Recently, I had the opportunity to attend Math training at the district office. You see, we adopted a new math program and must be retrained...again.
So, there I sat for 8 hours with fellow grade level teachers from throughout the district. In between deconstructing standards and comparing and contrasting the composition of problems, we had some time to chat. For the first time, in a long a time I had the chance to speak to teachers who are at "high performing schools". One gentleman enlightened me.
Let me back up.
I am at a new school site. Previous to being at my new school, my present class of students had been divided amongst three overcrowded school sites. Two of these sites are in the top three of the high performing elementary schools in our district. The other school is middle-of-the-road, but still not in Program Improvement.
Our campus is surrounded by new subdivisions, but intermingled within these groups of homes are neighborhoods which are less stellar, old, and quite frankly... scary. In fact, just this week, the mother of one of my students was mugged as she went outside to take out the trash. This was no knock-down-and-run crime. Her arm was broken and her eye blackened. Needless to say, her child was not interested in learning for the rest of the week.
Back to the conference:
We were talking about our students, and I was telling the gentleman, I mentioned earlier, that while I have students who are proficient, I have many who are basic and below. This man confided in me that all of the students who transferred to our school were those at the bottom of his class. This did not surprise me, as the majority of the demographics at my school lean towards students who are English Language Learners, ethnic minorities, and from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and these subgroups tend to struggle academically (while acquiring conversational and academic language, and coping with family and other issues), while those students at his school are mostly White students, with English as their primary language, from middle to upper class backgrounds ( not to say these children do not have problems, but they at least come to school speaking the language of instruction).
Read the title of this piece. Do you think it is unfair?
My research data confirms that Program Improvement schools ALL have demographics which are similar. A large majority of the students on these campuses are English Language Learners, who are ethnic minorities, and from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Those are the facts. They are indisputable.
BUT now, I must say this. While PI schools are similar in their demographics, and while crushing state mandates can drain the joy out of teaching, and make learning a much despised chore, there are campuses, though they bear the ignominious PI label which still have a positive feeling about them.
What makes the difference? I have found it is largely due to administrators who support their staff members and are realistic about the implementations and demands No Child Left Behind makes upon their staff and students.
So far, my campus still has a light feeling, though a PI label may be looming in the future, and we can feel the breath of rigid demands upon the back of our neck.
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7 comments:
My husband's school has joined the PI bandwagon this year. We all think this is quite ironic as his school has some of the highest test scores in the county, which doesn't matter to NCLB.. just that those high scores have been going down to not-so-high-but-still-pretty-darn-good levels this year. So all the students at his school got an official letter stating that they had the right to transfer to the "school of choice" in the county, which has much lower test scores, but they happen to be going up.
What is interesting to me is to watch moral plummet at his school. The staff is veteran, has always been very close, but now my husband rarely visits the staff room so he can avoid all the negativity he feels in there.
Our schools are alike in that our demographics resemble each other and the location of the school is also on "that side of town." Our schools' scores have been sustained by a corps of dedicated, fully credentialed teachers. Research supports, as I'm sure you've found, that schools that have a large number of experienced teachers are the ones that are the most successful at producing high achieving students regardless of who they are. Although our school has a staff that is fully credentialed, many of us still are lacking in the experience department. Have you found that to be true of the schools you have studied? Are most of them comprised of fully credentialed, but less experienced teachers?
Luckily for us, we've had a lot of our teachers return to our school for the past 5 years. Is there truly a trend of higher attrition for PI schools compared to higher performing schools? After all, who wants to leave a California Distinguished School for a PI school? I know I've been tempted to pick up and go!
As far as the title of your piece being fair, or not, I think that a schools' demographics is decided by the community. We've read about how tendencies for cities to move away from the older side of town and into a "safer," "friendlier-looking" side of town can leave schools on "that" side of town with families who cannot afford to move north, to where the land flows with milk and honey and an overabundance of California Distinguished Schools. Property values are driven up by schools having the coveted sign plastered on their school announcement boards for all to admire. Are PI schools made? I think the answer is yes. It's not by accident that these schools suffer higher attrition rates, or have higher percentages of poverty-stricken families. We all contribute to the making of these schools. I mean, would you want your child to attend the school on "that side of town," or would you much rather have them attend the one across town with the nifty sign on its wall? I do not have any children, but I pretty well know how I would answer that question!
