Assembly-line Teaching

Bellevue, Washington, the 5^th largest city in the state, is home to a nationally recognized school district. Its three high schools rank among the best in the state.  From his arrival in 1996, Superintendent Mike Riley of the Bellevue School District had been a man with a mission. His focus was district curriculum and his goal was to standardize it.  He succeeded admirably as evidenced by Bellevue’s improvement on standardized test scores.  Parents were pleased.  The town was booming.  Mike Riley was living a public relations dream. 

Then he and his top-down curriculum revisions went too far.  At the beginning of the 2007 school year, teacher contract negotiations stalled over salary and curriculum issues.  Though Supt. Riley had left his Bellevue post the previous November, his mandated, standardized daily lesson plans became THE bone of contention. 

Every teacher of a core curriculum class in the district had to teach the same scripted lesson on the same day in exactly the same way.  The Bellevue Education Association voted to strike, postponing the scheduled opening of the 2007 school year. On August 31, 2007 I sent the following letter to the president of the teachers’ association:

FAS

Dear Bellevue Education Association Teachers,

I feel for the teachers in the Bellevue School District, I really do. If you don’t strike now over your district’s mandatory scripted lesson plans, you might as well kiss your classroom autonomy goodbye. The job you agree to return to will never be the same. Welcome to the brave new world of education assembly lines and the mindless pursuit of guaranteed higher test scores.

I’ve seen it all before from the inside. Five years ago my school went assembly line to deal with WASL panic. The “Line” worked great at covering new teachers’ inexperience and proved the ultimate in CYA public relations. It did take a while to weed out independent-minded veterans, who left for other schools that still valued experience and expertise. Lo and behold, this past year (the first with everyone on board) WASL scores dropped 3%! Oops! What now, efficiency experts?

Someone please explain how mass production techniques work with individual minds trying to connect with other individual minds? Since when has uniformity been more important than excellence in independent thought? Surely we Americans still value independent thought, don’t we? Bellevue teachers, don’t let your district demean you and your students this way.

Give in now and you can forget about teaching as a profession. Your calling will become just another position on “The Line.” Forget, too, all your hard-earned money spent on post-grad hours for salary advancement. What good are your years of classroom experience and professional/personal growth? Nothing in your past counts now. You’re just a cog. You’ve allowed the moron who dreamed up one-size-fits-all lesson plans to make an Orwellian nightmare come true.

Teachers in Bellevue, you have a history of education success on your side. Fight for the excellence you’ve already demonstrated. Never settle for uniformity because district hacks value it. If the district wins on this issue, they’ll get their uniform education, but it will be uniformly mediocre. The best of you will leave. I did after 36 years. I’d rather be out of work than become a mindless, spineless, assembly-line lackey.

Teachers, here’s a teaching moment you can’t afford to miss. Teach the Bellevue School District the lesson it MUST learn. Strike hard. Strike now.

Respectfully yours,

Fred A. Strine

P.S. The strike lasted nine days. On September 14, 2007, teachers in the Bellevue School District signed a new contract that gave them a 5% cost of living increase over three years. They also won the right to modify daily lesson plans without prior district approval.  

March of the Cogs

March of the Cogs

Synchronized circumference,

Meshing round  ‘n’ round,

March on egalitarian cog!

Engage your Kameraden.

Feel the power pulse

In united effort gained.

Celebrate the cognate.

Lessen single strain.

Magnify your contribution

Toward the goal of all.

Rejoice in the purpose

Of oneness.

Surrender self.

Be the machine!

The Line

The Line

Sanity shuns anarchy,

Thriving on order.

Inordinate order

Assembly-lines life—

Each spot on the line prescribed,

Each addition, a stamped duplicate—

Certified clones, certainly equal

In every conceivable way

Save freedom.

The Calling

The Calling

For most it begins with a preference.

For others, a duty—expected,

Inherited, without much input.

