Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The inauguration of ObamaYou can always rely on journalists to lose all sense of perspective and proportion, then fail to ask any awkward questions. Was Barack Obama's inauguration really the Second Coming?
I'm not trying to traduce or belittle the thousands of Afro-Americans, standing in the freezing cold with tears in their eyes. After living through the nightmare and bitterness of segregation a black face in the White House must have seemed like liberation day.
However, just how much does the rise and rise of Obama equate with or reflect the collective black experience in America? He was raised in Hawaii by his white maternal grandparents who paid for private education, from there he graduated to Harvard. True he had to overcome the prejudice and 'handicap' of his skin colour, but one or two black faces in the corridors of power cannot mask the every day life experience of the majority - poverty, poor housing and low educational achievement.
Obama represents hope after eight bleak years of George Bush, in a similar way Blair was hailed as a saviour after eighteen years of Conservative government - a skilled orator who dealt in generalities, Hope, Change.
Obama attracted record numbers of small donations from millions of supporters to his campaign fund, but he didn't raise the billions needed from that source alone, he needed the money from large corporations, in order to compete with Clinton and Bush.
In a crisis democratic systems use voting to vent social discontent through the ballot box. What was the contrast with the Civil Rights Movement? Millions were involved in debates, marches and they formed permanent organisations. In Obama's campaign his supporters were reduced to the role of cheerleaders for the chief. The Democratic Party doesn't debate or vote on policy the conventions are there to anoint the new leader.
Like all American politicians Obama subscribes to the myth of the ‘Founding Fathers’. So what did most of them have in common, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson? They were white slave owners. Afro-Americans only won the right to vote some two hundred years later.
There was a massive groundswell for change, particularly after the banking crisis and the threat to people's homes and jobs. What will Obama do next? He will be judged on what he does not what he is.
Labels: America
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Barack ObamaBarack Obama is not George W Bush. That fact alone will guarantee him an avalanche of support and goodwill. Thousands of tearful Americans at the inauguration? For once it isn't hype and hyperbole, showbiz has been suspended. For the first few decades after it opened the only blacks allowed into the White House were slaves. Forty years ago some southern states still retained the notorious Miscegenation Acts, which outlawed marriage between black and white people.
There's a tendency to shout 'sell-out' from the rooftops before the incumbent has been inaugurated. However, Obama's campaign was long on rhetoric and generalities but short on specifics. On the health crisis, where 50 million working Americans are uninsured, he managed to outline a programme that was even more timid than Hilary Clinton's. The multi-million insurance companies covered all the bases by bankrolling both Bush's campaign and Obama's.
In education Obama supported Bush's misnamed 'No Child Left Behind Act'; if you though testing was bad in this country in America any school that doesn't reach national targets faces closure. The results of all this? The familiar teaching to test, narrowed curriculum and rampant cheating to avoid failure.Will Obama tackle the uneven property taxes, which ensure that a child in inner-city Chicago has $7,000 per annum spent on their education compared to $20,000 in the wealthy suburbs?
Teachers pay in America is set by the local school boards, so in many cases it is derisory, just one reason why its teachers are recruited from the lowest 30% of university graduates.
Obama has the hopes of the world resting on his slim shoulders, let's hope he doesn't flunk the test.
Labels: America
Sunday, October 07, 2007
New Philanthropy?Some charities do an excellent job – I always donate to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Guide Dogs for the Blind. However, there’s always that residual image of Lord and Lady Bountiful graciously distributing alms to ‘the deserving poor’.
Right up until the creation of the welfare state in 1945, charities played a dominant role in health, social services and housing. What they couldn’t do was create a national framework with minimum statutory provision – they didn’t have the resources. Instead there was a patchwork of competing charities with services varying widely between different cities.
When I was in America most schools depended on handouts from foundations, trusts or charities. It was almost a way of life, every school hired staff working full time on various bids. One charter school had a well connected board member who raised $1 million in donations. But most money was time limited so it was a hand to mouth, feast or famine existence.
On a national scale ‘New Philanthropy’ has become an institution with its main cheer leader Bill Clinton and his ‘Global Initiative’.
At a recent bash in the Sheraton Hotel, New York, Clinton lured a thousand of the world’s richest, each paying $15,000 for the privilege. Just to add some glitz and glamour Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) attended.
Last year Americans donated $295 billion to charities, equal to the Gross Domestic Product of Poland. 65 million US households gave an average of $2,000 each.
New Philanthropy has risen alongside an increase in inequality – according to official figures 12.3% of Americans live in poverty.
However, most of the charitable donations don’t reach the poor. About a third of gifts are made to religious organisations and much of the remainder is handouts by rich people to already rich institutions – museums (in 2005 the Metropolitan Museum of Art was given $26.52 million in private donations – in 2000 one donor gave $73.7 million), Ivy League colleges (Harvard received $196 million in 2005 and got $50 million from the Ford Foundation in 1998) and being America, pets scooped up 2% of the total.
By one estimate, only 10% of charitable donations go to projects working with people in poverty.
Whilst we can’t match the scale of ‘New Philanthropy’ we have our own version with Red Nose Day, Children in Need and high profile donations by business men and pop stars. What’s missing in all this? The role of government.
When it comes to education you can use taxes to fund an equitable well resourced comprehensive system (Scandinavia) or you can rely on charitable handouts in a patchwork of unequal selective schools (America).
Which model is England moving towards?
Thursday, July 26, 2007
McTeacher’sCould it only happen in America? Some schools are so desperate for funds that they have teamed up with that healthy food alternative McDonald’s to organise McTeacher’s nights.
