Kevin Blissett: Out of the Cave

Ever wonder if that money you’re shelling out for university so that your kids can one-up the competition is giving you a proper return on your investment? Seth Godin does. In today’s post, Godin provokes me again–in a good way. He’s contending that universities as we know them may be on their way out and bases his opinion on a number of factors, not the least of which is that most–even Ivy League–universities have become mass marketers, and they’re not doing a very good job of it:

1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.

…

Stop for a second and consider the impact of [lack of uniqueness]. By emphasizing mass and sameness and rankings, colleges have changed their mission.

This may very well be true. I just did some quick research and discovered that the percentage of students 18-24 enrolling at U.S. universities from 2000 to 2008 had increased 4.1% (3M more students). One can assume that the percentage difference increases the further back one goes. With more students enrolling each year, it could be that standards and personalization in many schools is being watered down. Costs are another issue:

2. College has gotten expensive far faster than wages have gone up.

[Massive debt] leads to a crop of potential college students that can (and will) no longer just blindly go to the ‘best’ school they get in to.

Godin goes on to explain that universities are manipulating statistics to get a higher ranking in places like U.S. News and World Report. I think he’s absolutely right here:

Why do colleges send millions (!) of undifferentiated pieces of junk mail to high school students now? We will waive the admission fee! We have a one page application! Apply! This is some of the most amateur and bland direct mail I’ve ever seen. Why do it?

Biggest reason: So the schools can reject more applicants. The more applicants they reject, the higher they rank in US News and other rankings.

He goes on to lay out that the correlation between a college degree and success is becoming more tenuous. So what is the solution?

The solutions are obvious… there are tons of ways to get a cheap, liberal education, one that exposes you to the world, permits you to have significant interactions with people who matter and to learn to make a difference. Most of these ways, though, aren’t heavily marketed nor do they involve going to a tradition-steeped two-hundred-year old institution with a wrestling team. Things like gap years, research internships and entrepreneurial or social ventures after high school are opening doors for students who are eager to discover the new.

Godin links to three colleges (St. Johns, Deep Springs or Full Sail) which are doing something completely different and seem to be doing it right.

As for me, I don’t see a complete meltdown; I think universities will adjust to the exigencies of the time. But the adjustment is going to have to be a major one because the cost of university education and its diminishing status and uniqueness is correctly a recipe for disaster.

Photo by dbking

I love reading Seth Godin’s blog; it’s a daily visit I make in my news reader. I enjoy the way he conveys usually deep pearls of wisdom in a few words. In today’s entry, Seth shares the importance of deciding for ourselves who will judge our work. Recommended.

Have the skills teachers need for success changed or evolved over time, particularly as we dig in to the 21st century? Certainly, many are the same, but perhaps some are unique to our current tech savvy age. Andrew Churches, a head of the tech department at his school in New Zealand, offers eight essential skills teachers need in the today’s environment.

Not surprisingly, most of the qualities he mentions are qualities we expect of our students (see, for example, IB learner profile). Modeling for students and collaborating with them are two that stood out for me. Check out the list and see what you think.

A National Institutes of Health study of 550 1st and 2nd grade twins revealed what has been obvious to some for a while: Teaching quality is the single greatest indicator of student learning progress.

Among the identical twins, 42 pairs out of 280 pairs showed significant differences in reading improvement during the year studied, said lead researcher Jeanette Taylor, an associate professor of psychology at Florida State.

In each case, the teachers also had significantly different quality scores. Twins with similarly good teachers got similar scores.

And yet, U.S. schools of education continue to churn out substandard teachers (which is not to say that many excellent teachers are being produced as well). Here is the bottom line: To the degree a school, district or state invests in its teachers, learners will progress to the same degree. In the end it’s not the facilities, resources or PC considerations that get results; it’s having smart, well-trained teachers.

The researchers believe their results showed the best teachers made the biggest difference in learning achievement. Genetic differences between students seemed to disappear in classrooms taught by less effective teachers, because children don’t reach their potential, the researchers found.

