Notes - Handbook of Urban Education - Introduction

Handbook of Urban Education

Is UE a discipline or a subfield? Education developed and practice in urban schools.

Education is not the only area that has failed to define and conceptualize “urban”. Identity challenges in the conceptualization or urban are prevalent in other domains like sociology, anthropology, public policy, economics,… (Frey & Zimmer, 2001)

Following aspects in the definition and conceptualizing urban education:

1)      The size of the city in which schools are located: dense, large, metropolitan areas,

2)      The students in the schools: a range of student diversity, including racial, ethnic, religious, language, and socioeconomic;

3)      And the resources: the amount and number of resources available in a school, such as technology and financial structures through federal programs as well as property taxes.

Due to structural and systemic inequities (Anyon, 2005), the 6.9 million students (Council of the Great City Schools, 2013) in urban environments are the most underserved in the United States. We see structural and systemic inequities, as well as other challenges in urban education associated with the underperformance of students as those practitioners and policy makers, must address and solve but also as ones that researchers and theorists should be on the front lines of interrogating to inform practice.

• Challenges in urban schools (Milner, 2013)

Factors both inside of the school:

·       Inadequate teaching practices,

·       Inadequate funding,

·       Poor administrative decisions,

·       Underveloped counseling and psychological services

·       Curricular opportunities that are unchallenging for and unresponsive to students

 Outside-of-school factors that seem to play a role in students´ experiences inside of school:

·       Family income

·       Parental educational level

·       Family structure

·       Student home living conditions

Some characteristics of students in urban education schools:

·       First language is not English

·       Poverty (pervasive social problems that can have a lasting influence on students in urban communities and schools.

·       Children of color disproportionately receive and experience the most disturbing educational experiences

Low-income families by race adapted from Munin (2012), Simms, Fortuny, and Henderson (2009)

Race                                   % of low-income families                           % of US population

White                                42%                                                                65.6%

Black                                  22%                                                                12.2%

Hispanic                            30%                                                                15.4%

Total % for B and H         52%                                                                27.6%

Rather than perceiving students and their families as inferior or deficient because of their poverty, the point is to identify, study, and address structural forms of inequity that do not serve students well in education and beyond.

The decisions conceived as:

·       A sporadic, disconnected, multidimensional knowledge base in urban education;

·       An absence of a coherent assessment of needs, challenges, problems, and solutions in urban education;

·       The nonexistence of a consistent definition or conceptualization of the concept, urban education;

·       An underdevelopment of research and theoretical tools to analyze and improve urban education; and

·       A significant disconnect between research and practice in urban education.

Crisis

At least two levels of crisis are prevalent in urban education:

1)      Micro-level practices and programs that inadequately address the needs of students in urban schools, affecting factors like:

a.        teaching (including teacher professional development, attitudes, qualifications, and more (Delpit, 2012).

b.       The leadership of principals (Wallace Foundation, 2013)

c.       Student characteristics and needs, including factors like family background and student motivation.

2)      Failure of research, theory, and policy to make significant strides in impacting urban schools.

a.       Areas:

                                                               i.      School choice,

                                                             ii.      Common core standards,

                                                           iii.      Alternative routes into teaching,

                                                           iv.      Scripted curriculum mandates

                                                             v.      Pay for performance

List of areas that need further exploration to advance urban education:

• -          Psychology, Health, and Human Development:

o   What psychological factors shape the experiences and practices of students and teachers in urban environments?

o   In what ways might human development intersect with student learning, motivation and interactions in urban schools?

• -          Sociological Perspectives:

o   How do societal factors contribute to -or detract from- efforts to educate students in urban schools?

o   How do social forces support and/or hinder student resilience inside and outside of school?

• -          Families and Communities

o   What is the role of families and communities in enabling English-language learners to be successful in urban schools?

• -          Teacher Education and Special Education
• -          Leadership, Administration and Leaders
• -          Curriculum and Instruction
• -          Policy and Reform

• Absence of Critical Assessment

Little effort has been made in exploring the successes that have been achieved in some urban schools to determine the applicability and transferability of those strategies in other urban contexts. Critical assessment opens the door for additional exploratory as well as theory-testing studies looking at the applicability of these best practices and much more. Research and theory related to urban education in the areas outlined above have provided important insights. However, the overall body of work is disparate at best; this volume provides a critical assessment of what is available.

• Conceptualizing “GAPS”

Several gaps exist in urban educations to be addressed:

-          Definitional Gap: lack of a comprehensive, uniform definition of urban education.

-          Historical Gap: Researchers rarely provide a historical context in urban education scholarship and practice. There is not a concrete historical storyline of scholarly work and practice in urban education.

-          Methodological Gap: Replicating studies can assist us in generalizing and transferring findings through consistent, rigorous methods.

Questions

What are your thoughts regarding the 2 components of the urban ed identity crisis discussed on p xvi?

I coincide with Marwa in the way the author divided into different categories the challenges in urban education schools: inside and outside the school, and the relation between each other, even I started to create a list of them but because of a technological problem I lost the file. It is funny the “repetition” of some factors of the crisis like how dealing with poverty, diversity, and the professional development of teachers, educators and school staff in this communities. And of course the lack of literature in this field, or at least the inconsistency in research in urban education as well as the educational policies to create programs for the schools in this setting and their components: diversity in population (race), equity in socio-economic and cultural opportunities, resources and materials, developing a better participation of all the members of the urban school community, for instance.

Would you add any research ?´s or theme to those listed on pp xvii and xviii?

According to my experience in some schools in Houston ISD, I would add the research of language development in low-income Latino children during their early stages of education, as well as dual language learning methods and strategies that can be extended to home as well in a way to facilitate instruction from home too and making them more active during their learning process.

Another important topic to be listed is pedagogy, personalized learning and educational strategies to deal with diversity in classroom, since the fact that one curriculum for everyone is not working anymore. Innovation in teaching could include technology too, since according to research most of the low socioeconomic status families have smartphones and other devices like computers or tablets.

Other important topics could be professional development for teachers about dealing with diversity in classroom, providing schools and administrators with new strategies to encourage family involvement and participation.

What do you think about the gaps listed? (We have talked about some of this)?

I think that every urban school has its own characteristics, although it shares some shared characteristics like poverty and diverse population (Hispanics, Africa-American,… students), but some of them have learned how to deal with them in a positive and successful way, or even the districts provide some schools with some resources and materials, included Human ones, like specialists and teachers who were well trained or formed in a domain like “Las Americas” school in HISD. This school hosts refugees and other “newcomers” from different countries that are well assisted by teachers and educators, and even their families are welcome to participate and collaborate in the school community.

Maybe I would like to have a list by the lawmakers for every urban school and, like rubrics or standards, to fill them according to what they need, in this way they would be able to invest money wisely and addressing to their current and future needs.

Chapter 2

The title of ch2 2 suggests that urban ed should be for human freedom. Thoughts?

I agree with Roseline when she states about the complex term of “freedom”. Education provides us with tools to make us successful in life, but what happens with other fields like the beliefs and ideas of society, the cultural shocks and impositions, and who can escape from the influence of mass and social media?

Along the Human story we saw many episodes like this, the “other”, and the way education and other fields tried and, currently, try to give them/us (I included myself here since I´m part of “the others” in the American society since I´m an immigrant) opportunities and help us overcome the challenges we have to face.

What are your ideas/comments about deficit approaches discussed in ch 2 as the primary approach in urban ed today?

This is related to what we read in one of the chapters of the 19 questions of urban education and the need of a curriculum based or centered on the students and their characteristics. I remember that one of them wanted to focus on their strengths instead of their weakness, their resilience. Standardized tests don´t help students to learn and even less if they are not proficient in English. And as an extension to this point: are the policy makers aware of this need? Are they offering tools and resources to help urban schools to deal with diversity? Are they offering administrators and teachers professional development and formation?

Perhaps, as our society is in continuous change and motion, it is difficult to have a consistency in finding solutions or answers to all and new challenges that urban schools are facing every day.

Reflections on Urban experiences in Houston

Diversity & Culture of Houston

Discussion Questions

Dear Classmates,

It was a delight to see the turn out in spite of the weather condition, as an additional follow up on our community experience, please view the following links

https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2017/6/21/street-art-graffiti-houston

https://sacredhearthouston.org/contextual-history

https://www.discoverygreen.com/1532203

https://www.meetup.com/ladies_just_want_to_have_fun/events/254761195/

And for reflection possibilities, we will appreciate your response to the following questions:

1. What parts of the history of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart stood out to you the most and why?

First, thank you for this amazing experience! We enjoyed our walk over the streets of Houston. This is my fourth year in Houston and I have never visited the cathedral before, I have always seen it from the I-45 and with details when traffic jams happened.

As I was more interested in finding more information about it, I found a website: https://2008remodel.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/houstons-new-co-cathedral/ There I could see the design of its architectural plan, and it does not have the traditional cross like other Catholic churches. Moreover, talking about images, if you visit its official website: http://www.sacredhearthouston.org/, on the top, you can find a timeline and you can navigate on what was offered since its very beginning.

As my classmates said, the accolades and awards by the contractor company impressed me too because I have never imagined that this work (the construction of a cathedral) called the attention of many people in the 21^st Century, I could understand it centuries ago, maybe I can understand it as a way to support the Catholic community in the city. Another thing that impressed me was the existence of more than one cathedral for the Galveston-Houston archdiocese because there is usually only one, but I can understand the need to attend all the population in Houston. In addition, what impressed me the most was the cost of the co-cathedral: $49,000.000 (Rivas, Elissa (3 April 2008). "Dedication of the co-cathedral". KTRK-TV News. Retrieved from https://abc13.com/archive/6053988/.) since there are many more things in the world to assist and support, although it is magnificent and outstanding.

