Notes from the Field

Submitted by Angela Chan

When I decided to teach, I believed that the betterment of our nation depends on growing compassionate and caring citizens, and on creating an engaged citizenry that must include even those who live in the poorest communities.  As a public and as a nation, we have determined education to be so important to the common good that we would collectively fund it for all children.  I thought, what better way to invest my life and energy than to be a public servant, to do the important work of educating our young, and not just to do this work anywhere, but to commit to those communities and schools with the least resources.

The last few years of budget cuts to public education has shaken my belief that our country and political leaders value the well being of every single child, rich or poor.  Across school buildings in Philadelphia, staff will hear their principals say, “We have a limited budget for next year.  We only have enough money for a principal and enough teachers for every class.  We don’t have any funds for books or supplies.”

Many who do not work in schools have only minimal understanding of the implications of the reality of those words.  For the last two years, my students have lost some of their favorite teachers: our school police officer, a full-time technology teacher, and bilingual counseling assistants who have worked with us for years.  Now we must tell our students that they might lose everyone else who is not a teacher.  Next year, we, along with all public schools in Philadelphia, might not have a Dean of Students, an office staff, a counselor, an instrumental music program, noon time aides who supervise lunch and recess, extracurricular activities including sports, and books and supplies.

I struggled to help my students understand this senseless predicament.  Our children come to school everyday expecting to be in a place of learning.  How do we explain that we lack even the basics to sustain our schools?  My students are smart, and they understand fairness.  Sooner or later, they will make the connection between what is happening to their schools and how this can come to happen.  They will come to understand marginalization and know that some groups do not matter in the grand scheme of our nation’s operation.

When I broke this news to my students, many began to shed tears, but only for a moment.  For the next few days, it was evident they believed in the power of their efforts and truly wanted to do whatever they could to effect change.  My students transformed their tears into problem-solving mode.  They debated whether to have a car wash or lemonade stand in order to raise funds.  They wanted to do a bake sale.  They wanted to know how much money they would need to raise in order to keep their counselor.

To help them wrap their minds around the gaping hole in the budget, I wrote the amount, $300,000,000, on the board, and explained to them that more money would have to come from elsewhere, though I really appreciated their passion and their activism.  One of my students then said, “So what!  We want to change the world with our little lives!….We have little minds in here!” while she pointed a finger to the side of her head.  Another student chimed in, “Imagine what would happen if we put all our minds together!”

My students have not been deterred by the $300 million figure, partially from lack of understanding of how huge it is.  The next day, I noticed that some students were passing around a discarded tissue box.  They were collecting change from their classmates in order to plug the hole in the District’s budget. Their action, while insignificant to reducing the deficit, is a gesture that reflects their belief in the importance of education in their lives, and I am proud of them for taking ownership of their education.

The other day while taking part in the PFT informational picketing, I offered a flier about the budget cuts to a man who seemed to be on his way to work.  He quickly said, “No thanks, my children are in Catholic school” and walked away without looking back.  This man’s comment stayed with me because it is symbolic of what is happening to public education.  In the eyes of many of us who work tirelessly to serve the most needy, we no longer have a public that collectively believes in the duty to educate all children.  The message is that the lives of a segment of the population, those who live in certain neighborhoods and who attend the poorest schools, do not matter.

What does it say about us as a people if we value the lives of some over the lives of others?  A nation cannot be great unless we tap into the unlimited potential of all young citizens.  In a democracy, all lives matter and are equal.  How we decide to fund public education speaks to whether or not we believe this to be true.  My students begged for the opportunity to advocate for themselves and for their education.  They asked me to imagine what they can do when they take collective action.  Please make a commitment to invest in the lives of my students.  Give them the chance to blossom, and their energy, talents, and intellect will become a gift to their communities and to our nation.

Originally posted on the Notebook Blog by Frank Murphy on Feb 26 2013

Originally posted on thenotebook blog by Frank Murphy on Nov 27 2012 Posted in Commentary

I have been troubled by the negative tone of several comments posted in response to Notebook articles over the last few months. Anonymous posters have increasingly engaged in highly critical and often sharply worded personal attacks on individual Philadelphia School District employees and union personnel. Though I can understand the depth of emotion that motivates people to make such remarks, I do not support this course of action.

