Posts Tagged ‘low performing’

Happy Holidays

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

I’m relieved. It’s December and my students are doing well. We’ve just reviewed the major math concepts they’ve learned since September and they haven’t forgotten much. We’ve completed a non-fiction reading and writing unit on Fact and Opinion. I’ve learned that the difference between fact and opinion, which may be obvious to an adult, is colored by TV and what parents say. It will be long years of experience before fourth graders can grasp the concept. I say grade four is just the beginning to understand the core standard.

For instance, last week, Friday, December 9, 2011, I read an article that caught my attention: “Funding, not reform, upgrades schools” by David Sirota, a well-known columnist. Although he included many facts, a few of which were new to me, the article was on the Opinion page of the San Francisco Chronicle.

On International student Assessment exams American students in low-income public schools are among the high-achieving. So are public schools “in crisis” as is the opinion of many? Another fact: the opinion that teachers’ unions are destroying public schools doesn’t hold up when the high Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) proficiency-a number fact and No Child Left Behind goal-is found in unionized public schools.

In addition, Sirota directs the reader to a report written by Sean F. Reardon and Kendra Bischoff of Stanford University in July 2010. The abstract states, “both income inequality and income segregation in the United States grew substantially from 1970 to 2000. Using data from the 100 largest metropolitan areas, we investigate whether and how income inequality affects patterns of income segregation along three dimensions-the spatial segregation of poverty and affluence; race-specific patterns of income segregation; and the geographic scale of income segregation. We find a robust relationship between income inequality and income segregation, an effect that is larger for black families than it is for white families. In addition, income inequality affects income segregation primarily through its effect on the large-scale spatial segregation of affluence, rather than by affecting the spatial segregation of poverty or by altering small-scale patterns of income segregation.”

Another report issued by the United States Department of Education “More Than 40% of Low-Income Schools don’t Get a Fair Share of State and Local Funds” November 30, 2011, shows that “high-poverty schools receive less than their fair share of state and local funding.”

Now, Sirota gives his opinion and guess what it is? That low-performing schools in low-income neighborhoods should get more money. But with the facts above, do I call it Opinion? I know what schools are like. Our school receives little Title I money, but I know teachers in schools that rely on those funds to cover tutors and extra personnel. Each time the budget is cut, another person leaves.

The question is will there ever be a funding policy, federal or local, that helps low-performing schools in poverty areas? It’s a good thought for the holidays when it is the opinion that Americans feel more generous.

Is It Luck?

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

I have a student who reads well and is a math whiz, but can be hyper-focused on a book or a math concept that he finds intriguing. Sometimes during discussion time, he will focus on making origami birds, one after another, rather than participate. It’s a quiet activity but can be distracting as other kids at his table watch his progress instead of leaving him to himself. Other times, he uses his pencil like a tiny baton, twisting it back and forth like a drum major. It flicks the table and this time it’s a noisy distraction. His mother is one of my best classroom volunteers. She won’t tell him that he’s been diagnosed with ADHD, even though he has seen articles about the syndrome on television and has said, “Is that me?”

the pencil as distraction

the pencil as distraction

Was it luck that I didn’t blurt out in a conversation with the boy and his parent a comment about such symptoms? I know better than to offer a diagnosis, no matter how distressed the parent is. But just an offhand comment would have been unkind.

Compare my problem in a full classroom of smart children with the articles in the news about Tennessee and Memphis. The state was one of the first lucky grantees of Race to the Top funds to turn around low-performing schools. How can a state turn a piece of luck into the monstrosity that has become the model as depicted on TV and in the news? Speed seems to be the problem. For one, the state instituted a teacher evaluation system based on a single poor test, instead of spending the time to devise a good model for evaluation. Second, the changes were made top-down, not getting buy-in from the teachers or administrators affected before implementing change.

On top of that confusion, imagine re-playing the 70’s when white students left the Memphis schools for the suburbs to avoid integration. At that time the district had a half white and half black demographic, but all black schools on one side of town and all white on the opposite side of the city. Now it’s an issue of money-the inner city district is way down on its luck and the suburban county district is doing fine. A controversy over who gets how much lead to the merger of the districts. Good luck for the students in Memphis, but class and race challenges rise to the surface for the suburbs.

Reading about those shifts makes me wonder what’s going to happen to the children like my ADHD student who need support way down at the classroom level.

Will their luck depend on me as one of the teachers who keeps chugging along even in difficult circumstances? Leave it to the big guys to hash out the system? And hope that the big guys rise above race and class and use some research to guide decisions. Can we depend on such luck?

Charter Schools-Good, Bad, and Complicated

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Charter schools. Two words with associations that twist and turn. Here’s another look.

Teachers unions are most often against the charter school concept because from its first implementation in the early 1980’s, one of the objectives was to get around the obdurate stance of unions about student and teacher time, tenure, and accountability. If you’ve ever read the history of a teacher’s status-put up and shut up– until the time unions became a force, you understand how the ability to join together was a surprising victory. And not one for teachers to give up.

On the other hand, think about the editorial “Lessons From New Orleans” in The New York Times, 10-17-2011. After Hurricane Katrina, the schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the state’s Recovery School District legislation, benefitted from the chance to set up schools with longer hours and days of school; reform the teacher cadre into a more capable group of instructors; and bring in programs that were completely different from a failing curriculum that left students far behind children in other parts of the country. Using a charter school formula allowed those changes to occur quickly.

The charter school model set up in New Orleans took the best of the charter school goals to reform a school district. Many school districts use various charter school models to help “at risk” students and the schools have begun to turn around. Some even with teacher’s union collaboration, in Los Angeles for example.

But, the vision behind many schools in the League of Charter Schools is not as laudatory as that of a failing district picking itself up and pursuing change. As has been outlined in other posts on this blog (9/9/09; 1/29/10; 6/23/10), a conservative group who doesn’t want teachers unions to bargain with school boards, who wish to set up an admissions model that drops students and doesn’t accept others, and who still want to get money from the public school district is often the cadre that promotes the model.

For example, Bullis Charter School is located in Los Altos, California, a small, affluent, and supportive community with high-achieving students. The charter began at a time when the school population took a nose-dive and an elementary school had to be closed. Choosing the smallest school in the most affluent area of Los Altos Hills set up a huge confrontation.

Eventually, parents from the closed school applied to the district with a plan for a school at the closed site to be modeled on the charter school premise. The whole idea for the charter was to avoid sending children down the hill to school. After much controversy, the plan was denied and the parents went to the county Board of Education and got approval. The district, however, would not allow the school to form on the closed property and finally gave the coalition some property on a middle school site in the middle of Los Altos. Since then, the site in Los Altos Hills has re-opened as the school-age population rose again.

Just recently the County Board of Education, now with a different set of members with different views on the charter school, had another confrontation about an extension of the charter for an additional five years. The county board members brought up the issues of diversity, outreach, and an unaccountable charter school board, but voted to approve the extension without asking for changes.

The school has set up a different curriculum which the charter school community thinks is more suited to the students, all high-achieving. In fact, there is plenty of room for these students in the regular public schools which all have programs for exceptionally high-achieving students.

In New Orleans and other cities where charter schools are set up to provide an opportunity for low-income neighborhoods to reform when the public school district can’t or won’t, who would be against that attempt? If the charter is designed to use public taxes to provide a closed system for the chosen few, even the original charter school developers might conclude it’s a complicated plan to get away from a public school.

Time to teach vs. time to reflect

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

My fourth graders have been in school 8 weeks and already it’s time to have the first conferences with parents. I have a rambunctious and very smart bunch this year to reflect on.

Last week, we went to the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, a county park, now renovated and a must-see for every fourth grader in the Bay Area. The date my school could reserve is well-before we begin California Gold Rush unit. Still, the kids were enthusiastic to see mining tools and hear about procedures to extract quicksilver (mercury) from which gold could be separated. They will be prepared.

Our science unit covers rocks and minerals, and the docent at the Mine showed the students cinnabar, which the Ohlone Indians dug up well before Europeans entered California, as well as quartz and quicksilver. Every part of this country is extraordinary in its own way, but California students have opportunities to see everything from the ocean to the valley to the mountains. The parents I will be conferencing with are aware of their children’s good luck.

Which makes me think hard when I read or hear stories in the news about big school districts that must lay off staff-tutors, counselors, parent liaisons. Is it the stingy state legislators elected in 2010 or mismanagement in a large school district bureaucracy (that tightfisted legislators blame)? Children in those states will not have money set aside to see unusual places that make up the world where they live. Schools won’t even have money to support the students who need extra help with reading and math.

When I have time to read professional journals, every teacher magazine, newsletter, and website is relieved to report the revisions to the flawed parts of the No Child Left Behind Act. However, rather than focusing on change in education policy, many states and also California conservatives are offering bills and initiatives to block contributions from unions to campaigns, calling it “paycheck protection.” Don’t forget, a teacher in California can request their dues not be used for political purposes. In the bills being introduced, corporations may not request a political contribution from employees, but can still call in huge profits to fund initiatives.

I prefer to spend the school day helping students choose good books at their reading level because almost all read at grade level, if not higher. The need is to understand or “make meaning” of the text. Those are the lessons I teach. Unlike many low-performing schools which draw students in my Master’s degree preparation classes, I also have the time to teach science and social studies.

I don’t think I will ever regret choosing and being hired by a modest-sized school district with a conscientious set of parents. Even two years ago when the budgets were much worse than this year, everyone stood together. I can count on the parents of my fourth graders to stand by educational issues that are important.

What’s the harm!?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Incredible! Members of Congress can’t be persuaded of the harm caused by shortchanging school age children and young adults? Who wants children to live hardscrabble days in the richest country on Earth?

high school outside of Death Valley, CA

high school outside of Death Valley, CA

Even middle-class and upper middle-class kids in suburban public or private schools are affected by the despair in the education world. But the harm is most worrisome for the 13% of the impoverished American families (according to 2010 Census Bureau figures) made up of parents under 30 with children.

Why have some members of Congress continually voted to let high rollers add to their billions while students go to schools with missing ceiling tiles and antique air venting systems? Saying the federal government should not be the funding source for state and local needs is simply not looking at reality. The states must cut their spending to maintain balanced budgets in spite of the evidence that shows revenue will only rise when jobs are available. If not the federal government, where is money to repair schools (and provide jobs) going to be found?

Why must parents count pennies to purchase food at home at the same time funds are being subtracted from school district food programs? It was a joke when that smiling, but hard-hearted president wanted to count ketchup as a vegetable, but not any longer when the only decent breakfast and lunch are provided at schools. The story about a school district food manager finding sources for low-fat, interesting meals for kids is worth following, but one success must be replicated country-wide to provide healthy change.

In a rich nation, healthcare for families should not be only affordable for the well-to-do who have jobs. Right now there are 46.2 million poor Americans: children, teen agers, working age adults, veterans, and the elderly. In Texas alone it has been advertised in the news that 14 million don’t have health benefits. But that isn’t the only state with the problem. At the same time, the cost of health care keeps rising. Fighting about the individual right to choose to pay for health benefits is not the priority. Generating jobs and setting up insurance exchanges is the need.

Pretending that the main problem for the U. S. is the debt and that austerity measures like spending cuts are the way to buy the country out of recession is fuzzy math. The resources needed to close the achievement gap for low-performing students mean revenues must be generated. The news this weekend about the billions that can be produced by revising tax rates on the extraordinarily wealthy is staggering. Fiscal priorities aimed at students who don’t drop out, and who graduate from high school and college on time, are far more likely to promote and create new jobs.

Children do well in school when they’re healthy, vaccinated, and fed. They do better when the school buildings are safe. They do better when enough teachers and staff are on the payroll. Students achieve when their parents have good jobs and time to pay attention to their children.