Republicans Soil Reputation with Next Generation of Voters
Maine GOP sets an example, albeit a poor one, for middle school students.
In the realm of you can’t make this stuff up, students in the King Middle School “Four Freedoms” learning expedition recently received a concrete lesson in free speech courtesy of the GOP. The school served as a private meeting space for members of the Republican Party while the large-scale convention was held May 7th at the Portland Expo.
It seems when Paul Clifford, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, returned to his classroom the Monday after the convention he found that a poster celebrating the labor movement had been removed from his wall and replaced with a Republican sticker. According to news sources, the poster offered this quote from union leader Eugine Debs: “Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.”
Upon returning to school that morning, Clifford found his labor movement poster had disappeared, replaced by a large sticker with the following inscription: ‘Workers Vote Republican.’ In addition, the teacher found a note on his desk that offered these words: ‘A Republican was here. What gives you the right to propagandize impressionable kids?’
Response to Student Collages?
Clifford told reporters that the note appeared to be a reaction to several student-made collages that were displayed in the classroom. However, it seems that the group had not only left their mark on his classroom, they also had called school officials to complain about student collages posted about the room as well as copies of the U.S. Constitution they found in his classroom.
Since our constitution theoretically represents the fundamental guiding document for all government operations, one has to wonder how convention goers could find fault with such documents being present in an eighth grade social studies classroom. But then, the documents had been donated by the American Civil Liberties Union, and apparently to make matters worse in the eyes of the Republicans using the classroom, they also featured a “know your rights” section.
But while the poster and collages were in plain site, the copies of the constitution were actually stored in a closed box on the floor. When discussing the behavior of the Republicans, Clifford pulled no punches with Randy Billings at The Forecaster.
“We allowed someone to use our building,” Clifford offered noting that other teachers also reported problems with litter and stray fliers. “They came in and searched our stuff. Stole a poster. Left our building trashed. And then called us to complain about what they found when they searched our house.”
Punishments Forthcoming?
The Portland School Department has indicated that it would not seek criminal charges against the group of Republicans though going through and removing school materials clearly crosses a behavioral line that educators would not tolerate. And though Superintendent James Morse indicated the actions of the delegates set a bad example for students, he was not interested in pursuing the issue further.
“For me to file a criminal complaint against them to me seems like I would be sucked into the political game and it’s not a game I want to play,” Morse told Billings. “I think it (would be) a waste of precious taxpayer’s money to push an issue because a group of grown-ups behaved badly.”
School Committee member Sarah Thompson was a little stronger in her outrage, indicating any damage done to facilities (we would assume that would include clean up costs) should be the responsibility of those who used the school.
“I think there should be repercussions,” she said. She further noted that if the weekend incident involved students, they would likely have been punished.
Giving some hope, Christie-Lee McNally, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, issued an apology on the party website. “The Maine Republican Party does not condone the destruction of property,” she stated nor does it encourage the lack of tolerance that these people demonstrated.”
But while the head of the party seemed chagrined, it seems some Republicans did not agree that an apology was necessary. Aroostook County Republican Jim Cyr noted that his group met in a different classroom in the school. There they found disturbing material including a bumper sticker on a classroom wall that said: “Do something nice for the environment. Uproot a Bush in 2004.”
Cyr went on to blame the media coverage for failing to provide a balanced assessment of the issues. Instead of concentrating on the removal of the poster, Cyr thought the media should focus on the larger story that children are “being used as pawns in an indoctrination war.”
A Teachable Moment
In response, Portland High School senior Simon Thompson, a student representative on the School Committee a year ago, penned a letter to the Maine GOP.
“I am not brainwashed, I am not a puppet, I am not anti-American or anti-religious,” notes the King graduate. “Paul Clifford’s class taught me to think critically, to deductively reason and, if anything, to appreciate America for all the freedoms with which I am ensured on a daily basis.”
Meanwhile, as all good teachers would, Clifford’s ultimate response was to use the incident as a teachable moment for students. He informed students that when some people believe in their own ideas so strongly they sometimes forget others have a right to their own point of view.
“This is not an opportunity to trash somebody,” he summarized. “We know this is not something that would be condoned by the Republican Party. This type of stuff happens on both sides of the party line.”
Amidst the political rancor engulfing our country, Clifford’s balance is most welcome. He even publicly noted his initial bemusement with the ‘Workers Vote Republican’ bumper sticker.
As one looks at the incident independently, it seems that the teacher asked to educate the next generation of voters is doing just what is expected of him: teaching students the importance of intelligent discontent. Too bad convention attendees have not had access to such lessons.
May 16, 2010 4 Comments
The 21st Century Classroom – Alfie Kohn
As a former administrator, I have had the good fortune to visit a significant number of classrooms over the years. Because I have been witness to bad or indifferent teaching, there has always been a special feeling of excitement during those times I was able to witness the talents of a true professional at work in the classroom. It also has encouraged me to be reflective on my years in the classroom.
Having begun teaching in the 1970’s at the high school level, my approach in the early years was very traditional. My classroom would have been best described as teacher-centered and my organizational skills combined with my ability to relate to students created a room that earned me high marks from my administrators.
In the early nineties though, it became increasingly clear that my methods were growing less popular with students. In addition, I found myself less and less successful on the most important element, student achievement. My classroom was well-managed and discipline issues seldom arose, but my students seemed to be losing interest in the subjects that I taught.
As I slowly tried to adjust, most of my colleagues initially insisted that I was wrong to make changes. Instead, they were firm in their resolve that the students needed to be held accountable. Most importantly, they insisted that if these students were one day to move on to post-secondary levels of education, they would find that college professors seldom featured anything but the teacher-centered model.
It was in the September 1996 issue of Educational Leadership that Alfie Kohn turned my thoughts full circle. It was at that time he released his version of “What to Look for in a Classroom.”
His summary was truly transformational for me and it has stood the test of time as the definitive model for those classrooms where teachers excel. Frequently appearing in a simple chart format, “What to Look for in a Classroom” features two contrasting columns: the ‘Good Signs’ versus ‘Possible Reasons to Worry.’
Parents and traditional educators will find a disturbing trend – to this day, most of the practices employed at the high school level fall into Kohn’s reasons to worry category.
The Traditional/Negative Approach
Under the possible reasons to worry, Kohn took exception to longstanding educational traditions. In simplest terms, Kohn insisted it was time to destroy the teacher-centered, control model that focused on classroom management and replace it with a version that is often equated with what one sees in elementary school, particularly at the youngest levels.
For example, under his possible reasons to worry, he offered the following:
- Chairs all facing forward and worse yet, desks in rows.
- Packaged instructional materials orderly and prominently displayed.
- Classroom visuals featuring commercial posters, lists of rules, sticker and star charts or samples of flawless student work posted only from the best youngsters.
- Periods of silence interrupted by only the voice of the teacher.
- An in-control, authoritative and highly visible teacher typically front and center.
- Students waiting quietly for the next set of teacher-initiated activities, responding to teacher-directed questioning.
- All students focused on the same activity working on their individual skills.
The Modern/Positive Approach
In the Kohn classroom, the teacher is no longer the focus – instead everything centers upon the students and what it is they need to learn:
- Multiple activity centers featuring various classroom structures including open spaces and large tables for group work.
- Room overflowing with a variety of materials, apparatus and supplies.
- Displays of student projects demonstrating student collaboration or personal memos initiated by the students.
- A buzz or low-level hum of activity featuring students exchanging ideas.
- A warm, respectful teacher mingling with students.
- Students eager and excited about learning as they actively question one another.
- Multiple activities taking place simultaneously with students working in pairs or groups.
Elementary vs. Secondary
As noted earlier, Kohn’s approach was far more consistent with that employed by elementary school teachers. It also features a significant change in focus for those administrators observing a classroom – instead of an emphasis on what it is that the teacher is doing, the shift is to assessing what it is that the students are doing. Most importantly, it is a shift from a quiet, well-managed classroom to one that is lively and features an emphasis on student learning.
It is interesting to note that for many children, middle school and high school becomes the place where school is no longer enjoyable. It is, of course, at that time that students traditionally have been subject to a shift from student-centered classroom to a teacher-centered, content-driven academic approach.
The result is that school, instead of being a place where students look forward to going each day because it features an exciting atmosphere where learning new things is enjoyable, becomes a chore at best, a problem at worst. At the very age when students most resist compliance and teacher-centered approaches, too many teachers, and, by default, too many schools insist on employing such a format.
Because of the sophistication needed educationally, there is no doubt that 21st century classrooms demand a shift from the ‘sage on the stage’ to the ‘guide on the side’ approach. That move is a requirement to produce the type of student that will excel in the creative, technologically-rich world we face.
But while technology demands such a shift and the student of the 21st century needs such a classroom to learn the skills needed for future employment, it is now clear that the Kohn approach is one that should have been employed long ago for a different reason.
It is, and in fact has always been, a better way for teachers to do business. And it has always been the model I associate with the true professionals I have had the good fortune to observe.
May 3, 2010 6 Comments
Personalizing Learning – The Important Role of Technology
It wasn’t that long ago I began my high school teaching career. Fairly early on, I worked with one teacher who epitomized the mindset of many secondary school colleagues.
“My job is to present the material in an interesting and meaningful way,” he would say. “It is the student’s job to learn that material.”
Implicit in his statement was the idea that it was the student’s role to adjust to the various styles employed by different teachers. Whether the teacher featured a lecture format or a hands-on approach was immaterial – the assumption was that students were the ones who needed to be flexible, especially if they were thinking that college was to be part of their future.
In addition, any failure on the student’s part to master the material was not the responsibility of the teacher. If students were unable to learn the required subject matter, the consensus would be that the student simply had not worked hard enough.
At that time (and still the dominant theme in many classrooms today), students moved along as a group, each doing the same set of assignments, each expected to master the exact same set of learning objectives by a date set forth in the syllabus. Adjusting any parameter for the group was deemed as watering down expectations while differentiating for a specific learner was perceived as showing favoritism.
New Viewpoint – Personalizing Learning
Clearly, that mindset has changed. With learning styles now a part of the educational landscape today’s teacher is expected to adjust to the varied preferences of students so as to maximize the learning potential of each individual in the classroom.
Such an approach has been characterized by the global term: personalizing the learning experience. The concept is considered as critical to the next generation of teachers as it is for the next generation of students.
Personalizing learning involves differentiating the curricula, including expectations and timelines, and utilizing various instructional approaches so as to best meet the needs of each individual. Essentially, students should be able to do varying assignments and have the freedom to work at a pace that is conducive to their abilities and skill set.
Not too surprisingly, individual elements of a personalized learning environment are well known to current educators. The challenge is not so much what those elements consist of but how to piece the elements together to form a cohesive strategy.
Most importantly, personalizing learning for the current generation of learners demands specific technologies. Educators need to understand that children are growing up in a media-rich environment.
Schools must deliver a product that engages students and generates within them the desire to learn. Today’s curricula must involve liberal uses of technology whenever it is relevant to the task at hand.
But technology also plays a more important role in the personalization process. Ultimately it is the conduit for teachers to move to a learning approach that features materials developed for each individual student.
Learning Platforms
One of the critical elements to a cohesive strategy involves the concept of a learning platform, a phrase featured prominently in Europe. It is a strong descriptor or label, one that befits the concept of personalizing or individualizing the learning environment for every student.
Such a learning platform involves a number of fundamental principles. First teachers must have a clear understanding of the learning needs of each student. Those needs must be documented from year to year and access to such information must be readily available.
In addition to understanding each student’s individual needs, teachers must monitor and assess student progress intently if they are to help each student achieve to his or her full potential. To facilitate this monitoring and assessment process, both the student and the teacher must have access to a wide variety of technological tools.
Learning paths must then be created that match the aptitude and learning styles of every individual. Once that path has been constructed, the teacher must make a commitment to supporting each student’s progress along that path.
Such a step also requires access to a wide variety of technological tools. In Europe, students in each and every school are expected to have access to a safe and secure personal online learning space. In fact, that commitment has been in place since March of 2008.