School staff don McDonald’s uniforms and serve burgers and Cokes. The school takes 20% of the takings which usually amounts to $500, although with raffles and staff organised games this can rise to $1,000.
McDonald’s offer tips to schools on how to organise the event and staff are encouraged to sing the “I’m lovin’ it” jingle when they get a tip.
Pass the sick bag.
Hall of Shame
White Plains Elementary - North Carolina
Odessa – Missouri
Brisas – Arizona
Our Lady of Black Rock – New York
Lakeridge - Washington
Labels: America, PE and Health
Monday, May 07, 2007
Blockading the StreetsYou can detect a certain nervousness in America, there was that long retreat into old moral certainties during the Reagan era, favourite TV program ‘The Waltons’, nostalgia for those old westerns like ‘Bonanza’ where the good guys beat the bad guys, or ‘Happy Days’ where young people didn’t give lip and the most delinquent kid on the block was ‘The Fonz’. In the aftermath of 9/11 Bush was able to wrap himself up in the flag of patriotism and win re-election.
In America there is a mind set about public spending that is fed and manipulated by the media – every dollar spent is a dollar that could be better used by a more efficient private enterprise supplier and people who work in the public sector are feather-bedded and cosseted. Every cent must be ruthlessly accounted for, yet this doesn’t seem to apply in business, witness Enron and when Bob Nardelli left Home Depot after five lacklustre years this was helped by a payoff of $210 million.
Whilst public services have felt the chill wind of recession this hasn’t been the case for the super-rich, although incomes rose gradually between 1979 and 1998 the top 5% experienced a 64% increase. In 1980 a company Chief Executive earned 42 times more than the average worker, by 2004 it was 431 times more.
As federal government cut back on funding to the states during the 1970s a greater burden was placed on taxpayers to fund local services. In 1978 California passed ‘Proposition 13’ which limited rises in property taxes, from being the best-funded state for education by the 1990s it was one of the worst. In cities like Los Angeles schools were forced to use a shift system to educate children.
Grants and business ‘sponsorship’ are a way of life for American schools. However, they take up a huge amount of staff time and are usually time limited so a scramble for new funding can ensue. Getting out the begging bowl to big business is no way to fund schools. There’s also the fact that ‘sponsorship’ is never neutral and often involves highly dubious practices. Cable firm Channel One provided schools with free videos and televisions all the school had to do was agree to watch ‘informational’ programmes that contained adverts. Channel One sells the adverts for $200,000 for a thirty second slot.
The most shocking fact is the gross inequity in funding between different school areas. Because it is based on a regressive property tax wealthy areas have a low tax but a high take. So in Chicago 2002-3 (87% Black and Hispanic, 13% White and 85% low income) they spent $8,482 per pupil and in nearby New Trier (2% Black and Hispanic, 98% White and 1% low income) it is $14,909. Detroit (Black and Hispanic 95%, White 5% and 59% low income) spent $9,576 per pupil versus Bloomfield Hills (Black and Hispanic 8%, White 92% and 2% low income) $12,825. In New York (Black and Hispanic 72%, White 28% and 83% low income) they lavished $11,627 against Manhasset (Black and Hispanic 9%, White 91% and low income 5%) $22,311.
What does it say to children when they are educated in crumbling school buildings with outdated equipment? That isn’t universal many schools in poor areas are adequately funded but a large percentage aren’t. Of course the cry goes up that, ‘throwing money at the problem won’t solve it’. If you have a dysfunctional school with a disorganised Principal, demoralised teachers and disaffected pupils that may be partially true. However, not spending money isn’t a solution either and in expensive private schools (George Bush’s old school spends $30,000 per pupil) do they start from the logic, ‘we’re not going to lavish money on our children’s education’?
Some American High Schools have gone down the vocational route and concentrate on educating their pupils to be electricians, plumbers, office workers and nurses. In some cases they work as interns at companies and earn money for the school. Marlowe Academy in Kent has gone further down the route by abandoning subjects like History, Geography and Modern Languages. I don’t have a particular problem with this if it helps children to acquire a skill but in certain schools there was a ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’ attitude – that’s all our children can achieve. What about the academically orientated or the late developers? Can you really imagine the scenario the staff at Eton call in Mr. Fortesque-Smyth, ‘Your son is irredeemably stupid, we’ve signed him up for work experience at Tesco to stack shelves’? Maybe not. On the other hand someone has to empty the bins, clean the streets and wash the latrines but why not educate them to love literature, paint and dream dreams?
The seminal court case that ended ‘separate but equal’ education was Brown .v. Board of Education in 1954. The reality of ‘separate but equal’ was that white children attended well-funded High Schools but most black children went to ‘Training Schools for Coloreds’ with no expectation of a college education. Today classrooms are either 97% white or non-white, integration doesn’t happen. There is also the sad irony that the ‘Martin Luther King Schools’ are invariably in the poorest areas, suffer from inadequate funding and hardly ever contain any white children. In many cases they are in ‘Academic Emergency’ or ‘Academic Watch’ due to low test scores. Currently there are more black boys in the prison system than in college.
When it comes to the teaching profession once again the media sets the tone. Films like ‘Freedom Writers’ portray the ‘hero’ young teacher who goes to a school with the unteachables and manages to inspire them to reach an Ivy League University. The reality is that one in three teachers leave after three years and half after five years. Teaching lags behind other professions both in pay and status. The curriculum has become very prescriptive with teachers using ‘set texts’ and test driven basic-skills programmes like ‘Success For All’. In many literacy lessons there were fragments of text for comprehension and little engagement with real books.
