One thing about being the age that I am is that I have seen some very significant historical events during the course of my life time. I have seen the first space flight, the invention of the microchip, 9-11 and the election of the first African-American President, just to name a few events. There have been many innovations and changes that would have been unimaginable just a generation ago. The one event that I was privileged to witness as a 10 year old was the March on Washington that culminated with Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have A Dream Speech". You have to understand that this speech was set in the context of a lot of activity that was focused on African-Americans having the rights that were guaranteed to them by the 14th and 15th Amendment of the Constitution, passed 100 years ago. There were marches, sit-ins, strikes and other non-violent demonstrations that were occurring in the South over the four or so years prior to his speech. Progress toward equality was very slow and there were acts of violence against African-Americans that included shootings, lynching and beatings. Things that we take for granted, such as the right to vote and the right to buy a house wherever you can afford to buy it, were not a reality in most of the country, especially for the majority of African-Americans who lived in the South. It was a very turbulent time.

Though I grew up in Wisconsin, I had experienced some of the same discrimination. My parents could not purchase a house in a neighborhood that they really wanted to move to in Racine. The issue was not being able to afford it; it was their being the wrong color to live in that neighborhood. When I would visit relatives in the South, I saw first hand the open prejudice and discrimination that was a part of their everyday lives. I would visit their segregated schools, drink from their segregated fountains and use their segregated bathrooms. There are young people today who cannot even imagine the amount of progress from those days until now. For the change to happen, it took heroic people to step forward and protest against the wrongs that were being done. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most visible leader on the national level. There were many leaders in a variety of cities and towns. In Beloit, there were people like Reverend Prude and others who stood up and refused to allow discrimination to continue. Not all of the heroes were black. Some of them were white Americans, of good will , whose consciences could not tolerate the continuance of the moral evil of hatred and prejudice. On one occasion, a house wife from Detroit, who joined the protest in the South, was brutally murdered. Events like this eventually awakened many average Americans who had quieted their own consciences with denial and disbelief at what they were watching on the news. It reached a point where the majority could tolerate it no longer.

As a 10 year old, I wish that I could tell you that I realized the import of what I was watching. Of course, I was watching it through 10 year old eyes. In the decades that have passed, I have had many opportunities to reassess that speech and event. I believe that it was the tipping point in the civil rights movement. I think that it was the beginning of the message of equality reaching into the homes of all Americans. Who couldn’t be moved by the words of that speech? A few years ago, I would have placed that speech in 2nd place behind only the Gettysburg Address in American History. Recently, I heard a group of High School students, from Beloit and Janesville, recite the entire speech, not just the "I Have A Dream" portion. It is now in first place. The words and terminology are second to none and the picture that it paints in the minds and hearts of people are unparalleled in the history of this country. I cry every time that I hear it.
I will forever be indebted to Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Prude and the many known and unknown heroes of the civil rights movement who have paved a path for me to follow. I am grateful for their sacrifice and will take the freedom and opportunities that exist now and use them to the fullest. Every day, I will commit myself to ensure that young people in Beloit, of every race and economic status, will have adults who work to open the doors to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for them, in the same way that others have opened the door for us.

What's The Goal

I have been reading Thomas Guskey's book, Developing Grading and Reporting Systems For Student Learning. It is about practices for grading and reporting student performance. In it he discusses the specifics of various practices used for grading students. He talks about letter grades, percentage grades, rubrics, etc. As I am reading through his book I have come to a startling realization. As educators we have figured out what grade we are going to mark on a paper or on a report card. I am wondering however, whether or not we have figured out what our real goal of instruction is. Let me explain.

If the goal of learning is to demonstrate high levels of mastery and performance, then we are going about it the wrong way. If mastery is the goal, then other things that are currently included in the process must become variables that can be manipulated. Time, for example, is not a fixed variable if you want mastery. The reality is that different people require different amounts of time and practice in order to arrive at the point of learning to mastery. Practice, the amount of repetition necessary to demonstrate mastery, is also a flexible variable. Different students require varying amounts of practice and demonstration of a skill or concept. Imperfect practice or understanding should be treated differently if mastery is the goal.

Formative or imperfect practice, with necessary correction, is assumed in this kind of Mastery Learning and Grading. In fact, many formative assessments are not graded or even figured into a summative grade in this process. This 'rubs the cat's fur the wrong way' for people who believe that grading is a function of Darwinism: separating the strongest in the herd from those that are decidedly weak. Most grading that goes on in high schools is Grading Darwinism and the separating of the 'wheat from the chaff'. If the goal is learning at a high degree of mastery and performance, this mentality on the part of educators is counterproductive. If you think about it, it is an impediment that keeps us from high performance for as many students as possible.

