By Any Means Necessary

October 28, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity…
(“The Second Coming”, W.B. Yeats)

My historical heroes are all pretty standard – Joan of Arc, Malcolm X, Abraham Lincoln. All three were murdered as a result of their convictions, but they were more than simply creatures of ‘passionate intensity’. They were strange animals in their day who rejected easy answers for the possibility of better ones. None were content to merely overcome those in their way – they sought something richer… they pursued mutual enlightenment. Maybe mutual respect.

Even if they killed you while doing it.

Joan demonstrated repeated personal mercies and grace even for her enemies, all while leading the French army to slaughter those filthy English. Post-Mecca Malcolm sought collaboration – or at least detente – from those he with whom he disagreed – even some he found culpable in existing wrongs. Lincoln was a man of great conviction as well, but regarding people and their viewpoints, values, and druthers, he was quite broad-minded for his time. Consider this bit from his Second Inaugural, given a few months before his death:

Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes…
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Not as rousing as “We’ve almost got ‘em, now let’s CRUSH the Motherf*ckers!” but it served his purposes.

See, Lincoln was always looking past the current strife to the solution, the next step, the reconciliation or improvement. He did not wish to confuse the struggle with the goal. It was how he practiced law, how he navigated interpersonal conflict, and certainly how he approached the Civil War.

Of course he wanted to win – believing profoundly that his cause was just – but he kept his larger purpose in view. He wanted the Union preserved, the nation whole. When the opportunity came to free slaves as part of that, all the better – the Maker thus working out the parts we cannot while demanding of us all that we can.

I want my students to emulate this. I want them to strive to understand why the hell people believe and do the weird, stupid stuff they believe and do. Most of it, of course, isn’t actually weird and stupid to the people doing it, and even when it is, it’s still worth a little analysis before we attack. It’s too easy to mock, vilify, or dismiss those who stray too far from our socio-political comfort zones. It’s too easy to reduce important complexities to ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Complicating my idealistic little group hug is the fact that in any field of dispute – science, ethics, education reform, etc. – there are unjust players. Someone’s always trying to rig the game, beat the system, manipulate the field for personal payoff. It’s naïve to pretend all voices are genuine. Sometimes the man behind the curtain is a pretty good wizard, but a very bad man.

Further complicating my utopian dreamland is the reality that not all ideas or understandings are equally true or even equally valid. They’re definitely not all equally useful. Just because I understand the skepticism about climate change by my friends further right doesn’t mean they’re correct. It doesn’t even mean the truth is “somewhere in the middle.” They may be dangerously, delusionally wrong – but it’s still better if I ‘get’ where they’re coming from. Show a little respect.

I humbly suggest that energy spent trying to understand the potential validity of viewpoints, belief systems, or courses of action we find distasteful, rather than spent ranting against them, has at least three advantages:

(1) They might have a point. If they’re not entirely right, they may not be entirely wrong, either. Likely they see something you’ve missed, or see it differently in a useful way. People who surround themselves only with supporters end up weird at best and corrupt at worst (think Justin Bieber or Kim Jong-il).

I’m a big fan of asserting antagonistic things to smart people and taking notes as they eviscerate me. I don’t keep many friends this way, but I learn a great deal.

(2) The better to persuade you with, my dear. If the goal is to implement policy you find most correct, or promote beliefs you consider important, you’re unlikely to win over opponents through your clever use of Willy Wonka memes to mock their most fundamental values. The sort of ‘red meat’ we throw one another when in likeminded groups can be emotionally satisfying, but it’s not particularly useful in building consensus.

(3) The Universe punishes vanity. Whether you put your faith in the Bible, history, science, or James Cameron movies, the fall which pride cometh before is a cantankerous b*tch, and neither you nor I are excluded from her twisted mockery.

Many things stirring passions today are more complicated than they seem. The ‘War on Terror’ is an easy example – the President all but admitted going in to this most recent bombing campaign against ISIS or ISIL (or whatever they are this week) that we can’t win this way, we can’t win other ways, and we sure as hell can’t not try at least some of the ways. All roads lead to WTF – we’re just trying to prognosticate the least-worst details.

Anything involving social mores and legal precepts is subjected to the worst sort of grandstanding on all sides – “I don’t believe government should legislate morality!” Yes you do. You just have different things that make you go ‘ick’ than whoever you’re mad at this time. “I want to see America return to the values on which it was founded!” No you don’t. We had some great ideals but made horrible compromises with the norms of the day. You’d be miserable, and quite possibly burned at the stake.

