Four more years? Impressive.

Article: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2011/06/alonso_says_he_intends_to_sign.html

While I know very little about Dr. Alonso or how long a normal CEO stays in Baltimore City, for some reason I am impressed by his willingness to keep the job.  I think this reaction has to do with the comments he made to the Sun’s editorial board. In an interview, he said there was, “"no way, I step away from the fight. So, you have to deal with me for four years or until I get fired.”  This is both courageous and inspiring. My belief about teaching is similar to this, and that is why I can’t leave after only two years. I can’t make enough of a change in two years and am not willing to step away from the fight.

I am not Dr. Alonso’s biggest fan, but his announcement and coinciding remarks earned him some respect. More than anything, our students need consistency, and for our students to get consistency, their teachers need consistency. With Alonso staying another four years, we know that at the very minimum, teachers can expect some form of ‘normal’ in our system – for better or worse.

College: A Thing Of The Past??

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/26/school-daze-school-daze-good-old-golden-rule-days/

Interested in a different viewpoint? Check out this editorial in which William Gross defends his belief that college has lost its value and not really worth the time. Gross mentions Peter Thiel, the man who will give 20 students $100,000 to drop out of college to become “entrepreneurs”. Gross believes that having a college degree was valuable years ago, when this path to education led you into a promising job market. But obviously times have changed and a four year college education doesn’t automatically ensure stability and employment. The article argues that our country should turn away from the traditional liberal arts education and instead focus in on technical education, technical institutes, and apprenticeship programs. This shift in focus would allow for individuals with good technical skills but no college experience to earn a good living. To continue his argument, Gross goes on to mention that some of the greatest companies of the 21^st century (Apple, Facebook, Google, etc) tend to higher employees without a college degree.

So does Gross have a point? Or does he simply represent one extreme of the spectrum? Here in Baltimore, we’re pushing college on our students starting in elementary school. We try to instill confidence in them and make them believe that college is something they can and, more importantly, should reach. But are we pushing them towards a goal that will ultimately have no real value in the end? Is college just a way to delay the inevitable for another four years: unemployment? How would this affect the values and mindsets that we try to ingrain in our students here in Baltimore City?

Evaluations Should Develop, Not Punish, Teachers

One of the current narratives in education reform is the notion that in order to raise student achievement, we must "fire bad teachers." A recent piece in the New York Times, Teacher Grades: Pass or be Fired (featuring a 2010 TFA DC Corps Member), discusses the culture of fear and pressure resulting from new evaluation systems, such as the Impact evaluation used in DC Public Schools. In addition to taking student test scores heavily into account, Impact is based on five evaluations throughout the year - three by the principal and two by "master educators," many of whom are brought in from outside of DC. Several hundred teachers in DC are expected to be fired this year based on their Impact evaluations.

While I believe that teacher accountability is an important part of successful school reform, I fear that the narrative may soon change from complaints that it is nearly impossible to fire bad teachers once they are tenured to the issue of teachers being fired left and right based largely on standardized test scores. Using standardized test scores to rate teachers is a highly contentious issue. However, I will focus on a different aspect of teacher evaluations brought up by the article: "some educators say [Impact] is better at sorting and firing teachers than at helping struggling ones."

There are lemons in every profession, and teaching seems to be notorious for the "dance of the lemons." Teachers who shirk their responsibilities and repeatedly fail to make gains with their students should not be kept on. As Michelle Rhee has said in interviews, parents do not want to hear that their child's ineffective teacher was just granted more time to improve (meanwhile, students suffered).

However, I find it hard to believe that all attempts were made to aid "ineffective" teachers before they were let go. No matter what teacher training or education program teachers come from, the true learning process for the teacher occurs when they set foot in the classroom. But the instruction for teachers should not halt when they receive their teaching certificates. Ongoing training, professional development, and mentoring could go a long way to ensure that teachers are given the means, not just the time, to improve.

Numerous traditional teachers whom I have spoken to over the past year have asked me about (or just assumed that I had) a mentor teacher. While there were multiple teachers at my school who took me under their wing and helped me survive my first year of teaching, I do not know many city teachers who have designated mentor teachers. As I understand it, mentor teachers should meet with teachers every week to look at lesson plans and discuss/trouble shoot problems in the classroom. Mentors also observe teachers in a non-threatening way and without a rubric - they are there to guide, not judge, new teachers. Along with building a cooperative culture in the school, mentoring allows teachers to learn from the true teaching experts, their school's veterans.

