By Bob Poppenga
Can thoughtful, simple, and cost effective psychological interventions help? Research results show promise!
Closing the “achievement gap” is one of the most vexing problems currently facing public education in the U.S. What is the “achievement gap”? The term can be used in a number of contexts, but it is most commonly used to refer to differences in various measures of academic performance (e.g., grades, standardized test scores, graduation rates) between students from low income families (generally poorer academic performance) versus those from more affluent families (generally higher academic performance).
While low-income families include students from every ethnicity, African-American and Latino students are disproportionately represented. Achievement gaps have been identified based upon criteria other than ethnicity such as those based upon gender, English-language proficiency, or learning disabilities.
Despite modest success in closing the achievement gap associated with family income since enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a significant disparity still exists. Shockingly, only about 50% of male students from minority backgrounds graduate from high school on time.
A variety of approaches have been employed or have been recommended to help close the achievement gap such as smaller class sizes, smaller schools, expanded early childhood programs, raising academic standards, improving the quality of teaching available to low income students, and encouraging minority students to take more academically rigorous courses (Educational Projects in Education Research Center, 2011).
M. Night Shyamalan suggested five keys to closing the gap based upon the best available evidence in his book I Got Schooled. The keys included: 1) no “roadblock” teachers (i.e., teachers who lack the necessary tools to teach effectively), 2) principals who are given the time and resources to be in classrooms observing and providing feedback to teachers, 3) appropriate and continuous feedback to teachers on how students are performing, 4) smaller schools, and 5) longer school years.
Although exceedingly hard to calculate, he estimated that implementing the five keys in those schools with high achievement gaps would cost $45 to $50 billion more per year (which sounds like a lot of money but, in reality, such an amount would be a relatively modest increase of about 10% in current overall K-12 educational spending).
Unfortunately, additional resources of this magnitude are unlikely to become available in the foreseeable future. Diane Ravitch, a fierce defender of public education, in her recent book Reign of Error, suggests that the achievement gap will never be fully closed until the problem of poverty is eliminated (we all know how well we’ve done in that regard despite spending large sums of money).
Amazingly, approximately 1 in 5 children in the U.S. live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. I suspect that many Davis residents would be surprised by the number of children within DJUSD boundaries who come from low income families (about 1 in 5, similar to the national rate).
Given the low probability of substantial increases in educational funding targeted to strategies known to help close the achievement gap, are there other ways to help narrow the gap that would not take significant resources to implement and that would potentially have a long-lasting impact? New research suggests that there are.
A recent article in the NY Times Magazine highlighted a significant college “graduation gap” (mirroring the situation in high school graduation rates) between high achieving students from low income families and those from more affluent families. An accompanying graph indicated that high achieving students, as measured by SAT scores in the 1200 to 1600 range, from low-income families graduated at a rate of 44% compared to a graduation rate of 82% for students from more affluent families.
The thrust of the article was that if the college graduation gap, and by extrapolation the high school graduation gap, is to be closed it is necessary to address struggling students’ doubts, misconceptions, and fears about school in addition to the more traditional concerns about academic preparation and financial issues.
One approach has been championed by David Yeager, a University of Texas at Austin faculty member, who is a leading researcher on the psychology of education. He believes that students often fail to live up to their potential as a result of their fears, anxieties, and doubts about their ability; these feelings are particularly damaging during times of educational transition (e.g., students entering 7th grade or freshman years of high school or college).
Yeager and his colleagues have shown remarkable and long-lasting results for at-risk students utilizing targeted and thoughtful psychological interventions that require as little as one class period. The goal is to change how students think and feel about school and help students take advantage of learning opportunities.
As Yeager and colleagues state “Teaching students that intelligence can be developed can help them view struggles in school not as a threat but as an opportunity to grow and learn.” Yeager goes on to say that such interventions complement, but don’t replace other educational reforms such as teaching academic content or improving teacher skills.
As a School Board Trustee, I would work with all community stakeholders and outside experts to explore how such cost effective approaches to closing the achievement gap can be applied and assessed in our schools.
I will work diligently to find creative and cost-effective ways to enhance early educational opportunities for all children and to provide summer enrichment programs for at-risk students at every grade level.
As one of the most educated cities in the U.S., with a world-class University in our backyard, dedicated and talented teachers, and involved parents, we should be leading the way in narrowing educational gaps associated with income disparities.
