A school day in East New York: bright students, bored restless

among schoolchildren

April 23, 2010

A school day in East New York: bright students, bored restless

by Anna Phillips, at 8:11 pm

Where can you find the most bored children in New York?

Last week I visited P.S. 13 in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, a school where you would expect to see some anxiety before the high-stakes English exam that will be given next Monday. Instead, I met a cast of bright and precocious students plodding through test prep worksheets with little supervision.

P.S. 13 has been a troubled school for years though its last city-issued progress report calls it a “B” school. In 2004, it managed to remove itself from the state’s list of schools at risk of being closed, but it’s now in danger of landing back on that list. Students know a lot is riding on their test scores. During my visit, many could rattle off the dates of the upcoming tests from memory.

Morning announcements over the loud speaker included test tips like encouraging students to get a good night’s rest and eat a full breakfast (84 percent of P.S. 13 students qualify for free or reduced lunch). In advance of the test, the regular schedule had been altered so that on Thursdays students only focused on reading and writing and Fridays were math-only days.

I visited on a Thursday. In classroom after classroom, students in yellow shirts and navy blue bottoms sat hunched over “Comprehensive Assessment of Reading Strategy” and “Strategies to Achieve Reading Success” workbooks, which are published by Curriculum Associates. Some read the questions aloud to themselves and dutifully circled their answers. Others read books or played computer games. Several stared into space.

For the most motivated and experienced of teachers, making test prep engaging is difficult. But in the three P.S. 13 classrooms I spent time in that day, the teachers were barely present.

I walked into one room carrying a reporter’s notepad and made my way to the teacher’s desk. She looked up from her cell phone, paused to say it’d be fine if I watched the class for a bit, and then went back to her conversation. She was still on the phone 20 minutes later when I left.

Without a teacher’s supervision, students’ eyes glazed and more than a few rested their heads on desks. Papers had graphite trails where students had begun to write but dozed off.

I sat down next to a third grader who’d begun an acrostic of the word “spring” rather than read the short story she’d been assigned. “Do you know any flowers that start with the letter ‘n’ or ‘g’?” she asked. I offered “narcissus” and “geranium” and while we worked on spelling them out, another girl showed me her math workbook. Page after page was marked with her penciled-in answers, but a teacher’s corrections or affirmations were no where to be found.

Next door students were rotating through work stations, each of which was set up to test a skill likely to appear on the state exam. While some students listened to a story and filled in a worksheet, others matched vocabulary words to their corresponding sentences. In the back of the room, three second graders played reading computer games — their teacher was absent that day and the students had been scattered across other classes. Next to them, two third graders played a math game. When I walked over and asked why they weren’t working on their reading, they smiled shyly and switched to ELA-based computer games.

Last year, too few of P.S. 13′s special education students met the state’s proficiency bar in reading and writing, putting the school’s future in jeopardy. According to the city’s Department of Education, P.S. 13 is on the state’s “Joint Intervention Team” list, a step away from the list of schools under review for closure.

Before its current principal arrived in 2002, P.S. 13 went through seven principals in as many years, giving shape to the chaos long associated with one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Now, the school is about to lose its principal, Barbara Ashby, who is planning to retire at the end of this year.

Ashby did not respond to requests for comment.

Michael M.

Test prep is the alcohol swab of education.

We tell the kids it’s necessary for their health, but what comes next is to them personally a meaningless “ouchie,” though they know full well how important it is for the “grups.”

What’s in it for THEM !?!

P.S. Such a school gets a “B”? I wish them the best, and am glad they’re proud of it and working hard to keep it. Still, see prior GS coverage re 98% of schools got A’s or B’s last year. Last year WAS an election year, after all.
GGW

This is real journalism. Thank you.
3rdgradeparent

This made me want to cry. I don’t know what this school would be doing if there weren’t high stakes testing, but clearly the test prep happening is hardly education. Too bad those kids couldn’t be engaged in some actually meaningful project. Shameful!
Peter S.

Great idea for series. After reading this one, I can’t say I’m looking forward to more, but I’ll definitely read them with interest.

I suspect you won’t have to go to such a notorious school to find similarly rotten “teachers” – I spent two years at a DoE middle school in Bushwick and there were several paycheck-cashers in the classrooms. (And it wasn’t considered a particularly bad school – the scandal is what’s legal, etc.).

I’d encourage you to focus on schools that don’t earn attention, but plod along under the radar. I hope you’ll discover some good ones, but I fear you’ll find several silent killers among them.

