Spicey Bison meatloaf with chipotle sauce and other reasons to take the train from Cleveland to Omaha for the National Cristo Rey meeting!

Ok, so I am only going to Omaha but it leaves one tenth of the carbon footprint of flying!  I enjoy taking the train...it is for me a retreat, a chance to slow down, read, and yes, even blog!

In 2002 I went to my first national meeting of the Cristo Rey movement.  It was held in the basement of a retreat center in Lincoln Park with 25 people!  This week there will be over 200 people in and out representing 24 existing schools, a few schools about to open in the next few years and several in feasibility stage.  To learn more about the network go to http://www.cristoreynetwork.org/ .

I have come across a really good blog:
 ~synthesis~

opinions & ideas by shafeen charania... http://interacc.typepad.com/synthesis/

It is often about education but not always.  He writes almost daily.  He is a bigwig (or was) at Microsoft.  Well worth a daily look!

Just show me the finish line...

Recently I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He explains the way food comes to our table, or fast food restaurant, by detailing the history of four meals he eats. The section in the book on small organic farming introduces us to a farmer, Joel Salatin, who owns and operates Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Mr. Salatin is quite a character.



Among other things, he raises chickens and cows on his farm. He talks about the massive government beauracracy surrounding the slaughtering of animals, which makes it almost impossible for small farmers to legally produce meat in large quanties. Mr. Salatin certainly has his baises against government regulations, but in one particular excerpt, he stated a challenge to these government regulators.



In order to assure food safety (I read this book before the peanut butter scare), the USDA creates a series of regulations all aimed at food safety. However, they leave one out. They do not actually require the measurement of bacteria (harmful or other) once the chicken is packaged. The government's theory is if everything along the line is safe, clean and hygenic then the final product will be. There are approximately 40,000 cases of salmonella in the United State each year. Mr. Salatin feels that the only real test of the safety of chicken meat is to take a sample as it is being packaged. Now here comes the line, "Just show me the finish line, I will figure out how to get there!"



Recently the governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, in his State of the State address talked about education reforms. It included quite an impressive list: all day kindergartens, change in teacher licensing, change in tenure rules and laws, replace Ohio Graduation Test with ACT scores, revamp the funding system, dictate the number students in a kindergarten class (no more than 15), and lengthening the school day and year. I am sure there were others.



Buried in there was something that Farmer Salatin might agree with: make a certain ACT score the new "finish line." The rest are, in effect, telling us how to get there.



While all this was making news in Cleveland, Bill Gates produced his first annual letter for his foundation. It is available at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/Pages/2009-bill-gates-annual-letter.aspx.



When he begins talking about education he almost always puts it in this context: one million high school students a year drop out; and nationally, 71% of students graduate (58% of Latino students, 55% African American students). The Gates Foundation has given over $2 billion to education.



It began by helping cities create small schools and funding the replication of effective schools. The Cristo Rey Network, of which Saint Martin de Porres High School is a member, is the only private school network funded with this money. He states in his annual letter: "We will continue to invest in replicating the school models that worked the best. Almost all of these schools are charter schools. Many states have limits on charter schools, including giving them less funding than other schools. Educa­tional innovation and overall improvement will go a lot faster if the charter school limits and funding rules are changed."



(Here is an excerpt from the Cincinnati Enquirer, February 5, 2009, "Strickland's office confirmed Wednesday that the two-year budget proposal would reduce state funding for charter schools from $617 million in the current school year to $497.4 million in the next school year. Then it would increase to $533.7 million the following school year.


Over the same period, overall state spending on education, in general, is supposed to increase by $925 million.")



Gates went on to talk about a major shift in funding for education by his foundation. He has admitted that most of the earlier experimentation with small schools was, overall, not making enough of an impact. He calls for a new finish line: 80% of high school students will graduate in four years and will be fully ready to attend college by 2025. What the Foundation has also found is: "One of the key things these schools (the successful ones being replicated by earlier funding) have done is help their teachers be more effective in the classroom. It is amazing how big a difference a great teacher makes versus an ineffective one. Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school." Hence the Foundation is going to be spending much more money and focus on teacher development.



