Tell Your Story
More than a year ago Junot Diaz wrote an article for the New Yorker about the power of storytelling. He wrote “We need stories, we thrive on them, stories are how we shape our universe. Stories rule us, they find us, they bring us together, they bind us, and, yes, they can pull us apart as well.” As teachers we need to tell our stories. Stories of success, stories of school closings, stories of budget cuts, and stories that tear at our emotions. These stories can help us figure out where are schools are going and what we can do to change their path or push them further in the right direction.
According to Diaz “a coherent, accessible, compelling story—one that is narrow enough to be held in our minds and hearts and that nevertheless is roomy enough for us, to weave our own predilections, dreams, fears, experiences into its fabric” is the type of story that is most effective. This post is a call to all educators to tell their stories. What is going on in your school? What are the successes? How are the budget cuts effecting the young people and their access to quality education? How are school closings effecting the larger community that is supported by the school? If we can make our stories heard maybe we can shape an alternative narrative that supports our schools and our young people.
Send your stories to info@tagboston.org and we will post them here so that our stories will fall on the eyes and ears of many.
America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline
“In the fourth grade, the sorting begins in earnest between those children in the pipeline to college and those heading in the direction of prison. Children begin to understand in about the third grade whether they are part of the American mainstream or part of another, more marginal world.”
(CDF Cradle to Prison Pipeline Report, p.136)
It is imperative for us to understand the driving forces behind the incarceration of the young people we serve. The Children’s Defense Fund report “America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline” provides a concise analysis of the various and intersecting influences that lead young people into the juvenile justice system.
Chapters 3 – 7 of the report address the primary contributing factors in the School to Prison Pipeline.
A Teacher’s Response
On March 13th The Boston Globe ran this article that touched on some of the issues surrounding UP Academy, an in district charter school opening this fall. A teacher from the Gavin, which will be closed and re-opened as UP Academy, wrote this response which is posted below. Update: Intro added by the author.
On March 13th, Laurence Harmon published a feature in the Boston Globe describing how success at South Boston’s new charter school, Unlocking Potential (“UPâ€) Academy, could change the terms of the education debate in America. He supported this narrative with sweeping generalizations about the quality of teaching currently available to Boston Public School students and a few quotes from UP founder and CEO Scott Given. As a current teacher at the PF Gavin Middle School, the current school that UP will replace, I want to make sure that the “facts on the ground†go down on the public record, because they paint a picture that is quite different from the one Harmon describes.
“… poorly performing Gavin Middle School…â€
My heart goes out to Josie and her mother, and I wish them all of the luck in the world in finding the right educational environment for their needs. However, I do want to point out that, had Josie attended the Gavin, she would have likely received a math education that compares favorably to most other public options in Boston:
– Gavin math students outperformed the BPS average on the MCAS last year according to the state’s Comprehensive Performance Index (CPI).
– The average Gavin student showed more improvement than 60% of their peers statewide on the MCAS last year, according to the state’s “student growth percentile†metric.
– This performance was recognized at both the state and federal level. The Gavin is the only BPS middle school to make “AYP†– Adequate Yearly Progress – in math for at least the last three years.
Every mainstream public middle school in Boston is “poorly performing†in the sense that they are designated “restructuring†by the state due to failure to make AYP for two consecutive years. While I am not saying that the Gavin is generating the kind of aggregate outcomes any of us want to see consistently, it is by most every measure outperforming its urban peers in math. As a scapegoat for what is obviously system-wide failure, the Gavin is a poor choice.
“…Unlocking Potential, a nonprofit charter school management organization that specializes in resuscitating failed schools.â€
While “resuscitating failed schools†is a worthy goal, will someone please point out the fact that the organization has never actually done it? Their institutional history includes just one year of planning and hiring activities. They derive all of their institutional credibility from founder Scott Given’s resume, which in turn rests on having turned around the charter school “Excel Academy.†While this was quite an achievement, Excel had fewer than 200 students at the time with only 10% or so receiving special education services. The Gavin, with 500 students, a third of whom receive special education services, is a vastly different environment. Given (who as CEO of UP will not have a day to day role in the school) and his team are undoubtedly smart, well-intentioned people, and they will work hard to create a great learning environment; but according to a significant recent study, only 17% of charter schools outperform their public school counterparts, and many fail completely in their first few years. The education of my current sixth and seventh grade special education students, with whom the UP administrators have little to no experience, is at the mercy of their learning curve. UP has a lot to prove quickly, the stakes are high, and the short-term outcome –- the outcome for my students, who will experience UP in its first year –- is not so clear as this feature piece makes out.
“Critics complain that charter schools attract the best students, leaving special-needs students and non-native English speakers behind. But Unlocking Potential is determined to put that argument to rest….â€
91% of current sixth graders and seventh graders choosing to stay represents a hard-won logistical victory on the part of UP.
