North Avenue

Last night’s conversation about school boards made me think about the current situation in DC and the role that politics play in our system. Politics are an undeniable force and in a school system they are especially dangerous because they distract us from our ever-important goal of educating children. Michelle Rhee of DCPS hinted at this when she spoke of her desire to clean out the central office, saying, “I am convinced that we must not let the rights, privileges, and priorities of adults to take precedence over what is in the best interests of students.” Since taking the helm in DC, she has encountered much ire from the union and many administrators for her willingness to call people to task and her hatred of inefficiency. One of Rhee’s primary goals is similar to that of Alonzo’s – to clean out the central offices and streamline the administrative process. Because she is appointed by the mayor, she has the luxury of an almost apolitical position. She has no constituents to appeal to, and the only person she is accountable to is Mayor Fenty.

Baltimore City can learn a lot about Rhee’s tenure in DC. As with most trends, Baltimore follows DC at about six months behind, so the upcoming changes at North Ave have already begun to transpire in DC. The situations are similar. 825 North Capitol St, (the DC North Avenue) has “kept schools from opening on time, swallowed repair orders by the thousands, made teachers’ paychecks disappear, consumed tax dollars by the millions without producing any discernible results and, ultimately, acquired a well-deserved reputation for treating schoolchildren as if they are nuisances.” I just had the strangest wave of déjà vu. I think most people breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that Alonzo was planning on clearing out North Avenue. Interestingly, DC observers note that solely downsizing personnel cannot improve the problem. A crucial problem in DC was the shocking lack of technology and the constant turnover in staff. In the DC central office, if information needs to be transferred between one office and another it is physically transferred on a form. There is no electronic HR system to speak of. The program that alerts HR of potential openings and personnel requires the internet, but is too heavy for the DCPS internet bandwidth. I have a feeling that similar inefficiencies exist at North Avenue. Maybe those inefficiencies can explain the massive amounts of important papers that go missing.

If we are going to make changes at North Avenue, we should recognize up front that it will take more than just downsizing staff. Most of the recent DC Superintendents have come into power and immediately downsized central office staff. This creates a lot of problems in a city that has a new superintendent every two to three years. It encourages people to only look as far as their own bottom line since they are constantly fearing for their jobs. It also creates a consistent number of employees that are new or being trained because they are replacing someone who was hastily (or politically downsized). Given these factors, it makes sense that central office employees would be reluctant to embrace change in the name of student achievement. If we make changes at North Avenue, an important change must be a culture change.

Now I'm Confused??

I’ve been known to be a staunch opponent of the idea of “school choice”, I have always felt that vouchers turn quality education into a financial market place. Schools are for education, and if that is not working, giving up and running away from the problem is not going to create change for everyone. Parents of students who attend a poor performing school will choose to utilize a voucher (which rarely pays the full cost of tuition at private schools) and send their student elsewhere. The poor performing school will begin to see falling enrollment and then will be forced to either change (which will be nearly impossible with no funds, no students and few teachers), or close down. Those students will then go to another public school, and the cycle will continue. Unless we are willing to completely do away with public schools altogether, the voucher system is only putting a Band-Aid on skin cancer. I believe that pay for performance, unless it is based on improvement, is fundamentally biased in favor of school districts in which students are primarily from upper, middle, and lower middle class families, who usually begin the school year at or above grade level. But after reading an article from World on the Web online magazine, about Obama’s (the love of my life) support of school choice in terms of charter schools, I find myself perplexed. I thought school choice meant vouchers? If school choice includes charter schools then I am all for it—hey I work at a semi-charter school. Charter schools are free, they are public, they must be accountable for student learning, and they have been proven to be successful for students from all educational and social backgrounds. If developing 7,907,189,743,097 public charter schools is our method of public school reform, which gives ALL students a free appropriate public education, I’m all for it!

The Angry Rant of a Fed Up Teacher

Last Friday, a teacher was severely beaten by a student while 30 other students sat and watched. Wow, there are so many problems within that one scenario that are commonplace in Baltimore city schools that I am surprised that more incidences have not been reported. Let’s start here. There are entirely too many students in Baltimore City Classrooms. I believe that an incident like the one mentioned above would not have happened in a class of 20, because in those instances, it is easier to form a team like relationship with the members of the class, and that relationship might have moved a student to stop the fight instead of root the violent student on. 2) There is not enough support for new teachers; this woman who began teaching in December should have had more training and support from the administration and mentor teachers. Let’s be honest, very rarely do situations go from cold to hot in a matter of seconds. I believe someone nearby heard the chaos, but decided to think “she needs to get control of that class” instead of, “let me see if she needs help”. 3.) Why are we surprised at what happened when children are allowed to do whatever they want to do, with no repercussions. Instead of calling for specific instances (in my opinion, to avoid dealing with the problem) Dr. Alonzo needs to step up and put some serious policies in place to make our schools safe. Let’s shift our energy from paying students to fail an exam, and take a look at the order of needs, safety: for teachers and students is always at the top of the list.