Bob Poppenga is a professor of veterinary toxicology at UC Davis; he joined the UCD faculty in 2004. He is presently a candidate for the DJUSD School Board.
Sources:
Who Gets to Graduate? by Paul Tough, May 15, 2014, New York Times Magazine
Addressing Achievement Gaps with Psychological Interventions by David Yeager, Gregory Walton, and Geoffrey L. Cohen, Kappen, February 2013, pages 62-65.
This is a very well written article, and has some great info. IMHO, seems like all the psychological testing in the world will not help a child in an abusive family setting. Teachers need to be more involved and committed to detecting child abuse at a very early age.
All credentialed teachers in California are mandated by law to report suspected child abuse.
Mr. Toad
It is true that all credentialed teachers are mandated to report suspected child abuse.
It is also true that the index of suspicion is higher on the radar of some teaches than others just as some doctors are more attuned to the possibility domestic violence than are others.
If you don’t consider the possibility, you won’t diagnose it.
I saw La pace’s comment as a plea for a higher level of individual awareness.
I know. I always tried to look at every kid every day. The bigger problem is teachers that see things but don’t report them to child protective services. If mandated reporters had met their responsibilities to contact CPS in both the Mark Berndt and Jerry Sandusky cases many fewer children would have been abused.
Another problem is the underfunding of CPS and other resources available for intervention.. The Sac Bee wrote a horrific series about the failures of CPS in Sacramento County.
Mr. Toad
Agreed on both points. Several years ago I sat on the Maternal Fetal Infant Morbidity and Mortality review board in Sacramento. One of my major frustrations there was that we would discuss cases there in which there were, in my mind little doubt that neglect and in fewer cases, abuse and occurred and very little action was taken on this cases. Yolo County seems to be significantly more proactive but is still hamstrung by lack of resources and low prioritization.
La pace
I agree that child preparedness for school both in terms of pre K preparedness and day to day preparedness are major factors in success in school. Preparedness can be viewed very broadly in terns of the quality of parental support from infancy, the quality of nutrition, care taking, provision of adequate health care, and play ( intellectual simulation ) all play a role as does of course basic in home safety.
I am very happy to see candidates advancing some of the less discussed possibilities for helping children succeed.
About ten years ago, Sac county had a wonderful parental support group for parents who voluntarily took parenting classes because they knew they were losing their tempers with their little ones. My coworker and friend was a woman who volunteered to babysit the kids while their parents sought help. The county did away with this wonderful program. My friend volunteered for free, it was just the therapist time that the county states they could no longer afford. IMHO, it was money well spent. I wonder what other programs were kept running, at the expense of this wonderful program.
I totally agree with Toad re: other resources. Many are free, or inexpensive community programs (mentoring, big brother sister, parenting classes, art classes at the art center, boy/girl scouts, campfire girls, police dept. self defense class for teenagers, drama- Nutcracker, etc.) that teachers can refer parents and children.
Mr. Toad, what other resources were you referring to?
Work study students from the university should be vetted and brought into our public schools. They can help students directly as classroom aides to reduce adult student ratios, they can be role models for kids and they can play teacher support roles that free up teachers to do planning and instruction instead of grading by marking and evaluating student work. Students with an interest in careers in education could also get to spend time in schools to see if their dreams match reality. This might have an extra benefit of reducing the percentage of teachers who leave the profession in the first five years now saving much time and money in pursuit of something that doesn’t work out.
Mr. T.: Work study students from the university should be vetted and brought into our public schools.
That’s going on now with after school tutoring through Davis Bridge.
Yes but the program can be broadened in the manner I described.
And the limitation is more on the supply end. Even Davis Bridge struggles to get all the students who would be eligible and interested in this work study program.
Then beat the bushes and find the people. With 30000 students there must be more than enough that have the right skill sets.
Mr. T: Then beat the bushes and find the people.
That’s what Davis Bridge does. I understand at least one issue is finding students eligible for work study who are also available at the right time during the DJUSD school day, which heavily coincides with the UCD school day.
There are also other UCD work-study and tutoring programs in other schools, Davis Waldorf, I understand, and other schools in Yolo Co. It isn’t like this idea was only just now thought up.
We’ve all been hearing about mentoring and senior classroom volunteer programs for as long as I can remember. They’re great as far as they go, but I can’t imagine they actually reduce staffing or would cut costs. They actually require administrative overhead, and there is likely a serious challenge matching supply to demand. Basically they enrich school programs.
