I’d like to ask readers to please pass my last post along. I think the longer school year may be our last, best hope for education in America. That idea needs to be circulated.

My last post contains an interactive school report card for the schools in Illinois. I want to share one more site: http://iirc.niu.edu/Classic/Default.aspx. This older site contains more information readers might want to review. I like the graphs.

In some high schools, half or more of all students are still leaving high school before graduation. According to the online Illinois report card (http://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?schoolId=150162990250616), only 44% of the students at Manley Career Academy High School graduated within four years. Manley is not alone. Only 54% graduated from Fenger Academy High School, 41% from Robeson High School and 45% from Chicago Virtual Charter School. Interested readers can go to https://illinoisreportcard.com/default.aspx and look at Chicago schools, a number of which are admittedly doing well.

Have we made progress? Without question, graduation rates have been rising in Chicago and throughout the country. If some alarms are being raised about the college-readiness of many of America’s graduates, we are nonetheless preventing students from walking out the door without their diploma.

Here’s the scary part, though. Schools are trying desperately to raise those bars, the bars that indicate annual state test scores and percentage of students graduating from high school. There are substantial Federal and State penalties for failing to raise the bars. Yet many of the bars are not budging or are climbing in small spurts. In fact, despite threats as big as the dissolution of a school district, some of those bars have fallen.

Why does this happen?

Eduhonesty: Obviously I can’t toss off the answer to the above question in one compact paragraph. I believe I have laid down one of the biggest questions in education today. Why can’t we push those bars higher?

I would like to add my inflammatory 2 cents here. I believe the bars remain resistant to our efforts in part because of our inability to face up to a large truth: These kids can’t catch up if they have the same school year as their academically-stronger counterparts. In fact, according to https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-education-and-poverty-america, “By the end of the 4th grade, African-American, Hispanic and low-income students are already 2 years behind grade level. By the time they reach the 12th grade they are 4 years behind.”

I haven’t backtracked to find the study that DoSomething.org used, but I readily believe their numbers. For one thing, academically-lower students normally enter school with fewer vocabulary words at their disposal, sometimes thousands fewer words. The research indicates the vocabulary gap widens with time.

If we want to help the kids at the bottom, I believe we need to rethink the standard 180-day school year. A child who has fallen two-thousand words behind the average student of his or her age needs to learn those missing words quickly. We’ll have to reform school funding to make my idea work, but I would add an extra month or more to that child’s school year, along with an afterschool childcare program that provides snacks and rest, but also extra tutoring during the afternoon.

In my opinion, our kids at the bottom will never catch up any other way. We can’t work that much smarter during our 180-day years, not enough to fill in the gaps, so we will have to work longer. No other option exists. Currently, while teachers are filling in language-learning gaps for vocabulary-poor students, their vocabulary-enriched counterparts are also reading and working on academics, often at a naturally faster rate due to the advantages provided by those expanded vocabularies. That fact alone explains why desperate efforts to help kids who have fallen two years behind may end with those kids eventually falling a full four years behind. Kids who have tumbled four years below grade level often leave school early. School makes many of them feel stupid.

We can fix that for many kids. To give those kids the academic successes they need, though, we will have to provide them with the instructional time they need — which might be 240 days instead of 180 days. We talk about differentiation of instruction all the time. We ought to try practicing what we preach on a macro level. The one-school-year-fits-all from America’s farming past should be replaced by a model that allows more time and instruction in our academic wastelands, those sad zip codes where extra days and afternoons might give kids a realistic chance to catch up.

(For new teachers and anyone else who is interested.)

Sometimes today with our preplanned lessons and scripted curricula, we find ourselves breathlessly short of time. May I suggest you free a few non-curricular minutes? Character really does count. Historically, teachers took time for more than math and English. You should too. Do what you have to do. Skip an opening activity if you must or make an exit ticket that does necessarily include academics.

The exact life lesson you present will often be determined by circumstances. When a stapler disappears, that’s the week for the anti-theft lesson. When Joy curses out Miranda, that’s a fine day to present the Captain America language lesson. What did Captain America mean when he said “language”? Why do you think he said that? Does the language you use with friends matter? Does the language you use in class matter? Why? You can find character-building activities on the internet when you do not have time to make your own.

If you are in middle-school or high-school, you might want to share some of what you have been learning in professional development. That Carol Dweck growth mindset idea deserves a full explanation, for example. You might combine your subject matter with a PowerPoint on predictors used to anticipate student drop-outs. That PowerPoint may hammer home why students should not slack off in school in a way that short classroom reminders cannot. Kids benefit from hearing about the big picture. They also enjoy an escape from academic minutiae.

Eduhonesty: Schools are now often preplanning any whole child education during tutoring or RtI periods. Those tutoring moments are fine as far as they go, but they seldom work as well as taking advantage of the “right” moment. Joy’s outburst may be the perfect first act in the play that will be your (bad) language lesson.

Carpe diem.

