Achieving, Believing and Caring Whatever It Takes

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Achieving, Believing and Caring!Whatever It
Takes!

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A few things

• Moral purpose
• Dr King
• High Expectations
• Literacy for Life

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Literacy for Life

• Listen attentively.
• Speak persuasively.
• Read with understanding.
• Write with command.

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• Underdeveloped literacy skills are the number one
  reason why students are retained, assigned to
  special education, and why they fail to graduate
  from high school.

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Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st
century will read and write more than at any
other time in human history.
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Consider what we know about those who are
illiterate

• .50 of the unemployed are functionally
  illiterate
• .Those who are functionally illiterate earn 5
  times less than those that are literate
• .50 of those with the lowest literacy skills
  live in poverty
• .Children in poverty are more likely to be
  illiterate

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Improving Achievement

• Belief in their abilities to master a rigorous
  curriculum.
• Time tailored to specific student needs.
• Understanding that not all students learn the
  same way and at the same rate.

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Ruby Paynes Poverty Research

• Kindergarten children come to school with one
  half of the listening and speaking vocabulary
  that other classmates possess.
• Children in poverty have a huge deficit in the
  area of background knowledge.
• Black children are three times as likely to grow
  up in poverty as white children.
• Relationships, not material goods or grades,
  motivate children in poverty.

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High Expectations for all Students

• Research says that Black students receive
  more negative behavioral feedback and more mixed
  messages than do white students and
• Black females receive significantly less
  total communication, less praise, less negative
  behaviour feedback and less nonacademic feedback.

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Relationships

• Black students are more likely to find staff
  members remote, discouraging, and unsympathetic.
  Cole and Anaya, 2001.

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Relationships

• And they base their decisions on whether or not
  to persist on the quality of their interactions
  with staff.
• Cabrera, Terenzini, et. al.

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Relationships Matter!

• You cant motivate a student you dont know.
  There is no learning without trust and respect,
  and neither are granted automatically by todays
  students. They must be earned.

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Social Justice

• The path to social justice begins with gaining
  passion for the plight of disadvantaged students.
  
• We need to ask ourselves
• Who tends to be privileged?
• What does it mean to be privileged in this way?
• Who tends to be marginalized?
• What does it mean to be marginalized in this way?
• Ways we tend to deny that privilege is occurring?
• What happens in the classroom?
• How can we take action in the classroom to
  interrupt these cycles of oppression?
• Richard A. McCormick, S.J. (1999). Blueprint for
  Social Justice LII(11), 1.

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The Achievement Gap

• Exists when specific groups of students do not
  achieve in school at the same level. Achievement
  gaps may correlate with race, ethnicity, family
  income level, language background,
  ability\disability status, and gender.

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• The achievement gap is not as much an
  achievement gap as an opportunity gap!

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Compare and despair.

• Gaps in achievement exist across the country and
  within our communities, school districts, and
  schools.
• Race/ethnicity
• Income levels
• Language background
• Disability status
• Gender.

Correlation Is Not Causation!
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What we hear people say

• Theyre poor
• Its their parents fault
• They dont know the language
• No books in the home
• Look where they live
• They come to school hungry
• Its always about the kids and their families!

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What if.

• What if students were not underperforming\underach
  ieving?
• What if the problem was that they were
  underserved?

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Underperforming or Underserved?

• How would our conversations, attitudes, policies,
  practices and approaches change if we were to ask
  the second question?

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A Different World

• Work is different ...
• Tools are different ...
• Communication is different ...
• Information is different ...
• Kids are different ...
• Learning is different
• Teaching must be different ...

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Why Differentiate Instruction?

• When a teacher tries to teach something to the
  entire class at the same time, chances are , one
  third of the kids already know it one-third will
  get it and the remaining third wont. So
  two-thirds of the children are wasting their
  time.

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It doesnt take a superstar teacher to do
differentiated instruction, just a teacher who
thinks the kids are superstars.
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Intelligence and Learning Styles

• Visual/Spatial (Picture Smart)
• Verbal/Linguistic (Word Smart)
• Musical/Rhythmic (Music Smart)
• Logical/Mathematical (Number Smart)
• Bodily/Kinesthetic (Body Smart)
• Interpersonal (People Smart)
• Intrapersonal (Self Smart)
• Piaget, Bloom, Gardner, etc.

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We dont know half of what these kids can do.
Ted Sizer
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Guiding Principle

• Great Organizations
• Simplify a complex world into a single organizing
  idea or guiding principle. This guiding principle
  makes the complex simple, helps focus the
  attention and energy of the organization on the
  essentials and becomes the frame for all
  decisions.
• Jim Collins

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• What is not understood quite yet is the
  magnitude of the effort that will be required for
  learning for all to take place.

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The educational achievement of Black boys is
the litmus test for the quality of public
education. Dr.
Rosa A. Smith
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Males of color at risk

• Black males at greater risk
• More likely to be suspended or expelled
• More likely to drop-out
• More likely to be placed in special education
• More likely to be missing from honors, gifted and
  advanced placement
• More likely to be under-represented among school
  personnel
• When you see Black Boys what do you see? Who do
  you see?

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Jail or Yale? State of Emergency Incarceration
Over the last decade, for every one Black male
enrolled in college, 6 Black males are added to
the prison and jail population. One in three
African American males are involved in the penal
system. By 2020, over 65 of African American
males, ages 20-29, will be involved in some form
of the penal system.
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African Americans\Canadians are
disproportionately affected by gun violence!
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Who Do You See?

• In the perception of society his athletic
  talents are genetic he is a likely
  mugger-rapist his academic failures are
  expected and his academic successes are
  attributed to others. To spend most of his life
  fighting these attitudes levies an emotional tax
  that is a form of intellectual emasculation.

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Fact

• Research shows that teacher effectiveness is the
  single most powerful predictor of student
  progress-stronger than income, class size, race
  or family educational background.

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• "Educational change depends on what teachers do
  and think - it's as simple and as complex as
  that.
• Fullan and Steigelbauer

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Teaching is only as good as the learning that
takes place. Marva Collins
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• The lack of positive black role models as
  principals, teachers, support staff,
  administrators and counselors.

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Fatherless World

• One of the most reliable predictors of whether a
  boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on
  a single question does he have a man in his life
  to look up to?
• A boy without a father figure is like an
  explorer without a map
• 
  Michael Gurian

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The Facts

• Teens from single parent families are at greater
  risk of dropping out of high school.
• 4 in 10 high-school drop-outs live with single
  parents
• 1 in 3 for boys
• 1 in 5 for girls
• Boys drop out to work
• Girls drop out to look after
• children

-- Dropping Out of High School Definitions and
Costs by the Applied Research Branch
Strategic Policy of Human Resources
Development Canada
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My Experience

• Classroom Meeting
• The Away Game
• The Handshake (homework, behaviour)
• Humour
• The boys in this class responded to a
  classroom presence that was active, relevant and
  structured.

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• Four Questions
• Can I succeed at the task?
• Do I want to do the task?
• Why do I want to do the task?
• What do I need to do to succeed at the task?

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The 5 Rs

• Responsibility
• Relevance
• Rigor
• Respect
• Relationships

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Be Like Mike
1,000,000 boys dreamed of playing in the
NBA. 400,000 made the high school team. 4,000
made the college team. 35 made an NBA team. 7
started. 4 years was the average career length.
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Joe Paterno
We have raped a generation of young black
athletes. We have taken kids and sold them on a
bouncing ball and running with a football and
that being able to do certain things athletically
was an end in its self. We cannot afford to do
that to another generation Joe Paterno, Head
Football Coach Penn State University
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Recommendations Best Practices

• Creation of rites of passage programs
• Fusion of Afro-cultural teaching pedagogy
• All male academies
• Early career exploration
• Identifying African Canadian male mentors

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Close the Preparation Gap

• Increase access to quality early childhood
  programs
• Provide professional development for providers
• Use summer school and after-school programs to
  address needs of kids who are falling behind
• Build safety net - use data to identify kids who
  are falling behind early, intervene early
• Transition - design strategies to identify and
  provide support to students moving from
  elementary to middle school, middle to high
  school.

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• For these students, an equal education is not
  good enough.
• Students who enter middle school significantly
  behind grade level dont need the same good
  education that most middle-class students
  receive they need a better education, because
  they need to catch up.

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Family Parental Socialization
African Canadian parents report similar or higher
levels of achievement values than other
groups. African Canadian youth who receive
messages from parents emphasizing group identity
and pride report better educational outcomes.
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Parenting Styles

• The most basic difference was in the number of
  discouragements a child heard criticisms and
  words of disapproval compared with the number
  of encouragements, or words of praise and
  approval.

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Together Were Better!

• Informed, engaged and supportive community
  parents and partners.

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Benefits of Parent Involvement
The Triple As Student Achievement Student
Attendance Student Attachment

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Student Voices

• Believe in me, until I can believe in myself.

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How would our students respond?

• Am I being challenged?
• Do I feel sense of ownership and pride here?
• Can I talk to you?
• Will I feel confident to go to the next phase of
  my life?
• Do they care about me?
• Do I feel connected and welcome here?

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Therefore, effective schools provide

• Curriculum that is relevant and challenging.
• Multiple learning and teaching approaches that
  respond to student needs.
• Assessment and evaluation programs that promote
  quality learning.
• Organizational structures that support meaningful
  relationships and learning.
• School-wide efforts and policies that foster
  health, wellness, and safety.
• Multifaceted guidance and support services.

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This We Believe!

• Success for all regardless of personal
  circumstances.
• We reject negative stereotypes about students
  potential and ability.
• There are no limitations based on factors such as
  race, gender, SES, etc
• Schools (We) assume responsibility for creating
  conditions to ensure success.
• The quality of curriculum What we teach
• The quality of instruction How we teach
• The effectiveness of schools Where we teach
• The unique characteristics and background of the
  student
  Who we teach
• An equitable system empowers all children to
  achieve.

o
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Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson