An Open Letter to Dr. Bennett from the Lady in the Pink Dress

Public Education Matters

An Open Letter to Dr. Bennett from the Lady in the Pink Dress

Dear Dr. Bennett,

You don’t know me, but you met me the other day at the Wells County Chamber of Commerce Luncheon where they were honoring the Wells County “Turn-Around” students. You were the speaker at the luncheon. I was the lady in the pink dress, who asked you a question. I’m also obviously the writer of this blog. I wasn’t sure if you put the two together, because I didn’t have “publiceducationmatters” on my nametag.

When we first arrived at the luncheon, we were told that you would only be speaking and that there would be no opportunity to ask you questions. Since I had a list of 10 questions I might ask in case I was given the chance in my purse, I was a bit disappointed. But on second thought I was rather glad to hear that you weren’t going to let the luncheon in honor of those wonderful “turn-around” students be turned into some kind of political football game. Truly it was their day and also the day of the people and businesses in Wells County who sponsor these awards. Really, because these students have changed directions and paths and are now pointed in positive directions in their lives. It is an occasion to celebrate. I was happy that you did acknowledge all that.

Imagine my surprise then, when you then seemed to turn around and use your speech for somewhat of a lobbying effort for your educational agendas. I understood that it was fitting to say that Wells County is an example of much that is good with public education in Indiana. However, I did not see this as the occasion to promote the principles of ending tenure and using testing to evaluate teachers and/or schools. These ideas may be your strongly held opinions and even your goals, but to me, they were not appropriate fodder for a speech honoring agencies or students. In short I thought some of your speech was in poor taste. I also very much disagreed with you when you said that your views of education and educational reform are not bipartisan in nature. True, education really should not be, but I believe the views you cited have an extremely partisan basis. You may disagree with me, but that is how I view it.

I was equally surprised when at the end of your speech you did say you would take questions. I have to say that I wondered if the “surprise” was only a surprise to us, that if all along you’d planned to take questions but you didn’t want anyone to know you were going to do that, so people would not prepare themselves. I admit, this is an unkind and suspicious thought and partly grounded in my pre-conceived belief that you were there to rub shoulders to promote your agendas, but nonetheless, it is what I wondered. My apologies for my unkind thoughts.

When no one immediately raised their hand, you joked with us, saying “Come on- you can’t be any tougher than “the press” who interviewed me this morning.” My thought then was “Well, you’d be wrong there, because I think I have much more of a working knowledge of what’s going on in education than almost any member of the press and especially of the Fort Wayne newspaper that you mentioned.”

At any rate, I was kind of struggling inside with raising my hand to ask a question. The reason was that I still wasn’t sure if this was an appropriate venue. But then someone else asked a question and perhaps my better judgment didn’t prevail and I changed my mind. I thought “OK, but I’ll at least try to throw you a softball.” At least it was as “softball” as I know how to be when I am concerned about something.

I started my question with acknowledging that I was excited to read the book by William Zhao, the Chinese student at Kokomo called “Fierce Urgency” that you cited in your speech. You said the young author was inspired to write this book by you and that in the book he espouses that we are not competitive enough with China and India’s educational systems and if we don’t step it up we will lose the “chess game.” I really am excited to read it, although I was not able to locate it on Amazon and download it to my Kindle when I got home that night. But don’t you worry, I’m a very diligent soul and I’ll find it eventually.

I’m hoping that when I read it, in addition to his worry over our students being able to compete with top students in those countries, that I’ll find that he notes the inherent differences between public education in China and India and the United States. Here is a pretty interesting article about the state of public education in India http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2116/stories/20040813007301500.htm and here is an interesting excerpt from a University of Michigan report about China. http://sitemakedu/vanschaack.356/strenghts_and_weaknesses_of_both_systemser.umich..

