He cannot get off the conveyor belt; he may as well enjoy the ride.

     As sixth grade begins Tom understands the routine.  Every year he gets a year older, every year he moves up with the class.  Every year the classes get harder and his grades never improve.  He gets remediation time with the other kids who are behind.  Tom realizes that nothing seems to change, so why bother trying harder.  Tom is on a conveyor belt designed and controlled by adults.  He might as well ride along.  What happens is up to them.
     Sixth grade is different.  Tom now knows what to expect.  He also knows that despite his efforts every fall to improve his grades in order to avoid removal from specials in the middle of the year, his efforts will fall short.  "Why try," he thinks to himself.  Tom makes the obvious choice; one might even say, the logical choice.  Since this is all out of his control, he may as well forget about trying so hard.  A year from now he will enter seventh grade, followed by eighth and then high school. The conveyor belt will keep moving him along.
     Tom has not kept the required academic pace over the years set by the state standards, but he has learned how the system works.  Each year he is another year closer to eighteen.  History has shown Tom that he will not keep up with the academic pace set at school.  The additional hours of remediation stolen from the "specials" only served to narrow Tom's experiences at school.  School is not fun, but Tom concludes he has no choice but to survive it.  At eighteen he will leave; his mind is made up.  He has no idea what he will do when he leaves school and that's fine with him.  All that matters is that his time on the conveyor belt will be over.
     As sixth grade begins, Tom has concluded that he's just not smart enough to keep up in school.  It's a relief.  Tom can accept his reality.  As other kids work to keep up and do as they are told, Tom can relax and do what he likes.  The future is clear to Tom.  He will be done when he is eighteen; from now until then, he just needs to get through each day.  He cannot make time move faster or slower.  He cannot get off the conveyor belt; he may as well enjoy the ride.

It didn't matter who you were or what your last grade was; you had a voice in Mrs. Ravert's world.

     My fourth grade experience followed my third grade very nicely.  While Mrs. Bensen must have been a tough act to follow, Mrs. Ravert, a young teacher, was wise beyond her years.  She took full advantage of working beside her experienced mentor.  She made no attempt to copy her.  Instead, she shared the same goals and beliefs; being every bit as authentic.  She was the best Mrs. Ravert she could be, continuing the momentum established by Mrs. Bensen.  They were teammates, playing different positions perhaps, but shepherding us forward nonetheless.
     Where Mrs. Bensen was always on her feet, moving purposefully about the room, setting a fast pace; Mrs. Ravert was visibly more relaxed, expecting her fourth graders to be deeper thinkers.  Mrs. Ravert transitioned us from the teacher driven expectations of Mrs. Bensen to a student-centered environment, expecting us to engage in projects and activities with fewer rules and more synthesis.   While Mrs. Bensen was buzzing around keeping everyone moving forward on their personal path, meeting students were they were; Mrs. Ravert did more problem based learning.
     Looking back now, I would say that Mrs. Ravert was inverting Bloom's taxonomy.  She would calmly sit at her desk, or lean over her podium, then ask a vague, open-ended question.  After asking the question, she would go to the board and calmly write the question on the board without saying another word.  This was her way of managing "wait time."  She had trained us in the process.  The question was never beyond our reach.  Everyone could have an answer and no answer was necessarily right or wrong.  These were not recall questions.  These were grow your imagination questions.  Every day began this way and every transition from subject to subject worked this way.  No one could possibly be unprepared or embarrassed because she formed the question in a way that made it safe.
     Imagine a teacher looking out over the class, making eye contact with each student as she asks a question.  She writes the question on the board in silence, turning to make eye contact with a student or two as she writes.  She puts down the chalk, signaling that it is time for us to have a response.  More eye contact as she slowly leaves the board to enter our space, no longer a Sage on the Stage, but now a Guide on the Side.  "What do we think?"  "How do we feel?"  "What are we imagining?"  Remember, the question is not recall.  It might not even be a question.  It might be a sentence that introduces a setting or character, followed by the question, "What do you think is happening in this story?"
     Think about it.  Nearly thirty fourth graders on the edge of their seats, waiting for the teacher to ask a question that would stimulate thought, discussion, imagination, visualization, creativity, and self-directed learning.  It didn't matter who you were or what your last grade was; you had a voice in Mrs. Ravert's world.  She didn't need to call attention to the rules or behavior issues as the day began or we moved to a new subject.  We were looking forward to the question as if it were a reward for us.  We were growing our imagination again and again as we thought and discussed a wide variety of topics each day as Mrs. Ravert's questions gave us voice.

