Transparency in Teaching (stuff)

A recent article in “The 74” caught my attention this week. It discussed how Tennessee and Michigan are currently debating removing the statute requiring third graders who are reading below grade level to be retained. With state testing starting, people are worried about holding back the potentially large number of these students who may not pass the test. You see, aside from the average number of students that struggle with reading at this grade level, this year's batch of third graders were in kindergarten when the pandemic hit. People worry that the two years of virtual learning and closed schools have potentially created a glut of below-level readers.

What would be the consequences of holding back so many students? For one, it is expensive. You will need more teachers and classrooms to manage the overflow. Could an exception be made for this group? The article states, “Parents, advocates, and educators say it’s unfair to base the decision on one assessment, especially for students who were in kindergarten when the pandemic hit. But state officials and Republican legislators argue it’s wrong to promote students who aren’t ready.” Gotta say I’m siding with the state officials on this one.

For a written version of today's episode, Click here.

For links to all the resources used in today's episode, go to https://transparencyinteaching.com/ and see "Third Grade Reading: The Key to Academic Everything

I don't think you'll find too many current student teachers who disagree that student teaching needs a revamp. Most teacher candidates spend at least 14 weeks student teaching consisting of 8 hours a day, teaching, lesson planning, and grading; Most teacher candidates attend staff meetings and parent conferences, too.

Wait that sounds like what a regular teacher does. Well, that’s the point, to give candidates an idea of what they are getting into. It allows them to hone their lesson-delivery skills and learn classroom management techniques.

At the same time, student teachers are also paying tuition to a university to access the practice teaching required for a credential. This means that beyond the daily teaching requirement, they also have weekly university supervisor meetings and fieldwork hours to track, plus four time-consuming progress checks to fill out every three weeks. Most also attend a university seminar class in the evenings.  And here in California, the ominous California Teaching Performance Assessment, better known as CalTPA, also weighs heavily on their shoulders. Without passing this exam, there is no credential awarded. I know this first hand, as I’m a university supervisor who ensures the teacher candidates turn in all this frivolous paperwork.

I’m sure most states have some sort of similar credentialing requirements. This is way beyond what a regular classroom teacher must endure. All of this is without pay. This puts a huge financial burden on candidates, especially those with established families who may pursue teaching as a second career. They have no time to hold down a job to help pay for school, let alone support themselves or their families. If schools want to attract the best to the profession, student teaching needs a revamp.

In today’s episode, we talk with Ben, a first-year teacher. Ben talks about his teacher preparation program and his student teaching experience (which was fabulous because his cooperating teacher was the one and only Jen!). Ben shares what was difficult and how his pre-teaching experiences benefitted or hindered his time during student teaching. Of course, Jen and Anne have to give their two cents worth as usual, and it’s a valuable two cents at that!

For more insight into teaching, check out our website at TransparencyinTeaching.com

Should student teachers be compensated for their work? Add your opinion in the comment section, or answer our poll question.

Again, thanks for taking the time to listen.

If you can read this, thank a teacher!... as they say…

Welcome to Season 3 of Transparency in Teaching. Anne, here! Thought it might be nice to start off with a little true story that spurred the topic of this episode:

Is it time to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance? I asked myself this question after visiting a high school class I was observing. When the "Please stand for the Pledge" announcement was given over the loudspeaker, I stood up and placed my hand over my heart. To my surprise, I was the only one standing. Not one student, not even the student teacher whom I was observing, stood. Their heads remained diligently bent over their cell phones.

I said the words I had repeated every school day for 36 years, alone and out loud, to the silent class. When the Pledge finished, I sat down. The teacher approached where I was seated and whispered, " I think you just freaked everyone out."

"No one says the pledge?" I inquired incredulously.

"No, never," she replied matter-of-factly.

When did this start? In my middle school classroom, all students stood when the familiar words came over the speaker; in recent years, most students stood silently, while a few would mumble the words if I prodded. But in all my years, I had never seen a class where no one stood at all.

As we start our third year in this podcasting adventure, we decided to add in some shorter episodes. They've let me loose alone on the mic to spout off my rants and reasons for creating change in our educational system.

In this episode, I grab a solo mic and talk about the history of the flag salute and reasons why it may be time to think of a different way to show our support for our country.

Let us know if you liked what you hear. What other topics would you like to hear me discuss? Share your ideas in the comments, or leave us a voice comment. Maybe we will share them in our next episode!

