Teacher's Desk: Seasoned Subs

Cool: I now recruit as well as teach. At my urging, the mother of one of our previous students became a substitute teacher at our school. I thought if she got a license and tried substitute teaching, it would give her flexibility and income. Lo and behold, it worked. She now earns more and can flex with doctor’s appointments for her mentally ill children. Now she substitutes all over Denver. She has run into the substitute annoyance several times now: rude employees and even ruder students.

When I was a substitute teacher several years ago, I really was lucky! Rarely did I suffer the indignities of a poorly run organization and bratty kids. Most schools know that substitutes need a list of school and/or classroom rules and procedures; access to a telephone (give them the outside line code); unlock the classroom door; tell them where the bathroom is and give them a stack of referral forms for the spring naughtiness syndrome (mostly found in middle schools and in some high schools) which abounds. Substitutes need to know the procedure for removing disruptive and rude students.

Parents: I would like to think that most of you would be absolutely embarrassed by your children’s behavior towards substitute teachers.

I have yet to figure out how an accomplished educator can manage to teach for 40 to 50 minutes (and in some cases 90) and not leave material for more than 20 minutes for their substitute! Teachers need to leave plans with instructions. I’m sure many teachers are like me and after leaving specific plans and having them ignored, tear up the substitute’s telephone number. But for those substitute teachers with diligence, having specific instructions is a godsend.

It is also the responsibility of the teacher to make her students aware of the consequence (stick or carrot) of inappropriate behavior prior to the substitute teacher’s visit. I usually give extra credit points for a positive report and deduct points from their grades for unwanted behavior.

My worst experience as a substitute, myself, was in a kindergarten classroom at a Montbello elementary school. I was pretty convinced the child was really an adult in a little person’s costume. No matter what, that one was going to graduate kindergarten and find himself immediately contained at Canyon City.

I really enjoyed my experiences at the Douglas County middle schools I “subbed” at, as well as, Hamilton Middle School, Gove Middle School, and Hill Middle School, a short walk from my home. At Hamilton, one of the teachers I regularly substituted for would allow me to plan the lesson and teach. I truly enjoyed it and the students were terrific too!

All too often, substitute teachers hear, “You’re nodda teacher, you’re just a sub.” These ignorant students fail to realize that the majority of substitute teachers are retired with more experience and accreditation than most of the teachers in the building!

Kathleen Kullback is a special educator at Colorado High School Charter with an MA in educational leadership and a former candidate for the Colorado state Board of Education.

Teacher's Desk: Year-Round Yes

Why does the performance of 16- and 17-year olds stagnate in both reading and mathematics, amid a 40-year trend of rising academic achievement for all ethnicities? (See Vincent Carroll's column in the 5/3 Denver Post.) Tom Boasberg, Denver’s new superintendent, is convinced we need to move away from the status quo, top-down, one-size-fits-all monopoly to a more flexible approach. I whole-heartedly agree.

The same day's Denver Post also published an editorial by Van Schoales from the Piton Foundation and Alan Gottlieb, editor of Education News Colorado. They truly hit the nail on the head as a way of stopping this stagnation: year-round schools.

The year-round school model has been used in Cherry Creek Public Schools and Douglas County Public Schools, but the reason had less to do with academic achievement and more to do with overcrowding. I see so many students that move three steps forward during the school year, but when summer ends, they moved two steps backward. No wonder high school students’ reading and mathematics skills do not improve.

Schoales and Gottlieb stated that Denver schools hold class 172 days, many countries top 200 days and some Asian nations like South Korea hold classes 240 days! Colorado requires charter schools to hold classes more days than district schools.

As a special educator, I tried to sign up special education students with generalized learning disabilities reading below grade level for summer school, but soon learned that the only special education students who take an extended year are cognitively disabled. I was advised that I not extend my students’ school year because the esteem issues associated with students of average cognitive ability attending summer school with students with cognitive disabilities is too severe. Then why not offer different classes for the learning disabled student?

If year round classes are good for cognitively disabled students, it seems to me that year round classes would give regular education students that needed boost of continuity, and aid in their achieving academic success. It just makes sense.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator at Colorado High School Charter with an MA in educational leadership and is a former candidate to the Colorado State Board of Education.

Teacher's Desk: Tuition Break Nada

There’s a personal angle when I read a story like the one today about 20 colleges and universities asking the federal government to allow illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates. I know three high school seniors where I teach whom this would help. Two of the students are special education students who will probably limit their post-secondary experiences to a certificate program at Emily Griffith Opportunity School, and the third has decided to attend college in Mexico. Even though I enjoy these students and know the parents of the young ladies well, I cannot condone illegal trafficking of human beings, nor the additional pressure placed on our infrastructure and natural resources by those who immigrate illegally.

Because I try to be kind while still holding this opinion, I gave the three families the business card of the immigration attorney upstairs, and one of the parents made an appointment. It was the same mother who had asked me to adopt her 21-year-old daughter, but she was going to pay for her needs. Fortunately, I had an easy out; we don’t legally adopt 21-year-olds! But that got me wondering what other illegal activities these folks who I felt were generally good people willing to do?

