Renee Moore

When students say they don’t like a teacher, it most often means they don’t like how the teacher is treating them as persons. Those who do not work with young people may be surprised to learn students also do not like teachers who don’t respect them enough to actually teach them. As I often counsel newer teachers, we should not confuse students “liking” us with their respecting us. Part of my teaching philosophy from the start of my career has been: “I am my students’ friend, not their peer.” It tickles me to overhear my students talking about me to each other. Hey, I’m an English teacher; many of my students tolerate or even despise me in the short-run. Oh, but how many have come or written back later, grateful that I neither gave up on them nor gave in to them. Too many teachers have wrecked young lives and their careers by stepping over the line of appropriate teacher-student relationships.

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Across the country, parents, teachers, and students are beginning to pushback—hard—against the misuses and abuses of standardized testing in our educational system.

First, most people do not understand what standardized achievement tests are actually designed to measure. They are not designed to measure what students have “learned” over a specific period of time or from a specific teacher. Therefore, attempts to use them for that purpose are at best misguided, at worst, deceptive. For more on this point, I recommend listening to the recent interview of Jim Popham by Steve Hargadon at Future of Education.

An expert on tests and testing, Popham reminds us that standardized tests by nature of their design sort students based on socio-economic backgrounds, not academic accomplishments.

Because our federal and state governments have tied such high-stakes to the results of these misused tests, we have created additional crisis situations for students and teachers, particularl

I deliberately avoided looking at any of the social media spin on the final report of the Gates Foundation funded Measurements of Effective Teaching (MET) study until after I had done my own reading. I took the same approach to the release of the first report back in December 2010.

Then, as now, there are several things about this study that I admire. Like Fawn Johnson (National Journal.com Education Experts editor), I am impressed with the seriousness and sincerity of the researchers in tackling the complex issue of teacher evaluation, especially since there are too many people who want to oversimplify it. I’m also glad to know the data from this study (unlike some of the earlier studies involving value-added measures) is being made available to the wider research community for independent investigation of results.

Most delightful of all is the MET researchers’ recognition of the impo

Not only does a true professional certification process for teachers make sense, it is long overdue.

For too long, we have tolerated a hodge-podge of teacher licensing and certification requirements across states and within states. In some places, a potential teacher must have a master’s degree in education before applying for a license. In other places, a person needs only a bachelor’s degree (in any subject) and as little as three weeks of summer boot camp to be placed in full charge of students.

The call by the AFT task force is just the latest in a growing consensus among educators of the need to make teaching a true profession. I have been fortunate to be part of many of these studies and discussions. For example, in November 2010, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) issued the report of a blue-ribbon commission representing teachers, parents, higher education, state and local school administrators, researchers, and policymake

As I watch the events in Chicago, affecting many students, parents, and teachers I know well, I am struck by how superficial much of the media coverage of this strike have been. When teachers finally reach the point where they are willing to risk everything by going on strike, it's not money. When money becomes the only thing left to argue about, it means many other things have gone very, very wrong for a very long time.

Thankfully, there have been some real nuggets buried in the coverage. For example: On her show this past weekend, MSNBC commentator Melissa Harris Perry included on her panel a Chicago high school teacher who spoke passionately about working with 170 students a day while trying to pursue quality education.

Layered within the CNN coverage have been testimonies, such as this story on one special education teacher:

Her students need special supplies, so she's spent $4,000 to $5,000 of her own money since she began teaching t

I have taught traditional face-to-face courses, completely online courses, and hybrid ones (courses in which the teacher and students interact both physically and virtually). Most of these courses have been at the community college level; although I have had high school dual-enrollment students in them. In my experience and that of many of the teachers I know across the country, e-learning has gotten mixed reviews.

On the one hand, it can be a wonderfully effective way to make education accessible to a wider range of students, and to give students access to instructors and resources they might not otherwise have. However, just as in traditional classrooms, the quality of instruction varies depending on a number of factors, the major two being the student and the teacher. Almost any subject that can be taught face-to-face can be taught via electronic medium---if the teacher is willing to learn how to do that type of teaching, and if the student is willing to do that type of learning.

Teaching online requires different type of planning, delivery, and use of resourc

The expected opposition from ALEC is curious considering the history of the CCSS. As I recall (and I've followed this closely for years), it was originally pushed primarily by Republican governors, who won over their colleagues in the name of leveling the field of educational comparison among states.

You'd think the conservatives would be happy with the CCSS since, for the most part teachers, teacher unions, even subject area professional teacher organizations, were left out of the development of the standards until the public review, and they appear to have had limited influence on the final product.

