A Quick Conversation

Admittedly, today is November 28, and Project 27 posts should be up on the 27th of every month. Sorry for the one day delay. I hope there is some grace period for holiday weekends. In the short story profile below, I am changing the name of the person profiled.

Tamisha – Tamisha is a recent graduate of Sarah T Reed High School in New Orleans East. She now attends Dillard University in Gentilly. She told me that she did not think Reed prepared her well for Dillard, because they taught everyone as if they were all at the same level, but didn’t offer any opportunities for students who wanted to learn more, or who wanted to learn at a faster pace. When she got to Dillard, she already felt behind. When queried about the state of public education in New Orleans, she said that she is against charters, and doesn’t think that the planned chartering of Reed HS will happen. I asked what informed her anti-charter opinion. She remarked that she had been attendingUNTO meetings with a relative for a while and they are very against charters. Also, charter schools kick out kids who don’t achieve or behave, so they get all the best kids.

It's all about choices.....

For Thanksgiving this year I headed upto Michigan. I was able to spend some quality time with my family and friends and it was fantastic. We ended up with something like 22 people at our house and it was awesome. I'll upload some pics later. For dessert we had something like 38 desserts well not quite, but there were like 14 of them. They filled an entire 4x8 table, it was ridiculous. Needless to say, after an entire day of eating it was a challenge to get in line with everyone else. While I was there I noticed lots of different strategies. Some folks opted for a small bite of everything, others chose 2-3 favorites. My brother opted to wait another hour because he had passed out from eating too much earlier in the day. I opted for a mixture of everything and 5 minutes into eating I realized I was doomed. I made the only choice possible, I waved the white flag pulled out the aluminum foil and put it in the fridge. Don't worry I consumed it that night later at like 10:30.

So what does this have to do with education? I would like to argue a lot. To maximize each person's thanksgiving day eating experience they had options. They could select what they wanted and when they wanted it. They could go at their own pace and If they didn't want any then well they could take some home for later. This is differentiation done right. Coincidentally, my dad and I had a great talk this morning about an article in the Grand Rapids Free Press detailing the efforts of several Michigan schools and districts trying to achieve this level of individual differentiated instruction. There are tons of challenges, but I really think this is e future of education in our country. Students receiving custom instruction where they progress when they demonstrate mastery and show themselves to be ready. Not when they are a given a test. Who knew desserts could offer insights into learning.

How Do You Catch Up 4+ Years?

Yesterday I met up with some friends to watch the Georgia-Georgia Tech game. Sadly, Tech lost, but fortuitously, I was able to converse with three other educators--two of whom are teachers at a public school in rural NC and a turnaround public school in DC, and one who is the director of operations at a charter public school in Nashville--about challenges they face every day.

The teacher in DC talked to me about working with students in her remedial reading class. Like many of the students I'll be working with in Memphis, her 9th graders are several years behind their peers and are reading at 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade reading levels. [Don't get me started about why kids are reading 4+ years below their grade levels in the first place.]

The DC school uses a reading intervention program called READ 180, and she feels that the program is effective thus far and will likely catch the kids up 1-2 grade levels each year. She thinks it is possible that the kids could catch up even more, but because they have not been good readers for so long, they don't enjoy school, and by the time they reach high school, they just aren't excited about learning even though they have special classes to improve their reading ability.

This conversation caused me to think a little deeper about how we can catch kids up (bring them to an appropriate reading and comprehension level) quickly beginning in 9th grade and before 11th grade. Also, how do we make learning fun again? I don't think it's acceptable for these students to catch up only one year at a time and graduate at an 8th or 9th grade level because they won't be competitive in the world once they leave high school; many of them won't even have an opportunity to go to college. It's like watching the UGA-GT game but one of the teams is a high school varsity football team--it's not a fair match and not a fun game to watch.

The Right Fit

Go.

This is the first holiday of my adult life where I have been the host. We had 8 adults and 2 kids at my house on Thanksgiving day. Among the guests was my sister in law, Mary Catherine. Aside from being a great friend of mine she is a great mother of 2 boys. We had a long conversation about her oldest sons education.

Learn.

