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Addressing gaps in performance, civil rights Inservice conference sponsored by NYSUT, SED 
November 18, 2004 Civil rights leader Terrence Roberts with NYSUT Second Vice President Maria Neira. Talk about the school of hard knocks. Terrence Roberts, one of the "Little Rock Nine," survived a year of beatings as one of the first nine black students in an all-white Arkansas school a half-century ago. But his message was about the importance of building relationships, as he related to educators at the 23rd Annual Statewide Conference on Inservice Education, sponsored by New York State United Teachers and the State Education Department. "Relationship is the arena," said Roberts. "You can't teach. But you can develop a relationship and let them find out what you know. The sacred trust of teaching is about building relationships." Roberts was a keynote speaker at the October conference, where educators attend workshops to exchange teaching ideas. This year's conference commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, focusing on ways to use knowledge and strengths to educate all of the state's students, including those who have traditionally lagged. Roberts' messages of transcending trouble and building relationships were welcomed by the approximate 300 attendees of the Albany conference. Maria Neira, second vice president of NYSUT, hosted a panel discussion reflecting the theme of the conference. Panelist Charlotte Danielson, author and educational consultant, said changes in school culture could improve student achievement. "A teaching practice can be isolating," she said. "Every school has untapped resources." Danielson suggested that schools open up to the idea of colleagues observing each other - not for evaluation, but to learn how others work with students. Collegiality A teacher having trouble with the behavior of seventh-graders, for example, could observe them in another class to see how that teacher interacts, she said. Panelist Mary Magee Quinn, a research scientist for the Association of Institutional Research, thinks more teacher input is needed to affect student achievement. "You should be telling the policy makers what to do - not the other way around," she said. Asked how to reach legislators, Quinn said, "The fast answer to that is through your union. The key beyond that is collecting data and getting it to the policy makers. You have to analyze and push the data." State Ed Commissioner Richard Mills said education addresses "unrest in the world" by building character, allowing people to carry burdens of adulthood through complex times and preparing students for work. "What we are about is freedom's work, preparing people for productive work in a just society," Mills said. Other panelists were Robert Felner, director of the National Center on Public Education and Social Policy, and Sally Shaywitz, a literacy researcher. Deputy Commissioner James Kadamus told about efforts to improve dropout rates. "The profile of a dropout is they enter grade 9 from behind," Kadamus said. "They have a fifth- or sixth-grade level in reading and math ... The gaps are primarily in schools that don't have enough funding." - Liza Frenette and New York Teacher staff |
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