An update on Dunbar SHS and Friends of Bedford. They are friends no more.

An iron fist dipped in honey

There are problems at Dunbar Senior High School. DCPS is adding extra security to stop the violence. Six students were arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in the school but "the charges of first-degree sexual assault had been dropped." I don't know what that means. They are charged with second-degree sexual assault? They aren't being charged with anything? Something in between? If you or someone you know works at Dunbar, please tell us what the hell is going on over there.

The story behind Friends of Bedford--the private group hired to operate Dunbar--is particularly interesting. The leader of Friends of Bedford, George Leonard, described his disciplinary style as "an iron fist dipped in honey." Apparently it is not enough to merely smite children under his weighty fist but he must also leave them as sticky insect bait. He supposedly told an audience: "Just stay out of my way and let me create the scholar, because you're usually the problem. I'll see you at graduation."

Most Likely to Succeed

Today I read a modestly dated article by Malcolm Gladwell on hiring great teachers. (Link) I highly recommend reading it. I know many of you won't, so I pulled out some of the most interesting parts (to me), divorced of their context. If there's one thing I learned from trashy campaign ads (or Fox news), it's that you shouldn't let context get in the way of making your point. Gladwell suggests that identifying the next great teacher is as hopelessly speculative as identifying the next great NFL quarterback. (If reading about football will cause your eyes to glaze over in doldrum, start reading the article at section 2.) In his words:

[M]any reformers have come to the conclusion that nothing matters more than finding people with the potential to be great teachers. But there's a hitch: no one knows what a person with the potential to be a great teacher looks like. The school system has a quarterback problem.

Before Gladwell gets to this point though, he explains what great teaching is--according to some theorists--and why it is so important:

Teacher effects dwarf school effects: your child is actually better off in a "bad" school with an excellent teacher than in an excellent school with a bad teacher.

One of the most interesting parts was reading the critiques of teachers' classroom performances by a team of educational researchers. Bob Pianta of UVA made a keen observation about teaching pre-K, which I think extends to middle school and high school as well:

These are three- and four-year-olds. At this age, when kids show their engagement it's not like the way we show our engagement, where we look alert. They're leaning forward and wriggling. That's their way of doing it. And a good teacher doesn't interpret that as bad behavior. You can see how hard it is to teach new teachers this idea, because the minute you teach them to have regard for the student's perspective, they think you have to give up control of the classroom.

On teacher disparity, Gladwell demonstrates just how wide the chasm is between one great teacher and one not-so-great teacher:

Two and a half minutes into the lesson—the length of time it took that subpar teacher to turn on the computer—he had already laid out the problem, checked in with nearly every student in the class, and was back at the blackboard, to take the lesson a step further.

Nothing too controversial yet, right? Here's where Gladwell gets contentious:

Test scores, graduate degrees, and certifications—as much as they appear related to teaching prowess—turn out to be about as useful in predicting success as having a quarterback throw footballs into a bunch of garbage cans.

But he follows up with a fairly astute point:

It stands to reason that to be a great teacher you have to have withitness. But how do you know whether someone has withitness until she stands up in front of a classroom of twenty-five wiggly Janes, Lucys, Johns, and Roberts and tries to impose order?

Did I say contentious? Gladwell gets downright iconoclastic:

[T]eaching should be open to anyone with a pulse and a college degree—and teachers should be judged after they have started their jobs, not before. ... It needs an apprenticeship system that allows candidates to be rigorously evaluated. Kane and Staiger have calculated that, given the enormous differences between the top and the bottom of the profession, you'd probably have to try out four candidates to find one good teacher. That means tenure can't be routinely awarded, the way it is now.

