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Seeing Through and Beyond

Seeing Through and Beyond

Posted on by Deb Hansen
Reading Time: 4 minutes

I just opened an email from a colleague asking me if I could help her find an article she needed for her work with local district administrators across the state. She was looking for The Singular Power of One Goal (Sparks, 1999) to encourage superintendents and principals to consider the importance of establishing a focused school improvement plan. After locating the article in my files and sending it off, I poured a cup of coffee and re-read this familiar work. The article, featuring an interview with Emily Calhoun, is just as current today as it was twelve years ago, and the message is more important than ever.

Dr.Calhoun is a national expert and author who supports schools, districts and state agencies in designing and implementing school reforms that focus on instruction, curriculum and assessment. In this publication, Emily reminds readers of the importance of setting goals sharply focused on student learning. She contends that one powerful student learning goal is sufficient for a school staff to work on. Having too many goals makes it difficult for educators to work collectively to study teaching practices and results. Focusing on one powerful goal enables teams of teachers to engage in highly focused professional learning, dig into the external knowledge base, thoroughly examine student data, and to carefully study the implementation of strategies identified by the faculty.

One of the most important concepts put forward by Emily in the interview is called “seeing through and beyond,” which is a process of identifying all the changes that will be required to accomplish the goal by looking through the goal to the student performances that are expected. The next step is to determine what teacher behaviors in curriculum, instruction, and assessment are needed to promote the desired student behaviors. Continuing the process, the faculty must see right through the teacher behaviors to what the principal and central office need to do. Seeing through and beyond enables program implementers to make better use of data, to design comprehensive staff development, to employ technical assistance and leadership, and to make critical decisions about the effective use of time and resources. A singular goal helps the faculty to focus and to push through to address the things that everyone must be working on to fully accomplish the goal. Of course, limiting the focus of a school’s improvement plan to a single goal is not easily done and achieving the goal is not that simple, and Dr. Calhoun comments on the many barriers and challenges.

When the article came out twelve years ago, districts were struggling to comply with NCLB and having difficulty managing the expectations to meet student achievement goals in multiple subject areas at the same time. Today, districts are still struggling to figure out how to design reforms that accomplish everything that is expected of them, with even fewer resources. The concept of seeing through and beyond is intriguing to think about in our current context.

Schools are being expected to adjust to newly revised student learning standards, modify curriculum, improve formative assessment processes, add more summative assessments, apply new technologies for both classroom and organizational purposes, implement new data management stems, engage parents more fully, respond to revised teaching standards, add new teacher and leader evaluation procedures, deliver intensive professional development, reform hiring and retention practices …and the list goes on.

How might applying the idea of “seeing through and beyond” to policy development change this picture? What if school leaders and policy makers started the policy making process by considering how the policy would enable districts and schools to focus on fewer priorities rather than adding more. Just as school leaders should look through the learning goal and the desired student performance to consider all the actions needed at various levels of the system, policy makers need to see beyond the specific actions and immediate consequences of the policies and reforms they are promulgating. Are there protocols that could help leaders to think about how their policies affect student learning and how they change the behaviors of teachers, principals, central office staff, and other role groups at all levels of the system? Is there a way to consider whether the policies are likely to lead to systemic changes that yield improved practices in instruction and assessment with enough fidelity to the design of the innovation and with enough teaches to make a difference? Reforms where innovations are done incorrectly or partially by many teachers or reforms that are fully implemented by only a small percentage of the teachers responsible for instruction are not going to yield the intended outcomes.

There are processes available to help planners to see through and beyond the policy goal. The new field of implementation science offers strategies for increasing fidelity and ways of accomplishing full scale replication across a large system. The work of Dean Fixsen and the National Implementation Network give policy makers and practitioners a way to intentionally explore and adopt the innovation, consider the various organizational complexities and the context that contributes to the success or failure of an implementation, and address both expected and unexpected barriers to putting a reform in place. Attending to the factors of implementation early in the planning process by using implementation science would give reformers tools they need to increase the likely hood that the policies they advance will make a difference.

