A recent article in the Sun-Sentinel shared the news that Florida's Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Program was being considered for renewal in the state legislature. In case you aren't familiar with it, this is the completely misguided program created by the state legislature (the brainchild of representative Erik Fresen) that rewards teachers for high ACT/SAT scores and "highly effective" evaluation ratings. New teachers with high ACT/SAT scores qualify automatically.
This is the latest attempt by the state to work around actually fully funding education; it also satisfies those who believe in merit pay programs, hate experience-based salary schedules, and despise teacher tenure. Plus, it does a pretty good job of attempting to attract new teachers while mostly ignoring veterans, which seems to be the modus operandi of schools districts lately. Experience doesn't matter to the powers that be - compliance seems to be the trait they value most, and veteran teachers are less likely to be compliant. So, from that perspective, this program might seem like a good idea.
However, here's the funny thing. Explain this program briefly to almost anyone and they will look at you in a befuddled way and say something like, "That doesn't make any sense." Or "Who came up with this garbage?" Or "What do high school test scores have to do with being a good teacher?" I understand the spirit behind it and a little of the logic. Politicians like Fresen look at the low enrollment numbers in college teaching programs and see a looming problem, so their knee-jerk reaction is to try to increase the flow of people into teaching. Of course, it is important to recruit new teachers.
But if Mr. Fresen and others in his position would think for just a second or two longer, then their synapses would fire again and the next natural question would come to them: why is there a looming teacher shortage? Why do so many people leave teaching in the first five years? Why are so many people with experience getting out as early as they can? The reason I call this program short-sighted is that it mostly focuses on recruitment and not on the real problem. Teaching, which used to be fun, can really, really suck.
Now, before anyone flies off in a tizzy, let me say this: I love teaching. I enjoy my students and colleagues. However, it's a good thing that I am arrogant enough and strong-willed enough to teach students what they need to know and help them learn to do what they need to do. When someone tries to mandate my curriculum, I smile at them, patiently, and then make it clear that I know my standards and will do what I need to do to teach them. But this kind of boldness is not universal and really only comes with time. Plus, all of the top-down pressure can squeeze the fledgling boldness right the heck out of a teacher who is learning to think for himself. Honestly, test-madness has drained so much of the joy out of the job that teachers have to teach by subversion or just throw in the towel and go along with mandate after mandate. And the constant cycles of testing, remediation and retesting which many districts insist on make it even worse.
So the legislature, in coming up with a program like B&B is putting a butterfly band-aid on a very big wound. The field of teaching is hemorrhaging teachers and something much bigger has to be done to save it. I have said to many friends that I would not go into teaching if I were in college right now.
Would a program like the Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship have attracted me? Sure. But, with the way things are right now, it wouldn't have kept me for very long.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Thursday, December 3, 2015
It Is What It Is - Acceptance or Learned Helplessness?
Here is another tragedy. Another horrifying loss. Another gut-wrenching, terrifying turn of events. The details are disturbing, the unfolding story is mind-boggling, and the great unanswered question (Why?) is still unanswered.
These events are becoming so common that the BBC started off its coverage with, "Just another day in the United States of America - another day of gunfire, panic, and fear." The politicians are trotting out their platitudes. The trolls are trolling. The bloggers are blogging. Liberals are screaming for gun safety and conservatives are making it clear that "this is not a gun issue."
So nothing has changed. If anything, there have been fewer comments about the shooting, fewer calls for change, fewer voices raised in outrage. And this might be the most disturbing kind of reaction to this kind of ugly event - a lack of one. It suggests that we are just worn down, that our outrage machines are broken, that we are learning to accept this as part of the "new normal." After Newtown, many people were sure - absolutely certain - that something would happen, that something would change. The loss of so many young lives at once would surely, the logic went, inspire movement and change. That didn't happen.
The lack of response and the hardened sides of the argument suggest that we are learning to be helpless. Wikipedia (which I don't often quote) says this about learned helplessness:
"Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness."
