things about public education I've learned from this job

[intertribal]

[The job being: I'm a Project Assistant for a university professor who gets contracts from the state department of education to do research on whatever the department wants to know about.  Last year it was the transition to a new testing program.  This year's project, failing schools, is one I've been involved with the whole way.] 

I don't have an education background at all, and all of this is of course based on a sampling of Nebraska schools that are classified as failing in some way, and not meant to be conclusive.  

1.  Failing schools have "difficult" demographics.  Either there's a lot of minorities or there's a lot of poverty or both.  Indian schools fail almost by default in this state.  There is a crazy superintendent man who jumps from Indian school to Indian school, misusing funds and planning new buildings.  Research says you can't fix most schools that chronically fail. 

2.  Principals harbor a lot of pent-up rage toward Hispanic students that move, because they don't want to have to implement an ELL program and the students bring down their scores and then move away.  As a result, people will either build new school districts away from urban centers to stay away from all the minorities, or will force the minorities to stay in their own school district outside of the urban center.  And by urban center, I mean like, 20,000 people.  Some principals will tell Hispanic students to go to a different school.  This is actually illegal.  

3.  It feels like there are a lot of kids being placed in special education, especially in small rural schools.  Whether that's a jump in awareness, a jump in diagnoses, or a jump in actual prevalence of cases, I don't know.

4.  Most parents don't get involved except to complain, or so teachers say.  Many parents seem scarred by negative experiences when they were in school, and in any case are too tired from working thousands of shifts at finger-chopping meatpacking plants to sign little worksheets saying they read to their kids or checked their kids' progress.  In "diverse" schools, schools invite white parents to be a part of parent committees. 

5.  Older teachers mock younger teachers for being panicky or "too creative."  Younger teachers mock older teachers for having been there "since the building was built."  Everyone will say that there is collaboration in their school, but I seriously wonder, considering all the passive-aggressive stuff that comes out in interviews. 

6.  A lot of times students need to be bribed to try to do well on tests with pizza parties and cupcakes.  High school students. 

7.  Schools seem to think that an inability to do story problems in math can be solved by upping reading comprehension skills.  I can say for one that this would not have helped me. 

8.  Some teachers want to be part of a unified curriculum, and some teachers want to be able to do whatever they want.  If you bring up changes or research or anything, these latter teachers will say, "I've been teaching for X-years, I would hope that I know what I'm doing!"  Few are comfortable being assessed, critiqued, criticized, or judged in any way.  Principals say they assess teachers more than teachers say they are assessed.  Schools are distrustful of outsiders, especially outsiders from "the government."  Outsiders want the state to intervene in failing schools, possibly by firing principals that are judged to be ineffective, but neither the state nor the schools want this. 

9.  Education is something that the general public goes absolutely crazy on.  It's getting close to the level of abortion et al.  There's basically 3 perspectives: 1) "Public school is a black hole and public schools should receive no money.  Why should I have to give them my hard-earned tax dollars when I don't have kids/my kids go to my super awesome ["exclusive"] private school?" 2) "Stop blaming the socio-economic environment.  Tell those kids/teachers to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  Motivate them harder!" 3) "I'm a teacher and I think you're being really mean to teachers, because they would give up body parts for their students and they love these kids more than their own parents love 'em and they are really trying the best they can!"  Most of the people with the loudest opinions do not actually have kids in public school.  See #4.

10.  There is a minimum proficiency that all students, regardless of poverty, ethnicity, English-speaking status, or special education status, are expected to reach for the school to not "fail."  It is the same standard for all these groups. 

Comments

[selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com]

Nadia, I really appreciate your education posts. I've been teaching in my home county for thirteen years. We're a small high school--butting up against the big 1k. That said, we're not a failing school, but we've definitely fallen into the various NCLB brackets of grad rate issues and math/LA AYP. But there is that constant tug-of-war between federal/state mandates, i.e., testing the bejeezus out of kids and just plain ol' teaching of content and for that ideal of the gleaning of the well-rounded student. Most of the kids I teach will stick around and go into a family-owned business and/or have grease/dirt/other under their fingernails the rest of their working lives. The ones who go off to college will usually return if (1) they go into education and come home to teach or (2) come home to take on (and over) the family business.

RE: Parental involvement--beyond academic booster clubs, very little, which is pretty much a common cultural/societal issue.

[wendigomountain.livejournal.com]

There is a lot of stuff to chew over in this post, Nadia. Good stuff.

I couldn't agree more with what Berry said about rural communities losing their best and brightest. This has an even uglier side too. My old HS and Elm, once Blue Ribbon schools, have drastically cut programs. The local businesses benefit because the kid's test scores and resources have been preventative in getting kids into decent colleges.

Now their best and brightest have no choice in the matter.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The thing with special-needs testing may in part be either or both things that you mention, but in some states (like Massachusetts) it's also a matter of trying to get the extra dollars that the state will give a school that has special-needs students. From a parent's perspective, having a diagnosis like that can also mean a little extra attention and an acknowledgment that that what's going on isn't the kid "acting out" or whatever, but an actual learning disability, so there's less blame and more help.

As a working parent, I really, really resented all the special activities and check-the-box stuff, and things that made you feel guilty, like "your third grader is going to be singing with their class today at school; we hope you can come." Yeah, no. I thought it was just this crazy town, which somehow seemed to assume that there'd be a parent free to do all that stuff--but now I know it's a common thing everywhere. One reason I went freelance was actually to be able to handle all that stuff (admittedly, not the main reason).

Part of a problem that I see in society at large, and it comes up with education, is an inability to talk about problems or to give or receive criticism without it escalating to a duel to the death. If it were possible for people to be a little wrong without the consequences being super dire, then they might be able to meet critics halfway and work to improve. But whether it's teachers feeling criticized, or small-town school district administrations, or parents, or even state education departments, NO one is able to give an inch for fear all the blame will be heaped on them. ... I'm not saying all those parties are equally guilty, by the way. It varies from place to place. But it's crazy that as a society we have no way of admitting problems and failings and dealing with them.

[olo110.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6M_6qOz-yw