A Primer on Credit Recovery and Independent Study: Creating a Transparent High School Diploma of Value.

 

For those of us of a certain age we remember a monolith called the “high school division” and those monumental personalities: high school superintendents.

 

Over decades structures were created that guided practice in the scores of large high schools and small alternative high schools that were scattered around the city. In any year over a hundred “high school memoranda” were promulgated setting forth or clarifying policy. For example, for a number of years the “division” required that 9th grade English and Math classes be capped at no more than 25 students, an acknowledgement of the vital importance of student success in the 9th grade.

 

In the 1960s two schools opened that impacted the entire school system, John Dewey High School and City As School. Both schools had strong support from the teachers union.

 

Dewey had an extended school day for students to work with teachers in small groups, perhaps to assist in homework, tutoring, guidance or some special project. Embedded in the Dewey system was the concept of independent study … the DISC (Dewey Independent Study Curriculum). The school year was divided into five segments, called cycles, grading was simplified to “mastery,” “mastery with distinction,” etc., the programming was flexible, blocs of time varying from day to day.

 

City As School (CAS) had both “seat time” courses and twelve week cycles during which the student “interned” at a work site, supervised by a teacher, perhaps at a local newspaper, a restaurant, a magazine, an engineering firm, etc., and the student reduced his/her experiences to a “paper.”

 

Both schools were highly collaborative sites, teachers and school leaders were totally involved in the creation and operation of their schools.. Fred Koury, a designer of Dewey went on to design and lead City As School, and, he was a UFT member and member of the union Executive Board. The current “bright line” between teacher and supervisor was blurred. It was an era when one spends a decade or more as a classroom teacher, some years as an assistant principal before leading a school. Many principals had served as UFT Chapter leaders.

 

Dewey and CAS were incubators, sites at which staffs created new approaches to a changing student body. Parents chose schools, and both sites attracted students who wanted a different type of education, an education geared to the changing mores and values of the turbulent sixties.

 

The high school division, superintendents, the teacher union, elected school teacher leaders, and teachers had a mature relationship. They could agree, disagree, collaborate and engage, a relationship that has disintegrated and created a school system with a ”line in the sand” dividing management and labor, dividing principals and teachers; the current school system in which tens of thousands of teachers “rated” the chancellor with a failing grade of “F” in June, 2008.

 

We have moved, slowly but inexorably, from a school system that served many, not all, in which the “professionals” sometime argued, sometime collaborated, a school system in which both principals and teachers took pride.

 

Our current system is characterized by education bureaucracy and union leadership lobbing missiles back and forth while teachers and principals struggle to survive, an example: Chancellor Klein pointed to the key issue in schools,

 

The New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study  vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was not poverty or family circumstances, but sub par teachers and principals.

 

*  * *

 

The Board of Regents is the oldest school governing body in the nation dating back to 1784. The Regents select the NYS Commissioner of Education and set policy for New York State schools, including high school graduation requirements.  The 2008 entering 9th grade is the first class to have to meet the full implementation of the Regents diploma, 22 Carnegie units (44 credits in NYC), a specific sequence of courses and pass Regents exams in five subject areas with grades of 65. The reg requires 54 hours of “seat time” for each credit earned in NYC.

 

The regs make no mention of credit recovery.

 

Credit recovery, which began decades ago as an occasionally utilized alternate route to graduation, created at schools in a collaborative spirit and closely monitored by “central” has become endemic and unregulated. A new diploma, a de facto but not de jure diploma, the credit recovery diploma. There are no SED regulations and no DOE regulations or guidelines. Thousands of students each year receive credit by way of credit recovery. Philissa Cramer, in  Gotham Schools post  paints a stark picture of the path to graduation in one NYC school.

 

A year after State Ed announced a review of credit recovery practice in NYC the SED finally promulgated a draft proposal, a proposal that is totally inadequate.

 

State credit recovery regs must require that all school programs,

 

* Either require approval by the School Leadership Team or a school committee including the UFT Chapter Leader, the Guidance Counselor responsible for the student and a teacher (not teaching the student) in the appropriate subject area,

 

* Students must have at least 24 hours of seat time (present for 50% of the scheduled class sessions) in the “failed” course to be eligible for credit recovery.

 

* Approval by the Superintendent.

 

* Reports each term recounting a) the student enrolled in credit recovery and b) their results, and, c) schools must retain student projects until a year after their cohort has graduated,

 

* Students may not earn more than three (3) credit recovery credits.

