What Timing... I post regarding the Gold Std yesterday (ie MCA, AYP, NCLB, etc) and some folks from Parents United drop me an email asking me to lobby for significant changes to NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND today. Of course being a huge advocate of NCLB and PDCA I will be deleting this, or lobbying folks to reauthorize NCLB with few or no changes.
Or maybe we should go back to the 1990's where we just trusted the Educational Establishment to take care of the kids... Oh yeah, I forgot that that led to a very large group of students being passed through the system that were not capable of Reading, Writing or doing Math !!!! While Educational Spending just continued to increase and Productivity was stagnant at BEST !!! The Lucky students got more and the Unlucky students were forgotten ...
REMEMBER:
If you are not measuring something and taking aggressive action based on that result, you will probably NOT attain the GOAL. PDCA is not OPTIONAL, it is REQUIRED to drive System Improvements. NCLB and AYP are NECESSARY to hold the Educational Establishment ACCOUNTABLE and to force them to PRIORITIZE around the NATION's needs !!! (ie responsible young adults that can read, write, do math, know science, communicate, solve problems, etc)
Schools can not do this without good Parenting and Community Support, but the Schools must meet their obligations and focus appropriately. Below are the letter and some related links... What are your thoughts regarding NCLB and its reauthorization?
"Dear friends of public schools,
Congress is discussing reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. We have been in contact with members of the Minnesota delegation encouraging them to replace the current law with policies and resources that will better serve our children and their schools.
Minnesota’s leaders are positioned to play a significant role in writing the legislation.
Congressman John Kline (R-MN 2nd District) chairs the Education Committee and Senator Al Franken is a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
We invite you to contact Congressman Kline and Senator Franken as well as your own Congressional representative.
To assist you, we have crafted a letter you may tailor, sign and send. Please help us encourage others to take action by sending a copy to Parents United for Public Schools at parentsunitedmn@gmail.com or 1667 Snelling Avenue North, St. Paul MN 55108.
Thank you."
Parents United NCLB Lobby Letter
Parents United: NCLB in MN Pg
Dept of Ed: Strengthening NCLB
G2A AYP, NCLB & PDCA
G2A No More NCLB ?
G2A NCLB and Teaching to the Test?
G2A Sir, The Class is Too HARD
G2A Why High Educational Stds are NOT OPTIONAL !!!
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19 comments:
It seems to me that the parents united group advocating for major reforms to NBLC is following the PDCA process. I believe they support a better accountability program.
Hi Laurie,
I'll try that later. I'll go into my Bosses office and tell her that the expectations, carrots and sticks she has put in place are just TOO HARD !!! And that I would like it if she stops setting aggressive goals for and measuring my performance.
I mean she should just trust me, fund me, pay me, etc. Since I know what I think I should be doing and my intrinsic motivation should be more than adequate...
This would be an interesting conversation... But maybe that is what is normal in the "Educational System". Maybe that is a root cause of the problems...
I talked to a Teacher a few weeks ago that thought they should have somewhat free rein over what was taught in their Science class, since they were a Professional and knew best. (ie better than those Curriculum / Content experts...)
Of course, my view is that Teachers should be experts in tranferring the agreed to approved curriculum/content into each child's head so that it sticks. The expertise thus centers around applying the correct method for each unique student's learning style as necessary. (ie excellent teaching)
I assume they thought controlling the curriculum and content should be in the Teacher's job description. Maybe it's more fun and interesting than focusing on the Student / Teacher interaction.
As a comparison, I have great ideas about what "the Company should do to get better". (ie new Projects, etc) And I spend a little time whispering in Mgrs ears to promote this improvement. Yet I must remember to focus the vast majority of my time and efforts in making sure that the projects that Mgmt have Launched are executed effectively.
They have their job and I have mine... I need to accept that they are Launching the correct Projects. Just as the Teacher's have to accept that the correct curriculum is being assigned at the correct time. That is why there are curriculum experts and Teaching experts...
Just about everyone agrees that NCLB needs revision. From our current education secretary (who I consider top management):
"Duncan said that the NCLB law has significant flaws and that he looks forward to working with Congress to address the law's problems. He said the law puts too much emphasis on standardized tests, unfairly labels many schools as failures, and doesn't account for students' academic growth in its accountability system.
"But the biggest problem with NCLB is that it doesn't encourage high learning standards," Duncan said. "In fact, it inadvertently encourages states to lower them. The net effect is that we are lying to children and parents by telling kids they are succeeding when they are not."
Duncan credited NCLB for highlighting the achievement gap in schools and for focusing accountability on student outcomes, and said he is committed to policies that work toward closing that gap while raising the achievement of all children.
