Mountaintop Reflections: What do YOU do when opportunity knocks?

In the late 1800s, American poet and state legislator, John James Ingalls penned a short, powerful reminder on the importance of seizing the day. In the poem Opportunity, Ingalls uses personification to implore us through Opportunity’s voice; “I knock unbidden once at every gate! If sleeping, wake – if feasting, rise before I turn away.”

I was reminded of Ingalls’ words some 114 years later on the snow-capped mountains of Snowbird, Utah, where I joined more than 300 teachers at the 2014 Snowbird Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching (ECET²  - pronounced EE-Set two or EE-Set squared) conference. For two and a half exciting and inspiring days the energy and creativity of the ECET² experience was palpable. In fact, reading the blogs and tweets from my fellow participants was so inspiring that I couldn’t pass up my own visit from “opportunity” to share my own reflections on the experience. In doing so, I hope to give readers a better idea of the impetus behind not only this year’s ECET², but past and future ones as well.

When I came to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the summer of 2011, it was with some trepidation. I hadn’t closely followed the foundation’s work while I was the Chief Academic Officer of Boston Public Schools. As a consequence, I walked through the door with a sneaking suspicion that the foundation was responsible for doing a lot of things “to” rather than “with” teachers. I soon found out that quite the opposite was true - there were examples everywhere of close collaboration with teachers. For example, there were the 3,000 teachers who opened up their classroom doors for the seminal MET study. http://www.metproject.org/

There were the thousands of teachers who were rolling out new Common Core aligned tools called the Literacy Design Collaborative and Math Design Collaborative; there were the thousands of teachers joining emerging teacher voice groups designed to ensure that teachers’ voices were heard on issues of policy and practice, and the emerging efforts with the national teachers’ unions to connect teachers through online professional development platforms. It soon became apparent to us that we needed to find even more ways to elevate and celebrate these teachers as well as connect them to one another.  ECET² became an effort to do exactly that. There are several key ingredients that have made these ECET²events unique experiences for participating teachers, from the first convening, in 2012 through today’s events and the future regional ECET²s that are being planned all over the US. I’m convinced that it’s the following six core ingredients that make ECET² special, and that their combination is what makes teachers respond the way they do.

Ingredient #1, Relational-Trust:  In one of my favorite educational books of all-time, Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement, Anthony Bryk and Barbara Schneider wrote that, “Schools are networks of sustained relationships. The social exchanges that occur and how participants infuse them with meaning are central to a schools functioning. Moreover, the character of these social exchanges is especially salient in times of broad scale change.” I distinctly remember how much that spoke to me as a young school leader when my superintendent at the time, Dr. Vicki Phillips, who now heads the foundation’s K-12 work, gave the book to all the principals in the district.

Schools have a year to build relational-trust between adults and other adults, and between adults and students. We only have two and a half days at ECET²convenings. But that doesn’t keep us from making relational-trust a goal. I saw it being built at Snowbird through formal and informal channels, like when Gina Bianchini facilitated colleague circle introductions and protocols that enabled teacher leaders to open up to one another and make commitments that came alive right there in the Utah mountains, and that live on today through the Mightybell platform. I am convinced that ECET²  sends teachers back to their school communities looking for ways to ensure that similar experiences can, should, and do exist in school communities throughout the country.

Ingredient #2 - Growth Mindset: Another one of my more recent, favorite educational books is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol Dweck. This book – a must read for educators – is all about focusing on people’s potential more than what they are capable of today. Again, in many ways this is the philosophy behind ECET². For example, the 2014 Snowbird ECET²participants were selected by previous ECET² attendees who saw their potential. The growth mindset is also inherent in how the convening unfolds. We encourage one another to stretch and realize that our potential is fluid, not fixed. Teachers present to their peers on issues around their own practice. Complete strangers join each other in colleague circles that engender collaboration, support, and a problem-solving ethos—things all professionals need in order to grow.  Teachers even sing together after only knowing one another for a few minutes with no alcohol involved!!

One of the best examples of growth mindset in action this year came when Ashleigh Ferguson, Mathematics teacher at Millikan High School in Long Beach, CA, stood up and spoke to nearly 350 peers about her deep commitment to ensuring foster children are brought out of the shadows of our school systems. Ashleigh confessed the challenge she faced in speaking to so many new colleagues, but in just a few minutes of stretching herself, she shined the light on an often forgotten population of students, and moved the room in a deep way. Ashleigh reminded us that it’s not only important to have a growth mindset towards students, but also towards ourselves and our peers as teachers. How can we expect our students to be vulnerable and grow, if we’re not in environments that enable us to do the same?

Ingredient #3: Intellect and Heart: Many of us went into teaching based on a combination of intellectual and heart / emotional drive. I decided to study English because I fell in love with literature in Junior and Senior High School. But what took my motivation to a whole new level was watching other students experience the same joy I got from literature and writing. If there’s one thing effective teachers understand, it is the power in this combination of the intellect and the heart. (A must-read book on this topic is another of my favorites, Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard by Dan and Chip Heath.) ECET²aims to stir both the intellect and the heart while ensuring that real problems of practice are being addressed. For example, there was great feedback at Snowbird on the strategies and skills for making change happen in their schools which were shared by teacher Maddie Fennell and educational thought-leader, Rick Hess in the Cage Busting Leadership session. I was able to sit in on the Education Connections: Teachers of English Language Learners Collaborating around the Common Core session, where practitioners and researchers led conversations about how to engage ELL students in content and language acquisition.

ECET² is also an opportunity for teachers to reconnect with why they went into teaching in the first place.  At Snowbird, this came through in small and big ways. I wish I had counted the number of teachers who approached me to relate how much ECET² had helped restore their hope in the profession, their practice, or their impact.  This sentiment also came through powerfully in the teacher stories shared by Jon Spencer and Jozette Martinez. Jon moved us all as he talked about keeping it real in Realville and the importance of keeping your word, no matter how far you have to drive. Jozette reminded us that sometimes our very existence as teachers is a sign of progress in defiance of stereotypes.  She also reminded us how important it is not to take ourselves so seriously that we can’t just break out in song – if that’s what it takes to connect with and move our kids. DON’T STOP BELIEVING! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO49CpU9SPI

Ingredient #4 -Time to Collaborate: My graduate professor, Richard Elmore used to say, “Isolation is the enemy of improvement.” And if there’s one thing we know about higher performing countries where the teaching profession is more respected and elevated, it’s that their teachers have more time to collaborate about their practice and about student learning. This is a true challenge in our country, and the foundation is and has been looking to spur innovation that creates more opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration. This type of authentic collaboration around real issues of practice has always been a staple of ECET². However, I am delighted that we have become more adept at extending that collaboration beyond the convening in ways that are relevant to teachers’ lived experiences through the colleague circles and the Mightybell platform. ECET² LaJolla in 2013 – when these colleague circles really took off, produced results nothing short of remarkable, including teams of teachers building the following:

-        “Support the Common Core” video for parents

-         Informational pamphlet on the CCSS to distribute to parents

-         Participation in a social media panel in NY and an ongoing effort to tell positive stories about the teaching profession in mainstream media

-         Development of a Universal Design for Learning peer coaching system

-         Series of five videos showing common core teaching in K-3 classrooms

-         An e-book called “The Common Core Survival Guide: Literacy in Science and Social Studies Classrooms” to aid teachers in the CCSS transition

-         An online platform on “Developing Student Discourse: A PD Resource Bank”

Ingredient #5 - Teacher Leadership: The more I study the evolution of other professions, the more I’m convinced that if we’re going to elevate the teaching profession in America, it is going to have to happen through the leadership of great teachers. ECET² is all about  supporting  that leadership. As Barnett Barry, Executive Director of the Center for Teaching Quality says, “We must recognize the expert teachers that we have currently in the profession and give them opportunities to spread their expertise.” The foundation is doing this on so many levels. Here are just a few:

-        LDC/MDC  http://ldc.org/

-        Teacher Advisory Council

But along with this existing work, the foundation, along with its partners, are interested in finding additional ways to ensure we go beyond simply asking teachers to take on more leadership role(s) with little to no additional time or compensation. I am not suggesting that teachers look to be paid for every additional role or responsibility that they take on. However, I am concerned that if we do not develop more sustainable career pathways and differentiated roles within the teaching profession, we’ll continue to see talented teachers pack up their expertise and exit the classroom, and too often, the profession.

To be clear, there’s nothing “wrong” with that decision (i.e. principalship), which I and thousands of other teachers have made. However, the structure of the profession forces too many teachers to make these decisions without providing them with other options that would enable them to remain deeply connected to students, their peers, and practice. The 21^st Century Teaching profession must do what other elevated and respected professions do: enable its practitioners to take on differentiated roles without needing to shift to administrative responsibilities, or worse, exit the profession.

