Cultivating Exceptional Classrooms; Unmasking Missing Links to Achieve Quality Education

Preface

AMERICA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM IS IN CRISIS. OUR TEACHING workforce is shrinking and shows no signs of reversing course. Predictably, the most detrimentally impacted are students. The constant flow of educators leaving schools further hinders student performance outcomes in public schools across poor and minority communities, which already endure so many disadvantages. School districts are experiencing a real Break Glass in Case of Emergency moment as the urgent demand for teachers to fill positions across most states increases at an alarming rate. Many people will attribute the mass departure to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic has accelerated the pace of current teacher departures, our national teaching shortage actually began in the years preceding COVID. Both the prolonged and recent departures have something in common at their core: an erosion of trust.

COVID exacerbated and intensified the widespread exit of teachers, but it has revealed other fissures in our public education system. Teaching shortages were forecasted several years ago when enrollment in college teaching programs saw significant declines in students interested in pursuing a career in teaching. When teachers employed in public schools began to leave the profession, there simply were not enough trained professionals available to replace them. As the volume of early departures increased, many districts were caught by surprise. Instead of paying attention to the earliest signals foreshadowing early retirements and taking proactive measures to prevent mass exoduses, districts suddenly find themselves reacting. Regrettably, there seems to be little interest in determining the causes for the departures. Burnout is among the most common reasons teachers will openly admit to contributing to their decision to quit.

Burnout, which is a mental, emotional, and physical health issue, can take many forms. Over-exhaustion and stress are contributors. Then the arrival of a health pandemic caused so much more uncertainty that massive numbers of teachers chose to not return to work when schools reopened. Having previously experienced being ignored when trying to convey signs of distress related to poor working conditions, many teachers wondered how they could possibly entrust those same leaders with critical life decisions. Many existing fissures expose the level of erosion of trust, and the arrival of an unprecedented health crisis widened the chasm even further. Initially, teachers and families truly wanted and needed to be able to trust the judgment of those responsible for their personal health and well-being. Yet they sensed that decisions for reopening schools for in-person learning had more to do with a desire to rescue the economy, which needed students back in school so parents, who are among the nation’s highest number of employees, could return to work. Teachers and parents became skeptical about assurances that conditions were safe. Such skepticism resulted in significant spikes in staffing shortages during school reopenings because teachers and other staff members diligently kept track of the number of hospitalizations and the rising death rates in their communities. They saw that, despite the data, plans to reopen schools were proceeding.

Though school districts pledged to unequivocally hold every school, without exception, to the absolute highest safety protocol standards, these promises fell short in schools with nonworking—and in some cases nonexistent—HVAC systems. Shortages of testing kits to honor rapid-testing promises, along with poorly managed contact-tracing efforts, added to the mistrust. Those issues were then compounded by the lack of careful monitoring to track COVID’s presence within schools. That was an especially problematic misstep.

Even more tragic were the measures some school districts took to blatantly disguise or cover up any information that contradicted their messaging. Once teachers, students, and family members began to fall sick with COVID, members of the community discovered they could no longer trust what they were being told. The decision to contradict the actual data, which was also imperfect, was, for teachers and families, more evidence of a failure in leadership. For many educators, the increasing misrepresentations about the status of COVID infections in their communities, and eventually into their schools, significantly spiked their level of mistrust. Predictably, more teacher departures were inevitable.

Teacher salaries have long been among the lowest among many professions, and were another reason high numbers of teachers were exiting the profession. Across many states, salaries are still very low; this holds little to no appeal for college students who seek a profession that offers more than incomes not even high enough to keep up with the cost of living while repaying astronomically high student loans. Reversing the current trajectory of low enrollment rates in college teaching programs and the continued flow of early teacher departures from classrooms is not only a salary issue but a lack-of-school-based-resources issue. Both are directly tied to underfunded school budgets. Increased funding at the school level is the catalyst needed to retain teachers and increase enrollment in college teacher training programs.

