Buddy, your bucket has got a hole in it

The news today of the Affordable Care Act being affirmed by the Supreme Court found me sitting in front of my computer for an inappropriate amount of time digesting the news. Being that it is the end of the month and I still had a few of the 10 free page views allowed from the New York Times, I decided to geek out on their blog roll.

One of the continuous sections was Voices, a lame attempt to get the common person's "word on the street." In it I found a rather irritating reaction from Frank Trecroci, the principal of a private school in Kenosha and Racine, Wisconsin. On their website, it states that:

In August of 2000 the school was awarded a 1.2 million dollar grant from the state of Wisconsin to create a “model early childhood center of excellence” for children and families within the community. 

In August 2009 The Renaissance School established a relationship with Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) in Zion, IL.  Childcare is provided on an as needed basis to the children of families attending the treatment center. 

The Renaissance school also has themselves embroiled in a school voucher debate in Kenosha and Racine. According to the Racine paper The Journal Times, Frank wants to expand the voucher program to lure more students out of public schools, and into his private program.

Obviously private schools have a built in advantage of choice and parent engagement. Of course they will receive better scores than public schools which serve every child. But, at the voucher meeting where teacher layoffs were to be discussed, Frank had the balls to say "And we would love the opportunity to hire any Racine Unified teachers that have been laid off." 

The coup de grâce, Frank doesn't provide his staff with health care, he makes them purchase their own. He poaches students from the public system, depriving them of money. When cuts must be made, he "welcomes" laid off teachers into his private program, for less money, and no health care. How does this help the families and children of those teachers?

When asked for his reaction by the NYT to Obama's victory at the Supreme Court, he said "I'm horrified." Frank described how many of his students families were going bankrupt due to medical bills. He was "horrified" that his students had no coverage, but provides none for his staff. Frank went on to describe how this will cause an extra $10,000 in health expenses to be spent on every teacher, causing cutbacks and perhaps layoffs.

First, who pays $10,000 for health insurance? Now that you are asked to be responsible like EVERY schools district and support their staff with health benefits, your first reaction is to be "horrified." I'm horrified at your leach like behavior.

Frank's comments exemplify everything that is wrong with the privatization of education. Private/charter schools will get young teachers to come in for low pay, no benefits, low budget, and take engaged students, get results, and then point at the public school and ask "what's their problem?" I believe that if private/charter schools want to be able to exist, they must mirror the services for students and staff of their public counterparts. They cannot "counsel out" troubled, ELL, and SPED students, or expel them to the public schools. They also cannot deprive their underpaid and overworked staff of a moderate standard of living.

Until we hold people like Frank to the same level as public servants, the privatization train will continue to roll through every district until we have thoroughly re segregated our society.

Hope for my undocumented students

The news from the Obama administration today is very hopeful. As one of my undocumented students said, "it is an awesome start." Today, Obama has done something right for education. He has offered work visas to good students, age 16-30, who have been law abiding citizens of this country, and who are more American in culture than Latin. I think ICE will be overwhelmed with the number of young talented Latin students who apply for the work visa amnesty.

I have written about my undocumented student before, and my opinion now is no different. These students are our country's future, and they must be embraced and brought out of the shadows. Many of them are more deserving than American born students. The last step that needs to occur is providing undocumented students the rights to in-state tuition for college, so they have the same opportunities as their peers. Currently 12 states, including California and Texas allow undocumented students to attain in-state rates. Wisconsin has revoked their law (what the hell is going on WI?). Most recently, Colorado, a state with a growing Latino population, and an important battleground state in the upcoming election, has followed Texas and California by granting students an adjusted in-state rate.

These students have earned and deserve the right to be law abiding citizens like everyone else. Obama talks of bending the arc of history, of changing the course of history and doing something new. Finally, he is living up to, in at least one way, his rhetoric. 

Living in the neighborhood

I used to be of the opinion that living in the same neighborhood as my students was a dangerous and overwhelmingly negative thing. Talking to people at my old school who lived in the neighborhood of the school, they would tell me it causes some lifestyle changes, and threats. For example, my current principal lives in the neighborhood, and some students have vandalized their home.

In my mind I was never too concerned about students vandalizing my home. The students have never actively disliked me. Students either greatly enjoyed me as a teacher, or were indifferent. The role of a teacher does not lend itself to creating enemies. Annoying a kid sometimes, sure, but never hostility.

