Teaching is Hard
“He'd no time for reports. He suspected that about 95% of the written word was never read by anyone anyway.”
― Colin Dexter, Last Bus to Woodstock
Teaching is a hard job.
It is a really hard fucking job.
It's a hard job done by real people working with real people instead of hypothetical individuals producing data points.
We don't acknowledge that enough.
We are like the citizens of Metropolis, also assuming that Superman will make it all better, no matter what the crisis.
Unfortunately for us, teachers aren't superheroes, just mere mortals trying to do the impossible daily.
We often are guilty of focusing on the design of the forest, while forgetting the trees that make up that forest.
The trees, obviously, are the students principals, and teachers that populate any school - be it charter, traditional, private, or even home-based.
We toss terms like, "status quo", "failing schools", "destroying public education", and "under-performing", among other epitaphs sans title concern for the trees that populate our forest.
We lose sight that the trees are present when they are ill when they are hungry, when there are problems at home, and when they struggle to find their purpose.
We forget that teachers have lives outside the four walls of schools. They have families and loved ones who need them every bit as much as that student in their class. Over a century ago, the workforce may have been comprised of single women with few options. That ain't the case anymore.
Most teachers have lots of options and are becoming very comfortable with exploring those alternative options.
We forget that teachers have their own aspirations and dreams, ones that fall beyond the parameters of ours. We are quick to charge malfeasance or incompetence when they fail to achieve our desired outcomes. Seldom acknowledging the role of outside influence on student outcomes. It is as if their work transpires in a vacuum free of any other contributing factors.
Teachers are held accountable while legislators, district leaders, and think tanks get off scot-free.
Students are treated as if they are goldfish in the pond waiting to gobble any bread crumbs we might toss them. The truth is, that many are busy exploring the rest of the pond, and not attuned to our efforts.
We act as if they have no wants, needs, or desires of their own. Their existence is simply to produce our desired data points - allowing individuals who never set foot in a classroom can make judgments about what happens in a classroom. Then we recoil when confronted by those who push back.
My son recently told me that they are changing his personal learning time from tier 1 to tier 3 due to his performance on a benchmark test where he scored 1%. The test had no value for him, as it was one of 7 other tests recently administered, so he guessed the answers.
Apparently, he didn't guess well.
So despite other test results, that point to him knowing the subject matter well, he's scheduled to receive remediation for the remainder of the clear.
The boy and I have an understanding, don't bull shit me and I won't bullshit you. In that light, how do I have a conversation about these test results without dishonoring that policy?
How do I admonish him when he's quite clearly seen through our adult bullshit?
We have public arguments about "charter schools" and "education freedom accounts" with little concern about the people whose lives will be impacted by these policies.
Kids' concerns are treated as being nothing but data points created to strengthen our narrative. Nobody ever really discusses if we are even measuring the right things and if the data matters past the k-12 years.
We break up and rearrange schools, with little concern about those who will navigate the change or those who depend on their profession for financial and social sustenance,
No matter how great your idea is, or how you present it, transportation times change family patterns.
Increased demands, cut into family time.
There are costs to every policy above and beyond those calculated by legislators and advocates, but teachers and students seldom get a say in their willingness to accept those costs. After all, they are the one who bear the most.
I read a tweet from choice evangelist Michael Lotfi that makes the ridiculous claim that "The union has a perverse incentive to keep teachers from self-actualizing."
For the 150th time, I sure wish teachers had the union that people like Lotfi cite, but trust me, it's not the union that keeps them from reaching self-actualization.
It is us.
It is you.
And it is me.
And it comes as we continue to ratchet up the demands and expectations while failing to provide the necessary support.
This morning my daughter texted me. Her ELA teacher, a talented caring gifted man, is resigning. Now I don't pretend to know all of his reasons, but I do know there is not a replacement readily available. And I do know he will be missed.
Don't let them gaslight you into thinking that the teacher crisis doesn't exist. Don't think for a minute that it's just in the hard subject where schools are struggling to staff.
It's all over, and it's all-encompassing, and it's not just about money.
Tennessee, along with several other states, is exploring policies that would create universal school vouchers.
One side accuses the other of trying to destroy public education, while the other hurls accusations of designs to keep students in a failing school.
Yet in all the noise, I've yet to hear substantial discussion over the impact on teachers and principals.
Here's a news flash for you: If you don't have teachers to staff schools it doesn't matter what form schools take.
Without teachers, charter schools, private schools, and traditional schools are doomed to suffer the same fate.
I don't care how hard you defend traditional schools, or how great a voucher program you construct if you are not considering teachers - it is an exercise in futility.
If you are not acknowledging the cost of a policy beyond the fiscal, you are not designing a good policy.
It's been a while since I took a moment to truly appreciate the hard work and heavy lifting done by professional educators. Like many of you, I tend to take it all for granted.
Every morning, I open the cabinet to grab a coffee cup, and I see my wife's mug for 15 years of service to the Nashville school district. Sometimes, I let my gaze linger on it for a minute or two and reflect.
It seems like such a small and insignificant token for an accomplishment that came with such sacrifice and selflessness.
You don't get to 15 years with deep exhaustion, tears, and memories of those children whose lives you deeply impacted.
You don't get to 15 years without missed family events, early morning commutes, and grading into the late hours of the night.
You don't get there without memories and regrets of the children you couldn't reach and the lessons that went awry.
15 years doesn't come without crawling through some glass, and it's only the halfway point.
Yep, teaching is hard.
