The Governor's Grades

I don't know why I'm so impatient with the huge flap over the Maine Education Department's new school grades. It just seems everyone, from those defending them to those deriding them, is missing the point.

Some say it gives us an inaccurate picture of what is happening in our schools. Some say it doesn't take into account socioeconomic status of our school districts. Others criticize the metrics used to establish these grades, saying that they are statistically invalid -- which is certainly true.

Hard to know what to make of it. Our public education system is based on producing good scores on state standardized tests. With or without these school grades, that's how we are being judged. We have all given our tacit approval to this system. And this is what we get. We complain when someone mangles the data to serve his own purposes, but we don’t complain when for over 10 years high-stakes testing has mangled our education system?

Heather Perry, our local Superintendent, says she knows our schools need to do better. I agree. But when you say, "We know we need to do better," you have to also ask, "Better than what?"

The first step to a solution, they say, is admitting there is a problem. The problem is that over a decade of high-stakes testing have brought stagnation and decline to our schools.  We need to stand up and say no to testing and standardization, but I don't think that's on the To Do list in RSU 3. We will continue to try and "do better" and define this by our test scores...because if we don't, we're in deep doo-doo, aren't we?

Regardless of what we know to be beneficial to the education of our children, we are being judged by their performances on tests. Regardless of any effort to improve education in our district, we will be judged by our children's performances on tests. And if we don't perform, we will submit to consequences.

You don't want our schools to be judged on the basis of test scores? Then do something about it. Opt out. Refuse. Say no.

If you do nothing, then you really can't complain just because your school got an F.

The Sandbox: A Passionate Learning Cooperative.

What makes education really work for children?

What makes learning wondrous and exciting for your child?

Think big. Think wide. Imagine roads, paths, mountain treks, even spacewalks...but don’t put anything in the way that might make your child stumble and fall.

While you work on that, let me tell you a little about The Sandbox: A Passionate Learning Cooperative.

The Sandbox is an idea that has grown from a puzzle I’ve been trying to solve for nine years: how can the community provide high-quality education, despite the growing impact of high-stakes testing and standardization?

Not all communities can pull it off.  I think Waldo County can.

The Sandbox will be powered by the idea that alternatives to public school can be made available to those who need it, regardless of the ability to pay or the feasibility of homeschooling.  We believe that quality education consists of children involved in play, experimentation, inquiry, discovery, creation, and reflection.  

The day will look different for every child, depending on age, interests, projects, or events. With curricula that is set by the passions and goals of the students, they will not miss out on unexpected, unplanned opportunities to learn, and be under no pressure other than their own curiosity, drive, and purpose.

The assessment of learning will lie in the accomplishment of their goals. A gallery opening; a video launched to the public; a book of poetry; a recital; the creation of a robot that works; a garden plan that turns into a real garden...all these things involve an authentic, built-in assessment that doesn’t disrupt the learning process, create competition, or emphasize more mundane aspects of the accomplishment.

For most people, that’s hard to do. We’ve all been trained to trust a numerical grade or a criticism that emphasizes weakness. Younger Sandbox learners will grow up knowing the value of their strengths. Gradually, older Sandbox learners will find that that the joy of leading their learning and the accomplishment of goals will create the genuine satisfaction that climbing the ladder of standards and preparing for tests cannot.

The Sandbox will be a parent-run cooperative dedicated to providing student-led education for the children of our community.  The Sandbox will require a small monthly membership fee and ample opportunities for raising funds...but other than that fee, probably amounting to $300-$400 a year, there will be no cost.

An endeavor such as this must be built on the assumption that day-to-day life will be on a shoestring. Grant-writing, fundraising, and the offering of services to the community for small fees, plus the fact that all the “teachers” will be parents and volunteers, helping theirs and others’ children, will make it possible.

Working parents or those otherwise unable to satisfy day-to-day work requirements of the co-op will assist in other ways: providing transportation of children before and after school, preparing lunches for the week, seeking donations of needed supplies, arranging for special learning experiences, or organizing fundraising campaigns can be among the contributions of members.

So often, families who most need to find an alternative to public school don’t have access to such alternatives.  Full-time working parents may believe that homeschooling is unfeasible, and it’s only those with a comfortable income who can consider private school. Is there a way we can use the power of our community to provide the best possible learning for your kids?

