Finding Excellent Teachers

Movin' on up!

2010-02-17T11:54:00.000-08:00

So I am moving in so many ways right now. First, I will be joining ACE - the American College of Education to help more teachers realize their full potential which means I am transitioning out of ABCTE. After 5 years of working to ensure that every child has a great teacher I am ready for a new challenge.

We are moving to Texas - and I will be closing down the Edbiz and ABCTE blogspot brands and combining into one blog to make life a little easier. Moving it all to http://www.virtulearning.blogspot.com - so please join me on that blog and we will continue to focus on the incredible opportunities that await students who venture into learning in the virtual world!Thanks for following me and please join me at the Virtual Learning blog!

Big Hairy Audacious Goal!

2010-01-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

I know I am phasing this blog out in favor of edbizstrategy - but the BHAG we have going on at ABCTE is too good not to share right now - please take a look at track our progress on twitter and youtube as well.

Writing and Math Help

2009-12-31T08:59:00.001-08:00

People struggle with writing and math. Our teacher candidates at ABCTE are no exception and is one of the reasons why our pass rate is so low. Recently I became aware of Straighterline - an online college course provider that finally brings these courses in at a reasonable cost - and with live online tutoring.

It will be interesting to see if it helps move the needle on our pass rate -

Cyber Monday!

2009-11-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

ABCTE - always on the cutting edge of innovation is providing a special Cyber Monday deal of $150 off teacher certification through midnight on Monday - please help us spread the word.

Education Blogs

2009-11-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

The time has come that I actually have to admit I have too many blogs. So this is the last post here.

If you are interested in Teacher Certification or other Education Reform issues- please see the ABCTE blog
If you are interested in Virtual Learning or Online Schools - please see the new Edbizstrategy blog
If you are interested in Education Software, Test Prep and other cutting edge learning resources go to the Scholarity blog

And of course you can still follow Dave Saba on Twitter and Scholarity on Twitter.

THANKS LOYAL FANS!!

Charter School Resources

2009-11-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Having served on the board of a charter school and recently attended the NACSA meeting, it occurred to us that charter schools could use more help. Since we are a non-profit and focused on teaching, we felt like we could provide more resources to charter schools in the area of teacher quality.

So today we are launching CharterTeacher.com with the goal of working more closely with charter schools to ensure the every charter school student has a great teacher. To that end we have built this website so that it covers the various areas that impact teacher quality:

Teacher Recruitment: there is a job posting section so that charter schools can find the talent they need and a teacher resume posting area so that dedicated teachers can find the charter school that fits their skill-set.
Teacher Preparation: for the most part, charter schools can hire the talent they need and don’t have to worry about licensing. But making sure that a person is ready to teach and really knows their subject is an area where ABCTE can help.
Teacher Certification: some states require certification and some parents want their child to be taught by a certified teacher. ABCTE certifies teachers so why not take advantage of a rigorous program to certify your charter school teachers.
Professional Development: our resources, including phonics based reading instruction, classroom management, dealing with parents and subject matter workshops can help you improve your teaching workforce.
Charter Teacher Forum: the more you talk to charter school teachers and administrators the more you realize they really need more ways to share ideas and solutions. Our own ABCTE Teachers have a very strong online community through our forums so we know this charter school forum will get a lot of traffic.

So help us spread the word today so that all the great charter school administrators and teachers know about this new resource, provided for free, from ABCTE to build an even stronger charter school community!

Alternative Teacher Certification is part of the solution

2009-10-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Secretary Arne Duncanhit the one-two punch of teacher preparation this week focusing in on how poorly are teachers are prepared in general and then how they need a greater emphasis on math and science if we are to succeed as a nation.

“By almost any standard, many if not most of the nation’s 1,450 schools, colleges, and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st century classroom”

So very true.

Increased subject matter expertise, more diversity in experience and culture, greater emphasis on recruiting top performers and more field based training - all point to alternative teacher certification like ABCTE as a big part of that solution.

Teaching Job Dissatisfaction

2009-10-27T13:38:00.000-07:00

A lot of press about teacher satisfaction based upon the Public Agenda teaching job satisfaction survey that said the 40% of teachers are disgruntled. Yet another on many piercing alarms about the sorry state of our education system. That means there are 1.3 million disgruntled people in the United States which means the 22 million students are adversely affected by a teacher who is not happy in their job.

Wow. Can’t understand why we have an education problem in this country.

Only 23% describe themselves as idealist saying that good teachers can lead all students to learn and 37% say they are content – which at first I took to mean complacently average but it turns out they actually enjoy their jobs.

The number of teachers is staggering and the problems are real. We need better principals, we need better working conditions in our schools and we need to redesign the job to leverage the content and the ideal so that we can help the disgruntled move on to other professions. Sounds like a job for a union.

But their too busy fighting charter schools, vouchers, alternative teacher certification, fighting for smaller class sizes so that we can hire more teachers who are not right for the profession and delving into social issues.

Ask any business leader if they can run a great business where people are the product when 40% of them don’t like their chosen profession and you will get a resounding no.

One more data point – one more disaster for students.

Teacher Preparation

2009-10-26T10:02:00.001-07:00

I spent a little of last week meeting in Utah on their performance based teacher certification program - the ARL. They are really pleased with the people that become teachers through that program. There are no seat time requirements or minimum hours required. You demonstrate you have the knowledge, through a program like ABCTE, and you can become a teacher. Meanwhile, down in Louisiana, they created an alternative program that requires enough university based credits to be one couse shy of a Master's.

Swift and Able has a great blogpost summarizing the recent arguments on teacher preparation and letting us know that ed schools have not changed in a hundred years.

Even with pressure coming from Secretary Arne Duncan, I don't think they will change now unless they get enough competition from groups like ABCTE, that they realize they have no choice.

Charter School Teachers and Virtual

2009-10-22T08:06:00.001-07:00

NACSA held a pretty good conference here in Utah this week. A lot of talk about holding charter schools accountable including how to replicated great charter schools and close the weak. Virtual charters were a large part of the discussion since charter authorizers have to figure out ways to ensure that they can manage the growth in online learning.

That lead to some revelations on the insanity that in US charter laws. The first that obviously affects ABCTE teachers is that in some states there are requirements that all virtual teachers be state certified – sometimes at a higher percentage than in brick and mortar schools. The second is that seat time takes precedence over subject matter mastery for students.

Both are ridiculous. Online learning is supposed to fully leverage great talent regardless of geographic location. If a great physics teacher in Pennsylvania is available to inspire future scientists in Utah – they shouldn’t have to jump through hoops in all 50 states to become a teacher.

The real beauty of online learning is truly differentiated instruction. But in our system, if the student masters algebra in 3 months, they don’t get credit unless they sit in front an algebra course for 180 days.

Our laws need to help technology work to increase learning – not hold it back so that the adults can feel better.

Great Math Teachers

2009-10-19T10:09:00.001-07:00

Edtrust always cuts right to the bone when it comes to education problems in this country and for that they should be commended. They take the data and provide no-nonsense analysis and solutions.

If the NAEP scores in math are stagnant, especially for those in high poverty schools, and teaching has the number one impact on student achievement, then we need more great math teachers. Instead we continue to use unqualified math teachers in the schools that need them the most.

The money quote:“In this year’s assessment, eighth-graders assigned to teachers who majored in mathematics in college scored ten points higher than those whose teachers did not major or minor in the subject—the equivalent of one year’s worth of learning.”

So if we can get teachers who know math into classrooms, we can truly advance. Instead we continue to force 40% of our high poverty students to get their math instruction from someone who doesn’t actually know math.

ABCTE has 1,179 math and science experts working through our program and 551 already teaching in 9 states. Imagine what we could do if more states accepted our teachers.

Eduwonk, Flypaper and NACSA

2009-10-16T07:40:00.001-07:00

Both Flypaper and Eduwonk pick up the New York Times story on alternative teaching. Been a great week for ABCTE even while I am down with the flu (not the H1N1 variety).

I am heading to NACSA in Salt Lake City next week to talk charter schools - we will be presenting at the conference on teacher certification. 15% of ABCTE teachers teach in charter schools and we are looking to help out even more. In a few weeks we will launch TeachCharters.com to help out even more with charter school teacher job postings, teacher resume posting, professional development and mentoring for teachers. Pretty exciting stuff!

Have a great weekend!

ABCTE Teachers in the New York Times!

2009-10-14T18:23:00.000-07:00

How about this! ABCTE teachers featured in a New York Times article about skilled professionals becoming teachers. Features two of our best - Ron Halverson a former Hewlett-Packard engineer from Idaho teaching special ed and Bill Deloach from Missouri teaching Physics!

Help spread the word - ABCTE Teachers in the New York Times - we have arrived.

Governor Jeb Bush: see you there?

2009-10-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I am speaking at the Excellence in Education conference this week and hope to meet you there! If you have not signed up - don't miss it. A lot of great stuff and great networking.

Excellence in Action 2009
Winning the International Education Arms Race

Last Chance to Join Jeb Bush at Excellence in Action

Join hundreds of passionate advocates and policy experts in Washington, D.C. this week on Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9, to discuss strategies to transform education in your state and across America. Here is what awaits you at our second annual summit on education reform:

Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida, shares the stunning turnaround of education in Florida.

Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia – the first woman in history to hold that position – shares the vision for excellence in education Down Under.

Peje Emilsson, education innovator and entrepreneur from Sweden, tells the revolutionary approach of “the Knowledge School” (Kunskapssklan).

James Tooley, world-renowned scholar, offers insights into his groundbreaking research on private education for the poor in India, China and Africa.

Mary Matalin and James Carville share their experiences in the world of policy and politics, as well as their outlook on the future of education in America.

Other Featured Speakers:

Jeanne Allen, Byron Auguste, Tony Bennett, Michelle D. Bernard, Mitchell Chester, Clayton Christensen, John Chubb, Jon Cohen, Bill Coley, Robert Enlow, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Aimee Rogstad Guidera, Jonathan Hage, Ric Hanushek, Rick Hess, Lance Izumi, Tim Keller, Joel Klein, Matt Ladner, John Legg, Patricia Levesque, Tom Luce, Neal McCluskey, Steve Moore, Vicki Murray, Eric Osberg, Paul Pastorek, Dana Perino, Gary Phillips, Michelle Rhee, Gerard Robinson, Chip Rogers, Ariela Rozman, Dave Saba, Adam Schaeffer, Susan Schaeffler, Eric Smith, Kate Walsh, Will Weatherford, Gene Wilhoit, Joe Williams

A full agenda for Excellence in Action 2009 can be found online at ExcelinEd.org.

Registration:

To learn more about Excellence in Action and receive details on travel and accommodations, please visit ExcelinEd.org.

• Summit Registration - $399
• Summit Registration, Government rate - $199
• Single day registration for Thursday, October 8, 2009 - $209
• Single day registration for Friday, October 9, 2009 - $229

Online registration is currently closed, but interested individuals can register onsite on Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9, at the Capital Hilton.

If you would like to register onsite, send the Foundation for Excellence in Education an email at: info@excelined.org, with the subject “Onsite Registration” and include your contact information and number of guests attending.

Washington State: looking for teacher certification options

2009-10-02T09:09:00.000-07:00

We’re seeing a lot of news and chatter coming out of Washington State that all points to the fact that they could really use ABCTE.

This summer, there was the teacher shortage related article in the Tacoma News Tribune, saying that public schools in the state were looking overseas to hire teachers and other staff. We responded with a letter to the editor, explaining that in a time of such high unemployment, school districts could give those jobs to talented experts if there were a more flexible way—like ABCTE—for them to get certified.

Next, we saw residents from Washington state cross over into Idaho for information sessions we held in Coeur d’Alene last month. These are people who want to teach in Idaho now using ABCTE certification and some of them are hoping Washington will eventually accept ABCTE certification in their public schools so that they can use it to teach in their own community, rather than in a neighboring state.

Finally, a writer in Seattle this week included ABCTE in a top ten list of ways to solve the education problem, saying that require candidates to pass our tests would be one way for districts to “stop hiring poorly-educated individuals for teaching positions.” Our tests are not easy—most candidates take 8 to 10 months to prepare and pass our rigorous exams, which cover not only the subject an individual wants to teach but professional teaching knowledge as well. This means that our candidates have proven that they not only know their subject but how to teach it as well, by mastering topics such as pedagogy, assessment and classroom management.

So Washington, what are you waiting for?

School administrators, please let education leaders know that you want ABCTE’s help in filling positions in math, science and other subjects, with experts. We have people with a PhD in physics [ABCTE teacher video] or a degree in chemistry [ABCTE teacher video], for example, who are now teaching these subjects in other states. They are bringing their expertise and real world experience into the classroom—who wouldn’t want their students learning a subject from a talented, tested individual with a degree in that very subject?

Legislators, we’d like to talk with you about proposing a bill that would allow ABCTE certified teachers to teach in your state, so that they don’t have to leave the state or take thousands of dollars in college courses in order to have a classroom of their own. There are talented engineers in your state who are looking for work or who want to shift into a second career—they could be teaching math and science, helping the shape your state’s future.

Parents, students and other residents, please write to your state leaders and let them know that you want ABCTE.

If there’s anything we can do to help, please email us at contact@abcte.org.

Vote for Teacher Scholarship

2009-09-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the ABCTE scholarship contest on Twitter. We asked aspiring teachers to tell us why they want to teach--the catch was, they had to do it on Twitter, which limits you to 140 characters. We have narrowed it down to three finalists.

VOTE TODAY ON WHO SHOULD RECEIVE THIS TEACHER SCHOLARSHIP!!

Liberating Learning book review in Heartland's School Reform News

2009-09-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

I was so impressed with the Politics of Blocking outlined in Chubb and Moe's book - Liberating Learning that Heartland asked me to do a book review. You can find it here.

