Dr. Anurag Dugar’s Post

We learned a lot about what teachers DON'T want to hear from this new Education Week article, which begs the question... what DO teachers want to hear? Educators, what words or phrases do you want to see more exploration around? Let us know in the comments! https://ubnd.org/40BPsLo #EdTalk #Education #Educators #Teachers

What do we expect from junior high and high school students? I, recently, served local school communities as a substitute and full-time temporary classroom aide. In those few months, I learned much about faculty and staff expectations for the students. While there were many expectations regarding social and emotional standards, I was struck by the expectations for academic standards! 📖 Class textbooks were 25 years old...for American History! 💯 Worksheets and quizzes were mainly used to reinforce textbook content. 💻 Group work was rarely encouraged while individual online activities were always encouraged. Student learning was challenging. One high school student exclaimed in frustration, "How does this school expect me to learn on my own when I have a learning disability?! I do worksheets by myself. I do online work by myself. I'm supposed to be quiet, keep to myself, and be like everyone else. I hate it here!" Now, that's a perspective! I heard that teachers were informed that "no student can fail." Academic standards were lowered to ensure all students passed and graduated. Being "held back" or "failing" is no longer an option. I don't know how it is fixed or becomes different for the faculty and students. Both seem frustrated, disappointed, and tired. Maybe this is what public education is now. But it seems different from what I remember. What have you seen or experienced regarding academic standards in public schools? #teaching #education #academics Photo by Taylor Flowe on Unsplash

Sadly, spot on for too many high schools and universities anymore: I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. ***The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders.*** This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. ***Although teachers do care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience.*** It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor. ~John Taylor Gatto (Book: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling [ad] https://amzn.to/3xDlkVt)

Partnership is often essential to a literacy program's success in boosting reading rates. Our Mid-Atlantic Executive Director suggests two important things for schools and districts to keep in mind when looking for a partner: 1️⃣ "They should be looking for a partner that has a curriculum rooted in the science of reading. We now know that the science of reading is an approach that centers students. It reaches the most students and helps them acquire the early literacy skills they need to succeed in a measurable way that is supportive of their experience. And we need to make sure that all of our reading readiness curricula are rooted in the science of reading." 2️⃣ "The second thing I recommend that schools and districts look for is partners that are centering families in the process. Not just engaging families, but partnering with them and giving them the opportunities to be deeply involved in the learning cycle itself." #Literacy #Education #K12Education

It's not just curriculum that matters. The experience of school helps make us who we are. Let's not forget what we are fighting for. https://lnkd.in/gC74cnNB

Why do schools often fail to develop students beyond minimum competency? Consider my experience where fully teaching our best students was met with constant administrative pushback. My article below went out nationwide today in the outstanding ADVANCE newsletter, the preeminent place to write on such topics. It’s the tip of the iceberg but illustrative of the daily battles we had to fight for our kids. We needed to sneak around and break rules so we didn’t get caught teaching. You read that correctly. It happens in many more settings than you may realize. The administrator here was one of many doing the philosophical bidding of those even higher on the org chart. You can refrain from specifically naming anything here (IYKYK—and some of you know or could figure it out), since it’s emblematic of what regularly occurs across the country especially in higher-achieving districts. Enjoy the quick read of my misfortune! Worse, the students lose. https://lnkd.in/eFatVRez "I Got Caught Teaching Advanced Students" Teachers must sometimes help high achievers surreptitiously to avoid professional difficulty, meaning optimal learning for these students is occurring in spite of some of the adults. JASON GORGIA AUG 20, 2024 “Come see me in the office.” Uh oh. I probably got caught teaching again. I got in trouble more often as a teacher than as a student. That happens when you advocate for those furthest from the norm in schools, especially advanced students. Richard Rusczyk, my CEO at Art of Problem Solving, has said that when he talks with the best classroom teachers about what they’re doing, “I hear a lot of rulebreaking.” You shouldn’t have to sneak around to do right by your kids, but I found it happens consistently in K–12 education. Before I taught in this school, I served as the Assistant Director of the American Psychological Association’s Center for Gifted Education Policy. I was well aware of the philosophical and logistical challenges to meeting such students’ needs in typical public schools. As a classroom teacher, however, I directly experienced administrative pushback for my efforts to address those needs. The setting was a seventh grade algebra program for high-achieving students in a large suburban district in the mid-Atlantic region. I took a seat in the office of an administrator who had just emailed her concerns that our curricular extensions were “too advanced” and “elitist.” (I still keep that email.) “Is this yours?” she inquired. It was from one of the other two teachers of the course, but it aligned with material I was teaching. The document in question was a math quiz accidentally left at a copier. The school year was nearly over, but as in many schools when state testing was completed, the school year essentially was over…except in math. We kept teaching. “We’ve had a parent complain,” she intoned gravely. I was confused. “About what?” Read the rest at https://lnkd.in/eFatVRez

2024 Education Predictions: NWEA’s expert voices from policy to research to professional learning weigh in on what they predict will be key issues facing educators and schools in the coming years. California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators Association of California School Administrators   

Quality of Education largely depends on the quality of teaching professionals.

The link below is a powerful essay from a long time teacher concerning how over his 20 years as a professional, demands, constraints, meetings and requirements have "only increased while the autonomy of the classroom was becoming less and less." something I hear around the globe. https://lnkd.in/gY38g_FT

In the weekly #Sundaydiaryy read, "Educational Pursuits: Public Service, Not Personal Gain" In the article, I argue how all forms of educational pursuit by a teacher are essentially a public service rather than a personal gain. Read in detail at https://lnkd.in/gdQ_iHwP