What Motivates Teachers?

Taken from a Blog written by Jason Glass (Education Elements
A Place for Tempered Radicals)

The question of “what motivates teachers” was the subject of my dissertation. In a nutshell, I asked the question of whether teachers were motivated for money and economics or motivated to help kids and to be part of something greater than themselves. The answer … “yes.”

In studying the Eagle County School district (which arguably has one of the longest running and most interesting stories on performance based compensation) I found, overwhelmingly and not surprisingly, that teachers were primarily motivated to help kids. Teachers were also heavily motivated by the concept of being part of something greater than themselves, a concept noted in the literature as “public service motivation theory.”

However, I also found that although the altruistic motivators were clearly strongest, teachers also paid more attention to those things compensation was attached to (evaluation and assessment results in Eagle County’s case).

So, it’s not one or the other, but both. Teachers are motivated to help kids. Teachers are also rational people who pay attention to economic incentives.

I’ve used my findings as a possible explanation for why simple “cash for test scores” or “merit pay” schemes fail to raise student achievement. These approaches, by themselves, they don’t pull at the major levers in what motivates teachers and they usually don’t come with any real supports to help teachers improve their craft and learn from each other.

My conclusions were that we should avoid simplistic approaches advanced by many on the “performance pay” side of the argument, but we should also avoid a defense of the status quo “step and lane” system.

Deci and Ryan’s work was made popular by writer Daniel Pink, who said that compensation systems must be “adequate and fair.” I would argue the industrial “step and lane” pay system is neither and we have a great deal of evidence that educators are responding to its incentives in ways that lead us to perverse outcomes. For example, nearly 50% of educators nationally obtain advanced degrees that have an incredibly poor research track record of success in improving teaching. Compare this with the estimated 10% of Americans who have advanced degrees overall.

Think that has something to do with the ongoing compensation incentives provided with a “lane” change? I certainly do.

Frederick Herzberg also wrote about this nearly 40 years ago and told us that while compensation wasn’t necessarily a “motivator” for improvement, it did have the capacity to “demotivate” if it weren’t well attended to. I’d hold up the evidence around attrition for teachers early in their careers and labor market shortages for special education teachers as examples that we don’t have this “right” yet. Certainly working conditions and supports are part of this conversation, but so is compensation.

So, Hemmingsen is improving in her sophistication in being able to engage in this discussion – but she still doesn’t get it as she continues to try and paint me as some kind of merit-pay hawk.

To again clarify, I’m not talking about using compensation as a motivator for teachers, I’m talking about changing compensation structures to align with things that would actually be good for schools, educators, and kids. Things like creating and paying for teacher leader roles, creating time for teachers to work together collaboratively, incenting the pursuit advanced degrees or other PD options that are aligned with what their kids need, paying more to get and keep our best teachers in front of our neediest kids, front loading pay structures to get better candidates into teaching and keep them, extending the school day/year for kids that need it, and addressing teacher labor market shortage areas. And yes, performance based elements – so long as they are coupled with support systems to help teachers improve.

The possibilities are fascinating to consider – but part of the change is that we have to stop using the cash we have in such non-strategic ways and start using it smarter.

Hemmingsen also selectively takes her shots at the school organization I was proud to be part of in Eagle County, noting the high attrition rates at the inception of human capital system change in 2001 and the leadership turnover in 2007. But again, she only tells you part of the story. When I left Eagle County, the teacher attrition rate (for those not being non-renewed for performance related reasons) was in the single digits, we had solid leadership which remains in place today, and we had the highest paying salary system in the state. Further, the district has been closing the achievement gap at an amazing pace, has been recognized by the state legislature for its innovation, has had 4 Colorado Principals of the Year in as many years, and has value added results that are just startlingly good. This in a district with a 51% Hispanic student population, along with the language learner and poverty issues that accompany that demographic statistic.

The improvements with Eagle County’s results did not occur just because of a change in compensation system. Rather, leaving the step and lane system allowed the districts to better move finite resources to solve problems and achieve strategic outcomes. I don’t think anyone there would say the pay was the driver. The change primarily happened because all the pieces in the organization were pulling in the same direction and toward the same goals and the district had the flexibility in its resources to address student needs.

