Escondido school undergoes stress of restructuring again

Much like a symphony conductor who utilizes a variety of movement, gestures and facial expressions to maintain the tempo, Mike Castro integrates algebra, English and literacy into a single lesson for his English language learners.

“Bring down the 34,” he says, making sweeping gestures with his hands to demonstrate downward movement of the numeral in the algebraic equation.

“Bring down the 34,” students repeat in English.

Castro puts his finger on his tongue to demonstrate the “th” sound, as students recite “thirty-four” with the correct pronunciation. He writes “thirty-four” on the board next to the numerals and continues with the equation.

Several students in his Level 1 English Language Development (ELD) class at Mission Middle School in Escondido — like twins Miriam and Marabel Perez — have only been in the United States for a few months. “They are almost ready to go on to Level 2,” he says proudly, pleased with their tremendous progress.

Making progress — even tremendous progress — is not enough for a school to succeed under No Child Left Behind. Of the English learners tested — 851 of the school’s 1,092 students — most were still considered “below basic” under the federal law, which only measures proficiency and not growth. And even if just one subgroup doesn’t make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the entire school is labeled “failing.”

There were other “failing subgroups” at Mission Middle School, including Latino students, socioeconomically challenged students (966 out of the school’s population of 1,092) and students with disabilities.

The school’s Academic Performance Index (API) has risen continually since 2000, with the exception of last year, when scores went down. The reason, say staff, is that science and social studies were added to the testing mix last year and students were caught unaware.

“We try to pull the students as far as we can, but there’s no way we can meet all of the expectations of the government under the NCLB plan,” says Castro.

Like many schools entering the fifth year of Program Improvement (PI), Mission Middle School has been given one more year to meet the goals set by NCLB before sanctions kick in. And every year, it will become more difficult to make AYP, as the percentage of students who must be “proficient” increases. By 2014, 100 percent of students will be expected to be proficient. Many believe that with such unrealistic expectations, the law’s primary purpose is setting schools up for failure.

In hopes of staving off school closure, conversion to charter status or a state takeover next year under NCLB, Mission Middle School has implemented a massive restructuring effort based on a seven-point plan called Student Learning Assurances.

This is the school’s second such restructuring in recent years. For the most part, Castro and fellow members of the Escondido Elementary Educators Association are trying to stay optimistic about current efforts, despite the fact that they were not included in the planning process.

Teachers were included in planning for the previous restructuring, but not this time because the superintendent wanted an “executive restructuring team,” which included principals from other schools that had not undergone restructuring. Being excluded, say teachers, made them feel that they were part of the problem, not part of the solution. Some recall being told by district administrators, “You had your chance the first time,” even though the first plan was not adequately funded.

Principal Randy Garcia says he asked for teacher input and presented their views to the committee.

The new plan relies heavily on technology and changes the school’s schedule and organization from top to bottom.

In hopes of engaging students, laptop computers were purchased with categorical funding and grants from local philanthropies. The school has set a goal of providing every student a laptop in the next 3-5 years.

The school has been divided into “learning communities” by grade level and converted to block scheduling and double periods of math for all students, who will continue having double periods of language arts. Rather than having physical education on a daily basis like last year, PE classes will alternate days with an elective, such as music, band or yearbook. An after-school enrichment program plus intramurals is supposed to compensate for the few elective opportunities and reduced PE.

Before- and after-school intervention programs, which were optional for failing students in the past, are now mandatory. Student progress will be monitored more closely.

And there will be more time for teacher development and collaboration.

The school, known as Grant until last year, underwent a name change to Mission Middle School in hopes of changing its image. Even the school’s mascot — a panther — got the boot and was replaced with a wildcat in an effort to inspire students.

Teachers aren’t sure the restructuring will be enough to boost scores in this impoverished area. Teachers tell stories of 13-year olds raising their younger siblings, rushing home from school to cook dinner and put the babies to bed with no time for homework because their parents work two or three jobs; of students who are always late to school because they must take younger brothers and sisters to school; of two and three families living in one-bedroom apartments where there is no place to study; and of students coming to school hungry. The San Diego County community of Escondido is just a few miles from the ocean, but many students tell their teachers they have never seen it.

Teachers and the school principal describe Mission staff as competent, dedicated and working in the same direction. They choose to remain at Mission because it’s where they feel they are needed the most.

“I was offered a job in a higher-achieving school in Carlsbad, but I went into classrooms where they didn’t need me,” says Castro. “Here it’s stressful, but it’s absolutely worth it. When I see my kids growing and learning, I know exactly why I’m here.”

“We have been through a lot. And with a lot more to come, we’re anxious about how it will all play out,” says Cheryl Carter, who works with students who have been given inschool suspensions for behavior problems. At the site’s Alternative Learning Center, she does behavior modification with students and works with them to complete assignments from their teachers to keep them from falling behind while they’re out of class.

