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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Progress Monitoring: Marzano and Scales

During an in-service on "scales" this afternoon, I soon became lost in a sea of jargon, giving me the opportunity to reflect on what this whole new rigmarole -- and this is just the beginning, we were told -- feels to a teacher of my advanced years.

My ruminations were intermittently interrupted, however, by the anguished cries of my beloved colleagues as they attempted to figure out what exactly the freak "scales" were and why we were having to learn about them.

Sitting in an uncomfortable chair and resting my elbow on a table stacked with the papers my colleagues and I would be dragging home with us afterwards, I had a terrible epiphany.

For the first time in my life, I was relieved to be old. I was grateful that I only had a little time left in a profession that is more and more being orchestrated and overseen by Nutcases United (NU). My gratitude, of course, was tempered by extraordinary sadness and anger at the hijacking of something I hold so dear.

Administrators do their best to calm our fears and dowse our anger by assuring us that this stiflingly disruptive evaluative system -- that seems to be growing tentacles of acronyms -- doesn't change the wonderful way we already teach, it's just a new round of terms to learn.

Nice try. I'm not being sarcastic when I say we appreciate your concern and we understand that you're pretty much as impotent as we are to slow the progress of this Juggernaut.

As the list of indicators grows and the drop-bys increase and the methods of monitoring, measuring, weighing and gauging proliferate, it all becomes more than an overlay of jargon. Let me try a little analogy:

People who have been driving for years eventually train their brains to do all the things required to keep them alive and moving on the road without bothering their conscious minds. We keep an eye on the car ahead of us, and the one ahead of it; we periodically scan the rear- and side-view mirrors; we check our speed limit; we constantly troubleshoot while also pondering elections, football, lesson plans, climate change and Mad Men.

But if we take on a backseat (or passenger seat) driver, someone eager to help us stay safe, we then have to add that person's list of concerns to ours. Our normal, unconscious flow is disrupted as we try to anticipate what our anxious passenger might be seeing. Now, even though we've done it for years, driving is no longer second nature, but strained and anxious.

That's what it's like to try to teach (which is like breathing for someone like me) and to mentally lug around a huge bag full of indicators that must be paid obeisance to. Also, as I have noted here previously, we must act as if there is no extra person in the room tapping away on an iPad. Our community is disrupted, our continuity is disrupted, our rapport is disrupted; the whole prospect of "teaching in the moment" becomes almost impossible while we try to satisfy the needs of the Dark Lord Marzano.

Even if the end product is a good class, it's a fake one on some level.

Okay. Occasionally at today's meeting I tuned back in just enough to get the crap scared out of me chiefly because since I was in about the 7th grade I've been horrible at putting together and sustaining an apparatus such as The Scale. I know this is something I'm just going to have to crib from my colleagues and then feel dirty about it later. Going along with extra stuff that I don't believe in always makes me feel dirty and compromised.

Now about those anguished cries of my beloved colleagues: It was good to hear them. I predict they're just getting warmed up. I work at a school with a terrific faculty, and I sense they have had it up to here with the extra work this crap is handing down to them and, more importantly, with the utter lack of trust it all implies.

Think about it: We have to just keep doing what they say and letting them watch. We have to change the way we talk to our kids. We have to let our kids see us doing things they know we have to do and maybe even watch us do things that go against our teaching philosophy. (I keep expecting one of them to ask, "Don't you have any integrity?") We have to change the way we grade them. We have to add fluff to our plans to meet new demands or try to cram what we already do into newly framed categories. All of this because we can't be trusted to do what we do. All of this because our own profession is not considered safe in our hands.

This all has to stop. Teachers are at the bottom of the food chain, at the bottom of a hole. Someone up on the surface keeps throwing trash on top of us. The people between us and the trash-throwers, people like principals, school board members, and superintendents all seem powerless to stop any of it. While this stuff is falling all around our ears, they keep shrugging and apologizing. They keep saying, "More is coming. This is the direction we're headed so we better get ready for it."

We have become, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, "listless playthings of enormous forces" beyond our control.

I don't believe in those things. It is people, not forces doing this to us, and they have to stop. Someone has to step up. We have to turn this profession back into something we're not embarrassed to be associated with, something that won't chase our young colleagues away so quickly, something we can once more recommend to our kids as an honorable and rewarding way to spend their adult years.

27 comments:

  1. Actually, during the meeting today, I felt a little like it must have felt to be in Nazi Germany. Where rights were removed insiduously, incrementally and tolerated and justified along the way as just another small concession. Then, one morning, they woke up and realized all was lost. In no way am I comparing this to the holocaust which was horrific beyond comprehension, but only to the way the government handled the slow take-over of souls.

