I'd like to introduce you to Steven Brill and Dr. Steven Paine, my two new buddies. Brill is a journalist and publisher (media hounds might remember Brill's Content magazine, which went bust with the dot coms in 2001) who has written a book about education reform called Class Warfare. Paine is the schools superintendent of the entire state of West Virginia. Both are gaining widespread attention for speaking truths about what it takes to improve public education that run counter to the conventional wisdom about school reform. Brill is an astute observer. Paine is a straight-up visionary.
Brill first. He recently published a piece in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) that is (finally!) the article I've been waiting for...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576500531066414112.html
Hey look! It quotes real classroom teachers! It features comments by education reform leaders that make crystal clear the pressure charter school teachers are under. It lauds the skill of one teacher even as she makes the decision to quit (mid-year no less, a particularly devastating choice), choosing her health and marriage over the job.
But most of all it stands up in a national newspaper in front of millions of readers and waves the red flag of reality for all the world to see. On this flag is emblazoned: Three million teachers. It is a reminder--evidence flapping madly in the winds of finger-pointing and union-bashing--that true change to public education needs to include everyone. No one else is really saying that. Unions are in full defensive mode. Reformers are in attack formation. Enter Steven Brill, wily pundit, with the suggestion that Mayor Bloomberg name Randi Weingarten, teachers union chief and arch villain of Waiting for Superman, as school chancellor. Brill's being a gadfly, but his point is plain to see. He says it better than I ever could:
"If they are pushed the right way, the unions can help to create educational systems that can enable and encourage ordinary teachers to work harder and more effectively—and still allow them to sit down once in a while so that they don't burn out."
This should not be the radical statement it is in the eyes of many reformers, people whom I agree with on almost every other educational issue. Helping teachers get better without frying them to a crisp can only help the kids. Harnessing a union's organizational power (not to mention influencing its membership) to support teachers as they improve is just logical. Then why can't we say it out loud? Refusing to acknowledge the reality of the public education system and the people involved is something that makes me question the integrity of the reform movement in my darker moments (when chipper I think only of the dedicated, passionate people giving 110% every single day in classrooms all over the country). If it's really about all kids, and not just the ones that win the charter school lottery, then how can it make sense not to use (or, heck, co-opt) anything you can find?
It's a bird! It's a plane! It actually IS Superman!
Dr. Steven Paine is co-opting in a different way. He's standing up and declaring that against all odds West Virginia is going to reform the heck out of their public education system and just you try and stop them. Impossible is nothing! It's a move out of the education reform playbook where hard-core "no excuses" sloganeering is the name of the game. But instead of promoting higher test scores and picking apart the unions, he's blazing a trail from Charleston to...Helsinki.
The man has clearly seen Waiting for Superman, but he's drawn different conclusions than most of its fans. If Finland (much lauded in the movie) has the best public education system in the world, then, by golly, we should make our schools more like Finland's. Thing is...hmmm...Finland has strong teachers unions. Finland doesn't use standardized test to evaluate their students or teachers, instead promoting rigorous curriculum standards. Finland schools rely on project-based learning, which focuses on critical thinking and real-world problem-solving. Okey-dokey, said Paine. Sounds great. Let's do it.
How much do you love this man?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/education.wv.finland/index.html
The critics started in on him right away, of course. Finland is homogeneous (code for mostly white). Finland is smaller (code for we could never scale this). Finland has a tradition of social welfare programs (code for they believe government is not actually Satan on a stick). Paine said, whatevs. If it's good enough for those pale-faced, reindeer-loving socialists, it's good enough for the children of the diverse, economically depressed, traditionally conservative state of West Virginia. And, oh btw and brace yourself--our test scores really aren't that important to us under this particular model, but teachers and students getting excited about critical thinking, solving community problems and becoming better learners, rather than burning out in ridiculously high numbers and getting embroiled in cheating scandals? Yeah, we're all for that.
So am I. So should you be.
At this point it might be legitimate to ask why I remain non-unionized teacher at a high-performing charter school. If I love unions and superintendents so much, why don't I just get a job at a regular public school and see how I like it? But for me, it's not about one type of school vs. another. It's about all types of schools getting better and better at serving all types of kids, particularly those who have not been served in the past. The education reform movement has shown us what's possible in terms of low-income, under-served students. It's no longer OK (as if it ever was) to write off those students as too "disadvantaged" learn. Because they're not.
But I'm seeing with my own eyes charter systems (a centerpiece of the reform movement) so tied (by necessity) to private funding and so wedded to test scores as the only means to win that funding (ie: beat out other schools--in many cases other charters) that they are not serving kids as well as they could. Yet the intention is there. The brains, talent, passion and drive are there. Just imagine what a high-performing charter system could do with a vision like Dr. Paine's. Now that is worth waiting for...
