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September 24, 2009

Comments

Todd P

My greatest concern with this new program is that it appears to be aimed entirely at bringing kids up to grade level, ignoring the needs of kids who are already there. Teachers are not allowed to make accomodations for AIG students, and this is wrong.

I have a child in 1st grade at Easley Elem. His teacher has told me in the past 2 weeks that she knows when she is teaching the class that it is not doing my son any good because he already knows the material. We are left to try to move him along on our own at night and on the weekend, and may have to consider skipping 2nd grade to get him up to more appropriate and challenging material.

Handcuffing teachers like this is not right - they need to have the flexibility to provide challenging materials that are appropriate for students who are ahead or behind the curve. Teaching the test is a poor excuse for education.

Withheld to protect our school and teachers

"Bordley took issue with frequently-heard concerns over measurement-based education, including crowding-out of extracurriculars and the impact on students' feelings if they don't pass a test."

Crowding-out of extracurriculars? Since when did SCIENCE and SOCIAL STUDIES become extracurricular?? Parents are NOT complaining about loosing drama. We're complaining about the very little time that science, social studies, and EVEN WRITING, yes WRITING has in the school week.

We are NOW in the FIFTH week of school and neither my 1st grader or 4th grader has had writing instruction. Yes, the kids are doing very basic journaling, but in years past there has been at least one writing lesson by now. The district pacing guide NOW lumps writing into a once a quarter activity. So instead of getting writing EVERY day they now are going to get an overload of writing once a quarter for a week or two. Middle & High School students, and most adults write EVERY day. Not once a quarter! Fourth grade is the first year there is a "writing test" that is administered the scores are tracked. I can't wait to compare last year's scores with scores in Spring 2010. I wonder if the district will pay for the tutoring my 4th grader will probably need to catch up in writing next summer.

NC DPI requires that in 4th grade North Carolina Social Studies is taught. The 4th grade teachers at our school (one of the schools w/ a higher SES) are still trying to figure out when and where they can fit in social studies. The district doesn't seemed to be worried that my 4th grader won't learn what the NC DPI requires in social studies BECAUSE it's NOT ON THE TEST!

Science was a special in our school last year. But now has been cut because of budget reasons and with the new schedule there is not enough time in the week to include science. My 1st grader's teacher said that the 2 field trips this year will be science related because with the DPS mandated schedule changes this year there just isn't as much time to fit it in the class.

I realize there is A LOT of snark in my comments. But I think Kainz and Bordley are over looking that the very parents who are involved in this issue ARE concerned about not just about their children but ALL of Durham's students. We VERY MUCH want to see children reading and writing on grade level. But you don't achieve this by alienating teachers, filling Kindergarten & First grade classes with 25 plus kids, and driving middle class families from the district. I volunteer at my children's school working with the kids who don't read at grade level. MANY of the parents who have reached out to the district and voiced our concerns are involved volunteers at schools, helping children who usually are not our own.

It's not just the basal reader from Reading Street. DPS mandates that the literacy block be either 120 minutes or 150 minutes based on the school. While getting a 4th or 5th grader to focus just on literacy for 150 minutes may not seem like a big deal, First Graders are also mandated to have the same length of literacy blocks. My children have told me that they can not get up and go to the bathroom during these blocks, without repercussions. 120 minutes is a VERY long time for a 6 / 7 year old to focus on literacy or anything for that matter. Sometimes a quick 5 min break outside resets the mind and gets it ready for learning again. The teachers do NOT have this flexibility. If a 6 year old is not reading at grade level how is he/she suppose to have magically gotten the gift of being able to focus for 120 minutes. I imagine that even those kids at grade level will be challenged by this.

Laura

This one size fits all approach is why my kids are in private school. Although I certainly appreciate that we need to get all students performing at grade level, I think the lack of attention paid to our smartest, highest performing students is really sad. These are our future leaders and we just assume they'll be fine while we focus all our attention on the lowest performers.

Steve Nicewarner

"She could check in with her own children to see if they're on track educationally, but 'that's next to impossible to do with 32,000 students.'"

I could very easily interpret this [and an earlier statement attributed to both Kainz and Bordley] as a statement that the DPS system is too large to manage effectively. Is that an admission that the Board [and the DPS administration] are poor managers, or should we be exploring splitting the system into managable portions?

JAP

Drill, Drill, Test, Drill, Test, Measure, Measure and Measure again with real time data coming on a ticker tape into each classroom. It is very sad that with millions on the line with "race to the top" federal money and millions more available from private foundations ALL requiring a data driven approach to education it seems that DPS feels that it does not really need or care about middle class families who want a more balanced education for their children.

Toby

Great post, Kevin. You are providing a very important service to the community in doing this type of in-depth coverage.

It seems to me that the problem lies not entirely in the Reading Street basal reader program, but to a large extent in how it has been implemented. Wouldn't it have been possible to use Reading Street in a more targeted way, specifically to support teachers who are struggling with teaching kids to read? As a manager, why would you impose a single, standard method across the board, even on your top teaching performers? And if it's a good program, why would it be necessary to squelch criticism of it among the professionals hired to teach our kids?

This is part of the reason my kids are at a public charter school. It's not perfect, but at least has an identifiable educational philosophy, and is able to implement that approach locally.

DKay

Kevin, thank you again for a thoughtful approach on this issue. One thing you didn't touch on is that DPS has a history of these one-size-fits-all programs. They also have a very top-down approach to decision-making. Often they do not talk to the end-users (Teachers) about how these things will actually work in classrooms and then they are genuinely surprised when they don't get the expected results. I read this blog post yesterday that describes the difference between schools being data-driven and data-informed.

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/08/26/data-driven-versus-data-informed/

At this point it seems DPS is data-driven and data-scared.

love2Ckidsplay

Thanks for your coverage, Kevin. More thoughtful well-researched responses from concerned parents will be posted soon on www.dpsparentadvocacy.wordpress.com.

Mike

Can anyone tell me where the concerned parents were two years ago? Am I correct that this program was adopted two years ago after being reviewed by groups of teachers, parents and central offices? Please let me know if I am wrong.

Mike

A concerned parent

Mike, the Reading Street curriculum wasn't fully implemented two years ago. It was sprung on the schools four days before the school year opened this fall. Teachers were not trained how to use it; they were instead effectively told that all the work they had done all summer to prepare for the year was useless as they would have to use the Reading Street materials exclusively.

The reading materials are super boring. The math materials, on the other hand, move WAY too quickly. New concepts are introduced every single day, and some of the children can't handle it. It's really kind of bizarre.

Teachers have been told that AIG children who are reading far above grade level still have to use the basal readers. Once they've finished reading the boring stories included, they can read authentic literature like the Beverly Cleary books. How is this going to produce great students?

Obviously DPS has a big problem. The Bull City won't really have risen until the schools no longer scare off middle class parents and the children who are currently under performing actually learn to read, write, and do math. Not all teachers are top performers. Some kids do need a highly scripted curriculum, just as some teachers need the structure that such a curriculum provides. But to include no flexibility, to ignore data that the district claims it has on teachers whose students are scoring well on the tests, and to alienate parents is bad policy.

Sadly, if the district sticks to this curriculum, we'll be leaving Durham within a year or two. It's not fair to my kids to stay, and this breaks my heart.

Mike

Thanks for the input. My sons principal told us that DPS said there is room for flexibility. So who am I to believe? What really upset me during this PTA meeting was a few of the "concerned parents" were chit-chatting most likely making snide comments about the program while my sons principal was speaking. They certainly were not setting a good impression on all the children in attendance.
I'm not happy with the way the curriculum was sprung on the teachers this year right before school started, it should of happened before summer started to give teachers the time to adjust. Still I want to know why was it approved two years ago by parents,teachers and central offices if it was so horrible.

I'm with you on the DPS has HUGE issues! Heck, I knew that the day I moved here twelve years ago.

Bull City Rising

Thanks, all, for the intelligent feedback on this story. A few thoughts -- in which I'm going to wade into my own opinions on this one.

First: I think it's worth teasing out that there are multiple issues at play here:

- Is Reading Street -- or basal readers in general -- effective at all? I don't go into this in the story, but there seems to be evidence in the Magnolia report to suggest that, yes, this/these may be effective from the literacy teaching method perspective, even an improvement on other non-basal approaches. BUT, as many have pointed out, the longer-range studies on this aren't in, and there are some clouds hanging over the assessments in some cases for political/NCLB reasons.

- Even if a method is effective, should it be used universally across schools for all kids? This issue strikes me as one to which there is likely much natural skepticism, especially a standard deviation or two from the norm on both sides (AIG and ESL/EC programs.) To my mind, this seems to be where DPS is open to the most criticism.

- Should standardized testing matter? Some voices in the debate over education today take strong positions on this. Personally, if I knew that standardized testing outcomes on reading correlated highly with youth actually being able to read -- and that failing scores on these tests pointed out kids with reading difficulties -- then I'd see value. I've not looked at the studies, however. I do think there is a risk in the view that testing outcomes don't matter because kids grow and learn at their own paces. I worry about that less for kids coming from homes and backgrounds where their families are committed to -- and have the knowledge and skills to -- help their kids be successful in school.

- Should teachers have the choice over what they teach in the classroom? Teachers out there are going to kill me over this, but in my own opinion, I can't give an unqualified yes to this one. There are plenty of talented and creative and devoted teachers who can and do demonstrate great outcomes when developing and following through with excellent lesson plans. Are there enough teachers at that skill level, available to teach, and able to provide at least a baseline educational experience for all students? I can't believe the answer there is yes. Nor can I believe that there are enough principals and mentors to support every teacher in their classroom.

Much of the debate so far on Reading Street has come from parents concerned it is keeping their children from reaching their highest potential. They raise a good point (particularly relative to the universal application of the program.)

Personally, though, I've yet to see the argument made vis a vis whether this program is an efficacious way of making sure *all* children reach at least the most basic level of literacy in English and in mathematics that they need to be functioning, productive, self-supporting, healthy members of society. I'd like to see more exploration of this issue -- the issue that fundamentally explains why public education is so necessary in the first place.

When thinking of a curriculum as ensuring minimum competency, to my knowledge we've not heard the debate between what boils down to an argument over whether teachers left to their own devices can ensure the success of children without a more standardized course of study.

JAP

Thanks, Kevin.
Your thoughtful reporting on this issue is a gift to Durham.

I have to think that one of the primary reasons for implementing this curriculum swiftly, strictly, and across the board tossing aside any previously successful programs is that it is impossible for DPS, Magnolia, or any other unbiased consultant to measure the results of reading street unless DPS can guarantee that teachers are actually adhering to the curriculum.

This is not a just a Durham issue- it is a national trend. Aldine, ISU, Texas was recently named the "Best Urban School System in America" winning the prestigious Broad prize. They have had incredible success raising test scores for previously underperforming students.

Please read some of the articles here:

http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=594

to learn about their methods.

Is this where we are heading with DPS? If so, we will resegregate the schools due to data flight and many families will want to consider the cost of an independent school before deciding to buy a house in Durham.

Is this really what is best for ANY of our children? Notice that though they coax good scores on TX standardized tests for reading and math the SAT scores have declined.

Bull City Rising

@JAP: Thanks for the kind words.

I've come across Susan Ohanian's blog in the past when researching educational issues, particularly NCLB. My best summation of what I've found there is that, if every student could have a teacher as well-prepared and dedicated as Ms. Ohanian, I don't think our schools would have any problems with getting students to succeed.

The impossibility of that happening is, I suspect, unable to be overcome -- and which is why I'm not prepared to accept the thesis that there's no value in assessment or standardization (though I very much acknowledge the point of what long-term data we have to support, or not, the trend we're following in education.)

An interesting (if extreme) counterpoint to Ohanian's perspective on teachers can be found in an article by The New Yorker this summer: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill.

Timberland UK

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