Colleges Remediate- We are in a Race To Nowhere

The New York Times reported that City University of New York is not providing higher education but remediation. This is not a shock. Education is currently based on state testing. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, increased the role of the federal government in public education and also expanded the role of standardized testing. These alleged benefits of standardized testing permeate the public educational system causing harm to students, teachers and the future of public education as a whole. Colleges offer remedial, developmental and basic courses.

According to the California Department of Education, the purpose of standardized testing is “to measure how well students are learning the knowledge and skills identified in California’s content standards.” In addition, standardized testing results will assist with focusing curricular instruction and organizing teaching methods. The goals of standardized testing seem to be falling short; instead of measuring student knowledge and focusing instruction and methods, the rigor of testing seems to be a silent erosion of our school system.

According to the California Department of Education website’s data for July of 2008, 13, 237 students took the Math portion of the California Exit Exam and 13, 373 students took the English portion of the exam. 29% of the students passed the Math and 30% passed the English portions of the test for the state. When we superimpose the same standards on every student, teacher and school, we receive results that are disappointing—a race to nowhere.

These disappointing results are rooted in non-profit school communities maintaining for-profit activities, i.e., test scores. Data has become the catch phrase and teacher’s names are associated directly with their student’s scores. Improvement has been demanded on the back of a shocked system, and therefore an increase of assessments and pacing guides has followed. This increase of standardized testing is big business for the private sector.

Now colleges are feeling the results of a broken system. The documentary, "Race To Nowhere", chronicles the culture of today’s youth in public school. According to the documentary, the epidemic of standardized testing has produced a culture for cheating, disengaging students, stress-related illness, depression, burnout, and of compromised young adults seemingly unprepared and uninspired for the future.

Each community can stop the the “Race to Nowhere" by challenging the current system. This documentary is showing all over the the country, go see it. Spread the news to educators, parents, students and your community. Join the "Race to Nowhere" Facebook Page in your area. This is the link for the Los Angeles page. If a page or community group is not available for your area, start one. Let’s continue a dialogue to examine the facts regarding our educational system and make it our own again.

Wanta Reform Education? Who Doesn't?

“Race to Nowhere is a call to challenge current educational assumptions and mobilize families, educators, and policy makers how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens,” Race to Nowhere website. Standford University stepped up to the challenge by screening the film.

Watch

Race to Nowhere at Stanford
Written by Vicki H. Abeles

The Stanford screening last Thursday, December 2, proved to be as enlightening as we had hoped. Joining in the Q&A session afterward was Dr. Deborah Stipek , Dean of the School of Education at Stanford, noted clinical psychologist and author Dr. Madeline Levine, and Dr. Denise Pope, Stanford Lecturer and author of Doing School.



The film was a catalyst for a spirited discussion across a range of issues, from high school testing procedures to university ranking practices. As usual, the audience included a mix of education and psychology professionals along with concerned parents and students. The Stanford venue resulted in a healthy participation from the academic community, whose evolving perspective and influence is critical if we hope to enact the reforms we are trying to achieve.



Due to the campus proximity to East Palo Alto and Stanford's affiliation with the area's charter school, the discussion touched on the dilemma of addressing the educational needs of the area's under-served students at a time when the economic downturn has severely impacted the community. Dean Stipek outlined the stresses on students involved in trying to meet the basic needs for food, clothing and shelter, the impact of diminished aspirations and the perception of limited opportunities.



Dr. Levine pointed out that childhood depression has doubled in the last 5 years in all communities regardless of socio-economic status, due to a multiplicity of factors...

Part I

I'm Not Waiting for Superman

I’m not waiting for Superman. Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim’s new educational film is presently receiving a media blitz. Guggenheim (the son of a documentary filmmaker) funded his film about the perils of the current educational system. In the film, Guggenheim, follows 5 students in their educational journey. According to the Waiting for Superman movie website, ”In spite of their rousing determination and grit, the shocking reality is that most of the film’s touching and funny cast of kids will be barred from a chance at what was once taken for granted: a great American education.” The film breaks up the educational problem into several sections of need: kids, teachers, administrators, unions, schools, states and the nation at large. Inevitably, these kids have one hope of receiving a good education, a lottery system to attend a better public school. The implication that a good education in America today can only take place through a lottery system for specialized schools is simply not true.

I appreciate the attention that the Guggenheim’s movie is giving to education reform, although I do not appreciate the big business media blitz to privatize education. Waiting for Superman is the metaphorical surfboard of big business stakeholders to privatize education for financial gains.

This powerful movement of policymakers superimposing structure to the educational system started back in the 1980s. Nicholas Lemann stated in a 1997 issue of Atlantic Monthly that in the 1980s “the idea of raising standards in public education emerged as a national cause.” In 1983 the National Council for Excellence in Education commissioned by the Reagan administration produced a report, A Nation at Risk. This report identified a national education crisis and recommended nationwide administration of standardized testing by states and the local educational systems. The use of the testing data was to better diagnose and evaluate student progress. “The view in the education world (was) that politicians never before tried to dictate specific teaching methods to this extent,”(Lemann, 1997).

With standardized testing came the creation of businesses to produce the books and products for the schools to utilize to accomplish their testing goals. Today, educational concerns are many. For over twenty-five years, big business has been riding on the backs of policymakers’ decisions in the field of education.

The standardized testing market is reportedly a $400 million to $700 million annual business that is largely controlled by three publishers (Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, and Riverside Publishing, a Houghton Mifflin company) and one scoring firm (NCS Pearson). A unified flow of substance and dollars runs directly from policymakers to textbook companies, leaving school districts with virtually no options. The few options available to districts for purchase and to teachers and students for use are dictated by the same policymakers and companies.

The great hope of America’s youth does not lie in privatizing the public school system, because that benefits the same big business conglomerates, not the students. Waiting for Superman and all of the attention it is receiving directly benefit the movement to privatize education.

In contrast, Race to Nowhere, a student-centered documentary, was made on a shoestring budget of $200,000 dollars. Director Vickie Abeles painted the picture of how today’s youth are struggling in the current system and how a collaborative effort of students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders is needed to problem-solve the needs of the today’s kids. The movement to privatize education does not directly benefit from such a collaborative approach.

The message of Race to Nowhere is not implying that a new private educational system is needed for kids to be healthy, happy and whole. The student-centered educational message of Race to Nowhere has been ignored by the media. An Internet search of Waiting for Superman yields 944,000 results, while a search of Race To Nowhere yields only 77,200 results. Why has Race to Nowhere gotten little to no attention from major media sources when compared to Waiting for Superman? It is simple; Waiting for Superman is a movie that has a villain and a quick fix provided big business, while Race to Nowhere calls for a collaborative movement of communities.

Big business will not make any money on students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders collaborating for a healthier happier educational system. A fear monger message of a poor kid in the Bronx that can not seem to receive an education unless a private system is created beats the path toward a money making venture.

I’m not waiting for Superman and neither is any kid in our country. What we are waiting for is a grassroots collaborative effort that really puts kids first instead of using them to fuel big business profits.

Times Have Changed So Why Haven't We?

SO, it’s has been a week and no one is knocking my door down about the Educational Revolution. That’s ok because I can see from word of mouth that people believe in the Revolution and have not came together or had a voice to articulate exactly what the problem is as they are lead to freedom. This is a little melodramatic but it is very true.

We know that education is suffering in many ways. Education is suffering nationwide. More special need students are being identified all the time. Viable students are dropping out of school according to the America’s Promise Alliance. In April 2008, ABC World News segment ("Failing Grades," April 1) featured a report from America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that showed 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year. This is a good jumping off place to start. The information we have is communicating something to us. We have to figure out the whys, hows and an action plan.

Last blog, I discussed how students could get behind and not really be noticed. I also stated a plan of action:
learning how to examine students developmentally, emotionally and physically; learning how to customize interventions to fit the students; and making this fabric part of our educational system. It would be revolutionary to utilize these practices.

The lack of understanding students to their core leads to a lack of vision in education. I’ll say it again, education lacks vision. This does not mean there not great things happening in education, do not get me wrong. There are wonderful programs, teachers and administrators that serve students well. What I’m talking about is the student that is not served well. This kind of student is growing in numbers by leaps and bounds. The student could look like one that ignores the teacher, sleeps in class, or just does not turn in work. The student could also look like the student who tries hard to please yet struggles anyway. The student could look like a reading disability that does not qualify for special education services. The student could look like many things. The disservice in education is that all are not getting what they need. It’s no one fault. They need too much for the current system to handle. That’s why we need a revolution.

Look, times are different and we have to change with the times. Our children are over exposed to stimuli. Input is constantly coming into the senses of people today: videos, ipods, text messages, computer screens, cell phones, etc. This upbeat of sensory heightens the system and the system craves for more. Kids in elementary and middle school are on video games, text messages and even Facebook!

Constantly, I hear kids saying they are bored. One student said it today as an excuse of why he drew an obscene picture! Students are not bored they are unregulated or unable to sit for periods of time without input. Am I over exaggerating? No. With the changing times, lack of real community, family time and bounding our children are being raised by the television and the media. How many moms or dads need a break and they put little Johnny in front of a movie or his favorite show, in which they TiVo'd for him! When the kid starts emulating the characters, speaking in gibberish or lost in fantasy thoughts we think something is wrong with the kid.

This form of thinking something is wrong with the kid permeates throughout education for those that struggle. Unlike mom and dad that start the ball rolling with too much media, teachers get what they get in a student. That student can come with a fertilized foundation for educational growth or with nothing but a blank slate somewhat ready to learn. Regardless, at sometime in the educational journey an educator, administrator and or parent starts to “victimize the victim” when the child is not learning and the interventions are not working.

The lack of understanding students to their core leads to a lack of vision in education. That’s why we need a revolution.

Join the Educational Revolution!

I consider myself an Education Reformer. Through the years I have tried to reform education from the inside out. It has not worked. What makes me so smart, nothing really? I think every teacher wants to assist students with learning to the best of their ability. At least that is my deepest desire, to assist kids that struggled to overcome their challenges. Which in turn, produces more well-rounded, self-sufficient, educated people as citizens for our county. Does this seem far-fetched?

This is my general premise as per my paper, The Multi-Sensory Classroom (Aug. 2004):
“Each child develops sensory/motor preskills at a very young age (e.g., auditory processing, fine and gross motor skills, visual perception, reflexes, tactile processing, sensory modulation). These bottom levels of sensory/motor development are often taken for granted because they are basic and develop automatically in the typically developing child. When we teach a student at school, the child uses these sensory/motor preskills as a foundation for learning. Children in whom these preskills have not fully developed find learning difficult if not impossible; they become our struggling or special-needs children. Without the appropriate developmental foundation, they cannot build the abstract thinking skills we try to teach them in school. “
Therefore, students may struggle in an educational setting and it may not be obviously apparent why the struggle exists.

So here’s my beef. Many students receive the necessary tools to overcome struggles in public education by the support of parents, teachers and interventions. There are a great number of students who do not receive additional support for whatever reason. This fact needs to change very rapidly.

Case in point, let’s examines the test scores for the high school exit exam for California. According to the California Department of Education website’s data for July of 2008, 13, 237 students took the Math portion of the California Exit Exam and 13, 373 students took the English portion of the exam. 29% of the students passed the Math and 30% passed the English portions of the test for the state. That means that 9,423 students failed the Math and 9,420 failed the English! Holy Smoke!

I cannot be the only one screaming in the wildness. Where are you? Please don’t give me the spill about more qualified teachers and incentives. In today’s, New York Times, Week in Review section on page 5 there is an advertisement from the President of America Federation of Teachers. The name of the article which is really an advertisement is called, “ What Matters Most: Words into Action”. In the ad-like article the president, Randi Weingarten explains this problem in education, “ For too long and too often, teacher evaluation –in both design and implementation – has failed to achieve what must be our goal: continuously improving and informing teaching so as to better education all students”. She goes on to give an example from Colorado of the school board and teacher union working together. Then at the end she says that school board members, teachers, union leaders all feel the same way, they want what’s best for the kids. I felt the article was about working relationships in these difficult financial times. Maybe that needs to be the focus for the advertisement that educational higher ups and teacher unions do not need to eat each other alive so they can eventually help kids. Although our students are failing right now and I don’t want any kid to miss several years of learning because people who make a lot of money can’t get along. We are talking about kid’s futures here. Give me a break!

I’m tired of the Infomercial Education. The kind that keeps promising that magic ellixir yet, the product is just so-so. The real conversation needs to be around the individual differences of students or their learning styles and needs. Administrators, school boards, teachers and all school staff members need to be trained in how to recognize a struggling student’s needs: emotionally, developmentally and physically. They also need to know how to build or recognize curriculum for these needs and drive the curriculum based on assessment data, not a hunch or a feeling. I’m not saying that public education can fix it all and is a one-stop shop. But let’s be honest students come to school with all of these issues and as a whole we cannot ignore the numbers. Our students in this state are not making the cut. Our interventions are not making the cut. Identifying student’s needs are not based on each student’s individual differences or assessments yet blanket interventions are thrown on major problems.
So, we need an Educational Revolution…stay tuned how to join the fight.

Living or Learning Problem: Do You Care?

Sometimes our kids have living problems not learning problems in education today. Life at times is so complicated. I grew up in simpler times. The students of today have many challenges to face: death, suicide, sexuality, drugs, alcohol, etc. Some kids have challenges just getting to school.

This week one of my most lethargic students warmed up to my class and me. He was a lump. I have tried to engage him in conversation,... nothing. He would sluggishly give me one-word answers to my questions. I’d ask about his life, nothing. Yes or no answers followed without affect or expression. How many months of school has it been? I was pulling out all my stops because I know through experience and research that a relationship is a starting point and cultivation for learning. I would put on my best face on day after day but each day he was ultra flat therefore, non-engaged. You can’t win them all right? Wrong because somehow, someway, something got to him. This week he was Mr. Delightful! I don’t know what turned it but it turned. He worked harder, made positive comments and became an asset to the classroom. Most likely he was having living problems not a learning problem.

According to Eutopia.com,” New America Media, a nationwide network of over 700 ethnic-media organizations, and the University of California’s Office of the President, conducted a survey of young people in California to better understand what young adults ages 16-22 feel are the primary issues impacting their lives.” http://www.edutopia.org/challenges-young-adults The study spoke with 601 young Californians. Here are the results of the survey as they reported in the study.

CALIFORNIA DREAMERS: A PUBLIC OPINION PORTRAIT
OF THE MOST DIVERSE GENERATION THE NATION HAS KNOWN
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_custom.html?custom_page_id=340
Fig. 1



In the graph young people identified family breakdown as the number one problem followed by violence in the neighborhood and poverty.

In another situation I was walking to the office and an educational assistant was having a disagreement with a middle school girl. I stopped and asked the educational assistant what seemed to be the problem. The assistant quickly let me know the girl refused to work and now was refusing to go to the dean. I volunteered to take her. I asked the young lady what was wrong. She blew me off with a simple nothing which means I’m not telling you, you don’t care. I implored her and then she exploded with a river of mind-blowing information. Her brother had been arrested for attempted murder and he was her caretaker. She had a mother but her brother is the one that cared for her. She knew he was in Long Beach but that’s all she knew and she was freaked out. I told her I’d be freaked out too. Then I said the thing that any of you would of said, “we can find him and you can write him a letter”. She melted with hope as tears filled her eyes. That’s all she needed was hope and help. We cannot have an educational system that is not human. Our souls have to touch the young people souls. We have to care about their lives. Is this our job? Who cares? If a kid needs you, step up. It may be a living problem they need help with not a learning problem.

If The World is Going to End in 2010 Why Should I Work Hard?

“The world is coming to an end in 2012 so why should I work hard?http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/2012/ Well, that was quite a shocking statement to receive early in the morning. One of my female high school students made this statement in response to me inquiring about her plans after high school in June. It was a simple question; I did not expect an Armageddon prediction. At first, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I took a step back. I often take a step back in the classroom setting as an educator of high school students. The middle class part of me that looks into the face of a “give me more generation” did not want to take a step back. The other part of me that is a patient teacher and caring soul instinctively knew this would be a chance to step closer to my student’s frank feelings and offer comfort when there was doubt. What a statement to make! It was obviously about fear of today, tomorrow and the hereafter.

I asked her to explain her point of view and she weaved a web of indecision and new aged fear as she spoke about the world ending, how much easier life would be as a male, and wanting the easy way out

At times like this, I want to weep. I want to weep for a generation that does not have anyone to talk to about life. I want to weep for young people who live in a culture of fear and the adrenaline rush of fear like it’s a new soft drink on the market. I want to weep for the lack of faith, adventure and fullness of just living life.

Instead of weeping, I smile and say, “It’s hard for all of us to grow up and be responsible”.
“I’m not talking about that”, she retorts.

“Actually you are talking about that”, I say gently.

“Making plans for the future, following through with the plans you make and learning to care for yourself is responsibility”, I said lightly because too much weight would cause her to disregard another you must listen statement.

This sunk in for a minute. I watched it saturate over her like a warm glass of milk easing down her throat.

“Fear of Tomorrow” was not included in today’s lesson plan. Change of game plan- so we discussed how she had the same opportunities as males and yes, in this world sometimes it is harder for women. Instead of squashing her fear, I symbolically held her thoughts as we worked them through one by one. After quite some discussion she implored, “If the world was coming to an end what would you do?”

“I would live my life”, I proclaimed. “I would not live in fear”. Her brown eyes bore through me like she was looking for the truth in my statement. I continued, “ I have lived for awhile now and the world was going to end in 1984, 1999 and then again in 2000. “So, 2012?” I shrugged,” I would live my life and enjoy myself.”

She thought for a minute. “You made it right?” her words filled the silence. I could not take this in at the time. It is rare that a teenager shares this kind of kudo with an adult. I am taken aback; she thinks I made it. She sees me as a success. This harden teenager that threatened to vandalize my car upon our first few meetings. This threat was a simplistic ploy to scare me away from getting to know her. This young women is the same fragile soul that told me, “I feel so bad I just want to live under the covers.” after a tragic shooting that left a friend dead. Hard expressions, frown lines and eyes of bewilderment often searched me for answers along with a “you don’t care”, “I don’t care” attitude of resentment for a life that hasn’t really started.

I see a sense of hope slowly build in her eyes. I knew my eyes lit up as
I said, “The world is your oyster. You can do anything you want. You can dream. You can travel. You can see other things. It is an exciting time of your life.”

Her faces seems like she is reasoning the possibility that she too can do it. Together we develop a plan to start walking toward her goals. To see if working in the field of veterinary services would suit her. With some persuasion, she’s planed to go to the pet store this week to ask for an application. If they are not hiring she is going to ask to volunteer so she can be around animals.

The bell rings and she stops at the door on her way out and looks at me.

“You are cool Ms. Johnson.” I smile. She has second thoughts, “I need a lot of guidance”, she admits. Your friend offered to go with you to the pet store I reminded her. She looked at her friend standing closed by and she asked for help. She asked for help.

I suppose that was the lesson for the day. Just ask for help..