A reader sent in a link to a PBS documentary about a middle school in the Bronx that faced the problems of its students and addressed them. Note that the school had guidance counselors:
| Check out this 13 minute PBS documentary! This is what it is all about. Not markets. Not test scores. Do these teachers and administrators look at their students as a “customer”? Teaching is a profoundly human experience which involves engaging with students to show them things they did not know they could do!The Middle School Moment A new PBS documentary illuminates success of a Bronx schoolhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/education/dropout-nation/middle-school-moment/ |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is a great story. We try to do similar things at our school. I know we are not alone, but it is probably not the norm. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes not so much. When you work with students in poverty it becomes a necessity. Its the part that happens behind the scenes, outside of the classroom walls. That’s the part that the Ed deformers don’t discuss. Incarcerated parents, high transiency rates, truancy, students with mental health issues, just to name a few. We collaborate with health care, law enforcement, truancy officers, social services, etc. In this environment of budget cuts, those support systems are becoming more scarce. I rarely have come across parents who don’t care, but many have extremely limited resources. As long as the effects of poverty are excluded from the education reform conversation, the achievement gap will continue to widen along SES lines. We have many students in poverty who are successful, but those who struggle with the family issues mentioned earlier are a huge drain on school resources. Thanks for showing the broader picture that is not told by test scores and value added measures. Teachers in classrooms can be highly effective, but without a broader support system these students often take the path of the twin brother in the video. These students will continue to show up in our public school classrooms. It is our ethical duty to do our best to keep them in school. We cant just throw them out because they are difficult to teach. Kids are not disposable.
I have tears in my eyes. Teachers can’t reach all, but can reach some. Even one can keep teachers going. The documentary shows that if the support and resources are made available to the teachers and the student the hope of a positive outcome can be achieved. This young lady needs to be thanked for allowing her story to be told. I predict a bright future for her. I’m going to wipe my eyes, now.
In Vallejo, we did away with our counselors in 2005. Since then we have seen our graduate rate rapidly decline, increase in violence on our secondary campuses, and other issues as well. The teachers’ union have been advocating for a return of our counselors ever since because we have seen the profound negative impact it has had on our kids. It has yet to happen.
All of good teaching is relationship based, a human interaction, a shared experience.
This is what I want for all children but especially for public school students who so few seem to really value for what they are.