Memorandum from a Departing Teacher

It's been a long time!  I had a very crazy teaching load this year (four preps!), and I couldn't bring myself to write about teaching when I wasn't working.  On top of that, Maggie and I found out that we are having a baby, which definitely stole my attention.  Anyway, change is in the air: I resigned from Prince George's County Public Schools and decided to go back to the charter school where I used to work, Thurgood Marshall Academy.  It's a good move for a variety of reasons.  But, in true Jason Ray fashion, I couldn't leave without saying something.  So, I'm letting you take a look at a memo that I sent to the PGCPS leadership (the Superintendent, the Board of Ed members, and a few others) describing how they might retain high quality teachers in the future.  Who knows, maybe somebody will actually read it. 

Date:    June 19, 2012

To:       Prince George’s County Public Schools Leadership

From:   Jason Ray

Re:       Suggestions for Retaining High Quality Teachers

MEMORANDUM   

I.          Background

            It is with mixed feelings that I recently resigned from my position as an English Teacher at DuVal High School after three successful and productive years.  With the risk of sounding immodest, I believe that I am the type of teacher that the Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is interested in retaining, due to my commitment to educating children as well as the positive feedback I have received from colleagues and students.  I have attached my résumé for your reference, in the event that my personal background helps to illuminate my perspective.  Because I remain deeply concerned about the continuing improvement of PGCPS, and because I believe that the recruitment and retention of high quality classroom teachers is essential to improving any school system, I feel compelled to share with you some suggestions for how you might have more success retaining high quality teachers in a time when so many seem to be leaving PGCPS, be it to teach elsewhere or to pursue employment outside of education.  These suggestions are based on my own observations as well as discussions with respected colleagues in PGCPS.  I hope that you will find them useful, and I am happy to pursue this conversation with those of you who are interested.

II.        Suggestions for Retaining High Quality Teachers

A.        Improve the selection and hiring process

            High quality teachers wish to work with other high quality teachers, and we are frustrated when we work with people who are not as committed, motivated, or able as we are.  When I was interviewed at DuVal, I was asked some vague questions about my classroom management abilities.  That was it. No one asked about my instructional vision, desired classroom culture, content knowledge, or any other substantive issues.  My interviewer made it clear that she was only concerned with the number of administrative referrals that I might write that school year, thereby giving her more work.  Perhaps my experience was atypical because I had already been thoroughly vetted by my alternative certification program, but I left my interview saddened by its lack of depth, even though I had a job offer in hand. 

            I would suggest that PGCPS produce some guiding questions to be asked of teacher candidates during interviews, while also offering latitude and flexibility to administrators to seek the best fit for their buildings.  These questions could be aligned to the competencies detailed in the teacher evaluation tool used at the moment, and a rubric could be used to assess candidates fairly.  We could also introduce a teaching demonstration component to the interview process, similar to the model used in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS).  If we are serious about attracting and keeping the best teachers, the hiring process needs to be much more rigorous than it is currently.

            Finally, once teachers and other staff are hired, basic professionalism should be a part of new-hire orientation.  Far too often, I have been appalled at the lack of professionalism shown by some teachers in my building and others in PGCPS: the teachers who leave their classes unattended for long stretches of time to talk on their cell phones, the teachers who brag about how little preparation they do, the teachers who never read or respond to their emails, the teachers who never attend department or faculty meetings, the teachers who dress like they are going to the basketball court or the club, the teachers who encourage students to fight other students, the teachers who work under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the teachers who talk badly about other teachers in front of students, the teachers who let students enter their own grades, the teachers who encourage anti-intellectualism and anti-patriotism, the teachers who have inappropriate personal relationships with students, the teachers who have not revised their lesson plans in years, the teachers who do not write lesson plans at all, the teachers who can not actually explain how their lessons make sense or how they fit into the larger unit they are supposed to teach, the teachers who never assign work because they do not want to have to grade it, the teachers who leave the building hours early, the teachers who never follow through with their promises or contribute to the professional environment in any way, and so on and so forth.  Part of this behavior is the result of a lack of awareness and enforcement of professional norms, and PGCPS must improve in both areas.  We simply must insist upon professionalism because our students will follow our example. 