Teaching is real fucking hard.
And we better not forget that.
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Former Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn seems to be collecting job titles like I used to collect comic books. She serves as the Vice President of PK – Pre-Bachelors programs with the University of Florida. In addition, she serves as a Walton Fellow and a Georgetown Future Edu Fellow. Her online bio lists employment by the Vistria Group and the Bexley Group as well.
A new bio, designed to promote her appearance at the upcoming ASU + GSV Summit, lists her as the President of Civic Impact. What that means or who that is, is anyone's guess, but there it is. The lady's got titles and is willing to travel.
Hear a sample of the aforementioned bio, in case you are looking for a laugh.
Schwinn has overseen a number of initiatives including: restructuring a $9B school finance system; leading a nationally recognized literacy initiative that resulted in an 8-point gain statewide over two years; overseeing efforts to redesign the teacher preparation market and make teaching a federally recognized apprenticeable profession; designing and launching the largest and most comprehensive student acceleration program in the country; a $500M statewide redesign of high school to align K-12, post-secondary and workforce; and securing both the largest recurring and one-time investments in K-12 education in the history of the state of Tennessee.Her work has led to significant improvement in student achievement and has been featured in numerous national, state and local publications and media outlets. She has been an invited speaker for multiple presidential administrations, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and national organizations.
I'm betting that current TN Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds could add a few edits that bio.
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Since we are talking about Schwinn, let's talk about her fateful sidekick Lisa Coons. Coons you may remember split last year to head up Virginia's education department. One didn't need a crystal ball to anticipate this experiment would proceed.
Since assuming leadership, she's run afoul of several legislators. The latest snafu involves the department's decision to end a popular tutoring program. The program, Engage Virginia, was launched last February to help students recover from the pandemic’s impact on learning and attendance. In December a decision was made to scrap the program. The reason given was that Federal Funding was coming to an end for the state.
According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:
The funding for the governor’s ALL In VA plan is from a one-time $418 million pot of discretionary money in the state budget designated “to provide flexible funding for the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, learning loss recovery, and additional operating and infrastructure support.”
More than half of Virginia’s school divisions had turned in their spending plans to the state for review by Nov. 1, and the state did not notify school divisions until December that the Engage Virginia program was ending.
Coons testified in front of the Senate Education and Health Committee last month that the Virginia Department of Education did not hear from any school divisions that they considered a tutoring program, which the state ended mid-school year, being a priority for them.
Unfortunately, that was not true. A letter from an official with Prince William County Schools — the second-largest school division in Virginia — shows the division reached out to an official at the state education department and Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, saying the tutoring program was “significantly helpful and beneficial for our entire division.”
Coons, claims that she never saw that email, but state senators still feel misled.
Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, who sits on the Senate Education and Health Committee, said, “Well, I challenged (Coons) on this in committee and am disappointed that she misled me and the entire committee in her response, especially given the significant interest in what has occurred with this program.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) has some interesting legislation he's pushing forward.
he says he plans to push forward legislation that would allow the Governor to appoint up to 6 new members to the board of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Under White's plan, the current nine sitting board members would retain their position and the Governor would just appoint up to 6 additional members.
White cites concerns with the direction of the district as impetus for his proposed legislation.
Current board member Michelle McKissack points out the obvious, "It's not going to make board operations any easier when you have a 15-person board'. She added, "They think they have a problem now? Well then get ready."
White pushes back against accusations that this is just another attempt to take over schools ala Tennessee's Achievement School District. He insists this isn't about taking over low-performing schools but rather putting in place stronger governance for low-performing districts.
I'm not sure how giving someone who has struggled to appoint strong leadership over the state education department, would be better at appointing local leaders.
This one should get interesting
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Metro Nashville Public Schools continues its efforts to undermine their Academic Magnet School options.
Hume-Fogg HS and Martin Luther King HS, are long recognized as two of the best schools in the state. Unfortunately, of late, they don't seem to have the support of local leaders.
Earlier in the year, school board members considered ending the automatic pathways for the two high schools. Last month, school board members were made privy to Dr. Battle's plan to gradually phase out seventh and eighth grades at MLK.
Under the plan, MNPS will gradually remove seventh and eighth grades from MLK by the 2027-28 school year. As MLK becomes a ninth through 12th school, seventh and eighth grades would be folded into nearby Head Magnet Middle School. Head would remain an automatic feeder to MLK.
The biggest change would be the removal of academic requirements for entry. MLK currently has requirements, Head does, and would, not have them.
The plan, as described by the Nashville Scene, is getting pushback from the MLK community.
“It’s disappointing that MNPS would want to eliminate two of the grades that feed into the high school because it is a part of what makes them so successful as a whole,” says MLK parent Arica Rucker. Rucker has two children who have attended MLK, plus a fourth-grader she was planning to enroll there. Because these changes would affect her fourth-grader, Rucker says her family is considering other options
MLK falls into District 5 and is currently without a school board representative. Former District 5 representative Christiane Buggs resigned from her position in January to take over the education nonprofit PENCIL. Whether the city will appoint a temporary board member before this year’s election has not been publicly discussed.
MNPS is currently allowing parents to select options outside of their zoned school. That opportunity ends today.
For parents to choose an alternative option they must submit an application through a new system, School Mint. The new system is cumbersome and requires parents to enter information that should already be housed in the system.
The message communicated through the new system, is one that is communicated routinely by MNPS officials - enroll in your zoned option and shut up.
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Time to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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