Jay Matthews on Alternative Teacher Certification

2009-09-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Jay Matthews has a quick ABCTE plug in the Washington Post this morning. If you have not been following it, he told the story a few weeks back about a gifted teacher who was frustrated by the bureaucracy involved with becoming a licensed teacher. To be blunt, if Jay had not inquired, this man would still be battling the powers that be.

Today’s post mentions ABCTE as a way for more Maryland teachers to get into teaching. We came very close to applying in Maryland before but they had a 4-6 week internship that was not possible for the mid career professionals that come into our program. So we went to work with other states.

It is a sad part of state teacher certification rules. States try to become more innovative but always get in their own way. They end up creating more rules that make it impossible for anything but the current processes to be able to apply. Case in point is Louisiana which spent the last 16 months trying to craft new rules and this supposedly innovative process requires alternative certification programs to have 32 hours of course work. That is just 2 classes shy of a master’s. Wow – so innovative I can hardly stand it.

So we appreciate education reporters like Jay Matthews ensuring that the public take a good hard look at a process that just doesn’t make sense.

The Best School

2009-09-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

Last night I was invited by the Education Equality Project to a screening of 2 Million Minutes, The 21st Century Solution and it was a really great night.

First, the film is about The Basis Schools. I have blogged about Basis before and had the honor of touring this school and meeting with the founders. These schools are so amazing and deliver such incredible curriculum that we should have a thousand more of these schools. If we did, we would regain our position amongst the educational leaders of the world – and that is not an exaggeration. Sadly, the don't fit the "foundation" mold for receiving funding (not unlike ABCTE), so they cannot expand. Which is odd, because I thought the point of funding education innovation was to fund groups that don't fit the mold. Irony - pretty ironic sometimes.

It was great so see so many education reform groups out to support this great work. The capstone was pretty great as well. We had the Reverand Al Sharpton and Speaker Newt Gingrich speak after the film. They are traveling the country, at the request of President Obama, raising awareness of how bad the achievement gap really is in this country. It is humorous and moving to see two people so diametrically opposed in opinion come together for such a great cause.

If you have a chance to see the movie and see Sharpton and Gingrich together, it will make you work harder for educational reform in this country.

Let the Debunking Continue: Learning Styles

2009-09-15T06:43:00.001-07:00

Our founding president at ABCTE, Kathy Madigan, used to bristle (to put it mildly) at the mention of “learning styles” telling us the research just did not support trying to teach to different learning styles. Now one of my favorite cognitive scientists, Dr. Dan Willingham from UVA is in the Post to discuss the issue and tell us that the research doesn’t support the fact that kids learn in different ways.

Love the money quotes from this article:

“Some lessons click with one child and not with another, but not because of an enduring bias or predisposition in the way the child learns. The lesson clicks or doesn’t because of the knowledge the child brought to the lesson, his interests, or other factors.”

“When you think about it, the theory of learning styles doesn’t really celebrate the differences among children: On the contrary, the point is to categorize kids.”

“Learning styles has become unquestioned dogma among many educators, despite the utter lack of evidence to support it.”

Huh. That never happened in K12 education before has it?? This is perhaps the most difficult part of education reform – tradition and unquestioned dogma always win over actual evidence.

Also a great quote from one of the comments at the end of the article:

“If I present the material three different ways, people assume that the kid got it the third way, instead of getting it because they got the same information three times.”

As comedian Dane Cook says – it’s funny, cause it’s true.

21st Century Skills - debunked yet again

2009-09-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

Jay Greene does it again with a great link to Sandra Stotsky's review of the latest in the 21st Century Skills push. From Jay's Blog - -

"Sandra Stotsky has an excellent review in the current issue of The Weekly Standard of Tony Wagner’s book, The Global Achievement Gap.

Here’s the money quote:
It is disingenuous to imply that the development of analytical thinking and effective oral and written communication (goals of the lyceum in ancient Greece) are new to the 21st century. American education schools and their satellite networks of professional development providers heavily promoted such “21st-century skills” as critical thinking, problem solving, and small group work throughout the 20th century.

If our teaching corps hasn’t yet been able to figure out how to translate these buzzwords into effective classroom lessons, what does this tell us about the teaching skills of our very expensive standing army of teacher-educators, either to prepare teachers properly in the first place or to get them up to snuff after they’ve failed in the field?…

Evidence-free rhetoric in support of reducing academic content in the schools, diluting academic standards for K-12, and eliminating large-scale academic testing, has found a receptive audience across the country among those who don’t want any form of real accountability. Unfortunately, the valuable skills misidentified as 21st-century skills cannot be taught and assessed without a strong emphasis on academic substance, standards, and objective assessments–as academic researchers know.

Wagner is the latest in a long line of educational pied pipers leading an uncritical and growing mass of school administrators and teachers into a curricular wilderness. And this latest book is just the current manifestation of the goal driving most of our education schools and professional development providers–how to reduce the academic content of the curriculum while claiming to enhance it–this time in the name of closing the “gap,” or providing worker bees for this century’s employers."

So very true.

Inspired Teaching

2009-09-14T06:27:00.001-07:00

Trying to change education when people cling to ancient rituals (like current teacher certification rules) can be discouraging. What we look for to keep us going is adults in the system who aren’t focused on what they want but are truly focused on the. So it was great to sit down with the Washington Post on Sunday morning with a great cup of coffee and enjoy this piece in the opinion section. It is not written by a think tank or someone representing the many opposing groups in education or a researcher who once again found no statistical difference between policy A or policy B. It is written by Nancy Schnog who is an English teacher finding the inspiration to continue teaching even when adults in the system make it so hard for her to keep going.

The two money quotes from the article are:
“We’re inspired and inspiring teachers. Schools don’t let us teach”
“That’s what reaches them. Caring Enough. Caring.”

It baffles the mind that people spend so much time and money looking for the hidden holy grail of teacher preparation and what works in teaching and trying to tie it to some mysterious equations involving complex statistical analysis when all we need to do is really find a way to see if people truly care about students. It is especially annoying that we keep a complex maze of restrictions to limit what groups can certify teachers when we just need to make sure caring people have the right tools to succeed.

As long as people like Nancy Schnog are in the system, we will keep fighting to find more people like her to ensure our future generations can properly communicate with the rest of the world.

Mentoring - strike 2

2009-09-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Mentoring and induction are one of the ‘knowns’ in education. You just know it works and the more you give the better teachers will perform and the longer they will stay in the classroom. A given – just like child psychology, the history of teaching, student teaching and other courses that are absolutely required to ensure you get a great teacher.

Except they don’t really seem to help

IES with the second year of a study on extensive mentoring and once again it shows that there is no real difference for student achievement and no impact on retention. Wow.

A while back I wrote about the first year of this study and the flaws of the study were pointed out by Liam Goldrick from The New Teacher Center. He points out that the mentoring was not the pure New Teacher Center program and it was the first year. So the first flaw still applies – but the second, not so much.

To us the headline is that big, formal, costly programs do no better then the informal, helping each other out stuff that is happening in more and more schools. However – there are still too many schools where teachers are still very much on their own.

The conclusion is: no conclusion. Generalizing from one study is not going to help anyone. Each school must look at the culture and if they have a very collaborative approach to teaching, no need for spending huge amounts on mentoring. If it is every man, woman and child for themselves – then get them some formal mentoring.

Unfortunately with the ARRA spending bubble soon to burst, mentoring will be one of the very first casualties

Top 10 Annoying Travel Issues

2009-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Top 10 annoyances while traveling:

Amateur hours: any busy travel time brings the people who last took a plane trip on Pan Am and have no clue what to do totally clogging up the lines
United’s hub in Chicago – worst weather and the most annoying issue ever: the ongoing announcement every 10 minutes telling me what I cant bring through security – I AM ALREADY THROUGH SECURITY YOU MORONS
When I say thank you in a voice obviously ending the call and you ask me if there is anything else they can do for me – yeah – end the damn call you just wasted more of my life
The idiots with humongous bags trying to jam them in the overhead – check the damn bag you cheap bastard
The women who cannot lift their bag into the overhead and look around helpless for someone else to put it up there for them setting women’s equality back another ten years and further delaying the boarding process
People who can’t read the large number 5 on their ticket and get in line with all their bags jamming things up when they are told they cannot get on the plane with the number 1’s
Thanking me for my patience – anyone that knows me knows I have know patience and assuming I am going to give it to morons who don’t know how to run an airline is dead wrong – apologize for the delay and ask me to be patient. Never assume
Why do the maids leave the stupid tub plugged?
The now constant announcements during the flight – really – do we really care or do we want to sleep because the walls of our hotel are paper thin??
Pikes Place in airport Starbucks – why do you think only that serving this 7-11 crap Maxwell house blend is somehow going to gain you market share by appealing to more coffee drinkers? All you do is annoy your base and I, for one am switching to water in protest.

Because obviously the Pikes Piss coffee made me cranky this morning.

Negative negativity

2009-09-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

If you have never seen Sherman Dorn’s blog, then you are missing a great perspective on education. I wish that I could write as well as he does and create such well though out ideas. But I guess that is why he is a college professor.

He is also a member of the NEA and he is not pleased with the NEA response to Race to the Top. As I pointed out before, it is a shame that some movement on reforms from the NEA are masked by such negative language.

In any argument, when one side goes so extremely negative, it undermines their point and marginalizes the organization. Sad.

Blog Carnival of Education innovation!!

2009-09-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

The new Blog Carnival of Education Innovation is up at ABCTE - - give it a read and find out what is going on in the blogosphere.

Education Equality Project

2009-08-31T11:39:00.001-07:00

I am now listed as a signatory on the Education Equality Project. The group is worth a look and is starting to gain traction. The main focus is we need to stop arguing about the 20% of education reform where we rabidly disagree and start working on the 80% of education change where we all do agree. Check them out!

http://www.edequality.org/who_we_are/the_signatories

The Future of Teaching

2009-08-31T06:50:00.000-07:00

There is a very important article on teaching by Rick Hess in EducationNext this month. He has some outstanding facts and great suggestions on what has to happen in teaching in order to maximize talent and increase student learning.

First the background – he uses one of my favorite stats about our society of career changers: by 30, most people have held 4 different jobs. So assuming that every kid in college going into teaching is going to stay in teaching through retirement is ludicrous.

Career-changers are the problem and the solution. Taking at look at the huge shift in talent in grades 9-12 based on when people entered the teaching profession:

1990: 75% entered by age 25 and 6% entered by age 35
2004: 56% entered by age 25 and 16% entered by age 35

A study in Mississippi found that people entering the profession later stayed longer. Here at ABCTE where the average age of our teachers is 39, we have an 85% retention rate after three years. That is much higher than any other route.

Rick’s conclusion: more alt cert, more specialization and more technology so that we can get the talent we need and fully leverage that talent for better results.

We could not agree more.

Simple math: RTTT Chances > with ABCTE

2009-08-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

I have been asked many times in the last few weeks if we are ‘going for’ Race to the Top (RTTT) funds as if I could just jog down to the US DOE and grab a few bags of cash. But people are right to ask about having ABCTE in the mix because the guidelines specifically say that states must have alternative teacher certification programs that are not based in higher education.

Now comes this NCTQ report that specifically recommends that Colorado adopt ABCTE to better their chances of getting access to these funds.

I hope that many more states will take a similarly hard look at their chances for tapping into these funds. This is an easy requirement for them to meet. Just adopt ABCTE for math and science teachers and your state wins, the teachers win and, most important of all, the students win with better math and science instruction.

A shift lost in the shock

2009-08-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wow – some harsh words for TFA from the NEA. It is amazing that after close to 20 years, they are still going after them. Right now the NEA is doing what any union is supposed to do – raise the specter of job losses and fight for member jobs. They have targeted TFA it is getting ugly.

There is support in the RTTBOC (Race to the Bags o’ Cash) otherwise known as Race to the Top for Alternative Teacher Certification. We are formulating our support during the comment period with some minor tweaks as are many of the other groups focused on improving teachers.

But here is what the NEA had to say by way of a critique:
NEA supports alternative routes to licensure, including high quality alternative certification programs. We know of many programs that do require evidence of excellence in the content area taught and have a carefully designed program of required course work in pedagogy and work with a mentor teacher.

In most alternative certification programs, however, the candidates are not fully certified for two years. And in one particular program, Teach for America, candidates are scheduled to leave teaching just as the two years are completed.

We agree that the Race to the Top programs should be focusing on the most challenging schools. And the research is clear that a highly qualified and stable workforce is necessary for true reforms to take hold. Experience, stability, content knowledge, access to induction and mentoring programs, and preparation for teaching diverse learners (cultural, linguistic and students with unique needs) will be key to the most qualified staff in high priority schools. Plans should be designed to attract and retain the best prepared, fire-tested, career individuals who plan to be there for the duration. Alternative certification candidates should be the last ones assigned to schools targeted for real reforms.

What will get lost in the scuffle with TFA is a pretty huge shift in policy for them. This is a pretty big compromise from NEA. In the past they would not allow anyone into teaching who had not gone through the Ed schools and they had to have had student teaching. This was their fight for years. So this statement is a pretty nice move to find common ground.

But that compromise will get lost in the shock to education reformers for their favorite program.

More Men!

2009-08-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

"It's not glamorous, it's not a status position," said Schmitt, 44. "Guys at a young age are chasing after big dreams, big money. But at some point, later in life, they look for a job that's more meaningful." From the "Fewer Male Teachers"

The number of male teachers is declining. In this article from Illinois they point it that it is now down to 22%. I remember a speech by T. Willard Fair, leader of the Miami Urban League on the desperate need for great male role models in our urban schools. This article really highlights the challenges involved with creating a more diverse teaching workforce.

Alternative teacher certification is definitely an answer. Well over 30% of our teachers are male. In order to attract more males, you have to have a focused online preparation program that respects their time, cuts out the fluff and gets them in the classroom at significantly reduced cost. But educators don’t want to hear that.

