Falling through the Cracks

The purported mission of No Child Left Behind is to ensure that every child in America has the chance to a quality education, a chance at college, and a chance at future success. No Child Left Behind is supposed to level the playing field for students across the country, regardless of race or socio-economics. No Child Left Behind... except for Catera.

Catera is one of my students who challenges me on a daily basis; not because she talks back when I give directions (Cene, Sierra, Jennifer) and not because she is one of those students who refuses to sit down during class (Anthony, Taylor).

Rather, the dilemma I face with Catera is more academic. No matter what modifications I make to the material I present, or how much time I spend with Catera one-on-one, she simply does not understand the vast majority of the material I present. Since the beginning of the year, I have witnessed her struggle to accomplish simple tasks that her peers sail through. This past Friday I found out the underlying problem.

The sixth-grade counselor requested a meeting with my two partner teachers and myself last Friday to discuss some updated modifications for our special education students. One of the students whom we discussed was Catera. The counselor presented us with her IQ test results which were completed before Winter Break.

Turns out that Catera is only four percentage points away from being labeled mentally retarded. She is about thirty percentage points below average intelligence for her age. When I saw these numbers, I felt sick to my stomach. This is why she is having so much trouble with the material and why, despite my best efforts, little headway has been made in bringing her up to where she needs to be at this point.

What the counselor told me next made me irate. Due to NCLB regulations, the school is only allowed to use federal and state dollars to remediate for certain students. Students who possess a gap between their IQ and their performance level, exhibit a learning disability and therefore qualify for one-on-one and small-group intervention programs offered by the school.

However, because Catera is actually performing to the best of her ability, albeit drastically lower than her peer group, she does not exhibit a learning disability (just severely low intelligence) and therefore does not qualify to receive ANY special instruction. No one-on-one tutoring. No pullout resource programs. No special modifications to the material presented in class. Nothing. Just a seat in a general education classroom where she is expected to fend for herself; all 11 years of her.

Tell me, George W. Bush, how does that not leave Catera behind. The school counselor said the best we'd be able to hope for her is that she gets put on a vocational track in middle school, drops out of high school and is able to secure a good job by age 15. WHAT?!

You won't hear about Catera in the president's State of the Union speech Tuesday night, but she is exactly the student who should be at the center of our national debate on education. There is something rotten in the state of education and it begins with No Child Left Behind.

Roommate Reflections

One of my roommates, Kyle, wrote this article recently for a high school magazine that is distributed to schools across the country. It's targeted towards high achieving juniors and seniors who are looking towards college.

I really like what he writes.

RESPECT YOUR TEACHERS

By Kyle Palmer

As a teen-ager, the last thing you might want to do is feel sorry for your teachers. But, take it from this young man recently removed from his high school years: those teachers deserve your respect.

A year out of college, I joined a program called Teach For America (TFA). It’s a national nonprofit organization that sends high-achieving college graduates into low-income school districts across the country to teach for two years. TFA has more than 4,000 current members working in 26 regions throughout the United States.

I am an eighth-grade English teacher in Houston, Texas, a city with one of the largest public school districts in the country. With no previous teaching experience, I am typical of many TFA corps members. And, with a high college GPA, I am also typical. TFA says the average corps member held a 3.5 GPA in college. I came into this experience having worked hard my whole life—in academics, in sports, in hobbies, in everything. Nothing has compared with the work being asked of me now.

I get up at about 6 every morning. I’m at school an hour before the first bell rings, making copies and preparing materials. I teach five classes and lead extra-hours tutoring sessions during the day. I don’t usually leave school until about 6 p.m. Then, I go home and plan lessons for the next day, grade papers and call parents.

These efforts are not Herculean. They are, once again, typical. All the TFA corps members I’ve encountered in my six months in Houston appear to be just as committed and driven (if not more so) than I am. It’s a true inspiration to work so closely with these people and see the results of their efforts. In a short half-year, I have come to appreciate the work of teachers and the truly wide-ranging influences they have on the students in their classrooms.

It is a new feeling for me to have this ever-present sense of responsibility driving me. Every morning I get up and I think about what I need to do this day to make the lives of my students just a little bit better. As a first-year teacher, of course, I am making mistakes and learning (sometimes painfully) on the job. But I hope that each day I’m in that classroom I’m making the lives of more than 110 eighth-graders in Houston a little better.

It’s a truly unbelievable feeling to know that everyday you have that kind of effect—that what you do on a daily basis impacts the lives of dozens of impressionable minds. So, that’s why I say respect your teachers. Your futures, after all, are partly in their hands.

Red & Black Column

My op-ed about the achievement gap ran in today's Red & Black (UGA campus paper). I wrote it over Thanksgiving, so it's a bit dated, but still effectively summarizes my philosophy for Teach For America.

Make a difference, teach for America

MATTHEW WILSON

Issue date: 1/10/07 Section: Opinions

Three years ago, I went home from UGA for Thanksgiving. Channel surfing late one night, I stumbled across a CNN documentary about Teach For America.

