Teacher Working Conditions Report, or tell me something I don't know already

One of the little things that irk me about the education profession, public education to be precise, is how they often overstate the obvious while not actually doing anything about a problem. The Southeast Center for Teaching Quality recently published its report to the governor of North Carolina on teacher working conditions. The report, "Teacher Working Conditions are Student Learning Outcomes," can be found in their website at www.teachingquality.org. Just from the title, I can tell already that they are pretty much stating the obvious: that you need good working conditions in order for teachers to teach effectively and thus get students to learn (duh). But in the public education arena, you often have to restate the obvious in order to be able to "document it" so you can then say something will be done about it. I am really trying not to be too cynical, but as a former high school teacher who faced some of the conditions described in the report, I am not exactly feeling warm and fuzzy over yet another report. By the way, I learned of the report through the NCTE's newsletter, another one of those items I regularly keep an eye on as a librarian and educator.

As a note, readers can also look at NCTE's page on Teacher Quality at http://www.ncte.org/edpolicy/quality. It is a collection of documents and resources. They are most applicable to language arts, but they may still be useful.

So, what does the report say? Usually, you can get the gist of reports like this by reading the executive summary they provide, which is likely what the admininistators and government officials read anyhow, skipping the rest of the report. I read the summary and scanned the rest of the report while working at the Information Desk early in the morning (at least until it gets busy at the desk). Some of the findings then (the cynical remarks after are my own, but I am betting a teacher or two who may have seen this wondered as well):

1. "Teacher working conditions are important predictors of student achievement." (really?)
2. "Teacher working conditions makes a difference in teacher retention." (you don't say?)
3. "Leadership is critical to improving working conditions, but principals and teachers perceive these conditions very differently." (This would not have anything to do with the fact that principals rarely if ever actually step in a classroom, but they are often the first to criticize teachers about their classroom practices, would it?)
   

There were a total of six key findings, but I think these three give the "flavor" of where the document is going. The executive summary then goes and offers some recommendations for school, district, and state levels. I could simply post a few here and have a field day of how they are likely smoke screens to make themselves feel better since not much will likely get done given the realities of life in education. The introduction to the report cites local research on teacher turnover rates, and it states the usual concern about the cost of turnover in terms of having to hire new teachers and train them for the same job over and over. What I found more illuminating was the cite to the national research about the reasons techers give for leaving the profession, some of which were my reasons to go to graduate school and stick with higher education, a decision I have not regretted since. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time as a high school teacher, and I had some very good students. But I also had a student try to assault me at one point, and I had to deal with an unsupportive principal and parents who had no clue about how their kids simply did not behave but thought it was my fault. Isn't it interesting that people who would not dream of doing your job love to tell you how to do it? This is specially true in teaching. Anyways, the authors of the report write:

"National research also demonstrates the importance of addressing school conditions to improve teacher retention. Teachers who leave schools cite an opportunity for better teaching assignment, dissatisfaction with support from administrators, and dissatisfaction with workplace conditions as the main reason why they seek other opportunites."

Again, they have not told me anything I did not know already. In my case, I knew I would get a better teaching assignment at the college and university level, that I would not have to put up with an unsupportive principal, and the environment would be better overall. Now before anyone goes saying that I just ran off, I will say I am not the only one for one. The fact that so many teachers of my generation decided to leave the profession of public education for other careers speaks volumes about the poor treatmen we got and continue to get. And in case anyone says he was one of those "lesser teachers" (read here less than qualified or such), I do have a good array of credentials to match in my cv. I get defensive because that is often an assumption made of teachers who leave, and the sad thing is those of us who move on, whether we stay in education or leave altogether, we tend to be a pretty talented bunch. On the other side of the coin, any search in a database will yield plenty of articles about the difficulty of attracting top talent to teaching, which this report addresses as well. Additionally, do note I left before the debacle of No Child Left Behind hit the fan. I was having a conversation with my mother recently, and I told her quite plainly that if I were going to college again for an undergraduate degree, I would not choose school teaching as a career path. The certification requirements have gotten worse, the attitude towards teachers from parents and administrators have gotten worse too, and then there is the whole thing about teaching in "goose stepping" lock step style to meet some test. Not what I envision teaching to be, but I won't go there.