Teachers should be held accountable to evaluation systems that take many factors, including test scores, into account. However, what seems to be missing from the conversation about teacher evaluations is the lack of meaningful professional development and mentoring for teachers, especially those deemed ineffective. If teachers must be observed five times throughout the year under the Impact system, there should be ample time to identify struggling teachers early enough to provide interventions. Such interventions could take the form of teachers observing and debriefing with exemplary educators, observations by mentor teachers from the same school, and meaningful staff development with specific strategies and suggestions for teachers.

Although there are positive incentives in the form of bonuses for excellent teachers, there should to be a meaningful way to help struggling teachers before the end of the year evaluations. No one aspires to be bad at their job. High stakes evaluations and the "fire bad teachers" narrative create a culture of fear and low morale among teachers. Evaluations should help identify struggling teachers and the specific supports they may need early enough in the year to provide true opportunities for growth.

Principals are exhausted, too

Since the public has shifted its gaze towards education reform in recent years, much of the discourse has been centered around ineffective teachers and failing schools. Recent discussions and grant money have focused on trying to make teachers more effective, firing teachers who are ineffective and holding teachers accountable for student growth.

With all this talk about teachers, there is distinctly less public dialogue about the status of principals in urban districts. The Washington Post brought one principal into the spotlight in an article on June 25 – because he quit. Bill Kerlina, a young principal who quit this summer after 17 years in education, opened up to the paper about why he chose to leave.

The article tries to describe what made Kerlina’s term as principal so difficult, and Kerlina himself “is quick to acknowledge that he was far from the perfect principal and that his grievances may strike some as whiny or carping”.

I believe that had I read Bill Kerlina’s story this time last year, I would have been unsympathetic and given him the “whiner” label he hoped to avoid. However having spent a year as a teacher in Baltimore City, I understand how his nuanced frustrations became a climate he couldn’t stand anymore. Responsibilities to parents, teachers, staff, students, district representatives, budgetary concerns and other variables simply burned Kerlina out.

His story concerns me because school systems aren’t just exhausting teachers, but clearly principals as well. Working towards school reform doesn’t appear to be growing less demanding, and smart people with good intentions are being spread too thin to keep at it. With budgets shrinking and pressure to succeed rising, I wonder how we can ease a demanding workload for dedicated administrators and teachers that is seemingly on the rise.

A Better Teacher Evaluation System?

For eleven years, Montgomery County teachers have been evaluated using the unique Peer Assistance and Review system, in which a panel of senior teachers and principals evaluate, mentor, and, if necessary, discipline both new and veteran teachers. Nancy Grasmick, the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools, has called the system an "excellent tool for professional development," and Montgomery County school officials have even traveled to Washington to explain how their system, which relies heavily on a positive professional culture, works.

Now, thanks to the new Race to the Top initiative that uses standardized test scores as its primary yardstick for teacher effectiveness, the PAR system is in jeopardy, much to the chagrin of the school officials who deride standardized tests as "unreliable" and criticize the Race to the Top Initiative for its "top-down" effect. In Montgomery County, where the PAR system has worked for eleven years, and eighty four percent of students go to college, the still-inchoate RTTT system poses a threat to teacher and administrative autonomy, razing the already-established and effective evaluation structures in favor of a government-imposed and as yet half-baked plan.

Perhaps instead of relying on test scores accrued over one week of testing, we should take a leaf from Montgomery County's book and use a comprehensive system of evaluation for teachers, implemented by veterans of the field, who take into account the multiple variables, components, and standards that go into effective teaching.
While effective implementation of this system requires an effective and united leadership, it seems to me far more sensible than a system that relies heavily on one standardized test score. My eighth graders had cycled through two English teachers by the time I came in mid-year; should the bulk of my evaluation be based on a test for which I had two months to prepare my students? Or should it instead be largely based on constant observation, peer evaluation, rapid implementation of professional advice, and--fluffy as it may sound--the quotidian setbacks and triumphs of teaching?

Andreas Alonso's Response to Baltimore's MSA Scores

Please watch the following video before reading the post:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/videobeta/2b5f1f1c-c777-4d54-b858-478fc563a388/News/Alonso-on-student-test-statistics-2-of-4-

There is no doubt that Andreas Alonso is doing just about everything he can to push student achievment in the city of Baltimore. He has been bold and even courageous in his attempts to make our schools a place where any parent would be proud to send their child. Unfortunately, we are not there yet and have, in fact, taken a step backward this year in the department of raw student achievement. The rumors are true: after several years of steadily improving MSA scores, the city's scores dipped in both reading and math in 2011.

