The Empowered Teacher is NOT a Republican, but I have many good friends who are...that's not meant to be tongue in cheek, by the way.  Lately, with all the hulaballo after the Health Care Bill passed, both sides have become ultra sensitive to each other, thanks to our sensationalist media...on both sides.  Since this blog is about education, not necessarily political, although educational politics cannot be excluded, I wanted to attempt a bipartisan blog entry, a view from a guest blogger, a Republican friend, regarding the FL Republicans Bill to institute performance pay.  To hear my Republican friend say that she will not vote for the GOP in the upcoming elections is music to my ears, but the truth is we have to educate ourselves and vote out all these career politicians, Democrats and Republicans who are not looking out for the best interest of teachers and students. Recently, I blasted Arne Duncan...my loyalties are not to the politicians, they are to those whose mission is to improve our standard of living and overall quality of life, and especially our education. I hope my friend's letter to FL legislators inspires and empowers you to write to your state legislators about the need for true educational reform.  Check out my friend's bipartisan blog: http://www.factualxchange.com/

To All Florida Legislators:

I recently became a Republican after the last Presidential Elections. Quite honestly, I am very disappointed in seeing that the Republican Party of Florida is acting in the same way the President of the United States has conducted himself in passing the Health Care Bill.

I happen to know that the same tactics used by the President and his allies have been used in the State of Florida Legislature regarding Senate Bill 6. Senator Thrasher, is the king of $$$$. He is the person ALL OF YOU REPUBLICANS need for funding. Thrasher is also connected to the Bush family and finishing up what Jeb Bush never did. I don't know what's in it for him and the others, but I do know that the fact that the Republicans made this bill happen scares me in the November elections and in the next Presidential elections.

Seeing the partisanship involved in the passing of this bill only alienates those voters who were loyally going to vote REPUBLICAN all the way in November. You have just alienated a lot of voters who were walking on the fence.

Florida turned into a blue state in the last elections. My hope was to regain Florida as a red state and bring the Republicans back. The way the Republicans have voted in the Education Bill is only a reinforcement to everything the Democrats have been saying about us Republicans!!

In regards to the Education Bill, among the many 'unknowns' here are some points you should consider:

1. We are in the business of promoting education. How in the world can we promote education without endorsing such to our own teachers by not compensating them for gaining higher education such as a Master's or Doctorate's degree? What message are we sending our own students? Don't get an upper level degree? Why waste time on loans for higher learning when we will never recover the cost spent on it?

2. What is going to happen to all school psychologists, media specialists, counselors, reading, math and science coaches working for the school system? They are 'teachers in the payroll. They have no students to test, so what is their salary going to be?

3. What is going to happen to elective teachers? What "test" are they going to give?

4. What is going to happen to administrator's salaries?

AND... most importantly, what is going to happen to the core subject teachers who are the heart of the FCAT and students learning their A, B, C's?

It is time, we redirect and shift our focus to STUDENT AND PARENT Responsibilities. We have come a long way since 'No Child Left Behind'. We have pushed, pushed, and pushed teachers to do better. Better professional development, more money for schools, poverty level schools, etc.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING everyone that is not a teacher is failing to see is:

LACK OF STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY.

Teachers have been held accountable and that's great. Now it's time to focus on students being held equally accountable for their education.

I can guarantee you that it doesn't matter how much money Senator Thrasher or anyone in the Republican party is promising you. What good is all that money for funding campaigns without having the constitutents on your side?

All of those Republican legislators in the State of Florida who have betrayed my trust and hope in them will risk losing in the next elections, no matter how much campaign money you receive.

Signed,

A VERY CONCERNED REPUBLICAN      

Check out the blog http://www.factualxchange.com/

When we are sick, we take comfort in knowing our doctor is a board certified physician. When we need justice, we hire a lawyer who has passed the bar exam, licensed to practice law. When we have clogged pipes, we call a certified plumber.

Now plumbing may not rank up there in status with being a doctor or a lawyer, or even a teacher, but plumbing is an important job; life would be pretty medieval without plumbing! Most people think teachers undergo extensive training in the teaching field, more training than you would expect a plumber to undergo on how to plumb;yet, it might be surprising to learn that plumbers have more rigorous training and supervision than teachers.

