A Gazette Letter to
the Editor
Originally posted Dec.
12, 2002
This is in response to Lana Lovett’s Nov. 26 letter, in which she criticizes
Schenectady city schools because her oldest son’s progress is discouraging.
Parents are too quick to blame schools for their children’s failure. Consider
the fact that between birth and 12th grade, a child is in the school’s care for
about 10 percent of the time. So if the child is in the parent’s environment for
90 percent of the time, who has more influence over his progress?
An accepted educational tenet cites five factors that influence a child’s
success (in no particular order): 1) the number of parents in the household; 2)
the amount of time watching TV; 3) the amount and quality of books in the home;
4) the number of days absent from school; and 5) the amount of homework a child
receives. Parents are the major influence for four of these factors.
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As an educator myself, I contend it would be wonderful to have all my students
earn "A"s, but as in life itself, there is a wide range of
capabilities.
I find the biggest disservice I can do for a parent is to gloss over their
child’s weaknesses, and cavalierly dole out "A"s.
I know that if I were running a for-profit school and were dependent on my
constituents’ happiness to keep my doors open, I might throw around a bunch of
"A"s too.
ERIC ALMOND
Scotia
It
appears that Mr. Almond is a master-degreed teacher at Van Corlaer Elementary
School in Schenectady. While I acknowledge the difficulties of teaching in the
city, and the positive impact parents can have, Mr. Almond is way off base to
criticize Ms. Lovett’s editorial (below) as she appears to be the kind of parent
Mr. Almond wants and they appear to agree that giving out unearned grades is bad
practice.
Mr. Almond ignores Ms. Lovett’s point that her children are doing much better in
the charter school–or rather, he suggests with no possible apparent source of
evidence, she is being duped by the charter school–and sets out on a theme to
indict the parents. If Ms. Lovett were solely to blame for her son’s failure in
the city school, nothing would have changed when she put him in the charter
school.
To prove parents are too quick to blame schools for their children’s poor
performance, Mr. Almond first brings up the red herring that students are in
school only 10% of the time between birth and age 18. What of it? About 50% of
time is spent on personal hygiene, eating and sleeping. Another 20% is spent on
non-TV recreation, sports, religion, travel, chores, work and family matters.
During K-12, public schools take up about 60% of the remaining time, or about
20,000 hours, including homework (but not after school programs or sports),
which Mr. Almond conveniently neglected to mention. That’s enough time to
produce excellence at the high school level of academic competence.
To answer Mr. Almond’s question, “Who has more influence over [a child's
educational] progress,†the answer is THE SCHOOLS. It’s absurd to add
sleeping time to the time available to parents to make a difference in academic
performance outcomes. But I’m used to dealing with absurdities when it comes
to professional educators.
Rather than fight with Mr. Almond over this point, though, I’d like to switch.
How about this, Mr. Almond: Since I have my child for 90% of the time, and what
I do, or don’t do, impacts on my child’s academic performance, how about giving
me 90% of the money spent to educate my child and you can have the other 10% to
do your job? You seem willing to accept 10% of the responsibility for education
outcomes, you can have 10% of the money. Heck, I’ll even use my numbers instead
of yours. Give me 40% of the money and you keep 60%, and let’s see if parents
can do a better job with that 40% than public schools do.
Mr. Almond lists five factors that influence student academic success, pointing
out that parents have control over four of them. His purpose is to prove that
not only do parents have more time with students, and hence more influence, but
parents also control most of the important factors contributing to academic
success. What a bunch of hooey.
What Mr. Almond does is write a list of things parents can do to improve
academic outcomes, omitting a very important one—parental involvement with
schools—and adding an irrelevant one—the amount of homework assigned by
teachers—and comes up with a dazzling display of addition to imply that
parents are more responsible for academic success than schools.
Obviously, academic success is not based simply on the five factors he lists.
What about teacher certification and training, the curriculum, efficient use of
class time, classroom instruction, class size, feedback on homework, pedagogy,
classroom discipline, teacher absences, tutoring, after school programs, and on
and on? Do these have less to do with academic outcomes than single-parent
households with trash novels for kids to read while watching vampire slayer
shows and skipping school occasionally? Give me a break. Mr. Almond needs to
rewrite his equation before he does the addition. (BTW, a day’s worth of PBS
programs is as good, if not better, than a day’s worth of school for many
students.)
I agree that parents have influence over academic success, but let’s not get
carried away and make insinuations and contrived arguments to make the point.
Schools need to better utilize parents in ways they are interested in being
involved.
Mr. Almond not only attacks parents but he insinuates that the charter school
might be doling out unearned A’s. He gives no evidence to back up this damning
insinuation. What kind of educated person would do that? A professional teacher?
Actually, making up evidence to prove points seems to be a specialty of some
educators. In the face of a
true case of homework injustice related to the absence of a S-G Board member’s
child, I saw and heard S-G Teacher Union President Patricia Johnson trump
the injustice with pure speculation. She reported that one of her students (not
the board member’s child) told her just before class that he had a doctor’s
appointment and couldn’t attend. Pat said that when she came out of class 40
minutes later she saw the student in the hallway. She concluded the student lied
to get out of class. Maybe, but it’s not that difficult to get in and out of a
Scotia doctor’s office within 40 minutes. Rather than get the facts, too many
educators are too willing to manufacture falsehoods or engage in suppositions to
support their positions and beliefs. It’s highly unprofessional.
