Reading Reflection 1 - Rethinking High School

Early this morning, I heard an NPR report on the RACE to the TOP program. The Obama administration wants the largest school districts to sign up for this grant but SD Unified feels like there are still too many unanswered questions about long time funding and reform.

The reason I mention this program is that I’d like to hear BPHS’s point of view on Race to the Top. I’m unsure about it. Will boat loads of cash make a difference? Or do we need a different dialogue to take place? Arnie Duncan and Obama, both being from Chicago, are familiar with the charter high school model. What goes into a political overhaul such as the one they’re proposing? Like the authors of our book, it does seem that HS reform moves at “geological speed”. Not much has changed since the industrial model founded in the 20’s. So maybe this is what we need, a race, something to come in and shake it up. But I think I prefer the way Daniels, Bizar and Zemelman document their successes, failures and needs. It seems more like productive “Group Work to the Top” would be more beneficial than a race with teachers starting to compete with teachers. As they humbly note, in making a new school they “are much, much slower to judge or criticize anyone else who works in a high school.”

Several ideas appealed to me about this reading. Most interesting best practice that I wish I would’ve had in high school is this notion of making the educational experience relevant to the outside world in the form of internships, volunteering, and working at part time jobs. It seems, when I look back, that my high school experience was hermetically sealed off from the outside world. I came from a good family that gave me ample opportunities but I still didn’t make many connections between school and how I related to the greater society or the possibilities that were out there for me in the work force. My “voice and leadership” skills were never actively challenged or engaged. Community involvement was also something the schools addressed in Second to None. Linking kids to the professional world outside of school will give them a greater breadth of knowledge.

Another model for Best Practice, which we are exercising right now and a model addressed in Second to None, is the experience of working with our “disparate fields” brethren (pg 13). The cohort model is important to carry forth in our professional career. The input and the expertise my Math or Science friends bring to the table tend to bring a different angle to the dialogue, no matter what it may be.

Smaller schools should also be a priority. The masses that I see in some of these comp sites are impersonal. For the shy student, the multitudes can be like navigating through a foggy bog. The criticism of the teachers at Columbine that they weren’t aware of the bullying might have been true. However, it wasn’t necessarily a criticism of who they were or how blind they were to the issues. In a school of 3,000, classes of 36-45 students at 5 periods a day, it’s a wonder there is any student/ teacher relationship at all.

One minor criticism I had in BPHS took place in one little sentence. It spoke of "deep parent involvement." I’ve seen some outreach programs to involve parents, such as ELAC and attempts in the Escondido school district to have Parent Ambassadors. They are crucial. But the involvement also has to recognize the 2 working parent family. I’m shocked at the amount of time that my 1st grader has to put into homework. I agree with it and much of it is meaningful. However, at the end of the work day there is dinner, bath, requisite cleaning and then HW. It’s consuming and not for the faint of heart. There are parents out there who don’t have the same view on homework so how do you sign them up? I don’t see how you can possibly get a 1st grader through their “packets” unless you’re sitting right there with them!