Classism in the college application process: why fee waivers are not enough

As I work through the college application process with my students, I have flashbacks to my own application process:

It was winter break 2005 and I spread out all of my college application materials across our expansive kitchen island. I had been rejected from the school I applied early decision to and it was cram time. In about a week I managed to crank out 11 applications which we then sent overnight express to each campus. I have a distinct memory of my mom being around during this whole process. I know that part of the reason was for moral support, another part was because I had her look over all of my applications and essays before I considered them final, but another reason was because she was the keeper of the check book, and each application required a check.

Luckily, most schools have come to the realization that for low income students especially, a $35-$55 application fee is simply not feasible, and they allow/provide fee waivers for students who are receiving free/reduced price lunch. My students would not be able to apply to nearly as many colleges if they were required to pay the application fees for all of them and I am glad that these types of provisions are in place to promote equal access to higher education.

Unfortunately, there are still costs that have yet to be fully addressed, especially by many more elite/selective schools. I have one student who is applying to a number of incredibly selective schools, many of which I applied to or considered applying to. While all schools require official ACT/SAT test scores, most will accept the scores as reported on student transcripts. Others will often accept a copy of the reports we have mailed to our organization's office. Today I had to deal with a school that accepts nothing but the official score reports sent from the testing website.

The process for sending official ACT score reports goes like this: When students register to take the ACT, they can send up to 4 score reports for free along with their registration. After they've taken the test and received their scores, reports cost an additional $10 per report, per test, per school. My student has taken the ACT 4 times; two of which he was able to take for free using a fee waiver, but the other two he paid nearly $50 each to take. The college in question requires students to sign an agreement that they will submit the official reports from every test taken. This would be a $40 cost for my student (one for each of the ACT tests he took). After explaining the situation to admissions staff, I was able to get them to agree to accept just the reports from the tests my students want considered, but he will still have to pay for the reports from those tests. What about the students who do not have an advocate?

It is incredibly difficult to talk with my students about the fees and costs related to college applications. For many of my students, the decision ends up being between paying for an additional score report(s) and giving their 1-3 hours of wages to their family or into their savings account for college. These fees are ridiculous and could be the difference between a qualified student applying to a college or not. As an higher income student, I had the luxury to apply to as many schools as I wanted, send scores to as many schools as I wanted to, an complete applications on my own time line since my parents covered all of the costs and fees. Low income students do not have such luxury. Even when fees can be waived, these students have limited time frames to get things completed and submitted or a limited number of reports they can get. I don't believe that we can consider access to higher education to be equal until students of all income backgrounds really do have the same opportunities.

I find it particularly frustrating to see these policies being implemented to schools that claim to be committed to economic diversity on their campus. These schools identify themselves as being ready to meet full financial need of their admitted students, yet they cannot comprehend the financial burden of applying to their institutions.

Some Overwhelming Thoughts

On saturday morning, my student who is 7 months pregnant will take her second, and final ACT. Next to her, or perhaps in a different classroom, will be the student who didn't take the test in June because his father was in the hospital and, soon after, died. Finally, my only student who never took the ACT, the one whose house I drove to and whose family I woke up at 7am one day, will take the test after battling months of crippling depression and absence from school. And still, a few seats away, will be my students who opted to take the test for a 3rd time and who are currently paying me back for the $49 registration feel in installments from their pay checks.

Each day, this job humbles me.

A new school year has begun, and it has taken no time at all to feel overwhelmed, under-rested, and as though I will never be able to do or give enough to my students. Although, I suppose, that is the nature of the service that we do: to realize how incredibly vast and deep the gap is between the options and achievement of low income students and their higher income peers in our society, and to commit to battling it day after day until more people and more institutions take notice and commit to change.

I have already experienced my first celebrations and my first disappointments. My first student was accepted to college, and my first 7 students were not awarded a scholarship that I nominated them for. I know that this year will be full of such ups and downs, and my hope is that the ups overwhelmingly outweigh the downs.

Briefest of brief updates: check
More posts to come: hopefully!