Special education and English language earners are expensive to teach and fail to fit easily into the rigid remedial academic systems that many charter schools favor. That is why the percentage of the Gavin’s current population receiving those services is triple that of the Excel Academy, Given’s former school. Alarmingly, Boston Public Schools never required UP to put together a plan for these students before handing them the keys – which, as a special education teacher, I find criminally negligent – but the planning team for the new school has since devoted much time and effort to the task. While UP remains a new, untested organization and therefore has no experience serving large numbers of these students, they have made every effort to adjust their plans to the Gavin’s current population and have the resources to throw money at any contingencies they run into next year. Time will tell whether this will be enough to overcome their inevitable learning curve – it will be no slam dunk.
To read the full response by Ryan Ghan click here.
Boston’s 2011 Early Childhood Summit
Date: April 14 2011
Event Name: Boston’s 2011 Early Childhood Summit
Sponsor: Thrive in 5 Boston http://www.thrivein5boston.org/
Type of Event: Early Childhood Summit
Location: Northeastern University Curry Student Center 345 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115
Time: 8am-1pm
Event Website: http://thrivein5bostonearlychildhoodsummit.eventbrite.com/
New research continues to point to early childhood (birth-age 5) as a time that sets the foundation for all future development. For example, a research team commissioned by Mayor Tom Menino in 2006 found that ” half of Boston’s test score gap in 12th grade is attributed to gaps that existed in 1st grade” What can parents, early childhood educators, and the community do to close these gaps in early childhood? That will be focus Boston’s Early Childhood Summit 2011 on April 14 at Northeastern Universities Curry Student Center. Registration to the event is free; it should be interesting event for parents of young children, early childhood educators, or anyone who has an interest in the development of children. The event features workshops, a keynote address by noted economist Arthur J Rolnick, and a panel that features BPS Superintendent Carol Johnson and Director of Head Start at ABCD Yvette Rodriguez among others.
Ernest Morrell Lecture Series Day 1
I must admit that I had never heard of Ernest Morrell until last month and I am certainly working on my ability to incorporate critical literacy into my classroom. I say that to say – I am no expert on any of this and still very much a student. However, here are some notes from the lecture at Simmons College today in case you weren’t able to make it. He will continue the lecture series Wednesday and Thursday and you can find more information here.
On the limitations of the current conversation about reform
• It is focused on outcomes and not on the process
• It doesn’t include the voices of the youth, the people who are most impacted yet least regarded in the conversation.
• It focuses on resource allocation and policy instead of classroom practice. Policy makers rarely talk about what good teaching looks like – what quality education looks like.
• The conversation does not focus on the successes in America’s classrooms. Even if you think that a very low number of teachers are delivering excellence, say 10% (again this is a low, conservative number), that is still 300,000 excellent teachers. Why don’t we focus on their success? They have something to teach all of us.
On motivating students
• The value of learning to the learner + The extent to which the learner expects success in the learning = motivation.
• We must impact confidence if we expect to impact motivation. Relevancy is key here; are my activities relevant? Relevant right now, relevant today?
On powerful teaching 4.0
• It must consist of: Voice, Affirmation, Achievement, Purpose, and Love
• Help students to say what they want to say by developing their critical literacy (Voice). Build confidence and make it relevant to their lives (Affirmation). Push students beyond their expectations of themselves (Achievement). Have students create work and products that have an impact on their local communities (Purpose). Teach with love. Would you ever send your child to a place where they were given no love for six to ten hours a day? Schools cannot function without love.
He spoke about much more and I am sure my notes do not even do this part of the lecture justice, but I hope they are informative or may at least spark a larger conversation which I encourage you to start by leaving a comment below.
Critical Literacy and an Analysis of the Blueprint for Reform
Although the Blueprint for Reform was published by the U.S. Department of Education a year ago I find Ernest Morrell’s analysis of it to be worth a second look for two reasons. One, he is speaking at the Simmons College Race, Education and Democracy Lecture and Book Series this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Two, with gems like – “critical literacy is a matter of life and death. Students, families, communities, and neighborhoods simply cannot survive in the 21st century without raising literacy rates” – it is an urgent call to action. Read the whole Critical Literacy article and post your reactions below.
1st Annual Social Justice Educators Conference for Boston-area educators
Date: Saturday, May 21st, 2011
Event Name: Social Justice Educators’ Conference for Boston Area Educators
Sponsor: Boston area Educators for Social Justice & Teacher Activist Group (TAG) Boston
Type of Event: Conference
Location: Curley K-8 School
Time: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Event Website: http://besj.weebly.com/
Download Event Flyer, post in your school and email to friends and colleagues.
