I've Been Conned!!

…

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

—The Who

            I suppose that I had it coming.  In the virtual world of Gmail, Facebook and Twitter, there is no shrieking siren or a flashing red light to alert folks that they’re about to fall into a pit of vipers.  Lulled into a false sense of security, I’ve settled into a daily routine of skimming quickly through my e-mail for worthy petitions, calls to action, and clicks to support worthy and benignly apolitical causes (think “kittens and puppies”).  I’m a regular at Change.org, and at the GreaterGood Network.  Looking over these two sites, I think you’ll agree that they do “kittens and puppies” feel-good work that makes life more worthwhile. Every day, I go to The Hunger Site, and click to donate a cup of rice to hungry children all over the world, and then click on the other buttons to donate books, mammograms, trees, pet food, and so on to the other causes on the websites in the GreaterGood Network.  I like participating in these sites; they offer us a chance to “click” and by doing so, participate in acts of “micro-charity”.  Most of their partners are non-profit NGOs, so it’s hard to believe that those innocent clicks might benefit causes that I don’t support.

Picture from DesktopNexus

            It was all over in an instant: a couple of clicks of the mouse, and I had the “too late—oops” reaction when I realized I’d made a truly regrettable error. The innocent subject line was something in the vein of “kittens and puppies”, and so I clicked… and confirmed that I supported “kittens and puppies”. Another window opened asking if I’d support some other worthy “kittens and puppies” cause (click), and another (click)…and another (click).  And suddenly, there it was…the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Trojan horse of all Trojan horses: Join the Fight to Save Great Teachers,  a petition initiated by Students First, the education policy lobby run by faux education expert, Michele Rhee.  Remember her?  The mythologized Bee Eater who got results in the Washington, D.C. schools, and then quickly ducked out when her mayoral patron was evicted from office?  The role model for superintendents of urban schools everywhere, featured in “Waiting for Superman”, as she brags about firing bad teachers with her Machiavellian teacher evaluation system?  

            Here’s what Students First says they’re for which sounds a lot like “kittens and puppies” at first blush:

• Elevating the teaching profession by valuing teachers' impact on students;
• Empowering parents with real choices and real information; and
• Spending taxpayers' money wisely to get better results for students.

But Students First (SF) perpetuates a fraud on families through smoke and mirrors:

• SF narrowly defines the value of teachers’ impact on students, equating impact with large scale test scores.  It devalues the impact of teachers’ relationships with students and their families by minimizing the effects of teacher experience and the trust that families build with teachers over time. It fails to recognize the strength and local knowledge that comes from commitment of and by the school community.
• SF says that choice is good but is blind to the information on the demographic consequences of school choice. A National Education Policy Center study suggests that charters actually increase segregation of students. For many children excluded by charters through “cherry-picking” and “counseling out” there is no choice if they are to get the supports they need. And the children who are disproportionately affected by these tactics? The poor, those with disabilities, English language learners, the very children SF claims to be helping.
• SF promotes responsible use of taxpayers’ money, but ignores the shell games played by commercial charter operators to profit at public expense.  Hedge fund investors capitalizing on the “crisis in education” have joined the fray.  Public school districts lose in this tug-of-war for resources.

            Using social media like Change.org and The Petition Site.com, Students First is selling their agenda by stealth.  Their taglines are all “kittens and puppies”: “Every student deserves to attend a great school”, “Pay effective teachers what they deserve”, “Join the fight to save great teachers”, “Pass the DREAM Act to give every student a chance at the American Dream”.  They are using progressive-sounding phrases and twisting their meanings to serve their very un-progressive ends.  As we get closer to re-authorizations of ESEA (aka NCLB), and IDEA, don’t be surprised if Students First begins to claim a wellspring of support from these misleading petitions.  

Image copied from Facebook by K. Kosobud

            So, I’ve been conned.  Bamboozled.  Seduced by “kittens and puppies”. Snookered.  Fallen into the pit of vipers.  Learn from me.

            And remember, a snake may shed its old skin...but underneath it's still a snake.  (Thanks to S.F. for this bon mot).

 

Kathleen Kosobud is temporarily retired from her teaching career as a special educator while completing her Ph.D. at Michigan State University.  She blogs for the Learning Disabilities Association of Michigan at http://ldamiexchange.blogspot.com, and for her own amusement at http://backburner-nkk.blogspot.com. She has the distinction of being one of the first National Board Certified Teachers (EA/Generalist) in the U.S.

What I have concluded

NOTE: This was written before the 2008 elections and never published.  I re-read my thoughts and decided that they're still worth publishing.

I am trying to stay very upbeat about this election.

I have come to the conclusion that Sen. McCain doesn't know the difference between autism and Down Syndrome based on his remarks about Gov. Palin's role in his (imagined) future presidency, where he appears to have decided that it doesn't matter. I assume that he is past educating, based on his age, but I remain open-minded and would encourage Madeline and George Will to call on him, and set him straight about this misapprehension.

I also can see how there could be a plank in Sen. Obama's platform that addresses the funding of research for autism, but neglects to pay any attention to other disabilities, although I'd encourage him to extend his friendships to include families of children with a broader range of (dis)abilities.

"Journey into Dyslexia", Standardized Education, and the Need for "Shop Class"

I'm watching this scene on HBO right now -- Steven J. Walker who manufactures wood pellets (to fuel a special type of woodstove) is telling the story of his painful experience as a kid with dyslexia, except for high school shop class and a great shop teacher. He breaks into sobbing tears as he tells how the school district discontinued shop classes and sold off all the equipment, which ultimately leads to his starting the pellet business. Well, tech ed has come a long way, but the emotional attachment that this man conveys is the one constant.
 

The documentary is "Journey into Dyslexia", now showing on HBO. It's a collage of authoritative, narrative and personal perspectives on learning disabilities involving reading. One of the talking heads is Guinevere Eden, a neuro-scientist whose studies of brain imaging confirm differences in how people with dyslexia process the written word.  Another is David Connor, a disability studies scholar, who discusses inclusive education as a civil right, and suggests that although others may conceive of dyslexia as "disability" he prefers to consider it a natural part of human variance. Still another is Jonathan Mooney, who engages the rebel in me as he rails at the dismissive attitudes of the many unsympathetic adults with whom he dealt while in school. The overall theme of the documentary is that this kind of human variance (dyslexia) leads to such positive phenomena as entrepreneurial risk-taking, creativity, toughness and perseverance and other great things. But, I notice that the people with dyslexia featured in this documentary also talk about how painful it was to grow up with dyslexia. I know from my own experiences (as a teacher and a mother) that many kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities are not nearly so resilient. I think I should probably re-watch this film and seriously consider its narrative, and counter-narratives.
 

When my son entered high school (he has language-based learning disabilities), he and his one best friend, a boy with autism, ended up at two different schools. He was crushed. The deal I made with him was that if he could successfully make it through a year at the big high school (a huge adjustment in itself), I'd entertain the idea of his "dual-enrollment" the following year at the big high school he had to go to and the small alternative high school where his friend attended. Dual enrollment meant that he would use his lunch hour to take a bus from one school to the other.  It meant that he had to take care of responsibilities at each school while he was there.  And, it meant that he would have to manage his obligations at each school with limited support from teachers. As an incentive for toughing the year out, we went through the course catalog for the big high school and picked some CTE classes that were in areas of his interests. So he happily took Computer Assisted Design (CAD), TV production, Know Your Auto, and Intro to Electronics.  For his freshman year, he only took three of the four core academics to make room for the CTE courses.  That year, he passed all his classes, and discovered that he had become a leader and self-directed learner in CAD. (The last time I recalled having teachers make favorable remarks about his school accomplishments was when his third grade teacher told me that he was the "go-to" artist for drawing sharks and jellyfish during their unit on oceans. Kids with all manners of learning disabilities often experience a huge praise deficit. Rick Lavoie's video-talks give a great deal of insight about this.)

The following year, even though his 9th grade science teacher recommended he take Intro to Biology (scornfully called "Science for Dummies" by my special education colleagues), we suggested that he be allowed to take "Foundations of Science" at the alternative school, instead. This interdisciplinary, experiential science course had kids "doing science" and reporting out on their findings, using a variety of technologies, and much more tantalizing than "Science for Dummies". He also took courses in Film Studies at the alternative school and, the following year, transferred out of the district and into a technical middle college at our local community college. He achieved a high school diploma, an Associate's degree, and tech certification in digital media production at the middle college, and finished a B.A. in the field at a neighboring university. He now works part-time as a camera-person for a community television station, and is building a solid resume of his experience.

Career and Technical Education saves lives. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true.

Unfortunately, in this age of standardization, core curriculum, and a push to make all children "college ready", CTE has taken real hits.  Here in Michigan, the enrollment reports for CTE courses have been on a downward trend since 2003 (the data only goes through 2007, currently). People in the field report that each year, there are fewer enrollments, and fewer programs in the high schools.  And they attribute the decline to a devaluation of skilled labor--the kinds of skills that are taught in CTE programs.  The other day, on the companion blog to the public radio program "on Being" was a post "The Work We Value, The Intelligence We Ignore: Is the Work that Made America Great Valued Any Longer? It features the comments of Mike Rowe, the creator and host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel.  In his testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Rowe said: "I believe we need a national PR Campaign for Skilled Labor. A big one. Something that addresses the widening skills gap head on, and reconnects the country with the most important part of our workforce." It's not that we don't need the skilled trades, it's that we have so devalued them in the rush to make all children "college-ready", that kids who would benefit from learning their academic content through hands-on, authentic work experiences are no longer able to carve out time in their schedules to take these courses.

