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http://www.city-journal.org/2009/bc0313cs.html
This reminds me of a book written by Jonathan Kozol. A teacher goes to an inner city school and visits the homes of his students to gather the support of parents. It requires an unusual amount of work and commitment on the part of everyone including administrators.
And don't forget the story written by a TFA teacher who was sued for $20 million.
I am "for" anything that will help kids. It sounds like a effective model for schools and could probably be replicated without the KIPP training. It takes dedication on the part of the students, staff, and parents to close the achievement gap. It also takes a committment on the part of all involved.
I run into issues, as a teacher, with parental involvement. I recently tried to reach out to a parent of a student in my extended day class. The student is absent more than present, does NO work [[I sit next to her and try and get SOMETHING from her to no avail), and is constantly reminding me that she "doesn't have to be here" [[which is something that I totally agree with, since this is a program for those students only missing one or two credits for graduation, and it's NOT mandatory). The parent told me to talk to her daughter because she can't do anything. She made it seem like I hadn't tried THAT before talking to her. I told her I did speak with the student. She told me there was nothing she could do. Now what am I supposed to do? The kid isn't passing my nightschool class, isn't passing day school classes, and probably won't graduate. It's not for the lack of a teacher trying to get help from the parent. It's the parent who won't help the teacher out by reiterating the importance of turning in the work, having a better attitude, and attending class. Oh, did I mention that the parent told me [[and the school) that the girl was hospitalized due to strep throat during her absence? Not true. I saw the girl at a local store at the same time she was supposedly hospitalized and actually spoke with the child! She said she just didn't feel like coming to school! I'm pretty much writing this one off...and I am seeing more and more of this type of non-support from parents every day.
DT, I totally agree with your analysis. This is a societal problem, but if blame is to be assigned, I would put it almost all on the parent. If you use the 80-20 rule you will find that like everything else in life you probably have 20 percent of teachers who aren't that good. My issue has simply been the ability of the district to deal with that 20 percent has been handcuffed with union workrules since even that 20 percent touches the majority of the student body during the school day.Quote:
Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher
I've always felt that one of the reasons private schools are so successful was since there is a payment issue involved, it forces parents to be parents. Free education is not valued enough among some segments of the community, and if parents are allowed to kick there parental responsiblities down the road to the schools they will.
I guess there are various carrot and stick approaches that might work but they would be vastly unpopular and probably need not be mentioned here. Otherwise I'll say the PC thing and say more education of the parents might help.
You're preaching to the choir, here.
[/quote] Otherwise I'll say the PC thing and say more education of the parents might help.[/quote]
At least some of the parental problem is probably linked to the issue of babies having babies. Isn't there some sort of program that teaches effective parenting? Of course, it would have to be ongoing to be effective. Some parents' approach discipline with a stick that is the size of a baseball bat and a carrot that is a license to do practically anything.
Babies having babies is most of the parental problem. I talk to teachers and many say that after talking to a problem students parent[[s) they understand immediately why the student is having problems. Some of these parents are only 15 years older [[and less) than there child and the child gives there parents back talk in these parent teacher conferences or otherwise treats the parent as a peer rather than a adult parent.Quote:
Originally Posted by maxx
There are many programs out there that teaches parenting but of course the ones that really need it don't get it. Plus, there is no one size fits all approach to parenting, parenting is a lot of trial and error and making adjustments on the fly, and these young parents many times don't have the experience or maturity to be effective in parenting due to lack of life experiences themselves.
There is evidence that KIPP schools do improve student performance significantly, but whenever people talk about this, I feel it is important to mention that it is probably impossible to have a lot of KIPP schools in a community because the teacher workload is so high that you need highly motivated teachers, and even then you have a very high level of burnout. That isn't an argument against the schools themselves--it it good to have something that works--but you probably are going to have to have something else to reach most of the kids.
The important thing is that the KIPP approach gives you something to work from as you try to find a more scalable solution. Once you have something that basically works, often you can tweak it and fix the problems.