tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2443190274556729132024-03-13T07:45:11.885-04:00The Testing WindowMatt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.comBlogger129125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-89948937714977040482019-08-13T13:37:00.001-04:002019-08-13T13:38:36.073-04:00“My Apologies?” OR “I Really Need A New Line of Work.”Let me first say, I did not attend my State Senator’s Office Hours to yell at some older ladies regarding their uninformed opinions on education policy.<div><br></div><div>I attended the Office Hours to say hello because my wife and I are in frequent contact with our representatives, and because I wanted to remind the Senator that I still have some reservations regarding Ohio’s New Graduation Requirement. I believe it was sold as a reduction in testing because it eliminates an ELA and the Geometry assessment, but it in fact conceals far more assessments in the Seals students must earn. Furthermore, in requiring the passage of Algebra & ELA II, assessments whose statewide passing rates according to ODE don’t crack 65%, students will find themselves without a viable non-tested pathway to graduation, & may even find themselves forced into military service in order to earn a high school diploma.</div><div><br></div><div>Now, I have far more issues with the new requirement, but I was unable to continue explaining myself because these women took it upon themselves as experts in the field of education, to attack me.</div><div><br></div><div>Their assumption was, that despite my advanced degree and more than 20 years experience in the field, that their background dictated a more informed and higher quality policy decision.</div><div><br></div><div>Both women believed that the key to a student’s potential success in the future is a passing score on a state Algebra assessment. The first woman was certain of this because she studied Algebra in high school and found it to be of great import in her career of choice. Without calling the woman old, I tried to suggest that her anecdote regarding the study of Algebra some 40 years ago (give or take) is hardly relevant today. According to the Algebra teachers that I have spoken with, the Algebra being taught today is not your Grandfather’s, Father’s, or even your older brother’s Algebra. Furthermore, not every student will be pursuing the same career as this woman. As a matter of fact, every time I hear the State Superintendent speak, he’s going on and on about how we’re preparing students for jobs that don’t even exist yet.</div><div><br></div><div>In the interest of not getting my ass kicked by the Math Department on the first day of school, let me say that I believe that the study of their discipline is wildly important from a perspective of content knowledge, and also in the development of analytical, problem solving, & decision making skills, not to mention potential applications in developing creative thought, communication skills, and collaboration. I do not believe that a passing score on the state’s Algebra Test proves the acquisition of many of these skills, and I’d venture a guess that my mathematical colleagues would agree.</div><div><br></div><div>The other woman who came after me did so with a wealth of knowledge gained because her husband was a local principal 30 odd years ago. She believed, first of all, that this graduation requirement was preventing some of the mistakes made in the 1980s. I was befuddled. Second, she suggested (as the woman before) that success on the Algebra assessment is the key to success. When I suggested that a “passing score” on the test doesn’t necessarily equate to mastery in the subject, she agreed with me. Then she said she didn’t agree. My hostility grew. Then she contradicted herself a few more times before expressing the need for accountability, that old saw which feeds the myth that public schools are failures, and means if teachers like me weren’t “phoning it in,” then maybe we wouldn’t have to do these things. I rolled my eyes. Finally, she insisted that education policy is set, and cut scores on state assessments are established, by teachers. I lost my shit.</div><div><br></div><div>While I’m not an expert on how things worked in the 1980s when this woman was gaining her educational expertise vicariously through her husband, I do know that the new Graduation Requirement was developed by Ohio Excels in collaboration with Fordham, a business advocacy group and right leaning think tank respectively. As a matter of fact, in supporting this requirement, the state legislature voted against the opinions of some of the major organizations representing educators in the state. They even ignored a plan developed by the Ohio Department of Education in favor of this model. (To be fair, I believe ODE is far too political and as such does not always act in the best interest of students and teachers either.)</div><div><br></div><div>And when it comes to cut scores on the assessments... these have been established by the State School Board, a body that might, at a given time, have a teacher or two among its members, and certainly not in the majority. But the cut scores related to the new Grad Requirement are going to be set by the Governor’s Executive Workforce Board in conjunction with ODE. To my knowledge, no teachers.</div><div><br></div><div>All of this is beside the point, and not even the among big picture problems I wanted to voice in a meeting with my Senator. </div><div><br></div><div>Nobody contested the individuals who came to discuss transportation or gun rights. No stink was made when individuals mentioned medicinal marijuana or the availability of affordable health care. But it was somehow perfectly acceptable, encouraged even, to question the legitimacy of a teacher.</div><div><br></div><div>Did I yell at those women? Yes, I did.</div><div><br></div><div>Was that nice? Probably not.</div><div><br></div><div>Do I regret doing so? Not at all.</div><div><br></div><div>It is time for people to realize, be they average citizens or legislators, that your experience going to school, or even knowing someone who worked in one, does not make you particularly informed, nor does it make you an expert in the field of education. Yes, you may possess a poignant anecdote or two on the subject, which I will be happy to entertain, but your anecdotes are just that. Until you devote some time to the study of the profession and its policies, yours cannot be the final word on the subject. My apologies?</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-64641533758267476782019-07-23T15:45:00.001-04:002019-07-23T16:01:01.660-04:00What do you want to be when you grow up? (HINT: it relates to your mastery of Algebra or willingness to join the military).<div><img id="id_a77d_d542_3d7e_665" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/qdiPbz2HFwntrMkQCPCry1FLaWpvPzClgCaXhrzojwoPidSqzXeyHdFUxjg" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 620px; height: auto;"><br><br><br></div><div>I went to my last graduation party for the 2019 class this past weekend. As a 10th grade American History teacher, I get invited to a few each year. They are, of course, bittersweet events, and an extension of the series of goodbyes that are indicative of my chosen profession. A few of the kids, young adults I guess, that we celebrated over the past month or so knew exactly what profession they intended to pursue. Some had figured it out during high school, were drawn through some brilliant math & science teachers to a career in engineering. Others may have known even longer, perhaps, that they’ve “wanted to be a middle school teacher since middle school”, or a “firefighter since I was in 3rd grade.”</div><div><br></div><div>In the summer following my senior year, I had no idea what the hell I was going to do. Very few of my friends knew their path either. There was a public service running around that time whose deep voiced message of warning stated gravely, “No one says they want to be a junkie when they grow up.” So, on occasion, my friends and I would say just that, “I want to be a junkie when I grow up.” It underscored the terrible uncertainty we were facing. We understood that drug addiction was no laughing matter, but then neither was the premise of asking an 18 year old to decide what they’d like to do to earn a living for the rest of their lives. We understood sarcasm, and off-color humor better than decision making. </div><div><br></div><div>I believe most high school students fall into this category. In their defense, research on the brain proves that the decision making center of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is not fully developed in adult males until their early 30s, with female development occurring a bit earlier. And yet we persist in our attempts to bully kids into this terribly important decision.</div><div><br></div><div>So, Godspeed to those individuals who exit high school with a singular purpose regarding their future careers. But if you’re not among them, that’s cool too. You’ll find your way along like my friends and I did, making lots of bad jokes, and hopefully enough decent decisions so that shit works out in the end.</div><div><br></div><div>I just finished my 20th year as an American History teacher. You’d think I’d have better advice for students than this. I don’t. “Find what makes you happy. Do that.” is a summation of my advice. Furthermore, I believe that anyone claiming to have any foolproof, universal formula that will lead young people to economic success, & prepare them in the process is a liar.</div><div><br></div><div>I don’t believe the state of Ohio knows any better either. As I was wrapping up these grad parties, the Ohio General Assembly included a change to the Graduation Requirement in the state budget. It was written by a business coalition called Ohio Excels, and while it eliminates an ELA & a Geometry Test at the high school level, I’ve yet to hear why it is necessary or meaningful. The reformer shills from Ohio Excels & Fordham who championed it said some things about “rigor,” which I know to be a certain indicator of bullshit. Sure, some rich suburban districts backed the requirement, but they’re already successful in a system heavy with testing, & this new requirement looks a hell of a lot like a shuffling of the old requirement.</div><div><br></div><div>Students don’t earn 18 points from 7 assessments anymore. There’s only five assessments now, & a student has to pass 2 (Algebra & ELA), then earn two “Seals.” If a student cannot pass the tests, then they can earn more Seals. Most of the Seals are defined by the state (Citizenship, Science, Bilingual, CCP, Military). A few are defined by districts (Fine Arts, Community Engagement). There are many Seals. Most of them require the successful completion/passage of an assessment of some sort.</div><div><br></div><div>What does this have to do with encouraging kids to figure out what they want to do with their lives, who they want to be? I don’t know. I guess in the generalized anxiety created by this absurdly confusing system, a student is going to thoughtfully approach a career path. If it were high school me, I’d be taking the path of least resistance, and for many students who do not excel at test taking, I’m afraid that this is going to mean getting bullied into joining the military in order to get a high school diploma. I hope that I am wrong.</div><div><br></div><div>And how does the requirement assure that my students are prepared for college or the workforce? Who the hell knows. State Superintendent DeMaria (lots of people really) likes to say that we are preparing students for jobs that do not even exist yet. If it were me (or anyone else with a bit of education experience), I’d argue that the key to success in those jobs will be things like communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. Apparently, I would be mistaken. All of these jobs of the future will require a firm grasp of Algebraic concepts. At least that’s what this requirement, created by Ohio businesses, suggests. </div><div><br></div><div>It should be noted that these are the same Ohio businesses who have overseen one of the slowest recoveries from the Great Recession in the nation, and watched as Ohio’s youth have fled the state in record numbers, & on occasion need a billion dollar taxpayer bailout.</div><div><br></div><div>Well, another dumbass revision on a tired standardized testing requirement should fix all of that. Perhaps this is what my high school friends and I were lacking. We were rich in sarcasm, but poor in Algebra.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank goodness Ohio’s business community, Legislature, & affluent suburbs have fixed all that.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-78979210706658871912019-06-10T14:13:00.001-04:002019-06-10T17:54:08.148-04:00Testimony in the Void.<div><img id="id_58b9_8ac6_26b4_30be" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/XmXkiueiC0JdQEu_rV4kidX_V-AwoHIj0B9dUNau9b6NPPc64QwwYGRVuNM" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 567px; height: auto;"><br></div><div><br></div><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11pt;">I haven’t written much here lately because I’m burned out. It’s difficult to maintain the relentless optimism (or at least sense of humor) necessary to find success as a classroom teacher while attempting to influence legislators to move forward with pro-student education policies, watch them pass bills crafted by lobbyists who’ve hardly entered a classroom, and then write about it. So, I stopped writing about it, and took my anger where everyone else does, Twitter.</span><br><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">This post was supposed to be a thank you to my students. You see, I submitted the Proponent Testimony below for House Bill 239, The Testing Reduction Act. It was going to be presented to the House Education Committee tomorrow, our last day of school. Being that I have never encountered a student who finds value in the state’s standardized testing system, I thought it’d be fitting to say something like this to my students... </span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><b>“Hey, it’s been a great year, we had some fun, kept it weird, and learned some things when we least expected it, which is a beautiful thing. We all know the state tests suck. They’re meaningless and say little about your value as a student or human being. So, in your interest (& in the interest of all those students who will come after you) I wrote this testimony to see if state legislators will finally see it our way and reduce testing to federal minimums. Thanks for hanging out this year. Enjoy your summer.”</b></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">As it turns out, my testimony won’t be read by anyone. The House Education Committee will only be hearing Opponent Testimony this week. This isn’t the first time that something I’ve had to say about education has fallen on deaf ears. </span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">What’s worse than my shout into the void on testing reduction, however, is that the Ohio Senate seems poised to include in the Budget Bill a Graduation Requirement and a new Youngstown Plan, both crafted by lobbyists, with little to no input from educators, and absolutely no research based evidence to suggest that they’ve got any merit, let alone function properly. </span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">I am one of many teachers who does not believe that education policy in Ohio is being crafted in the best interest of my students. </span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;">Here is my testimony on one facet of that, excessive assessment...</span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i><br></i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Committee Chair Blessing, Vice Chair Jones, Ranking Member Robinson, and members of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify as a proponent of House Bill 239, The Testing Reduction Act.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>As an American History teacher for twenty years at Elyria High School, I believe, as do the majority of education stakeholders in Ohio, that standardized assessments administered in the state are excessive and intrusive, and their minimization is a long time coming. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Since the passage of No Child Left Behind at the federal level in 2001, the volume of standardized tests has increased dramatically and had no impact on student achievement. Over that time period, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas, have stagnated. SAT scores declined between 2006 and 2014, and ACT scores have been flat. There is absolutely no data in existence that suggests that standardized tests increase student achievement, college or career readiness, or any other positive outcome in a child’s education.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>When the federal law changed from No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Ohio Department of Education sought stakeholder input on the future of education in Ohio. They conducted surveys and held a series of forums statewide to collect data on how to move forward. When the ESSA stakeholder report was made public in late 2016, recommendations were dominated by “complaints of excessive testing.” Unfortunately, ODE & Superintendent DeMaria did not reduce testing as a part of the state’s ESSA Plan submitted to the federal government. After public outcry, the Superintendent agreed to form the Assessment Advisory Committee, made up of educational experts and leaders from around the state, to study and make recommendations on how to reduce testing. The Committee presented its recommendations to the State School Board in June of 2017. Among the tests they recommended for elimination are those included in House Bill 239: American History, American Government, one High School Math, one High School ELA, and the ACT/SAT requirement. At the time, Mr. DeMaria ignored the bulk of the recommendations from his own Committee, ignored the stakeholder input ODE had compiled, and only eliminated Social Studies assessments at the 4th and 6th grade levels, which were also included in the Committee recommendations.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Among his campaign promises, Governor DeWine stated that his administration would “reduce the number of tests that students are required to take.” House Bill 239 would effectively remedy the chief concern of education stakeholders in Ohio, follow the recommendations of educational experts and leaders in the state, and satisfy the Governor’s promise to his youngest constituents.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>The test reduction that would result from House Bill 239 would make a child’s education more relevant, creative, and rewarding for all of those involved. Teaching, as I do, in an urban high school of approximately 2000 students, more than half of which are considered economically disadvantaged, means that success on standardized assessments is not guaranteed. Where some districts need not think about, or even mention state testing, in urban schools like ours, the assessments drive everything within the school year. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Superintendent DeMaria likes to discuss the idea that student learning is “jagged,” meaning students learn at different rates, have different interests, and different areas of expertise. A system focused on standardization does not make any sense within the reality he describes. There is, quite simply, no time for divergent thinking, creativity, or the pursuit of areas of interest, when the curriculum must be narrowed for the sake of assessments. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>The intrusive nature of the system cannot be understated. While curriculum is criminally narrowed in the core classes, our entire school feels the impact during testing seasons. Counselors become test administrators for weeks at a time and are unavailable to students in need. Our small gym, computer labs, maker space, and classrooms become testing rooms. Technology becomes essentially unavailable for a month or more. Entire school days are devoted to testing, and when they are not, students are being pulled from classes in order to complete assessments. Reasonable teachers scale back academic activity during the testing season to optimize student effort and ability on assessments, and to avoid student burnout.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>The rationale for Ohio’s excessive assessment system has been to assure that students are “career and college ready.” ODE repeated this like a mantra as if simple repetition would make it true. No data exists to prove their claim. No college references Ohio standardized test scores for the sake of admission or placement, and no employer uses these scores as a contingency in their hiring practices. Even the ACT is negligible in its function. Many colleges are abandoning the use of assessments like the ACT for admission, and it has been long accepted (including a 2014 study by the University of Chicago) that Grade Point Average is the “strongest indicator of college readiness” and is “much more predictive of college graduation than any test score.” This information supports House Bill 239’s reduction of state assessments to federal minimums, as well as the elimination of the mandate for the ACT/SAT. We have been told that forcing all high school students to take the ACT might encourage some students to attend college who may be unaware that they are capable. If their capability to graduate from college is best predicted by their high school grades, as the research indicates, then mandating the ACT is unnecessary, and quite frankly often inappropriate. In my experience, this assessment is being forced upon huge segments of the population who have no business attempting it based on their academic abilities.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>It seems to me that if we were really interested in assuring that students were preparing for college or career, then we would facilitate an educational environment that does just that. In dramatically limiting standardized tests, House Bill 239 will promote “jagged” learning, differentiation, student exploration. It will make available the facilities, faculty, and resources that are being monopolized by the administration of state tests. It will free up counselors to counsel, to assist students in exploring the possibilities that exist for them as they move forward in their lives.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>I have heard critics of test reduction lament the loss of data from these standardized tests. Others believe that without the tests, students will not take these courses seriously. First, any data that educators receive from ODE related to these assessments is negligible. It arrives after students have left the class, and even if it arrived earlier it is far less informative than the summative and formative assessments being administered by professional educators like myself. As for the second concern... students do not take my American History class seriously because there is a state test attached to it. They take the course seriously because this is the environment in which the course is taught, because they are students who approach their work with consideration, and because I am a professional educator who brings to the classroom a sense of seriousness, relevance, and enthusiasm regarding the subject that I teach.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>At the high school level students currently take 7 assessments for the state’s Graduation Requirement. The two ELA tests are frequently administered in two separate sessions. Students retake any assessments where the scores are not high enough. They take the ACT at least once. They may take an assessment to qualify for CCP classes. They may take the ASVAB for military service, English language tests, or professional assessments related to their vocational pursuit. The volume of mandated and potential assessment is absurd. House Bill 239 brings the mandated assessments to federal minimums and requires districts to convene committees of stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, and parents to analyze and report out the level of district specific testing that occurs. </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>When I first saw the information regarding HB 239, The Testing Reduction Act, I thought to myself, this is the most common sense piece of educational policy that I have ever seen. It is the logical reversal of a failed experiment in excessive standardized testing. The bill recognizes the input of stakeholders statewide, educational experts and leaders, and is in harmony with Governor DeWine’s vision for education in Ohio. Furthermore, the actions taken through this legislation are supported by the research, and begin to bring ownership of the educational experience back where it belongs, with the students. Once again, there is absolutely no evidence that suggests that standardized assessments increase student achievement, college or career readiness, or any other positive outcome in a child’s education.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Please consider supporting this bill, and thank you, again, for the opportunity to provide proponent testimony.</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br></i></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Matthew T. Jablonski</i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>American History Teacher </i></span></div><div style="font-family: "helvetica neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 11pt;"><i>Elyria High School</i></span></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-85951357312126903602019-01-04T14:42:00.001-05:002019-01-04T14:42:11.907-05:00Serendipity & Optimism. <div><img id="id_d552_68bd_b137_8f2e" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4lAM3JmvS4M/XC-3EKtEpkI/AAAAAAAAHaE/XZtHpO_UXsYrvoWoK8rBHkkhXFJUKY7FQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 598px; height: auto;"><br><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b><i>“The DeWine-Husted Administration will reduce the number of tests that students are required to take...” </i></b></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>It is a new year, and hope springs eternal.</div><div><br></div><div>My uncharacteristic optimism coming into 2019 has a lot to do with the total shitshow that was 2018. I may have lost my mind. You’d think by this time I’d have grown accustomed to utterly asinine education policy in the state Ohio, but it continues to wear on me...</div><div><br></div><div>This past year became yet another in which legislators refused to address unconstitutional and inequitable school funding. </div><div><br></div><div>Despite a several year old demand by education stakeholders to reduce testing, standardized tests remain as excessive and intrusive as ever in the lives of students and teachers. </div><div><br></div><div>House Bill 70’s “Youngstown Plan” continues to make a mockery of education, the democratic process, and common sense. The situation in Youngstown and Lorain has devolved into a dumpster fire of ineptitude. East Cleveland and other districts throughout the state appear poised to follow. </div><div><br></div><div>Unregulated electronic, and other charter schools remain unchecked in their theft of taxpayer dollars while legislators persist in championing them.</div><div><br></div><div>The great achievement of the year’s end, a temporary fix to the grad problem, was resolved halfway through the school year, which amounts to at least several months (if not years) longer than the issue should’ve been allowed to go on.</div><div><br></div><div>So, where the hell is my optimism? It is in this...</div><div><br></div><div>A permanent resolution to the grad problem is in the works.</div><div><br></div><div>ECOT is closed.</div><div><br></div><div>Resistance to HB 70 is ongoing, growing, and in the courts.</div><div><br></div><div>In addition, leadership in Columbus appears as if they are beginning to actually listen to professionals in public education when crafting policy related to public education.</div><div><br></div><div>The first component of incoming Governor Mike DeWine’s “Education Plan” from his <a href="https://www.mikedewine.com/education/" id="id_5671_55ea_da4c_539a">campaign website</a> is a reduction in standardized testing in order to free up time for teaching and learning. As the website states, “The DeWine-Husted Administration will reduce the number of tests that students are required to take...” I am confident in speaking for the vast majority of my colleagues in public education on this topic when I say, “We support you wholeheartedly in this endeavor, sir.”</div><div><br></div><div><img id="id_85de_5cac_5487_8524" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fD6i-Zq5glI/XC-3EruDBjI/AAAAAAAAHaI/jen-KgSRN8gtMY76zh2w51E9JUf_nBOnACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 745px; height: auto;"></div><div><br>Fortunately, Mr. DeWine’s plan coincides perfectly with data already compiled by the Ohio Department of Education. You might recall that when the ODE asked for input on its implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, most stakeholders demanded a reduction in standardized testing. From an <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/11/too_much_testing_charter_schoo.html" id="id_a0f_5801_bc52_8dcb">article in the Plain Dealer</a> at that time, “‘<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The amount of testing was at the top, followed closely by concerns around charter schools,’ said Colleen Grady, the former Strongsville school board member who is now a senior policy advisor for the Ohio Department of Education.”</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In response, State Superintendent DeMaria promised to form a committee, study the issue, and take action. The result was </span>the <a href="https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/state-tests-eliminated-for-ohio-school-students/9Z6jzHbV1oYhjy13xs6NEI/" id="id_2ef7_6193_48ae_9793">elimination of Social Studies Assessments</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> in 4th and 6th grade, with a recommendation to eliminate the American Government test in high school (which never happened). While I am not confident enough to speak for all stakeholders, when I provided my input and recommended reductions in standardized testing, eliminating only two tests is not at all what I had in mind.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With the new Governor agreeing with education stakeholders in what I can only describe as a case of glorious serendipity, it seems as if the time has come for legislators to take some meaningful action.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Namely, eliminate ALL assessments not required under federal law.</b></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b><br></b></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a high school teacher at a school of nearly 2000 students, I would argue that 7 assessments as a part of the Graduation Requirement is excessive, intrusive, unnecessary, and essentially meaningless. Unfortunately, the </span><a href="http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wosu2/files/201811/Grad-Req-Recommendation-FINALwAPPENDIX-Oct2018.pdf" id="id_303f_3219_f699_e707">Superintendent’s recommendation for the new Graduation Requirement</a>, while somewhat varied and improved, <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">maintains the administration of 7 assessments. This is clearly contrary to the wishes of education stakeholders and the Governor himself. Since state legislators have finally agreed that it is necessary to retool the requirement (based on their vote in December), and a reduction in assessment aligns not only with stakeholder input, but also with the Governor’s Education Plan, eliminating at least a few tests is only logical.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the spirit of my (perhaps misguided) serendipitous optimism, my first political act of the new year is going to be to contact all Ohio Legislators with this idea. I’d encourage you to do the same.</span></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-40092166446329327312018-09-04T12:06:00.001-04:002018-09-06T21:24:35.221-04:00It’s Always Something (a post for the start of the school year).<div><img id="id_c4e8_2529_7daf_a2c4" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-szCOErGaHvI/W46tgqzYfkI/AAAAAAAAGxM/TUbBWd2ZhWAj8M5_tQsy079R4OFllzW2QCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 593px; height: auto;"><br><br></div>Today is the first day of school in my district, and I’m sitting at home due to a heat index set to hit above 95 degrees. Much as I hate to use the phrase “It’s always something,” it’s always something.<div><br></div><div>As a matter of fact, last week, a few colleagues and I had just finished some professional development on how to identify bed bugs, proper use of an epi-pen, and the details of a mass evacuation in the case of a bomb threat, or lock-down should there be an active shooter, when I asked them what they thought it would be this year.</div><div><br></div><div>Without hesitation they knew what I meant, and Amanda said, “Tuberculosis.” I nodded, believing this was a reasonable answer, and legitimately figured that it has been awhile, and we’re probably due. Of course, it’s also been awhile since our locale became one of the first cities in the country to have a confirmed case of swine flu, waves of bomb threats, etcetera. All of this is beside the point.</div><div><br></div><div>It’s always something.</div><div><br></div><div>Having given it some more thought, I believe that the answer to my own question is that this will be the year that the state of Ohio abandons its senior class. Believe me when I say that I really hope that I’m wrong, just as I hope that none of the other horrors visited upon classrooms nationwide rear their ugly head. It just seems to me that there is simply too much backward thinking on the graduation requirement, and an <a href="https://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/graduation-change-could-leave-000-local-seniors-without-diploma/ha9unj2954VWVcq1ng3RiL/" id="id_1ad8_66d5_3ce_2a87">article in the Dayton Daily News</a> only further confirms my fear..</div><div><br></div><div>I sat down with my legislators in July to convey the reality of the situation at my high school. Basically, an alarming number of students are unable to earn the 18 points on 7 assessments, necessary for graduation. To be specific, of the 438 graduates from the high school where I teach, 148 graduated through the “Additional Pathways,” which permitted 2018 graduates to use a means other than assessments to prove they were deserving of a diploma. All things considered, if not for the pathways, I believe that these numbers would have boiled down to a Graduation Rate of around 60% in a school whose rate is typically 85% (give or take).</div><div><br></div><div>Further complicating the issue, I told them, is that the Ohio Department of Education claims that the 18 points are the threshold at which students prove that they are “college and career ready,” despite the fact that no data driven analysis by the state, or anyone else for that matter, can prove this claim. No college references state test scores to predict success (most look to GPA for that), & no employer is looking at these scores as a part of their hiring practices.</div><div><br></div><div>Add to all of this the fact that the State Board of Education recommended in January to extend those Additional Pathways for the classes of 2019 & 2020, big urban districts are reporting the potential of 50% non-graduates, and even the affluent burbs say 10-20% needed the pathways, and the solution seems obvious. And yet...</div><div><br></div><div>In Jeremy Kelley’s <a href="https://www.mydaytondailynews.com/news/graduation-change-could-leave-000-local-seniors-without-diploma/ha9unj2954VWVcq1ng3RiL/" id="id_9fca_d847_3fd9_f3c6">DDN article</a> Republican Senator Peggy Lehner, Chair of the Senate Education Committee says, “<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At this point I can’t say for sure that anything will be done. I am certainly looking at the data very closely, and I’m going to be encouraging my colleagues to do likewise.”</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With due respect to Senator Lehner & her colleagues as they consider a deep dive into that data, the system you have thus far failed to change does not measure what it claims to measure, and seeks to prevent the receipt of diplomas among some of Ohio’s most vulnerable students, lots of them. I do not believe it’s an exaggeration to say that the ramifications of this scenario on their lives, the lives of their families, the health of their communities, the economy, and the entire state of Ohio is quite dire.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unfortunately, the Ohio Department of Education doesn’t seem to get it either.</span></div><div><br></div><div>The ODE’s representative Chris Woolard said, <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think the real question here is, what’s the graduation rate going to be, and is it going to be significantly different? I can’t answer that question.”</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Well, fortunately for Mr. Woolard, every single representative of a public school who has commented on this situation has answered that question. The answer Chris, is YES, THE GRAD RATE IS GOING TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER! Sweet Fancy Moses, one would think that the Ohio Department of Education might listen to a Superintendent. They’ve spent 4 years ignoring what I’ve got to say on the topic, but I’m just a teacher.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then, he doubles down on his lack of understanding... “Based on where we saw things six months ago, from an on-track perspective, things looked better than what people were concerned about two years ago.”</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No, no, no, no. Six month’s ago, two years ago, 4 years ago, critics of the grad system like myself have been saying that big urban districts would see grad rates around 50%, smaller urbans at 60%, and so on. Believe me, I remember suggesting this and thinking that it would be awful whether I was right or wrong. If I was wrong, then I look like a paranoid wackaloon (but at least kids are graduating), and if I’m right, then we find ourselves right where we are. We weren’t wrong.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The ODE is officially painting a rosy picture as they persist in attempting to polish the turd that is their Graduation Requirement while the Ohio Legislature isn’t sure whether or not they’ll remedy their broken and meaningless system.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sound about right?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s always something.</span></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-32448391811868939642018-07-13T18:43:00.001-04:002018-07-13T21:09:30.023-04:00Congratulations Graduates, Don’t Listen to the Naysayers.<div><br></div><div>First of all, congratulations to Ohio’s high school graduates in the class of 2018, especially those who were able to use the additional pathways to obtain your diploma.You are the first group of young Ohioans in several decades who’ve not been wrongly prevented from graduating due to a meaningless and obtuse assessment system.</div><div><br></div><div>According to an <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/07/tougher_new_graduation_standards_would_have_blocked_a_third_-_or_even_half_-_of_diplomas_in_some_urban_areas.html#incart_m-rpt-1" id="id_b0ea_5d0a_4dd5_cf52">article from the Plain Dealer</a>’s <a href="http://connect.cleveland.com/user/paodonne/posts.html" id="id_78b9_596f_b08a_c858">Patrick O’Donnell</a> more than a third of students in the urban areas he surveyed would not have graduated if the assessments alone were used as the measure for graduation. I realize that the Ohio Department of Education & other advocates of the system would argue that there were three pathways to graduation beyond the state tests, prior to the additional pathway. To which I would retort, one is a remediation free score on the ACT/SAT, an assessment, and the other is an Industry Recognized Credential, also requiring assessments.</div><div><br></div><div>So... good for you young people, but if you decide to read the article, beware there are a couple of naysayers who would attempt to diminish your accomplishment. They are advocates of the “rigor” (bullshit meaningless word they like to use) of the new assessment system & grad requirements.</div><div><br></div><div>Representative Andrew Brenner, Chair of the House Education Committee, is quoted in the article asking, <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"What's going on here that they're not able to get kids up to being college and career-ready?" He is completely off base here on several levels.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">First, he is referring to teachers in urban districts where more students were unable to meet the points on the assessments in order to graduate. What Mr. Brenner fails to recognize is that students in these districts have a greater likelihood of being economically disadvantaged, which is widely recognized as having a </span><a href="https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/poor_kids_do_poorly_affluent_do_better_on_ohios_state_tests_-_again.html" id="id_7ad0_df14_52d4_b35">negative impact on a student’s education</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> After all, an individual will be more concerned about their next meal, caring for siblings, a lack of health care, housing or transportation instability, & other related issues than they will be about the remote details of Algebra, American History, or Biology.