For links to the resources used for this and all our episodes, check out our website TransparencyinTeaching.com. While you're there, spend a little time reading our new blog posts that discuss other educational issues that are bugging us or that need attention, (or that Anne just wants to blab about. )

As always, thank you for taking the time to listen. And if possible, we'd really appreciate it if you'd share the link to our show with other interested humans. 

According to Merriam-Webster, the word indoctrinate originated in the 17th century.  It meant "to teach," as it comes from docēre, the Latin word for teaching.  But by the 19th century, the meaning shifted to signify teaching someone to uncritically accept a particular group's ideas, beliefs, and opinions. The key word is "uncritically."  This is supposedly why public schools and their teachers are now called indoctrinators. They are accused of pushing a liberal agenda about race, gender, equality, and history but refusing to let students express opinions that may contradict what is being taught. People who have differing opinions about those topics accuse schools of indoctrination. For example, parent groups have demanded books whose subject matter they don't approve of be removed from libraries and have had schools closed over history lessons they found offensive. And for the most part, schools have complied with parents' demands. This then begs the question, "Who's indoctrinating whom?" If schools bend to the wishes of a few parents, can those parents be accused of trying to indoctrinate others by removing information they disagree with?

Aren't schools, by their very nature, indoctrination machines? That is how public schools were designed to be from their conception. (One could also say the same for private religious schools, too, right?) Horace Mann, the man behind the idea of public education,  was a lawyer and member of the House of Representatives in 1827. He felt very strongly that a successful nation needs a population educated in basic literacy and a common set of public ideals. Well, someone has to decide what basic literacy entails and what public ideals need to be taught. Today, as long as people feel comfortable with the decisions about what the common set of public ideals are (curriculum), there is no "indoctrination." But as soon as somebody takes issue with a topic or point of view that is contrary to their own, cries of "indoctrination" begin to fly at school board meetings or at political rallies where a candidate can grab votes by jumping on the "indoctrination wagon." 

Today many teachers cringe at topics that might be controversial and try to avoid or gloss over them to keep from potentially "stepping in it."  However, tough topics are at the heart of critical thinking. Being able to analyze multiple sides of an issue and form opinions is part of what schools should be helping students to do. These are skills that help students learn how to problem solve.  Students need to learn how to have cogent discussions on current relevant issues with people who may have opposing views. They must practice the art of compromise so that all sides have a seat at the table. However, if students feel they are being shut down or feel they cannot share their points of view, then there IS a problem, but the issue is with the instructor, not the entire system.

In today's episode, we discuss whether or not indoctrination really is an issue in today's classrooms, how to tell if there's a problem, and what can be done. You'll get to hear why Jen was accused of "indoctrination" 🙄 You can decide if she "stepped in it!."  Listen in and see if you think she deserved that title. 

Is Jen an indoctrinator? Have you been accused of indoctrination? Have you witnessed it? Who's indoctrinating whom? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think. 

If you liked today's show, please share it with others and rate and review us on your favorite listening platform. That's our favorite way to show your appreciation for what we do here. Thanks for listening!❤️

What comes to mind when someone says, "Oh, that's a really good school?" Is it students all sitting in their seats, diligently taking notes? Is it passing along students who can read and do math on grade level? Or is it graduating students who can immediately join the workforce, or go to college, or interact with others with empathy and respect? Common sense would say a combination of all of those things signals a successful product of K-12 education. But is that what schools are actually producing?

For those of us who gauge success as producing graduating students who are at least proficient in reading and math scores, there's not a lot of success here. The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), a congressionally mandated test, has been testing 4th, 8th, and 12th-grade students since 1969. The test routinely covers reading and math but has also tested history, science, and geography. It breaks down proficiency levels as advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic. (To see what skills each level encompasses, click here for reading and here for math. I'm not sure I'd test proficient in math! 😳) The last year the NAEP tested the 12th grade was 2019, before Covid.

The news reports talk about how test scores have fallen after Covid, but what they don't emphasize is the dismal levels they were at before Covid. The 2019 test found only 37% of 12th-grade students nationwide were either advanced or proficient in reading. For comparison, in 2015, 12th-graders were at this very same percentage. Nothing has changed. And what about the rest of the students? Why are we not talking about the other 63% who are not proficient? Look at it this way, would you buy a car from a company where only 37 % of its vehicles were considered reliable? If public education were a company, it would be out of business.

