Financial Aid Confusion.

As the year draws to a close, many of our seniors in high school are finding out information about where they were accepted into college. For many of our students, however, funding college is not always the easiest thing to do. But there is financial aid, you say! Let’s look at that form for FAFSA; it asks questions about the potential schools the student has applied and was accepted to, the demographics of the student and parents, and the dependency status of the student. Along with those three pages itself, there’s another page where IRS information is requested as well. Wouldn’t it be much easier to just look at income? Some say that in fact there really isn’t a statistical difference in the distribution of money after the entire FAFSA, versus an income analysis; the distribution is in fact almost identical.

So why do we have this overly complicated system? In the mean time, what does your school offer for students in terms of helping students and parents navigate the FAFSA? What about alternative methods of funding such as scholarships and grants? While the FAFSA does provide Pell Grants, they also provide loans, whereas other options do exist that would have a lower burden on students. So we can change the FAFSA (highly recommended) or we can provide more education on the FAFSA and alternative methods, but one of the two is definitely necessary.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2007/02/education-dynarski

BCPS Charter Schools

Our last class session centered around charter schools and to me, it was one of the most interesting in terms of education reform.  I think charter schools are where hints into true reform can lie.  If something works in these systems, maybe those same strategies can be transferred into all public schools.

I was doing some web searching about charter schools in Baltimore City and came across a semi-recent article in the Baltimore Sun about schools that were closing down, charter schools in particular.  The part of the article that struck me as most interesting and brought the most attention to me was quotes from the chairperson of a charter school that was closing and counterpoints from Dr. Alonso.

To summarize briefly, the chairperson said that the school needed patience and that turning around the city's most at-risk population is something that takes a different timeline and different strategies than it would for other populations.  Alonso replied that "charters are supposed to be about innovation and performance... They should be about higher expectations.  Not about excuses."

While I agree that the purpose is for innovation, performance, and change, I don't believe true "innovation"can happen when there are still some semi-strict guidelines to follow.  While charter schools in BCPS are still held to uphold so many of the districts regulations and demands, we won't have true charter schools and thus won't have true innovation and change.  I also can't help but think that a big problem we have in public education right now is that we aren't patient.  While I know that being patient has very high stakes when students' futures are in the balance, it's unrealistic to believe that change can happen over night, or truly even in a year or two.  We have to give ideas and methods a fighting chance.

It is my genuine belief that nearly everyone in education has their heart in the right place.  No one starts a charter school, runs a district, or teaches 180 days without thinking of the kids.  All too often I feel like it seems in education we're always looking to point a finger when instead we need to be reaching our our hands and opening our minds and our ears.  Humility, innovation, collaboration and perseverance are the things that I think will start to lead us to true change for our kids.

(Baltimore Sun link: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-02-09/news/bs-md-charter-school-debate-20130209_1_baltimore-civitas-middle-schools-under-district-control-charter )

What are we testing?

What are we testing?

I wrote initially wrote this before reading the previous blog post, but I since modified it to be somewhat of a response on my thoughts to standardized testing.

I am not the biggest advocate for standardized testing, but I also do not believe the standardized tests should be thrown away with.  I think the true issue with standardized testing is how the current system uses the information from test scores.  I don’t think test scores should be used as a gauge for teacher efficacy but rather as a gauge for the efficacy of the system as a whole. 

Right now, by and large, urban school systems are failing their students.  Despite the best attempts of school or district staff to manipulate the numbers or pick and choose, most systems have been making little to no overall progress.  This is what the test scores should be used to evaluate.  If the scores show that an urban district is scoring half as well as a suburban district, the question should be what are the shortcomings of the system rather than the shortcomings of individual teachers. 

 I think once that is looked at we can address some of the real issues that are facing urban education.  While believing, students in urban environments can achieve at the levels of suburban students,  I do not believe the same model that serves suburban students can work to get equitable results in urban areas.  Perhaps then if we refocus our use of test score to investigate more of the systemic issues we can finally start using the scores to help students rather than judge teachers.

An initial response might be that testing focusing solely on district efficacy would lead to cheating, just as the head of Atlanta Schools allegedly led the cheating in her district.  But, if the scores were used to measure district efficacy, I think there would be less interest at the school level to cheat.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/education/atlanta-cheating-scandal-reignites-testing-debate.html?_r=0

Cheating with High-Stakes Testing - Inevitable?

