Resistance
or Obstruction…
Life is full of
choices. The decisions we make today
will have an impact on our future whether pro or con. Many of the decisions we make are small in
nature and have little impact outside of our immediate personal circle. However, when making decisions about public
education, the choices that we make often have wide reaching, long term
implications. This is as true for those
in the highest decision making positions, as it is for the individuals who work
directly with students in our public schools.
Good decisions are ones
that are made for the right reasons, with the best possible information
available. They take into account both
short and long term implications and are not always the most positive politically. With the ever expanding influence of
politicians in the educational decision making processes, we are seeing an
increasing number of decisions being made based on incomplete information and
designed promote a political agenda.
Suddenly educators in
schools are put in a difficult position.
Do they follow the course charted for them by individuals who may not
have students' interests at heart? Do
they ignore their own expertise and teach in a prescribed and approved
manner? Do they base their decisions
about children on standardized test scores and ignore the performance of
students in their classrooms? If they
choose to stand up for what they believe to be right and in the best interests
of their students are they resisting, or are the obstructing?
While this may seem like a
semantic exercise, the imagery associated with the two terms is important. Resistance has a more positive connotation
and implies opposition to harmful influences.
Resistance movements are often held in high esteem with the pinnacle
being resistance to the Germans in WWII.
Obstruction on the other hand implies standing in the way of progress or
operating against lawful actions.
Hindering a criminal investigation is obstruction, opposing an unjust
law is resistance.
With the ongoing battle
over public education continuing at a feverish pace, the defining of educators
as either resistors, or obstructors becomes very important. The general public (and many policy makers)
often lacks the information, knowledge and the experience to see what the
implications of the policies that make good sound bites are in the educational
lives of students. Accountability,
assessment, and rigor (to name a few examples) sound great in a speech, but
what do these words mean in a school setting?
What happens when educators, students or families speak out against the
reforms? Are they vilified? Are they listened to respectfully? Are their arguments given a fair hearing, or
do we let those with political power and money control the debate?
I've said this many times before
and will continue to repeat myself. Our
schools are not perfect, and we need to address the concerns that exist. We have a problem with Achievement Gaps. We face ongoing concerns about school budgets
and how to best use the resources we have.
However, our public schools have many strengths as well. I would argue that public schools provide the
best potential for meeting the needs of the most students and educators have a
high level of accountability to their students and the families they serve.
We have an imaging problem
and an information problem. Politicians
and school "reformers" have taken control of the debate and are able
to label educators who speak out against the system as obstructionist, not
resisters. Yet, the public isn't getting
complete information about what is going on in our educational system to base
their opinions on.
A few examples. . .
Mainstream media sources
provide headlines and articles filled with information from sources with close
ties to school "reformers". You
need to actively search for information that presents alternative views.
Politicians and policy
makers state that, educators need to be more accountable and we need to find a
way to evaluate them. Mayor Bloomberg
(New York City Mayor) touts one model and says it will allow, "Good teachers
will become better ones and ineffective teachers can be removed from the
classroom." The public hears this as a reasonable statement, and educators
who resist these evaluations must be "hiding something". However,
". . .nobody, not the Times, the New York State Education
Department, the New York City Department of Education, nor the teachers' union
have demonstrated any positive correlation between teacher assessments based on
the Danielson rubrics, good teaching, and the implementation of new higher
academic standards for students under Common Core.
In many districts these
evaluative tools have been used to penalize educators, or to force them to
follow specific teaching guidelines that are not necessarily best practices
supported by data. Yet if educators speak
out they are protecting their jobs, or toeing the union line.
This is true in our
institutions of higher learning as well.
We are also told to make sure that the "job creators" are given adequate resources and significant financial incentives in order to boost our economy, however, "Historically, broad educational gains have been the biggest driver of American economic success; hence the economist’s rule of thumb that an increase of one year in a country’s average schooling level corresponds to an increase of 3 to 4 percent in long-term economic growth."
Educators themselves often
don't work to counter the negative imagery that surrounds their
profession. We accept a status as
"lesser citizens" and don't assert our true value to society.
With all of the
misinformation that is used to support legislation and educational policy and
the inaccuracies that fuel public perception of public education, it is no
wonder that so many policies have significant unintended consequences. Take the Common Core Standards for
example. These standards have been used
to justify standardized testing, standardized instruction and a trend towards
more intense (not necessarily more effective) instruction with an elimination
of less structured activities and play. Yet
the writers of the CCSS expressly stated that,
". . . the use of
play with young children is . . . welcome as a valuable activity in its own
right and as a way to help students meet the expectations in this
document." They also recognized
that professional educators have the expertise and need the freedom to address
the specific needs of the students they work with. They recognized that there is a need to pay
"attention to such matters as social, emotional, and physical development
and approaches to learning."
Given the way that the
CCSS have been used it is no wonder that educators are concerned and are
offering some resistance to their implementation. The resistance isn't based on a desire to
avoid accountability, or to hinder student progress, but instead is often based
on genuine concerns about the welfare of our students.
It is vital that information
about the potential "side-effects" of school reforms are made
available to the public. If more people
knew the "facts" and had access to the full picture then we might
just see a different perception of public education and public educators emerge.
Headed
the Wrong Way…
The big political news in Wisconsin this week
centered around the "debate" over the state budget. I put debate in quotes because the GOP
controlled legislature seemed to table more amendments than they debated. In fact it appeared that this budget was
created in the back rooms with lobbyists having more input than citizens. Given the lack of success resulting from the
budget that the Republican controlled government passed in 2011 it is
reasonable to be concerned about the potential results of this most recent
budget. It is difficult to see how many
of the items in the budget will move Wisconsin
in a positive direction. 
www.npr.org
I find myself continually wondering;
just how much money is enough for some of us?
Is it possible that some
members of our electorate are being manipulated? Big money interests are using their influence
to maintain their dominance in our society.
This is true on all sides of the political spectrum, but is having its
most dramatic effect on the conservative side in recent years. We need to continue to share accurate
information in the hope that all citizens will try to make informed, reasoned
decisions about their political allegiances.
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