I started working in city-subsidized, Washington, DC child care centers in 1995 and I couldn't believe how depressing they were. Located in decrepit strip malls, strewn with broken glass outside, parents walked their toddlers into these small, overheated spaces. Television blaring, children sitting on the floor, staring blankly at Elmo, they looked abandoned. Teachers sat in the back on break, the smell of microwave popcorn choking the room. Children were crying from their cribs, others wandered aimlessly around the room, with little to do. There were few books, and the toys were old, many broken leftovers. I was appalled. I wasn't sure I could keep going back. But this was my job.
For nine years I ran an early learning arts and literacy program called Inner City-Inner Child, which took new books, artist teachers and professional development programs to the city's poorest child care centers. Washington's elite has never seen these parts of DC.
In time, I really loved this job. I got to know the teachers, the centers' directors and the kids. The teachers really wanted what was best for the children, but, quite honestly, had no comprehension on how to provide it. Many of them had no more than a high school education, had grown up quickly themselves, having children and families before they had really become adults. I remember during many a circle time when would I would ask a question about a book we had just read, only to be interrupted by a teacher, excited she, too, had the answer.
But the needs of these children were so great, the poverty so pervasive, that even what we provided was only a drop in the bucket. What these teachers really needed was serious professional development and training. A program that would teach them about child development, developmentally appropriate interactions, formative and cognitive assessments and education readiness for 4-year-olds. Most of these children lived in dire poverty, had very little language acquisition, and were no more ready for kindergarten than their toddler siblings. What these teachers had in training was not enough to combat such adverse conditions. They weren't really qualified to be Pre-K and early childhood teachers; they were qualified to be baby sitters.
According to the most recent research, poverty's role in the life success of children is daunting. According to Nobel Prize winning economist James Heckman, these adverse family conditions such as joblessness, homelessness, depression and violence "are major producers of cognitive and behavioral deficits that lead to adverse teenage and adult social and economic outcomes."
It is these toxic adverse conditions, says Jack Shonkoff, MD, Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, which disrupt brain development and potentially inhibit children from learning. Because, he says, when the brain is developing, stress inhibits the formation of connections between brain cells and restricts blood flow to the brain.
"It literally disrupts brain architecture," says Shonkoff.
This is why I was really excited about DC School Chancellor Michele Rhee. She was one of the first from DCPS to say and recognize publicly that quality Pre-K was critical. And it was even more critical for DC's kids, 85 percent of which qualify for free and reduced price lunch. The current DCPS combination of abject poverty and lack of quality Pre-K teachers was a prescription for human capital loss. To visualize the enormity of the task of reforming DCPS, recognize that only 8 percent of eighth graders were reading on grade level when Rhee arrived, and yet a majority of teachers had received annual satisfactory reviews.
But Rhee recognized this, saw the "toxic" stress these children were suffering from. She knew she had to get these four year olds into quality programs and fast, or she was going to lose them. In just three years she's made huge gains in Pre-K:
Rhee's last three years in DCPS have been notable and noteworthy. She has implemented controversial merit pay and teacher evaluation systems, and recruited aggressively for some of the best educational talent in the country. And as Education Trust's Kati Haycock says, "No matter what you think about the politics, DC Public Schools are having real results." Prior to 2007, less than a third of elementary students were performing math at grade-level; after two years close to half of DCPS elementary students are proficient in math and reading. Secondary students have achieved double-digit growth demonstrating tremendous progress.
Just this last week, I talked to my old boss from Inner City-Inner Child, Connie Zimmer. She said when she went to one of the DCPS elementary school/Pre-K centers this past week, she talked to some teachers. The word on the street, the teachers said, is that Mayor-elect Vincent Gray will bring back a number of teachers who were recently fired, many of whom scored too low on their evaluation to stay on.
"Come on now," Connie said to them. "You know they weren't very good teachers."
"Yeah, we know," they told her. "But they need a job."
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Richard Whitmire: Is Mayor Gray Keeping the Rhee Reforms?
Richard Whitmire: The Michelle Rhee You Don't Know
(http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/000214.htm). At the time Mary Levy (Google her) put together a great chart on the pros and cons of Mayoral Control.
http://www.dcpswatch.com/dcps/040319.htm (Another great link provided by Ms. Levy on Mayoral takeover)
Rhee had the sweetest position than any of her predecessors. She didn’t have to answer to a school board, The mayor had her back, she didn’t have to worry about overseeing school facilities (hat tip to Allen Lew) and the curriculum was already in place from her predecessor Clifford Janey and those double digit gains came in 07-08 Rhee couldn’t even negotiate a new contract. It wasn’t until Kurt Schmoke entered the picture that movement happen with the contract negotiations.
Bill Would Put More Children in Pre-Kindergarten Washington Post Tuesday, December 11, 2007
“D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray wants 2,000 more children to be enrolled in pre-kindergarten classes over the next six years and wants their teachers to be more educated as part of a $50 million plan that follows a national trend to get students into the classroom earlier.â€
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/10/AR2007121001599.html
The introduction and approval of this bill is what has attributed to the changes as well as the bump in enrollment with Pre-K.
Under Rhee the achievement gap grew and AYP Dived so who really gained under Rhee? http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/the-gap-is-still-there/.
http://gfbrandenburg.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/will-a-little-bit-of-data-dissuade-die-hard-admirers-of-rhee-and-fenty/
I am not distorting facts; my focus is on quality. PreK for all doesn't mean QUALITY PreK for all, and quite honestly this is a significant factor.
From the article you refer to, PreK Now Executive Director, Libby Doggett, said "the bigger problem in the District is not access but quality. On paper, the standards are high," she said. "In practice, what children are getting doesn't mirror that."
Gray's legislation goes on to say he would not remove unqualified teachers. "I don't want to hurt people who have so many years of experience in this," Gray said. "The improvement will occur through attrition. People who don't have those credentials now will be grandfathered."
How many kids are still waiting for high quality teachers do you think?
The people in poverty today receive far more public assistance than poor people got in the 1930s, but somehow they are worse off? How does that make any sense? Why are all these kids in day care anyway? Why aren't they learning anything at home? Isn't a lot of this problem a failure in parenting?
Single parenthood IS the cause of the school problems.
Rhee’s problem with D.C.’s new test scores!
"D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has a problem, and it’s not the fact that elementary school standardized test scores just went down." Will they last? Test scores dropped on her watch!
Is SparkleLight Communications the new PR firm for RHEE?
Maybe you could write a PSA for my Illiteracy Chemotherapy! READ BOOKS WITH KIDS!
http://reading-sage.blogspot.com/
She like most that are ignorant of the system’s influence on human behavior believes that merit pay and teacher evaluation will fix the system.
The long term effects of the merit pay and evaluation system you can bet based on average performance will have profound side effects and they wont be pretty.
this has been tried again and again and again with long term negative effects.
this rhee person like most Americans think they can buy their way out of this ignorance; she only added to it.
Short term it will look great; long-term horrible results.
This is sad what we are doing to our children, so sad the ignorance we apply to their needs.
Pay for performance is what Wall Street uses; hey that worked out did it not????????
Oh Americans you are being led down a lonely road with this ignorance taught at every university in America.
Excuse me, but are you saying other teachers DON'T work hard?
You might want to wipe your shoe of that remark.
It's a little hard to take a few years of good test scores seriously, as that data is easily manipulated by teaching to the test.
The merit pay system is simply a way to value hard work. The pay scale is what says to teachers, you are a professional and we value what you do. I think we have a way to go to convince tax payers that we need to pay teachers in order increase professionalism in the workforce, but I think the message is getting out there.