Blog debate/extended hours schools

One of the people on my email list wrote this in response to Joe Williams's blog posting that I included in my email last week:

I found your excerpt from the AFT blog somewhat unfair.  The woman blogging was not nearly as blase about the needs of NY school children as your selection suggested.  She was simply describing the true challenge of expecting people -- particularly women -- with children to work such grueling hours.  I read her post to suggest that there have to be ways other than demanding such intense hours to teach our kids.  In addition, the posts that followed "Michelle's" described KIPP schools as the "real deal."

As a working parent with kids in NYC public schools, I have a huge stake in the process.  I also have a lot of respect for the challenges of working and raising kids -- so let's not mock a woman who is trying to teach in the public schools and be a good parent.

It's a fair point.  Before I address it, I want to share the entire post from Michele on the AFT blog (http://www.letsgetitright.org/blog/2006/02/all_kipp_and_no_play.html):

I feel about KIPP the way I feel about Teach for America- more power  to ya'- just don't try and tell me that, if widely replicated, this is the school reform model that will save our urban schools.

I had my own version of a KIPP teaching experience. I taught shoe-shine boys and their siblings at a Catholic mission school in Quito, Ecuador.  Here is what my school day looked like:

7:15: Arrive at school

8:00-11:00 Teach classes

11:30-12:00 Mass (OK, I didn't go every day)

12:30-1:30 Help serve lunch

2:00-5:00 Teach classes

5:30-6:30 Eat dinner

7:00-8:30 Teach parents of students

Sounds exhausting? It was- and I was 24! I don't disagree that children in urban schools have incredible educational needs that require a huge influx of attention and resources. However, I don't think that the classroom teacher can, and should, be expected to meet every aspect of their educational needs. It's a recipe for burnout, and the teaching field already has a high level of turnover.

Would I be willing to work at a KIPP school and teach 10 hour days, plus be on call to help children with their homework in the evenings? No. And why not?  What is it, what is it . . . Oh yeah, I'm married and have a 13-month old.  In short, I have a life that I like and would want to keep. Public school teachers are not missionaries.

Here are my thoughts:

 

1) KIPP's extended school day and school year -- in total, there's about 67% more class time than comparable public schools -- is critical to its success.  By the time KIPP gets students in 5th grade, they are already mostly 1-2 years below grade level (thanks largely to wretched public schools they've been attending for the previous 5 years).  There's simply no way to catch kids up without a LOT of extra time and work on the part of the students and teachers.

 

2) Michele is right that many of today's public school teachers would be unwilling or unable to put in a lot of extra hours, even if paid more.  No doubt many teachers chose the profession in part BECAUSE the workday ends at 3pm, they have summers off, etc.  I have no problem with this.  But it's also true that MANY teachers would be happy to work longer hours if it meant more progress for their students and more pay for themselves.

 

3) There's also no doubt that many students don't need the extra time at school -- my kids, for example, get out of school at 3pm, which is fine with me because their afternoons are filled with enriching activities.

 

4) But, for those kids who need the extra time, I REFUSE to sacrifice their needs at the alter of the schedules of some teachers.  This is the type of bizarre thinking that infects the entire system, where the needs of adults always seem to come before the needs of children.

 

The solution is to somehow get the extra hours for the kids who need it, without changing the entire system.  There are two ways to do this: either target specific kids or certain entire schools who would have a schedule like KIPP's.  What if every kid who tested one or more years below grade level in either math or reading had to come to school early and stay late, plus do summer school, until they caught up?  Talk about incentives for students to work hard!  And what if any school in which 50% or more of the students tested one or more years below grade level was designated a "extended hours school" and the entire school converted to a schedule like KIPP's?

 

In either of these cases, teachers who wanted to work the extra hours (and get paid quite a bit more) could move into the extended hours schools, while those who wanted to keep their usual hours could do so as well.