For my first few years of teaching I was also enjoying living downtown. Being able to walk down the street to any store of my choosing, sit on the patio of a bar and enjoy a pint or three, or revel with friends late into the evening on the front porch. Privacy was important in those moments, and living in the neighborhood of my school would not project the same image to students that I worked hard to create in the classroom. 

Get off my lawn you damn rapscallions!

This was heavy on my mind when I purchased a dwelling, within the boundaries of the school. Ever since, I have been seeing my students all over the place. And, them seeing me. Every one of those encounters has been positive, or humorous. Whether it be at the grocery, the big-box store, the park, or on the street, the students are really happy to see one of their role models living in their community. A common question is "Mister, you live around here?" "Yes, over there on the other side of_______" (vague pointing).

An added bonus is that it allows me to harass them to finish their homework, ask them a question, follow up on a concern, crack a joke or bond with them, or talk to mom/dad/grandma. In their mind, it also legitimizes my place at their school as a member of their community, and for some, almost a neighbor. It was great to use this with students when they start to misbehave.

"Deon, do I have to pick you up in the morning to make sure you get here on time?"
"No, Mister..."

The classic "I know where you live," but used appropriately and humorously is enjoyed by my students, and their peers. There are two boys in my first period that used to give each other the look of terror, of "Oh no, Mister is going to come to our house, we better get to work" while other students would laugh at them.

Now, I've realized living in the boundaries of my school isn't bad at all. In fact, I greatly enjoy seeing my students, and being seen outside of the school environment. It helps me be a more effective teacher because students want to see you as part of their neighborhood, not as someone coming from outside their world. It really only causes one change in lifestyle.

Keep the beers down low, gentlemen

Test Scores: Beating Expectations

Standardized tests, and all-district exams usually struggle in two important ways, validity and reliability. Meaning, is the test a valid way to assess and measure our students, compared to what they have been (or need to have) been learning. And, Is the test a reliable measure of what the students did learn. For example, if we taught the students how to take multiple choice tests, deduct unlikely answers from probable, and teach exactly the content covered on the exam, yes they would be valid and reliable. However, when the students need intensive shock therapy on writing and reading, no the exams are not valid, nor reliable.

The district exams seem to be unable to make up their minds. Those exams contain a mixture of both multiple choice (memorizing), and short essay. The lines given for the short essays are spaced for a third grader, and are only 5-6 lines long. Not what I would call a short essay. The problem arises when you intently teach students how to write a short essay (10-12 lines) using and citing evidence, and working them away from a culture of lowered expectations and trivial skill usage, to an exam on which they will be judged that expects little of them. The students try to revert back to old and comfortable habits. Students who could write you a proficient short essay in class are suddenly writing 4th grade sentences again.

At my prior district, they at least formatted their district interim assessments in a way that was somewhat challenging. Those focused on skills of interpreting documents, and using them in a short-lengthy essay in addition to your background knowledge. Much like a DBQ. I was in the habit of crushing those with 100% of my students, or near to it, proficient and advanced. At the new district, the results I achieved are below.

My goal for this year was to beat expectations. Those expectations were to be slightly worse than the district average. That was our tradition as a school, and our students are more often unsat or exams. For example, my students started the year on their pre test (BOY) at 57% unsat (fail), and only 4% proficient. District was at 50% unsat, and 7% proficient.

Although I have great disdain for the test, I do take great pride in knowing my students crushed the district on the final exam. Most importantly, my students' growth was far beyond expectations. District average had a 56% growth in terms of moving students out of the unsat category. I had an 82.5% growth rate, in terms of moving students out of the unsat category. I started with more unsatisfactory students, and had drastically higher growth, and ended the year with more proficient students as a percentage of the student body. On top of that, I was the top scoring teacher, beating out my co-worker.

What can we take away form these results, in terms of how we can positively influence our students? I have always focused on skills: reading, writing, analysis, synthesis, interpretation, graphing, and academic language. Using those skills to teach the content gives the students what they need, the ability to be critical thinkers, and read/write proficiently in social studies content. When you get bogged down in teaching content removed from skill, in order to teach to the test, you put on blinders and forget importance. If skills are taught, the test tends to take care of itself. Knowing that it is these results that drive the judgement of my admin, I will continue to teach those skills, and continue to crush the district. We are a turnaround school, and hopefully continued growth from my coworkers and I will help our school survive the many threats now coming at us. More details on that in the future.