Author Archive

School-Linked Services: Promoting Equity for Children, Families, and Communities by Laura Bronstein and Susan Mason contains extensive advice for anyone interested in linking a school with one or more other service providers in their community. It offers summaries of successful programs and demonstrates how schools with linkages out perform schools with similar demographics that lack linkages in many ways. This is a must-read for leaders of any organization that serves schools.

Introduction

• This book consolidates the available literature on this topic along with a wide range of conversations with diverse key informants. In doing so it illustrates how partnerships between schools and communities support educational success. It covers a wide range of types of school-linked services and how they can break the cycle of poverty.
• They aim to provide enrichment activities that are often only available at schools serving wealthier populations. The services include after-school and summer programs, early childhood education, health and mental health services, family engagement, youth leadership programs, and others.

1. Making the Case for School-Linked Services

• A teacher’s ability to teach can clearly be hampered by issues outside their control. We must not view a student’s academic struggles in isolation from external factors. Low academic achievement is highly correlated with poverty. Distracted, hungry, worried, and ill children have a more difficult time learning. Absenteeism and mobility add to these problems. Partnerships must be fruitful, as schools cannot afford to spend resources just to have a partner.
• The Center for Disease Control has a model called Coordinated School Health (CSH) that integrates health promotion efforts across: health education, physical education, health and nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, safe school environments, staff wellness, and family and community involvement. These partnerships are progressive as they aim to do more for students who need more.

2. The School

• Although state aid to schools serves to reduce unequal funding, the decentralized system in the US results in kids in poor school districts having fewer resources, less experienced teachers, and greater teacher turnover. While teachers and other school personnel are trained to teach and do other jobs, they are not trained to deal with issues that children face beyond school. This needs to be part of their professional development. Administrator vision is vital.
• Since students are the ones with the most to gain or lose, their voices should be heard when it comes to decisions that will reform what schools do. If you are a school leader, you need to do what you can to create trust with poor and minority families. (Doug: I did this by hiring as many Black people as I could, especially for support staff positions.) Make sure that all of your families know that their input is welcome. Kids only spend about 10% of their time from birth to age 18 in school.

3. School-Linked Services Today

• The authors start by discussing the nature of school-based health centers, family resource centers, partnerships with businesses, expanded school mental health services, and finally, full-service community schools, which offer all of the other services. Such full-service schools can grow out of nonprofit organizations, school/city districts, or counties. In all cases, it is necessary to rethink how a school is managed, funded, and staffed. It’s important to see community members as customers and to involve students in community projects. Businesses are usually involved as well.
• The rest of the chapter (64 pages) contains details of three nonprofit initiatives, three school district/city-lead initiatives, and one county-wide initiative. Anyone thinking of starting or expanding a full-service school can draw on this information for ideas and guidance. As each of these exemplars are different from each other, so you should expect yours to be different as well as you strive to meet the unique needs of your community. Flexibility should also act as a guidepost. I suggest you start by reading each of the brief overviews and funding sources for ideas.

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Bad at Math: Dismantling Harmful Beliefs That Hinder Equitable Mathematics Education by Lidia Gonzalez points out the fact that most people in our society are comfortable at saying they are bad at math. This certainly implies that there is something wrong with how we present and teach math in general. She also points out that the math achievement gap between poor and minority kids and wealthier children is likely an opportunity gap that perpetuates the problem. While you may not be able to solve this problem, you should do your part by starting conversations with parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers and by sharing this important book.

Introduction

• It is somewhat alarming that most of our population is comfortable admitting publicly that they are bad at math. This behavior is also accepted by our culture and the media. This tells us that the way we conceptualize and teach math has to fundamentally change. What is needed is a growth mindset that tells you that you can get better at anything with effort. It’s vital that teachers have growth mindsets. This chapter will help.
• It is clear that existing reforms have fallen short. We also know that Black and Hispanic students struggle more with math than their white and Asian counterparts. This feeds and extends existing inequalities. It is important, therefore, to improve the mathematical experience of typically marginalized students. The main goal of this book is to tell us how to do this.

1. What Does It Mean to Be Good at Math?

• Many teachers are quick to assume a student is bad at math after one poor test score. They then view the student as not being good at math and act accordingly. Closed problems have one solution and only one way to be solved. Open problems have multiple solutions and be solved multiple ways. Open-middle problems have one solution but can be solved multiple ways. Research shows that students who routinely work on open problems do better in school and beyond. Open problems tend to take time and result in struggle, which students need to view as beneficial. Lidia provides resources for open problems here.
• Be sure to see my summary of “Dan Meyer: Math Class Needs a Makeover.” See my summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck.
  

  2. Beyond Numbers and Equations: What is Mathematics?

  • Ask students what math is and most will tell you that it deals with numbers, equations, and formulas. That is because most school math curricula put those things first and leave other topics at the end where they may never be covered. We need to broaden math teaching to include more geometry, probability, statistics, financial math, discrete math, and data science.
  • Increasingly complex visual data displays are showing up in media aimed at the public. Although algebra is important, we should urge our leaders to add more real-world math to the curriculum. Many students don’t take math in their senior year in high school. This means that they will have more difficulty with college math and it virtually rules out a career in a STEM discipline. Poor kids and students of color are more likely to be left behind and have less access to AP Calculus and Statistics.

  3. Mathematicians and Mathematicians in Training

  • Most of us think that math discoveries have mostly been made by white males. The stereotype for a mathematician, is an awkward white guy who probably lacks social skills. Historically, white men have had privileged access to math education, which explains why they dominate more recent discoveries. There are examples of women and minorities who have made discoveries in math and we need to expose students to them. Invite local women and people of color with math jobs to meet with your students as early as possible. Also, ask students to seek them out and report to the class.
  • Access to higher math in high schools starts with early decisions as to who gets tracked into higher math classes. Studies show that teacher recommendations favor whites and males beyond the advantage they would have if universal testing were in place. This is often considered too expensive even though studies show it to be racist. Fight for policies that give all students a chance to experience as much math as possible.

  4. We Are All Math People

  • One can make a case that we are all math people and there is lots of math involved in everyday life. If math is all about patterns, we are dealing with patterns a lot. From planning a route to sports and music we are encountering math. Be sure to ask students to hunt for the math around them. Be it math or reading, students will be more engaged if there is a context of interest.
  • It’s important to help kids see themselves as math people, and to see math around them. Teachers, therefore, have to create these opportunities. Connect to contexts that hold meaning for students.
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The Teachers: a Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins is a fine piece of qualitative research that uses three year-long case studies and hundreds of interviews as data. It details the many difficulties that teachers may face. Even though we don’t know the percentage of teachers facing each difficulty, we do know that they the are somewhat common. (Doug: I’ve seen them all.) This should gain more respect for the profession. I only wish every journalist, pundit, and parent could read it. Get your copy today.

Prologue

• To gain the expertise necessary to write this book, Alexandra conducted case studies of three teachers over an entire school year. She conducted hundreds of interviews with other teachers. She also did some substitute teaching and a semester of long-term substitute work. Each chapter contains stories from the three teachers she studied for a year including aspects of their private lives. They all appear to be outstanding teachers. Penny teaches 4th Grade, Rebecca teaches 6th grade math, and Miguel is a middle school special education teacher. The final section of each chapter contains anecdotes and generalizations from the remainder of her research.

1. August: Introduction: “It Makes My Soul Happy”: What Teachers Endure and Why They Stay

• Here we meet the three teachers Alexandra studies along with some of their issues. While many think that teachers have the summer off, they are often required to attend professional development sessions that vary widely in quality and effectiveness. Funding is often short for supplies so they often purchase what they need themselves. Leaders are often a source of frustration as they can’t reliably find the money for supplies or substitutes and require teachers to cover additional classes.
• Teacher salaries seem to be the biggest problem today as they haven’t kept up with inflation. (Doug: My starting salary of $8,500 in 1971 would be over $63,000 today.) Nationally they make 23% less than the average professional with comparable training, and up to 30% less in some states. The real reason for teacher shortages is mostly poor compensation. By some estimates 70% of teachers work a second job during the school year and most get summer jobs. They are vital, but not generally highly respected.

2. September: “STOP TOUCHING MY CAR”: Parent Aggression and the Culture of Teacher Blaming

• This book focuses on anecdotes that make for a great series of case studies, but do not feature much quantitative data to support generalizations. The main theme is that parents often blame the teacher for the shortcomings and misbehavior of their children. They often send emails when grades are an issue and expect teachers to change them. Administrators aren’t always supportive of their teachers. There are many anecdotes here that seem believable to me.
• Another theme deals with how teachers have to contend with special ed students and gifted students in the same class. Special education students in general education classes often get sent back to the room of their special education teacher. Ironically, this may seem like a reward. There are good tips here for how to deal with situations where teachers overreact to student behavior.

3. October: “I Would Have Done It for Any Child”: Teachers Are Heroes – but They Shouldn’t Have to Be

• Here we learn that Penny the 6th grade math teacher left an abusive husband and was mostly shunned by a teacher clique where she taught. (Doug: I’ve seen such cliques.) The middle school special education teacher Miguel suffers from bad administrators who want to mainstream all special ed students without planning, training, or support staff. Mismanagement has impacted his health.
• Rebecca the fourth grade teacher teaches students about mindsets. (Doug: See my summary of Mindset by Carol Dweck.) She wishes that she could differentiate (individualize) learning more as a one-size-fits-all lesson plans only work well for the kids in the middle. Like many, the amount of paperwork leaves little time for her own life.
• Alexandra finds that most teachers will do anything they can for students in need. She cites one teacher who adopted a student and another who donated a kidney. Most teachers (94%) spend their own money on supplies and personal times for students and families. While 44% leave by five years, districts with strong mentoring programs do much better. While cliques are an issue, teachers do a lot to support each other in their buildings and beyond via conferences and online resources (Doug: Like this blog for example.)

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