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">At the heart of Brenner’s nonsense, however, is his terribly dubious claim that the state’s requirement of 18 points on 7 assessments equals college & career readiness. There has, to my knowledge, never been a data driven analysis to indicate that this is true. We are simply expected to believe it because Mr. Brenner, and others of his ilk, repeat the phrase so often. As a matter of fact, the other assessment advocate & naysayer referenced in the article, Chad Aldis of the Fordham Institute, has often made this claim. When I questioned him about his claim of readiness after Fordham penned an attack on Akron Superintendent David James this week, he admitted that he has no idea whether or not the requirement actually measures college & career readiness.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><img id="id_8330_7780_9705_c8c4" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5fDBsWxrO04/W0krAGRQ36I/AAAAAAAAGRY/pZ56AVHUwJ8CSrxiVh_jJ0uqH38V2a9RQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 505px; height: auto;"><br><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Mr. Aldis does not make the CCR claim in this most recent article, but calls the additional pathways “absurdly easy” and the diplomas “meaningless.” He also suggests that if teachers like me simply worked harder, then students would perform better on the tests. With due respect to Mr. Aldis, (whose employer is an advocate for, & sponsor of charter schools who benefit from public schools being labeled as failures by state testing systems) we teachers could work ourselves to madness or death, but that would not make this assessment system any more meaningful. You and Mr. Brenner would still not be able to find a single college that refers to score from Ohio’s assessment system for use as a predictor of college success. Furthermore, you will be unable to find an employer whose hiring policy is dependent upon scores on Ohio’s state tests.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">As for the difficulty of the additional pathways, we know that more students graduated under this system. I find this to be a fantastic development. The idea of “too many kids graduating” is beyond my comprehension.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">If we are legitimately interested in assuring that students are ready for life after high school, then wouldn’t the components of the additional pathways... work experience, volunteer work, maintenance of a Grade Point Average (the greatest predictor of college success), and other items of the sort be vital to that end? Sure working 120 hours might be “absurdly easy” in the mind of Mr. Aldis, but I’ve had some jobs where I’d classify that time as nightmarish, but where I learned some important lessons about work ethic, collaboration and communication, if not the necessity of staying in school in order to avoid shitty jobs. These experiences were sometimes more valuable than those in the classroom, and certainly more validating than a score on an assessment.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The Graduation Requirement does not have to be impossible, or even terribly difficult, in order to be meaningful.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">What Rep Brenner, Mr. Aldis, & other pro-assessment shills like them are attempting to do is to infuse meaning into a meaningless assessment system, and because the media repeats their unfounded opinions as fact, people believe them. They would have us believe that the only thing of value accomplished by students in their educational career is a collection of test scores.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">They are wrong.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Perhaps instead of giving Brenner & Aldis the opportunity to trot out their same tired, unfounded line of bullshit the next time an article is written about graduation in Ohio, the reporter will give me a call. I’ll congratulate ALL of the graduates on their meaningful accomplishment despite an utterly meaningless assessment system.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-47093985438026354772018-06-22T10:47:00.001-04:002018-06-22T10:47:20.784-04:00Our Education Policy Priority is Nonsense.<div><img id="id_abce_9953_39b7_55e3" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ThYNv8VvaDs/Wy0L9qnawrI/AAAAAAAAGJM/7iwZ1S1vx30TgzlccKfvGmsVMJ1-xEtDQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 343px; height: auto;"><br><br><br></div>Allow me to put this in perspective. At the high school where I teach, approximately 200 of 450 seniors in the class of 2018 were using the additional pathways to earn their diploma. For those of you out of the loop, this means that they were unable to earn 18 points from the state’s 7 assessments, or particular point values in content areas. Statistically speaking, the tests that have given students the most trouble, both at my school and statewide, are Algebra and Geometry.<div><br></div><div>Unable to earn the scores deemed appropriate & indicative of college & career readiness by the state (with no data driven analysis to prove the readiness they claim), these seniors worked to complete their coursework successfully while simultaneously studying in remediation (test prep) classes in order to retake problematic assessments. They were also required to satisfy 2 components, or additional pathways, to earn their diploma. At my school, overworked administrators and counselors met individually, frequently with students and tracked their progress on 3 possible pathways selected by the student. This way, if a student found themselves unable to meet 93% attendance, often difficult among economically disadvantaged students for health care and transportation issues, those students could focus on attaining the necessary GPA, or score on the WorkKeys assessment, or hours in employment or volunteer service, or another of the additional pathways.</div><div><br></div><div>Setting aside the fact that the inordinate amount of time and effort expended could have been better used to actually counsel students regarding their mental health, career choices, college options, scholarship info, etcetera, the system created seemed to work. It is gloriously pointless, does nothing to encourage appropriate life choices for students, is a fantastic waste of resources, but at least students were able to graduate.</div><div><br></div><div>I bring all of this up now despite this being my first full week of summer break, a time in which I should be sitting quietly in my backyard, staring blankly into the distance as my mind makes sense of the past school year, a bemused smile on my face, a cat circling my ankles. I bring this up because I keep waking up with uncertainty, the uncertainty of a man who knows that in a few short months the class of 2019 will be stepping into the school in which I teach with no alternative pathways to graduation outside of a meaningless assessment system.</div><div><br></div><div>If the numbers are comparable to last year, and every measure we’ve seen indicates that they will be, then somewhere around 50% of seniors (give or take) in every urban district will be starting the year with some measure of anxiety regarding whether or not they will receive a diploma. Half of those kids might have a shot, despite already having retaken their Algebra assessment 2 or 3 times to no avail, so will show up and bust their asses even though the odds are steep.</div><div><br></div><div>At the other end are those kids who’ve got maybe 9-11 of their necessary 18 points having already taken all of the tests, who know damn well that the system has been stacked against them to such a degree that there is no way in hell that <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">they will improve that many test scores and graduate</span>, despite all of the remediation, hard work, and best intentions of teachers, counselors, and administrators.</div><div><br></div><div>“Why bother showing up?” is likely the question that will enter many of their minds, and I’m not sure that I have a good answer.</div><div><br></div><div>A bill exists right now that would extend the pathways for the classes of 2019 & 2020 until a more meaningful Graduation Requirement can be crafted. House Bill 630, introduced by Representative Galonski, awaits the appropriate hearings which have yet to be scheduled by House Education Committee Chair Andrew Brenner. Rep Brenner told the media that there would be action taken on graduation when the state board recommended it in January. He called me at my home and told me the same.</div><div><br></div><div>And yet, no action. Not on graduation anyway. Mr. Brenner’s bill that would require the State School Board to develop a cursive handwriting curriculum passed the House this week. While the class of 2019 twists in the wind, our education policy priority is nonsense.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-60170048972004277072018-06-12T10:01:00.001-04:002018-06-13T21:15:52.506-04:00Sparrows, Absurdity, Contradiction, Purposeful Ignorance, & the Right Thing to Do.<div><img id="id_93f5_627d_263_6f99" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q1Eis5Qy1pY/WyHBxmolrhI/AAAAAAAAF80/DvwbeCBY77MGmcYeY9gaSBCWK8LESG-MwCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 428px; height: auto;"><br><br><br></div>In the spring, outside my classroom, on the window ledges of this hundred year old building, the sparrows call to one another in something of a song. It is idyllic. The morning sun angling through the third floor blinds casts shadows onto the wood floors while I’m seated at my desk prepping the day’s materials. And through this, the sparrows call to claim their territory.<div><br></div><div>We have reached the end of the school year again, late this time due to our post-Labor Day beginning. The lateness has afforded our students the opportunity, for better or worse, to see their state test scores prior to leaving for the summer. Unfortunately, just like last year, there has been no long term solution established regarding the Graduation Problem, and no short term extension of the additional pathways to graduation for the classes of 2019 & 2020 as recommended by the State School Board. </div><div><br></div><div>What this means is that sophomores and juniors have only their assessment scores as a path to graduation, and for many of them (50% or more in the urban districts) this is an unsettling uncertainty.</div><div><br></div><div>I’m not sure any of us arguing for a solution are terribly surprised by this lack of action from the Ohio Legislature. After all, a Republican majority in the House took months just to choose a new Speaker. Ohio suffers nearly triple the US average in opioid overdoses, and this same leadership has done little to remedy that situation. Ohio’s poverty rate exceeds the national average, and yet Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Dewine supports rolling back Medicaid expansion, potentially stripping poor families of their health care. Meanwhile, the state has as yet been unable to reclaim the 80 million in tax dollars taken fraudulently by ECOT, and some Ohio politicians still celebrate its accomplishments. We have plenty of fish to fry here in Ohio.</div><div><br></div><div>Why should I care so much about graduation when students don’t have enough to eat, and issues with addiction tear families apart, while politicians celebrate low unemployment while ignoring poverty, children are being taken from their parents by federal agents, and we’re being encouraged to consider Canada as a threat. The world is filled with absurdity and contradiction, gross inequality, and purposeful ignorance.</div><div><br></div><div>Each problem alone is built in this way. The graduation problem is the same, and as a high school teacher this is the issue at which I’ve chosen to take my swings. As I’ve indicated many times before, Ohio is one of only 13 states to require assessments for graduation. Advocates of the system make the dubious claim that the assessments assure that a student is college & career ready. Of course, no proof exists that standardized tests prove either of these things. Ohio leaders insist otherwise with no data to back up their assertion. When questioned on this punitive use of tests, they often become agitated, and suggest I’d hand out diplomas to kids for doing nothing.</div><div><br></div><div>In response to that, I suggest that the wealth of coursework taken during a student’s four years in high school (not to mention their efforts PK-8) are sufficient to qualify as achievement, and are certainly not, as they say, “nothing.” So far, Ohio Legislators have not wanted to hear my ideas on this issue, however thoughtful or data driven they may be.</div><div><br></div><div>Standardized tests best correlate to economic status. Generations of testing data prove this and yet policy makers refuse to acknowledge reality. For them, the assessment score seems to be the only item of value produced by a student throughout their educational career. This thought process has created in Ohio a situation where leaders believe that we are encouraging our children in poverty by punishing them by withholding diplomas. Again, absurdity, contradiction, gross inequality, and purposeful ignorance.</div><div><br></div><div>The consensus in Columbus seems to be that we could possibly allow too many students to graduate. I understand the idea of raising expectations and preparing students for the future, but nothing suggests that assessment based punishment is working to that end. And to be fair, higher expectations are contradictory to the state’s policies on other educational issues.</div><div><br></div><div>Ohio wants its students to seek career training, vocational credentials, & college degrees, but legislates in favor of charter schools that can be run by individuals with no experience in education. Districts that face HB 70 style takeovers are riddled with criminal absurdity. In Lorain, an unqualified CEO, a veteran of slapdash training in Teach for America, hires uncertified administrators to lead a severely economically disadvantaged district, promising that all future graduates will either be credentialed or have a degree in addition to their diploma. But the district leaders don’t have the appropriate credentials?!</div><div><br></div><div>Asking me to believe that complete deregulation of education in empoverished urban centers, and that often uneducated, unqualified, & uncertified personnel are best suited to encourage students to seek education and certification makes as much sense as asking me to believe that Canada is a threat, or that withholding diplomas due to test scores is in the best interest of students.</div><div><br></div><div>I cannot let go of the graduation issue because I see the terrible interconnectedness of many of these things. Poverty correlates to low test scores, and low test scores currently prevent graduation. I believe that preventing 40-50% (maybe more) of students in urban areas from earning a diploma based on a meaningless assessment system will only exacerbate poverty, potentially compound the opioid epidemic, & create more problems.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One of my students this year asked me what I get for all of this. “Like what do you get paid,” she asked, for following legislation, writing articles, communicating with (& getting insulted by) policy-makers, working toward fixing the graduation problem? “Nothing,” I told her. “There’s no, like, extra payment or anything.” </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This small interaction really made me wonder why I keep after it. I’m tired, demoralized, and sometimes physically sick over this shit. Leadership in Columbus consistently fails to see my side of the argument. Why bother?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">First, I am bemused by the absurdity that is being passed off as education policy.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Second, children are being done wrong, so it </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">is the right thing to do.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And finally, </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I’m territorial just like these sparrows. My students deserve a better system.</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-44799455271624501182018-04-20T10:16:00.001-04:002018-06-13T21:27:11.404-04:00I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody.<div><img id="id_a1ba_9aae_c866_e142" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TBQPXpVd_9g/WyHEbZLiqXI/AAAAAAAAF9k/_FnACWAxnLMe8kXBQKES5g3VUK61G_lMQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 543px; height: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><b><i>“You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.”</i></b></span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Ever since I provided feedback on the </span><a href="http://education.ohio.gov/About/Ohios-Strategic-Plan-for-Education" id="id_bb0a_d869_d71_afe8">Ohio Strategic Plan for Education</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> I’ve been thinking about this quote. You see, the plan embraces a holistic view of education, one that seeks to allow children to develop academically through diverse coursework in order to pursue their interests, become creative and critical thinkers, and learn about their place in their community and the world. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The plan presents 4 “Equally-Valued Domains of Learning” that include the academic skills & knowledge, but also creativity & analysis, well-rounded content, and social-emotional skills. There are specific references to promoting the arts, wraparound services to help remediate the effects of poverty, and promoting student interest and career driven exploration through choices. These are precisely the ideas that make school a valuable experience, and even fun.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Furthermore, these ideas coincide with much of my own reasoning in going into the field of education. As a young teacher I was interested in building relationships, offering choices and opportunities for students to learn about themselves and their world...to develop, in the words of the Strategic Plan, lifelong learners. Then things went awry. No Child Left Behind placed an inordinate focus on standardized assessments, and the state of Ohio cranked up the high stakes to include promotion, graduation, teacher & district ratings, and all sorts of irrelevant punishments.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Our focus had to shift. My focus turned to the kids who primarily needed to pass tests in order to graduate. Sure, I’ve worked to infuse interest and creativity, choice and exploration, communication, critical thought, social-emotional development...fun. The reality, however, is that all of these things remain secondary (at best) in a system reliant upon high-stakes standardized tests.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I could’ve been a great teacher.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uBiewQrpBBA" id="id_68c6_8922_d500_4f6f">I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody.</a></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Strategic Plan is lacking an adequate sense of reality. Its EachChild, or Whole Child view is contradicted by the existing system, and there is absolutely nothing in the plan to suggest that the existing system will change to facilitate these valid expansive ideas. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In an education system saturated by standardized tests, where their outcomes determine promotion and graduation, evaluation results, success of levies (so economic stability), and potential district takeover by the state (Youngstown & Lorain currently), the educational focus must remain on the assessments. In districts where assessments scores suffer (read impoverished districts), an inordinate focus will remain on ELA & math, as well as other tested subjects as necessary. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is a focus on a single domain, Foundational Skills and Knowledge. There is simply no time or resources to devote to the other domains. Opportunities for creativity lack in the current system. Art, music, phys ed, and electives are sacrificed for attempts at success on high stakes assessments. Social and Emotional growth becomes secondary to the numbers on assessments.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As long as there is punishment attached to tests, schools will purchase Chromebooks to administer assessments instead of hiring art teachers. They will invest in reading software that mimics assessment questions instead of organizing field trips. Our gymnasiums will continue to turn into testing rooms. Our Counselors will primarily serve as Test Administrators. Teachers will continue narrowing their focus to the tested material, and student experiences will continue to be limited.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sure, affluent districts that do not even need to think about the assessments will continue to move forward promoting all domains, while less affluent students will suffer under a system that has not promoted growth over the last 20 years. With this said, all Ohio’s Strategic Plan will do is to highlight the inequality that exists, while its vision is supposed to be one of equity.