Over the years, not only did the continued cycle of budget cuts for public schools contribute to teachers’ earning low incomes, but the reduced budgets forced those who remained in schools to take on additional responsibilities with little to no support. Across many communities, news of budget cuts is made public; but rarely is the public informed about the consequences of those cuts. Decreases in school budgets often cause a reduction in staff members. When the number of students enrolled either stays the same or increases, the process of redistributing students among the remaining staff members is beyond burdensome. Inheriting more students results in filling classrooms beyond their capacity and disrupts the entire educational eco-system in classrooms. To be clear, staff reductions and overpopulated classrooms contributed to downgrading the quality of instruction many years prior to COVID. Once the pandemic arrived on the doorstep of every school, it brought more uncertainty and unleashed widespread health insecurity. Expecting already overworked and underappreciated school staff to rely on federal and district leaders to be truthful and transparent when announcing assurances related to pandemic safety protocols left many feeling even more dubious. In essence, those in charge of administering inadequate school budgets, that reflected how poorly teachers were valued, were now responsible for ensuring the health of students, teachers, and their family members at a moment when there was little margin for error.

Despite these challenges, our public education system remains one of the foundational pillars our society relies on to educate students. The arrival of COVID may have exacerbated the failures of our public education system, but those failures have been in need of our attention over the span of many decades. The pervasive educational disparities evident in student performance outcomes in poor communities are because of decreasing school budgets, increased teacher departures, and low student enrollment in college teaching programs. But the overarching disparity is the ongoing lack of respect for America’s teaching profession. By way of example, let’s look at another pervasive movement that shows even further evidence of a lack of respect for teachers. States unable to keep pace with the volume of teacher departures are deploying measures that will irreparably harm our education system. State leaders are replacing trained licensed professionals with unlicensed and unqualified adults for teaching positions in classrooms. Not only is it a disastrous decision, but it further devalues the teaching profession. However, there is one beneficiary of the current cycle of staffing shortages resulting in the hiring of citizens without the prerequisite professional license: the conditions for eroding trust in our public education system are serving the interests of those who have long pined for the opportunity to privatize our education system. Proponents of expanding school choice and voucher programs are poised to seize any opportunity to increase the presence of charter schools. The recent hiring of unlicensed adults to drive school buses, work in cafeterias, or take over teaching positions, where the only qualification required is availability, helps to fuel expectations of an inevitable collapse. Most frightening is the absolute disregard for student safety. But irresponsible measures that deny students the right to receive an education from non-credentialed staff members allowed to pose as teachers ought to outrage everyone. Are we really willing to tolerate exchanging instruction with conditions that resemble highly populated study halls?

Dismissing previous qualifications and setting aside state and federal licensing requirements, in order to allow the casual replacement of skilled teachers with unqualified staff members, is a sign that schools will likely become day-care facilities that require only minimal instruction and learning. We should all be highly concerned at this moment, but not totally shocked. Efforts to privatize our public education system have been successful across many communities over the past few decades. When politicians overtake the authority of superintendents and entire school departments, while being courted by corporations invested in the expansion of school choice, the timing of those decisions is not coincidental. Incentives offered to democratic and republican politicians have proven to be quite a persuasive tactic.

The recent renewed interest in increasing charter schools in urban communities across the country has had a chilling effect on communities who were once promised, by those running for office, that public schools would never be abandoned. More specifically, reassurances included explicit commitments to improve schools, prevent them from closing, and under no circumstances allow an expansion in the number of charter schools in their city. Promises quickly lost credibility when schools’ annual budgets continued to decline. Shrinking budgets all but ensured educational inequities would continue, causing academic achievement gaps to widen further. All of the broken promises, combined with the lack of investments in measures to improve the educational fortunes of poor and predominantly minority communities, have allowed the political narratives of failing public schools to gather more steam in the hopes of convincing the public that charter schools and school choice are the only remaining choice.

The existence of public charter schools has been a bit of a conundrum. Many years ago, when I first heard about charter schools, my opinion revolved around a belief that any school successful in providing quality education with measurably verifiable results was worthy of being supported. Today I hold in very high regard some charter schools that have certifiably been able to prove a history of having achieved high academic standards. Regrettably, the inequitable funding formula, where charter schools have evolved at the expense of public schools, which can least afford to incur additional financial loss, resulted in charter schools’ coming at a high cost to public schools. The funding model used by federal and state leaders in the departments of education to bolster student enrollment in charter schools was unfair. Students unenrolled in public schools and transferred into charter schools had the same level of per-pupil allocated funds transferred with them. The drop in enrollment in public schools significantly depleted their school budgets. Basically, it seemed the funding allocation process relied on a practice of robbing poor Peter to pay economically well-off Paul. But the real insult to injury was being promised by the state that the equivalent of funds lost due to student transfers would be fully or partially refunded to school districts. In many communities, that promise was never fulfilled.