Mr. Almond says if he were running a charter school he might dole out unearned
A’s to keep parents happy. I think that says a lot more about Mr. Almond’s
character than it does about the practices at the charter school.
It may or may not be the case that the charter school is engaged in grade
inflation, but I seriously doubt he has any evidence of that. On the other hand,
there is evidence that public
schools are engaged in grade inflation to bolster their images and budget
support in the name of motivating students and avoiding conflicts with parents,
and I doubt, though I have no evidence, that Schenectady City Schools have
completely avoided this trend. Indeed, from Ms. Lovett’s letter, it appears the
city is willing to pass failing students.
Mr. Almond’s editorial demonstrates some of the shortcomings of public schools,
not the least of which are to be reasonable, to be accountable and to be
truthful and not make up stuff about parents and charter schools.
It would be wonderful to give Mr. Almond an "A," but, as in life
itself, there is a wide range of teacher editorial capabilities.
Children flourishing at charter school
A Gazette Letter to
the Editor
11/26/02
In response to the article that appeared in the Nov. 20 issue regarding the
charter school, I am very upset with the Schenectady school Superintendent, Dr.
John Falco.
I have had a child in the Schenectady school system for the past six years and
been practically begging the school for help for him, and to date, have been
ignored. The Schenectady school system just pushes the kids through, whether or
not they know the material that is being taught.
Previously, my child should have failed, but the school system would not hold
him back because their belief is that it "hurts a child’s self
esteem." Does it make a child feel secure when he/she can’t read, write or
add?
Because the system is failing my oldest child, I decided to enroll my two
younger children in the charter school. I couldn’t be more delighted. When my
second-grader was in the Schenectady school system, he wasn’t taught how to read
or sound out letters. Now, my second-grader has excelled as well as my
kindergartner. My second-grader is a straight "A" student (on his own
merit, thank you), and my kindergartner is beginning to read thanks to a
fantastic program that the charter school has in place.
Dr. Falco, you have absolutely no right to criticize the best thing that has
ever happened to Schenectady. By firsthand experience, I can say that
Schenectady schools are failing our children, and so far, the charter school is
living up to its promise. Give our future (which happens to be our children) a
chance for a much better education than Schenectady’s system could ever provide.
LANA LOVETT
Schenectady
Charter school plans to grow
Portable rooms sought in Sch’dy
By MARY MARTIALAY / Gazette
Reporter
11/20/02
SCHENECTADY – The International Charter School is planning for an expansion to
425 students next year, according to Director Lillian Turner.
On Friday, the charter school will apply for grant money to lease portable
modular classrooms.
Turner said the units, which would go behind the current school building on
Eleanor Street in Bellevue, are one possibility to accommodate the expansion.
The charter school may also consider adding permanent space or expanding at
another site.
About eight classrooms should be needed, said Robert Giordano, a business
development director for SABIS Educational Systems Inc., the school’s parent
company.
Giordano said he did not know how much money the charter school would ask for,
or how much money would be needed to lease the portable units.
City district Superintendent John Falco said he questions the charter school’s
ability to recruit enough children to reach maximum enrollment.
Falco also said any change to the school building, which the district leases to
the charter school, must first be approved by Schenectady voters.
* * *
"We don’t have room for any more classes, there’s no room for a special ed
classroom, conference rooms, we don’t even have a teachers’ lounge," said
Turner.
As part of the lease agreement with the district, the charter school agreed to
limit its enrollment during its first three years. This year’s maximum was 300
children. Next year it will be 425.
"We’re hoping to go right up to 425," said Turner. To do that, Turner
said the charter will begin a recruitment campaign in June.
That campaign may employ all the methods of its original drive, including radio
ads, billboards, and door-to-door fliers.
But Falco said he doubts the charter school can muster 175 more children, and he
even questioned the current enrollment figures.
"Right now, we’re paying for 230, and a good part of that is on good
faith," he said. "They’re lucky if they’ve attracted 130," from
the city’s public schools.
Charter schools are publicly funded, but privately run. Under state law, the
school district had to set aside close to $2 million to pay for students to
attend the charter school this year.
Falco said the charter has "a long way to go" before it can put the
units behind the school building.
"This is very serious business," said Falco. "That property
belongs to the city of Schenectady. It doesn’t belong to a profit-making company
from a foreign country." Sabis was founded in Lebanon as a school for
Americans and others there.
It’s
clear that Falco dislikes the charter school. However, his raising of
nationalistic prejudices over an issue of classroom space for students
demonstrates his desperation and lack of good judgment. Rather than address the
issue positively, as school insiders always insist parents and the community do
for public school needs, he reaches into the bottom of the barrel for bias and
prejudice. Dr. Falco is doing some great things in Schenectady, but this remark
was illogical and callous.
Any changes to the building would have to be approved by voters during the
district’s budget vote in May, he said.