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…

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.

Classroom Management with John Rambo

The most difficult task that I encounter daily is maintaining composure, optimism and patience in the face of adversity.  As students swear, disrespect and prank each other, it requires quite a bit of internal fortitude to

1. react as an adult; meaning I cannot laugh, even if it’s really funny.
2. react fairly in every situation; whether it’s the sweetest/smartest kid or the disrespectful slacker as the offending party.
3. stay in character; a teacher is on stage for a sold out theater every day.
4. not open up a can of whup-ass on the worst kids.

I rented Rambo (2008) two nights ago, and I noticed many uncanny similarities between the Burmese civil war/conflict that is portrayed without moderation or censor, and my fifth and sixth period classes.  I often feel that my students each possess a sadistic taste for masochism.  It is most evident when each of them, in turn, requests to go to the bathroom.  I confirmed with other instructors that this is the case in their classes as well.  I suspect that they have developed an elaborate communication network whose hub is located in the bathroom.  This allows the students in each different room (the SPDC) to remain in constant communication to maintain their oppression of the teachers (the rebels).  Furthermore, I noticed in John Rambo things that I aspire to possess in my classroom life, like the ability to rip someone’s throat out with my hands, cheetah-like reflexes, and an iron will.   Also, in each installment of his franchise, he encounters situations that require composure, optimism and patience in the face of adversity.  But most of all, it is his desire to do right, stand up for justice, and help those weaker than himself that sets him apart from other action film protagonists.  Well those qualities, and his unique ability to relentlessly kill the shit out of people.

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.

Crónica de una muerte anunciada

First day: phenomenal. The good news: I love the school, the staff, the students, the paint and the lint in the carpet. The bad news: the teacher I replaced died. I’m going to let that idea marinate for a bit. Isn’t there something karmically unsound about indirectly benefiting from the death of another individual?

Farewell Party

Yesterday, my office threw me a non-surprise farewell party. After 1071 days of service, I was presented with a tear-eliciting card, an office lunch (Thai), and a leather shoulder bag so that I would no longer commute to work using a rather hardcore bike messenger’s bag. While we ate, I fielded the usual barrage of tenure-expiration questions:

What subject will you be teaching?

High school science.

What is the school like?

It’s a small school, where the majority of students speak English as a second language.

When do you start?

Monday.

What? No break?

Can’t afford to – I gotta feed the kids.

Despite my financial situation, Mr. Franklin’s knowing gaze from inside that card immediately spurred my calculation of how many Patrón shots I could buy at that night’s celebration (8.33). However, before I could get the limes ready, the medical director quickly corrected my errant reasoning, “That’s to help you with your school supplies.” But I’m not going to…school. And then the gravity of the situation razed the heretofore illusory conception of my next career.

Becoming an educator seems to be the path of choice for many of this country’s recent college graduates, individuals suffering midlife crises, and other unemployed members of the population (as my Grandma oh-so-lovingly reminded me, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach). Despite this, there is still an overwhelming shortage of teachers, especially in schools where disadvantaged/underrepresented/underprivileged children of color are the majority.

I cannot debate the merits of teaching fellowships as a solution to the vacancies across the nation, because I have no grounds on which to judge them. I know several highly motivated and dedicated individuals who have thrived in the face of adversity while in these programs. At the same time, I know a handful of individuals who do not appreciate the extent to which they are adversely affecting children’s lives through consistent negligence of their daily wards.

What makes me, yet another uncertified teacher, any different from the droves of twenty-somethings ready to save the world, one at-risk youth at a time?  I don’t know.   But the way I see it, I share more with my students than the same blackened bubble on the census form.  We’re all getting pimped.  I’m turning lesson tricks for a system that permits an uncertified teacher to enter a classroom full of the students who need the most qualified and experienced instructors.  They’re going through the motions of learning for a system that is supposed to guarantee equal access to quality education.  At this point, the only certainty is that class is in session.