Small Schools Aren't Good Enough

I have been reflecting on the recent CES Fall Forum in Denver. The overarching theme that I came away with was the inequity that still exists in small schools affiliated with the small school movement concerning English language learners or special education students.

In my critical friends conversation we discussed the question: What school design practices will ensure a continuum or range of services for children with special education needs and English Language Learner needs? I wanted to dig into this topic because of the many stories that I had been reading about how small schools were not obligated to provide services to these students in New York.

Our small group of 5 was a diverse group of special education teachers: June from Boston; Leanne, Lauren, and Heather from Lake Washington; Anita from Quest in Humble, Texas. June is the director of services for a small school. She is in charge of 70 students with either ELL or Special Ed needs. Anita is a Special Education Interventionist for a population of about 17 in middle school to high school. The three women from Lake Washington were special education content specialists and were planning for their school being converted into a smaller school. It seemed that all of these women came to the conversation to hear about what other programs looked like. They wanted to talk about their program and hear about how other small schools give services to this diverse population.

When I spoke about my school, Capital City Public Charter School in DC, the teachers were in awe. How can there be enough money to have an inclusion teacher for 13 students in 7th and 8th grade? How is there an hour planning time set aside each day? How do you get your teachers to differentiate their lessons?

I didn't have all the answers because a lot of things like scheduling and budgeting is done without my knowledge. But I do know that we have two teachers in each classroom at all times. I am the third teacher in Math and Humanities. It is a well oiled machined, as some say. I am in a great position. My students are in a better position. There is almost no way to fall through the cracks in a system like this. How do we get other Coalition schools, or any other school for that matter do what we do?

Do we need mandated special ed and ELL services? That isn't really what CES is about. Who has the answers?

Politicians Just Don't Get It

Teaching children to care.

Where do they come up with these ideas? Paying kids to pass tests would be ludicrous and would either create unbriddled competition that they don't need any more of, or leave the idea that they aren't learning for their own well-being but for the people who are paying them. This is just another way that politicians try to bring capitalism into the education system! This isn't the way to get them to care. NYC just needs to focus on their small school education system and educating ALL students in this system: ELL and Sped. Maybe the money could be used for staffing in those schools, not incentives for test scores.

NYC small schools in the news again

Ed Week has a new article this week on small schools in New York City. NYCSB is giving $45,000 for two years to hire a special education teacher.

Lyons Community School in NYC will open this year. It is one school that will receive funds to support 8 students with special support needs and 10 who require self-contained or inclusion support in the regular education classroom. I am so curious how they will staff this person in a 6-9 school.

"The Department of Education announced on Feb. 20, 2007, that Lyons is one of 10 new small schools to receive special funds to allow them to accomodate special education students in their first two years. The funds require that the school enroll at least eight students who require special education teacher support services (SETSS) and at least 10 who require a self-contained or collaborative team-teaching class."

New York’s Citywide Council on High Schools (CCHS) is involved and has filed a lawsuit with the Department of Education Civil Rights office.

Looks like the Gates foundation is also looking at the issue, but not specifically at the special education policy. They are looking at more of the population that has been low-performing or at-risk of receiving weak education. Maybe they should be looking more closely at the graduation rates related to ELL and Special ed students.

High School Expectations

From PEN Newsblast on April 19.

CLOSING THE "EXPECTATIONS GAP"

One-quarter of all states have implemented
significantly tougher graduation requirements,
and virtually every state has taken steps to
ratchet up expectations for high school students,
according to a national survey of high school
reform efforts conducted by Washington, D.C.
-based Achieve, Inc. The survey updates the
efforts of all 50 states to align their high
school standards, graduation requirements,
assessments, and accountability systems with
the demands of college and work, and finds that
at least 48 states are now actively engaged in
reform efforts of some kind. There is more
momentum in the states now than at any time
since education reform became a national priority
with the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983.
Some of the most dramatic progress has been made
in the area of graduation requirements, where 13
states, up from just two in 2004, now require high
school students to complete a college- and work-ready
curriculum in order to earn a diploma.  According
to the survey report, "Closing the Expectations Gap
2007", 16 additional states are taking steps to
implement similar graduation requirements, which
include four years of challenging mathematics at
least through Algebra II and four years of rigorous
English. States also have achieved significant
progress in making academic standards rigorous
enough in English and mathematics so that they
accurately reflect real world expectations, but
have moved more slowly in developing complementary
assessment systems and holding high schools
accountable for the college-readiness of their
students. "While the federal government has been
driving K-8 education policy, states are leading
the way on high school reform," said Michael Cohen,
president of Achieve. "This is a heavy lift for
governors, but their leadership is urgently needed
as states take the steps to prepare young people
to succeed in the global economy where good jobs
increasingly require some postsecondary education.
College-ready skills are a must for every high school
graduate today."
http://www.achieve.org/node/844

ELLs in Small Schools?!

EDweek article

I just entered a submission to the CES Fall Forum, a Principled Stand, which deals with the continuum of services that are or aren't being provided to students with specific learning needs (ELL or students with LDs). I am hoping that addressing the school design aspect will help other students who are lacking a full continuum of services and are stuck with fully including their students into the regular education classroom without appropriate supports because of the lack of budgeting for appropriate staff and/or instructional strategies. I know the issue is big in New York. In fact the article above references the first article that I read about the issue of small schools not allowing ELL students to come to the school for the first 2 years because of budget restraints. I guess the school could build itself up first and then once it was successful and had a core number of student admitted, it could then afford to hire an inclusion teacher.

More Small Scholl Benefits

Five Steps to Reducing the Black-White Achievement Gap

While misguided leaders have been calling for a cultural transformation to address the supposed “acting white” crisis, they have ignored far more important educational reforms:

1. Improving and expanding early childhood education. A large body of research shows that black students begin kindergarten behind white students. If we expand and improve the quality of the pre-kindergarten education received by black children we will significantly reduce the testing gap.

2. Improving teacher quality in black schools. A recent study by the Illinois Education Research Council found that 45 percent of black high school students in Illinois attended schools with the lowest teacher-quality ratings. Only 8 percent of white students attended such low teacher-quality schools. Until we eliminate the teacher-quality gap, we will have a test-score gap.

3. Providing small classes and creating small schools. Black students, who are often behind, benefit from the extra attention available in very small classes. Reductions in class size have been shown to boost black student achievement. Smaller schools have been shown to increase black students’ graduation rates.

4. Increasing school integration. While black leaders have been condemning black students based on flawed “acting white” research, America’s schools have been becoming increasingly segregated. Few black leaders have said a word about this issue. Yet historically, integration has been one means by which blacks have gained access to higher quality schools. Effective school integration can also help break down the racial stereotypes of whites and blacks.

5. Making college more affordable. Research suggests that if college were more affordable there would be higher black college enrollment and graduation rates.

http://www.blacknews.com/pr/actingwhite101.html

SIOP vs. UDL

SIOP Sheltered Intervention Observation Protocol vs. UDL Universal Design for Learning

What are the differences and similarities?

Both look as though they are models to help move away from the traditional pedagogical approach of lesson delivery.

Do we have time at CCPCS to delve into this, or do we need to just stick with our ELOB prinicples and let them guide our pedagogy?

I think we need something more focused for the inclusive classroom in which CCPCS philosophically believes.

Breaking up Big Schools

In a recent article in the New York Times, it was brought to my attention that there are programs for ELL and special ed students that are obsolete after large schools with these particular programs are broken up into smaller schools.

It says, ~Then, a few weeks ago, the department announced its plan for restructuring Lafayette, which now has about 2,100 students, beginning in September 2007. It would contain three new schools — one emphasizing sports management, another focusing on film and music, and a third offering “expeditionary learning” under the aegis of Outward Bound. None will offer bilingual instruction, at least at the outset.

“This is an absolutely unacceptable choice,” Mr. Chung said. “These three schools have nothing to do with our community. They’re forcing the immigrant students out of their own neighborhood. New York is an immigrant city, but I think the education policy is not for us.”

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The immigrant city and community should be taken into account. What do they want for their students? Do they want inclusion or do they want special programs? This is definately one of the areas that I feel is taken for granted when we think about breaking up our larger schools, or even when we create new small schools. And furthermore, when we create our small schools, how do we ensure that we are listening to all stakeholders as we create new instructional programs? We must listen to the community. What do they need and how can we meet their needs?