They want to continue to train all 3.4 million teachers the exact same way. They refuse to understand that maybe, just maybe, doing things differently might actually change the make-up of our teachers which could have such an amazing impact on our schools.

Alas, change comes slowly in education – but it will come - and we will keep fighting so that we can better role models for all students.

Indiana wants me, and we will go back there!

2009-08-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

We continue to stay in the news in Indiana as SUPERintendent Tony Bennett pushes for major reforms in education. This is great to see as you have a teacher speaking out in favor of these reforms and the SUPERman himself pushing hard.

Let’s break it down – shall we?
1. Teachers have the greatest impact on students
2. The performance of our education system has become stagnant while all the other school systems of the world improve
3. There are 3.4 million teachers in the US – is there any single training method that works perfectly for 3.4 million people?
4. If our current teacher preparation programs were perfect, number 2 wouldn’t be true
Therefore, bringing in new methods that can address training for different groups of potential teachers is the logical next step

We will continue to push with Tony Bennett to make sure that every student in Indiana has a great teacher.

Scholarity = disruptive innovation

2009-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

About four months ago I started working with a group of amazing programmers who had spent the past 2 years developing the next generation of education software. They have created technology to provide a tutor-like experience for students. This software checks student work at every step, provides deep and continuous diagnostics then recommends the next set of content and problems to truly master a subject. This is a true ‘game changer’ for any education company and could be the disruptive innovation we need to move our education system forward.

Our goal is to now find a test prep company and a content provider to partner with since our software “bolts” underneath any curriculum. We are now ready to introduce dynamic insight technology to the world with the right partner.

Please check out the website, give us some feedback (yes, I created the website) and let us know if we can help your organization! http://www.scholarity.com

Only the strong survive

2009-08-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

Note: this is not an ABCTE charter school - I just joined the board of an independent DC charter school 18 months ago to try and help them survive and did all we could.

Last night I went before the Washington, DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) and relinquished the charter to our school. We will not be opening this year because we did not have enough students enroll to make it financially viable. But it goes deeper than that.

Charters schools operate on an incredibly lean budget, always less then district schools, and if there is not outside funding they cannot make it. In our case, we did not succeed in getting enough grants and donations and continued to fall further behind. This drove staffing cuts that then started to hurt the curriculum and student experience.

Even with those cuts we did dramatically improve on AYP this year and we had higher enrollment than we ever have had this summer. But without financial support, we could not make it unless we had another 20 students enroll. We worked hard with the PCSB to thoroughly analyze the school this summer so that we could make the right call. It has been an agonizing few weeks trying to figure out the best possible course of action.

In the end we did what is right for the students and closed the school.

This is the beauty of the charter school system without artificial caps – only the strong will survive giving students the best possible choice for their school.

It is not teaching to the test

2009-08-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Interesting exchange during the New America Alliance conference on education opportunities here in Santa Barbara. There was a panel with Steve Barr from Green Dot, Kim Smith from NewSchools Venture Fund that was moderated by Dr. Angela Valenzuela. It was supposed to be a panel on business response to education issues but Dr. Valenzuela wanted to use the opportunity to rail against testing.

She picked the wrong panel.

Kim Smith was outstanding in her response that testing is the reason we know so much about the achievement gap. Without the testing and standards of NCLB we would not be so focused on the issues of education inequality in this country. I have also said the same things she was saying that our tests and standards need to be fixed – not throw out the tests.

Standards are supposed to be what kids need to know to succeed. Tests are supposed to be aligned to the standards. By definition, teaching to the test should then be teaching what kids need to know to succeed.

Then Steve Barr chimed in and said that parents trust him with their kids - something he takes very seriously. He has to be able to show those parents that their kids are academically advancing so he has to test – he owes it to those parents to demonstrate that their trust was not misplaced. It was really a great exchange on how far we come and that it is time to move away from test or not test - and move forward with finding scalable ways to get results.

Now on to my panel with TFA and Linda Darling-Hammond - - ABCTE playin with the big guys.

Go Virtual

2009-08-12T09:14:00.001-07:00

On Friday I am on a panel for the New America Foundation to discuss how we can dramatically improve education in the US. This is a group of Hispanic business leaders who are tired of the poor performance of our education system. They want to come out of this meeting with actual action items that can have a positive impact on students.

Since we are involved in the teacher quality aspect I really want to focus on the fact that we are never going to find 3.5 million highly skilled, highly motivated, outstanding teachers. One stunning fact I just pulled for this event:

• In 1974, 24% of teachers scored in the top percentile on high school tests, in 2000 it was down to 11%

So if we start with the premise that we cannot find all the talent we need and still need to educate every child then we need to somehow find a more efficient way of delivering education. If only there were some sort of machine that every other entity in the world uses to maximize efficiency……………sigh.

In my daughter’s school they used computers to conduct research and do powerpoints. They did not get curriculum that was customized to their needs, they did not work on practice problems and they did not see classes delivered by the best teacher in a given subject.

So my pitch is going to be that we have got to start training more teachers to use digital content (see CA) and we have got start re-thinking our school structure to better utilize the talent we have and get that talent in front of more kids.

Will this meeting change anything? I will keep you posted.

Carnival of Education Innovation!!

2009-08-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

From the ABCTE blog!! Visit it today!!

Welcome to the first edition of the Carnival of Education Innovation.

Before we get started, here’s a quick summary of what a blog carnival is for those who’ve never heard of one before: It’s basically a collection of links to recent blog posts on a particular subject. People can come browse the links as a sort of one-stop-shop for all that’s happening in education innovation that week—a “best of the week” so to speak where you can come each Tuesday to catch up on what’s happening in the world of education innovation.

One other important thing to note—you play a major role in what appears in each week’s Carnival of Education Innovation. Visit our submission page by 4pm every Monday and submit your suggestions for that week’s carnival. These suggestions can be from your own blog or other education innovation-related blog posts you’ve come across.

Teachers rule

2009-08-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

I was pondering what to write about for our Friday blog when I received the email below from on of our scholarship recipients. ABCTE has a Transition to Teaching grant which provides a full scholarship through our program. This is why we fight so hard for alternative teacher certification programs:

"Yes, today was my first day with the students. And yes, I am crazy busy, but I will make time to keep you updated because I would not be here if not for you. It turns out that I am teaching 7th and 8th grade English and Reading. I found out (from a parent) that I was also teaching 8th grade Tuesday night! There seems to be quite a bit of confusion at my school about many things, but I am sure it will all work out eventually. I am just doing what I think should be done until I am given more direction. I have learned quite a bit about frameworks, pacing guides, and more. I have been assigned a mentor – she has been very helpful. I really like her.

My room looks fantastic. My sister-in-law and I painted a mural on the back wall that says, “Language is your transportation … to your dreams, your goals, your future. “ My principal loves it. She used my syllabus at the grade level meeting as an example of what she wants from everyone. She has given me a lot of encouragement.

I fell in love with my students today (already). I am swamped, overwhelmed, confused, but very happy.

It was great to hear from you.

Tracey"

And the winner is.........the STUDENTS!

2009-08-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

In the education world, part of the promise of competition is that it will improve schooling for all kids. But we really have not seen that happen in areas where students have a choice of schools to attend. Most of the blame goes to a system that protects schools from seeing adverse affects from competition.

I chair a board for a DC charter school and I am now seeing first hand the two factors that will ultimately make better schools a reality through competition:

There has to be more seats than students so that schools actually have to fight for every student in order to survive
Parents have to experience shopping for schools long enough to become savvy consumers

It is basic economics that if a resource is scarce, the price goes up. In DC, there are excess seats and not enough students. Wouldn’t be too much of a problem but our reimbursement per student has stayed flat this year and our reimbursement per student for facilities has gone down. Also of note is that many of these schools were built at the peak of building costs in DC. There is no slop in a charter school budget to absorb any reduction in revenue. Ouch.

So the only way to make up for this budget crunch is to make sure you have more students. Basic business sense as more students means more revenue. The result is more schools are pursuing these students and marketing to a lot more of their parents. These aggressive marketing efforts required in these lean times are creating a much more educated consumer out of DC parents - because we have to reach all of them in order to survive.

In order to meet recruitment numbers, schools are offering free after school programs and more laptops. Parents are demanding more to commit to bringing their student to your school.

And the winner is……….the students!!!

It is pretty amazing to see that charter schools are actually building this competition in DC. And because Michelle Rhee is building a better public school system to compete, the students in DC are really going to win over the next few years.

New Education Carnival -

2009-08-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Carnival of Education Innovation

Next Tuesday, August 11, we’re launching a blog carnival—the Carnival of Education Innovation.

For those of you who have never heard of a blog carnival before, it’s basically a collection of blog post summaries on a particular subject – a “best of the week” so to speak. One blogger hosts each edition of the carnival and then other bloggers and blog readers submit blog posts they’d like included in that edition of the carnival. Then the carnival goes live on a certain date (every Tuesday for ours) and people can come browse the links as a sort of one-stop-shop for all that’s happening in education innovation that week.

The Carnival of Education Innovation will include anything having to do with new ideas on moving education forward (ideas to move education backwards will not be accepted). We’re interested in hearing from people on all sides—right, left and center—and from as many different backgrounds and angles as possible. We want to hear from teachers, administrators, parents, students, politicians, writers and anyone interested in blogging about education and how it can be improved. So please help spread the word.

The benefits to you are many:

1. Each week you get a new link to your blog – building your search ability in google and your status on blog rating sites
2. Each week you get more traffic to your blog
3. Overall building of readership as other bloggers come to know what you are doing in the education space
4. If you don’t have a blog THIS IS A PERFECT WAY TO GET IT STARTED

To submit a blog post for consideration for inclusion in the 1st edition of the Carnival of Education innovation, our carnival submission before 4pm next Monday, August 10. This is how it will work every week—please submit by 4pm on Mondays and then check the ABCTE blog every Tuesday for the new edition of the carnival. The carnival will “travel” at times and be hosted by other bloggers. You can check the carnival homepage (http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_7888.html) or ABCTE’s blog (http://www.abcte.org/blog ) to find out who is hosting each week. Also – when the carnival is up – it helps if you say so on your blog with a link.

Let’s make sure that all your Education Innovations get the readership they deserve!

Please email Mike Holden here at ABCTE with any questions

More Movement

2009-08-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

A pretty great day in the world wide webisphere for ABCTE. First, our humble little blog is named to the Top 100 blogs for teachers by Clear View Education. So our sincere thanks for that.

Second, it is great to see a teacher come out in favor of the proposed teacher certification changes in Indiana. A true common-sense editorial to help keep things in perspective which seems to be rare in education these days.

Always a good day – now off to the stakeholders meeting on ARRA over at the USDOE to hear about RTTT funding. And I thought the Navy overused abbreviations and acronyms. Perhaps Congress should create a separate OFEDAB – the Office of Education Abbreviations.

ABCTE - subject matter AND pedagogy

2009-08-03T08:55:00.000-07:00

A guest post by ABCTE's Director of Public Relations, Mike Holden:

One of the common misconceptions about the ABCTE program is that our exams focus only on content expertise. I’ll occasionally see a news story or a comment posted online where people are outraged that someone could become a teacher by only passing “a test” showing they are experts in a particular subject.

It is true that in order to earn ABCTE certification a candidate must pass a test in the subject they’d like to teach (i.e. someone who wants to be certified in math must pass our math exam). These subject-area exams by themselves are difficult and should not be quickly dismissed—no one is going to pass without knowing their content and knowing it well.

But there is a second exam that all candidates must pass and it should not be overlooked. This important component to the program is the Professional Teaching Knowledge (PTK) exam, which tests an ABCTE candidate on knowledge related to working with students. Here’s a short summary from the PTK snapshot that goes over what is included on that exam:

“The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence believes that highly skilled teachers should possess a comprehensive body of knowledge that is research-based and promotes student achievement. The Professional Teaching Knowledge exam is designed to assess a new teacher’s knowledge of teaching-related criteria. Such knowledge is typically obtained in undergraduate preparation in areas such as human development, classroom management, instructional design and delivery techniques, assessment, and other professional preparation. This exam also contains a writing component that will evaluate a candidate’s ability to write to audiences they will most likely address as a teacher: parents, colleagues, and/or school administrators. Candidates will be asked to compose their written response without access to any writing aids such as spelling and grammar tools.”

How difficult is the PTK exam? Take it from ABCTE biology teacher Keria Morton, who was already in the classroom and used our program to get certified and keep her job:

“After teaching for three years, I knew I had the content knowledge and teacher know-how to pass the tests. After all, I passed the Praxis test with no preparation and I did not figure the ABCTE tests could be much harder, despite what they told me. But I missed the cutoff [for the PTK exam] by two points. Boy, was I unprepared for just how difficult these tests were. No random person could just come in and pass these tests. I am not even sure a few months of diligent studying could accomplish it. You have to know your material to meet the challenge the ABCTE program offers to you.”

Or, on the content side of things, here's a video of ABCTE math teacher Wanda Champaign-Martin, who underestimated the ABCTE math exam and found out the hard way that the tests are “very comprehensive.”

Finally, here’s ABCTE English teacher Bridgette Blake, who talks about how the county she was teaching in recommended ABCTE to her and that the administrators “knew that this program would definitely prepare [her] for the classroom.”

ABCTE does issue its teaching certification based on tests, but these exams allow people to place-out of college coursework and they are not easy. As we tell potential ABCTE candidates, the tests are “rigorous and comprehensive.” The average candidate takes 8 to 10 month to complete the program and the exams should not be sold short. We want our teachers to show that they know their subject AND how to teach it. Aiming for anything less wouldn’t be good for anyone.

