Haverford Class Sizes to Increase – Where are the Special Education Supports?

In Thursday’s paper, Times correspondent Lois Puglionese reported that the Haverford School District may have to increase fifth grade class sizes “from 25.75 to 28.67 students” next year.

Never mind Haverford’s practice of enrolling fractional students.

But in this story, grandparents of students with learning exceptionalities left the impression that at the present time, Haverford fifth grade teachers do not have classroom aides to assist with their children’s special needs.

By the end of the day, online readers were asking why children with special learning needs are not placed in separate special education classrooms. Yet, no one asked why special education aides were not assigned to the fifth grade classrooms when students needed extra help.

To answer the first question, Federal law requires that children with exceptionalities be mainstreamed, to the extent that a child benefits from the broader inclusive classroom. The acronym for this requirement is FAPE: free and appropriate public education in a “least restrictive environment.”

FAPE takes some getting used to. Having cut my teachers teeth in two schools that mainstreamed all but the most behaviorally challenged children with autism, I can say that everyone benefits from inclusion – when it is implemented responsibly.

But, therein lies the rub. When children with special learning needs or emotional disturbances are mainstreamed, teachers need to have properly trained support staff right in the classroom or strategically available to provide coaching and tutoring as needed.

Too often, that support never makes it into the classroom.

I know there are thousands of parents out there struggling to obtain the right kind of support for their children. So, I ask these questions: Are the schools in your area providing enough classroom support to children with special needs? How do you track to make sure that our special education tax dollars are well spent?

Standing on the Side of Love: Immigrant Students

Yesterday, UU minister Revs. Peter Friedrichs, Nate Walker, Ken Beldon, Kent Matthies and I marched for immigrant justice. Rev. Kent spoke eloquently about the waste of our tax dollars being spent on failed immigration policies. Rev. Nate blessed Danni West, a UU who will witness for justice this Saturday in Phoenix, Arizona.

I spoke with many young immigrants - all who have already received their BAs and advanced degrees from American institutions because their families immigrated to our country when they were young. All of them are struggling with the maze of inconsistent rules. This one can work. That one can't. This one can drive. That one can't. This one can stay because she's getting married. That one has to leave the country, because her parents do not have documents.

As a teacher and as a student, I have benefited from the presence of immigrants in my classes. And I have cringed when my classmates or my students have been treated unfairly because of their status.

In my first year of teaching, a 16 year-old Filipino exchange student asked me to coach her for state vocal competitions. She won first place all the way to the Missouri state championship.

In addition to my choir class and vocal coaching, she studied calculus, science, language arts, American History -- and she achieved by far the highest grade point average in the graduating class. But, as graduation approached, this 16-year old was denied valedictorian standing by the school board -"because she was not a resident in our town."

Which reminds me of growing up in North Philadelphia. Our neighborhood was filled with opera singers, scientists, doctors - many of whom were working mundane jobs because their credentials were not validated by authorities in Pennsylvania.

What a loss to the vitality of our economy back in the 1960's! What a loss to the future of Pennsylvania's economy that forty years later, we still educate and deport our talent!

If I Had a Bell: Immigration Justice

If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning. All over this land. I'd ring it for justice, for freedom, for the love between my brothers and my sisters -- all over this land.

Unless you are exclusively Native American, somebody in your family immigrated to the United States. And if you know anything about your family’s history, you probably learned from one of your relatives that they came to this country to create a better life for their families.

Generations ago, my family came to America during the Irish Potato Famine – and settled in Pennsylvania’s coal mining regions. I was married to an immigrant for many years, and my siblings have had partners who were immigrants.

Unfortunately, in hard economic times, it is too easy for legislatures to avoid their fiscal job –managing scarce resources – by creating animosity towards the weakest members of society. In tomorrow’s blog, I will talk about two odious bills that were introduced to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

But today, beginning at 11:30, immigrants, religious leaders, and concerned people will gather at Constitution Center in Philadelphia to stand up for fair and just immigration policies in the United States. Rev. Peter Friedrichs (UU Church of Delaware County) and I will be part of the group of religious leaders in attendance.

We will ring the bells, sing, pray, and walk for immigration justice.

Please join us! Click here for more details about our campaign for fair and just immigration policies in the United States of America:
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=9de8df64587021c3db855bbfe&id=4ffe599e5d

Why Do We Bash Teachers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey?

I’m sure we can all agree that American schools need to be modernized in order for the next generation of workers to compete in the global economy.
And by modernizing, I don’t mean holding class discussions on FaceBook, or twittering responses to pop quizzes.
No, what I’m talking about, is a reworking of our public school curriculum to teach our children, from their first days in preschool how to think mathematically, how to reason like a scientist or engineer, and how to create things that are beautiful, useful, and of lasting value to our communities.
Granted, in our wealthier school districts, this is probably happening already. But, we recently heard that the current economic crisis may cause school districts around the state to cut back programs that foster scientific and creative thinking. A school in Montgomery County, for example, is planning to close a planetarium that is housed in an elementary school.
But, in our large urban and inner ring school districts, teachers often don’t have the luxury of classroom science equipment, let alone a planetarium that costs $90,000 per year to operate. Too many teachers in our less-wealthy school districts are still hampered with out-of- date textbooks, dilapidated buildings inadequate classroom equipment, and too often, they are burdened with bloated administrations.
To make matters worse, they teach in communities where property tax burdens have become unaffordable.
All of our elected officials who are running for office at the state level are the ones who have the power to correct both the education policies and the funding streams that would make home ownership affordable, and make our public schools attractive to young families who want the very best schools for their children.
Our politicians and elected officials should focus on the power that they have to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in school budgets, and to develop and align state curricula that will prepare students for the world of work and higher education.
But instead, too many of our politicians just point fingers, laying blame elsewhere for their indecisiveness in Harrisburg.
Who is the easy target to blame? Why, teachers. Of course.
You’ve heard the accusations: Teachers only work ten months. They have extra vacation time for Christmas, spring break. They work bankers’ hours.
God save me, if I had never been a teacher, I might have used these false impressions to get elected myself when I ran for office back in 2006. But, I have been a teacher. And, I have always taught in high poverty schools -- in Philadelphia, in Missouri, in New Orleans and in rural Louisiana. So I know firsthand, that it is a myth that “teachers have summers off, and they keep bankers’ hours.”
As this blog unfolds, I hope to explore many best education practices and best governance practices that I have uncovered as I’ve traveled the world as a teacher, a military chaplain, and a U.S. military contractor.
For now, I share this one experience, from my three years of teaching in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Since 2008, in every teacher workroom, there is a sign stating the teacher’s bill of rights, as guaranteed by Governor Bobby Jindal and crafted into legislation by the Louisiana State Legislature.
Legislators in Louisiana recognize that teachers deserve respect and safety if they are to be successful educators.
The Teachers’ Bill of Rights has had the effect of improving the necessary relationship between students, parents and teachers. But, it also has improved the relationship between politicians and teachers. After all, politicians and teachers share the responsibility of educating the citizenry. A good working relationship is necessary for learning communities to flourish.
I don’t know if the politicians in Pennsylvania or New Jersey need to pass such a law requiring that teachers be treated respectfully.
But I do know from my own experience, that when teachers are valued as important contributors to the life of their community, that children, adolescents, and young adults become successful learners.
Isn’t that what the education debate should be all about?