blog # 10 overview

For the last blog I decided to write an overview/opinion of the multiple topics that we discussed in class. In the 10 short weeks that this class has met, I feel that we have covered a wide variety of issues that affect both the everyday life of an educator, as well as, national education issues. The issues that I found to be most relevant to my daily life as an educator are the impact of out of school factors, standardized testing, and merit based pay/ unions. After teaching in the south side of Chicago for two years, I was aware that ‘OOSF’s’ existed, and that they impacted our kids, but the in-depth discussions helped me to comprehend just how vast and detrimental they really are. For example, I never really stopped to think about the environmental issues that children suffer from; living in lower SES polluted neighborhoods. The standardized testing issue was defiantly a topic that I could relate to in my daily teaching life, working at a charter school that basis staff merit off of test scores. The discussions on this topic that were held in class really opened my eyes to the problems that the ‘standardized testing craze’ has caused. Instead of learning valuable content or exploring elective classes, students in the public school system are being drilled on test taking skills. Lastly, I found our discussions on merit based pay to be interesting and relevant to my current job situation. As I have mentioned before, I work in a charter school that currently uses the merit pay system. This past year, teachers at our school have attempted to unionize, doing away with the whole idea of merit pay. As expected, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. I found our class discussions concerning merit pay and unions very insightful

blog #9 critical thinking skills

We have had many conversations in class about how standardized testing narrows curriculums down, eliminating enrichment courses, consequently hindering the development of critical thinking skills. Last week I overheard a discussion between two teachers in the teachers’ lounge discussing this very topic and immediately related it to this class. One of the teachers had been to a conference where the speaker was sharing a case study in which elementary, middle and high school students were all given a paperclip and asked to write down as many possible uses for the clip as possible. It was reported that the elementary students were able to come up with over 90 uses, middle school half of that, and the high school was able to come up with one use. The teachers were saying how “sad it is that students lose their sense of creativity as they get older”. As I sat there and listened, I could not help but think that it is not the students that are ‘losing’ their sense of creativity, but rather, they do not have anywhere to use their creative/critical thinking skills. High schools are so focused on standardized testing and complying with no child left behind that they do not foster the use of such skills. To me it almost seems as though the only goal of public schools is to create little standardized test takers. Great if they pick up any other useful knowledge or skills along the way, but as long as they get those scores it is all good. “The state of education in the United States cannot be blamed solely on the teachers, the students, or the government. The real problem lies in educational philosophy and the system of student assessment. The current model suggests that students who can regurgitate a series of memorized facts will remember those facts once the test is complete and will have learned what they are supposed to have learned.” http://www.criticalthinking.com/company/articles/critical-thinking-importance.jsp
This story just affirmed to me that the educational system is doing a disservice to our students.
Additional website on this topic: http://www.edutopia.org/poll-standardized-tests-skills-emphasize

blog #8 my edu experience

I attended K-12 in the medium sized, middle class, suburban town of Brighton MI. I went to kindergarten in an independent building and then moved to the elementary school for grades 1-5. One thing that really stuck out in my mind about the elementary school was that it did not have closed off classrooms. The school had an open floor plan consisting of pods which was a large space that was separated into four classrooms buy items such as storage, drawers, cupboards, chalk boards, along with some permanent walling. Each classroom in the pod had an opening to the two classes next to them, but no doors. This open air floor plan with minimal permanent dividers allowed teachers to pull the walls apart on a regular basis for multiple classrooms to come together for collective activities. Looking back, I can see how this arrangement was conducive to large group activities, but I remember it being hard to pay attention/stay on task with the noise from the other classrooms. Excess noise present in the classroom environment can be detrimental to all learners, particularly the students that are distracted easily, especially when a neighboring class is doing loud interactive activities. http://www.acousticsbydesign.com/acoustics-blog/distractions-in-the-classroom.htm
After 5th grade, I moved to the middle school building consisting of grades 6-8. There, students had lockers and rotated to different classes throughout the day. The middle school experience was extremely helpful with the transition to high school. By the time I was a freshmen, I was organized and used to switching class from my three years experience. Currently, I am a freshmen teacher serving students that come directly to high school from there self-contained grammar school classrooms. I was amazed at how extremely disorganized and unprepared they were, constantly forgetting books and papers in other classrooms and lockers, showing up late to class, going to the wrong rooms, lockers piled up with junk etc… The freshmen here come into high school so disadvantaged due to their lack of organizational skills. I think that they would benefit greatly from a middle school transitional period as I did. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=2157

