#Educators

  • A UNIQUE WAY TO TEACH READING

    RIVETING RESULTS, LLC...

    Getting High School Students To Read  and Enjoy Complex Texts!

    From Chuck Cascio: In my ongoing search for unique, ground-floor solutions to the rapidly changing teaching and learning environment, I was fortunate recently to learn about Riveting Results, LLC, and its CEO Arthur Unobskey, a longtime teacher, administrator, superintendent, and education reform leader. Riveting Results (https://www.rr.tools) is a program that deserves significant attention from educators, business leaders, and anyone committed to meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present details about Arthur and Riveting Results’ unique approach to learning.


    About Arthur Unobskey: After thirty years as a teacher, principal and superintendent, Arthur Unobskey partnered in Riveting Results. After building systems and structures to support his students’ daily progress, he wanted to provide middle and high school teachers with the specific tools that they needed to teach all of their students to read-and enjoy-grade level text.

    Throughout his ten years as a middle and high school teacher, Arthur strove to engage every one of his students in deep and rigorous study. As an administrator in both urban and suburban schools, he built and supported teacher and administrative teams that analyzed formative data to determine which teaching approaches unlocked students’ potential, particularly for reluctant students. As a superintendent in Wayland, Massachusetts, he guided the district to embrace the needs of underperforming students, integrating best practices from Social Emotional Learning and Culturally Responsive Teaching to improve student engagement and performance.

    About Riveting Results, LLC: From 1994 to the present, Arthur co-founded, co-directed and served as the Board Chair for The Writers’ Express (now SummerInk), a non-profit summer writing camp for middle and high school students. During this time, The Writers’ Express developed an instructional model that helped campers from a wide variety of backgrounds find their voices as writers.

    Arthur notes that at a time when 69% of entering 9th grade students read below grade level, Riveting Results' 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English/Language Arts solution transforms students' classroom experience. It enables teachers to accelerate their skill development so the entire class can read and enjoy the same rigorous, engaging books. Requiring minimal professional development, its software-based curriculum enables a teacher to seamlessly implement four high-leverage literacy activities that provide students with the precise practice and feedback they need for rapid and sustained skill development.

    Arthur’s responses to questions delving into details about Riveting Results, LLC:

    >>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

    The hold that divisive local politics has on our public schools limits collaboration between researchers and educators, stymieing innovation. District leaders cannot risk the immediate fallout of giving different services to different children, a necessary feature of the randomized controlled studies that have led, in the medical field, to the rapid spread of effective practices. 

    With no widely accepted “gold standard” for efficacy, impressive results from another district are met with skepticism. Curriculum committees often privilege programs and approaches that they already know even if they are not impactful. Those districts that seek to be innovative often turn to their teachers to do the impossible: create an in-house solution that is adaptable for all teachers and students while each of the teacher-curriculum developers simultaneously tend to the needs of 25 to 150 of their own students. In such a scenario, no one has the brainspace to effectively determine the impact of their work on student achievement.

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    >>>What specific "ground floor" education/learning issues does Riveting Results help address?

    Recently, a groundswell of mainstream media attention has spotlighted how districts across the country are changing their instruction to incorporate a more structured approach, summarized as techniques that align with the rigorously researched “Science of Reading”. This change in reading instruction will result in more students learning how to read elementary textsIt is a very exciting shift. The media, however, has paid far less attention to adolescents and what literacy instruction they need. The structured literacy approaches used in elementary schools, no matter how systematically implemented, will not enable most high school students to read grade-level texts, shutting them out of the classes they want to take and that prepare them for college.

    Text changes significantly between fifth and sixth grades. Students begin to see complex sentences, and by ninth grade, almost all of the text they see is made up of these types of sentences. They are longer, making use of clauses to link multiple ideas. When students see these new types of sentences, they trip over them. The ability to read fluently (smoothly and with expression), which they developed in elementary school with simple sentences, deserts them. Reading becomes laborious and students don’t have the leftover mental energy necessary to process the meaning of these sentences.

    The literacy research of the past twenty-five years is overwhelmingly clear that middle and high school English teachers need to make fluency practice a consistent part of a larger literacy program. Fluency practice provides a bridge to complex text that enables students to read more automatically, become engaged and then dive deeper with subsequent research-based reading activities. But getting adolescents to read out loud is hard. And, how does a teacher with 30 students in a class give feedback so that each student can improve their fluency? How can teachers integrate fluency practice into a highly engaging reading and writing curriculum so that it does not feel remedial?

    Programs that claim to provide fluency practice for adolescents use methods developed for elementary students that adolescents roundly reject. Commonly recommended choral or echo reading doesn’t work in a high school class because adolescents are much less compliant than elementary school students and will often fake participation. Current fluency software solutions that do track individual performance measure words read correctly per minute, marking students down for each mistake. Speed is not a good measure of fluency with complex text because it requires changes in pace and the careful emphasis of certain words. And, adolescents disengage from instruction that focuses attention on their mistakes.

    Riveting Results makes practicing reading out loud joyful. Activities guide students to become comfortable with complex sentences and to notice the impact that their reading has on others. Teachers use the software to assign each of their students individualized fluency practice on the same section of highly engaging, complex text. Not only do students receive feedback on their recordings from remote scorers, but they share their readings with their classmates. The classroom community that emerges from this shared fluency practice enables each student to establish what Gholdy Muhammad calls “literary presence,” (Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy, p.28), the sense of agency that supports adolescents from historically marginalized communities as they dig into understanding complex text.

