What I want to see from these organizations are their support for ideas which directly affect kids. Chalkboard does talk about one on one reading (kind of pie in the sky, but an initiative which really works toward having all children be able to read would be plenty welome) and smaller class size for k-1. Good ideas. Where is their legislative push for these ideas? Sadly, not there. Instead their agenda works within the typical educational-political framework which has done very little the last 20 years to help education and, in fact, has probably made things worse.

Of course, this type of program will get supported by OEA. (I am a proud member of NEA for 40 years and have been a union president.) But OEA does not speak for children or even education in general. It is a union to help teachers.

Now, if the Chalkboard would just define what it specifically means by “student achievement” and guarantee that its programs would be interpreted as such then it might have a chance of making a positive difference. Unless of course its definition is the same one all of Oregon is using now — test scores on narrowly defined educational standards.

After 13 years of teaching, I realize that my colleagues and my administrators — school and district — have no clue how I perform in the classroom or what, if anything, I’m doing to improve myself as a teacher. That’s why I’m not surprised when I read news articles on how national studies rank Oregon extremely low on teacher accountability.

It doesn’t make sense to me that, up until this year, I see an administrator in my room only once a year for a formal evaluation — a prearranged time chosen by me — and that my written evaluation includes only pleasant anecdotes. It doesn’t make sense to me that I mailed in my license renewal to TSPC this morning and, with regard to professional development, all I had to do was check a box in a sheet declaring yes, I worked on professional development over the past five years.

One of the subjects I teach is business and economics, and I teach my students that one of a business manager’s primary responsibilities is to support workers in becoming as highly skilled as possible. I, too, want administrators’ support, whether it’s driving across town to get texts students need, or helping me improve my craft.

That’s why I support the work of the Chalkboard Project. They, like I assume everyone in this blog conversation would agree, believe that the single best way to support and improve student achievement is to place and support strong teachers in every classroom, and they’re backing that up with the CLASS project they’ve piloted all over Oregon. (I assume Chalkboard has info about CLASS on their website if anyone wants to explore it further.) Looks like an intriguing model to me, providing teachers support from administrators and colleagues and rewarding them financially for assuming leadership positions and taking strides to get better. Mr. Buel, you’re right when you say school improvement is best done within schools and classrooms, and CLASS strives to support exactly that.

Please recognize, too, that just as schools are people, not institutions, Chalkboard is people, not simply an organization. I know a couple of the top Chalkboard folks, Sue Hildick and Kate Dickson, and I know them to be intelligent women of the highest integrity who are genuinely committed to student success and teacher support.

HOWEVER, having worked in a snake-pit like atmosphere, where any admission that a teacher might need assistance was looked on as inadequacy and failure–well, you can guess what that did for collegiality! Unfortunately, there are too many schools where teachers who aren’t in ‘the loop’ can be set up for harassment, a poor evaluation, or sent packing, etc—so you will have to excuse me for being suspect of Chalkboard and their motives. The PPS can be a very destructive place to work, instead of lifting and supporting teachers.

I would love to know WHAT they have done to make my time in the classroom better or improve it. Stable funding of education would be the big one, but three decades, and I still don’t see a rat’s chance of that happening. If Chalkboard would work on that, and get tax reform passed so that schools are faithfully and reliably funded, I’d bow at their heels and toot their horn.

I have yet to see them facilitate any discussion, so I’m assuming they get invited to do that in situations where the admin. is not “climbing” or threatened?

Stasia, have you ever been evaluated where the evaluator WANTS YOU GONE, and will concoct anything to get you out the door? I’ve seen 4 teachers gone (fired, etc) for exactly that. Bucking a trend, speaking out, going against the flow…..I find it hard to believe some places could have Chalkboard come in and facilitate. Suspect of Chalkboard? You can’t sell me on their “benevolence”.

I agree wholeheartedly with what you both are saying. Standardized testing is a horrible way to evaluate anything, and teachers should be trusted to know what’s best for their students. I know I certainly wouldn’t be in this job if I felt like someone from on high were always telling me what I needed to do to be better.

So the reason I’ve found Chalkboard to be so helpful is that they DON’T want to just come in with a canned solution and evaluate us based on standardized tests. I’ve found them to be super helpful in facilitating the discussion between teachers and administrators to really open up that conversation you want, Steve, about the real, tangible, building-specific things we can do to help us get the support we need.

I just worry when the immediate reaction to an organization who wants to help is to assume their form of “help” is more testing and canned curriculum. It’s not always teachers vs. everyone else; some people/organizations out there really do have some good ideas and I think it’s important to at least make an effort to listen to them (for example, Chalkboard is not actually proposing evaluation based on standardized test results) before dismissing them as just another Race to the Top.

When the organizations pushing these ideas are willing to admit that school improvement is best done within the schools themselves and the classrooms themselves and the decisions for how best to make these improvements should come from open and unrestrained discussions, and that the national trends and testing are not helping in any major way then I will send them money to help their plight and support them to the hilt.

In the meantime, I will keep working for a sensible approach based on what is good for kids, and which recognizes that each school is different and that each teacher teaches differently and that is a good thing.

Are schools messed up? Absolutely. Do we need good teachers who can work in their own classrooms, according to what they know is best, for their own students? Absolutely. Do those teachers need support to sustain them through the incredibly difficult, often alienating, exhausting work of teaching? Again, absolutely.

I can’t speak for all organizations who have their fingers in education, but in my interactions with Chalkboard, I’ve found only that they are on the side of teachers in this crazy messed-up system. They’re not looking to enforce some kind of one-size-fits-all evaluation onto teachers. They’re not trying to come in to your school, tell you what’s wrong, and tell you how to fix it. They’re just trying their damndest to help foster what the original post calls “an atmosphere which allows real communication between staff, including administrators, about ideas which teachers might find useful, including ideas specific to that particular classroom or the teaching of that subject.” Chalkboard is trying to work with us to find a way to keep us in this profession, to give us the support we need, to find ways to encourage us to keep getting better at the incredibly difficult job we do.

I think it’s the word “evaluation” that trips us up. Everyone’s so afraid of from-the-outside evaluation that any mention of the word shuts us down. I see it in my colleages; I see it in the people who have posted here. We hear the “e” word and we don’t every want to talk about anything else. Conversation closed. The truth is, though, that evaluation can be used to foster the real discourse that teachers need to feel supported, create a community of people dedicated to their students, and to help them get better at what they do. It doesn’t have to be evaluation in the pass-or-be-fired kind of way as many of you seem to be afraid of; it can be as simple as collaborating with a co-worker and getting feedback about what works for each of you. Chalkboard is just trying to help us find school- and district-specific ways to get better and to better serve our children–but we never will if we’re so afraid to talk about the difficult issues.