So here’s the prez on standardized tests. My question is… well, I’ll wait until after you read it:

ON STANDARDIZED TESTS:

What is true, though, is, is that we have piled on a lot of standardized tests on our kids. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a standardized test being given occasionally just to give a baseline of where kids are at. Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, they just recently took a standardized test. But it wasn’t a high-stakes test. It wasn’t a test where they had to panic. I mean, they didn’t even really know that they were going to take it ahead of time. They didn’t study for it, they just went ahead and took it. And it was a tool to diagnose where they were strong, where they were weak, and what the teachers needed to emphasize.

Too often what we’ve been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools. And so what we’ve said is let’s find a test that everybody agrees makes sense; let’s apply it in a less pressured-packed atmosphere; let’s figure out whether we have to do it every year or whether we can do it maybe every several years; and let’s make sure that that’s not the only way we’re judging whether a school is doing well.

Because there are other criteria: What’s the attendance rate? How are young people performing in terms of basic competency on projects? There are other ways of us measuring whether students are doing well or not.

So what I want to do is — one thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you’re not learning about the world; you’re not learning about different cultures, you’re not learning about science, you’re not learning about math. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test. And that’s not going to make education interesting to you. And young people do well in stuff that they’re interested in. They’re not going to do as well if it’s boring.

So, okay… seems to me he gets it. But then why the heck doesn’t he actually DO something about it. I mean look at Race to the Top. Look at Merit Pay. Look at high stakes exams, look at the incredible amount of teachers and principals who have lost their jobs as a result of standardized test scores and on and on.

I mean he can pick up a phone, not call Congress and blast Libya but he doesn’t have the ability to apply what he seems to know about this educational nightmare so that he can halt its reoccurrence from continuing to replay itself out over the landscape of our nation right now?

Dude… come on.

Showing you understand the problem is awesome. Not doing something when you clearly see their is a problem is lame. Step up, Barack. If only your entire education policy would remediate what you see as problematic in the above three paragraphs, you’d be making a Dewey-esque contribution to our nation’s schools at this point.

Wow, we might not have a football season. Crazy huh? But when’s there’s 9 BILLION DOLLARS on the line then, hey, people get greedy and all kinds of underhanded, detrimental events that might harm the greater good can occur.

After all, we are talking about 9 BILLION DOLLARS.

Which is, might I point out, less than the yearly budget for LAUSD. That’s right, one city’s school district spends more on education than the entire NFL is willing to cancel a season for.

And you wonder why so much political attention is being focused on schools these days? They see the money. (Cha-ching!) It’s greed hiding behind a “we ought to help the little kiddies” propaganda.

The paydays some of these mega-education corporations take down are behemoth. Real Wall Street numbers. Oil, banking, medical, schools… which industry has the softest underbelly to fleece right now?

Teachers are in the crosshairs, of that there is no doubt. However, might it be because “dars gold in dem dar hills?”

Yesterday, I posted about Mark Teeters doing a fundraiser for Japan. Today’s the day.

Here’s more about it… I hope you’ll consider making a donation.

My friend Mark (as in Mark Teeters, California Teacher of the Year 2009) had planned to bring his choir students to sing in Japan this week. (Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Kyoto.)
Well, as we all know, tragedy struck. So instead, this Sunday Mark’s school choir will be singing FOR Japan as part of a relief benefit concert at the Napa Valley Opera House.
I do think it goes without saying that all of our hearts and prayers are with the people of Japan. (Especially those of us in California who live in a “we pray nothing like that every happens to us” fear whenever the ground slightly trembles.)
To compliment Mark’s humanitarian plans for his choir students, I just learned that the California Teacher of the Year Foundation is now going to contribute a donation which will benefit in Japan.
Personally, I think this is magnificent. And of course, I am going to donate. But today’s blog is about seeing if there are any other souls out there who might be hearing that little voice in their head which says, “Yeah, I’ll contribute.”

If you would like to donate (and I hope you’ll consider it) please make your check payable to the California Teachers of the Year Foundation and send it to:

California Teachers of the Year Foundation
c/o Ms. Dalynn Malek,Treasurer
29652 Alta Terra
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-7965

I think it goes without saying that 100% of the contributions will be headed to this most highly worthy cause. Thank you so much for your consideration.

And while I’m sure lots and lots of us have already donated to the relief efforts – I know I have – when I see the footage and take two seconds to think about the wreckage, I just feel like my answer is, “Yeah, of course I got another coupla bucks.”

Indeed, Mark is awesome. But then again, isn’t he just doin’ what it is that teachers do?

If you want to see more about the event, please click here. (Also, if you’d like to contribute with a credit card you can do so through the link as well. Putting a donate button in the blog was a bit too much for this post.)

I had dinner with Maja Wilson a few weeks ago and was entirely floored by our conversation. Clearly, she is as sharp as they come… and a real student of educational history in the United States to boot.

And when she told me that as a parent, she “opted out” of having her kids bubble tested I became an instant fan of the idea.

Now Maja has her own reasons (and she can explain them quite well if you ask) but for me, when I see the stress that these bubble tests are causing, I mean… is anyone doing a study on anxiety disorders in 3rd graders because let me tell ya, there are kids whose health is literally suffering as a result of standardized testing.

People say we need the data but if the data isn’t indicative of the true picture it is attempting to portray – and a disservice is being done to kids and teachers and schools and principals all along this Bubble Mania journey – then what’s more American than standing up for that in which you believe and opting out?

We didn’t pay the tea tax; why are we so willing to pay the Bubble tax? (It’s because parents are in the dark, that’s why.)

