Read: All the Handwringing Edition
Wherever your talents may lie, just do your part.
What’s happening in the Dropout Nation:
- There has been plenty of handwringing about the business of covering education — and covering school reformers — from the Brookings Institution, Jay Mathews, Alan Gottlieb of EdNews Colorado and even Big Edreform Andy #1 (as in Rotherham). I’ve already written enough about the matter earlier this year and a few others (Alexander Russo among them) offer something more comprehensive the matter than I care to give justice.
- Meanwhile Steve Peha took time on Eduwonk offering his fellow teachers a few reasons why they should stop working through unions and actually play a part in school reform. But in the process, he took aim at other reformers — notably those of us on the polemic side of things — by arguing that “blogging never taught a kid to read” and that one can’t be “a champion for kids” without “actually work toward making sure they get educated.” As someone who has actively worked on the message side of school reform (including consulting for school reform groups and speechwriting) I can tell you that there is more to improving the lives of children than just teaching. There is also grassroots activism such as that of Phillip Jackson of the Black Star Project, education research such as that of Michael Holzman (the subject of the inaugural “Three Questions” this week) and Robert Balfanz that sheds light on the dropout crisis, and even the work within policy circles and starting schools. Ultimately it is about using one’s talents to improve the lives of children any way possible that is important, not whether one is in the classroom.
- Sadly, Mr. Peha’s arrogance is typical within traditional education circles. The tendency to overvalue subjective experience (which can offer little in actual usable information) over objective data (which is often more counter-intuitive than confirming). The best example is exemplified on Wednesday at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Get Schooled blog, where Maureen Downey’s report on a recent study on Florida’s class size caused readers to pillory the study (often without so much as reading it). The anti-intellectualism within a sector that is supposed to value knowledge and inquiry can be quite laughable — until you see the consequences of it in the NAEP reading data for big city districts released yesterday.
- Speaking of data: Dan Goldhaber (whose studies on teacher quality are must-reads) offers some thoughts on performance pay plans and how they may actually stimulate high performance. Meanwhile the Education Action Group (which is far less dispassionate about teacher issues) offers a report on the high cost of teacher compensation and collective bargaining agreements for Ohio’s school districts.
- And speaking of experience — this time, the power of parents — Eric Waters writets about his mother and her role in shaping not only his life, but that of his father (and her husband).
Steve Peha
733 days ago
Hey DN,
If you want to see what I think about education, visit The National Journal Education Experts Blog where I post every week. If you want to see who I am, visit my website. Either way, I don’t think you’ll conclude that I’m a “traditionalist”.
Now that I think of it, I’m not sure that being called a “traditionalist” is a bad thing in education these days, so maybe I owe you thanks. Frankly, I’ll take being mischaracterized over being ignored any time; it’s just great to be “in the room”.
Most people who know me and my work tend to view me as non-traditional. I’ve read your blog many times and I think you and I are often on the same page. In general, I find that most people in education are more alike than different. We often agree on the same fundamental ideas, even as we bristle at times on the surface.
Thanks for reading me. What writer doesn’t love a lively audience? If you want to better understand my comment on Eduwonk, check out ALL the posts in the thread (it was a very long one, I know), and then reconsider EACH of my posts in that context and in the context of Andy’s original post regarding the unfortunate polarization of educational discourse. I’ll bet you find that you and I are not that far apart on the things that matter most, and that I am not a likely nominee for “Education Traditionalist of the Year.”
What I was trying to say—I think—is pretty much summed up in the caption on your front page picture: I feel my talents lie in BOTH advocacy AND practice and so I try to do my part in both areas. Granted, it’s more fun to just sit here and type all day to people like you. But I really get a charge out of working in schools with teachers and kids once in a while, and I think my work in this area has been helpful over the years to advancing the general cause of reform.
I believe that advocacy is vital. It’s just that for me, personally, I find that combining advocacy with work in the field, and thoughtful study of relevant data, makes me less subjective, not more subjective. I completely agree with you that it’s so easy to fall into what I call the “n of 1” trap. We’ve all been to school, so it’s natural to think we’re all education experts with our own personal longitudinal studies. You’re right that when we generalize from this very small sample, we tend to exercise poor judgment. To keep myself honest, I try to cast a wide net, which includes reading you from time to time, too.
It is my belief that the more schools we work in, the more research we read, and the more people we interact with, the more informed and thoughtful our positions on education become. Every judgment is part truth and part error. Average many judgments together and the errors begin to cancel out. We learn from our mistakes, and that’s how we get smarter. Diversity of experience is the key to understanding complex systems like education—and to understanding complex people like you and me who try our best to make it better.
Thanks for the shout-out!
Steve