 “The Blob” is a 1958 film starring Steve McQueen in his first leading role. Click here to watch the trailer! Note: this post is a bit of a rant expressing my observations and frustrations over the continuing, and to me, inane, practices plaguing education since the inception of NCLB. The purpose of this article is not to denigrate educators, although I realize it sounds like that sometimes. I can say that the classroom teachers are not responsible for these practices; they were forced upon them. For several years now I have been equating a film, in which a monster called "The Blob" threatens to destroy all life on Earth, to the ongoing standardized testing mania that has been spreading, growing and destroying education. It began in the United States, in Texas to be exact (where I live), and this monster which I have named Standardized Testing Mania has spread virtually all over the planet - like the Blob or a pandemic. The definition of genius is taking the complex  More than a rant, though, this is an invitation for you to reflect upon the damage this situation has done to students, educators and parents. And an invitation to begin a conversation - here and at your school or in your community. I offer some questions to spark your conversations. Apparently the designers of the products and services being marketed so intensively to educators to help them prepare their students for standardized testing success did NOT get that memo from Einstein. In fact, it seems that many of these "experts" go out of their way to make teaching complicated and confusing. More testing, "unpacking" the standards, more slicing and dicing techniques offered by various programs, publishers and consultants, and the constant barrage of "8 things teachers . . . ., "10 Roles . . .", "7 Keys . . .", and "89 components with 447 smaller elements clustered into 15 domains". And let's not forget the "guaranteed and viable" curriculum. Supposedly this means that students have the “opportunity to learn and the time”. When did that bit of plain old common sense reach the status of profundity? And why are school districts all over the country bragging that they now offer a "guaranteed and viable" curriculum? Isn’t that what they should have been doing all along? How is it possible to guarantee the opportunity and time to learn when students are changing class 7 or 8 times per day (some students change class 11 times per day!) for 45-minute class periods? Deeper learning cannot happen in class periods that short, especially when the curriculum is fragmented and no two classes or courses are connected in any way. It seems like education has gone spinning off into the Twilight Zone – just crazier and crazier! A recent article highlighted a practice growing in popularity known as “platooning” which is being implemented as early as kindergarten! Now these little children get to march – literally - and change classes for different subjects. Out the window goes all the research on learning theory, the whole child, the benefits and academic gains resulting from practices such as “looping” (staying with the same teacher for 2 or more years). Why is platooning a growing practice? The CCSS and testing! Now superintendents think that they need super subject area specialists to teach math, science, language arts and social studies in order to obtain higher standardized test scores in content areas. The factory model paradigm is firmly in place. This paradigm instructs us that the only way to organize school and learning is through the “cells and bells” approach. Many schools are locked into a district-mandated curriculum that dictates exactly what content teachers will teach (or, actually, that should be stated as what teachers will cover) in each grading period. Some districts actually dictate what lesson will be taught each day – for example, every student in the fifth grade in that district will be on exactly the same page, same lesson, in the textbook on a given day! This practice flies in the face of everything that is known about how people learn! Yet it is being implemented – demanded – by so-called educators! All of these desperate attempts to “try anything” to get the test scores up indicate an absence of reflection and the ignoring of what we know about how children learn as well as totally ignoring what is working – very well – in many schools today. Because these high quality schools seem to be so different, their successes are ignored and rejected. The traditional educators who cling to the factory model almost always dig in their heels and say, “We can’t do that.” Then come all the excuses and blaming. "Unpacking the Standards" - an absurdity, and an embarrassment to the field of educationWho in the world came up with the idea that teachers were so devoid of intellectual capacity that they had to be told how to "unpack the standards"? Instructing teachers to go through a particular process - taking a standard, circling the nouns, underlining the verbs, etc. is ludicrous. This particular fad has turned what had been intelligent professionals into unthinking parrots, supposedly "teaching" their teachers how to understand a standard. YouTube has literally thousands of videos on "how to unpack the standards". I came across one, for example, made by a school district superintendent. She used the following standard as an example of how to "unpack" the standards. What is so difficult to understand about this 7th grade standard for English Language Arts? And, if a standard was difficult to understand, how would highlighting the nouns, verbs and adjectives – color coded! - really help? In her demonstration she selected/highlighted three nouns as shown below. "Engage is a wide range of nonfiction and real-life reading experiences to solve problems, judge the quality of ideas or complete daily tasks."
This kind of dictate virtually eliminates any possibilities for teachers to develop and implement a rigorous, relevant, exciting educational experience for their students. It also makes planning interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum impossible. If your teachers cannot be trusted, or are unable, to plan and teach a certain set of content standards and skills during a single school year, then you have a hiring problem. I find this practice to be demeaning to teachers, and destructive to good quality curriculum and instruction. And then there is the negative impact on the students! How in the world did educators buy into this? Never did I dream that something like NCLB, followed by RTTT and the CCSS, would cause so much damage to so many people. We do not have schools any more; we have test prep centers. Why teachers across the nation have not walked out en masse, standing up to this insanity, is beyond me. Teachers do have a voice; they do have power; and if they aren't confident enough to stage a walkout, then they can certainly make their voices heard through voting and writing letters to their representatives. Who really pays the price - the ultimate price? Our children, our students and this nation. It is 2016, and we have new teachers who have just graduated from college; all they have ever known about school, teaching and learning has been under the NCLB. They grew up in it! When are educators going to realize that the emperor has no clothes!?  Learning is serious, but that doesn't mean it has to be grim!
