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Author Archives: noaheby

Published:

5/31
2010

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Finding a whole new world in rural Missouri

By noaheby

Take I-70 west to Highway 79 north for about an hour and a half and you will find yourself in the small town of Elsberry, Missouri.  For some reason, my summer baseball team scheduled a tournament at the rather decrepit field on the outskirts of downtown Elsberry, though it was hardly a metropolis, and I therefore spent most of my waking hours in rural Missouri this past weekend.  It was a painful, amusing, and enlightening experience.

I had an image of Elsberry in my mind before even setting out on Friday.  It was a tiny town surrounded by farmland, I thought, centered around a small cluster of run-down restaurants and businesses and occupied by a couple thousand rednecks with long hair and no teeth.  For the most part, I was right.  Downtown was little more than a general store, a gas station, and a small Italian restaurant.  The town has barely over 2000 residents, many of whom do indeed sport a grin with some missing pieces.

I had held a general disdain for rural Missouri before the trip, a preconceived notion that everyone living outside the suburbs was a hillbilly farmer who carried a concealed weapon and had a portrait of George W. Bush hanging right next to the picture of Jesus.  I was wrong, of course, and I knew I was wrong, but still I needed proof to change my mind.  I got in its simplest form after the first game of the tournament.

I was walking around the concession stand looking for a bag of ice for the team cooler.  I had no idea where to look, and it was apparent.  A man who had just pulled into the parking lot in his beat-up pick-up truck noticed me and asked what I was looking for.  I told him, and without hesitation he reached into his pocket, took a dollar out of his wallet, and told me to go down the road to the main building and buy a bag.  I thanked him and went, not thinking very much about his kindness.

I realize now that his generosity represents the general attitude of many, if not most, of the “rednecks” that I met in Elsberry.  They may not have degrees from prestigious colleges and they may not wear khaki shorts and collared shirts everywhere they go, but they know how to treat people.  They say “Excuse me” when they brush past you, they hold open doors, and they give you directions without having to be asked for them.  Even at the local Subway, where I ate lunch between games, the teenagers there had a respect that is hard to find in Clayton.

In this way, I learned that despite the swarms of gnats that were everywhere and the blistering heat, Elsberry isn’t that bad of a place.  My car wasn’t vandalized for having an Obama bumper sticker, I didn’t see anyone walking around with a shotgun, and I couldn’t find anyone wearing a Jesus t-shirt.  The townspeople were kind and warm, and despite the lack of modernity there was a certain homeliness about the town.  Plus, they know how to play their baseball – we lost the last game of the tournament 20 to 2.

Published:

5/24
2010

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From the ground up

By noaheby

Though students and teachers will have left for the tropical beaches, snow-capped mountains and air-conditioned family rooms of summer vacation, the CHS campus will be far from quiet in the coming months. Construction crews will be working to build the new addition, which is supposed to be finished in time for the 2011 session of Summer Quest.

“This summer is going to be mostly focused on getting the addition steel up, getting the brick on under roof so we can start working on the interior finishes this fall and winter,” said Mark Winschel, the Project Manager from S.M. Wilson & Co.

Winschel estimates that work at the high school is about 15 percent complete, while work at the elementary schools, which is scheduled to be finished by this fall, is about 40 percent complete. The bulk of the work will happen over the summer, once the steel starts to go up later this month. While there are only 15 to 25 workers on site at the high school currently, that number will begin to increase dramatically in the coming months.

“Once the steel is up, that opens up a lot of work,” Winschel said. “You can start working on the inside, you can start working on the outside. I’d say our peak at the high school is probably going to be later on this fall. We’ll probably have close to a hundred guys here.”

Winschel said that the project has gone smoothly for the most part, despite a problem early on involving the locating of utility lines under the cottage and tech. building.

“A lot of times the utility information that we have on the plans doesn’t match exactly what’s shown in the field, so sometimes we’ll hit water lines or hit sanitary lines that are in the way,” Winschel said. “You have to work and get those repaired, and that delays your schedule a little bit because you’ve got to get all that stuff out of the way before you can do your foundations and steel.”

There have been some complaints from staff, which Winschel said is normal for a demolition project.

The sounds of jack-hammering and heavy machinery can be heard through the walls of the math wing, which has been a source of disruption for many teachers.

“It’s tough because if it’s loud and it’s disruptive, it’s not fair to kids to have class in there,” said Math Department Chair David Kohmetscher. “But the difficulty is that we don’t have space, that’s one of the reasons we’re building an addition; we don’t have enough rooms to send people to…. We’ve got one of our overflow rooms as an art bay, so you take your math class from here down to the ceramics room – not the most efficient place to learn.”

Winschel said that the noise level should be lessening soon as the demolition phase ends and crews start focusing on constructing the addition.

“We’re going to get to the stage where we get the shell enclosed, masons are working – that’s not a particularly loud activity – and then once the building’s enclosed we’re going to be working inside, so there’s going to be a pretty good buffer from the addition to the existing building,” Winschel said. “So I would say the disruption is probably going to go down in the near future.”

Because the math wing already has Smart Boards in every room, a central office and other perks from the most recent construction project, it will not be gaining any new facilities from the addition. In fact, the largest math classroom will lose about a third of its floor space to accommodate a hallway.

“We’re not getting anything from this one, but we’ve been pretty lucky we got this area in the last construction,” Kohmetscher said.

Health and P.E. teachers have also been affected by the construction, though not that of the new addition.  Renovations to the Stuber facilities have forced the health teachers to move out of their office, and the same fate will soon come to Coach Samuel Horrell, who is scheduled to move to one of the learning annexes later this month.  However, he said that the minor hassle of moving offices is outweighed by the positive changes that the construction will bring.

