Contributor
Steve Peha, President, Teaching That Makes Sense
Related Link:
http://www.ttms.org
Biography provided by participant
After a career as a software developer and high-tech entrepreneur, Steve Peha started Teaching That Makes Sense (TTMS), an education consultancy specializing in literacy, assessment, and educational leadership, in 1995. His goal was to find or develop the most effective educational practices and get that information to as many educators as possible.
Since starting TTMS, he has written extensively on education including over 300 articles for The Seattle Times' Effective Learning Series for which he won the 2001 Innovators in Education Award from the Newspaper Association of America. His book, "Be a Better Writer," co-written with his wife, and journalist, Margot Carmichael Lester, won the 2006 Gold Medal for Young Adult Non-Fiction from the Independent Publisher's Association. All told, Peha has written over 1000 articles on education and half a dozen books.
Peha believes very strongly that to understand education one must practice extensively in a wide variety of school situations. To that end, he has worked across the curriculum with children of all grade and ability levels at more than 200 schools in the United States and Canada. From this vantage point, he is able to see exactly how new policies affect current practices.
Recent Responses
November 17, 2009 06:51 PM
Our special guests post excellent questions, ones that I will answer below. But right off the top, I would like to thank Ms. Ravitch for her position. It is one we would all do well to address, whether we agree with it or not, because at its core lies a fundamental question: How does knowledge of education inform the form of reform? Or, to put it more plainly, can something be changed successfully by people who have little or no direct experience with it? (The short answer is “no”. The long answer follows.) In almost every school where I consult,…
Read moreNovember 10, 2009 05:07 PM
As soon as people find out I work around the country in education, they invariably ask, “What do you think of NCLB?” My real answer would take up the rest of their evening and bore them to tears, so I’ve made up a short answer: “Everything about NCLB is wrong -- except for the fact that it exists.” Without it, we’d be going nowhere. With it, we seem to be heading into some Twilight Zone version of what the Eisenhower Era would have been like if it’d had computer-adaptive-testing. But even though I don’t like where the train is going,…
Read moreNovember 9, 2009 04:55 PM
Dear NJ Colleagues, I regret that I do not have time this Monday for a full post; I'll be back later in the week. But I would like to encourage us all -- and even remind myself here -- that our task is not defend or decry NCLB but to make policy recommendations for its reauthorization, ideally recommendations that are both specific and actionable. I hope, as the week progresses, that a kind of "virtual" policy paper emerges from our discussions. Let's all try to be specific. Let's try to imagine what the author's of the ESEA will be thinking about. Rather than conceptual…
Read moreNovember 6, 2009 03:39 PM
In support of turnarouds, Justin Cohen says, “we need an inside strategy that deals aggressively with failure where it exists.” In support of restarts, Andy Smarick says, “My argument is that if a school is found to be failing kids, we need to try hard to fix it. If repeated efforts don’t work and it’s clear that we have a persistent failure, then you close it.” I think Mr. Cohen and Mr. Smarick are both smart, experienced, and well-positioned in the field to know what courses of action work best and to be able to justify their opinions. But I…
Read moreNovember 4, 2009 05:15 PM
In light of what has been said here in the last few days regarding the challenges of turnarounds, I wonder what everyone thinks of this: "Ford Foundation plans to invest $100 million to school turnaround plans in seven cities, including Detroit." http://bit.ly/4xXaZP Having made three trips to the Motor City this summer to assist in the training of current and future entrepreneurs, I was struck by the "can-do" spirit that still exists in a town that has been hit harder than I could have imagined. $100 million sounds like a lot of money, and if Detroit gets it's 1/7th share,…
Read moreNovember 4, 2009 01:19 PM
While we’re talking here about “turnarounds”, it occurred to me that there’s another phenomenon in the school improvement lifecycle that might be worth discussing. I call it the “turnback”. When I look at the schools where I worked during the first five years of my practice, the graphs of their performance over time have a vaguely trapezoidal shape. That is to say: consultant arrives, school makes gains, consultant leaves, school flattens out, time passes, school declines – though not all the way back to where we started; that would just be too depressing for words. I call this a “turnback”.…
