Parent trigger laws: Shot in the arm for failing schools or shooting yourself in the foot? We may be about to find out.
One of the most controversial school reforms in recent years has been the parent trigger law, first enacted in California in 2010 and since adopted in some fashion in Connecticut, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. The country may see its first illustration of the law in action this year.
The trigger law allows parents to take over a failing school and reopen it as an independent charter if they collect signatures from the majority of families. It’s not an easy task because of the mammoth effort required to win over enough parents and the legal challenges from resistant districts.
But we may see the first trigger law takeover ever in Adelanto, Calif., where a judge this week lifted the remaining legal hurdle facing parents seeking to gain control of their failing elementary school 90 miles northeast of LA.
If the parents of Desert Trails Elementary School succeed, they will make history.
They began their effort 13 months ago, working with a California group called Parent Revolution. Their door-to-door effort led to signatures from 70 percent of the parents in the school, but the district challenged the validity of the petition in court.
The judge’s ruling this week ends that challenge. However, school begins Aug. 20, and it is doubtful parents can reconstitute the school before opening day. The Desert Trails parents are supposed to announce their plans tomorrow.
Twenty other states, including Georgia, have seen unsuccessful efforts thus far to pass parent trigger laws. We will be hearing a lot more about the parent trigger law when a new feature film, “Won’t Back Down,” opens this fall. (One of the movie’s backers was an investor in the documentary “Waiting for Superman.”)
According to the Washington Post:
At Desert Trails last year, two-thirds of the children failed the state reading exam, more than half were not proficient in math, and nearly 80 percent failed the science exam. The school has not met state standards for six years, and scores place it in the bottom 10 percent of schools statewide.
These parents did it,” said Ben Austin, director of Parent Revolution, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that gave the parents strategic and legal help. “They are the first parents in America to win a parent trigger campaign, the first parents in America to take control of the educational destiny of their children. It’s a big deal.”
Austin said that the court ruling came too late for the parents to select a charter operator for the coming school year and that any change is likely to come in 2013. “It would be irresponsible to open up a school in just weeks,” he said.
The idea behind the 2010 law — placing ultimate power in parents’ hands — resonates with any parent who has felt frustrated by school bureaucracy.
But others see the law as dangerous, handing the complex challenge of education to people who may be unprepared to meet it. Critics also say the law circumvents elected school boards and invites abuse by charter operators bent on taking over public schools. A group of Desert Trails parents is opposed to the trigger, and they have received help from the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
After the judge’s decision, the Adelanto school board held a meeting yesterday to figure out its next step.
According to the San Bernardino Sun:
Members of the Adelanto Elementary School District board held a special meeting Wednesday afternoon to hear the official word on what a judge’s ruling will mean for the district’s lowest-performing elementary school. On Monday, San Bernardino Superior Court Judge Steve Malone ruled the district could not invalidate many of the signatures on a petition assembled by parents at Desert Trails Elementary School, where three-quarters of the students are unable to read and write.
The Desert Trails Parent Union was invoking the 2010 California “parent trigger” law that allows parents to enact sweeping changes at failing schools if they can collect signatures from 50 percent or more of the school’s parents. Malone’s decision means that 441 of the 466 submitted signatures still stood, putting the parents group in the end zone.
On Wednesday, the board met to discuss “the impact of the judge’s ruling and the next steps from here,” Superintendent Darin Brawley said Wednesday afternoon.
“The board has not made a decision on whether or not to appeal Judge Malone’s decision,” school board President Carlos Mendoza said in an email on Wednesday. “Nevertheless, we are disappointed by the decision. We are saddened that a law meant to empower parents has been used to empower some while disempowering others. The Desert Trails school community has come together to formulate an improvement plan for the school. We would like them to have the opportunity to implement it.”
At their meeting Wednesday, board members heard from both supporters of the parent trigger effort and opponents. Some of the opponents, Brawley said, indicated they’d transfer their students to another school if Desert Trails becomes a charter school, which is one of the options parents now have. What exactly is going to happen, however, is up to the parents, who have indicated they’ll announce their decision on the fate of the school on Friday.
Not all parent groups support the law. In its position paper against such laws, Parents Across America, a nonpartisan public school reform and advocacy group, states:
The law creates a process known as the Parent Trigger, which allows a majority of parents at a low-performing school to sign a petition to trigger one of a narrow set of options – firing all or
some of the staff, turning the school over to a charter operator, or closing the school. These
are the same options offered in the federal School Improvement Grant program, despite the
fact that none has been consistently successful in improving schools nationwide.Although Parents Across America strongly supports true parent empowerment, we oppose
the Parent Trigger process. While the Parent Trigger allows parents to voice discontent with a
school, it gives them no opportunity to choose among more positive reforms, and fails to
promote the best practices for parent involvement from the ground up. In addition, the
process creates huge potential for abuse, disruption and divisiveness to school communities.Parents Across America instead supports a process in which parents are authentically
involved at the ground level in developing strategies for improvement. These strategies might
include smaller classes, more parent involvement, or other reforms that have been proven to
work and are aligned with the individual needs of the school and its students.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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100 comments Add your comment
Ron F.
July 26th, 2012
4:33 pm
Pride: Your parents were involved is so much as they pushed you to get an education and, I’m guessing, raised you to believe in its importance. That alone is a major part of what I consider parental involvement; guess I should have clarified that, huh? Some of the best kids I teach I never meet or talk to their parents. But the kids value their education- and that is a value taught them before they enter the school. Surely you realize that, as you too appear to be reasonable. I’m sure parents are more willing to stress the importance of education when the school is doing its job. If the parents are willing to sign a petition and demand change, then it seems obvious they are willing to be part of that. That can happen simply if the school is willing to make the changes and is allowed to do it. Bringing in a charter organization, without a bottom-up approach to decision making, isn’t going to achieve what the parents want and deserve. Unless they participate by at least encouraging their kids to be active learners in any new school, then they’ll end up with what they have now. The community will have to have some level of involvement for the charter school to work, don’t you think? I’m absolutely NOT against the charter, but how will it be any better if the parents aren’t participating? I agree with you that parents have a right to demand better, and local schools should be allowed by the often dicatatorial nature of district leadership to make those changes. As a longtime teacher, I can tell you unless we dismantle and reorganize the powe structure in school systems, whether public, private, or charter, we’ll just end up with a new name for the same old moneypit. Too many charter schools end up with similar leadership issues that the current system has when parents blindly trust them and there’s no accountability.
DeKalb Teacher
July 26th, 2012
4:54 pm
@GotBusted, I saw this online …
According to Don McChesney’s website, he has a coffee talk tomorrow (Fri) morning at 10am.
The 15 minutes I spent talking to him was worth it!
CCMST
July 26th, 2012
5:05 pm
@Pride and Joy and Solutions – you say your parents weren’t involved, but let me ask you what they would’ve done if you brought home grades clearly beneath your ability or they received a call about some kind of atrocious or disrespectful behavior? Would they have stay uninvolved? Would they have told the teacher that your poor behavior was his or her fault?
I ask because, like you, my parents weren’t particularly involved. They expected good report cards and no bad news phone calls. They asked me if I did my homework, but rarely checked it. I was on my own with most projects. As long as my grades were good, peace reigned in the house. And I worked hard to keep that peace, because I was afraid of the fury that would rain down should those grades drop. So, involved? Not exactly. Set high expectation? You bet your bottom dollar – and that’s what’s sorely lacking from some segments of the student population.
As far teaching your kids their letters/numbers/whatever, I think good parents do that naturally, and don’t expect the teachers to do it. It’s not the teacher’s jobs to get them ready for kindergarten. I did it with my kids because I wanted them ready for school. I didn’t teach them to read (I wasn’t a teacher at the time either, BTW), but I did read to them, virtually every night, and I modeled reading for them in the home. We went to the children’s library and picked out books. I feel strongly that that was part of my job as a parent. We went outside and looked at the stars and bugs and trees and flowers – and none of that cost money (and we lived in an apartment complex and yes, P & J, I was a working mother).
These are the things that families who place a value on education do with their children – they don’t look at it as doing the teacher’s job – they feel it’s the PARENT”S job. They know when report cards are coming home – and question when they don’t. They check that homework is done and have consequences if it isn’t. If their child is having trouble, they find out why. They quiz their kids before tests and work on their multiplication tables with them. They set a foundation for success.
Jacob
July 26th, 2012
5:39 pm
I bet if the parents spent more time helping their kids with homework than trying to get people to sign a petition, their kids would do better.
Mary Elizabeth
July 26th, 2012
5:49 pm
@Pride and Joy, 2:00 pm
“Specifically, ME, 72% failed the reading exam.”
========================================================
Pride and Joy, it appears to me that you are making a lot of assumptions that are inaccurate and you seem to have no doubt about your opinions, even though they are inaccurate, at times. Please see below.
Here is what the article states, above: “At Desert Trails last year, two-thirds of the children failed the state reading exam.” Two-thirds equals 66%, not 72% nor the 75% you had earlier stated.
Also, I have called and talked with a consultant at the California Department of Education this afternoon to make certain that what I posted at 1:47 pm is true regarding a standardized reading test being administered for every grade level in California, and not simply one standardized reading test being administered for students at Desert Trails Elementary School. I was correct. Students in California, including those at Desert Trails Elementary School, are tested on the standardized reading test for THEIR GRADE LEVEL each year. That means that at Desert Trails Elementary School had administered at least five, if not six, standardized reading tests to their students – and not simply one. The journalist who had written the article for the Washington Post, which is reproduced in part above, should have made that fact clearer in her article. In fact, that journalist’s words above should have read, “At Desert Trails last year, two-thirds of the children failed the state reading exam FOR THEIR GRADE LEVEL.”
Please take the time to read and study my post to you at 1:47 pm. I gave a lot of time and effort to try to help you understand instructional phenomena. I believe that if you really try to read my post in order to learn more about language development in children, you will understand how it could happen that many children may “fail” their particular reading tests for their grade levels. I, also, would urge you to read the link I provided for you in my 1:47 pm post, to be even more informed about how continuous progress in students operates.
We must resist the temptation to make hasty generalities about student failure without studying the details in depth. I tried to take the time to inform parents through my 1:47 pm post. I hope that parents, including yourself, will take the time, in turn, to become more informed regarding the many different levels of functioning of students within each grade level and how that will effect test results.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/search/searchresults.asp?cx=001779225245372747843:gpfwm5rhxiw&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=1&num=20&start=0&q=Standardized%20reading%20tests%20for%20each%20grade%20level
Google "NEA" and "donations"
July 26th, 2012
7:09 pm
Re: @CarolineSF
It takes no deep insight to conclude that Parents Across America is little more than a surrogate for the teachers’ unions. Just follow the NEA money. And consider that it’s Maureen giving them a stage here to (you guessed it!) attack school reform.
