Wal-Mart High?

Will our students be going to Wal-Mart High?
Tomorrow, Winter Break ends, and Cat and I go back to our respective schools for "Records Day", a day to finish up last semester's grading and prepare for the spring semester, which starts on Tuesday.

At my school, we will be facing even more pressure than we did in the fall semester since this will be the semester that we do our "End of Instruction" (EOI) testing. This testing is the biggest factor in determing our school's performance under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The feeling is that if our school does not show significant improvement in this year's EOIs over last year, when we were the lowest scoring school in the OKC school district, the school will be placed under one of the programs NCLB has mandated for failing schools, likely the so-called "transformative" model where by the administration is replaced and all of the school certified instructors have to reapply for their jobs. No more than 50% or fewer of the former instructors of a transformative school may be rehired. A third option, making the school a charter school, is also an option, but not considered likely.

We have been closely watched by the district and by the state department of education. Administrators and other facilitators constantly monitor teachers' instructional techniques. We must show that we are following "best practices" including having "word walls", "exemplary work displays", "data walls", "artifacts" and other displays of learning. Students are quizzed as to whether they have "mastered" necessary skills. Students are also constantly tested, and their test results thoroughly analyzed.

Some will say that this is only an effort to produce the type of pedagogy our school should have been doing all along. There is truth to that, but I am beginning to feel as though our school and those like us are becoming educational Wal-Marts or MacDonalds, a place where every class resembles every other class. Educational specialists, who seem to be running the show in public schools now, argue that students need this type of uniformity to keep instruction at a high level and help students master their subjects through uniformity and repetition. But teaching is as much art as it is science, many would argue more art than science. And it seems tht we are in danger of driving out the art of teaching in favor of "research based, best practice" science.

I am willing to do whatever I am asked as a teacher, so I have done what I have been told to do to the best of my abilities. I know, though, that teachers alone cannot transform schools whose students live in poverty. When we compare our American schools to those of other industrialized countries like Finland, Germany or Japan, what is left out of the comparison is this rather disturbing statistic, on average only about 5% of school-age children in other industrialized countries live in poverty, In Finland, the percentage is 3%. In the United States, however, 23% of our nation's school-age children live in poverty. And poverty is the number one factor that determines a child's success or failure in school.

That factor will not be overcome by having our children go to "Wal-Mart High".

A Taste of Failure

I got the result of my National Board for Teacher Certification entry, I did not pass. My school was 233 and passing was 275. I have two more years to try to get things in order, and I plan to go for it. I am a bit down not, but not out.

(Of course, the fact that I am fighting a cold right now doesn't help matters.)

12th grade reading scores show little improvement nationwide

I teach two honors English classes at Oklahoma Centennial. I have students enrolled in those classes who are very reading resistant. They tell me that they don't like to read, will not read, and don't care if not reading lowers their grades.

Mainly, this is a defense mechanism they use because they feel that they don't read very well. I have never felt comfortable doing handyman work around the house, and so I avoid trying to do it if possible. It's the same with those who lack reading skills.

I have found that by making myself do home repairs and improvements, I have gotten better. I need to convince my students that they can accomplish the same with reading.
"High school seniors still have low reading scores" from MSNBC.com

Mixed Messages for Teachers

Yesterday and today, our high school students were sent to an assembly and informed that the high school would be enforcing a required attendance policy for last semester's grades. Students who had more than 7 unexcused absences would be given a failing grade regardless of the grade the teacher posted for them. This caused a rather big uproar from students who felt that if they had received a passing grade in class, their attendance didn't matter. The fact that they could attend after school or Saturday school tutoring this semester to make up attendance from last semester did little to mollify them.

The casual observer might justifiably wonder why students who had missed so much time in the course of a school semester could have had a passing grade at all. Teachers, especially those in urban high schools, know full well how this can happen: teachers are encouraged, often required, to find ways to pass students by all available means.

This is all a part of the many mixed messages teachers are given by those who set our educational policies. At the same time we are pushed towards finding ways for students to pass and get their credits towards graduation, we are also admonished in countless way to "maintain high standards", "create a climate of excellence", "develop demanding expectations." As much as we would like to feel that high standards and student success are entirely compatible in some ideal sense, the truth is that often these goals are at odds with each other.

For example, suppose I want my students to study one of the plays of Shakespeare, Macbeth for example. I can prepare my students for the play, acquaint them with the arcane language and mystifying conventions. I can have the students read the play individually, in small groups, or as an entire class. Have them act out parts from the play. I can show videos and discuss the actors' interpretations of the characters. However, in the end, if some students wish to sabotoge all my best efforts it does not take much for them to do so.

And here is where the crux of the matter lies: how do I respond. If I truly were to maintain high standards, I would demand that they make some effort to climb the scaffold I have prepared for them. Lacking that, they fail. However, the other message of making it possible for all students to succeed kicks in telling me that I have to give my students "multiple opportunites" to succeed by retaking tests, extending homework deadlines, or giving alternative assignments. If students have be diagnosed with learning disablities, then I must make "modifications" which essentially dumb down the requirements for the unit. High expectations give why to middling realities.

I know how important it is for our students not to fail school, not to fall down on their road to graduation and all the opportunities this opens up for them. For our students, a missing diploma is a one-way ticket to a lifetime of marginal living, grinding poverty, and/or prison. That does not stop me from the constant,nagging guilty feelings I that my standards are lacking as I attempt to create pathways to that all important high school diploma.

School's Out!

School's Out!
School's Out!
Teacher Let the Fools Out!

Tomorrow, I will be in Durant, Oklahoma to begin my National Board for Teacher Certification process. I will starting blogging about the process there if I can find a way to do it.

Testing Begins Today

Today is the first day my students take their mandated state tests or End of Instruction tests (EOI). Today, my juniors take their English writing tests. Wish them good luck.

Rumored School Closings: "The Mulligan Gambit ?"

The latest rumors concerning school closings in the Oklahoma City School District are as follows: Northeast High School and Douglas High School will be merged. The recommended plan is to have Norteast retain its Magnet School status. Just how this will work out, I do not know. Also, Southeast High School and Capitol Hill High School will merge. Southeast will lose its Magnet School designation.

It appears to me that this is an attempt to do an "End Run" around NCLB. The schools in question have not made "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) for five years. If the school does not make AYP for a fifth year, the district must initiate plans for restructuring the school. This may include reopening the school as a charter school, replacing all or most of the school staff, or turning over school operations either to the state or to a private company with a demonstrated record of effectiveness.

Merging schools can be seen as an attempt to comply with this requirement. This way, the district can claim that these are new schools which begins the whole process anew. Something like this was accomplished with opening "New John Marshall" and creating our school, Oklahoma Centennial.

Think of it as the educational equivalent of a "Mulligan" in golf.

Rumors, Rumors, Rumors

No, not this kind of rumor!

There are rumors that several Oklahoma City high schools face closure. The places I have heard so far are Northeast, Capitol Hill, and Southeast. The reasons range from under utilizaton to problems with No Child Left Behind. If anyone can enlighten me on this, please e-mail me at greenlynndemocrat@yahoo.com.

I'll let you know when I know.