Starting Over: A Post-Katrina Education

Do the students have Spring Fever? Have some of our teachers moved at a clip that was too fast and so hard that they are running out of gas before the end of the school year? Are there so many fires to put out that one administrator can’t possibly stay on top of them? I think the answer to all three questions is “Yes!”

First the children:
I have always noticed that the changing weather makes children shift their behavior. Our weather has been so crazy for the last month that we don’t know how to dress. The temperature goes from the 80’s to the 30’s within the same week. As soon as we put our sweaters away and pulled out our tee-shirts, the weather man was predicting freezing temperatures on the North shore.

Every year as spring-like weather approaches, the students get antsy and anxious for summer vacation. They can’t sit still. They run around the school and make more noise than usual. They don’t follow the rules that have been in place all year. Surprisingly, we’ve had some exceptionally calm and quiet days. Then, they go nuts and do unbelievable things. Friday, there was a fight after school. Our middle school students have been fighting—right in front of the entrance to the building—mere steps away from the security guard’s station. As the pugilists performed, the audience cheered them on.

We had a visit from the Hornets Basketball Team last Friday for another book giveaway. The students loved the decorated bus that transported the championship ballers and really enjoyed the celebrity visitors. I was at the school between 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. holding a meeting in the library with members of a university/district partnership. Everything was very calm. But at 3:00 it looked like a totally different school. TGIF! I don’t mean “Thank God It’s Friday.” It stands for “Teen Girls In Fights.”

Second the teachers:
I saw far too many upper-grade students going home today without books. No homework on Tuesdays? I don’t think so. We don't want to be one of those schools where teaching and learning stops as soon as the LEAP tests have been finished.

I am concerned that this year was very hard on some of our staff. The middle school students are the most challenging and their teachers are the worst for wear and tear. All of them are new to New Orleans. We had to change their afternoon schedule, increase the supervision between classes, and step up the assistance to the enrichment teachers. The rest of the school seems okay. I really admire the teachers for hanging in and continuing to search for ways to maintain an effective atmosphere, especially the new, inexperienced teachers who have not had the benefit of mentors or intensive professional development.

Third the administrators:
The principal can’t do everything alone. It was a mistake to open school with one certified administrator. We will definitely have an assistant principal next year. We hired a retired principal to help with the teacher evaluations. Right now we are getting some supervisory help from an administrative intern, the curriculum coordinator, and the administrative assistant. They are going to have to hold daily strategy meetings to stay ahead of the students.

I hope this entry does not sound as if I am giving up on any of our folks. Contrary to that idea, I embrace the challenges of keeping students interested, disciplined, and focused in the final month of school. We have a professional development day next week and I am looking forward to hearing about the closing of school strategies for May. In my principal experience, we always had the Principal's Reading Challenge to keep students involved. I hope the faculty can come up with something interesting for this group to do.

There are so many great things going on at t he school right now. But, I decided to blog about the spring fever because it is going on all over town. Last week, I called four schools to ask if the students were going berserk. The answer was “yes” in all but one. One teacher that I talked to blamed the administration for bending the rules. In another school, the principal said the teachers were burning out and she had to prod them to work hard until the end of the year. A third principal claimed that the students were “not the same” as our pre-Katrina children, these being rougher and tougher. Parents are being blamed for not doing their share of the child supervision at home or school support when needed.

When I left this afternoon, after a meeting with a potential business partner, two honor roll students were receiving suspensions. Another student who tried to push up a group fight left with his mother, before having a suspension conference with the disciplinarian. Mom was in a hurry. The social worker will be visiting his home tomorrow to deliver his suspension notice.

It is always amazing to experience the unrest of spring in April, the relief of school's closing in May, and the lazy, calm days of summer school in June. Go figure.

I am allergic to pollen, grass, and dust. My allergies are worse in the spring than in other seasons of the year. It’s only one of the reasons that I hate spring time. You know the other reason.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As I searched the aisles of Home Depot a little while ago looking for chandelier cleaner, I spotted the famous McDonogh 42 Elementary Charter School Second Grade Teacher extraordinaire, Paulette Larkin, with her grandchildren making a purchase. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating her fame, but not her extraordinary status. She’s an excellent teacher who just happened to be pictured in a story on the front page of the Times-Picayune today. Okay, maybe it didn’t just happen, the principal selected her for the photograph, but she looks great in her photos. The photographer didn’t just happen to be at our school either. He was there because the newspaper was doing a story on teacher salaries in New Orleans.

According to a report from the Louisiana State Department of Education, our school has one of the highest pay schedules in the city’s public schools. Although the figure reported in the PEP report claims we budgeted an average of $55,698 per teacher, that number is higher than what we actually pay. I’m not sure what is added to the calculations once we submit the actual annual salary for each teacher, but it increased the numbers from the $48,156 we calculated in October. I noticed that the head count of 28 did not match the Full Teacher Equivalency figure of 24 in our report. That would make a big difference. I also don’t know the amount added to each teacher’s salary for earned supplements which are input by the state. Even so, we would have been in the top ten no matter how you figured it.

I think that is good news. Since there is so much competition for good teachers everywhere (but especially here), I think it is great for our staff to know that they are highly regarded and justly compensated for their work. For the first time in a long while, I am not embarrassed about what we pay our educators. Someone told me if and when the charter school movement cools off and we return to one district the high salaries will be gone also. I hope not. It doesn’t have to be. We are not using the one-time federal dollars to pay our salaries because we want to be able to sustain them in the future. We are only using reoccurring funding for teacher salaries. One of our goals in operating the charter schools is to model effective urban schooling. Learning how to handle the money is a high priority and an important lesson.

