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Inner-city prep

September 27, 2009 By

SEED’s public boarding school in Washington, D.C. is profiled in The Inner-City Prep School Experience in the New York Times Magazine.

Every Sunday night, 325 students in grades 6 through 12, most of them African-American, most from single-parent, lower-income families in Southeast and Northeast, pass through the gates of SEED — the first inner-city public boarding school in the country, with admission by lottery. And for the next five days they do what other prep-school kids do: in uniforms of pressed khaki pants and polo shirts, they take classes in Spanish, precalculus, U.S. history and other subjects. They meet with staff members at the school’s College Café to talk about college applications. They spend their afternoons in chess clubs, on the basketball court or in poetry workshops.

They go home on weekends to neighborhoods where their friends are dropping out of high school, joining gangs and raising babies.

SEED spends $35,000 per student to cover teaching plus five days a week of room, board and extra supervision and mentoring. I wonder if that’s really cost effective. There are “no excuses” schools that teach values and academics for a lot less. Most extend the school day but not to 24 hours.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , ,

Obama's school policies called 'Bush III'

September 26, 2009 By

In a speech on reauthorizing No Child Left Behind, Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave the law “credit for exposing achievement gaps, and for requiring that we measure our efforts to improve education by looking at outcomes, rather than inputs.” Duncan called for developing better tests to monitor progress and more focus on student growth.

But the biggest problem with NCLB is that it doesn’t encourage high learning standards. In fact, it inadvertently encourages states to lower them. The net effect is that we are lying to children and parents by telling kids they are succeeding when they are not.

It’s one reason our schools produce millions of young people who aren’t completing college. They are simply not ready for college-level work when they leave high school.

. . . In my view, we should be tight on the goals – with clear standards set by states that truly prepare young people for college and careers – but we should be loose on the means for meeting those goals.

We don’t believe that local educators need a prescription for success. But they do need a common definition of success — focused on student achievement, high school graduation and college.

Duncan’s speech was a “pretty pep talk,” writes Ken DeRosa on D-Ed Reckoning. He predicts a “hodgepodge of reforms” doomed to failure.

. . . we have a system in which consumers of education get almost no choices and consolidating power at the Federal level on common standards will only reduce the few choices we have. That’s the main advantage of a competitive market — consumers get choices and everyone gets a chance to see if their crackpot theories work the way they think they will.

. . . The problem with the current education system is that the self-interest of the adults running the system is not aligned with the interests of the children being educated.

Teachers’ unions aren’t happy with the administration’s push for testing, accountability, performance pay and charter schools, reports the Washington Post.  Obama’s policies are “Bush III,” said Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , ,

No joy in Middleville

September 26, 2009 By

For watching three kids while they wait for the school bus, Lisa Snyder faces charges of operating an unlicensed child care home. The Middleville, Michigan woman agreed to help her neighbors who have to leave for work before the bus comes. The stop happens to be in front of Snyder’s house.

Someone complained to the Michigan Department of Human Services, which told Snyder to get a license or face charges.

Jonathan Turley gets sarcastic in The Menace in Middleville.

Mother Mindy Rose insisted that she is a “friend.” Really Mindy? Or are you just one more enabling parent who is encouraging these types of opportunistic, predatorial acts of kindness. Do you think that block parties and other scourges of society just happen, Mindy? No, it starts with parents like you and Snyder, the child watcher.

Are all babysitters licensed in Michigan? What about licenses for moms who host play dates?

In my day, elementary students walked or biked to school with their friends or alone. In junior high and high school, the bus stop was a kids-only zone. I’m not sure it was any safer then, but parents were more trusting.

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: ,

Unruly students are everywhere

September 26, 2009 By

You think the U.S. has problems with unruly students? I just got back from Turkey. Our guide in Istanbul was a former high school English teacher who said he quit because students are out of control.

Then, on a boat trip, I met a young woman who teaches physics at an Istanbul high school. She said her job is miserable because students are unmotivated and poorly behaved. She said private schools enforce discipline; in public schools, students know there are no consequences for cutting or disrupting class.

Israeli schools demand little of students, complains Nehemia Shtrasler in Haaretz.

Instead of forcing students to behave properly, we allow them to run wild and interfere in class in the name of “students’ rights.” They have turned into customers, and school teachers have become suppliers who are commanded to find favor with their customers.