Math scores are even more devastating. In 2019, only 24% of high-school seniors tested proficient or advanced! Covid had nothing to do with those dismal scores!

So, OK, but should we use these scores as a snapshot of current trends? Perhaps with a grain of salt? For example, The NAEP does not test all 4th, 8th, and 12th graders. The test includes Special Education and Second Language students in the sample without accommodations. Across the nation, 1,640 high schools tested 25,200 senior students. The total number of high school seniors enrolled that year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, was 3,432,000. I'm not sure this .7% of high school seniors that took the test gives an accurate picture of the majority of seniors. The NAEP exam cautions users of this data from making assumptions based only on the numbers provided. They suggest, "The results are most useful when they are considered in combination with other knowledge about the student population and the educational system, such as trends in instruction, changes in the school-age population, and societal demands and expectations."

In this episode, we try to determine what kind of students our education system should produce. Listen and see if you agree with our assessment!

When initially released, the audio volume was sooooo low that listeners had to turn the sound way up even to hear it and then got their ears blasted when the interlude music played. I'm sure that was annoying enough to cause people to stop listening, which is a shame because there is a lot of great information in this episode! So I decided to figure out how to correct the audio so that one can listen at a reasonable volume minus the frustration. I'm happy to announce that I was successful! I hope you will give this episode another go because the topic is definitely one that needs attention, especially since the reports coming from the latest NAEP tests are so dismal.

According to an article in the New York Times, "This year, for the first time since the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests began tracking student achievement in the 1970s, 9-year-olds lost ground in math, and scores in reading fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years. " This begs the question, What do we do now? Promote these kids to the next grade, or do we retain them to catch up? 

I don't think there's any one good answer. We just need to figure out what protocols will give students the most bang for the taxpayer's buck. Why do we look at 9-year-olds' scores so closely? Well, they are third graders. That is the year when education makes a massive shift, from learning to read to reading to learn. If students are not at grade level by the end of the third grade, they tend to struggle to catch up, if they catch up at all.

Listen and see where you stand on this issue. Then leave us a comment or answer the poll questions to give your opinion. We'd also love feedback on how were are doing and what you'd like to hear us discuss. This show is nothing without our listeners!!

Thanks again for taking the time to listen. We are appreciative of every set of ears that lends itself here. If I could ask a giant favor, can you please forward this episode (or any of our fantastic episodes) to at least one friend you feel might benefit? That is the best way to get our podcast out to a bigger audience. 

To read the show notes that originally accompanied this podcast, go back to your feed or visit TransparencyinTeaching.com. 

Hey, it’s Anne here to introduce today’s episode all about social promotion, you know, that practice where schools promote students to the next grade based on age instead of mastery. The idea is that keeping kids with their peer group is better for their self-esteem, not to mention promoting students with behavior problems provides some relief to the teacher, knowing that the student who made class crazy won’t be back in their class next year.

The alternative has been retention. The idea is that repeating a grade will let struggling students improve skills that weren’t at grade level. Research, however, doesn’t back this idea up. Instead, retention increased the dropout rate and lowered students’ self-esteem. And though initially, it did boost student performance, the gains didn’t continue over the long haul.

So what’s a teacher to do? In this episode, we discuss what Ed Code and district policies say about retention and promotion. We explore what research is saying and what’s happening in our classes. Then, of course, we explain our suggestions for how to fix this mess.

Oh, and a new voice joins us in this episode. Welcome, Yvonne, who shares her elementary school teacher perspective. Now we have voices from grades K through 12. Unfortunately, Yvonne’s audio isn’t as clear as it should be, and some of her insightful comments may be difficult to hear. AND Sharyn was mobile on headphones and left us when her phone died. However, she did get in her usual insightful comments in the beginning.

Again, as always, thank you, dear listeners, for tuning in and sharing our podcast with friends, family, teachers, and others interested in knowing what is really happening in our classrooms. Please rate and review us on your favorite platform, as it really does help listeners find us. Leave us a voice comment, and we just might use it on our next show!

Don't be surprised if you find someone named "TBA" teaching your child's class. There will apparently be A LOT of TBAs in charge of classes this fall. School districts across the country report record numbers of unfilled positions at the start of this school year. 

My state, California, reports a shortage of 50,000 teachers going into the 2022-23 school year. It's not just teachers either. Madison, Wisconsin, says 199 teacher vacancies along with 124 non-teaching positions. This means districts are also short paraprofessionals, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodians. What gives? 