Educators, please consider attending this conference! We are hoping some of you will present to your fellow educators. We should all fully support this wonderful event! Leave a comment for us or contact the event coordinators directly. Submit a proposal for a workshop by clicking here.
Register for the event here.
We welcome you to the 1st annual Social Justice Educators’ Conference for Boston-area educators. The goal of the conference is to bring together teachers, graduate students and interested others to share curriculum and perspectives that address social justice issues in our classrooms, schools and communities. The conference will include panels, workshops & roundtable discussions facilitated by educators for educators. We’ll explore topics in our schools and communities, teaching methods and student-led activism. We hope that this conference will lead to the creation of a network of Boston-area social justice teachers. The conference will be held on Saturday, May 21, 10-5 pm.
Our planning conferences have included educators from a number of districts. We are seeking more educators and students who are committed to social justice education to be involved in shaping this event.
If you would like to be part of the organizing committee for this conference, please contact Roger Grande: besjinfo@gmail.com. If you know a teacher, educator or student that you think would be interested, please forward this note.
This Moment of Pres.Obama’s visit to the Dorchester Education Complex is pregnant with significance
The following was written by Dorchester Academy teacher Andrea Doremus Cuetara (adoremus@rcn.com)Â and is shared with her permission:
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This moment of President Obama’s visit to the Dorchester Education Complex March 8th is SO PREGNANT WITH MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE for our most challenged “failing” schools throughout the country. There needs to be equal responsibility taken. If our system has been able to create a shining Tech Boston (and honest congratulations to them!)…it is our system that has also produced her lame half-sister “Dorchester Academy,” the other school in the building who is now hidden away from view in the attic. It is our whole system – a plurality of factors – that has produced this inequity, and NOT just because of bad teachers and the Unions, as ed “reformers” from NYC, to Los Angeles, to Providence and Wisconsin are trying to portray it.
The PR backlash seemed ripe on Tuesday, for a very powerful media story, but most likely everyone was counting on what will actually happen….NOTHING. Our staff at DA, our students, our community will just be quiet and go about our business. We are a marginalized, disenfranchised community, we are being treated that way, and we will comply and simply act that way, as well.
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Why does one group of students in a building, who are basically all the SAME students, get so much?! (by the luck of the draw — they had someone who advocated to get them into Tech Boston), and ANOTHER group of students go through 4 Principals in 6 years; have some of their best teachers and cherished/much-needed support-staff shipped off to other schools (over and over again…it has been very painful); have guidance and support staff for almost the same number of students be cut from 8 positions to 4 and have to lose 15+ of those individual people over 7 years; not have adequate technology to even have regular ACCESS to a student computer lab, much less a personal, individual computer?; have the In-Focus that was in my room for 3 years be removed, and over the summer a ceiling-hung mounting site built for a promised projector, but it is mid-March and I still haven’t received one (1/2 our teachers received them) (this is starting to dramatically improve in the right direction); not have decent textbooks in a whole number of classes (this is inconsistent and improving); not have all teachers been told what they are expected to teach (this is dramatically improving) or been informed about system-wide teaching resources that are easily available; constant shifts in course load, so summer-planning is perhaps a useless luxury; classrooms switched around repeatedly; be a last stop dumping ground for a few Union teachers who have been evaluated out of other schools, who are sometimes a little crazy; have decent teachers be targeted and evaluated in a negative way, or just shipped off, Â by administrators who want to “get rid of them” for personal or political reasons; be a dumping ground for many, many students who are way over grade level (16 and 18 year-old 9th graders), have 3rd and 5th grade reading levels, and/or have long histories of mental illness, petty crimes and/or violence and have therefore been recently released from DYS facilities showing up to well-gelled and humming classrooms with no warning or preparation or psycho-social support, only to wreak havoc for a few days (or weeks). Why???
Everyone acknowledges that we get some of the students that “Tech Boston” needs to kick out. Because Tech Boston feels they will not be successful there. And many of DA’s most motivated kids manage to transfer to Tech Boston. Every year, we receive a whole bunch of students from all the “elite” schools and the charter schools who just have not been able to make it and then get kicked out: Tech Boston, Boston Arts Academy, the MATCH School, The METCO program, the exam schools – BLA, BLS, O’Bryant….
And we welcome them. Because OUR KIDS ARE GREAT, and smart and amazing and wonderful, they really are, and we are committed teachers (ALL of our staff and administration). There will always be kids who have special needs. There needs to be a place for them, and WE COULD BE THAT PLACE. But then plan, and design, and staff, and fund, and structure a school in a common sense way that will truly provide these students with the clear and appropriate support resources that will ensure them success. My understanding is our school is changing and being restructured to perhaps address some of these needs! Start by not going through 8 guidance counselors in 7 years, and just as many (8) “deans of discipline†(whatever is the current title they give them).
