Tag: teachers

Stuck on OER (and somehow quotable)

One of the things on my bucket list is to be referred to (some day) as an expert.  You know, like those quacks on FoxNews in the split screen with the green screened cityscapes behind them.  For some reason that seems glamorous to me.

Getting quoted by a reputable blogger/educator only helps me take the first baby steps toward that goal.  Enter Miguel Guhlin, a really skilled and experienced Director of Instructional Technology in TX who quoted me on his blog (woot!).  The quote, well, it was from my comment left on this really interesting post at http://connectivism.ca that discussed the future of education technology and the differences (shortcomings?) of Learning Management Systems (LMS, which include Blackboard and Moodle) and Social Networking Sites (SNS, Facebook, Ning, etc.).

Here’s my comment in full, the bold is what Miguel picked out:

Great article, I really liked the fact that Martin chimed in about Moodle’s use and its design. I’ve been using it for several years and over that time have worked my best to educate teachers about the social features that can be used (as simply as the discussion forums). But training apparently isn’t enough, as course designs/construction almost always defaults to a content centric approach. It’s no fault of any Moodle administrators or trainers, it’s just that the Moodle tools provide a very easy way to organize content (and it’s often the very first thing taught to new Moodlers).

I’m eager to see the new features in Moodle 2.0, however I’m not sold that they will accomplish the necessary change alluded to in this blog post.

On another note, perhaps my biggest gripe is that we’ve provided teachers this AWESOME tool to structure courses and content that could easily be used by other teachers, but the software locks it down (or at least, it provides tools that are easily configured to “close” the content to the outside). Sure there are Moodle course exchanges, but far and wide content is closed to outsiders, difficult to procure (even if a backup is available) and not available as OER. Imagine if all the content created in Moodle were open? THAT would be a great asset to the educational community and would be ripe to transition past the “build today use for 3 years model” to more of a social approach (where the best content floats to the top of social interactions because it’s freely available).

I’ve got a soft spot for Open Educational Resources (OER — and I mean really, truly open resources, e.g. no passwords, fees, indexed by Google).  Part of it is driven by the fact that I think we (the human race) should have access to every subject matter that we want to learn (for free).  The idea of paying for access to certain content just seems less and less acceptable as I get older (at least some of that stems from how spoiled I am by my personal learning network and the internet, which never fails to edutain me).

The other part is driven by the fact that OER makes education easier.  It’s faster to use content that’s already been created and in many cases, that content has a high probability of being higher quality and vetted (not to mention thoroughly checked and re-checked by those that have come across it before and used it likewise).

So…how might I become an expert?  Well, I think the first part is to continue contributing to the discussion about OER and how it should be organized, categorized, classified, etc.  The other way to turn out any and all of my content as OER (but I really haven’t found an effective way to do that either).  Truly open resources are hard to come by (but they are out there: http://www.oercommons.org/), I hope to make it my job to advance and grow OER.  (After all, that’s 50% of the mission of http://Coursefeeds.com)

Outsourcing in Schools (how to focus on improving instruction)

Education Sector released a new report on school design last week titled Teachers at Work: Improving Teacher Quality Through School Design (free pdf download).  The report focuses on a new type of school design getting some traction in NYC, the Generation Schools.  These schools are focusing specifically on improving instruction by giving teachers more time to focus and prepare their lessons.  It seems like a great model (I’m still partial to the Rhee plan for teacher effectiveness though).

Another model highlighted in the article was a lot more exciting.  Why? Because it basically outsourced all non-critical, non-instructional tasks to other NPOs in the area.  The school is the Gardner Pilot Academy outside of Boston, MA.  This is what the report had to say about it.

The Gardner Pilot Academy, an elementary school serving the mostly low-income Latino community of Allston, Mass., just outside of Boston, is teeming with adults.  The leadership of Gardner includes and extended services director, whose job is to coordinate the work of all the various people and programs serving students and families.  The school has more than 15 community partners, including Young Audiences, which offers arts  and enrichment; Sports4Kids, which rounds out the physical education program run by the school’s part-time teacher; and a local branch of the YMCA, which serves as the fiscal agent for Gardner’s after-school program.  In all, there are more than 40 additional people who play a variety of roles and work a variety of schedules to support core teaching staff inside and outside of the classroom.  This kind of support, where aides and interns are assigned to oversee recess, lunch, and before- and after-school programs, means that teachers’ work at Gardner can be designed almost entirely around improving instruction.

Eureka!  You mean if we let teachers focus only on improving their instruction (by removing/outsourcing the other “school” distractions) they might help students achieve more?  I love this model for two reasons.

  1. it readjusts a teacher’s role to instruction (and not a hodge podge of other duties as assigned).  In web app building I call that “feature creep”, which is to say that the teacher job descriptions has been continuously added to (including recess duty, managing after-school projects, lunch duty, arts, etc.)
  2. it takes a comparative advantage point of view of educational services and embraces the idea that a school may not be best equipped to provide all common services.  By outsourcing them to partners in education you can help lighten work loads, consolidate services and improve overall efficiency in the system.  A YMCA already running after-school programs may be better able to offer services to a student body than if  the school went about it independently (and therefore would incur less expenses by relying on an organization already with the management and means in place to offer quality programs.

