Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Neighborhood Schools: an Endangered Species?

Dispatch from a neighborhood school...

(And a reminder that my comments are based on experience at the high school level only.)

It's been another grueling year in the trenches of DCPS. Of course, saying “DCPS” doesn't mean much because the range of schools is so vast. You've got your A List that includes School Without Walls, Banneker, Wilson, etc. Then you've got the whole world of charter schools, and then somewhere blowing in the wind are the dying breed—the neighborhood public schools. I teach in one of those.

We should have Lady Liberty in front of the school because we truly do take those unwelcome everywhere else. We have a large concentration of students in group homes and cycling through the city's juvenile detention center.

If I read one more quote from the Washington Post editorial board or any other “expert” about how to fix our failing schools that says we should look to what successful charters are doing I will lose it. Do you know what our students say when we ask them how to improve our school? “Kick the bad kids out.” You know what? They're right. Removing the 5% that destroy the academic culture of the school would have a huge positive impact. No, it would not solve all the problems but it's a start.

But where would they go? Alternative placements. DCPS is sorely lacking in its ability to provide alternatives for teens who can't or won't function in a normal school setting. From what I hear from our dean of students, DCPS is making it more and more difficult to suspend students or to send them to Choice (where students get sent when they have no more choice and they've repeatedly caused trouble at their original school).

So we let the troubled troublemakers come to school and ignore the adult authority figures who are supposed to run the school. Then at the end of the day, or earlier if they don't want to be there all day, we release them. Is it any wonder that they cause problems in the community? They haven't had to respect an adult all day.

[I'll save the other main reason for failure-truancy-for another day.]

So, kick us while were down. Put us on the list of low performing schools. Threaten to close us down. Blame the teachers. And keep sending us the students that have nowhere else to go

2 comments:

  1. Schooled,

    Great post. Glad to see you're back! The major part of the reform we are under requires a PR machine that sweeps things under the rug and manipulates numbers and facts. As a result largely ignores the very concerns you are citing.

    It is so incredibly sad for our children, many of whom come from completely dysfunctional homes and then enter a completely dysfunctional system that looks great on paper but is being run into the ground.

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    1. Thanks. Yes, it's all about the numbers. We have to get the numbers up: DCCAS and graduation rates. Obviously we all want that but do we want to get there honestly or by short term trickery? Teachers could provide leadership in doing it the right way but our input seems not to be encouraged or respected.

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