NCLB Left Behind

        Today, the Department of Education announced that it has granted waivers releasing two more states – Washington and Wisconsin – from key provisions of the decade-old No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). With these waivers, Secretary Duncan has now relieved 26 states from meeting NCLB’s goal of making all students proficient in math and reading by 2014. To earn a waiver, states are required to set new targets aimed at preparing students for colleges and careers and base teacher evaluations, in part, on test scores.

        Maryland earned a NCLB waiver earlier this year by setting annual measurable objectives (AMOs) for the coming six years. By 2017, all schools are expected to cut their percentage of non-proficient students, overall and by subgroup, in half. Additionally, a new School Performance Index takes into account achievement, gap, and growth measures, an improvement from NCLB’s exclusive emphasis on proficiency. Maryland’s agreement also rewards schools that make progress. Whether the incentives motivate schools to improve remains to be seen, but any positive reinforcement seems to be a welcome departure from NCLB’s emphasis on what’s not working.

        Though these waivers represent a bold maneuver to advance the administration’s education agenda, something had to be done. For the 2010-11 school year, nearly half of schools across the nation failed to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP). And that rate was even higher in states like Virginia (61%) and Massachusetts (80%). When AYP status becomes meaningless and Congress fails to re-authorize NCLB, the policy needs to be adjusted, and that is exactly what Duncan has done. Though House Republicans are calling the waivers an abuse of executive power, many of the states they represent have applied for one.

        Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr doesn’t believe waivers do much to shift education reform, but I question the notion that a major policy shift is what we need. The law certainly needs tweaking, but much of NCLB’s failure has been attributed to flawed implementation. States have set standards too low and written poor assessments, causing a narrowing of the curriculum. Teachers and school leaders – some right here in Baltimore – have cheated on tests. But despite flawed implementation, the ‘big idea’ behind NCLB – accountability for results from our public schools – is tremendously important. Let’s not forget that NCLB’s requirement to disaggregate achievement data holds schools more accountable for the education of the poor and minority children we teach. And let’s not step back from testing accountability altogether just because it’s put pressure on the system. We need to sustain this push for accountability over time and maintain bold expectations for our schools.

        Duncan’s waivers may force some real progress here in Baltimore. The administration’s Blueprint for Reform focuses the most attention on the bottom five percent of low-performing schools, some of which are here in Baltimore. Though this will relax some of the sanctions our schools faced under NCLB, these schools will still be expected to meet annual performance objectives. If our high-poverty schools see real rewards for results, perhaps leaving NCLB behind in favor of fresh accountability measures can close gaps for Baltimore's students.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/education/no-child-left-behind-whittled-down-under-obama.html?_r=1&ref=education

DOES SIZE MATTER?

Does Size Matter?

In the readings that we’ve discussed in class, there has been much debate on the importance of class size for student achievement. In summary, research seems to show that it does not have much of an effect on the student success, with the exception of elementary school-age students, mainly kindergarteners. And while that may be true, it does not really take into account the differences in learning atmosphere between small and large classes.

Last year, Baltimore County eliminated nearly 200 teaching positions in an effort to cut budget costs. This decision has resulted in the increasing of class size on the high school level. Most schools have between 25% and 36% of classes with 30 or more students, and average class-sizes have increased from about 25 to 28 students. The exception is however, lower performing schools, which have maintained very low increases in class size throughout the transition. The justification for this is that students come into school on different levels and struggling schools can benefit from the extra attention from teachers. This does mean however, that gifted and talented classes, as well as other important core-classes performing on higher levels are experiencing greater increases in class size.

The question becomes, does size really make a difference? Some teachers welcome the increase, stating that they are able to do more group work and have richer discussions than they were with smaller classes. Other teachers, students, and even parents have been complaining that the class size increases make students less likely to speak up in class and cause teachers to spend more time dealing with discipline problems. Teachers also say that the increases inhibit them from being able to give specialized attention to students, stay on top of grading, and give timely feedback.

