Thread by @ezigbo_

If you’ve followed me here any length of time, you know (I hope) that I do not take myself too seriously but I am unapologetically, insanely serious about public education. NAEP scores are out, Alabama is ranked last and I am lead to weigh in. This is a thread. 1/

#aledchat

To be absolutely clear, nothing written hereafter should be construed as an excuse. Public education should and must work well for every student. No matter how you slice it, it does not. I’m one of the ones doing the work and the job is not getting done. That’s unacceptable. 2/

At the same time, I reject completely the notion that public education “sucks” or even the apocalyptic warnings that have sounded for many decades - you know “A Nation at Risk” and its predecessors and successors. Painting with a broad brush of condemnation is just foolish. 2/

NAEP hot take #1:

Shame on everyone acting surprised. You absolutely must not be paying attention if you didn’t see this coming. Every system is perfectly aligned to the results it gets. I have spoken out repeatedly against decisions that hurt education in AL. And will again. 4/

We eliminated funding for libraries in 2009. It stayed at $0 for 7 years. But in 2012, we created a school report card, a huge chunk of which is reading proficiency. With a straight face, we declared 104 schools “failing” last year. 97 of them were 90%+ poverty. See the issue? 5/

BTW, library funding shot up this year to 3/4 of the 2009 level (UNadjusted for inflation). Now schools have enough to buy about 1 new book for every 2 students - IF they don’t buy anything else it takes to run a library. But not having enough books is irrelevant, right? 6/

NAEP hot take #2: You get what you pay for.

The experts say funding is neither adequate nor fair. And miss me w/your “why’s it always about money”. Cause I hear that loudest from folks who are cool paying local taxes to hook up their own kids’ school. 7/
al.com/news/2016/11/a…

Opinion: it is nuts to me that folks rail against the “high cost” of public education. You get it with your own child. But even if you are a Scrooge, you do know that an educated citizenry benefits everyone, right? 8/

Question for all who read @Trish_Crain’s article on the scores: which “officials” did you assume she was talking about. Cause administrators - from @AlabamaDeptofEd to assistant principals, and ME - absolutely should be held accountable. But just us? 9/

al.com/news/2019/11/a…

Final point (maybe) which I will make as bluntly as possible: public education is dying.

Set aside everything else that supports that conclusion and just look at the work force. Experts have been warning of teacher shortages for a while. But we (society) ignore them 10/

If you want a pile of the evidence, I can provide it. But here are highlights:

-Enrollment in colleges of education are sharply down. More than 50% lower since 2010 years for many; one local college that usually graduates 100+ teacher candidates has 11 in the class of 2020. 11/

-Teaching is massively complex. We give lip service to appreciating teachers but the lack the autonomy, voice, & pay (compared to professions that require similar preparation) sends a message teachers read loud and clear.

Not guessing or exaggerating: research forthcoming. 12/

There’s more to the puzzle but these factors are sufficient for now: teaching is very complex & very difficult - under the best circumstances. A high school senior who could teach well could make more money for a similarly difficult job or be less stressed for the same pay... 13/

...so she takes one of those jobs instead. In her place (yes, her, check the demographics of teachers) we are forced to hire someone who never set out to be a teacher or whose training lasted one summer or who should never have made it through the teacher education program. 14/

She does her very best & we work hard to help her succeed. But she quits after her 1st year. Or by her 5th. And she is MUCH more likely to work at a poor school teaching minority students. There are only 11 candidates to take her spot & 100+ we need annually in our district. 15/

I speak only for myself when I say *everything* we do in response to these devastating NAEP scores will be meaningless if we do not make the professionalization of teaching our top priority. Because when we run out of teachers (not if), it won’t matter what the plan is. 16/end