EdPsych 490TER: Dr. Sandy Levin
Marty Sierra-Perry
Week One: Leadership Changes
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EdPsych 490TER: Dr. Sandy Levin Marty Sierra-Perry Week One: Leadership Changes |
Reflections on assigned readings:
Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE)
CPRE stands for Consortium for Policy Research in Education and in this article by Judith Warren Little, "Teacher Professional Development in a Climate of Educational Reform," the expectations held for teachers to implement reforms that hold promise for improving education do not include raising teacher salaries. I think many teachers are being asked to do more with less, and that includes salary. The implication is that mandates are the way to induce teachers to participate in the reforms that will benefit education and eventually the students in the teacher's classroom. Teachers that I have worked with as a principal and as a curriculum director would often tell me that what they needed was time, and as business partners say,"Time is money."
Five Streams of Reform and Their Implications for Teaching
Where is the time and opportunity for teachers to read, review, and reflect on the Five Streams of Reform as outlined in the CPRE policy brief?
1. As an author for one of the books that the National Council of Teachers of English published to provide teachers with examples of classroom practices that would demonstrate the newly published English/Language Arts Standards, I heard from teachers who wanted to try to change their classrooms, but unless it was in the school improvement plan developed by the building leadership team, they could not locate funds to create reading and writing workshops, integrate technology, or attend workshops on multiple intelligences, or alternative assessments. I agree that teachers have been expected to address subject-matter teaching standards, state standards, raising expectations for all students ("All students can learn.") at the same time. Time to reflect on the materials from all these improvement efforts and to develop a coherent understanding and a cogent plan for classroom change is left out.
2. In Champaign, as part of an agreement growing out of a complaint to The Office of Civil Rights, faculty has had a year of diversity training. Unfortunately, the response toward many of the sessions has been clouded by resentment. Since few teachers would know what the specifics are that the school district did that brought the lawsuit, their perspective is that of victim. "I didn't keep a student from an opportunity to learn. ____failed to attend class or complete assignments." District policies not classroom policies are viewed as the culprit. Although our high school has a tracking system, students are not kept from taking classes. Many students choose their courses based on their friends and the lunch period. Where do these aspects fit into school reform? Next year in the English department we are "eliminating" our "01" track. There will be the general and advanced track. However, there will be at least one co-taught general track course. Some would say that we will still be tracking.
3. "Fitting" state standards and assessment with classroom practices requires time and expertise. I have had the opportunity to be involved in writing assessment development since 1983 with the Illinois State Board of Education. As a member of the state's writing validation team, I have been involved in setting cut scores, developing anchor papers for the rubric, and overseeing the training of trainers in North Carolina where Measurement Incorporated scores the Illinois assessment. I am presently serving on the State Testing Review Committee that was created through legislation, and I have watched many presentations on inter-rater reliability, test item analysis, and lots of data analysis on the content and design of the tests. To expect districts to develop their own sophisticated measures of student performance takes money and time. Standardized tests do not address all the benchmarks of the state standards. The recent adoption of ACT as a part of the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) concerns me. While any student who receives an average score on the ACT will likely meet the Illinois Learning Standards, students who have been in self-contained classes or in lower -ability tracks their whole school career may not score high emough on the ACT to meet the standards. They may not have met the standards in the past, but now they will need to receive instruction on taking the ACT. Rather than experiencing an accomodating standards-based curriuclum, they will now have to focus on test taking . This is education improving reform? I am still thinking about the curricular changes I will make for next fall.
4. Champaign Schools have Schools of Choice at the elementary level. Each school was to develop a theme or organizing principle. In informal conversations with parents, most choices were made based upon location in relationship to jobs or care-givers. As long as the basics were taught, curriculum or programs (unless they dealt with gifted program!) were secondary considerations. Reforms in the social organization of schooling in Champaign also include a balanced-year calendar at three of the elementary schools.
5. Recently enacted teacher licensure requirements in Illinois require that teachers develop individual professional growth plans that are approved through local councils. In effect tenure is eliminated. Teachers are expected to update teaching skills and to include professional activities that touch on classroom reform. These types of activities had previously been encouraged through a salary schedule that provided teachers with salary increments for advanced degrees or college hours. I wonder about the gender equity issues that this required "continuous improvement" will create. What are the demographics? How many teachers are single parents? Where will the childcare costs be found so that he, but most likely, she can take classes after school? A young teacher shared these thoughts with me: "When I was working on my masters, I knew it would be a commitment for a specific amount of time. With these new requirements, I will have to rethink personal goals for having a family. I will have to go to school the rest of my life!" While committee work and other professional activities will be allowed to count, it is still time away from family. As far as this young person was concerned, the extended time with one's own children during the summer was a draw to the profession. Plus, the fees for master's classes will come from personal budgets, and this brings us back to salaries. Will districts be able to afford to let teachers off to attend workshops or professional development opportunities? Presently, we have a difficult time finding substitute teachers. Furthermore, our districr has a 1.6 million dollar budget error that they must repay the state. Teacher professional development is one of the casualties of budget cuts to correct the error.
Who is ready and willing to commit to working through the complexities of educational reform for the improvement of schools for our children?