Tom has a bad case of conveyor belt blues; what's a Mom to do?

     In earlier posts I described life for Tom, now a fourth grade student who has done poorly on annual high stakes tests and been put into remediation.  Unfortunately, Tom is feeling the impact of a conveyor belt that has one speed.  He has not been able to catch up.  He and his Mom have met with the principal, but both are showing the strain of his circumstances.  Rather than feeling energized, excited about the future, Tom feels his world is full of limitations.  Rather than imagining possibilities, dreaming about what life holds for him, Tom just goes through the motions.
     Every few days Tom's Mom asked if she could help him with his homework or talk about how things were going with arithmetic and reading.  She began reading more at home herself, hoping to be a good model.  Tom showed little interest in extra effort.  When he felt pushed by her, he reminded her that he was already missing the afternoon "specials" and working harder than ever at school.  Tom's Mom could see that his grades on unit tests and his report card were changing very little.  Maybe Tom just wasn't ever going to get good grades.
     The end of fourth grade came and summer began.  Tom and his Mom were thankful for the break.  Tom had that familiar sinking feeling about the year end tests, but summer was finally here.  Fifth grade brought a fresh start, including afternoon "specials" for all once again.  Tom seemed to feel better about school.  His grades did not improve, but that didn't seem to trouble him.  Mom was thankful that he was pretty much back to his old self, but she worried about the first report card and where he might be headed in January.  In her mind, Tom was almost too relaxed about things.  Surely, he must see that he was not making sufficient progress?  She met with the Principal again before Thanksgiving.
     The Principal agreed that Tom seemed happy.  He also agreed that Tom needed to get more serious about grades.  They reviewed the data from the third and fourth grade year end tests.  The remediation efforts after January had shown little improvement in the trend of Tom's scores.  He was as much below grade level at the end of fourth grade as he was after third.  There was little doubt that the January assessments would put Tom back into remediation for arithmetic and reading once again.
     By the end of fifth grade the pattern and mindset were well established.  Tom's report card and year end state tests told the same story.  He was not "proficient" in math or reading.  Tom and his Mom began to verbalize what they had suspected for a year, Tom just wasn't going to do as well as some of the other kids in his grade.  Some kids have it, some don't.  Or, maybe some just catch up one year, others catch up some other year.

School leaders will go a long way to building believers on the faculty if they take two steps to change the existing paradigm.

     Both Steven and Tom are developing fixed mindsets.  Steven, because good test scores are coming easily; Tom, because they seem out of reach.  In my last post, I described my hall of fame third grade teacher, Mrs. Bensen.  I would argue that if these students had been with Mrs. Bensen forty years ago, things would have been far different.
     One key question leaders face today in education is how do we encourage teachers to be more like Mrs. Bensen?  With testing pressure and so-called accountability standards pushing teachers toward test preparation, away from engaging, problem based learning; is it even possible to emulate Mrs. Bensen?  Yes, it is, but it takes authentic leaders who provide great communication, supportive teams, frequent positive reinforcement, and a well designed plan.  It simply will not happen with half measures, top-down edicts, and mixed messages.  The talk is easy, walking the talk, persuasively, is difficult for school leaders.
     In our state, and most states, we now have teacher evaluation systems putting heavy weight on student test score improvement.  In this environment, asking a teacher to set aside this fact of life comes across as duplicitous.  It will take more than an occasional pep talk to move a teacher out of the relative comfort of the teaching style they are in, whatever it may be.  The fact is, the school leader is, in all likelihood, asking the teacher do something he or she never had to do as a teacher.  They both know it; and they may both have their doubts.  At a minimum, it is uncomfortable for both.
     School leaders will go a long way to building believers on the faculty if they take two steps to change the existing paradigm.  First create horizontal and vertical teams whose mission it is to build and support the process.  When teachers see the peers with whom they work on board with them, they see that they are not alone on the journey, not being singled out, and perhaps emboldened, sensing that "they cannot afford to lose all of us."  Horizontal teams put teachers of the same grade level or course together.  Vertical teams put teachers together who will share student cohorts longitudinally over time and are in the same general discipline.  Vertical teams benefit greatly by working out plans for prerequisite skills and sharing data and experiences with specific students.  Horizontal teams are actively engaged in real time with the same children across or within disciplines, providing flexibility for differentiation and just-in-time remediation.  Some schools think they have teaming, when what they have is tribes.  There is a difference.
     The second step in changing the paradigm is planning success.  Success can be designed.  We need the will to create and execute the plan; but success can be designed.  Plan design in this case will require a clear definition of process.  Leaders must include the teachers in the plan from the beginning.  In fact, the plan must be the teachers' plan.  The role of the leader is to keep the team focused on student-centered learning for engagement and problem solving.  The leader does this by asking process questions that challenge the team to create an innovative plan that everyone truly shares and cares to implement.  A key question for the leader to ask is, "What roles do you want me to play?"  Another is, "How will we know our process is on track in the first week, second week, and beyond?"  By asking these questions, the leader is visibly transferring ownership of the process and its oversight to the team of teachers.
     This is about changing habits and building new ones.  Even the most committed teachers will struggle with the change of habits.  Outcomes follow process.  The process is the focus.  Early, consistent implementation of the agreed process steps is essential.  Everyone on the team must own both implementation and oversight.  The leaders role is not oversight of the process, it is support.  Oversight must be truly owned by the teachers as a self-managing team.  The team needs to hear questions from the leader that asks them to reflect on their plan and process implementation.  The team needs to see and feel the leader supporting them, not telling them.  Teachers in this scenario will be skeptical in the early weeks, expecting the leader to be the first to cave in.  In a future post, I will suggest an alternative to teaming as the first step.  Perhaps a slower path with the same ends in mind.

