Geoffrey Canada and "Directors of Change" (11-25-08)

I'm almost done reading Paul Tough's whatever it takes and with each page I find myself more and more engaged in the work of Geoffrey Canada. Last night in particular, as I worked through the chapter titled "Conveyor Belt" I was struck by his sediments. The passage that really hit me read as follows.

"Here's the problem with everything that we've been doing in this field," he told me. It was a chilly February morning, and we were sitting at the small round meeting table in his office. "For the last thirty or forty years, all of us have chosen to work in places where kids are behind, with the thought that we would be superheros and we would go in and save these kids." The superhero method was often emotionally rewarding for those who practiced it, Canada said, even if it was also usually personally exhausting. It meant you were engaged in battle in the most hopeless neighborhoods, teaching or mentoring or otherwise rescuing desperate kids whom the system had written off, and if you were good at your job, it meant that you regularly performed miracles.

Canada had felt the sense of triumph that came with those successes. He knew it well, in fact. It could be exhilarating. "But the problem with that approach is you will always have more business than you can handle," Canada said. "You will never solve the problem. You will only save some small number of kids who are on their way to the dark end of things. We've all done it, and we all still do it, and we need to keep doing it. But it is what I've come to think of as the old-fashioned way of working in these communitis."

What the conveyor-belt idea represented to Canada was the hope of a new alternative. "The question is, can you build a system where kids in middle school won't need these kinds of interventions in order to be successful?" he said. "And my bet - I could be wrong, but this is my bet - is if we start with kids very early, and we provide them with the kind of intense and continuous academic rigor and support that they need, then when they get to the middle school and high school level, we're not going to need those superhuman strategies at all."

Whatever it Takes - pg. 196

What Tough pulls out of Canada's philosophy on solving issues of poverty is the exact dilemma that I've been facing since the start of my career and most recently, since helping to re-open Manual High School. How much can we really do when we start with 15 year olds? We know from the studies of economists, sociologist and brain development psychologists that much of our cognitive abilities have already been established by the time we reach the ages of 15 or 16 years old.

The nobel prize winning economist James Heckman does a great job of synthesizing this idea. In essence, intervening with a 16 or 17 year old is too late. "A person's cognitive abilities are fairly stuck in place. But the same level of intervention at an early age can make a very big difference in a child's life." He goes on to illustrate his point. "If you intervene in a child's life early, later intervention wil have more to build upon, which means that they will pay off more as well. But if you don't start early, the reverse happens: each year it gets harder and harder to have an effect on a child's development." (Tough 193)

Where does this leave me?

Simple...Manual High School, regardless of its "Superhuman" efforts, will never save all of its students. We're certainly giving them a way better chance to succeed in life and I'm confident that we will in fact have a lot of successes. However, as Canada stated, we'll only be saving a small number kids. My solution...stop putting so much effort into a solution that doesn't work (or at least doesn't work nearly as effectively as others).

Instead, I propose turning the Manual High School facility into a mini-version of the Harlem Children's Zone. The facility would include everything needed to take a newborn baby from birth through college (the whole notion of Canada's plan in Harlem).

• Baby college
• Intense Toddler Support
• Health Clinic
  
• Early Childhood Education
  
• Elementary, Middle and High School
  
• Alumni Support
• Mentor Programs
  

Canada's entire philosophy is grounded in the fact that if students of color growing up in poverty are given the right, intensive supports through out their life that we can in fact eliminate the achievement gap and in many ways, never see it in the first place. By turning Manual High School into an interwoven community facility, a conveyor belt of programming that works with kids at each stage, our chances of successfully preparing our neighborhood's kids to compete with upper and middle class society will grow exponentially.

To make this vision a reality, one that I believe many would love to see, it will take a few entrepreneurial leaders (amongst millions of dollars and an overly dedicated staff) with time, energy, passion and some serious know how. Human capital is the essential ingredient to any start up company and the same is true for any efforts on the non-profit, educational side of the world; especially one trying to create major social change. What we need to do is find people with specific interests in each of the sections of the conveyor belt. Someone needs to lead the charge on early childhood education. Another individual needs to run our Baby College. Yet another needs to head the health services clinic. The question is, what pieces of the conveyor belt need to be implemented first? It's clear that getting all of these support systems in place at once would be a nearly impossible challenge. Therefor, which ones are top priority for not only future success, but short-term, temporary success as well?

This is the question that I would like to pose to a board of directors that I've fittingly titled the "Directors of Change." Such a group would oversee the effort on all fronts and ensure cohesion between the different sections of the "conveyor belt." The Directors of Change would be the leaders from each intervention effort, i.e. the principal of the Middle School, the Director of the Baby College, etc. as well as CEO's from successful private and non-profit entities in the Denver Metro Area. Beyond answering the question stated above, the board would lay out a mission statement, organizational charts, a detailed plan for staffing, child/family recruitment, and facility usage , and all other necessary endeavors needed to bring the vision to life.

At the end of the day we must stop relying on our "superhuman" efforts to save 15 and 16 year old kids. It's time to stop using what Canada refers to as a "traditional method' of solving our problem and move towards a set of intervention solutions that when tightly woven together actually stand a chance at creating real change. On his march to the White House Obama carried a message entrenched in the notions of hope and change. He wasn't saying that he alone was going to be the change...he was simply planting and motivating seeds so that we could all stand up and act. The timing couldn't be more right for this effort. Let's make it happen!

Input vs. Output (11-16-08)

I used to love editing video in college. Whether a news story for our weekly broadcast or a highlight video for the sports teams to use for recruitment; The editing room is an exciting place where you can combine creativity and hard work to make a product that you can be proud of. The beauty of editing is that when you're done you get a finished product and your input (time, effort, imagination, etc.) has a direct correlation to the output (the quality of the video).

The world of urban education, however, does not follow this simple input/output model. Many educators in schools in Denver and around the country are inputing a great deal of time, effort, innovation, dedication, etc. and are still not seeing a quality finished product (results). What's the problem? The problem, as I see it, is that we're putting way too much time and energy into a system that doesn't work. The teacher in a comprehensive high school of 2,000 kids who's working insane hours to catch kids up that are 3 or 4 grade levels behind is deserving of great accolades and praise, but how much of an impact can that teacher have? What if we gathered handfuls of these overachieving educators and had them put all of their energy into the early ages of child development?

As I discovered in Paul Tough's "Whatever it Takes," kids coming from poverty are already at a tremendous disadvantage by the time they are 3 years old. Children at this age from a professional family have an average IQ of roughly 117 and a vocabulary of approximately 1,100 words. Their impoverished counter parts score an average of 79 on the same IQ tests and their vocabulary is roughly half with an average of 525 words. Talk about an uphill battle. By the time these same kids reach the high school level it's no wonder there is a significant "achievement gap." That is why our efforts need to shift...not in the energy level and dedication we're inputing, but in where we're putting it.

If the same group of highly intelligent and dedicated urban educators shifted their focus to the birth though 5th grade population we could see some significant results. Maybe our input might start matching our output. This isn't to say that we don't need highly qualified and passionate teachers working at the secondary level. We obviously do and those kids deserve our best efforts to turn things around. However, recruiting a new group of educators and taking some of the current work force to focus in on the age levels where we can really make a difference and ensure that a gap never starts seems to me as the only way to make a dent in this giant social dilemma.

As Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children's Zone states so clearly, we must "transform every aspect of the environment that poor children are growing up in." This is why they've created an endless chain that takes kids from birth through college. There are no breaks in the chain. My suggestion is to take Mr. Canada's idea and run with it. We must focus far more energy on the formative years of childhood so that the gap between poverty and middle class never starts in the first place. Let's gather our great educators, those passionate for change, and open more ECE - 8th grade programs, more baby colleges, and more of anything that's going to give our kids a chance to compete with their middle and upper class counterparts long after they leave our schools.

My new "Paternalistic" Classroom (11-11-08)

"If you don't want to be successful, go to college and work hard every minute of every day then you don't need to be here. There are no excuses in this classroom. We are all here to work together and support one another in learning. There is nothing else. When you walk in the door it's game on! Every day!" I don't think I've ever been so blunt with my students, but my new vision of how class needs to run is a far cry from my progressive, constructivist roots. After visiting schools across the east coast that are making it happen for impoverished minority students, reading "Sweat the Small Stuff," and currently working on Paul Tough's "Whatever it Takes," I no longer have ignorance as an excuse. I know what needs to get done in the classroom and in our school to ensure that our students can compete with middle class America when they leave. Having said that, the transformation of my practice has been both exhausting and rewarding.

Class itself is now comprised of a series of learning activities none of which last more than 25 minutes. Pacing has gone way up as the intensity level and sense of urgency has increased exponentially (I use a timer on my board as often as humanly possible whether it's for 1 minute or 12) Every piece of work done in class is directly related to the day's learning outcome and even when I think I have a good idea about a side activity that could be engaging or interesting if it doesn't do anything to ensure specific learning of the day's outcome then it gets cut out. Moreover, we now have weekly learning outcome assessments that are very much traditional in their format. If a student fails to demonstrate proficiency on their weekly quiz then they have mandatory overtime the following week on Wednesday to receive additional instructional support for over an hour after school. At that point they may re-take the assessment in an attempt to prove a sufficient level of understanding. If they still don't show enough evidence of the essential learning then more support will be provided in the form of lunch and after school support. The classroom continues to move forward with new content being delivered and weekly mastery being shown.

The affect of such a change in my classroom has been noticeable to date. Students are spending more time on task and a greater number are engaged in learning for a higher percentage of time. This phenomenon is also transferring to my teammate's classroom as Ms. Frazier, our social studies teacher is finding that students are less reluctant to start tasks and are exhibiting more on task behaviors through out class. As far as data is concerned, I am not particularly excited about the results of our first week in this new learning environment. Part of the problem lies in an attendance issue as students who were in class Monday through Thursday were far more likely to succeed on the assessment. In addition, students who missed Friday obviously didn't take the assessment and in turn are currently considered "In Progress." Nonetheless, having the data is certainly beneficial as I now know exactly which students need what support. Moreover, the goal of increasing student accountability of learning has been simultaneously heightened as their grades are tied nearly entirely to their prove of understanding on these formal assessments. It's not that I disagree with the notion of examining a students "body of evidence" to prove essential learning, it's that I'm not sure that it's best for my students. They're coming in 2 to 4 grade levels behind and in their time with us we have to prepare them for not only entering, but finishing a four year college. My progressive vision of assessment and examining the whole child over an extended period of time might just not be enough to get the job done.

Please see the graphs at the top of this post to see our first week's data set of both our mad minute (the number of problems we can complete in a minute on a specific skill, i.e. adding + and - integers) and our learning outcome proficiency levels. Both are discouraging at first look, but knowing that this is a new process/system that I've put in place I am confident of few things.

1.) Students will begin to take class more seriously as the expectation levels around demonstrating mastery on a weekly basis have increased dramatically.
2.) Students who show up everyday and work hard will see results and that momentum will spread through out the classroom.
3.) Students who use the additional support and resources provided to help them reach mastery will find a feeling of success that they may have never experienced before, thus giving them drive to push forward.
4.) There will always be a challenge in taking students who are well below grade level and demanding that they show mastery of at grade level skills and knowledge. However, such a demand must be placed on students if they are to get caught up and truly compete with their middle class counterparts.

We have no choice, but to move in a direction that places more urgency on both teachers and students alike. There is no doubt that the effort needed on my end has increased alongside of my students, but what choice do we have if we are to really "beat the odds?"

Williamsburg Collegiate – Balancing rigor and joy (10-30-08)

“We’ve just wasted 65 seconds,” announced Ms. Ely. “I don’t feel like we’re ready for math class today…let’s start again.” As the students read out the number of problems they got right on the day’s mad minute for the second time it was hard to not notice the highly valued commodities of efficiency and urgency. (For those who don’t know, “mad minute” is a timed computation test in which students complete as many arithmetic problems as possible in a minute. The goal of the process is simply to increase automaticity and fluency) In fact, the entire time I observed the class in action I didn’t notice a single dip in learning engagement. Even when students were in transition between activities, a time when side talk is common, the students were instructed to “write their 8’s” and then their “7’s.” (8, 16, 24, …), which they quickly obliged. The agenda on the board read like a presidential to do list, filled with 9 items all set to a time limit of no more than 20 minutes. The high stakes, “we’ve got things to get done and we’re going to get them done now,” environment was palpable with Ms. Ely leading the charge. You could think of the urgency as Peyton Manning pushing his team down the field with time expiring needing one last touchdown to clinch victory. This class was all business!

Simultaneous to the intense, highly structured environment was a room of 5^th graders who wanted to be there. Constantly raising their hands (it wasn’t uncommon for all 25 kids in the class to shoot their hands to the sky upon being asked a question) and going along with whatever was being asked, the students almost looked like they were part of a gang.

That’s how the school gets it done. A 5^th – 8^th grade middle school with 250 students, Williamsburg Collegiate is an amazing blend of structure, discipline, urgency and fun. Their Special Education expert refers to this mixture as a balance between “joy and rigor.” The school is comprised of 60 % Hispanic students and 40 % African American. 85 % of the student body is on the free and reduced lunch program and 14 – 15 % of the students are supported through special education. The school is part of the Uncommon Schools network, a CMO that acts as the umbrella to other schools including North Star Academy in Newark and Leadership Prep in New York.

What do they do to ensure success?

First off, students arrive between 7:15 and 7:45 daily and don’t leave until 5:30 at night. The staff, an intensely dedicated group, has the same contractual day as the students, with every teach participating in additional student support through the extended day. In addition to the extended day, incoming 5^th graders attend a 3 week orientation sessions.

Beyond the use of time, every individual in the building teaches at least one class, principals included. Thackston, the Director of Operations teaches a math class, while the school’s principal, Julie teaches a science class. Beyond teaching, members of the administrative team meet with every teacher for at least one hour per week. These meetings focus on reviewing lessons, student performance, and classroom observation. The sense of urgency felt in the classroom permeates at all levels of the school.

Interim Assessments – Finding out where students are and doing something about it

Each 6 weeks every student in the school takes an interim assessment to see if they’ve mastered the content from their core classes. The tests are a combination of open-ended, constructed response questions and multiple choice problems. On Monday and Tuesday the tests are administered and on Wednesday the whole faculty assembles to assess the open ended, constructed response problems from the tests. Upon gathering the data from the constructed response problems the remainder of the tests are scanned using a scan-tron and the data is then transferred to a spreadsheet that breaks down each individual student with their level of understanding on each learning objective. This massive, data based document is than given back to the teachers by Friday morning so they may spend the day analyzing it and planning next steps. Many schools are similar to Williamsburg Collegiate in their ability to collect data on student learning, however, this particular 5^th – 8^th grade “no-excuse” middle school does some amazing work after they’ve broken the data down.

There are three major streams of effort that teachers use once they’ve analyzed their data.

1.) Re-teaching the class – If 80 % of students in a particular class fail to show mastery of a specific learning objective then that teacher will make plans to provide a lesson or lessons focused on the weakness of the students. In addition, if a smaller percentage of students are struggling with a particular learning objective then the teacher might include problems that address the student weakness in their “Do Nows” for a series of weeks. (Do Nows are the “warm up” problems that start each class).

2.) Small Group/Individual Tutoring – Since school goes to 5:30 on a regular basis there is already built in time for additional instruction and support. If 20 % of students in a particular class are struggling with the same learning objectives based on their interim assessment then the teacher may have all 20 % work with him or her in a series of after school tutoring groups. By doing so, the class remains on track with its content while students who need it receive additional support to fill in missing chunks of learning.

3.) Pull out interventions – If certain students are really failing to thrive in the classroom environment and are demonstrating little to no understanding on the interim assessment then the school may use pull-out, one on one, or small group time during the school day to provide more intensive instruction.

Regardless of which stream of effort is used, it is clear that an approach in which no child is overlooked and explicit next steps are taken is a model for all of us to follow. In this school it is not ok to not master essential content. Instead, if you show that you are not proficient in essential areas the school does everything it can to get you back on track and ready for your future education, most notably, college.

The College Dream

At Williamsburg Collegiate each student is assigned to an advisory in 5^th grade when they enter. Their advisories are named after college alma maters and their graduation year is based on the year that they should receive their undergraduate degree. In 8^th grade there is a huge emphasis on the college-bound track. Students learn how to calculate their GPAs, take trips to college campuses, and start to examine what a good college application looks like.

On Fridays of each week the whole school gets together for what’s called “base camp.” During base camp students participate in a variety of activities, but everything is framed around “the mountain climb to college.” The school’s transparency about students attending college certainly doesn’t guarantee that every 8^th grader will get there and stay there, but it definitely sends a clear message that such high expectations are common place and simply the way we do business.

What can we learn from Williamsburg?

If you want to see a class where every minute counts then I highly encourage you to visit this “uncommon school.” Their teachers demand the highest productivity rare that I’ve ever witnessed in a classroom. In the past I’ve always taught my students about productivity gaps, the difference between what you could accomplish and what you actually accomplish. The productivity gap for the majority of students in my classrooms has fluctuated from high to low depending on the day, my planning and student attitudes. At Williamsburg Collegiate it seems like the productivity gap says at consistent 0. There is no gap between what could get done and what does get done.

The sense of urgency developed in the classrooms mixed with the teacher’s use of interim assessments to drive instruction is a valuable combination. When you add on the non-stop push to get students ready for college you have a school where everyone has a common purpose and the community is stronger. “Team before individual” is certainly an underlying motto permeating the halls and classrooms of the building. Everyone is doing their part and as a result the school is a highly functioning learning environment with a mix of structure, discipline and achievement.

The do whatever it takes attitude of the school is everywhere you look and their director of operations is no exception. As he says, “you get in the building and we’ll do everything possible to keep you here and convince you that this is where you need to be.”