Final Draft

Sydney M Hudson

Dr. Sonia Apgar-Begert

English 101

Final paper

Critiquing Education

There are endless varieties of teachers in this great nation, some who display passion and patience, others who simply "babysit" and retire each day with a paycheck. Students in Kindergarten through 12th grade rely on their teachers to provide them with the best education possible. This should not differ from state to state or district to district, all teachers should be giving these students a foundation for a future and the tools to develop the mind. It is not the job of one teacher, but of all working together. Evidence has presented itself that if we are not helping to guarantee this quality education, then what are we doing? Each teacher should be held to a certain level of expectations and accountability that will result in a better education for students, and a better group of teachers who will represent our American students. In America today we need to fix the problems in our K-12 educational system by changing the way we encourage and monitor our teachers’ proficiency.

There is evidence that proves the power of teaching. When diagnosing the movie "Freedom Writers" we are presented with a prime example. The teaching shown by Mrs. Gruwell shows the qualities that should be present in all schools, amongst all teachers. She is faced with a lack of encouragement from adults and an obvious lack of student involvement. The location of the school and the culture of the community are challenging to say the least. There was a serious lack of enthusiasm to learn and the area was one littered with crime, homelessness, and gang activity without an end in sight.  Mrs. Gruwell found encouragement on her own, from her students (Freedom Writers). She was stalled by other teachers’ criticism, skepticism, and pessimistic attitudes, those teachers were great examples of teachers that needed a reminder of why they were there. A quote that represents the kind of learning Mrs. Gruwell inspired goes like this;

 “We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers”― Chris Hedges (Quote, Hedges.)

Mrs. Gruwell came in as a first year teacher and inspired the minds of her students; she did not hold them to career expectations like we saw done by Mr. Escalante in Stand and Deliver. He put the goal in the students heads to learn in order to become successful (Stand and Deliver), which poses the question of how did these students do in other classes? Teachers should be reminded at certain regular intervals in their career that they are molding minds, not careers. Remind them that all minds are different and try to see the potential in each student instead of focusing only on the academics and getting through the lesson curriculum.

Something that caught my attention that is proof of the need for teacher standards and proficiency is the “Lemon Dance”, or as some call it the “turkey trot’, or “pass the trash” (Waiting for Superman). It is a system used by principles and school boards to recycle their teachers from school to school. When one teacher is not working out at school A, they are moved to school B at the beginning of the next school year. The teacher who was not working out at school B was moved to school C, and the teacher who is not working at school C will then be recycled over to school A. School A then feels like they have a better teacher than they started with simply because it is a different teacher. That does nothing to improve our teaching standards. That system allows teachers to bring their bad teaching habits over to another group of students who will then suffer the consequences. Those teachers should be evaluated instead of sent somewhere else. Quite possibly they have become tired of teaching, or maybe they truly need a refresher course! These teachers should be monitored by other teachers or principles to find out what they are lacking. Even Mrs. Gruwell may have come to a point of boredom, or repetitive routine that could have hurt her teaching methods and success, which is why teachers need to have that support from their staff to keep each other at the top of their game and motivated to be doing the teaching.

Merit pay will help to separate the good from the bad; ultimately cancelling out the option of teachers being the reason for our failing education system, and then focusing on the next problem can become a reality. Merit pay is an increase in pay given to a teacher producing measurable results with students. A teacher who shows they are working harder, or better at molding the student mind will then receive an incentive or higher pay (Miller-Sadker, 4). When presented with this option by superintendent Michelle Rhee in Washington DC no one was allowed to vote on instituting merit pay because of the teachers union(Waiting for Superman). The teachers union is put in place to protect the teachers, it is frustrating to see that it has not been successful in helping the srudents.The teachers union of Washington DC has made it near impossible to fire a teacher who has not produced results with students(Teachers Union Exposed), but isn’t that their one and only goal? They say that all teachers should be treated the same “a teacher is a teacher is a teacher” (Waiting for Superman), most of this country would disagree due to different teaching methods that all have experienced. With merit pay we would clearly be able to see who is capable and proficient in their job and create higher standards for teaching.

Teachers who are supported and support one another have programs available to them to help build their teaching skills, handle a problem in class, and bridge the gap between home and school. In one of our own area elementary schools where I held an interview with a 1^st grade teacher, Kelley Daniels, I was informed of some of these programs. Mrs. Daniels has an entire staff available to her for round table discussion, bouncing ideas off of one another and committees to develop new strategy for teaching core math and reading curriculum. This school has Para educators, in class advocates for students who struggle, and special needs assistants, all of which work together to produce great results(Daniels interview). Each teacher is aware of the other teacher’s struggles and they have incorporated a system of helping one another find solutions.

