U.S. Department of Education Focus on Rural Schools is Encouraging Step

We were heartened to see the focus on rural education earlier this month, when the U.S. Department of Education reported that about 23 percent of the schools selected to receive federal School Improvement grants were located in rural areas.

It is interesting to note that many rural schools are opting to steer clear of the turnaround model, which has been popular among a number of urban school reform leaders.

Rural school leaders have argued that some of the reform methods of the turnaround model are simply not viable for schools in remote areas.

Some of the unique challenges of leaders attempt to turn around chronically low-performing rural schools include:

• Leaders often find it difficult to find effective teachers to fill vacancies created by retirement. The prospect of replacing 50 percent of the school’s teachers, which could be let go under the turnaround model, is all but impossible in isolated areas that already have a tough time filling existing vacancies.
• Charter schools operated by charter management organizations are difficult to open because many charter management organizations are less experienced in handing rural issues. Charter management organizations also seem to prefer working in urban areas, where they can easily locate multiple schools within a region.
• The school closure option offered in turnarounds often is particularly unappealing because the rural school is often the heart of the community – a key meeting place where the community gathers in emergencies and a source of intense community pride. Also, if schools are closed, there often are not other schools in the area that can serve the students of rural communities.
• Educational consultants, including professional development trainers, are often less willing to accept contracts in rural areas, or may charge more for their services because of the travel time required when schools are located far from regional airports.
• Many of the education models in place have been tested and implemented primarily in urban or suburban schools. The models, in some cases, do not take into consideration some of the unique challenges or experiences of rural students and teachers.

Our vision at The Institute for Educational and Social Justice is that all students -- regardless of their geographic location – should have access to a quality public education. By increasing the attention paid to rural schools, which have been all too frequently ignored in the past, we come one step closer to making that vision reality.

"The Light in Me Recognizes the Light in You."

“The light in me recognizes the light in you.”

This quotation, which is a translation of the Hindi greeting, “Namaste,” is a powerful one because it celebrates the ways that people often bring out the best in each other.

When we at The Institute for Educational and Social Justice witness the exciting work being done by educational and social justice advocates across the U.S. and beyond, we are encouraged and inspired to continue the work that we do.

During this holiday season, we encourage you to recognize the “light” around you and, when possible, to encourage the holders of such light by supporting them through money, time or a simple word of encouragement.

In taking these steps, we intensify the glow of the light – both in ourselves and others.

First, the Achievement Gap. Now, the Marriage Gap?

First, the achievement gap.

Now, the marriage gap.

A new gap between the economic classes has been identified in America – the marriage gap.

A study by the Pew Research Center and Time Magazine shows that marriage rates are shifting along class lines. In 2008, a 16-percentage point gap existed between the marriage rates of college graduates and of those with a high school diploma or less.

This shift has happened over time. In 1960, the marriage gap was just four percentage points, with educated people marrying at a rate of 76 percent, compared to 72 percent for those with a high school diploma or less.

Some experts, including those affiliated with the study, say that the shift is occurring because couples who are not educated are struggling financially. And while people with lower education levels are willing to live together while their financial footing is shaky, many feel they do not want to enter marriage until they are financially established.

In some cases, individual debt levels are likely to be a factor, since some potential spouses might be hesitant to take on a marriage partner’s debt. In other cases, couples might stay single so that the person with the higher credit rating can still secure credit when needed.

Some may argue that the marriage gap doesn’t matter – that, perhaps, marriage is an outdated institution, anyway. But the study does not seem to support this notion, particularly since adults with low and high levels of education were both equally likely to say they wanted to get married.

And research has consistently shown that marriage has clear economic benefits.

People, particularly women, who are unmarried are more likely to live in poverty. The cycle soon becomes a vicious, self-perpetuating one, where an increasing number of children nationwide are born to couples in uncertain unions. Those children then are more likely to be raised in poverty and to be less likely to earn an education themselves.

Does the marriage gap matter? How might we as educational and social justice advocates best advocate for change? What policy decisions might make marriage a more attainable goal for lower-income families? How are children and families best served?

What Message Do We REALLY Want to Send about the Importance of Teachers?

“Those who can do. Those who can’t teach.”

This widely repeated saying has been used to get a rise out of educators nationwide for years.

And one way many teachers have come together and battled this attitude has been by becoming increasingly professionalized.

How do teachers grow as professionals? Often, their growth comes in professional developments and in their own informal learning communities, where they learn from mentors at their school sites and beyond. But in many other cases, teachers have advanced their professionalism through formal education, including earning master’s and doctoral degrees.