Also, if schools are already making precautions to keep small classes in struggling schools, is it fair to not offer this option to schools that have routinely been performing well? Shouldn’t we be ensuring that all students have what they need to be successful, whether they are high performing or struggling students? And yes, if teachers are more creative and able to adjust to the larger class sizes, then this change will not make much difference, but what if the teacher is new or less experienced, are not able to make those adjustments effectively? Are schools taking this is account when they arrange student placement?

Baltimore County high schools see class sizes grow School system cut 200 teaching positions; struggling schools protected

Under Our Roof

According to a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, the U.S. Department of Education recently reported that there are more than 1 million homeless students in the United States.  This number is up 57 percent since 2007.  In Maryland there are 14,117 homeless students, which is drastically higher than 6,721 five years ago. 

These shocking numbers made me stop and think about our role as teachers in a district where many of our students come to our classrooms with the weights of difficult home lives on their backs.  Teaching a child who is hungry or worried about where he is is going to sleep tonight, no matter how engaging the lesson, is an uphill battle.  This article quickly reminded me of the importance of creating a classroom culture that feels like home for our students.  For some of them, school may be the closest thing to home that they have.

Education reform cannot take place in a bubble – welfare reform and health care reform are just some of the other hugely politicized issues that must be addressed for students in the United States to have the opportunities they deserve.  Teach for America tells us that the problems of poverty don’t have to be fixed before we can give students an excellent education – and I wholeheartedly agree.  But, I do think that the answer to school reform – whatever that looks like – will find a way to improve the communities that urban children are living in so that we can stop telling them that an education is their “ticket out” of the poverty-stricken areas where they were raised.  Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone is one example of what that could look like.

Advocating For What Our Students Deserve.

     After reflecting on all that happened during my first year teaching, I found myself puzzled as to why I did not incite more change in my school. Yes, it was my first year; I was learning the curriculum and figuring out how to teach at the same time, but I questioned why I spent so much time noticing the problems that existed within the walls of my school and very little time changing them. Because of this, I was intrigued to be thinking about the teacher's direct role in school reform. 

     I was thinking about my experience and how there are so many things at my school that I would be interested in changing. Yet, do I even have the power to do that? What if no one will listen to me, and what if they don't like what I have to say? Will I eventually be hurting my own career as an educator by trying to advocate for change for the good of my students? These are all questions that I had as I sought to improve upon all of the structures that were put in place for my students to "succeed." Yet, I never stirred the pot. I voiced my opinion in a submissive way that never really encouraged change. Reform needs to start somewhere, but if the people who are working most directly with the students don't do it, who will?

     This is why I believe KIPP has been able to find so much success. Both David Levin and Mike Feinberg, the founders of the Knowledge is Power Program, fought for their students. They went over people's heads to get what they wanted, and they were not backing down from anyone...all in the name of advocating for their students. In order to incite change, you have to be willing to take risks. This is something that the KIPP founders are famous for, and their grit and determination has enabled so many students to now have the quality education that they deserve. 

     So, as I think about all that Levin and Feinberg did, I start to think about what I could do, what my co-workers could do to improve the situation for all of the students in my school. I'm not suggesting that we start going over people's heads and going straight to Dr. Alonso for what we want, but demanding a better education for our students is not only our job, but it is our duty as educators. Everything that we are trying to instill in our students - resilience, persistence, drive - needs to first be engrained in teachers. If there is something at your school that needs reform, make it known. If we do not advocate for the changes in our schools that our kids deserve, who will?