The European personal online learning space consists of the following elements:
- anytime/anywhere access to the learning resources created and stored by or for the student;
- communication tools (email, messaging, etc.) to enable dialogue between a student’s peers and mentors;
- management tools to monitor and assess progress.
It is important to realize that only with such a space can true personalization be put into action. First, students can work at their own pace at all times and do so in the environment that allows them the greatest level of productivity.
Second, teachers can work more closely with each individual and work towards improving engagement by tailoring the material to each student’s ability and interest. Here again, technology is critical, allowing teachers to organize and store what can be an unwieldy body of work.
Third, technology ensures the maximizing of time and resources. Teachers can coordinate and share resources with other educators at other schools. Perhaps even more importantly for teachers, technology ultimately streamlines administrative tasks significantly.
It’s All About Technology
Personalizing the learning experience has shifted the aforementioned philosophy that still tends to exist within most high schools. While that fundamental shift has some specific parameters, there is clearly no one method for implementation.
One of the first elements is increased communication among educators themselves as well as with their individual students. Teachers must understand that ongoing contact between themselves, their students and the parents of their students, is a must for personalizing the learning experience of every child.
That means increased use of email; teachers must be willing to accept and subsequently respond to emails from students or parents when students arrive home without a clear indication of that day’s assignment. Better yet, it means posting that assignment online for students and parents to access directly.
It also means that teachers must begin posting syllabi, study guides, assignments, and learning tasks in a conspicuous area that is available to other teachers as well. Of course such an area must first be created. But more than any other attribute, personalization requires an end to the days of teachers going inside a classroom and closing their door to the outside world.
In the new arena, educators must figuratively open their doors, adopting a mindset that materials can and should be shared among colleagues as well as educators in other school systems (in addition to parents and students). Teaching has too often been an isolating activity – personalized learning requires that teachers become collaborative.
No one educator could possibly create unique learning materials for every single student, day after day, year after year. Not if the teacher is to handle his or her traditional workload. There simply is not enough time in the day to realistically do so. But if a variety of materials are available in an organized online repository, teachers can begin the process of personalizing the learning experience for each student.
As we noted, in an ideal world, these materials would be web-based so that even parents could access whatever has been posted. Perhaps the greatest shift in mindset for 21st century education involves making materials available to parents and other adults who can then assist the student with any and all tasks.
Building Capacity
An expectation that all teachers are ready for such steps is destined for failure. Therefore, the first step to personalizing the learning environment for each student is to assess one’s current tech capabilities. While such a step should originate with school administration, there is nothing to prevent individual teachers from taking this step themselves.
But school administration must work diligently to build the technological confidence and capabilities of the staff in their respective buildings. In addition, leadership must foster collaboration and hold staff accountable for personalizing the learning environment.
But everywhere one turns, whether it is the instructional approach or the management of the materials to be used, technology is at the heart of the 21st century classroom. And when it comes to the notion of personalizing the learning environment for students, it is today’s technology that makes such an individualized environment possible.
For more on technology and the specific concept of learning platforms, visit BECTA.
April 6, 2010 5 Comments
Stand and Deliver – Passing of Jaime Escalante
Jaime Escalante, the teacher whose amazing story became the movie ‘Stand and Deliver,’ succumbs to cancer at 79.
Being a teacher, no story ever resonated more strongly than that of the inspirational Jaime Escalante.
None.
“Can we talk about sex?”
No doubt my feelings were due in great part to the fact that I too once taught the great subject of calculus. That I too have faced an uninspired group of students desperately wondering how I might reach them.
But my odds were infinitesimal compared to the ones he faced, making his tale an extraordinary story. The passion and ability to inspire some of the most underprivileged students in East L.A. to achieve at a level they could never have imagined possible is and was a story I have never grown tired of.
The movie is a must see for anyone who aspires to teach – heck it ought to be requirement that every high school teacher view the flick a day or two before the start of every school year.
Because this inspirational tale reminds us that it is amazing what one dedicated teacher can do, what a difference one educator can make in the lives of the individuals who arrive in his or her classroom.
As teachers, we all have an amazing opportunity, a chance, every single day, to stand and deliver. And if we do so with unbridled passion, then we can be the ones to truly “pay it forward.”
March 31, 2010 No Comments
Men’s Divison I Basketball Called Out for Poor Graduation Rates
Finally, the abysmal graduation rates being posted by some of the top college athletic programs has been receiving significant media attention. Whereas once upon a time we would see a lone wolf like Derrick Jackson of the Boston Globe call attention to this sorry issue, last week, none other than Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education and avid hoops junkie, weighed in on the frightful matter.
College Athletics – Where Are the Student-Athletes?
Unlike the professional sports world, college athletics is supposed to be played with student-athletes, with a certain amount of emphasis on the word student. Instead, sadly, many colleges are using athletes, particularly young black men, to bring in millions of dollars of revenue for their respective institutions. Not only do these institutions not pay these youngsters, they do not even provide them the education they promised.
Of course, truth be told, graduation rates at most colleges are quite poor for for the entire student body. In most cases, there is little difference between the entire student body and that of the athletes playing sports at those institutions.
But with more people calling attention to the current status of athletics, Secretary Duncan stepped up to the plate and suggested that colleges with basketball graduation rates of less than 40% should not be able to participate in the NCAA Basketball Championships.
Before discussing the schools that fail to meet such a basic criteria it is important to note that some institutions get the job done. They compete on a very high level yet do so with student athletes. Six schools, Brigham Young University, Marquette, Notre Dame, Utah State, Wake Forest & Wofford all posted graduation rates of 100%. Four others, Duke, Lehigh, Vermont and Villanova topped 90%.
A school with an 89% rate, Xavier University, has been singled out for special mention. While it cannot claim perfection, it can claim that since 1985 every single senior who has played on the Xavier team has graduated.
On the lower end, twelve schools would have been denied entry to the Big Dance if Duncan’s 40% threshold were implemented: Maryland 8%, Cal 20%, Arkansas (Pine Bluff) & Washington 29%, Tennessee 30%, Kentucky 31%, Baylor Missouri and New Mexico State 36%, Clemson 37% and Georgia Tech & Louisville at 38%.