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Without significantly dismantling the current system by moving toward federal minimums in assessment, eliminating all high-stakes associated with assessments, and fixing school funding, the Vision, Goals, and Strategies in Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education are utterly meaningless. I appreciate the work that has clearly gone into the Strategic Plan, but it is once again attempting to shoehorn reform into a system based on punishment. It simply will not work.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>A Few Other Thoughts for the Ohio Department of Education on the Strategic Plan.</b></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b><br></b></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">1) Standardized Assessments are not "robust measures." Stop</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> with this nonsense. <o:p></o:p>Recognize that poverty impacts education, and that this is </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/poor_kids_do_poorly_affluent_do_better_on_ohios_state_tests_-_again.html" id="id_26dc_7e22_c50d_4d5f">what your assessments measure.</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Then move forward with remediation of poverty through wraparound services as indicated.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">2) Recognize the innate problems with a high-stakes assessment system. (3rd grade, Graduation Requirement, Teacher Evaluation, District Takeovers are not accomplishing what you believe or claim)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">3) </span><a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/09/11/after-25-years-teach-for-america-results-are-consistently-underwhelming/" id="id_5941_78a0_eb3e_9b37">Do not pretend</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> that Teach for America has been successful. It hasn't. It brings less qualified individuals into the classroom. Then they leave the profession after a short time, which provides little consistency, harms children, and the educational culture in schools. Similar programs for administrators are unproven as well.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">4) Personalized learning </span><a href="https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/10/19/personalized-learning-what-does-the-research-say.html" id="id_23ca_c0b3_6216_1820">is unproven</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> in the research, as are digital methods. Presenting them as viable is terribly misguided.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">5) Actually follow the feedback on the Strategic Plan given to you in the Stakeholder Meetings, and through the Survey by educators like myself. You didn't do this with the ESSA plan until we all called you on it. Your actions have been disingenuous and disrespectful. I’m not a bum. Don’t treat me like it.</span></p></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-83671732351263367452018-04-06T19:13:00.001-04:002018-06-13T21:34:16.848-04:0024 Giant Sized Brillo Soap Pads, 240,000 Educators, 1.7 Million Children, & One Lie of an Assessment System. <div><img id="id_7abe_ac61_16ff_ad01" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dT-YxxV_26E/WyHGFjGHrLI/AAAAAAAAF-A/arZcwLgl2MAnKw-XTqiPTWdvnyRbET4vQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 350px; height: auto;"><br></div><div><br></div>I woke up with three days of spring break to go. I’d planned to go to the Allen Art Museum, and get home in time for the Indians home opener. This was supposed to wash away the mess of sickness, departure, and funerals of the last month, the waves of political opportunists using school safety to make us all feel unsafe in order to get elected. I just wanted to forget about that shit, so I could begin to get ready for the run in with my sophomores to the state assessments over the next few weeks, and maybe still find some fun in teaching.<div><br></div><div>I already feel like a liar, for the degree to which I’ve got to pretend to take the state tests seriously. Anyone paying attention knows that <a href="http://testingwindow.blogspot.com/2017/09/same-with-state-report-card.html" id="id_2bb9_8b15_2aa6_bd87" target="_self">they best reflect socio-economic status.</a> To tie them to graduation makes little sense, but the law is the law, and my students need to score well in order to graduate. As a teacher, I have to manufacture a requisite level of seriousness with regard to the assessments. I’m sick of it. </div><div><br></div><div>The Ohio Department of Education and state leaders like Superintendent DeMaria and Governor Kasich believe the tests somehow measure college and career readiness, despite an utter lack of data to prove their assertion, and the fact that colleges generally recognize GPA as the greatest predictor of college success. Our task as educators at the secondary level has become something of a farce.</div><div><br></div><div>To make matters worse Superintendent DeMaria is currently busy traveling the state, celebrating the <a href="http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/About/Ohios-Strategic-Plan-for-Education/DRAFT-EachChild-Full-Strategic-Plan-Report.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US" id="id_3a72_6551_4d7f_b4bf">Strategic Plan for Education in Ohio</a>, being transparent, “listening” as he takes in stakeholder input on the plan. Here’s an excerpt...</div><div><br></div><div><i>“The aim of this comprehensive strategic plan for education is to create the conditions for EachChild to reach success through the guidance and support of caring adults who are empowered by a system continually evolving to meet the needs of every student.”</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div>This would be great if Superintendent DeMaria hadn’t been “transparent” and <i>listened</i> to stakeholder input on the ESSA plan, only to completely ignore the input on minimizing assessments <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/03/essa.html" id="id_e504_784f_636d_faa5">until he was called out on his bullshit</a>. Don’t get me wrong, I think teachers and other stakeholders should still provide input regarding the state’s education plan, but more importantly should be outraged and call them out on their hypocrisy.</div><div><br></div><div>My outrage shook me upon my return from the museum. All of the depth of calm I’d achieved in proximity to Neel, Monet’s Wisteria, Warhol, and Lichtenstein was reduced to anger at the headline below...</div><div><br></div><div><img id="id_6f79_d74b_416e_d12" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Lz4gEl1udX4/WyHGFi1UnOI/AAAAAAAAF-E/h-mmU1WFX9ABh0xJx-krIpVwh7i5uNQIACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 291px; height: auto;"><br><br><br></div><div><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/04/computers_mis-grade_5300_state.html#incart_m-rpt-1" id="id_4f3_d493_f04_1aa7">The story indicates</a> that thousands of English Language Arts tests at the freshman and sophomore level were scored incorrectly due to human error, but had been fixed. Incorrect scores were delivered to schools, so students, not knowing any better, likely became further demoralized regarding their graduation prospects, many likely scheduled and began remediation classes as they prepped themselves for another go at the tests.</div><div><br></div><div>What?</div><div><br></div><div>How much “human error” has gone <i>unrecognized</i>?</div><div><br></div><div>How many tests were incorrectly graded, and recognized, that we haven’t been told about?</div><div><br></div><div>How many 3rd graders have been held back due to incorrect scores?</div><div><br></div><div>How many diploma’s have been, <i>and will be</i> withheld for the reason of incorrect scores?</div><div><br></div><div>This is bullshit.</div><div><br></div><div>Yes, the Ohio Department of Education assures us that these are the only issue, and they’re fixed, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve trusted anything from the ODE.</div><div><br></div><div>And they’d like me to weigh in on the Strategic Plan? Sweet Fancy Moses.</div><div><br></div><div>First of all, these are not the conditions under which children can be expected to reach success. </div><div><br></div><div>Furthermore, while I am a caring adult in the business of education, I am NOT empowered by this system, nor are my students. As a matter of fact, the ODE’s system seems like one that has been designed to trick, fool, lie to, and fail us, whether we are, or are not successful. In my mind, the Ohio Department of Education has lost its credibility. It has lied on behalf of charter schools to manipulate ratings. It has perpetuated an assessment system that elevates the rich and demonizes the poor. It has championed a graduation requirement that it cannot prove establishes college readiness. And all the while, the ODE and Superintendent DeMaria travel the state with their nonsense rhetoric...</div><div><br></div><div><i>“Ohio’s future is powered by its education system. Today, more than 240,000 educators work in 3,500 schools to serve more than 1.7 million CHILDREN—our most precious asset. Ohio benefits from a dedicated group of CARING ADULTS who inspire and guide children and prepare them for an exciting future.”</i></div><div><br></div><div>“Our most precious asset” is being served by a system riddled with inequity, punished by assessments whose chief accomplishment (whether the scores are lies or truth) is celebrating the rich, while demonizing the poor.</div><div><br></div><div>If Superintendent DeMaria’s Strategic Plan is worth any more than the paper on which it is printed, then he and the State Legislature need to internalize the idea that Ohio’s education system should be <i>“continually evolving to meet the needs of every student.” </i>With that accomplished, Ohio’s standardized assessments need to be removed from any high stakes decisions regarding student promotion and graduation.</div><div><br></div><div>Until that occurs, we will be forced to call this assessment system what it is, bullshit.</div><div><br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-69031292989036716982018-03-04T18:09:00.001-05:002018-06-13T21:34:44.101-04:00Dumbfounded. A Few Words in Opposition to House Bill 512<br><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">“...the percentage of students meeting required scores on end of course exams is roughly the same as it was when students needed to pass the Ohio Graduation Test.” So said former Kasich appointee and former President of the State School Board, Tom Gunlock, in testimony this week in favor of HB512, the bill that would eliminate the power of the State School Board and turn it over to the Governor.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">When I saw that Gunlock was back testifying, setting himself up like some kind of expert regarding education and business, I rolled my eyes. The guy got his job on the state board through appointment, and the bulk of his business career has been with his family’s company (again, by appointment). He, along with Todd Jones, were the bullies of the board, shills for a misguided education policy based on excessive assessment, overbearing evaluation, and punishment. When presented with legitimate evidence that these policies didn’t work, they grumbled and ignored the facts.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">When I read the above quote, I threw up in my mouth. Passing rates like the OGT? And he is presenting this pile of shit to a House Committee as if it were factual. He is either terribly misinformed, or lying in the hope that passage of HB512 will result in his return to power as the head of the bill’s megadepartment, which combines K12 Education, Higher Education, & Workforce Development under an appointee of the Governor.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">His testimony is dangerous.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">At the high school where I teach, from a senior class of fewer than 500 students, more than 200 are being tracked because they ARE NOT meeting the required scores on the end of course assessments. I am willing to bet that my school is not an anomaly. Fortunately, the currently democratically elected (in part) State School Board encouraged the state legislature to provide additional pathways for these students. Without these pathways, my school that had a 90% graduation rate a few years ago would be looking at a grad rate of 60-70%, optimistically.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">In a system devised by our Associate Principal in charge of assessments...let me pause here. Yes, there is a building level administrator tasked with scheduling, tracking, and administering state assessments, as well as monitoring progress to graduation. I’m sure it is exactly as awful as it sounds. Anyway, this individual devised a system by which each student would be assigned a counselor who would assure that they signed a contract to move forward with 3 of the potential pathways for the class of 2018, & attend remediation and retest where necessary. The counselors would then maintain contact, and track the progress of their set of students.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">It should be noted that the counselors indicated above are still responsible for the progress, scheduling, and college or vocational application processes for their usual contingent of roughly 500 students, as well as being the group of people who administer what I can only imagine are tens of thousands of assessments and retakes throughout the year. As a matter of fact, we bring in a few retired counselors at certain points during the year, the recent administration of the ACT was one, not to “counsel” students, but to assist with the administration of state assessments.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Perhaps if we provided time for our counselors to counsel, then these students might have better guidance on their paths to career and college readiness. In light of recent events, freeing up counselors to counsel would also go a long way toward providing students in need with the mental health services appropriate to their situation, and increase school safety.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Instead, Governor Kasich is championing House Bill 512, eliminating the power of the largely democratically elected school board, in favor of a megadepartment headed by an appointee who is likely to be just as ill-informed, asinine, and boorish as Mr. Gunlock. The Governor defended his decision by saying that most people don’t even know who their board member is, anyway.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">On February 1st, I emailed every State School Board Member to explain that, contrary to the opinions of Mr. Gunlock, the Graduation Requirement is still a Graduation Problem. I thanked them for their attention to this issue that is so very important to students in my school. I also encouraged them to extend the additional pathways for 2018 to the classes of 2019 and 2020, so that a suitable long term solution to this issue can be crafted in an informed manner. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">That night I received a phone call from Board Member Pat Bruns to discuss the issue. Over the next week, I heard from Board Members Manchester, Johnson, Haycock, Kohler, McGuire, Fowler, Woods, and Bruns again. On other occasions, I have had personal conversations regarding the issues of assessments and graduation with Board Members Dodd, Johnson, and Fowler, as well as former Board Member McGervey. It is largely due to the courage of former Board Member A.J. Wagner, with whom I have also spoken and corresponded, that the Graduation Problem was even recognized.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">This is significant. I am a teacher, an expert in my field if I may be so bold, and these individuals have been open to my input. Unlike Mr. Gunlock, my family is unable to donate tens of thousands of dollars to a campaign in order to bend the ear, or seek an appointment from an elected official. I am reliant upon elected officials who are willing to listen, and legitimately serve the interests of their constituents based upon the facts at hand.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);">Let it be be said that I am fortunate enough to currently have representation in Columbus in both the House and Senate who value my opinion on education policy because of my experience as a teacher. None of these things that I have written is a slight on the quality of their service. It is, I believe, evidence of the importance of the policy shaping role of the State School Board. Furthermore, these things I have described here are proof of the importance of civic engagement in a democracy. House Bill 512 seeks to undermine this democratic spirit. It undermines my professional efforts as a teacher, and it undermines the potential success of my students.<br></span><br> </div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-30359605905914652832018-02-13T17:24:00.001-05:002018-06-13T21:35:13.195-04:00Hey Ohio, They Are Not Standards Written With Teacher Input If You Completely Ignore the Input.<div><br></div>Why bother? I’ve been asking this question all afternoon and I’m not even sure who I’m asking.<div><br></div><div>If I’m asking the Ohio Department of Education, the question is, “Why bother asking for teacher, and other stakeholder feedback if you’re not going to use it?” If I’m asking myself, the question is “Why bother respond when they ask for feedback?</div><div><br></div><div>I recently responded to feedback, for the 2nd time, regarding the Ohio Learning Standards in Social Studies for American History, the course I teach. When we saw the results for the first round of feedback on the Standards, the ODE reported that nearly ALL those who participated indicated that the inclusion of the Historic Documents in the American History curriculum is redundant, they’re also taught in 8th grade and American Government, and inappropriate in the curriculum. The documents (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Federalist & Anti-Federalist Papers, Northwest Ordinance, Bill of Rights, off the top of my head) ALL fall well outside the time frame of the American History course, 1865-present.</div><div><br></div><div>So, after the first round of stakeholder input, the ODE indicated that consensus dictated the removal of the Historic Documents for American History. My colleagues and I cheered the logic and wisdom of such a system that responds proactively to teacher input. </div><div><br></div><div>Today when I returned to weigh in on another round of the revision, the Historic Documents remained. What fresh hell is this? Despite professional expert testimony to the contrary, the docs are still there, just as redundant and inappropriate as before, but now further tainted by deception.</div><div><br></div><div>Any educator, and many non-educators, can see why this would make no sense. I’ve explained it above... it’s repetitive and utterly out of academic context. Students learn for the long term by making connections. They connect new content to other content and existing schema, their prior knowledge. If the new content, in this case the Documents, is remote from the course of study, then the ability to facilitate these connections diminishes. </div><div><br></div><div>Furthermore, if the ODE and legislature are so very concerned about students being college and career ready, then why on earth would we teach the same damn material over and over?</div><div><br></div><div>The reason, of course, is that Senator Larry Obhof believes that he has taken part in a supreme act of patriotism having passed the so-called “Founding Fathers Bill” which requires the redundant teaching of the documents. Don’t get me wrong, I do not question the good Senator’s patriotism, nor do I object to the documents being taught (where appropriate in the Social Studies curriculum). What I do object to is the refusal of legislators, Senator Obhof among them, who refuse to listen to experts in the field when making decisions that impact said field.</div><div><br></div><div>And in this case, the refusal of the Ohio Department of Education and Superintendent Paolo DeMaria to champion a logical and correct curricular adjustment recommended by experts in the field. Again, their own report on the analysis of the American History Standards indicated that the documents were the biggest issue in need of attention.</div><div><br></div><div>I participated in the ESSA stakeholder meetings, and then watched DeMaria and the ODE attempt to submit a plan that did not reflect the recommendations of those groups. Only public outcry changed that scenario. Now I’m seeing the same sort of chicanery in seeking feedback on State Standards. It makes me wonder what similar bullshit went down with educator recommendations for the Math and ELA Standards.