The Cartel - watch it

2009-07-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Fridays need to be simplified – especially in the blogosphere. So I just wanted to provide some quick thoughts on The Cartel – the documentary that looks at education in New Jersey but could apply to any state. To me the most powerful point in the movie is the charter school lottery. The artificial caps on the number of charter schools in this country means that in many places you have to put your name into a lottery to see if you get to go to a great school.

In the movie two women get so overwhelmed by the fact that their daughters get in, they have to leave the classroom where the lottery is held and go outside to celebrate. When asked what this means to their daughters they simply say - this has saved her life, she now has a chance at success. The striking contrast is the next shot which shows a girl with tears just streaming down her face because she did not get in.

Imagine your life decided by a lottery. Imagine your safety and success are totally dependent on a random drawing. It is absolutely pathetic.

The second striking thing is the interview with the head of the NJEA teacher’s union who demonstrates a total lack of concern for students. In one case she is asked if it is OK that a teacher with massive anger management issues punched a student in the face and could not be fired. Her response is that of course it is OK as long as there is due process it is a good thing.

Finally, if you have not seen Derrell Bradford speak on how to save students, you have not seen passion in education. He was brilliant and you cannot help but get excited by the opportunity to do anything to save kids from hideous schools when he is done.

It is definitely worth seeing the film and if you are in education reform – you need to show it in your state. Thanks to Dan Lips and Heritage for the screening!

Clear and concise

2009-07-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Great post and first comment over at Eduwonk today on what matters more in education - class size or teacher effectiveness. Then 'Jonathon' hits the nail right on the head summing up the research that is continually ignored by education policy makers:

"Several reputable studies have showed us that: a masters degree in education has little to no benefit to students; beyond five years of experience, teaching experience does not have a strong impact on student achievement; and class size does not nearly have the impact on student achievement as teacher effectiveness"

It is amazing that research can be ignored in favor of what feels good.

No longer "just a test"

2009-07-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

For years we have fought the mantra that ABCTE is just a test. Those opposed would just continue to say we offered no pedagogy even thought it was patently false (see here). Now comes the Indy Star with this quote:

"» Nonteachers could become teachers without going through a school of education by taking a curriculum offered by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence."

Finally, people are realizing that we have a curriculum. How huge is that?? And with Indiana's great new state superintendent, this could be a great new state for us.

Thank you!

2009-07-29T04:58:00.001-07:00

Today is the day for ABCTE, we are officially on our own. It was about four years ago that I became the President and things were definitely not as rosy. We had lost our grant in Congress and we had to run around working to get our funding back in the spending bill. The press was not kind to us because of some issues with our board and it had been a while since a new state had accepted us.

It takes a dedicated team of people to overcome those issues, cut costs and build success. It took a great board of directors to help brainstorm solutions to our financial problems. It took many friends in many states to put themselves out there for ABCTE. And you have to watch every dollar.

Today is both a celebration and a thank you. Our revenue per candidate is now around $800 and our cost per candidate is down to $1,100. We have over $4.8M in the bank to cover that distance until our volume will create a break-even situation. It took very careful planning and execution to hit this point and I am very proud of where we are.

So to all our states, candidates, Congress, the US DOE, education reform friends, founding board members, staff (and the families of the staff since we travel so much), my sincere appreciation.

Because of you, there are 1,700 classrooms with incredible teachers inspiring our students! See for yourselves!

Shortage and Surplus

2009-07-27T11:14:00.001-07:00

No surprise here. People have the hardest time wrapping their minds around the following two truths:

1. There is a surplus of teachers
2. There is a shortage of teachers

Both statements are true. There is a surplus of elementary teachers. But there are HUGE shortages of math, science and special education teachers.

Broward County, a Broad Foundation finalist, does what is right for students. They are cutting teaching positions in surplus areas and hiring teachers with math and science expertise.

Which brings us to ABCTE – this is exactly what we do. Train career changers to be math and science teachers AND/OR help elementary teachers become great math and science teachers.

Looking at all teachers versus all teaching positions masks the issue. Both statements are true and if states and districts don’t focus on number 2, it will have a significantly adverse affect on the ability of their students to compete in the global market.

Scalable and Sustainable

2009-07-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

One of the big issues with the ARRA funds and the Race to the Top challenge is the supposed short term nature of this incredible boost in funding. This is a one time opportunity with billions of dollars to be used to give our education system a push in the right direction.

The concern from all sides is what will happen when the funds are gone.

On the right, they are deathly afraid that the spending will continue and the results will be mediocre at best. On the left, they are deathly afraid that the opportunity will be squandered with little or nothing to show for it.

So we keep hearing words like sustainable and scale. Yet the funds continue to go to organizations that have neither. Being sustainable and moving to scale are incredibly difficult in any organization but even more challenging in education.

Perhaps that is why we at ABCTE are so proud of the fact that we are achieving both and celebrating this week. We are leaving our federal grant having been great stewards of those funds and running independently from this day forward. Right now, we have a enough cash to cover the shortfall between what we are charging per candidate and our actual costs per candidate.

We can do this for the three years it will take to get to break-even – a true representation of moving to scale. However, it would be great to be able to conserve some of that cash and maybe even charge less if some of the education philanthropists would come to the table with us.

Regardless, we have created a completely scalable organization that has a business model that allows us to be self-sustaining. A rarity in non-profits and almost unheard of in education.

The Politics of Blocking

2009-07-21T05:48:00.000-07:00

It was pretty nice of iNACOL (the online learning group) to give out copies of Liberating Learning by Terry Moe and John Chubb at the ALEC Conference last week. It is a pretty easy read that I finished on the plane to Mississippi yesterday.

I wish I had read it five years ago.

Moe and Chubb give you a primer on the political strategy of the teacher’s union. They call it the politics of blocking. The key points they make are dead on:
1. Teacher’s unions are very powerful at the state and local level
2. It is much easier to block legislation than it is to pass it
3. If it looks like it might pass – they can push for a delay – request lengthy study for a few years
4. If it starts to pass, you can always load it up with a ton of junk amendments to make the implementation impossible
5. If it does pass, immediately start attacking either through the courts or new legislation the next year

While the politics of blocking is a cute name, it is also the politics of wearing you down. ABCTE really could have used this information when we started as I learned all of this the hard way.

One thing they leave out of the politics of blocking is that we need a politics of moving to counteract. If education reforms wants to ever become a “movement” instead of disparate entities pushing for single agenda, it will need to have a state level group in every state pushing just as hard.

The theory they put forth in the book on how education will ultimately change is that technology, both in innovation and in information, will rule the day. Technology is cool and parents want it. Unions are resisting online schools because of the fear of job losses. But eventually, parents will demand greater technology in the classroom and as the information about efficacy of teaching and schools continues to proliferate, the demands will increase.

They are correct and tangentially agree with Disrupting Class by Christensen et al that technology will save education. They just disagree a little on the method that will make this happen. They also put forth their view of the “education of tomorrowland” – but I will write about that at the other blog.

Online learning: US gets left in the dust again

2009-07-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

iNACOL, the International Association for Online Learning held an excellent seminar at ALEC on the future of education. The facts are pretty stunning on the numbers for online learning here and abroad.

It is well known that we are falling behind in K12 because other countries are moving so much faster than we are. What you may not know, and I certainly didn't know, is that this is especially true in online learning where developing nations are using online to rapidly, and dramatically, increase access to education for all their students.

Consider these facts:
• In the US we have gone from 50,000 online students in 2000 to over 1,000,000 in 2008 which sounds pretty good until you read the others
• The European Union put all of the International Baccalaureate courses online to increase access across the 26 million students there
• China has digitize the entire K-12 curriculum and is working on improving internet access. They expect over 100,000,000 new online students in the next 10 years
• India would need to build over 200,000 schools to provide education for all students. Instead they have worked with Educomp to digitize their curriculum and train teachers to provide online learning - this will provide an education to tens of millions of students in the coming years
• Turkey completed building out their online K12 curriculum and have gone from no online students to 15,000,000 online students in just three years

Yet, the NEA got the Wisconsin courts to close the online school in that state. The parents had to fight back and get the legislature to reopen the school. I just started reading Liberating Learning by Moe and Chubb. They talk about how easy it is for the unions to block reforms that might hurt members even if it would help kids. Anyone who has fought to pass education reforms will appreciate this line from the book:
“The American political system is literally designed, therefore, to make blocking – and thus preserving the status quo – far easier than taking positive action.”

Online education is coming in a big way. The current university and K12 systems are not moving fast enough because of resistance from the status quo. But they must change or they will be obsolete in the coming years. More to come on this.

And nothing much happened.....

2009-07-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

I am back from vacation, and it was a great one, and I am always eager to find out what has changed in the last week or so. Of course, nothing really changes in education in July so I was not too surprised to find very little flowing in the education news arena.

I guess the two biggest stories is the NEA admitting they are a union and the a smattering of stories that the huge stimulus money in education isn’t really doing much for innovation. Neither all that surprising but both have pretty big implications.

The NEA move is actually refreshing and a continuation of improved candor. They are, and should be, focused on improving the lives of their members. I have continued to see this at the state level and continue to work much more closely with them to resolve any problems they may have with our program. It also seems like more decision makers in education have come to this understanding as well. It makes for much more productive conversations when it motivations are clear.

As for the lost opportunity for the stimulus dollars – again no shock. It will be very easy to poke holes at some issues like this, and it is a pretty big disappointment. I remember when states were required to tell the US DOE what they were doing different on teacher recruitment to get to 100% highly qualified – every single state repackaged what they were currently doing in the “innovation” banner and said that now, their same old tired techniques were going to result in more math and science teachers.

Guess I didn’t miss much at all last week – but it is good to be back and resume the fight so that every child has a great teacher.

Charter School Innovation

2009-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

The press release below is for a charter school where I serve on the Board of Directors. Our school struggled in the first few years to really get going as most schools do. The freedom that charter schools are given means we could have closed or continued limping along. But we chose the innovative path of partnering with a stronger, more successful school with a similar mission - not unlike the business world. The overall winner in this partnership is the students who now have the chance for a safe, dual immersion education with outstanding caring teachers. The education entrepreneurs who make things like this happen are just amazing to work with. More to come as we move these two schools together -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CentroNía Announces Management Agreement With Bilingual Community Academy

Washington, D.C.—As of July 1, 2009, CentroNía welcomes ABC-Academia Bilingüe de la Comunidad/Bilingual Community Academy Public Charter School under its expanding umbrella of educational programming. This will be the second Charter School CentroNía will manage. Since 2004, CentroNía has managed DC Bilingual Public Charter School. This partnership with ABC expands CentroNía’s bilingual, multicultural educational outreach into the 6th, 7th and 8th grades. As noted by the DC Public Charter School Board, ABC provides DC’s “only Dual Immersion Middle School…” where “The parents are extremely pleased with their school, its teachers and school leaders. They relish the fact that there is on-going communication between parents, teachers and the principal relative to their child’s academic progress.”

CentroNía is a nationally accredited educational organization that provides affordable quality education programs, professional development, and family support services in a bilingual, multicultural environment to more than 1,700 children, youth, and families in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area.

For more information on ABC, please visit us online www.abcpcs.org or contact us by phone (202) 822-6301 or via email info@abcpcs.org. Applications are still available for the 2009-2010 school year!

In order to fix education - study Fleetwood Mac

2009-06-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am attending the National Educational Computing Conference here in DC and went to the keynote address by Malcolm Gladwell last night. I was a fan of his after the Tipping Point. I have become a little less so in recent years – especially after reading Freakonomics and seeing a great second reason given for the reduction in NYC crime. It suddenly dawned on me that maybe anecdotal causal evidence should be suspect.

So there I was armed with a healthy dose of cynicism when Mr. Gladwell launches into a comparison of educating our children and Fleetwood Mac. Since many in the audience were from my generation, it was a good hook. The basic premise is that (he managed a quick plug of his book Outliers) we all think of Fleetwood Mac as a kind of overnight success but it took 10 years, 16 albums, many different musicians to get to that big. Note that the core group of musicians who produced the self titled album and Rumors were an overnight success. So it is a bit of a stretch from the beginning – but it was not too much of a leap.

So Mr. Gladwell states that “studies have shown” that it takes 10,000 hours to master anything and that it is almost pointless to rush that time like the 10 years for Fleetwood Mac. He then points out that on the TIMSS test (the math test where US students are horrible) there is a 120 question psychology survey at the beginning. Heinously long for any survey and most kids don’t like to finish it. Turns out that the kids that answer the most questions on the psych test are also the same kids that perform the best on the math test. His dramatic conclusion is that math isn’t about math aptitude but the patience and ability to slog through lengthy, time consuming work – 10 years just like Fleetwood Mac.

Now – his data can be questioned a bunch of different ways – but I do agree with his premise. Here in the US we have come to the “belief system” that you are either good at math or bad at math. And either way, more practice will not help. We choose to ignore the 10,000 hour rule while other countries that have gone way beyond us choose to give everyone a lot of math practice to master the concepts.

Then I got distracted for a little while because I was outside the hall in a viewing lounge and 15 different people were twittering on his talk – pretty funny to see all those computers up on twitter – half of this little audience were in full tweet.

The second lesson of Fleetwood Mac is that they didn’t really build on their initial success – they built on their failures. A capitalization strategy builds on success and a compensation strategy builds on failures. His theory is that people/groups (like Fleetwood Mac) who build on compensation strategies are much more successful. Thus we should let students fail and they will compensate by being better students. He then made it sound like only people who are dyslexic can make great CEO’s because of their compensation strategies.

Again – I kind of agree with the premise and believe that part of our problem over the last 15 years is raising the most pampered generation in history where no one can fail – everyone gets a trophy for participating and we socially promote kids that can’t read.