My nephew, Grady, started kindergarten this year at The Bright School in Chattanooga, TN. The Bright School is a very well-regarded independent elementary school. Overall it seems to be the right fit for Grady and his family. It has the kind of structure a boisterous 4 1/2 year old boy needs, a diverse student body that family wants, and the academic rigor that his mother expects. I didn't learn anything new from our conversation but I was able to affirm a previously held belief.

We need to have different schools for different kids. Just like we teach high school students applying to college to find the "right fit" we need to encourage parents to find the elementary, middle, or high school that is the "right fit" for their child. As education reform pushes for school choice for all we can start to deliver on the promise of supporting all children's potential.

Share.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

"Education Reform Can't Be Just About Education"

On my flight home from Los Angeles, I sat next to a middle aged man named Roz who was flying to New Orleans to run the sound for the Blink-182 show at VOODOO Fest this weekend.

Roz grew up on a US military base in Germany, and attended an American school there. We had a lovely conversation about education: what he received, what kids now are receiving, and how it might be improved. Here are some of Roz’s quotes from our conversation:

“Educational reform can’t just be about education. It’s got to be about rethinking everything. Like, for example, when a kid doesn’t fit into a particular box, he becomes a failure, or gets diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and gets medicated.”

“I don’t even have kids, but already thinking about home schooling them because the pressure to conform to a narrow definition of success is just ridiculous.”

“[Education reform] extends into the political arena. What’s the first thing to get cut? Education. It communicates a lack of will and messed up priorities.”

“I recently read and article about Finland’s education system in the Smithsonian Magazine. They’ve got great success without going crazy with standardized tests. We should be able to do some of that here. Instead, we’re prioritizing conformity, compliance and one way of thinking a linear way.”

“Even my wife, who is a pre-school teacher, has experienced a over-structured approach to education. I mean, her kids are in preschool and they have all of their day structured.”

“When I was in school, if you have an interest in something, they’d streer you toward that. Even in the uber-structured environment of the US Military. One teacher bugged me about track & field, another about computers. Today I feel like that doesn’t happen. Either it’s not valued, or it’s not possible due to a lack of political will and funding.”

“Back in those days, it was all about physical fitness, too. Today, that’s all gone. That’s why it can’t just be about education. We’ve got an obesity problem that involves our schools. Solutions are not limited to academics.”

Community Roots Charter School

Go.

Today I spent some time at Community Roots Charter School in Brooklyn, NY. I spoke with co-director Allie Keil. This K - 5 school has 300 students and was fairly unassuming at first. The school is housed on the 3rd floor of Public School 67. I walked in and saw all the characteristics of a traditional NYC public school. I gave my drivers licensee to the school based police officer and walked past the PS 67's graphs and posters showing their standardized test scores. After trekking up 3 flights of stairs I walked into a totally different school.

Learn

There was so much to learn. This was a totally different type of charter school. From the top down the whole school exemplifies cooperation and inclusion. The school has co-directors; every classroom has 2 teachers. They reason this place is special is because everyone who works there lives the mission and the core values. I let them tell you about it.

Community Roots Core Values from Community Roots on Vimeo.

I learned that "alternative" models of charter schools can be successful. Community Roots is a shining example.

Share!

- Joy

Education Champions!

Again I’m in Memphis on the 27th of the month. Today I had the opportunity to meet with several groups of people from varying backgrounds. I’d like to share with you two of those individuals and how they are thinking about education for Memphis.

This morning I attended a kickoff event for a city-wide initiative called Education Champions, and I met Rick Ferguson, headmaster at St. George’s Independent School. SGIS has a three campus model which is noteworthy for its attempt to build relationships among different socioeconomic and racial groups: the Germantown (suburb) and Memphis lower schools merge into a fully integrated campus middle/upper school. Typically low-income kids leave great private high schools they’ve worked hard to get into within their first year because they are not used to the elite private school environment. What SGIS is doing seems to be a hopeful approach to ensuring better success for our kids from the city.

I also met this morning with mothers to help them understand their choices for their children’s education. (Read & view videos from those meetings here.) After the meeting, I spoke with Carole, a retired teacher who has volunteered in Binghampton for almost ten years and is passionate about helping these women set a positive vision for their future. For Carole, a takeaway from today’s brief meeting was that she can help the mothers learn how to get involved with their children’s education and help empower the mothers to take action.

I am so thankful for all the “education champions” in Memphis who know education is a key to making this city a better place!