Blog #7 school funding

After listening to the class debate, reading peer blogs and reading articles on line, I realized just how much school funding inequities are affecting not only Illinois, but the entire country. It is not a fair statement to say that all children in the United States receive an equal education. Because schools receive the majority of funds from property value, the schools in affluent areas receive far more money per student then the schools do in poor areas, creating extremely unequal educational opportunities for children living in poverty stricken areas. With this system in place, poor children are at an incredible academic disadvantage. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/6547/classwar.html
With all of the out of school factors that children in poor areas face, such as abuse, malnourishment, neglect, poor living conditions, broken families, drug and alcohol issues among family members etc… unequal school funding just adds to the injustice. In my opinion, unequal school funding is largely to blame for the continuation of the cycle of poverty. It was stated in http://www.geocities.com/schoolfunding/equity.html that, “The current funding situation creates a typical catch 22--poor districts cannot afford to fund their schools because of a poverty level that is virtually guaranteed by lack of educational funding. Depriving students in poor communities of their ability to succeed after graduation essentially serves to institutionalize a caste system in the United States—one from which children in impoverished neighborhoods can entertain little hope of escaping.”
Public school funding inequities in the United States is not only an issue of SES, but also an issue of race. “African American and Latino students are consistently over-represented in those districts that lack adequate funding for education. This racial bias in educational resources can help to explain, amongst other things, lower SAT scores, grade point averages, and college achievement, as well as higher rates of remedial education amongst African American and other students of color.”
http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/31D276EF-72E1-458A-8C71-E3D262A4C91E/0/FundingGap2005.pdf

Bolg #6 - school lunches

As a health teacher, I take notice/interest in what my students are eating. Last year, during my first year of teaching it amazed me how much junk food they consumed in one day. When the kids entered the building in the morning, the most common things that I whiteness them eating was, chips, McDonalds, pop, and candy. Throughout the day, the ‘junk food’ trend continued; it was a never ending cycle of sugar, fat, sugar, fat, sugar, fat.

Last year our high school was held in a Baptist church while our new building was under construction. Because this facility was not intended to be a high school, the cafeteria was very inadequate, lacking kitchen equipment needed to prepare hot lunches. At another site, the lunches were put in containers, warmed and then sent over to the school in warmers. By the time they reached the students mouth the food was utterly disgusting! I attributed their poor food choices to avoiding the grotesque cafeteria lunches and the lack of healthier alternative options.

This fall our kids were moved into the permanent building that is equip with a full functioning kitchen, producing (in my opinion) great food. There are several alternatives for the students such as a different set meal each day, a la carte options, salads, cookies, vending machines full of candy/chips/pop. With all of the alternative options available now, I really did expect more of the children to take advantage of them. Although on occasion I do see some of the students eating healthy, the majority of them continue to make extremely poor food choices, eating high fat items off of the a la carte menu, paired with chips and a sugary pop from the vending machine.

A recent study shows that when students are faced with unhealthy a la carte school lunch options, they will typically make the unhealthy choice. “Reporting in the American Journal of Public Health, Kubik said the children who were allowed to choose food outside the standard school lunches ate more fat and fewer fruits and vegetables than the government recommends.”
http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/07/01/health.lunch.reut/index.html I found the research reported in this article to be particularly applicable to the students at my high school. It is also stated in the article that unhealthy a la carter options are more profitable to schools.
But is the profit worth the damage that is being done to our children?

What should be done about this problem?

Would taking away these options be interfering on student’s right to choose the foods that they desire despite the negative health consequences?

Another relevant website on this topic: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/446200/the_debate_over_school_lunches_with.html?cat=4

Blog #5- school violence

I had originally planned on writing about school funding for this week’s blog, but after overhearing a class conversation discussing domestic violence I really felt compelled to look deeper into this issue. Because our school does not have enough classrooms for each teacher to have their own room, some of the teachers use my room during my planning periods. As I walked into my room this morning, the biology teacher (who uses my room) was having a decision/debate with her class concerning the Chris Brown /Rihanna beating. The class entire class was defending Chris Brown’s actions. This particular group is an extremely talented, well mannered honors biology class predominantly consisting of females with zero discipline issues. I was tremendously shocked by this for several reasons, first that it was the honors class taking this stance, that the ladies were the most vocal in his defense, and that they honestly thought, and firmly argued, that it is acceptable for a man to hit a woman during a disagreement. One young lady raised her hand and firmly stated, “Well, Rihanna deserved to be hit and she must have done something to set him off. It’s not his fault; they said that she slapped him first so she better be expecting it back. If I hit any of these boys around here then I’d be expecting to get hit back.” After she was done making her statement several of her classmates both male and female agreed with her opinion.

