Americans are a poorly educated people, if by educated we mean well-schooled in a liberal arts curriculum that includes knowledge of history, government, geography, economics, natural science, math, literature, and the fine arts. Knowledge of history is abysmal. This has consequences for the American body politic for every current issue that arises. So what about situations that abide in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Israel, or Syria? What historical events gave rise to the prevailing circumstances in those countries? What do we need to recall from history before determining the present course of United States policy in the context of those circumstances?
The reality is that we can recall very little, because we never learned very much. Within urban America, this absence of historical knowledge obscures understanding on the part of teachers who are thrust into situations that they are tempted to see strictly in contemporary terms, on the basis of what is right before their eyes, rather than from the vantage point of a history that always contributes powerfully to the present. Teachers of African American and other inner city young people would have a much more circumspect view of things if they had better knowledge of American history in general and the subset of African American history in particular.
Turmoil that characterizes a good deal of life at the urban core arose from distinct historical circumstances. Consider the following scenario. Most African Americans have roots to people who were brought from West and Central Africa as slaves. Slavery persisted until 1865, when involuntary servitude was made illegal by the 13th Amendment. After the Civil War, the United States embarked upon a hopeful period known as Reconstruction, which lasted until 1877. Reconstruction was an attempt led by people in the Republican Party to bring African Americans full powers of citizenship; in addition to the 13th Amendment, these leaders oversaw passage of the 14th Amendment bestowing the broad rights of citizenship to all adults, and the 15th Amendment bringing the right to vote to all males, regardless of race (the 19th Amendment would do the same for females in 1920).
But in the Compromise of 1877, Republicans backing Rutherford B. Hayes agreed to pull back federal troops from the South, in exchange for contested votes in Florida that otherwise might have gone to Democrat Samuel Tilden in the presidential election of 1876. Thus, there was no mechanism for enforcing rights of citizenship for African Americans in the South. The United States Supreme Court reinforced the misery with its >Plessy v. Ferguson< (1896) decision, opening the way for Black Codes and other measures in a system of segregation known as Jim Crow. Many African Americans could find no work except under crop sharing arrangements with plantation and other agricultural property owners, so that much of the South regressed to a state of life for African Americans that was reminiscent of the days of slavery, with additional nasty features of life such as lynching and roaming mobs such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Under these horrid conditions of life, thousands of African Americans began the Northern Migration from the South to the North, intensifying during a period from 1915 into the Great Depression years of the 1930s. Another great wave of African American migration northward ensued during the 1950s and 1960s, and in the 1970s Midwestern cities such as Des Moines and Minneapolis began to receive in-migrants from such northern cities as Detroit, Chicago, and Gary (Indiana). Migrants to the North had found work conditions better, but they were disappointed to find social and, especially, residential, discrimination that pointed them to certain communities, where they often settled alongside eastern Europeans, southern Europeans, and Jews, people whose residences were also limited under restricted housing covenants.
With the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, there was a notable exit by middle class whites and African Americans from the urban core toward the suburbs. Those left behind were often the poorest community members, who also had to make way for the arrivals from other northern and Midwestern cities who were seeking some relief from worsening conditions of life. They needed, though, the cheap rentals and some sense of cultural continuity offered by the areas of the city settled during the restricted covenant period. But the problems that often attend those mired in conditions of poverty abided and were made worse by the phenomenon of crack cocaine about 1980 and increased gang activity during the 1980s and 1990s.
White teachers dominated the public schools at the urban core. Having been accustomed to communities that had included many poor people with middle class values and aspirations, these teachers now had to confront the problems of people whose life circumstances were more clearly those of an underclass. These teachers were overwhelmed. The school systems in which they worked were overwhelmed. Neither has recovered to this day in 2011. Urban school systems have never responded to the needs of distinctly different populations that came to dominate the inner city by the 1980s.
Until teachers of inner city students get a better grip on the history that has created the conditions of the present, and develop means of addressing those conditions, they will be hard-pressed properly to educate the children for whom they have responsibility.
Aug 23, 2011
It takes a Village, But Where Are the Villagers?
Remember Adrianna, a composite character from a previous article, constructed from a type that I have known in a number of cases in the course of my many years teaching inner city young people. She was born with an IQ of 125, tending toward gifted, and she began school all smiles. Throughout her K-2 years she demonstrated such a precociousness that teachers and her mother (Bertha) discussed jumping Adrianna ahead to Grade 4; they decided, instead, that she would participate in the “Gifted and Talented” program while continuing her socialization process with people her own age.
Bertha died when Adrianna was in Grade 5, and this set off a series of events whereby this highly intelligent girl and formerly avid student became a high school dropout, connected to the life of the street, pregnant by age 16. She had sought help from counselors and teachers, but little help had been forthcoming. Her family circumstances had certainly impeded her along a once promising path, but her village (community members and school staff) had also been inadequately responsive.
So we say that it takes a village, but where were the villagers in the case of Adrianna? Where are the villagers in the cases of so many young people of the inner city? Why do so few people have the sense of social responsibility that would be necessary if we were ever truly to live by the “it takes a village” ethos? The answer lies largely in the fact that in the United States we live by the conceit that we are rugged individualists who can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps when we run into trouble. If we need help, we are supposed to look mainly to family for help. We say, in fact, that family is all-important in bringing a child up the right way, and in tending to the needs of the young person while she or he is still at home. We have a social welfare system, but by comparison to the corresponding programs of Europe and scattered other countries of the world, our welfare initiatives are attenuated and offered grudgingly.
Our public school educators fall back on the family responsibility argument when students do not excel academically, or when problems of family and community bear down so hard on the life of a precious young person that staying in school becomes difficult. Especially when confronted with the failure of so many children of color, children from dysfunctional families, and children from economically challenged homes, those who dwell within the education establishment are wont to say, “But the children bring so many problems into the school that are not of the school’s making.”
What would be our response if, when we went to the doctor, she or he told us that, sorry, we had smoked too much, exercised too little, eaten the wrong foods, or just plain been born with an unlucky body? What if attorneys told us that, sorry, we just shouldn’t have committed the crime? If we are all rugged individualists who can depend on ourselves for help, or if our families should have been expected to deter us from medical and legal problems, these arguments would be entirely justified. But we go seeking the help of such professionals confident that they will assist us, without falling back on the argument that they can’t do anything for us until we or our families take more responsibility for our own predicaments.
And so it should be for people who claim to be educational professionals. If students come to school burdened by problems that stem from ineffective families and individual failings, then that is the nature of the particular clients in question. True professionals create programs that truly help the student get back on track. Any teacher worthy of the name will find a way to nurture the challenged student toward grade level performance in math and reading, and will impart a solid knowledge base to that student across a liberal arts curriculum that includes also natural science, history, government, geography, economics, literature, and the fine arts. Because if that student comes to school the victim of a familial or social disease, the educator who effects the cure stops the disease in its tracks, so that that young person goes on to prosper, nurturing in turn her or his own children, ending the cycle of poverty, becoming an asset rather than a burden to the village.
So abandoning the conceit of the rugged individualist and taking up the role of villager in the long run benefits the village itself. When families struggle, conscientious villagers come around. They take over, offering food for the body, the brain, and the soul. They make sure that the children of the family go forward to live happy and useful lives. And in so doing the responsible villager knows that while engaged in an act of altruism, the villager herself or himself receives multiple benefits, as well.
And thus we would all live higher quality lives if more effective public educators were to emerge. Most especially, we would reap benefit upon benefit if each teacher embraced the role of true professional and did everything that she or he needs to do to make sure that each student is the recipient of an excellent education.
Bertha died when Adrianna was in Grade 5, and this set off a series of events whereby this highly intelligent girl and formerly avid student became a high school dropout, connected to the life of the street, pregnant by age 16. She had sought help from counselors and teachers, but little help had been forthcoming. Her family circumstances had certainly impeded her along a once promising path, but her village (community members and school staff) had also been inadequately responsive.
So we say that it takes a village, but where were the villagers in the case of Adrianna? Where are the villagers in the cases of so many young people of the inner city? Why do so few people have the sense of social responsibility that would be necessary if we were ever truly to live by the “it takes a village” ethos? The answer lies largely in the fact that in the United States we live by the conceit that we are rugged individualists who can pull ourselves up by the bootstraps when we run into trouble. If we need help, we are supposed to look mainly to family for help. We say, in fact, that family is all-important in bringing a child up the right way, and in tending to the needs of the young person while she or he is still at home. We have a social welfare system, but by comparison to the corresponding programs of Europe and scattered other countries of the world, our welfare initiatives are attenuated and offered grudgingly.
Our public school educators fall back on the family responsibility argument when students do not excel academically, or when problems of family and community bear down so hard on the life of a precious young person that staying in school becomes difficult. Especially when confronted with the failure of so many children of color, children from dysfunctional families, and children from economically challenged homes, those who dwell within the education establishment are wont to say, “But the children bring so many problems into the school that are not of the school’s making.”
What would be our response if, when we went to the doctor, she or he told us that, sorry, we had smoked too much, exercised too little, eaten the wrong foods, or just plain been born with an unlucky body? What if attorneys told us that, sorry, we just shouldn’t have committed the crime? If we are all rugged individualists who can depend on ourselves for help, or if our families should have been expected to deter us from medical and legal problems, these arguments would be entirely justified. But we go seeking the help of such professionals confident that they will assist us, without falling back on the argument that they can’t do anything for us until we or our families take more responsibility for our own predicaments.
And so it should be for people who claim to be educational professionals. If students come to school burdened by problems that stem from ineffective families and individual failings, then that is the nature of the particular clients in question. True professionals create programs that truly help the student get back on track. Any teacher worthy of the name will find a way to nurture the challenged student toward grade level performance in math and reading, and will impart a solid knowledge base to that student across a liberal arts curriculum that includes also natural science, history, government, geography, economics, literature, and the fine arts. Because if that student comes to school the victim of a familial or social disease, the educator who effects the cure stops the disease in its tracks, so that that young person goes on to prosper, nurturing in turn her or his own children, ending the cycle of poverty, becoming an asset rather than a burden to the village.
So abandoning the conceit of the rugged individualist and taking up the role of villager in the long run benefits the village itself. When families struggle, conscientious villagers come around. They take over, offering food for the body, the brain, and the soul. They make sure that the children of the family go forward to live happy and useful lives. And in so doing the responsible villager knows that while engaged in an act of altruism, the villager herself or himself receives multiple benefits, as well.
And thus we would all live higher quality lives if more effective public educators were to emerge. Most especially, we would reap benefit upon benefit if each teacher embraced the role of true professional and did everything that she or he needs to do to make sure that each student is the recipient of an excellent education.
An Education Disrupted, a Life Wasted
Call her Adrianna. She is a composite character, constructed from a type that I have known in a number of cases in the course of my many years teaching inner city young people. Adrianna was born with an IQ of 125, well above average, tending toward gifted. She began school all smiles, just loving the routine, reveling in her mastery of the alphabet, radiant when she began to put those letters together to make words, triumphant when the words came together as sentences, paragraphs, whole stories, and then the magic world of reading became hers for exploration. And then there were those magic numbers. She learned rapidly, faster than most people in her kindergarten class, to count to ten, then to 100, then by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s.
And this pattern continued through Grade 2, by which time Adrianna had fully mastered addition and subtraction, long grasped the concept of regrouping, and gone forward to learn from older friends and relatives the fundamentals of multiplication and division. And she was delighting in reading children’s classics such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “From Tiger to Anansi.” Adrianna also ran across the tale, “The People Could Fly,” which had a powerful effect on her and led her to look for books that told about slavery and the fate of her people in the many decades thereafter. There was discussion of perhaps moving Adrianna on to Grade 4, but her mother decided along with the school staff that she would participate in the “Gifted and Talented” program while continuing her socialization process with people her own age.
Adrianna’s mother, Bertha, was a good woman who toiled as a clerk in a discount store for eight hours four days a week. She had a hard time getting fulltime work, so she accessed the social service system for help; food stamps became especially important, and her children all had free lunch through the public schools. Over the years there were times when she had to fall back on welfare (AFDC, then TANF), but she avoided that whenever she could. In addition to Adrianna, Bertha had two other children, a son name Houston, who was a year and a half younger than Adrianna; and a daughter, Patricia, who was two years older. Adrianna and Patricia had the same father; Bertha gave birth to Houston by another man. Neither male had ever established a presence. Houston’s dad looked in for awhile, and Patricia had a faint memory of having seen her dad. But Adrianna had never known her father at all.
