I think that the special needs education system still needs a lot of work until we get it right. We’ve taken great strides in providing education for children with special needs and even making that education individualized to their needs. But, along the way did we also indirectly put more barriers in their way? By creating separate special education classrooms have we made it easier to separate these students from their peers and opened the door for them to feel excluded?
            Educator Torrie Dunlap gave a TEDx talk almost a year ago where she discussed the harmful side of this segregation between special needs and “normal” students. As she talks about the different models used to view students with disabilities (~6min.), it becomes clear that there is a lot of room for altering our approach to these students. The model that she suggests we need to be moving more towards is the biopsychosocial model in which it is recognized that the disability and diagnosis are important to the identity of the person, but that the environment plays a role in how the students function.
            Personally, I think there is great benefit in having the special education classrooms for the necessary individualized education. But, I do think that within the special education classroom we can make adjustments that are directed to ensuring the special needs students do not feel so segregated from their peers. I doubt the environment that is created by the separate classrooms. Granted, every educator is different and has a different approach to working with special needs students, but unfortunately I think more often than not we have educators who marginalize the students and make them feel less worthy than they are. I see the problem as one that exists within the special education classroom that ultimately creates the divide that Torrie Dunlap talks about. So how do we go about fixing this?
            Chris Ulmer has created a positive environment in his Florida special education classroom that gets right to point of raising the self-worth his students have, and that self-worth has further benefits in the classroom. This is one way to create an environment in which special needs students can function to their fullest potential, as is the aim in education. Chris starts each day by spending the first ten minutes of class complimenting his students. His approach with his students showcases in a positive light their differences, and this has a tremendous impact on their attitude throughout the day.
            Whether it is ten minutes of compliments at the start of the day, or altering the entire model of how we approach students, there is room for improvement in special needs education. There is no reason that special education students cannot reach their full potential, just as is the goal of other students in school, but the environment they are in may be inhibiting this. 

​The decision to close down a school is among the hardest a school board may face. Effects of school-closure are wide-ranging and can be simultaneously positive and negative. While schools function primarily as educational settings, they also take on multidimensional roles in their respective communities. Weighing the importance of these different factors and roles when making the decision to close a school makes things more complicated, but is necessary.
            In January, the Baltimore city school board voted to close four schools at the end of the academic year. The most controversial of these closings was that of Westside Elementary School – a school in close proximity of last April’s rioting. Baltimore city schools CEO Gregory Thornton recommended the closings of the four schools, citing issues with “poor performance or climate, low enrollment or underutilized buildings.” Delegate Antonio Hayes lead the effort against the closing of Westside Elementary School in particular, emphasizing what Westside provided to the community. According to Hayes, “There [are] two major institutions in the Penn North community, that’s Westside Elementary School and a very thriving drug treatment center.” From Hayes perspective, the loss of an essential community institution is not serving those in West Baltimore well. Alison Perkins-Cohen, the executive director of New Initiatives for Baltimore City Public Schools, sees things in a more positive light. Her view is that the closure of Westside is not a loss, but a gain because Westside will get a new school soon through the Baltimore City Public Schools Construction and Revitalization Act, passed in 2013. While this eventual outcome may seem bright, a cohort of Baltimore students is unlikely to benefit.
            The main issue with school closure comes from the effects of student mobility. Research has demonstrated that it can take years for mobile students to recover academically. An additional consideration is the quality of the schools which take in the new students may be compromised due to the influx of students which would increase class sizes in some cases. Students may also have difficulty adapting to a new school’s unique climate, which may precipitate experiences of victimization or bullying. In the long-run the effect may be positive as Alison Perkins-Cohen suggests - but at what cost to the students who must shuffle from school to school while their new school is being built?
            When examining outcomes from an achievement perspective, some research suggests that closing down low-performing schools leads to positive outcomes. Unfortunately, this research suffers from external validity. Each city has its own climate, history, students, and demographics. Closing down low-performing, underutilized schools is well-intentioned, but beyond looking at the costs in terms of achievement or education quality, we must also consider the implications for the community. The impacts of schools are not limited to merely what they provide from an educational standpoint. Jessica Shiller, an urban education professor at Towson University makes this distinction: “If you think about it as just a school, then yes it does make sense to close them. Maintaining buildings is hugely expensive, and a city like Baltimore doesn’t have the money to support expenses that are unnecessary. But if you think about it from an urban planning perspective, and ask what a school is to a neighborhood, then it’s a very different conversation.” Shiller also points out that schools are where many students “access food, counseling, after-school programming, and even health care.” The impact of these roles is more ambiguous, but cannot be discounted.
The decision to close a school is controversial – no matter the eventual verdict. Cities have to weigh the costs and benefits to this decision carefully. While academic achievement is a primary goal of schools, school boards must not underestimate the role of a school from a holistic, community perspective.
 
References:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ci-school-closure-vote-20160105-story.html
http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-roots-branches-charter-will-remain-open-but-public-school-closures-loom-large-20160203-story.html

The value of sports in education is an issue that is very relevant to educational issues facing our society. Viewpoints promoting and condemning sports in schools were both written about in The Atlantic. One article, “The Case Against High School Sports,” by Amanda Ripley, uses several sources to propose that sports detract from the academic environment and are harmful to education. American 8th graders spend twice as much time as Korean 8th graders playing sports, yet American 8th graders ranked 31st on an international critical thinking math test while Koreans ranked fourth. Sports are an expensive distraction from school in many cases, says Ripley.
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In small-town Premont Independent School District in Texas, budget cuts had already caused layoffs, reductions in curriculum, and cuts in art and music programs in 2011. Yet high school teams in football, basketball, cheerleading and other sports were still as popular as ever; football, at $1300 a player per year, cost more than twice as much as math education did ($618). Sports are so expensive due to various costs, from field and bleacher upkeep, to practice equipment and hiring referees. In Spring 2012, the principal decided to suspend all sports, amidst outcry from students and the community. However, the first semester that this ban went into effect, 80 percent of the students passed their classes, compared with 50 percent the previous fall.

Ripley goes on to say that the benefits of sports touted by supporters, such as learning teamwork, dedication, and discipline,  do help out those that play, but in many cases this can detract from the educational experience of the other attendees of the school. One study at the University of Oregon involving 30,000 students found that both men and women reported worse academic performance when their football team was doing better. Ripley says that the main problem isn’t sports themselves, but their involvement in schools. In Finland and Germany, kids play in local sports clubs outside of school and still get the benefits of exercise.

An opposing article, “High School Sports Aren’t Killing Academics,” by Daniel Bowen and Colin Hitt, shows the positives of sports in schools. Bowen and Hitt cite research that Ohio public high schools with higher student-athletic participation rates and winning percentages over a 5 year period showed a correlation with lower dropout rates and higher test scores. This could be due to an effect called social capital, where the more invested students are in the community at school, and the more social ties they have, the less likely they are to drop out. This theory has been supported by school programs with at-risk students in Chicago, where at-risk male students are assigned for a year to counselors and athletic coaches who also act as male role models. This program has been a success. Bowen and Hitt also state that the entire US can’t be lumped into one category as being bad at school; many Massachusetts schools perform as well as South Korea and other stars of the educational world despite supporting sports programs, while Mississippi is below the US average in scores.

There are persuasive arguments in support of both schools with sports and without, the decision depends on factors unique to the school like budget size and socioeconomic status of its attendants.  Schools should know both the pros and cons of sports; some schools with huge sports programs might benefit from reduction while non-existent sports programs could use getting off the ground. Many schools in areas where youth turn to gangs and other harmful group activities could use sports to keep their kids in school. Removing sports entirely is not a good idea; since more privileged children could still go elsewhere to find sports, they wouldn’t be hit as hard as less privileged kids who are hindered by transportation and safety issues outside of school. However, bloated sports programs where academics are already a weakness could certainly be cut down to refocus the school’s purpose on education.

Sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/+
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/high-school-sports-arent-killing-academics/280155/

​Achievement gaps in the United States public school system are not a new phenomenon, they’ve probably been happening since the inception of schools. These “gaps” show a difference in achievement between two or more groups of students. Usually they indicate that one group is falling behind another. These students may fall behind due to learning disabilities, troubles at home, or financial situation. One such group is English as a Second Language students (ESL) now more commonly called English Language Learners (ELLs). These students come from a wide variety of backgrounds but they all have one thing in common they are not native English speakers. These students can vary from highly fluent to illiterate. Many people would assume that the achievement gap seen between ELLs and their native speaking peers is simply a result of poor English language skills. However, this is not always the case, there are many other factors that can come into play in ESL education.

I began to encounter ELLs very early in my tutoring endeavors. My first semester I was hoping to gain experience for a future in the Peace Corps and therefore was assigned to tutor three ESL students in reading and writing. It was then that I noticed that there were more hurdles facing these students than most of their peers. On top of struggling to learn a language that is not spoken at home they had to overcome social stigmas and living in hotels and relating to classmates.

So, when I took an applied anthropology research class this semester I knew right away I wanted to try to tackle the issue of ESL/ELL education in public school systems. I asked the question: what are the main factors creating the ESL achievement gap? Thus far, after a series of interviews and surveys, I have determined that cultural understanding, teacher training, and socioeconomic status are three of the main issues facing these students.

Cultural understanding is a factor that did not necessarily come straight to mind when I began my research but now I have discovered that this is possibly the most important influence over ELL success rates. The problem arises when the teacher does not understand that there is a cultural difference between themselves and the tutor and/or the student is not familiar with the cultural setting and expectations of the classroom. An excellent example of this is eye contact. In the US a teacher expects students to have eye contact when they are listening and understanding. However, in many other cultures a student is only expected to make eye contact when they do not understand what is happening in class. Therefore, when students from those other cultures are in American classrooms teachers often assume that the student is not paying attention. This leads to negative attention from the teacher and a decline in achievement due to a decline in positive reinforcement from the teacher.

This obstacle is followed up by the problems of teacher training in the area of ESL education. The ESL/ELL population in public schools is skyrocketing, but the number of teachers trained in ESL education is not increasing nearly fast enough. Soon, the ration of ESL to native language speakers will reach about 1:4 and without more teachers equipped to meet their needs the achievement gap will continue to heighten. A lack of teacher training often means that the educator did not have a class that focus on ESL education during their pre-career school and/or that they have not been trained to deal with the cultural diversity of the classroom. A teacher can be trained in ESL without fully understanding the effects culture can have on a student’s performance and vice versa. This deficiency in educator preparedness results in an achievement gap because they are unable to provide the students with the teaching techniques/methods and are unable to reach their students on various levels meaning that the student is not equipped to succeed.
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Finally, there is the factor of socioeconomics playing into ESL education. Students from low-income families often do poorly across the board, it is yet another achievement gap that we can see in schools. This obstacle, however, also tends to hit ESL/ELL students particularly hard due to immigrant and migrant families. Coming from low-income families might mean that the student has a lot more to deal with at home. More stress at home can then correlate to less concentration in the class room and lower performance.
Looking into finding solutions to these problems I can see some possibilities. The easiest solutions are going to be from the educators’ perspective. These would mainly include having school systems hold training programs for educators both in the school system already and in training to enter the school system. These programs could cover tackling cultural diversity in the classroom to teaching new techniques in ESL/ELL education. The possible solutions to the issue of socio economics will be a lot more complicated. These solutions will most likely include a change in the set-up of the wider school system to allow for more funds to go to the schools in need. Otherwise there will need to be a change in school economic diversity. Either option will insure that the poor are not being punished for being poor and that the school system’s funds go to the education of all, equally. 

