Despite what lawmakers and reformers may say, you can’t really be measured.

In fact, those who are measuring you do not have instruments complex enough to really gauge your effectiveness.

If you are a public school teacher in North Carolina, you are always under a bit of a microscope when it comes to accountability. Everybody in the community has a stake in the public education system: students attend schools, parents support efforts, employees hire graduates, and taxpayers help fund buildings and resources.

The pandemic has only exacerbated that.

But there are those who really question the path that public education has taken in North Carolina and lack confidence in our teachers and their ability to mold young people. The countless attacks waged by our General Assembly on public schools is not a secret and part of that is framing teachers as the main culprit in our weakening schools.

And those attacks have only been added to during this pandemic.

Why? Because it is easy to manage data in such a way that what many see is not actually reflective of what happens in schools. For example:

• We have a Jeb Bush school grading system that “failed” schools where wonderful learning is occurring.
• We have lawmakers allowing charter schools to be created with tax payer money without much regulation.
• We have a non-transparent voucher system that is allowing people to send children to schools that do not even have to teach the same standards as public schools.
• We have virtual charter schools that have loose regulations.

And the pandemic has only shed more light on that.

Since you are a government employee, your salary is established by a governing body that probably does not have a background in an educational career. The standards of the very curriculum that you must teach may not even be written by educators. And the tests that measure how well your students have achieved are usually arbitrary at best. And now that we have less money spent per-pupil in this state than we had before the start of the Great Recession, we are demanded to teach more kids in bigger classes with less resources.

DURING A PANDEMIC.

There simply is a lot working against us.

However, if anything could be said of the current situation concerning public education in North Carolina it is that teachers have not failed our students. That’s because you cannot simply measure students and teachers by numbers and random variables. You measure them by their personal success and growth, and much of that cannot be ascertained by impersonal assessments.

Nor can a teacher’s effectiveness truly be measured by “student achievement.” There is more, so much more, working within the student/teacher dynamic. Take a look at the definitions of three words often used in our lexicon: “art”, “science”, and “craft.” These definitions come from Merriam-Webster.

1. Art: skill acquired by experience, study, or observation
2. Science: the state of knowing :  knowledge as distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding
3. Craft: skill in planning, making, or executing

Every teacher must display a firm foundation in his or her subject area. However, teaching at its source is an art and a craft. A teacher must marry that knowledge with skill in presenting opportunities for students to not only gain that knowledge but understand how they themselves can apply that knowledge to their own skill set.

There are not many people who are masterfully skillful without having to develop their craft. They do exist, but the term “Master Teacher” is usually given to someone who has a “skill acquired by experience, study, or observation.” That “Master Teacher” has perfected an art form and married it to a science. And most of all, that “Master Teacher” understands the human element.

A good medical doctor just does not deliver medicines and write prescriptions. There must be willingness to listen in order to make a diagnosis and then there is the “bedside manner”. A good lawyer does not just understand and know the law. A good lawyer knows how to apply it for his or her client in unique situations. A master chef doesn’t just follow recipes. A master chef takes what ingredients are available and makes something delectable and nourishing. A great teacher does not just deliver curriculum and apply lesson plans; a great teacher understands different learning styles exist in the same classroom and facilitates learning for each student despite the emotional, psychological, social, mental, and/or physical obstacles that may stand in each student’s path.

How schools and students are measured rarely takes into account that so much more defines the academic and social terrain of a school culture than a standardized test can measure. Why? Because there really is not anything like a standardized student. Experienced teachers understand that because they look at students as individuals who are the sum of their experiences, backgrounds, work ethic, and self-worth. Yet, our General Assembly measures them with the very same criteria across the board with an impersonal test.

When good teachers look at their own effectiveness in their art and craft, they usually do not let the state dictate their perceptions. They take an honest look at the each student’s growth throughout the year – growth that may never be seen in a school report card or published report.

However, the greatest irony when it comes measuring a teacher’s effectiveness in the manner that NC measures us is that is it a truer barometer of how much NC is being hurt by this current General Assembly.

• Think about Medicaid not being expanded.
• Think that over %20 of our children live in poverty.
• Think about that Voter ID law amendment and racially profiled gerrymandering.
• Think about less money per pupil in schools.
• Think about the fact that the minimum wage in this state is the lowest in the country.
• Think about NC having some of the worst unemployment benefits in the country.