So, what motivates teachers? Helping kids and being part of changing the world motivates teachers. But teachers are also rational people who respond to financial incentives. Our work shouldn’t be to blindly protect a near 100 year old industrial era compensation structure, but instead to think about how we build a compensation structure that takes into account teachers’ altruistic motivations and that incents them toward things that help kids and communities. Then, we would be moving toward a system that emphasizes the real underlying motivations for educators, and that uses money strategically.

ARE YOUR LOCAL SCHOOLCHILDREN 'STUDENTS' OR 'LEARNERS?'

Scott McLeod on May 16, 2011, 1:00 PM
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I’m not quite sure how I missed this wonderful table from David Warlick. Take a look below. Are your local schoolchildren ‘students’ or ‘learners?’ If they’re not ‘learners,’ what can/should you do about it as an educator, parent, community member, and/or concerned citizen?



STUDENTS/LEARNERS

Relationship with educators:

Students are employees, required to obediently follow instructions.

Learners are citizens with a vested interest in the learning society.

Relationship with other “Students”:

Students are competitors

Learners are collaborators

Motivation:

Students... (Obligation) Students are culturally obliged to work for the teacher & for compensation (below)

Learners... (Responsibility) Learners are motivated by an understood and realized “value” in their work, especially when it is valuable to others.

Compensation:

Student...Institution defined grades and gateways to college (another institution) and a good job (another institution)

Learners...A sense of ongoing accomplishment that is not delivered but earned, and not symbolic but tangible and valuable — an investment.

Mode of Operation:

Students...Compliant, group-disciplined, objective-oriented, and trainable

Learners...Persevering, self-disciplined, group- and goal-oriented, resourceful, and learning in order to achieve rather than achieving learning.

Why?

Students...Compelled

Learners...Curious

Equipped:

Students...with packaged knowledge and tools for recording packaged knowledge — prescribed and paced learning

Learners...with tools for exploring a networked variety of content, experimenting with that content, and discovering, concluding, and constructing knowledge — invented learning

Assessment:

Students...Measuring what the student has learned.

Learners...Measuring what the learner can do with what has been learned.


Some additional questions worth considering…

• How does an emphasis on being a ‘student’ rather than a ‘learner’ impact children’s motivation for school tasks?
• How does an emphasis on being a ‘student’ rather than a ‘learner’ impact children’s future success as workers or postsecondary students?
• How does an emphasis on being a ‘student’ rather than a ‘learner’ impact children’s willingness as adults to challenge the establishment or the status quo, whether those be political, economic, or otherwise?
• Rhetoric aside, do most adults really want children to be ‘learners’ in the truest sense of the word? Or do they just want them to be compliant and trainable?
• Being a ‘learner’ implies (to me, at least) the need to ask questions. Lots and lots of questions. What do we do with children who ask questions in school, particularly those that challenge how we do things? (Why…?)

Image credit: Atlas, it’s time for your bath

RICHARD ELMORE

Scott McLeod on May 17, 2011, 7:05 AM
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From Using technology to move beyond schools (Elmore & City):

With rare exceptions, schools currently treat the digital revolution as if it never happened. Computers, more often than not, still sit in dedicated rooms, accessible only with adult supervision. Laptops, when they are used at all in classrooms, are frequently employed as electronic worksheets, digital typewriters, and presentation producers, rather than as extensions of students’ access to knowledge. When students do use technology to extend the reach of their learning, they typically do so by visiting predigested information sources and cutting and pasting information into predetermined, teacher-driven formats. “Social networking” among students is treated as a subversive activity engaged in by kids who are up to no good, and certainly not as a promising point of entry to anything that might be called “learning.”

When students step out the door of the institution called school today, they step into a learning environment that is organized in ways radically different from how it once was. It’s a world in which access to knowledge is relatively easy and seamless; in which one is free to follow a line of inquiry wherever it takes one, without the direction and control of someone called a teacher; and, in which, with a little practice, most people can quickly build a network of learners around just about any body of knowledge and interests, unconstrained by the limits of geography, institutions, and time zones. If you were a healthy, self-actualizing young person, in which of these environments would you choose to spend most of your time?

