Point/Counter Point on Teach For America from the Onion

My Year Volunteering As A Teacher Helped Educate A New Generation Of Underprivileged Kids

By Megan Richmond, Volunteer Teacher

When I graduated college last year, I was certain I wanted to make a real difference in the world. After 17 years of education, I felt an obligation to share my knowledge and skills with those who needed it most.

After this past year, I believe I did just that. Working as a volunteer teacher helped me reach out to a new generation of underprivileged children in dire need of real guidance and care. Most of these kids had been abandoned by the system and, in some cases, even by their families, making me the only person who could really lead them through the turmoil.

Was it always easy? Of course not. But with my spirit and determination, we were all able to move forward. 

Those first few months were the most difficult of my life. Still, I pushed through each day knowing that these kids really needed the knowledge and life experience I had to offer them. In the end, it changed all of our lives.

In some ways, it's almost like I was more than just a teacher to those children. I was a real mentor who was able to connect with them and fully understand their backgrounds and help them become the leaders of tomorrow.

Ultimately, I suppose I can never know exactly how much of an impact I had on my students, but I do know that for me it was a fundamentally eye-opening experience and one I will never forget.

Counterpoint

Can We Please, Just Once, Have A Real Teacher?

By Brandon Mendez, James Miller Elementary School Student

You've got to be kidding me. How does this keep happening? I realize that as a fourth-grader I probably don't have the best handle on the financial situation of my school district, but dealing with a new fresh-faced college graduate who doesn't know what he or she is doing year after year is growing just a little bit tiresome. Seriously, can we get an actual teacher in here sometime in the next decade, please? That would be terrific.

Just once, it would be nice to walk into a classroom and see a teacher who has a real, honest-to-God degree in education and not a twentysomething English graduate trying to bolster a middling GPA and a sparse law school application. I don't think it's too much to ask for a qualified educator who has experience standing up in front of a classroom and isn't desperately trying to prove to herself that she's a good person.

I'm not some sort of stepping stone to a larger career, okay? I'm an actual child with a single working mother, and I need to be educated by someone who actually wants to be a teacher, actually comprehends the mechanics of teaching, and won't get completely eaten alive by a classroom full of 10-year-olds within the first two months on the job.

How about a person who can actually teach me math for a change? Boy, wouldn't that be a novel concept!

I fully understand that our nation is currently facing an extreme shortage of teachers and that we all have to make do with what we can get. But does that really mean we have to be stuck with some privileged college grad who completed a five-week training program and now wants to document every single moment of her life-changing year on a Tumblr?

For crying out loud, we're not adopted puppies you can show off to your friends.

Look, we all get it. Underprivileged children occasionally say some really sad things that open your eyes and make you feel as though you've grown as a person, but this is my actual education we're talking about here. Graduating high school is the only way for me to get out of the malignant cycle of poverty endemic to my neighborhood and to many other impoverished neighborhoods throughout the United States. I can't afford to spend these vital few years of my cognitive development becoming a small thread in someone's inspirational narrative.

But hey, how much can I really know, anyway? I haven't had an actual teacher in three years.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-year-volunteering-as-a-teacher-helped-educate-a,28803/

The attended consequences of charter schools

From the reader Surfed

Here's what's going to happen to my school. We're down 250 students. Over the year they will start trickling back in as their parents get tired of taking them to schools across town or they get tired of riding a bus for an hour each way or as they get booted out of the Charter schools or just leave the Charter school to come hang with their neighborhood peeps. We will have already surplussed our excess teachers. As the students trickle back in our class sizes will swell because the students are returning without the money to hire more teachers. 

That money will have already been given to the Charter schools. They will also return in many instances without a focused look at the subject matter vis a vis FCAT. We will then test them at FCAT time and reap the consequences of the Charter student being unprepared for the test. Our teaching ass and our schools grade is on the line and we have little control over the outcome. This is what happens when you let politicians try to social engineer society whether it's education, health care, whatever. It's a train wreck.

Charter schools may be here to stay whether we like them or not.

By Greg Sampson

Charter Schools Will Not Go Away

At a recent presentation to Assistant Principals, Instructional Coaches, Deans of Displine, ISSP teachers, and District personnel, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti spoke of the competition that public schools face from charter schools and virtual academies.

They are not going away, he said. We have to begin to look at our parents as customers. We must market ourselves to our neighborhoods. Dr. Vitti wants these students to return to DCPS traditional public schools. He presented data that showed that charter schools in Duval County perform at the same levels as traditional public schools.

But parents think charter schools are a great option, Dr. Vitti continued, because charter schools market themselves as the way for parents to get a private school education using public money.

