We often hear about how our public education system is a failure. Politicians and pundits love to talk about what needs to happen in order to fix our "broken" system, yet rarely do they have a real understanding of what it takes to make a school succeed.
Hollywood perpetuates the idea of the independent, amazing teacher who beats the odds and the system by single-handedly improving the lives of 30 kids. The idea of our educational success resting on the ability of each teacher has translated into politics with ideas like merit pay and performance (test-score based) evaluations. The theory behind these initiatives is that society can use carrots and sticks to make teachers want to do a better job of teaching their students. Perhaps there are a huge number of public educators out there who are only in it for the money (ha ha), but in my experience most teachers mean well, and would very much like to see their students succeed academically. I believe that real success happens when there are school-wide systems in place to help teachers work as a team to meet the needs of their students. While one teacher can make a difference, the needs of many more children can be met when educational success is approached at a school-wide level. There are successful schools where this is already happening all over the country. It can be done.
I have the tremendous luck of teaching at a school that is beating the odds in a myriad of ways. We are located in what is typically thought of as a dangerous part of an urban city. More than 90% of our students qualify for free or reduced price lunches, and the vast majority of our students are classified as English Learners. In spite of these challenging demographics, our students perform well on our state’s end of year exams in both English and Math. Our test scores ranked us ahead of 60% of all schools in our state, and above 90% of schools with similar demographics. In addition to exhibiting high test scores, our students are deeply curious learners. They read voraciously, are inquisitive about the world around them, and are superstars in math. They are also polite and kind. We haven’t had a single fight on campus this school year.
So how is this kind of success achieved? I recently read a pair of books by Karin Chenoweth where she presented case studies of public schools across the country that had low-income students and had recently improved their test scores. In her second book, How it’s Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools, she concludes that there are five characteristics that are consistently found in schools that are beating the odds.
These include:
• Personal relationship building
• Data-driven instruction
• Teacher collaboration
• A laser-like focus on what students need to learn
• Formative assessments
While I think that it takes a whole lot more than just these five characteristics to make a school successful, I agree that these are all helpful in creating a high-achieving school. I would add that each of these elements must be authentic in order to be effective. Also, it should be emphasized that none of the other characteristics will exist if personal relationship building is either false or absent.
When it comes to analyzing the specifics of what my school does to beat the odds, it leads me to disagree with academics and politicians who keep swinging the pendulum back and forth between constructivist and behaviorist teaching methods. My approach to teaching involves using a little bit of both. I don’t use textbooks. My students read real books and spend a lot of time working in groups. I also use direct instruction to introduce standards based skills. The reason why our students are so successful is because every teacher at my school uses the same framework in order to teach both reading and math. I don’t have to waste a ton of time teaching new systems because my students enter my classroom with a clear idea of what is going to be expected of them. As a staff we are proactive in thinking about possible challenges that could arise, and we have complex systems in place to deal with the needs of our students. Our expectations for academics and behavior are universally high. Educating our students is a team effort. Everyone's contributions are valued, and everyone works together to meet the needs of the kids.
In too many low-performing schools, the push for data-driven instruction and results on formative assessments has meant that teachers are treated very poorly, and have very little input on how or what they teach. I’ve been in meetings where teachers were told that their input wasn’t welcome because their test scores were too low. They were then told to get with the program and were given threats about what would happen if they didn’t teach as they were told. The result of this meeting was that the teachers ignored the administrators, shut the door, and independently did what they felt was necessary to educate their students. The atmosphere created by the "blame the teachers" mentality prohibited any sort of real teacher collaboration, and data analysis wound up being meaningless paperwork that was filled out to appease administrators. It seems ridiculously simple, but I believe that the main ingredient which can change an entire school dynamic is respect.
There are many fabulous teachers out there who do not have high student test scores because they are forced to use bad curricula, and they are not working in an environment that encourages growth. Rather than telling teachers at low performing schools that they need to stop what they are doing because they aren’t good enough, an administrator should approach their staff for ideas to try to problem solve as a team. We should use schools that are already successful as model teaching labs which other schools can visit in order to learn new systems and practices. Consultants can be great, or they can be a huge waste of money. Unless there is buy-in, any reform efforts that are made are likely to be a waste. If teachers are given a chance to have some choice in the matter, they will feel ownership of any changes that are made. Once enough teachers are on board, those who can’t or won’t change will eventually leave of their own accord.
I’m not alone in believing that the lack of teacher input on decisions involving curriculum is a problem. A study by the California State University system found that a major reason why teachers leave the profession is frustration over a lack of support and a lack of input in how they teach. This was one of their key findings:
Teachers who planned to stay in the classroom most often pointed to having meaningful input in the decision-making process at their schools and to strong, collaborative relationships with their colleagues. These teachers also cited the importance of effective "system supports" such as adequate time for planning, and resources for classroom learning materials. When these positive conditions were in place, many of these teachers viewed their compensation as adequate and a reason for staying in the profession.
According to the study 22% of California’s teachers leave the profession after four years. Many of these teachers work in schools in high poverty areas. You don’t spend a year of your life training for a profession you plan on leaving in a couple of years. I don’t believe that all of these teachers simply couldn’t cut it in the classroom. Imagine if we changed the way that schools operated so that it was expected that administrators and teachers would work together to problem solve in order to transform their schools. Instead of creating burned out former idealists who quit or get bitter, we might actually have some real school reform.
My issue with most of the current trend in education policy making is that very little of it seems to be based on helping schools make systemic changes that will help improve education. Instead it seems to be more of the same flawed philosophy that our problems all stem from our nation’s teachers having a lack of desire and ability to do their jobs well. Rather than encouraging administrators to work with teachers to create a collaborative environment where everyone succeeds, it encourages them to see teachers as the problem. It perpetuates the idea that teachers are either inherently good or bad rather than individuals who can grow given the right training and environment. If we truly want to see our schools improve, we need to stop encouraging the idea that the problem with our system lies at the feet of our nation’s bad teachers. We have to stop thinking that we are going to be able to punish and coerce teachers into doing what is right for the kids. We need to treat teachers like professionals and give them some input in how they teach their students. Yes, there should be standards and accountability, but if we want to accomplish real change we need to start treating the change agents as allies rather than incompetent enemies.