The final lesson from Fleetwood Mac is that they tried many different music genres before deciding on the California sound (huge leap here – they decided on that because Stevie Nicks joined the band and that is what she was good at). His conclusion is that student learning is likely a zig zag pattern and not a linear progression but all schools are set up on a linear focus.

Again – the data link is weak but the conclusion is sound. We need more individualized instruction and learning that is not structured on an archaic system but is based on the student’s ability to learn.

So I can agree with Malcolm. In order to fix student learning we need to fully analyze Fleetwood Mac - - but the leap it took to get to that conclusion was pretty lame.

There will be shrieking

2009-06-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

It happens every June here at ABCTE – I get yelled at because people fail their exams and are in danger of losing their jobs. About 40% of our candidates respond to our surveys that they are currently working in education. A full 20% are actually the teacher of record and they came in on an emergency license or some other license. Because of their situation, they now have until June 30th or July 31st to complete their ABCTE program or they cannot teach next year.

The problem is that people wait until the last minute to take their exams. So if they don’t pass, there isn’t a lot of time to get things done. In some cases the automatic response by these teachers is to shriek loudly at all levels of the organization hoping that someone will just miraculously pass them. Obviously this doesn’t work. So we all scramble around to get them some help and then in to re-test.

The automatic response you may have is that these people are procrastinators, at worse lazy, and don’t deserve our help. But I take a different view – they don’t have time during the year to get things done. If you have ever taught, you know that first year teaching is physically and mentally exhausting and at night you still have to tweak those lesson plans, grade papers and run your life outside of school. This doesn't leave much room to study which is why we prefer, and strongly encourage, that all alternatively certified teachers get their work done BEFORE entering the classroom. But that is not always the case with the teacher shortages out there today.

So next year we are going to push a little harder in April to reduce the shriekage in June – but knowing how hectic the end of the school year can be, I won't hold my breath.

Ending Over-reaction

2009-06-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

A while back I noted that school districts love the irate parent ploy when budgets are being discussed. They start letting parents know that sports will be cut, class sizes will be huge, activities cut and music/art programs eliminated. Obviously the parents get mad, attend budget meetings and let the county commissioners know they may find themselves electorally challenged in the next election.

The same holds true for teacher layoffs. In Arizona there was mass panic about the pending layoffs and now we are told that almost everyone notified that their job was over is being rehired. We are hearing the same thing in Florida and in South Carolina our teachers are getting hired as well.

Is it the stimulus or just common sense replacing over-reaction. I believe it to be the latter.

Drop out prevention

2009-06-12T06:43:00.001-07:00

For those who are interested in getting more info on Colorado, you can hear the melodic voice of Dave Saba (me) on a podcast from the Independence Institute. Also a great post from ediswatching on the latest education happenings in Colorado.

We will have to develop a drop-out prevention course for all our teachers in order to meet the new law on teacher certification in Colorado. We grumbled a bit but when we saw some of the resources from CDE has already put together on this it becomes a much more exciting project. We have also talked with the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE) to get some great local input.

Our intent is to make this a free program available to all teachers since there are so many great resources out there and there is such a need…..if you would like to offer your thoughts, or help, on this important project please feel free to give us a call.

It's about the students in Colorado

2009-06-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending the Alliance for Choice in Education event in Denver this week. Many out there in the education world hate choice and think it is a bunch of rich white guys trying to foist their economic principles on the education system.

But in Denver it is about saving kids. ACE knows that they cannot save every child stuck in poverty, but they feel strongly that saving one at a time from a destiny of failure is a worthwhile cause.

Keep an eye on Colorado. There are some incredible people out there who really care about kids and that passion is creating results. Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) is putting resources there after an amazing start at the Democratic Convention. They don’t have vouchers, but they have school choice and they have over 150 charter schools that are getting results.

The Colorado legislature recently passed a bill to allow greater flexibility to the state school board on alternative teacher certification. There is also a much greater focus on dropout prevention AND they have a credit recovery programs that are getting some great attention.

There are signs that maybe, just maybe, people will continue to focus first on the students in Colorado and put the adults a distant second

Reform-O-Meter takes a hit

2009-06-04T08:00:00.001-07:00

Over at Flypaper, Mike Petrilli is keeping the Obama Reform-O-Meter which he has pointing to a fairly neutral education agenda for the President and Secretary Duncan. He needs to point the arrow more to the left this week.

We got notice that the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) is beginning to release some of the $635 million they have to dole out under ARRA. They want to give out $143 million to 35 lucky groups to improve teacher quality. From the email:

Department of Education (DOE) announces funds to improve the quality of new teachers by creating partnerships among Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), high-need school districts (local educational agencies-LEAs) their high-need schools, and/or high-need early childhood education (ECE) programs. Partnerships would create model teacher preparation programs at the pre-baccalaureate level through the implementation of specific reforms of the IHE's existing teacher preparation programs, and/or model teaching residency programs for individuals with strong academic and/or professional backgrounds but without teaching experience.

Note that we are not eligible because we are not an Institution of Higher Education even though we currently have an innovative approach that prepares people from professional backgrounds who don’t have teaching experience.

But now, in the name of innovation, the DOE is going to throw a ton of money at groups that have never created a model teacher preparation program. In fact, when they create so-called alternative teacher certification programs they are almost always a few classes short of their normal master’s program.

Exactly the opposite of what Clayton Christensen says we need in order to create disruptive innovations in education. True innovation will not come from within the system. Note that Clayton even refers to ABCTE in this CNN Commentary.

Roughly a third of the “innovation” dollars go to those most firmly entrenched in supporting the status quo. Looks like Mike needs to move the arrow.

Teacher lottery

2009-06-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Interesting summary on Kane's Work on teacher effectiveness in the Harvard Review. I think the most interesting evidence found in the article is that:

Kane and his coauthors found that schools can gain a fairly clear picture of a teacher’s effectiveness in the first two or three years. Beyond that point, the returns on experience—as teachers improve with practice—begin to diminish. “You’d expect the distribution of teacher effectiveness to get tighter as the years pass,” Kane says. “But we see the opposite. There’s a tendency for the more effective teachers to get better faster, while the weaker teachers don’t catch up.”

I am fascinated with this incredibly wide variation in teacher performance. The reason for the phenomenon above is that no one gets fired and everyone gets the same raise each year. So poor performers really have no incentive to improve. They can just continue to muddle through in their permanent state of in-house retirement.
Meanwhile, the many teachers who care continue to improve their teaching and continue to look for ways to reach more students and create more student success.

So the system will continue to harbor this wide division of teacher performance and education becomes a lottery – if you get the great, caring teachers you win – if not, you lose……for life.

Stop the Madness

2009-06-01T08:22:00.001-07:00

Birmingham, Alabama took a very strange step last week. They decided to continue to hire teachers from the Philippines even though Baldwin County used this same route a few years ago and it didn’t work out so hot. And they are recruiting overseas in spite of the fact that so many people in this country have lost their jobs.

People wonder why we education reformers get so irate. But here we have an excellent example of maintaining the status quo just because that is what you have done in the past in spite of evidence telling you not to go down this path again. Baldwin County hired 12 teachers from the Philippines through Avenida International Consultants in 2007, and only three of those teachers remain today. That's a stunning 25 percent retention rate, yet Birmingham is ready to hire teachers through that same recruitment agency.

In the nine states where ABCTE operates, we have a teacher retention rate of 85 percent after three years. Additionally, 95 percent of principals rated American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence teachers to be as effective, or more effective, than their peers.

It seems insane that Alabama schools would go down a path that already failed them once when there are more viable options that can help them fill their math and science positions with people here in the United States that need jobs today. But maybe the administrators just like going on junkets to the Philippines with education dollars instead of dedicating them to the students.

Let someone else do the work

2009-05-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

It is Friday - so it is time for someone else to do the work. So I refer you to Joanne Jacob's post on a Matt Welch post on a story in the LA Times about the California crisis. It is, as always, a great summary but I also love the comments after the posting. Worth a good Friday read so head that way. I will stop being lazy on Monday.

Best Restaurants in State Capitals I have visited

2009-05-27T16:11:00.000-07:00

Debuting at number 11 is The Oceanaire in Indianapolis which has amazing seafood flown in every day. Get the crab cake and the tower. Totally amazing!

Research that doesn't tell us anything

2009-05-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

In education you hear “I believe” way too many times. I mock these people who think that there is no evidence required – as long as you believe it works in education it must be so. It is as if education is a religion with a prescribed set of beliefs and those of us heretics on the outside must be derided for upsetting their belief system.

On the outside we say there must be evidence – student achievement is the coin of the realm and without it you are one of the barriers to education improvement.

Lately, however, I am questioning my belief in student achievement. I am beginning to wonder if anything actually does get you student achievement that is really superior to something else.

I base this on a series of disappointing study results. First you had the New Teacher Center study. It seemed to indicate that an intense mentoring program didn’t yield significant results. Then you had a recent study on the TAP teacher career ladder program. Not to mention many studies on charter schools, National Board Certification, Vouchers and TFA - - none of which is a home run for opponents or supporters.

It is really beginning to appear to me that if the “gold standard” of random assignment doesn’t really seem to answer any of the real questions then why are paying researchers millions of dollars to conduct the study? Shouldn’t one of these programs have shown some really significant gains? Or is it the incredibly wide variation in student and teacher performance so far gone that we can’t really see small differences in results? Maybe the earth really isn't flat!

It is above my head – but those who are smarter than I need to come up with a better judge of results that actually tells us something and doesn’t use up millions of dollars to give us a vague answer.

COME ON!!!

2009-05-22T10:46:00.001-07:00

If you are not annoyed you are not paying attention. This should be the new bumper sticker of all in education – especially all of us who work in teaching.

A report by ETS that is just stunning to me - - the percentage of 8th grade math students on free and reduced lunch whose teachers left before the end of the school is year is 67%.

Breaking it down by race the percentage of white students whose 8th grade math teacher left before the end of the year is 28%. But for black students it is 52% and for Hispanic students it is 44%.

We are not going to affect the achievement gap if we can't get teachers to even finish out the year.

Now how in the world can you be college ready if two thirds of our students can’t even get an 8th grade math teacher to finish the school year. I know that some people have problems with ABCTE teachers who are alternatively certified but 85% of our teachers are still teaching AFTER THREE YEARS!!

Come on!! Get annoyed out there – this is ridiculous

ABCTE Teachers Increase Student Achievement!

2009-05-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Alert the Journal of Anecdotal Evidence, we have proof that ABCTE Teachers dramatically increase student achievement. Our sample size of one, Kelly Bow, an ABCTE teacher who teaches math in an Idaho middle school was able to accomplish the following:

“For the above average and advanced category, my students beat every school in the area including the very small private schools, two charter schools and a very wealthy district,” she explains. Just recently, Bow got more good news, as her students increased their ISAT scores by 22.5% versus last year.

Huge news. People always ask us about student achievement and we will continue to build our database and get a large enough sample size to ensure we get actual results to publish. But for now, we will appreciated and celebrate the anecdotal.

Fluff no more

2009-05-22T10:26:00.001-07:00

Multiple posts today because there is just so much going on in education. The first concerns a great blog post and subsequent comments by Joanne Jacobs on New York City’s teacher and student requirements. The blog post is definitely worth a read as are the comments that people have left about the post.

One of the things that absolutely drives me crazy in education is the fluff that gets passed off as critical elements of the teaching practice or learning process. Joanne’s article calling out New York for excessive fluff is dead on. For me, the two most annoying terms to me are ‘reflection’ and ‘portfolio’. Only in education can going home and thinking about what you did right and wrong during the day can have a fancy term and be held in such high esteem. And only in education could you submit a collection of your best work and have it be the determination as to your ability to perform on a daily basis.

Now – both of these have a place in helping teachers become better teachers so I will end the extremist rhetoric with that thought. Yes teachers should take a good hard look at what they are doing right and wrong. And yes we should look at a portfolio of their work to ensure that we see signs of solid performance. But we should not talk about it as if this brings teaching into the highest levels of achievement. We need real performance evaluations to truly judge our teachers.

Friedman Foundation Study on Private vs Public School Teacher Satisfaction

2009-05-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

One of the things we have noticed in recruiting people to teach is that there is a definite shift right now in the United States with people are taking a good hard look at their chosen profession. People want to do things that matter and have feel good about their work. People attending our "Become a Teacher" workshops are telling us that without job security, which no one has today, they want a job where they can make a difference and have real job satisfaction.

It appears that if you ask teachers, private schools give them the greatest opportunity to make that difference and enjoy their work. There is a new study out from The Friedman Foundation that looks at the data from the national survey of teachers and found some striking, yet not surprising, differences in private school and public school teacher opinions.

Some of the highlights –
• 62% of private school teachers want to remain teaching as long as they are able compared to 44% in public schools
• 60% of private school teachers have control of selecting content, topics and skills taught in the classroom compared to 36% in public schools
• 28% of public school teachers strongly agree that routine duties and paperwork interfere with their job compared to just 9% of private school teachers

One of the more interesting highlights is that “although salaries are higher in public schools, private schoolteachers are more likely to be satisfied with their salaries (51
percent v. 46 percent).”

Huh - job satisfaction trumps money. You can read the whole study here.

Conference Shut out

2009-05-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight I head to the New Schools Venture Fund conference in Los Angeles where I will hear about great education entrepreneurs and how they can impact today’s students. I do look forward to the networking that will be involved but get tired of hearing about the same few entrepreneurs at every conference – KIPP, TFA, TNTP and New Leaders. Many of these conferences lament the fact that there are not more entrepreneurs in education and yet they can only bring these same people on stage to talk about why. They never seem to realize that they are creating the classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Funders only fund what they hear about and they only hear about the few education entrepreneurs out there because they are the only ones allowed to present.

Unless you somehow missed my subtle rant – I am whining that ABCTE is still left behind in the education space. We have never been deemed worthy enough to make it to the dais of the education world in spite of solid data, the most cost effective and scaleable teacher recruitment model and incredible progress. I guess it is not entrepreneurial enough to take a program to self-sufficiency in the non-profit world.

