a day.  Students are somewhat shy and nervous.  Not this year.  I still planned much more than was needed – we covered about a quarter of what I had ready.  My students were aggressive attention seekers, with six boys competing for the role of the “class clown”.  Not to mention other students enjoying the unplanned entertainment and encouraging more.  After a late evening of phone calls home and a few subsequent meetings with parents, I began to wonder… what happened to the multi-age classroom?

By Nancy

I attended a school board meeting a couple years ago, along with dozens of parents, teachers, and students, when our school district was considering the elimination of all elementary school librarians. The seven board members appeared to listen thoughtfully. Everyone left the meeting that night with a sense that voices had been heard, and that school librarians were valued and would be saved. The board and the superintendent moved on to their closed door executive session.

You guessed it: librarians were eliminated. 

More recently, our school board hosted a series of community meetings to gather input about a long list of potential budget cuts. These community meetings were well organized, well-attended, and resulted in a complex tally of votes that represented each special interest group's favorite line item. The process was completely transparent, and stakeholders felt great about their ability to contribute to the final budget decisions.

You are right again: in the end, the original prioritized budget list did not change.

In both cases, the school community realized that they actually had little influence on school district decisions. And huge questions came up: should seven community members, from all walks of life and usually having no training in education, be the final authority in our public schools? Should a 7-member board have the ultimate power to affect thousands of lives? Shouldn't education reform start with reforming the school board system?

By Mark

Nearly every training and inservice repeats the same mantra: we must increase student learning. So we get shipped off to learn about a new strategy or a new tool or a new curriculum. We meet about goal setting and analyzing student data and impact on student learning. We are constantly doing extra in an effort to better the service we provide our students.

All that extra work, and it turns out there is something out there which has delivered a measurable impact on student learning, and it doesn't involve a special training or new curriculum.

by Brian

Labor Day is here, and while it has come to represent the end of summer and the imminent beginning of school, we should remember that it constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. 

I went back to working with my hands this summer, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I worked with one of my former students (he is 29 years old now), only our roles have been reversed.  Sixteen years ago I was his middle school math teacher.  Now he is the master and I am the apprentice.  He started learning carpentry when he was about 14, and it is amazing to watch him at work.  It's not just the tricks of the trade, although those are pretty cool.  It's the way he approaches the problems that always arise when you're building something.  He can come up with three solutions, weigh the pros and cons, and make a decision in less time than it takes me to figure out that we have a problem.  And he's happy when he's working.  He never went to college, but he didn't get left behind.

By Mark

Let me be clear from the outset: I'm not here to argue about whether Obama's speech is good, bad, ugly; propaganda, motivation, or mind control. There are too many unproductive shouting matches going on about that elsewhere on the web. Missing from those shouting matches is reasoned discussion of what I think is a more important question with a much larger impact on what I do as a teacher.

The controversy about the broadcast of Obama's "work hard" speech has precipitated some interesting responses from school districts across the country, ranging from the superintendent of schools in Tempe saying all teachers shall show the address and parents are "not allowed" to opt out, to districts like mine who instructed teachers to get parent permission before showing the speech. These policies have an impact on classroom instruction--much more of an impact than the speech itself--because it brings up the question about how schools should handle politically charged and divisive content, and what the school's role is in mediating that content for students.

Many an educator who attempts to make content relevant will want to connect to current events. Whether its genetic engineering, military endeavors, alternative energies or health care, it is easy for a curriculum to turn into a volatile tinderbox, because these topics and others have clear political implications.

How should schools handle hot political topics?

By Travis

It is September and for most families, that means school. I can imagine the thousands of children who have their backpacks filled with pencils, paper, and folders. Going back to school was a high point of the year for me.

But this raises the question: Should we have compulsory education? Should a state force children who do not want to go to school, to go to school? In Massachusetts, it became law to do so in 1852.

Now, I understand that this topic may just be too crazy for polite conversation. However, I urge you to consider what compulsory education does to schools. In essence, it turns schools into jails. There are cells; a warden or two; guards; and a schedule. 

If only students who wanted to learn, who wanted to further their skills for those better paying jobs and greater appreciation of life, came to school, those would be classes. Take out the trouble makers. They don't want to be there anyway and by being there, ruin it for the rest. 

Eventually, the school would pull more students in as they realize how little their preparation for life is. Parents will now become more involved, encouraging their student to go to school, going to great lengths to get them there (whether it is for a better life, or a need to get them out of the house at least the parent is more involved).

But what if it doesn't? What if very few students showed up at school because they did not have to and their iPods and games and friends were more enticing? Would these students loose out on an education and we would have a several generations of ignorant, unproductive citizens? 

Then again, would that be so bad? I could hire low wage workers paint my fence or sweep my sidewalk. 

But what effect will this situation have on the children of the low wage workers?

In theory, I don't think that school should be compulsory, yet I do not have a better way to apply this in the real world. There is not a practical application.