Bertha died unexpectedly from complications of diabetes and kidney failure when Adrianna was in Grade 5. Houston’s dad was located, and although he soon moved to another city, Houston’s paternal grandmother took responsibility for the young boy. Adrianna and Patricia moved in with their maternal grandmother, Caroline. Caroline was a sweet woman who loved the girls, but she struggled with emphysema, and her parenting skills had atrophied over the years. She had no control over Patricia, who by this time was in Grade 7, just 13 years old, but in her budding beauty susceptible to the attentions of boys three and four years older. Patricia became pregnant halfway through her Grade 8 year. She stayed in school until she had nearly completed Grade 10, but by then her baby needed more and more of her attention. She got a job at a fast food restaurant, but the work was just part-time and Caroline struggled when she had to tend to the baby alone. Other family members, cousins and aunties, helped, but Patricia found herself staying at home a lot, too.
Meanwhile, Adrianna held on desperately to the solace of school. She continued her precocious academic path through Grade 7, consistently appearing on the “A” honor roll, reading voraciously, and helping others in her class when algebraic equations were first introduced. But in Grade 8, Patricia called upon Adrianna more and more to help take care of the baby. Caroline was sick a lot, in and out of the hospital, so that Adrianna missed a lot of those Grade 7 school days to take care of her grandmother. Adrianna found keeping up with her homework difficult, but she managed to make “B’s” and “C’s,” and she was hoping to get back on a better track as she entered Grade 9 for high school.
But things got worse. Family responsibilities mounted. At school Adrianna tried to get help sorting through the difficulties of her life, but she found counselors occupied with other matters and teachers unable to give her the help that she needed keeping up with geometry and biology. Adrianna never showed up for regular high school classes in Grade 10. She tried an alternative high school for awhile, but then she gave up there, too. She continued to read, finding her way to the plays of August Wilson and the poetry of Maya Angelou, but this was her only intellectual outlet. She also found her way to the street, to the wrong kinds of friends, to reefer and then harder drugs. She was flattered when a young man drew close and seemed to offer pleasure when so much real fun had gone out of life. But all that attention got her was her own baby, at a time when she was only 16 years of age.
Adrianna never finished high school, her family failed her, but if it takes a village, then her village had also failed her--- the people of her community and her school. She still had that 125 IQ, but it was hard to view her circumstances in any other way than in the context of a wasted life.
And this pattern continued through Grade 2, by which time Adrianna had fully mastered addition and subtraction, long grasped the concept of regrouping, and gone forward to learn from older friends and relatives the fundamentals of multiplication and division. And she was delighting in reading children’s classics such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “From Tiger to Anansi.” Adrianna also ran across the tale, “The People Could Fly,” which had a powerful effect on her and led her to look for books that told about slavery and the fate of her people in the many decades thereafter. There was discussion of perhaps moving Adrianna on to Grade 4, but her mother decided along with the school staff that she would participate in the “Gifted and Talented” program while continuing her socialization process with people her own age.
Adrianna’s mother, Bertha, was a good woman who toiled as a clerk in a discount store for eight hours four days a week. She had a hard time getting fulltime work, so she accessed the social service system for help; food stamps became especially important, and her children all had free lunch through the public schools. Over the years there were times when she had to fall back on welfare (AFDC, then TANF), but she avoided that whenever she could. In addition to Adrianna, Bertha had two other children, a son name Houston, who was a year and a half younger than Adrianna; and a daughter, Patricia, who was two years older. Adrianna and Patricia had the same father; Bertha gave birth to Houston by another man. Neither male had ever established a presence. Houston’s dad looked in for awhile, and Patricia had a faint memory of having seen her dad. But Adrianna had never known her father at all.
Bertha died unexpectedly from complications of diabetes and kidney failure when Adrianna was in Grade 5. Houston’s dad was located, and although he soon moved to another city, Houston’s paternal grandmother took responsibility for the young boy. Adrianna and Patricia moved in with their maternal grandmother, Caroline. Caroline was a sweet woman who loved the girls, but she struggled with emphysema, and her parenting skills had atrophied over the years. She had no control over Patricia, who by this time was in Grade 7, just 13 years old, but in her budding beauty susceptible to the attentions of boys three and four years older. Patricia became pregnant halfway through her Grade 8 year. She stayed in school until she had nearly completed Grade 10, but by then her baby needed more and more of her attention. She got a job at a fast food restaurant, but the work was just part-time and Caroline struggled when she had to tend to the baby alone. Other family members, cousins and aunties, helped, but Patricia found herself staying at home a lot, too.
Meanwhile, Adrianna held on desperately to the solace of school. She continued her precocious academic path through Grade 7, consistently appearing on the “A” honor roll, reading voraciously, and helping others in her class when algebraic equations were first introduced. But in Grade 8, Patricia called upon Adrianna more and more to help take care of the baby. Caroline was sick a lot, in and out of the hospital, so that Adrianna missed a lot of those Grade 7 school days to take care of her grandmother. Adrianna found keeping up with her homework difficult, but she managed to make “B’s” and “C’s,” and she was hoping to get back on a better track as she entered Grade 9 for high school.
But things got worse. Family responsibilities mounted. At school Adrianna tried to get help sorting through the difficulties of her life, but she found counselors occupied with other matters and teachers unable to give her the help that she needed keeping up with geometry and biology. Adrianna never showed up for regular high school classes in Grade 10. She tried an alternative high school for awhile, but then she gave up there, too. She continued to read, finding her way to the plays of August Wilson and the poetry of Maya Angelou, but this was her only intellectual outlet. She also found her way to the street, to the wrong kinds of friends, to reefer and then harder drugs. She was flattered when a young man drew close and seemed to offer pleasure when so much real fun had gone out of life. But all that attention got her was her own baby, at a time when she was only 16 years of age.