 

Credit recovery is an option for some students in some situations, it must not become an acceptable alternative to regular classroom attendance.

 

Threatening schools with closure and principals with dismissal, using credit accumulation as a major metric, and, “winking” at the way credits are counted, is disgraceful and immoral. How many kids proudly display their diploma, and move into college ill-prepared, and fail.

 

State Ed  must set forth clear and transparent regulations to assure that a diploma has meaning and value.

National Standards, Charter Schools and Teacher Recruitment/Dismissal: The Confluence of Policy and Politics

 

Barack and Arne and Randi, and Diane all agree on National Standards, as does the influential  Aspin Institute head Walter Issacson.. Is it a done deal? Not Quite.

 

Firstly, what do we mean by national standards? There are a number of voluntary organizations  that have promulgated standards in a range of subject areas: mathematics, social studies, etc. Additionally each state has their own state standards, that vary greatly, compare Mississippi  standards to Massachusetts standards.

 

At the 2008 Rocky Mountain Round Table

 

(A panelist) … made the point that national standards were looked at as a point of weakness when she said, “We have national standards for thermostats, is it to much to ask for national standards for education.” The panel all agreed that it would be great to see fifteen states come together to create national standards for education and to encourage other states to follow their lead. Governor Romer touched on the topic and called for more research into a “good authentic test.”

 

In the current issue of the American Educator, the monthly magazine of the American Federation of Teachers, AFT President Randi Weingarten raises the issue: should the AFT support national content standards ? and asks for member feedback.

 

It’s not a “done deal” because gaining a national consensus on any education issue is a heavy lift. For example, we do not have any agreement on how to define graduation rates. The National Governors’ Association has an initiative, “Education Counts,”  over a period of years states will voluntarily define graduation rates. However Chief State School Officers raise a range of State-level questions , and, it will take at least until 2012 to establish a common metric.

 

If we have difficulty defining and measuring graduation rates imagine the challenge of defining and measuring content standards.

 

I can just hear Glenn Beck on Fox Cable, “They want to mandate the teaching of evolution!” Remember the “Monkey Trial” ? Watch “Inherit the Wind” lately?

 

Second, “charter schools” have become code words for ”union-free schools with performance-based salary schedules.” From the President to the Secretary of Education to the mayors of major cities (New York, LA, Chicago, DC, etc.,) charter schools have taken center stage. Teacher unions are political organizations, they endorse and work for candidates, they raise dollars through voluntary member contributions, they lobby for education funding and they negotiate contracts. Increasingly we hear anecdotal evidence that teacher contracts impede the ability of principals to make decisions: contracts impact negatively on pupil performance, and, there are the beginnings of research in this area. The reality is that evidence is scant at best, and, union contract flexibility does exist, i.e., the Pilot Schools in Boston and the Belmont Pilot Schools  in LA are prime examples.

 

In spite of all the adulation of charter schools the March, 2009 Brookings Institute Milwaukee Study, studying six years of charter schools in Milwaukee concludes

 

the performance of charter schools and traditional public schools is statistically indistinguishable for the most recent years of our study; …

We conclude that while charter schools overall may help the education of urban youth, our study of Milwaukee indicates that they should not be expected to be the silver bullet that some reformers seek. We also suggest that it is important to better understand and deal with instability in school attendance in urban school districts, as it proves to be the most significant determinant of student achievement in all of our statistical models.

In spite of the evidence in the school district with the most experience, politics overwhelms policy. The student attendance issue was dramatically highlighted in the Center for NYC Affairs Study, “Chronic Absenteeism”. Student absenteeism is ignored while the charter school issue swirls.

 Lastly, teacher recruitment/teacher dismissal is high on the Duncan agenda. Obama and Arne argue we should attract the “best and the brightest” to careers in teaching. Once again, research is lacking, and, the research that does exist is complex  and far from conclusive.

Back in 1990 Ronald Ferguson from Harvard pointed to, 

 

 Teachers in Texas who instruct children of color tend to have weaker language skills, a fact that accounts for over one-quarter of reading and mathematics score differentials for Black and White students, and 20 percent of the gap between Hispanic Americans and Whites. Performance is improved by: (1) teachers with strong language skills; (2) class size of 18 students or fewer; (3) teachers with more experience; and (4) teachers with master’s degrees.

