Shiny new public school expected to turn around poor student performance

They've wasted their money.  It's what's in the heads of the kids that determines educational achievement.  And expecting minority kids to learn computer programming is totally dumb.  I tried to teach university sociology students that with little success.  Only the very bright can learn languages like 'C' -- in its many variations


Natural light filters through the four-story glass and steel building. There are state-of-the-art science labs, a computer center, and a rooftop garden for botany lessons. Even the boiler room can double as a real-world teaching lab for physics.

The $73 million Dearborn 6-12 STEM/Early College Academy — the first newly constructed school for the Boston system in 15 years — is a far cry from the century-old building it replaced in the heart of Roxbury, where young Irish immigrants once learned how to sew, iron clothes, make beds, and clean bathtubs as future maids for the wealthy in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh, who will hold a ribbon-cutting Thursday afternoon, hopes the school will serve as an inspiring symbol of his pledge to spend $1 billion over 10 years to overhaul the city’s school buildings, roughly half of which were erected before World War II.

And those at the Dearborn, which has struggled academically for many years, hope the new building will represent a fresh start and instill a new sense of confidence and self-worth in their students, many of whom have been touched by violence or endured difficult journeys from their homelands for a new life and greater opportunity in the United States.

The Dearborn and its community partners had pushed for the new building for more than a decade. “This is incredible,” said Natalina Mendes, a sixth-grade teacher, during a break from the first day of training seminars on Wednesday. “Our kids deserve this, and [this building] says they are worth this. . . . This is what we fought for.”

The much-anticipated building has long been the missing piece in the Dearborn’s effort to turn around academic performance, many of the school’s supporters contend.

The state declared the Dearborn “underperforming” in 2010 because of persistently low test scores.

It narrowly averted a state takeover in 2014. The school system hashed out a deal with state education leaders to bring in an outside partner — the Boston Plan for Excellence — to run the school, starting in 2015.

Yet scores remain low on state tests, even in the subjects included in the school’s name — math and science — raising concerns about state receivership again.

Just 12 percent of the Dearborn’s middle-school students met or exceeded expectations on the math exams, and only 2 percent did in science, according to the most recent MCAS scores in 2017. Its 10th-graders fared better, with 51 percent scoring proficient or higher in math and 34 percent doing so in science.

The Dearborn educates some of the most challenging students in the system. Most live in households receiving government assistance, while many are newly arrived immigrants, typically from Cape Verde. Some 43 percent do not speak English fluently.

The challenge will grow greater over the next few years as enrollment expands from 350 last year to 600. About 480 students are currently on the rosters.

Dearborn staff said Wednesday that they are keenly aware it will take more than a building to elevate performance.

“Steel and glass doesn’t make a new school, [but] it gives us opportunity,” said Shelley Olson, principal of the middle-school program, noting the quality of instruction and the sense of community that staff and students build will move the school out of state monitoring.

“Our students deserve to have the same level of education as every student in the city, the state, and the country,” she added.

Students will need only to look out many of the windows, which offer panoramic views of the city’s skyline, including the booming Seaport and the Longwood medical area, to see what job opportunities the city can provide.

The school plans to initially offer three career pathways — computer programming, engineering, and graphic design — and is looking to develop one for health careers.

The 128,000-square-foot building itself should foster a sense of collaboration and professionalism. Students can gather on lime green or yellow couches or stools in the learning commons in the hallways for robotic experiments and other lessons. Classrooms feature computer-interactive white boards and glass walls, allowing passersby in the hallways to peer in.

Wi-Fi is available throughout the building.

Students also can use three-dimensional printers to design objects and can use special laser cutters to create items in a “maker space” or a fabrication lab, a 21st-century twist on the old-school wood shop.

The Dearborn 6-12 STEM/Early College Academy in Roxbury is Boston's first newly constructed school building in 15 years.
But the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, one of the groups that pushed the city a decade ago to construct the school, is raising concern that the Dearborn doesn’t have enough money for key positions, such as a full-time STEM director and IT director. The school began advertising this month for a fabrication lab director and only hired a career pathway director this week.

Consequently, the school doesn’t have a fully developed STEM curriculum.

“It’s really an abomination to have this amazing STEM building and not have adequate staffing,” said the Rev. Burns Stanfield, president of the interfaith organization. “It really sets kids up in this neighborhood for failure.”

The school system defended its commitment to the Dearborn.

“Boston Public Schools is currently working with Boston Plan for Excellence on developing a strengthened STEM curriculum for Dearborn STEM Academy,” the school system said in a statement. “BPS is committed to supporting the development of the STEM curriculum, which includes funding a consultant and providing other items of support.”

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University System Plans ‘Full Criminal Investigation’ After Confederate Statue Toppled

The University of North Carolina System is taking action after protesters toppled the statue of a Confederate soldier at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday night.

“Campus leadership is in collaboration with campus police, who are pulling together a timeline of the events, reviewing video evidence, and conducting interviews that will inform a full criminal investigation,” UNC System Board Chairman Harry Smith and UNC System President Margaret Spellings said in a statement Tuesday, adding:

The safety and security of our students, faculty, and staff are paramount. And the actions last evening were unacceptable, dangerous, and incomprehensible. We are a nation of laws—and mob rule and the intentional destruction of public property will not be tolerated.

“Around 9:20 p.m. Monday night, a group from among an estimated crowd of 250 protesters brought down the Confederate Monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” UNC Chapel Hill said in an official statement in an email to The Daily Signal.

The statue of the Confederate soldier is known as Silent Sam.

One person has been arrested for “concealing one’s face during a public rally and resisting arrest,” according to Jeni Cook, a spokesperson for the Office of University Communications.

An article on the University of North Carolina’s grad school website describes the statue this way:

Erected in 1913, in remembrance of ‘the sons of the University who died for their beloved Southland 1861-1865,’ the Confederate monument known as Silent Sam stands on McCorkle place, the University’s upper quad, facing Franklin Street. The monument was given to the University by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1909. More than 1000 University men fought in the Civil War. At least 40 percent of the students enlisted, a record not equaled by any other institution, North or South. Sam is silent because he carries no ammunition and cannot fire his gun.

“Last night’s actions were dangerous, and we are very fortunate that no one was injured,” the university’s statement continued. “We are investigating the vandalism and assessing the full extent of the damage.”

The statue toppling is meant to be “smashing white supremacy” at UNC, according to Maya Little, who is charged with vandalism for an April protest and also faces an Honor Court hearing. Little’s remarks were reported by the Associated Press.

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Changing the rules for Australian working women

 IEU represents more than 30,000 teachers, principals and support staff in Catholic and independent schools, early childhood centres and post secondary colleges in NSW and ACT

The rules for working women are broken, with women earning less than men on average, ending up with less superannuation, being more likely to be in casual or part time work, bearing the brunt of caring responsibilities and less likely to be in leadership positions. [Rubbish!  The difference has nothing to do with rules.  It has to do with the different choices women make

The IEUA NSW/ACT Branch will challenge and discuss these norms at its 2018 Women’s Conference on 24 August, which will highlight how these issues impact on the teaching profession.

One example of such inequity being challenged by the IEUA is the Equal Remuneration Order case before the Fair Work Commission to remedy wages for early childhood teachers.

The case argues that early childhood teachers receive lower salaries because they are in a female dominated profession. [Rubbish.  They are paid less because they are doing work that any woman could do]

Keynote speaker Naomi Steer, founding director of UNHCR will discuss her work supporting girls and women globally, and how improving the lives of women improves societies as a while.

Ros McLennan, General Secretary, Queensland Council of Unions and a former teacher, will explore what it takes personally, industrially and politically to champion women in leadership positions and support working women more broadly.

“We need to change the rules to ensure the professional experience of colleagues includes secure work, fair pay workforce rights that can be enforced and more power for working people rather than big business,” McLennan said.

Via email from  Sue Osborne (02) 8202 8900 sue@ieu.asn.au