A Teacher's Journal 47: Every Child Deserves Our Best

As a child, I never knew that there were homeless children or families that couldn't provide basic supplies like books and calculators for their sons and daughters. No one came to my school cold or hungry. No one had moms and dads who couldn't help with homework at night because they were busy with their second (or third) jobs. I would never have guessed that there were children who had never been to a museum or who didn't visit the library every week.

And you know, I'm not sure anyone in my neighborhood knew how hard it was for teachers working in these other schools. Their days were demanding. Not only did they bear responsibility for teaching basic skills like reading and mathematics, they struggled to help students facing a myriad of disadvantages in buildings that were crumbling and in communities that didn't have the social power or financial resources to support them. There were fewer Mr. Nowaks, Mr. Tribulas or Mr. Earls in these schools -- and all but the most self-sacrificing left after a few years, looking for jobs in communities like mine.

What I know now is that these same challenges face teachers in many North Carolina schools today. Students of poverty need significant amounts of individual time and attention in order to master skills. To do this job well takes long hours and incredible personal sacrifice. As one of my colleagues working in a North Carolina high-needs school recently wrote, "We constantly all stay late and go home exhausted from strategizing and planning for our students. Even small changes can collapse our fragile house of cards some days."

As a result, high-poverty schools struggle to attract and retain accomplished educators. Despite what we know about the impact that quality teaching has on student achievement, students of poverty are still less likely to be taught by our best educators than students of wealth. Often, even when teachers feel strongly called to these schools, they cannot find the critical mass of like-minded professionals they need to build a community committed to excellence. Working in high-poverty schools often proves to be too demanding for all but the most committed members of the teaching profession.

How can we bring change to high needs schools? How can we ensure that an accomplished teacher works with every child in North Carolina?

The answer is both obvious and elusive -- By making schools of poverty places where accomplished teachers want to teach.

We need to begin by ensuring that our highest needs schools are led by our most accomplished administrators. When principals work to develop a positive relationship with their faculties, the entire school benefits from the sense of collegiality. As researcher Linda Darling-Hammond has written, effective school leadership has a "magnetic" effect, attracting accomplished teachers who are searching for environments that will allow them to reach their peak performance level. Data from the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions Survey supports Darling-Hammond's assertions -- fully 30% of our state's teachers cite school leadership as a significant factor in their decision to stay or to leave their current buildings.

We can also provide accomplished teachers with the professional flexibility to do what it is that they do best: identify needs and then design instruction tailored for the students in their classrooms. Rigid attempts to control the work of teachers in high-needs schools chase away motivated educators who thrive on the mental creativity of the act of teaching. As another colleague recently wrote, "If I'm allowed to utilize my teaching expertise -- to draw from what it is that I know will engage and stimulate my students -- then students will achieve at levels that no one could dream of. It is only when I'm hampered that I can't do what it is that I do best."

We can provide additional time and training to teachers in our highest needs schools and communities. Meeting the academic and social demands of children living in poverty requires a set of skills that few educators -- regardless of level of experience -- are prepared for. Opportunities to engage in high quality, teacher-driven professional development during the course of the school day and year will help to ensure that teachers in high needs communities experience success with economically and culturally diverse student populations.

We can restructure high needs schools as learning communities where collaboration is valued and encouraged. Our most accomplished practitioners are dynamic and thoughtful, driven by a desire to examine and perfect their craft. Fear of stagnation is great, causing especially proficient teachers to seek out settings where professional growth is valued and where teachers have ample time to work together with a shared sense of purpose and commitment. Schools with poor working conditions rarely have a strong core of highly adept teachers and have little capacity to attract them.

Finally, we can reconsider the use of external accountability models that result in schools of poverty being labeled "failures" in the eyes of the community. We do little to emotionally reward teachers who work in high-needs buildings and our current bonus system is loaded in favor of teachers in less demanding schools. Such systems only serve to demoralize teachers and to discourage them from accepting difficult assignments.

Looking back, I'm challenged by my neighborhood school experience. Sometimes I wonder, "Was I successful only because my parents were able to move into the right home in the right neighborhood with the right school?"

Neighborhood schools worked for my family but who did they fail? Wouldn't every parent -- if they could -- have chosen to move into my neighborhood? I don't know the answers to these haunting questions, but I do know that we have a responsibility to all children.

Meeting that responsibility will require that students of poverty attend outstanding schools with accomplished teachers -- just like I did. Meeting that responsibility will require creative thinking and additional support for high priority buildings and communities. Finally, meeting that responsibility will also require that education's stakeholders -- parents, teachers, policymakers and community leaders alike -- commit our best energies to an effort that is too important to overlook.