On the other end of the political spectrum, teacher activists such as Anthony Cody are raising serious alarms about the Common Core Standards.

The idea that we can separate the Common Core from high stakes testing is mistaken. T

The real question is not whether arts education is important, but who deserves it. With so much attention rightfully focused on improving the quality of education in low-performing, high-needs schools [translated: schools that serve poor students and/or students of color], the prevailing wisdom argues arts education is a luxury. “Get those reading and math scores up, and maybe we’ll allow you the privilege of art classes.” For many years, the art or music class was seen as a holding area for elementary students while their other teachers were on the 20-min break, or as an easy elective for high school students trying to earn the magic number of Carnegie units.

I agree with award winning Alabama teacher, Anne Jolly:

Not offering the arts is as much discrimination as not offering math or reading. Some of our children with the richest talents may never have an opportunity to express them. The arts (including exposure to a wide variety of music and art styles) should not be reserved for the more affluent folk who can afford to enroll their chil

The merits of the Administration’s proposal are those ideas they have gotten from teachers, specifically from the recent Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching (CETT), whose chairperson, fifth grade teacher Maddie Fennell, was invited to speak at the end of Secretary Duncan’s announcement.

It’s not that we don’t know what needs to be done to improve teacher preparation and quality. We actually have much information and many good, workable ideas not only from the CETT report, but also from another Blue Ribbon Commission on teacher preparation that included representatives from all the stakeholders who would have to work together to make transforming the teaching profession a reality. Sadly, unlike other countries, we have been unwilling to make a significant and lasting commitment to achieving a quality teaching force, which

When I was in junior high school in Detroit (long before its current meltdown), my classmates and I were taken to a wealthy suburban public high school for an “exchange visit.” We were stunned to see carpeted, well-stocked libraries; working restrooms with warm water and hand towels; real science laboratories; and a gym building with indoor track and swimming pool. We were never told what the purpose of the trip was, but its net effect on our young minds was to confirm that we were worth—less than rich people’s children.

My hard-working, middle-class parents, like millions of American families, depended on their neighborhood public schools to provide quality education for their children, and rightfully so. Certainly, all parents in the U.S. should be able to choose the educational option that works best for them and their children. Most important, in this nation, every family in every community should have access to good schools. The only difference among schools should be perhaps each having a different focus. No parent anywhere in these United

"Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---"

So wrote Emily Dickinson, who could have been foreseeing the current debate around the legacy of NCLB on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.

I was among several people invited over at Education Week to share my thoughts on what ten years of life under NCLB has meant. As I read the responses and the discussions in other media, I found one constantly repeated point to be particularly irritating, resulting in my posting an angry tweet:

@askgeorge I am SO tired of folk claiming we didn't know 'bout ed inequality until NCLB. Shows how much Blk tchrs & parents were ignored. (@TeachMoore Jan 6)

Supposedly, NCLB’s one highly positive attribute is that, as Rep. Miller put it, “It turned the lights on in our schools.” He and others credit NCLB with uncovering what was supposedly a deeply hidden secret: That some groups of children in our country, particularly,

The disturbing revelations from recent Education Department reports could only surprise those who have chosen to ignore that unequal education is still a fact of American life 55 years after Brown vs. Board of Education. Need more proof? An analysis by EdTrust also echoes what many teachers and parents of Title I schools have said for years, that “ budgeting practices in school districts across the country are shortchanging [poor] children and undermining federal investment in high-poverty schools…(April 2010, EdTrust).

For those who contend that poverty is irrelevant as a factor in whether U.S. children receive a quality public education, the truth is: America’s poor children are more likely to go to school in buildings that are poorly maintained, poorly equipped, poorly supplied, and poorly staffed. Many schools in high-poverty areas are not only visually depressing, but physically dangerous. How does a teacher convince a kid (or a parent whose child is) sitting in a leaking trailer or dodging falling plaster that we REALLY bel

While the Complete College Report raises some important issues and concerns, one danger of such reports is that they present a blanket of data with little or no explanation or analysis. There’s more to these numbers, and to the lives of the people those numbers represent than the surface conclusions highlighted on the report pages.