Anyone who is proposing using large numbers of college students to augment teaching staff has probably never dealt with an internship program. I have had interns. You get quite a range of knowledge and skill sets, from wonderful to nearly useless. We want professional teachers for a reason. They guide the use of technology, they lead classrooms, they work one-on-one with those students who need that. You’re not going to replace good teachers with machines guided by college kids.
Mr. Toad
In Sacramento their is a branch of Teach for America ( ? ) that coordinates the efforts of volunteers in reading with at risk children in a program called “Reading Buddies”. I am not sure if we have such a group in Davis or other areas of Yolo County. Do your know ? wdf1 ?
I’m skeptical of Teach for America in general. Google “Teach for America fails”
The work cited at the University of Texas was fascinating and likely has application for all children feeling doubt. The idea that if you tell someone that the self doubt, feelings of isolation and not fitting in they have are common to many students and will pass with time seems so obvious that its a wonder nobody ever thought of it before since so many have been through that common experience.
The other intervention for at risk kids implemented at UT for identified at risk students; mentoring, smaller classes and delivery of the same rigorous curriculum instead of watered down remedial programs is possible but will be more difficult to implement locally. It can be done but there will be social and financial obstacles to overcome. If Dr. Poppenga is truly committed to closing the gap its a good thing but its going to take more than just picking the low hanging fruit. Capturing those community resources for use in the schools while applying them in the correct manner will be key.
Davis is a very volunteering community, especially in our retirement sector.
It would seem plausible that a volunteer mentor program could be developed that would implement the author’s ideas without breaking the bank?
I agree. Perhaps Davis could get a shuttle bus from the senior center to the elementary school or vice versa. The seniors could read, do homework (multiplication flashcards, spelling, etc.) to the youngsters in a safe setting.
There is at least one program in which senior citizens volunteer in the Davis elementary schools. It was featured in an Enterprise story maybe 3-4 years ago.
I agree. The self-doubt alone can be paralyzing.
Yesterday I made this comment about Poppenga and Sunder:
This article by Poppenga has some nice ideas, but what’s missing is a more direct discussion about how these thoughts apply as policy in DJUSD, and is example of the criticism that I make. There are professionals in the school district who would follow what Poppenga is laying out, and would agree with much of it. Supplemental state funding for “achievement gap” related issues falls under the category of “Local Control Funding Formula” (LCCF). How those funds are spent each year is laid out in the “Local Control Action Plan” (LCAP). If these terms are new to readers, it’s because the 2014-15 school year is the first year that any of this takes effect.
There were school board meetings in May and June that discussed how the district would spend LCCF money as part of the LCAP, and many ideas like what Poppenga lays out were discussed. Poppenga did not attend any of those meetings, as far as I know, and thus didn’t offer any input.
This is the case I was trying to make. There is a philosophical framework for improving the education system, which is what Poppenga engages wholeheartedly here, but then there is a policy end which is missing. How would you implement and pay for these ideas? How would you know that your policies are making a difference?
In the Davis schools there are also many programs that attempt to address some of the issues that he raises. For instance, there is Davis Bridge and the Family Resource Center. How does he feel about those programs? How would he improve them?
From a practical standpoint, what happens in Davis in the transition from 6th to 7th grade is that there are a number of engagement activities that take effect in 7th grade, and which many transitioning 7th graders get screened out of. For instance, music, student activities, athletics, drama, yearbook, etc. Students who don’t get involved in such activities early on in junior high don’t get to participate as fully (or even at all) in later grades.
“Achievement gap” students often fall into this non-participation category. They may come from lower income households who didn’t participate in private athetlics (AYSO, Little League, etc.) or music or DMTC. In 7th grade their extra electives maybe assigned to extra periods of remediation — AVID or an extra ELL class — preventing them from taking these extra electives. They maybe encouraged to participate in after school tutoring, preventing them from engaging in after school athletics. Practically speaking, these are ways in which students then fulfill Yaeger’s statement from the article:
Students in 7th grade know right away if they’re behind others or not, and one of those ways is in being screened out of these engagement activities that I mention above.