The high stakes test environment does not encourage student achievement nor does it encourage authentic teacher creativity.

     What do I remember from third grade?  Mrs. Bensen, high expectations, authentic feedback on my work, and baseball; that is what I remember.  I entered third grade in the fall of 1961.  Living just sixty miles north of Yankee Stadium, my summer was spent following Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle chase Babe Ruth's home run record.  My dad had seen Ruth and Gehrig play often when he was a boy; taking the train to games with his grandfather.  We shared a love of baseball like only a father and son can.
     Mrs. Bensen, my third grade teacher, was nothing less than a hall of fame teacher.  Close to retirement, but with the energy of a speeding train, Mrs. Bensen had a way of getting all of us to stretch to new heights every day.  Good was never good enough and we all loved it.  We loved her for believing in us before we believed in ourselves.  Not only would she do anything to help us each improve in all of the subjects, but she also expected to turn us all into polite, productive citizens.  Mrs. Bensen took responsibility for our academic growth as well as our development of what we now call social and soft skills.
     We had twenty-eight in our class and Mrs. Bensen had a capacity to know how each of us was doing in every subject all of the time.  She naturally differentiated her lessons and our activities, getting the most from everyone.  Her two greatest tools were specific, actionable feedback on our work and her relentless, demanding energy level.   She was able to set a pace that worked for the brightest among us as well as those who struggled.
     By the time we entered third grade some of us were reading Robert Louis Stevenson, but others had fallen behind grade level in second grade.  Mrs. Bensen understood that this was normal, she'd seen it for years.  She took it in stride.  Her mission was helping us each grow.  She knew we could.  She knew we would.  She created the environment that allowed it to happen.  She didn't need summative assessments or unit tests to tell her how we were doing.  She always knew because she lived it with us.  She knew when to push and when to ease up.  It was the most demanding year in school one can imagine and we wouldn't have missed it for anything!
     I would argue in any era, more teachers should be like Mrs. Bensen.  What makes today different is the message sent by the high stakes tests.  In the third grade of today, the student reading Robert Louis Stevenson scores high on the test, while the student who fell behind grade level in second grade scores poorly.  Without the high stakes test, Mrs. Bensen's students all felt pride in their personal growth; their individual achievement promoted a growth mindset.  With a growth mindset, the student who fell behind is more likely to catch up before seventh grade; albeit maybe not all in one year.
     In the high stakes test era, the student who fell behind grade level in reading goes on to the next grade with the stigma of the poor test grade and the fixed mindset despair it promotes.  Additionally, the high scoring student may also adopt a fixed mindset, thinking high achievement is fixed so why bother trying to grow.  Moreover, the pressure on teachers and administrators for immediate test score improvement leads to a stifling cycle of pre-tests, remediation, post-tests, more remediation, grouping, re-grouping, and all the rest of the latest fads and fixes.
     No question, the Mrs. Bensens are hard to find, but they can be developed.  It is more likely, though, when the environment supports energy, creativity, low stakes failure, personal growth, and student achievement.  Paradoxical as it may sound, the high stakes test environment does not encourage student achievement nor does it encourage authentic teacher creativity.