All of those affect students in our schools. And we still do the job. Rather, we still heed the calling.

That’s the best measure of what we do.

Here Tim Moore says there is enough money.

But earlier in the month there was this:

If you make a list of the standardized tests administered by the state of North Carolina in our public schools that are both federally and state mandated, then you would still have quite a tally even if NC Finals have been eliminated.

Depending on which math and science track a student has in high school, it is conceivable that a student who matriculates in NC’s public schools will take dozens of these standardized tests.

That list would not include any local benchmark assessments, the PSAT, the ACT, the Pre-ACT, or any of the AP exams that may come with Advanced Placement classes.

Throw in some PISA or NAEP participants. Maybe the ASVAB and the Workkeys.

That’s a lot of tests. And a lot of time to “teach toward a test.”

When I graduated high school last century, I never had to take even one-tenth of these kinds of assessments.

We wrote a lot of essays in my school.

Not short answers graded by algorithms.

Essays.

But we are giving standardized tests in the most non-standard year in recent history to students who were never standard.

There are teachers in this state who literally are teaching both in-person students and still required to provide synchronous instruction to those students whose families have elected to begin this school year remotely. That could mean teaching one class section as if it were two. But there were no new hours in the day created.

There are teachers in this state who had to learn new online platforms and try to master new resources during the summer without synchronous professional development and at their own expense and on their own time.

There are school systems that have stipulated different parameters for grading and student work and expectations that differ greatly from what would happen in a typical school year which require more work and time to maintain.

And for most every teacher in a school operating under hybrid or remote learning schedules, the expectations of classroom management have been morphed to include aspects that are simply out of the control of any teacher.

Add to that the fact that communication with students and parents have more obstacles attached with remote learning as this pandemic has exacerbated the connectivity divide in this state not to mention the economic woes that many face.

Oh, and the state is still bringing in students to complete EOC, EOG, PSAT, and Pre-ACT as well as have observations.

THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR CENTRAL OFFICES TO BE ASKING FOR MORE PAPERWORK, RECORDINGS OF MEETINGS, AND MORE REPORTS TO PROVE THAT TEACHERS ARE ON TASK.

Teachers have been on task so much since last March that today feels like March 345th rather than February 21st.

Teachers have families, their own children trying to navigate remote learning, bills, and personal lives.

Or we might as a state see a teacher burnout like never before.

And this state already does a bad job in recruiting teacher candidates.

We conclude that teacher assistants are a cost-effective means of raising student achievement, especially in reading.

North Carolina has over 7400 fewer teacher assistants than it did ten years ago.

Let me repeat: North Carolina has over 7400 fewer teacher assistants than it did ten years ago.

When study after study published by leading education scholars preach that reaching students early in their academic lives is most crucial for success in high school and life, our General Assembly  actually promoted one of the largest layoffs in state history.

And another study was just released.

As a voter, I am disappointed that the last six years with this GOP-led NCGA has fostered a calculated attack against public schools with more power and money given to entities to privatize education. By eliminating teacher assistants, the NCGA  simply weakened the effectiveness of elementary schools even more and helped substantiate the need to divert my tax money to segregate educational opportunities even more.

As a teacher, I am disheartened that my fellow educators are being devalued. Yes, teacher assistants are professional educators complete with training and a passion to teach students. With the onslaught of state testing, curriculum changes, and political focus on student achievement, these people fight on the front lines and advocate for your children and your neighbors’ children.

But as a parent, I am most incensed by this move to eliminate teacher assistants because my own child has tremendously benefited from the work of teacher assistants. Even as I write these words, my thirteen-year-old red-headed, blue-eyed son, who happens to have Down Syndrome and autism, walks through the house articulating his thoughts, communicating his needs, and sharing his love to explore. And I give much of that credit to those who teach him in school: his teachers and their assistants.

The rationale for eliminating teacher assistant positions actually reveals the disconnect that our elected officials have with public education. In June of 2015 in the Greensboro News and Record, former Sen. Tom Apodaca said, “We always believe that having a classroom teacher in a classroom is the most important thing we can do. Reducing class sizes, we feel, will give us better results for the students.” The irony in this statement is not only obvious; it is glaring.