Gladwell, as you may know, is not an educator. He seems to be most comfortable with social scientists and that is the lens with which he views education. He's sold me on a lot of his ideas, though I'm not so beholden to social science as he is. He makes a lot of presumptions, which I encourage you to join me in criticizing. For instance, he seems to believe that teachers are born with the ability to be either inherently great or just mediocre. I think he underestimates the ability of subpar teachers to improve, learn their craft and become great educators. Additionally, some promising first-year teachers plateau quickly and never transcend their status as "good for a first-year teacher."

One shortcoming of Gladwell's quarterback analogy is that teaching talent isn't nearly as rare as quarterbacking talent. QBs have such a tough time in the NFL because they face equally skilled opponents who have spent their lives training to make QBs miserable. The analogy would be more suitable if we pitted the world's best teachers against the world's worst students. A good teacher's hard work is not offset by the students' relentless pursuit to be utterly despicable.

New WTU Contract Approved

Bill Turque of the Washington Post has informed the city that the contract was approved by the union. The final step is for the city council to vote on approval of the contract, and if/when that happens it's a go.

Thoughts?

Bust dem union, bust dem union...

I am anxious to see the results of the Washington Teacher's Union vote on the new contract proposed by Chancellor Rhee. Basically it boils down to a significant pay increase for teachers who make significant strides with their students and agree to trade in their tenure (please feel free to correct me if you think I am inaccurate). I love the idea because it is something new, daring, innovative, and I think it challenges the teacher unions in a good way. Pressing for results while stripping people of their entitlement status to a job in the classroom because of years of service.
I was a strong supporter of unions a few years ago, but I watched for two years as the WTU protected a teacher in my former school, fighting for this man to keep his job when he arrived to school late on a regular basis, when he wasn't late he wasn't there, didn't provide lessons for his students, and was accused of three separate incidents of physical abuse of students, one of which he admitted to in a conversation with me. After all of that, he was still employed by the district, still received a paycheck until he finally left the school. When I caught up with him months later, not knowing he was no longer working at the school, I asked what happened and he said, "I just stopped going in."
The bottom line for me is this-unions are designed and work for adults. The union protects the interests of adults at the detriment of student learning. So many of us have witnessed it ourselves-teachers refusing to do work that would help a child or the school as a whole because it is "not in my contract." Teachers leaving the school at 3:15 on the dot regularly, their classes packed up and students ready to walk out the door five minutes before school is over. I think the unions give a bad name to the many teachers who work hard everyday, stay late, arrive early, dedicate their days, nights, and weekends to the achievement and development of their students only to see school wide success held back by the few who live by the union contract.
Jo-Ann Armao recently asked the question 'Is the public turning against teacher unions?" in this piece in the post. I would really like to hear what people think. I am very open to hearing ideas and explanations as to why unions are needed for teachers and the counterpoints to the ideas I presented.

Excuse us, but we are building a public university...or so we say.

So the blog owner graciously allowed me to post an op-ed on this blog and despite my much advertised dislike of the DC Chancellor, my first contribution will not be about her, but about the status of the PR Public University System.

For those of you who have no idea what is going on, definitely start here.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/23/1644735/student-strike-in-puerto-rico.html


I don't even know where to begin. First of all, Puerto Ricans are american citizens by birth and entitled to all federal programs and services using the same federal guidelines. The catch is, we don't pay federal taxes. In theory, I do believe higher education SHOULD be free and accessible to all who wants it and is willing to work hard for it. What I disagree on are the methods and multiple agendas that the so-called student advocates are pushing for and their reasoning behind it. The part that the mainland (because we are all american, including PR) newspapers are not covering.

It started small, closing down the 4 main campuses after the administration talked about tuition increases and other fee/tuition/grant adjustments. People were not allowed in or out. Professors were not allowed to pick up their laptops, books or any other things from their offices. Research labs have been left untouched, lab rats are probably dead by now, petri dishes dry. All in all, the estimated costs to the university 2 weeks ago was already at 52 million dollars. It gets worse, the professors are now not getting paid, until summer starts. Technically that it their vacation and they have said that they will not finish out their semester until next fall, because they will not work for free. So 3 weeks left to go for graduation and the university if closed down. Closed down because people feel the governement should pay for their cell phones, their cars and their food. Because even though their tuition is covered by the Pell Grant, they feel like they need more.

What makes it worse is the silent majority, the people who do want to go back to school, the people who had applied to grad school, TFA, jobs and internships, people who had plans to go abroad to do something with their degrees and they are sitting and waiting in limbo.

The propaganda by the media is even worse, they feed off each other by calling those who oppose the strike, elitists and capitalists and evil dictators. People are talking about asking the university president to resign. An island wide strike happened about a week ago and demonstrators lowered an American flag from the capitol and switched it with a second PR flag. At another rally, they went after the governor, who was having an event at the Sheraton, they went in there demanding to speak to him and people got maced and hit by the cops. They outcried about police brutality and the "massacre" that is ocurring, even though no one has died yet. People have gone as far as writing a letter to the United Nations, decrying about human rights violations, because the cops would not let parents and grandparents bring food to the strikers. This week they took over a shopping center.

At this point no one even knows what the strike is about anymore, I think the article nails it in the head when it talks about frustration and helplessness. Puerto Ricans are fed up. The situation on the island is unbearable. Every day, 2 or 3 murders, the unemployment rate is in the double digits, the heat is at record highs. I agree that PR needs a revolution, that the status quo is unacceptable, that a new generation deserves much better. I don't think the way they are doing things is the right way, though and I think that the university is probably the little that PR had going for them and now it's closed. So there is nothing left. Everything in the island is shit now.

'Razing' Arizona

As a result of the recent immigration law passed in Arizona, the San Diego school board passed a resolution restricting school employees from traveling to the state on official business. An article from our friends at Fox News can be found here.

Is this appropriate action for a school district to take?

Thanks go out to Andy for sharing the article, and pointing out haw 'fair and balanced' the reporting is.

Waiting for "Superman"

The trailer for the upcoming film Waiting for "Superman." It looks very interesting with interviews of Michelle Rhee, Geoffrey Canada, and others. Thanks go out to Andy and Elke for sharing this with me via Xanga. I wasn't able to fit the trailer properly in this entry, but you can view it if you follow the link above.

I also want to invite anyone interested to participate as a contributor to this blog. Just let me know if you'd like and I will send you an invite so you can post at your leisure.

Yowsa...

I don't even know what to say about this. But I guess I do wonder, if one were to collect all of the incidence of poor behavior, violence, complaints, etc. for an entire school year what it would look like for even the most high performing schools in DC.

Charlie Rose following an interview with students and staff at the Hamilton Education Center in Washington DC.

Whats up?

Anyone read anything interesting recently? I'm a little behind in reading myself. I am doing some work with an organization in Baltimore, the Incentive Mentoring Program. Very interesting. Check out a short video from it's founder here.

Edutopia

If you aren't receiving the magazine Edutopia or haven't been to the website check it out. The magazine version was free when I got it a year ago, but I'm not 100% sure if the hard copy is still free. It is the authority on project based learning, unless you know of something as good or better (ahem a.d.). It also has lots of features about issues in education with a progressive bend.

Anyone have thoughts on Edutopia?

Another page...

An update came out on Saturday in the long saga of contract negotiations between DCPS and the WTU. The latest, as detailed by Bill Turque in the Post, includes the following highlights:

1. The district still doesn't have the money to fund the package.
2. Private funders say they won't guarantee the funding if Rhee isn't in charge after the November elections, but Rhee is working with them to change this.
   
3. Council member Catania is "perplexed" that better numbers aren't available (and so am I).
4. Charter schools and FOCUS might sue if the student funding formula isn't changed.

What do you think?

Special Education

New York City is making a change in the way they handle students with special needs. According to this article Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein are working with schools to place students with special needs in public school placements. This brings up important questions: What is best for students with special needs? Do you support mainstreaming, inclusion, or teaching in a special education classroom?

