All students deserve a consistent, quality education!

If one was to look at different eighth grade classrooms (or any grade level) across the country from state-to-state, there would be very little consistency.  Some schools would appear to be providing a quality education, whereas others may not.  For years, this has been the case because each state wrote and followed their own state standards.  Students at the same grade level were expected to achieve at different levels according to the academic standards of their state.  Is this fair for the students?  How do we set standards so that all states follow and all students receive a consistent, quality education? And, if we do set standards which all states follow, would our schools become cookie-cutter schools?    

Common Core Standards is the direction that education is going, with 42 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands formally adopting the Common Core Standards.  

Rather than having 50 states with 50 different standards, there will now be common learning goals for all students no matter where they live.  This will ensure that from school to school and state to state that students are receiving a quality education that is comparable to other students in the same grade.  According to the Common Core Standards website, “The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The standards were developed in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare our children for college and the workforce”.  

As a Language Arts teacher, I do not find this set of standards threatening or constricting.  I actually find them helpful because the goals and expectations for each grade are clear, yet leave room for me and my team to decide how we are going to address each standard in our classrooms.  The Common Core Standards work like a staircase so that each subject (currently just Language Arts and Math, but eventually expanding) builds in complexity for a deeper understanding through the grade levels.  The goal of the Common Core Standards is not to have a universal curriculum where every eighth grader reads the same books and writes the same genres no matter where they live.  Rather, the goal is to provide students with a solid education that prepares them for college and a career.  

As stated by the  Common Core Standards website, the standards:

• Are aligned with college and work expectations; 
• Are clear, understandable and consistent; 
• Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills; 
• Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards; 
• Are informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society;
• Are evidence-based

In our world, we need to prepare students to compete and work alongside their peers no matter where they end up in life.  The first step to doing this is creating a set of consistent standards that will prepare our students with the skills, strategies and content they will need to be successful.  Isn’t it only fair that our students, no matter where they live, receive a quality education?  Thoughts?...

Ms. S

Turnaround Schools

My school is not perfect. Just like any school it has strengths and weaknesses. However, one of our strengths, I believe, is the relationship we have with our parents and community. My school is a neighborhood school that has been a stable and positive force in the community for many years. Many of the children in my classroom have parents and even grandparents that attended the school. People in the neighborhood feel comfortable here. They feel a sense of belonging when they enter the school doors. You can see it with the many warm greetings between parents, teachers, and students.

I am now approaching my fifth year teaching at this school, and each year I feel more like an integral part of the school and community. This year I especially feel a strong relationship with the parents in my classroom. They feel comfortable talking to me and discussing problems or concerns. Many of the parents in my school community are faced with very difficult issues to overcome. One parent in particular came to me and told me that her family of four was currently homeless. She needed help finding a place to live and clothes for her children. This was not easy for her to tell me. I was extremely relieved that she felt comfortable enough to discuss this with me and to trust that I would do everything I could to help. I had taught this parent’s older child my first year of teaching and now had another one of her children in my class. Our relationship was developed overtime and was enhanced by our ability to support and trust each other. Had I not worked to build this trusting relationship with her throughout these years I do not think she would have felt comfortable approaching me with her problem.

Thinking about this sense of community and strong relationships with parents got me wondering, what would a school feel like if this was lost?

In 2006 Chicago Public Schools adopted a turnaround approach. Schools that are chronically low performing are turned around by letting go of all or most of the staff in the school including teachers and administration, and then new staff is hired and trained. In the 2011/2012 school year CPS will receive $50 million in federal funding to go towards this turnaround project.

I believe that these struggling schools need help. They no doubt are in high poverty areas where children and parents are working to overcome a great deal of obstacles. They are most likely underfunded and lacking resources. However, I wonder does hiring all new staff members and changing the name of the school really produce a better educational environment for these children. When everyone they know and trusted is gone will they feel safe at their school? Will they want to attend this new school? How will all of this affect their ability to focus and learn in the classroom? What about the parents? Will they feel the same sense of belonging and pride in a school that they have no relationship with? In Diane Ravitch’s speech, Taking Back School Reform, she states, “Closing a school destroys its social network”. I can only imagine how much time it would take to rebuild this sense of community once it has been destroyed.