    After approximately fifteen minutes of fluency practice, students develop an initial understanding of a particular section of complex text. Riveting Results’ software then guides students through three subsequent high-leverage literacy activities in which they work with a partner and their entire class to deepen their understanding of the text. Because they no longer have to provision activities or spend class time explaining directions to students, teachers can focus on eliciting their students’ best work, giving students’ immediate and actionable feedback, and harvesting student ideas for dynamic classroom discussions.


    We are implementing our 9th and 10th grade comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum in schools in New York City, Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Texas and California and are getting extraordinary results.

    >>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what personal experiences did you draw upon while creating Riveting Results?

    I believe that a classroom can be magical! The tension during a debate; the laughter at a peer’s wit; the grunts when a task is difficult; and, ultimately, the momentum when everyone is leaning in: a nurturing classroom is both raw and gentle. As an educator, I gravitated toward adolescents because they not only crave such a setting, but also respond to it by discovering that they have the agency to impact everyone around them.

    At the same time, building such a classroom community, particularly a high school classroom whose students have widely divergent reading levels, cannot be done by a teacher acting alone. Teachers need tools to enable all of their students to succeed. Riveting Results seeks to provide teachers with those tools: beautiful, engaging literature and a set of practices, tested and refined for 30 years, embedded in software so that teachers can reach every student.

     

    For more information about Riveting Results, LLC, go to https://www.rr.tools.

    To contact Arthur Unobskey directly, email at arthur@rr.tools.

    To contact Chuck Cascio directly, email at chuckwrites@yahoo.com

    Copyright: Arthur Unobskey and Chuck Cascio, all rights reserved.

     

     

     

  • Life In the Time of Corona (Third in an unlimited series)

     
    Life In the Time of Corona (Third in an unlimited series)
    by Chuck Cascio
    chuckwrites@yahoo.com 

    As a former high school and college educator over the course of 27 years, I was curious to know how students today feel about most academic institutions being closed for the remainder of the school year. So I asked my niece, Caroline, and five of my grandchildren (Maddie, Jack, Ryan, Zoey, and Wyatt) to write a few sentences about how the coronavirus and school closings are affecting them. Here, in their own words, are their comments (from youngest to oldest):

    Wyatt (age 10; fifth grader)--The  coronavirus pandemic is a little bit scary to me because I have no school for the rest of the year. Coronavirus is a weird thing to handle for me because I cannot walk to any friends' houses or speak to any friends in person. I have no idea what to do now. I can't be near anyone or make any contact with anyone. I do go outside a lot and am bored when I can't go outside.

    Zoey (age 13; eighth grader)--The corona quarantine and the virus in general will never be forgotten and will be a future history lesson. The quarantine has left a lot of different feelings to a lot of different people. To some, it might be an extended summer. To others, it is a serious pandemic. I believe that this is a serious time which should not be treated as a time to hang out with friends all day and go out to the mall or play games of any sort. Even though school was closed for the rest of the year, it is important to spend some of the day studying what you already learned during the year. Overall, I believe that this time should not be taken lightly because the virus is killing and infecting millions a day all over the world. 

     

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    School grounds midday and midweek in the time of coronaphoto by chuck cascio

    Ryan (age 14; high school freshman)— My time during the coronavirus has been a mixture of feelings. At first, this time off was the best thing ever--school was out, I could hang with my friends all day and nothing was better than this! Then my feelings started to change--my parents started saying no to hangouts, and I couldn’t hang with my friends as much. All in all, this “coronacation” has been a mixture of having fun with my friends, boredom, and overall getting more sleep!

    Jack (age14; high school freshman)—This coronavirus quarantine has left me extremely bored and often wondering what I should do with my time. i have been able to practice sports in my backyard and lift weights in my garage. I wish this could all be over and everything would go back to normal. 

    Maddie (age16; high school junior)—While I will admit I was one hoping for a few days off of school to make up for the missed snow days, this was not what I expected. I miss not having things to go to and do. I miss spring sports and school friends, and I miss a normal routine. Lately, at home, I have been spending a lot of time trying to do things outdoors. I refuse to sit inside all day and not do anything...it was making me go crazy! I am hoping to make the best of this and hope this all comes to an end soon so we can all get back to normalcy. 

    Caroline (age 19; college freshman)--Although being quarantined in our houses is not fun, I think that it is the right thing to do to flatten the curve. I have taken all of this extra time to start a 400-hour violin practice challenge where I post videos of me playing each day. In addition to focusing on violin, I have also been cooking and baking a lot more, which I was unable to do during my time on campus each week. Finally, I think this has been a great time for everyone to reflect on their lifestyles and daily choices. Fewer people are going places, which isn’t fun, but it’s making the planet greener and reducing carbon emissions; people are eating healthier because they are forced to cook more or learn to cook; more people are contacting each other because they aren’t caught up in their own lives and activities; and people are forgiving themselves for not being busy and giving them “me time” where they learn or practice a skill that they’ve always wanted to do. Even though a lot of people’s new year resolutions might be messed up by this virus, we will be able to take this time to start new goals and find fun workouts to do at home by yourself or with your family! 

    Have a comment or a story to add to the "Life in the Times of Corona" series? Write to me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com.

    copyright chuck cascio; all rights reserved.

     
  • Starting Points and Destinations


    STARTING POINTS AND DESTINATIONS…
    By
    Xi Chen & Ben Waxman

    (NOTE: This piece originally appeared in the Recruiting and Intelligence Blog of Intead.com, a company specializing in global and local academic branding. It is reprinted here with permission from Intead.com, a company that specializes in "Strategic Marketing to Attract, Recruit, Orient & Retain Students.")