 

Schools of Education, non-traditional teacher certification programs and school districts and schools must use available research to select the candidates with the greatest chances of success, i.e., raising pupil achievement, and, we need much more research in this critical arena.

 

Who should be discharged? About half of all teachers leave the profession within five years, and we suspect that many leave because they are not successful and are encouraged to leave. Clearly, the probationary period, in most states the first three years, must be the period to evaluate carefully.

 

President Obama, at a Town Hall forum, raised the issue of the experienced teacher, who after a number of interventions is still failing. Teacher dismissal procedures exist in every state, and, they all involve some sort of due process, as they should.

 

 The reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), under whatever the new name is, will require Republicans as well as Democrats, perhaps, the first truly bi-partisan issue. From the teacher union side we will neither see compliance or rejection. Union leadership is far ahead of their membership.

 

We will see a confluence of policy and politics.

Diane, Joel and Aaron Joust: Who is “Right”? Why We Need a Robust Independent Peer Reviewed Assessment/Evaluation Organization.

 

As the days tick toward the end of the NYS legislative session the school governance/mayoral control controversy moves, incrementally, towards that front burner..

 

In an op ed in the NY Times on April 10th Diane Ravitch  questions the success of mayoral control,

 

 …. the record on mayoral control of schools is unimpressive. Eleven big-city school districts take part in the federal test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Two of the lowest-performing cities — Chicago and Cleveland — have mayoral control. The two highest-performing cities — Austin, Tex., and Charlotte, N.C. — do not.

 

Diane goes on to challenge the claims of the administration, as she has done for a number of years. Are graduation rate pumped up by credit recovery? State exam grades have gone up over the entire state … and an easier test. Our high school graduates do poorly at CUNY, the college destination for most of our graduates. Ravitch does not call for a return to the past, but

 

This is not to say that Albany should eliminate mayoral control — nobody wants to return to the status quo of the ’90s. However, as legislators refine the law, they should establish clear checks and balances. The mayor should be authorized to appoint an independent Board of Education, whose members would serve for a set term. Candidates for the board should be evaluated by a blue-ribbon panel so that no mayor can stack it with friends. That board should appoint the chancellor, and his or her first responsibility must be to the children and their schools, not to the mayor.

 

Chancellor Klein shot back on April 15th with a letter to the editor, challenging Ravitch.

 

Diane Ravitch essentially proposes an independent school board that appoints the chancellor — and a return to the bad old days when divided decision-making and a lack of accountability produced decades of failure for students, particularly the poorest in our city.

The national tests  (NAEP) she cites are not the measure of federal accountability, are given only to a small sample of schools, and are not aligned with New York State standards and therefore with what we teach in our classroom.

Aaron Pallas (“Skoolboy”), a blogger and professor at Teacher College parses the Klein letter in a detail, questioning many of his assertions, especially the trashing of the NAEP, and concludes,

 New York City has been participating voluntarily in the NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment since 2002, so presumably the Chancellor believes that there is something to be learned from the performance of New York City’s children on the NAEP assessments.  And the Department of Education’s press office has had no qualms about crowing about NAEP results when the Department believes there is good news to share.  But a Department, and a Chancellor, truly committed to transparency would be willing to acknowledge the bad with the good, and present a balanced picture of successes and failures.  Writing off NAEP as if it doesn’t matter fails to meet that standard.

The jousts and jabs underline the need for a robust, independent body with subpoena powers, to collect, analyze and publicly report on student achievement data and financial operations.

Teachers after each lesson ask themselves: was the lesson successful? how do I define success? how do I know the lesson was successful? how will these findings impact tomorrow’s lesson?

I want the Klein initiatives to be successful … I fear if the are not.

If Children First is a failure, what will follow? Calls for more and more charter schools and vouchers, calls for the ending of defined benefit teacher pension plans: the abandonment of support for unionized public schools.

We have to know what is working, and what is not working, and why.

* closing “failing” schools and replacing with small high schools

* Fair Student Funding

* School Support Organization Model

* Empowerment Support Organization Network Model

* School Inquiry Teams (Children First Teams)

* Leadership Academy

* Quality Reviews and School Progress Reports

* PEP and CECs

* Open Market Transfer and ATR

All of these initiatives must be assessed and evaluated by an “arms length” organization, and their findings peer reviewed.