 

  

2. Analysis/ Critique of the public art

I really like your tour in the city because we were exposed to many artistic expressions and many different as well. First, in a classic way, by visiting a co-cathedral as a religious topic, because the windows and the rosette windows of the cathedral are beautiful. They are a modernistic version of the ones that you can find in the ancient Catholic churches and cathedrals in Europe. Then, the graffiti and murals are amazing, I love the way painters use art to manifest their concerns, to make society aware of what is happening to certain social groups. Later, the third visit to Discovery Green, a more modernistic version of public art with huge spheres with light and music, to spend an enjoyable evening with your family.

I like cities because of the exposure to art, to culture in general, and the way both of them blends with the society like dancing a subtle melody. A melody that is pleasant for some people and not so much for others, but it is a melody that everybody dances.

3. Do you think graffiti art murals are easily accepted as public art? Why or why not? Should it be?

In an urban setting, yes, they are easily accepted. Graffiti started long time ago and it changed into more “artistic”, I mean, the style of their pictures and composition is professional-like. This is a result of “legal” permissions as well before most of them were illegal and the painters had to create them with no light and with the restriction of time because someone could report them. Their acceptance, maybe, depends on the ideals of the citizens as well, if you are more tolerant and empathetic with the problems of people you can understand them, but there are other people, more conservative, who do not approve this kind of “art” since they associate it with crime and vandalism.

I remember when I was in school; students were invited to participate in a contest to paint “murals” in the outside walls of the school. One of my friend’s design won it and we participated in the painting. Obviously, I did not know if it was planned by the teacher to do an activity with the school community and the acceptance of graffiti, but it helped to see its artistic approach.

4. What issue/ ideas/ social connections did the public graffiti art murals express?

As we could see in one of them, the one like a photo, it was full of words appealing social justice, some others represent parts of the culture of Houston like a “funny” Buda, Selena, the University of Houston, for example.

5. What types of cultural experiences did you observe during the Moonscape experience? Why do you think this was created for display in this way?

It was a cultural family-friendly experience since we could see many different people –different ages too- enjoying that experience. Some cultural activities like that one are good to work “inclusion” since it welcomes everybody, there is no limitation. Besides, the company offers a free tour guide, and for children, milk and cookies are served, on October 5, celebrity readers will share the beloved children’s book in the languages of Houston. It is dealing with diversity in a positive way at the price of $0, amazing!

6. Which of the three locations was your favorite? Why?

All the three locations offer something unique, the cathedral offers help and support to the community aside from the religious services; the graffiti and murals offer an artistic “voice” to the ones that want social justice, for example; the Moonscape experience offers a free-open activity to everyone that includes more activities like reading in different languages, dance different music styles, the opportunity to see the stars with a telescope at night,… for free. As I am a teacher and I could see many activities for children with their families, my favorite one in the Moonscape experience because it is a family-friendly experience dealing with diversity in Houston.

This is the official website of Moongarden at Discovery Green with all the activities: https://www.discoverygreen.com/moongarden, maybe you are interested. Enjoy it!

Reflections - Chapter 3 - Standards in Early Childhood Education

Standards in Early Childhood Education 

https://browardschools.instructure.com/

Let's first analyze the situation in the United States: 

In US early childhood education there is no permanent system of annual information collection at national level that registers the development of children under 5 years of age. There are specific evaluation research institutions and specialized institutions that offer early childhood education services and include evaluation processes, for example: The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Institute of Health and Human Services (IHHS). Human Services Research Institute (HSRI), and the Office of Early Childhood Development, among others. These institutions began to work in a more coordinated way, however a more accurate system of coordination is required, that is why the author proposed a system based on standards for Early Childhood Education. 

At state level, all the US states evaluate their children when they enter school. Monitoring and permanent reports of achievements in the programs are used, including the goals achieved or those in process. 

In the article some Early Childhood programs are mentioned like Head Start. It is a national program, it depends on the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States. It includes education, health and family support, and serves children in poverty with ages from 3 to 4 years. Education in this program includes teacher qualification standards, curriculum and assessment, cultural relevance and language and other standards to promote school readiness. Besides, they help family engagement and support that consists of the promotion of parent-child relationships, support for family well-being, promotion of leadership and links with community resources. Their data is collected through an annual program report, which reports on the services provided, a survey of experiences of families and children with programs of services and achievements of children, who are evaluated three times a year to help adjust and validate the program, using various instruments. 

