Down the path2

reply to Anna

Dear Dr. Hilton, Ms. Onifade, Ms. Watson, and Mr. McKenna,

I’m writing because I’ve been thinking more about Yonealya Harris’s case as it relates to her eligibility for graduation, and I want to clarify my concern. (I had a conversation with Dr. Hilton and Ms. Onifade earlier this afternoon about the recovery process generally and Yonealya in particular, only because I have been tracking her progress very closely all year.)

First, I want to say that this is not about advocating for a student out of sympathy, though I have much of it. Nor is this about my personal investment in Yonealya’s growth, though it has been great. This is about the fact that the greatest achievement of Yonealya’s academic career at PATH—the 1800-word essay that she spent nearly a month researching, writing, and revising, the essay that represented the culmination of incredible intellectual growth over a two-year period, the essay that so powerfully declares her independence as a learner—did not count. It did not count toward her grade. It did not have value in the eyes of the institution (the power of which we cannot underestimate).

This strikes me as unfair to Yonealya. But more than that, it strikes me as an unfortunate distortion of our work as educators, because what do we value if not what Yonealya has demonstrated through the paper: hard work, genuine intellectual curiosity, research skills, writing and rewriting, increasing levels of independence, etc.?

I know that Yonealya is wise enough to measure her achievement by a yardstick other than the one the school has provided, strong enough to stay on course with her educational goals, humble enough to recognize where she went wrong and learn from her mistakes. I have complete faith in Yonealya. However, I do think her case raises critical questions (for all of us, myself included) about how we make decisions about WHAT COUNTS.

Thank you for reading this.

response

Thanks you for including me in your ongoing email correspondence concerning one of my students about her work in a class that I teach.

Aside from important conversations that we should probably have about how you've cornered the market on 'sympathy and investment' and that I represent somehow everything that is bad and 'institutional', there are important things that you should know about Yonealya's situation in my class.

In her submitted paper she lifted whole paragraphs without attribution from megaessay.com. The class policy is that you get a 0 for plagiarism and you get one shot at fixing it and resubmiting for grading. No further penalty is assessed. Student's know that fixing it is as easy as adding quotation marks and a citation.

We should also have further conversations about plagiarism. Aside from work very early in the year I have had only 4 cases. But students do enter the class thinking it is OK. You may want to review what you are doing with your students. We both know that one of the greatest gifts we can give our students is the guidance to finding their unique voices as writers. On the whole I am happy with the work of my students in that regard.

Yonealya never resubmitted that paper and never learned to put greater trust in her own voice as a writer. I feel like you have been irresponsible professionally in not consulting me so that we could together help Yonealya to finish her year. In neglecting your responsibility you contributed to her developing the head of steam that we both know is both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. I believe it is you who has damaged the institution in this situation.

Sincerely,

Timothy McKenna

message to class of 09

It was a great honor to be your teacher this year. This is my ideal job. I wouldn't trade my students at PATH for any in the world. You challenge me every day with your wit, your skepticism and your honesty. Every time you tell me WTF, I get to think about how I could do things a little better next time. You are more instructive than any course I ever took from ED. schools; I owe you for making me a better teacher.

I have a vested interest in having you all graduate from college. You see, I would rather have you running the world than most of the people who are running it now. I like the idea of your hearts combined with minds that have risen to there they're their potential. You will bring a sense of fairness and an needed perspective and voice to the world.

Believe in yourself and fight for yourself as you make your way through college. Take risks. Your surest bet, the gamble that you have the most control over, is the gamble on yourself. Don't necessarily blindly follow your advisers. Often they either tell you what you want to hear or tell you what is the safe path. Follow the interesting path, the one that challenges you the most. Demand (nicely) the courses you want, the professors who are brilliant.

students whom I failed

All of you were capable of doing the work of Humanities 4. It is a tribute to you and to your teachers and parents that you could. There is a huge difference, however, between 'could have' and actually pulling it off. You were cheated if you did not write the papers and did not pass the final. You were cheated of the reward. You need to feel the reward so that in the future you will be willing take the risk of working hard again.