And don't even mention the additional burdens if you are a male teacher, and some student decides to make an allegation against you for harrasment. Let me digress here briefly.Not that there are not teachers out there who do terrible things to kids, but in the cases where the accusation is false, a good life is destroyed, and the one making the accusation gets away with it. Again, not the kind of thing worth the effort. If anyone out there wants to read a good and well written book on what happens when a student makes an allegation of misconduct against a teacher, I recommend Rumors, Lies, and Whispers: Classroom "Crush" or Career Catastrophe by Mary Ann Manos. I had an idea, but this book clearly and extensively explains what exactly happens, and it details how the school and the district will basically abandon a teacher the moment a student makes the allegation. If true, such teachers should be punished to the fullest possible (I think LeTourneau got off easy), but if false, the accusers should be punished severely as well for even if proven innocent, a teacher's life was ruined. Simply too much aggravation for someone like me to worry about, not worth the risk. Hard numbers on the students making false accusations for retribution are rare to come by, but the author does provide good evidence with what is available. If you are a teacher in pretraining, read this book. It is the type of thing no one tells preservice teachers that they need to know about.

Second, I stayed within the education profession because I do believe in teaching and sharing knowledge and ideas with student. At the university level, the conditions are a lot better, and the students actually want to be there. And even though I am a librarian now, an academic librarian does a lot of teaching in various forms, so I have the best of both worlds in my estimation. I love teaching very much; I just hate what politicians and people with no real clue have made of it. And I find it annoying educational "experts" have to be hired to write reports like this one that state the obvious just to make a case that should be evident. Well, should be evident if they value the education of their children as much as they say they do. And here goes another book recommendation, this one on why teachers should be paid more and valued more overall. The $100,000 Teacher: A Teacher's Solution to America's Declining Public School System by Brian Crosby. Yes, it does say 100K; the author argues teachers as professionals should be paid like a doctor or an engineer. However, he also argues for teachers to adopt better standards, to behave like the professionals they are, and he gives other constructive solutions as well. It makes for interesting reading. Better reading than yet another report written by "experts." Then again, the book was written by a teacher.

On the librarian candidate that visited on Friday

I did not quite have time to jot down some thoughts on the candidate we had on Friday. I had noted in an earlier blog entry that we are in the process of looking for another librarian and that a candidate had been invited to interview last Friday. Well, it is Monday, and she came and went as they say. Overall, the lady has an impressive as well as extensive resume that includes experience overseas as well. She currently does a broad range of tasks at her current job from webmaster to library catalog administrator to periodicals and acquisitions. She works in a smaller setting than ours, so wearing the multiple hats is not uncommon, although it is likely very taxing. In the scheme of things, our job must seem like a relief to her since it is a more focused position. I mentioned as much to one of my colleagues. I only met her briefly during the open forum and during a short meeting with the Reference staff. I am not part of the search committee, so my exposure would be minimal anyhow, but I came out with a very positive impression. She seemed a bit nervous during the interview process, and this is confirmed by other colleagues who met with her throughout the day. But heck, I was nervous myself when I went through the interview process. One of my supervisors I think said it well when she said it was likely that the candidate had not interviewed for a job in a while, which means she has not had the practice or time to build the "narrative" of her life and achievements so to speak. I could not agree more for you do build a "narrative" of yourself that you wish to convey to others when you go out and interview. I am still fresh enough out of the process that if I had to go interview for a new job, not that I am planning to, but if I had to, I likely could do it with ease with some minor modifications to what I did before. However, if I had five to eight years at the same place and had to do it again, I would have to practice a bit more, at least do the "in front of the mirror" routine a bit more. If that is the only thing that people noticed, I don't think this person would have a problem getting hired. She seems sincere in her desire to come work for us, and I think she would fit in with the team quite nicely. So, we'll see what the brass decides.

