Does Character Count?

By Jon McGill, Director of Academic Affairs
Baltimore Curriculum Project

In his recent book “How Children Succeed”, journalist Paul Tough challenges what he call the “cognitive hypothesis”, the theory that what enhances the chances of lifetime success for our children is the development of the realm of cognitive skills, those related to traditional notions of intelligence and education.  More likely, argues Tough, is that we develop character traits such as “grit”, determination and optimism, abilities that help us overcome the challenges of life and what our status is socially and economically.

It’s a persuasive thesis. It helps do several things for us all at once: it can persuade us that we have the individual tools to overcome poverty and deprivation; it can help us formulate arguments against the frenzy of high stakes testing; it can promote useful ways to enhance the school curriculum. It can certainly increase our optimism about education being the key component to combat social and economic ills. It also conveniently fits into our national propensity to think in black and white dichotomies!

Paul Tough is not arguing in either/or ways but those who are interpreting his arguments tend now to pose “character education” against “academic” skill building, as if these two were mutually exclusive.  It’s tempting to see things this way: it is much less complicated, and pushing the character agenda helps to solidify the thesis that if we fail, it’s our own fault! In reality, success in our society, whether social or economic, is most often a combination of factors.

Tough argues that “parenting matters” regardless of income levels, and that’s clearly true. Our society is full of examples of the children of wealthy parents being feckless, weak, arrogant and failures. We can also provide the exemplars of success that came from the most distressing backgrounds, full of poverty and deprivation.  Indeed, we love to raise those examples high, since it helps us cement the grip that “American dreaming” has on our collective consciousness and the stories we tell ourselves about our country.

Tough’s theory about character traits being significant is not all that new.  Private schools around the country have been selling the “character counts” model for decades, especially for those students who have trouble raising their grades to Ivy League standards. The importance of “grit”, (which is rather ill-defined by Paul Tough, but really means stamina and determination) and other elements of character are hard to challenge.

However, the most convincing combination would be the confluence of character and intellect.  Tough agrees.  The danger, however, in the “character counts” perspective is that it helps us avoid the need to look for collective solutions to the nation’s ills. It also, according to Mike Rose in a persuasive essay he wrote for Education Week (January 16, 2013), renders the cognitive realm simplistically represented by scores on tests.

“We have a powerful tendency to binary, either –or policies” says Rose, and he thinks the recent “swing” toward character education is likely to fail.  “But over the past 50 years, attempts at character education as a distinct pursuit have not been particularly successful.”

Instead, argues Rose, “let us take a hard look at our national obsession with tests and scores and grades and let us think more generously about what kinds of people we want our schools to develop.  Part of such reconsideration would include a reclaiming of the full meaning of cognition-one that is robust and intellectual, intimately connected to character and social development and directed toward the creation of a better world.”

The argument, if there is one, between “cognitive” and “character” is just one more in a set of educational false dichotomies.  A genuine education would embrace both aspects, what we have traditionally called the “hearts and minds” of our children. If we could see the issues in this frame, perhaps we would expand out curriculum, revive the fading disciplines of science, art, history, philosophy and geography, and, at the same time, encourage our children to understand that the content of their character is a determining factor in how they experience and shape the world.

Collington Theater Arts Class Produces Play About Bullying

Mr. Koli Tengella and his Sixth Grade Boys Theater Arts Class

Shout outs, applause and congratulations go out to The Collington Square School of the Arts Sixth Grade Boys Theater Arts Class and their instructor Mr. Koli Tengella for their second production in just six weeks. “It’s not nice 2 B a Bully!: A Hip Hop Learning Tale” is an original production that deals with bullying and what to do when you are   confronted with it.

The play was written by Mr. Tengella and The Sixth Grade Boys designed it for elementary students. Based on the fantastic reaction of Collington’s Pre-K through 2nd Graders in the audience of the January 17th performance the show was designed very well.

Kudos go out to 6th grade students Darius Williams and Donald Wright, Jr for writing two incredible anti-bullying rap songs for the show. The use of writing skills in resource classes is a part of Collington’s new arts integration focus.

A big thank to Officer Williams for speaking to the audience before the show about the consequences of bullying from the point of view of the school police and our wonderful Vice-Principal Ms. Kwaw for giving the Middle school students the opportunity to perform for their younger classmates.

