Love Fest in Anchorage

Que rant...

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. Mark Twain

Lately, I have taken to watching Anchorage School Board meetings on my local cable community channel. I have come to the conclusion that the Anchorage School Board is nothing but a rubber stamp for the school district administration.

During the decision to adopt "Everyday Math", there was almost zero debate or inquiry into the rational behind the decision. In fact, the commentary by the school board was more like a love fest than a decision making process.

I do not doubt for one second that the school board members are caring, intelligent, members of the community, but my suspicion is that unless it comes to money issues, the members are intimidated by any discussion of curriculum.

Then again, I am guessing that the majority of voters in school board elections are teachers, perhaps the board members are all ringers but in by the teachers unions and Ed School mafia.

To Too much pressure...

Schoolgate - Times Online - WBLG: The Ten Best Blogs about Education

Sarah Ebner was kind enough to mention my blog as a decent read. She must of caught my blog on a good day, because rumors of my competence are greatly exaggerated. Perhaps she found out I used to live in Cambridge... who knows?

In order to deflect attention away from myself, and relieve the guilt associated with not posting (or proofreading) nearly as often as I should), here are five blogs that are much better than mine, and truly must reads...

D-EdReckoning: Ken writes the most comprehensive, coherent, and educational blog around. If you disagree with him, there is a good chance that he will make you look silly. If you don't have facts or evidence to back your position, hang it up.

Teaching in the 408: TMAO is probably the best pure writer around. His blogs posts are as close to literature as you can get in the blogging world. Hopefully, he can keep his mad skills while writing for the Education Trust - West.

From the Trenches of Public Ed.: The more I learn about education, the more I find that I agree with most of what Dennis has to say. Don't tell him that, because he is officially my nemesis.

kitchen table math: What do you get when you combine the talents of 10 to 20 of intelligent parents and teachers, all focusing on math and math instruction,... only the best damn group blog around. Catherine Johnson anchors it all together, but the rest of the semi-regular posters kick ass as well.

NYC Educator: I am pretty sure that I am opposed to most of what NYC Educator posts, but I love that he doesn't mince words and he tells it like it is. I suspect that Major Bloomberg and Joel Klein have a secret department solely dedicated to keeping track of him.

Right Wing Nation: He isn't a pure education blogger, but when it comes to common sense and higher education, he is spot on. Lately he has been focused on the elections, but even if you don't agree with him, you can always steal some great recipes from his website.

NBA Hires Army Maj. General to Oversee Referees - washingtonpost.com

NBA Hires Army Maj. General to Oversee Referees - washingtonpost.com

NEW YORK -- The NBA hired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson on Tuesday as senior vice president of referee operations, a newly created position to help strengthen the league's officiating programs following the Tim Donaghy scandal.
...
Johnson recently retired after 32 years of service as a combat engineer. He was commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region division, from 2003-04, responsible for overseeing $18 billion of reconstruction in Iraq.

"Ron's wealth of leadership and management experience, together with his engineering expertise in areas such as systems analysis, processes, and operations, make him an ideal candidate to lead our officiating program," Stern said in a statement. "Our referees are the best in the world but they never stop striving to improve and Ron has made a career out of getting the very best out of people."

I don't know crap about basketball, refereeing, or civil engineering, but I do know that officers almost never have any practical hands on experience. They don't pay Generals to engineer, they pay them to lead and manage.

I predict he will be just as successful as Vice Admiral David L. Brewer, III.

Told you so and four letter words

Teaching in the 408: Rumors Of My Demise...:

In a few weeks I start work with the stellar folks at The Education Trust – West, an organization doing heavy lifting on ed reform, and one I’ve admired for some time.

...

This blog, or a similar version located elsewhere, will continue to exist.

Told you so.

The Education Trust - West does great work. If someone is going to be their front man, it might as well be someone as experienced and talented as Kilian.

