Four Lessons From This Week, March 30th

Portfolios Are a Great Idea In Theory...
I've always liked the idea of portfolio assessments. In New York City we used them ostensibly to track student progress, but they weren't really used for any other meaningful purpose. A lot of educators talk about portfolios as a better, "more authentic" alternative to standardized testing. The trouble with portfolio assessments is creating a system that produces valid and reliable results. The resources (financial and otherwise) needed to ensure that student work is selected and assessed fairly and consistently are considerable, if not prohibitive.

Policymaking Is Like Making a Coloring Book
In a phone call with David Johns, a Senior Education Advisor to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Mr. Johns explained that federal policy making is like creating a coloring book. You want to provide an outline for localities to follow, but leave room for them to adapt and add their own ideas. The question I had was what happens when states or districts don't have the knowledge, willpower or capacity to appropriately "color in" the policy?

Creating a School Budget is Incredibly Demoralizing
This week in Building a Democratic School we were asked to design a budget for our schools. It is very difficult to maintain a commitment to small class sizes, parent involvement, more support services, field trips, arts, sciences, and technology simultaneously. Many of us, myself included, finished the experience feeling shellshocked.

Do Not Count on NBC to Follow UDL Principles
In UDL we were asked to evaluate an example of UDL learning tool based on UDL's Guidelines. I looked at Checkpoint 7.2. The key considerations of this checkpoint are:

• How does this help learners meet the goal?
• How does this account for the variability of all learners?
• Are the activities and information valuable to learners?

I examined NBC Learn, a tool that tries to place science in a more exciting "real world context". I ultimately gave the tool a failing grade however, because I believe that the Winter Olympics tool was more an attempt by NBC to cross-promote their content than actually engage all types of learners. Does anyone honestly care about the Winter Games? 

I Used to Think...And Now I Think

One of Richard Elmore's recent contributions to the ed reform debate has been a framework for reflection, asking participants to complete the phrases "I used to think... And now I think..." What started as a discussion prompt at workshops has now been published as a book. New Orleans has clearly been a challenging experience to process in some ways, so our group will try to rely on this framework for our reflections this week. As always, we welcome your comments!

I used to think community engagement was helpful to school reform, and now I think it is vital.

In some ways the efforts undertaken by the Recovery School District in New Orleans are nothing special. While the scale of charter growth is unparalleled, the reforms otherwise are pretty standard: school closures, increased autonomy, more accountability...

So, I had to keep asking myself, why does the environment feel so especially volatile here? To be sure, New Orleans is not New York City where I had my introduction to the heated emotions of school reform debates. There's a stronger undercurrent of race in the conversation here. On top of that, Hurricane Katrina remains an open wound for the city. The fact that the Recovery School District's efforts began in the aftermath of the disaster adds a layer of emotional complexity to the discussions about what's happening with the schools.

From our conversations with teachers in the Orleans Parish schools and community members who were highly critical of the RSD's reforms, it was clear that there are many people who feel angry, hurt and disenfranchised. An ed school classmate who also visited New Orleans recently said somewhat ominously, "They're going to have a revolt on their hands if they don't do something."

Closing schools, removing ineffective teachers and opening charter schools is invariably going to be contentious. That doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do. But I do believe taking these actions without authentic efforts to include the community is wrong. In fact pursuing these actions without incorporating community ideas almost ensures they will rally around their schools and teachers, even if they've been failed by them. 

On our last day of school visits someone said to us, "People here would rather have failing schools and input then great schools and no input." I wasn't sure if this comment was meant to reflect respect or disdain for the idea of community engagement, but I can tell you it's an unfortunate presentation of the choices. There has to be the way to give people a voice AND great schools, right? To attempt otherwise is to imply the community has no legitimate views or role in improving their own schools.

This post and others cross-posted at Beyond Appian Way

What Kind of Schools Do Black Children Deserve?

For me the trip to New Orleans brought to the surface a painful and troubling truth about educational equality. It's a truth that's often forgotten, or buried under subtext or coded language. The fact is, when we talk about school reform we're talking about race.

