Teacher World

I feel compelled to share a young man’s inspirational story with you; a story of courage in the face of tragedy, and determination in the face of great odds. It’s a story about Eric LeGrand, and this story begins on October 16, 2010.

It was during a normal football game between Rutgers and Army, that Eric, a junior for Rutgers, was injured making a tackle on a kickoff return in the fourth quarter of the game. Eric told ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi in an interview later that while he was lying on the field after his injury, he had “the fear of death,” and he believed he “could pass out and die here.”

You can see for yourself in this video of the tackle and the reaction by the officials and coaches on the field, that Eric’s injuries were very serious. He told ESPN that he tried to give the crowd a signal to let them know that he was okay when he was being taken off the field. However, when he tried to give a simple thumbs-up signal, he found it impossible because it felt like “1,000 pounds was on this thumb.”

Later, when he was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center, he learned why this simple movement was so difficult. He was initially diagnosed paralyzed from the neck down, and had emergency surgery to stabilize his spine.

Rutgers coach, Greg Schiano, visited him before and after surgery, and reported, “Eric’s spirits were as good as you can expect. He was cognizant of me being there, his mom, everybody. He’s a fighter. As I talked to our team, we’re just going to believe that Eric LeGrand is going to walk onto that field again with us. That’s what we believe.”

“He believes that he’s going to be up and moving again,” Coach Shiano said. “There’s no doubt in his mind.”

After two weeks at Hackensack, Eric was transferred to Kessler Institute, which is one of the nation’s leaders in spinal cord rehabilitation. Eventually, his doctors upgraded his condition to an incomplete paralysis. In November, he was taken off a ventilator, and he is able to breathe on his own.

In December, it was announced by the Rutgers University that Eric had some feelings in his hands. Then on January 6, 2011, Huffington Post reported that Eric not only had movement in his shoulders, but he was experiencing sensation throughout his body.

Rutgers University set up a fund for Eric and his family called the LeGrand Believe Fund. The name of the fund is inspired by Eric himself who refuses to believe that he will not walk again or play football again. (Anyone who would like to contribute to this fund can follow this link.)

When you follow the link, please take the time to listen to the press conference with Eric to get a true sense of what this young man is made of. In the interview, he was asked about his progress and he explained that he was having contractions in the muscles in his chest and in his biceps and was hoping to be able to start feeding himself.

When asked if he ever wonders or says to himself, “Why me?” he said, “I don’t really think that to myself, cause I believe God has a reason for this whole situation; He’s not gonna put me through something I can’t handle, so I don’t really ask myself why.”

Eric went on to say, “Right now, I’m doing pretty well. I’m motivated, I have a great family, my great girlfriend, Reanne, and just, we’re all in this together.”

And he talked about the outpouring of support he has received from the LeGrand Believe Fund, saying it is more than he ever would have imagined. He said, “I’m very blessed, and I’m very thankful that this is happening. And I hope I can inspire a lot of people to never stop believing.”

He was asked if there was a point when he decided that he needed to face his situation in a positive way, and Eric told of what was probably the scariest time in his life, laying on that football field, and his coach telling him to leave his situation in God’s hands; to keep praying and to be positive. He said that he recalled at this point all of his coach’s reminders that they would all face adversity of some kind that they would have to rise above. Eric said it was at this moment, laying on that field, unable to move, that he realized this was the adversity he would have to face. He didn’t know what it was yet or where it would lead him, but he was going to face it positively and just get through it.

This is the young man who I want you to know about. A young man whose dreams were derailed with one wrong tackle, but who refuses to believe that his dreams are dead. A young man who has already gone beyond his doctors’ expectations, and plans to go even farther. A young man who inspires us all to believe in ourselves and our abilities, even when those abilities have been severely hampered.

On Saturday, an unseasonably cold and snowy day, at the opening moments of Rutgers game against West Virginia, Eric’s teammates and coaches honored this young man. Dressed in his Rutgers jersey, with Coach Shiano beside him and his teammates behind him, Eric operated his motorized wheelchair through the Rutgers tunnel carrying an axe across his lap in honor of the team’s battle cry, leading his team out on the field to the cheers and support from thousands who have heard his story and whose lives have been touched by this amazing man.

Eric LeGrand believes, and because he does, a young man barely a year removed from a spinal cord injury has shown us all how to respond to adversity and will continue to inspire others who face the impossible because of his simple belief that nothing is impossible with faith and the support of those who love you. I’m certain that those of us who saw Eric’s triumphant entrance onto his school’s football field, either in person or online, were deeply touched and grateful for this young man’s great faith.

And I know that I am not the only one who wants desperately to believe that Eric will someday run through that tunnel with his teammates to play the game he loves so much, and to celebrate what can be accomplished if you just believe…

Teacher-World's Blog Eric LeGrand, Eric LeGrand Believe Fund, Rutgers University football, spinal cord injury

Several differing news reports came out on Thursday regarding the Michigan Department of Education’s proposal for new teacher certification rules.

One report stated that the Department of Education was considering a move to revoke under-performing teachers’ provisional teaching licenses after one year of poor reviews. In this report, Superintendent Mike Flanagan, Michigan’s superintendent of public instruction, argued that one year wasn’t long enough. Instead, it was reported that he pushed for revocation to occur after three years to give teachers time to improve.

In another news report, Flanagan reassures teachers revoking licenses is not his intent. This report claims that in a statement to the educators across the state, he denied his desire to implement a certification system that would threaten a teacher’s license based on their annual reviews.

This report does state that the proposal allows for immediate action, but according to Flanagan, that does not involve losing a license. In his statement, he wrote, “While I feel that it is vitally important that every teacher be effective in the classroom, everyone deserves a chance to improve and become effective in the most appropriate and supportive situations.”

He went on to explain that the language that the Michigan Department of Education put out which proposed the possibility of losing a license after one year would be changed. Another proposal made by this department which is under review, according to this report, is teachers losing a provisional teaching certificate if they are deemed ineffective for three consecutive years.

Yet a third report claimed that the Department of Education added language that was stronger than the actual proposal stating that teachers who received ineffective evaluations for three consecutive years and held a provisional certificate could lose their certification. This one didn’t even mention the possibility of a teacher losing their certification after only one year of receiving a poor review.

According to this report, Flanagan’s memo to teachers claimed that this language would be removed before the proposed rules would take effect. This report said that in spite of the language in the proposed rules that would make it possible to revoke their license, he would not do so. In the memo, he stated, “I do not want to have a teacher certification system that threatens an educator’s license on the basis of annual evaluations.”

There are so many discrepancies here that I am not sure what was actually proposed and what these teachers actually face under these changes. I can tell you that, whatever the real changes are, they are being called for in order to address laws that the Legislature adopted requiring schools to fire those teachers who are receiving poor ratings on their annual evaluations.

And I can also tell you that the spokesman for the Michigan Education Association, Doug Pratt, said that stripping a teacher’s license over an evaluation that may not have even by done properly would be “a career ender.” Pratt said, “You can’t get another job in Michigan, and you’ll have a hard time getting a job teaching anywhere else.”

And last, I can definitively report that Michigan’s Department of Education has scheduled several public hearings throughout the state to hear comments regarding their proposed changes. (This might be a good time for those of you who teach in Michigan to get some of these confusing details figured out.)

As I contemplated the various differences between the articles I read, I pondered what might have caused the little, nagging disparities. I’m just guessing, but I imagine that during the talking stage, the idea of yanking a teacher’s license due to a poor annual evaluation probably sounded like a good solution to these people who are trying to “clean out” ineffective teachers. But I wonder if, when the proposal was brought to light, it sounded like what it really is: very harsh and punitive with virtually no opportunity to allow for improvement. And it seems that each subsequent report after that required a quick rewriting so it sounded less like a sledge-hammer proposal and more like a let’s-try-to-help-them-improve proposal.

In the meantime, I hope we will all be able to eventually figure out what the heck is happening in Michigan’s schools.

Educational Reform, teacher evaluations, Teacher-World's Blog annual teacher reviews, Michigan Department of Education, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, teacher licenses

If you follow my blogs at all, you know that I am an advocate for strong anti-bullying policies. What just happened in my very own state on October 17 is a perfect example of just how rampant and violent bullying has become, and makes me more determined than ever to continue to be annoyingly vocal, if necessary, about bullying of any kind. Why am I so outraged as I write this blog? Well, let me lay out the facts of the matter because I believe they speak for themselves.

At Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, Ohio, a city about 50 miles south of Columbus, an innocent, young, gay man was attacked when he entered his classroom by another student who was clearly waiting for him to arrive. The horrendous event, which was captured on a cell phone video and later posted to Facebook, shows a boy waiting until his unnamed victim enters the room, at which point the violent attack begins.

Rebecca Collins, the boy’s mother, told ABC’s affiliate WSYX in Ohio exactly what happened. “The boy stood there and waited and waited on him. As soon as he walked in the door, the boy hits. [My son] walks away — ‘What did I do? Why are they doing this?’ and keeps walking away. He turns around and tries to defend himself and then he tries to get away and the boy grabs him and beats the living crap out of him.”

Her son told them, “I covered myself and shielded my body, and he kept hitting. Nobody did anything.”

Am I alone when I say that the victim’s words chill me to the bone? First, who would be so hate-filled that they would attack someone so publicly simply for being gay? One can only assume that this student deliberately chose to attack this boy in school to have an audience; to make him feel more of a man, and to make sure it was documented through a cell phone for the world to see.

And how could a room full of students, who you can see milling around in the video, do nothing to stop the beating of a fellow student? That frightens me even more than the beating itself. No one felt compelled to stand up for another human being who was being beaten, not for anything he has done but for what he is? No one in that classroom felt indignant, horrified, something that even remotely resembles compassion for a victim?

And, finally, what kind of person would calmly video-tape the whole attack for the express purpose of posting it later to Facebook in order to further humiliate this young man? There is a sickness in our nation; a perverse preoccupation within our young people to beat someone up and capture it on video to share online, as though it is something to be proud of. Whoever took this cell phone video is culpable as well.