Desperate districts are trying all kinds of things to lure teachers back. Some are giving raises or retention pay. Others are trying four-day weeks or have resigned to hiring uncredentialed people to fill in the gaps. The reasons for the shortage are not surprising. The Pandemic and remote teaching exacerbated teacher burnout, which was already affected by low pay, lack of respect, and workload. 

In today's episode, we discuss in depth the extent of the current shortage and its causes. Then we give some pretty damn good ideas for bringing teachers happily back to the classroom and keeping them there. Someone needs to send this episode to the Department of Ed.  

Also, here are the links to the Key and Peele Teacher Draft video that Sharyn mentions. If you haven't seen it, you should 😂. It's funny as heck but also kind of sad when you really think about it.🙄 And Jen's reference to the Schweddy Balls video can be found here. Oh, and the actor whose name we couldn't think of was Alec Baldwin. I was right! It was the guy who played Trump! 

Listen to the podcast to find out how these two videos fit in.   Again, as always, Thank you for your support. Please leave a comment and rate and review the podcast so that others can find us. Also, I'd like to ask you to share this episode with one friend who you think would enjoy it. That would be such a nice thing to do for us! 

For those of you heading back to class, may your rosters be smaller, your duties few, and your paychecks bigger. Hands in. Three, two, one...Teachers ROCK! Now go get 'em!

Hey, it’s Anne. Welcome to another episode of Transparency in Teaching. As summer vacation is ending, I was wondering if you are beginning to get a nervous tick when you hear, “Back to School Sale?” Or do you find yourself tearing up when you walk by the school supplies aisle? Or do you awaken in the fetal position, gripping the crumpled notification of your preservice professional development days? If any of these situations apply to you, you might be a teacher. I'm retired, but I know Jen, Sharon, and a lot of you are gearing up to go back to the classroom and feeling some anxiety about what the new school year holds. I can't blame you after the way the last school year felt. I was there for that. Today's episode is all about that back-to-school blues. For me, the beginning of the school year was always exciting. New ideas, new lesson plans, new school supplies, and rearranging my classroom were all things that helped me gear up for the new school year. I looked forward to seeing everyone at in-service. But after last year, so many of us are skeptical. We are concerned about how classroom discipline will be handled. We’d like to know the new policies admin will lay on us. We also must contend with the daunting task of bridging COVID-caused educational deficiencies (on top of the weaknesses already there)—also, the decaying public opinion of education in general. However, every new school year does bring a classroom full of promise. The point is to remember why we are here in the first place, the kids! Teachers are change makers! We helped craft the leaders, the scientists, and the parents who will help shape our future. Students need good, caring, intelligent educators more than ever now. Sometimes we are the only bright spot in a child's day. Sometimes we're the only ones a child feels they can talk to. Teaching is so much more than imparting knowledge. What we provide in our classrooms teaches social skills, empathy, critical thinking, organization, responsibility, and citizenship. So, calm your ticks, dry your eyes, and get up. You have a vitally important job to do. The most vital of all occupations, if I say so myself. The future depends on you! No, seriously. So go get your room ready, um, right after you finish listening to our podcast or even better while stapling that new paper to your bulletin board.

Thank goodness teachers can put the 2021-2022 school year behind them! If ever there was a school year that deserved a "middle finger" 🖕🏼🖕🏼that was one! Many teachers felt this year was beyond their job description and called it quits. I'm sure parents and students may have similar stories to tell about what they learned from the school year from Hell.

But as with any challenge survived, there are valuable takeaways. In this episode, we discuss 5 lessons learned from the school year from hell! To begin, above and beyond Covid, students arrived Infected with a year and a half of remote learning. Their symptoms included an addiction to their cell phones, and forgetting, not only how to dress for school, but how to behave like humans. Also having to teach social-emotional learning lessons (SEL) to students gave teachers their own SEL issues. As an added bonus, at the end of the episode, you'll find out how Sharyn discovered the importance of setting a timer. 

So give this a listen and see if your experiences were on par with ours. I know you are on summer vacay, so you might want to grab a "beverage" if you think It might help numb any "triggering issues."  In any case, you know Jen's laugh will make everything, OK. I keep a recording of it on my phone to play when I get stressed out, like when driving in traffic or paying bills. 

Happy Summer