As a New York City teacher in the middle of the first marking period, I've been swamped this week by schoolwork -- grading, planning, tutoring kids for the SATs they took this past Saturday, etc. This apparently has not been true of either Michelle Rhee or Joel Klein, as they had time to formulate the following mess of propaganda and buzz words, which came out in the Washington Post Monday morning.
The article regurgitates most of the main arguments of Davis Guggenheim's myopic and manipulative documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman' " (in which Rhee is featured prominently.) Both film and article purport to investigate the reasons for the failing American school system, but in fact ignore all social or economic factors but one: bad teachers. Furthermore, they tout charter schools as the holy grail of education reform, completely glossing over the fact that the vast majority of charter schools are not only no more successful (and in some cases less so) than their public counter-parts, but have at their disposal both more funding and a more active/supportive parent base.
The second of these assets, the parent base, is the one I'd like to talk about here. About three weeks from now, I'll be attending parent-teacher conferences. From the 120-plus students on all the rosters of my classes, I'll expect to see somewhere between 20 and 30 parent/guardian representatives. The same will be true of most of my faculty colleagues. And of the parents who come to see us at either the Thursday evening or Friday midday conferences, most will have children who are doing well in our classes. It is an ongoing frustration to teachers, counselors, and administrators alike that the parents we *really* need to speak to can never be tracked down -- either because they skip conferences, fail to return calls or acknowledge mailings or do not provide up-to-date contact information to begin with.
Of the ones we do speak to, we get limited support. I call parents to tell them that their children have been regularly absent to my class, only to have them give me excuses like "I needed him at home because I just had a baby" or "he needed to take care of his grandmother." Certainly family difficulties occur, but in situations where education is prioritized, other arrangements will be made to allow for school attendance -- particularly when the family issue is an ongoing one. I talked to a father whose kid was chronically truant, and when asked if he knew that his son was failing every class, he responded, "I work long hours -- I don't have time to check his report card." The mother of a girl who plagiarized a paper for my class (she copied an entire Wikipedia entry, and didn't even bother to remove hyper-links) told me, "Well, what did you want her to do? You said she had to turn in the paper the next day." In fact, the paper had been assigned a month prior, and the child had never asked me for any extension -- let alone the obvious issue of deadlines not being justification for academic dishonesty.
Last spring, the principal of our school brought in 30 sets of parents to discuss a rash of fights in our corridors. She was told by several of the parents that the students SHOULD be fighting it out on school grounds, because then it's a "controlled environment" wherein security can break up the fight, as opposed to if it were to take place unsupervised off-campus. (No recognition of the fact that these fights waste students' and teachers' time, distracting everyone from learning, as well as the inherent problems of school violence.) We eventually found out that some of the parents had actually been driving their children around the neighborhood to beat up their rivals, even after pledging to work with the school to put an end to the conflict.
Later that month, our principal sent out approximately 60 letters by USPS Delivery Confirmation to parents of students who were "Promotion in Doubt" (PiD), i.e., who were in danger of not graduating because they were missing credits. She spent approximately $5 per letter to make SURE that these parents would receive this information. Only two to three parents ever contacted the school in reference to the PiD letters.
Time and time again, I'm told that a child's failure to complete homework, show up to my class, or behave himself is not his or her fault -- and not the parent's fault, either -- because of some difficult home or family situation; certainly, many of these families encounter significant difficulties that my own parents never faced, but education cannot happen without serious, sometimes onerous investments from all involved parties. If parents want to view education as a "way out" of a tough neighborhood -- and I know many of the parents we deal with do, in fact, view education this way -- then they need to hold themselves and their children accountable as well as teachers. They need to stop asking me, when I call their homes, "How come you gave my child this grade?" Instead of abdicating responsibility, they need to foster a home environment in which attendance at school is expected, homework is supervised (even by a simple check to see if it's been completed), literacy is promoted (through regular library visits and regular access to a variety of print materials), and good marks are not only acknowledged but praised.
One of the classes I teach is AP English Literature and Composition. The students in this class are a pleasure -- they are engaged, diligent, and strive for success. These kids are no more affluent than their non-AP peers, and their home lives are no less difficult -- but their parents show up for conferences, and hold them accountable for good behavior and grades. And if you think I'm hard on the families and students who goof around and don't take school seriously, you should hear my AP students talk. Particularly after years of being forced into group-work with kids who are totally and unabashedly unprepared for class, they have some choice comments to describe these uncommitted students and families, the tamest of which include "mad stupid" and "going nowhere," but most of which are unprintable here. As students who have struggled in a problem-ridden school system and seen their hard work pay off, they (and their families) are insulted by any insinuation that they are limited, or would have done anything other than succeed.
