Nurturing the potential of immigrant students
I’m not happy about illegal immigration. Not that I don’t sympathize with the plights of some of the people who are living amongst us without documentation. But the pragmatic side of me says that, to put it simply, there are just too many economic and social costs associated with an influx of people with limited skills, especially given the current state of our economy.
That said, education is the one area where states should turn a blind eye to immigration status and encourage any student who is capable of going on to college to do so. Not only have several states blocked undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition rates and financial aid, some also have gone so far as to block admissions to their colleges. North Carolina’s State Board of Community Colleges, for instance, has just voted to retain a policy to bar undocumented students from admission and may make that decision a permanent policy.
These decisions seem short-sighted and knee-jerk reactionary when considering the potential of some of these students. Many likely will become law-abiding citizens and have the potential to live prosperously and contribute to our economy in a way that would please any fiscal conservative. In some cases, their life experiences have boosted their work ethics and appreciation for our education system in ways that most of us take for granted. If a foreign-born student can persevere to graduate from high school and gain admission to college, we should nurture that potential.
My opinions on this issue crystallized when I found out a few years ago that two long-time friends whom I met while attending the University of Maryland began school here as illegal immigrants. After attaining citizenship status and graduating college, one became an engineer and the other is pursuing his MBA while working as a computer programmer. Frankly, their lives are more prosperous than most of my native-born high school classmates.
When I visited Norcross High School in Georgia as part of ASBJ’s series on diversity, I met several immigrant students who appeared to have the drive and the grades to not only get into college, but also to prosper. Some have the means to do just that. Others—and I made a point not to inquire about their immigration status—probably will not have the means, financial or otherwise. Georgia recently banned undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition rates, which probably killed the motivation for some who are undocumented.
Unfortunately, the teachers and staff deal with this on a daily basis as they search for students with potential to take college-prep classes and plum work-study assignments. You can read more about the school and its students and faculty in September’s ASBJ.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
Schools dealing with immigration raids
With its arrows and boxes explaining “Campus Procedure,” the newest flow chart from the Garland Independent School District looks like instructions for handling weather emergencies -- a tornado, perhaps, or a Code Red day.
But this diagram has nothing to do with the weather. It’s called “Parental Deportations,” and it tells staff at the 57,000-student district near Dallas what to do if parents are detained in a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). About 43 percent of Garland students are Hispanic; the number who are illegal immigrants is unknown.
“This is relatively new to a lot of school districts,” Clyde Schilling, principal of South Gate Elementary School in Garland, told the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t think it’s a topic of discussion at the lunch table, but as you imagine, it is very upsetting when it happens to any of your students.”
District offices don’t anticipate any raids, but they don’t want what transpired in places like Postville, Iowa, to happen in Garland. As Senior Editor Del Stover describes in ASBJ’s September Special Report, “Immigration and Diversity,” nearly 200 of Postville’s students -- one-third of its enrollment -- were affected.
“We had kids crying and going crazy,” Chad Wahls, a principal in the town’s combined elementary/middle school, told Stover. “They knew mom or dad was at work [at the nearby meatpacking plant], and they were saying, ‘They’re taking them. They’re taking them.’”
Now, districts like Garland are writing contingency plans for responding to ICE raids, telling staff, for example, not to let students get on buses if their parents are detained and to try instead to have one of six emergency contacts -- provided earlier by all parents -- pick them up.
For more information on the effect of immigration raids on families, see also the Urban Institute report: “Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children.”
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
Dropouts and immigrants
In the last couple of years, a trend has emerged among states to hike the compulsory age of education to 18 (in some states mandatory attendance was as low as 14), the hope being that the initiative will prevent at-risk students from dropping out.
At the International LEAP Academy in St. Paul, no such scare tactics are needed, as hundreds of non-traditional students relish any opportunity to stay in public school as long as they can.
Opened in 1995, LEAP, one of about a dozen alternative schools in St. Paul, was designed to specifically serve the needs of newly arrived immigrant students. While that alone makes it a unique learning environment, the average age of the students at these alternative schools is something you also won’t find in their mainstream counterpart.
Of the roughly 400 students at LEAP, about half are older than 18, and a third older than 21. It is an unusual situation, and one that affords students the opportunity to earn a diploma.
Three years ago, lawmakers decided that schools would not be reimbursed for their over-21 students – a law that is in force in many other states. Recognizing the special circumstances of many of their students, the LEAP staff and students try to find other options. When I visited the school in the spring, I saw posters plastered in the stairwell and along the hallways, advertising the sale of eggrolls and rakes, the proceeds of which would help enable the older students to continue their instruction.
“Of course they can take Adult Basic Education courses but that is just enough to get them a job,” Principal Rose Santos says of the basic skills instruction that is offered in community centers and agencies. “But if you are 21 and you have your whole life of ahead of you, you don’t want to just get by. We don’t want them to just get by.”
Read my story on St. Paul's immigrant students at www.asbj.com.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Maine District a Bridge Betwen Natives and Newcomers
Sue Martin is director of English Language Learner programs for the Lewiston City Schools, but she does much more than her title implies.
Yes, she’s expert in the different theories of English as a Second Language instruction and well-versed in the intricacies and difficulties of teaching students who aren’t literate in their own language.
She’s also a key connection between the schools and the Somali refugees who started moving to this working-class Maine town in 2001. The Somalis, a conservative Muslim group, don’t integrate much with the rest of the city’s mostly white, predominately Catholic residents. The schools are one place where the two groups intersect.
Misunderstandings are inevitable when these two very different cultures meet.
An example: Middle school students were assigned to write their autobiographies, which would be included in a book published by the school system. Many Somali middle-schoolers, who had a firmer grip on spoken English than on written English, told their stories to an interviewer.
Word got around that the girls were being interviewed about female circumcision, causing an uproar. The Somalis wondered why the school district was asking about such things. Martin didn’t know how the rumor started, but she contacted two Somali women with whom she frequently works to help quell the suspicion.