Why is it that plumber trainees must pass a series of certification tests each time they want to move up the ranks for a different level of plumbing; teachers have no such requirements to prove they are competent at different stages in their career, or in different areas of education. For example, teachers are not trained and do not have to prove they know how to design a test to ensure critical thinking, or how to meet the needs of diverse learners.Teachers do not have to pass a test to prove they know about the emotional, social and personal factors that influence how a student learns. Teachers do not even have to pass a test to prove they know how to provide feedback, or what effect the physical appearance of their classroom has on student learning and achievement. Teachers do not have to prove they know how to choose appropriate and effective resources to teach so students will be challenged. Unfortunately, teachers do not have to prove they are highly qualified individuals, although state licensure tests lead us to believe otherwise.

Plumbers, on the other hand, have 5 different stages for which they must prove proficiency before they can achieve the title of journeyman, the highest degree of plumbing competency. Teachers have no such requirement for each year of teaching. Novice teachers are thrown into the classroom to fend for themselves. Plumbers must pass each stage of their trade by demonstrating competency on tests, logging in over 8,000 hours and being supervised 100% of the time by a certified plumber while they pursue their journeyman license.

How is it possible, that when we seek to educate our children, we place them in the hands of individuals who have not been required to meet a minimum degree of competency, or even supervision at different stages of experience?

States require all teachers to earn licensure in their subject area, but these licensing requirements are not as stringent as the National Board Certification for Professional Teaching Standards, nor do these state tests require that teachers videotape themselves teaching to reflect on their teaching strengths and weaknesses.  State licensure tests do not assess an individual’s true ability to teach. Anyone can pass those tests if they know enough about a subject.Many people have become teachers who used to work for the private sector. They pass the licensure tests, but fail to understand the human factors that are the most essential aspects of being a teacher. Having a Bachelor’s degree does not guarantee you have the ability to teach.

I believe every teacher should be required to be National Board Certified. The process would weed out the incompetent teachers, and the standards of the certification would ensure every teacher was adequately knowledgeable in their field and in understanding the social, emotional, physical, psychological, and even political complexities of teaching and learning.

Now, earning National Board Certification does not guarantee excellence because striving for excellence is a highly personal choice, but it does guarantee that the teacher will know his/her subject matter, and he/she will know how to teach that subject to students, how to grow as a teacher, how to reflect on the practice, how to design lessons and tests, how to choose resources, how to ensure equity, fairness and diversity in the classroom, how to provide feedback, how to collaborate with peers and stakeholders, how to communicate with parents, but most importantly the teacher will know how to help his/her students to grow academically.  The NB certified teacher can choose to short change his/her students by not teaching to these standards (that’s another topic for another post); however, the certification proves the ability to teach is there; no certification in any field can guarantee an individual will make moral choices.

There may be many non-certified teachers who have not passed the National Board or who have not pursued it because of all the negative propaganda surrounding it.If you pursued NB certification, and did not pass, it boils down to three reasons: one, whether or not you followed the directions; two, how clear, concise and convincing were your descriptions, analyses and reflections of your lessons; or three, you truly may not be effectively teaching, and need to try again.

For those teachers, who have not pursued NB certification, you may already teach at the NB standard because the NB standards are the model for quality teaching. If you consider yourself an effective teacher, then the NB standards are the natural by-product of good teaching. However, do not let all the hogwash and poppycock surrounding the NBPTS prevent you from pursuing your NBPTS certification.

I do not understand Arne Duncan and others who continue to propagate this perception that pursuing NB certification is practically impossible, that almost half of the teachers who attempt it fail, and that teachers will doubt their ability to pass as they go through the process. I can’t understand if the mission of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was: “to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do”; “ to develop and operate a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet these standards” and “to advance related education reforms for the purpose of improving student learning”, what message does the Department of Education and even the National Board send about those teachers who have not passed, or those teachers who have not pursued the certification?Does it mean that the NB standards are meant to attract an exclusive group of elite teachers? Does it mean that it is acceptable for the rest of the teachers in America to not be required to meet these standards? Are they suggesting that the rest of the non-certified teachers can teach at sub par levels?