Do you think they will still let him use four letter words in his posts?

p.s. I am still taking bets on his book

eduwonkette: Guest Blogger Sarah Reckhow: Easy to Blame

eduwonkette: Guest Blogger Sarah Reckhow: Easy to Blame

Eduwonkette lets ex-Douglass High School Teacher (and TFA alumni) Sarah Reckhow try and defend Douglass High School from the review that Liam Julian wrote for the National Review.

Like the documentary, her review does nothing to help Douglass High School. She rambles on for about 5 or 6 paragraphs before finally offering the only good thing that she can muster about Douglass High School.

Yet grumbling about the teachers who work in this difficult environment is not the answer. In fact, the film offers some illuminating scenes of teaching and learning at its best, only they don’t take place in a “typical” classroom setting. These include the school’s debate team, choir, band, and music production class. The students involved in these activities display precisely the attitudes we want schools to instill—pride, enthusiasm, and curiosity. Furthermore, the students are expected to perform well and rise to the occasion. Much of the commentary on this film has focused on Douglass at its worst, but much can be learned from Douglass at its best. [emphasis mine]

That's it. The best she can do is say that the students like extra-curricular activities. Her school has hit on a secret... that just about every other school in the world has already figured out.

At least she didn't blame the failures on money.

Sam Singer: Where Teach for America goes wrong (And Troops to Teachers gets right)

Sam Singer: Where Teach for America goes wrong - Opinion

Well crap, this 21 year old kid hits the nail right on the head.

Proponents claim that little by little, Teach for America can change this. That by enlisting only the academic elite - corps members carry top-tier credentials, and studies show them to be more effective than permanent faculty at participating schools - Teach for America is cultivating a commitment to public service and education among some of the brightest minds of our generation.

But hold your applause: According to The New York Times, of the trifle more than half of participants that actually remain in education, most do so in an administrative capacity. Turns out Teach for America hatches superintendents and curriculum planners far more frequently than it does teachers. If these numbers are on target, this isn't a teacher training corps - it's an incubator for would-be deans and well-rounded law students. [emphasis mine]

He forgot to mention that TFA is also good for producing bloggers, books, and charter school systems, but he still nails it though. His best line, though, is this:

Any grandeur that primary education had left was lost the moment we forced trained professionals to share faculty lounges with unseasoned college grads, many of who finished their final semesters with blood-alcohol contents that rivaled their grade point averages.

I might take issue with the term "trained professionals", but you get his point.

And just to add a comparison to Sam's first point:

According to the latest performance report from the Department of Education, the percentage of Troops to Teachers participants who remain in teaching for three or more years after placement in a teaching position in a high-need school is 88% for 2005, and 84% for 2006.

Once again, I think it's safe to say that TTT beats TFA.

Of course you don't see the NY Times or any other major newspapers writing semiannual puff pieces on Troops-to-Teachers.

When a link aint good...

Ordinarily, I would be estatic to get a link from an esteemed blogger like TMAO, but not when the post he links to sort of makes me look like an ass.

While I love the freedom blogging gives me to express my opinions, it is always a bit frustrating in that it is difficult to convey the totality of the person behind the blog. I think it might have to do with the fact that blogging takes effort, effort which is more easily mustered during bouts of indignation, emotion, or frustration. This leads to posts that are don't always reflect the entirety of my offline mellower personality.

To sum up: I am not as big a d**k that that blog post makes me seem like... really.

Hard Times at Douglass High: First Impressions

If the goal of the HBO documentary HARD TIMES AT DOUGLASS HIGH: A NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND REPORT CARD was to make me feel sorry for the kids. schools, or to turn against NCLB, then it's a failure.

After watching it, I am convinced of one thing. Once the kids get to 9th grade it's to late to save them. Education reform will have to start at the elementary school level.

Fish hate me

I have been fishing a lot lately. What do you expect, I live in Alaska now.

Fish don't like me. I guess that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

On the education front, the new GI Bill rocks! This means that my teacher certification is paid for and my family still gets to eat.

The Quick and the Ed

The Quick and the Ed

Kevin Carey comments on TFA haters:

And while it may be frustrating to advocates for the professionalization agenda that TFA complicates their narrative, that's no excuse for wasting valuable time and energy trying to tear down a program that unambiguously makes the world a better place.

"unambiguously" is a might strong word isn't it. There are many arguments about how TFA might not make the world a better place. I previously laid one out here, which boils down to the suspicion that the media's obsession with TFA deflects from other reforms that could make a much more significant dent in educational outcomes.

Success for All

My 2nd/3rd graders summer school program uses Success for All to re-mediate struggling readers.

My question is if SFA works so well for remediation, why not just use it during the school year?

On another note...

A teacher at the summer school was handing out brochures for parent math worksheets, so I asked her if it was for "Everyday Math".

She said no, but asked me if I wanted to know anything about EM. I said, "Only when is the school district going to get rid of it?"

She replied back, "Oh never, we love it."

I responded, "Of course you do, keeping kids in Summer School is job security."

Kevin Carey Has Mad Mojo

Read what Kevin Carey, from The Quick and the Ed, said a few days ago in this OpEd at Inside Higher Ed.

The world is extremely large and, comparatively speaking, Yale is very small. It could easily credential ten times, a hundred times more students over the Internet than it currently does in New Haven. Students would have more incentives to take great Yale courses, and the number of valuable Yale-certified learners would increase. This would rankle those who value Yale’s exclusivity over the bounty of knowledge, culture, and insight the university could potentially provide. But that’s a morally suspect position. Who cares what such people think?

He must have some pull at Yale, because look at todays news in the NY Times.

The president of Yale University announced on Saturday that Yale will increase its undergraduate enrollment by 15 percent, to about 6,000, by building two new residential colleges that are expected to open in 2013.

Kevin, if you happen to read this, could you put in a word to the admissions department about my kids? Would totally love to get them into Yale.

EF is the new IQ

What do you get when you cross this

"executive function," may be more important to academic success than traditional measures of intelligence

with this

a set of capacities known as "executive functions" - is almost entirely genetic in origin

Worse week...

This has been the worst week of my career, and today was the worst day. I really, really dislike my job right at this moment.

Want to feel old...

Want to feel old?

Ask your kids what a record is.

Anchorage School District Adopted Everyday Math

I was poking around the Anchorage School District website, and discovered that the ASD just adopted Everyday Math 2007, Third Edition. It will be mandatory for all ASD schools within two years. It was done with little controversy and no protests.

Saxson math lost out because it scored poorly on the rubric they used to evaluate the different programs.

Here is the "Student Lens" part of the rubric:

I. Student Lens

The materials provides the following for the needs/rights of students:

a. The purpose of learning, including objectives, standards, goals, criteria and evaluation rubrics are clear for students

b. Students can choose from a variety of strategies to explore, solve, and communicate math concepts

c. Students are engaged through a variety of activities which may include independent projects, cooperativelearning, manipulatives, technology, collaborative work, etc.

d. Students have opportunities for self-monitoring and self-reflection

e. Materials make connections to real life applications

f. There is support for individual learning levels

Is it just me, or does anyone else get the feeling the evaluation was rigged?

I am so glad my kids are going to get "opportunities for ... self-reflection" in their math class. I was afraid I was going to have to sign them up for yoga class.

Should I be worried?

p.s. Anchorage and Alaska are awesome. I am taking the summer off of school so I will be blogging again.

How TFA harms education...

I originally posted a version of this post over in the comments at The Socratic Method:

While I admire the mission of TFA, I am starting to have an issue with what I perceive as TFA elitism. For such a tiny percentage of classroom teachers, they have a large percentage of the education media coverage. They fill a niche, but TFA is never going to fix the system. Furthermore, the focus on overachieving young do-gooders minimizes the endemic issues present in the education system; poor education schools, poor pedagogy, and poor working conditions.