On the MAISA website, there are samples of what districts have done to make math courses more accessible, and there are samples of courses and curriculum crosswalks that show how academic content can be embedded in CTE with resulting student success. I've focused on the math, since this field has been dominated by a very rigid and didactic structure--the sequence of Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 seems to be unshakable--not so much because they are "naturally" sequential and dependent on each other, but because of some sort of religious adherence to this being the "one right way" to teach mathematics.

Derrick Fries, Ph.D., a professor at Eastern Michigan University, has collected data that shows a strong association between poor student performance in 8th grade math and those likely to fail to complete Algebra 2.  Since a Michigan diploma is contingent on completion of a semester of Algebra 2, this means that we can predict which students are at high risk of dropping out, or failing to attain a diploma.  If we can alter these outcomes by offering more tangible, work-related courses with the core academic content embedded, we can improve graduation rates.  If Mike Rowe is correct, we also are filling a gap in the labor pool by creating a new generation of skilled laborers.

We know that young people who fail to complete high school are more than likely to face lives of poverty.  We also know that the dropout rates for students with disabilities are disproportionately higher than for the general population. And, we also know that many students with a variety of disabilities flourish in classes where they are able to learn by doing.  CTE classes are prime examples of learning by doing.

I repeat, Career and Technical Education saves lives.

I am "on the back burner"

To my public educator friends and their allies:

For many years, I have been an active and passionate supporter of a variety of social justice causes.  I support public education, and believe that every child should have an opportunity to learn from a skilled and caring faculty.  I believe that the public funding of health care should be one of the social obligations of an advanced society such as ours. I think that every child should be a valued child, and should have access to nutritious food, a safe environment, and universal preschool.  My e-mail is filled with requests for money, support of causes, and calls to action of all kinds.  Usually, I am happy to receive these requests.  In my more idle moments, I'm even happy to read through all the responses to calls for action.  But, for now, I am putting myself "on the back burner".  I am overwhelmed. I can't respond, don't want to tweet (yet), and I just don't have enough psychological space for all of this. I know, I could just delete. These days I feel a little like "I have no mouth and I must scream".  Bear with me.

Right now, my days are spent with my daughter who is recovering from a c-section and a sudden failure of her immune system--a chronic and permanently cycling condition.  My beautiful little grandson, and his older brother and sister will be leaving Michigan as soon as he is old enough to travel. His mother and father are going through the process (an antiseptic term, if ever there was one) of foreclosure and bankruptcy, the result of a cascade of events:  the devaluation of career and tech ed in high schools and continued undermining of full time teaching at community colleges (my son-in-law, a dedicated auto mechanics instructor, has become part of the "working poor"--working two jobs, but not making enough to support his family), unexpected and catastrophic health expenses (and health insurance that failed to cover them), and the economic collapse in Michigan.

Public education has been a huge part of my adult life.  I attended a public high school, and three public universities.  My children also attended public schools.  I hope that my grandchildren will also attend public schools, where they will be part of a rich and diverse group of children, learning to appreciate each other for the valuable contributions that they make to each others' lives.  I hope that my grandchildren will make friends based on the "content of their character", not the color of their skins, or the languages that their families speak at home.  I hope that my grandchildren will have teachers like all of you, who know that children are placed in your charge to help make the world a kinder and more compassionate place in which to live, where people pitch in to help and share with each other, even when resources may be limited.  I hope that my grandchildren learn that voting, and active participation in a representative democracy is a serious, but rewarding responsibility because it ensures that our elected officials will keep all of us in their heads and hearts.

These days I read my e-mail to get basic news or to take care of business.  I scroll through Facebook and comment on the best and the worst.  I occasionally look at the RSS feeds I used to have time to read.  I write from the depths of my heart, on issues about which I can be passionate when I have time, or when I just can't stay silent. And, I edge forward on writing my dissertation, which seems increasingly irrelevant in a world where teacher education holds so little value.

So, keep sending the calls, but leave me out of the responses.  I'll respond when I can, and trust that the rest of you will carry the burden when I can't.  That's what sharing and cooperation is all about...and I know you know how to share and cooperate.