In her article from over a decade ago, Emily advised that it takes both leadership and willpower to face the challenges of school reform. It will take leadership to intentionally use today’s implementation science and other processes to “see through and beyond”. It will take will power to narrow the focus of reforms, to selectively abandon projects and reforms that aren’t working, to eliminate barriers to reforms that are likely to accomplish goals of improved teaching and learning and to target actions to the ultimate goal – student learning.

Sparks, D.(1999). The singular power of one goal: Action researcher narrows focus to broaden effectiveness. JSD, Winter, 54-58. Retrieved from http://www.learningforward.org/news/jsd/calhoun201.cfm

Image from Flickr user: Kristin Mckee

What’s Missing from the Conversation?: The Trayvon Martin Shooting and Race

What’s Missing from the Conversation?: The Trayvon Martin Shooting and Race

Posted on by Valerie Nyberg
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Yesterday morning as I prepared for work, I heard someone speak about the February 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin stating that he should have stayed with his father on that fateful night.  Last week, in the first public interview of Martin’s parents, on The Today Show, one of Matt Lauer’s first questions to Trayvon’s mother and father was if there was any reason why Trayvon might have been agitated that night?  The lawyer and friends of George Zimmerman have come forward to emphatically state that he was in a fight for his life, having emerged from the scuffle with a broken nose, scrapes, and grass stains on his clothes.  They also state that he is not racist and has cried for days over the incident.  In the released 911 calls, in George Zimmerman’s own words, he describes the boy as a suspicious person who keeps looking around and into windows.  These thoughts and statements are all parts of the conversation as it continues to play out in the media each day. There are, I believe, key considerations missing from this conversation.

Stand Your Ground

The 2011 Stand Your Ground statute, Chapter 776 outlines  justifiable use of force on the “presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.”  One question missing from the current conversation is, wouldn’t Trayvon Martin have the right and responsibility to stand his own ground as well?  In all of the conversations I have not heard enough emphasis of the degree of the fright and alarm that Trayvon experienced by being followed by an adult man.  In Trayvon’s case, it’s not hard for me to imagine that he was aware of his surroundings.  In the clip of recorded conversation between Trayvon and his girlfriend, we hear her tell him to run.  Should Trayvon have run home that night to avoid a confrontation?  From an adult perspective certainly, he would likely be here today to share his own point of view if he had.

However, would it have been wrong for him to turn and face his follower?  Certainly not.  Who was this man who continued to follow him through the complex as he made his way from the 7-11 to his father’s townhome with his candy and tea?  What had Trayvon done to be considered suspicious?

In my own imagination, I can easily see Trayvon, feeling relatively safe in his own neighborhood.  He may have been tired of being treated as a suspect first, and 17-year old boy second and not wanting to be subjected to that behavior from others anymore, and so instead of running he turned and stood his ground.

Or, I can also see him as a somewhat cocky young man who, knowing that he was being followed, figured that he could handle the man on his own and turned to face him, thinking if it came to a fight, he would easily win.  I can also see that as a young African American man, to run can be considered to be a coward, and with the mixture of the two scenarios, Trayvon turned to stand his ground.

We don’t  yet, and might never, know exactly how Trayvon and George Zimmerman came to be in a struggle on the sidewalk that night, but I can imagine that Trayvon felt as threatened and in defense of his own life as George Zimmerman is reported to have felt, with the exception of the fact that Trayvon only had his fists to defend himself while George Zimmerman had a loaded gun.

History

Secondly, in all of this, history is curiously absent.  It was not even 70 years ago (the 1950s and early 1960s) when lynching occurred with some regularity in the south.  In the intervening years, where these incidents have widely been condemned and more people have been brought to justice for their participation, we continue to hear of incidents where Black men are dragged, tortured, and killed.  In fact in the wake of this case, a recent NPR Morning Edition show featured writer Donna Britt regarding “the talk” she’s had with her two sons.  The fact of the matter is I too have had similar discussions with my own 15-year-old multiethnic son.  “The Talk” concerns how the world perceives them and their own responsibility to be aware of the perception, no matter how real or imagined, and to be prepared for the reaction they may likely receive at times.

