Wednesday, May 14, 2014

SOS save our schools

 My local district is suffering from major financial issues and declining enrollment -a 36% decline in 15 years. In order to save money, they are moving alternative education and pink slipping all non-teaching staff and "sharing" staff with the neighboring school a few hundred yards away. The only part left of alternative ed is a continuation school, the independent study, young parents, and adult ed/GED portions are gone. Our small community has high unemployment and is remote and lacks adequate public transportation, drug use, crime rate, poverty are on the rise. We lack things for teens to do - no malls, the park now costs money, no swimming areas or non-church related activities for teens. And so the district decides to save money by cutting programs for our most at-risk. If the do not fit in the regular model of education, they have no alternatives. No other districts or non-secretarian schools, no charters. Nothing. We claim to have rigor and individualized education and bla bla bla....so, this week I plan on addressing the board of directors to keep the school where it is. I've worked there and know the staff as well and it is a small, Close-knit school that cares. Ridding of non teaching staff, housing the students in a different campus than now, ridding of most of alternative ed as it is...is an injustice. When the district complains of lost ADA, higher percent of drop-outs, and a community with higher crime, poverty, and unemployment, I hope then the district might take notice that tossing our at risk (often our most creative thinkers) to the wolves was indeed a bad idea. Told you so.

grades and accountability

I understand the reasoning behind standardized testing and standards, when the reason is "because grades are subjective". While reading Sinhue Noriega's "If It's Broken Don't Fix it", he talked about how money talks, so passing students regardless of skill is an unwritten law. Additionally, he mentioned how it often seems that all anyone cares about is the letter grade, and I do often find this true - a grade matters more than actual learning of skills or content.
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How can grades both matter and not matter when attendance takes precedence? Well, in the end attendance means money, not grades. Pushing through and passing as many kids as possible could lessen drop outs, increase enrollment and attendance, and please the public -theoretically. And parents want good grades above all else (in general), and will often seek alternative placement if their desires are not met, which means their child leaves the school and thus the school loses money.
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Therefore, passing grades please everyone no matter the cost. I have worked and blogged about a school where 21% is passing (D-) and students can re-take the tests (the only things graded) as much as they want. A child can fail at,say, 10%, retake the test at 21%, and pass. Everyone is happy...parents and students like the passing grade which keeps the students enrolled. I have also experienced other grading issues that border the immoral, illogical, and illegal. And according to Mr. Noriega, I'm not alone.
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In another school I worked in, I had two students, let's call them John and Joe. John was a mainstreamed special ed student and Joe was your regular old class clown. Both ended up with C grades at the end of the semester and both had angry mothers.
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John's mom came in for a conference and was quite irate. Her son got a C-, the first C grade of his lifetime. My school's policy was that no special ed student could get below a C- because they had a modified curriculum and had been given a fair education and thus could not fail. Fair enough. So I gave John a C-. I explained to his mom and John himself that I had never even received on bit of work from him, Not even his name on paper, and that he had never participated in class. I had modified all instruction as per his IEP and offered tutoring and re-takes of quizzes and tests, which he ignored. Therefore he got a C-. John then asked me how that could equate a C- when, "I showed up every day in class. I've always got at least a B for showing up to class." And he was dead serious. His mother was so mad she enrolled him in another school and I was in hot water. I had to provide documentation of all modifications, attempts to re-teach, communications, and work samples to save my own job since he meant a loss in funds. I had the damndest time with work samples since there were none. But in the end I kept my job.
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Then came Joe. A smart student who preferred to clown around, likely bored by school. He did the bare minimum at a mediocre level, so he earned a C.  His mother withdrew  him.  Being a small, close-knit classroom, I often would call home if a student were sick and missed class and I had assumed after not seeing him for a week that something had gone wrong. This is when I learned he had been withdrawn (albeit still on our roll sheets). Suddenly, his mother was yelling at me over his grade, and yet she seemed to be agreeing with me so I was bewildered. "His grade is a  c! He earned a C rightfully. I saw his progress reports and work samples! This is why we left the school!" Yeah...I was totally lost, so I asked her to clarify, especially because we'd built a parent-teacher rapport which is why she was quite knowledgeable about his grade. Come to find out, his transcripts showed a B in my class. She called the school to change it and they said yes, he has a B, it has been reviewed and sonar by I administration as is the policy. So...I know I gave a C but double checked just in case and yep, C
 But there wasn't a thing I could do. I was powerless and yet knew the truth and we had lost a student over something I didn't do. Because grades can mean money, and I bet the B was in hopes to keep Joe in our school.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

the rejected rebel reformers of education

Hello, my name is reject. Or so it seems, according to the education system. I've been ostracised, criticized, and "pink slipped" more times than I can count. And like a sickness, I keep coming back because I believe in what's right, which is exactly what causes others to ridicule, despise, and expel me from their ranks.
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That is right, I am a teacher whose resume is a sad laundry list of failures, disappointments, and bridges burned. My resume reads like a battle plan with lots of losses. It seems everywhere I have taught didn't want me because I refused to prescribe to their damaging factory model of so called education. And yet, I wasn't this crazy martyr, screaming as I pointed out injustices and throwing the verbal punches. I sat back, my stomach in knots, as I saw children crumble before my very eyes as I mumbled out a scripted lesson. I believe that even when I tried to play the game, they could see right through me. Behind the robot-like mask of indifference, they could see the person, full of fire, grimacing at yet another dehumanizing test prep lesson. They were on to me and had to make me their enemy. Even the kids were on to me, asking why I didn't yell at them or try to scare and shame them into performing.
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These feelings recently came back to me as I read a great, highly recommended book by Sinhue Noriega, "If it's Broken Don't Fix it". I was left spellbound, nodding my head, angry at the injustices it seems so few see or know or care to admit.  This is why they keep happening. I wanted to find Mr. Noriega and praise him beyond comprehension, for "getting it".
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I want this quote from his books, made into t-shirts, bumper stickers, plastered onto signs and billboards. I want to shout it from the hilltops because it so represents not just me and my trials and tribulations, but the system as a whole.

"I have often found that those who take major strides towards reform quickly find adversity descending upon them. I've seen too many programs begin to make a difference, then be shut down because they caused too many waves. Teachers and administrators who chose to implement high ideals, philosophies, and practices, often find they become the target in a system that never intended to have better teaching practices put into action. These dreamers stand alone, in a world of challenge, on the sword's edge of employment because they believe in something greater than the outcome of a test."
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A few months back, I applied to be a vice principal of a charter school in Oakland, CA. If you don't know, Oakland is in urban decay, with incredibly high crime and poverty rates, the  Detroit of the West Coast if you will. The school toted social justice, creating life long learners and innovators for the 21st century,  wanting To reverse the injustices of race and poverty serving as cultural and success-based barriers. I was so very excited to apply to a school that seemed to align to my philosophy of education. I spent all day writing an essay they, when I was done, left me full of energy, as if to say, "yes! I can and will make a difference! I am awesome!". I wrote about education opening minds and changing the world. I  wrote about challenging social barriers and how we could empower the students and community to become the next generation of thinkers and doers. (I wish I could find my letter in my pile of documents as, not to toot my own horn, but it was that good.)  I thought for sure I had the job, because my essay reflected their mission statement. I never even heard back in any way and the position has since been filled.

Because, schools talk the talk but don't walk the walk. They want someone who blindly and robotically delivers  corporate-developed droll lessons that keep the children in line. They want kids to attend solely for money. Everything they do is for dollar signs and hidden agendas.


 The children...they don't even come last because that would  assume they were of some priority. I keep trying to tow the line to have a paycheck to support my family. I keep trying to find places that have children as the priority. I keep trying to make a difference, only to continually fail and be labeled a failure in a system that doesn't want me. A system that doesn't even factor children into the equation. But I refuse to go quietly into the night.