but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole

life believing

it's stupid. There I was working with a student, Natalie, on solving equations

she had to multiply two times nine and got stuck

and this happens all the time I'm used to it but I decided to go for the

teaching moment

all she had to do is count by 2's 9 times

Now, she tried and failed 4 different times on her fingers on paper in English

and Spanish

2, 4, 8, 12? Natalie was 16 years old

and in the ninth grade and she's not alone not by a long shot.

I teach at a high school with a student population of near 3000

it's one of thirty thousand high schools across the US, so you have to imagine

how many natalie's are out there? Now i've seen the best of our school system

and I can say that our best students can compete with the best students from around

the world. In fact,

when looking at the PISA results that compares our students to other countries

we currently ranked in the twenties yet if we desegregate

our results by district poverty level it compare the US District to those top

countries by poverty rates

it is clear that our students are at the top.

But our best students are only a small percentage of the overall population

even in the honors classes and then what about the Natalie's?

I specialize in teaching algebra to the bottom 25 percent of high school students

and I work mostly with those

students now the best of those students want to do well but when they

realize what they're capable of

their either stuck in a path of academic mediocrity

or they're so close to graduation they just need a credit to pass.

Its almost like a scene of wasted potential. Now the worst of those

students have had no education of character common decency

appropriate language appropriate behavior they barely know right from

wrong.

These are the students who are at risk of dropping out

incarceration or abusing social welfare. Now what's out there waiting

for those students jobs, college?

They're in an education system that says if you don't go to college

you have no worth so their only alternative is to be

underemployed to find illegal work or to abuse social welfare.

Those students are marginalized by what I call

a toxic culture of education.

It doesn't matter if this student is a gifted artist a loving caretaker

talented musician

or poetic writer those students are the fish being judged on how they climb

trees because we say the

end-all be-all is college or we're leaving students to the lowest

skill level work. Even in the honors classes the students are so wrapped up about

grades and answers they're afraid

to learn and thats impacting how they're performing at college but I am NOT here

to talk about the current student loan debt crisis. They have to understand I

don't place the blame

on them yes they can take credit for who they are but this is about something

much bigger than the students.

Our toxic culture of education begins with a classic

super villain archetype. I focus on Syndrome from The Incredibles

the super villains plan is to unleash a doom on to the world that

only the supervillain can stop thus gaining all the desired power.

Now this is exactly what happened in education in the nineteen eighties and

before

it culminated in No Child Left Behind. Private education companies realized

they can use public education a multi-billion dollar industry

to create a nearly endless stream of taxpayer money.

They channeled millions of dollars into lobbying

efforts and focused on two words, rigor and accountability

and put everything into place. State statutes were passed

district rules were enforced and then finally No Child Left Behind became the

national standard.

Don't get me wrong about politics these efforts were underway long before they

were passed so both parties get to take full credit

for their disastrous results especially the race to the top.

We somehow took the education system that produced the individuals who put a

man on the moon

with technology less powerful than the phone in my pocket

and characterized that education system as a failure

using the word accountability. We only have one way to address

accountability, standardized testing. So we implemented standardized testing

and then a 1983 publication called "A Nation at Risk" showed

standardized tests proved schools were failing

teachers were failing students were failing, and when everything is

failing guess what we need? New text books, new workbooks, new resources, new

training accountability systems, new schools

private schools, charter schools and who is it that creates

all of these things that all of a sudden we need? Our super villain:

private education companies. The only way to feed a business

model in this toxic culture of education

is to perpetuate a picture of failure. I would love to meet

any education company that has a business model

that is built upon long-term student success.

There simply is no money in long-term student success.

Now, how is it that we can believe that a standardized test is what accurately

measures

student achievement? How can we believe that it measures

student growth, that moment when a student's light bulb

is finally lit, "ah ha!" That moment when a student says

"thank you" for helping him graduate with a 2.0 GPA.

How can we attach a number to that moment when a third grader finally has

the ability

to write his own name who, by the way, has been labeled a

failure for himself, his teacher, and his school.

Yet we crave education standardization we believe we need these high-stakes

tests

because we eat up the misinformation provided by these companies and policies

using a false validity of their testing results.

Our testing culture begins in elementary school.

Colleagues of mine work with third-graders third-graders who suffer

from

anxiety from high stakes testing from a one day one shot four hour computer

based test

the future path of a student is set, an academic identity is established, and

a message is delivered loud and clear either you can or you can't make it!