Americans might, unfortunately, have started believing that, when it comes to mass shootings, there's just nothing they can do. They may be resorting to phrases like, "What are you gonna do?" or "It is what it is" when it comes to this topic. And that's not a good thing. Now, I don't know whether a country can get clinically depressed, but learned helplessness is thought to be a precursor to depression and other forms of mental illness.
So we have to do something. Because the alternative is apathy. I am not super-religious, but I do at times turn to religious text for advice. The Serenity Prayer says, "God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." The key here is that it takes courage to make change and wisdom to know when change can be made.
In times like these, serenity, courage, and wisdom are invaluable.
These events are becoming so common that the BBC started off its coverage with, "Just another day in the United States of America - another day of gunfire, panic, and fear." The politicians are trotting out their platitudes. The trolls are trolling. The bloggers are blogging. Liberals are screaming for gun safety and conservatives are making it clear that "this is not a gun issue."
So nothing has changed. If anything, there have been fewer comments about the shooting, fewer calls for change, fewer voices raised in outrage. And this might be the most disturbing kind of reaction to this kind of ugly event - a lack of one. It suggests that we are just worn down, that our outrage machines are broken, that we are learning to accept this as part of the "new normal." After Newtown, many people were sure - absolutely certain - that something would happen, that something would change. The loss of so many young lives at once would surely, the logic went, inspire movement and change. That didn't happen.
The lack of response and the hardened sides of the argument suggest that we are learning to be helpless. Wikipedia (which I don't often quote) says this about learned helplessness:
"Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in aversive situations, that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness."
Americans might, unfortunately, have started believing that, when it comes to mass shootings, there's just nothing they can do. They may be resorting to phrases like, "What are you gonna do?" or "It is what it is" when it comes to this topic. And that's not a good thing. Now, I don't know whether a country can get clinically depressed, but learned helplessness is thought to be a precursor to depression and other forms of mental illness.
So we have to do something. Because the alternative is apathy. I am not super-religious, but I do at times turn to religious text for advice. The Serenity Prayer says, "God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference." The key here is that it takes courage to make change and wisdom to know when change can be made.
In times like these, serenity, courage, and wisdom are invaluable.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Best and Brightest...Not so Much
So, it's official.
I found out today that I do not qualify for Florida's Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship. I am not one of the "Best & Brightest." The scholarship, which is actually a bonus, is the brainchild of Erik Fresen (R-Miami) of Florida's House. The program, with a total price tag of $44 million, rewards teachers with high SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers with test scores in the 80th percentile or higher automatically qualify. Teachers with at least one year of experience also have to be rated highly effective according to their school district's evaluation systems. Now, to be clear, the scores that have to be in the 80th percentile and above are the teacher's personal SAT/ACT scores...the tests they took to get into college.
Here are the teachers this program leaves out: (1) teachers who started last year but didn't work long enough to get a complete evaluation, (2) teachers who never took the SAT or ACT, (3) teachers who couldn't find their old score reports and couldn't secure them from the College Board or ACT, (4) excellent teachers who didn't have great scores in high school, (5) teachers who work in Districts that have low numbers of "highly effective teachers, and (6) a bunch of others I am not thinking of.
I don't qualify for the bonus because of math. I had great scores in high school; I dug through boxes in the attic to find my scores and turned them in. I did earn a "highly effective" rating on my observations (completed by my former Assistant Principal and Principal). However, because I taught a group of International Baccalaureate students last year, their test scores don't count towards my evaluation. Some AP scores did count for me (I also taught AP English Language), but my overall evaluation brought me in at a 3.253. To get "highly effective" and the bonus, I would have to earn a 3.3.
Funny story...3.253, rounded to the tenths place, is 3.3. My District, though, is refusing to round. This is despite having a remarkably low percentage of teachers earning a "highly effective" rating, especially when compared to neighboring (and competitor) counties. You would think this District (Broward) would be interested in getting as many teachers as possible qualified. Because when the numbers come out and a huge chunk of teachers from Dade and Palm Beach earn the bonus, what will perspective teachers do? Where would you go?
