How do state budget cuts affect educational philosophy?

Apparently, one of the great lessons of politics has finally come crashing down in some Illinois school districts under extreme pressure from state budgetary shenanigans. What is that great lesson of politics? Why, it is as old as civilization: Ideals are fine when they remain in the abstract. One example of this is the recent decision of some Illinois school districts to abandon the middle school model to save some money:

"For 10 years, Bethalto middle school students have moved through the school day in teams. While the 125 or so students were in art, music or technology, each team's teachers would meet to discuss academic progress and lesson plans.

Next year, that will all change.

Sixth-graders will return to an elementary school model with one main teacher all day. Seventh- and eighth-graders will switch to a junior high model.

No teams, no art, no music or technology.

The move goes against a decades-long trend toward middle schools in which school districts have invested in the middle grades by adding enrichment courses, reducing class sizes and boosting planning time for teachers.

But budget issues are causing several Illinois districts to reconsider the middle years. Collinsville Middle School will revert to a junior high after seven years as a middle school. East St. Louis will adopt a hybrid of the two models, in part because of finances. And Waterloo has decided to keep the middle school this year, but with deficit spending. If the economy doesn't pick up, it will revert to a junior high the following year.

Currently, there are more than 11,000 middle schools and fewer than 3,000 junior high schools nationwide.

Instead of seven 47-minute classes, the seventh- and eighth-graders at Bethalto will have five 60-minute class periods: social studies, English, math, science and P.E.

Bethalto School District Superintendent Sandra Wilson would prefer to keep the elective classes and the teams, but with the Illinois budget crisis and the state owing the district nearly $2 million, administrators think they have no other choice. Amid a $13 billion budget shortfall, Illinois is behind in paying about $1.4 billion to schools for such expenses as special education and transportation.

'We will cut as much as they fail to send," said Russ Clover, Bethalto School District's business manager. "Educationally that's a mistake, but financially this is a requirement. The state has no idea the damage they are doing to these kids.'

The middle school model is inherently more expensive because of its smaller classes, extra electives and additional teacher planning time...."

Now, I am not exactly a fawning fan of certain parts of the middle school philosophy. I have said before that the middle school model often provides shelter for some of the worst trends in helping our students become literate, responsible citizens. In particular, the middle school model also encourages the hiring of teachers who are generalists rather than specialists, and thus specific instructional content is often a serious weakness just when kids need to be challenged the most. But-- when the team model is done right, and administration supports teachers, educational standards actually both can be increased AND be met by the students. But students and their specific needs are the last priority in these decisions mentioned in the article. To cull bad practices because they are bad is one thing. To completely reorder a school because the state refuses to meet its obligations is quote another.

Well, one can only hope that perhaps, after the chaos settles from these decisions being made, perhaps a new model for early adolescent education may develop that would actually combine the BEST of both the junior high and middle school model.

Is this really necessary?

So it's not enough to run the PSAT, the SAT, and all the AP tests. Now the College Board seeks to traumatize eighth graders, too. From US News' education blog:

College Board, the owner of the SAT, is introducing a new standardized test next fall for students in the eighth grade. Like the PSAT for 10th graders, the new test, known as ReadiStep, will gauge the skills of eighth graders in mathematics, critical reading, and writing. The College Board says the scores won't be used for admissions or merit aid decisions. Only students and their schools will receive the results. The goal, officials say, is to provide feedback to school districts that want to prepare more students for college before they reach high school. "What makes this assessment valuable and not just another test is its instructional relevance," Lee Jones, a vice president of College Board, said this week in announcing the new test.

The National Center for Fair & Opening Testing, which is generally opposed to standardized testing, released a statement calling the new test "a cynical marketing ploy designed to enhance test-maker revenues, not improve access to higher education." Eighth graders already take statewide assessments that determine how well they have mastered math, reading, and writing skills. Robert Schaeffer, the center's public education director, questioned the value of another test. "The new exam will only accelerate the college admissions 'arms race' and push it down onto even younger children," he said.

College Board officials emphasized that school districts asked for the assessment. They also said the test is tied to rigorous national standards, so the results would offer a more reliable picture of students' abilities than state tests. "We feel confident enough from talking to College Board member institutions that they are excited about the test," Jones said, although he would not name or identify how many school districts asked the agency to develop such a test. College Board says it expects school districts, not students, to pay for the exams, although the exam fee has not been set yet. The two-hour, multiple-choice tests will be offered to students during a two-week window in the fall or the spring. Teachers, who will proctor the exams, will receive the results in four weeks.

Wow. What exactly is the purpose of this? Kids take the PSAT because it's actually the NMSQT-- the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. It's also interesting that this is coming out right at the time that some colleges are turning their backs on standardized test scores as admission scores.

Where did they learn this?

Just when I think I have heard it all, along comes something like this....

CHESTERFIELD, MO — Four or five Parkway West Middle School students will be disciplined after administrators found out this week that they designated a "Hit A Jew Day" at the 850-student school.

Principal Linda Lelonek learned Monday evening that her sixth-graders had started an unofficial "spirit week" last week.

The students started with "Hug A Friend Day," moved to "High Five Day," "Hit A Tall Person Day," and then, finally, this Monday, to "Hit A Jew Day," representatives of the Parkway School District said.

The students generally were not being violent, Lelonek said, but instead "tapping" their peers.

"It was almost like a tag thing," Lelonek said. "But then it changed."

She now knows of three or four students who were slapped; none told school officials about being hit. "They said, 'We were just playing,'" she said.

After school Monday, Lelonek heard from the mother of one of the school's roughly 35 Jewish students.

Lelonek called an all-sixth-grade assembly first thing Tuesday morning. She said she asked the students if they had heard of each designated "day." Nearly all raised their hands. Then she asked, "What's tomorrow going to be? 'Hit A Principal Day?'"

"You could have heard a pin drop," she said. "One started saying, 'Oh, no, Ms. Lelonek.'"

"I said, 'Don't say a word.'"

Lelonek said discipline will range from parent conferences to suspensions.

She said the sixth-graders will be studying the Holocaust later this year. "It's going to be a little more meaningful this year than it's ever been before," she said.

Incredible. Good grief.

14 year old pleads not guilty in killing of gay classmate

Here's more about the story that was featured in national newsmagazines.

The 14-year-old boy accused of killing eighth-grader Larry King pleaded not guilty Thursday to premeditated murder and a hate crime, charges his attorney said could mean dying in prison unless the youth can be tried on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

"This is essentially a death sentence for Brandon McInerney," defense attorney William "Willy" Quest said after entering a plea of not guilty for his client.

If convicted of manslaughter, McInerney would face a sentence of six to 21 years, Quest said. The murder and hate crime charges McInerney now faces require a minimum of 51 years and a maximum of life with no time off for good behavior, the lawyer said.

McInerney is accused of shooting King on Feb. 12 as students worked on English assignments in a classroom at E.O. Green School in Oxnard. The 15-year-old King died Feb. 14 after being taken off life support.

Although prosecutors have not elaborated on the hate crime charge, the Oxnard youth wore makeup and jewelry and told friends he was gay.

McInerney, who has been held in the county's juvenile hall since his arrest, wore inmates' clothing of a white T-shirt and dark pants when he appeared in the Ventura courtroom.

When Superior Court Judge Edward Brodie asked McInerney if he understood his rights, the boy answered "Yes, sir," in a strong voice.

The teenager's divorced parents, Kendra McInerney and William McInerney, sat in front of the courtroom during the brief proceeding. His mother, visibly upset as she watched her son inside the prisoners' holding area, hurried out of the courtroom. The boy's father followed. Both declined comment.

The plea came two weeks after the defense lost its challenge of a voter initiative that gave prosecutors sole discretion to file homicide charges in adult court against youths as young as 14. While that ruling is appealed, McInerney continues to face murder charges as an adult.

Brodie set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 23, a date that could be extended by 10 days, but he did not assign the case to a judge.

Assuming a judge finds enough evidence at the hearing to proceed to trial, Quest hopes the trial could begin before McInerney's 15th birthday in January.

If the case were moved to juvenile court, Quest said, he would plead to whatever charge the district attorney wants. The maximum sentence allowed in that court would be confinement in a state youth facility until age 25. Prosecutors say youths who commit homicides are typically paroled after seven years, but Quest said that is unlikely in this case.

If the case stays in adult court, McInerney's only hope is reducing the charge to manslaughter, Quest said.

"That is the only way Brandon does not die in prison," he said.

The District Attorney's Office filed the case in adult court two days after the shooting, and it reaffirmed that position Thursday.

"If we thought it was manslaughter, we would have filed it as manslaughter," Chief Assistant District Attorney James Ellison said. "We believe the crime is charged appropriately."

Ellison said prosecutors considered McInerney's age but are not disclosing why they decided to charge the 14-year-old as an adult. That would involve discussing the facts of the case before the preliminary hearing, he said.

The slain boy's father, Greg King, declined comment on the plea Thursday afternoon, but he said he supports the district attorney's decision to try McInerney for first-degree murder as an adult.

"He went into a classroom in front of other students and shot my son in the back of the head twice," King said. He suggested that the boy's age does not merit lighter treatment.

