TO GRADE OR NOT TO GRADE, THAT IS THE QUESTION...SO, WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

How did you feel the first time you had a grade attached to you? You know...a letter C, maybe with a + or a -. Or maybe a number, like 82 or 69?

Suppose you had a good grade way back when; did you deserve it? Or, how about a bad grade in 3rd grade? Was your performance really that bad? Well, the teacher must have thought so. How did it affect your view of yourself? Were you the better or the worse because of it?

No Child Left Behind, that wonderful mantra, is still leaving far too many behind...attaching their accumulated standardized test scores to their teachers and their schools, assigning extra homework to the errant teachers and closing those bad, bad schools. But how do these test scores help the individual student from being left behind? They advance or retreat one child at a time.

So, what's really wrong with a grade or a standardized test score? The pundits and experts call them objective scores, as they are thought to be free from subjectivity and less prone to error. OK. So someone who really believes this, please tell me what a D- is, or what's a 72? Is there a teacher or an objective test out there with the wisdom of Solomon who can defend the complete objectivity of the grade or the test score? Anyone? Anyone? I thought not.

So, how do we assure that students possess the needed skills and competencies to succeed? How do we know if they can do quality work? How about we look at their work? Why not put each student, with help from their teachers, parents and mentors, in charge of designing, creating and collecting their best, summative projects, papers, videos, presentations, collaborations, apprenticeships (maybe), designs, solutions, poems, pictures, dreams, improved work,....well you get it: a Personal Portfolio of the Emerging Learner. Authentic assessment, if you will.

Why, with help, most students could create an assessment rubric too, so they can learn to judge the quality of their own work. Of course, they want reviews and input and suggestions from their teachers, fellow students, parents, mentors, Skype-buddies...you name it. In time they may need less help and have far more confidence in their skills.

Wouldn't that be far more meaningful than a number or a grade? Sure, students and teachers could keep a checklist of skills possessed, works in progress or improvements still needed. But, most of us in this profession can look at a student's chosen, best work and immediately tell what they know and what they don't know. Even better, with a little help, so can they.

Think of the time and energy saved from all the irrelevant, meaningless measuring we now do. And no one really, truly knows what it means for each learner. Or, finding something effective to remediate it.

It's time to make some fundamental changes in our educational system. How about replacing grading and testing with Personal Portfolios of Excellence and Progress? When they leave their classes next spring, they can only take their fond memories of their good teachers along with them. How about giving them the gift that keeps on giving: Learning how to learn.

Take a look at the changes we tried at our Saturn School of Tomorrow some years ago. We need more ideas like this one. Real reform. Not a race to the top of something that won't be there next year.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS ISSUE? POST YOUR COMMENTS BELOW.....THANKS!

The Changing Social Media: Right Before Your Eyes!

Passing on the Baton in the Run for Reform!

Think of the millions of educators out there every day running the race against ignorance and lost opportunities for learning among the kids and communities we serve. Is anyone getting tired, cramped up or out of breath? Does anyone need a break?

Well, many of us now have one: Summer! A chance to reflect: What worked? What didn't? What could I have done better than I did? What more do I need to know? What can I change? Where can I find more help? Where are the others who will run this race against ignorance that holds back so many in our schools? I can't do it all myself! How can I better pass the baton?

20 years ago I and a dedicated teaching staff were running in such a race ourselves. We were in the midst of starting up a new school, called the Saturn School of Tomorrow, and dedicated to the simply stated proposition that "More must learn more!" We required a student-designed personal learning plan for every student. We were able to get nearly 100 percent parent involvement in their child's education. We empowered our teachers by giving them greater control (and even compensation!). We used the community for our classroom (art museum, science museum, library, etc.) Technology empowered both our students and teachers. Amazingly, 10,000 visitors from everywhere came to see what we were trying to do, even the President of the United States, who recognized us for our efforts.

Where is that school today? It is gone!

Some have asked "why?" Having served as the leader of that school, I know there were many reasons: the superintendent who supported our project left in the midst, our standardized test scores fell a little, the local newspaper and other district staff, after the hoopla, "fell out of love" with us and what we were trying to do. But key among the reasons was our failure to better "pass the baton." Not only did we need more outside help in our race for needed change, we didn't take enough advantage of the help that was there to take. Why? As one of our teachers said, "It's hard to change a flat tire on your car when it's moving."

The creative teachers who started the school, who invented new and powerful ways to deliver the curriculum, had a difficult time welcoming and inviting in and including the new teachers who joined us in subsequent school years. We no longer had a shared vision, to say nothing of a shared song-sheet, so to speak. All need to be empowered.

We were developing portfolio assessments at the same time we were trying to improve student scores on basic skills using computer-based learning systems. More support was needed from vendors and experts in that area. Why didn't I push for more help from them?

While we captured the attention of many outside our community, we were unable to secure tacit support among those in our own school district. They saw us as different and threatening to the so-called establishment. Why didn't I invite them in to help us, co-teach with us, brainstorm, observe and suggest?

When we learned our standardized test scores were below expectations (whatever that means), our local press, which had been supportive at first, ran every headline they could to make us look worse. One of the paper's columnists criticized a student who misspelled a word when he was showing the visiting President Bush one of our technology tools, never mind that the columnist has a misspelling in that same column. Never fight with those who buy their ink by the barrel! Had I been better at PR, perhaps I could have secured more support from the paper's editorial staff.

We even tried the fine suggestions that fellow blogger and tweeter Shelly Terrell has listed in her call to more "passing the baton" action:

• Mentoring
• Creating a plan
• Creating leadership positions shared by many
• Having appropriate measures in place
• Establishing a vision

But, we needed to do a far better job of monitoring, promoting, including, sharing, telling, asking and passing on. As I look back now I know the students, who did a lot of this for us, could have done even more. Here's their own video they made about their own very different school:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGLeGWLWNcQ

How about that for an unprompted closing statement from the narrator? It still makes my day.

And as I reflect on it, I think more videos like this one and presos from the students would have greatly helped our cause and success. The students can be great runners in this race, too.

In case you're wondering, I do know I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. IF I could find some more passionate, caring, able educators and supporters who want to join in the Race For Reform, and are willing to grab a baton.

On your mark!……

That More May Learn More! Who's the Learner?

The EdWeek blog recently posted an interesting statement by NYU Professor Pedro Noguera in response to where the NCLB accountability must lie:

"(Teachers') unions need to make it very clear that the interests of the teachers are aligned with the interests of the children. Whatever's good for the teachers better also be good for the children."

No matter our professional affiliations, as teachers, our calling makes it clear whom we must first serve: the students.

Far too many students are being left behind. Why? There are so many reasons, it's hard to know where to start. But if we want to focus our lessening resources on where most of the variance in student achievement lies, we must acknowledge what Bill Maher almost got right on his recent TV show when he called out parents for their failure to be part of the solution. He might have said "parents and students!" We know Maher's not the only one who understands this, but his bully pulpit gives him a louder voice.

It's too bad that those words aren't coming from the mouths of our political leaders. Parents, yes! Teachers, yes! But students first. Then the school leaders, the districts, the states, the feds in order of accountability.

Sound like an impossible list? It is! Clearly, there's too much curriculum to be taught today. We are trying to create a cookie-cut student from a growing diversity of students. But, no matter how you cut it, these so-called critically important standardized tests label the schools instead of helping the students.

Yes, for us educators, it's first and foremost the students we serve. But it's a reciprocal issue. Students, with support from their parents, have got to own their own learning. They need to dream more about their futures, build a plan to develop the skills to get there, list and demand the resources they need to learn....in short, design and follow their own unique learning plan, one which addresses their own interests and talents, and also addresses their own needs.

Parents absolutely must be a part of this, or it will continue to fail. Many parents spend more time watching their kids play sports than checking their homework.

Next comes the teacher, and the rest of us in the Village of Learning, who are also here to help all learners succeed. A Personal Learning Plans for each student would cost little or nothing. Yet it would place the major responsibility for learning in the hands of the learner. This is where it must be. Then, it's up to parents, teachers, administrators to encourage, assist, find resources, help assess progress and remain committed to helping each child reach his or her goals.

Professor Noguera from NYU was right in his recent statement. The focus for teachers must be the learner. Maher was right: Parents must help.

But it all starts with the learner committed to learning, and a personal plan to make it happen.

Race To The Top of….What?

Subtitled :How Many School Districts Are There on the Head of a Pin?

I recall a Superintendent in my bygone days who, when queried about our district's insatiable need for more money during hard times, quipped: "I never met a dollar I didn't like." I suspect that applies to many of us, even if we're not running a school district. $4.35 billion in RTTT funding is a lot of dollars to like. So how much of the meager energy we have left after our days and nights in the classroom, or supporting same, can be spent on winning the Race?

What are we to make of these well-meaning feds, from the President to the Secretary of Education, to say nothing of those reading proposals from the likes of us, and who are dangling these golden RTTT carrots in front of us…the "us" being the we being who pull and push the school district's ancient oxcarts, loaded with kids who want to learn? These are the kids who need to learn, but far, far too often aren't learning nearly well enough. These funds won't likely go to the schools, being left behind, nor the students, nor the districts, but to the states!

There are 16,000 school districts in this nation and if there's one out there who doesn't need more money, please raise your hand. Of course, no amount of printing more money would provide enough for even the deserving top ten percent….whoever they are and whatever "deserving" means. If 20 states split the pot, each would get a couple hundred million dollars to split among school districts. If a state had, say 400 districts, the dollars would average $500,000. By the time it gets divided again amongst the schools, the pot of gold has shrunk to a more molecular level, nowhere near enough to address the lofty requirements of the RTTT manifesto.

It wouldn't be so bad if these funds actually helped us leave no child behind. But most of the states, districts, schools and classrooms that need them most probably won't see a nickel of it. Our local school district has to cut 25% from its strapped budget in the next 2-3 years. It would be higher if there weren't temporary federal funds for this year (unless more money is printed). Class sizes of 50 students?Yet, higher standards? More teachers fired and more schools closed? Another "Newsweek" diatribe?

On top of that we are all being asked to ensure all the the children we teach are soon above average. Never mind that the standardized tests that measure this are designed to replicate a normal curve and ensure that only half are average or above. How can that strategy possibly help in leaving no child left behind?

Did I mention that all of this depresses me greatly? I have been looking for a silver lining or at least some answers.

Anyone?

Anyone?

Syllabus or Silly-bus? A New Way to Learning!

One of my teenage sons used to refer to the syllabus in his high school course as a "silly-bus." In many ways, in today's ever-changing world, it still is: "Silly"; a learning "Bus", if you will, and far too often to a new destination, or at least one whose route has changed.

For many of us, the courses we teach today change as we teach them, right in front of our collective nose. The content we chose on Monday has been tweaked by someone on Tuesday, and repackaged before the week is out. What we thought was good and useful gospel may now be considered whimsy, or worse. If we had put our syllabus on a Wiki, it would be no longer what it was. It might be a lot better, too.

Some may claim, for example, that a math syllabus may be exempt. I taught math for many years and Euclid may be as immutable as parallel lines, but just as there's often more than one way to a do a proof or solve a problem, there's more than one way to learn.

I have prepared many a syllabus in my 40+ years of teaching. Like lessons plans, many educational institutions from K-12 to higher-ed require a syllabus. Truth in packaging. Syllabi are the blueprints for our courses, the GPS on where the nuggets lie, the product information booklets for education. We may not offer guarantees when we teach, but there should be full disclosure and recourse.

Take textbooks, too, for example....please! I can't use a textbook anymore. The content changes by the time it's published. Used to be in olden days that the textbook was the syllabus for many teachers.

Here's what American Heritage Dictionary has to say about the word "syllabus":

[Medieval Latin, probably alteration (influenced by Greek sullambanein, to put together) of Latin sillybus, parchment label, from Greek sillubos.]

Here are some non-traditional suggestions on this tradition-bound issue:

1. Invite your students in to help create or modify your course syllabus.

2. What should be included or left out in the syllabus?

3. How should it be learned? What's the best lesson plan for today and tomorrow?

4. What are the effective ways to show what we know? Let students help make the rubric.

5. Can rubrics differ for different learners? How can we all show that we know?

6. How can we gather useful feedback to improve the syllabus for the next group of learners passing through this chartered territory?

In today's ever-changing world, a syllabus needs to be dynamic. Even more, it needs the learners as active participants. Both teachers and students should be owners and doers and helpers. What's a village for, if we all want an educated village?

For education to become better, we must all become co-learners and co-teachers. The Wiki concept is a powerful model to help make that happen. Google, too.

I'll bet there are many more ideas out there on how to make a syllabus come alive with our synergy.

We are all of us smarter than any of us. But we already know that. Let's use it.

Out of the Box and Into the World of Learning

Of all our out-of-the-box educational thinkers, I find Michael Wesch among the most engaging. He uses out-of-the-box ways of showing us his ideas and conjectures about cultural and educational change.

How does it differ? He uses his students at Kansas State to share what both he and they are learning. My guess is that these students contribute greatly to his unique message, with their unique massage of it. Here's an example from his youtube site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ySxrzpP-g&annotation_id=annotation_593591&feature=iv

There's a lesson here for all of us: invite your students in as fellow teachers and learners. Give them the power, and they will give it back to you as an empowered Classroom Learning/Instruction Community (CLIC).

This CLIC is a new kind of clique and kids will find it way-cool to belong. It will liberate them from the box too.

There is virtually no static syllabus any more. As Wesch, and Marshall McLuhan before him, remind us: the medium and the message are changing right before our eyes.....continuously.

We need more teachers and learners in every classroom. Promote your students to a greater team role. They'll do you proud and promote you right back!