The Department recently released a ranking of the fourteen School Support Organizations, and the Empowerment model finished second of the fourteen. Empowerment, with over five hundred schools is by far the largest support organization. Why is it doing so well? What are the lessons we can learn? Should we continue with the fourteen organizations? prune down to a lower number? move towards a system-wide Empowerment model?

Outside organizations can advocate policies, provide forums for the various “sides” to confront and support their positions. The Manhattan Institute is sponsoring a panel on April 23rd, chaired by Sol Stern re “Teacher Quality,” the panel: Randi Weingarten and Daniel Koretz, a renowned testing expert and two pay for performance supporters. Kudos to Sol and the Manhattan Institute for providing a public forum for a discussion of a key component of the Obama schools plan.

The Chancellor cannot be the initiator and the evaluator … whatever happens in Albany we must know what is working, what is not working, and why, and use this data to create  better schools for kids and families.

The Mayoral Election and the Obama Effect: Will a Shelly/Mike/Randi Deal Elect a Mayor, Or, Will the Spector of Obama Roll to Victory?

 

When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.

Niccolo Machiavelli

 

The Bloomberg mayoral campaign is off and running with a $3 million media buy, those “soft” TV info-mericals pumping up the Bloomberg years.  How many New Yorkers even know his possible opponents …William Thompson and Anthony Weiner? One would think that barring an unexpected term limit Appellate Court decision, Mike will coast to victory in November.

 

Let’s think back a couple of years … who would have thought that a first term Senator from Illinois, Chicago no less, an Afro-American with a Muslim middle name would be nominated and elected as President. It seemed absurd.

 

The voter demographic in this country, for many decades, has been an older demographic. The eighteen years olds did not register and those who did were irregular voters. In preparation for the 2000 election “Rock the Vote” and other organizations made a concerted effort to enroll new voters, with great success. The new voter turnout was substantial, and Gore almost won … however, Bush v Gore turned off those younger voters and in subsequent elections the older voter demographic pattern returned.

 

The Obama campaign changed the very face of campaigning. It mobilized younger voters and voters of color, it utilized the technology of the moment: Twitter and social networking. The result was an unparalleled turnout, a sea change in the election demographics: the Obama Effect.

 

Now, a year later, does the Obama Effect have legs? Will the Obama Effect, the politics of “change” impact the NYC mayoral election?

 

William (“Billy”) Thompson, is finishing his second term as Comptroller, he has steadfastly stayed out of the Bloomberg arc, and, has issued a series of reports, professional and critical of Bloomberg policies.

 

How long are the Obama coattails? Will the new voters of 2008 be the new voters of 2009?

 

The traditional soothsayers predict an easy Bloomberg victory: a huge dollar advantage, support by major media outlets (NY Post, NY Daily News, Wall Street Journal), the mantel of incumbency, etc.

 

Simmering beneath the surface is a New York that has evolved since the initial 2001 Bloomberg victory. Many more voters of color and many more younger voters, voters not tied to any party or any ideology.

 

For some, Bloomberg is the Caesarian leader, benevolently ruling over the helots.

 

Will the Gonzalez family, the Williams family, the Wong family: the families in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, hardworking families, kids in public schools who travel by bus and subway, trying to make a better life for themselves, will they vote for Mike?

 

The West Side Stadium and Congestion Pricing are prime examples of the Caesarian mayor: building a stadium for which the helots cannot afford to buy a ticket and bridge/tunnel tolls that would keep them out of Manhattan.

 

The evolution of the mayoral edeucation control controversy is another example of leadership arrogance. Parents, by clear policy, have been marginalized. No schools boards, no accessable/responsible superintendents, elected officials totally out of the school loop.

 

Why can’t my child go to the high school across the street from her house?  Who do I call to answer a school question? Why is the school down the block closing? Will Bloomberg close my school?

 

Who holds the key? Who can heighten or lessen the mayoral control issue? Randi Weingarten might be able to.

 

Hanging out there: the NYC budget, the continuance of Joel Klein as chancellor, union mayoral endorsements, and, oh yes, the teacher union contract ends on November 30th.

  

Bloomberg has chosen to make mayoral control equal Bloomberg control.

 

Governor Patterson has single digit approval ratings, the term Majority Leader, appears to be an oxymoron in the NYS Senate. Will “Cardinal” Silver gather Mike and Randi and carve out the political future?

 

Will Randi and Mike reach some sort of “accommodation?” Or, will Randi and Mike square off? Or,  in spite of whatever deal is made or not made,  will the Obama voters roll to yet another victory?