Over the last 10 years, school staff in Philadelphia have increasingly felt pressured by District leaders to act in a manner that borders on professional malpractice. Teachers have been forced to spend an inordinate amount of instructional time on test preparation, and they have been expected to use instructional materials that are inappropriate for their students. Even more troubling, in a growing number of schools, teachers have been required to “do whatever it takes” to increase student test scores by principals who confuse intimidation with leadership.

In the face of such obstacles, it is no wonder that teachers are frustrated and angry. I, too, have felt the wrath of vindictive leaders, and, frankly, it has left me with a bad taste. But ventilating these feelings through scathing and anonymous remarks does us all a disservice. Personal attacks on specific District leaders, personnel, and union staffers can be, and often are, interpreted by the broader public as the rants of disaffected employees who are averse to the concept of being held accountable.

It is the bad ideas of leaders that we must debunk. Focusing on individuals’ hypocrisy and lack of character is a distraction. Doing so contributes to the chaos or “churn” that Eli Broad and other free market reformers like to create in public school systems across the nation. In my view, the main focus of our commentary must be on informing one another and our community about the issues affecting the local democratic control of our school district.

Powerfully connected and well-financed individuals and groups often influence what the mass media choose to focus on. This seems to be particularly true in education, where just a handful of wealthy people — such as Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Betsy DeVos, and the Koch brothers — have tremendously influenced governance and policy at the national, state, and local levels. It is far from easy for ordinary people to have their views and concerns heard over the amplified voices of the rich and well-connected.

Our opportunities to communicate our views about the governance of our nation’s schools are limited. Teachers are rarely included on the committees that are appointed to plot the future of public schools. When we have a chance to speak in public forums, our arguments should be measured, tempered, and centered on analyzing the merits of the strategies and ideas offered by school reformers.

In the days and months ahead, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission will act on a number of important issues: Closing schools, resolving a crippling budget crisis, determining whether to continue with the Renaissance School strategy, managing charter school growth, and negotiating a new teacher contract are all items on their to-do list. Teachers, parents, educational activists, and students will seek to have their say. But engaging in personal attacks and making snarky remarks while presenting their positions will be counterproductive, playing into the hands of the those who pursue a divide-and-conquer strategy to force their will on the majority.

Those of us who actually run schools and conduct the day-to-day work of educating children have to present a united front as we strive to preserve and promote a public school system that is well-funded, open to all children, and provides a superior education. It’s about time for us to create a discourse that respects individual differences while striving to find common ground. I have great hope that we can speak in one united and reasonable voice concerning the fate of our public school system. I envision that this voice will consistently articulate, with fidelity, the values and principles of our democratic society.

Frank Murphy is the former principal of Gen. George G. Meade Elementary in North Philadelphia and served as an educator for over 35 years. Currently, he is working as a distributed leadership coach for the Penn Leadership Center. He blogs at City School Stories.

The opinions expressed in this post are solely the opinions of the author.

Submitted by Frank Murphy on November 27, 2012

Shortly after retiring as the principal of Meade Elementary School, I took a part time position working as a distributed leadership coach.  In this position for the last year and a half I have worked closely with the staff of a school located in the Kensington area of Philadelphia.

My involvement with this school team has been a personally rewarding and professionally satisfying experience. Together we have strived to establish professional learning communities within the school, collected and analyzed multiple sources of data to determine the strengths and needs of the instructional program and established a peer observation and support process.  It has been interesting work.  My attention to and involvement with this school team has taken up much of the time that I previously had focused on writing commentaries for the Philadelphia School Notebook and City School Stories.

Frankly, I have enjoyed this redirection of my attention to active involvement as opposed to passive reflection on educational practices.  Working in a school with teachers and students in order to improve the quality of the instructional experience that children receive has been and still is my primary interest as an educator.

This doesn’t mean that I intend to stop writing commentaries concerning educational leadership, governance, policy and finances.  The opportunity to do so and to share ideas with a wide audience of educators, parents and elected officials has been a valuable experience. I plan to continue to write about education topics, balancing my time between actually working in a school and writing about my reflections on the work that takes place in schools.  In doing so, I feel that I will more effectively advance the mission of cityschool stories.com:  using actual educational practice to inform educational theory.