B.        Align salary with neighboring jurisdictions

            Competitive compensation goes hand in hand with higher expectations for teacher professionalism.  While I understand the difficulty in implementing this suggestion during these difficult economic times, particularly with the unique realities in Prince George’s County with respect to property tax revenue, it is absolutely imperative that PGCPS do whatever it can to maintain teacher salaries competitive with neighboring jurisdictions.  I will disclose to you that a major reason I am leaving is financial: I will make $11,000 more annually teaching at a high-needs charter high school in Washington, D.C.  While no teachers enter the profession for the money, everyone likes to be paid well for their hard work.  Teachers with National Board Certification, advanced degrees, and other distinctions that demonstrate a commitment to the profession should feel that the county values these accomplishments enough to ensure compensation for them commensurate with the market rate.  This consideration is especially important to younger teachers, such as me, who comprise the engine of many of our schools due to our high energy levels and ambition.  We are starting families (my wife and I are expecting our first child soon), managing student loan debt, and planning for our futures, and we wish that we were not forced to choose between fighting for Prince George’s County and protecting our own financial interests.

C.        Slow the pace of new initiatives

            I have often heard it said among my colleagues that teachers should not invest much energy supporting new initiatives because they would soon be replaced, and, sadly, I have found this sentiment to be true.  It appears that PGCPS invests a great deal of resources in looking for promising solutions to some of our biggest problems.  However, new initiatives are often rolled out while still incomplete, or they are discontinued before they have been given a fair chance to succeed.  This fast, haphazard approach alienates motivated teachers who spend their valuable time attending workshops and professional development sessions to learn or share the new ideas.  It also decreases buy-in from less motivated teachers, who use the rapid turnaround as an excuse to never fully support any new initiative, no matter how good it is.  The result is a constant state of frustration for everyone, particularly high quality teachers who are committed to changing things for the better.

            For example, in my first year in the county, the RELA office announced the Disciplinary Learning (DL) initiative for ninth grade English classes.  Without much notice, teachers were given rough drafts of two quarterly unit plans to use during that school year, and told to return to the old curriculum for the quarters for which we did not yet have a DL curriculum.  This approach was problematic for several reasons, including the fact that one of the cornerstones of the DL curriculum is its insistence that students improve most in reading and writing when teachers consistently use specific routines and rituals.  Why didn’t PGCPS wait until the curriculum was complete and coherent before insisting that teachers use it (and threatening that county administrators would be monitoring our compliance)?  To my knowledge, the DL curriculum remains incomplete, despite the fact that PGCPS paid me and other teachers to attend related training sessions years ago.  Other similar examples abound in other subjects.

            High quality teachers seek to master the scope and coverage of the curriculum deeply and as early as possible, not in increments unveiled throughout a given school year or discontinued from one year to the next. 

D.        Slow the pace of administrative turnover

            Similar to the fast pace of the new initiatives, PGCPS has a reputation for turning over school level administrators at a very rapid pace.  I was fortunate to have had one principal during my three years at DuVal, but he was the fourth principal that the school had in the preceding five or six years.  You may recall the great lengths that our school community took to ensure that he was not replaced after his first year on the job.  We were simply craving stability because we understood that it takes time for any leader to change the culture of an organization, and no organization can move forward without its members sharing a vision and working together to meet common goals.  Administrators should be given several years to demonstrate measurable progress in our schools in all but the most special cases, because high quality teachers are particularly frustrated by unstable and chaotic environments.  We want to take on leadership roles within the building; we want to rally behind a vision that we believe in; we want to commit our time and energy to helping the school reach its goals; but we do not want our efforts to be in vain due to the vision and goals constantly changing. 

Perhaps more importantly, education is essentially about building positive and productive relationships among stakeholders.  Rapid turnover among administrators compromises their ability to form the relationships that are necessary to do their jobs effectively and keep high quality teachers on board.

E.        Reject the use of standardized test scores in teacher evaluations

            There is perhaps no thornier issue in education today than the proper role of standardized testing.  Teachers in PGCPS have been informed that, beginning in 2013-2014, standardized test scores will be a factor in our evaluations, pursuant to our Race to the Top obligations.  While we are certainly sympathetic to our leadership’s concerns about protecting and increasing funding during these tough times, we also know that tying teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests is a faulty and irresponsible decision.  I will not bore you with a long discussion about this issue, but the bottom line is that the test makers themselves have cautioned us that the tests are not intended to be used to judge teachers, so perhaps we should heed that advice. 

            To be perfectly clear, I am a believer in the standards movement, and my training through The Prince George’s County Teaching Fellows (under The New Teacher Project) certainly helped to convince me that we need to use data to inform and drive our instruction.  Indeed, my three years at DuVal were spent focusing on English 10, where I became our school’s leader in English HSA and FAST preparation.  My students consistently scored well, and I would likely be successful if their scores were a factor in my evaluations.  Yet, I still reject the idea that my evaluation should be based on their performance.  The tests themselves are faulty, they were not intended to measure the quality of my teaching, and they only measure a small portion of what I actually teach.  Moreover, I would be less willing to take difficult students from other teachers, as I have done several times, if I knew that my evaluation might suffer, and the fact that many grades and subjects are still untested raises some significant equity questions for all teachers.  Finally, I know that teaching and learning are not one and the same; teaching is merely a factor (albeit an important one) in student learning. 

Why demoralize your teacher ranks with a scheme that everyone knows is unfair, simply for the sake of funds?  If other jurisdictions, including two right here in Maryland, could find a way not to impose this mandate on their teachers, surely PGCPS could have done the same out of respect for their high quality teachers. 

F.        Offer teachers the opportunity to develop their own evaluation tool(s)

            Why not create a task force comprised of PGCPS teachers to design our own evaluation tool?  High quality teachers would relish the opportunity to decide upon and share some characteristics, practices, and habits of good teachers, within some general domains set by our leadership.  A “home grown” evaluation tool, even if it ends up looking quite similar to Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, could also show sensitivity to issues unique to teaching in PGCPS, such as navigating our astounding ethnic and socioeconomic diversity.  Such a tool would certainly increase buy-in from all teachers if they knew that it came from successful teachers in PGCPS instead of outside consultants. 

G.        Solicit and use parent and age-appropriate student feedback in teacher evaluations

            Logistical complications aside, it simply makes sense to involve our most important stakeholders—students and their parents—in evaluating the quality of our teachers and administrators.  In any given school community, people have a general sense of who the “good” teachers are and who they are not.  Why not legitimize that voice?  I have voluntarily asked my students to evaluate my teaching several times per year, and I have found their feedback to be honest, fair, and helpful.  They know much more about the quality of my daily work than any administrator who might come in on occasion, and their voice should be heard on a wider, more formal scale.  PGCPS could develop age-appropriate, anonymous student surveys to be administered quarterly or bi-annually, and factor the results into teachers’ evaluations or publish them someplace, much like the experience of college professors.  High quality teachers are not threatened by such a plan, because we recognize that our stakeholders are our “clients,” and we strive to meet their needs.  Likewise, we tire of hearing students complain about the lackluster teaching of some of our colleagues, especially when we know that their complaints are valid and that they are not being addressed.

H.        Shift non-instructional responsibilities away from teachers

            Most high quality teachers understand that we are asked to perform many non-instructional duties because we are the largest group of adults present in our school buildings, but we also believe that it does not have to be this way.  PGCPS should do everything it can to shift non-instructional responsibilities away from teachers, in exchange for greater accountability for instructional outcomes.  Too often, I have found myself attending to so many non-instructional tasks that I was forced to cut corners on my lesson planning or other essential duties, a reality that I have always found maddening and insulting.  With all due respect to our support staff, teachers are necessarily the most important adults in any school building because we are the ones who carry out the essential mission of teaching students, and our time should be passionately protected.  The question should never be “How can teachers help non-teachers do their job?”  It should always be “How can non-teachers help teachers do their job?”  Maintaining a safe and orderly environment is really the function of the administrative and security teams, not teachers. 

PGCPS should consider building a volunteer corps to perform duties such as hall monitoring, cafeteria duty, ID/uniform checks, bus duty, paperwork, etc. that do not require a teacher’s expertise.  I am sure that many community groups are looking for ways to get involved in our schools, especially because good schools benefit everyone for a myriad of reasons.  Additionally, we have Bowie State University and the University of Maryland right here in our county, as well as proximity to many non-profit groups in Washington, D.C. PGCPS could become a model for community involvement while simultaneously freeing teachers to focus on the critical mission of improving our instruction.  High quality teachers could work wonders if given the time to do so.

