DC Teacher’s Clique

Recently, it was reported on DCist that DC Teacher Chic, an area teacher and edu-blogger finally had enough bureaucracy/disorganization/absurdity from DCPS and quit her full time teaching position at a southeast DC middle school.  It is unknown how frequently this situation occurs, and to what extent it goes unnoticed and how much it may contribute to the dearth of experienced teachers in the city.  These questions and uncertainties got me thinking about DC Teacher Chic’s situation.

Although I did not frequently (i.e., never) read DC Teacher Chic’s blog prior to her resignation from DCPS, is nevertheless illuminating for the rest of the public that does not have have an idea of how absurdly disruptive a public school classroom can get.  I won’t lie; my initial reaction to her resigning from her position was somewhere between distaste and resentment, mostly because I am not a regular reader of her blog, and when confronted with situations like this, it is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction of what one is supposed to think.  Also, I had only read the first paragraph of the post.  After reading further, I realized that she was not dealing with routine classroom management issues with which every teacher is confronted, but rather, she was facing a coordinated and systematic insurgency that routine classroom management techniques are ill-equipped to overcome.  Honestly, I feel like the only solution for such an unique group of disruptors would be an equally unique disciplinary procedure – like a troop surge.  Unfortunately, since the Department of Defense took all of the Department of Education’s money, that seemed like a highly unlikely scenario.

The fact of the matter is that many DCPS teachers do not have the support of the administrators because the administrators’ heads are ever-presently on the chopping block.  Initiatives of the sort that DC Teacher Chic tried, require the coordinated efforts of the administration, teachers, parents, and community.  If 10% of parents attend a meeting to address widespread behavior disruptions, a principal governs the school in an absentee manner, and the students have banded together to “Bust the Teachers,” there are serious problems that teachers’ hands are tied to address.

I know that I will receive critique for not mentioning creative strategies to solve these disruptions, so I will include them here.  But, if I were in her shoes, I honestly don’t know what I would do.  As a Black male, I feel that I would have more success in a sit-down, one-on-one conversation with these students (assuming that they are minority males of some sort).  I have had such encounters work in the past.  Another potential solution would be an individualized behavior plan for each student, where each student is “graded” on his performance by each teacher on a daily basis.  If the scores are to everyone’s satisfaction at the end of a week, the student would be rewarded with something desirable, like lunch from outside school, extra computer time, or some other exclusive benefit.  But I think that it is naive to think that I, a first year teacher, would have any more expertise or success in solving the problems experienced by a six-year veteran teacher.

I think this would be my teacher-clique's tag.

So, my final solution (too soon?) would be to start a rival mara (gang) to the BTT, the DCTC.  And we’d flash signs, tag binders, take lunch money, and force the kids into behaving through violence and intimidation.  Either that, or, I’d quit.

But seriously, teachers have a remarkably difficult job that is disanalogous to any other profession.  When a teacher quits, he or she is not just leaving an organization, but rather, branded as one who has given up on the children.  At the same time, one makes a tacit agreement to this situation when one takes a job in a difficult school with difficult children, and it is up to that teacher to make the effort to change things. After reading the Washington Post’s exposé on DC Teacher Chic, I found out that Ms. Midgon taught at JC Nalle Elementary, a difficult school in a difficult community, but it’s not a surprise.  It’s not like this school was located in Glover Park next to Barneys.  It’s in Southeast, and a teacher should expect a similar element when entering that school.  As a teacher, the job is to educate the students, and sometimes it’s up to the teacher to do whatever it takes to energize, motivate, and support the students to the point where they can be educated.  If a veteran teacher can be bullied out of a commitment (and contract) by a band of kids under five feet tall, then maybe that teacher was in the wrong business in the first place.

Formative Years

Isn

We’ve got a new President, and the White House will soon have a new hypo-allergenic, adopted, puppy mill-rescued canine playing on the grounds.  Although determining what type of puppy to get Sasha and Malia is a task that will undoubted receive more scrutiny than his solution to the global economic crisis, President-Elect Barack Obama has substantially bigger fish to fry in the selection of educational institutions for his adorably sweet pre-Washington daughters.

A school for their daughters is probably the most difficult choice that the Michelle and Barack will have to make in the coming eight (that’s right, I said it) years.  Hopefully, when the family leaves the White House, Sasha will be 18 and Malia, 15.  These girls will not only be learning some of the most important lessons of their life at their new school, but they will grow into young women.  Thus, it is imperative that the President- and First Lady-elect read this review of the schools that the family should consider in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area.  As an educator and native of this city, I am certain that I can offer the Obamas the essential informed and unbiased  opinion of the area’s educational institutions of all types: public, private, parochial, and other.  Whether they listen is up to the omniscient intergoogleweb.

Despite Michelle Rhee’s efforts, the DC public school pickings are slim.  Thus, we will definitely disqualify them for the running.  Moreover, I don’t think that the Catholic and Christian schools in the area can hold a candle to the region’s independent schools, so that pretty much rules them out as well (except for some of the establishments serving male populations).  Thus, in no particular order (actually, my increasing endorsement), here is what I feel are the Obamas’ best choices of schools for Sasha and Malia.

3) Beauvoir & The National Cathedral School. This beautiful school has most recently been home to Nobel Laureate Al Gore’s daughters, with his son atteding the boy’s equivalent, St. Alban’s until he was “not asked back” due to transgressions related to a certain leafy green substance in middle school.  Beauvoir and NCS could be a good fit, as it is an environment that pushes students academically, while still allowing them to pursue their individual interests.

2) Sidwell Friends School. I would certainly put my money on the girls’ attending either Sidwell or the school that I feel would be the best fit.  Al Gore III and Chelsea Clinton graduated from this institution, just up the street from NCS.  In addition to an excellent academic reputation, Sidwell also offers tremendous athletics, should Sasha and Malia decide to follow Barack’s hoop-shooting footsteps.  With excellent facilities and the Quaker beliefs that make for tempered, tolerant, and intelligent young adults, the Sidwell Friends School would definitely provide the girls with a thorough education.

1) Georgetown Day School. In my heart of hearts, I hope that Barack and Michelle decide to send their daughters to this school, which I will always hold dear.  Having spent kindergarten through eighth grade at this haven of of learning on MacArthur Boulevard in Georgetown, I feel that I can speak effectively to the merits of the school.  Rather than forcing students to learn in a rigid environment that dictates learning, GDS reacts to the interests of the learners, allowing them to explore the content that interests them.  With a rich curriculum from which I draw knowledge to this day, GDS is an environment to which I send my children in a heartbeat, and I hope that Barack and Michelle choose to provide their daughters with the diverse, nurturing, and in-depth education that they deserve.

Now that we know that Sasha and Malia will become Mighty Hoppers in January, the only remaining question for the transition team is, “Who’s going to be their tutor?”  I’ve heard great things about a charter school science and math teacher. Highly recommended.  References available.  Representatives from the Obama  team can contact me here, I’ll clear my schedule.

Do You Want to Live Your Life on Easy?

Ah, progress reports.  That delightful time of the year when teachers hastily grade items so as to have tangible evidence of their assessment of student effort, understanding, and…progress.  Although the comments are a serious pain to write, once a critical mass of the class’s comments are written (i.e., every “type” of student  is represented) ctrl+C and ctrl+V, with minor modification, can take over.   For example:

[...]is a gifted mathematics student who has the potential to excel in any subject.  She can be a pleasure to teach, and that would be aided by her participating in class more.  Her behavior is generally not an issue, unless she is sleeping in class.  Despite this, her work is generally exceptional and her great attendance has allowed her to keep up with the material better than most students.  When [...] puts effort into class, it is extremely evident, as her work is unparalleled.  She is also willing to ask questions, which is essential to understanding in mathematics.

and

[...]is a gifted student with some deficiencies in her mathematical understanding.  She is generally a pleasure to teach, as she is sometimes ready to participate without prompting.  She has no problem asking for help, but unfortunately, she can be distracted at times by her classmates, and is sometimes the cause of such distraction.  Her work is generally of a good caliber and her great attendance has allowed her the time necessary to approach mastery of the material.  I would like to see more focus from [...], and a more hardworking attitude.