I don't want to call people out by name, so share your opinion. What have you experienced in schools you work in, what would you want for your own child? And I'd like people to push beyond "If _____ model is done well..." We all know if the services are provided well then things will work. Please be frank and share what you think based on the reality of the schools you work in.

The feel good post of the day?

A NYC school kicking butt, on tests. The school in the article is successful on state wide exams, but another principal disagrees with this approach. Excerpt below.

"Not all principals embrace the exams in the same way. Brian DeVale, the principal of P.S. 257 in East Williamsburg, is more skeptical, saying he doesn’t believe they accurately measure achievement. He worries that if the tests are harder this year, scores will drop, and schools that earned A’s and B’s on their report cards this year— some 97 percent of elementary and middle schools — will come under scrutiny. “They’ve come up with a capricious, arbitrary system,” he said.

But Mr. Spatola (principal of P.S. 172) defended his laser-beam approach, noting that his school still had art, music and dance instruction. “They are not asking us to teach skills that the children don’t need to know,” he said. “It’s not a test,” he added. “It’s learning.” "

Who is right on the testing issue? If the exams are of high quality, is it okay to teach to the test? Are we setting up kids for failure if we use a "laser-beam approach" to focus students on preparing for testing?

Seniority Rules?

New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein is asking for new rules when it comes to firing teachers. This article details the discussion in NYC, California, and the already passed legislation in Arizona eliminating seniority as the primary factor in deciding who is fired. Here is an excerpt:

"This month city officials persuaded lawmakers in Albany to introduce a bill that would allow the city to decide which teachers to let go, although its chances of passing are slim. Similar legislation in California, where thousands of young teachers have received letters saying they could be out of work, moved forward last week, backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arizona abolished seniority rules last year, and this month its Legislature banned the use of seniority if teachers are rehired."

What do you think? Should decisions to hire or fire teachers take seniority into account? If so, to what degree? If not, what should drive that decision making?

Everyone is making something rock.

Here are two music videos. One produced by EL Haynes, the high achieving charter school founded by Jennie Niles and located in NW Washington DC. The second video is produced by Young Money Entertainment, the high dollar earning record label founded by Lil Wayne and based in New Orleans, LA. What do you think about this as a way to motivate students to perform on the DC CAS? The first video that is.

Thanks to V-Rah for sharing this, and props to TFA DC '03 alum Brigham Kiplinger featured in the video. The CAS Rock video that is.

"He believes in kids."

I'm sure you have all heard about the tragic death of Shaw principal Brian Betts. I didn't know how to honor his legacy, but I feel that this story, in his own words, does as good a job as anything else has. And in the words of the students and staff he worked for.

RIP NYC rubber rooms

I'm sure many of you heard of the demise of the rubber rooms in New York City. I've heard of them before, but I found this New Yorker article from last year fascinating because of the level of detail it offers about what is happening with teachers, students, and money in NYC. I'm also including a link to the NYTimes article about the end of the rooms, or the shorter AP article posted on NPR and the NPR story about it. Enjoy!

New posts, response requested!!

So, I have been working this blog as if I have a union contract. I resolve to be better, and I have a few topics I want to address, and really want to hear from others about. Here we go...

Rethinking Schools recently published an article about Teach For America. Sidebar, I directly asked a TFA staff member why they always capitalize the "For" in TFA considering that doesn't happen in other circumstances, and they were strident that the "For" needs to be capitalized. There was no specific reasoning behind it, but nevertheless it should be capitalized. Back to the topic at hand. The article has been getting a lot of play. I got it from three different people, and another blogger wrote a very extensive post about it at the Education Policy Blog. Incidently, that blog, from what I have read thus far, is vastly superior to mine, so check it out. The blogger quotes a ton of verbiage from the Rethinking Schools article, so a lot of it is redundant, but the comments were pretty interesting.

