Solution: Teacher Autonomy

Recently I posted an "education solution" on an education forum called EDDRA run by Jerry Bracey of NEA fame. I suggested that the best way to improve schools was to look at the success of the US economy and look back at the time when those who made this explosion in creativity possible - those who were in school during the fifties and sixties, when the teacher ruled the classroom, was a respected member of the community, was deferred to by parents, was consulted by vendors, was able to take European vacations in the summer, was dedicated to education and their students, etc.

I suggested a return to Teacher Autonomy.

Well that august body split right down the middle between those who thought the idea was very today, and those that said that teachers today were not made of the stuff for autonomy to work.

What say you, the creative and innovative teachers on this network? Are you up to autonomy, or would you prefer to have overpaid, underworked admins attend conferences in your stead and choose the wrong books for the needs of your students, and all the rest of the mess teachers at the bottom of the feeding chain have had to put up with since before NCLB came to rule the land!

Tags: autonomy, cnferences, development, leadership, professional, responsibility, rules, teachers, vendors

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Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 23, 2009 at 7:33pm

Indigo,

The only way to judge if a teacher is doing his/her job is with observation of what she does on a daily basis.

If you are going to use testing, you must test at the beginning of the year, and again at the end, to measure how much the student gained during the year. You then have to ASSUME that what the student gained or failed to gain was due only to the teacher's performance. You have to ASSUME that no one else had input into what the student gained in learning, and that nothing else had any input into reducing what the student learned.

While there are difference between standardized tests and high stakes tests, I tend to use the terms interchangably. Sorry if this confused you.

BTW, back when I was in the business world raises were as often based on gender and time on the job as any meaurable "performance". The person who observed one's work on a daily basis tended to have the greatest voice in raises. Office politics were a factor. There was no clear-cut "pay for performance" in business back then, and based on what I hear, there still isn't. Politics rule!

My biggest problem with "merit pay" in education is that promises are so often short lived. A few years ago, teachers were promised that if they "raised scores" they would get pay raises. So teachers "raised scores", and we are now in a recession, and some districts are asking those same teacher to take pay cuts before they unload the fat from the central office. It infuriates me!

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 23, 2009 at 11:05pm

Indigo,

I am quite sure that businesses could save lots of money that could be swooped up into school coffers if businesses trimmed the "fat" from their costs by using the Free Software instead of the proprietary products. Since businesses are dedicated to maximizing profit, I have to wonder if there is a reason that businesses rarely choose the free software. My own experience with free software is that it is generally worth what you pay for it. But, I do have friends who swear by it.

One problem with schools using Linux and other free software is compatability to other software products. It's fine that Linux can run an almost-like version of Word and Excel, but, perhaps a school wants to use Sim Park or Sim City so that students can see the long range effects of decisions in an interesting manner. Now, they have a significant problem if no one has bothered to put the tools the schools need into Linux. With a free operating system, you are severely limiting the choice of software that can be made by teachers.

And, this is, once again, an example of the "fat" in the central office - people making decision that belong totally to the teachers!

Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on March 24, 2009 at 6:37am

Though I may quibble a bit with the idea that public school teachers, as a whole, are underpaid (different thread) and have little access to additional funding, I am in full agreement that teachers have far too little autonomy.

When I was younger, I remember hearing an interview by a child actor about his first experience in the movie industry. He had practiced his lines very hard to be ready for that first day only to discover that filming is not done in order from first page to last in the script. He had focused all his attention on the first few scenes.

I remember feeling a similar feeling of awakening when I realized that teachers are not the ones that select the curriculum. It didn't make sense to me that a teacher doing the teaching wouldn't be the one to decide. Instead it was a group of elected officials, many of which had no classroom experience. I don't think that most families realize this. Teachers are the ones that know best if a curriculum is working or not working with the kids. I found that many teachers get around a bad curriculum by adding a lot of their own material which increases their work load and personal expenses, especially in the first few years when a new teacher is building up ideas, resources, and supplies for the additions. I think letting the instructors, with an eye to continuity for the students as they pass through the grades, would be logical.

I think everyone feels the pain of the need for testing/accountability yet feel frustrated how it shackles education to teaching to the test. It has us all scratching our heads as to how to balance the two. Other methods of assessment are 'bulky' and difficult measurements to maintain. Teachers, of course, feel the greatest frustration, but I don't think anyone feels it is ideal nor fair. It is just efficient and no better ideas have come forward that are practical.

I was hoping with the earlier post to stir up ideas about what autonomy would look like - brainstorming. Until a vision is captured there is no direction and everyone merely muddles around in complaining. May I fetch the idea of 'what would it look like if' back into the ring in hopes of a vision catching fire? I am not trying to intimate that teachers should leave the public school. I am trying to spark something that is needed - vision, goals, something that moves beyond where we are now and forms up what the possibilities would look like. :0)

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 12:15pm

Tammy,

I apologies for being let astray by someone with a axe to grind, I would prefer to see this forum used as a brainstorming location for what and how teacher autonomy would work, what it would look like, and how we can achieve it.

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 12:26pm

Tommy,

To get a brainstorming session underway, can you suggest how the issue of teaching reading would look under full teacher autonomy. Would students be labeled "failures" if they were not reading in 1st grade? How would teachers at the helm decide who would teach what and to whom so that all students would learn to read by some acceptable time, say age 10?

Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on March 24, 2009 at 5:21pm

I will answer two of your questions in one.

I have taught a wide variety of classes. One of which is the Phonics and Phonics Intervention class. I am now working mostly with the high school students though because we had a huge need there.

