The Portrait of a Teacher

In the fall of 2019, I attended an SED/Board of Regents regional meeting that began the discussion of Graduation Measures followed by COVID, a blue-ribbon commission, endless Zooms, finally Regents Exams optional replaced by the Portrait of a Graduate competencies assessed by a range of tasks, the tasks to be determined.

 What is the Portrait of a Teacher?

How about: A writer, director, producer, actor and critic of a play with a run of one day, the “jobs” of a teacher.

In your first class, student engagement, hands in the air, an exciting lesson, in the next period the same lesson, no hands in the air, the class is somnolent: what changed? Do you alter the lesson for your third period? Is it the kids? Is it you?  Teaching is a complex ever changing skill and as you get more experienced you become more reflective, if you want to change the output you have to change the input. 

In the castle on top of the educational mountain the overseers decide, if  the “right” program is in place the kids will learn, who defines “learning standards?” Who defines the “right program?” How do we decide how to assess learning?  We are the gals and guys on the assembly line of education, and we’re treated as if we’re a machine screwing in those bolts of knowledge instead of the end users.

At the City-State Education Summit, the State Commissioner and the Chancellor crowed over the increases in scores on the grades 3-8 standardized tests. The Empire Center, a highly regarded think tank asked disturbing questions .

This month’s release of 2024-25 math and reading test results from the Education Department reopened a nagging question:

Why are New York’s public school students showing steadily higher proficiency levels on state-administered tests when their scores on federal tests have been getting worse?

Part of the answer seems to lie in the Education Department’s grading methods. Over the past dozen years, the department has been gradually lowering “cut scores” – the minimum number of questions students have to answer correctly in order to be considered proficient at each grade level.

… a review of state records over the past dozen years shows a clear trend: Since adopting the Common Core Learning Standards in 2013, downward changes to cut scores have outweighed the upward ones for all 12 of the math and reading tests administered in grades 3 through 8.

Cheating, fudging, or, don’t you understand, you do what you have to do …There are voices of sanity, deep understanding, Scott Marion at the The Center for Assessment, avers,

There are no shortcuts: Engage students with good teaching and meaningful content

All of us in education are frustrated by the lack of progress in improving student achievement. I know I am. I’m also frustrated because after many years of high-quality education research and practice, we have a pretty good idea of what works. Unfortunately, I see too many people attempting shortcuts instead of engaging in the hard work of school improvement. 

We’ve seen only a couple of nefarious cases where states altered the cutoff scores for a test’s performance levels to make it appear that student performance has improved. I’m more concerned with those who, in good faith, think that changing the test will lead to improved student learning.

Structural and cultural supports include common planning time for educators, high-quality induction and mentoring programs, high-quality instructional materials with embedded assessments, supportive instructional leadership, and many other elements.

I’ve had many conversations with state education leaders and heard policymakers talking about the need to change their assessment (or accountability) systems to improve student achievement. Many are rightfully wondering if their students are learning, but their assessment system is preventing them from showing what they know and can do.

This is a reasonable concern, but upon closer inspection, I wonder what they think student achievement would look like if it was measured “perfectly.” Let me be clear: I’ve long advocated for state assessments to include richer demonstrations of learning, and we need the kinds of tests that engage all students. That said, this rationale for changing the assessment has a “shoot the messenger” feel to it. {NYS by eliminating Regents Exams is essentially “shooting the messenger”}

Improving student learning is hard, especially given the structures and context of schooling. But here is what we know works, based on a vast body of literature.   Read the full article here  

In order to prepare for my pearls of wisdom I watch, listen, attend and occasionally interact with “players.” Chad Alderson is a major player and he is hosting a panel, “Filling the Void: Setting the Academic Research Agenda for Education,” I responded, 

“Should add a teacher union person – Weingarten would be nice“

and Alderson responded, “You must be joking?”

What could a teacher, or a teacher union leader possibly add to the conversation?  Sigh

We’re only bolt tighteners, why would we have anything to say about educational research?

If you’re lucky enough to be working in one of the International High Schools in New York you have an opportunity to attend staff driven professional development conferences  or one of the schools in the New Visions for Public Schools network. Clusters of public, not charter schools, in which staff plays a major role in setting the instructional program, organizations that have been around for decades and function in many ways apart from the standard organizational structure.

For most of us, top down rigid organizations, each new leader erases his/her predecessor and flaunts the shiny new toy, and, we’re expect to change our wrench and keep tightening the bolts.

It’s a long struggle, remember the myth of Sisyphus, they keep trying to push the rock back down the hill, 

Remember Joe Hill  Bing Videos