You Call This a Solution...or an Invitation to Talk?

There is no reason to list the litany of problems with ACPS.  With the exception of the few willfully ignorant, the impediments to delivering quality instruction in this city are legend.  Heck, even the superintendent (the source of many of the obstacles) sees that something must be done about a school system in desperate need of repair.  It's just that there is a very real difference between how Sherman, on the one hand, and teachers on the other respond to the instant crisis.  Sherman, acts as an opportunist, embodying the carpetbagger approach, a chance to make the bucks, reward cronies and promote himself.  The true stakeholders, those who have lived and taught in Alexandria, whose children sit in the classrooms want to roll up our sleeves and rebuild--to do the heavy lifting.  We are not afraid to detail the fraud and waste even as some of the more pollyannish among us carp, "Stop complaining, be happy with what you're being given!"  Oh, that it were that easy. This admonition to either get on board with the ludicrously inexpensive and wasteful initiatives being proffered or seek employment elsewhere is a false choice.  Missing from the logic of those who espouse a simplistic approach to what ails ACPS is the need to clear one's mind of the failed practices of the past three years.  Don't tether your thinking to Habits of Minds and Skillful Teacher.  Don't be afraid to view the current curricular crap as anything but that.  Anyone endorsing a solution that tolerates no criticism of the status quo and who discerns no flaw with throwing expensive, crony-pitched, repackaged drivel at difficult, entrenched, and ever evolving challenges is either ignorant or misguided.

Something new, something far more creative and flexible must be brought to the discussion.  Any viable proposal must make use of the great pool of talent that is the bulk of the ACPS teachers.  We must not be afraid to follow the money when asking what others' motivations are as they come forward with 'snake oil' packaged as answers.  And so, the criteria that embody this 'follow the money' philosophy would not need a CEO/Superintendent making in excess of $250,000, nor an executive staff that devours precious dollars.  A real attempt to address our needs will not be comprised of consultant's and their high-priced gimmickry.  A sincere desire to close learning gaps and ensure that all who can succeed--will, asks stakeholders (those who stand to gain nothing monetarily) to give of their time and expertise to develop schools that deliver quality instruction.

For those seriously interested in such an approach, I point you to two articles.  These are, for brevity's sake just snapshots of what the full articles outline. The first, "Does a district need a superintendent?" looks at a school district's decision to overhaul the typical command and control structure.  http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2011/02/07/13155-does-a-district-need-a-superintendent

Does a district need a superintendent?

Written by Robert Gelchion and Nancy Mitchell on Feb 7th, 2011. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org

Third-graders at Evans Elementary in the Falcon 49 School District studied in class last week.

A school district east of Colorado Springs is poised to test the reaches of the state’s Innovation Schools Act, which allows waivers from state laws and collective bargaining agreements.

School board members in the Falcon 49 School District are buying out the contracts of their top four district administrators – including the superintendent, a job that would be eliminated – as they scrap a traditional governance structure for something completely different.

The second article, by Valerie Strauss, reinforces the first and can be somewhat summed up by the following excerpt:

There’s so much wrong with traditional schooling it’s tempting to say it’s beyond salvaging. Its very system of organization—based as it is on 19th Century Prussian military theory—is upside down. Those who know the most about the system—kids and teachers—have the least power to change it. Its continued use of a rigid, standardized curriculum designed to produce compliant workers for a system of industrial production that America will never see again, assures irrelevance. Its failure to put in place multi-year, manageable-sized groups of learners guided by small instructional teams, builds in instability and lack of continuity.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/a-salvage-operation-for-public.html

 So it's not, as some allege, that we rank and file educators lack the vision or insight to correct what is wrong in our schools.  The agonizing reality is that, just as government is influenced (even controlled) by lobbyists and corporations are misled by obscenely compensated CEO's, so too is our school system.  The difference being, teachers can't vote out of office those being lobbied nor remove the CEO.  

Again, the answers to our questions are there.  If not in full, then at least the information to find answers is there.  The will to apply the answers to our questions and needs lies in every dedicated teacher and parent.  You will not find the answer in the almighty dollar.