A Hand Across the Aisle: Does Arnie Believe Teachers and Unions Part of the Problem or the Solution?

 

Vice President Biden, current Ed Secty Duncan, former Ed Secty Spelling, Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Fenty from DC, Joel Klein join hands at an education conference in New York City, at the same time as a few thousand teachers gather at the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) convention  … in Buffalo.

 

The distance is cruelly representative of the distance between teachers and the Obama-Biden-Duncan educational initiatives and trust.

 

I would have thought that Arne would make an unexpected appearance at UFT Delegate Assembly and charm the thousand delegates, or fly off to Buffalo to greet the two thousand New York State teachers … is he tone deaf? insensitive? disrespectful? or, just showing all of us who he thinks are really important …?

 

In Buffalo AFT/UFT President Weingarten, told teachers,

 

Don’t reject reform ideas out of hand, she said, but instead “take a fresh look at some of the more divisive issues in education. … Let’s be the ones who advance the smart approach – the way that is good for kids and fair to teachers.”

 

In New York City Duncan delivered his stock speech … you should take a look/listen  … a few highpoints,

 

* With fifty different sets of State Standards, responding to NCLB, we are in a “race to the bottom.”

* Even our high school graduates are barely prepared for college

* Keeping track of data is essential, too many places don’t know what is happening in their own schools.

* How do we recruit and retain the best and the brightest and match them to the toughest assignments?

* Investing in the status quo is not the way to go.

* We have to challenge the status quo and think and behave differently.

* Strongly supportive of mayoral control in large urban centers.

* Urges NYC to apply for the “Race to the Top” Fund, innovative practices.

* Points to Randi and praises “great union leaders.”

* And, concludes by urging parents to “step up” and become “full and equal partners.”

 

For me, it was a shallow speech, the answers are not in “data systems,” yes, it is important to track student work, however, these systems are not especially useful to teachers. Data allows us to track student poverty-influenced failure and absentee rates back to early childhood grades. Data tells us that we can also track discipline issues to early grades. For Duncan “great schools” can overcome the burden of poverty. For teachers, chronic absenteeism, foreclosures, unemployment, crime, the pathologies of poverty, do impact children in classrooms. They are not excuses, they are realities. Putting your head in the proverbial sand is foolish.  “Closing the Gap” does not refer only to literacy and numeracy, it must also refer to the economic gap.

 

The turnover rate among principals and teachers in Klein created small high schools is disturbing. Great principals and wonderful teachers in extremely poor schools struggle, you can point to some successes, and many failures. It is hard, oftentimes debilitating work.

 

Rumor has it that ARIS has a low usage rate among classroom teachers, after a look or two, you have to face the realities of the kids sitting in front of you. ARIS does not offer solutions.

 

Our standardized tests are narrow measurements of limited skills. The punitive aspects of NCLB have turned too many schools into “test prep” mills, and have made schools too dependent on entrepreneurial “packages,” i.e., books, workbooks, teacher guides, etc., that make the teacher the conduit rather than the creator of lessons.

 

Arne, take a look at the work of Robert Sternberg, in his long career he has written about intelligence, creativity, testing, and, currently is introducing a more nuanced method of evaluating college applicants.

 

You abhor the status quo yet advocate for that same status quo: a world of test prep.

 

When you challenge the “status quo” are you criticizing the work of teachers? or, the organization of schools and school districts, or State Ed Departments? 

 

Charter Schools, merit pay, easier dismissal procedures are not “innovations,” why not reach across the table and begin speaking with teachers and their unions … they will still be there long after you have moved on to that foundation presidency.

“The Students, They Honor My Work,” Lessons from a Highly Effective School System, Those Finns Can Do More Than Play Hockey.

 

 

The last year or so we’ve heard the Ed Koch query, “How Am I Doing?” asked and answered. The DOE Communications Office has spun out power point after power point, seemingly endless press releases and Joel has created his own policy arm, the Education Equality Project. The Project folk are currently convening a conference with speakers ranging for Joe Biden to Arne Duncan to Eli Broad, and, of course, Joel Klein and the locals. 

 

Responding: the UFT blog, eduwonkette, Diane Ravich, Leonie Haimson and a host of ed advocates, all looking at the same data sets and drawing sharply differing conclusions.