Recently, Bill Gates stated, “Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,” “I’m personally very curious.” If the NB has been able to pinpoint what constitutes quality teaching, then why not hold every single teacher accountable to meet these standards before they enter the classroom, and while they gain experience in the classroom? If plumbers have to prove what they are able to do, and what they know about plumbing at different stages of their trade, how is it that teachers are not being held accountable to prove they know how to teach. Other industrialized countries require that their teachers meet standards like the ones set out by the NB. Why can’t we hold every teacher in America to these high standards?

Arne Duncan’s attitude negatively reinforces the low self-esteem many teachers have about their abilities. His thoughts about teachers pursuing the National Board speak volumes about the lack of confidence our leaders and our society has for the ability and caliber of teachers. Arne Duncan expresses the hypocrisy that exists in the government’s mission to raise standards. As Secretary of Education, you would think he would know the psychology of the self-fulfilling prophecy.If you tell people something is challenging and half won’t pass the challenge, it is human nature most people will not even make an attempt. If I told my students before they embarked on preparing for a challenging test or project, that most of them would not pass, that most would doubt their ability to do the task, and that most would fail the first time, not only would I have some parents up in arms about my lack of confidence in my students, but most of the kids would probably not even attempt the task.

Arne Duncan, thanks for your words of encouragement! One of the National Board standards is knowledge of students. As the Secretary of Education, you do not know students. You do not know teachers, your clientele! Thanks for believing that only some teachers in this country are competent enough to prove they can meet the NB standards. I passed the National Board the first time around even though I had many naysayers who believed I would fail because they believed in the propaganda. They even added my being a minority to their fatalistic equation. Our society has such low standards for what our teachers should be able to do with students and then we expect to raise the standards for students.The National Board is no walk in the park, but it seems to me that this fatalistic attitude, the “Oh it’s so hard!” ”Oh, you can’t pass the first time!” “Oh only 50% of the teachers pass!” is typical of the low standards we set for ourselves in this country regarding education.

If you have read Maxwell Gladwell’s best selling book The Tipping Point, exploring how behaviors, attitudes and products gain popularity, we can apply the book’s examples to help us understand why teachers themselves have adopted the stance that it is perfectly acceptable to be mediocre. Teachers are guilty of propagating the notion that “it’s good enough; there’s no need to go above and beyond”. Pursuing the National Board Certification in the eyes of many teachers, forces teachers to go above and beyond. In reality, the NB certification should be the national standard, not one that appears unattainable in the minds of teachers.Teachers, administrators, school boards and our number one cheerleader, Arne Duncan, have been instrumental in perpetuating this belief. Teachers can help to change this inimical mindset, which ultimately sabotages our progress and democracy.Pursue your National Board Certification today!

Ironically, as a language arts teacher the last set of lessons I taught were for the short story "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury. The truth is, my last week as a teacher I did not want to cheat my good students from their education, so I decided to search for something meaningful to teach which would carry me to survive throughout the week. As I read the short story for the first time preparing my final lessons, I soon discovered forces beyond my understanding were at work because the story's theme provided me with a perfect ending to my 20 year teaching career...if I had intentionally sought out to find a story to express my dissatisfaction with public education, I would have not found it. My stumbling upon "The Veldt" so haphazardly felt like a sign that I had made the right decision, and I would go out making quite an indirect statement! It was my civil disobedience of sorts, my moment of empowerment after years of abuse, and a way to send a message to all: the dysfunctional parents, the incompetent administrators and the insolent little children. I cried for the innocent bystanders, but unfortunately my heart could bleed for them no more. I won't spoil the ending of the story because I urge all teachers to read it on those days when they feel defeated, but all I will say is that in typical Bradbury fashion, the story's themes express the plain truth about society and children today, even though it was written over 50 years ago. Bradbury warned of us these days of "just answering back" would come...we did not listen, and so we as teachers deal with these monsters who know they can get way with murder because they know adults fear them. I did not, and I wish more of us would not.