To cover children from prenatal to 3 years, Early Head Start was created. Federally funded by the United States government and targeted to low-income families with pregnant women or young children. EHS promotes healthy prenatal experiences in pregnant women, facilitates good development in young children and promotes healthy habits to families. The EHS Evaluation and Research project was designed to support the continuous improvement of the program, so it became a rigorous and large-scale activity. It included the phase from birth to 3 years (1996-2001) including implementation, impact evaluation and local research projects. 

· The Kindergarten phase (2001-2004), used the data from the first phase and developed the follow-up of the children. 

· The primary school phase (2005-2010) followed the children from the results of the first two phases. 

The article deals with the issue of the implementation and use of standards and their evaluation in early childhood as an inherent component of educational activities and political decisions. Besides, it presents a theoretical framework that reviews the background and trends of the evaluation in order to start from a base. The topic was approached from a systemic approach that involved considering all the components of the education system that influence the integral development and learning of children. This quality system of standards must consider the analysis, observation, feedback and evaluation not only of the child's learning and development, but also of the context, school management and policies, teaching performance and the curriculum, as well as the impact of the programs and services, all with the aim to give feedback to the system and allow to direct efforts towards the continuous improvement of the processes and, thereby, achieving better results. 

Currently, the use of standards has become relevant both in the academic and in the political sphere, giving rise to the emergence of new approaches and approaches. For this reason, it is important to highlight the analysis made in the article of the evolution that this concept has had throughout history. In this way we can verify that this term was born in the industrial field. Its implementation is used to determine the level or degree of quality or level achieved using the standards as a assessment tool. In education, its use is promoted not to only assist to student performance, but also to get other components involved such as teachers, educational materials/resources, curriculum, activities, methodology, organization, infrastructure, policies, among others. 

However, the difficulty of agreement to organize them into a joint system for an appropriate and regulated standards-based child education is highlighted. Even though significant advances and initiatives have been made with different strategies for the design of a system of standards for the integral development and learning of children, there is still a lack of strategies and instruments for monitoring and assessing other components of the system. 

Why to establish a system of standards for early childhood education? 

According to the article, the process of implementing standards in early childhood education is considered as a research process that requires the participation of all the education professionals and their contribution for its permanent improvement. It is through action research that the teacher has the opportunity to reflect on the methods and become aware of their achievements and difficulties, thus allowing the introduction of necessary modifications and adjustments for the improvement of the quality of education. 

It refers to the explicit formulation of expectations about what children should know and know how to do as a result of their learning and development in various domains: motor, cognitive, socio-emotional, language and literacy and attitudes towards the learning. Some call them "milestones", others "orientations", others "desired results". As stated by S. L. Kagan (2007), the denomination of standard generates controversy, since it confuses the fact of having "expectations for all children" with the idea of ​​homogenizing children and losing sight of the richness of diversity. 

For its part, "Kagan and Britto (2005), suggest that early learning standards can be considered as an "elixir" that can be used for various purposes: 

• Improve teaching: can serve as a basis to review existing educational programs according to the needs of children. 

• Improve parental skills and behaviors: they can be used to design materials that help parents see what is realistic to expect of their children and how to teach them at home. 

• Develop screening tests: they can provide the contents to be included in screening tests that assess the overall level of child development. 

• Improve the education of educators: they can guide the design of professional development for educators, providing information about what teachers should know and be able to do in their teaching role. 

• Evaluate the effectiveness of programs: they can serve as a basis for selecting or developing instruments for assessing children's development, as part of a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of programs aimed at children. 

• Monitor the progress of children and families at the national level: they can be used to collect data on achievements in children's learning that inform progress at the country level, through sample evaluations. 

• Improve public knowledge about child development: they can be used to design dissemination materials for the general public, or for new fathers and mothers. 

This commitment to create and design a system for equity and quality responds to the recognition of the importance of the first years of life for human development and, for this reason, Kagan shows her interest in promoting and exploring research related to development in the early stages and to disseminate its results in order to influence the formulation of adequate policies for children. The article invites the reader and all members of the child education community to review the system (including methodological approaches), as well as to monitor programs, policies, services, development and learning of children to create a consensus. 

Some recommendations were made, some of the most relevant are: to strengthen the standard systems with the health, education and social assistance sectors and others; to collect, disseminate and exchange successful experiences on strategies, formulation of indicators, standards and assessment instrument; to perform longitudinal studies and to promote public forums on the subject; to assign social, human and economic resources necessary to carry out the monitoring and follow-up of all the components of the education system; to incorporate parents in the management of the center or program. 

For this the standards must be organized in four categories: 

- Utility understood as the need for standards to be informative, timely and have the ability to influence. To achieve this, those responsible for carrying it out must draw up their designs based on the information needs detected and clearly communicate the required information to those who have requested it. 

- Feasibility is related to financing and in this sense, it states that they should not consider more resources, materials, personnel or time than necessary to carry out the evaluation. 