It’s a shame that sports aren’t free. The cost of uniforms and the parents dedication to driving kids to practice, mandatory snacks/water, trophies, team photo’s, etc. is a road block for some kids. And as I’ve stated before, some kids do better with other forms of exercise rather than agressive competition without learning sports”man”ship.
i have the opposite reaction of you. it’s nice to see some school board candidates who are smart, intelligent, deep thinkers but not part of the in-crowd that has seemed to have run the school board for as long as i have been paying attention.
“This article by Poppenga has some nice ideas, but what’s missing is a more direct discussion about how these thoughts apply as policy in DJUSD”
i think that’s a good thing. school board members don’t write the policy, they ask professional staff and administrators to do so.
“There is a philosophical framework for improving the education system, which is what Poppenga engages wholeheartedly here, but then there is a policy end which is missing. How would you implement and pay for these ideas? How would you know that your policies are making a difference?”
you want people to have the ideas but it seems like we need some new perspectives because what we are doing isn’t working or at least that’s my perception. my kids have now just about graduated from college, so they haven’t been in the schools in maybe five years or so.
DP: what we are doing isn’t working or at least that’s my perception.
Please expand on what you have in mind.
it just seems to me that we have selected school board members from a very narrow circuit in recent years and it’s time to get some outsiders in.
Where is a good idea? He suggests a single psychology class will solve the achievement gap.
i don’t think he does.
he writes: “Can thoughtful, simple, and cost effective psychological interventions help? Research results show promise!”
the key words here are “help” and research shows “promise”
wdf1
“there is Davis Bridge”
My apologies as I obviously came late to this discussion. Could you compare Davis Bridge to the “Reading Buddies”
program if you are aware of it ?
I really don’t know anything about Reading Buddies.
Davis Bridge is an after school homework tutoring program that covers nearly all grades for Montgomery Elementary and Harper JH. At one point they were working to have a program at DHS, but I don’t know what the status of it is at this time. Tutors are nearly all UCD students on federal work study. Davis Bridge used to be an independent non-profit, but last year they turned everything over to the school district. Tutoring is Mondays through Thursdays while UCD is in session. Because UCD starts later than DJUSD, it doesn’t usually get going until early October.
In the NYT Magazine article the featured program at UT was focused on delivery of an unwatered down curriculum with extra support instead of a remedial program for at risk kids. Maybe the concept of remediation itself contributes to the overall problem. Of course one answer to remediation is earlier intervention. The good news is generally the earlier the intervention the cheaper the intervention.
I wonder WDF1 what level of involvement would you like to see from first time candidates? Don’t all first time candidates face the dilemma of not enough experience in governance?
“I wonder WDF1 what level of involvement would you like to see from first time candidates? Don’t all first time candidates face the dilemma of not enough experience in governance?”
thanks – that’s really my point as well. we seem to want everyone to go through a process – volunteer in their kids schools, site council, pta, etc. it’s nice to get people in their not in that groupthink mentality.
DP: thanks – that’s really my point as well. we seem to want everyone to go through a process – volunteer in their kids schools, site council, pta, etc. it’s nice to get people in their not in that groupthink mentality.
Attending school board meetings (apart from the required ones for filling Peterson’s seat) is not too tall an order for interested candidates.
What I see typically is that newer, greener candidates show up, get elected, and then reality hits. There is a steep learning curve where they learn just what it means to put all those wonderful ideas into practice.
It’s not group think. It’s an awareness of what already exists, what resources are available, what state ed code mandates, what’s already been tried.
A logical follow up question to Poppenga’s essay is, “how would you implement those ideas?” What’s wrong with asking that question? It might tell you how realistic a candidate is.
Mr. Toad, you were a big supporter of Susan Lovenburg. I think she had a better grasp as a candidate of policy issues than what I see so far presented in this essay.
reality with everyone. no one was more prepared than robb davis to serve on the city council and yet in his first meeting or two he looked like he was struggling to tread water. there’s a learning curve for anyone. you can’t tell me that people like madhavi and bob p. aren’t smart enough to catch on.
I actually believe that Sunder and Poppenga are smart enough to catch on. That’s why I think it’s worth it to make these comments. I may likely vote for one or both in the end, but to convince me I really need to see some reflection on what the recent school board has or hasn’t done. If a change is needed, then it would be helpful identify that.