Obviously, they drive without licenses, do not buy car insurance, and many don’t have health insurance, so they use the emergency rooms at hospitals. Those same hospitals are required to have Spanish interpreters.

Per Texas case law, our schools are required to educate the legal and illegal alike, and unless the parents of these children are homeowners, we’re the ones who pay for it. We teach the children English, but until they grasp the language, it will be awhile before they are reading and writing at grade level. We hire staff to teach in Spanish. We hire teachers to test in Spanish. We provide interpreters for Spanish speaking parents. All this costs thousands of dollars to every school. Thousands of dollars that is no longer available for the general student population.

If we allow illegal students to attend our state colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates, the influx of Spanish speaking only college students will rise and costly services will likely be provided to them. We do not do the same for students with other native languages. We will become the destination for those who trespass our borders.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator with an M. A. in educational leadership and is a former candidate for the Colorado State Board of Education.

Teacher's Desk: Hurray for Rhee

Heckuva week with grades due, service learning for a day, new students, training, ACT planning, substitute plans, coffee with a school board member, and oh yeah, teaching. I had planned on attending the event with Michelle Rhee, Washington school superintendent, discussing her shakeup of DC public schools, but the weather and the end of Passover caught up with me and I missed it. However www.ednewscolorado.org has great reporting, including a video, of the Rhee event as held at the Denver News Agency last Thursday. Ms. Rhee, a Teach for America alum with no previous superintendent experience, made four major points about her DC reforms that should be looked at here and replicated. First, develop a teacher evaluation process that is non-political and can be used for training, as well as, assessing. She is making the evaluation non-political by having content and grade specialists do the observations several times a year. Next, terminate ineffective principals and teachers. Then offer teachers two different tracks. One eliminates tenure, but increases pay to over $131,000 per year. The other keeps tenure, but offers less salary. Close down ineffective district and charter schools, and finally, place private schools in the mix.

Washington, D. C. schools are 50% district schools, 30% charter schools, and 20% of the student population attend private schools on a district scholarship, or voucher. (Obama and the Democratic Congress are terminating the latter option, unfortunately.) When a poor D.C. student and a poor New York City student begin kindergarten, they are equal in skills, but by fourth grade, the D.C. student is is four years below grade level while the New York City student is two. Ms. Rhee knew she needed to take radical action and did so, to the dismay of many, and appreciation from D. C. families attending public schools.

Jill Conrad, the at-large member on the Denver Public Schools Board, and I sat down for coffee one morning this past week and spoke to many of these issues prior to Ms. Rhee’s visit to Colorado. She told me there was a committee looking into how we observe and evaluate teachers. They were looking at changes to make the observation and evaluation fair and not political. She agreed with me that we should discover what makes great public schools good and what makes great charter schools good and replicate it! We also agreed it begins with great leaders. Michelle Rhee certainly appears to be one of those!

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator with an M. A. in educational leadership and a former candidate for the State Board of Education.

Teacher's Desk: Secretary Snubs Us

It is too obvious why Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited Denver public schools this week: to boost Michael Bennet, Colorado’s newest U. S. senator and former DPS superintendent. But why were Bruce Randolph and Montclair Elementary singled out as exemplars of school reform? Not to take away from their attempts at reform, but their results with an urban population are not yet fully documented. Why were proven middle and high schools with consistent results of academic success using reform methods with similar school populations not mentioned? Simple. They are charter schools. Giving Bruce Randolph kudos for increasing time on task is dishonest when KIPP Sunshine Peak made that a requirement when they set up shop over five years ago when Bruce Randolph was deemed one of Denver Public Schools’ worst according to Jeremy P. Meyer, April 8, “Aggressive Schools to Reap Reward,” denverpost.com. When parents and educators do not provide quality instruction by insuring elementary students are performing at grade level or higher, longer days, weekends, and/or summer school is absolutely necessary to support students’ academic skills so they reach grade level proficiency. KIPP schools, Denver West Preparatory, and Denver School of Science and Technology have always had requirements of more time on task and rigorous academics. These schools expect students to grow to grade level proficiency in time to graduate from high school and be prepared for college success.

When will all district schools look at the success of many charter schools across Colorado serving diverse student bodies? Denver, Jefferson County, Aurora, and Adams County charter schools also serve the same diverse urban populations, but instead of making excuses, the charter educators are rolling up their sleeves and getting it done. District schools should be replicating the best of these schools immediately. The legislation is there to allow districts to give freedom from state,and district regulations and union policies to schools wishing to reform. Why aren’t more schools taking advantage of freedom? Freedom means taking risks and not making excuses. Few educational leaders have the ability and skills to take on this daunting task.

Florida, through NOVA University, and the University of Arkansas actually have charter school leadership classes, and a department of educational reform, respectively. Colorado Universities need to pick up the pace and begin leading in the area of charter school leadership and educational reform training. In order for Colorado to win the “Race To The Top” federal funding, our Universities, as well as, our schools and districts need to innovate.

Kathleen Kullback is a licensed special educator with an M.A. in Educational Leadership and a former candidate for the State Board of Education.