Let's Redshirt that boy!

 Let’s Redshirt that boy!

 

More and more parents are “redshirting” their young children.    College sports teams aren’t the only ones to “redshirt”.

Maryland law requires that kindergarten is the first compulsory year of school attendance.   But the law also allows for caregivers to ask for a maturity waiver.   Mostly this rule impacts boys who tend to mature more slowly than girls.  

Many families do not feel their child is ready for kindergarten.   But as in many benefits this bonus comes with several considerations.

First of all, kindergarten is free.  And that includes free transportation.   Providing your child with an extra year of child care is not free.   It is not unusual for day care to cost around $235 a week.  That’s a chunk of change.   Maryland’s Blueprint for Education will eventually provide free pre-school as well, but the roll out of that program is just getting started and limited free spots fill quickly.  Last year about 300 families in the Baltimore metro area took the maturity waiver.   Not surprisingly these were mostly upper income families.

Another consideration is the maturity of the child.   While Kindergarten begins at age 5, not all 5 year olds are ready to begin the more formal schooling.   This situation is particularly true today when kindergarten has become more academic centered and not play centered.  Summer birthday kids are particularly at risk.   Kids with winter birthdays turning 5 have almost a full year before they need to start kindergarten.   Whereas, summer birthdays are right on the cusp.

In making the decision, families need to talk with day care providers, sports team leaders and other trusted adults.   How is the child doing on focus, communication with peers and setting boundaries?

When thinking about redshirting, families need to consider the here and now as well as the future.   A child who is redshirted because of emotional immaturity may be academically on target or even ahead.    What will that mean for the child who then starts kindergarten even more ahead of his class peers academically ?   In an environment of pacing guides, teachers don’t slow down nor hurry up for differences in learning rate.  Being academically ahead of classmates becomes hard on the teacher and the child.

Decisions need to be made carefully.   And sometimes family economics make the decision.   There is no need to rush childhood.   And redshirting only benefits some athletes and kindergarten kids.

You don't learn much if you are not in school

 You don’t learn much if you are not in school

 

Since the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has increased from 1 in every 6 students to 1 in every 3 students.   And overall absentee rates remain higher than before the pandemic.  Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing more that 10% of the school year regardless of the reason.

How many of us would keep our jobs if we missed 10% of the work year in addition to holidays.

Fact: students with higher absentee rates have lower achievement.   So it doesn’t matter if you missed school because you were ill, went on a family vacation, needed a mental health day or just didn’t feel like coming to school.

According to reports 16% of Asian students, 24% of white students, 36% of Hispanic students and 39% of African American students were chronically absent.  Reverse this list and you have rankings of the lowest achieving students in our schools. 

School is a kid’s job.  So besides not learning we are teaching our children that it’s perfectly ok to miss one’s job for whatever reason that comes up.  

Fourteen states have joined an effort to cut down on absenteeism.  

The plan is going to begin with a worksheet given to teachers to try to figure out why a child is chronically absent so that the root causes of the absence can be addressed. 

The worksheet includes these questions:  Has the child been struggling academically? Does the student have language or communication issues?  Have there been any reports of bullying? Do parents and/or guardians recognize the importance of school attendance and do they support getting their children to school?

The Maryland State Board of Education is on the cusp of enacting a policy that will put into place some serious interventions to get students to read on grade level by the time the students finish 3^rd grade.   Interventions include grade retention, intensive after school and summer tutoring.  

Here’s the deal.   If a child is not in school, all the interventions in the world aren’t going to work.  School matters, now and in the future when the child is an adult and trying to get and keep a job.

Another Day, Another School Shooting

 Another Day, Another School Shooting

 

Horrific news that once again a child has killed other children in his school.   Everyone has a solution.  Arm the teachers, increase mental health services, lock those bad kids up for the rest of their lives, prosecute the parents- all such great ideas, few of which would prevent anything.

Again and again with every shooter, the same issue comes to the fore.  These kids did not feel known.  In fact, they were NOT known.  In the case of the Georgia child, the administrator went to what she thought was his class but had the wrong kid with a similar name.   Certainly, we can lock them up for the rest of their lives as Trump says of these “vicious, evil people”.   But they aren’t vicious or evil people.   They have done vicious and evil things, no question.   They were once babies and little people in kindergarten that were known to teachers and family.  What can we do to make kids feel known?