</div><div><br></div><div>As DeMaria travels the state claiming to be listening to students, teachers, administrators, and others from Cleveland to Columbus and elsewhere, I’m left to wonder whether the glad handing consensus builder is genuine. I’ve had conversations with people who like DeMaria, believe that he’s listening, changing the culture at the ODE toward something positive. I met him once briefly, and he was pleasant enough. I want to believe we’re on the same team, but these circumstances are problematic. </div><div><br></div><div>The Ohio Department of Education is supposed to provide support for educators statewide. They should be presenting the legitimate feedback-based changes to the state board. In this case, because for some absurd reason the legislature decided to write specific curriculum into law, the ODE and DeMaria need to be influencing legislators to act on behalf of the experts in the field. </div><div><br></div><div>Instead they figured to pass this pile of shit “revision” off as if nothing happened.</div><div><br></div><div>If you didn’t plan to do your job, then why bother asking for input?</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-7415033300819704302018-01-12T15:06:00.001-05:002018-06-13T21:35:34.346-04:00Rethinking Graduation. Assessments or Opportunities?<div><br>I was encouraged this week to read story after story regarding the Ohio State School Board’s rethinking of the Graduation Requirement. As it stands, in the opinion of the board (and many in education), far too much weight is being placed on a student’s success on standardized tests. The Cleveland Plain Dealer <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/01/what_attributes_should_a_high_1.html" id="id_6e14_fd32_255_4863">has reported</a> on the new vision the board is in the process of developing for Ohio students. The image above is taken from their article, and encapsulates the attributes that the board believes students should be developing through their high school career. </div><div><br></div><div>Their idea is to extend the 2018 pathways to the classes of 2019 & 2020, while developing a new approach. This builds in the time for a meaningful analysis of any new plan, along with a period of public input, and development of legislation. As long as the 2018 additional pathways function as they are intended, the ODE has (to my knowledge) still done no analysis to this end, the state board might be onto something.</div><div><br></div><div>Under the current system, through an arbitrary 18 points earned from 7 standardized tests, we are attempting to measure only a few of the board’s attributes, at best, and likely not measuring any of them very well. What the board is proposing is that we take a far more holistic view of a child’s education. </div><div><br></div><div>This concept might seem revolutionary considering the fact that we in education have shepherded several generations through a slaughterhouse of an assessment system in the name of rigor and reform. However, if we were to ask any given teacher why they got into the business, I’d imagine that many would argue that it was to instill some of the above qualities in their students. If we were to ask students about the benefits of school, or to consider our own careers as students, we would probably be unlikely to hear opinions that reflect one’s performance on an assessment as vital to future success.</div><div><br></div><div>The value of my own K-12 education, with hindsight, had little to do with the acquisition of specific content knowledge, or even content related skills. To be fair it is nice to be able to read & write, balance a bank account and figure a tip, but I value the other experiences far more. Being encouraged to be creative, for example, or to internalize the satisfaction of service to my community has brought me more joy and led me to teaching. Having experienced content or situations that provoked compassion and empathy, or a desire for action have also been a driving force in my life.</div><div><br></div><div>Having had opportunities to develop oral communication skills, despite spending a great deal of time in my own head, has enabled me to do what I do as an educator, and hopefully convey through example that being awkward is perfectly acceptable.</div><div><br></div><div>None of these attributes related to my education in which I place so much value are things that can be accurately assessed on a standardized test. And therein lies the difficulty. When many of the <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180106/ohio-graduation-requirements-might-be-softened-for-classes-of-2019-and-2020" id="id_bf17_1bdd_d34_130d">media outlets</a> reporting on the board’s plan refer to this as a “<a href="http://www.cantonrep.com/news/20180108/high-school-graduation-requirements-could-be-softened-for-classes-of-2019-and-2020" id="id_ddcf_5118_3988_8500">softening</a>” of the Graduation Requirement, they’re missing the point. The value of a child’s education goes well beyond their performance on an assessment, but for so long we’ve allowed a false narrative of failure in our schools to create a demand for a solution. Politicians want a business model, an algorithm, a formula that will guarantee student success.</div><div><br></div><div>18 Points from 7 Assessments does not guarantee success. Education is a human endeavor, so cannot be boiled down to an equation, much as that might simplify things. Providing students with opportunities can facilitate success, and if the state board’s “attributes” promote opportunity, then we will have done well by these kids. If we use this opportunity to create more assessments to collect data points on grit, or creativity, or otherwise, then we will be, once again, missing the point.</div><div><br></div><div>I’d prefer to think that those of us in education will work to assure that this opportunity is not lost. I’d prefer to go with the spin placed on the board’s work by the <a href="http://www.morningjournal.com/general-news/20180111/ohio-board-favors-extending-flexibility-in-graduation-rules" id="id_7e13_3bb1_3231_6441">Lorain Morning Journal</a>, and say that they are attempting to extend flexibility when it comes to graduation. Let’s strengthen the Graduation Requirement by extending this flexibility and providing opportunities.<br></div><div><br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-17255851389523538692017-12-29T14:35:00.001-05:002018-06-13T21:36:32.132-04:00This Year’s Resolutions<div><b>Be more humane.</b><br><br></div><div><br></div>The process of determining resolutions for the New Year is difficult at best and impossible at worst. After all, if I were to backfit my resolutions as an educator into Ohio’s existing social, economic, and educational system, then I’d have to go with something like the following...<div><br></div><div><b>Resolution One:</b> I will believe that education is the great equalizer.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Resolution Two:</b> I will pretend that policy-makers are listening chiefly to educators when developing education policy.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Resolution Three:</b> I will attempt to find value in data from state assessments.</div><div><br></div><div>Alright, alright, that’s enough. I have tried all of these before, and it’s utter nonsense. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Problem One:</b> There is, as yet, no great equalizer. School as a mechanism for upward mobility is a part of the same mythology as Horatio Alger, hard work, bootstraps, rags to riches bullshit whose very dangerous flip-side demonizes the poor for being poor, as if their poverty is simply a product of not having taken advantage of opportunities or worked hard enough. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Problem Two:</b> Despite a depiction of the Superintendent’s many Workgroups, or the Ohio Department of Education, or some legislators touting their collaboration with teachers on new legislation, I have yet to read any legislation that provides opportunities and not punishment for students, teachers and schools. Representatives from the Fordham Institute are not teachers, and neither are analysts from the American Institutes for Research, nor are veterans of Teach for America (I’m looking at you Mr. Hardy). The entities from the state should also not defer to educators who are too frightened of their perceived “superiors” to stand up for what is right.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Problem Three:</b> Regarding value in assessment data... the data is negligible and its value is laughable, especially when compared to the information that I gain on a daily basis in my classroom. As has been illustrated time and again, the information we gain from state assessments portrays a wonderful correlation with economic status. Nothing more.</div><div><br></div><div>It struck me this morning that our bizarre judgement of students, teachers, and schools by this method is a lot like the judgement kids levy on one another in middle and high school. They’re checking off who’s got the right clothes and shoes and phone, and if you don’t, then you lose. It’s the same bullshit valuation of character based on haves and have nots that existed when I was in school, and I guess kids will be kids except that when it comes to evaluating students, teachers, and schools, it’s not kids.</div><div><br></div><div>We’ve got a state capital riddled with education lobbyists and bureaucrats with a short sighted middle school mentality. Their assessment system is the hand they can’t see in front of their face. If these assessments measure economics, which we know they do, then aren't the State Superintendent and the Ohio Department of Education just seeing who’s got the right clothes and shoes and phones? </div><div><br></div><div>Perhaps this is an oversimplification, but as I sit here reflecting upon the end of 2017 and what I might do differently going forward, I can’t help but think that I’m falling prey to the relentless attacks on my profession by those who would seek to blame societal issues on my colleagues and I, rather than look in the mirror.</div><div><br></div><div>Teachers like myself, and the kids we teach are portrayed as failures within this system, and the bureaucrats would have us blame ourselves as if we haven’t worked hard enough and seized our opportunities. If we’d only do that under the informed guise of their valuable data, then achievement will trickle down like a better economic situation.</div><div><br></div><div>Bullshit.</div><div><br></div><div>That’s why I’m not taking on an education based New Year’s Resolution. Lord knows I’ve done plenty of goal setting as it is through my Professional Development Plan, the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System, my Teacher Based Team, and otherwise.</div><div><br></div><div>I’m going with one Resolution this year and I’d like to suggest that educators and policy-makers consider this one as well when thinking about curriculum and lessons, assessments and evaluation. It is this...</div><div><br></div><div>Be more humane.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-50946497417189705312017-12-19T16:16:00.001-05:002017-12-19T16:20:39.871-05:00The Gift of Hope.I just overheard this kid say something like, “Man, I didn’t do all this work for 12 years for them not to let me graduate.” He’d just retaken some tests and was clearly overcome and agitated by the prospect of not receiving a diploma. I’ve eliminated a few four letter words that peppered the above quote.<div><br></div><div>I didn’t know the dude. He was a student venting to his friends in the hall. In a school of 2000, give or take, I really don’t know many people. Even if I had known him, I probably wouldn’t have said anything because as unwritten policy I try not to get involved in student hallway conversations. After all, high school is difficult enough without your square History teacher horning in on your business.</div><div><br></div><div>There are, however, a few things that kid should know.</div><div><br></div><div>First, “Yes they will.” That is, you have indeed worked for 12 years and will not be permitted to graduate due to a test score. This is the reality. It is not right. The assessments provide no indication of your potential for success going forward, but policy-makers (many of which have zero education experience) have established the system with which we must comply.</div><div><br></div><div>Second, there is hope. Seemingly overwhelmed by the holiday spirit, <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/12/graduation_requirements.html" id="id_cb9a_fef3_76db_1236">the State School Board this month has said</a> it will recommend the same pathways granted to the class of 2018 be extended to the classes of 2019 and 2020. Their vote to make the recommendation will be made next month. While several board members weighed in positively on this temporary solution and the prospect of something long term, including Stephanie Dodd and Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings, I was most heartened by a quote from Meryl Johnson who, according to the Plain Dealer, said,</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>"I'm not in favor of standardized tests. I'm not in favor of high stakes testing. It disenfranchises a huge amount of students in Ohio."</i></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i><br></i></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I agree wholeheartedly, and if I were a betting man, I’d wager that a majority of education professionals in the state, and nationwide, would agree.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Unfortunately for all of us, policy-makers tend to disagree.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">As for that student and his friends, regarding the extension of the 2018 pathways, this sounds like good news except that the Ohio Department of Education has yet to conduct any research on how many students will benefit from the 2018 assistance. They have said that they’ll talk to some districts about it. One would think they’d be a bit more concerned about the impact of their “solution.” Apparently not enough to see if it will work. As it stands we’ll amble blindly forward hoping for the best.</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Also cranking up the holiday cheer for concerned high schoolers was Rep Andrew Brenner, who indicated that a bill related to a long term solution to the graduation problem will be presented to the House Education Committee, of which he is the Chair, very soon. While I am eager to hear more, and desperately want to be optimistic, Rep Brenner has previously denied the existence of a graduation problem. He was of the same mindset as the Ghosts of State School Board’s Past, Jones and Gunlock, who believed that diplomas are meaningless without a standardized test score or 7 to go along with them.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">As a teacher, I tend to believe the opposite, that the standardized tests actually decrease the value of a child’s education by narrowing the curriculum and focus. Of course the ODE remedies this by demanding differentiation and personalized learning while narrowing the curriculum and focus through high-stakes testing. Their gift to all of us this season and all year long is unabashed hypocrisy.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">They’re the ones who disagree with the school board’s other recent tear jerker of an announcement, that they believe </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/12/tests_should_be_cut_further_state_school_board_tells_ohio_legislature.html" id="id_17bf_ee01_f7ba_c280" target="_self">standardized tests in Ohio need to be cut</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> further. Yes, Superintendent DeMaria and the ODE have championed minimal cuts in an attempt to appease stakeholders, but they resist the ultimate cut, reducing state assessments to federal minimums, which is really what we should be discussing. They still argue that the “data” that we glean from these assessments is far too valuable to live without. I think they hand pick teachers who agree with them (or are hoping for a sweet ODE gig in the future), and have those folks present to the State School Board on the merits of the existing assessment system. Despite all “expert” testimony to the contrary, I’ll double down and suggest that most educators could effectively do their job without the aforementioned data.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">The very organization who makes their living analyzing assessment data (unless it has to do with graduation, see above), is deciding whether or not we should maintain the same level of assessments. This is madness. It’s like allowing millionaires to decide whether or not millionaires should get a tax cut. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Ask educators in the field what should happen with the grad requirement and assessments overall. Ask all of them, not a chosen few. Ask students. Ask parents. Ask the kid that I mentioned earlier. I’m sure he’s got a few words he’d like to share on the subject.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I believe that the State School Board and a few legislators have begun to listen. They’ve given me the gift of hope.</span></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-50720801006017388612017-12-02T19:09:00.001-05:002018-06-13T21:36:55.290-04:00Remediation & Belief<div><br></div>On Monday I finish the American History remediation course for the fall. Retakes are this coming week. I’ve spent the last 8 weeks teaching a year-long course, as well as modeling analytical (and other) test taking skills and strategies. In our last meeting, I’ll teach the entire course one more time as a refresher. I’ve thought about recording this last session to underscore the utter absurdity in attempting to remedy issues on an assessment with short-term courses. Where we should be developing meaningful opportunities for students to connect to content in order to make sense of their place in the world, we instead make the goal a 400 on an End of Course assessment, whatever that means.<div><br></div><div>On the one hand we want students to explore academically to discover interests and talents so they can make an informed career decision, and on the other we are asking for success on a standardized assessment. Remediation exemplifies the painfully obvious contradiction in these two goals. It’s role in the process requires both student and educator to seek the path of least resistance. In 8 weeks, with 2 sessions per week of an hour or two apiece, with a year’s worth of material to cover, it is impossible to create meaningful experiences, difficult enough to raise a score.</div><div><br></div><div>So, I’ve spent these weeks trying to travel the distance between A and B, or between a 392 and a 400 (depending on the individual), trying to create a tolerable experience for students more consumed by the unsettling prospect of not graduating than any real possibility of connection to content or consideration of what they might do after high school.</div><div><br></div><div>Fortunately, I’m hearing far fewer policy-makers in Columbus suggesting that the solution to our assessment problem as it relates to graduation is simply to provide remediation. Now, perhaps this is still being said and I’m just not there to hear it, a tree falling in the woods kind of thing. I’m choosing to be optimistic on this one, though, and believe that the powers that be have begun to realize that the problem is in the assessments themselves. </div><div><br></div><div>Having written the members of the House and Senate Education Committees and the State School Board last month, I received some positive, if minimal, feedback. House Ed Committee Chair Andrew Brenner called to voice his agreement on some issues and suggest that there is a path forward. Several members of the State Board also responded in support of finding a better system. I have included those messages below.</div><div><br></div><div>So, I guess I’ll continue to believe. It is a season of belief. If I made a Christmas List, a permanent solution to the Graduation Problem would be at the top of it. </div><div><br></div><div>As it stands, I have one more remediation class in which I’ll review an entire course. I’d better rest up.</div><div><br></div><div><img id="id_a9d1_523a_581c_e2e" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jZL559e8Ci4/WiNAqKrlpwI/AAAAAAAAEAQ/P3LJyqOUopAf96QcveuIsGDGL5lGjHBvACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 516px; height: auto;"><br><br></div><img id="id_3723_e394_af53_5b18" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KVr1HO9_JIQ/WiNAqF8FuYI/AAAAAAAAEAU/lCtVbu1lPxka1FuJ_B7MUKy8ymBkWVH6ACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 516px; height: auto;"><br><img id="id_b4c_43a5_da08_af4" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FVz_5AZJQyA/WiNAqKoy_gI/AAAAAAAAEAY/YkbrRvwUQ3EYkPd1f58Jt9lzFez9ziSOACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 517px; height: auto;"><br>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-8736251124590149352017-11-04T20:19:00.001-04:002018-06-13T21:37:31.867-04:00It’s Time to Email Everyone Again, Having Become Convinced No One is Paying Any Attention.