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Rough Draft

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Chapter One

This We Believe with an Urban Focus

Author and Editor:

DianeRoss,Ph.D.-OtterbeinCollege, Westerville, Ohio

Co-authors:

Jennifer Gledhill- Middle Childhood Education Student, OtterbeinCollege, Westerville, Ohio

Angie Jackson- Middle Childhood Teacher, ColumbusPublic Schools, Columbus, Ohio

Reggie Jackson- Memphis, Tennessee

Al Labarre- Middle Childhood Teacher, ColumbusPublic Schools, Columbus, Ohio

Vonzia Phillips- Director of Middle Schools, Decatur, Georgia

Jeannette Pillsbury-Asst. Professor in Teacher Education at LutherCollege

Yolanda Stewart- Middle Childhood Education Instructor, OtterbeinCollege, Westerville, Ohio

Melissa Welsh- Middle Childhood Teacher, ColumbusPublic Schools, Columbus, Ohio

Lynnly Wood- Middle Childhood Education Doctoral Candidate, University of Miami, Miami, Ohio

NationalMiddle School Association
This We Believe with an Urban Focus

Introduction

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the 33rd National Middle School Association Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. While there, I saw John Loundsbury speak. This I Believe was the topic of his presentation. I sat, surrounded by 10,000 middle school teachers from across the world, 200 middle school teacher candidates from across the nation, 16 middle school teacher candidates from my institution, and my colleague and mentor John Swaim. Surrounded by middle childhood visionaries and those eager to grab hold of the vision, was pure ecstasy. Watching this icon of a man, John Loundsbury, talk about the middle school movement and his life-long values and beliefs was awe inspiring. Whether you were John Loundsbury, one of the forefathers of the middle school movement; Tom Mossbarger, a middle childhood teacher candidate; or the12-year-old middle school student introducing Ron Clark, the Disney teacher of the year… the passion and commitment to the 14 tenets found in This We Believe was palpable. The shared vision was crystal clear and the hope of better education for young adolescents in the future seemed gloriously promising.

Yet, as I work in urban areas with middle school teachers, students, and teacher candidates, that passion and vision seems murky. Urban teachers I have metwho read This We Believe and many other National Middle School Association publications, are excited by what they are reading. For many of them, this is their first introduction to middle school philosophy.They are amazed to hear about new research on young adolescent development and are challenged by the unique concepts of student voice and integrated curriculum models presented. However, the phrase that I continue to hear over and over again from these teachers as well as from administrators in these schools is, “These ideas are wonderful, but you are not talking about my students or my school.” What I hear from many urban teachers is that they do not see themselves, their students, their schools, or their neighborhoods reflected in many of the discussions, examples, case studies, and conference presentationsabout best practice in the middle school. There are those in the industry who may disagree with this view and find many examples of urban schools in middle school publications. The important thing for me is that there is a recurring perception by many urban teachers that their voices, their stories, their struggles, and their successes are not being heard. They feel isolated and alone dealing with cultures of poverty, violence, racism, injustice and inequity that pervade our urban schools. And they seem to lack the shared vision and the systemic support necessary to thoroughly and successfully implement the changes in their schools necessary for This We Believe to resonate in their school hallways.

The National Forum for the Acceleration of Middle School Reform claims that there are three areas that must be emphasized for the success of middle schools to be possible: academically challenging curriculum, developmentally responsive schools and socially equitable schools. Over the last 10 years, there has been a huge growth in brain research with a clearer understanding of young adolescent development. We understand with more clarity what it means to be developmentally responsive to young adolescents and are able to pass this on to teachers, teacher candidates, and to parents. In the wake of No Child Left Behind, whether you are in favor of the policy or not, there has been a strong focus on academic growth and curriculum. Yet, as Jonathan Kozol (2005) writes in his new bookThe Shame of the Nation: Apartheid in America’s Schools, there is a declining emphasis on social justice and equity in our public schools. And, not just has there been less movement towards a more just and equitable educational environment, there has been a steep slide into more inequitable and unjust environments for many students, especially those most at-risk in urban environments. Students of color, immigrants, students where English is a second languageand students with low socioeconomic background, many of who are located in urban environments, are those most at-risk of not achieving in our public schools today.

