When writing these pieces, I often feel like a curmudgeon shouting “Get off my yard” to the kids. I don’t think of myself as a negative person by nature, but I am driven by an overarching desire to have honest conversations. And sometimes that entails shining a light in unlit places. When it comes to public education issues, most of those involved have the best of intentions, but due to the complexity of those issues we are often neglectful of unintended consequences. There is a tendency, in my opinion, to focus on short term effects, and frankly often on the wrong stuff.

BLUE RIBBONS AND PEP RALLIES

This week, Metro Nashville Public Schools, along with the Nashville’s Agenda Steering Committee and the Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF), announced the winners of this year’s Blue Ribbon Teacher Awards. According to the press release:

“Winners are determined following a rigorous selection process that included a review of evidence of outstanding teaching practices by a team of experts. Applications of semi-finalists are then reviewed by a specially-convened community selection panel. This year, the focus was on recognizing teachers doing outstanding work in one of three areas – literacy instruction, support of English Language Learners and teacher leadership.”

The list is an impressive one, and I’m thrilled to see one of my kids’ teachers on it. She’s a fantastic teacher and very deserving and worthy of recognition along with her peers. But you know who’s not on this list? My son’s teacher who has helped a kid fall in love with learning despite his resistance. The teacher, who on top of providing excellent instruction daily, takes time to ensure that the impoverished families of her students get the medicines that their kids need. The teacher who stays up to midnight every night for months in order to help her kids complete a project based learning assignment. The physical education teacher who takes time out of her day to schedule a parent meeting to find a solution to discipline issues a young male student is facing when she could just as easily pass that responsibility off to others. The teacher who continually inspires a young female student to think deeper and unlock her inert creativity. In my book, every one of those teachers, and more, deserves a Blue Ribbon.

We continually try to paint education as a competitive endeavor. The big problem with that view is that when you introduce competition into the equation, you create, whether intentionally or not, winners and losers. You play the contributions of those who receive awards and downplay the contributions of those who aren’t recognized. That’s the unintended consequence.

I know many of the people on the Blue Ribbon list, and I would bet money that most would quickly give credit to the other teachers in the building where they work. I’m not afraid to say that all recognize teaching as a team sport. It’s easier to show great growth when your students are getting RTI instruction from an exceptional teacher. If you have an art teacher who is inspiring on creativity and increasing kids’ engagement, it becomes easier to impact a child’s life.

Policymakers have tried for years to isolate the factors that determine a great teacher. The truth is great teaching is something you can recognize, but it can’t be quantified. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but think about it for a minute. We recognize that all students have different needs and approaches to learning; therefore, why is it hard to grasp that different teachers have different ways of teaching? Great teaching incorporates a little magic as well.

I’ve expressed in the past that the teacher who had the biggest impact on my life wouldn’t have won a single Blue Ribbon Award for teaching. I’m not even sure that they would have won a Red Ribbon Award. Consider, though, if he had adapted his style in order to fit the criteria required to be considered an award-winning teacher? How different would my life be? My definition of a Blue Ribbon Teacher is one who reaches ANY child, because to that child, that’s all that matters. In that light, I’d like to second the thought of one of my favorite tweets:

Motion to make teaching your heart out every single day ENOUGH. Like just that, just the good teaching. No need to become an administrator, or write a book, or run a TPT store, or start a viral hashtag or any of that. JUST TEACH REALLY WELL FOR A LIFETIME, that’s it.

MNPS is hemorrhaging teachers. Shouldn’t the focus be on honoring all teachers rather than signaling out a select few and thereby potentially sending a message to those not honored that they are not doing enough? There aren’t enough rock stars in the world to move the needle, but there are more than enough tireless, dedicated, quality people willing to do the heavy lifting that it takes to educate a child. We owe them all our thanks.

