My Charter School - Part 6 (Administering Education)

    I have a simple idea for my future charter school.  One that I think will make every teacher ever agree wholeheartedly.  One that I think many will think or say is implausible in administration.  I know little about administration of a school.  One day, maybe someone who is an administrator will read these and tell me where I've gone off the rails.  Most of this idea is for secondary, but may be able to be applied to elementary.

Idea: All admin have to teach one class.  

    Before pulling out a stack of reasons why this can't work, let's go through a little mountain of values that this provides.  Sometimes, not everyday, but a lot of the time the admin of a school gets an idea that most teachers know won't work in the classroom.  Now it is not a bad thing for admin to innovate, but if they aren't in the classroom then they do not know how best to innovate.  Yeah, all admin are former teachers.  It doesn't matter.  Since Covid all former skill in the classroom are obsolete.  An admin from the campus trying to innovate for the teachers is like engineering fixes without input.  Surely, the way to improve on an existing invention or process is to take feedback from those using it in the field.  And the admin may get some input from teachers, but it would be naïve to assume they get the input from their teachers that they would get if they were teachers.

    If the admin is teaching it is an opportunity to try all the innovations.  Louis Brandeis Supreme Court Justice popularized the phrase laboratories of democracy when he extolled the worth of federalism.  Principals and Assistant Principals could be trying things out with their classrooms.  If you want to have stations in all classes; try it out.  You may find stations works better in Math than History.  You want versatile seating?  Try it out.  You may find that some classes are mature enough for it and others aren't.  You may find that it is a bit dangerous in Science labs.  A while ago, writing down definitions of new vocab and using them in a sentence fell out of fashion.  I think that was a terrible failure of modern education.  I wish that more people were trying these innovations in the classroom.  My first two years in education we were getting a new innovation called Strategic Instructional Models.  The admin, including the SIM Coach (also an admin) kept teaching us how to use the models.  They didn't always think about whether they should be used.  What if they're teachers, they no how to model all innovations to the faculty.

    If the admin is teaching a class everyday then there is tons of time for modeling correct behavior.  I'm getting pretty good at teaching in my estimation.  I see a couple of new teachers every year who have no idea what good teaching is.  It is a balance of finding your own personality and rhythm and enfolding that into a lot of learned best practices.  It can be daunting.  If they're not quite getting it, a strong solution is to send them to observe a seasoned teacher.   Last year's teacher of the year?  How about the principal's math class?  How about the Assistant Principals Geography class?  What about the art class that is taught by some administrator who...you're not really sure what they do.   The number of options for that teacher to observe can only be a good thing.  

    If the admin is teaching everyday, they know what needs discipline in the class room and what needs discipline as an admin.  Teachers know that there are teachers who send kids to the admin too much.  We are not surprised when that teacher's write ups come back with less consequences than the teacher would like.  But many teachers have had admin that lose their sense for what needs to be given consequences and what doesn't.  Teachers are trying to create an orderly classroom and if admin is failing to offer consequences then the classroom atmosphere can severely deteriorate.  If admin is teaching the kids we all teach then they have a better sense for what is good behavior, what the students are capable of.  I don't want my admin to only spend time with the bad apples.  They'll spoil the whole bunch of admin.  I want my admin to meet the honors students, to have them in their classes, to have them passing their tests, so they know what they can expect from any of them.  

    If admin is teaching a class then their criticism will be more adroit or expert.  Some teachers really hate sitting down with admin to talk about data.  The students all scored a 60 on the benchmark science test.  They need a 70 to pass.  What did you do wrong?  How are you going to fix it?  Better yet, 'here's what you did wrong and here's how you're going to fix it.'  Number one, I would love to see some teachers held up for improvement, but more than that I'm going to say that without a cultural shift of excellence some teachers cannot fix the problems in some schools.  You go into a high school in an urban area and the kids aren't studying. Why would they, they have a job waiting for them.  They're not planning on college.  They have no objective reason to get their degree.  Go in that school and the average last year was maybe a 30% on the standardized tests and you raised it to a 45%.  Now the admin want you on a growth plan because passing rate wasn't achieved.  Well, can the admin do it?  

    If the admin can, then that means we all can.  Admin teaching 10th grade algebra might really have a profound impact on the campus.  If that admin can come into an on-level class and get them all to succeed in an underperforming school then there can be a cultural shift.  The leaders are leading not just describing where the rest of us should go.  They aren't describing the map, they're leading us where they've been themselves.  There is a culture of excellence among the faculty because the admin are our advocates.  They are our teammates and not just the coach.  They act like they've been there because they have been.  

    If the admin is in the classroom then the students are getting advanced degree teaching.  The admin are the best trained, highest qualified, highest motivated teachers in the school.  Their skills as teachers are wasted.  The connection to students that they may have is non existent.  Think of the opportunities to reach the students that the admin have in the classroom.  This is another opportunity to change the culture of the school from mediocre to excellent.  Because if the admin really are master teachers then they're helping create that atmosphere hands on with all the students in their care.  The students also get a sense of continuity from the class to the administration.  This device would ensure that the students are treated the same way by admin that they are by the teachers because they are the same.  

If the admin teach then they are cognizant of the teachers' feelings.  Have you ever sent a student to the admin and had the admin send them back with no consequences AND some candy?  If that hasn't happened to you, you haven't been teaching very long.  Teachers know what that feels like.  Give the admin a taste, or make it never happen to anyone ever again.  Admin teaching helps them to know how much time it takes to prepare, they know what it means to ask extra of their faculty.  They know how much prep goes into class plans.  They know how much anxiety can come from being observed or going over their plans in a Planned Learning Community.  All of these are reasons to get admin back in the classroom.

But wait...Admin literally doesn't have enough time for this.  That is because they do too much.  I've had over 10 admin.  They are over worked.  The amount of work is unethical, unGodly, and unwise.  The district usually has so many things for them to do, so many trainings to take that they're hoping will trickle down to the teachers.  It is idiotic.  They need to cut the number of things they do.  That means if the district, state, or federal government is asking too much they need to cut it back.  Admin should be finishing their work in 50-55 hours max.   If they can't do the work in that time they need to have more help.  Our society should demand that our admin does no more, no less.  We have an interest in our admin having families so we have an interest in asking only that which is possible based on time constraints that make sense.    

My Charter School - Part 4 (Reading and Writing)

    In a perfect world I would be writing this blog and hundreds of teachers and former students would be reading it and responding to it.  I would ask this question:  How much do you read in each of your classes in school?  I'm going to write this entire essay, I wish that if people read it they would respond with the answers.  If you're a teacher you may answer different than I answer.  That may be because you are a teacher at a better school than I am.  You might teach at an affluent school that isn't Title 1.  You may work at a Public charter or Private school and the story might be different there.  I hope the story is different at your school.  People who read this and only experience of  school is there own school from years ago, will, no doubt, be surprised by what I am saying.  I am not trying to write with hyperbole or exaggeration. 

      You can go to school in America today without reading.  A student should have English/Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies in almost all grades.  Math may be the one that gets a pass.  The teacher instructs.  The math problems aren't always text, although there is tons of word problems that are over emphasized all through school to make math seem more relevant.  There is no excuse when it comes to the other classes.  Science and Social Studies Content comes through text and ELA the text IS the content.  I have been a part of my own class and have sat in, walked through, observed, heard about enough classes to know that there isn't significant reading going on in any of the classes.  

    Do children need to learn to read?  Yes.  It is the most essential building block of education from which all knowledge and understanding must spring.  Literacy however, and vocabulary fluency is waning in this country.  Expectations to read are going down.  I am confessing and lamenting this problem in my class, in my school.  In all the schools I have been a part of.  In every conversation I have had about this topic.  And it must be attacked and beachheads must be made. 

