Teach for America, Inc. will collect $55,000 for each Ohio teacher

Teach for America, Inc. will collect $55,000 for each Ohio teacher.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote on Friday that Teach for America will receive more than $2 million to bring their corps members to Northeast Ohio schools next fall. The funding will come from the Cleveland, George Gund, Nord and Stocker foundations, along with a contribution from the Lennon Trust,...

Thanks to Dr. Michelle Winship for this, though I wish she would be riding Harley-Davidsons instead of reading things that jack up blood pressure. I wonder how many unemployed Ohio teachers have read this piece, published four days before Christmas on the year they lost their job due to budget cuts.

Wow.

There is HUGE money to be made in education, still. You just have to pull stunts like this.  While field trips are right-out due to funding cuts, the education community always seems to have all kinds of cash for the pet projects.

Anyone want to partner with me to start a charter school/think tank/teacher certification/education enrichment one-stop service center for inner-city kids that involves them doing custodial work and lots of computer time?

My "latent period" is half over, just in time for the election season. Somebody get me Newt Gingrich on the phone (“Nowlej for Newt”) or maybe Mitt Romney (“Romney’s Real-Good Reeders”). Of course, none of this could be possible without the over $100,000,000 in campaign contributions from the National Education Association to Barack Obama’s campaigns (“Boneheads for Barack”)

Sell out. "It's for the children."

Well, "those" children, anyway...

Gingrich: Changing Child Labor Laws Would Improve Schools - Politics K-12 - Education Week

I'm all for hard work, and I expect hard work from my children. However, we do have a candidate for president--now a serious one--that has a few...unorthodox...ideas about kids. What is Newt Gingrich's idea of the biggest challenge facing public schools today? Child Labor Laws.

My man Newt Gingrich is now working to fix child labor laws to include full janitorial work by young students. If we could just get rid of the UNION janitorial jobs...

[Note that UNION needed to be included in this whole line of Gingrich logic.]

...we could then put students in poor schools to work. We would give them a chance to earn money and learn how to show up on Monday, as his quote reads.

Newt, school starts on Monday. They are working, and they are even doing some of the custodial work. I remember banging chalkboard erasers back in the day, and my other kids fight for the opportunity to hold various class duties. The jobs teachers give the kids are seen as an honor. They imply a certain level of trust from the teacher.

Newt has a tendency to be creative in a very alarming way. In a previous campaign, he lamented that we don't have any really good orphanages in this country. This election, he sees child labor protection as a problem...and a way to get those dang UNIONS out of the picture. How do we create jobs? Fire all the custodians and have children do the work. That will teach them a work ethic. Of course, in those poorest of neighborhoods, these same kids see their parents out of work. Still, they get to school. On Monday.

How is it that these "great ideas" always begin under the guise of helping poor kids?

Gingrich: Changing Child Labor Laws Would Improve Schools - Politics K-12 - Education Week.

via Gingrich: Changing Child Labor Laws Would Improve Schools - Politics K-12 - Education Week.

Survey documents retirement worries of higher ed employees | Inside Higher Ed

Fox News joins boards of trustees around the nation and academic administration organizations to celebrate increasing job satisfaction

Many academic employees plan to "never retire"

Survey documents retirement worries of higher ed employees | Inside Higher Ed.

I Guess I Love the Orlando Magic. For Now.

I've been frustrated, lately. Nothing I could write would have meaning in my mind while Penn State was still playing football. The rage in my brain. Wow...

Fortunately, a prominent coach has done a fine job of pointing out about 60% of the issues. I'll let him do the heavy lifting with a repost.

Nebraska would have gone a long way toward legitimacy by refusing to play. We know what counts in Lincoln, though. Husker is another term for enabler. They have a history.

One last thing: if you close down SMU's football program for recruiting violations, I'll expect the death of this program shortly.

Here's the link.

Next week, I'll try to forget and blog again.

I'll try.

Ribbons Don't Work. Knock It Off.

Just ran across my next post, already written!

My thanks to Beehive and Birdsnest for saving me the trouble of writing this next post. This goes out to all the policy analysts out there. Study this:

Red Ribbon Week: An Analysis

'nuff said.

Slap Butt Friday

(You don't even know he's looking. Then you're mad. You people sadden me.)

When I was in school, things were different. We grew up in a very rural part of America and in an area that was not interested in a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Remember happy days of playing “Smear the Queer” on the playground. Good times among us good Christian boys. Then there was that whole “monkey” thing.

It was a simple game, really. You walked up to an unsuspecting 3^rd or 4^th grader. You yelled, “Monkey!” and then smashed him in his genitals with your fist.

I know this.

I was the one who started it.

This became a popular game, and thus, a problem. We were all called down to the elementary school gymnasium. All boys in these two classes. All read the Riot Act. In fact, I learned something about male fertility and the threats that this game posed. The gym teacher was very angry about this problem. I was an innocent at this point, clueless as to what was going on. It was funny to me at the time. Then I was told it wasn’t funny. We stopped.

Fast forward about 40 years or something, now we’re dealing with 5^th graders. Someone suggests “Slap-Butt Friday.” This becomes a major issue. Nobody is making anybody sterile in this plan. But this becomes even more scary to the school.

If somebody slaps a butt, and that slap is unwanted, it becomes sexual harassment. Thus, the phenomenon of pre-teen on pre-teen violence? Seems like somebody slaps a butt, gets slapped in the face, end of game.

Not a chance. There were meetings. Meetings about meetings. Hand-wringing. Then a united front from teachers and staff: ZERO TOLERANCE OF 10 YEAR OLDS SLAPPING OTHER 10 YEAR OLD BUTTS. DO YOU HEAR THAT?

ZERO.

We can all sleep soundly. SBF never materialized, though I cannot imagine this being the incredible detriment that others saw it becoming. Where I guess I just saw a bunch of dopey kids joking around, it became fodder for lawsuits, labeled as potential sexual assault, prison time, and Rick Perry sticking a needle in somebody’s neck.