There has been a recent emergence of another perspective shared by a segment of our population: those who see the education delivered in public schools as an infringement on the rights of parents. While I wholeheartedly agree that parents ought to be included in the educational process of their children, I have concerns about extreme points of view expressing displeasure with issues related to inclusion and celebration of our nation’s pluralism. In fact, their attempts to replace factual content in school curriculums prevents me from regarding their demands as rational or in any way helpful in efforts to identify and address disparities in our education system. What they propose will only serve to widen the disparities. And it feels intentional.

The makeup of some school board candidates, in strong support of fringe ideology that does not remotely represent quality educational policies, is adding fuel to the level of mistrust in our public education system. If federal funding is the primary source of public school budgets, it seems the government should use its oversight authority to review new standards and mandates to ensure that efforts to eradicate legitimate content from schoolbooks and overthrow school policies that support equity for all students do not succeed. Government funds have been withheld from organizations that are in non-compliance with regulations that were made explicitly clear. Public schools are the property of the federal government, and so too should be the policies inside of all public schools funded by the government.

Ongoing verbal, physical, and emotional abuse and threats endured by schools’ staff and leaders are also causing more departures. The turmoil incited by adults harboring groundless grievances against government agencies has found its way to the doorsteps of our public schools in several regions. What I find most confounding is the absence of any effort by government officials to push back and prevent this group of education obstructionists from entering schools. To combat recent attempts to undermine our public education system, such initiatives as federal government intervention and oversight must be undertaken to ensure the protection of current teachers and staff members, whom we need to remain in the profession. Students are already learning to live with the uncertainty of their personal safety inside of schools; how much more pain should be inflicted on them? Communities with constituents who fervently disagree with policies and freely choose how they will communicate their displeasure are cultivating bullying and intimidation tactics with impunity; while other populations, who do less or may not be guilty of anything, are subjected to harsher responses.

In addition to guaranteeing the protection of school staff, students, and family members, there are other immediate and pragmatic steps we can and should consider taking, right away, to retain teachers and other staff members. Since teachers are so central to preserving educational standards, it makes sense to focus on what they need to convince them to remain in classrooms. Now is a great time to start rethinking how we value and express our appreciation to members of the teaching profession. One idea to convey how much we value what they do for America’s children is to extend Teacher Appreciation Day throughout the entire school year. What would make it more meaningful is to align proclamations of appreciation with evidence proving how much their efforts are held in high esteem. Raises in salary may entice more teachers to remain in the profession. In addition to increasing salaries, their student loan debts should be forgiven. Loan debt forgiveness and higher teaching salaries will also incentivize more college students to enroll in teaching programs. Future generations of trained and fully qualified educators will be needed to replace those who retire, as well the current crop of untrained and unlicensed recruits occupying teaching positions in schools in some states.

Another idea to convey how much we value a teacher’s service is to direct our attention to their professional aspirations of making a difference in the lives of their students. Their ability to make a meaningful difference in the lives of their students has got to translate into actionable steps that result in strengthening the quality of instruction they plan and deliver each day. Our education system can design a professional development model designating resources to advance the professional growth of teachers. The actionable steps in this book are framed around the mission every teacher intended to achieve when they initially chose a career in teaching: to cultivate classroom cultures that enable all students to learn.

Cultivating Exceptional Classrooms envisions ways to elevate teacher success and prevent burnout. The measures proposed for helping teachers cultivate exceptional classrooms would greatly benefit from a united group of advocates in favor of efforts to rejuvenate our investment in public education. I believe it starts with recognizing the real value of those who worked to earn college degrees, met the necessary qualifications required for a teaching license, and then dedicated themselves to a career of constantly giving. Because of our failure to recognize and appreciate the real value of public-school teachers, conditions have continued to deteriorate further, making it impossible for many teachers and other school staff members to remain in the profession. Their ambivalence about their decision to leave is sincere. It is often evident in the tears that flow while they carry packed boxes from their classroom to their car.

It is the dedicated teachers—those who tirelessly give of themselves on behalf of their students—who led me to conclude that now is the time to bring awareness about the extensive demands placed on school staff members. Staffing shortages are leading to overpopulated classrooms. Overpopulated classrooms create conditions less conducive to teaching and learning. I may sound like a bit of an alarmist, but I do wonder: how many of us are truly aware that our public education system may be teetering on the verge of collapse across many low-income communities?