         People always say your destination matters more than your starting point because what you have started might end up being a completely different path. It's more important that you focus on the destination. But to me, the starting point is as important as the destination, even though I'm still far away from my destination.

         Eight years ago, as a fresh graduate, I was so excited to accept an offer as my first full-time job that I almost ignored the exact position—a digital marketing associate at an education consulting company. At that time, I didn't know this offer meant I had knocked on the door of education, and it was the starting point of my following years in a career in the education industry. 

    From Northeastern China to Northeastern U.S.

         Born and raised in northeastern China, I grew up with ice and snow. The snow from October to May at Syracuse University wasn't that hard for me. But my study life, on the other hand, was not easy. I was trying to keep up with my studies while getting used to college life in the U.S., and at the same time worrying about finding a job after graduation. Majoring in new media management, 2012 to 2013 was a good time, with the robust development of Google, Facebook, and all kinds of rising social media platforms. Without hesitation, right after my graduation, I moved to NYC (technically NJ). 

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    From Upstate NY to NYC

         My first month in NYC I was doing only one thing every day: editing cover letters and sending resumes. Though I had graduated with a master's degree in New Media Management, it was not easy for an international student holding OPT to find a legit job in the new media area. I kept taking interviews: SEO specialist, marketing specialist, or digital marketing coordinator.

         One day in August, I got a phone call. It was a phone interview, followed by a face-to-face conversation at a Starbucks in NYC. That was the first time I got to know Intead, an education marketing consulting agency, focusing on international education and global student recruitment marketing. With the international student population growing rapidly at the time, Intead was a relatively new marketing agency and also growing rapidly. The team was putting a tremendous effort into doing the client work and getting known in the industry.

         I worked for Intead during my whole OPT period and grew from having very little idea about digital marketing for global recruitment to having hands-on experiences managing the company's integrated marketing platform, practicing SEO, SEM, and paid search that I learned from my Newhouse classes at Syracuse. It was thrilling meeting with clients and participating in strategy-making processes, and so much more. 

         During the 12 months, I had the opportunity to do online marketing, email campaigns, SEO, learn a new marketing automation platform (Hubspot), and participate in app development. I was joining client visits and developing training workshops. I helped coordinate Intead's first-ever Global Marketing Workshop for Academic Leaders held at the sparkling, new SUNY Global Center at 116 East 55th Street in Manhattan!

    Even now I still feel the year passed too fast. That I really wanted to learn more and do more with Intead.

         This first job helped me transition from campus to the workplace and practice what I had learned while expanding my knowledge and abilities, and most importantly, officially introduced me to the education industry. After I returned home to China at the end of OPT, my first job in Beijing came to me instead of me looking for it.

    From NYC to Beijing

         After reunion with my family, I came to Beijing to start looking for a job. Unbeknownst to me, Michael, CEO of Intead at that time, recommended me at an education conference to a start-up founder who was looking for a marketing specialist. Thus began my three-and-a-half-years of work at an extracurricular activity education company in China.

         During this time, I had the privilege to witness and participate in the growth of a startup company, which went from 7 people to over 50, and I grew from a marketing specialist to the leader of a team of 15 people.

         Following that job, I found exciting opportunities with international publishers, international schools, and the world's leading STEM product company. Since my graduation from Syracuse, I have been deeply involved in the education industry, gaining experience in both B2B and B2C marketing.

         Looking back, I am most grateful for my experience at Intead. I can say that it laid the foundation for all my development so far, and I couldn't have developed and done everything in the workplace without the starting point and the knowledge and skills I learned at the beginning.

    From Beijing to?

         I was lucky to meet a good company, a responsible leader, a strong team, and an industry that inspires my passion. I'm also happy to have used this time to get down to business and improve myself, gaining transferable experience that has helped me get to where I am today. I may not know where I'll go next, but with this great start, I can work confidently toward wherever I go.

         So often, the starting point defines the destination, and you can’t see it until you get there.

    Copyright: Intead.com; all rights reserved.

    For more information, visit Intead.com or email info@intead.com

     
  • The Movie "Just Mercy"--See. Think. Act

    The Movie Just Mercy

    See. Think. Act.

    by

    Chuck Cascio

         If you have not yet seen the movie Just Mercy, you should put it on your "must do" list, especially during Black History Month. It is a true story that provides viewers with reminders of past injustices, the realization that injustices still exist, and the sense of how much must be done to eliminate those injustices in the future. 

         Be prepared to feel uncomfortable but in a meaningful, important way when viewing Just Mercy. And the movie will also make you aware that there are people who truly commit their lives to eliminating injustice...and those people are the real, little-known heroes of history.

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         Just Mercy is the story of African American Bryan Stevenson (played powerfully by Michael A. Jordan), a young, Harvard-educated attorney, who in the late 1980s goes to Alabama to defend prisoners wrongly imprisoned and those not provided proper representation. The movie focuses on one case in particular--that of Walter McMillian (played by Jamie Foxx, in a moving performance), an African American in Alabama sentenced to die for the murder of an 18-year-old girl despite abundant evidence proving his innocence. The movie captures the racism and the legal and political obstacles Stevenson encounters while fighting for McMillian's life and the lives of many other prisoners.  