I believe what Dr. Vitti said and I applaud his goal to market our schools so parents return their children to our classrooms. However, the truth is that we are rowing upstream against the mighty Mississippi when it comes to bringing children back from charter schools.

The strategic plan published by the Florida Department of Education includes these goals: increase the number of charter schools from 518 in the 2011-12 school year to 829 schools for the 2017-18 school year, with 8.5% growth in the number of schools for a total of 60% growth over the six-year period; increase the number of students enrolled in charter schools from 179,940 to 359,880 over the same time period, a 12.5% growth in the number of charter school students for a 100% growth total over the same six years.

Since the overall number of children in schools will not grow over that period, the implication is clear. The State Board of Education and the Florida Department of Education are working to reduce enrollment in Florida’s traditional public schools. Here is the link to the strategic plan (look at items 3.4 and 3.6): http://www.fldoe.org/board/meetings/2012_10_09/strategicv3.pdf

No matter how hard we try or how well we market our schools, charter schools will not go away.

(Greg Sampson is a DCPS teacher on special assignment as the instructional math coach for his school, which is located on the Westside.)

Here is a joke, what school has 150 student gym classes and no librarian?

Mandarin high, sadly though parents don’t find it very funny.

Jason Fischer is the School Board member there, if this sounds inappropriate to you let him know. 
fischerj@duvalschools.org

Jacksonville’s Northside Schools left to languish.

Reports of overcrowded classrooms being led by substitutes are starting to creep out of Ribault and Raines High schools and Kirby Smith middle.

First I think it is great that people are starting to see through the false choice of charters and recent improvement has seen kids come back but the district only has a limited opportunity to make sure this return is permanent. Putting subs in classes, having huge classes some with fifty and sixty students or seeing other students sit idle in their school’s auditorium is not the way to do it.

DCPS has an opportunity here to show the parents of an often-neglected part of town that their kids matter too. I hope they don’t blow it. 

Parents of Kirby Smith Middle school students, be sure to pack a snack

Kirby Smith’s school day starts at 8:10 and goes to 2:55. If your kids an 8^th grader his lunch starts at 9:30, which for many I imagine is just 90 minutes after when they ate breakfast, give or take a few minutes. Over the summer I called 9:30 breakfast and I imagine many of you did too.

Then from 10 till sometime after 2:55 these hormone raging, fast growing adolescents are expected to power through.

That however isn’t the most shocking thing going on at Kirby Smith, supposedly one of the best schools the district has to offer.  No the most disturbing thing is Kirby doesn’t have enough teachers and a lot of its kids are forced to spend hours in the auditorium doing nothing. Kids will likely lose weeks of instruction time.

I am reminded of the saying you only have one time to make a first impression. Color me unimpressed.   

The hypocrisy of the school choice movement.

Public schools took a beating today in the Times Union today. They were called unaccountable failures with only school choice (vouchers and charter schools) being able to save some.

Have you ever wondered why we only have one police department or fire department, one army and one navy? It is because when we put all our resources into one pot we are able to do more with them. It is the same with public schools and when resources are siphoned away it weakens them and since public schools are here to benefit us all, charter schools on the other hand are here to generate a profit for their operators, it hurts us all.

I also find it ironic and a little sickening that the same people who scream loudest for school choice are against a living wage increase, housing subsidies and affordable health care. The scream screw poor black folks (and white, Hispanic, etc folks too,) and call them moochers and takers but if they want to send their kids to a private school in an abandoned strip mall, then we’ll help out some.

The following is from the Rachel Maddow blog:

If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose the same quality, affordable health care as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.

If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same access to safe, affordable housing as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.

If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same access to reliable transportation as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.

If folks on the left argue, "It's not fair that working people can't choose to have the same quality nutrition as rich people," the right condemns the argument as socialism.

But when schools are the topic of conversation, conservatives claim the high ground -- they may celebrate income inequality as part of a competitive free market, and may not lose any sleep over struggling Americans lacking access to health care, housing, transportation, and food, but if you deny poor kids a voucher to pay private-school tuition, you're obviously a heartless monster.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/08/07/19916292-jeb-bushs-narrow-understanding-of-choice?lite

Parents should have school choice; vouchers and charters should not be among them. (rough draft)

Parents should have the choice of home schooling, sending their kids to private school or to public school. And say they don’t like what is happening in their neighborhood school the opportunity to get in there to make it better. Charter schools and vouchers should not be an option. 

The Public School System is designed to benefit all of us, whether we have children attending a public school or not, to dilute its resources and by sending children to substandard options which is what charter schools and private schools that accept vouchers are, harms us all.

First let me say there are undoubtedly high quality charter schools and even I think charter schools have a role to play but just as a supplement to our public schools not as a replacement for them.

Most people don’t know it but Albert Shanker a very liberal union leader coined the concept. Now demonized by most charter school proponents, he envisioned charter schools as parent teacher driven laboratories where new and innovative techniques could be tried free off the sometimes-stifling constraints of the public school system. To be honest that doesn’t sound bad. Teachers today are forced to spend so much time on zone plans, word walls and standards based bulletin boards that the time they have to teach and make connections is limited.

The problem however is here in Florida Charter schools are more profit centers than schools. They are run by corporations who care more about the bottom line than what happens to their students. Furthermore numerous members of the Florida Legislature are making a lot of money off of them. Another intended consequence is they are used to weaken the power of the teacher’s unions, as they are not union shops. This has salary, benefit, pension and working conditions ramifications. Some of you might not like the unions but our schools would be much worse off without them because without them you couldn’t find anybody to work in our schools.  

Finally about Charters despite huge advantages they are not performing as well as public schools at least in Florida and that should be a huge red flag. The truth is they should be killing public schools but they aren’t and even if you love charter schools that should concern you.

Then there are vouchers. I also think they have a limited role to play. If a kid needs a certain program and a public school doesn’t provide it by a private school does, then a voucher should be allowed, however just because you don’t like public schools isn’t a good enough reason. The public should not subsidize that choice. Furthermore private schools benefit form the same advantages as charter schools including picking whom they take and despite that, private school attendees who use vouchers don’t perform any better than their public school counterparts.

Imagine a three-ray race where one runner is blindfolded and has their shoes tied together, public schools, and the other two charter schools and vouchers, were free of any constraints. The results of the race would be public schools tied with vouchers and charter schools coming in last. It boggles the mind that some people think public schools are failing and choice will save the school system.

We are pouring money into charters and vouchers not so kids can get a better education but so legislators and their friends and family members, and so corporations can make a buck. 

By no stretch of the imagination am I saying public schools are perfect. There are lots of problems but at the end of the day the solution is to fix those problems and make them better not to outsource our kid’s education to substandard options.  

Advanced Placement classes failing students - Stephanie Simon - POLITICO.com

Advanced Placement classes failing students - Stephanie Simon - POLITICO.com

In fact, taking an AP class does not lead to better grades in college, higher college graduation rates, or any other tangible benefit — unless the student does well enough to pass the AP test, said Trevor Packer, a senior vice president at the College Board.

In the past, the College Board has pointed to studies that found a correlation between taking an AP class, whatever the outcome, and succeeding in college. Yet that research was flawed because it didn’t control for other predictors of college success, such as family income or high-school grades, Packer said. More rigorous studies find benefits only for students who earn at least a 3 on the AP test.

That means, Packer said, that hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in AP may be better served by lower-level classes that focus on building foundational skills. “We have no interest in collecting exam fees ,” he said, “if the kids are not going to benefit.”

Those exam fees, however, continue to roll in. The nonprofit College Board, which also runs the SAT, reported net assets of $609 million at the end of fiscal year 2012, up from $491 million two years earlier.

1.3 million students fail Advanced Placement Classes! The whole system is all messed up.

I know what some of you are thinking, why is my class half empty? Why not talk about all the kids that took and passed A.P. classes instead, well friends read further and you may understand and here is a hint, it has something to do with kids leaving their intensive reading class to head to their A.P. literature class.

From State Impact: Students failed nearly 1.3 million Advanced Placement exams last year, according to an analysis by Politico. And the overall passage rate for the exams has declined since 2002.

In addition, The College Board, the nonprofit which administers the Advanced Placement exams, said research no longer supports the idea that students benefit just by taking the more difficult classes. Instead, research now shows students only benefit if they earn a passing score of 3 or higher on the exam.

Florida is among the states pushing more students to take accelerated coursework such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate. The state grading formula for high schools gives credit for the percentage of students taking an AP or other accelerated course.

The trend challenges a widespread philosophy that students exposed to higher standards will find a way to meet them. Graded in part by college professors, AP exams provide a fairly objective measure of performance — and the results suggest that when the bar is raised too high, a good number of students trip.

“Well-meaning policy makers encourage Advanced Placement in order to set high expectations,” said Kristin Klopfenstein, an education professor who has studied AP trends and now runs the Education Innovation Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. “But their eagerness for expansion has gotten ahead of the support systems in place for these kids.”

http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2013/08/21/new-data-raises-questions-about-advanced-placement-courses/

When I was in school you had to get permission to take Advanced Placement classes and now students are forced into classes they aren’t ready for which also hurts the kids who are in those classes legitimately. AP teachers for years have complained about this but since schools get bonus points for kids just taking the classes, not passing them or the tests mind you, their cries fell upon deaf ears.
We can’t continue to put kids in situations where success is elusive and then wonder why they don’t succeed. Here it is the adults failing the kids.