Minneapolis-polis-polis-polis

Once upon a time I created a blog where I planned to write all of my reflections of my life in the world of college access. I did this for a while, well about 40 entries worth, writing about college access, my students, my life, my coworkers, my thoughts... and then spring came and I completely dropped the ball. This is not to say that I haven't been thinking about these issues, or even talking about them extensively with many of you, but I've forgotten how important it is for me to write them down. My recent experience with the GRE reminded me that I truly enjoy writing, so I hope that I can continue to do some this year, not in the form of letters of recommendation. Orientation for my term of service starts on Monday, and in the spirit of going "back to school," I decided to majorly clean and organize my room. Granted, it still needs a few hours of work, but in the process I came across some notes that I took during last year's mid-term retreat which centered on a documentary about the life of Hubert H. Humphrey. Here's what I wrote:

Through this term of service so far, I have realized how powerless individuals can be (perhaps not the point?). What is necessary is a whole group to really promote change. An individual can be the spark or that first push, but one person cannot change everything.

This makes me feel both more and less responsible- more to be a part of something great, but less pressure for me to make change on my own. I can inspire others, but I cannot do it alone, not should I be expected to.

I fear that I see myself less in the realm of public service in my future. I think that I see myself utilizing the best of my intellectuatl and personal strengths in a way that will not directly involve service. But, since service is a core value of mine, I think it will shine through in everything that I do.

What do I owe the world? Service? My strengths? What if they are not the same?

This passage is a bit of a ramble, but I think it was really fitting to find on the figurative (and almost literal) "eve" of the beginning of another term of service for the following reasons:

1. In the end of my babble, I write a bit about my future and what I will do with it. These thoughts were, I think, the starts of ideas that led me to taking the GRE this year and coming up with a tentative graduate school plan to head towards after this year. These days I'm finding myself believing more and more that what I am obligated to give this world is the very best of myself, which to me means that I will not necessarily find myself in the place that is most needy, but rather in the place where I can give the most and best of myself to really make change. More on this to come in future posts, I'm sure.

2. This realization about my individual power and its limitations is something very important for me to keep in mind as I start this year. I know that there will be times when I feel like everything is riding on me, and those are the times when I will need a reality check.

More posts to come sooner than later, but until then enjoy this nugget from Mr. H3 himself:
"This, then, is the test we must set for ourselves; not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us."

Love from Senior Coaches

Right before the real deal ACT in April, all of the senior coaches came up with speeches and gifts for their junior coaches. Colin and Mitch said the following before splitting up and reading separate poems for us:

C: TO HARDING!
M: Though you face harrowing dangers at the upcoming ACT.
C: Worry not, young apprentices, soon enough you will be free.
M: Your students will do great and apply their Kaplan training.
C: You've taught them well, and there's no risk of it waning.
M: And though at times it may seem that the panic never ceases,
C: Rest assured, college access heroes, there will be major score increases.
M: So to the two junior coaches who roam the halls of
C: Thank god you're coming back, as I don't think they could stand your parting.
M: Any new folks would pale to the magical Abigail
C: And your students, sparkly Victoria, do immortally adore ya.

Mitch read this for me and also had gifts to go along with the theme, which should become clear pretty quickly.

Abigail, sit right down and take a trip to Hogwarts
After months of Kaplan methods make the hat do all the sorts (at this point I was given a paper witch hat)
The hat wants to apologize, he could not sing, laryngitis
But he kindly wrote down verses for me to recite to us

Unfortunately, today you won't be placed in any houses
Instead you have to sit here and get ridiculed by us louses
The hat is here today to provide you with some special brews
all in the name of escaping those nasty ACT blues.
(Mitch made a bunch of little containers with mysterious 'potions')

First, the hat knows that Victoria and you are always in a tizzy
So during this stressful time here is some calming drought, extra fizzy. (cherry coke)

Tomorrow remember that you are a great coach and you did everything right
The hat is confident your students will flex their test-taking might
After months of wordiness, graphs, strategies, and the pythagorean theorem
The hat would like to reward your hard work with some veritaserum (vodka)
This will force your students to say what they know is true-ish
that it is cool that they have a coach who is quite Jewish.

And although your desk is a vortex of crap
you can always tell me you can find their ACT reports with the Marauder's Map (piece of paper)
And I am sure that tomorrow all your students will show up early in homage to their mentor who too is quite nerdy.

Now I know that you worry that you are not a good junior coach.
On that topic, the sorting hat would like us to approach
He would like to disabuse of this notion
By turning you into the best JCo with polyjuice potion (mix of juices)
But know that something strange and magical it will do
The potion will only succeed in turning you into you!