To be sure, this is a setback. I know it, our parents know it, Alonso knows it. For what its worth I happen to think that this does not constitute a major setback, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about how we be expected to deal with such setbacks and specifically how Alonso's response measures up to those expectations. I was dissapointed in two major points that he made.

First, Dr. Alonso talked a little bit about statistics. At their best good statistics can explain a setback or on average excuse it, but Alonso's use here is worse: It is misleading. He talks about two circumstances in particular that he believes may have contributed to the dip. The first is that he says we are not measuring individual students' growth. What he misses, however, is that the overall average DOES tell you individual growth writ large. Yes, maybe little Jimmy made two years' growth in reading, but when we are looking at the whole system, we can categorically say that Baltimore City's students grew less this year than they did last year. The second mistake is likewise guilty of this macro-micro disconnect. Alonso offers up the transient nature of students as a mitigating factor, stating that many of Baltimore City's schools experience student turnovers of 30% or more. However, unless he can prove that these students are ending up in places besides other Baltimore City Schools, the argument is washed out. If we are talking about the success of the system, regardless if students switched schools or not the result remains the same. The academic achievement of our students is down.

The second point that Alonso made that did not measure up to my expectations of his leadership was one regarding teachers. He alluded in a statement that bordered tediously close on blame to the idea that the dip can be partly attributed to ineffective teachers in the classroom. Perhaps the obvious lack of discipline that this sort of blaming shows can be excused due to frustration (I still think a great leader does not blame the people he leads), but what is not excusable is faulting a system that he has power to change and enforce. What great artist would excuse a poor painting on bad brush? No, just as the artist would go out and get herself a new tool, so must Alonso take ownership of his. If Dr. Alonso truly believes that the evaluation system is part of the problem for the dip in the City's MSA scores, it is HE, not the teachers (yes, even the bad ones), who is to blame.

These two shortcomings disappoint me in Dr. Alonso as a leader. By no means are they an indictment, but we should expect more from someone who has willingly taken on the responsibility for the system that serves the futures of thousands of our children.

Librarians getting the axe

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/06/26/are-school-librarians-expendable/school-librarians-assessing-the-unassessable

An opinion article in the New York Times discussed the growing trend of laying off librarians. The article specifically mentions public libraries being the target, but does extend the lay-offs to public schools. The author makes a fantastic point about librarians (and I would even say other resource teachers) constantly being viewed as less important because they are not directly involved with high stakes testing. No Child Left Behind does not mandate a library test, therefore it must not be important. As she puts it: "belt-tightening will often involve eliminating what can't be counted or assessed." Also, as technology consumes the way we access information, some people are calling to question whether or not someone such as a librarian needs to be paid to teach students how to find a historical fiction book with an author whose last name starts with a "K".

Well, I just wanted to put some love out their for our public school librarians. The impact that they have on students is rarely seen or mentioned, yet the work they do is incredibly important. Did I teach my students how to use a dictionary this year? Nope, my librarian did. The first assignment I gave the students this past year resulted in just about every single student plagiarizing from Wikipedia. Who helped me work with the students? You guessed it, our librarian.

I know it only takes two seconds to Google search and find the answer to just about any question you've ever had, but that's not academic. When will students learn how to cite sources? Or even find sources? Producing "college ready" students cannot take place without school librarians; it's as simple as that. Librarians are a vital asset to any school, and the fact that they are viewed by some as expendable is atrocious.

Oregon to Baltimore? High school Schedules, Unions, and Governance.

As a native Oregonian living on the East Coast, I try to stay up with what's going on in the Portland education scene as well as those in Baltimore and around the nation. Two recent headlines from The Oregonian piqued my interest, and I found myself asking whether the happenings there can be linked or translated to happenings here. Both headlines also coincide will with the discussion of unions and school governance that we had in class yesterday.