       The film is produced by Participant, a media company committed to developing entertainment that inspires positive social change, and the story succeeds in encouraging viewers to recognize the inequalities that existed in the era of this movie and those that still exist today. For me, a Boomer who moved from Brooklyn to Northern Virginia as a kid in the 1950s, the movie brought back uncomfortable memories from my youth. And it reminded me that, 30 years later during the years in which Just Mercy takes place, those injustices were still evident...and that too many still exist today albeit in less immediately obvious ways. Some of the realities the film brought back to me from my childhood:

         >>> Seeing signs above restrooms and water fountains and elsewhere that said, "Coloreds" and others that said, "Whites."

         >>> The street signs on motels that specified, "Coloreds not allowed."

         >>> Raw anger rippling through some classmates as Northern Virginia started to integrate schools.

         >>> The time an African American musician friend of mine was given a different menu at a restaurant from the one I was given, the prices on his menu several times more expensive than the prices on mine. We walked out, and as we were leaving someone behind us said, "Well, you can't say that we refused to serve him."

         And, sadly, there are many more from my 1950s-60s childhood. Incidents that confused me, incidents that my parents made sure I recognized as wrong, incidents that still run through my head. They are especially vivid when I see a movie like Just Mercy, so much so that I believe the movie should be shown to high school students and discussed in depth with them. The story is ideal for a conversation around racial injustice, where it has been, where it exists today, and what needs to be done about it in the future.

         As Just Mercy reveals, Bryan Stevenson did more than commit himself to a couple of years worth of work for the unjustly incarcerated. He formed the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989, a nonprofit organization that, as stated on its website (www.eji.org),

    “…provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.” 

         There is much work to be done. According to the Pew Research Center, African Americans represent only 12% of the U.S. adult population but 33% of the sentenced prison population. Hispanics make up 16% of the adult population and account for 23% of inmates. Whites comprise 64% of adults and 30% of prisoners.  

         In these swirling, fast-paced times it is important to remind ourselves of the realities of past injustices, to take time to look closely at the current lives of minorities, and to take steps for a more equitable future. So here are three things to consider doing, any one of which will stimulate thinking and expand the much-needed conversation:

    1) Just see the movie.

    2) Think about, document, and/or discuss your own experiences regarding racism.

    3) Go to the Equal Justice Initiative website (www.eji.org) and explore it, looking especially at the various materials developed for classroom use, which can also be used  in less-formal discussions with today's youths.

       Doing any of these will stimulate thoughts about where we were, where we are, and where we are headed. Sometimes mercy emerges from discomfort.

    Copyright Chuck Cascio; all rights reserved.

  • Transforming Education Today: Second in a series

    TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY
    (Second in a Series of Interviews with Leaders in Education)
    Featuring Dr. Elizabeth Arons
     
    Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I am presenting a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in their own words, on a number of vitally important education issues. Readers who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed, but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present as the second interview in this series of the views of Dr. Elizabeth Arons, whose profile follows:
     
    Dr. Elizabeth “Betsy” Arons (earons@theushca.org) has served for more than 50 years in public education with more than 40 of those years as a leader in human resources in public school systems. As founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Schools Human Capital Academy (www.ushcacademy.org), she has established an initiative that focuses on essential human resources reform and the development of human capital leaders. Betsy has also served as Chief Executive Officer of Human Resources for New York City Department of Education; as Associate Superintendent, Human Resources, Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools; and as Director of Human Resources in Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools. Throughout her leadership roles, Betsy has instituted numerous human capital and human resources reforms to elevate the strategic role of HR in meeting student achievement goals. Early in her distinguished career, Betsy served as an assistant principal intern and a high school English teacher. Following are her views on transforming education today:

     

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    >>>What inspired your career as a leader in education?
     
    The lack of women leaders (Principals, Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents) back in the '70's and '80's was notable, and I felt the need for more women who represented a vast majority of teachers to expand more into leadership roles.  
     
    >>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?  
     
    The critical shortage of both teachers and principals that existed before the pandemic has now increased even more, and I see no signs that it will be improving. I strongly believe we have to rethink the concept of a quality teacher in every classroom and drastically change the role of the teacher and begin using technology to solve the shortages.
     
    >>>Has the remote learning that started as a result of the pandemic become entrenched as a new direction that education will take and, if so, could it have a positive impact?  
     
    Yes...and definitely yes!  Why do we continue to look for, say, 23 Physics teachers for 23 high schools? Why not one excellent Physics teacher piped into 23 high schools with aides in the classroom to help students with homework, labs, etc.?  While technology may not be able to replace a teacher in every classroom for elementary-aged students, it certainly can work for middle and high school students.
     
    >>>What can be done to encourage people to go into teaching or other areas of education?
     
    Teaching careers that are all 9 1/2 month jobs cannot ever compete with 12-month salaried jobs.  We have to employ teachers to work a 12-month year with a 12-month salary.  There are many functions they could perform over the summer, including curriculum design and review, student achievement results, planning for the coming year, etc.  They still could have vacation time in July, but it is critical that their salary levels are comparable to all the other 12-month careers available.  
     
    >>>What makes you optimistic about education when you look ahead for the next 3-5 years and what concerns you the most over that time period?  
     
    In a strange way, the pandemic has shown us the power of technology and remote learning, even when students are physically present in schools.  If we don't take advantage of that learning now, we will miss a huge opportunity to redesign education.  I think it will take 3-5 years to accomplish that redesign, and it will be a difficult pill to swallow for teachers' unions, because it will mean far fewer employees to meet educational needs.  So working collaboratively to take advantage of this moment with all stakeholders is critical.
    >>>What do you consider to be the appropriate line between politics and education--including the role of Federal, state,and local governments as well as school boards--in establishing standards, content, and policy, 
    particularly in K-12 public education?
     