 

81% of schools received grades of “A” or “B” on School Progress Reports, scores on NYS ELA/Math scores have risen moderately in some grades, graduation rates, especially in small high schools are rising. However almost 30% of NYC schools are either SINI, CA or SRAP, meaning they have not met NCLB accountability standards. A November, 2008 Department presentation to the State lauds increases in graduation rates, however, it also shows that only 54.8% of 8th graders with scores of 3.0 (proficient) graduate high school in four years.

 

The transition in passing scores from “55″ to “65″ on NYS Regents exams may presage declining graduation rates, and, CUNY reminds us that the advanced diploma (eight instead of five Regent exams, a second science and a second math course/Regents and a foreign language Regents, and grades of at least 75 on ELA/Math Regents) is required for success in a four year CUNY school.

 

At the national level, comparing New York City with other cities across the country, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows flat scores.

 

Let’s look beyond the NAEP scores, how are we doing in comparison with other nations?

 

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a system of international assessments that focus on 15-year-olds’ capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. PISA also includes measures of general or cross-curricular competencies such as learning strategies. PISA emphasizes functional skills that students have acquired as they near the end of mandatory schooling.

 

The program assesses students every three years, the next period will be fall, 2009. In 2006, the United States did poorly, finishing well down the list.

 

Here is an overview of the 20 places with the highest scores in 2006:

	Mathematics	Science	Reading
1.	Taiwan	Finland	South Korea
2.	Finland	Hong Kong	Finland
3.	Hong Kong	Canada	Hong Kong
4.	South Korea	Taiwan	Canada
5.	Netherlands	Estonia	New Zealand
6.	Switzerland	Japan	Ireland
7.	Canada	New Zealand	Australia
8.	Macau	Australia	Liechtenstein
9.	Liechtenstein	Netherlands	Poland
10.	Japan	Liechtenstein	Sweden
11.	New Zealand	South Korea	Netherlands
12.	Belgium	Slovenia	Belgium
13.	Australia	Germany	Macau
14.	Estonia	United Kingdom	Switzerland
15.	Denmark	Czech Republic	Japan
16.	Czech Republic	Switzerland	Taiwan
17.	Iceland	Macau	United Kingdom
18.	Austria	Austria	Germany
19.	Slovenia	Belgium	Denmark
20.	Germany	Ireland	Slovenia

 

 

Having trouble finding that US flag? We fall in 20-25 ranking in each of the areas. Not too impressive!!

 

Notice that Finland finishes at the top of the list … a simple inquiry: Would it be worthwhile to take a closer look at the Finnish education system? and, the Christian Science Monitor  does just that.

 

While no single element stands out, a Finnish Board of Education members avers,

 

One essential element … is the high caliber of Finland’s teaching corps, education leaders say. “We trust our teachers … That is very important, and it’s not easy to realize in all countries — the culture of trust we have in Finland.”

 

While Finnish teachers have “moderate” salaries, only 10 to 15 percent of applicants make it into university teacher-education programs.

 

The National Governor’s Association, President Obama, Linda Darling-Hammond, all agree … “…high quality teachers are important in improving student achievement.”

 

In Finland “The only subjects of study more popular than teaching are law and medicine.” One reason, according to a Finnish professor “…is that it has been popular for so long here that’s it’s difficult to explain why … one reason … is that it has been for many a person a way to climb the social ladder …” Only 20% of teachers are men, and, not surprisingly, Math teachers are scarce.

 

There is a national framework, teachers write curriculum at each school, with extra pay.

 

The national board does not administer high stakes accountability tests. Rather, it samples students’ skills periodically and gives feedback to schools (not to the public) so they can see how they compare with the national average.

 

From the point of view of Finnish teachers in one school Finland is not utopia

 

But the egalitarian approach and autonomy have downsides, too, …. This has been particularly true as the numbers of special-education students and immigrants have increased. (About 30 percent of the students at this school come from immigrant families.) “We have some support, but I think it’s not enough,” she says. “We can discuss with each other [somewhat], but we have lots of problems, and we have to deal with them ourselves. Some of the teachers are very much alone.”

More collaborative planning time is one priority of the national teachers union, which has nearly 120,000 members. Teachers get about three hours a week of paid planning time, and in this school, just one hour is required to be done with other teachers. The principal wishes the budget would allow for more. This is a desire shared by many US teachers, who typically get three to five hours a week for mostly individual planning time.

Asked why she loves teaching, one teacher replied, “The students, they honor my work.”