America is famous for initiative and enterprise, you’ve got to hand it to them they’ve tried reconstitution (sacking all the staff and reopening), ‘Dream Schools’ (sacking some of the staff and reopening), Open Choice, Magnet Schools, Charter Schools, Vouchers and yet the failure of the system is still apparent.
Another main feature is the use of Superintendents who come into school districts promising to be ‘tough’ offering ‘no excuses’ and ‘zero tolerance of failure’. The turnover rate is high, after a few years they move on or get fired and so the cycle begins again. The inspiration for this approach came with the rise to prominence in the 1980s of Joe Clark the principal at Paterson High School, New York. He wasn’t afraid to discipline the black pupils and he patrolled the corridors of the school with a bullhorn and a bat. Education Secretary William Bennett described the school as “a mecca for education”. After Clark threw out 300 students whom he described as ‘leeches’ and ‘parasites’ test scores rose. A recent trend has been for city mayors to throw out the elected school boards and appoint their own people, this was recently declared unlawful in an important test case in Los Angeles.
There’s no denying that schools and individual teachers make a difference the problem is that managerial fixes cannot solve fundamental problems that are rooted in society. In Britain ‘school improvement’ almost became reduced to a tick list of ready made solutions that didn’t take into account the needs of the particular school. Also if you make a system more selective through vouchers, charter schools, academies or selection you leave other schools with a high proportion of the disaffected, under achieving and poorly motivated, it sets them up for failure.
‘No Child Left Behind’ is to education what flogging with a cat o’ nine tails was to penal reform – cruel, arbitrary and ineffective. The impact on schools is devastating, just imagine National Curriculum tests for Year 6 writ large across Years 3 through to 12. The high stakes tests in reading, writing and maths are combined with targets for attendance. You can see at first hand in many schools the narrowing of the curriculum as Art, PE and music are jettisoned. Formal education is moving down the year groups I saw some disaffected seven year olds reading pretty dull texts. Testing reinforces failure for certain children and is incredibly stressful for teachers and pupils.
The supporters of ‘No Child Left Behind’ will point to the exponential rise in test scores, but given the price of failure – close the school and reopen with new teachers – that isn’t surprising. The model for NCLB was the so-called ‘Texas miracle’ where high stakes testing led to a huge rise in test scores. Local newspapers have begun to investigate some schools with massive improvements and found glaring irregularities, like standing behind a child until they wrote down the correct answer. What does rote learning produce? Durham University undertook a longitudinal survey on the conceptual understanding of English 11 year olds and found it had fallen considerably between 1976 and 2003.
Charter schools educate over one million pupils in over 40 states and have been heralded as ‘innovative’. They can be ‘for-profit’ or ‘non-profit’, in some cases businesses like Edison run them or parent groups administer others. Despite the extravagant claims there has never been any statistical evidence to prove that charter schools achieve better results. I saw some excellent charter schools that were attempting new ideas to reach disaffected pupils that had dropped out of the system, I found others that offered a fairly dire ‘basic skills’ education and another that was attempting to create a selective girls school by applying for grants from business foundations.
There have been some fairly high profile failures, schools in Baltimore were given over to a charter and then taken back into public administration. In 2006 auditors in California reported on ‘Options for Youth and Opportunities’ run by Joan and John Hall. They were accused of over claiming $57 million in public funds. The Halls received annual salaries of $600,000 and the lease of sports utility vehicles. Ohio suspended all charter school applications after problems with White Hat management.
Charter schools have run into union hostility because they have refused to sign up to local teacher contracts. In New Orleans all the reopening schools have been Charters, fuelling suspicions that they are a stalking horse to weaken union organisation and remove schools from public accountability.
Hurricane Katrina should have been America’s wake up call – global warming, race (Kanye West ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people!’), poverty, lack of public funding for infrastructure, the diversion of funds to the war in Iraq and the leadership of George Bush.
People still cling to the ‘American Dream’ fuelled by the notion that anyone can aspire to become a company CEO or President of the nation. There are the feel-good stories about Bill Clinton - from a trailer park to President and Arnold Schwarzenegger - from penniless immigrant to movie star and then Governor of California. The reality is different, social mobility in America has stalled, if you are born poor you are likely to stay poor and the inequitable, under-funded public education system is unlikely to change that.
In his book ‘The Shame of the Nation’ Jonathan Kozol advances the argument that the battle for Civil Rights and the catharsis of the Vietnam War meant there was an inevitable hiatus, the combatants paused for breath. We were driving north through a black ghetto in Mark’s brand new Merc, with public housing being cleared out from Chicago for yuppie apartments, he was plainly riding the crest of this particular wave. Suddenly, as though crossing a border, we moved into the wealthy suburb of Evanston and he pointed out his old university, recently he’d been persuaded to join the library committee. At their first meeting they were given a target of $30 million to raise for new books, no panic, one of the members stated the ball rolling with a donation of $15 million. We drove on he pointed out where his ‘frat house’ and then ‘they’ve replaced the fences now, we tore them down and blockaded the streets.’ What!? After the Kent State shootings in 1970 most of the universities were occupied and shut down, he was still on some CIA files somewhere because when he came back from a holiday in Mexico he was interrogated at the border.
The very last school I visited was a ‘Blue Ribbon’ national award winner, 60% of the children were from poor families but the rest had parents in professional jobs, it was unusual because there was a 50 – 50 racial divide, white and non-white. In most schools I visited it was either spot the white child or spot the black child. There was some fantastic topic work on display and they had brilliant art, PE and music programmes. However, the neighbourhood was changing and exam results had fallen. I hope they manage to survive, it was a vision of how good American schools could be.
Labels: America
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Normal ServiceI’m just about recovering from jet lag after my flight back from America. The reality check of teaching again is just starting to bite. I’ll be writing a longer article about the education system in America.
Two excellent books I read – Jonathon Kozol, ‘The Shame of the Nation’, he believes that America has gone back 100 years in terms of school integration, an absolutely outstanding book, my infallible guide during school visits.
Also Leslie Baldacci, ‘Inside Mrs B’s Classroom – Courage, Hope, and Learning on Chicago’s South Side’, a perfect antidote to the teacher as super-hero, a Sun-Times journalist for twenty years before venturing into the toughest schools.
I’ve had an e-mail while I was away from Luke Jackson who has founded a new job search web site - Finders Teachers, very easy to use. Luke watched Everton during the Walter Smith era so he deserves a break.
Labels: America
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
The Blue RibbonThe public education system has been hollowed out, after the 1960s like other American cities, Cleveland suffered from ‘white flight’ where white middle class Americans left for the suburbs, there was a further exodus during the 1970s when the ‘smoke stack’ industries closed. During the 1990s Charter Schools and vouchers in the state of Ohio have removed more pupils, in 2000 there were 76,000 pupils in the public education system this has fallen to 56,000 and is predicted to decline to 44,000 by 2014. A temporary stop on Charter Schools in Ohio was announced after poor results at the schools managed by White Hat Management.
In many cities School Board Superintendents have been renamed ‘Chief Executive Officers’ and elected boards have been replaced by appointees of the Mayor.
There is also the devastating impact of the ‘No Child Left Behind Act’, which was shamefully support by Edward Kennedy. It paved the way for-
· Performance Pay for teachers
· Military recruitment
· Prayers in school
· Hiring private tutors
· Bussing children to other schools
· High stakes testing that can lead to school closures
In Cleveland thousands of teachers have been laid off due to falling pupil numbers and budget cuts. Most of them were social studies teachers.
We visited a K-8 (Kindergarten to Grade 8) School in a poor area of the city, the students were overwhelmingly Afro-American or Latino, 90% qualified for free or reduced price dinners. The testing neurosis was evident at the start, under NCLB 95% of the children must take the test, anything below that and the absentees are automatically classed as failing. So in the test week it’s, ‘phone round and round ‘em up’.
The curriculum is based on the core subjects – 100 minutes of reading, an hour of maths and then more literacy in the afternoon. I saw some 6 and 7 year olds in a grim classroom going through boring exercises from state wide text books, they looked bored. The school had been in Academic Emergency for five years and under NCLB will face reconstitution (closing down and reopening with new staff), conversion to a charter school, coming up with a new plan or takeover by Ohio State.
Ohio grades schools according to test results, no excuses for poverty or English as a second language.
Excellent 97 – 100%
Effective 76 - 96%
Improvement 50 - 75%
Academic Watch 33 – 49%
Emergency 0 – 32%
Schools are expected to increase results by 10% every year. Tests are held every year from Grade 3 to 12, even the younger children don’t escape in Ohio because they sit the Stanford Test for Kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2. It’s not only tests that score, attendance is counted too.
Later on we visited an award winning ‘Blue Ribbon’ school – their version of Beacon Schools. I was fairly sceptical, usually these schools are in expensive, twee, commuter villages or exclusive schools that select pupils by testing – the great unwashed are always notable by their absence. This school was different, 60-60% of the pupils were poor, the Principal bought school uniforms for them and commented how many of them couldn’t afford decent shoes or socks. However, the rest of the pupils were from middle class homes and unusually for America there was a 50-50 split, black and white. They also took in pupils with mild and severe disabilities.
The school had high test scores but not at the expense of a broad curriculum there was some excellent topic work on display and lively children fully engaged in learning.
It had all the ingredients for a great school
· A dynamic Principal
· Mix of abilities in classes that raised everyone
· A good team of teachers that worked together
· Children chosen from the immediate neighbourhood
· Parent and community involvement
However, the community around the school is changing and test results in Grade 3 had fallen dramatically. The school was a model of what could be achieved, I hope they survive.
Labels: America
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Small is Better?Cleveland is a city of contrasts – on the west side detached, clapper-board houses with neat manicured lawns and the Stars and Stripes fluttering from the porch, also opulent modern apartments, thirty stories high lining the banks of Lake Erie. Modern freeways snake through the city. Go to the east side and you’re in another world, as jobs went in the 1970s Cleveland became part of the ‘Rustbelt’, there’s abandoned brick built factories, houses showing signs of decay, abandoned cars and buses in the back yards, feral dogs and children, pot-holed roads. The two parts of the city are like binary stars that orbit around each other but never meet.
In the American education system every kind of ‘initiative’ has been tried – reconstitution, Magnet schools, open choice, Dream Schools, Fresh Start, Charter Schools, Vouchers and yet they still have chronic system failure. In a society that likes to think big and isn’t afraid of spending money, when it comes to education parsimony is the watch word, ‘throwing money at it won’t solve the problem’, on the other hand not spending money hasn’t worked either. I can’t help feeling that the patient is dying of malnutrition but all they want to do is try a make-over – new clothes, dental surgery, fancy haircut, anything but a square meal.
The latest thinking is ‘Small Schools’, try a High School with only 300 – 500 pupils. However, in many cases it has just replicated the problems only on a smaller scale. We visited an ‘Alternative School’, which attempts to engage with pupils who have been suspended or expelled. There were low class sizes, a limited school day and focused shorter tasks. Unfortunately the Youth Service who used to work with pupils were no longer there, due to budget cuts. The teachers worked under the conditions of the local contract.
