Each time a charter school or a magnet school opens in a neighborhood and academically vastly out competes the existing neighborhood school there is great excitement over what has been accomplished by this new school that apparently the existing neighborhood school could not accomplish. Little good comes from such comparisons. For the most part the teachers in the existing school are made to feel as if they failed with those very same "neighborhood kids". The administrators take their fair share of heat as well, and that generally translates to greater pressure on teachers from the administrators.
Let's look at what is really going on and how this informs teachers in terms of better understanding their "remaining population" that did not choose to move to the magnet or charter school. The issue is really about opting for a life style. This can be brought into perspective by examining Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives of the Affective Domain.This taxonomy is much like the Cognitive Domain Taxonomy as there are progressive stages of increasingly sophisticated behaviors. This time however, the focus is not on how students operate with school lessons and learning, but rather their perceptions, interests, and values. It is about changing attitudes and developing positive behaviors that are pervasive.
Without working through the Affective Domain, working through the Cognitive Domain is much more difficult. The Affective Domain at its lowest level is concerned with students receiving information, then responding to it, moving on to organization, then and ultimately valuing. At the highest stage of valuing, a life style has been influenced. This is a complex instructional progression and well worth becoming very familiar with. What many teachers find is that they intuitively know these things, but knowing that there is a formal framework to work through defines the their work more accurately.
The bottom line is that the teachers in the existing school are working with the remaining population that has not made the life style choice of embracing school as those who have left for the magnet or charter school have. Of course the standardized test scores will be lower, the behavioral problems more frequent and the home/parental support less. The good news is, many teachers prefer the challenge.
Comments welcomed as always.
Stef
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Living in a time where an independent D.I.Y (Do-It-Yourself) ethic/culture is gaining momentum I don't see why the same idea/concept can't be practiced within our educational system.
ReplyDeleteWhy not let someone who is passionate and wants to make some change have their chance to create it? Isn't that part of the reason why we and other teachers entered the field, to try and make a difference? To be that catalyzing component that shows an archaic and waining system it's faults and potential solutions. Now I do understand how a more established school would feel threatened and challenged. The populations' parents actually "want" to send their children to go to that charter institution as apposed to being "stuck" with this school. Where the parents are given a choice and are made to selectively think about where their child can have the best education instead of just one. Isn't this what makes this part of our system great? That someone can challenge common place ideas and try alternative choices. Now it might sound as though I'm advocating for Charters, but I'm not. I'm saying lets listen and learn. If they are successful, why? Communication is what bridges gaps. Let's not build new walls. I would love to see neighboring charter and public schools come together and work on what they were originally created for. To creatively help our children overcome any barriers that stand between knowledge, success and the students themselves.
You really pointed out the problem, it is about "turf" and competition, it is not about "our kids" - but it could be, and I believe, based on what I see in my teacher credentialing students, it will be.
ReplyDeleteYour post was brilliant. Thank you.