I imagine that Trayvon’s parents had similar discussions with him regarding the dangers of the police and his interactions with White people in general that could lead to tragic consequences.  Today a young Black man can’t be picked up simply for failing to yield the sidewalk to a White person, or for being “fresh” or overly friendly towards White women; however, it seems, if someone feels threatened, especially in states with Stand Your Ground statutes like Florida, there continues to be legal justification for killing young Black males.

Walking While Black

Thirdly, part of the conversation that remains largely absent is that I still have not heard of just cause for George Zimmerman to have followed Trayvon in the first place.  Yes, there had been a few robberies in the area recently.  Yes, according to reports, it is suspected that those crimes were committed by Black men.  However, does that mean that every Black male is suspect?

It appears Trayvon became suspicious to George Zimmerman for “walking while Black.” He was a young Black man, unfamiliar to Zimmerman, walking at night with a hoody on.  Our society perpetuates the notion of Black men as dangerous and criminal. People respond with fear and suspicion when we see Black males, particularly at night.

The continued perpetuation of fear of Black men every day in the media, in entertainment, and in our own imaginations, results in someone like George Zimmerman seeing Trayvon and easily justifying the ensuing actions in his own mind.  Zimmerman, like all of us, consistently sees the message that Black men are dangerous, whether they are 12 or 35.  He saw Trayvon and said to himself, this shadowy figure is up to no good.

What’s more, this doesn’t simply happen in our neighborhoods or on the streets…this also happens in our classrooms and schools.   We can examine the recent reports regarding disproportionate suspensions and actions of discipline in schools where  Black males especially, but Latino males as well, are disproportionately suspended in schools[1].  Here we see school officials disciplining Black boys, in particular, for like-transgressions, often with the intent of “sending a message” as if Black boys are somehow in need of extreme measures to learn the same lessons about behavior, rules, and right and wrong as other kids.  Rather it is the imagined consequence that “lenience” (which I consider to be more proportionate responses) does in light of the exaggerated notion of Black males as dangerous and criminal that underlies such decisions regarding appropriate discipline.

Underlying Beliefs

I’m troubled by a seemingly double standard.  In our media and popular entertainment, we see the image of White males taking charge.  On more than one occasion, I’ve seen stories of Iraq and Afghanistan vets, in particular, hailed for their quick thinking and response to threatening situations.  In their cases, they emerge not only unscathed, but admired for their response and bravery.  This to me demonstrates how our culture on the whole values brashness and no-holds bar behavior from White males, yet these same behaviors are considered aggressive and undesirable in minorities, especially Black males.   According to Zimmerman’s lawyer and friends, he was justified in his pursuit of Trayvon, yet, in their minds, Trayvon was not justified if he had turned and faced his pursuer in the very least, and defended himself at the most.  How can both perceptions exist at the same time?  It goes back to what we value as appropriate responses from specific subject positions.  How is it that the only seemingly acceptable response that Trayvon should have had was to run?

A recent blog by Michael Skolnik points out, if it had been him, rather than Trayvon, he doubts that Zimmerman would have seen him as suspicious.  He states:

No matter how much the hoodie covers my face or how baggie my jeans are, I will never look out of place to you.  I will never watch a taxi cab pass me by to pick someone else up.  I will never witness someone clutch their purse tightly against their body as they walk by me.  I won’t have to worry about a police car following me for two miles…I will never look suspicious to you, because of one thing and one think only.  The color of my skin.  I am white.

The point being, if Trayvon were White, how different would the conversation be?  Based on which underlying beliefs and values would the media and others’ respond?  How does this notion change the conversation completely?

Reversal of Fortune

The last and most important question that remains unaddressed is if the situation was reversed, would we even have this same degree of speculation?  I suspect that had Trayvon been the one to carry a weapon, even with a permit, Trayvon Martin would be held in jail with a hefty bond.  The media would ponder why this “troubled teen” went out to kill a law-abiding Neighborhood Watch captain.  Not only would the questions surrounding the incident (I doubt anyone would have asked if George Zimmerman was agitated that night) would have been different, but also the language used to frame the incident would likely have included emphasis of murder and killing rather than a death.   How do we continue to talk about Trayvon’s death as if his death wasn’t the result of another’s intentional or unintentional actions.