That’s what teaching assistants already do. They mitigate class size by increasing the opportunities for student interaction. More prepared people in a classroom gives more students like my son the opportunity to learn. Apodaca suggested that having two classrooms of 25 students with a teacher and an assistant is weaker than having two classes of 22 students with just a classroom teacher. That’s not logical.

Oddly enough, Sen. Apodaca and his constituents at the time already knew the value of assistants. He himself had three on staff according to the July 2015 telephone directory of the General Assembly. Sen. Phil Berger had fifteen staff members, three with “Assistant” in their title and five with “Advisor”. Maybe dismissing some of these “assistants” would have offered some perspective.

Kris Nordstrom (@KrisNordstrom) offers some further persepctive:

Public schools are strongest when the focus is on human investment. People committed to teaching, especially experienced professionals, are the glue that holds education together. Eliminating jobs so that some political agenda can be fulfilled really is like forcing a bleeding public school system to swim in shark infested waters.

We find consistent evidence of positive effects of teacher assistants, an understudied staffing category, on student performance in reading and math. We also find larger positive effects of teacher assistants on achievement outcomes for students of color and students in high-poverty schools

The rush to find a way to further quantify the effect of the pandemic on schools without placing responsibility on our government’s response to the virus is on display in HB82 in the North Carolina General Assembly.

First, it would be nice to know exactly what “innovative benchmark assessments” actually are. It would also be nice to know who would be constructing them. Then it would be nice to know when they would be given when we as a state still are on the hook for EOC’s and other standardized tests like the PSAT, Pre-ACT, and ACT.

But it seems a little hypocritical to ask for “innovative benchmark assessments” when the state superintendent herself already has stated how much learning loss there has been.

Remember this?

In a November 22nd interview with Fox News, Catherine Truitt was quoted as telling the producers of the segment that “between March and September students lost on average 50% in literacy and 70% for math.”

She was talking about “learning loss” due to the pandemic.

Listen for yourself. Click here for the link.

That was a fairly bold claim considering that almost half of the time between March and September is traditionally a summer break.

It’s also odd that all federally mandated tests and most state tests that “measure” learning traditionally given at the end of a school year were waived very eagerly by officials on the national and state levels.

Hard to quantify “student learning loss” without the actual testing data. Even harder to quantify learning loss due to the pandemic during that span when there is no historical precedent to measure it against.

AND it’s even harder to measure it still when there was a “summer slide” in place.

So where did Truitt get those numbers she never explained? Here’s a possible explanation from Daniel Wydo.

Here’s the research brief that Wydo refers to:

The NWEA is an assessment company mostly known for the MAP tests.

“NWEA (formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association^[1][2]), is a research-based not-for-profit organization that creates academic assessments for students pre-K-12. Currently, NWEA assessments are used by over 9500 schools and districts in 145 countries^[3]. Its primary assessment product is the MAP Suite, a collection of formative and interim assessments that help teachers identify unique student learning needs, track skills mastery, and measure academic growth over time^[4]. By testing students three times over the school year, MAP assessments attempt to track student growth over time in order to help educators plan instruction that meets student at their level and predict performance on accountability measures.”

What the interviewer said Truitt told her producers was a 50% literacy loss and a 70% math loss in learning,

Here’s what the brief said:

Truitt made it sound as if it was fact. It’s conjecture. A projection that she never said that included a “summer slide” component added to another hypothetical number.

Truitt also didn’t say that her information may have come from an quantitative assessment company that did not have actual data from quantitative assessments to make such projections.

“Preliminary estimates” do not automatically translate into reality that can be passed off as gospel on television but that seems to be what happened in Truitt’s interview. If not, then she can show us the data.

And any teacher can tell you that most of what students really learn can never be measured with “innovative benchmark assessments.”

Especially considering we are in really nonstandard times.

Teachers, students, and parents in our school system just received a call that school is cancelled tomorrow for inclement weather.

Not a call that said we would be fully remote because of a winter storm, but an actual “snow day” is being issued.

There has been talk that with the pandemic and the move to more remote learning there might be the chance that there would never be the need to actually have a “snow day” again for wintery weather.

But we should always have snow days – days where nature shows us just how beautifully powerful it can be while providing us with a real-life lab for exploration.

Not all snow days provide a picturesque scene or ideal conditions for outdoor play. Power outages and the need to keep warm or protect property and take care of other pressing needs that a storm can bring provide more compelling reasons to have “snow days.” To think that we are forcing families to adhere to a school day schedule while they are having to tend to weather related matters is adding to an already stressful situation.

If these days were already built into the school calendar, then we should use them even if there is a few inches of powdery snow and people still have power and connectivity. It becomes a chance for physical activity, time in nature, and a mental break from what has been a rather turbulent time.

And maybe, just maybe it will get us to talk a little bit more about climate and climate change.

Remember that charter schools in North Carolina receive monies from local school systems where they reside, but local school boards have no jurisdiction over charters in their districts.

Doesn’t seem fair.

That preferential treatment by the NCGA has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Doesn’t include charters.

Today, this bill was filed.

Doesn’t include charters.

And remember this from last summer?

The Network for Public Education released a state-by-state list of charter schools that received Paycheck Protection Program loans in July of 2020.

This is the list of NC schools.

Almost 50 of the 184 charter schools in North Carolina received loans.

From the July 19th edition of the Asheville Citizen Times:

Charter schools occupy a blurry space between public schools and small businesses. They are free to attend and funded like traditional districts, with public money given for every student. Yet, charters are managed independently, autonomous from the traditional school district in which they reside.

In North Carolina, charter schools typically receive less local funding than their district counterparts, though unlike traditional public schools, charters aren’t obligated to provide students with transportation or free meals.

Last year, there were close to 200 charter schools in the state.

In addition to PPP loans, many charters received federal CARES Act funds. For example, Sugar Creek Charter School in Charlotte reportedly received a PPP loan between $2 million to $5 million while also getting $438,000 in federal CARES Act money.

In contrast, school districts only collected CARES Act relief.

“Our public schools are being thrown to the wolves,” said Renee Sekel, founder of the parent-run public education advocacy group Save our Schools NC. Sekel accused charters of “double-dipping” by acquiring both businesses loans and public school funds.

And this state still has no new budget.

Of course Sen. Phil Berger wants this bill.

And of course he says that he wants to “reopen schools” when what really is happening is that schools are open already, just not all school buildings fully.

Here is the link to that bill.

Seems like good intentions. It’s shiny. Nice veneer.

And unnecessary.

That ABC Science Collaborative which is referred to in the bill? It was easily debunked by Kris Nordstrom. Those “CDC mitigation efforts?” That includes six feet in social distancing which is incredibly hard for high schools when considering reopening buildings.

But there are some other glaring deficiencies in this bill.

IDEA – The Individual With Disabilities Education Act. There is nothing in this bill to ensure that students who have IEPs and diagnosed learning / intellectual delays have the resources to help them learn in these unprecedented times. This pandemic has shown the glaring gaps in funding certain areas of public education: computers, connectivity, teacher assistants, and resources to make sure that students with IEPs can access the curriculum effectively.

Local control completely taken away. For a political unit that has always preached “local control,” this bill prevents local school boards from being able to close school buildings in whole if another surge occurs in certain localities. The CDC guidelines talk much about monitoring community spread. This bill seems to be posturing because levels of community spread still place a large number of counties (LEAs) in the red.`

Logistical nightmares. Think of school buses and lunch with proper social distancing. Is this NCGA really giving any more resources to perform these functions during a pandemic while obeying the CDC guidelines? Without providing a plan to deal with the logistics, this bill is only selling the simple and ignoring the complexities.

Nurses & Counselors. If the NCGA GOP is concerned that “children are suffering” and that the harm “can last a lifetime,” then they must also be aware that other issues that students have might be worth more attention.

Strips Cooper of Ability to React to Another Surge. What happens if another big surge occurs? This state might need the governor to react and set mandates to save lives. Just look what happened in Georgia and Florida, and Georgia just turned blue in part over how the pandemic has been handled.

But maybe the most dispicable part of this bill is that it highlights just how much this NCGA has not done in the face of pandemic for North Carolinians except just making an underfunded public school system the scapegoat for why things are not normal.

There’s a pandemic still happening and a LEANDRO Report that has not been acted on.

When the country was in the grips of the Great Recession over a decade ago, public education in this state took some of the biggest cuts in funding – cuts that were never really restored as the economy regained momentum and rebounded. One only has to see the level of per-pupil expenditures in 2019-2020 compared to 2007-2008 when adjusted for inflation.