Firstly, there is a big dispute right now between Portland Public Schools, Oregon's largest urban district, and the Portland Association of Teachers (the city's union) regarding teaching schedules in high schools. Historically, PPS high schools have operated on a 7-period-per-day schedule, in which teachers teach five, 50-minute classes per day (I am unclear whether one of those free periods is lunch or is taken by other responsibilities, but the article makes it clear that teachers have one, 50-minute prep period per day). To save money for the 2011-12 school year by cutting teachers, PPS mandated that all high schools move to an 8-period rotating block schedule, in which teachers would teach 6 classes--3-per day, with one 90 prep per day. This is the most common model in Portland-metro high schools--it was the model of mine. The dispute is over school autonomy in setting schedules. From what I know, BCPS seems to give schools autonomy over the schedule to which schedule they adhere: I taught four, 70-minute periods this year, will teach five, 55-minute periods next, and have colleagues at other schools with an array of different models. I am surprised that our union doesn't demand more continuity. A teacher who teaches an 8-peroid block schedule has a 90-minute prep period everyday. Next year, I'll only have 55 minutes of planning everyday. Arguably, a block-schedule teacher might be asked to teach more preps (teacher/budget reduction IS why Portland is trying to move towards this model), but, per our contract, 2 preps is the supposed maximum.

Should BCPS try to move to a more standardized schedule to even out the planning times given in each school? Or should each school be allowed to create a schedule of their own? Which model--rotating 90-minute blocks or daily 55ish-minute periods--is better for schools? Which is better for students? Teachers? District budgets seem to favor the former. Personally, I would love to see a 90-minute block schedule implemented at my school. I like the idea of longer periods and more prep time each day. Yet I've heard the extremely valid point that in Baltimore, poor attendance poses huge obstacles for rotating schedules. If a kid misses one day, he might only have that class once in a given week. Any thoughts about this from secondary teachers who teach on a block schedule? Maybe the attendance issue is why Baltimore has not embraced this potentially-budget-reducing district-wide shift.

----

Very briefly, the second article deals with governance. Last week, Oregon became the first state ever to declare the governor "statewide schools superintendent." This won't take effect until the term of the current state schools superintended is up in 2014, but it's an extremely interesting shift. Will it streamline things? Will it politicize things? Both? We'll see in 2014...

L.A. Unified Provides Students with a Homework Break

I will never forget the first Open House meeting in the beginning of the school year when several parents complained about the length of time homework assignments took their child. Once one parent mentioned their concern, many others quickly commented on “the issue.” I didn’t know how to address their questions without stating the fact that I was not going to change my homework procedures; the homework that was assigned reinforced what the student had learned in class that day.

Needless to say, issues over homework policy in Los Angeles Unified School District have been a controversial topic for quite some time. On Monday, L.A. Unified decided to give students a break from homework by decreasing homework percentage to 10% of a students’ overall grade. In the article, many teachers addressed their concern that the policy would encourage students to slack off assigned work and even reward students who already disregard assignments. In addition, it could also penalize hardworking students who receive higher marks for effort.

The major reason why L.A. Unified decided to implement this policy was to limit the amount of homework so students can spend more time with their families or pursue extracurricular activities like sports or other hobbies. Parents indicated that, “The competition to get into top colleges has left students anxious and exhausted, with little free time.” In my opinion, homework should not be about the quantity of work assigned, but rather the quality. Teachers who merely assign busy work for students to complete are doing in injustice to the overall learning of students. However, it upsets me to see how the district can now determine teachers grading procedures. Previously, teachers could determine how much weight should be given to homework, tests, and other assignments. Now, educators must implement the new homework policy into their class, whether they support it or not.

But What About The Money?

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2011/05/a_breakdown_of_top_losers_gain.html

In light of the new teacher contract and allegations of MSA cheating, I feel like the City Schools’ budget has been put on the back burner. I came across an article written about a month ago that highlights the losses that many of our schools will face. I too had forgotten about the budget cuts and how this will affect the upcoming school year. The article notes that the school board has adopted a budget of $1.3 billion, which give schools 1 percent more money than the years past. Yet principals are now losing out on millions of dollars in what they call “flexible” money used to staff their schools and provide student resources.

For the past week we’ve been debating the issues that surround education reform in an urban environment. I think that many of us, however, will agree on one thing: Money plays a huge factor in helping to turn around a school system. After reading this article about the budget, I can’t help but wonder what this will do to the progress of our schools here in Baltimore. Due to budget cuts at my school, we are losing a fourth and a fifth grade teacher, bringing the class sizes in those grades up to over thirty students. I feel that student achievement and teacher performance will be affected by these large class sizes. And not just at my school, but at schools all around the city. We’ve read about places like the Harlem Children’s Zone and select Charter schools where educators are making significant strides to close the achievement gap. Yet these places also have astronomically large budgets. So what about here in Baltimore City? Is it really possible to make significant gains and progress with our students if our schools keep losing money year after year? Can we be expected to raise test scores and make AYP without the resources and without a fully staffed school? In a world where money is power, how can we be expected to provide the best education for our students with the least amount of funding?

