Revisiting Teacher Engagement

            No matter what profession you are in, a positive work environment is key to work productivity and job stability.  However, with the ongoing budget, staffing and curriculum changes in school districts across the country, morale has been at an all time low.  

Recently, there was a study conducted by Gallop on teacher engagement.  The survey which was administered by telephone, connected with 6,711 full-time teachers across the country about enthusiasm, emotional connection to work and time off[i].

            The results of the Gallop Survey found that 30% of the teachers reported being “actively engaged” in their jobs.  Fifty-Seven percent responded they are not engaged at work and 13% reported they are actively disengaged and they “act out their unhappiness in ways that undermine their coworkers accomplish.  It is believed that teachers who are disengaged account for 2.3 million missed work days.[ii].”

            The results of the Gallop Survey are concerning.  The concern is that although it is well known teacher disengagement is a problem, very little has been done to address teacher disengagement.  One of reason very little has been done maybe due to the perception about the teaching profession and the teacher union. 

            While there is a symbiotic relationship between the teaching profession and the teacher union, they are two distinct entities.  However, whenever there is a problem there is a tendency to place blame on both.  Evidence of this can be seen in ongoing fights over collective bargaining between teacher unions and school districts.  While union officials were negotiating to keep their members from having to pay a co-pay for medical visits, teachers were portrayed as greedy for not wanting to make concessions that everyone else was making as states and districts continue to recover from the economic crisis and diminishing resources.  It was never mentioned the unreimbursed money teachers spend on supplies and incentives to keep students engaged and improve self-esteem or the unpaid time at home spent grading papers and writing lesson plans.  Neither was it mentioned that teacher salary is not competitive with other professions or how staffing cuts of teachers and non teaching staff affected the teachers who were not laid off, but would have to take on the additional duties of lost staff.

            Lastly, the results of the Gallop Survey are disheartening because of the untold impact.  A disengaged teacher has given up and becomes harmful to the learning process.  A disengaged teacher is most likely a teacher who gives passing grades for students who do little to no work.  Finally, a disengaged teacher has students who are not learning, not meeting their potential and are at risk to give up on education and drop out.  This never seems to be considered in the discourse on teacher disengagement.

            It would have been nice if the Gallop Survey asked the participants what keeps them engaged?  How to reengage them or if they understand the impact their disengagement has on their students?  

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[i] http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2015/01/gallup-majority-of-teachers-not-engaged-with-jobs.html?print=1

[ii] ibid

What High School Graduates Say about their Education

                There has been a lot of debate about high school graduates who are entering the adult world unprepared for college or the workforce.  A majority of the research on the lack of preparation has been from the perspective of employers and educational advocates on what they believe high schools students should learn before they graduate and how schools should prepare their students.  However, there is a recent study by Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies conducted a study from the student’s perspective.

                The study entitled “Rising to the Challenge:  Are High School Graduates Prepared or College and Work,” asked 1,347 recent public high school students from the classes of 2011-2014 via an online survey about if they felt their education prepared them for college and the workforce[i].

             The participants were asked a series of questions concerning how well did their high school education prepare them for college or the workforce?  Which area(s) you wished your high school better prepared you for the expectations of college or the workforce?  When it comes to the schoolwork expected of you in college, how has college been so far?  Which best describes your experience in high school?  Participants also answered questions reflecting on their high school experience[ii].

             The results of the online study found that eighty-three (83%) of the participants that are enrolled in college (2or 4 year) reported at least some gaps in preparation in one or more subject areas.  Two-thirds of participants said they would have taken higher level courses in high school if they had realized the expectations of college and the workforce.  Eighty-seven percent (87%) reported they would have worked harder if their high school had demanded more and set a higher standard.  Lastly, one third of the participants stated they wished their high school did a better job teaching work and study habits[iii].

             Although the study provided some good data, the study just scratched the surface and confirmed the need for better preparation at the high school level for graduates entering college and the workforce.  The study also revealed the need to continue to gather data from the student perspective since the student perspective is underutilized in current research.  Although the study did provide some good insight, the study did not go far enough by asking students the question:  if they felt their principal or teachers were knowledgeable enough to prepare them for college and the workforce?  The lack of such question(s) has revealed a gap in the current research that needs to be examined.

The gap in research on administrator and teacher knowledge concerning the preparation high school students for college and the workforce is crucial to determining how to develop and implement meaningful reform so high schools can properly prepare their students.  In order to ensure high schools are properly preparing their students, research from the student perspective will inform researchers, administrators and teachers if the goals of preparation for college and the workforce are being met.

           If we want are high school graduates properly prepared for college and the workforce, the student perspective is the compass that will show us if our reform efforts are moving in the right direction.  However, it is the knowledge of the administrator and teacher that move students in the right direction of proper preparation.

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[i] http://www.achieve.org/rising-challenge-powerpoint

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid

When Children Became Reduced to Test Scores

                There is a message being ingrained in the minds of children and young adults.  The message is: “you are a test score.”  Beginning in elementary and continuing in middle and high school, this message is validated through the implementation and instruction of content that is designed to familiarize children and young adults with the kind of questions that may appear on the upcoming standardized test.  Further validation of this message comes from the school principals and teachers who under the veil of encouragement and school pride attempt to get children and young adults to obtain the desired target score.