So we will continue to attend the conferences in the audience and participate as a “funding stalker” at the breaks and use every opportunity to let people know there are other education groups out here making a difference.

You just wouldn’t know it from the conference presenter list.

Oklahoma will be a great ABCTE state

2009-05-13T14:03:00.001-07:00

spent the day in Oklahoma City visiting with their teacher licensing and recruitment team and it was a great meeting. Oklahoma is getting hit hard for a couple of reasons. First they have many teacher retirements coming up with, according to NCTAF, 46% of their teachers over the age of 50. Second, by 2011 they will have Pre-K in public schools – meaning they need a lot more teachers to cover more grades. So an alternative route has the full support of the state department of education. This is phenomenal for us and we could see Missouri like numbers (over 1,200 enrolled in the first year).

Especially if the press is kind to us in getting the word out…..
http://newsok.com//article/3369091

http://www.okcfox.com/template/inews_wire/wires.regional.ok/26b850fe-www...

http://www.kfsm.com/news/sns-ap-ok--teachercertification,0,6634389.story

Appreciate some great teachers!

2009-05-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

One of the best ways to illustrate the inspiring work ABCTE teachers are doing is by letting them tell the stories themselves. We’ve been doing this in the Meet Our Teachers section of our website with written profiles and we recently launched an ABCTE YouTube channel where we’ve started posting video profiles of our teachers.

The first set of videos went online last week to celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week and we’ll have more going up in the next few weeks.

Leah Dow shares a story about taking her special education class to prom.

First-year biology teacher Nick Gastelecutto talks about making an impact and talking a student out of dropping out of school.

Reading teacher Chuck Foster speaks about helping a student deal with test anxiety and then seeing her scores jump 50 points.

Randi is Right

2009-05-06T06:34:00.001-07:00

keep wondering what is going on when I keep agreeing with the teacher’s unions. Randi Weingarten, who I have not quite figured out, had this to say about National Standards at a hearing on the Hill. From the Alliance for Excellent Education newsletter –

"She stressed that simply “getting standards right” would not be enough and called on Congress to fix the “fundamentally flawed accountability system” in the No Child Left Behind Act. “If we are not testing the right information, or the accountability system is flawed, or the tests are inadequate, or teachers are not supported, we will not reap the rewards a standards-based reform system offers,” she said. “As we look ahead to NCLB reauthorization, we need to address these issues in order to fulfill the promise of offering all students a high-quality education.”

She nailed it on this one. My hope is that people get the whole quote right and not just say that AFT thinks NCLB is a fundamentally flawed accountability system – or worse boil it down to AFT hates tests.

I think the unions have a messaging problem. They headlines say that they hate “teaching to the test” and many in the unions are anti-test. But when you really listen and read the quote above, they are really concerned with the tests and the standards we are using – which actually is a viable concern.

The test is supposed to be aligned to the standards. And (this is the real key here) the standards are supposed embody everything someone should learn during that particular year in school. So if the standards are correct and the test is aligned to the standards then, by default, teaching to the test is actually teaching what someone should learn during that year.

What Randi clearly communicates is that our standards aren’t all that great and the tests aren’t all that well aligned. So teaching to the test is not the most productive use of teaching time. Fixing that is critical – but time consuming and costly – if we are ever to truly improve education as a nation.

Common goals in Wisconsin

2009-05-05T14:16:00.001-07:00

When a local paper writes that ABCTE can be “the best and most practical option to fill important math and science teaching positions” it is extremely gratifying (more press here). At the same time, the state teacher’s union, WEAC, is neutral on the bill. ABCTE has worked long and hard to get to this point and some of our previously vocal opponents have noticed.

Wisconsin demonstrates what can happen when parties with seemingly disparate interests actually listen to each other and find common interests. Rob Weil from AFT told me early on that he could work with us because we are a “learning organization”. After listening to ABCTE opponents, we have thoughtfully implemented new programs to assuage their fears against our program operating in their state. We have shown a willingness to customize the program to the unique needs of each state including the addition of over 180 hours of online content to enhance the teacher preparation experience, greater transparency and additional research.

The result in Wisconsin is that our bill has a Democrat sponsoring in the Assembly and the Senate. We have had productive discussions (and will be adding an amendment to the bill) on changes that the teacher’s union would like to see that strengthen the program. The press support has subsequently been excellent (and fair).

We have focused on creating one solution to a problem in education rather than making a political statement. In Wisconsin, AB 235 and SB 175 limit our program to 200 teachers per year in math and science. Wisconsin is short by approximately 200 teachers so it makes for a great pilot program. There is also a sunset clause in the bill to ensure that we report back on the progress of the program.

Not exactly disruptive innovation, but the bill does tackle a problem facing schools and helps build support for that solution. A strategy of cooperation certainly results in less pain then a strategy of frontal assault.

A Tipping Point in Education Policy

2009-04-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here at ABCTE we do a lunch time book club of sorts. Every six months we pick a professional book to read and then discuss. We meet in groups so that I can get to know our great staff better and they can become more familiar with each other and me. We started with 7 Habits last year and had some great discussions on how we can improve ourselves. The current book we are reading is the Tipping Point.

While discussing the Tipping Point on Friday it occurred to me that I actually saw how working with “mavens” (those experts who influence others) can help change education policy. In Oklahoma, Representative Ed Cannady and Representative Jeannie McDaniel are two Democrats on the Education Committee. We spent some great time with them answering their questions and better explaining our program. Because of their expertise in Education, the rest of the Democrats look to them for their stand on education issues.

Since we had spent so much time with them and because they had heard from some of the teachers in their districts on math and science shortages they voted for the bill in committee and did not debate it on the floor. That was all it took. Because some of the best education experts in the Oklahoma House were willing to vote for it, everyone voted for the bill and it passed 99 to 0.

It was great to use true example of the Tipping Point in our discussions and how it really does apply in the real world.

Oklahoma is the 9th ABCTE State!

2009-04-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last night Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma signed SB582 into law allowing ABCTE teachers to teach in Oklahoma. This is the 9th state that now accepts ABCTE teachers and the unanimous passage of this bill in the Oklahoma House says some pretty great things about our program.
1. The content we have added to the program makes it easier for states to accept our teachers
2. The data we have gathered is compelling evidence that our teachers are doing well in the classroom
3. Alternative certification just isn’t so radical anymore
None of the education groups opposed the bill. This leads to the conclusion that, with the changes we have made, our program is a common sense solution to math/science teacher shortages. Left to make a decision on their own, all of the House members in Oklahoma decided that common sense should prevail.

Also note that the changes we have made to the program were due to the input from education groups. So the result is that by listening to them, we can improve the program yet remain true to our goals. A pretty good feeling.

Nice coverage from Steve Sawchuk on the Edweek blog here. Now on to the 10th state…..

100 years of tradition unhindered by progress

2009-04-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

We used to have a similar tongue in cheek motto at the Naval Academy where traditions could not be undone by progress. And now I see first hand how education continues to struggle with modernizing the classroom in spite of amazing technological gains in the last 20 years.

Tom Vander Ark looks ahead to the next 20 years and feels like we are finally, reluctantly, going to change – but only if we get some for-profits in the mix with the non-profits to drive that change. The working paper has been released by AEI with a forward by Rick Hess who continues to champion entrepreneurship in education.

Vander Ark is formerly of the Gates Foundation and now runs a venture capital group for education companies. So he has seen the issue up close and personal. He puts forth a pretty great picture of where education has to go and his paper deserves a quick read.

In the recent Metlife survey of teachers, the issue: “More teachers (43%) agree that their classes have become so mixed in terms of students’ learning abilities that they can’t teach effectively, compared to 39% in 1988.” His fix is World of Warcraft. Not really but it does give me an excuse to try the game. His actual fix is to use a World of Warcraft like software system to completely customize education delivery that adapts to the level of the student.

If you know any good homeschoolers, you know that most of them can educate their children in half the time. Our schools are rapidly inefficient because time is lost on bussing, meals, announcements, paperwork etc. Every day we are lose incredibly valuable time on task to things that don’t further our student’s education. Yet there is technology available today that could deliver the content more efficiently and at the level of each individual student helping them grasp the knowledge they need to succeed.

Our teachers are right in identifying one of the main problems in education today. The wide variation in knowledge and skill level of their students makes it nearly impossible to teach without the use of technology. Yet the only way we currently use technology in our schools is to have students do some research on the web and to create some great powerpoints in their group projects (usually completed by half the students in the group). We are teaching to the middle and losing more and more kids on the ends.

Vander Ark is correct - One hundred years of tradition unhindered by progress has to change - - it is just a matter of how fast and how many student lives are wasted while we wait.

Is this change we can believe in?

2009-04-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today in the Oklahoma House, Senate Bill 582 passed by a vote of 99 for and 0 against. A unanimous vote for the ABCTE alternative teacher certification program to be accepted in Oklahoma. This is pretty stunning as our program has, in the past, faced stiff opposition from the education establishment.

We have made a lot of changes to the program and placed a greater emphasis on teacher preparation especially in the pedagogy area. And we have changed to create a more balanced board of directors. And we have been much more accommodating in meeting with education groups to build a program in each state that takes input from all sides. And we have done a much better job at completing research and placing more teachers. And we have done a much better job at publicizing all of those accomplishments.

But 99 to nothing?!?!?.

That is really stunning. From my front line view, the tipping point is a combination of teacher unions looking to work with other groups and stop saying no to everything and President Obama constantly touting alternative teacher certification.

Regardless, it is extremely gratifying to become more “mainstream” and find much more common ground in education.

Shortsight is as shortsighted does

2009-04-14T07:55:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to keep up on the stimulus dollars to see if it is really going to prevent teacher layoffs etc. First my amazing ABCTE team got word last week from Utah that there is a hiring freeze on teachers right now. After a four year pilot using our math program, we were recently approved in Utah for all ABCTE certifications because they were constantly facing teacher shortages and knew they had looming teacher retirements. One district that normally hires 300 teachers will hire less than 50 next year. Most districts are eliminating educational programs and using those teachers to backfill any new hires needed. The final blow in Utah is that the state board approved a reduction to the school year by 5 days for 2009 – 2010.

Looking bad for stimulus dollars providing a positive impact for schools – Utah is actually slipping.

Then in my own backyard in Virginia (and my daughter’s school system), the Washington Post reports that Loudoun County Supervisors, upon hearing that Loudoun schools would get $11.8 million in stimulus, promptly cut $7.3 million from the school budgets. Not painful since it keeps them whole and no teachers will lose their jobs, but it certainly doesn’t create any reforms. And since Loudoun is still growing, it still creates problems.

The main issue is that state and district budgets are worse than initially thought. So the hole is much deeper and the stimulus is going to only fill it so far. Right now that is causing some panic and to twist a phrase – shortsighted is as shortsighted does. States and districts are looking to just get by next year so the dollars are not really driving any reforms.

The problem is that all this panic will dry up our teacher pipelines are really at the same time staffing is getting exceptionally lean. In two years districts will find themselves scrambling to find the talent they need. Those districts that think long term and really look to tap into the talent out there now and get that talent into teaching programs will be those that really do right by their students.

More to come……

FEAR THE TSUNAMI

2009-04-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

Pretty interesting day for education in the press as they are finally breaking the story that I broke on March 20, 2009 about the pending “tsunami” of teacher retirements. USA Today has a piece about it quoting Tom Carroll from NCTAF saying that “we will lose one third of our teachers in the next 5-6 years”. The New York Times uses another quote from Mr. Carroll - “The traditional teaching career is collapsing at both ends,” the report says. “Beginners are being driven away” by low pay and frustrating working conditions, and “accomplished veterans who still have much to contribute are being separated from their schools by obsolete retirement systems”

It is great to see this getting some press. They did, however, gloss over the one of the major issues in the report which is that our retirement system for teachers actually provides a disincentive to delay retiring. While the rest of the working world has already delayed retirement in their minds by 2-3 years based on the collapse of their IRA’s or 401k’s, teachers in many states would financially lose if they delayed retirement. So the stock market collapse has no impact on our retirement issue.

South Carolina actually passed a law allowing teachers to retire and then come back without facing a financial penalty on their pension. I expect that we will see more states looking to follow suit as this tsunami builds over the next three years.

Since the beginning of this blog I have been sounding the alarm on retirements as my readers know from my favorite statistic: in 1972, 21% of the bachelor’s degrees in this country were in education and today that number is less than 7%. Unfortunately, most states have such restrictive teacher certification requirements dominated by Ed schools so that as those 1972 teachers retire, they are left with gaping holes. Those states without solid alternative teacher certification routes will be the ones who feel the greatest pain in the next few years. .

We have a unique opportunity today to mitigate this crisis. We have displaced workers with incredible skills who could become teachers and fill the void that will soon cripple our schools. The naysayers, and there are so many of those in education, will say that once the economy turns around, those people will leave. But they won’t leave if you have solid preparation programs like ABCTE’s that realize an 85% retention rate.

Secretary Duncan tells us that what we do in the next three to four years will have a lasting impact on our education system for the next thirty years. In the case of teacher recruitment, it is both what we do to attract more teachers and what we don’t do to change needlessly restrictive teacher certification that will have the greatest impact on our future students.

The unprecendented leading to the dramatic

2009-04-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

I was invited to attend the ARRA briefing over at the US DOE today. For us, the briefing actually provided a little more information than previous top line discussions. In times of great change, effective organizations over-communicate. With ARRA, the US DOE is definitely making sure that they do that and it is appreciated by many. This extra communication is certainly keeping people from finding things not to like about the recovery money (see – I didn’t call it stimulus so their communication plan is working).