(A post for new teachers and other interested parties.)

Oregon school pumpkin carving party suspected in norovirus outbreak

From the article “Help for Homework Help: Teaching Parents Common Core Math,” by Michelle R. Smith, Associated Press, I offer the following food for thought:

Any adult who has tried to help a second-grader with homework has noticed math is not what it used to be. Now schools are unlocking the secrets of Common Core math for mystified parents.

They’re holding special classes or giving out materials designed for adults so they can help children with their math homework. After parents learn the strategies, educators say, they’re more willing to get on board with Common Core math amid criticism from some politicians, from fellow parents, on social media and from celebrities like Louis C.K., who complained Common Core math made his daughters cry.

…

Eduhonesty: So now we are tutoring the parents. Damn it all, this is getting so crazy. When you invent a system America’s parents cannot do without special, outside tutoring, how is this supposed to work? Did anyone coming up with latest version of the new math stop to think about the implications of introducing a system of mathematics that parents could not understand? Who did they think would help kids with homework?

I feel compelled to note that the Common Core math seems again to favor the fortunate. Stay-at-home moms can fit in tutoring easily. Couples with money to afford sitters can set aside tutoring time. Single-parents, with or without jobs, will be at a serious disadvantage. Parents who were successful at math while in school are likely to take a whack at learning this latest math. Parents who struggled with math will more likely opt out of tutoring, fearing embarrassment and perhaps having to confess to their kids that they don’t get the Common Core math either.

Honest, the old math worked. I used it to brute force my way through two-thirds of an analytic geometry textbook in one day — admittedly without understanding the fine points —  when a community college refused to give me an extension on a self-paced class I had been ignoring. (I got a B.) That math got Neil Armstrong to the moon.

Common sense has fled these lands, I fear.

(This post is for new teachers and all teachers everywhere.)

Requests and demands come at teachers like those proverbial ants at a picnic. Will you join the PBIS Committee? Will you help plan the November Parent Night? Can you work the Parent Night? Can you prepare an activity for Celebrate Reading!? What will you be doing for Parent Math Night? Will you design a display for Hispanic Heritage Month? Could we make some of those Day of the Dead skulls? Do you have time to supervise skull painting? How about ACT tutoring? English tutoring? Math tutoring? Detention supervisor? Spanish Club Sponsor? Dance Club Sponsor? Yearbook Sponsor? So many activities… so little time.

New teachers can easily get sucked in because they want to make a good impression.

“I’ll be happy to take over as volleyball coach while Nicole is out on maternity leave… Of course I’ll supervise detention since Fred is sick… Yes, I can help run the PTO snack table during the soccer game… I’d love to take pictures of the baby geese on the roof for the school newspaper!… Sure, I can try to get some squirrel pictures to go with the geese.”

Eduhonesty: If Day of the Dead skulls sound like fun, go for it. Just remember the frog in the pot. If you throw a frog into a pot of hot water, the frog will try to jump out. If you raise the water temperature gradually, though, that frog will allow itself to be slowly cooked. Don’t cook yourself.

You have the right to say NO. Organizing school events and participating in extracurricular activities has always been fun for me, but at a certain point these activities can begin to impinge on grading and planning time, shifting grading and planning into later evening hours, and next cutting into family and personal time.

I recommend new teachers take on some of these outside roles when offered. Subbing for the volleyball coach makes a good impression. Administration likes to see teachers who stay late to make the hallways brighter and more attractive. But you have the right to say no. Don’t act ashamed or regretful. The best approach is a quick, “Oh, I’d love to, but I can’t!” You don’t have to explain further.

(A post for new teachers and others.)

I wrote about transitions a few days ago. For that matter, a reader who digs back into the archives will find other posts that include transitions. The flow of a classroom is linked by transitions and I regard them as critical to keeping a classroom in easy, fluid motion. Each activity ought to flow seamlessly into the next activity. (If that’s actually working for you all the time, feel free to quit reading this post. You should start your own blog!)

Here are some other tips to help your classroom keep moving forward, rather than sideways or even backward:

♦ Try to select the best sequence for your chosen activities for the day. You might go by content. Social studies teachers naturally work in chronological order on a regular basis. Science teachers sometimes do, or may end up following a process from the beginning to the end. If you teach math, you may be bouncing between new and old ideas. Going simpler to harder often works. If your day’s content varies widely, picking your sequence may prove complicated. I suggest trying to put yourself in your students’ shoes. Putting fun activities in between longer, more serious blocks helps keep students engaged.

♦ Ignore minor behaviors (and even misbehaviors) that do not affect your lesson. You might perfect a look or a desk tap to remind students to get back on task, but sometimes teachers just have to let a little nose-picking go. Deliberate misbehaviors are more complicated, but second chances can work out well. If George is shooting rubber bands, consider demanding his rubber bands and moving on, at least if he hasn’t shot anyone yet. Less excitement here will lead to more learning.

♦ Check with students for understanding. Sometimes we overteach and sometimes we underteach. No perfect solution exists to help teachers know exactly when to move forward and when to slow down, but the best technique I know has to be checking with students.

I recommend asking for degrees of understanding. If you simply ask a class if they understand, you can get fooled by the smiling nods and yesses. I’d try a fist of five instead. Here are the details for readers who are not teachers:

A closed fist means “I don’t get it.”
One finger means, “I am still pretty lost.”
Two fingers mean, “I am beginning to get the idea.”
Three fingers mean, “I kind of understand.”
Four fingers mean, “I pretty much have this figured out.”
Five fingers mean, “I completely understand this lesson.”

You can’t wait for all fives, though. That’s lesson overkill. If most all the class has raised three or more fingers, you may be ready to move on to your reinforcement activity where you can provide individual help.

Eduhonesty: This post captures a sliver of the art of teaching. Pacing and flow are learned with practice. We learn as we go. Each class reacts differently to instruction and learns at a different rate. That fist of five helps. But in the end, teachers learn what works for them.

As you feel yourself drowning due to ever-increasing time demands, step back. Pause to ask yourself, “Is there an easier way?” Other questions naturally follow.

Can I find something on Teachers Pay Teachers? What other site might have a lesson or some materials I can use? Can I ask a friend for help? How about the teacher next door? Who else can help me? What would another good Google search reveal? What are some different groups of search terms I could try? Can I ask the Principal for professional development in this area?

Step back. Sometimes teachers work so hard that they don’t work smart. Teachers as a group work nights and week-ends regularly. We’re really good at that. But we can get so buried trying to plan for the future and catch up on the past that we don’t take advantage of resources and people who can help us.

Eduhonesty: On those long nights, at some point stop to ask yourself a few questions. In particular, ask yourself, “Do I need to do this? Is this the best and easiest way to finish my task? How could I work smarter?”

From http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/10/30/students-walk-out-for-fired-deputy.html:

“Hundreds of students walked out of Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday morning in support of the deputy sheriff who was fired after violently arresting a black student. Students reportedly chanted “Free Fields” in support of Ben Fields, a school resource officer and football coach who was caught on tape forcibly removing a black student from her desk, allegedly because she was disrupting class. The students walked into the school atrium and then returned to class after administrators addressed them.”

Eduhonesty: Our students know who is on their side. They know when someone is trying to help them. They also know when someone is hurting them. That girl who refused to give up her cell phone hurt every student in that class — and I’m sure almost all or all of them realize this fact.

I find the words “allegedly because she was disrupting class” to be offensive. No “allegedly” exists here. When you repeatedly ignore a teacher’s instructions, then an administrator’s, and then a cop’s, you have successfully disrupted the class. She knew she had done this. She was probably enjoying herself, too.

I hope she’s not still enjoying herself, but I wouldn’t be too sure that she’s not. She caused the chaos she intended. She got the attention she wanted.

Eduhonesty: A thought based on some feedback I received to my Raven-Symone post: The actual process of managing that cell phone may have taken closer to a full half-hour rather than eight minutes. First the teacher tried to manage the phone, making multiple requests asking the girl to put the phone away. Then an administrator was called in and tackled the issue without success. Then the school decided the cops were needed. That exchange added more time, spawning the viral videos across the internet. If a full half-hour was taken up by this issue, assuming 25 classmates, that totals 12.5 hours of lost learning time — more like the equivalent of two full school days total. The average class period runs a little less than an hour, so that phone problem maybe took up 1/10 of the total time available for that class for the whole week.

(Another tip for newbies and other interested readers.)

Some students don’t even bother with the “I don’t know.” Some just shrug. Others look sideways at friends, hoping someone else will provide an answer. Here’s the thing: You can’t let your students off the hook.

If Jon or Jasmine can’t answer, you might first try to provide clues. You could give Jon the first part of the answer or a big, fat hint. You might ask if another student can help Jon. If Jon remains lost, you can ask another student, shifting attention elsewhere to get the answer you need. But Jon or Jasmine can’t be left to sit in blissful ignorance.

It is NOT OK not to try. So if Jon shrugs, ask D’Andre. When D’Andre responds, have Jon tell the class what D’Andre said. However you finally manage to get that answer out into the room, make sure that Jon or Jasmine repeats the answer for the class. You might then add a question that forces Jon or Jasmine to clarify the answer. Reinforcement will help the whole class to remember.

Eduhonesty: Teachers can be too sensitive. We are taught not to embarrass students, so sometimes we move on when a student appears lost, letting that student retreat while other students step up to answer our questions. The problem arises when students take advantage of our kindness and opt out of the learning process. Too many shrugs and a kid can get so far behind academically that catching up becomes next to impossible.

Keep everyone in the spotlight regularly* so that all students believe that you expect them to be ready for class.

*A truly unusual situation, such as a severe anxiety disorder, may call for you to give a student a pass on that spotlight.