I’d call it an over-reaction, but I can’t. We live in a world where schools (and the teachers) are placed in the position of defendants-in-waiting. That’s too bad. I don’t know why I’m not in jail sometimes. I mean, 75 to 100 boys beating on each others’ testicles was a problem. SBF? That was just a petty issue that became way too big for no good reason.

Glad I don’t teach these days.

"Who Do You Think You Are?!"--Mom

I know this won't be a major publication on anyone's list, but it bothers me that this was even written, especially in 2011. Three authors are telling the higher education community to talk to each other. Worse. People see this as a new concept of sorts.

Unexpected Conversations

Thoughtful people write these blogs, and I often tell myself that these professors are in different buildings, that communication gets difficult.  Still, this kind of thing brings frustration: why is all of this new to academics? Simple, really. A total lack of respect for the "scholarship of teaching and learning" that comes from those that spend their time thinking about teaching and learning.

Once upon a time, professional development (for K-12) teachers was treated much the same way general instruction was treated for children. Teachers sat in a room. Some “expert,” be they a principal or a professor, told them how to teach better.

Somewhere along the line, a group was formed that saw teachers as professionals. And I'm not talking about the NEA.

It was the National Staff Development Council, now called Learning Forward—whatever that means. Decades of branding...gone. Nobody's perfect.

Their focus was on peer learning. Teachers need time to interact. Teachers need structured ways to learn from each other. This is a tough sell because the world is filled with teachers who think just like I did: PD is a day off if you...just...work...it...right. You do this; I'll do that. Great. Glad we learned something. See you tomorrow. Next time, let's have this 5-minute meeting at a bar.

That's why there needs to be a structure. Most schools get that, now. By schools, I mean the institutions that teach people under the age of 19. Unfortunately, the same research and innovation is not being pushed in the higher education ranks. People can have great ideas on their own, and other caring professors take the time to learn how to reach students. In fact, let's be honest: most do. The caricature of the absent-minded, smug college professor is just that. Nobody wants to be miserable in front of others for hours every week of years upon years. On top of that, most professors were inspired by other professors (or, dare I day it, public school teachers!). People want to bottle that and distribute it.

No, the point is that in a P-16 world, both sides need to learn from each other. If you are an education professor, and you are reading this, please note these three things:

1. You are spending your time wisely reading my blog!


2. You have a lot to learn from practitioners. A lot. I don't care how good you think you are any more than I care how good you really are. Any 3^rd grade teacher worth his weight in Dillo Dirt has a lot to offer you.


3. Anything that is actually new? Well, you will look long and hard to find more willing participants and partners in the discovery process. Oh, and they're smart people, too...generally speaking.

Those in higher education need to look at public schools as more than warehouses of children, sources for voluminous study subjects/data, and places to make a buck as “experts.” The fact is, P-12 has become much more aware of itself, and the lack of respect from colleges and universities...well, it's only hurting those showing the disrespect. It's time to bring "experts" on to the campus.

Yeah, But Do You Have the Will?

Cross-post today.  Love it when I only have to write once.

A former colleague of mine just wrote an article for the Music Educators Journal. Although my work has morphed over the past decade or so, I like to keep up with music education issues.  There are two reasons for this:

1. There are many cross-references to K-12 education (in general) and higher education.

2. Musicians claim to be creative people. When musicians are actually creative as educators, beautiful things happen that serve as models.

So the idea of a music education scholar approaching the studio teaching concept is a beautiful thing to me.  There is much that the education community (especially those in music education) have to offer studio teachers and performers.  This is one of those cases, and it takes on a key problem with studio music teachers.

Musicians in élite groups always speak of high standards of musicianship. The problem is that those standards are by nature subjective. That's fine, but too many times that subjectivity gets extrapolated beyond it's usefulness and necessity. Using a performance example, I have absolutely no idea why Jerry Junkin at "School Loosely Affiliated with Longhorn Football" decided that Tschesnokoff's "Salvation Is Created" needs to take 20 minutes to perform. Or is it 30. I fall asleep.

It's a subjective decision, but within that decision are a fair amount of flat-out facts. When you look around, nobody else is taking this tempo. When you listen around, nobody is recording that tempo. Unless there's some obscure letter somewhere, one can wonder if this is what the composer intended. I can't imagine a composer, even a Russian composer, deciding on a tempo of 50 bpm.

Or is it 30 bpm. I fall asleep.

Finally, nobody wants to hear this piece played this way. If nobody listens, it's the wind ensemble equivalent of a tree falling in the forest discussion. That's too bad. It's a great ensemble.

When you compare current practice, the music education standards offer studio teachers and conductors quite a bit of structure. Within that structure are the myriad opportunities for subjective artistic decision-making (the fun part). But every studio teacher should have a clear idea of what she or he want each student to know, do, and be like. In fact, studio teachers would do well to reconsider their goals in light of these standards. Instruction should be geared toward the mental picture that comes from fully considering the final "product."

The standards do not allow themselves to be chained to the old ideas of music education. This is especially challenging for a studio teacher. As the mentor, a studio teacher needs to foster actual creativity and decision making in their own students. That would lead to some radical change in most studios. Does a student get to choose their own Baroque embellishments? Does a student (think undergraduate) ever get a piece with a section demanding improvisation? Without a piece of music, does a non-jazz performer ever get to...I don't know...just play?

In the more popular music culture, music is created in apartments, garages, and studios. Yes, guitarists learn three chords first. Yes, pianists must learn scales. But these are supposed to be means to a creative end. The goal should be art, not reproduction. We have reproduction everywhere else. We need original ideas. Not just from internet-types or marketing majors. From musicians, the ones who are supposed to be among the most creative.