Interesting final sentence in the quote above. Could it be that political lobbies prefer that students are equally poorly taught in a misguided attempt to be egalitarian? Surely they don’t think that far ahead; they’re just incompetent.

Give me a core of really good teachers, and I’ll show you a successful school.

Last month the National Governor’s Association for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released the Common Core State Standards, an attempt to standardize K-12 education across the U.S. To date, 48 of the 50 states have adopted the standards, Alaska and Texas electing not to adopt. The final version of the standards is due out by late spring.

It is clear that there is a wide disparity in what students are learning from state to state, and I appreciate the effort to standardize education across the country. According to the Common Core website, the standards are:

• Aligned with college and work expectations;
• Clear, understandable and consistent;
• Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
• Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
• Informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and
• Evidence-based.

I’m having an initial look at the standards now, and I have to admit, I’m pleasantly surprised at first glance. The standards are set out clearly (unlike many sets of standards), and there appears to be ample focus on inquiry and higher order thinking skills and activities while allowing flexibility for teachers to adapt instruction to their teaching styles. Moreover, states are free to adopt, reject, or abandon them as they see fit. Keep in mind, this is a first glance, and I’ll report more once I have a deeper look. I think a states-sponsored initiative such as this is well overdue, and I hope it bears fruit. You can view the draft standards here. Let me know what you think.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that last year’s infiltration into Google’s Gmail accounts by alleged Chinese hackers was actually much broader than was previously reported.

Attackers who breached Google Inc.’s systems last year gained access to computer code for the software that authenticates users of Google’s email, calendar and other online programs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The code was contained in a repository that contained code for Google’s online applications and was also breached, this person said.

Evidently, the hackers in question are not limiting themselves to Google attacks:

The group, which is believed to be Chinese [implications that they are sponsored by the government] and has been identified by investigators by its attack methods, has broadened its victims to include law firms and utility companies, this person said. It’s been penetrating companies at a rate of at least 20-50 new companies a week, this person added.

Outside of hardening one’s own security, what other steps should be taken to put a stop to these activities? As in war, land mines are sometimes used to keep ground forces from advancing. My tech knowledge is insufficient, but I wonder if there are cyber mines which could be strategically placed to give hackers pause before proceeding.

Photo by Reuters

In answer to the question in the post’s title, as an educator, I like to think we are, but it’s increasingly difficult to understand why–if it is the case that we are professionals–that teachers’ unions continue to oppose merit-based pay as per this article from the WSJ. The reader will be hard pressed to name many if any professions in which those who perform the best are not paid higher than others doing the same job but not as well.

The article mentions how Florida’s Governor Crist has just vetoed a merit-based pay proposal for teachers. Of course, the teachers’ unions opposed it.

The legislation—one of the most sweeping of its kind in the nation—would have eliminated tenure for new teachers and required merit-pay plans linking salaries to student learning progress. Unions opposed the measure, saying it would make it harder for Florida to hire good teachers, and that it violated collective bargaining rights.

Isn’t this what most “professionals” expect?  That is, that if I do a good job as a lawyer, doctor, banker, or accountant, I will get a good raise?  If I do a better job than my peers–all other things being equal–I will get paid more than they are? I believe the proposal would help attract good teachers, not make hiring more difficult as the unions aver.  As long as it’s politics as usual in America, you can full well expect a further decline in our primary and secondary public educational institutions.  Meanwhile countries like Singapore, which hires top graduates for teachers and pays and trains them accordingly, will continue leaving us in the dust.

I thought I’d share this article from Joanna Nikas at the NY Times which compiles some of the latest and best sources for free online class resources.  Some of them you may be using already, but there are others you may not have heard of. The mentioned offerings are mainly geared toward upper high school and university students. Take a look.

Photo by magerleagues

I hated the title of this post, but I couldn’t come up with anything else as descriptive, so let’s go with it.

I’m constantly looking for new ways to help teachers via supervision, and I began using the tool below which provided a great jumping off point for improving instruction. What I like about the tool is (a) it’s something different; (b) it’s less threatening to the teacher as the supervisor is mainly focused on the students; (c) it’s fairly subjective as a quantitative tool should be.

It works this way:  The observer takes sweeps of the classroom at 5-minute intervals. During each sweep, he or she spends about 15-20 seconds on each individual student and records the specific type of on-task/off-task behavior the student is engaged in at the time. Here is a shot of the form:

Click to expand.

I won’t interpret the form for you, but there are some clear areas in which there can be improvement. What do you see? I gave the observed teacher the raw form without analysis before our meeting. When we met, she saw some of the same things I did, but not what I considered the most serious. As we discussed the data and worked on improvement goals, I think we both felt that the instrument was valuable for showing us things we might otherwise miss. If you’re in a supervisory role in education, give the form a try and let me know how it works for you.

This is another snippet from an assignment in my master’s class on supervision and professional development, this time on my view of the purpose of supervision:

The purpose of supervision (as it applies to the relationship between a school leader and school teachers) is:

To assist in creating a tone

• A tone of respect
• A tone of inclusion
• A tone of caring
• A tone of professionalism
• A tone of reflection
• A tone of “doing it better”
• A tone of celebration

To assist in crafting a vision

• Where are we versus where do we want to be

To assist in collaboration on goals leading to the vision

To assist in assessing improvement—movement towards the vision—and help in changing, adjusting, reformulating goals for continued improvement

To assist in caring for teachers—not only professionally but personally

To assist in the self-actualization of teachers

• Here I’m alluding to Aristotle’s view that life’s goal is to attain a state loosely translated as happiness but upon inspection refers to fulfilling the measure of our creation—i.e. to be excellent human beings, to live excellently. This comes about as a result of reflecting on our present state and constantly striving for oneness with our ideals. Bringing it back down to earth in the teaching realm, the supervisor can help teachers become “self-actualized” by providing opportunities for constant reflection, reinforcing a common vision of what it is to be an “excellent” teacher, and working together to make that vision a reality. In the process, the supervisor also moves towards self-actualization.

All of these with the goal of educating learners (understanding that defining “educating learners” is the preeminent precursor to all else) and helping them become fulfilled human beings.

Note that with all of these “purposes” I have used words such as assist, help, and collaborate. This speaks to my view that supervision is most effective when it is collaborative. Yes, the school leader sets the tone and gets the ball rolling, but from there I prefer that mission, vision, aims, improvement, policy-making, etc. is collaborative. The problem I have run into with teachers new to my style is that they sometimes find it unsettling initially, that Kevin is not a strong leader because he isn’t dictating to me from on high. My hope is that in time they realize that it takes considerably more leadership and effort to pull people together on a common task than to tell them what to do.

In regards to the reading, in chapters 4 and 5 Glickman spent considerable time on numbers 3, 4, 5, and 6 in my echelon. I was first given pause by the considerable time devoted to knowing my teachers, though it is patently clear that the better I know them, the better I can supervise them. The corollary to this is I cannot expect to treat all of my faculty the same way, as they are sometimes far separated in age, experience, and expertise. The need for tailoring my approach based on these and other factors hit me right between the eyes. The research points out something that is intuitively true but which I hadn’t internalized into my practice.

A further insight I gained was the importance of ensuring that teachers feel secure and of providing proper pastoral care for them. As with students, so with teachers: If a student is having non-academic problems in or out of school, it’s going to affect her performance. Likewise with teachers. Glickman cites Merriam and Clark’s study:

One of Merriam and Clark’s most significant findings was the predominance of work-related learning for both men and women and the evidence that more learning occurs when things are going well in both arenas (work and family life). However, learning that led to a real perspective transformation most often was associated with coping with the difficult times in either work (e.g., being fired) or family life (e.g., losing a parent). Since much of the most significant adult learning appears to be from life experience, the role of the supervisor may be critical in helping teachers to experience growth as an outcome of unsettling life experiences in the professional, personal, or family domains. Although the supervisor need not and should not assume the role of therapist, one implication of the social roles models of adult development is that a teacher’s personal, family, and professional roles interact with and affect each other and need to be addressed holistically by supervision (Glickman 75).