Todd Jones
Todd Jones teaches history, government, economics and international relations at West Linn High School. His 13 years of teaching social studies and language arts in middle and high schools follows ten years of work in state politics and public relations, including four years with Secretary of State Phil Keisling, two years with State Treasurer Randall Edwards, and stints with Portland communications firms Northwest Strategies and Metropolitan Group. Currently he serves on advisory boards for Chalkboard Project, the West Linn Parks and Recreation Board, and Oregon Model United Nations. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Willamette University and a master’s degree in teaching from Lewis and Clark College.
Story #1: I teach International Relations at West Linn High, a course juniors and seniors can take to fulfill a social studies requirement. Part way through the spring semester, I was discouraged to realize that over half my 100 IR students were missing assignments. Considering we’d averaged only one homework assignment per week, and a couple of the assignments were quite easy, I was troubled. It is my goal only to assign homework I believe will benefit students, and when they don’t complete homework it hampers their ability to succeed.
So with complete parental and administrative support, I sprang a surprise on students: If you do not complete every assignment, you will not pass this class. Even if you’re earning a passing grade, if you have even one missing assignment, I will enter “incomplete” in the gradebook and you will not receive a credit. Some were shocked, realizing that no credit could mean not graduating.
I was nervous about the new policy. I wondered whether all students would pull through, and if they didn’t, if I’d be willing to be the one obstacle that stood between them and graduation. I wondered whether at crunch time a parent would challenge the policy.
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Category: parent involvement, student achievement, student success, teacher effectiveness, teaching strategies | No Comments »
Tags: at risk students, reflection, student achievement, student engagement, teacher effectiveness, teaching strategies
Originally published in the Oregonian, as “How about some straight talk about fiscal crisis?”
This past election I received 146 political mailings. They contained hundreds of promises, including vows to support businesses and seniors, improve healthcare and education, and reduce taxes and regulations. Beautiful promises all. But not one of the promises was to cut public programs or raise taxes. Troubling, since state and national fiscal crises suggest we must do both.
My economics students understand this. This fall we watched “I.O.U.S.A.,” which revealed that federal debt swelled to $12.7 trillion in 2009. Bad news, considering we have not budgeted for the additional $46 trillion Social Security and Medicare will cost over the coming decades.
My government students understand as well. A state senator visited with us recently and said Oregon must cut over $3 billion from a $15 billion budget over the next two years, about 20%.
Our national leaders understand, too, but sadly, they’re unwilling to admit it. This month our president and Congress turned their backs on the recommendations of the deficit reduction commission, then declared victory as they extended expiring tax cuts and heaped another $850 billion onto our mountain of national debt.
Why won’t they confront reality? Is it because we aren’t willing to? Consider Oregon. About 93% of our discretionary budget is spent on education, human services and public safety, so cutting 20% means cutting vital services. And in education, where about 85% of spending goes to wages and benefits, that means cutting people. But public servants are quick to react against this, understandably so.
Do I deserve to have my wages cut? I don’t think so. I care a great deal about our kids, and I work hard to support their growth and success. My commitment is reflected in my hours. I’m paid for a 40-hour week, and on that basis, I make about $40 per hour, a good wage. I don’t work 40 hours per week, though. I average 55 – my longest last year was 77 – so my true hourly rate is under $30. If you include the 135 hours I worked last summer unpaid to prepare for this year, my hourly rate is under $28. Factor in the $5070 my pay is cut this year due to 15 eliminated school days and my rate is just over $25.
So no, as a guy with a master’s degree and 25-years professional experience, I don’t think I deserve a cut. But I suspect none of us do. And that’s okay. In fact, I hope all of us, be we public or private sector, believe in what we do and that we deserve all we get. The problem is, fiscal reality suggests that the question before us is not what do we deserve, but what can we afford? The answer: increasingly less.
So, to elected officials reluctant to speak the truth, I, a voter, invite you to do just that. If you’re in Congress, tell me you may need to means test me for Medicare, or raise the age at which I’m eligible for Social Security.
If you’re in the Oregon legislature, tell me you may need to raise the gasoline tax, or ask me to pick up part of my public employee retirement contribution.