While the Sandbox will rely on its members to do the work of the cooperative, no family will be turned away for inability to pay. This alone makes the endeavor different from other alternatives to public school. The Sandbox will be open and available for similar hours to public school.

So how is it possible that this learning center will survive without charging tuition?

There are a few possibilities.

• The monthly membership fee will give a small amount of operating cash.

• Families who can’t devote time to the working of the school, or participate in fundraising, will be able to opt for a second category of membership. For perhaps a few hundred a month, these members will help add to the co-op’s budget;

• The need for constant fundraising will involve everyone in the co-op community. Students will learn that any idea they have will be considered, and any project they take on will be supported. Think of the educational opportunities that the need for fundraising will provide!

• The Sandbox may offer after-school enrichment activities for public school children; parents can offer weekend workshops and activities open to the whole community for a small fee.

Have more ideas? Then you are perfect for The Sandbox!

You’re probably thinking, “This ship will sink! This plane will never fly!” But we’ve set out our obstacles as part of the fabric of the endeavor. Solving these problems will be the daily work of the Sandbox.

There’s lots of work to do. We need to create a nonprofit organization. We need to find a board of directors and establish bylaws. We need to find a space that has minimal rent and adequate facilities.  We need to raise money.

Meanwhile, let’s go back to that image of wonderful learning we started to imagine at the beginning of this post. Do you think the Sandbox would work well to create this experience for your child? Is this the learning that your children deserve?

It is time to offer our children a path to success in an environment designed to inspire and motivate kids to keep on learning -- without the damage done by high-stakes testing and standardization. It is time to try innovative, community-based ways to address the challenges of a 21st century education. We can prepare students for success in life by delivering authentic learning experiences that matter to them.

It's not going to be JUST a school. It's also activism. By showing what is possible, we will work for better education for all.

For more information, contact Lisa Cooley or join us on Facebook.

Cooley on the Red Carpet?

This kind of glamour is not usually associated with education. Plain clothes and sensible shoes are more the order of the school day. But those heels and long dresses you see are adorning, of all people, teachers.

It's the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences Awards: The Bammys.

"The Academy exists solely to recognize what is right in education by identifying, honoring and celebrating the collective contributions of professionals, paraprofessionals and support staff across the entire education community." 

Lisa Nielsen, who writes the Innovative Educator blog, has been a friend and co-conspirator of mine for a few years now. She is an Academy member, and put my name forward, in addition to a few others from the 31 categories. My category is, of course, School Board Member.

From the nomination page:

"Lisa Cooley brings real education change to the school board table. Her position on progressive education and opposition to high-stakes testing and standardization bring the wider world of school transformation to a rural New England school district. She brings her ideas on meaningful student learning to every aspect of school board activity, from the budget, to curriculum decisions, to student expulsion hearings."

Perhaps most important to me is the fact that each vote has a short statement by the voter. It's an amazing feeling to be praised for exactly those qualities that I value and strive for. This one comes from my friend and fellow-nominee, Deven Black:

"Lisa is an inquisitive school board member working hard to keep student needs front and center in her district. The most striking thing about Lisa is her ability to admit she doesn't know enough about a topic and her tenacious work to learn what she doesn't know. She asks good questions, listens to the answers and then asks more questions, the mark of a life-long learner."

Take a look at the site, and read about some of the nominees. The purpose of the Awards is to call attention to the education profession, take a break from being attacked, villified, tested, evaluated and judged, and honor the best of what we do for children. If you feel like voting, please do! It takes less than a minute to create an account for yourself. 

I know that I would do this work even if I had no support and no appreciation...but I can't tell you how nice it is to have it. So, thanks to Lisa Nielsen (who is also nominated for an award, in the Commentator/Blogger category) for putting my name forward -- and for encouraging me push past thought, and into action.

Lifelike Pedagogy: an Elementary model worth looking at

For all my more famous love affairs with school models, I've never been able to dismiss one small Brazilian school that seems constructed around what kids really want. To choose their work, to fix on a goal and do everything that's needed to accomplish it.

This is the Escola do Max in Brazil. 

School Founder Marcelo Rodrigues, teacher at the school and author of Lifelike Pedagogy, describes it this way:

 "What will children educated through life be capable of in the future? Only an education focused on the experience of real experiments, where the students decide and learn through the achievement of their own enterprise, prepares the child for the challenges that the future will bring, teaching not just the basic scholar disciplines, but also the knowledge that can only be acquired through the experience of life, and yet favoring the development of fundamental skills for a human being to be independent, creative, self-confident and happy."