“Well I just don’t see how anyone could think -“

Exactly. Therein lies the problem. Because you really should.

School reform is almost as complex as these other areas, although with less stuff blowing up and fewer citations of Old Testament law involved (except of course by Senator Brecheen, who wants Common Core supporters hunted down and killed with swords).

Higher standards, whatever those are, might be delusional or harmful or wrong, but it’s hard to make the case that state-by-state standards are always much better. Mass testing is just evil, but complete lack of accountability doesn’t seem to have consistently led to much greatness in the past. There are some charters doing some interesting things, and I’ve even met ACTUAL TFA-ers leaving their all in the classroom every day trying to reach kids no one else seems able to reach.

I’m not suggesting all parties are just, or even sincere – merely that our ongoing outrage suggests a simplicity I don’t think is there.

Unless it’s MY outrage – my outrage is pretty damn ON most of the time.

I respectfully suggest we might see a bit more clearly and accomplish a bit more if we dial back our conviction enough to allow some uncertainty or complexity into the conversation. Maybe not everyone is either good or evil, not all ideas either stupid or obvious. Maybe we can maintain passion for our goals – which probably have to do with our students and the future and buckets full of flaming starfish – without taunting the Universe to go all karma on us before we can reach them.

I’m Not Sure ‘Local Control’ Is A Good Idea

September 28, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 2 Comments

I hate to be difficult.

Actually, that’s not true – I enjoy being difficult sometimes. It’s how I learn, and how I try to force others to acknowledge problems they might not otherwise address, or clarify my own thinking regarding issues I find important. In this case, I’m very much hoping those more insightful than me will explain why I’m completely and totally mistaken.

Because on this one, I don’t like what I’m about to say. It runs against my libertarian ideals. Worse, it’s one more thing likely to annoy the people I most admire in the education blogosphere, some of who have been quite decent to me even though I’m a bit player at best.

I’m not sure “local standards” are a good idea for public education.

To be sure, nationalized tests and oppressive curriculum requirements are a disaster. Forget Common Core – ANY standardization of what every child in every situation everywhere must know and be able to do as measured by bubble fillinnery, based on their chronological grouping is, well… insane. In a “you’re a very bad man” kind of way.

State requirements aren’t much better, at least around here. They flip and they flop and they still come with all sorts of stupid tests which crush anything positive about public schooling. They make us hate our jobs and they make kids hate school, all while accomplishing nothing – since the results aren’t actually used to fix or change anything.

So of course the only remaining alternative is to let local districts, local parents, local school boards, based on local circumstances, decide what their students should and shouldn’t study, and how success will be measured.

In some cases, this would be wonderful. Perhaps in many cases.

But while I love my state, rural Oklahoma is full of districts who don’t much cotton to them big city ideals. I don’t want to burst into a musical number from Tatooine, The Musical (“Beyond Uncle Owen’s Moisture Farm” is my personal favorite) but there are numerous districts where the toughest thing about teaching high school is convincing families there’s anything out there bigger than the local poultry processing plant or Assistant Manager at Dollar General.

I’m not one to argue that every child in every situation absolutely MUST pursue a doctoral degree before fixing air conditioners for a living, but I can’t abide the image of thousands of Oklahoma teens stuck hanging out at the Quikie Mart eating hot lamp chicken until their prowess at The Last Starfighter or a dancing Kevin Bacon frees them from the backwater morass.

Local standards may not aspire to be much more than local. And you can’t become what you can’t see.

I love my state, but Oklahoma voters – the same ones I presume would be helping to set ‘local standards’ in their districts – keep electing Representatives like John Bennett and Sally Kern and Senators like Josh Brecheen.

Senator Josh Brecheen, of course, is the man who recently cited the Old Testament of the Bible – specifically a passage suggesting that those outside the faith be hunted down and killed with swords – to support his opposition to Common Core. We really must get him together with Representative John Bennett who is currently on his “Muslims are all Sleeper Cells” speaking tour condemning Islam – any form, any practice, any believer thereof. His reason? The Quran demands the deaths of non-believers. You know, like the Bible.

Kern is most known for her crusade against gay people, who are apparently much like Bennett’s terrorists. She uses her background as an educator to explain that she’s just keeping it simple for folks, explaining it this way. In her defense, she doesn’t much like blacks or women (?!?) either. Because so many disagree with her, and are in fact horrified by her remarks, she’s also the victim of the worst sorts of persecution.