Our Phonics and Phonics Intervention program was ungraded and the classes very small. My class was only three students at any one time. In one session. I had one boy from Oregon, one from South Carolina, and one from Arkansas. We are a non-profit run by donations and I teach as a volunteer, so the usual need to have enough students to cover expenses dis not apply. I had an advanced 4 year old reading at a first grade level when we started that was increasing in skill momentum with every passing month. I had a first grader that read at about the typical age/reading level, and I had a student that struggled with the phonics that was behind 'grade-level' by almost two years in reading. Our small size, scheduling, and technology allowed each to be able to work at their own level and yet together. As the students met the course objectives for the program they graduated out. Our 4 year old graduated first (very bright boy), then the first grader, and the struggling reader is still working with me and is on grade level now but we are continuing to solidify his skills until he is beyond being 'at-risk'.

Failure isn't part of our vocabulary. Reading is something that needs to often move beyond a classroom setting and get small scale for struggling readers. With our program there isn't a stigma at all. These kids have no awareness of the terms gifted, average, or special ed. They are just kids that meet together online for some fun with Mrs. Tammy. The atmosphere is very game like because the slides are designed to be manipulative-based. The parents are expected to do handwriting instruction at home on their own, so the activities are free of some of the small motor challenges that often hold back young students. They have objects onscreen, typing (the chat box is a terrific incentive to written communication), and full-duplex audio. My 4 year old student in Oregon actually had to get up at 6am to participate and his mom said that he was always wide awake as soon as she mentioned that is was a phonics day. He loved it. We did eventually move the class to a later time slot when it became available in the online classroom.

Now, how would it look in the public school classroom? Teacher to student ratio is tough and so is the grade/label system that kids get locked into. It would be nice if classrooms could have computers off to the side where volunteers from anyplace in the country could log in to listen to a struggling student read and assist with working through activity slides to build those phonics and spelling skills. You could them maximize the availability of retired teachers, college students in education degree programs, volunteers that you meet right here at CR 2.0, parents, and even grandparents. When your volunteers can click a link from home (or even a work break) and be there in minutes, you get more help and it distracts the flow of the larger class less and frees the student from feeling singled out as behind. My guess is the other students will want to do it too. :0) Is it economically feasible? Sure! Elluminate's three-seat rooms are free. One volunteer and up to two students can be working together at one time. You just need a few computers with internet access and Elluminate set as a safe site with your IT department. Then round up some volunteers. I will have training in the use of the Elluminate classroom all through the summer fo rthe volunteers with our program. You round up a few volunteers and I will train them too. I have a large collection of K to 3rd grade math and reading slides for Elluminate that I have made which are very hands-on with a very game-like appeal. I can pass them along during that training. As with everything else I do, it is free. Let me know if you want to run with it. :0)

We are getting thunderstorms here, so off I go for a while. I will pop in later and share a few more ideas for the brainstorming session :0)

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 12:41pm

Tammy,

What level of education are you most familiar with?

Most of my experience was at the high school level, but after that, I also spent some wonderful years teaching at the elementary level. I had the least experience at the middle school level.

As one who was a pioneer in the development of tech in education, I feel strongly that the teacher should be selecting the technology, the operating system, and continuously selecting the software.

BTW, if you are interested in Sim Park, you can download it free (it's been abandoned by its creator) either from an abandonware site or from my website. It has a wide range of dimentions that make it very suitable for teaching many science objectives maybe starting at first or second grade level, all the way through having some uses in high school science.

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 6:00pm

Indigo,

That is fine if the teachers want to use Sim City --- but what about teachers who want to use Sim Park, Sim Town, and other Sim games that are now abandonware.

As to the legal issues, I go by the information provided on the site where I downloaded the games. http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/ If you know for a certainty that this specific site is not a relizable site, let me know.

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 7:27pm

Indigo,

Not only for myself, but also for other teachers who know of old software that is exceptional for given tasks, a link to whatever EA is would be nice.

Otherwise, teachers are going to rely on the fact that websites like the one I gave you, are not getting away with murder.

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 12:34pm

Indigo,

I better way to separate the curriculum matter is to limit the communit involvement to setting the broad goals and letting the teachers fill in the details both as to content and as to methodology.

As for tech shortages in manpower, I fail to see how that is a problem considering that 1 of every 2 students expresses a desire to go into "computers" after college. Perhaps the "shortage" is in those willing to work for peanuts. My son who is in the IT field tells me that that is the problem. Those who work in the IT field are constantly threatened with loss of job for imported labor. There is no shortage of Americans to take those jobs, just an unwillingness of employers to pay what Americans need to make!

Permalink Reply by Tammy Moore on March 24, 2009 at 4:38pm

My son is IT as well. He works at the college in their telecommunications department and volunteers on his day off at the local school district's computer network building. It is funny, but he is hoping to get hired on with the school district because they have more funding and therefore leading edge equipment which he is thrilled with.

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on March 24, 2009 at 5:40pm

Tammy,

My son is IT for BOA, and IT for National Guard. He's on deployment for two years, but fortunately stateside. He's a VP for BOA, and being deployed now probably saved him form the current downsizing.

When the Internet started, the colleges had Bitnet, and other than apples that could connect on FredMail, most schools that were connected were on a university account - except Virginia - we had our own network starting almost with thee beginning of Bitnet, and with an 800 number to access it, I could get online from a very poor rural school. But, even back then, there were international networks to connect school kids, including the Chatback lists for special ed kids.

One year in particular stands out since I wrote a chapter for a college textbook on "Computer Mediated Communications" that year. My LD and EMR kids were talking to kids all over the world, while the TAG kids are our school were getting "enrichment" in the form of Bridge Lessons.

And, that is the reason I feel teachers should have autonomy and control of the curriculum. They are the people who are most knowledgable about what their kids need, and, given a bit of freedom to follow through, can make a big difference in students lives and futures.