(Full disclosure: I try to keep my classroom cell phone conversations to under 20 minutes. I also have fresh word searches every day. Unless it’s movie day.)
NYC Teacher

I can’t imagine any teacher talking on a cell phone for 20 minutes with a clasrroom full of students nevermind with a REPORTER or any visitor there. I’ve seen teachers take a 30 second call to make sure a child arrived somewhere safely or to speak to a spouse or doctor about something important but I can’t believe that this actually happened.
laura

This is really upsetting and, frankly, I don’t think this issue here is about test prep per se. It’s about teaching. I have two kids in public school — one in middle school, one in elementary. Neither of them has ever experienced test prep to any significant degree. Usually there are some bubble worksheets and a practice test scattered in the week or two immediately prior to the test. But even then, the kids talk about the answers at the end, so that even test prep in the narrowest sense was a learning process–and one which actually contributed to their understanding of basic skills which then translated to better outcomes on the test. I remember my daughter coming home one day after a spirited debate about the answer to a reading comprehension question. It was a “main idea” question about a fiction passage in which a girl and her grandfather discussed the weather. Roughly half the class got the answer wrong because the correct response was something like “A girl and her grandfather spent an exciting day talking about the weather.” And the kids thought that was an opinion and counterfactual (they thought the day sounded boring LOL) so they chose alternative options. So they actually had a quite thoughtful conversation about the passage and the question (which I agree was actually a poor question). So yes, it was “test prep,” but there was still real learning and engagement happening. And generally, the preparation for the test takes place every day as the kids are really learning reading and math just as they would if no test was scheduled. In my older daughter’s school, they do no formal test prep whatsoever–at least not involving bubble sheets. The kids generally do exceptionally well, and that includes kids who are below grade level proficiency moving up so that kids are making lots of progress. A good teacher knows how to even do the formal prep well, and knows how to prepare kids daily through good instruction. I can’t imagine any teacher (even the most mediocre ones) my kids have had doing what you described here on any day. I have to think this is a teacher who would’ve been checked out regardless of the timing of your visit. And that’s most obvious to me because you’d think she would’ve cranked it up to make a good impression on a visitor, and she just didn’t. This teacher should not be in the classroom.
http://cranialgunk.com Vincent

There is nothing wrong with testing or test prep. The problem lies in how these things are weighted in determining a student’s academic success. Sole reliance on testing as a determinant of academic success of student intelligence is just wrong. PS 13 most likely got a B the last time around because its students tested well and not because their students were given an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in any meaningful manner. It sounds like a horrible way to teach regardless of where you sit in the debate between progressive and traditional education.

Why isn’t one of the graduates from the DOE’s principal training program at Ashby’s side learning the ropes to take over after she retires? Closing the school is not reasonable. However, why isn’t something being done to positively transform school culture?
angry person

Well reading your article I see that you only visted two classrooms one of which did very well! There are many classrooms in P.S 13 so for you to only visit one and make this huge article putting down the entire school is crude and dishonorable. Why only go to two classrooms? I am positive this school is a great school and you judged it based off of two classes! Every school has it’s flaws. Children are doing great learning and their test scores show. In case you did not know TEST PREP IS MANDATORY! Next time hun… you should get your facts together before you degrade a school you know NOTHING about!
Tracy

This article is clearly yellow journalism. When i read your “review” i noticed that you had only visited two classes throughout the entire day at the school. So how is it possible to jugde the school as a WHOLE when you visited only two classes? That just doesn’t seem fair now, does it? Also did you ever talk to the teacher and ask her why she was on the phone? The teacher could have been on the phone with a parent, after all teachers DO call home.

I read up on your bio and noticed that you have not had any background in teaching in public schools or educational experience. So how can you possibly understand the importance of test prep in today’s test crazed society?

Did you notify the teachers and the students that you were a writer from GothamSchools.org and you were going to write about them? And that you were taking advantage of these children and writing about them in such a disparaging manner? Did you even think about how they would feel when they read this? Did you get thier parents permission to interview them? You did not represent the school and how its made progress since 1999 with each succeeding year in the school.

As a history major, you should recall the era of yellow journalism. Yellow Journalism used exaggerations and scandals to attract readers. I think you owe the school and especially the childern an apology.
New York City Teacher

This article sounds like a complete lie. No one would stay on the phone for 20 minutes with a reporter or a visitor of any sort in their classroom. Also, I know the school really well and all the teachers at P.S. 13 takes kids into their classrooms during their prep and lunch periods to help these students succeed in areas that need work. Anna Phillips is a phony and karma will prevail itself. Anna–you owe this school an apology, especially to it’s principal.
Abagot