Adrianna never finished high school, her family failed her, but if it takes a village, then her village had also failed her--- the people of her community and her school. She still had that 125 IQ, but it was hard to view her circumstances in any other way than in the context of a wasted life.
Aug 22, 2011
Preparing Inner City Students for the ACT
As we contemplate getting more students from the inner city ready for college, we must face the difficulties of that task and do what we need to do to overcome them. We need a much better math program in our urban schools. By the end of Grade 3, all students should have mastered the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) using multiple digits and correctly opting for the appropriate operation in word problems. This means of course that mastery of multiplication tables 0-9 should take place no later than the Grade 3 year--- an assumption that we lamentably cannot make in the public schools at the present time.
In the course of the Grade 4-7 years, students should master fractions, decimals, percents, ratios, proportions, simple probability, and data presentation with charts, tables and graphs. In Grade 8 students should master algebra I, and by Grade 11 students should have added algebra II, geometry, and at least some trigonometry; it would be helpful by that point for students to have the opportunity to take calculus. By this time, students should have also been given a proper science sequence that culminates with rigorous biology and chemistry courses, and ideally with the opportunity to take physics.
Then there is the matter of preparing students to take those parts of the ACT that require verbal skills (writing and reading). Reading is perhaps the most difficult area for which to prepare students in inner city schools for success on the ACT. To illustrate the fundamental problem, consider the following portion of a passage from a practice ACT, an excerpt from Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Gaspar Ruiz: A Romantic Tale”:
Gaspar Ruiz had an acquiescent soul. But it was now stirred to revolt by his dislike to die the death of a traitor…
Lieutenant Santierra, little more than a boy at the time, and unused as yet to the sanguinary imbecilities of a state of war, had lingered nearby…
“My strength is as nothing against a mounted man with a lasso,” Gaspar Ruiz protested eagerly. “He dragged me behind his horse for half a mile.”
At this excellent reason, the sergeant only laughed contemptuously. The young officer hurried away after the Commandante. Presently, the adjutant of the castle came by. He was a truculent, raw-boned man in a ragged uniform. His spluttering voice issued out of a flat yellow face…”Drive the scoundrels in there.”
My experience has been that just this portion, representing only about 25% of the passage from Conrad’s work included in the ACT practice reading exam, is replete with vocabulary items that most inner city high school students do not know. Very often words that middle class people might take for granted are not readily
understood by youth from challenged urban environments. Thus, the words,
"revolt," "lieutenant," "mounted," "lasso," "sergeant," "Commandante,"
"spluttering," and "scoundrels" are not to be assumed as fully understood by high school students of the inner city. Then there are those words that are definitely
so problematic as to distract or confuse even the best contextual readers among students from challenged inner city communities: "acquiescent," "sanguinary,"
"imbecilities," "contemptuously," "adjutant", and "truculent." This means that there are a total of 13 words in this passage alone that might cause some difficulty, with at least 6 of these likely to cause a serious impediment to comprehension.
Some of this is undoubtedly true for students in public schools of the United States, whatever their socioeconomic descriptors. But increasingly middle class and upper class families hire private tutors who train students specifically for enhanced performance on the ACT. This would include explicit vocabulary instruction, reading comprehension strategies, and test-taking skills. Students from challenged inner city environments seldom get this kind of training.
The matter of vocabulary presents a particularly tangible way of getting at the disparities in equal educational opportunity that exist according to social class and community of residence. The inner city environment, often dominated by ebonics, in fact features a lively, metaphorical, emotionally expressive way of communication. This manner of communication can rise to heights of brilliant poetry. But it is not the vernacular of the middle class culture that dominates employment environments, whether in business, academia, or the professions. And it is not the vocabulary emphasized on the ACT, nor should it be. The ACT serves as an accurate indicator of success in colleges and universities, which in turn offer preparation for work, citizenship, and culture as dominated in the general society by the middle and upper classes.
If we wish to make of our society a genuine democracy, we must recognize the responsibility that educators have in giving students a good, well-rounded liberal arts education throughout the K-12 years. All students, whatever their socioeconomic descriptors, deserve an education that imparts to them the knowledge base to succeed on the ACT, including the level of vocabulary that students must master to succeed on that exam and in the classrooms of colleges and universities.
In the course of the Grade 4-7 years, students should master fractions, decimals, percents, ratios, proportions, simple probability, and data presentation with charts, tables and graphs. In Grade 8 students should master algebra I, and by Grade 11 students should have added algebra II, geometry, and at least some trigonometry; it would be helpful by that point for students to have the opportunity to take calculus. By this time, students should have also been given a proper science sequence that culminates with rigorous biology and chemistry courses, and ideally with the opportunity to take physics.
Then there is the matter of preparing students to take those parts of the ACT that require verbal skills (writing and reading). Reading is perhaps the most difficult area for which to prepare students in inner city schools for success on the ACT. To illustrate the fundamental problem, consider the following portion of a passage from a practice ACT, an excerpt from Joseph Conrad’s short story, “Gaspar Ruiz: A Romantic Tale”:
Gaspar Ruiz had an acquiescent soul. But it was now stirred to revolt by his dislike to die the death of a traitor…
Lieutenant Santierra, little more than a boy at the time, and unused as yet to the sanguinary imbecilities of a state of war, had lingered nearby…
“My strength is as nothing against a mounted man with a lasso,” Gaspar Ruiz protested eagerly. “He dragged me behind his horse for half a mile.”
At this excellent reason, the sergeant only laughed contemptuously. The young officer hurried away after the Commandante. Presently, the adjutant of the castle came by. He was a truculent, raw-boned man in a ragged uniform. His spluttering voice issued out of a flat yellow face…”Drive the scoundrels in there.”
My experience has been that just this portion, representing only about 25% of the passage from Conrad’s work included in the ACT practice reading exam, is replete with vocabulary items that most inner city high school students do not know. Very often words that middle class people might take for granted are not readily
understood by youth from challenged urban environments. Thus, the words,
"revolt," "lieutenant," "mounted," "lasso," "sergeant," "Commandante,"
"spluttering," and "scoundrels" are not to be assumed as fully understood by high school students of the inner city. Then there are those words that are definitely
so problematic as to distract or confuse even the best contextual readers among students from challenged inner city communities: "acquiescent," "sanguinary,"
"imbecilities," "contemptuously," "adjutant", and "truculent." This means that there are a total of 13 words in this passage alone that might cause some difficulty, with at least 6 of these likely to cause a serious impediment to comprehension.