Read moreNovember 2, 2009 12:59 PM
Everyone seems to be making strong and varied cases for why Secretary Duncan’s Race to the Top approach is likely to fail when it comes to helping states turn around low-performing schools. It would be wonderful if the Secretary would join us in our discussion this week and give us his side of the story. Specifically, since most of seem to have a negative view of RttT’s turnaround potential, I would love to know why he believes otherwise. Much as I enjoy playing the affable contrarian here, I’m afraid I must agree with just about everyone so far. What strikes…
Read moreOctober 30, 2009 07:28 PM
I think Monty Neill and Michael Lomax have nailed this issued down at the far ends. Mr. Neill offers the cautionary tale with his example of the Gates Foundation’s role in assisting states with their RttT applications. “Is Gates buying the sort of reforms he wants? Probably,” says Mr. Neill. To which I would respond, “And why wouldn’t he?” It’s normal and natural for people to support causes aligned with their values, and it’s not Mr. Gates’ fault that when it comes to education there are so few causes worth supporting at the state and national levels. We’re 26 years…
Read moreOctober 26, 2009 07:05 PM
As Sky Masterson might have said to Sarah Brown had Damon Runyon been a hack, “Do not ask from where the lettuce has been sent. But enjoy it in your salad while it is still crisp and tasty.” Public? Private? It all spends. And, as several folks here have pointed out, as long as the pro quo isn’t unethically attached to the quid, there’s probably nothing wrong with private kit in the public caboodle. Except for one thing. Like many adults in our country who don’t work in education, I was once under the impression that public schools were under-funded.…
Read moreOctober 24, 2009 02:23 PM
At the end of the week, I like to start my day reading every post about the current issue in front of us. Either I have too much time on my hands or I want to hold up a finger and figure out which way the wind is blowing. Let’s hope it’s the latter because today I’m missing some good college football. From what I read this week about teacher evaluation, three prominent threads seem to be knitting themselves together into one of those cute teacher sweaters we all know and love: 1. Test data will be used for teacher…
Read moreOctober 19, 2009 06:12 PM
I guess I’m one of the fortunate people in this discussion because I’ve had my teaching evaluated, I’ve evaluated other teachers, and I’ve created and reviewed teacher evaluation instruments. I’ve long held five unfashionable points of view on the issue of teacher evaluation: 1. Intent precedes instrument. 2. Evaluators are more important than evaluation. 3. The hard work has already been done. 4. 360-Degree models work best. 5. Integrity is everything. Inside of education, I’m often told these ideas are “nutty” or “impractical” or that “they do not conform to existing research on teacher evaluation.”…
Read moreOctober 15, 2009 12:23 PM
Monty, I was born and raised on your side of the equation so I'm pretty much always gonna come down on your side in one form or another. Can't disagree in this case with a word you said. I, too, oppose the use of AYP and pretty much all of the "not ready for prime time" tools we have in our current accountabilty arsenal. I think that Sandy Kress. however, had a good point and -- even more to the point -- he stuck to the confines of the question as posed while I and many others used it as a…
Read moreOctober 14, 2009 04:19 PM
Sandy, Yes, I agree. Hadn't thought about adding socio-economics into the mix but it's the best way to figure out who is gaining because of changes they are making, and who is gaining just because their schools draw from a well-educated and well-heeled community. When I lived in Washington State they did a nice thing when they presented their state ed data online. One type of search allowed you to view test score and other relevant data in cohort groups of schools bounded by free-and-reduced lunch percentage ranges (for example, "give me all schools between 10% and 20% free-and-reduced lunch…
Read moreOctober 14, 2009 12:01 PM