The vast level of acceptability for this violent form of conflict resolution was quite shocking to me. In the two years that I have been teaching at this school on the south side, I have witnessed countless fights. In the heat of the moment, physical fights breaking out during class is a common occurrence and nothing that would shock or surprise me. Something about a classroom full of level headed, intellectual honors students’ zealously defending violence as a method of conflict resolution really impacted me.

I attended a middleclass suburban high school. During my four years there, I witnessed the occasional fight but never at that level. The mentality towards violence, especially domestic violence was very different. It was not widely accepted as an appropriate form of conflict resolution, and defiantly was not advocated between men and women. According to the NCCEV (National Center for Children Exposed to Violence) “Serious school violence occurs most often in urban schools. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, rates of school violence tend to mirror those of the general population. Typically, community violence in inner cities is more prevalent than in rural areas, which may partially prove that community violence has direct effects on children. The majority of the research to date suggests that violence is a learned behavior, so children who are acting out in violent or aggressive ways may have learned violence by repeating the violent behavior of adults. With this in mind, one can see why early intervention among school aged children is an important element in stopping the cycle of violence.” I believe that the mentality towards violence in urban schools is a learned behavior that is either learned in the home or the surrounding neighborhood. If violence is observed from a very young age, then children will grow up believing that it is an acceptable norm.

Early intervention is recommended, but what are the best solutions?

What can be done to break the cycle?

Another website that I found useful was http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/schoolcrime/6.asp?nav=1

Blog # 4 home enviroment

Although I have already written a blog on out of school factors, after the class discussion we had, I have done a lot of thinking/reflection on the topic. I know that OSF’s exist, and that they have a large impact on student performance, but I never really stopped to think about just how detrimental they are to students. This past week, one of my students came to me after school to discuss some issues that she was facing that really opened my eyes to the Out of school sub topics that we discussed in class, family/living environment.

For the sake of privacy I will not refer to the student by name.

Early last week, one of my previous students came in during my lunch period to tell me about how excited she was that her family was moving this weekend. She explained that her mother, brother, sister, and herself were all living in there uncles single-room basement where she had to share a bed with her teenage sibling. When I asked her how many rooms her new apartment had she replied, “Two, but My mom will sleep in the couch my brother will have a room and I will share a room with my sister. I am just glad to have a room separate from my entire family, especially since we are teenagers now. I have been sharing a single room with all them for as long as I can remember”. After this conversation, I imagined how difficult her living situation must be. In her crowded condition, it must be extremely difficult to get adequate sleep, not to mentions quiet time to complete homework assignments.

This particular student is an extremely gifted young lady, with her standardized test scores at the top of her class. (As mentioned in the Blog #3, the high school that I work at is a ‘college prep’ school that does multiple standardized tests throughout the year to measure student achievement in relation to ACT scores, so there are always current test scores on hand). When I first saw her scores, and experienced her academic ability in my classroom I was very taken back by her low grades. She would get 100% on all of her tests, but have C’s and D’s as her final report grades. As a first year teacher last year, with no experience in urban education, I had no clue as to why there was this discrepancy. It is very clear to me now that the majority her struggle to keep her grades up are contributed to her ‘Outside family and environmental factors’.

How can we expect our children to excel academically under these circumstances?

How can we expect children like her to get all of their homework done and turned in on time when they can’t find a quiet place at home to work?

The student example mentioned above, is just one of many of examples of how ‘Out of school factors’ effect our youth …..As educators, what can we do to fix the problem? What are some solutions?

In addition to the class readings, and discussions, I found study, “The effects of Crowded housing on childhood wellbeing” and “Poverty’s Effect on Childhood Academic Achievement” to be especially insightful.
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/4/7/5/pages184752/p184752-1.php
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/365487/povertys_effect_on_childhood_academic.html

blog #3 standardized testing

The widespread use of standardized testing in public schools has created a great amount of controversy. With the implementation of NCLB act, schools are required to test students based on the states academic content standard. They are mandated to use tests designed to reflect those standards or commercially produced modified tests. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/testing NCLB aims to improve schools by using such assessments to measure both student and school improvements. Advocates argue that standardized testing will hold educators and schools more accountable, in turn producing a higher quality education. Tests can provide data that show what areas in which students are lacking, as well as give educators the information necessary to alter classes to meet the needs of their students.
In my opinion, the suggested con’s of standardized testing far outweigh the pro’s. This rigid form of testing is one component of the education system that I feel very strongly against. Students are being taught to the test and missing out on crucial knowledge. Critics argue that that such testing programs narrow student learning to what is tested-and that what is tested is only a sample of what children should know (Schmidt, 2002). Furthermore, tests often focus on what's easiest to measure, not on the critical-thinking skills students most need to develop (Webb, 1999). http://www.edweek.org/rc/issues/assessment/
I currently work at a start up college prep charter school in the south side of Chicago. This is our third year in existence. There are no tests or academic requirements for students to be admitted into this high school. Our student body is made up of students that have come from a wide variety of CPS elementary schools, with an extremely varied and often low set of academic skills. Because or mission and focus is to prepare students for college entrance, our primary focus is to hit the required test scores. The students are tested in the fall and then again in the spring and if the gains are not where they are supposed to be there are consequences for the instructors in that content area. Some of my students are greatly in need of improvement in basic skills, but our time is instead spent teaching to the test. In fact, every Wednesday each teacher is required to take a break from their content and spend the day working on act skills. We teach things like how to decipher the difference between ACT multiple answer choices ex. The distracter, the extreme, the implied truth. This may be a valuable skill for students to acquire in order to be successful on their ACT but in my opinion, it would be more relevant to spend time working on reading skills of freshmen that are reading at the 4th & 5th grade level. I can understand that standardized testing is form of academic measurement, but at what cost should it be used? Are we willing to sacrifice a quality education for our youth?

blog #2 year round school

In recent years, the idea of year round schooling has become a popular topic of debate. I believe that there are many benefits of year round schooling. It is argued that students lose a significant amount of knowledge over the summer months. Advocates believe that that year round schooling would improve student performance by eliminating the summer performance gap. http://www.nayre.org
In my personal experience, it seems as though I spend the better part of the first month back from summer break re-acclimating students to classroom rules/procedures as well as re-teaching concepts from the previous year. In my opinion, the time that is spent re-teaching concepts forgotten over the summer months could be better spent on advancing to higher academic levels with a more complex understanding of course material.

I think that the down-time that so many students experience during the summer months can be detrimental both academically and socially. Some would argue that summer break allows for extracurricular programs, sports, and family travel time. For some communities this may be true, but for households that cannot afford to stay home from work or pay for childcare, children are left unattended. This lack of structure and parental supervision has contributed to the rise in crime and drug usage during the summer months.

According to http://www.aspeneducation.com/Article-summer-vacation-teens.html
“A report from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggests that more American teens try marijuana for the first time in summer than at any other time of year. This translates into 6,300 new users each day, a 40 percent increase in first-time youth marijuana use during June and July as compared to the rest of the year. A hike in new underage drinkers and cigarette smokers also occurs during the summer months.”
I believe that these statistics could be reduced if students remained in a structured supervised environment, such as school, year round.

blog 1

The brief, Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success by David C. Berliner, reviews seven major (OSF) that impact student achievement. He introduces the article by explaining how the NCLB act is creating imbalance in the ways in which educators seek to close the achievement gap, relating directly to (OSF).

Brief summary of the seven Out of school factors discussed:

1.) Low birth weight and prenatal influences-examines how factors such as multiple births causing low birth weights, lack of vaccinations, intrauterine drug/alcohol exposure, mothers elevated stress levels, and lack of adequate prenatal nutrition negatively affect student’s behavioral and cognitive development.

2.) Medical care and schooling- discusses the impact that inadequate medical care has on student achievement. In addition to excessive absences, when basic medical needs such as vision and dental are not met, academic performance suffers.

3.) Food insecurities- explains the correlation between hunger, poor diet, and food insecurities and student achievement. Students who’s basic Physiological are not being met are not able to perform as well academically. http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm

4.) Pollutants and schooling- looks at the direct effect that exposure to different forms of pollutants, such as mercury, incinerators, pesticides, PCB, and different forms of air pollution has on student achievement. It was stated that students from minority or low SES families encountered more exposure to pollutants, negatively impacting academic performance.

5.) Family relations, stress, schooling- discusses the negative impact of familial alcohol/drug abuse, as well as domestic violence, consequently causing emotional problems hindering full academic potential. http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2531/Violence-Children-s-Exposure.html

6) Neighborhood norms and schooling- examines how neighborhood responsibility/collective efficacy impact student performance, as well as the impact of student mobility rates.

7.) Extended learning opportunities and achievement- explains the benefit that summer and afterschool programming has on student academic success. It can provide excellent learning opportunities with positive benefits for children. One downfall mentioned was that programs are not always available to the students from poorer families who may be in the highest amount of need.

As a CPS teacher serving low SES students on the south side of the Chicago, many of my students are faced with several these OSF on a daily basis. I found this brief to be especially interesting since I am faced with issues such as the ones mentioned in the article on a daily basis. I try to help my students work around these barriers in order to achieve their full academic success, which is not always an easy task. I found this study to be a very insightful description of OSF that so many of our youth are dealing with, and am delighted that professional writings are being published to draw attention to these very relevant issues.