Missing Conclusion

It seems to me if George Zimmerman never spends a night in jail, if the Stand Your Ground law only applies to him and is a means of his escaping criminal liability for his actions, and not to Trayvon who reasonably felt he was defending his own life, then  we are saying to everyone that it’s okay to shoot an unarmed 17-year old Black male, as long as you feel threatened.  And in doing so, we continue to justify the perpetuation of fear of Black men and boys.

How is this substantially different than our recent and unfortunate racial history?

HB2281 and the Arizona Politics of Fear

HB2281 and the Arizona Politics of Fear

Posted on by Alyssa Rodriguez
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

–John Steinbeck

What seems like a staunchly anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant saturated Arizona agenda has now irrevocably seeped into the state’s education system, risking the success of its many Mexican students.

The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) was denied reinstatement of its Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program last week after the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed the request over a month ago.

Since January, the MAS Program has been closed down on the grounds that it violates one of Governor Brewer’s approved laws, HB2281.

In Arizona, following Brewer’s signing of HB2281, school curriculums “[can]not:

  • Promote the overthrow of the United States government.
  • Promote resentment toward a race or class or people.
  • [Be] designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group.
  • Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”[1]

The MAS Program’s vision is as follows:

“The Mexican American Studies Department is dedicated to the empowerment and strengthening of our community of learners. Students will attain an understanding and appreciation of historic and contemporary Mexican American contributions. Students will be prepared for dynamic, confident leadership in the 21st Century.”[2]

This hardly sounds like something to be so fearful of that one is led to dismantle it. The benefits of the MAS Program (i.e. a 93% graduation rate of MAS students; improved grades and attendance) can easily be seen upon viewing the trailer to a new documentary, “Precious Knowledge,” wherein MAS student profiles, classroom conversations, etc. are featured.

Another reason behind the cancellation of this program has been twisted into being a financial one. In what the New York Times called a blackmail tactic[3], $14 million would have been withheld from the district per TUSD Superintendent Huppenthal, if the program was not shut down. But, how costly is it to empower students with their cultural; and yes, American history—at minimum to simply ensure them they have a place in it, too?

Why must education reform conversations often resort to focusing on the technical?

Failing to look further allows us to be in the dark about how beneficial a tailored, more relevant curriculum can be for students. I would argue that empowerment through the MAS program has led to a better school climate and a more positive socio-emotional experience for its students; which in my mind, is priceless.

Stripping students of the opportunity to acquire “precious knowledge” about their cultura is a detriment to not only the students themselves but to Jan Brewer’s entire constituency.  When the Program was stripped away, so was a chance to achieve the Program’s goal of preparing “dynamic, confident leadership in the 21st century.”

With the growth of Latinos continuing to be a hot conversation topic, I have seen fears arise in many different forms. One being a fear of Latinos holding power that they are not prepared for – what with their young demographic and their drop-out rates being the highest among all other minority groups.

We’ve seen this argument aplenty in the National conversation on the importance of Latino educational success in our classrooms. The future of our country will soon depend upon it.[4]

But from HB2281 comes another fear. An undeniable assertion and simultaneous attempt to deny the fact Latinos will take away [our] power, whether they are ready or not. Whether [we] want them to or not.

Or, as one blogger put it, “It (the closure of the MAS Program) happened because the state’s Latino population has nearly doubled in the past 20 years and the right wing is angry and afraid that it is helpless to stop it. In one generation, Latinos will be 50 percent of the state’s population and, short of declaring martial law and deporting everyone with brown skin, there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent that.”[5]

Clearly, Arizona is not ready to accept the outcomes of its ever-changing demographic. Underlying this fear of losing power is a long-held belief that is being threatened—one of white as unarguably dominant and deserving of power over any other group of people.