But there’s also criticism of this group from liberal quarters: http://tinyurl.com/c84quje
bootney farnsworth
July 26th, 2012
7:52 pm
I’m all for it.
let’s see them put their efforts where their mouths are.
if it works, wonderful. if it fails however…..don’t come crying to us
bootney farnsworth
July 26th, 2012
7:57 pm
never thought I ‘d see the day people bragged about how un-involved their parents were.
it does, however, go a long way to explaining how we got the current president, congress, and local governments
Brandy
July 26th, 2012
10:03 pm
@Skipper, Honest question here: What “original documents” ensured a right to a public education? I’m not aware of any such thing in our nation’s founding documents, as public education as we know it hadn’t really been invented yet, so I’m wondering if I’ve missed something…Let me know. Thanks.
Dr. Monica Henson
July 26th, 2012
11:46 pm
“…others see the law as dangerous, handing the complex challenge of education to people who may be unprepared to meet it.” Really? “…two-thirds of the children failed the state reading exam, more than half were not proficient in math, and nearly 80 percent failed the science exam. The school has not met state standards for six years, and scores place it in the bottom 10 percent of schools statewide.”
Sounds like Desert Trails has BEEN in the hands of people “unprepared to meet the complex challenge of education” for far too long. These parents are refusing to continue to be held hostage to their ZIP code and a school board & administration that hasn’t fulfilled its responsibility. Bravo, and best wishes to them! A quality charter operator can help engineer a dramatic turnaround, as there is clearly a strong parent involvement factor at work.
Dr. Monica Henson
July 27th, 2012
12:01 am
Let’s take Caroline Grannan’s comment–”many nonprofit charter schools still pay their administrators princely salaries, and many have provided easy ways for unscrupulous operators to loot our kids’ public education money, as charters get little to no oversight. So being a nonprofit is no guarantee of trustworthiness–and substitute “school district” for “nonprofit” and “charters” and “operators.”
Such is precisely the case of a school district like the one Desert Trails has been held hostage to, and many school districts with failing schools all over the country.
Dr. Monica Henson
July 27th, 2012
12:08 am
Pride and Joy posted: “Schools are paid to teach. If they can’t teach, they need to let someone else teach but they can’t keep taking money and not do what they are paid to do.”
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for stating the case so clearly.
Mary Elizabeth
July 27th, 2012
12:54 am
Dr. Henson, do you think that a student – who at the beginning of 3rd grade had read on grade level 1.8, and who entered 4th grade reading on grade level 3.1, with an I. Q. of 90, or low average intelligence – had not been taught well in 3rd grade because he was not functioning on grade level in reading at the beginning of 4th grade (and may not have scored well on the 4th grade reading standardized test, as a result)?
I would think that that student had been taught well in third grade since he had improved his reading grade level equivalent by 1.3 years for one year of academic work in reading, even with a low average I. Q. The question becomes: Why was this student functioning only on 1.8 grade level equivalent in reading at the beginning of third grade? That might have been because the student had entered school functioning well below grade level in his reading skills, even in first grade.
I am not trying to excuse the test results of Desert Trails Elementary School. I am simply urging people to look very closely at the details of test results, at the details of instructional progress for specific students, and at a school’s population in depth before deciding, without a doubt, about the quality of instruction within a particular school.
Lindance
July 27th, 2012
8:24 am
Could it be that the ‘elephant in the room’ is the lack of assimilation by people/persons from another nationality not wanting to speak English to their children in the home prior to and during the students’ formative years, not to mention teaching the value/importance of education in their lives. In our area, the parents refused to have teachers who didn’t speak their language, which was not English. I applaud parents who want improvement in their children’s education and this group appears to want just that. What I fail to see is the background study in this area. I have no doubt that the area needs the parents to just speak English to their children in their home. Any English speaking children thrown into a non-English speaking area suffer the same consequences as the children whose parents refuse to assimilate. My grandmother made her children speak English in the home but there are huge numbers of other nationalities whose fathers will not allow them to speak English in the home as they fear they will lose their heritage. My belief is that their heritage is now the USA. And yes simply speaking the language IS parent involvement!
C Jae of EAV
July 27th, 2012
9:47 am
Personally, I don’t see the need for Parent Trigger laws to be enacted in GA. The existing charter school law(s) have provisions which essentially allow for the same. Taking that into consideration, I simply don’t see the justification for placing redundant laws on the books.
C Jae of EAV
July 27th, 2012
9:51 am
@Nikole 12/08/12 12:34 pm – One could make a pretty solid arguement that the business operational model employed by local school districts across GA (certainly in the metro ATL) represents a for-profit business enterprise. Poorly managed maybe, but for-profit none the less.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
9:55 am
To AngryRedWarsWoman, you say “Which is among the reasons I will not move to either place. But….that $5k is not just for schools and even if all of it went to the local school I would still be of the opinion that public school is a bargain with one child not to mention 2 or 3 or more. Just my opinion…as you have yours.”
Public Schools in APS and DEkalb is NOT a bargain.
Of course $5 doesn’t all go to teh school — the school also gets a HUGE chunch of my state AND federal income taxes…and let’s be clear on this…I don’t pay $5000K a year in property taxes and tens of thousands more in sate and local income taxes while my childrne are in school. I pay every year and will pay every year well before the time and well past the time my children are in school.