We hear, but do not seem to take seriously, threats of public schools across poor urban and rural communities being taken over by corporations interested in expanding privatization of our education system. Those of us advocating for our national government to retain control of our public education system have to create a movement to improve our public education system, and make it worthy of saving. Changes are needed to justify why it should remain under the auspices of our national government. Those changes may also prove to be our best chance of replacing educational policies that have contributed to our current predicament in which underperforming schools produce underwhelming numbers of highly educated students.

Enhancing the quality of education is not just the responsibility of teachers; it belongs to all of us. We can insist schools are allocated budgets necessary to fund professional development resources; but let’s make certain they are directed at the classroom level. It is essential that all professional development resources are aligned with today’s realities and the responsibilities teachers perform in classrooms.

This preface began with a discussion about factors contributing to an erosion of trust that has resulted in increasing numbers of teacher departures. Sadly, if we are unable to replace qualified and trained teaching professionals with other qualified professionals, confidence in our public schools will erode even further, and that will also clear the way for expansion of charter schools. The choice between sending your child to a place that provides an education versus facilities replacing qualified teachers with available adults capable of just supervising them may eventually be the real, and only, school choice model of the 21st century.

It is unacceptable to educate our kids in public schools that lack professionally trained and qualified teachers. The lasting impact of remote learning for many students currently enrolled in overcrowded classrooms supervised by unlicensed adults will make recovering lost learning time unlikely. Similar to the aftermath of citizens who recovered from the virus but now suffer from long-haul symptoms, for so many children whose education was paused during remote learning, the addition of unqualified staff in schools will increase the lapse of instructional time and further jeopardize the students’ chances of recovering the education they are being denied.

Introduction: Purpose

Educating the Whole Student: How Teacher Expertise Affects Student Outcomes

QUALIFIED, SKILLED TEACHERS ARE THE FOUNDATION OF STUDENT success in the classroom. Their level of education is critical and consequential to the broad range of responsibilities required to educate their students. Acquainting readers about each of the labor-intensive and arduous responsibilities required of teachers is next to impossible. Without the proper training and guidance, teachers are enormously challenged in the responsibility of managing a diverse population of students. In spite of their strong determination to succeed, many first-year teachers are capable but inadequately equipped to meet this challenge on their own.

It Begins on Day One

In the early days of the start of a new school year, orienting students to class routines, policies, schedules, and expectations generally feels familiar. The rituals associated with the start of a new school year bring about a feeling of comfort for most students. The fact that most schools have had similar routines in place for years, across all grade levels, helps students predict expectations at the start of each school year; it makes for a seamless transition from one grade to the next. In fact, their familiarity with the first-day-of-school rituals, generally contributes to their excitement and eagerness to be back in school. Appearing ready for another year of instruction at a new grade level is a socially conditioned response. For example, fifth grade students who have attended the same school since kindergarten have learned what to expect in previous years. Upon their arrival they settle in and take on a posture of compliance. The calm and relaxed presence of students familiar with opening day routines contributes to the appearance of a stable school and classroom culture.

However, after the initial days of a rather smooth beginning, which many teachers refer to as the honeymoon period, the shift to instruction is where they notice the emergence of how truly diverse and varied students’ performance levels differ from one another. Differing, too, are the levels of confidence among students in what initially appeared to be a uniform population ready to learn. Because students experience the process of learning differently, the 20 to 25 seats filled on day one will eventually reveal the presence of 20 to 25 different learning profiles.

When the agenda shifts from orientation about policies, teacher expectations, and other non-academic activities to instruction, teachers are often perplexed by the changes that come over their students. Those who learn more quickly are excited when their classroom culture finally shifts from social orientation about class policies and routines to instruction. However, for students who struggle with learning, it can be terrifying to shift from having time to get socially acclimated—for many, their strongest asset—to instruction.

Disruption to a student’s social comfort zone can cause some to retreat and reemerge as an entirely different person from the one who previously appeared quite friendly and compliant. Reemerged personas can come in many different behavioral forms, including shyness, inability to stay focused, excessive talkativeness, frequent distractability, or clowning activity. Yet schools often overlook the link between academic instruction and the sudden manifestation of distracting behaviors. Changes in behavior by students who previously experienced academic failure can elicit signs of fear and insecurity about having to experience another year of doing poorly in a particular subject or multiple subjects.

Why haven’t we yet figured