Our school held a Parent School Community Council meeting where, in addition to having the assistant principal and principal present, we had our school board representative there to answer district-related questions and concerns. Our board rep has older children who had previously attended this school, and she lives within easy walking distance. The meeting was loosely moderated and covered many of the usual topics.
Then the discussion shifted toward family and community engagement. There are many kids at this school who come from rough neighborhoods, who are bussed to school while parents have limited transportation. One parent said something about how "they" need to get more involved, and another corrected that "they" are "us" and that we are all one school community. I spoke out of turn and asked how many families from those neighborhoods were present. Then I apologized for getting rowdy. Another parent suggested that perhaps we have workshops with professionals, to help parents work with their kids. I mentioned, this time after raising my hand, that there are families in our community who may not have had success in school themselves; they feel uncomfortable at school supporting their children even though at this point the parents are adults who won't "get in trouble" at school. Additionally, there may be parents who don't know where the school is located! Other suggestions included partnering families to form relationships and using the RoboCall to remind families of events at the school.
The next question also stemmed from the original question about behavior. A parent of two younger children inquired about children feeling safe, if they are the ones who are victims of bullying or violence? The principal and assistant principal said that while they do meet with those children after an incident and after a consequence has occurred, there are confidentiality issues in play. When kids are not involved but witness an incident, it is difficult for them to get the sense of justice, also due to confidentiality. The principal said that part of the PBI model (positive behavior interventions) is to reteach correct behaviors. They follow up with kids as a group, without using specific incidents, and ask them questions such as "how did we do during transitions this week?"
A teacher (and by the way, I was thrilled to see so many teachers in attendance at this meeting) asked if there was an increase of incidents when students have substitute teachers. She said that in general, more people are needed in the building. Why are teachers being pulled so often? The principal answered that the district pulls teachers by grade level for professional development. She said that sometimes kids are pulled from their regular classes if a substitute is there, in order to be proactive. Sometimes kids will be welcomed into the classroom of a teacher that they had in previous years to do their work and to be an assistant in their classroom. I find that to be a positive and proactive step, even though some may disagree, because it acknowledges the value of the school community. Additionally, this tactic emphasizes the importance of teachers staying in one building in order to get to know the students and have the students feel as though someone has cared about them for several years.
At this point our board representative joined us and in addition to asking some questions about budgets, school closings, and staffing, there was a more aggressive discussion about behavior and severe interventions. The schools all have partnerships with mental health providers (even though students cannot be forced to accept services). Students are experiencing serious issues at an alarming rate! Several parents present were knowledgable and credentialed, including social workers, teachers, researchers, and counselors. They all asked questions that related directly to school climate and healthy choices for kids.
Which brings me, finally, to the elephant in the room.
No one said outright what I was thinking. I just didn't get enough of a chance to articulate it clearly. Imagine me saying this in my outside megaphone voice: THE REASON THAT THE KIDS ARE BEHAVING POORLY THIS TIME OF THE YEAR IS BECAUSE THE STATE TESTS ARE COMING UP! Teachers are under pressure because the tests are being misused in order to evaluate them. Children are under pressure because the teachers are under pressure, and the test data determines far more about their future than it should. The environment of the school has been taken over by test preparation. When testing occurs, all student work is to be taken down from the walls. Everything familiar is to be covered up. The procedures for testing are so specific and students and teachers are quaking in their boots in fear of deviating from the script.
Related to the panic about testing is the number of times the teachers are taken from their classrooms for workshops on data collection and meetings to tell them that they are being labeled as failures because they cannot solve all of their students' problems. Teachers spend so many days testing, and TIME IN TESTING IS TIME OUT OF LEARNING. Also imagine that last phrase in my outside megaphone voice. The giving of tests to monitor progress is a helpful diagnostic that assesses where a student is on a particular day in a particular mode. Ordinary 20 or 30 minute subject tests at the end of a unit are perfectly appropriate, once the students are old enough to navigate them. Even a standardized test near the end of the year, used as a snapshot, is not so terrible. Giving a review of the test question format and the procedures of the test should take a few hours, total, before the administration of the test.
I was glad to hear so many parents voicing concerns about school climate in a way that could easily be traced back to test anxiety. I was also very glad to hear the backlash against the amount of time taken away from teachers in order to attend professional development, leaving their classes in the care of any number of substitutes. Sometimes, they are in the care of a rotation of teachers who are giving up their preparation time, because there are not enough substitutes. Perhaps if enough people raise that concern, something could be done.
What was not addressed at this meeting was my favorite question: how much are these tests and test prep materials costing us? How many extra tests are students taking that they don't even need, and how many teachers could be hired with that money?
First we discussed discipline issues and went back and forth about models for positive behavior and examples at home.
Then the discussion shifted toward family and community engagement. There are many kids at this school who come from rough neighborhoods, who are bussed to school while parents have limited transportation. One parent said something about how "they" need to get more involved, and another corrected that "they" are "us" and that we are all one school community. I spoke out of turn and asked how many families from those neighborhoods were present. Then I apologized for getting rowdy. Another parent suggested that perhaps we have workshops with professionals, to help parents work with their kids. I mentioned, this time after raising my hand, that there are families in our community who may not have had success in school themselves; they feel uncomfortable at school supporting their children even though at this point the parents are adults who won't "get in trouble" at school. Additionally, there may be parents who don't know where the school is located! Other suggestions included partnering families to form relationships and using the RoboCall to remind families of events at the school.
The next question also stemmed from the original question about behavior. A parent of two younger children inquired about children feeling safe, if they are the ones who are victims of bullying or violence? The principal and assistant principal said that while they do meet with those children after an incident and after a consequence has occurred, there are confidentiality issues in play. When kids are not involved but witness an incident, it is difficult for them to get the sense of justice, also due to confidentiality. The principal said that part of the PBI model (positive behavior interventions) is to reteach correct behaviors. They follow up with kids as a group, without using specific incidents, and ask them questions such as "how did we do during transitions this week?"
A teacher (and by the way, I was thrilled to see so many teachers in attendance at this meeting) asked if there was an increase of incidents when students have substitute teachers. She said that in general, more people are needed in the building. Why are teachers being pulled so often? The principal answered that the district pulls teachers by grade level for professional development. She said that sometimes kids are pulled from their regular classes if a substitute is there, in order to be proactive. Sometimes kids will be welcomed into the classroom of a teacher that they had in previous years to do their work and to be an assistant in their classroom. I find that to be a positive and proactive step, even though some may disagree, because it acknowledges the value of the school community. Additionally, this tactic emphasizes the importance of teachers staying in one building in order to get to know the students and have the students feel as though someone has cared about them for several years.
At this point our board representative joined us and in addition to asking some questions about budgets, school closings, and staffing, there was a more aggressive discussion about behavior and severe interventions. The schools all have partnerships with mental health providers (even though students cannot be forced to accept services). Students are experiencing serious issues at an alarming rate! Several parents present were knowledgable and credentialed, including social workers, teachers, researchers, and counselors. They all asked questions that related directly to school climate and healthy choices for kids.
Which brings me, finally, to the elephant in the room.
No one said outright what I was thinking. I just didn't get enough of a chance to articulate it clearly. Imagine me saying this in my outside megaphone voice: THE REASON THAT THE KIDS ARE BEHAVING POORLY THIS TIME OF THE YEAR IS BECAUSE THE STATE TESTS ARE COMING UP! Teachers are under pressure because the tests are being misused in order to evaluate them. Children are under pressure because the teachers are under pressure, and the test data determines far more about their future than it should. The environment of the school has been taken over by test preparation. When testing occurs, all student work is to be taken down from the walls. Everything familiar is to be covered up. The procedures for testing are so specific and students and teachers are quaking in their boots in fear of deviating from the script.
Related to the panic about testing is the number of times the teachers are taken from their classrooms for workshops on data collection and meetings to tell them that they are being labeled as failures because they cannot solve all of their students' problems. Teachers spend so many days testing, and TIME IN TESTING IS TIME OUT OF LEARNING. Also imagine that last phrase in my outside megaphone voice. The giving of tests to monitor progress is a helpful diagnostic that assesses where a student is on a particular day in a particular mode. Ordinary 20 or 30 minute subject tests at the end of a unit are perfectly appropriate, once the students are old enough to navigate them. Even a standardized test near the end of the year, used as a snapshot, is not so terrible. Giving a review of the test question format and the procedures of the test should take a few hours, total, before the administration of the test.
I was glad to hear so many parents voicing concerns about school climate in a way that could easily be traced back to test anxiety. I was also very glad to hear the backlash against the amount of time taken away from teachers in order to attend professional development, leaving their classes in the care of any number of substitutes. Sometimes, they are in the care of a rotation of teachers who are giving up their preparation time, because there are not enough substitutes. Perhaps if enough people raise that concern, something could be done.
What was not addressed at this meeting was my favorite question: how much are these tests and test prep materials costing us? How many extra tests are students taking that they don't even need, and how many teachers could be hired with that money?
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