- Legitimacy aims to protect the rights of the people affected by the evaluation by informing about the illegal, unethical and incompetent actions of those who carry out the evaluations. Within the framework of the rights of individuals, it is sought that the evaluators know and respect the laws on privacy, freedom of information and the protection of human rights. 

- Precision is an attribute that refers to the quality of the evaluation, if the information presented is technically adequate, comprehensive, which allows to assess the merit of the program. In addition, the judgments issued must have a logical relationship with the data. 

References:

• Kagan, S. & Kauerz, K. (eds.) (2012). Early Childhood Systems: Transforming EarlyLearning. New York: Teachers College Press. 

• Institute of Education Sciences website: https://ies.ed.gov/

• Institute of Health and Human Services website: https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/what-we-do/nih-almanac/department-health-human-services-secretaries

• Human Services Research Institute website: https://www.hsri.org/

• Office of Head Start website: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohs

• Administration for Children and Families (2013) Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, 1996-2001 Baseline Data, https://hdl.handle.net/1902.1/00097-1, Harvard Dataverse. Retrieved from https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=hdl:1902.1/00097-1

Notes - Early Learning and Development Standards

Early Learning and Development Standards

An Elixir for Early Childhood Systems Reform

Sharon Lynn Kagan

I want to share some important information from this chapter.

Well recognized in her work the consideration of early childhood development and education as a multilingual and multicultural development and learning for young children. There is a big issue that defines the Early Childhood system, compared to other K-12 grades, its inconsistency in pedagogy, professional development, policies, among many others. But when putting all together into harmony, it turns into a disorganized symphony with many different voices and different melodies.

“The chapter suggests that early learning and development standards can and should be used to create an integrated pedagogical subsystem that forms the basis for a comprehensive, well-articulated early childhood system”.

The ubiquity and utility of standards
The standards determine adequacy or quality, secure agreement of importance, and according to the level reached give you a category or status. They can not be only found in K-12 grades, but they are included in our lives too such as the economic, health, social values,… Standards can also help us improve the processes and ensure protection and safety. Standards, in essence, provide a means of understanding and expressing commonalities. However, standards can reduce liberties and impose constraints, retraining creativity and limiting variations.

K-12 Educational Standards
During the 20th century the standards became entrenched and imposed, its purpose to guarantee professionalism and effectiveness, influenced by economy and industry (productivity standards for employee performance and for product outputs). As a response for the lack of creativity and other educational levels, some pedagogics tried to establish a curriculum that focused on creative thinking that could cover the content area of the subjects as well as the learning skills, processing and application of knowledge.

In its process of implementation of standards, they became very important in dealing with equity and quality. During the late 1980s and 1990s the US government established national goals for American students, but later its controversy came up regarding its meaning.

Advantages of Educational Standards
One of the biggest advantages that we can find in educational standards are:

- their clarity of what is taught and learned (Jennings, 1995) with content and higher order thinking skills.

- Creation of platform for more equitable approaches to education, they ensure that all students have access to challenging content promoting equity.

Disadvantages of Educational Standards

Some concerns are that they can promote inequity since they can undercut the potential of the education system. Besides, high standards can cause underachievement and as a consequence student drop out exacerbating the equity divide. Even the standards for assessment cannot help reducing the equity gap.

Some concerns about its setting and control (Darling-Hammond, 1994) depending on the ideals and concepts of education can be difficult in determining standards, others define them as the representation of the canons of the professions set by those most familiar with the disciplines. Controversy exists when dealing with the establishment of standards: national versus state, politicians versus education professionals.

Some concerns regarding teachers, administrators, schools, districts, and governments (Darling-Hammond, 1994), for example the selection of standards by teachers and the teachers´ decision to teach for a test (drill and kill pedagogy). Standards help organize pedagogy, teachers needs professional development.

Some fiscal concerns, since standards need funds to be established, implemented and monitored. And according to school performances they get more or less money with the consequently effect on resources.

Early Childhood Standards

As in K-12, standards became entrenched and more normative in early education (Kagan & Scott-Little, 2004), the standards movement brought dramatic changes to early education too.

From the pedagogical perspective, early educators have long been taught to take their instructional and curricular cues from young children. Children´s interests serving as the basis for eliciting motivation and a natural inclination toward learning.

From the policy perspective, an equally persuasive position prevailed. Considered as a private affair involving those closest to the children who understood their needs best. Besides, most of EC programs functioned as almost autonomous entities. The idea of governments creating a set of standards on early education directly opposed early childhood principles of localism, autonomy, and privatization.

Pedagogical History
Explicit early learning standards did no exist.

- Rousseau (1762), his goal of early education was to preserve the natural state of the child through play.

- Pestalozzi, opponent of memorization, advanced the “standard” that the best learning happened through doing.

- Froebel (mixing Rousseau and Pestalozzi) father of kindergarten movement, respected the role of children in constructing their learning, promoting hands-on learning activities.