A principal at a California high school says he treats the first day of school like the first episode of a Netflix show he wants his students to binge on.  “The minute they walk through the door, I want to hook them so that they come back for more.”  On the first week of school teachers take it slow.  They don’t rush to introduce the syllabus or course requirements.  (What NO course pacing guide that makes everyday a milestone!!)   They play a version of beach volleyball.  Each colored section of the ball features questions- like “pet’s name”, “what movie do you want to act in”,  “what’s your favorite ice cream”.   Kids answer according to the section of the ball that faces them.  It’s fun, an ice breaker and a way for children to identify as something else besides a number on a seating chart.

Another thing to do is to believe what we learn from research.  The bigger the school the more anonymous the student.  Stop building high schools that hold several thousand kids.

Students are very happy to be back in school in person.   And now that they are, the anxieties of fitting in are growing.  School leaders have to be intentional about getting kids to feel they fit in the school.  Students need to feel that their well being matters.  They need to be seen for being really nice kids who are perhaps a bit different, and they need to fit in as well.

When they don’t get the attention they need from positive sources, they sure will from being that “evil” kid.  

Another day, another shooting will happen unless you notice me before rather than after, you know me for being bad.

STOP! That's mine!

 You can’t take my property!

 

School systems and private schools are disallowing cell phones in the school.  As with all things there are three sides to every story.   My side, your side and the right side.

Students say that the phone is their private property and the system cannot take it away.  One could split hairs and remind students that in almost all cases the phone itself is the property of the parent or whomever is paying the cell phone bill, most likely not the student.   Of course, we have a history of taking kids’ private property if it is not appropriate to school or we made a rule against it.  You cannot smoke on school property or we will take the tobacco away, ditto alcoholic beverages.  No weapons, no drugs.  Taking things from students we don’t want them to have has a long history.

What if there is an emergency, how can I contact my parents.  Depends on the emergency but most likely the school officials will contact your parents if it’s a true emergency.

I am a parent and I need to be able to reach my child!  Exactly why?   Do you allow your child to call you at work to chat?   School is your child’s  job.  He/she needs to be left alone to do that job.   And if you really need to get a message to your child, just call the front desk.  It will get through.

Data show that kids get hundreds of messages a day on their phone during school hours.   No, that was not a typo.  It’s very hard for kids to attend to their job (i.e. learning) when they also have to respond to all of those pings. And if you are a student, the pings may have more value than what the teacher is trying to do. Teachers don’t need children to do a constant dialog with their parents on what the teacher is doing.  Just one more reason teaching has lost a lot of its fun.  

Teachers and school administrators say kids don’t need phones in school.   Important messages to families can go through the office.   And then there are the not so important messages kids are sending- photos of bodily parts that are best left covered, insinuation about which students are dating (or not), having sex (or not) and just generally gossiping about what’s happening now.  

Most great compromises please no one and have something for everyone.  Put student phones in a safe place every morning so they can see where the phone is going, lock it up AND put the phone on the charger.   Teachers/administrators get peace to do their jobs.  Kids get a fully charged phone at the end of the day to use on the bus on the walk home.   See something for everyone.  And everyone gets something to be annoyed about too.

Oh, and by the way, the property isn’t the students and the school administrators can indeed take it.

New literacy policy- crazy or what?

 Crazy is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result.

 

The Maryland State Department of Education has backed down a bit on its requirement that all students must be competent readers by the end of grade 3 or be retained until they are. Competence in reading is defined as a score of 375 on the MCAP test.   There was significant push back from the State Board of Education and the public.

Now there is a compromise.  Parents will have gained the right to challenge a school district’s decision to retain a poor reading third grader.  Districts must inform parents within 15 days from the time the decision to retain a 3^rd grader has been made.  BUT, parents have the option to insist that their child move onto 4^th grade as long as they agree to use additional help from the school district such as summer school or before or after school tutoring that happens outside of the school day.   The State Board will decide at its September meeting on whether or not it will approve the compromise plan.

Maryland has developed a 3^rd grade English test called the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program or MCAP.  It is administered near the end of the school year.  A student who scores 375 or above is considered proficient.  Starting in the 2025-26 school year, districts would need to screen children three times for reading proficiency.  They will also be screened once a year for dyslexia beginning in kindergarten.  That’s a WHOLE lot of testing going on and those tests do not include all of the other academic testing.  According to the plan the retention policy would go into effect at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.  