The Safe Kid Club

Every child suspected of being a victim of sexual abuse decorates a butterfly when they visit the Baltimore Child Abuse Center (BCAC). This year over 850 butterflies were decorated and that is just too many.

Through programs like The Safe Kid Club, the BCAC is encouraging strong personal safety habits and educating students on what to do in dangerous situations. Recently, BCAC entered in Chase’s Community Giving Program and was award a total of $68,000 as one of only five non-profits picked to be a finalist. BCAC’s big idea of providing training to ALL kindergarten children, parents and teachers in Baltimore, in addition to support for survivors through a creative arts program, truly got the judge’s attention.

The panel asked a series of bold questions that need to be answered in the coming months. David Robinson asked "why didn't Baltimore schools have programs targeting prevention of sexual abuse already." While Matthew McConaughey wanted to know "why doesn't the federal government just mandate sexual child abuse prevention education in schools?"

This is not a subject to be taken lightly, it’s affecting our students everyday and there needs to be an end to sexual abuse in our city. This past year I’ve been able to see first hand what a positive impact The Safe Kid Club had on my young students. They were much more aware of themselves and each other. Baltimore City students deserve to be educated on safety and with a curriculum lacking this component, BCAC is crucial in stopping sexual abuse.

Trouble with achievement? Just lower the bar!

A troubling trend (another one) is popping up all over the education system. 60% is a passing grade. Even with such a low bar, it's rare to find a teacher that hasn't been pressured to bump up a student or two or twelve to passing to avoid a lower evaluation. Then when schools had trouble meeting AYP for NCLB, state tests got easier and the focus on test preparation increased to a near-mania. Now, a new policy in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the country's second largest school district, states that homework can only count for 10% of a student's grade. Can you hear the students cheering? Can you hear the teachers crying?

The "logic" behind the new policy is that this will even the academic playing field. Students have "varying" levels of academic support at home. They also need more time to focus on extracurricular activities. One Superintendant was quoted as saying "We do not want 50 percent of a child’s grade to be based on collecting notebook papers and keeping a folder all year long. That’s not going to demonstrate the child’s mastery of those standards." Perhaps this goes back to the whole issue of having policymakers ignorant of actual education practices making policies, but does he REALLY think homework is about collecting papers? See, I thought homework was about getting much-needed practice with skills learned in school. Homework is an important part of reinforcing the learning process. We've all heard the Malcolm Gladwell study that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to truly master something. Students don't even get 2,000 hours of school in a year...how exactly are they mastering math, science, reading, writing, literature, social studies, art, and foreign language in that time without some extra practice?

Then again, as some teachers in the article pointed out, my students don't even do their homework when its 30% of their grade. Maybe we should just admit defeat and lower the bar. It is certainly easier than doing our jobs and helping students to reach the bars we set.

Crossovers and Duncan

So it appears that No Child Left Behind has left many behind, and a large percentage of schools continue to fail to meet increasingly unrealistic benchmarks. The goal of ALL children in various subgroups attaining proficiency in reading and math by 2014 was doomed from the start, and no clever jargon can escape the detriment a politician (or aspiring politician) will face if he or she had to claim the before mentioned goal unattainable.

NOT TO FEAR: ARNE DUNCAN IS HERE

Education Secretary Arne Duncan plans to develop a systematic approach to helping out (bailing out?) states that are making substantial strides to improving its schools. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a bill often scrutinized for its punitive measures, and Duncan’s approach to helping out states is to remove or ease off some of those measures. Entrenched in a program where the stick is the norm, I suppose removing it feels like gaining a carrot.

A state like Maryland can demonstrate that its schools are improving by improving in ways that align with the Obama Administration’s education goals. This includes the adoption of the common core, encouraging charter schools, and overhauling teacher evaluations. With Maryland winning Race To The Top dollars and Baltimore City accepting those dollars in exchange for national standards, charter encouragement, and teacher evaluation overhauls, it appears that we are in for some major school and district reforms.

