ONE URBAN MIDDLE SCHOOL:

MANY REFORM EFFORTS

Cheryl Craig, PH.D.
Department of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum
Professor of Houston Endowment, Inc.'s Endowed
Chair of Urban Education
Texas A & M University
Lifetime career perspective

Teacher and
Professor in
Canada

Professor in the
United States
 How
teachers
come to
What know
teachers
come to
know School
reform
context
Teachers are lodged in the same situations from
• Dallas
• Toronto
• Beijing
• São Paulo
• Cape Town
 Teachers &
students
School contexts

Neighborhoods

Regions

Countries

Teaching environments shaped by multiple contexts

and outside influences
 Public
opinion Teachers &
Family units & students
curriculum policies School contexts

Local, Neighborhoods
national &
geo- politics Regions

Countries

Teaching environments shaped by multiple contexts

and outside influences
Teachers as agents of education
Global Competition
Swarm Of School Reform Problems
Fifteen Years of Research
Daryl Wilson Laura Curtis Anna Dean
Six Stories of Reform
 Standardized
Teaching Methods
Story of • Consultant leaves
• 20 Teachers removed
Reform 1: • Principal retires
Standardized
Teaching
Methods

1997 1998 1999 2000

Standardized Teaching Methods
Other Teachers
 The lesson models are . . .
so prescribed that they
take away our
empowerment.
 . . . It does not give
individuals credit for their
own smarts.
Daryl Wilson
 I resent having to play
the game. People cannot
be worked with like they,
and their knowledge
and experiences, are
interchangeable parts.
A Boiling Point

 20 of the 85 teachers in the school were removed.

 The principal retired because she did not like the way
the consultant treated the teachers or her.
 Her parting statement was that she had spent too
many years “on the short end of the stick.”
 Standardized
Teaching Methods
Story of • Consultant leaves
• 20 Teachers removed
Reform 1: • Principal retires

Standardized
Teaching
Methods

1997 1998 1999 2000

 Standardized Teacher
Community
Story of • 4 Teachers leave
• 1 Assistant Principal leaves
Reform 2: • Principal leaves

Standardized
Teacher
Community

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Standardized Teacher Community

 …[The] District has…implement

[ed] professional learning
communities [PLCs]….[and held]
seminars/networking sessions
…to give administrators the
tools… to create PLCs….

(School District, 2007)

Standardized Teacher Community
 Laura Curtis: We have
gained a lot but…lost a lot,
too. I became unhappy when I
realized the reform was being
forced on us and I began to
feel like a butterfly under a
pin. A lot of us were feeling
that way…
 Cheryl Craig: A butterfly under a
pin???...
 Laura Curtis: Yes, I was
…uncomfortable with the demeanors
of our staff developer and our
principal. It was making me feel not in
charge of my own teaching when …I
previously felt in charge.
Standardized Teacher Community

 Laura Curtis: I think…the staff developer came…with

an idea…of working with a staff…fired up about
workshops.

 But …[the person] bought into the principal’s secret plan to

humiliate, and chase people off…just to have his version
of PLCs at the expense of our own.
Standardized Teacher Community
Laura Curtis
 When I went into others’
…rooms, I felt so badly. It was
embarrassing. What was
said… I don’t feel it was in
the students’ best interests. It
diminished the teacher in front
of the children.
Anna Dean
 It was really awful. They just
went after people. I felt
guilty simply because I was
there … and thinking, “God,
I’m glad they are not going
after me.”
Standardized Teacher Community

Laura Curtis
It was confrontational. Our staff developer
…instigated it and …it was a mean and ugly thing,
something that should not happen in a professional
setting. There was so much tension, everybody
thought something was going to blow…
 The staff developer play[ed] up the tension to
where the person could just… blow the engines. I’m
coming through… come hell or high water… And it
just intimidated us…the demeanor, the manner… I
didn’t like being bullied like that…
Standardized Teacher Community

Laura Curtis

 After the blowup, 4 of the 14 literacy teachers

transferred from the school, 1 assistant principal left
the profession because she felt implicated in the
principal’s and consultant’s alleged plan, and the
principal was…promoted to a superintendent position
in the school district.
 Standardized Teacher
Community
• 4 Teachers leave
Story of • 1 Assistant Principal leaves
• Principal leaves
Reform 2:
Standardized
Teacher
Community

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

 Standardized Teacher
Practices

Story of • 1 Teacher leaves

• 3 Other Teachers leave
Reform 3: • Principal leaves
Standardized • Consultant leaves
Teacher
Practices

2007 2008 2009 2010

Standardized Teacher Practices

 Daryl Wilson: I know it’s a saga . . .