Do Grades Matter?

Do grades matter?

As a government teacher I use news about the 2008 election, and the biographies of the candidates in my classroom on a regular basis. However, this can bring up conversations that can be difficult to have with my students. For example: by consistently playing up the fact that he received some of the lowest scores of anyone in his class while at the Naval Academy in Annapolis John McCain seems to be implying that academic achievement is not particularly important. True, simply graduating from the United States Naval Academy is a major accomplishment, but I’m forced to wonder how the dozens of people who excelled academically feel about his current success as Republican frontrunner. McCain has also discussed his discipline problems while he was at the academy, which apparently were numerous. All of this comes in the wake of President Bush, who frequently brought up his poor grades while at Harvard and Yale.

I see the mentality that grades don’t matter in my students who are constantly obsessed with simply passing. There are students who want to receive the highest scores in the class, but many just want to cross the threshold of 60. Of course I encourage these students to set their sights higher. But, the success of McCain and President Bush does beg the question – do grades actually correlate to success? Perhaps these leaders, and some students, measure their success by a standard completely different from a grade point average. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with that. However, the danger is when students begin to think that because other people have been able to succeed with bad grades that opportunity will be available to all of them as well. That said, moving beyond grades as the premier measure of success may be a good direction for schools and teachers to move in.

Individual growth or passing rates?

One of the many criticisms swirling around about NCLB is that by setting a uniform passing score and holding everyone to it, schools that serve disadvantaged students are put at a further disadvantage for making AYP because there is more ground for them to make up. A brief analysis of this question was recently posted on the Education Gadfly, published by the Fordham Institute. The point of this analysis is that only a small number of schools will meet AYP in a growth model who do not already meet it in the current absolute model.

My sense is that it doesn't particularly matter how exactly we define the goal, so long as the end goal is a school system where students are ready for college or work on graduation. This goal can be implemented with absolute goals that expect all students to be on grade-level, or with growth goals that are scaled to take into account the achievement gap, so that a student who is three years behind is expected to make more than a year's worth of growth. It seems to me that the former system would be easier to implement, but if a state decides that a growth model would be more effective or egalitarian, then I have no problem with them implementing it so long as they ensure that schools who make AYP are putting their students on track to graduate adequately prepared to contribute to society.

Cell phones in schools

Our hallways are filled with the sounds of the latest “in” ring tones. Students don’t even try to hide the fact that they are on their cell phones. You can’t miss the mass number of students walking down the halls on their phones, especially those who insist on using the walkie talkie feature. That incessant beep the phones make every time a student finishes a sentence could almost be our school song.

I can deal with the annoyance. It’s safety that concerns me. Just like happened at Freedom High in Florida, cell phones often exasperate flare ups that start in school. After a fight or altercation, students might call friends from their neighborhoods, or even gang, to come and help out. We’ve had intruders enter our building on several occasions because of this. We’ve also had people waiting outside to “bank” students because they received phone calls from people inside the building. Another common issue is that students are calling outsiders when gambling is going on in the building so they can come in and rob the students.

I understand why students need cell phones. Many go through rough neighborhoods to get to and from school, or live in rough neighborhoods themselves. If I were a parent, I would want them to have phones, too. I’m not suggesting that they can’t bring them to school. But there has to be a solution that will create a safe environment in school. Right now students have free reign, and in the current environment there really isn’t a way to prevent incidences like the ones described from occurring.

Role of Parents

I recently came across an article titled, “Parents’ Role in Schools Earns Fresh Respect.” To my surprise, the article was about Maryland’s new standards that places increased value on parent participation. The Maryland Department of Education has launched an awards program to recognize parents who have made an effort and contributed to schools in their community. It seems to me we are willing to reward people for everything these days. When talking to many of my high school students in Baltimore City, I realized – not to my surprise – that their parents have not been up to their school since middle school. When they do come, it is often for a conference for misbehavior. I do not doubt that contributions from parents can play a huge role, but I am wondering how proponents of the program Parent Involvement Matters, envisions the role of the parent and the role of the teacher. The National Network of Partnerships Schools would include as parent of their program, giving small grants to school districts to help them build parent-partnership programs. I find it interesting that Maryland has formed a parent advisory council that focuses on ways those parents can support student success. The major push for parent environment has emerged after the recent beating of a teacher by a student in Baltimore. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are required to have a parent-involvement policy. From my experience with parents, in general, they do not know how to become involved or how they could be helpful. An effective parent-involvement policy could be very beneficial. There is only so much you can do in the school itself and during a school day. Many of the problems we are seeing come from the neighborhood. In most cases, parents would be very helpful in developing that bridge between the school and the community. Since Maryland is getting recognition for this initiative, I am looking forward to how to turns out in Baltimore City.

Teacher Absences

Review of my school’s improvement plan indicates that many of the root causes of the problems and challenges with our school stem from teacher absenteeism. It is a problem discussed at all of our faculty meetings. It is a reason expressed by many students as to why they do not come to school or stay the entire day. Lack of teachers in HSA areas has also been a contributing factor to low scores on assessments. This is just what I see at the high school level. From what students have explained to me, there were entire years during middle school that the teacher left at the beginning of school and was never replaced. The year resulted in watching MTV and playing cards.
I recently read an article that outlines a districts’ experiment with cutting teacher absenteeism. Despite evidence that teacher absences harm student achievement, teachers’ unions object to districts that are interested in cutting down on the absences. In my opinion, teacher abuse of leave is prevalent. Not only does it hurt the student, it always causes stress on the rest of the staff that are forced to step up and fill a position on a daily basis. Studies of test results by Harvard and Duke economists indicate that teacher absences negative effect on student achievement. The economists suggest an incentive plans that rewards exceptional attendance or pays teachers for earned leave they don’t take. Another suggestion is to require teachers to report time off to their principal directly, rather than to the central office or an answering machine.
With the changes that are occurring in schools next year, teach absenteeism is an issue that should not be ignored. Reporting directly to the principal and providing rewards to reduce abuse of leave, will hopefully improve the school. Teach absence is linked to student attendance, school climate, and student test scores. Another important point to consider is the cost that teacher absence causes. With the budget in the hands of principals next year, I am skeptical of the number of substitutes that will be provided for absent teachers.

Powerless Teachers

Throughout the year in the BCPSS you are more than likely to hear of a few cases of students filing claims of abuse verses teachers. Usually these teachers end up at North Avenue for awhile pushing papers while things “settle down” and then they eventually disappear (quit). This disappearing act isn’t something that is BCPSS specific. I was recently reading the Scottish Sunday Express which had published an article titled “TEACHING IN CRISIS AS FALSE ABUSE CLAIMS BY PUPILS RISE”. This article was filled with the voices of “disgruntled” teachers who have left the profession because of having been falsely accused of abusing or harassing students.
Hearing their voices and stories made me realize how powerless a teacher in any school setting actually is. Simply put, there is one teacher and many students. These students are many times friends of each other and the few “trustful students” that the teacher has have learned from an early age to keep to themselves. This leaves a teacher outnumbered.
In thinking how teachers could regain their power I came up with two ideas. The first idea is in agreement with Dr. Alonso’s heavy push for the co-teaching model. Although this model may strip the teacher of some of their planning power, it would help protect them against cunning students with a motive. Yet, I’m not to sure this would be a model that would entice more people to enter the profession.
The final idea was that cameras, with sound, need to be placed in every classroom. This may be a huge expense, but I find it much less expensive than the loss of excellent teachers who have been abused by students for years. It would get ride of the entire “he said, she said” game that is played out in the court system, and simply ensure that the right person won. I’m not sure if this has been instituted anywhere already, but stay posted and for my next blog I’ll update you on my findings.

Vouchers and Teacher Unions

An opinion article in the Wall Street Journal (McCain's School Choice Opportunity) combines two issues that we have talked about recently in our class: vouchers and teacher unions. The author makes primarily a political argument about how John McCain can use his support of vouchers to gain support from African-American voters. Statistically, African-Americans favor school choice, but do not vote for Republican candidates. Likewise, Democrats are supported by African-American voters but can not support school choice because they can not risk alienating the powerful support base of the teachers unions. Thus, McCain can use school choice to gain favor with African-American voters.

Politics aside, I do not think that vouchers would reform BCPSS. The article argues that African-Americans have a 42% higher graduation rate in Catholic schools and that a valuable resource is being squandered as 1300 Catholic schools have closed since 1990, many in the inner-city. I think that vouchers would be an amazing opportunity for some students in this city and is hard to disregard a reform that would help some students reach their potential. However, I do not think that competition would improve BCPSS. I think that it would only further drain human capital from an already deflated system.

However, back to the political issue, it would be such a difficult voting issue as a parent in Baltimore. How can you vote against something that would have the potential to help your student receive an excellent education? Individually, it makes great sense. But collectively, I think vouchers would be detrimental to the city and the state of our schools is a problem that needs to be solved collectively.