Prostituting Black Athletes
When one looks deeper into the numbers the issue of schools using black athletes leaps off the page. According to a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, white males on tournament-bound teams graduated at an 84 percent rate vs. 56 percent for African-Americans.
Sadly, only 20 of the 65 teams in the tournament graduated at least 70 percent of their black players. Two, California and Maryland, did not graduate a single African-American player for the six-year period covered by the study. In contrast, 45 schools graduated 70 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes.
And when the 40% rate is considered, while 52 schools graduated 40 percent or more of their white basketball student-athletes, four of those schools could not graduate 40 percent or more of their African-American basketball student-athletes.
Perhaps more importantly, 28 tournament teams had a 30 percentage point or greater gap between the graduation rates of white and African‐American basketball student‐athletes while 37 had a 20 percentage point or greater gap.
Issue Gaining Traction
Once upon a time, March Madness, like the college football bowl season, held a special place in America. And for many fans it still does.
But for those who believe that amateur athletics should feature student-athletes and not underpaid, semi-professionals, those competitions no longer hold such special status.
But thanks to Derrick Jackson, Arne Duncan and a host of others bringing attention to this matter, we can harbor hope that these amateur events could one day regain their luster.
March 23, 2010 1 Comment
School Improvement – The Turnaround, aka the Sledgehammer Approach
A Rhode Island high school recently took one of the more radical steps towards school improvement when it fired 93 staff members. Citing an inability to reach agreement with the teacher’s union on a plan for teachers to spend more time working with students, the school board of the Central Falls School District voted 5-2 to terminate 93 staff members: one principal, three assistant principals, 74 classroom teachers, guidance counselors, reading specialists, physical education teachers and the school psychologist.
The simplistic, sledgehammer approach, often called the turnaround model, set off a firestorm with unions of every form. But while the step seems nothing short of hideous (are we to believe that not one educator in the building was performing up to expectations?), the situation does beg a simple question: What is the school board to do when the union rejects all proposals set forth to increase student performance at a poor performing school?
Central Falls High Data
By all data models, Central Falls High has been struggling. Of course, providing a quality education in a poverty-ridden school district is never easy.
The school is 65 percent Hispanic and for most of them English is not their first language. According to news accounts, half of all students are failing every subject. A total of 55% have been deemed proficient in reading; a mere 7% in math.
Central Falls High also had a reported graduation rate of 48%.
So, in one of the state’s tiniest and poorest cities, federal and state education officials are insisting that dramatic steps are necessary to transform this poor-performing school. But on the other side, the unions see the move as an attack on the very working conditions they have worked so hard to obtain.
Despite the poor performance label, the president of the Central Falls Teachers Union insisted that the teachers were simply being made a scapegoat. Union leadership also cited a 21 percent rise in reading scores and a 3 percent increase in math scores in the last two years as signs of progress
Furthermore, George McLaughlin, the guidance counselor who had been terminated, questioned the accuracy of the calculated graduation rate. Citing a transient population, he insisted that three times as many students are accepted to colleges now than five years ago.
The Firings
In what has to be one of the toughest moments anyone could imagine, on the night of the 5-2 vote to terminate, the board read the names of every staff member being fired. In an effort to help put a face to a name, each teacher attended the meeting and stood as his or her name was read.
Many were dressed in red, one of the school’s colors. Some cried while others lashed out verbally at the board members and School Superintendent Frances Gallo.
Sadly, the situation came from a set of stalled negotiations. Gallo and the teachers initially agreed on what is called the transformation model (no one is terminated) but reportedly the talks broke down when the two sides could not agree.
Gallo wanted a set of six conditions that included teachers spending more time with students in and out of the classroom. That time included a longer school day of seven hours, a one-hour tutorial for students weekly outside school time, teachers having lunch with students, and a 90 minute session with students every week to discuss education. She also sought a commitment from staff to attend training sessions with other teachers after school and during the summer months.
Ultimately, the sticking point was not the time request – the deciding issue instead centered on pay. Gallo offered to pay teachers for some additional duties (not all) and to do so at $30 per hour. Union leaders sought $90 per hour.
When they could not come to agreement on the steps to take, the superintendent decided the best option was the turnaround model.
Opposing Views Rampant
Education Secretary Arne Duncan defended the termination action. “Students only have one chance for an education and when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to take action.”
Indeed, the firings come directly from a step Duncan has taken to require states to identify their lowest 5 percent of schools according to their performance on standardized tests and graduation rates. As for fixes, there are four options: — school closure; takeover by a charter or school-management organization; transformation; and “turnaround.” It is the latter category that the Central Falls High board has taken – the step requires the entire teaching staff be fired and no more than 50 percent rehired.
And B.K. Nordan, one of the two dissenting votes, still blistered the high school’s teaching staff at the end of the meeting.
“I don’t believe this is a worker’s rights issue. I believe it’s a children’s rights issue,” Nordan was quoted. “…By every statistical measure I’ve seen, we are not doing a good enough job for our students … The rhetoric that these are poor students, ESL students, you can imagine the home lives … this is exactly why we need you to step up, regardless of the pay, regardless of the time involved. This city needs it more than anybody. I demand of you that you demand more of yourself and those around you.”
But comedian and social commentator Bill Maher clearly articulated some of the flaws in the strong-arm approach being used.
“It’s just too easy to blame the teachers, what with their cushy teachers’ lounges, their fat-cat salaries, and their absolute authority in deciding who gets a hall pass,” writes Maher. “We all remember high school – canning the entire faculty is a nationwide revenge fantasy. Take that, Mrs. Crabtree!
“But isn’t it convenient that once again it turns out that the problem isn’t us, and the fix is something that doesn’t require us to change our behavior or spend any money. It’s so simple: Fire the bad teachers, hire good ones from some undisclosed location, and hey, while we’re at it let’s cut taxes more.”
Maher went on to add:
“What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child’s academic success is parental involvement. It doesn’t even matter if your kid goes to private or public school.”
An Indication of the Challenges
And therein lies the difficulties with school reform measures. On the one hand, poor performing schools are asked to work with students from families that do not value education. Students from poor families arrive at school having had more limited learning opportunities from day one and no academic reinforcement as their schooling progresses.
