Philadelphia Education Conferences Update

Posted by on June 07, 2011

There are two conferences I attended at the end of April that highlighted some of the major issues that students and teachers currently face in Philadelphia Public Schools and outlined what various groups around Philadelphia are doing do address these issues. Both events focused on why it is detrimental for students and teachers to be following a scripted curriculum and to have that curriculum be tied to high-stakes testing. Teachers and youth at these events argued that there are huge repercussions in both teaching and learning to having top-down implementation of curricula and testing at the city, state and federal level and expressed concern regarding the efforts to standardize assessment of both teachers and of students. These events also focused uniquely on providing education for students (K-16) that addresses and utilizes the diverse ethnic, culture and class backgrounds that Philadelphia students bring in to their schools.

The AAA GSE Race and Education Symposium:

The second annual Race and Education Symposium was held by the Association of African American Graduate Students in Education (AAAGSE) at the University of Pennsylvania was entitled: “Revolution or Reform? Educational Strategies for the 21st Century.”

The mission of this all-day symposium was to provide a space for honest dialogue regarding race and education in our society, especially in regards to how education reform is created: “Given persistent disparities in academic performance, access, attainment, and preparation for students of color, this conference addresses persistent racial inequalities within education that influence the experiences of students as well as the professional development of emerging scholars, teachers, and other education professionals.”

The keynote speaker, Deborah Meier, is a senior scholar at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education and a well-known education reformer, writer, and activist. A wide variety of sessions followed including “Making it Out and Up the Ladder”, a session reflecting on the experiences of minority women in academia and how to encourage minority scholars to achieve at the highest levels of academia. The conference also addressed issues of assessment in, “The Statistical Production of Empty Signifiers: Race, Gender and ‘Test Score Gaps’”, presented by Dr. Ezekiel Roman Dixon from the School of Social Policy and Practice. This session focused on how academics and policy makers can take action and create high-quality qualitative assessments of student achievement as a direct response to the standardized-testing of students. Dr. Roman-Dixon explained that many standardized tests, if they are the only assessment used, can lead to the “grouping” of students in ways that solidify stereo-types about young people and what their ‘educational tendencies’ are based on which group or category they are placed in.

The closing panel discussion for this workshop featured almost exclusively full-time or retired teachers from Philadelphia and professors of education, (A 7th grade language-arts teacher in a charter school, 5th grade teacher from a comprehensive elementary school in West Philadelphia, an education professor from the University of Pennsylvania, and a professor from Chestnut Hill College.) Each educator had a vastly different experience teaching in Philadelphia based on the mandates of the school, but all were challenging the current policy trend to increase standardized testing and standardized curricula on both a city-wide and national level. The audience and the panelists recognized the desire and need for all students to be invested in equally, and to find some way to assess if this is being done, but universally agreed that teaching to a standardized test will not create a body of students who turn in to active, inquisitive citizens nor will it promote active, inquisitive teachers who will reach out to unique opportunities.

To learn more: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/content/aaagse-symposium-focus-racial-inequalities

The Education for Liberation Curriculum Fair and Citywide Summit:

The 2nd Annual Education for Liberation Curriculum Fair and Citywide Summit was cosponsored by Teacher Action Group (TAG), the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) and ACTION United. The curriculum fair was hosted at Folk Arts Cultural Treasures Charter School (FACTS) on April 30th . The goal of the event was to: “Bring educators, students, and community members together to explore a variety of issues within social justice education.” This all-day two-part event focused to two components:

“The morning Curriculum Fair will feature unit and lesson plans, projects, resources, and best practices for social justice education. This will be a space for educators to connect and exchange, learn from each other, and take new ideas back to their own classrooms.” A variety of organizations were represented from the Mazzoni Center, which focuses on creating resources in the city for LGBTQ youth, to the Urban Nutrition Initiative, which focuses on “engaging students as agents of school and community health improvement”.

“The afternoon Summit will be a space for building stronger community alliances for education justice, as parents, students, community members, and educators.” The event was attended by teachers, high-school students, student leadership groups, community members, parents, non-profit organizations and university students and faculty who all brought unique perspectives on how to promote socially just education in all of our schools K-16.

Sessions ranged from how to implement restorative justice practices in the classroom, which featured a group of students who had (with the support of caring adults) created their own “community court” which gave a concrete example of how to build peer mediation and restorative practices as a key tool in resolving conflicts in a public school setting to “learning how to map and become active members of your school community, and how to build parent and community engagement”. This session, though focused on how teachers can become more involved in the neighborhoods surrounding their schools, could easily apply to higher-ed faculty, staff and students involved in school partnerships. The overall message of this day-long event was to emphasize the agency that all people invested in the education of young people have in changing the parts of the system that need to change, and that we can do this through partnership.

For a full list of partners and workshops and information about their current working groups check out the TAG Philly website: http://www.tagphilly.org/