Due to the overwhelming positive response to the show Mr. Tengella is planning on touring the show at other schools throughout the city.          

BVU/M&T PENCIL Partnership Supports Hampstead Hill Academy

Over the past several years, the Wallace Foundation has published groundbreaking research establishing the critical importance of school leadership – contributing to the growing consensus that a principal is second only to classroom teaching in the success of a school.

Thanks largely to their important work, more and more focus is being given to how to effectively train principals to become strategic and effective leaders and managers.

But as important as school leadership is in driving student achievement, our educators are also beginning to realize that a principal’s job is more complicated than ever.

Hampstead Hill Academy “Banks” on their Business Partner
In Baltimore, MD, where Business Volunteers Unlimited Maryland (BVU) manages a PENCIL Affiliate Program, BVU grasped this situation when they partnered Matthew Hornbeck, Principal of Hampstead Hill Academy, with Mohannad “Mo” Jishi, Commercial Banking Manager for Greater Baltimore at M&T Bank.

Read the full article at:
http://www.pencil.org/pencil-partnership-helps-baltimore-school-analyze-finances-to-support-long-range-planning/

ALA tutors start work at Wolfe Street Academy

Member of ALA Celebrate Dia de los Muertos at Wolfe Street Academy

December 14, 2012

By Hannah Block

The Park School Class of 2015

Reprinted from Postcript

There are new tutors in town, and they’re not from KIPP or Homework He1pers. The Alianza Latina en Acci6n (ALA), or Latino Alliance in Action, works with students at the Wolfe Street Academy in an effort to help and promote awareness of the Latino community.

ALA stemmed from the recently disbanded Esperanza club, a language immersion community service initiative that, last year, limited their volunteers to only adults. In light of this new change, Lorenza Ramirez ‘14 and Spanish teacher Ileana Imhoff started looking for other ways for Spanish-speaking students to reach out. Two things motivated them: the lack of a Latino outreach program now that Esperanza was gone, and the need for a discussion about immigration.

"We were particularly fueled by the tone of the immigration debate during the political campaign and wanted to learn more about these issues, and also to involve more students in the conversation,” Imhoff said.

At Park, the club invited guest speakers and works with Lower School Spanish teacher Silvia Patterson’s 4^th grade class on the last Thursday of every month. “It is important for our younger students to see other young people engaged in issues of equity and diversity in our community,” Patterson said. “They are also very excited about how well the Upper School students speak Spanish and the possibility of speaking that well themselves in the coming years.”

The club’s main focus, however, is the Wolfe Street Academy. The school was a natural choice to partner with because 73% of the students are Hispanic and speak English as a second language. Moreover, there are two people involved at the school who have Park connections: the principal, Mark Gaither, is married to Alumni Coordinator Pailin Gaither, and Connie Phelps, the Wolfe Street Community School Coordinator, graduated from Park in 1989.

Every Thursday from 3:30 to 6:00, the tutors help students with homework, usually working with the first and third graders. After homework is done, the kids can play if there is time before dinner, which the school provides in the cafeteria. The tutors then help serve the meal and keep the kids company while they eat.

ALA’s impact is already beginning to show. “The students ask at snack time if the ‘kids’ are coming,” said Stephanie Given, third grade teacher. “I have seen first-hand how the children are eager to interact with [the tutors]. Honestly, sometimes they even pretend to need help just to spend one-on-one time with an ALA member.”

“Because each classroom consists of one teacher, it is difficult for each child to receive the attention they need,” explains Michael Brice-Brooks ’14. “For many students, these homework problems are difficult, especially since they have to practice these concepts in a language they may not speak at home.”

ALA also gets to celebrate events with the Wolfe Street students. On November 1, the club members celebrated El Dia de los Muertos at Wolfe Street, and plans are underway for the club to attend future events, as well.

In fact there are many exciting things on the horizon for ALA. Other plans include a panel of speakers on immigration, a clothing drive, and having Wolfe Street students visit Park eventually.

Fundraising is also in the works; Wolfe Street needs funds for transportation and art supplies. Members agree that the purpose of ALA meets the goals that Ramirez and Imhoff had in mind: expanding Park’s boundaries and supporting the Latino community.