He said he wants the next version of ESEA to create tests that better measure student learning and to build an accountability system that is based on the academic growth of students. He also wants the law to create programs to improve the performance of existing teachers and school leaders, to recruit new effective educators, and to ensure that the best educators are serving the children that are the furthest behind."
http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/09/09242009.html
As younger son is here for the third time to use the computer, I'll have to save my (many) insights and views for another time.
I agree that Tweaks are good... (see link)
However... Throwing out Baby with Bath water would be BAD ...
UPI: Duncan Lift NCLB Mandates?
Since, I believe in SMART goals, making them achievable is a good idea. The reality is that as long as their are UNLUCKY students with IRRESPONSIBLE, STUPID or ABUSIVE Parents, their will be CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND... Especially if the Conservatives are unwilling to pay for and force EARLY and INTENSE Parent and Child Education.
The problem is that the School Administrations and Unions seem to have been fighting the necessary changes for ~10 years instead of seriously pursuing them. I am not sure how to get them to put the student's needs before their wants, job security, power struggles, etc.
As for Sec Duncan being TOP Mgmt... I am not sure how to deal with that. Though I agree that he is Mgmt, he is also somewhat of a Politician. When he convinces the BOARD (ie Congress), then I will accept that he speaks for MGMT.
Laurie,
By the way, as a teacher, what do you think the Teacher's role should be? Teaching the chosen curriculum with excellence? Or trying to teach their own curriculum/content?
I'm a high school student and I would be effected directly. I'm saying that this program is not going to help students it never has, but instead its left children behind and moves on with the students unable to keep up. Its not wanted, its not helpful, its not needed. I'm not speaking only on my behalf but for many children that aren't going to be able to catch up with this and will become so frustrated that they turn to other things. Its not helpful, its not needed.
Anon Teen,
Thanks for your comments !!!
Now what do you base your opinions on? And please explain the rationale / logic behind your beliefs.
Just wondering, do you think that Teachers should stop setting criteria for grading?
Do you think they should stop checking your work, stop testing your work, stop assigning students grades, etc?
Do you think all the Students in your class deserve an A just because they are in the class?
If they are just given A's, do you think they will work as hard or improve their behaviors?
Will it be fair to those that are really working hard and learning the material?
Thoughts?
I've always thought NCLB was a well-intentioned mess. As implemented, the measured goal isn't individual student growth and the acquisition of knowledge. Rather, the goal is a constantly moving finish line measuring different students' progress, arbitrarily determined by individual states, and doesn't give any weight to the kind of skills (critical thinking, problem solving) that are most important for success. From your list of important skills, two of the most vital are ones that I don't believe are in any way measured by NCLB> "communicate" or "solve problems".
We know there's an achievement gap. It's unacceptable and a national embarrassment. And I get the desire for "accountability" but this is a rotten tool and (as Laurie's pointed out) you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in education, in policy, in research and measurement, or in politics who would defend it. It hasn't fixed anything in its decade of testing, has it? Successful schools are labeled failing (do you really believe Edina HS is failing?!) to no real purpose and rotten schools are gaming the system and changing test sheets to fake gains.
The first rule of holes--when you're in one, stop digging. Let's stop testing testing testing early and often and start focusing the measurement where it's most needed, and more importantly, put funds into fixing the problems (early childhood ed; best classroom practices; teacher recruitment, retention, and retraining; differentiated instruction; longer school days/years for those who most need them) rather than adding more bubble sheets to the system.
--Annie
John,
about Duncan as a top manager, it seems to me that he has some level of influence with congress in setting fed. educ policy, given Obama's veto power. At least that's how I assume it would work if we had a functioning government.
Minnpost has an interesting story on NCLB renewal today. The piece of it being considered now relates to funding flexibility. I agree with the position that too much flexibility could be detrimental to poor, ELL, and special ed students that federal funds are supposed to help.
Speaking of these triply challenged students with whom I work, for most of them the MCA is a poor tool for measuring their achievement level or growth. My 5th grade student who finally learned to read this year received another score near the bottom of level 1. MAP testing is better, but not without problems.
about what content to teach, I am 100% on board with teaching to the state set academic standards, as are all the schools in which I have worked. I would even support the common core national standards that Minn has not adopted (with claims that our standards are higher.) With common core standards my hope would be more and better aligned curriculum to choose from and better assessments. Also, I wish those standard setters would identify which ones are priority to teach and test for those students who are just not going to master them all.
One last point I'd like to raise is that there is a wide spread belief among progressives that the real intent of NCLB was to undermine public schools by labeling them as failing.