<div><br></div>So, the Graduation Crisis is <a href="http://radio.wosu.org/post/ohio-graduation-estimates-once-again-raising-concerns#stream/0" id="id_fd2c_976a_c6de_37a2">once again a problem</a>. The Graduation Requirement has not changed, so obviously there’s still a problem, unless teachers like myself, and our students have pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps in some ridiculous manipulation of an American Dream that is dependent upon the passage of a standardized test. <div><br></div><div>I find the entire argument exhausting anymore, and to be honest, I find its impact on my job untenable. <br><div><br></div><div>As I’ve been arguing for years, the grad requirement is nonsense, so I’ve written the members of the House and Senate Education Committees, or whatever they’re calling them now. We’ve traveled long enough with this testing scenario. It’s time for something more intellectual, more thoughtful, more meaningful. Here’s my letter...</div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">Senator...</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">I have spent the better part of the last three years corresponding with you, and other legislators about a problem with the graduation requirement. As a teacher in an urban high school, Elyria, I felt that I had some insight on the issue. My students were in danger of not graduating, largely due to an unfair and unnecessary assessment system. They still are. Unfortunately, the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the State School Board, has been reluctant to listen, to provide a permanent solution, though a legitimate attempt to assist the class of 2018 was included in the budget bill.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">All available evidence provided by the Ohio Department of Education, regardless of their positive spin, indicates that this year’s juniors are in essentially the same situation as last year’s. Statistics indicate that only 65% of this year’s juniors are likely or highly likely to graduate under the assessment system. As you would imagine, the situation is worse in Ohio’s impoverished urban centers.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">It is long past time to change the current system. In January of this year, I wrote the following, and I would encourage you to revisit it, and move forward for the sake of Ohio’s students.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">If we are to move toward excellence in education, we should be more concerned with providing opportunities for students, as opposed to doling out punishments. In that, education on the whole needs to become less reliant on the weight of standardized test scores which have always, though especially recently, provided negligible data. If it is philosophically impossible to eliminate standardized tests as a determinant for graduation (federal law does not require it), then they should at least be limited to something akin to the OGT. In combination with this, the point totals necessary for graduation should be lowered AND additional ways of earning points should be es</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">tablished. Standardized tests do not measure, nor do they promote, career or college readiness. They also do not begin to convey the level of work that is required of a student through the process of their education. Offering points for active participation in student groups, service</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> organizations, taking on leadership roles, internships or employment, course grades, extracurriculars and otherwise should be considered.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 12.7px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">Yours in education,</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">Matthew T. Jablonski</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br></span></p></div></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-55350355901236080072017-10-18T18:10:00.001-04:002017-10-19T07:17:42.383-04:00A Few Run on Sentences Regarding the Exaggerated Demise of the Graduation Problem.<div><img id="id_44da_437_4272_6a9d" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hv6mviApMrI/WefRPifJKPI/AAAAAAAAD5w/rnH0cbJM310lCi7eYgIBvYBOgAh87PfmgCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 529px; height: auto;"><br><br></div><div><br></div><div><b>One: Not Encouraging.</b></div><div><br></div>This week, Ohio’s School Board was entertained with a presentation from the Ohio Department of Education, seemingly meant to <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/10/ohios_high_school_graduation_crisis_has_eased_-_some.html" id="id_7bf8_bf87_a602_d0f0">diminish any lingering concern regarding the Graduation Crisis</a>, in which they illustrated the “encouraging” news that 77% of Ohio’s seniors (according to their estimates) are on track to graduate - encouraging despite only 50% of urban very high poverty students being “on track,” despite the fact that this year’s juniors, the class of 2019, are in essentially the same place as their predecessors in their assessment related progress to graduation.<div><br></div><div><b>Two: Legislate for All Students.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Because the poor, with terribly immediate issues with which to deal (like multiple jobs, food insecurity, subsequent health issues, lack of transportation) are less likely to have enough time to devote to simply understand the convoluted Graduation Requirement, or apply political pressure, or voice their concerns to the media, the O.D.E., State Superintendent, and legislators seem to believe that they can create policy that exacerbates the systemic inequality prevalent in our society, as the shameless spinning of this grad data proves.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Three: Cycle.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Insisting on success within an assessment system that reflects little more than economic standing as contingent for a high school diploma does little more than assure that the “have-nots” will not graduate, will be wholly unable to continue their education, so subsequently only qualify for low-paying jobs, and assure the continued “economic disadvantage” for themselves in their lifetime, and their children in theirs.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Four: Shut Up.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>The insistence from Columbus on the unproven lie that success on state assessments somehow equates to career or college readiness is not helping boost achievement for Ohio’s students, when education practitioners from all corners of the state understand completely that the system is a sham, limited at best in its ability to measure anything, and yet still being wielded as a weapon to punish children and their teachers while being disguised as a mechanism for improvement with phrases like “they have answered the call” or “they have stepped up to the challenge.”</div><div><br></div><div><b>Five: Chad.</b></div><div><br></div><div>Chad Aldis of the Fordham Foundation believes we teachers and students have <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/10/ohios_high_school_graduation_crisis_has_eased_-_some.html" id="id_7aa8_388e_5400_70ae">stepped up to the challenge</a> of tougher expectations on the new assessments, and that the grad crisis isn’t what we thought it was, and all sorts of other bullshit he thinks we’re listening to, even though we know that he’s an advocate for charter schools who benefit from the failure of public schools on an assessment system (that essentially measures economics), through the opening of districts to new charters, or the complete CEO-style takeover of districts like Youngstown and Lorain.</div><div><br></div><div>Assessments benefit the people you work for, Chad, we get it.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Six: The Reality.</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>There is still a Graduation Problem, if not a Crisis.</div><div><br></div><div>Thousands of students will be prevented from graduating because of a flawed assessment system.</div><div><br></div><div>Those students left without diplomas will be disproportionately economically disadvantaged.</div><div><br></div><div>This is criminal.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-75499947092549833972017-09-16T19:54:00.001-04:002017-09-17T16:26:26.805-04:00Same With the State Report Card.The Ohio State Report Cards were released this week, so as a teacher in an urban district, I've been splitting my time between rage and despondency. I've also been fighting a cold while trying to motivate, educate, and entertain about 150 10th grade American History students who attend a school that received a few F's, a D, and a lone C in Graduation Rate. Needless to say, this is not the assessment of my building that I would levy, and I don't think that my students or their parents, even on a bad day, would give us marks that low.<div><br></div><div>But the state is another story, as they have no issue doling out notifications of failure. Sure there are disclaimers, like this one on the Report Card page, "<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Report Cards are only one part of the story of what is happening in a district or school. To get a fuller picture, visit schools, talk to teachers, administrators, parents and students..." </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria has also continued his tour of relentless positivity </span><a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2017/09/15/State-report-card-results-provide-baselines-for-area-districts.html" id="id_8632_2464_5bd5_87fc">pointing out</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">, "Having set high expectations for what our students must know and be able to do, our children and schools are stepping up to the challenge. We’re seeing increases in achievement across the state. I continue to be impressed with the dedication of Ohio’s educators and our students’ desire to learn more and more.”</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The problem, even if there are widespread increases in achievement on these tests (and I'm not sure that's true), is that no one is listening to the Superintendent, and no one is visiting schools. Most people are not even visiting the state website. The only piece the average citizen is interested in is the annual Performance Index </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2017/09/every_ohio_school_district_ran.html" id="id_1608_a969_d096_84e5">ranking of school districts</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> published in the paper.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">With the exception of a majority of the Ohio Legislature and anyone currently employed by the Ohio Department of Education, anyone who's done any rudimentary research into what it is that standardized tests really measure (and in turn the district rankings) will tell you that it's a measure of economics. So, </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/09/grades_rise_slightly_on_ohios_2017_state_report_cards_in_year_three_of_common_core_standards.html" id="id_5984_c455_6838_fdd6">when news outlets echo</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> the state's rhetoric and explain that the state changed the testing system "in an effort to demand higher performance from students," it is complete bullshit. When they add that students arrive at college unprepared for college work, they're off target because everyone worth their salt in education knows that assessments are not a good predictor of college success. GPA is the best predictor of college success. Standardized assessments are best at identifying socioeconomic status, which is information we could gain from the IRS without hundreds of hours of test prep and testing.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">If you don't believe me, then check out the information below which examines Ohio's state report card ranking by Performance Index, as it relates to median income, average income, and relative poverty in a given district. The first image is the top 30 schools, and the second is the bottom 30 schools.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><img id="id_440f_b8ce_240_44c7" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OwLZ1Y3UGYs/Wb7acBlfHDI/AAAAAAAADvM/6OhuIJxAtk0sJbyRvN_eRZ2nf7e5_Z_UACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 585px; height: auto;"><br><br><img id="id_6f_8e05_6ed7_3db6" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xyepFj5bx6w/Wb7acTTeP4I/AAAAAAAADvU/vWxnqONKZkk7voQ5ulFb05IIsR3duyhMwCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 594px; height: auto;"><br><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><img id="id_338f_59e8_5243_763" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YuhhZ-kYO38/Wb7acRoUWXI/AAAAAAAADvQ/LmmNtAqTgzIS5I1V6VLAhyX_6z5-y2PtACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 603px; height: auto;"><br><br><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><div>The differences top to bottom are stark, from a district with zero poverty in the top 30, to districts with 100 percent poverty in the bottom 30. The averages are, perhaps, even more telling. Top 30 average median income: $54,211, average poverty: 8%. Bottom 30 average median income: $25,131, average poverty: 87%. </div><div><br></div><div>The average household income for districts in the top 30 PI ranking is $119,429. The average household income for those in the bottom 30 is $36,668. This is what our state assessments measure.</div><div><br></div><div>This is not new. Sure the incomes and poverty levels may fluctuate, school districts may swap spots. You might even catch a high poverty district move up, or a low poverty district drop in the rankings, but the correlation is there, year after year.</div><div><br></div><div>What really makes me lose sleep is the fact that we tie high stakes decisions to a system that essentially measures income. I'm not getting too attached to that C my school earned in Graduation Rate. The state proficiency rate in Algebra is 56.2%, in Geometry 49.7%, ELA II 63.3%. Sure those percentages may be higher statewide than last year, but that's 40-50% of students not on pace to graduate statewide based on those subjects alone. If we consider the nature of averages, combined with the information on poverty and standardized tests, then what are the percentages of students who will not graduate in those bottom 30 districts? What's the percentage in my own district? Whatever it is, it is too high, and without good enough reason.</div><div><br></div><div>So, if the majority of students prevented from earning a diploma, or from moving up to 4th grade, are from districts with high rates of poverty, then aren't we punishing many of these kids just for their economic condition. And if retention leads to dropout, and a lack of diploma leads to a significantly lower income, then aren't we exacerbating an oppressive system?</div><div><br></div><div>I believe we are, and no amount of relentless positivity from Superintendent DeMaria, or teacher celebrating disclaimers from the ODE are going to change that. We have known the limitations of an evaluation system based on standardized tests for a generation or more. It is time for it to end.</div><div><br></div><div>If the state really wants to "increase achievement" and "close gaps" and assure that kids are "college and career ready," then what we need is a legitimate attempt to at least remediate the effects of poverty on children's lives, or move toward the eradication of childhood poverty altogether.</div><div><br></div><div><img id="id_5b86_98c6_dc04_be56" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1QnrM0tkWqw/Wb25w2bcH4I/AAAAAAAADuw/UXYe-cJYnhchsMovw63NSNIusLQlMKp3QCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 155px; height: auto;"></div><div><br></div><div>Postscript: Tanner Boyle</div><div><br></div><div>Report Card week has also gotten me thinking a lot about my favorite baseball movie, <i>The Bad News Bears</i>. Since I was a kid, the 1976 film has drawn me in. While I was never on board with the film's casual racism, the casual profanity spoke to me almost as much as the story of of an underdog team of immigrants, minorities, and poor kids fighting against the odds, against teams who'd had every advantage, economic and otherwise. I grew up in the city where I teach, and watched working class people with no advantage battle against the odds for something better, and rarely win. It's still like that here in many ways. That's why I stayed, to help people fight for something better. That's why the film appeals to me. The Bears work hard, win their way into the championship, and lose in the end. This is life for many people.</div></div><div><br></div><div>So, this week when Superintendent DeMaria was congratulating us for trying hard, and the district rankings list was retweeted thousands of times, I was thinking about the last scene in the film. The rich kids have won again, and the poor slobs, the Bears, have suffered through a forced apology and "2 - 4 - 6 - 8 who do we appreciate," when foul mouthed Tanner Boyle steps up and says, "Hey Yankees...you can take your apology and your trophy and shove 'em straight up your ass."</div><div><br></div><div>Same with the state report card.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-86819756597452688652017-08-21T17:39:00.001-04:002017-08-30T17:25:19.919-04:00Education, Poverty, Graduation, and Guilt.<img id="id_ee7_7fb0_5d9b_ea3d" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-uzGnVDPIOvs/WZtTGJHm6fI/AAAAAAAADm4/ltL2X_mvB30y0ljwkIP3hDH_TlFTAwDWgCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 422px; height: auto;"><br><div><i>If chronic absenteeism is highest in areas with the greatest concerns regarding graduation, then why is 93% attendance a key component of the state's "solution" to the grad crisis of 2018? And as long as I'm asking questions, what's the solution to the grad crisis of 2019? 2020?</i></div><div><br></div>So, last week I got to feeling guilty about a decision that I had to make. Truth be told, having been raised Catholic, my guilt comes around often. In this case, I had planned to attend the office hours of my State Senator, as well as attend a local school board meeting at a time that interfered with activities related to my son's birthday. I quickly recognized that I was in a lose - lose situation. <div><br></div><div>I wanted to remind my Senator and the school board that there is still a graduation problem despite the fairly <a href="http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Ohio-Graduation-Requirements/News/Two-additional-graduation-options-available-for-th" id="id_a504_def7_6bd4_acdd">recent "fix" added to the budget bill for the class of 2018</a> The problem, as I've said enough times to make myself sick, is that the solution does nothing for the graduation problem of 2019, 2020, and beyond. Even worse, the solution may not solve anything as the easiest new paths to graduation are retaking all tests on which you've scored a 1or 2, earning a 2.5 GPA and maintaining a 93% attendance rate. These last two indicators could be difficult to satisfy, especially for students experiencing any economic hardship. Individuals living poverty are less likely to be able to seek <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/money-quality-health-care-longer-life/" id="id_350e_5c96_d2c_5fe">medical attention for health issues</a>, and more likely to have unresolvable <a href="http://www.sharedjustice.org/domestic-justice/2016/3/10/transportation-the-overlooked-poverty-problem" id="id_428c_96da_a227_7805">transportation</a> issues, food or home instability, increased responsibility in the home, and other issues which <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/05/chronic_absenteeism_in_ohio.html" id="id_69a8_3752_948c_37c0">increase absenteeism</a>. </div><div><br></div><div>Even legislators who championed the so-called solution are <a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-students-should-graduate-without-passing-state-tests-panel-says/vAWkVFNKWwOADyJQxdVanL/" id="id_8e63_86a6_4e3_3462">not convinced it will work</a>.</div><div><br></div><div>Having studied my sophomore's scores from the spring, I am becoming convinced that the class of 2019 is in the same situation as their predecessors. The state had estimated that 30% of those students statewide would not graduate. Because <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/12/poor_kids_do_poorly_affluent_do_better_on_ohios_state_tests_-_again.html" id="id_d5a8_2cb0_f187_ea4e">scores on standardized tests correlate with socio-economic status</a>, it is reasonable to surmise that the percentages of non-graduates will be higher in districts with high percentages of economically disadvantaged students. In the district where I work, 59% of students are economically disadvantaged, so the graduation problem will impact these kids that I teach disproportionately. The state of Ohio has begun to formally study <a href="http://radio.wosu.org/post/data-shows-correlation-between-education-and-poverty#stream/0" id="id_1042_7def_2cd0_63d2">the impact of poverty on education, and admits the relationship</a>. Despite this, Ohio educational policy continues to punish children for their academic performance in high school and otherwise, essentially punishing many children by denying a diploma, simply for being poor.