Brill first. He recently published a piece in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) that is (finally!) the article I've been waiting for...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576500531066414112.html
Hey look! It quotes real classroom teachers! It features comments by education reform leaders that make crystal clear the pressure charter school teachers are under. It lauds the skill of one teacher even as she makes the decision to quit (mid-year no less, a particularly devastating choice), choosing her health and marriage over the job.
But most of all it stands up in a national newspaper in front of millions of readers and waves the red flag of reality for all the world to see. On this flag is emblazoned: Three million teachers. It is a reminder--evidence flapping madly in the winds of finger-pointing and union-bashing--that true change to public education needs to include everyone. No one else is really saying that. Unions are in full defensive mode. Reformers are in attack formation. Enter Steven Brill, wily pundit, with the suggestion that Mayor Bloomberg name Randi Weingarten, teachers union chief and arch villain of Waiting for Superman, as school chancellor. Brill's being a gadfly, but his point is plain to see. He says it better than I ever could:
"If they are pushed the right way, the unions can help to create educational systems that can enable and encourage ordinary teachers to work harder and more effectively—and still allow them to sit down once in a while so that they don't burn out."
This should not be the radical statement it is in the eyes of many reformers, people whom I agree with on almost every other educational issue. Helping teachers get better without frying them to a crisp can only help the kids. Harnessing a union's organizational power (not to mention influencing its membership) to support teachers as they improve is just logical. Then why can't we say it out loud? Refusing to acknowledge the reality of the public education system and the people involved is something that makes me question the integrity of the reform movement in my darker moments (when chipper I think only of the dedicated, passionate people giving 110% every single day in classrooms all over the country). If it's really about all kids, and not just the ones that win the charter school lottery, then how can it make sense not to use (or, heck, co-opt) anything you can find?
It's a bird! It's a plane! It actually IS Superman!
Dr. Steven Paine is co-opting in a different way. He's standing up and declaring that against all odds West Virginia is going to reform the heck out of their public education system and just you try and stop them. Impossible is nothing! It's a move out of the education reform playbook where hard-core "no excuses" sloganeering is the name of the game. But instead of promoting higher test scores and picking apart the unions, he's blazing a trail from Charleston to...Helsinki.
The man has clearly seen Waiting for Superman, but he's drawn different conclusions than most of its fans. If Finland (much lauded in the movie) has the best public education system in the world, then, by golly, we should make our schools more like Finland's. Thing is...hmmm...Finland has strong teachers unions. Finland doesn't use standardized test to evaluate their students or teachers, instead promoting rigorous curriculum standards. Finland schools rely on project-based learning, which focuses on critical thinking and real-world problem-solving. Okey-dokey, said Paine. Sounds great. Let's do it.
How much do you love this man?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/education.wv.finland/index.html
The critics started in on him right away, of course. Finland is homogeneous (code for mostly white). Finland is smaller (code for we could never scale this). Finland has a tradition of social welfare programs (code for they believe government is not actually Satan on a stick). Paine said, whatevs. If it's good enough for those pale-faced, reindeer-loving socialists, it's good enough for the children of the diverse, economically depressed, traditionally conservative state of West Virginia. And, oh btw and brace yourself--our test scores really aren't that important to us under this particular model, but teachers and students getting excited about critical thinking, solving community problems and becoming better learners, rather than burning out in ridiculously high numbers and getting embroiled in cheating scandals? Yeah, we're all for that.
So am I. So should you be.
At this point it might be legitimate to ask why I remain non-unionized teacher at a high-performing charter school. If I love unions and superintendents so much, why don't I just get a job at a regular public school and see how I like it? But for me, it's not about one type of school vs. another. It's about all types of schools getting better and better at serving all types of kids, particularly those who have not been served in the past. The education reform movement has shown us what's possible in terms of low-income, under-served students. It's no longer OK (as if it ever was) to write off those students as too "disadvantaged" learn. Because they're not.
But I'm seeing with my own eyes charter systems (a centerpiece of the reform movement) so tied (by necessity) to private funding and so wedded to test scores as the only means to win that funding (ie: beat out other schools--in many cases other charters) that they are not serving kids as well as they could. Yet the intention is there. The brains, talent, passion and drive are there. Just imagine what a high-performing charter system could do with a vision like Dr. Paine's. Now that is worth waiting for...
You've persuaded me. I love them both, too.
ReplyDeleteYou have got to send this off to someone who can publish it!
ReplyDelete