And no matter what the teacher tells the student about how good they are

or what talents they have, if the student doesn't score well on that high-stakes

test the third graders know exactly what it means

and begin to define themselves. It's starting to happen now

in kindergarten. So we continue this barrage of standardized tests and the

students continue failing

in the districts have to continue the next initiatives

that can solve the problems who is it that manufactures these products? Who

creates these

solutions? Our super villain: private companies like Pearson and McGraw-Hill

who operate off policy and legislation written by non-profit organizations and

lobbying groups like ALEC,

the American Legislative Exchange Council. Buy the next text book! Buy the

next workbook! Buy the next digital software package,

the next teacher evaluation system. I have been through three

algebra one text books in seven years and still we stick

to the standardized tests. Guess who makes those?

In this toxic culture we illogically attempt to compare

education to business we completely ignore the impact of poverty

and hunger on student achievement and we pay no attention

to the non cognitive factors like personal habits and personal values

that are the realistic measures and predictors of student achievement. And that

way

we can place the blame on the schools and on the teachers

to continue the cycle. And because we have a toxic

culture of education, the teachers and the schools

have accepted this accountability for all students even those

students. We take the blame for a student who can't focus in class

because she hasnt eaten since yesterday's lunch. We take the blame for

a student who's always in trouble in school

because he doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. We take the

blame for a student who can't stay awake in class

because she spends her nights on a different couch depending on which

friend takes her in.

And when these students don't score well,l it's about to get worse

the Common Core will do even more damage because it's emphasis on high-stakes

testing matched

with its myopic standards that are disguised in critical thinking.

I've seen my daughter's kindergarten and first grade assignments

this isn't critical thinking, this is developmentally inappropriate

rote. You think they can fool me with this stuff?

Any education reform that doesn't address high-stakes testing

and the non cognitive factors of true success like character

and integrity is a complete waste of time and it's killing our kids.

Right now the public narrative in education is all about curriculum,

all about schools, all about teachers. We need to start paying attention

to our students and who they are. If a student fails

algebra one in their ninth grade year, I can tell you chances are that it's not

because it was too hard

or they didn't get it. Chances are that its not because they had a bad teacher

or were at a bad school. If a student fails

in the ninth grade year the chances are it's because the student was missing some

type with intangible characteristic a non

cognitive factor that enables them to succeed.

Things like perseverance, initiative, social skills, communication skills,

curiosity, sometimes a full belly or a good night's sleep.

Yet none of these things are considered our definitions accountability.

None of these things are considered in our policies so all the talk about failing

schools

and failing teachers and how we need to improve the teachers and the schools

needs to be shifted to include failing students

and how can we help the students. How can we help them be

better students better people how can we help them with these non cognitive

factors

like work ethic and character? How can we make sure that they're getting enough

sleep,

that they're getting enough to eat, that they're showing up for class? Its the

public narrative

that has to be shifted. We must talk about what is happening in the lives of

our students.

Even our honor students, because we're simply creating a massive population of

future citizens

who are afraid to attend anything challenging, unable to read or think

critically

or unable to find a way to turn a meaningful income, I'll get to that in a

minute.

Right now in this toxic culture all students are forced

to study abstract classes in order to be

college-ready and we throw around buzz words like "rigor"

and "STEM" and the public loves it! We eat it up, we think it's fantastic but we're

missing the point that "rigor"

has replaced the word "relevant." I met with our district and I pitched the idea

to bring back home economics but this time as a math credit

First words in the response, "That's not

rigorous." So forget teaching students about measurement,

taxes, discounts, loans, credit, debt, retirement planning because it's not as

rigorous

as factoring trinomials and graphing logarithmic functions

so it can't fit. There's no room for that in this toxic culture of education.

There's also no room for the arts and for imagination which are being

systematically removed from our public schools

because I don't think anyone profits from those things. Now we have already

felt the

impact of our education policies there are thousands of highly skilled jobs

available

right now. There's opportunity for small business development and innovation like

never before. Yet where are the majority

our students and graduates? There is an enormous opportunity

in this economy for our students but we just don't

enable it in the schools because we're so focused on accountability

and standardized testing and rigor and college-ready.

If we focus our attention on getting students what they need to find their

place

in this economy, all students, especially those

students would value education more highly, use their time more wisely

and make better decisions outside of school.

Now we gotta keep the college-bound students going to college. We gotta

continue that path.

However, we need to be more successful and more innovative.

But what about the Natalie's? I've got students that want to be tattoo artists,

mechanics, barbers, they want work. Some want to open their own businesses but they

are those

students. They constantly failed their classes they're always in trouble in