"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!

A view from the Secretary's desk

I had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Hamilton who for the last 38 years has been the secretary of an Elementary school in Indianola, Mississippi.  Mrs. Hamilton is a wealth of knowledge about education in the Delta and I asked if she had seen any changes in the kids over time.  Her response was that school doesn’t seem as important as it once did.  Kids now have so many other things going on that school is not the priority that it was once.  Kids have computers and cell phones in every class at every grade from 3 through 6.  They are constantly texting and chatting with each other daily often in the middle of class.  When I asked her what would make it better she pointed to students valuing school more and them being able greater levels of concentration.  Their work ethic is not the same as it was in the past.

Hearing her reflections was difficult because I had spent 3 years teaching at a school not so unlike this one and the challenges she spoke about seemed daunting.  That being said, she spoke about them with a sense of hope.  The school has recently hired a new principal (a close personal friend of mine) and also received a significant school improvement grant and she remains hopeful that their school can continue to improve and provide a better education for the students.  Where they are going remains to be seen, but it is clear they are trying to adapt and serve students differently.

LEARN-

LEARN-

I’ve been doing quite a bit of learning. I’ve changed the focus of my Greenfield Project since the last time we spoke/blogged, and I’m now working on a way to increase the frequency and speed of which teachers get qualitative feedback from their students.

I’ve spoken to a few teachers and students, and even conducted an online survey that got a response all the way from the NetherlandsJ. Teachers seem to be very interested in figuring out how to get meaningful feedback from their students, but they just don’t seem to have the time. I mean….between planning, grade-level meetings, parent conferences, staff meetings, extracurricular activities, grading, and LIFE…where on earth would they really find the time. I think this may really guide my work from here on out. They understand the need, now I have to make it convenient and sustainable.  I’m working on a website (www.wix.com/tprofice/schoolbook) to convey my message, my idea, and what it looks like.

I plan on having a slew of “go see, learn, share” next month, and I’m extra excited!

-Troave’ Profice