Pennsylvania SB 1312 and Teacher Education

Although it was only introduced on June 10, 2016, Senate Bill 1312 has already been passed by the PA Senate.  It is now in the House Judiciary Committee.

I don't believe this bill is very good at all for the work we do in Pennsylvania to prepare teachers for professional practice in the classroom.

There is no public good more important to the success and well-being of a society than the education of its children.  If our society is to flourish, we must provide our kids with an education that helps them learn and develop so that when they grow up they can participate in our democracy, contribute to our economy, and be good stewards of the resources we will pass on to them.

And, there is strong professional consensus that a clinical preparation – hands-on development of skills over time in real classrooms – is the most effective way to prepare teachers for this important work.  Strong clinical approaches provide teacher candidates with school-based opportunities to integrate the application of theory with the learning of pedagogical skills in ways that are purposive, well-designed, and coherent; and that allow for skill acquisition and reflection in a very focussed way over time.  Of course, an important criterion of the success of this collaboration is its ability to prepare teachers, but the ultimate criterion is its impact on PK-12 students.

Best practice in the design and implementation of a strong clinical preparation is characterized by university and PK-12 partners working together to build mutually beneficial school-based clinical experiences for teacher candidates, and assuming shared responsibility for continuous improvement of candidate preparation and uninterrupted achievement of PK-12 learners.  It is a collaborative endeavor that requires a commitment from both partners.  One of the commitments made by higher education is to “supply” the teacher candidates around whom this preparation is being designed.  Our school partners rely on the consistent attendance of these candidates, who they have agreed to allow into their classrooms voluntarily, with an understanding of an important trade-off.  Since the teacher necessarily cedes some classroom autonomy to allow the teacher candidate to grow and develop, these teachers rely on the candidates to be in classroom each day.  To do otherwise risks an interruption of PK-12 student learning. 

Much of the important clinical preparation candidates will receive will occur during their last four semesters (i.e., 60 credits through graduation).  Allowing teacher candidates to substitute teach during this critical period interrupts their preparation, prevents seamless scaffolding (incremental development over time) of skills, and threatens coherence.  It is also a threat to the assumptions upon which clinical partnerships are based – that teacher candidates from the university’s program can be counted upon to be in the PK-12 classroom on the days agreed upon.  If teacher candidates are allowed to substitute teach even once a week coherence in the clinical placement quickly turns into disarray.

The sponsor of the bill has noted that “the teachers of tomorrow can help ease the substitute teacher crisis today.”  I know that our school partners are facing a shortage of substitute teachers, but this bill is not the solution.  The short term fix may look appealing, but it prevents us from being able to focus on the negative long term effects that the bill will create as we work to prepare teachers for future generations of Pennsylvania school children.

Until next time...

Our Nation's Love Affair with Guns

The other day I was looking at the newsfeed on Facebook when I came across a photo of a FB friend of mine (let’s call him M.G., not his real initials) posing with an assault rifle in his hands and a grin on his face.  I tend to scroll right on past all the kooky stuff extolling the virtues of being heavily armed in this day and age (because “a good guy with a gun” has worked out so well…) and the increasing likelihood that the government is just moments away from coming for your guns. 

But when I realized that it was M.G. in the picture, I was taken aback.  M.G. is a former school board colleague, a radio talk show host, and a Christian minister.  Although he and I differ about as far as we can on most political issues, he is a good person who simply wants the best for his community.  On school board issues, we often found common ground as we approached it from different sides of the aisle.

By itself, the photo was the same as everyone else posing with a weapon they have no need for in everyday life.  What was more haunting were the comments. 

“You wear it well, M.G.,”  wrote one commenter. 

“I have more ammo if you need it, M.G., stay well supplied,” wrote another.

Perhaps the oddest thread of comments was the one sparked by this:  "I’m thinking there are no references to this in the Bible!"  The resulting dialogue was a back and forth designed to find the Bible passage that, I suppose, best supports the need for these weapons. 

Of the thirty or so comments, only one (before I posted) takes M.G. to task for the seeming inconsistencies between his messages from the pulpit to what the writer sees as pandering to the positions of the NRA.  All the rest are from those who are either very clearly pro-NRA or are simply looking to add their own quips to the commentary. 

Here is the message I posted on my friend’s wall:

No matter how you feel about the current narrative around the 2nd amendment and guns, and even if you have no concern at all about the proliferation of a gun culture that is having an inarguable effect on American society, consider this question. What effect does one seek by posting a photo like this? To be sure, the photo has prompted comments that make light of guns and gun violence (and even the Bible!). Maybe that’s the goal.

However, countless families in our nation have been permanently shattered as a result of having loved ones killed needlessly by guns, people who were guilty of nothing other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time (e.g., twenty 1st graders in Connecticut guilty only of going to school that December day, many of them killed by a weapon not unlike the one in the photo.)

With this photo now in the public eye and as a result of the comments that have followed, I wonder: How easy or hard would it be to look your friends in the eye to defend all of this if you learned that this unimaginable horror had resulted in the death of one of their loved ones? What would you say if they told you that rather than seeing humor in the photo and the comments, they see only reminders of devastation and grief? If this has already happened to those we know do we even think to post a photo like this and kid around about it?

From our work together on the school board, I think my friend M.G. knows I am not a religious man, so he won’t be surprised that the only thing remotely religious that I can think of is this: There but for the grace of God go I.

Nevertheless, it seems apt at the moment.


Until next time...

PCSS Conference at Millersville University

Today Educator Preparation at Millersville University is hosting the 4th Annual Social Studies Conference.  Kudos to Dr. Sarah Brooks for providing the leadership to make this event happen.  Stayer Hall is full of social studies folks today!  Sarah gave me the opportunity to provide a few words of welcome.  Here is what I told the crowd:

Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to Stayer Hall and to Millersville University.  As most of you know, Stayer Hall is the home to Millersville’s College of Education and Human Services.  We are very pleased to be hosting this event today.

I want to read you a quotation that you have probably heard before.  Then I will ask you if you know to whom these words belong.

"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."

Who said these words?  (Thomas Jefferson)

Did he really say them?  Maybe not in just this way.  Jeffersonian scholars at Monticello indicate that this quotation does not appear in any of Jefferson’s writing, although it certainly captures the essence of his beliefs.  It may very well be the case that he spoke those words or at least words that capture that sentiment.

Scott Turow, the American author and lawyer, seemed to pick up on Jefferson’s sentiment when he wrote in 2011,

“Widespread public access to knowledge, like public education, is one of the pillars of our democracy, a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.”

And then there is this:

“And so here we are, well into the 21^st century and we realize more than ever the importance of a strong system of public education as an essential public good.  We appreciate how important education is to our students’ futures and to the future of our society.  We understand that if our students are to succeed as adults in an increasingly diverse global community, we must ensure strong outcomes in critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, cultural consciousness, information literacy, and the ability to communicate effectively.  And we endeavor to ensure that this work is done within a context of social justice.  “

This is a sentiment, it seems to me, all teachers need to be mindful of, regardless of the subject they teach.  But I think these words mean something more to teachers of social studies.  Social studies teachers, I think you have a special role in all of this.

Teachers who teach (for example) English/language arts, math, science, and the arts provide their students with knowledge and skills they need to be well-informed and successful in life.  Social studies teachers also provide important knowledge and skill bases, to be sure.  But they also provide the framework for all of us to know how possessing all we learn in school in all those other subjects enables us to participate in our society and in our democracy.  Knowing the other subjects makes us a well-informed citizenry.  Knowing social studies helps us understand why that is important.

I put it to you that this work has never been more important than it is right now in our nation’s history, if recent current events are any indication.

Again, welcome to Stayer Hall.  I hope the conference is engaging, informative, and fun.

HB 1890 - Pennsylvania General Assembly

On Thursday of this past week (March 10), HB 1890 (here) was referred to the Education Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  The bill is sponsored by Rep. Donna Oberlander (R–63) who provided a detailed legislative memo with the bill.  I agree with one of her points and disagree with most of the others.  Here are two of Rep. Oberlander's statements from the memo:

• In the aftermath of a number of tragic school shootings, there is a debate across the country on how we can better protect our children.  While most of this discussion surrounds whether or not more gun control measures are needed, I believe we must look at all options when it comes to improving the safety and security of our children, teachers and school staff. 

Agree.  There are very often a variety of possible solutions to problems.

• As we weigh our options, I believe we need to consider providing school employees with more choices than just locking a door, hiding in a closet or diving in front of bullets to protect students.  With the legal authority, licensing and proper training, I believe allowing school administrators, teachers or other staff to carry firearms on the school premises is an option worth exploring. 

Disagree.  Here’s why:

In my opinion, when we give serious thought to permitting administrators, teachers and other staff members working in schools to carry deadly weapons in order to stem gun violence and protect children, we have begun a steep tumble down a very dangerous and slippery slope.  Guns in the hands of law enforcement is a good thing because those women and men spend their entire careers training and re-training on how to react in situations in which they need to make split second decisions about the application of deadly force.  Guns in the hands of administrators, teachers and staff members is a very bad idea because, well…they don’t do this.  

How will someone whose professional preparation and practice is related to teaching and learning - and not law enforcement - react under such compelling circumstances?  How will they know how to make those split second, life and death decisions?  How can we think that asking them to do that when surrounded by children can end well even some of the time?  What kind of incredibly difficult position would we be placing police officers in when they realize, upon responding to a school shooting, that they will need to enter a building in which there are armed teachers and other school personnel who will be making split second decisions about the use of deadly force for which they have not been prepared to the same level as the police?  Can those officers be confident that those teachers will be able to differentiate between them and active shooters, given the harrowing situation in which these teachers have suddenly found themselves?  Is it possible that police officers will encounter other adults with guns in the building and, despite their training, err in their own choice to use deadly force?  That is, will the proliferation of guns in these incredibly stressful situations hinder the ability of the police to differentiate as quickly as they need to the good actors from the bad ones?

I wonder.

Until next time…

Teacher Shortage

The growing shortage of teachers has been on mind lately.  I and a pair of my colleagues were interviewed by the Lancaster, PA paper (here) about the reasons for the local shortage.  And the matter has been discussed in the national press (here, for example) and in the context of national meetings and conferences like this one. 

There are many theories and ideas suggesting reasons for the shortage – disillusionment based on the way teachers have been portrayed in the media, frustration about the over-testing of K-12 students, concern about how teacher evaluations have evolved under Race to the Top, perceptions that the Great Recession would mean no jobs would be available after graduation, the list goes on.

I received an email from a member of the faculty in my college last week.  The content of the email made me realize that in at least one way, we may be ourselves creating a barrier to the classroom for new teachers that exacerbates the teacher shortage.  Before I share the email, some background.

In Pennsylvania, teacher candidates need to pass two rounds of high stakes, standardized tests to become certificated.  One tests their basic skills in reading, mathematics, and writing, and is ostensibly aligned with the 11^th grade high school curriculum.  The other (PECT or PRAXIS depending on major) is a more advanced round of exams that test content and pedagogical knowledge more closely related to teachers' specific responsibilities in the classroom.

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of movement in the basic skills testing program.  New tests have replaced old ones and even newer ones have been added.  One test, the Pre-service Academic Performance Assessment (PAPA), has been particularly problematic over the past few years.  Otherwise intelligent teacher candidates are struggling to pass this basic gateway test and statewide pass rates have reflected those struggles.

Now to the essence of the email.

Just a venting this morning about the basic skills testing: I have a student teacher, who has been my advisee since freshman year, she is outstanding in the classroom, a real natural, she has a 3.66 GPA; participated in the (local special education) Internship; is in the Professional Development School program, completed approximately 55 hours of additional field time during her professional bloc and passed all PECT exams in Early Childhood and Special education.

However, she cannot pass the basic skills testing requirement, she has taken the reading 6 times and the writing 3 times.  It just seems so crazy that a student like this cannot pass the PAPA!

There are plenty of measures suggesting that this candidate possesses basic skills, right?  But if she doesn’t pass the basic skills tests required by the state, she cannot gain PA teaching certification and she cannot take her place in the classroom.  By the way, special education is one of the areas in which we are facing a shortage.

See what I mean when I ponder the idea that we are creating ourselves some of the barriers our candidates face on their quest to become teachers.

Until next time…