The funniest thing is this: I am not really sure where to focus my frustration. Who deserves more of my anger? Is it the short-sighted legislature that simply refuses to fully fund education in Florida? Is it the specific legislator who proposed this idea, who saw this program as a viable option? Is it the education reformers who actually believe in merit-based pay and value-added models? Is it the School Board and Superintendent of Broward who, despite the potential power of the District, are eager to please and overly compliant whenever the state issues any edict? Is it Arne Duncan and President Obama who have doubled-down (until recently) on the A-word in education: accountability?
There is a lot of anger to go around. A lot of unfairness. A lot of frustration. Maybe everyone deserves a little bit of it. I can't help thinking, though, that the best approach is to focus the anger into an effort to make change at whatever level I can. Maybe that means looking to local elections, local offices, local changes that can be made more easily. And then working from there. So look out; I am angry, awake, and aware...and ready for action...even if I am not one of the "best and brightest."
I found out today that I do not qualify for Florida's Best & Brightest Teacher Scholarship. I am not one of the "Best & Brightest." The scholarship, which is actually a bonus, is the brainchild of Erik Fresen (R-Miami) of Florida's House. The program, with a total price tag of $44 million, rewards teachers with high SAT or ACT scores. Brand new teachers with test scores in the 80th percentile or higher automatically qualify. Teachers with at least one year of experience also have to be rated highly effective according to their school district's evaluation systems. Now, to be clear, the scores that have to be in the 80th percentile and above are the teacher's personal SAT/ACT scores...the tests they took to get into college.
Here are the teachers this program leaves out: (1) teachers who started last year but didn't work long enough to get a complete evaluation, (2) teachers who never took the SAT or ACT, (3) teachers who couldn't find their old score reports and couldn't secure them from the College Board or ACT, (4) excellent teachers who didn't have great scores in high school, (5) teachers who work in Districts that have low numbers of "highly effective teachers, and (6) a bunch of others I am not thinking of.
I don't qualify for the bonus because of math. I had great scores in high school; I dug through boxes in the attic to find my scores and turned them in. I did earn a "highly effective" rating on my observations (completed by my former Assistant Principal and Principal). However, because I taught a group of International Baccalaureate students last year, their test scores don't count towards my evaluation. Some AP scores did count for me (I also taught AP English Language), but my overall evaluation brought me in at a 3.253. To get "highly effective" and the bonus, I would have to earn a 3.3.
Funny story...3.253, rounded to the tenths place, is 3.3. My District, though, is refusing to round. This is despite having a remarkably low percentage of teachers earning a "highly effective" rating, especially when compared to neighboring (and competitor) counties. You would think this District (Broward) would be interested in getting as many teachers as possible qualified. Because when the numbers come out and a huge chunk of teachers from Dade and Palm Beach earn the bonus, what will perspective teachers do? Where would you go?
The funniest thing is this: I am not really sure where to focus my frustration. Who deserves more of my anger? Is it the short-sighted legislature that simply refuses to fully fund education in Florida? Is it the specific legislator who proposed this idea, who saw this program as a viable option? Is it the education reformers who actually believe in merit-based pay and value-added models? Is it the School Board and Superintendent of Broward who, despite the potential power of the District, are eager to please and overly compliant whenever the state issues any edict? Is it Arne Duncan and President Obama who have doubled-down (until recently) on the A-word in education: accountability?
There is a lot of anger to go around. A lot of unfairness. A lot of frustration. Maybe everyone deserves a little bit of it. I can't help thinking, though, that the best approach is to focus the anger into an effort to make change at whatever level I can. Maybe that means looking to local elections, local offices, local changes that can be made more easily. And then working from there. So look out; I am angry, awake, and aware...and ready for action...even if I am not one of the "best and brightest."
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