Josh's Point of View

I wanted to wait a few days before I decided to post again because I wanted people from work to get a chance to read my first post on Monday morning.  Well, it is now Monday night, so on with the show as they say...

First off, thanks for the replies and emails.  I have heard from a lot of people through my personal facebook page, my work and personal emails, and various forums that I am on.  It seems like I have definitely touched a nerve with many of you out there.  While it doesn't pay the bills, it does mean something.  I'm hoping this blog will start to gain a little notoriety and have personal stories coming in from everywhere.  Right now, I've had some input from teachers around my school, and from some friends--I'll be posting things as they come along, and as time allows.  (I also will be spending time filling out online applications--which don't fill themselves out!  In fact, it is quite ridiculous that each district has their own essay questions they want you to fill out.  Does anyone actually read these things?  I guess that is a digression for a future post!)

I received an email from my friend Josh over the weekend.  Josh and I went to college together, and have had similar career paths.  We both started teaching at inner city schools in Milwaukee, WI and our current jobs both serve large populations of low income students, though I have since left Wisconsin.  He currently teaches at Milwaukee Montessori IB High School, a school which he helped open, and is now a part of the team of leaders there as well as a classroom history teacher.  His successes in education make me proud to be his friend.  In fact, his school was recently the subject of a really positive article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  He is the type of person who will always have a discussion with you about education, but most likely the discussion will also include the word "reform".

He wrote me this:

"I have crafted a new theory recently while wondering, where did all of the money go?

I started with the realization that the political Right has only made two significant contributions to the education discussion in the past two decades:  Choice schools (private schools that receive public funding) and No Child Left Behind.  As the Left has spent the past decades creating and studying different educational models:  project-based learning, differentiated instruction, constructivism, the Montessori approach, Direct Instruction, integrated curriculum through regular public and Charter schools (public schools with greater autonomy over curriculum and instruction in exchange from greater accountability for results). 

How does NCLB affect the funding of public schools?

Slowly, over the last decade, money has been siphoned from local districts to buy and expand the testing services from the test companies.  Then the local districts need to buy the new text books aligned to the new tests, and hire the consultants (who always seem to be Texans) that will help the schools teach the kids the skills to pass the new tests.  In Wisconsin in 2009, the Department of Public Instruction declared that the tests did not accurately reflect what the kids know, and since it took six to nine months to get the results, it was too late to do anything about the findings anyway.  A new test is being developed, but it will not be ready for three to five years.  Sounds like a pretty nice contract for the testing company who develop the new tests, as well as the consulting firm who facilitate the process.  Wait, and then the entire state will have to buy all new text books from a company in Texas to allow the kiddies to learn algebra in a new way so that it can be reflected on the new test.  Looks like another round of consultants will have to be brought in to teach the teachers how to teach the new textbooks so the kids do well on the new tests. 

Even more laughable is Illinois’s version of the high school test, the ACT.  Illinois uses a college entrance standardized test to assess the quality of the state’s high schools.  To my knowledge, Illinois high schools are tasked to teach the State Standards of education, not the content of the ACT.  This would be like assessing the effectiveness of a driving school with a boater’s safety exam.  Sort of related, but not the material taught or applicable to all participants.  I cannot wait to read about the contracts to redesign Illinois’s testing system.  So, No Child Left Behind is an unfunded mandate for continuous improvement, which requires significant funding from local districts to the Testing Industry, the Textbook Industry, and the Educational Consultant Industry.

Tom, I guarantee you can find a job in one of those three industries because they are always hiring and always expanding.  And, I hear Texas is beautiful this time of year."

Ah, Josh, never one to shy away from an opinion.  He makes some valid points; (though I don't want this blog to become a conversation on politics--if you are laid off, you are laid off whether Democrat or Republican, and the fact is while I sit jobless for next year, I haven't heard any politician offer anything other than garbage talking points about what we "need to do" instead of actually doing something!!) it bothers me that there isn't more investigative journalism into how much money states actually spend on standardized tests.  There are a lot of people that are getting rich on public education, and just the fact that I had to write that statement makes me disgusted by how wrong it is.  

