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Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com and Mark's new book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom

Is the College Board dooming higher ed?

According to Education Week, the College Board is aligning four of its testing programs with Common Core State Standards, in an effort to assess students' mastery of skills in literacy and math, as outlined by the standards.

Credit: Crmoony.com

Instead of making a move to evaluate students on their body of work, the College Board is falling into line with bureaucrats and the publishing lobby, in their move to label students' abilities and achievements, based on ill-conceived learning outcomes and high stakes tests.

Am I the only one who finds this decision more than a little confounding? What possible incentive could the College Board have to align itself with a system that has not proven that it can effectively evaluate students?

For years -- mainly since No Child Left Behind was enacted -- professors have complained that students enter college unprepared for the intellectual challenges it brings. Now, they will assess so-called mastery of skills with standards that claim to be different, yet have no history of success. In fact, the Common Core is under so much fire that some states are considering abandoning it completely.

It seems that the College Board is taking an "If-you-can't-beat-them-join-them" approach, which may ultimately doom higher education as much as the Common Core may doom K-12 schools.

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, now available in the ASCD store, Barnes & Noble and at Amazon.com and Mark's new book, The 5-Minute Teacher: How do I maximize time for learning in my classroom

Promotion with honors

Today, the eighth graders at the junior high where I teach participated in a promotion ceremony. The band  played, students delivered speeches and everyone paraded up to the podium to greet teachers and administrators when their names were announced to a capacity crowd.

I  had the distinct pleasure of calling the roll, a simple task, as long as you don't miss the designations of "M" and "H" at the end of many surnames.

A student with an "H" is promoted "with honors," meaning her GPA was 3.5 or higher. The "M's" are "with merit."

As I announced the names, in my best emcee voice, I wondered what inflection I should use for an "average" student (no H) and an "Honors Student." Should I use a monotone voice for the riffraff that dared to march with student royalty? Perhaps a pregnant pause, prior to shouting "With Honors," in my best vibrato.

In the end, I decided to use the same voice for all students. After all, I couldn't see a difference in them, before the medals were handed out.

What does National Teacher's Day mean?

Today might be the first time I've ever really considered National Teacher's Day -- likely because I read about it on Twitter.

I wondered what it's all about. When I Googled it, I came to a National Education Association site. The news from the NEA was grim.

I was surprised, because I thought an NEA site about National Teacher's Day would be a place of hope. Then, I was faced with these statements, among others:

Teachers themselves are less positive today than in the past about the education and training they have received.

Forty-five percent of new teachers abandon the profession in their first five years. 

Teachers’ salaries still lag behind those for other occupations requiring a college degree, and the pay gap is growing larger.

I hate to be negative, but this day seems more like a bummer than a celebration.

Put away that electronic device, or else!

Today was one of those days that made me wish I worked some place else.

Photo credit: InMagine

I work at a grade 7 and 8 middle school that is filled with wonderful teachers, counselors, administrators and support staff, many of whom will stop at nothing to help students learn. Some of them are quirky; some are funny. Some have marvelous ideas about how to make education better; some just wear a never-ending smile that always makes your day.

Sounds great, right? So why would anyone complain about a place like this?

The problem, you see, is that while these marvelous people are willing to go the extra mile for kids, many of them think the best way to do this is to control students.

As I watched students work cooperatively, independently, quietly and noisily in my results-only classroom, an e-mail landed in my inbox, quickly followed by another and several more -- all on the same subject.

"This place is out of control, and it has to stop," was the gist of the lot. The students, it seems, are listening to their Mp3 players and iPods in the hallways, and the safety of the school, perhaps even that of the entire civilized world, is at stake. (Okay, that was poetic license run amok.)

Still, a steady stream of loud complaints cascaded throughout teachers' email, demanding a change. By the end of the day, the change was announced by our principal. If only we could get an important decision made this quickly.

As you may have guessed, my take on this was quite different. Sadly, my suggestion to teach the students appropriate use, rather than take the devices away, was met with criticism.

It makes me wonder, will we ever join the 21st century digital age? Or, do I need to look for a new place to hang my hat. . . and my iPod.

One thing is certain: teachers are passionate people

I have thoroughly enjoyed the debate started by Michael Lopez over at Joanne Jacobs' blog. More to the point, I suppose I started it with a comment I made about grades being punishment for students.