Some of this is undoubtedly true for students in public schools of the United States, whatever their socioeconomic descriptors. But increasingly middle class and upper class families hire private tutors who train students specifically for enhanced performance on the ACT. This would include explicit vocabulary instruction, reading comprehension strategies, and test-taking skills. Students from challenged inner city environments seldom get this kind of training.
The matter of vocabulary presents a particularly tangible way of getting at the disparities in equal educational opportunity that exist according to social class and community of residence. The inner city environment, often dominated by ebonics, in fact features a lively, metaphorical, emotionally expressive way of communication. This manner of communication can rise to heights of brilliant poetry. But it is not the vernacular of the middle class culture that dominates employment environments, whether in business, academia, or the professions. And it is not the vocabulary emphasized on the ACT, nor should it be. The ACT serves as an accurate indicator of success in colleges and universities, which in turn offer preparation for work, citizenship, and culture as dominated in the general society by the middle and upper classes.
If we wish to make of our society a genuine democracy, we must recognize the responsibility that educators have in giving students a good, well-rounded liberal arts education throughout the K-12 years. All students, whatever their socioeconomic descriptors, deserve an education that imparts to them the knowledge base to succeed on the ACT, including the level of vocabulary that students must master to succeed on that exam and in the classrooms of colleges and universities.
Young Shakespeareans of North Minneapolis
On the North Side of Minneapolis there assembled this summer a foursome of students whose life descriptors would not typically make one think of the Shakespearean enthusiast. All will be Grade 9 students during academic year 2011-2012.
There is, for example, Raul. Raul enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative late in his Grade 6 year. At the time he was failing math and generally floundering in his subjects at school. His family is from Ecuador and speaks Spanish at home. Raul came immediately under my supervision in a minimum of one two-hour academic session every week, moving through a logically sequenced program of skill development in math and reading. Within two months Raul had pulled his math grade up to a “C-,” was doing better in each subject at school, and was manifesting no anger management problems. By his Grade 8 year, Raul was consistently making the “B” honor roll and in math was making “B’s” and eventually “A’s.” In the meantime, on the way to and from each weekly session (I provide transportation to all of my students) Raul was continuing to ask me questions aplenty in his insatiable curiosity and intense pursuit of knowledge. One day a question about Shakespeare resulted in my guiding him toward >Hamlet<, >King Lear<, and >A Midsummer Night’s Dream<; before academic year’s end he had read the two tragedies in their entire Elizabethan versions and awaited a chance that would soon come with the comedy.
Consider also the case of Maria, another native Spanish speaker, in this case from El Salvador. Maria had enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 5 student during 2007-2008. At the time she was functioning two grade levels below that of school enrollment in math, two years below standard in reading. By her Grade 7 year, Maria had pulled fully up to grade level in both key skill areas and had embarked on a college track course of study. She responded with alacrity to a wide ranging program in the liberal arts, always listening with great intensity to my comments on the worlds of history, government, literature, natural science, and the fine arts. Shakespeare also came into her consciousness, and she began aggressive college-level vocabulary instruction in anticipation of the day when she would take on something as challenging as the Bard.
Then there is Samantha, a native of Nigeria whose first language is Yoruba. She was a respectful but rather indifferent student when she first enrolled in the Initiative during her Grade 5 year of 2007-2008. She was functioning one grade level below that of school enrollment in both math and reading. By academic year’s end, Samantha was functioning at grade level in both key skill areas. By Grade 7 Samantha had reached a take-off point of high ambition, moving through advanced vocabulary lists and reading material, exploring diverse material from across the liberal arts curriculum. Her ears also perked up when our conversation turned to Shakespeare; she had relatives studying in Great Britain, and the Bard’s name rang a bell.
And there is Marianna, the most remarkable of all of these fabulous students. She began studying in the New Salem Educational Initiative when she was in Grade 3, floundering in school and failing to show grade level results in either math or reading. By her Grade 5 year she was securely at grade level, taking an elevated interest in all subjects, including classical literature; she began at that point to read selections from Shakespearean plays such as >Romeo and Juliet<. With her longtime tenure in the Initiative, by Grade 6 Marianna was moving well along in a course of college preparatory study of the sort one would expect of upper middle class children at private schools
But none of these students is even middle class. They all come from impoverished families, including two cases of serious familial dysfunction. But they all responded to an aggressive program of skill development, enthusiastic teaching, ambitious academic goals, and the close relationship that their teacher in the Initiative was forging with their families. During this summer 2011-2012, I led these students in a reading of >A Midsummer Night’s Dream<. We discussed every verbal nuance, the many references to classical mythology, and the chief thematic elements. Then we traveled to the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota, to see a splendid performance of the play.
At the play, these inner city students laughed as hard as if they were seeing a teen gross-out comedy. They were more attentive than many of the adults in attendance. They talked excitedly on our way back to Minneapolis and expressed a strong desire to return the following summer to see >Hamlet< and >Two Gentlemen of Verona<. These Shakespeareans of inner city Minneapolis should remind us all that students of any economic background and any life circumstance can succeed when we treat them seriously as students, provide the instruction that underscores that seriousness, and establish elevated goals along a path that they traverse in logical sequence toward the academic summit.
There is, for example, Raul. Raul enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative late in his Grade 6 year. At the time he was failing math and generally floundering in his subjects at school. His family is from Ecuador and speaks Spanish at home. Raul came immediately under my supervision in a minimum of one two-hour academic session every week, moving through a logically sequenced program of skill development in math and reading. Within two months Raul had pulled his math grade up to a “C-,” was doing better in each subject at school, and was manifesting no anger management problems. By his Grade 8 year, Raul was consistently making the “B” honor roll and in math was making “B’s” and eventually “A’s.” In the meantime, on the way to and from each weekly session (I provide transportation to all of my students) Raul was continuing to ask me questions aplenty in his insatiable curiosity and intense pursuit of knowledge. One day a question about Shakespeare resulted in my guiding him toward >Hamlet<, >King Lear<, and >A Midsummer Night’s Dream<; before academic year’s end he had read the two tragedies in their entire Elizabethan versions and awaited a chance that would soon come with the comedy.