 Cheryl Craig: It seems to be . . . I …try to make sense of

one clash and… another one happens . . .
 Daryl Wilson: You’ll never be done . . . Next year we’ll see
what happens . . . I don’t know what will happen. I can’t
even begin to imagine . . .
Standardized Teacher Practices
Daryl Wilson
 The consultant disturbed “an
otherwise calm two years…” A
second incident created…“a
head on collusion” with a highly
experienced teacher new to the
school…who did not want to be
“handcuffed” to the consultant’s
version of workshop.
Anna Dean
 The craziness became accentuated
by…the humiliation caused by the
consultant’s critiques...I wanted to
give my students the same
experience as my mentor who
left, or the department co-chairs
gave theirs.
 It was not until everyone began
leaving that I realized how unfair
the situation was...
Standardized Teacher Practice

 Anna Dean: But, where the school/school

district was concerned, I learned that smart
teachers are neither tolerated nor
appreciated. I know that teachers should
…not have… something forced down their
throats…Not allowing for teacher
ownership is degrading.
Standardized Teacher Practice
 New Principal: …The literacy reform [must be]
restarted…Positive reform cannot be achieved by
shoving things down people’s throats…Paying a
consultant to contribute to a group’s dysfunction is
too much…Something has gone awry. The
collaborative piece is in jeopardy…The team piece
is amiss… It is time to mend fences…
 Once again, a year ended with the well-prepared,
experienced teacher, around whom the controversy
swirled, leaving the campus.
 Also, one special education/literacy teacher left as well.
 Standardized Teacher
Practices

Story of • 1 Teacher leaves

• 3 Other Teachers leave
Reform 3: • Principal leaves
• Consultant leaves
Standardized
Teacher
Practices

2007 2008 2009 2010

Standardized Teacher Practice

 The teachers—when left to their own devices—were

“almost back to their old selves” in their knowledge
community interactions.
Standardized Teacher Practice

Daryl Wilson
Standardized Teacher Practice

Daryl’s Student,
Kyle
Standardized Teacher Practice
Standardized Teacher Practice
Standardized Teacher Practice

Anna Dean
…she nailed the workshop

…she reframed her

understanding of the Literacy
Assistant Principal

…she realized that the

assistant principal was trying
to help her become the best
literacy teacher she could be
 Standardized Teacher
Evaluations
Story of • Student test scores integrated
into teacher evaluations
Reform 4:
Standardized
Teacher
Evaluations

2010 2011 2012 2013

Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Literacy Department Meeting Agenda 2010
 Benchmark Assessments
 Literacy Books
 Mid-Year Instruction Review
 Individual Appointments with the Assistant Principal
 Teachers’ Rater and Verification Update
 LPAC [Language Proficiency Assessment Committee]
Meeting
 Standardized Teacher Evaluations

Professional Development Assessment System (PDAS)

Domain I: Active, Successful Student Participation in the Learning Process
Domain II: Learner-Centered Instruction
Domain III: Evaluation and Feedback on Student Progress
Domain IV: Management of Student Discipline, Instructional Strategies, Time
and Materials
Domain V: Professional Communication
Domain VI: Professional Development
Domain VII: Compliance with Policies, Operating Procedures and Requirements
Domain VIII: Improvement of Academic Performance of All Students on the
Campus
Standardized Teacher Evaluations

Domain VII

Complies with all policies….

Complies with all verbal and written directives…
Contributes to making the whole school safe and
orderly… apart from classroom responsibilities
Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Standardized Teacher Evaluations

Daryl Wilson Becky Smith Anna Dean

Marked down Marked down Marked down
20 points 27 points 32 points
Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Anna Dean: (upon quitting teaching in her 6th year)
• I was a cluster leader, taught 93 students every day…and
the…high needs students had increased from 120 to 160
at my grade level.
• The students were tough kids with…educational problems
quite unlike those usually entering the school…
• The special education teachers were…. overwhelmed; a
whole new slate of assistant principals had been named
(only 1 of 6 returned).
• Just when discipline needed to be firm/fair, it became very
lax…
• I worried that a major incident would happen…
Standardized Teacher Evaluations
Anna Dean
• It was a very, very difficult year…
• It was too much for a veteran, much
less a new teacher, but I had learned
to wade
• and swim backward in a sea that was
slowly pulling me under.
• I decided to seek other alternatives
for my career path….
• The time had come to leave…
Standardized Teacher Evaluations

