AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > June
June 2006
A Million Bucks an Acre
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When I overheard my colleague Mary MacDonald reporting this story, I assumed I heard wrong. Surely, she did not say the Fulton district paid a million dollars an acre for property so they can build a new school. Alas, she did. The price is $1.1 million an acre.
The district is so desperate for some earth to build an elementary school that it’s razing some older homes in a neighborhood homeowners thought would be turned into upscale condos. (Because you know there aren’t nearly enough upscale condos going up around town!)
I don’t know of a good discussion question here. I guess, do you accept the shoulder shrugging it-costs-what-it-costs arguement? Or should district officials have found a cheaper way to bring more elementary school classrooms to Sandy Springs? If this were happening in your neighborhood, would you prefer a school or fancy housing?
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment |
The Really Truly Highest Performing Schools
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We aim to serve our readers, and our readers have requested more extensive lists of top-scoring schools on the CRCT. In the paper last week, we ran the top ten. Our database editor, David Milliron, has created a tool to search the top 50 schools in every grade and subject. Find it here.
Enjoy!
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment |
The “Myth” of Summers Off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On the previous thread, Robert writes:
“Patti -
Will you PLEASE stop perpetuating the myth that teachers have the summer “off.” We do not. We must take classes for certification renewal. We possibly do take a “vacation” for a week or two like any other employed person does, but we do not have summers “off.”
This summer, I am taking 4 PhD level classes at GA State plus getting AP certified (a week at Olgethorpe University). That is more than a full load even for a full time student. Is this a summer “off” for me?”
My response:
I think that the myth is that teachers spend their summers lounging poolside. Most of the teachers I know teach summer school, take classes, work as nannies etc. But… I don’t think it is a myth that teachers have the summer off. You do. It may be a short summer. But that is time that you have off from your regular classroom job, and you may spend it in the way that’s best for you whether it’s at home with your kids or working toward an advanced degree.
I welcome thoughts from others on this…
Permalink | Comments (124) | Post your comment |
A Permanent Mental Health Break
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I rarely have time to peruse the bajillions of education-related blogs out there. Usually, I just drop by Get on the Bus, This Week in Education, Gradebook, The Chalkboard and School Me! (The latter is hard for me to read regularly as the dizzying quantity of content and graphics fills me with feelings of inadequacy…)
Anyway, via Get on the Bus, written by Scott Elliott of the Dayton Daily News, I found this blog by a teacher who resigned, citing concerns for her mental health. It’s a fascinating read, very honest. The title, appropriately, is “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
She quit because she couldn’t handle the “crazy scheduling and the lack of standards and the roller-coaster syle life on stage.” She says she pushed herself too hard, tried to do too much.
Teachers, can you relate? Parents, are you sympathetic to what teacher go through? Or do you wonder how I have the nerve to ask that given that it’s summer and they’re not even working and they have it so easy they wouldn’t last a week in the corporate world and when are teachersgoingtostopwhininganddotheirjob?
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment |
To Wake or Not To Wake?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reporter observes a sleeping eighth-grade student inside a summer school classroom. The teacher ignores the sleeping student and makes no attempt to wake the snoozer. The reporter returns to the newsroom and mentions this observation, sparking discussion:
Does a teacher have an obligation to this student? Or is it okay for the teacher to say, “I’m here to teach. This student has made the decision not to learn.”? The broader issue is, how far should summer school teachers go in trying to get their kids over the CRCT hurdle?
My colleague witnessed a teacher with a whatever-it-takes attitude, determined to do everything possible to help his students pass. Then she saw the flip side. Some middle school teachers had the attitude that these kids got behind in elementary school and now there is nothing that can be done for them. Does this attitude make you cringe or are these teachers just stating reality?
Permalink | Comments (130) | Post your comment |
How Kids Who Passed the CRCT Spend the Summer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They go to camps with recording studios, build robots and do something I’ve never heard of called mountainboarding. Well, they do that stuff if their parents can afford the modern sleepaway camp.
“Many camps now have air-conditioned cabins and air-conditioned dining rooms, and you didn’t see that 20 or 30 years ago,” the head of a camping organization tells reporter Julie Turkewitz, an ajc summer intern who came up with this cool story idea when she worked as a camp counselor. Read about it here.
Parents, do you send your kids away to camp during the summer? If so, do you expect them to have Internet access?