“It just broke my heart because so often what they were doing, they weren’t just stoning me, they were stoning and desecrating the God that I love…
There was just so much hate, they accuse me of being hateful, and I never once said anything hateful. Such hate expressed against the Lord and against his word and then the way they, I mean these people, I believe these people, I believe scripture teaches this, they’re deceived and to me the real hate is from those people who say, ‘you’re born this way and you can’t change, deal with it’…”

In other words, because not everyone accepts her bizarre hate speech, she is the real victim. Well, her and God – who in Kern’s theology apparently has many of the same attributes and insecurities of Tinkerbell. New whine in old skins.

This is ‘Merica and they can believe as they like, although I question political leaders using their position in government to attack segments of our own populace. Kerr assumes blacks are naturally criminals because they’re lazy, but she’s not executing them in broad daylight for not walking on the sidewalk, so… um… I guess it’s all relative? And I have friends who are not particularly fond of Islam no matter what its trappings and more who just don’t buy gay as a morally neutral issue. That’s fine – whatever.

But those friends aren’t setting the curriculum for my local public school. Xenophobia may be there in practice, but it’s not codified in the official standards for all to follow. Gay-bashing may occur verbally or even physically, but it’s not generally promoted by the authority at the front of the room or sitting at the big desk down front. On paper, at least, we’re trying to function in a global society. On paper, at least, we’re trying to look beyond the pissy Presbyterian next door and realize that right or wrong, we’re just going to have to deal with the “others.”

Local standards would roll this back. I’m not trying to be conspiratorial, but I see who these people elect. Repeatedly.

It’s already problematic in many rural areas to cover the basics of various faiths as part of World Cultures class, or to explain Evolution even as a ‘theory’. I recently attended a workshop with a lady in a nearby state whose head was exploding because Noah’s flood was the mandated correct response in World History class covering major population movements.

Nothing against Noah or Noah’s god – but is that really so much less onerous than Common Core’s suggestion that written arguments must be supported with facts and reasoning?

And that’s not even getting into novels or sex education or racially integrated cheerleading squads – stuff that really sets folks off ‘round these parts.

Given the recent kerfuffle over curriculums challenging the narrative of America as the infallible bulwark of justice and freedom-eagles, can you imagine the approved versions of history in areas still angrily downing 32 oz. Keystones, listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and cursing the War of Northern Aggression? We can’t stop Donald Trump from arguing that Obama’s not a citizen, but that doesn’t mean we have to make “Kenya” the only acceptable answer on the multiple choice quiz, either.

I hate federal government programs and demands. I’m not a huge fan of the Department of Education or most other bureaucratic leviathans who feed on the nectar of paycheck deductions and red tape. But every time we’ve left important decisions up to local control in the past century, things get pretty weird.

Outside standards don’t guarantee anything, and we can’t write enough rules to force well-rounded, questioning young people to magically appear out of every high school. But surely we can’t just smile and trust that the same people who’ve got us to where we are today can will somehow burst forth in wise, long-term thinking about tomorrow.

#OKSDE & The A-F School Report Card

September 21, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

The Oklahoma State Department of Education recently released its infamous “A-F Grade Report” for districts across the state. Why?
Let’s look at their own A-F Frequently Asked Questions page, shall we?

Note three things about this, keeping in mind the OKSDE chose the question, wrote the answer, and put it first on their own FAQ:

1. The A-F system is designed so parents and others can get a quick & easy idea how schools are doing. If you know anything about public education at all, you know that how we’re doing is anything but easy to measure. Half the time we can’t even agree about exactly what we should be doing. But the whole purpose of A-F, according to this, is to more conveniently label HOW SCHOOLS ARE DOING – minus context, nuance, causes, solutions, etc. This is repeated throughout the FAQ. Parents or community members could, of course, quickly and easily determine how local schools are doing by visiting and asking how it’s going, and what they could do to contribute – but that would be expecting someone outside the school itself to do something other than offer criticisms and blanket condemnations from afar.