“Students at Park oftentimes speak of ‘The Park Bubble’ but [ALA] has created a bridge between the Park School’s culture and a culture that is entirely different,” said Brice-Brooks. “As our faces have become more and more familiar, the students have shown a certain fondness that is difficult to explain. (…) It has become apparent through these relationships that, as a volunteer, I mean more than just a homework helper.”

“I can’t even tell you how happy it made me just to see some of my teachers and peers walking through the hallways in the ALA T-shirt,” said Ramirez. “To me and to all the other members of the club, the shirt was much more than just a piece of clothing: it was a symbol of the progress for the club as we make an impact on both the Park and Wolfe Street Academy communities and increase awareness in the process.”

Wolfe Family Night 2012

There was standing room only at Wolfe Street Academy's "Family Night" on November 27, 2012. Eighty adults and 56 as well as after-school students.

The event featured amazing performances by students in Wolfe Street Academy's After-School Program. The program is supported by a $127 grant from the Family League of Baltimore City, which was awarded to the Baltimore Curriculum Project in June 2012.

"I have never had a Family Night this large," said Director of Extended Student Services Kathy Stroup.

"The performances were wonderful. I owe this especially to the After-School staff who each had duties and responsibilities for the evening and went above and beyond to make Family Night a special evening."

Guest included Baltimore Curriculum Project Board Chair George Hess, as well as representatives from the Upper Fells Point Improvement Association, The Family League of Baltimore City, Mosaic Makers, and student volunteers from the Park School.

Thank you to Hyacinth Facey for creating this video.

Evaluating Teachers

By Jon McGill, Director of Academic Affairs, Baltimore Curriculum Project

In their 2009 book, The Fourth Way, Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves describe the case of a primary (elementary) school in London that, ten years earlier, had been described as “one of the worst schools in Britain”.  The solution to the school’s woes was to take the very best teachers, train them in test preparation techniques and set them loose on the children in Year 6, the group with the lowest scores, for three years. By ignoring test stage one, Year 2, and focusing exclusively on Year 6, the lower grades results got much worse while the older students results were much better.  Hence the academic gap between year 2 and year six widened dramatically but the “improvement” in year six was huge, earning the school the tile of “one of the most improved schools in the United Kingdom”.

This Alice in Wonderland approach to educational reform, what Pasi Sahlberg in his book Finnish Lessons refers to as GERM (Global Education Reform Movement) is not new but now it seems ready to expand to the evaluation of teachers, as we prepare for the onslaught of rating teacher effectiveness by looking in large part at student test scores.  In the United States, state after state, in a mad dash to tap into “Race To The Top” funds, has promised to evaluate teachers by reference to student results.  While for some states the language is couched in terms of “measures of achievement”, seeming to open the door for authentic assessments via portfolios and growth assessments, in reality, the bottom line will be measuring teacher effectiveness through the prism of standardized test scores for at least 50% of the teacher’s final evaluation.

Finding the right way to evaluate a teacher has long been the Fountain of Youth, the Holy Grail of public education.  Few, if any, countries have found successful and sustainable methods of rating teachers and measuring their capabilities.  One reason for this is that the role of a teacher in the modern world has become increasingly complex and challenging.  Ironically, at least in the U.S., this complexity is now accompanied by simplistic measures and bromides as to how to assess a teacher.  The teacher role has been reduced to “test giver” and “test preparer”.  That is the message behind the recent moves to use student test scores as a measure of performance for teachers.  Justifications for this mind-numbingly absurd evaluation tactic comes in the form of analogies to the health system or to the legal profession: measurement by outcome.  Unfortunately for the technocrats, such measurements ignore the complex context of teaching and learning completely.  It is not a matter of input and output or of a formulaic “do this and that will happen” kind of thinking.  Teaching and learning are two sides of a coin and the factors that motivate success are many and varied.  Rating teachers by means of their test results will, minimally, produce the following ill effects while having no perceivable positive impact other than making it easier to dismiss those who don’t make the grade (or whose students don’t make the grade):