Permalink | Comments (47) | Post your comment |
Assessing Summer School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Summer school is already winding down for kids in some districts. Here’s Bridget Gutierrez’s story about a southside students prepping to re-take the part of the CRCT they failed. If they fail again … state law says they repeat the grade unless a parent successfully appeals.
Parents with kids in summer school, are you impressed with the program? Are the classes small? Is your child getting individual attention? Does your child seem to be progressing?
Permalink | Comments (23) | Post your comment |
Do Some Teachers See a Bunch of Sow’s Ears?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s the Maureen Downey piece referenced in an earlier thread.
It raises the issue of what sometimes seems like the flip-side arguement as to why so many minority students in poor communities fail. The child’s home life is most often cited. But there is also the belief that teachers in schools serving poor, minority children have low expectations for them. They stereotype the children as being incapable of learning at the same level as white and Asian students in schools serving more middle-class and affluent communities. Their doubt becomes reality.
Do you believe in the culture of low expectations? Have you witnessed it? (And if I may cut you off at the pass, please don’t bring up “Stand and Deliver.” I love the movie and have seen it a million times, but I’m looking to cover some fresh ground with this discussion…)
Permalink | Comments (48) | Post your comment |
When You Don’t Like Your Kid’s Teacher…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I just stumbled upon this quote, which was provided by reporter Diane Stepp for the story on “best schools.” The mother’s daughter, Katie, exceeded expectations on all parts of the CRCT. Here’s what she told Diane:
“I try to support the teacher. The combination of the three of us (mom, Katie and teacher) makes a good recipe for doing well.”—Amy Nolan, mother
So many parents tell me they don’t like their child’s teacher for various reasons. Isn’t this recipe harder to execute when that’s the case? Parents who have been in this position, how did you handle it?
Permalink | Comments (31) | Post your comment |
“Only Nevada and South Carolina Fared Worse”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s Mary MacDonald’s story about on-time graduation rates. The Education Week study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found Georgia had a 56 percent graduation rate in 2003. Georgia officials calculated a 63 percent graduation rate for the same year.
Whatever the precise number, obviously it’s just plain bad. Georgia ranked third from last, ahead of Nevada and our old friend South Carolina.
Thoughts?
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment |
Did She Really Say “Best”???
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People who have known me for a long time on the schools beat are surprised to see my name next to a “Best Schools” story.
When parents ask me which school I think is best, I usually trip over myself explaining why it’s an impossible question to answer without knowing what their idea of a “best school” is. Yes, I have my own ideas of what fits my bill. But that’s just my opinion, and it’s my policy not to share it for fear someone will take it as advice, enroll their child somewhere, have a bad experience and then come after me. (A little paranoid? Maybe…)
But this story was an effort to give readers what they have been asking for: a list of schools that scored the highest.
We used scale scores, not the percent of students passing or exceeding the standard. The scale score is a more precise number less subject to niggly questions such as, “What about a school that has the highest percent of kid exceeding the standard but also has a higher percent of kids not passing? Should they really be ahead of a school with a lower percent of kids exceeding the standard but everybody passing?”
My colleague Bridget asked this exact question, and from there we decided to use scale scores. There are a lot of schools bunched at the top, which means many excellent schools did not make our various lists. (We ran several lists to provide a range of schools…)
I tried to provide context in the story, including a parent who has been in the game for a long time and long ago stopped worrying about which school has the highest score. But still, this package involves lists. And, yes, the word “best” is in there, several times.
I don’t like the word. But having had a night to think about it and a morning of fielding phone calls from readers, I think we were right to use it. Maybe.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment |
Get Your School-by-School CRCT Scores Here!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Database editor David Milliron created this handy tool for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!
Any surprises?
Permalink | Comments (50) | Post your comment |
Pricey Teacher Gifts: An Ethical Dilemma?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Get Schooled reader would like some feedback on this issue regarding a class mom’s efforts to extract a $20 donation from each family for a teacher’s gift:
“A friend of mine was lamenting over a request from her child’s ‘class mom’ for money. The money was to be used to purchase a gift card for the teacher at the end of the school year. The letter that went home to parents in this class requested $20 per family. There are probably 23-25 students per class. The sentiment was, “…we thought it would be nice to combine all our resources for a gift for…” There would be two gifts, one for teacher appreciation (Sephora Gift card) and another for the end of the year.
