Over the past few weeks there have been several articles in Philadelphia news in regards to technology access in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). The unfortunate budget cuts over the past several years have served to decrease the availability had by students to computers that can really do what they want and so some compromises have been reached that allow for students to gain access to the Internet but little else. 

According to a recent article in The Notebook, "the SDP ranked second from the bottom in the average age of its computers: just over five years." As a recent transplant employee, I can attest to that being absolutely true. The last school I worked at - The Academy at Palumbo - had a computer lab with iMacs from 2010/2011 that worked fairly well - but has not been upgraded since. When I transferred from the High School of the Future in 2011, the laptops they had were already two years old and I believe they have had to make compromises on their 1:1 program for financial reasons.

The article does show some strengths of the systems at SDP: "The Philadelphia District ranks number one among Council of the Great City Schools in network bandwidth, which determines the speed at which the Internet is delivered to a computer. Every classroom is Internet-ready and all have high-speed wireless – Wi-Fi – as well." This was also true in my tenure in the District, albeit with some issues of network downtime as is normal in a large organization. Other comparison can be seen here.

The one major criticism I have that comes from the large financial strain the District has been under is the replacement technology they have had to order because it is cheaper: Chromebooks. 

These devices - while wonderful for Internet usage and online app usage - do not have the power or capability to run higher-level software that students need. During my first round of laptop fundraising in 2011, I originally wanted to order Chromebooks at a reduced rate so that I could get more of them. I soon realized that I would not be able to run programs like Microsoft Excel, Geometer's Sketchpad, or Google Sketchup/Earth that I wanted to use in my classroom. Nowadays, I have a similar program, but it is for 3D modeling programs like 123D Design and Autodesk Inventor. 

Yes, they are an inexpensive solution and can do quite a lot (especially in a District with little else), but if SDP relies on them too heavily over the next few years, it will be doing itself and its students a disservice. 

Here are two other articles with more information on the current technology situation in the School District of Philadelphia.

• Here's what it takes to run the Philadelphia School Distirct's IT network
  
• Assistive technology is a needed tool in the city's resource-starved schools
  

Last Thursday night and Friday afternoon were the NYC Department of Education's official time for Parent Teacher Conferences in High Schools. From what I have heard most high schools treat this as sort of an open-call for parents to show up and discuss issues of their children. The DOE has suggestions of items to talk about and questions to discuss but it really could be a free-for-all if need be.

What we do differently at BCS is quite stark. We begin by changing the mindset of the process with a new name: "student-led conferences." Instead of the focus being on the parent and the teacher, the focus is on the student. We spend time during our Crew class (an advisory-like class that loops with teachers for four years) preparing for the event. We have a script where students discuss their strengths and challenges and what choices they have made up to this point that will justify the grades they have earned.

My role as a teacher is to guide the student to discuss these things with the parent or guardian and myself in present in the room. Oftentimes the meetings are straightforward: issues of attendance cause low grades so make sure the student has extra alarms in the morning; or maybe the student feels they have to justify why they received a 91 instead of a 95. Whatever the case may be, the student is sharing thoughts much more than I am or the parent is. 

Eventually, we do get to an open dialog portion of the meeting to air out concerns, discuss next steps, and share any other important information (like upcoming class trips, etc). 

The past two days have been very interesting. After working with these students for two years as their Crew leader, I know what to expect from parent reactions and I know how to focus the conversation from any deflection that might occur. At the end of sophomore year, students have a lot of data to look at and can think more seriously about the effect their GPA will have on their college options after graduation. Conversations that are redundant in a negative way are not what I am looking for so I have brought in counselors, IEP specialists, and more in order to support my students achieve success.

I only hope that over the next few months the students take the heart what they have available to them to improve or influence each other in a positive way.

I have not had enormous time to get involved in the opt-out movement from state testing this year due to wedding planning, but I wanted to take a moment and share some thoughts on it now. One of the main parts of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposed budget is to change how teacher evaluation is conducted. Here is the text from his 2015 Opportunity Agenda on the subject:

This small block of text would have tremendous ramifications for actions taken in the classroom daily. 

The first major thing to notice is that the Governor proposes removing local measures from evaluations. I find this to be in large error because of the lack of nuanced understanding of needs from local sources. A student in a rural area outside of Buffalo, NY, might need something very different from one the low-income Brownsville section of New York City. Without local measures of any kind, it seems very unbalanced to suggest one state test could assess the same information.

The second major thing to notice is the change of whom completes teacher observations. No longer will the majority of your score come from your principal or designee - the person who has the most knowledge of the challenges and work that you do. Instead, it will come from a third-party observer. This person may be trained in standardized observation skills, but will likely miss nuanced actions a teacher takes due to lack of knowledge of the surroundings.

The last major thing to notice doesn't come from the test above. Instead, it comes from the schedule of when the testing sessions take place. In Elementary and Middle Schools, students will be testing on April 14, 15, 16, 22, 23, and 24. If you take into account 6.5 hours of regular instruction per day, that is 39 fewer hours of class they will receive. Plus, in public schools across the state, test prep is an important part of class to make sure students are on par with their higher-income or private school compatriots and that takes even more time away from regular instruction.

If you support teachers in helping to mould future leaders and dreamers in the United States, then support the opt-out movement. There is a wonderful video from Brooklyn teachers (some of whom I work with) explaining more in detail about why it is important to us and children. Check it out here.

As a teacher says in the film:

"It's not so much a political plea that I am making. It's a plea for the future of public education in New York state."

Call and write to Governor Andrew Cuomo:

518-474-8390

or

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
NYS State Capital Building 
Albany, NY 12224

Across the United States there are teachers, parents, students, and community members initiating protests and rallies in support of the Opt-Out movement against standardized testing in public schools. This past Thursday there was a rally in front of my school to combat new policies being pushed through by Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York that would have more of teacher evaluation tied to state tests. In New Jersey, though, there are new state tests that went into effect recently and already have controversy surrounding them. Opt-Out activists are writing pieces in as many news sources as possible pushing for more students to stray away from these tests. All the while, New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe is suggesting we "wait and see" what results are garnered from the test.

The big issue at hand from last week, however, is that Pearson, the company who created and administers the PARCC test, has been actively monitoring social media during testing windows - a practice they ostensibly say is to reduce cheating but has been mired in controversy because many view it has a violation of student privacy.

According to their social media guidelines:

This is definitely a tense situation. With modern uses of social media, sharing these kinds of things becomes ubiquitous and hard to stop - it will obvious invalidate a test if a student sees something crucial from the test and then uses that information to benefit his score. That being said, it is also pretty creepy that a multi-billion net-worth company is patrolling social media sites. 

To me, this is another reason to stop putting so much emphasis on standardized testing. It becomes much harder to enforce the "standards" that are required to make sure tests are reliable and valid. Instead, focus on spending time teaching in the classroom and make sure our students can think. That way, when they approach new situations, they won't be looking for the multiple choice answers to get them out.