It's been a long time / Since I've seen your smiling face / It's been a long time

Three years in fact.

So where the gang is these days...

The eldest is just about through her bachelor's at UMBC after switching majors two or three times and landing in math. If there was any hope of another generation of engineers it was with her, but it was not to be. Well, math is part of the "STEM" acronym, so, I guess that makes it close to following in dear mom's footsteps.

Middle kid is loving life in her second year at what is probably the most unique school she could have chosen - St. John's College. I'm a little envious of going to a school that focuses on original thinking and hard work and is such a perfect fit for her.

My special guy is sporting a goatee and mustache somehow. Not so little. He's the only one who's still in the system, and even though he's a junior in high school, I think we've got another four and a half years (the year he turns 21) until we can say adios to City Schools.

Being a parent to a special needs kid in BCPSS is certainly about running a marathon and not a sprint. Marathon sounds a little too pristine though. Maybe one of those races where they slog through pits of mud and things randomly come out of the wall and punch you - like Wipeout. I think our first IEP meeting was about 12 years ago. I've got to do a quantitative analysis post some day where I count the hours and dollars and all the rest that have invested in my guy over the years. We're always in there, advocating for what is legally his due, no doubt coming across as "*That* Parent".

photo of a long path through leafless trees with a boy and dog ahead

And me? For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to finally get that master's degree that my job is willing to pay for. I've got to be twice the average age of students in the program. It's fairly exhausting between classes, homework and a job that, when you include drive time, takes up about 54hrs a week of my time. Right now, I'm one year through a five year program. I guess that means that I'll finish up my masters at the same time that my youngest is done with City Schools.

In it for the long haul...damn good thing I'm as stubborn as I am.

A New Year's Eve hike

On a rainy Sunday morning I was thinking of a post about how commitment means everyday, even when pulling the cover over your head seems like a better idea.

Then I stepped outside and I realized it wasn't raining all that hard anymore. By the time I made it to the park it had turned into an awesome hike. The stream was the highest I had ever seen. There were the winding parts with standing waves that looked like something from the Colorado River. At the straight-always the stream was smooth, but the speed, sound, and level was incredible.

Admittedly there were puddles across the path that had to be forded.

But that's why I wear butt-ugly crocs on morning walks.

On this day before starting year number 14 with Baltimore's public schools I think about how sometimes those challenges that seem like something to be endured turn out to be surprising opportunities. Opportunities for growth that those with simpler paths, or options to quit, never get to experience. I know that this year will be challenging for the two kids that are still in City Schools, but we'll hit the ground running and with enthusiasm.

The pictures above are from an afternoon walk with msk along. He was skeptical about going for a walk in the rain, but once he saw, and heard, the stream he was all smiles and enthralled. Below he's enjoying another soggy walk stim - walking through the dripping leaves and getting his hair soaking. Pure joy.

 

Posted with Blogsy

I think I'm done

I've been wondering about blogging and why I blog lately. It's generally been gnawing at me this spring, but this post from a City Schools teacher-blogger (who doesn't blog about schools) brought it to a head. Really, it's bigger than blogging or not, it's about the whole basis of this blog and choices about my kids and their future in the system that gives this blog its title.

I started looking at my sidebar text and saw this declaration - "We are in public schools because we believe that justice starts with a decent free education for all and if I want decent public education being personally involved is the first step." I just don't know anymore. I truly believe that a democracy depends on all of its citizens having a decent education. Not just those with the money for a private school. Not just those who live in the right neighborhood. Not just those who can learn the same way as their peer. Not just those whose tests scores are in a narrow band around the system's average. Unfortunately, knowing that something is critical doesn't make it happen. Is that "first step" a path to somewhere or just tilting at windmills?

I am questioning decisions made years ago and decisions made more recently. I am questioning the wisdom of pouring time, energy, support, love and money into a system that I have little respect for at the moment.

I am tired of broken promises, big and small. I am tired of vindictive and soul-crushing bureaucracies. I am tired of asking overwhelmed people to do things that I know they should, but really are not capable of doing.


When I started this blog I was sure we would all survive the system and that quitting or retreat was not an option. Now, I'm not so sure.

How'd it go?

The illustrations from a classic that came to mind... I'm thinking the 7th circle, but I might be off a bit

After getting bumped from our original date, yesterday we finally had our IEP meeting. Sadly, we got very little done and will have to schedule another. I might not have a lot of happiness at the moment, but I've got tons of resolve and resources. Don't worry gentle readers, msk will get his FAPE.

You can’t principal-proof a school

This post from The Fordham Institute says exactly what I was trying to say in this post.

You can’t principal-proof a school: Why top down evaluation systems are doomed to fail

A school needs a great leader to rise to greatness. No amount of micro-managing on the part of parents is going to change that. If you find your kids in schools that have systemic issues you need to find a different school. That's why school choice is so important in my opinion.

Something new

What is money but a hindrance? Take it, please.

I am absolutely tired of looking at my previous post at the top of my blog, so even though this is half-baked at best, it's going up.

I was talking to another special needs parent about non-public special ed schools. When msk was in a non-public placement we never saw the bill that the school system was paying for him to attend. There were some students who's families were paying to attend, or at least the information for the school said that you could attend with your own payment (as opposed to having a school system pay). The rumor was that the price was in the $60K range - I'm emphasizing rumor and that this was more than 6 years ago, so that's a very vague number.

The discussion the other day was that $60K a year for education was just crazy. I said that you had to look at the payroll and materials before you could know that - I think msk's school had a staff to student ratio of close to 1:1 and that many of that staff had quite a lot of education and training and were probably pretty well compensated. This parent stuck with the idea that the cost was crazy and that it was only because school systems were willing to pay that much that it cost that much. He seemed to think that if individuals were paying the costs would be driven down. I'm not sure that I agree. I do know that if msk ends up getting another non-public placement, it'll probably cost quite a bit, and honestly, that's not my problem to worry about.

A similar thought comes up as we're looking at college costs for HSS. All of the schools applied to, with the exception of the two University of Maryland schools, are basically $50K/yr for 4 years. In other words $200K is the sticker price to get through college. I'm not saying I'll be handing over that amount of money - we'll be getting some amount of financial aid and hopefully some of that will be gift aid as opposed to loans. Still...$200K is a lot of money.

In another discussion with a different parent who's kid is entering college there was a question of the actual value of going to college or the differential value of going to a private college vs. going to UMBC and living at home for example. It was pretty clear that he thought anyone considering that $200K price tag was crazy. I'm not that sure. I worry about the size of University of Maryland. I worry about a "sink or swim" kind of attitude. I absolutely want HSS to live away from home when at college.

So what's the conclusion? Feels like a lot of money will be passing away from us to a lot of other people and I worry about these decisions. I hope I'm not deciding that because it's more expensive it must be better. I don't believe that and I don't want to feed into a system with costs that are spiraling out of control.

Mainly, I just worry.

Catch 22 on steroids

You win - I give up

At the end of this post I said I was going to wait to talk about the joys of trying to get insurance coverage for medical services related to autism. I guess I'm ready to talk about it now.

So, hopefully everybody knows the Catch 22 from Joesph Heller's book. The basic concept it that if you're crazy, you can get sent home from your military service, BUT, if you have enough self-preservation instinct to want to get out of your military service, you're not crazy enough. Another defining aspect is the rule has to be instituted from above, from a bureaucracy that you can't approach or question.

Many things about autism are just like normal, but more intense. A simple question feels like being given the third degree in the police station. A food with an unexpected texture causes gagging. Slightly off-key singing is fingernails on the black-board annoying. I guess it only goes to reason that the autism medical Catch 22 takes Catch 22 and raises it to the next level. You get not one, but two bureaucracies, but that's not all.