Granted, the letter says that ‘donations are voluntary, and you may contribute any amount you wish.’ My friend says that she and others feel the ‘donation’ is less than voluntary. Several reminders followed the original letter. The first letter mentioned the ‘voluntary part’ along with a deadline. Another letter stated, ‘…we would like to remind anyone who would like to and has not sent their $20 donation to do so as soon a possible.’ This last request was the first time my friend did not contribute, a decision that actually took time and thought to make.
This letter was also a second of its kind, as one went out in December to solicit for a holiday gift.
I am a teacher, and do enjoy receiving gifts from my students…..gifts that they picked out, or created. I don’t expect them, but do appreciate those that are given. Although it would be nice to purchase a London Fog coat with a gift card (as occurred with the above mentioned teacher’s holiday gift), I don’t see this as appropriate coming from my students (or their parents).
There is an ethical guideline, that we are not to accept individual gifts valued above $25. Frankly, I wouldn’t be comfortable accepting that large from a student. Isn’t the method described above a way to get around that guideline? Is there a pressure felt from parents to contribute to such a request? Are teachers comfortable with such pricey gifts?”
Teachers: Gadget-Free or Gadget-Friendly
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are many reasons to love summer. For me, one of them is having an intern on our education team. For all the concerns about the younger generation not being prepared for the workforce, the hardworking interns we get at the ajc inspire hope. This year we have Julie Turkewitz from UNC Chapel Hill.
Julie is writing a story for our back-to-school guide about gadgets. She knows what kids and teenagers are into because she’s just a year or two removed, but she wants to hear from teachers about technology in the classroom.
For example,do the tech toys open a whole new world of cheating possibilities? Do you wish technology had stopped with the solar powered calculator? Or have you embraced Ipods and hand-held devices for their ability to connect with kids? (I’m told the Ipod can be used for educational purposes such as storing notes…
Cobb Goes Race Blind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Cobb board decided - with a little help from the courts - to adopt a map for the new Hillgrove High that doesn’t take into account race. Here’s Diane Stepp’s story.
The board had attempted to balance black and white students at McEachern and the new Hillgrove. Parents not rezoned to Hillgrove, in an effort they believed was to keep some white kids at McEachern, were none to pleased. Some sued, and legislators took their side.
Board member Betty Gray said before the vote: “I don’t like to have my arm twisted with no way out.”
Should race be a factor when drawing attendance boundaries? The argument for using race generally is that once a school becomes majority black, white homeowners sell so their kids may attend elsewhere. The arguement against is that such “social engineering” is not what board members are elected to support.
Tell me what you think, but do keep it civil, okay?
Should homemade treats be banned?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPDATE: The Forsyth board did not vote on this issue. Here’s Jennifer Brett’s story.
The Forsyth County school board is set to ban students bringing homemade treats to school parties. The school board cites various reasons, including food safety, food allergies and increasing vigilance over childhood obesity. Other metro Atlanta schools are weighing similar issues.
Do you think a ban on homemade goodies is a good or ban thing?
Principals Who Stand Out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Governor’s office released today a list of principals eligible for $15,000 bonuses if they lead schools deemed Needs Improvement. It’s an interesting list, which includes many principals from high performing schools serving mostly affluent families. Examples: Sarah Smith Elementary in Atlanta, Dickerson Middle in Cobb, Vanderlyn Elementary in DeKalb and McIntosh High in Fayette.
No Cherokee, Forsyth or Clayton leaders made the cut. Question is: Would they care? How many of these leaders would want to trade their current school for a Needs Improvement school? And if there are some takers, would the skills cultivated in a school like Crabapple Crossing Elementary in Fulton transfer to a school serving families where 80 percent qualify for free lunch?
This new state law didn’t get a lot of ink because it’s unclear whether it will have an impact. But maybe it will. Maybe a dynamic leader at a high performing school will turn a Needs Improvement school into a model.
UPDATE: Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education adds the following:
“Your blog seems to indicate that the the High Performance Principals are coming mainly from affluent white schools. While that may be true of the few schools you mentioned, I ran a few stats just in case someone brought that up. Of the schools that the HPPs work at: - The average African-American student population is 39 percent. - The average Economically Disadvantaged population is 46 percent (and is probably higher since, as you know, high school students don’t sign up for Free and Reduced Lunch as much as Elementary and Middle School kids). - You point to Sarah Smith Elementary as an example, but don’t look at the rest of the city of Atlanta. The average African-American population of the schools that had HPPs in Atlanta was 82 percent, the average Econ. Dis population was 65 percent.”