Through this situation in Arizona, we see that much of what James Baldwin asserted in his “Talk to Teachers” decades ago is still true today:

Without a robust understanding of one’s identity both personal and cultural, less will be achieved—for individuals and for society as a whole. When we embrace diversity, we all reap the benefits. Forcing instead a common knowledge that does exactly what it forbids (pitting the contributions of one ethnic group above another) will lead to an “ideal” society—a society that may perish because of its refusal to embrace changes that are inevitably forthcoming.

Arizona is just one example of the inability of a system to look at things in a whole new way. The MAS Program was a counterexample to this and the 93% graduation rate of students within the program is proof of its success[6]. Without continuing to approach things differently, those dismal outcomes that my fellow Latinos typically experience in school are bound to remain the same, and that makes me afraid.

[1] huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/06/mexican-american-studies-banned-_n_1324755.html[2] tusd1.org/contents/depart/mexicanam/index.asp

[3] In his 2011 Townhall with Latino students, President Obama stressed that one of the major ways to regaining dominant status on an international education spectrum was through Latinos: “The only way we can achieve these goals is to clearly understand that the future of America is inextricably linked to the future of the Latino community”

[4] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/opinion/sunday/rejected-in-tucson.html?_r=2

[5] littlegreenfootballs.com/article/39775_Tucsons_Mexican-American_Studies_Program-_Why_It_Was_Started_Why_Republicans_Killed_It

[6] preciousknowledgefilm.com/

High School Civil Rights Trip

High School Civil Rights Trip

Posted on by Circe Stumbo
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Our friends at the FasTrac program are spending their Spring Break on a trip that them from Iowa City, IA to Memphis, TN, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, AL, and Atlanta, GA.

They started a blog so they can share their experiences as they progress through their Civil Rights Tour. It’s been great to keep up with them as they explore, learn, and no doubt have a some fun along the way.

Check out the FasTrac blog here: fastracprogram.wordpress.com/

Power Struggle

Power Struggle

Posted on by Alyssa Rodriguez
Reading Time: 4 minutes

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
-Mark Twain

 

I recently went to Ecuador on a “Fellowship and Learning Tour” via The Ecuador Partnership where we were able to learn about some churches and schools that [our] U.S.  Mennonite congregations have helped to sustain over a period of 10 years.

The problem with being able to provide (mainly financial) sustenance to these congregations is the sense of dependency that is evident during our visits with each other.

As an American, we are held in high regard, even revered, but it’s not a comfortable feeling.

The Ecuador representative confided in me that because of this dependency, true growth in these congregations is stunted. Autonomy is still a far-off goal.

In our visits with each other, we recognize the great need of the congregations. But, instead of speaking financially with the Ecuadorian congregations, our American leaders simply refer back to the importance of relationships and how this 10-year-long relationship is helping to show whether financially supporting Ecuador will be “worth it” or not. In other words, [we] want to support something that can be self-sufficient and sustainable.

My hands, as an American with a fondness for fellow Latin@s and a passion for helping those who need, remain tied. I tagged along to learn and kept an open mind as to what I would learn, even though I do not carry much weight when it comes to deciding whether/how to support our Ecuadorian partners. The Ecuador Partnership has existed for over 10 years and consists of 3 Mennonite organizations: Central Plains Mennonite Conference, Mennonite Mission Network and the Colombia Mennonite Church. Every other year or so, this partnership tries to set-up travel groups from the U.S. to Ecuador and vice-versa. Anybody affiliated with the Central Plains Mennonite Conference and who is interested in learning and seeing the partnership in action is invited to travel to Ecuador. Members of the two Ecuadorian congregations travel to the U.S. as well.

Living for a few days in the circumstances these Ecuadorians find themselves in makes it impossible not to embrace such lifestyles, because the people unquestionably embrace you. As the trip went on, I reminded myself to refrain from taking too many exploitative photos and keep my potentially harmful observations as an outsider to myself.