Martin was a longtime administrator in the school system before she took the job as ELL director. She knows the community intimately and she’s made it her business to become familiar with the town’s newest residents.
She understands that communication is just as important as curriculum when it comes to educating immigrant students.
Read more about Lewiston and the Somalis in my article “A Town Unified by Schools.” While you’re there, make sure to read the other articles in September’s special report on immigration and diversity.
Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor
Diversity doesn't just mean color or ethnicity
It was just another day at Sopori Elementary School—until a U.S. Border Patrol agent walked into the principal’s office in full riot gear. Agents were about to conduct a raid at a nearby house, he announced, and it might be best to “lock down” the school as a precaution.
When your school is only a half-hour’s drive from the Arizona-Mexican border, issues of campus security take on an extra nuance.
Security wasn’t an issue on my mind when I visited Sahuarita, Ariz., last spring to conduct research for the September ASBJ’s special report on immigration and diversity. I naively assumed my talk with school officials would focus solely on educating illegal immigrants.
How wrong I was.
The lock-down at Sopori occurred the day I arrived. And district officials mentioned that there’d been another incident the previous year at another school campus.
“Illegal aliens were being tracked from the air by the Border Patrol,” said Superintendent Jay St. John." There were eight of them in a small vehicle, and they abandoned it right outside our campus. They took off across the playground, and one helicopter came down low enough for agents to jump out ad give chase. It was a little scary.”
Just days after my visit, I got an e-mail from the district concerning yet another incident. During a routine traffic stop by the Border Patrol, two men fled in a vehicle that was later found near a school. One of the suspects was found lying in the road just off campus. It appeared he’d fallen or been pushed from the vehicle.
They vehicle had been left in a dry wash, the Nogales International newspaper reported, along with eight bundles of marijuana.
Such incidents shouldn’t come as a surprise—at least, not once you recall that untold thousands of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers attempt to cross our border every year. Incidents occur near the border every day, and we have to accept that some will take place near a school. No one wants that to happen. But it does. And school officials have to be ready.
Yet there's a lesson to draw from all of this. We forget sometimes that diversity isn’t just about differences in the color of our skin or our cultural heritage. Our nation owes its diversity also to the varied life experiences of our citizens.
In a rural, desert community, just a few miles from the border, school officials face issues that simply aren't that common to their peers living amidst the cornfields of Iowa.
Del Stover, Senior Editor
Immigrants and dropout rates
The dropout rate for immigrant and foreign-born students is a huge problem for many schools. One thing we know for certain: The later a foreign-born student begins school in the United States, the higher the chance they will drop out before earning a high school diploma.
Using 2000 US Census data, the Pew Hispanic Trust reported that the average yearly dropout rate of foreign-born students ages 15 to 17 was 11.7 percent. But of those students who had arrived more than eight years earlier, only 5 percent dropped out each year. The dropout rate for those who arrived less than eight years prior was 16.4 percent. The percentage of native-born dropouts was 3.3 percent.
Perhaps even more telling is a student’s prior educational attainment. If a student had received a continuous education and made normal education progress in their home country before migrating to the U.S., the dropout rate was 9.9 percent. However, if the student’s education was interrupted or incomplete, his or her chances of dropping out soared to 70.9 percent.
“It doesn’t really matter if we look at youth from Central or South America, or Asia, regardless of what country they come from the later-arrived youth are much more likely to not be in school,” says Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Trust.
Fry also believes that many teenagers who come to the U.S. to work may never enter the school system, thus inflating those figures.
Norcross High School in suburban Atlanta is one of many schools that’s struggling to keep its immigrant populations engaged and in school. The teachers and administrators learned a lot from their experiences, and you can read about those in our series on diversity in ASBJ’s September issue.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
They won't fit on a bumper sticker
Read this and tell me: How does it make you feel?
“America, love it or leave it.”
If you’re under 50, you may have no reaction at all. But if you grew up in the ‘60s, as I did, my guess is that you can’t say those words without feeling some sort of visceral punch -- a flashback to the era of civil rights and Vietnam, drugs and war protests, and that emerging phenomenon called the counterculture.
I thought about that line and its deceptive simplicity (of course, if you didn’t like a place -- be it a city, state, or country -- you would probably leave if you could) when seeing a bumper sticker on a pickup truck in Prince William County, Va., last spring. The driver had come to a public hearing on a controversial new law aimed at ridding Prince William -- its homes, its businesses, and its schools -- of undocumented immigrants.
It said: “What part of ‘illegal’ do you not understand?”
Like the quote from the ‘60s, this one carries the same air of certainty and simplicity -- to which I wanted to reply “Yes, but….”
Yes, many of the foreign workers and their families are illegal, but do you want to deport them all? How will you do that? What impact will that have on their communities? Their families? Their children?
My story on the Prince William controversy and its effect on the public schools is in the September issue of ASBJ, part of a special report titled “Immigration and Diversity,” which will be online Wednesday at www.asbj.com. Other editors have written on dramatic demographic changes facing schools in other parts of the country, in states like Maine, Arizona, Georgia, and Minnesota.
The promises of this new diversity are as considerable as its challenges. As citizens, we’ll disagree on what steps to take to both secure our borders and adjust to life as a nation of minorities, which, come 2042, the United States will be.
But one thing is certain: These solutions -- whatever they prove to be -- won’t fit on a bumper sticker.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
Minnesota nice
The shuttle bus driver who picked me up from the airport and drove me to the rental car lot was a chatty fellow. As I was the only other person on the bus, it wasn’t like I couldn’t respond. Besides he was nice. Minnesota Nice. You know, that famed, often parodied (think Fargo) Midwestern version of Southern hospitality.
In my short two-and-a-half day visit to St. Paul for September’s ASBJ, I was treated to numerous displays of this distinctive graciousness and generosity, whether it was the district spokesman who cleared his entire schedule to chaperone me around town or the person on the street who wrote down detailed instructions after I got hopelessly lost.
No doubt, it’s this kindness that made Minnesota a mecca for immigrants, not just once (in 1910, nearly a third of the state’s population was foreign born, twice the national average) but twice (in the 1990s alone, Minnesota’s immigrant population more than doubled.)
It was the very reason I was coming to St. Paul, home to a large Somali and Hmong population. I wanted to see this diversity and the changes it has brought in action. I didn’t know it would start as soon I landed.
The drive from the airport to the rental lot was short, maybe five minutes, but in that time, the bus driver and I had a lengthy conversation; where was I from, what did I do, what brought me to St. Paul? Hey, who’s the reporter here?
Yes, the driver said, nodding his head, there are a lot of Somalis in the area. This place here, he said, pointing to a gas station we passed. It’s all Somalis now. They hang out there all day, drinking coffee. They like coffee. But they don’t like black people; those two don’t get along, he confided in me.
As I listened quietly to the driver’s observations, I thought, this was going to be an interesting trip. Minnesota Nice, in its most stereotypical form, includes an aversion to bringing up anything unpleasant. It’s a polite veneer, an eagerness to always, well, make nice. Yet here this perfect stranger busting that stereotype. What else had changed in Minnesota? Yes, this was going to be an interesting trip.
My story on immigration and its impact on the St. Paul schools will be available at www.asbj.com on Wednesday (Aug. 20), part of a package on immigration and diversity. Stay tuned.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
California unification
As the 1993-94 school year started, I had just moved from Texas to North Carolina to start work as the managing editor of a community newspaper. Like many small papers, The Reidsville Review thrived on a steady diet of cops, obituaries, features about small-town fairs, high school sports, more cops, and coverage of school and municipal government.
Except this time, the coverage of school governance came with a twist.
Fourteen days before I arrived, four school districts had officially consolidated into one. And the new district, Rockingham County Consolidated Schools, was heading for some dark days, faced with questions about its finances, central office alignment, facilities, student assignment policies, board and administrative politics, and the like.
It was a massive undertaking – and a big mess for some time. Some teachers, administrators, and board members embraced the new district, which had 25 schools and 14,500 students. Others stubbornly refused, believing that the old way was better.
Within two years, the first superintendent – chosen from one of the four former districts – resigned under pressure. A huge battle over redistricting, which would have corrected racial and economic inequities in terms of student assignment, resulted in no action by the board. Personality clashes were common.
In the fall of 1996, I left newspapers and became the district’s public information officer. Having been on the outside, looking in from a distance, I did not know how difficult this merger had been. Over the next four and a half years, however, I saw this rural district work through its growing pains firsthand.
Several months ago, American School Board Journal was approached by Gene Broderson, who manages the National Affiliate program for the National School Boards Association, about a project involving the newly consolidated Twin Rivers Unified School District. In July 2008, after six failed attempts and 60 years of acrimony, three elementary school districts and one high school district finally were unified into a single PK-12 entity in this area north of Sacramento, Calif. Or was unification just a word?
Gene’s idea was to examine the challenges a first-year district faces through stories in ASBJ and podcasts and webinars posted on the National Affiliate website. The first print story, “The Long Road to Unity,” appears in the September edition of the magazine – available at www.asbj.com on Aug. 20; the multimedia portions of the project are available at www.nsba.org/natwinrivers.
Through this project, which will be ongoing through next summer, we hope to provide a snapshot of how you merge four distinctly different communities together amid fiscal challenges and political rancor. We hope to provide readers with resources and tools they can use if they are faced with a similar circumstance.
And chances are that small districts eventually will face consolidation, though not on the scale of Rockingham County or Twin Rivers. As the story notes, the U.S. had 117,000 school districts and 25.5 million students in 1937-38; today, the number is closer to 14,500 and 50 million, respectively.
Still, half of the nation’s school districts enroll less than 1,000 students, and with a tight economy pinching budgets, legislators in several states are eyeing consolidation as a way to cut costs and provide expanded services to students living in far-flung rural areas.
Working with Gene on the interviews that we are using in ASBJ and online is an exciting challenge as a journalist and an opportunity to take a fresh look at a subject I’ve lived through. It’s also a reminder of how schools, more than just about any other institution in America, can incite deep-seeded passions in communities and those toiling behind the scenes.
I hope you will join us in this journey.
Glenn Cook, Editor-in-Chief
A glimpse beyond our limited view
I went to a high school that was on the outskirts of a town that was on the outskirts of a city. In other words, we were in the middle of nowhere. I think the term today is exurbs, though in truth, we were even one step beyond that.
It’s since changed (rows of major retailers flank either side of the main artery that runs through a now incorporated municipality), but that’s another story.
Quiet and quaint, my town certainly wasn't anyplace you’d expect someone to visit; certainly not for an extended period of time. But every year, a handful of exchange students would come, and suddenly our world would be different.
There was Pierre from the south of France and Stephan from Sweden. Even the fellow from Greece and the contingency from Mexico, neither of whom I never really talked to, made an impression on me and my classmates. Different countries, different languages, different circumstances, yet they were all instant celebrities at my school, bringing a glimpse of what lay behind our limited views.
I wanted to be one of them. Alas, it was not to be, but I hope one day to host an exchange student, since the experience is surely as enriching for the native as it is for the visitor. Unfortunately, today’s tough economy is making it harder for families to do just that.
From Texas to the Twin Cities, agencies that pair exchange students and host families have seen as much as a 50 percent drop in the number of open homes.
“Some families from the past have told us they can’t afford it anymore,” Marie Claude-Dijoud, director of the Garland, Texas-based-Educational Merit Foundation told the Dallas Morning News.
It’s the latest fallout in the economic downturn. And arguably, it’s among the most unfortunate because exchange programs provide Americans and visiting students with an experience that is simply invaluable.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Leadership stability and school reform
The recent attempt by some school board members to oust Miami-Dade County Superintendent Rudy Crew is going to be a part of my upcoming article in ASBJ, tentatively titled, “We Know What Works in Education, So Why Aren’t We Doing It?”