This article is academic in nature, and I hesitated to put the link to the abstract up due to my position (read it both ways--it works). Still, the idea that a studio teacher would forego a semester of studying the Hindemith Concerto for [insert any instrument here] and choose to focus on creativity is exciting. Schools have to rethink what they're doing today, whether they teach 5 year olds of 25 year olds. It's unfortunate that "thinking outside the box" is one of the very last things on the minds of those that claim to be creative by nature. It's why we have a glut of composers; they're apparently the only ones allowed to actually create in the music world.

So do this. Read the MENC standards. All of them. Implement as many as possible into your teaching, studio folk. Make every senior and graduate recital one of creativity, as well as "high standards."

If you do that, I promise to stay awake for the whole thing.

Unions Brought You Weekends. Now You Work Weekends. And Hate Unions.

"I adopted a child who was Chinese to save him from childhood factories and on his very first birthday we went...to Build-a-Bear Workshop."

--Bo Burnham

As I spend these first hours of Labor Day fretting about my new job and reworking my output for the week...I can't help but think how far we've fallen. Worse, so many are happy and proud to be from that first generation to post a decline in the American standard of living. Workers rights are human rights, and we've stripped ourselves. I'm typing this on a phone made in China, where I hear their outstanding leader is good at creating jobs. Note to my grandchildren: I'm sorry.

 

 

Disappointing Mindset

[Author's note:  If you are a college freshman or the parent of one, here is a pretty good blog entry on setting up your freshman year/college career. It came from last year, and it's something I'll dig up in three years. I was struck by the candor and the good advice from the entry. Somebody hire that girl!]

Sent my kids to their first day of school. Sent my wife to her first day of school with kids. While this has become one of the most high-pressure times of the year in our family, it is also the beginning of my favorite season. School is new again. Bands are getting new music. Second (third, etc.) chances start now. The high school quarterback from last year enters his freshman year of college with three children and a scholarship. Everybody's undefeated and walks into their classes with a perfect score. Everyone is dressed in their #1 outfit and ready to go.

Not sure about that skirt my daughter wore to her first day as a sophomore, but you pick your battles. I just took the third-to-last of the ritual first day of school pictures. Kept the shot waist-up.

Beloit College has made a name for itself by producing an important list each August. The list is designed to make college professors aware of just whom they are teaching. Often, teachers (professors) see the knowledge base as stagnant; thus, they teach in similar fashion. But kids change. Young adults change. While most professors have owned cd's at one point or another, most of their incoming students have not. Digital learning is a necessity to reach students from this new era. Each year, the new freshman class comes with some eye-opening revelations. Among things professors should know about these newbies:

• Women have never been too old to have children.


• They’ve always gone to school with Mohammed and Jesus.


• Grown-ups have always been arguing about health care policy.


• Charter schools have always been an alternative.


• They’re the first generation to grow up hearing about the dangerous overuse of antibiotics.


• As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.


• Public schools have always made space available for advertising.

But this year, the list seems more about the fascination with what happened in the 1990's. The authors seem to forget that these are 18-year-olds. Among the almost bizarre entries:

• Fidel Castro’s daughter and granddaughter have always lived in the United States.


• Andy Warhol is a museum in Pittsburgh.


• John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.


• Japan has always been importing rice.

In general, I can say that no, no they don't know these things. You do, beloved authors (who shall remain nameless in this blog). The fact that something happened in the 1990's does not mean they remember it. It doesn't mean they ever knew it. It probably didn't shape their lives.

Until now, I did not realize that more Americans traveled to South America than Europe. But it really doesn't matter to me, and I know it doesn't to them. At least to the vast majority of them.

The list used to be direct; it used to focus on things professors should know about their incoming students. While all of the facts are interesting, not every fact is worthwhile. Unfortunately, many of these facts aren't worth knowing. Others, which do matter, were left off. They've only known three presidents. They've never seen the U.S. seriously threatened by another country. "Made in China" describes almost half their belongings. But many things they own were designed here, manufactured in multiple other countries, and then shipped back. Yes, this Toyota was made in America. You can't go to the doctor without an insurance card. It's getting hotter.

How about this? Most incoming freshmen do not recognize the picture on the top of this entry.

Those are some entries that would keep professors aware. This list is more than an academic exercise. It is useful. It informs teaching. Research that informs this level of teaching is precious little. My hope is that it stays focused on informing professors (and not researchers) when my kids are part of those incoming classes.

Best of luck, classes of the future! I'm counting on you all to bail me out.

It Figures.

And now? The Aggies can't even leave. Yet. Doesn't matter. They're as good as gone when the SEC figures out who else they can poach. My first guess is N.C. State, another alienated school needing cash. I'm told there is a school there to complement their athletic program. If only there were a COLLEGE lockout. Oh, yeah. They don't actually pay players outside of tuition and fees. Another blog for a later time.

I'd Leave, Too!

OK, gotta discuss this. The highest paid state employee in all of Texas is...



Nope.



How about Giuseppe N. Colasurdo, M.D.--President of The University of Texas Health Science Center?

...not even close.



Yep! Mack Brown. Head football coach of the University of Texas. He makes $5,161,500 per year from sales tax.



No. This man does not sell car insurance where new customers saved an average of 44%. Mike Sherman is the head coach at Texas A & M. He makes $2,200,000. Still ridiculous, but you get the point.

After moving from the ridiculous to the near-criminal, the University of Texas athletic (read: football) department has actually found a way to damage itself, and do it in a way that couldn't happen from anywhere outside the "40 acres." Texas A & M University is leaving the Big 12 Conference. That leaves a 9-team "Big 12" with a questionable future. It could be the end of the third largest football rivalry (116 games).

UT deserves the migraine. Not just as a football team, but as an institution.

You can't start your own network, build in multiple unfair advantages (in a college setting!), and expect your local rival to stick around to start every season three to five major steps behind you in money, recruiting and success. A & M left because UT made them leave. If the Big 12 folds, it's on Texas. UT needs to go independent if they're going to act this way.

I'm sure I'll go off when the "Field of 64" gets announced in March, but there was a time when athletics served a purpose on campuses. They weren't money-making machines to feed on themselves. They were a way to entertain students on weekends, bring the student body together to bond, offer the athletically gifted a chance to improve their minds, meet people from other campuses through friendly rivalries.

Now? Well, none of that money from UT football is going to the foreign language faculty, let's just say that.

This is why liberal arts colleges tend to play Division III football or just ignore the sport altogether. The Williams-Amherst rivalry clocks in at 124 games. But it's not about football, per se, so you probably don't know about it. The biggest? Lehigh and Lafayette have played 145 games! Who cares?

The people that matter: the students, alumni, staff, community members. There are no "T-shirt" Lafayette fans. Their pride is in their school, not their team.

Schools are ranked many inaccurate ways: the size of the endowment, the area of the country, graduates from 25 years ago...but this one program takes the cake. I like to ask the question, "Name one thing about the state of Nebraska other than the Cornhusker football program." The most common answer? "Their basketball program." Cute. Especially since the basketball team up there rarely gives reason for attention.

Nebraska has other colleges and universities. I attended one. One without a huge endowment. One with a good football program at times that served its intended purpose. The same can be said regarding hundreds of other campuses. It was a terrific experience. Every grammatical error in this blog is intended. I learned stuff, and the athletic teams provided excitement, entertainment and pride in a strong school that wasn't home to the Cornhuskers.

You know, some of these football teams actually have schools associated with them...

Back in the Day...

Sometimes you need to look back a little to understand just how forward we all are. I once read an article in The Onion, where I get all my news, that spoke about Google renaming itself "The Google" to appeal to the aged. It's all well and good to make fun of older folk for not fully understanding the web, and I become frustrated when people get downright angry about having to deal with all this "technology" stuff.

That's where this video comes in.

Picture yourself on the set of Lou Grant, which depicted life at a major Los Angeles newspaper in the 70's. What was it like...doing all of this by hand? You begin to wonder how they pulled anything off, at all! Of course, technology just replaces people in this case, and thousands have lost jobs to computers in every major work sector. Still, it's good to take a step back and see where we were. We're trying to decide whether to jump from Facebook to Google +. At one point, there was a jump from a typewriter to a computer that seems laughable by today's standards. Check it out. Props to UCF for exposing journalism students to their past--directly.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/27130824]

 

Head + Sand = Marginal

photo from wallygrom (very busy at work)

Again, it all seems to start in Texas.

That's why Molly Ivins called the Texas legislature the National Laboratory for Bad Ideas.

Bad ideas migrate up (and in this case, east). Congress wants to think about opening the floodgates to get everybody teaching. Senate Bill 1250 is set to fund "teacher academies," where those who have earned bachelor's degrees can become teachers without the hassle of further college coursework. The new plan would streamline the process, making it possible for working professionals (and currently-unemployed amateurs) to start handling teaching duties more quickly.

Academy teachers would not need any advanced degree, nor would they need to pursue scholarly research. If you can hire a teacher-trainer who didn't plunk down $20,000 for a graduate degree and pay your new hire less, then I guess the need for colleges of education is...

Oh, yeah. One more thing: the academies wouldn't need to be accredited.

Things would be different if there were a shortage, but there isn't one. Teacher layoffs are now an accepted part of the educational landscape. Further, there was never really a shortage of teachers--there was a shortage of those who were properly certified that were willing to teach. As early as 2000, Missouri had more than twice as many people certified to teach as they did teachers.

Academia jumped into the fray. They wrote a letter. The letter was, "signed by the American Council on Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, among others."

The worst part of this is that most academics figure that this should (or will!) take care of matters. They have spoken. They are experts. People will listen. A key issue with the academic world is that it fails to listen to anything across the street from a campus, let alone thousands of miles away. But decisions are being made, and this one will hurt if it comes to pass. Teachers unions have been fighting these "academy" training programs on the basis of professionalism, but academics have always been content to look the other way in disgust and call it good.

It's a Senate bill. It ends with a zero. It's on paper, and it is scheduled for a hearing. The past year or so, the bill went from an idea to a means of destruction. The response? A letter. Nobody will organize. Nobody got involved until it was too late. So nobody's listening. Now it's just a matter of political will, and that doesn't bode well for a group of people that find themselves above such matters.

This is a perfect example of the ivory tower. At one point, alternative certification was abnormal. After all, you'd have to drop what you were doing and get licensed. Today, that's not the case. Instead, you can teach almost instantly after garnering a bachelor's degree in anything down here. Anything. Degree in Psychology? Pass the test and instantly become eligible to become a middle school science teacher.

As long as you're paying a "certifying agent," that is.  That will be $4,000. Thank you. Alternatively certified teachers make up the supermajority of new teachers in Texas now. You just don't need a teaching degree to teach in Texas. Some programs are fine. Others are run out of bail bonds companies. Still others (see, Teach for America) cream and instill demands that ensure their "great ideas" will never scale.

What makes this almost unbearable is that the young men and women who chose to become teachers from the beginning will be paid less than those who thought, "This isn't working. Maybe I'll just go teach."

The certificate would count as a master's degree, in terms of pay scale.

I enjoyed my time in academia. Teaching bright students how to engage young people was always fulfilling. But this example shows the need for colleges and universities to become much more mindful of the off-campus world. It shows the need to drop assumptions. It shows the need to drop any sense of entitlement.

And it shows the need for action, not words.

 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/08/01/higher_ed_groups_oppose_teacher_training_bill

Verse on a New Chapter

At my last position, I heard numbers thrown around like they were confetti.

The average 14-year-old will hold 15 jobs by age 38...or 38 jobs by 15...

99.99994% of new jobs will require postsecondary training.

98.742% of these new jobs don't exist right now

College is now a necessity, not a luxury [was COLLEGE ever a luxury?]

