Teacher's Desk: Anatomy of a career

Mine was a circuitous route to the classroom. I initially planned on a teaching career, belonged to Future Teachers of America in high school, and started my secondary teaching classes at Metropolitan State College in the 1970s. But I decided not to go into teaching at the time because the prevailing school of thought was to bend over backwards for poor and minority students rather than help them meet high expectations - contrary to my values - so I did a variety of other things for some years. It took a bout with pneumonia to finally get me back to teaching.

In my feverish bed, I decided I wanted to become a school principal so I could affect as many students as possible. I began working for the Gear-Up program at a Denver middle school. I lost at musical chairs, so I tutored and performed inclusionary services in the seventh and eighth grade math classrooms. The poor seventh grade teacher was earning a license in an alternative licensure program having previously been an engineer.

One of the best ways for me to help, so we thought, was for me to pull half the class of thirty some students, so that he could get his classroom management under control. It probably wasn’t a good idea since one of the students who stayed in his classroom lit another student’s hair on fire. Eight weeks later, I filled in as the seventh grade math teacher. It went reasonably smoothly, but one day two of my female students began to fight. I couldn’t get to the telephone, so I sent a student to get help and I protected the computer! My priorities were obviously in the correct place!

While attending graduate school, my student colleagues suggested I go into special education since I needed to have a teaching license in order to obtain a principal’s license at the end of my graduate program. I finally found a position with an elementary school in Aurora Public Schools district. I worked with kindergarteners with developmental delays in an inclusive setting. I had great fun with the kindergartners, forged nice relationships with parents, but always felt that I was all thumbs. A troubled high school in Denver Public Schools posted a job listing for a special education math teacher. One day I was teaching sweet kindergartners and the next day teenage thugs. I had a case of educational whiplash. Don’t get me wrong; I love my thugs. It truly was an interesting experience. At 1:20 P.M. every day for two and one half years, the alarm went off and we would evacuate the building. At lunch time, there was a girl fight two or three times a week. There was always some sort of craziness going on.

I absolutely loved my students. I built great relationships with them---and their parents and we frequently tag-teamed to discard poor behaviors and replace them with positive behaviors. My final year there, I taught both math and life science. Once in two of my classes on the same day, students totally broke me up. During a math class, one of my male students stood up and said, “Did you call me gay?” I immediately told him, “No. Do you want me to?” We all broke up. Later in a science class, after I reviewed the previous day’s lesson on male anatomy, one of my juniors who was engaged to be married blurted out, “I have a penis!” “Oh,” I said. “Whose?”

It may have been a full moon (cue moon jokes here). Or just the lingering fever delirium that never goes away when you have the teaching bug.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator at Colorado High School Charter, holds a masters degree in educational leadership, and ran for the State Board of Education.

Teacher's Desk: Why this bean counter?

Denver Public Schools has done it again: expedience versus quality leadership. In selecting chief financial officer Tom Boasberg as superintendent, they continue to place adult wants over children’s needs. The chief education officer position is still empty after Jamie Acquino’s departure in September. Michael Bennet, Mayor Hickenlooper’s choice for superintendent two and a half years ago, may not have been a student of educational reform when he entered 900 Grant, but as a visionary, he quickly grasped the politics of a school system, and made tough, unpopular decisions. He saw, not only the reality of Denver Public Schools, but what Denver Public Schools could be. He became supportive of Denver’s charter schools. His reforms were not sweeping, but were consistent in purpose: quality delivery of educational services in the most financially efficient way.

Tom Boasberg is no Michael Bennet and no friend to charter schools. Four years ago, Cole Middle School closed due to consistent underperformance on CSAP tests. Under state law, the school district needed to turn the school into a charter school. They asked the community to present possible charter programs. When KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) did not come up to the plate because of a difference in organization and DPS’s criteria of students to be served, they asked KIPP to present. They did. DPS wanted their sixth and seventh graders (who the following school year would be seventh and eighth graders) to be served even though KIPP middle school programs generally begin in the fifth grade and add a grade each year through eighth grade.

