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School is resuming at Montrose. We had two days of in-service, Tuesday and Wednesday, which consisted entirely of a presentation by Dr. Ed Porthan, a former teacher and administrator who now makes an apparently better living in the private sector as a consultant who presumes to tell teachers who stick with the profession how to do their jobs. I was hoping the money spent ($1500, according to one administrator) to bring Dr. Porthan down from Minnesota would turn out to be well spent. Alas, I found myself sitting through yet another in-service that offered no new information or practical knowledge that left me better prepared to step into the classroom and educate children next week Wednesday. For my assessment of the debacle (the address of which I have already mailed to the profiteering Dr. Porthan), see my essay "Teacher In-Service: More Taxpayer Dollars Down the Drain -- A Review of Dr. Ed Porthan's Educational Consulting."
The question for taxpayers to consider is this: if funds in our school budgets and small towns really are limited (and the proliferation of expensive boats and RVs sometimes leads me to question even that premise), wouldn't school boards better invest those limited funds by paying their teachers more, knowing those dollars will turn over more as local teachers spend that money locally, rather than handing spare funds over to out-of-state consultants with litte knowledge of our school districts' specific needs who will take the money and run without leaving us with any useful knowledge?
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I have wondered for years, why schools, cities, counties, states, etc. feel they have to hire out of people, whether it be an individual or a group to lecture local people on what to do, or decide what would be the best thing for the location to do. I know the city of Sioux Falls is always hiring people to study a prospective project.
ReplyDeleteBelow is the text of Dr. Porthan's e-mail reply to my critique on the presentation he sells to schools. I'll post my reply in a separate comment.
ReplyDeleteAs you read Dr. Porthan's strikingly ad hominem response (my professionalism or lack thereof is not the issue; the value of presentations like Dr. Porthan's is), remember what Dr. Porthan and I have to gain and lose from this exchange: Dr. Porthan is a salesman, promoting and defending the product, his presentation, that he uses to make money ($1500 a shot, $125 an hour). I am an English teacher with nothing to sell and nothing but trouble to get from speaking up about how the school I work in spends its money. The only benefit I might see is the slim hope that administrators will make different choices about how they use the time and money at their disposal and that I might in the future get a little more time to do my job.
And now, Dr. Porthan:
From: Ed Porthan eporthan@charter.net
Subject: Re: More immediate feedback
Date: Sunday, August 20, 2006
Dear Cory:
Thank you for your thoughts and conclusions regarding the two-day 'back-to-school' inservice at Montrose. I'm pleased you agreed with the need and power of feedback. I'm disappointed with the fact you only incorporated one of the five essential elements of world-class feedback. (The concept and the 5 essential elements are the result of my original research, by the way.) The only element you did well was immedicacy. Your response was woeful regarding 'specificity'. Not only were you non-specific, you were incorrect and misleading. I never used "Newsweek and other publications of a similar level" as a part of my presentation. There was a total absence of 'cause and effect' feedback. Your response is more correctly named caustic criticism. It was far removed from coaching. As with no cause and effect component, there was a complete lack of "coaching for growth". Nowhere in your comments was there even a hint of suggestion for improvement. Finally, you deliberately and maliciously denegrated my dignity as a professional. Dr. Madeline Hunter, who you may recognize, said this about me a few years ago: "As an educator, Ed stands out like a giraffe in a herd of guernseys". It was Dr. Hunter who incorporated my work on research into her work at UCLA. I've been an educator for 44 years, at every level from primary through doctoral students. I am an adjunct professor at universities such as the University of Mary, the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, the University of Montana, the University of Wyoming, the University of Sioux Falls, South Dakota State University, the University of St. Thomas, and the University of Minnesota. Yet you call me a "sham".
So, Corey, in providing world-class feedback, you got one out of five elements done well. I hope that you will improve greatly when you begin teaching your students. They deserve better than I received.
Regarding research-based approaches I used, all my materials have withstood the test of time in actual classroom practices. If you'll take the time to read, What Works In School (Dr. Robert Marzanno), you will find many pleasant surprises.