This truth is especially palpable and sensitive in a place like New Orleans. Even before the trauma of Hurricane Katrina this was a city struggling with a deep history of racism. Race is especially relevant if you're talking about New Orleans public schools considering that roughly 8/10 of the white students in New Orleans attend private schools.

When you visit a school like John McDonogh Senior High School, you can't help but to ask yourself, "Is this the best we can offer for black children in this country? Is this what we think they deserve?" Without even getting into the murky waters of teacher quality at this school - I didn't spend enough time in classrooms here to make fair conclusions - the building itself serves as a clear example of what we're willing to subject children to if they are born with the wrong skin color, in the wrong neighborhood. 

I don't think that anyone on either side of the debate in New Orleans can ignore this reality, and neither can we. 

This post and others can be found at Beyond Appian Way, a blog by students from the Graduate School of Education writing about travels outside of Cambridge, MA.

What the Way We Learn Says About the Way We Teach: Appropriate Praise

After reading Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide for my course, Universal Design for Learning, I had a lot of takeaways on teaching and learning. Earlier I wrote about the implications for the development of teachers over time. The key being not just experience, but constant reflection and analysis of mistakes.

The other piece of this chapter that really struck a chord with me was a summary of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on praise, motivation and learning. Over 400 fifth graders in New York City were a part of this study which tested the effects of praise based on ability versus effort. Students were given the same test, but half were complimented on their efforts while the other half were told they were smart.

The students who received praise for their effort were more likely to choose a more difficult test afterward, choose to learn from students who did better on a third test designed for 8th graders, and to do better on a second administration of the original test. The students who were “smart” avoided a more difficult test, chose to look at students who did worse on the 8th grade test, and actually scored lower on the second administration of the original test. The implications of this research in the classroom are self-evident. It’s instinctive for a lot of us to praise our students by saying how smart they are, but if we neglect to praise effort, we are in fact setting them up for failure through our good intentions.



I made another connection between this research and education however when I thought about the members of my generation who have been drawn to teaching. The fact that generally our generation has been raised with a lot more praise, a lot of it most likely ability-based rather than effort-based, has been examined at length.

When thinking of its consequences for education I thought about Teach for America and to some extent similar programs like NYC Teaching Fellows (I was a member of Cohort 14 in 2007). These are our country’s “best and brightest”. The selectivity of TFA inherently affirms this status. Once you’ve been admitted, you’ve essentially been told, “You are very smart.” For many this is just the latest in a long sequence of ability-based praise. What happens when these young people are tested in the classroom?

Young teachers, TFA or otherwise, need certain tools to show resilience in the face of adversity in the classroom. For many, this might be the first genuine experience with high-stakes failure. If we want them to learn and persist we need to be thoughtful about the way they are prepared to deal with this. This means explicitly addressing the likelihood of struggle for these young teachers, rather than inculcating them with the myth of the novice teacher as superhero. Once they are in the classroom, it is vital that feedback is crafted and communicated in a way that supports growth, reflection and persistence.

Whether we’re talking about first-year teachers or veterans, it’s clear that the learning process has a lot to do with the teaching process. If we want a teaching force of experts it will take more than time in the classroom or bringing in the “smartest” people. We need a system and schools within it that encourages ongoing learning.

What the Way We Learn Says About the Way We Teach: Learning From Mistakes

I’m in the process of reading Jonah Lehrer’s How We Decide. The book argues there’s a lot more to decision making than the conventional wisdom that we are logic-driven creatures. In fact, our emotions are incredibly important and powerful part of making intelligent choices.

In chapter 2, "The Predictions of Dopamine", Lehrer explains the neuroscience behind the creation and transmission of feelings in our brains. As I read, I was struck by a number of implications for students and teachers.