NCLB is Created Failure
What are your thoughts on this? Minnpost has another good story on
How some of nation's 'top schools' can end up on state's 'failing' list My kids' school happens to be one of them.
Annie,
The improvements you mentioned all have one thing in common. "Keep sending the Public Education system more MONEY, and focus almost exclusively on DO..." What do you see in the future as CHECK actions that are necessary to drive Accountability to the goals and promote continuous improvement?
NCLB by the way has been a huge success in my mind. We would not be discussing this issue if it had not been created by the bi-Partisan efforts of Kennedy and Bush. The schools would still be focusing on making the vocal well off Parents happy to the detriment of the Unlucky kids.
As for if Edina could be a BAD school? I would say YES it easily could be... It just depends on the goals and if they are achieving them. If the goal is to ensure that all kids succeed and they are spending little on the UNLUCKY kids in order to spend more on the High end classes... And the UNLUCKY kids are not succeeding, they would be a BAD school. (ie not meeting expectations)
If Edina's goal was to ensure that 90% of the kids had an excellent experience and the 10% really did not need to meet stds... (ie just pass them through since the world needs ditch diggers too.) Then things would be different. So how many kids should we let fall through the cracks to become Ditch Diggers so that the schools can feel GOOD about their GRADE? (None{NCLB}, 5%, 10%, ??%)
Laurie,
Great links..
As for NCLB being created to discredit Public Schools... The bill's creator and long time champion was Kennedy, I don't think that would have been that Liberal's intent. I think he saw that the Lucky Students were getting more and the Unlucky Students were getting ignored by the Educational Establishment, and he wanted to make this glaringly obvious so that something would need to be changed.
NCLB is a Chg Mgmt tool. It forces folks to face their Demon straight up, by uncovering the denial and rationalizations.
If I was in the the Educational System, I would find it much more enjoyable to focus on the Lucky and ready to learn students. And all the cool high end class offerings. I mean who wants to DEAL with those disruptive and slow kids that are doomed to become Ditch Diggers due to their poor Luck....
At work we have embraced a simple and seemingly impossible goal. "NO ONE should get hurt at work !!! It is simply not acceptable as part of the job description!!!" Now the question is how can this be done with 100+K employees working at manufacturing and distributing Heavy Equipment in almost every country in the world?
Or maybe we should just say that it is okay that 1% of the employees will get hurt each year... This would be much simpler, and facility's wouldn't get a BAD label for a couple of crushed fingers or maybe a broken bone... I mean, wouldn't we all feel better?
Well... except for that 1%, and their Spvrs who have to tell the employee's loved ones that the employee has been injured or killed...
John,
I agree completely that NCLB has had a net positive effect in increasing accountability and focusing much needed attention on the achievement gap, but it is also deeply flawed and in need of major revision.
I feel like I am working with a special ed student when it comes to trying to get you to understand the realities of education, especially for poor, ell, and disabled students. I am sure neither one of us wants to put in the time needed for that.
It seems that going from a 2% injury rate to zero is much more attainable than raising the rate of reading and math proficiency from 25% to 100%, when there are so many factors beyond the teacher's control. It makes much more sense to see which schools are having the greatest success, which seems to currently top out around ~70-80% proficient, learn from them to raise achievement levels in other schools, and even shut down or restructure the worst performing schools.
It also makes much more sense to expect my poor, ELL, learning disabled student and your child (who I imagine is quite intelligent and privileged in terms of parent support) to both show significant academic growth. We need both basic proficiency and AP tests in determining the quality of schools.
I am pretty sure it isn't the first time people have thought I had a lot in common with a Special Ed student. Though the students may wish to take offense at that statement.
As for goal difficulty, almost everything becomes very difficult as the goal approaches ZERO %...
So if NCLB is deeply flawed... What 5 changes would you like to see made to this "disaster"?
And what would the new success criteria and accountability process look like? The "Boss" needs to be able to tell if the System and Employees are performing effectively... And there has to be a system of carrots and sticks to help encourage continuous improvement and a willingness to accept change.
By the way, the question still stands... If not, NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND... What should it be:
- 10% of children left behind?
- 20% of children left behind?
- 30% of children left behind?
- more ?
And in wealthy neighborhoods should it be "~3% of children left behind"??? Whereas in poor neighborhoods we can accept "~50% of children left behind"???
Interesting...
One last thing to add regarding the poor neighborhoods with the new Public Educational System generated goal of "only ~50% of children left behind".