Meet Steven; he's learning that some have it, some don't.

     Steven was born within a few months of Tom in the same year; this placed him in the same grade at school.  At twelve, Steven is in the sixth grade, too.  Steven has also learned through experience that how he performs in school has no impact on his grade level.  Each year Steven gets older and each year Steven moves to the next grade.  Yet, Steven's school experiences have been very different from Tom's.
     When the year end tests came along in third grade, Steven also noticed how important they were to his teacher; but when they were over and summer came, he gave them little thought.  Steven never felt pressure at school or at home.  He enjoyed school; neither tests nor grades ever gave him any stress.  As fourth grade eased into fifth grade, and fifth into sixth, Steven never gave grades much conscious thought.  He was comfortable with how things seemed to proceed at school.  He never noticed much beyond the fact that he enjoyed his friends and teachers were friendly.  At home, Steven's Mom and Dad praised him and often told him that he was bright and would be able to do whatever he liked when he grew up.
     Steven did notice that during the year some students, like Tom, missed some of the fun stuff and stayed behind with the teacher.  Once or twice, Steven can remember one of the kids asking the teacher about that, but since Steven never stayed behind like Tom, he never gave it much thought.  Steven knew that school was easy for some and hard for others.  That's just the way things were.  Either way, he, Tom, and the rest of their classmates were still in the same grade together year after year.  They all arrived together in the morning and left together in the afternoon.  Some kids, like Steven, got grades like A or B, some didn't; that's just the way things are, right?  Some adults are bankers, some are barbers.  Some kids are into sports, some aren't.  Some kids go to college, some go to work at the supermarket.  To both Steven and Tom, it looked like it didn't seem to matter if they tried hard, or slacked off at school; one year looked pretty much like every other year.

Imagination is what inspires a child to become an adult beyond their current circumstances.

     Why grow imagination?  What's the big deal?  Children already have plenty of imagination.  Look at all the imaginative ways they find to get out of chores and avoid homework!  We need to hold their feet to the fire.  We need annual tests in reading and math to make sure they are keeping up.  If they can't keep up in elementary school, things only get harder in high school.
     We need to grow children's imagination because that is how they grow as healthy human beings.  Imagination is what inspires a child to become an adult beyond their current circumstances.

Imagination is what inspires a child to become an adult beyond their current circumstances.

Imagination is what inspires a child to become an adult beyond their current circumstances.

     Yes, I meant to repeat that line again and again.  A member of our community recently shared a key story from his childhood.  We are on a planning team together dedicated to "pathways to career readiness."  As our team worked through the meaning of "pathways," Stephan shared this observation.  "When I was in fourth grade I wanted to do something with computers.  Computers fascinated me.  I needed school to give me a pathway in fourth grade, that would have allowed me to follow my interest in computers."
     Stephan, with this one story, ignited our team's work and helped us see "pathways" as not just road maps to a career, but "authentic experiences that to enable a child to grow imagination."  We can become what we can imagine.  The central purpose of public education is to grow the imagination of children; enable them to see a world beyond their present circumstances.
     It was not important to Stephan as a fourth grader that he have a career in computers.  What was important was that his desire for knowledge and experience be met by the adults and school available to him.  If his interest had shifted to forestry, or carpentry, or astronomy public education needed to shift with him.  In fact, public education should be providing students frequent, authentic experiences in a wide variety of fields before children ask for them, before they even know that they exist.  Oh yes, and not just children of privilege, children who score well on tests, children who are polite, children who sit still, children who do their homework, children who eat their breakfast, or children who earn good grades; all children need to grow imagination beyond their current circumstances!
     Children live in a world created by adults, particularly in elementary school.  Is school  growing imagination in a dedicated, purposeful way?  Is school narrowing the world into a tunnel of despair or a vast expanse of pathways to new and exciting adventures?  Tom, the struggling elementary school student is learning to hate school, as it methodically narrows his world.  In the next post we will consider another student's situation as he also develops a fixed mindset thanks to his breezing through the same tests that have sorted Tom out of "specials" into "remediation."