Parents and students need to be held accountable. We have to stop throwing money at our educational system. More money is not the solution. Lack of resources, and lack of funding are not the reasons our system is a failure. Great teachers and motivated students will engage in teaching and learning under the most dismal of circumstances. Just look at Afghanistan and other countries in Central America and around the world where children use twigs as writing utensils and the ground as paper. When there is a desire to learn, learning will take place even under the most extreme circumstances, and when someone is eager to teach, they do not need texts, tools or technology to do so. An eager and willing disposition will suffice. The problem in our country is our students have become apathetic. And adults have become apathetic and pathetic! As adults we keep lowering the standards, coddling students, enabling them, and simplying learning because we are afraid that if we make them think too much it will be hurt their self-esteem, and worse of all, we are afraid students won’t like us…guess what…they know we have low expectations for them; they know how to manipulate the system, and they know we are afraid to let them fail! When it did become child abuse to let a kid experience failure?

Our educational system is completely dysfunctional, and we have a vicious cycle of victims, victimizers, and accusers. First and foremost we have dysfunctional parents who do not value education. There are parents who are all about status under the semblance that they care about education. Along with the house and the car, the kids must be in honors or AP classes to compete and complete the “we’re better than you” profile. However, these parents all want the honors or gifted label for their kids, but not the rigor to be expected in these types of courses. Their kids are too busy playing sports or involved in other status building extra curriculars to be able to keep up with the required workload of an honors course.

Since the creation of the College Board AP program over 50 years ago, the number of students enrolled in AP classes has more than tripled. However, AP and Honors courses were once limited to the crème of the crop; today any Joe Schmoe can get in if mom or dad signs a waiver overriding a teacher’s recommendation. What does the teacher know? Joe Schmoe’s parents have to brag about Joe Schmoe to the other Joe and Jane Schmoes in suburbia. And here is where the crisis begins. Joe Schmoe can’t keep up with the rigor, nor does he have the motivation or the study skills or the innate desire to learn about all this AP “stuff”…he may be a good kid, but he is not a scholar, yet mom and dad and the spineless counselor lie to Joe and tell him he’s God’s gift to studenthood, and it’s the teacher’s fault he’s struggling! So now it’s the teacher’s fault! The principal calls her to a meeting, and he recommends that she make accommodations, and take Joe’s self-esteem into consideration, his future, his extracurriculars…Joe is the school’s basketball star for goodness sakes…Joe Schmoe might fail AP English, and God forbid that were to happen! This type of culture thrives across American suburbia, and it gave birth to a myriad of 21st century teaching issues such as increased teacher burnout, teacher harassment, grade inflation, lowered expectations and standards, the death of the deadline, conflict mediation between teacher and student, and so many more issues.

According to Mensa, only 2% of the population is considered “genius” and only 5% of the population has an IQ above 125! Visit any suburban middle or high school in the country and the number of honors classes surpasses the number of regular education classes. Statistically speaking it is impossible to have so many gifted and honors students in one suburban school. As a former teacher of the gifted for 15 years, I rarely had truly gifted students in my classroom, and only once did I teach a student who in my observation was a genius. My teaching experience supports the Mensa statistics. I taught lots of highly motivated students, but they were not all gifted. I also taught a lot of duds and way too many Joe Schmoes who would have been better off learning a trade than learning about Shakespeare. This created many issues for me as a teacher, and it often forced me to slow down the curriculum against my will. Notice I said slow because I refused to water it down, but in the end the system won, and my refusal to dilute forced me to quit! Which brings me to the tragic reality of why we have so many failing classrooms. Every class needs to be taught at the rigor where students will be challenged based on their ability level. We need to stop watering down the curriculum, and administrators and parents need to listen when a teacher says a student is able to do better, but is choosing not to. We need to tap into students’ innate desire to learn. We need to change our attitude about education and about teachers. We need to learn from those nations who value education and hold their teachers in high esteem. We need to create a culture in our country that values being smart. As human beings we are hardwired to want to learn; we need to make learning relevant and purposeful without compromising high standards so kids will want to learn.

We need to realize that we all cannot enroll in Rocket Science 101 if some of us have motion sickness, some of us are afraid to fly or if some of us are too fat to fit in the space suit.

Suburban parents listen up! Change your attitude or else! Nobody cares when you drive up the school driveway and drop off your Joe or Jane Schmoe in your leased luxury SUV; what should matter to you is if your child will have the knowledge and skills necessary to give himself a comfortable lifestyle in the future, if your child will have the critical thinking skills to be able to discern if he is being manipulated by his government, and if your child will have the intellect to be able to perserve a democratic government.