Mr. Kress, You are 100% "on the money" as they say. As for an AYP alternative, how about this: 1. Take state test data. 2. Index it relative to difficulty of all stat test against equivalent NAEP data so all schools in all states play on the same scale. (This has been done many times, I think, over the years.) 3. Create an "improvement factor" or an "improvement index" to qualify schools that have made decent gains over the last 3-5 years. Schools that can't match some minimum degree of improvement, can't play. Reward improvement over time (favoring multi-year consistency over single-year…
Read moreOctober 13, 2009 03:54 PM
What’s that you say? AYP doesn’t make much sense? Well that’s the shocker of the new fall season, isn’t it? Since everyone here has been following ed reform for quite a while, I’m not sure that discussing the merits of using AYP for grant eligibility is worth too many more words. Clearly, according to everyone here, it’s not. But what interests me more is Mr. Duncan’s habit of using this “policy as leverage” approach to get states and schools to change their ways. Mr. Duncan may be new to his role as Secretary of Education but he is not an…
Read moreOctober 9, 2009 11:42 AM
And then there were eight. This blog is beginning to feel like an Agatha Christie novel. We’re at our lowest point of participation yet. Perhaps this week’s topic was a little dry. Perhaps, no matter what side one is on, we all recognize the inevitability of large-scale data acquisition in education, and therefore don’t feel that much discussion is needed. Either way, I'm confient we'll all come roaring back to our usual numbers in the weeks to come. First off, Kudos to Mr. Carey for what was probably the most articulate and thorough post of the week. He obviously knows…
Read moreOctober 5, 2009 03:16 PM
Before getting into education, I was a high tech entrepreneur. Among other things, I worked on a bunch of database projects. The first thing we always asked clients was “What questions do you want to answer with this collection of data?” The reason we asked it was to make the creation of the database, and the client’s data-gathering process, as streamlined as possible. Peter Ewell and Hans L’Orange take a shot at this in their paper, “The Ideal State Postsecondary Data System: 15 Essential Characteristics and Required Functionality.” While I’m not sure this overview gets the job done, I’m glad…
Read moreOctober 2, 2009 01:25 PM
Only thirteen posts this week. I think that’s the fewest we’ve ever had. Either everyone was off on one of those fall leaf-watching trips or standards just aren’t nearly as interesting as they used to be. I’ll bet on the latter. We’ve gotten quite comfortable it seems with standards as the leading edge of education reform. We all know the theory: standards drive tests which drive accountability which drive teachers to change practice which produces higher test scores which tell us kids are learning. Seems straightforward enough. But two writers this week offered cautionary tales. Mr. Kress used the familiar…
Read moreSeptember 28, 2009 03:00 PM
It is difficult to evaluate any set of educational standards out of context. Standards only prove their value in concert with tests, curriculum, instruction, and, finally, students. That being said, Common Core’s draft standards in reading and writing are easy to understand and mercifully brief. Of course, the existence of standards implies that other things will come along soon to greet them. And this is where we have to ask ourselves, “What are we going to do differently this time than we did the last time?” Because, let’s face it, folks, we didn’t do so well last time; we have…
Read moreSeptember 24, 2009 04:55 PM
Dear Fellow NJ Ed Bloggers, In addition to the great honor that it is to be able to write alongside some of the best minds in education today, I also enjoy something that goes beyond the Monday morning post. At the end of each week, I read everything you’ve all written in order to get a better sense of the topic and to learn more about it from all of you. This week I noticed something: an unusually wide variety of solutions to the problem solving the high school dropout crisis. Here’s a partial list that I culled by pulling…
Read moreSeptember 21, 2009 04:38 PM
I took Mr. Kress’s advice this morning and looked over the IES study he recommended. But I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with him on the study’s value. The study sets up its own model for assessing the validity of its findings. This model is based on “levels of evidence”: A finding can have either a “high”, “medium”, or “low” level of evidence presumably based on available research. Here’s the kicker: of the study’s six recommendations, none has a “high” level of evidence that it works. Four have “medium” levels. Two have “low” levels. I find it hard to see…
Read moreSeptember 17, 2009 05:24 PM
In his most recent post, Monty Neill points out the failures and fallacies of using standardized tests as predictors of college readiness. And he seems to have his ducks in a row with regard to both research and common sense about what admissions officers in many schools are looking for and how kids’ skills (or lack thereof) play out in freshman year college classrooms. However, I note that most people in our country, and especially those with the most degrees, the biggest foundations, and the highest political positions want more testing data of the same type we already have –…
Read moreSeptember 14, 2009 02:50 PM
Kids today! Go figure! Why, in my day…. But it’s both silly and self-serving to pick on 17- and 18-year olds engaged in making what we tell them is a life-changing decision and somehow think that prior generations handled this much better. In my experience working with high schoolers, it seems that about 20% of them know where they want to go, what they want to study, and how to make it happen. The rest are pretty lost. Today’s high schools are great at telling kids what to do: go to college or else! But of the 50 or so…
Read moreSeptember 11, 2009 12:38 PM
This week’s posts brings up a fundamental debate: content standards vs. skills standards. Research into the content standards of other countries – in particular, those who beat us on standardized tests – makes a clear point: higher-scoring countries have tougher content standards. The implied message is that if we raise our own content standards, our students will perform just as well. But this is, as yet, an untested hypothesis. And, in any case, I’m not sure it’s correct. I’ve always been fascinated by the “If we build it, they will learn” mentality of the standards movement. Frankly, I think it’s…
Read moreSeptember 8, 2009 02:02 PM
Having lived now in the 21st century for almost ten years, I’m beginning to get a sense of the skills I need to succeed even though my school life came and went more than 20 years ago. Tops on my list are social and emotional literacy, followed closely by financial literacy, technological literacy, and health. I wish I were wiser in all of these areas. Fortunately, I’ve noticed that our bookstores overflow with information in these domains. But sadly our school curricula give them short shrift. The movement for so-called 21st century skills is well-intentioned. But, looking over curriculum standards…
Read moreAugust 31, 2009 05:11 PM
How do we turn around our nation’s lowest-performing schools? Here’s an interesting opinion on the topic: http://bit.ly/rX55u. In this commentary by Richard D. Kahlenberg, the author argues that merely changing teachers and administrators doesn’t do the trick. He suggests that creating magnet schools with a mix of rich and poor kids in each building is a key component of sustainable success. He gives the Wake County School District in Raleigh, NC as an example of success. I don’t know if this magnet approach works any better than anything else. I live very near the Wake County School District this author…
Read moreAugust 24, 2009 08:17 PM
As I read over the responses of my colleagues, I notice that much of the dialog can be summarized as follows: We either need more NCLB-like reforms or less NCLB-like reforms. I think this choice represents a false dichotomy. As the old saying goes, “There are two sides to every story.” Except when there aren’t. Often there are more than two. And I’d like to share one here. Our new American Dream rests fundamentally on education. A high school diploma is not likely to get you a house, a car, or a secure and comfortable retirement. So we’ve developed the…
Read moreAugust 17, 2009 12:03 PM
In comparison with the Race to the Top, the Early Learning Challenge Fund seems more reasonable with regard to the criteria states must meet, the amount of money available, and the long term nature of the grant. At the same time, we know far less about educating kids from 0-4 than we do about educating them K-12. Therefore, vital to the success of this program will be this aspect: “An evidence-based system of professional development to prepare an effective and well-qualified workforce of early educators, including appropriate levels of training, education, and credentials.” Currently, the culture of pre-K education in…
Read moreAugust 10, 2009 02:55 PM
I don’t think this is a question about money; I think it’s a question about motivation. No reputable researcher, theorist, policymaker, or school leader that I know of has ever recommended the long term use of cash incentives as a method for improving student performance. And in the schools and districts where I’ve worked with kids who were eligible to receive pay for performance, I’ve found that money and prizes were not the magical motivators people thought they would be. Yet motivation is absolutely critical – especially for kids who might be starting school a few steps behind where we’d…
