Parent Voices
Dover: Oh, My, How You Have Changed!
Published August 05, 2009 @ 06:04PM PT
It was the late 1950’s, and Richardson, Texas, was a shiny new suburb north of Dallas. The area was building up with nice single family homes, as well as desirable apartments. Hundreds of young, energetic families were moving in with jobs at nearby Texas Instruments. For many years, Dover reflected the school district – mostly white and fairly affluent.
That all began to change in the 1980’s, as federal laws changed that had allowed apartments to discriminate against families with children. Aging apartments began accepting more minority and immigrant families, many poor and without English skills. The influx of refuges and immigrants brought an era of new challenges, diminished community support, and lower performance as the school struggled with how to teach and succeed with the new students. Having originally opened with 300 students, the school eventually reached an enrollment of 600 children, speaking 29 different languages. It didn’t take long for many families to either move from the area or withdraw their children and send them to other schools. Dover began to experience a certain stigma, as in “You don’t want to send your children to school there” or “That school has changed.”
But Dover didn’t give up.
The Toolbelt and Universal Design - Education For Everyone
Published July 17, 2009 @ 04:00AM PT
Education may be understood in one of two broad ways. Either it is about teaching people a discrete set of facts they will be able to repeat – multiplication tables and The Lord’s Prayer are two examples – or it is about helping people learn how to function in the world – crossing the street, using the Dewey Decimal System, reading a map all fit into this category.
The first understanding is not without value. It is important to know an alphabet, basic math facts, or what “President” means. But the second is crucial to survival. Humans, from the very start, needed to know how to hunt, how to recognize safe plants from poisonous ones, how to find their way back home.
And almost as soon as humans began to function as “humans” – this process of learning to function in the world began to revolve around tools. Humans are tool makers and tool users. It truly is our most significant distinction among the species on the planet. Sure, many animals use a few basic tools, but no other creature uses as many tools, or constantly refines those tools, or continuously invents new tools. It is almost a definition of “humanity.”
Our societies are defined by our tools. Our first complex tool is our language, which allows us a huge communicative advantage over most species with which we compete. And our languages significantly define who we are and what we know. The rest of our tools tend to define where we fall in social evolution. We describe much of our history by our tool sets: The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, The Iron Age, The Age of Steam, The Information Age.
This progress explains an important idea to educators. If you are teaching your students the tools of yesterday, you are preventing society from moving forward. Rather, we must be teaching our students to use the tools of this moment, and teaching them how to learn the next set.
Toolbelt Theory
For the past four years I have talked about something I call “Toolbelt Theory.” This began as an idea for allowing students with “disabilities” to learn and choose their own Assistive Technologies. But it very quickly expanded to all students, because every human on earth needs some kind of technologies which assist them in their interactions.
It is impossible for most to climb to the second floor of a building without stairs. It is very difficult for most to get to a meeting on the 25th floor without an elevator. And it is perhaps even more difficult for most to get to work each day if work is 30 miles from home, unless we use a car.
Because we are not whales, we need some form of “assistive technology” if we are to talk to someone 3,000 miles away. We call this a telephone. Because we are not birds or Monarch Butterflies, we need other “assistive technologies” if we are to cross from one continent to another. We call these planes and boats. And because we are not Socrates, we struggle to remember everything we have ever been taught without “assistive technologies.” We call these books and paper, pens and ink.
So we create toolbelts for ourselves. We not only collect hammers, saws, screwdrivers, we load up on books or television, typewriters and newspapers.
A toolbelt for everyone
I began to discuss Toolbelt Theory in my field – for students with special educational needs. I was frustrated when some “school-based team” would pick a single technological solution for a student’s “disability” which the student was expected to use no matter the task, no matter the environment, no matter how the student was feeling that day.
For example, a student with a reading problem might be given complex, expensive literacy software for his computer but not be able to read a menu at a restaurant or a sign on a school door. Or a student without verbal communication might be given a speech-generating device too large to use on the bus as she traveled home. Or lots of students might be given tools based on their “worst day” needs – rather than allow them to use “just” the help they needed.
It was the equivalent of breaking out a chain saw every time you needed to cut wood – even if you were trying to build furniture.
