Via Seattle Times
The Bellevue School district selected J. Tim Mills, the head of North Clackamas (Ore.) School District, as its new schools chief.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Bellevue picks schools chief
Bellevue picks schools chief:
Via Seattle Times
The Bellevue School district selected J. Tim Mills, the head of North Clackamas (Ore.) School District, as its new schools chief.
Via Seattle Times
The Bellevue School district selected J. Tim Mills, the head of North Clackamas (Ore.) School District, as its new schools chief.
The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity: A Tool for Understanding Principals' Cultural Competence
The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity: A Tool for Understanding Principals' Cultural Competence:
Via Education and Urban Society
Principals’ understanding and skills pertaining to diversity are important in leading diverse schools and preparing all students for a democratic and multicultural society. Although educational leadership scholars have theorized about exemplary leadership of and for diversity, a developmental perspective on principals’ diversity or cultural competence remains absent. This conceptual paper argues that the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) offers a powerful theory for understanding how principals may experience and interpret issues of difference and diversity in schools. After highlighting key aspects of the DMIS, hypothetical examples of principal interpretations and actions to a racial/ethnic achievement gap are provided. Finally, implications for principal preparation, practice, and research are discussed.
Via Education and Urban Society
Principals’ understanding and skills pertaining to diversity are important in leading diverse schools and preparing all students for a democratic and multicultural society. Although educational leadership scholars have theorized about exemplary leadership of and for diversity, a developmental perspective on principals’ diversity or cultural competence remains absent. This conceptual paper argues that the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS) offers a powerful theory for understanding how principals may experience and interpret issues of difference and diversity in schools. After highlighting key aspects of the DMIS, hypothetical examples of principal interpretations and actions to a racial/ethnic achievement gap are provided. Finally, implications for principal preparation, practice, and research are discussed.
Beyond Story Grammar: Looking at Stories Through Cultural Lenses
Beyond Story Grammar: Looking at Stories Through Cultural Lenses:
Via Education and Urban Society
Literacy is a socially constructed ideology (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Street, 1995). Current representations reduce literacy to standards, skill testing, and the five components of reading (NICHD, 2000). This view of literacy discounts the knowledge and skills of many students. This article examines the oral story of Aisha, an African American first grader, through traditional and nontraditional measures. The findings highlight two contrasting perspectives of Aisha’s story: One that views the story as weak and below grade level and another that highlights her rich literacy abilities. This study argues that it is important to consider the social and historical features that may influence children’s stories. A definition of literacy that recognizes and values the continuum of literacy experiences is advocated in this article.
Via Education and Urban Society
Literacy is a socially constructed ideology (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Street, 1995). Current representations reduce literacy to standards, skill testing, and the five components of reading (NICHD, 2000). This view of literacy discounts the knowledge and skills of many students. This article examines the oral story of Aisha, an African American first grader, through traditional and nontraditional measures. The findings highlight two contrasting perspectives of Aisha’s story: One that views the story as weak and below grade level and another that highlights her rich literacy abilities. This study argues that it is important to consider the social and historical features that may influence children’s stories. A definition of literacy that recognizes and values the continuum of literacy experiences is advocated in this article.
Gubernatorial candidates Inslee, McKenna differ on education plans
Gubernatorial candidates Inslee, McKenna differ on education plans:
Via Seattle Times
Hot-button topics such as charter schools and tying teacher pay to student performance are emerging as differences between Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee, candidates for governor.
Via Seattle Times
Hot-button topics such as charter schools and tying teacher pay to student performance are emerging as differences between Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee, candidates for governor.
"Youth Voice" Isn't Enough to Stop Youth Disengagement
"Youth Voice" Isn't Enough to Stop Youth Disengagement
Youth voice is not enough. Adults working to build communities with young people have learned that it is important to engage youth as self-advocates and peer teachers, community culture monitors, and youth organization cheerleaders. As youth organizations become more savvy, more youth are being effectively taught to challenge themselves, working with their peers to create safe and supportive environments for all people.
However, after more than 15 years of national interest in youth voice, many communities are still struggling to effectively address the problem of youth disengagement. We have to consider the reality of youth disengagement as a form of youth voice and the role of youth/adult partnerships in challenging youth disengagement. But we also have to acknowledge that youth voice is not enough.
Most people, young and old, value action. From our hunter/gatherer roots to present, there is often nothing more important to us than getting things done. Somewhere along the way, though, society decided that the loudest or most eloquent person in the group should be given a place to talk separate from everyone else. From Socrates to Abraham Lincoln, we have created pedestals and mantles on which we place these individuals, and we call that place "leadership." Many youth organizations perpetuate that idea.
The challenge with many organizations' conceptions of youth voice is that it is automatically associated with this traditional youth leadership model: Young leaders are nurtured to become adult leaders, and in many ways we carry forward the notion that youth leadership is only for certain youth.
However, after more than 15 years of national interest in youth voice, many communities are still struggling to effectively address the problem of youth disengagement. We have to consider the reality of youth disengagement as a form of youth voice and the role of youth/adult partnerships in challenging youth disengagement. But we also have to acknowledge that youth voice is not enough.
Most people, young and old, value action. From our hunter/gatherer roots to present, there is often nothing more important to us than getting things done. Somewhere along the way, though, society decided that the loudest or most eloquent person in the group should be given a place to talk separate from everyone else. From Socrates to Abraham Lincoln, we have created pedestals and mantles on which we place these individuals, and we call that place "leadership." Many youth organizations perpetuate that idea.
The challenge with many organizations' conceptions of youth voice is that it is automatically associated with this traditional youth leadership model: Young leaders are nurtured to become adult leaders, and in many ways we carry forward the notion that youth leadership is only for certain youth.
Occasionally, well-meaning adults will try to engage nontraditional youth leaders in traditional youth leadership activities. When those experiences do not work out, adults feel justified shrugging their shoulders and simply give up on nontraditional youth leaders. However, when this reality is coupled with our hunter/gatherer roots, we can see why youth voice is not enough: Adults working with nontraditional youth leaders in "failed" youth leadership opportunities are generally taught to sit passively and wait for their turn to speak up. Despite that, the nontraditional youth leaders take action, whether it works for adults or not. This is when youth voice becomes inconvenient.
Effective social change requires direct action. It is important that everyone working for social change sees youth as a piece of that action but not the whole pie. My experience working with communities across the country and research on youth voice has shown me that there is a five-part process for meaningfully involving all partners. Following is an explanation of how my cycle of engagement can be used to engage nontraditional youth leaders.
Effective social change requires direct action. It is important that everyone working for social change sees youth as a piece of that action but not the whole pie. My experience working with communities across the country and research on youth voice has shown me that there is a five-part process for meaningfully involving all partners. Following is an explanation of how my cycle of engagement can be used to engage nontraditional youth leaders.
Part 1: Listen to all youth. Families, counselors, and other adults have a direct stake in the well-being of our communities. However, the most important partner is often the least engaged: connecting all youth as partners and hearing their voices, at par with other partners including traditional youth leaders, is essential. Adults must hear youth experiences with injustice; their ideas about social change; their wisdom about creating safe and supportive communities; and their beliefs about learning, teaching, and leadership in general. These experiences and ideas and their wisdom are essential to effectively engaging not only youth, but also all other partners. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire wrote that educators must learn to "speak by listening;" social change opens the door for adults to demonstrate to nontraditional and traditional youth leaders that they are our partners.
Part 2: Validate perspectives. The historical structures of communities require adults to give permission to youth. In the old "youth empowerment" concept this meant always saying yes. Today things are different. We know that validation does not always mean saying "yes." Instead, it is important to sometimes say "no" or "maybe," and always to ask more questions. Inquiry is acknowledgment, and it builds relationships and allows adults to connect with young people across the board.
Part 3: Authorize change. Sometimes the straightest path to creating change is the one that looks wiggly. To authorize youth is to give them permission to tell their own stories through positions and education. They need the education and the positions that will allow them to effectively change the world.
Part 4: Take action. Young people are not the only partners who require action. With demanding modern schedules adults want to hear more than just words too—they want to do something. However, one of the points of this cycle is that action does not happen in a vacuum; instead, it has to have context. The other parts of this cycle provide that framing. Don't take action without the other parts.
Part 5: Reflect on learning. Reflection allows all partners, including young people, to look back on what they have done, make meaning from it, and apply what they have learned to the next rotation of the cycle. An easy framework for reflection is
- What?
- So what?
- Now what: What happened?
- So what was the point of that?
- Now what do we do with what we have learned?
Social change requires more than youth voice: it needs action. The Cycle of Engagement is one tool in the Freechild Project Youth Voice Toolkit that can engage young people and adults as partners in creating a whole new world. Let's use it together.
Written by Adam Fletcher for CommonAction Consulting. It was originally posted at YoungerWorld.org. Contact us for more information by emailing info@commonaction.org or calling +1 (360)489-9680.
Collective Impact to End Hunger
Collective Impact to End Hunger:
Via United Way of King County
Today I watched a documentary on Hunger in America at the Seattle International Film Festival called Finding North. The film did an excellent job of highlighting what hunger relief advocates and hungry families know – hunger in America is real, it’s growing, and the impact is costing us billions of dollars each year. Perhaps more importantly, the film highlights the role public policy plays in creating the environment that has led to hunger, sustains hunger, and has the ability to end hunger in the United States.
Consider the following:
49 million Americans are at risk of hunger
1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger
9 million seniors are at risk of hunger
31 million children rely on free or reduced price school lunch
1 in 3 children are overweight or obese
These numbers are startling, unnecessary, and unacceptable.
As I sat in the audience full of caring Seattleites listening to these statistics, I couldn’t help but feel more outraged than ever. And I think that is good. I’ve heard all of these stats before – in fact I repeat them on a daily basis. But it is films like this that can re-energize the base – in this case anti-hunger advocates like myself. It is films like this that give me hope that if enough people – voters, elected officials, ant-hunger advocates, everyone -watch, we can create a groundswell to end hunger in America.