Since the passage of NCLB, says Carter, the school’s behavior problems have increased. The emphasis on testing — plus the loss of electives — has taken a toll, along with a curriculum pacing schedule teachers must stick to even if students are not up to speed.

“Sometimes the work presented by teachers is so challenging for students that it’s much easier to act out than to admit you’re having trouble doing the work.” Carter, a no-nonsense woman who has the patience of a saint while working with the school’s most challenging population, says, “Two weeks of testing really brings out the worst in students.”

As a child, Carter attended inner-city elementary schools and then transferred to a suburban junior high, seeing firsthand the inequities between the two. While she approves of “the concept” of NCLB — a good education for every child — she doesn’t approve of how it is being carried out.

“We need to make changes, but I don’t think putting a deadline on it is helping the situation,” she says. “When they say that everything has to be done by a certain date, it puts people under ridiculous pressure. We can only do so much. These children are not robots. We need to meet children where they are and bring them up from there. We can’t hold children who haven’t learned English or had advantages in life to the same standards as children who have had all the advantages.”

She hopes that the two to three hours of “support” classes for math and English will not turn students off to learning. “It’s punitive to the child and punitive to the teacher who is trying to teach that child. It’s not just how much time you spend, but the quality of the lesson that makes the difference.”

Much of the restructuring plan is good, she says, especially the increased use of technology. “Children live in a world of instant gratification with video games and computers, and we cannot continue to just use textbooks.”

Music teacher Dick Sommer takes a more cynical view of what is happening at his school, where he has taught for 34 years.

“To me, all the gifted kids are being left behind and all the focus is going toward the underachievers,” he says. “The cream is not getting a fair shake.”

President Bush’s plan to expand funding for Advanced Placement programs in science and math (the American Competitiveness Initiative) doesn’t offer any hope since it doesn’t include middle schools. Statistics show students who take AP courses can hold their own on international tests like the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMMS). AP Calculus students ranked first in the world on the 2003 test, while regular U.S. students ranked second to last. Performance in AP classes is considered a strong indicator of a student’s potential for success in college.

Sommer doesn’t think providing laptops to all students is going to help. “What we really need are smaller classes where kids can learn to read and write.”

Stephanie Vermeulen, a sixth-grade math and science teacher at the school for 17 years, agrees that smaller class size should have been part of the restructuring effort. “If you want me to raise scores, give me fewer kids,” she says. Most of her classes have more than 30 students of vastly differing abilities.

Even for a veteran teacher like Vermeulen, being in PI five years and undergoing restructuring for the second time is stressful.

“Teachers feel like they’re in a rat race,” she says. “We feel like we don’t have time with these unrealistic pacing guides. If we sense that students don’t understand a concept, we feel like we don’t have time to review or re-teach.”

Mark Green, an eighth-grade science teacher, is happy about the block scheduling and other changes, but admits he is “mildly terrified” at the thought of the major changes that will be taking place in the school. He believes that NCLB’s emphasis on testing has “sucked all the fun” out of teaching for many of his colleagues. And with science now scheduled for standardized testing, he fears that his turn is next.

Green, a former mechanical engineer who moved to California and switched to teaching, was himself a victim of NCLB’s “highly qualified teacher” provision. With a bachelor of science degree in middle grades education from Georgia, he was told he was not qualified to teach science. Using his undergraduate coursework rather than his degree, he was able to qualify under the HOUSSE provision to teach social studies and science. He finds it ironic that his engineering degree does not qualify him to teach seventh-grade math.

“I think this kind of stuff is driving good teachers away from the profession, especially badly needed math and science teachers.”

Special education teacher Suzan Varga has sixth-grade students with learning disabilities who read at the kindergarten and first-grade levels. Many of them are also English language learners. With all the restructuring in the world, she says, they are not going to catch up and become “proficient” under NCLB.

NCLB looks at big numbers rather than slow growth, she says. And when it comes to special ed, slow growth can be beautiful and miraculous to behold. When she talks of the “small miracles” she sees in her students, her voice chokes with emotion.

“One day a kid looked at me and said, ‘Thank you, Ms. Varga, for teaching me to read. I understand it now.’ That meant so much to me. But closing the gap completely won’t happen for special ed students. I’m lucky if I can move them from first grade to third grade at the end of a year. We do cartwheels because we’re so happy.”

During standardized testing, her students are frustrated and demoralized looking at material they don’t understand, says Varga. Special ed students make up 10 percent of the school’s population, and she believes they are considered a “weak link” in a school that can’t afford to have any.

Teachers at Mission are trying to take things in stride, but they worry that the pressures of NCLB are causing them so much stress that it’s filtering down to students.

“If there is one thing I would say about this, it’s that the teaching profession as a whole has not been treated with respect under NCLB,” says Carter. “I believe that those people putting deadlines on schools for NCLB would very much like to get rid of public education.

“And I would not like to see that happen, because if we lose that, we lose the very thing that makes this country so great.”