Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9I5gVV01211; Sat, 18 Oct 2003 01:42:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 01:42:31 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200310180540.h9I5eOgo099884@mx-relay.gwtc.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Sammie Bordeaux" <sambordx@gwtc.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:1260] Re: Education Group Calls for Revised X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express for Macintosh - 4.02 (298) Status: O Content-Length: 10625 Lines: 189 Hi, I'm a Native person, born and raised on an Indian reservation in South Dakota. Although I am not a teacher, I am kind of laterally connected to education, especially as it relates to Native students and teachers. My mother is an educator, I worked for 12 years at a tribal college, and I served as a Director of a National Writing Project site at our tribal college. I am also a parent of four children, three of whom are in public schools that are 98% Native students with about 88% non-Native teachers (there are Caucasian, Hispanic and East Indian teachers in our schools, along with a few Native teachers who graduated from the teacher education program at our tribal college). I am also,for the second year, on a parent council at my oldest daughter's school, and serve on a headstart parent committee. NCLB, of course, is the hot topic of conversation and has been for several years. What we notice is that although our Native culture and language and history are supposed to be integrated into our schools by tribal law, they are taking a second place to reading and math. Although all the research shows that Native students who are immersed in their culture from birth to third grade are more likely to be successful in school, there is almost no integration of the culture and language because most of the teachers are not Native, there is no "tried and true" way of teaching language and culture, and we have at least three generations of Native parents on our reservation who were not brought up in the culture. Although local research shows our Native students possess specific learning styles related to their culture, the teaching styles have not been altered to address the learning styles of our students. Add extreme poverty and accompanying social problems to the mix of high stakes testing, and all but two of the 17 schools on our reservation are considered failling schools by state standards. The two which are not serve 7 and 11 students respectively, all of them non-Native. It's hard to get teachers to come here, despite a salary scale which matches or exceeds most schools in our state. It's a very remote area, the social problems are overwhelming, and living and working within a different culture is hard on new teachers (the only kind we can get). The "old" teachers are those who were born and raised in the area, and for the most part they have worked here for 30 plus years or more. They are adamantly opposed to changing their teaching styles, discipline methods, or even the bulletin boards in their classrooms (meaning they were here before the American Indian Movement was even a reality, and their racist mentalities remains firmly in place). The average age of parents of children entering kindergarten here is 22. Their own parents are still bringing them up, while they struggle to raise their children. Bringing on a law like NCLB is like hitting a flood area with a plague, a tornado and a bomb at the same time. It might seem like an unreal situation to some of you, but I assure you, this is truly a devastating law for our people. Others on the parent council with me are Native parents who are older, well-educated, and concerned. The administrator in my oldest daughter's school is overtly racist, and the teachers are teachers I had when I was in school there (25 years ago). We learned by witnessing today that students who are disruptive in the classroom are immediately placed in juvenile court prior to their parents even being informed of any incident at school. The administrator insists she wants parent involvement, but of course, this means parent involvement of a certain kind. (come to parent night, sell raffle tickets, review--but make no changes to--the absurd school plan developed by the teachers). Now we have the alternative to transfer our students to another school because this school is on school improvement status--but where would they go? We live 98 miles from the nearest Walmart and there is no competitive school in the area. Another absurdity--instituting an attendance policy that immediately raises the attendance problem to an attendance nightmare (if students are more than 15 minutes late for school the student is considered half a day absent), which affects the school's overall score that qualifies them for school improvement. I asked what kind of professional development teachers were receiving now that they are on school improvement status. The answer: yes. Nothing on what the improved training was, how often it occurred, or if it was helping at all. It's almost too much to bear. What I do is this: We have a National Writing Project located at our tribal college. I've been the director for two years, and a teacher-consultant/co-director for two years prior to that. As a National Writing Project, we are required to offer an Invitational Summer Institute for teachers on the teaching of writing. We altered our Institute slightly to encompass culturally relevant writing instruction. Research shows that reading is improved by more emphasis on writing and critical thinking. It's