"All styles are good except the tiresome kind."
— Voltaire

Yeah, Voltaire, we know what's happening in ACPS isn't worth a Martian nickel...but what do you propose?

So very glad you asked!  Check back frequently to see a common sense approach to our educational dilemma, here, in Alexandria.  Consultants won't get rich from it, and teachers' input will be valued, but we might just want to take a look at it nonetheless.


"No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking."
— Voltaire

First Goldie Hawn... now Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are coming to ACPS?

Take a moment to read the following three paragraphs...PLEASE!  There is a common thread running through the three-- the future of education in our public schools.  In particular, each of the three is speaking to the notion that a new, radically different course must be charted if we are to close the "achievement gap" in education.  If you are interested, Michael Winerip has written an outstanding piece, highlighting Harvard professor Ronald Ferguson in the February 13th edition of the New York Times.  He is one smart guy.  And it is easy to be sold on his vision as the panacea to what ails ACPS.  But before you fall in love with Ferguson and the 21st century, take time to read Jay Mathews in today's Washington Post, I've excerpted it below.  His conclusion that this is all "dreamy nonsense" is spot on.
Look, it's not only okay to have these discussions about touchy subjects such as race and poverty and how they relate to intellectual development and how they shape debate about education, it's not just okay--it's essential.  But, when school systems adopt the vision and say, "That's the answer!"  We're in trouble.  As Jay Mathews also writes, "That leaves us with the idea of a new social contract to make this all work.  It is a lovely thought.  We can dream. But it isn't going to happen.  Their European examples sound good, but they don't address negative trends like the demonstrations in France last fall."  (By the way and speaking of demonstrations, did anyone else feel like we were missing something the last couple of weeks by not airing and discussing, at school the Egyptian uprising and its import to the very future of our planet?  I dared not switch on the TV even for an hour at TC.)  But I digress.  ACPS not only fails to look critically and skeptically and yet another cure all for what ails us, we buy the whole damn thing!  And just as our superintendent loves to rub elbows and eat out with Goldie Hawn and the beautiful people, he evaluates these visionaries as if they are Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.  We don't need no stinkin' rock stars!  Yvonne Folkerts is letting us all know that we are going the very 21st Century route that Mathews warns us about.  In fact, the talk at Central Office is that the pursuit of a new curriculum that will replace all we've ever known, to date, will be a three year process and will guarantee that Sherman and his friends will be around for at least that long.

So, call it yellow journalism, portray it as a grudge by Voltaire but this is a wake up call. We, as a city, are about to expend enormous resources on this new model.  Thousands of teacher hours will be spent training to implement it, millions of dollars will be spent to implement it.  Many fine educators will leave because of it, morale will suffer along with it, great teaching models will be replaced by it and we will be the poorer for it.


Jay Mathews, Washington Post

Posted at 5:00 AM ET, 02/18/2011

Smart people + big report = dreamy nonsense

I had high hopes for the latest high-profile plan to save our schools. "Pathways To Prosperity: Meeting the Challenge of Preparing Young Americans for the 21st Century" has 63 contributors, including some of the smartest people in education. The project that produced the report is based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and led by two of its brightest luminaries, academic dean Robert B. Schwartz and senior lecturer Ronald Ferguson. Those familiar with the sad history of similarly ambitious reports have already detected the signs of impending disappointment. The reference to 2lst century education is troubling. People who use that term tend to start talking gibberish, without intending to.

Yvonne Folkerts, ACPS School Board

During the retreat, Board members were given a handbook written by ACPS staff titled, “Literacy Framework:  Research-based Best Practices for Promoting 21^st Century Literacy.”  This is a big title for an even bigger task:  providing our teachers and administrators with strategies to promote all students’ literacy development. The book is available online (yes, even parents can access it!) and gives teachers information about how to assess a student’s literacy across all curricula, how to use strategies to improve a student’s reading comprehension, how to use questions and thereby encourage students’ critical thinking skills, how to improve a student’s writing, and more. A second handbook will be issued later this year for math literacy. That handbook will arm teachers with strategies to incorporate math across the board into all subjects a student is studying.