For instance, this spring the district & school board approved a “Local Control Action Plan” to address how to close the achievement gap that Poppenga discusses. The board discussed it in a few meetings and came up with this document mapping courses of action for this next school year and the next two years after. The process that involved putting the plan together involved some parent, community, staff meetings and discussions. This is the major mechanism that the state requires of all school districts to address achievement gap and connected issues. Why not reflect on that? Was the process and/or result adequate for Davis?
You want the candidates to reflect on a mind-numbing 56-page document that is full of education jargon and reads as though it was written by a large committee over many months? I gave up on about page 40. My reaction to work products like that is that it may satisfy a paperwork goal of showing there was a process and a written document. As to actual implementation? Somebody needs to condense it down to about 500 words and give a bullet list of action items before any lay person could even begin to assess how practical it is.
Just randomly copied from one page. I actually consider processes and products like what you linked to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It is mandated by the state. All school districts have one. And if you think this is bad, then even more mind-numbing is the annual budget, and you’ve had some experience with that.
The one thing that is newer and interesting about the LCAP process is that it involves more than scores on standardized tests. From page one school districts are responsible for accounting for:
I would expect school board members to attempt to follow this so that you don’t have to.
If I were on the school board, I’d expect to read and follow this, but I’d want an executive summary. I’d want the answers, in 1 – 2 pages or less, to some simple questions such as:
How is this a change to existing policies and practices?
What funding is expected, and how will it impact the current budget?
If goals are not met, how will that be addressed?
Staff, as you know, has a tendency to overwhelm citizens and board members with jargon and excessive detail. My experience on site council was that there is an institutional inertia that can be very hard to overcome. If Bob Poppenga has a great idea — implement a simple counseling intervention early in the middle school years (for example) — it can be almost impossible to translate that into action because of that institutional inertia. It is the side detours into long-winded meetings and reports that just keeps putting off actually getting stuff done.
So I suspect, somewhere in that document, there’s even possibly something that addresses the need for counseling services and funding that might tangentially relate to what he’s proposed. But how would the school board actually get something implemented without having to go through multiple meetings, drafts and revisions of reports, and on and on?
I remember when we wanted to get a garden going at DSIS. Two years after broaching the topic, with great positive feedback from all levels but no action, I just donated some barrels and soil and plants so they could actually grow some plants. The school year moves along, everyone moves up a grade, new parent volunteers come in, and the meetings go on and on. But little changes in terms of actual practices on the ground.
That is why I say things like this are part of the problem.
Don Shor: If Bob Poppenga has a great idea — implement a simple counseling intervention early in the middle school years (for example) — it can be almost impossible to translate that into action because of that institutional inertia. It is the side detours into long-winded meetings and reports that just keeps putting off actually getting stuff done.
In order to effectively integrate one’s great idea, it’s important to know what is going on now. Are counselor’s doing this already? We have staff psychologists. What do staff psychologists do? It’s important to do research to see if your great idea is worthwhile. This is what a professional scientist does anyway. Poppenga is a professional scientist, so I’d expect more of him.
My experience on site council…
That’s great. You have a feel for DJUSD bureaucratic culture so that you know specifically what to respond to. Does Poppenga? Other commenters here celebrate his “newbiness” and apparent lack of experience in the district as an asset of somehow not being cut from the same cloth as everyone else. Both Robb Davis and Lucas Frerichs had some experience on city commissions prior to being elected, and I think both showed impressive engagement with the issues as candidates. Because of it, I voted for both in each of their elections. I’m looking for that in my school board candidates. Poppenga still has a chance as far as I’m concerned, but not from what he has shown me so far.
wdf – don’t take this a slight – you have an immense amount of knowledge about the school district. i just feel like at times you get wrapped up in that knowledge and the people who work there and don’t acknowledge that the district doesn’t work for everyone.
Don Shor: If I were on the school board, I’d expect to read and follow this, but I’d want an executive summary.
An executive summary was given as a powerpoint presentation at the June 26 school board meeting. Some questions are answered there.
How is this a change to existing policies and practices?
Through the 2013-14 academic year, targeted state funding came in the form of dozens of restricted category sums. Each sum of money had to be spent in a specified way. Most of these categories addressed achievement gap-type issues. Gov. Brown and the legislature came up with a block grant strategy called “Local Control Funding Formula” that throws most of those once-restricted categorical funds into a lump sum. But instead of the state telling the district how to spend categorical funds, it put the onus on the districts to come up with a plan for how those funds would be spent to achieve certain goals such as were spelled out on page one of that 56-page document that I linked.