A few things are clear:
The folks at the Great Twin Cities United Way are working on a local level to use the collect impact framework to address hunger. I’m sure there are others and I’d love to hear from you. I think it is time that we start looking at this on a national level.
Elements of Collective Impact:
Common Agenda: We need a common agenda to end hunger in the US. The folks at Share Our Strength have done a good job of this in their “No Kid Hungry” Campaign and the AARP has launched a similar effort focused on seniors. But collectively we must do more! We need a common agenda to fight hunger for all populations – regardless of age, geography, immigration status or family size. We also need to engage those fighting obesity and promoting access to healthy foods in the development of the common agenda.
Shared Measurement Systems: This is one of the more challenging aspects of ending hunger – we don’t really know who is hungry. The best information we have is through the USDA Food Security Survey and the Feeding America Map the Meal Gap reports. We need to have a common way of measuring hunger along with common measurements for interventions - the amount of food distributed through the emergency food system and participation in federal nutrition programs.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities: We are fortunate to have strong local and national organizations addressing hunger. If we had a common agenda and shared measurement systems we could better align existing resources to address gaps in the hunger relief system, reduce duplication, and increase impact.
Continuous Communication: Ongoing, consistent and timely communication is a critical component of collective impact. It will help us better communicate with one and other, engage others, and build public and political will to end hunger.
Backbone Support Organizations: Karmer and Kania say that “creating and managing collective impact requires a separate organization and staff with a very specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative”. As I mentioned earlier, there are strong umbrella organizations that are addressing child hunger and senior hunger and there are groups that are the backbone of the emergency food system and the faith based hunger relief system. But who is bringing them all together? Perhaps the Alliance to End Hunger , FRAC, or a similar entity?. On a local level the Regional Food Policy Councils may play this role.
Utilizing the Collective Impact Model isn’t easy but neither is living in a household facing hunger. So…..who’s in?
Via United Way of King County
Today I watched a documentary on Hunger in America at the Seattle International Film Festival called Finding North. The film did an excellent job of highlighting what hunger relief advocates and hungry families know – hunger in America is real, it’s growing, and the impact is costing us billions of dollars each year. Perhaps more importantly, the film highlights the role public policy plays in creating the environment that has led to hunger, sustains hunger, and has the ability to end hunger in the United States.
Consider the following:
49 million Americans are at risk of hunger
1 in 5 children are at risk of hunger
9 million seniors are at risk of hunger
31 million children rely on free or reduced price school lunch
1 in 3 children are overweight or obese
These numbers are startling, unnecessary, and unacceptable.
As I sat in the audience full of caring Seattleites listening to these statistics, I couldn’t help but feel more outraged than ever. And I think that is good. I’ve heard all of these stats before – in fact I repeat them on a daily basis. But it is films like this that can re-energize the base – in this case anti-hunger advocates like myself. It is films like this that give me hope that if enough people – voters, elected officials, ant-hunger advocates, everyone -watch, we can create a groundswell to end hunger in America.
A few things are clear:
- There is a sufficient amount of food available to feed people in the US and changes in farm subsidies via the Farm Bill could increase the availability of affordable healthy foods.
- The existing nutrition safety net programs (SNAP, School Nutrition Programs, WIC, etc.) while not perfect, feed millions of people each day. Strengthening these programs could go a long way.
- Access is key.
- The charitable sector alone can not end hunger. Organizations like Feeding America, Bread for the World, The Food Research & Action Center, and Share Our Strength play a critical role in addressing hunger. But…..it takes strong government programs to end hunger.
- Hunger and Poverty go hand in hand. While there is a lot more we can do to help the people who become hungry, as a nation we must address poverty if we want to truly end hunger. That means acknowledging the true prevalence of poverty and developing more robust systems to address it.
The folks at the Great Twin Cities United Way are working on a local level to use the collect impact framework to address hunger. I’m sure there are others and I’d love to hear from you. I think it is time that we start looking at this on a national level.
Elements of Collective Impact:
Common Agenda: We need a common agenda to end hunger in the US. The folks at Share Our Strength have done a good job of this in their “No Kid Hungry” Campaign and the AARP has launched a similar effort focused on seniors. But collectively we must do more! We need a common agenda to fight hunger for all populations – regardless of age, geography, immigration status or family size. We also need to engage those fighting obesity and promoting access to healthy foods in the development of the common agenda.
Shared Measurement Systems: This is one of the more challenging aspects of ending hunger – we don’t really know who is hungry. The best information we have is through the USDA Food Security Survey and the Feeding America Map the Meal Gap reports. We need to have a common way of measuring hunger along with common measurements for interventions - the amount of food distributed through the emergency food system and participation in federal nutrition programs.
Mutually Reinforcing Activities: We are fortunate to have strong local and national organizations addressing hunger. If we had a common agenda and shared measurement systems we could better align existing resources to address gaps in the hunger relief system, reduce duplication, and increase impact.
Continuous Communication: Ongoing, consistent and timely communication is a critical component of collective impact. It will help us better communicate with one and other, engage others, and build public and political will to end hunger.
Backbone Support Organizations: Karmer and Kania say that “creating and managing collective impact requires a separate organization and staff with a very specific set of skills to serve as the backbone for the entire initiative”. As I mentioned earlier, there are strong umbrella organizations that are addressing child hunger and senior hunger and there are groups that are the backbone of the emergency food system and the faith based hunger relief system. But who is bringing them all together? Perhaps the Alliance to End Hunger , FRAC, or a similar entity?. On a local level the Regional Food Policy Councils may play this role.
Utilizing the Collective Impact Model isn’t easy but neither is living in a household facing hunger. So…..who’s in?
A peek at future careers for kids at Science Trek open house
Via Seattle Times. Follow link for full story.
A peek at future careers for kids at Science Trek open house: The South Lake Union Science Trek features an open-house tour for elementary, middle and high school students and adults of eight biotech and research organizations (including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, PATH, Institute for Systems Biology and more), hands-on laboratory activities and panel discussions on Friday, June 8, 2012.
A peek at future careers for kids at Science Trek open house: The South Lake Union Science Trek features an open-house tour for elementary, middle and high school students and adults of eight biotech and research organizations (including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, PATH, Institute for Systems Biology and more), hands-on laboratory activities and panel discussions on Friday, June 8, 2012.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Do 'zero tolerance' school discipline policies go too far?
Do 'zero tolerance' school discipline policies go too far?
Via Time.com
The teenage girls knew they were being loud when they belted out Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and the gospel favorite “We Lift Our Hands” during lunch at New Orleans’ Sojourner Truth Academy charter school. But they never expected school officials would slap them with out-of-school suspensions just for singing in the cafeteria.
“They said we needed to be ‘toned down,’” said Breion Burns, 18, one of eight issued a one-day suspension for the boisterous singing in November 2011. The official reason listed on the suspension slips was “willful disobedience.” Two other students received two-day suspensions for allegedly cursing amidst
the singing.
Several of the suspended girls were honors students who worried the blot on their record would jeopardize college admissions. They could not understand why administrators had opted for suspension over a milder punishment, like detention.
In schools across the country, out-of-school suspensions have become the default punishment for not only drugs and fights but also for threats, displays of affection, dress code violations, truancy, tardiness, refusal to follow directions, even four-year-olds’ temper tantrums.
Suspension rates have more than doubled over the last three decades across all grade levels. At the same time, racial gaps have widened: Black students are three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled as their white peers, according to Department of Education data released earlier this spring. The Office for Civil Rights gathered the data from 72,000 schools in 7,000 districts, which educate approximately 85 percent of the country’s students.
That survey found one in five African-American boys received an out-of-school suspension during the 2009-10 academic year, compared to about one in 14 white boys.
National studies have also revealed persistent, although more modest, gaps between white and Hispanic students.
Suspension terms usually vary from one to 10 days, depending on the gravity of the offense and the district’s policies.
Experts say too few people link the rising, and disparate, discipline rates to lost learning time — a crucial connection given the stubbornness of the achievement gap between black and white students. Some schools even prohibit suspended students from making up missed work.
A 2011 study of school discipline in Texas found students suspended or expelled for “discretionary offenses” — those for which state law does not automatically call for an automatic suspension or expulsion — were twice as likely to repeat a grade as those who had not received the punishment. The study compared students from similar demographic groups and schools in an attempt to isolate the effect of school discipline as much as possible, although it could not prove time away from school directly caused the children to be held back.
Suspension “makes no sense because students are losing class time,” said Daniel Losen, senior education law and policy associate for The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “They are often not being supervised. They are not learning anything. No one is teaching them about misbehavior. No one is making sure they are prepared to return to school.”
Many teachers wouldn’t disagree. They caution, however, that when a few disruptive students consistently prevent classmates from learning, the needs of the majority should take precedence.
“We know suspension usually doesn’t work for the suspended student,” said Nick McDaniels, an English teacher at Mergenthaler-Vocational Technical High School in Baltimore, a city that has cut the number of annual suspensions by thousands over the last five years. “But there is a certain point when suspension benefits everyone else.”
Gwendolyn Lawson lost track long ago of exactly how many times the New Orleans schools suspended her niece, Janeisha, a ninth-grader.
“Sometimes it feels like every two weeks she’s being put out,” Lawson said in an interview last February. Janeisha lives with her aunt.
The state-run Recovery School District, which has operated most of the schools Janeisha attended in recent years, posted an out-of-school suspension rate of 11 percent for the 2010-11 school year. That was far lower than several area charter schools. Sojourner Truth, which will close down at the end of this school year because of poor test scores, reported a suspension rate of more than 40 percent last year. That means the school suspended more than 40 percent of the students at least once.
Lawson understands why administrators would need to suspend her niece for fighting, particularly if Janeisha causes the altercation. But she does not understand why the slender teen gets sent home for talking back to a teacher or walking out of class. Often, she says, academic frustration causes such “willful disobedience” or “disrespect to authority,” as the schools describe it.
