Speak Up…And Write OUTLOUD!!!

Johnathon -1

Johnathon - 2

Shakura

Ashley St

Tyler

Walter

Eli

Eric 

Kayda

Hilary

I’ll admit, when we first started this assignment, I was not sure whether I would like it or not. I’m not a huge technology person and I often times find things dealing with technology beyond me. But I’ll admit, I did end up appreciating this space for laying down my thoughts and ideas on matters that truly concern me.  In the busyness of the semester I was not able to engage this assignment as much as I like to think I would have. But having to search for articles about social justice issues helped open me up to the idea of remaining informed on such important issues. This assignment at times was the only thing that linked me to educational news.

Overall, I think that I have learned that there are many topics that can be covered in the broadness of Social Justice. In hindsight I might have narrowed it down to a more specific topic of Social Justice, but I enjoyed being able to write about many different topics throughout the semester. Having this broadness also allowed me to understand just how broad of a topic Social Justice is and how deeply it encompasses elements of our daily lives as students and as future teachers. There are so many different social issues that affect education and schools everyday. I hope that when I am a full-time teacher I can remain dedicated to these issues and the pursuit of justice in my own classroom and community.

As for the experience with the RSS technology…I did it! Haha. It was a lot more simple than I thought it would be and ultimately very convenient. It helped me find articles from multiple sources in just one place. I did not have to go trouncing around the web looking for articles. I see this as a very resourceful tool to be used in the classroom. I think there are many ways in which it could be used. Students could gather information on a variety of topics using RSS technology.

I think overall, this assignment was very worthwhile and was a way to open us (at least me) up to the incorporation of more technology into the classroom. There are so many different ways to help kids learn and develop ideas and information. I hope that this is just one of the many ways I can help my students learn in interesting and new ways.

What changes would you try to make if you were the principal of a school that has consecutively failed to NCLB standards 5 years in a row? Tough role huh? On an November 24 broadcast of “All things Considered” on NPR, Sarah Hulett talked about Freddie McGee and Hall Middle School in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Hall Middle School is a building housing 340 6th, 7th, and 8th graders of the Benton Harbor School District.  Here, only 1 out of 5 students is proficient in math and only 1 out of 4 are proficient in reading. Hall Middle School in fact, is in danger of being shut down permanently because of its poor performance.

This is where new 34 year old principal, Freddie McGee, comes in. According to teachers, this year there has been a significant change in the school. One teacher said that just last year, “substitute teachers would not even show up if they were assigned to this school.” Another teacher says, “It was unsurvivable for all those teachers,”  when commenting on previous schoolyears. Teachers are now singing a different tune. According to them, the school and its students have experienced a drastic change. Students are now describing Hall Middle School as “safe” and “fun.”

So how does one man change all of this? McGee says, “his first priority has to be making the school a place where students can learn without distractions.” He thinks that students in the past did not focus on their education because there were so many hardships they were facing at school. He also correlates the schools failure with the sense of failure the kids feel in themselves. McGee sees that his students need confidence and assurance. He has taught them that being successful is a good way to stand out from the rest, “McGee wants to make it cool to be smart.”

What does McGee think about the fact that his school might get shut down because of failing test scores? He says the key is translating the success in changing the the attitudes of the students to changing their success in school. He hopes to attain “Safe Harbor Status” under a clause in NCLB legislature that allows schools to remain open if they show some improvement, although still below mandated level of achievement.

To me it sounds like Hall Middle School has nothing but good things in its future if the school can stay open. The principal is dedicated to his students and staff and is already creating a more open and safe environment for everyone to learn in. You may ask what this has to do with social justice. This type of thing has everything to do with social justice.

This just goes to show what happens to a school where substitute teachers do not even want to go. Why are educators so afraid of teaching under performing students? If it is an issue of safety, why doesn’t anyone care about the students’ safety? It just seems to me that if we can get more people who were concerned with helping all students achieve their goals and dreams, like Freddie McGee, we wouldn’t have this huge gap in performance.

What do you all think?

NPR: Failing Michigan School Hopes in Young Principal

Link to Full Article

A short but interesting article from Education Weekly reveals that the parents of 3 Chinese students is suing the New York Department of Education on grounds that their children were excluded from test-prep class because of their race. According to the article:
“The course is designed to boost enrollment of underrepresented groups in the city’s sought-after specialized high schools by helping them prepare for the admissions test. City officials have said that any student who meets the minimum academic criteria can apply, but that preference is given to students from low-income families, and children who are black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Native Alaskan, or Native American.”

To me, this means that because these Chinese students did not fit into the category of African-American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, or Native American and Alaskan, they were discriminated against in the admission process for this prep. class.

While I am personally neither for or against Affirmative Action programs. It seems asinine that a program designed to help minority students would exclude a minority because of their race. I mean is our country so messed up ethnically, culturally, and racially that we have to set up programs that help some minority groups and further discriminate against other minority groups because they are appropriately “represented” in college admissions statistics?

However, I am confused about the law suit a little bit. The article says that the parents were bringing the issue before a judge because of a recent ruling by the Supreme Court:

“…the three Brooklyn residents argue that their children’s exclusion from the 15-month course is illegal because of the June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court prohibiting districts from using students’ race as a key factor in assigning students to schools.”

While I agree that the students should not have bee discriminated against in trying to apply for the class, these parents are now bringing down the entire program. Because their kids didn’t get in, now they want to sue the district for the program they wanted to get their kids into?  I guess that just doesn’t make sense to me.

Does anybody have any thoughts on the issue?

Education Weekly: N.Y.C. Parents Allege Test Prep Excludes Students by Race

Link to Full Article

Folks, we might have some good news! Education Weekly reported this past week that indeed some urban school districts are improving based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Much of the article is based on findings from Atlanta, but mentions other urban centers such as: Austin, Charlotte, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego.

The article states that Atlanta’s 8th graders are, “gaining faster than much of the nation and many other cities in raising achievement…” They also state that their 4th graders have made impressive gains on scores as well. The article recognizes that Atlanta, and many other urban districts, still lag behind the scores of the national average, but finally someone is acknowledging the progress that is being made in some districts.

There were many reasons offered for the improvements that have taken place in these districts. Heather Zavadsky, the director of policy and communication at the Institute for Public School Initiatives (in the University of Texas system) states:

“The improvements come as ‘urban and other educational systems have better data available to them and more incentives and direction for the improvement of students.’”

Ms. Zavadsky also says, “from a systematic view” schools have been using the data from “No Child Left Behind” to analyze their situations and make changes.

Michael Casserly is the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools (a Washington advocacy group for urban districts) and he believes that:

“The long-term trends for the cities in general are very good. But we know we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to accelerate the gains.”

Mr. Casserly also suggests that some of the progress that has been made as come from a combination of: “improved professional development for teachers, stability in leadership positions, and school officials’ increased commitment to targeting interventions to students who need the most help.”

Regardless of what outsiders or insiders think the cause may be, students are indeed improving their overall scores in math, and at some grade levels, reading too. Urban districts saw their overall math scores jump from 228 to 230 in 4th grade and 265 to 269 in 8th grade (based on a 500 point scale). In reading, 4th graders improved their scores from 206 to 208. 8th graders remained stagnant in reading scores however. Atlanta showed gains in both their 4th and 8th grade math and reading levels.

There was also some improvements in the overall scores of minority students. Mr. Casserly noted:

“The percentage of African-American students scoring at or above basic in 4th grade reading, rose from 35 percent to 41 percent from 2003 to 2007. Reading scores in large cities among Hispanic 4th graders rose from 40 percent to 44 percent over that time.”

Overall, this makes me ponder some important questions: What is really helping these students succeed? Are we finally giving educational justice to those who need it? Why don’t we hear about these improvements on the evening news instead of how many schools are below NCLB standards?

Let me know what you think…

Education Weekly : Students in Urban Districts Inching Forward on NAEP

Link to Full Article 

Tyler: www.kempemat.edublogs.org

Walter: www.kimw.uniblogs.org

Johnathon: www.sapele.edublogs.org

In another great article from that wonderful CNN.com, recent census information revealed that 3 times as many African Americans are in prison than living in dorms on college campuses. And the Latino population has just about the same problem. 2.7 inmates for every 1 in a college dorm. In fascinating contrast, non-Hispanic whites are 2 times as likely to be in a college dorm than in prison. So why such a big difference between jail time and school time for minorities and whites? Education. The failure or the educational system to equally support minority students. Professor Amy Stuart Wells from Columbia University’s Teachers College had this to say:

“There are a lot of reasons why black students do not reach college at the same rate as whites. Black students are more likely to attend segregated schools with high concentrations of poverty, less qualified teachers, lower expectations and a less demanding curriculum.”