If your time was wasted, I apologize. I sincerely believe your lack of professionalism will enable you to do the same.
Finally, your words, "enjoy the last few days of summer freedom" spoke volumes about your professionalism. Does that mean you will leave freedom for the captivity of the classroom? I am very much interested in receiving your academic credentials as a scholar and life-long learner.
Best of success,
Ed Porthan
Now for my response to Dr. Porthan's comments. I'll go line by line:
ReplyDeleteDr. Porthan wrote: "I'm pleased you agreed with the need and power of feedback. I'm disappointed with the fact you only incorporated one of the five essential elements of world-class feedback. (The concept and the 5 essential elements are the result of my original research, by the way.) The only element you did well was immedicacy. Your response was woeful regarding 'specificity'."
I included a fair number of details in my 1700-word critique. If I had a transcript of the 12-hour presentation, I'd be happy to include it. I'd direct people to Dr. Porthan's website to check out the details of his presentations, but visitors will find sales pitches, not archives of the information one must pay to receive at Dr. Porthan's presentations.
EP: "Not only were you non-specific, you were incorrect and misleading. I never used 'Newsweek and other publications of a similar level' as a part of my presentation."
CAH: Every participant received a binder containing articles, quizzes, and cartoons. I don't have the binder here at my home desk, so I can't cite the exact title, but the binder included a popular press article from either Newsweek or Time. I will find the exact title and text at school and cite them here later.
EP: "There was a total absence of 'cause and effect' feedback. Your response is more correctly named caustic criticism."
CAH: Whether I am writing "feedback" or "caustic criticism" is not the issue. The main question that we should address is the value of presentations like the in-service at Montrose on August 17-18. I offer a very simple cost-benefit analysis question: if schools have limited funds and teacher have limited time to produce positive educational outcomes for students, how best can we invest those limited resources? Specifically, do teachers get more done for their students by spending 12 hours listening to a review lecture on basic classroom psychology or by spending 12 hours working individually or even in departments or cross-disciplinary teams reviewing and revising curriculum, writing lesson plans, and composing new activities and assessments for their classrooms? Dr. Porthan does not address this question.
EP: "It was far removed from coaching. As with no cause and effect component, there was a complete lack of 'coaching for growth.' Nowhere in your comments was there even a hint of suggestion for improvement."
CAH: Interesting: Dr. Porthan, as a businessman, expects teachers sending him comments to focus on helping him do a better job. In other words, he expects us to give him free advice on how he can make more money selling his product. Now I have already offered suggestions for how Dr. Porthan might improve his product (see suggestions #2-4 at the end of my original essay). Given the couple hours I've spent composing the preceding essay and this response, I think I've offered more than enough free advice on offering a product with greter value. If that free advice is insufficient, I will be happy to coach Dr. Porthan or any other salesman for a very reasonable consulting fee of $50 an hour.
EP: "Finally, you deliberately and maliciously denegrated my dignity as a professional. Dr. Madeline Hunter, who you may recognize, said this about me a few years ago: 'As an educator, Ed stands out like a giraffe in a herd of guernseys'. It was Dr. Hunter who incorporated my work on research into her work at UCLA. I've been an educator for 44 years, at every level from primary through doctoral students. I am an adjunct professor at universities such as the University of Mary, the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, the University of Montana, the University of Wyoming, the University of Sioux Falls, South Dakota State University, the University of St. Thomas, and the University of Minnesota. Yet you call me a 'sham'.
CAH: Here the argument goes far off track. Dr. Porthan's professional credentials are not the issue. The product he sells through his consulting firm Embracing Excellence is. Dr. Porthan is selling a product, his $1500, 12-hour presentation. We were told the product would constitute graduate-level work and that it would help us become better prepared to meet the challenges of the coming school year. I found the product failed to live up to those standards. I maintain that other "products" or activities would be a better buy for school districts. Asking that school districts spend their money prudently is not mailicious; it is responsible citizenship.