“I think the new facilities that we’re going to be getting are going to be phenomenal for our classes and for our athletics,” Horrell said. “So it’s worth that little price of inconvenience that you have to pay.”

The changes in store for Stuber will bring new rooms and capabilities that will greatly aid the athletics program.

“They’re redoing the locker rooms upstairs, they’re redoing them downstairs, and then on the girls’ side they’re actually putting an athletic training facility… where people can come in from outside and do rehab,” Horrell said. “Our athletes are going to have access to all the rehab and all the high tech. equipment that’s going to be in there.”

Construction crews will continue to hammer and bang as they build and renovate, which will likely bring more disruptions to staff and students.  Yet the end result, new buildings and facilities that will revitalize and modernize numerous classes, will surely be worth the price.  As Horrell said, “You’ve got to give a little to get a little,” and in this case, CHS is getting quite a lot.

Published:

3/26
2010

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Meet the BOE candidates

By noaheby

One year ago, Clayton residents witnessed firsthand that the phrase “every vote counts” is no joke when Prop S passed by a mere two votes. This spring, voters will once again have their voices heard in the local elections. Amongst other important issues on the April 6 ballot, including Prop W, is the election of members of the Board of Education.

Three candidates have filed for two vacant seats. Susan Buse and Robert Kerr, both one-term incumbents, seek to keep their current seats as Brad Bernstein, who served on the BOE from 1998-2007, hopes to regain a spot on the Board. Bernstein said that he has decided to run again because he has “a passion to do what’s best for all students.”

“I believe I can really make a difference,” Bernstein said. “We have a strong district, yet we need to constantly identify areas of improvement and work with the entire Board and administration to bring positive change to meet the needs of all students.”

Buse and Kerr also stressed that it is necessary to keep moving forward and adapt to changing times and challenges. Buse, who received an AB from Washington University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, has been involved in Clayton schools for 16 years. She has four children who have attended or are currently attending schools in the district and has worked on PTOs, curriculum committees and other organizations. She said that her in-depth involvement in Clayton schools distinguishes her from the other candidates.

“I think what makes me different from the other candidates is that I got to the Board because I had been inside our classrooms for so many years,” Buse said. “I have relationships that I think strengthen my ability to bring the community concerns and community goals to the board table.”

Kerr grew up in Clayton, attending Glenridge, Wydown and CHS, going on to Washington University as an undergrad and law student. He currently works at a law firm in Clayton. Kerr has two children attending Meramec and lives in Davis Place. He said that his past experience in Clayton schools acts as motivation for him to serve on the Board.

“I really feel like I got a lot out of attending Clayton schools, and they’ve benefited me throughout my whole life, and I just feel a very strong desire to give back,” Kerr said.

Kerr said that he is a pragmatic, results-oriented person who is able to agree to disagree and move on to tackle the next challenge, which he said is possibly the most important skill that a board member possesses. He also said that all of the candidates have records as board members and that his “speaks for itself.”

Though Bernstein has children in the Clayton schools, his background is different from that of the other two candidates since he is not an attorney.  He said this is part of what makes him unique and a valuable asset to the Board.

“I did lead a path unlike the other candidates or even Board members,” Bernstein said. “I went to community college, I went to UMSL, I went to Washington University, I went to medical school, I was in the Marines, I was in the Navy, I was on an aircraft carrier, I came back home, I was faculty at Washington University and now I’m the head of my own private practice anesthesia group.  I really think I’ve walked the walk in environments like no other candidate.”

Buse said that her job as a board member is to tie community values and goals to education and make them realized in the classroom. Bernstein said that he looks at his role as to “engage in active listening, asking hard questions, working with my colleagues to set specific goals and objectives for our schools, teachers and curricula.”

As for issues that the Board will have to deal with in the upcoming three-year term, all three mentioned revisions to the math curriculum.

“[The math curriculum] has been a significant source of concern for at least 12 years” Bernstein said. “Specifically in math, we really have to balance concerns of parents and teachers to provide the best outcomes for our students. I’d like to see added emphasis on challenging kids in the middle, not just those in honors. Every student at Clayton should feel confident and prepared to pursue any career field they have an interest in.”

Buse said that she thinks the community has to “come to some sort of consensus on math” and that she hopes that the community can act together and move forward. She and Kerr also said that transitioning to the new superintendent would be an issue facing the district. Bernstein and Kerr named the nutrition program as an area for improvement.  Bernstein said that he “has always felt strongly about a major reevaluation of the food service throughout the district.”

Yard signs have begun to pop up on front lawns and fliers have started to circulate, but the Buse campaign faces a unique challenge. Due to a clerical error, Susan Bradley will be listed on the ballot instead of Susan Buse.

“Unfortunately, with the mistake on the ballot, a lot of our campaigning is just to make sure that people are aware that I am on the ballot even though my wrong name is on the ballot,” Buse said. “And that’s been a real problem for us, because name recognition is key, especially because my whole family is involved in our community.”

Buse said that she filled out all of the paperwork right and that it was too late by the time the mistake was noticed, despite the district’s efforts to have it fixed.

“We discovered [the mistake] several weeks ago and Clayton, as it should have, went to court to get the Board of Elections to correct the ballot,” Buse said. “The amazing thing to me was that, even though this was February for an April election, the Board of Elections said that because of their technology, they couldn’t fix the ballot.”

