everything else

CCSA’s last-minute effort to close Leadership High School

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon Last Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Education unanimously voted to renew Leadership High School’s charter for the next five years.

The 7-0 vote was unprecedented and demonstrated the Board’s confidence in the school’s track record. The renewal championed the democratic process. After all, charter schools are public schools and are accountable by law to their districts.

Don’t say this, though, to the California Charter Schools Association, which publicly called for the closure of Leadership High School in December.

Just in case the SFUSD Board did not receive its first memo, the CCSA made sure last Tuesday — on the day of the vote — to send Superintendent Carlos Garcia and the Board a seven-page letter advocating the school’s closure.

Here is the introduction to the last-minute letter:

We understand that the Board of Education of the San Francisco Unified School District will be considering the renewal of the Leadership High charter petition (Charter) today. We urge you to consider data related to the Charter’s poor academic performance, as explained more fully below, and deny the Charter renewal.

CCSA senior vice presidents Gary Borden and Myrna Castrejon go on to provide tables and charts explaining their rationale. At one point, they ask the Board to consider the organization’s own metrics of performance rather than relying on state law:

We recommend that the district take into account CCSA’s data analysis because current statutory renewal eligibility requirements do not provide an adequate evaluation of a charter school’s academic performance.

At the end of the letter, however, Borden and Castrejon reverse themselves and call on the superintendent and commissioners to act in order to preserve state law:

Ultimately, the intent of the Charter Schools Act cannot be fulfilled if charter schools do not improve pupil learning and increase learning opportunities for all pupils.

This extraordinary last-minute letter did nothing to sway the commissioners. In fact, the CCSA’s strategy backfired. President Norman Yee suggested that CCSA staff members should consider visiting the school themselves. Even more striking, Commissioner Jill Wynns, who does not support charter schools on principle, also voted yes to the renewal. In fact, Wynns said she would normally be inclined not to vote for renewal but did not appreciate CCSA’s political attack.

I am proud of the SFUSD Board of Education for doing its job — for visiting Leadership High School, considering the experiences of students and parents, and doing the necessary research to make an informed decision.

It is true that not all charter schools are performing well, and some deserve to close. Nevertheless, the CCSA’s approach is needlessly aggressive and reckless. Instead of issuing public calls for closure and sending last-minute letters to encourage district boards of education to close down schools, the CCSA should honor current law and the accountability process that currently exists. favicon

reading/technology

Using Diigo to expand Article of the Week

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon One of my favorite ways to improve students’ reading skills, to expand their background knowledge, and to teach current events is through Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week.

In Mr. Gallagher’s assignment, students get one article each Monday to read, annotate, and respond to.

But what happens if your students ask for more articles to read (or you want them to read more)?

One idea is to provide your students with newspapers and magazines in the classroom. This is wonderful but expensive. Another option is to introduce your students to Google Reader. This takes a significant investment in technology.

But if you keep a class website or blog, an easy way to increase your students’ access to high-quality articles is by adding a Diigo Enhanced Linkroll on your sidebar as a widget.

If you haven’t used Diigo before, you should check it out. It’s a wonderful social bookmarking and research tool that lets you save articles, annotate them, and share them with groups.

To the left is a screenshot of part of my current Diigo linkroll on iseroma.com, my class blog. I call it “Read This Now!”

You’ll see that there’s a link to an article and a short description, which I’ve written to spark student interest.

This makes sharing interesting articles easy. All I need to do is read like normal. (I read a lot online.) When I find an article that I think students would like, I add a little blurb and make sure to tag it correctly so that it appears automatically in my class blog.

Now if you don’t use Diigo, or you think it’s too complicated, you can always do something similar by adding an RSS feed into your class blog’s sidebar. Some people use Evernote, while others prefer Google Reader (or a read-it-later service, or even ifttt.com). But the problem with RSS feeds, especially on WordPress blogs, is that you can’t (as far as I know) add text to items. That’s why I prefer Diigo.

This is a new feature on iseroma.com, so I don’t know if students will like it or how exactly how I’ll use it. But I believe deeply that students need tons of high-quality text around them to read, and “Read This Now!” is just another idea to get good reading material to them.