Along the same lines, our new maverick-principal--boy, that term has been thrown around a lot lately hasn't it-- has put his money where his mouth is and has transferred his child to our school. I don't think many of our staff members have stopped to appreciate that move, but I've caught on, and know that he's definitely set his eyes on the prize. He's expressed how he has a vision for our school to do great things even if it is on that side of town! It's hard not to join hands with a person like that. Moves like that can spark a movement to revolutionize a school. Could it be that we are on the verge of making something great happen at Bellevue School?
I can relate to the man you spoke to at the conference. The school I teach at is primarily all basic through advanced students. Over the past two years our school demographics have changed. Now our of 31 students I have about 5 far below, 15 basic, 5 proficient, and 6 advanced. The difference between a school like mine or the gentleman you spoke to compared to a PI school is we still have basic, proficient, and advanced students. It makes it much easier when you feel some students are still successful and you have 1/3 of your class you are trying to bring up opposed to 3/4 of your class.
Kim's comment is similar to what I was thinking about. Her husband and I work in the same district and the fact that his rather high performing school has entered PI status this year just because their scores dropped for three years in a row (despite the fact that their scores are still some the highest in the state) is a sign of a broken system. I know that to teachers this is far from news. We all know its broken. We all feel powerless to fix it. And we are all confused about why the general public and the politicians who are making the choices that led to this broken system have not even noticed that they are breaking it. They've made everything worse. How can they be so dumb?
I just heard a bit on NPR about how hopelessly ignorant U.S. citizens are. I was scared by it and it helped me understand the misguided policies that plague not only our schools but our country. In the NPR report one reporter stood at a San Francisco bus station and gave a quiz to people. One of the questions she asked was whether they could find the U.S. on the map she was holding. They couldn't. These are the people who vote on the policies that make our schools what they are. That explains so much. Now I see how we got here.
To all of you brilliant MAT cohort 3 members, I SALUTE you!
Ish, yes and yes to your questions. Yes, research shows less experienced, though credentialed teachers, are more likely to be at PI schools, and yes, there is a statistically higher rate of teacher attrition at PI schools. What does that mean for those students, who have such exceptional needs anyway? Well, it means less quality and effectiveness in instruction ( I plead guilty. I was a new blurry eyed teacher at a PI school. I knew NOTHING when I first started, though I did try).
Kim, tell your husband to stay strong. He can be the beacon of hope. Our GATE school---G-A-T-E---just fell from their pillar of greatness because they dropped from the 800 level they had maintained for YEARS. I think they lost two points, or something. When they announced this at our district convocation, you would have thought the sky was falling. Yes, things are out of control.
And to Dina, there was a time when 75% of my class was Basic and below. MmHm. The thing is, I lived in reality. I knew not all children learn at the same rate and that some DO NOT SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION, and so I could cope. And let me tell you, when I could bring a Below Basic child to Proficient in a year, there was no better feeling. To bring a Proficient student to Advanced, well, that's fine, but to really see growth, that is one thing I miss about the student population at my PI school, I saw growth. Unfortunately, it was never enough for my principal or for the state.
And Lothy, sigh.
When Socrates spoke about how democracy would fail in THE REPUBLIC, he cited ignorance as the chief cause, so you are correct. Just last week, I told my husband, I think we are living in the time of lots of information, but much more IGNORANCE. What a paradox for modern man.
Someone needs to do an internationl action research project and find out why we are such ignoramouses in this day and age. Gosh. I just heard a quote about that, and I can't remember what it was.
Did I spell ignoramous wrong?
Because, that would be ironic! :0)
Happy Day!
Our school is ranked 4th in the district!
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