It Takes So Much More

     As my first year of teaching drew to a close during the second week of June, I inevitably began to think about everything that had happened over the course of year.  Good, bad and everything in between, there are definitely things that I hope to change in my classroom and there are also things on a school level that I hope will change before the beginning of my second year.  After talking about the numerous issues that surround the topic of school reform in this class, I began to think about the place that the teacher-student relationship has in all of this, even the school-student relationship.  We can talk about reform efforts like vouchers, charter schools and small class sizes until we are blue in the face, but I wonder if any of that really matters if the personal support is not there.  After reading Whatever it Takes by Paul Tough, my mind travelled back to that second week in June when I also happened to read an incredibly emotional yet eye-opening article about one young woman in particular who overcame extreme adversity to fulfill her dreams, but not without the help of her school.  Let me just preface what I am about to reflect on by saying that, while not a structured aspect of school reform, the type of behavior reflected in this article as well as what I saw to be the most important aspect of Geoffrey Canada's work as chronicled in Whatever it Takes are in my opinion directly related to our students and what it would take to "reform" our schools.
     The article, linked here, tells the story of a homeless teenager.  Abandoned by her parents, she was taken in by one of the school's custodians and given the opportunity to finish out her last year at her high school.  The school community banded together to help her- she had somewhere to live, food to eat, a job as a custodian when she was not in school.  And, you can read for yourself everything in between.  In the face of all of the challenges that met this young lady as she was homeless and struggling to complete high school, she eventually completed her studies as a straight-A student.  In the end, she wound up getting accepted to Harvard.  While this may seem like "fluff" in terms of the topics of school reform that we have been discussing, what struck me while reading the article was how similar this young lady is to some of my students in terms of the challenges that she faces on a daily basis.  She was born into a family that did not give her the opportunity to be successful, but that is really what she wanted.
     I thought about how the principles of what her school did for her relate to Canada's quest to change Harlem.  While a story like this young lady's is not something you see everyday, it is clear that her adversity is not unlike the adversity of others.  The only difference was the support that she was given.  In the case of the Harlem Children's Zone, Canada sought to put students on a different trajectory than the one they were born to follow.  He established programs that allowed students and parents to make the changes necessary to be successful both inside and outside of school.  Now, this may be the humanitarian in me, but I firmly believe that this aspect of school reform, building a community that supports students and parents 100%, is just as important as the conversations about vouchers and charters.  I honestly do not think that we can ever successfully reform schools if the personal aspect of schools that Canada painstakingly etched into the HCZ and that the school community in the article showed is not an integral part of reform.  In truth, we should all have that "Whatever it Takes" mentality and know that it actually takes so much more.

Dealing with Trauma

The vast majority if not all of us have at one point or another experienced some form of behavioral issue in our classroom. From my own personal experience, one of the most common points of commiseration among teachers, and one faced widely by those of us in urban school systems in particular (such as Baltimore City and County) that have high rates of minority students, is that of behavioral challenges in school. As a chronic issue, it is one that deserves to be considered under the lens of school reform. If we use suspension rates as a proxy for behavior, we see that urban districts have higher than average amounts of “misbehavior.” While the average suspension rate in counties across Maryland is 6.8% of students (46% persons of color statewide), with Montgomery County and Howard County coming in at lows of 2.6% and 3.3% respectively, Baltimore City’s 2010-2011 year showed a rate of 9.1% of students suspended at one point or another (72% persons of color citywide) (Baltimore Sun - Suspensions)(Maryland Demographics). And, to be frank, not all of the students that I personally might have recommended for suspension were ultimately suspended, and I know that the case was similar for many others.

But why is it that students are suspended, or “misbehave,” at higher rates in metropolitan areas, and where there are higher rates of minority students? The National Child Traumatic Stress Network reports that one out of four children in the United States will experience a traumatic event before the age of 16 (Curtin, 2008). However, Parson (1994 - link to pdf) found that black children in the inner city experience traumatic events at more than 3 times the rate of children nationally, with 84% of elementary students saying that they had seen someone physically assaulted.

There may be a correlation between trauma and suspension rates, but then the question of how effective suspensions are in actually decreasing “misbehavior” in schools and classrooms is asked. The answer is disheartening. Jane Ellen Stevens, in a recent article on the Huffington Post, reports that one suspension triples the likelihood of a child becoming involved with the juvenile justice system, and doubles that child's likelihood of repeating a grade. And then when it comes to the classroom, it was rarely my experience that students were better behaved, motivated, or adjusted when they returned from their suspension.

So what is an acceptable alternative to suspending chronically “misbehaved” students who may be dealing with some form of trauma?

Trauma-informed improved plans are a new way of addressing these issues. School districts in Massachusetts, Washington, and other states have begun to adopt such plans which include courses for teachers on how to teach traumatized children; whole-community involvement in informing schools about and responding to students who have experienced trauma; and the positive behavior interventions program.

As communities continue to change, it is impossible for students to learn and for teachers to teach if the students’ basic needs are not met. Providing outlets and productive alternatives to punishing “misbehaved” children should ever be towards the top of the school reform agenda. 