1. Teachers will flock to the areas where test scores are highest, i.e. areas in which family income is high, socioeconomic indicators are positive and student behavioral issues are lowest. This will exacerbate an already growing problem for American urban districts, that of recruitment and retention of the highest quality teachers.
2. Teachers will teach to the most successful students and try to factor out in any way possible those students with learning difficulties.  This will be a disaster for special needs.
3. Teachers can have great test scores but in every other way be inadequate role models for children: they can be cruel, disrespectful, uncaring about children and families but if their scores are good, they will thrive.
4. The focus on scores will decimate professional development programs: why train yourself in any area other than test prep?
5. Schools in high poverty areas will increasingly be staffed by neophytes: Teach For America educational missionaries and alternative certification graduates, many of whom will leave anyway after two years, will be the major source of staffing. We will see an increase in alternative certification programs, designed to circumvent both the colleges of education and the value of experience.
6. The curriculum, already narrowed to the point where we cannot compete with other industrialized nations, will be squeezed even more.  Art, music, drama, sports, and all the other valuable aspects of adolescent needs, will be dinosaurs seen only in the private sector.

There are more negative effects (see, for example, EPI Briefing Paper, August 29, 2010 “Problems WithThe Use of Test Scores To Evaluate Teachers”, Baker, Barton, et.al.), all of which indicate that evaluating teachers by student test scores is a harebrained idea concocted and supported by folks with little or no real education backgrounds.  Ironically, those teachers whose test scores “measure up” will be the first to realize how incomplete and inaccurate their ratings will be.

The race to measure teaching effectiveness was spurred, in 2009, by the Gates Foundation’s research and given the acronym MET. (Measures of Effective Teaching).* The basis for this study, and for much of our current perspective on school reform, is that teachers are the most important element in education, that poor school performance is a given in American public education and, therefore, poor teaching is rampant and we should develop new evaluation techniques, mainly to winnow the incompetent from the professional ranks.  This reasoning is fallacious. There are undoubtedly poor teachers in our profession and certainly that contributes to our educational malaise.  However, we already have many processes in place by which we can effectively move inept teachers out of the job.  Of course, doing so requires documentation, a clearly agreed-upon process and a period of time, not least to allow a teacher to improve.  Many reformers know this but what they are really aiming for is faster, less-process oriented ways to dismiss teachers, thereby also dismantling union protections.  If we were really interested in fair, professional and meaningful teacher evaluation, we would be less mesmerized by test scores and much more focused on some of the following established ways to measure teacher effectiveness:

 

1. Develop annual teacher portfolios, containing samples of lessons, examples of student work, evidence of professional development throughout the year and perhaps even surveys of student perspectives on lessons and work “products”;
2. Create peer observation programs, based on established criteria and easily-analyzed checklists;
3. Provide appropriate time for principals to complete accurate and thorough observations, including time to write exhaustively about what they know about each teacher’s performance.
4. Create a national assessment team, modeled perhaps on the system in place in the United Kingdom, by which teachers can be evaluated on an annual basis.
5. Ensure that every evaluation process includes ample written self-evaluation and professional development planning.
6. Promote video- taping of classes as a component of assessments.
7. Include age appropriate student surveys in evaluative process.

This kind of process would obviate the need for measuring teachers by test scores and standardized test results. However, it obviously takes the kind of components that historically the nation has not been willing to provide, i.e., funding and time. It would also place evaluation on site, in the schools, and in the hands of education professionals.
 

Evaluating teachers is getting a great deal of attention in the context of educational reform, movements and this is as it should be.  Will teacher quality issues and teacher evaluation be a vehicle for teacher improvement, for professional development and for a much needed national awareness of the complexity inherent in developing fine teachers?  Or will evaluation be another stick with which to beat the profession?  The answer will depend to a large extent on teacher activism in the face of clumsy and ineffective evaluation schemes.  It will also depend on the ways in which competing definitions of reform hold sway and on, in a time of economic hardship, how much genuine investment in teachers the nation is willing to support.

*For more information on the MET Project, developed in 2010, go to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/united-states/Pages/measures-of-effective-teaching-fact-sheet.aspx.

Roots&Shoots Makes Baltimore Better

By Jesenia Zavala, Student, Wolfe Street Academy

The Wolfe Street Academy Roots&Shoots Green Team is doing great projects.  The team is fourth grade students in the after school program.  The projects are about making the Earth better, helping people and helping our school.  We are glad to be volunteering.  We have been working really hard.

This month we are making food for the poor and for soldiers.  This will help people. We also made posters so people will recycle more.  We put the posters all over the school, and we make sure the classes have recycle boxes.  We hope we can plant trees in the spring.  Our school will be better because of the plants. We will do projects all year.