City School Stories

Notes from the Field

Submitted by Frank Murphy, December 2, 2010

The principals of all K-8 Empowerment and Promise Academies have been directed to attend a meeting sponsored by The Office of Empowerment Schools Support on Friday December 3, 2010.   At this meeting, principals will be briefed on what are being called “mid course corrections” that will be imposed on their reading and math programs.  These corrections call for modifications to the literacy and math schedules of all students in the Empowerment Schools.  This will involve changes to instructional times as well as teacher assignments.  Allegedly these actions will position the Empowerment Schools for greater success this year. These changes are being instituted in response to a number of concerns raised about the implementation of the core literacy and math programs in Empowerment Schools.

Who voiced these concerns is not clear.   It doesn’t seem likely that it was school-based staff.   The proposed changes are not ones that would be recommended by anyone who understands how an elementary school works.  Central office staff, book company representatives or both seem to be behind this latest upheaval to the operation of individual schools.

These are the latest mandates being communicated to the school sites:

• instructional time for Imagine It will be expanded to 120 minutes in grades K-6;

• instructional time for Glencoe Literature will be expanded to 90 minutes in grades 7 and 8;

• instructional time for Prentice Hall Math will be expanded to 90 minutes in grades 7 and 8;

•pacing guides for Imagine It, Glencoe Literature and Prentice Hall Math will be removed.

Elementary school teachers spend a considerable amount of their time during the months of September and October establishing and implementing predictable classroom procedures and routines.  Doing so creates a solid foundation on which to maximize instructional time on task and to manage student behavior.  This has been no easy feat this year for the teachers in Empowerment Schools.  After administrators from the central office conducted walkthroughs in September and October, they insisted on changes at various schools that required the reorganization of student rosters and teacher schedules.  As a result, students and teachers have had a difficult time getting settled into this school year.

Now, once again school schedules and teaching rosters will be required to change in order to carry out this “mid-course correction.”  This is not an appropriate practice.  Elementary school children are not well served by being in an instructional environment where the routines and procedures are constantly in flux.  Such inconsistency causes confusion and uncertainty.   Changing instructors stifles the development of important teacher and student connections that are so important for creating safe learning environments.  Implementing such a change just prior to the winter holidays when other interruptions to the regular school schedule are likely, makes this a particularly unsound idea.

Increasing the time allotments for these scripted reading and math programs will certainly impact on other important subject areas that are part of the curriculum. For example, in grades seven and eight there will be one hundred and thirty five minutes left in the instructional day after these changes are instituted.  Subtract ninety minutes for the corrective reading and math programs for many students.  That leaves forty-five minutes for students to have access to meaningful instruction in writing, algebra, science, social studies, music, art and physical education. What choices will be made for carving up the precious little time left?

The proposed “mid-year corrections” appear to be an effort to increase the amount of central office monitoring taking place at all Empowerment Schools. Additional visits from central office staff and book company representatives are promised for the purpose of monitoring the fidelity to the new timeframes. Additionally, all future instructional materials will now be ordered by the Office of Empowerment Schools Support, rather than at the school sites.

During the next two weeks, the Office of Empowerment Schools will work with individual schools to create these newly mandated schedules and rosters.  This all sounds like more administrative tactics that are intended to eliminate any instructional practices in schools that are not endorsed by the central office and the book company representatives who advise them.

What an unwanted holiday present this will be for our district teachers who understand and utilize effective literacy practices.