Educational
Transitions,
Where
Are We Headed?. . .
The
reality of life is constant change. Part
of this perpetual change is the need to
make transitions and adapt to new situations, conditions or experiences. Often it is these transitions that determine
either the future directions our lives take, or the success of the decisions
that are made. This is true for
individuals and also for groups of people.
Changes are often challenging, and occur for many different reasons. Some changes are under our control, but
others are forced upon us. This is clear
in the definitions of transition from one on-line dictionary. Transition is defined as either "the
process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another,"
or to "undergo or cause to undergo a process or period of
transition."
Public
school systems across the nation are experiencing a time of significant
transition. There is no doubt that our
school systems need to make changes.
This is part of the inevitable reality of humanity. Our school systems need to evolve to
incorporate new knowledge about how humans learn, we need to adapt to changing
demographics, and we need to reflect our society's concern for all citizens and
insure equal opportunity for all. Here
in Wisconsin
the pace of change has been accelerated by political considerations and a
number of other factors in addition to those that are directly tied to
educational objectives.
While change is
inevitable, and a necessity for the health of our public schools, at the same
time we need to take a close look at the speed and direction that these changes
are taking. We must make sure that we
are making changes that are necessary and that move our public schools in
directions that are positive for the students that we serve. We must also consider just how drastic the
changes we make need to be. In some
cases, subtle shifts in our way of doing things can have just as large an
impact on the achievement of our students as major changes.
One of the first questions
that should be, but rarely is, asked is who is making the decisions about our
schools? It seems obvious that we should
include the voices of the educators who work in our schools and implement
policies and curriculums. We choose
members of the affected profession in almost every other sector of our policy
making endeavors, but too often we fail to do this in our appointments and
hiring for positions that control decision making for our public schools. Instead we hire businesspeople, listen to
entrepreneurs and allow bureaucrats with few, if any, ties to classrooms and
schools to decide what our public education policies will be.
Here in Wisconsin we are doing everything possible
to insure that educator's voices are silenced by eliminating collective
bargaining in almost every school district in the state. Educators without "Just Cause"
protections provided by collective bargaining are silenced. They are forced to implement new programs and
policies not because of their confidence that the "reforms" will
work, but rather out of self-preservation.
We can't pretend that Act 10 and the "reforms" or
"tools" that Walker
provided school districts aren't valuable weapons in the educational
"reformers" arsenals.
One might wonder why this
is the case? The answer is really quite
simple and straightforward. It was
always about money and the power that accompanies wealth.
The results are policies
that are designed to benefit a select few, or to make a profit. Too often they are not policies that are good
for students, educators or families who work and learn in our schools. In fact, the current brand of "reform"
being offered in Wisconsin
is often in direct opposition to what the people of the state truly want and
need.
The changes that are
implemented from outside our schools force rapid change on those who work with
our students. One of the most powerful
forces of change has been the concept of accountability for educators and
schools. Whenever I am asked about
accountability I always have the same answer.
Tests and sanctions don't make me more accountable to my students and
families. Teaching a required, and often
scripted, curriculum doesn't make me more accountable to my students and
families. I am accountable because every
day I have to answer to my students, their families, my colleagues and
myself. It is the triad of personal,
professional and community responsibility that truly holds educators
accountable, not test scores or my ability to implement ideas that others
attempt to enforce upon me.
In fact these, so called,
accountability measures are often just thinly disguised efforts to undermine
and eliminate our public school systems.
The data that drives our
changes is often distorted by unsound educational practices and other factors.
All of the fear and stress
creates an atmosphere of change where we move quickly to adopt ideas that are
not always supported by best practices, that often go against what we know
about child development and that drive our transitions in directions that
ultimately are not good for our students, their families and our community. Kindergarten is the focus of these articles,
but as an upper elementary teacher I can say that our primary teachers are not
alone in seeing the impact that our policies of fear and anxiety are having on
our students.
All is
not lost. We are seeing concerted
efforts to resist the changes and to force our policy makers to honestly
consider those who work and learn in our schools when creating policies. In order for this to happen we need to open
the eyes of the general public who hears things like "rigor",
"higher standards" and "accountability" and assumes that
those words mean that our politicians are doing their job of controlling the
"ultra-powerful", "ultra-liberal" and "greedy"
educators. We also need to combat the
idea that the best schools are the ones that spend the least money and really
dialog as a society about what we expect, need and want from our public
schools. Finally, we need to make sure
that we are hearing the voice of all people who rely on our schools as their
first line of defense and their hope for the future.
The
Good, The Bad,
The
Ugly. . .
The Good . . . Powerful and right on.
The struggle continues
around the nation.
Keep thinking about how
you spend your hard earned money.
The Bad . . . With all the other issues that our schools and our educators need to
deal with, this one seems like it should be pretty far down the list. Attempting to make it seem like a dress code
will somehow improve student achievement shows just how out of touch policy
makers are. It also shows a complete
lack of trust and respect in the educators who work in the district.
The Ugly . . . It seems like the current defenses for their jury-rigged district
mapping from GOP legislators are either, "So what?" or "The
Democrats did it too." Neither one
sounds like anything other than vindictiveness, and/or a blatant attempt to
maintain power in a state that cast 53% of their votes for Democrats and still
saw the GOP maintain a huge advantage in the Assembly.
One
of the Good Guys. . .
Madison lost a wonderful educator last week. Bruce Dahmen, long time principal, teacher,
coach, and community fixture died unexpectedly while traveling to visit a
former student. I only had a few
opportunities to work with Bruce, but he always demonstrated passion and caring
for students, educators and education.
His powerful presence as an advocate for all members of the community
will be missed greatly. Thoughts and
prayers go out to his personal family as well as the school family that he
loved for so many years.
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