- Owen and Malaguizzi (with Froebel) strong believers of child-play instruction (Wolfe, 2002)

Policy History

Early childhood education was traditionally considered as a competence of the home. Families could choose the education of their young children – culture of the home (Greenfield, 1994; LeVine, 1974). There is no consensus, and the decisions differ from one families to others based of their culture and their idea of child development (Hofstede, 1980; Holloway, 2000; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Tobin, Wu, & Davidson, 1989). Diversity and choice, aside from the costs of the fees.

Never seen before from a policy perspective, early education has always been related to social needs, and political, social and economic challenges. As a result, American early education appeared as a two-track system, with one approach for serving the poor and one for middle/upper-class children (Cahan, 1989; Tank, 1980). Consequently, due to the disparity in resources, the concept of intention of learning varied as well. It is translated into an incoherent approach to early education, diversity of local programs with their own characteristics.

The contemporary status of standards.
K-12 grades Standards are used in all 50 states and accepted component of education. No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) – funds to test grades 3, 8 and 10. Controversy: the next reauthorization of ESEA – recommendations for reform are numerous and range from complete abolition to modification (Finn, Julian, & Petrilli, 2006) – Federal government impose standards on the states and these be used for accountability (Barton, 2009).

Common standards for K-12 are surging forward (Klein, 2009) By establishing them, the education system in the US could deal with and help diversity, an immense challenge. Two issues regarding standards:

• Philosophical, it´s responsible for student achievement. Institution: standards and testing regimes make schools responsible. Learning takes place beyond the schoolhouse doors.
• Implementation of standards and concerns the accommodation of differing approaches to instruction, the nature and ability of assessments to capture higher order skills, and the development and implementation of incentives that will improve outcomes, not simply punish poor-performing students or schools.

EC standards
Every state has EC standards or guidelines for preschool-aged children (Scott-Little, Kagan, Frelow, & Reid, 2009). Language and math are the two main domains – covering a single age group (36-48 months), nowadays they embrace birth to 5.

Another standard movement – the alignment of preschool standards with other EC documents (Scott-Little, Kagan, Frelow, & Reid, 2009). States are aligning their standards with those that exist in K, and in grades 1 through 3, thus promoting continuity through the primary years of schooling. To ensure linkages between those developed for infants and toddlers and those developed for preschoolers. Some states ensure that multiple sets of standards for a single age group are aligned. Standards also are being aligned with curriculum and assessments. Some consideration is being given to the desirability and feasibility of developing common standards.

A suggested approach
Should standards become national and how can standards be used most effectively to improve student performance?

These preoccupations about EC standards implementation are somewhat ill-placed. They have to consider the multiple dimensions and uses of standards, as well as their potential to bring EC pedagogy and early learning systems into alignment.

UNICEF developed an integrated approach to standards implemented globally with some success (Kagan & Britto, 2009). Conceptually, the work advances the understanding that what children should know and be able to do is at the core of the early childhood enterprise.

Based on clear definitions or standards:

a) Teachers can be taught what and how to teach, thereby forming the basis of teacher education and, consequently, certification;

b) Parents can be guided in what to expect from their children at particular ages, thereby guiding the development of parenting support and education efforts;

c) The public can be made aware of appropriate expectations for children, forming the basis for public information efforts;

d) Curricula that are age and content appropriate can be developed, thereby guiding content developers and textbook publishers, along with local curriculum design efforts;

e) Checklists that chronicle children´s progress can be developed, thereby improving the individualization of teacher practice;

f) Items from the standards, once subjected to item analysis, can be selected for state or national monitoring

g) Data can be used for program evaluation and for the planning of inservice technical support for teachers.

Standards may be used to align disparate elements of early care and education and other systems (Kagan & Kauerz, 2007; O´Day & Smith, 1993).

Standards for students can drive what teachers should know and be able to teach, thereby influencing the content of teacher preparation and potentially even teacher certification (Kagan, Kauerz, & Tarrant, 2008)

Standards have the potential to align what is expected of students and what is taught by their teachers.

Standards serve as the basis for assessment, aligning what is expected, what is taught, and what is assessed (Egertson, 2008; Kagan & Britto, 2009; Schultz, 2008). Summing up, STANDARDS can serve as the PIVOT around which early childhood pedagogy rotates. By using standards for these multiple purposes, and integrated approach to early ECE and development, one that unites what children are expected to know and be able to do, and what their parents and teachers can and should do to support their development. – Integrated approach also links what children are taught to the content of the assessment and to the national reports that give evidence of progress.

Using the consensually developed standards as the base, all these elements are integrated so that what children are taught comports with what they are tested on, how their teachers are trained, and how their programs and policies are evaluated and monitored.

The process puts children and their needs at the center of policy efforts. By impacting teacher training, parenting education, instruction, curriculum, and even national monitoring and evaluation, early learning standards can be the glue that integrates diverse activities and aspects of the field.

The Utility of the Approach
Seeing other countries, it highlights the potential of standards to enhance multiple components of EC development, and thereby shifts the conversation regarding standards, that are regarded as useful to creating an integrated approach to EC pedagogy. The multiple-use approach to standards is grounded in the mores of those who create them, so that they reflect the goals, values, and desires that adults hold for their children.

Some successful examples in the world of its implementation: Ghana where the standards have been used as the basis for curriculum development as well as teacher training and credentialing. In Fiji and Mongolia supplied a foundation for the development of parenting education curricula, and in Romania, the basis for public information campaign.

Standards = guidelines, because standards are seemed as “government imposition of rules”.

Concerns regarding the use of standards with highly diverse in the form of variability in ethnicity, religion, geography, tribe, language, and ability populations within a giving country. Accommodations have been made to embrace all children. Some countries prioritize the uses within a plan for near-term and more long-term implementation. 

Implications of the Approach for System Building
They need to have all the pieces of the puzzle to work to render a system whole. While attention has been accorded pedagogy, less has been accorded the development of a pedagogical subsystem, that´s why it´s so important to develop a subsystem with early learning and standards at is core. They will be the intellectual foundation for curriculum, teacher PDs…

American early education is missing the boat in terms of how we use standards. Pedagogically integrated systems are not only within our reach but must sit at the core of all systems development efforts. Implemented well and widely, they are the essential systems elixir. 

Kagan, S. & Kauerz, K. (eds.) (2012). Early Childhood Systems: Transforming EarlyLearning. New York: Teachers College Press.

 

Urban Education - week 5

Reflections

How do the ideas and issues presented in chapter 9 link with ideas and themes from the Fotofest experience?

Both texts, chapter 9 and India curriculum in Fototest, develop innovative ideas to deal with students and their diversity. Both texts highlights the importance of the “history” and the “story”, that is, what people have to tell or communicate to others, what they see and what is familiar to them. Connections what their own experiences are another link, even if they can not speak English fluently they have a tool to express themselves. Moreover, the language development is an important key as well since they talk about developing language, in the chapter 9 we read about immigrants who struggle with English, pictures and visual resources can help them learn more vocabulary and grammar structures. Besides, as I said in the reflection activity for Fotofest experience, pictures give students and teachers new opportunities for communication. This is another link with chapter 9 since many teachers supported the idea of a democratic classroom focused on the previous knowledge and experiences of the students.

Many times, when educators think about the communicative learning of immigrants, they -teachers- have some urgency for technical aspects, which are important, and they -immigrant students- are going to need them a lot, however those educators can forget about some questions: do they have something to say? or are they interested in recognizing what is said to them? Basically, this attitude and motivation to say something or participate is the engine of its integration and learning, too. Both texts -chapter 9 and curriculum- deal with the motivational aspect too.

What are your thoughts regarding  integrating multiple literacies in education (knowledge, skills, and dispositions Included)?

As we read in the chapter, many teachers and educators have a strong idea of literacy as a simple action of coding and decoding: reading and writing. Most of them they miss “meaning” and the purpose of writing. As a dual-language teacher I am in favor with the integration of multiple literacies in education. In my classrooms I give them more time to talk, I invite them to share their experiences, and even to their families through the use of social media, since every one has a different way of seeing and interpreting things. If they share their perspectives everyone will add more value to their learning, and as extension to their lives as well. Including the fact that I promote multilingualism and multiculturalism, maybe it´s part of my origins, I´m from Europe and there we value “diversity”, for us knowing different languages is a plus.

As an educator who cares of the diversity in my classroom I use different tools and resources to teach my students since I understand how important the motivation in the learning process is. If I don´t implement a good method of teaching that covers all my students I won´t be successful neither my students. Of course, I ensure myself that every student understood what they are learning through conversation and dialogs with them, besides of the adaptations to cover their needs.

I like the references to Carroll whose theory of learning-acquisition are linked to Krashen´s theory of learning a second language. Krashen states the need of the comprehensible input to learn a language. A comprehensible input is the language you are exposed to, that is adapted to your level but one step further in difficulty. This challenge will help you develop skills for understanding the language by leaning on the context, situation and your world knowledge, for example. That´s the link with the cognitive model by Carroll whose understanding and assimilation of the input relies on the long-term memory that depends on your motivation, repetition, and other skills.

HISD Multilingual department offer us, teachers and educator, lots of professional development trainings to implement sheltered instruction, accommodations, uses of cognates, content-language integration skills, among many others that help us improve our teaching daily.

For example, in my blog you can find many posts about multilingualism and methods to teach-learn foreign or second languages in your classroom like this one about CLIL method: http://maestrousero.blogspot.com/2017/04/clil-and-goals-multilingual-education.html

What are sims and diffs between urban, rural and suburban education?