One key way to fix the whole "post-secondary thing" would be to embrace the liberal arts concept. You learn the ways of knowing and how they interact. Economists and philosophers see the same thing differently. Both approaches are valid, at least to some degree. Where they intersect is gold. Things relate to each other. You approach new things from multiple angles; that way you get a better understanding of the whole.
Of course, there's that whole word in there...LIBERAL! This is Texas, after all.
These colleges are expensive and they teach no job skills...like a degree specific to the job you get after you graduate.

• Assuming there is a job in that field after 4 or 5 years from the kid's college matriculation.


• Assuming that the other 13 or 14 jobs relate to the first, specifically because they don't exist, as previously announced.


• Assuming any of the ridiculous numbers are actually relevant.


• Assuming there's a degree for every potential job.

There's one group that seems to be fighting for liberal education. That group is NITLE ("nightly"). The acronym stands for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. "To the cloud" put to academic use, if you will. Higher education institutions can enhance student services with virtual computer laboratories. Multiple institutions can offer coursework that meets student needs using innovative technology.
It's a think tank. It's an institute. It's a service organization.

It's my new employer.

I join the cause tomorrow. It took some time to actually turn this last page, but it's important that I did. I got put where I belong. Again.

I expect great things from me. I'll let you know when I see them.

Short Delay...

Dr. Henley is feeling ill. His genius-level post will be coming very soon.

The Point

In Music Education, we tend to award large trophies.  It has become a system that feeds on itself. Universities and music festivals started buying larger and larger trophies. Music teachers wanted them. Kids wanted them.  Festivals need to attract bands to survive.  Soon all of the trophies had to be huge. Most marching band trophies are larger than the NBA Championship trophy.

Back in my early teaching days, I attended a session where the band directors in the state discussed changing marching band contests from a placement format to a standards-based format. In other words, there wouldn’t be a first, second and third place team in each division; rather, bands would be assessed as to whether they met standard criteria. Band would get a Division I, Division II or Division III for their performance.

During the discussion, one director from a prominent high school said, “I’ve been watching, and I’ve been looking at the big trophy case in our hallway. I notice that the kids never look at the trophy case when they walk past it, but I do…” The pause was a powerful one.

At that point, one of the smaller colleges in the state announced their competition would be using the criteria format. While the group commended the college for doing this, I don’t know of anyone who changed their schedule to include this small college’s competition.

I know I didn’t.

I once asked a class, "What if a student plays clarinet in 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade and quits? What has she gained from that?" One student answered, "Nothing." Everybody in the class gasped, but I praised him. He was honest, and the fact is that nearly everyone in the class would have no real answer at the time. It was my job to teach them that answer. That's what's fun about being a professor.

Today’s video comes from P.S. 22. The video site they use now is http://ps22chorus.blogspot.com/. As you can see, this is a low-budget production, including the free web space from Blogspot. It takes a guitar (or keyboard) and a bunch of kids willing to sing. I’m not sure how the YouTube channel went viral, but I’m glad it did. People wait for the next video to hit the page. Important civic and music groups have brought P.S. 22 to perform at their functions. I haven’t heard anyone call this a mis-education of children. Still, it looks like nothing else in music education.

The teacher takes great pains to make sure the content of the songs remains positive, even if that means adjusting the song’s lyrics, form or character. It works. The kids learn. They learn to love music and use it to positively express themselves. There were no giant trophies involved, although famous musicians and movie stars come by for visits. The video quality has improved, and there are lots of pictures of famous people saying nice things about them on their site.

They have trophies now. Like Grammy awards. Grammy awards aren’t giant trophies, though. Any marching band taking 2^nd place at a regional competition has won a much bigger trophy. What’s most important here is that the trophies weren’t the point. They just came after the music education focus started this whole thing.

Are the trophies that important? At some point, you need to assess yourself and not just the students. Why are you doing this? Why are you working so hard? What is your point?

My youngest daughter was frustrated that her older siblings had trophies and she did not. We asked her why she wanted a trophy and how she planned to get one. She thought they looked cool and had no plans to earn a trophy. We bought her a trophy that simply read, “KATRINA!”

She was happy. She’s the best in the world at being herself.

Were that we all felt that way about things.

A Balancing Act

Sometimes, you find yourself stuck between two worlds…and it’s beautiful. Like seeing Cirque du Soleil. Sometimes, you find yourself in just the right place at the right time. I had one of those experiences recently. It just hit home this weekend when I traveled north.

When the weather gets hot in Texas, it’s always a nice break to travel to Minnesota to see family.  I attended a wedding. I got to experience both rain and cooler temperatures.  It was a nice break.

As the weekend was winding down, I stopped by my brother’s house. Our talk shifted to the upcoming graduation ceremony for my niece. She will be wearing several medals when she walks. One they really wanted me to see was the choir medal.

My niece is a special needs child. She has flourished in the Minnesota public education system. She has two parents that act effectively as her advocates. That is necessary in any case, but it became crucial when it came to the choir. Her older sister was musically and intellectually gifted. She experienced the spoils of singing in the top choir. The biggest reward was singing at the end of the year in the high school’s “Moment in Time” concert. The concert was presented by the top two choirs each year. Both were open to juniors and seniors. Both were open-audition choirs.

After three years, my niece was in the 9^th grade Treble Choir as a senior. That presents two major issues. First, there is an obvious stigma being the only senior in a 9^th grade choir. Second, it meant that my niece would never get to sing at that one, special concert. My brother’s frustration (and my sister-in-law’s frustration) was that she would not be placed in the second-tier choir, even as a senior who stuck with the program for over three years. The choir directors had no intention of putting my niece in a “select” choir. It was amazing the lengths they were willing to go to ensure the “safety” of that second choir.

Over the next four months, I received phone calls soliciting my advice. I’m in a unique position. I was a music teacher for seven years and a music professor for four. I also knew a lot about federal education law because of my position at TSTA. I drafted letters and recorded testimonies. I consulted. At times, it seemed I counseled. At one point, she was pulled out of a class with no notice for an audition. Her parents were beside themselves. I got to play the good-news guy. I knew we had won the battle. You’d never do that to a special needs kid unless she was going to make it in.