I am thinking their prospective employers will be highly impressed that they were making annual progress. They may not be able to do Math, Read or Write at a 5th grade level... But they were learning something each year in school...(ie making progress)
Maybe that new prospective employer will graduate them to the slightly larger Ditch Digging shovel... Even with this advantage, the income is still going to be pretty tight... But that is okay since the Public Ed folks were able to meet their goal, resist change and feel good about themselves and their schools.
John,
I'd like to take back that special education student comparison. You are really more of a know it all :)
My main frustration is the scope of education accountability and reform is much too complex and challenging for a blog comment thread and I certainly don't have all the answers, (though it would help if you would pay better attention to what few answers/opinions I do have and quit arguing against positions I have not taken.)
As to what changes I would recommend, I know A. Duncan is using race to the top $ to focus on my number one area for improvement: early childhood education. I'd especially like to see major funding for early intervention in the primary grades. It's easy to identify which kids are behind already in kindergarten.
Another suggestion is to make full use of the data the MDE will soon be putting out to evaluate schools. Why not give schools credit for moving kids up at all levels of achievement - from 1 to 2 or from 3 to 4 and also look at % of kids in those cells indicating levels of growth.
From where we are today I see improvement as the best measurement for holding schools accountable, that and also comparison of schools with similar demographics. I happen to know of 4 charter schools with high Somali populations, two of which do significantly better than the others. As a teacher I'd like to learn more about their curriculum and strategies in an effort to boost achievement at my school. Statistical analysis of demographics and achievement to find out which schools have students achieving at a higher level than predicted makes much more sense than labeling all schools as failing.
So what makes you believe that schools are unconcerned about low achieving students and that more carrots and sticks are the answer?
Having spent time in low achieving schools in my estimation carrots are more effective for driving improvement than punitive sanctions.
I'd say the single best way to improve schools would be top notch principals and staff development.
What kinds of changes are you looking for that the education establishment is blocking?
1. I think "Blogger" and "Know It All" are probably synonymous terms. In this case I do not know the solution, but I know the best intentioned Team goes astray quickly without focused goals, hard measurements, oversight, consequences, etc. If they do not have this, each member or department starts to pursue their agenda.. This is often with the best of intentions from "their" perspective...
2. I agree, it is a complicated topic. I simplify it to this... Students are given expectations, graded against them, and this has positive & negative consequences for them (carrots/sticks). The Public Schools and society fully support this. Yet when the same concept is used to GRADE the school system, the hypocrits cry foul and spend more time trying to fight it than actually meet it.
I am a fan of internal consistency. If you believe in grading and passing/failing others, you should be fine being graded and passed/failed by the entity above you... Seems simple and logical.
3. As for additional funding and focus for Early Educ and Students who need the most help. The Public Schools are free to shift some of their funds at anytime. And if they focus on Productivity Improvements and Cost Reduction like a normal Business, they will be able to put more money in the classrooms. Here are some ideas they are fighting. G2A Better Public Education G2A Evaluation Forms
4. I think most Teachers are concerned about their low performing students. Unfortunately the public, school policy and courts seem to be making assisting these students nearly impossible. They are forced to let disruptive kids sit in their classroom instead of having the power to hold the Parents and Students accountable. (ie lots of sparing the rod and spoiling the student going on) This of course at the cost of the Teacher's energy/sanity and the well behaved students educational experience.
Also, the Superintendant is a political position. They need to make the powerful Parents in the District happy... Thus the Lucky Parents can move more funding towards their kids... And this is typically away from the kids that need it most. And Open Enrollment only makes this worse because Schools try to attract the Students that can move around. (ie Lucky Students)
5. I agree that Top Notch personnel are critical. Now when can we fire any of the burnt out lower tier performers to make room for them. So let's get rid of Tenure, Steps/Lanes, contracts, specific unnecessary Licensing reqts, etc ASAP so that we can get the best personnel in the Public School system for the market based cost. You may be able to afford more better Personnel for less money... No that would be GREAT for the kids !!!
6. Now I think I answered your questions. Where are my answers?
No, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% or higher Children Left Behind? How many students should not be at base proficiency upon graduation? Should this goal vary by neighborhood?
The acronym can be 30%CLB...
John,
about #2, (and the whole thread in general) regarding holding schools accountable for results, the answer is grading on a curve.
Let's say your local high school is offering a very challenging AP course on a pass/fail basis and anything less than 100% will be graded as failing. Will you enroll your daughter?
I recall that as a freshman engineering student I took a physics course that was graded on a curve. I occasionally received an "A" for the highest test score which was something like 45% and the curve was determined by the distribution of the other scores. (and yes, it is a good thing I am now teaching kids to read rather than designing bridges.)
I think demographics have to play a role in setting a curve for how many children a school is allowed to leave behind (I am still working on a new metaphor as that one needs to go!)