Anyone making assertions about how Indiana or the United States should achieve reform to win at the chess game might want to understand the similarities and differences more fully. These sites are just a start. I won’t get into all that now, but I do want to stop and point out of the things I thought was most interesting. The U of M article concluded that in China teachers are afforded much more respect than here in the states. Hmm.

So, as I said, I started with saying I’d very much like to read this book you mentioned. (William sounds like an outstanding young man. ) Then I went on to ask you if you’d read Diane Ravitch’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” I apologize for jumbling the title when I asked the question, but I understood you to know exactly what book I was talking about when you said that you’d read parts of it. Of course it was impossible for me to know which parts you had read, so I decided at that point to make my question rather broad in nature, more so than I’d originally intended.

Continuing, I tried to indicate to you that one of the things I appreciate about Diane Ravitch’s book is that it is filled with research and documentation behind her assertions that NCLB and the current US educational reforms will not work and why. Call me crazy, I like it when non-fiction writers do that; when they back up what they are saying with something substantial.

I continued and finally got to my question which was “What kind of research was behind the reform agendas in the Fast Forward plan’s attempt to win the federal Race to the Top Money?”

I also have to stop again here and confess to you that with my question, I was indeed trying to make my own point, just as you had tried to make your points in your speech.

My point was that I think that when we endeavor to improve education that we most decidedly should understand the reasons behind what we are doing. We shouldn’t just implement ideas pulled out of thin air, no matter what so-called “important” person says they’ll be a good idea. We should check first to see if they hold water and are worth our time and money to implement. We should know history and what has and hasn’t worked in the past and why and why not. We should take into account ALL of the factors involved in the replication of anything that has been tried before. We should attempt to anticipate the shortcomings of any new idea that me might seek to implement. We should look for valid research supporting the principles of what we are attempting. We will want to consult the most non-partisan, unbiased, and accurate research studies we can possibly find. We also in this instance might want to consult the teachers in the state who are in the trenches and on the frontlines before we make our decisions.

Forgive me Dr. Bennett, if I state to you that I believe that you won’t find one shred of real (unbiased) evidence that ending seniority or tenure or breaking up or weakening the teacher’s union will improve education. There isn't any difference in achievement between right to work states and unionized states. You can say all you want that the seniority system is wrong and keeps poor teachers in place while not allowing new “better” teachers in the door of classrooms, but until you can show me with science that newer = better, then I think I’m going to have lean towards the research that says that experienced teachers are generally more effective than inexperienced ones. I think I’m going to have to lean towards what I know from what I’ve observed when I work in schools.

Please don’t say that experience is not a guarantee of a quality teacher. I know it’s not, however, unlike what you seemed to be saying to your audience (that poor teachers cannot be dismissed) I maintain that you already have the means to rid the state’s systems of poor teachers. It simply involves effective administration and following due process. It also involves devising a system of determining who is a good teacher and who is not.

And there’s another rub, isn’t there? Your third principle in your speech was about accountability- accountability of teachers and accountability of schools. Forgive me if I make a leap here that I shouldn’t, but I’m assuming that in the case of teachers, you are a believer that a teacher’s employment should hinge on his or her students’ test scores. You did mention that you favored the increasingly popular “growth model” rather than the current tests against state grade level standards. But that’s where things got a little fuzzy for me, for two reasons.

The first reason, a man in the audience asked you about students who have IEPs- whether or not they would be expected to make a year’s progress in school as you stated that every child in Indiana should be expected to make each year. You answered in so many words that they would only be expected to make the progress they could be expected to make, that it might be different depending on the circumstances. My question here is how do you know what growth they might be expected to make? Doesn’t that pretty much depend on the judgment of the teacher and the parents and other members of the IEP team? So aren’t you giving them a lot of latitude to decide what is acceptable progress and what is not? How do you then judge a teacher’s effectiveness against what might typically be his or her own expectations? Can you do that objectively? Moreover, would you really trust a new and young and inexperienced teacher to be able to make as “good” of a judgment on these matters as an experienced teacher?

The second reason that’s a little fuzzy to me is that just yesterday an email was sent out to superintendents and directors of Special Education discussing the creation of core standards. I have to say I don’t really know the details of this but my stab in the dark here is that these are really just another name for national standards. I’m not one of those people who has a problem with there being national standards so long as they are used only to gauge where a student is along a continuum and help a teacher or a school know what should be taught next or at certain grade levels (providing they are actually developmentally appropriate for the majority of students.) But, I do wonder how your “growth model” of assessment fits into this. I also worry (as I told you) that as Diane Ravitch cautions, that student tests (no matter what kind they are) will be used in ways never intended by the makers of tests. Specifically, I do not believe any kind of student measure should be a measure of teacher accountability.

Now please don’t think me stupid, I can almost hear you saying “but shouldn’t we have a way of determining if teachers are doing a good job of teaching?” And here’s where in your comments at the luncheon you actually answered "your" own question, even though I doubt you realized it.

Do you remember when you were talking about grading of schools and you talked about how the Wells County Schools were so outstanding and that sadly there were 23 (I think) schools in the state that were not succeeding like the Wells County schools? Well how about this? How about taking a look at what the administrators and teachers here in Wells County are doing and comparing it to what the administrations and teachers in those schools are doing?

“What?” you say! “That’s not fair because the circumstances in those schools are different.” you say! (forgive my “creative” imagination of what questions you might be asking.)

Well, what makes those schools different? Is it the staff or the students? Shouldn't good teaching be good teaching be good teaching, no matter where it’s done? Or is it the community that changes the circumstances? Is it the lack of resources? What is it?

And if you are wondering those things, then how can you say it’s fair to judge a teacher by his or her students’ test scores? If it’s just a matter of they’ve got a bunch of bad teachers at that school, you should be able to airlift Wells Counties teacher in and have them fix the problem. Hmm. Probably not feasible but you also might begin to think that perhaps a better way to judge teachers is by what it is exactly that they are doing and how they are doing it; even if it seems on the surface to be more logical to judge them by some kind of “end” product.

The problem with using tests is that first they were not meant to be used for this purpose, not in any test developer’s wildest dreams. Second, let me tell you about one of my students. He’s dying. Second let me tell you about one of my colleague’s students. He lives in a car. Third, let me tell you about one of my son’s friends when he was in school, his mother died. Fourth, let me tell you about another one of my students, he suffered a C4 spinal fracture and no longer has use of his lower extremities. A year before he was on the football team.

This is NOT to say that any of these kids can’t or won’t succeed in their lives in some way or even in grand ways. I personally know that these kids have it in them (with good guidance) to become tremendous successes in their lives. Some, in my eyes, already are. However, what I’m saying is that these students and many many other students may have a year or two when doing well on a test is just simply not a priority to them.

I believe the year that my own children’s beloved aunt died of breast cancer that their tests scores slumped a bit. Should we have graded their teachers on that basis- on their year of decline? Really? My daugher went from being a straight A college student to almost flunking out a semester. (Later she went back to being a successful student.)

And forgive me, to make another point of reason why using test scores does not make sense, when our nation’s founders said “all men are created equal” they only meant in the eyes of the law. They did not mean, and we should not pretend, that all people (children in this case) are equal or start out equal in ability or in increments of developmental growth. We do (whether we want to or not) need to acknowledge this reality of life and we need to understand that not all children will achieve to the same levels or at the same even pace.

You might even be wondering as I did, how exactly you knew in the first place that Wells County schools are “making the grade?” How did you know Dr. Bennett? You judged them as remarkable schools making a difference. What was your proof of that? Was it in the faces of those turn-around students or was it in some test score? Was it in their graduation rates? Was it because you knew from talking to Steve Baker some of what is going on in Wells County Schools? What?