She did. With the understanding that she would not be participating during the “contest” part of the school year. Fine. Whatever.

Then the contest part of the calendar passed, and she still had not been reinstated. Phone calls. Pressure. Principal and assistant principal are gone. Choir directors say it’s too late to bring her back in at this point. New battle. Practically a war. Eventually, we won that one, as well. Never sure how my niece will look back on all of this, but the end result was pretty special. They really wanted me to see that particular medal. That was me (in part). I helped make that happen. They started to talk about that concert, and they trailed off mid-sentence…

You get misty-eyed when you are the parent of a graduating senior. I didn’t see the concert, but I can tell that night will now be forever history in our family. Those two parents would have traded tickets to Springsteen, U2, Lady Gaga, Kanye, and the 1987 Twins World Series victory in Game 7 to see their daughter in that one high school concert. It was a big battle and a bigger victory.

The frustration is still there. When he regained his composure, he told me, “I’m still going to write it out.” The question, he rightly noted, is how schools should mesh the requirements and intents of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act with the intentions and advantages that come from a pure, open-audition choir.

The question is easy to ask. It’s miserable to answer. This particular situation illustrates it so perfectly. Both of my nieces deserved this incredible concert experience. The music education community needs to find ways to make these opportunities--the real opportunities--available to everyone. And do this while keeping those qualities that make such experiences so special.

That takes a balancing act similar to Cirque du Soleil. I’m glad that the acrobats who were in play were able to keep everything balanced.

A dad should be able to feel misty-eyed.

Brown, brown, BROWN...

If  a picture is worth 1000 words, this is going to be a very long post. On Friday, my daughter's school had diversity night.  I've seen other such events in the past, and most of them are pretty contrived. However, this particular evening was one I won't forget. Some of the pictures come from the school's website. The other pictures were taken on my phone, so the quality isn't as high as I would like. My apologies for that.



This is the school's Step Team, which opened the festival in the cafeteria.



Here, two boys from Ghana are eating papusas from Honduras.



Israel was across the hall from Lebanon and down the hall from Bulgaria. Across from Israel is a woman showing a child where her country is on a globe.  Another hall had Pakistan right next to Afghanistan. Although there are no Afghani students in the school, there are children of soldiers. One soldier brought food, pictures and artifacts from Afghanistan. He spoke highly of the Afghan people, and his experiences during his tour were surprisingly positive. He was a fine ambassador for the army to young people.

The end of the night brought a world fashion show, followed by these children from Ballet Folklorico. They were followed by a group from Asia, who were getting ready outside:



That's the great thing about America. Maybe the greatest thing. I'm always proud and excited to see the U.S. Olympic team at the opening ceremonies. Not because of the enormous number of medals we have won over the years, but because of the color brown.

Nobody is really black or white or red or yellow. We're all a different shade of the color brown. When, say, Ireland marches through, it's all the same brown. Same with Kenya. Same with Japan.

The U.S. arrives with a hundred different shades of brown. Celebrating under the flag. Happy to be representing the United States of America. It's not some sort of quiet pride. It's more like a pure joy. My belief is that the joy comes from the idea that we are bound together by ideas and ideals, not skin color and heritage.

I had the good fortune to see a great many of those shades of brown interacting with each other Friday night. Each interested in the others' stories (and food). Seeing each other as some see the cover of an interesting novel.

Truly a blessing to be here.

18 Years

Today is an academic holiday in childrens’ lives: Field Day.  It’s one of the things you lose once you pass through the elementary grades.  I still have one, and she’s getting wet today.  My son had a late band practice yesterday to prepare for their concert next week, and my oldest daughter has a banquet that seems to look more like a prom than a dinner.

As the academic year closes, you tend to look back on what really made a difference.  Students may or may not do this, but most teachers do.  It’s a kind of wistfulness that most people feel on New Year’s Eve or a landmark birthday.

I read a blog from a young woman graduating from college this weekend.  She had a professor that had thought things through.  He told them that the first 18 years of “work” for them was school.  School gave them structure, a series of assignments, people all around to help and a general idea of what the next day, week, month and year would look like.  This soon-to-be graduate is facing a big moment in her life.

When we talk about P-16 alignment in political terms, we forget that the hardest part of college is the loose structure.  You don’t go to detention for skipping class.  Your free time is your own.  That seems to be an area where most students flail a little…or a lot.  Now a young woman has little or no idea what will be coming next for her.  There really is no structure.

As we prepare students…and prepare teachers…for P-16 alignment, we would do well to look at the real causes of “academia adrift.”  I think the biggest cause is the weaker structure of each phase of the transition from P to 16 (or beyond).  Preschoolers have very rigid schedules; college students do not.  Adult work varies too widely to address structure.

Harder tests aren’t the answer. Treating young people with more respect, preparing them for adulthood as people would serve us better. Perhaps a good resolution for next year would be to “loosen up.”

 

Helping the Student Who Doesn't Ask: Bullying

PASADENA, Texas - Give me $600 cash or you will die. That's the threat prosecutors said a gang member used to intimidate a 15-year-old high school student.

The teenager and his family fear for their own personal safety so we’re not releasing the student’s name, but court records show he attends Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena.

It was there where, investigators said, the teen requested help to stay alive.

 

One of the hottest topics in education is bullying. This week, President Obama gathered experts for a summit on bullying. He says he endured school-yard harassment because of his large ears and funny name and he wants today's students to know bullying is unacceptable.

Earlier this month, NEA launched its “Bully Free: It Starts with Me,” campaign, which asks caring adults on campuses across the country to pledge to step in and stand up to bullying.