The problem is NOT about money (though having it definitely helps). Along with carefully and creatively planned, scaffolded, differentiated, student-centered, workshop model curriculum……the solution is good, strong, honest “I know I can count on you,†relationships between all members of the community. What our students need most of all are consistent relationships with adults who know THEM and believe in THEM to live up to high expectations. Adults who create, understand and enforce the stated agreements, and do what they say they are going to do (just like a successful family, I guess). And due to a multiplicity of causes (a small part of those being Union rules, but mostly administration-driven staff-scattering and program-smashing directives, as well as repeatedly inadequate support services and early identification safety nets), we have just not had that community in this building, on a regular basis, for the seven years that I have been here. And THAT is the major problem. My hunch is this is a similar problem in “failing†schools across the country. I know for sure that high-stakes testing, simply longer in-class hours and punitive, adversarial, manipulative, lying, self-serving, oppositional attitudes and actions between administration and teachers is definitely not the solution.
The contrast between the schools is so stark, and therefore obvious. For 5 years I have been resorting to hyperbole and calling it “apartheid.” It has been obvious apartheid in our building for many years and now, the President of our country has come here….
And THAT is the question that President Obama SHOULD be asking. THAT question is what I wish was the focus of Tuesday’s speech. THAT is why I worked hard, like many Union teachers around the country, to elect Mr. Obama because I thought he would ask that question.
Why is there such a difference between our two schools? What does it take to build a successful school? And what does it take to destroy a successful program? If we could look at the story of these two schools, we have a playbook for what it takes to change and fix public education in our country.
I don’t blame any one individual or even group for what is happening in our building, but our situation is the same and what is real across the country in many and all public school systems, and it is THAT which I wish Mr. Obama was choosing to focus on when he arrives on Tuesday.
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My quote: “And now we are the Cinderella sister who can’t even be OPEN, just running as a school with regular classes for our students, but shut down and hidden from view, our kids sent home, while the shining prince comes to town. Seems like a PR nightmare to me, frankly. And as teachers of our dear students, we are being ordered to just be quiet and not even talk to each other or the media about it, and to just let this happen. Seems sad and odd, I think.â€
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Of course he can’t, because of the nature of media and political discourse. Barack Obama cannot deal in the whole truth because he is forced to DEFEND, DEFEND, DEFEND and SPIN, SPIN, SPIN from the onslaught of lies and distortions from the opposing political party, because of deadening financial constraints due to the “economic crisis,†and powerful interests within the “education establishment†that want to promote their own “reform†agenda (that they believe in) and want to blame (and destroy) the Union rights and normal worker benefits of experienced, dedicated and hard-working teachers.
But I wish it were the regular people/folks from both parties who would just rise up and demand a stop to the ridiculousness and demand an honest and common sense discourse about the real problems with public education in this country. Like in Egypt. Like in Libya. Like in Sudan. It is not rocket science.
Logo Contest for Students-Cash Award
Calling all student artists! TAGBoston needs a logo to put on the website.
(To download a PDF version of the flyer to post in your school click here.)
CONTEST INFO
Entries Due: Friday, April 1, 2011
Award: $50 and recognition on Website
Format: Logo should be no larger than 700×600 pixels or half of a page (8.5×11)
How to enter:
- Create the coolest logo in Boston
- Send the logo as an attachment to info@TAGBoston.org
- Be sure to include your name, address, school you currently attend and a photo of yourself to include on our page
What should the logo look like?
The logo should artistically express the dedication to education, exercise of power, commitment to diversity and goal of excellence that TAGBoston is rooted in.  Please check our website (www.TAGBoston.org) and read the “Our Beliefs†page to get an idea of what we stand for.
Who decides if I win? Entries will be reviewed at a TAGBoston meeting and a winner will be chosen by members.
Below are examples of the logos of other organizations with similar goals from around the country.
Event: So…What Are You, Anyway? 2011 Conference on Multiracial Identity
Date: March 25-26, 2011
Event Name: So…What Are You, Anyway? 2011 Conference on Multiracial Identity
Sponsor: Harvard Half-Asian People’s Association
Type of Event: Conference
Location: Harvard College
Time: n/a
Event Website: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/harvardhapa/swaya/
The Harvard Half-Asian People’s Association will host its third annual conference on mixed-race politics and identity issues, “So…What Are You, Anyway?†(SWAYA) on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26, 2011 on the Harvard University campus. The event is open to the public and will feature an array of exciting guest lecturers who will speak on issues involving multiracial identity.  SWAYA will culminate in a special gala dinner (there’s a fee to attend the gala: $7 for students, $15 for the general public) in honor of the 2010 recipient of the Cultural Pioneer Award, celebrity mixed-race artist Jeff Chiba Stearns, director of the award-winning documentary “One Big Hapa Familyâ€.