 “Unfortunately, it seems the field doesn’t have a clear view of what characterizes good teaching,” Gates said. “I’m personally very curious.” 

I write to you as a member of a minority group, actually a double minority since I am also a woman. I think we need to change America’s mindset…and we need to change our nomenclature…we need to stop categorizing people as members of the minority race and the majority race…We need to stop asking people to check off little boxes identifying what color, race or creed they are and then using the answers to generalize and stereotype. Does the majority who design these demeaning demographic devices have a different set of expectations depending on the box I check? We have come a long way, but we need to go further and stop being so afraid of one another! We need to begin thinking about people as members of the human race. The word minority connotes powerlessness and disenfranchisement because minority means there are fewer in number to voice an opinion or exercise change.

Why is it necessary to continue to identify people as being a member of the powerful or the powerless?

Why must our educational research be driven by proving how poor and how uneducated minority groups are compared to the majority, yet we do nothing to bridge the achievement gap? Why do we lower our expectations for minority groups, and surmise that minorities can only relate to other minorities? Why do we assume that most minorities are poor while certain minorities are geniuses? Why can’t we raise the standards for those who are poor and learn from the habits of those geniuses?

Any human being who lives in poverty will not be able to achieve academically, or prosper in other aspects of life for that matter. And guess what, lately we have a lot of poor folks in America who aren’t minorities! Breaking the cycle of poverty requires tenacity, and ambition…a strong work ethic and passion. Talent and ability naturally complement this equation. Throughout our country’s history, many minorities have embodied these traits while others have not; some minorities flourish while others do not, so prosperity or poverty among minority groups in the U.S. requires a complex anthropological examination of so many factors and variables rather than resorting to generalizations and stereotypes that one particular minority group or all minorities share a common idiosyncrasy of being either geniuses or lazy, poor, uneducated seekers of salvation from the great white hope of the majority.

Unfortunately, in my experience and observations, so many members of the majority have this opinion of minorities. I am a minority although I was born in this country. My parents were immigrants, like the parents of so many others who now makeup the majority. I am a first generation American and proud of it. I am white yet the so-called majority does not recognize my shade of Caucasian. I speak and write English perfectly, in my opinion, yet the majority is adept at detecting minute deviations in my standard American English intonation, which the majority uses to categorize me as a minority. At times, I pass as a member of the majority, or at least I think I do, but sometimes the majority can’t quite pigeonhole me into one of their categories. I find it perturbs them when they can’t figure out what I am. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to conceal my true heritage, but sooner or later, I cannot suppress who I am, and I face the backlash of ignorance, and both the subtleties and the blatancy of racism and discrimination. The majority puts up this wall afraid to learn about my culture, my customs, my second language; they fail to realize I am an American like them, and they refuse to accept our similarities because they are blinded with the fear that we may be different, and something different may require them to change or alter their life. It won’t, but they don’t know that. Most people seek consistency and uniformity. Our American culture perpetuates this uniformity through intolerance…we’ve come a long way but racism in the hearts and minds of many who belong to the majority is alive and well.

Why must we be so closed minded in perpetuating this notion that minorities relate better to those who share their race, color or creed?

We are all human…unless we have personality differences preventing us from getting along, we should be able to relate to one another regardless of our race, color or creed because we share common human experiences: we all experience joy and pain. In the end we all want the same things: love and acceptance. I read a post on a blog regarding how students at a predominantly black school related better to a black principal. This is exactly the type of mentality we need to eradicate. It’s that mentality perpetuating the idea that we cannot possibly understand each other if we have different color skin or are of a different race or religion. There are many factors, which may prevent us from being able to relate, but it is a travesty when people fail to make a connection because one person’s skin color is black and another’s is white…or because someone is a Jew and another is a Muslim. Our schools fail to educate our children about tolerance for our differences; we fail to teach children that there are thriving cultures and languages outside of the United States. We encourage racism and denigrate multiculturalism in our schools by limiting the exposure our students receive to other cultures. So many of our own teachers are ignorant to the richness of the cultures of so many of our minorities.