All teaching is geared to the national tests, writes Shtrasler, and once students finish their exams in the spring, there’s no motivation to teach or learn.

Filed Under: Culture, Education Tagged With: , ,

The limits of evidence

September 25, 2009 By

This will be the last of my series of guest-blogging posts, and perhaps the most controversial one. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful and stimulating comments.

Much of education discussion rests on the assumption that we can and should demonstrate the efficacy of what we do in the classroom. We have concrete aims, and it is our responsibility to ensure that these aims are achieved. These include: ensuring that students learn the basics, bringing them up to a desired proficiency level across the subject areas, teaching them to communicate and debate ideas, exposing them to subjects that they will need for work and life, helping them do well on tests, seeing to their well-being at school, preparing them to participate in a democracy, and more. Our practices are deemed good insofar as they bring us closer to our goals.

But there are parts of education that cannot be explained or justified in a concrete way. Why teach literature? Because it is useful? Because it prepares us to participate in a democracy? Those are secondary reasons. Ultimately many of us teach it because it is beautiful and urgent and because we do not have it in our hearts to do otherwise.

It is not that a student must know Shakespeare in order to have a rewarding life or be part of a democracy. We do not study for concrete purposes alone. There are other things that pull us. Think of the times when you see something beautiful outside–a leaf with unusual colors taking its time to flutter to the ground, then bouncing on the sidewalk as if in a dance; a dirty littered sidewalk gleaming with chestnuts, their shells just opened, and yellow butterflies flying above–and trucks roaring by, and grass taking over the sidewalk cracks. If you tell someone what you have seen, it is not useful information. It will not help the other person, except perhaps to change what the person notices when walking down the street. You pass it on because it came to you as a gift, and you wanted to pass it on. So, too, with literature. We pass on what has held great meaning for us. One may argue that it will not have the same meaning for young people. But that does not make the gesture futile. Students respond to a teacher’s love of literature; they come to see things in it; what’s more, they learn that they may find more in it later. They are given a glimpse into what they do not yet understand. And this is intangible.

This does not mean that we abandon evidence and do only what the spirit moves us to do in the classroom. I would be among the first to laugh that sort of suggestion out of town. In The New Education (1915), Scott Nearing describes the Oyler School in Cincinnati, where, if a teacher felt it was the right time to go visit an absent student, she would simply leave her class to another teacher and do so. That is going a bit far. Likewise, it would be absurd for a research study to conclude, “Policy X is good because I know in my heart that it is.” But not all our purposes can be spelled out, and not all of them can be justified by evidence. Evidence does have its place, but we should not confine ourselves to evidence any more than we should confine ourselves to utility.

I brought this up in a comment on Deborah Meier’s latest column in Bridging Differences. She asks what students truly need to learn to participate in a democracy, and suggests that there’s no evidence they need Milton or Dante. This may or may not be so. But in any case, whatever the arguments for and against certain works of literature, our reasons for teaching them go beyond the arguments.

I can hear the objections to this, and part of me objects to my own argument. If we allow for things in education that we cannot explain or justify, how can we sort out the valuable from the loony? How do we keep wacky ideas and irresponsible practices from taking over? That is a serious question, not easily answered. I would suggest that there is a touch of the loony in the valuable, but only a touch. We have to use our logic, observation, intuition, experience, belief, and faith (not necessarily religious), all together. One on its own will not do.

Autumn has declared itself here in New Haven. I remember teaching on a day like this, a year ago in Brooklyn. I was teaching my second-grade class the Christina Rossetti poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?”

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

They were taking turns reciting it in groups while acting as the wind and trees. We had done it a few times, and suddenly a girl started bouncing in here seat and pointing.

“They’re doing it!” she cried. We turned to look. She was pointing out the window.

“They’re doing it! The leaves are trembling!”

And then a chorus of children chimed in, “The wind is passing through!”

Evidence of what? A “text-to-world connection”? Oh, more than that! And one of the most beautiful moments of my teaching experience. I would not trade that moment for a 100-percent guaranteed research-proven practice.