Cowboy Culture * Frog Jumping Day * The Zombie Apocalypse * Be a Millionaire Day * Food and Culture * Civil Rights * * Constitution Day * Kingdom Animalia * Learning Theory Let's get “back to the basics” of what we know about learning - Learning Theory. Then, let's apply that learning theory to what education should be in the 21st century. Go back to your educational psychology or learning theory courses at the university - Constructivism (Jerome Bruner), Experiential Learning (Carl Rogers), Social Development Theory, remember the ZPD – Zone of Proximal Development? (Lev Vygotsky), Lateral Thinking – I teach my students to use many of DeBono’s “thinking tools” (Edward DeBono), Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner) and Brain-Based Learning (Eric Jensen). None of these theories of learning support rote learning only, memorizing as many facts as possible, as quickly as possible. Rushing students through a list of content standards and discrete skills for the purpose of taking a standardized test will not, indeed, cannot result in authentic learning. In a testing situation students are feeling high levels of stress. As Sugata Mitra tells us in his wonderful TED Talk, Build a School in the Cloud:  “The reptilian part of our brain, which sits in the center of our brain, when it's threatened, it shuts down everything else, it shuts down the prefrontal cortex, the parts which learn, it shuts all of that down. Punishment and examinations are seen as threats. We take our children, we make them shut their brains down, and then we say, "Perform." SolutionsObviously, high stakes standardized testing must be stopped. In the meantime here is what we CAN do . . First, we must intentionally design the learning environment. This includes the physical environment, the emotional environment and the academic environment. In terms of curriculum and instruction, then, creating a supporting context for learning the content and skills will result in learning. Teachers who design and implement project-based learning are providing their students with an appropriate context in which the content and skills have meaning. Preferably, this PBL21 curriculum is interdisciplinary and integrated. The more connections you offer, the greater the learning. This increases understanding, retention, motivation and test scores. Actually, designing and implementing a rigorous, real world and relevant curriculum that engages students, teaches content knowledge deeply and helps students to develop their 21st century skills and multiple literacies is not only easy but enjoyable for both students and teachers. Within such a curriculum it is easy to ensure that every student not only meets the minimal expectations, but exceeds the standards. 7 Survival Skills of the 21st Century
According to Wagner, the 7 Survival Skills for the 21st Century are . . .
Many school districts have lofty mission and vision statements, and all claim to be "21st century". Unfortunately, in most cases those mission statements are nothing more than meaningless platitudes. If they actually want to prepare their students for success - on tests and in life - then they have to actually change what they are doing. Many school districts, as well as most curriculum designers, publishers and professional development programs for educators claim to be "21st century". Actually, all they are doing is slapping a few buzzwords related to the 21st century education paradigm and 21st century skills, onto what they have always done. That's not 21st century education - that's marketing. It's business as usual while they stuff their pockets with your limited district funds. For many years I have worked with educators, not only from all over the United States but also from a number of other countries. In some cases they came to us in the United States, and in others we went to them overseas. There are some excellent schools out there making enormous strides into the 21st century and that demonstrate excellent results - from standardized test scores to attendance, graduation rates and college admissions. However, what we have found, by and large, is educators saying that they want to move into the 21st century but simultaneously refusing to take the steps required to make that happen. Most try to take bits and pieces of what they perceive to be 21st century educational paradigm and practices, and then try to force fit them into what they are already doing. It will not work. Change requires actual change! Now the questions for schools become:
The answers: You will need to develop a deep understanding of what 21st century education is and is not. You will need to analyze your school using a set of criteria to determine where you stand on the spectrum between factory model, traditional education and 21st century education. Here’s one place to begin: 20th vs 21st Century Classrooms You will need to consider everything from your facilities and grounds to your curriculum, your school schedules, professional development, and school/district level policies and procedures. Your journey into becoming a 21st century school can be guided by these 3 compass roses. These must be embedded within an intentionally designed Learning Environment - the physical environment, the emotional environment and the academic environment.
Future posts will outline each of the 3 Compasses for 21st Century Education as well as the three components of the 21st Century Learning Environment. In the meantime, you may wish to consider bringing the professional development experience, PBL21 - Designing the 21st Century Classroom, to your school, district or other organization – anywhere in the world! ---------------------------- Please visit these links for more resources: 21st Century Schools Curriculum 21 - Resources About Anne Shaw Join our group on LinkedIn See my other posts on LinkedIn.
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