Voters can still vote for Susan Buse by checking Susan Bradley, and signs will be posted at voting locations to remind voters. Buse said that the incident can be a learning experience for new high school voters as they can see the importance of being informed on what is on a ballot. She said she hopes it is a “wake-up call” to the Board of Elections.

The April 6 election will determine which two of the three candidates have seats at the board table for the next three years, but one thing is clear: each of the candidates is experienced, committed to the future and success of Clayton students and eager to serve the community.

Published:

2/24
2010

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BOE votes to put Prop W on April ballot

By noaheby

The Board of Education voted unanimously to place Prop W on the April 6 ballot last month. If it passes, the zero-tax-rate increase, $39.4 million bond issue will fund the construction of a new middle school. The BOE’s Jan. 25 decision was met with celebration from the standing crowd at the meeting.

Wydown Middle School’s auditorium lobby, where Jerry Estes teaches his choir classes because of a lack of space. The BOE voted to place Prop. W, a $39.4 million bond issue, on the April ballot to address this and other issues with the current building. (Photo by Elizabeth Sikora)

Wydown Middle School’s auditorium lobby, where Jerry Estes teaches his choir classes because of a lack of space. The BOE voted to place Prop W, a $39.4 million bond issue, on the April ballot to address this and other issues with the current building. (Photo by Elizabeth Sikora)

“I cried tears of joy,” Wydown principal Mary Ann Goldberg said. “Probably over two thirds of my staff was there, they knew it was a big moment. The Board came out into the audience and hugged teachers and hugged the administrators, and it was one of those really, truly feel good moments.”
The vote was the culmination of a lengthy journey, beginning with the Facilities Master Plan that eventually evolved into Prop S. Wydown’s exclusion from that bond issue led to the formation of Wydown Tomorrow, a committee that proposed two construction options for to the BOE to vote on.
“We are proud of the process that the Wydown Tomorrow Committee undertook and look to it as an example of a thorough, constructive and encompassing public engagement process,” said BOE President Omri Praiss on the District website.
The plan will not raise the property tax rate to generate funding. Instead, the gap between decreasing payments on current bonds and the increasing revenue stream from higher property values will allow for the nearly $40 million expenditure. A new school, with almost 20 percent more green space than the building has now, would be built on the playing field so that the current school could still be used. However, this would mean that the field and track would be taken offline for 31 months and the gym and locker room rendered unusable for 15 months.
With the BOE’s decision, the District will now turn its focus to informing the public about Wydown’s needs and how the bond issue will address them. Clayton School District Director of Communications Chris Tennill said that the District “can tell people to vote, [it] just can’t tell them to vote yes.” Goldberg said that she thinks the biggest challenge facing Wydown and the District is having the community understand the minimal impact that construction will have on students’ education.
“[The biggest challenge is] getting people to understand that teaching and learning will go on, and there may be some disruption, but not until later when they’re working on the theatre and the gym,” Goldberg said.
In a preliminary survey commissioned by the District that surveyed 504 registered voter households, 77.0 percent of respondents said that they would favor a bond issue, knowing that it would not increase the tax rate. The bond issue needs only 57.1 percent of the vote, but Goldberg said the experience with Prop S keeps her from being overly confident.
“I don’t want to throw my eggs in one basket and say ‘It’s all done,’” Goldberg said. “I think every vote’s going to count, we learned about that last year with the passage of the bond issue by two votes.”
Despite the favorable numbers from the survey, an opposition group has already formed, calling itself A Better Plan for Wydown. The group is centered on architect Michael Roth’s alternative plan for WMS that he presented at the Jan. 13 BOE meeting. Roth’s plans would renovate Wydown instead of rebuild it.
“They’re tearing down approximately 104,000 square feet of what we think is rather useful space,” Roth said. “Our plan, basically, is taking that 104,000 square feet and adding 30,000 square feet to it.”
Roth said his plan would only cost $18.5 million and would result in more classrooms than the plan included in Prop W. He added that the group doesn’t believe that Wydown’s problems necessitate a complete rebuild, saying that the classrooms are “fully functional,” although more are needed, and that the District never thoroughly considered a renovation.
“As I understand it, according to the architect who did the work for the District, the District asked for a new building,” Roth said. “The District did not ask, ‘Find us what the best scheme is for renovating or for providing for the students at Wydown.’ It should have been a much broader or global question.”
However, Tennill said that the Wydown Tomorrow committee went through an “exhaustive” study of 10 possible concepts, seven of which involved reusing parts of the existing structure.  He called accusations that the District had ruled out the possibility of a renovation from the beginning “completely inaccurate.”
Roth also outlined what he sees as problems with the District’s plans.  He questioned the plan to put a parking garage underneath the building, calling it a “no-no,” and said that having students enter in the same location where there would be parking will create dangerous situations. He raised issue with the zero-tax-rate increase phrase, saying that it is “tweaking reality” because if the bond issue did not pass or a cheaper option was chosen, taxes would actually go down. Roth also questioned the length of the project and the disruption that it will cause.
Roth said that he offered his services to the Wydown Tomorrow Committee but was told they had sufficient help, and he said the reason he didn’t propose his plans in the summer was that they were not completed. He said that A Better Plan for Wydown will put up signs, canvass and email to spread the word.  An outline of Roth’s plans can be seen below, and the plans included in Prop W as well as answers to frequently asked questions can be found at http://www.clayton.k12.mo.us/40361012692957643/site/default.asp.