By the same token, it is clear that great teachers, and particularly schools with large numbers of quality educators can make a significant difference. As Nordan states, the kids at Central Falls are in desperate need of teachers willing to step up and to do so regardless of the pay and the time involved.
And that, in my estimation is what separates the really good ones in this noble profession. It is what has always separated those that make a difference with their students.
They are willing to step up, to do what needs to be done, irrespective of pay or recognition or the time involved. And though taking a sledgehammer to a high school seems a painful way to reinforce such a point, there is a lesson to be learned.
According to Duncan’s criteria, no more than 50% of those teachers may be rehired. There are no doubt some very talented individuals who will have to swallow some serious pride to find it in their hearts to reapply.
But those that do so will be applying for work in a school that is now setting a standard as to what it wants and expects from teachers. Nordan is right, this is not a union issue, it is a kid’s issue, and school leadership should be able to insist on steps it needs to take to ensure that the kids needs are met.
And that means that maybe some time a sledgehammer just might be necessary.
March 16, 2010 4 Comments
NCLB and the Closing of Achievement Gaps
We wrote a few weeks back about the passing of one of public education’s greatest supporters, Gerald Bracey. One of Bracey’s key attributes was to point out the statistical discrepancies that could occur when data is broken out by various subgroups.
Many times Bracey demonstrated how one had to look behind as well as beyond the numbers, that whole group progress might contrast with individual sub-group performances and vice-versa. In simplest terms, statistical analysis is very challenging and determining valid conclusions more difficult still.
With that in mind, we turn to some recent research that examines sub-group scores on the national and state achievement tests. While proponents of NCLB continue to insist that law has helped close the achievement gap, that is to say, to reduce the difference in scoring on standardized tests between whites and various subgroups, the law has not done so for one of the most important subgroups, the highest achieving students.
Researchers Jonathan A. Plucker, Ph.D., Nathan Burroughs, Ph.D. and Ruiting Song recently released a new report called Mind the (Other) Gap! The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education (pdf). The writers note:
“One of the major objectives of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is to narrow the achievement gap among demographic subgroups of K-12 students. In NCLB’s implementation, the principal focus has been on minimum competency—of bringing a larger proportion of students to a basic level of educational achievement and closing achievement gaps.”
While there has been progress on that specific front, the researchers also noted:
“…. some observers believe the focus on minimum competency has come at a price. Although there has been a general improvement in academic performance, are achievement gaps also shrinking at the highest levels of student achievement?”
The answer, the researchers found, was no. In fact, they emphasize a new phrase called excellence gaps which is used to describe the differences between subgroups of students performing at the highest levels of achievement. The researchers concluded:
“The existence of such gaps raises doubts about the success of federal and state governments in providing greater and more equitable educational opportunities, particularly as the proportion of minority and low-income students continues to rise. The goal of guaranteeing that all children will have the opportunity to reach their academic potential is called into question if educational policies only assist some students while others are left behind. Furthermore, the comparatively small percentage of students scoring at the highest level on achievement tests suggests that children with advanced academic potential are being under-served, with potentially serious consequences for the long-term economic competitiveness of the U.S.”
Key Findings
The researchers concluded that the achievement gaps between students of different genders as well as different racial, economic, and linguistic profiles were extensive for the nation’s top-performing students. This of course is in direct contrast to what is happening for K-12 students as a whole.
Analyzing more than ten years worth of 4th and 8th grade state and national reading and math assessment tests, the researchers cast a spotlight on the data for the highest performing students. When looking at that one subgroup, they found that the achievement gaps between girls and boys, whites and minority students, disadvantaged and affluent students and their better-off peers, and those with English as their first language versus English-language learners either remained the same, or if the gaps were reduced, they declined only by the tiniest of fractions.
Two examples:
In 4th grade math, from 1996 to 2007 , the percentage of white students scoring at the advanced level on NAEP rose from 2.9 percent to 7.6 percent. In contrast, the percentages of black and Hispanic students rose from near zero to just about 1 percent.
For those 4th graders qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, advanced-level math scorers raised their totals from 3.1 to 8.7 percent. In Grade 8 mathematics, the percentage of students scoring at the advanced level not eligible for the National School Lunch Program increased by 5.7 percentage points: for the students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch the increase was .8 percentage points.
Citing a number of other such comparisons, the researchers concluded that excellence gaps on most NAEP tests were growing at both Grade 4 and Grade 8.
NCLB Impacts
While NCLB may not be totally to blame for this development (the achievement gap amongst the highest performing students was growing prior to enactment of the legislation), many predicted such results shortly after the law was enacted. The basic premise was that a focus on bringing all children to fundamental standards would lead to the brightest students, already under-served in most schools, to be shortchanged even further.
In addition, the punishment structures associated with NCLB led many states to set some very low proficiency standards. With NCLB focusing on getting all subgroups to pass that respective basic proficiency level, there is no incentive for schools to see to it that the best students climb further up the performance ladder.
And again, in a clear indication that data must be thoroughly scrubbed, there was one area where there seemed to be some positive developments. If one looked at the 90th percentile as a cutoff, there was some statistical progress in closing gaps for this high-performing subset.
Sadly though, in many cases the closing of the gap was due to one of two results: declining or stagnating scores for white students or modest improvements for disadvantaged groups. The incremental closing of the gap led the researchers to create a rate-based formula with the following predictions:
“it would take 38 years for free-lunch-eligible children to match more affluent children in math at grade 4 and 92 years for English-language learners to equal non-ELL students.”
Concern for our Highest Performers
In simplest terms, a state that narrowed gaps at the “proficient” level did not necessarily reduce those gaps at the “advanced” level. The researchers further note that this excellence gap is seldom discussed by any policy experts when school reform measures are reviewed.
For that very reason, one can attack NCLB and attack it hard. One could never contend that the law is ensuring that No Child is Left Behind, not when the achievement gap among the best and brightest is increasing with each passing year.
March 10, 2010 1 Comment
Media Use by Teens and Adolescents Continues to Explode
Has the time come for parents to pull the plug on mobile media?
A recent study completed by the Kaiser Family Foundation brought little in the way of surprises for those who work with children. But just to set the record straight, the foundation found that daily media use among children and teens is up dramatically even when compared to just five years ago.
With mobile devices providing nonstop internet availability, it is easy to see that entertainment media has never been more accessible than it is right now. The results of the Kaiser survey reveals that children, particularly minority youth, are taking advantage of that access.
But for parents and educators, the key question should not be simply how much time is actually spent with media. Instead, the issue should center upon what effect such consumption has on the mental, emotional and academic development of our youngsters.
The Findings
According to the Kaiser Foundation, “8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week).” Again not too surprisingly, a good portion of that time is spent using more than one medium at a time.
The Kaiser folks estimate that if we were to add in the time spent “multi-tasking” as separate exposure time, the daily average increases to 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) of media exposure for 7½ hour usage time frame.
Back in 2004, the data indicated that 8-18 year-olds averaged 6 hours and 21 minutes of consumption time and 8 hours and 33 minutes of exposure time (again when multi-tasking was taken in to account). The 1 hour and 17 minute increase in consumption equates to a 20% increase over the five year period and the 2 hours and 12 minutes of exposure time represents a 26% increase over the same time frame.
Most of the increase is due to the availability of mobile devices. According to the Kaiser study, increase in cell phone ownership among 8- to 18-year-olds has gone from 39% to 66% over the five year period. For ownership of iPods and other MP3 players, the increase is even more substantial: from 18% in 2004 to 76% in 2009.
What will not come as a surprise to parents of teens or teachers, the study revealed that young people now spend more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones than they spend talking on them (49 to 33 minutes daily).
The impact even affects the one time major concern, time spent in front of the television. For the first time, Kaiser found that the amount of time spent watching regularly-scheduled TV actually declined, by 25 minutes a day.
But those mobile devices are, of course, providing new ways to watch television. The result was an overall increase in total TV consumption of 38 minutes a day, from 3 hours and 51 minutes to 4 hours and 29 minutes (2:39 consisting of live TV on a TV set and 1:50 on DVDs, online, or on a mobile device).
For those wondering, the Kaiser study did not count texting as media use. If they had done so, 7th-12th graders would have spent an average of another 1:35 a day consuming media.
And the study focused only on recreational use of media. Any time spent using the computer or using mobile devices for school purposes was not included in the Kaiser media use calculations.
Household Expectations
The amount of time spent on entertainment media is clearly a function of the expectations and the example set by the parents. First, only about three in ten young people reported having rules regarding how much time they can spend watching TV, playing video games, or using the computer. But in those households where rules were set, children spent significantly less time with media: 2 hours and 52 minutes less.
Almost two-thirds of young people indicated that their TV was usually on during meals. Nearly one half (45%) stated that the TV was left on “most of the time” in their home, even if no one was watching.
Perhaps most disappointingly, more than 70% of the children reported having a TV in their own bedroom. A full 50% indicated they had a console video game player in their room as well.
Children in those homes where the TV was on during meals or when no one was watching reported spending 1 hour and 30 minutes more per day on the television. For those with a television in their room, the average reported television consumption increased by an hour.
Ramifications for Parents
Ultimately, the important item for parents is the impact of media consumption that now amounts to 13 hours more than the typical work week for adults.
According to the Kaiser study, the heaviest media users, those who consume more than 16 hours of media a day, reported getting lower grades. About one-half of heavy media users said they usually get fair or poor grades, defined as mostly Cs or lower. Only one-fourth of light users, those who consume less than 3 hours of media a day, reported getting such grades.
While cause and effect is not made clear by such revelations, other experts have noted significant ramifications of a child’s hypermediated environment. Tufts professor and researcher Maryanne Wolf believes that parents need to limit the time their children spend on electronic devices.
The director of the Tufts University Center for Reading and Language Research has spent time researching the impact of digital media on the brain. While technology has some pluses, Wolf expresses strong concerns about the instant gratification that today’s media provides. She also believes that technology is slowly eroding our ability to think deeply.
Of today’s media immersion, Wolf offers:
“A child is learning to be distracted,” she explains. “They aren’t learning in too many places to concentrate and think deeply for themselves. The volume of information, the immediacy of information . . . these are characteristics that can be good, but they can also lead to a less active, [less superficial] learning style.”
The antidote to all the media exposure is simple and yet oh so challenging. Wolf insists that we must take that all important step, to limit usage by turning the “darn things off.”
Wolf is not a parent of a current teen – but if she were, she clearly indicates what she would do:
“If I were a parent today, I would limit the time that my children were online or hooked up to something. What you really want is to help each child learn to use their time well.”
As an example from her own busy life, Wolf states that she expressly
begins and ends each day with an hour that is completely free of anything that is professionally demanding, whether it be e-mail or Internet or anything. Instead, she focuses on hitting the proverbial pause button, books or activities that require her to slow down.
Parents Need to Be Aware
There is no hiding one fact – media use by our youngsters is exploding. In light of that development, parents need to be aware that concerns are growing regarding the time our “wired” youngsters are spending with that media.
Given what we are learning about brain development, such exposure is no doubt having an effect on the intellectual capacities of those youngsters. With cognitive development still forming throughout that 8-18 year-old time frame, it would seem to be a no-brainer that parents would want to insist on a little more balance in their children’s lives.
March 4, 2010 1 Comment
The Next Wave of Digital Textbooks – DynamicBooks from Macmillan
One of the most firmly entrenched academic practices centers upon the use of textbooks as the fundamental drivers of curricula. Ultra-expensive, these items represent one of the largest costs for public school systems as well as those attending college.
As the digital age continues to work its way into the stuffy world of academics, there are clear indications that textbooks are gradually being phased out in many areas of the country. The sheer volume of resources available on the net is leading many school districts to create and share their own materials.
Macmillan, considered one of the largest players in that old, conservative world, apparently has now also seen the “handwriting on the wall.” The company recently announced it will offer academics an entirely new format: DynamicBooks.
The Wikipedia of Textbooks
The new, digital textbook format introduced by Macmillan has been dubbed by the New York Times as a kind of “Wikipedia of textbooks.” New software will allow college-level instructors to edit digital versions of e-textbooks, enabling these professors to customize the texts for their individual courses.
In addition to having the ability to reorganize and/or delete entire chapters or sections of the text, professors will be able to upload their course syllabus as well as any other supporting materials that have been created for the class: notes, videos, pictures and graphs. Offering significant potential cost savings (half the price of physical textbooks according to the Times), this format will allow all course materials be placed in a single digital location, a feature that should prove to be a godsend for students.
But it is yet another step that Macmillan is taking that is drawing the greatest attention. The phrase “Wikipedia of textbooks” speaks directly to that concept, the ability of professors to rewrite paragraphs and add their own equations, drawings, and illustrations.
While this step will allow most professors to do what they already do in a more efficient manner, the idea is not sitting well with the traditionalists who see the intellectual property within such books as proprietary. The further blurring of copyright laws as professors create their own content and intermingle that work with the published textbook authors is an enormous issue for those who have made a living in the textbook field.
The Opposition
Most of the concerns center on a format that is ripe for plagiarism. But the editorial staff at Tufts Daily is calling the concept risky for other reasons.
TD expressed extreme concern that professors would have direct editorial control over the content of the textbook yet would not be required to cite sources for the changes made nor need approval from either the publisher or the authors of the textbook. In addition, TD is concerned with another of the focal points of textbook traditionalists.
Apparently a significant number of the textbooks that will be available are those currently utilized in “large survey courses in the sciences.” While all professors no doubt altered the material to some extent in their individual courses, the traditional textbook had served as a standard reference for students.
According to TD, not only were students able to reference the textbook to discern greater clarity of the specific material that has been presented, the books provided students the essential content deemed relevant to the topic. But now, TD fears those books could well be devoid of relevant topics or critical background material.
In addition, TD notes “that professors may change the text with biased or even false information,” could “accidentally miswrite a definition or make an error in a formula or equation.” Any such errors would no doubt be detrimental to the students taking the course.
TD further insists students should not be the ones to face consequences for these errors or biases, that professors “should not be allowed to edit textbook content without review by the publisher or the textbook author.” And while TD offers support for the field of digital textbooks due to their ease of use and accessibility even as they reduce textbook costs, the editors insisted that allowing such edits did “not outweigh the potential problems that it could cause.”
Instead, professors should not be provided unchecked editorial control over the textbook as it ultimately “jeopardizes the reliability of course material for students.”
Macmillan Moving Forward
Despite these concerns, Macmillan plans to start selling about 100 titles through DynamicBooks. Some of the reported texts that will be available come August include: Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight, by Peter Atkins and Loretta Jones; Discovering the Universe, by Neil F. Comins and William J. Kaufmann; and Psychology, by Daniel L. Schacter, Daniel T. Gilbert and Daniel M. Wegner.
The books will be available at college bookstores, the DynamicBooks web site and through CourseSmart. Accessing the DynamicBooks editions will be possible either directly online or by downloading the text to a laptop or iPhone.
And of the cost savings, the Times noted one concrete example. The aforementioned Psychology has a list price of $134.29 when sold in its traditional format. The version that may be altered by a professor will sell for $48.76 when accessed through the DynamicBooks concept.
The altered versions will also be available in print on-demand version from Macmillan. However, when students opt for that format, the cost will revert nearly to the original list price.
100% Support for New Concept
Given the costs associated with textbooks, any step taken to reduce the outlay by students or schools is a welcome one in this corner. The fact of the matter is the current knowledge explosion renders most books out-of-date within a matter of months after publication.
In addition, no text is ever a perfect match for a course and the students taking that course. Every teacher makes modifications on at least a weekly or monthly basis, supplementing and deleting whenever such a step makes sense for the students they are entrusted with.
Kudos go out to Macmillan for taking a step other publishers have held back on: the level of customization that comes with being able to edit and supplement at the sentence and paragraph level. The option also allows for those delivering course content to collaborate and share material that is known to work best with students and include that in the basic course materials.
That inherent question, should professors have the right to edit and alter materials, is essentially a non-starter anyway. The bottom line is every good instructor does just that, altering and supplementing as he or she deems appropriate.
But now colleges, and hopefully one day K-12 school districts will be able to save hundreds of dollars even as they continue that long-standing practice of offering students an anchor text.
February 25, 2010 5 Comments
The Importance of Extended Family – Aunts and Uncles
Professor Robert Milardo arrived at the University of Maine in Orono in the summer of 1982 after teaching for a couple of years at the University of Southern California. Calling northern Maine a great place to live and his role the perfect job, one with a fair balance of teaching and research responsibilities, Professor Milardo has remained at the flagship campus ever since.
A professor of Family Relations, Milardo is currently editor of the Journal of Family Theory and Review owned by the National Council on Family Relations. He has published extensively in the field of family studies in leading journals and is the author of The Forgotten Kin: Aunts and Uncles (2009), The Decade in Review: Understanding Families into the Next Millennium (2001), and Family as Relationships (2000).
Professor Milardo’s interviews and commentaries on family issues have appeared in Psychology Today, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the USA Today.
Professor Milardo earned his Ph.D. in Human Development & Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University and his M.A. in Social Psychology from Connecticut College. Given his depth of study in the developing science of personal relationships and the ongoing importance of family to raising successful children, we were extremely interested in Professor Milardo’s work, particularly as it relates to aunts, uncles and kinship, and his theory of families as multiple households.
We recently spent some time with the Professor discussing his most recent work, The Forgotten Kin.
What ultimately was the impetus for you looking into the extended family and specifically to then examine the roles of aunts and uncles in families?
I started with an interest in interviewing men in caregiving roles other than parents. Were there men who were acting responsibly and having a positive influence on children? In my own life, uncling has been very important to me. I really enjoyed being around my nieces and nephew as children and now as adults.
And in my own childhood, uncles were important to me and fun to be around. On the other hand, the field of family studies is largely silent about uncles (and aunts) so a research project seemed like it would be interesting and maybe important.
Can you explain a little bit about the people that formed the basis of your research – how did you go about selecting and gathering interview and research candidates to examine the family roles associated with aunts and uncles?
Getting men to participate in research on family issues is not always such an easy task. I began the study in Wellington, New Zealand at Victoria University and spent much of my time calling acquaintances and arranging interviews.
Fortunately, the idea of the study was of interest to several journalists and articles appeared in local papers in NZ and then in Maine where I continued the work. Eventually I completed 104 personal interviews with uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews and accumulated over 80 hours of recorded conversations.
My intention was to get a variety of participants – some with very close relationships and some with modest or distant relationships. And to a certain extent the book represents a diversity of family forms and relationships. This is important because it helps us to understand how relationships with aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews vary in closeness, how they vary over time, and the features of individuals and families that influence closeness.
Reviewers indicate you offer information as to how aunts and uncles contribute to the daily lives of parents as well as to their children. Could you give a brief overview as to some of the basic ways that aunts and uncles contribute to the lives of parents?
This was one of the initial questions I had when I began the project. Are aunts and uncles important to parents? Well the simple answer is yes of course they are, sometimes.
Aunt Denise cared for her nieces especially when they were infants. As she said: “somebody would have to get some sleep in that house. So I would go over for a few hours. It was kind of a changing of the guard.”
But of course there is more to the story. Uncles and aunts were often parents themselves so they could draw on their own experience in counseling their siblings. At other times, aunts and uncles simply provided a listening ear and acted like good friends. On other occasions, parents would enlist an aunt or uncle to directly intervene with a child. And at times, nieces and nephews were more willing to listen to the counsel of an aunt or uncle.
Of course not all aunts and uncles are close to their siblings but when they are close their relationships can merge elements of family obligations and traditions with the strong bonds characteristic of best friendships. They can be some of the longest relationships we have. Brothers and sisters, when they are close, share their entire biographies.
My mother spoke with her sister Lena every day of her life and they both lived long lives, both married, had children and became grandparents. Intimacy is really about knowing things about another person that no one else would even care to know and doing so over a long period of time. For close siblings, intimacy is packaged over lifetimes of shared biography. That’s hard to match.
And to their children?
Not all aunts and uncles have significant relationships with their nieces and nephews, but many do. Aunts and uncles mentor children as well as older nieces and nephews. They provide advice concerning school, work and careers. They counsel their nieces and nephews about relationships with other family members and especially siblings and parents.
Raymond, age 26, described a unique relationship with his uncle. Raymond’s parents divorced when he was 2, and he speaks of his current relationship with his dad “as like two adults sitting in a bar talking about the weather.” Throughout Raymond’s life, his uncle has been an important source of support and companionship. Raymond consults his uncle about his career, his friendships, and nearly all of what he does. He describes frequent occasions of support and advice. They visited often during his adolescence when Uncle Les was the only important male figure in his life. In his words, his uncle “provided direction.” A highlight of their relationship is their mutual interest in music and playing guitars together. The contributions of his uncle are likely lifelong. At one point in the interview Raymond spoke of this influence:
One of the things we do is sort of a philosophy. We call it the Lost Chord…. In [learning a new] song you’re missing a chord and trying to find it, but then once you find that missing chord it puts the whole song in harmony and we realized we could apply that to life. So one of biggest things he taught me about life is always searching for that something to put in my life to make it a little bit smoother sounding. Eventually when you get 80 or 90 years old you can look back and find that you’ve had a lot of good music.
Throughout my interviews I was continually struck by the depth of relationships. I can’t emphasize enough that not all nieces and nephews are close with uncles and aunts, but for some, their relationships are truly extraordinary—they fuse elements of parent-like obligations with friendship.
Likewise, you suggest that aunts and uncles serve as mentors to their nieces and nephews, yet the adults themselves are also mentored by the children for whom they are responsible. Can you give a couple of concrete examples about this back and forth mentoring process?
This mentoring of aunts and uncles by nieces and nephews was a complete surprise. It occurred often among aunts and nieces as well as uncles and nephews.
In an ordinary but significant way, Aunt Rebecca recounted how her niece worked at a large department store and on occasion would purchase clothes for her because as Rebecca recounts “she thinks I need little skirts and stuff.” Although when her niece suggested a tattoo, Rebecca declined. It’s good to know one’s limits, I guess. These instances of reverse mentoring, however superficial at the outset, can serve as ways for nieces to express their affection and concern for their aunts. They are very much instances of care giving functioning to confirm, enrich and sometimes deepen their relationships.
Prior to your research, you must have had some specific items, a few informal postulates at least, as to what you thought you might find. After conducting the research, where there any major contradictions to some of those initial speculations?
I went into this project with an interest in documenting the relationships of a small array of family members. I assumed some aunts and uncles had active relationships, but I really didn’t expect the sheer number and depth of close relationships. In the big picture, we are not “bowling alone.”
Among the very best of friendships are relationships between family members, between siblings or between siblings and nieces and nephews. Towards the end of my interviews and after I had spoken with a passel of aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, I began asking aunts and uncles how they thought about the future of their relationships. When I asked Aunt Michelle if she expects her relationship with her 7-year –old niece to develop into a friendship in the future, she replied: “I really have a hard time picturing it any other way.”
When conducting the research, were there some real surprises for you, things that you did not expect to find?
Another unanticipated finding was the importance of aunts and uncles in mediating adjustments to divorce. Aunts and uncles often spoke of helping nieces and nephews in adjusting to the divorce of parents. This is a source of support that has not really been acknowledged but proves to be important.
While the book is no doubt extremely valuable to other experts in the field, are there some specific things that a family can take away from the book that could help them extend their current family relationships? Or specific suggestions as to how parents can utilize aunts and uncles to help them with the challenging process of raising a child in today’s complex world?
I hope everyone will read this book. I hope it changes the way we talk about families and how we come to understand what makes them successful.
Over the years if there is one clear lesson I’ve encountered it is that families successfully arrange themselves in many ways. It would be a serious error to assume a single prescription for resilient well functioning families. There are many successful configurations, but at their best families are ensembles built across households. They include a variety of forms—some with children in the home, some single-parenting, and some with close ties to siblings. When adult siblings have reasonably close relationships, without question everyone can benefit.
February 15, 2010 1 Comment