"My son his dead," he said. "For his age to be taken into consideration — he didn't take my son's age into consideration."

Quest said the shooting was a tragedy, but suggested that sending McInernery to prison for life only compounds it. He has blamed educators at E.O. Green for failing to defuse growing tension leading up to the shooting.

"This is not a complicated case, who did it and the manner of death," he said. "The issue is Brandon's age and what was going on at E.O. Green School."

McInerney feels remorse and does not understand the seriousness of what he's facing, he said.

"Going from being on the beach to being locked in a cage until he dies," Quest said. "It's hard for anyone to contemplate that, much less a 14-year-old."

McInerney is a strong candidate for rehabilitation, something that could be considered in juvenile court, Quest said.

"He was a good kid. I think he would continue to be a good kid."

A jury has the power to convict on a lesser charge of manslaughter, he said, but not if the judge gives instructions that only murder charges can be considered.

Quest returns to court Monday to seek King's records from E.O. Green School and Casa Pacifica, the children's shelter where King was staying at the time of the shooting.

How does a 14 year old put two bullets in the back of a classmate's head? And how does he not understand why he's not "on the beach?" Nice legal ploy, there.

V for Visine, A for Assault

And then there's this, from Wyoming.

Police in Cheyenne say a junior high school teacher was hospitalized Monday after a student put Visine eyedrops into her drink as a prank.

Police identified the victim as 58-year-old Jo L. Miyamoto, a teacher at Johnson Junior High.

She went to the emergency room for treatment, spent the night in the hospital and was released late Tuesday.

A school receptionist said Miyamoto was back in the classroom on Thursday.

Police say that some popular movies have shown that spiking a person's drink with Visine is just a prank that can give the person diarrhea.

However, police say ingesting Visine in fact can have very serious health effects, including possibly sending the person into a coma.

Police say they intend to have the Cheyenne District Attorney's Office review the matter when their report is complete.

Okay, one? what movies are these people talking about? I know I don't get out much, but jeez....

Two-- never leave your drink unattended in your classroom. A colleague of mine recently had a kid spit in his coffeecup while he had his back turned. Luckily, the other students in the class violated the "no snitchin'" credo and immediately warned him before he got anywhere near to drinking out of it. But still-- Oh. My. God.

Are Middle Schools bad for kids? Part deux

I am very grateful to the folks at the Carnival of Education for putting my two cents out there about middle schools. A commenter to that previous post asked me a couple of questions, and the answer got so long, I thought, "Hey! There's a new post here." Ooooh! Multi-tasking!

The commenter asked how moving to K-8 schools or some other physical remedy could help. This person also stated that the middle schools had been "sold" at their inception as a way to facilitate multidisciplinary learning. So here's my response:

Well, I'm not too sure it actually matters WHERE those 6-8 grade years are accomplished-- my beef is with the attitude toward the kids by the administration and most parents and some teachers, wherever the kids physically are.

I've taught in a K-8 school, and there's one in my district as an alternative school. From my experience, it doesn't matter where they do these years, it matters how intellectual pursuits are emphasized. Unfortunately at the HS we are seeing that kids from the K-8 school evince the least successful transition to the high school as 9th graders, although admittedly the sample is small as a statistical reference. The middle school kids do a bit better, but a huge number manage to garner at least one semester F in their freshman year-- which I consider to be unacceptable.

When I taught in middle school, I was a part of a team of core teachers plus a reading teacher. We kept track of the kids-- we knew when they were disciplined, we kept them in a small area as they moved from class to class except for electives. I taught two of the core subjects as a combined unified studies class, but frankly, that is NOT what I've seen middle school to be about.

Here's my indictment:

I charge that the middle school philosophy is militantly, prima facie anti-intellectual and indeed is designed to create laboratories for dubious social and emotional engineering experiments in place of schools. The last consideration in these places is whether the students are being educated and whether they are learning. And in the through-the-looking-glass viewpoint of the highfalutin' theorists generating this alleged philosophy, there seems to be a whole slew of years in the midst of a youngster's life where it is ridiculous to expect a child to learn, because he or she is trying too hard to develop a positive self-concept and swim through the quicksand of puberty. In the name of being "child-centered," too many middle schools denigrate the potential of adolescents everywhere. The middle school philosophy begins with the premise that adolescents are too overburdened to be able to learn, and therefore expecting kids to engage in intellectually challenging activities is tantamount to expecting a dachshund to sing a Verdi aria.

My God, before middle schools rescued kids from the vicious expectation to think, how did any of them survive? You would hope that after two decades of this experiment, the least we would get out of this would be kids who were less damaged and vulnerable. We should see some results from all this emphasis on affective development since we're ignoring intellectual growth, right? Oh, but wait-- the lines to the crisis counselor are out the door, and the 504s for emotional issues are spreading like wildfire. And three years' worth of possible learning have gone up in smoke.

It's the reincarnation of that primal-scream-therapy, navel-gazing, finding-your-bliss, what-color-is-your-aura delusion of the counterculture all tarted up as an Ed.D. (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.)

The people engaged in the work of education have to provide a safety net for kids transitioning through adolescence. They have to provide emotional support and skills to devlop self-reliance and show each kid that you value them as individuals. But schools cannot make emotional development their sole raison d'etre. Where middle schools absolutely betray the task entrusted to them as schools is when it comes down to academic rigor and accountability on the part of the kids in terms of whether they have learned the material in the name of protecting them. You cannot learn or become skillful without practice and struggle. You can't give someone an education-- an education is what meaning you make of the world for yourself. And the ultimate irony in all this is the fact that NCLB-- absolutely poor policy and ridiculous as it is-- at least may expose the truth.

Well, that just goes to show that we can find the silver lining to ANYTHING.

Are Middle Schools bad for kids?

Yes and no. Middle schools aren't-- the "Middle School Philosophy," worshipped unquestioningly, definitely is.

What brought up this question is the article in Time magazine's Being 13 special edition. Sez that several districts across the country are switching to K-8 schools--of course, to raise test scores as one of the main reasons.

I spent more than a decade teaching 13 and 14-year-old kids. I taught in a K-8 parochial school and in a public middle school. Here's what I saw:

If a student had a "failing" grade-- not that that meant anything, since there was no retention-- even after you had mentored and encouraged and voluntarily stayed after school with them on your own dime to tutor them, after you had sent notes home to the parents, after you had repeatedly called the parents (keeping a log of the discussions if you knew what was good for you), after you had spoken to parents in face-to-face conferences, after you had taken countless late assignments and given them six more copies of every paper they ever lost and given them four textbooks since they lost those too (and you knew those books were gone forever because you weren't allowed to charge the kid for the lost books but you had no money to order new ones)-- at the end of the year, you were asked what more you, the teacher, could have done.

With a straight face.

By an administrator who either spent two years in a classroom or who last stood in front of a class 25 years ago. If you said "Nothing"-- which was safer than sarcastically making a remark related to doing their work for them or wiping their "noses"-- then the kids were socially promoted. If you actually could think of something else you could have done-- I had one colleague who actually went to one kid's house and woke him up in the morning, fercryinoutloud-- then the kid was promoted to the next grade because it was really the teacher's failure, not the responsibility of the kid.

It is completely verboten to consider that perhaps the student had some part to play in this drama. By consistently demonstrating no concern with learning, the student learned nothing. And even when she is passed along to the next grade, she still has not learned that material. Which might be useful as a building block for learning in the next grade. And the next.

Not to mention that the student HAS learned that he is a passive player in their own education-- which is the most dangerous lesson you can teach someone.

All in the name of an alleged "Middle School Philosophy" which spurns intellectual rigor and academic achievement in favor of "affective development" and -- my favorite-- "self-esteem."

I say that in today's society, kids don't have three years to spin their wheels intellectually while educators focus on helping them love themselves. Many kids love themselves so much right now that they brook no thought that they could do better and they have no shame when doing wrong.

We have created and celebrated a culture of adolescence in modern society which always tries to make things come easy-- which means nothing. Adolescence is a very recent concept, really developed only in the last few decades. It is no coincidence that bar and bat mitzvah and confirmation-- rites of passage into responsibility and the beginning of the path to adulthood-- have been traditionally scheduled for millennia at or about the age of thirteen. Middle schools infantilize students at the expense of their education. Young people should be transitioning into being responsible for their actions, not being cocooned from every pitfall.

Middle schools and their adherents demonstrate their lack of faith in students to learn. They assume that kids can't do it by coming up with the hit-parade of excuses. Guess what? If you have real rapport with your kids, when you talk to them they will cop to the fact that they didn't work hard enough, and that they deserve their grade.

Although it would be easier if I didn't, I fiercely love my students. I am such a sap that when I see those "Eureka!" moments with my kids, or when I get hugged by gawky former students, I get tears in my eyes. Really. It's very embarrassing. And the kids know I love them when I demand their best effort, nothing less.

I manifest that love by expecting them to learn-- to read, write, contemplate, to wrestle with ideas like Abraham wrestling with the angels. Letting them off easy is, unfortunately, the middle school way. And it's not working.