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The NY Times Asked 30 Researchers (Two-Thirds Who Had Never Taught In A K-12 Classroom) How To Improve Schools. Here Are My 12 Different Low-Cost Suggestions MJ555 / Pixabay
I’ve got nothing against most university professors, and count several as friends. I have learned much from some of them, and continue to do so. However, my mind was a big boggled when I read yesterday’s New York Times article, 30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts. Not one – not a single one – of these experts were practicing K-12 teachers. When I asked ChatGPT to examine the biographies of the many professors consulted for the article, it found that less than a third had ever taught in a K-12 classroom. Again, that does not mean that many of them cannot offer important insights. But, clearly, The New York Times reporters do not understand the concept of subsidiarity, which suggests that the people closest to problems – most affected by them – often have excellent ideas on how to solve them. I do know that at least one of the professors contacted for the article did bring this up to them. I’ve got to wonder if anyone else did. The article is worth reading. However, as a recently retired high school teacher, here are my relatively low-cost (and evidence-based) ideas on how to improve schools (it’s important to note that there is not ONE WAY to fix schools – it requires lots of little ones): * Dramatically expand the use of peer tutors. I’ve been on this soapbox for years, but the idea of hiring boatloads of adult tutors is just not a realistic strategy (see The “High-Dosage Tutoring” Bubble Appears To Be Popping, & That’s Why I’ve Been Pushing “Peer Tutoring” For Years, Instead). * Create ninth-grade support classes for students that provide them with the prior knowledge they need to be successful in their content classes. I’ve written about how we did this at our school at This Is the Most Effective Teaching Strategy I’ve Seen in 23 Years. * Organize peer mentoring programs where older students mentor younger ones. I’ve shared what we did at our school at The Best Resources On The Value & Practice Of Having Older Students Mentoring Younger Ones. * Give individual teachers pots of money to used their judgment on how best to support their students. Personally, I think those “pots” should be substantial, but research shows that even a few hundred dollars makes a difference. * Give teachers the option (DO NOT MAKE IT REQUIRED) of having one-or-two of their classes videotaped and then provide paid time for them to review it with a trusted administrator, and not make it part of any formal evaluation process. I wrote about the process we used at my school at My Students Help Assess My Teaching. You can learn more at The Best Posts & Articles About Videotaping Teachers In The Classroom. * Incorporate student voice in professional development sessions. Teachers at my school, including me, always gained important insights from listening to students share about their perspectives and experiences. * Let any student who wants to enroll in advanced courses. I love the way the International Baccalaureate program runs at my old high school. Yes, we have IB Diploma candidates who take all IB classes. But anyone else can opt into taking any IB class, and we specifically recruit students who are not taking any IB courses. For more information, see The Best Resources For Learning Different Perspectives About “Gifted & Talented” Programs. * Yes, ban cellphones, but let each school determine what works best for them. If they want to try pouches, have states provide ongoing money for them. Here’s what worked for me. * Have laptop carts available, but encourage teachers to use non-tech options as much as possible. To make that more feasible for teachers, one of two things has to happen: (1) have a system in place where, as we did in our school for several years, our office manager supervised student teacher assistants who would pick-up copy jobs from teachers and deliver the needed copies the following day OR (2) provide each teacher with a high-quality, high-speed printer. See The Best Analyses About The Role Of Ed Tech In Today’s Classrooms for more info. * Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to ban the use of racial disparities in data to examine racism, schools must double-down on doing so schoolwide and asking teachers to do the same in their own classroom. Read how to do this at Implicit Bias Training Doesn’t Seem To Work – So What Should Teachers & Others Do, Instead? * With the reduced numbers of English Language Learner Newcomers attending schools because of the Trump administration’s crackdown, schools will be tempted to reduce the numbers of ELL-only classes and move those teachers to other courses. Instead, if schools do eliminate those Newcomer classes, they should assign teachers to assist content teachers and develop programs to support the huge numbers of Long-Term ELLs in schools. And, while they’re add it, schools should take advantage of ELL teachers’ expertise in accelerating learning and how to apply it to all classes. * Every time, and I mean every time, a new initiative is announced by a district, or a new law is passed mandating class content, it should be required that something be taken off teachers’ plates. Schools have long been victims of “Initiative Overload.”
These twelve suggestions are not meant to be exhaustive, and I’d love to hear others (I had to turn comments off on this blog because of AI bots, but I’m accessible on every social media platform as well as via email. Of course, I am a big fan of some larger ticket ideas for school improvement too, including class size reduction (see The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter); Community Schools (see The Best Resources For Learning About Community Schools ) and providing schools with more funding, including for teacher raises (see The Best Sites For Learning That Money Does Matter For Schools). Once, just once, I’d love to see reporters, not to mention school superintendents and politicians, ask teachers what they think…..      Sept. 30th Is International Translation Day – Here Are Related Resources geralt / Pixabay It’s International Translation Day on Sept. 30th! This is from the United Nations official site celebrating the day: On 24 May 2017, the General Assembly adopted resolution 71/288 on the role of language professionals in connecting nations and fostering peace, understanding and development, and declared 30 September as International Translation Day. I have many related “Best” lists in my Multingual Resource section, including: The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Math, Social Studies, & Science The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual The Best Funny Videos Showing The Importance Of Being Bilingual Or Multilingual The Best Sites For Learning Spanish Online The Best Sites For Learning About Google Translate & Other Forms Of Machine Translation The Best Resources For International Mother Language Day The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English & Other Languages THE BEST RESOURCES TO HELP ELL STUDENTS WITH SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION IN THE CLASSROOM In addition, here are some related videos:
  This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues
Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in seeing all my “Best” lists related to education policy here):
Why Some Schools Are Hitting the Brakes on Electric Buses is from The NY Times.
 A Look Back: I Did This Simple Thing To Try & Help My Colleagues’ Morale & You Might Or Might Not Want To Try It, TooFor the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful. This post first appeared in 2021. Note that even though this post talks about my doing this activity during distance learning, I continued the practice each year even when we went back to physical school.  PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay
As most – if not all – teachers know, many of us are very tired right now. Here in California, most of us have been doing full-time virtual teaching for a year now, and it’s tough (I also know that many people have it rougher than us). I thought I’d try something simple to boost the morale of some of my colleagues, and thought that others might find the idea helpful. As regular readers know, I send out a weekly Google Forms check-in to my students. I added a question to this week’s check-in: Teaching by computer is not easy for teachers. If there is one teacher who you think is doing a particularly good job this year, please write the teacher’s name and what you like about his/her class (you probably weren’t thinking of it, but please don’t list Mr. Ferlazzo). Mr. Ferlazzo will send emails to those teachers sharing some of the comments you make (without listing your names) and send copies of those emails to the principal.
Many students were very thoughtful in their responses, and I followed through by passing them along (I had also told our principal ahead of time what I wanted to do and he was very supportive). The replies I received from my colleagues was indicative, I think, of how many of us are feeling. The typical one was “Boy, I needed to hear that this morning!” Based on its reception, I thought that others might want to give it a shot. If you do, let me know how it goes!
 World Teachers Day Is Coming Up – Here Are A Ton Of Related Resources 12019 / Pixabay
World Teachers Day, held annually on October 5th since 1994 – when it was created by UNESCO – celebrates teachers worldwide (in the United States, National Teacher Day is Tuesday in the first full week of May). You might be interested in The Best Resources To Learn About World Teachers Day.  More Recent Articles |