Collins reported that two of her son’s teeth were broken due to this malicious attack, and he may also have suffered from a concussion. “It turns my stomach,” she said, “It’s my son. I don’t care, and they did it just because he’s a homosexual.”

So, what happened to these students? Well, the boy who attacked Collins’ son served a three-day suspension, and there was no mention of any other disciplinary action for the video-taper or the bystanders who did nothing to help this boy. Really?

James Osborne, the principal at the high school, said, “We have never had an incident of this nature. I am not saying we have never had any reports of bullying– we have just as much as any school. But we’ve never had anything of this magnitude.” He also admitted that although the school has an anti-bullying policy in place, it does not have a gay-straight alliance.

I am curious how a school with an anti-bullying policy in place would not be much tougher on both the attacker and those who, by their apparent compliance since they did nothing to intervene, seem to bear guilt as well. The message that this principal sent was extremely wimpy, as far as I am concerned. Will it stop future attacks of this nature? I think not.

In my opinion, Osborne let his students down when he didn’t take this situation more seriously and use it to make some necessary changes to their current anti-bullying policy. First, treat this situation as a criminal act, which it was, and be tougher on the disciplinary consequences. Second, start dealing with the obvious issues in that school in regards to LGBT students. Get some dialogue going, get a gay-straight alliance in place so that students like this victim have a group that supports them, and get counselors and staff members to work with these students to discuss tolerance (and that means tolerance of all students who might be different in some way) and send the clear message that this behavior will not be tolerated in the future. Teach your students how to deal with bullies as an observer. Encourage and reward students who join together to stop bullying when they see it taking place.

There was fertile ground here; an opportunity to take a terrible situation and use it as a wake-up call for change. Instead, there was a slap on the wrist and an apparent indifference towards those who just watched the mayhem occur.

And apparently Union-Scioto High School is not alone in its attitude towards LGBT students. GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network reports that one in four LGBT students have experienced some kind of assault in Ohio each year. Data from its 2009 National Climate Survey showed that these students were “punched, kicked or injured with a weapon” at least once in that year because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, almost 61% of LGBT students in Ohio experienced some form of harassment or reported being threatened by other students through emails, text messaging, or through postings on social networking sites.

Collins’ son can attest to that. He told reporters that he has been bullied regularly and that a recent comment: “Check out the definition of a faggot” appeared on a posting with his picture on Facebook.

Well, just like me, Rebecca Collins is outraged by the manner in which this attack against her son was handled, and she has decided to seek some real justice. She has filed criminal charges against her son’s bully, claiming that what he did was a hate crime. No arrests have been made at this time, but the Ross County Sheriff’s office is now investigating the attack.

Rebecca summarized the situation quite well when she said, “Just for all the people out there who have hate in their heart — they need to let it go. People are going to be who they are.”

And she is right, but until society gets that, they will need to be taught. And schools, just like Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, need to take the necessary steps to ensure that students like Rebecca’s son can safely attend their schools without fear of harassment or physical attack.

Bullying, LGBT youths Chillicothe, GLSEN, LGBT bullying, Ohio, Rebecca Collins, Union-Scioto High School

It’s that exciting time in Western New York, where the best girls soccer teams are getting all revved up to compete in the upcoming regional playoffs. And no team was more excited than Holland High, that is, until their hopes were dashed, and they learned that they have been disqualified on a pretty insignificant technicality, or so it would seem to most of us. But apparently not to the New York state officials who refused to budge.

Usually a ban of this nature might be chalked up to some kind conduct unbecoming to a team, but that can certainly not be said of these girls. According to their coaches, this is a group of young women who take school and soccer seriously. No members have ever spent any part of a school day in detention, they have never gotten in trouble for drinking on the weekends, and they have completed the whole regular season without earning even one yellow card. On top of all of that, in their regular season they had a 15-2 record. Not bad, right?

So, what gives, you might be asking? What is keeping the Dutchwomen from going on to regional playoffs? This may sound really bizarre, but the technicality which got them booted was that they played one game too many! Terrible, right?

Apparently, two years ago New York state officials restricted all varsity schedules to 16 games in an effort to cut costs. And apparently, the Holland High School athletic department did make the mistake of scheduling a 17th game. But is it fair, even though the regulation states that any team which plays more than the 16 allowed games is deemed ineligible for state competition, to punish the girls for a clerical mistake made by the athletic department?

Well, the athletic department and the principal of Holland High School didn’t think it seemed fair at all, and following due process, they petitioned the New York State Public High School Athletic Association to overturn their decision. However, in a teleconference on Tuesday, the appeal was denied, and the decision stands, leaving the Dutchwomen out in the cold.

Section VI Girls Soccer Chairman Chris Durr told the Buffalo News, “Unfortunately a mistake was made and the consequences are severe. I know it was an honest mistake, not something they tried to do. They had a great team, great players; they went to regionals last year and had a great team coming back.” But the answer remained, no!

A very somber James Biryla, Holland High School’s principal, told WGRZ News, “On this cold and rainy night, I am saddened to say that all of our efforts and our appeal to the State Athletic Association, our appeal was denied. Which essentially means that’s the end of the line and our girls will not be playing soccer in post season play today.”