Submitted by Frank Murphy: October 16, 2012

The Philadelphia School Partnership has gone live with a new website that ranks schools in the city of Philadelphia according to five categories:

• Academics (based on standardized test results in Reading and Math: PSSA {public and charter schools} Terra Nova {parochial schools})

• Safety (based on fewest number of self reported serious incidents)

• Student Attendance (self reported)

•Achievement Gap (“an indicator of a school’s record in helping students of limited financial means learn”) It is not clear what this indicator means or how the gap is determined.

• College Bound (how many high school graduates enroll in 2 or 4- year college in the year after high school) It is not clear if this is also self-reported.

This site lists nearly all of the public, charter and parochial schools in the city.  Each school reviewed received an overall score in addition to a score for each of the above listed categories.  The highest score a school can receive is ten.  The lowest score is one.

When you go onto the site, first check a school configuration category.  Your choices are Elementary, Middle School and High School.  After you have made this selection, click on search.  You will be told how many schools are included in this category and they will be listed according to their overall score from highest to lowest.

This feature alone offers a tremendous insight into what standardized test score reporting really tells us about the differences between schools.  And for the most part it’s all about the money.    As you scroll from the best ranked to the lowest rank schools in any of the grade configurations, you can easily identify where the more economically well-to-do neighborhoods of the city are located.   You can also see which schools serve a greater percentage of children from a higher socio-economic status.  It is pretty clear when examining the information on this website that the children who reside in our more affluent neighborhoods are the ones who score at the highest test performance levels.

This correlation between family income levels and student test performance is quite apparent when you look at the rankings of the elementary parochial schools included on the Philadelphia School Partnership’ web site.   Parochial schools such as Our Mother of Consolation (Chestnut Hill), St Mary Interparachoal School (Society Hill), Immaculate Heart of Mary School (East Falls/Andorra/Roxborough), Maternity BVM School (Bustleton), and Saint Cecilia School (Fox Chase) all have an overall ranking of either nine or a ten.

Parochial schools located in high poverty communities such as Gesu (North Central), Saint Malachy (North Central), Our Mother of Sorrows/St. Ignatius School (West Philadelphia), Visitation BVM (Kensington), St. Martin de Porres School (North Philadelphia) have been ranked as either as four or fives.

The ranks of these schools are similar to the ranks of the charter and public schools that service children from the same communities.

The Philadelphia School Partnership’s new website provides a clear graphic of the relationship between a neighborhood’s overall socio-economic status and the overall results of the standardized test results of the children who reside in a community.  This relationship is consistent across public, parochial and charter schools.

The Philadelphia School Partnership’s findings certainly suggest that wealth rather than quality of education is responsible for achievement differences in schools.  Thanks to the Philadelphia School Partnership for pointing out this troubling disparity.  Now how do we go about closing this wealth/poverty achievement gap they have described?

Submitted by Frank Murphy, October 15, 2012

I just made this comment in response to this post at thenotebook.org.  It is well worth repeating here at CitySchoolStories.com.

I worked in high poverty schools for most of my professional career.   It was a challenging yet rewarding way of life. I always had the good fortune during this time to find myself a member of fantastic school communities. The teachers I worked with were intelligent, dedicated and hard working individuals.  The exceptions to this description were few and far between.

My respect for the many Philadelphia schoolteachers who daily demonstrate in the most positive manner what it means to be a true public servant is enormous.  These fine people who struggle to do their best work in a resource-starved district deserve to be commended.   Berating and blaming them in order to distract attention from our societies failure to combat the ill effects of poverty on too many of our children is reprehensible.

Submitted by Joy of Teaching on October 4, 2012

By now most Americans with any link to media has heard about the (now settled) National Football League Referee strike.  This strike between the football officials and the NFL began in late August.  The striking officials were replaced with referees from other organizations and were considered sub-par replacement officiates by most media outlets.  Almost simultaneously, the Chicago Teacher’s Union was exacting their own strike (also settled) against the Chicago school district.  According to media outlets at that time, the Referees were asking for pay raises in the six digit range and the continuation of their pension plan.  The Chicago Teachers concerns were focused on working conditions that could affect student and teacher performance as well as an evaluation system based on student test scores.

As an avid reader of local and national news, I often read the comment sections of news websites.  Although at times, these comment sections are filled with far right/left winged opinions, I do feel it is a way to gauge the thoughts of others outside my friends, family and coworkers.  While following both of these national strike stories, I began to see a clear delineation between the attitudes of Americans in reference to the value placed on education and the value placed on a 16 week pastime.

Most of the commentary, when referring to the NFL strike, was sympathetic to the referees.  Most felt that they should receive higher compensation even if that was only to get them back on the field.  However, the Chicago Teacher’s strike garnered vitriolic language of greediness and selfishness.  Although the Referees were asking for raises in the thousands of dollars, the teachers were seeking smaller classes, equity and resources for students.  It didn’t make sense that highly qualified teachers appeared greedy, when the highly qualified referees did not.

The referees, most commenters felt, were important to the integrity of the game.  This became most clear during the infamous Seattle/Green Bay game when, what had become to be known as, the ‘Failed Mary Pass’ was incorrectly ruled a complete pass by a replacement referee, taking the game from Green Bay in the last seconds.  Yet the Chicago Teachers, who had by this time suspended their strike, were targets of malicious criticisms for wanting a better public school system for their students and themselves.

I understand that the NFL Officials are unique to a particular skill set.  I agree that they deserved the right to strike for what they as a collective unit deemed was reasonable and within the capabilities of the NFL.  I was pleased that their strike was settled in the third week of the season (although the replacement referees had provided a comical element to the game).  The integrity of the game was restored.

I can only hope that the attitudes of our citizens can move toward a respect for teachers and the integrity that they bring to the classroom.  Teachers who are experienced, who receive the proper training and resources are an integral part of our children’s development and education.  If we are replaced by non-experienced replacements in the name of school reform, well, there will be many more failed Mary’s, and Jerome’s and Dylan’s and Jasmine’s…….

Submitted by Joy of Teaching on September 19, 2012

Dear Dr. Hite,

Welcome to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty!  We have some amazing historical sites to see during your stay.  Do take advantage of them.  In the meantime, we the long-time citizens of this wonderful city would like you to know that we do not trust you! We are sorry about this, but we feel this relationship should start out on an honest footing.  We have been kicked and beaten down so many times by the likes of former superintendents, politicians, entrepreneurs, administrators and one another that our immediate reaction to your arrival is wrought with fear and trepidation. And that’s just the honest ones!  Corruption runs deep in this city, try to avoid it at all cost.  It usually ends badly for us citizens.

Oh, truly we would like to welcome you with open arms and put you on a pedestal.  We want to believe all the things that we heard you say at your introduction meetings.  Typically Philadelphians are the forgiving types; see anything related to the Eagles football team.  But, when it comes to the head of the Philadelphia School District we lack the fortitude to forget the past.  It has been a hard road for all involved.  The scars run deep.

We approach your arrival like a mouse approaches a piece of cheese…slow, wary and with caution.  We are in the midst of a financial crisis that threatens to end the free public school system as we know it…or are we?  Honestly, we citizens are not sure.  However, that is what we have been told.  The Pennsylvania State government, it seems, no longer would like to participate in the free public education system.  Unfortunately, there are some pesky laws out there getting in their way.  It will be your responsibility to navigate both the local, state and federal governments to equitably fund our schools so that all of our youngest citizens receive their right to a free and equal education.  We hope you are up for the challenge!

We believe that you were made aware of our many concerns during your initial visit with the teachers, administrators and citizens of our great city.  Charter School conversions, Charter School Organizations, lack of transparency, unqualified administrative staff, parent engagement, just to name a few.  Most of our concerns stem from the dishonest leadership who have come and gone during our tenure as Philadelphians.  You will be hard pressed to change our opinions and distrust.  But that is what you must do.  You will not be successful unless you have us in your corner.

So we say to you welcome, take your time, build trust through transparency, respect the stakeholders ignore those who would want you to do anything less.  Show trust to your teachers, identify your best administrators, and listen to them.  Visit The Constitution Center.  So that maybe “We the People” can trust and support you in saving the school district; our children’s best opportunity to a free public education. Oh, and please, don’t ever say “It’s for the children” just show us that it is.

Sincerely,

Joy of Teaching