    It is my opinion that children should read and write everyday in class.  The only way to make sure of this is to require it in all classes everyday.  There must be overt, specific, concrete, and clear expectations to read in every core class.  No ifs ands or buts.  

    In Social Studies and History their should be content read from the book and from notes.  Every student doesn't need to copy notes everyday, but every student should read text and notes everyday.  Simple expectation.  Some schools and ages can require reading at home.  I think a middle school students should be expected to read 1-2 pages in their text book each night.  If there is no text book or if the teacher doesn't like the specific selection in the book then the teacher should assign something else of equal amount.  All of this should not be concurrent to the information in class.  However, there should also be reading done in class.  Maybe 1-2 pages.  Quietly or one student at a time.  One paragraph at a time.  In groups, to the class, one student take a turn each day.  All of these are options so that each student is practicing this essential skill regularly.  Students would be getting so much more content than teachers can teach in class.  Teachers may also legitimately hope that students have the ability to read and the skill to do it without barriers to understanding outside of school.  In high school the expectation should be increased.  2-5 pages out of class, for purposes of time you may have to limit in class reading, but there should be in class reading.  Students refuse to read in middle school.  They cannot read.  There is an epidemic of teachers not expecting this, not teaching not, not practicing this.  But isn't it our sacred duty to help them learn this and to never let them slip through the crack without this.  Imagine if you will a student graduating high school with a diploma that reads at a 5th grade level.  What if that was the average.  A compilation of the top 40 books teens in grades 9-12 are reading in school shows that the average reading level of that list is 5.3 -- barely above the fifth grade.  -HuffPost

    In Science I think the same thing should be expected.  1-2 Pages outside of class and 1-2 pages inside of class daily.  Both should be expecting a short response to a pertinent question of 4-6 sentences three to four times a week.  Both should write a response to the unit they are in that encapsulates most of the information within the unit because synthesis is the best proof of understanding.  If someone told me that I had to do this, I would freak out.  Teachers used to grade essay questions.  But, by and large, we don't anymore.  Teachers love multiple choice because it's easy to grade or computer graded is even better.  We love drag and drops because they can be visually checked.  But this isn't education.  We need to ask what is proof of knowledge and what is the intake of knowledge.  That is reading and writing.  The hope would be that if this became more endemic then Social Studies and Science teachers would be able to spend less time correcting grammar and punctuation, and basic stupidity.  Them more that students practice this skill the easier it would be to grade them.  Write now it is so difficult.  Administration would flip out if this was suggested especially at a title 1 school.  I am rarely able to expect any or any significant homework, let alone everyday.

    If the Science and Social Studies are reading and writing everyday then ELA must be doing even more.  Now after the primary years are finished with a fanatic study of phonics students are going to have to read more and more and more.  There needs to be reading, call and response, choral, rhyming, and more all throughout elementary.  I have heard of Public Charter schools with more emphasis on reading the classics.  I am sympathetic to that, but I also believe in reading books self selected.  But the principle needs to be promoting not limiting. 

    In secondary education students should be reading 1-2 pages in class and outside class in Science and Social Studies for a total of 10-20 pages/week.  School is 36 weeks long for a total of 360-720 pages /year.  Double that for ELA takes us to 720-1440 pages of text per year.  Students who read, lead.  Students who are voracious readers will be prepared for college.  Students cannot slip through without essential knowledge and skills when the emphasis is on the knowledge and skills that they need to get the information.

 

My Charter School - Part 2 (Music School)

    I haven't decided if I'm going to make my son read this.  Actually, I haven't decided if I'm going to ask my son to read this and have him tell me no.  He is awesome.  He plays multiple instruments.  He plays violin, harp, marimba, and piano.  The fact that he plays so many sometimes makes it hard for him to excel in any, but I think his skills and talents are amazing.  But I think Band sucks. 