There was a fairly bleak ‘punishment room’ with cubicles where miscreants were sent to ‘cool down’. Staff were finding it hard going and there seemed to be a lack of pastoral care. In the main school building every entrance was patrolled by morose, elderly, security guards, it didn’t make for a welcoming atmosphere. After Columbine there was federal money for security guards now the school had to fund them itself.
Later we visited a private Catholic School, in a tough area, they were attempting to get pupils used to a work environment, and they concentrated on businesses, hospitals and the service industry. A team of four pupils worked to cover a week in a workplace and the school received funding in return. The school concentrated on the core curriculum with a longer day for teachers – 7.30 am to 4.30 pm.
To be fair we were told that the expectation was not that the students would limit themselves to a menial job, some pupils had made it to college, but I couldn’t help thinking it was similar to the first half of the century and the ‘Training Schools for Coloreds’.
A high proportion of the teachers were interns – ‘training on the job’ i.e., a college degree but no formal education training. Some of them had worked 60 hours a week in their first year and had become excellent teachers. The problem is that devotion doesn’t pay bills and long hours and inspirational posters is no way to run an education system. Nationally a third of new teachers drop out after three years and a half after five years.
My host in Cleveland told me that in the 1960s teachers would habitually teach past retirement age, now all the teachers he knows are counting down the hours and minutes. I wonder why?
Labels: America
Scavenger HuntsWe visited a Youth Development organisation that works in a High School with disadvantaged young adults. It was in south Chicago, ringed by some grim housing projects. Driving through whole areas have been cleared, some buildings remain – abandoned, gutted or still lived in. Then there are a few up-market conversions where young professionals have moved in.
There were 1,000 students in the school grades 9 to 12. The youngest children were educated on a separate floor and the older children were split into five separate sections – Construction, Business, Graphic Design, Culinary Arts and Medical. I don’t necessarily have a problem with this because some children need vocational education, but there seems to be a philosophy in America that certain children are destined to become ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’. What route is there for the academically minded children?
Under ‘No Child Left Behind’ the military are able to come into schools and recruit, three sergeants were based in this school and they had their own drill hall. A disturbing development, what does this have to do with education? It is also the sons and daughters of the poor that are targeted for recruitment, in Michael Moore’s film ‘Fahrenheit 911’ he reveals that only one member of Congress has a child serving in Iraq.
As other schools shut down in the area numbers are rising, 400 in the current 9th Grade. The school is 98% Afro-American and is sited in the North Lawndale area where Martin Luther King lived for a spell during the 1960s when he was highlighting poverty in urban areas. After he was assassinated there was wide scale rioting and troops were sent in.
The Youth Development project tries to help students with college applications, academic support and leadership skills. Most of the funding comes through grants from foundations or business. This is another common thread, fine for funding extra activities but no way to run basic public services. Sponsors choose projects that are ‘sexy’ and often it comes with strings attached. PTAs reinforce this inequality because some High Schools raise millions of dollars.
The project does some really innovative work, they found an abandoned house and involved the students in renovating it, then selling it to local first time buyers. During the summer school they organised a ‘Scavenger Hunt’ where students had to use public transport to navigate around the city, they also made community based films.
Jo was our guide and its interesting when you visit a place the vibes you pick up, he introduced all the staff and they looked happy to be there and wanted to talk. The staff had all written an article about themselves, children, hobbies, favourite TV programmes – we all had a laugh about ‘The Office’, some of them claimed to have worked with American versions of David Brent.
We eventually had to make our excuses and leave, Jo could have talked all day about the project, his enthusiasm was infectious. A really inspiring project, as Jo said, “You can’t just wait for the revolution, you’ve got to do something with the kids now.”
However, the inequity in funding and the racial divide is troubling. There’s a tremendous book called ‘The Shame of the Nation’ by Jonathon Kozol, he quotes an advocate of free enterprise who believes that capitalism works best as a meritocracy, if wealth and privileged become entrenched it is a recipe for stagnation and decline. Examples where advancement depended on nepotism rather than innate brilliance – the ‘hero’ of the Texas Air Reserve and Michael ‘Good Job’ Brown the ex-head of FEMA whose previous experience before Hurricane Katrina was supervising horse show judges in Colorado.
Labels: America
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Is the Pope a Catholic?I visited a small Charter School in the north of Chicago, it sprang from a community based initiative to bring young adults (16 to 20 years) back into the education system. They had 86 students, seven teachers and five counsellors. Their nearest High School had 2,000 pupils, classes of between 30 - 40 and only three full time counsellors.
Funding their school was a real problem with money coming from over 12 different streams, so staff spent a long time preparing bids and then reporting and monitoring. Some children came into the project with a very low reading age. The Principal felt that money spent on these children now was better than wasting $30 - $40,000 keeping them in prison - America has over 2 million in its penal institutions.
The unions are not keen on Charter Schools because most of them do not recognise them and pay and conditions are usually below the rates for the local School Board.
Touring through the school most of the pupils were focused on learning, they had a high drop out rate but had rescued many of from from years out of education, over 50% had children of their own. The Principal had developed his own methods to run the school and he shared the job with another teacher, he told me he didn't believe in the myth of the super teacher, the 'sage on stage'. Space was limited and they wanted to develop more art and music programmes.
The contrast with the second Charter School was stark, true the pupils had finished so we didn't see the school 'in action'. But this was a grim office block where the school occupied a floor, the classrooms were small and had very little natural light, the walls were breezeblocks painted white. The canteen was so small that lunch times were staggered and one group finished lunch at 11.10 am - no break until the finish at 3.30 pm.
They had a rather peculiar way of encouraging good behaviour, the boys were being taught "Leadership' and could win a natty blazer, the girls were learning about "Etiquette". Unsurprisingly the girls had voted with their feet and there was a preponderance of boys in the school.
If the alarm bells were ringing, the Klaxon was going off when we looked in at the staff meeting. They were watching a training video featuring 'Mr. Motivator' - Harry Wong. It was the kind of 'praise the Lord, you have been saved' talk where no questions are ever permitted and teachers are made to feel bad.
Part One in 'The Effective Teacher' featured a hand-out to beat all hand-outs. Two main points were, 'I believe that every teacher can be effective, and 'The Effective teacher Affects lives' (get it?).
Then we had three qualities of an Effective Teacher-
1. Is a Good Classroom Manager
2. Designs Lessons To Reach Mastery
3. Has Positive Expectations That Students Will Be Successful
Just to make sure each separate point was repeated in larger fonts on a separate piece of paper. Now I know that Ofsted proceed from the view that teachers are a clueless bunch of bozos, but even they could not get away with this. Most of the staff were first year teachers (NQTs), but this is the type of stuff you would learn in the first week of college.
Is this what teaching in the wealthiest country in the world has been reduced to? After three years of training are there really teachers that believe you should be a Bad classroom manger, prepare Boring lessons and Expect failure?
I'm just waiting for Harry's next videos, 'Is The Pope a Catholic, and 'Do Bears Defecate in the Woods'?
Labels: America
White FlightChicago has over 600 schools, with over 400,000 pupils. If it was a hospital patient it would have been in intensive care if not a coma for years. The drop out rate in High School hovers around 50%.
Charter Schools have been an attempt to break the cycle of failure. I visited a small High School with 350 girls chosen by lottery from all over Chicago. There was a ratio of 1 teacher to every 10 pupils. Sadly when they talk about "diversity" in America it means there are very few, if any, white students, this school was only 7% white, 88% of pupils were on free or reduced price dinners.
The school got about $8,000 per pupil from the state and raised $1.3 million in private funding so that figure averaged $12,000. We were shown around by two charming, intelligent girls that would have been a credit to any school in the world, they answered questions with ease, poise and confidence. The school was run by a dynamic young Director.
Next stop was the Chicago Teachers' Union, they have 35,000 members (including teaching assistants), dues for teachers are $800 a year and they have 65 full time workers.
In 2005 to try and break the cycle of failure they adopted ten schools that had low test scores under a programme called 'Fresh Start'. Staff had to vote by an 85% majority to come into the scheme. Two of the schools have subsequently closed and the rest will stay in until 2010. The Chicago School Board put in extra funding and businesses have donated money. The property tax system is very regressive, in Chicago pupils in the public system recieve around $5,500, in the wealthiest suburbs it can reach $17,000. Four schools have come off the 'notice to improve' list under 'No Child Left Behind'.
The 'Fresh Start' scheme is based on 'Success For All' which is a very prescriptive system of lessons with 90 minutes of literacy and an hour of maths. Children are tested every eight weeks.
The Chicago school syatem is chronically underfunded, there is gross inequity between the inner city and the suburbs, many children come from extremely poor backgrounds and teachers' pay is very low in a city where property is very expensive (I'm coming to the conclusion that to teach in America you must be mad, desperate or truly dedicated, on the empirical evidence most seem to be the latter).
Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in America, schools are either 97% white or non-white. I raised the issue with the girls from the small High School, they were very gracious, it didn't seem to trouble them they were confident about their own indentities. But how do you build a tolerant, inclusive society under these conditions?
Labels: America
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Nickels and DimesVisiting the schools in San Francisco is like experiencing some kind of weird parallel universe, the similarities with England are frightening.
In San Francisco during the 1980s they pioneered 'Reconstitution', close a 'failing' school 'vacate' all the adults (teachers, cleaners, welfare staff) and re-open with new staff. Guess what? In the reconstituted schools there was a very high staff turnover, high percentages of supply and unqualified teachers, results didn't improve and discipline got worse. The teachers' union described it as the 'Clint Eastwood' approach to school reform, simple sloutions to complex problems. In England we had 'Fresh Start' which suffered that car-crash moment in 2000 when in one week four super-heads resigned.
For Academies read 'Charter Schools' in America - find a private sponsor to run your schools, there are now 3,500 of them educating one million students. Independent studies have not shown any appreciable improvements in results. In 2006 auditors in California reported on 'Options for Youth and Opportunities' run by Joan and John Hall. They were accused of over claiming $57 million in public funds. The Halls received annual salaries of $600,000 and the lease of sports utility vehicles.
George Bush has passed the 'No Child Left Behind Act' that prescribes high stakes testing with school closure as the penalty for failure. There are exactly the same practises we see in England - teaching to test, a narrow curriculum, constant tests, concentration on the borderline group, leading to pupil disaffection. Headteachers also display the 'bar-chart fetish' as they obsessively demonstrate the test score increases. Please remember the Ancient Greeks saying, 'Education is a festival of the mind'.
Some teachers I talked to said that the prescriptive curriculum and the testing culture was actually driving middle class parents towards the private education system because they wanted an enriched education for their children.
Ambitious Superintendents (Local Authority Chief Education Officers) are parachuted in to 'turn the schools around', they try to leave their mark with 'radical' solutions, after a couple of years they move on up the promotion ladder and teachers are left to pick up the pieces.
A massive difference in San Francisco is the huge numbers of children in the bi-lingual program, in some schools they educate up to the end of Infants in Spanish or Chinese. There is also the phenomenon of 'white flight', over 30% of children are educated in private schools.
Due to the high cost of housing it is very difficult for families on low incomes to live in the city, since 1960 the numbers of school age children has dropped by 30%. Young teachers cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder, average prices are $600,000 and teachers salaries start at around $40,000.
The extremes of wealth are startlingly apparent, San Francisco is the wealthiest city in the world - average income $37,000, but walk through the streets and the plight of the homeless is distressing.
Finally in all the years I've holidayed in America I've never worked out the value of 'Nickels' and 'Dimes', so a big thank you to the kindergarten teacher at Paul Revere Elementary School - you're never too old to learn!
Labels: America
Friday, April 20, 2007
Shoulder PadsI visited another 'Dream School', this time a High School, the Americans also have Middle School, so this was Years 9 to 12.
The basis for the reform still remains a mystery, they weren't the worst performing schools and unlike Reconstitution, where there was a push from the Afro-American community in Bayview-Hunter's Point for reform, this wasn't the case with 'Dream Schools'. The school board didn't hold meetings with staff, they found out in December 2004 they would have to apply in March 2005 for their own jobs.
Over 50% of staff left, many of them were veteran teachers who just felt disrespected. Out of the fifty new staff that started over half were first year teachers (NQTs).
There wasn't any real change in contracts and unlike the elementary (primary) schools they weren't forced to work extra hours. The Principal quit in May and the School Board was forced to appoint someone who was a first time Principal.
Test results have fallen dramatically and walking through the school there were giant banners everywhere, 'Rock the Tests'.
The 'Dream Schools' bear all the hallmarks of Superintendents (Chief Education Officers) trying to make their mark, leaving and then the teachers picking up the pieces.
I briefly met the Principal, one of those high powered people with shoulder pads to match, within seconds of meeting her she'd managed to patronise and condescend. Can't win 'em all, I'll have to go back to the vegan restaurant - I'm sure of a welcome there.
Labels: America
Another PlanetSan Francisco is famous for being full of odd balls and fruit cakes. I hadn't really experienced it before today... I was gagging for a cup of coffee, so I dived into the nearest cafe. Now let's just say in most corners of the planet the service can be tardy or even brusque, but they do let you drink your coffee in peace. I went up to the counter.
'Welcome!' (a broad smile)
'Hello.'
'What is your name?'
'Er...'
'We have a question of the day.'
'Oh really?'
'What do you think the meaning of life is?'
By now I was ready to be recruited by a crazy bunch of wackos who believed in UFOs and the mystic cosmos.
(Nervously) 'I'll need time to think...'
'What would you like to order?'
'Just an ordinary coffee.'
'That's cool we're a vegan restaurant so we don't serve dairy milk but you can have hazlenut milk or walnut milk. We grow them and press the milk everyday and the coffee is fully organic.'
(Thinks - Oh My God, I just want a coffee)
'I'll have hazlenut.'
'Thank you for choosing our establishment. Your coffee will arrive shortly.'
I sit down but can't escape.
'We have some cards on the table which may help your karma. I love working here.' (Smiles broadly)
They're the type of inane comments which you get in 'Chicken Soup for the Soul'. I go through them reading intently trying to blend in.
After a ten minute wait the coffee arrives and surprisingly it tastes OK. I finish and try to slink out.
'Goodbye, may your life be joyous and fruitful.' (Broad smile)
When I visit the nearby school the staff fall about laughing.
'They're on another planet, we'll get you some tacos.'
Thursday, April 19, 2007
I have another dream...I visited another 'Dream School', they were created in 2004/5 as another way to address 'failure'. In this school only five teaching staff stayed and a team of first year (NQTs) teachers were appointed. There was a new Principal who came from the Board of Education and resigned after a year.
There was a change from 'Reconstitution' in that the existing teachers could reapply for their jobs but they had to write a letter, be observed three times by a panel of five people and go for a competitive interview. As one teaching assistant (they're called 'para-professionals') told me, "We lost good teachers who went to teach in easy schools".
The new teachers in the 'Dream School' had to teach an extra two hours a day, there was another high turnover of staff after the first year. The School Board did give them extra resources like a school nurse, social worker and other support staff. A new Principal listened to teachers and helped some of the new ones. It was an extremely challenging school, I saw a young teacher with the patience of a saint - I'd have been ranting and raving at them.
I got the impression though that it had been a close run thing, why 'experiment', just give the schools more money and lift children out of poverty.
Labels: America
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
I have a dream...I talked to a teacher who had gone through 'reconstitution' in 1995, she taught in a school where most of the children lived in poverty. The test results weren't brilliant but the staff all worked hard and discipline was not a problem. The school was chosen for reconstitution and given one year to come up with a plan. As the teacher said it was a, "dog and pony show". They made presentations, showed children's work and tried to influence the District School Board. Her family life suffered, years later her son told her, "you weren't there for me." The officials refused to meet the parents at the school because they didn't want reconstitution.
All the adults were cleared out of the building and new staff were hired. As one union official called it, "the Clint Eastwood approach to school reform." Some of the new teachers were inadequate, one infant teacher had never taught young children and the nursery teacher showed TV soaps all day. The school was given more money but still results didn't improve.
A new intiative in 2004/5 was the so-called 'Dream Schools' (spin doctors obviously working overtime on a catchy touchy-feely name). This time the schools that were chosen weren't the lowest performing, the union suspicion was that the Board of Education picked schools where they could show progress. The Board met the teachers gave them pizzas and announced that they wanted to staff the seven new 'Dream Schools' with, "genial teachers with vision".
There was a change from reconstitution in that you could reapply for your job, but you had to write an essay about why you wanted the job, be observed teaching by a panel of 'experts' and they go for interview. Most teachers refused this generous offer. Only one Principal (Headteacher) stayed on. Teachers had to sign contracts agreeing to work an extra hour every day.
Two of the schools subsequently closed and in most of them there was a high turnover, problems with discipline and still results didn't improve.
The latest wheeze has been to hire over 30 'Reform Facilitators' that work in the schools. Tests in reading, writing and maths are held every six weeks and regular meetings are held with teachers to suggest how they could improve. I've heard stories of teachers in tears, this wasn't what they came into teaching for.
Observing the American education system is like a combination of a bad dream and living in a parallel universe. The bar chart fetish is also alive and well here, I met one Principal who insisted on showing me the upward trend in results. I didn't have the heart to tell him my, 'brain-dead chimp' theory of test improvement - teach to test, narrow the curriculum, constantly test, pressure teachers, concentrate on the borderline children. I really must get a highly paid job as a consultant.
Labels: America
Power in a union1) The big difference compared to England is that each teachers' union branch negotiates locally for their 'contract'. This does lead to different pay scales and bargaining can be tough. In San Francisco the union was on the brink of calling a strike (the Board of Education had voted 4-3 to bring in strike breakers) but at the eleventh hour a settlement was reached.
2) Although there are two competing unions the AFT and the NEA, San Francisco is unique because all teachers are in the United Educators of San Francisco, but they send delegates to both conferences.
3) The union works hard to build support, they organise Union Building Committees in schools and they meet every month with the Principal (Headteacher). They hold days where teachers wear the union T-shirt, regular newsletters keep the membership informed and they use phone banks to communicate with them.
4) Over 30% of children in San Francisco attend private schools. It is the wealthiest city in the world, average income $37,000 per annum and house prices average $600,000, but the wealth divide is huge there are thousands of homeless people.
5) George Bush's 'No Child Left Behind Act' has introduced children and teachers to the joys of high stakes testing. All the same problems we are familiar with in England - teaching to test, narrowing the curriculum, de-skilling teachers, stressing pupils, league tables to 'name and shame', the media identifying 'failure'. When will they ever learn?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
ReconstitutionReconstitution - "improving" low performing schools by replacing ("vacating") all of the adults in the building was described as the "My Lai approach to school reform - you destroy the village in order to save it."
Reconstitution in San Francisco began with a 1978 lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) charging that the city's schools were segregated and unequal. A 1982 federal court judgement ruled in their favour and called for school restructuring.
The plans drawn up by the San Francisco Unified School District included the phrase, "If indivduals do not learn, then those assigned to be their teachers will accept responsibility for this failure and will take appropriate action to ensure success."
The primary focus of reconstitution was an impoversished area known as Bayview Hunter's Point. Six schools were chosen to be developed as 'magnets' to attract parents and children, two schools were new and four existing ones were selected for 'reconstitution'. This meant, "Removing faculty and staff [including cooks, teaching assistants and cleaners] and hiring new faculty and staff committed to the consent decree vision, philosophy tenents and program."
To help implement reforms the six Bayview Hunter's Point schools received a massive infusion of state funds and extensive technical assistance.
In 1987 two more schools in San Francisco, John Muir Elementary School and James Lick Middle School were chosen for 'reconstitution', staff were removed at both schools but this time no additional resources were provided.
However, by 1989 it was clear that achievement levels in the district were still uneven, the court appointed a panel of experts led by Harvard professor Gary Orfield to review progress.
In 1993 a further nine schools were declared 'reconstitution eligible' and given one year to improve. As a results three schools were selected during 1994-5 and five more the following year. Once again teachers were singled out for blame and long-standing, experienced teachers were advised that 'just good enough' was 'not good enough'.
Reconstitution made it difficult for schools to attract qualified and experienced teachers, in one school 24% were unlicenced and in another 70% were long-term supply teachers. The reconstituted schools still failed to show any signs of measurable improvement.
A new attempt at reconstitution has been so-called 'Dream Schools' (make the packing colourful even if there is dross inside it). A federal court ruling in December 2006 described reconstitution as, "an 800 lb guerilla to keep the union at bay" and that there was, "no reason to have reconstitution".
However, this local victory for the union may only be temporary, under Bush's 'No Child Left Behind Act', if children consistently underperform in high stakes national tests, schools may be closed, re-opened as charter schools or reconstituted.
Labels: America
Monday, April 16, 2007
Touching downI'm not normally a nervous traveller, but it's different without the cocoon of your family around you. I'm on my own this trip. My nerves go once the airport minibus arrives. We tour round Liverpool picking other people up. There's a family going on holiday.
"Have you got everything son?"
"Yeah, stop nagging."
"Have you got your passport?"
"I'll go back and get it."
Driving down the M62 the mist hangs over the fields like a shroud, trees stand isolated, enveloped.
In the departure lounge I sit there people watching, families of Orthodox Jews, middle aged couples sitting opposite each lost in conversation -not, stressed out executive types clutching mobile phones to their ears.
Travelling doesn't bother me it's the change in New York, clearing immigration, baggage reclaim, customs, finding the shuttle train, checking in for the next flight, handing the suitcase in, clearing security, getting hand luggage checked, more security checks, I'm frazzled!
When I get to San Francisco, my host Rosa from the local union is waiting with a sign. We drive through the city and she's telling me about the American education system - high stakes testing (No Child Left Behind), closing and reopening 'failing' schools (reconstitution), giving schools over for dodgy groups to run (charter schools) and demonising teachers - we've got a lot in common.
Labels: America