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    1. It does give me a creepy feeling in the pit of my stomach -- a sort of Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing.

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  2. I didn't attend your meeting, but a similar meeting was going on at my high school today. However, I'm not upset because I'm not going to create a scale to go with each lesson. I'm not going to do it, and I don't care what happens. Why? Because nothing is going to happen. I'm tenured, Teacher of the Year twice, and I'm Nationally Board Certified. But most important, there isn't one penny in bonus money or one piece of scientific evidence tied to these scales. So what will happen to me when I don't do it? I'll get an overall rating of 3.1 and all of my other colleagues will get 3.2??? We all ended up being average teachers, regardless of our scales or our performances. Those of us, like me and the author of this blog, need to say "No, we will not create scales for every lesson we teach," and maybe, just maybe, this madness will eventually end.

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    1. It's like you're reading my mind, sister. If older faculty, esp., begin to say "I prefer not to," it'll make it easier on the younger, more vulnerable ones. I mean, no one wants to be the only one taking the hit.

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  3. Sitting there today, another teacher and I wondered how much it would cost to get the scales blown up and laminated to put on our walls. Then I thought, "NO! Why am I going to spend money on this???" I am glad to hear your view on this. I agree, we have a fabulous faculty, why are we being treated like (to piggy-back on your analogy) teenagers just learning to drive? I say let our school results speak for themselves. Make the schools who are a C or lower do all this garbage. Clearly, we are performing above expectations, why are we being treated like we don't? From someone who still has at minimum 18 more years in the profession, I just do not look forward to what is coming... Thank you for your thoughts Doc!

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  4. Oh, one more thing, we are going to spread the phrase. Instead of saying wtf, we can say "What the Marzano!!" haha! :)

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  5. Most Helpful Customer Reviews
    47 of 51 people found the following review helpful
    1.0 out of 5 stars Marzano - A successful fraud March 24, 2007
    By Daniel Wexler
    Format:Paperback
    I went to the trouble of checking a number of key references. Here's what I discovered:
    A. Every single reference I checked was itself dubious or misrepresented by the authors.
    B. Some of the references were on topics unrelated to the instructional strategies cited.
    B. Some of the numbers from published data were altered to better conform to the author's point of view.
    C. Some of the references themselves presented provisional conclusions based on weak results, but were given complete credence by Marzano et al.
    D. The authors took weak data from several studies, each based on averaging the results from studies assumed to use similar methods and subject cohorts, and averaged these, compounding the statistical weaknesses. This is especially shocking given that no credible researcher would combine results from studies by different groups that clearly use different methodologies and subject cohorts.

    Noone should regard this book as a description of research-based strategies. In fact, the publisher should withdraw the book as it misrepresents fiction as fact.

    This is not to say these strategies do not work. However, there is little or no valid research to support any statement that they offer any improvement over direct instruction.

    As time has passed since I first posted a similar review, the so-called "Marzano Strategies" have continued to gain traction even among education professionals at the college level. Presumably this is because "Marzano Strategy" is easy to remember and has a certain auditory potency. It illustrates, however, the dangers of uncritical and indiscriminate acceptance of ideas and strategies we want to believe in. There is a huge difference between "teacher-tested" and "research-based". The authors have clearly committed intellectual fraud in their wildly successful bid to sell books and make a name for themselves by passing off teacher-tested ideas as research-based.

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  6. As a daughter of a retired educator, former student and parent of two recent college graduates, I applaud the voices being raised in concern for all of the nonsense these requirements will create. Parents must be EQUALLY HELD RESPONSIBLE. Educators, no matter how dedicated, are only one third the team, parents and the students themselves must be held to higher expectations. Sorry if this upsets some who read this, but maybe you need to turn off the TV, put away the video games, turn off your iphones, stop enrolling your child in every activity, because you can't be bothered and sit your A^*#s down and see exactly what your childrn are learning. And yes, things have changed since you were in school, so if you dont get it, ASK THE TEACHER. You are partners, not enemies and no they don't stay awake at night trying to think up ways to make you life difficult. You owe your children the opprotunity to learn from teachers that really do care, like the author, who by the way taught my daughters and still speak in glowing terms 7 and 4 years later, respectfully and both graduated with honors for a 4 year university. Life is full of distractions to keep us from seeing the truth, we have failed our children. More regulation and "hoops" to jump through for our educators is not and never has been the answer. FCAT was a hug mistake and 15+ years later we are just now cleaning up the mess it made. Unless the researchers have been actively in a classroom over the past 20 years, they have NO BUSINESS TRYING TO INITIATE CHANGES that clearly have not been testd in the "real classrooms" of America. The real crisis is just about here, why in GOD'S GREEN EARTH would anyone want to be a teacher today? I applaud each and every educator out there who has not given up as of yet. What can we as parents and grandparents do to help?

