TeachMoore

Shall We Dance?

 My  TLN colleague and good friend, Nancy Flanagan is hosting this week's Carnival of Education  with edubloggers' inauagral balls. So, strap on your dancing shoes and waltz on over to Teacher in a Strange Land. Some great readings from around the blogosphere. BYOB (Bring your own blog...)

What About the Children?

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., "Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Every year, the members of the youth organization started by my husband and I have to select and organize a community service project on Dr. King's Holiday. This year, they chose to sponsor a health fair for their peers at one of the local elementary schools with whom we partner. The health crisis here in the Delta is well-documented, and the lack of access to health care makes the acquisition of health information even more vital. It was encouraging to watch the young people salute Dr. King's legacy by informing themselves on topics such as practicing dental hygiene and building safer communities.

While the young people took charge of the program, I had opportunity to talk with the parents, including some of my former students. One of the most profound and disturbing discussions was with a young mother I'll call Debra. Fourteen years ago, Debra had been in my high school English class, and managed to graduate just a few days before her daughter was born. Debra's life, which had never been easy, took a deeply tragic turn five years ago when that child was murdered.

Sitting next to me at the health program, we watched her other child, 9 year-old Donnell sit passively through what was otherwise a lively group discussion. She shared with me her concerns that he was growing increasingly frustrated with school, and more and more withdrawn. Donnell had serious learning disabilities that affected his language and reading skills. According to Debra, his Individual Education Plan (IEP) and previous tests indicated that he could handle the equivalent of first, maybe second grade work. But the newly enacted changes in special education placement and testing to meet NCLB required that he be moved to inclusion setting and tested with the fourth graders. She had tried, unsuccessfully to talk with the special education staff, even the superintendent, along with some other concerned mothers of special needs children, about giving him a more gradual transition.

"I don't understand," she said nearly in tears, "why they insist on giving him work and a test that they know he's not ready for yet? He thinks he is stupid, and he's ready to give up on school," at nine years old.

She's been to the school 15 times this year already. His new teacher, with an already overcrowded classroom is struggling to give Donnell the extra help he needs while not neglecting the others. Both women are frustrated and angry with the system.

A short while later, two high school seniors and one of them's worried mother sought me out to ask if I could help tutor them before the English exit exam in March. They had both failed the test five times, and this was their last chance to obtain the right to graduate. After some discussion, I invited them to my house where I gave both girls some diagnostics and asked many questions. Neither girl could read above what we would consider 7th grade level. Their ninth grade year, the school had resorted to a full-time substitute for English because of the chronic teacher shortage in our area. This left the students poorly prepared for the state English test given at the tenth grade. Furthermore, they and their other classmates who had repeatedly failed the test, had been bluntly told by the person charged with providing them remediation that based on experience, if they hadn't passed the test by now, they probably wouldn''t. I believe they could with coordinated and intensive interventions, but the bigger obstacle at this point is convincing them to try again. While their classmates are ordering rings and making plans for the senior trip, they are already talking about what they would have done in college.

Hope is valuable, even essential, to human life. The prolific African American poet, Langston Hughes asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?"  As Dr. King's dream moves toward partial fulfillment on Jan. 20th, my prayer is that change will bring hope and renewed comittment to fulfill the promises we have made to our children; to give them back their dreams.

A More Excellent Way

If you haven't read it yet, run--don't walk--to check out Marc Fisher's Washington Post article on how a high-needs, failing school in Maryland remade itself into a successful learning environment for children through collaboration, hard work, and good old-fashioned caring. Fisher contrasts this approach to that of D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Claus vonZastrow over at Public School Insights picks up on the glaring contrast with a compelling analysis of his own.

Cooperation is a welcome and refreshing change from the confrontational battles over ed reform that have dominated both policy discussions and media for some time. Personally, I know of more troubled schools that have been "turned around" through people coming together and really putting the interests of the students first, than through the scorched earth approach of some high-profile educational and political leaders.

I am reminded of a particular elementary school some years ago in my hometown. Located in one of the worst, most drug infested areas of the city, the academic program was nonexistant; the only constant was survival. Then the parents, teachers, and administrators of that school banded together and decided to take their school back. In a few short years, it became a model school with one of the strongest educational programs not only in the state but the nation. The key was refusing to continue the blame game, and instead focusing on what needed to be done, by recognizing and utilizing the talents and resources that were already available.

Similarly, I worked at a high-poverty rural high school that had nearly collapsed academically and organizationally. The principal, assistant principal, and guidance counselor all quit two months before the end of a horrendous school year. When I arrived there the next fall, along with a team of new administrators, we found that what was holding the school together was a core of dedicated veteran teachers who, along with the school's parents, simply refused to give up on the students. By listening closely to them and building on the foundation they had established, the school soon reached, and gradually surpassed, state proficiency standards. More important, the community and the students regained pride and respect for their school.

Such approaches to successful reform require mutal respect among the key shareholders of the school: students, parents, teachers, administrators, support personnel, and political leaders.What's wrong with starting our reform efforts by expecting that all children can learn? That most parents love their children and are doing as much as they can or know to help them succeed? Or that the majority of teachers are professionals who care about students and want them to excel? A school reform effort grounded in these expectations can generate the cohesion and trust needed for significant and sustainable improvement.

Perhaps our schools are less in need of a purge and more in need of revival.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Community Colleges Teaching Everybody

Much appreciation to my TLN colleague, Anthony Cody, for his recent blog over at Teacher Magazine on community colleges.

When family issues required me to change my work schedule, I was blessed to be able to move from high school to a full-time position at a community college. For a teacher, it's the best of worlds: Freed from many of the non-teaching burdens of secondary, and focused on teaching rather than the publish-or-perish tenure treadmill of the universities.

Lest we forget, many of the students who come to community college are "ready" for four-year, academically, but may not be ready financially. However as Anthony reminds us, not every child who graduates high school does so in the top ten percent of the class. Where do those average students go? Many of them end up at community college. So do many laid off or frustrated workers, single mothers, new citizens, and thousands of others looking for a fresh start.

Most of the fastest growing technical career fields require two years or less of training, many others can be jumpstarted at the community college; then advanced at other institutions later.

The community colleges face many problems of their own. If you haven't seen it, check out the John Merrow piece, "Discounted Dreams" on struggles of community college students. Also helpful is the report Basic Skills for Complex Lives, from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. One problem Merrow and others have exposed is the resistance among four-year institutions to accepting the transfer credits of community college students (primarily for economic not academic reasons).

Nevertheless, community colleges are proving to be resilient and resourceful in providing access to education for broader and broader segments of our population.