Should We Pay Kids to Come to School?

Today, perhaps more than at any other time, America is investing in education, spending billions of dollars and countless research hours on education reforms. But if the students don’t come to school, none of these reforms will make a single iota of difference. It could be argued student attendance is the single most important reform in education today; it is the foundation upon which the success of every other reform depends. 

As a teacher, I share the overwhelming frustration and disappointment that comes from knowing that if a student would just come to class, that student would succeed. Currently, W.E.B Dubois High School is using an economic incentive program focused on attendance and attendance is up more than 10%. Attendance is a prerequisite for academic success, but it must be catalyzed by additional reforms to give us a real shot at closing the achievement gap in this country. 

Some researchers fear that rewarding students for requisite behaviors such as attendance will lead to a decline in motivation when the incentive is removed, but there is no actual evidence to support that fear. To the contrary, there is actually a great deal of data showing that economic incentive programs can actually spark lasting intrinsic motivation. I believe that well-designed incentive programs focusing on increased attendance and rewarding positive behaviors (reading books, doing homework/extra credit assignments, etc.) could be a significant part of the solution to the education crisis in America.

Read more about W.E.B. Dubois High School's Attendance Program here...

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/education/Baltimore-City-high-school-students-rewarded-for-attendance/-/9379316/19700442/-/vu0vhsz/-/index.html

Can you really teach a high school student to think?

Over Spring Break I had a very interesting conversation regarding politics, education, and the importance of thinking in democratic nations. I was staying at a hostel in Seville, Spain (where my younger sister is studying abroad) and the conversation took place with an elder Canadian/American couple and a Chinese immigrant to Great Britain who now studies (and teaches) in Spain.

The couple were very liberal and insisted that the United States is falling behind because creativity is not valued and people are not taking advantage of the opportunities that a democracy gives its people. I spoke about my experience as a teacher in Baltimore and the pressure that standardized tests bring into the classroom.

Teaching 12 year-olds English in Spain, Howard said that he sees how critical thinking doesn't seem to be valued in Spanish schools either. Back in Britain, he described his end-of-course exams that students had to pass in order to move onto the next grade. Such a system ensures that high school teachers aren't faced with students who read at elementary school levels. He explained that the pressure to do well on those tests came from concerned parents and teachers - rather than administrators worried about meeting AYP goals. He also explained the immense pressure from classmates to do well.

As self-proclaimed free-thinkers (currently on a 1,000 km hike across Spain), the elder couple seemed disgusted by the thought that students aren't exposed to electives such as art, music, and technology because of the immense focus on the tested subjects - reading and math. This left me pondering an important question; if our students are not being taught to think for themselves, where will the future engineers and creative minds of our nation come from?

Our conversation really got me thinking about what it is that I'm teaching my students. With the HSAs (standardized tests) coming up in less than two months, I have weeks dedicated to reviewing material and test preparation. What if instead, I just taught critical thinking skills?

How does a second-year teacher go about teaching 150 high schoolers to think critically? Is it even possible? Why isn't the focus of teacher prep and systemic Professional Development on teaching students to think, so they can form educated opinions and participate in our democratic society?

Then I saw this blog post and realized that concerns over standardized testing, discipline issues, and tenure are issues facing teachers all across America. The problem is much more than simply not teaching kids to think.

Alternative to the increasing lose of P.E.

Whether or not a student gets any time for physical activities at school varies from day-to-day and school-to-school. Some schools have recess everyday, P.E. once a week, or nothing at all. In a society where child obesity rates are growing, along with the number of children with diabetes, it is important that our schools improve their effort to increase student’s physical activity in school along with their knowledge of making healthy choices. Programs like Playworks and SPARK, mentioned in this article, do a great justice to our students by increasing the time they get to be active. Especially in schools that have no structured time where students are allowed to be active, we need to take advantage of outside programs like SPARK that will come into our schools and teach teachers and volunteers (i.e. parents and grandparents) creative ways to get our students out of their seats.

Programs like SPARK are a great resource to the increasing number of schools that are cutting recess and P.E. either due to budget limitations or to accommodate the time demands of their curriculum. SPARK will show teachers how they can increase physical activity in their classrooms, which as most teachers know, when students are active they are usually more engaged. The Principal of Germantown Elementary, where SPARK is implemented, noted that student’s attitudes have enhanced with their increased movement. When we can so easily see the positive results physical activity has on students, especially those in elementary, why is it then that our schools are continually cutting P.E. and recess and not implementing programs like SPARK. How can we really expect a 5, 8, or 10 year old to sit still for 7 hours a day? I am 24 years old and you could not expect me to sit still for even 2 hours.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-04-08/news/bs-md-ar-germantown-elementary-spark-20130403_1_kindergarten-teacher-education-program-germantown-elementary-school

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