DeLeon*: “Its’ not Fair!” * Name has been changed to a pseudonym

I began tutoring at Wiley Elementary two years ago – when my daughter Hannah was in Kindergarten. I began working with DeLeon,* as his “Wiley Partner,” at the beginning of his first grade year. At the time, his family was living in the Legacy Park* subsidized housing project about four blocks from my home. DeLeon is oldest of four children and he often struggled to get the attention he needed from his mom at home. A single mom, DeLeon’s father was in jail and she relied on her family for as much support as she could get. During our first year, it became clear that DeLeon was a struggling reader. When I met him, he didn’t know his alphabet and could not match letter sounds. When doing word sorts he often appeared not to ‘hear’ the difference between beginning and ending sounds (“b” vs “d,” “m” vs “n”) and he would get upset when he was asked to sound out words. His strengths were in mathematics / science – he could easily add and subtract with manipulatives and understood the concepts of “property” (of a shape, a rock etc.) and “pattern.” His teacher, Ms. Chance, developed a 30-minute routine for us: three 10-minute tasks beginning with math, moving onto a word sort, and ending with a reading-game. Progress was slow – DeLeon was easily distracted and learned quickly that he could ‘side track’ me by asking me personal conversations or telling me about what was happening in his family. About mid-way through the year, Ms. Chance and I decided it was time to push him more during our sessions. We changed up the routine to include reading a book at the end of the session. Unfortunately we quickly encountered problems. DeLeon would refuse to read the books. He would refuse to sound out words. None of the strategies I tried seemed to work – reminding him of all the progress he’d made and encouraging him to be confident and take a risk. He would try to negotiate to do something else and when I set a boundary he would get so upset that he would cry. It felt awful. On the way to school one day, I decided to make a change. Hannah had been doing reading activities on a website called Starfall.net. There were activities that emphasized sounding out words and reading comprehension. I also was familiar with the activities on the PBSKids.org site too. I shifted reading the book to the middle and decided that I would see if he would complete the reading in order to do activities on the computer. At first it worked like a charm. DeLeon was so excited about the prospect of ‘playing’ on the computer, even though he declared “I don’t like Starfall” that we got into a routine of completing his math activity, completing a reader, and playing 1 or 2 ‘games’ on either Starfall or PBSKids. It worked until the readers got challenging. As children demonstrate proficiency on a reading level, teachers present them with more challenging texts. The jump from Level 1 to Level 2 felt enormous. There was still repetition and rhyme, but the shift from simple three letter words to four letter words made ‘guessing’ based off the starting sound and the rhyme difficult. DeLeon would have to attempt to sound out words. Our sessions started to last longer – 40 minutes –

Heather Davis� 9/13/11 8:24 AMComment [1]: In  the  next  section,  I  provide  a  lot  of  information  about  DeLeon.    You  probably  won’t  know  that  much  information  about  the  children  you  are  working  with  yet.    So,  it  is  appropriate  to  focus  your  first  field  report  on  what  you  observed  during  your  first  visit  about  the  program  /  school.    What  kind  of  culture  /  climate  did  you  perceive?    How  does  it  relate  to  providing  an  “optimal  cognitive  culture”  according  to  one  of  the  readings  we  have  completed?  

in order to get all three tasks completed. He took the first time we ran out of time reading and were not able to get on the computer like a champ. I reassured him that it would be better next week and we’d have time for the computer. And, we did get to the computer the following week – but only for five minutes. When the bell rang and it was time to go back to class he appeared to shut down. He put his head on the keyboard, began to cry, and wouldn’t leave. He repeated over and over, “It’s not fair.” The Principal came across the hall, reminded DeLeon of his ‘choices’ (part of the Positive Behavior Management plan) and helped calm him enough to walk back to his classroom. When we got back to Ms. Chance and told her what happened, he shouted at us both, “But it’s not fair!” Ms. Chance calmly replied, “Of course it’s fair, DeLeon. School is for learning and your time with Ms. Heather is about learning – not about playing on the computer. If the computer is going to be a problem, it won’t be part of your time together.” The tears streamed down his face – but he said nothing. “I know you had a tough day today, but I know you’ll do better next week. Can you apologize to Ms. Heather?” DeLeon hung his head and said “sorry.” I gave him a hug and said that I look forward each week to seeing him and that I would be back. He wiped his tears and walked back into the classroom. Sometimes it is hard for me to get my head around the difference between “contextual” factors and “cultural” factors that affect development of children in poverty. On the one hand, DeLeon has fewer resources. He has one parent to provide daily support and he must share her with three other siblings, including and infant, each of whom also have pretty pressing needs. When I think about the contextual factors on the development of his reading skills – I think about differences Nesbitt (2008) describes in vocabulary between middle class and low-income families. By the age of three, professional parents tend to have exposed their children to over 30 million words, 10 million more than working class families. It’s hard to know what kind of support he gets for reading at home including how many books he has access to and the extent to which his mom can make the time to read with him and his siblings (Nesbitt, 2008). And it is clear he doesn’t have a computer at home – which probably affects his desire to be on a computer but also his abilities to regulate his own behavior when he has an opportunity to use a computer. These kinds of contextual factors (i.e. where you live, the “amounts” of support you get, and the kinds of resources you can draw on to solve problems) affect children’s development because they 1) constrain the opportunities to learn and /or 2) present opportunities to learn ‘different’ skill sets not valued by school. Nesbitt (2008) also describes how cultural factors – the ‘habitus’ or ways of being – affect working-class and low-income children’s success in school. In 1996-1997, Wiley was recognized for ‘Exemplary Growth;’ their 4th grade reading proficiency was at 75.4%, math proficiency was at 77.2%, and Writing Proficiency 59.6%. These were way above the state and district averages. Wiley is one of the many magnet elementary schools in Wake County. The magnet school program was developed 30 years ago in-conjunction with the student assignment program when City of Raleigh Schools were united with Wake County Schools. The purpose of the two programs was to eliminate high poverty schools; that is schools that had more than 60% of their population living at or below the poverty line. The goal of the programs was to

Heather Davis� 9/13/11 8:32 AMComment [2]: In  this  section  I  try  to  make  a  direct  connection  between  my  observations  with  DeLeon  and  some  of  the  data  /  insights  that  affected  me  from  the  Nesbitt  (2008)  reading.    Notice  how  I  included  some  specific  details  from  the  reading  to  highlight  the  points  I  was  making  about  how  contextual  factors  may  shape  his  reading  development.  Heather Davis� 9/12/11 2:15 PMComment [3]: You  are  not  expected  to  know  data  from  1996/  1997.    But  I  think  this  was  important  that  in  the  past,  average  rated  were  enough  for  schools  to  get  exemplary  ratings.    Now  schools  need  to  disaggregate  their  data  and  demonstrate  proficiency  and  growth  across  groups.  

ensure that no school in Wake County had a population of low-income students greater than 40%. The philosophy underlying the unification of the two school districts was that improving the academic quality of city schools would contribute to an urban renewal for downtown Raleigh and, in turn, improving the quality of life in the county. It is important to remember that in Raleigh, like many cities in the United States, income level correlates strongly with being non-white. Thus, the direct benefits of improving Raleigh City Schools were directed at serving historically marginalized populations (African Americans and later Hispanics) in the city. Magnet schools tend to be theme-based and offer alternative programming compared to traditional schools. Their mission statement emphasizes values that stretch beyond what are traditionally considered a teacher’s / school’s responsibility:

“Wiley's International Studies Magnet Program is designed to develop responsible, respectful citizens of an interconnected, interdependent world. Twenty-first century tools assist students in learning about the rich world around them and various means of communicating across cultures.” “We believe that students should have a balanced menu of electives that include courses from each of the following three areas: Core Subjects (Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Media, International (Foreign Language, Cultural Studies) Arts (Visual, Performing and Contemporary).”

However, like many of the schools in the County, Wiley elementary has continued to struggle to meet the needs of its’ low income and non-white populations. For these reason, the student assignment program and magnet programs have come under scrutiny for their ability to meet the needs of historically marginalized populations. Look at the table below. Notice how presenting ‘average’ proficiency rates can obscure the challenges a school is facing to meet the needs of ALL of its students. 2009 Percentages 2001 Percentages (# Proficient, # Taken, % Passed) 4th Grade Math Black 11 18 61.1% 9 19 47.4% White - 40 >95% 36 38 94.7% 4th Grade Reading Black 8 18 44.4% 6 19 31.6% White 37 40 92.5% - 38 >95% DeLeon is an example of one of the children, the school struggles to serve. The students in Wiley’s base are largely drawn from the 27603 and 27605 zip codes. When looking at the census data I notice how the 27603 zip code boasts higher percentages of African American (21.5%), Hispanic (8.4%), and families living below poverty (11.1%) compared to the rates for Wake County. I also notice how the 27605 zip code boasts 60% renters in the area. In both zip codes, the median household income appears to be what Woolfolk would consider middle class ($41,979) but the per capita income for the area suggests it is not a very wealthy area to live 21,307. I wanted to understand

Heather Davis� 1/30/12 9:57 AMComment [4]: Here  is  where  I  describe  what  I  know  about  the  context  /  culture  of  the  school.    Consider  incorporating  the  school  /  program  mission  statement.    What  does  it  communicate  to  you  about  the  school’s  values?  

where students were being drawn from so I searched Google for a zip code map and discovered that 27603 is very large zip code compared to 27601 (downtown Raleigh). In the map below, 27603 is represented by the brown area. It stretches from downtown out into Garner. Thus, poverty associated with the living in one of the housing projects in the city might be obscured by some of the residential data from Garner. DeLeon lives in a housing complex that is on the boarder of 27603 and 27601. In some ways, the ‘data’ from the census obscures an accurate picture what the ‘micro-context’ of his housing community.

DeLeon’s school has a variety of programs that are designed to support the development low-income children. They partner with the YMCA to offer before and afterschool programming for all children and developed the “Wiley Achievers” program for children identified as “at risk” for school failure to work with teachers and tutors. They also developed and in-school tutoring program, “The Wiley Partners” program to provide additional 1:1 instructional time and support. So, what does he mean when he says “It isn’t fair.” I learned over the last two years that when DeLeon says, “It’s not fair,” he’s making a direct commentary on his life. It isn’t fair that he often misses play-time to work with tutors. It isn’t fair that he doesn't have a computer at home to “play” with. It isn’t fair that when he gets computer time, it is constrained and he cannot “play” the games he might play if he had one at home. And it isn’t fair that his time on the computer is (often) dependent on whether he successfully completes academic tasks. DeLeon is a ‘smart’ boy – he is able to look around at what the other children who attend Wiley have and notice what he does not. Despite it’s mission statement to provide a global education and to develop 21st century students – DeLeon is caught in a cognitive culture (Nesbit, 2008) of remediation. His school time is filled with messages about what he cannot do, and fixing it. In their case

Heather Davis� 9/13/11 8:40 AMComment [5]: I  don’t  expect  you  to  be  able  to  analyze  with  this  depth  the  data  from  the  census  and  the  school;  but  I  do  expect  that  you  ‘ask  good  questions’  when  you  look  at  the  census  /  school  report  card  data.    Ask  yourself:  “What’s  missing?”    “What  can’t  I  learn?”    Heather Davis� 9/12/11 2:17 PMComment [6]: You  do  not  need  to  look  at  the  zip  code  map  –  but  it  might  be  helpful….    I  found  this  by  plugging  in  the  keywords  “zip  code  map”  into  Google.  

study of four teachers Stodolsky and Grossman (2000) also found some of the teachers held ‘deficit’ views of the ‘new’ population of minority children entering their school. These deficit views shaped their relationship and their selection of pedagogies. My colleague Marc Grimmett who studies the development of African American males often asks: “What would schools and teacher-child relationship look like if we all believed the Black-male child was whole and complete and perfect?” Would DeLeon be pushed to be in technology electives and foreign language classes in lieu of tutoring? What I learned from this unit is that schools / teachers may have a challenging time impacting the contextual factors that shape the development of low-income, minority students. We may have to be creative about how to 1) develop partnerships to get needed resources (computers, books, learning toys) etc. into the family contexts so that low income children have the opportunity to interact with tools their middle class peers do. 2) We may need to develop partnerships with parents to help them develop the confidence and skills to play with and read with their children; that putting the resources in the home (Nesbitt, 2008) may not be enough. And 3) that we may need to rethink the nature and purpose of ‘enrichment programs.’ Do the programs we design for low income, minority children send them the message that they are “whole and complete”? Or, do they reinforce the cultural messages they already receive that they are behind and lacking?

Heather Davis� 9/13/11 8:58 AMComment [7]: Here  is  where  I  try  to  take  what  I  learned  from  the  activity  and  think  about  the  implications  of  the  work  I  do  at  Wiley  and  with  other  schools  /  programs.