EP: "So, Corey [sic], in providing world-class feedback, you got one out of five elements done well. I hope that you will improve greatly when you begin teaching your students. They deserve better than I received."
CAH: Indeed, my students do deserve and receive better. Let us maintain a clear distinction between my responsibilities as a teacher to my students in the classroom and my responsibilities as a consumer to salesmen trying to get my money (or, in this case, the money of the school districts around the state to which my tax dollars are distributed). My students come to me for the free public education guaranteed them by our state constitution, and I eagerly and proudly fulfill that awesome responsibility. My students aren't charging me money for their misspellings and nervous first speeches; they (or their tax-paying parents) are paying me to help them become better communicators and citizens.
My obligations to students in school differ greatly from my obligations to salesmen in the free market. Salesmen come to me to make a profit. When I go to the grocery store and find the advertised grapes are moldy, I'm doing the store manager a favor to take time just to tell him, "Hey, your grapes are moldy," let alone to offer the store manager detailed coaching for future growth and success. I have no obligation to offer such feedback or to act in any other way that helps the store manager increase his profits. My obligation in this case is simply to seek out the best products for myself and my family, an obligation I can fulfill just as easily (if not more so) by going down the street to the other grocery store that carries better grapes.
EP: "Regarding research-based approaches I used, all my materials have withstood the test of time in actual classroom practices. If you'll take the time to read, What Works In School (Dr. Robert Marzanno), you will find many pleasant surprises."
CAH: Again, a cost-benefit analysis: does a school get more value for its dollar by spending $1500 on a 12-hour presentation or by spending a fraction of that amount on good books like Dr. Marzanno's and making them available to teachers to read on their own time in conjunction with their other independently chosen proessional development activities?
EP: "If your time was wasted, I apologize. I sincerely believe your lack of professionalism will enable you to do the same."
CAH: Apologize for offering my honest assessment of a consumer product and the expenditure of tax dollars?
EP: "Finally, your words, 'enjoy the last few days of summer freedom' spoke volumes about your professionalism. Does that mean you will leave freedom for the captivity of the classroom?"
CAH: Humorously off-topic, with no bearing on the question of the value of Dr. Porthan's Aug 17-18 presentation. I'll simply comment that I see nothing unprofessional in referring to and enjoying the relative freedom of summer (one of the main perks many South Dakotans say justify our abysmally low teacher salaries) before returning to the relatively less free daily schedule of the classroom. A healthy professional enjoys the freedom from schedules and deadlines offered by vacation as much as the rush and rough-and-tumble of his job.
EP: "I am very much interested in receiving your academic credentials as a scholar and life-long learner."
CAH: I assume this comment represents simple curiosity rather than a suggestion an argument. This argument is about the quality of a product being sold for profit, not dueling resumes. However, anyone interested in learning about my credentials may consult my professional resume, my Montrose school website, my personal website, and my online painting gallery. More professional references, one may also contact my immediate supervisor, Mr. Ken Greeno, principal and activities director at Montrose High School, or Mr. Dean Kueter, Montrose School District superintendent. The truly curious and ambitious can also contact any of a number of South Dakota's secondary and post-secondary teachers, speech coaches, and theater directors for perspective on the work I do for my students. For that matter, come to Montrose and talk to the students. They'll give as straightforward an evaluation as anyone of what I'm like as a teacher and a person.
Let me emphasize again why I'm taking the time to write all this. I have nothing to gain but a faint hope that maybe next year I'll get more time to work on practical classroom and extracurricular activities so I can be better prepared to educate my students. I'm not selling anything. This argument won't make me any money (even if my administration decided I was a genius and gave me its entire share of Dr. Porthan's fees, I'd still be making half of the $60,000 a year a former student of mine is making as a manager at a credit card company, after just three years of college). I am motivated solely by an interest in seeing my school operate in the best interest of students. I have determined that my students would get more direct results from my having 12 hours to work on projects for them instead of 12 hours listening to a review of undergraduate introductory psychology. Dr. Porthan has yet to offer any logical or evidentiary argument that his Aug 17-18 presentation in Montrose was more valuable than the independent work the schools could have paid their teachers to do on those two days.
joanie above points out exactly the issue school districts should address. Why not demonstrate our faith in our local talent and give them the time and tools they need to make the improvements in their own districts?
