Meet Our Tutor: Keenan

I designed Reach with students like Keenan in mind. School is not his first priority, and his failure to perform to his potential academically has been a source of frustration for many of his teachers. Keenan has always seemed satisfied to sit passively in the back of our training sessions, rarely speaking unless called upon. Then, Keenan and I both realized something exciting: he is an exceptional tutor.

After each tutoring session, I give tutors the opportunity to discuss successes and challenges. Repeatedly, our tutors have gone out of their way to recognize Keenan's work. Specifically, they recognize how much energy Keenan's student, Eddie, brings to each session. Eddie enters the room running, and he rarely stops...unless he's with Keenan. With Keenan, Eddie's willing to do his work (though, as you see in the picture, he still doesn't sit down!). It's a positive experience for both participants.

For me, the most exciting part is watching Keenan's response. When I tell him how well he's doing during tutoring sessions, he tries so hard not to smile - that would involve admitting that he cares. But, I can tell it means something to him. In the beginning of the year, Keenan's attendance was spotty. In recent weeks, he has had perfect attendance at tutoring sessions (though, we're still working on training sessions).

His maturity and dedication were made clear during a recent session. Eddie and Keenan were reading "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein when Eddie's father arrived a little early. I admit that I was a little nervous when I invited Eddie's father to watch the session in progress. Looking over Keenan's shoulder, Eddie's father watched his son reading and answering questions. Keenan barely flinched - simply demanding Eddie's attention and continuing with the lesson. Noting my failure, Keenan called me over and asked quietly, "do you think we could get a copy for Eddie's dad so he could follow along and finish the story at home?"

Keenan is doing a fantastic job, and he's very invested in Eddie's success. The model isn't perfect, but when it works, it's beautiful.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Meet Our Tutor: Crystal

Many of you know about Reach's alternating schedule. On Mondays and Wednesdays, our tutors are trained. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they tutor elementary school students. While Crystal does relatively well during our training sessions, she truly shines as a tutor. When things get a little too chaotic in the classroom, I find Crystal - and her student, DeJah. They, without fail, provide an oasis of calm amidst the (only slightly) controlled chaos. Each day, DeJah is excited to work with Crystal, and they have a singular focus during the time they spend together. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have almost 40 people in a single classroom. It can get loud, and one student's bad day can disrupt the learning of many children. But, that's never the case with DeJah. Crystal creates a cocoon within the classroom - a big kid and a little kid, two brains and a story.

During an early session, Crystal told me she was interested in pursuing a career in Cosmetology. While I have no doubt that she will find success in whatever career she pursues, it's tough not to imagine her leading a classroom one day. She has a true gift with children. While a few unexcused absences and a sometimes less-than-serious attitude on training days remind me that Crystal is a high school freshman, her work on tutoring days reminds us all what can happen when we provide high school students with real responsibility for student learning.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Quick Hits!

It's been a busy week, so today's blog is just a couple quick hits.

1) Each of our tutoring sessions occurs in Ms. Berg's classroom. Ms. Berg is in her first year at Hyde, and, like me, she moved to DC from North Carolina. She's often present during our sessions, and she's become one of Reach's best advocates. So, you can imagine my excitement when she said, "let me know when you need letters of recommendation as you look to expand. These kids are doing a great job, and it's definitely working - better than most programs I've seen." Ms. Berg made my week! It's specifically powerful for an elementary school teacher to be making these comments. As you can imagine, many people think Reach's model is great for high school students, but they express concern about the quality of the programming for elementary school students. Ms. Berg's comments show that we're providing a high quality program for all students.

2) You may remember DaJohn from our October Update. Today, I provided DaJohn with a hard copy of our October Update. I told him it's important for him to share good news with his family, and I thought they might enjoy seeing his story in our newsletter. DaJohn - seeing the update for the first time - looked at the paper, immediately showed it to the nearest teacher, then walked out into the hall (it was after school) yelling, "look who is front page news!!" You can't help but find energy in these encounters.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Reciprocity of Accountability

$880.

At the end of the first quarter, each of Reach's twenty-two tutors will be eligible for a bonus of up to $40 based on grades in academic courses. The bonus, worth ten times their GPA on a 4.0 scale, is meant to motivate the students to make every effort to improve in-school performance. Even greater rewards are available for improvement from quarter to quarter.

Today, I wrote $880 on the white board. I asked the tutors to imagine that money sitting on a table. Then, I told them, at the current rate, they're leaving about half of it sitting there.

Many of our tutors have had previous academic struggles, so their middling grades are not entirely surprising. As we were confronted with their first progress report, however, I was reminded of one of Professor Richard Elmore's rules:

For every increment of performance I demand from you, I have an equal responsibility to provide you with the capacity to meet that expectation.

Many of our tutors' teachers have started asking them to come in for additional help after school; however, the tutors' obligation to Reach prevents this extra help from happening. Additionally, the subject-specific extra help simply addresses the symptom (poor grades), not the root cause (limited reading skills). Though, if we're encouraging our tutors to improve their grades, then we must provide them with the capacity to make those improvements.

For that reason, our days just got a little longer. Reach will begin offering an additional hour-long study hall following training sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays. Through offering this additional layer of support, we hope to help our students achieve success both in and after school by providing time to address both the symptoms and the root cause. Starting on Wednesday, we will make this additional support available. We hope that its impact will be felt by the October 29th end of the quarter.