“We Are Now Going To War”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Joe Martin, head of the coalition pushing for a new funding formula for Georgia schools, announced today that “the state of Georgia has rebuffed [the organization’s] offer to negotiate a settlement of the lawsuit for adequate school funding and has hired a major law firm…”
The state unsuccessfully tried to get the suit dismissed, and some lawmakers had hinted at the possiblity of a settlement to avoid a drawn-out trial. Gov. Sonny Perdue put together a task force to study school funding, and Martin says his group - the 51-member Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia - was told to let the task force handle the financing issue.
“We tried to avoid this turn of events, but what it means is we are now going to war,” Martin wrote in an e-mail to reporters who might be interested in covering a Friday press conference in Cordele. Knowing reporters are generally food-centered individuals, he promises samples of the watermelon the region is known for. (Who knew?)
Martin’s group mostly represents rural school districts who say they don’t have enough property wealth to fund their schools. School financing in Georgia relies on property taxes. Members say the state doesn’t give their districts enough money to run their schools properly. They want a more fair way of funding education in Georgia, but they have not made specific demands.
Is this cause worth going to battle over?
Cool Tool for District CRCT Scores
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hi all, other members of our ed team worked overtime to pry district-by-district scores from the state Department of Education. Here’s Mary MacDonald’s story. David Milliron, our database guy who could recite the Georgia open records law if called upon to do so, set up this cool search tool.
Any surprises in your district?
Speaking of SPLOST
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lordy, there is a lot of education news in the paper today. I’m torn over what to post on, but I’m going to go with this story saying the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that the Cobb County school board was not authorized to buy laptop computers for students with money that was supposed to go for other purposes.
I think this is a big deal because many school systems are strategizing for a third round of sales-tax funded school construction, which requires voter approval. The message seems to be that systems must specify EXACTLY what they want to spend the money on. “Replacing computer work stations” cannot turn into “buy laptop computers for students and teachers.”
On the one hand, taxpayers clearly have a right to know what they’re supporting when they go to the polls. But I can understanding the need for flexibility in a rapidly changing world.
Do you support the funding of school construction and technology upgrades through a SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax)? How specific do you want district officials to be in outlining what they want to build/fix/replace?
Wanna Drive? Graduate!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A final - I swear - tidbit from Intel Chairman Chairman Craig Barrett’s recent speech in New Orleans.
He concluded his remarks by asking why a high school diploma isn’t required to get a driver’s license.
Well… Seems a no-brainer that it would make 285 safer, but would withholding a driver’s license motivate a student to work toward graduation? Or would it leave the poor and uneducated without transportation and further limit their options?
Teachers and the Ballot Box
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Association of Educators likes Mark Taylor for Gov. Here’s Jim Tharpe and Bridget Gutierrez’s story about the endorsement. Cathy Cox’s team says she has plenty of teachers on her side. Gov. Sonny Perdue didn’t fill out the 40,000-member group’s questionaire. His spokesman said it was because Perdue has no opposition in the primary. PAGE - Georgia’s larger advocacy group - doesn’t endorse candidates. Its spokesman, Tim Callahan, sent out a news release chiding GAE for its “Teachers Back Taylor” press release headline, noting that neither group speaks for all the state’s educators.
Teachers, you helped send Roy Barnes packing. You’re a powerful lot. Who do you like for governor this time around?
Bypassing Finals
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Get Schooled reader asks that we take a break from CRCTs and talk about … well, anything else. How about this, also from a Get Schooled reader:
In some districts, high school seniors who do well in their classes are exempt from taking final exams. The reader thinks this is a terrible policy, letting kids off way too easily and feeding into the senior slacker mentality.
What do you think?
Kids Who Didn’t Pass
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A blog participant wrote on an earlier thread about the CRCT: “Maybe we need to see ‘A Day in the Life’ of a few of these failing kids.”
I would like to do just that. If you have a child who didn’t pass in grades 3, 5 or 8, please contact me at pghezzi@ajc.com. I am interested in all types of children, the ones who prepared and still did not pass as well as the ones who think the teacher did not cover all the material. Special education and regular education. Suburbs and city. I’ve already identified two, but I need more. Pass the word on if you know somebody who might be willing to participate. When writing for our print newspaper, I must use first and last names.
Is School Reform Overblown?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So after Intel Chairman Craig Barrett gives a speech about how important it is to do a better job teaching kids math and science, and a guy named William Schmidt of Michigan State preaches a sermon on how way bad the math and science crisis is in our schools, a guy named Richard Rothstein gets up and says: ” I don’t agree with that…”
Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and he’s written columns for various publications and written books galore with long titles that don’t exactly make me want to rush out and buy them. (…”Class and Schools: Using Social, Econonmic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap”…)
He says education reform is not the cure for society’s ills as it is often billed as being. He says a more important reform is raising real wages for those who work in the service sector and other jobs that employ the masses. Because while math and science fields may be growing at a faster rate, they have a smaller base. They employ fewer people. So if we all the sudden produced a bunch of math and science whizzes, that would not change the reality that our society needs maids to clean hotel rooms. Improving education does not change the wages those workers earn. He added that wages for scientists have remained stagnant in recent years. He used Department of Labor data for his analysis.
Of course, the big question is who should decide whether a kid grows up to clean hotel rooms or work as a scientist? All kids should have the opportunity to pursue a lucrative field. But Rothstein challenges the idea that providing all kids with high doses of math and science instruction will alleviate poverty and other social problems.
Are you feeling this arguement?
Some Georgia CRCT Results To Chew On…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finding the news in a press release can be a challenge. Here’s the state’s press release on CRCT results, which were released today.
More interesting and telling are the actual scores, which you may find here.
Among the highlights:
The tests that are new this year and reflect the new curriculum seem to be harder as state officials said they would be. Pass rates are lower, though not dramatically so. Are 83 percent of Georgia third-graders really reading well enough to succeed in fourth grade? (I don’t know, I’m asking!)
Middle school science and math scores are most troubling, especially with minorities. Only 47 percent of black sixth-graders passed the new math test, compared with 74 percent of white students. In sixth-grade science, 43 percent of black students passed the new test, compared wtih 77 percent of white students.
Thousands of kids in grades three, five and eight are headed to summer school or are there already. I can’t calculate exact numbers because I don’t know how many kids failed both reading and math as opposed to one or the other. But the number is certainly high. (28,000 eighth-graders failed math.) Are schools prepared for such numbers?
Inexplicably, we don’t have district-level results yet. Grrr…
Thoughts?
Intel Guy Says: Don’t Bother With State Comparisons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Intel, was the opening speaker at the Education Writers Association conference I attended in New Orleans last week. His topic: Storm Clouds Over U.S. How Different if the U.S. from its International Competitors? Is the U.S. Falling Behind.
I’ll sum this up fast: There is no reason to spend so much energy comparing Georgia kids to Florida kids or Atlanta kids to Gwinnett kids, Barrett believes. (My favorite recent comparison someone showed me: Atlanta is improving its test scores faster than the state of Georgia. Hmmmmm…..) Compare internationally, Barrett says. When he can’t find the employees he needs locally, he goes to India and China. Those who brag about being the best in the state or the best in the country ignore this larger picture.
A reporter asks Barrett if he also goes to India and China because the labor is cheaper. My notes trail off on this one, but I think he says something about that being a tough issue and notes that he has grandkids in college …
Barrett says American kids need better teachers. They need teachers who know how to teach them the high-level math and science they need to compete. Good teachers also engage and motivate students, he says. A national curriculum will never happen, so why spend time talking about it? Get better teachers. Period.
The next speaker disagreed sharply with Barrett. I’ll tell you who and why tomorrow… (Also, CRCT scores are expected to be released today…stay tuned!)
Until then, any thoughts on how to get better teachers into the classroom, especially in math and science?
Dispatch from NOLA: Andrea Wants To Teach
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans – Teachers displaced in the school system re-do wanted a chance to give their side of the story. About a dozen have come to our hotel. First I talk to a Montessori public preschool teacher with 27 years of experience. She says she couldn’t get a job in New Orleans. She thinks the schools, especially the charters, didn’t want her because she is experienced and commands a higher salary than a young teacher. Also, she says her union background hurt her. She was forced to retire earlier than she had planned so she can keep her health insurance.
Next, I meet a teacher named Andrea. She is young, just five or six years out of college. She teaches physical science at a charter school called Science and Math High.