Links:

Main Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-ellen-stevens/traumasensitive-schools-part-two_b_1632126.html?utm_hp_ref=education 

PBIS: http://www.pbis.org/school/default.aspx

Trauma-Sensitive Schools: http://www.istss.org/source/stresspoints/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newsletter.showThisIssue&Issue_ID=80&Article_ID=1353

Inner City Children of Trauma Report PDF: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&ved=0CGcQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.giftfromwithin.org%2Fpdf%2Fparson.pdf&ei=1u3wT9nvKKGC6QGwvvG6Bg&usg=AFQjCNFexXFOKaSLAUc_fV44nIYOyUDphQ&sig2=1PSiMfzwO_pRXmF0tHSOmw

Demographics: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html

Baltimore Sun- Suspensions: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-25/news/bs-md-co-school-suspensions-20111225_1_suspension-issue-suspension-rate-stricter-discipline-codes

"More Kool Aid Please"

Is TFA making transformational change within the students or are those that participate in TFA are the ones that are transforming. The simple fact that most who transforming and making student academic gains, are few in number. It is one due to the lack of training to be an effective teacher. Secondly, it is the fact that most are just trying to improve self for their resume and not really in it for the cause and most leave after their two year commitment. Third, is that even though those that are TFA participants are great at being a student and learning does not mean that their academic success will transpire into the classroom with students that most do not relate to because are not from or have not experienced at least few of the hardships that the students they are required to teach have and are going through. Lastly,  is that there is a strong emphasis on leading adolescents and those that we are putting in the classroom have for the majority never had major responsibility of taking care of children, or being a leader outside of peers and are yet thrown into a situation that requires them to be an ADULT with students that are close to their own age, when most are still young themselves. I can imagine it being hard as a student to see such young teachers and have to look up to them as a role model and learn how to be an adult when there is only ten years difference in age between them. I mean people get married with ten years between the two of them.  I am not saying that makes a person less effective as a teacher, but some of the things that administrators look for is a leader or someone they can entrust to discipline and educate their students. To be honest most coming out of college just do not have it and actually have a hard time with the management piece of teaching and are not effective in their instruction. The key to first being able to make transformational change is to have command of the classroom and most are still figuring out themselves as adults, let alone becoming a disciplinarian, and just can’t completely do it. Not only that teachers actually have to be provided a solid educational foundation towards how to teach and in developing their teaching style, and that is not something that can happen after two years where most TFA step out of teaching; and furthermore, can not be done with the summer training for month and a half at institute.  From speaking to veteran teachers it really takes 3-5 years to figure out a management style that works for you followed by instruction that will make a teacher effective. TFA teachers mostly do not stay around long enough to learn how to be an effective teacher but a leader and commander of the classroom to be transformational. These school invest money in their training and the turnover or costs of helping these corp members are more then what the schools actually get out of those teaching. Not saying the TFA corp members are not motivated and not want to do well, but not most are in it for a career.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2012/04/deepening_the_debate_over_teac.html

http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Heilig_TeachForAmerica.pdf

Eventhough, teaching always requires much reflection in practice and being flexible and making changes, which can bring some changes it is hard to say it will be transformational. With most corp members leaving after their two years and a new set of teachers coming in, the system of change is still not healthy for students because there is no consistency with the people around them and since most of them leave, I am sure that transfers into negative thoughts for the students who were in their classrooms and return negatively affect their scores academically. With nearly 15 – 23% of the incoming corp members not completing their two year commitment and nearly 60% leaving after the two year commitment. When looking at the numbers only 23% stay after 5 years. Which these would be just classified as becoming effective teachers.  Yet, the experience gained by the corp member they are transforming into better adults by learning responsibility and gaining experience in planning and data analysis, they are mainly transforming themselves and not the students that are in their classroom, which was the main goal of TFA to provide a quality education to those students where the need is great in efforts of closing the achievement gap between students in affluent and low income areas.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-04-27/story/low-teach-america-retention-rate-examined-duval-embraces-program

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-indialogue/2012/04/deepening_the_debate_over_teac.html