School Reform or erosion?
By Siobhan Boylan
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 7:23 pm in Siobhan Boylan.
I went to hear the presentation for Dr. Payne about OUSD's school reform tonight. I went after a long day (even though it was a minimum day...) at school, after participating in yet another professional development meeting where we focus on how badly our kids score on benchmark tests and try to write plans to improve the scores. (I always leave those meetings feeling like a no-nothing failure especially because it seems like my class is the lowest of the low in our grade level.)
I was very interested to hear from the principals that had gone through the reorganization to become small schools. I was impressed to hear how many of them had been in the profession as teachers and principals for a very long time and were using this opportunity to grow in their profession while trying to make huge improvements in their schools and the communities they serve. I loved hearing from the principal at Foster who grew up in Trinidad and kept reiterating that if that country can have a 98% literacy rate with only one overhead projecter per school, there is no excuse for not being able to do it in Oakland, which seems to always have extra money at the end of the fiscal year.
When Dr. Payne finally got up to speak, he had some wise and helpful thoughts to share about OUSD's attempt at school reform. He cautioned that the waves of small school transitions are getting bigger and bigger and that we may have bitten off more than we can chew, let alone digest. He worries that with 45 new schools now, it is more difficult to support the growth since the resources are now spread much thinner than in the initial phases of the small school movement. Issues were raised by attendees about the level of respect and support for veteran teachers and the effectiveness of a system that relies on so many new teachers each year. He addressed the issue at our school (the fact that we have 11 out of 16 new teachers) by saying that kind of concentration of newness could never be good for a school.
I know that it's an issue I've struggled with a lot. I wonder if I would have ever accepted this position if I had known that I would be one of the most qualified teachers — on paper at least. I was so looking forward to a year of excited growth and professional development in a challenging school in a new environment. As Andy Kwok mentioned in his recent posting, the culture out here is starkly different from the lifestyle I knew in Cleveland and Minneapolis. But instead I was greeted with a staff who is largely in the same predicament I'm in: I don't have the experience, the materials, the strategies, the understanding that a veteran teacher could offer.
People always say the first year is difficult and it's more about my learning as a teacher than the success of my kids, but I can't help but wonder at the damage or at least the lack of progress my kids are making because they have an inexperienced teacher rather than one who has learned and earned the finesse it takes to help kids grow and learn. So I'm left with the question: Am I part of the reform or am I, as one of 500 new teachers in this district, part of the erosion of public education?
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February 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
You're not part of the reform OR the erosion, you're part of the triage. You are the First Responder when the desperate call went out to fill that classroom.
For your students, you are at least not one in a series of subs, which is the case for many students in Oakland.
People complain about young teachers or Teach for America, but the thing is: They wouldn't exist if there were enough experienced teachers who wanted these jobs!
As a crappy first-year teacher with totally inappropriate curriculum and no support (beyond "hang in there!" moral support), I KNOW I'm doing my kids a disservice. Unfortunately, this is apparently the best we can do.
It could be worse: I once read a New Yorker article about how brain surgeons are trained. It amount to a horrifying on-the-job explication of the old adage, "You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette."
I'm going to pass on the advice everybody's been giving me (and probably you): Take care of yourself, because if you aren't finding some joy in life you can't be an effective teacher.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Ms. Boylan,
For me as a principal, the issue is not experience or inexperience, as in your case, but a teacher's ability to reach kids. While I think this ability can be honed with more and more classroom experience, it might be an innate thing that a teacher is born with or without. One must connect with these kids and how is that achieved? Being strong, firm, real, and vulnerable too. Yelling sometimes. Letting up a little at other times. We must really get to KNOW our kids and connect with them over the things we share in common as people. And while this sounds basic, in my experience, it is incredibly hard. So many adults in schools have no idea who the kids before them really are. I see time and again adults not reaching kids at all. Teachers, principals, SSOs, etc. If you connect to a kid, and make him know that he is loved, he'll trust you to stretch and challenge him academically and socially.
Teaching in tough inner-city classrooms, for me, is like training tigers. You have to be the biggest cat in the room to keep control of the environment. Once safety is established, a teacher can relinquish control to the students and let them run the room.
So in this little reply, I think two ingredients are essential: strength of character and the ability to really relate with and connect to kids.
Many veterans and new TFAers lack this skill. Some have it. We need to identify teachers who can engage kids and build on their abilities. I run an expulsion school and my kids can learn! I taught Bio the other day because of a teacher absence, and these kids were all over hyper / hypotonic solutions and active versus passive transport. Ask them about concentration gradients, and they'll come back with a answer on it.
These kids can learn. But do the adults the character that the job takes? My two cents. I hope you're well. I should have hired you immediately when I interviewed you!
February 11th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Sam, I won't doubt what you are saying is true ("biggest cat in the room," etc.) because of your experience. However, I think it should be noted that if urban teachers need to have such a rare combination of natural power and vulnerability and empathy, there is little hope of fundamentally solving the problems.
In my credential program they stressed professionalism as well as love and care. That's great, but most people find it hard to do both. In middle-class schools, teachers could be loosely divided between technocrats and caregivers/connectors — but both types can be successful.
I guess I am just frustrated that whenever we point to successful schools, we cite people that are EXCEPTIONAL — superstar principals, teachers who work 65 hours a week and have loads of charisma, students who overcome insane hurdles, etc. These stories seem uplifting, but really they just point to the horrors of all those not making it.
What we need are the resources and systems and reforms that can make REGULAR people be successful in schools. This means ending the cycle of poverty, higher teacher-student ratios, etc.
Question: If you bumped the starting salary to $100,000, do you think you'd find enough of these "tiger-tamers" to staff OUSD? Personally, I doubt it. You are talking about some rare folks.
February 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
"Another First Year Teacher": You are so right. The discourse on school "reform" has been heavily dominated by a focus on getting rid of "bad teachers" and hiring "great teachers." Of course there are good and bad teachers. But the positive impact of even a "super" teacher with thirty students — most with below grade level skills — is far less than it would be with fifteen students.
And thank you so much, Siobhan, for having the courage and expending the energy to so thoroughly and honestly share your experience of this excruciating first year. I completely agree with your comment in response to a response to an earlier entry that this blog is part of your effort to improve public education.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Just to second (or third?) the previous two comments: How many superheroes would we need to staff OUSD, much less all the schools in all the cities in the US (and the world)? We need systems, reform, and reality; we need collaboration between many different parts of society. It would be nice if we were all Superteacher, but I think if we were, we might demand more respect, more pay, and a bunch of other things we're not going to get!
March 8th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Siobhan,
I just started reading your blog and I love it! Thank you, thank you! I met you at the OCTC over the summer. Now I'm teaching 2nd grade at (i won't mention the school just yet...I'm a coward, I guess)
Anyway, I know just what you are going thru. My school isn't a small school...YET. It's been a program improvement school for five years now so it may be reconstituted next year, who knows!
I feel exhilarated everday going to work. It keeps me on my toes, no doubt. And I want to return next year if they want me, but, man, it's tough! I do feel like a soldier in boot camp or on the frontlines. I feel brave and proud of myself, even though, I feel like a failure almost every single day also. Open court, the constant observations and testing etc etc. ....I'm starting to get used to it but it's tough, I must say. But like you, I don't want to quit these kids. I don't want to walk away and say I couldn't handle it. I want to handle it and become a good teacher, if not a great one. Keep up the good work and I will continue to read your blog.
Carole