Here's how it works:

• You need assessments to get Special Ed services and to get the right services for an autistic individual, you need someone who understands autism* to give neurological or cognitive assessments**
• The only assessments the school system will pay for are from generalist who don't have an understanding of autism
• Your medical insurance will fund neurological assessments, but only if they are far enough removed from education needs to not be deemed as redundant to something a school system would give
• If you contact a medical provider who will be funded by your insurance and ask them to tailor their assessment to educational needs, they will tell you that they have a standard evaluation and that there is no way to do anything different
• If you find a provider who will give you a neurological assessment that is suitable for educational use, they will tell you that they don't deal with insurance companies because they typically won't cover an assessment that is usable, but because of that they can charge about 20% of what a full blown, but unusable assessment will cost
• When you contact your insurance company and ask if you can be reimbursed for a medically based assessment that costs much less than an assessment that they will cover, and you're willing to pay up front and wait for reimbursement, they will tell you that there is no out of network coverage for behavioral health issues
• When you explain that this is a medically based assessment and you do have out of network coverage for medical services they will explain that neuro-psych is not medical

Here are your bonus point questions if you have made it through reading all that nonsense:

1. How many hours of my life have been lost to mapping out the mysteries of this total dead end?
2. Where the money will come from to have a usable assessment done?

I'll give you the answer to #2 - that same big bucket of money that our FAFSA form said we could afford to pay for college every year that I have yet to find.

* - A valid question as far as this "someone who understands autism" goes is how are you expecting to get appropriate services from a generalist? I believe that if you have a kid like msk who's generally cooperative and if you have a provider who is willing to do some research and follow the lead of the kid and if  the provider genuinely wants to presume competency both from the kid and the parents, services can work out quite well. I know there are a lot of if'sinvolved, but it is doable.

** - I want to emphasize that we're talking about neurological assessments - pretty much the heart of what it means to be autistic. Assessments that are on the edge of autism and deal with symptoms (for example speech and language or an educational assessment from a special educator) can have valid results when there's not a lot of autism-specific interpretation going on. In terms of cognitive assessments, IQ results for autistic individuals are notoriously unreliable. I you don't believe me you can google it or look here or here.

Who should choose?

Leadership

This post follows and depends on Thursday's post, so you should probably read it first. I came across an online article in Time about allowing parents to choose teachers for their kids. While I'm all for school choice, I've got to say that this sounds like a bad idea to me. I will admit to wishing my kids didn't have some of the teachers that they did, but was I supposed to research all of their teachers ahead of time? In reality, I think class schedules are done days before the start of the school year, so there's no way that would work. Plus, isn't assigning teachers and making schedules a management task?

Let's look at it a different way - if I've chosen a school, doesn't that mean I've chosen the school's leadership? If a school is riddled with bad teachers, doesn't that say something about that leadership? If there are a few weak teachers, how will they improve without support and a chance to practice? My experience with first year teachers has been, so-so at best, but if no parent chose to let their kid attend a first year teacher's class... It seems like a disaster to me. If you're in a total disaster of a school, cherry-picking the few remaining great teachers in that school is not going to work for long. If you can figure out who those great teachers are, don't you think all the other parents can? And then what - a race to register first and get those teachers?

Beyond the incendiary headline, I guess what Mr. Rotherham is really advocating is for parents to be the squeaky wheel that demands a specific teacher and complains and whines enough to get their way. Obviously, this only works if a very small minority takes his advice. The rest are just bad parents in his book, I guess. My choice is pick a school with excellent leadership and let them do their job. I will support a school that I think needs my support, with energy spent on improving it, rather than whining to benefit of my kid and the detriment of everyone else's. If that makes me bad, so be it.

"The principal should be your pal."

Yesterday, to my mind, was a starting point in figuring out msk's next school. We had a meeting with a professional who's helping us. In the midst of trying to plan for msk's educational future, I said how happy we were with the principal at his current school. I went on to say how crucial that's turned out to be in schools where msk has done well. She vigorously agreed and we moved on. It made me think about doing a post on the concept.

Having an excellent principal makes so much difference on the day to day educational experiences msk has, and to the contrary in schools that he's had problems... but let's keep on the positive side. A great principal energizes and motivates teachers. You can feel it every time you talk to them - how lucky they feel to be at this specific school. With a miserable principal, teachers can still be excellent and motivated towards their students, but they continually fight (either openly or more often covertly) to do what they know they need to do to have an excellent classroom experience for their students. And not every teacher is that excellent. For them, the quality of the principal makes all the difference. A poor principal has them focusing on the wrong things - things that have no positive impact on students. I've seen incredible cruelty and disinterest by teachers when they spend all their time and energy trying to figure out how to make points with a despotic principal. And you shouldn't undervalue the general school atmosphere - joy leads to learning, while misery leads to yelling, in my experience.

Joy just flows flow in some classrooms

I have no idea how you could objectively rate principals any more than how you could objectively rate teachers. I do know that it will be one of the big things we will be looking at as we try to find msk's next school.

Ventage*

grrrrrrr!!

One great thing about having a blog is that I can respond to a comment train here. That means I don't have to bite my tongue, but I don't have to worry about feeding the trolls.

If you want to see the comment that ticked me off feel free to go here. It was the snarky response to my rather straight forward comment that ticked me off.

I think it's fine that people feel that since it's "public" education they have a right to chime in, even if you have no first hand information. I'd go as far as guessing you've got no second hand information and haven't even read anything significant on City Schools - sorry, North Baltimore Patch ain't significant in terms of school reporting. Go ahead and express your idea of what's wrong with City Schools, even if you have no clue. My issue is you slamming me for expressing an actual first hand opinion. The proper response would be gratitude for sharing my experience rather than a snarky put down about my parenting decisions. I am getting close to being done with this school system and I have many, many issues with its weaknesses. Even so, I am sick to death of the clueless masses writing off City Schools based on some sort of racist/classist gut feeling.

* - ventage, what's produced when you vent

News of note

Right now there is a very important court case going on in Baltimore. The parents of a Special Needs student are suing the school system for $1.3 million for gross negligence in connection with bullying at two different City Schools. I can't express how much this trial and the testimony breaks my heart. Bullying is a sign of a lack of control in a school. The fact that special needs students are far more likely to be bullied then other students is a sign of a lack of compassion among students as well as a reflection of how the school body as a whole feels towards a different and vulnerable population. I believe that a school with calm hallways and a atmosphere of respect for everyone in the building would not have these type of problems. You want to know why school choice is so important? So that parents in these desperate situations don't feel forced to keep there kids in this school. There has to be a way out.

Yes, I know I'm being emotional, but how the hell can you read this story or this story or this post or this post and not become emotional? I can't.

Parent portal 1st impressions

different school system, same portal

After a call to the help desk and several hours of waiting, my Parent Portal account is now working. I didn't do anything wrong. There's what strikes me as a pretty big bug in the system (but I was told it would be fixed very soon). You have to enter all your kids when you first log into the system. If one teacher, or school, is more swift on giving you the access numbers you need wait for the slower party. There is no way to enter an additional child once you have created your account without a call into the North Ave. IT help desk. This warning is probably too late, but there you have it. And if you don't work by a phone that you can sit on hold on... oh well.

So, now, nearly half way into the school year I can see all sort of grades on line. 

Some pluses and minuses that strike me right off the bat:

+ This should mean no report card or status report comes as a surprise. 

- It seems like I'm going to be micro-managing how swiftly teachers use this online tool. So far there seem to be very few posted assignments, so the idea of keeping up with homework before a bad grade shows up isn't going to happen. These updates every two weeks? I guess we'll see. If I see a teacher not using this tool can I give them the same level of grief they give students who don't follow rules? And who would I tell, or is it just going to be another source of friction at meetings? This is worse case, but theoretically, I can see problems.

+ It's nice to know all sorts of information, for example, didn't that absence excuse get turned in? I know I wrote it.

- The interface seems needlessly complex, but I can work through it. I'm not sure what percentage of parents can.

That's all I've got for now - I'll keep you posted as the year goes on.

More teacher shout-outs

39 years ago I was in a BCPSS school

The day before Thanksgiving, on this post, I listed some teachers I was thankful for. They were all teachers that my kids have had, so 20 years ago or less.

This is a list of my teachers that I am thankful for. These are teachers from about 30 - 40 years ago. I might not remember all their names at this point, but I remember the way they changed my life.

• My 11th grade History of Political Thought teacher, who taught me that political discussions are passionate, personal and enjoyable, even if they are about the thoughts of people who have been dead for hundreds or thousands of years; and this type of discussion uses your whole mind like nothing else I know of
• My High School Chemistry teacher (Chem I and Chem II), who taught me how great a real science class with real labs could be, which was a defining moment on my path to become an engineer and work in a lab
• My Jr. High counselor, who thought I was smart enough to skip a grade which turned around my own concept of my academic abilities
• My piano teacher (1st - 6th grade), who opened my ears to the beauty of dissonance and "modern music" (whatever that means)
• My parents, who always had lots of books for me to look at or read, and who never discouraged me from buying a book (usually providing the money) even if was something they thought was junk
• All four of my high school English teachers, who taught me to write by making me write about what I read, and always encouraged a well reasoned argument, even if it didn't match their analysis

Continuing the dialogue

I read a thought provoking post about perceptions and City Schools. I posted a few comments, but it seemed that the discussion was becoming about a specific school (Margret Brent, picture to the left), as opposed to something more general about City Schools. I don't know enough about Margret Brent to keep that discussion going, so I stopped commenting there.

The discussion I'd like to hit on with this post is more general. How do you balance the fact that City Schools have some very real problems with an exaggerated perception by many that sending your kids to Baltimore's public schools is child abuse, at least if you can find any alternative? The schools have faltered and made progress, but that perception has remained. Look at this post from the City Paper from 2000 that sounds like it could be from today.

I'm not sure what the answer is. I personally try to spread the word about the educational experiences my kids have had and are having. I talk about my own education - 100% BCPSS K-12. I really do feel like there are some incredible stories to be told.

On the other hand, the things that I see in statewide competitions, that point out the financial disparity between Baltimore City and say Montgomery County, make me feel ill. It takes money to support a robotics team, or a science fair project, or even a chess team. You can make up for a certain lack of money with passion, but passion won't buy bus transportation or a set of tools.

I feel that there needs to be equity on school funding, but I don't want people to think my decision to send my kids to under-funded schools is deluded or some sort of sacrifice to a political goal. It's a choice we've made for the last 13 years, and I think it's the right one.

I'd love to spark a discussion in the comment section to this post. How can we demand better funding without looking pitiful?

Thankful for...

Google says Happy Thanksgiving!

I mentioned in a comment to this post that "I’m continually amazed at the number of extraordinary teachers that we've had in very difficult situations." 

So, on this day before Thanksgiving, I thought I'd post a bullet list of some of those extraordinary teachers and the things they've done that stand out in my mind.

In no particular order these are some teachers that I'm thankful for:

• The preschool teacher who helped us get started towards a diagnosis so gently that we didn't flip out and who never considered asking us to find a different place for msk even though he required lots of extra support
• The math teacher who immediately recognized genius in different thinking patterns and let a quirky and previously bullied kid immediately start to bloom with strategically placed praise
• The AP teacher who taught an incredibly challenging course with such enthusiasm that even when getting a C in the class there was no discouragement and in the end there was a 5 on the test and a lesson about hard work paying off that will never be forgotten
• The teacher who was skeptical about inclusion of severely disabled, but open minded enough to really try, and by the middle of the year, brave enough to admit a change of heart and start to proselytize about how all students in an inclusion class benefit
• The teacher who emailed me as soon as a student's grades started showing the effects of disorganization vs what they were capable of and took the time to support the student and keep me posted. When I said how grateful I was the response was that it was nothing special, just what teachers do

I could go on, but I'm taking Personal Time Off (PTO) today to try to do massive house cleaning, along with attending a meeting at one school and drop-off/pick-up at another.

In the credit where credit is due department - this post was written in response to the question of Thankful on the SPSOC blog.

New Grading Policy?

There's a new policy about grades. It seemed pretty minor to me, but the way the information has been released (slowly and not via an email blast) tells me there is worry about people getting pissed off. I tried to find information on the City School website, but found nothing. This was decided over the summer, but nothing is getting released about it until the day that report cards are issued? Curiouser and curiouser...

Increasing class sizes, cutting budgets, getting rid of teachers happen without a blink. These things piss me off. Switching from an 85 to a 3.6 with whatever weighting for AP classes? Why would that piss me off? I can still tell the difference between a good grade and a bad one. Hopefully college admission people are even more expert with this type of stuff. What's the big deal?

I feel like I'm missing something.

One of my fellow Bmore Ed Bloggers has a post on grading here.

And on that note, please check out my fellow Bmore Ed NaBloPoMo Crew:
Epiphany in Baltimore
BmoreSchools
Maryland Math Madness
and The Smallest Twine

Keeping parents out of schools

A while back I wrote a post called "Getting parents to come to school". Feel free to go and read it if you like. It seemed a pretty non-controversial post to me, but it got one reader so pissed-off that they said they were never coming back. I suppose the issue was that in his/her mind, schools already do all they can, that they are in no way responsible for any lack of parent involvement. To which my response is, maybe at your school...

So, I thought I'd try a post looking at the problem from the other side. What happens at schools that keep parents from being more involved. I'm looking at administrators, PTA/PTO leadership, teachers, or North Ave depending on the problem. I'm also going to say what I think a solution is to this problem, because no one likes a whiner who complains, but doesn't suggest anything that would work better.

• Have PTA meetings that go on and on, but really don't have any positive results that justify parents sacrificing their time to be there
• PTAs need to have real agendas and time lines and actions and responsibilities for each and every meeting. I realize that this is a lot of work and a lot to ask from poor schmucks that make the mistake of running for office, but I believe this is the number 1 reason people don't come to PTA meetings. If the school administration really wants to have a PTA, maybe they need to help develop these agendas, at least until the leadership can figure out how to do it on their own.
• Allow a single parent to monopolize all the time at a PTA meeting talking about something they care passionately about, but isn't on topic and/or doesn't follow the agenda.
• A PTA leader should offer to talk more about this after the meeting ends at which point they need to come up with an action plan that will drive this issue to closure that the aggrieved parent agrees to. Most times a parent repeatedly yammers on about something like this, it is because they don't see any change or progress being made. If it's a dead issue (i.e. can't be done) the PTA leader needs to own up to this and say (in private) that we can't talk about this any more
• Make going to report card conferences chaotic, rushed and hit or miss as far as talking to the teachers you would really need to talk to, often being blindsided by a problem at the meeting
• One solution would be to have teachers reach out to parents with the current grades and how concerned they are about specific students. Then have actual appointments with enough time to talk about concerns. Knowing that there's something important to talk about, the parent could juggle between various teachers and come up with a possible schedule that lets them meet with the right teachers. On the other hand, if there are no issues, maybe a quick email is enough and they can take conference night off and leave it to parents with bigger issues
• A second solution would be for the team of teachers to meet with parents, like an IEP. This would allow everyone to discuss issues and at a certain age would include the student.
• Have lots of fundraising, with no real idea of what the money is for, or after the fundraising, how well the fundraiser went.
• The solution here seems obvious - fund raise with a specific goal in mind, communicate that goal to parents, communicate successes and failures, thank everyone who pitched in. If that's too much to do, don't complain about poor participation.
• Whenever a parent calls to ask about something negative that they think is happening at the school, get defensive quickly and go on the offense against their child and/or the parent
• If you want involved parents, expect that their ideas of how things should be run might very well be different than yours. Understand that loving parents want to believe and support their students. Thank them for being involved and genuinely listen to complaints. This takes time and patience, but if you want to form a team with parents, you might have to engage in unilateral disarmament.
• Try to solve all problems at the same time with equal priority, or alternately (since the end effect is about the same) maintain that there are no problems and spend all the time you interact with parents on defending the status quo
• Brainstorm initially to identify problems, but focus and prioritize. Some issues that have real importance will be totally overlooked, but progress, momentum and a sense of accomplishment is worth a great deal, while a diluted message is confusing and discouraging.

Applying that final point to myself, I have clearly written too much and should expect that there's not a whole lot to take away from this post. On the plus side, it helps me meet my post a day objective.
For something a little more concise, check out my fellow Bmore Ed NaBloPoMo Crew:
Epiphany in Baltimore
BmoreSchools
Maryland Math Madness
and The Smallest Twine

Time to make some changes

I’ve been finding the time that I spend writing on the web a lot more frustrating than it is satisfying lately. At the same time what I’ve written, and the reactions to it, seems to be taking up more and more of my energy. I’m not talking about what I post on this blog – clearly I haven’t been spending much time here. I’m talking about Ed forums where I’ve been commenting on other people’s posts, primarily Inside Ed.

This feeling reminded me of a friend’s conversation with his dad when he reached the age where mind altering substances were becoming a significant part of his life. His dad explained that drinking and the like were a normal phase of life, but that you need to remember that you’re doing these things because you want to and you enjoy the sensation (if not the next day’s hangover). The important thing, he said, was that if you no longer enjoyed the experience, if you felt compelled to partake, that you stand back and change your ways.

Obsessively reading, checking and mulling over Ed issues no longer brings me joy. I’m resolved to make a change. I will not be commenting any more. I’m going to try to limit checking on blogs to a reasonable level. I haven’t posted too much about general Ed issues on this blog, but I’m going to switch the tone to be more personal and less political.

This is a more than little hard for me. I feel like the 13 or so years I’ve been a parent in City Schools, and the wide varieties of things I’ve seen at different schools and as the parent of a special needs child, have given me a pretty strong base to talk about schools and the changes that are going on. That might be true in some settings, but on the boards, judging from the reactions of other commenters, I don’t think that my opinion has swayed a single reader. I’m not complaining, I’m just stating what seems like a plain fact to me.

I’m not saying I won’t be posting here anymore; in fact I plan to post more often. This is going to be a year of transition in our household as my eldest starts applying to colleges and making that big choice. I think I should be spending my on-line times searching out information to help her make the best choices possible. I plan on sharing what I find here, which I think that should be the source of some pretty good blog topics.

In addition, msk is getting close to high school and I think, realistically, that there will be some big issues about placements and life planning going on as that gets closer. It's a hard topic - planning for a transistion to adulthood and independant (or as independant as possible) living. That should be some pretty gripping posts - it's hard just to through down these few preview sentances.

So there you have it - changing and growing... fun times indeed!

A three minute speech

Changes (for some amount of anonymity) shown in italics

I would like to address the board about expanding the unnamed charter school to x grade. Our son msk would be attending x grade at the unnamed charter school if this expansion were allowed.

My husband and I are supportive parents of 3 City School students. For the last 11.5 years we have always been involved parents – my husband is on a school’s SFC, we are PTA members and we always participate in fundraisers.

Prior to msk entering school he was diagnosed as being autistic. Even though many people urged us to move to the county we were committed to City Schools. My husband and I are City School graduates; our elder children were doing well; but mainly we stayed because we believe in the economic & cultural diversity that City Schools provide.

Msk's initial City School experience was with a school that was supposed to be inclusive (it had a “Together at 5” program) - but clearly msk wasn’t valued. He was often off task, he was frustrated, and his teachers resented the extra work he represented and saw no plus side to him being there. We worried a lot about msk in this setting.

