Building partnerships to prepare teachers for urban schools: the case of Houghton College, AmeriCorps, the King Center Charter School, and Journey's End. Charles Massey and Judit Szente.
Childhood Education 83.3 (Spring 2007): p136(6).
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The 2006 Theme Issue focused on urban challenges. Guest editor Judit Szente located too many excellent articles on that important topic to include in one issue. Therefore, we present another article on that theme here.
Conditions in Buffalo, New York, parallel those in cities elsewhere across the United States. The public school population nears 75 percent children of color, with over 80 percent qualifying for the free or reduced-price lunch program--a primary indicator of poverty. In contrast, the teacher population, drawn almost exclusively from the middle class, is nearly 80 percent white. To counter this disparity, colleges and universities in the region found it essential to recruit more minority students into teacher preparation programs, as well as to redesign teacher education programs, in order to prepare all prospective teachers to work with poor, inner-city children. The following article chronicles our work in these areas while also offering preservice teachers and school personnel the opportunity to share their experiences. In addition, the article highlights various ways to build community partnerships and programs, in the hope that readers will be inspired to create similar collaborations within their environments.
HOUGHTON COLLEGE AND ITS URBAN EDUCATION PROGRAM
Houghton College, a small, four-year, liberal arts college in rural Allegany County in New York, may be an unlikely institution to respond to the challenge of preparing teachers for urban schools. Its student population of 1,250 comes mainly from small towns and rural communities. The college, however, is committed to training teachers who are both highly prepared for and devoted to serving the needs of diverse children and families.
Ten years ago, in response to increasing urbanization in the United States and the relative isolation of its rural campus, the college began requiring its teacher education students to take a course focusing on teaching in urban schools. This was the first course of its kind for higher education institutions in western New York. The required course, Teaching in Urban America, is now recommended for the May term following the sophomore year of study. The course also includes a 60-hour field placement in a Buffalo, New York, school. Over the past decade, nearly 600 students have participated in this course, experiencing life at an urban school.
During this field placement, each Houghton student works all day for 10 days as an assistant to one or two classroom teachers. In this capacity, the student does tutoring, monitoring, small-group instruction, or performs whatever job the teacher determines will be helpful. In exchange, the student gains a realistic perspective on teaching and on the life of an urban school. For most students, this is the first field experience in their teacher education program. At the conclusion of this experience, students who remain interested in the possibility of teaching in an urban school are encouraged to consider student teaching in the city of Buffalo. Although most students enter the course convinced that they would never teach in an urban setting, approximately 25 percent of the students do choose an urban student teaching placement.
Although the program was an immediate success, it quickly became clear that simple exposure is not enough to adequately prepare students to work with poor and minority children in urban settings. Furthermore, educators realized that a small rural college could never succeed at this task unless they formed strategic partnerships with various community agencies and urban schools.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND PROGRAMS
In 2001, Houghton College received a generous grant from the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, which enabled the college to clarify its needs and explore appropriate responses. Over the years, Houghton College formed essential partnerships with a number of community-based agencies and urban schools to add to the existing urban course work. The following section will introduce the main partners: AmeriCorps, King Center Charter School and Journey's End. Houghton College students have the opportunity to partner with these organizations while pursuing their studies in education.
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps members in New York State participate in a variety of community-based programs, including tutoring, after-school programs, substance abuse programs, and cleaning up public areas. Graduates of Houghton College are encouraged to join this organization to serve and learn within urban and rural school districts that have been designated by the New York State Department of Education as "High-Need School Districts." AmeriCorps volunteers can become tutors, program coordinators, and even assistant teachers within such schools.
Some Houghton College students join AmeriCorps during their normal student teaching experience in the fall semester of the senior year. During the 2004 fall semester, five students participated in a pilot of the Houghton College Urban and Rural Teacher Corps program while student teaching in Buffalo. At the end of the semester, all five rated the program as "very successful" and concluded that they would "recommend it highly" for future student teachers. Two students received student teaching placements in schools that had after-school tutoring programs and were able to work with these programs. The other three students were able to work with the after-school program at the Butler Mitchell Boys and Girls Club. The reflections of the student teachers, two months after the experience, are informative:
This experience afforded me the time to interact with students in a casual atmosphere. I became part of the Buffalo community as I gained insight into students' home lives, met children who carried bent paper-clips with them to pick the locks on their own doors, helped ESL students with homework, and served dinner to forty 5- to 13-year-olds. At the conclusion to our AmeriCorps assignment, four classmates and I collaborated to put on an international fair at the Boys and Girls Club.
--Carissa Lee
Without the opportunity to participate in this program, it is unlikely that I would have sought out such a position of service, due to the sometimes-overwhelming responsibilities of a student teacher. I now know what I once suspected--that the benefits of such service outweigh any sacrifices of time and energy on my part. Working with this population, in this capacity, allowed me to grow more sensitive to the needs of the community and to better understand the effects of poverty on our nation's youth. It is these understandings that have broadened my view of the world and aided me in regard to my profession as an educator.
--Ashley Mattern
My experiences working in a public school were eye-opening and valuable; however, working for AmeriCorps allowed me an insider's view of what troubles and barriers inner-city programs face. I was also able to work with a group of students and staff members representing many different age groups and ethnicities, offering me a broader view of the community. Building relationships with these students and staff members allowed me a glimpse into how different the lives of inner-city minorities are from mine and those of my fellow Houghton classmates and allowed me to more accurately view their needs. I feel that by working with the Boys and Girls Club of Buffalo, I benefited educationally, financially, and especially personally, as I was able to give back to a community that gave ME so much, even if just in the daily lessons about life and the human condition. I highly recommend this program to any student participating in student teaching, as it gives a much more "real-life" view of the community and allows one to more carefully apply their college learning to real-life situations.
--Lynsey Glover
During the fall of 2002, the Buffalo Urban Teacher Corps was established through the cooperative efforts of Houghton College, the West Seneca Youth Bureau, and the King Center Charter School. Buffalo Urban Teacher Corps participants experience the essential elements of teaching while serving as an integral part of the instructional team at the Charter School. It is an opportunity to begin teaching in an inner-city school without being overwhelmed by the total responsibilities for an inner-city classroom. This experience can be combined with graduate study at colleges or universities in the Buffalo area.
Buffalo Urban Teacher Corps members receive a stipend to cover basic living expenses, an education award to pay off loans or cover graduate education costs, housing in the city, and medical insurance. Seven Houghton College graduates have participated in the program thus far. Five have chosen to pursue graduate studies as a part of the program, two are currently teaching at the King Center Charter School, and two are serving as assistant teachers. All seven are committed to careers in education.
King Center Charter School
King Center Charter School is located in an economically disadvantaged part of the city of Buffalo. The Charter School opened its doors to K-3 children in 2000, and currently serves 105 children in K-4 classrooms. Over the years, the school has become a model for collaboration, community partnerships, and increased student achievement, while remaining developmentally appropriate in a time of accountability (Hoot, Massey, Barnett, Henry, & Ernest, 2001; Massey, Hoot, Ernest, Barnett, & Henry, 2000; Massey, Szente, & Stewart, 2005). A number of programs have been established over the years that are highly beneficial to both the children at the charter school and to students at Houghton College, including successful literacy, math, and summer programs that are organized and run mainly by college students involved in service learning.
Pen-Pals and Royal Readers. Language and literacy courses at Houghton are linked with 3rd- and 4th-graders at the school. At the beginning of the school year, children and college students become individual pen-pals to one another and they exchange letters every two weeks during the school year. In addition to corresponding by mail regularly, the college students and their professor travel the 65 miles from Houghton to Buffalo in the fall to meet their pen-pals. The college provides the minimal expenses for this program. During this visit, children can spend the school day with their pen-pals as the college students deepen their understanding of the children's language and literacy skills. During the spring semester, the children make the trip to Houghton College and spend a day at the college campus.
After such a successful literacy partnership, a Saturday Reading Program, called the Royal Readers, was established, whereby college students spend a Saturday morning with individual children, reading books and discussing literature. Such collaborations have continued over several years and educators are convinced that the program has value for students' reading development.
Math Tutoring. Two main distance learning programs are organized between Houghton College and the King Center Charter School. The first one involves computer-based math tutoring. In 2001, a John Ben Snow Memorial Trust Public/Private Collaboration Grant enabled Houghton College to establish a tutoring program at the King Center Charter School for 3rd- and 4th-grade students with special needs in math. The program used computer-based conferencing with voice capabilities and graphics tablets to link the Houghton students with the 3rd- and 4th-graders at the charter school. After three years, the students made significant improvements on their 4th-grade New York State math test scores.
Teleconferencing. The second distance learning program between Houghton College and King Center Charter School involves teleconferencing. As previously mentioned, the King Center Charter School serves primarily urban African American children. These children rarely spend time with children from other cultures. In the spirit of Brown vs. Board of Education, 50 years later, we determined that we could achieve something through technology that busing could not achieve. With limited funding from several sources, 3rd-graders at the King Center were linked with Belfast Central, which serves a population of primarily white children in rural upstate New York. Third grade was chosen because, at the time, the first major state tests in math were given at 4th grade; therefore, the teachers and schools welcomed bringing special attention to math near the end of the 3rd grade.
Through the "Integrating Math" program, the two schools were connected via teleconferences, which allowed two 3rd-grade classes to get to know each other and work together on selected tasks. During the 2003-04 school year, four videoconferences were arranged between the children. They gave individual presentations about their schools and themselves, participated in storytelling presentations, and gained greater understanding and appreciation of cultural differences. During the last videoconference, they were also linked to Lincoln School in Costa Rica, to further broaden their cross-cultural understandings.
Math Camp. The various distance learning experiences have concluded in a three-day-long Math Camp at the end of the school year. This year, we have organized our third Annual Math Camp for 3rd-graders in both King Center Charter School and Belfast Central School. An excerpt (on p. 139) from a memoir of the first Math Camp at Houghton College describes the use of distance education technology to prepare the children for the camp experience (this excerpt originally appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of King Center Today).
Prime Time Summer at the King Center. The Math Camp is not the only summer program that Houghton students have organized for children. Over two years, 12 Houghton College students and six Houghton graduates through AmeriCorps served on staff for summer programs at the King Center Charter School. Such summer programs are full of educational activities and essential opportunities for social/emotional development, as well as much-needed summer fun. The following excerpt (from an article in the Summer/Fall 2004 issue of King Center Today) provides a quick glimpse of the work they have been doing:
When the 2004 Prime Time Summer Program ended ..., the participants, staff, and coordinators were all in agreement--it was awesome! And if you were in attendance the night before, at the Summer Prime Time Open House Presentation, I'm sure you agree. Performances by the drill team and chorus, a poetry slam, a technology presentation, a photography gallery opening and photography awards, a series of video productions, and a summer slide show highlighted the talents and accomplishments of the thirty 4th- through 8th-graders in the King Center summer program.
A typical day began with lunch at 12:30 and was followed by educational activities from 1:00-4:00. These activities included technology, science, communications, poetry, photography, videography, art, and prevention education. A quick snack at 4:00 was followed by an hour of recreation and an hour of community service, meal preparation or music. At approximately 6:00 p.m., participants and staff gathered for a dinner that was prepared by a designated group of participants, with staff assistance and direction. After community reflection and clean up, the day ended at 7:00.
In 2003 and 2004, funding for the Prime Time Summer Program was provided by Erie County. The summer 2005 program was in jeopardy, due to the county's financial woes and the elimination of all Prime Time Summer Program funding. However, Houghton College stepped up and provided the financial match needed for short-term AmeriCorps members to staff a modified summer program. The staff was made up of six Houghton College students and three Houghton graduates. King Center personnel provided direction and oversight, and we were able to provide opportunities for both academic and social/emotional growth for the children.
Journey's End
As have many cities in the United States, Buffalo has seen an influx of children and families from war-torn places in the world. Teachers in urban public schools often face the challenge of educating refugee children in their classroom (Szente, Hoot, & Taylor, 2006) while continuing to address everyday urban challenges. Since refugee children are placed into public schools shortly after they arrive, teachers need to be adequately prepared to meet these children's needs as well. In order to prepare Houghton College students for this new, unique urban challenge, another partnership was formed strategically with Journey's End, one of the refugee resettlement agencies in Buffalo.
In the fall of 2004, eight Houghton College students in a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) course volunteered to make the long drive from the Houghton College campus to Journey's End Refugee Services. Each Saturday, these college students tutored Bantu immigrant children, who had recently arrived from refugee camps in Kenya. At the end of the first semester, the students decided to continue the tutoring during the spring semester and invited a few friends to join them. Over 30 student tutors made the weekly trip during the spring 2005 semester.