Urban Education 101 by Brian Hollingsworth

At my current school in Central Los Angeles, the neighborhood population is mostly transient and foreign, low socio-economic status, and suffers from local gang activity, including the notorious MS13. To make mattes worse, drug use and homelessness abound. The school’s grade-level English literacy rate is roughly 20%. Although the conditions are not ideal, other schools in the area face much greater challenges than we do.

The students at my school are generally friendly, and some parents are very involved. We have student-led conferences each month where the parents may come in and monitor their child’s progress. The teacher remains in the background for questions about the goals of the course or about grading and behavior. Unfortunately, the parents often speak less English than their children and sometimes teachers are unable to communicate exactly what is needed for improvement.
One problem with the system of student-led conferences is that only the students who are doing well bring their parents. Students who are illiterate, apathetic, or overtly aggressive do not bother to inform their parents of these conferences. Because many of their parents cannot read English or sometimes even their home language, this significant segment of the school population is not reached.

Junely, a seventh grader in one of my classes, was performing well in class until only recently. She began talking to a friend during group projects and has since developed loquacious relationships with several other students in the classroom. After unsuccessful warnings I called Junely’s home. The mother, a second-generation immigrant from El Salvador who speaks no English, answered the phone. We chatted for a few moments in Spanish about Junely’s lack of recent progress and her classroom behavior. The mother listened for a few moments and suddenly asked if I knew anything about ADHD. According to her mom, Junely is ADHD and should not be held accountable for her problems with behavior. Then, the mom told me not to bother her anymore, that from 8:30 AM to 3:40 PM Junely was my problem, not hers.

Schools should have goals that are developed dependent upon the community and the attributes of its student body. Goals for improving mathematical ability, literacy, and critical thinking skills must be ambitious, but attainable. For example, in my current work site one cannot seriously consider moving from 20% proficiency to full literacy within one year’s time. Truancy, transience, crime, and language issues are formidable obstacles that take more than a few weeks to alter. The reality is that teachers must work with whoever walks through the door—we must do the best with what we have, when we can, where we are.
Consider Andy, a seventh grader whose acts of vulgarity and aggression are only matched by his illiteracy. He constantly whines about how bored he is in my class. I took him aside and asked him to read a passage in a book, which he did, though he was unable to tell me what it meant. When I asked what he enjoys doing, he replied “F*ck you.” Suppressing a laugh, I pressed him and he finally relented by telling me he likes to draw. I then crafted a heraldry assignment for the next class meeting. This activity was to last roughly a week with time in class allocated for specific tasks. The students were to research their surnames, and make up a coat of arms for themselves labeling each section with things that they like to do.

While most students enjoyed the activity, Andy chose to harass and distract his classmates rather than participate. I have been informed that I cannot remove Andy from my classroom. I have called home, met with the dean, offered special tutoring, given detentions, spoken with the school psychologist, and submitted administrative referrals. Yet he remains in my class, where he expends all his energies towards sabotage. While I attempt to solicit participation in lessons, he attempts to influence other students to misbehave. The situation with Andy was identical to my experiences in the Miami inner-city a decade ago. Across the nation, public school teachers are prohibited from excising a student from class, even when the student poses a “clear and present” danger to the intellectual, or even the physical well being of other students.

Yet, I understand that empowering teachers can lead to abuses of power. After a series of team meetings and inquiries made during the completion of his IEP (Individualized Educational Program), teachers noted that one of my more energetic students named Jovanny performed well academically in the morning, but loved to run and be outside in the afternoons. After hours of discussion and parent contact, we determined all that was needed was a simple schedule change that would place Jovanny in morning academic classes with his favorite elective after lunch. He would then finish the day with physical education. The plan was beautiful in its simplicity. However, because a teacher did not want Jovanny in her classroom, she blocked the change in schedule. Consequently, Jovanny has continued to fail in school and has become a sullen denizen of the dean’s office. What is most regrettable in this situation is the idea that an ostensibly mature professional educator could do harm to the intellectual development of a twelve year-old.

Ultimately, what is needed in teaching is an injection of professionalism. If a teacher is not performing they should not be rewarded with a pay raise simply by remaining in the system. They should be offered a chance to improve within a certain period of time, then if improvement is not achieved, they should be fired. In Miami, I knew an incompetent and verbally abusive teacher who was placed on “prescription,” meaning she had one year to improve her performance. The case dragged on for two years until finally the teacher was brought before the school board. Because the school board refused to reprimand her, the teacher kept her position.
There should be accountability for administrators, teachers, and support staff, but also for students and parents. If students are recalcitrant, hostile, or apathetic, they should be moved out of the classrooms where students want to learn and placed in classrooms expressly designed for them. Violent students should be expelled.

As this essay is being written, Los Angeles Unified School District is facing major changes. The Los Angeles mayor, a radical secessionist in his university days, is attempting to gain direct control over schools. Predictably, the school board has hired a new superintendent without entering into dialogue with the Mayor or other school leaders. Amidst this media-intensive turmoil, the Los Angeles teachers’ union is poised for a strike to win a nine percent salary increase for its thousands of teachers. Meanwhile, the quiet quest to improve the intellectual and social development of our children continues.