Stuart Wells also had the following to say about the effects of these under-qualified, low expectation schools on college admissions:

“‘And they are perceived by society as terrible schools, so it is hard to get accepted into college. Even if you are a high-achieving kid who beats the odds, you are less likely to have access to the kinds of courses that colleges are looking for.’”

You mean someone is actually coming out and saying minority students are actually at a disadvanatage academically? Say it ain’t so! Let’s take just a minute and look at this situation in light of the Affirmitive Action post I just did, regarding the Supreme Court decision that Affirmitive Action is unconstitutional. If we can’t use Affirmitive Action, what can we do? Obviously this article is showing us a little something about the state of our educational systems! Has anybody been offering any other ideas to help truly integrate our school systems and help minority students out of the rut we have put them in?

Some members of the African American community have a few suggestions. The former mayor of New Orlens in the article says in the political circle these incarceration rates are blamed on African American/minority family values. He says that while he does believe there needs to a change in family values there also needs to be an increase in the efforts of the school systems to help this situation as well. He suggests:

“Minority students also need more early childhood education, longer school days, longer school years and more meaningful summer job opportunities.”

I personally believe that these are things that are attainable and should be looked at. I think some of these things that Morial suggested are things all families would like to see for their children, so that they can be successful and possibly get the opportunity to go to college. Maybe if there were even some small steps taken towards evening the playing field for minority students it would help the U.S. from seeing these heartbreaking statistics about our minority population.

Don’t we as future educators want to see all our students succeed no matter what their skin color? Maybe we need to start really looking at the hard facts and start trying to make a change…no matter how small. Because I don’t know about you, but I believe there are ways to keep so many of our youth and

CNN.com
“Census: More blacks, Latinos live in cells than in dorms”
Washington AP
Full Article

In one of my previous posts, I blogged about some interesting information about possibly using affirmative action to integrate k-12 public schools. While scanning my Google Reader page, I came across the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision on this matter. In an article on CNN.com, reporter Bill Mears writes that the divided Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional for race to be used in the assigning of students to school districts. Justice John Roberts had this to say about the idea of Affirmative Action in public schools:

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”

On the other side of the argument Justice Anthony Kennedy said:

“A district may consider it a compelling interest to achieve a diverse student population.”

It is indeed interesting to consider both sides of this argument. On one case, I’m sure many people agree with Justice Roberts in the idea that we as a country can not continue to discriminate against one group of people to help another. But others, like Justice Kennedy would argue that maybe discrimination against one group is the only way to even out the playing field. It seems sad to me that in 2007 we still have to rely on courts to tell us whether we should diversify our schools.

The ruling on the part of the Supreme Court was not the only element of this article that caught my attention however. It was in fact, the outcry of white parents saying how unfair it was that their children had to be bused farther away to attend school, because local schools were trying to diversify. Isn’t this what we have been doing to minority students for a long time except for in reverse? Haven’t parents of minority students been busing their children hours away to have them attend diversified schools? Parent Crystal Meredith was quoted as saying:

” We are here not because we didn’t get our first choice, but because we got no choice. I was told by the school board that my son’s education was not as important as their plan. I was told I should sacrifice his learning in order to maintain the status quo.”

What was interesting about this particular mother was that earlier in the article she argues that she doesn’t want her son to ride the bus for so long to school. She comes across as just wanting her son to attend a local school. However the quote mentioned above mentions a threat to her son’s educational experience. This (maybe I am being to cynical) seems to me that this mother is deeming her son’s educational experience as lacking because of diversification. Parents such as Meredith and law makers such as Justice Roberts argue that U.S. public school systems need a “race-neutral” way of diversifying the classroom…but has anyone come up with such a thing? For years this country has struggled to integrate it’s schools and still these issues are brought to the Supreme Court.

I am not necessarily for or against Affirmative Action, but I am for diversifying classrooms. I would be interested to hear what others think of Affirmative Action or other plans for diversification in schools.

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On October 5^th I had the opportunity to hear guest lecturer Dr. James Shapiro as a part of the Shakespeare Festival here at Grand Valley as well as watch a performance of Cymbeline. And although I appreciate Shakespeare’s work, I at first, was not too sure about how I felt going to listen to (what I was thinking would be) a “stuffy” scholar talk about him. Was I wrong! Not only was Shapiro brilliant in the ways and history of Shakespeare, he was a very down-to-earth guy that made his audience feel at ease with asking questions.

First, I attended the lecture at 4:00 in the afternoon. He began by talking about the movie Shakespeare in Love and how the movie focused on the day to day happenings in Shakespeare’s life and he explained how this prompted him to take an in depth look into Shakespeare’s life and write a book called, A Year in the Life of Shakespeare. Dr. Shapiro modeled his lecture after his book, talking about the intimate and daily details of Shakespeare’s life, except because of time restrictions, he did a condensed version, which ended up being “seven weeks in the life of Shakespeare.” He discussed Christmas 1598 through the end of February 1599. During this time, Shapiro informed us that Shakespeare had some personal poetry stolen and published and that Shakespeare and his players had lost the lease on “the Theatre” and had torn it down to build the “Globe Theatre.” He also told us about the war between England and Ireland that was taking place during this time and how it affected the people of London, especially the men. He also went into detail about the performing of Henry V for Queen Elizabeth during a time when the nation was reluctant to be at war. Dr. Shapiro’s lecture was extremely insightful and I am interested in reading his book. It would be interesting to see if it could be incorporated into the classroom, to kind of give a behind the scenes look into the personal life of Shakespeare.

Next, I had the privilege of attending the stage talk with Dr. Shapiro. The stage talk was originally scheduled to be given in the recital hall in the Performing Arts Center; however it was locked, so we ended up in a completely different room. This ended up being great! We were able to have a much more intimate session with him. We pulled chairs around him in a semi-circle and were just able to ask him any kind of questions about the play Cymbeline or any other questions we had about Shakespeare. I thought the best question came from Shakura, when she asked Dr. Shapiro about teaching Shakespeare. He responded that he worked a lot with teachers on how to teach Shakespeare in their classes. He gave an example using Cymbeline. He said he had teachers act out the different revelations that occur at the end of the play. There were also many great questions asked about the play Cymbeline itself that Dr. Shapiro of course answered and expounded upon.

At the end of the night I was able to go see the play Cymbeline. I was excited because I had never read, studied, or seen the play. Boy was I glad that Dr. Shapiro had filled us in on some of what would be happening in the play, because there is a lot going on all at once. Overall, I really enjoyed this play. The actors did an amazing job and I think the director did a great setting change, placing the play in the United States during the Civil War. Dr. Shapiro had explained to the students and visitors in the stage talk that this was done because it was something the audience could better relate to, rather than have Britons fighting against Romans. I think it definitely helped make the play a little bit more understandable. I think this might be another interesting element to incorporate into a classroom teaching Shakespeare some day. Maybe the students could change the setting of the play to make it more real for them. For example, the play The Taming of the Shrew was made into a movie set in a high school in the early 21^st century. Perhaps more students would be interested in Shakespeare if we first gave them an opportunity to relate to it.

Overall, I enjoyed my experiences and I am glad that I got the opportunity to hear such a significant scholar and teacher talk about the great work of Shakespeare. What I found even more rewarding were some of the teaching elements I was able to pull out of this experience. 

While struggling with more topics to delve into for this blog…I came across a great article posted by CNN about a 16 year old black student (Howard Brim) who rides the bus to a suburb school for better education and athletics and a 7 year old white student (Seth Dewboys) who rides the bus to be in an urban school with high marks and a diverse student body.

“‘We just are going to make sacrifices that we want for Seth,” said his mother, Lori Dewboys.’ That sacrifice means up to three hours a day on a bus.”

It is interesting to see the lengths students and their parents are going to receive the type of education valued in their households. I just goes to show that the chasm between urban and suburban schools continues to widen. Minorities have flocked into urban centers and whites have pushed to the suburbs, leaving the educational experience much to be desired by both sides. A lack of resources forces and funding might force students such as Brim to search for a different school for a “better” learning experience. A lack of diversity and acceptance might lead students like Dewboys to search for an urban school for a “better” learning experience. The article says,

“People on both sides of the issue agree that classroom diversity is an important goal. What divides them is how to maintain it without the real or perceived consequence that some families may be unfairly discriminated against or unduly inconvenienced.”

So where is the equal ground? No one seems to know. That is why supreme court justices have been revisiting the issue in recent months,

“The Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on what role, if any, affirmative action should play in determining which students get competitive spots in elementary and secondary schools.”

It is interesting that even our educational experience has come down to affrimative action. It is sad to see that the differences between people continue to divide, even down to school districts. It’s 2007! Let me all know what you think about this topic. Do you think afirmative action should be used in K-12 schools? Do you think there should be some measure taken to further assist students to get the quality education they are seeking without riding the bus for 3 hours?

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