 

                The emphasis on, benchmarks and standardized test scores has been a cult like conviction since the late 1980/early 1990s, among advocates who believe that test scores are effective indicators of opportunities and roles  young adults will have when they leave high school.  The No Child Left Behind legislation gave advocates a permanent platform by making test scores the seminal piece of the educational process.  With the ability to penalize administrators, teachers, schools and districts for not meeting specific academic targets, an unprecedented era of education began.  In this era success is measured not by what students learn, retain and recall, success is a specific target score on a standardized test that determines proficiency.

 

                The results of children becoming reduced to test scores has made, learning fragmented, one dimensional, absent of purpose, and irrelevant to the lives of children and young adults.  From their perspective, this is why learning is “boring.”  Furthermore, children and young adults have no incentive to change their perspective because they understand they have been reduced from an individual into a test score. 

 

                Evidence of this understanding of being reduced to a test score was demonstrated in the number of administrators and teachers in districts across the country that were involved in testing scandals where students were directly led to choosing the right answers or incorrect answers where changed after the tests were completed are given back to the teacher.  The lesson learned by children and young adults from the testing scandal is that “your test score is more important than what you learned.”  Also evident of this the harsh belief is that “if you don’t test well, you will end up as nothing.”

 

                Children and young adults hear from administrators, teachers and parents about the consequences of not achieving the desired target score.  Based on the score, children and young adults take on the labels based on the score they receive.  The score also determines how children and young adults will be treated.  Children and young adults will begin to see a difference in the way instruction is provided by finding themselves in groups based on their scores.  For children and young adults with scores of basic or below basic, unfortunately, some may allow their score to define them.  These children and young adults embrace the label and disengage from school because “school has nothing for them.” 

 

                The reduction of children and young adults from individuals to test scores allows legislators to continue to justify their cult like conviction and gives administrators and teachers’ permission to provide instruction in a manner that is not in the best interest of what children and young adults learn, retain and recall.

 

If we ever hope to regain confidence in our educational system and re-engage children and young adults to embrace academic achievement, we can no longer reduce children to test scores and not care about what they actually learn, retain and recall. 

A New Year’s Resolution for Educators & Parents

                The onset of each New Year brings the opportunity to make resolutions for the New Year.  Resolutions are supposed to help us improve specific areas of our lives.  There are resolutions to lose weight, spend less money or stop smoking.  These are all noble resolutions.

However, if you are a teacher or a principal, some of your resolutions should seek to improve the academic achievement, student engagement or supporting struggling students.  Making resolutions that seek to improve students is necessary for any teacher or principal and should be considered equally as important as resolutions to lose weight, spend less money or stop smoking. 

 

                Parents  should also be making resolutions for their children that seek to improve academic achievement, engagement or a struggling child.  Parents should not only make resolutions to support their child in school, they should also share their resolutions with their child and encourage their child to make resolutions to improve academic achievement, engagement and areas where they are struggling. 

 

                Unfortunately many teachers, principals and parents do not make resolutions that seek to improve academic achievement, student engagement or support struggling children.  Yet we continue to wonder why our schools and students are underperforming. 

 

What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black (Part 2)

What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black

Margaret Burroughs

4^th Paragraph

 

What can I do to give him strength
That he may come through life’s adversities
As a whole human being unwarped and human in a world
Of biased laws and inhuman practices, that he might
Survive. And survive he must! For who knows?
Perhaps this black child here bears the genius
To discover the cure for… cancer
Or to chart the course for exploration of the universe.
So, he must survive for the good of all humanity.

 

                The words written by Burroughs in the fourth paragraph, speak volumes to the plight of young black boys.  No matter how much self-esteem is instilled in young black boys about how they have the same chances as any other child, once they leave the safety of their homes, they find a society that still views and labels them as three-fifths of a human being. 

 

                Black boys find themselves under constant suspicion by adults and law enforcement and labeled because of the color of their skin.  The clutched purses and crossing the street some adults do when black boys walk towards them because they fear they will become victim at the hands of black boys.  Black boys also find themselves under constant suspicion when they go into stores to purchase or look at items.  The suspicious looks they receive when they enter an establishment and the employee who constantly monitors their movement in the store and on occasion may ask black boys to “leave if they are not going to buy.”

 

                It would seem outside of the home there is no safe haven for black boys.  However, the one place that should be a safe haven for black boys, many times mirrors what happens to them outside of their home.  Unfortunately, Burroughs words also ring true about the plight of black boys in elementary, middle and high schools. 

 

                Education is supposed to be the great equalizer.  However for black boys, the same bias, fear and suspicion they face in society, they face in elementary, middle and high school classrooms.  Black boys face teachers who make assumptions about their intelligence based on their name, based on historical bias of teaching black boys and the perception that black boys aren’t interested or can’t learn.  This is one of the main reasons black boys are the majority of students receiving Special Education services, have the highest number of suspensions and highest percentage of high school dropouts.  However, Burroughs reminds us of who black boys could become if treated fair and given an equal chance.