One example Lehrer provides to illustrate the neuroscience of decision-making is a story of an artificial intelligence program called TD-Gammon which was designed to be the Deep Blue of backgammon. The key difference in this computer’s programming however was that its mastery was not produced through the ability to process millions of moves in a second. Rather, TD-Gammon learned from its mistakes. It began at a simple, novice level and played itself over and over again. When backgammon master Bill Robertie first played against TD-Gammon he beat the machine easily, but still remarked that the computer was the best he’d ever competed against. A year later, the lessons the computer applied from its first experience against Robertie made it a truly formidable opponent.

The story of TD-Gammon has a couple of interesting implications for the conversation about teacher quality. Firstly, it provides yet another example of why the wrong-headed campaign to discredit experience in the classroom is so counterfactual. Teaching is a skill, just like playing backgammon or analyzing radar (another key example from Lehrer’s book), that is honed over time. The more time in the classroom the larger the pool of mistakes and lessons learned a teacher has to inform his or her practice.

That said, this defense of experience comes with an important caveat: You have to be willing to learn, reflect and be self-critical. Lehrer writes: “Robertie didn’t become a world champion just by playing a lot of backgammon. ‘It’s not the quantity of practice, it’s the quality,’ he says. According to Robertie, the most effective way to get better is to focus on your mistakes.”

When you think about the structure of schools, where each teacher works in isolation and receives little to no feedback, there is not the support for this type of learning. All of the responsibility falls on the teacher, and self-reflection is not necessarily an inherent skill. There’s a reason there’s only one Bill Robertie. He has a unique ability and inclination to focus on his mistakes, analyze them and learn from them. For the rest of us without this built-in talent, there needs to be structures and supports. That’s why the most successful schools are learning organizations where teachers are encouraged to be reflective practitioners. What worked for TD-Gammon would certainly be valuable for teachers and their students.

Multiple Perspectives and Multiple Truths

When I was in high school I was lucky enough to take an IB Film class. As part of the course we studied the films of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, including Rashomon. The movie is about a brutal robbery and murder, but the story is retold several times from the perspective of different characters. By the end of the film, you’re unsure of what really happened, and who is to blame.

After returning from New Orleans I’m left with a similar sense of confusion. I expected to go to New Orleans and compile the “true story” from conversations with different members of the community. However, the different stories didn’t piece together the way I thought they would. Rather, I’m left with many contradictory perspectives, unified only by the passion of the people who shared them with our group.

In the coming days, through conversation with our group, research and follow up conversations, I hope to synthesize a coherent summary of what I learned. I hope to dig deeper into the performance of the Recovery School District’s direct-run and charter schools. I want to get a better understanding of the admissions process and demographics of the Orleans Parish School Board’s seven direct-run schools, and dozen charter schools. There are so many questions that need answering, because each story I heard seemed to implicate someone else, and complicate the overall narrative. I’m now left struggling to answer the most fundamental question, What is going on in New Orleans?

This post and others about my trip to New Orleans can be found at Beyond Appian Way

Ira Glass on Being a Beginner

This is where I'm at...

How Do You Know If a School is Right for You?

After two exhausting pairs of demo lessons and interviews I'm on my way back to Boston. The lessons went well, and reassured me I still know how to teach. They also reminded me of incredible amount of uenergy required to keep students engaged in learning.

As I think about a possible return to the classroom I'm wondering about making the application process work for me. My experience in two separate schools taught me a lot about what I hope to find in a work environment. I also have certain criteria as far as teaching in a 'high-need' school. Add to this list expectations I've developed at Harvard - meaningful family engagement, staff collaboration, ongoing and constructive feedback and support, opportunities for teacher leadership - then you have a pretty comprehensive picture of my ideal school. But am I being unrealistic?

I got my first two teaching jobs without even demonstrating I could teach. Setting the bar at an interview process that includes a demo lesson seems like an important first step. As I move forward though, I wonder if the theoretical school I've envisioned while at Harvard is out there somewhere. Does that perfect mix of the right vision, leadership, curriculum, and community exist?

I liked a lot of what I saw and heard today, but I still have a lot of questions I need answered before I know if I've found the right fit.