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the downside of a fast start is that they tend to flame out quickly i m looking to create for the long haul but i miss having a regular communication vehicle so i am rebooting what i want to write about i m going to be the go to place for what s going on in the urban core of kc to that end i am going to start a new blog on a wordpress site and leave this blog for the archives i think i wrote some great pieces along the way on this blog and occasionally had some good conversation on it it was a cathartic opportunity for me to express what it was like to move into the urban core how it affected me and my thinking and to chronicle the reactions and responses i got having been an urban core dweller in kc then camden nj and now back in kc i think i have written all i can write about this topic on a regular basis so come visit me over at the new site where you will find updates on kc urban projects some best practices i ve found elsewhere and of course some commentary from me the new link is www kcurbancore wordpress com thanks for visiting here over the years posted by unknown at 3 05 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday march 27 2012 trayvon and the hood i ve been helping candidates on the local school board campaign trail for the last month but the trayvon case has captured everyone s attention including mine i feel compelled to put my 2 cents in apparently what we know zimmerman saw trayvon and thought he looked suspicious enough so that he called the police the police told zimmerman to stand down and not go after trayvon zimmerman went after trayvon zimmerman was in a car and exited it at some point before the altercation zimmerman was injured when the police arrived after the fatal shooting trayvon was dead killed by zimmerman all the rest seems to be conjecture depending on what scenario you want to see but here is some dot connecting that makes sense to me zimmerman is an adult trayvon was a minor zimmerman is larger than trayvon zimmerman was in a car which should be a fairly safe environment the car was fully functioning and not disabled he chose to leave his car and pursue trayvon these events immediately violate any notion of self defense self defense is obeying the police staying in your car and not going after the suspicious person zimmerman makes no claims that trayvon was seen committing any crime in my mind trayvon was defending himself from a larger adult man who came after him without any authority to do so trayvon was under no obligation to stop or heed anything this man said to him if trayvon felt he was under attack didn t he have the legal right to stand his ground and use self defense this would account for zimmerman s injuries this is not just a tragedy this is a travesty i am embarrassed for my former home state i am outraged that the police would let evidence leave the scene based on someone s instant judgement of the situation without any investigation i am dismayed that this case has become politicized to the fact that this young man s character is now under assault i weep for the inability of the privileged white older middle and upper income educated population of this nation to get this racial fear of blacks out of their heads hoodies are not scary white teenage girls wear hoodies and i don t see them getting killed over it until we get this racism out of our heads nothing will change stop seeing the world through our lens see it through the eyes of trayvon and ricky evan carlos laz and damon and all the other young men i know you know and those we ve never met read some of leonard pitts work in the miami herald here s a good example http www miamiherald com 2012 03 24 2712390 in trayvon martins death consider html moreb posted by unknown at 2 55 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday february 13 2012 urban education is a pivotal piece of the urban puzzle i ve been working hard in 2012 so hard in fact that this blog has been far from my consciousness but the topics are front and center every day i read an article today that piqued my urban spidey sense and i thought i should write better than grading exams eh this is a bit long but worth the read a good article on camden nj public schools appeared in the courier post hot on the heels of a recent spate of articles chronicling the return of the school super after a 4 month medical leave for an undisclosed condition i have some experience with the camden schools i was a big sister for 3 years visiting my local elementary school once a week i responded to an rfp for a strategic plan for the school board writing the proposal and making the pitch gave me a great view of the district one of my former students is currently an appointed member of the school board and he and i have had numerous discussions about the state of urban ed over the years i give that as full disclosure on camden you know my involvement in kcps and if you don t read my previous blog entries the parallels in camden to the current situation in the kcps are stunning camden has the greatest proportion of low performing schools in the state and kcps is unaccredited after years of probation both are in the catch 22 of nclb and both states are on the fast track to a federal waiver nj got its and mo should be close behind both districts are urban majority minority have a growing hispanic population and are dominated by poor families east kc and camden are similar though the proportional condition is that camden is much worse off than east kc both districts have had an endless supply of administrative and board mismanagement distrust and poor performance that keeps the district far away from ably executing its mission which is to educate children camden has had their super for 4 years and kcps for 4 months believe me kcps has a much better deal going than camden in that department both districts suffer from violence dropouts gangs and students who succeed superbly with little fanfare or mention camden has 3 signature high schools where the high performing students are steered sound familiar kc and has 2 high schools that are rotting having spent time in a camden elementary school i have seen the frustration of teachers who are at wits ends with unruly kids and resort to parenting the students by yelling at them my current little sister who is at ace high school in kcmo part of the district though it is an independent contract school finds her school a joke because they have no books to take home don t get homework and her science teacher has been out the whole year and they go to other classes in lieu of science at least in camden at the elementary school they had band chorus art and dance parents in camden are pretty much shut out of the picture or to hear the board tell it the parents won t get involved the proposal i prepared for the board included a significant element of parent resident engagement in the process in order to create stakeholders for the board going forward the school board through their staff literally told me that they didn t think parent engagement in a city like camden was possible they had tried and not succeeded they let their ego stand in the way of moving forward in kcps there is a full on effort to engage parents give them a voice and get that voice to the table people here carp about it but until you ve seen the shut out as it is practiced in camden you have no idea how good we have it here dac and the