a graduate level, 6 credit course, offered over 3-6 weeks every summer. Teachers receive a hefty stipend, reduced cost graduate credits, meet recertification requirements, and spend three or four weeks reading, writing, learning about the culture, talking with professional writers, participating in professional discussions, and demonstrating best practices to other teachers. When this is over they are asked to demonstrate or provide inservice to other teachers in their school. What it's become is a way for teachers who are truly concerned about the students to talk and strategize and improve or even just find out there are others who share their concerns. It's become successful because Native people who are both parents and educators are integral to the Writing Project, so the project is community-based, culturally-relevant, parent-supported, and based in the educational philosophies and culture of the students they are teaching. Problems: administrators at the University where the site is based are not supportive of the Writing Project; the teachers who are resistant to change are never involved in it; the administrators at the local schools are only shallowly supportive because they would rather buy a big package deal that promises improvement for all schools, all teachers, at all the same time. This year our schools are doing some ridiculous literacy activity known as "four square." It's the 7th week of school and kids are exhausted by this four square activity. They four square their reading, writing, math, science, social studies, etc. every day, all day. It's not working. Our biggest problem at the Writing Project is that we can only serve 7-15 teachers each year. We have 224 teachers in the area. It could be supposed that eventually we would run out of teachers to serve, but really, the turnover here is high, and there are teachers here who wouldn't dream of giving up four weeks of their summer to do something like set up tipis, participate in Native ceremonies, talk about educational philosophies of Native people, or improve their own writing so they could be more successful teachers of writing. We do know that the teachers we have served over the five years of our Writing Project's existence have remained here, are highly successful, are requested more by parents for their children, and have become leaders in their schools. The problem with that is that nobody believes it had anything to do with setting up tipis and learning about Native herbs and medicines. Sorry to take up so much of the list time and space. I just wanted to respond to Mary Ann's question about something that works, what the connections are between literacy and poverty and race, and how NCLB can affect out of reach areas like Indian reservations. Although I agree that teachers and schools need to improve, I think that little emphasis has been placed on parents and authentic family involvement and community solutions, not only locally, but nationally as well. --SB ---------- >From: "Mary Ann Corley" <macorley1@earthlink.net> >To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> >Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:1259] Re: Education Group Calls for Revised Law >Date: Fri, Oct 17, 2003, 9:39 PM > >Thanks, Andrea. I appreciate your feedback! > >Allow me to ask for your help and that of all subscribers to this list: > >I think this list has potential for us to discuss changes to our literacy >programs that would make them more culturally responsive to all learners, >but I continue to struggle with how to get a really good discussion going on >the list. I would love some help from subscribers! So let me pose some >questions and invite subscribers either to comment on these or to pose your >own questions. > >Here are some of mine: > >What are the issues related to poverty (or of classism) and racism and their >connection to literacy that sparked your interest in subscribing to this >list? > >What do you struggle with in your classrooms/programs related to issues of >poverty and racism? > >How do you see institutional racism playing out in our literacy programs--or >do you? > >What do you think of the usual textbooks that are used in literacy classes? >What alternatives can you suggest or are you using successfully? > >How can we incorporate culturally responsive instructional strategies into >our teaching to reach all learners? What have you tried and would recommend >to others? > >There are other questions like the above that we could be discussing, but we >don't quite get there--perhaps because, as list moderator, I'm not sure how >to ask questions that will spark discussion. These are tough topics, and we >aren't often provided with a forum for discussing issues of poverty and >racism, so many of us may be uncomfortable speaking about these issues. But >these issues represent (at least in my opinion) perhaps the most important >challenges we face in our literacy work, so we must discuss them. > >Please jump in and help get the discussion moving! > >Many thanks! > >-Mary Ann > >---- Original Message ----- >From: <AWilder106@aol.com> >To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> >Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 10:44 AM >Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:1258] Re: Education Group Calls for Revised Law > > >> Dear Mary Ann, >> >> Thanks for your articles and news updates, I find them really useful in >keeping alert to what is going on, what others are thinking, educational >trends and critiques of public policy. >> >> Andrea >
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