In this volatile time, it’s important for district and school leaders to navigate educational maps and mirrors to develop and implement curricula that result in true impact for our students. I’m not saying that the common core, charter schools, and teacher evaluation overhauls are negative, but I am saying that they can be if they are hurriedly adopted to avoid sticks as we salivate for carrots. Be careful current and future district and school leaders. Our students depend on you.

Of course, this all hinges on whether or not Congress rewrites NCLB by the start of next school year. If they fail to do so, it looks like Duncan and the Obama Administration has its stop-gap measure (almost) ready and waiting.

The Summer Achievement Gap

Heat waves and humidity, sweat and sunburns are not the only pitfalls to summer, as the infamous summer achievement gap lies daunting in our future. Come September too many bundles of joy will come prancing back into our classroom having forgotten already mastered skills, putting them even farther behind. Every year students around the country suffer from a lack of academic stimulation and consequently lose substantial amounts of academic knowledge. Perhaps this year, a few less students will fall into that gap and be fortunate enough to benefit from a summer learning program.

The Baltimore Sun recently reported that the Walmart Foundation has awarded the National Summer Learning Association a grant of 11.5 million dollars to be used to fund high-quality summer learning programs. Over the next three years, ten fortunate cities will be able to use this money and hopefully close the gap just a bit more. Baltimore is one of those cities, being awarded $615,000 to go towards summer learning programs, more specifically Building Educated Leaders for Life, known as BELL.

The BELL program provides students a full day of learning with a heavy emphasis on reading and math but it does not just end there. In the afternoon students will be able to participate in science and athletics. Through this enrichment summer program, students will learn the necessary skills to advance in academics while simultaneously gaining confidence and become invested in their own learning. "When students get the skills and support they need to invest in their own success, they discover that they can be scholars, said executive director Erin Hodge-Williams.” This summer 300 middle-school-aged Baltimore students will get the high-quality summer opportunity that they deserve.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-summer-learning-20110624,0,4853077.story

Unconventional Ways to Earn Course Credits

Students learning how to sail on the Hudson River; not your typical math class. According to the New York Times, students in New York City are earning math credits through a program that teaches them sailing and the math behind the it. The same class could count instead for a science or physical education credit, depending on what the student needs to meet graduation requirements.

In order to graduate in NYC, a students needs to have earned 44 credit: 8 each in English and social studies, 6 each in science and math, 2 each in foreign language and art, 4 in gym, 1 in health, 7 in electives. What classes they take to earn those credits is largely up to the individual schools, as long as the classes have the required class hours logged and evidence of student work and progress.

Outside organizations, like the one that teaches sailing, are aligning themselves to the state curriculum and offering their programs as a way for students to earn credits toward graduation. The Y.M.C.A. fitness programs, with staff members logging student hours, can be counted for a physical education credit. United Way sponsors a program where community organizations hire teachers and offer classes at school that vary from film and video production to living environments. Internships are also popular. Each school decides how these alternative programs and classes count as credits toward graduation.

While it is refreshing to hear about classes that have students working and applying learning concepts to real life situations, such as the sailing class, it makes me wonder how this fits into a standardized system. Each school decides how to award credits for these alternative options. There is not much oversight of the school's decisions. How can we be sure students are being offered comparable classes when there is so much variety? Do these kind of classes shrug off the graduation requirement formula? Which is worth more, standardized education or variety of classes to meet different student needs?

Class size: the debate rages on

The New York Times reported this weekend on a question that has been causing school reformers to scratch their heads: how much does class size matter for students in urban environments?  The story focuses on San Diego, a district that has capped class sizes at 17 students per class for grades kindergarten-third in the 30 poorest schools in the district.  The district has shown gains in reading standardized test scores in the last several years (45% proficient to 56% proficient in three years), and the school board president believes that these gains are due, at least in part, to the smaller class sizes.  The article then goes on to explain that heavy budget cuts on all levels may cause this cap to be removed: as teachers are cut to satisfy budget requirements, class sizes will necessarily increase.  Parents, teachers, and administrators alike are worried about how the increase in class size might negatively affect learning for the youngest learners in the poorest schools. 

I believe that the school board's president's claims that class size reduction leads to better test scores should be taken with a grain of salt---correlation does not imply causation, and the article cites no specific evidence to prove any relation between class size and test scores.  However, I think that the comments made by parents and teachers in the article do shed some light on the more qualitative benefits of small class size in urban schools, especially in the younger grades.  Students with special needs (both academic and health-related) are given more personal attention.  Teachers are able to more effectively monitor student progress, attend to health and safety problems, and care for students' emotional and physical needs.  I think that the rhetoric of reformers needs to be careful about placing too much value on shaky data surrounding test score/small class correlations (data that could be easily picked apart by those who want to cut budgets and increase class sizes), and focus on getting more data on both the quantitative and qualitative advantages to small classes for young students. 

graduate degree or bust?