For example, the report correctly notes that increasingly the average post-secondary student is older and likely to be going to school part-time due to family and/or job responsibilities. What the report does not appear to take into consideration is that many of those older students who come to the community college, are not seeking to graduate. Some come just to take those remedial courses. Others just want to take a few courses to help them on their current jobs or to help prepare them for another. Many of our students transfer to other schools or to universities before they complete their associate degree programs, without waiting to graduate. To accurately measure whether communi

My colleagues, members of the Teacher Leaders Network, and I have given the President’s plan mixed reviews. Generally, we felt the proposed bill is better than nothing, but not nearly enough. As one teacher put it, “Take the money and run. It will put people to work in the state I love best, and across the country. It will make cleaner and safer schools for kids and keep some programming alive. It's too little and too late--but waiting for a better bill is pointless.” Another colleague added, “I find it hard not to support the idea of using federal money to stabilize our teaching corps. It's good for schools and students, and the money will filter right through into the broader economy.”

For one Florida teacher, it was even more personal:

President Obama's last stimulus bill saved real people's jobs including mine. I think it is important to get that message out. Although I was a seasoned an award-winning teacher, I transferred from a charter to a public school in 2008. When it all "hit the fan," I was f

I agree with Sen. Alexander that Congress should be cautious about legislating too specifically to states about how teacher evaluation programs should be designed. But here’s a thought: Maybe the best way to figure out how to help more of our teachers become high quality would be to ask those who already are.

In response to such requests, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has just released: Getting It Right: A Comprehensive Guide to Developing and Sustaining Teacher Evaluation and Support Systems. It’s a concise and practical tool designed to help states and school districts develop effective teacher evaluation and support systems. Note how I worded that: We believe no teacher evaluation system can be successful or sustainable unless it is also, if not primarily, a system to support the improvement of teaching.

As we proudly note in the Getting It Right preface, “One could argue that by involving dozens of universities, research labs, scholars, teacher leaders, and premier testing organizations around t

Technologies have always been part of children’s education (pencil, pen, abacus, computer, hand-held mobile devices), and learning to handle them proficiently is not optional but pre-requisite. Internet and social-media training should already be an integral part of the English/Language Arts curriculum, just as skills such as how to use a card catalog or write a business letter were in times past.

It’s easy to be lulled into the urban myth that everyone under 30 is thoroughly tech savvy, but that’s an unfortunate stereotype. Our children need to learn how to use various technologies as part of their learning experiences; and their teachers need to be constantly growing in that same knowledge.

It’s even easier to waste huge amounts of money on technology in schools purchasing the wrong equipment, not having proper infrastructure in place (from fiber optics to the right outlets), failing to provide timely and effective training for teachers, and dozens of other under-informed decisions. For example, an extre

These findings from the recent Education Department report could only surprise those who have chosen to ignore that unequal education is still a fact of American life 55 years after Brown vs. Board of Education.

We should absolutely not be “surprised that these [and many other] educational disparities continue despite 10 years of No Child Left Behind. There is nothing in NCLB that would correct any of these problems. If anything, its provision have exacerbated inequity by rewarding schools for concentrating on state mandated tests that focus on lower level math and reading skills.

Rep. George Miller’s observation, however, is correct: The federal government could and should be playing a much stronger role in bringing an end to these disgraceful inequities. A good summary of that role can be found in the Forum on Educational Accountability’s February 2011 document: All Children Deserve an Opportunity to Learn, as wel

More of a delayed response than a bombshell: The Administration has finally responded to calls for the Department of Education to take action on behalf of students, teachers, and schools being unnecessarily harmed by NCLB requirements while Congress delays the full reauthorization of ESEA. Parents and educators’ have pleaded for months for the DOE to use its authority over the Law’s faulty implementation, including a letter from the 16-member Learning First Alliance just over a month ago.

The Ed Department had balked at resorting to regulatory relief, hoping that the public outcry would push Congress toward a speedier reauthorization, and one that included more of the Administration’s goals as outlined in its Blueprint. Now, faced with continued political inertia, Duncan has gone to what he calls “Plan B,” the issu

As a community college teacher, I and my colleagues have seen many students who have technically completed their high school requirements, yet they lack both the academic skills and the maturity to handle college level work. This includes students from public and private schools (contrary to the persistent myth that all private schools are great, and all public schools are horrible). We’ve seen high school valedictorians crash and burn in their Freshman level core courses; meanwhile, other students whose transcripts and placement scores say they are not ready, make astounding progress and graduate.

Those of us who value and understand student learning have long argued that student progress along the educational continuum should be determined by demonstrated knowledge, not age, seat time, or test scores. Although most systems still try to convey students through school on a linear assembly line, each student experiences the teaching/learning processes differently. These individual differences are generally not picked up by traditional standardized tests which are