At this point someone is thinking, "You are just watering down the level of performance so that all students can 'succeed'! On the contrary. I am not advocating a lowering of standards of excellence at all. I am just saying that if the goal is mastery then why can't a student take a formative assessment after sufficient instruction. Then, if the student does poorly on the formative assessment, why can't they receive corrective instruction, in a different form of presentation then the initial instruction in order to correct their errors in thinking or practice. They could then take a formative assessment similar to the first one that they took initially, and if they reach the 90% or whatever the standard is, congratulate them for reaching mastery. Some teachers would do this but then destroy the positive impact on student performance by averaging the grade from the intial formative assessment with the second. Again, if the goal is mastery and getting the best performance possible, why average an initial practice with a more precise one. Some would say that it is only mastery if you reach it on the first try. Let me use an analogy from non-academic life. Many adults who have driver's licenses would not be on the road if that was the practice of the motor vehicle department. They set a standard that does not bend or change. They do give you multiple chances to reach mastery. I will write more about this topic in future blogs.

It is imperative that we get assessment right from now on. If the goal is learning then how we assess student learning has to match what we say our outcomes are. If students retake exams, how does that not help more precise practice and mastery? Vince Lombardi spoke about mastery and high performance when he said, "Practice makes permanent, perfect practice makes perfect". Students learn things incorrectly and because we are imprecise and confusing in our correction techniques, they cannot learn and give us the mastery that we desire. Some teachers have made the transition. They give formative assessments often enough and far enough into the instruction of a particular concept as to find students close to mastery. They also use assessments the same way that a dipstick functions in a car. We use the dipstick to tell us how much oil we have. Some teachers use the oil light function. The oil light only comes on if you are close to serious trouble. This is not the function of assessment. We first evaluate initial practice and understanding and then when we believe that student practice is more precise we use a more summative assessment that is entered in the grade book.

One last thing. This will call into question the number of essential concepts that we teach. You cannot use any of what I am suggesting if you need to have students master 100 concepts in a semester. This is the major difference between the American educational system and the educational systems of higher performing countries. They teach less to higher levels of mastery. We cover our many concepts a "mile wide and an inch deep". Suffice it to say that how we grade is missing the target if high levels of mastery is the goal.

A Total Commitment to the Future

I was watching a presentation of "60 Minutes" about a neighborhood transformation in Harlem. It highlighted Geoffrey Canada and what he is doing to try to transform the lives of thousands of children in Harlem.

Mr. Canada grew up poor and through opportunities that opened for him was able to go to college and graduate school. He has been successful at various endeavors throughout his life. Instead of wallowing in the fruit of his success he has taken his connections and developed a vision of how to transform an entire neighborhood in Harlem. This neighborhood has thousands of young people in a matter of several city blocks. This vision of transformation includes a school, medical and dental services, and other support services for familes. He believes that if you are going to change the lives of the poor it will take a comprehensive approach that touches every aspect of their lives.

I was impressed by the whole presentation. When they showed the school in the neighborhood I was filled with both excitement and sadness. Excitement because they set the goal that all children will go to college. They are on track to fulfilling this promise to the kids at this school. This school has higher achievement than those of the schools in the New York Public Schools system. There is no achievement gap between the mostly African-American and Hispanic students in his school and the achievement of European-American students, even in more affluent schools. That is exciting! My sadness came when I watched the lottery for the 215 slots in next years kindergarten. The school has a little over 1000 students. Parents were visibly angry when their child was not selected. They wondered what was going to happen to their child when this school seemed to be their best hope for academic and career success. Their child would be relegated to the low quality of the local public school. What a statement that makes about the perceived quality of the neighborhood schools in poor neighborhoods in many large cities.

It made me think about the commitment that those of us who have dedicated our careers to the betterment of the lives of children. Would we dare to proclaim and make that drop dead commitment that all of our students will go to college? I know there are people who say, "Not all students should go to college!" Upon more careful examination, what they mean is that it is all right for everyone else's child not to go to college. They however, started their child out in the best preschool, moved into the neighborhood that they perceived had the best school in town, and carted their child off to every enrichment experience that they could find. For the underserved, especially African-American and Hispanic students, it is imperative that they go to college. This is an absolute necessity, not only for their well being but also for the sake of breaking the cycle of poverty, underemployment and permanent residence in the underclass. In a generation or two, their grandchildren will have the luxury of deciding whether or not they want to become a lawyer like mom or dad.