I read Rodrigues' book over a year ago and it's stayed with me.

All you need to know about it is found in the cave project. Imagine a class of seven-year-olds.

Phase I: Choosing the Theme

Step 1: Exposure. Escola de Max teachers seed the possible projects by placing around the classroom magazines, photographs, books with a wide range of subjects. The children are encouraged to focus on those pictures that give rise to their curiosity. They talk together about what they see, what interests them most, what makes them ask questions.

One of the interesting photographs was of a nearby cave system.

Step 2: Brainstorming. The children announce their ideas for projects: places to go, things to do, construct, study, create. A list of possible activities grows on the blackboard. The teacher gives very little feedback, just assisting the students in creation of a list of ideas.

A cave system exploration was among those ideas.

Step 3: Voting. It's very simple. The kids advocate for their chosen topic; they work to get the votes. The idea with the most votes is the next class project; in this case, the cave theme won!

Phase II: Exploration. 

Questions, theories, ideas are written down and the course of the research is chosen by the class. At the end of this phase, the course of the work has been decided and the kids are fully enlisted in it.

Phase III: Enterprise. 

The project has been decided: they will go visit a nearby cave system, and study every aspect of the flora, fauna, geological and any other interesting aspect of this cave system. In the meantime...wait! There's no money to pay for the trip! The students and teacher work together to figure out how to raise the money. They decided to put on a play and charge parents and friends admission. This raised some but not all of the needed funds; so they made sandwiches and sold them. Finally the money was there!

Meantime, the cave study had been ongoing. They were becoming cave scholars, but hadn't yet set foot in one.

Phase IV: The day arrives! 

Imagine the excitement in the air when they board the buses headed for the caves!

It's so simple and logical that it almost looks too easy. But the back-end of this system consists of teachers who are able to give the power and control of the important stuff to the kids. 

Kids don't really know what can or cannot be done; teachers are there to let them know. If a student says, "We can't go to the cave system, it's too far away," the teacher can put in., "No it isn't. It's only an hour and a half. We can take buses but we have to raise the money." 

They also can point out in equally simple, factual terms, which of the students' ideas are harebrained, and why. 

Rodrigues says, "...the "lifelike" approach aims to form people who believe in themselves, in life and in the world. They feel like they own the world and are capable of overcoming any challenge that may come their way in the pursuit of their dreams.

"The school must be connected with the planet so that the students learn from life, and through life."

Escuela de Max's approach is not unique. It sounds very much like the preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Democracy, agency and empowerment are big words that come from this little school. It's worth thoughtful consideration by anyone interested in real learning.

Step inside Big Picture Learning schools.

The Advisory Series tells a great story of the work, relationships and culture of the BPL school, 

The Met in Providence, RI.

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

These videos speak for themselves. The level of engagement, responsibility, and learning is amazing.

The discoveries the students make are powerful. The most important of these discoveries is what they are capable of accomplishing.

We can do this here!

Let's talk about it.

Support starting a Big Picture Learning School in RSU 3!

"I love you because you breathe"

"The best gift you can give anyone is to believe in them." --Jeff Pulver

This was tweeted and retweeted by the attendees of Educon when they heard Pulver say it at a panel discussion on entrepreneurship. The educators who attend Educon are there because belief in children is a driving force in their teaching practice.

But...under what circumstances? What is the context of that belief? Does an adult typically say, “I know who you are, I understand your goals and your strengths, I know you can succeed and that is what I believe in?”

Or does an adult think “I tell you I believe in you because that will enable you to do this work that you are unwilling to do, don’t find relevant to your life and simply don’t care about?”

Pia Martin, a teacher at the Science Leadership Academy and a leader of the Educon session on Care For vs. Care About: Creating the Ethic of Care,  told attenders, “I tell students, “I love you because you breathe.” She communicates her unconditional love to her students, and says, “I respect you, I’ll nurture you, I’ll care for you, because you breathe.” What is the basis, though, for this unconditional love? It's grounded in the faith that the student will bring whatever he/she has to the class. “If all you have is crap, I’ll work with that...People give you 100% of what you have on a given day, and sometimes all they have is crap, ”

Unconditional love for who you are, whoever you are, today, tomorrow, or yesterday. It starts with identity.