The main objection to this, as far as I can see would be that a school’s overall budget may shrink (because of the outsourced services), but I don’t necessarily see that as a negative if it brings down per pupil costs while increasing quality instruction.  On another note, this might be harder (but not impossible) to achieve in rural areas where such services are dispersed over large areas.

Student Load vs. Teacher Quality

The debate continues.  As a master’s student at UVM my thesis focused on Vermont’s historical trends in educations which contributed to and set the stage for our high ranking public school system (at the time, according to certain resources).  I placed particular emphasis on the fact that Vermont’s long standing traditions and demographic arrangements had contributed to very small class sizes (the pupil to teacher ratio is still around 10:1, one of the lowest in the nation).  Subsequently this also means that VT has one of the most expensive education system on a per pupil basis in the country as well.

It’s nice to think that Vermont has the best public education system in the country, but that’s hotly debated with each of the number of sides, resources, experts, etc. pointing to a diverse array of statistics: class size, student achievement, teacher pay, graduation rate, unemployment, etc.  It all depends how you define “outcomes”.

I’ve been swayed from my original assertion that VT had it good because of the low class size (which was more caused by geography and population density than any public initiative).  And it seemed that a lot of other individuals had been too, even Bill Gates who threw a lot of money behind the small schools movement has largely backed away from it.

In my opinion, the debate swung to teacher quality and effectiveness and is partially being driven by Michelle Rhee and others (the question of merit pay has also been wrapped into this discussion, though I think that effectiveness/quality is and should be the focus).  There are plenty of questions remaining (like how to measure effectiveness in real time, rather than retroactively) but I like where the debate is going.

It’s interesting to see though that the Total Student Load theory¹ is still getting attention.  Could it be both?  From personal experience, it was much harder to get lost in a small class (just think back to your senior seminar courses in college).  But from the other side I can also remember big classes where the teacher was awesome and their instruction was lasting.  It’s no wonder we can’t make up our minds.

¹note that the article might be password protected at Edweek.org, but it’s basically a write up on William G. Ouchi and his new book The Secret of TSL.  If you really want to read up on class size and the debate against it, Eric Hanushek’s research is well known in education as an opponent to the class size argument (he says it’s bunk).

Rhee's new plan: "D.C. Public Schools Teaching and Learning Framework"

I’m a big fan of the reforms happening in DC.  I like it for a lot of reasons (it’s cutting edge, it’s gutsy, it’s far reaching implications, etc.) but mostly because Michelle Rhee has vision (and the cajones) to bring her ideas to fruition.

The Wapo recently wrote an article about how Rhee expects to measure teacher success, which is by and large the biggest obstacle of the reform.  It’s easy to say that the best teachers will be retained and the worst kicked to the curb or rehabilitated through professional development, harder to actually say which teachers are which and why.

Rhee’s new report/plan, which apparently is 200 pages (put together in part by an educational consulting firm from the District–note the copy I found online is only 50 pages…), outlines how teacher success will be measured.  It touches on several aspects of the evaluation:

  • new regular assessments by principals and other staff
  • how many times student outbursts are permissible (in a set period of time) – good teachers have control of their classrooms
  • the number of minutes that can be wasted in any 30 minute period (3.  Over that and it’s obvious the teacher isn’t well prepped)

I perused the copy I found online and found the insights and directives incredibly easy to follow (honestly, from reading the document I think ANYONE could be a better teacher).  It’s succinct, easy to digest and reads like a “how to” instead of a “do this or else”.  In fact, the document clearly outlines expectations, how one might accomplish them and “what excellence looks like”.  What else could a teacher ask for?

But if I were just getting my info. from the Wapo article and I were a DC teacher I might be shaking in my booties.  It doesn’t paint a very favorable (in my opinion) picture of the reforms that will affect measuring teacher success.  It’s more of a punch list of changes, including the fact that the number of students is increasing at the same time these new criteria are being imposed.

The situation in DC is a challenge in the simplest sense of the word.  That being said, I would also be thinking to myself that measuring these new criteria is a MONUMENTAL task: possibly involving huge amounts of qualitative observation and coding (just like the kind I did as a student in Graduate School at Syracuse University) in order to get a handle on whether or not the teachers are meeting expectations.

I’ll be watching this unfold in interest.

“D.C. Public Schools Teaching and Learning Framework,”

Aside from the assessment of teacher quality and effectiveness, I think that some really great changes were also highlighted by the Wapo and these come in the form of disciplinary revisions.  At least some of the anecdotal evidence of educational reform concedes that setting up the right culture for learning can have a positive influence on student achievement (and maybe even teacher effectiveness), just look at KIPP.  The revisions specifically target for what and when students can be suspended for.

BEFORE: students could be suspended for simple dress code violations

AFTER: students can only be suspended for situations like cheating, bullying and other such violations

The old code permitted suspension for such an array of offenses that the punishment lost any real meaning, officials said. Principals were allowed to send students home for dress code violations, which is not permitted under the new rules.

According to the most recent available data, suspensions grew from 1,303 in 2006 to 2,245 in 2008 — a 72 percent increase. School officials say that removing students from school only puts them behind in class and can lead to truancy and trouble with the justice system. (from page 2)

Let’s hope that the superficial, cultural changes like that above can make a huge difference so that districts aren’t forced to hire observers to code their every classroom activity/action.