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| This article printed in the CT section of the NYtimes this weekend about someone who works at our sister school up in CT (the original AF charter school actually)
Student at Risk? He Can Help. He’s Been There.
By LARY BLOOM
Published: May 6, 2007
New Haven
BACK in the ’hood, they called him Billy. His friends and family members still do. But the children summoned to his office call him Mr. Johnson, as in Mr. William Johnson, dean of students at Amistad Academy.
On some days, the dean’s job is to talk troubled children back from the edge. And so it was in the case of a 14-year-old boy suffering from personal problems and neglecting his studies. When that happens at this charter middle school of astonishing academic success, the authorities respond quickly.
Students at Amistad, a converted warehouse north of downtown New Haven, know Mr. Johnson as the disciplinarian, but also, in his words, as “the person who is building them back up.” At Amistad, building character is part of the curriculum. To do that, however, there must first be a stripping down — honest and chilling conversation.
Mr. Johnson had learned from the troubled boy’s grandmother of a change in behavior. The boy had reached the age of self-identity, and questioned why he wasn’t living with his mother. (Such inquiries in these neighborhoods have become common.) The answer he got — his mother is a drug user — sent him into a tailspin, and he began selling drugs himself. The grandmother told Mr. Johnson, “I don’t want to lose him.”
He had been a decent student, and knew well what was happening around him at the academy. He participated in Morning Circle, the regular assembly where drums are played, and students in blue shirts and khakis are told about, and applaud, the achievements of peers. He read the signs in the gym spelling out school mottos: “Read, Baby, Read.” “Excuses: Some people find excuses, other people find a way.” “Success starts here and now. If you want it you can have it.”
This approach to learning, played out in an intense and extended school calendar, has paid off in ways that change perceptions and possibilities. In the Connecticut Mastery Test in 2006, Amistad’s student body — 98 percent black or Hispanic, with many children enduring difficult home circumstances — performed better than the state average in reading and math, near the level of Greenwich and twice that of the district average.
The boy’s visit with Mr. Johnson, however, dealt with another side of the academy, one that must deal, even in such a positive setting, with the city’s heartbreak. So, despite being the disciplinarian, the dean bared his own soul as a way of reaching the boy’s, and of persuading him to change his ways.
William Johnson, 31, was not always the authority figure who has earned two master’s degrees. Billy was a son of The Hill, the New Haven neighborhood: impoverished, violent, gang-run, crack-filled. He described this to the troubled student in his office, and admitted that he understood the lure of the street — “because in a neighborhood like that, your friends are your family, and it’s hard to deny them. Good or bad, you’re always around them.”
He told the boy that as a child, he could have gone either way. As it was, sports lured him. The attention of his mother, a teacher, guided him. The return of his estranged father strengthened him. Even so, he knows what it means to be ostracized. He endured the derision: “College boy” and “You talk like you’re white.”
In conversations with students, Mr. Johnson is driven by his memory of a few inspiring New Haven teachers who encouraged him and taught him an elusive lesson — that actions today have consequences tomorrow.
That is now his job, and in the case of the man-child sitting across from him, there was much he could have said. He could have mentioned how lucky the student was to have been chosen in the public lottery that determines who gets into Amistad, and taught by teachers (including himself, because he also conducts classes) who don’t mind spending longer hours than their unionized counterparts in traditional public schools.
The boy would not have been impressed that Amistad’s parent organization, the nonprofit Achievement First, now runs several New York City schools and will begin working with Bridgeport children for the first time in September. Nor would he have been captivated by the intense political circumstance: legislators are being lobbied to increase state support for charter schools — which receive about 70 percent of the funds per student that traditional schools get, and must rely heavily on donations — though, as Amistad shows, success requires much more than money.
In meeting with the student, Mr. Johnson kept to his point. Yes, he knew how he felt. No, failure was not an option. And, swayed by Mr. Johnson’s personal story, he promised to give up his unsavory activities. He has so far kept that promise, and is working harder in school. The dean says: “For him to be doing O.K. is magnificent, because of the odds he faces.”
But then at Amistad, where the dismantling of the urban stereotype takes place daily, magnificence is the expectation. | | |
| i cried in front of my kids for the first time ever today. at our school we have this entire process of our scholars earning their uniform shirts. so there is a real sense of pride in wearing the "blue and gold". one of our scholars did not earn his shirt with the majority of his teammates on September 1st with the rest of his teammates. as those around him continued to work hard and more and more began to earn their shirts, Jahkeem still had not. each week, he would sit in hopeful suspense at our morning circles hoping, just hoping that it would be the day. each week, the coveted blue and gold went to someone else and he could not hide the disappointment on his face. watching him in class, i began to wonder why he still had not earned his shirt, but it seemed that each week, he woudl be on the verge of getting that blue and gold and then a poor choice would be made on his part and his shirt would once again return to the principals office. he earned his shirt today. after SEVEN months of anticipation and a good 10 minutes of suspense built into the announcement he LEAPED out of his seat with his arms outsearched a la muhammad ali's "i am the greatest pose" HE could not contain his tears and neither could i. and as i looked down the hallway at my fellow coworkers, not a single one of them had a dry eye. even looking at our own scholars, they too were overwhelmed with emotions as many of his teammates began to tear up with us. what a GREAT day to be a part of the Achievement First Endeavor TEAM and FAMILY. | | |
| the following is a description of charter schools from the charter schools institute, sometimes i feel like i don't desribe it well enough...