The comments are a necessary evil.  It gives the advisor something to use during the sit-down with a student, in case he or she doesn’t actually teach that student.  It’s extremely useful when teachers independently develop a convergent analysis of a student.  I think that helps to get the message to the student that a) they are really awesome, or b) they need to get their shit together.  Sometimes, however, the ones that really don’t have it together are so out of touch and/or nihilistic that one it takes a bit more than a comment to get to them.  These are the ones with whom a teacher invests all of their management energies on a daily basis.  No work completed, no desire to pay attention, constant talking, the list is endless.   Often, these behaviors are not purely out of a deficiency.  It may be boredom, only because it’s some of the most talented students who present in this manner.  Consider the comment I made to one of these Nietzschean students:

[...] is an incredibly talented student who is not currently working at his potential.  His attendance has thus far been abysmal, and his work habits and assignment completion are not reflective of his potential.  At times he can be distracting, but his behavior thus far this week has been a marked improvement over the previous month.  I only hope that he comes to understand his potential so that he can do the great things of which he is capable.

This one is a fifteen year old who could run circles around the rest of the class, but is so terrifically unmotivated that he is starting to regress.  For him, the comment was not enough.  It did not get the message home.  The sit-down was necessary.  During this talk, we got real.  We spoke about what he wants out of life, and that it’s necessary to demonstrate effort now so that he can grow accustomed to putting effort forth.  This wasn’t quite getting across, and he was still fairly unmoved.  It was at this point that the opportunity for a delightful analogy presented itself.  I inquired, “Do you like playing video games on easy?” to which he responded, “No, that’s boring.”  Booyah.  He walked right into it.  Attempting to conceal my self-content, I replied with the only response possible, “Do you want to live your life on easy?”

And then I hit Down, Up, Left, Left, A, Right, Down, and pulled his spine out.

Hiatus

After several months of silence, I feel that I finally have something meaningful (completely up-to-you) to say. It’s taken a strange combination of teaching a population comprised mostly of undocumented immigrants, an inebriated conversation with a conservative consultant at a karaoke bar, my purchasing a skateboard, canvassing in Virginia and the steadfast approach of winter for me to realize that we, as a nation, are completely screwed if we don’t win this election.

1) Back to School

October is coming to an end and I feel like I am burnt out. But that doesn’t compare to the fact that my school is contemplating a switch to a year-round calendar, the students have no desire to take part in my activities, and I have no energy to wake up in a timely fashion for me to make it to work un-tardily. I spend all my free time working on something, and I have no desire to change anything, because I love every minute of it.

2) That Tramp at Millie & Al’s

purple rain, purple raiiiiiiiiiiiiiin.

I thought I was being slick inserting myself into a conversation she was having about universal health-care (foolishly assuming that she, like most attractive women at Karaoke, favors it). It turns out that she is not in favor of it for any pertinent, sound, or meaningful ideological reasons, but rather, because, “she doesn’t want to pay for healthcare for illegal immigrants.” Really? Can you understand the plight of an undocumented worker any less? Do you really think that someone who’s terrified of being deported is going to seek social services from the government? And then I sang “Purple Rain”.

3) Quarter-Life Crisis/Maverick-y Actions

one day

I bought a skateboard at a skateboard boutique on Friday. I didn’t even know they had those. But they do, and they are full of the chic-est goods that one can find in an up-and-coming gentrified neighborhood. Nevertheless, I was extremely proud of my purchase, so much so that I ventured into a tertiary street to practice skating, when I promptly fell on my ass several times. But, it’s a nice mode of transportation, assuming that I can learn how to maintain my balance and stop bruising myself. Hey, at least I’m doing my part to stimulate the economy.