Consider also the case of Maria, another native Spanish speaker, in this case from El Salvador. Maria had enrolled in the New Salem Educational Initiative as a Grade 5 student during 2007-2008. At the time she was functioning two grade levels below that of school enrollment in math, two years below standard in reading. By her Grade 7 year, Maria had pulled fully up to grade level in both key skill areas and had embarked on a college track course of study. She responded with alacrity to a wide ranging program in the liberal arts, always listening with great intensity to my comments on the worlds of history, government, literature, natural science, and the fine arts. Shakespeare also came into her consciousness, and she began aggressive college-level vocabulary instruction in anticipation of the day when she would take on something as challenging as the Bard.
Then there is Samantha, a native of Nigeria whose first language is Yoruba. She was a respectful but rather indifferent student when she first enrolled in the Initiative during her Grade 5 year of 2007-2008. She was functioning one grade level below that of school enrollment in both math and reading. By academic year’s end, Samantha was functioning at grade level in both key skill areas. By Grade 7 Samantha had reached a take-off point of high ambition, moving through advanced vocabulary lists and reading material, exploring diverse material from across the liberal arts curriculum. Her ears also perked up when our conversation turned to Shakespeare; she had relatives studying in Great Britain, and the Bard’s name rang a bell.
And there is Marianna, the most remarkable of all of these fabulous students. She began studying in the New Salem Educational Initiative when she was in Grade 3, floundering in school and failing to show grade level results in either math or reading. By her Grade 5 year she was securely at grade level, taking an elevated interest in all subjects, including classical literature; she began at that point to read selections from Shakespearean plays such as >Romeo and Juliet<. With her longtime tenure in the Initiative, by Grade 6 Marianna was moving well along in a course of college preparatory study of the sort one would expect of upper middle class children at private schools
But none of these students is even middle class. They all come from impoverished families, including two cases of serious familial dysfunction. But they all responded to an aggressive program of skill development, enthusiastic teaching, ambitious academic goals, and the close relationship that their teacher in the Initiative was forging with their families. During this summer 2011-2012, I led these students in a reading of >A Midsummer Night’s Dream<. We discussed every verbal nuance, the many references to classical mythology, and the chief thematic elements. Then we traveled to the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota, to see a splendid performance of the play.
At the play, these inner city students laughed as hard as if they were seeing a teen gross-out comedy. They were more attentive than many of the adults in attendance. They talked excitedly on our way back to Minneapolis and expressed a strong desire to return the following summer to see >Hamlet< and >Two Gentlemen of Verona<. These Shakespeareans of inner city Minneapolis should remind us all that students of any economic background and any life circumstance can succeed when we treat them seriously as students, provide the instruction that underscores that seriousness, and establish elevated goals along a path that they traverse in logical sequence toward the academic summit.
Seizing the Opportunity of the K-2 Years
I call her Snodgrass, because it’s one of the silly things I do that gets her attention and makes her laugh. She has a more conventional name, of course, but for data privacy reasons we will call her Marcia in this article.
Marcia will be going into Grade 2 for the 2011-2012 academic year. She began studying with me as director and teacher of the New Salem Educational Initiative when she was in Grade K, continuing for a second year as a Grade 1 student during 2010-2011. Thus, this will be her third academic year of enrollment in the New Salem Educational Initiative. The New Salem Educational Initiative offers Marcia (and its 104 other students) the opportunity to attend weekly two-hour sessions of intense instruction in math, reading, and a broad course of study in the liberal arts. Students all come from impoverished homes and in school have fallen well below grade level. By the end of their first year of attendance, they have usually achieved grade level performance and by the end of their second year they are generally ready to proceed to an advanced track of college preparatory study.
Moving students from backgrounds of impoverishment and familial dysfunction to grade level performance and above takes a great deal of highly focused attention on the part of the student, and a great deal of adroit effort on the part of the teacher. The goal is attainable for all students. The task becomes much easier when we can get a student into the program at the young age at which Marcia entered. At this stage, students are wide open in their receptivity to information of all sorts, and they crave adult approval. In Marcia’s case, she had observed three other family members go off each week in transport to the New Salem Educational Initiative. She was primed and ready to have the rewarding experience that all of these students had enjoyed. Every Saturday morning she piled into my car (transportation is provided for all students) with a big smile, asking, “Hey, Gary, what are we going to learn today?”
In response, I would tell her, “Oh, we’re going to read a poem about ‘swinging up in the air so blue,’ then we’re going to read about Tigger coming to a forest for breakfast, then I’d like you to read about how Native Americans crossed a land bridge thousands of years ago. How does that sound to you?”
“Great!” she would say.
“And then we’re going to review carrying and borrowing--- you, know, regrouping--- in addition and subtraction. Okay?”
“Ooo, yea, that’s fun!” would be Marcia’s reply.
Midway through her Grade 1 year, Marcia had read an array of classical children’s literature, and she had fully mastered all math skills appropriate to her grade level. Then she had moved on in both reading and math material to tasks typical of the Grade 2 student. This summer I have continued to work with her, moving forward with instruction in multiplication. As she enters Grade 2, Marcia has fully mastered her multiplication tables for the factors 0 through 9, well ahead of the pace that holds this as a goal for Grade 3 students. Overhearing her older relatives working on advanced college preparatory items, she has even startled us all by picking up the proper definitions of words such as “jocular,” “quintessential,” and “malapropism.”
Herein we see the opportunity for teachers of students at the K-2 level. Students are eager for substantive education. They want to please adults, and they respond readily to a personality that conveys a love of children and willingness to be silly and funny while offering solid subject area material in natural science, history, literature, the fine arts, and math. These are years in which teachers should rush in and be sure and provide this education before devoting too much time to classroom parties, “free time,” DVDs, unfocused field trips, and school assemblies. Whatever value these latter sorts of activities may have, they should be far back in the list of priorities, relegated to unnecessary options paling in significance to the responsibility of offering a solid academic course of instruction to children when they are most receptive to information coming from adults.
If students come out of Grade 2 in full control of grade level skills in math and reading, with the latter put to service in an array of subject area material in natural science, history, and literature, they are on course for success. They yearn for the knowledge, and they deserve the success. Teachers of K-2 students should therefore be especially mindful of the responsibility that they bear. There is every reason to anticipate future academic and therefore life success for the students whom they properly prepare, even as there is the distinct possibility for disaster in the futures of students for whom a magnificent opportunity is squandered.
Marcia will be going into Grade 2 for the 2011-2012 academic year. She began studying with me as director and teacher of the New Salem Educational Initiative when she was in Grade K, continuing for a second year as a Grade 1 student during 2010-2011. Thus, this will be her third academic year of enrollment in the New Salem Educational Initiative. The New Salem Educational Initiative offers Marcia (and its 104 other students) the opportunity to attend weekly two-hour sessions of intense instruction in math, reading, and a broad course of study in the liberal arts. Students all come from impoverished homes and in school have fallen well below grade level. By the end of their first year of attendance, they have usually achieved grade level performance and by the end of their second year they are generally ready to proceed to an advanced track of college preparatory study.
Moving students from backgrounds of impoverishment and familial dysfunction to grade level performance and above takes a great deal of highly focused attention on the part of the student, and a great deal of adroit effort on the part of the teacher. The goal is attainable for all students. The task becomes much easier when we can get a student into the program at the young age at which Marcia entered. At this stage, students are wide open in their receptivity to information of all sorts, and they crave adult approval. In Marcia’s case, she had observed three other family members go off each week in transport to the New Salem Educational Initiative. She was primed and ready to have the rewarding experience that all of these students had enjoyed. Every Saturday morning she piled into my car (transportation is provided for all students) with a big smile, asking, “Hey, Gary, what are we going to learn today?”
In response, I would tell her, “Oh, we’re going to read a poem about ‘swinging up in the air so blue,’ then we’re going to read about Tigger coming to a forest for breakfast, then I’d like you to read about how Native Americans crossed a land bridge thousands of years ago. How does that sound to you?”
“Great!” she would say.
“And then we’re going to review carrying and borrowing--- you, know, regrouping--- in addition and subtraction. Okay?”
“Ooo, yea, that’s fun!” would be Marcia’s reply.
Midway through her Grade 1 year, Marcia had read an array of classical children’s literature, and she had fully mastered all math skills appropriate to her grade level. Then she had moved on in both reading and math material to tasks typical of the Grade 2 student. This summer I have continued to work with her, moving forward with instruction in multiplication. As she enters Grade 2, Marcia has fully mastered her multiplication tables for the factors 0 through 9, well ahead of the pace that holds this as a goal for Grade 3 students. Overhearing her older relatives working on advanced college preparatory items, she has even startled us all by picking up the proper definitions of words such as “jocular,” “quintessential,” and “malapropism.”
Herein we see the opportunity for teachers of students at the K-2 level. Students are eager for substantive education. They want to please adults, and they respond readily to a personality that conveys a love of children and willingness to be silly and funny while offering solid subject area material in natural science, history, literature, the fine arts, and math. These are years in which teachers should rush in and be sure and provide this education before devoting too much time to classroom parties, “free time,” DVDs, unfocused field trips, and school assemblies. Whatever value these latter sorts of activities may have, they should be far back in the list of priorities, relegated to unnecessary options paling in significance to the responsibility of offering a solid academic course of instruction to children when they are most receptive to information coming from adults.
If students come out of Grade 2 in full control of grade level skills in math and reading, with the latter put to service in an array of subject area material in natural science, history, and literature, they are on course for success. They yearn for the knowledge, and they deserve the success. Teachers of K-2 students should therefore be especially mindful of the responsibility that they bear. There is every reason to anticipate future academic and therefore life success for the students whom they properly prepare, even as there is the distinct possibility for disaster in the futures of students for whom a magnificent opportunity is squandered.
Aug 19, 2011
In Praise of No Child Left Behind
As we watch No Child Left Behind blow away in the political winds, we should do so with shame and lamentation. This has been the most hopeful piece of legislation in the history of American education, drifting away on adverse political currents not because it failed but because it succeeded so splendidly.
Let us examine the facts regarding, and counter all of the specious charges levied against, No Child Left Behind. The legislation was proposed by George W. Bush in June 2001 and signed into law in January 2002 after coauthors in the House of Representatives (Democrat George Miller and Republican John Boehner) and the United States Senate (Democrat Ted Kennedy and Republican Judd Gregg) oversaw overwhelming approval (384-45 in the House, 91-8 in the Senate). The law is the prevailing version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that first went into effect during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The essentials of the law are the requirements that data on student progress must be disaggregated to indicate performance of students according to ethnicity, gender, economic status, national origin, and special needs. If students in each category do not meet certain minimum academic standards, a school is put on notice that it is not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
If a school is not making AYP, it gets a year to improve its program. For each school that for the second year in a row does not make AYP, a school district must offer the opportunity for students to move to another school. A third year of failure to make AYP dictates that free tutoring must be offered. The fourth year of failure to make AYP requires that free tutoring must continue, and the school is notified that it will face restructuring if student performance does not improve. The fifth year of not making AYP results in restructuring or closing the school, with a restructuring plan or closing occurring in the sixth year.
No Child Left Behind grew out of a movement on the part of many reformers for standards-based education, whereby students at each grade level are tested to determine who is and who is not functioning at grade level, particularly in math and reading. Under the pressures exerted by No Child Left Behind, a few schools have succeeded in improving, but most have not. The latter situation is not surprising, given the mediocrity of so many teachers and the lack of a coherent curriculum throughout the K-12 years. All of this predictably makes teachers’ unions and other entities of the education establishment extremely uncomfortable, which is how they should feel when faced with public recognition of their failure to offer an education to all students worthy of a democracy.
One by one, we can dismiss the specious assertions regarding No Child Left Behind that have emanated from the education establishment:
Assertion #1: The law has brought too much emphasis on standardized testing.
The Reality: Standardized tests represent the most objective, reliable means of fairly judging a particular student’s knowledge or skill base. If teachers “teach to the test,” that is fine, because a properly constructed test features the key material to be learned at a given grade level, and teaching to the test assures that substantive academic content is offered at many schools that year after year have presented little academic content at all.