Link to Original Op-Ed: ​http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/10/22/450575463/it-s-okay-to-cry-in-your-car-fighting-disillusionment-as-a-first-year-teacher 

​This article discusses the first year experience for a new teacher. It cites the statistic that one in ten teachers drop out of the teaching profession during the first year. First year adjustment for teachers is incredibly difficult, with meeting the demands of the classroom, the principal and each individual teacher. According to the article, first year teachers think they are less capable then they are, and they often harbor feelings of guilt at failing their students. The article provides the example that when the teacher was facing a difficult misbehaving classroom, she reprimanded her students by giving them extra homework. She later on realized it was Halloween night, and felt particularly responsible for punishing them. She also realized that homework should not be given as punishment. These types of mistakes a first year teacher makes are difficult without the help of a mentor.
 
Studies cited in this op-ed mention that first year teachers are much more successful in their adjustment to the classroom with a mentor. Other education system globally use mentorship programs as a common practice in all education licenses, however in the United States it is not universal.
 
The role of a teacher is a professional role but also an incredibly personal one. The impact of a relatable teacher is transformative for students, and is crucial as a role model. Students learn correct interpersonal relationships from teachers, and therefore teachers have an added sense of purpose in character building. This task adds an extra demand for teachers, especially in this first year, and contributes to difficulties of first year teachers. How does one instruct students to be moral individuals?
 
The loss of one in ten teachers to the classroom each year causes long term damages to the educational system as a whole. This statistic means that for every ten classrooms, a new teacher is replaced every year, often with another new teacher. This turnover rate causes lack of cohesion in curriculum and classroom policy, and is at the detriment of the students. In order to prevent such a phenomenon from continuing, educators should implement policy for mentoring programs for new teachers.

​My new obsession has been TED talks. I’m late in the discovery of these amazing YouTube videos whose topics range from food to vaccines and much more. My focus has been on their seemingly endless videos on everything education related. Some of my favorites have been “Do schools kill creativity”, “How to fix a broken school”, and “Our failing schools”. The reason I love these videos is because they give such an interesting perspective of our nation’s education system. The Ted Talks give viewers an inside look at someone else’s experience with our schooling system and the aspects they feel need desperate fixing. Every time I think I understand the issues with the education system I realize there is so much more to learn. And with being involved in College Partnership for Kids, I try to stay informed with what students may be struggling with in schools and what we can do to promote positive change. Regardless of your major and your future plans of involvement with schools, I think that it is essential for us to be aware of the current state of our nation’s education.
 
Here are some of the brief insights I have gained from watching these short and favorite Ted Talks.
 
Geoffrey Canada: Our failing schools. Enough is enough!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY2l2xfDBcE
Geoffrey Canada is a really awesome speaker who keeps your attention throughout his talk. He emphasizes the millions of students who are lost through an education system that has continually failed us. Canada brings up the thought-provoking question of why innovations have not been introduced into our education system. We’ve maintained the same structure of an education system even though year after year research surfaces detailing the ways in which it has failed our students. One point he stresses is that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds lose ground over the summertime, often returning to school in the fall farther behind then when they left. This is especially relevant as we begin another school year, keeping in mind that some students may be entering the classroom with setbacks.  He speaks with a tone of urgency in the need of transforming the business model that is our current education system.
 
Linda Cliatt-Wayman: How to fix a broken school? Lead fearlessly, love hard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe2nlti47kA
Linda Cliatt-Wayman discusses her experience of becoming a principal at Strawberry Mansion High School, a school labeled as low performing. She highlights the struggles she faced in a school with a culture of violence and dropouts. Linda did not let what seemed like an impossible feat of making Strawberry Mansion a better school hold her back from doing everything she could to give her students the best education. Even the little things can completely change the atmosphere of a school, like decorating the bulletin boards with bright colors and positive messages. What she found to be most effective was having students in small group lessons in order to meet individual needs. The results were amazing. Many of the students had major improvements in their grades and school attendance. My favorite slogan Linda mentions is how she tells the students every morning “If nobody has told you they love you today, remember I do.”
 
Although at times the problems with our education system may seem immense and the solutions unfeasible, it begins with a single classroom. This semester you have the opportunity to make a positive impact, to be the difference in a student’s life, and to experience firsthand the importance of a good education. If we can help just one student love to learn again, then all our efforts have been worthwhile.