They worked all over New York City, almost all of them in fields other than education. Now they are a team, helping first and second graders at P.S. 154 in Harlem learn to read.

A police officer, a photographer, a dressmaker, and a librarian had little chance of crossing paths in New York City during their working days.

Now retired, they all are "working" together as members of an Experience Corps team at P.S. 154, Harriet Tubman School in Harlem, helping in classrooms and teaching children to read.

"After my husband passed away, I did not want to just sit at home and look at television; I wanted to be useful," said Carrie Cooper of the Bronx, a classroom volunteer and former Madison Avenue dressmaker. "This has been wonderful."

The volunteers are more than useful; they are becoming essential at P.S. 154 and other New York City schools. Experience Corps now has 134 volunteers working with students in 17 New York City schools. "The reason we're here is to mobilize retirees in the community," said Kemba Tamar, project director for Experience Corps in New York City, which is sponsored by the Community Service Society. "We have 40 volunteers just in Harlem."

Although P.S. 154 only has had Experience Corps volunteers since November 2003, Raymond DeJesus, the assistant principal for the K-5 school's lower grades, said he already sees an improvement in student achievement.

"I can see the progress because they work one-on-one," DeJesus told Education World. "When you work one-on-one, the child feels comfortable with that person. They feel ties to these people [volunteers.] The tutoring corresponds to what they are working on in the classroom, so even though they are being pulled out, the learning fits in."

The need to help the students is even more urgent this year, because New York City schools' chancellor Joel Klein announced that third graders who do not pass the city's reading and mathematics tests will be retained.

"We chose first and second graders [for tutoring] because we want them to be successful by third grade," said Tamar. "Most of the kids [being tutored] are not doing much in the classroom. Most are at the pre-K level in first grade; some have had no experience in school before first grade. Working one-on-one allows us to start at the beginning and move forward."

Most of the nine volunteers at P.S. 154 work four hours a day, four days a week, either in classrooms or tutoring individual first and second-grade students in reading skills for 45 minutes at a time. Volunteers range in age from 55 to 80 and are from "all walks of life," said Tamar. Most volunteer at churches, hospitals, or other community organizations besides working with Experience Corps.

At P.S. 154, tutors and students work in a colorful classroom dedicated to Experience Corps. The room is decorated with posters of letters, sounds, and words; a crayon rainbow; and a tutor-student schedule on the chalkboard. During a recent Education World visit to the school, one adult and one child sat at each table; the room was quiet with concentration.

Each child being tutored at P.S. 154 has his or her own box containing information and lessons that the volunteers closely adhere to. "We try to figure out what level they can be tested on," said Tamar. "We have individual lesson plans for each child."

During the tutoring, volunteers review letters, sounds, words, and sentences and read with the youngsters. Prior to working with students, the volunteers participate in two or three weeks of training, which includes instruction in how to teach certain skills as well as on school policies. A program coordinator is at the schools to supervise volunteers and offer assistance.

"Everything is set up so well; I know exactly what to do," said volunteer Jacqueline Buksha, a former senior librarian at the New York City Public Library, who commutes to P.S. 154 by bus -- 40 minutes each way. "This excited me, helping little children learn to read."

Buksha said she wants to pass on to children her own passion for reading. "Once I started to read, I stopped playing with toys," she said. "It's a struggle [with current students]. I keep telling them they can go anywhere with reading; they just have to bear down. I want to broaden their horizons."

Shirley Banton, a retired New York City police officer, added that she enjoys knowing she is building children's basic skills. "I just like the children and like helping them," she told Education World. "It's so real. Education is the way to be successful. If you can't read, you can't do anything."

The volunteers bring so much more to the school than literacy skills, coordinators said, including modeling commitment and dedication to learning. "The retention rate is very high, at least 95 percent," said Tamar. "We only lose them if they become ill or pass away."

"Older adults add a dynamic to the school; they make kids behave better. They are a voice in the community that stays in the schools," said Jeanette DeVita, the Experience Corps project coordinator.

In one case, a volunteer tutor lived in the same neighborhood as one of the second graders being tutored, and the volunteer saw the child out at night, drinking, DeVita said. She told him if he didn't stop, she'd speak to his mother. "The tutors hold them accountable."

Volunteers also give children the "grandparent" level of personal attention that's lacking from many of their lives. "They get attached to you so readily, one calls me 'Mom,'" Buksha said.

