Dropout Rate Drops (along with expectations?)

You probably received the email from Alonso today highlighting the fact that our Baltimore City African American males are leading the pack in decreasing the dropout rate while increasing the graduation rate. In the past three years, Baltimore City's dropout rate has decreased by 56% while the graduation rate if up 10%. Our African American male students are breaking these statistics with 59% and 12.4%, respectively. While I could not be happier that more students are staying in school and receiving their diploma, these statistics make me question if Maryland's requirements are rigorous enough.

As educators, we debate about standardized testing endlessly. Personally, I feel that some sort of test to compare results between schools, districts, and states is necessary to ensure our students are learning what we need them to learn. The Baltimore Sun highlights the decrease in Baltimore City's dropout rate stating that state officials believe the HSAs to have increased the "standards for students and enabled more to get a diploma." Although I believe that statement to be true, I feel that the second half is a bit vague. If you check out the Maryland Report Card for Baltimore City, only 68% of our seniors have actually passed the Algebra / Data Analysis HSA. However, 100% have met the requirement for graduation. Within that gap comes Bridge Projects: the get out of jail free card for our students. Not surprisingly, most see it that way too.

This year I am teaching an Algebra / Data Analysis HSA Mastery class for junior non - passers that need to pass. All of my students already know the ins and outs of the Bridge Projects and most see no point in attempting to take and pass the HSA for the sixth time when they can just complete the projects and still meet the requirements.

With that all said, I love that Baltimore City's dropout rate is continually decreasing, but are we still holding our students to high expectations when we give them an easy alternative when they cannot pass the required examinations to graduate? Should we take away that option and fear that dropout rates once again increase? Obviously there is no right answer to this inevitable struggle of balance, but finding a way to ensure students are receiving the knowledge they need to succeed in the real world should be the main priority in all schools.

"Culture of Poverty" Times Article

In continuing with my earlier post’s theme of contextualizing the school system within a larger system of poverty, a recent New York Times article revisited an academic concept termed the “culture of poverty” that defines institutional limits of habits, beliefs, and opportunities for populations living under the poverty line. While initially attacked when the sociology was first introduced in the sixties, the article goes on to highlight the reemergence of an academic credence for the cultural analysis of populations stagnated by the forces of poverty. This is an interesting idea and, I believe, very applicable to our students and their demographic conditions.

The article mentions the original controversial research that sought to explore how ideas and behavioral trends among groups of people could ensnare urban black families through self-perpetuating moral deficiencies. Clearly, the moral character of an entire race is not a viable subject of debate (as it was in the original research), and the contemporary approach to the research of cultural systems within poverty is more accurate in the study of institutional racism and isolation. With an approach to culture as “shared understandings” among a population, there are interesting studies mentioned in the article that have to do with a neighborhood’s shared perceptions of community action and thought; a “broken window” syndrome that has to do with larger forces perpetuating habits, thoughts, and beliefs that isolate populations in a cycle of poverty. It is important to keep in mind that this is different from the previous (discredited) research that primarily attributed racial characteristics to a lack of self-improvement and mobility within impoverished communities.

With my students as my reference into the Baltimore school district and urban education in general – read: a limited perspective – I recognize demeaning cultural habits and beliefs that are not racial in origin, but representative of poverty and class. The willingness to analyze cultural ideologies that reinforce and at times even celebrate an acceptance of impoverished conditions deserves support while considering the place and role of education within that system. Studies of a “culture of poverty” do not imply a lack of possibility through abstract forces that work in tandem against the individual or family. Rather, studies of a “culture of poverty” represent the analysis of class ideology as a means of exploring increasing rates of poverty and the experiences of living, working, and learning in the studied environment. This has huge implications for educational reform when considering the environment and culture of our students in Baltimore City, and how best to serve their needs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/us/18poverty.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage

teach.gov

I was surfing the web this Sunday, looking at different articles about the recent movie Waiting for Superman that we have talked about so much. I found a website called Teach.gov. This is the first I’ve heard of this website, and I was amazed by what I found.

This website is attempting to change the image of teaching. Teaching is sometimes seen as an easy job, or a job for those who can’t do. It is seen as a temporary stepping stone, or a job for the less talented. For what it’s worth, the web site is trying to inspire our generation to consider becoming teachers. Among the many reasons to become a teacher listed on the website includes be a leader, shape tomorrow, help under-served communities, and build a career with chances for advancement.

Additionally, the website features video interviews with teachers, logically, and then less logically, stars like Oprah. Oprah talks about her favorite teacher and how she was inspired by her.

I find this website to be a bit underwhelming when you consider the conversation that is taking place across the country. We talk about how great the need is for more teachers, for enthusiastic teachers, dedicated to a mission. Although, I appreciate the web-site's attempt to reach out, it does not seem like enough to get more teachers.

As a country, our education system is in crisis and more needs to be done to recruit teachers capable of achieving big changes and believing that the change is possible. Perhaps the web site is a good first step, but it is not enough. The implications for Baltimore are pretty clear. The website seems friendly enough for inviting new teachers, but how many people are looking at this, realizing that their every dream is to become a teacher in Baltimore City? Probably not many. It is not enough of an attempt to attract the people that we need. It is not convincing nor is it appealing. More has to be done to recruit the kind of high-quality teachers that we need.

Charter Schools and Unions: An Unlikely Marriage?

In a recent article published in the New York Times, Despite Image, Union Leader Backs School Change, a different perspective is presented about Randi Weingarten. Weingarten, the new union leader of the American Federation of Teachers was depicted as "a foaming satanic beast" in Waiting For "Superman" according for Variety. It is almost an undisputed fact that Teacher's Unions were not portrayed in the most positive of lights in the film. Of course, Teacher's Unions and Randi Weingarten are presented in synonymous terms, and the uneducated viewer may have walked away from the film with skewed perspective of the intentions and desired outcomes of Ms. Weingarten.

The Times article emphasizes the following major points: recently Weingarten has been presented as diametrically opposed to charter schools; she wrote a written rebuttal to Waiting for "Superman;" earlier this year, Weingarten proposed that teacher's evaluations be partially tied to student achievement (aka test scores). What is not as readily acknowledged is that Weingarten has a responsibility to her union members - many of whom are concerned with job security more than they are concerned with educational reform.

As an educator it is difficult to imagine acting in your own interest rather than in the interest of your students; however, the waters are so murky around this issue that it is hard to say what is best for students. Is it a stronger Union? Is it more emphasis on test scores? Less emphasis on test scores? As suggestions and ideas are continually raised, it becomes difficult to choose which will be the best for our children. Can a solution, given the individual state's power over education, work on a national level? As these questions swirl in my mind it is almost impossible to choose a side to form an unwavering allegiance to.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the article is the realization that Weingarten, like many others, was only partially shown in the film. Steve Barr, the founder of the Green Dot charter school, pointed out one of the major weaknesses of the film: it doesn't show any positive examples of charter schools and unions working together.

This is an interesting point. The way I see it there are two major groups of people who saw the film: those who understand charter schools and those who don't. Waiting for "Superman" addresses issues of educational inequity - this is a positive thing. However, did it really do it in a way that was most accessible to the general public and most honest to the people in the film? This is debatable. And that makes me nervous.

Given the recent push in Baltimore by our own union leaders to ratify a new contract, I find this article about union leadership particularly pertinent. Unions, especially in school districts like Baltimore City, serve the purpose of representing teachers, but are called to do so in a way that will allow teachers to best serve our students. Whether it's a film, a union representative, or a new contract, Baltimore teachers must be willing to stand up for what is best for the children that we teach. Their needs should take priority over ours.