But once I began to see Toolbelt Theory work, I saw that every student needs this. There’s not a human on the planet that doesn’t need to reach for a tool sometime – and knowing how to pick the right tool for the job and moment, how to use that tool well, and how to find new tools, is an essential survival skill.
Universal Design
We don’t call someone “disabled” because they can not saw 100 sheets of plywood in half by hand. We get them a table saw. We don’t call someone “disabled” because they need a power screwdriver or they’ll be exhausted after an hour of putting down deck boards. We put a bit in our drill. And we don’t call people “disabled” because they can’t walk five miles to work every morning. They take a car or a bus or a train.
This is the idea behind Universal Design Technology, and behind Toolbelt Theory. We, as humans, differ. Our tasks differ. Our environments differ. Our circumstances differ. And we pick the appropriate tool.
This Wednesday I could walk much further, cane and all, in the 64 F degree weather in San Francisco than in the 98 F degree weather just south of there in Mountain View. I could decide if I wanted to drive between those two cities, or take the train. Get off early and take BART to my destination, or ride to the station by AT&T Park and walk to the streetcar – What’s the weather? Is time an urgent factor? How does my leg feel?
But without education, I can’t make these choices. I need to know how to know the temperatures. I need to know what transit options are open to me. I need to know how to drive and how to read a timetable. How to operate parking and train ticket machines. I need to know which way the streetcars run, and how to ask for help.
When I read I need to make similar choices. I read really slowly, really badly. But for short things I just tough it out with “ink-on-paper” (or paint-on-signs), though I have a Reading Pen with me if I’m having a very bad day - a day when no alphabetical system connects correctly in my brain. But I also use Click-Speak in Firefox for reading web pages. I use WYNN for big academic reading, and Read-and-Write-Gold – all of which convert text to audio (WYNN and Read-and-Write both highlight each word visually as it is being read aloud). Sometimes I use audiobooks – especially for novels, poetry, or great historical stuff, or I let WYNN, Read-and-Write, or WordTalk convert the text to an mp3 I can listen to in my car.
Without education I could not make these choices either. I need to know how to use those different tools. I need to know how to work with them – say, how to take notes effectively. I need to understand what the purpose of my reading is. And yes, I need to know about these tools, and where to get them.
Are you teaching your students those things?
Suppose your wealthy, white, typically-abled child is heading off to Europe. Can they read maps effectively? Can they read maps on their iPhone or Blackberry so they aren’t “screaming” “I’m an unfamiliar tourist” as they walk down the street? Can they translate information quickly from unfamiliar languages? Can they use Google to convert currency? Or to know if they’re being ripped off? Are they able to figure out the transit system maps when they arrive in a city?
Oh yeah, they’ll probably need all of those tools simply to start college in a new place or to go to that first big job interview in New York or Chicago or San Francisco.
Can they get through that last hundred pages of reading when their eyes hurt? When they need to finish as they drive to work? Can they dictate a text message or email to their boss while driving a 50 mph on the Eisenhower Expressway toward Chicago’s Loop? Can they switch their Firefox spellcheck when they communicate with that job possibility in London? Do they know if it will be better for them to buy the print version of that textbook or the digital?
Or have you left them clueless in the tool store via an education continuously committed to one way of doing things?
T.E.S.T.
Toolbelt Theory, and Universal Design, means there aren’t “disability solutions” and there aren’t “normal ways to do things.” There are just humans and the tools they need. And so we don’t write IEPs for some and insist on conformity for others, but we make the tools of the world available to all, and teach them to evaluate on their own.
We do this because we know, we know, that across everyone’s lives their tasks will change, their environments will change, their skills and capabilities will change, and the available tools will change. Or quick, grab your fountain pen, fill it with ink, look up the number you need in your Manhattan White Pages directory, and dial it via your rotary phone.
So: Task – Environment – Skills – Tools (a specifically ordered re-design of Joy Zabala’s SETT Framework for those educators playing along at home). When students begin a task they need to consider what that task really is – the essential purpose. They need to know where, when, for whom that task must be completed. They must understand their own skill set and capability position (which might vary throughout even the day as they tire). And they must know the range of tools available to them – and how to use those tools.