If you’d like more details about how to use Diigo, let me know, or check out this how-to video. favicon

technology

Why I prefer the Kindle Keyboard over the Kindle Touch

Posted on by Mark Isero

 

favicon I’ve written before that the Kindle Touch is the best Kindle for students. But for me, I’m sticking with my trusty Kindle 3 (now known as the Kindle Keyboard).

Why? Here are three reasons I’m staying away from the Kindle Touch:

1. The touch capability decreases immersive reading. The whole point of the Kindle is to promote deep reading with no distractions. That’s why I don’t even try to read on my iPad. (That’s also why the Kindle Fire is not a true reading device.) Even though you can’t do too much with the Kindle Touch’s interactive display, there’s still the chance for distraction. By having to touch the screen to advance pages, the link between you and the author is interrupted.

2. There’s no shortcut for text-to-speech. One of my favorite things to do is to listen to current events on my Kindle during my morning commute. With the Kindle Keyboard, starting up the text-to-speech feature is a snap: Just press Shift-Sym. With the Kindle Touch, however, there are three steps, which makes things much harder when backing up on my driveway.

3. The speakers on the Kindle Touch aren’t as loud. Several people disagree with me on this point, particularly after the Kindle Touch’s 5.0.3 update. But I confirmed with an Amazon representative that the speakers on the Touch are not as loud as those on the Kindle Keyboard. Again, this limits my ability to listen to the Kindle in the car. When plugged into the auxiliary port, the Touch’s maximum volume does not get loud enough for me to hear when I’m driving on the freeway.

Yes, these are pretty small reasons to prefer the Kindle Keyboard over the Kindle Touch. (They make me seem more like a listener than a reader.) And, I must say, there are many things that the Kindle Touch does better — like looking up words and highlighting. That’s why it’s the best device for my students. But for me, who loves the text-to-speech feature, I’m sticking with the Kindle Keyboard…for now. favicon

everything else

Why Leadership High School’s renewal is a big deal

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon The San Francisco Board of Education voted last Tuesday to renew Leadership High School’s charter through 2017.

Here are three reasons why it was a big deal.

1. The vote was unanimous. All seven commissioners warmly praised the school. Even Commissioner Jill Wynns, who usually opposes charter schools, voted for the measure.

2. The vote was in support of students of color and students who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. The Board recognized the school’s track record in preparing students for higher education. More than 80 percent of LHS students are African American or Latino, and more than 80 percent will be the first in their families to graduate from college. More than 90 percent of students go to college.

3. The vote championed the local democratic process. Instead of paying attention to the California Charter School Association’s misguided public call for the school’s closure, the commissioners did their own research and listened carefully to their constituents. Five out of seven Board members visited the school. It was clear that all of them read parent and student letters. In other words, the Board did not succumb to nasty politics and instead weighed the school’s charter proposal on its merits.

I am proud to teach in San Francisco. The Board did the right thing on Tuesday. With its unanimous vote, it sent a strong message that educating youth is more than just producing high test scores. It’s also about building character and preparing students to transform themselves and their communities. favicon

teaching

The power of working with students one on one

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon It’s pretty amazing what happens when students work with me one on one.

Their learning is accelerated. Their learning is deeper.

Yesterday, a student and I spent 10 minutes at Lunch on basic math skills. He’s trying to pass the California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE). We added fractions and dealt with decimals. Years of math phobia, anguish, and avoidance disappeared. Together, we got past his shame. It was wonderful.

So was the 10 minutes I spent yesterday after school with a student on her grammar. Not only did she fix every single grammar error in her essay, but she also learned about run-on sentences and the serial comma. We even had time to study for today’s quiz — on which she earned a perfect score.

These little vignettes remind me of three things:

1. Teaching and learning are easy and fun given time, space, and relationship.

2. We need to invest much more money and many more resources into after-school tutoring.

3. I need to figure out a way to encourage more of my students to work with me one on one.

I really can’t figure out #3. My students know that it’s beneficial to come after school. But they, in general, don’t show up. This year, I don’t have the capacity to do a mandatory after-school program. Even if I did, I’m unsure about whether I’m philosophically in favor of such an approach, particularly with older students. It’s definitely something I need to think more about.

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas. favicon