I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ THE ARTICLE AND REACT TO IT HERE. I'm very interested in other people's response to the article, and I will reserve my own opinion until I hear from some of you.

Learning Matters; worth checking out

Thanks go out to Andy Davis for sharing the Learning Matters website with me. LM is a non-profit production company focused on education which produces programs for the NewsHour and documentaries for PBS. The site also includes a blog by John Merrow, LM president and executive producer. His most recent post talks about the new contract in DCPS and the broader impact it may have, as well as changes in the Detroit Public Schools system. The changes are being pushed by none other than Robert Bobb, whom you may remember as the president of the DC School Board and former Deputy Mayor of DC under Anthony Williams. He is now the Emergency Financial Manager at DPS. Small world!

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager
Robert Bobb, with a $425,000 smile.

Irony at its utmost.

I took a class this weekend on programming from Jeff C. He and Cary S. told me about the recent firing of a teacher, David Krakow, at Cesar Chavez. PCHS. Why was this social studies teacher, who reportedly received positive evaluations and was promoted to the role of faculty mentor fired?

Incompetence? No.
Absenteeism? Nope.
Lack of professionalism? Not even close.

You got to read it to believe it. See the City Paper write up here or this more brief article from the DC Metro Council of the AFL-CIO (hint, hint). Truly a slap in the face to the legacy of Cesar Chavez.

Excited about some new reading

I'm excited because Doug Lemov's book Teach Like a Champion just arrived on my doorstep. Doug Lemov is an amazing instructor, school leader, and author working with Uncommon Schools. He was recently featured in an article in the New York Times Magazine entitled "Building a Better Teacher." I encourage you to read the article if you haven't already. The Times also includes video clips from Doug's workshops. I was fortunate enough to participate in a three day training with Uncommon Schools lead by Doug in the summer of 2009. The practices he shares are very applicable and lead to real results for children and schools. I'll share more once I've had a chance to read the book.

The article also features Deborah Loewenberg Ball, a University of Michigan Dean of the School of Education and professor. She has developed a taxonomy she calls the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, or M.K.T. The M.K.T. includes a multiple choice test for teachers of mathematics that examines a teacher's content knowledge as well as skills that make strong math teachers. It's a very interesting idea.
I also picked up Teaching As Leadership; The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap. I believe this is TFA's first book, and it's written by Steven Farr, with a forward by Jason Kamras and afterword by Wendy Kopp. I got a great deal on both online at Barnes and Noble. I paid under $35 for both books including shipping, and it arrived on my doorstep in two days. If you buy the ebook(s) version it's even cheaper, and Amazon.com has it for about $1 less than B&N. TFA also has a website specifically detailing the TAL framerwork. Good stuff as always! Sorry for the hyper-use of hyperlinks.

More good news from DCPS

This article tells about 7 students from DCPS who earned Gates Millenium Scholarships. It includes a brief update on Isiah West, the student featured in the story "A New Ballou." Go kids go!

Like sands through the hourglass...

The drama continues in the story of the $34 million surplus and whether or not it actually exists. Thank you to Elke for sharing this article from the City Paper. According to what I've read Chancellor Rhee's office claims that the surplus was present and was to be used to fund the new union contract, but the DC CFO claims that the surplus was never confirmed, and that he was "incredulous" to learn that Rhee claimed the $34 million was there. Mayor Fenty asserts that the money was certified as present and is needed to fund the new contract.

Both the letter from DC CFO Gandhi revealing that funding is not present, and a response from Chancellor Rhee can be linked to through the article. The letter from Gandhi is worth reading. Chancellor Rhee ends her letter saying that with a combination of $5 million in the budget and $29 million that has been identified by Rhee and her staff, the contract can still go forward. More is sure to come, and it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. Stay tuned...

