Should We Pay Kids to Come to School?

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

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

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

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

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

Can you really teach a high school student to think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alternative to the increasing lose of P.E.

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

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

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

Financial Aid Confusion.

As the year draws to a close, many of our seniors in high school are finding out information about where they were accepted into college. For many of our students, however, funding college is not always the easiest thing to do. But there is financial aid, you say! Let’s look at that form for FAFSA; it asks questions about the potential schools the student has applied and was accepted to, the demographics of the student and parents, and the dependency status of the student. Along with those three pages itself, there’s another page where IRS information is requested as well. Wouldn’t it be much easier to just look at income? Some say that in fact there really isn’t a statistical difference in the distribution of money after the entire FAFSA, versus an income analysis; the distribution is in fact almost identical.

So why do we have this overly complicated system? In the mean time, what does your school offer for students in terms of helping students and parents navigate the FAFSA? What about alternative methods of funding such as scholarships and grants? While the FAFSA does provide Pell Grants, they also provide loans, whereas other options do exist that would have a lower burden on students. So we can change the FAFSA (highly recommended) or we can provide more education on the FAFSA and alternative methods, but one of the two is definitely necessary.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2007/02/education-dynarski

BCPS Charter Schools

Our last class session centered around charter schools and to me, it was one of the most interesting in terms of education reform.  I think charter schools are where hints into true reform can lie.  If something works in these systems, maybe those same strategies can be transferred into all public schools.

I was doing some web searching about charter schools in Baltimore City and came across a semi-recent article in the Baltimore Sun about schools that were closing down, charter schools in particular.  The part of the article that struck me as most interesting and brought the most attention to me was quotes from the chairperson of a charter school that was closing and counterpoints from Dr. Alonso.

To summarize briefly, the chairperson said that the school needed patience and that turning around the city's most at-risk population is something that takes a different timeline and different strategies than it would for other populations.  Alonso replied that "charters are supposed to be about innovation and performance... They should be about higher expectations.  Not about excuses."

While I agree that the purpose is for innovation, performance, and change, I don't believe true "innovation"can happen when there are still some semi-strict guidelines to follow.  While charter schools in BCPS are still held to uphold so many of the districts regulations and demands, we won't have true charter schools and thus won't have true innovation and change.  I also can't help but think that a big problem we have in public education right now is that we aren't patient.  While I know that being patient has very high stakes when students' futures are in the balance, it's unrealistic to believe that change can happen over night, or truly even in a year or two.  We have to give ideas and methods a fighting chance.

It is my genuine belief that nearly everyone in education has their heart in the right place.  No one starts a charter school, runs a district, or teaches 180 days without thinking of the kids.  All too often I feel like it seems in education we're always looking to point a finger when instead we need to be reaching our our hands and opening our minds and our ears.  Humility, innovation, collaboration and perseverance are the things that I think will start to lead us to true change for our kids.

(Baltimore Sun link: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-02-09/news/bs-md-charter-school-debate-20130209_1_baltimore-civitas-middle-schools-under-district-control-charter )