Yes, I feel that a change needs to be made in these schools, but what if the money was put toward providing necessary resources and training to the people who have made this school their home for many years. Ravich states, in her book Death and Life of the Great American School System, “The goal of accountability should be to support and improve schools, not the heedless destruction of careers, reputations, lives, communities, and institutions”. Turnaround schools seem to be a quick fix. Put a mask over the problem and maybe no one will realize it is there. In education there are no short cuts. Improvement takes time, effort, and resources.


Mrs. J

At the teachers' expense?

Walk into my school around 7:45am and you will see teachers bustling around, collaborating, and lesson planning.  Stay until 5pm and you will see teachers still hard at work.  Contract hours are from 8:30am until 2:45pm, yet very few teachers work those hours.  Most teachers come early and stay late with no overtime pay.  Teachers do it willingly because they believe in their profession and do it for the children. 

On June 15, 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his self-chosen Chicago School Board unanimously decided to freeze the 4% raises that teachers receive each year that are worth about $100 million.  According to the Chicago Tribune, CPS is currently about $712 million in debt.  Is it fair that it is the teachers that have to suffer?  Or should the teachers simply be happy to be employed during this economic crisis and understand where the Chicago School Board is coming from?

According to Jean-Claude Brizard, new Chicago Public Schools CEO, “I have the utmost respect and admiration for teachers and all that they do for our children. But today's Board action was taken in response to the massive financial crisis facing our system. My team is now tasked with developing a balanced budget and presenting it to the Board and the public in August and our promise remains to minimize any impacts on the classroom and our kids.”



Jean-Claude Brizard



Of course, this was all the buzz at school the next day.  Most teachers have something to say and an opinion to share.  As teachers, we are constantly spending money on classroom supplies and books.  It is part of the job and many teachers do it willingly and without blinking an eye.  But now, without a raise, it may become more difficult with the average CPS teacher earning $69,000 per year.  Lucky for some CPS teachers, 75% will receive some sort of slight pay raise due to step and lane changes according to years of service and increased education/credentials even with the 4% raise being revoked.

On June 22, 2011, over 1,000 Chicago Teacher Union (CTU) members, parents and students marched and picketed downtown at the Chicago Board of Education to show disapproval of the removal of the 4% raise.    

Is a strike the answer? 

Should the contract be re-opened?

For the most part, the revoked 4% raise will not force teachers to leave the profession.  But is it fair?  Can budget cuts happen in other areas rather than at the teachers’ expense? 

Ms. S

Inquiry Approach vs. Coverage Approach

All too often we see a teacher standing in front of the classroom feeding information and facts to students.  As Mrs. J mentioned, this is what Friere called the “banking method”.  The teacher is the know-all and has the duty of filling the mind of the student, whereas the student’s job is to memorize. 

Do we not want our children to grow up to be independent thinkers who are curious about our world?  Do we not want children who have the skills to research the topics they are interested in?  Because so many teachers feel the pressure to teach to the test, inquiry-based learning is often-times put to the side.  As a two-time Boundless Readers grant award winner (http://www.boundlessreaders.org/), I was fortunate to be a member of a professional study group this past school year (2010-2011) as well as this upcoming school year (2011-2012).  The professional text that we studied and just recently finished is called Comprehension and Collaboration by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. 

Inquiry circles need to be a part of the curriculum in every classroom.   As educators, we need to teach and model for our students our curiosity about different topics because it will eventually (and hopefully) carry over to them in their lives.  Children need to learn how to do accurate research and how to evaluate websites.  We need to prepare our students and teach them how to formulate “wonder” questions that they will eventually research and find answers to.  Unfortunately, this is seen as “not structured” by many people and is therefore the first type of teaching and learning to go when worries about test scores occur and teachers feel the pressure.  Fostering curious learners is not new in education.  This idea of constantly questioning comes from Socrates, a Greek philosopher, whose pedagogy remains talked-about today.  Socrates believed that right questions lead to clarity, understanding, and further inquiry.  He said that it is not a clarity that is given to you by others, but arrived at by your own questioning.  He said that you basically cannot have knowledge without knowing the right questions to ask.  So why are so many teachers continuously dumping information into their students’ minds?  Why do we still see students reading text and answering “right there” questions?  We need to embrace students’ natural curiosity by supporting inquiry learning in our classrooms.  Teachers need to stop the busywork and worksheets and instead give students opportunities to research interesting topics, synthesize the information, and eventually ask more questions so that knowledge and understanding are gained. 

