Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Here’s one plan for saving urban kids
Jawanza Kunjufu
The problems of urban education are complicated. There have been a lot of “magic bullet” ideas proposed as solutions. But it’s never been that easy. We know it will take more than one change to really make a difference. But what are the right changes?
This week, I spent some time over at Central State University where 100 teachers and principals from around Ohio were trained in “cultural competency.” This is a hot idea now. The fact is most urban schoolchildren are minorities and the majority of their teachers are white. The hope is to train the teachers to better understand the cultural backgrounds of their students.
To kick off the training, CSU brought in Jawanza Kunjufu as a keynote speaker. Kunjufu offered up a list of 10 changes he says would make a big impact on the learning of urban students.
Here’s his list:
1) Only employ principals who are instructional leaders, not CEOs
Kunjufu said most principals see themselves as CEOs. They love their offices, where they can spend their time managing the budget and the facility. Urban schools, he said, need principals who are experts in instruction and can help teachers in the classroom.
2) Hire master teachers and coaches
Kunjufu said he believes there are five teacher types:
— Custodians. These are teachers who have not changed lesson plan in 30 years. They are caretakers of the status quo.
— Referral agents. These teachers quickly refer kids to others — the nurse, the principal, the discipline dean, etc. Only 20 percent of teachers make 80 pct of referrals, he said.
— Instructors. These teachers love their subject matter and teach their subjects, whether the children get it or not.
— Master teachers. These are teachers who are experts in pedagogy and learning styles.
— Coaches. These teachers get subject matter and learning styles, but also find ways of bonding with students on a personal level.
Kunjufu said urban schools need to focus on expanding the pool of master teachers and coaches in their systems because the other three teacher types are often counterproductive for urban students.
3) Institute Looping
Kunjufu favors “looping,” or keeping the same teacher with the same group of students. The teacher will teach freshman English, then sophomore English, then junior English and senior English. Then she starts over with a new freshman class.
The advantage, he said, is students form relationships with teachers. He cautioned that this will only work with high quality teachers (master teachers and coaches, in his terminology). This is a way, he said, of making large urban schools feel smaller.
4) Raise expectations
Kunjufu said some research has shown teachers lower expectations for poor children, boys, minority children and kids who appear unkempt.
Schools, he said, must enforce high expectations for kids without exception. If you expect kids to perform poorly, they will. If you expect them to excel, they will too.
5) Retain students who fail
Kunjufu said no student should be advanced to fifth grade if he or she cannot read competently. But students cannot just be held back with the same teacher and curriculum. He said the student must be moved into a different classroom, one with a master teacher, a single gender classroom, an Afrocentric curriculum, etc.
6) Reading must be treated as the most important subject
Whether you look at kids in special education or prison, you’ll find a large percentage with major reading problems, he said.
In majority black schools, Kunjufu said too often the reading materials are not targeted to the kids’ interests. He urged teachers to consider the reading materials they have and ask if they would interest their students, especially black boys.
7) Recognize gender differences
Schools should be training their teachers to recognize gender differences when it comes to learning styles and to adapt their teaching methods to meet the needs of those kids.
8) Delay entrance of boys going to kindergarten until age 6
Girls should start kindergarten at age 5 and boys at age 6, Kunjufu argued. He said girls tend to mature faster than boys and that young ages there may be large gaps between their skill levels. This change, he said, would help even the playing field and keep boys from falling behind early.
9) Offer single gender classrooms and single gender schools
Referencing the need for teachers to recognize gender differences (No. 8), Kunjufu said some kids simply do better in a single gender environment and school districts should make that an option for those kids.
10) Teach kids capitalism
Urban kids tend to focus on unrealistic career paths, such as playing pro basketball or becoming a famous rapper. Schools should teach them tools for more realistic careers where they can gain similar fortunes.
Schools, he said, should be teaching kids about the stock market, entrepreneurship and real estate. These careers can give the kids the financial success they desire.
He suggested making a senior project in which three student-designed business plans would get $50,000 in seed money to start the businesses. That sort of realistic incentive would motivate kids to learn financial skills.
What do you think of Kunjufu’s list?
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