Mendolonium

This post continues my series of write-ups describing my tours of Pasadena elementary schools.   I recently had the opportunity to tour Webster Elementary School.  Webster is a moderately sized (~400 students), ethnically diverse, pre-K through 5th grade* elementary school, located in northeast Pasadena.  It is a large school with classrooms on two floors  and a separate  much newer, smaller building.  The school was clean, organized, and in good repair.  The school is an excellent example of the collegiate Gothic style and the exterior is quite stunning.  Much like Longfellow Elementary, just over a mile down the street, I can only imagine that Webster would really shine if given a historic face lift.

Pros:

• Within walking or biking distance of our house, 1.8 miles; about a 40 minute walk.
• The principal personally led the tour.  She was open and honest, sharing with us the latest information on class sizes and furloughs**.  She is the most experienced elementary school principal in the district and has been at Webster for nearly two decades.
• The school was literally thick with parents.  I saw parents in the front office, parents in the hall, parents on the playground.  During our tour we spoke with a group of mothers working in the school’s parent volunteer room.  They sang the praises of Webster.   The level of parent involvement was very reassuring in an environment of increasing budget cuts.  I got the impression that the parents would put in their own time and money to continue to ensure that the school was an excellent place for their children in spite of the budget cuts.
• Webster is a model inclusion school meaning that in each classroom there are 2 – 3 children with special needs mainstreamed into the regular classroom.  In recognition that these students need additional attention, the school district provides an aide for every classroom in the school for a minimum of four hours per day.  The aide works, not only with the special needs children, but with the rest of the class as well.  I also liked that, given the presence of so many special needs children, the teachers and school administration are more comfortable and familiar with kids who might be a bit quirky; i.e., be challenged by over stimulation and transitions.  Thomas often has some difficulties in large groups of children and it would be a relief for him to be in an environment where teachers were used to seeing that and knew how to handle it constructively.
• The kindergarten classrooms were much more in line with what I remember kindergarten looking like.  One classroom had a piano and a teacher that used music in her classroom.  Another classroom had a turtle and a bunny.  In every classroom I could see evidence of play such as blocks and Legos in bins.    Most striking was the absence of desks in the classroom.  The principal stated that she does not believe in desks for kindergartners; a statement which made me sigh with relief.  We toured all three kindergarten classrooms and as we were leaving one of the classrooms asked to serenade us with their rendition of “These are a Few of My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music.  It was ridiculously charming.
• During this upcoming summer two enrichment rooms will be created.  One room will be an art room.  It will be painted and furnished by parents.  One intrepid father is, with funding from the PTA, building 30 easels for use in the room.  The second room will be a math and science discovery room.  Again, the room will be painted and equipped by the parents.  While the school does not have funding for a dedicated teacher for either room, both rooms will be available for any class whose teacher who wishes to take them to the room for enrichment opportunities.
• The principal is working on a plan to provide elective courses to the students.  She hopes that the plan will be implemented for the 2011 – 2012 school year.  Under the plan students would select from an array of electives (e.g., cooking, art, drama, instrumental music, science) every quarter and would then spend 1 – 2 hours every week during elective time pursuing those activities in a multi-age environment with the other students who chose that elective.  The classes would be led by teachers and parent volunteers.
• The school has a working garden where each class is given a raised bed to work in.  It is a peaceful space and definitely an area I could see myself volunteering in should out children attend the school.
• The students are required to wear a uniform.
• The cafeteria was recently renovated by the parents and principal.  What could be a dreary space has been transformed into a colorful and inviting place to eat.  I will note that I think it is sad that the principal and parents had to do it themselves with the PTA providing the money for new tables.   Basic school renovations should certainly be something that the school district pays for.
• The school had a lovely inviting library, staffed (even with next year’s budget cuts) 6 hours a day by a dedicated librarian.  The library is open at lunch and recess for students to enjoy.
• The school is very diverse ethnically and socioeconomically.

