Don’t Just Throw Money at Education, Invest in it

Long Term!

The magnanimous and philanthropic efforts on the part of people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are outstanding and their commitment to many worthy causes, including the education of our children, are without equal. However, throwing money at the myriad of problems associated with education today is not the solution. There is no quick fix and there never will be a problem that the infusing of money alone with solve.

Digging for Pedagogical Wealth

In ancient times and again in not so ancient times, but prior to the development and recording of the written word, important information was passed on verbally, one person to another. The written word augmented the transfer of information from sage to neophyte and allowed for it be archived, referenced, and retrieved. However, an apprenticeship-type education, as antiquated as it might appear at first blush is still, at times, the best way to pass on skills and best practices. In pedagogy, it is ironic that very little can be learned about the best practices of teaching from the written word. In the field of education, there is educational theory in books, student teaching, and then on-the-job-training. There are, however, school districts where Mentoring programs, Lead Teachers, and Peer Coaching are instituted. All are fine and do provide as close to an apprenticeship experience as our profession seemingly dares to nuzzle up to.

I submit that there is one singular and prolific fact that we all can agree on and yet is addressed in a less than a robust fashion. Regardless of the textbooks, manipulatives, computers, workbooks and SmartBoards that we place into our classrooms; nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than the person standing in the front of the classroom – the teacher. The focus of attention and the focus of funding on initiatives to improve learning must be positioned toward improving the capability and productivity of teachers. Absent that endeavor, children will be left behind and the race to the top will be over before the starting pistol is discharged.

Racing to the Top of What?

We are now being asked to consider the latest federal initiative, the challenge of the race to the top; having just gotten use to not leaving any child behind. This newest of initiatives, professing to solve the nation’s educational woes, points accusatory fingers and perches the blade of a guillotine precariously over the heads of principals and teachers. The cries of ‘something must be done’ are as frequent as they have been in the past. We just have a new set of leaders crying ‘…off with their heads…’ and warning that ‘the sky is falling’ as the latest, can not miss, instant remedy is fostered upon us.  The sky has been falling for years and removing someone from a position because assessment scores have not been raised based upon Annual Yearly Progress makes no initial sense. What have we done for that arraigned administrator or teacher to provide them with the best potential for success other than a slew of assessments? All we are doing is taking measurements prior to adequately addressing the need.

Where are the administrators and teachers coming from who will be replacing the ones removed based upon the race to the top? What makes anyone think they will be better equipped and/or prepared than those they are replacing?  Race to the top, as its predecessor, No Child Left Behind, doesn’t focus resources on teacher improvement but rather focuses on assessing, firing and replacing.

Proposal

I have a proposal. It has little to do with racing to the top of anything and I dare say eventually no one will be left behind. A number of years ago, someone who I considered to be a master teacher announced her plans to retire at the conclusion of the school year. On the last day of school, she had finished giving her files, master copies of dittos, old plan books and an assortment of lesson plans, classroom furniture, her beloved overhead and easel to colleagues. She, as had been ritualistically performed, passed on all of her worldly academic possessions to those who will remain behind. She then turned and walked out of the building, never to return again. She had passed on her written words and physical apparatus and her tomes of documented experiences. However, when she walked out the door, she took the most important part of her potential legacy with her and it was never shared – she took herself and how she did what she did out of the building…forever.

What I consistently do not read or hear about in all the talk about improving schools is the value of master teachers working with novice and as well as experienced teachers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a master teacher who was in their final year prior to retirement was not given classes to teach but rather was given (with full pay and full acquisition of seniority) the role of sage? Someone who would spend the entire school year teaching teachers in an apprenticeship fashion. Please allow me to be perfectly blunt and clear; I am referring to a master teacher and not every teacher who is in their last year of teaching is a master teacher.

I have two permanent substitute teachers who come to our school each day. On days when there is no one absent, I have the permanent substitute teacher cover, on a rotating basis throughout the day, a class for an hour or two and I place that classroom teacher in the room of the school’s master teacher [with her permission] who is retiring at the end of this school year. I have made it crystal clear to everyone that no one is being punished and it is not that I do not consider them to be excellent teachers in their own right. However, I do not want this master teacher only sharing her overhead projector and other assorted pedagogical paraphernalia as she walks out the door on her last day. I want other teachers to sit in, watch, listen, and absorb the ethos that permeates the classroom and the best practices associated with that extraordinary classroom environment. I want to set up conversations between them about great pedagogy as it is being observed. Why should I, as a principal, be the only one who regularly passes through the master teacher’s classroom and be impressed and enlightened by what and how she does what she does?

Sharing Our Wealth

With all of the money focused on so many programs, practices, incentives and assorted attempts to raise the achievement levels of students, the one glaring omission and the one that I believe would ultimately have the greatest impact would be to spread pedagogical wealth. One problem, I fear, is that the results of this process will take too long when measured against the preconceived need for instant, quick fixes fueled, many times, by political reasons.

The money? Oh, yes the money. Districts will be paying probably the highest paid teacher in the school (or district) to be out of a classroom and just teach teachers! I can hear taxpayers shouting in unison and out loud; what a waste of funds! However, if appropriately viewed, defined and presented, sharing pedagogical wealth is a major professional development apparatus. The benefits will not be instantaneous and in a world that demands instant gratification; patience and time commitment toward an initiative are all too infrequent. Every educator knows that student learning is a long term process and that same understanding must be applicable toward teacher learning.

Some will debate that we already have a program like this where veteran teachers serve as a sage for student teaching experiences. I would counter that while the student teaching experience is important and somewhat worthwhile; are student teachers always partnered with master teachers, or just with teachers who need the money or college credits that usually accompany the student teacher? Also, can someone so brand new and totally inexperienced as a student teacher would be, fully appreciate what a teaching supervisor has to offer at that time in their teacher training experience? I say no. Student teachers don’t even know what they don’t know and what they need to know and be able to do. I submit that most don’t even know the questions to ask.

Mentoring programs serve the neophyte teacher and most Peer Coaching programs serve those in need who are veteran teachers and can have an association of being more remedial in nature. Is a Lead Teacher a true master teacher; not in most cases. The unencumbered simplicity and beauty of sharing pedagogical wealth is that we are providing an avenue for master teachers to leave their legacy or, at least, exposing those remaining behind to their expertise, skill and best practices.

Since Socrates

What I am proposing is that the passing on of legacies, as slow and steady as a tortoise will move, should prevail over the expectations of those who prefer the expedient hare. Let’s take a master teacher who is entering his or her final year of teaching and place that person in a position where they can do the most good. There are no quick fixes in education. Programmatically, if there was an effort or practice that would ensure that all kids would learn, someone since Socrates would have figured it out by now [packaged it, sold it, and be retired in a condo on the south coast of Maui].

Placing one-on-one professional development in the hands of those extraordinarily successful master teachers, who are in the best position to influence others, is an invaluable commodity. Want to improve instruction and positively influence student learning? Then seek out those master teachers in a school/school district and engage them in passing on their pedagogical legacy prior to them taking it with them into retirement.