4) The Swing State Experience

During my canvassing, I realized several things. First, people in suburbia have a completely different way-of-life. I had forgotten this in my adventures in the big city. Also, the vast majority of people will not answer their door when a 6′3″ Black stranger knocks, unless they themselves are black, their boyfriend is a black male with dreadlocks, or they are already voting for Obama. Finally, the demographic information on the forms is remarkably deceiving. Let’s have an experiment (I have changed names to protect the innocent). You are walking up to the door of Jane Doe, 22 F. Imagine what she looks like…WRONG! She’s 5 feet tall, 250 pounds, and wearing a tank top that shows far too much for her to be opening the door.  Personally, I blame the liberal media for biasing our opinions.

5) The Weather Outside Is Frightful

nothing beats it.

I lost/misplaced/had my jacket stolen. It’s too cold out, and my bundling is taking a toll on my skateboarding mobility. But besides that misfortune, there’s nothing better than Autumn in DC.

What happened to antidisestablishmentarianism?

Bill Turque reports in his June 17 article, “7 Catholic Schools in D.C. Set to Become Charters“, that Assumption, Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian, Holy Name, St. Francis de Sales, Immaculate Conception, Nativity Catholic Academy and St. Gabriel have each been granted approval by the DC Public Charter School Board to reopen this fall as Public Charter Schools. These schools will be operated by the Center City Public Charter Schools, the charter school branch of Center City Consortium, an organization designed by the Archdiocese of Washington to help financially-struggling Catholic schools.

Beyond the problems with accountability that antagonists of charter schools cite as a major problem with the rapid expansion of the city’s charter schools, there are several deeper and more disconcerting issues with allowing schools that are ostentatiously religious to receive public funding. No matter how secular the schools claim they will be in the fall, that cannot change the fact that many of them are based in churches and on hallowed ground. These school will tacitly retain religious character no matter how much they sanitize their grounds.

I have no problem with Catholicism (I was raised Catholic), nor do I have a problem with parochial schools operating as private entities to fulfill a religious mission. The issue is that these failing and struggling schools were probably failing and struggling for a reason. Members of the Charter School Board stated that “their sole responsibility was to approve a responsible plan to help children who were at risk of losing their schools.” Since when is appropriating public funds to assist a privileged-few students who attend a school based on its religious principles considered “responsible”?

Responsible would be noting that private schools operate as enterprises that are subject to the market. When the market says something like, “this company is going out of business”, usually the company is selling a product that is not financially sustainable. These struggling Catholic schools were selling education, and it does not make sense for DC to use public funds to bail them out. Note that the proposal’s approval was accelerated “because the Catholic schools already have buildings, staff employees and students”. Thus, nothing is going to change, except the financial cushion that the DC Public Charter School board is providing.

Just as Video Killed the Radio Star, it seems that the DC Public Charter School Board killed the First Amendment:

A Sith Lord Among Us

Is it just me or are Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s latest terminations eerily reminiscent of conniving Senator/Emperor/Sith Lord Palpatine. Is it possible that the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has fallen under control of a Sith Lord? The Washington Post, along with 22 recently terminated administrators, might have you rushing to convene the Jedi Council. V. Dion Haynes’ June 19 piece, “22 Assistant Principals Are Latest to Be Fired” characterizes Ms. Rhee as a cold-hearted leader constantly usurping power.

In March, after the D.C. Council gave Rhee the authority to reclassify hundreds of employees in the central office, she fired 98 people. Last fall, when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) sought the reclassification, Rhee said she wanted the same authority to fire ineffective teachers.

Sound familiar? It should, because the manner in which Senator Palpatine was granted emergency powers from the Galactic Senate in that cautionary tale, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, should be fresh in our minds. It was all downhill from there. It is not that her firing of unsatisfactory administrators is inherently bad, but they have the right to know why they were fired. They also deserve more than a week’s notice. One may consider tossing in an official evaluation, as well.

I don’t want to challenge her authoritarian regime, I mean, authority, but I wonder what the goals of these firings are. Are these assistant principals going to be given positions at other schools (a la teachers who have been fired from schools that don’t make AYP)? Like the Battle of Endor, we’re going to have to see how this shakes out. I only hope that the Chancellor has not learned to emit lightening from her fingers…

Boston Public

There are really only a handful of good things to come out of Boston. In honor of the NBA Championship’s return to Beantown, I will recapitulate those sacred few things that our culture is blessed to gain from such an otherwise detestable metropolitan area. (NB: You will find no support of the Boston Red Sox on this page.)

