My Two-minutes from the CPS Board of Ed Meeting 2-22-12

Here's my speech from the Board of Ed meeting in Chicago on 2-22-12. I ad-libbed a bit during the actual meeting, but you get the idea:

Hello, my name is Katie Osgood. I have a pretty unique job. I work as a teacher on a child/adolescent inpatient unit at a psychiatric hospital here in Chicago and I am here today to speak on behalf of my students with mental health issues.

My students come from all over Chicagoland and are of all ages. In my classroom, I’ve had students from neighborhood schools, charter schools, turnaround schools, private school, selective enrollment schools, suburban schools, alternative schools and sometimes no schools at all. My job allows me a unique birds-eye view of what is happening in our schools.

And I do not like what I see.

Many of my students have pretty significant behavioral and mental health problems. Many also have a history of acting out in class and of academic failure.

And when I hear that CPS is investing in charter schools and turnaround schools as some sort of “solution”, I cringe!

I have heard too many stories from my students on how they “used to” go to charter school. How they “used to” go to a turnaround. I hear their personal stories and it is heart-breaking. They tell me they can’t go to those schools anymore because of behavior issues. These schools are NOT serving our neediest students.

When a charter school or a turnaround school sees my students, they see liabilities. They see lower test scores, they see behavior problems, they see expenses. To them, these kids damage the “brand”.

But when I see my students, I see intelligent, kind, funny, talented, creative, artistic, passionate young people. Yes, they talk back sometimes. Yes, they get in trouble and make bad decisions. But where I work we don’t charge them $5, we don’t kick them out of the program saying “you don’t fit in”. We help them.

In my hospital setting, with intensive interventions like small classes, numerous social workers, nurses, doctors, and a well-trained EXPERIENCED staff, these kids can thrive
But in order to succeed, my kids need the most resources, and instead CPS gives them the least.

CPS invests in charters and turnarounds which push my students out and then grossly underfunds the schools that do take them. My students repeatedly tell me stories of having no books, no libraries, huge classes of 40+ kids, and little art or music in their neighborhood schools. What kind of “choice” is that?

Fully resource every school and you will never have to close a school again.

February 22, 2012 CPS Board Meeting Part 3 from Chicago Public Schools on Vimeo.

(My speech starts around 15:30)

Who is Accountable for Teaching Contexts?

For the past few years, teacher accountability has been all the rage in education reform circles. This past week, New York State introduced a teacher evaluation system which relies heavily on student test scores and has sparked controversy nationwide. Grading teacher effectiveness is the name of the game.

With all this focus on individual teacher performance, I feel like we have missed the major factor in great education, the teaching environment, or context. While complex algorithms supposedly account for differences in student demographics for VAM scores, I am not convinced that these made-up numbers account for the context teachers are placed in and often have very little control over.

For example, there are many urban schools that are so ridiculously under resourced, that there are few books, no curriculum, and few support services. The school I taught in got rid of all but one special education aide, and she was most likely to be found in the school office doing paperwork and making copies for our principal rather that supporting our students with special needs. But no one was held accountable for that injustice. And the students suffered.

Who is held accountable for the context teachers are placed in? In Chicago, the school Board recently voted to close or turnaround 17 more schools next year due to “academic failure”. But teachers from the affected schools reported contexts like “57 kindergartners in one class” and teachers having to buy all their own copy paper.

The people supporting school closures and turnarounds act as if all teachers were being given the same level playing field to work from, and were simply not good enough thus justifying mass firings. We all know this is simply not the case.

Some principals are supportive and helpful, while others are vindictive and cruel. Who is accountable for this? Some schools put special education as a priority while others warehouse students with special needs in the “resource rooms”. Who is accountable? Some schools are given funding for arts, music, and gym class every day, while others can only afford one part-time position music OR art. Who is accountable? Some schools invest in small class sizes while others have huge split classes squeezing 40+ students into one room. Who is accountable? Some schools have a full-time social worker and nurse, while many only have a social worker and nurse one day a week at best. Who is accountable? Some schools rely on far too many untrained and uncertified teachers meaning a cohort of children will not be prepared well. Who is accountable? Many schools have excessive teacher turnover. Who is held accountable for the terrible teaching conditions which drive teachers away?

I believe that a teacher is only as successful as the context they are given to teach in. Someone may be a “great” teacher in one context, but an “ineffective” teacher in another. So who grades the environments? In fact, school environments and resources as well as individual school per-pupil spending would be easier to quantify into comparable numbers than a teacher’s subjective effectiveness. So let’s start measuring!

If we truly started grading school environments, the conversation would necessarily have to shift to school funding issues and resource distribution. These inequalities are much more important to focus on than individual teacher effectiveness or union protections like tenure. All the data points to income inequality and subsequent school funding inequality being the main driver behind struggling schools. NOT bad teachers.

So let’s hold the people who distribute the resources accountable! Let’s grade our politicians and chief financial officers! “Ineffective” does not even begin to describe the rating they should get....

Epiphanies and Elites: Solidarity with the People

This past week I found myself waking at 3am in order to attend the monthly Chicago Board of Education Meeting where the board voted to close/turnaround/phaseout 17 more schools in Chicago. While waiting in line, I had a bit of an epiphany.

