D.C. and Md. named 'Race to the Top' finalists; rest of Obama's education agenda stagnates
This is a Washington Post article on how the Obama administration is handling rewriting one of the worst educational programs invented, No Child Left Behind. As the article states at this time 1/3 of all schools in the US are failing. This is based on the measurement of state mandated standardized testing, penalties on schools that fail to meet the set standards, and restructuring or closing of numerous schools that continue to fail as needed funding is cut and cut. A closer look at the types of schools that continue to fail under NCLB are urban, rural poor and minority schools across the nation. According to Diane Ravitch's book The Death and Life of the great American School System
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Helping other parents
The other day I was sitting in my therapist's office and she asked me for information on a few programs I know about for teens. She has another client who is a single mother of a mixed race teen. This mother is having very similar problems to the ones I have experienced with my son who is about to graduate from high school. Most of my son's school experience has been difficult to say the least. As a young child when we moved back to the US from Saudi Arabia I put my son in a local public school. The teacher he had refused to help us adjust to the school and continually argued that he was too young. True he was about 8 months younger than most of the kids in the class, but he was academically ahead of most kids, perhaps not quite socially ready for the 3rd grade, but he is a very social being.
This academic year was one of the most difficult. I had discovered that my son had, what I consider to this day mild, learning disablities and different ways of thinking and understanding the world we live in. He is a very social human being, and talkative, which in the mainstream schools is a significant detriment. As a result he was penalized by this difference, but his teacher refused us help, and kept maintaining that he was simply too young to be in the third grade. As luck would have it, I removed him from school before the end of the academic year to spend time with his dying grandmother. That fall we returned to the school and re-enrolled him in the 3rd grade. Again we were very fortunate to have a much more understanding teacher, by November I got a phone call from his teacher. The man was nervous and very apologetic, but told me he thought T. had a learning disability and what Attention deficit, both of which I had argued with his previous 3rd grade teacher Mrs. K. Instead of being upset or defensive I surprised the teacher Mr H, by asking when we could get him tested and what kind of help we could get for him. For about two years he got extra help, but he is a smart child and soon reached the Title 9 goals set for him, which meant that he could no longer get any school based help.
As a single parent, never married, I had chosen to pursue a graduate degree, as the best way to be a "stay at home mom," but I could not afford to pay for outside of schools services like tutoring. I did my best, being well educated myself. I speak, read or write six languages, have enough math to pursue a minor in Math, a degree in Economics, Russian Area Studies, Russian and History. I have taught here in the US, in Iceland, and in Saudi Arabia. I thought that I could work on my son's learning gaps myself. I read books on ADD, on schooling and parenting. I sat with him in the evening to help with homework, and watched him struggle to complete tasks that he clearly understood, but could not keep his concentration. I would make him take breaks ever 15 to 30 minutes in hopes that it would help him finish. He would often refuse, having internalized the school's requirements to sit still and do his work, that is of course what a good student does.
In the afternoons when he got off the school bus, my beautiful child with a sparkle in his eyes
This academic year was one of the most difficult. I had discovered that my son had, what I consider to this day mild, learning disablities and different ways of thinking and understanding the world we live in. He is a very social human being, and talkative, which in the mainstream schools is a significant detriment. As a result he was penalized by this difference, but his teacher refused us help, and kept maintaining that he was simply too young to be in the third grade. As luck would have it, I removed him from school before the end of the academic year to spend time with his dying grandmother. That fall we returned to the school and re-enrolled him in the 3rd grade. Again we were very fortunate to have a much more understanding teacher, by November I got a phone call from his teacher. The man was nervous and very apologetic, but told me he thought T. had a learning disability and what Attention deficit, both of which I had argued with his previous 3rd grade teacher Mrs. K. Instead of being upset or defensive I surprised the teacher Mr H, by asking when we could get him tested and what kind of help we could get for him. For about two years he got extra help, but he is a smart child and soon reached the Title 9 goals set for him, which meant that he could no longer get any school based help.
As a single parent, never married, I had chosen to pursue a graduate degree, as the best way to be a "stay at home mom," but I could not afford to pay for outside of schools services like tutoring. I did my best, being well educated myself. I speak, read or write six languages, have enough math to pursue a minor in Math, a degree in Economics, Russian Area Studies, Russian and History. I have taught here in the US, in Iceland, and in Saudi Arabia. I thought that I could work on my son's learning gaps myself. I read books on ADD, on schooling and parenting. I sat with him in the evening to help with homework, and watched him struggle to complete tasks that he clearly understood, but could not keep his concentration. I would make him take breaks ever 15 to 30 minutes in hopes that it would help him finish. He would often refuse, having internalized the school's requirements to sit still and do his work, that is of course what a good student does.
In the afternoons when he got off the school bus, my beautiful child with a sparkle in his eyes
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