Imagine if instead of focusing on the glory boys of TFA, the media started focusing on school districts like Gering, which D-Edreckoning has profiled. By doing nothing more than adopting a curriculum and pedagogy that has been around for 20 years, the school has made amazing progress. They haven't started recruiting Ivy League graduates, they haven't thrown dollar after dollar at the program, they haven't relied on the public social welfare programs; all they have done is improve the way they teach.

Will the media pay attention... of course not, not while they have the glamour boys of TFA to profile... because it’s a much more interesting story to read about a Yale graduate working in the inner city using sheer strength of will to teach low income students, than it is to read about some small midwestern school district using methods like direct instruction. After all, if only those teachers would try a little harder... the system would be fixed. Please...

Update: Obviously TFA hating is starting to get trendy. Check out Teach For America-Debunking the propaganda. I also found a great summary of studies done of TFA effectiveness over at the NCATE website, of course I think the NCATE is as big a problem as TFA.

For the record...(what really scares me)

For the record, TMAO at Teaching in the 408 has been one of my favorite bloggers, and a prime motivating factor in my drive to become a teacher after I retire, but ever since I have found out he is resigning, I have been a bit annoyed.

In his latest post, TMAO goes through all the reasons why he didn't resign, including this last one.

I’m burnt-out. This is another one of those things I hear teachers say frequently, and more often than not it prompts an immediate, and probably unfair, response: Burnt-out? Fool, you gotta be on. fire. first. then maybe we can talk about burnt-out.
...
I'm not happy unless I'm putting the best product in front of kids, but I'm not necessarily happy in the constant construction and revision of that product. I'm not happy unless I use work hours 80-82 to take kids to the District All-Star Basketball Game, but I'm not necessarily happy working hours 80-82. I'm not happy unless I'm being the teacher I see in my head, but the process of finding that guy and living as him no longer makes me happy.

I'm sorry, but what he describes sounds exactly like burnout. I just completed 18 credit hours in one semester with a 3.8 GPA, but I had to take the semester off. While I enjoyed learning, I enjoyed my classes, and I enjoyed the sense of satisfaction I got making progress towards my degree; I just didn't enjoy studying anymore. I didn't enjoy the long weekend's writing papers. I quite simply was burntout.

Perhaps it's the military NCO in me, but I call it like I see it. Instead of trying to make play word games about the reason he resigned, I am much more interested in what he thinks the system could have done to prevent his burnout. What could of he done differently to prevent his leaving the profession?

Supposedly it's not because he wasn't supported, or prepared, or successful, but it must be something... because if there is nothing the system could of done better, and there is nothing he could of done better, then it seems to me the whole concept of education reform is f*cked.

Perhaps what really annoys me is that in his resignation, I have to face my own insecurities. If the system can't keep a bright, articulate, dedicated teacher like TMAO, then what chance does someone like me have?

I'm scared because if I were his situation, then I would probably be resigning as well.

Disclaimer: Despite rumors to the contrary, I am not reconsidering my future career choice. Us military types can't let TFA'ers get all the glory. :)

I don't get it...

I don’t get it…

Boys are improving, Girls improving faster = no crisis

Minorities improving, Whites improving faster = crisis

Standardized tests = bad, unreliable if they show racial/ethnic achievement gap

Standardized tests = not bad, unreliable if they show boys and girls relatively equal

Grades = important for college

Grades = unimportant for measuring gender gap

via Joanne Jacobs

Alaska Warm

I have decided there is warm and there is "Alaska warm".


Alaska warm is 55 degrees on a beautiful May afternoon. There is snow on the mountains and the grass is just turning green. Intellectually you know its cold, but you still find yourself wearing a short sleeve shirt and basking in the sun.



The Air Force pays me to live here, can you believe it?