Our county has 5 high schools. My school should be a Title 1 school since all of our feeder elementary schools and middle schools are all Title 1. Right now we have 38% free and reduced lunch but we feel it is because there are some high school students that do not turn in the reduced cost lunch form. Another high school in our county is situated in the rich part of town. The "rich" high school saw an increase in their SAT scores last year whereas all of the other high schools in our county saw a decrease. My high school, which has by far the most at risk students in the county, saw the greatest decrease in SAT scores. The other piece of information that you need to know is that all of the other high schools, including mine, went to a 7 period day last year. The "rich" high school fought this and was allowed to stay at a 6 period day. The rich high school is receiving pressure from the school board to change to a 7 period day this next school year but they are fighting it. This leads me to my point of this post. Our local newspaper ran an article in the paper about the SAT scores. A former science teacher from the rich high school wrote a letter and was published the following week about how changing to a 7 period day caused the drop in scores at the other high schools. Everyone thought this was rediculous. The following week we had an anynomous parent write a rebuttal. This was by far the best editorial I have ever read. Here is a link to the article:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5KOZ-BTTDQkVGFHMXFCb2R4bzQ/view?usp=sharing
Please take a minute and read the article and help me with this. Many students have read the article and some feel that they are destined to fail because of poverty. While I think that everything in the article is true, I do not want the students at my school to feel like they have no chance for success in life. What message would you send to the students and how would you discuss with them the facts of the article?
First, establish your classroom/session as a safe space for the students. Then I would have an open discussion with my students about the article where I would simply ask their opinion of it. Then once they have given their opinion, I would then facilitate a session where we discussed what the real issues are and made sure that my students understood that they are not defined by their socio-economic status. Finally, ask the students to tell what types of support they will need in order to prepare for the SAT. There are free resources out there that are available to students. We are utilizing one at my school right now. Our students are provided with free SAT preparatory classes during the school day twice a week for this quarter.
ReplyDeleteYou could start by pointing out the areas where your students performed well. I always find that if we treat students from their areas of strength, they tend to focus on that instead of the negative. Remind them that they need to define who they are based on their achievement, because if they don't other people will do it for them.
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