When observing dedicated and goal oriented teachers who work FOR the student, KIPP and Geoffrey Canada come to mind. The KIPP schools that have flourished across our country and grown to 82 locations are producing results (Waiting for Superman). The mentality of the teachers there seems to be more focused on the children than on what the adults want. Michelle Rhee said there is “a lack of accountability” on the part of the adults and we need to produce results for the kids(Waiting for Superman). This has been done by Geoffrey Canada, who opened the Harlem Children’s Zone which serves 17000 children today. This is an example of adults helping children to flourish, with dentists, counselors, and nutritionists to add to the teachers who already serve the children(Miller-Sadker, 290). These types of schools have attracted the kind of teachers our country needs.

As a result of years and years of dysfunction because of lack of accountability, tenure, social problems and funding our nation needs to change the way we evaluate and monitor teachers for proficiency. We should be asking ourselves what we want to see in every classroom across America. The answer is learning, dedication, and teamwork. A level of acceptable efficiency needs to put in order to obtain the best teachers for our students. This field of work varies between those who are good at teaching students and those who have lost their drive and ambition for teaching. How can we guarantee that students are receiving intellectual stimulation to help develop their minds as well as the right core curriculum to succeed? We can do this by retraining or replacing those who do not produce results.

Rough Draft paper #3

The places where I have left two parentheses ( ) are places where I need to insert a citation and have yet to do so.

Critiquing Education

There are endless varieties of teachers in this great nation, some who display passion and patience, others who simply "babysit" and retire each day with a paycheck. Students in Kindergarten through 12th grade rely on their teachers to provide them with the best education possible. This should not differ from state to state or district to district, all teachers should be giving these students a foundation for a future and the tools to develop the mind. It is not the job of one teacher, but of all working together. Evidence has presented itself that if we are not helping to guarantee this quality education, then what are we doing? Each teacher should be held to a certain level of expectations that will result in a better education for students, and a better group of teachers there to represent our American students. In America today we need to fix the problems in our educational system by changing the way we encourage and monitor our teachers’ proficiency.

There is evidence that proves the power of teaching. When diagnosing the movie "Freedom Writers" we are presented with a prime example. The teaching shown by Mrs. Gruwell shows the qualities that should be present in all schools, amongst all teachers. She is faced with a lack of encouragement and an obvious lack of student involvement. The location of the school and the culture of the community are challenging to say the least. Mrs. Gruwell found encouragement on her own, from her students.() She was stalled by other teachers’ criticism, skepticism, and pessimistic attitudes, those teachers were great examples of teachers that needed a reminder of why they were there. A quote that represents the kind of learning Mrs. Gruwell inspired goes like this, “We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers”

 ― Chris Hedges.()  Mrs. Gruwell came in as a first year teacher and inspired the minds of her students; she did not hold them to career expectations like we saw done by Mr. Escalante in Stand and Deliver. He put the goal in the students heads to learn in order to become successful(), which poses the question of how did these students do in other classes? Teachers should be reminded at certain regular intervals in their career that they are molding minds, not careers. Remind them that all minds are different and try to see the potential in each student instead of focusing only on the academics and getting through the lesson curriculum.

Something that caught my attention that is proof of the need for teacher standards and proficiency is the “Lemon Dance”, or as some call it the “turkey trot’, or “pass the trash”(). It is a system used by principles and school boards to recycle their teachers from school to school. When one teacher is not working out at school A, they are moved to school B at the beginning of the next school year. The teacher who was not working out at school B was moved to school C, and the teacher who is not working at school C will then be recycled over to school A. School A then feels like they have a better teacher than they started with simply because it is a different teacher. That does nothing to improve our teaching standards. That system allows teachers to bring their bad teaching habits over to another group of students who will then suffer the consequences. Those teachers should be evaluated instead of sent somewhere else. Quite possibly they have become tired of teaching, or maybe they truly need a refresher course! These teachers should be monitored by other teachers or principles to find out what they are lacking. Even Mrs. Gruwell may have come to a point of boredom, or repetitive routine that could have hurt her teaching methods and success, which is why teachers need to have that support from their staff to keep each other at the top of their game and motivated to be doing the teaching.

Merit pay will help to separate the good from the bad; ultimately cancelling out the option of teachers being the reason for our failing education system, and then focusing on the next problem can become a reality. Merit pay is the option for pay increase due to a teacher producing results with students. A teacher who shows they are working harder, or better at molding the student mind will then receive a raise in pay.() In Washington DC no one was allowed to vote on instituting merit pay because of the teachers union(). The teachers union is put in place to protect the teachers, but not the student? The teachers union of Washington DC has made it near impossible to fire a teacher who has not produced results with students(), but isn’t that their one and only goal? They say that all teachers should be treated the same “a teacher is a teacher is a teacher”(), most of this country would disagree due to different teaching methods that all have experienced. With merit pay we would clearly be able to see who is capable and proficient in their job and create higher standards for teaching.

Teachers who are supported and support one another have programs available to them to help build their teaching skills, handle a problem in class, and bridge the gap between home and school. In one of our own areas elementary schools where I held an interview with a 1^st grade teacher, Kelley Daniels, I was informed of some of these programs. Mrs. Daniels has an entire staff available to her for round table discussion, bouncing ideas off of one another and committees to develop new strategy for teaching core math and reading curriculum. This school has Para educators, in class advocates for students who struggle, and special needs assistants, all of which work together to produce great results(). Each teacher is aware of the other teacher’s struggles and they have incorporated a system of helping one another find solutions.

When observing dedicated and goal oriented teachers who work FOR the student, KIPP and Geoffrey Canada come to mind. The KIPP schools that have flourished across our country and grown to 82 locations are producing results(). The mentality of the teachers there seems to be more focused on the children than on what the adults want. Michelle Rhee said there is “a lack of accountability” on the part of the adults and we need to produce results for the kids(). This has been done by Geoffrey Canada, who opened the Harlem Children’s Zone which serves 17000 children today. This is an example of adults helping children to flourish, with dentists, counselors, and nutritionist to add to the teachers who already serve the children(). These types of schools have attracted the kind of teachers our country needs.

As a result of years and years of dysfunction because of lack of accountability, tenure, social problems and funding our nation needs to consider a plan for evaluating and monitoring teachers for proficiency. We should be asking ourselves what we want to see in every classroom across America. The answer is learning, dedication, and teamwork. A level of acceptable efficiency needs to put in order to obtain the best teachers for our students. This field of work varies between those who are good at teaching students and those who have lost their drive and ambition for teaching. How can we guarantee that students are receiving intellectual stimulation to help develop their minds as well as the right core curriculum to succeed? We can do this by retraining or replacing those who do not produce results.

Waiting for Superman

Stats that stood out for me:

• 13% of Daisy's classmates are proficient in reading and math
• She will then go on to an under achieving high school where 57% of her classmates will not graduate
• Only 3 out of 100 of the graduating 43% will head to college prepared for a four year university
• Between 5th and 7th grade the majority of minority students in the inner city will go form a B average to a D average.
• There are over 2000 failing elementary and middle  schools in this country according to Robert Ballfan
• In a very bad case scenario, 40,000 out of 60,000 students who attended this school over a 60 year period did not graduate.
• Sending prisoners to private school for 12 years would cost less than it costs to house them in prisons. 33,000 dollars per year is spent on each inmate, most of whom dropped out of school.
• Michelle Rhee is the 7th superintendent of Washington DC in 10 years.
• There are more than 14000 school boards across our country which only make funding and reform more difficult.
• In one school year a bad teacher may only cover 50% of the curriculum, while a good teacher will cover sometimes 150%.
• The NEA and AFT are the largest contributors to the presidential campaign. Federally supporting the democratic party.
• "Rubber rooms" cost around 100 million dollars per year to house teachers for a full work day, everyday until their court cases have been judged. This can take up to one year for one single case.
• In America, we score 25th in math and 21st in science on an international level. Even the best of the best in our country still place 23 out of 29 internationally.
• America scores 1st in confidence.
• In 16 years America has opened 82 KIPP schools.
• When graduating KIPP schools, 9 out of 10 gradutaes will be prepared for a 4 year university.
 

 The problems within our education system are vast. The first problem that I notice when thinking about the movie, Waiting for Superman is the dysfunction of having so many people governing it. Instead of having one set of standards, there are many due to the lack of federal organization. It is up to the states and districts to govern and provide proficient schooling. The students featured in this movie were a variety of young kids. Most were from poor neighborhoods and had families who struggled with school and finances. Daisy's parents had both dropped out of school to help provide for their families. They did not want to see the same for Daisy, instead they tried to "win the lottery" to a local charter school. This exact theme was repeated through the whole movie. Sadness on all the families faces when they were denied, and utter happiness when accepted. The people in the movie were depending on these education opportunities.

thesis and one paragraph

This is my rough draft of intro paragraph...followed by thesis. comments appreciated!

There are endless varieties of teachers in this great nation, some who display passion and patience, others who simply "babysit" and retire each day with a paycheck. Students in Kindergarten through 12th grade rely on their teachers to provide them with the best education possible. This should not differ from state to state or district to district, all teachers should be giving these students a foundation for a future. It is not the job of one teacher, but of all working together. Evidence has presented itself that if we are not helping to guarantee this quality education, then what are we doing? Each teacher should be held to a certain level of expectations that will result in a better education for students, and a better group of teachers there to represent our American students.

In America today we need to fix the problems in our educational system by changing the way we encourage and monitor our teachers proficiency.

Final Thoughts....Waiting for Superman

It seemed like most people featured in this movie were indeed just waiting for something better. These students are depending on it. Even those students who are very young knew what the outcome meant...success, or failure. This movie made me very sad, sad for the public, students, parents, teachers and those who do not have access to such wonderful programs as I did growing up. It is truly heartbreaking. Makes me wonder why aren't there more people like Geoffrey Canada? I will probably never forget this mans name. This movie reinforced my desire to become a teacher. There were many different possibilities introduced as far as what "the problem" is with our public schools. The blame was put upon the Teachers Union, the rules of the districts, states, and federal government, the teachers, and the location of the students. One main problem that I sided with that I will go on to write about in my 3rd paper is teacher proficiency. There are a certain kind of teachers that gathered at these innovative schools where the lottery's were held to determine the new students. These innovative teachers are there for different reasons than an average or below average teacher who is dependant on tenure. I am confused about how hard it can be for some citizens of this country. It is not localized only in New York or D.C, these problem schools or dropout factories are located all over the United States.

what is the most important change that k-12 education needs?

I have come up with more than one idea as to what I believe is the most important change needed in k-12. The first thing is the home/school connection. I believe that if there is a bigger and more evenly understood connection between home and school then our students will have more encouragement to continue their learning at home. Although many factors will get in the way. There is no way to guarantee that all home lives are similar, which is why I think that if there is more involvement from the school reaching out to understand each individual home life then children will feel more encouragement to succeed. There are at risk families who may need more help than others.

Another idea I have is to change the way we educate our teachers in an ongoing fashion. Allow teachers to have more trainings and mentoring available to them. I have seen examples of this at my sons school, where I recently did an interview with his teacher and was given some insight to what these teachers have available to them on a daily basis. I think that is part of the reason that his school is so valued by the community.I have witnessed student teachers, para educators, and in class advocates for those in need at his school. This seems to work to bridge the gap between home and school as well as provide teachers with a round table like place to bounce ideas off of one another.
There should be more teachers, or para educators, or "experienced" volunteers being the thresh hold between home and school.

"Against School"

This was a very interesting read, one that quoted many famous historical figures and provided a whole bunch of proof. After reading this I realize even more what the task at hand is with our 3rd paper. When Gatto starts to explain either a support or a contradictory part of his research he uses other works to back himself up. The idea of boredom at school and the remedy that children must carry that life within themselves seems very true to me. I grew up on a dirt road, away from my friends, and no kids around to play with. I was never bored. I feel like I was introduced to many many things by just being outside, writing poetry, playing make believe and learning through curiosity and self entertainment. John Gatto gave so many specifics to why school is viewed the way that it is. I agree with the initial goals introduced, 1.to make good people 2. to make good citizens and 3. to make each person his or her own personal best. But are these things we see as a constant guide to teaching? Not exactly. With the introduction of the easy entertainment and consumerism in this paper those core goals are overlooked a bit. We will not inspire good people, or citizenship or our best possible achievements with instant gratification. There is a large part of independent research and self enrichment that is lost within the world of computers, online shopping, google research, and television. Gattos comparison with Ben Franklin whom we read about previously proves the difference in today's learning standards and those standards that were undefined in Ben Franklin's time. I got a many good ideas from this paper to further research and use towards building my 3rd paper.