Contrasting views of the plans included in Prop W (above) and Roth's plans (below). (Images courtesy of Michael Roth)

Contrasting views of the plans included in Prop W (above) and Roth's plans (below). (Images courtesy of Michael Roth)

As for other opposition, Goldberg said she saw doubtful community members at the tours of Wydown that she conducted. The survey reported that 14.9 percent of respondents would not support the bond issue because they did not think the school needs to be upgraded, and Goldberg received similar comments.
“There may be some people who think that this doesn’t need to be done,” Goldberg said. “When I did the tours, there were a couple people who said, ‘Oh things look fine, you don’t need to do anything.’”
If the bond issue passes, the in-depth planning process would begin.  According to Goldberg, choosing architecture and construction firms and going through the steps necessary to break ground would likely take many months.
“We’ll have parents involved, I want representative group of students to meet with the architects, all of the different departments will meet and talk about their needs, you know, what the science rooms need to look like, the art rooms, how the theatre is going to be arranged, and that probably will take us into the start of school,” Goldberg said.
Tennill said that construction would not begin until the spring of 2011 and that the project would be done in the fall of 2013. As for now, Goldberg said she will be canvassing on four upcoming Saturdays, going door to door to inform the community about a project that will finally bring her and her staff the type of facility they have long awaited.
“We were always hopeful, but now we’re thinking that there is going to be an answer in the future, if the bond issue passes, that will address the issues that we’ve been dealing with,” Goldberg said. “[The staff] felt that they were listened to, that their concerns were validated, that something really awesome is going to happen for the school.”

Published:

2/23
2010

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Safety issues in the Clayton community raise questions

By noaheby

Clayton is a community that is often thought of as sheltered and protected from the crime and violence that plagues most cities, but this idea recently took a hit. The idiomatic Clayton bubble seemed to take a step towards bursting this month as two security issues affected student life.

The first, which occurred on Feb. 10, was a bank robbery that caused CHS to go through a “soft lockdown,” as Principal Louise Losos said.  Losos was told by Student Resource Officer John Zlatic that the Regions Bank in Ladue, which is approximately half a mile from CHS, had been robbed by a man who claimed to be armed and that the man had fled on foot.

“Did I think he was headed directly for the school?” Losos said.  “No.  But could he have?  He could have.  So we did what I would call sort of a soft lockdown…. We asked teachers to pull people from the hallways, lock their doors, and we locked the exterior doors.”

Zlatic said that teachers manned exterior doors to allow students to enter while he and other police officers patrolled the parking lot.  “There was no sort of immediate, imminent threat,” according to Losos, and the lockdown was removed after several minutes.  The gunman was never apprehended.

Two days later, on Feb. 12, the Center of Clayton was closed to students and faculty. The Center’s statement on the incident says that the Center experienced a “safety concern,” and Clayton Superintendent of Parks and Recreation Operations Toni Siering declined to answer further questions.  Losos called the incident a “personnel issue,” and Zlatic said that “an individual known to the Clayton Police Department conveyed a specific threat of violence.” Losos said that she never thought that students were really endangered.

“There was never a bomb threat, and I never truly believed that there was going to be any danger involved,” Losos said. “[Closing the Center to students] was a precautionary measure.”

Zlatic agreed, but said that he works under the premise that it is better to be safe and sorry and that the incident warranted a response. Losos said that she had hoped to open the Center later in the day but that “events didn’t play out quickly.” According to Zlatic, one suspect was arrested at noon and a second around 3 p.m. At that point, Zlatic contacted the Center to remove the ban.  He also said that a Clayton Police Officer was stationed at the Center for the duration of the closure.

Despite their chronological proximity, Zlatic said he doesn’t see any connection between the two besides their locations. Losos pointed out that Clayton is unique in its location – it is at the heart of a city center – and in its philosophy, and that these qualities can contribute to the occurrence of outside threats to the school.

“Most high schools are created based on the concept of keeping students, teenagers, from making the wrong decision,” Losos said. “They close the campuses, you can’t be in the halls.  Clayton High School has the underlying philosophy of presuming that students will make the right decision and then responding when they don’t.”

She also said that some security measures, such as metal detectors, would not have helped the bathroom graffiti threats of last year or the bank robbery and threat at the Center. One way to increase security would be to close campus, but Losos said that she has no intention of doing that. In all Losos said that high schools have to respond to all threats, even if they seem remote.

“We have cameras throughout this building – we didn’t have those three years ago” Losos said. “Columbine changed schools, particularly high schools, forever, and how we have to respond to real or perceived threats is at a much higher level than it was fifteen years ago.  You can’t just presume nothing will happen.”

Published:

1/27
2010

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Use of tutors raises questions

By noaheby

CHS is undoubtedly one of the best public schools in the state and the nation; it employs a top-tier staff and churns out bright, prepared students.  Yet despite Clayton’s educational prowess, students’ use of tutors would seem like a slap in the face to the school’s acclaim.  The obvious question, then, is why do so many students at such a great school need extra help?

The prevalent use of tutors is not unique to Clayton, according to Math Department Chair David Kohmetscher. Though he has only taught at Clayton, he said that comparable schools like Ladue have the same problems.

“Any schools that send kids to the universities that we send kids to have the same tutoring issues that we have,” Kohmetscher said. “We’re talking about kids with high aspirations, parents with high expectations, and parents with income that affords them the opportunity to give their kids every opportunity.  It’s kind of the perfect storm for having tutors.”

While he has never seen any solid data on why students use tutors, he said he thinks a lot of it has to do with the high-stress environment of CHS.  Taylor Gold, who has been using a tutor since freshman year, said that tutoring is a tool to deal with the pressures of high school academics.

Teacher Jane Glenn assists freshmen Leslie Goodman with her math homework. Students have begun to use their teachers as resources outside of the class room for help instead of paying for costly tutors. To meet this demand the math department now staffs the math learning center.

Teacher Jane Glenn assists freshmen Leslie Goodman with her math homework. Students have begun to use their teachers as resources outside of the class room for help instead of paying for costly tutors. To meet this demand the math department now staffs the math learning center.

“It’s because there’s a lot of pressure, so tutoring really helps give that extra boost of confidence that you are doing everything right,” Gold said.

In addition, she said that tutoring provided a different perspective when the way her teachers’ way of explaining things wasn’t sufficient.  Haley Wartman said that students also use tutors as a result of the huge gap between honors and non-honors classes.

“[Students use tutors] because the differences between the regular classes and the honors classes are so extreme that you can either be bored in a regular class or really challenged in an honors class and the people that are really challenged in an honors class need a little help,” Wartman said.

However, Kohmetscher said that sometimes it is whether a student is placed in the appropriate class that determines whether they need a tutor.

“I don’t know that we have a lot of people who are in their correct place curriculum-wise who have to have a tutor to be successful, as long as you realize that successful can be anything from an A to a B or a C for some kids,” Kohmetscher said.  “Getting a C in an honors class, for some kids should be a success – most kids don’t consider it to be one.  I think there are people who feel like if they don’t have all A’s on their transcript, they’re not going to get into their college of choice or their top four colleges of choice.”

To give students a option for out-of-class help other than tutoring, teachers encourage students to see them before and after school and during their free periods. Kohmetscher said that this was not the case when he was in high school and that it is good for teachers to be a student’s first resource.  The Math Department also piloted the Math Learning Center this year, which let students seek help any period from a math teacher.  But Gold said that telling student to come in outside of class isn’t always practical.

“Most teachers say that if you come in they’ll help you, but many times they have other meetings and other obligations, and it’s hard to find time in a busy schedule to come in early or stay after school,” Gold said.

The inability to seek help from a teacher often leaves students with no option but to face possibly the most daunting aspect of being tutored: cost.  Some tutors charge upwards of eighty dollars an hour, and seeing a tutor twice a week for two hours could easily amount to a huge bill to pay.  For some, it’s worth the price.

“I think that it depends on the tutor, and if you really like your tutor and you’re getting better grades then it may be worth it to pay the extra amount,” Gold said.

ACT and SAT tutors can be especially pricy; Kohmetscher called them “crazy.”  He said that it is the type of tutoring and the type of knowledge gained that dictates the worth of the service.

“If I can go to an ACT tutor that’s going to get me four points on my ACT, is it worth six, seven, or eight hundred dollars?  I don’t know, I would argue probably not, unless they’re teaching me content, teaching me how to problem solve, so when I go off to college I’ve got some new set of skills that’s going to help me be successful,” Kohmetscher said. If all I’m learning are tricks to improve my score without improving my ability, I’d be a little bit leery.”

The issue of teaching knowledge versus teaching tricks raises one of the many moral issues surrounding tutoring.  Gold said that high SAT and ACT scores can be used for scholarships and that the score is the most important part, not the knowledge.  Margaret Mulligan, who uses an ACT tutor, said that she doesn’t learn material but is taught test-taking skills.  But Kohmetscher said the idea of seeing a tutor to boost your score is essentially cheating oneself.

“I would much rather have my children take an ACT or an SAT and go to a school that their ability qualifies them for rather than, ‘Let’s get a tutor, let’s inflate my ACT and my SAT score so I can get into a school,’” Kohmetscher said.  “I’d rather be in a school where I’m amongst my peers rather than I’m at a school where I’m at the 80th percentile of my peers.”

Bianca Vannucci agrees with Kohmetscher.  She said that she thinks many use tutors to stay in classes that aren’t right for them and that students shouldn’t use tutoring just to get a boost.  Vannucci said that she agrees with a sort of educational Darwinism – if a student wouldn’t do themselves then they shouldn’t.

“That’s not how life is going to be,” Vannucci said.  “Once you’re at your job, you’re not going to have someone who’s tutoring you.  In the end it’s what you can do and what field you are developing by yourself, and so I think it’s more helpful to just go through life having teachers who maybe don’t make 100 percent sense, but then maybe what you take away from the class isn’t everything about math, but there’s also a little bit of ‘life is unfair, you’re not always going to get the score you want.’”

Whether ethical or not, the fact remains that many CHS students find the teaching they receive in school insufficient.  Vannucci said that often the problem lies in a teacher not being right for a class or a student not being right for a class, but it’s often hard to tell which is responsible.  Kohmetscher said that maintaining CHS as a high-level school requires rigorous courses and academic pressure, even though this often leads to students using tutors.

“I think people point fingers all over the place, at the curriculum, at this, but what they have to understand is that it’s our difficult curriculum, it’s our high expectations that make this such a good college-preparatory institution,” Kohmetscher said.  “You can’t have it both ways.”

Published:

1/19
2010

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Pro-Con Afghanistan troop surge – PRO

By noaheby

On Dec. 1 of last year, President Barrack Obama made a tough decision.  In a speech at West Point, Obama laid out his plans for the war in Afghanistan, including the addition of 30,000 troops.  Though liberals may claim this is a revisiting of Bush-era foreign policy, a troop surge is the only way the U.S. can ensure even partial success in the war-torn nation.

Before I begin, I must make clear that I am no foreign policy or military strategy expert and don’t pretend to be.  I have compiled information from a variety of sources, namely FOX News and The New York Times, and by using the information and analysis from those sources have formulated my opinion.

The first thing that must be understood is that sending additional troops is not the solution to the problem of Afghanistan.  Instead, it is a part of the solution that must be accompanied by, as Obama outlined in his address, greater civilian involvement and strengthening the ability of the Afghans to govern themselves.

Secondly, it must be realized that success in Afghanistan is vital to American security.  Success is an obscure term, but to me it means establishing a strong government that can protect the Afghan people and prevent terrorists from finding refuge in the nation.  If this does not occur – if Afghanistan is left with a weak, corrupt government susceptible to extremist influence – the U.S. will be in grave danger.  The Taliban would likely return and once again harbor al Qaeda militants whose first and foremost goal is to murder innocent Americans as they did eight years ago.

Perhaps some of the opposition to the war is due to the our short-term memory.  Maybe we do not remember going to work or school on a typical Tuesday morning and that same evening sitting at home in front of the television, watching firefighters and rescue workers, faces gray and black with dust and smoke, pull bodies from the rubble left by an attack on the American people.  It has been eight dark years for the U.S., that much is certain, but we must always keep in our minds what terrorism is capable of.  The 2753 Americans killed in New York City on 9/11 remind us that no matter how far away Afghanistan seems, it only takes a moment for the war to come hurtling back home.

In addition, the failed Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane heading to Detroit demonstrates the constant threat that extremism poses.  Through a combination of increased security and luck, we have avoided another devastating attack.  Yet if we learn anything from last month’s attempted bombing, it should be that while al Qaeda thrives, we are never safe.

It is therefore very clear that Afghanistan is vital to the security of the American people.  The path to success in Afghanistan lies in establishing a strong central government.  The current Karzai administration is corrupt and incompetent, and one of Obama’s main goals must be to set the leader’s of Afghanistan straight.  The funds, supplies, and blood that we have willingly poured into Afghanistan must not be abused or taken advantage of.

Another key component of American strategy must be to give the Afghan people something to look forward to.  Currently, their country is in shambles and occupied by a foreign military.  To bring the Afghans out of this great time of despair, the U.S. must aid in the development of a quality education system so that the Afghan people, including women, can produce a sustainable and prosperous economy.  The introduction of a larger middle class and greater job market will reduce al Qaeda and other groups’ recruiting abilities and will eventually lead to a more stable and self-sufficient Afghanistan.

None of these goals can be achieved substantially without an increased number of U.S. troops on the ground; a nation constantly barraged by suicide bombings and firefights has no hope for reconstruction.  Additional troops will deny al Qaeda a safe haven, reverse the Taliban’s momentum and strengthen the nation’s government and security forces.  The increased security will also allow civilian efforts to proliferate.

In all, the war in Afghanistan is not one that America can afford to lose.  Without a troop escalation to secure the nation in preparation for civilian reforms, we would be ensuring a prolonged conflict that could end in civil war and disaster.  It is difficult to continue fighting in a war that has been fought for almost a decade and has produced few results – al Qaeda still runs rampant and Osama bin Laden is still alive.  But we must remember that this war, while tragic, provides the security that we as Americans so readily take for granted.  And so, as Obama said in his address to the future men and women of our armed forces, “We will go forward with the confidence that right makes might, and with the commitment to forge an America that is safer, a world that is more secure, and a future that represents not the deepest of fears but the highest of hopes.”

Published:

12/5
2009

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Finals should focus on evaluating skills, not material

By noaheby

Oh, how the time has flown.  With winter break days away, thoughts of snow, freedom and sleep dance about in students’ minds.  Yet lying between now and bliss is the guardian of the threshold, the feared and dreaded final exams.  Though finals have been in place for years, it has come time for Clayton’s administration to take a hard look at the value and legitimacy of its exams.

The purpose of finals is simple: to evaluate students’ knowledge and understanding of a subject area.  This is a perfectly valid goal and deserves no criticism.  The methods used to go about this purpose are questionable, though.  Teachers require students to recall facts and details learned months ago, which, if the student missed that packet or worksheet while studying, leaves him or her helpless.  Final exams are, for the most part, entirely material-based, meaning students have to study and memorize the material covered in the class.  This is purely ludicrous.

Forcing students to memorize facts and details does not make practical sense.  My future does not depend on my knowing that Franklin Roosevelt was governor of New York before becoming president or my ability to regurgitate the quadratic formula or the value of Planck’s constant.  It is dubious that memorizing Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy will aid me as I head into my adult life, and I would bet a million dollars that knowing that it was Duncan who said, “What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won” will ever be of real value to me.

Instead of the current system of asking students to spit back the definitions or equations that they have memorized nine hours prior to the test (and will likely forget nine hours later), it would behoove teachers to take a more qualitative approach.  Students should be evaluated on the skills that they have learned in the class, not the material itself, for skills are not easily forgotten.  Since it is the skills that we will be taking with us as we leave CHS, it makes far more sense for us to be tested on them than the raw material.

For example, history finals should incorporate more document-based questions that force students to analyze a document using the material they have studied and the skills they have learned.  English exams should focus on reading and writing skills and a student’s ability to analyze and respond to a reading.  Math and science are slightly trickier, but for the most part the idea remains the same.  The final exams should be less about memorizing equations and more focused on applying those formulas and methods to real-life situations.  Language finals, unfortunately, need to stress memorization-heavy things like vocabulary and tense structures, but teachers should still focus on a holistic approach that evaluates a student’s ability to use the language in everyday applications.

I understand that teachers are unlikely to purge all material-based questions from their tests, ant quite frankly I wouldn’t want them to.  Details and specifics can be important and are worth knowing, they’re just not the most important part of what we learn in class.  Thus I do not suggest a complete erasure of factual and detail-based questions, just a draw-down to accommodate an increased emphasis on the evaluation of skills.