On the 12-day tour, I started to understand how polar our lives are – struggling to access daily transportation, living off of about $5-10 per day and raising three growing teenagers on your own like my host mother; living as a Colombian refugee, in fear for the safety of yourself and your family;  uncertain about how well the water will run on any given day; but, I still had a return flight scheduled back to America a few days later, where customs are hardly the same.

Being an outsider American is one thing. But, almost immediately, upon being picked up from the Quito Airport, I was aware that being a Latina American outsider may alter how I was seen in comparison to my fellow travelers.

In Ecuador, straddling the line that distinguishes two hemispheres simultaneously took on a new meaning.

I am Latina. But I am still (and probably more so) American, in Latin America.

Our hosts respectfully question why I don’t (really) know Spanish and leave it at that, after I give the response I have been primed to give (it’s hardly the first time I’ve been questioned about this).

 I learned Spanish in High School after my father refused to make any real effort to teach me and my sisters, fearing discrimination similar to what he experienced growing up, only speaking the minority language.  

But as the trip goes on, they compliment how much of the language I do know and can understand. Still, I wish I could relate more to them. To be in the company of fellow Latin@s is something I generally appreciate because it does not happen all of the time. It also lent a sense of guilt that I wasn’t prepared for.  Nothing, not even double-checking the contents of your suitcase and making sure you have your passport can prepare you for that guilt.

When we had to say goodbye to each other, I was tongue-tied. I could not fully articulate how grateful I was for their hospitality, but I hope my hugs translated some of it.

I learned that one of the challenges of being privileged/having power is knowing how to use it for good and how to respectfully involve the less privileged in deciding what will help most. What will lead to the greatest level of autonomy so true fellowship can take place?

I’ve witnessed these lifestyles while trying not to exploit them, now what?

In my very spacious office room to which I arrive via guaranteed transportation; a room complete with heat and the assurance of running water, I will continue pondering this.

Attendance as a Reform Agenda

Attendance as a Reform Agenda

Posted on by Deb Hansen
Reading Time: 5 minutes

In the recent State of the Union address, President Obama challenged states to address the required age of school attendance. The President stated, “… when students don’t walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma.  When students are not allowed to drop out, they do better.  So tonight, I am proposing that every state — every state — requires that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.“

For the eighteen states that use sixteen years of age as the attendance requirement and the eleven states that require attendance until seventeen years of age, Obama’s expectation that they raise the age requirement is probably causing some lively discussions among school reformers.[1] The Education Week blog Obama Rekindles State Debates on Dropout Age by Lesli A. Maxwell sheds some light on this highly relevant topic.  According to Maxwell, experts on this issue contend that changing attendance laws will do little by itself to decrease national dropout rates and that without comprehensive strategies for making school engaging and relevant and for identifying and addressing early signs of dropping out, states and districts are not likely to have much success with increasing graduation rates.

The blog goes on to cite national statistics on dropout rates, stating that nationally 8.1 percent of people between 16 and 24 years of age are considered dropouts.  The blog fails to report on the graduation rates of students of color. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that in 2007-2008 dropout rate for white students was 2.8 percent, with the Hispanic dropout rate at 6.0 percent, the Black dropout rate at 6.7 percent, and the American Indian/Alaska Native dropout rates at 7.3 percent.[2]

A study by the Schott Foundation for Public Education points out that only 47 percent of Black males graduate, while 78 percent of white male students graduate.[3]

President Obama’s advocacy to raise the required graduation rates and the points offered in the Education Week blog cause me to wonder about the students’ experiences on day-in and day-out basis. I contend that if what the student experiences everyday isn’t dramatically changed, having more of the same thing is not likely to improve the outcomes for students, even if they do stay in school longer. The Education Week piece does make the case that other strategies are needed beyond mandates for required years in school to make a difference in graduation rates. As an example of efforts underway to increase school attendance and improve graduation rates, New Hampshire reforms are presented as a case study. Paul Leather, New Hampshire’s Deputy Education Commissioner, stressed the importance of tackling the dropout problem by providing extended learning opportunities, creating multiple pathways to graduation, and making the state’s programs in career and technical education and adult education more accessible. New Hampshire’s data suggests that their approach is making head-way — the cohort rate for students who had dropped out of school (and did not earn a GED) was 3.3% in 2010-11 – down from 4.4% the previous year.  Interestingly, Maxwell cites a 2010 report by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins that suggests that of the six states that increased the compulsory-attendance age between 2002 and 2008, only Nevada accomplished a decrease in graduation rates. Illinois and South Dakota saw an increase in their high school graduation rates.