Biryla explained that the girls and their parents were being told the distressing news by their coaches and other administrators at the same time that he was making the official news announcement.

When asked if Biryla felt there was a lesson in all of this, he replied, “I’m hoping that the lesson is that maybe the state would look to see how they put out their consequences. For our students to take the punishment for the clerical, adult error, it’s just not fair, and I think that was one thing that the state did reflect to us, that maybe they need to look at that piece of the rules and the consequences.”

Unfortunately, it’s the end of the line for the Dutchwomen, no matter how unfair the decision seems; a decision which couldn’t help but leave these girls feeling frustrated and hurt. “We don’t blame anyone, we just want to play,” Holland player Candis Kapuscinski told WGRZ.

And her teammate, Katherine Shanahan told the NBC affiliate, “I can’t express how much I want to play with them and take this to the state finals.”

Sad news for a team that has worked so hard! I’m not sure that they are getting any positive lesson from the decision right now, but clearly this is about following the letter of the law or all your hard work is for naught. Unfortunately, the girls are paying the price for something that was out of their control for a regulation which they probably didn’t even know about, making this decision very hard to swallow.

Teacher-World's Blog high school girls soccer, Holland High School, New York, New York State Public High School Athletic Association, state playoffs

Yesterday, I was at my beauty salon getting my hair done and had to spend some of that time under the hair drier, so I picked up a People magazine that was sitting there to kill the time. Little did I know that during those 15 minutes, I would enjoy one of the most inspirational stories I have ever read. And I knew that I would have to share this awesome story with all of you. So, sit back as I tell you about Sherrie Gahn, and when I do, I hope you will feel free to let the tears flow just as I do every time I listen to this truly remarkable woman.

Sherrie Gahn is the principal of Whitney Elementary in Las Vegas, a district where nearly 85% of her students are homeless. In a city with 12.1 % unemployment, the highest foreclosure rate in the whole country, and one out of every nine households receiving foreclosure notices, things are pretty bleak.

“When they leave here on a daily basis, we don’t know where they’re going. Their environment changes every day. Some days they may live in an apartment, some days they’re living in a hotel/motel, some days they may be on the streets. We don’t know where they’re going to go,” said Sherrie.

“I thought that I saw the ultimate poverty when I got here eight years ago and every year it has gotten worse and the recession made it ten times worse.”

She told CBS News, that the life-changing moment for her was when she saw kids stuffing ketchup packets into their pockets. When she asked the staff at the school why the children were taking ketchup packets home, she was told that they take them home so that they can eat that night by making ketchup soup for dinner.

This is when she realized that she had to do more than just make sure these students were learning. As she explained, she had to give these children self-esteem and a sense of safety.

“My goal was, if I can take that off their plate; if I can make them come to school and feel safe, and warm, and they have clothes, and just like any other child, and they’re on the same level playing field as any other child in school, then they can learn. I guess it’s sort of that fairy tale that, you know, you go to school and you get a new backpack, you get new clothes. Christmas, you get presents, and at birthday you get presents and a cake. And these kids don’t get that. It’s huge. It’s your self-esteem. It’s who you are. So, I decided to do it. I decided to give them those things,” she tearfully explained.

Gahn said, “I told the parents that I would give them whatever they need. All I need them to do is give me their children and let me teach them. In turn, I will give you food and clothes and we will take them to the eye doctor. I will pay your rent, pay your utilities, but keep your child here.” She said she agreed to do all of these things, “as long as you give me your child, and then help raise that child as a person of character.”

Due to the daily donations of local businesses and 500 donors, children at Whitney Elementary School get free clothes, free bread to take home to their families, and even free haircuts. Due to a functioning food bank staffed by several volunteers, students get food to take home on the weekends as well.

Additionally, the school has provided financial assistance to families who have overdue bills, have helped families keep their homes, have helped students to get the glasses they need, and have even, according to Shirley Hernandez, whose grandchildren go to school at Whitney, given families what they needed to have a Christmas.

Aside from the most obvious impact that Sherrie and her host of donors and volunteers have had on this community, students have also made gains academically. Test scores have doubled in reading proficiency on state standardized tests since Sherrie became the principal, a result, she says, of students’ needs being met and the new hope that her students have for their future.

“They have food in their bellies that they would not have had, they have clothes on their back they wouldn’t have had and for the first time someone believes in them. It’s beyond food and clothing,” she said.

Of the children who have been placed in Sherrie’s care, she says, “This does not define who they are. They can be better. And if I can give them that, and teach them that, and show them that, then I’ve done my job.”

And she makes them this promise, “I tell every fifth grade class, if you make it through junior high, and you make it through high school, and you can’t afford to go to college, you come see me, and I’ll make sure you go to college.” She went on to tell CBS News that the school has a small trust fund that has been started for just this purpose.

When CBS asked her what her success rate is, she tearfully said, “The look in their face that I made their life better. That’s my success rate when they hug me and thank me for the food, the clothes. Then I know it’s a good day.”