Cheating should be something that teachers teach their students NOT to do, but it is becoming increasingly more common for teachers and administrators to cheat on standardized tests.  There have been numerous cheating scandals across the country, and the latest cheating scandal in Atlanta has brought this issue back to the forefront.  An Atlanta grand jury indicted 35 teachers, administrators, and principals for their participation in cheating on standardized tests.  

A recent article by Jason Stanford for the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/standardized-test-cheating_b_2993239.html  discusses this issue of high-stakes testing and feels that this pressure makes cheating inevitable.  No Child Left Behind offers no incentive to catch cheating, so why not cheat?  There are rewards and punishments attached to test scores and everyone wants to look good.  But, when I read this article and others like this, they compared this cheating scandal to the Lance Armstrong situation or steroids in baseball.  When I think of those scandals, I think, who was harmed in that situation?  In those cases, the public was fooled into thinking these athletes were more than they were, but no one was really hurt in the matter.  But in these cheating scandals with schools making themselves look better than they are, they are hurting kids.  Children are ultimately not receiving the education they deserve, not getting the right instruction, and not being taught by people who believe in them if they’re willing to cheat.

I understand that there needs to be some way to measure the effectiveness of a school and it’s teachers, but I wonder if standardized testing is really the right answer.  Stanford brought up that standardized tests have been around in education, but only in recent years have there been punishments like school closures or rewards like bonuses attached to them. So, perhaps the process of standardized testing would work better if there weren’t these high stakes.  In an ideal world, district leaders would look at a school with weak data and use that to decide how to help it improve.  Instead, that data is generally used to shut the school down.  If we moved more towards using the data to help improve our schools, instead of punish them, maybe standardized testing would make a better impact. 

What I feel from this scandal and reading this article is that the state of standardized testing needs to be seriously evaluated on a national level.  I hope with this scandal in the national news and Common Core and the PARC tests on the horizon, that a stronger testing system that is better for kids can be created.

Will an Increase in Spending on Renovations Increase Student Achievement?

The Baltimore Sun recently reported on the new budget approval for Baltimore City Schools. With 1 billion dollars financed to the city over a six-year period, many dilapidated buildings will either be updated or completely renovated, while some underutilized buildings will be closed entirely. In the Sun article, a local delegate stated, "This investment in the schools in Baltimore City… will pay a huge dividend in the future, not just to the citizens of Baltimore but to the entire state.”  Another sentiment was, "Fifty new or fully renovated schools will keep people in the city, will help the schools support the teachers and the children better.” My question is, will these new renovations help students achieve?

While updated or renovated buildings will not be the magic solution to closing the achievement gap, I do believe modern facilities will allow students and teachers alike the opportunities to increase student achievement. First, outdated gyms, computer labs, and science labs are three of the most important facilities within a school community. With technology and testing advancing at such high levels, functioning computer and science labs would allow students the chance to improve skill and knowledge of complex subjects. A modern gymnasium could have the potential to inspire students to participate in extra curricular activities as well as engage the whole community in sporting events, field days, or special events like graduation. Updated and renovated buildings could also increase student attendance and teacher retention. If the buildings are clean, temperature controlled, safe, and provide support for teaching and learning, everyone wins. It is not to say that a stacked building, with all the latest amenities, will automatically assure teacher retention (new buildings like Digital have not seen an increase in such) but if you enjoy the physical building you work in, aren’t we more likely to stay? While a billion dollars wont buy student achievement, I truly believe it is a right step into increasing the will to work for student achievement in Baltimore City.

Find the rest of the complete article here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-schools-vote-20130329,0,5745422.story

The Challenge of Sitting Still

I just finished reading an article in the New York times that was dedicated to the issue of ADHD in our society. The article, which I recommend to anyone interested in this fairly recent phenomenon can be found here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/health/more-diagnoses-of-hyperactivity-causing-concern.html?ref=education.

I have to admit I am writing this blog with a somewhat negative outlook. I searched for education articles in the New York Times this morning and the two that first caught my attention were this one and a breaking news headline about the Atlanta Public Schools' teachers and administrators who were caught cheating and how they had just surrendered to law enforcement. I decided that was too much for me to tackle so I am going to handle the somewhat broader topic of ADHD.