What funding is expected, and how will it impact the current budget?
It will not impact the budget. It’s relatively the same funding as previous years. The district just has to spell out what its own plan is for using that money. It allows for newer flexibility.
This is an issue that has been discussed in various news outlets around the state — example — for several months. It was also mentioned embedded in various Jeff Hudson stories.
I’m not surprised that this is relatively new for many Vanguard regulars, because the Vanguard was so heavily focused on Volleyballgate and replacing Nancy Peterson that there was no room to cover other things that the school board and district staff were dealing with.
I actually thought they had implemented the block grants back when I was (we were?) on the business advisory council, which was more than a couple of years ago. This does somewhat confirm my assumption that this document is primarily intended to fulfill a paperwork/regulatory requirement, rather than necessarily provide an effective blueprint for action. I guess my next question, were I on the school board would be:
— have policies been implemented that will bring about these changes?
— how will measurable results be reported back to the board?
— what will be the consequences for failure to achieve the goals?
The problem with these sorts of strategic planning processes and documents is that, in most bureaucracies, they don’t actually result in changes. They usually just explain and justify current practices, and it’s business as usual.
I would be curious, in view of this process and template, how a proposal such as Bob Poppenga’s about brief counseling interventions could be implemented.
DP: i just feel like at times you get wrapped up in that knowledge and the people who work there and don’t acknowledge that the district doesn’t work for everyone.
No slight taken. I think I offer most of my response in the comment immediately above:
I would hope to see a school board candidate who has followed the recent work of the district and wants to make sure that the district works for everyone on these issues.
I would encourage people to click on the PowerPoint presentation wdf1 links to and judge for themselves how informative (and professional) it is, and whether they think that studying it in detail is a good use of school board candidates’ time. It won’t take long.
Don Shor: The problem with these sorts of strategic planning processes and documents is that, in most bureaucracies, they don’t actually result in changes. They usually just explain and justify current practices, and it’s business as usual.
What would you suggest as an alternative? Scrap any summary results of strategic planning sessions?
Some comments to this blog posting at least subtly disparage strategic planning and these bureaucratic processes. The problem I find is that we live in a city with an excessive number of strong opinions on how public school runs (I don’t excuse myself from that statement either). How do you come up with something that will allow folks a sense that they got to participate and were heard? If you don’t have a process for taking input, then you get unwelcome pushback. This is what happened to the discussion of district reconfiguration.
The way you use these documents is that if you have a preferred agenda, then find where your agenda aligns with the planning documents that exists and use those planning documents to support those aligned agendas.
Susan was an incumbent. Despite my criticism of things as they currently stand the outgoing board kept the schools afloat financially through a serious downturn by getting both parcel taxes and direct donations. They deserve a lot of credit for that. Davis didn’t fare well under LCFF because of its overall affluence. In inflation adjusted dollars it will be almost a decade before we get back to pre 2007 levels. Fundraising will continue to be a key role for school board members. Perhaps campaign fundraising has more relevance than we recognize.
Mr. T: Susan was an incumbent. Despite my criticism of things as they currently stand the outgoing board kept the schools afloat financially through a serious downturn by getting both parcel taxes and direct donations. They deserve a lot of credit for that.
I agree with the response of the board to financial challenges. I had in mind Lovenburg also as a first time candidate in 2007, too. I guess you didn’t have a position on her in that race.
my view is that the last school did a good job of keeping the schools afloat. though a lot of that was through parcel taxes and fundraising. but okay. but we have a very serious problem in the achievement gap and low income kids that i think we need to get outside of the affluent bubble parents to address.
“…we have a very serious problem in the achievement gap and low income kids that i think we need to get outside of the affluent bubble parents to address.”
Yes.
DP: …but we have a very serious problem in the achievement gap and low income kids that i think we need to get outside of the affluent bubble parents to address.
Meaning you think that the current school board is too affluent to understand issues with the achievement gap and low income kids? And the current crop of school board candidates is not too affluent and would thus understand these issues?
meaning i don’t think it was a big priority for the current school board. i think madhavi and bob are more inclined to prioritize the issue.
How difficult is it to change a state ed code that most teachers and parents believe is not working? Can you name one ed code that needs changing? Very interesting.