    In my opinion Band sucks, but he loves it.  It does though, it sucks so bad.  First, band costs too much.  I'm not talking about the musical instruments, but the program.  The competition that the students are going to be involved in is too much damn money.  My son's school's band program cost a million dollars and 500 ish students also ponied up $600 dollars a piece and there are multiple fundraisers.  That's too much damn money.

    I know that there are people who sort of shmack talk about whether it's more difficult to be in band than in say football, for me they're both too difficult.  But football get more praise.  So the band spends hundreds of hours putting together this really expensive show.  It takes too long.  They used to do it for the football team only.  Now they have massive competitions that cost too much money no one but the band knows who won unless it's was your team.  Band has taken on a mind of its own which is good, because they shouldn't serve the football team, but they still kind of do.  

    Band is art, it makes you smarter, attention to detail, discipline in skill building, some athleticism; these are all reasons why band should be practiced in school.  But in my charter school things will be much different than they are at your normal 5A or 6A school band program.

    These days Band lives for marching season.  Marching season is the program that they do at halftime.  The band is practicing at the game and usually only doing part of their program.  The real competition is the multiple competitions they do on Saturdays after the game.  12 hour long competitions.  They're trying to make their program perfect by about the end of the football regular season where they'll probably go to state band competitions.  During the week, the students practice in double blocks, that means an hour and a half everyday.  Then they have multiple after school practices.  Then they have Friday morning before the game and they're at the game 5-10:00 or later.  It takes as much time as a part time job.  20-30 hours.  It takes too much time.  And the program they're perfecting, is usually only three or four songs.  This is why I hate it.

    Band stopped being about being really good at music and started being about the competition.  Band members devote so much memory their marching and aren't spending enough time learning the notes to more songs.  Some band members do band only for marching band season.  I think that is a problem and so far I haven't seen any limiting principle.  How much practicing for these competitions is too much.  There are rules and laws about how much time should be utilized, but it doesn't seem that many top notch schools follow these rules.  I know my son's school doesn't.  Sometimes, the rules are purposefully vague.  

    I think those rules should be clear and concise.  I think there should be an hour long class in school everyday.  I think there should be no more than five hours outside of school for that.  There would be no reason to get ready for football games.  There should be no marching competitions because there isn't enough time.  Band could produce shows but not buy them.  Schools could have simple uniforms, but cheap.  And emphasis should be placed on exceptional play and music library rather than expert steps.  One goes with the musician after school one doesn't.  

    Band after marching season and after football season is for competitions and shows.  So it should be still.  

    Band can play at smaller sporting events that are intramural, but they should create these halftime shows themselves and with the help of faculty.  They don't have to be professional productions.  Why should they be.  They AREN'T professionals.

    Orchestra should be the same as band.  Learning a large library of songs, pressed to play with greater talent and skill on a limited basis in school and some out of school.  

ANTS SPECIALIZE

    Athletes who are good enough to play intramurally for the school should have enough time to play in either band or orchestra.  Band members should have enough time to do band and orchestra.  Or they could be part of a musical club/class and another club instead of athletics.  If students are in two things outside of school they should be able to do them both in 10 hours.  NO more.  Limiting principles.  If the students and their parents want the student to achieve some sort of professional grade athleticism or musical talent then they should do that at home.  Their parents are responsible for that schools are not.  Schools shouldn't be.  

MISSION CREEP

Schools all over the US are getting confused thinking that there purpose is to produce students who are professional grade in high school and starting them on the path in middle school.  NO.  Schools are preparing students for LIFE.  The talents that they achieve should be introductory.  If they're doing something seven years of secondary education I think they should be good enough to go to any college music program because they're more focused without competitions.  If not, their parents should be the ones who have stronger expectations at home, not at school.  I think athletes in my school can do the same a varied capability in many sports may make them a more all-around athlete.  If the parent thinks the student needs more time in basketball or tennis, or whatever, they can see to those needs themselves or go to a school with bad priorities.   