Ingredient #6 - Professional Treatment:

               “The best teacher is the one who NEVER forgets
                              what it is like to be a student.
               “The best administrator is the one who NEVER forgets
                              what it’s like to be a teacher.”
                                                            -Nelia Connor

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works with teachers and educators to support effective teaching and teachers, but in the end it’s the teachers who have to make transformation happen in the classrooms and schools with their students, peers, leaders and families. It is so important for us at the foundation to never forget that. Teachers are professionals, and the foundation is committed to treating them as such. We, and our partners, do this in big and small ways.

In closing, I am so excited to see what other innovations and ideas come from the ECET² teachers, not only those who gathered in Utah this year, but also those who gathered in LaJolla, California in 2013 and Scottsdale, Arizona in 2012. I am convinced that their impact will reach far beyond their individual practice to improve and elevate that of their peers and ultimately the profession itself, and in the end; kids benefit.  As John James Ingalls wrote on behalf of Opportunty in his poem, “…they who follow me reach every state mortals desire, and conquer every foe…”

Irvin Scott's 9th Grade Football Poem: Inspired by Tony Dorsett, Robert Frost, and Ms. Scritchfield

I Am Determined: An Ode to Dorsett, Frost, and Scritchfield*

Behind two back I stand
Waiting for the first Back's hand
Which holds the thing
To make me spring
To reach the touchdown's brand.

Sometimes I'm hit,
Which brings great pain
But it's even worse
When my run's in vain
Because some lineman
Jumps offsides,
And the Ref yells out,
"That'll cost you five!"

But through all this,
I must keep running'
So the defense will think:
"He's quite stunning"
They'll key on me
From that play on,
But I am determined

To keep on going.

*When I wrote this poem nearly 30 years ago as a ninth grade student, I don't remember giving it a title. However, when Dr. Laura Stout, Principal at Jackson Middle School in Grand Prairie Texas Independent School District asked for a copy of the poem to share with her students; I realized my poem needed a title.  So, on the plane ride home, I thought for a few minutes and came up with the title above: "I Am Determined: An Ode to Dorsett, Frost, and Scritchfield. I know it's a weird title, but if you've ever heard me talk about how I came to write this poem, you will understand why all three names are important.  

http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2012/07/A-Response-to--How-Do-We-Build-the-Teaching-Profession

Two dreams come together....

Yesterday I was in Memphis, TN at a venue just 1.7 miles away from where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his final speech. I was there to participate in a conference on compensation and career lattice reform for America's teachers. Since the Foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) was sponsoring the event, I was asked to give the opening. The following are my outlined notes. I trust they convey the enormous sense of irony and opportunity that I felt being in that place at that time.

My notes from opening:

Good Evening, Everyone!

My name is Irvin Scott, and I am the Deputy Director of Education for the Foundation and I want to take the next few minutes to do two things:

1.       First, I want express appreciation to specific individuals and groups for this gathering.

2.       Second, I want to set the stage for our conversations and learnings

Recognition

1.       To begin, I want recognize the District Superintendents, CEOs of the Charter Management Organizations along with your Teams including Union leadership, you are all doing trailblazing work, not only on behalf of the children and teachers in your communities, but also on behalf of the children and teachers in America. Also, Special Thank you for Dr. Kriner Cash for hosting us here in Memphis.

2.       Secondly, Education Resource Strategies and the other thought leaders that you will be interacting with during our time together. It’s important that this conversation is facilitated by leaders in the field, and we are fortunate to have you helping us. 

3.       Finally, want to recognize and thank, the Gates team, particularly Patricia Lorea, who is leading up our Knowledge Development in the compensation reform area; as well as Mike Copland, who oversees all the program officers.

Why we are here? When I thought about that question, I could not help but think about another question, where are we?

-          1.7 Miles from our location is a place that holds special significance in the annals of American history?

-          It’s place that remains a spiritual Mecca for millions of Americans today.

-          And, it’s a place where one of America’s greatest advocates for justice and equity planted what would become his final “Mountaintop Speech” into the rocky soil of the American consciousness.

-          The time? April 3,1968 (Almost 44 years ago)

-          The place? Mason Temple: Headquarters of the Church of God in Christ

-          The Occasion? A rally on behalf of workers in Memphis

-          The person? Martin Luther King, Jr.

-          Now some may argue it’s a stretch to make a connection between our gathering and that 1968 rally. I would beg to differ.  

-          While America has made enormous progress in the area of racial equity, persistent challenges of poverty plague not only Memphis, but many urban and rural communities across this country.

-          And many of us – like many teachers – got into this work of ensuring a quality education for every child, in an effort to serve communities that have not fully realized the dreams that Dr. King and others fought and died for.