Check out the chart—Inquiry Approach versus Coverage Approach:

Here’s something to try:  Don’t look ahead, just read this text until you feel you understand it well (from Comprehension and Collaboration book).

MS2 Phage Coat Protein—RNA Interaction

This system is being studied for three reasons: (1) it is an example of a sequence-specific RNA-protein interaction, (2) it participates in a well-behaved in vitro capsid assembly reaction, and (3) it is a good model system to study how protein finds a target on a large RNA molecule. Available are an X-ray crystal structure of the RNA-protein complex and an NMR structure of the free RNA hairpin target. Current efforts focus on understanding how the thermodynamic details of sequence-specific "recognition" is achieved. We have made mutations in all the amino acids believed to make contact with the RNA and are evaluating the affinity of the mutant proteins to the normal RNA target as well as to targets that have single atom changes in either the bases or the phosphodiester backbone. It is already clear that nearly all the contacts predicted by the co-crystal structure contribute to the total free energy of binding. Thus, unlike several protein-protein interfaces that have been analyzed in a similar way, there are no "hot spots" that dominate the affinity. However, we have several examples where affinity and specificity are defined by structural elements of the RNA in its free form.

                -Olke Uhlenbeck, Interdepartmental Biological Sciences, Northwestern University

Okay, now you need to take a comprehension test:

1. How many reasons are there for studying this system?
2. What is the nature of the in vito capsid assembly reaction?
3. Current research focuses on what details of the sequence-specific recognition?
4. How many “hot spots” dominate the affinity?
5. In what form are there examples of RNA where affinity and specificity are defined by structural elements?

So, you probably got all 5 questions correct, right?  This is to show you how a teacher can “cover the material” but the students truly have no understanding or knowledge.   Need I say more? 

                Ms. S

Charter Schools: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Part II

Charter Schools are a big topic today in the educational reform debate. Both Rham Emanual, Chicago’s new mayor, and his appointed Chicago Public Schools CEO, Jean-Claude Brizzard, support charter schools and school choice. There are 48 charter schools in CPS today. In Diane Ravitch’s book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, she takes a close look at charter schools. They are public schools under private management. They must follow only some of the rules and regulations that regular public schools do and they receive federal funding. When charter schools were originally proposed they were to be run by innovative teachers that would develop ways to help children failing in the traditional school system. It would provide an alternate choice for struggling students. Schools would be tailored to their needs and produce better results. This sounds like a great idea. However, this is not how many charter schools are functioning now. Today charter schools are run using a business model where competition and return on investments are expected.

Janelle Scott, an educational researcher, discusses the presence of venture philanthropy in charter schools. Philanthropies such as The Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are putting their money into charter schools. However, they are not just giving their money to schools they expect to see increased student achievement and to have a say in the policies of the school. Charter schools need the money for their school so they will do what is expected of them to get it. Since test scores are what determines student achievement today enrollment may be adjusted so that charter schools accept the most desirable students. Scott states in her article, The Politics of Venture Philanthropy in Charter School Policy and Advocacy, “There is evidence that some charter schools have disproportionately low enrollments of special education students, English language learners, and boys, populations generally known to perform more poorly on standardized assessments.” When charter schools selectively enroll students they ultimately leave a larger portion of high-needs students to be taught in the regular public schools. This undoubtedly affects the test scores of the public schools. Charter schools boast of high test scores and greater student achievement but many are not educating the same students as public schools. It is difficult to make a true comparison.

Scott also explains that some charter schools have a “high attrition rate”. Children who are struggling or not conforming to the rules of the charter school are either leaving or being expelled. Ravitch discussed the study of a KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter school that found “60 percent of the students who started in fifth grade were gone by the end of eighth grade. The students who quit tended to be lower-performing students”. When these children leave they will return to regular public school classrooms. In the end it seems that charter school are not schools developing new innovative ways to help struggling students. Instead they are attracting the most motivated and successful students and discarding the rest.