Kathleen Kosobud
On the Back Burner--http://backburner-nkk.blogspot.com/

Waiting for Superman in Michigan

I know that NBC's hype of the release of "Waiting for Superman" has stirred up feelings in a large number of dissatisfied "customers" of the "education market". Since I don't believe that public schooling should be market-driven, but rather serves a common democratic good of preparing an informed citizenry, I felt the need to address some of the complaints and claims that I saw today in the SpecialEdLawMichigan listserv. These revolved around teacher preparation, teacher qualifications, and teacher quality. Notice that "teacher" loomed largest in the finger-pointing. The most publicly visible, teachers take an awful lot of unearned abuse. So here's what I posted in response to the comments, mostly about process, but a little about systems.

I served as co-chair of the Professional Standards Commission for
Teachers until I began my doctoral studies in special education. This
was nearly ten years ago, and we recommended the addition of the
"Seventh Standard" for technology. At that time, there were teachers
who still did not use computers for record-keeping, for integration of
technology into instruction, or, most importantly, to create access to
the general curriculum. As one of the members of the ad hoc team
looking at the standard, and as a special educator and parent of a child
with learning disabilities, I advised the team to be sure to include
universal design, and assistive technology as part of this standard.

Because I served on this commission, I learned a few things that I can
bring to bear on this conversation.

First, elementary teachers come out of their initial preparation with
one or two education classes in almost any content area within their
programs. This means that they have had minimal exposure to the
pedagogical (teaching skills) aspects of language arts, social studies,
science and math. So, this needs to be factored into the equation when
one considers where to focus one's energy on improving the education
system. There is only so much time that colleges can expect students to
remain dependent on loans, financial aid, and their parents.

Second, some programs have one or two courses in meeting the needs of
diverse learners, including students with special educational needs.
Others, including MSU, have integrated special education content into
every education course taught in the elementary teacher education
program. I was one of many doctoral students working with faculty at
MSU in the teacher education program over a five year period to analyze
the goals of each course and to identify the best researched practices
in special education to help instructors integrate special education
concerns into their courses. Susan Peters, Ph.D. led this initiative. We
also identified teaching resources (videos, speakers, web content) to
support their instruction. Instructors in elementary education come from
a broad range of backgrounds, and so the deliberate infusion of special
educational content is one of the ways to improve the general level of
knowledge for both faculty and students in the program. It probably
doesn't go the full distance toward "fixing the system" but it is a
promising start, since it attaches knowledge about special education to
the context in which education students will apply it.

Third, when new teachers enter the classroom, they have two years of
general college coursework (a major and a minor), and about two years of
a mixture of education coursework and additional general courses. They
also have varying amounts of experience with teaching in a classroom.
Some programs embed classroom experiences throughout their education
courses, others offer the minimum required classroom contact for student
teaching. That's what you get in a new teacher. (See my comment about
remaining dependent, above).

Fourth, teachers are trained in 4 to 5 years, and shell out tuition for
that period of time, just like many starting college-educated
professionals. Many are in debt, because they are unable to work while
they are student teaching. We also require them to continue their
learning throughout their teaching years in order to maintain their
credentials. One of the least-supported areas of learning for most
teachers is the professional development offered by their school
districts. Funding is low, and priorities may reflect the need to
bolster test scores, rather than more elusive things such as the success
of all students upon completion of their schooling. Districts are faced
with the dilemma of providing qualified substitutes so that teachers can
attend professional conferences, and in-house professional development
can range in relevance and quality from trivial to vital, depending on
the leadership (principals and central office administrators) within the
district. Many districts use data to enhance the academic skills of
their teachers but offer very little to enhance their pedagogical skills
(how to teach diverse children, e.g.)

My point is: if you are dissatisfied with the skill sets that teachers
bring to bear for children with special educational needs, make sure
that you support efforts to improve their opportunities for learning.
Within every academic workshop offered by a district, there needs to be
some support for how teachers can differentiate for diverse learners,
what the district can offer in universally designed curriculum
materials, and how to support access to the curriculum through IEP
development. This responsibility cannot fall entirely on the shoulders
of teachers.

Oh, and as a side note, I was an AP student in high school, a National
Merit Letter recipient, graduating with high distinction from UM, and
qualified as one of the first National Board Certified Teachers in the
country, certifying as an Early Adolescent Generalist while teaching in
a special education resource room, because there wasn't a certificate
for teachers in special education. Smart and talented people do go
into teaching and it is our job, I believe, to encourage them to enter
the profession, to support their continued growth and service to the
profession, and compensate them appropriately for their work.

Kathleen Kosobud, M.A., N.B.C.T., A.B.D. (all but dissertation)