I.          Strive for equity among schools

            It should not be true that PGCPS is divided into “haves” and “have nots,” with schools inside of the beltway receiving less support than schools outside of the beltway or those with a higher white population.  Even if it is not true, this perception is so pervasive in the county that it is seriously harmful to the morale of teachers and other stakeholders.  While many stakeholders are sophisticated enough to understand some of the sensitive political considerations involved in allocating resources among our schools, all of us desire our fair share of the pie.  There should not be such stark differences in resources between two schools a mile apart, such as Eleanor Roosevelt High School and DuVal High School, for example.  High quality teachers do not want to feel that their schools are being sabotaged at the county level due to political reasons.  Perhaps our communications office could plan some public relations opportunities promoting the equity of our system, or, to the contrary, expressing a sincere desire to improve it. 

III.       Conclusion

            I have taken the time to write this detailed memorandum because I love PGCPS.  I was educated in PGCPS from kindergarten through the fourth grade, my family has roots in PGCPS, and PGCPS has now taught me how to be a teacher.  Indeed, I am ending my tenure with PGCPS on a high note: one of my students, who I was lucky enough to teach for two years, took it upon himself to write me an unsolicited essay where he thoroughly described the ways that I impacted his life.  He detailed the most important things that he learned from me, listed the characteristics that set me apart from other teachers he’s encountered, and told me that he wishes he had more teachers like me.  I, too, wish that he had more effective teachers, and that is why I took the time to write you this memorandum.  I am tired of hearing educated, progressive people say that the only thing preventing them from settling in Prince George’s County is our public schools, and I know that attracting and retaining good teachers is at the heart of the matter.  It is my hope that my thoughts upon departure might spark some important dialogue or at least shed some light on the perceptions of teachers like me who would love nothing more than to see PGCPS rise to become a model for successful urban education.  

How Should I Be Judged?

Readers, I apologize for being away for so long.  Just after school let out for summer, I left town for an extended vacation with my wife’s family in Colorado, with a quick jaunt to Seattle thrown in.  As any good teacher will tell you, it is essential for teachers to stop thinking about teaching and re-charge our batteries from time to time, so please forgive my absence.  The rest was good for me, and now I’m ready to start thinking and talking again!

For those of you who follow education news, you may have heard that the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) fired 206 teachers last Friday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-schools-insider/post/more-than-200-dc-teachers-fired/2011/07/15/gIQADnTLGI_blog.html).  These teachers were allegedly dismissed for poor performance, as measured by DCPS’s controversial and closely-watched evaluation system called IMPACT.  IMPACT rates teachers in many categories centered around planning, delivery, and professionalism.  For some teachers (currently math and reading teachers in grades 4 through 8, but soon to expand to other grades and subjects as soon as they can roll out new tests), 50% of their rating comes from how much students improve on standardized tests while in their class.  Read more about IMPACT here: http://www.dc.gov/DCPS/In+the+Classroom/Ensuring+Teacher+Success/IMPACT+(Performance+Assessment)/IMPACT+Guidebooks/IMPACT+Guidebooks. 

This story really caught my attention not just because I follow education issues closely, but also because I have slowly come to believe that evaluating teachers based on test results is simply unfair.  No one is more surprised than I am about my opinion, because I entered the profession believing wholeheartedly that teachers should be held accountable for student achievement.  After spending a long time being frustrated with how narrowly and arbitrarily we currently define “student achievement” in the No Child Left Behind era, I’ve now come to the conclusion that the whole focus is misguided.  Teachers should only be judged on what they do. 

I currently teach English 10, which is the year that students in Maryland take their high-stakes English test (the HSA).  The test is a few hours long, divided into three sessions, contains between 90 and 100 multiple choice questions, and purports to test student mastery of “indicators” that teachers were required to teach, per the curriculum.  For a look at these indicators and how they are tested, please go here: http://mdk12.org/instruction/clg/english/goal1.html.  The indicators are essentially reading, writing, and thinking skills, not content (with the exception of definitions of terms that students must know in order to answer questions correctly).  The English HSA is not a horrible test, but it certainly has its flaws, which I will discuss in detail in the near future.  For now, I will just say that I would be uncomfortable having half of my evaluation tied to how my students ultimately perform on this test or others like it, and this trend is very dangerous to our schools.  A far better idea is to evaluate teachers on our level of professionalism and how well we execute our craft, much like the other true professions.  Our bipoloar identity as one-part white collar professional, one-part unionized assembly line worker is hurting us.

Ironically enough, DCPS gets it almost right for the teachers who aren’t yet *fortunate* enough to teach a tested subject (a dwindling group, sadly).  There, teachers are graded on their mastery of the teaching/learning framework (75%), teacher-assessed student achievement data (10%), commitment to school community (10%), and school value-added achievement data (5%).  I like this model because the emphasis is where it should be: on how well teachers plan and deliver instruction.  That is the essence of teaching; it is why we are called “teachers.”  While I now have a general distaste for testing data being used as any part of teacher evaluations, if it must be used, I like the approach used here—the school’s degree of improvement.  School-wide improvement as a factor for teacher evaluations would encourage collaboration and sharing among the staff, and it would also stimulate a healthy dose of peer pressure and support for those teachers who everyone knows aren’t working very hard.  However, those benefits aside, I still think this factor should only amount to a small percentage of the total evaluation, if any.  Too bad DCPS is trying to phase out this model.

I know that it might sound unrealistic, but I can’t help but wonder what our schools would look like if teaching were really a true profession, much like the lawyer crowd, which I also know a little bit about.  What if teaching certification programs were elite graduate programs with tough admission, coursework, and fieldwork requirements?  What if the government allowed full loan forgiveness or other enticements to attract smart and ambitious people to the programs (since the taxpayers will probably never agree to pay us what we’re really worth)?  What if all of these smart, ambitious people got to make their own rules and requirements for teaching licensure?  What if teachers who met all of these requirements were trusted to use their intelligence, demonstrated expertise, and professional judgment to design and deliver instruction that best met their students’ needs?  What if teachers were evaluated, by other teachers, on how careful and diligent they were in planning and delivering the best instruction possible, and on their contributions to the profession?  What if teachers could be sued for malpractice for not using the care and diligence expected from the professional community?  What if the teachers who were the real innovators and leaders got paid more for their efforts?  I bet our schools would be bursting with innovation and student achievement.  If we all think back to our own best teachers, it’s likely evident that the best teachers have always been the ones who are smart enough, hard-working enough, brave enough, charismatic enough, and free enough to do what they know is right for their students.  It seems to me that we should be implementing policies that foster this kind of ingenuity instead of stifling it.    

As you can see, testing (the end result) has nothing to do with this evaluation framework.  The state bar does not evaluate lawyers on how many cases they win or how many deals work out in their clients’ favor (although the market might indeed compensate them accordingly); instead, we evaluate lawyers on how careful they are and the zeal with which they represent their clients.  They get in trouble when they drop the ball, not when things don’t end up the way they planned and desired.  Somewhere along the way, lawyers decided that the process was more important than the result, and that, since there will always be winners and losers, it isn’t fair to penalize lawyers for results that they don’t ultimately control. 

In education, as much as we hate to admit it, there will always be winners and losers until we figure out a way to conquer the root causes of low academic achievement: poverty, poor health care, disinterested families, apathy, varying academic inclinations and aptitudes, and, yes, dysfunctional school bureaucracies, in many instances.  Yes, all teachers must have student learning (notice I didn’t say “standardized test achievement”) as their first and foremost priority, and we must relentlessly pursue high levels of achievement for all students, especially those who schools have traditionally ignored.  However, until we have cured all of society’s ills and can reasonably expect that every child can be a high achiever, it is not fair to hold teachers accountable for the end result when so much of it is out of our control.  Besides, I have a feeling that if we had the right people in the classrooms, with the right amount of respect and autonomy, learning would improve dramatically anyway.  Isn't that really the goal?

We Must Do Better

The last thing the teaching profession needs is more bashing, especially from an insider like me.  As the school year comes to a close, I've been thinking more and more about why it seems that so many teachers have such low standards for themselves.  In a typical day filled with encounters with fellow teachers, I go from feeling inspired and humbled by some of their wisdom and herculean efforts for students, to being thoroughly disgusted with others’ lack of integrity and professionalism. 