An article from the Huffington Post yesterday touches on an issue that affects teachers earning graduate degrees, revealing that there is no proven correlation between completing graduate classes and being a highly effective teacher. There has been recent hype claiming that a graduate degree is not beneficial and there is no guarantee students’ test scores will rise if their teacher holds a masters degree. Not only is there claim that graduate degrees are a waste of resources as expressed in the article, but it also uses standardized test scores as a means of blaming teacher effectiveness.
John Deasy, LAUSD Superintendent boldly stated, “I actually don’t want qualified teachers [ones with graduate degrees] in the classroom. I want highly effective teachers [test score manipulators] in the classroom.”
To comment first on Deasy’s statement, I think it is imperative that all teachers need to be highly effective but some of the best teachers that I have had throughout my education and that I have observed or encountered here in the city of Baltimore hold an advanced degree (master or doctorate). Therefore how do you weed out the qualified teachers who have a graduate degree from a highly effective teacher who is also qualified that also holds a graduate degree?
To quickly discuss a graduate program for teachers, I think the role of a teacher is pivotal and while taking master level classes better equip us with the knowledge both in theory and practicality, it significantly supports a continuous learning pathway. As a teacher what’s more important, growth or proficient/advanced on a piece of paper? Initially, test scores were not designed to evaluate teachers however standardized test scores are now measuring teacher quality and determining if a teacher is highly effective or not. Once again, we can have a debate on the factors into high stakes test scores but to involve graduate degrees as an element that blames poor test scores seems like a low blow to educational reform.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-d-slekar/deforming-the-graduate-degree_b_881918.html

Charter Schools: Separate and Unequal?

The article “Both Sides Square Off at Hearing on Charter School” describes a current lawsuit in New York City regarding school locations. The United Federation of teachers challenges the NYC Department of Education’s efforts to close 22 existing schools and to use the space for these schools for 18 charter schools. As the article explains, the hearing addresses two issues that continue to exist in the battle for education reform: school closing and the opening and expansion of charter schools. The charter schools depend on these locations for survival.

Generally, those against the charter schools, the union, parents and the N.A.A.C.P. argue that closing local public schools endangers the education of students who remain in the traditional school system, and could lead schools to become “separate and unequal”. They cite examples of ways children in traditional schools have been negatively affected by charter schools, including an example of students who had to use bathrooms that were not on the same floor as their classrooms to accommodate the charter school in their building. Those in favor of the charter schools, including the city, argue that they are simply trying to “get as many students as possible educated with a quality education”.

In many ways, this article was extremely empowering. Watching parents, teachers, community organizations and the government engaged in a debate over education reform demonstrates that people truly believe that this is a battle worth fighting for; that the future of education is important for communities and cities. Active involvement of parents, in addition to teachers and city officials, demonstrates that reforms are being questioned and even challenged, which to me is a positive aspect of the education debate.

However, this article combined with my recent exposure to these kinds of situations (closing existing schools to make room for charters) in the documentary, “The Lottery”, has made me think deeper about the charter school model. It has been so easy for me to see charter schools as one of the key solutions to the problem because the model charter schools, most of the ones we hear about, are successful, efficient, well-lead and generally, a positive experience for the students they serve. Who doesn’t want these opportunities for their child and their student? Furthermore, there is no doubt that charter schools have changed the course of urban education. They have proven to many people that urban schools can be successful and even more importantly, that urban students can achieve.

However, does this mean that charter schools are always the answer? Or even, an aspect of an ideal education system? Should we really have a system in which entry into a lottery determines your education? Is this even fair? What about students who don’t have the parents who know enter them in the lottery at age 5? I was struck by the implications of the statement the challenging lawyer in this case made which suggested that charter schools might be making education “separate and unequal”. This is a hefty charge, but also a striking statement. Aren’t charter schools supposed to be making education more equal? And if they are not, what do we do about it?

Article: "Both Sides Square Off at Hearing on Charter Schools"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/nyregion/both-sides-square-off-at-hearing-on-charter-school-suit.html?_r=1&ref=education