2. The report card is a measurement “for challenging students and communities to strengthen the effectiveness and performance of public schools”. What does that mean, exactly? More importantly, now that we’ve done this a few times, what signs are there that each year with the A-F report cards come out, students rise up and communities mobilize to begin “strengthening” their schools? Does the SDE have even anecdotal evidence suggesting anything positive happens as a result of these press releases? If not, then by its own defintion the process is a failure and we can stop. If, on the other hand, students and communities are having montage moments over school effectiveness, then we should see very few schools on the ‘F’ list twice, yes?

3. The primary indication of success is standardized test scores. That’s a world of issues in and of itself.

Let’s look at another question from the FAQ:

Wow. Where to begin?

4. Of course there’s a loss of funding. The state keeps cutting education budgets across the board. The only distinction is that they cut funding for all schools, not merely those labeled ‘D’ or ‘F’. This is the opposite of what a teacher – even a mediocre teacher – does with a student who’s trying, but not finding success. Imagine me bragging to a parent or administrator that although a specific child is in grade trouble, I’m not reducing the time and energy I spend trying to help her! Well – I am, but I’m reducing the time and energy I spend helping every other kid also, so let’s just pin on that Excellence Through Equity medal now!

5. If kids don’t hit those nebulous testing targets, we send in the REAL experts – the folks at the SDE – to educate the teachers. Of course the SDE has held the key to student success all along, but they’ve been keeping it super top secret to give those poor struggling teachers a chance to try it THEIR stupid way. Do we have any stats on the impact of this visit from the SDE on student test scores the FOLLOWING year? I mean, if the problem is that the teachers need some “spurring,” and the SDE’s done come and “spurred” them, scores should soar, yes?

6. Can you tell the ‘spur’ thing bugs me? You spur a horse that’s not trying very hard or moving very fast. You spur a horse because horses are too stupid to know which way they’re supposed to go on their own. You dig your metal into its flank and keep your bit in its mouth so it will remain compliant – an extension of your own purposes. Spurring suggests schools and teachers get F’s because they’re just not trying very hard. They’re meandering, munching some grass, peeing a long time – just standing there until the SDE comes to do some spurrin’. Giddy-up go, Ms. Hernandez – giddy-up, go! Because you know what grade a horse really wants? A neighhhhh…

7. Choose any “low-performing school” near you. Give them a call and ask what the OKSDE has done to “support” them lately – or the state for that matter. Teachers are expected to address problem areas, find solutions, build success; all state leadership seems willing to do in practice is label and publish. Useless.

8. Grants to the good schools? I’d never heard of this one before. How adorable – it’s the White Man’s Burden, Education Edition. We’re going to further reward upper-middle-class-two-parent-family schools for explaining to the high-poverty-broken-world schools what they’re doing so badly! “Have you tried getting your kids to be less… poor? Are you familiar with the need for more ‘grit’?”

9. May I see the numbers on increased parent and community involvement based on low scores on this “report card”? Can I get in on this “conversation”? Dr. Barresi echoes this talking point in the Tulsa World when asked about the mass of research demonstrating the “grades” with which she bludgeons schools are not merely pointless, but demonstrably harmful and deceptive:

“The grade card may be cursed, it may be praised, but it sure is causing conversation in the state of Oklahoma,” Barresi said.

Adrian Peterson should try this approach: “Well, my disciplinary techniques may be cursed, or they may be praised, but they’re sure… (*patronizing chuckle*) causing conversation.”]

After this FAQ, the next item provided to explain the whole A-F system is this letter from the OKSDE’s own “Executive Director of Accountability.” He proceeds to contradict pretty much everything explained in the FAQ.

I’ll excerpt the essentials:

…we must ensure that the A-F system is both understandable and interpreted appropriately. Therefore, it is important to have a clear idea of what it is — and isn’t — intended to measure.
The A-F Report Card is:
* An indicator of the percentage of students, regardless of background, within a school who are currently meeting or exceeding grade-level academic standards.
* An indicator of the percentage of students (particularly the lower performing students) who are at least making significant progress toward meeting grade-level academic standards.
* An indicator of whether schools are exceeding expectations in terms of school attendance, high school graduation, etc…
The A-F Report Card is not:
* A measure of the “school” or “teacher” effect on student learning.
* A statement about a school’s overall quality of services provided.

10. I love his concern that we make A B C D & F somehow “understandable” and “interpreted appropriately.” The reason you choose to format something in terms of commonly recognized symbols and terms is because everyone recognizes those symbols and terms. Divide your class into reading groups christened Eagles, Sharks, Otters, and Turtles, and no one has to guess which group is the slow one. If the OKSDE were worried people might think that A B C D & F means what it obviously and always means, perhaps they could have chosen other terms.