Behind me in line were a group of people I remember thinking looked exceptionally out of place. While most people in line were dressed in casual clothing and union red, this group of about 4-5 people had on suits, and the women wore heavy make-up and heels. I think some of them may have been lawyers and business people. I overheard them mention words like KIPP and Teach for America (yes, I eavesdropped, I admit it.) Even their talk seemed different somehow. It was that 20-something, upper-middle class Lincoln Park sound (I know, right?). I tweeted, rather blurry-eyed in that early morning, “Standing in line for #CPS BOE meeting, people behind me from #TFA& #KIPP. They look like money-starkly diff from other teachers/parents...”

I ended up talking to a few of them, and they spouted the usual talking points. (Someone actually said to me “I don’t believe poverty is destiny” and “I think all children can learn”.) And some of them did go up and speak at the board meeting and unsurprisingly were all for school closings and turnarounds.

These types, these upper-middle class--and I will give them the benefit of the doubt—most likely well-meaning people were unequivocally on the side of the 1%. Their views, their dress, their worldview all aligned perfectly with the mayoral-appointed school board of millionaires and business elites. They were the voices of the moneyed powers that be.

In contrast, while I felt anger and disgust at the people behind me, I remember standing there with my buttons calling for the ending of school closures and support of neighborhood schools and feeling a powerful connection with the vast majority of people in line. The supporters of public education were every race, every background. They were people from every community around the city. And the issue of school closures and privatization had brought us all together.

In truth, I come from the hotseat of the powerful elite. I grew up on the North Shore of Chicago and graduated from one of the most affluent public schools in Illinois: New Trier High School. (Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader recently wrote about New Trier's connections to the elite in Chicago and CPS. He mentions New Trier grad Todd Connor. Todd and I graduated the same year. I remember sitting in French class with him. He's a nice guy.) Still, based on how our highly-segregated society works, I probably should not be where I am today, fighting with union guys and community organizers.

But here is my epiphany. It was my choice of professions, becoming a teacher, which allowed me access into this world. When I chose teaching, many people gave me the tired old speech “But you’re too smart to be a teacher.” Others encouraged me to go into those alternative certification programs like Teach for America with an implied, "at least you’ll be able to do something 'real' after you get this teaching thing out of your system."

Maybe it was because I had already taught for years in Japan, a country which holds teachers in high-esteem, but I refused those alternative options. I believed and still believe today that every child deserves a fully-prepared teacher and thanks to the experience I’d already had in the classroom, I knew I needed to expand my practice before taking a class of my own. And when I made the switch to Special Education, I was sure that preparation was absolutely vital in reaching these fragile children.

But back to that day in line, I cannot tell you the sense of pride and solidarity I felt standing alongside my brothers and sisters fighting against something Rev Jesse Jackson appropriately called “educational apartheid.”

It bothers me that many of my peers from high school have done TFA or support the program so strongly. It bothers me that they believe charter schools with non-unionized young teachers and turnarounds with few tenured teachers are the answer. It bothers me that they see no problem disrupting communities or show little care at the impact on children having to cross gang lines and the violence that ensues thanks to school closings. I don't like how they so easily dismiss the disgusting funding inequalities which are truly to blame for struggling schools, but callously place the blame on teachers and parents. More than anything, it bothers me that all of these "reforms" are things that they would NEVER let happen at New Trier. To them, uncertified teachers in underfunded schools with "zero tolerance" discipline programs are just fine for the poor--for other people's children--but never for the wealthy. It is their worldview, their idea that they need to "save" the poor, that their unproven business-model reforms are somehow what's needed, and that they can swoop in, remain completed isolated from the communities they are "helping", and then go back to their elite world which irks me the most. I certainly have been guilty of some of these assumptions and thoughts in the past. But I am starting to get educated.

Recently, on an internet debate on Gary Rubinstein’s popular post, a Teach for America supporter wrote:

TFA is the corporate sponsor of education. It brings people to the field who could’ve been something else that people are generally impressed by- a doctor, a lawyer, what have you, and in doing that invests people who make it their business to command respect and be successful if only in the most corporate, numbers-based sense of the word. One can debate whether that makes an effective teacher. I tend to believe that being that committed and analytical can’t hurt. But to me it’s doubtless that TFA brings people to the field that get results and, if nothing else, demand the attention and respect that is needed to make education in general and teaching in particular respected enough to command the salaries and esteem that will bring forth real educational reform.

And here is part of my response I wrote citing an event I attended the week before the Board Meeting:

I am always so upset when I hear the argument that TFA recruits are somehow a better kind of person. So let me tell you a story.

This past week, I attended a rally which called for the ending of school closures and turnarounds in Chicago. The rally was held in a Baptist church on the south side near one of the targeted schools in one of Chicago’s many highly segregated African American communities. One by one many of the affected schools’ teachers came to the podium to tell their story. Almost every teacher that spoke had tears in her eyes as she talked about the years and years she had spent helping, supporting, and most importantly educating her “babies”. And every single teacher was African-American. Many of these women had grown up somewhere relatively close to where they now taught and knew the culture of their kids intimately.

I felt such a rush of pride knowing that I got to stand in solidarity with people from all walks of life and every neighborhood thanks to my choice of profession. Unlike my sister who is a doctor–one of those professions which “commands respect”–my profession puts me on equal footing with colleagues that our intensely unequal society says I shouldn’t even know. And I love it. Teaching spans class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality in a way few other professions do.

Make no mistake, teaching to this day does not “command respect” because it is a traditionally female dominated profession and employs people of all races and classes. The lack of respect for teaching speaks to a deeply classist, racist, and sexist worldview that still cripples our nation. Which is why the types of qualities which make a great teacher: compassion, empathy, creativity, caring, humility are not valued.

I value those things. Those brilliant, talented, compassionate African-American women who have taught and inspired children for years are the ones being targeted for removal in my city. And districts today use TFA and other alternative certs, as a large pool of cheap, complaint labor. They are staffing the turnarounds and charters that go in the place of these closures.

Recently, Sabrina Stevens Shupe wrote an excellent piece entitled “'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics” which expands upon the idea that teaching is being demonized because it is a majority female profession

I would add that teaching is also a profession which allows people from a working-class background to move into the middle class. From the elite’s perspective, these women and minority supposedly "lower-class" people are considered “inferior”. When Teach for America or our politicians talk about bringing “better” people into the profession, I believe these assumptions are what they are (subconsciously or not) referring to. “Better” does not mean what’s best for the children they serve, but speaks to the perceived class and status of the profession. See more on the racist (and age-ist) termination policies being championed by corporate education reformers in this Huffington Post piece by Kenzo Shibata where he writes:

New staff at schools where drastic reform took place tends to be younger, more white, and less experienced. Teachers are also more likely to have provisional certifications... The percentage of African-American teachers at many schools dropped drastically, though the reforms took place in mostly black neighborhoods. The shakeups meant a 30, 40 even 60 percent reduction in African-American teachers at individual schools.

These numbers make me think that "reform" may be coded language for something pretty appalling.

Pretty appalling indeed. In fact, I would argue that too many of the “better” candidates being brought in through TFA and also being asked to staff charters and sometimes turnaround schools, are actually a terrible choice for the children they serve. Some of the best urban teachers I’ve ever seen, the ones who got those children to light up in the act of learning, who inspired kids to behave appropriately, who met the children where they were at, are the same ones being targeted for termination and being replaced by 20-something white women (or at least culturally upper-class, regardless of skin color) who know very little about the communities they are entering.

I truly believe I am on the right side of this debate. I believe it because I know the other side inside and out. I understand how the elite upper-class think in our country because I used to be one. Those TFA and charter proponents at that board meeting must have felt unwelcomed, uncomfortable, and outnumbered...and rightly so! Their elitist views are not what the people want. The people want reform that addresses the inequalities in school funding, housing, policing, and health care. They want reforms that acknowledge the institutional racism and classism holding children back. They want reform that supports the teaching profession as it is one of the few avenues left to the middle class for many families. Ultimately, they want fully-funded schools staffed with experienced professional teachers and all the resources the kids at New Trier get automatically. They want, once and for all, equality in education.

I love teaching. And I also love being a part of this vast people’s movement. I love that I can stand behind giants in civil rights like Jitu Brown of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), Rev Jesse Jackson, and Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union. I would not have it any other way.

(Substance photo by Sharon Schmidt.)

Noble Street Charters Not Acting Noble At All

Recently, a new controversy about charter schools has erupted here in Chicago. Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, parent and community advocacy groups uncovered that Noble Street Charter Schools, often hailed as the highest performing charters in the city and a favorite of Mayor Emanuel, have charged nearly $400,000 in students fines over a two-year period. A majority of these fines were for minor infractions like having a shoelace untied or “not looking a teacher in the eye”. And-if you were wondering-we are talking about teenagers here, not kindergartners.

Now, as a teacher, I understand the need to have a controlled and safe teaching environment. Heck, I work as a teacher at a local psychiatric hospital. I appreciate good rules, clear expectations, and structure. Consequences can be effective tools for teaching students appropriate behavior.

But teaching kids better behavior is not what is happening at Noble. These fines are penalties, penalties directed at the students families. Many are families that simply cannot afford too many of these fines. This type of punishment is not going to change behavior and I don't think they ever intended it to. The real consequence of this policy is that students who “misbehave” too often, instead of being taught more appropriate behaviors, are forced to leave the school. This system ensures only the very best-behaved children will remain in the school. And this exclusion is on purpose. The school does not deny it, but rather prides itself on its tough discipline policy.

So whose responsibility is it to help kids who are struggling behaviorally? It seems easy to place the blame for bad behavior on the students or their parents. It’s also in vogue to point the finger at teachers themselves. Unfortunately, behavior is wildly more complicated.

As someone who works in a mental health facility, I see daily the many varied reasons which lead to negative behaviors, including learning disabilities, poor home environments,frequent disruption from multiple foster placements, anxiety, trauma, chemical dependency, food insecurity, homelessness, attachment issues, depression, ADHD, low self-esteem, gang influence, and even conduct disorders. These kids have often not been taught appropriate responses to anger, fear, or sadness. And nowadays many kids are suffering from extreme boredom due to ridiculously uninteresting test-prep curricula aimed solely at pushing up test scores. I'm not saying the kids are completely off the hook in terms of responsibility, but that behavior is a really complicated and environmental-dependent phenomenon. Punishing kids through fines does nothing to address the root causes of the negative behaviors. (I wrote about what my students need to succeed in this edweek post.)

The problem for me, is that charter schools are not magnet schools, they are not selective enrollment schools, and since they receive public funds, they are certainly not private schools. These are public schools with no entry requirement. What’s more, the very idea of charter schools, originally the brain child of former AFT Union president Albert Shanker, and first pinoneered in Minnesota, were supposed to be bastions of innovation designed to help the most at-risk, hardest-to-educate children--The exact kids Noble unapologetically punishes and then pushes out. Charters get to operate outside much of the red tape of traditional schools. They were to use the added flexibility to figure out creative ways to reach these tough kids which could then be replicated in all schools.

Charters are not doing that. Instead, they are competing for the strongest students of color in Chicago. I saw this first-hand when I attended the media bonanza called the CPS New Schools Expo in January. I left with all kinds of glossy brochures, free pens, bags and lots of smiles and assurances that everything was "great" at the schools. (Funny that charters complain of getting less funding, but have money for crazy amounts of marketing. I've certainly never seen an ad for the local neighborhood school. Why is that?) Regardless, this competition to get "better students" leaves those who can't "cut it--as Noble St schools like to say--to be thrown back into the local neighborhood schools. Oh, and let's not forget that the neighborhood schools are getting less and less funding as the money is skimmed away. (Nevermind that the charter school many times gets to keep the money from the kids who get sent back, often conveniently BEFORE the high-staking testing which will decide the school's fate.) And of course, those predictable poor test scores of the neighborhood schools are now a great reason to close the school. In it's place goes yet another charter school. And so the "bad" kids are pushed around yet again. It's a vicious cycle and it's not working.

So is this what choice really is then? The system has only so many selective enrollment seats, so are charters where the next tier of kids go? The "good" "well-behaved" kids from intact, involved families but who can't quite get the scores for Lane Tech or Whitney Young? If that's what they are, then THAT's what they should advertise. Charters should quit claiming that they have overcome the achievement gap. That all it took was a few overworked teachers and a longer day. My experience with charter schools is that they are not doing anything terribly special, they are simply less overwhelmed with major problems and thus their very average teaching and interventions work a little better. (And this only even applies to franchises like Noble which do get better results. A lot of the charters don't even do better, in terms of test scores at least.)


And then I start to think about the class and racial implications of these types of discipline policies. I imagine what ritzy North Shore parents from my alma mater, New Trier, might say about these fines. I think they'd be in an uproar, even when they have plenty of money to pay and even if their kid had in fact acted terribly. I can just see them rallying around "No one treats my child like an inmate in a prison!" Well, chances are, Trevian mother, your child will never have to find out what a prison is like. Wish that were true for all groups of people in this country. Why does urban education insist of treating children of color like criminals?

In all seriousness, what do we, as a society, propose to do with all these young people with behavior problems? So far, the only thing we've thought to do is lock more of them up for longer. A society where schools are starved but prisons thrive is not the kind of place I want America to be. Why does no one ever question WHY these kids are acting this way and address that?

Lastly, I know these kids who are getting pushed out personally. I have met too many of them from charter schools all around the city. These kids honestly believe they are, in fact, "bad kids". And they are not. I have loved every child under my care, and while I dislike some of their behaviors, I see great potential for change. I will not give up hope that these kids can still learn, if only we adults can figure out better, creative ways to make them engaged again and then back our ideas with actual resources. I think we'd better start by first correctly identifying the barriers to learning, and I'll tell you right now, they have little to do with bad teachers or teacher unions.

I haven't given up on these troubled kids. Too bad Noble Street has.

Hey teachers, it's ok, you're not that stupid....

This was a letter on edweek giving advice about changing careers for educators. I thought it was going to be some practical advice about what other fields might be open for teachers who were sick of the ridiculous education policies being inflicted on us. Instead, it was a pep talk to assure teachers that we're not THAT dumb and that with a little confidence we can probably do "real" work. Geez...

Education Majors: Changing Careers
By AAEE on February 8, 2012 1:14 PM | No comments

Before changing careers it is important that you have done the requisite self-analysis and concluded that a career change is the proper course of action. The next logical question is how can you possibly use your education degree in any other career? At this point you are probably poised for a litany of specific job and career options to be listed. I hate to disappoint you but I need for you to start this process with the simple premise that you can do whatever it is you want to do with your education degree!! Yes, it is imperative that you have the self-confidence necessary to pursue any professional area that you deem desirable. Too often those of us in education tend to feel as though everyone in the "real world" is smarter, more driven and more business savvy. If you don't truly believe that you can compete in the non-education world, you will have a very difficult time successfully doing so.

If confidence is the key to success, how do you acquire/improve it? Awareness is the answer to that question and it comes in three steps: awareness of your direction, awareness of your options within your chosen direction and awareness of your transferable skills. Determining your direction is essential and typically requires a very thorough analysis of your interests, personality traits and work values. Any good career decision-making book on the market such as, What Color is Your Parachute?, will have exercises to help you organize your thoughts in this step. It is very important here to dream big and ask how you might be able to accomplish your goals, rather than play the "yes, but" game. We all live with realities in life but we are also all quite capable of stretching our pre-conceived realities!!

After determining a tentative direction, further exploration is required to create your awareness of options available to pursue your next career or job. In some areas these options can be as simple as reading about the field or a particular company, networking with folks in that area and possibly even volunteering in order to get some first-hand experience. With other careers/jobs, the exploration reveals specific credentials that are required to enter the profession. Do not be discouraged from tackling those credentials. You have done it once with your teaching certification and you can do it again, if that is where your heart lies. Remember the points made in the previous two paragraphs about confidence and pre-conceived realities!!

Finally, as you venture forth on a new career/job path you must know that you have gained a tremendous amount of experience and honed some very transferable skills in your years as a teacher. These are experiences and skills that employers will relish, if you only take the time to assess what those might be and highlight them in your job search process. I don't have the space here to adequately elaborate on those transferables, but any good career counselor will gladly help you to determine yours. Also, the book, 101 Career Alternatives for Teachers by Margaret Gisler, spends some time on this topic and has some valuable self-discovery exercises.

In this career/job change process it is always valuable to put yourself in the shoes of a person who might consider hiring you. Do you think that any rational employer wants to take a chance on someone who has no direction, has not made an effort to research the field/credentials/company and worst of all, has no clue how their presence will add value to the organization? It's not good enough to dream about changing careers/jobs, you have to work hard to make your next field a successful fit!!

Curt Schafer
Director of Career Services
Texas State University

Anyway, here was the comment I posted (if they approve it.)

I am in education and I have never thought "everyone in the 'real world' is smarter, more driven and more business savvy". My choice to stay in teaching has nothing to do with confidence. I believe teaching is a far nobler, far more important and meaningful occupation than working in say business or finance. Helping children matters more than helping some shareholder make a profit. However, working as a teacher has become unbearable in past years, but I resist changing fields because I don't want to sell out. This letter offends me.

Ugh.

What are charter school teachers thinking??

After a discussion with a charter school teacher, I was surprised at her reaction to the anger us public school teachers feel over the education deform movement that would destroy public education. She seemed genuinely shocked and hurt to hear people thought so negatively about charter schools. She even chided me on my tone. But she also seemed to have no knowledge of the moneyed and powerful political forces at work behind charter schools and organizations like Teach for America. Instead she defensively talked about the great work she felt she and her colleagues were doing at her school. I don't deny that. But I can't help but wonder how so many people, charter school teachers, TFA teachers, and even many teachers in neighborhood school choose to remain ignorant. It's like they purposefully screen out all the terrible things happening around them to only see their individual classrooms and students. Is this a coping mechanism? Is it fear? Is it just an environment saturated with the corporate deform propaganda? How can people anywhere ignore the growing evidence about the only partially-hidden motives of corporate reformers like Rahm Emanuel, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and Wendy Kopp? Do they not see how these policies hurt children? And how does anyone ignore the poverty and lack of economic opportunity that holds our students and their families back? People still honestly believe that it is bad teaching causing our students to fail despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Here are some of the questions I posed to her. I did appreciate that she took the time to at least debate these issues, but I'm not really closer to an understanding on how people justify ignoring the destructive education political environment at play in our schools today. Here is her blog where I originally posted this:

Many thoughts have been stewing in my head today. I find I have many questions for charter school teachers like you. I'm realizing that maybe you were so surprised by the anger and vitriol expressed by public school teachers because you are simply not aware of the reality of the political landscape.

Do teachers in the charter schools see the problems we are talking about here? Do they acknowledge that the choice movement (as a whole, not individuals) has too often become more about profit, union-busting, and taking down public education than about children? What do you think about all the school closures and turnarounds happening in Chicago and elsewhere? Have there been students with disruptive behaviors expelled from your school? What types of disabilities do your students with IEPs have and how many are there in the school? What is the average age of teachers at your school? What are the racial and socioeconmic backgrounds of the teachers? How many teachers there came through alternative teaching certification programs? Have many teachers been fired at your school and if so, what were the reasons? What is the turnover rate like in your teaching force? Does your school receive supplemental funds from outside sources? What experts, publications, media, and research do you turn to for information about the education debate? Are charter school teachers talking about education reform in the teacher lounges and after-school? If so, what are they saying?

I mentioned I had a lot of questions, right?

You spoke a lot about your classroom and individuals in the charters. I won't argue with you about personal motivations. I am more curious how much you are aware of in terms of the big picture. Are you aware of how charters and TFA are being used to push neoliberal education policy at the Chicago Board of Ed, in the Illinois statehouse, and in Washington DC?

I honestly have no idea where you are coming from and what exactly you already know. Like I said before, I never had a problem with charters, or even TFA for that matter, until I did my research and learned the sad truth about these organizations. The media masks the truth. And at one point, before I worked in the schools, I believed the lies. In fact, I thought charters and TFA both sounded FANTASTIC! Like I was then, most non-educators certainly don't know what is actually happening in our schools, especially those labeled as "failing". They probably saw the movie "Waiting for Superman" and unquestioningly bought that poisonous narrative that "bad teachers" and their unions are the problem. Do charter school teachers also think this way?

I just cannot reconcile someone talking about working together, acting shocked by the strong response, and invoking "Kingian" language unless they simply do not understand or want to understand the scope of the problem. Dr. King believed in non-violent protest certainly, but he also believed in speaking out when he saw injustice occurring. And when I see the Board of Ed purposefully starving schools, crying "failure", and then using that failure as an excuse to close and privatize, I need to speak out. When I see them target low-income neighborhoods of color, I need to speak out. When I see children with special needs getting tossed around schools, I need to speak out. When I see our mayor hand out multi-million dollar contracts to his buddy Juan Rangel for his UNO charters and to his appointed President of the Board of Ed David Vitale's organization AUSL for turnarounds, I need to speak out. And when I see the ridiculous, gross under-funding of low-income schools, I want to scream.