Booknote: _The Sandman: Endless Nights_ (2003)

I finished reading this graphic novel last night. This one was my first exposure to the world of the Sandman, and I have to say I was pleased as well as impressed. The quality of the stories Neil Gaiman created is excellent. The stories can be moving, uplifting at times, curious, a bit spooky, so many ways to describe them. As this is a collection of stories, each story has a different illustrator, so it is neat to see the artists' takes on Gaiman's tales. I will definitely look for the rest of the Sandman series. While this is my first Sandman, this is not my first Gaiman work. I have read his novels American Gods and Coraline, both of which I highly recommend, and you don't have to be a fan of the Sandman to enjoy them. Coraline is labeled usually as young adult fiction, but it is not for the faint of heart so to speak. However, it is a very good work. If you are a fan of Gaiman's series, you will likely enjoy the novels as well.

A Saturday Shift

Saturdays tend to be slow days at my library; traffic does pick up a bit in the afternoons, but not by much, and this is due to the fact the university teaches some classes on Saturdays. These classes usually end by 2:15 or so, which means anyone not running for home right away makes their way to the library. Today has been a bit slow, but not too slow. I have had a good number of reference questions, but what has kept me busy have been a couple of long questions. Librarians rotate the weekend work. We have two shifts on Saturdays (9:00a-1:30p and 1:30p-6:00p) and one shift on Sundays (1:00p-6:00p). Today I am doing an afternoon shift. In academic libraries weekend work is common, and it is often rotated somehow amongst the librarians. It is one of the banes of our existence, but not as bad as it sounds, for me at least.

Today's assignment du jour seems to come from the art appreciation classes. The assignment, based on what the students told me, is to find some information on a particular painting, but also on its style, time period, traits, etc. In other words, the more general information about the painting and its context. These classes usually go to one of the local museums, view some art, pick a painting to discuss, then go research it for an oral presentation. This approach may seem practical and interactive for the students, but it creates quite a few difficulties for the librarians who have to help them locate the information. First is the painting itself. Depending on what painting they chose, there may or not be any specific information about the painting itself. The museums publish some catalogs, and we have some of them here at our library, but unless they chose a painting that has been catalogued, they are out of luck in that area. Obviously, the less known works or more rare will be next to impossible to locate information on them beyond what the museum might provide. Second, the general information. This one is the easier of the two parts in the task. For instance. One student wanted to locate information about some Fayum portraits, which are some funerary portraits done during the period of circa 150-200 A.D. These are Roman works. A search in J-Stor and in Academic Search Premier, two of our periodical databases, did yield some results. So, in her case, she will likely be able to put together enough information to create her presentation. For anyone wanting to know in brief what a Fayum portrait is, the Encyclopedia Britannica offers the following definition:

"any of the funerary portraits dating from the Roman period (1st to the 4th century) found in Egyptian tombs throughout Egypt but particularly at the oasis of al-Fayyum. Depictions of the head and bust of the deceased, the portraits are executed either on wooden tablets (about 17 by 9 inches [about 43 by 23 cm]) and placed under the bandages covering the mummy's face, or on the linen shroud itself. They are painted in tempera or in pigments mixed with liquid beeswax."

I had also a question on finding out information about race and class in the United States during the 1960s. A quick look at the library's catalog and in Academic Search Premier took care of that one. Well, at least it gave him enough to get started. From talking to him, it was clear he had not quite narrowed the topic down himself. But he has a good idea. The interest comes from stories he has heard from older family members who lived during that time. A good subject heading in the catalog was social conditions--united states--1960 (this is the LOC heading I identified after typing a general keyword search and then looking at a couple of records). While showing him how to search for what he wanted and where, I got to discover a bit of his interest and give him some ideas of how to narrow the topic. I have always been a strong believer in the link between instruction and reference, and moments like this are a perfect example where you do a little bit of teaching with a little bit of how to locate the items.

The rest of the questions so far have been little directional things, such as where do I find this call number, and some other smaller reference ones. Rest of the time I have had a bit of time to catch up on some reading and searching on the web myself. After this, I don't have to do another Saturday at the Information Desk until April 30th.