Even as the state was “enjoying” budget surpluses, an “economic boom,” and population growth in the last few years, people like Phil Berger and Tim Moore made sure to allow that the cuts to public education made during the Great Recession become the norm. They kept that reality cloaked under a veil of reform and political spin. Add to that massive tax cuts to corporations in this state that have benefitted a few rather than all in this state. Minimum wage continues to be at the federal “minimum,” Medicaid still has not been expanded, and over 20% of our public school students are at or below the poverty level.

And then we have this pandemic. For the sake of not spreading the virus, the state shut down school buildings, went remote, and we are still trying to get COVID-19 testing to a point where we can really ascertain the actual number of infections.

North Carolina was not prepared to go virtual on such a large scale in March. But we did it. Teachers, educators, and other classified employees still adapted and made learning possible. Schools still fed and provided community support where others could not.

This school year still is full of many questions – questions that really have no concrete answers – yet. But we must be willing to not only find ways of framing the questions, we must be willing to boldly find answers. So here is a question: How are we going to be able to create the safest environment possible for our students and teachers and still give them the best opportunity of learning when schools physically open up fukky?

And here’s a bold answer: it starts by investing in public schools.

Yes, invest more money in public schools.

Now.

Notice that it is not “spending” but “investing.”

“But we don’t have the money!” Actually, we can get the money to invest. Rep. Tim Moore has already talked about it.

Now, one has to take what Tim Moore says with not just a grain of salt, but an entire salt block. He usually proposes what sounds like “friendly” and bi-partisan solutions to problems knowing full well that his counterpart in the NC Senate (Phil Berger) will probably obliterate it. It is kind of a “good-cop / bad cop” routine that has been playing out for years.

But what Moore suggested in that tweet is something to consider heavily for schools as a means of investing in our students: investments that will pay incredible dividends for years to come. And we have seen what damage not investing in our students has caused so far, even in the last eight years. In our recent economic boom, public schools have seen more students per class, buildings starting to erode, unfunded mandates, and money thrown at unproven educational reforms.

Not confronting what may happen with public schooling now will only cost exponential amounts later just to try and recoup what was “lost.” What really would be lost is not having made sure we did our best for students in real time because we were too busy worrying about having to “pay” for it.

Not making sure that public schools have now what they need to serve students will surely make us “pay” much more down the road.

A federal bond in this economy would mean taking out a loan guaranteed by the federal government at almost no interest. Using that to fund more personnel in schools like nurses, counselors, classified employees, teacher assistants, buildings to house more classrooms with fewer students each, and resources to maintain safety and cleanliness could benefit public schooling immeasurably.

Especially in 2021-2022 when the effects of the recent economic downturn really present themselves in teh country.

So what could be used in the meantime to make sure schools open up with as many people and resources needed to increase safety and academic engagement? How about that “rainy-day” fund that Moore and Berger keep bragging about? Considering all of those corporate tax breaks they have championed forced middle and lower income North Carolinians to shoulder the burden of building that “fund,” maybe it’s time to allow our citizens to benefit from it.

Furthermore, imagine the billions of dollars that we could have invested in schools if the state had not kept extending tax cuts to corporations. That money alone would have already alleviated some of the pressures in reopening schools before they were even realized and kept enough staff and resources to combat this massive obstacle more easily. Recalling some of those unneeded tax breaks can now be the basis of paying off the bond.

Private schools will probably lose students to the economic downturn as they did in the last recession. Those who are looking to keep their students at home for homeschooling for the first time will realize that homeschooling is not free. Many families cannot even begin to think of this option because both parents must work to make ends meet.  And there really exists no evidence that virtual charter schools have ever done well (certainly not in NC).

But public schools are there and can remain not only viable but can regain its place as one of the strongest in the Southeast if we as a state invest in them.

Now.

It will be argued that we cannot even think about putting more of a burden on taxpayers to foot a bond initiative. Well, you can choose to not invest anything now and then spend the next decade “spending” much more money just to try and regain what was lost both monetarily and academically.

And investing more in public school now will give parents and caregivers a little more ease concerning sending students back to schools when they reopen as well as time and energy to invest in their families’ welfare in a time when we all need to recover.