Read moreAugust 3, 2009 12:55 PM
Are the requirements fair? Sure they are. The federal government can put just about any requirements it wants to in a competitive grant. The bigger question, it seems to me, is one of possibility: Can eligible states actually come up with credible applications that meet the grant’s many criteria? Or, to put it another way, what if someone threw a multi-billion dollar party and nobody came? Currently, there are a total of 19 selection criteria, any one of which could require major changes in a state. Take, for example, the following: Fully implementing a statewide longitudinal data system; Ensuring equitable…
Read moreSeptember 3, 2009 02:58 PM
No matter what gains we make in education, the Achievement Gap haunts us. If the Gap seems intractable, it’s because of the way we perceive it as a single phenomenon applying broadly to large groups within our society. In reality, academic achievement is more meaningful in individual contexts, and the Achievement Gap results from other gaps representing individual differences in how children experience school. The key to closing the Gap is closing those gaps. Take the Instruction Gap. The poorest learners get the poorest teachers. More effective teachers enjoy increased mobility and better job opportunities. As a result, they gravitate…
Read moreSeptember 7, 2009 02:52 PM
Do schools need independent auditors? I think the question pre-supposes that most of the shenanigans that go on around test scores happen at the school level. They don’t. They happen legally and often in plain sight at the state level. Everybody wants higher test scores – especially the higher-ups in state departments of education and in state legislatures and governor’s offices. But states can make their tests as easy or as hard as they choose. And they can change things as often as they want. No auditor is going to find anything wrong with schools that merely comply with state…
Read moreSeptember 7, 2009 02:51 PM
Do schools need independent auditors? I think the question pre-supposes that most of the shenanigans that go on around test scores happen at the school level. They don’t. They happen legally and often in plain sight at the state level. Everybody wants higher test scores – especially the higher-ups in state departments of education and in state legislatures and governor’s offices. But states can make their tests as easy or as hard as they choose. And they can change things as often as they want. No auditor is going to find anything wrong with schools that merely comply with state…
Read moreSeptember 7, 2009 03:58 PM
Why was it that so many of my friends ran off to buy copies of “What Color is Your Parachute?” as soon as they graduated with Ivy League degrees? Am I not the only one who sees the irony that a paperback book can help someone find their way in life better than a six-figure education? When we talk about how colleges can help graduates better pursue careers, I think we need talk openly and honestly about college curriculum, college life, college professors, and college purpose. Traditionally, college curriculum, especially at the undergraduate level, has not been designed to support…
Read moreSeptember 7, 2009 07:34 PM
Do mayors run better school districts than traditional superintendents? Depends on the mayor, the district, and the superintendent. While Mr. Bloomberg seems to be doing well in New York, the mayor of Los Angeles seems to be stumbling. As for able superintendents, I think Tony Alvarado did some good work while he was running schools in the Big Apple. As is so often the case, we seem to be more interested in “who” rather than “what”, “why”, and “how”. But you don’t get the right answers until you start asking the right questions. I’ve met about 50 superintendents in my…
Read moreSeptember 15, 2009 03:32 PM
How much is a hundred billion dollars? Roughly speaking, it’s over $6,000,000 for every school district in America; $1,000,000 per school; $25,000 per teacher; and $2,000 per student. This ain’t chump change. But before we talk about where I’d spend it, let’s talk about how it has already been spent. A tiny portion, about 5%, will go for Secretary Duncan’s “Race to the Top”, a competitive grant program for states who are willing to implement the things Mr. Duncan wants them to implement. But most of it will go to fill education budget deficits in struggling states. Effectively, this means…
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