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The Shame of the Nation

The Shame of the Nation. . . . to create a single, excellent, unified system of American public schools. by Jonathon Kozol. Group Assignments. Deb’s Group – Jennifer Arnett, Elizabeth Conn, Elizabeth Hannah, Heidi Irvine, Katherine Lemon, Ann Poole and Christina Webster.

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The Shame of the Nation

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  1. The Shame of the Nation . . . to create a single, excellent, unified system of American public schools. by Jonathon Kozol

  2. Group Assignments Deb’s Group – Jennifer Arnett, Elizabeth Conn, Elizabeth Hannah, Heidi Irvine, Katherine Lemon, Ann Poole and Christina Webster. Crystal’s Group – Paula Baumgardner, Erin Bushek, Deborah Duning,Crean Hansen, Coleen Kosan, Angel McAlister and Virginia Pruitt. Marissa’s Group – Angella Arthurs, Roaby Browning, Trina Kinhalt , Debra Mauk, Bethany Miller and Jessica Osborne

  3. IAT • If you didn’t take the test, why not? • If you don’t want to discuss the results, why not? • If you took the test are you willing to discuss the results? HONESTLY?

  4. Which plan? USE THE HIDDEN POLL FEATURE IF POSSIBLE! • Umbrella • Comprehensive Why this plan?

  5. Were you surprised? Regardless of the results, did you expect the your test to indicate that you are more liberal/democrat or conservative/republican than it did?

  6. Does this matter in the classroom? • Breakout to three rooms – • (1) Deb • (2) Crystal • (3) Marissa

  7. Where is “over there?” • Breakout to three rooms – • (1) Deb • (2) Crystal • (3) Marissa

  8. Have you ever lived . . . • “over there” • “over here” • Have you ever been . . . • “other people” • “part of the mass”

  9. Segregation in American SchoolsTODAY “I think a lot of people don't have any idea of how deeply segregated our schools have become all over again.” ~ Jonathan Kozol ~

  10. Schools have been re-segregating for the past dozen years, Kozol explains, so that the proportion of Black students in majority-white schools has decreased to a level lower than in any year since 1968. Gary Orfield and the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University show that 2 million students attend these apartheid schools (a term Kozol uses for schools where the student body is more than 99 percent non-white). Overall, almost three-quarters of Black and Latino students attend schools that are predominantly minority. (quote from: http://dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Knopp1015.htm – by Sarah Knopp)

  11. Scioto County Schools Based on: www.publicschoolreview.com Since we are primarily an area with less diversity I thought we should travel north to Columbus Ohio and take a look to see if we see some trends…

  12. Franklin County Schools No I didn’t look at ALL of them but a few throughout the county Based on www.publicschoolreview.com

  13. Here is the URL for the You Tube Video I would like you to watch…please take the next 6-8 minutes to view it and then we will continue  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pB-niRGNms

  14. Before reading this book did re-segregation cross your mind? 3) Why do you think there is so much re-segregation? 2) Are you surprised at how much re-segregation takes place? 4) Do you think there is any quick fix? Or do you think it’s something that can’t be fixed? Why?

  15. “Instead of seeing these children for the blessings that they are, we are measuring them only by the standard of whether they will be future deficits or assets for our nation's competitive needs.” ~Jonathan Kozol~

  16. Testing accountability objectives productivity success for all meaningful scripted curriculum improvement plan achievement mastery authentic writing

  17. Early Education- The Haves • Children are enrolled in programs at two or three. • They learn social skills and basic pedagogical knowledge. • Many programs are full day. • The elite of the programs are known as the “Baby Ivies.” These programs cost $22,000 a year for an all day program. • The application process is selective, and consultants charge up to $300 per hour.

  18. “But the governmentally administered diminishment of value in the children of the poor begins even before the age of five or six when they begin their years of formal education in the public schools. Its starts during their infant and toddler years when hundreds of thousands of children in low-income neighborhoods are locked out of the opportunity for preschool education for no reason but accident of birth and budgetary choices of government, while children of the privileged are often given veritable feasts of rich developmental early education.” (pages 49-50)

  19. Early Education- The Have Nots • In 2001 40% of children eligible for Head Start could not be served. In inner cities, often only a small fraction can be served. • New York’s “Universal PreK” typically serves children in 2 ½ hour sessions. • Priority is not given to low-income students, making it impossible to know how many students from the lowest income groups have been excluded. • In the schools that the book focuses on, only ¼- 1/3 of students have received even one year of preschool. • This compounds with a deficit in learning experiences at home.

  20. The Test • Kindergarteners who have not received preschool may lack skills such as knowing how to hold a pencil, indentifying some shapes and colors, or recognizing that print is read from left to right. • My mother taught kindergarten and once encountered a child who did not realize that his name could be written. • High stakes testing is often introduced in third grade, when these children are 8. • Their promotion is at stake. • Children enrolled in the Baby Ivies or other programs have had nearly twice as much schooling as their counterparts who received no preschool.

  21. Questions • Groups 1 and 2 • By third grade, is the effect of preschool still evident? Do you think it affects the test scores? • Groups 3 and 4 • Who do you feel is accountable? The child, the teacher, or the government? • Groups 6 and 7 • Are high stakes tests useful or harmful?

  22. Objectives Known to us as standards, benchmarks, and indicators.

  23. Objectives • In the book, objectives are posted in every classroom. Every activity must meet an objective, and the “products” are marked with objectives. • Is this strict adherence to objectives the intended purpose? (1 & 2) • Does planning with the objectives take too much valuable time as Kozol suggests? (3 & 4) • Should teachers have more freedom? (Think about “the MultiModal Pumpkin Unit” on page 80.) (6 &7)

  24. Leveling • Students are assigned numbers 1-4 based on performance. • They don’t “get a 4” like someone might “get an A.” They “are a 4.” • The children are aware of their numbers and the numbers of others.

  25. Questions • Does your school use leveling? • If so, is your classroom set up with specific levels? (example: science class has all level 2s ect.)

  26. Scripted Curriculum (Success for All) • Some of the teachers feel very confined by the scripted curriculum. Untrained people could follow the strict directions. • While this guarantees continuity and equal education in all classrooms, it limits the ability of the teacher to respond and adjust to his or her students. “The rich get richer and the poor get SFA.”

  27. “Some of these activities take place in suburban schools as well, but their relentlessness is greatly magnified I inner-city schools that are, for instance, under state review because of disappointing scores. In such schools, enormous documents known as “Improvement Plans” that stipulate specific gains a school must make in a specific period of years, which bring to mind those famous five-year plans for steel production in the Soviet era, and sometimes even longer documents that specify a school’s “strategic answers” to these plans, create a massive paper clutter that takes on a kind of parallel reality that has on an indistinct connection with the actual experience of teaching…Nothing could be less efficient than this misappropriation of a teacher’s energy and hours.” (page 78)

  28. Improvement Plans • Improvement plans take significant amounts of time, time that is often taken from instructional time. • A local teacher on the OIP committee at her school believes that they pay enough money in sub pay for the OIP meetings that they could have hired an additional teacher.

  29. Anxiety • Worry over test results is passed from administration to teachers to children. • Teacher fear deviating from the scripted lessons. Even their bulletin boards are scored. Hanging non-perfect work will result in a letter in their folders. • How does this anxiety affect a teacher’s ability to teach? (1&2) • A child’s ability to learn? (3&4) • What the children learn? (6&7)

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