None of this is automatic. Don’t give me your “digital native” nonsense. People even need to learn to properly hold a hammer – tool skills are not natural. Nor is tool knowledge. Every day I go into schools where students struggling with reading are left in the dark – as if we denied wheelchairs to students who couldn’t walk on the theory that being left on the floor would motivate their legs to work. Every day I go into schools where the vast majority of students struggle – and often give up – as they are forced to use antiquated tools which fit their needs badly.
Teach your children well
We are humans. We are tool users. We are defined as humans by our constantly changing tools. Those tools, in turn, actually change who we are, as they alter our capabilities.
Your school must be a tool shop, where tools are demonstrated, taught, considered, respected, used, and deliberately chosen. Because we can not afford to send our students out without the toolbelts they need to function in their future world.
- Ira Socol
You can find my blog on education, technology, and "special needs" education at SpeEdChange . You can find my books on Amazon.com.
Free and Low-Cost Summer Learning Tips for Parents
Published June 15, 2009 @ 07:38PM PT
Just a quick share, for parents wanting input on how to keep their children occupied in constructive ways during the summer. This is from an email from Ron Fairchild, executive director of the National Center for Summer Learning at The Johns Hopkins University:
The effort to keep kids learning during summer is based on research that shows that:
Most students fall more than two months behind in math over the summer.
Low-income children fall behind two months in reading while middle and upper-income peers make slight gains.
By fifth grade, low-income children can be 2 ½ years behind in reading.
Only one in five children who receives free or reduced price meals during the school year gets them in summer.
A recent Johns Hopkins study found that 65 percent of the achievement gap in reading between poor and more advantaged ninth-graders is due to unequal summer learning experiences during elementary school years. That gap makes a difference in whether students decide to drop out or go on to college.
"Even in tough economic times, there are many free or low-cost things parents can do to keep their kids healthy, safe and learning this summer," says Fairchild.
SUMMER LEARNING TIPS FOR PARENTS
Locate a summer program that fits your budget. Programs offered by schools, recreation centers, universities, and community-based organizations often have an educational or enrichment focus.
The library is a great, free resource. Check out books that interest your child. Participate in free library summer programs and make time to read every day.
Take free or low-cost educational trips to parks, museums, zoos and nature centers.
If you are taking a day trip by car, choose a place with an educational theme. Camping is also is low-cost way to get outside and learn about nature.
Practice math daily: Measure items around the house or yard. Track daily temperatures. Add and subtract at the grocery store. Learn fractions while cooking.
Play outside. Limit TV and video games. Intense physical activity and exercise contribute to healthy development.
Do a community service project. Teach your child how to volunteer in your community and show compassion to others.
Keep a schedule. Continue daily routines during the summer with structure and limits. The key is providing a balance and keeping kids engaged.
- Prepare for fall. Find out what your child will be learning during the next school year by talking with teachers at that grade level. Preview concepts and materials over the summer.
Transformative Education Through the Arts
Published May 04, 2009 @ 08:14AM PT
Julie Owen is a public school parent in Jackson, MS and active with Ask for More Arts, a local school-community arts partnership advocating quality education for all children by integrating the arts into classroom teaching and learning. Julie is also active in the Jackson chapter of Parents for Public Schools, which serves as the convening partner of Ask for More Arts. Check out Julie's blog at Casey Arts.
From tiny white eggs found on the leaves of milkweed in a large pasture in Jackson, Mississippi, my family is rescuing and raising 6 monarch butterflies. Now that some of the caterpillars are well on their eating and growing journey, it is our job to keep their containers clean, feed them from the stash of harvested milkweed leaves in our refrigerator, and release the butterflies into the world when they emerge from their chrysalises. These caterpillars need our help because they are under threat from predatory insects such as fire ants. Habitat loss is making the milkweed plant, the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat and on which they lay their eggs, harder to find.
Just as every monarch caterpillar needs milkweed to survive and transform into a monarch butterfly, all children in our nation need a quality education in order to become engaged, productive, creative, thoughtful, and innovative citizens in our communities. As parents and citizens, it is our duty to care for and nurture our nation’s children not only by providing for their basic needs but by supporting our teachers, public schools, policy makers, and governments in providing a quality education for all children regardless of economic status, race, or culture. Our children and some of our nation’s public schools are under threat from inadequate funding and resources, dwindling or poor community support, and curriculums that do not meet the needs of children with diverse learning styles.
As a parent of children in public education and as an arts education advocate, I believe children in our nation’s public schools need curriculums rich in the arts to help them discover their unique gifts and open transformative possibilities. Arts integrated learning works because children have unique ways in which they learn best and in which they may be challenged to grow. A school that uses the arts to teach core academic subjects such as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science will reach more children to help them succeed because more styles of learning are nurtured and encouraged.
My daughter’s school has a bulletin board in the front entrance that explains to all visitors why it is an arts integration school. Arts education makes learning fun and relevant to student’s lives. Arts education contextualizes learning across disciplines. Students who participate in the arts develop stronger interpersonal skills, encouraging empathy for others and increasing understanding of diversity. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer. The arts provide new challenges for students considered already successful and help build confidence in children who struggle with core curriculum areas but may be very talented in an arts area. The arts enable children to have experiences they can have from no other source.
As an involved parent, I have seen children experience all of the above positive aspects of arts integrated learning and teaching. My daughter has used drama and pantomime to explore concepts of place and community in social studies and history. She has painted and collaged to learn and reinforce multiplication and fractions. She has read and written poetry to learn about science, and she has developed writing skills through photography. Through arts integrated instruction, she is receiving the tools, strategies, and experiences she needs to flourish, dream, imagine, question, and succeed.
As a parent and citizen of this country, I want all children to have an education that challenges, nurtures, encourages, and transforms. All children deserve the opportunity to discover their talents, turn their weaknesses into abilities, and build upon their strengths. Through arts integrated education, our nation’s public schools can become the chrysalises that will transform lives and give children the wings necessary for learning, achievement, and flight.
Core Knowledge and Class Size
Published April 28, 2009 @ 03:14AM PT
I've been meaning to point this out ever since reading the Core Knowledge blog announce that the Carl C. Icahn Charter School is NYC's "toughest charter to get into."
Robert at the Core Knowledge blog points out:
The school had spots for less than 3% of its 868 applicants, the Daily News reports. On last year’s state ELA test, 85.1% of students were proficient, more than double the rate of the surrounding district–as good an argument for the efficacy of a content-rich curriculum on reading achievement as one could want. Math proficiency is even higher–over 97%.
Robert also points out that the school uses the Core Knowledge curriculum, and implies that curriculum is a factor in much of the school's success at those test scores (and has the school taken the more respected NAEP tests, instead of the easier NY state tests?).
I'm not going to dispute that possibility. I can get behind Core Knowledge in this respect, at least: if I understand it correctly, it pushes content-rich reading in a coherent, historically-grounded framework, instead of pushing scripted lessons and test-prep "reading" instruction. (I've already written about what I can't so easily get behind with CK.)
But there's another factor of Icahn charter that separates it from NYC public schools: class size.
From the NYC Public School Parents blog:
All classes at the school are capped at 18, according to its website and an article in the NY Sun. Classes run to 4 PM, with Saturday help for any child who needs it.
And yet this administration, which promotes charter schools at every opportunity, allowed class size to rise in our regular public schools in all grades this year but 4th – despite $150 million in state aid that was targeted specifically to reducing class size. More than 66,000 students-- or about one quarter of all NYC public school children in grades K-3 are now in classes of 25 or more– an increase of more than 11, 000 students compared to last year. There are nearly 14,000 students in grades 1-3 in classes over 28 – a 36% jump.
The size of Kindergarten classes increased so much that average class size is now as large as in 2002 – when the mayor was first elected. Next year will likely be worse – with hundreds of parents on waiting lists for their zoned neighborhood schools. See articles about waiting lists in Chelsea, Upper East side, and Greenwich village – even after increasing class size to 25 – the union contractual maximum -- in all these neighborhood schools.
The administration says it will provide 100,000 seats for charter school students by 2012 – though there are only 25,000 new seats in the entire proposed five year capital plan. This means that they are planning to take at least 75,000 seats from our already overcrowded regular public schools – with more closing of neighborhood schools to make way for charters, and higher class sizes for those kids sent elsewhere.
Everything's complicated.
Update: This blog has an interesting comparison/contrast of the Icahn school and other big-brand charters like KIPP and Green Dot. Especially noteworthy is that the teachers at Icahn aren't Teach For America naifs - and don't seem worked to the bone like KIPP's TFA-ers - but instead are professional teachers from NYC schools. Also noteworthy: the school days, weeks, and year aren't radically longer, as Arne Duncan is convinced they should be (and as they are with KIPP):
a) Nearly every charter school I've seen has a young leader (usually a TFA alum), whereas Litt is a grizzled veteran.
b) There's only a slightly extended school day -- 8:30-4 -- and no Saturdays or summer school (though maybe school started a week early in August?).
c) There are no TFA teachers on staff -- most of the teachers appear to have been recruiting from the NYC public schools (see below for one teacher's story).
d) There were few posters with slogans on the wall ("Work Hard. Be Nice.", "Climbing the Mountain to College", etc.).
e) I didn't observe any of the teaching techniques that involved all the students chanting vocabulary words, doing multiplication with "oom-pop-drop" and the like.
I wonder how the compensation and benefits work here, compared to traditional public schools?
The New Vogue: Public Schools
Published April 16, 2009 @ 03:04PM PT
The New York Times ran an article on April 6, 2009, called "The Sudden Charm of Public School." The article details the panic of Manhattan families who have suddenly decided, given the economic times, that they may send their kids to public schools. For families who planned on private school and didn't consider public school zones when they bought homes, they suddenly care very much which public school their kids might attend. Stating that it used to be a taboo in certain circles to even suggest you're interested in sending your kids to public schools, the article quotes one parent as saying, "Now it's actually kind of cool and in vogue." Oh, my ... what a difference a dollar and a day make. It reminds me of Barbara Mandrell's hit song years ago: "I was country ... when country wasn't cool."
The reality is that public schools have been cool for many people in the United States ever since our nation instituted the noble experiment of educating everyone. Public schools educate approximately 90% of the kids in this country, so I would welcome these newly found converts and tell them that it never was necessary or even desirable to spend $33,000 a year on private school tuition. Save the money instead for college -you'll need it there, to be sure.
For many of us who sent our kids through public schools (a choice for some, a necessity for others), what we got in return are young adults who possess the full package. I saw my own children receive topnotch academics, a full array of extra-curricular activities, and a real appreciation of the vast and great diversity of America. They attended school with a wide variety of socio-economics, languages, and cultures. Today they function well in the workplace with anyone and everyone and have no expectation that everyone will be just like them. Neither are they threatened when folks are not like them. They just understand that people come from many different places and perspectives, and it's possible to relate to them and find the things they have in common. Kids who attend diverse public schools end up with an understanding that serves them well as citizens, as we all strive for a society that includes everyone and offers everyone a chance to achieve.
I believe that a child's education is the unique and personal decision of parents, so this is not about berating anyone who ever sent or planned to send their kids to private schools. But if you're considering joining the arena of public school parents, we're glad to have you and think you'll like what you find. Sure, there are some failing schools that need attention and fixing, but the great majority of public schools are performing well - a fact that people often lose sight of.
There are some things to look for as you choose your child's school. It's good to go and visit schools. Look around and observe the environment. See if you feel welcome in the school. Successful schools welcome parent engagement and know that it's a huge factor in whether or not they will be successful at educating students. Find out if a school is effectively serving all of the students there, not just some. Ask about special programs offered which your child might need at some point. Visit a school board meeting and see how the school district is governed. Look around and see if the community around the school supports that school and understands that it should.
So while I understand that this will be a huge step for many parents who never planned to send their kids to public schools, I think you will be amazed at the richness of the experience. I know that you will better understand the challenges of American public schools and how well many of them are meeting those challenges. Your presence and interest will contribute quality not only to your own child's education but to the education of all children. And together, we will be a stronger nation.
Public schools...where all are welcome, the price is right, and the American dream lives on.