The reason that I am so emotional about this is because you have to realize the correlation between poverty and race in the U.S. It is amazing, for instance, that if you examine the percentage of students of color that are on free and reduced lunch compared to the percent of white students you will see a much larger percent of students of color are considered poor. In my former district it was something like 7 to 8 out of every 10 students of color were poor. Less than 1/3 of the European-American students were considered poor. Since the majority of students were European-American it was like pulling teeth to get people to care about the other kids. Even when you used the argument that, in time, these students would represent the majority of the future citizens of that town, it fell on deaf ears. It wasn't their children so it didn't have the same immediate impact on them.

Let's dream for a minute. What if everyone in the city felt ownership for all of the kids. What if they encouraged them and extended hope for their future to the kids. What if no one looked upon a child with disdain because they are poor, wear their pants low or look different? What if people walked up to some teen in the grocery store and said, "I am counting on you to keep the prosperity of our community going by doing well in school. I believe in you!" It sounds like something from Pollyanna, doesn't it?

Geoffrey Canada is doing this in Harlem on a scale that many would have considered impossible. He uses public and private funds and support to make this happen. Could a whole community simulate what he is doing? Could they embrace that vision and do the same thing by making a complete commitment to its young people? The greatness of a city is proportionate to what it does for those who are considered the "least" of its citizens. How great does Beloit want to be?

Problems with Unconventional Solutions

When I was much younger it seemed that the problems that we faced and had to solve were not as complex as they are today. The pace of change was much slower than it is now. The transition from black and white to color TV took more than just a few years. The change from the Univac computer (that filled rooms) to the PC took a few decades. The stability of families was almost a given when I grew up.

Growing up working class and black I can tell you that few of my friends in the neighborhood were without both a mother and a father. Even as a young teacher if a student acted up in your class you could call home and count on talking to either parent, in many instances. The parent would ask the question, "What did my child do?" They entertained the possibility that their child might have done something wrong. Imagine that! Unlike today when the question is more like, "What did that teacher do to my child?" What a different world it was. Parents holding their child accountable for their actions. Not coincidentally, few people had their lawyer on speed dial when any real or contrived wrong happened.

Writing like this makes me sound like some ancient curmudgeon, doesn't it. The point is that since change was not as swift and things seemed a lot more stable, solving problems was like shooting at a stationary target or fish in a barrel. Now it's like shooting at a target that never slows down and keeps moving in an erratic, nonpredictable pattern. Today there are problems that do not have simple solutions.

Solving problems with issues like the prevalence of consumer technology (cell phones) in the schools with students taking pictures or texting when they are forbidden to do so seems so easy to solve. In the past this would not have been a problem since cell phones didn't exist. You had to go to the office to use one of the few phones available in the building. (Can you imagine how that lack of access would have worked in a horrific situation like Columbine where cell phones could help alert officials to where the danger was occuring). It wouldn't have even been a problem in the 80's when cell phones first came out. Those phones barely fit into a backpack let alone a pocket. Watch someone using one in an 80's movie and laugh along with me. Texting? Those phones barely made phone calls! Today people suggest that we just forbid the existence of those phones in the school. That would be a simple solution, but think of the famililes whose students never abuse the use of these phones except turn them on after school so that they can tell their parent that basketball practice is over and they need to be picked up.

Completely forbid cell phones in school buildings. I am sorry, but that genie is out of the bottle. You can control the use of technology, but it is impossible to go back to the days before it existed?

I can remember copyright laws. To be sure, they still exist but how enforceable are they? Kids can go to websites and download music on their iPods without paying a dime. There are pirated copies of the latest movies on the internet, some before they even arrive at the theaters. I am not condoning any of this. I am just asking, "How do you enforce laws with absolute certainty when technology is making such enforcement harder and harder to accomplish?" The other side of the argument is that phone technology is enabling these devices to make more than just phone calls. My new cell phone is an internet browser, calculator, communications device and television (along with a lot of other features that I haven't figured out yet). I was waiting to pick up a son from an airplane flight a week ago and his flight was delayed due to weather. No problem. I just took out my phone, went to TV.com and watched MaGyver! I could have also expanded by vocabulary by tapping into my Spanish dictionary or other apps.

You see, there are potential educational uses for these devices as well. Some schools and districts are beginning to explore the educational uses. My point is that technology is about to become so expansive and invasive that some of the smarter ones among us might figure out how to use it as a problem solver rather than as a problem.