The instructional portion of the policy will go into effect as soon as the State Board approves the plan as early as its September meeting.  Under the new instructional policy, ALL reading instruction will be based on what is being called the Science of Reading, which is essentially a phonics-based approach to reading instruction which teaches students the sounds of letters and how they come together to make words.  Don’t let it bother you that English is one of the LEAST phonetically regular languages.  The policy bans reading instruction that has kids guess words based on sentence context. But WAIT, how do adults figure decode words they don’t know- or right by the context of the sentence. Hmmm, so is that word read or read?  We can't use the context of the sentence right?  So teachers are no longer allowed to teach this mature reading habit.

And just in case, kids are still not scoring 375 on the MCAP in the 4^th grade they will be put on an “intensive reading program”.   Crazy is continuing to do the same thing and expect a different result.  Could it be that the so-called science of reading doesn’t work for some kids?

 

How many special educators does it take to teach a child?

 How many special ed teachers does a school district need?

 

How many teachers for children with disabilities does a school system need?  The answer to that question depends on who is asking the question and how are they figuring it.

In Calvert County Maryland, the school district believes that 1 special ed teacher for every 175 students enrolled in the district is just right.  Given that most experts believe that the incidence of disabilities in the general population of a school is about 15%, that staffing pattern would yield one special ed teacher for every 26.4 children with disabilities.  That is quite remarkable because the average class size for plain kids in Calvert County grades k-3 is 20 and for grades 3-5, it’s 25.  So if you are an elementary aged child in Calvert County and you have a disability, you might be better off in general ed rather than getting the appropriate education you are guaranteed by both federal and state law.

In spite of those difficult staffing ratios, Calvert County is still short 16 special ed teachers as the start of the 24-25 school year approaches.

The head of special ed for Calvert County was challenged by several Board members regarding this ratio.   Two members of the Board did not think the ration was sufficient.  The special ed department director said that this was the ratio she inherited two years ago when she took over.   Somehow this situation seemed to make her think she wasn’t responsible for it two years later.

One Board member compared the vacancies and the staffing ratios to neighboring counties on both the western and eastern shores of Maryland.   All of the comparable school districts had lower staffing shortages and a better staffing ratio.

The special ed department director felt that all systems were dealing with a state-wide shortage of special ed teachers, even if other systems were reporting better numbers.

What is interesting is that even with the staffing shortages, and the poor staffing ratios, Calvert County still insists that it is able to provide the free, appropriate public education to children in the district.   When parents disagree and ask for an approved non-public program, they are in for a fight.

How does that logic work?  On the one hand, the system acknowledges they don’t have the staff or the staffing to do the job.  And on the other hand, they insist they can provide an appropriate education for their students with disabilities.  Interesting logic?

Does Maryland have the best school system?

 Does Maryland have the best school system?

 

Well not quite the best but depending on whom you ask it might be the third best school system in the country.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and DC schools across 32 key metrics.  The analysis looked at funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials as key indices of greatness.

By this evaluation, Massachusetts has the best school system in the country.   That isn’t particularly new news as most state rating systems rank Massachusetts highly.  One of the differences in this evaluation is that the hard focus was not just on test scores but rather making sure students feel safe, comfortable and cared for.

In the ranking, Maryland came in at 3^rd, just after Massachusetts and Connecticut.    Louisiana was #47.   Guess those 10 Commandments that are supposed to be in every classroom are to help the kids pray for a better school system.  Dead last at 51 (remember 50 states plus DC) was New Mexico.  The lowest drop-out rate went to West Virginia; the highest was DC.

Maryland has the 3^rd best school system according to these rankings. It is one of only seven states with laws making digital content and instructional materials available outside of the classroom.  It has the 7^th highest share of students scoring at least 3 on AP exams.  It also has the 10^th-best share of public schools that rank in the top 700 nationwide, at about 6.2%.   Maryland was one of the top spending states.

Other variables usually not considered in these kinds of rankings include reports of being threatened or bullied while attending school, feeling unsafe at school or in transit to and from school. The availability of illegal drugs on school property was also a factor in measuring school safety as was the number of school shootings.  The rankings looked at aggregate data for each state.   So in Maryland the lower rankings on the Eastern Shore and Western Maryland would be offset by the higher rankings in the DC Maryland metro area and in the school systems surrounding Baltimore City.

This ranking is unique in the weight it gives to environmental safety factors in measuring the quality of a school system.   From the student’s perspective, those factors may well be the most important.