My Charter School - Part 1 (Athletics)

    My future charter school needs a lot of work and planning.  What makes up a school what makes it good and what makes it bad?  I know very few people read this blog, but one day maybe I make a charter school and people read this in order to understand it.  First, I'm going to spend a significant amount of digital ink on EXTRA curriculars.

    The first football game was between Yale and Harvard.  It wasn't nigh unto professional sports.  I cannot imagine those students spending more than a couple of hours a week practicing and they were the only teams that filled out a team that year.  Soon many others would join.  Other schools in the last century and a half have had football teams much faster.  Yale and Harvard were open over a hundred years a piece before they started playing intramural sports.  But even colleges that were started between 1850 and 1950 started small, a college, that focused and grew and changed and added sports over time.  Now new schools race to have athletic programs.  

   And high school follow along the same trajectory.  They had no programs in small towns, then they had small programs, then they had large programs.  Now, middle schools have programs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.  The costs are in some ways hidden by the labor.  Four coaches in athletics means $200,000+ but they also teach.  Well, some of them.  They use trainors from the high school, their gear is nike, or under armour, the kids bring in some money, they fund raise.  Middle school programs now I would guess cost more even with inflation than college programs did say 75 years ago.  Sounds like a long time?  High school programs I believe cost more than college did 35 years ago, is my guess.  There are exceptions.  Big college verses little high school might not be close, but the point is there is an unquestionable gradual growth.  And there doesn't seem to be a limiting principle.  

    Why would there be a limiting principle.  The more colleges spend on athletics, the more they get from advertising dollars for being on TV.  The more they're on TV the more students that matriculate.  The more students the more money, the more money the more athletic potential.  The more they get from donors.  High schools and middle schools get a great deal of prestige from Athletics for some unknown reason.  The average person cannot name which school was last years high school state champ unless it was your school.  The kids care so much about winning district in middle school, but who cares.  It is no great predictor of Division 1 success or professional potential.  Who cares?  Almost everyone does.  If the money is to indicate interest then teachers, parents, students, voters, and everyone else cares who wins.

    So...everyone is wrong.  Especially in the school setting.  Athletic programs were invented between the world wars and especially after WWII to teach discipline and athletic ability to a large swath of society.  Our schools are failing in this.  Football is failing in this.  Football creates prima donnas who don't listen or respect, do not achieve in the classroom.  Coaches are trying to get players to play whether they pass or not.  Coaches are leaning on admin and teachers to pass students so they can play.  There are reasons for kids to play, to learn discipline and respect, to work off some excess energy, to have an outlet for aggression and even corporal punishment.  But it should always be subservient to education.  Students who cannot read and do math on level shouldn't be double blocking athletics, but reading and math.  

    Athletics are therefore beneficial, but must serve the school.  Athletics must prepare boys and girls for all futures rather than a future in professional sports.  So in my charter school there will be no sports against other schools.  I think organizing games within the school will be much cheaper, will tamp down any fame that students may achieve for a couple of touchdowns on Friday night.  Basketball played within a single school will allow many students of varying skill levels to make an impact.  It is terrible that so many students don't play any sports and then they don't have any athletic activity in their boring PE class.  The Gym teacher doesn't push this class, many times because they cannot be useful to them on a team.  

    I know there are some students who come to school for sports.  I know there are some students who achieve in the classroom in order to play on the team although that number is shrinking.  To them, I think this could be even better than the system we have now.  If games are played daily at school among students then there is always the opportunity to achieve and play.  Because many students also practice in order to play.  Let them practice for half a class and then play everyday, there are too many, most schools, who are so business, they rarely scrimmage.  That is also bad for kids.  But what if a scrimmage isn't good enough, and what if two or three students dominate the games?  Play a bigger game after school.  Have a blue team and a red team within your school.  Trade players to resist factions.  And believe it or not, there are a lot of dominate players in intermural sports.

NO PASS NO PLAY

    I have a student named E.  He's tall, like 6'1 which is tall for an 8th grader.  I've never seen him play basketball, but he seems like he'd be good at least on defense with his size and apparent agility.  First day of school he said, he wanted to be a coach, a player, or a soldier.  He never talks out of turn, but he doesn't work.  He doesn't seem to care to turn work in.  The young boy would benefit from failing in class, because he needs to realize why he needs to perform in well in class.  But I truly wish he could figure that out without failing a nine weeks.  If he would play outside of UIL and on the school team, then he could sit out a day or a week, because faculty told him he couldn't play for a short period of time.  Not three weeks, or six weeks, or a unfigurable term that no one can figure out in UIL which is arbitrary.  The punishment, the consequences, should fit the crime.  E and others should receive swifter, simpler, more direct consequences for misbehavior, or lack of effort in the classroom.

COACHES

    In many middle schools there are 9 coaches.  Four for the boys, four for the girls, and one more for tennis or golf.  When I was a kid, 2 coaches coached 7th grade football, and 2 coached 8th grade football.  Now four coach 7th in the morning and the same four coach the 8th in the afternoon.  This is unwise.  Our coaches are becoming less educators and more coaches.  When these programs started 60 and 70 years ago there was a single coach for all the intramural sports and PE.  That is also unwise, coaches can't have impact on too many students.  That is why there should be more teacher coaches not less.  How many teachers could be utilized to coach a single class?  Two teacher coaches per period one man, one woman now there are 14 to 16 teacher coaches.  Who has the most authority in the classroom?  Teacher coaches.  Who are the most beloved after leaving school typically?  Teacher coaches.  When I have a behavior problem with an athlete who do we call?  Teacher coaches.  Now there are no stipends which are trash anyway for coaches.  There are no students who are receiving special treatment because they're 'taking us to state.'  There are students who practice a wide range of athletic pursuits, with a wide range of skill and interest levels, taught by a wide variety of teachers who cannot help, but keep their main focus on education, because they only coach an hour, but also dole out some consequences, and positive rewarding activities to students who're achieving in the classroom.

READY FOR WHATEVER

    I think football is wrong for students.  It does hurt too much.  There is brain damage with every hit.  The linemen aren't getting exercise.  Concussions and broken bones are too common.  One of my favorite movies is Necessary Roughness.  Scott Bacula is a college Quarterback and he's 40.  There are two antagonists for the football team.  One is the Texas State, the other is their own dean.  He doesn't think that college's hard earned money should be used on the barbarity of football.  I watched it when I was young and hated that guy, but I agree with him as I get old enough to be the arm of the armadillos.  No football, yes basketball, yes track, yes soccer, no hockey, yes relays and cross training, yes hiking, yes boxing with gear and hitting bags more than each other, yes field events including javelin.  Yes tag and wall ball, yes ping pong and cross country.  Yes gymnastics maybe swimming.  Yes wrestling yes volleyball.

TITLE NINE

    Girls will train with boys and will play in PE with boys.  When preparing for afterschool, more competitive games, there should be girls, boys, and co-ed.  

ANTS SPECIALIZE

    One hard fast rule for me is that I don't think kids should have to choose.  When I was part of a high school program as a student in the late 90's there was time to be an athlete and a nerd in the band or orchestra.  I think that is essential to the cultivation of students and societal members.  When I was part of a high school program as a coach (admittedly supporting role) in 2018 the time to be engaged in multiple activities was dead and dying out.  When I was in high school there were football players who pulled off their pads at halftime and marched with the band.  That is highly irregular these days.  Band members and football players both think they should specialize more to be ready for the next level.  This is a bad practice of our educational system.  It is tragic.  I think it should be reversed and it will be in my charter school.  Time will be alloted to make sure students can participate in multiple extracurriculars.  Will students be as competitive in state competitions?  No, thank God.