sacs are a treasure the board in camden is fully appointed by the mayor i ve written on this in earlier posts they are a sad lot though there are effective board members and non effective board members the sum however is that they have not held their superintendent responsible in an effective way i attended board meetings in camden it went something like this board to super where are your goals for the year how can we evaluate your management when you haven t submitted your goals plan for the year and the year is nearly over super to board my staff was supposed to prepare that and they haven t i am still trying to get a straight answer from them i will get back to you on this and that dance went on for months and continues to this day in the private sector the super would have been fired long ago the board in the kcps is fully elected by the people i ve written on their experiences in earlier posts they are a group that is moving the needle forward from out of the ashes of a camden like board experience this board is making headway but the progress is small and the impressions of the community are fixed i read daily in blogs and newspaper comments that the school board is the problem and always has been 100 superintendents in 5 years right 100 billion spent on deseg with no results except a nationally ranked debate team how do you turn that impression around so transformation can continue most people say that education is stymied by bad teachers unions too many tfa teachers camden got rid of theirs kcps increased theirs too much administration not enough administration both districts have suffered from horrendous hr departments kcps is on the mend camden is not micromanagement by the board not enough management by the board too little money too much money overwhelming poverty and social disorder that follows kids into the classrooms and a revolving door of curriculum and other magic bullets designed to move the test score needle the anecdotal evidence is clear isn t it there are schools where poor minority urban children do well in school if they can do it why can t our public schools both camden and kcps have seen charter schools succeed and fail in their districts and both are in the midst of state legislative tinkering to make them charter school districts in nj they passed the urban hope program that combines tax credits and charter schools in some fashion mo is still figuring out what to try here kids children students scholars can learn that is the bottom line it is an irrefutable fact they don t learn for all the stated reasons above how do we know what to do one of my colleagues would recommend a random trial experiment to see what works and what doesn t and to provide scientific proof like a drug trial study i find that laudable and laughable student learning is not the same in each student a body generally has the same physical response to aspirin person to person while we account for patient differences like medical history lifestyle psych profile etc the human blood system or kidneys have a fundamental and predictable pattern of response to intervention can we say the same about kids i ve attended more meetings than i care to remember that detail a zillion different learning strategies from montessori to harlem children s zone my mother was a proponent of the mcguffy reader and flash cards homeschoolers are the ultimate solution a school district of one do those students routinely perform off the charts no do they learn of course they do again what is the link between method conditions and learning thousands of books and articles have been written on the subject tens of thousands of ba ma and ph d students and graduates have read them movies interest groups and foundations have been formed and funded michelle rhee anyone and yet urban school districts in us cities are failing to educate their students why i remember the 60 minutes program from 30 years ago that documented the woman who ran an education academy in her house on the south side of chicago and had remarkable results i ve seen it done in public and charter schools but keep in mind the bell curve has statistical validity as a representation of the general universe not every child will perform at high levels or is the bell curve a vestige of discriminatory education practices we have no idea but that story from chicago still sticks with me kids can learn and succeed even when people don t think they can if we could just do what it takes if we just knew what that is like any parent i want the kids entrusted to the public schools to succeed like any administrator i believe we can find a public solution to this dilemma like any politician i want to see results now not in 4 years when another generation is lost like any citizen i want to see the money spent well obvious waste and ineffectiveness eliminated and a reasonable return on my tax dollar i don t see any of my selves getting satisfied anytime soon this breaks my heart because education is time sensitive you have to do it while kids are kids they keep getting older and we keep dithering i think the lady in south chicago got it right the classroom is king all the other stuff is just stuff that may or may not help and may or may not impede the success of that classroom with the money we spend on administration consultants lawyers et al we could hire one teacher for every student and have a district of one i think unions are a response to administration i think bloated administrations with very highly paid administrators are empire builders that have to maintain the validity of their own presence i think the politicians are referees that are needed because the game has gotten so complex i think principals are like higher ed department chairs stuck betwixt and between and generally frustrated so here are my suggestions for reforming urban education 1 simplify the curriculum delivery system new math comes to mind and use technology daily for the rest see 2 7 2 let teachers teach and hold them accountable for results and not what they put on their bulletin boards so the deputy superintendent can feel superior when they do a building inspection but let s get the best teachers in there with the best assistance possible why are tfa teachers expected to perform solo why can t they work with another teacher in a classroom and teachers you must be a team player not act as if you are untouchable and infallible as an educator i can say that it won t be perfect but try the classroom is king but you are not royalty 3 let principals manage and lead hold them accountable for the results and not be fearful that if they try something different the superintendent s ego will be bent out of shape but neither can they be a building bully it is not about your success but the success of those students get that right and you will succeed you work for the teachers not the other way around you are a leader not a dictator i ve been an education leader i can say that teachers will try to take advantage and principals will be pricks and prick ettes transparency is key to keeping those problems to a minimum 4 separate the district administration from the teaching buildings don t let them step foot in there beyond once per quarter let them manage the textbook orders so books actually get to the buildings let them manage the hiring and payroll so that it is accurate and exceptional make the recruiting and hiring of educators a priority let them provide for buildi...