HOW’D WE DO?

The report cards are in. New York State report cards that compare similar schools have come out, and the district has reason both to be proud and to worry.

In our elementary schools, for example, some 90% of our 3rd graders read above the state minimum level. But look more closely. 35% read at that minimum level and no better. So, in a school with 75 3rd graders, 25 of them can read simple short stories but can’t get through typical 3rd grade textbooks.

By middle school, the report shows that almost one in four of our sixth graders can’t read 6th grade textbooks.

And while the principal of the high school is right to be "very proud" that Nyack did better than many comparable schools, nearly 40% of our children failed English.

It isn’t enough for Nyack to look good in comparison with similiar schools, especially when the American educational system as a whole operates at such a

low level. You may well discover that your child’s above average performance guarantees neither an education nor a job.

As long as some of our children are failing, the district is. As long as the district is failing, the answer to "How’d we do?" has to be, "Not good enough."

This fall, Nyack PIE awarded its first mini-grant for an in-home tutorial project. One of Nyack/Valley Cottage’s best kept secrets is the amount of extra help middle and upper-class parents buy for their children. One-on-one math and reading lessons help explain some of the alarming disparities in district test results: the "gifted" are those who receive more gifts. PIE’s grant funds a collaboration between a parent of a low-income family of four children and a high school teaching assistant for an after-school, at home, tutorial project. Similar projects are in the works. [If anyone has a spare desk, the family is setting up a study room. Contact PIE.]

A second mini-grant has been awarded to the three 5th grade classes at Upper Nyack Elementary School. The project began with a winter hike at Croton Point. If you’re not sure where that is, you’re beginning to get the idea. In preparation for the trip, parents in each class led 40-minute units on orientation. The children answered the question "Where are you?" with blank maps of the area, compasses, and Hudson River charts donated by Petersen’s Shipyard. The hike itself was led by Chris Letts of the Hudson River Foundation who pointed out bald eagles on distant trees and Native American oyster cairns under the kids’ feet. Follow-ups included a visit to Nyack’s Senior center where the students interviewed older residents about their memories of the river. (And made good enough friends that the seniors have been invited to the 5th grade play!) Too much education occurs only on paper. PIE’s goal with this grant was to help students be actively involved in the world outside school and to model community, parent, and teacher collaboration.

The third grant is a quilt-making project. A multi-age, 1st and 2nd grade classroom at Liberty Elementary is learning how to make a quilt with the help of a paid community member. The students will donate the quilt to a children-with-AIDS hospice. Despite the recognized success of our multi-age pilot project, the other elementary schools have not pursued the idea. This grant was awarded to encourage not only the specific project but the general concept that older and younger children help create a community in the same classroom. (An additional benefit has been breaking some stereotypes: not only girls can sew.)

Awarding of PIE mini-grants is on-going (till we run out of money). See the back page for the application form.

Nyack Partners in Education is one of the recipients of the first round of grants from the newly created Foundation for Nyack Public School Education.

Written in collaboration with one of the district’s curriculum co-ordinators Walter Woodhouse, the grant funds a continuation of PIE’s Saturday Morning Reading Circle.

The Reading Circle brings together parents, teachers, and children in a relaxed atmosphere that fosters concentration and personal attention.

Parents ask the question at board meetings and in letters. Their complaint? Not enough homework, their children are bored, too much time spent going over old material. Senior citizens have spoken about "academic excellence" at get-togethers with our new superintendent, arguing that for the money spent (over $12,000 a student), Nyack’s schools should rank higher in state and national comparisons than they do. (We’re a little better than average.)

The concerns are real and urgent. It’s not enough that our kids get diplomas; they need to learn how to think, how to manuver through the world of information, and how to confront real problems. But too often the proposed solution is an unthinking return to tracking. "Academic excellence" really means "academic privileges." And behind the question "Why isn’t my child being challenged?" lies the assumption that "All children can learn ... but some learn better than others."

No one says this outright, of course. Voters who want the school to go back to "the old way" think that providing open enrollment in courses like advanced chemistry is a waste of time and money. The underlying and often unexamined belief is that some kids are born to pump gas. Similarly, parents who call for more gifted programs don’t really mean gifted. (National studies show that to be less than 3% of the population.) Instead, they believe their children are being slowed down by having "those children" in class.

Both state and district statistics show clearly who "those children" are. The middle school students who read below grade level, the high schoolers who can’t understand their science books, those assigned to resource room or categorized as "emotionally disabled" are overwhelingly and disproportionately the district’s poorest children.

The other side of that equation proves equally true: the AP classes, the "gifted" programs, are mostly filled with the sons and daughters of college -educated parents with tutors, home computers, and other "gifts."

That’s why the state’s new mandate on Regents diplomas is causing such concern. Right now, only half Nyack’s students earn Regent’s diplomas. The state has mandated that, within a few years, all diplomas will be at least Regent’s level. The common response -- "That’s impossible" -- makes some sense ... unless we can change our system of delivering education.

Nyack now has ten years of statistics which show that teaching history out of text books alone, relying heavily on memorization, reaches only some of our children. Something like a quarter to a third will fail with this method. We need to set up schools which will capture the imaginations of all children. We might have to teach the Revolutionary War, for example, through designing a uniform, or discovering the medical uses of quinine, or discussing the role the Haitian army played in America’s independence.

The real question should be: How do we help our students to think, not just repeat? Because, too often, even those students who succeed learn the material just long enough to do well on a test and then forget it! Their parents then ask, "Why isn’t my child being challenged?"

All our children need to know that they are expected to be gifted. Our community needs to be included in the schools not just for budget votes and on special occasions, but for their expertise on the children they’ve raised. And our teachers don’t need to do more (they have too much on their plates as is) but better. They need the freedom to delve more deeply, training on how to reach everyone, and the encouragement of their administrators.

We’re liable to hear a lot of talk about "excellence" and "challenge" during the coming school board and budget vote. Let’s not follow the buzz words backwards to intellectual segregation, but forwards to the kind of school reform that aims at excellence for all.

As UCLA Professor Jeannie Oakes has written:

Is your child coming home singing songs in Spanish? Or, able to "come-and-tie-my-shoe" in French? Children’s amazing ability to pick up language in their early years is part of why PIE has been running an elementary school language program in all three elementary schools. More than 150 students were enrolled this fall, with teachers and volunteers from throughout the community.

While PIE will continue to run this exciting program this spring, we can't do it forever. We urge you to ask your school board to make early language part of Nyack’s regular curriculum. It's a communications skill your child will need, and the earlier the easier.

OR MORE INFO, CALL MARTA RENZI ar 353-0854.

The appointment of Roberta Zampolin as Nyack’s new superintendent was a conservative move by a conservative school board. But in the end, it may turn out differently. Certainly, the way Mrs. Zampolin was appointed left little room for debate. After dismissing the selection firm and without forming a single committee, the board announced that Mrs. Zampolin was their unanimous choice; did anyone object?

When the school board makes personnel decisions, it goes into private session to avoid embarassing people in front of the community and to allow for free dialogue. That privacy is exactly what was lacking in the open forums set up to discuss Mrs. Zampolin’s qualifications. Essentially, there was no debate.

What goals emerged from the public chats with Superintendent Zampolin? As a nearly 30-year employee of the district, primarily in the financial area, the new Superintendent did not claim to have an educational vision or a particular agenda for the future. The administration’s primary goal, she stated, would be passing a budget.

Recent history has shown that won’t be easy. The day of the automatic "yes" vote is long gone. Informed citizens no longer support the schools as if it was their patriotic duty. Instead, many hold Mark Twain’s view on patriotism: "Loyalty to the country, always. Loyalty to the government, when it earns it."

The last five years of "no" votes have shown us that the district can’t earn our support with business as usual. Superintendent Zampolin will have to rally enthusiasm for what the schools will and can do. To pass a budget, she will have to make clear, for example, not just that we need computers, but why technology is important in the overall curriculum. She will need to show us how the schools are going to change the way they teach reading, because we know that the present method is failing a large percentage of our kids. And sooner rather than later, she will have to propose a fundamental change in scheduling, so that teachers are not overloaded with mandated requirements that eat up class time and prevent them from reaching all our children. Teachers need more freedom to teach and, in return, there should be a plan to more clearly hold them accountable. In short, the district needs to convince voters that it has a vision of the future that will work.

Over the years, Superintendent Zampolin has proven herself a pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts manager. We wish her the best and believe that if she is as down to earth as we think, she may well surprise all of us with profound and neccessary changes to the way the district does business.