The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) published a study in 2003 entitled No Dream Denied: a Pledge to America's Children. In the summary report, NCTAF framed the issue this way:

The number of teachers entering the schools increased steadily during the 1990s. The problem is that teacher attrition was increasing even faster. It is as if we were pouring teachers into a bucket with a fist-sized hole in the bottom...

An analysis of the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics found that approximately a third of America’s new teachers leave teaching sometime during their first three years of teaching; almost half may leave during the first five years...

Not surprisingly, turnover is highest in low-income urban schools. The turnover rate for teachers in high poverty schools is almost a third higher than the rate for all teachers in all schools...

This is old news. We've heard these statistics before. But the report had an interesting addition to the last part, about turnover in low-income schools:

Teachers who initially benefit from staff-development investments in low-performing schools often end up leaving the profession or moving on to more “desirable” teaching positions in affluent communities, contributing to the talent drain in our most troubled schools...

Schools serving the students with the highest needs are left to constantly restock their staff with brand new teachers who must be trained and mentored, who then leave the system or the profession within five years.

Statistics don't tell the whole story, though. There are schools out there who are beating the odds and retaining their teachers. There are plenty of teachers who are out there every day making up the half that DO stay in teaching, that DO stay at high-need schools.

I recently sat down with Temp Keller, the founder of a fascinating program that tries to match these groups up. RISE (Resources for Indispensible Schools and Educators) identifies job seekers with 2-5 years teaching experience who are in danger of leaving the profession (or of staying in teaching, but moving to a wealthy district) and matches them with schools in low-income areas that value effective teachers.

It seems to be working. After seven years, 71% of RISE teachers are still teaching in low-income schools, where statistics show that nationally up to 70% of teachers in low-income schools are gone within five years.

Apply to become a RISE Teacher or a RISE School on their website.

Labels: conversations, resources

Every week the Carnival of Education collects the best education writing from all over the web. This is Week 112. Check it out!

Labels: resources

How was testing for you this year?
Did the fact that this year's test results came out right before the test impact you or your kids?
Did you do anything this year during test season that you're really proud of?
How did you avoid "teaching to the test"...or did you?

Comment below!

Labels: conversations

The March 19 issue of Crain's brings up an issue that is certainly not specific to Chicago: the competition for slots in magnet/selective high schools.

For parents who have been committed to public schools since their child started first grade, the thought of private-school kids clinching coveted spots in selective-enrollment high schools is infuriating. Yet, private-school parents feel they have every right to go public: After all, they've been taxed to support the public schools while also paying expensive tuition.

For a number of interesting takes on this article, visit the always interesting District 299 blog and read the comments.

Much of the public debate over selective enrollment schools seems to be among parents and administrators. Do teachers need a voice on this issue?

To generalize beyond the smaller issue of whether private school 8th graders should be taking slots in public selective high schools, I'm wondering if, as a teacher, the presence of selective enrollment schools in your district impacts your work. Have you consciously chosen to work in a selective school (or chosen NOT to work in one)?

Labels: conversations

This year, Sherman School in Chicago began an experiment. As part of CPS's far-reaching Renaissance 2010 program, the school, a chronic low performer on the city's south side, was completely reorganized under the management of the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL). All the kids stayed, but every single one of the staff members left. A new principal, a new administration, and a completely new staff opened the school year.

Chicago Public Radio has been following Sherman all year in short update reports on the morning show 848. These are fascinating, and if you've got some spare space on the iPod, you should download them:

Chicago school gets a makeover - Sept. 2006
First day for the new Sherman - Sept. 2006
Sherman Students learning that staff means business - Dec. 2006

As ISAT testing comes to a close, WBEZ's most recent visit dealt with more than just academic expectations. (At Sherman School, progress means more than test scores - March 2007).

The piece profiles Monty Apostolos, an 8th grade teacher at Sherman, who tries to combine academic instruction with careful attention to her students' emotional development:

[from the transcript]
Because she believes the social is so tied to academic performance, Apostolos weaves life lessons with academics in unexpected ways. The week before the ISAT, Apostolos noticed something brewing amongst the girls. ...Apostolos took 35 valuable minutes away from teaching to talk first with her girls, then her boys, about how to handle the girl who was instigating chaos. But she talked about it in terms of cause and effect and point of view.- standards concepts her students will need to understand on the ISAT.