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    1. Gather a strong parent coalition and make your voice heard loud and clear!

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    2. To preface that, your support is very much appreciated! We could use any help. I'm sorry I didn't say that first. :)

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  7. Seems like the good folks in Chicago have something particularly loud to say on this subject. It sounds like the grievances in your neck of the woods are also going pretty sour. What does the SEA have to say about all this nonsense?

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  8. A Tuesday meeting to alleviate our fears?????????????????

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  9. I, as some of you already know, am not afraid to speak my mind and put my money (job?) where my mouth is when it comes to sticking up for my beliefs. I was proud to see our faculty show that they were upset, frustrated, angry and fed up. FINALLY! Too many times we, as teachers, complain but will not say anything because we are afraid. Afraid of what? If we cannot speak our minds intelligently and clearly we truly give up all the rest of our rights along with that. We must stick together on this common ground and JUST SAY NO MORE!!!! I believe our administration would also put this Marzano crap to rest if it could but they, too, are being told what to do. We need to reach the ears of the higher ups. And if that takes SPEAKING LOUDLY, well....I'm Italian. We do that very well! :)

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  10. Go Marzia! Thanks for the rallying cry. Never give up!

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  11. I would definitely be striking if allowed. This is a ridiculous way of evaluating teachers. I am in my last few years, and trying to make it through. I will say I think some of the ideas are good, but not as an evaluation tool. If we ever felt we had to do the perfect lesson before, it’s nothing to compare with the pressure now! This is such a strain to remember what to do, say, display and even move. One shot at perfection. This is not how a teacher teaches in reality, because no one would have the time to prepare each and every lesson to the extent required. I have found in the time I have been teaching, esp. elementary teachers, are too compliant and willing to do whatever for the kids to speak out. This is the time to speak and act for ourselves. Our voices in the teaching community have to be heard loud and clear about this evaluation tool, now!

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  12. Whoever you are, I absolutely agree with you. I'm drafting a post about the problem with us well-meaning, compliant people who would rather not risk alienating our administrators, etc. Thanks for your help!

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  13. Love the comments. Remember the meeting tomorrow at 4 pm with Walt Griffin. This might be a great opportunity to be heard.

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  14. I left the profession 4 years ago. To read this makes me very sad indeed. I looked up Marzano just to see, and it made my head hurt. I cannot even envision how time-consuming it will be to write a lesson. But it is par for the course- another year, another new strategy, assessment, method, blah, blah, blah that EVERY teacher must use regardless of how their students have performed in the past. They- qualify the pronoun however you wish- jut don't get it. They know and preach about individualizing instruction, assessment, yadda yadda, but they insist that students and teachers do not require the same when it comes to monitoring progress. I could go on and on and on. I was already working 55-70 hours a week; I cannot even imagine how many additional hours this would add. I miss teaching- all of the good and genuine things about it- but I could not sacrifice my family and myself anymore to meet the ever growing demands and burdens like these.

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    1. Sorry we lost you, Kendra. Hope you can come back some day. I think this Marzanomess is gonna go away.

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  15. Thank you for writing this. My district has been on a two-year mission to implement Marzano's bunkum. And you clearly illustrated the real problem here: a total failure of leadership. Rather than trying to stop something that literally EVERYONE at the school level knows is bad, they have given up. Dr. Daniel Wexler's review is telling. Also available to highlight the quality--or lack thereof--of Marzano's work are "“Peer-review” of Marzano’s IWB Study Report" and Alfie Kohn's "Abusing Research". And I'm definitely going to start using the "WTM?" at work.

    Another teacher's snarky review of Marzano's Framework:

    http://ventingmycynicism.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-insanity-of-marzano-evaluation.html

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  16. "...the Dark Lord Marzano."

    At least Voldemort knew what he was doing:

    http://ventingmycynicism.blogspot.com/2012/10/marzanos-database.html

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  17. I just went back to work after 14 years as a stay at home mom. I can't get my head above water with all the requirements, data meetings, scales, websites, and hullabaloo. What happened to teaching? The bottom-line to Marzano is MONEY. This guy must have a very nice vacation home!

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  18. Laissez-faire I say, let them be.

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