I watched the story of three recent college graduates who committed to teach for two years in some of the country's poorest urban and rural schools, and I was hooked.

Upon graduating in May this year, I decided to put law school on hold and became a Teach For America corps member. In September, I began as a sixth grade science and social studies teacher in Houston.

As I returned to Athens and UGA recently, I could not help but think back to that documentary that piqued my interest in the program that has now changed my life.

When I first heard of Teach For America, I had no idea what the "achievement gap" in America's education system was.

Before I began teaching, I read about it and talked with people about it, but I saw how it truly plays out on my first day of school in Houston.

The achievement gap meant that most of my students came to me in sixth grade on a fourth-grade reading level.

Some read on a second-grade level.

Their science and social studies scores were even worse than their reading levels.

In social studies, I was completely bewildered to find my students could not distinguish between a continent and a country.

Many thought Houston to be the capital of Texas and one student told me she was from a different country - she was from Ohio.

These simple geography concepts are ones they should have learned in second grade.

The achievement gap does not mean that my students are incapable of learning.

In fact, they have proven to me time and time again that when given the opportunity, they are able to perform just as well as any other students in America.

That is what I strive to do each day - to give them the chance to excel, and they often do.

The job is not easy. While my leadership experience at UGA has prepared me well for this real-world experience, I work harder than I have ever worked before, but I am invigorated by the progress I witness in my classroom daily.

Knowing that my students and I can overcome the multitude of familial, financial and circumstantial obstacles they face on a daily basis and rise above expectations, fuels me to continue to provide them the opportunity of educational equity that all children in America deserve.

My story is only one of many thousands that demonstrate the potential all students have, if given the opportunity.

Teach For America is a national movement that takes this shared dream and strives to make it commonplace in our country's most lacking classrooms.

As seniors begin to mail resum�s to potential employers and juniors begin to contemplate life beyond the Arch, I urge you to consider incorporating some form of national service into your future.

Many of you might be torn between the higher-paying corporate jobs and the less lucrative service-oriented jobs, but teaching is a paid job that gives you incredible skills you take wherever you go. Moreover, it is a responsibility we have.

If the end to our country's achievement gap is ever to be realized, it will be because our generation makes the decision that it is our top priority and that we refuse to stand idly by as countless children across America are denied the chance for educational excellence that we have enjoyed so freely.

- Matthew Wilson is a 2006 B.S.A. graduate living in Houston, Texas

Back in the Saddle Again

After four days back in action, I'm still going strong. I came back with a refreshed sense of energy and possibility. Before leaving, I wasn't really sure how my kids were going to achieve our goals, but now I am more determined than ever to meet them.

I don't really know where all the energy is coming from, but I'm glad it's here. Prior to the break, I was definitely running on empty. Now, it's as if the sense of a second chance due to the new year is giving me the confidence and motivation to really put it all on the line this last half of the year.

Already, I've lost two students and gained three more, one of whom is only a few years out of Nigeria.

My partner teachers and I really laid down the law the other day with our students. We just had an honest discussion about what "success" was. We reviewed all of our expectations and told them how we were really going to be firm this last half of the year. Our job is to prepare them for middle school next year, and in order to do that, the babying will have to stop.

Of all the things I am not confident in, my discipline is probably numero uno. Since our lay-down-the-law session though, I've really gained a lot of ground in the authority and disciplinarian area. I've just adopted the mindset that I'm not going to put up with the little annoying behaviors anymore that certain students choose to engage in because they know they can steal my attention, and thus the attention of all of their classmates. I've started just sending kids out of my room and into another classroom, and they hate this. It works very well actually and allows me to actually get some teaching done with the rest of my students.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not giving up on those students who I'm kicking out. But, I truly believe that you have to gain control of the situation before any learning can occur. When they think that they can wrestle the control away from you, of course a sixth grader is going to prefer that to learning about the rock cycle.

I'm gaining ground though, which leaves me feeling a lot better. Let's hope this continues.

A Great Break, A Renewed Outlook

Well, the break came and now it is past.

I had a great time at home though. I had the chance to catch up with many friends and spend lots of time at the house, which was great. It was just nice not to have to be up at the crack of dawn, ready to face my kids. I thoroughly enjoyed the break and the time it afforded me to really reflect on what it is I'm doing and the reasons why.

Over the break, several things really stood out...

1) Twin Sister

I was very happy that I was able to spend time with Adrienne, even if it was only a few days. This picture is in our front yard on Christmas Day.

2) Richard B. Russell

He was one the longest serving US Senators ever, but was first Speaker of the Georgia House and then Georgia Governor prior to his service in DC, and his biography was my reading material over the break. Such a brilliant, passionate man, and a wonderful story!

3) Chick-fil-A Bowl... DAWGS WIN!

And I was there! One of my friends won tickets and so generously gave them to me. So, Laura Waters and I trekked to the Dome of ATL and had such a fun night cheering on the bulldogs! We never thought after the first quarter that we'd be going home winners, but that's the bowl season for you!