Public schools are NOT a bargain. You haven’t comprehended your own simple math.
Public School Cost = (State Income taxes + Federal Income Taxes + Property Taxes + SPLOST +) multiplied by the number of years I work plus the amount I pay in fundraisers and donations.
Traditional public schools are MORE EXPENSIVE than the best private school in this part of the country, Woodward Academy.
At 28K a year, Woodward Academy is less expensive than all the money in taxes and funds I hvae paid and will continue to pay for local, traditional public schools.
You need to focus some of that energy you spend on being angry into learning common, simple math.
Dr. Monica Henson
July 27th, 2012
10:01 am
Mary Elizabeth, the specific instance you cite is not sufficient cause to dismiss the parent uprising. In the case of chronically failing schools with huge numbers of kids who cannot meet even basic proficiency, continuing to allow the failing school board to employ the same failing administrators and failing teachers to follow the same failing plan is criminal, pure and simple.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
10:03 am
Already Sheared….thanks for Bated breath, not baited breath…yeah, like I have a worm on my tongue..too funny an dthanks for the laugh.
P and J
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
10:07 am
C J of Eav, you wrote “Personally, I don’t see the need for Parent Trigger laws to be enacted in GA. The existing charter school law(s) have provisions which essentially allow for the same. Taking that into consideration, I simply don’t see the justification for placing redundant laws on the books.”
The laws are not redundant. Charter schools allow the State to override a local BOE, trigger laws allow the parents to override the local BOE. Big difference.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
10:15 am
CCMST, you asked a good question. My parents weren’t just “uninvolved.” It’s too painful to discuss in detail but my so-called parents were abusive and neglectful. The things they did to me then would put them in jail today. Actually, it was illegal then as well but there was a conspiracy of silence.
My point is not to garner sympathy but to illustrate the truth. Kids from poor and abusive homes can and do succeed. Oprah and I have a lot in common. She’s, of course, tremendously successful and I am struggling along in over-taxed, over-burdened middle class but we both came from similar circumstances and we overcame them with the help of a few good teachers. In my case, there were two teachers who helped me. I give them credit for helping me become a tax-paying, productive citizen and for becoming a loving, involved parent.
What worries me about the comments from teachers on this blog is the “They’re poor and a minitory so they’re hopeless” mentality.
Teachers are the hope. They are they way to success or at least, they can be if they want to be. How many of us can name our first grade teacher? I’ll bet everyone can. How many of us can name the bosses we worked for? I have a hard time remembering those. Teachers make a huge impression on our lives. They can be good role models and effective leaders (Mary Elizabethe) or they can stomp a kid in the ground.
The choice is up to the teacher.
Ron F.
July 27th, 2012
10:21 am
“Teachers are the hope. They are they way to success or at least, they can be if they want to be. How many of us can name our first grade teacher? I’ll bet everyone can. How many of us can name the bosses we worked for? I have a hard time remembering those. Teachers make a huge impression on our lives. They can be good role models and effective leaders (Mary Elizabethe) or they can stomp a kid in the ground.
The choice is up to the teacher.”
My sentiments exactly. I did a presentation on building positive relationships with students at a conference for teachers, and I was surprised some attendees didn’t understand the effects of poverty and dysfunctional homes on kids. Thanks for sharing your story. Iti isn’t easy to talk about even as an adult, I’m sure.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
10:24 am
Ron F. you said “. Your parents were involved is so much as they pushed you to get an education and, I’m guessing, raised you to believe in its importance. ” I wish that were true.
Because of the abuse I suffered at their hands, I ran away from home in high school and have lived on my own, financially and in every other way since I was seventeen. Again, I credit a few teachers for simply caring about me. I didnt’ get any great earth-shattering advice or help in any way for college, neither did we even mention college, it’s just I knew two human adults really cared about me and it made me feel better.
I won’t go into more details becuase, literally, it sends me into a boo-hoo place I don’t want my children to see me in but I was that abused poor kid with the worst parents and I did well in school and suceeeded. It is unfair and not right for teachers to ASSume that one’s circumstances are an educational death sentence and it “sho’ ain’t” an excuse not to teach.
California Judge Rules In Favor Of Parents of Failing School!
July 27th, 2012
11:14 am
[...] Read more at: ajc.com [...]
AngryRedMarsWoman
July 27th, 2012
11:32 am
“You need to focus some of that energy you spend on being angry into learning common, simple math.”
I am not angry…generally don’t get angry as I feel it is a waste of energy. If you are referring to my screen name – you don’t “get” the reference. Believe me when I say that I know math and I understand the funding of public schools. I simply disagree with your opinion – but I am comfortable in my own opinion and don’t need to attack you for yours…perhaps you are the one who is angry? If you don’t think that Atlanta and/or Dekalb public schools are a bargain and you don’t like the taxes that you pay — ummmmm….move?
CCMST
July 27th, 2012
12:26 pm
@P & J – “What worries me about the comments from teachers on this blog is the “They’re poor and a minitory so they’re hopeless” mentality.”
Funny, I generally don’t get that vibe at all. What I get is teachers wanting the fact that all students do not enter school equally, nor proceed through school with the same support, to be recognized as a very real factor in the differences in test scores, and that a one-size-fits-all model doesn’t work.
As far as you and Oprah making it out of bad situations, it’s very true that it can be done. And it’s also true that adult mentors (who may be teachers, but are often likely to be aunts/uncles, bosses, coaches, neighbors, etc) are an important key. What is also important is an internal motivation, understanding that hard work and not luck get you where you want to be, being willing to lose some relationships in order to gain better ones, and not be a victim. That’s a lot to ask of someone, and the majority CAN’T do it – that’s why rags to riches stories are so enticing – they don’t happen often.
Please understand, I’m not saying we shouldn’t try; I’m not saying we can’t do more. What I am saying is that this needs to be acknowledged by the PTB as a very real factor in this situation.
I was thinking about this yesterday: part of the problem with education in the US today is that we as a nation have not properly defined its role. Do we want it to be a bare minimum? Do we want it to get everyone to college-level? Do we want schools to be a one-stop-shop for all social issues? Do we want lots of homework or none at all? Do we want world class education on a third world budget? Do we want professional educators on career ladders similar to doctors or do we want bright young college graduates on a 2 year internship? I could go on, but I’m sure you get what I am saying: we don’t know what we want from public education. I guess it’s like Potter Stewart’s definition of p ornography – we’ll know it when we see it?
P&J is GM
July 27th, 2012
12:51 pm
Now I KNOW that Pride and Joy is really the former Good Mother. The personal stories of an abused, poor childhood related at great length are the same. Soon the story of the father who beat her so badly she was embarrassed to go to high school cheer-leading practice will appear again, and the plates stacked in boxes in the kitchen because they couldn’t afford cabinets.
We still have GM’s nasty writing style and snide bashing of teachers, alhough GM’s hallmark word “whine” is now left out. Also the long racist stories of how “her” children endure terrible APS African-American teachers who speak bad English, year after year…evidently without any complaint to their principals by P&J/GM.
However, the fictional self-portraits seem to be changing, probably why he or she changed names. GM dramatically decided last April to put “her” children into a private school…P&J backtracks here to public schools again so “she” can criticize the public school teachers. Would be pretty lame if “her” children now go to a private school. “Her” husband now has moved up in the world with degrees from the best Universities and a great job. I guess he won’t make her do the laundry all week-end while she blogs on her laptop to “Get Schooled,” as before.
But P&J, like GM, still claims to work hard in an office all day, while sending in long posts to this blog continuously and keeping up what everyone says about “her.”
Mary Elizabeth
July 27th, 2012
12:54 pm
@Dr. Monica Henson, 10:01 am
“Mary Elizabeth, the specific instance you cite is not sufficient cause to dismiss the parent uprising. . .”
===========================================
Dr. Henson, I offered the example of the fictitious student who was behind grade level simply to illustrate one possibility, of many other possibilities, which could create the reason that students are behind grade level. I advocate looking into each student’s complete developmental history, with great detail, to make a well-informed, not a cursory, analysis for the reasons for failure. After having looked into each student’s progress with that detail, it may be that Desert Trail Elementary School ’s teaching staff has done a very poor job, or some specific teachers may have done a poor job and others may have done an excellent job, or – believe it or not – some may have done an excellent job. One does not know, for certain, who has done a poor or excellent job in instruction until the details are looked at in depth. Not looking into the progress of each student in that school in detailed analysis is what would be “criminal” to students, teachers, the principal, and to the parents, themselves. Just as in medicine, in education, if the diagnosis is not accurate, the “illness” will not be cured.
I believe you have made a generalized assumption about my point-of-view regarding reforming public education. You wrote: “In the case of chronically failing schools with huge numbers of kids who cannot meet even basic proficiency, continuing to allow the failing school board to employ the same failing administrators and failing teachers to follow the same failing plan is criminal, pure and simple.”
I, like you, believe that the school board should not continue to allow “failing administrators and failing teachers to follow the same failing plan” and that is why I have spent a professional lifetime (and continue to do so through my writings) to inform teachers, principals, members of school boards, state legislators, and the public in general as to WHY students are not all functioning on grade level skills and concepts at the same point in time, and HOW instruction should BEST be accommodated so that EACH student will grow to the maximum level that he or she is capable of growing in a given school year.
When I was in graduate school earning my M.Ed. as a Reading Specialist, I was taught by the head of that department that the higher the grade level, the greater the range of instructional levels there will be within the grade level. The professor said that that fact would always be true because of the multiple variables of students backgrounds, ability levels, needs, etc. Teachers would need to be taught how to instruct to those varied instructional needs within each grade level. I found that to be true in my following 30 years of practice, first as an Instructional Lead Teacher k – 8 and, later, as a high school Reading Department Chair and advanced reading teacher. As an Instructional Lead Teacher, I had monitored all of the students’ progress (800 to 900 students yearly) in my school in grades 1 – 8 for both Reading and Mathematics advancement. The school was a model instructional school of multiaged groupings and it had a continuous progress instructional model for each student. The principal had been the former Associate Superintendent of Instruction for a large metro Atlanta county school system. Later, as a Reading Department Chair of a high school which contained approximately 1800 students yearly, I designed and supervised the in-house reading testing of every student in the high school through working with English teachers. Results were shared with the English, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics Department Chairs to share those reading scores with their teachers so that instruction could be more targeted to individual need. The range of reading scores for the 9th graders, alone, for over a decade was from 4th grade reading level to grade level 16 (college senior level) and 50% of those 9th graders were reading on 6th grade level or below.
