Addressing Achievement

Addressing the Achievement Gap Through University Prep Jennifer L. Barnes December 6, 2007 Michigan State University

Addressing Achievement Across the country schools are scrambling to meet the governments demands for student achievement based on the No Child Left Behind Act. The need behind this law rests upon the achievement gap that exists between minorities and Caucasian students in most cases despite income level. The result of the Act is urban children being tested tirelessly and many are often

given the same message: youre not meeting our expectations. At our school, we are testing our kids like crazy. Theres standardized testing in September, October, January, and May and weekly assessments in most subjects. All of this is in an effort to monitor student achievement. Peoples opinions differ on the effectiveness of the law. Theoretically, it seems like a plan that we should all want to support: raise students achievement in all schools, especially poor urban ones by 2014, all kids reading on gradelevel, and showing higher test scores in mathematics. However, Joel Packer (2006) on NCLB: 4 Years Later called the law a partially failed experiment that has a one-size fits all mentality that is overly punitive (NPR, 2006). In The same broadcast, Ross Wiener said the modest gains in math and higher achievement than we have in years. At the same time he acknowledges that the gap is very big. Most of us in public urban education would agree with Packer. He also accounted for this by mentioning the big obstacles poor children in poor urban schools face outside of the school walls, which leads to atypical and typical reasons that we need to address: parental support, social networks, teachers expectations, the discipline gap, professional development, and active notlearning.

Addressing Achievement

Parent Support: Everyone needs to take responsibility. Most often, we hear and are guilty of using the dont haves as reasons for the achievement gap in our students: The main dont have that needs to be addressed is: We dont have adequate parent support. Which umbrellas a host of other dont haves. a. They dont have prior knowledge. b. Our students dont have examples to follow regarding education. c. They dont have books at home. d. They dont have a high enough regard for education. e. Parents dont have enough education to support us. We already market our school to parents who want to support their childrens education. Theyre committed to bringing them to school since our locale is not in a normal neighborhood. All of them drive their children to school each day. Despite what we sometimes say in frustration, we should assume that if asked, Whats the importance of getting good grades, the majority of students in our school would respond similarly to those students in Berkley High School: that their parents believe that education is at the forefront of their concern (Noguera and Wing, 2006, p, 207). Now, whether they know how to support us as educators is a different component we need to address. IF we want the parents to be concerned and support us, we have to try educating them in the type of support we expect and hold them to it. There are a few options.

Addressing Achievement

Strengthen Social Networks First, we can and need to take advantage of the demand for our school. We have the parent contract that explains the demands of our district and meet with parents of students new to our school, one-on-one. Lets make it more explicit and emphasize what KIPP academies do: students, parents, faculty make a choice to be here (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003, p. 47). The reality is that there are sacrifices/expectation that all need to be held accountable for in order to address the achievement gap. It needs to be obvious that if you cant or dont want to comply with our expectations as a learning community, then let someone else have your childs spot. The commitment needs to emphasize being in school everyday, on time unless theres a legitimate reason as North Star Academies have done (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003, p. 48). Parents need to understand and support the overall commitment that is expected. We can see the stratification of the achievement gap in our school despite not having a great deal of racial diversity. It is apparent in our middle class versus poorer families. While our students do not have the opportunity to uses social capital to choose their classes as high school students described at Berkley High, they do have access to more experience, computers, and tutors--if necessary (Noguera and Wing, 2006, p.92). Unfortunately, parents who themselves have been victims of the achievement gap are helping to perpetuate the cycle unconsciously even if they believe in the importance of education because some may not be able to help academically at home.

Addressing Achievement Furthermore, our school needs to use Parents as Partners as a way to

educate parents. While excuses about working late or not want tot come back for meetings may be acceptable elsewhere, parents need to be required to attend these meetings in order to hold their childs enrollment spot. This way, these meetings can address to fully support their children at home. Schools in other cities across the country show their commitment to success by showing the parents. We already have monthly Parents as Partners Meetings. If we take what the Abbot schools in New Jersey and meld that with what Parents as Partners already does, we may have gains (WGBH, March 16, 2006). Parents will learn that helping with homework is not doing homework for their child, only asking the child to retell the story in the book they were supposed to read, and/or just signing the homework. They will learn specific strategies for helping with learning math and literacy. This can be time for parents to experience the curriculum in order to be able to assist with learning at home. Because some parents at our school are victims themselves of the achievement gap and frequently say, I was never good at math in school and dont know how to help at home. Redesigning Parents as Partners will help address this problem. Although staff may loathe it, teachers should attend these monthly meetings as well in order to show a united front and address any concerns. Before we completely give up on families who dont attend Parents as Partners Meetings/Parent University, we should reach out to those who have not been attending and have children in the greatest jeopardy of falling behind like the Parent Outreach Committee organized at Berkley High School in California

Addressing Achievement (Noguera and Wing, 2006, pp. 208-215). If we survey these parents regarding their concerns about the school, then achievement may increase because home

support does concurrently. We can start with a small group and use this group to reach out to others who are reluctant to respond or participate in school activities. This would create a closer social network amongst the parents that could grow the culture of the school. If we really want to focus on our one student at a time policy, we should do everything it takes (another key phrase used in our district) to keep the students with us in order to help them. A way of engaging students who do not receive a decent amount of support at home, whom we have not been able to make grand accomplishments with is providing a real mentor program. The idea has been hinted around at in the past, used ineffectively, and eventually dropped. However, we could use our own high school students or those outside of the district, to become mentors, and even tutors to those who need help. Teachers Expectations: We have only 16 students in a class. Each week teachers report the percentage of kids who receive 80% or better on their math quizzes, how many kids are reading at each level, and how many kids pass the monthly writing assessment. At the upper grade levels, we have seen a plateau and discuss high versus low kids, despite not wanting to admit we do. The most asked question is, how do we elevate the kids who are struggling the mostthose who lack basic skills?

Addressing Achievement Profound , yet more difficult ideas to teach are desire, discipline and

dedication (Thernstrom, and Thernstrom, 75). Teaching these three are what can push students to want something better: academically and socially. We have to teach our students not to use their circumstances as excuses for not succeeding and maintain high expectations for all of our students despite the level where they are now. Teachers need to teach them with the expectation that they can and will improve their understanding. Part of holding students to these high expectations may mean literally holding them longer in school. Some successful schools in urban areas have longer days, like KIPP schools who add 67% more time than other schools. They are in school from 7:25 to 5:00 (Thernstrom & Thernstrom, 2003, p. 46). The fist obstacle to overcome if we choose to do this is the staffs own willswanting to go homeand then budgeting issues that may hinder pay increase for staff (that would be incentive enough for some to want to stay). We need to ask ourselves, if we put in the time, would it make a critical difference for those who are struggling with academics. This would alleviate the need for after-school programs (WGBH, March 16, 2006). Money that was once invested in that can be invested into a longer school day. Another consideration is making sure that the quality of teaching is not lower simply because students scores are lower. No one believes that he is a poor teacher with low standards, but we need to be careful and consider they type of accommodations we make for struggling students. The quality still needs to be high and challenging. Noguera and Wing (2006) suggested:

Addressing Achievement

Active intervention is need to support the needs of students who have less support or fewer resources at home, and leadership at multiple levels is required to ensure that excellence in teaching and a rigorous curriculum are available for the lowest-achieving students too. (p. 85) Students are cognizant of when theyre struggling and they also notice when theyre not being challenged. Teachers need to be aware of this and find a balance between having expectations and teaching material that has been made too easy versus at an adequate level of being challenging for that student. We can continue to spend some classroom time on guiding all students through challenging material: use higher level and diverse texts that will expose students to worlds both inside and outside of their own, in-school competitions in math and spelling. Tamara Friedman, a teacher participant in Berkleys Diversity Project found that when teaching a summer course to students who had failed the course two or three times, that they were capable of doing the work, but she had to battle them choosing not to do it (Noguera and Wing, 2006, 181.). Teachers at our school also have to be aware of this type of phenomenon. When taken out of the environment where they have been unsuccessful for whatever reason, there are many students who will get it. For us this may mean taking them out of one classroom and putting them in another (perhaps homogeneous by level, keeping the material rigorous enough for that group). Eventually, they can be filtered back into the classroom where they started. Is this creating a dumping ground for the low achieving students? No. We already have a school that is physically well-

Addressing Achievement kept, unlike that of the East Campus Berkley High School (Noguera and Wing, 2006, pp. 121-140). Keep the appearance the same. Set up a trial period for these groupings of students and reevaluate after 1-2 trimesters. Determine if putting them in an environment where it does not feel like everything is going over their heads makes a difference in achievement. Students can be moved

around accordingly if the plan works. Unlike tracking, this plan allows students to move around as needed. The idea is that they can be moved up or down as needed. Eventually, we may get to a point where everyone is learning closer to the same rate. With that, we need to keep in mind the need to continue in the direction of change. We should not get stuck in regiments and routines of what we think should work in order to increase achievement. Monthly professional development days are essential! As Noguera and Wing has suggested, it is crucial that we keep ourselves in check and not allow old unwanted behaviors and practices from both ourselves and studentsdo not resurface (2006, p.163). Continuing to share ideas in weekly team and staff meetings will facilitate moving in a forward direction. It should not continue to be tolerable that 50% of fourth and fifth-grade students score lower than 80% on weekly math assessments. The disparity has already been acknowledged. Now is the time to use professional development to cause change and share our successes. Clearly, we need more professional development in ways to differentiate math and literacy instruction to our struggling learners in math and literacy. We often get trainings on how to differentiate in general, but often is the focus

Addressing Achievement primarily on our lowest students. We claim to spend the most time with them in our groupings, but is it really helping them if they are not making significant

10

gains? Perhaps what we have been doing is not helping enough. There needs to be more time and money invested into specific strategies for struggling learners. Additionally, some of our students who struggle the most have Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and go to the resource room. We have to ask ourselves, is this enough? Are there enough students being serviced who need services? Or are there too many put into that category for needing special needs services? How can we also optimize the amount of learning that these students do? Discipline Gap We need to be aware of the discipline gap, being careful not to perpetuate the cycle. It is clear that low-achieving student soften act out, not out of despise for the teacher, but because of their frustration with not understanding the material or not being engaged. These are the students who are sent to administration most often. We have to be aware of this problem even though it exists on a low level at our school. What can happen is this: It disproportionately punishes neediest students by denying them the opportunity to learn, and it does so even though there is no evidence that it succeeds at either changing student behavior or improving the climate for learning. This is not to say that studentsdo not engage in problematic behavior that must be addressed. Rather, the schools inability to address

Addressing Achievement

11

the needs of studentslikely contributes to the myriad discipline problems plaguing...[them]. (Noguera and Wing, 2006, 122) As a whole, we have to stop sending the same kids to the office, putting them at tables by themselves, and change the behavior by getting help at finding out and addressing their true issue. This will impact achievement as well. More time in the classroom coupled with actual learning should lead to more learning and success. Test Scores Plus There are more reasons for the gap than we readily identify and need to reflect on In the beginning, it was easy for me to identify what I thought were the main reason for the achievement gap: socioeconomic status. Some writers use explanations that make perfect sense as explained below. Instead of not begin taught properly or being unable to learn given material, Herbert Kohl (1995) suggested the existence of active not-learning which can appear to be failure at first glance, but there is a difference in the two. Not-learning involves the willing rejection of some aspect of experience (Kohl, 1995, p. 4). He described a personal account of choosing not to learn Yiddish from his family members. It is a skill he, like others, master by purposefully not paying attention, acting dumb, scrambling ones own thoughts, and overriding curiosity (Kohl, 1995, p. 4). Failure leads to frustration. Whereas not learning results in feelings of being in charge, confident, and inner satisfaction (Kohl, 1995, p. 6). We have to figure out which of our students are using this technique of not learning in order to help them.

Addressing Achievement Kohl further suggests that a mismatch between students lives, experiences and/or language can be an impetus for not learning. If students

12

cannot connect to material that theyre being taught, it may result in not learning because the material seems unrelated to what their own lives. Ed Hirsch designed a core curriculum for what he believes every American should know. He reasoned that there are certain concepts that everyone in this country can and should learn. He said that memorization equals mastery and that this will create fairness in education (Kohl, 1995, pp. 113-114) The intent is that everyone is exposed to the same information and will make students playing fields in education level in order to compete. Kohl has described Hirschs curriculum as lacking diversity in content and for learning styles. More often than not, we as educators have been trained to account for differences, especially in learning styles (musical, linguistic, kinesthetic, logical, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal). Logically this would also transfer to cultures of people. In order to understand material, we have to be able to connect with it in some way. When learners cant do this, it results in the seemingly disconnect in learning. Akmirs story in Kohls book is another example when not learning could happen. What teachers were trying to teach him did not match his schema. He had a great deal of prior knowledge about African-Americans role in history. When he recognized that his textbooks and lectures did not include his culture (because of his background knowledge he was able to quickly recognize this), he refused to learn and was recognized as a discipline problem for speaking up about it (Kohl, 1995, 16). If there is a disconnect, especially one that is viewed as

Addressing Achievement

13

intentional, learners may choose not to learn, resulting in what appears to be an achievement gap. Additionally, not learning may be a result of a mismatch in the ideal of excellence. If one person (or group of people) try to superimpose his/her ideal upon learners, willful not learning may also result. A situation can appear equal (in resources/materials used) but equity may not exist. If having the same resources or being taught the same material as Hirsch has suggested, doesnt result in desired results then the rules must be changed in order to get the desired end (Kohl, 1995, p. 91). Knowing that willful not-learning exists, this may cause the achievement gap to appear larger than it actually is. How many of our students took the MEAP (or other state exams), Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) given three times a year, weekly tests and decided not to put their best effort in because the material doesnt seem relevant to their own experience? Or because theyve failed enough tests and decided to protect themselves from more failure by not trying? Or are being taught something radically different than is being taught at home? Putting it all together Educators have to take all of these ideas presented around parental support, social networks, teachers expectations, the discipline gap, professional development, and active not-learning seriously and use them to our advantage. We have to take an active role and encourage our students, their families, administration, and each other to go beyond what once was acceptable. If we

Addressing Achievement

14

want students to achieve and at least make a decent amount of gains, taking into consideration NCLB or not, we have to put more effort forward.

Addressing Achievement Works Cited

15

Noguera, P.A. & Wing, J.Y. (2006). Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in our Schools. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons. National Public Radio. (2006). Education: No Child Left Behind: Four Years Later. Retrieved November 2007 from NPR, Web site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5149640 Thernstrom, A. & Thernstrom, S. (2003) No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. New York: Simon & Schuster. WGBH Forum. (2006). The Abbot Districts: Better Funding, Better Achievement. Retrieved November, 2007 from Harvard Graduate School Education WGBH Forum Network. Web site: http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3100.