I am reminded of the comments made by Richard Elmore of Harvard University. In various presentations, I have heard Dr. Elmore comment on his observations of classrooms that he believes are “excruciatingly boring”. He goes further by stating that educators have a moral responsibility to save students from being bored and disenfranchised by ensuring they are given engaging and challenging tasks. Anecdotally, I have personally visited many classrooms where students are politely engaged in lessons and tasks that are designed to address the expected standards and curriculum. The noteworthy commonality across these observations was that the students seemed bored and that the lessons and tasks were not particularly relevant or student focused.

Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, a scientist at the Center for Evaluation & Education Policy at Indiana University and director of the High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE) reports findings from the HSSSE annual survey of students’ perceptions about their school experience,  the learning environment , and their interactions with the school community. According to the 2009 analysis of this survey, students report that boredom is a major factor in deciding to drop out. The report lists these findings: “Two out of three respondents (66%) in 2009 are bored at least every day in class in high school; nearly half of the students (49%) are bored every day and approximately one out of every six students (17%) are bored in every class. Only 2% report never being bored, and 4% report being bored “once or twice.”[4]

Education policy makers may hope that, with the stroke of a pen, they can make a significant difference in the graduation rates by changing the policies that set the age of mandatory attendance. Keeping students in school longer does have some face validity, but as suggested by the states that have changed the mandatory age without results, it may not yield the quick- fix that is desired.  If students anticipate being bored and disappointed by what they are asked to learns as they walk through the school doors each day, just requiring more days may not be the best strategy. Providing learning experiences that are relevant, challenging, and connected to the real world beyond the classroom should be high priority for school reformers.  Particular attention must be paid to designing authentic learning experiences for all students of color and for black males, to make schools an engaging place where students choose to stay. These improvements will require changes to the curriculum and intensive professional growth for teachers and school leaders to learn new practices.  Additionally, working conditions in schools will need to be established to provide teachers with the time to plan and collaborate with each other as they develop dynamic and more personalized learning opportunities for students.

The Obama Administration provided this graphic on the costs of dropping out as part of the State of the Union presentation.[5] Considering the statistics on dropouts, along with the costs of dropping out, creates a sense of urgency to do something. Taking action to transform instructional practices and the learning students engage will accomplish far more than just extending the mandatory age of attendance. Improved teaching and learning will not just keep students in school; it will also prepare them for the world they will face when their K-12 years are over. Funding the more comprehensive reforms will be expensive, but the considering the cost of dropping out, the investment should be indisputable.

[1] Education Commission of States. (2010). Compulsory school age requirements. Retrieved from http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/86/62/8662.pdf

[2] National Center for Education Statistics. (2007-08). Public school graduates and dropouts from the common core of data: School year 2007-2008.  IES Institute of Educational Sciences.  Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/graduates/findings.asp

[3] The Schott Foundation for Public Education. (2010). Yes we can: The Schott 50 state report on public education and black males 2010. Retrieved from http://blackboysreport.org/?page_id=14

[4] Yazzie-Mintz. E. (2009) Charting the path from engagement to achievement: A report on the 2009 high school survey of student engagement. Retrieved from http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/images/HSSSE_2010_Report.pdf

[5]  The White House. (2012). State of the union enhanced graphics. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/25/state-union-deep-dive

Access to Learning

Access to Learning

Posted on by Deb Hansen
Reading Time: 3 minutes

This fall I had the opportunity to attend the annual Des Moines Branch of the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet in Des Moines, Iowa. The featured dinner speaker was Dr. Linda Lane, Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public School District. Prior to becoming Superintendent in December of 2010, Dr. Lane was the deputy superintendent of the Des Moines Independent Community School District and she was the first female and person of color to hold the position of chief operating officer. From 2006 to 2010 Linda served as the deputy superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public School District. During her time as Deputy Superintendent, Pittsburgh achieved adequate early progress (AYP) for the first time in the district’s history. The district was able to achieve AYP again for the second time in three years with Dr. Lane in the superintendency.