Charter schools are tuition-free public schools created by parents, educators, and community leaders—open to all students—that operate under a five-year contract, or 'charter.' Charter school students are required to take all state tests, and must comply with laws regarding health, safety, civil rights and special education.
Charter schools are independent and do not answer to a local school district superintendent or board of education. Instead, each charter school is run by its own board of trustees, responsible for overseeing the school and ensuring its success. Because charter schools are not bound by many of the state laws and regulations governing public education, they are free to develop their own curriculum, choose staff, set educational goals, offer a longer school day and school year, and establish their own standards for student behavior.
In return, a charter school must show within its five-year charter period that it has raised student achievement. Only if the school raises achievement will its charter be renewed. If the school fails, the charter school may lose its charter, which means it will have no license to operate and would close. Likewise, if a school continually violates the law, it may have its charter revoked. While this may seem daunting to parents, this type of high-stakes accountability is necessary to ensure an environment in which the best possible quality education for all students is the norm.
It is important to note that public charter schools and their boards are subject to ongoing oversight and monitoring by their ‘authorizer,’ and the New York State Board of Regents, in an effort to facilitate success. Under the New York State Charter Schools Act of 1998, authorizers, those with the power to create charter schools and thereafter to renew charters of successful schools, include: the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York, the New York State Board of Regents, or local boards of education (in New York City, authorizing power is vested in the New York City Schools Chancellor). The Charter Schools Institute was established by the State University Trustees to assist them in carrying out their responsibilities under the act. | | |
| it's a brand new year.
after going on hiatus from xanga (i haven't even checked it on a daily basis like i once did!)
i sat down and read.
read about christmas breaks,
lost friends, found friends, new years resolutions,
summaries of times gone by.
and i feel the need to write.
as time goes on i find myself forgetting just how i good i have it
visitors in my classroom often remind me
one friend who also spent two years teaching science in the bronx reminded me when she came to visit my classroom for a brief moment
she said she was moved to tears at how well my kids were behaving
how quickly they were getting things done
the funny thing is-- on that day in particular, i was aggravated by their behavior
aggravated by the fact that they were being anything less than the perfect, silent scholars i expected them to be
i hadn't realized HOW high my expectations have become
and when i really stop and think about it,
any bad day here would have been an excellent day up in the bronx
i think i once wrote that i wished that i could worry more about my lesson planning and not about classroom management, if i didn't write it, i definitely said it several times
there came a day when i realized that "glorified babysitter" was the only REAL position i was expected to fill
having students turn in science projects that resembled those of my own third grade projects and science fairs that were far from any standard, applauded and celebrated as if they were the best work the school had ever seen brought me to this realization
i realized that the expectations for my kids were so low that, even in the seventh grade, getting them to write a complete sentence was an extreme act of excellence-- the result of years and years of having that bar set so low that failure became their only option
people often ask me why my current school is different
why i am so much happier here
how our kids achieve
children are extremely perceptive beings and the adapt and respond to their environments accordingly.
those same children that could have become my seventh graders in the bronx are now being held completely accountable for their own actions
they each have one shared goal
and that is to go to and graduate from college
but that's not all
during their years at our school
they will leave with the expectation that they will do great things and they will give to the communities that they are a part of
we remind them of this
EVERY
day.
in every room
in every class
in EVERYthing they do
and they know
they see that there teachers have never missed a day of school since the beginning of the year (quite a feat considering all the absences i had with the DOE..)
they see that we are there well before 7:15 and often leave well after 5.
and after 5, we pick up or cell phones and answer their burning questions on homework
this job is not one for the lazy
we never just leave our work at work
we live, eat and breathe our work
they see that we will NEVER let them slip and fall
and that failure is no longer an option in their lives
yes, they will fall but they won't stay down
over the last two days, our scholars have been taking their city wide ELA tests.
on monday morning we held a "pep rally" for them that involved
relating their "training" at school to the the training that Rocky did before his big fight (I believe the clip we showed was in RockyI... i have no idea... i never watched the series...)
entering the breakfast room tuesday morning, i could FEEL the tension in the air
many of them were nervous, recalling a series of bad tests they had taken where the state had told them they were "not meeting standards" in 3rd and 4th grades
we reminded them that they had trained
trained hard not to win in the 1st, 3rd or 5th rounds
but to win in the FIFTEENTH round
we reminded them that the test would be long
but they were prepared for the fight
as they walked up the five long flights of stairs from breakfast to their first session of the test, we began to hear faint sounds of music drifting from our floor
as we stepped onto the floor and passed by our principal's office,
we heard the distinct sounds of "eye of the tiger" blasting from his office
as i came to this realization i turned around and watched 23 pairs of nervous feet begin walking with purpose, 23 heads lifted higher, 23 smiles and 23 pairs of eyes with a set look of determination
the ELA was going down.
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| for that much needed comic relief watching you try to "fix your face" with your eyebrows dancing up and down up then down up then down over and over and over again you, trying so hard not to look mad me, trying so hard to stifle the bursts of laughter threatning to surface i got to work today questioning how i was going to make it through the day now i can just think about RIVER DANCING eyebrows. | | |
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