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm not comfortable telling specific stories about students, even without a mention of names, because they're not my stories and I believe in confidentiality. The problem is that the kids aren't likely going to discuss their testing issues publicly. If you were a 16 year old who's taken 6 of your 7 assessments and only compiled 10 of the necessary 18 points, you'd not likely be eager to discuss the situation with your peers either, understanding as they may be. Unfortunately, many students are in this very situation, some better, some worse. My district aligned curriculum early, collaborated on methods, built common assessments, and now we're offering remediation to every student who needs it in order to prepare for retakes. And just like the state's solution for the class of 2018, I fear it will not help nearly enough students.</div><div><br></div><div>What I'm willing to say is this... Unless a permanent solution is crafted, over the coming years 1000's of students statewide (including many in my school), who are deserving of a diploma, will not graduate. Students are being made to feel like failures by an assessment system that says little about their accomplishments or potential. Regardless of their success in the classroom, on the field, in the arts, music, technologies or otherwise, they will be prevented from graduating by arbitrarily set cut scores on a narrow set of assessments.</div><div><br></div><div>Students who are leaders in their community, student government, in youth groups, churches, scouts, and otherwise are being told they're not deserving of a diploma. There are young people currently, successfully employed whose test scores claim that they are not fit for the workplace. Still other kids are successfully completing college courses while their assessments indicate that they're not college ready.</div><div><br></div><div>It is the absurd and disgusting nature of this high stakes assessment system which would even have me consider putting off my kid's birthday for the sake of promoting a solution. As it stands, I spent time with my son, and instead wrote my Senator & one of our board members. I'm guilty about it, but I've learned to live with that, the graduation problem I cannot.</div><br><br>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-62254305548907176982017-07-13T19:16:00.001-04:002017-07-13T19:16:22.943-04:00I was a third grader too.<div><img id="id_e30f_cea8_be67_afaf" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ya6px3IB7F4/WWf_RThgLzI/AAAAAAAADYo/Dj6jRhIW33IX3YrTz1IEWm0zutCKiSklQCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 251px; height: auto;"><br><br></div><div>That's the third grade me. I wore that shirt for my fourth grade picture as well because I have absolutely no fashion sense. I was an introverted kid who worried about things, but I liked school largely because my teachers, Mrs. McKnight that year, were great. I had a sense that she and the other adults impacting my life were looking out for me.</div><div><br></div>I've been thinking a lot about third grade this week, and am growing increasingly despondent over the recent news regarding third grade retention associated with the reading guarantee. When I try to wrap my mind around how the 3rd grade me would respond, I find myself approaching a panic attack. As an Ohio teacher, I am sincerely ashamed that I am working within a profession that would allow these things to happen, however well intentioned.<div><br></div><div>If you've somehow missed the news, a few days ago the Ohio School Board had the opportunity to act, and did nothing, having <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/07/errors_could_unfairly_force_som.html" id="id_8bdc_bdc7_2d2f_4164">been informed of some serious issues</a> by the school districts of Akron, Canton, and Columbus. Apparently, mistakes in setting the cut scores on some alternative assessments are going to cause hundreds, if not thousands of students to be held back in 3rd grade for little justifiable reason. To be perfectly honest, I do not believe there is a justifiable reason to retain a child based on a standardized test score.<div><br></div><div>As with the Graduation problems I've written so much about, it appears that the adults have fouled things up while the students are left to suffer, and the adults refuse to admit their mistake.</div><div><br></div><div>And then today, the <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/07/third_grade_reading_controversy_could_block_50_more_cleveland_kids_from_advancing_to_4th_grade.html#incart_river_home" id="id_7f4d_fc95_3771_4e41">bad news got worse</a> as the Cleveland Schools revealed that 50% more of their 3rd graders, 26% total, will be retained this year. </div><div><br></div><div>As a teacher, I understand that all students come to school at different developmental levels, and that some of them likely need remediation in order to help bridge deficiencies. However, I also know that students develop at different rates, and especially in younger grades often catch up to their "accelerated" peers later, after third grade even. Now, I'm not an elementary teacher, nor am I an expert on literacy, but I believe these things are worth consideration, especially the latter. If we recognize that time for individual development is a legitimate factor, then retention becomes completely unnecessary (which it is). </div><div><br></div><div>What is left, then, is to assure that attention is being paid to those students who need additional help. Many districts already provide this remediation as their limited resources will allow, but it is difficult to provide the individualized attention necessary when Ohio's schools are currently being funded far <a href="Steve Dyer: Ohio budget process ends with $896 million less for kids in school districts than during the great recession" id="id_d8a8_232b_c779_57c0">less than they were during the Great Recession. </a> We would be well served to divert resources from our excessive assessment system, and put them into literacy programs and/or fully funded universal early childhood programs statewide.</div><div><br></div><div>The Ohio Department of Education and state leaders claim to operate using data to fuel decision-making. If that is the case, then they should be made aware that data illustrates that retention has proven to be academically harmful, and that early childhood education has a positive impact on literacy. Unfortunately, what I'm finding is that many leaders are deaf to data that does not serve their beliefs.</div></div><div><br></div><div>This week, the Ohio School Board decided to take no action to help these 3rd graders adversely affected. They want further study. They want more data. I suspect that they want data that will support their retention policy. What's getting lost in this bullshit politicizing is the fact that these are children we're talking about, many of them worried introverts likely approaching something of a panic at having to go to 3rd grade again.</div><div><br></div><div>Isn't it time some adults stepped up and proved that we're looking out for these kids?</div><div><br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-22357614807613025452017-07-01T09:18:00.001-04:002017-07-01T09:31:52.050-04:00Graduation Problem: It Ain't Over 'til It's Over.<img id="id_829b_7d27_3255_4150" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1B-mD7TdGIE/WVehDSPTClI/AAAAAAAADVk/jGG0_3GKdkciasbsgrnaxutSJgOGo9KLgCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 433px; height: auto;"><br><div><br></div><div><br></div>Much as I'd like to celebrate the inclusion of the Graduation Workgroup's recommendation in the biennial budget signed yesterday by Governor Kasich, I cannot. Until I'm able to look my students in the eye and say that the class of 2018 is being treated equitably in the face of an atrocious and volatile high stakes assessment system, I will not celebrate. Until I see an actual analysis of the probable impact of the recommendations based on real data from Ohio school districts, I refuse to claim a victory. Until I can speak to my students of last year, the class of 2019, and next year's sophomores in my American History classes, the class of 2020, and say that we've come to a legitimate long term solution to the graduation requirement that seeks to promote educational opportunities instead of punish students, I see little reason to celebrate.<div><br></div><div>As much as I am tired, and would like to call it over, it's not over. Because that is my belief, I am turning my attention to the Ohio School Board who meets July 10th and 11th, and has some influence on these things. If you feel the same way, then I encourage you to do the same. Below you will find the letter I penned this morning, and <a href="http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/State-Board/State-Board-Members/Board-Member-Roster.pdf.aspx" id="id_8146_8480_f4bd_965c">here</a> is a link to their contact information.</div><div><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Board Member</i></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></i></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Despite the recent inclusion of the Graduation Workgroup’s recommendation in the biennial budget, there are still very real concerns regarding the high school requirement. First, there has been no study to indicate how many students will be positively impacted by the aforementioned action. Please demand a study by the Ohio Department of Education to provide a data driven, district to district analysis of graduation status after the spring tests for the classes of 2018, 2019, and 2020, as well as probable effects of the Workgroup’s plan for 2018. Second, please consider taking even more expansive action to protect the class of 2018 by providing a legitimate safe harbor or dramatically lowering the required points to graduate. Finally, please begin looking at a long term solution to the graduation problem. While I understand that an ultimate solution will take legislative action, the state board should be proactive and begin to reconsider the fact that Ohio is one of only 13 states to require assessments in order to graduate. Our requirement for high school kids is at least excessive and too reliant upon high stakes assessments, and in the minds of many educators like myself, completely unnecessary and without merit.</i></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></i></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Thank you for your consideration and work on behalf of Ohio’s students.</i></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><i><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></i></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i>Matthew T. Jablonski</i></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><br></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><br></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><img id="id_e335_3310_d3e3_84a3" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R0Q6hySP8R0/WVehDf7sZmI/AAAAAAAADVg/_wS3KwB0crwRhOZXI2fV0Ia6lX4PBkp7ACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 526px; height: auto;"><br></span><i><br></i></p></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-56977825569954910132017-06-22T18:53:00.001-04:002017-06-22T18:54:37.190-04:00If the Dumpster's on Fire, Put it Out. (On Solutions to the Graduation Crisis)<div><img id="id_8aad_d9c7_af0_6223" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YorOoWlx8n4/WUxKahcBIHI/AAAAAAAADS0/-KcZ5bV7rNgf4v1jsq2DEo5IyQO-NuT8wCHMYCw/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 527px; height: auto;"> <br></div><div><br></div>As someone who's devoted the better part of two years to promoting a solution to the graduation problem, this week was both disheartening and exciting. As in, I'm happy something is happening, even if it's not what I'd hoped. For those of us who have sat down or spoken with legislators to promote a functional safe harbor for the class of 2018, and a meaningful long term solution to a meaningless assessment system tied to graduation, the outcome of the Ohio Senate's budget proposal is unsatisfactory. <div><br></div><div>Their budget proposal was <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/06/654_billion_ohio_budget_bill_c.html" id="id_114e_a41d_ffea_487d">unsatisfactory for most Ohioans</a> I imagine, if you value adequate medical care, believe in the need for treatment for opioid abuse, rely on municipal services like police and fire, or value pre-school, educational services, and after-school programs, among many other things.<div><br></div><div>As a matter of fact, as I made calls to Senators earlier this week, I found it nearly absurd that my focus was on an educational amendment to the budget bill that would have allowed students in the class of 2018 to directly replace a score on a state test with grades from the corresponding subject. In short, a kid with a 1 on the Algebra assessment, but a B in the course would earn a 4 toward graduation.</div><div><br></div><div>A course grade measures a balance of things like mastery of content, time management, organizational management, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, etcetera, which is why a student's GPA is a far greater indication of their ability to succeed in college or a career. </div><div><br></div><div>But still, why put something like this in the budget bill for goodness sake?</div><div><br></div><div>This is the nature of the system. The state legislature and the ODE have made such a mess of Ohio's education system that Superintendent DeMaria has convened separate committees to study the graduation requirement, assessments overall, and teacher evaluations. He's been forced to put off submission of the state's ESSA plan because of the public outcry regarding a lack of adherence to public input. The state's largest charter school has defrauded it of $60 million.</div><div><br></div><div>I have heard often, from legislators and citizens alike, that the budget bill is no place for laws on education (or anything not budget related). Here's the thing, I agree entirely. And if Ohio's assessment and accountability system weren't such an unholy mess, then none of this would be necessary. As it stands, the dumpster is on fire and we need to put it out.</div><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately, even though she is in some ways in agreement, Senator Lehner did not attempt to provide the course grade for test score protection we were promoting, but instead included the <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3550941/Graduation-RequirementsWkgp-Recommendations.pdf" id="id_66a0_1105_3147_a085">Graduation Workgroup's suggested alternative</a>. From <a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-senate-softer-graduation-rules-for-class-2018/AS1TV8TgGGBIjRy2dH9NVL/" id="id_c2c1_3e5e_a51e_9516">Wednesday's Dayton Daily News</a>...</div><div><br></div><div><div class="text" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>Senate Education Committee Chair Peggy Lehner said earning required course credits should outweigh test results, especially for this class, which has been through so much change.</i></span></p></div><div class="text" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>“It takes several years for kids to become accustomed to a new test, and for teachers to know how to prepare students for it,” said Lehner, R-Kettering. “You’ll always see kids do worse at the beginning of new tests. … Because graduation is dependent on this, that’s pretty high stakes, so it seems only fair to give these kids in the beginning an opportunity.”</i></span></p></div><div>Course credits should outweigh test results, new assessments or old. So, why not swap course grades for test scores? My hypothesis is that it is simply not a politically viable option. Not enough legislators would support it. Despite it being widely accepted in education communities that GPA is a greater predictor of college success than standardized tests, policy makers still believe the tests determine college and career readiness. Despite the fact that only 13 states require the satisfaction of assessments in order to graduate, Ohio persists. Despite the fact that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/03/what-the-new-naep-test-scores-really-tell-us/?utm_term=.977f4459247f" id="id_c34d_6946_37d2_82e6">NAEP</a>, ACT, and SAT scores have not improved through increasing state assessments, Ohio will test more and claim to be improving educational outcomes. </div><div><br></div><div>There are some legislators who seem to get it, Senator Lehner among them. I would count Senators Schiavoni and Skindell as well because they introduced a grades for scores amendment to the budget bill, the one that was not accepted. Senator Manning has also expressed her concern, and promised to be responsive to issues going forward if the Workgroup's recommendation is not enough. Even among these I'm listing, I know I disagree by degrees with each of them on the value (or lack thereof) of standardized tests. Where I see none, they may see some, but we can find common ground. The problem is that there are not enough legislators willing to listen to common sense, often cost-saving solutions from teachers, and so the dumpster burns.</div><div><br></div><div>Even the Grad Workgroup's recommendation is not guaranteed to survive the process. According to the Dayton article, House Rep Antani said, <i>"</i><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>There’s no reason to change the (graduation) requirements until we see how their testing went this year." </i>This is the same thinking of former State Board President Tom Gunlock who, after being complicit in creating this abysmal system, </span><a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/tom_gunlock_former_state_school_board_president_leaves_board.html" id="id_c049_a9c0_ed3f_e9b3">quit his position</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> so he didn't have to fix it, and now for some reason keeps talking as if he's still in some sort of leadership position. In their minds there is an acceptable number of students to be refused a diploma because of standardized tests, so they want to see how the tests shake out. I wonder where their threshold lies? 35,000? 30,000? 25? </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div>Mr. Gunlock and those of his ilk <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/12/ohio_high_school_graduation_fi.html" id="id_51f0_584f_f39d_2a49">also believe</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> that a system of more confusing and convoluted tests equals high standards, and if students can't meet them, then they simply need reteaching or remediation. Because he sees it as an issue with unsatisfactory teachers, we should simply teach them again, except that </span><a href="http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Testing/Test-Dates/2016-2017-Testing-Dates" id="id_7189_fa1e_734b_ea6e">the system doesn't even allow for this</a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scores from the spring tests are due to districts on June 27, 2017.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Student/Family results forms are due to districts by July 26th.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The summer testing window for retakes is July 17-28.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With all due respect to the former board President, when should we reteach an entire course for the retake? When do we remediate? Am I expected to develop time travel as well as teach the course?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Maybe you think that this is splitting hairs, and those kids can retake tests in the fall. Perhaps, but I would argue that this is only one symptom of the larger sickness within the state level education systems in Ohio. Why is no one in the ODE paying attention to these things? Why do legislators refuse to take the word of not only teachers and administrators, but parents and students as well?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We're running out of time. The 30% of next year's senior class in danger of not graduating cannot wait to make plans for their lives. We cannot come up with a solution next June and expect students to have fulfilled an expectation about which they were uninformed. That's exactly like the testing system we've ground them through. We also cannot ask districts to take on the cumbersome task of keeping track of additional pathways to graduation after the fact. As it stands, it's already going to be nearly impossible to keep track of these items if the Workgroup recommendation passes now.</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The aforementioned scheduling of results release and testing amounts to a missed opportunity for each student impacted, just like the refusal to include a course grade for test score amendment in the budget bill is a missed opportunity. I do not think the Grad Workgroup's recommendation will be enough to fix the crisis for 2018, but I will support it because it's all we've got, and not to do so would be yet another missed opportunity.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And if it makes it out of Committee, I'll champion it in in the House. If by some miracle the amendment is accepted by the governor and he signs it into law, then I'll hope I'm wrong, and the recommendation is enough to get a significant amount of students to a diploma.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And then... onto the Grad Crisis of 2019, or a long term solution.</span></div></div></div><br><div>The dumpster fire rages.</div><div><br></div><div><img id="id_42b5_92ed_fc7c_e40" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3VJEWr4cE8I/WUxKaKnXawI/AAAAAAAADSw/7aQaEeJkhfwBTElWkYBKoIBj7OZz3QtCACHMYCw/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 583px; height: auto;"> <br></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-67680297849146849992017-06-16T16:31:00.001-04:002017-06-16T20:03:58.009-04:00The Day Some Senators, Teachers, and a Snake Oil Salesman Met at the Statehouse.<div><img id="id_fff_9ee9_63b_1e5e" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qB3CTZu23bw/WURAKez6V5I/AAAAAAAADOY/4ZprgTbTFhUzN15B2syeQbwgvvqrFFVQwCHMYCw/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 519px; height: auto;"> <br></div><div><br></div><div>Between <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2017/06/08/Elyria-school-board-approves-stadium-plan.html" id="id_c023_9bb_52bb_30f6">local school board meetings</a>, writing the State School Board to <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/06/state_school_board_votes_to_recover_60_million_from_ecot_online_school.html" id="id_43a8_4635_71e5_e0a7">do what's right</a>, participation in a visioning process for <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2017/02/16/Elyria-Schools-details-timetable-for-building-plan.html" id="id_bb2_42d1_8670_edab">new facilities in my district</a>, and prepping for a recent visit to the state capitol, I'm left with the question lots of schoolteachers face when summer comes... "When does the break begin?"</div><div><br></div><div><b><u>The Class of 2018.</u></b><br><div><br></div><div>Our 2 hour drive to Columbus was taken on the occasion of a lobby day, set up by our friends at Ohio BATs. Beginning at 9am, we were scheduled to meet up, break into two groups, and meet with 10 or so state Senators who are currently working on the budget bill. Our first goal was to encourage them to support safe harbor language for the class of 2018, removing any connection between Ohio's volatile and convoluted system of standardized tests and their ability to graduate. These kids have <a href="http://testingwindow.blogspot.com/2017/05/i-guess-it-is-all-about-assessments.html" id="id_7a60_e3ca_a229_1e93">seen the worst of an assessment system</a> that has been awful for everyone.</div><div><br></div><div>Every Senator with whom I had the opportunity to speak believed that something needed to be done for the class of 2018. This would include my own Senator Gayle Manning, as well as Senate Education Committee Chair Peggy Lehner, candidate for Ohio Governor Senator Joe Schiavoni of Youngstown, and Senator Jordan. Even the young man, whose name I didn't catch, who was homeschooled in North Ridgeville and met with us in place of Senator Bacon seemed convinced of the unique inequity and instability in the assessment system as it relates to this group of students.</div><div><br></div><div>Right now, Senators Schiavoni and Skindell have requested to add an amendment to the Senate Budget Bill that would allow members of the class of 2018 to use their course grades in place of assessment scores in order to earn points toward graduation. The Republican majority in the Senate has the power to keep or discard this amendment. CALL THEM NOW, and tell them that <b>"because Ohio's assessment system has been so volatile over the past 3 years, it is unfair to use it as a measure for graduation. In order to remedy an atrocious situation in which 38,000 students are in danger of not earning a diploma, it is necessary to put language in the budget bill that will allow for the use of course grades in place of test scores to earn points toward the 18 necessary to graduate." </b>You'll find the Senate Republican contact info <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iJwQqgub9UXvAVOgrt9muS8Z4KTMIz74Z3htB1Y7_Qk/htmlview#gid=0" id="id_6551_3f99_a077_e5da">here</a>.</div></div><div><br></div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b><u>Convening the Experts, and Then Ignoring Them.</u></b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>Because of the widespread demand to decrease assessments in Ohio's ESSA study, and then <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/01/ohio_proposes_no_testing_cuts.html" id="id_6c41_29f1_868c_6599">his own failure</a> to do what the research told him to do, Superintendent Paolo DeMaria <a href="http://testingwindow.blogspot.com/2017/05/i-guess-it-is-all-about-assessments.html" id="id_93b_77ed_f891_c10">created an Assessment Advisory Committee</a> to study and make recommendations regarding streamlining (read limiting) Ohio's assessment system. It was serendipity that the Super <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/06/state_superintendent_proposes_cuts_in_ohios_state_tests.html" id="id_ae8d_534d_8370_f2ba">presented the proposal to the state school board</a> two days prior to our Columbus visit because our second goal was to encourage a dramatic reduction in testing.</div><div><br></div><div>DeMaria's group of experts and education leaders suggested moving to the federal minimum of required assessments which would involve the elimination of the following tests... 4th and 6th grade Social Studies, high school American History, American Government, 1 high school Math, high school ELA I, the fall 3rd grade ELA (if the retention policy is eliminated), the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (if the district assesses otherwise), the ACT/SAT requirement and/or the Work Keys. They also indicated that the high school End of Course test could be replaced with a single sitting general content exam.</div><div><br></div><div>While I would argue that the state should also look at decreasing the time spent on assessments that remain, this proposed plan sounds pretty good.</div><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately, while DeMaria decided to convene this committee of experts himself, as he has no actual experience working in a school, he is also choosing to essentially ignore their suggestions. At the state board meeting he proposed eliminating 4th grade Social Studies, ELA I, American Government, and the Work Keys. The phrase I heard from one Senator in Columbus to justify this rationale was "we can't just get rid of tests because of the federal minimum."</div><div><br></div><div>Well, perhaps not, but I'm guessing that the thinking of the educational leaders on the committee was not quite as simplistic. We can get rid of these assessments because they have done nothing, and will do nothing to improve educational quality in Ohio. There is very little actionable data that comes from our assessment system from the perspective of a student, teacher, school, or district. The assessments are often developmentally inappropriate and currently employ technology that has an impact on student performance. The unnecessary high stakes tied to assessments (3rd grade and high school) is not federally mandated and causes undue anxiety and some dire consequences in the lives of students. This is just off the top of my head.</div><div><br></div><div>On the up side, all of the Senators with whom I spoke, believe that our assessment system is too intrusive and needs to be scaled back. There is currently legislation in the works to eliminate the 4th and 6th grade Social Studies tests. This was referred to as "a beginning" in multiple meetings that I attended. Will we eventually move to the Assessment Advisory Committee's suggestions? I doubt that we will, but I do believe that we can do far better than the Superintendent's proposal. I think the Senators that we spoke to believe this as well.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><b><u>Ignoring the Experts While Insisting You Are One (or The Face of Entitlement)</u></b></div><div><b><u><br></u></b></div><div>If there were a down side to our lobby day, it was our accidental opportunity to meet lobbyist and Educational Consultant, Lisa Gray, who arrived for a meeting with Senator Lehner as our meeting was concluding. The Senator introduced us and told Mrs. Gray the nature of our discussion, namely a solution for the class of 2018 and the minimization of assessments. In so many words, Gray, stern-faced and full of self belief and entitlement, told us that as a former teacher she believed that the assessment system and grad requirement were necessary because we need to set rigorous standards so that all of our students are career and college ready. </div><div><br></div><div>When I tried to interject to remind her that cut scores on standardized assessments are set essentially arbitrarily and not based on mastery, and that a student's GPA is a better indicator of future success, she scolded me, then went on about educational quality being driven by assessments, and that she would only want these things for her kids. Gray was unwilling to concede to anything that myself or any other professional educator in the room had to say on the subject.</div><div><br></div><div>Only later did I find out that her entire soliloquy, and persona for that matter, were utter bullshit. Lisa Gray, Educational Consultant, has not seen the inside of a classroom for more than 25 years and never taught in Ohio (only Indiana). Her claim to be a former teacher is sketchy at best. The fact that she has made hundreds of thousands of dollars working for Philanthropy Ohio, the Fordham Foundation, Teach for America, and other organizations funded by millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation makes her "kindhearted former teacher, suburban mom looking out for the kids" bullshit even more disgusting. The fact that she would frame <i>her</i> children's educational needs with those of all of Ohio's kids is misinformed to the point of negligence. Her children's life in a community whose median income is $121,020 is only marginally comparable to the life of a kid in my city whose median income is $40,952, or those in Cleveland ($26,150). To ignore economic reality and its impact on education is misguided, and is worse than her insistence that standardized tests can improve education.</div><div><br></div><div>Lisa Gray is a paid lobbyist. Her opinions are informed by numbers, but not those that clearly prove that standardized testing is not improving educational outcomes... the NAEP scores that have stagnated since 2001's NCLB, SAT scores that declined between 2006 and 2014, ACT scores that have been flat. The numbers that inform Mrs. Gray's position are those printed on her paychecks.</div><div><br></div><div>I guess those who disagree with me would probably argue that I'm only advocating for the public schools that sign my check. The difference, obvious in my mind, is that I'm not getting paid for visits to the Senators. It's on my dime. I'm also actually interacting with real live students who impress upon me their concerns, chief among them are the excessive assessments and the high stakes attached to them. They're not stupid. They know that the state tests have little to do with a good education, and their parents, teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders <a href="https://www.philanthropyohio.org/sites/default/files/White Paper_11.11_lr_FINAL.pdf" id="id_5e04_99b3_bcdd_2105">agree</a>. </div><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately, paid shills like Lisa Gray make their money by ignoring and talking louder than the real experts in the field, and they have an impact on policy makers. This makes it far more difficult, but not impossible, to have an impact on decision makers about what is truly right for kids. We gave it a go in Columbus, and we're moving in the right direction. I never get into a conversation with a politician, or anyone for that matter, thinking they'll see everything my way. I'm just hoping we might move a bit in one another's direction.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank goodness I've got all summer.</div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244319027455672913.post-80565347916277043362017-05-31T10:05:00.001-04:002017-05-31T14:48:53.411-04:00Bomb Threats and the Bittersweet End of the Year.<div><img id="id_5afd_5f49_309f_3409" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TmYyU1uCbh8/WS8QFCsUEnI/AAAAAAAADJ0/jAUHgpkBy0UbxSVDGS9mIG1anugAKzR9wCHM/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 530px; height: auto;"> <br></div><div><br></div><div>I've had a great school year, so it's disappointing to get to the end and see everyone just want to get the hell out, to a far greater degree than is customary. I understand, though, because when I say the year was great it is a commentary on my classroom and the young people I've been fortunate enough to teach.</div><div><br></div><div>If I were to dwell upon the grinding nature of state regulation, compliance to building and district improvement protocol, the albatross of the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System, the insistence of elected officials that they're listening to educators as they promote policy that is contradictory to sound educational practice and research, then my assessment of the year would differ.</div><div><br></div><div>I spend a lot of time on this blog worrying aloud about the graduation crisis, the intrusive nature of state assessments, their inability to measure much beyond socio-economic status, and the absurdity of state official's insistence that a battery of tests can measure college and career readiness, or high stakes outcomes tied to those assessments somehow improve educational opportunity. These things are a threat to the well being of students, and the quality of their education. They make the task of providing a meaningful educational experience far more difficult.</div><div><br></div><div>On a very basic level, I am an Elyria kid who now has the good fortune to teach American History to Elyria kids, and these policy issues feel like an attack on all of us. I'm not cool with that or any other threat, and appreciate the opportunity to stand up for these kids that I have come to know, regardless of the circumstances. We help each other out. It's what you do.</div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now if I add to these issues a few bomb threats in a few weeks and a short-term police occupation of my school, then it's easy to see why everyone has begun looking at their watches. I get it. It's been exhausting, and that's only my perspective, a teacher with a bit part. I can't imagine the toll this takes on administrators, police, and others who deal more directly with the threats, or the toll this takes on students, who often have enough going on in their own lives personally, economically, environmentally, or otherwise, to make school a challenge. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So, admitting that I cannot fully understand the depth of another's experience, I'll speak for myself and perhaps you'll agree. I'm not going to let a few misguided individuals ruin my perception of an entire year, any more than I'm going to let a handful of misguided politicians ruin my career as a teacher.</span></div></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span><div>It's been a more than a week since <a href="http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2017/05/23/Hacker-prank-led-to-EHS-lockdown.html" id="id_43e_c381_8e38_97e3">the lockdown at school</a>, since a half dozen heavily armed officers entered my classroom looking for a student who was targeted for some absurd internet revenge. A kid who, a few moments prior, had told me he believed the whole thing was just a threat based on some information he'd received.</div><div><br></div><div>By that time we knew the building was occupied by local police, sheriffs, highway patrol, and 3 or 4 ambulances had assembled outside. Four officers with rifles had come to the door of my classroom with a student who'd been stranded in the hall. They had us let her in, and with all seriousness, instructed me to lock it back up.. Based on what we'd seen, along with info from student cell phones, one kid listening to the police scanner, online news, other hearsay and rumor, we believed there was the possibility of multiple gunmen. Preparations had been made for mass casualties. It was an unsettling situation to say the least.</div><div><br></div><div>Twenty minutes earlier the class was wrapping up a film on the counterculture, film footage of San Francisco circa 1967, Janis Joplin, peace love dope. We were supposed to be wrapping up the year tying the anti-war movement to these cultural elements. The next thing we knew, we're crowded out of the door's line of sight, standing around in pools of Monday afternoon sunlight, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. It is easy in those situations to let your mind wander into a worst case scenario, and I know that there were many who went there. I guess those things crossed my mind, but as a teacher in the classroom I've experienced other stressful situations, and have felt more helpless than I did in that moment.</div><div><br></div><div>The bottom line was, we hadn't heard anything. That is to say, no gunshots, explosions, or otherwise. I kept thinking, let's not freak out until it is absolutely necessary. As a teacher I have learned that there are so many variables involved in a kid's education, you control what you can, provide support appropriate to the circumstances, then hope for the best. As for variables, this one was a mess, but it didn't change my approach to treating the people in my classroom as humanely as possible.</div><div><br></div><div>Naive as it is, I also kept thinking about how this couldn't possibly happen. We've got a week to go, man. These have been some of the best classes I've ever had, no bullshit (and no offense to previous years which were lovely in their own right). There is no way this is going down with some of the most pleasant people I've ever encountered. I know, my thought process was literally "bad things can't happen to good people." </div><div><br></div><div>I'm an idiot. </div><div><br></div><div>As my students and I hid in our classroom, one of the few 3rd floor rooms, I joked that no one, threat or not, wants to climb all those stairs. There is safety in isolation and elevation. We talked quietly about who had heard what, what news crews were on the scene, who had contacted their parents. We controlled our situation with small conversations. I told a few students about the time years ago when, in a lengthy practice lockdown during my study hall, two surly girls threatened to kick my ass if I didn't let them use the restroom. Ultimately the girls agreed to wait, and spared me the beating. I was a little afraid that humor might do a disservice to the gravity of our situation, but humor is often all I've got. </div><div><br></div><div>When the cops came in to take our classmate, that most difficult moment when the crisis came to us, our seriousness returned. After which, everybody took a breath and responsibility for one another. Even having been there, I am unable to satisfactorily articulate the manner in which these young people, often without words, were able to maintain their composure and provide the actions appropriate to the situation. Like many achievements in education, these are impossible to objectively measure.</div><div><br></div><div>After several hours in all, we were released, everyone searched by police in the interest of our safety. Then we filed out into sunlight on Middle Avenue, and down 6th Street where our friends, parents, police, and the media waited. It was warm and strange and expansive to be outside. Everyone started to quietly tell their stories about being unsettled or afraid or inconvenienced, maybe all of the above, as they made sense of the situation. We'd learn later that there were no guns, no bombs, no threat at all. It was just as the quiet of the 3rd floor suggested, just as we had suspected all along.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm an Elyria kid who has the good fortune to teach Elyria kids. All in all I couldn't have dealt with this difficult situation with a better group of people.</div><div><br></div><div>The school year ends this week. My students and I will part ways. If anything, I find that more upsetting than the lockdown. Even though the end comes every year, it is always bittersweet.</div><div><br></div><div>If my students learned some American History, something that the state intends to attempt to measure as a determinant for their career and college readiness, I'm happy.</div><div><br></div><div>If they've learned something about the importance of empathy and compassion, the ability to communicate with people with whom they have differences, the medicinal value of humor, how to manage challenging situations, the importance of standing up for yourself, how to be a decent human being, or something new about their place in the world, and how they can act to better their community, so much the better.</div><div><br></div><div>As we walk out into a world that is often frightening, or strange and expansive, let's go with the knowledge that we've done it right. Though it has had its challenges, it's been a great year.</div></div>Matt Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13561972699161363966noreply@blogger.com5