    The lines between the varied roles of Federal, state, local governments and School Boards are often blurred.  Ideally, the Federal government would provide funding with no strings attached, set broad policies with a wide band, and School Boards would handle policies without micromanaging superintendents.  But the reality is that each governmental entity wants to regulate and micromanage, and the result is that school districts are more regulated than almost any other entity.  The most recent example in Virginia is the most egregious, where the Governor has established a hotline for parents to report any teacher who broaches a subject the parent disagrees with or does not want their child exposed to.  We are dealing with an atmosphere of intervention by Federal, state, local governments, as well as School Boards and now parents, making the life of a principal and teacher extremely hard to handle.  I fear this will cause many who have no autonomy to leave the profession.  
     
    Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Elizabeth Arons; all rights reserved.

    chuckwrites@yahoo.com

     
  • Transforming Education: Fourth in a series

    TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY
    (Fourth in a series of interviews with Education Leaders)
    Featuring Dr. Arthur E. Wise

    Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I have been running a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in their own words, on a number of vitally important education issues. I am pleased to present as the fourth interview in this series of the views of Dr. Arthur E. Wise, whose profile followsReaders who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed, but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. Help spread the word with: #TransformEducation

    Dr. Arthur (“Art”) E. Wise is an accomplished education author, consultant, policymaker, executive, and advocate. Throughout his career, Art has used the tools of educational research, policy, and advocacy to advance education for poor and minority students. An author of several influential books, he has had hundreds of articles published, first achieving national prominence in 1968 as the author of Rich Schools, Poor Schools: The Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity, a book that conceived the idea of the school finance reform lawsuit. Since then, a majority of state supreme courts have ordered the equalization of state school finance systems, boosting spending in poor districts and narrowing the disparity with affluent districts. As president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) from 1990 to 2008, Art introduced performance-based accreditation and led efforts to develop a system of quality assurance for the teaching profession. He has also held positions—among others—at the RAND Corporation's Center for the Study of the Teaching Profession; the National Institute of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, where he helped create the cabinet-level Department of Education; and the University of Chicago as associate dean and associate professor of education.

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    >>>What inspired your career as a leader in education?

         While I am uncomfortable with the designation "leader,” my aspiration to improve the chances of less fortunate children was set at an early age, or so it seems in retrospect.  I grew up in the Roxbury section of Boston as it evolved from an all White working class neighborhood to an all Black neighborhood.  Observing the challenges of this transition and watching on TV the disturbances produced by desegregation efforts in the South, I resolved to dedicate my career to public service. At age 17, I left Roxbury and entered Harvard College thinking that I would become a social worker. As my perspective broadened, I concluded that client-oriented social work would not have enough impact to satisfy my aspirations. In college, my coursework in social sciences, my research assistantships at the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies, and my observations of education leaders caused me to focus on educational research, policy, and leadership in order to influence the course of education for poor and minority students. 

         As I considered my options I formulated an audacious, even arrogant, plan: I thought, rightly or wrongly, that the traditional path of a program in teacher preparation followed by several years of teaching would actually slow my drive to influence education. Besides, as an ROTC graduate, I faced a two-year military obligation to be served whenever I completed my studies. So I decided to save time by trying to enter a PhD program in what was then called “educational administration.” The University of Chicago took a chance on this "non-traditional" candidate and admitted me to a program designed to prepare professors of education administration. Upon completion of the program, I entered the U.S. Army where I served as assistant director of research at the United States Military Academy, West Point. Upon completion of this service, I was on my way to fulfilling my aspirations, although the precise goals I would pursue and the specific career trajectory I would follow were uncertain. And, as a practical matter, my ideals would have to be pursued in parallel with my need to support my family.  

    >>>Identify a couple of accomplishments that you and/or members of your school and/or organization achieved that you feel have had a lasting impact on education.

         My first, and perhaps most lasting, “accomplishment” happened early—in 1963-64, my first year of graduate school. I was enrolled simultaneously in courses in School Law and School Finance. In the law class, we were studying, among other matters, Brown v. Board of Education and related cases concerned with desegregation and the legal reality that schools and school funding are a state responsibility. Among the topics we were studying in the finance class were the large discrepancies in funding between rich school districts and poor school districts. I began to wonder:  

         While desegregation was important, how educationally appropriate was it for Black students to be desegregated into poorly funded schools? For that matter, why should the state be able to discriminate against poor and minority students in the allocation of state funds? Is the denial of equitable school funding a further denial of the equal educational opportunity promised in Brown?  Is unequal educational funding even legal under state law?

         These questions became the basis of a term paper in the law class. My professor, Donald Erickson, was intrigued by the argument and, as the editor of a journal, published my paper Is Denial of Equal Educational Opportunity Constitutional? in 1965. The paper was the first published suggestion that courts might declare existing school finance laws unconstitutional as a matter of Federal and State Constitutions and Laws. The paper attracted some attention and, when it was time for my doctoral dissertation, I felt compelled to develop the argument more fully.  Studying just enough law, I completed my dissertation: The Constitution and Equality: Wealth, Geography and Educational Opportunity in 1967. 

         With a deep sense of relief that I had completed my studies, I left for the Army that year. However, the dissertation did not sit on the shelf for long.  The University of Chicago Center for Policy Studies held a conference to discuss its implications in 1968 and the University of Chicago Press published it in 1969 as Rich Schools, Poor Schools: The Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity. Even before its publication, word of the book began to spread, lawsuits were filed, and other advocates and scholars joined the fray. Four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its 5-4 decision, upholding the status quo but noting explicitly that there was inequity in public school finance and that the Court’s decision did not preclude state courts from acting on state grounds. Thirteen days later, the New Jersey Supreme Court invalidated that state’s school funding scheme.  