Out With the Old

I came across a fascinating article recently in the New York Times (2/8/08). Like many schools we are familiar with in Baltimore City, Junior High School 22 in south Bronx had just hired its seventh principal in just over two years. Clearly, the school was ready to take an unorthodox approach. Ironically, this took the form of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shimon Waronker. In a school that is predominantly Black and Hispanic, one can easily imagine how a Caucasian, bearded, skull-cap wearing Jewish man must stuck out. More interesting than the premise has been the results he has achieved, which provide valuable insight on how cultural rapport may be more than skin deep.

In order to achieve success, Waronker “Zero-Based” and replaced half of the teaching staff. Since taking the position, Waronker has outlasted all of his predecessors and improved the school’s performance in several key areas. The school has been removed from New York City’s list of most dangerous schools, has increased attendance to 93%, and has helped improve test scores enough to earn the school an A on its new school report card.

Waronker’s “Zero-Basing” success made me think of Baltimore City. Baltimore City is ripe with teachers who possess the negativity and pessimism of the past. If Alonso, and many of his new principals, are to be successful in this innovative city, they need to boot out the old. We are ready for change and need the human capital to take us there.

Persistently Dangerous

Violence in Baltimore City Public Schools has become an expected, perhaps even accepted occurrence. With the latest, most publicized attack by a student on an art teacher at Reginald F. Lewis High School, school violence has taken on a high profile status. The most remarkable part of the story for me is how unremarkable the event was in a conversation I had with fellow teachers in Baltimore City.

After watching news clips together reporting the attack, there were multiple people who shared similar stories of student on teacher violence in their schools and other schools across the city. I myself had filed assault charges earlier that day after being struck in the face with a bin of protractors during my last period class. The conversation had a somber tone as we discussed the violence in Baltimore City, but not one person expressed surprise when hearing about the attack.

Don’t get me wrong; we have great kids here in Baltimore City. Most of the kids I teach are really fantastic. Even the knuckleheads that throw bins of math manipulatives at you while you’re attempting to help a student at their desk, really can be great a lot of the time. But there is definitely a higher norm of accepted violence in schools. And students will continue to toe the line to see what they can get away with until a clear line is drawn that they are not allowed to cross.

One obstacle in drawing that line is the label of “dangerous” or “persistently dangerous” school. This label is awarded based on the number of suspensions for violent offenses that occur within the school year. Earlier this year five schools in Baltimore were recipients of this label, although there are likely others that should qualify. In an article in USA Today, Program to Identify Most Dangerous Schools Misses Mark, (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-18-dangerousschools_x.htm) school and district leaders in various parts of the country speculate that under-reporting of violent offenses is done so that schools can avoid the label. According to Inside Ed (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2007/08/report_questions_persistently.html), teachers and principles in the state of Maryland report that this is very well the case.

If we are to improve the situation of violence in our schools, we must first acknowledge that the problem is real. Schools then need to develop a system to address the problem of school violence and be faithful in following that system, even if there are unfavorable labels connected to strict enforcement. Only then will students be able to see the line they are not to cross. With the line drawn, we can then work towards creating a safe environment for our kids.

Teacher's Salary

“Would six-figure salaries attract better teachers?” Without a doubt. In fact, it already has. The Times reported recently that a New York City charter school set to open in the fall of 2009 has received over 70 qualified applicants, some with PhDs. The school, The Equity Project, offers a starting salary of $125,000 with a possible $25,000 yearly performance bonus. Juxtapose it against the median salary for an attorney in New York City – $99,000 – and the sticker price moves from shocking to unbelievable.

My jaw dropped the first time I read this story. Then I smiled and thought to myself, “It’s about time!” It’s about time our society pays teachers what they deserve. It’s about time we do justice to the widely-held conviction that teaching is a noble profession. It’s about time we attract (and retain) the kind of teachers that will help close the achievement gap in the classroom.

In addition to basing the salary on sound economic principles, the school’s selection process is based on sound research. Research has shown consistently that one of the most important factors in determining students’ success in school is the quality of their teachers. Research also has proven that verbal ability is the best predictor of the quality of teachers. According to a publication by the Abell Foundation, “Teachers with higher verbal ability produce greater achievement in students” (see page 8 of the publication). The Equity Project requires applicants to score in the 90^th percentile on the LSAT, GRE, or equivalent test.

Perhaps the most striking features of this school’s novel approach is the principal’s salary, $90,000, which is less than 75% of what the teachers will make.

Money talks. At The Equity Project it is making a statement.

Check out the school’s website.