I used to think that policy was the solution. And now I think that policy is the problem.
I used to think that people’s beliefs determined their practices. And now I think that people’s practices determine their beliefs.
I used to think that public institutions embodied the collective values of society. And now I think that they embody the interests of the people who work in them.
Richard Elmore, on education, as quoted here
(via the choi)
Learnings of a first-year teacher
In my year-end survey, TFA asked me what I’ve learned about education. Here are a few things I put down:
Socioeconomic status does not prevent students from learning. (I work at a charter with high achievement and growth rates, and a very high free/reduced lunch population).
There’s no silver bullet in education - even policies that I support (charters, alternative certification programs like TFA, extended school day/year) - are only a small part of the solution, and will only work when implemented by competent and passionate administrators/teachers.
We still really don’t know what students know. I’m a believer in the power of data, but I feel like the assessments available to me (as a middle school science teacher) are rather awful - from the CSAP to the SAT 10 to my self-created end of year assessment. So many strategies (incentive pay, student accountability, growth tracking, targeted interventions) depend on high-quality assessments, aligned to standards, and the quality of these assessments needs to improve dramatically.
Probably all obvious truisms to those who study education (and are in the same nebulous pro-reform camp that my school/myself fall into), but I don’t think I really believed any of these things prior to teaching.
I also have a growing belief that the way we hire, train, promote educators in the US is entirely fucked… but more on that later.
KCFR (my local NPR station) had the person in charge of Colorado’s state curriculum on this morning, to talk about what has changed in the new state standards.
The whole interview was a gem (I can’t seem to find it online though), but the definite highlight came when the standard-maker gave an example of what a new 4th grade math standard would look like:
“The new standards are very specific. One example might be that a fourth grader needs to know the difference between the denominator of a fraction, and the nominator.”