During my educational career, I was about the business of teacher training so that teachers were better able to instruct with detailed knowledge and I was about the business of inservicing parents to better understand instructional phenonmena so that the parents would know better how to remediate the instructional problems their children might have had, by working with teachers. I am not about making generalized condemnations of teachers, students. or parents. I want to see all increase in their instructional awareness and in their knowledge of how to use specific students’ standardized test scores to enhance their academic growth.
For example, in the Desert Trail Elementary School – as one possibility – 66.6% of the 4th grade students may have failed the proficiency level for the 4th grade standardized reading test, but 33.4% of those 4th grade students were functioning at least on 4th grade level, or above, and some in that group may have been functioning on 5th or 6th grade level, or higher. Moreover, of the 66.6% who failed to meet 4th grade proficiency in 4th grade, 40.6% may have been able to have met proficiency on the 3rd grade standardized reading test, 15% may have been able to have met proficiency the 2nd grade standardized reading test, and 5% may have only been able to meet proficiency on the lst grade standardized reading test. Now the question becomes WHY are students scores so varied (as my college professor 40 years ago said would be true? I know of many, many reasons why. Those reasons must be looked into with great detail and care, and the reasons why must be shared with teachers in great detail – for each student – so that effective teaching can occur. To think that all students will achieve the same mastery of skills, on a given curriculum continuum, at the same point in time is not realistic. As educators, we must certainly do better, but we must do so through intelligent, informed, detailed analysis, shared with teachers and parents alike, so that instruction can not only be targeted effectively but so that each student will meet with success on his or her correctly analyzed and placed instructional level, throughout his or her 12 year school career (whatever his or her year in school or grade level).
In the link below, I write with more detail of Mastery Learning:
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/about-education-essay-1-mastery-learning/
Mary Elizabeth
July 27th, 2012
12:58 pm
Pride and Joy
and
Ron F
Thank you, both, for your earlier compliments to me. I did read both of your separate posts and I appreciated your thoughts. I will try to respond more to your thoughts, later.
Enough writing for “yours truly,” for the time being.
Caroline Grannan
July 27th, 2012
3:43 pm
Students First offered me a gift card if I post a positive comment about the parent trigger. Way to buy support, corporate ed reformers!
From: Catherine Robinson
> Date: July 26, 2012 9:58:12 PM EDT
> To: Catherine Robinson
> Subject: rapid responses needed – and a contest!
>
Hi all,
… starting right now, there will be a monthly contest for the best rapid response. The more comments you leave on blog posts, the more times you can enter! Post a polite and persuasive pro-reform comment and email me the link so I can check it out.
That’s all you have to do!
At the end of the month (August 26th at midnight) I will announce the winner. Not only will that winner get a gift card to the restaurant or store of choice, but he or she will also be promoting the cause of real and transformative change in public schools! What could be better?
Prof
July 27th, 2012
4:16 pm
@ Caroline Grannan.
Thanks for posting this. Remarkable.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
5:15 pm
AngryRedMarsWOman, you say you’re good at math but then you post this little” nugget “If you don’t think that Atlanta and/or Dekalb public schools are a bargain and you don’t like the taxes that you pay — ummmmm….move? ”
ummmm,AngryRedMarsBadatMathLady…
You’ve picked up a newspaper lately? The housing market crashed. My homes are now worth less than I paid for them. Now, even those who are bad at math realize that in order to move, one must first sell one’s home and then buy another one in another school district.
You see, we in the middle class own our homes and just can’t skip out la de dah at the end of the month when our lease is up (as do the poor) nor can we just open up our safety deposit boxes full of cash like the rich and buy another home…and unlike many in public schools, I don’t spend foolishly nor do I walk out on my financial obligations. I’d never ever “short-sale” or leave my home in foreclosure.
So there, AngryRedWOmanfromOuterSpace, go put your nose in a math book. You’ve got some brushing up on your addition and subtraction to do.
CCMST
July 27th, 2012
5:16 pm
Well, now we know at least one side is paying for posts…just surprised at which one. Of course, given the constant accusations of the same from our usual offenders, maybe it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
5:22 pm
CCMST you say about parents “They know when report cards are coming home – and question when they don’t. They check that homework is done and have consequences if it isn’t. If their child is having trouble, they find out why.”
Just not true in my case nor my mother’s case. Teaching was the job of the schools. My parents didn’t involve themselves in my schooling — ever. I was never read to and all those things. Neither did my grandmother read to my mother and so on.
The point is, teachers can’t and shouldn’t depend on a child to have anything, including loving, involved parents. Orphans in Africa are learning from teachers who teach on a dirt floor. If they can learn, so can we. Slaves learned to read. Women and children are threatened with death if they become educated in the Middle East, yet they learn.
We in America have some of the best teaching environments in the world.
If a teacher believes he or she can’t teach a kid because of the kid’s parents or circumstances, they need to get out of the profession.
Teaching is not for wimps.
Prof
July 27th, 2012
6:17 pm
@ CCMST. The side paying for posts seems to be the charter school movement., wouldn’t you say?
CCMST
July 27th, 2012
6:17 pm
@pride and Joy – While I commend you on rising above, I’m sorry to hear that your parents didn’t do their job – and that’s really the truth. They didn’t do their job.
I don’t expect every parent to be a smother mother, but for Pete’s sake – you had ‘em, you should at least know when reports cards are coming home – that’s not much of a sacrifice for a normal person (saying that I understand mental illness, etc can be extenuating circumstances). You should read to your kids. You just should – no excuses. I don’t expect a parent to sit with their kids and teach them differential calculus, but you can check to make sure that homework is done. You just should – no excuses.
I say this as a parent, not a teacher. My daughter was in ninth grade when I decided to teach – I know what I did as a parent her first 9 years of school, and I don’t think those expectations are unreasonable for anyone if they want their children to be successful. You can’t expect the school to do everything for you. Teaching is the job of the schools, but teaching is not learning. Learning needs support, and part of that – most of that – support comes from home.
That being said, it goes back to my argument that we as Americans have failed to clearly define the proper mission of public education. Because we can’t define it, we can’t judge whether it is good or bad. Because it’s undefined we can’t decide what to spend money on. We want a personalized experience from a one-size-fits-all model…ain’t gonna happen, folks.
As far as your heart-warming examples of learning taking place under less than ideal situations, I already addressed that in my other post. Learning is not for wimps, either.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
6:21 pm
Lindance, you say “Could it be that the ‘elephant in the room’ is the lack of assimilation by people/persons from another nationality not wanting to speak English to their children in the home prior to and during the students’ formative years, not to mention teaching the value/importance of education in their lives.”
No, I disagree. My grandmother came to this country when she was in the sixth grade and didn’t speak a word of English and neither did her parents. She was literally thrown into an English-speaking school where everyone spoke English except her and her family. She was incredibly poor. After school she scrubbed hospital floors to earn money. She spoke English perfectly later and she wrote beautifully. I regret I didn’t save more of her perfect letters. She had beautiful handwriting and used papers that didn’t have lines on them but the handwriting looked as if it was written on lined paper.
She never finished high school. She was a woman, after all, and education for women was a luxury. Yet, I’ll bet she knew more and could perform math, English and science better than most APS teachers.
The education she received was by the teachers at the school and on one else. Her family didn’t value education, especially not for her.She passed down that non-value to my own mother. None of us had parents that helped us do our homework, that read to us. We had none of that and we learned — at school.
Pride and Joy
July 27th, 2012
6:23 pm
CCMST, my succinct point is this: You don’t need good parents and money and ideal conditions to teach kids. Kids can and do learn from a good teacher.
CCMST
July 27th, 2012
6:29 pm
@ Prof – isn’t Students First Michelle Rhee’s group?
I’m not anti-charter school – full disclosure, my kids went to a conversion charter in our district, and I was involved from the parent side (as I wasn’t a teacher at the time) in getting our public elementary chartered. However, we went through “proper” channels. It is a public elementary, and it isn’t run by any outside entities. In my opinion, that’s the best way to create a charter. There is no picking of students – all students districted to the school (with the exception of those otherwise enrolled under HB 251) attend.
Just slapping the charter label on a building and group of teachers isn’t going to solve anything though – I feel much better about a “homegrown” charter versus an outside run one. That’s just me, though.
CCMST
July 27th, 2012
8:38 pm
@P & J – I don’t disagree – and neither do the majority of good teachers. I’m not sure what else you want me to say. My point is that ignoring poor learning conditions is not going to improve teaching. It’s not an excuse; it’s a factor that needs to be addressed.
CarolineSF
July 27th, 2012
8:54 pm
No, @Dr. Monica Henson — one thing you can’t accuse California public school administrators of is paying themselves princely salaries in our cash-strapped school districts. That’s simply false.
I made the point in response to someone who seemed to believe that nonprofit charters are all on the up-and-up. No, many nonprofits are paying their administrators richly, and far too many are engaging in unethical shenanigans.
Yes, in case it’s not clear, it’s the so-called education “reform” side that’s paying for supporters — Michelle Rhee’s Students First operation. Students First also collects names by tricking people into signing petitions that sound pro-teacher and pro-public education, then lists those people as supporters — I’m listed as a supporter, and so is Diane Ravitch. So we already know they’re dishonest — this is just another unethical ploy.
Whoever has claimed that Parents Across America is a tool of teachers’ unions: We are supporters of teachers and public education, and we got a startup grant from the NEA. Parents with no affiliation with the NEA founded the organization, and we set our own policies. We don’t accept the teacher-bashing notion that getting a grant from a teachers’ union is damning — we support teachers.
One thing that the teachers’ unions are very, very poor at is the kind of PR/outreach that they need to combat the current teacher-bashing fad. If they DID consider trying to create a parent group as puppets, they wouldn’t have it together to pull it off, frankly. That kind of ploy is what the “reformers” pull, as we can see from the gift card e-mail.
Julie Davis
July 28th, 2012
1:10 am
I have to disagree with a number of emotionally based comments that degrade and downplay the heart and effort that went into the parents taking control of the school. If you keep doing the same thing over and over again and it does not work, why would you expect different results and continue to support failure. The parents took the first step and hopefully woke the school administration and school district up. When my daughter was 7 yrs old I was told she would never learn to read she was not smart enough (She was born oxygen deprived). Seriously a teacher told me to accept the facts. I pulled her out of the school for 10 weeks, focused 100% on phonice and experiencing the alphabet and she was reading in 10 weeks. Now she is going into the Criminal Justice program at our local community college and wants to spoecialize in Blood Spatter Analysis. Had I listened to the teacher who did not want to teach where would my daughter be now?