As a new nonprofit organization, we continue to learn how to best support our tutors both in and after school. We hope this slight change to our approach will make a difference for our kids.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Reach @ Hyde Leadership

Waiting for Superman

I'm not a documentarian. So, it's certainly possible that I lack a true understanding of the purpose of Waiting for Superman, the recently released film getting so much attention. The film is effective in painting a frightening portrait of the state of American public schools. However, in my opinion, the simplicity with which this portrait is painted actually impedes further conversation on the issue.

The movie explains it simply: public schools are awful, there are not enough spaces in high quality charter schools, and teacher unions prevent reform in the public system.

I know DC far better than the other cities depicted in the film, so I'll focus on those aspects of the movie that relate to my city and Anthony, the DC student depicted in the film. I have two major issues with the film.

1) The SEED School was not Anthony's only option. While DC struggles to improve the quality of all public schools, they also have a process through which students can apply for placement in an out-of-boundary public school. Deal, Hardy, and Stuart-Hobson all offer stronger options within the public system. This is not to say the current system is even remotely satisfactory, but the SEED or misery dichotomy created by the film seems manipulative and dishonest.

2) The most egregious spin in the film related to words about Sousa Junior High. In the film, The Washington Post is quoted as calling Sousa, "an academic sinkhole." To provide background on DC Public Schools' struggles, the film cuts to Jason Kamras, DCPS' Head of Human Capital. Only moments after we hear about Sousa, Kamras speaks about the ways unions prevent real school-based reform. Kamras' opinions are given extra weight when we're told that he is a former National Teacher for the Year. A key fact is ignored: Kamras received the honor for the school-wide improvements he was able to lead at that same sinkhole, Sousa Junior High.

I am a believer in action over talk, and I hesitate to question a film that is getting so many people talking about the education reform movement. However, the challenge is real. We do a disservice by acting as though the solutions are simple. Teachers, unions, parents, activists, and students must all be involved in our solutions. Demonizing some of those groups in our efforts to find a way forward impedes true conversations about the complexities of education reform. These conversations must involve good public schools, great public school teachers, and progressive unions as well as bad teachers, stubborn unions, and high quality charters - these things all exist.

Geoffrey Canada, an incredible figure in the effort to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged youth, makes a statement in Waiting for Superman. To paraphrase, he says, "When I started this work, I thought it was easy. I thought it would take 2-3 years to fix it, the whole nation!"

Luckily, for us, he realized it wasn't so simple.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope that this film leads more people to get involved in improving public education. Rather than simply pledging to see the film, I hope inspired viewers pledge to get involved - read to children, mentor youth, and tutor teens. We know it takes one caring adult to make a major difference, and you can't make that difference from a movie theater in the nice part of town.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Highs & Lows

I imagined Reach's launch for months. During planning stages, it's easy to imagine those perfect days when everything seems to go right - the days when it all becomes worthwhile. It's also easy to imagine worst case scenarios - the days when no one shows up. Reality persists: most days exist in the middle. Most days bring a fascinating and difficult mixture of in-between experiences. Most days are like today.

Today was our first one-to-one day. Every tutor was matched with an elementary school student - the numbers were finally aligned. Excited for today's action, I was just inside the school door when one of my third graders approached to tell me he was switching tutoring programs, because his teacher told him he should be in another one. Working on the fly, we made some adjustments, but that was just the beginning. Two older students came in to pick up their younger siblings early, then an after-care coordinator came in...and she was heated. Some of the kids were apparently in the wrong place. I furnished their registration forms for our programming, but she took them anyway, simply stating, "they're supposed to be waiting for their parents downstairs."

My response: "So, they're getting reading help here, but you want them waiting downstairs?"

I maintained my best social worker face when she said, "yes, that's what's on the paper."

This, folks, is how schools work.

All of a sudden, I had tutors without students. As you can imagine, this is neither exciting nor challenging for my high schoolers. Slowly, my tutors found their way to other students. The young ones smiled as they sometimes found themselves getting help from two "big kids!"

Then, in the last ten minutes, two tutors really made my day.

First, there was Binetou. I turned around and saw her speaking with a parent, her student's parent. They were smiling and laughing. I went over to introduce myself to the parent and heard the tutor giving a recap of the session, talking about her student's strengths and weaknesses. The parent ended the conversation by asking, "are you going to be working with my daughter all year?" The tutor smiled; she knew that the parent was hoping that was the case. When the parent left, Binetou said, "she's tough, but she's getting to know me. I think I can work well with her."

Then, as things wrapped up, Brandon took charge. Brandon's a natural leader. Yesterday, he led my training session in the wrong direction. He was having an off day, and it was clear that the rest of the tutors followed his lead. After the training session, I simply asked, "do you see what happens when you choose to use your leadership abilities inappropriately?" He looked away. He knew he could do better. Today, as we cleaned up at the end, it was Brandon that said, "Tutors, here's the trash can! Let's help our students clean up!" Without a word, other tutors stepped up to the plate. I smiled.

A mix of highs and lows. That will be the norm. Enjoy the highs; endure the lows.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark