Reasons Teachers Stay in DCPS

There was a discussion on the DC Teacher Chic blog about whether or not teachers should come to work for DCPS.

One poster who was anonymouse, responded with, "Others stay for a variety of reasons including a short commute, inertia, a great school community where you have your niche, can't pass Praxis to work in the counties, too close to retirement to give up on it, or because it's your home and your life and your calling."

I think that sentence sums up all the reasons I can think of for why teachers stay. Oh, maybe there's one more. I think some teachers don't have marketable up-to-date skills to make it in another school system. Especially when people keep complaining about the lack of quality PD. My advice to any teacher is the same advice others have given to me. Stay five years then leave. Otherwise, you will lose your skills and grow stagnant here in DC. Of course, if like me you stay five years and decide you enjoy the job despite its troubles and woes, then stay and keep making a difference.

And take charge of your own PD.

African American Teachers Absent from Wilson Training

DCPS is training groups of teachers in the Wilson Reading Program. Wilson is a research-based program that has proven its effectiveness for years. I was thrilled to make it into the first cohort to be trained.

One aspect of training disturbed me, though. Most teachers in DCPS are African-American (I'll try to find out the percentage). Yet, half of the teachers learning to use this highly effective reading program where white. At least two more were other non-Black races. Where are the Black teachers? Were they not interested? Did their special education coordinators not tell them about the training?

Granted, my coordinator (who is White) did not tell me about the training - I found out from a (White) friend. One White lady said a teacher in her school has the Wilson materials and has been to a training but does not use Wilson or any other effective remedial reading program.

Furthermore, five of the trainees (15% of the participants) were from the DC Teaching Fellows program. While I support the program (I'm a Fellow, myself), it is true that people who teach through alternative certification are less likely to remain in the school system.

What's going? Maybe they think Wilson is just a fad or just another program that DC is trying this year, just to be tossed aside next year.

What happens in a pull-out classroom?

This is my coworker's first year teaching in DCPS. Before working in DCPS, she worked in an inclusion setting at a suburban school. She asked me this week, "What happens in a pull-out classroom?"

I could only tell her my past observations. In the pull-out setting, kids are not given intense, goal-directed instruction. They are given worksheets on whatever level they are functioning on without a plan for seeing definite progress as soon as possible. They also use manipulatives and games in those classrooms. Unfortunately, manipulatives and games without a systematic, goal-directed plan are not research-based and validated interventions. In other words, the activities become busy work.

Special education in DCPS may keep kids from getting further behind (to a degree), but doesn' t push them to the next level or attempt to narrow the gap between them and their peers, which is particularly sad in the case of learning disabled kids who have average intelligence and so much more potential than what many of their teachers are willing to grow out of them.

The other thing I see happening in special ed classrooms is that kids get way too much down time. These kids need rigor just like all of the other kids in the school! I've seen too many SPED kids engaged in large amounts of undirected time, especially on the computer. Last summer, I assisted in a class of students with mental retardation for four weeks. The lead teacher allowed them to spend 2 of the 3 hours they had for summer school each day at recess or doing "free choice." One student told me at least three times that she really wanted to learn how to read, and she had moderate mental retardation so she probably could have learned how to read. However, reading instruction was not planned unless I initiated it.

I gave one student direct, intensive instruction on how to write the letter A (a letter in her name). In five years of schooling she had not learned this, but last summer she learned this skill in one week with direct, intensive instruction. I also taught another student how to track lines of print from left to right. I'm not a miracle-worker, but I was amazed at what direct, intensive instruction can do - even for students with mental retardation.

Our DCPS pull-out programs, however, don't have this rigor - in my experience.

Speech Therapists and Inclusion - ASHA's position

Here is a powerpoint presentation about inclusion for Speech Language Pathologists. It includes ASHA's official position regarding inclusion, and you can view it here to find out what that position is. If you're an SLP, please way in on how or why inclusion/pull-out is better for your students.

Will Obama Help Rhee?

President Obama has set aside $54 billion to be invested in education. "His reform agenda, say some experts, resembles that of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. That may give Rhee a boost at the negotiating table." - nbcwashingtonnews.com

Here's the radio spot.

My Inclusive Classroom

I have started a new blog called "My Inclusive Classroom" that will focus on teaching strategies. I want this blog, Inclusion in the Classroom, to focus on the topic of inclusion in general and educating children in DCPS. The new blog can be found at this link: "My Inclusive Classroom."

Being Poor Can Keep You From Learning

This is an exciting story in the Washington Post. Research shows that children who grow up in poverty have serious problems remembering information.

Guess what. Remembering information is crucial to academic success. So, there is research proving that many of our DC children may be failing in school because of the poverty they live in.

Read the story here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/05/AR2009040501719.html?nav=hcmodule