An interesting sidenote: Before Katrina, Science and Math High was a choice school that worked with students for half a day. The other half-day, students attended a traditional school. This is a new one on me, but that’s what you find in urban districts.
Anyway, Andrea Spreter has concerns about the charter schools. She is leaving Science and Math, in hopes of teaching in the state-run district. She says the charter schools opened fast with mostly young teachers, many froom Teach for America. She believes her school is missing out on the experience veteran teachers bring. She said there are no discipline guidelines, so some infractions go unpunished and then a similar infraction leads to the kid getting kicked out. With no alternative schools, that leaves such kids with no school to attend.
Let me back up a bit. Andrea did not start out at Science and Math. She previously taught at Marion Abramson High School, one of the damaged schools we visited earlier. (She said her classroom survived Katrina, but later it was looted.) This school was not a choice school. It was the school that served the kids who did not seek our or get into magnet schools throughout the city. Andrea loved teaching there. She loved those students. She does not believe in admissions criteria for public schools.
So she is leaving Science and Math and speaking out about problems she sees with charter schools, such as lack of consistent policies, lack of oversight, absence of veteran teachers. She also craves the kind of professional development a school district can offer. I find this interesting, as so many teachers seem to roll their eyes at professional development. For Andrea to take such a view, you might think she went through a traditional teacher’s college, where tradition is often favored over the idea of independently run schools.
She didn’t. Here’s how she says she got into teaching. She is from Ohio and graduated from college, I didn’t catch where. She worked in some sort of nonprofit related to India, which she says was her passion. She didn’t like D.C. though so she moved to New Orleans and got a job bartending.
During a slow shift, she pulled out a book. A patron asked her if she was a book-learnin’ type. He asked her for tutoring and before long she was tutoring many neighborhood residents. She decided to teach. She got a job as a physics teacher on a provisional basis and worked toward her certification. She taught in a school many teachers shun, and she loved it. After Katrina, she went to Texas and worked with Katrina students who were having trouble adapting. She said she spent a lot of time breaking up fights between Katrina and Texas kids.
She returned to New Orleans and got a job at one of the few schools open. The job is just shy of full time, though. She teaches three physical science classes and runs the robotics program. She has no health insurance and no retirement.
Andrea wants to teach physics at a New Orleans high school that is open to all kids. She wants to get paid and she wants benefits. Shouldn’t be too much to ask, should it?
P.S. Thanks to a blog called Quick and the Ed via another one called Let’s Get It Right for alerting me that I had the school name wrong. It is Science and Math, not Math and Science. Also, I changed the word “selective” to “choice” in describing Science and Math in its previous life as it did not require certain test scores or grades for entry. Gomen ne! (And how can we get such a school in metro Atlanta? )
Dispatch from NOLA: The Big Do-Over
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans – The spin officials are putting on the New Orleans school rebuilding effort is that it’s an opportunity to right a wrong that hindered the city for a long time. They talk of turning a school district that was an embarrassment of corruption and incompetence into a model of urban education. They’re starting off with a peculiar set of circumstances.
There will be 60 schools in New Orleans this fall. Forty-six will be part of a state-run district known as the Recovery School District or RSD. These are schools that were failing prior to Katrina, and probably would have been surrendered to the state anyway. The New Orleans Parish school district, with its acknowledged dysfunctional school board, will have 14 schools. Here’s where it gets complicated. Of the 60 schools, dozens are expected to be charters; several charters will be RSD schools and at least 10 charters will be New Orleans Parish schools.
During a panel discussion with several people involved in rebuilding New Orleans schools, board member Jimmy Farhenholtz gleefully said two of the four remaining New Orleans Parish schools may become charters, leaving the board with just two schools to run.
All the schools will be open enrollment. Some public schools may have admissions criteria, but charter schools cannot. Money will follow the student whether it’s to a traditional public or charter school, officials say.
What will parents – many of whom are struggling to find suitable housing and get back in the workforce – make of the complex network of public schools in New Orleans?
As many as 34,000 kids are expected to show up. New Orleans’ enrollment before Katrina was 65,000 students. Officials don’t know how many of next fall’s students will be elementary, middle or high school.
And will it really be a totally different scenario in New Orleans schools? The district is unique in that the city has historically had thousands of students in private and parochial schools, many of which will reopen.
The rebirth has also served as an opportunity for administrators to bust up teacher unions, by rehiring only nonunion teachers. But that has left thousands of teachers bitter that after decades of service in a poorly run system they are unwelcome and without health insurance. Many say they were forced to retire before they were ready. They say administration was largely responsible for the deplorable conditions in New Orleans schools and that they should have been included in the rebuilding effort.
The schools are trying to plan, reopen and rebuild without knowing what the future holds for neighborhoods that sustained the most damage. Plans to rebuild are stalled for the usual reasons: power struggles, infighting and absence of a process for putting plans into action.
Officials are so optimistic about New Orleans public schools and the opportunity to remake them from the ground up. It’s easy to predict that the schools won’t improve some, just because they were so bad to begin with. But it’s hard to buy into the idea that a new culture of high expectations for poor, black students can emerge citywide given the added stress of the problems Katrina left behind.
Permalink | |
Dispatch from NOLA: Opening Ben Franklin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans – So our bus tour is winding down, and we are all exhausted and overwhelmed. But wait! One more stop. We’re going to a charter school to listen to a principal and school board member. Ugh. Just take me back to the hotel please.
Well, the visit turns out to be worthwhile. We hear from a principal from Ben Franklin High School, which she says was rated the top high school in the state. Needless to say, it’s a choice school with admissions requirements. She tells the whole story about what happened before and after Katrina. The upshot is she heard after the storm that New Orleans schools were going to be closed for the whole year. (This news swiftly reached Atlanta.) She says no official sought her opinion when making this decision. (It’s unclear exactly who decided this, whether it was New Orleans’ new superintendent or a state official.)
The principal knew her school was usable. The first floor was in bad shape, but it was a three-story building. She had to find the kids, who were in contact with each other through the Internet. She had to write a charter petition and become a charter school, so she could function independently from the New Orleans Parish district. She had to find her teachers. (She says she was able to not invite back six unwanted teachers.) She needed the power restored in her school, which happened in January. And in mid-January, Ben Franklin opened. She is for the first time principal of a Title 1 school and gosh those feds don’t come through with the promised funds. Dealing with them has been a nightmare, she says. But, hey, school is open.
The school board member talks about the hideous school board politics and the nightmare of getting funds in place to open schools so families could return to New Orleans. The longer families stay away, the less likely they are to return.
Like Ben Franklin’s principal, she did not want the schools to remain shut down for a full year, so she supported charter schools, as did a majority of board members. The timing was such that the schools were eligible for federal funds for new charter schools, and it appears at least some of these schools would have pursued charter status even if Katrina hadn’t happened. But if I hear correctly, these funds have yet to come through.
Permalink | |
Dispatch from NOLA: McDonough 35 is Open
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans – Next on our tour, we venture out of the Ninth Ward to visit two schools that are less damaged. On our way, we notice all the abandoned cars under the expressway, a symbol of the desperation and chaos that reigned in New Orleans less than a year ago. We also see FEMA trailers, rows and rows of stark white trailers people are living in for who knows how long. Our tour guide tells us some are living in shifts, one group sleeping during the day and others sleeping at night.
At Marion Abramson Senior High School, which got three to four feet of water, a sign notifies voters that the polling site has been relocated.
Our next stop is McDonough 35 Senior High School in the Treme community. This school was not seriously damaged, and inside we find students going about their day. The air conditioning isn’t fully functional, but the school is usable. After Katrina, the building reeked of mold, the principal tells us. But today it seems like a typical aesthetically-challenged urban high school.
McDonough 35 is a choice school. Students apply. The criteria are standardized test scores, grades and a writing assessment. The school has long enjoyed a good reputation, the principal tells us. There is a long story about McDonough 35’s name that I won’t go into here for fear of getting part of it wrong and getting flogged by proud alumni. Like all southern cities, New Orleans has a complex history of race relations, and the name reflects that.
More noteworthy is the fact that students here – 100 percent of them, the principal says - pass the graduation test. Most go onto college on either athletic or academic scholarships. The school is in a rough area, and he tells us students get threatened and sometimes beaten up on their way to and from school, but they come anyway. The school has long been neglected in terms of resources. A coach tells us the buses that pick them up to take them to games are always late – especially when they’re playing a rival school. (Ah, sports. It rules the high school world in NO just as it does in Georgia.) But the kids want to attend McDonough 35 anyway.