All children have the right to a good education, and although public schools are not unflawed they accept all children and work to provide them with a quality education. Are charter schools really doing what they were intended to, servicing children who were struggling in the traditional school system? Are they providing choices in education that high poverty children would not normally receive? It seems as if the competition between charter and public schools and the focus on producing increased student achievement has created an unsuccessful attempt at school reform that may in the end only hurt the students involved.

Mrs. J

Charter Schools: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I am lucky enough to have a preschool program, in a regular neighborhood school, that parents are excited to enroll their children in. My classroom remains full all year despite a high mobility rate in our school neighborhood. We generally have a waiting list of children that can be called if a spot becomes available throughout the school year. I work hard to develop a classroom where the children are engaged in student centered activities and projects that connect to their interests and build on their prior knowledge and experiences. As I speak to the parents throughout the school year they have expressed their happiness with the program and the education their child is receiving in my classroom.

You would think that this positive experience would encourage parents to continue their student’s education at our school. However, something changes once their child leaves preschool. At the end of the school year I ask the parents if they intend to enroll their child in kindergarten at our school. This year five out of twenty-one children are opting out of their neighborhood school and enrolling their child in a charter school. When one parent informed me that her child would be going to a charter school next year, she stated that her other three children go to the charter school already. She said the children take a bus to school at six o’clock in the morning and they have school activities until 6 o’clock at night. She said, “It’s a great program”, and went on to say that I would be a great fit in that school.

Enrollment is decreasing steadily in our school. In 2006 our student enrollment was 471 this school year we have 295 students enrolled. If enrollment continues to decrease our school could close. Parents seem to feel that alternative schools will provide their children with a better education. Some parents believe that these charter schools automatically have the best teachers and will provide the best opportunities. I wonder where they get these ideas. Are these schools truly benefiting the children attending? Are the children receiving a better education? Are there negative aspects to charter schools that people may not be seeing?

To be continued…

Mrs. J

Memorization vs. True Understanding

In my previous blog I discussed the effects that standardized tests are having on the curriculum. The accountability movement has forced educators to teach to the test and therefore, has created a curriculum that is narrow and test driven. Along with this narrowed curriculum I feel that it may be affecting the teaching methods being used in the classroom.

Teachers feel the need to “cover” all the topics being tested before March, when the ISAT is given. This may cause educators to teach concepts and content only on the surface. This does not allow students to have deep knowledge of the content and skills being taught. There is little time to connect the learning to the children’s lives, create background knowledge, and allow for students to discuss and engage in thoughtful conversations about the topic. Instead many teachers feel the need to quickly fill the children with knowledge so they can be ready for the test. Active engaged learning seems to be pushed out of the classroom by state tests.

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire, an educational theorist, defines this type of teaching as the “banking” method. The student’s job is to memorize content. Students are viewed as “receptacles” to be filled by the teachers. Freire states, “The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is.” Accountability based on tests seems to follow some of the same ideas. The better a teacher fills a student with knowledge the better they will do on the test. If they do well on the test you are a good teacher. Do you really think it could be this easy? Is teaching simply filling someone with knowledge? Don’t other factors come into play? Can a good teacher really be determined by standardized test scores?

Freire explains, within the banking method, “The scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits.” Students simply are to remember the information given to them and to recall that information for the test. It does not engage children in thoughtful conversation about the topic utilizing higher order critical thinking. This stifles students’ creativity and learning. Instead of the banking method Freire explains that inquiry should be the basis of learning. He states, “Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” Students need to be encouraged to grapple with their own thoughts and question the information given. This will foster true understanding.

As teachers, especially now, it is hard to stand up and get your voice heard. It is not easy to express concern about the new education reform ideas that are imposed upon us. However, choosing to simply carry out the plan given to us without asking questions can have negative consequences. Each choice in our classroom needs to be given careful consideration, and in the end must have the children’s best interests in mind.

Mrs. J