Parents do know thier children, mothers are very intuitive teachers. And no one can tell me that parents would prefer to have someone else teach thier “Little Darlings” in an abysmally apathetic manner. That is hogwash! In today’s economy a lot of parents are struggling financially. Families are penalized and looked down upon by society as a whole, if a mother stays home to raise her children. I homeschooled both my children for a time and it was very costly. Homeschool curriculum alone like Liberty Press or Bob Jones University Press is very expensive, but they were the best when I was homeschooling. My hat comes off to these parents, and thier courage to buck the system and say heck no we do not want to buy into excuses for poor performance any longer. They have my support and I think more parents should stand up and say NO to appathetic instructors and administrators. Remunerate the good teachers appropriately, Support, praise and recognize the instructors who really are teachers because it is a heartfelt calling and purpose in their lives.
Note I speak from experience. I have been a substitute teacher for minimal pay and worked with severe needs, and defiant children. I loved every minute of it. Tell me if you had a medium to moderate to severely Autistic teenagers, one who was disturbing the class with an imaginary phone on which he was having an imaginary conversation, what would you do? Think outside of the box please, this is very real for this teenager. You let the teenager know they have to end their conversation or you are going to take their phone away. More often than not, the student is shocked you actually believe they are talking on the phone so they say good bye and put the pretend phone in their pocket. No kidding, I really had this situation happen. The teenager never took the phone out again when I taught the class because they knew Mrs. Davis would take their phone away. Understanding your students, being where they are at instead of expecting them to be where you are at, they are children, not little adults. They learn through activities that stimulate the mind while enhancing social skills, cooperative/collaberative thinking as well as problem solving. Did you know that this could all be acomplished in one outdoor activity? Those are the kinds of teachers you want for your children. The teachers who will teach, praise, and discipline your kids with empathy, compassion and consistency. While teaching a child to love learning new things not to fear making mistakes and thus fear learning. There can be no success in life without some failure first.
One last thought and Henry Ford stated it best, “Those who think they can and those who think they can’t are both right”.
jw
July 28th, 2012
5:03 am
“Pride and Joy, July 26th, 2012, 12:52 pm said:
Most people work for a living. One cannot home school and earn a living. Perhaps you are a stay at home mother with a husband who provides for all your family’s financial needs. If you are, you have my dream job. I wold love to stay home and home school my children but I have to work, just like most Americans.”
ROFLMAO…. Pride & Joy, do you actually KNOW any homeschoolers? Sure the decision to homeschool involves some financial and other sacrifices, but many of the homeschooling families I interact with are still dual career, dual income families….and no, they are not farming out the education of their children to tutors constantly. All it takes is creativity and ingenuity…and good time management skills.
Pride and Joy
July 28th, 2012
9:23 am
jw you said “All it takes is creativity and ingenuity…and good time management skills.”
I’m listening. Both my cousins home school. They call it a full time job. Since you know how to have a fullt time job and homeschool please tell me, specifically how that works. For example, the parents arises at x time a.m., then does y for z hours, then goes to work, returns home, then does such and such. Sunday through Saturday please tell me the creative and ingenious ways to have a full time job and homeschool my children. Please also include time for worship in church, laundry, dishes, yard work, paying bills, and so on.
As it is now, I work full time, 45-50 hours per week. I arise at 5 a.m. to do housework and make breakfasts, the kids arise at 6:30. I get them to school by 8 a.m., then I work 9 nine and pick them up from after care. I make a sad little dinner (warmed up not cooked), race to get homework done, then baths, prayers and bed. Weekends are spent at church, catching up on housework and doing something with the kids outside to get a little exercise. I do it all now but I don’t do any of it very well. My house is usually a wreck, I don’t get enough exercise. I don’t get to spend as much time as I need with my kids. Right now, my children are eating breakfast. I’ve been up this a.m. since 6 and it’s Saturday.
Please be specific. I have two cousins who homeschool. THey both consider it a full time job. Their husbands bring home the money and they run the home and the homeschool. Go ahead. Please tell me how to squeeze in another 6 hours a day.
Pride and Joy
July 28th, 2012
9:28 am
Julie Davis, your post is heartwarming. Every bit of it. Congratulations to you and your daughter. I wish her the best of luck in her criminal justic endeavors.
P and J
AngryRedMarsWoman
July 28th, 2012
2:44 pm
@Pride&Joy – Apparently your parents also failed to teach you manners. Or how to engage in discourse without name calling and attacking the person rather than their position. I won’t go into detail about the ways that you can get into a better school without having to take a loss on your home. Nor will I point out that the school districts you mention did not go bad overnight and thus if you have children of school age then you bought your home pretty much knowing what you were getting into. I will, however, say that if you have financial obligations related to your home other than property taxes you don’t own it – the bank does.
Pride and Joy
July 28th, 2012
7:12 pm
ANgryBitterRedwoman, aha. Of course you can’t tell me how to home school and have a full time job because you can’t. It isn’t possible.
Just as I thouhght. All talk. No action.
AngryRedMarsWoman
July 29th, 2012
2:08 pm
Pride and Joy – I have never posted on this board about homeschooling.
Miss Management
July 29th, 2012
10:13 pm
Maureen, you do realize that the mere mention of shooting in one’s essay, whether it be in the arm or foot, could result in at least a 3 day suspension in our zero tolerance public schools.
What else?
July 29th, 2012
11:46 pm
Most of them don’t pay taxes