The Headline: "Social Studies Losing Out to Reading, Math"

Education Week is one of the professional journals I have on alert, meaning I get an e-mail with the table of contents of the latest issue when it comes out. This is called awareness service, and a few other terms. Larger academic libraries often set up such services for their faculty. I have something set up for myself on a smaller scale. Whether I get to it right away is another thing given all the other things I have to do (notice I got to this two weeks later), but at any rate, I do try to keep up with professional reading as part of my job. Since I am an educator, education is one of my areas of interest.

I am not a fan of high stakes testing or the No Child Left Behind Act, which I think simply forces schools to teach to a test at the expense of other things that are important to have a well rounded education to make an informed and active citizen in our democracy. But I won't go into that debate. I just wanted to point out this little article:

Title:	Social Studies Losing Out to Reading, Math.
Authors:	Manzo, Kathleen Kennedy
Source:	Education Week; 3/16/2005, Vol. 24 Issue 27

Abstract:This article reports that social studies task force appointed by the Maryland state schools superintendent is studying the "state of social studies" education statewide, as well as nationally, in order to craft recommendations for strengthening the teaching of the subjects there. Schools in Illinois had already begun paring time allocated to social studies to make way for as much as 160 minutes daily of reading, when the legislature scrapped the state test in social studies. Squeezing social studies in the elementary grades is likely to leave many students unprepared for the history courses they will encounter in middle and high school, and to meet graduation requirements in the subject, according to Jesus Garcia, the president of the National Council for the Social Studies, which is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.

I am a firm believer in that saying by Santayana about those who fail to study history are bound to repeat it, but even if I did not believe in that, taking out social studies is not the way to go. We constantly hear on the news and the media how our young people are doing poorly in general knowledge, how they lag behind in math and science when compared to the rest of the world, and how they lag behind in knowledge of geography, a subject part of social studies. I think one example of this shameful situation is found in the results of the 2002 National Geographic Global Geographic Literacy Survey (latest one available). The link leads to an article with highlights of the results. I don't think you can be an educated citizen if you lack a knowledge of your own country and its history along with a knowledge of your neighbors around the world. If your nation is sending troops abroad, you should at least be able to point to a map to where those troops are being sent. And it helps to know a bit of our history to understand how history today is being made.

The Education Week article points out that research shows teachers will tend to spend more time on items tested on the high stakes tests, and history is not one of those areas. As a result of cuts in teaching social studies, some students would not be exposed to it at all until they were sophomores in high school, if at all. This means students will not be prepared for the history courses in high school required for graduation, and as a former high school teacher, I know that more often than not I had to do remedial teaching to compensate for deficiencies students brought because they were not addressed in middle school or earlier. Cutting back is not going to make it easier. But I do wonder, would graduation requirements eventually change? A lot of the model for graduation requirements is based on college preparation, being ready for college. If schools teach more to the test because reading and math are seen as the only important things, and not that they are not important, but if that is the case, would they down the road simply say areas like social studies are no longer required? Would they become electives? And further down the road, would colleges change their entrance requirements to have less social studies and more math for instance to compensate?

But more importantly, what does a situation like this say about how our society values a good civic education? We have heard about the lack of voter participation, about apathy of young people to vote, so on. True, there was more voter turnout this time around, but it was all thanks to the 2000 debacle, and even with that, a lot of people that could have turned out to vote did not. And midterm elections usually have dismal turnouts anyhow, more often than not because people do not even take the time to be informed about local issues. Social studies, not just history, but government courses, serve to instill a sense of the need to participate in a democracy. I find it ironic that people around the world fight to get a democracy. Other nations have great voter turnout, and a nation like the U.S. which is a beacon to others has to struggle, basically beg its citizens to vote. Now, we could debate about special interests and who really funds what, but without education, things cannot change. The few will continue to pull the wool over everyone else's eyes as long as they see a lack in education, and taking social studies out may be a way. After all, how can one appreciate the democracy that the Founding Fathers built if one does not even hear about them? How do we know we really are protecting the Constitution if we don't even read about it? Just some questions to ask next time you think about how great testing for scores can be.