Superintendant Eugene Sanders, shortly after the Governor's address, laid out his plan as reported in the Plain Dealer:



"Cleveland schools chief Eugene Sanders outlined his plan for moving the district forward:
• Turn around low-performing schools or close them.
• Reward teachers for performance, not seniority.
• Get rid of ineffective teachers.
• Build on innovative programs such as single-gender academies and schools specializing in science, technology, engineering and math.
• Encourage parents and community to get involved in the schools."



Where is the "finish line?" Using terms like "low-performing," "ineffective," and "performance," allude to one, but certainly not as transparent as Mr. Gates': 80% of high school students will graduate in four years and will be fully ready to attend college by 2025.



We need to build upon risk taking and innovation. Personally, it bothers me that the goal is only 80%. I know that it is a realistic goal based on the national average today of 71%, yet somehow that is sad. In any event our leaders need to be clear on the finish line and then support those educational endeavors that are moving towards it or even crossing it.



We need clarity and simplicity in our "finish line." I am reminded of this famous story:



The Talmud in tractate Shabbos 31a relates the following well-known story of Hillel:


"On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he chased him away with the builder's cubit that was in his hand. When he came before Hillel, (he also asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot) Hillel replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it."



Here is a simple goal (recitable on one foot): "80% of Cleveland high school aged students will graduate from an accredited school fully ready to attend college...by 20XX."



Next...Hill 537

Question from a visitor...

This morning we were at school hosting a family who was looking for a school to include in its year end giving. We had a great time and the family asked many good and insightful questions. One question stuck out and it was about the Catholic nature of our school.





Back in 2000 I remember talking to a colleague at Saint Ignatius High School about opening a school for kids in the inner city of Cleveland. He wondered why I would want to open a Catholic school in an area where there were so few Catholics. At that time, I gave him an answer I had heard Bishop Pilla give many times when faced with a similar question, "We have Catholic schools in the city not because the students are Catholic, but because we are Catholic." I always thought that was a good way of putting. Not unlike Catholic hospitals...they do not only serve Catholics who are ill!



Two years ago I was invited to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to speak about the Cristo Rey model. Calvinists have hundreds of schools throughout the world. Many of them, as I understand it, were founded to educate Christian children of missionaries and colonists. As time went by, the schools, mostly in urban areas began to serve a new clientele. Most of the urban dwellers, particularly in the African cities where the Calvinists had established schools, were now Moslems.



When I mentioned the issue that many American Catholics bring up about urban Catholic schools educating non-Catholics, I told them of the Bishop Pilla answer. They nodded, but said they too had to have a good reason to continue Christian schools for Moslems. Their reason was rooted in the Gospel. We have these schools in poor urban areas because they are our nieghbors and we are commanded to love our neighbors by Jesus! Wow! Great answer...



Happy New Year!

Jean Paul Sartre: by any means necessary

Today I was priviliged to hear Rev. Otis Moss who worked closely with Dr. King, who presided at the wedding of Rev. Moss and his wife, deliver a talk at the City Club. His theme was the need for a strong central city...without that the rest of the area will collapse. One of the factors (he name seven or more) that will help build a strong city is public education. I couldn't agree with him more. I would like to change the typical view though. The term, public school, today means a school that are supported by local, state and federal government that do not charge tuition.

The speeches of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. were a part of my childhood. My brother, Bill, attended the rally in Washington in 1963 and heard the "I Have a Dream" speech live! When I was accepted to attend Georgetown University in the fall of 1969, the country had suffered the loss of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy and Vietnam was consuming our nation. The freshmen reading list including the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I remember seeing a picture of Malcolm X in Life Magazine holding a gun with a caption of "By Any Means Necessary!" I must admit I was scared by that pronouncement. I read the book and began to get a glimpse into a world I really did not know.


34 years later I had left my position as principal of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland which I had held for twelve years, and I was driving down Superior Avenue on Cleveland's East Side. I was scouting out the neighborhood which was going to be home for a new school we were starting. I noticed painted in Day Glo orange on the slats of a cyclone fence the words: "Revolution is the only solution." Lord, I thought, I was back in the urban maelstrom of Lima, Peru! I must admit that scared me too. This time, there was no book to read--in a way we were writing our own. Five years later I have begun to get a glimpse into a world where slogans such as "By any means necessary" and "Revolution is the only solution" arise from the people.