The basic problem with this scenario, however, is this: The more accessible learning becomes through unmediated relationships and broad-based social networks, the less clear it is why schools, and the people who work in them, should have such a large claim on the lives of children and young adults, and the more the noneducational functions of schooling come to the fore.

From What would happen if we let them go? (Elmore):

what would happen if we simply opened the doors and let the students go; if we let them walk out of the dim light of the overhead projector into the sunlight; if we let them decide how, or whether, to engage this monolith? Would it be so terrible? Could it be worse than what they are currently experiencing? Would adults look at young people differently if they had to confront their children on the street, rather than locking them away in institutions? Would it force us to say more explicitly what a humane and healthy learning environment might look like? Should discussions of the future of school reform be less about the pet ideas of professional reformers and more about what we're doing to young people in the institution called school?

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Elmore, he’s the Gregory R. Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership at Harvard University. As you might imagine, he is quite smart and is widely recognized as one of America’s leading thinkers about classroom instruction and school curriculum. If you haven’t read School Reform from the Inside Out or Instructional Rounds in Education, it’s probably time that you did.

10 REASONS YOUR EDUCATORS (OR EMPLOYEES) ARE RESISTING YOUR CHANGE INITIATIVE

Scott McLeod on May 20, 2011, 9:26 AM

Here’s a little something for you to think about over the weekend. Those resisters and naysayers in your school organization (or corporation or nonprofit or …)? You know, the ones that are pushing back against your change initiative? The ones that you like to complain about because ‘the train is moving’ and they’re not ‘getting on board?’ What if they’re right?

10 Reasons Your Educators Are Resisting Your Change Initiative

Surprise, Surprise! Decisions or requests that are sprung on administrators and teachers without notice.
Excess Uncertainty. Not knowing enough about the change will result in the "walking off a cliff blindfolded" syndrome.
Loss of Control. Feeling that changes are being done to, rather than done by, those affected.
Loss of Routine. Concerns that change will require administrators and teachers to question familiar (and comfortable) routines and habits.
We've Seen This Before. Expectation that the initiative is temporary and it will stay incomplete, meaning the best strategy is to lay low and not contribute to success.
Loss of Face. Change implies that the former way of doing things was wrong. Some administrators and teachers may feel embarrassed in front of their peers or staff.
Concerns About Future Competence. Educators can question their ability to be effective after a change: Can I do it? How will I do it? Will I make it in the new situation?
Ripple Effects. Change in one area can disrupt other projects or activities, even ones outside of work.
More Work. Organizational change often increases workloads.
Sometimes the Threat Is Real. Change often creates real winners and losers, and people worry about where they will end up when the project is complete.
Additional thoughts

As a school leader, if you want your change initiatives to be successful, you MUST address these issues. More important than whether you think you’ve addressed them is whether the resisters believe that you’ve addressed them. It’s what is in their heads and hearts, not yours, that’s important.

What else might we add to this list? I’d probably add:

Under-Resourcing. The initiative is not accompanied by sufficient resources (e.g., time, support, funding, training) to actually make it happen. So why should we bother?
Innovation Fatigue. Too many simultaneous initiatives. [this contributes to both 5 and 9]
Source

FYI, the “top 10” list comes from IBM’s online Change Toolkit for educators, which is built on the work of Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The Change Toolkit is a powerful resource for school leaders who are interested in better facilitating organizational change. Learn more and sign up for a free account!

Summer Learning Tips for Parents

Iowa Parent Information Resource Center and reference the PIRC website, www.iowaparents.org.

Summer months are often filled with sports clinics, camps, library reading clubs, trips to the swimming pool and family vacations for
many school-age children. But for some children, summer break means extra time in front of the television or computer screen with
little parental supervision.
And there are other children whose parents would like to help, but they don’t know how or don’t realize the importance of staying academically
stimulated.
Why does it matter?
Students who do little during the summer months to stimulate their minds experience what is known as “summer slide.” This is when
they lose academic skills, mostly in the areas of math and reading, and then experience setbacks when they return to school in the fall.
The setbacks force teachers to spend about four to six weeks at the beginning of the school year refreshing students and bringing them
back to where they were at the end of the previous academic year. For example, students in the Grand Rapids (Michigan) school district
were found to have lost about 40 percent of what they learned from the previous school year, according to a study done between 2003
and 2004.
And the U.S. Department of Education has reported that students’ reading skills fall behind about 25 percent each summer. The average
student also loses about 2.6 months of grade-level equivalency in math computation skills during the summer.
In addition to brain activity, children also need to participate in physical and social activities during the summer to keep their bodies
strong. Much of a child’s social stimulation can be received through interaction and activities with family members.
Also, parents need to help their children prepare for the next grade level during the summer months. This is increasingly important for
those children who will enter kindergarten or the next academic stage such as middle or high school.
What the research shows
Most children experience a slight academic setback during the summer months, according to studies by Johns Hopkins University’s
School of Education. The effect varies widely and is most apparent between low-income students and their middle-class peers.
The university’s National Center for Summer Learning has reported the following:
• Most students lose two months of math skills during the summer. This mostly occurs because parents are able to keep their children
reading during summer months but pay less attention to math, according to Harris Cooper, an education professor at Duke University.
• Low-income students lose reading skills, while middle-class students mostly make slight gains.
• Most of the loss occurs in elementary school, so that by the time some students reach fifth grade, they are academically 2 ½ years
behind their peers.
Other studies have found:
• Students usually score lower on standardized tests at the beginning of the new school year than they did at the end of the previous
school year.
• Many low-income youth who fell behind during the summer months eventually drop out or do not attend college.
• Children also gain weight more rapidly during summer break.
• Parents have reported they have difficulty finding productive activities for their children to do during the summer.
What can parents do?
Arne Duncan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, said families need to use the summer months to spend time with their children.
They need to turn off the television and instead visit museums, parks and libraries. Each child should have a library card, and families
should “find ways to continue to learn and to learn as a family all summer,” he said.
Research has shown that summer reading offers one of the greatest benefits because it improves comprehension and vocabulary regardless
of the subject. Reading is most effective when a parent is involved, according to a Harvard University study.
There are numerous activities parents and other adults can do with children regardless of financial status. These ideas include:
• Read: Parents should read to their child every day. Children improve more quickly when an adult asks questions about the material and
makes the child re-read difficult passages. Books are too difficult for a child if he or she does not understand five or more words in a 100-
word section. Also, set an example and make sure the child sees you reading.
• On the road: Play “I Spy” with road signs for numbers, colors and shapes. Ask older children to estimate and calculate the travel time to
a destination.
• Get outdoors: Take children to parks and trails for walks or to ride bicycles, or plant a garden or flowers together. Spend time before the
outing to gather information and ask children about the plants and wildlife they encounter.
• In your city: Take trips to the museum or other cultural amenities during free admission days. Find free or inexpensive camps through
your city’s parks and recreation department, school or other groups.
• At the ballpark: Teach young fans how to calculate statistics such as RBIs or ERA. Suggest that they read a book about baseball before
the game to teach kids more about the sport and to brush up on reading skills.
• Volunteer: Ask a friend or relative to host a child at his or her workplace for a day, or take your child to pick up litter or volunteer at a
soup kitchen or senior center.
• In the kitchen: Allow a child to help out by measuring ingredients and reading recipes. Ask more challenging questions such as how
many pints are in a quart and how to divide ingredients.
• Online: Numerous universities and community colleges offer free online courses, some of which can be downloaded to portable devices.
Websites such as readingrocket.org can give parents reading tips to help their child at various ages.
• Move it: Attend summer music festivals with your children and dance together. Sign up your child for summer swimming lessons or
other athletic events.
• Get prepared: Establish a school-night routine a couple of weeks before school starts that includes earlier bedtimes.
• Be involved: Attend back-to-school and orientation nights to meet teachers, and learn about school and classroom
expectations.
• As a family: Plan and cook meals together, share family traditions/customs, or tell stories and reflect upon fun
times.
• Play games: Tell jokes and riddles and share trivia; also, play board games or other games together. Another way to
get the brain working is to play thinking games such as categorizing items such as animals or foods, and doing word clusters.
• Pen pals: Work as a family to write a letter to another family member or a friend. Everyone should contribute ideas.
• Turn it off: Have at least one full week with no television or video games.
Ideas by grade level to prepare your child for school:
Kindergarten –
1. Help children develop their language skills by teaching them to use adjectives and follow simple directions.
2. Read to your child every day.
3. Sing songs and listen to music.
4. Practice matching letters, rhyming words and organizing things by size, color, shape, etc.
5. Teach your child to do things by themselves such as get dressed, eat, clean up and use the restroom.
Middle school –
1. Show your child how to become organized such as using a different folder for each subject and teach them how to record assignments.
2. Help your child keep track of their activities by having a calendar at home on which events and homework assignments can be written.
3. Create a homework schedule and set aside time each night for reading and writing.
High school –
1. Encourage your child to get a job in order to make him or her more responsible and help understand what it’s like to have a job.
2. Help children prepare for their future by taking challenging classes and creating a plan for after high school.

Christmas in April

Winners of the Christmas in April competition at the Armstrong Building...
Mrs. Work
Mrs. Korte
Mrs. Hansen #2
Mrs. Hansen #1
Mrs. Koop

A fashionable bunch of ladies!

SKYPE IN THE CLASSROOM (from: Eric Sheninger)

"A simple question to ask is, "How has the world of a child changed in the last 150 years?" And the answer is, "It's hard to imagine any way in which it hasn't changed! But if you look at school today versus 100 years ago, it is more similar than dissimilar." -- Peter Senge, senior lecturer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

What should learning in schools look like in the 21st Century? Are schools preparing students for success in a global society? These are two questions that quickly came to mind when reading the quote above from Peter Senge. It is essential more than ever that schools veer away from methodologies that worked for many years when we were educating a different type of student for a different role in society. Key to this transformation is the integration of authentic learning experiences and technology that engage students of all levels and make learning meaningful.

When I came to New Milford High School in 2004 there were many amazing programs in place. One was the Holocaust Study Tour. This global learning endeavor provides some of our students the opportunity to travel to Europe for at least 10 days and study the Holocaust in depth. This authentic learning experience cannot be reproduced in the classroom. For detailed information on the program please visit The New Milford Holocaust Project.
　
Technology now allows the students and staff at NMHS to share in the authentic learning experiences taking place in Europe (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic). Last year, we launched a blog where the students in Europe chronicled and reflected on essential questions, focusing on a dark time in human history. Meanwhile, students and staff back on the campus of NMHS are using the blog as a catalyst for a variety of other learning experiences. Some teachers even have their students respond to the posts each day. The first Holocaust Study Tour 2011 blog post should be up tomorrow so be sure to check it out.
　
Skype has also brought a whole new element to the program. Prior to the trip, students Skyped numerous times with their guide who resides in Israel. This year we even Skyped in a Holocaust survivor to our elective course on the topic. I use Skype to keep in contact with my teacher while on the trip and to sometimes converse with the students about what they are learning. We also encourage our history teachers to Skype with the study tour if the times can be worked out. At our District Open House this Thursday, I plan to Skype the group in from Europe to kick off the event. The theme for the event is appropriately centered around what it is like to be a student in the 21st Century.
　
It is an exciting time to be in education. Technology has really added a whole new dimension to learning. Schools that confine themselves to a bland curriculum, textbooks, worksheets, or learning activities that do not go beyond the walls of the brick and mortar building are really doing a disservice to their learners. In a society that is now globally connected through easy to use and cost effective web 2.0 tools, opportunities to engage and make the process of learning meaningful to all students has quickly become a reality. Teachers now have at their fingertips many tools to add a global context to any lesson.

For example, Skype in the Classroom is a free community that assists teachers in establishing connections between teachers in different countries to help their students learn. Unfortunately, many schools across the country block blogging tools and Skype as well as a variety of other web 2.0 technologies that foster creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and communication skills. As Peter Block alluded to, schools have not evolved in step with societal changes. In order to best prepare out students, we must move away from an industrial model of instruction and let go of control in order to meet the diverse needs of today's learner. This will only happen when schools realize that technology is not the enemy and when combined with passionate teachers and visionary schools the end result for students is learning like never before.