Why do we have few minorities in education? I will give you three main reasons why. First of all, successful minorities seek better paying jobs. Teaching offers no monetary incentive that is why so many minorities pursue careers in medicine, business, technology, and law. Some minorities immigrate to the U.S. to pursue higher education and eventually stable employment with greater financial compensation and opportunities for growth. A teacher’s salary, and the climate of public education do not appeal to a minority seeking professional growth or opportunities to make money. Our educational system also conflicts with the tenets so many minorities believe about the value of an education and the status teachers deserve. The second reason why many minorities do not enter the profession or leave the profession involves racism and discrimination, something I experienced first hand as a teacher who happens to be a minority. Being the only minority in a school or even in a school district can be quite intimidating and dispiriting. I felt many of my colleagues were either afraid to get to know me, or apathetic about learning about another person’s culture. Not that I walked around pushing my culture on anyone, quite the opposite was true. No one was ever blatantly impolite, but there were subtle signs of a lack of acceptance. Few ever asked me where I was from, but it was an unspoken fact that I was not a native. I felt isolated from my peers no matter how hard I tried to gain their acceptance. My administrators were more blatant in their racism…they felt threatened by my expertise. I am not sure if this was racism or just plain insecurity on their part. But I wondered if my being a minority played any part in their aversion for me. There was another minority teacher at my school who in my observation of events, I felt had it much worse than me. She was a foreign exchange teacher from China, working in my district with the goal of teaching Chinese to our native English speaking population. She spoke broken English so had difficulty carrying on a conversation. I made an effort to speak with her and get to know her. We conversed as best we could on several occasions. On other occasions I witnessed the same unfriendly attitude toward her that many of my colleagues displayed toward me. I realized I was not alone. No one bothered to get to know her as a person, but worse than that, no one bothered to create opportunities for her to share her culture with the entire faculty and most importantly with the student body. Instead, people made fun of the way she spoke English.

The third reason there are few minorities in education is, in my opinion, a controversial attitude. I will not be politically correct…it’s fear! Fear from the majority that the minorities will somehow take over the country. This “there goes the neighborhood attitude” prevent the majority from finding competent minority candidates. Employers see a name, or a color or even a religion, and it frightens them. Sometimes, minorities prove they are smarter, faster and more efficient at getting the job done…this threatens the majority. ( In many cases, and in my experience working with other minorities, minorities who have a post graduate education are better prepared because the education they earned in their native countries was far superior to the education they might have acquired in the U.S.) “It’s not easy being green” in both senses of the word, and it’s even more difficult for people to recognize their weaknesses and learn from each other. The majority needs to realize minorities “come in peace” and the majority needs to remember that hundreds of years ago, they were a minority, escaping to this country in search of religious or political tolerance. But we are imperfect beings, and we forget, and we fear what we do not know. The changing face of the United States is frightening to many who belong to the majority. If they are competent leaders, minorities as superintendents, principals or teachers will know how to build relationships with both the majority and the minority. I am not being facetious when I say if Oprah can gain the following of the majority, any talented leader can do the same. Obama had the charisma as well, but I won’t go further with that one, for that’s too long and complex of an issue to discuss why some of the majority disguise their racism behind their so-called partisanship.

But, I say don’t blame “the man”…the minorities have no one to blame, but themselves for not speaking against the social injustices they endure. This is the greatest country in the world and regardless of racism, with hard work, anyone can achieve success whether you are a member of the minority or the majority.

The best way to sabotage someone’s future, minority or majority, is by sabotaging their education. Some minorities rise above this while others perpetuate the stereotypes and do nothing to improve their living conditions and have no one to blame but themselves. Public schools across our country with a majority of minority students have the worst teachers and the fewest resources. The elected leaders of these communities, many of them minorities like their constituents, fail to defend their rights for a quality education. These leaders have other agendas and could careless about the plight of minorities, just like some members of the majority. However, thank goodness for those members of the majority who have common sense, compassion and empathy to stand up for the human rights of both the majority and the minority.

So I say to those of the majority who care about human rights, that the Rooney Rule although well intentioned, is not a good idea for education. It will not work to recruit more minorities. At least it won’t work for me. I want to be hired based on my merits, not to meet a quota…I don’t want others to resent me, which was a natural by product of affirmative action…I want to be respected as a human being …I want to stop checking off the little box identifying me as powerless. Next time I face one of those so called demeaning demographic data collecting devices I will add a write in category and print in big bold letters: I am HUMAN!