“Teachers matter,” said President Obama this week in his State of the Union address. “Instead of bashing them, or defending the status quo let’s offer schools a deal. Give them the resources to keep good teachers on the job, and reward the best ones. In return, grant schools flexibility: To teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.”

We at the nonprofit Character Education Partnership (CEP) share this concern because “teaching to the test” can deceive stakeholders into thinking students are doing better than they really are. But in the current environment, we are even more alarmed by how the testing status quo seems to be adversely affecting the integrity of our education system, itself.

Recent revelations of widespread testing fraud in Atlanta’s public schools are just the latest examples of a disturbing national trend that should finally force all of us who care about education to ask some uncomfortable but unavoidable questions. Chief among them: Has a national over-emphasis on standardized testing actually created a monster that is eroding the character of K-12 education?

In just the last year, institutional efforts to artificially inflate student performance—mostly for the benefit of teachers or administrators—seem to have reached epidemic proportions. Incredibly and ironically, cheating nationally among educators now seems even more pervasive than it was a decade ago (when federal ‘No Child Left Behind’ (NCLB) legislation was enacted for the purpose of elevating K-12 testing standards nationwide. Unfortunately, it seems that placing more emphasis on standardized tests to measure the effectiveness of teachers and schools has led some good educators to do bad things. In fact, as we later learned, even the signature success of the NCLB education model—the public schools system in Houston TX—apparently had succumbed to the temptation to shape scores to reflect desired outcomes.

Despite all of its noble intentions, this emphasis on high stakes/standardized testing seems to have done more harm than good and yielded troubling unintended consequences. So, why exactly are these good people cheating? I suggest that we are now getting what we inspect, not what we expect. Perhaps placing less emphasis on standardized tests and more on multiple measures of a teacher’s effectiveness and an individual student’s growth relative to his/her peers is now in order.

With that in mind, I believe it is time to step back and reassess our current national testing strategy. Our concern is that those unintended consequences are overtaking good intentions and instead creating pressures that frankly promote cheating. An educator secretly putting on plastic gloves and changing students test scores after hours only hurts students in order to benefit adults. Yes, we can make it harder for educators to cheat with stronger audits, “air-tight” tests that make it harder to cheat, or even civil penalties for those who do this. But really shouldn’t we change the system that tempts this bad behavior? Some say “we won’t have ethical people until we have ethical institutions”. I’ve heard others say just the opposite, we won’t have ethical intuitions until we have ethical individuals”. I think the answer is in between. At the end of the day, this dilemma undermines what should be the parallel (if not paramount) mission of every school: to graduate people of good character.

This month, after nearly a decade “in the trenches” in the role of K-12 public school superintendent, I have signed on to lead CEP in hopes of promoting this vital mission. Our goal is to create an environment of integrity both inside and outside the classroom that exposes students everywhere to people who are committed to enhancing their character. And we hope to promote examples not just in classrooms, but in sports, media, at home, and beyond.

Indeed, it is time for all of us to stand up and demand honesty and accountability from all of our students, teachers and school administrators. After all, our nation’s ability to compete internationally in virtually any arena now depends on it.

Based in Washington, D.C., the nonprofit Character Education Partnership is the leading national advocate for character education. Our goal is to strengthen our communities, nation, and democracy by empowering schools—teachers, administrators, students and community members. Our membership includes some of the nation’s leading education organizations, and our board of directors is made up of corporate leaders and experts in the field of character education. For more information, go to www.character.org.

Mr. Hyatt can be reached via e-mail at mhyatt@character.org

As most teachers do, I always look at what I am doing and analyze the success of my work.  I want to make sure I am doing the best I can and if I am not, I want to figure out what can I do to improve my product.  The work ethic, drive, passion, effort, and academic achievement of my students are the means to my analysis.  The revision policy, as well as our goal system, has allowed many of my students to achieve success more aligned with their actual ability (and beyond in some cases).  This has been a true joy to personally witness.

 An area I have struggled with since my first year teaching, is motivating the kids that seem to not care.  Every year I have a group of kids who refuse to work for me, accept failure, and seem rather apathetic towards turning this vicious cycle around.  And every year I bust my tail trying to motivate these kids.  I contact their parents, I offer help, I give second and third chances, but by the second semester I am ready to give up.  Have you been here before?  Can you relate?  We don’t want to give up, but we feel as if we have given so much and received little effort in return.  It is frustrating.  We begin to worry about the other 110 kids in the classroom who ARE willing to work.  Have we now neglected them?

 I have tried everything!  Have you ever said that?  Did you ever think that?  For a moment, reflect and consider this thought:  This is the same feeling the parents of these kids probably feel, though my guess is much more desperately.  Maybe these kids feel the same way.  My guess is the kids feel as if they can’t do the work, regardless of their effort.  Failure is much easier to deal with when it is self-inflicted.  When you choose to fail, you have some control.  I can’t imagine the level of frustration the kids feel from trying their best and not seeing much success.  Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ~ Thomas Edison

 What can we do about this?  How can we stop the cycle?  I think I have stumbled upon a solution, though it does take some work and a lot of perseverance and patience.

 Up until this year, I have always made revisions an option.  I wanted the kids to make the personal choice to better their work.  I wanted this choice to have intrinsic value to the kids.  I have discovered that the kids who tend to be my higher level thinkers usually revise most of their work with little prompting from me.  The kids, who would most benefit from the revision policy, typically avoid revising their work.  I decided that I needed to intervene.

 What did I do?  I used an idea I heard from Matt Davidson this past October and applied it to my classes.  The idea I secured is called “F or D and You See Me”.  The premise of this idea is that I will no longer accept F’s and D’s from any of my students.  The kids no longer have the choice to revise assignments of this quality.

 F or D and You See Me:

  If you earn a D or an F on any assignment, you have five days to revise it at your pace.

 After the 5th day, you will be invited to join me for lunch to revise said assignment(s).

 You will be asked for the revision the following day; if you still don’t have it revised you will join me for lunch again.

 We continue this process until the assignment has been revised to a C or better quality.  The student still receives the grade change in the grade book (at this point).

 If the assignment was an incomplete, I will simply check it off in my grade book once it is revised to a C or better quality, though the grade will remain a zero.  The understanding of the material is the goal – not the actual grade.

 Once we come to the end of the chapter, revisions can no longer be submitted for grade changes.  Students that still have D or F papers must still revise their work though.  The only change is that I will enter a check in my grade book once the revision is to a C or better quality.

 This new process is a true testament of perseverance and endurance.  Many of my kids didn’t really think I would go through with this process.  I did.  I do.  I will.  I have made laminated passes for the kids to help reduce my time involvement in this process.  I hand out the passes before lunch each day.  If the said students have the revisions prior to lunch, they can turn them in to me and return the pass.  Is this a lot of work?  You bet it is!  Has it made a difference?  Absolutely!  The vast majority of my students figured out that I won’t quit.  My hope is that my students will learn how to “not quit”.  Most of my kids now revise the D and F papers prior to the 5th day.  I do still have a few that fight me on this, though my team and I are trying to come up with new strategies with them.  It is an ongoing effort!

**  Mark will be speaking at the 18th National Forum on Character Education to be held October 19-22 in San Francisco.  Register now at www.character.org and make sure you get to hear him!

by Lara Maupin, Director SSOC/NSOC

Kristen Pelster, Principal at Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri

Joe Mazzola and I attended the Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools annual conference this week. We were quite pleased to see the Department’s emphasis on how school climate can enhance the conditions for learning reflected in the selection of keynote speakers and workshops. Researchers and practitioners shared how improving school climate can improve academic achievement and reduce bullying.

We were especially thrilled that the Department asked dynamic principal Kristen Pelster of Ridgewood Middle School in Missouri to be the kickoff keynote speaker. Kristen told her school’s powerful story of transformation from the worst school in the district to National School of Character. How did they do it? Character education! By holding kids to high expectations and giving them the support they needed to meet those expectations, Ridgewood culture began to change. Over time, Kristen was able to empower her teachers and students. Without changing anything about how they taught academics, Ridgewood students improved academically. Of course, this is a story we know well at CEP. We see it repeated time and time again in our National Schools of Character. But it was gratifying to see over 1500 conference participants from around the country “get it” too.

Throughout the conference, we heard the message repeated:  Our kids deserve to be safe in school. Once they are safe, they can learn. We can do better. We know that our nation’s teachers are working hard for kids. They simply need our support – and they need tools which will enable them to build positive classroom cultures. Character education provides these tools, without adding “one more thing” or taking time away from academics. As researchers at the conference confirmed, we now know that when we focus on the social, emotional, and character development of students, we gain “time on task,” which results in academic improvement.

As Kristen said when she was asked how could she spend time on character, “How could I not?”

I was struck by Linda Darling Hammond’s statistics–we have 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of its prison inmates. She compared how little we spend per pupil for education to how much more we spend to house prisoners. I was moved by Jonathan Kozol’s comparison to his marching with Martin Luther King, and how sad it is that the inequalities in education are as bad as ever. And I agreed with everything Diane Ravitch had to say. It all sounded so common sensical. I just don’t understand why everone doesn’t get it. But clearly, they don’t. Hence, the march.

Most surprising was the closing speaker, Matt Damon.  His speech was quite moving.  He said, “ As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught….and none of these qualities …  … can be tested.”

That was one of the main themes of the day, how standardized testing is crowding out so many more important aspects of teaching. My favorite signs addressed this theme. I liked the one that said, “Teaching isn’t a job; it’s a treasure hunt.”  Finding the treasure in each student–nice image.

Another sign: “Do we want standardized students?” I don’t think so. We want scientists, artists, builders, writers, dreamers, the full array of human potential.

But my favorite was the one whose art captured so well what many were feeling.

When Matt Damon finished his speech, we began the march to the White House. Our timing was unfortunate, as most eyes were probably focused on Congress trying to find a way to resolve the debt ceiling crisis. But this only made the comparisons I heard even more poignant:  “AYP for Congress. Let them show 100% proficiency by 2014.”

On a similar note, this year’s Promising Practices winners include schools like Gallup Hill Elementary in Ledyard Connecticut and South Grafton Elementary in South Grafton, Massachusetts whose P.E. teachers have helped to transform the recess period into constructive game time using character education and organized athletic activity. Their actions have greatly diminished playground shenanigans and bullying and encouraged cooperative play and teamwork.

All of these actions are the result of somebody seeing a need and doing something about it. Somebody took a few extra steps out there on the court, the field, and the playground and made a big difference.  We can’t measure how deeply these extra steps might impact a young kid somewhere.  These people might not ever know. 

So often, as teachers and mentors, we impact our students in tremendous ways that we don’t ever hear about; we hope that what we’re doing is making a difference somewhere to someone, and we keep on going.  Thurgood Marshall captured the sentiment so well when he wrote “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.  We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

Kudos to these teachers and community individuals who have taken a few extra steps, bent down, and helped pull up some bootstraps.  What’s going on around your own playgrounds, playing fields, and sport courts this summer? Let us know.