What does it really mean to have high expectations? What do they look like? I think the issue of balancing academic and socioemotional instruction is a huge part of this. When you talk about having high expectations for your students, is it purely an academic concept? If not, how are you making sure that academics aren't put on the back-burner in favor of more "touchy-feely" topics?

Labels: conversations, resources

I went to a fascinating talk today (part of the Chicago Schools Policy Luncheon series) on how New Orleans is rebuilding its school system. The system, which had 62,000 students before the disaster now has fewer than 30,000 (although they're enrolled 100-200 new students weekly!) The population of the schools is 98% African American and extremely high poverty.

Faced with the near-total destruction of its school infrastructure New Orleans has had to innovate. Close to 60% of New Orleans students currently attend a charter school, the highest percentage in the nation. There is no central office and no widespread collective bargaining agreement. Instead, there is citywide school choice, with schools competing for employees. Funding from the state and local government goes almost entirely directly to the schools on a per-pupil (not per-teacher) basis, so money follows the students and can be spent directly on them.

The system faces enormous challenges: while students are returning in droves, the service professionals they need - teachers, social workers, etc. - are not; the physical buildings are still being renovated.

Nevertheless, one of the speakers, Leslie Jacobs, a member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, outlined a few lessons that she thinks are relevant to other school systems, including Chicago. She suggested thinking about how to increase funding equity at a smaller level than the state - to think about how funding inequity impacts schools in the same district, who are competing for per-teacher funds. She outlined what they think of as "true choice:" transportation, many options, and parent education. She also discussed the ways they have radically restructured the idea of "central office," with less bureaucracy, more money directly to schools, and a streamlined sense of purpose.

There were many audience members representing different unions and they had lots of concerns about the fact that New Orleans schools are essentially all non-union. The union has been one of the big voices in opposition to charter schools in recent years.

As a former charter school teacher myself, I'm intrigued by the debate over changing school systems and how new schools and new models for education can be both beneficial and harmful.

Labels: conversations

If you've been following education news online in the last two weeks, you've probably been seeing lots of references to Reading First, the federal government's attempt to influence reading instruction nationally:

Through Reading First, states and districts receive support to apply scientifically based reading research - and the proven instructional and assessment tools consistent with this research - to ensure that all children learn to read well by the end of third grade.

The proven instructional techniques the law refers to are specified:

Phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds - or phonemes - in spoken words.
Phonics - the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
Fluency - the capacity to read text accurately and quickly.
Vocabulary - the words students must know to communicate effectively.
Comprehension - the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read.

Since it was implemented, many districts have complained that the Reading First materials and trainings they received seemed to imply that only extremely regimented programs such as Direct Instruction and Open Court would be approved for Reading First. A Feb. 2007 report by the USDE Inspector General suggests that trainings were indeed biased, and that US Department of Education officials did not do enough to clarify that many possible programs were eligible for Reading First, not just those two.

In fact, Reading First is, to some extent, optional. Districts can choose to forgo the RF funding in order to continue using a reading program they feel is better for their students. Last Friday, in an article in the New York Times, reporter Diana Schemo described Madison, WI's decision to forgo federal Reading First funding in order to continue using their district's reading program, which they felt was highly successful. According to Schemo:

Under[Madison's] system, the share of third graders reading at the top two levels, proficient and advanced, had risen to 82 percent by 2004, from 59 percent six years earlier, even as an influx of students in poverty, to 42 percent from 31 percent of Madison’s enrollment, could have driven down test scores. The share of Madison’s black students reading at the top levels had doubled to 64 percent in 2004 from 31 percent six years earlier.

But the real story in Madison, say a variety of education commentators, is much different. Ken DeRosa who writes about education at D-Ed Reckoning went through the Wisconsin and Madison scores and concludes that the district is "spinning its numbers" to show big test score increases that are easily explained away by changes in the Wisconsin state test and the pass cutoff point. He points to the NAEP scores, which have not shown any increases.

What this story is really about, when you boil it down, is, of course, the age-old debate between proponents of reading programs based primarily on Whole Language and those who support reading programs with a much greater emphasis on phonics and skills instruction.

You can get into all the analysis of Reading First by going to any of these sources:
EdWeek
D-Ed Reckoning
This Week in Education
Joanne Jacobs

But, for my money, the most thoughtful commentary is coming from two of our most powerful education thought leaders, who have a new blog in which they exchange letters and ideas. To hear Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch think it through, go to Bridging Differences and scroll down to March 7, and then read up from there.

TEN members, what has your experience been with Reading First?

Labels: resources

Congratulations to the winners of the 2007 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching!

The Golden Apple Foundation chooses ten teachers in the Chicago area each year to join its Academy of excellent educators. This year, the ten winners were chosen from over 800 applicants! The winners are:

Aaron Becker, History, Evanston Township HS
Kraig Conyer, Adapted PE, Hinsdale South HS
David Derbes, Physics, University of Chicago Laboratory HS
Danna Dotson, Math, Lindblom Math and Science Academy
Sam Dyson , Physics and Zulu, Walter Payton College Preparatory HS
David Eanes, Music, Thornridge HS
Joseph Ekpo, History, Ethics & Moral Theology, Fenwick HS
John Naisbitt , History, Hinsdale Central HS
Gina Williams, Fine Arts, Lake Forest Academy
Melinda Wilson, Dance, Curie Metropolitan HS

In addition, this year, for the first time, the Golden Apple is recognizing ten additional Teachers of Distinction. To read more about the the winners and Teachers of Distinction, click HERE.

Congratulations to the winners, to all the finalists, and to all the nominees, for your commitment to our children.

TEN readers, how do you define excellent teaching? Leave your comments below!

Labels: golden apple

Every week, a different education blog hosts the Carnival of Education, a roundup of the week's best writing on education. You'll find links to personal narrative, political analysis, opinions, and much more. I'll post the link here every week, so you'll always be able to join the fun!

Carnival of Education - Week 110

Labels: resources

...to TEN member SenorAvocado, the winner of the TEN survey raffle for a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com.

SenorAvocado, along with many other TEN members participated in a survey this winter to help make TEN an even better resource for teachers. Thanks to all of you for your help and suggestions!

FYI...
We did the survey with SurveyMonkey, a free (or low-cost, for more options) online survey creation program. It's a great tool for teachers and students looking to do polls and research. Check it out!

Labels: TEN stuff

Barack Obama is opening up the education debate bright and early for the '08 presidential race. Here's what he said on 60 Minutes on February 11:

When we're having education debates here in Washington, my positions are informed by having tried to figure out how to fundamentally change the way that we finance public education at the state level. It's informed by work that I've done as a community organizer in inner city classrooms.

And so I end up recognizing that we need more money to fix our schools, but we also need a transformation in attitudes. And in Washington, that's typically framed as a "either/or" proposition. You know, the conservative position is we don't need more money; we just need to blow up the bureaucracy. You know, on the left, sometimes the sense is we just need more money, and we and our problems will be solved.

When you have actually been in these schools and worked with these parents and talked to the teachers and sat down in a meeting with principals who are trying to figure out how to hold this thing together, then you realize that it's not an "either/or" proposition. It's both ends.

You know, parents need to do a better job of parenting. Teachers need to do a better job teaching. Some of the anti-intellectualism that exists in the African-American community and Latino communities and low-income communities has to change. And the federal government's got to put more money, because the fact is that they don't have enough resources.

What do you think about Obama's comments? What do you want to hear from the other candidates? What can teachers do to influence the way education is handled in what is bound to be a contentious year-and-a-half of campaigning? What would you tell politicians about education if you had sixty seconds of their time?

Labels: best of TEN

Last year's ISAT and PSAE scores are finally out--at least some of them--just in time for this year's testing. (Out-of-state TEN members: did this happen in your state, too?)

Illinois students made fairly large gains, especially in elementary school. What caused this improvement? The Tribune outlined the disagreement:

State and local educators attribute the improvement to smarter pupils and teachers' laser-like focus on the state learning standards--the detailed list of what pupils should know at each grade level. They also say that the more child-friendly exams, which included color and better graphics, helped pupils.

But testing experts and critics suggest that the unprecedented growth is more likely the result of changes to the exams.

Most notably, the state dramatically lowered the passing bar on the 8th-grade math test. As a result--after hovering at about 50 percent for five years--the pass rate shot up to 78 percent last year.

Teachers: what do you think? Does this ring true to you, or is it beside the point? As you start this year's ISAT testing, did last year's results impact your teaching?

A few resources:
This year's ISAT scores by county. [click HERE]
Alexander Russo links to the Trib and Sun Times coverage. [click HERE, or just go to his site and browse]

Labels: conversations

The Golden Apple family has been reeling from the tragic death of Tanisha Thurmond, a high school math teacher at Julian HS in Chicago, who was murdered last week.

Tanisha was a Golden Apple Scholar, a Golden Apple award nominee and a dedicated educator. She will be deeply missed.

This experience has made me think a lot about the ways that teachers process these types of tragedies both in the classroom and personally. In other words, how do we help our students with an emotion like grief while we're struggling with it ourselves? (Other issues evoke the same tension. How did we help kids process their fears after 9/11 when we were ourselves frightened?)

We struggle as educators to find a balance between hiding our emotions completely, and pouring them out on our students in a way that makes them feel unsafe.

Where do you find that balance? How did you learn how to support your students through tough emotional places?

Labels: conversations

What is this?
This is the new Teaching Excellence Network Blog, a place to find resources, news and analysis, writing by teachers, personal stories, and much more. New items will be posted EVERY DAY.

Blog? What's a blog?
A blog (from web + log) is an online journal, where the newest entries are displayed at the top. It can contain writing, links, pictures, and video clips, and there is usually a way for readers to make comments.

Who is writing the blog?
Hi. I'm Sarah Lieberman Weisz, the director of TEN. I'll be the main writer for the blog. (I'm also the person who sends you those monthly update emails if you're a registered member.) Who am I? Well, besides working at the Golden Apple Foundation as the director of TEN, I'm a former middle school social studies and reading teacher (mostly at Perspectives Charter School in Chicago). I'm also a former service-learning program director, an avid knitter, a Chicago area native, and a newlywed.

The opinions expressed in articles on this blog are mine and/or those of guest authors or quoted sources. They do not represent the opinion of the Golden Apple Foundation.

Is anything else changing on the site?
By next fall, thanks to ideas and contributions from so many of you, we will be completely updating TEN! Look for a new discussion forum format, where users can contribute questions, an easier interface for the upcoming opportunities, a more comprehensive resource collection, and much more. Any ideas? You can always contact us with thoughts and suggestions--the more the better!

Labels: general

Looking for something to listen to on your iPod? Chicago Public Radio offers some fascinating education stories for free download.

Try these episodes of Eight Forty-Eight for a start.

Feb. 20, 2007: Addressing Education Funding Reform
As the state reaches its deadline for bids on the lottery, we talk with Center for Tax and Budget Accountability Executive Director Ralph Martire about the need for education funding reform in Illinois.

Feb. 14, 2007: School Daze: Comparing and Contrasting Urban Reform Efforts
Chicago has taken the lead on national school reform efforts in recent years, and many other large urban cities have been paying close attention. Education writer Alexander Russo compares and contrasts the Chicago experiment with efforts in other cities.

And if you missed this year's Chicago Matters series, "Valuing Education," you can download segments from the website.

Labels: resources

The Chicago Tribune recently ran a five-editorial series entitled "From Here to Excellence," outlining a plan to turn around Illinois schools. In case you missed it, here's a quick recap.

• Smarter schools for Illinois outlines the series focus: how much revenue is needed to improve the schools, how can it be raised, and how should it be spent?
• Coming up short highlights the fundamental inequities in the way Illinois funds education, including over-reliance on property taxes and the way local districts are forced to find their own money when Federal funds don't cover their costs for, say, special education or bilingual students.
• In return for more money argues that before any more money is rustled up for education, a level of transparency and accountability needs to be reached by instituting pension reform, ending the protection of incompetent teachers by unions, and mandating disclosure of school spending.
• Classroom ideas that work is the first of two editorials that outline "best practices" in education that the Trib suggests should be a required part of any new funding for schools. First up: better teacher preparation, and mentoring and induction programs that help keep teachers in the classroom for more than a few years.
• Five more great ideas for the classroom adds lower class size in grades K-3, a longer school year, small group tutoring, data-driven instruction, and more school choice (especially charters) to the list of needed reforms.
• The war of the "woulds" looks at the bickering that has crippled efforts to reform school funding in Illinois ("your plan would hurt businesses," "your plan would throw good money after bad," etc.) Emphasizing that any funding reform should be tied to education reform, the editorial selects what they feel is the best proposal currently under consideration for funding Illinois schools, a 1% tax on gross receipts for businesses.
• Rising to greatness finishes the series with a call to arms, reminding readers that today's students are tomorrows voters and taxpayers.

In the next few weeks, I'd like to use this space to get back to some of these issues. Let's talk about teacher and school accountability, about best practices, and about what teachers can do to impact the school funding debate.

In the meantime, have you read this series? Thoughts?

Labels: resources