“I’d be much happier if they had her clean the cafeteria, even paint the building,” Lawson says.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Janeisha has bounced among four different schools in New Orleans. Each school suspended her multiple times. It did not matter if the schools were charters. It made no difference whether her teachers were novices or experienced professionals. Eventually, Janeisha began ripping up the suspension forms in her anger over being sent home — yet again.
Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard, who assumed the post in January, said the district’s “priority is to make sure we have kids in school.” But since so many of the district’s schools are charters, many set their own policies as to what is a suspendable offense.
Dobard announced last month that charter school expulsion cases will now be reviewed by the central office. However, he anticipates no such centralization when it comes to suspensions, partly to protect charter schools’ autonomy when it comes to student discipline. But he plans to convene a series of working groups this summer aimed at lowering suspension rates. “I still hold the belief that we need to suspend kids less,” he said.
Janeisha helps her aunt clean and garden while on suspension. But she never does schoolwork because her teachers do not assign her any. “They just say if I’m suspended, it’s on me to catch up,” Janeisha says. The lost class time means she falls further behind, her frustration builds, and she grows increasingly likely to act out more, she and her aunt say.
Indeed, the online version of the district’s code of conduct from 2010-11 stated that suspended students would be counted as absent, given failing grades for the suspended days, and not allowed to make up work.
Dobard said he was not aware that had ever been the district’s policy. The current policy is to let individual principals make the call as to whether students receive work while on suspension, he said.
Nationally, school and district policies vary tremendously when it comes to what students do — or don’t do — while on suspensions. Some districts, including New York City, keep students in school settings during their suspensions, including designated suspension rooms or alternative schools. Other districts assign them work to be done at home and still others do nothing and even make it very difficult for students to make up work.
Interviews with more than a dozen school administrators, experts, and child advocates suggest the reasons for the increased reliance on suspensions, and the accompanying racial gaps, are varied and complex.
They say zero tolerance policies — and an associated “zero tolerance mindset” — have spread over the last quarter century. Throughout American society, there have been numerous efforts to get tough on crime.
Teachers often face enormous difficulties getting unruly students to stay after school for detention, or even to get parents to come in for a conference. Films such as Lean on Me have popularized a no-nonsense approach to school discipline. School segregation has increased and many urban schools have high concentrations of students living in extreme poverty. No Child Left Behind put such an emphasis on math and reading test scores that schools may have less time to focus on meeting children’s social and emotional needs. And a few high-profile instances of school violence, like the Columbine shootings, have generated widespread fear of youth violence among school administrators and the public. Meanwhile, teachers and administrators may unf airly stereotype minority school children’s actions based on implicit racism.
“How unconscious bias manifests itself in an educational system is through expulsion and suspension,” said Andre Perry, associate director for educational initiatives at Loyola University’s Institute for Quality and Equity in Education in New Orleans.
Several experts also mention the application of the “broken windows theory” of policing to school discipline. That theory, first introduced in 1982 by political scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, posits that cracking down on seemingly minor and superficial problems, like broken windows or panhandlers, helps prevent more serious crimes.
The school-based version of the theory holds that taking a tough stance against small infractions, like tardiness and uniform violations, decreases the number of larger infractions, including fights and weapon possession. The challenge, of course, is that “fixing” a child is not so easy as repairing a broken window; and often days, or weeks, spent exiled from school in a home or neighborhood environment make students less likely to comply with school rules.
“I have no problem with requiring students to take off their hats in school. But sending them home when they won’t take off their hats? I have a problem with that,” says Jane Sundius, the Education and Youth Development Program director at the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, which advocates on such issues as school discipline and youth incarceration.
Sundius is particularly troubled by reports of schools suspending pre-K students in some communities, including in Maryland, where she lives and works. “A four-year-old accused of ‘assaulting a teacher’ is not assaulting a teacher,” she said. “They are having a temper tantrum.”
When Andres Alonso took over as chief executive officer of the Baltimore City Public School system five years ago, he made cutting the system’s high suspension rates one of his first priorities.
Alonso’s desire was based partly on his own experience as a classroom teacher. “If I sent a child out of my classroom, I was sacrificing authority and communicating the classroom was not the place for the child,” he said.
The district made several changes, including revising the code of conduct to eliminate suspension as an option for many first-time “soft offenses,” like talking back to a teacher. Alonso required principals to obtain his permission, or that of a designee, if they wanted to suspend a child for more than five days in a single stretch. He put an alternative school for students on long-term suspensions or expulsions, called Success Academy, inside the district’s central office. The last move was designed partly to send the message that troubled students were at the center of the district’s mission — not disposable.
The district also significantly increased its use of so-called student support teams, which convene at the school level to develop behavior plans tailored to individual children, and added to mental health services in some schools.
But Alonso left it up to individual principals to decide on specific approaches to cutting suspension rates inside their buildings.
For some schools, that has proven easier than for others.
At City Springs Elementary/Middle School, Alonso’s push coincided with Principal Rhonda Richetta’s decision to introduce a “restorative justice” approach to school discipline. Instead of automatically suspending students when there is a problem, staff and students sit together in circles to talk through many thorny and contentious issues. Often, the end result is a punishment tailored to the specific crime.
When one eighth-grader was caught selling BB gun pellets, for instance, Richetta required him to come to school early and sell fruit snacks to younger students. Richetta wanted him to learn that he could earn money through legal means (although in this case he was required to turn over all proceeds to the school).
Initially, Richetta received significant push back from teachers. Eight left during the first year “restorative justice” was implemented partly because they disliked the shift away from suspension.
“It was really hard for adults to change their behavior, particularly when they were used to the least little infraction resulting in suspension,” Richetta said. “In the past, if a child said something disrespectful, that was a suspension. If a child got up and walked out of class, that was a suspension … The problem is: It’s really hard to educate kids when they are not here.”
During the 2007-08 school year, City Springs issued about 50 suspensions, compared to 21 as of April 6th this school year, even as enrollment grew significantly. But Richetta considers the cultural shift inside the building — which she measures through the increased number of students smiling on their way to class in the morning — just as important.
“I think people are giving up on our kids because of their behavior,” she said. “They are not seeing that that behavior is really reaching out for help.”
Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis High School has also seen a sharp drop in suspensions, from well over 100 annually before 2010 to fewer than 20 so far this school year.
The school felt unsafe to students Markira Thomas and Jaquel Mullen when they started as freshmen in the fall of 2008. Earlier that year, a student had sucker-punched and pounded an art teacher in her classroom.
(The school’s principal later alleged the teacher had actually provoked the fight.) Students smoked pot openly, ran through the halls, and gambled with dice and cards in class. On her first day of school, Thomas begged her mother not to leave here there alone.
When Barney Wilson, one of the district’s top principals, took the helm two years ago, he announced the whole school would embrace what he called “Lewis Love.”
It sounded corny to many of the teachers at first. But over time they discovered the slew of small changes that constituted “Lewis Love” — holding assemblies to recognize students for positive contributions, creating peer mediation programs, bringing parents in for conferences — transformed the school into a much happier place.
Essentially, it boiled down to better communication among students, parents and teachers, said Danielle Rembert, the assistant principal.
“Some people are like, ‘This is touchy-feely,’ she said. “But this is foundational. If we don’t lay that foundation, none of the other stuff we try will work.”
At other campuses, including Baltimore’s Mergenthaler-Vocational Technical High School, the war against suspension has not gone so well.
During the 2009-10 school year, Mergenthaler issued 342 suspensions and expulsions, one of the highest numbers in the district. Teachers say the vast majority of their students are not disruptive. But suspensions for the minority who do act out on a regular basis help keep order in the building, a fortress-like structure serving well over 1,000 teenagers.
“With more suspensions, the administration had more time for classroom support,” said McDaniels, the Mergenthaler English teacher. “They weren’t just chasing kids around the hallways.”
Since then, the edict has come down that suspensions must be decreased. “It’s kind of become like NBA rules: no blood, no foul,” says Tony Polvino, another teacher.
Teachers say the administrators try hard to be supportive, but they must inure themselves to all manner of verbal threats. Students usually cannot be suspended for declaring, “I’m going to kick your ass,” or calling classmates “bitches and hoes.”
“Hearing ‘F— you’ is not something that fazes me,” says McDaniels. “I can’t let it faze me. There’s nothing I can do.”
“I just say, ‘Have a blessed day,’” adds teacher Tom Proveaux, a 34-year veteran.
Ben Andersen, a second-year teacher, said when he interviewed for the job, administrators asked him,
“How well do you let things roll off your back? How do you respond to being mistreated? What do you do if someone cusses you out?”
“If you say all that stuff won’t bother you, then they say, ‘Well, you’re going to do well here.’”
The Mergenthaler teachers say they do not like to suspend students. But they do not believe they have enough support, particularly enough social workers, to help students who consistently act out in offensive and disruptive ways. And keeping those students in the classroom to cuss out and harass their teachers and classmates can mean everyone loses out.
Proveaux described leaving the school in an ambulance one day after a particularly disruptive student shattered the glass in one of his classroom cabinets.
“If I prefer one student’s constitutional right to be here, what about the constitutional rights of the other 28 students?” he says.
In New Orleans, the Sojourner Truth suspensions of the singing girls were eventually overturned. Community activists rallied around the suspended students, printing T-shirts reading,”Save Sojourner’s 10.”
The girls appealed their suspensions with the help of a local collaboration between area law students and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.
For Janeisha, the ninth-grader in New Orleans, the tide also seems to be turning.
In April, Janeisha’s teachers at Reed High School, where she transferred in January, created a behavior plan for the teenager. The plan allows Janeisha more flexibility to visit the school counselor during the day, and calls for a weekly check-in on her behavior with her teachers.
“They are finally asking what they can do to improve her behavior, apart from suspending her all the time,” said her aunt.
But Gwendolyn Lawson sometimes worries too much damage has already been done. The dozens of suspensions — and two forced school transfers that essentially amounted to expulsions — seem to have convinced Janeisha that some teachers and school administrators do not want her around.
If the behavior plan fails and the suspensions resume, Lawson suspects her niece will eventually give up.
“At some point, she won’t be wanting to go back to school,” Lawson said.
Via Time.com
The teenage girls knew they were being loud when they belted out Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and the gospel favorite “We Lift Our Hands” during lunch at New Orleans’ Sojourner Truth Academy charter school. But they never expected school officials would slap them with out-of-school suspensions just for singing in the cafeteria.
“They said we needed to be ‘toned down,’” said Breion Burns, 18, one of eight issued a one-day suspension for the boisterous singing in November 2011. The official reason listed on the suspension slips was “willful disobedience.” Two other students received two-day suspensions for allegedly cursing amidst
the singing.
Several of the suspended girls were honors students who worried the blot on their record would jeopardize college admissions. They could not understand why administrators had opted for suspension over a milder punishment, like detention.
In schools across the country, out-of-school suspensions have become the default punishment for not only drugs and fights but also for threats, displays of affection, dress code violations, truancy, tardiness, refusal to follow directions, even four-year-olds’ temper tantrums.
Suspension rates have more than doubled over the last three decades across all grade levels. At the same time, racial gaps have widened: Black students are three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled as their white peers, according to Department of Education data released earlier this spring. The Office for Civil Rights gathered the data from 72,000 schools in 7,000 districts, which educate approximately 85 percent of the country’s students.
That survey found one in five African-American boys received an out-of-school suspension during the 2009-10 academic year, compared to about one in 14 white boys.
National studies have also revealed persistent, although more modest, gaps between white and Hispanic students.
Suspension terms usually vary from one to 10 days, depending on the gravity of the offense and the district’s policies.
Experts say too few people link the rising, and disparate, discipline rates to lost learning time — a crucial connection given the stubbornness of the achievement gap between black and white students. Some schools even prohibit suspended students from making up missed work.
A 2011 study of school discipline in Texas found students suspended or expelled for “discretionary offenses” — those for which state law does not automatically call for an automatic suspension or expulsion — were twice as likely to repeat a grade as those who had not received the punishment. The study compared students from similar demographic groups and schools in an attempt to isolate the effect of school discipline as much as possible, although it could not prove time away from school directly caused the children to be held back.
Suspension “makes no sense because students are losing class time,” said Daniel Losen, senior education law and policy associate for The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. “They are often not being supervised. They are not learning anything. No one is teaching them about misbehavior. No one is making sure they are prepared to return to school.”
Many teachers wouldn’t disagree. They caution, however, that when a few disruptive students consistently prevent classmates from learning, the needs of the majority should take precedence.
“We know suspension usually doesn’t work for the suspended student,” said Nick McDaniels, an English teacher at Mergenthaler-Vocational Technical High School in Baltimore, a city that has cut the number of annual suspensions by thousands over the last five years. “But there is a certain point when suspension benefits everyone else.”
Gwendolyn Lawson lost track long ago of exactly how many times the New Orleans schools suspended her niece, Janeisha, a ninth-grader.
“Sometimes it feels like every two weeks she’s being put out,” Lawson said in an interview last February. Janeisha lives with her aunt.
The state-run Recovery School District, which has operated most of the schools Janeisha attended in recent years, posted an out-of-school suspension rate of 11 percent for the 2010-11 school year. That was far lower than several area charter schools. Sojourner Truth, which will close down at the end of this school year because of poor test scores, reported a suspension rate of more than 40 percent last year. That means the school suspended more than 40 percent of the students at least once.
Lawson understands why administrators would need to suspend her niece for fighting, particularly if Janeisha causes the altercation. But she does not understand why the slender teen gets sent home for talking back to a teacher or walking out of class. Often, she says, academic frustration causes such “willful disobedience” or “disrespect to authority,” as the schools describe it.
“I’d be much happier if they had her clean the cafeteria, even paint the building,” Lawson says.
Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Janeisha has bounced among four different schools in New Orleans. Each school suspended her multiple times. It did not matter if the schools were charters. It made no difference whether her teachers were novices or experienced professionals. Eventually, Janeisha began ripping up the suspension forms in her anger over being sent home — yet again.
Recovery School District Superintendent Patrick Dobard, who assumed the post in January, said the district’s “priority is to make sure we have kids in school.” But since so many of the district’s schools are charters, many set their own policies as to what is a suspendable offense.
Dobard announced last month that charter school expulsion cases will now be reviewed by the central office. However, he anticipates no such centralization when it comes to suspensions, partly to protect charter schools’ autonomy when it comes to student discipline. But he plans to convene a series of working groups this summer aimed at lowering suspension rates. “I still hold the belief that we need to suspend kids less,” he said.
Janeisha helps her aunt clean and garden while on suspension. But she never does schoolwork because her teachers do not assign her any. “They just say if I’m suspended, it’s on me to catch up,” Janeisha says. The lost class time means she falls further behind, her frustration builds, and she grows increasingly likely to act out more, she and her aunt say.
Indeed, the online version of the district’s code of conduct from 2010-11 stated that suspended students would be counted as absent, given failing grades for the suspended days, and not allowed to make up work.
Dobard said he was not aware that had ever been the district’s policy. The current policy is to let individual principals make the call as to whether students receive work while on suspension, he said.
Nationally, school and district policies vary tremendously when it comes to what students do — or don’t do — while on suspensions. Some districts, including New York City, keep students in school settings during their suspensions, including designated suspension rooms or alternative schools. Other districts assign them work to be done at home and still others do nothing and even make it very difficult for students to make up work.
Interviews with more than a dozen school administrators, experts, and child advocates suggest the reasons for the increased reliance on suspensions, and the accompanying racial gaps, are varied and complex.
They say zero tolerance policies — and an associated “zero tolerance mindset” — have spread over the last quarter century. Throughout American society, there have been numerous efforts to get tough on crime.
Teachers often face enormous difficulties getting unruly students to stay after school for detention, or even to get parents to come in for a conference. Films such as Lean on Me have popularized a no-nonsense approach to school discipline. School segregation has increased and many urban schools have high concentrations of students living in extreme poverty. No Child Left Behind put such an emphasis on math and reading test scores that schools may have less time to focus on meeting children’s social and emotional needs. And a few high-profile instances of school violence, like the Columbine shootings, have generated widespread fear of youth violence among school administrators and the public. Meanwhile, teachers and administrators may unf airly stereotype minority school children’s actions based on implicit racism.
“How unconscious bias manifests itself in an educational system is through expulsion and suspension,” said Andre Perry, associate director for educational initiatives at Loyola University’s Institute for Quality and Equity in Education in New Orleans.
Several experts also mention the application of the “broken windows theory” of policing to school discipline. That theory, first introduced in 1982 by political scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, posits that cracking down on seemingly minor and superficial problems, like broken windows or panhandlers, helps prevent more serious crimes.
The school-based version of the theory holds that taking a tough stance against small infractions, like tardiness and uniform violations, decreases the number of larger infractions, including fights and weapon possession. The challenge, of course, is that “fixing” a child is not so easy as repairing a broken window; and often days, or weeks, spent exiled from school in a home or neighborhood environment make students less likely to comply with school rules.
“I have no problem with requiring students to take off their hats in school. But sending them home when they won’t take off their hats? I have a problem with that,” says Jane Sundius, the Education and Youth Development Program director at the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, which advocates on such issues as school discipline and youth incarceration.
Sundius is particularly troubled by reports of schools suspending pre-K students in some communities, including in Maryland, where she lives and works. “A four-year-old accused of ‘assaulting a teacher’ is not assaulting a teacher,” she said. “They are having a temper tantrum.”
When Andres Alonso took over as chief executive officer of the Baltimore City Public School system five years ago, he made cutting the system’s high suspension rates one of his first priorities.
Alonso’s desire was based partly on his own experience as a classroom teacher. “If I sent a child out of my classroom, I was sacrificing authority and communicating the classroom was not the place for the child,” he said.
The district made several changes, including revising the code of conduct to eliminate suspension as an option for many first-time “soft offenses,” like talking back to a teacher. Alonso required principals to obtain his permission, or that of a designee, if they wanted to suspend a child for more than five days in a single stretch. He put an alternative school for students on long-term suspensions or expulsions, called Success Academy, inside the district’s central office. The last move was designed partly to send the message that troubled students were at the center of the district’s mission — not disposable.
The district also significantly increased its use of so-called student support teams, which convene at the school level to develop behavior plans tailored to individual children, and added to mental health services in some schools.
But Alonso left it up to individual principals to decide on specific approaches to cutting suspension rates inside their buildings.
For some schools, that has proven easier than for others.
At City Springs Elementary/Middle School, Alonso’s push coincided with Principal Rhonda Richetta’s decision to introduce a “restorative justice” approach to school discipline. Instead of automatically suspending students when there is a problem, staff and students sit together in circles to talk through many thorny and contentious issues. Often, the end result is a punishment tailored to the specific crime.
When one eighth-grader was caught selling BB gun pellets, for instance, Richetta required him to come to school early and sell fruit snacks to younger students. Richetta wanted him to learn that he could earn money through legal means (although in this case he was required to turn over all proceeds to the school).
Initially, Richetta received significant push back from teachers. Eight left during the first year “restorative justice” was implemented partly because they disliked the shift away from suspension.
“It was really hard for adults to change their behavior, particularly when they were used to the least little infraction resulting in suspension,” Richetta said. “In the past, if a child said something disrespectful, that was a suspension. If a child got up and walked out of class, that was a suspension … The problem is: It’s really hard to educate kids when they are not here.”
During the 2007-08 school year, City Springs issued about 50 suspensions, compared to 21 as of April 6th this school year, even as enrollment grew significantly. But Richetta considers the cultural shift inside the building — which she measures through the increased number of students smiling on their way to class in the morning — just as important.
“I think people are giving up on our kids because of their behavior,” she said. “They are not seeing that that behavior is really reaching out for help.”
Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis High School has also seen a sharp drop in suspensions, from well over 100 annually before 2010 to fewer than 20 so far this school year.
The school felt unsafe to students Markira Thomas and Jaquel Mullen when they started as freshmen in the fall of 2008. Earlier that year, a student had sucker-punched and pounded an art teacher in her classroom.
(The school’s principal later alleged the teacher had actually provoked the fight.) Students smoked pot openly, ran through the halls, and gambled with dice and cards in class. On her first day of school, Thomas begged her mother not to leave here there alone.
When Barney Wilson, one of the district’s top principals, took the helm two years ago, he announced the whole school would embrace what he called “Lewis Love.”
It sounded corny to many of the teachers at first. But over time they discovered the slew of small changes that constituted “Lewis Love” — holding assemblies to recognize students for positive contributions, creating peer mediation programs, bringing parents in for conferences — transformed the school into a much happier place.
Essentially, it boiled down to better communication among students, parents and teachers, said Danielle Rembert, the assistant principal.
“Some people are like, ‘This is touchy-feely,’ she said. “But this is foundational. If we don’t lay that foundation, none of the other stuff we try will work.”
At other campuses, including Baltimore’s Mergenthaler-Vocational Technical High School, the war against suspension has not gone so well.
During the 2009-10 school year, Mergenthaler issued 342 suspensions and expulsions, one of the highest numbers in the district. Teachers say the vast majority of their students are not disruptive. But suspensions for the minority who do act out on a regular basis help keep order in the building, a fortress-like structure serving well over 1,000 teenagers.
“With more suspensions, the administration had more time for classroom support,” said McDaniels, the Mergenthaler English teacher. “They weren’t just chasing kids around the hallways.”
Since then, the edict has come down that suspensions must be decreased. “It’s kind of become like NBA rules: no blood, no foul,” says Tony Polvino, another teacher.
Teachers say the administrators try hard to be supportive, but they must inure themselves to all manner of verbal threats. Students usually cannot be suspended for declaring, “I’m going to kick your ass,” or calling classmates “bitches and hoes.”
“Hearing ‘F— you’ is not something that fazes me,” says McDaniels. “I can’t let it faze me. There’s nothing I can do.”
“I just say, ‘Have a blessed day,’” adds teacher Tom Proveaux, a 34-year veteran.
Ben Andersen, a second-year teacher, said when he interviewed for the job, administrators asked him,
“How well do you let things roll off your back? How do you respond to being mistreated? What do you do if someone cusses you out?”
“If you say all that stuff won’t bother you, then they say, ‘Well, you’re going to do well here.’”
The Mergenthaler teachers say they do not like to suspend students. But they do not believe they have enough support, particularly enough social workers, to help students who consistently act out in offensive and disruptive ways. And keeping those students in the classroom to cuss out and harass their teachers and classmates can mean everyone loses out.
Proveaux described leaving the school in an ambulance one day after a particularly disruptive student shattered the glass in one of his classroom cabinets.
“If I prefer one student’s constitutional right to be here, what about the constitutional rights of the other 28 students?” he says.
In New Orleans, the Sojourner Truth suspensions of the singing girls were eventually overturned. Community activists rallied around the suspended students, printing T-shirts reading,”Save Sojourner’s 10.”
The girls appealed their suspensions with the help of a local collaboration between area law students and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana.
For Janeisha, the ninth-grader in New Orleans, the tide also seems to be turning.
In April, Janeisha’s teachers at Reed High School, where she transferred in January, created a behavior plan for the teenager. The plan allows Janeisha more flexibility to visit the school counselor during the day, and calls for a weekly check-in on her behavior with her teachers.
“They are finally asking what they can do to improve her behavior, apart from suspending her all the time,” said her aunt.
But Gwendolyn Lawson sometimes worries too much damage has already been done. The dozens of suspensions — and two forced school transfers that essentially amounted to expulsions — seem to have convinced Janeisha that some teachers and school administrators do not want her around.
If the behavior plan fails and the suspensions resume, Lawson suspects her niece will eventually give up.
“At some point, she won’t be wanting to go back to school,” Lawson said.
Young, Depressed, and Of Color: Why Schools and Doctors Get It Wrong
Young, Depressed, and Of Color: Why Schools and Doctors Get It Wrong
Via RaceWire
Earlier this month, news surfaced of a Louisiana school psychologist who posted racially charged messages on Twitter. Mark Traina, who later resigned, worked as a psychologist at an alternative school in Jefferson
Parish Public School System, a district that's been under intense scrutiny in recent months. According to a court complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jefferson County has been sending a disproportionate number of black and special education kids to "languish for months" in the district's alternative schools.
Traina had already taken to Twitter to post his support of George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch captain charged with murdering Trayvon Martin. But back in January, Traina went on a rant against "young black thugs." Traina, a self-proclaimed 'American Civil Rights Activist who unlike Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton presents all Americas", tweeted that "Young black thugs who won't follow the law need to be put down not incarcerated. Put down like the Dogs they are!"
While black children aren't often ceremoniously "put down like dogs", they do face harsh school punishment at much higher rates than their white counterparts. Jefferson Parish's problems are symptomatic of a disease that's already been diagnosed nationally: the tendency to dole out harsher than average treatment for people of color. From the classroom to the clinician's office, there's a long and troubling relationship between racism and the mental health field.
Research has also shown the black students are disciplined more severely than white students, even when they commit offenses that are less serious. The National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado reported (PDF) that more than 30 percent of black students caught using, or in possession of, a cell phone for the first time were suspended. The rate for white students who committed the same infraction was just 17 percent.
The disparity lead Education Secretary Arne Duncan to lament that "the everyday educational experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise."
Data released this year by the U.S. Department of education showed that black students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates. Even though black students make up just 18 percent of students nationally, they comprise 35 percent of suspensions and 39 percent of expulsions. Additionally, as Liz Dywer points out at GOOD, 70 percent of students arrested or referred to police are black or Latino.
Yet many contend that the problem extends far beyond the classroom. When it comes to mental illness, people of color are more likely to be given more severe diagnoses than their white counterparts. In 2005, the Washington Post reported that even though schizophrenia has been shown to affect all ethnic groups at the same rate, black people in the U.S. were more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disorder than whites. Latinos were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed as whites.
"The way we define mental illness is slanted toward pathologizing basically angry black men," said Jonathan Metzl, a psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University and author of the book "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease."
There's a deep mistrust between communities of color and the mental health field. The National Alliance on Mental Health notes (PDF) that African Americans are more likely to be misdiagnosed and, in turn, receive inadequate treatment often due to a "lack of cultural understanding."
In 2005, the Washington Post published a wide-ranging series on the role of culture in mental illness and told the story of a case encountered by Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez. While completing his psychiatry training at a hospital in Massachusetts, Fernandez encountered a suicidal 49-year-old Puerto Rican woman who begged for help to resolve a conflict with her son. The woman also said she was hearing voices, seeing shadows, and felt invisible presences. At first, the Harvard-affiliated doctors diagnosed the woman as depressed and psychotic. She was given medication and sent home.
"I wasn't sure if she was psychotic, but I treated her as if she was," Lewis-Fernandez told the Post.
But Lewis Fernandez, who's also Puerto Rican, found the diagnosis unsettling and thought the hospital had misjudged the situation. He knew that at a certain level, seeing shadows and sensing presences was considered normal in some Latino communities. After another argument with her son, the woman nearly overdosed on the medication. She was taken back to the hospital where she was re-evaluated, given a less severe diagnosis, and given help to reconcile with her son.
Race and institutional definitions of insanity share a long and troubling history. Metzl outlines in his book that in the 1850's, American psychiatrists believed that runaway slaves suffered from an acute mental illness called "drapetomania." The era was also littered with references to "dysaesthesia aethiopis", a form of madness characterized by disrespect for the slaver owners' property and best treated with extensive whipping.
In the early twentieth century, American psychiatrists thought that schizophrenia patients were largely white, middle class and harmless to society. The disease was misunderstood as one that was deeply emotional and, in turn, associated with melancholy housewives, novelists, and poets. In 1935, Metzl notes that the New York Times speculated that many white writers demonstrated a symptom called "grandiloquence", a propensity toward flowery prose then thought to be "one of the telltale phrases of schizophrenia, the mild form of insanity known as split personality."
It wasn't until the 1960's that societal attitudes toward the disease dramatically shifted. Schizophrenia was no longer seen as harmless, but was instead a dangerous disease defined by rage and associated with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In 1968, while protest movements became more radical -- particularly those in poor black neighborhoods, the field of psychiatry introduced a radically new definition of the disease. That year, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) updated its definition. "The patient's attitude is frequently hostile and aggressive and his behavior tends to be consistent with his delusions."
Metzl makes the argument in his book that the change on societal attitudes was the unintended consequence of growing white anxiety about cultural and social change. And while obvious bias can't be easily discounted, sometimes misdiagnoses are the unintended side effects of persistent cultural misunderstandings. Metzal argues that racial tensions are structured into clinical interactions long before doctors and patients meet in the exam room.
In the early 1970's a series of influential studies established the fact that people of color were often over-diagnosed with much more severe mental illnesses than their white counterparts. When psychiatrist miss the mark so consistently, one obvious side effect is that persistent -- though perhaps less severe -- mental illnesses often go untreated.
Metzl notes that black men are historically underdiagnosed with illnesses like depression, anxiety, and attention deficit disorder.
"There's a mistrust of psychiatry that I think is very well-founded. In the 1960's we see very clearly that psychiatric experts were pathologizing civil rights protests and particularly black power protests as being insane. And it's very hard to turn around from that and say, 'Oh no, we made a mistake, please trust us.' If you have a history of pathologizing legitimate political protests as mental illness, you set conditions for mistrust on both sides."
Via RaceWire
Earlier this month, news surfaced of a Louisiana school psychologist who posted racially charged messages on Twitter. Mark Traina, who later resigned, worked as a psychologist at an alternative school in Jefferson
Parish Public School System, a district that's been under intense scrutiny in recent months. According to a court complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Jefferson County has been sending a disproportionate number of black and special education kids to "languish for months" in the district's alternative schools.
Traina had already taken to Twitter to post his support of George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch captain charged with murdering Trayvon Martin. But back in January, Traina went on a rant against "young black thugs." Traina, a self-proclaimed 'American Civil Rights Activist who unlike Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton presents all Americas", tweeted that "Young black thugs who won't follow the law need to be put down not incarcerated. Put down like the Dogs they are!"
While black children aren't often ceremoniously "put down like dogs", they do face harsh school punishment at much higher rates than their white counterparts. Jefferson Parish's problems are symptomatic of a disease that's already been diagnosed nationally: the tendency to dole out harsher than average treatment for people of color. From the classroom to the clinician's office, there's a long and troubling relationship between racism and the mental health field.
Research has also shown the black students are disciplined more severely than white students, even when they commit offenses that are less serious. The National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado reported (PDF) that more than 30 percent of black students caught using, or in possession of, a cell phone for the first time were suspended. The rate for white students who committed the same infraction was just 17 percent.
The disparity lead Education Secretary Arne Duncan to lament that "the everyday educational experience for too many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise."
Data released this year by the U.S. Department of education showed that black students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white classmates. Even though black students make up just 18 percent of students nationally, they comprise 35 percent of suspensions and 39 percent of expulsions. Additionally, as Liz Dywer points out at GOOD, 70 percent of students arrested or referred to police are black or Latino.
Yet many contend that the problem extends far beyond the classroom. When it comes to mental illness, people of color are more likely to be given more severe diagnoses than their white counterparts. In 2005, the Washington Post reported that even though schizophrenia has been shown to affect all ethnic groups at the same rate, black people in the U.S. were more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disorder than whites. Latinos were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed as whites.
"The way we define mental illness is slanted toward pathologizing basically angry black men," said Jonathan Metzl, a psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University and author of the book "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease."
There's a deep mistrust between communities of color and the mental health field. The National Alliance on Mental Health notes (PDF) that African Americans are more likely to be misdiagnosed and, in turn, receive inadequate treatment often due to a "lack of cultural understanding."
In 2005, the Washington Post published a wide-ranging series on the role of culture in mental illness and told the story of a case encountered by Dr. Roberto Lewis-Fernandez. While completing his psychiatry training at a hospital in Massachusetts, Fernandez encountered a suicidal 49-year-old Puerto Rican woman who begged for help to resolve a conflict with her son. The woman also said she was hearing voices, seeing shadows, and felt invisible presences. At first, the Harvard-affiliated doctors diagnosed the woman as depressed and psychotic. She was given medication and sent home.
"I wasn't sure if she was psychotic, but I treated her as if she was," Lewis-Fernandez told the Post.
But Lewis Fernandez, who's also Puerto Rican, found the diagnosis unsettling and thought the hospital had misjudged the situation. He knew that at a certain level, seeing shadows and sensing presences was considered normal in some Latino communities. After another argument with her son, the woman nearly overdosed on the medication. She was taken back to the hospital where she was re-evaluated, given a less severe diagnosis, and given help to reconcile with her son.
Race and institutional definitions of insanity share a long and troubling history. Metzl outlines in his book that in the 1850's, American psychiatrists believed that runaway slaves suffered from an acute mental illness called "drapetomania." The era was also littered with references to "dysaesthesia aethiopis", a form of madness characterized by disrespect for the slaver owners' property and best treated with extensive whipping.
In the early twentieth century, American psychiatrists thought that schizophrenia patients were largely white, middle class and harmless to society. The disease was misunderstood as one that was deeply emotional and, in turn, associated with melancholy housewives, novelists, and poets. In 1935, Metzl notes that the New York Times speculated that many white writers demonstrated a symptom called "grandiloquence", a propensity toward flowery prose then thought to be "one of the telltale phrases of schizophrenia, the mild form of insanity known as split personality."
It wasn't until the 1960's that societal attitudes toward the disease dramatically shifted. Schizophrenia was no longer seen as harmless, but was instead a dangerous disease defined by rage and associated with the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. In 1968, while protest movements became more radical -- particularly those in poor black neighborhoods, the field of psychiatry introduced a radically new definition of the disease. That year, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) updated its definition. "The patient's attitude is frequently hostile and aggressive and his behavior tends to be consistent with his delusions."
Metzl makes the argument in his book that the change on societal attitudes was the unintended consequence of growing white anxiety about cultural and social change. And while obvious bias can't be easily discounted, sometimes misdiagnoses are the unintended side effects of persistent cultural misunderstandings. Metzal argues that racial tensions are structured into clinical interactions long before doctors and patients meet in the exam room.
In the early 1970's a series of influential studies established the fact that people of color were often over-diagnosed with much more severe mental illnesses than their white counterparts. When psychiatrist miss the mark so consistently, one obvious side effect is that persistent -- though perhaps less severe -- mental illnesses often go untreated.
Metzl notes that black men are historically underdiagnosed with illnesses like depression, anxiety, and attention deficit disorder.
"There's a mistrust of psychiatry that I think is very well-founded. In the 1960's we see very clearly that psychiatric experts were pathologizing civil rights protests and particularly black power protests as being insane. And it's very hard to turn around from that and say, 'Oh no, we made a mistake, please trust us.' If you have a history of pathologizing legitimate political protests as mental illness, you set conditions for mistrust on both sides."
Hawthorne Elementary experiencing revitalization with aid of community
Hawthorne Elementary experiencing revitalization with aid of community
Via Seattle Times
Parents and neighbors of Hawthorne Elementary in Seattle's Columbia City neighborhood, long considered among the lowest-performing in the state, are trying to turn the school around by donating their money, time and ideas.
Via Seattle Times
Parents and neighbors of Hawthorne Elementary in Seattle's Columbia City neighborhood, long considered among the lowest-performing in the state, are trying to turn the school around by donating their money, time and ideas.
Interview About Inspiring Youth
Interview About Inspiring Youth:
Via Younger World
Via Younger World
A high school student from Montana sent me a few interview questions last week, and I thought I'd share my answers with you.
Let me know if you want to know anything more about what I shared.
What would you consider the best way to inspire youth to become more active?
After more than 20 years experience working and teaching adults how to inspire youth, I have learned the best way to inspire youth to become more active throughout their lives is by making action relevant to their lives right now.
Instead of trying to get all young people interested and inspired in faraway places doing strange things, I think we need to connect young people within the issues and through the actions affecting them most right now. Their schools, towns, neighborhoods, community centers, governments, all these places need to have their doors thrown open and made relevant and meaningful to the lives of youth right now.
The issues that affect young people most, like education reform and democratic process and nonprofit programs, need to be made accessible to youth right now. Adults need to approach youth to find out what they think they need to be engaged in, too, the things that are closest to their hearts and minds right now. That's the best way.
Is there a better way to inspire and inform youth than hoping a teacher down the line will mention world events?
Absolutely. The fact of the matter is that every young person is engaged right now. Every one. It might not be in ways adults recognize or approve of, but they are- video games, boy/girl friends, sports, graffiti, whatever. We can use those mediums to engage young people in social change. We can develop online opportunities, athletic activities, and date nights focused on changing the world. We can host graffiti competitions, dances, and carnival/parties focusing on changing the world.
These might seem trivial to adults, but these ways can attract young people to widen their engagement from being myopic or self-centered towards being socially-minded and justice oriented. There are plenty of ways young people can and should inspire other young people right now.
Let me know if you want to know anything more about what I shared.
Written by Adam Fletcher for CommonAction Consulting. It was originally posted at YoungerWorld.org. Contact us for more information by emailing info@commonaction.org or calling +1 (360)489-9680.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Is the Seattle School Board dysfunctional? U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks so
Is the Seattle School Board dysfunctional? U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks so:
Via Seattle Times
According to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle School Board suffers from churn and conflict, a poor relationship with the superintendent and what one unnamed observer called "micromanagement on steroids." Officials here dispute the findings.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
According to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle School Board suffers from churn and conflict, a poor relationship with the superintendent and what one unnamed observer called "micromanagement on steroids." Officials here dispute the findings.
Follow link for full article.
Time to revisit Supreme Court's goal of ending segregation
Time to revisit Supreme Court's goal of ending segregation:
Via the Seattle Times
Fifty-eight years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, we should remember the original cause, equality.
Follow link for full article.
Via the Seattle Times
Fifty-eight years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, we should remember the original cause, equality.
Follow link for full article.
High School Students' Perceptions of Coping With Cyberbullying
High School Students' Perceptions of Coping With Cyberbullying
Via Sage Journals: Youth & Society
Cyberbullying can have a variety of negative effects on student mental health (Internet Safety Technical Task Force, 2008). An understanding of students’ coping with cyberbullying could help researchers and professionals to determine ways to alleviate and/or prevent the negative effects of cyberbullying. Qualitative methods were used to provide an in-depth examination of coping with cyberbullying. The results revealed three primary coping themes as follows: reactive coping, preventive coping, and no way to prevent cyberbullying. Reactive coping included avoiding the cyberbully situation by deleting or ignoring messages. Preventive coping strategies included talk in person and increased security and awareness. Some students reported that there was no way to reduce cyberbullying. These strategies were interpreted in terms of current theories of coping and findings suggested a need for a new comprehensive model of coping with cyberbullying. In addition, implications for future research and practice were discussed.
Follow link for full article.
Via Sage Journals: Youth & Society
Cyberbullying can have a variety of negative effects on student mental health (Internet Safety Technical Task Force, 2008). An understanding of students’ coping with cyberbullying could help researchers and professionals to determine ways to alleviate and/or prevent the negative effects of cyberbullying. Qualitative methods were used to provide an in-depth examination of coping with cyberbullying. The results revealed three primary coping themes as follows: reactive coping, preventive coping, and no way to prevent cyberbullying. Reactive coping included avoiding the cyberbully situation by deleting or ignoring messages. Preventive coping strategies included talk in person and increased security and awareness. Some students reported that there was no way to reduce cyberbullying. These strategies were interpreted in terms of current theories of coping and findings suggested a need for a new comprehensive model of coping with cyberbullying. In addition, implications for future research and practice were discussed.
Follow link for full article.
Where We Live: The Unexpected Influence of Urban Neighborhoods on the Academic Performance of African American Adolescents
Where We Live: The Unexpected Influence of Urban Neighborhoods on the Academic Performance of African American Adolescents
Via Sage Journals: Youth & Society
Adolescents who live in low-income neighborhoods face numerous unique challenges. Examining their resilience in multiple contexts sheds light on what contributes to the diverse outcomes of these youth. The current study examines how adolescents’ reports of structural and experiential neighborhood characteristics buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. A total of 206 African American high school students completed a series of questionnaires; some of the item measures covered by the questionnaires include the following: exposure to community violence; opportunities for involvement and actual engagement in neighborhood-based structured activities; and self-reported grades for the school year. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that structural and experiential factors buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. These findings suggest that in the face of exposure to community violence, adolescents who are involved in neighborhood activities, even when opportunities for involvement are minimal, have better academic outcomes.
Follow link for full article.
Via Sage Journals: Youth & Society
Adolescents who live in low-income neighborhoods face numerous unique challenges. Examining their resilience in multiple contexts sheds light on what contributes to the diverse outcomes of these youth. The current study examines how adolescents’ reports of structural and experiential neighborhood characteristics buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. A total of 206 African American high school students completed a series of questionnaires; some of the item measures covered by the questionnaires include the following: exposure to community violence; opportunities for involvement and actual engagement in neighborhood-based structured activities; and self-reported grades for the school year. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that structural and experiential factors buffered the impact of exposure to community violence on academic performance. These findings suggest that in the face of exposure to community violence, adolescents who are involved in neighborhood activities, even when opportunities for involvement are minimal, have better academic outcomes.
Follow link for full article.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Smartness as a Cultural Practice in Schools
Smartness as a Cultural Practice in Schools:
Via American Educational Research Journal
This study explores smartness as a cultural construct rather than a biological capacity. The cultural construction of smartness has broad consequences related to teacher expectations, student academic identity development, and schooling inequities. This study is based on a 1-year ethnography in a kindergarten classroom, and the author investigates smartness by first historicizing the concept of intelligence and then using the theoretical framework of figured worlds. Through the teachers’ disciplinary and pedagogical practices, students were taught and learned not just whether they were smart themselves, but how other student identities were constructed according to smartness as well. Analysis suggests smartness was used as a mechanism of control and social positioning along racial and class lines. Implications are discussed related to schooling practices and policy.
Follow link for full article.
Via American Educational Research Journal
This study explores smartness as a cultural construct rather than a biological capacity. The cultural construction of smartness has broad consequences related to teacher expectations, student academic identity development, and schooling inequities. This study is based on a 1-year ethnography in a kindergarten classroom, and the author investigates smartness by first historicizing the concept of intelligence and then using the theoretical framework of figured worlds. Through the teachers’ disciplinary and pedagogical practices, students were taught and learned not just whether they were smart themselves, but how other student identities were constructed according to smartness as well. Analysis suggests smartness was used as a mechanism of control and social positioning along racial and class lines. Implications are discussed related to schooling practices and policy.
Follow link for full article.
Switching Schools: Revisiting the Relationship Between School Mobility and High School Dropout
Switching Schools: Revisiting the Relationship Between School Mobility and High School Dropout:
Via American Educational Research Journal
Youth who switch schools are more likely to demonstrate a wide array of negative behavioral and educational outcomes, including dropping out of high school. However, whether switching schools actually puts youth at risk for dropout is uncertain, since youth who switch schools are similar to dropouts in their levels of prior school achievement and engagement, which suggests that switching schools may be part of the same long-term developmental process of disengagement that leads to dropping out. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study uses propensity score matching to pair youth who switched high schools with similar youth who stayed in the same school. We find that while over half the association between switching schools and dropout is explained by observed characteristics prior to ninth grade, switching schools is still associated with dropout. Moreover, the relationship between switching schools and dropout varies depending on a youth’s propensity for switching schools.
Follow link for full article.
Via American Educational Research Journal
Youth who switch schools are more likely to demonstrate a wide array of negative behavioral and educational outcomes, including dropping out of high school. However, whether switching schools actually puts youth at risk for dropout is uncertain, since youth who switch schools are similar to dropouts in their levels of prior school achievement and engagement, which suggests that switching schools may be part of the same long-term developmental process of disengagement that leads to dropping out. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this study uses propensity score matching to pair youth who switched high schools with similar youth who stayed in the same school. We find that while over half the association between switching schools and dropout is explained by observed characteristics prior to ninth grade, switching schools is still associated with dropout. Moreover, the relationship between switching schools and dropout varies depending on a youth’s propensity for switching schools.
Follow link for full article.
Continuous Quality Improvement in Afterschool Settings: Impact Findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention
Continuous Quality Improvement in Afterschool Settings: Impact Findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention Via Forum News
This study, Continuous Quality Improvement in Afterschool Settings: Impact Findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention, shows how a cycle of assessing staff practices, planning based on the assessment and targeted training improves the quality of services delivered to young people. It says the Youth Program Quality Intervention model increases program quality among a wide range of afterschool systems, is sustainable and cost-effective, and might boost staff retention.
Follow link for full study.
This study, Continuous Quality Improvement in Afterschool Settings: Impact Findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention, shows how a cycle of assessing staff practices, planning based on the assessment and targeted training improves the quality of services delivered to young people. It says the Youth Program Quality Intervention model increases program quality among a wide range of afterschool systems, is sustainable and cost-effective, and might boost staff retention.
Follow link for full study.
Experts urge caution before investing in prepaid college tuition plans
Experts urge caution before investing in prepaid college tuition plans:
Via Seattle Times
As the gap widens between the value and the cost of the state's prepaid college-tuition program, GET, some financial advisers are urging families to invest with caution.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
As the gap widens between the value and the cost of the state's prepaid college-tuition program, GET, some financial advisers are urging families to invest with caution.
Follow link for full article.
Ingraham rocketry team lands trip to NASA event
Ingraham rocketry team lands trip to NASA event:
Via Seattle Times
In love with "science that shoots flames out the back," Ingraham High School Rocket Club teams battled for a national title in Virginia.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
In love with "science that shoots flames out the back," Ingraham High School Rocket Club teams battled for a national title in Virginia.
Follow link for full article.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Family Engagement Key in Expanded Learning Opportunities (Beyond School blog, Education Week, 5/3/12)
Family Engagement Key in Expanded Learning Opportunities (Beyond School blog, Education Week, 5/3/12):
Via HFRP News
The Beyond School blog at Education Week covers our new policy brief, co-authored with NCSL.
Via HFRP News
The Beyond School blog at Education Week covers our new policy brief, co-authored with NCSL.
Addressing Barriers to Health Insurance Coverage Among Children: New Estimates for the Nation, California, New York, and Texas
Addressing Barriers to Health Insurance Coverage Among Children: New Estimates for the Nation, California, New York, and Texas:
Via Urban Institute
Maximizing health insurance coverage for children under the ACA will require addressing the complex scenarios that prevent some children from obtaining or retaining coverage. These scenarios include situations where children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but their parents are not, as well as those where children are living without at least one of their parents. We provide national estimates of the number of children in these complex coverage scenarios and find that children facing at least one complex scenario are more likely to be uninsured than other children. In addition to national estimates, we present state-level estimates for California, New York, and Texas.
Via Urban Institute
Maximizing health insurance coverage for children under the ACA will require addressing the complex scenarios that prevent some children from obtaining or retaining coverage. These scenarios include situations where children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but their parents are not, as well as those where children are living without at least one of their parents. We provide national estimates of the number of children in these complex coverage scenarios and find that children facing at least one complex scenario are more likely to be uninsured than other children. In addition to national estimates, we present state-level estimates for California, New York, and Texas.
Housing as a Platform for Improving Education Outcomes among Low-Income Children
Housing as a Platform for Improving Education Outcomes among Low-Income Children
Via the Urban Institute
This policy framing paper is one of three that explores the potential for housing combined with support services to create better outcomes for vulnerable populations. Many experts believe that housing can be a platform for academic achievement among low-income students by providing a stable environment where children access high-performing schools and succeed academically. While existing evidence links a lack of safe, high quality housing with low academic performance, little research explores how housing can be a positive pathway to achieving better school outcomes. The authors develop a field building research scheme that addresses this gap to help inform policymakers and practitioners working to meet the needs of this at-risk group. This framing paper is part of a series of field-building research agendas produced under the What Works Collaborative. More information can be found on the What Works Collaborative web page.
Via the Urban Institute
This policy framing paper is one of three that explores the potential for housing combined with support services to create better outcomes for vulnerable populations. Many experts believe that housing can be a platform for academic achievement among low-income students by providing a stable environment where children access high-performing schools and succeed academically. While existing evidence links a lack of safe, high quality housing with low academic performance, little research explores how housing can be a positive pathway to achieving better school outcomes. The authors develop a field building research scheme that addresses this gap to help inform policymakers and practitioners working to meet the needs of this at-risk group. This framing paper is part of a series of field-building research agendas produced under the What Works Collaborative. More information can be found on the What Works Collaborative web page.
Roosevelt High Jazz Band places second at Essentially Ellington
Roosevelt High Jazz Band places second at Essentially Ellington
Via Seattle Times
The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band placed second at the Essentially Ellington competition in New York this weekend. A magnet school from Florida, Dillard Center for the Arts, finished ahead of Roosevelt.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
The Roosevelt High School Jazz Band placed second at the Essentially Ellington competition in New York this weekend. A magnet school from Florida, Dillard Center for the Arts, finished ahead of Roosevelt.
Follow link for full article.
Banda is calm voice for a turbulent district
Banda is calm voice for a turbulent district
Via Seattle Times
Incoming Seattle school superintendent José Banda has gained wide respect at his current district in Anaheim, Calif. He promises to listen first before seeking major changes, an approach he followed there.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
Incoming Seattle school superintendent José Banda has gained wide respect at his current district in Anaheim, Calif. He promises to listen first before seeking major changes, an approach he followed there.
Follow link for full article.
Candidates for governor vague on how to better fund schools
Candidates for governor vague on how to better fund schools
Via Seattle Times
Gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee addressed a gathering of the state PTSA on Saturday to talk about education funding, teacher accountability and charter schools.
Follow link for full article.
Via Seattle Times
Gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee addressed a gathering of the state PTSA on Saturday to talk about education funding, teacher accountability and charter schools.
Follow link for full article.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Collective impact in our community
Collective impact in our community:
Via United Way of King County
The following is a summary of the May 1 discussion on collective impact hosted by Social Venture Partners. Mary Jean Ryan from Center on Community Education (CCER) and the Road Map Project and Bill Henningsgaard from Eastside Pathways talked about their collective impact efforts.
Mary Jean Ryan described the Road Map Project at Community Center for Education Results as a marathon with urgency (this could apply to any collective impact effort). CCER prioritizes three areas: data capability, community/parent engagement and power, and alignment with funders. The focus in the long run is on systemic change in the outcomes of education. Short run, CCER has worked with a range of partners to sign up all eligible high school students in south Seattle and South King County for college bound scholarship. This summer, the Road Map Project and Eastside Pathways will be will be working with others in the community including United Way of King County to kick off the “Let’s Read” Campaign, an ongoing effort to improve grade level reading.
Bill Henningsgaard described Eastside Pathways as apartnership of 32 agencies that are intentionally addressing the outcomes they want to see in education with a focus on Bellevue. This effort is working on a common understanding of the problems, agreement on the outcomes desired and the relevant indicators of student success to measure the change. One of the biggest (and most necessary) challenges has been arriving at shared values. However, Bill emphasized that the discussion of values is the lynchpin of the collective impact effort.
Both Mary Jean and Bill agreed that the concept of collective impact was hard to explain but does require a community wide movement in which everyone in the community feels engaged and invested. There are 125 projects around the country that are doing cradle to career collective impact.
Leadership of this movement requires a multi-level, multi-sector approach that enables leaders to take responsibility and action at all levels based on a shared vision. A top down approach and leading with a government mandates does not work.
Another piece of advice is that collective impact efforts need to continually loop back to the community to keep them connected and involved.
These themes were all reinforced in the opening session of the United Way Worldwide annual conference in Nashville on May 2. A leader from the Mile High United Way in Denver stated that we can no longer talk about a government initiative or a non-profit initiative. The problems we face in society are now so interconnected and complex that we have to talk about a community, regional or national challenge where everyone works together. We need to turn from fighting for scarcity to focusing our wealth of opportunities on insuring positive outcomes. All sectors in the community can agree on certain value such as all third graders reading at grade level and mothers and children not having to live in their car. The same Mile High leader also emphasized that we are not going to achieve outcomes unless we are engaged in policy.
Via United Way of King County
The following is a summary of the May 1 discussion on collective impact hosted by Social Venture Partners. Mary Jean Ryan from Center on Community Education (CCER) and the Road Map Project and Bill Henningsgaard from Eastside Pathways talked about their collective impact efforts.
Mary Jean Ryan described the Road Map Project at Community Center for Education Results as a marathon with urgency (this could apply to any collective impact effort). CCER prioritizes three areas: data capability, community/parent engagement and power, and alignment with funders. The focus in the long run is on systemic change in the outcomes of education. Short run, CCER has worked with a range of partners to sign up all eligible high school students in south Seattle and South King County for college bound scholarship. This summer, the Road Map Project and Eastside Pathways will be will be working with others in the community including United Way of King County to kick off the “Let’s Read” Campaign, an ongoing effort to improve grade level reading.
Bill Henningsgaard described Eastside Pathways as apartnership of 32 agencies that are intentionally addressing the outcomes they want to see in education with a focus on Bellevue. This effort is working on a common understanding of the problems, agreement on the outcomes desired and the relevant indicators of student success to measure the change. One of the biggest (and most necessary) challenges has been arriving at shared values. However, Bill emphasized that the discussion of values is the lynchpin of the collective impact effort.
Both Mary Jean and Bill agreed that the concept of collective impact was hard to explain but does require a community wide movement in which everyone in the community feels engaged and invested. There are 125 projects around the country that are doing cradle to career collective impact.
Leadership of this movement requires a multi-level, multi-sector approach that enables leaders to take responsibility and action at all levels based on a shared vision. A top down approach and leading with a government mandates does not work.
Another piece of advice is that collective impact efforts need to continually loop back to the community to keep them connected and involved.
These themes were all reinforced in the opening session of the United Way Worldwide annual conference in Nashville on May 2. A leader from the Mile High United Way in Denver stated that we can no longer talk about a government initiative or a non-profit initiative. The problems we face in society are now so interconnected and complex that we have to talk about a community, regional or national challenge where everyone works together. We need to turn from fighting for scarcity to focusing our wealth of opportunities on insuring positive outcomes. All sectors in the community can agree on certain value such as all third graders reading at grade level and mothers and children not having to live in their car. The same Mile High leader also emphasized that we are not going to achieve outcomes unless we are engaged in policy.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Seattle schools likely to ask voters for record $1 billion-plus in 2013
Seattle schools likely to ask voters for record $1 billion-plus in 2013:
Via Seattle Times: Education
While officials have not yet completed the project list for their next construction-levy request, Seattle School Board members are leaning toward a $700 million package of school reopenings, rehabilitations and rebuildings. It will be on the ballot in February 2013, at the same time voters will be asked to renew an operations levy that is expected to be about $500 million.
Via Seattle Times: Education
While officials have not yet completed the project list for their next construction-levy request, Seattle School Board members are leaning toward a $700 million package of school reopenings, rehabilitations and rebuildings. It will be on the ballot in February 2013, at the same time voters will be asked to renew an operations levy that is expected to be about $500 million.
Can more rigorous academics help Rainier Beach?
Can more rigorous academics help Rainier Beach?:
Via Seattle Times: Education
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is costly, demanding and — as some districts are finding — a way to rejuvenate struggling schools.
Via Seattle Times: Education
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is costly, demanding and — as some districts are finding — a way to rejuvenate struggling schools.
Next Seattle schools chief Banda: Building trust at top of to-do list
Next Seattle schools chief Banda: Building trust at top of to-do list:
Via Seattle Times: Education
The Seattle School Board's unanimous selection of José Banda as the next district superintendent came after 3-1/2 hours of closed-door deliberations Sunday night, officials said. The choice is expected to be formalized at a public meeting Wednesday.
Via Seattle Times: Education
The Seattle School Board's unanimous selection of José Banda as the next district superintendent came after 3-1/2 hours of closed-door deliberations Sunday night, officials said. The choice is expected to be formalized at a public meeting Wednesday.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Guaranteed tuition for qualifying college-bound 8th grade students
Guaranteed tuition for qualifying college-bound 8th grade students:
Via Mayor McGinn
Did you know that the State of Washington will guarantee tuition to a Washington public college or university to any student on the federal free and reduced lunch program — if that student maintains a 2.0 grade point average and does not commit a felony during high school?
It’s true. But they have to enroll in the scholarship program by the 8th grade. And the deadline is almost here.
It’s called the College Bound Scholarship Program, and our goal is for 100 percent of eligible 8th graders in Seattle to be enrolled in the College Bound Scholarship program by the June 30, 2012 deadline.
Last year our office was able to help meet that goal by getting the word out in the community about this incredible opportunity. In fact, last year 42% more kids signed up than in 2010.
We need to step up and take responsibility as a city to help our children, especially when many families cannot afford to send their kids to college. Even if you don’t have a child who qualifies, you probably know someone who does. Please share the above information and the following link as widely as possible. Students may apply for the College Bound Scholarship online at: http://hecb.wa.gov/collegebound
Via Mayor McGinn
Did you know that the State of Washington will guarantee tuition to a Washington public college or university to any student on the federal free and reduced lunch program — if that student maintains a 2.0 grade point average and does not commit a felony during high school?
It’s true. But they have to enroll in the scholarship program by the 8th grade. And the deadline is almost here.
It’s called the College Bound Scholarship Program, and our goal is for 100 percent of eligible 8th graders in Seattle to be enrolled in the College Bound Scholarship program by the June 30, 2012 deadline.
Last year our office was able to help meet that goal by getting the word out in the community about this incredible opportunity. In fact, last year 42% more kids signed up than in 2010.
We need to step up and take responsibility as a city to help our children, especially when many families cannot afford to send their kids to college. Even if you don’t have a child who qualifies, you probably know someone who does. Please share the above information and the following link as widely as possible. Students may apply for the College Bound Scholarship online at: http://hecb.wa.gov/collegebound
Mercer Island schools won't try another bond measure right away
Mercer Island schools won't try another bond measure right away:
Via Seattle Times: Education
After its proposed bond measure was soundly rejected by voters this week, the Mercer Island School District has no immediate plans to put the issue back on the ballot.
Via Seattle Times: Education
After its proposed bond measure was soundly rejected by voters this week, the Mercer Island School District has no immediate plans to put the issue back on the ballot.
Catching the kids we let fall
Catching the kids we let fall:
Via Seattle Times: Education
Teachers mend what never should have been broken.
Via Seattle Times: Education
Teachers mend what never should have been broken.
Sliding enrollment means schools to see dip in state money
Sliding enrollment means schools to see dip in state money:
Via Seattle Times: Education
Because of a lower-than-expected increase in student enrollment, Washington state's public schools will be forced to make do with $61 million less than what had been earmarked by the state in the two-year budget passed in 2011.
Via Seattle Times: Education
Because of a lower-than-expected increase in student enrollment, Washington state's public schools will be forced to make do with $61 million less than what had been earmarked by the state in the two-year budget passed in 2011.
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