RE: [xmca] Teach for America

["White, Phillip" <Phillip.White@ucdenver.edu>]

Steve, Tony and Pete -  

in response to your question, Steve - i do think that, yes, this is the kind of approach to teacher evaluation that teachers may be facing in the coming years.  i don't think that this means "measured against 'phenomenal' results - nor do i think that this means being blamed for school and social system failures.  (and in fact, teachers are blamed by both the political left and right for school and social system failures - nothing new there.)

i find Farr's work interesting because - for me - it points out the remarkable value of a community of practice as ennunciated by Jean Lave, particularly in her work published by MCA.  particularly important is the Lave's call for a sociocultural theory of learning, rather than a psychological theory of learning, and i think that the Atlantic article lends support to Lave's position.

i've been a professional development school now for about the last ten years - before that i taught for thirty years in elementary schools, grades kindergarten through sixth.  this goes a long way in may understanding that the cultural practices of the school that are everyday activities are very much a community of practice.  also, i've learned that in my experience it is not the norm that most teachers can demonstrate that the majority of their students made at least one full year's academic growth.  and very few can accelerate their students' academic growth.  while it is true that more privileged students continue making academic growth during the summer primarily due to the kinds of activities they are engaged in at home, for those students who do not have access to these activities, a competent, engaged classroom teacher can go a long way in making a difference.  in this article - "The Brown legacy and the O'Connor challenge: Transforming schools in the images of children's potential. Stephen W. Raudenbush. Educational Researcher, 2009, it's clear that classroom teachers can really make a difference.
we also know that increasing the amount of schooling is important.  so, we've got skill-builders after school and a big emphasis on summer school.
variation in instructional quality is strongly linked to variation in student learning - so, how well the school is organized to mobilize effective instruction makes an enormous difference.
reduced class sizes makes a difference in student achievement, especially when connected to instructional practice.  reduced classes alone won't make a difference.
privatized, idiosyncratic teaching practices so not support whole school student achievement.  the teacher who does it alone, closes the door, does not collaborate and participate willingly in professional development sabotages whole school academic growth.
teachers need to engage in a shared, systematic practice of collaboration and professional development.
before a further in-depth discussion of constructing a shared, systematic practice of collaboration and professional development, there are some small details to mention.
teacher experience makes a big difference is effective instructional practice - but the lack of experience with new teachers can be effectively off-set with shared, systematic practice.  furthermore, teachers, like participants in all professions, usually cease building professional expertise after five to seven years.  this lack of professional growth can also be off-set by continued professional collaboration and staff-development.  
teacher knowledge, especially in mathematics and science greatly affects achievement.  yet mathematical and scientific knowledge has historically been a weak link for elementary school teachers.  teachers need a common curriculum, common assessments, common instructional strategies - a shared, systematic instructional system, lead and strengthened with the school's math coaches.  the least expert teacher needs access to the most expert teacher, who willingly supports and develops the professional growth of one another.  effective science instruction enhances children's knowledge about science content as well as drive large gains in vocabulary and academic discourse syntax.
for reading, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and word decoding is essential, but remember, essential does not mean sufficient.  While foundational, early elementary instruction must aspire to indepth teaching of cultural knowledge grounded in strong comprehension and vocabulary development.
instruction and assessment must be made public
teaching results should be open to inspection, so that all teachers know exactly how effective are all other teachers within the school professional community.  if some children are not doing well, the teacher of those children should immediately seek help from fellow teachers and teacher leaders and the principal.  a shared, systematic should reward expertise and expert practice, which in turn develops the capacity to help other teachers enact the system effectively.  teachers have to be willing to expose themselves to public scrutiny of their students' academic success.
so, again, at my professional development school primary sources of formal and informal assessments are up on a wall for all staff members to view and study and formulate practices of strengthening student achievement.
okay, so what does this have to do with the Atlantic article?
well, in my humble opinion, the article points out many of these conditions of building a shared, systematic, collaborative, professional community of expert teachers who are open to public scrutiny as well as willing to recognize when they need help and to seek it.
at the school i'm based at, we've also got a really smart, dedicated principal, who has supported teachers working together of problems of practice and staff development in such a way that the emphasis is on building shared expertise, collaboration and willing participation in tackling the challenges of educating a school population that has not only been historically marginalized, but blamed for their marginalization.  
of course, we've got ways to grow and develop and build even greater shared professional expertise.  we're all in varying degrees of professional expertise.
but the over-whelming shared cultural/professional practice is one of building collaborativly professional expertise.
we still search for answers to vexing problems that dog our daily practice.  while we express frustration, i don't hear expressions of blame.

i apologize for the length of this response - but you have all pointed our some pertinent questions - 

along with Pete, i have deep reservations about Kopp's vision - and i am relieved to see that at least in New York teachers are pushing for unions within the charter schools.  

as you highlighted, Steve _

"Right away, certain patterns emerged. ... Great teachers, he
concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing.
Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly
recruited students and their families into the process; they
maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to
student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the
next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired
outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the
combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls.

“Strong teachers insist that effective teaching is neither mysterious
nor magical. It is neither a function of dynamic personality nor
dramatic performance,” Farr writes in Teaching as Leadership, a book
coming out in February from Farr and his colleagues. The model the
book lays out, Farr is careful to say, is not the only path to
success. But he is convinced it can improve teaching—and already has.
In 2007, 24 percent of Teach for America teachers moved their students
one and a half or more years ahead, according to the organization’s
internal reports. In 2009, that number was up to 44 percent. That data
relies largely on school tests, which vary in quality from state to
state ..."

     for me as a classroom teacher and a teacher educator, if they really are able to move their students at these rates of growth, then they're doing something right, which needs to be explored.  i see multiple examples of similarities between regarding what works in education in XMCA and the Atlantic article.

Phillip White, PhD
University of Colorado Denver
School of Education
phillip.white@ucdenver.edu_______________________________________________
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