For an example of how this system could work let's consider 2 schools.
Edina gets to leave 9 students behind (2 poor kids, 1 LEP, and 6 special ed) As these results show they have successful on 4 out of 6 measures and the other two are very close for an overall passing grade.
http://extra.twincities.com/CAR/schools/schooldtl.asp?SchoolID=027301526
TIZA Academy, a high performing charter that was recently closed, has much more challenging demographics. Their standard for success will be no more than 20% left behind in math and 40% left behind in reading (significant allowance must be made in reading for English language learners.) This school would deserve a grade of at least a "B" for exceeding their goals on most measures.
http://extra.twincities.com/CAR/schools/schooldtl.asp?SchoolID=409907010
Developing really good assessments that reliably measure growth as well as proficiency would be far superior in setting goals for schools. At my school we did have a collaborative smart goal that was to increase the number of students reaching their growth target on the MAP test by 10% (~45% t0m 55%) which we did achieve.
As for carrots and sticks I would have stayed late and gone in on many weekends without the offer of a bonus. While I was there for these extended hours I saw few other teachers. My school shares a building with a high school program which has been restructured and being on the path to shutdown provided no motivation that I could see for staff to put in noticeable extra effort.
As coming up with and explaining that answer to the accountability puzzle took much effort, I'll have to come back to your other points later, if they interest me. My system of accountability is quite consistent with with my views on grading students. In spec ed we are not too big on failing grades.
An interesting spin on your last comment...
The folks that created and implemented NCLB thought very similar to the way you do.
That is why they gave Schools and the Publication System 10+ years of intermediate goal years.(ie AYP) The thought was that it would be impossibly to reach NCLB in one yr, but surely the improvement could be gained in 10+...
Now after 10 yrs of minimal or no gains and few significant changes, the Public Educ folks are crying foul. Too bad they did not use the last 10 yrs to revamp the system.
By the way, if we set different goals for poor, wealthy, white, black, etc... I am pretty sure the ACLU or some similar group is going to come after someone...
As for curves... Remember that they should be used to normalize scores because of variation between tests. They should not be being used to pass people who do not know the material. That is grade inflation, which is very BAD.... It lowers standards which is unacceptable in a world market.
The good news is that at least the ACT, SAT, World Testing, etc are there to help keep the schools and teachers honest.
Here is an interesting idea. How about 2 levels of proficiency? All students must pass the "Ditch Digger" level... (ie kids looking at working in car washes, fast food, retail, meat processing, etc) And Vo-tech /College bound kids must pass the Post secondary level...
Though I think many would say the current stds are already close to the DD level... I think these folks could get by with simple math, and 5th grade reading/writing, and almost no science. Of course we will be dooming them to living in a world of very low income.
But at least we will be meeting the goal...
John,
Just to clarify, under current law by 2014 both schools in my example are expected to have achieved 100% proficiency, and the high poverty one receiving title 1 funds will be operating under some level of punitive sanctions for failing to meet this standard. Should those Edina teachers receive performance bonus for being so much closer to the goal than the teachers at the other school (who probably deserve to ber fired for falling far short.) That will be so helpful in attracting the best teachers to the most challenging settings.
Being skeptical of your claim of no achievement gains over the last 10 years I checked into it using the NAEP, which is the standard for comparing states to each other and trends over time. Of course the picture is a bit fuzzy, but to me it looks as though there are significant gains, more so in math than in reading achievement.
http://www.aasa.org/content.aspx?id=748
http://nationsreportcard.gov/ltt_2008/
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2009/2010454MN8.pdf
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/stt2009/2010460MN8.pdf
Your facetious suggestion for multiple measures of quality at the end of your comment is actually a good one. Are you eagerly awaiting your own kids' MCA scores? In my house the interest level is much higher for ACT and AP scores.
The proficiency standard for writing is quite low, but math and reading standards have adequate rigor for their purpose. HS math is actually quite challenging, which is why kids are not required to pass it.
I am close to the end of my interest on this topic unless you throw in some new twist.
I'll check out the links when I get some free time.
A new documentary is being released on how Finland has achieved educational success in the past 30 years or so. I'm looking forward to the film; here's an interview with the director about the high level of accountability required of the teachers, and the virtual absence of tests.
Basically, they put a vast responsibility on the teachers' shoulders, but they then afford them respect, prestige, compensation, and autonomy.
No, you can't compare Finland to the US. But you CAN compare it to Minnesota. And you CAN find important reforms that will work here.
http://www.salon.com/life/education/index.html?story=/news/david_sirota/2011/07/18/tony_wagner_finland
--Annie
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