 Anna Dean left

 1 English as a Second Language Teacher left
 2 Special Education Teachers left
 and the Assistant Principal for Literacy left
 Standardized Teacher Evaluations
• Anna Dean leaves
Story of • ESL teacher leaves
• 2 Special Education teacher s leave
Reform 4: • Assistant Principal leaves

Standardized
Teacher
Evaluations

2010 2011 2012 2013

 Standardized Textbooks/Workbooks
•Superintendent leaves systems
•Principal leaves school
Story of •Workbooks remain unused

Reform 5:
Standardized
Textbooks/
Workbooks

2013 2014 2015 2016

 Data as Holy Grail
•School system has 80% of its teachers with 5 years
or less of experience;
•50% of its administrators with 5 years or less of
experience.
•Negative Attitude toward experience prevails
Story of Consequences thus far--Daryl Wilson demoted as
Department Chair; Experienced Teachers Moved
Reform 6: Around without Consultations
Data as Holy
Grail

2016 --
Lessons Learned

So often reforms go
awry and lead to
untoward consequences,
usually perverse ones,
that reformers had not
anticipated.
(Cuban, 2013)
 Lessons Learned
 School reforms dictated from outside of schools may not fit
the real-world experience in schools

 Top-down prescriptions by their nature breed rejection

 The global metanarrative is disconnected from the daily

lived experiences of teachers and students

 Teachers and students are no strangers to school reform

 Lessons Learned
 One reform project may negate the goals of another
reform project due to competing goals/theories

 When test scores are the measurement, test content

becomes the curriculum and teacher quality falls by the
wayside and teacher quality falls by the wayside

 Publication of test scores increases competition and is not

conducive to change

 People need practical, and morally grounded reasons to

engage in school reform
How do we get
someone like you
and me to care “a
whole awful lot?”
[Teachers]…come to know that the
path of educational progress more
closely resembles the flight of a
butterfly than the flight of a bullet.

(Jackson, 1968)
 People cannot be taught.
They can be coached to learn.

(Schön, 1983)
Knowledge, when it comes, is a late arrival,
flaring up, when the time is right, from the sparks
good teachers have implanted…

(Gutting, 2013)
Teachers want to be challenged—but in a good way.
Daryl’s School Reform Story

 Putting out of good ideas

 Teachers’ and students’
consensus and willingness to
try something new
 Collaborative growth
 Students’ best-loved self
 Daryl’s Story

Of Classroom Reform
Darrell’s Story
Daryl’s School Reform Story

 Did not happen

unexpectedly
 Was not unidirectional
 Was not top-down &
fueled by power
relationships
 Became part of his “best-
loved self”
 Students &
Teachers Collaborativ
Consider e growth
New
Sharing Ideas Try New
Good Ideas
Ideas Classrooms
& schools
Incorporate
New Ideas
Butterfly vs. Bullet
School Reform
 We must understand and remember:
 The true purpose of education is to make
minds, not careers.
 The interplay between morality and
power…
 Management techniques do not equate with
wisdom
 he measure of a civilization is its compassion.
Chris Hedges
Caring in Teaching
No reform effort can get
off the ground without…
a teacher willing and prepared.

(Bruner, 1996)
No research study, no brilliant discovery, no
book, no seminal article, no journal, no
program, no policy, no mandate or no law
can change what happens to kids in schools.
Only teachers can do that.
(Goodman, 2000)
Regardless of how big school reforms
begin. . we inevitably return to the
individual teacher as a knowledgeable and
knowing potential agent of one.
(Craig, 2003)
…and the essence of that teacher’s
best-loved self.”

(Craig, 2012)
Graveyard of school reform
Reform Without Teachers- Top Down Reform
We don’t need any more past.
We need more reconstruction
of history.
António Nevóa
Teachers…
the cornerstones and
linchpins of learning
Lackluster future…
Or A Future Worth Having
The future is not
something that [just]
happens, but something
which is constructed—
constituted by our
choices or our failure to
choose.
(Hughes, 2000)
Questions and Comments