         From that day to the present, nearly every state has had one or more lawsuits with more than half favoring the interests of children in poor school districts. Today, the cases remain controversial, as advocates continue to seek equity for poor and minority students and advocates for wealthy students seek to maintain their privileged position in the public schools of their states. 

         A second major concern of mine took shape in the 1970’s when I noticed a not too subtle shift in the use of standardized testing. Prior to then, standardized tests were used primarily to make judgments about individual students, an assessment external to the classroom, to determine whether a student had learned the material taught and/or was ready to move on to more advanced work. Later, at the national level, the National Assessment for Educational Progress, the Scholastic Aptitude Tests, and others were aggregated to provide a high level picture of national and state trends. Beginning in the 1960’s, however, state policymakers began to engineer systems of “accountability” which used collective results on standardized tests to judge teachers, principals, and schools. In 1979, in Legislated Learning: The Bureaucratization of the Classroom, I warned that this use of test results to manage the schools would ultimately narrow the curriculum, turn teachers into bureaucrats, incentivize corrupt behavior and drive the joy out of teaching and learning.

         Needless to say, my warning was largely ignored. State governments and then the Federal Government enacted more accountability legislation culminating in the No Child Left Behind Act and took other measures to evaluate teachers and schools by grouping test results. From the 1960’s to the 2010’s, as accountability legislation was implemented, educators and even some policymakers noticed that the managerial use of test results was not improving education and was having the predicable negative consequences. The trend continued until 2015 when the Federal Government enacted the Every Child Succeeds Act, which has begun to roll back some of the dysfunctional managerial use of standardized testing.  

         A third concern of mine also took shape in the late 1970’s.  I had long believed that the quality of a student’s education depended on the quality of the student’s teacher, an observation shared by most educators and parents and confirmed by research. Through my research and the research of others, it also became clear to me that teaching talent is not randomly distributed and, instead, follows predicable socio-economic patterns.  What I think we should do about these two observations will be discussed below.

    >>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

          Of the major challenges facing education today, I will mention one that is often overlooked and lies at the core of others. We have forgotten why states established public schools. States established schools primarily as a benefit to the state, a way of promoting the general welfare. State constitutions and laws make it clear that the state establishes schools and requires attendance to protect itself (i.e. the rest of us) from the consequences of those who cannot properly exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, contribute to the economy, or who run the risk of becoming a public charge or criminal.  Secondarily, schools thereby—and incidentally—provide private benefits to the individual. Over time, however, the accepted view has become that schools exist primarily to provide private benefits to individual students so they can compete in our economy. Education has become a consumption commodity with student consumers or their parents buying as much as they can affordThis view flies in the face of the rationale for the common public school, which is to develop all students according to shared American values.  Since the public purpose is now secondary at best, it also leads down the slippery slope to the use of public funds to support vouchers, tax credits, and private non-sectarian and religious schools.   

    >>>What do you consider to be the appropriate line between politics and education--including the role of Federal, state, and local governments as well as school boards--in establishing standards, content, and policy, particularly in K-12 public education? 

         When I think about the governance structure for public education in America, I despair. We have three levels of general government—Federal, State, and Local—each with three branches—legislative, executive and judicial—and each of which can, and does, set directions for the public schools. In addition, we have three levels of education government, each of which has multiple structures to direct public schools—US Department of Education, Secretary of Education; state board of education, chief state school officer, and state department of education; and, finally, local board of education and local superintendent. It is a wonder that it works at all. In our legal structure, schools are creations of the state that the state has authorized to operate locally. Early 20th Century reforms sought to remove education from partisan politics by creating state and local boards of education. How has that separation fared in the 21st Century?  Under the Constitution’s General Welfare Clause, the US Government, in the mid-twentieth Century, began to expand its inherent powers over the schools.  It is a wonder that the schools can operate at all.  I will make no specific recommendation here except to urge that those who choose to influence education be mindful of their place in this complex and uniquely American governance structure.

    >>>What makes you optimistic about education when you look ahead for the next 3-5 years and what concerns you the most over that time period?

         I have always approached education as an optimist, though that optimism is being seriously tested these days. There is one trend in American education that has had, and will continue to have, an upward trajectory. We are all familiar with the term “gross domestic product,” which is the value of goods and services produced by a nation. Imagine now the “gross educational product” which would be the value of all the knowledge and skill acquired by students pre-K to post-graduate. Formally calculating the GEP would be a tremendous and difficult undertaking. A crude approximation would be the number of years of schooling acquired by an ever-growing population. 

         In the beginning education was for the elite.  As democratic norms took hold, more and more students had at least a few years of schooling. As norms shifted, mandatory education was accepted, high school graduation became expected, most graduates entered some form of tertiary education, college graduation became fairly widespread, the number of fields requiring masters degrees increased and professional preparation programs lengthened. At one end of the spectrum pre-school is likely to become universal. At the other end, internships and post-doctoral studies become more widespread. How sanguine we should be about this trend is debatable, but so far there are few signs of a decrease in the growth of education.  In all likelihood this trend, along with population growth, will continue along with the demand for teachers, professors and other educational personnel.  

    >>>What would you consider to be the single most important key to positive transformation of education in the US?