From there, Lopez wrote this blog post, which has sparked over 80 comments -- many of my own responses to teachers who are in an uproar about my declaration that grades are subjective and punitive and should be eliminated.

Take a look at it, and join the conversation, if you like

That sounds good, but. . .

Let me begin by warning you that this is going to be a rant. It's a rant about the naysayers -- educators who interrupt every suggestion with "That sounds good, but. . . ."

It's clear to all who know me that I teach in a progressive, student-centered classroom. This doesn't make me unique; it just means I'm in the minority in the education world. I get that, and I'm doing all I can to encourage  more teachers to leave the traditional world and do what's right by their students.

Many traditional teachers are willing to make the change. I get dozens of e-mails, tweets and comments on this blog weekly from teachers who share heartfelt stories about transforming their classrooms, as I did a few years ago.

Ah, but I digress. Back to the naysayers. I simply don't understand why so many educators, who purportedly teach students to be open-minded, can't even consider the possibility that there might be better strategies than homework, worksheets and tests.

No matter what research I quote or how much personal success I share, all too often, the response is, "That sounds good, but. . . ." Then comes an endless stream of excuses as to why they can't abandon their traditional practices.

The conversation that garners the most "buts" is about feedback over grades. Ironically, I find many teachers who understand the deleterious effects of points and letter grades. The second I bring up replacing them with narrative feedback, though, I get, "That sounds good, but I don't have the time;" or "That sounds good, but they won't do it if I don't grade it."

Ridiculous.

My students never wonder about points or letters. They relish the feedback they receive. I know, because they actually thank me for it. Does feedback take time? Sure. If you're afraid of work, I'd suggest a profession other than teaching.

So, as you can see, all of the "That sounds good, but. . ." is driving me crazy.

Any suggestions?

Top 5 reasons I won't teach to the test

The conversation about standardized test preparation is a popular one at my school. Of course, most of the discussions stem from district mandates to constantly give practice material. Unlike new teachers, I don't have to cower behind an achievement test workbook, assuring principals that I'll drill my students into submission daily. Having tenure, though, isn't why I choose never to teach to the test. Here are the top 5 reasons I refuse to do it.

5 - Standardized tests fail to measure learning. In the long run, this thing isn't much more than a glorified guessing game.

4 - Why on Earth should learning be standardized? Shouldn't it be unique? If learning is the same everywhere, students should just stay home and read web-based texts.

3 - Practicing for standardized tests steals time from far more valuable learning experiences. I plan exciting, interactive lessons and projects for my students. We read, write and collaborate daily. I can't afford to give this up. Plus, my students wouldn't forgive me if I did.

2 - Standardized test practice isn't fun. If you've ever read anything I've written, you know I am a firm believer that learning should be fun. When it stops being fun, it's not learning; at this point we should all just go home.

1 - I have a responsibility to my students to be better than this. Spending class time on drill-and-kill standardized test practice makes teachers nothing more than mindless automatons, which is exactly how the bureaucrats are labeling us. If I spend most of my time on standardized test practice, not only will they be right, but I'll be guilty of the greatest injustice of all -- failing my students.

How does value-added measure death?

Bureaucrats who have not been inside the walls of a K-12 classroom, since graduating from high school, want to measure teachers by how well their students fare on standardized tests. Some states are already firing teachers, based on this illogical system.

I would like to ask people like Education Secretary Arne Duncan, so-called reformers Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates and even President Obama how they measure teachers.

What I know is that a few weeks ago, a student walked into the cafeteria at Chardon High School in Ohio, pulled a gun and shot three students to death. In the aftermath, this proud, quiet town and all of the Greater Cleveland area mourned. Yet talk of testing and value-added continued.

Students at my school, about 15 miles west of Chardon, wore the high school's colors and spoke somberly of the tragedy. The Cleveland Cavaliers paid tribute to the fallen students and their community at a home game that week. Chardon teachers tweeted about how proud they were of their students' courage, when they returned to school days later. Still, teachers and students planned for the test, so some bureaucrat can judge how much value has been added to learning.

And now, as I write about this unfathomable event, I weep awkwardly, considering what it all means. Yet my contemplation is interrupted by e-mails about the test and what we can do to get more students to pass -- to increase their value-added scores, whatever that means.

Later this school year, along with all Ohio students, Chardon kids will sit for this insidious test. Is it fair to hope that they'll be completely focused for 150 minutes? What if their minds drift to their slain friends? Will they wonder if anything so horrible could ever happen again? How important will math and science problems be on that day?

And if those students struggle on this crazy, one-day, all-or-nothing assessment, their teachers -- the ones who the Chardon students looked to first for support and protection in their greatest moment of need -- will also fail, according to Obama, Duncan and their sad rating system.

When that time arrives, what I'd like to know is how does the value-added system measure death?

Hey teacher, my dad won't do any more homework

I have never been so tired of the homework, and I am done with it. Not homework I assign (you know I don't), and not even the mindless drivel that my colleagues assign. It's the piles of homework my kids bring home that I have to help them with do that I'm sick of.

Today, it was perimeter in math, which I haven't done in about 38 years. Then, it was geography. "Which continent is west of New Zealand?" Seriously? First, where the hell is New Zealand, and why do I need to know what is west of it? Next, it was a 5-minute test on 100 math problems, which I'm supposed to grade for my 8-year-old. (Now, I get that I'm a teacher, but I'm not her teacher, for crying out loud.) I'm considering contacting her school and asking to be added to the payroll.

I'm fed up, and I'm not doing any more of this ridiculous, useless homework.

I told my kids to tell their teachers that the dog ate it. I'm even going to write a note verifying it.

Learn to learn theory

The theory Nicholas Negroponte espouses in this video makes a lot of sense. Can he be right, though, that this is the only way to learn to learn?

Top 5 reasons I don't give grades

One of the focuses of the ROLE Reversal blog is the elimination of grades. Like homework, there are many reasons that grading is detrimental to learning. Here are the top 5 reasons I don't give grades.

5 -- Grades are always subjective. Since the teacher decides how material is taught and assessed, it's subjective. You can argue that many activities and test questions are either right or wrong, but if you don't give students a variety of ways to show what they know, as well as chances to relearn lessons, then objectivity is compromised.

4 -- A points and percentages system discriminates. Students who are motivated by grades complete assignments. They always turn them in, earn their points and, consequently, get high grades. Students who don't see any value in the activities that garner points don't complete them. They, in turn, receive zeroes and failing grades. Hence, the grades create a culture of "good" and "bad" students. The high achievers are promoted to advanced classes, while the low achievers are placed in remediation. This sort of academic discrimination can scar a child for life.

3 -- Poor weighting of activities punishes some students while rewarding others. Most teachers struggle with weighting activities (another practice that should be banned). I've seen teachers whose tests are 75 percent of a marking period's grade, while others value homework at 50 percent or higher. Consider the student who does all of his homework but is scared out of his wits on test day. In Mr. 75 Percent's class, this kid fails. Conversely, an intelligent student, who wants to manipulate a bad system, will ignore all of the activities and projects, ace the tests, and easily pass.

2 -- Grades turn even honest kids into cheaters. In the study hall that I supervise daily, I see a shocking amount of cheating. I've often asked students copying a peer's work why they do it. The answer is always some version of the same thing: "It's due next period, and I'll get a zero, if I don't hand it in." In a class with no grades, students never have a reason to cheat. There's no punishment awaiting them, if something isn't done.

1 -- When students perform for points or letters, they lose any interest in real learning. Grades are nothing more than the carrots and sticks of education. They reward the "good" kids, whose parents browbeat them nightly to complete all activities, study hard and get those A's. Promises of Honor Roll, Merit Scholar and other elite badges await those cunning enough to maneuver the flawed system of grading. They may even get to the Ivy League, having learned very little about learning. Meanwhile, their counterparts, many of them likely impoverished, hungry and struggling to comprehend the value in the assignments and tests they see daily, face a life of remediation, retention and ridicule.

Sadly, some of these kids are the brightest of them all, but they are doomed by letters, the numbers and the grades.

Top 5 reasons I don't assign homework

The homework debate is one that may plague educators for decades -- even centuries -- to come. It perplexes me, because the research is so overwhelmingly against homework's effectiveness.

After much consideration and exhaustive research, I stopped assigning homework a few years ago. Homework simply doesn't fit into a Results Only Learning Environment.

Although I could write endlessly about the deleterious effects of homework, I'll get right to the top five reasons I don't assign homework.

5 -- Virtually all homework involves rote memory practice, which is always a waste of time. In the age of the Smartphone, who needs to remember by rote?

4 -- Homework has nothing to do with teaching responsibility (HW advocates love this claim). Not only is there not one reliable study to prove that homework builds responsible children, based on what we know about responsibility, the assertion is illogical. Responsibility implies autonomy, and homework offers none of this. Students are told what to do, when to do it, and when it must be returned. Where does responsibility come into play?

3 -- Homework impinges upon a student's time with family and on other, more valuable, activities -- like play. As Alfie Kohn states in The Homework Myth, why should children be asked to work a second shift? It's unconscionable to send children to work for nearly eight hours a day, then have them go home and work for 2-5 more hours; we don't live in 19th century London.

2 -- I can teach the material in the time I'm with my students in the classroom. The endless cry of "I can't teach all of the standards without assigning homework" is a tired excuse used to hide ineffective methods. Creating engaging activities in place of lecture and worksheets, along with less testing will eliminate the need for homework.

1 -- Students hate homework. I want to help  my students develop a thirst for learning. I want them to read for enjoyment and exploration. I want them to extend their learning when they choose, because they are interested in what we do in class. If I force them to do activities that they don't choose, they will hate them. If I penalize them for not completing something they see as valueless, they not only don't learn, they get a bad grade and hate learning even more.

My colleagues often attempt to persuade me that homework is an integral part of teaching and learning. I'm simply  not buying. So, what's your take on the debate?

Don't miss ROLE Reversal: Achieving Uncommonly Excellent Results in the Student-Centered Classroom, due in February 2013 by ASCD, the world's top educational leadership organization

Do your students know that you know their names?

Photo credit: designscollage.com

I recently listened to a scintillating presentation from Dr. Russ Quaglia, of the Qualia Institute. In his work on student aspirations, Qualia and his people survey students and educators around the world about perceptions of one another, among other important interpersonal items.

During a lecture, Quaglia announced that 50 percent of respondents nationwide say that their teachers don't know their names. Would you ever have guessed this to be true? Even if you see 150 students daily, you certainly know all of their names a couple of weeks into the school year, don't you?

"How often do you call every student by name?" Quaglia inquired, allowing the question's impact to settle for several seconds, before continuing. If a week passes, Quaglia continued, and you don't say a student's name, wouldn't she wonder if you know it?

I try to say every student's name daily, but I'm sure there are days that I fail to do so. Would all of my 112 students answer that question the way I want?

What about yours?

Testing and homework and grades, Oh my!

One of my favorite bloggers, Joanne Jacobs, has a knack for getting people riled. Jacobs' post about teachers confusing diligence and achievement got her followers ranting to what for some reason made me think of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Only instead of lions, tigers and bears, I kept hearing, "Testing and homework and grades, oh my!"

Photo credit: FantasyBooksandMovies.com

Although I applaud the passion of Jacobs' readers, I often find their opinions misguided. The "diligence" post was about boosting grades for hardworking students to a minus or a plus grade, mainly to encourage them. So a hardworking F student might be given a D-. The writer Jacobs' references suggests, however, that giving away A's and B's to students who lack skills is wrong -- even "fraudulent."

This ignited numerous comments about children who were being cheated by underachievers and students with disabilities, who are passed along by a broken system. Most of these parents favor the instruments they vilify in their comments, as long as the testing and homework and grades (oh my) benefit their children and don't help the so-called underachievers.

As you may have guessed, my solution, as utopian as it may seem, is to simply eliminate all of the instruments causing the problems -- the tests, the homework and, especially, the grades.

Did Hawaii start the war against RTTT, NCLB?

Teachers in Hawaii served a crushing blow to President Obama's Race to the Top initiative, when 67% of the state's teachers voted against a new contract that would require merit pay, if the state was to earn RTTT money.

Courtesy: Hawaii Tribune-Herald

If a large majority of 9,000 teachers in a state are willing to say no to $75 million in government dollars, because they are so staunchly opposed to being judged on test scores, one must wonder when other states will follow Hawaii's lead.

An even more significant question might be, is this the beginning of the war between educators and politicians that will ultimately strike down No Child Left Behind, putting an end to standardized testing once and for all?

Since NCLB's inception, teachers and researchers nationwide have complained in books, articles and at national conferences that high stakes tests are ineffective in evaluating student performance and, in fact, detract from learning. However, there has not been the solidarity necessary to make a large enough statement to get the attention of education lawmakers and of the Obama administration.

The courageous teachers in Hawaii have made a resounding statement. Perhaps their vote was the first shot fired in a war that has been a long time coming.

Maybe, in addition to saying no to Race to the Top, the teachers in Hawaii were saying good-bye to No Child Left Behind. Maybe they were saying they will no longer stand for high stakes testing. Maybe they were telling President Obama and Arne Duncan that they will not stand for a failing education system. Maybe they were saying that the testing has to stop.

Maybe they were starting a war that every teacher in America needs to join.

Why compete with education in other countries?

I've never understood America's preoccupation with competing globally in education. Why is it so important for our students to outscore students in China or Taiwan on a standardized test? Will it raise my quality of life, if little Johnny's math grade is higher than his Japanese counterpart in the fourth grade?

Education Week's examination of how American education stacks up with education in other countries sums up the issue this way:

"Much of the debate centers on whether the U.S. education system has slipped from a position of dominance, or is holding steady, in areas deemed crucial to economic security, particularly the STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—and so-called 21st-century learning and communications skills."

Let's see if I have this right. If our students' scores on an arbitrary test are substandard, according to some bureaucratic bean counter, the economic security of the entire nation may be in jeopardy. I can't imagine anything more absurd.

I wonder if we were to focus our energies on creating opportunities to collaborate with other countries on best practices just how much better off all of the world's students might be.

Harvard study misses the mark

I have been known to complain about bad or misinterpreted research. Today, I came upon another flawed study, courtesy of education blogger, Joanne Jacobs.

In a post citing a Harvard study on so-called "great teachers," Jacobs reveals that lengthy research by some Harvard educators shows a connection between what the folks at Harvard refer to as "value-added" teaching and going to college and making money, among other things. The study suggests that if students have teachers who are better than average, then these students will make more money than the students who have had bad teachers.

The Harvard study is based on, brace yourself, standardized test results. A "value-added" teacher is one whose students improve their standardized test score from one year to the next. Students in the study are considered successful if they make more money than students who didn't have so-called "value-added" teachers or if the students with "good" teachers went to college or -- my personal favorite -- didn't get pregnant as a teenager.

Am I the only one who thinks this may be the biggest waste of time researchers have ever put into a study?

Big Brother is destroying American education

George Orwell's 1984 is a cautionary tale about a government that polices everything citizens do, including how they think. The term "Big Brother is watching" was popularized by this classic dystopian novel. Big Brother is the party leader, who does everything possible to eliminate individuality.

Recent comments here at ROLE Reversal, on Twitter, Google+ and other articles and blogs got me to thinking that Orwell's Big Brother and our current government may not be so different. One might argue that the notion that we're being controlled by thought police is absurd, but consider the government's role in education and its impact on educators.

The comment below, left on a blog post about the negative effects of homework, is a perfect example of the thought control that our government is creating with standardized testing:

"Sounds good, but my state says we Must finish x amount of concepts in the year, and be prepared for an end of course exam that determines if they graduate. I need every second of class time and the students need practice to get the ideas into long-term memory."

I hear similar complaints daily in my own school, from colleagues scared senseless that their students won't pass the test, subjecting the teachers to all sorts of state-mandated wrath. Don't standardized tests force teachers to behave like thoughtless automatons, handing out practice test worksheets and homework day after day, as they spout "You must pass, you must pass," mantras at their students? Or do they?

Most readers of Orwell thought his novel was, in fact, cautionary and that his plot was far too outlandish to ever come to fruition.

As we gaze into today's classrooms and see one mind-controlled teacher after another, we must wonder if Big Brother isn't alive and well today, controlling the thoughts and actions of teachers and destroying American education and the futures of our children along with it.

Angering the traditionalists

It seems that I inadvertently upset a colleague. In fact, angered is a more appropriate word.

While the teacher was making students copy nightly homework into an agenda book (yawn), a frustrated student who also has me for a teacher, announced that "Mr. Barnes says homework has no value." Uh-oh.

Now, just to be clear, I do tell students when they ask why I don't assign homework that I don't see the value in it and that they'd be better off reading for pleasure. I always add that other teachers do what they believe is best, and the students should honor that.

My colleague responded with a rather pointed e-mail, suggesting that my philosophy was hurting the entire building.

My initial reaction was to reply with a cyber dart of my own, but I refrained. After further consideration, I decided that the word is finally getting out. Before today, I thought my colleagues weren't listening to my pleas for reason on homework and grades. This was the first signal that they are taking notice.

Hmm, I wonder what I can do next to anger the traditionalists.