After reading "The Promise of Urban Schools" article written by the Senior Fellows in Urban Education in the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, I had a number of thoughts but mainly I thought about How difficult it will be to implement these ideas.
The group identified five lenses through which to analyze urban education challenges and opportunities and used the acronym 'AEIOU' for those lenses: Agency, Equity, Instruction, Outcomes, and Urban Conditions. These lenses helped me to understand the issues and suggestions made by the group, but at the end of the reading I was left wondering How I would begin to implement these ideas.
Agency is one of the most interesting lenses as it discusses the purpose of education as preparing students to participate in the world around them. This is a very practical outlook and discussed the need to have hope in order to think that you can be a change agent. In order to teach at all, one needs to have hope that the students are learning and interested and will move on to live happy, productive lives. The article discusses the need to incorporate the students' culture and interests into the classroom to empower the students and give them opportunities to actually utilize their learnings to make change. Clearly, this all makes sense and was very energizing to me as a concept. However, after I put the paper down, I began to wonder How I would ever have the time to get to know all the students, all of their cultures and put together interesting lessons and projects while still fulfilling the basic curriculum requirements. It would seem possible and fun to do so if you were teaching just one class and one subject so maybe that is where you start - with just one class.
Equity was also interesting as the article differentiated equity from equality which are really very different. I would not have thought of these as different concepts but they really are. Equity requires justice in providing resources according to need and fairness, not according to power and affluence. The current way that resources are allocated to public schools, through taxes, is clearly not equitable as the more affluent school districts pay more taxes. This is obviously unequitable but again How would one person begin to change the way the entire public education system is funded? I don't even have an idea of where to start on this one.
Instruction and Curriculum discusses that beyond the standards, teachers need to provide resources for students and help them learn from each other by creating ;earning opportunities learn based on the students' interests and questions. Here it is much easier to realize How a single teacher can change the teaching method and incorporate these ideas more easily, by following the students' lead.
Outcomes and Impacts discussed that unfortunately, the idea of teacher accountability has often become a situation of passing blame. Instead, the article suggests that accountability should be a process that includes parents, teachers, students and community (business) members where they make decisions together to take action. Again, the need to allocate resources is discussed as a requisite for assessing outcomes and taking action on them. It is also possible to address How to do this in the microcosm of one classroom by engaging the parents and students in a positive way to look at outcomes and make changes to improve those outcomes.
Urban Conditions talks about the unmet promise that education will create a path out of poverty and an opportunity to work through differences between people. Schools should provide hope for people to improve their lives but unfortunately, the urban schools are often frustrating as the areas that most need education don't have adequate resources. However, there are 'success stories' that can be found even in these schools and these 'stories' show the possibilities that do exist. The challenge is to figure out How to learn from these successes and incorporate these lessons into every classroom.
While it is interesting to discuss the AEIOU of the urban schools, it is even more important to take these ideas and figure out How to implement them.
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Your question about how to implement the AEIOU ideas for urban schools was what I was left wondering as well. To introduce, or reinforce, agency and equity, as well as reexamine urban conditions, outcomes, impacts, and curriculum all make great sense in structuring an ideal educational environment for any student body. A promise, however, is only valid if you follow through with the commitment. This is a big promise to initiate and hopefully one that can be implemented to improve the educational systems of inner city districts. I wonder if there is a program for actual, practical implementation that accompanies the ideas presented in the Promise? Whether or not there is, it a good guide for teachers to consider when contemplating their classroom environment. Even if this program is not put into practice all over the nation, they are still worthy ideas for any teacher to remember and try to apply in their classes.
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