Mort Sherman, Superintendent, ACPS

Morton Sherman, the Alexandria school superintendent, watched him (Ronald Ferguson) defuse the anger at a meeting of 300 people. “He talks about these things in a professorial way, a kind way,” Dr. Sherman said. “It’s not about him. He doesn’t try to be a rock star, although he is a rock star in this field.”

"You're a bitter man," said Candide.
"That's because I've lived," said Martin.
— Voltaire (Candide)

Just When You Think It Doesn't Make A Damn Bit of Difference...

This blog is being read at a great rate...20,382 page views to date.  Yes, I know some will ask for proof that this number is not the result of psychotic Voltaire viewing the post 24/7...I can only assure you that I am far too busy watching back episodes of Doc Martin to do that.  In addition to the staggering number of reads, the comments left on the blog spot are, at once, informative and compelling.  Taken together, the popularity of this site and the spot on, expositive contributions by the readers, we have achieved much more than intellectual 'gum chewing.'
 WE HAVE ALERTED THE MEDIA TO OUR EXISTENCE AND OUR MESSAGE!  
And the media is responding.  The letters, emails, and phone calls have, if nothing else, turned the focus of both local and national publications' to this blog.  As a result, those who value free speech, specifically concerning our schools, our students, our children, will have some of their views entered into the realm of public discourse.
It is all to easy to feel like a voice in the wind when faced with intimidation, ignorance and inaction.  But, if we can believe the various media outlets who have contacted and interviewed Voltaire, our voices are about to be heard.  So don't despair...don't stop talking, texting and emailing and mailing.  Continue to reach out and educate Alexandrians.
Stay tuned...

Please send this one email...you can do so anonymously.

yvonne.folkerts@acps.k12.va.us

Above you'll find the email of School Board Chairperson, Yvonne Folkerts.  A friend that she and I have in common says that she sincerely believes that most teachers are in favor of the two day early beginning, the thirty minute daily extension and the myriad of programs that Sherman has foisted upon us.  She (my friend) tells me that she is open to being convinced otherwise, but that to date no one has expressed any dissatisfaction with the state of our schools.

So, here's your chance!  Send her an email, anonymous or not...let her know how you feel.  Be respectful and articulate, be passionate and clear.  Put a copy of your email here, on ACPS Underground.

I'll let you know in a day or two if my friend sees a shift in Yvonne's position, as a result.

Who knows?

Voltaire
"One great use of words is to hide our thoughts." 
— Voltaire

What now?

It would be folly to try to characterize teachers as having a particular makeup, to claim that educators embody a fairly regular and repeated  personality type.  But I think that most of us would agree, the teaching profession neither attracts nor produces a large number of revolutionaries, radicals, or even confrontational figures.  Rather, our faculties, generally speaking, are made up of caring, nurturing, compassionate, even-tempered types.  These are the character traits that serve us well in the classroom, but not so well in the boardroom (school boardroom, that is).

No, when it comes organizing, questioning authority and holding to account those who govern, teachers are slow to mobilize and reluctant to express themselves.  Factor in the current climate, featuring a down economy, an administrative culture that turns a deaf ear to teachers needs and ideas and a superintendent who has serious personal and professional shortcomings when it comes to morale building and inspiring, and it's easy to see why ACPS teachers are as passive as sheep.

The notion of using the EAA to represent our views seems, at first blush, to be a good one.  But an EAA that has gone from bold and innovative to blah and impotent in just a few short years, is not the answer.  Teachers fear for their jobs and any forum that embodies language and positions that smack of outrage or even mild disagreement will only serve to ensure that our colleagues will run for the cover of anonymity.  Who, among us, is brave enough to tell the False Emperor Sherman that he has no clothes?  

Appearing later this weekend on this blogsite is a proposed solution to the "Timid Teacher in a Tempest" dilemma that we now face.