The root of this sense of competition has come in the door left open by the increased focus on standardized testing. The same people who want to quantify teacher effectiveness have been comfortable ranking our schools for years. It doesn’t matter that evidence has shown over and over that test results are more an indication of socio-economic status than achievement.

MNPS, like many other school districts, has adopted a slogan indicating a desire to be the fastest-improving district in the country. Nothing quantifies that goal rooted in adult desires like standardized testing.

What? You don’t think “fastest improving” is an adult construct? And you still labor under the illusion that the mantra is created for the good of the kids? Go talk to a kid. Ask them what they are looking for out of school. I can almost guarantee if you ask 100 of them, you won’t find 10 who voice a desire to learn faster than kids in other districts. You’ll probably find safety, validation, depth of knowledge, caring, and knowing more about stuff cited much more frequently.

In the name of accountability, more and more emphasis has been placed on standardized test results. The results determine a teacher’s career trajectory. They determine the funding of a school. The results impact the value of real estate in a school district. Nobody wants to buy a house in a district where the school is ranked in the bottom 10%. It’s not surprising that because of these ramifications, schools place more emphasis on the tests and their results.

This increased focus has led to “pep rallies” to inspire student performance. Younger students write letters to older kids encouraging them to do well on the test. The test becomes the celebrant instead of the act of learning. As one educator said to me, “Having a pep rally for TNReady is like having a pep rally for a colonoscopy. No one is cheering for the damn colonoscopy. We’re cheering for the cure from what was holding us back.” It was bad enough when this was happening annually on a state level, but now I see indications that this mindset is slipping down to the local level.

Last year, MNPS Director of Schools Shawn Joseph introduced MAP testing to the district. It’s long been my contention that the reasoning behind this move was that MAP testing was prevalent where he and his team came from in Maryland. They understand how to tailor curriculum in order to show growth through MAP testing. TNReady is a foreign entity to them. So a decision was made to increase the focus on MAP testing in order to counter any negative TNReady results. You can dismiss that theory if you want, but there is no disputing that the district has placed an increased focus on MAP testing results. We moved MAP testing to come before TNReady testing this year because last year’s results might have shown the effects of testing fatigue. I know…

This morning while scrolling through my social media feed, I came across a post extolling students to “stay calm and crush the MAP test.” Yikes! This is a bit problematic on a number of fronts. MAP is given 3 times throughout the year. That means a whole lot of staying calm. Are we going to coach kids up for MAP and then turn around 6 weeks later and coach them up for TNReady? Can we focus on learning and a little less on accountability?

I actually like MAP testing. I’ve spent a lot of time researching it this past month. There are some very beneficial things that can come from MAP results if they are used as intended. MAP is intended as a formative assessment, a teaching tool. It is not intended as an accountability tool. It is not intended as a means to rank schools. Just like a colonoscopy, it’s meant to illuminate an area of need. So let’s leave the pep rallies, both for MAP and TNReady, where they belong, at sporting events, and focus on helping kids develop a love of learning.

QUICK HITS

Next Tuesday is a board meeting, and for teachers and other MNPS employees, it’s a very important one. The long awaited results of recently concluded collaborative conferencing sessions and an MOU with SEIU are to be revealed. If you look at the pre-printed agenda, you can read both. There are are some very good things in the agreement with teachers: Exception pay is raised from $25 per hour to $45 per hour. Planning time for elementary school teachers is set at 60 minutes, with middle school and high school being accorded 50 minutes. The district will pay 75% of a teacher’s insurance package. The grievance process is spelled out more clearly. I think it’s a testimony to all the hard work that went into it.

There is one area of concern, though, and that’s a pay raise. The document states:

The compensation committee will discuss the feasibility of a 5% across-the-board salary increase for teachers for each of the followings school years: 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. It is recommended that experience steps and degreed lanes in the salary scheduled should be maintained to encourage teacher retention.

That is very nice and potentially generous, but it ain’t a guaranteed raise. You might ask who comprises the compensation committee. Take a look:

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