Something tells me that touchy-feely educators who are in favored of unstructured and unsupervised learning techniques would be horrified to hear of these practices - and even more horrified to realize that they work:
When California posts numbers Thursday on its scale for measuring school performance, it will show two Silicon Valley elementary schools -- Millikin and Faria -- at unprecedented heights: a perfect score. The schools have shared a similar philosophy in their path to a 1000 score on the state's Academic Performance Index Growth Report. Both maintain a strong focus on excellence, and use back-to-basics methods to achieve it.
The difference between these schools and most others is readily apparent. For example, most kindergarten classes look something like a birthday party. Even the well-structured ones contain a lot of activity and movement, and occasional random outbursts of exultation and sorrow and general jabber.
At Millikin Elementary in Santa Clara, Yvette Kamfirouzi's kindergarten class looks different. The students, instead of sitting cross-legged on the floor, sit quietly at desks in neat rows. Kamfirouzi stands at a whiteboard, explaining how to draw in missing details on the outline of a dog. Although her instructions veer toward the abstract -- "Remember, we're drawing the dog from the side, so it only gets one eye'' -- the children take dutiful note.
"Dutiful"? "Sitting quietly"? "In neat rows"? Oh, the horror!
"From Day One in kindergarten,'' said veteran Millikin fifth-grade teacher Chris Preece, "our students know what they're here for.''
Let me guess - it's not to "find themselves."
Which is: to work hard and master the basics -- and do both with a minimum of wasted time. Both Milikin and Faria, in Cupertino, offer spots to students from all across their districts, with lotteries determining who gets in. Both demand a high degree of commitment from parents and students. And both offer a strictly back-to-basics curriculum that stresses reading, writing and math.
It is true that Milikin and Faria do not serve disadvantaged populations. But I can't think of a better plan that theirs for a school that wants to help disadvantaged students become advantaged as soon as possible. The worse the home life, the more necessary the type of structure and immediate feedback that these schools possess.
Parents are expected to buy into that philosophy when they enroll their children. If they are lucky enough to win in the January lottery -- last year the school had 260 applications for 60 kindergarten spots -- parents and their children are required to sign an agreement before enrolling. Students pledge to be respectful and do their work; parents pledge to support learning at home, and to get their kids to school every day.
" 'Seat time' is so important,'' Rhodes-Stanford said. Students are allowed only five days of unexcused absences. That means if someone goes on a two-week family vacation during the school year to see an aunt in Florida, "when they get back, someone else is in their seat.''
The Millikin philosophy is not for everyone, she acknowledges. Some would have difficulty adapting to the school's highly disciplined approach. Most schools try to adapt to accommodate the frenetic energy levels found in any group of children; at Millikin, it's the children who are expected to adapt.
Imagine that. What a retro concept.
Staff members hasten to say that the school is not some Dickensian bastion of grimness...
They shouldn't have to. It's appalling that a disciplined environment is considered synonymous with "Dickensian" in today's educational settings. Structure, and rules, and discipline for children do not equal torture. Even worse, teachers from the school suffer some harassment from other educators, for supposedly taking only the "smart" kids. Sounds like other schools are unwilling to admit that smart, hard-working kids don't just exist - they can be created, and that's what schools like Milikin and Faria are trying to do.
Here's the Principal's Message from Milikin:
Millikin Basics+ is an alternative school open to all children grades K - 5 in the Santa Clara Unified School District. We are a school that provides a creative, nurturing atmosphere in which to teach a rigorous standards-based curriculum. The primary emphasis of the Basics+ program is the mastery of basic academic skills and the establishment of good study habits. Art, music, computer lab, science lab, curriculum oriented assemblies and field trips as well as many after school enrichment opportunities, help to create a balanced educational program of the highest caliber here at Millikin Elementary. High standards of performance, accountability, and behavior are maintained. Our program requires a strong commitment from parents to help develop the individual personal growth and responsibility of their children so that the school can concentrate on all students achieving proficiencies in academic skills across all content areas.
Contrast that with, say, the type of mission statements you see with dense edu-jargon about diversity, self-esteem, "critical thinking," or self-enrichment, as though school were just a navel-gazing camp or a place to be indoctrinated into become a social activist. The type of mission statements where it's impossible to figure out what, if anything, is actually taught at the school. Like the one for Berkeley High, the only public high school in the Berkeley Unified District:
The Mission of Berkeley High School, an economically and culturally diverse community in a progressive town with rich traditions and established values, is to ensure that each student will achieve success as a productive citizen from a curriculum which assures individual development through critical/creative thinking; through communication skills; and through the application of modern technology in a safe, caring environment with total community support.
Berkeley was declared to be a failing school in 2003. Is anyone surprised?
Posted by kswygert at October 26, 2004 10:44 AM