11. Suddenly now this whole A-F thing is about measuring students – are students meeting expectations? Are students making progress? According to the rest of the OKSDE, the only part students have in this whole thing is when they rise up with the community to strengthen… something or other. But according to Dr. Tamborski and his fancy title, it’s all about the students. The only thing schools are directly responsible for is making sure every kid on their roster gets up and to school every day. I assume this involves setting their alarms, maybe pouring them a bowl of Fruit Loops, that kind of thing – stuff it makes complete sense to hold schools exclusively accountable for. Not this other stuff.

12. Lest we continue in our ridiculous delusions, we are explicitly corrected – WITH QUOTIE ACCENTS – not to view these A-F Report Cards as a measure of the “school” or “teacher”. Seriously – why is “school” in “quotation marks”? I’m not “sure” for what “purpose” they’re being “used” here. In any case, I’m confused. If these report cards don’t allow “parents and community members” to “quickly and easily determine how local schools are doing,” what exactly will the students, parents, and communities be rising up to encourage excellence and performance OF?

13. The A-F card is not a measure of “teacher” effect on student learning? This part I can actually believe, since there’s a whole slew of other mechanisms in place to blame teachers for every kid they so much as see in the hallway, for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately he didn’t tell THE ENTIRE REST OF THE OKSDE, the media, the state legislature, or the state. They think it is.

14. These Report Cards are not a statment regarding a school’s quality? Seriously, do these people not even talk to one another? The building isn’t that big.

Perhaps the third and final link for public consumption can act as a sort of “tie-breaker” between the OKSDE and the OKSDE. It’s not a FAQ or a letter, but something called a Quick Reference Guide. Perfect! I can use it to quickly reference what the hell they’re talking about.

1969? What did one use to update web pages in 1969 – a hammer & chisel?

Well, OKSDE, if and when you get back from Woodstock or whatever, please consider reposting that reference guide. I can’t wait to see which side of your conflicting explanations it agrees with. In the meantime, I know I’m feeling much better about the accuracy and consistency of these A-F grades you’ve published now that I’ve seen the care and clarity you bring to explaining what they are and what they aren’t.

Related Post: Assessments & Grades – Why?

Assessments & Grades – Why?

September 20, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal

The State of Oklahoma, like many others, is determined to assign numbers and letters to the schools and teachers within its purview. Like the standardized testing of students on which many of these numbers and letters are based, the conviction seems to be that if you just keep pretending to measure things in ridiculously oversimplified ways designed to guarantee widespread failure, you’re “reforming” the system and calling forth a brighter future for all. This is analogous to – actually, never mind the analogy. It’s just stupid.

For those of you who are not teacher-types, there are two basic types of assessment. Formative Assessment is primarily intended to ascertain student understanding or accomplishment. Do they understand the material? Can they demonstrate the skills you’ve deemed important? Are they making an effort to plow through whatever you’ve assigned in your efforts to help them ‘get it’?

We’re all familiar with tests and quizzes, but Formative Assessment can be made through discussions, artsy-fartsy projects, tickets-out-the-door, etc. In some cases the grade is the grade, and in others students are expected to redo, relearn, retry, etc. Either way, the goal is to figure out what’s going well and what’s not, and to adjust, or to identify what students do or don’t get, and decide what you – and they – can maybe do about that. The “grades” handed out by the State of Oklahoma make little claim of such goals, and our legislature clearly has no intention of adjusting or contributing in any way. So… THAT’s not the purpose of these statewide ‘report cards’.

Why do students fail? Some kids are doing the best they can, and just don’t get it. They are mostly present and involved, but just aren’t there yet. Our job is to figure out how to help them. Far more fail simply from not doing what they could or should be doing – in other words, by choice or something that looks a great deal like choice. We don’t write them off, or use this as an excuse not to try different approaches, but solutions begin with identifying sources of problems – not with the scores assigned after the fact.

The State of Oklahoma and the OKSDE have shown a determined lack of interest in the underlying sources of low achievement. It would actually be a huge step forward if they merely covered their ears and ran about yelling ‘NANANANA ICANTHEARYOU NANANANA ICANTHEARYOU!’ Even in the classroom, the oversimplification of A B C D F hinders recognition that no two kids excel, survive, or fail in the same way, or for the same reasons. Whatever the root of shortcomings, our question is the same – what can we as teachers, as teams, as districts, do differently so more kids DO succeed? Even when many factors are undeniably out of our control – home life, background, socio-economics, DNA, etc. – any ethical educator asks themselves what they COULD try… what they COULD do.