The main difference we can find is geography since urban schools are located in cities, suburban schools are located in the outskirts or far neighborhoods of cities or belong to small cities and rural schools that are not placed in cities.

Another difference is the diversity of the students, in urban schools, mainly, the population of students are diverse since in the other types of schools the population is more homogenous.

In relation to the former difference, diversity, urban schools face issues and challenges different from the suburban and rural schools. Urban school educators and staff are or should be prepared to deal with multicultural/multilingual situations, provided with several tools-skills-knowledge to deal with situations.

As a consequence, the rate of family engagement in urban schools, especially those with a majority of immigrant students, is low, compared to the suburban and rural schools.

Another difference: vocational education, despite of the myth of rural schools because of the lack of career opportunities, this type of education is much more likely to be found in urban and suburban schools.

Another difference or similarity, depending on the glass through you can see this issue, students in urban schools live in the city, inside the district area as well as the suburban school students, on the contrary, many rural students do not live near a school. In cities, because of the traffic situation students can struggle to get school on time or sometimes they spend a lot of time on their way.

As similarities we can mention that they share a “common core” standards or curriculum. There are not big differences in the school structure and the roles of the school staff: principal, counselor, nurse, teachers, students, janitors,… Another similarity is the methods, usually teachers teach, although in urban schools teachers should act more like a facilitator or guide, but many current professional practices don´t correspond to their ideal roles.

Another similarity the student-teacher ratio, urban school classrooms are considered to be overcrowded, compared to suburban and rural school classrooms that are shorter in size and number, however the NCES numbers show that they are so similar, the only difference is the size of schools. Rural schools are smaller.

Some similarities are the number of violent crimes in both urban and suburban settings that are so similar, as well as the tax support that are high for rural and urban schools.

What are your thoughts about the arguments in chapter 18?

 I can understand the myths of rural schools and education as a possible “solution” for what´s happening. I think that, as well as we read in other previous chapters, the need of stability persists on the ideal setting of rural schools as the right answer for the issues in urban education. On the other hand, what is happening in urban education is a parallelism to our current world: global connections, and as a loyal reflection of our western societies urban education is going through the same processes and challenges.

  

Concepts used to describe education in 21st century US are multidimentional, complex, intercultural... thoughts?

As I answered in the former question, I agree. Our urban schools reflects what our societies are living and experiencing in a global connected world. Urban schools have students from many different places and countries with their own diversity. This diversity is a challenge not only to urban schools but to our societies and its with education where we start providing answers to issues like speaking different languages, using different tools, adapting new technologies and innovation among many others, and at the same time the administrators are learning as well and trying to provide formation to educators and teachers to how to deal with all these new challenges, their improving the workforce with the tools they have. Many times the situation changes so rapidly that teachers, administrators and policy-makers are not ready to face them and they need more time to embrace everyone and their diversity. Even the beliefs and ideas that the whole society has about them, they need to understand that diversity is something that adds value to their societies, beneficial instead of thinking of the disadvantages as we can hear in our districts about bilingual education programs, that struggle to have native students because their parents still think about the loss of knowledge or language, but not about the future better opportunities for their children´s lives.

The policy of Assimilation, the predominant in the US during the last decades, does not provide space in any academic program or classroom practices of L1, its proposal is the rapid and mandatory learning of the local language in all spaces. Fortunately, US policies changed, and they are investing in other programs in favor of multiculturalism. Another example of change, Europe, which had also shared the idea of ​​Assimilation, changed its attitude in some of its areas. Multiculturalism, which is a way of acquiring the L2 but keeping the L1 (on request and in the first years) in the academic formation, and respecting its use and within the school environment, is seen as an alternative of a fair integration, less dramatic and appropriate for content learning. For example, Sweden considers within its curriculum the teaching of Swedish and the language of origin (this is given on demand, that is, number of students) or that example of Australia or the United Kingdom that have accommodated other languages ​​in education, are examples of the possibility of working an inclusive policy.

The community, the school, the teacher, the teaching method, ethnicity, good results in what is done, etcetera act on our way of thinking (about oneself and others) and react towards the willingness to learn. In a kind of reciprocal relationship, our internal part is transformed according to manifestations from outside, and the outside also perceives my response and feeds it back. For example, if we are not involved - we are taken into account - because we do not know the language, my affective filter goes up, we start to lack motivation and think about the causes of the "discrimination" (Theory of attribution), and these students simply give up their process of learning. On the contrary, if the environment values them, sees them as someone who can contribute, and who cares about the others, then the affective filter is turned off and their attitude changes completely.

Reference:

Castles, Stephen, and Mark J. Miller (2003): The Age of Migration: International Population Movements, in the Modern World, Third edition. New York: Guilford Press.