New Terrain

"...success depends less on intellectual endowment than on perseverance and drive. As Professor Nisbett puts it, “Intelligence and academic achievement are very much under people’s control."

I am tickled that Nicholas Kristof's New York Times' Op-Ed piece, "Rising Above I.Q." ranked as the No. 1 article emailed on Sunday. That means thousands of people are reading and thinking about the fact that most of us in education already know: No single ethnicity or race is smarter than any other. Rather, almost anyone who's willing to work really hard can be successful. As I learned in my initial Teach For America training, "Work Hard, Get Smart, Woo Woo!" For every person who doubts that kids can't learn simply because of their ethnicity or family background, I (and my teaching colleagues) have a kid to prove you wrong.

What resonated the most, however, are the implications or policy lessons of this concept:

"It’s that the most decisive weapons in the war on poverty aren’t transfer payments but education, education, education. For at-risk households, that starts with social workers making visits to encourage such basic practices as talking to children. One study found that a child of professionals (disproportionately white) has heard about 30 million words spoken by age 3; a black child raised on welfare has heard only 10 million words, leaving that child at a disadvantage in school.
The next step is intensive early childhood programs, followed by improved elementary and high schools, and programs to defray college costs."

While all this may be obvious to anyone working in education, it reminds us that the traditional school infrastructure is not designed to coach parenting skills, counsel students who are victims of abuse, or help students who don't get to eat on the weekends. Most social workers I know are worked to the bone but can't get to half of what they know must be done. Most high-needs districts don't have free intensive early childhood programs in place yet, and there aren't enough school psychologists to go around.

But these are the circumstances we and our children live in today, and serious student success can't wait for programs and resources to be designed and distributed. Here's a big thank you and take care to all the amazing educators who go way above and far beyond the job description to make sure students from all backgrounds have no excuses not to succeed, even if it means having Elroy's mom on speed dial, bringing in peanut butter sandwiches and staying after to tutor until 8 each night.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:20 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

Like so many of you right now, I am tired. I have not blogged in over a month (I'm sorry Teacher Magazine). I haven't made dinner in over 10 days, scrubbed the bathroom since winter, and my jiggly arms attest to how many workouts I've canceled with friends. This is because like so many other educators, I've been working 80-plus hours a week to improve teaching so all kids would learn (a lot). However, according to my fiancee's not-so-subtle hints lately, "I have so much to do" has become an inexcusable excuse for not enjoying life.

While I realize part of his perspective stems from eating hummus and cereal for every dinner last week, I also realize that like so many of my peers in this profession dedicated to serving kids in low-income communities, I'm prone to working really, really, really hard for a really, really, really long time without coming up for air. Or scrubbing the bathroom. And that is partly what leads to burnout, an all-too-common phenomenon that contributes to our lower retention rate of teachers and leaders in this fight for education equity.

I realize new teachers, especially those teaching in high-needs schools, may be feeling drained and disillusioned as school lets out, and may be asking whether this is even possible as a long-term career. You're right-- this is time-consuming, challenging and exhausting work. I don't have answers, but I truly believe it's possible and that we absolutely must stay to make it work in our most challenging schools and districts in order for any changes to really happen.

Now, I am the last person in this business who would advocate working less hard. I believe that a lack of intelligent hard work was part of what led us down this whole achievement gap road in the first place. But I think I am now advocating that we take on less and do it really well (no, I can't coach cheerleading, Ms. Barney... really.)... and that we be OK with getting a B+ (or even B-) on certain projects (like that art class I taught where the kids only sewed because my mom had given me a box of needles and thread. I had been busy working on a reading unit plan rather than planning the art curriculum, thank goodness).

I'm reminding myself that we need to reflect more on whether all the hours we put in are truly purposeful (like the time I spent 6 hours on a weekend making a paper hot air balloon and puppets because I was convinced that was really the way I was going to engage my kids... as opposed to having a really tightly managed lesson plan with clear key points and checks for understanding. Right. You know how that one ended.)

And whenever I panic that "omigod, it feels like I'm doing the job of 3 people," I know it's because we actually need more talented people to join us and stay in education in low-income, under-performing communities.

As the summer rolls around and we open into my busiest work season (training new teachers and planning for the upcoming year), it'll be easy to make 85 hour weeks the norm. I have to remember, however, that while thought of slowing down terrifies me, what's scares me more is the image of me losing energy, enthusiasm and desire to engage in this work in three, four or 10 years. As my wise executive director reminded us this past week, you need to put on your own oxygen mask before assisting others. This summer (and beyond), I'm committing to deliberately enjoy my life both in and out of education. For me, that means blogging and writing more, spending my Saturdays cooking, putting down the laptop to take a 20 minute gym break, and making "wine on the porch with Bill" a part of my To Do list. I make no promises, however, that there will be scrubbing of the bathroom.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 9:35 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

I love kids. It's Friday night and we just finished our dinner party. It was all adults, but one of my fiance's friends brought two high school students he has been family friends with for more than a decade. As an eduholic, I immediately grilled the kids at the dinner table about which school they attend in DC, who their teachers are and how they are doing in class. Some lighthearted conversationalist I am.

But because it's Friday night and it's a dinner party at my house, behavior and learning weren't the primary lens I saw them through. I got to know one of the kids first through the lens of being the guest who was the first to dig into his vegetables, scored major points by helping himself to seconds and helped me make tea after dinner. It wasn't until later in the evening that I learned he struggles in school, has been suspended for more than a month so far this school year, and admitted to instigating behavior issues earlier in the year for his English teacher who happens to be in Teach For America.

After dinner, "Albert" and I talked about education in DC and El Salvador, as well as what all kids deserve from public education in America. I told him I am available to help him with anything in school he needs. Despite being a self-professed reluctant and angry student, he instantly brightened at the offer. Then, he hung his head and admitted that reading is really hard for him and that it takes him three times longer to write anything because while he wants to express himself with the really big words that he knows, he ends up spending so much time fishing for the simpler words he can spell. (However, he did say that his current TFA English teacher has taught him more than he has learned in the past four years--- go Ms. K!). Then he asked me to teach him to read.

I may already log in 70 hours a week every week as a program director, but as an educator, a believer in children and an eduholic, how could I say no??? I gave a resounding yes, of course, and proceeded to pull out books to evaluate his skill with sight words, decoding and comprehension. It was while we were decoding the word "imitation" that he learned what "tion" sounds like and had one of those glorious aha moment. And that's when I remembered that eduholics are addicted for a great reason. We can't get enough of kids learning. For those addicted to closing the achievement gap, it's that we can't get enough of getting the most struggling kids to learn, especially if they're almost 17 and just learning what "tion" sounds like. And most especially if they eat all their vegetables and help make after-dinner tea.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 12:18 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

Thank you, Mr. Duncan, for saying clearly in your Time interview what needed to be said:
1) Lengthen time in school: You point out that many high performing schools have longer school days and Saturday classes, and many students do not have a home environment conducive to afterschool productivity. You highlight that our economic competitors India and China are going to school 25% to 30% more than we are.
2) Charter schools: You espouse choice, rigorous competition for entry, and greater accountability. Importantly, you stress that charter schools should be spared the morass of education bureaucracy. From the United Nations to the local school district, bureaucracy can stymie the legions with nothing but the best intentions.
3) No Child Left Behind: 50 different states, 50 different standards. Why not set a common bar, and give every district the freedom to achieve it how they deem best? Delightful.
4) Tenure: You dodged this a bit. Remind me again why primary and secondary school teachers have tenure? We need to have a national discussion on how tenure improves student achievement. Why should high-performing excellent teachers get booted just because someone lower performing has been around longer? Sure, New Hampshire's Teacher of the Year is an extreme case, even a fluke perhaps. But let this be a lesson to us that performance and authentic student growth matters the most and should trump the number of years someone has been in the district.

Mr. Duncan, I may not agree with you on everything, but I find your interview ideas compelling. The time for innovation and movement is now. Here’s to hoping your smart interview translates into bold leadership.

Readers: ‘Thanks’ or ‘No Thanks’ to Mr. Duncan’s ideas?

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 8:54 AM | Permalink | 4 Comments | Recommend

I swear. I am a nice person. I say "please" and "thank you." I recycle. I chew with my mouth closed. And I am respectful to everyone, especially my elders.

But apparently when anyone, even someone many decades my senior, yells out to me across the Caribou Coffee Shop that kids in the inner-city can't possibly learn, I have to yell back. Politely. Firmly. Loudly. So everyone in the shop can hear me when I say: "All children can learn. They just need to be taught better and more by their teachers, and better and more by everyone else around them."

My debate partner argued back. Equally firmly. Equally loudly: "No. You're wrong. You're holding our community down, making the kids in Anacostia learn the same standards and reading. Our kids can't learn that stuff. We need to give them vocational classes so they have something to do after graduation."

It's important to realize that I don't entirely disagree. It'd be wonderful if more vocational classes were available to kids who wanted to focus on carpentry or graphic design. And for the record, I don't advocate fighting as a way to advance our ideas about closing the achievement gap. But...

"Of course the kids in Anacostia can learn that stuff! It may take longer to learn after so many years of poor teaching, but they can! We have high school teachers there whose entire classes have already increased by more than two reading grade levels this year! Two grade levels is the difference between reading to their kids at night or perpetuating the reading gap for another generation! Vocational classes are great-- as long as kids have a choice and don't go for it because they haven't been taught to read and they're 15!"

And so we go on. Loudly. Obnoxiously. In the middle of the day while everyone around us desperately tries to read or work. After about 10 minutes of yelling, I put my headphones on, switch tables and refuse to respond. I'm late with a project and I'm starting to worry that I'm confusing and angering the man more than motivating him and others.

But after a half hour when tempers cooled, I saw the old man come toward my table. I brace for another round of heated discussion. Instead, he came by with the business card of his new educational nonprofit focused on student mentoring. He still didn't fully agree with my ideas, he said, but he could see my point and saw we were ultimately arguing for and angry over the same things. We're both angry that kids in DC aren't learning anywhere near enough and that everyone in the community is responsible for doing a whole lot about it. And with that, we accomplished what's probably one of the hardest first steps to take—talking about how to close the achievement gap. Actively. Publicly. Loudly.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:00 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend