I was looking at our state school report card through a third party that rates schools in each state. We were in the upper half of Middle Schools in the state.
I, like everyone, want to feel proud of the school that I teach at...
I want to feel like my massive work-passion is worth while.
After looking further into what makes schools #1 (Which are about 20 minutes from me), I found some interesting and concerning information.
The school that performed best had (compared to my school):
* Almost NO diversity
* Almost four times the wealth in the community
* Students that had both parents living at home
* Over double spent per student
* Higher paid teachers
* A longer school day
* Massive parent involvement
* Almost NO free and reduced lunches
* Teacher to student ration of 1:9
Not making excuses, but these things matter!
What did this new knowledge end up meaning to me?
I am more proud of our school and staff than ever before. We are, in many cases, very much opposite of these high performing and high rated school, but our kids are doing very well under the circumstances.
Be Mindful.
Peace.
Mark Levine
#Mindfulliteracy
@LevineWrites
Yes, this is a HUGE problem. Those numbers that are available online don't really tell the whole story. It is truly unfair and biased and frustrates me greatly. I taught in a school with over 60% free and reduced lunch population, numerous incarcerated parents, etc. and our scores online (which were pretty good) didn't always tell the story of how hard the teachers, but more importantly the STUDENTS, worked to reflect what was really going on. You are doing good work, friend. Keep it up!
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