Filed Under: Culture, Education

Students sing praises of president

September 25, 2009 By

Combining cute with creepy, a multi-racial class of second graders sing the praises of “Barack Hussein Obama” and his policies on a YouTube video that’s raised again all the brainwashing fears. Parents at B. Bernice Young Elementary in Burlington, N.J. aren’t pleased, reports Fox.

One song that the children were taught quotes directly from the spiritual “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” though Jesus’ name is replaced with Obama’s: “He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama.”

Here are the words of the two songs — one seems to be sung to the tune of John Brown’s Body.

Song 1:
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight. . . .

Song 2:
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say “hooray!”

Hooray, Mr. President! You’re number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!

Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country’s economy number one again! , , ,

Apparently, children learned the songs for a celebration of February holidays, including Presidents’ Day. They also sang songs praising Washington and Lincoln. You’d think the teacher would understand the difference between a president who’s in the political arena and presidents who are not. (Because they’re dead.)

Update: Here’s a slightly older class of students in an unknown school singing about Obama as our first African-American president. It’s a very bland song that doesn’t endorse Obama’s policies. And the kids sing a lot better. Plus they have a cowbell!

In 2006, a private charity called Katrina’s Kids got young hurricane evacuees invited to the White House Easter Egg Roll, where they sang a song praising “Congress, Bush and FEMA” for helping in the rebuilding.  Not so much creepy as weird, I’d say.

Filed Under: Children, Education Tagged With: ,

Principals seek to expand Core Knowledge pilot program

September 24, 2009 By

The Core Knowledge pilot reading program in New York City for kindergarten has shown such striking results that nine out of ten participating principals have asked to expand it into first grade. According to a NYC DoE press release, “The progress of students in the ten participating schools was more than five times greater than the also-significant performance of students at ten peer schools with comparable student populations, and was reflected among students at all levels of literacy.”

I am not sure what is meant by “more than five times greater” and how this is measured, but in any case these children are now entering first grade with strong reading skills and much more.

The program, which consists of a phonics/decoding strand and a listening/learning strand, combines explicit decoding instruction with lessons and readings in literature, history, science, and other subjects. As students learn to read, they also build their knowledge, vocabulary, and listening skills. The Core Knowledge blog has some good commentary on the program and its results.

I hope it continues to grow, with the support of dedicated principals and teachers. As I commented on the CK blog, I am glad that it is not a citywide mandate. Why? Because when things are mandated on a large scale, they are often dumbed down, miscommunicated, or otherwise poorly conveyed. Sometimes the trivial aspects are elevated to the status of inviolable rules. Sometimes the unconvinced end up training the uninformed–or the dogmatic end up training the resistant. Sometimes teachers have good ideas that are not taken into account. It is harder to be thoughtful about a citywide mandate than about a pilot program.

I am confident, though, that if given the opportunity, it will expand. Teachers and principals will see what is happening and decide to adopt it too. Parents will ask for it. It does not surprise me that it is doing so well. As E. D. Hirsch has pointed out, the greater effects may be seen over the long term.

Filed Under: Education

Dreamy teacher

September 24, 2009 By

One day, in my first year of teaching, I was giving a lesson to English language learners on nouns and adjectives. At one point I had them pair nouns and adjectives in unusual but plausible ways–I wanted them to consider combinations that weren’t obvious.

One student offered the combination “dreamy teacher.”

Another student said, “You’re a dreamy teacher, Miss.”

“Oh, yes?”

“Yeah, Miss. You’re always dreaming of things you’re going to do with us in class.”

I gulped. “You can tell?”

“Yeah, Miss.”

(Later I started insisting that they learn my last name, difficult as it might be.)

I often think back on that class. I was a dreamy teacher in my first year. Nothing seemed impossible to me; I directed English language learners in a full-length production of the Wizard of Oz, and I spent most of my time planning things for my students. I was also an inexperienced teacher (at least in public school teaching–I had taught a few college courses and summer classes). Over the next few years I gained experience and lost just a sliver of the dreaminess–not much, but a perceptible amount, at least to me. I think exhaustion was the main cause, but I also became aware of what teachers were supposed to do–and most of that stuff wasn’t dreamy.

This year I have stepped back from teaching to write a book. I sense some of that dreaminess coming back. I hope that when I return to the classroom I will be both practical and dreamy.

(This is my last day of guest-blogging for Joanne Jacobs. It has been an honor to do this. I hope to post one more piece today.)

Filed Under: Education

What would a good PD be?

September 24, 2009 By

We hear often from teachers (including myself) how useless the professional development sessions often are. But what makes them useless, and how could they be useful, meaningful, or interesting?

The number one complaint is that they are just a waste of time–redundant information, mindless activities. I have attended my fair share of those.

Then some PD leaders assume that the best way to teach teachers is to bombard them with consultants and make believe they are brainless. Put them in little groups and have them write quick little responses to little folktales, and then regroup and fill out charts to post on the wall. Once all the charts are on the wall, the teachers are told to circulate in a “gallery walk” and write comments on Post-its to put on the charts. And then, of course, they are told to go implement this in the classroom right away.

Then there are those that teach a hypothesis as though it were truth–for instance, in connection with “brain-based learning.” Neuroscience is a lively and fascinating field, but its findings are not immediately applicable to the classroom, as Dan Willingham has pointed out. Nonetheless, many PDs push “brain-based learning” without acknowledging the uncertainty around the theories.

There are also practical training sessions–how to administer or score tests, how to use computer equipment, etc. Those may be informative, or they may be old news.

But what sort of professional development would actually be good?

It depends much on the school’s programs, curriculum, etc., and the level. But one idea would be to have teachers give each other seminars in their own subject–that is, we’d have an algebra seminar one week, a Dostoevsky seminar the next, and a seminar on the Reformation the following week. (Or maybe one per month.) The seminar leader would basically give a class intended for adults. But since the adults would not all be versed in the field, the instructor would need to adjust to their knowledge levels. There could be prerequisites or required reading for some seminars.

Why would this be useful? Teachers would be teaching in front of each other, seeing each other teach and respond to teaching, and they would all be learning about each other’s subjects. They would be engaged in the subject matter itself, while the seminar leader would gain new angles on pedagogy. They could then discuss how the same material might be presented to students.

Another kind of PD would involve a visit from a special guest with knowledge in a particular field. This scholar would give a presentation and then open the floor for discussion and debate. For instance, there could be PDs on controversies surrounding pedagogy, neuroscience, etc. Teachers would frankly discuss the pros and cons of various approaches and leave with new insights.

There are many other possibilities. But in general the level of PDs would be lifted if (a) they dealt with subject matter at the teachers’ intellectual level; (b) they allowed teachers to lead PDs regularly; and (c) they included philosophical and controversial topics and presented them as such.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , ,

Closing the Scarsdale-Harlem gap

September 24, 2009 By

New York City charter schools are closing the Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap, concludes Stanford researcher Caroline Hoxby in a new study.  Low-income, minority students who attended a charter school from kindergarten through eighth grade closed 86 percent of the achievement gap in math and 66 percent in English language arts compared to affluent suburban students in Scarsdale. For each year spent i a charter school, students are more likely to earn a Regents diploma. Some 30,000 New York City students attend charter schools, while 40,000 sit on waiting lists trying to get in. Charter students outperform similar students who lost charter lotteries, the study found.

A 15-state study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, also at Stanford, found most charter students do not outperform students in nearby public schools, reports Ed Week’s Debra Viadero. Some speculate that New York City charters are better than charters in other locations.

But another possible explanation for the sharply contrasting results, said Ms. Hoxby, may be that the CREDO findings suffer from a “serious mathematical mistake.” The problem, she said in a separate analysis, is that (Margaret) Raymond compared the achievement of individual charter students with that of groups of students from nearby public schools, without making the statistical adjustments necessary to account for the natural downward biases that result from that sort of calculation.

Hoxby’s research found successful New York City charters have a longer school year.

Likewise, researchers found that the average charter school in the study stayed open eight hours a day, with some providing services for as long as 10 hours.

Other school characteristics associated with better student achievement included: more time spent on English instruction; teacher pay plans that were based on teachers’ effectiveness at improving student achievement, principals’ evaluations, or whether teachers took on additional duties, rather than traditional pay scales; an emphasis on academics in schools’ mission statements; and a classroom policy of punishing or rewarding the smallest of student infractions.

Class size, parent contracts and number of years in operation did not correlate with achievement. , according to the report.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , ,
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