At least it looks like NCLB is on the way out the door.  I'm going to dedicate a later blog post to this article.

Thanks for sharing your opinion Josh, I look forward to more people sharing their views with me so that I can post them on this blog.

Day One

As you can read in the description of this blog, I have started this to raise awareness of the awful circumstances surrounding public education.  Teachers around the country are being laid off in ridiculously large numbers.  I am writing this specifically from my own experience as an art teacher in school district U-46 in Illinois. Twenty three art teachers are being pink slipped next week, myself included.  Around forty teachers at Elgin High School are being laid off.  These numbers are stark across the entire district.  Next year's $1.3 billion dollar cuts to education in the State of Illinois will result in the lay offs of 13,000 teachers.  The situation is grim, it is devastating, it is unfair, and frankly, it stinks.  This will have monumental long term detrimental effects to students across the state, and this country.

I invite anyone who reads this blog and would like to submit a personal story of how they are affected by this crisis to send me an email of their experience.  Stories can be written by anybody--teachers, students, parents, administrators, or anyone else who has a stake in this (which is everyone!!!).  The more we can put a personal face on this issue, the more the public can become aware of what is going on.

My disclaimer is that I am not a trained writer.  I'll write from the heart, but there may be the occasional grammar mistake.  Things on this blog will appear that are opinions.  If there are largely disputed facts, I will remove posts or info--or try to link to the source.

Now for my story.  I came to Elgin High School four years ago.  I was hired as a photography teacher despite having no actual photography teaching experience.  (My teaching certificate is K-12 art, which includes specialized classes.)  My boss at the time said she hired me because after my interview, she felt like I could teach anything--a moment of pride in my career, for sure.  I took a photo class at College of DuPage to brush up on the photo skills I had from undergrad.  After my first year, I had a real sense of starting something great.

The next year I developed a new digital curriculum for the entry level class.  I began teaching digital photography and Photoshop skills.  Real world things that could help spark interest in photography or graphic design careers, or simply grow into a life long hobby.  I began to have a real sense of ownership of this class--it was my baby.  I grew it, I developed it, and I have adapted it and changed it each year to make it better.

This year my students have started blogging.  Each one of their completed artworks end up online in a digital blog/portfolio.  I love that my students have the opportunity to learn these 21st century skills in my class.  After surveying my last semester classes, over 40% said that they were likely to blog in the future.  You can visit it here: EHS Art & Photography.  I also use the website Edmodo to post bell ringer activities for my students.  I usually have them comment on something like National Geographic's photo of the day.

Today actually I posted this link: Nat Geo POD  Ashley N. wrote "This image is powerful because it's telling a story. Her shirt is torn, and way too small for her. Also, she only has one earring. All of this shows that she's very poor. Her facial expression shows that she's very sad & hopeful for a better future. You can see in the blurred background that her house has as little as a mat to sleep on. The photographer uses her skin color to sort of blend in with the background. The colors are faded. I honestly think i wouldn't have done anything different when taking this photo."  

Awesome.  She is looking at, and thinking about, a photograph.  She is using deeper level thinking.  I am happy to be her teacher.


Also today I met with my principal.  In this meeting he told me that he would help me out when it comes to finding a job.  I believe he will.  I think he might be having a worse day than me--he has had to have this same meeting with forty teachers.  In my district, because of what the State of Illinois owes us, teachers are being laid off in record numbers.  Art instruction at the elementary level has been reduced to thirty minutes per week.  This resulted in the loss of 20 teachers.  We also lost 2.5 high school positions because students in high school are required to take a study hall next year thereby reducing enrollment in electives.

Somebody with seniority over me will possibly be involuntarily transferred into my position.  I do not disparage the person that ends up in my position--I certainly would take it rather than not work.  Ultimately though, it just stinks.  It is unfair to all students--those at the elementary level losing their teachers, and those at the high school level who will have new teachers replacing the ones who they were looking forward to having next year.

Please pass information of this blog on to anybody and everybody that is affected and especially those who would be willing to share a story.  Thank you.