Your failure to complete the work of the course is my failure. I apologize for failing you. It is the responsibility of the adults in the building to provide you, as superintendent Carol Johnson directed, with "high expectations, high relevance, and appropriate support". If somehow you got the message that you didn't really have to understand and study and write about your relationship to history and the world, that doubt would give you an 'out'. It is not in the nature of a healthy 17 year old mind to do anything unnecessary. You would be crazy to. Unless the adults in the building can be crystal clear about our expectations you are cast adrift. If there is a history of saying one thing and doing another, where some kids get away with not passing and others don't, where the very definition of passing seems subjective and random, that is a problem in the institution. You deserve better.

on the seminar "for no apparent reason"*

I want to address the observation that "because of a high level of stress in the last few days, I ask Mr. McKenna not be allowed to to give make up work the week of graduation."* The reality is, I don't set the schedule. (see copy of 5/18 email from headmaster to teachers below)

I don't really like stress. On most days of the school year that is why I sit in 366 till 3:30 or 4:00 reflecting on the day just passed and planning on the day to come. I don't leave until I have figured it out. I hate waking up in the middle of the night stressing about the next day.

And so I sat every day from May 13th till June 4th. It was I quiet space to work, to write your paper, to get help. There were computers. I saw very few of you. I was a little bored because I had stopped teaching, allowing you 10 hours of in-class time to write your papers and 6 hours to study for your final. In retrospect, it was a waste of time. There were many more things I wanted you to experience, to read, to learn. We missed Neruda, Gabriel Marquez, Valenzuela. This class didn't read and perform one act plays in the park.

I think I told you on the first day of school that in order to pass the 3rd and 4th term you would have to write papers. I think I told you a scores of times.

The research paper assignment was easier than the year before, 10% shorter, with a wider variety of source material including more video, more help for your research, more structure for you to build your essay upon. Compared to last year's class, far fewer of you completed it on time. The valedictorian didn't. Some of the best writers didn't even pass it in since they knew they would pass anyway. I guess I failed to impress upon you the value that doing the papers would have for you.

I was not impressed by your lack of effort, upset since you all had the ability. Perhaps it is the school culture. It seems to be getting worse every year.

All of the students who were invited to the 4 day seminar this week had a shot at passing. Students were asked to leave for solid, well considered reasons, like not having made progress on their paper or failure to prepare their questions by rereading the articles, or failing the retest. They were living in a dreamworld where students don't really study.

Happy graduation. Conditions are such that is not likely that I will attend. Good luck.

*from former class president letter to my boss

May 18, 2009
from: Hilton, Pamela
to: Mawakana, Yvonne, Tim, Maureen, Winifred, Anna, Jeanmarie, Zahida, Ivette, Steven, Jeanmarie, Matthew, Hamida, HamidaMerchant, Mark, Amy, Leo, Carole, Paige
	
Dear ILT and Senior Teachers, .. In a letter about to go out to the seniors
we have the senior finals as:

May 27 to June 2 - Senior Finals
June 3 - Make-up
June 4 - Sign-out

Usually we do it this way even in the past when we did not have as many
snow days as this year. If we think this year will require more make-up
time, we can adjust the schedule. Also we will allow seniors after June
4 with a final overall average between 60 and 69 a chance to do further
make-up as we did last year and see if they can make up enough so they
may 'walk' at graduation and not go to credit recovery for August
graduation.

on high stakes testing

In spite of my best efforts, I never did figure out a way to impress upon you the importance of studying for exams. Even at the end of the year I would still hear "Mr. I don't study for tests. I never have. I do it from memory." This may be one of our biggest failures as educators.

It may well be another one of the unintended consequences of MCAS culture. The whole testing business is a flawed because it does not understand the human need for satisfaction, for feedback and for the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. We give a test and tell you how you did 3 months later. 'Who cares' is the only appropriate response. At BPS the MCAS seems to be the only test, the only bar to scale, the only challenge to overcome. Sure there are the city finals. Get a 50 and you pass. What a joke.

There are very good reasons for tests that count. The process of studying reawakens those neural pathways that may have only been faintly laid down in your original exposure to the material. In studying you reinforce those connections and what you learn becomes part of who you are. In taking a test after successfully studying for it, those connections light up in your brain but something else happens too. The reward circuitry kicks in. When you know you've 'got it' you get a flood of neurotransmitter through your brain giving you the experience of pleasure, using mechanisms strikingly similar to those of drugs. It happens again when you get the test back (if you get it back quickly). This is much better than drugs. This is earned pleasure. The human mind has evolved so that successful thinking is rewarded and it is that feeling that drives you to put in the effort that is required in order to feel it again the next time.

By creating a system where no tests count the BPS has robbed you of an essential human experience and left you ill prepared for the complex world we have evolved into.