Corporal Punishment

I haven't thought about corporal punishment much, but this article from the Post surprised me a lot. A few pieces from the article are below:

• In the US an estimated 225,000 students received corporal punishment in 2006
• Nearly a quarter of cases occurred in Texas
• Corporal punishment remains legal in 20 states, mostly in the South, but its use is diminishing
• Ohio ended it last year
  
• A movement for a federal ban is afoot
• A report last year found that students with disabilities were disproportionately subjected to corporal punishment, sometimes in direct response to behavioral problems that were a result of their disabilities
• Many educators and psychologists say that positive tools are far more effective for discouraging misbehavior

The new Ballou

This will get your weekend off to a great start.

Big ups to Elke, Alisa, and all the other folks who have worked to make Ballou what it is today.

TFA DC and random stuff

Teach for America-DC is holding an alumni reception on April 29th at the Phillips Collection to discuss their experiences and talk about ways to continue their commitment. I have registered, and I think Andy Davis has too. I hope to see you there.
A small cool thing in this months One Day. DC Prep has an ad on page 41 with a picture I took at last years graduation. They also feature a picture of mine on one of their banners for recruitment. You can see one of the pictures are below. Plus Brigham Kipplinger is featured in an ad for EL Haynes. Nicely done DC '03. I think Jeff and Meg, Joanne and Roger, Phil and Veronica, Sarah and Chris, and Paul and Marella should send in pictures from their weddings to show how DC '03 reps like no other.

It's my lucky day, I just found $34 miliion!

If you're following the teacher contract negotiations in Washington DC, you've heard of the 'newly' discovered surplus of $34 million. I place newly in quotes because the surplus was discovered in February, but only shared with the city council, the WTU and the public this week. Needless to say many are not too happy about this. Do you think Chancellor Rhee should have disclosed this discovery in February? She has stated that the teachers who were fired in September, as the result of a projected $43 million budget shortfall, will not be reinstated. Is that fair? Should the teachers be reinstated? Did Chancellor Rhee handle this situation appropriately? Another Post perspective can be found here.

Bribing students?

I read this Time magazine article about a program used in Chicago, NYC, Dallas, and DC in which students get paid for various achievements in school. It's an interesting article, and the program has had varying levels of success in different cities. What do you think about programs like these? Do you support paying students for achievement or do you believe strongly that learning is incentive enough in itself? Is this any different than other incentive systems that schools use with pencils, dress down days, or trips? Would you support a program like this in your school, and would you support a program like this in your child's school?

Let's get started.

To start off the Edworks DC page, give us an update on yourself. Share with everyone where you are, what you're doing, whats in your future, etc. It can be anything from a phrase to a page. I'll start things off.

Jamie-I left DC Prep in the fall to work at a brand new school, Building for the Future Academy (BFTFA). The school is in southeast, and it's a full time special education placement school for students in DC. We have between 30-40 students on the roster and a teaching staff of 4 full time special education teachers, and me, a part time teacher/program developer. I work specifically with the National External Diploma Program (EDP). EDP consists of a group for 10 students who have earned benchmark scores on the CASAS exam in reading and math. Students attend class three days a week and work in an internship two days a week. While in class they work on basic skills in math, reading, writing, financial literacy, and life skills. The remainder of their time they work on a portfolio of modules from the National External Diploma Program. The exciting thing about our program is that in every other state participants must be at least 24 years old, so they can demonstrate work experience. Our program accepts students as young as 17 because they participate in an internship, which allows students to gain real world work experience. Once students complete the portfolio they can work with a program called Living Wages that gives them a 5 week assessment that requires students to demonstrate mastery of the skills they worked on in their portfolio. Upon successful completion of this five week class, students have earned a high school diploma. Students from our program will graduate with a diploma through the Ballou STAY program and have the choice of walking with the graduating class from their home school, and/or walking in a graduation at BFTFA. I really like the work, the students, and the staff, my only concern is that the position has not developed into a full time role for me as we don't have enough students enrolled to make it full time. I'm hoping that it will develop into something more full time so I can continue to grow the program.