Ya know, the public at large seems to actually think that if only we were all Erin Gruwell the U.S. Education system would be saved. Well, Erin Gruwell is still alive, she is still working – doing good work, in fact – but she hasn’t saved U.S. Education. And she didn’t teach during a time ofthe bubble tests either. How would the administration view her efforts now if she was “going off in her own direction” and “tossing aside what was mandated” in order to “really serve what she felt was to be in the best interests of her students”? They’d fire her. A non-tenured, bucking the system, thinks-she-knows-better-than-the-powers-that-be educator… well, they have a word for that now.

It’s called RIF notice.

Of course, if we start opting out en masse we are gonna start a war. But is this not a fight worth fighting perhaps? It’s not that I don’t believe in assessment; it’s that I do not believe in poor assessment and our current state of “gathering and evaluating data” is based upon a flawed system, one which is continuing on in an almost unchallenged manner and is clearly doing great harm… harm that is being willfully ignored by people with a bullying agenda.

Are we fans of a giant opt out?

Today’s blog post is a throw over to a must read article. Here is the link.

I must say, I have had my issues with Diane Ravitch before (not personally; I do not know her) but this piece is entirely exceptional. Perhaps because it is so accessible. Truly, the lay person in the general public can read it and “get it”.

People in schools, parents of kids in schools, Joe and Jane on the street, this is a must read link if you want to know about our schools. We are just crushing our nation’s schools – and what’s worse is that it’s only getting worse.

*head on desk, banging*

Today is short and sweet. (Though I will say more in the coming days, I am sure.) But essentially, I am on this mom’s bandwagon.

And when she says she thinks other parents should opt out as well, all I can say is that It’s a conversation I have been having a lot lately with other thoughtful educators and parents.

She held her kids out of standardized testing and feels her kids were better off for her having done so. While it’s a complicated issue – and one that is really hard to sum up in one word – I am gonna try to do it in minimalist fashion.

NICE!

I am still on the TK bandwagon this week discussing what I believe is a must see, 60 minute documentary called, “Consider the Conversation.”

And just so you know, it’s not only me who thinks that my friend has put together something amazing and profound… PBS does as well. TK has already been able to get PBS affiliates in a variety of big cities to air his movie.

And hopefully, more will pick it up.

Here are a few links to some reviews.

Not to be morbid but hey, we will all die. And to spend just a wee bit of time with that idea bounces you right back to an even more important question: so how are you going to live?

Like right now? Like going forward? What do you want to experience, who do you wish to be with, what do you hope to tackle and what is it time to let go of?

Amazing stuff here. And let me tell you, a teacher that sees this movie doesn’t head back to the class the next day, cynical and bitter and jaded and ready to phone it in, I tell you that – because once your soul gets stirred like this, you WAKE!

I wholeheartedly endorsed a film the other day. Here’s how it came to cross my path.

I am dear friends with the filmmaker. Of course, my endorsement suddenly opens me up to accusations of cronyism but trust me when I tell you, I know a lot of “artists”. I know writers up the wazoo, filmmakers, musicians and painters, and you almost never hear me publicly go to bat for them just because they are my friends.

Even if their work really, really rocks, I am still often quite reticent because I am not much of a fan of “the good ol’ boys club” of endorsing the work of people just because I know them.

So the documentary I would practically insist you see – especially if you are over the age of 40 – is an anomaly for me. I really didn’t think I’d be willing to so publicly go to bat for the thing but now that I have seen it I am on the bandwagon blaring with a megaphone.

Here’s the link. Trust me on this.

The filmmaker is a teacher. A Teacher of the Year award winner in fact, class of 2007, same as me. That is how I got to know him. TK (his name) is from Wisconsin – he once brought me a 3 pound block of cheese just to prove it – and he’s quite the remarkable guy. 6’5” former basketball player who now teaches 4^th grade. Just seeing pics of him with the kids is enough to make you smile.

But he is beloved, he is phenomenally well-read and he’s got a heart as big as any hunk of cheese in his state.

He also learned that he closest brother had terminal cancer the same day that we met the President of the United States in the Oval Office of the White House together.

Just remarkable. And that set him off on a journey exploring how we die (in lieu of the way modern medicine can keep us almost unnaturally alive in this day and age).

And how we die gets the ball rolling on where we’d like to die. And that gets the ball rolling on how we are truly one of the first generations to be so disconnected from death.

I mean we view death as a failure, as if it’s a shortcoming of some sort instead of a natural part of life. And when you “consider the conversation” (that’s the title of the film, you can’t help but reflect on how you are actually living.

And what’s important to you. Like truly important. Family. Work. Community. Spirituality. Meaning.

I described the journey of watching this the other day as, “Be prepared to be terrified, illuminated, profoundly moved, confronted and warmly hugged all within 60 minutes. Just knocked me off my feet!”

Probably, just hearing the subject matter makes you want to say, “Nah, thanks.” But the piece is so tastefully done, so thoughtful in its manner and so insightful in its selection of people who appear throughout that I can promise it’s gonna break through the ice of even the most emotionally frozen of us.

As I said, here’s the link. Trust me on this. Way to go TK. Magical!

So I just watched a 60 minute documentary which left me weeping as well as re-evaluating every aspect of the manner in which I spend the currency of my life.

That currency being time. Not money.

I genuinely believe that every person over the age of 40 years old in America needs to see this piece. (Why 40? Just my own instinct. Could you be 39 or 33 or 22? Yep.)

Here’s the link. I am simply a bit too moved by the whole thing to blog about it any further today but if ever I was to give an endorsement, this one has it.

THUMBS UP!

If you hear that little voice inside your head right now saying, “Hmm, I wonder if I should check it out?” The answer is yes.

Be prepared to be terrified, illuminated, profoundly moved, confronted and warmly hugged all within 60 minutes. Just knocked me off my feet!