          For me the key to improving the quality of education has been, and remains, the transformation of teaching into a profession. By “profession” I mean that the title “teacher” signify readiness to teach independently. The system of quality assurance for teaching has too many “by-passes” for the public to have confidence that everyone bearing the title “teacher” is ready to teach. Many teachers are graduates of accredited teacher preparation institutions, licensed (in some states) by a rigorous licensing process and have completed a supervised internship or closely mentored first year of teaching. Others begin with little or no preparation. At times of adequate teacher supply, states make teacher licensing more rigorous. At times of inadequate supply, like now, they lower standards to find an adequate supply. We must have a system of quality assurance that signals to the public that all teachers have been determined to be ready to teach independently

         This rigorous licensing system must be balanced with commensurate compensation and conditions of work.  The marketplace for teaching labor must be allowed to operate freely to determine the level of compensation necessary to attract a sufficient supply of qualified teachers. This fundamental economic lesson from business has rarely been introduced to teaching; salaries must be such that the supply of labor matches the demand for labor, without reducing the quality of that labor. In addition, the structure of the profession and the teaching workplace must be made more attractive so teaching can compete for the services of top college graduates. As long as there is a shortage, poor and minority students will be assigned “inferior substitutes.” If the supply of teachers is adequate, then all students, including those in urban and rural schools, will be taught by competent professional teachers. If this happens, poor and minority students, as well as other students, will all be taught by competent professionals. 

         Attracting and retaining qualified teachers has long been a challenge.  However, in today’s political environment, we can expect the challenge to increase.  The need for strong independent professional teachers has never been greater.  We need a strong profession of teaching. 

    Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Arthur Wise; all rights reserved.

    For comments and/or reprint permission, email: chuckwrites@yahoo.com

  • Transforming Education: Tenth in a series

    TRANSFORMING EDUCATION TODAY
    (Tenth in a Series of Interviews with Education Leaders)
    Featuring Hollee Freeman,

    Education Reform Innovator

    Note from Chuck Cascio: Given the difficult issues facing educators today in the USA, I have been running a series in which I contact established educators and request their insights, in their own words, on a number of vitally important education issues. Readers who would like to comment on the views expressed may email me at chuckwrites@yahoo.com. My Twitter handle is @ChuckCascio. Not all comments will be responded to by me and/or the individuals interviewed, but all will be read and, if appropriate, forwarded to others engaged in meaningful education reform. I am pleased to present as the tenth interview in this series the views of dynamic education reform innovator Hollee Freeman, whose profile follows:

         Hollee Freeman, PhD, is a career educator specializing in Science Technology Education and Mathematics (STEM), equity, and educational access. Hollee is the Executive Director of the MathScience Innovation Center in Richmond, VA, where she combines her love of STEM content with curriculum development and hands-on programming for students and adults. 

         Hollee owns and operates Freeman Educational & Business Consulting where she provides writing services for individuals and businesses. She also conducts creative writing classes, book studies, and more. Hollee has authored numerous professional book chapters and articles focused on educational reform, teaching, gender equity and STEM. Hollee is a self-published author of a children’s book entitled Muddy Ballerinas (available in English and Spanish). Her just-published books, Muddy Ballerinas and the Big Bowling Party and Beekeeping Besties--An Apiary Adventure, are available on Amazon and at https://holleefreeman.com

         A hobbyist photographer who specializes in nature-based images, Hollee has shared her photography in art shows and cafes including: The Nutty Buttery Café, ArtWorks, Rigby's Jig, and The Broad.  Hollee is also a beekeeper, cyclist, and voracious reader. She dances with Claves Unidos and volunteers on several the community boards of several organizations including ArtSpace, Bridge Park, The Richmond Public Library, and The Innerwork Center.

         You can learn more about Hollee by watching her TEDx talk (https://youtu.be/ZEi03HojVi8) and by visiting her website https://holleefreeman.com/.

    possible-379215__480.jpg

    >>>Recalling your own life as a student, going back as far as you would like, what do you remember as the most positive and most negative educational influences for you personally?

         I remember spending a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm in Prince George, Virginia. I really came to

    know the value of farming but also the value of environmental education and nature. I learned how to make

    things grow and how to take care of flowers, fruit, vegetables, and animals. I learned to look closely at weather

     patterns, temperature and goings-on in nature.

          I have carried this love of science and math and a deep connection to nature with me for my whole life. I also vividly remember fishing, doing artwork, and making wallets and belts out of leather.  These experiences all contributed to my love of learning and creating, and I work hard to create spaces for students to have similar experiences as well. 

         When I was in high school, I really learned the value of being a leader and engaging in independent and self-sustaining learning experiences. I'll never forget doing research for a class on African-American poets; my teacher accepted my proposal and developed a full-fledged class that was added to our repertoire! 

         As a high school student, I also took classes at the Math & Science Center, where I am now the Executive Director. These classes were built on a deep exploration of math and science ideas and learning in community (our own Math & Science community and the community at large). The classes had a deep and profound impact on the kind of educator that I am to this day. 

         The only difficult learning experience that I had during my formal educational experience was when I went to Columbia University. Coming from a very progressive high school and simply seeing the university’s architecture (Lowe Library in particular, filled with names of authors of the so-called great works) on the frieze was enough to throw me into full-blown imposter syndrome. I knew how to learn but I did not enter Columbia with the requisite knowledge that many other students had in high school regarding the "great works" as well as how to navigate a hierarchical way of working and being.  I made my way through close friendships, tutoring to “catch up” and independent learning, but it wasn’t until I started my Masters degree at Bank Street (and doctorate at Boston College) that I really felt like my learning style and way of working was valued again. 