"A lot need love," noted Cooper. "If they get love, they can express love."

"They give a lot of themselves," added Beverly Pope, a former auditor for the New York City department of social services. "They want to know all about you, but they'll tell you all about themselves, too."

Behind the enthusiasm of many of the volunteers lies a desire to contribute to the community and the city's children.

"I found out about this when Experience Corps showed up at the senior center," said Everard Marius, a former professional photographer, who also worked as the head of a graphic arts department. "The business of education always concerned me; I'm a teacher by nature."

"I just want to give something back," added Pope. "Maybe this will help one or two move on. They [the kids] are just amazing." Both Pope and Banton have recommended Experience Corps to friends.

"I like working with the kids, it's very educational," said volunteer Betty Jones. "And I wanted to give back."

Volunteers also said they are learning in their new "careers." "The children always are optimistic," said Marius. "They are willing and anxious to learn."

"I like being in the classroom; you learn a lot from the children," said Cooper, who noted that she gives out assignments, helps with art projects, and distributes lunches, among other tasks. She also tries to entice children to eat vegetables. "I tell the boys they need them if want to be ball players, and the girls, if they want to be ballerinas."

"This seemed like a good outreach," said Sandra Halsey, who used to work in the advertising and marketing fields. "I'm just so impressed; everyone is so eager to learn, everyone gives 100 percent. Some of my friends think it's unusual that I spend so much time here, but they want to do it, too."

Schools are eager for the seniors' help. More New York City schools are asking for volunteers, and the schools with volunteers want more, said DeVita. P.S. 154's DeJesus said he if he had additional volunteers, he would expand the tutoring to the upper grades.

These seniors have no plans to "retire" soon. "When you see something like this, you know God has a purpose for you," Buksha said.

Article by Ellen R. Delisio - Education World® - Copyright © 2004 Education World

Educator Max Fischer has been doing a little independent research on the effectiveness of phone calls, written progress reports, and e-mail in raising student achievement. Which communication method do you think he and his teaching teammates found to be most effective?
Included: Advice about using e-mail to communicate with students' parents.

Fall parent conferences at my 7-8 grade middle school were completed, and a number parents had asked to be kept in the loop regarding learning issues that concerned their children.

• Several parents asked to be called in a few weeks; they wanted a telephone update before mid-term reports were released.
• A couple of parents wanted to pursue the option of a "Friday Report" -- an end-of-the-week form some students take around to each of their teachers; the teachers take a moment to give parents a brief review of the week's progress.
• Some parents wanted the same weekly update sent to them via e-mail.

The team of teachers I'm part of was more than happy to accommodate those parents' requests. We take a variety of tacks within our classrooms to accommodate our students' assorted learning styles, and we were prepared to respond to their parents needs in similar ways.

When we attempted to call parents in the first group above, however, we realized that, as is quite common, parent work schedules did not coincide with school hours.

Some of the homes we called had answering machines, but my team wondered how secure a medium the answering machine would be. If the student arrived home before the parents, for example, how tempting would it be to erase a message that might reflect negatively on them?

 

More Voices of Experience! Have you seen these Voice of Experience essays by Max Fischer? * Video Time Machine Engages Students, Energizes Curriculum * Taming the Three T's (Thought, Temper, and Tongue) * Alleviating Appraisal Anxiety: Lessons Learned from 29 Years of Evaluations * Of "No Child Left Behind" and Blueberries * How to Keep the Fire Burning (Or Lessons Learned from Edith, the Kids, and "The Fear") Searching for Voices Care to reflect on a classroom experience that opened your eyes? Click here to learn more.

In many cases, teachers needed to fulfill their end of the bargain by making evening phone calls. After-hours calls were fine with us; we were professionally obligated to carry out the parents' wishes to remain informed. Often, however, several evening attempts were required before the parents were reached.

The "Friday Report" group was counseled that the system would work only as well as parents held their child accountable for making sure the form was given to each teacher and brought home by the student.

For students who are particularly challenged in the areas of self-discipline and responsibility, we often promote the "carrot and stick" approach. Parents should offer some positive reinforcement to their child for bringing home the form and another reward for evidence on that form of significant improvement. Conversely, a loss of electricity -- no television, computer games, or video games -- would be a worthy consequence for students who were not reliable couriers.

Unfortunately, our experience over the past decade has been that only about 20 percent of students consistently take home their Friday Reports. Most start out with one or two weeks of follow-through before the regimen falls apart. As home life gets stressed and complicated, parents often forget about asking to see the form. It doesn't take much slack for a 13-year-old to start to work the system to his advantage.

On the other hand, the e-mail group received reliable, complete accounts from each teacher on the team every Friday. Some teachers provided more information than others, but the essentials of the student's productivity and accomplishments that week -- including information about homework completion, test and project scores, major upcoming assignments, and classroom behavior -- were related with consistent clarity. The e-mail communication was straightforward and direct -- and without a "middleman" who might have a divergent agenda to the home/school partnership!

Generally speaking, my team's experience has been that students whose parents are involved with us via regular e-mail communication are likely to perform at a higher level than students from the other two groups.

E-mail as a vehicle for parent communication does have some potential flaws. Using e-mail requires teachers to be a little more thoughtful than they might be when speaking directly with parents. When typing messages, cute comments not intended to offend can sometimes come across as flippant or unprofessional. We have learned that it is often best to "stick to the script" -- to provide the precise information the parent desires without superfluous commentary.

Furthermore, our profession dictates that we model proper writing mechanics and spelling in all parent communications. To some teachers' disadvantage, e-mail can be an electronic fishbowl that magnifies their writing weaknesses.

At our annual parent orientation, which is held during the first week of school, we heavily promote the virtues of e-mail communication. We urge parents to include their e-mail addresses next to their names on our registration sheets. We provide continual prompts throughout the year, and we always add our own e-mail addresses to our team newsletters.

This invitation to communicate with us has led to an increasing volume of e-mail. With that change in the way we do things, we must never forget that e-mail communication is a two-way street. It's not uncommon to receive an unexpected cyber inquiry from a parent -- anything from a father informing us of an impromptu trip requiring the child's absence from school to a mother needing to confirm specific directions on a project. If e-mail is to work as a communications vehicle, we must be willing to invest the time it takes to respond directly, discretely, and with courtesy.

Naturally, not every household has access to e-mail, and some who do have it strictly guard the accessibility to their e-mail addresses. For a significant segment of my students' parents, however, e-mail has proven to be the expressway to a consistent interchange between home and school -- and a boon to student success.

Article by Max Fischer - Education World® - Copyright © 2004 Education World

FINAL 2002-03 ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE INDEX (API)

        The State Board of Education has received the final 2002-03 Academic Performance Index (API) scores report on public schools, including for the first time secondary level end-of-instruction tests in English II and Algebra I.  The 2002-03 state average is 1046 on a scale from zero to 1500, up from 1000 set for the baseline year of 2001-02.

         "One year ago, we provided -- for parents and taxpayers, school officials, policymakers and educators information and use -- the public schools' API baseline scores," State Superintendent Sandy Garrett explains.  “Now, we are providing the final scores on the second year of the Academic Performance Index, following receipt of the end-of-instruction scores and verification of the data.”

        The API, defined in state law under Title 70 O.S. § 3-150 and 3-151,is a numeric score that measures school performance based primarily upon state-mandated tests but also upon other factors contributing to a school’s educational success. The seven educational indicators set forth in the API law (the factors in the API formula) are:

1.      Oklahoma School Testing Program (OSTP) scores (in reading/language arts and mathematics only),

2.      Attendance Rates,

3.      Dropout Rates,

4.      Advanced Placement Participation and Performance (secondary schools),

5.      Graduation Rates (secondary schools),

6.      ACT Average Scores (secondary schools), and

7.      Oklahoma College Remediation Rates (secondary schools).

Test scores comprise at least 80 percent of each school's API score, depending upon whether or not a school site is a high school or the district includes a high school.  [NOTE:  See table at end for illustration of the three categories of data used in the API and how this is different depending on a school's grade span.]

Because Oklahoma schools vary greatly in aspects such as size, demographics and location, the API score of one school or district does not necessarily compare to the API score of another school or district.  The API brings together five different sets of test scores for various grade levels and six additional indicators of school performance, and through a complex formula arrives at a single score.  Because components of the API equation are slightly different in 2002-03, scores at the school site and district level are not strictly comparable to 2001-02.

"The API's usefulness in school improvement depends on yearly analysis of the indicators and on all of our dedication to student success," Garrett concluded.

Before the first Academic Performance Index baseline scores were reported in March 2002, the State Department of Education developed the API formula, gathered public and educator input, conducted official public hearings and secured approval of the formula from the State Board of Education.