Sara Morris says: "we believe that the teacher contract is a critical tool in education" and that's where she's wrong.

So-called education reformers like Ms Morris are looking for solutions to the problems in public education in the teachers' contract, in test scores, or in the ownership and governance of schools. It's not going to work. The solutions will not be found in these places because these places are not the source of the problems.

Our schools do a great job - and always have - of educating students who arrive at school prepared, supported, and motivated. Our schools do a very poor job - and always have - of educating students who arrive at school unprepared, unsupported, or unmotivated. The solution - and it's pretty obvious to anyone who has ever actually been in a school - is for the school to have the mission, the license, and the funding to provide the missing preparation, support, or motivation for students who need them, and for the schools to accept and fulfill that mission.

The change needs to come in the classroom, not in the board room, not in the test center, and not at the bargaining table.

So-called education reformers know this (or should). So why do they work on efforts that will not actually solve education's problems? Because they are not interested in solving education's problems. They are working in their own narrow self-interests - their wallets. Their efforts are focused in two primary directions: lowering their taxes and directing government contracts into their hands or their friend's hands. It's pretty transparent. All of their efforts drive in one of these two directions. The primary cost of a school is teacher salaries, to their work to cut costs is expressed primarily in efforts to break the teachers' union and to de-professionalize teaching. All of their other reform solutions require large government checks written to test companies, school management companies, or technology companies. They don't make much of an effort to disguise their true focus.

Speaking of thin disguises, the Our Schools Coalition is little more than the Alliance for Education. The Alliance for Education is little more than a finger puppet for the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation funds a fistful of so-called education reform finger puppets (Stand for Children, League of Education Voters, Students First, etc.) to create the illusion of a chorus when it is actually just one voice. None of these groups have any membership. None of them authentically represent any community. Again, the disguise is thin.

All of this - teacher evaluation, charter schools, Teach for America - is a distraction. The real solution needs to begin in the state legislature by fully funding education. All of the rest is an effort to draw attention away from the failure of the state legislature to fulfill their constitutional duty. Let's focus on that, okay?

How can we, as a community, provide children with the preparation, support, and motivation needed to achieve in school if they are not getting these critical elements for success at home?

Preparation can be provided through early education. Full day kindergarten would be a good first step. After that, we need to make sure that families have access to high quality pre-school. This means not only financial support for Head Start and other pre-school opportunities for low-income families, but also a concerted outreach and education effort to daycares (of all types) and stay-at-home caregivers about what young children should be doing and what skills they should acquire to make them kindergarten-ready. These inclue a few "academics" such as colors, counting, and recognition of some letters, but it is primarily social skills like taking turns, sharing, not acting out violently, etc.

It is possible for some districts to extend their services to include pre-school. I have long advocated having childcare centers in high schools. We talk a lot about preparing students for college, career, and life. I see the efforts to prepare them for college and career, but I don't see much effort to prepare them for life. Some instruction in childcare would seem appropriate. This would not only provide affordable childcare for young families but would provide a perfect venue for educating the next generation of parents about how to provide that needed preparation for their children.

Support already comes in the form of meals for students living in poverty. There are some public health efforts in schools as well. Clinics in schools would complete the healthcare need. There are some in high schools and middle schools already. We can extend them to elementary schools through the nurse's office and expand them to include dental and vision care - at least to the extent of providing referrals and subsidized service - and mental health services through an extension of the counselor's office. A number of schools already provide stable and supported study space after school and on weekends. This sort of support is also available in libraries. The schools need to make a stronger commitment to providing early and effective interventions when students fall behind. We need to end social promotion, but repeating grades is not a solution. We definitely need to offer summer school - both as support to help students stay at grade level and as enrichment for students who are already working at grade level.

Motivation is probably the most critical element. The so-called education reform movement touts this quite a bit. They share stories about classrooms where there's a great effort to set the students' sights on college and talk that up. There may be some value in that sort of rah-rah motivation, but we know that motivation to do cognitive work is fostered by autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Students need to be granted more control over their own educations. They need to be afforded greater autonomy. We know they don't get much now. While one might presume that students already have the opportunity to develop mastery - after all, isn't that what school is for? - that is not typically the case. In a lot of classrooms students can only reach familiarity in a topic before the class needs to move on to another topic. Anyone who has seen the CMP II math materials is all too familiar with this failure. Students need to be allowed more time on each topic and the goal should be mastery instead of familiarity. The sense of purpose, the belief that the work is in service to a goal greater than oneself, is also absent in many of our schools, but not hard to instill. Lots of schools incorporate larger goals into their curriculum whether it be social justice, the environment, or technological progress.

This is what education reform should look like and the fact that these efforts are not the focus of the so-called education reform organizations is a disgrace.

"If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought" - Dennis Roth

So every book ever written is poorly thought out?

First, a little history. (And there are many people who can back this up.)

The original group was not Our Schools. It was a group that LEV brought together that worked - for months - as Alliance reps sat at the table and listened. It was League of Women Voters, Seattle Schools Community Forum blog, CPPS, etc. There was a lot of diversity of thought and not the usual suspects.

We thought a community perspective on the teachers contract might help the district. We were in NO way advocating to be at the table. We did have one meeting with Superintendent Goodloe-Johnson and union reps to put forth our concerns. It was working.

But then, the Alliance, who refused to join, suddenly decided THEY would organize a group and created Our Schools. Our Schools wants to drive the teacher contract conversation.

That conversation is between management and the union. Period. Input is great but trying to insert a third group into the picture is wrong. (Sara Morris' demuring to the contrary.)

And that question of "whose kitchen table?" is a good one. Many of those in the Our Schools coalition don't even give input on what is written. There are no visible partnerships about who decides what their written points are.

Steve Sundquist said this:

"The real challenge is implementation and the inability to sustain systemic initiatives.”

What did YOU do as a Director or School Board President to make this happen?

What is interesting is this idea that education is ALL about the teacher and directing the teacher and the classroom. Makes it easy to find fault, makes it easy to not focus on other issues.

I hope the district takes everything the Our Schools Coalition says with a grain of salt and takes it as seriously (or not) as they do any other group's input about teachers and their contract.

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The Alliance for Education does a great job pushing initiatives that are not financially sustainable.