By slightly altering the format of their tests teachers could fairly evaluate a student’s competence in a certain class.  At the same time, they would be forcing students to stress what is, in the end, the most important aspect of a class.  After all, it is not the dates, the definitions, or equations that we will take with us as we leave adolescence.  Instead, it is the skills and techniques for learning and applying our knowledge that will prove useful and vital to our futures, and it is on these that we should be tested.

Published:

11/18
2009

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Honors class placement causes issues of different learning speeds

By noaheby

The division begins in elementary and middle school with so-called “extensions” classes, which offer faster pace and more in-depth applications than what the other students receive.  Once students reach the high school, three of their four core classes become tiered as they are delegated to honors or non-honors classes.  Yet some aspects of the honors placement system have begun to receive criticism.

For most subjects, the decision of whether a student goes into an honors or non-honors class is fairly formulaic.  For science and English, the judgment is based on multiple criteria, including scores on standardized tests such as the MAP and Explore, grade patterns, and teacher recommendations.

For math, though, only teacher recommendations are taken into account, and there is a fairly high percentage of students in honors math classes.  Math Department Chair David Kohmetscher estimated that approximately 30 percent of the freshman and sophomore classes are in honors math.  Kohmetscher said that this leads to less in-depth classes.

“You can have an honors class that encompasses the top 30 percent, but by choosing that large a class, in essence you’ve chosen to cover less material and chosen to have the level of discussion at a lower level,” Kohmetscher said.

In particular, Kohmetscher said that students are being sold short on statistics.  Honors Alg./Trig., for example, only has time to cover a third of the hypothesis testing and statistical analysis chapter.  If the pace could be quickened by two weeks, Kohmetscher said that students would be able to cover that content.  Thus, the problem becomes that the class is slowed by the bottom five or ten percent.

“The dilemma is oftentimes that it’s the kids asking the remedial question, asking to see the same question two or three times, that can become frustrating for that top 10 percent,” Kohmetscher said. “And what I really see when I look at the grades is we’re spending a lot of time at the level trying to turn C understanding into B understanding, and very little time in class turning B understanding into A understanding.  And if we as a district decide that it’s great to have the top 30 percent in honors, then we have to realize that our B population is probably going to be a little bit bigger, some of those kids are going to earn C’s, just so we can move fast enough to serve those top 10 percent as well as we can.”

However, some students argue that an honors class should focus more on bringing the bottom of the class up to a B-level, rather than taking the B students and helping them develop into A students.

“I would say improving the bottom half because if the top half is already doing well, they can figure things out and they can probably challenge themselves, but the kids that are at the bottom, if they’re not helped, they’ll just fall off the radar screen and totally tank,” sophomore Andrea Stiffelman said. “It’s a lot easier to stay at the top than it is to be on the bottom trying to get back up.”

Yet the issue is a double-edged sword.  Having such a wide breadth of students in an honors class and therefore holding discussion at a lower level often leads to the upper-level students becoming frustrated with a pace and depth that fails to challenge them.

“I don’t think I could sit in class with 30 percent of the class in here and hold our conversation at that A/B level and not have kids very, very frustrated,” Kohmetscher said. “But I think that in all likelihood the fact that we spend a lot of time at that B/C level has just as many kids frustrated, but I think it’s the kids at the top that are frustrated.  And I feel pretty strongly that an honors class ought to be targeted at servicing the kids at the top.  The reason we should have an honors curriculum is to challenge our best students; it shouldn’t be a place where that 70th or 80th percent student is in there dictating pace, dictating level of discussion.  If they want to be in there, and they want to keep up with the pace, and they want to rise to the challenge, more power to them –the problem is that they don’t. And when we get a lot of C’s we get parents complaining, and when we don’t stop to answer questions, we get parents complaining.”

To solve this problem, Kohmetscher said that he would like to see a different system of selecting students for the honors track out of middle school.  This system would be similar to that of the English and science departments, incorporating multiple criteria.

“If we come up with the criteria – the algebra skills – then I think the other issues take care of themselves,” Kohmetscher said. “Then I think we could move at the pace where we could get to the statistics content.  I think if we’ve identified the right kids in there, then the level of discussion gets amped up enough so that we’re talking at that A/B level instead of that B/C level.”

Kohmetscher said that the department came close to implementing a placement test for eight graders.  He said he hoped a test would be given to students this year so that the department could begin taking data and comparing students’ scores on the test to how they did in freshman and sophomore math classes.  The department would then be able to construct a more fair and accurate placement test to begin refining the placement process.

Many students disagree that test scores should determine what level class a student goes into. Instead, some advocate more student-decision.

“They should be guided by the teacher and the counselor and get their input, but in the end it’s their life and if they want to really challenge themselves, then that’s their thing, and if it’s too challenging they can always go back down,” Stiffelman said.

“I think it should be a decision between the student and the teacher,” sophomore Alex Yepez said.

Another part of the process receiving criticism is the parental override system.  If a parent or student is unhappy with the class that a teacher has recommended them for, they can follow the protocol, as it is called, in an effort to override the teacher’s recommendation.  According to CHS principal Louise Losos, this involves filling out a form, talking with the teacher and department chair, and eventually submitting the form to the administration for approval.

“There are times when as an administrator we can say no but that’s very, very rare,” Losos said. “If it’s from non-honors to honors, it’s typically a rubber stamp, but we want people to go through the process.”

Ignoring a teacher’s recommendations has it’s “pitfalls,” as Losos said. For example, if a student wishes to switch out of an honors class that they entered against the recommendation of a teacher, their grades are not simply wiped clean.