That’s because a key finding in my article is that stability in a school system’s top leadership is key to successful school reform.
No school board member is going to be surprised by that conclusion. Yet, as Miami-Dade County makes painfully clear, being obvious isn’t the same as being easy—even when everyone wants to do the right thing.
The effort to terminate Crew’s contract may have failed by a 5-4 vote, but with the Miami Herald describing Crew as “embattled” and a community leader describing school board meetings “like a train wreck,” does anyone believe that the district’s leadership is 100 percent focused on student achievement?
This kind of dispute is why so many school reform efforts fizzle out. Schools only improve when the school board and superintendent work together on a common vision—and work hard to sustain their reform effort year after year.
Yet that partnership is easier said than done. While Crew has won national acclaim for the work he’s done in the last few years, a series of missteps—including a combative attitude toward critics—has hurt the superintendent at a time when a budget deficit makes him politically vulnerable.
There are times, of course, when a school board must say good-bye to a superintendent. But there also is a time for a school board to bite the bullet, accept that the superintendent still can get the job done, and redouble its efforts to rebuild a working relationship that’s in the best interest of students.
What’s the right call in Miami? I don’t know. I just hope that both Crew and his critics on the school board remember what their continued dispute puts at risk. Months of bickering will distract both the school board and administration from their focus on student achievement. The enthusiasm for reform among principals and teachers will wane as they wait to see which way the political winds blow.
And, if a change of leadership is in the cards, that means months of delay as the school systems waits for the selection of a new chief schools executive—and yet more months for this new leader to learn about the school system. And then there’s the danger that the new superintendent will want to put his or her stamp on things, and past reforms, which still need time to take root, will be tossed aside—and years of work will be wasted.
Things may yet settle down in Miami-Dade County. But the dangers are real enough, which makes the school system a timely example of how fragile the conditions for successful reform.
Del Stover, Senior Editor
Schools and reality TV
Think reality TV is all about fierce competitions and love connections and broken friendships and all the ensuing angst? The networks couldn’t possibly be interested in anything as boring as school administration or school board meetings… right?
Not so. Tru TV (formerly Court TV) will debut its new reality series “The Principal's Office,” which tracks the daily lives of several school administrators, on Aug. 21.
Roger Caitlin, the TV critic for the Hartford Courant, reports that the first episode will feature Jessie Ballenger, an assistant principal at Danbury High School in Danbury, Conn., busting a freshman who sneaks off campus to have lunch at a friend’s house.
But don’t expect to see any of the more mundane tasks of the job, Caitlin adds.
The show "has a light touch to it, like ‘Parking Wars,’ the series about Philly meter maids. It's like ‘Cops’ but with curriculum specialists. But really all they seem to do (in the opening episode anyway) is dole out discipline,” he writes.
Tru TV may have spotted a trend. The Miami Herald recently reported that the number of South Floridians tuning in to the local public-access channel to watch the Miami-Dade school board meetings live has doubled since February—to some 19,000 on any given hour.
In recent weeks, viewers have seen the board members heatedly discuss whether to fire Superintendent Rudy Crew, lay off hundreds of employees, spar over nepotism rules, and form alliances and rivalries akin to the original "Survivor" reality series. Occasionally, a rowdy speaker or audience member gets hauled off by security.
Unfortunately, the programming doesn’t seem to be helping the school board’s image, according to viewers quoted by the Herald:
“The meetings are like a train wreck,” says Mario Artecona, executive director of the Miami Business Forum and a regular viewer. “You know it’s going to be a mess, but you can’t look away.”
Adds Justin Koren, a middle school teacher, “It can be addicting to watch scandal after scandal for 12 continuous hours without commercials. That is, until you realize the entertainment is at the expense of our children.”
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
Adult-looking Girls Need Most Adult Supervision
Getting parents involved in their child’s education is a goal just about every school strives for. So, we don’t need to rehash why it’s been proven to be so critical to the academic success of a student, nor why it’s been so difficult to achieve at times (though, if you want all that background check out my story in the ASBJ archives
Most savvy educators know that involved parents can be the lynchpin to keeping students on track. Now, researchers have found that parental involvement can have a significant impact on a particular group of kids: the ones that grow up, literally, fast.
Studies have long ago confirmed that early maturing girls often engage in risky behaviors like drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, violence, and delinquency. Yet experts have been unable to determine how to halt the unfortunate connection. The findings from this most recent study may provide a start.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Texas, Houston; and the Rand Corporation, surveyed 330 fifth-grade girls and their parents from each of the aforementioned cities. About a quarter of the girls had physically matured early, meaning they had begun menstruating before the typical age of 11 years old.
Researchers asked the girls and their families about the former’s behavior and the latter’s level of involvement in their personal life. Their answers indicated that physically advanced girls who had parents that weren’t as involved, acted out more, bullying and starting fights.
The study, published in this month’s edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine determined that parents need to set limits, know who their kids’ friends are, and what they do in their spare time, but also show affection, be supportive and talk about uncomfortable subjects like sex and drugs.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
City Mayors Cite Economy, Fed Inaction for Crime Spike
Stories abound about how the deteriorating economy has affected American life; and most of them aren’t good. Earlier this week, the U.S. Conference of Mayors provided even more examples, laying much of the blame for the country’s implosion on the federal government.
“Washington has lost its values, lost its principles, lost its sense of purpose; engaging in endless debate and partisan bickering while people in this country continue to suffer,” USCM President and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz declared Wednesday at the first of five forums across key cities that will delineate an action plan for the first 100 days of a new administration.
Held in Philadelphia, the first gathering focused on the faltering economy and the rise in crime that it has spawned. In a survey of 124 cities in 36 states and Puerto Rico, 42 percent reported crime has increased in their communities as a result of the economic conditions, with robbery accounting for the majority of the crimes committed, followed by theft and burglary.
Even more disturbing, half of the cities surveyed said they have seen a marked increase in youth violence, with most of it occurring within gang and on the streets, though a substantial portion (21 percent) was also happening at school.
