Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Schools Aren't Businesses, and Students Aren't Customers



I've been guilty of looking at business as a metaphor for education many times. I think there are some ways it works okay. We can learn from the business community and certainly need to work closely with business partners. We have some shared interests in good education outcomes. I enjoy reading books from business and a whole variety of areas and applying principles I learn to my work as an educator, where appropriate.

But we have to be very careful with comparing education to the business model. Our mission should be to advance the human condition. Our measure of success as educators is changing lives and creating opportunities. And making our democracy stronger. In business, the bottom line is ultimately measured in dollars and cents. But you can't reduce a child's education to increased profits.

The business metaphor is especially dangerous considering the current political and policy landscape. There are many who would like to privatize education. Better schools, goes the thinking, would result from competition and the marketplace. Capitalism would do it's thing and education would be stronger for it. But that model has proven failed over and again. Learning is not a commodity.

I've also been guilty of referring to students as customers. When I've done this, it is making the point that we should provide good customer service. Our students are the end users of what we do, and we should carefully consider their experience and how school is working for them. 

But this comparison only works to a degree. The relationship between a business and a customer is transactional. The customer doesn't own much responsibility in the relationship. The customer pays for goods or services and expects the business to do the rest. 

But schools need to go beyond treating students like customers. We must make students partners in learning. We are not just delivering learning to students like a product. We must co-create learning with students if it is to be most effective. It requires a degree of pulling together and helping students to contribute to their own learning. 

Metaphors are generally helpful to try to understand the world in deeper and more meaningful ways. But as educators, we have to be careful about comparing what we do to what businesses do. Can we learn from business? Yes! But should schools entirely operate as a business model? I think not.

Question: What are your thoughts on schools as businesses? And students as customers? I want to hear from you. Leave a comment below or respond on Facebook or Twitter.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Our Mission is Not Higher Test Scores



I've been reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. It's one of the top business books ever, but it has so much to offer for educators and really for everyone. The principles apply to life in a variety of ways.

In the book, Collins shares the story of Merck, the pharmaceutical giant. At one point in its history, the company gave away millions of doses of a drug that cured river blindness. The disease was caused by a parasitic worm that ultimately caused blindness in victims. 

The point of the story was that Merck didn't profit from distributing the drug charitably to remote places like the Amazon. Collins shared the story to illustrate that Merck had established a purpose for the company beyond profits.

Back in 1950, George Merck, son of the founder, explained the company's philosophy:
We try to remember that medicine is for the patient...It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have been.
Collins described how the great companies they studied all shared a commitment to core values aside from the desired end resultprofits. The companies all had different core values, but they were consistent in building these into the organization and preserving these values over time.

So how does this apply to schools? In recent years, schools have felt immense pressure to produce ever increasing standardized test scores. It seems that schools were being defined almost exclusively by how well students were doing on achievement tests. 

As a result, many schools lost sight of developing core values other than creating higher test scores. But raising test scores is not a vision for learning. It is not at the heart of what a school is or should be. We have, to an extent, created an identity crisis in education by allowing too much of our value to be defined by high stakes standardized tests.

But the purpose of my post is not to rail against standardized tests. In more recent days, it seems that policy makers have taken small steps to reduce the amount of testing and its exclusive role in defining successful schools. That's all good news.

But what are we doing to establish core values in our schools? Every school has a mission statement, and most of them are quite alike. But do the mission statements really reflect the culture of your organization? What is it you want your school to do better than anyone else? What are your core values?

I've adapted the words of George Merck to education. It's a brief statement about some of my core beliefs.
We try to remember that our school is about learning, and for the students. It's about creating better opportunities. It's about building on strengths and ultimately building stronger people. It is not about higher test scores. However, if we create a future-driven, learner-centered school, higher test scores will likely follow. But if we focus on test scores, we miss the mark badly and will likely fail many of our students.
I would like to see schools think deeply about the outcomes they are seeking for their students. I would like to see students, parents, business leaders, and higher education have a voice in the discussion. What do we really want for our bottom line? It's obviously not profits. And it's not standardized test scores either.

Every community has different needs and every school has different strengths, so I think finding a purpose and establishing core values should be closely tied to the individual school. But instead of focusing on outcomes like graduation rate, test scores, or attendance, maybe some schools would adopt one or more of these core values?

What if a school chose to make ending poverty a reality in its community?

What if a school's purpose was to find a cure for cancer? Or solve some other pressing problem plaguing humanity.

What if a school's purpose was to make learning as customized and personal as possible for students?

What if a core value was to make learning as creative as possible?

What if a core value was to construct learning on a foundation of each student's passions?

What if a school involved students as co-creators of their own learning?

Those are just a few ideas. I think the possibilities are endless. Instead of the same old mission statements, wouldn't it be great to see schools finding a unique mission to drive action and really make a difference in the lives of their students and in the world outside of the school?


Question: What are the core values you would want your school to embrace? What can your school do better than anyone else? I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or share on Twitter or Facebook.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Why the never-ending pressure for kids to learn more, younger?

Of course, we want students to be challenged and to achieve their potential. But it seems there is an unhealthy press to have kids learn more, younger.

Kindergarten kids must read.

Elementary students write research papers instead of personal narratives.

Algebra I happens in 8th grade, or even 7th some places.

Some students are graduating from high school with upwards of 30 hours of college credit. Confession: Dual credit has saved our family a ton of money on college tuition so it's hard to be critical here.

But I have to wonder what is the point of all this? Is this what is referred to as the human race? What are we racing against? Life expectancy is steadily increasing right? We have MORE time to reach our life goals last time I checked.

With the recent ESEA Reauthorization (goodbye NCLB, Race to the Top), it seems some of the madness may be ending, at least from the standpoint of federal policy. For some reason, policymakers seem to think raising standards will "fix" education. But higher standards don't necessarily result in better learning for kids. Great learning is about developing great teachers, great schools, and stronger communities.

An ineffective teacher or school will still be ineffective even with higher standards. Change happens when the process changes, when educators change how they do business.

So maybe instead of pressing more curriculum down on youngsters, we could make learning more personal and meet the needs of individual learners. Some kids will read in kindergarten, or even earlier. Some kids might benefit from Algebra I in the 8th grade. Some kids need more time but will get it eventually.

Teach students first, curriculum second.

So we don't need to hurry learning. No more pressing. Create great learning environments and experiences and allow students to find their passions and become adaptable, lifelong learners.

Maybe there is still hope for finger paint. And learning to be kind. And just being a kid.

Question: What are your thoughts on kids learning more, earlier? Leave a comment below or share on Twitter or Facebook.


Sunday, August 17, 2014

Teachers, leaders stand firm

Our family walked together through the pasture of my grandparent's farm excited to bring back the perfect Christmas tree. It was my mom and dad, my little sister and I, all enjoying family time during a season of making family memories. But suddenly, my dad noticed something menacing. Up by the pond he spotted a bull we called Victor trotting in our direction. This animal was extremely large and capable of doing great harm, but he had never acted like this before. Now he was running straight for us.

I sensed the danger even more when my dad gave serious instructions. "Get behind me," he urged. We all quickly huddled in his shadow as the bull continued his charge. My dad threw his hands in the air and called out with several loud and authoritative words intended to let the bull know he was in charge. The bull was not deterred until he was within inches of my dad, when the creature dug his front hooves into the ground slowing his massive frame. Dad wielded the handsaw he carried to harvest the Christmas tree, and smacked the bull right across the nose, yelling again as if to remind him who was boss. Victor retreated.

Now these events, lasting a matter of seconds, have been glued in my memory ever since. I knew in that moment what courage really meant. I saw love carried out. I witnessed a lesson about leadership I would only later fully realize. My dad was my hero, standing firm in the face of a palpable threat.

As educators we are facing real threats too. Outside influences with harmful agendas are trying to force their 'reforms' on public schools. In Missouri, a billionaire named Rex Sinquefield has spent millions in his attempt to buy education reform. His narrative is that if we run education like a business, we can 'fix it.' I'm here to say education doesn't need 'fixing,' and especially not by the misguided agenda Sinquefield and his political allies are advancing.

Now Sinquefield, who has no background in education, and his political machine have gathered enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would require teachers to be evaluated by 'quantitative' measures and would effectively end teacher tenure. This amendment is a direct affront on local control of public schools. Similar efforts have been launched nationwide. The message inherent in these attacks is clear: education is broken and teachers are to blame.

But what I see in my school everyday is something entirely different. I witness educators who are deeply committed to students' success, educators with a vision of making the world a better place by investing in the lives of children. These teachers love their students and recognize the influence they have in building the lives of young people. We don't need external bureaucracies or billionaire reformers telling us what is best for our teachers or students.

So as the threats materialize, we must stand firm. Like my dad held his ground for his family, all educators must hold to core beliefs and persevere even in the midst of these attacks. Moreover, we must push forward with improvements that will work and tell the stories of how our schools are succeeding even in these challenging and uncertain times.

As a school leader, I hope to protect my teachers from messages that disrespect their work. I hope that my words and actions are encouraging and appreciative to each one who gives so much to helping young people reach their dreams. I feel a sense of obligation to protect and encourage. The work of a teacher is a calling, and it is complex. Your value as a teacher cannot truly be understood by standardized test scores. Stand firm.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/constitutional-amendment-teacher-evaluation-approved-november-ballot

Amendment 3
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
• require teachers to be evaluated by a standards based performance evaluation system for which each local school district must receive state approval to continue receiving state and local funding;
• require teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;
• require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts; and
• prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the teacher evaluation system?