Which, as I may have mentioned, the state has shown absolutely no interest in considering.

Summative Assessment is the other category. It’s the ‘BIG TEST’ at the end of a unit or a semester. These attempt to document what students “walk away with” in knowledge and skills. The data can identify strengths and weaknesses of individual teachers so we can help each other improve, or help compare classes from year to year. For students it’s generally the finish line, for better or worse – here’s how you did, now off with thee.

What type of assessment you choose depends on your purpose. That sounds rather obvious, but it’s easy to fall into doing stuff mostly because that’s just… how it’s done. But grades should have a purpose. Otherwise, why bother?

Each semester, 18 weeks of a student’s experience in a given class – their effort, their understanding, their organization, their attitude, their ability – is summarized by a single number between 0 – 100, which in turn translates to one of 5 letters. This is, of course, inane. But it’s been how we’ve been doing things for so long it’s rather entrenched. That number and letter could mean so many different things they’re essentially useless as formative assessment. They’re only real functions are as carrots, sticks, or labels.

Most teachers still give these numbers and letters – they’re pretty much required – but we tweak them based on a variety of formal and informal assessments of our own. We tell students their grades, but we spend far more time talking them through more specific, potentially useful feedback about what they seem to be doing well and what they might try instead if they’re not. In other words, while we still retain the trappings of an outmoded grading model, we do our best within structure to more fully discern and more effectively assist.

The A-F Report Card given by the State of Oklahoma to its public schools each year does none of the things assessment is supposed to do. It provides no support, and intentionally limits the data it is willing to consider. There are no adjustments on the part of the state based on how well a given school is doing, and no conversation regarding options for improvement. It’s not even measuring most of the things we claim are most valuable to us. It is merely calculated and published, and each year more and more schools are sent to sit in the corner with their ‘dunce’ caps on.

If the goal isn’t to help struggling schools, and there’s no state interest served merely by comparing apple schools to the orange, what exactly is the purpose? Is the OKSDE going to call our parents and ask for a meeting? Are our state legislators going to suggest we be tested for meds or glasses? Best case scenario, what are we hoping happens as a result?

I suppose they could be onto some cutting edge pedagogy I’ve overlooked. Perhaps if I just keep posting my kids grades in the main hallway outside the front office, I’ll be the highest standards most teachingest educator ever! I won’t even lesson plan or teach anymore, and when kids ask for help, I’ll explain I have so many obligations and just can’t spare the time or resources unless it’s to give them more tests to post.

A teacher who just kept failing more and more kids while providing less and less assistance or supplies would be condemned as completely useless and unethical. A state that just keeps failing more and more schools while providing less and less is the same – but moreso.

Related Post: #OKSDE & The A-F School Report Card

Related Post: He Tests… He Scores!

In Defense of Due Dates & Deadlines

September 14, 2014June 4, 2023 ~ Blue Cereal ~ 6 Comments

There is a good case to be made that part of our job as educators is to prepare students for the ‘real world’ – whatever that is. We could thus argue that deadlines and responsibility are valid goals of public education. In the ‘real world’, you’re expected to do stuff when it needs to get done. Rolling in at 3 p.m. with “hey, here are those burgers you asked for during the lunch rush” isn’t going to cut it, nor will you get paid half if you simply don’t make them at all.

Unfortunately, we can just as vigorously argue that in many cases, not getting something done on time at work doesn’t mean you don’t still have to do it – you’re just in hot water while you do.

Either way, I’m not personally organized enough to make that case. Anyone who’s ever had to get paperwork from me knows what a challenge that can be – despite my best intentions.

The thing is, there are many less noble, smaller scale reasons for due dates and deadlines and policies regarding late work. Not surprisingly, many of them come down to the realities of teaching public school rather than the sorts of grander ideals we usually proffer when challenged.

Most of you are familiar with ‘economies of scale’. We teach kids in large batches mostly because we can’t afford to do it in small, or individually.

I do my best to come up with lessons that have a reasonable chance of reaching a majority of my 151 students while allowing some wiggle room in terms of quality and individual strengths and such. I’m not complaining – I love my job – but this is enough to keep me pretty busy most days and for several hours on the weekend.

And no matter how modern or flipped or inquiry-based I may try to be, there are still things that require grading. I hate grading, but there’s a limit to how much I can job out to students and still be able to sleep at night. There are things they can learn from peer evaluation, but half-a-class spent announcing that #1 is A, #2 is C, etc., is an embarrassing waste of limited time. Besides, most of what I’m grading isn’t multiple choice.

So when I hear repeatedly from otherwise respected voices that it really shouldn’t matter WHEN students do the assigned reading, master the required skill, absorb the expected content, as long as they GET it some day in their own special time and way – my shoulders tighten and my stomach hurts. I appreciate the theory, but education reformers and ideologists aren’t known for being bound by the same reality as the rest of us.

If reforms were horses, then students would ride… and teachers would walk behind them in the parade.

It’s time and energy-intensive to grade 150 of anything – paraphrases, thesis sentences, artsy fartsy projects, whatever. It’s FAR more time and energy-intensive when the stack you’re grading is a mix of everything you’ve done so far that semester – some clearly marked and easy to evaluate, some requiring you revisit the rubric you used or the instructions you gave. Some things you’re not actually sure what they are – so you read over them a few times trying to connect them with something you assigned in the past six months.

Yes, I know the answers to the quiz – but I don’t memorize the letters. Of course I can just read each question and its possible responses – but it takes much, much longer. And the writing… sometimes the priority is content, sometimes the priority is the formulation, sometimes something else. I’m so glad you finally turned this in, but I don’t have instant recall of every discussion in every class at every step as we worked through the process, or what priorities I may have suggested you personally focus on three weeks ago when you first asked to redo this particular prompt.

Yeah, yeah – poor overworked teacher. But this isn’t about me missing my tee time after school. What it means instead is that when I am working, at my desk or at home, I’m spending far more time and energy trying to figure out why little Johnny has handed in a page of Level Questions over some – well, over SOMETHING, I’m not sure WHAT – and whether or not they correspond to anything he’s missing in the gradebook – than I’m spending coming up with better ways to teach Johnny’s 150 peers the next unit. Flexible deadlines and nurturing late work policies mean I spend more time grading than preparing, or teaching, or collaborating, or whatever.

And there are other ways to assess – I’m not trying to run us all to the other extreme. Just trying to tie a little string to the kite of late work reform.

Expecting students to more or less keep up is not just about my personal space-time continuum. Remember how bookwork and lectures are the devil and all learning should be in groups, because collaboration is the new god? It’s difficult to really ‘collaborate’ if not everyone has done the required preparation – read the same chapters or worked through the same prompts or tried the same individual activities to get them to the point they have anything useful to say to or gain from one another.

It’s not about all having the same abilities or all achieving at the same level – it’s actually even better if they bring DIFFERENT things to the group. But do we seriously want all group work to be the two prepared kids once again dragging everyone else through the basics just because 2/3 of the group didn’t feel inspired to learn at their own pace and in their own special way that week?

How many angry lil’ Republicans are created this way – barely into high school and already learning that the harder they work, the more they are expected to drag along those who can’t or won’t, often at the expense of their own progress? At least under the old framework the best and brightest were merely ignored and marginalized under the assumption they’d still pass state tests and stay out of discipline trouble – under this new approach we can actively punish them for being responsible!

Which, I suppose, IS part preparing them for ‘the real world’, now that I think of it.

I don’t know how to make good use of class time without the expectation students will arrive prepared. I don’t know how to have a class discussion, build a logical curriculum sequence, structure activities, select reading, or even insert movies if I’m supposed to be OK with half the class working at whatever lil’ pace their specialness allows. I’m hardly inflexible – no two years play out in quite the same way or at the same pace – but I am bewildered by the suggestion that I should deliberately hold off on judging little Barclay until the last week of May when suddenly I simply must give him a grade indicating what he’s done or learned that year.

I appreciate the suggestion we could stand to be more accommodating of students’ various needs. I realize the assumption behind much reform is that I’m an inflexible fascist who enjoys crushing the young no matter how intensely they strive for success. That is, after all, the primary reason to teach – along with my desire to maintain low standards and have no personal accountability, of course.

I respectfully suggest, however, that we’re not doing them any great favors by teaching them that the most important question they can pose along their learning journey is “when are the retakes?”

Related Post: He Tests… He Scores!