This past week I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful Jewish leadership retreat facilitated by the staff at Moishe House, a Jewish 20-something organization in which I was a house member from 2008 - 2010 in Philadelphia. The retreat was focused on how to find your Jewish voice and what qualities define leadership in the modern (and historic) world. 

Each day had a general theme and my favorite was the day we focused on our own stories; each one of us had a chance to answer a few questions posited by a facilitator about what our personal mission statement would be if we had to choose one and how we would go about using our history to convey a message to motivate another to action. 

One thing that came to mind during this exercise was the how often I think about my Jewish roots and values in my professional life. As many of my peers know, I am motivated to educate in public schools because of a quote from the Talmud that states the following:

It is this motivation that causes me to educate - because it has the power to save lives. It is not the most obvious route (like medicine or fire fighting), but it is a long term and very valuable process.

Yesterday, Mayor-elect De Blasio chose the new Chancellor for New York City Schools, Carmen Fariña. As a new resident of the city, it is difficult for me to understand who this woman is or what she has done unless I am able to learn part of her story. Luckily, my current principal worked under her when Carmen was the regional superintendent for District 15 in Brooklyn (where I now work) and has given us her seal of approval. With just that much, I think I see a very different future for the Department of Education than the Joel Klein/Mayor Bloomberg years. I look forward to learning more and getting more involved.

One of the large upsides of my new school in Brooklyn is that we take time out of our afternoon schedules to form Inquiry Groups that focus on particular topics for set periods of time. The first was by department and focused on what aspects of math instruction we wanted to change and how to do so - it was innovative and exciting to talk with my peers about this topic and we've tried to incorporate more struggling and demanding problems in our classrooms. 

The second round began two weeks ago and has since extended into a discussion about racism and our classrooms. As many can see across the country, even corporations are dealing with similar issues (sexism for example), teaching us that even though some think of these things as old-world problems, they are very much in our purview.

We began our inquiry by discussing two articles assigned with regards to race: a chapter from Dr. Beverly Tatum's Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? wherein racism is defined and classified; and a piece on "racial microaggressions" from a May-June 2007 issue of American Psychologist. Each piece brought out more dialog concerning racial tensions - how White men and women might perceive racism to have ended with the Civil Rights movement due to their lack of interaction with it yet Black men and women recognize how it limits their lives. Faculty and staff alike shared moments from their lives, how they teach their children about the outside world as Black, Asian, Latino, and White parents. It has started off well.

One point I brought up was the idea of experience and exposure helping to alleviate some of the issues created by racism. When students react to racial epithets and situations by saying, "It's not that serious" it raises a cause for concern in me. I only wish my students would be able to visit Ghana, Thailand, Morocco, Guatemala, and more so that they can see what it means to be different and how deep down we are all trying to just get by in life. I am very glad for the existence of programs like Global Glimpse, EF Tours, and more that try to help bring students into the world. I urge you to do so with your children as I plan to with mine. 

Today I had a particularly interesting interaction with a student who came for after school assistance. This student had her class switched recently from my class to another due to concerns regarding her IEP (individualized education plan). While not ideal, this decision made my class calmer as she was often the loudest and most disruptive in the room.  With that in mind, when she sat down next to me for help, our interaction was more calm at first. 

During our tutoring session, I attempted to ask her questions that guided her towards using skills she already had demonstrated in novel problems. She repeatedly asked me to just "tell her the answer" and said that she would understand. Additionally, she did not want to continue working on particular problems, saying she would "get it later." When pressed for an explanation of her work, she simply replied, "it doesn't matter." I am supremely worried for this girl since - to me and many math teachers - the content we teach is not as important as the justification of an answer or the explanation of a train of thought. 

In theory, however, changes are afoot that will modify the classroom to ensure these requirements. 

The Common Core that has been mostly adopted by 45 states across the US is supposed to foster those changes through its reinvented Standards for Mathematical Practice. While not the most succinct document, it explains how students need to be pushed to persevere in their struggles, learn the tools of the trade, find structures and patterns and use them effectively, and more. My fellow math teachers and I love doing this and - to be honest - probably would be doing so even without the new standards. The only way to ensure these ideas are followed is to put them into a solid curriculum that is very different from generations past. 

If teachers, administrators, parents, and community members truly want to make the 21st century classroom model what the Standards preach, we need to be more focused on innovative techniques to engage students. Many teachers understand that their role is not that of a banker "depositing" information into the brains of their students. Instead, it is to help foster ideas and question their students in order to build skill in justification and reasoning. When I ask a student to explain their work and hear the response, "I can't explain it, but I know it," I want to scream and yell that without the evidence of an explanation, there is no true understanding. 

Current math teachers across the country are locked in a battle whereby they are being required to innovate but are not sure how to do so nor are they being given the resources. Additionally, they are being pushed into an atmosphere of state testing that has aggravated parents and community members too, all while not truly understanding the goals of the Common Core. 

If we really want our students to gain more math knowledge and be prepared to challenge others on a global scale we need to make sure we actively search programs and trainers to make sure our teachers understand what they should - and should not - be doing in their classrooms. 

Today the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, announced its scores for 65 countries worldwide on standardized tests of Math, Reading, and Science. As usual, the US had flat growth and scored somewhere in the upper middle of the pack. Over the past decades the United States has shown itself to be an average performer when compared to countries around the world. Some speculate this has to do with low-quality teachers or curriculum; others believe it has to do with the US emphasis on teaching all children, regardless of background (unlike some countries who do not). In either case, what is interesting to note is that achievement scores like these have almost never mattered when it comes to creativity and critical thinking amongst our students. 

Many adults (especially teachers) are keenly aware that standardized tests are not true preparation for the real world. Only in niche jobs does one need to be able to prove the Pythagorean Theorem in order to demonstrate marketable skills. Yet, our country seems obsessed with comparing these scores in order to rate and evaluate students and - more recently - teachers. Not only does this seem quite narrow in focus but it misses the entire point of fostering a creative society. 

Recently a guest columnist on the Seattle Times wrote, "the preponderance of data clearly demonstrates that teachers are the most important school-based factor in student achievement." While this statement is fact, there are a number of other pieces of information missing. For example, teacher quality is not the majority (over 50%) of the influence on students, just the plurality (largest percentage). Perhaps other factors would add up to more than teachers if combined. Additionally, what about the out-of-school factors? There are a host of things that could be wrong holding back a student's achievement before s/he enters the classroom. 31% of children under the age of 17 currently live in poverty in New York City; that number is 40% in Philadelphia.

Now, of course it is important to remember the motto shared by so many education reformers: Poverty is not Destiny. I truly believe that and push my student's to succeed even if they lack basic supplies. But, that motto does not mean it is not a large factor. 

When I have students who have not eaten in the morning, they will do worse; when I have students who are child parents, they will do worse; when I have students who have no consistent adult figure in their lives, they will do worse. 

The best way for teachers to get involved in all of this is to forge positive relationships with children and make them think critically inside the classroom. Unfortunately, these are the exact traits that are so difficult to measure: empathy, caring, and perseverance. Perhaps it is better to put money into that evaluation instead of the New York Regents Exam.