Some may rightfully questions whether linking urban schools with cultures of poverty, violence, and racism is creating a deficit model for our urban students. It is not my intent to create that image. However, what I hear from urban teachers and educational researchers is that there is statistical reality to many of these connections. What I also know is that to bring out the misperceptions and possible myths in these assumptions will allow for the growth in the vision of the unactualized possibilities (Roy, 2003, p.1) To teach, and especially in an urban setting, is to recognize that our work is full of cracks and fissures. It is a challenging journey. But as one of my teacher candidates said, “The most important thing to remember is thatthere arebeautiful flowers growing out of those cracks in the sidewalks.”

Researchers like Jonathan Kozol who visited nearly 60 schools in 11 states in the past five years,supports this statistical reality, when he notes that the level of segregation today is higher than at any other time since 1968. His book is a fierce indictment of segregation, funding inequalities, and the drill-and-killcurricula that are heavily promoted in schools that serve low-income students and students of color. Gary Orfield, working with the Harvard Civil Rights Project, states that fifty years after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools are inherently unequalschools across the country are still separated by race and class. And the problem is getting worse

Segregated minority schools are overwhelmingly likely to have to contend with the educational impacts of concentrated poverty- 50% or more of the student population eligible for free or reduced lunch. White segregated schools are almost always middle class. The legacy of unequal education, income, and the continuing patterns of housing discrimination continues. In the 1970’s African Americans were 16 percent of total enrollment but 38 percent of students identified as mentally retarded. More than 20 years later…African American children constitute 17 percent of total enrollment and 33 percent of students considered cognitively disabled (mentally retarded) Nationwide, Blacks are more than three times more likely to be identified as mentally retarded than whites and more than twice as likely to be labeled as emotionally disturbed. They are 67 percent more likely than whites with emotional or behavioral problems to be removed from school on the grounds of being dangerous.Blacks are more than three times as likely as whites to be given short-term suspensionsPerry, Steele, Hilliard, 2003).

In the 1960’s wake of school desegregationwe saw the most dramatic narrowing of the test score gap ever recorded for Blacks and whites. In the 1990’s, racial gaps in achievement have been growing and the high school graduation of Black students is decreasing. Enrollment of minority students at a number of our most prestigious public universities has dropped alarmingly. Three hundred and fifty African American freshmen enrolled at the University of Michigan out of an entering class of almost 6,000 students-the lowest number of African Americans in 15 years and a decline from nearly 500 three years earlier. (Ferguson, 2006)

In addition to this growing chasm in our schools, we are challenged, as teacher educators to meet national standards of teacher preparation and prepare teachers that are socially just and equitable in their practice. Under new National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)/National Middle School Association (NMSA) standards, effective February 14, 2001, middle childhood educators in the United States are for the first time asked to give evidence of dispositions of middle level teacher candidates. Standard one in particular, Young Adolescent Development, asks that, “Middle level teacher candidates understand the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to young adolescent development, and they provide opportunities that support student development and learning” ( February, 14. 2003). The assessment of this standard is based upon the following criteria:

Candidates must respect and appreciate the range of individual developmental differences of all young adolescents. Believe that diversity among all young adolescents is an asset. They must use this knowledge to provide all young adolescents with learning opportunities that are developmentally responsive, socially just and equitable, and academically rigorous. ( February 14, 2003).

The problem for many middle childhood teacher educators is that what is meant by socially just and equitable is left undefined and problematic. NMSA/NCATE leaves the task of defining and providing evidence that teachers actually exhibit this disposition to the teacher education unit and ultimately to middle childhood teacher educators.

Preparing teachers for social justice and equity in their work is compounded by what the literature tells us about middle childhood teacher candidates in relation to dispositions related to social justice and equity.

  • They do not believe that racism is a problem (Moultry, 1988; Goodlad, 1990). They go into teaching for reasons other than changing society to make it more just and equitable (Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Goodlad, 1990; National Center for Education Information data 1996).
  • That while most teachers are White and middle class and an increasingly greater number of school age children are from a diversity of backgrounds, teacher candidates do not believe that Whiteness is a culture. Therefore, candidates are not able to self-reflect on their own status as privileged White persons, thus furthering status differences and inequities in the educational structure (Schwartz, 1996, Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000).
  • They are resistant to changing beliefs of any sort that they bring into teaching, particularly beliefs that are imposed on them (Bradfield-Kreider, 2001; Carpenter, 2000; Dewey, 1938; Goodlad, 1990; Ginsburg & Newman, 1985; Howard, 1999; Jipson, 1995; Titus, 2000; MacIntosh, 1989; Moultry, 1988; Simpson, 1992; Sobel &Taylor, 2001; Strike & Posner, 1992; Tatum, 1992; Pohan & Mathison, 1999).