Cons:

• The nominal school day (Tuesdays – Fridays) is 7:40 am – 2:15 pm.
• On Mondays school is shortened to 7:45 am – 12:15 pm.  This is a Pasadena-wide policy.
• The class sizes are large and are likely to continue to increase.  K is slated to have a 1:27 ratio next year.  Given the class size constraints and a limited number of teachers and classrooms the school will likely be forced to have more “combo” classes that combine two grades in a single classroom with a single teacher.  I don’t necessarily think that combo classes are bad.  In fact, for advanced students I think that they can be advantageous.  They do, however, require a very skilled teacher to manage.
• The school has a corporate sponsor and its name and brand are prominently displayed in the school library.  I believe that this type of corporate partnering is quite common in public schools now, however, I find the practice detestable.  The only “sponsorship” of a public school should be by the government (taxes) or personal contributions.  Allowing corporations to contribute to schools breeds inequality between schools (who has the “better” corporate sponsor?), introduces corporate influence into education (are there strings attached to those donations?), and allows society to continue to underfund public education by creating the expectation that schools should go out and find their own sources of funding.   Particularly troubling  is that the corporate sponsor for Webster is Nestle, a company that has come under sharp criticism for its infant formula marketing practices; that have been linked to thousands of infant deaths; particularly in the developing world.  These practices have led to a large scale boycott of Nestle.  Given that I refuse to buy Nestle products I certainly don’t like the idea of my children attending a school sponsored by them.
• The school uses the accelerated reader (AR) program.  While this is a pro for many parents, I did some  investigation into the program after I heard about it six months ago.   The AR program is designed to encourage and evaluate reading comprehension.  A student reads a book from the AR list (on which there are thousands of books) and then takes a computer based, multiple choice test on the content of the book.  The school pays a fee for access to the tests.   As a student completes the testing they earn points (longer, more complicated books earn more points).  In exchange for points, the students move up in reading levels and are also motivated by a charm that they receive.  Sounds good initially until you start to think about the implications for censorship, access to diverse reading material, the shaping of student’s interests, and the relationship of the student to reading.  While participating in the AR program does not explicitly preclude my children reading whatever books they would like, might they be more likely to eschew a book not on the AR list for an AR approved book so that they can get to the next level?  I want my children to read for the love of stories and the gain of knowledge – not to be motivated by cheap trinkets.  I want their comprehension assessed by discussion, book reports, and testing that involves a human being.  This may seem like a small issue, but this is an area that gives me significant pause.   I can see how participation in this program might shape my child’s interests and thoughts and I find that highly disturbing.  Note:  in the interest of fairness I should mention that I did not ask about the AR program at Longfellow and do not know if it is used there or not.  I will ask about the program on future school tours.
• The playground areas were in need of maintenance and updating.  While they were clean, there was a general air of neglect to them with cracked asphalted, very limited play equipment, and minimal shade.  They did not look fun or inviting to me.  The principal noted that the pre-K playground would be renovated this upcoming summer with measure TT bond funds.
• The school day ended while we were taking the tour which afforded us the opportunity to briefly observe the Pasadena Learns after school program.  I was very disappointed in what I saw.  All the student in the program were sitting in the cafeteria eating a snack (which partially consisted of chocolate milk in a plastic bag – not even sure how I would drink out of a flimsy bag).  The scene was loud and chaotic and the “instructors” for the program appeared just older than high school age and somewhat overwhelmed.   I wish that there was a good after school option offered by the city or the school district, however, that does not appear to be the case in Pasadena.  When it comes time I imagine that I will likely find another family to trade care with after school.

As soon as I became pregnant friends and colleagues began to ask me, “What are you going to do about school?”.   I received many dire warnings about the abysmal state of the Pasadena Public schools, however, these tours have shown me that those warnings were inaccurate;  the elementary schools are in Pasadena can be “good” schools.  Overall, I have seen many things I like:  diversity, an attempt to challenge the students without becoming hyper-competitive, a true sense of pride in the schools and the students.  That said, I have also seen many things that give me pause:  a schedule with a relatively short and early instructional day, large class sizes that will almost certainly be getting even more crowded, the infiltration of corporations, fund raising, and excessive “standards”, into the educational process.  These two tours have shown me that the difficult debate I will be struggling with for my children’s education will not be which public school to attend but more likely; will they be attending a public school at all?   The problems of competition, excessive focus on standards, corporatization, and lack of meeting individual needs are endemic public school problems in Southern California; moving to a “good” school or district will not entirely solve them.   For us the trade is more likely to be public school vs. alternative small private school vs. homeschool.  Like in medicine, my first order of business in choosing a school for our children is to first do no harm.  I have to figure out if the benefits of the public schools outweigh their potential harms.  Perhaps we can mitigate some of those potential harms at home or will we be driven to a more radical option?

* This is not technically accurate as Webster was, up until this year a pre-K through 8th grade school.  Longfellow, discussed in my previous post was a pre-K through 6th grade school.  The school board has made the decision to place all 6th – 8th grades in middle school beginning next year except for two schools, the Mc Kinley School and Norma Coombs Alternative.

** The furloughs have resulted in five school days being removed from instruction for each of the 2010 – 2011 and 2011 – 2012 school years.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.