"I was not the one to invent lies: they were created in a society divided by class and each of us inherited lies when we were born. It is not by refusing to lie that we will abolish lies: it is by eradicating class by any means necessary." — Jean Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands: act 5, scene 3. 1963

Jean Paul Sartre perhaps puts this whole question into a larger context. Malcolm X, two years later says this: "We declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."— Malcolm X, 1965.

I cannot bring myself to advocating violence, in this regard I am a follower of Jesus, King, and Gandhi. However working for five years at E. 61st and St. Clair allows me to see the absolute futility of life without having the chance for a decent education. That chance has to be NOW!

What if we have some fun with that term and we say a public school is any school that educates the public. In Peru, all schools receive government subsidy. Even Catholic schools receive funding for everything save religion teachers and texts. The closest we have to this in the United States was the GI Bill. It could be used by the student to attend and pay for any college, public or private. In the end, the idea was that everybody could have the opportunity!

As Cleveland begins to develop STEM schools, magnet schools like the three at John Hay or Cleveland School of the Arts the chance for a quality and safe education rises significantly. My question now is quite simple, "What happens to the thousands of kids who can't get into those schools???" Why can't we have a much wider vision of education of the public and look to excellent schools already in existence to help with the severe lack of quality now? Perhaps they are charter schools or private schools that are not tuition driven that could help educate thousands more now. For me the best way to look at this is to ask the question from the family's point of view: "I have an eighth grader now, where can I send her in the fall of 2009 and be sure that the school is safe, effective and will have demonstrated student learning and success?" the answer cannot be, "We are working on it...give us time." That child today doesn't have any time. Here is an analogy which might bring to light the absolute urgency of this education crisis. Suppose avian flu broke out pandemically right now. Thousands of people needing medical attention all at once. Would not all hospitals be part of the solution? Even if in some there were rabbis, or Roman Catholic Masses going on, or Imans counselling? What if they had Saints in their names? Would it matter if at those hospitals you could get the needed treatment?

It is my belief that the urban education crisis is as urgent and deadly as the Plague. If we do not do something right now we will pay for it dearly in the decades to come.

Public education is the great equalizer...

The following appeared in the Chicago Tribune:


By Tara Malone Tribune reporter (Chicago)
December 11, 2008
Fewer than 2 in 10 of the nation's 8th graders are on track to be academically prepared for college, and high school may be too late to bring them up to speed, according to a study released Wednesday.The report found that how students fare in middle school is a leading predictor of their ability to succeed in college or the workplace after high school. Research by Iowa City-based ACT suggests that students who are not academically prepared going into high school are unlikely to make up ground even with rigorous schooling and academic help. The trend cut across demographic and economic lines."What we're saying is college and career readiness is a process that includes high school but is not exclusively a high school issue. It's a K-12 issue," said Cyndie Schmeiser, president of ACT's education division.The findings reinforce a recent study of Chicago Public Schools students. The University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research looked at the correlation between how 8th graders fared on the state's exams and how they performed three years later on the ACT. The report found that students who earned average scores in 8th grade had only a one-in-four chance of scoring high enough on the ACT to go to college—typically considered at least a 20 out of 36 points."We should be looking all the way back. If we want kids to be at a certain level in Grade 12 or 11, where do we need them to be in middle school or elementary school?" said John Easton, executive director of the consortium.
His research found that regardless of their achievement level in middle school, students did benefit from attending high schools with strong academics and challenging course work."I don't want to take high schools off the hook entirely, but on the other hand, it's hard for high schools to deal with severely underprepared kids," Easton said.The ACT report tracked 216,000 teenagers nationwide who completed the college-entrance exam and its two precursor tests given in Grades 8 and 10. Those involved graduated in 2005 and 2006. The sample did not include teenagers who left high school, leading Schmeiser to call the findings a "best-case scenario."Only students who scored high enough on the 8th-grade exam to reach academic targets set in reading, English, math and science typically went on to earn high enough marks on the ACT as juniors to be considered ready for college in all four areas.The Elgin school district, the state's second-largest, began offering the three-exam ACT series four years ago and now tracks how students progress from one exam to the next.Recent results, for example, show that many students who attend Elgin School District U-46 improved between Grades 8 and 10. But about 40 percent did not progress as expected between Grades 10 and 11.District test consultant Ed DeYoung said the results helped the Elgin district focus its efforts—though he said the onus is not on high schools alone."Each [school] level's responsibility is to raise the rigor of what they are doing," DeYoung said

