Book Club Chapter 5-6

At last, we have come to an ending of the book, "Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago." The last two chapters went into more details of the relationship between teachers and students, as well as discussing the results from each study. Do you believe it's important for teachers and students to have relation trust? "Relation trust refers to the interpersonal social exchanges that take place in a group setting. Research has found it to have a particularly strong impact on student achievement in school communities (eleducation.org). I can relate to having a relational trust with a teacher. In high school, I used to struggle with algebra honors. I knew the teacher offered his help after school to practice and go over the material that we learned each day in class. Yet, I never took it upon myself to stay because I was shy, felt like I could not persevere in this subject, and did not like how he taught. I felt this way until one day, his approach for me to stay after class was different, encouraging, and welcoming all at the same time. I gave in and excelled in the class. Relation trust gives students the opportunity to ask and learn more from their teachers, especially when unable to understand the material.

What I Think When Students Should Leave Their Trust In Teachers Care

Although students and teachers can benefit from relation trust it can also go wrong. What I mean by this is boundaries can be crossed on both ends. It can become an incident where the student or teacher are pursuing each other within more of what the relationship is supposed to be. Below is a short clip of a teacher who was arrested for having sexual contact with a student.

There are numerous amount of cases like this, and many schools have similar incidents take place for, months to years knowingly and unknowingly. It goes from treating students as if they're your own to inappropriate behavior. I believe relation trust is important but to an extent. There should be rules clearly stated and no other impression made between the student and teacher. All in all, this book gives the pros and cons of how students attendance and academics can improve.

Book Club Chapter 3-4

In chapter 3 and 4 of "Organizing Schools for Improvement Lessons from Chicago," the improvement for students to excel in school continued. This time they're testing the framework of the essential supports. Using this essential support, the focus is to examine students improvement with engaging in school and the changes in their learning towards reading and mathematics. At first there were 36 separate organizational measures from each school, later it was combined into 14 indicators of the five essential supports. The core indicators of the five essential supports are, school leadership, parent-community ties, professional capacity, student-centered learning climate, and instructional guidance. Each support has a different purpose that will aid students progress in school. "We categorized schools as strong on an essential support if they placed among the top quartile of Chicago elementary schools based on the 1994 survey data for that core indicator. Similarly, schools ranked in the bottom quartile on a core indicator in 1994 were classified as weal on that essential support" (Bryk et al, 2010, p. 83). Below are the charts:

After looking at both of the bar graphs I question how important are the five essential supports. I do not think the supports can improve schools in general because many schools lack these core indicators, even with bringing attention to it. Parent involvement I find the most important for schools or students to improve in school. When parents are involved it encourages and forces students to do better and parents can help with what their child is lacking. Some reasons why the parent involvement is weak because, some parents do not care for education, understand it, or know how to teach it. Also student-centered climate I find important as well. In many communities, schools are surrounded by violence or there can potentially be violence. For example, my middle/high school in my opinion is surrounded by violence. Across the street from the school there's a liquor store. Students would enter the liquor store after school, some would be able to get away and purchase items, and some would not. The adults that crowd the liquor store tends to cause trouble with the students sometimes because they're under the influence. Attempting to sell and bribe students to give them money to obtain liquor and tobacco products, in result gaining something out of it too which is money. The five essential supports I find is deeper than what their purpose are when looking at the surrounding of the schools. Was your elementary, middle/high school surrounded by violence or has the potential to be in violence?

Book Club Chapter 1-2

The first two chapters of "Organizing Schools for Improvement Lessons from Chicago," was very interesting and informing. It discussed the importance, advantages, and disadvantages of student attendance. A study was conducted to examine a change in school with adjusted improvements. "For the purposes of this study, we developed three such indicators: the first focuses on trends in student attendance, and the second and third are based on trends in students' reading and math test scores" (Bryk et al, 2010, p. 29). Yes, attendance is important in schools, although it is not ideal for students to be on time or attend school every day. Some reasons for students to be absent or marked absent are illness, family emergency, tardiness, medical appointments, religious services, etc.

When students are absent it will hinder their achievement. With this issue, the attendance rate in Chicago school has gone down. How can they improve this? "For example, the simplest way for a school to improve its attendance is to enroll "better" students" (Bryk et al, 2010). I agree and disagree with the statement. I agree with this because "better" students will improve the attendance rate and achievement. On the other hand, what does a "better" student looks like and supposed to do? If schools sought for better students, they're leaving behind the students that do not have control over their lack of attendance. Also, those students may not be behind on their academic work just the status. Another reason why students are absent is due to the lack of safety at school. I remember attending middle/high school in my community, there would be police officers at every entrance making sure we left the premises without drama. Students from different schools would come to my middle/high school starting trouble and vice versa. Gang violence was the biggest issue and one way the school and city tried to stop this is by getting the police involved. A handful of males would come to school in the morning but leave before school ended, or not show up at all. The attendance in juvenile centers is more common than regular attendance in public schools.

 

In class during group discussions, the discussion leader of my group asked if we feel that teachers are fully responsible for students education. This was brought up when reading about the approach to improve academics in reading and mathematics. I do not feel teachers are fully responsible for students education. They're responsible for their education and academic growth in school. Out of school, it's not in their control anymore and up to the parent's to make sure the child is completing the assignments and studying. Education does not start and end at school, we learn from our environment, peers, family, and strangers. Nowadays, teachers are not as motivated or encouraged to inspire and push students to learn to the best of their ability. Some teachers just give up and work with those who understand the material, and do their assignments. There are different types of students in the classroom. I believe public schools can improve students academics by learning and adapting to different ways students can get engaged, learn, and understand the material. What do you think? Should teachers be held responsible for students education?