Several years back a few junior high teachers stated in a back to school meeting that they did not approve of some of the required reading choices, because several students said all of the reading choices were depressing, not uplifting. Is this an example of a state ed code? I’m ignorant re: how books are chosen, for example. I also remember a nice elementary school teacher who told me he was retiring early because he believed the math requirements were unattainable, and some students would not graduate high school without individual math tutoring.
very difficult. the best way to change things is get fresh blood onto the school boards.
Good article: well-written, references provided, and a fresh perspective on a tough issue. I give Bob Poppenga an A.
I think this has great potential. There seem to be some key transition stages: 4th grade, 7th grade especially. If we hadn’t intervened, and a counselor hadn’t assisted us in that, I think one of our kids would have had very poor outcome.
Don, Do you mind sharing how you intervened? We utilized Sylvan for a few months, but one on one tutoring was not available there, at the time, due to too many students. So we used a private tutor. Interesting that the teachers did not inform us of free services available, I think one of the teachers assumed we had the money and did not qualify, but we discovered later that every parent qualifies. All water under the bridge, both children grown now & happy.
We had an IEP in place, which enabled the counselors to see that things were not going well — first in 4th grade, then in 7th.
In 4th grade I went in and volunteered as a classroom parent helper, which seemed to help a lot. Partly it just made me aware of the learning problems. GATE made a big difference in 5th and 6th grades.
By 7th grade things were really going south. We met with teachers and counselors — again thanks to the IEP, but would have in any event. Poor grades with a bright kid are a sign something is amiss. Various attempts at remediation weren’t working, and ultimately I pressed for a different placement. We had experience with DSIS with an older child and found it outstanding. So we went that route. The counselors and admin’s are great, but they tend to put kids in certain slots and track them. It wasn’t working, and I finally set a deadline: better grades by a particular progress report, or we were going to apply to DSIS. This child did grades 8 – 12 either in DSIS full-time, or split-site (mostly DSIS).
If your child is struggling to read, the most widely available and successful (many are successful, this one is easiest to find in the area) program is called Lindamood Bell. The name is a combination of the surnames of the two people who developed it. There are places that specialize in reading and teach only this method. IMHO the best professional to remediate is a qualified speech therapist. Every child can learn to read. Some learn without any instruction, some learn in a regular classroom setting and some need a specialized program. Poor reading is the root of many learning problems. When my kids were being taught to read, whole language (a teaching fad) was in vogue. Teachers had to bring in their own phonics material and they were discouraged from using it if they were caught.
DavisBurns: When my kids were being taught to read, whole language (a teaching fad) was in vogue.
Just curious. What do you understand to be “whole language”?
…because today in most Davis elementary classrooms there is a common exercise called “Sustained Silent Reading” or SSR. That is a big mechanism for “whole language” learning. I think most folks who poo-poo whole language may not know what it is. “Whole language” is not really the fad that you might think it is.
The fact that the author of this article believes that the achievement gap can be closed with a single psychology class shows that he does not have the experience nor the commonsense necessary for school board. Davis children deserve people who will represent their interests. They deserve board members who are brave enough to tackle class-Size reduction. They deserve schoolboard members will provide them with enrichment activities like other, more privileged students of Davis. They deserve a school board will stand up to parents who treat every child who is not the gate program or in the Aim like they’re less deserving of resources and failures. He obviously does not understand the problems that struggling students face and therefore is in no position to represent their interest nor purport to advocate for them.
” the author of this article believes that the achievement gap can be closed with a single psychology class”
i’ll go out on a limb, not knowing the author, that he doesn’t believe that.
No he doesn’t but he has results that show a measurable impact from a single 1 hour on line tutorial. He is describing a program that has shown itself to be helpful and explains why it is helpful. Attempts to replicate these results are worth pursuing
Actually the fact that he is citing the NYT Magazine article about addressing the achievement gap shows that he is trying to figure out how to address these issues. For all I know you may be right about the other points you raise but I think we should give him credit for looking in the right kinds of places for answers. I’ll take a guy who reads and is inspired by “Who Gets To Graduate” over someone who thinks watching “Waiting For Superman” is the answer any day.
How long has this problem existed? 40 years? 50 years? I like the idea of the “pep talk” psychology class, but it is no panacea.
I think the 5 suggested improvements are mushy at best, and a rehash of what we have heard for years. I’ve read and heard that smaller class size had little impact, and I’ve spoken with elders who attended classes with over 50 students in the 1950s and had a good learning experience. More money, smaller classes … the school system already gets 50 percent of the state budget.