So this issue goes so deep it is scary! Today, with President-elect Obama's appointment of new Education secretary, we heard that public education is the great equalizer...well I would agree if what is meant by that is education of the public is the great equalizer...the difference is students across this country are being let down by enormous numbers by public education if by that we mean simply public schools. We need to change the spin...we need to focus on education of students by any means that is successful. Preparing 2 out of 10 for college success is cause for national alarm! Pioneering high performing schools must join across all lines--public, private, religious, charter to combat this sad state of affairs.

This is scary...planets are aligning!

I had lunch today at Bo Loong (E. 40th and St. Clair) with three local urban educators. They too saw the present system of delivering education in urban areas as unworkable. Bill Gates called American seconday education obsolete a few year ago...at that time I thought, "Well, that might be an overstatement for effect..." Guess what...he was right. Urban districts are creating small really good schools within the system, but they are not sustainable...nor, quite honestly, that public.

Two possible new directions:

The Essential Schools movement (http://www.essentialschools.org/) have these common principles:

The Common Principles (abbrev.)
1. Learning to use one's mind well
2. Less is More, depth over coverage
3. Goals apply to all students
4. Personalization
5. Student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach
6. Demonstration of mastery
7. A tone of decency and trust
8. Commitment to the entire school
9. Resources dedicated to teaching and learning
10.Democracy and equity

The Small Schools Movement have these factors as basic to a good school:

http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/

At the Small Schools Project, we define small schools as those that share a set of common characteristics:
They are small. Few effective small schools serve more than 400 students, and many serve no more than 200 students.
They are small. They are autonomous. The school community—whether it shares a building, administrator, or some co-curricular activities with other schools—retains primary authority to make decisions affecting the important aspects of the school.
They are distinctive and focused rather than comprehensive. They do not try to be all things to all people.
They are personal. Every student is known by more than one adult, and every student has an advisor/advocate who works closely with her and her family to plan a personalized program. Student-family-advisor relationships are sustained over several years.
They are committed to equity in educational achievement by eliminating achievement gaps between groups of students while increasing the achievement levels of virtually all students.
They use multiple forms of assessment to report on student accomplishment and to guide their efforts to improve their own school.
They view parents as critical allies, and find significant ways to include them in the life of the school community.
They are schools of choice for both students and teachers, except in some rural areas, and are open, without bias, to any students in a community. There are important benefits of small schools, including student achievement, personalization, cost effectiveness, safety benefits, and others.

These are just two views of a new kind of school. An analogy that was used to explain what happens when technology paradigms shift can really apply to present day educational systems...characterized as big, centralized, teacher centered (via unions), unacceptable graduation rates...on and on. When steam engines were introduced to the great sailing ships, it was very confusing to the sailors. Most steam engines were put on ships, but they kept the sails! Check out the picture above!

We are at a time now when we have to get rid of the sails and get the steam engine! Unfortunately, large urban districts think that adding sails, changing the size, color or shape of the sails is the solution...no, the solution is something so different that we may not recognize just what it will be...but whatever it will be, students will learn!

Blowing on the embers...

Five years ago, we formed a curriculum committee to write a new curriculum for our school. Headed by Karen Nestor, we did just that. Now, five years later, it is time to blow on the embers and get the fire raging again! Yesterday, I spoke to our teachers...I am not sure how it was received, but I was too excited about the prospects of recreating even a more effective curriculum and reigniting the school! We shall see. I will post some powerpoints used in the presentation.