In graduate school, teachers typically learn more about how to read, analyze and even conduct research. They learn what research is out there, how to access it and how to determine whether it is sound. And in learning more about research, teachers are then equipped to use quality research to inform their day-to-day classroom decisions.

At the same time, teachers working on advanced degrees also typically develop their own leadership skills.

This may come in formal ways, including through classes that focus on topics including leadership styles or through studying case studies on teachers who have brought about improvements through their leadership. And at other times, leadership development has occurred more indirectly, with teachers feeling empowered by their graduate studies and then compelled to take on increasingly influential school and district leadership positions.

Earning advanced degrees also often helps teachers to develop their credibility with students, parents, and the community at large. What parent would not prefer to see their child taught by a teacher holding an advanced degree? And aren’t students often inspired by the examples set by teachers with graduate degrees?

It seems unquestionable: Teachers benefit from earning graduate degrees – and so do their students and communities.

But the practice of rewarding teachers financially for completing graduate school is currently under attack. Some districts have scrapped the practice of paying teachers with advanced degrees more than their peers. And the concept of rewarding teachers for graduate degrees has been questioned in the past two weeks by both Bill Gates and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Eliminating bonuses to teachers with graduate degrees would send a clear message about the value of teaching to teachers, students and others.

And what would that message be? That teaching is a simple job – one that is so menial and mindless that earning a graduate degree can’t possibly have value.

Is this really the message we want to send?

Elimination of School Fees a Key Victory for California Students

Low-income students – particularly those who attend school with a high percentage of more affluent students – are the big winners in a historic court settlement announced last week.

California public schools can no longer charge parents extra fees for textbooks, art supplies, workbooks and other educational supplies under the settlement. Families also can no longer be required to pay for extracurricular expenses, including sports uniforms and choir costumes.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in September by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups concerned with equal access to public school opportunities.

Many low-income and middle class families now find that seemingly small fees quickly added up to big money – easily more than $100 per child, even without extracurricular expenses.

In one school, for example, students were asked to pay about $50 for math workbooks, $30 for art supplies and another $30 or so for novels required for an honors English class.

ACLU officials have said that some families with multiple children have spent more than $800, and some have claimed to have paid as much as $4,000 for extracurricular activities.

The fees are most commonly found in schools where many families have large disposable incomes and can easily afford to pay the fees without sacrificing, according to ACLU officials.

No California school districts actively opposed the lawsuit – in part because a 1980s Supreme Court ruling seemed to make it clear that the fees would ultimately be found unconstitutional. At the same time, ending the fees comes at an admittedly difficult time for many California public schools, which have already been forced to make deep cuts because of the state’s ongoing budget crisis.

That said, the settlement is still an important victory for low-income families – and also for advocates of educational and social justice, who generally consider equal access to education opportunities to be core values.

The message being sent to districts – and to low-income families – is that the public schools truly are there to serve all students, regardless of income, and that all students must have access to the same classes and extracurricular activities. This is an important message, indeed – and one that we hope will soon be received by families in other states as well.

A Real Life Champion

There are times when advocating for the causes of educational and social justice can become frustrating – even maddening.

There are some who are resistant to the causes of equity and equality, choosing instead to cling to the power they feel is rightly theirs. And at other times, such concepts are met not with resistance, but with a sense of apathy – as though the issues of educational and social justice are not worth prioritizing.

But in such times, it seems, someone always seems to come along to provide encouragement, reminding us that we are not alone in our efforts and that others are also making difficult choices as they strive to give opportunity to all students – regardless of background.

This encouraging story, which appeared in Monday’s Houston Chronicle, is a reminder that other like-minded people are out there, working hard and making sacrifices so that society can see the changes that are so desperately needed.

Wendell Champion is true to his name – a champion determined to make life better for young people who need him more than most. His story can encourage us all.

Why Public Schools Matter for All

The calm mother of three looked at me coolly, as I explained the work of The Institute for Educational and Social Justice and why we believe public education, ultimately, is one of the last frontiers of the Civil Rights Movement.

“I don’t worry about what goes on in the public schools because my children aren’t in them,” she said flatly. “That’s why I homeschool – so I don’t have to worry about things like that. I control what my children learn, how they learn and who they are friends with. What goes on in the public schools here just isn’t a problem for us and we’re really happy about that.”

It’s an idea I have heard many times through the years, particularly when I have found myself travelling, for one reason or another, in circles with large numbers of private or homeschool families. These parents, who are often bright, caring and engaged in the greater world believe that they can not only opt out of public schools, but avoid being affected by their performance at all.

So, why should the quality of public schools matter to families who homeschool, send their children to private schools or people who do not have school-aged children?

• Public schools dramatically shape the potential for economic development. When corporate decision-makers decide whether to locate new facilities in your community, one of the first things they want to know is whether your local public schools are reputable. Why? Because they know it is far easier to recruit workers to areas with strong public schools. In requesting information, they often want to know about test scores, but also about the appeal of existing school facilities, honors and advanced placement offerings, sports teams and the availability of other extra-curricular activities. They also want to know that your local high school graduates are learning the skills they will need to be successful employees. Clearly, having quality public schools can create more professional opportunities – not just to public school graduates but to private and home-school graduates, too.
• The quality of local public schools drives real estate values. Anyone who has even browsed real estate listings has seen ads proclaiming, “Highly desirable school district!” “Zoned for an exemplary school!” “Great neighborhood school! This one won’t last!” In the home-buying game, the public school zone matters more than just about anything else. Want to see your housing values increase? Do what you can to improve neighborhood schools.
• Quality public schools contribute to the safety of your community. We know that areas surrounding schools with particularly high drop-out rates generally also have higher crime rates. If you live in a neighborhood with a high drop-out rates, your odds of being the victim of burglary, aggravated assault and other crimes is much higher.
• Quality schools contribute to a community’s morale in ways that are difficult to measure. If you think neighborhood schools don’t matter, try being part of a team that is trying to close one. Communities grieve deeply when neighborhood schools are closed, in part because of the sense of community that schools often cultivate. In a crisis, the local high school gym often becomes a gathering place for people – the place that individuals and families come to receive emergency supplies and needed information, or where they come simply to cry together and pray together. Communities – both urban and rural – often rally behind school successes, such as students at a national Academic Decathlon event, championship baseball teams or spelling bee champions. When students from the local school do well, the community’s morale improves and there is a sense that the community can be successful in other more universal ways as well.
• Even in areas with thriving private schools and large home-school communities, the public schools still are almost always responsible for educating the majority. Even if you home-school or support a local private school, odds are good that most of the people you rely upon on a day-to-day basis – people like your nurse, your dentist, the waitress at your favorite neighborhood restaurant, the emergency dispatcher who responds to your frantic 911 call, the manager of your local grocery store, your accountant – were educated by the local public school system. Don’t you want them to have the academic and social foundation needed to do their jobs well?

Public schools matter – not just to the children that are enrolled in them, but to the communities they serve.

Opting out of the public school debate is simply not an option.

Missing Children

The troubling disappearance of three Michigan brothers who vanished the day their father tried to commit suicide has captured the attention of many of us in the U.S. and beyond.

There are many particularly disturbing elements to the case – the fact that the boys’ father was apparently suicidal and also that he took the boys once before, on the day his wife and the boys’ mother filed for divorce.

The young age of the boys – 5, 7 and 9 years old – also tends to grab our collective attention. And there is the intrigue behind their father’s claim that he left the boys with a woman he initially met online – a woman police say they now believe never existed.

Any decent human being – and certainly any of us concerned with the well-being of America’s children – is surely pulling for the safe return of these baby-faced brothers.

Other cases also have captured our attention through the past few months, of course.

There was Kyron Horman, who mysteriously vanished from his school on the day of the science fair. And the haunting case of 10-year-old Zahra Baker, whose fight with bone cancer left her reliant on a prosthetic leg and hearing aids.

The case of Elizabeth Smart, of course, also troubled us deeply, particularly when we heard her own detailed testimony of how she suffered at the hands of a brutal captor.

As people who care about children – and about the basic safety and decency of modern society – we come to care deeply about these missing children who are in the news. Some of us find ourselves crying when we learn that a child’s remains have been found. And we shed tears of joy when other children are found safe, just when the news seemed most grim.

And yet, we also know that all missing children are not given this level of attention, concern and compassion.

The number of children who go missing each day in the U.S. is staggering. An average of 2,185 children and teens are reported missing each day, according to information from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Of the 797,500 children reported missing in a typical one-year period, about 203,900 are victims of family abductions, and 58,200 are victims of non-family abductions.

Of those missing, 115 children are found to be victims of stereotypical kidnapping – where someone they did not know held them overnight, transported them more than 50 miles, killed the child, demanded ransom or planned to keep the child permanently, according to the Department of Justice statistics.

Many of these missing children never even make it into their hometown newspapers, much less the international network news stations. Research has repeatedly shown that missing minority children and teens, or those from disadvantaged families, often do not have their stories told.

And some missing children – some experts say as many as 100,000 a year -- are never reported at all because their parents or others have sold them into slavery or prostitution and authorities simply never know.

The story of the missing Michigan boys should touch our hearts – because their lives matter. Any available resources should be used to locate them as soon as possible.

But we also should be careful to share the same level of concern for other missing children – whatever their age, ethnicity, economic background, physical appearance or background story.

One Example of Good Teaching in Practice

I love visiting wonderful classrooms.

This week, I spent some time in Amber Carrow's classroom. Not only is Amber a California State Teacher of the Year, she is also one of our Institute's key partners. We're working on a book together and she's an integral part of one of our main inititives - The Teacher Project.

In some ways, Amber's classroom looked like almost any other classroom across the state of California - crowded, filled with students who (if you take the time to look and listen) desperately want to learn.

But I also think there are subtle things that make Amber's classroom practice extraordinary. She asks a lot of questions of her students and holds them to high standards, while at the same time meeting them where they are - in both life and in learning. The lesson I observed on Monday was a fairly simple vocabulary lesson to frontload some of the new words for a unit on China.

But the delivery was anything but simple. Amber made use of the technology in her classroom (interactive white board and laptop) and used pictures, sounds, and stories to help the students discover the meanings of the words. She also stopped to answer students' questions, while gently keeping them focused on the task at hand. Although she was teaching a world history vocabulary lesson, she constantly integrated concepts of math, language arts, and science into her teaching.

And the physical space spoke to the level of comfort that was almost visable as students walked into the room. The classroom reflected an organized and established sense of place. For example, the students were beginning a new world history unit on China on Monday, and as students filed into the classroom, they immediately began asking Amber to explain some of the artifacts on the wall.

But the most remarkable (and unremarkable) thing I observed in Amber's room is, I think, at the heart of good teaching throughout the world - many students and one teacher, engaged in a lot of questioning, and exploration, and discovery. Yes, there's an art to teaching. And yes, Amber is mastering that art. But there's also a beautiful simplicity to it, when students and teachers trust each other and truly care about the process.

Simple Requests

The simple requests are carefully printed on ornaments hung on trees around the Greater Houston area.

A young family about to have a baby is asking for newborn-sized clothes, diapers and, if possible, a crib mobile.

A 9-year-old girl in a suburb needs a warm coat and would love to “maybe have a bicycle.”

A 14-year-old boy asks for a new pair of blue jeans, a sweatshirt and, if possible, some art supplies. A teen mother would like a warm coat and tennis shoes that fit her, post-pregnancy.

An 89-year-old woman is asking for warm socks and a new bottle of hand lotion, while another man is hoping for an air humidifier and large-print crossword puzzle books.

These requests, which are typical of those distributed around the holidays by thousands of non-profit organizations nationwide, illustrate a harsh reality – that while this down economy has been trying for almost everyone, our youngest and oldest Americans continue to be the most vulnerable.

Pitching in to fill such individual requests is certainly important – not just during the holidays but throughout the year.

But bigger questions also beg to be answered: How do children and adults end up living in extreme poverty? What systemic changes do we need to see in order to ensure that fewer people are in need in the future? What actions can we take – professionally and personally – to ensure that some of these changes happen?

We'll Be Back Next Monday

We're taking the week off from blogging to spend the holiday with our families and reflect on all we are thankful for.

If you just can't wait until we return next Monday to read what we're writing, check our our collaborative blog project with Keith L. Brown.

As always, thanks for reading.

We'll be back next Monday.

The Teacher Project: Weekend Retreat Wrap-Up

We have spent the last few days reflecting on a two-day retreat that kicked off The Teacher Project.

This first-ever event, which was held in Southern California, brought together a group of dynamic teachers eager to explore their core beliefs and how those beliefs shape the work they do in classrooms, schools and communities.

Here are a few of the themes that surfaced during the retreat:

• Teachers are struggling to decide how to handle cases where the values and priorities of students’ neighborhoods and homes conflict with the values of the school. One teacher, for example, questioned what to do about students who refuse to take home books or notebooks because being viewed as too academically oriented can be dangerous, leading to bullying and more in their neighborhoods. She wondered whether compromise was appropriate, or whether that compromise would dilute the high expectations that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, need and deserve.
• Schools nationwide have seen their budgets stripped. And Southern California is among those hardest hit. Teachers are increasingly being pushed to do more and more with fewer resources. Teachers are struggling with how to maintain their morale when there are sometimes more than 60 students piled in a classroom and money for field trips, student competitions, assemblies and other activities are increasingly scarce.
• And finally, teachers are struggling with when and how to reflect on their teaching practices and beliefs. The teachers we met all have the best of intentions and work tirelessly to provide the best possible instruction for their students. But at times, they find are at risk of finding themselves on autopilot, struggling to balance teaching, grading, any extracurricular activities they oversee, prep time, and their personal lives.

The ideas and experiences each of the teachers shared were valuable, serving to advance our understanding of education and the challenges that we face. We look forward to sharing more of what we learned in the future.

We don’t view this first event as a one-time experience. It’s an exciting beginning – and the start of an exciting partnership with these and other teachers nationwide.

Plans are now underway to hold similar events – either in a retreat or one-day format – at schools in Georgia, Texas, Mississippi and other parts of Southern California.

Want to know more about The Teacher Project or eager to see a similar retreat held in your area? Email us at instituteforedandsocialjustice[at]gmail[dot]com and include The Teacher Project in your subject line.

What Does Real and Sustained School Improvement Look Like?

“Real and sustained improvement – the kind that begins to close the achievement gaps in a significant way and gives urban kids access to the same opportunities as their suburban peers – depends on building bridges that allow students to grasp the reward of hard work. It must be rooted in relationships throughout the process of change and in a recalibration of expectations that students have for themselves.”

Education writer Laura Pappano nails it in this featured commentary in Education Week.

Pappano, who is author of School Turnarounds: Urgent Hopes, Unfolding Stories, reminds us that in order to make true, lasting improvements in the lives of students and families, we need to look beyond test scores and graduation rates to the relationships that exists between schools and communities, as well as the relationships that exist between students and adults, including mentors from the business community.

Pappano points to at least one school, Cincinnati’s Taft Information Technology High School (formerly Taft High School) as an example of a mentoring and community partnership success story.

The long-time troubled high school partnered with Cincinnati Bell, making the partnership a key part of the school’s extensive turnaround efforts. The partnership has lead to a number of school programs designed to help connect students with teachers, coaches, business leaders and others.

Ultimately, the goal of the program is not just to help students boost their test scores, but to have the desire and focus needed to be successful both in school and in life.

And so far, there seems to be evidence that the turnaround is working. Over the past decade, the school’s graduation rate has risen from 25 percent to 95 percent. And in 2010, the percentage of 10^th graders scoring proficient or higher in math is up from 33 percent to 96 percent, and from 68 percent to 96 percent in reading.

The dramatic turnaround – one that is almost unheard of, particularly at the high school level – happened for a number of reasons. Some of the changes were organizational, while others involved efforts to focus more on academics and to minimize chaos.

But principal Anthony G. Smith says that partnerships are at the heart of his work – and an essential part of helping students from low-income neighborhoods, where generation after generation of families has lived in poverty – to develop a long-term vision. Students learn to plan for and work hard to attend college and to move into a career that meets their economic, social and emotional needs.

The story of Taft’s turnaround – particularly the emphasis on the need for partnerships and long-term efforts at transformation of students’ lives – is powerful. The school’s story – and that of other schools like it – desperately needs to be told.

The Teacher Project: Looking Ahead

We are less than 24 hours away from The Teacher Project, a two-day retreat we are hosting for teachers in Southern California.

This first-ever event is designed to help teachers explore their core beliefs and how those beliefs shape the work they do in classrooms, schools and communities.

We are looking forward to exploring a number of questions and ideas during the retreat. Some of these include:

• How can we, as educators interested in educational and social justice, ensure that the values we say we care about – like equity and equality – are truly reflected in the work that we do? Why do our actions sometimes not align with our core values? How can we improve?
• What does discrimination look like? What acts of discrimination have each of us experienced? How did that discrimination affect us? What steps can we take to ensure that we do not discriminate against others – either intentionally or unintentionally?
• There are many “isms” that can hinder our efforts to treat the students and families we serve equitably. What are some of the common isms that plague our society? How can we constantly strive to eliminate these “isms” from our own lives and work, even as society seems to strive to maintain and advance at least of some of them?
• We know that what students believe about themselves matters. How can we work to promote resiliency and a sense of personal responsibility in our students?
• And finally, what is the current political landscape in education? How can an understanding of this landscape help us to advance causes of educational and social justice?

We don’t view this first event as a one-time experience with this group of teachers.

Instead, we believe it will be the first of many Teacher Project retreats, and the beginning of an ongoing partnership with the teachers we will meet this weekend. In time, we plan to include some of the stories we hear at this and other retreats on this blog, as well as in our books, articles and others writings.

Want to learn more about The Teacher Project or eager to see a similar retreat held in your area? Email us at instituteforedandsocialjustice[at]gmail[dot]com and include The Teacher Project in your subject line.

This weekend is an exciting beginning.

A Look at an Unexpected "-Ism"

One of our biggest focuses at the Institute for Educational and Social Justice is pushing educators, non-profit leaders and others to challenge the “isms” they hold – knowingly or unknowingly.

These “isms” can take a number of forms, including racism, sexism, classism, sizeism and ageism.

Addressing our biases and how those may subtly or not-so-subtly affect our attitudes, behaviors and decisions on a day-to-day basis is difficult work, because it requires us to be brutally honest with ourselves about where we are, what we think and how we behave.

If we are truly honest, the work is difficult – in part because just as we think we have a check on one “ism,” we discover that another needs to be addressed.

Classism is the “ism” I probably struggle with the most – but my struggle doesn’t involve efforts to value or embrace people from low-income backgrounds.

Instead, I find myself guilty of a reverse classism, assuming that people from very high income backgrounds have all the resources that they need and don’t really need support.

But in recent weeks, I have been placed in a number of situations where I have been surrounded by people who are quite wealthy – and I am realizing that they, too, have needs that need to be addressed.

One young man I have met comes from a family that easily makes more than $3 million a year. His family owns more than one Jaguar and his house is probably worth 15 times what mine is.

His test scores are high but his grades and extracurricular activities are lackluster at best. But he will probably get into a fairly good college – in part because of his family’s money.

But this affluent young man experiences a poverty that my children do not know.

His parents frequently travel the world, going to places like India and Africa and Italy. But they always leave their son and his two older sisters behind. “I guess they wouldn’t have as much fun if they took us along,” he explains, seemingly without bitterness, adding that he and his sisters have never been out of the country.

He often finds himself without a ride because his parents have forgotten to pick him up. Calls and text messages go unreturned – and he seems unsurprised by any of it.

This young man doesn’t have many adults in his life who truly care – he says the adult he talks to most is actually a teacher. And that teacher probably doesn’t fully realize how important he is to this student.

This wealthy student also struggles a great deal with motivation. He wants to go to college “because that’s what you do, you know?” but he has a hard time even envisioning a major because he isn’t sure he will even be doing much paid work after graduation. “There’s already money, you know, set aside as long as I hold it together until I graduate.”

This student – whether we think it’s fair or not – will likely inherit a lot of money. And with that money will come a great deal of power, which can be used for good, or wasted, or even used for destruction.

Who is reaching these students? Should we, as leaders interested in educational and social justice, be concerned with this student’s needs? What would programs for these students look like? What misguided assumptions do we make about high-income students? How do we change?

Want to help improve the reading skills of the children of today - and tomorrow?

Want to help improve the reading skills of the children of today – and tomorrow?

Then take steps to strengthen the literacy skills of mothers and future mothers.

That is one conclusion that can be drawn from a study released by the National Institutes of Health and published in the most recent issue of “Demography.”

The new study, which was designed to help pinpoint which factors most affect children’s skill acquisition, included data collected during the 2000-01 school year from more than 2,300 Los Angeles children between the ages of 3 and 17.

Researchers found that mothers with higher reading scores were more likely to read to their own children regularly, to have child-friendly reading material in the home and to enjoy reading themselves. All of these behaviors have repeatedly been shown to help strengthen children’s reading skills.

So, what can advocates of educational and social justice, including educators, non-profit organization leaders, policy makers, early childhood advocates and others take away from this research?

That the reading skills of mothers matter – and that programs to strengthen mothers’ skills don’t just create a better foundation for the women receiving the support, but also for their children and, in time, maybe even their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

By working to establish and advocate for programs that improve the reading skills of mothers and future mothers, we as educational and social justice advocates have the potential to begin to close the achievement gap that exists between low-income and middle-class children, and to help people end cycles of poverty that often span several generations. And that, clearly, is no small achievement.

Psst! This Teacher Has a Secret

Last week, an elementary teacher tearfully confided to me that she has a credit card she keeps secret from her husband.

The teacher doesn’t use the secret credit card to add to her designer shoe collection, to hit the spa or even to by presents or to go out with friends.

Instead, she uses the plastic to pay for things like copying paper. And dry erase markers. And books like “Charlotte’s Web” and “Pig for President” and “Junie B. Jones and the Yucky, Blucky Fruitcake.”

The teacher, who has been in the field for about 10 years, says she first spent money out of pocket on her students back when she was still an eager to please first-year teacher. Back then, she told herself she would stop spending once she had a classroom library in order and a few backup resource materials for students working above or below grade level.

But in recent years, she says she has found herself spending more, as her cash-strapped district has been pushing her principal to spend less and less on supplies for teachers and their classrooms.

“I feel like we are being asked to do even more with less,” the teacher told me. “And I look at what my students might be missing and I hate to see it – to have them shortchanged. So I go out there and spend the money myself. And hope that in the end, my marriage isn’t what suffers.”

Later this month, the current lame duck Congress will return to Washington to consider several pieces of education legislation. Among them will be tax-related legislation, including whether to extend the so-called teacher tax deduction, which currently allows teachers to deduct up to $250 a year for school supplies. There has been some discussion, too, about upping the deduction to $500.

In the grand scheme of things, the extension or even expansion of the tax deduction would be a small gesture. But it might go a long way in helping teachers – and reducing a bit of the sting they currently feel when they open up their pocketbooks for their students.

An Honest Look at Our Responsibilities

“Teachers try to teach students and free their minds. But teachers can only show students the door. It is the student’s choice whether to walk through it.”

I was greeted by this quote a few days ago, just as I’d finished teaching a community college class that hadn’t gone particularly well.

The teacher education students in my last class of the day had been painfully quiet, staring at their cuticles or fumbling for imaginary items in their book bags when I asked them their thoughts on the day’s topic. I saw them reaching for their cell phones, staring at watches, and avoiding my glances.

“Yes!” I thought as I read the quote, all but giving myself a reassuring pat on the back. “All I can do is TEACH. It’s not my fault if those stubborn students of mine chose not to come through the door today.”

But the quote on the whiteboard – and my reaction – left me feeling unsettled in a way I couldn’t quite shake. As I went through the next couple of days, picking my own children up from school, grading papers, writing blog posts and doing laundry, I kept finding my mind returning to the quote – and to my reaction.

And finally, in a particularly honest and vulnerable moment one evening, I realized why I was so unnerved: Because the quote only tells part of the story – and really, it lets us teacher types off the hook far too easily.

Do students have to choose to walk through that door of decision – to take the steps needed to fully participate in their own education and to take responsibility for their own learning?

Absolutely.

But our responsibility as teachers also doesn’t stop when our students are standing in that doorway of decision, making what might be one of the most pivotal decisions of their lives.

We – as teachers who care deeply and who believe that the work that we do has the potential to transform lives in powerful ways – have to be right there, on the other side of the door of decision, enticing students and convincing them that what we are teaching matters, that we will support them while they are doing the work, and that many times along the way, they can even have a good time doing it.

That enticing often requires us to do things in new ways – something I didn’t quite do as well as I should have, honestly, on the day my students were sitting, biding their time until class was over.

What are we doing on the other side of that door, while our students are deciding whether to commit to their educations?

First, we make sure the door has been cracked open by developing personal relationships with the students – and letting them know a bit about us, too. And while they are trying to decide what to do next, we are on the other side of the door, with the students who are already engaged, discussing ideas that matter.

We are communicating in ways that are meaningful – and interesting -- maybe through music, through visual arts, through video clips, through literature, through humor, or through our own brutally honest stories and questions.

And at the same time, we also are reminding them that (guess what?) this whole learning thing isn’t just fun, it also has the potential to make their lives better – that they are securing a better life for themselves and for their families. We are reminding them that the children of college graduates often have better economic futures – that cycles of generational poverty and dysfunction truly can be broken through the power of transformative education.

Do some students, still, with all of that enticing and urging, choose not to cross through the door and commit to engaging in education and taking it seriously?

Yes.

But, if we have done our job well on the other side of the door, odds are good that one day – maybe not long from now – those same resistant students will finally choose to walk through the door and to do what they need to do to improve their lives, not just for themselves but for their families and future families.

And even if they don’t, we keep trying – because the work that we are doing matters that much.

The Teacher Project: Planning Update

We at the Institute for Educational and Social Justice are busily preparing for The Teacher Project, a two-day retreat we are hosting for teachers in Southern California.

The first-ever event is designed to help teachers explore their core beliefs and how those beliefs shape the work they do in classrooms, schools and communities.

We are looking forward to hearing the stories and ideas that the teachers who will be attending have to share.

We already know from some of the preliminary conversations that we have had with this year’s participants that we can expect to hear honest stories that are in some ways unique, but also universal, reminding us all why teaching and other helping professions matter.

We know that the group of teachers participating in this retreat will challenge us all to think about educational justice in new ways, while strengthening our understanding of the work of teaching and serving students of all backgrounds.

Our intent is that this will be the first of many Teacher Project retreats, including upcoming events in Georgia, Texas and Mississippi. And we plan, in time, to include some of the stories we hear at these retreats in books, articles and other writings on the work of educators striving for educational justice.

In doing this work, we hope to provide teachers with a stronger voice, so that they can have their ideas and experiences heard by a broader audience, including fellow educators, policy makers, administrators and others.

Want to learn more about The Teacher Project or eager to see a similar retreat held in your area? Email us at instituteforedandsocialjustice[at]gmail[dot]com and include The Teacher Project in your subject line.

Together, we can build a sense of hope and understanding through the power of story.

"Mira. Look."

“Mira. Look,” Maribelle* exclaimed as she tugged on her classmate’s shirtsleeve. Antonio glanced at the illustration in the book Maribelle was reading, smiled, whispered something into Maribelle’s ear, and then returned to his own book.

Their whisperings were indecipherable to me, both because of the soft tone of their voices and because they were speaking mostly in Spanish.

Yet, watching them in that moment – so engrossed in their 7-year-oldness and the new worlds they were discovering through their reading – I couldn’t help but smile. There was a lot of learning happening in Ms. Kramer’s classroom that day.

It started when the students returned to the classroom from specials (specials are the one-hour-a-day time during which students rotate through all their “elective” courses. They attend music, art, physical education, and extra academic support in math and reading one hour a week, respectively).

And it continued as students sat in eager anticipation for Ms. Kramer to tell them where they were all going to be for the next hour or so of reading lessons. She began to call out their names, one by one, letting them know what station each of them was going to be in that day. Students quietly and quickly started moving about the room, and within a few minutes the room became a buzz of reading, and cooperating, and questioning, and, well, learning.

Some students sat on a rug working on a word map, while another group of students worked with a reading specialist on a story at the front of the room with an interactive white board. A few students worked independently on lessons on the computers, while others worked with headphones and cassette players. And still others, like Maribelle and Antonio, read independently at their desks.

I had the privilege to witness all of this because Ms. Kramer invited me to come visit her classroom after a conversation about education we had had over a cup of coffee a few weeks earlier. She said, while looking down at my business card, “my school needs social justice.” She then shared that at a recent staff meeting, administration told the teachers that they must value compliance above all else – even right or wrong.

At the time she was telling me this, I wondered how Ms. Kramer could have sat through that meeting without walking out. And yet after spending an hour or two in Ms. Kramer’s classroom, it was so obvious why she hadn’t walked out of that meeting, her classroom, or the teaching profession. I think she realized that her kids need her there. Every day. To teach them. And understand them. And let them know they matter.

I think the students at this school, and schools everywhere, need teachers like Ms. Kramer – smart, and fair, and passionate about the work she does every day with the kids she is privileged enough to teach.

Because at the end of the day, teaching is a privilege. Gaining the trust and love of children, helping them to see the world in new ways, and knowing that you might have had some small part of altering a child’s life in a positive way, is a privilege.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that not all teachers take this privilege seriously. Ms. Kramer shared with me that she feels about 25 percent of the teachers at her school site are not only not helping the children learn, but are actually doing the children harm through their own apathy and lack of competence. And hearing this makes me feel a little sad for the future of education in this country.

But then I think about Arturo, the little boy in Ms. Kramer’s class, who – when I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up – looked over at Ms. Kramer on the other side of the room helping another student with a grammar lesson, then looked back at me with wonder and a smile and, without hesitation, said “A teacher. When I grow up I want to be a teacher.”

Mira. Look. There is hope.

* All names and some of the details in this post have been changed to protect confidentiality.

Three Simple Ways To Manifest Justice and Peace Everyday

If you want to be a writer, write things that matter.

If you want to be a musician, make beautiful music.

If you want to be an agent of change, manifest justice and peace.

So simple to say. So simple to do?

I think that depends on how you choose to define your life. It’s so easy to get caught up in the minutiae, the seemingly endless list of things-that-we-think-should-have-been-done-yesterday.

Yet, I believe it is just as easy to spend our days doing important work that makes a difference.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a few (simple) things you can do today to start manifesting justice and peace:

1. Be kind to as many people as you can, every day, without question. Although there’s a fine line between being kind and being (perceived as) weak, I think it makes sense, most of the time, to err on the side of kindness. Smile more. Take the time to listen to someone else’s side of the story. Ask more questions. Be present.

2. Take a stand for what you believe in. Act now. Often times, we get caught up in the theory and rhetoric. Theory is important, but change does not come without conscious action. If you believe that literacy empowers people, then volunteer to be a reading tutor at your local elementary school or community center. Simple? Yes, of course. That’s the point, isn’t it? Sometimes change happens in leaps and bounds, but often times it starts with a simple action. Done today.

3. Listen to, believe in, and advocate for children. Children need to be listened to, honored, and advocated for. If we want a more peaceful and just tomorrow, we need to understand what our children are saying about what justice and peace look like in their worlds and in their minds. I think if we listen carefully, we will learn a lot about the future direction of our world. Is it heading in a more positive direction? If so, how can we make sure we stay the course. If not, what can we do to change things?

In what ways do you manifest justice and peace in your own daily life? Please share in the comments section below or join the conversation on Facebook. Thanks for reading.