Sherrie recently appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where she was awarded a $100,000 check from Target for the children at her school, and each child received a backpack with reading materials to help these students improve their reading skills. Those of you who are interested might want to send a donation to help this amazing woman help her amazing children. Or if you would like to make a more significant, long-term commitment, you might want to consider adopting a class and working alone or with a group to fulfill a classroom’s needs. If so, follow this link.

This is the ultimate example of service and dedication, and the impact that this woman, her staff, and volunteers are making in this impoverished community is truly inspirational! Bless you, Sherrie, and bless these children whose lives you are transforming!

state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog Ellen DeGeneres, homeless, impoverished, Las Vegas, Principal Sherrie Gahn, Whitney Elementary

Currently a delicious competition is taking place in six cities across the United States; a competition which pits high school students against each other to judge who can serve up the healthiest lunch options to their fellow students.

In this competition, called Cooking Up Change, students from public high schools with vocational culinary programs in Chicago: Denver; Jacksonville, Florida; St. Louis; Washington, D.C.; and Winston-Salem will compete in teams of six to produce the tastiest, healthiest lunch to serve to the students in their school. Each team, however, can only spend about $1 per lunch, and to make it even more challenging, they have to order all of their ingredients from their school system’s food supplier.

Rochelle Davis is the founder of Healthy Schools Campaign which is a nonprofit organization with a two-fold goal: to make healthier school lunches and to create a safer school environment. Of the students who compete, she explained, “They use and develop a lot of skills. They learn to work with a team, prepare and plan a menu idea, and [test] their food. They have to get a nutritional analysis done, and present their meal to culinary professionals.”

The team that wins from each of the six cities will compete against each other in the spring at the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C.

Dora Marron, who is a senior at North Grand High School in Chicago, says that her classmates get excited about school lunches as a result of this program. “A lot of us are not interested in the food that they serve us; in this competition we can give them an idea of what we want. Hopefully, we win, and they’ll serve our food to us.”

In Chicago, the program is run out of 17 public schools which have vocational culinary programs. And many of the students from Marron’s team last year were inspired to go to culinary school after this competition, a goal that Marron shares as well.

She explained that this competition is excellent experience for potential culinary majors who get the opportunity, not only to have their food judged by professionals, but also, “I get to understand what they want from us, they give us honest opinions-if it’s so-so, they’ll tell us,” Marron explained.

She said that it is similar to being on the Food Network. “When we do our presentation, we have to have a sense of professionalism, speak correctly and clearly, and we have to explain exactly what we’ve made.”

And Davis emphasized the importance of the program in getting students to start thinking more carefully about making healthier choices in their food selection. It also puts the focus on nutrition in poorer communities where, surprisingly, childhood obesity rates are so much higher. Davis explains, “It’s not logical that the same group of kids [living in poverty] would be overweight. But fresh and healthier foods are more expensive and not available in those communities. Making sure school meals are healthy and teaching kids about health and wellness are of critical importance.”

Congress has increased the funding of school lunches by six cents a lunch, and of course, Michelle Obama has tackled the issues of healthier school lunches and reducing child obesity in our nation. But most schools don’t have the trained personnel or the facilities to do what needs to be done to truly improve school lunches. And Davis points out that six cents per lunch is not nearly enough to improve school lunches nationwide.

Most communities would probably be astounded by what qualifies in many of our school cafeterias as healthy and nutritious food. But with districts hurting financially, how can they be expected to come up with the additional money required to make any significant improvements in school lunches?

And what happens in districts like ours, where we have satellite kitchens? Our food is cooked elsewhere and brought to our school where it is kept warm before children buy it. As a result, it is far easier for cooks to prepare fast foods or have pizza sent in from a local pizza place than to cook an actual meal somewhere else, transport it to another kitchen, and have it taste fresh and appetizing for that day’s lunch. And kids tend to fill up on the breads and rolls, as well as the snacks which they are able to purchase for an additional charge. (Kind of defeats the purpose of the healthy lunch, right?)

I love the concept of this competition, but we have never seen the results of the novel foods concocted in previous competitions in our school. Why isn’t the winning lunch being adopted in schools across the nation after the competition is over? Shouldn’t that be the goal if we are truly trying to change how our nation’s students are eating?

Now, that would make this a competition we could whole-heartedly sink our teeth into!

child obesity, Teacher-World's Blog Cooking Up Change. Healthy Schools Campaign, healthy diets, Rochelle Davis, school lunches

I have blogged in the past about California’s controversial new law which requires its public schools to teach all students, of every grade starting in kindergarten, about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans in history classes. The issue these schools face is two-fold: how do you fit this into the current history curriculum, and how early should such instruction begin?

Donald Wilson, an openly gay principal from Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, where his teachers talk about diverse families, and the library houses books on homosexual authors, admits, “At this point, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

Yet, by January, according to Education Week, teachers across the state will have to formulate a plan for how and when their students will learn about LGBT Americans due to this state’s landmark law. 

Paul Boneberg, executive director at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, expressed similar concerns, saying, “I’m not sure how we plug it into the curriculum at the grade school level, if at all.”

Adding to frustration is the fact that all adoptions of instructional material through eighth grade have been curtailed until 2015 in order to save money, and the earliest California schools would have access to new textbooks with LGBT content is 2019, according to a state Education Department spokeswoman.

