3 posts tagged “success”

When teaching in the districts that MTC places us in, tangible success is often hard to come by. Failure seems to be what is constantly in our face as we think of all the things that our students are doing besides learning, all the places that our students will likely end up besides college, and all the classroom management issues we face that make us want to roll over and call out sick. Every. Single. Day. Still, it's in the little things that teachers anywhere but especially in "critical needs" districts must focus on to maintain drive and focus and continue doing what too many others have deemed highly improbable or flatly impossible for centuries: educating poor Blacks.

In many of these districts MTC teachers teach in standardized tests are seen as foreboding signs of eminent doom and embarrassment. In these places, teaching "to the test" is often resorted to as the means through which educational salvation is reached. Teaching to the test is one thing but when you're in a school environment where, from day one, what's communicated to teachers is that teaching to the test is the ONLY thing, well then you're at KIPP. On some level this is understandable as testing determines so much at charter schools like KIPP from our enrollment to our ability to woo private funders to the very renewal of our charter with the state of Arkansas. However, I cannot help but shake my philosophical belief that I have more important life skills to teach my students than finding equivalent fractions and answering multiple choice items using process of elimination.

In any event, our big state test in Arkansas is called the ACTAAP or the Benchmark Exam. KIPP Delta in Helena has some of the highest test scores in the state at the middle school and high school levels. Last year, 94% of our 7th graders at KIPP Delta scored proficient or advanced on the mathematics Benchmark Exam compared to 66% of 7th graders statewide and only 33% of students in Helena-West Helena's regular public school system. What makes this even more remarkable to many is that our school is 99% Black, 99% free/reduced lunch, and in the heart of dilapidated downtown Helena close by local housing projects, gang territory, drugs, and prostitution. Last year's 7th grade math teacher who got these results was so successful that she has been given the green light to found her own school which will be opening in Blytheville, Arkansas in the fall of 2010 as a new KIPP middle school. She's only a year older than me. The venerable 7th grade math slot was thus available when I applied to KIPP this past spring and who teaches this course with the districtwide spotlight on it now?: me. The Black, hood guy from Harvard with two years of (social studies) teaching experience who's a few credits away from a master's degree in education.

Anyway, to my success story. In preparation for the end-of-the-year Benchmark Exam we take practice Benchmark Exams every month. We chart the progress of our students and use the practice Benchmark Exams to target particular students and skills for remediation and re-teaching. Results are scrutinized for hours on end at the individual, school, and district levels. It is highly nerve-wrecking to see where your students are at month-by-month and to know that the results will be known almost immediately by your peers and superiors and reflect your quality as a teacher. Lovely. In any event, the first practice Benchmark Exam we took was in late September. We took a second one two weeks ago in late October and although the success or failure of my students on the September exam could largely be attributed to what my students came into 7th grade knowing, my school director was clear in communicating that the October exam's results would be all my own.

Much to my surprise and the surprise of many a colleague, I'm sure, not only did my students' scores increase from the first to the second practice Benchmark Exam but these were the only scores that increased in any grade level, in any subject area at the entire school. Fifth, sixth, and eighth grade math scores went down. Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade literacy scores went down. Fifth, sixth, seventh, and eight grade reading scores went down. Fifth and seventh grade science scores went down (we don't do sixth and eighth grade science testing). ONLY 7TH GRADE MATH SCORES WENT UP!!! I was elated when I saw the numbers displayed on the dry erase board at our faculty meeting the night we stayed at school until 10 p.m. grading exams and inputting results on our district network for more scrutiny. When looking at the individual students and their performances from the first to the second practice Benchmark Exam, I also noticed that most of the students whose scores increased were taught by me and not by the more experienced and better respected 8th grade math teacher who takes 15 of my 7th graders into his algebra class each day.

That's wassup. Right? 

Our main local newspaper here in Trenton, the Trenton Times, published a piece on my little brother revolving around the fact that this year he was the only Trentonian to graduate from The Lawrenceville School located in a "nicer" part of our county. Defying stereotypes. Go get 'em, little bro. 

"It's hard to do it because you have got to look people in the eye and tell them they're irresponsible and lazy. And who's going to want to do that? Because that's what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country (USA), you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period."

- Bill O'Reilly

Yeah, I used a Bill O'Reilly quote. Sue me.

On some level, I've definitely become more conservative politically after this past this year. I once thought that all of the society's problems--especially those heaped on poor or working class Blacks--could be traced to White racism. Blame White folks. It's their fault South Trenton is how it is, Mattapan is how it is, and the Delta is how it is. Nowadays I have some slightly different views and I do recognize the issue of individual choice that every person must make in their own lives to either use $20 to buy an ACT prep book or to use it to get drunk one weekend with friends. Making "the right" choice is tough and I can still understand why so many people don't make that choice, but still, "don't blame other people for your own actions." I tell me students this all the time.

Anyway, one of my greatest success stories this past year has been with a student whose initials are QF. QF was in my fifth period World History class this past year and failed pretty abysmally the first semester (I believe he had a 13 the first nine weeks). Attempts to contact his grandmother proved unsuccessful and I expected the 2nd semester to be much more of the same from him since he seemed to form a tandem with his best friend who he sat next to. Both were 18 in a 10th grade class (for 15 year-olds). However, when we came back to school in January I moved his seat away from this best friend of his who was biggest clown in the class. This--and the real prospect of being a 19 year-old sophomore--proved to be all the difference for him. He went from being one of the worst students in the class to one of hte best academically. He answered questions actively, turned in work on time and correctly done, and demonstrated content knowledge beyond the majority of the class. At one point, I believe he even had the highest grade in the class--higher than honor students who had passed all along.

What amazed me even more than his dramatic academic turnaround was the way in which he drew to me personally. Fifth period is lunch period in Humphreys County and so QF's class was chaperoned to and from lunch by me daily. This chaperoning meant that I had ample time to talk to my students informally as we walked to lunch, as we ate, and as we walked back. I noticed that QF started hanging back sometimes to talk with me in line or when we got to the cafeteria he would come and sit wherever I was and strike up conversation about anything (usually poking fun at another student or teacher and how or what they ate, wore, etc.). It was a small gesture but it was evident of the fact that he felt some sort of bond with me where he wanted to be around me and talk with me. He knew that I listened and that I would engage him, unlike other teachers who may be more stand-offish or dismissive of him. One day he opened up to me about his future aspirations scholastically and vocationally. He talked to me about how he wanted to correspond next year and then join the military. I talked to him about these choices and convinced him that he was not only a good student but that he could use that academic ability (when he focused) to do anything he wanted. He was not limited by the military option that he saw so many of those around him pursue.

I think I truly "reached" QF and I hope that I see him again next year AT SCHOOL. Sadly, his average for the second semester was not enough to pull up his average from the first semester and he failed my class. Nevertheless, I am more than sure that he has more confidence in himself academically than he ever did before and that he knows he has a teacher that cares about him beyond the books and assignments and special projects and exams and office referrals. Absolutley invaluable.