Buffalo, NY and Westland, Mich. both reported spikes in school violence and Boston has seen the average age of juvenile suspects and victims decrease by about two years.
For school districts, the buckling economy has been most prominently seen and reported as budget reductions, hiring freezes and program cuts. As painful as those are, an increase in school and youth violence is the last thing anyone wants to report.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Religion Increasingly Used as Excuse Against Vaccinations
It’s both astonishing—and disturbing—that school officials are dealing with a small but growing number of parents who do not want their children protected against infectious diseases.
In Florida, the number of parents seeking a religious exemption to the state mandate on immunizations has more than quadrupled over the past decade. Arkansas has seen exemptions double in recent years. This summer, dozens of parents rallied outside the New York state capitol this summer to demand the right to opt out of vaccinations for religious reasons.
Local school officials always have had some parents who fail to immunize their children. Those with religious objections seek an exemption to the law (allowed in 28 states) or turn to home schooling. But most parents simply are unaware of the mandate, are unable to take time off work to visit the doctor, or don’t take the requirement seriously.
For those latter parents, school officials have state laws to help them. Last November, for example, school officials in Prince George’s County cracked down by forcing the parents of 2,000 children to show up at the county courthouse to “get their children vaccinated on the spot or prove they’ve already had the shots” or “risk up to 10 days in jail,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
But what about this new phenomenon: The parent who claims a religious opposition to vaccines—but really doesn’t?
It’s happening more and more, AP reports. “The real reason may be skepticism of the shots or concern they can cause other illnesses. Some of these parents say they are being forced to lie because of the way the vaccination laws are written.”
If you follow the issue, you know why some parents—only a few thousand, thank goodness, are taking this route. The Internet has spread a lot of disinformation and scary rhetoric about vaccines as the cause of the growing autistic population, and despite government studies showing no evidence of a link, the controversial debate has done its damage.
So what should school boards do? As you’ve quite enough on your plate, I’m not going to make any suggestions. I’ll settle for simply reminding you to be prepared to hear about an issue arising in your schools. Hopefully your school nurses and principals are well informed—and ready to reach out to concerned parents.
Just keep in mind something that Dr. Genon Wicina, a pediatrician, told Florida’s Press Journal newspaper: “These diseases are still around. They’re worldwide, and they’re not eradicated. We live in a global world, with people coming into our area from all over. . . . As more and more people chose not to get immuniations, that puts everyone at risk.”
Del Stover, Senior Editor
Numbers aren't everything
We spend a lot of time looking at and talking about data and statistics related to the vast increases in immigrant and minority students in U.S. schools. But, as an ELL counselor told me on a recent visit to a Georgia high school, “Sometimes we get hung up on statistics, but when you meet these people, it’s a whole different ballgame.”
For part of our upcoming series on diversity in U.S. schools, I spoke with author Laurie Olsen. More than 10 years ago, Olsen wrote a groundbreaking book, Made in America, after spending two years observing immigrant students at a California high school that she dubs “Madison High.” Like many schools, Madison was dealing with unprecedented numbers of students from different parts of the world who came to the U.S. with dramatically different experiences, beliefs, and goals. The book is now being re-released on its 10th anniversary.
While I was first skeptical that a decade-old book could still be relevant given the changing nature of diversity, I realized there was still a lot to be gleaned from Olsen’s firsthand experiences. At Madison High, she details the cliques of students—how Chinese girls who spoke Mandarin tended to cluster in one area of the hallway, for instance, and so many students who were torn between upholding their culture and also wanting to assimilate to American life. One female student from the Middle East was conflicted about dating, as her parents had already chosen her husband and arranged her marriage.
But while it’s vital for immigrant students to be mainstreamed into regular classes, it’s also important to allow some self-segregation in social settings, Olsen says.
“For immigrant students, who spend all day in English-taught classes where they are struggling to understand and struggling to be able to express themselves or participate, it is a welcome and needed relief to be able to relax and participate in social interactions without facing the language barrier,” she says. “It is important for us to recognize that for an immigrant, holding onto one’s home language, using one’s home language is important to identity, important to communication with family and community. When immigrants use their home language, it does not mean they are rejecting English. Immigrants overwhelmingly want to become English proficient. There is no contradiction here. People can, and in most places in the world, people do, have two or more languages.”
Olsen has been back to Madison High recently, and in the interview she gave me insight into how the school has changed and grown in the past decade. I wish she had included these updates in the new edition of the book, but it is detailed in our interview in the upcoming September ASBJ. And look for the additional outtakes on ASBJ.com.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
Earn much-deserved recognition for your district and your school board
Beat the rush and apply early -- American School Board Journal is accepting applications online through October 15 for the 2009 Magna Awards, a national program that honors best practices in school districts.
Co-sponsored by ASBJ, the National School Boards Association, and Sodexo School Services, the Magna Awards recognize programs that showcase district leadership, creativity, innovation, and commitment to student achievement. Nominations are being accepted at www.asbj.com/magna2. There is no cost to apply and eligible districts must be members of the state school boards association.
An independent panel of judges looks for programs that are developed or actively supported by the school board and the result of appropriate board leadership and collaboration.
Nominations are judged in one of three categories -- under 5,000 enrollment; 5,000-20,000 students; and over 20,000 students. One grand prize winner is selected in each category and receives a $3,500 award from Sodexo School Services. Five additional winners and honorable mention awards also are selected from each enrollment category.
All Magna winners and honorable mention recipients are recognized in a special supplement published with the April issue of ASBJ. Winners and honorable mention recipients will be recognized at the School Leaders Luncheon during the NSBA Annual Conference in San Diego in April. The Magna Awards publication is also published online at www.asbj.com/magna.
Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor
Keeping student athletes safe
The Summer Olympics begin Friday and even if you are not a sports fanatic, it is a truly awe-inspiring show of athletic prowess and discipline. Here at home, the global test of talent serves as a good backdrop to student athletes, many of whom are beginning preseason training for fall sports.
Unlike Olympic athletes, however, middle and high school athletes typically don’t have the same kind of high-caliber coaching and medical staff in their programs. In fact, less than 40 percent of high schools employ certified athletic trainers. These trainers are important members of any athletic program because they are able to prevent sports injuries, treat them when they do occur, and use methods to safeguard against their return.
Staying abreast of the latest research in sports injuries is equally important, as new discoveries and guidance are being offered all the time. For example, heat stroke used to be defined as when the body’s ability to perspire stopped, resulting in hot, dry skin. Today, however, it is determined when the body’s core temperature reaches 104 degrees, which is not easily observable and could still mean the individual is sweating.
For more tips and pointers on what you should be considering to keep sports programs and students running smoothly, reach into ASBJ’s archive and read my article, “Keeping Student Athletes Safe.”
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Which students make the best learners?
There have been varying schools of thought on the part emotions play in student learning.
While no one would suggest that a depressed or angry student is the best kind of learner, few absolutes extended beyond that. For example, a few years ago I interviewed someone from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, a non-profit research center at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
From that conversation, I gathered it was just as important, at least in the opinion of the center researchers, to spend as much time and attention cultivating children’s social skills and building a supportive learning environment than it was to build knowledge in academic areas.
Yet I remember talking to another professor months later, who criticized the craze on boosting students’ self-esteem, saying all that praise and adulation sometimes backfired, confusing students (and parents) on the real purpose of learning and completing tasks: to acquire knowledge, not bumper stickers.
Now comes a new finding from the academicians: Students in a neutral and even sad mood actually perform better academically than happy students. University of Virginia psychology professor Vikram Jaswal along with colleagues from the University of Plymouth in England tested 6- and 7-year-olds’ and 10- and 11-year-olds’ ability to perform detail-oriented tasks when induced into emotion states through music and films.
The researchers found that students who were “induced” into a happy state had a harder time finding shapes hidden within a larger object than the children who were feeling neither really good nor really bad, or those who were a bit down in the dumps.
“What our study shows is that artificially inflating a child’s mood may make it harder for them to pay attention to details, which could be important in school contexts,” Jaswal told the Charlotte News.
What do you think? Let us know by posting a comment.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Happy birthday to us
The Leading Source is one year old today. We, the editors of ASBJ, couldn't be prouder. When I wrote the first entry last summer, none of us knew where this blog would take us.
Over the past year, we've written about nearly every topic of concern to educators and school leaders: achievement, school finance, student health, No Child Left Behind, bullying, technology, school security, and many, many more.
We've found that the blog allows us to write about the things that didn't make it in to our ASBJ articles. We're also able to talk about personal issues, something we're not able to do in the print magazine. Each editor has developed his or her own "blog" voice. Those diversity of voices are the strength of The Leading Source.
Diversity is going to be a theme here in the upcoming weeks. The September issue of ASBJ focuses on how schools and communities are dealing with immigration and diversity issues around the country. We'll be blogging about our stories and asking you to particpate in the discussion with us.
Happy birthday, The Leading Source! Let's blow out the candles and cut the cake.
Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor
Satire or misinformation?
More than one outraged parent, when angry with how their community schools are run, has spread rumors designed to cause grief to school officials.
But New York City parent Gary Babad has taken his dissent with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s oversight of the schools to a more high-tech—and troublesome—level. He writes satirical news reports for a blog aimed at NYC parents, and on more than one occasion, he’s convinced people to complain about issues that don’t actually exist.
These fictional reports—which Mr. Babad told the New York Times was “a kind of therapy and my form of quiet dissent”—has proven a minor headache for school officials.
Last fall, a member of a community education council complained to school officials over news Blackwater Worldwide—the military and security training firm that garnered some controversy for its work in Iraq—would be taking over security for the NYC schools.
Then there was the Columbia University student who called with questions about a military plan to recruit teachers “who had been removed from the classroom and placed in so-called rubber rooms, where they are paid but do not teach until their cases are resolved.”
As the July 30 Times article makes clear, some of Babad’s parodies are pretty obvious. One of his first took aim at a consulting firm that he believed had fouled up school bus routes. He announced the firm would take over reconstruction plans in Iraq, with the logic that “if you can’t beat the insurgents militarily, we’ll cut off their transportation and starve them out.
Kinda funny, really. But I wouldn’t say that aloud around any NYC school officials, one of whom the Times reported “had nothing to add about Mr. Babad’s hobby.”
Nothing to add publicly, you mean.
Still, let’s hope this is a “hobby” that doesn’t gain adherents elsewhere. There’s already plenty of misinformation and rumor mongering online.
By the way, did you hear that the CIA is performing experiments on kindergarten kids in . . . .?
Del Stover, Senior Editor
Can you go home again?
A few months ago, a writing assignment jogged a memory of my (gulp) middle school career. It’s been more than 20 years since I set foot in McMurray Middle School in Nashville, Tenn., and I can’t say I’ve really thought about the place since I spent my seventh- and eighth-grade years there.
I do remember that the vast majority of students were white (the rest were African American), usually from middle-class families. Most of the teachers already had spent years in the classroom, and the surrounding 1950s-era suburbs were modest and considered safe. All in all, it was a rather unremarkable place.
My curiosity piqued, though, I Googled McMurray. And assuming the data and news clips I found are accurate, things have certainly changed.
It’s now a Title I school, grades five to eight instead of seven and eight (Nashville’s court-ordered desegregation plan had resulted in some unorthodox grade configurations in the 1980s). Now, only about 30 percent of its student population is white, another 40 percent is Hispanic and a quarter is African-American. Eighty percent receive free and reduced-price lunches. More than 30 languages are spoken and the school occasionally holds diversity day celebrations.
Thanks to the reporting requirements of No Child Left Behind, I can tell that students’ test scores are quite a bit below state averages, particularly in the subgroups, and the school missed AYP for several years. Just this week, though, the Nashville district announced that the school had been moved from the “high priority” to the “good standing” category under NCLB.