The Los Angeles Unified district has been a pioneer in LGBT education since 1988, when its school board passed a resolution which directed both students and staff members of this district to refrain from slurs regarding sexual orientation. And in 2003, accusations that staff members were involved in bullying LGBT students compelled the district to improve its efforts to educate students about this sensitive subject, according to Judy Chiasson who is the coordinator for human relations, diversity, and equity.

The nation’s first chapter on LGBT issues appeared in a high school health textbook in 2005, in L.A. Unified. Issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, struggles LGBT individuals face, and anti-LGBT bias were addressed in this book, as well as a statement that caused religious conservatives grave displeasure; the book stated that sexual orientation is not a choice.

An educational support group for LGBT youth, the Safe Schools Coalition, has stated that at the elementary level, these topics would be inappropriate. Rather, they maintain that at this level students should only be exposed to curriculum regarding family diversity, gender stereotypes, and anti-bullying.

This is what the teachers at Wonderland have decided as well, where their emphasis is on the simple fact that families come in all different configurations. “The issue is never going to move beyond the diversity of family,” Principal Wilson said. “If it were to move beyond that, we would address it as a breach of developmentally appropriate instruction.”

But the middle and high schools are a different story. In California, sex education begins at fifth-grade, so more specific LGBT instruction would be suitable, and some experts even say, necessary because these are the years where bullying really starts to increase.

In 2005, at Downtown Magnets High School, a lesbian student was beaten up on a school bus. The school responded to this intolerance by creating a Gay-Straight Alliance club, providing staff sessions focused on being inclusive, and a concerted effort by some teachers to integrate these issues into their instruction. As a result of these changes, students say that their school has a safe and nurturing environment.

David Columbus is a senior and the president of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club, and he knows what it’s like to grow up bullied and teased for being gay. There was even a time when he wished he were dead. But he says that at school he has thrived due to the support he has felt there.

Jennifer Vanegas, a straight member of the club, said, “This law’s going to educate kids about LGBT people, and once you get education, you’ll respect them, and nobody’s going to bully them anymore.”

But this new law faces some stiff opposition in the community just 60 miles east of Wonderland, where the evangelical Calvary Chapel Corona members are so opposed that at least seven of its families have pulled their children from public schools in protest.

One of those who pulled his children, Bryan Breuer, stated, “This law teaches children that it’s OK to be gay, and that’s not my Christian values. I don’t understand trying to force this on my children.”

And conservative Christians aren’t the only ones who are opposed to the implementation of this law. Some teachers, like Grace R. Callaway who is a public school teacher near Yuba City, said she will not teach LGBT issues to her fifth-graders and sixth-graders because she feels homosexuality is a “destructive lifestyle.”

This raises the question, how will administrators deal with teachers who refuse, due to religious or personal beliefs, to teach this curriculum when it is mandated that they do so?

As teachers and principals throughout the state of California have already begun to meet to decide when they will introduce LGBT lessons into their curriculum, and how to make it fit naturally, I can only wish them luck. This is a sensitive issue which can bring out the best and the worst in people.

I do not envy the difficult task which lies ahead for these schools to create just the right balance at just the right time.

Bullying, Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog California's LGBT school legislation, LGBT curriculum, Los Angeles Unified School District, Safe Schools Coalition, Wonderland Avenue Elementary School

The sad story I am about to tell you actually began on October 7, at a Friday night football game between the Kamas South Summit Wildcats and Castle Dale Emery High School in Utah. It’s the story of a freak accident and a team who refuses to forget one of their own.

On that fateful Friday, #26-Porter Hancock, a junior at South Summit who had worked relentlessly throughout the football season to move his way up on the varsity depth chart as linebacker and running back, finally earned the coveted starting position in the game against Emery. But in the third quarter, the unimaginable occurred; after tackling the opponent’s punter following a fumbled snap, Porter suffered a dislocated neck and was paralyzed from the chest down.

Jerry Parker, the coach for South Summit, said, “Porter finished off the tackle. It was nothing big. I’m telling you, you watch it on film and it’s nothing. He turned his head the wrong way. I went out and helped strap him on the board, and I knew it was pretty serious. You just knew. I just told the kids let’s play to the end and then let’s talk about it. We said a prayer and sent them home.”

That evening, Porter was transported to University of Utah Hospital, where he underwent surgery on Saturday morning to remove two discs.

“We’re definitely planning on him recovering. We’re feeling awful bad that football’s out for him right now, that’s his life. But I think as a whole we’re definitely thinking he’s going to walk out of there,” Parker said.

On Saturday and Sunday, Hancock was breathing on his own and had no problem speaking to the hundreds of visitors who stopped in to wish him well. Parker said, “Family, parents, friends, football kids, the student body, even kids he didn’t hang around were down there. It struck home for sure.”

Late Sunday, Porter was put on a respirator, as fluid began to build up in his lungs causing some breathing complications. But by Monday, he was showing positive signs of recovering. However, although the feeling in his arms got stronger, and he was able to grip objects, he still had no sensation below his chest.

Coach Parker reported that the team’s concern for their teammate created a somber feeling at Monday’s football practice. “Our Monday practices are always pretty low key anyway, so it was pretty low key. A few kids are really struggling. But I thought it was good for them to get out there and run around. I think they understand Porter wants them to carry on. We’re just going to proceed normally as much as possible and then get down there and check on Porter as much as they can,” he said.

The team openly admitted that they were playing the rest of the season for their wounded teammate. “We’ve always tried to play together as a team and for each other,” said South Summit teammate Jay Reidhead. “But now we’re not only playing for each other, but mainly for him.”

So, was it just by chance that in their next game against Gunnison Valley, the final score was 49-23? Do the math! South Summit beat Gunnison by 26 points, which just happens to be Porter’s jersey number.

But wait a minute; there’s more! In the first round of the Class 2A football playoffs this past Thursday afternoon, Porter was with his team in spirit, although he was miles away in a hospital bed.

In this game against Moab Grand County High, only moments after South Summit scored its fourth touchdown of the day and should have been lining up for the extra point, the Wildcats instead gathered at their sidelines, where every player and coach pointed to the scoreboard in solemn tribute to Porter and the stands erupted in cheers and applause.

What made them stop in the middle of such an important game? The scoreboard, which proclaimed the 26-0 score, was a reminder to everyone at that game of their injured but not forgotten teammate, and for a few minutes, the game was not nearly as important as the young man who waits to find out if he will ever play the game he loves again.

“I didn’t know what we were even doing at first, but then I knew as soon as I looked,” South Summit quarterback Matt Rydalch said. “It’s funny how that number keeps popping up — last week we won by 26. It reminds us that we’re staying strong for Porter.”

The final score of the game, when it eventually continued, was 33-0, earning the Wildcats a spot in the quarterfinals.

But the real focus of this game was Porter, whose number was worn by almost every Wildcat on their body or on their uniform. And even Grand High School donated $1,000 to help their injured opponent. In all, estimates suggest that more than $60,000 has been raised already to help the Hancock family deal with Porter’s medical expenses.

Clearly this team is going to carry Porter with them through every game, and I hope that their determination will take them all the way to the finals. But, more than that, I hope that someday their teammate will be back on his feet fully recovered and physically back in the game.

Teacher-World's Blog football injuries, high school football, Porter Hancock, South Summit Wildcats, Utah

Finally, the Senate education committee approved a bipartisan rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act this Thursday, which will continue to face huge opposition as it moves forward. Some of that opposition will likely come from civil rights and business leaders who feel it is a step back on student accountability and from Republican lawmakers who are likely to say that it does not take away enough federal control of K-12 education.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and lead engineer of this bill, is hopeful that it can be brought to the Senate floor for a vote before Christmas, which would derail President Obama and Arne Duncan’s plan to offer state waivers from integral parts of the current law.

This bill would continue the system of testing students as they are currently tested in grades 3 through 8 and in high school, as well as continuing to provide achievement data for a variety of student subgroups. Some of these subgroups include students with disabilities, racial minorities, and English-language learners.

But, at the same time, this bill would significantly scale back the accountability system which was an integral part of the old NCLB legislation and had won such huge bipartisan support in 2001. The panel’s bill would also (as reported by Education Week):

* Do away with Adequate Yearly Progress
* Halt federally-directed interventions except for the lowest-performing schools and those with continual achievement gaps between low-income
* Based in part on the administration’s regulations for the School Improvement Grant program, it would spell out a series of federal interventions for turning around these lowest-performing schools
* Require states to create college-and-career standards, and although almost every state has already joined the Common Core State Initiative, they would not be required to do so
* Restructure the Department of Education, consolidating it into 40 programs from its current 82

During the panel’s discussions, multiple amendments were filed which provide some insight as to the hot issues that will be debated when this goes to the Senate floor. One of these includes Sen. Michael Bennet’s amendment requiring states to set performance targets which would include setting goals to move all students to proficiency by 2020 and cutting the achievement gap in half within various student subgroups. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., disagreed, arguing that such an amendment would be a “back-door way” of maintaining the AYP yardstick which has been widely ridiculed as an assessment tool.

Strangely, some of the debate has brought some interesting agreements between some very unlikely groups. For example, Sen. Harkin’s draft version of the bill which was released on Oct. 11, called for states to devise teacher evaluations which would take student achievement into account. However, Republicans on the committee disagreed, saying this would be a federal mandate dictating what should be a state and local issue. This was an argument that the National Education Association was on board with, as they also felt this provision was a federal intrusion.

Another issue that the NEA and GOP agreed on was one that would allow states to tender their own plans for turning around the lowest-performing schools to the U.S. secretary of education.

On the other hand, this issue brought heated debate between Democrats and Republicans. Sen. Alexander argued that his amendment would give states the opportunity and flexibility to create a turnaround plan that would best work in their circumstances making it more effective than the one spelled out in the bill.

However, seven Democrats on the committee voted this amendment, which passed unanimously by Republican members, down. Clearly, this will be a hot topic on the Senate floor, which is not surprising as it relates to how much federal control there should be in state and local affairs.