Though Kohmetscher said that parental overrides are not a problem in math classes, English is a different story.  Though the number of overrides is not having a palpable effect on classroom, some find fault in the system.

“I just think that sometimes we’re surprised by the students who are in an honors class and we didn’t expect them to be, and we might backtrack and say ‘How’d that happen?’ and they say ‘Well there’s an override,’ said Emily Grady, who teaches honors and non-honors English. “But sometimes we’ll kind of retrace the steps and find that maybe not all the steps of the process were taken…. I also think there’s probably a situation where some people are more savvy about it than others, maybe know the ropes or know a little bit about how schools work, maybe they’ve had other kids that have gone through the school, and they kind of know who to go to talk to, and maybe some people don’t know that system and they don’t pursue it.”

Grady said that she encourages students to talk to teachers about placements that they are unhappy with and that she understands that sometimes parents know their students better than a teacher.  Nevertheless, Grady said that many English teachers are irritated by the overrides because of the connotation that they carry.

“I would say most people are frustrated by it, I wouldn’t say anybody embraces it, because it’s kind of like people are second-guessing you,” Grady said. “We put an awful lot of effort and thought into it, and I think when people challenge it then we’re a little frustrated.”

Losos said that the current parental override protocol was drafted four years ago and that she does not see it changing anytime in the near future.  Yet even if the parental override system and math placement criteria are mended, it seems unlikely that the issues surrounding such an important and at ties controversial process will ever be completely vanquished.

“One of the complaints we sometimes get is the gap between honors and non-honors, but the problem you have is that no matter where you make that cut, there’s going to be someone who is right up against it,” Losos said. “There’s always going to be someone who just didn’t make it into honors, so we try to have a very rich non-honors curriculum, and I think we do.”

Published:

10/11
2009

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Clayton English Curriculum has room for improvement

By noaheby

Noah Eby

English Curriculum Column

For quite some time, the term “English class” has puzzled me.  After all, is English class like Spanish or French class?  Do we study grammar, tenses and vocabulary?  Of course we don’t.  Instead, the English curriculum focuses almost entirely on formal text analysis writing.  This is a major flaw in CHS’s philosophy of preparing students for their futures and needs to be fixed.

The fact of the matter is that unless you become an English teacher or professor, there is very little need for text analysis in the workplace.  Bankers, doctors, and lawyers do not make money by reading books and then writing essays pointing out the author’s use of figurative language and the underlying coming of age theme.  The ability to read and analyze is a valuable skill, but nine or ten critical analysis essays a year is beyond overdoing it.

Instead, English class should teach us more about the language itself.  The ignorance of grammar among teens is astounding.  We speak in slang and incomplete sentences and it comes through in our writing.  The “No Excuses List,” a list of the simplest and most basic grammar rules that students should be able to edit for, is constantly being disobeyed in students’ essays.  Incorrect apostrophe use, misspellings, fragments, and run-ons are abundant.  If the CHS staff really wants to prepare us for the world outside of school, we need to be taught the fundamentals of our language.  If they refuse to adjust to our needs here, then they should alter the curricula at Wydown or the elementary level.

In the more immediate future, the SAT and ACT are heavy on spelling and grammar, and Clayton students rely on their English classes to provide them with this knowledge.  As of now, though, we are clueless.  Many of my friends, myself included, had never heard of the subjunctive or past participle before Spanish class last year.  Even though we used them every day when we spoke, we had no idea what they were or how to formulate them.

In addition, English classes make it seem as if creative fiction is the only type of literature.  Memoirs and historical non-fiction in particular seem unduly absent from many classes’ syllabi.  Are they not valuable pieces of literature as well?  Though it may be more difficult to apply the standard analysis formula to nonfiction, this should be embraced as a breath of fresh air.

Nonfiction writing other than text analysis is also foolishly missing from the English classroom.  As students, few of us will become English teachers or novelists.  But many, if not most, of our jobs will require us to be able to write strong, coherent, nonfiction.  Whether that is a legal brief or an academic article, informative writing is imperative and yet not taught for a moment in freshman and sophomore level classes.  “English class” has become little more than a class devoted solely to the analysis of fiction texts.  This is completely impractical and is a massive loophole in the curriculum.

I realize that the curriculum is not likely to change any time soon, as critical analysis is the norm for most English classes across the country.  But if the English Department insists on focusing so heavily on textual analysis, they should at least allow students to really dig into what they have read.  Two weeks to read a text, a weekend to write an essay and another to revise it is not enough.  Though it may come as a surprise to some English teachers, students have busy lives.  We take hard classes, we play sports, we spend time with our families – we have lives outside of school that we are and will remain committed to.

Expecting students to generate truly valuable and insightful ideas, search through a text to support those ideas, and bring it all together in a laudable 1500-word essay in just a weekend is ludicrous.  Students should start with an outline, then a first and second draft, then a conference.  Jumping immediately to a rough draft only hurts the final product.  I would rather spend an entire quarter writing draft after draft of an essay if at the end I could walk with my chin up knowing that I had created something new and ingenious.  Ten rushed, mediocre papers is nothing to be proud of.

Though I hate to criticize a system that in most other ways serves its students well, it is necessary to point out the clear flaw in this school’s mantra of preparing its students for the future.  The English curriculum is far too one-dimensional, focusing almost entirely on text analysis and failing to address students’ needs.  As the nation moves towards reform, CHS must look inward.  It is time for the English Department to reevaluate its goals and fix the clear issues in need of redress.  Ironically enough, I learned that word in English class.