I invite you to be honest with me, and if you will, I promise this – you’ll have my vote.
Category: education reform, teacher advocacy | No Comments »
Tags: activism, budget cuts, teacher advocacy, teacher frustration
Traditionally, grades have been interpreted as C means average, B means above average, A means excelling, D means below average, and F means failing. Yet no student of mine in fourteen years of teaching believes this. My students view B as average, A as above average, C as below average and D/F as failing.
Furthermore, I’m unsure whether most students know what it means to excel. Most are accustomed to earning As for simply following instructions. It’s not uncommon for a student to ask me why an essay was scored a B, when they listed all the requested information. I’ll reply yes, you listed the information, but you didn’t explain the information, support the information, demonstrate that you truly understand the information. In other words, you met the minimum criteria, but you didn’t surpass them. Often I receive a blank stare in response.
It seems that our students are receiving increasingly better grades, and not necessarily working harder or smarter to earn them. A 2005 study by the organization that administers the ACT test concluded, after analyzing the GPAs and ACT test scores of 800,000 students per year over 13 years, that grades had inflated over 12% over that time period, meaning a student that scored a 20 on the ACT in 2003 had a 12% higher GPA than a student that scored a 20 on the ACT in 1991.
If grade inflation exists, if we instructors are assigning students ever higher grades, then we may be doing them a disservice. They may be learning that top marks are not hard to come by, and that’s certainly not going to motivate them to become the next great innovators and problem solvers our world needs.
I’m not suggesting teachers simply need to grade students harder. In truth, I wish we didn’t have to “grade” students at all. I wish, instead, that we could simply provide students and their families meaningful qualitative information and data to monitor and promote learning and growth. But as long as we do have grades — as long as colleges and communities look to grades, regrettably, as the sole barometers of student achievement — then we owe it to students to hold them accountable to solid standards and evaluate their work accordingly, and resist pressure from students, parents and administrations to grant favorable grades. That means when a student and/or parent asks for extra credit assignments at the end of a semester for the sole purpose of boosting scores, we should reply no, and let scores reflect actual performance.
Category: education reform, student success, teaching strategies | No Comments »
Tags: classroom tactics, education reform, student achievement, test critera
A parent emailed me and four other of her son’s teachers last week. She was concerned about his low grades and requested a meeting with us. In advance of the meeting I asked my colleagues about their experiences with this student, and one commonality stood out — He often is sleepy in class.
At the meeting I asked the parent if she knew how much sleep her son got each night. She did not know. I asked him when he typically goes to bed, and he would say only “late.” I then asked the parent what kind of electronics he has in his bedroom. “Oh, the usual,” she said. “Phone, laptop computer, iPod, television.”
This is an all too typical story in our high schools. Kids will complain that they’re up until all hours doing homework — and for some that is true — but for many the homework is tucked in between texts, facebook postings, downloads and The Daily Show.
It is recommended that teenagers get 8-9 hours of sleep per night, but a 2007 survey published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reveals only 8% of high school students hit that mark. Most sleep 6-7 hours, with 23% regularly getting only 6 hours, and 10% only 5 hours.
The result? A 2006 study by the National Sleep Foundation reports that 1/4 of high school students fall asleep in class. The Foundation adds that “experts” tie lost sleep to poorer grades.
So parents, you want to help boost student achievement? Please make sure your kids are getting proper rest. How will you know if they’re not? The Sleep Foundation says to watch for these signs: (1) Difficulty waking; (2) Inability to concentrate; (3) Drifting in class; (4) Moodiness or depression.
How can you know for certain whether they’re getting enough sleep? Check on them! You are still the parent. If they’re not getting enough sleep, you and your kids may need to make some changes. You may need to limit their activities so they don’t have to be up until 2 am doing homework. And you certainly may need to limit their access to electronics in the privacy of their bedrooms.
Don’t want to be the bad guy? Blame me, the teacher. I’ll take the heat. For their sake.
Category: parent involvement, student success, teacher advocacy, teaching strategies | No Comments »
Tags: classroom tactics, student engagement, teacher frustration