Yes, good teachers can afford their students monumental gains (and bad ones, monumental losses.) Yes, there are some lousy teachers in the system who should be replaced. Yes, every child should have a chance to go to a high-performing school. But at the end of the day, parental involvement and support are equally (if not more) important factors. And ignoring this -- as Klein, Rhee, Guggenheim, and their peers are wont to do -- will prevent even the most sweeping system-wide reforms from ever having a meaningful effect.
Great article.
I'd only add that some readers are probably thinking bad parent = parent in poverty, which is not the case. Many of the "bad parents" are actually affluent, dedicated to their careers over their kids, so their idea of "fixing" a problem at school is to try to bully the teacher(s) into handing out unearned grades. This sort of parent (often a divorced father with a new wife not much holder than his kids) also "makes up" for lost time by lavishing expensive gifts on the neglected kids - plastic surgery, cars, etc. I don't know why people with kids (and yes I am a parent) cannot handle the few years they have kids to be dedicated to their kids. It's not like they are young for all that long.
Everyone on the comments page has said that parents need to be part of the solution, this includes myself. Noone has offered any solutions, i know i havent either...frankly i have no idea how to make parents care about their childs education. Blaming Ms. Rhee because she is only tackling the teachers issue is dishonest, she doesnt have the answer to fix parents either, but once again i will stress that she does acknowledge the problem. Focusing on teachers and schools is a good start, its by no means comprehensive, but its progress.
Free education in the USA is a massive opportunity.
It is not the fault of schools and teachers if children and/or their parents don't want to just show up and do the work. It is not an obligation of teachers to "be more entertaining" - teachers aren't strippers FFS.
As for Waiting for Superman and Rhee, if the problem were Unions, Montgomery County MD schools, which are right next door to the DC schools, would have the same bad results. They don't because the difference is parents who give a crap vs. parents who don't give a crap. Poverty is NO excuse. My parents grew up poor, but they valued education. My grandfather couldn't go to school because he had to support himself before he was 10 years old, but he still read his entire life. If some people want to fall back on excuses, that's their business, but it reminds me of a boss I had when I was a teen. I showed up late to work, I tried to tell him why and he said
"Excuses are like a$$holes, everybody has one"
I learned than that nobody wants to hear why you don't do your ****ing work. I raise my kids to be literate, behave in school, and do all their homework. The kids who refuse to learn now will have the opportunity to mow my kids' lawns someday.
I absolutely believe that parents must also be involved but then any doc on education would be many more hours long, to take on every aspect of our educational system.
What I always tried to make them understand was that it was only my job to teach; it was their job to learn. The statement was all too often met with blank stares.
I have no idea how to motivate parents, but i know that good teachers are important. A good teacher can act as a parent and help to keep the student on track, and give them a reason to want to attend school and not be absent all the time. Ms. Rhee was doing a great job, theres no reason to deride her because she is trying to solve a problem.
I cant tell you how many discussions ive had with people on these comment sections about roles and job descriptions...and ive only been a user for 1 day, my second now. "Oh thats not governments role, oh this oh that..." its like everyone only cares about themselves. Teachers are supposed to 'act as parents' as i put it, they are role models for students, that is in their job description. its their job to make sure a student fulfils their academic potential, and if that means lending an ear, nagging about homework or whatever, then thats what you and all the other teachers need to do to get the job done.
There is an education crisi in your country, and some teacher comes on here preaching about job descriptions...good luck america.
It is something we cannot change, and we accept it, and do everything we can to ameliorate it. I don't know that programs like KIPP are the right way to go, something in it smacks of the state raising children instead of parents. Its just one of those icky kind of feelings that KIPP schools are a little cult-ish. So what else can we do but encouragement?
What gets to me is that we teachers constantly take it on the chin for the failings of the parents. There are teachers that ought not be in a classroom, and all tenure does is ensure that there is a due process followed to get rid of them. If administrators would do their jobs and document, then bad teachers would be gotten rid of.
Abstract: "Klein, Rhee, and the 14 other school superintendents who co-signed their statement base this call on a claim that, “as President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents’ income — it is the quality of their teacher.” [Note: After this was written, Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said she had not approved the manifesto and issued her own statement.]
It is true that the president has sometimes said something like this. But in his more careful moments, he properly insists that teacher quality is not the most important factor determining student success; it is the most important in-school factor. Indeed, Mr. Obama has gone further, saying, “I always have to remind people that the biggest ingredient in school performance is the teacher. That’s the biggest ingredient within a school. But the single biggest ingredient is the parent.”
If there are:
365 days per year @ 24 hrs per day = 8760 total hours per year
180 days per school year @ 7.5 hrs per day = 1350 total hours within school environment
8760 – 1350 = 7410 total hours children spend in influential environments other than school.
Of course, not accounting for time spent sleeping which, at and average of 8 hours per night assumed to be under NO particular influence = 2920 hrs
7410 - 2920 = 4490 hrs children are still outside the influences of the school environment.
4490 as opposed to 1350. I'd say parents have the upper hand when it comes to influencing their child's potential for success.
Definitely open for discussion (or correction of the math if need be).
See http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/educatio/barr2f.htm.
The point that I was making was a very basic illustration of the amount of contact time a school has versus the amount of time parents and other outside entities have in influencing a student. School days vary in length by district/state, student schedules and activities vary by the individual, as well as other variables not included in my basic summary.
I think what Ms. Garon was getting at, and what I have personally witnessed, is the difficulty schools have in getting past those other external influences that clearly have the advantage of time over the school experience. Particularly in situations where those other influences are negative in context, it is very difficult for schools to gain ground, so to speak.
YES, I would love to see a different model for the school year. I would love to have more time with my children. While I think the school world at large groans collectively at the thought of it, I think our children would do better in an educational environment that was a larger part of their lives. Longer days, longer school years... year round school even with a better scattering of breaks to refresh the mind, while not being out SO long to cause a skills deficit.
Then the inevitable question: Who pays? Which brings us full circle. We already have a society that resents having to pay to educate "other people's children". How do we turn that around?
It is time to admit that the parents are in many cases a lost cause and that if we are going to save the kids that means the kind of aggressive interventions that the charter movement has proven can succeed -- Longer school days, longer school years, and Saturday school. Students at KIPP schools for example regularly go from 7:30 to 5pm plus Saturdays. That makes those students less reliant on help at home from parents who are often working multiple jobs. It should go without saying that those kinds of extra-hours interventions are prohibited under the current union contracts and any contract the unions are likely to sign in the future.
I respect and appreciate the work that a lot of you on this board are doing, but it's time to admit that some things are within our control (school culture, teacher effectiveness, the length of the school day) and some things aren't (poverty, bad parents).
But a part of charter schools' success is that they are self-selective - students who apply to KIPP/AF and other charter programs have parents who are at least a little bit invested in their child's education, based on the fact that the child is applying to a charter school. And the parents have to show enough initiative to ensure that their kids are GOING to school on Saturdays - many of my students' parents put them on the city bus, kiss them goodbye, and never know if they arrive at school or not.
As for extra hours, it's not unions that make this impossible; it's the fact that teachers deserve a life that makes this impossible. A successful public school teacher spends a LOT of time planning, modifying, grading, tracking grades, et cetera - the notion of spending fourteen hours instructing, then coming home to this additional work burden, then working on a Saturday, is simply unrealistic. It might be doable for a few years, but it is not the way to build a teacher who has long term commitment to the profession. Some charters make this easier by providing scripted lesson plans and curricula; in public schools, this isn't really possible, because 1) of the wild disparities in ability levels of any given class of students, and 2) administrations have better things to do with
I greatly appreciate you for speaking for the rest of us in the public education system. Yes, there are other issues that impede the educational process, but parental involvement is by far a larger percentage than others. In terms of influences, where would you place the percentages afforded to parents/schools/and community? My unscientific estimation: 45%/35%/20% respectively.
You describe the situation aptly when speaking of the vacuum we teachers sit in, particularly on scheduled parent/teacher conference days....as if all parents who need to be attending to their children's education have been drawn into the vastness of space, never to be seen or heard from again; unless there's a bad grade to blame a teacher for, or an issue that involves not allowing their child to wear revealing (yet expensive) clothing to school.
[Segue] "How dare you tell me my kid can't wear these jeans? I paid $70 for them and she WILL wear them to school!" (Never mind that the shredded sections of her jeans were crotch oriented. I have already had that argument too many time.) [End]
Yes, there are deadbeat teachers out there that should be removed from the classroom. But what do we do when the biggest problem in a child's life is failed parenting? If firing is the end all/be all answer, then does anyone have any idea how to start firing deadbeat parents?
It presents an interesting, and complicated, topic for discussion.
I have been there.
have not seen the movie but know the american culture.
it is an individualistic culture and they will find someone to blame. ie usually teachers.
this is a nation that looks for individual heroes not systemic improvement.
you can travel this nation from one side to the other and not find many that understand this simple axiom.
85 to 95% of our problems are systemic.
now the teachers dont get off the hook here. their paradigm is no different than the parents.
we have been taught so much ignorance in our universities and our schools how can we recover from such ignorance????????
history has shown we cannot change the direction out nation is heading. ie rome thing.
I know what you are up against as I have lived it but this entire nation is up against this very same level of ignorance. we have wall street brokers running businesses and destroying them. we have CEO's giving themselves huge bonuses while they take their organizations to bankruptcy.
we have a supreme court that calls corporations persons and money free speech and if you dont think these things have anything to do with education think again. ie systemic decline.
education is just a reflection of the decline of our society based on our ignorance of reality.
"Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be teachers;
Make them doctors and lawyers and such,
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be teachers;
They'll never gain respect and are always suspect
Though they give the best they've got to give."
All the best to you and others like you and keep up the good work.