So which do you think teachers should bring to their classroom? Think about what the phrase means when students hear it.

“I believe in you!” says the teacher to the student. “I believe you can do this work that I have given you. You need to believe in yourself.”

“She believes in me,” says the good student. “I can do this. It has no meaning to me, but I’ll push myself harder. It will start to make sense, and I then I will learn who I am.”

“She says she believes in me,” thinks another student, “But I have no idea why. I don’t even know what I can do.”

“I’ll try,” says the anxious student. Looking down at his book, he thinks. “How can I get this stuff into my head? I just don’t understand.”

“You don’t believe in me,” thinks another student. “You don’t know me. You have no idea who I am.” He pushes the paper away and reaches for his iPhone.

“What does she want?” another student asks. “As soon as I figure it out, I’ll do it, and she’ll move on and leave me alone.”

“How can my teacher believe in me? thinks a fourth student.  “Who am I?”

“I believe in myself,” says the self-aware student to the teacher. “I believe in what I need to learn, and this is not it.”

Or do we say to students, "I believe in you and base this belief on my knowledge of you and my acceptance of who you are and the work you find most meaningful."


Then the student thinks,

“My teacher knows me, understands my life and my goals, helps me follow the work that is most meaningful to me. She will not give up on me. In every sense she provides the support I need.”

The statement we heard from students at SLA most often is, “My teachers are really invested in my education.” It’s not a blanket, one-size-fits all belief. It is the product of a system that values the identity, the individuality of every student.

A school board member at Educon?

Educon was overwhelming. 


The Educon gathering is "an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams."


Philadelphia, PA. It's old-home weekend for hundreds of people who have been coming together to share and learn for six years. 

It brought on the same self-conciousness that tends to fall on me when I'm in rooms full of happy talking people catching up. I was told repeatedly, "Just start talking to people," and every time I did that, I was rewarded by a nice conversation and an exchange of some common ground.  I wouldn't let myself leave a room until I initiated two (2) conversations. Then after sufficient connections made, I'd allow myself to run home to the hotel.

By Sunday I realized what Educon means for me. I tweeted out, 

#educon: the place where, when I turn to the people next to me & start talking abt education, they don't think I'm weird & annoying.
— lisa cooley (@coollit) January 27, 2013

It was like taking a bath in chocolate.

After a conversation (Educon's name for breakout sessions) about how to close the gap between public education today and the public education we all want, (Mind the Gap) I ran after one educator with whom I shared some thoughts at the session, and asked, "Can you tell me, am I right to mistrust curriculum? Am I right when I have a negative reaction to any curriculum, because it imposes learning from the outside instead of starting with the student?" She hesitated and then said, "Yes," and we parted. I'm sure there's more to the story, but the important thing was, she knew exactly what I was asking. I need the confirmation from people with a lifetime of educating behind them, that I am on the right track for kids.

Hundreds of educators were in the same building (and expect a blog post on my thoughts about the Science Leadership Academy, where Educon takes place) eager to learn and share their experiences about putting children directly in the center of their learning...in the center both intellectually and emotionally. Chris Lehman, (SLA's principal), in his session on "Creating an Ethic of Care" said that they provide "professional development on caring" for SLA teachers. It's an acknowledgment that learning done well involves the whole child, and a whole community engaged in caring and inquiry.

Focusing on children as the center of education is a sea change in public education today, and needs a special kind of leadership. Chris is that leader, and "his" teachers are, as well. But there were leaders in every session, both in the front of the room and at the tables. 

When called upon to introduce myself, I found myself saying, "I'm a renegade school board member, which is to say, I have no power." People were surprised to have a school board member there; as far as I know, I was the only one in the building. It makes it all the more difficult to come home from Educon. I can't take anything I've learned and put it to work in the classroom. All I can do is...well, what I do. Stay on my Board. Keep trying to ask the right questions, incite conversation, expose people to different ways of thinking.

I can't transfer my Educon experience to my school board colleagues, much as I try. It's a game of throwing ideas at a wall, and seeing what sticks. If people are curious about this intersection between progressive education and technology, there's stuff to view, to read, to listen to. I'll post as many of those resources here as I can in the coming days.