ReplyDeleteAs one may notice from the time of this post, I'm not at a point to do justice to a full response to -- or even a full comment about -- the multifaceted issues addressed within the comments offered by these two educators. Instead, I will simply offer myself in addition to the myriad references Cory lists regarding his "credentials as a scholar and life-long (sic) learner." I willingly and confidently assert that my discussions and debates with Cory over nearly a decade of interaction in social dynamics ranging from student-teacher to peer-to-peer have had as large an impact on the development of my mind and soul as have my interactions with any other person in my life. While my work in Student Life at a highly selective, Midwestern, private, liberal arts college -- where, incidentally, I relish the prevalence of thoughtful academic exploration whose quality well surpasses the poorly applied and condescending "verbal drive-bys" employed by this so-called "professional" consultant -- is likely to keep me from a speedy response, I will look forward to the day when I have spare time to devote to forming and conveying the reasoned criticism Dr. Porthan so rightly deserves and so utterly fails to deliver in defense of his apparent charlatanry.
ReplyDeleteWow, reading this made my day CA! You have a point, the fact that he criticized you professionally, shows that he, himself is the one with professional problems. Insulting a 'person' not the comments that said person gave gives the impression that the one doing the criticizing can't actually respond because the criticizer has a valid, true, point. Over all, this guy sounds really really phony. Not to mention a waste of money (and our school's cutting debate funds!) and a waste of time.
ReplyDelete~KLeb
"I never used 'Newsweek and other publications of a similar level' as a part of my presentation," Dr. Porthan stated in his e-mail response. Here are the citations for two popular-press articles Dr. Porthan included in the binder of materials that are part of his presentation:
ReplyDeleteJ. Madeleine Nash, "Fertile Minds," Time, Feb. 3, 1997, pp. 49-56
Sharon Begley, "Your Child's Brain," Newsweek, February 19, 1996, pp.
55-62.
It seems like your school district operates like most politicians do. Rather than be content with the way things are (or believe in the abilities of the people already hired) they have to "do something" to make things better. It's not a bad intention, but it just always seems to work out poorly. Bush and Ted Kennedy were concerned about education and so they did No Child Left Behind. Dr. Sweet dragged things through NCA accreditation. The Montrose super purchased Dr. Porthan's program.
ReplyDeleteThis strikes me as the problem that allows these sorts of browbeating sophist consultants to exist. If people in power were content to leave good things alone and put a vote of faith in the teachers they hired, we wouldn't have wasted time and money spent on unnecessary administration. But (as a philosophical truth) something can always be improved about public education. Therefore, something can always be done to try to make it better.
Recognizing that, there is no end in sight. There is no point where superintendents can put their feet up on their desk and say that their students are receiving the maximum education possible. And so there will always be an urge to "do something" to try to inch education closer to the unattainable perfection. In their minds, it would be perceived as sheer laziness to leave things as is. (And for anyone that needs to be re-elected, that perception will cost them their job.)
I'm on your side Cory, but it seems like an endless losing battle.
I'm all about "endless losing battles"! A universe governed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics is an endless losing battle, yet we fight on. Charge!
ReplyDeleteInsightful, Cory, but I would expect nothing less from you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Steve! Now just imagine how much higher your expectations of me would be if I were charging you $125 an hour for my intellectual efforts. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDear readers, my apologies for broken links! I switched ISPs. My critique of Dr. Porthan's presentation can be found here.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you losers (teachers complaining) air your inept poor attitudes in this forum. Do you all allow your students the same priviledge?
ReplyDeleteActually, Ed (sure sounds like Ed!), some of the commenters here are former students of mine. And unlike in an overpriced Porthan lecture, criticism and open debate is welcome and not always pre-empted by referring to those who would disagree or complain as losers with poor attitudes.
ReplyDelete