1. Serials produced by David E. Kelly. LA Law, Picket Fences, The Practice, Ally McBeal, and Boston Public have each played a part in my development as an awkward human being.
2. Boston Tea Party. Maybe this is the reason for the bravado taken on by most Chowderheads. One justified act of protest, and the rest of us are subjected to 225 years of “Sweet Caroline”.



3. Jeremy Roenick. He was so sick in NHL ‘96 for Sega Genesis.



4. Non-rhotic accents. I generally hate them, but after reading this entry, they earned a mention.
5. Kevin Garnett’s 2008 NBA Finals post-game interview with Michelle Tafoya. It speaks for itself:

Fighting Words

It’s taken me some time to craft this post, mostly because I had to allow myself sufficient time to calmame. In lieu of a bare knuckle MMA brawl, I offer the following in response to Jay Mathew’s report on the closing of the Tri-Community Public Charter School, entitled “Charter School to Close Over Academics” (The Washington Post, 6/9/2008).

Generally, I think that the discussion that Mr. Mathews spurs with his columns are an excellent way to draw attention to educational issues. However, upon viewing his columns from the perspective of a referenced party (my school is mentioned repeatedly), I realize that there are better ways to engender dialogue than to use poorly-researched statistics and meaningless variables to facilitate the drawing of unsound conclusions.

According to Mr. Mathews,

A list of the D.C. Charter Schools with the lowest reading and mathematics proficiency rates reveals that the closing of Tri-Community is the exception, not the rule, for struggling charters. Charter Schools with achievement rates even lower than Tri-Community’s are still open, in several cases because they serve a large number of students with learning disabilities or other special circumstances. (Emphasis added)

As a result of lumping all failing charter schools together (yes, I agree with his fundamental premise that charter schools are not quite making the grade), Mr. Mathews is making a severe ontological error. The table, “D.C.’s Lowest-Achieving Charters” lists several of the “worst performing” charter schools based at least, in part, on the findings of a non-profit that does not understand the fundamentals of statistical analysis. Mr. Mathew’s puts forth a harrowing statistic:

According to a FOCUS list of 58 D.C. Charter schools arranged by combined reading and math proficiency rates last year…[there were] two charter schools, City Lights and Next Step, with no students scoring at least proficient on the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System (D.C.-CAS) tests.

It is outrageous to have no students reading or doing mathematics at the proficient level, and Mr. Mathews’ exceptional reason for such educational shortcomings is that

[Booker T. Washington, Young America Works, Next Step and other] low achieving charters deal mostly with high school dropouts, including many adults, and focus on developing job skills rather than boosting reading and math scores to the highest levels.

Thus, developing job skills is incompatible with improving reading and math abilities of students. Such an awkward conclusion should have catalyzed further research into the reasons for these schools’ achieving at such a low level. A simple visit to our website would have informed Mr. Mathews that we only have approximately 85 students at any given time. A phone call to our receptionist could have informed him that at least 97% of our students live in households that do not speak English as their primary language, with over half of those students qualifying as English Language Learners. Finally, a brief conversation with our executive director would have provided him with our own harrowing statistic: no more than 4 students from our school take the DC-CAS in any given year.

Isn’t there someone who gets paid to do that?

On Wednesday, a meeting scheduled to last an hour somehow extended itself at least an extra 93 minutes. I know, because I counted every tick of my Flava Flav clock that I wear to staff meetings to keep time. The meeting involved all of the teachers on staff, but it wasn’t a status-of-the-school staff meeting, but rather, a school-vision-and-mission-and-student-body-composition-and-state-mandated-restructuring staff meeting. Needless to say, as a third-month teacher, I don’t have much to add to these conversations, beyond the pragmatic, “Wrap it up, B”:

Obviously the problems of meetings beyond the scope and experience level of the staff are not endemic to the education industry, but I feel that other entities probably have more capital to invest in an outside organization to do the [grunt/boring/tedious/hard] work. I feel that the more efficient way of achieving this “new vision/design” would have been through educational consultants who can come up with a handful of plans based on interviews with senior members of the staff who have the best idea of where the school came from and where it should go. While I understand the importance of the egalitarian method that this school is attepmting to use, all it achieves is a cyclic arguments that devolve into scheduling discussions. This ad hoc methodology that is currently in effect is going to get us to one place: where we are, having the Charter School Board tell us that the school, once again, isn’t making the grade.