Odell Isaac, 17, evacuated to Texas with his family. An honors student and athlete, he wanted return to McDonough 35. He is a junior. He said his school in Texas was fine, and the students were very nice to him in light of the tragedy. But… “This is home.” I think he said he returned in March and is living with a friend’s relatives. Some of McDonough 35’s current students attended other New Orleans schools before Katrina. But those schools have yet to reopen.
Of the 12,500 kids now in New Orleans schools, 40 percent are high school students. For teenagers, the draw of home, of the familiar, is powerful.
Dispatch from NOLA: the Lower Ninth Ward
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans — The first thing I notice are the textbooks. They’re on the floor, face down and open. They’re tucked inside desks, which are turned on their sides with workbooks spilling out. The books are ruined, of course. Everything at Joseph Hardin Elementary School is mucked up and moldy.
During Katrina, the school was submerged under about six feet of water. A brown water line is visible in some places. In one classroom, children’s math worksheets, the corners curled, hang on a bulletin board decorated with a cardboard ice cream sundae. “Good job!” the teacher wrote on the papers.
We happen upon what was once a teachers’ lounge. We see broken coffee cups and a coffee pot and an empty vending machine. Then we see a cabinet stocked with dishes emblazoned with fall leaves. The dishes are unharmed.
Located in the lower Ninth Ward, Hardin Elementary is no longer a school. The community is not livable. This is the first stop on a tour organized by the Education Writers Association, which is holding its annual meeting here. We are advised to wear masks and gloves when poking around. The stench of mold is exacerbated in the afternoon heat.
We see no construction crews. The streets are creepily quiet. A colleague observes there are no Dumpsters, just high heaps of rubble. The falling-down houses are marked with numbers noting how many bodies were found inside and whether there were any animals. Our guides tell us it’s unclear what will happen with this community, where many residents owned their small homes. FEMA frowns on rebuilding on flood plains.
School had just started when Katrina hit. The kids and their families scattered in all directions, with some ending up in metro Atlanta. Some lower Ninth Ward residents have returned to live with relatives in other parts of New Orleans. Their kids attend one of the 25 schools that re-opened around the city. But in the place they call home, there is nothing to come back to.
“There’s No Escape”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Okay, I knew I had something in mind to post on the last day of school. But…I went and forgot all about it. Here it is, a week late. It’s from Frank McCourt’s “Teacher Man,” and I swear this is my last post from his book, which for the record I enjoyed even though it didn’t work a lot of the time due to rambling, repetition and a disturbing level of self-hatred.
Here goes:
“Find what you love and do it. That’s what it boils down to. I admit I didn’t always love teaching. I was out of my depth. You’re on your own in the classroom, one man or woman facing five classes every day, five classes of teenagers. One unit of energy against 175 units of energy, 175 ticking bombs, and you have to find ways of saving your own life.
They may like you, they may even love you, but they are young and it is the business of the young to push the old off the planet. I know I’m exaggerating, but it’s like a boxer going into the ring or a bullfighter into the arena. you can be knocked out or gored and that’s the end of your teaching career. But if you hang on you learn the tricks. It’s hard, but you have to make yourself comfortable in the classroom. You have to be selfish. The airlines tell you if oxygen fails you are to put on your mask first, even if your first instinct is to save the child.
The classroom is a place of high drama. You’ll never know what you’ve done to, or for, the hundreds coming and going. You see them leaving the classroom: dreamy, flat, sneering, admiring, smiling, puzzled. After a few years you develop antennae. You can tell when you’ve reached them or alienated them. It’s chemistry. It’s psychology. It’s animal instinct. You are with the kids and, as long as you want to be a teacher, there’s no escape. Don’t expect help from the people who’ve escaped the classroom, the higher-ups. They’re busy going to lunch and thinking higher thoughts. It’s you and the kids. So, there’s the bell. See you later.”
Well, teachers, can you relate?
National Bee Goes Primetime
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today is the second day of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, an event that usually delivers a major drama punch. This year, for the first time, the event is being broadcast on network television. The final rounds will be on ABC from 8 to 10 p.m., with earlier rounds on the bee’s usual home, ESPN.
I am in New Orleans at the annual conference for the Education Writers Association, so I’m unable to provide my usual breathless coverage.
Georgia’s kids got dinged out on the first day, but it’s still fun to follow the competition here. Look for Samir Patel of Texas to contend for the title. He’s been chasing a victory for three years and has a made-for-television personality.
So, ‘fess up? Can you spell? Or do you rely on spellcheck?
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
