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Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Teacher Expectations Can Bridge Gap

By Moises Venegas
Quinto Sol
      The achievement gap, what will we ever be able to do about it? The phrase “bold and daring” is en vogue these days. So is it possible to inject this phrase into our educational system? Surely there must be a way to translate these words into action.
       The time has come for educators to take action in the classroom; to think about how we can instead of why we can't.
       Yes, some students are poor. Yes, English may not be their first language. However, it is the responsibility of those in the system to educate those students — all students. Before anything else, we must say boldly all children can learn.
       For those writing and holding press conferences on the achievement gap, por favor, spare us all those poor and sob stories. Sure, you had two babies and the teachers did not care. What are you going to do to improve yourself now?
       New Mexico ranks at the bottom with regard to student performance. New Mexico's rank is usually 47th or so among our 50 states. We need to thank Washington, D.C., and Mississippi, Louisiana and some other southern states for being “dumber” than us.
       And in that low ranking, the education gap is 20 to 30 percentile points in all grade levels and content areas. For instance, graduation rates are 71 percent for Anglos and 56 percent for Hispanics.
       As New Mexicans propose the “bold and daring” plan to fix education, we must be aware that the achievement gap is a complex issue involving many factors. The challenge is to know what we can do in the classroom.
       We must accept the students as they arrive at our schools and assess the potential and needs so that the schools can regularly measure growth.
       Forget about No Child Left Behind and adequate yearly progress. If the student enters at the 25th percentile proficiency, what does the assessment reflect at the end of the year? Did the school and the instructional staff provide growth from the 25th to the 35th percentile?
       The teacher without question is the key for student learning. Is learning happening in our classrooms? If not, what are the consequences? The real bold and daring proposal is to evaluate teachers based on student performance. I'm not suggesting that this would be the only measurement for evaluation, but it is the most basic.
       New Mexico's grade from a national report was an F. The state ranked 44th for the removal of ineffective teachers. Yet, if you called your principal or superintendent to ask for the number of teachers who have been “released” because of incompetence, you'd find few if any!
       If a classroom teacher is found to need help, the district should provide support and then decide whether to keep the teacher within a year.
       As for teacher placement, a district should provide an equitable distribution of experienced and highly qualified teachers in all of the district's schools based on student needs, not union contracts.
       Another basic consideration for an effective school is the curriculum and course-taking pattern. In the Albuquerque Public Schools, an audit should be performed to assess the effectiveness of the 13 public high schools. What are students doing on campus before, during and after school? Is there a positive climate for student learning? Is there a concentration of low-income and minority students? Whatever the school environment or the curriculum, one of the most important considerations in the classroom is teacher expectations. As teachers observe the students before them, do they see future doctors, lawyers, teachers and college graduates?
       When we look at the educational landscape and the results for the last 50 years, we might ask what has been the status mobility in economics, jobs and education for all our student groups. One might consider the difference between an individual's aspirations and his or her expectations.
       We all have high aspirations for our children at birth and early in life. Parents, teachers and students review their high aspirations and look at our society. Will this generation net the next Bill Gates? As we go along, another measurement comes to mind: expectations.
       The challenge in the classroom is to have and practice high expectations for all the students in the classroom. “Yes, we can, “si se puede.”
       Finally, the daring part of the plan must include resources, money. We can do without more achievement gap summits, task forces and the creation of new departments like the Hispanic Education Department within the Public Education Department. What will the Hispanic department do differently than PED, and how much will it cost?
       In our 89 school districts in New Mexico, we must remind every employee that he or she works for the teacher and student in the classroom. Accept the offer by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama to improve teaching by implementing a bold and daring plan.
       No more of the same.
       Moises Venegas is executive director of Quinto Sol, a community development and research organization.
       

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