Taking the statistical evidence of the culture of urban schools, adding to that the evidence of the dispositions of middle childhood teacher candidates leads me to want to pursue this project.

Purpose

I believe that social justice and equity in middle level classrooms will not be possible, especially in urban settings, until urban educators, teacher educators, and teacher candidates can discuss the struggles, the barriers, and the exemplars of meeting these tenets in this context. For urban teachers, the context of who they are, who their students are, what content they are asked to teach, and what societal norms and values they are working in must be juxtaposed against the overall issues in urban settings of racism, poverty, and violence. The purpose of this book is to provide a forum for this reflection and discussion to occur among urban teachers, teacher candidates, teacher educators, and students. The hope is that new insights and visions will be developed by the participants, so the possibility of schools that are socially just and equitable for all students can come closer to being actualized.

Hannah Arendt, said, "For excellence, the presence of others is always required." (1958, p. 50). In this project, urban middle childhood teacher educators, teachers, and teacher candidates and students will be asked to share their perspectives and their stories as well as to engage in a dialogue around these stories so that the stories are not just told but are challenged and discussed so as to be catalytic, educative, and dialogic. The hope is that we can affirm each other through stories and struggles and at the same time to inspire each other to go beyond those stories. It is the hope that in this project, stories can create communities(Greene, 1988).

One of the most important parts of this project is the dialogic process. The belief in this process comes out of my work in the qualitative research field of Moustakas’ (1990) heuristic methodology.Heuristic methodology is the combination of autobiography and phenomenology as well as the use of case studies (Moustakas, 1990). Moustakas claims that one comes to understand something more fully by relationships formed by a particular researcher with a particular set of people in a particular time and place. To truly know something one must come to know themselves through introspection as well as a connection to others (Moustakas, 1990). I believe that teachers will learn more about the phenomenon of teaching for social justice and equity through dialogue with others sharing a similar experience (Beckstrom, 1993). The purpose of this project is to provide a venue for urban middle childhood teachers, teacher candidates, and students to share their stories, their struggles, and their successes working to create effective middle schools as defined by the 14 tenets in This We Believe.

My first attempt at this project was to have a group of urban middle school teachers and teacher candidates who had finished their methods experience in an urban setting, share their stories of how they saw each of the 14 tenets play out in their schools. I askedthem what they saw as barriers and struggles to reaching the vision of the middle school concept. I asked them to share their successes and visions of the possibilities in their teaching. We then presented This We Believe with an Urban Focus together at a number of state and national conferences. What is more evident to me than ever at this point is that it was not material that we gathered that was important but rather it was the process of gathering and sharing that was catalytic and educative for all of us. When urban middle childhood teachers, teacher candidates, teacher educators and students dialogued with each other and challenged each other, the possibility of the vision was created. When we presented, we knew that we were successful not because of the material that we shared but because of the dialogue that was encouraged and the relationships that were advanced among and between the conference participants and presenters. After our last presentation, I became clearer than ever as to what this book’s purpose and format should be.

In our presentation at the National Middle School Association Annual Conference in Nashville this year, we had 12 presenters and about an equal number of participants. The power and energy in that room was amazing. Thirsty souls had been given water. The stories told had common grounds to be heard and responded to. Heads nodded, eyes, flashed, voices were heard.

  • We must help teachers grasp their students’ reality so that they can you understand their values.
  • We have to develop meaningful relationships with students.
  • We need educators who value working with these students.
  • Minority teachers raised in suburbia face the same culture shock and ill preparedness as the 80% white teacher population
  • This is not a race thing but a class thing.
  • African American teachers are compared to the students' parents.
  • White teachers are nitpicked for weaknesses.
  • The achievement gap has to do with having high expectations...our students are not allowed to rack up zeroes.
  • We need better backing frombacking from administrators… this is the only way to survive in our schools.
  • We need courageous collaborative leadership.
  • We need fearless leadership.

These teachers and teacher educatorsnot only listened and talked about their experiences in urban settings but a number of people from that group wanted to continue the dialogue about the middle school concept in their buildings and their struggles and concerns. There was a charge of excitement in this room. For many of these teachers, the wonderful components of the middle childhood concept were being discussed and they could see their students and their schools reflected in this conversation. They began to see, in sharing with others, new possibilities for their work. It was after that meeting that a group of urban middle childhood teachers, teacher candidates, teacher educators, and students from across the nation agreed to dialogue online about the This We Believe with an Urban Focus.