Responders follow the urge—

Irresistible, unrelenting, obsessive—

Enhancing a talent, with quiet

Rewards from a humble

Sense of accomplishment.

Looking in the mirror

Poses no unanswered questions.

Top Ten Ways to Lose Experienced Teachers

Top Ten Ways

to Lose

Experienced Teachers

We’ve all read the disturbing statistic (usually during legislative debate over salaries) that half of all new teachers quit the profession within five years. After 36 years in the classroom, I feel compelled to ask an equally alarming question: Where have all the experienced teachers gone? If most of your children’s teachers seem to fall within that first five-year category, you may also be wondering what became of the older, experienced teachers. Though baby-boomer retirement certainly accounts for some loss, I’m betting your local school practices some or all of my top ten ways to lose good experienced teachers.

#10  No pay incentives. The good, the bad, and the mediocre all make the same. No raises based on experience after 15 years. Want more money? Take more worthless teacher-training courses. Work more hours on district-approved projects. Fill out more paperwork. The last 21 years of my teaching career DID prepare me for retiring on a FIXED salary. No rewards for excellence.

#9  Hire teachers fresh out of college in preference to experienced teachers. Newbies are cheaper, less secure, and more malleable. Clone them to fit desired administration philosophy. Experienced teachers are harder to fool, harder to clone, and much more likely to challenge or dissent.

#8  Balkanize your faculty into “team players” AKA those newbies “on board” versus the independents or “deadwoods.” If one of those individualists volunteers for a decision-making committee, say it’s full. Warn newbies against associating with those not “on board.” Give the least experienced teachers the most decision-making authority.

#7  Practice the devious art of the Delphi Technique whenever possible at faculty meetings to focus on “consensus building” with dissent suppression the real goal. Promote planning period meetings to divide and conquer. Put controversial agenda items last and hope to be saved by the bell. Summarily dismiss dissent on major agenda items as “ minority” viewpoints. Ignore the voices of experienced teachers who have more practice in BS detecting.

#6  Dump administrative concerns on teachers. Create bureaucratic CYA paper trails for teachers. Force compliance. Hold teachers accountable for weak administrative disciplinary policies. Spread the blame to hide the shame.

#5  Waste valuable classroom time on unnecessary interruptions that could be covered in memos. Promote social agenda items that undermine or disrupt academic goals. Examples would include homework-free days, dress up days, days of silence in support or protest of social concerns. Emphasize student activism. De-emphasize academics.

#4  Eliminate excellence in the classroom as a basis for any deference, priorities, or perks. Do this under the “fairness” doctrine. Give the most desirable schedules to the least experienced teachers. Put the most structured teachers with classes that need the least structure and vice versa. Make the best teachers fight each year for the schedules they want to teach. Most will transfer, retire, or quit in frustration.

#3  Undermine the authority of the teacher in the classroom. Centralize all discipline to the extent that students are no longer accountable to the classroom teacher. Give a disruptive student equal standing with the teacher in disciplinary matters. Question the teacher’s conduct in front of students and/or parents.

#2  Mandate teaching methods. If the latest study says good results have been achieved with the “miracle” method, make sure everybody uses it.  Mandate training in every new idea that comes along. Incorporate checking for the “miracle” method use in teacher evaluations. Jump on every education bandwagon.

#1  Praise only the new and innovative. Honor those publicly. Ignore the continued excellence and refinement of the experienced. When they quit, tell their colleagues they chose to retire.

P.S.   On a personal note, I was able to deal successfully with #10 and #9, managing to stick around for 36+ years. Eventually #8 through #1 got to me with perhaps 5 good years left. I resigned in 2006 with prejudice (in the judicial sense).

Concensus

Consensus

Affirm the weight that marks consensus.

How heavy to equate to truth?

How many in the mob required to

Balance against a lone dissent?

Hide behind your calculated calm,

Your rigged results,

The refuge in your number long enough;

Watch consensus cave.