-          And in many ways, our work of rethinking traditional compensation systems for America’s teachers can be connected to yet a new dream.

-          It’s a dream of revitalizing and elevating the profession of teaching so that America’s brightest, most caring, and most skillful practitioners learn, grow  and lead together; while teaching those children who need them the most.

-          So, as we begin our work together; I would request three things of you:

-          1. Suspend your disbelief about what is possible, dream a little together….

-          2. Keep in mind that our competing interests intersect at this goal:

o   Elevating a profession to better serve America’s children, especially Low Income Minority children

-          3. And finally, Remember, we have an opportunity to build on what happened nearly 44 years ago only 1.7 miles from here….

-          Thank you, and again welcome to this convening.

In Response to Shaun Johnson's Blog: "What if We Treat Doctors the Way We Treat Teachers"

The central argument of the blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shaun-johnson/treating-doctors-like-teachers_b_812096.html can be summed up in the following statement from the writer, who predicts the doctors' retort to being treated with the same accountability measures as teachers: "We can't control what our patients do or eat outside of our offices to maintain minimum levels of health. Also, these variables -- BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure -- are limited and don't adequately measure a healthy person. And one other thing, you can't expect us to be evaluated based on all patients equally, regardless of family history, poverty, and other complications." I have one basic response to this article, and it involves a deeper look at the comparison between the teaching and medical profession.

Although I am no expert on this matter, I believe that if you made automobiles a metaphor for the two professions (teaching / physician); one profession would be closer to a Model T Ford (teaching) and the other – by comparison – a Lexus (physician). To be clear, I am not talking about the people in the profession, I am talking about the profession itself.  There was a time when the medical profession and those who graduated from medical schools were held to very low standards. However in 1910, Abraham Flexner, an educator by trade, published a report that shared his findings on the medical profession. His conclusion? The medical profession (in large part due to low standards in medical schools) was operating in the dark ages, and lives were being lost as a result. Here is a summary of Flexner’s five findings in exact wording (yes, I tracked down and read portions of the 1910 report).

1.       For twenty-five years past there has been an enormous over-production of uneducated and ill trained medical practitioners. This has been an absolute disregard of the public welfare and without any serious thought of the interests of the public….

2.       Over-production of ill-trained men is due in the main to the existence of a very large number of commercial schools, sustained in many cases by advertising methods through which a mass of unprepared youth is drawn out of industrial occupations into the study of medicine.

3.       Until recently the conduct of a medical school was a profitable business, for the methods of instruction where mainly didactic….

4.       The existence of many of the unnecessary and inadequate medical schools has been defended by the argument that a poo medical school is justified in the interest of the poor boy. It is clear that the poor boy has no right to go into any profession for which he is not willing to obtain adequate preparation; but the facts set forth in this report make it evident that this argument is insincere, and that the excuse which has hitherto been put forward in the name of the poor boy is in reality an argument in behalf of the poor medical school.

5.       A hospital under the complete educational control is as necessary to a medical school as is a laboratory of chemistry is to pathology. High grade teaching within a hospital introduces a most wholesome and beneficial influence into its routine.

At the time of the report (1910), I can imagine that there was a range of responses from those within the medical profession. In one camp you probably heard the following responses:

            The nerve of that Flexner guy! What does he know; he’s not even a physician.

How does he expect us to produce better results with the terrible conditions that
people are subject to in 1910? The economy is tanking, living conditions are atrocious, and I can hardly feed my family on what I make.

In another camp you might have heard something like this:

Finally! Someone is talking about creating some unified standards for what it means to be an effective physician.

At last, someone is exposing the complexity of this job! Not just anyone can be a physician; I have been saying this for years!

Wow!! It’s exciting to hear someone talk about elevating this profession to the place where I believe it should be. Perhaps one day I will encourage my own children to become a physician and stop discouraging them as I currently do.

In response to the Flexner report, major changes were made to the medical profession over time. At that time, the medical profession was like that Model T. However, the profession underwent a major overhaul, and it’s never been the same again.

One hundred years later, the same type of overhaul is being called for with the teaching profession. Yes, we’re hearing voices from both camps. In one camp there are those saying things like, Finally! Someone is talking about creating unified standards for what it means to be an effective teacher. Others, in a different camp are saying things like, What If We Treated Physicians the Way We Treat Teachers?”  My answer to that question is that 100 years ago, physicians did get similar treatment. And their profession has not been the same since. We can only hope for the same with the teaching profession.

Gotham Gazette

Gotham Gazette