Here’s the link to the news report.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1208150443152620.xml&coll=1

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I’m going to have some fun before I call it quits for tonight. I am going to create the Awards Day form for our teachers to list the students being recognized for outstanding performances. The reviewers need it by tomorrow morning, so I am on a deadline. This blog will be shorter than usual.

Last week, while talking with the school’s principal, we discovered that we had different ideas about what an awards ceremony should look like for the school. At my former school, it was a big deal. We gave out trophies, ribbons, medallions, certificates, and pins. Students received awards for scholarship, behavior, citizenship, effort, and attendance. Teachers received awards; parents volunteers received trophies; business partners received recognition. The winners had their names listed in fancy programs and everyone dressed up for the ceremonies.

At the schools that my son and daughter attended, this never happened. Although they attended some of the most sought after schools, the awards were scant. Usually, they gave out chintzy homemade certificates or tiny trophies. It was a different type of environment. I guess the values were different.

Mr. Johnson’s plan was somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. As we talked, he said “I’ll let you do it your way, since this is our first time.” He told me that he understood that this was something special to me and he was not threatened or feeling micromanaged because I wanted to be involved with the schools awards. Actually, he has a committee to do the real work. I just get to name the awards and write up the criteria for them. I also get to shop for bargains at a couple of local trophy stores that have reopened since Katrina.

It is a real pleasure to work with this man. He shares ideas with me and the other Board members before we have a chance to ask. His willingness to ask us what we think makes him easy to work with. The frequency that we have similar ideas is amazing. He is always open-minded and focused on the big picture. He accepts criticism well and brings out the best in people. I am surprised and delighted at the teachers who are showing leadership and planning skills.

As I was preparing to leave the school today, he invited me to his faculty meeting to discuss the need for teachers to get involved in recruitment of students for next year. I politely declined the invitation. It was his meeting and I didn’t want anyone to think I want to do his job. However, I am happy to do some of the work—the fun stuff.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I am going to an 8:00 meeting tomorrow morning to observe some principals in a focus group on leadership issues in New Orleans schools. This goes against the first of my four retirement rules.
1. No 8:00 meetings (a.m. or p.m.)
2. No Monday through Friday employment
3. No leaving the house if it’s raining
4. No interruptions between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 Noon when The Young and the Restless is on.
It will be a miracle, if i make it.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 12:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It’s been one hell of a week in New Orleans. The weather has gone from beautiful, windy spring days to frighteningly stormy nights. We’ve had tornado warnings and now the Mississippi river is cresting at a level much higher than usual. These weather changes shouldn’t cause too much concern, but there’s something in the air that has folks jittery.

Our Board meeting was today and after three hours we had discussed a multitude to topics. I had thought that the 2008 -2009 school calendar proposal would generate the most discussion. It didn’t. I had a notion the upcoming National Charter School Conference that will be in New Orleans in June would excite everyone. It didn’t. I figured everyone would be interested in the financial reports. Not. These topics were treated routinely.

Not surprisingly, the topic that stimulated everyone the most was a report by the principal on the current academic standing and demographic retention analysis for our students. We finally have some diagnostic data on reading for all of the students. It’s something I was desperate to have at the beginning of the year, but it was not to be so. We examined the second DIBELS results for grades K-3. 32% still need intensive instruction in reading. 46% are on level. The rest are at the Strategic level, meaning they are at some risk.

Our Lexile/Scholastic Reading Inventory results were equally shocking. We completed testing for all but one class of students in grades three through eight. Six students were Above Grade Level. 80 were On Grade Level. 63 were Below Grade Level. 68 were Far Below Grade Level. Overall, about 60% of our students are below level in reading. It was probably worse back in August when school started. None of this is really news, but we didn’t have the statistical data to quantify our problems before now.

The principal shared a Retention Analysis Report that examined the age appropriateness of our students in seventh and eighth grade. Although I was familiar with some of this data, several of the other Board members hadn’t seen the figures presented so starkly. In one eighth grade class, only three of the sixteen students were in the correct grade. All of the others had repeated grades once or twice. Almost 50% of the seventh grade class failed LEAP in fourth grade. 28% of our current eighth grade class failed LEAP last year. One girl celebrated her Sweet Sixteenth birthday last October at our elementary school. That one made me want to cry.

Earlier in the meeting we were bickering about something inconsequential on the organizational chart. In retrospect, I’m sorry we wasted precious minutes on that when we could have been trying to figure out what to do for our children who are so desperately in need of our help. We have a basal series, but we don’t have a school reading plan so far. It is at the top of our list for the summer teacher institute.

Several sparks of brilliance did come out of the discussion including a summer program for rising eighth grade students and fourth grade students who must take the high stakes tests, a parent involvement component to show parents what is happening to students who do not have strong academic support, enrichment activities so that students will be more interested in and excited about attending school, revamping of the middle school program, and intensive professional development for our teachers.

I’m also hoping that someone in the edweek.org audience will have some ideas to offer. I don’t want to hear from vendors who troll these blogs to sell their programs. I’d rather hear from practitioners who have had success with programs that target severely at-risk students. We need some help.

Posted by Roslyn Johnson Smith, Ph.D. at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)