Querulous about Counselors

It seems for any for us NYC students going to our counselor is a dread. This is exactly the opposite of the portrait of a counselor our society portrays. A counselor is supposed to be friendly, inviting, and a counselor's office is supposed to actually be an inviting one. But it seems counselors are far from that idealized view and lack the basics of caring for students and guiding us.

In Brooklyn Tech, a school of 4,500+ students, everyone is a number. And the sad reality is this is also true at the guidance counselor's office. Guidance counselors are only concerned with a child's report card and trying to get them into a college or at least graduate so the school record isn't tarnished, even after the college office exists for that purpose. By many students, counselors are seen as an annoyance, constantly hounding them about grades. And this precept ion deters those students who need counselors away from counselors. Counselors are no longer there to help students but the school at maintaining its record.

Guidance counselors have become less involved in helping students with their personal and psychological needs mainly because there are so few counselors. Each counselor in any school is burdened with a large number of students who they cannot give individual attention to so they have to treat the students like report cards. Also, counseling departments are ill funded by the DOE so lack effective methods of counseling. The situation has not changed in decades and this is very alarming.

As young adults, we need all of our needs meet. We need to be intellectually and psychologically guided and developed. Guidance counselors cannot do what they are trained to do, for the most part, because there aren't enough counselors in most schools to handle the number of kids in that school. Counselors have become another source of annoyance in students lives and not a source of comfort and a place to let loose.

The Wrong Path

Recently there have been some scandels about administrators fixing grades in their school to make the school look better and have more kids graduate. There have and always will be corrupt administrators but the DOE is only giving them motives to cheat the system now.

The new DOE school reports created a lot of contoversey and heated debates over the results. But one thing is for sure, the DOE relied heavily on cold hard academic grades. Of course this opens the old can of worms about if this is the best way to evaluate schools.

Standardized tests aren't going to tell the whole picture. Too many students are not good test takers and this isn't a skill we are taught well in school. We all know tests don't show the true capabilities of a student and definatly not a fair pciture. Some students are just good test takers but lack the creative intellects behind many courses while others get bad grades but make it up with good essays, projects, creative assignments, etc.

Relying on the standardized tests and numbers of a school isn't the best way to evaluate it. And of course some administrators, in an attempt to draw in talented students and more funding, will do what it takes. So these scandels are only the beginning and under it lies the real problem, the evaluation of public schools by the DOE.

How half are you?

Last week an article in the Times showed studies that claim violence in NYC has dropped by 20 percent in the last couple of years. But "...dating-related violence is on the rise among NYC teens, with 10 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys reporting being raped or forced into sex by a partner." (Insideschools.org)

The increase in dating-related violence poses a possibly greater threat than violence in schools. Violence in relationships or abuse by someone you think you know and can trust can create life-long pshychological problems. These teens may grow up to be insecure, cautious, vulnerable, unhappy, and not trust others.

There are other problems rape or forced sex pose - pregnancy and transmission of STDs. The violence itself can be crippling to any person, but these long term effects can leave a person feeling completely destroyed by someone they thought they could trust.

It is great that violence of any kind has decreased but it has to be eliminated, not channeled to other sources. For those with violent behavior, proper control must be disciplined at an early age, mostly at school by teachers and counselors, so the victims of the violence don't have to suffer from an avoidable act.

No Child Left Behind??

It has been six years since President Bush's landmark bill "No Child Left Behind". And until recently, it has been lost to history. Now, just like health care, public education is once again at the forefront with the new election. And No Child Left Behind is, so far, failing at its goals.

Under the NCLB accountability system, schools in their forth consecutive year of failure must take at least one "corrective action," such as adopting a new curriculum, replacing some staff, or extending the school year. After six year of failure, schools face restructuring.

So far, most schools failing for four years have not been punished or reformed accordingly. This sends a bad message to other schools and the federal power over state schools. Most of these failing schools are in low income and minority districts in New York, Illinois, California, and Michigan. Big surprise there!

It seems the federal government considers funding a war some consider already lost more important than funding the future of America. But there is good news. US House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings are working on a new bill to address the problems with the NCLB bill and a stricter measure of enforcing the bill.

Mobilization for Uganda

It is nice to hear about benefactors and their selfless charity, and it's nicer to hear when the benefactors are children. Five elementary schools throughout NYC have come up with creative ways to raise funds for children to have an education in the Rakai district of Uganda. The region has a lot of orphans due to the AIDS pandemic, most of whom are forced to drop out because of lack of funds. NYC students have raised $16,000 to give the children in Rakai a chance at an education, as well as clothes, shoes, books, and other scholastic materials. Authorities in Uganda plan to use the money to build school houses with furniture, buy textbooks, and pay teachers to provided education for many children.It is truely an inspiration and pleasure to see young children in action for a good cause.

The Reports Are In

This week the New York City Education Department will issue brand new, detailed report cards for nearly every school in the city. Chancellor Joel Klein has created a quantitative analysis of which schools have improved, which failed, or which haven't changed at all. The schools get a basic summary grade of A-F, with a lot of factors taken into account.

Basic indicators like school attendance, school safety and the ratings given the school by parents, teachers and students make up 15% of the grade.

The level of student success on standardized math and reading tests will count for 30%, and schools can get extra credit for innovative or unusual programs.

But 55% of the final grade will be based on the most important factor: how many students are making academic progress, scoring higher from one year to the next.*

There will be any controversies and political bickering over the reports. Many protests and maybe even lawsuits, as Klein promises to take strict action against failing schools. But we should take the city's word for its data and focus on what needs to be fixed in the system. Its time for action and to fix all the problems, going down to its roots of bad teachers, poor educational environment, poor curricula, and many others.

*Errol Louis, Daily News

What ever happened to recycling?

We all remember recycling back in elementary school, for some of us even in middle school. The recycling lessons once a year, the recycling games and worksheets. It was almost intrinsic in us to recycle, inculcated into us. It was the right thing to do, and we all knew it! But recycling is the last thing to pass by in our heads in school now, even as we stand over the garbage bins.

High schools hardly make an effort to have us recycle, it seems. This may be mostly because of the fact that the DOE and all its schools get no penalty for violating NYC recycling laws and at the high school level DOE feels it has done all it can to instill recycling into us, a vital habit in our climate changing world.

Some teachers say that they have kids recycle in classrooms but papers and garbage get mixed up by the time they get out on the sidewalk. Furthermore, the DOE has to central code for recycling but leaves it up to every school to do as the wish. As one teacher pointed out, as long as there are no penalties, recycling isn't a priority.

The good news is the DOE has new recycling standards inplemented in its administrative offices and hopes to expand those standards to schools soon. But as your colleague, I can see when it comes down to it, recycling is up to us. It is the right thing to do, and we all know it! Lets not forget the bigger things in life (that low test grade wont affect your health 10 years from now) but not recycling might.

Class Size Continues To Be An Issue

Once again we are back to the issue of class size, mostly because it is still not solved. Recent reports show that, for the most part, classes in all grades have not meet the United Federation of Teachers class-size limits. Class size has dropped less than one percent in most grade levels, and even this is due to lower enrollment rate, not a DOE policy. In some districts, like District 3, class size has even increased. The biggest problem with reducing class size is space; schools need more classrooms to create more classes. Lydia Wileden for the Columbia Spectator:

Thus far, the DOE has created only 20 new classrooms throughout the city, despite being allotted $90 million in state funds for this purpose, a fact that an audit completed by the state comptroller’s office revealed.

The matter comes back to the DOE not allocating its money properly and not making the reduction of class size a priority. In a recent interview with WNBC, Joel Klein said,

I don’t know a parent alive who wouldn’t want their kid in a class of 25 with a great teacher rather than in a class of 20 with a mediocre teacher.

Creating a school system with all excellent teachers is great, but no matter how great the teachers are, they can only do so much as one person teaching 25+ kids.

Money for Merit

Once again, the DOE is implementing some controversial system instead of proven methods that increase education levels. This time, they are paying low-income students in all grades for high scores on standardized tests. Parents will also be paid to be more involved in their students education. The break down is as follows:

[The DOE is] launching a new program this fall that will pay low-income families for, among other things, attending parent-teacher conferences ($25), getting a library card ($50) and graduating high school ($200 to the student, $200 to the parent)...Parents of elementary school students in the program will get $300 and middle-school parents will get $350 in incentives if their child scores at proficiency or demonstrates improvement on each of the state standardized tests. High school students will get $600 for each Regents exam they pass.

Paying parents to become more involved in their child's education can be a good thing, but the incentive behind paying students to do well on standardized tests may prove fatal. This will create tensions between those students being paid and those not. Furthermore, a student that tries to earn the money but barely misses the cut off score to earn the money will only become frustrated and give up. It is a quick fix to get students into the schools and try to do well on standardized tests, but the consequences are numerous and risks too great in implementing such a program.