GAP ATTACK NCLB TARGET POPULATIONS: Strategies for Reaching

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GAP ATTACK!NCLB TARGET POPULATIONS Strategies
for Reaching Teaching African-American Youth

• Ann French Dr. Anthony R. Sanders
• District Support Facilitators
• Kentucky Department of Education
• Division of Federal Programs Equity
• Dr. Roger Cleveland, Director

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(Ice Breaker Activity)
Buddy Venns

• Ann French
• Ann is a graduate of Austin Peay and Western
  Kentucky Universities. Ann has served as a
  district level administrator for Logan County
  Schools. Her duties included professional
  development coordinator, special instructional
  programs supervisor, and leading the Professional
  Growth Academy for new teachers. Presently she
  works with KDE as District Support Facilitator.
• Anthony Sanders
• Anthony has served as an assistant
  superintendent superintendent intern in Daviess
  County, and has principal and teaching experience
  in Christian Hopkins Counties. He is a
  graduate of Western Kentucky Murray State
  Universities, . and holds a Ph.D. from the
  University of Louisville. Presently he works
  with KDE as District Support Facilitator.

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Venn Diagrams
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Background Considerations

• When students leave high school barely knowing
  how to read, their future, and that of the nation
  is in jeopardy. Our sense of danger and moral
  outrage should be particularly great when those
  students are non-Asian minorities. A decent
  society does not turn a blind eye to such racial
  and ethnic inequalities.
• Abigail Thernstrom, No Excuses
• " it is a moral imperative, no child ought to
  graduate in Kentucky schools as a novice
  learner."
• Gene Wilhoit, Kentucky Commissioner of
  Education

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Background (cont.)

• PROBLEM Students who come to school lacking the
  discipline and the values that those whom the
  schools have helped so much in the past.
• Schools should not receive a blanket indictment
  for this issue, though it is important that they
  accept responsibility for the concern and make
  changes.
• The last thirty (30) years have been spent trying
  to educate the poor. The effort has worked with
  other groups.
• IT HAS NOT WORKED FOR THE BLACK/AFRICAN-AMERICAN
  IN POVERTY!
• Schools failure with this population has not
  been intentional or malicious.

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How schools have failed the Black/African-American
In Poverty

• The relationship between education and economic
  well-being has not been made clear (by schools).
• Educated people may have poor origins, but seldom
  remain so.
• Uneducated people tend to remain poor despite how
  much money has come to them

• Theres been a failure to explain why they are
  poor
• Poverty has more to do with values and choices
  than anything else.
• Lifestyles
• Schools have lowered standards and accepted or
  even encouraged mediocrity.
• Given in rather than demand that children adopt
  the patterns of those who are successful

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Perceptions
Attitude
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Expectations
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Characteristics of Perceived

• Low Achievers

• High Achievers

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The Self Fulfilling Prophecy

• TEACHER EXPECTATIONS
• TEACHER BEHAVIOR-ACTIONS
• STUDENT BEHAVIOR
• TEACHER EXPECTATIONS
• What Teachers Expect from Students They Generally
  Get!

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ATTITUDE (Student)

• A greater enemy to black children than poverty,
  history, racism, a white curriculum, or
  teachers who dont understand them.
• Must be compatible with educational goals they
  seek.
• CAN BE CHANGED
• Some have negative attitude, but not ALL!
• Some successful students allow negative attitudes
  of others to hold them back.
• acting white, black disloyalty
• Arrogance (lack of humility misguided notions
  about race)
• Anger (though displaced)

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Conquering ATTITUDE

• There must be a teaching strategy to address and
  change each attitude that keeps African-American
  students from being successful in class
• Not just a strategy about what one knows, but
  also about who and what one is
• Educated people
• Are expected to know/obey the law, use common
  courtesies, have respect for others, and attempt
  to settle disputes without violence.
• Where there is life, there is hope for the
  amendment of life. - Unknown-

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Cultural Pursuit Activity
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Approaching Black/African-American Culture

• Culture has a place in school
• Culture of children should never be ignored
• Teachers should respect and appreciate culture
• Using it to teach within context of curriculum or
  goals
• Understanding culture can be a pathway to more
  effective teaching

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CULTURE

• Should not excuse students of minority groups
  from rigors of academic pursuits
• Damaging to students when used this way
• Is impacted by economic, social, political, and
  even technological advances
• Cultural practices sometimes become obsolete in
  favor of newer and better ways of operating on
  the environment

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Traditional Black Culture

• Strong religious convictions
• Close-knit groups
• Helped and looked out for each other
• Worked hard

• Embraced education in attempt to make sure life
  would be better for their children and grand
  children

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REMEMBER! SOMENOT ALL!
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Contrasting Culture

• Sagging pants
• Caps hoodlum look
• Disrespect for authority
• Anti-education attitude
• Does a disservice to students displaying such
  behaviors and using it in the name of respecting
  black culture.

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Minute Paper
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Building Relationships with African-American Youth

• Relate to their plight
• Refuse to use their circumstances as excuse for
  low expectations, inferior work, or detrimental
  behavior
• Understand what they are going through
• Without allowing them to use present
  circumstances as excuse for not doing work
• Care about them personally and communicate that
  caring
• Students dont care what you know, until they
  know that you care - Maxwell, et al
• Stand up to them and for them
• -Demand respect. Give respect.

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Building relationships

• Look beyond their faults and see their potential
• Teachers must believe that they can learn and
  have a noble vision for them in todays society
• Promote high expectations and have a plan to help
  them achieve the expectations.

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Building Relationships (cont.)

• Principles of Whale Done The Power of Positive
  Relationships! (Ken Blanchard, 2002)
• Build Trust
• Accentuate the positive
• When mistakes occur, redirect the energy
• ABCs of Performance
• A Activator (whatever gets performance going)
• B Behavior (the performance that occurs)
• C Consequence (your response to the
  performance)
• No response negative response
• redirection positive response (most powerful)!

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Maintaining Relationships

• Whale Done!
• Redirection response
• Describe error promptly clearly without blame
• Show its negative impact
• If appropriate, take the blame for not making
  task clear
• Go over task in detail making sure its clearly
  understood
• Express continuing trust and confidence in the
  person

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Maintaining Relationships (cont)

• The Whale Done response!
• Praise students immediately
• Be specific about what they did right or almost
  right
• Share your positive feelings about what they did
• Encourage them to keep up the good work
• BE SINCERE!

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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (NCLB)

• The unprecedented sense of urgency is
  unmistakeable in No Child Left BehindThe central
  aim is to close the achievement gapso that no
  child is left behind.
• Abigail Thernstrom

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What is the achievement gap?
The achievement gap is a persistently pervasive
and significant disparity in educational
achievement and attainment among groups of
students as determined by a standardized measure.
When analyzed according to race, gender,
socioeconomic status, ethnicity and disabilities,
achievement disparities negatively impact
educational outcomes for these groups of children
on a consistent basis. Modified from Pearson,
2000
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First step in narrowing the gap
Is to

• ADMIT THAT EXISTS!

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Second step

• Be honest about how it developed and who must
  participate in closing it!

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MAIN CONCERNFOR ALARM

• That the gap is widening rather than narrowing!

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The data on African-American achievement from
the Education Trust, Inc. (April, 2005)
http//www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/974D0A21-0E
3A-415F-B952-643ACE44718C/0/masterach2005.ppt
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Issues with African-American Males

• View of education
• Sissyish, condescending, denial of blackness and
  manhood
• The data reveals
• 70 percent of entering 9th-grade black boys do
  not graduate with their peers.
• While black boys represent 8.6 percent of total
  K-12 enrollment, they make up
• 40 percent of special education placements
• 22 percent of expulsions
• 23 percent of suspensions.
• Their juvenile incarceration rate is three times
  that of white youth
• the unemployment rate is six times the national
  average.

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Issues with African-American Males (cont)

• Rosa Smith presented a distinguished lecture to
  the national conference attendees at AASA 2005 on
  Black Boys The Litmus Test and Hope for the
  Promises of Public Education.
• Smith is president (former school superintendent)
  of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Schott Foundation
  for Public Education, whose campaign is to
  significantly alter the distressing state of
  young African-American males.

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Issues with African-American Males (cont)

• In her article in The School Administrator, Rosa
  Smith provided many ideas. They can be
  summarized, she said at the lecture, into one
  strategy
• Treat black boys as if they were gifted.
• This means assigning them the best teachers
• providing smaller classes
• engaging them in a high-performing curriculum
• communicating frequently and respectfully with
  their parents and when they act up, saying
  Thats just how these kids are.

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Issues with African-American Males (cont)

• Smith referred to Colin Powells remarks at the
  AASA national conference several years back in
  which he called education a matter of life or
  death for young blacks.
• To advocate for them, Smith acknowledged, takes
  courage. There will be times when you are
  standing there all by yourself, she said.
• School leaders have the power to determine if
  black boys will enjoy the benefits of our free
  society, she said, adding, You get to decide if
  you are going to be a freedom maker or a
  terminator.

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Issues with African-American Males (cont)

• Underneath all of the excuses, though, Smith
  said, "it is our behavior and thinking that
  contributes to the status of black boys."
• She believes the perceptions people "carry around
  in their heads about black male students" are the
  reason so many of them are placed in special
  education. The route to prison too often starts
  in the classroom, she said, "because we choose to
  have black boys arrested instead of using
  alternative interventions."
• Her primary recommendations are to provide
  quality pre-school programs for all needy
  children and to adequately fund K-12 education.

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What to do with the boyz?

• Encourage and build up their self-worth
• They usually have high self-esteem (translated
  coolness)
• Help them develop from boyz to men
• Helping them to deal with the crises involved
  in becoming educated in a larger and different
  world society
• Both society and themselves will have different
  expectations as they grow older
• Help them become comfortable in America and with
  the American dream their contributions are
  valuable to the nation.