Dr. Lane’s keynote began with her reflections about the impact of the economic crisis on students and families in her district, as well as how funding cuts have had some devastating effects on the Pittsburgh school system.  She stressed that educators and community members must be clear about the purposes of education and that it is paramount that students have access to a high quality education to prepare them to pursue college or work force certification – not just vocational opportunities.

Dr. Lane recommended the book, Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and What We Can Do About It by Don Peck (2011) to the audience. Peck’s book asserts that the current recession is creating a white male underclass and that unskilled workers are being pushed out of low paying jobs. Unfortunate economic conditions caused by this recession will make it even harder for students of color to find opportunities in the work place. According to Lane, these patterns create an even greater urgency for communities to push for better schooling and clearer paths into careers for students who don’t immediately go to colleges or universities. Lack of education fuels what has been described as the 1% and the 99% wealth-gap. Dr. Lane went on to make the argument that education is power and that history reveals how racial inequities are created and maintained by limiting access to education. For example, laws were established to make teaching slaves to read and write illegal for the purpose of diminishing their power. Sadly, the current laws to prevent Latino/a students from qualifying for in-state tuition because they are undocumented, suggests that denying educational equity continues to this day.

Dr. Lane admonished the audience, “For our kids to do better, we have to do better.” She described efforts to increase student access to education such as the Pittsburgh Promise program that offers scholarships to students who meet grade point and attendance requirements, as well as Promise Net, a network of communities investing in education and economic development by establishing place-based scholarship programs. Dr. Lane wrapped up her remarks by challenging the audience with some difficult questions. What is Des Moines doing to establish scholarship programs? What else can be done to help students to grab opportunities? What more can your community do to increase students’ access to quality education?

To suit the occasion of a banquet, Dr. Lane’s remarks had to be compelling and motivational, but brief.  I found them to be thought-provoking, but I left feeling more worried than motivated. The two themes, that access to education is power and that the negative effects of the current recession will make it harder for students to succeed, caused me to wonder about the ongoing struggle to pass federal education policies to improve student learning. Will the policymakers support and fund actions that increase student access to the robust and meaningful education needed to move large numbers of struggling students to levels of success needed to be successful in college and the workplace? Will the policy platforms being crafted now result in better outcomes for students of color or will they exacerbate the economic and social pressures that are contributing to the current gaps in student performance and graduation rates? Dr. Lane’s reforms are getting traction in Pittsburgh. Work underway there is closing the gap. In another venue, with more time, I am sure that she could elaborate on policies and strategies that work. Perhaps, legislators should be taking a look at her ideas for increasing access to quality education.

Cheers to health & happiness in 2012

Cheers to health & happiness in 2012

Posted on by Circe Stumbo
Reading Time: < 1 minute

New Year’s resolutions are all about better living which is something we work to have as part of our culture here at West Wind. We strive to create a healthy and joyful workplace that promotes balance between work and life.

We recently decided to experiment with the concept of standing more during our work days for the sake of our health. We purchased some standing work stations to try out and we are finding they keep us on our feet with our muscles activated. So far, so good! Here’s an article that explains the health benefits of getting up and keeping our bodies in more full motion during long days at the office: http://tinyurl.com/42cx4eu.

Movement is great, and so is laughter. We’ve all heard laughter is the best medicine, right? Well, here’s an interesting article that explains the potential emotional and physiological benefits of laughter: http://tinyurl.com/aq2nc9.

And, to tie it all together, here’s a short clip from the t.v. show, The Office, about office-dwellers standing at work. This entertained us and might make you laugh too: http://tinyurl.com/88yrgm6.

Best wishes for good health, laughter, and happiness in the New Year!

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