The Great Social Equalizer

is not education. At least not in its current form. As luck would have it, I am instructing in a school that is serving students who were not being served elsewhere. The vast majority of my students are recent immigrants with overwhelmingly limited English-speaking abilities, teenage parents, and individuals who have been through the juvenile justice system after being expelled from “traditional” schools. Thus, the minimum goal of our program is for every student to earn their GED. For student who are over 18, this may be a reasonable alternative. One that may allow them to get their lives on track. Unfortunately, in the process of serving these students, one encounters many exceptional cases, for whom this expectation is not nearly sufficient.

One student, in particular, comes to mind because today we had a heart-to-heart. In the future, I will probably reflect on this conversation as the first one in which I was a legitimate male role model, and went out of my way to be such. This individual is a talented student, and I have known this since my demonstration lesson, when he did the majority of the participation. Gifted in science and mathematics, husky in stature, and with weathered eyes of an journeyman, I could never have guessed him to be fifteen. However, upon finding this out, I was determined to reach him, despite his outbursts of foul language, chronic pacing of the room, and occasional attendance under the influence of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol. Nevertheless, his attendance wasn’t that bad, he worked hard probably despite ADHD, or some other cognitive deficit, and he, like all of my students, is a good kid. At fifteen, he certainly had more than enough time to get enrolled in a traditional high school, finish on-time, and continue with his goal of becoming an mechanical engineer. To my chagrin, though, this student has decided to settle for his GED when he turns sixteen. I have almost no doubt that he could pass the GED now, but fortunately, the law prohibits individuals under the age of sixteen from taking the test. Moreover, he just informed me that his fourteen year old girlfriend is pregnant (the reason for the heart-to-heart).

During our trip to Starbucks during the last period, we discussed everything: his family, how he came to be at this school, where he was previously, problems he’s had, drugs he’s used, his P.O. (parole officer), how expensive Starbucks is, his internship at an auto shop, and finally, his girlfriend’s pregnancy. Although I have known about this pregnancy since he announced it in class a few days ago, I could not bring myself to have this conversation because all I wanted to say was, “GET A FUCKING ABORTION! WTF?!!!!” However, my peers counseled me against an outright counseling of abortion. Most of my friends actually told me not to speak with him at all. Fortunately, I had the blessing of two other teachers who have him in their classes, and being his only male instructor, I had to step up to the plate. Although the conversation was constructive, and allowed me to get to know him as the insightful individual that he is, I cannot say for certain whether I conveyed my point of view to the extent that he will run with his girlfriend to Planned Parenthood for an abortion, because an explicit endorsement like that probably would have been lost in generational and cultural translation. However, I feel that I may have at least convinced him to visit Planned Parenthood for help in managing the birth of his child. Maybe that will open other doors.

So, my school does not provide the equality that the educational system of the country alleges. In fact, it may even be creating a culture of failure and measured/lowered expectations that is unacceptable, but the necessary result of a pragmatic approach to the education of our students. On the other hand, we do have teachers that care sincerely about the welfare of these students, and while that is not enough to overcome situational factors that have brought them to our doors, it is a start. But the system, as it stands, is no social equalizer, for all of my students will never be lab partners with the next Arthur Holly Compton. They may never take a course from Cornel West. They may not be in a book club with Isabel Allende. That is the essence of equality and equity in access to education. But they could very easily share a restroom with any one of the aforementioned individuals, with only a stall wall in-between. Public amenities such as these are the great equalizers of society. Everyone has to poo. And it always smells like shit.