DPS rented the top floor with lower floor gymnasium access to KIPP- Cole College Prep for $100,000 for the school year and an enrollment of 100. The following year with only 50 eighth graders and half the floor in use, Denver Public Schools refused to renegotiate the lease and charged $100,000 for the school year. Not having a budget to hire enough personnel to prepare eighth graders for the finest schools in the Denver metropolitan area and market to families with fifth graders, KIPP closed Cole College Prep. That is a true travesty for the Cole neighborhood.

Two years ago, Denver Public Schools, with Boasberg at the helm of finance sent a memo out to regular Denver Public Schools employees which said that any school that enrolls a student who previously attended a charter school, will receive a bonus. It is all dollars and no sense to him. I frequently recommend students to programs and high schools run by Denver Public Schools because that is what that student needs!

Then again this past December, Boasberg approved the billing of charter schools for additional monies for Denver School Retirement Program (see my Scrooge blog) and only ten days to find the money! Tom Boasberg is no visionary and no friend to charter schools.

I urge parents to organize and elect members to the Denver Public School Board who place student interests ahead of special interests.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator at Colorado High School Charter with a M.A. in Educational Leadership. She is a former candidate for the State Board of Education.

Teacher's journal: Dollar dilemma

Individualizing the Colorado education dollar for each student, kindergarten through undergrad, deserves a hard look in 2009. Difficult? Yes, but so liberating if we could ever do it. A friend on Gov. Ritter’s P-20 Commission for education reform discussed with me what the next reform step will be from the legislature and ouch, alas, it will be a funding problem that may pit higher ed against K-12 interests. The same was reported today, January 2, in the Rocky Mountain News. (not on-line yet at http://rockymountainnews.com/news/news/education)

Rep. Keith King (R-Colo. Springs) ran a bill years ago, requiring that state K-12 school funds follow the student, rather than go to the district to be divided up. It didn’t pass because many, mostly liberals, felt that this was the elephant’s nose under the tent for voucher spending. King returns this year as a state senator. Let's hope he tries the idea again.

While attending graduate school to become an administrator, we learned a great deal about school funding, how it differs from state-to-state, and unfortunately, that it truly is an equity fight between the haves and have nots. States like Colorado attempt to equalize funding between wealthier communities and poorer districts, but a survey to the state legislature by me and a school colleague found that the majority of legislators in Colorado for the 2003 session, did not know the difference between equal and equity. Equal funding is exactly that. Each district receives the same per student funding across the board. Equity in funding takes a look at the individual districts and the students who are enrolled and pays the district based on student needs.

While in graduate school, I wrote that we not only need equity in funding, but we need to devise a method so that we base student funding on student needs. A special education student with mild dyslexia has additional funds from the federal government sent to the state, and a special education student with multiple disabilities should have much more. Federal funds are sent to state departments of education and are funneled to districts for poor students, students who parents are migrant workers, English language learners, and students performing significantly below grade level (Title I) to name a few. If state, local, and federal funding for each student followed the student to the student’s school, then we would have equity in funding. But let’s do one better. Schools are funded based on the October 1 count. If a student leaves the school after October 1, the new school does not receive funding for that student. We need to develop a system whereby the student’s school is paid every six weeks so that it can accurately follow students. In migrant and urban communities, student transience is a real issue.

Now, if we figure out how much we fund each student kindergarten through grade 12 with state funds, then we can do the same with the higher education spreading the four year funding over six years beginning at the eleventh grade level if needed. This will allow students who need remediation or who need to take little steps with special programs to get the funding they should be given, and usually do not get. Success breeds success and some students are capable of taking on more post-secondary responsibilities than others. This will give hope to many who have none and allow the brightest to move at an appropriate pace. While other students may decide to take a more traditional route, waiting to attend college after their senior years, they will have more to spend over four years.

I know a little about taking college classes early. If I had stayed in high school for a boring fourth year, I would have graduated in 1971. Instead, before my seventeenth birthday, I attended classes at a local community college. Back in the day, my tuition for a full-time class load was $225.00 per semester plus books! Who knew? It gave me a start and by the time I turned 18, I earned 30 credits. (It is kind of a pain these days getting my transcript, though, from this school since its on microfiche)

To repeat: We need to think outside of the box when it comes to education funding, and truly put student needs first. Individualizing K-16 funding would be a huge step.

Teacher's journal: Remediating & liking it

"I can't wait to get back to work!" Is she sick? Does she get paid $1000 an hour? That's a no to both. I teach remedial education at an alternative charter school in Denver. About 40% of our student population is six or more years under grade level in either or both mathematics and literacy. Another ten to twenty percent have smaller remediation needs. The Rocky Mountain News on 12/27 discussed the deplorable condition of our Colorado high school graduates entering college and needing remediation. They, too, applauded Adams School District 50 on their new innovative efforts at true performance-based education, which I wrote about in a 12/26 post on this site.

I am totally awed with the Wilson Reading System. I began using this reading system three years ago with very impressive results. For students with severe phonemic difficulties, the students have been able to grow a minimum of four months in six weeks. For students acquiring language because English is a second language, I’ve seen one year’s growth for every one week’s instruction, and of course, everything in between the two. I work with students who are at least 16 years old. My students come in reading between the second grade and sixth grade levels. Many have been instructed in local schools for most of their lives. The Wilson Reading System is an intensive phonics program and I use it additionally as a rich vocabulary building program. My first day back, I will be assessing my students’ reading. I hope, even though many are not reading during the two week break, that I will see substantial growth. I usually do.

Teaching reading is relatively new to me, but I have been teaching remedial mathematics for eight years. Mathematics is my relative weakness; however, it may be in my DNA. My youngest son will soon graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering and dual minors in mathematics and physics. Students at my school, who test in the second to fourth grade level on their initial MAPS survey benchmark test, get me for twelve weeks to teach new material, fill in the gaps, or dust out the cobwebs using Globe Fearon’s Pre-Algebra. My “advanced” class is made up of students who have passed the first twelve weeks with me or have failed the same “advanced” class with another instructor using College Preparatory Mathematics curriculum, a literacy-based mathematic curriculum, designed to be used for seventh graders. The last week of school before we left on holiday (Christmas) break, my students increased their grade level mathematics from a minimum of six months in six weeks to a maximum of four years in six weeks. Those who made the most dramatic changes also made the most dramatic changes in organization and their own time on task. These were students who completed all of the problems required whether they were regular problems or literacy-based problems.

I have friends who are curriculum developers for Sopris West Publishers. Recently, they tested ninth graders at one of Denver’s larger, urban high schools. Most of these students tested at the fourth grade level in mathematics. When my friends discussed this with the students, they were not only embarrassed, but said that when the skills and concepts were taught to them, they didn’t realize that they were important skills or concepts that they needed to learn. Another finding from this group was that once the skill or concept was taught, there was never any review. I have also noticed that unless students are recent immigrants from Mexico, they probably do not know their multiplication facts. This is a consequence from a teaching philosophy that the process of multiplication should be learned but the facts are not necessary---the whole language version of mathematics. Not knowing these facts makes division and fractions, then algebra, nearly impossible to complete in a timely fashion. Much like reading, if you spend all the time decoding, you forget what you’re reading!

Another reason why I am so excited about returning to work, even though there is a semester of testing---CELA (language acquisition), CSAP and ACT in April, as well as, a boat load of special education meetings and paperwork: yuck!---is that we are going to start a new mathematics remediation program for those students who do not fall in the regular categories that I teach. For one week, we will pull students from their art class and they will get intervention in a math difficulty whether that is multiplication, division, fractions, decimals or integers (negative numbers). I really believe this may work!

I really love my work. I became a teacher so that I could qualify for a principal’s license. I have the principal’s license, but I’m still teaching!