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Leadership Lesson

• School success for black male students and other
  students most vulnerable to school failure
  depends on leaders willing to distance themselves
  from business as usual by thinking differently,
  talking differently, and behaving differently.

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Issues of African-American Females

• View of education socialization
• Not always inclined to be athletes, nor invited
  to join the social cliques
• Create their own cliques
• Sometimes female gangs
• Present picture of hostility and rejection to
  outsiders

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Strategies designed to increase achievement of
African-American Youth

• There is no magic bullet! The successful
  strategies used in good teaching are also good
  for these youth!
• Consider first Assessing the classroom
  environmental culture For example in visual
  displays
• Ideal The teacher visually portrays males and
  females in both traditional and non-traditional
  roles, and includes representatives of various
  races and cultures in pictorial displays
• Acceptable The teacher portrays neutral visual
  images in pictorial displays
• Hergert Rose, 1994

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Strategies designed to increase achievement of
African-American Youth

• Unacceptable
• Teacher visually portrays people only in
  traditional roles for their race, sex, or culture
• Teacher portrays only one sex, race, or culture
  in visual displays
• The teachers visual displays portray sex, race,
  or ethnic stereotypes

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Strategies Activities to Address Achievement
Gap for Student Sub-groups

• Frequent assessments
• Cooperative learning
• Real world applications
• Classroom structure
• Time for reflection and discussion
• ESS daytime
• Psychomotor Kinesthetic activity
• Service learning projects
• Use power verbs

• Word walls
• Enforce participation in class
• Infuse humor and passion in instruction
• Analyze student work and conference with student
• Use charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, quotes, and
  biographies
• Discuss current events and issues

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Challenge Activity Experiencing the Gap!

• Sagan 2___3
• Kimi 1___3
• Aaron 0___3
• If I give them all the same thing, will they all
  reach the same goal?

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Give all students what they need!
Sagan 2 1 3 Kimi 1 2 3 Aaron 0 3 3
Differentiate (tailor) instruction!
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Other Strategies Activities

• Refer to packet

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Jenkins Tips on Teaching African American
Children (abridged)

• High expectations demand excellence
• Dont hesitate to call home
• Lead, dont follow
• Dont make or entertain excuses for failure

• Conspire to educate black children
• Dont insist on overnight successit didnt occur
  overnight
• Dont get caught up in endless discussions about
  race or racism
• Be yourself and teach them dont pretend with
  children

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ACTION PLANAnalyzing Classroom Strategies
Using Plus /Delta
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DEVELOPING THE GAP ATTACK ACTIONPLAN
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The Eagles who Thought They were Chickens
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CLOSURE REFLECTION
EVALUATION COMMITMENT

• Revisiting The Radar Screen
• What have you learned today?

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References

• Blanchard, Ken (2002). Whale Done! New York
  Free Press
• Cole, Robert. (1995). Educating everybodys
  children Diverse teaching strategies for
  diverse learners. Alexandria, VA ASCD
• Hergert, Leslie Rose, Raymond (1994). Profile
  of an Equitable Classroom. Andover, MA The
  Network, Inc.
• Jenkins, William L. (2004). Understanding and
  educating African-American Children (12th ed.).
  St. Louis, MO William Jenkins Enterprises.
• Reglin, Gary L. (1998). Achievement for African
  American Students Strategies for the Diverse
  Classroom. Bloomington, IN National Educational
  Press.
• Smith, Rosa (2005). The School Administrator
  (January) remarks during speech at AASA
  Conference (Feb. 2005)
• Thernstrom, Abigail Thernstrom, Stephan.
  (2003). No Excuses, Closing the Achieving Gap.
  Simon Schuster.

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Additional Resources

• Association for Supervision Curriculum
  Development. (1995). Educating everybodys
  children Diverse teaching strategies for
  diverse learners. Alexandria, VA ASCD
• http//www.schottfoundation.org
• Instructional Strategies Video Clips
  http//ali.apple.com/ali_sites/deli/exhibits/10004
  05/The_Lesson.html (National Board for
  Professional Teaching Standards)
• Instructional Strategies Video Clip
  http//main.wgbh.org/ton/programs/7702_02.html
• Gay, Geneva. (2000). Culturally responsive
  teaching Theory, research, practice. NY
  Teachers College Press.
• Polite, Vernon Davis, James (1999). African
  American males in school and society Practices
  policies for effective education. NY
  Teachers College.

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Contact Information

• Ann French
• Kentucky Department of Education
• Division of Federal Programs
• Instructional Equity
• 517 Dodson Lane
• Russellville, KY 42276
• [phone]
• amfrench_at_kde.state.ky.us

• Dr. Anthony Sanders
• Kentucky Department of Education
• Division of Federal Programs
• Instructional Equity
• C/O Christian County Board of
• Education
• P. O. Box 609 200 Glass Avenue
• Hopkinsville, KY 42241-0609
• [phone], x6641
• [phone] Mobile
• asanders_at_kde.state.ky.us

District Support Facilitators