In the summer we attended a PAL program for only a few days – this was clearly the wrong setting for msk with lower functioning children his developed new problem behaviors and there was no academic work at his level.

Eventually we moved to a non-public placement that cost the city money, but worse (from our perspective) - msk was away from “typical” kids. This meant his behavior stagnated and academically he made very little progress in two years.

The unnamed charter school offered a unique setting where we felt msk would be safe and valued and we made an unprecedented move from a LRE Level F school to a Level A school. We did this because the unnamed charter school had a special educator as principal who wanted msk to be there and because differentiated education was seen as standard practice. In this setting msk has made great progress – behaviorally, academically and he’s just very happy at this school. This is the only setting since pre-school where we can say this.

If the application for a x grade is denied I don’t know where to consider sending msk next year. Honestly, I’ve been worried about this transistion since msk first entered the unnamed charter school . I see no alternative to pursuing a non-public placement again. I would love to hear what school the board recommends we pursue for msk next year. We’re looking for a school that:
- Has teachers and administrators who value special need students
- Would not put msk in a isolated special ed classroom
- Would provide differentiated instructional material
- Would include msk in all school related activities
- Would provide the one-on-one aide he needs and not use the paraprofessional for other purposes than his education
- Would not tolerate bullying or exclusion towards msk from his classmates

I think these are all fair requirements for a Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive setting that is his right by law. Is there another City School that could provide these things for msk?

Private and home school options

I've been a proponent of public school since about 7th grade. I remember the condescending comments from kids on the other side of the Gilman/Roland Park Public fence in the mid 70's. Then there were clueless questions from private school Girl Scout troop members about race. No n-words were used, but there were clearly bigoted attitudes abounding at Baltimore's more elite private schools (i.e. Gilman, RPCS, Bryn Mawr). At that point a swore I'd never send a kid to a private school, and honestly I've always been very proud of my Baltimore City Public School System education.

This article though makes me wonder a bit. In impoverished neighborhoods in India, private schools provide decent caring education for $1 - $2 / month per child. These are parents who want a good education for their children now and who aren't willing to wait for some monster bureaucracy to figure out how to create a functioning public education system. This isn't just a phenomenon in India - around the globe in developing nations, where there are public school systems lacking discipline, with complacent teachers and classes in which students sit and chat instead of learning (sound familiar?) these type of private schools flourish. And, the students do nearly twice as well as students in public schools.

I think we know that involved and caring parents who value education are a big part of successful educational outcomes. While the idea of using money as a way to make sure your kids don't have to go to school with those kids is abhorrent, what about making sure there is an atmosphere that values education by asking parents to financially support the school? In a way, isn't that what Baltimore's charter schools are doing? The kids a charter schools have parents who care enough about education to look into charter schools. They need to have a some thoughts about education so they can find a school who's philosophy they agree with. They need to sign on to helping out at the school (even if they don't actually put in the hours). In other words, they are required to value and support their child's education - very different from what traditional public schools often get from their parents.

And the same things can be said about homeschooling parents. Clearly they care about education and as they come up with curriculum and lesson plans they are vested in their child's education. Sure, this is not an option for many parents and also for many kids. My special one, for instance must have typical peers in his class for him to flourish. But there are parents and kids that can choose this path.

This all sounds good, but how do we make sure the bar that tries to ensure involved parents doesn't block out kids that we need to be educated. How do we help parents who want better for their kids, but don't know how to accomplish that? Certainly having momentum in the community can pull people along. Does the occasional scholarship to needy kids to Baltimore's private schools help the community, or is it only about the individual child? If it is about the individual child, certainly a parent should make educational choices based on what their kid needs, but should we (as in society) put resources into helping those few children or do we need to find a way to pull in more?

Hard questions, but I think they are helpful to ponder as I try to figure out my own kids different educational paths and I look at the paths that other parents choose.