I am really annoyed at this article. It is wrong to make false accusations, giving this school a bad representation. My friend works there and I am trying to get a job there because I have heard many good things about that school from her. The administration is great and the teachers work really hard. Anna Phillips, you owe P.S. 13 and the faculty an apology. If you do not make this right, the whole world will soon see the true liar you are. A good reporter askes questions, and does not sneak into their building without permission and make up lies just to “have a story” to write about.
Proud Teacher at P.S. 13

If you are reading this article and are believing all the lies mentioned in it, then congratulations Anna, for degrading a school that is better than any other school I’ve ever known. I bet this is the only school that their teachers were overtime without wanting pay, to help prepare their students for those exams. Many take students in during their lunch periods. I am a proud teacher at P.S. 13, and you can say whatever you want about us, but we know that we are great and we won’t let you or anyone else bring us down. Our goal is to educate children, and no one will ever get in the way of that. You have embarrassed our reputation, and we did not deserve this. I admire good journalism, but not one based on complete lies. An apology from you would be appreciated.
Sol Ruben

This article is such a hack job. The “reporter” was observing a teacher donating her own prep time to extra help. During these times kids work in a less structured way and teachers often use the phone to call parents. Not every moment of the school day is action packed with students on the edge of their seats. Sometimes the teacher pulls you in from recess and gives you some work to do because you’ve been falling behind on your homework and the big test is coming up. You don’t evaluate a school by sneaking into it and asking random kids to show you their work. The school got a B because the test scores were good. The “reporter’s brief observation wasn’t followed up with any questions (to adults), she never identified herself, only observed a couple of rooms, and took what she saw out of context. But hey, maybe they have an opening at FoxNews for her!
NYC

I would like to read an article describing teachers working hard and finding success, because I know they are out there.
A Teacher

You can tell someone is a bad journalist when they write sentences like this one: “Papers had graphite trails where students had begun to write but dozed off.” Really now! Did she see that in a cartoon or something? Please. I’m surprised she didn’t write “Pools of drool coated the floor as students stared blankly at the teacher.” Or “One student tossed and turned in a deep slumber as the teacher droned on and on.”
Catherine and Marianne

In mid-April we joined Anna Phillips on her tour of P.S. 13 in East New York and had an entirely different perception of the school. Our group was invited to visit the school by a community partner of P.S. 13 and the principal, Barbara Ashby, to see a typical day at a NYC public school. We entered the brightly lit school, wallpapered with children’s artwork and writings, and were greeted warmly by the principal. PS. 13 has indeed faced numerous principals in a short amount of time, however, insideschools.org, a reputable source for public school reporting, explains that Ashby’s presence has helped turn the school around.

We visited a classroom where students were participating in test prep, perhaps begrudgingly, but did not seem bored. The teacher in this particular classroom, where the walls were lined with motivational quotes and dozens of books, had the students working in small groups. The assignment was to read through the test prep booklets and check each other’s answers in order to promote peer learning. The teacher spoke with us at length about the tactics she employs to engage the students in school beyond merely repetitive test prep. In fact, recently the class participated in a competition of scientific experiments, which they had created in teams. We asked two students about their projects and they eagerly explained the results of the test and excitedly pointed to the winning experiment on a nearby bookshelf.

Later, we entered a classroom where students were actively engaged in reading a story aloud. Huddled around a storyteller, a community volunteer, the students raised their hands using a thumbs-up sign whenever a word was read aloud that they did not already know. After finishing the page, the volunteer asked students for definitions of the unknown word. Meanwhile, their teacher looked on in approval, providing silent support for the activity.

Our experiences at P.S. 13 left us impressed with the talents of individual teachers to engage their students in learning and leverage community partners to expose students to different teaching styles. P.S. 13 seemed to directly counter the negative stereotypes of our City’s public schools and while we did not visit every classroom, we were able to see some of the positive teaching methods firsthand. – Catherine Beer and Marianne Vernetson
Teacherat13

Anna Phillips had a brief glimpse of our school. She did not have the honor of witnessing the wonderfully immersing lessons, projects, and trips that engage and educate our children on an ongoing basis throughout the year. Standardized testing is an unfortunate reality. We prepare our students two days a week for a month prior to testing. Why shouldn’t they be prepared to be “successful” by state standards?
http://gothamschools ashley

I know all the teachers you have mentioned a how could state so much information about my school for example our reading strategies and how much principles we’ve had in a few years in only 7 hours
NYC Teach

Thank you Catherine and Marianne for your response to what you saw when you observed P.S. 13. At least you were honest, and that is how it has always been. Teachers work harder here than any other school I’ve worked in. It’s nice to hear positive remarks, instead of poor and untrue gossip.

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among schoolchildren

April 23, 2010

A school day in East New York: bright students, bored restless

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