         I continue to be a learner and engage in activities where I learn something new and also where I can create space for students and adults to explore their connection to the world, to each other, and to themselves. 

    >>>Can you identify an educator (or educators) who provided you with uniquely positive insights into subject matter as well as teaching style? If so, please explain what made them unique.

         Fortunately, I started interning at the Columbia Greenhouse Nursery School and then was offered my first teaching job by Julie Diamond at the Westside Community School (a progressive school within a school in NYC). These experiences on-boarded me to the academic (and more technical) aspect of the learning style and philosophy that I learned with my dad and in other earlier learning experiences. 

          I remember sitting down and going over my curriculum unit with Leslie Alexander, Director of the Muscota New School (NYC) where I worked as an elementary classroom teacher. While talking about my ideas for my science curriculum, she continued to ask me questions about reading, art, music, culture, etc. that I could incorporate. This conversation gave me pause and made me think more deeply about making cross-curricular connections for myself and for students. 

         While at Muscota, I was part of the North Dakota Study Group and the Prospect Center for Education and Research. These experiences provided a diversity of thought around educational issues and also demanded that we observe student work closely and to work from an asset model rather than a deficit model of understanding students, what they think and how they orient themselves to learning. 

         I have had a whole lineup of amazing educators who have been role models, mentors and colleagues. I have worked at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Technical Education Research Center, the Boston Teacher Residency, and consulted/led learning experiences in public, private, rural, suburban and urban schools across the United States. Each of these experiences added more specific and unique tools to my toolbox while affirming my role and stance as a progressive educator. 

    >>>Identify a couple of accomplishments that you and/or members of your school and/or organization achieved that you feel have had a lasting impact on education.

         When I was preparing for an interview with the Math/Science Innovation Center, I decided to call the organization to see if I could get a tour. I did not share that I was an interviewee. I simply asked if I could have a tour to get a better idea of the programming and space. I was told that a tour was not possible since I was not a member of the consortium. So I elected to drive by a few times to take a look (from the outside) at how and who was using the space. 

         I was awarded the job as Executive Director a few weeks later, and I vowed to myself and the Governing Board that the conversation I had about a tour would never happen again for ANY member of the community—not the consortium, but the community because I believed that this regional STEM center should be open and available to all. 

         During my 10-year tenure at the Math/Science Innovation Center, the team and I increased the number of Black and Latino students who had access to the programming and other (vast) resources that the Center offers. We created satellite centers in communities that were further away in order to mitigate the issue of transportation to put STEM programming in their own neighborhoods. This included libraries and schools. We created programming delivered in Spanish and partnered with HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) to create a pipeline of STEM students in undergraduate education and careers.  We partnered with Career and Technical Education Centers, NASCAR, and other organizations to create a space for learning that did not necessarily explicitly exist for all students in the region. 

         To do this work required developing trusted partnerships and raising capital. I was hard at work on a grant to provide access for 200 K-12 students in an under-resourced town in Central Virginia to participate in our summer programs held at a local community college. When I was notified of the grant award, I rushed to my secret spot (my bathroom) and cried. I was so overwhelmed with joy that these Black, Indigenous, and People of Color(BIPOC) students, in particular, would have access to robust, engaging STEM programming, where they otherwise would not. 

         During the program, I remember seeing a White student from a rural town and a Black student from the city lying on the floor, side-by-side working on a rocket project. It was not just the project that stopped me in my tracks but the fact that they were talking about lots of other topics as well. I thought to myself, were it not for this program, right here at this time, these students, and other students like them, might never have met. Furthermore, they would not have had an opportunity to get to know each other. As we talk about multicultural, multi-talented teams in the workplace, experiences like this will get us there and make our products better, our work places better, our humanity stronger. 

    >>>What do you see as the major challenges in education today?

         I see the major challenge in education today as being the extreme dichotomy that communities have regarding access to educational resources. This dichotomy has always existed. However, the issue has been made more clear with the onset of the pandemic when we saw which families had the resources to mobilize learning pods for their neighborhoods and which families did not. Consequently, this severe difference in educational access to resources has also shown the very present through-line concerning the connection between chasms in technology access, use of time, health and wellness, transportation and workforce issues, to name a few. 
    >>>
    Has the remote learning that started as a result of the pandemic become entrenched as a new direction that education will take and, if so, could it have a positive impact?

         I’m not convinced that remote learning will become entrenched as a new direction for education. Remote learning may be more readily offered post-pandemic, but I hesitate to say that it will be a long-term, viable modus operandi for K-8 education. While, I know that remote learning provides a type of ease for some students who perform better and are more comfortable using remote learning platforms, it leaves many students in an untenable situation. 

         A large part of schooling is socialization. That is greatly diminished through remote learning. In my own experience teaching remotely, there is a different (and for me, unwelcomed) part of teaching in which you are interacting with blank or black squares rather than students' own faces. Moreover, even when all students are “video-on,” the level of interaction is stunted. It is more difficult to use body language to convey information and working in cooperative groups just isn’t the same. Technically, remote learning allows instructors and teachers to convey information but the adaptive portion of teaching is not (and cannot be) built into remote learning platforms. 

         All of this is to say that, yes, remote learning has provided positive impact and outcomes for some students. However, many students have been negatively impacted given the lack of in-person support that instructors and other faculty in schools provide. I think that most teachers and students want to return to in-person schooling. I, for one, do so as well. 

    Copyright: Chuck Cascio and Hollee Freeman; all rights reserved

    Your thoughts are always welcome; please send to chuckwrites@yahoo.com