Reflections of an Author
Submitted by Frank Murphy, Dec. 30, 2010
In recent installments of Confessions of an Urban Principal, Rashid a troubled nine-year-old fourth grade student wrecked his classroom on one day and then on another threatened to kill his teacher. When this boy was in third grade he had witnessed the murder of his father. Rashid’s dad was shot multiple times during a drug related gun battle in the street outside of the boy’s former school. Rashid and his father were victims of the plague of violence that has either killed or injured many African American males in our nation.
After this incident occurred, Rashid desperately needed help in dealing with the trauma that he had suffered. Unfortunately, his mother didn’t take advantage of the counseling services that her Department of Human Services caseworker had arranged for her son. He did however receive counsel from his sixteen-year-old brother who was incarcerated in a youth detention facility near Pittsburgh. Advice regarding how to survive in the street was sent to the younger boy in letters penned by his delinquent older sibling.
I don’t think the authors of the No Child Left Behind legislation imagined that a child would be tutored in this manner when they devised their scheme. But then the architects of this reform plan either failed to comprehend or willfully ignored the challenges faced by the Rashids of our society. There are children just like him who inhabit the many schools that are targeted for the experimental turnaround strategies currently favored by the federal Department of Education. These children regularly challenge the abilities of the best of our teachers.
In 2005, it was doubtful that Rashid’s attention was on his schoolwork given what was going on in his life. Before he could make adequate academic progress, his emotional issues needed to be addressed. Until this happened it was hardly likely that he would score at the proficient level on the state test. Given his state of mind he did not score well on the state test that year. Worst still, the yearly growth of Rashid’s classmates was also stunted by the chaos he created. The test scorekeepers frowned on these results.
The only outcome that these reformers are willing to envision is that 100% of America’s students will score at the proficient or advanced level on their state test by 2014. Reality doesn’t factor into their calculations.
We need to get real, if we are really serious about leaving no child behind. We can do so by enacting school reforms that address the needs of all students instead of pretending that perfect test scores will solve the problems of our society.