Dr. King also believed in labor and the dignity of work. He died fighting for workers' rights. Why are almost all charter school proponents also anti-labor? It all comes back to the poisonous narrative. Did you know the NAACP has come out AGAINST charter schools? There's a reason for that pushback. Do you understand why?

Do you see the protests and sit-ins put on by neighborhood organizations and parents against charter schools and turnarounds? Do you ever question why so many community members, teachers, parents, and students out there are so very angry?

Charter schools allow society to ignore poverty, violence, and the growing income gap in this country by presenting an easy-to-do, cheap solution. No one has to change unequal school funding policies, 'cause charters are the answers! That's the line that is being sold out there. And as a result, charters have weakened education and made it worse, not better. As you hear stories of how other children are suffering because of schools like yours, even if you personally are helping the kids in front of you, is it worth it? Is it good enough to help some kids at the expense of others?

I just don't know if you all have even considered these many many questions...

And here are her thoughtful and thorough answers:

I’m not surprised by the anger of teachers. I know the media and politics are slanting information toward charters and TFA, and against unions. I think I’m starting to speak up because I know that’s not helpful. At the same time, going 180 degrees the opposite doesn’t get anyone closer to a solution. I think if progress is to be made, we need to be a bit more positive and see commonalities than just focus on what is wrong about everything.

I read Geoffry Canada’s Whatever It Takes and loved how he created supports for parents early on and hated that he replaced the staff of a school based on one year’s test scores. I personally have never seen Waiting for Superman because I don’t need to drink that Kool-Aid. I repeat, I don’t think charters and TFA are the answers nor are they better than many of their counterparts, but I do believe they can be part of a solution.

My first two years of teaching I was at a neighborhood school on the south side. It did not feel like a school. We don’t need another “ohmygod the school is awful” diatribe so I won’t go into too much detail.There are some amazing adults there that truly care about the children. There are also disenfranchised, unhappy and unhelpful adults. If I had stayed there my position would have been cut. Some teachers actually left that school and began their own charter school, across the street. They, like I, believed these students could be successful if the structure of the school was improved, and that’s how they choose to help that community.

What do you think about all the school closures and turnarounds happening in Chicago and elsewhere?
Fenger, Marshall and Collins are are high schools I’ve followed their turnarounds closely. I worry about the message it sends to a community to just quit a school and replace the teachers. I believe positive relationships are the foundation to a safe, meaningful school. It’s also disheartening to see the money come to a desperate school after it has been closed/turnaround. Finally, I don’t believe you can call a school successful if they expel the trouble makers. All that being said, when I think to my first two years on the south side, I’m amazed that school is not closed.

Have there been students with disruptive behaviors expelled from your school?
Few students (none that I know of, really) have been expelled. Most transfer out. The reason students transfer are 1) they/their parents cannot afford/students don’t have the time to make up all their failing credits 2) they/their parents do not appreciate our structure 3) they/their parents want them to go to school closer to where they live. As a staff we spend a considerable amount of time trying to keep students from failing. We are told by our President and Principals that if a kid’s name is on our list the first day of freshmen year, we want them to walk across our stage in 4 years. They are “our babies”.

What types of disabilities do your students with IEPs have and how many are there in the school?
I don’t know how many IEP students we have at our school, but as a teacher who sees 80% of the sophomore class I have about 15 kids. They range from learning disabled/beginning readers to Emotionaly disturbed to ADHD. We offer support groups for students with anger issues and a separate one for students who have experienced severe trauma. I really love working with our special education teachers, but we don’t have enough personnel for all the work that needs to be done.

What is the average age of teachers at your school?
If I had to guess the average age would be mid to late 30s. We hire very few first year teachers, and most of the first year teachers did their student teaching with us. We still have founding members, teachers who have been there for 12 years. Maybe ⅓ of the staff has been there since I have been there, 4 years or more. (We’ve also grown, doubling in size.) Most of the staff have experience teaching prior to coming here, many in the Chicago Public School system. Out of 70 staff members, I think maybe a little over half of them have children. As someone who struggles with finding balance between my personal/professional lives, I worry about this issue.

What are the racial and socioeconomic backgrounds of the teachers/administrators?
I am told there used to be more black males but we lost them to Urban Prep. We have a math teacher and a principal who were raised in the community. Some of the heritage of our staff includes Korean, Indian, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and Judaism. I don’t want to be incorrect in my guestamation, but about half of the staff is white middle class.

How many teachers there came through alternative teaching certification programs?
We currently have 1 TFA on staff, and I only know of one other alternatively certified teacher beside myself. There may be more but because we hire experienced teachers I don’t know.

Have many teachers been fired at your school and if so, what were the reasons? What is the turnover rate like in your teaching force?
Not many teachers have been fired. However, of those who leave, I believe pay is the biggest issue. When you come here, generally, you are matched at the salary you would expect from the district you come from, but after that it’s an across the board increase. Last year I was paid between 15-20% below what I’d be making in CPS. This issue will deserve it’s own post one day. We loose probably 4 or 5 teachers a year.

Does your school receive supplemental funds from outside sources?
We do fundraising for our summer program where we send our students on internships, college programs for highschoolers, and outward bound type programs. We pay for the students travel and lodging so that’s a big part of spring fundraising. The development office also has a campaign “bridge the gap” between the funding we get from the state vs. regular schools, which is about $1,500 less per student.

What experts, publications, media, and research do you turn to for information about the education debate?
I’ve been reading Diane Ravitch, Gary Rubenstein, The Frustrated Teacher, and many others, including your blog, for about two years. I think Linda Lutton on NPR does an amazing job of education reporting for Chicago. I also follow a ton of teacher blogs about resources and technology integration.

Are charter school teachers talking about education reform in the teacher lounges and after-school? If so, what are they saying?
There are a few staff members who are amazing community organizers I go to for robust conversation. One in particular helped create the Little Village High School center. Another one spoke up when they were fired without due process in CPS. Yes. Many charter school teachers acknowledge the issues. It’s hard for us sometimes not to feel taken advantage of, and exploited. I sometimes wonder if I’m perpetuating a system I know needs improvement, but at the same time I recognize that quitting my job won’t solve anything. However, we have a strong sense of family. I’ve yet to meet a colleague who has experience in CPS not appreciate the vibe of hard work, camaraderie, and support we as a staff offer one another. My charter school is not a major chain, we are a school with a mission tied to the community we serve.

What’s starting to form in my head are 3 major issues regarding education
all schools should be funded equitably. Clearly that is not the case, and we are in survival mode so we don’t have the energy to look at the bigger picture.
schools should have more autonomy. This was a big draw for me moving into a charter setting.
standardized testing is not an accurate way to measure a school’s success.

However, from my experience, while schools are important, it’s the communities that have been ignored and are decimated. An amazing school in a impoverished community alone is not the answer. I, too, get frustrated when a someone (especially middle/upper class) invokes the “well they have the opportunity they choose not to take it” mentality. We need to do a better job of exposing people to the complexities of the issues without being too antagonistic and push them away.

I think I get it. I want to work with you, but I feel like I’m being pitted against you.

Hey Charters and TFA, You Want Me to Join With You? Then Change.

Some argue that we should work together with charter schools and organizations like Teach for America. Recently, a little twitter debate emerged with one charter school teacher arguing (From Ms. Katie Bordner’s blog ):

Positivity = Productivity

On the suggestion of @urbanteachersed , I’ll share something I’ve been thinking about for awhile regarding the national conversation about education reform.

TFA and charters are not the enemy. In my experience, the people who work in these organizations are incredibly motivated, hard working people with huge hearts who want to improve the lives of students.

I say they are not the enemy because I am them. I was a Chicago Teaching Fellow, which is the Chicago-based alternative certification program. I taught two years at a neighborhood school on the south side, and I’m currently teaching my 4th year in a charter school on the West Side.
Everybody wants to see themselves as part of the solution, and when you pick fights against us instead of work with us, it creates a polarized, fragmented mess. It’s really easy to point out the flaws of TFA, charters, standardized testing, unions, and everything else. There are many. I propose, however, we focus on what we can agree on and start there.

I just finished reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, and a few things relate to this ongoing debate. The more antagonistic and bitter you are the harder it will be for people to want to side with you. I struggle with this as well, because when you’re passionate about something it’s really easy to loose sight of common ground.

I’m not saying TFA or charters are the answer. I’m saying they’re just trying to do what they think is best, like everyone else, and we should really be more positive.

I appreciate the desire for dialogue. But I feel this call to “dialogue” often asks the people who strongly believe that charters and TFA are doing real damage to children to simply put those feelings to the side while the charter and TFA-proponents need not veer at all in their trajectory. This is why I won’t do that:

Hey charter schools, you want me to work with you? Stop selling out kids to the gods of profit and power! Tell your CEOs to stop stealing 400 plus grand of public money per year. Stop worshipping tests scores and going to any lengths necessary to raise those scores, like pushing out students with special needs. Stop abusing non-unionized teachers by purposefully overworking them and guaranteeing that teaching will only be a short-term career stop for young people without families. Stop trying to save a buck on your labor force by actually hoping that your teachers burn out thus saving on those pesky pensions or other rightful worker rights. Teaching is already stressful enough: longer hours, less pay, and no job protections make it nearly impossible to do long-term. There are reasons why unions past fought for these rights.

And speaking of testing worship, stop relying on scripted curricula or data walls as if they were somehow innovative. Start using the lack of red-tape to try REAL innovation. Figure out new ways to help the hardest to educate students like you were originally intended to. And no, this is not a call to “zero tolerance” or “no excuses” discipline policies. Those policies push kids (purposefully) out of your schools. Start teaching those kids instead of kicking them out! You are NOT magnet schools! You are NOT selective enrollment schools! You are supposed to teach any child who walks through your doors. Make learning more fun, more relevant to those at-risk students who are struggling. Experiment with class size, learning environments, technology, hands-on learning, staffing ratios, mentoring, etc. Figure out something different that all schools can try.

And to h*ll with the test scores! If a strategy helps a child stay in the school instead of leaving it, then it is a success. Measure your success by qualitative stories of hope and excitement around learning rather than some silly bubbles on a page.

And for god’s sake, STOP this silly competition myth! You were supposed to work WITH neighborhood schools, to supplement and support. So why do you advertise “choice” saying you are better than other schools when all you do is teach (sometimes poorly) easier-to-educate black and brown children? Cut it out.

Charter schools, you have forgotten the very point of your existence and instead have reinforced the status quo of racially and SES segregated schools, skimmed money away from neighborhood schools which desperately need it, and cooked the numbers to “sell” a product rather than serve children and communities.

And you teachers in the charter schools, I understand you needed a job. I myself even interviewed and was offered a position at a charter high school here in Chicago when I was looking for work. But stop putting your heads in the sand and buying the line that charters are somehow better. I just don’t see enough of you out on the streets advocating for your students or their communities. You seem to hide behind the moneyed, politically-influential Michelle Rhee types. While maybe deep down you acknowledge the need for more equitable funding systems, the need for extra support for struggling schools instead of closure, the importance of veteran teachers in a school community, and the true detrimental effects of poverty on students' lives, I just have not met you out there on the front lines. If you are there, please start speaking up! Make your voices heard. I get that you do not have a union to protect you (kinda the point of the charters) but that is no excuse to not fight for what is right. If you are living in fear, if you are too overwhelmed with the workload, that is no excuse, that is the REASON to fight back.

And now to TFA, want me to work with you? Well start by actually training your recruits. Add at least a year or two on to the commitment and have these kids spend the first year as an intern working as an assistant in a veteran teacher’s classroom. Or if TWO is the magic number, as Wendy Kopp always stresses, then why put these poor young things in front of their own class? Why not let them be tutors, helpers, supporters of the hard work that is involved for professional teachers? You have a lot of money. Use it to supplement the corp members salaries as ASSISTANT TEACHERS, not full-time untrained lead teachers. Get rid of that silly Institute where you indoctrinate the young people, and have locally-based night and evening workshops and trainings. You talk all the time about the inequalities in our schools. So stop contributing to those inequalities by placing untrained teachers in high-needs classrooms!

Stop spreading the lie that your recruits are “better” than the veteran teachers they replace. (And yes, as education budgets shrink, these first and second year novices are taking jobs away from more experienced, better-trained career teachers. That is NOT ok.) Your recruits are not better, and you know it. Instead of admitting that truth, you manipulate data and misquote research to make it sound like they are in fact more effective. Stop it. Do not continue to give poor kids untrained young people on emergency certificates when you would not STAND to have those unprepared 20-somethings teach your own children.

And how dare you, how DARE you place many of your novices in special education positions! This is so wrong, I can barely type these words I am so livid. The children MOST in need of expert, highly-trained, specialized, professional teachers instead get some 22-yr old who doesn’t even know what IEP stands for. No. No…

Stop drinking your own Kool-aid. TFA’s ego has grown out of proportion. You do a disservice to children and their communities. So stop acting so smug. TFA serves itself and its members, NOT children. And just for the record, I personally don’t want some soon-to-be lawyer or politician teaching kids. A lot of you “go-getters” would make pretty lousy teachers, in my humble opinion. Start actually listening to the teachers and administrators who are pushing back on the organization. Teachers are generally pretty steady individuals, so if they are riled up about your org, pay attention!

All you current corp members and alums, you also need to pull your heads out of the sand. Look around and see the impact TFA has on the political landscape in education. See how a noble mission statement and idealistic young people are being used to bust unions, weaken tenure rights, deprofessionalize teaching, and save a buck on education budgets to the detriment of children. Acknowledge that you are not (yet) the great teachers TFA is selling. Be humble enough to recognize that the churn from frequent teacher-turnover your organization not only condones, but encourages, is bad for kids. Watch how districts and administrators abuse the enthusiasm of TFA recruits to displace older teachers. Read between the lines to see how people in power would prefer a compliant, short-term, cheap workforce, which TFA provides, while they can simultaneously pretend it's "all about the children". You don't have to look hard to see the truth.

But for both you charter school and Teach for America people out there, as long as your organizations do practices which I believe actively damage children, like deny education to fragile kids with special needs or give them a woefully underprepared novice in lieu of a professional educator, then I will never be on your side. Ever. As far as I am concerned, you are part of something immoral.

Regardless of the personal intentions of the people in the charters and TFA, the organizations you work for are being used as weapons against the public institution of education. They are being used to viciously close neighborhood schools and to break unions, in order to open the flood gates for privatization and profit off the "untapped marketplace" of education. No one should be getting rich off of kids. Education is a right for all. A pillar of democracy. And the manufactured education crisis is being used to tear down public education. And you wonder why teachers are upset? Why isn't EVERYONE upset?

So, hey you (young) charter school and/or TFA teachers, start speaking up. Do it even if it means getting kicked out of the organizations you are in. There are other options. As you begin to advocate for your students, maybe you will realize why union protections matter. You all need to join with veteran, union-teachers, community members, and parents in the fight for equitable funding, the ending of starving and closing schools for profit, and the ridiculous favoritism and cronyism happening among the elites in education politics.

So charter schools and TFA, no, I will not join with you on your misguided and harmful education paths. Why don’t YOU join with US in saving our nation’s schools?

(Part of the crowd protesting the plan to do a so-called "turnaround" at Herzl Elementary School on January 16, 2012. Substance photo by Jean Schwab.)