School turnaround

Yesterday, I was a 12-year-old. My parents recently immigrated — only a few years back — and I started schooling in English for the first time here in Boston. I really don't like school. It's just not fun. The teachers are either yelling or drilling us in mundane things I don't need to know, and the few teachers that I do like are only around for a year or two. I know I don't go to a great school — I'm not stupid, I hear what the people say about where I live. But it's my home, and even though I'm not doing great in my classes, I pass and I get to spend time with my friends. Now they're talking about closing my school, or changing it, and I don't know what could make it better, but I guess it's time for change, right?

...
I was invited to attend one of the Fellowship workshops yesterday for Education Pioneers, titled "Current Issues in Education." In lieu of trying to tackle a laundry list of issues, we took part in a major simulation that incorporated many issues in a real-world scenario. The Fellows, a friendly, intelligent group of 40 graduate students, played consultants making recommendations for a failing school (my school). They were tasked with interviewing me and other stakeholders (a teacher, a union representative, the principal, a community leader) to decide if the school should be closed, restarted, "turned around", or transformed.

A bit of context for that: this comes directly from the Department of Education, who in 2010 began offering School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to low-achieving schools, provided they would follow one of four models to facilitate its turnaround. The DOE's blog summarizes the options as such:

• Turnaround model: Replace the principal and rehire no more than 50% of the staff, and grant the principal sufficient operational flexibility (including in staffing, calendars/time and budgeting) to fully implement a comprehensive approach to substantially improve student outcomes. 
• Restart model: Convert a school or close and reopen it under a charter school operator, a charter management organization, or an education management organization that has been selected through a rigorous review process.
•  School closure: Close a school and enroll the students who attended that school in other schools in the district that are higher achieving.
• Transformation model: Implement each of the following strategies: (1) replace the principal and take steps to increase teacher and school leader effectiveness; (2) institute comprehensive instructional reforms; (3) increase learning time and create community-oriented schools; and (4) provide operational flexibility and sustained support.

Genius. Without doing so explicitly, the Fellows learned about teacher's unions, school management, student assessment, teacher assessment, instructional models, federal standards...

I could say a lot of things about how my attempt to convey someone else's lived experience can be problematic, but I took off my American Studies hat yesterday and really invested myself in my character and tried to internalize the student experience of a failing school. It was on my side that twelve year olds don't have to be too articulate about how race, poverty and education interact. I did my best, and also answered a lot of questions like this...

Fellow: "So, what would you want to make your school better?"


Me: "Do we have to do work and stuff, not just fun stuff?"


Fellow: "Yes."


Me: "Umm... I don't know. I'd like to have fun or nice teachers and friends in my classes."

That's clearly a simplistic response, but as I processed the activity after, I realized this is still really nuanced: it points at how the teachers at the school weren't consistent in expectations and discipline, and teachers weren't empowered to make creative lessons that went beyond explaining basic skills.

Out of the mouths of babes, right?

The "consultants'" presentations after interviewing us were really strong and challenged my ideas of what is best for struggling schools, and the simulation and the speaker after (a real-life consultant on school turnaround) definitely stretched my knowledge. I did have one main thought, though. A big part of most of the plans including removing a substantial part of the teaching force and hiring new teachers. I couldn't help but think of this blog, where Diane Ravitch astutely paraphrases and says, "Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers." And  I know that sometimes teachers are terrible and do need to go. But I worry that the framework of the SIGs subscribe to the idea that firing teachers helps fire poverty, and I don't believe that's true. 


In short: This experience generated a lot of questions for me, which means that it was effective in the best way. Thanks again, EP.