 

The 4^th paragraph of Burroughs poem reminds us the path that Black boys have to navigate in order to survive and thrive in our society.  Burroughs reminds us that inequity in America is robbing our country of the potential to become even greater because our black boys are not given the opportunity to reach their potential.

What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black (Part 1)

What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black

Margaret Burroughs

1^st Paragraph

 

What shall I tell my children who are black

Of what it means to be a captive in this dark skin?

What shall I tell my dear one, fruit of my womb,

of how beautiful they are when everywhere they turn

they are faced with abhorrence of everything that is black.

The night is black and so is the boogyman.

Villains are black with black hearts.

A black cow gives no milk. A black hen lays no eggs.

Storm clouds, black, black is evil

and evil is black and devil’s food is black…

 

                The deaths Michael Brown and Eric Garner made me think about this poem by Margaret Burroughs.  With the acquittal of the white officers by the Grand Jury, these words continue to remind us behind these deaths is the ignorance, fear and hate.  Burroughs shows us how this fear, ignorance and hate
“of everything that is black” is part of the routine of everyday life.  So I wondered can we as educators change this narrative by teaching children and young adults the importance of having a diverse and inclusive society?

 

                Education has always played a major role in the movement for social change.  In the era of Segregation, educators, parents and students called for the end of the negative connotations that define black.  More importantly, to counter the negative connotations, teachers directly taught black students about their heritage, demystified the negative connotations and instilled pride of being black.  In the post-Segregation era, the push for diversity and inclusion of black studies and the end of the negative connotations defined the word black.  The word black was reclaimed by the community to define beauty and strength.  This was evident in the era of movies where black men and women were portrayed strong, intelligent and unafraid to take on injustice in the community.  This era is commonly known as “blaxploitation.”

 

Unfortunately, education has lost its way.  Under the disguise of faux diversity and inclusion, the struggle to completely remove the fear, ignorance and hate of everything that is black has been has been replaced by the drive to acquire and consume.  Now that we can live in any community, work in corporate America and not directly called the “N-word” on a daily basis, our attention is on accumulation over substance.  We believe everything is “fine” and our black boys believe this until Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and the long list of young black boys whose lives ended prematurely. What do we do about it, march, get angry and then go home until the next tragedy is posted on the news about the premature death of a young black male by the hands of a white police officer.

 

To end the cycle, of ear, ignorance and hate of everything that is black, we need to work on the young people.   Young people of all races should be required to take a diversity and inclusion class in elementary, middle and high school.  Young people in suburban and urban school should be required to have a joint class in diversity and inclusion to learn from each other to see how they have more similarities than differences even though they come from different socio-economic backgrounds.  That is how you begin to end the cycle, of ear, ignorance and hate of everything that is black.

 

By getting young people together in a meaningful way, the young person who may eventually become the white officer in the life or death situation with a young black male, may not turn out to be another tragedy.

Obituary for New Orleans/Recovery School District

                The New Orleans/Recovery School District expired at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.  As a state operated school district, the state decided to dismantle the district and convert the remaining schools into charter schools.  Unfortunately, the decision to dismantle the district was not put to a local vote so the citizens of New Orleans who pay taxes and utilize the public schools could decide the fate of their district.

                The decision to convert the entire district into a system of independent charter schools appears to be based on the misguided ideology by the state that an all charter school district will provide choice, innovation and competition.  However, the misguided ideology seems to ignore that charter schools were not performing any better that district.  According Ravtich (2013):

                                                “The state gave a grade of D or F to two-thirds

                                                of the charter schools in New Orleans.  Only 9%

                                                earned an A and 14% earned a B.  There are vast

                                                disparities among charters: some are high performing,

                                                but most are low performing…it could hardly be a model

                                                for the nation[i].

                The decision by the state also seemed to ignore that charter schools being independent will have different set of rules on enrollment, instruction and discipline that could be confusing to parents and student.  The lack of uniformity concerning enrollment criteria, the type of instruction students receive (if it is inclusive of students with disabilities, struggling learners and English Language learners)and student discipline will be different with each charter school.  The lack of uniformity has the potential to disregard the rights of student and parents.

                Finally, the decision by the state seemed to ignore the racial disparity and segregation of students who are enrolled in charter schools.  According to the Washington Post:

                                                White students disproportionately attend the best

                                                charter schools, while the worst are almost exclusively

                                                populated by African American students[ii].

The racial disparity is so bad that a federal civil rights complaint was filed against a particular charter school operator that runs the city’s best charter school which does not participate in the city’s One App school enrollment lottery. 

                Thank you to the teachers, administrators and non-instructional staff of the New Orleans/Recovery School District for the hard work you have done on behalf of children who were given very little chance to succeed by leaders who have a misguided ideology that does not have the best interest of children.

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[i] Ratvich, Diane (2013).  Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to American Public Schools, Knopf/New York

[ii] www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-new-orleans-traditional-public-schools-close-for-good