I don’t really know. But one thing I do know is that many of those students in those successful schools were taught by teachers with experience, occasionally mixed in with new teachers. Most the teachers around here in this community have been in this community for some time. People tend to stay here. Mostly, these are not a bunch of newly minted teachers here and yet you have judged them to be successes. That doesn’t follow the logic of your one principle in your speech at all.

Think about it, not one of them was judged for continued employment by a student’s test scores. Not one. Because we’ve never done that here. And yet, somehow the administrators here knew to keep them, and here they are- making a success of things. You said so yourself. How’d those administrators know to continue their employment all these years without the scores telling them to do so? I’m truly puzzled. (Ok, not truly.)

All of this makes me wonder Dr. Bennett. It makes me wonder why exactly we would need to be getting rid of a system of tenure and seniority that produced and kept these very fine teachers that have made the Wells County Schools successful. It makes me wonder why you can’t take a look at what they are doing and replicate it elsewhere without tearing apart a system that makes it possible for these employees to feel a sense of security that they won’t be ripped out of their jobs on the whim of an errant administrator or school board member. (And if you think that couldn’t and wouldn’t happen without a teacher’s unions protections, stayed tuned to the next blog, because “have I got a story for you!”) It makes me wonder if job security is perhaps one of the things that makes teaching a half way attractive field to go into, since it’s certainly not the level of pay. I look at some of these quality individuals that we have hired here in Wells County and I think “Wow, wonder what they could have made in the private sector! Thank goodness we have them, how might we keep them longer?” I wonder if making them afraid for their livelihood is the answer. Somehow I doubt it.

I have to tell you Dr. Bennett that two of your three principles cited in your speech made me think that what you’re really trying to do is break or weaken the teacher’s union and not that they have anything to do with reforming schools. You did finally cite in answer to my question that your research included the work of Joel Klein. I was polite and didn’t follow up with the “mincemeat” that Diane Ravitch made of the applicability and replication of Joel Klein’s ideas. I didn’t at the time see the luncheon as the time and place for that.

Before I close, I want to tell you about when I arrived at the luncheon. Bluffton’s mayor, who I’ve known for many years, came up to me and put his hands on my shoulders and said “Cindi, my most important “mayoral” job responsibility today is keeping you calm.” This was his good natured way of teasing me for being quite opinionated on the subject of schools. He knew before it all started that I would not agree with you on many things. I assured him that I would try to be “good.” After the dinner, I went up to him and said “Ted, I did the very best I could, I want you to know that.” He laughed and said “Cindi, you were the model of self restraint.”

My mother was also in attendance at the event. She was there because she works for the local newspaper, “The Bluffton News-Banner.” She was taking the video to put on the paper’s blog. Afterwards she said to me “Are you going to go up and continue your questions to Dr. Bennett?”

I told her “No.” She asked “Why not?” I answered her “Because Mom, Dr. Bennett and I are so very far apart on things that there doesn’t seem to be any point in it, plus this is not the proper time and occasion for it all.” I admit, I was mostly just frustrated.

And in closing this letter, Dr. Bennett, I just want to say that I’m very sorry that I took that attitude of defeatism on Thursday afternoon. I’ve rather changed my mind also that it was not the proper place or time. If now is not the time, then when would be? If that wasn’t the place with those Turn-around students and members of the community who are partially responsible for their success present for the discussion, then where would be?

Dr. Bennett, I just don’t think you and I talk often enough. I’m sorry I blew the chance to continue our conversation. And don’t worry, if ever we do get the chance to meet again, remember my own mayor has judged me to be “a model of self-restraint.” I just wonder how he made that judgment without testing me. I’d also like to leave you with one of my very favorite quotes. You’ll see it on the wall of my office if you ever come to visit me. It’s by Albert Einstein. He is still generally considered to have been a first rate genius, even though it’s been reported that he wasn’t deemed very successful in school. “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”

Regards,
Cindi Pastore (aka the woman in the pink dress at the luncheon)