Education In America

Recently Oprah Winfrey was quoted on Newsweek Entertainment – MSNBC. com.

Oprah also knows that some people will complain that charity should begin at home, even though she has provided millions of dollars to educate poor children in the United States, especially via her Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program. But she sees the two situations as entirely different. “Say what you will about the American educational system—it does work,” she says. “If you are a child in the United States, you can get an education.” And she doesn’t think that American students—who, unlike Africans, go to school free of charge—appreciate what they have. “I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there,” she says. “If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don’t ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.”(emphasis added)

I personally think that the $40 Million school that Ms. Winfrey has built is a great thing. I support the education of all children all over the world. It is part of my personal belief system and the mission of Parenting 4 Academic Success to participate in a dialogue and advocate that every child, regardless of race, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, religion and social-economic class, deserves the very best education, not just what is available, but the best.

What bothers me about Ms. Winfrey’s comment is that it seems to place the responsibility for lackluster academics on the students.
How is it that the product of the educational system is responsible for failing to become educated?
Why is it that the adults, parents included, but especially those adults who have training, education and experience in the process of creating the product are not responsible?
Why is it that the very people who collect a salary and pension, those who make reports and accept awards are not responsible for the failure of the child to reach basic standards of performance?

In private/corporate America, when a product fails to meet industry standards, or grab the public interest, the product itself doesn’t take the blame and shame alone. The design team, the production group, the marketing and promotion people, everyone has to stand accountable for their part in the debacle. I would suspect, because it is such a well run organization, the same is true at Harpo Productions. I perceive Ms Winfrey to be a thoughtful and enlightened person, so I don’t think that heads roll when there is a bad show, but I do think that there is a thoughtful review
of all available information after every project. An honest analysis of what went well and what didn’t and how to improve on both.

Yet here, in the public sector, in Chicago Public Schools, students are responsible for the failure of the system. As evidenced by a recent exchange at the public portion of a recent Chicago Board of Education meeting. A student named Kenny Young presented an excellent argument for after school activities, especially swimming pools, in neighborhood schools. He stated that he and his friends are in need of alternatives to potentially illegal activities as well as an opportunity to just burn off energy. Mr. Rufus Williams, Chair of the Board of Education, responded by telling the young man, that “you are your brother’s keeper”
” you tell those other young men to stay off the corner”.
While both those statements are based in reality and truth, it was not the response I expected or believe that the young man needed. Kenny gets that he is his brother’s keeper, he came to the Board meeting. He knows that the young men in his community should stay off the corner, but unlike Rufus Williams, he understands that alternative activities are needed. This situation is another example of the haves, blaming the havenots, for not having.

A very wise woman told me that CPS knows how to educate children.
CPS educates children in certain neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods that don’t demand access to education, simply don’t get educated. These students, and sometimes their parents, get blamed for not learning.
The fact that they have the worst, and/ or least experienced teachers and administrators is irrelevant.
The fact that the buildings are inhabitable, the textbooks are ancient, the classroom are overcrowded, the curriculum review and enhancement is nonexistent, none of that matters, not when we can blame the kids for wanting iPods and Air Force Ones.
If the little sponge like brains of children are not soaking up knowledge at school and that experience reinforced at home, what do they have but popular culture.

The Consortium on Chicago School Research at University of Chicago has extensive research and identified the factors or elements necessary to a successful learning environment. This is the same organization that reported the appalling college graduation rate of CPS students in April 2006. CPS administration responded to this study with information about CPS students acceptance to four year colleges. These statistics where much more hopeful, but did not address the failure of CPS students to graduate from college.

I keep thinking about what that wise woman told me. That certain schools have access to resources necessary to educate the students effectively. Some schools work through the sear will of the parents, against or/in concert with the school’s administration. Others succeed through the will of the schools leadership, against or/in concert with the parents. Some schools thrive because it has been ordained and planned by the very creation of the program and its location in the city.

In light of the program that Ms Winfrey did with Bill Gates, where she showed the schools in Chicago and across the country which have nothing. I was very touched by the students from Harper High School in Chicago, who were sent to Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Illinois, who were overwhelmed by the opportunities at the suburban school.
Heaven forbid that someone show them or Ms. Winfrey, the distinctions between selective admission/college prepatory schools in Chicago and Harper.
Or the distinctions between Northside neighborhood schools and South- or West-side neighborhood schools.
How about the funding, facilities and AP classes at selective admission high schools in Chicago based upon the race of the majority of students, the neighborhood in which the school is located, the economic and/or educational infrastructure of the community, etc.
Why dont we compare the characteristics of the top 20, middle 20 and bottom 20 performing elementary schools in Chicago. Do the same for the top, middle and bottom 10 high school in the city.

Perhaps after that analysis, neither Ms. Winfrey nor any other thoughtful and enlightened person will blame the student for failing to get an education.

Teacher Certification and No Child Left Behind

Under No Child Left Behind parents are entitled to know, the following information regarding the professional qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers including, at a minimum:

1. Whether the teacher has met State qualification and licensing criteria for the grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher provides instruction.
2. Whether the teacher is teaching under emergency or other provisional status through which State qualification or licensing criteria have been waived.
3. The baccalaureate degree major of the teacher and any other graduate certification or degree held by the teacher, and the field of discipline of the certification or degree.
4. Whether the child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.

If at any time your child has been taught for 4 or more consecutive weeks by a teacher not highly qualified, the school will notify you.

Many administrators are unaware of this parental right, many more are aware and resist its implementation. Many teachers resent the information being made available to parents. So the request often has to be handled gently. The fact that other professionals have to post credentials, degrees and qualifications by law or traditions is sometime a helpful reminder.

The Chicago Publics Schools sent out a form dated September 15, 2006. This form was to be given to parents in order to notify them of the right and deadline for receiving the material. Additional information is available on the web site.

As a CPS parent I have never been able to get the material requested in a timely manner. Further, I know of very few parents who have received official notification of the right to request the material and have not meet resistance when requesting the information. The purpose of the right, under the act, in part, is to give parents more information and control of the quality of instruction available to each student and more fully participate in the education of the student.

The December issue of Catalyst Chicago Magazine has an interesting article on What Makes A Good Teacher. It identifies factors that can contribute to a better teacher. Most interesting, it indicates that the worst teachers end up in poor and minority schools. If you as a parent require more motivation to request your teachers credentials, I’m at a loss.

Powerful Parents and Education

Back in May of 2006, a substitute teacher in a Chicago Public School wanted to “call security” on three little boys who, the sub said, were talking in class. The boys, who are ages 10 and 11, deny that they were talking. I believe them both. I think that the boys were talking, in low almost inaudible voices. Making eye contact and stifling giggles like little boys are want to do. And to a 5th grader that isn’t talking, if you are still getting your work done.

I say this because I was outside the door just before the Sub asked another teacher for security. I stuck my head in the room after I heard the request and there was the faintest hum of conversation. By that I mean that the room was not silent. It was about 30 minutes into the school day.

Now, the following may not be relevant but here goes. The little boys are dark complexioned African Americans and one wears his hair in dreadlocks. The school is Mark T. Skinner Classical School, a selective enrollment school on Adams and Throop on the near west side. The substitute was a white European American middle aged male substitute teacher who claimed to know that students at Skinner were among the highest performing students in Chicago. And still his answer to little black boys talking in class was to “Call Security”.

Why do I find this appalling? Security is analogous to the police. Security takes you out of the classroom, away from the learning environment. The police take you to jail, away from family, friends and society. Why would one make the acts of a minor child in a school building criminal unless it was absolutely necessary? Unless it was to teach a psychological lesson in knowing one’s place. To dehumanize the educational process and make the instructional environment hostile. There are several tiers to discipline at Skinner as there are at all CPS schools. Each infraction meets its own repercussions based on the severity of the infraction and the repetition of the infraction. (The third spit ball rated harsher penalties than the first.) The first incident of talking, as it was 9:45 – 10:00 in the morning, hardly rates “calling Security” unless this action by a teacher has nothing to do with classroom management and everything to do with criminalizing the behavior of African American males.

Now, it may seem that I am overreacting, but add to this that CPS does not have a policy in place for removing students from a hostile learning environment even when a finding of racial and gender discriminatory behavior has been made against the teacher. Add that 3% of CPS African American and Latino high school graduates, will actually graduate from college after six years. Add that CPS wants out of the modified desegregation consent decree.

Doesn’t it make you wonder how our attitudes toward the students impact the students ability to succeed. I wonder how you, an adult, would feel, in a work related meeting, after exchanging a short quiet conversation with the person next to you, caused the presenter to “CALL SECURITY”. It makes learning dangerous, again. And it is appalling.

Why do I bring this up now? On December 6, 2006 the Chicago Public School hosted it’s fourth Power of Parents Conference. Bill Cosby spoke on the importance of parental involvement. Lauren Lake reminded how people have fought and died for educational opportunities. She asked every parent in the room to demand a quality education for their child. George McKenna told parents to sit in the classroom and observe, to create legislation that allows parents 4 hours off per year per child to assist in school. Rufus Williams, CPS Board President was on the dais, as was CEO Arne Duncan. The mayor of Chicago, Richard Daley came in and greeted Dr. Cosby. It was great.

Yet on the last Board Public Hearing Broadcast, it was business as usual. Family after family complained of lack of educational opportunities and options. Understand that most people don’t go to the hearings on a whim. Most of the speakers have exhausted every known avenue of redress without success. I was a presenter during the public participation portion of the hearing. I was stunned by the number of parents who wanted his/her child to have a fair shake at an education. I wondered if anyone really intended for the system to work. If there was so much systemic racism and incompetence that the majority of students were so ill served that the true evidence of the failure of the system were the students who actually received an education. Am maybe it was not that the system had failed to fail them, but that the parents involved works so very hard, the students escaped unscathed. I am one of those parents, my parents were those types of parents and their parents before them. Lauren Lake spoke about the shoulders upon which we stand and I was inspired to make contact with other parents similarly situated.