In the mid-1980s, the only reported assessment we had was that it was a “good” school, from the neighbors who sent their kids there.
When the ASBJ editors began discussing the need for a series on diversity and the changing demographics of schools across the country, I knew I wanted to go to the South and visit a suburban secondary school. I chose a high school in suburban Atlanta, which has seen an amazing influx of students from all points of the world. Look for our package of stories in the September issue of ASBJ.
And one of these days, I hope to drop by McMurray to see firsthand all its changes.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
Finding your center
How would you finish this sentence?:
“If I ran the world … ”
Too difficult? How about this one: “If I ran the school district …”
Or, maybe: “If I chose the curriculum…”
Or: “If I could just run the school … ”
I’ve been an editor here at ASBJ for 11 years, and in that time I’ve naturally formed some rather strong opinions about how to achieve what’s become known, broadly, as school reform. I’m sure others who write about education -- and those of you who work in the field -- have made similar observations and judgments.
So where do I stand on issues as diverse as technology, standardized testing, portfolio assessment, teaching the Bible, sex education, bilingual education, and a basic core curriculum versus a more expansive one?
Well, in the center, of course. And just who defines “the center?” I do, silly!
You see the problem here, and it was not lost on me when I did research for ASBJ’s August cover story: Taking Risks for Reform: The Difference Between Success and Failure in Education Reform.
We all tend to think that our ideas are the right ones, the rational ones, the most reasonable. Trouble is, those with vastly differing views probably think their ideas are pretty rational too. Which means there is conflict. Which means we must compromise.
In the article, I quote Michael Fullan, of the University of Toronto, who says in The New Meaning of Educational Change that it is critical to develop “shared meaning” among groups and individuals for educational reform to have any chance of success. Even rationality -- however one defines it -- is not enough.
“Forceful argument and even the power to make decisions do not at all address questions related to the process of implementation,” Fullan writes. “The fallacy of rationalism is the assumption that the social world can be altered by seemingly logical argument. The problem, as George Bernard Shaw observed, is that ‘reformers have the idea that change can be achieved by brute sanity.’”
As you know, school reform doesn’t happen in a laboratory but in a complex social environment where myriad ideas, opinions, hopes, and prejudices influence the course of events and help determine whether reforms succeed or fail.
Accompanying my article are stories from four districts from around the country that are dealing with these competing interests as they seek to improve education for all. Tell me what you think of these efforts and of your own experiences with school reform as well.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
Taking aim at the lending industry
Here’s a modern day David and Goliath tale. San Diego’s city attorney is taking a stand against the lending institutions that are partly to blame for a housing market that has gone haywire across the country, but particularly in Nevada, Florida, and California.
San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre has aimed his legal sights on Bank of America, which purchased the troubled mortgage lender Countrywide last month, as it was being sued by California Attorney General Jerry Brown for misleading and misinforming borrowers about the intricacies of interest-only, adjustable rate, and other subprime loans.
Aguirre’s lawsuit, which he filed on Wednesday, is attempting to halt home foreclosures in the area, which so far this year have totaled 20,000 in San Diego County, with financial analysts speculating that number could double by the end of the year.
“We would like to see San Diego become a foreclosure sanctuary,” Aguirre said at news conference on Wednesday.
It’s a mighty effort, to be sure, and one that in the short-term could benefit the county’s nearly four dozen school districts whose budgets rely heavily on property taxes, and in the long-term have an impact on other school systems with law enforcement agencies that follow suit.
But Aguirre’s suit, which he plans to expand to Washington Mutual, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo, seems like a long shot. If someone had an answer on how to stop the housing market from continuing to slip even further, I’m sure they would’ve come forward by now.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Incentives for education
InnoCentive, as I learned from a recent New York Times article, is a company that has found a niche; connecting companies and organizations with problems to creative individuals who can offer solutions. The incentive is money. Monetary rewards for the one idea that actually works.
This idea, by the way, of offering up cash prizes to the clever person who can fix a thorny issue, is nothing new--- though today, the call for help has incorporated the advantages of technology, by sending the call out to just about anyone in the public, regardless of field, background, and education. Truly, solutions can come from the most unlikely of places. InnoCentive calls it Open Innovation.
I wondered; could it work for schools? Now, the education system, I know, is based on a collaborative structure that is supposed to encourage working together to find and share new ideas. But if large, global corporations with impressive R & D operations are willing to look outside its lab walls for help couldn’t public schools do that, too?
For the record, the problems posited on InnoCentive’s website are mostly science and business-related, though there are calls for help on broader issues like how to improve American healthcare and help people make long-term lifestyle changes. Who knows, perhaps the reason no education problems are on the site is because no one has posed them to a wider audience yet.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
California offers more free lunches in the summer
We’ve written a lot here recently about school food service and rising costs and the impact it’s having on students and their families. One of school officials’ greatest concerns has been that the neediest students may go hungry this summer without the guarantee of a school meal.
With that in mind, California’s education department recently expanded its summer feeding program for students eligible for free and reduced price meals. And while final numbers aren’t in yet, there’s anecdotal evidence that more children are stopping by schools, community centers, and parks for a free breakfast or lunch.
"The economy has been going downhill, and with gas prices and food prices going up, just the cost of living is going up, many low-income families cannot afford to have their children not get that lunch," Ronna Jakobitc, the summer food service program manager for the California Department of Education, told the Torrence Daily Breeze.
The program is not new, but it hasn’t gotten a lot of interest in recent years, even though more than half of California students qualify for the free- or reduced-price lunch program. All the sites hand out meals to anyone age 18 or younger and do not require proof of eligibility.
“It's important to provide this service to the community, especially in this economy,” said Criss Atwell, director of nutrition services at Modesto schools, told the Modesto Bee. “We have a high free- and reduced-lunch population. These students don't have access; this may be their only meal of the day.”
The meals are paid for with state and federal funds, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell recently announced the state will add $1 million to start and expand programs this summer.
If you missed our June issue on school food services, you can read it here.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor
There goes the neighborhood
Question: What do these three things have in common? Northern Virginia’s sprawling Tyson’s Corner shopping and business center. Downtown Boston before the “Big Dig.” And that early 20th century creation: the comprehensive high school.
Answer: They’re all big, impersonal developments that need -- or needed -- to be brought back to human scale.
Billions of dollars could be spent in coming decades trying to remake the humongous suburban metropolis known as Tyson’s into a place that’s as friendly to pedestrians as it is to cars. Billions more were spent (and, unfortunately, sometimes misspent) on Boston’s effort to do something similar with its historic downtown.
We’re talking human scale here, and it’s a concept that’s also being applied to K-12 education. There was a time when the large, comprehensive high school was to education what the snaking freeways -- vast ribbons that cut urban dwellers off from their downtowns and waterfronts -- were to urban planning: symbols of progress. Not anymore.
Across the country, school districts are creating smaller schools that are, in some ways, a throwback to the neighborhood schools of the past. But they also are “comprehensive” in their own way, often offering community support services, medical and counseling centers, and other facilities that help build bonds among families, schools and communities. I wrote about one of these schools -- George Washington Community School in Indianapolis -- last year for the final story in my Children at Risk series.
And in October, Associate Editor Joetta Sack-Min will write about how demographic changes throughout the nation are marking the idea of community schools even more attractive.
Districts can be recognized for their work in developing community schools through the 2008 Richard Riley Award. Sponsored by the American Architectural Foundation in partnership with Knowlegeworks Foundation, the annual award recognizes “design and education excellence for schools as centers of community.”
And for more information on community schools and their benefits, see the Coalition for Community Schools.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
The long, hot summer
The limitations of a portable AC unit were made clear to me last night, as I tossed and turned, trying to fall asleep in what felt like a sauna. Two clicks to the right and a sudden whoosh of cold air would fill the stifling room. Minutes later, however, I’d have to shut it off, as I shivered beneath the covers. I’d drift off to sleep … then … hey, it’s hot again!
On. Off. On. Off. That’s how it went all night. I shouldn’t complain, though. At least I have air conditioning, which is more than many schools have in this battle against the effects of global warming, which is making this summer one of the most uncomfortable in recent memory.
Many of these schools are in older cities and towns, where their buildings exceed the average national age of 44 years. I don’t envy the staff or the students who are attending summer school. How well do you think you would perform, after enduring a long hot bus ride, only to sit and sweat in a dank classroom?
Aside from the academic gains that might be hampered by such excessive heat, I wonder (and really, I’m quite curious) what kind of hit school districts are taking in order to operate summer school programs, given the escalating cost of fuel and electricity. Schools that run year-round also are free to weigh in, too. What are you doing to beat the heat?
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Knowledge is Power, Unless it Interferes With My Burger
So you’re out shopping and you see an item that catches your eye. You’ve got to have it. But there’s no sticker price on it. What’s the next thing you do? (1)Ask an employee for assistance (2)Do some research online (3)Shrug and buy it anyway; you’ve got to have it.
I’m guessing not many of you headed straight for the cash register, price unknown … if you did, can you adopt me? Jokes aside, while savvy consumers wouldn’t dream of plunking their credit card down without first seeing the bill, most us will order food and drink without knowing how much it will cost us calorically.
Well, New York City is trying to change that, through an ordinance that would require all chain restaurants and eateries--- companies with at least 15 franchises throughout the country--- to post calorie counts alongside its menu items.
As you would expect, many of the establishments, including the state’s restaurant association, balked at the law, which will bear some teeth today, when officials can begin fining those who are in non-compliance.
I’m not surprised by the position many of these companies have taken. They want to make money after all, they’re not interested in saving the world, or at the least city, which according to its health department, classifies more than half of New Yorkers as overweight or obese.
But what I did find surprising, as I read news account of this trend-setting regulation, which has been followed to an even more stringent degree by King County, Wash., is the reaction of consumers.
One NYC lady interviewed was so upset by the calories that stared back at her on a TGIF menu that she nearly lost her appetite and requested an older menu sans the nutritional information.
I guess ignorance is bliss, though, that adage doesn’t trickle down to younger folks, as one study found. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University discovered that when nutritional information was provided to high school students they made healthier choices. Here's to starting early.
Naomi Dillon, Senior Editor
Why don't we do what works?
How is it that a school system with so many excellent schools—including nine of the top schools in America—finds itself operating a school that is rated among the worst in the state?
That question is just one of many that come to mind as I research an article for the November issue of ASBJ, tentatively titled, “We Know What Works in Education, So Why Aren’t We Doing It?”
My eye recently turned to Palm Beach County, Fla., where nine schools recently were recognized by Newsweek magazine as among the top 5 percent in the nation. This year, 109 county schools received an A grade and 31 received a B grade under the state’s school accountability system.
What’s interesting, however, is that four schools received an F rating. Or, as the Palm Beach Post put it, these schools “flunked.”
How can that be? With so many successful schools, how is it that officials in Palm Beach County find themselves with low-performing schools?
A look at Glades Central Community High School provides a partial answer: Nine out of 10 students at the school live in poverty. It’s proving difficult to recruit high-quality teachers to the school. There have been four principals in six years. And the high school is hurt by the number of students who arrive unprepared. Notes the Post, “only 18 percent of the school’s freshmen and 9 percent of sophomores are reading on grade level.”
And school officials have responded to the problem. A new online curriculum was introduced “to help students catch up in math and reading.” Officials added an extra period each day for tutorials. This coming year, all students will be enrolled in a remedial reading course.
Will it be enough? Or will Glades Central prove an example of a school that, despite all the expertise of local officials, continues to struggle academically? And, if so, what does that say about the ability of educators to fix educational problems that are solved every day in other schools?
I hope you’re interested in answers to these questions. I only hope I have some answers by the time the November ASBJ is published.
Del Stover, Senior Editor