Maybe I’m not the best person to judge the professional standards of teachers.  Before becoming a teacher, all of my “real” jobs had been in law firms, where I was immersed in one of the most hyper-professional work environments imaginable.  For better or worse, lawyers are simply more serious and exacting than most people.  For example, if a meeting was set for 10:00 a.m., everyone would be assembled around the table by 9:55 a.m with their notepads and pens (or laptops) ready to go.  People would have already thought at least a little bit about the issues to be discussed, and the whole thing would be as efficient as possible because wasted time is wasted money.  No one would dare take a chance on others believing that they were the weakest link. 

In contrast, I'll never forget my very first faculty meeting at my current school, where I witnessed several teachers strolling in late, others text messaging the whole time, several others carrying on audible conversations during the presentations, and—my favorite—one teacher revealing to the person next to me that she was going to leave the meeting early by faking a coughing spell and leaving the room, never to return.  And this particular meeting wasn’t even that boring!

I have witnessed or heard about many other shocking examples of blatant unprofessionalism in my building: the teachers who leave their classes unattended for long stretches of time to talk on their cell phones, the teachers who brag about how little preparation they do, the teachers who never read or respond to their emails, the teachers who never attend department or faculty meetings, the teachers who dress like they are going to the basketball court or the club, the teachers who encourage students to fight other students, the teachers who work under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the teachers who talk badly about other teachers in front of students, the teachers who let students enter their own grades, the teachers who encourage anti-intellectualism and anti-patriotism, the teachers who have inappropriate personal relationships with students, the teachers who haven’t revised their lesson plans in years, the teachers who don’t write lesson plans at all, the teachers who can’t actually explain how their lessons make sense or how they fit into the larger unit they are teaching, the teachers who never assign work because they don’t want to have to grade it, the teachers who leave work hours (!) early, the teachers who never follow through with their promises or contribute to the professional community in any way, and on and on and on. 

For the sake of argument, I could make many excuses for this bad behavior.  I could talk about how some teachers lower their personal standards because they have been slowly demoralized by all of the insulting, counter-productive bureaucratic nonsense we deal with on a daily basis.  I could talk about how teachers aren’t paid nearly enough to do all of the things we are asked to do, so doing less makes things seem more fair.  I could talk about how some teachers feel that it is okay to “cheat” the system because they already pour so many of their personal resources into the job.  I could talk about how teachers may not feel true loyalty and obligation to the profession because we aren’t self-regulating like doctors and lawyers.  I could talk about how, due to the low pay and low prestige associated with teaching, ambitious college grads seek other careers while most teachers come from the bottom half of their college classes, which means that they may have never actually mastered the habits, attitudes, and intellectual skills required to be high achievers.  I could talk about how some teachers, especially in schools like mine, feel justified in taking the “teaching” part of their jobs lightly because we are so busy parenting our students in so many ways.  I could talk about how experience has taught some teachers that hard work is futile because so much of what happens to students is outside of our control anyway.  But I won’t let us off that easy.

As teachers, we must never forget that we owe our students our very best efforts every day, no matter how justified we may feel in cutting corners.  As employed college graduates (at least), we are already on the right side of the opportunity gap, and we must do everything we can to ensure that our students have the same opportunity.  At the very minimum, we must not block their chances simply because we aren’t up to the job.  I hope I never become so jaded that I forget this simple admonishment.

Teaching and Reaching Tyrone

Today I had one of those breakthroughs that teachers love.  I have a student we’ll call Tyrone (remember, I said I wouldn’t use real names).  Let me describe Tyrone to you.  He looks and carries himself a lot like Biggie Smalls (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Notorious_B.I.G.).  He is good natured, clever, and extremely funny, although I have heard that he can be disrespectful in other classes (I haven’t seen this side of him).  On the academic side, he tends to speak and write with the rhythmic flow of the aspiring rapper that he is, shunning Standard English at all costs, even on formal assignments.  He rarely brings basic supplies and materials to class (even a pen is a rarity); he balls up or folds important papers and leaves them everywhere except for in his binder; his writing is sometimes illegible and always full of phonetic or alternative spellings of words (I suspect he has an undiagnosed learning disability); he admits to hating books; he has zero academic support at home (he has said that his mother hated school just as much as he does and that she avoids teachers); and the list of problems goes on and on.  In short, this is the kind of kid who really makes us earn our pay. 

Tyrone and I have always had a good rapport, despite his academic problems.  I tease him relentlessly, and he returns the favor.  I make it a point to encourage him often and celebrate his successes whenever I can.  I also try to think of ways to make the material accessible to him and allow his creativity to shine.  For his part, he always comes to class (even though he is seldom prepared) and he says that mine is the only English class he’s ever learned anything in, even though he has managed to fail every quarter so far for not turning in work.  All in all, I enjoy teaching him even as he frustrates me to no end, and he and I both know that we are in each other’s corner.  

For the last few weeks of the year, I am teaching my students how to be trial lawyers as a way of reviewing persuasion techniques.  Using materials from a trial practice course I took in law school, we are conducting a full blown murder trial. The students have been given a complete case file, complete with police report, hearing transcripts, diagrams, medical reports, etc., and they will write and deliver opening statements, direct and cross examinations of witnesses, and closing arguments.  All students will do the work of lawyers leading up to the mock trial, at which point students will be assigned various roles to play.  I wanted to end the year on a challenging note, and this stuff is pretty sophisticated.  It is also engaging enough to keep the kids fairly together in these final moments of the year.

Well, Tyrone blew me away today.  This kid, who NEVER does any work at home, showed up in my classroom this morning bragging about how he has already figured out the whole case and that he plans on destroying the other side at trial.  I was skeptical until he whipped out his marked up file, organized and detailed notes (color-coded, no less), and accurate recall of minute facts that even I had overlooked.  His level of preparation reminded me of the way that my classmates and I prepared in LAW SCHOOL!  The students shared some of their work orally, and some students actually clapped for Tyrone after he shared his thoughts.  Believe me: he’s not used to that.  At the end of class, he told me that he was going to be the next Johnny Cochran.  It took almost 10 months, but the boy is finally giving a damn.  At times like this, all I can do is shake my head and smile. 

Pomp and Circumstance

Graduation season is now upon us.  For those of us in the education field, it's easy to forget how special graduation really is for the individuals walking across that stage and their families because we see it year in and year out.  Even though I still think of myself as a newcomer to the teaching game, I can already sense that there isn't much of a difference from one graduating class to the next--they have similar distributions of personalities, problems, and aspirations.  It's funny how both everything and nothing changes.  However, I am also aware of what an exciting and emotional time this is for the kids--full of a sense of nostalgia, aaccomplishment, and hope.  Indeed, I can still vividly remember each of my graduations, and I don't think I'll ever forget them for as long as I live.  I'll try to keep these thoughts in mind as I sit through hundreds of names being called ... while the audience rudely chatters the whole time ... only stopping to scream hysterically for their own friends and children ... okay, I'm getting off track.     

The faculty advisor for my school's student newspaper asked me yesterday if I could write up a short message (no more than 350 words) for seniors to be published in the final edition of the year.  I was honored that he would trust me with such a weighty task, even though I'm still not sure that I'm old or wise enough to offer up anything extremely profound.  In the end, I decided to forego being "deep" and just speak the truth to these 18 year olds.  Below is what I submitted:

"Congratulations, Class of 2011!  You have finally reached the end of your journey through mandatory education, where other people (adults) have told you what to learn, when to learn it, and, usually, how to learn it.  You have met all of these requirements, and all of us salute you.

Now, here’s where it gets fun.  Instead of listening to adults, you now get to be an adult.  Being an adult means taking personal responsibility for your decisions and their consequences.  You are no longer allowed to blame anyone or anything for things that don’t go your way.  Conversely, you get to take the credit when things go smoothly.  You now get to own your future, good and bad, and the ball is always in your court.     

Next, being an adult means taking responsibility for your community and for our planet.  You are now joining us other adults as the keepers of this world, and the younger generation depends on your responsible actions and leadership.  Always think about the impact that your actions will have on others and on our environment, and never forget that you—as important as you are—are a part of a larger, more important community. 

Finally, and most importantly, being an adult means being an original version of you.  Starting now, no one will really care much about what your reputation in high school was like (adults who still live in their high school past are generally considered pathetic), so this is a great opportunity to create a fresh, authentic, and completely unique identity for yourself.  You—not your peers, the media, or even your family—get to decide who you are.  As you figure it out, take risks, try new things, visit new places, make new friends, eat new foods, and keep track of how all of it makes you feel.  Your conscience will let you know if you’re on to something or not.  And the best part?  Things that people regard as “weird” or “nerdy” in high school are eventually regarded as “quirky” or “interesting” in adulthood.  Embrace your idiosyncrasies, because they will eventually be seen as assets.

Best of luck to you, Class of 2011, and welcome to the adult world!"

What would YOU say to the Class of 2011? 

Can Hollywood Close the Achievement Gap?

“Mr. Ray, that’s so white!”  “Mr. Ray, we’re BLACK; we don’t do that!”  These exclamations usually come on the heels of me using a big word, telling a story about an adventure I have had, or—perhaps most disturbingly—advising my students about health and fitness habits.  The exclamation is almost always followed by me saying something along the lines of “Well, I’m black, and I did it, so … ,” which is most often met with blank stares.

There is an identity crisis with underprivileged black American teenagers, and I will be writing much about it as this blog grows.  It's been on my mind a lot lately.  Based on what I hear from my students, to be black means to be unsophisticated, unhealthy, lazy, violent, mischievous, involved in dysfunctional relationships, and generally not as well off as everyone else.  One student even told me once that black children are born not as innocent as white children.  Heart-breaking, huh? 

The whole thing confuses me because I’ve never been afraid to create my own image and be an authentic version of myself—I’ve wholeheartedly embraced the “no limits” mantra, and it has served me well.  Why, I often wonder, do my kids let their “blackness” confine them?  How can they get excited about academic or professional achievement if the color of their skin subconsciously (and sometimes consciously) limits them in such negative ways?  All of the education reforms in the world won’t make much of a difference if students don’t buy-in to their own abilities and self worth.

I have an idea.  My kids spend an awful lot of time absorbing media, particularly television and movies.  Studies have shown that black kids spend more time watching television than other groups, and my students can certainly quote movies and television shows endlessly, even when they can’t seem to remember what they read in class days ago (!).  Since parents don’t seem all that interested in curbing this trend, I wonder what would happen if Hollywood decided to bombard black kids with positive and varied images of themselves.  I long for the day when a black child could turn on the TV, go to the movies, or flip on the radio at any time and be exposed to diverse representations of blackness—black characters with lifestyles, occupations, love lives, habits, values, pleasures, and sorrows that run the full gamut of American life—kind of like the diverse representations that other groups take for granted.  Would it make our work as teachers easier?

Maybe if the kids had a lot of representations to choose from, they would be more likely to choose one that lends itself to academic and professional achievement.  And eventually, if all goes well, maybe they would find the confidence to abandon the media’s formulaic creations completely and create their own identities.  Ahh, I can already see that achievement gap narrowing.

Hollywood, are you up to the challenge?

About this Blog

One of the hardest things about starting a blog about teaching is deciding what its limits will be.  Teaching is so complex and multifaceted that a person could dedicate an entire blog to just one aspect of it—curriculum and instruction, school climate, education reforms, relationships with students, relationships with the school community, the state of the teaching profession, and on and on.  There are many, many good education blogs in the blogosphere, some of which I will eventually share with you here.  With that said, I owe it to you, my readers, to let you know what to expect from my blog, so you can decide at the outset if this is a place where you want to spend your time.

What You Should Expect

1.         Stories from my classroom that demonstrate the special joys and challenges in teaching underserved black and Latino students—the ones on the wrong side of the “achievement gap”

2.         Reflections on the effects of racial identity on teaching and learning

3.         Ideas about what it means to be a good teacher in general, and in an urban school particularly (along with occasional instructional advice)

4.         Analysis of problems (and potential solutions) with public education policies

5.         Comments about current events and social trends that affect teaching and learning

What You Should Not Expect

1.         Excessive educational and legal jargon—some will pop up every now and then, but I’ll do my best to write this thing in plain English

2.         Real names or other obvious invasions of privacy of students and colleagues

I hope you’ll find this blog informative, engaging, and motivating, and that you will be generous with your comments so that we can contribute something valuable to the much-needed conversation about urban education today.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you come back often!