There are two great things about these briefings that are very noticeable. The first is that Secretary Duncan is so careful to always start with the positives. Whatever he is talking about, he always starts with the positive and continues to prefer the carrot to the stick. In this case, states forgoing the carrot (in this case the carrot takes the form of billions of dollars) will feel like they actually got the stick since they will lose billions. The second is John Schnur – if someone in the audience brings up something they don’t like, rather than debate, he asks for input on how to handle it better. It is so refreshing to have people admit that they don’t have all the answers and really seem to want everyone involved in making the program better. It is really disarming to the questioner which makes it quite enjoyable to watch since most questions are really just a ploy to get your organization noticed (disclosure: I have done this in the past).

However, they have got to find some new words. I wish that I would have written down how many times “unprecedented” and “dramatic” were used. No one would argue that the amount of money is unprecedented and that for that much cash we do need to see dramatic results – but it became a little funny towards the end as it seemed to be used in every third sentence.

The big take away for ABCTE is the Race to the Top funds (should we call this RTTT or R3T). There are $5 billion to fund this race. Approximately $4.35 billion will be given to the states that, through their ARRA spending, really demonstrated that they are working towards true reform with increased student success. The remaining $635 million will be distributed through the Office of Innovation and Improvement(OII) through existing programs and some new programs. It is clear that Jim Shelton, formerly of Gates, is now fully in charge of OII and ready to go since he stepped up and did a lot of the talking on RTTT. We should see some RFPs flowing here over the few months. I believe that they want to have the RFP process completed by end of the fiscal year and the money distributed in spring and summer of 2010. Very ambitious.

The Secretary also continued his theme of wanting to see more local courage and less adult dysfunction. He is correct. If that actually happens maybe the unprecedented will actually lead to the dramatic.

ABCTE Teachers

2009-04-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

I would urge you to go to the Meet our Teachers section of our website. It is really quite incredible and the reason we exist. Here you will learn about Angela Moore who worked in the military and other careers before finding teaching as her calling. With her spouse in the military, it was tough for her to complete any teacher preparation program that did not have an independent study option. With ABCTE sh was able to teach. With our scholarship program, she could do it now.

Mississippi has a very difficult time finding teachers. The fact that we were able to recruit people like Angela to teach in Mississippi high schools is incredibly rewarding and the reason we all work so hard to get other states to accept our teachers.

Unanimous

2009-04-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went around to all the House Education committee members in Oklahoma to ensure passage of the alternative teacher certification bill SB 582. We had some very good questions from all the members. The most striking discussion with one of the Democrat members was that she told us that a math teacher/department head had called her and told her she had two math teachers who needed to be fired because students in their classes were not learning math. But she couldn’t fire them because she had no one to replace them. She asked that the legislature please do something about the shortage to get them the help they need.

So in a first for ABCTE we had a 14 – 0 vote in an education committee. As the program has evolved, become more “mainstream”, added great resources and become much better at communicating our message, we now see true bi-partisan support. It was a great day.

See the vote video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFBcRQlY0M0

The Retention Myth

2009-03-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

I think a quick note is in order on the EdWeek Article on the Ingersoll and Perda research suggesting that we are producing plenty of math and science teachers and all we need to do is just retain them and we are set.

The facts are probably correct – though dated – that we produce 2X as many math and science teachers than retire. Thus, retention is the solution. Woohoo - problem solved.

But that ignores the societal reality that we are all job nomads now. We wander from career oasis to career oasis hoping for something better - never settling at one job for more than few years.

I regret to say that I don’t think that education will be the one career that is immune to this current reality. Labor statistics say that 18 to 40 year olds will have 11 job changes of which half will be total career changes.

Now we certainly can do more to retain better teachers through better working conditions, better professional development to help them deal with so many students on so many different levels and career ladders to increase job satisfaction.

But to make the naïve claim that the math and science teacher shortage will magically disappear if everyone sticks around to retirement is to ignore the current reality

Part 5: What is happening to teaching jobs

2009-03-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

For Part 5, the final in our series on teaching jobs, I was hoping to have more information about the billions going to protect teaching jobs but I guess that is going to have to wait for a few months once we see what really happens.

But in the mean time, there is a great interview with the Secretary of Education speaking frankly with the Ed Week Editorial staff. They ask great questions and they get real answers. From the teaching side of things Secretary Duncan "gets it" as evidenced by the following ideas he puts forth:

He understands that some states are saying they are going to move the stimulus money to paying off debt and he basically said that they will be sacrificing the opportunity for the big bucks if they do. The states that drive innovation will get A LOT more money. It is in the states best interest to use the money right
He wants to fundamentally change the staus quo. He knows this an historic, once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a gob of money (my word not his)
Data systems must be put in place to track students back to teachers and track teachers back to their teacher preparation program so that we can use the data to improve education
Talent matters tremendously
Need best teachers to take on the toughest assignments through incentives
Need to understand economic realities and pay math and science teachers more
For the small numbers of states that get it right, they will get the huge dollars available to take their reforms to scale – it will go to the states that do the hard work, demonstrate local courage and challenge the status quo. Let me just say that I love that line
We need new teams of adults if students are failing. I love this – not just blaming teachers but all the adults from the DOE on down that are involved in education. And he does support rewarding great teachers and moving poor teachers out of the classroom
Big believer in alternative certification. Here he reiterates what we have been saying in this series on teaching jobs - there is lots of great talent who just happened to not graduate with an ed degree and we need them in the classroom. Because of the huge numbers of baby boomers retiring from teaching, what we do in the next 4-6 years will determine what happens in the next 30 years. We need to do more now to make sure we have the talent far into the future

For all that are following the teacher employment – this is the money quote. Even if there is a blip in teacher hiring now, because the pipeline into teaching has dried up and because outflows are dramatically increasing, we will be in trouble if we don’t do something now. Secretary Duncan wants more paths to teaching, wants to build more competition in teacher preparation and then hold all the routes accountable for results.

Since he mentioned the 2010 budget details will come out in April, I imagine we will see money put behind these thoughts. And that is good news for what will happen to teaching jobs.

Series on What is Happening to Teaching
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

A Reasonable Blog

2009-03-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Two nice things going on in Arizona in support of alternative teacher certification - give a read to Lisa Snell at the Reason Foundation to find out more!

Part 4: What is happening to teaching jobs

2009-03-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Layoffs are incredibly difficult for any organization. During a recession it takes true leadership for an organization to make it through to better times and come out stronger. Organizations with weak leadership do not survive, and if they do, aren't able to take advantage of the upcoming economic recovery.

Layoffs damage morale and if they are done wrong, can irreversibly impact your talent pool. The problem for our education system is that performance never appears to have an impact on who gets the pink slip.

On one end you have districts trying to save money by pushing for early retirement of the most expensive employees and on the other end you have layoffs strictly by seniority meaning the most junior will suffer. Unfortunately, neither option does anything to strengthen the performance of our education system because they don't focus on keeping the most talented teachers in front of our students.

The McKinsey Quarterly has a great article on how organizations can come out of a recession stronger by focusing on building the absolute best team.

First, “head count reductions provide a powerful incentive to use existing resources better”. Job redesign can increase job satisfaction and save money. Look for efficiencies in the system and look for ways to reduce overhead to improve customer focus. School districts have the opportunity to reduce overhead now and also try to find efficiencies through technology and innovative staffing models. Unfortunately – they are mainly just cutting overhead to the bone so not much is being done to improve performance.

Second, is to implement better training. There is a growing understanding in education that professional development is neither. And there certainly isn't any money to send teachers to so called "professional development". One idea that education can implement is to use your most talented teachers to help develop other teachers. This is a great time to tap into your most successful teachers and increase the performance of all your classrooms.

The third idea offered up by McKinsey is to conduct thorough performance assessments of all staff. “Companies that conduct disciplined, meritocratic assessments of performance and potential are well placed to make good personnel decisions.” Education cannot comply with this recommendation for three huge reasons. One, we don’t have great performance assessments of teachers that have been shown to directly impact student achievement. Two, we don’t have principals who are thoroughly trained in performance assessment and three, it wouldn’t matter anyway because you can’t layoff by performance because of most teacher contracts.

The fourth recommendation is to grab talent now while it is available. This is something that some school districts will be able to do to make themselves a stronger organization. The recession will not last and when things turn around, school enrollments begin to increase and the tsunami of boomer teacher retirements begins, there will be a severe shortage of talent – especially in math science. Job stability has replaced huge bonuses and pay as the organizational brand that people are searching for in a career today. Throw in retirement pay, summers off and helping students, and your pitch suddenly tops most careers out there. Recruiting career changers and displaced younger teachers now will ensure that your district is ready two years from now.

In every recession some organizations die while others come out so well positioned that their long term success is guaranteed. Charter schools are the best position to take the McKinsey recommendations and come out of this recession as some of the best schools in our country. Unfortunately, most schools will not and will lose a great opportunity to excel.

Series on What is Happening to Teaching
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part 5

Part 3: What is happening to teaching jobs

2009-03-20T07:25:00.001-07:00

Interesting bits of news from around the states on hiring and firing of teachers. First is to keep your wits about you as reported by EIA. In 2003 California issued 20,000 pink slips to teachers and ended up only firing 3,000. Contracts in most states and districts require ample notice for layoffs which means that many teachers will be understandably upset now – but when the stimulus dollars start to trickle out, may ultimately be saved.

Hell of a way to do business. That kind of upheaval has a lasting effect on a person. The “safety” of an education career will not feel safe at all after this roller coaster ride. Give credit to Arizona which is trying to slide the date of pink slip notification in hopes of having a much clearer picture in June. Much less stress for teachers.

But things are still a guessing game for states and districts. No one knows what will happen with the stimulus dollars. And we are still getting concerns of the Governor control aspect of the funding. As we reported, Gov. Sandford from SC was going to use it to trim so debt and now we hear that Gov. Strickland from OH might also restrict what school districts receive. The article makes it very clear to me that the stimulus dollar distribution is anything but clear.

Meanwhile, back on the recruitment side of things we continue to see a dramatic increase in people attending our recruitment events. Since the Utah school board unanimously approved all ABCTE certifications, we are doing our first big recruitment push there and the results continue to be amazing. If you watch the video on this you can see the packed room. AP even gets into the act with their article on career changers moving into teaching.

So the question is: Do you go into teaching now or not?

And the answer is - - yes - - especially in math and science. Even though there may be some short term layoffs due to the economic crisis, the fact remains that we have still have ever increasing retirements and less people going into teaching. The NCTAF Policy Brief on the BabyBoom Tsunami clearly shows the looming retirement crisis that will hit teaching in the next few years. 1.7 million teachers approaching retirement is not to be taking lightly and most alternative teaching certification programs take around a year to complete. And news flash - - 2007 broke the record for the number of births in the US – the highest ever. In three years those kids head to school and I am pretty sure are going to need teachers.

So teaching is still a great place to be. And even though this is a tough year, the need for teachers will turn around quickly. If we don’t have some great people in the pipeline, our shortage will become a crisis fast.

Series on What is Happening to Teaching
Part 1
Part 2

Part 4

Part 5

New Paper on Alternative Teacher Certification

2009-03-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

Great paper that concludes that alternative teacher certification can help states build a world quality teaching workforce from Dan Lips at Heritage:

Find it here

Part 2: What is happening to teaching jobs

2009-03-16T14:16:00.001-07:00

Guest Blog by Jessica Morris, ABCTE Teacher Preparation Manager

I have the honor of moderating ABCTE’s forums [link], where I get to hear the personal stories from our driven and dedicated teachers from all over the world. In contrast to the negative economic news from the media, the forums are a fascinating look at what is happening in districts and schools. Many new teachers are scared that there will be no jobs in September and backup their posts with stories of district layoffs. Yet, others post that nearby districts are in fact growing or that, thanks to ABCTE, they have been hired full time as a fully certified teacher after working first on a temporary certificate.

There is a “ying/yang” that occurs on our forums. Someone will post good news to counter the bad news and there is always a post of hope or support to balance the messages of economic uncertainty. While everyone knows that times are tougher in some places, the forums contain real life stories showing that it may be better than the streams of bad news indicate. Some people are still finding opportunities out there and no one yet knows how the federal stimulus money will affect job openings and new leadership roles for teachers.

Our prospective teachers on the forums have demonstrated that in order to get hired you have to go the extra mile. For those that are currently teaching and find themselves surrounded by shrinking or consolidating school districts, now is the time to boost their teaching portfolios and skill sets to show that they are vital to their students’ and schools’ success [some recent evidence of this here from a Florida teacher http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/14/95610/6865]. Yes, teachers already have too much to do and too little time. But by finding even just an hour or two in their schedules, teachers can find new opportunities for increased efficiency and growth. The first rule in a recession is to make yourself incredibly valuable to any organization.

As a starting point, below are a few suggestions of some free professional development resources:
• Annenberg Media’s Learner.org http://www.learner.org/index.html
Offers free professional development workshops and courses which consist of video, print, and Web components that can be used for study groups or independent study.
• Electronic Field Trips from Ball State University http://www.bsu.edu/eft/home/31digest.php
This site is a result of partnerships between Ball State University and museums, national parks, and historic sites across the country. Teachers can become technology leaders by using electronic resources to expose their students to faraway locations for a more rich and active learning environment.
• MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
MIT has made a variety of its courseware, including lecture notes, videos, and syllabi, available for free. There are even suggestions for how to incorporate this content into the high school classrooms: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm
• Teacher Development from Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development
This site features videos and articles related to teacher development and its connection to interactive learning environments and overall best practices.
• Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook from EdWeek.org http://www.teachersourcebook.org/tsb/index.html An interactive directory of K-12 products and services for professional development organized into categories. EdWeek also keeps an archive of its ongoing free webinars: http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/webinars/webinars.html#archived .

Whether you are new to the profession or a veteran, using internet resources, books, peer learning groups and other materials, you can build on your credentials and show your administrators that you are invaluable staff members that are able and willing adapt to the evolving knowledge, skills and demands of the K-12 classroom.

Series on What is Happening with Teaching Jobs
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Part 1: What is happening with teaching jobs?

2009-03-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today will begin a 5 part series on the state of teacher employment in the US and what we are hearing from around the nation. We will initially focus on the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund because that is supposed to be the critical element that will help states and districts prevent teacher layoffs.

I was invited to listen to the U.S Department of Education phone call that talked about what states had to do to get these funds and it is fairly simplistic. They need to submit a request and they get two thirds of the money. This money is supposed to do two things – stimulate the economy in the short term and improve education for the long term. After the states receive the initial push, they have a few months to put together an application for the final one third of their money.

But the money still has to get out to the school districts and that is a major concern. This Friday is supposed to be the big Friday the 13th in California as 10,000 teachers are expected to be told they don’t have a job next year. Will this money prevent that bloodbath? On a smaller scale in Massachusetts, they are trying to hold off in anticipation of state funds.

But what I have not seen is actual plans on how this will actually work. Also looming on the horizon is that the website from which all money flows may not be able to handle the stress. That could create an even bigger mess as states scramble to keep people employed yet can't actually get access to the money.

Last but not least is Governor Sanford of South Carolina who, like most Americans today who get a windfall, want to pay down debt using 30% of his stimulus dollars. The problem is that South Carolina has the second highest unemployment rate at 11%. Does that mean that schools will get shortchanged that 30%.

Probably the most interesting part of the US Department of Education call the other day was that the SFSF dollars are there to make states whole when it comes to education funding. So the question came up but was not really answered - because the funds are to help states maintain spending, if states didn't actually cut their education budget because they cut deeper in other areas, can they still get the money? The answer seemed to be no - which would really stink for those states who made education a priority in their budgeting process.

So with those types of questions out there, it seems like a worthy enterprise for me and my staff to keep a watchful eye on what happens over the next week or so. Hopefully you will tune in to see.

For Monday – did California get hit on Friday the 13th? Will the grants.gov money machine crash? Are all the teaching jobs gone? Tune in to find out!

Series on What is happening with teaching jobs:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

If it doesn't work - stick with it

2009-03-11T08:16:00.001-07:00

"When you have a 2-year-old car, and maybe it's sputtering a little bit, you don't get a new car. You get a tune-up." Prince William School Board member Michael I. Otaigbe in a recent Washington Post article.

OK – and in the mean time, thousands of “cars” will never master the basic concepts of math. I love analogies in education and this one may be my new favorite. The discussion is over the math curriculum used in Prince William schools. Currently they use “math investigations” which has some controversy as to whether it is an effective way to teach math but they decided to stick with it.

Right now there is a petition from 1,500 Prince William parents to dump the “investigations” and there is a study that shows it is not as effective as other text books. But Prince William doesn’t care – it would cost too much to replace the text books and they want to see if improving the program helps. It seems that they just need more parent training, more teacher training and some changes to the material and then it might actually raise the program to somewhere near “average”.

What about the students? I can see making a ton of effort for a program that shows a lot of promise and has community support – but they are going through all this effort for a sub-par program that emphasizes feeling good about math over actually learning math that doesn’t show promise and is hated by the community.

In the real world if your customers hated your product, your employees didn’t understand it enough to “sell it” and your results were mediocre – would you really “tune up” the product or would you go back to the product that actually works?

Heed the Call!!

2009-03-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

From President Obama's education remarks today:

"America’s future depends on its teachers. And so today, I am calling on a new generation of Americans to step forward and serve our country in our classrooms. If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make the most of your talents and dedication; if you want to make your mark with a legacy that will endure – join the teaching profession. America needs you. We need you in our suburbs. We need you in our small towns. We need you in our inner cities. We need you in classrooms all across our country."

So very true and exactly the reason for ABCTE.

Closing Ed Schools

2009-03-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

When practicality wins over tradition in education it is a noteworthy event. So I want to take the time to applaud the University of the District of Columbia President Allen Sessoms for taking a stand to close their education school. He is analyzing all aspects of UDC to create a much better performing university. When he looked at the ed school he found that it had a graduation rate of less than 8% after 6 years.

The reason for this is that the students cannot pass the basic skills test that is required to graduate. Essentially 4-6 of the 150 students in early childhood education graduate each year. That is beyond dismal.

Yet there are people fighting him because they want to uphold the tradition of having an education school at UDC. And by “they” we of course mean Marion Barry who would rather have dismal teachers in DC Schools than no ed program at UDC. (and still can’t pay his taxes).

In difficult economic times all organizations must take a hard look at everything they do and continuing doing the things they do well and eliminate those areas that perform poorly. It is great to see that UDC is finally moving in the right direction.

Note: ABCTE is hoping to be accepted in DC soon

DOE ARRA with SFSF

2009-03-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

The countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.
—President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009

I received my DOE ARRA package of SFSF guidelines. For those new to the stimulus game, that is the Department of Education guidelines for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as it applies to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. It makes for fascinating reading if only because it is very hard to see how Governor’s are going to suddenly, in two weeks, commit to the following:

“to advance essential education reforms to benefit students from early learning through post-secondary education, including: college- and career- ready standards and high-quality, valid and reliable assessments for all students; development and use of pre-K through post-secondary and career data systems; increasing teacher effectiveness and ensuring an equitable distribution of qualified teachers; and turning around the lowest-performing schools.”

It seems like a stretch to me. But governors can get 67% of their share of $48.6 billion of SFSF by applying to DOE and demonstrating a commitment to the above. The 33% will be distributed once the governors submit their plan to demonstrate the commitment above and those funds will be delivered starting July 1, 2009.

I imagine the teaching portion of those plans will look very similar to the plans the states had to submit to the DOE for reaching 100% highly qualified teachers. If you have ever read those plans, they basically repackaged exactly what the state was currently doing and said that those programs were now suddenly going to solve the problem.

My guess is that because the time frame is so short we will see exactly the same thing for these funds. The status quo will be reworded to show that it is now a reform that will create better results for students but in the end wont change a thing.

I could be wrong – but I seriously doubt it.

But just in case, I will make sure we contact the governors of ABCTE states to see if we can help them recruit more teachers for high needs schools.

Teacher Certification Rules Explained

2009-03-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

Teacher certification resources are hard to come by, they are difficult to understand and it is very difficult to keep them up to date. So we are pretty glad to see the Rossier School of Education at USC taken on the challenge. They have launched CertMap to help you navigate the difficult terrain that is teacher certification.

We have people on our online forums who do not currently live in an ABCTE state but are taking our program and then planning move to one of our states. This is a pretty new phenomenon and speaks to the issues of our economy. Hopefully, this resource will be great for those willing to move to get the career they desire.

They are still building it out – but take a look.
CertificationMap: http://www.certificationmap.com

Props to the Administration

2009-03-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

I must admit that I am very impressed with two big statements from the Obama administration this week. It is very refreshing to see such honesty and transparency in public policy especially in the critical area of education.

The first came from Vice President Biden in Delaware while addressing the teacher's union highlighting the need to get results from the stimulus dollars for education:

"I genuinely need your help to make this work because, folks, look at it this way. We've been given all the ammunition. If we shoot and miss, if we squander the opportunity, tell me how long you think it's going to take for another American president to go and ask for more dollars to correct the education system," Biden said to the Delaware State Education Association members at the Atlantic Sands Hotel & Conference Center in Rehoboth Beach.

The second came for Secretary Duncan in an interview with the Washington Post where he reiterates that money is not the answer – especially if you base it on DC School performance:

"D.C. has had more money than God for a long time, but the outcomes are still disastrous," Duncan said

Secretary Duncan advocates for reforms on a grand scale and encourages schools to use the tools that have worked in charter schools. In a tip of the hat to KIPP, he advocates for longer school days for students that are behind and I totally agree. He also eschews politics for performance when he chastises Congress for eliminating the DC Voucher program. He does not want to send these kids back to DC Public Schools when they have a chance to go to great private schools.

Putting students before politics is a huge step forward and making it clear that there has to be accountability for results with the huge influx of money deserves praise and respect.

Male teachers earn more

2009-03-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

A most puzzling graph in the New York Times shows that male teachers earn 10% more than female teachers. The exception is special education where they make 3% more than men. It is puzzling because so many teachers are in collective bargaining agreements and those contracts do not distinguish between male and female. A note on the university level says that there are more tenured male professors which is why they make more.

Since teacher pay is not based on performance and only is increased by time in the profession, degrees or advanced certification it must mean that, on average, male teachers have longer time in the classroom than the average female teacher.

No real conclusion or cause to advocate – just an interesting data point.

Education Problem Solving Revisited

2009-02-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

Interesting three days in Arizona on the education “human capital” front. First there was an article on teacher shortages in Arizona followed the next day with an article on our attempts to get approved in Arizona. So you have a problem and you have a solution – what should that mean…..hmmmmm…..well for some it means you find ways not to implement that solution and instead find ways to stick with what you are doing now.

A bill to encourage alternative certifications introduced by Education Chairman Crandall passed out of committee 7 to 1. The one baffled me a little – his concern was that we did not have course work. Instead of our program where candidates work through a program and are screened by two rigorous tests BEFORE getting into the classroom, he advocates for letting anyone in the classroom and training them on the fly as higher quality which doesn't make much sense. Plus – if that was good enough wouldn’t the needs of Arizona’s students be met by those programs?

The only other resistance was around our meeting of Arizona standards even though we have had an independent analysis say that we meet their standards with our program.

People that don’t want change usually stick to an argument even if the argument is proved false. Based on the outcomes of today, it looks like there is a desire to solve the problem and not stick with things that are not working.

Teacher Performance Pay

2009-02-20T09:06:00.001-08:00

I too struggle with teacher bonuses. I totally agree with Ladner's post on Jay Greene's Blog (full disclosure that he sits on my board but that is not why I agree with him)– teachers need to be rewarded for the success of the school and for their individual contribution to that school. I saw this first hand in one of my jobs in manufacturing. We had an annual bonus that was based on the how well the organization did and how well my department did. It meant that everyone was focused on the overall performance of the plant and their individual performance. And if anyone was a slacker, the peer pressure for that person “stuff” together and not hurt our bonus was pretty intense.

There are other issues with teacher bonuses that we are still trying to work out as well. Because of a few meetings with Rob Weil from AFT I also never had a good answer for him on how we handle the problem of waiting for test score results since bonuses are most likely to have a positive impact the closer they are to the behavior being rewarded. There is also the timing of student testing and the quality of student testing. The ideal solution would be a true pre and post test with the rewards coming soon after the post test. But with school budgets today, will anyone really stomach another test for students and absorb that cost?

More studies are needed to determine how to implement performance plans and truly reward the efforts in our schools. It is great to see some on the ed reform side pointing out some of the issues and looking for solutions. We are completing the write up on our initial study for our Distinguished Teacher program and are still looking for dollars to pilot this program as a possible answer.

NO LDH - sigh of relief

2009-02-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

If you heard a collective sigh of relief from the education reformers in the world, you heard correctly. Linda Darling-Hammond (LDH) will not be joining the US DOE citing family reasons. Her daughter is ill and, as a dad, I will keep them in my thoughts. But for ABCTE, this is a relief.

Early in my career with ABCTE I was sitting at a lunch table at a NCTAF meeting and there was an open seat next to me. LDH was about to sit down and I stood and introduced myself – at that point someone came over and explained who I was and she immediately sat elsewhere.

It is one of those moments where you see that someone is so closed to any new ideas that they can't even sit next to you. This is borne out in her publications and speeches where she will not even consider alternative teacher certification in spite of the data that support this direction. It is also the reason new ideas are driven out of education – because the people carrying and driving those ideas are treated so rudely by the defenders of the status quo. Luckily my thick skin, stubbornness and inability to care what the status quo thinks, keeps me going.

I was very concerned during the elections that Obama was represented by LDH one day and a charter school principal the next. It appears that they were still developing their education policy and now true reform really has a chance.

And the children, not the adults, will be the real winners for a change

Stop the madness

2009-02-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

How can a person teach if they have not had course work or student teaching? It is a question that I am asked many times when visiting states. In the past this was somewhat difficult to answer, but as the data comes in from multiple studies, it is clear that the answer to this question is: just as well as those who had course work and student teaching.

We now have four separate studies that provide pretty much the same conclusion that students of alternatively certified teachers perform as well as students from traditionally certified teachers.

The ridiculous compromise that many leaders use to create alternative teacher certification programs is to make people take course work at night. To these leaders I always try to stress that teaching in the first year is physically and mentally exhausting. You have to be “on” longer than in most professions and the last thing these new teachers need is to leave their school and go sit in a class. They still need to grade papers, tweak lesson plans, rest and spend time with the family.

It turns out we are right. From the most recent study on alternative certification (Note that AC is alternatively certified and TC is traditionally certified teachers):

Students of AC teachers who were taking coursework while teaching scored lower in math than students of their TC counterparts. This finding suggests that student performance in an AC teacher’s class may be negatively related to the teacher’s taking courses while teaching.

If the first rule of education reform is to do no harm – then we must eliminate course work requirements for new teachers that have no value and are actually reducing teacher effectiveness.

The studies are found here:
“What Does Certification Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness? Evidence from New York City”, Kane, Rockoff, Staiger, 2006, http://gseweb.harvard.edu/news/features/kane/nycfellowsmarch2006.pdf
“Identifying Effective Teachers on the Job”, Gordon, Kane and Staiger, Brookings Institute, 2006
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2006/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2006/04educ...
“What Happens when States have Genuine Alternative Certification”, Peterson and Nadler, Education Next, Winter 2009,
http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/34564684.html
“An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification”, IES/Mathematica, February 2009
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/education/teacherstrain...