Some of the amendments that were accepted include:

* An amendment allowing students in the lowest-performing 5% of schools in a state to transfer to better-performing schools
* An amendment that would require new principals coming into turnaround schools to have a background in school improvement
* An amendment giving states the choice of using computer-adaptive tests for accountability purposes under the law
* An amendment to provide competitive grants to recruit and train principals to lead turnaround schools

Some amendments which were rejected include:

* An amendment which would have permitted teachers to be considered “highly qualified” only if they complete a state-approved traditional or alternative teacher-preparation program, or pass a meticulous state-approved teacher-performance assessment, and earn certification in their particular subject matter
* An amendment to do away with the approval for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which aids communities in developing cradle-to-career services

Several amendments were offered, but later withdrawn dealing with highly qualified teacher provisions, continuous improvement of schools, and scrapping authorization for the Race to the Top program, providing an interesting  preview of what is to come when this committee’s bill hits the Senate floor.

Educational Reform, low-performing schools, state achievement tests, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog AYP, ESEA, highly qualified teachers, lowest-performing schools, No Child Left Behind, Senate committee, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin

I have a very intriguing story to tell you about a small, rural community that seems to be outperforming both American students from wealthier schools and students in developed countries around the world. So, what do they do that makes them so successful? Well, let’s take a look.

First, let me introduce you to the rural Waconda Lake area in North Central Kansas. The Waconda school district is made up of four small towns: Cawker City, Downs, Glen Elder, and Tipton, with seven schools that are spread over a 411 square mile area. The people in the community either work in agriculture or manufacturing. This is a quiet, agricultural community, whose best known local landmark is an enormous ball of twine, which they claim is the largest in the world.

But their real claim to fame is more academic, according to The Global Report Card, which was published in Education Next. According to this recent report, the average student, in this district of 385 students, scores better than 90% of students in 20 developed countries on their math and reading tests, and it is the second highest performing school district in math in the U.S., in spite of the fact that 65% of its children live in poverty.

Jeff Travis, the district’s superintendent for seven years, reported that 65% of the students in the district qualify for free or reduced lunches through the federal government. And yet, unlike other high poverty schools in our nation which tend to produce low test scores and high dropout rates, this district has risen above its poverty level and is outperforming affluent school systems.

What, I’m sure you’re wondering, does this district do to be so successful? Travis suggests that one possible theory is that the kids at Waconda have no realization that they are materially deprived. . “North Central Kansas is rural, and urban poverty is kind of different [from] rural poverty,” he said. “A lot of our people don’t even understand that they’re living in poverty.”

There are no students who need English learning classes, and most of them are white, according to state data. Travis also said that about 10% of the students are in foster homes. “We just [have] a lot of adults that care about kids, so it’s been a popular thing for parents to take in foster children,” he explained.

Travis also attributed their success to the simple matter of expectation. He said that after years of earning high test scores, it has become an expectation in the community that their students will excel. He said that in most years, no one drops out of high school! Imagine that! Additionally, over the past four years, the district has earned 14 Governor Achievement Awards and one national “Blue Ribbon Award School.”

Travis said, “It’s a tradition now, and they expect themselves to do well. Like a ball team that continues to win because of a tradition, we have an academic tradition. Everybody’s pretty happy [but] nobody understands how big a deal it is.”

He attributes three essential factors to the district’s great success. First, is the tremendous amount of parental involvement which occurs in these schools. Almost every parent attends their child’s parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level, and Travis says the participation is still very high in the older grades.

The second factor, according to Travis, is small class sizes. He explained that the district is committed to keeping classes from pre-kindergarten to third grade very small. With only 12 to 15 students in each class, he said, “We get to a lot of problems quickly and early in child development,”

The third factor is the district’s assessment card which follows each student from grade to grade. This is a card, created by the district, which lists the skills that the state expects children to master in each subject. These cards are updated by teachers all the time, which gives them a good idea of what they need to work on in order to pass their state standardized tests.

In spite of national education reform movements which advocate linking teacher pay to student test scores, Travis said that their district doesn’t keep up with these education trends. “We don’t believe in the next biggest thing or the next biggest theory. We’ve not made any major changes.”

But the news in Waconda is not all good; like districts everywhere, they face funding challenges. About 10% of their staff positions have been cut over the past few years due to budget cuts, and the average teacher only makes about $40,000, making theirs the lowest teaching salary of any district in their state. Travis acknowledged, “It’s going to get tougher as we go.”

Travis also shared that the district faces an additional challenge; many of the high-achieving students go to Kansas City rather than staying in their home towns.  “It’s where the services and the goods and fun are,” he said. But they do what they can to encourage them to come back after college by challenging them to design a small business plan for the area.

While one of the authors of The Global Report Card said that the small size of this district may have slightly skewed the results of their research, it is pretty clear to me that this district has something really awesome going on. And I think that Travis hit the nail on the head when he said that the community expects that its students will do well, and the parents are actively involved.

I wonder how many districts can say the same thing. Maybe education reform is more about attitude, expectation, and community involvement. Maybe this little community has a thing or two to teach us all…

Educational Reform, High Caliber Schools, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog high performing district, Kansas, poverty level, state standardized tests, Waconda school district