You can find that kit here:

www.nea.org/bullyfree

The Department of Education has added a set of tools, as well:

http://stopbullying.gov

Understand this: There is no pro-bullying faction out there. But there are bullies. And research shows that just one adult, who listens to a bullied victim and takes the issue seriously, can prevent that victim from missing school, failing classes, or dropping out
The Department of Education states that a student may be showing signs of being bullied if s/he:

• Comes home with damaged or missing clothing or other belongings


• Reports losing items such as books, electronics, clothing, or jewelry


• Has unexplained injuries


• Complains frequently of headaches, stomachaches, or feeling sick


• Has trouble sleeping or has frequent bad dreams


• Has changes in eating habits


• Hurts themselves


• Are very hungry after school from not eating their lunch


• Runs away from home


• Loses interest in visiting or talking with friends


• Is afraid of going to school or other activities with peers


• Loses interest in school work or begins to do poorly in school


• Appears sad, moody, angry, anxious or depressed when they come home


• Talks about suicide


• Feels helpless


• Often feels like they are not good enough


• Blames themselves for their problems


• Suddenly has fewer friends


• Avoids certain places


• Acts differently than usual

Whatever you do, keep an eye out for bullying victims. There have always been bullies, as well as victims. However, we are finally coming together as an education community to lessen the impact bullies have in our schools.

Anything a teacher can do to stop it could be saving an education…or a life.

3...2...1...

...and the NFL collective bargaining agreement has expired.  March 4, 2011.  The current agreement has been in place since 1993, an 18-year run that was good for both players and owners.

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement has been extended on several occasions, most recently in March 2006. That extension, which could have continued through the 2012 season, gave both the NFL and the NFLPA an option to shorten the deal by one or two years. Owners decided to take the maximum cut in the agreement. The league has created a $900 million fund to help the owners during a lockout.

NFL owners make $9 billion a year from league revenue, and this was their biggest year.  That would conservatively put the revenues at $10 billion this year, over $312 million for the average team. “Smart money” says the NFL made more this year.  We don’t know that for sure. The owners refuse to release their financial statements. There is one exception, the Green Bay Packers are owned by the city, so their statement is available. By their accounts, everything is going well.

With a median salary of $818,265 and a team valued at $1,650,000,000, Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones wants a pay cut from the players, as well as two more football games to increase revenue further.

Here is how wonderful the collective bargaining agreement was for everyone:

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2010/09/nfl_labor_agreement.html

Malcolm Gladwell’s story on the brutality of both dog fighting and the NFL can be found here:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell

The average NFL player plays just 3.5 seasons and loses two to three years off his life expectancy for every season played.  Here we find the true price players pay to play. Owners must believe that price is not enough.

I believe I hear the Green Bay Packers joining the teachers, singing "On Wisconsin."

Who Should Be Funding Schools, Again?

A quote from Ron Paul, of all people:

“You always wonder why your kid comes home from school and they say, ‘Mom, we need to raise money for pencils and computers and pens and paper.’ You wonder…”

As the Legislature grapples with how they will “fund” schools for the next two years, I’m led to wonder about this very idea. It used to be that students raised money to go on band trips or tours of Europe with the French class. Then came athletics, of all things. Being approached by a football player for money was a surprise to me. My hometown has a popular football team, with full stands every night of the “Friday Night Lights” season. Why would such a popular program need more money than the huge amount they must be generating?

Now my own children come home excited about the latest fundraiser for their elementary school. If they sell enough magazines…or candy…or decorative items, they get some plastic toy or something that will get caught in our vacuum cleaner. Parents are put in a tough position, wondering how polite it is to ask friends and family to buy over-priced items to fund schools.

I read conservative policy paper after conservative policy paper. They see this situation as an “opportunity.” A new bill filed in the Texas House would create the Center for Financial Accountability and Productivity in Public Education. This will consist of a grand total of three people, who will have whatever funding is necessary, and they will report which schools (if any) are acting in a fiscally responsible manner. The bill states, “A board member may not be a member of the board of trustees or an employee of a school district.”

It also says, “The center shall represent business, finance, public policy, education, and other interests considered appropriate by the center.”

Really? Then why isn’t an actual teacher (or even a school board member) allowed on this committee? We really need business leaders to tell us how to run districts in a fiscally sound manner?

Here’s a commentary on why schools are not businesses:

 http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/02/15/viewpoint-why-education-is-not-like-business/

Businesses use human capital to produce products and services. Schools use human capital to create…human capital. This comparison has never made sense. The further a state or district heads down the “schools as businesses” model, the worse-off they find themselves.

And you begin to wonder how much worse it can get. Right now, Texas is actually using child labor to fund its schools.

Where Is Their Accountability?

In recent years, major corporations (usually through foundations) toy with public education. They have “great ideas” that they shop to school boards looking to find new revenue to keep their schools afloat. The problem is that nobody seems to hold these foundations accountable. With enough money, you don’t have to actually face scrutiny.

Consider a recent conference held by the Texas High School Project. The THSP gets a fair amount of funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as many philanthropic groups from around the state and the nation. On the first night, they held a moderated panel on funding effectiveness.

 The first panelist was Stephanie Sanford, a national representative of the Gates Foundation. Her presentation was based on the recent Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching..."study." She gave a short PowerPoint presentation of the survey’s findings. Like several of the slides, the numbers showed things that any reasonable person would dispute. She even began some of her points with phrases like, “You’d think the opposite would be true, but…”  In one example, she showed “proof” that after five years, teachers don’t get any better—or worse. Not at all. The line was completely flat for almost twenty years. Of course, that’s based on test scores, but it doesn’t matter. The idea that a teacher can go 19 years without learning anything is ludicrous.

 It’s deeper than that, though. The National Education Policy Center had Jesse Rothstein read that same document. He is former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and a former senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers. He found the Gates report to be based as ridiculous as I found Ms. Sanford’s comments. I’ve never seen such a condemnation of someone’s research. Here is the review’s subtitle:

'Measures of Effective Teaching' report is based on flawed research, unsupported data and predetermined conclusions, review shows

I’ve worked in academic research for over a decade, and I’ve never read or seen such a review. The MET report made the reviewer (and the Center) so disgusted that they called the actual motives of the study into question. Not data analysis. Not an important set of data that was ignored. Not shoddy workmanship.

“Predetermined conclusions.”

Here is one screaming example:

The MET report's data suggest that teachers whose students have low math scores rank among the best at teaching "deeper" concepts. Yet the MET report draws the conclusion that teachers whose students score highly on standardized math tests "tend to promote deeper conceptual understanding as well.”

 This review was never brought up after she presented, and I didn’t get to ask any question on it. The other two members of the panel were Representative Rob Eissler (the chair of the Texas House of Representatives Public Education Committee) and Jesús Chávez, the superintendent of Round Rock ISD. They engaged in a heated discussion, and most questions were directed at the two of them.

Nobody held Ms. Sanford accountable, and nobody holds the Gates Foundation accountable. With 50 million public school children’s education on the line, somebody should.

"I touch the future. I teach."--Christa McAuliffe

I may be dating myself here, but I think the matter merits my admission. Just keep in mind that I was a college freshman at the time.

I’d just gotten back from one of the more annoying college classes I have taken in three degrees’ worth of work. When I got to the dorm room my roommate, Bill, said, “You gotta see this.” He was notorious for skipping class, but this time it made sense.

The Challenger space shuttle had exploded 37 seconds after it had launched. Seven astronauts were killed almost instantly. The 25^th anniversary of that disaster will be tomorrow, January 28.

 Among those killed was the woman who was to be the first teacher in space: Christa McAuliffe. After a long, intense competition she had been chosen to represent the education world’s ties with NASA. She was also an NEA member.

Here’s something you may not have known: even on the day before the launch, Ms. McAuliffe sat in the crew quarters writing college recommendations for her students. She was first and foremost a teacher, even the day before she made history. She must have been terrified of the task at hand. It still didn’t stop her from thinking of her students.

Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association and a former high school math teacher, also believes that Ms. McAuliffe played a significant role in opening doors in math and science education for women.

When you think of the time, that’s when we really started real efforts to knock down stereotypes that math and science were for boys and not girls. She was held up as someone who could elevate the profession, which she did so well.

Barbara Morgan, the Boise, Idaho, teacher who had been selected as Ms. McAuliffe’s backup and also trained with the Challenger astronauts, became the first Teacher in Space in 2007. Like McAuliffe, she was an NEA member. You can read about her in the cover story of our Spring 2007 Advocate. She put it this way:

Christa served as a great reminder to everybody that the key to education is good teachers, and that we had and have good teachers all over this country.

Dan Barstow, the president of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, also gave a quote to mark the anniversary.

 There’s a generation of teachers who were around and teaching at the time of the Challenger accident. For us, clearly, she was such an exceptional teacher, such an inspiring astronaut and educator. We still remember her and feel that. It was such a deep-searing moment in the nation’s soul, and we have an obligation to carry on that mission, that legacy, to inspire kids.

A day to remember in education. Touch the future today. Teach.

 

Out with the Old, In with the...Old

One of my responsibilities in this position is to cover the State Board of Education. I monitor the full board, as well as the Committee on Instruction.

When I arrived at the January meeting, the chatter in the room seemed quite happy. New board members were sworn in, and it looked as though the board would take a more sensible approach to things.

This was a conundrum for me. I watch a lot of meetings. Many of the meetings…lack anything interesting. We cover them to make sure nothing bad happens under our watch.

So I did kind of enjoy, in a guilty way, the circus that was the State Board of Education. On the good side, meetings would take less time. The chairs we sit in are uncomfortable, and this new approach would give me more time to do other things. Like blog.

That didn’t happen, though.

Usually, the board takes up the Board Operating Procedures and approves them pretty quickly. This time, though, new members had things they wanted changed. They threw many amendments out to the board, and almost all amendments were rejected. The two that did pass were (1) they would not allow signs in the gallery; and (2) seating would be determined by seniority, not district number.

It was funny watching them stumble around the inner circle. The whole scene looked like a cross between musical chairs and a white elephant gift exchange.

Then came the Committee on Instruction. One of the new members wanted a better definition of "expert." The board uses experts to review new TEKS. During the Social Studies debacle, the board appointed a minister and a former vice-chair of the Republican Party as "experts." The committee voted 3-2 to send a watered-down version of the term to the full board on the last day.

That led to another heated debate, which led to another heated debate, which led to another.

The good news is that this board remains interesting.

The bad news is that my neck is going to hurt a lot from sitting in those chairs again.

Let There Be Peace...

"The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them." -- William Clayton

When I was a college professor, I returned to my parents’ home one Christmas to find this quote in the center of the Aberdeen, South Dakota headlines. It was on a button that a girl at Aberdeen Central High School had pinned to her backpack. It was the early 2000’s, and people were very sensitive about terrorism. Plus, not much happens up there. This was a pretty racy topic.

She was a high school junior, and she received a one-week suspension from school for simply having the button. Nobody told her to put it away or get rid of it. Suspension. A full week. Immediately.

When I returned to campus the next semester, my students and I talked about the situation in class. I couldn’t find a college education major who thought this punishment fit the infraction. It felt good to have my thinking validated.

Fast forward about eight years. Health care reform legislation is up in Congress, and the Tea Party are called to a Code Red Rally on the Washington Mall to fight the reform. The signage included this one:



Saturday brought news of a young man shooting Congressman Gabrielle Giffords in the head with an automatic weapon.

Sarah Palin, the de facto leader of the Tea Party movement, had Congressman Giffords in her sites last November with this poster.

  

When Congressman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head on Saturday, I remembered these two signs. I also remembered that high school junior. How would a principal, parent, or board member take it if a teacher stood in front of a class and said something to the effect that if a Brown can’t do it, a Browning can? Was that button in South Dakota really a terrorist threat?

The pendulum swings back and forth in public discourse. Time for it to come back to the middle.