Coming Out of the Closet

Middle and high school teachers gradually absorb most of the stress of the cultural and historical impact of GPA loaded into the template of the public school curriculum. The path begins to darken around eighth grade when serious tracking in mathematics kicks in, separating future engineers, architects, and scientists from mechanics, carpenters, and lab technicians. Evaluators in the primary grades are stage setters given the twin trackers gifted and talented as well as special ed. There, however, the play goes on with the evaluators in the wings. High school teachers can’t escape the stress of the report card with its tentacles in every period of the day.

Nick Potkalitsky, a teacher leader in Ohio, I believe, Nick can correct me if I’m wrong, is investing much of his time and energy searching for a way to offer his colleagues in secondary and college/university education a pragmatic and effective way to integrate AI into an admittedly archaic and self-defeating system—building the plane while flying it eh? I think Nick has higher hopes for AI in the service of student learning than I, but he understands the technology thoroughly. Me? Not so much. He not only publishes his own Substack, but also massages a group of academics and teachers, including experts in computer science and computational modeling, into a presence on Substack that provides discussion and reporting on the teaching-learning side and the AI side.

Nick taught middle school English and now teaches high school English. I’m not sure if he is department chair, but I know he is a family man with children. I can picture him in a classroom, inspiring his students, committed to them. By the way, he has a PhD and revels in research and theory, far more AI-technical knowledge able than I. Today Nick posted an essay reviewing and reflecting on a recent professional development opportunity he organized and delivered involving AI. I’ve developed a rapport with Nick and offered him public feedback. I’m sharing this exchange with Nick just to give some food for thought. Nick, please post a link to your essay in the comments after you comment:)

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ME: Nice work, Nick. I often wonder where this collective impulse to evaluate children and label them as they grow comes from. It could be from an innocent belief among adults that evaluation is helpful to kids. It lets them know where they stand. They get the chance to label themselves and set expectations for their future based on their gifts or lack thereof. If the basis for that theory is “feedback is helpful,” I say yes for sure, but grades and percentages are a poor substitute for nuanced and empathetic insight. Personally, I’d like to know how I can move to higher ground, and it’s a lot more work for both kids and teachers, but remove the power of the grade from the teacher and see what happens. That move in itself will separate those who teach from those who grade and open the door to professional development on the nature of feedback in pedagogy. AI doesn’t give good feedback like a really observation and knowledgeable teacher can.

I almost think putting children through twelve years plus K of grades IS the reason adults do it. It’s all they know to do. Evaluating adults vis a vis whether they can or cannot design a bridge that doesn’t collapse or cut into a human body to remove an appendix is ethically imperative, but why distort the learning of children? It’s easier?

AI is a godsend for learning. Plugging it into the “let’s get ready to be adults today” model takes the juice right out of the bot. It turns the bot into an arm of the academic police and in many ways pours gas on the nightmare. I’m not comfortable with the teach to process vs teach to product model if the idea is to mandate process and grade it. Mandating and grading reflective analysis is a bit absurd don’t you think?

The edifice of schooling is certainly challenged by AI, and the impulse of adults to double down on evaluation is predictable. Check out Bowles and Gintis (1976?) work on the social reproduction of schooling. The system has adjusted itself over the decades to do whatever it has to do to make sure the outcome reproduces adults who can take their place in the social class in which they are born.

One suggestion: Reorient your strategy from a process product axis to a craft feedback axis. Those words are more direct. Process and product are code words for “do it this way” and “I’m watching you!”.

Nick Potkalitsky

2 hrs agoAuthor

Great feedback. I am increasingly become suspicious of my own terminology too! I like the reorientation you suggest. What I can’t shake in my own practice is the demand by my school to give a final grade. Any suggestions on how to negotiate a feedback model with that overarching structure still in place? Know that I am still thinking about your portfolio article. Maybe it is time to activate the writing project and modality.

ME: Yes. As far as I know, teachers have wide latitude to define their “grading” system. I know exactly what I would do—I could write a book about it (I have—two of them:)—but you need to learn it from your students. I would start off with a discussion: Ask them to debate the question “Grades good for learners? Yes or no. Let them talk in pairs, write in a journal if they want, talk it over with a bot first). Invite them to ask the bot for some thoughts on 1) why adults want schools to issue report cards and 2) how do universities use these reported grades? This leads naturally to a discussion of do I find grades valuable? Would I be more comfortable without them? Would I work harder? Deeper? Do I need my teacher to give me a grade with some stakes attached (GPA)? Keeping in mind I have to grade you or I’ll lose my job, let’s negotiate. Here are the parameters: Everyone reads books. Everyone writes. I reserve the right to assign readings sometimes, though never writings though you will have due dates for deliverables which I will assess based on how hard you worked and your reflections on what you learned. Let’s negotiate a working relationship here which lets me do what they pay me to do, that is,to have the privilege and the honor to teach you. (Please quote me if you use or paraphrase this language. I plan to cut and paste it into a post. I’m talking feedback, Nick. I just gave you some damned good feedback. I expect you to write some naturalistic posts with a strong focus on the learners—narrate and quote them—so others can learned from you. My mentor, David Pearson, said to me upon the occasion of my inadequacy of thanking him for his teaching me during my dissertation, “Terry, here’s how you can repay me. Pay it forward. Treat your students like you think I treated you. It was a pleasure.”