Assertion #2: No Child Left Behind has imposed unfunded mandates and federal intrusion into public school systems, which have thereby lost local control.
The Reality: In fact, the sort of training that teachers and administrators receive from education professors is highly similar across the country, so that local control has always been an illusion. The education establishment functions identically from one supposedly independent school system to another. Many of the mandates brought by No Child Left Behind are actually well-funded and more generous than they should be. Why should any additional funding really be necessary when the basic requirement is to provide grade level appropriate education to all students?
Assertion #3: Too much focus on reading and math results in a “narrowing of the curriculum.”
The Reality: In fact, there is little in the way of a curriculum at the K-5 level; teachers are generally free to teach what they want, and they generally do not teach much at all in history, government, economics, natural science, literature, and the fine arts. Educators at the middle school level devalue subject area content in favor of student socialization skills. Subject area courses at the typical high school are frequently poorly taught, but not narrowed by No Child Left Behind.
Assertion #4: The sanctions against schools imposed by No Child Left Behind are too punitive, penalizing even many good schools because a few students lag behind.
The Reality: In fact, the standards set forth by No Child Left Behind are applied to all schools fairly, holding them accountable for properly educating students of every economic and ethnic category. This is precisely what disaggregation of the data is supposed to do; any school that fails to educate students of all descriptors is not a good school, whatever its previous reputation.
No Child Left Behind is in political trouble because it is the most serious challenge in United States history to the failed K-12 schools run by the education establishment. That establishment is backed by powerful lobbies, and many politicians receive hefty campaign contributions by the education establishment that these lobbies represent.
So understand this: No Child Left Behind has been a splendid success in shining a bright spotlight on the shortcomings of K-12 schools in the United States. It is the education establishment that has failed in the challenge presented by No Child Left Behind, a challenge simply to bring all students in K-12 school systems throughout the United States up to grade level standards in math and reading. Such standards must be met, by all students, from the richest to the poorest of the poor, in any country that aspires to genuine democracy.
Let us examine the facts regarding, and counter all of the specious charges levied against, No Child Left Behind. The legislation was proposed by George W. Bush in June 2001 and signed into law in January 2002 after coauthors in the House of Representatives (Democrat George Miller and Republican John Boehner) and the United States Senate (Democrat Ted Kennedy and Republican Judd Gregg) oversaw overwhelming approval (384-45 in the House, 91-8 in the Senate). The law is the prevailing version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that first went into effect during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The essentials of the law are the requirements that data on student progress must be disaggregated to indicate performance of students according to ethnicity, gender, economic status, national origin, and special needs. If students in each category do not meet certain minimum academic standards, a school is put on notice that it is not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
If a school is not making AYP, it gets a year to improve its program. For each school that for the second year in a row does not make AYP, a school district must offer the opportunity for students to move to another school. A third year of failure to make AYP dictates that free tutoring must be offered. The fourth year of failure to make AYP requires that free tutoring must continue, and the school is notified that it will face restructuring if student performance does not improve. The fifth year of not making AYP results in restructuring or closing the school, with a restructuring plan or closing occurring in the sixth year.
No Child Left Behind grew out of a movement on the part of many reformers for standards-based education, whereby students at each grade level are tested to determine who is and who is not functioning at grade level, particularly in math and reading. Under the pressures exerted by No Child Left Behind, a few schools have succeeded in improving, but most have not. The latter situation is not surprising, given the mediocrity of so many teachers and the lack of a coherent curriculum throughout the K-12 years. All of this predictably makes teachers’ unions and other entities of the education establishment extremely uncomfortable, which is how they should feel when faced with public recognition of their failure to offer an education to all students worthy of a democracy.
One by one, we can dismiss the specious assertions regarding No Child Left Behind that have emanated from the education establishment:
Assertion #1: The law has brought too much emphasis on standardized testing.
The Reality: Standardized tests represent the most objective, reliable means of fairly judging a particular student’s knowledge or skill base. If teachers “teach to the test,” that is fine, because a properly constructed test features the key material to be learned at a given grade level, and teaching to the test assures that substantive academic content is offered at many schools that year after year have presented little academic content at all.
Assertion #2: No Child Left Behind has imposed unfunded mandates and federal intrusion into public school systems, which have thereby lost local control.
The Reality: In fact, the sort of training that teachers and administrators receive from education professors is highly similar across the country, so that local control has always been an illusion. The education establishment functions identically from one supposedly independent school system to another. Many of the mandates brought by No Child Left Behind are actually well-funded and more generous than they should be. Why should any additional funding really be necessary when the basic requirement is to provide grade level appropriate education to all students?
Assertion #3: Too much focus on reading and math results in a “narrowing of the curriculum.”
The Reality: In fact, there is little in the way of a curriculum at the K-5 level; teachers are generally free to teach what they want, and they generally do not teach much at all in history, government, economics, natural science, literature, and the fine arts. Educators at the middle school level devalue subject area content in favor of student socialization skills. Subject area courses at the typical high school are frequently poorly taught, but not narrowed by No Child Left Behind.
Assertion #4: The sanctions against schools imposed by No Child Left Behind are too punitive, penalizing even many good schools because a few students lag behind.
The Reality: In fact, the standards set forth by No Child Left Behind are applied to all schools fairly, holding them accountable for properly educating students of every economic and ethnic category. This is precisely what disaggregation of the data is supposed to do; any school that fails to educate students of all descriptors is not a good school, whatever its previous reputation.
No Child Left Behind is in political trouble because it is the most serious challenge in United States history to the failed K-12 schools run by the education establishment. That establishment is backed by powerful lobbies, and many politicians receive hefty campaign contributions by the education establishment that these lobbies represent.
So understand this: No Child Left Behind has been a splendid success in shining a bright spotlight on the shortcomings of K-12 schools in the United States. It is the education establishment that has failed in the challenge presented by No Child Left Behind, a challenge simply to bring all students in K-12 school systems throughout the United States up to grade level standards in math and reading. Such standards must be met, by all students, from the richest to the poorest of the poor, in any country that aspires to genuine democracy.
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