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Will Third Graders Learn More Now?


A theater adage warns adults they’ll be upstaged if they agree to perform with animals or small children. It has proven true for Diana Lam, the schools’ former Deputy Chancellor.

All eyes are now on the 15,000 third graders potentially affected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s harsh new school promotion policy. Who can think about Lam, forced out after a report raised questions about her role in helping her husband find work in the schools, when eight-year-olds are in the klieg lights?

But let’s not forget the results Lam promised from the so-called uniform citywide curriculum, of which she was chief architect. It didn’t stop 31,700 third graders from falling into the “promotions-in-doubt” category in January.

Now crates of supplementary reading materials are being shipped to elementary classes for last-minute “interventions,” that the mayor says will shore up many of the stragglers. This is the latest of the one-size-fits-all prescriptions that are supposed to work uniformly well at every school in the city.

In reality, some city schools have the teachers, space and professionalism to use the materials with small groups of no more than seven struggling readers, as their publisher directs. Other schools are understaffed and overwhelmed, still puzzling over Lam’s curriculum as they take delivery of the newest magic bullets.

Bloomberg tacitly recognized these shortcomings recently, when he demanded that the state boost its educational aid to the city by $5.3 billion a year in order to halt the "neglect of our public school children." But, wasting no time waiting for a check that may never arrive, he expects immediate great strides from the victims of that neglect.

At one well-run school, PS 69 in Jackson Heights, counselors were dispatched to third grade classrooms after Mayor Michael Bloomberg replaced dissidents on the Panel for Educational Policy to ram through passage of his new promotion policy. Children scoring far below grade level on reading or math tests later this month will get another chance after summer school – make that “Summer Success Academy” -- or it’s back to third grade with them.

It’s good to know that schools offer counseling, though headed by a mayor who trivialized children’s feelings in saying that those failing on the basis of a single test might "cry a bit."

That tough-love stance dates back to his mayoral campaign, when he said failing kids must learn that free weekends and vacations are a “luxury earned.”

It’s a lesson they’re learning now. As a million other New York schoolchildren enjoy spring break, third graders shaky in reading or math stay in school, attending hastily organized academic boot camps.

However, the mayor softened toward them, even turning spiritual, in his March 19 radio show as he described the child who scores at Level 1 on standardized tests – the bottom rung and now a dealbreaker for promotion -- as a “child who’s been dealt a bad hand by God.”

Certainly some city schoolchildren have been dealt worse schools than others. A flip through the school report cards on the Department of Education web site shows that Level 1 scores are a rare occurrence at some elementary schools but routine at others.

That brings us back to Diana Lam. If her ouster is all but forgotten, how about the uniform citywide curriculum, which was supposed to help all schools teach children to read?

Even supporters of the approach say it isn’t designed for the struggling reader. The method, in use in K-8 classrooms around the city, allots large blocks of time to “independent reading” of classic and popular children’s books. The teacher presents a quick lesson on a topic that, according to standards set by the state, competent readers need to know. In lower grades, this might be identifying main ideas or discussing characters.

Classroom libraries are sorted by reading level, and children are told to read a book coded for their skill levels and respond to the topic under discussion. Thus, a skilled third grade reader might be reading something like “Harry Potter” for characterization while a struggling classmate supposedly does likewise with a book on the first-grade level, something with short chapters and lots of pictures.

Or perhaps, as a teacher in one Crown Heights elementary school packed with Level 1’s suggested, “It works best with children who can already read. The kids who can’t read are just turning the pages.”

Students in grades three to eight also get a daily half-hour dose of word study, the more traditional fare of reading classes, including phonics, vocabulary and spelling. Here Lam’s suggestions stirred the most controversy. She had recommended a program called Month by Month phonics, which has materials for various skill levels and intended for use by an entire class.

Then President George W. Bush’s top reading adviser threatened New York City with the loss of millions in federal education funds on the grounds that Lam’s choice, Month by Month, wasn’t backed by research. Overruling his deputy, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein ordered a federally sanctioned phonics program, Voyager Passport, developed especially for New York City by Voyager Expanded Learning of Dallas.

Now Bloomberg says the city will spend $41 million in immediate aid to flailing third graders.

Apparently, a substantial chunk of that is heading to the company in Dallas. Defending his boss’s policy, Chancellor Klein told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer that Voyager Passport was coming to the rescue. The materials also figure prominently in the Department of Education’s 20-page paper on the new promotion policy [In PDF Format] , where they’re described as the most common “intervention” now used in the city’s third grades for substandard readers.