Mr. Poppenga avoids, like most, the problem with the breakdown in the American family. He seems to place everything on the teachers and school system, while we read comments here from parents who have actively worked to help educate their children in difficult times.
My understanding is that 50 percent of children raised in single-parent households grow up in poverty. What percentage of parents don’t make their child support payments?
My understanding is that in some households, children watch over 6 hours of TV a day. I think Dr. Ben Carson provides an interesting case study of how his Mother (illiterate) intervened, and championed reading and education. (She required her boys to read and do book reports for her, and then would contemplate and highlight words from the book reports, even though she didn’t know what they meant! But she fooled them, and in the process they developed a love of learning.) This one slow-learner changed the face of pediatric medicine.
Mr. Poppenga also avoids the double whammy of immigrant children who don’t know our language, and don’t know (formally) their mother tongue, which adds another layer of complexity and difficulty.
“How long has this problem existed? 40 years? 50 years? I like the idea of the “pep talk” psychology class, but it is no panacea.”
there is no panacea – if there were, we would have done it. but this article ads value to the discussion.
You guys should read the NYT magazine article. These guys at UT are truly on to something.
“Mr. Poppenga avoids, like most, the problem with the breakdown in the American family.”
Poppenga may be an effective guy, but that one’s kind of tough to solve as a DJUSD board member.
I find an amusing contrast between wdf1 (He’s not familiar enough with the process leading up to the “Local Control and Accountability Plan and Annual Update Template.”) and TBD (he’s not talking about the real issues — the “breakdown of the American family” and “immigration”). Apparently running for school board requires the candidate not just to understand and have solutions for every social issue facing our nation that might affect education, but also to articulate each one of those solutions at a level of micro detail comparable to that professional staff use in their documents.
I know I wouldn’t want to run for school board and be subjected to that standard. I’m grateful to anyone who is willing to take time away from a demanding career to do this kind of public service.
DavisVoter: I find an amusing contrast between wdf1 (He’s not familiar enough with the process leading up to the “Local Control and Accountability Plan and Annual Update Template.”)
I’m disappointed that you characterized my position way. What I hoped to convey is for Poppenga and other candidates to convey some acknowledgement and understanding of the major issues that the current school board has dealt with in the past year or two, and perhaps to offer their own reflections on those issues. That’s it. It comes from attending school board meetings, or watching them online, or at the very least following Jeff Hudson’s articles in the Enterprise.
Is that too unreasonable a standard for a school board candidate?
I didn’t get from this column that he’s unfamiliar with the district’s issues. I got from it that he’s looking to rigorous academic research for ideas to address the district’s challenges. Although you vaguely suggest that the interventions Poppenga discusses (a) have already been evaluated and rejected or (b) are already in place, your 18 posts provide no evidence that either actually is the case.
Anyway, I stilll thought the contrast between TBD’s point and your point was amusing, and I’m still grateful to school board members past, present, and future for subjecting themselves to the often conflicting demands We the People impose on them.
DavisVoter: Although you vaguely suggest that the interventions Poppenga discusses (a) have already been evaluated and rejected or (b) are already in place, your 18 posts provide no evidence that either actually is the case.
I’m saying that Poppenga’s article is weaker than it needs to be. He could have demonstrated more rigor in his thinking by actually asking questions about what counselors and psychologists in the district currently do, and to find out whether such interventions might be taking place now or not, but he didn’t. His article would have had more locally relevant if he had. It’s a simple as picking up the phone and calling. I will give Sunder credit for her “schools tour”. There is a campaign publicity aspect to it, but at least its an occasion to learn and ask questions.
A subtext of your comment is a suggestion that I might be excessively demanding. I don’t apologize for it, and there are plenty others like me around. It is part of the culture of this city, I think our schools utlimately benefit from the vigorous discussion, and I can’t remember ever having a shortage of school board candidates.
TBD: I’ve read and heard that smaller class size had little impact,
Citation?
What do you mean by “impact”? Standardized test scores in certain subjects? Graduation rates? School climate?
…and I’ve spoken with elders who attended classes with over 50 students in the 1950s and had a good learning experience.
In the 1950’s, those would have been legally-segregated schools in many jurisdictions. And how would one judge a learning experience as good compared from one decade to the next? Were these elders the brightest students of a class of 50? How did the rest of the class fare?