Apparently, in recent years, ADHD diagnoses have skyrocketed for children in the U.S. Over the last decade, the number of diagnoses has risen by 53%. Almost 20% of American high school aged boys have been diagnosed with ADHD. It seems to me that if one out of five boys are suffering from a disease (it is listed in the DSM) then we need to focus, as a society, on what is causing this extreme increase in affected children. The artcicle shares other troubling quotes from doctors and experts about the problems with over diagnosing the disease and the negative impact that the over diagnoses can have on the diagnosed children as well as their peers (ADHD meds are being sold to friends or peers for various purposes none of which involve using them as the prescription dictates). With this disheartening news comes the question of why? Why do so many of our young people, especially lower income males, suffer from ADHD? And do they really have ADHD? Or do we classify their bahvior as so asocial and innapropriate that we decide, as a soceity, they must be suffering from ADHD?

Personally, as a teacher, I teach several students who are incredibly disruptive some mornings and are perfectly behaved others. I quickly figured out that the mornings when they sit quietly and complete their assignments are the mornings that they took their medication before school. I have seen it, I enjoy the days when they are quiet, and yet I am not convinced that every student who takes medication needs it, or if they do, I am convinced there must be a more holistic approach to tackling this issue that clearly impairs a large percentage of children.

The article sites a number of reasons why the diagnoses have gone up, you can agree or disagree with them as much as you like but, as teachers, I think we can all understand how they came about. The main reason for the increase in diagnoses is that medications have become less stigmatized and parents are turning to them if there is even the slightest notion that their child is having trouble focusing. If a student's grades drop, especially in communities where parents are highly involved in their child's life, the parent looks for an explanation and the easy answer is that the child can't focus. Another reason is for behavior. If a child is acting up, the parents are quick to sedate them with medication. Most of us have seen this method first hand and, as wonderful as it is when the child is finally quiet, some part of me feels bad watching them sit there, sedated into submission. There are many other reasons (some children, especially high schoolers, ask to get a prescription because they know they can sell the pills to friends), but the reality of the situation is that many more children are taking medication and most of them are taking it because school is not working for them without the medication.

I'm going to end this post by posing a question, one that I have given a lot of thought to over the last 18 months. Why do we make our children sit still from 8 until 3 every day? We, as adults, dread meetings, we dread PD days, we dread a 9 to 5 job that has us at a desk all day. Why do we force our children to do exactly whay we dread?



The research that was done for this article on ADHD was extraordinarily broad and inclusive. I checked out the actuak study and was impressed by the methods used and the data collected.

The Effect of Early Childhood Stress on Executive Function Ability: Do we need to shift what we are teaching?

          I have been reading Paul Tough’s book, Why Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Power of Character, lately and one chapter was particularly interesting, because it provided scientific insight to behaviors that we observe every day as teachers. The chapter spoke about the cognitive and social effects of growing up in poverty, due to the increase of stress in one’s life during early childhood. The following is a poignant quote that stood out to me as I read:

“The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the pre-frontal cortex, which is critical in self-regulatory activities of all kind, both emotional and cognitive. As a result, children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointment, and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school” (Tough, 17).

As a teacher, I notice these behaviors every day, and, since I have only taught in Baltimore City, I often wonder whether my students are particularly bad at following directions or if following directions is a common issue across all students. Based on personal experience, the four actions presented that are “harder” for students who grew up in stressful environments resonated with me strongly as four issues I see consistently every day in my classroom.

It was both enlightening and frustrating that there was a scientific explanation for the difficulties my students face focusing in class – enlightening, because it confirmed my observations. It was frustrating, because I feel as though we never discuss the reasons why behind our students’ behavior and are seldom given concrete strategies to deal with students’ different behavior issues.

As I kept reading, the following quote also stood out because it isolates that stress, not poverty, is the real issue:

“It wasn’t poverty itself that was compromising the executive function ability of the poor kids. It was the stress that went along with it” (Tough, 20).   

Finally, this quote provides some interesting reflection on our work as teachers:

“The reason that researchers who care about the gap between rich and poor are so excited about executive functions is that these skills are quite malleable, much more so than other cognitive skills.”

The book explains that “executive function” has become the catchphrase for the ability to regulate emotions and make decisions when presented with unpredictable and confusing situations.

So, questions become: 

• How can I improve the executive function of my students in my classroom, if these are the skills that will lead them to greater success in life?
• What do I do on a daily basis that may actually hinder their ability improve their executive function abilities?
• What kind of support do schools and districts need to provide if we aim to equip teachers to improve executive functions of students, as opposed to solely deliver content?
• In the age of the Common Core State Standards and High-Stakes Testing, can we expect teachers to improve the cognitive level and abilities of their students as well as the executive functions?

If research is saying students’ executive function abilities are a stronger predictor of success in life, do we need to re-prioritize our goals for students?

Low-Income + High-Performing = Community College?

Last week, the New York Times reported on a new nationwide study that found that most high-achieving low-income students do not even apply to the nation's most selective colleges. In the study, "high-achieving" is defined as a student with at least an A- average and a score in the top 10% of students who took the ACT or SAT.

The study cites a lack of knowledge and misperceptions about the actual cost of attending a selective, out-of-state university as the major impediments to these students. It also emphasizes that graduation rates  and career choices for low-income students in selective colleges are much higher, due to better resources and support. Thinking back to my time at a selective college, I can see how the supports in place definitely helped students who were struggling in a new environment. From caring first-year deans who regularly hosted meals at their homes to free tutoring and career counseling, all kinds of support were readily available and many students took advantage of it. According to the article, the community colleges and local institutions attended by many low-income students have more of a sink-or-swim environment. The ticket price is substantially lower, but support programs are thin or nonexistent.

This article provides a stark contrast to a related article from December: "For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall." This story followed three low-income students who succeeded, in varying degrees, in getting out of their hard-luck town. All three ended up dropping out, even the one who headed to Emory University. In this article, all three students were held back by strong ties to people they'd left behind (families and boyfriends) as well as financial hardship. In their community there was a sense that students who "got out" were abandoning the people back home, creating a burden of guilt for those attending college. The student who attended Emory had a lot of financial aid, but she was overwhelmed by the paperwork and ended up losing her aid due to some errors on her FAFSA and missed deadlines. Forced to take on multiple jobs to pay her tuition, she ended up failing out with crippling debt. For this one student, attending a selective college wasn't enough. Clearly, the support systems did not help her. Although the statistics do show more success for low-income students at selective colleges, the question remains how those institutions can continue to attract -- and retain -- those students.

Lastly, I thought it was important to note that in this study, the group of students nationwide identified as "high-achieving, low-income" was 6% black, 8% Latino, 15% Asian-American, and 69% white. The clear racial gaps in this subset of poor, academically talented students was not a focus of the study, but certainly relevant to our work in Baltimore.

Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/education/scholarly-poor-often-overlook-better-colleges.html?ref=education&_r=0

For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html

How Are the Children?

As education reformers, activists, change agents, (whatever you want to call us), we spend copious amounts of time discussing topics such as urban ed, schooling, curriculum, facilities, etc.  The debates are endless:  neighborhood schools or school choice? Six through eight or K-8? Common core. Uncommon schools. The list goes on. Amidst all of the questions that surround education in Baltimore city, I have only one: what about the children? 

I liken the current debates occurring in Baltimore City to those that take place between a married couple tunneling through the recesses of divorce. Each person is lobbying for what they want, with the children somewhere in the back of their minds; yet the concerns of those children not really determining the outcome of the settlement.  I imagine that the children are somewhere screaming “listen to me”!

How are we doing, Baltimore?  In the midst of our various discussions and decisions, are we listening to our children?  Are we exploring their concerns and considering their needs as we make choices that will ultimately affect their futures?

The Masai people of Kenya are considered to be a tribe of fearless, intelligent warriors who have conquered many a foe.  Yet in their fighting and fearlessness, they humble themselves enough to pass along this greeting: “Kasserian Inegra”, which translates, “how are the children?”

It is with this that I challenge you, fearless warriors, to pause, step back, and take time to consider: how are the children?

“El Sistema”… Could It Be Music To Our Ears?

Two years into my teaching career, my students are still constantly surprising me.  Sometimes with pleasant surprises, like bringing me the gluten-free cereal their parents accidentally bought (and they now absolutely refuse to eat), and sometimes with not so pleasant surprises, like writing the new Meek Mills lyrics all over my newly washed desks.   Last Friday, when I supervising my student wash up those very same lyrics after school, I had her listening to an old classical play list of mine from college, thinking that it would be some additional, subtle form of punishment.  Instead, she confided in me how much she had always wished that she knew how to play an instrument—growing up, she had never had the opportunity.

This experience made me flash back to a conversation I once was having with my musician-father, who was singing the praises of the semi-radical education reform movement in Venezuela, known as “El Sistema.”  Started back in the late 1970’s, early 80’s, this movement was started by the famous Venezuelan musician, Jose Antonio Abreu, with the mission to provide impoverished children in Venezuela with an after school alternative to the street life.  Now with almost 400,000 children in programs in Venezuela alone, El Sistema is a government-funded social program that gives these hundreds of thousands of children free musical instruction for three to four hours, six days a week after school.  These children have exposure to many potentially life changing opportunities, such as travelling globally and playing with the National Simon Bolivar Orchestra. 

Now, I know that it is not some revolutionary idea to say that music can have a positive impact on children’s lives, but I do find it truly inspiring to see a nation making such a huge investment in instilling music as a positive force in children’s lives.  I couldn’t help but wonder—what if the United States were willing to invest that much in Baltimore’s youth?

A 60 Minutes piece on El Sistema:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-4009335.html

Zoning, School Choice, and Urban Reform

In a recent New York Times article, No division Required in This School Problem, the problem of urban school zoning is discussed and a solution for Boston is proposed.  The problem is how to send children to good schools, relatively close to where they live, when few such schools exist.  Peng Shi, a 24 year old doctoral student with no ties to education, proposed that schools drop the ideas of zoning altogether and instead give families a list of six schools close to where they live, with the first two being the closest high-qaulity schools, and then the next two closest of at least medium quality. 

This article is pertinent for our class for a couple of extremely relevant reasons.  First, last class session we discussed the performance of urban schools in Baltimore, and examined what information is presented to families through the high school choice fair.  Baltimore has a fairly innovative school choice program, but I personally found the information regarding school performance and amenities remarkably misleading.  Shi’s solution may be a perfect happy-medium for providing student with the opportunity to attend the most convenient school of the highest caliber.  While Baltimore could still have entrance requirements for attending the best schools, students will have a better chance of knowing what they are signing up for prior to attending the school as a Freshman and then transferring.

Second, this idea was proposed by a gentleman with no educational experience or political agenda.  Could the future of urban educational reform come from educational outsiders with finely tuned data and statistical analysis skills?  Is this a good idea, or is education such an emotional and location specific  phenomenon that it is too dangerous to make decisions by turning students into numbers and data points.  What do you think?  Do you have any insight into the future of school choice or the reform of the urban educational system?

-          Josh Peace

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/education/no-division-required-in-this-school-problem.html?ref=education&_r=0

The Real Opportunity Gap: Technology and Its Role in Urban Education

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            When I began teaching in Baltimore City Public Schools, I was surprised to find that my school had no wireless internet access.  Additionally, my students visit  computer lab once per week for approximately 40 minutes.  They computers in our computer lab are iMac’s, the same computers I used when I was in 2^nd and 3^rd grade 12 or 13 years ago.   Most of my students do not have internet access at home, and there doesn’t seem to be a push, at least in elementary school, to help students learn basic computing skills. 

            The education reform movement so often focuses on the issues of teacher pay, evaluation, instruction, and achievement as measured by high stakes standardized tests.  But, what the movement fails to recognize is that the opportunity gap in this country is about much more than the outcomes on these tests—it’s also about skills.  I’m not talking about the skills that a student learns for a test- I’m talking about technological skills.  We can teach our students how to read and write and compute but if they leave the eighth grade, as so many of the eighth graders at the school where I teach do, unable to use the technological tools that they will have to use in any sort of higher education or career, then we are setting them up for failure.   Aren’t we doing a huge disservice to our students when we can’t provide them with the tools and teaching that will actually allow them to compete concretely with their middle class or upper middle class counterparts?

            As the education reform movement grows, I hope that we can have a larger conversation about the role that technology plays in changing access to opportunity, and I hope that we can begin to remove some of the structural barriers that prevent our students from acquiring the necessary skills to compete in an increasingly technologically driven world.

The Middle School Slump: Who's Slumping?

            After reading about the drop in student achievement that students experience when transitioning to middle school for class (http://educationnext.org/stuck-in-the-middle/), I couldn’t help but wonder about teacher retention in the middle grades. Everyone knows that middle grade students face tremendous physical, social, and emotional change, as well as a corresponding decline in academic achievement. As a middle school teacher, I wonder, what impact does this have on teacher retention?

            I work at a K-8 public school, but the grades are separated among three different buildings. In the middle school building where I teach, more than 60% of the staff were new teachers last year. After speaking with the only veteran teacher in the 200+ student middle school building, last year was no different than the five years before that. The majority of the lower-grades are, conversely, staffed veteran teachers that have become fixtures in the school community. I had a hunch this was a citywide, if not nationwide, trend, and after reading several articles about teacher retention, this is what I found: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17middle.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.      

According to the article, middle school teachers do, in fact, have higher attrition rates than elementary or high school teachers in several urban districts. Teacher attrition rates are alarmingly high, in general, but it appears that middle school teachers leave school systems at slightly higher rates than their counterparts in other grades. While the article acknowledges the challenges of middle school student volatility, rising violence, and slumps in achievement, especially in urban areas, it focuses primarily on teachers. The author praises the unique personality traits of career-long middle school teachers, such as great senses of humor and grit. She also examines the lack of teacher preparation focusing on the middle grades. Teacher personalities and teacher preparation matter, but what about school structure? Does a K-8 model have higher teacher retention rates than a 6-8?

Much more than this, I wonder, what about our students? What do students at this developmental age need to succeed in school? I think that this highly social and self-conscious, identity-searching subgroup of students needs to quit being shoved into existing models that are clearly failing them. If we start asking ourselves what it is these students need, instead of how to make the current situation better, we will likely be faced with needs that require bold and revolutionary changes in our mindsets, our curriculums, our classrooms, and our schools, not just our teachers.

Closing a Neighborhood School

When Baltimore City's 10-year plan was released, I noticed that the high school across the street from my elementary-middle -- Northwestern -- was slated to close in 2 years. I don't know much about what goes on at Northwestern. I do know that many of my students have older siblings who attend, mostly big sisters who are lovely people and who seem to have a parental role in my students' lives. I also know that even before the announcement that Northwestern would be closed, my seventh grade student (whose sister attends the school) vowed that she would "do anything" to avoid attending Northwestern.

A few weeks ago the Baltimore Sun reported that Northwestern alumni are suing the city over the school closure. The reasons for the closure are what you might expect: poor state of facilities, low student achievement, and "24 percent utilization rate of space in the school." Indeed, according to MD Report Card, the MSA pass rates in all subjects and grades are below 53%, and the school population has decreased by half over the past ten years.

The alumni association argues that it would be more cost-effective to renovate the school, citing several projects that have already been completed (new tennis courts, repaving) that seem to have been overlooked in the city's report. Perhaps more importantly, the alumni believe that "the plan is discriminatory because shuttering the institution would disproportionately affect low-income, minority students" in Northwest Baltimore. Neighborhood students will not have the option of attending this local school. The nearest option would be Forest Park high school in the Gwynn Oak neighborhood.

Northwestern is a neighborhood institution. It was founded in 1966 and has served the Fallstaff community continuously since then. There are strong ties between Northwestern and Fallstaff Elementary-Middle across the street; students often come back to my school to visit their old teachers. Friends who teach at non-neighborhood schools - charters mostly - complain that the underlying pride that comes with attending a neighborhood school is lacking in their schools Their students come from all over the city, and there is no common sense of community. I think there is a definite benefit to local, neighborhood schools that draw from a particular community, and this benefit will be lost with the closing of Northwestern.

On the other hand: Northwestern is clearly failing on many levels. It has 691 students roaming around a school that once housed 1400. The students at neighborhood middle schools dream of leaving Northwest Baltimore to attend City, Poly, Western, and Dunbar. They willingly travel across town on city buses to escape a worse fate at Northwestern. The idea of a neighborhood school is very appealing to me, but I must admit that Northwestern can no longer be an neighborhood institution if it is seen as a last resort by students applying to high school. I understand the pleas of alumni who are fighting to save their school, but I think we must face the reality that this school is seriously in decline. Maybe closure is not the answer, but I doubt that this school holds the same level of value in the community as it used to in its heyday.

Link:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-ci-northwestern-closure-lawsuit-20130222,0,1299917.story

Barry Manilow Wants More Instruments in Baltimore City

I recently read that Barry Manilow, (yes, the singer), donated his Yamaha piano to Baltimore City Public Schools. It also said than anyone who donates an instrument at the 1st Mariner Arena Box Office will get a free ticket to Barry’s concert on April 20th.

I truly commend his efforts. I do. But I can’t help but think that somehow these instruments will never get used, or they will be destroyed and that there won’t be a music teacher to teach our students how to use them. In a school system that increasingly cares about tests and graduation rates, the arts programs are being cut. And in general, it’s not because of a lack of instruments, it’s because schools don’t want to pay music teacher salaries. This happened at my school this fall. We had a music teacher, he was awesome, and the students loved him. But our students were robbed of this opportunity because our school didn’t want to pay him anymore.

I have a $5000 Promethean board in my classroom but have not been able to use it all year because the tech people at my school will not provide me with the cords that connect to my computer. I also called the tech people at City Schools and they said they would call me when the cords would be available to pick up. They never called. And I called back and they had no idea what I was talking about.

In terms of resources, we’re almost there, but until we actually care about teaching students and providing the support staff that will allow us to educate our students, instruments and fancy tools may not work. We can secure donations, we can secure technology grants, but we can’t secure belief in the arts. 

The story on Barry Manilow: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/03/02/barry-manilow-donates-new-piano-to-benefit-baltimore-schools/

The Role of Nutrition in City Schools

            Baltimore City Schools are making progress to prioritize nutrition in education. Great Kids Farms, the Baltimore City Schools farm, provided our school with materials to jump-start our garden, including seedlings, compositing supplies, and education materials for experiential learning. We also received a salad bar for the cafeteria as a reward for submitting proper FARMS paperwork; better yet, students are actually eating at it. Just taking a quick stroll around the cafeteria, I can see the improvement from last year in the nutritional value of the food on students’ plates, which sometimes comes straight from our own garden.

            Despite the positive change, this progress ends once students walk out the school doors. I see throngs of students stopping at McDonalds on the way to the bus stop, or picking up a party size bag of hot Cheetos while walking home. In a homeroom activity earlier in the year involving food logs, over half the students reported having one or more fried foods for dinner, despite acknowledging them as unhealthy. Although these eating habits lead to a long list of negative effects, including obesity and diabetes, I discovered an overwhelmingly simple cause when I asked students why they eat these unhealthy foods.

“I don’t know how to cook.”

            So, the next step to ensuring students have access to three healthy meals a day: teach them how to cook. The Teen Battle Chef program is an after school club that teaches students nutrition, food safety, cultural background of foods, and, of course, cooking skills. Teen Battle Chef uses a similar layout to competitive cooking shows such as Iron Chef by giving students recipes which they have to prepare for the entire group and complete a presentation for all, including the judges. Now in our fourth week of the program, the shift in attitudes toward healthy foods and cooking is impressive. Fifteen students went from thinking all peppers are spicy to chopping and snacking on bell peppers and hummus. A solitary student had tried mussels and attested to that “they taste as bad as they smell;” by the end of the class there were no leftovers. Although it is only one program at one school with only a small subset of kids, I can see fundamental changes in perceptions of healthy foods. Hopefully, students will spread their knowledge to family and friends, and programs like Teen Battle Chef will continue to not only give students healthy meals, but lifelong healthy eating habits.

For more information on the Teen Battle Chef program, check out the website: http://www.familycookproductions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42&Itemid=45

Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction and Teacher Retention: A Supportive Administration and Content Teams, Relationships with Colleagues, and Frequent Positive Adult Interaction

            Having a supportive administration is definitely a huge factor in a teacher’s satisfaction and in teacher retention. I do think the principal is a huge difference maker as they set the vision and the tone for school culture and can create a positive supportive, culture or a negative, threatening culture. They also have to communicate the goals of the school and how staff actions help the staff to reach the goals. However, I think we need to widen our definition of administration and not solely focus on the role of the principal, as that is a lot of pressure for a principal as one blogger noted, and, if one works in a large school, it is a lot to expect a principal to have a strong relationship with every teacher. I think that the assistant principals and the department heads have an ability to make or break a teacher’s experience and feeling of support within the school environment as well.

            Though I do not interact that frequently with my principal, because she is very busy, I have a strong relationship with my Department Head and that has made a huge difference in my personal job satisfaction. I feel like I have a mentor and someone who “has my back,” which provides an important element of security. When we were discussing what we want from our principals and administrators during class, we said we wanted to feel supported and that we wanted better communication and more transparency about why we have to do certain tasks. I realized, upon reflection, that my Department Head does a very good job of making you feel supported and appreciated, because she is very quick to say thank you for any extra work she asks you to do. She makes an effort to ask how you are personally before getting to business, so that we have built a friendship over the last two years. I also realized, that she is very transparent about why we need to complete certain tasks, especially when the tasks do not seem important and are tasks that are required by the district and which do not appear to link to increased student achievement. I know that I can go to her if I have a quick question about a lesson plan or need advice on classroom management. Our positive relationship has been influential in my decision to remain at my school next year and continue teaching, because I feel like I am a part of a team and that I will continue to learn from her next year.

             As one blogger noted in her post on “Blended Learning,” teachers can often feel isolated during the day when they spend all of their day with their students. For this reason, I do feel that positive adult interaction during the day can lead to increased job satisfaction, as I know this has been the case for me. My Department Head and I had opportunities to co-teach for a few days to prepare students for the HSA, and, while co-teaching does not always work because the team is not a strong team, because we were a team it made such a huge difference having another adult in the room while teaching. My stress was lower, because I knew there was someone else to help teach small group or deal with a management issue. It also meant that you did not have to waste class time to deal with management issues, as one blogger noted, because having two teachers in the classroom helped management a lot. However, even when we are not co-teaching, which is the majority of the time, we interact daily, at least once if not more, which has also had an impact on my job satisfaction.

            Not only do I have a positive relationship with my Department Head, but I also have good relationships with other colleagues in the building, which definitely influenced my decision to stay in the classroom for another year as well. I know that a few of my peers who have chosen to leave the classroom next year have expressed frustration with the lack of collegiality between colleagues and dissatisfaction with a department head or an administrator, as opposed to dissatisfaction with their students and with teaching as a whole.

           On the contrary, my days are still often challenging in the classroom, and I cannot say that I like teaching every day, because certain classes and certain students give me management challenges every day. Interestingly enough, these management challenges are less prevalent for some of my peers who are at higher-performing schools yet who still desire to leave the classroom due to a dissatisfaction with their administration. I feel like I am learning and growing as a teacher and that I am a part of a team that is working towards a goal and that we are making progress with regards to solving problems that affect some of the lower-performing schools and that gives me motivation to say one more year.

So, is it the kids or the adults that actually push teachers out of the classroom?

Top Public Schools in America: Are They Missing the Point?

What does it take to be one of the best public schools in America?  U.S. Weekly recently started rating public schools the in the same way that it has been helping high-school graduates decide which college is the best.  So what does it take to be the best? 

Looking at the list almost all schools have partnered with a university, college, or community college in order to provide classes that award college credit.  A few offer tracks that students can take, similar to a major in college or have a focus such as STEM or art.  Overall, it seems that most of the top performing schools are structured very similarly to a college. 

My next question is how did they get there?  Do these schools have teachers who’ve earned their Ph.D.?  Do teachers make more money?  Are the communities affluent and supportive?  What models have they created that can benefit the schools that didn’t make the list?

I took a closer look at the top school, Dallas’ Schools for the Talented and Gifted and wanted to know what made it so special.

First, let’s look at the demographics.  It’s located in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood with an average income of about $22,800 per year compared to over $40,000 in the rest of the state.  So I feel safe in saying it’s not because of the resources of the community when they’re earning almost half of the rest of the state attending schools that did not make the list.   

So, what about the teachers?  After browsing a few teacher profiles, none that I saw had Ph.D.’s but almost all had been recognized in the state for their teaching efforts and successes.  All of the teachers had more than 10 years of experience.   This is potentially noteworthy.  Looking inward, the teachers at my school average less than 10 (most less than 5 years).  Only 2 have been teaching more than 10 years and the number of years that the upper grades (6 teachers) have COMBINED are just around 20 years.  Perhaps the answer lies in the number of years teachers have been in the classroom.  However, we know that teachers tend to stay in a functional and high-performing school so which came first here?

Lastly, let’s look at the curriculum and expectations.  Talented and Gifted is a magnet school which means students have to apply to get in.  There are currently only a few openings in 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grade.  There are 65 openings in 9^th grade.  How do you get in?  Well, just like applying for college, you had better built up your resume before the age of 15.  There are several conditions for acceptance, especially if you are looking for fill the 1 spot left for 11^th grade.  I hope those tween years were productive! 

Overall, I wonder if the Talented and Gifted School in Dallas has missed the point of public education.  How can a school be rated the best if they require applications for entrance?  Any city, and all cities, has utilized different school models to become the best public school.  However, if these models are not available to everyone, haven’t we just created a private school using public finances?