Yet right now, as fresh shipments of Voyager Passport materials arrive in third grade classrooms, it’s still unclear how effective they are. As the Daily News has suggested, their GOP stamp of approval might have more to do with pedigree than pedagogy. Their executives include Jim Nelson, who served as the Texas education commissioner under Gov. George W. Bush.

For Voyager Expanded Learning, founded in 1996, the Passport product is a first foray into materials aimed solely at struggling learners. It has provided summer school materials here for years, said a spokeswoman, Deborah Nugent, but those products were for use by an entire class. She said Passport is meant for use with about a half-dozen students, either pulled out and taken to a supplementary instructor, or working with their teacher in a classroom where other children are busy with separate tasks.

Certain schools here are awash in student teachers, parent volunteers and artists-in-residence who can make such things happen. Others are lurching from day to day.

The Department of Education asked 600 schools what support they provide for their weakest third graders, and 97.5 percent said they use some kind of small group instruction. But that could mean anything at all, including letting some kids gather around a computer; it is hard to imagine a school saying it gave no help at all.

A smaller portion, 72 percent, said they’ve been using Voyager Passport materials. Those were shipped in September, and there are “early indications of promising results,” says the education department’s promotion policy paper, because of 16,978 third enrolled in Voyager Passport programs “almost 30 percent (29.6 percent) did not receive Promotion-in-Doubt letters.”

Which leaves 70 percent that did.

Still, the assistant principal of a Long Island City elementary school said she was happy to see the new Passport shipments. She pointed out that the promotion policy – far from being the take-no-prisoners document that the public imagines – will allow students to be promoted despite Level 1 scores if the school can prove every possible intervention has been tried and will continue.

“After all,” said the assistant principal, “we can’t have fifth graders who shave.”

Marcia Biederman writes about city public schools for InsideSchools.org and contributes regularly to The New York Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helping Students Before It's Too Late



Adam Sandler, in the 1995 movie Billy Madison, must go back to elementary school as as adult to make up the work he avoided as a child.

The last several days have been difficult ones for the Department of Education, with the abrupt departure of its top educator, Diana Lam. Chancellor Joel Klein's decision to appoint long-time educator Carmen Fariña, the superintendent of school Region 8 in Brooklyn, to replace Lam should calm the storm and get the department back on track. Fariña's direct and immediate knowledge of our city's public schools will provide the consistency that our teachers and students need. No matter how one feels about the many reforms Lam put into place, I think we can all agree that switching gears in the middle of the year would be incredibly disruptive for our schools.

That said, there is a reform that the department needs to seriously rethink before it implements it next month -- the recently proposed third grade promotion policy. You would be hard pressed to find a person in this city without an opinion on the policy. Former Mayor Ed Koch, former U.S. Representative Herman Badillo, and former Schools Chancellor Frank Macchiarola support it. Many academics and advocates fiercely oppose the plan. Others, such as United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, have offered compelling alternative proposals. The Panel for Educational Policy is slated to vote on the policy on March 15.

Out of the cacophony of comments on the issue, there seems to be one thing we can all agree on: We cannot wait until third grade to address students' academic needs.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed third grade promotion policy requires that all students who score a Level 1 (the lowest level, indicating the student falls far short of meeting standards) on either the English/language arts or mathematics third grade tests will be held back. According to the proposed policy, the students will receive extra help during a 16-day summer program and during the following school year in order to get them to grade level. As a mother, former teacher and the chair of the City Council's Education Committee, I am greatly concerned that these interventions are too little, too late. If the mayor is serious about ensuring that all students achieve at grade level -- and I believe he is -- he should invest $80 million to $90 million dollars before they fail the third grade tests not after.

Many of the students who will score at Level 1 on the third grade tests to be given in a few weeks have been behind from the moment they entered the public school system. Many never had a day of pre-kindergarten. Many have developmental delays or learning disabilities that have gone undetected. It is tragic and unacceptable that only after failing the upcoming tests will these children get the help they need and deserve. We must do better. Our city needs an aggressive early intervention policy. I propose the following three-point plan:

Full Enrollment in Universal Pre-Kindergarten

In February 2003, the City Council Education Committee released a report that found that the city has failed to provide pre-kindergarten services to tens of thousands of eligible New York children. When the report was released, many in the administration lamented that, although the state provides most of the funding for the program, the city could not afford the financial burden of enrolling additional children. From where I stand, we cannot afford NOT to enroll all eligible students in universal pre-kindergarten. From both a budgetary and an educational point of view, the number of students who go without pre-kindergarten education represents bad public policy. Educators far and wide agree that stepping in to help children before they begin regular classes at age five is less expensive, and more effective, than trying to help the youngsters catch up when they are older.

Kindergarten Plus

With or without universal pre-kindergarten, there will still be children who complete a year of kindergarten and are not ready for first grade. Parents and educators have long known that these children would benefit from a second year of kindergarten. In fact, a second year of kindergarten is common at private schools and in a number of school districts throughout the nation. I propose that the Department of Education create Kindergarten Plus, a second year of kindergarten, for those who need an additional year of schooling before moving on to first grade. Because these students are so young, repeating kindergarten will allow them to catch up to their peers academically and developmentally without the stigma and emotional trauma that critics argue will result from the mayor's plan to retain third graders.

Flexible Kindergarten Enrollment Age

Currently, children are required to enter kindergarten at the age of five. If they are six years old when they enter the city's public school system, they must enroll in first grade. Yet, studies have shown that many children, even those who have attended pre-kindergarten, would benefit from starting kindergarten at the age of six rather than five. In private schools, headmasters often delay a child's entry into kindergarten until the age of six because educators deem that such a program will benefit that particular child. This strategy is particularly true for boys, who experience language delays more frequently than girls. We must give parents the discretion to wait until their children are six to enroll them in kindergarten.

In these times of fiscal austerity, we sadly cannot do everything we would like for our city's students. We must make tough choices. By spending our dollars and working to help children as early as possible in their school careers we can address these children's needs before they spend years struggling and falling farther and farther behind.

Eva Moskowitz, the council member from district 4 in Manhatttan, is chair of the council Education Committee.

 

Technology In The Schools


With broken desks and water fountains, dirty bathrooms and overcrowding, Brooklyn Tech High School does not deserve to be called "high-tech" according to one New York City teen in a multimedia project he created. Instead, it seems more like low dungeon.

New Yorkers may not necessarily agree with this negative assessment of one of the city’s most competitive and tech savvy high schools. However, it is not only students who see a serious problem with the way that technology is currently being used in education -- or more accurately, not used.

New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer sees the Department of Education as lacking vision for integrating technology into the schools. Brewer has made it one of the top missions of her Technology in Government committee to let the public know that much needs to be done.

Right now, there is little consistency from school to school. Some have computers too outdated to use; others are requesting hundreds of new laptops without really knowing what purpose they will serve. Some principals don't even have an idea what technology capabilities exist in their schools.

Some schools have networks that allow everyone to send e-mail to one another while others rely on making photocopies in order to communicate. Many teachers have better access to technology at home than they do at school.

But, using technology in the classroom is not merely a question of buying computers and upgrading infrastructure. It is also about incorporating it into the curriculum and training teachers to use it. This requires completely rethinking some issues (from redesigning the physical classrooms to dramatically improving the curriculum).

Brewer's committee held a roundtable discussion last October in partnership with the Hunter College Graduate Department of Urban Affairs and Planning’s Digital Opportunities Team to identify some of the most innovative uses of technology in education. Since then, the Hunter team has conducted research on 17 of the city’s leading such projects.

These include:

. The results of the study will be published by the committee at the end of March.

 

While not included in the Hunter team’s research, a non-profit organization called Digital Clubhouse Network deserves recognition for their Digitally Abled Producers Program, which works with students ages twelve to 18 years old. The students learn to tell their personal stories and those of their community by working with adult mentors to make “mini-movies” about their own lives. The three-to-five minute movies, which are like slide-shows, combine voice, images, music and sound effects.

The students learn to use photo and movie software while developing digital literacy, work skills, creativity and self-esteem. "[Through this program] the students get the kind of special attention and individual encouragement that just isn't possible in our overcrowded and under-funded schools," according to Digital Clubhouse Network mentor Craig Lowy, a broadcast designer.

The stories, which were shown at the Soho Apple computer store in January, deal with some difficult themes, including racism, the death of a grandparent, bullying, children with disabilities, drug problems, illiteracy and family problems. For example, in one story, "The Perfect Solution," Damali Driskell told of his isolation as the only black kid at a mostly Jewish private school. They also include that student at Brooklyn Tech detailing the problems with his school.

In February, a number of digital stories produced in this program aired as Public Service Announcements on television channels BET and The N for Black History Month.

The Hunter team’s research and the example of the Digitally Abled Producers Program highlight the reality that non-profit organizations and experimental projects are leading the way in terms of integrating technology into education in New York City. Now it’s time for the Department of Education to learn from these projects in order to develop its own comprehensive vision for technology in the city’s schools. And, they won’t be able to do it alone. The agency will have to work with the Department of Housing, in order to make sure that parents are also benefiting from new technology along with their children, and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications in order to realize their vision -- once they have one.

Laura Forlano is a doctoral student studying communication technology policy at Columbia University.

 



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