The Danielson Framework is an example of a filter that is commonly used to evaluate preservice and practicing teachers. The Danielson Group describes this as a framework for professional practice. Here “good teaching” is comprised of four domains: (a) planning and preparation, (b) the classroom environment, (c) instruction, and (d) professional responsibilities. The four domains are broken into 22 components. And the 22 components are further broken into 76 teeny tine separate elements.

The Danielson Group claims that “empirical studies” have shown the Framework to lead to improved student learning. This claim is false and misleading (Johnson, 2019). While there is some research to support some of the 76 teeny tiny elements, if you examine the research cited in the Danielson material you will find that much of it is questionable at best. Often it is misused or misinterpreted. As well, there is no research (none) to support the use of the Danielson Framework as being more effective than any other framework, or more effective than no framework at all for enhancing teacher effectiveness or improving student learning. It is just a bunch of stuff that somebody thought up once upon a time, and now the Danielson Group is using it to sell stuff. Imagine that. Making a profit off our students. teac

The terms “teacher professionalism” and “professional dispositions” are often used when assessing preservice and practicing teachers. But what is “teacher professionalism”? What dispositions are the “correct” ones for teachers? And who gets to decide these things?

Dispositions or Mind Control

Most teacher preparation programs address and assess three elements: knowledge, skills, and dispositions (Creasy, 2015). The dispositional element is commonly viewed as “teacher professionalism”. A disposition is a state of mind that creates an inclination to think or act in certain ways. There are both positive and negative dispositions. Examples of positive dispositions include compassion, curiosity, fortitude, and honesty. Examples of negative dispositions include pessimism, laziness, dishonesty, and indifference. These dispositions are all examples of internal states of mind. Some might also consider them character traits or even values. However, some teacher preparation programs try to mandate that all preservice teachers have specific internal states of mind. Rubrics and checklists are even created to try to document and quantify these internal states of mind. But trying to control the internal state of mind of another is a form of mind control. It is not healthy for the field of education to be in the business of mind control.

Josey was a 3rd grade student. Before our first session, I listened to her read passages at Lexile level 330 (approximately 1.9 grade level). She read 50 WPM with 97% accuracy. Seven weeks later, after 14 sessions, she read passages at Lexile level 440 (approximately 2.5 grade level). Here she read 74 WPM with 98% accuracy. Our work focused specifically on two deficit areas: reading fluency and word identification.

Currently, 2.4 million students are classified as having a learning disability and are receiving special education services. Up to 80% of these students (approximately 1,920,000) have some sort of reading disability. Approximately 3% to 5% of all students have a severe reading disability. In segregated special education settings, the general learning outcomes are lower than inclusive classrooms and reading achievement is not accelerated. The US Department of Education reported that in 2015, 70% of all students in grade 4 achieved below basic levels in reading. In 2017 it was 71%, and in 2019 it was 74%. The US Department of Education also reported that from 2002 to 2009 there were no statistically significant changes in the reading scores of students with disabilities in grades 4, 8, and 12. There are real people behind these numbers, just like Erik. Clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working. Yet the special education industry continues down the same path, insisting on costly testing and programming. Why? We are failing our struggling readers.

Erik. As teachers we tend to remember our failures. One of mine occurred in 1983, my first year of teaching. I was a 2nd grade teacher at Greenwood Elementary School and Erik was my student. I failed him miserably. I still remember him. He was a happy little guy in the fall. But as the year went along, he became less happy. He began to slump in his desk. He seemed to draw into himself. 36 years later he still lingers in my mind. Erik struggled with his reading and I failed to help him. This is his story.

There is an insidious way of silencing those who are not in lockstep with the majority in organizations and academic institutions. It is called soft bullying and microaggression. These are sometimes used to mute and muzzle minority views and dissenting voices. The results is that the divergent ideas, conflicting views, and disagreements that are essential for the health and evolution of any organization, especially academic institutions, are lost. To mute and muzzle is to engage in practices that devolve and decay the foundations of the academic institution in which they occur, and it conflicts with the standards for respectful academic discourse held by the academy.

In our current educational system, standardized tests are used to assess the quality of the student-products as they move along the 13-year conveyor belt within the education factories commonly referred to as schools. Students who have test scores that fall below a certain percentile ranking are thought to have a disability. Additional standardized tests are then given by standardized testing experts to confirm and diagnose the cause of the disability. Very much like a disease, a “special” standardized treatment is then prescribed for this disability.

These students are then sent off to Special Ed World. This is a purgatorial “special” place apart from the general education classroom where students are given the prescribed special treatment by special treatment experts. In the segregated setting of Special Ed World, the special treatment experts implement the special treatment with fidelity. However, one of the many problems with Special Ed World as currently configured is that once students become entangled in the special education machinery, they are lost forever. They rarely return.

This podcast examines four interconnecting elements within Special Ed World: (a) reading instruction, (b) data-resistant theoretical constructs, (c) paradigmatic parochialism regarding what is considered “scientifically-based” research, and (d) manipulative approaches to teaching.

It cannot be assumed at any level that people understand democratic process or know the particulars of proper meeting protocol. In this podcast we examine and describe these two elements based on Roberts Rules of Order (RRO).

Motivation is an internal state that causes us to direct attention or maintain behavior. Motivation can direct our attention and sustain our behavior toward a particular goal.

All students enter kindergarten excited and motivated to learn. They see themselves as able learners, whole and complete. But something happens in the next two years as some of our students travel down the educational conveyer belt. They begin to view themselves as defective. The system begins to view them as broken toys that need to be sent back to Santa’s workshop. In order to get the education they need, the educational bureaucracy has forced us to stamp a big label on the foreheads of these children: learning disabled. As described above, this term does not exist. All humans learn. Learning is a state of being human and being alive. With their label now in place, we send these little humans off to the rooms down the hall to get them all fixed up so they can return to the “normal” classroom with “normal” kids.

Just as all students learn, all students are motivated to do something. The problem is that some of these things are not always school-related things. But again, put yourself in the place of a student with a reading disability. How motivated you would be to come to school and fail?

Affect in education usually refer to emotions and motivation. Since these do not show up on test scores, to the educational bureaucracy, they do not exist; however, they are, arguably, the most important components in teaching and learning, especially if you are a student with a special learning need.

Motivation and emotion are perhaps the most important components when working with students with moderate to severe reading disabilities, yet it is the area that seems to be given the least amount of attention.

EMOTIONS

We think, learn, and emote with the same brain. Thus, it would be silly to think that students’ emotions would not be a factor in their ability to learn. Positive emotional experiences can enhance and promote learning; negative emotions can disrupt and prevent learning. And, since there is plenty of research to support this notion, we can say that attending to students’ emotions can be considered a research-based strategy and not simply some namby-pamby, feel-good activity designed to make liberals out of your kids.