Excuse me for this rhyme is getting long
But I have to compete with Colin's songs
I guess the only solace for enduring this slog
Is that you will be able to write about it in your blog (done!)

Now the hat wants to leave you with one last parting gift
An elixir that will give you quite a post-ACT lift
It will get you through long into the night
but better keep this one out of LT (leadership team) sight
Just one warning, it is not as sweet as candy
it is a vail of liquid luck, or in other words, Brandy!

We felt so loved!

No time to write for pleasure these days...

So much has happened in the last month +, and I've been too busy to write about it! So many topics are swarming around in my head, but today I think I'll write a little bit about how well I've gotten to know my students in the past few months through their special circumstance essays and my letters of recommendation.

In our organization, we have our students write "Special Circumstance Essays/Letters." Basically, these essays are submitted in addition to all of the other application materials to each college and are meant to give some context to each student. They are supposed to tell the story behind the great or sub-par grades or ACT scores as a way to encourage admissions committees to look beyond the numbers. They might also explain a temporary dip in grades or show schools what obstacles these students have had to overcome and how overcoming those obstacles has uniquely prepared them for college. The things I've learned about my students have been amazing and heart breaking. Here's a dumbed down summary:

- 8 of my students have parents or siblings who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, or gambling.
- 7 of my students have been in this country for less than 10 years.
- 11 of them were born outside of the country, most of those are here in the US as refugees
- 5 have parents or siblings with extreme physical disabilities
- 6 have lost siblings or parents in their lifetimes
- 3 have suffered from some sort of depression or anxiety
- 20 have yet to tell me their stories.

Hearing these stories and learning about the situations my students have had to go through has been a profound and overwhelming experience. There is so much pain that I do not think I could ever endure that my students had to experience before they were even in high school. I am amazed that not only have my students survived such hardships, but that they have come out of these experiences stronger and with a fervent desire to go to college and improve their lives. This has shown me that the work that I do is meaningful and worthwhile, and that I cannot picture myself doing anything more important right now.

Can low income students afford to be untalented?

So, I haven't posted in a bit and have a ton to catch up on with this blog, but I'm up late waiting for a brisket to cool and reflecting on my day, and here are some thoughts.

Right now our students are applying for summer enrichment program- basically any program of any length over the summer that will keep them active mentally or physically, help them explore an interest, aid in developing college related skills, or give them some experience on a college campus. One of my students is applying to do a summer program at a local art school- a 2-week pre-college program on comic illustrations. Anyone who applies to the program has to fill out an application with the basic types of question about parents and emergency contacts and a brief statement of interest, and most students pay an application fee and a multiple hundred dollar tuition, though there are scholarships available. However, to apply for a scholarship, students must not only fill out the regular application, but they must also submit a portfolio of 10 of their pieces of artwork. When I learned this it started to rub me the wrong way: basically students who could afford it could just sign up for the class, but lower income students have to prove their interest and talent in ways that wealthier students do not. In some ways, it makes perfect sense. How could anyone expect to get free money without proving some level of skill or talent? Scholarship money, of any sort, should go to students who truly want and need it- and in this case, to students who show an active interest (and probably talent) in art.

So, despite the fact that this policy does make sense to me, I continue to feel kind of icky about it, especially when I think about my childhood experiences. Growing up, I would be the kid who decided two days before the due date that I wanted to do a program like this art program. I would write a little paragraph about how great art is and how learning blah blah blah would help me develop some skill or understand the world or reflect on blah blah, my parents would write a check, and I would be set- excited to try something new and my parents happy to have something to entertain me over the summer. I was a child of many extracurricular activities. Seriously. I took lessons on 3 instruments, ice skated, horseback rode, played 3 racket sports, and did gymnastics. In fact, the only activities I can think of that I never tried are organized field team sports, speech or debate, and karate (or similar combat sport). And, for the most part, I was/am terrible at every activity I tried. In fact, I'm actually best at making fun of myself, shopping, baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and arguably writing- and I learned none of these things through private lessons over the summer or school year. Despite being terrible at every activity I tried, I still had the opportunity to try many new activities and meet a lot of different people- gaining a large amount of cultural and social capital along the way.

My students, for the most part, do not have the opportunity to explore activities the way that I did and that's because, for the most part, they have to prove an actual talent or incredibly strong interest in something to make a commitment to it. Their families require this proof in order to legitimize dedicating their time, effort, and sometimes money to this activity for their child and the activities themselves require it to allow fees or tuitions to be waived or subsidized.

This whole phenomenon is mirrored perfectly within college as well. I have written a number of times about my privilege to be able to "tool around" in my elite liberal arts school majoring in religion and taking courses like "Jewish Ethics"- a path that is somewhat impractical but interesting. Many of my students, on the other hand, are incredibly focused on finding schools with the pre-professional programs they think that they want. Because while I had the luxury to try out a number of activities, classes, etc, with the hopes of finding my "calling" or interests, many low income students must find the most direct and practical path that draws on their strengths and talents.

To end this babbling I have two big questions:
- First, does this phenomenon of low income students having less opportunities to explore areas where they have yet to develop any particular talent only contribute to the lack of socioeconomic mobility in society? I ask this because it seems that having the ability to explore a number of paths or activities connects someone with many people, ideas, or organizations that will ultimately be helpful in the future. For people without the access to such resources achieving the same types of mobility may be difficult.

- Second, I wonder if any studies have been done on the success or achievement of low income students in various extra curricular activities versus their wealthier peers. I would hypothesize that low income students in such activities are often better at them than their wealthier peers because they often have to demonstrate a talent in order to become involved instead of simply signing a check.

Northern Michigan

I find that I gravitate toward the critical in this blog- possibly because it's easier to write passionately about or because it attracts more readers and responses, or because my liberal arts education has permanently scared me with a glass-half-empty mentality, at least when it comes to writing. Whatever the reason, I've managed to come up with a slew of topics I could write about that would criticize or highlight the inequalities in the education system, but to be honest, I'm really not in the mood to write about any of them right now. I had a really good day today and have been loving my job as much as ever, so why end the day on a critical note? Instead, I'll share some great moments from a college visit I recently chaperoned.

Last week was spring break for many schools in the area, so my organization tries to take advantage of that time by organizing a variety of over night campus visits to some schools that are farther away- and I found myself signed up to chaperone one such visit to Northern Michigan University. NMU is located in the upper peninsula, an area of land that I didn't even realize was part of Michigan- can you tell I'm not a midwesterner? (But, seriously people, the UP is not incorporated when you use your hand to describe Michigan... so how was I to know?) We took a group of 48 students to NMU for 2 nights and 3-ish days (including the two 8 hour bus rides) and it was actually a lot of fun and relatively little stress. Here are some highlights:

- Staying in a hotel. We stayed as a group at a Country Inn and Suites and it was a riot. In the evenings we had a couple hours of hang out time in the hotel when students could play games, do their nails, go swimming, or just hang out. The activities that the students came up with to do included: facials (yes, some girls brought face masks), personal questions with a group of 15 students in a circle (adorable!), Black Jack (with mini syrups as chips), and, apparently, running up and down the hallways squeeling. We had 3-4 students assigned to each room and at night we would do room checks and lights out checks (it kind of reminded me of being an RA, except that I was really bad at it). We were always a little nervous to do room checks, especially because we had one couple on the trip that kept sneaking off together, but the best thing we encountered was one of our students ironing his shirt for the next day while his two roommates looked on in disbelief.

- The campus tour: this provided an endless amount of material. The group was split in half, and my tour guide's name was Jon, a senior some-kind-of-art major. Jon, like many tour guides I've encountered (and like I was, I'm sure), tried hard to make a bunch of jokes that usually just didn't fly with the group. There ended up being a number of occasions when David and I were the only two laughing at the back of the group, it was rough. Some of Jon's gems:

- When talking about the Writing Center: "They mark it [your paper] up in red ink, just the way I like it"
- Trying to engage the students "Maybe we can be friends, we can meet up at starbucks after I'm off work" Creepy Jon..
- Describing the giant wooden dome that encloses the NMU football field "It's all wood- you look up and all you see is wood!!"
- Describing the security system on campus: "If you hit the red button, you'll KNOW you hit the red button" (Jon had a thing for red)
- Talking about the performing arts building that used to be called by the acronym F.A.R.T "the higher ups got wind of it and had the name changed"
- Describing his show on the campus radio station "I would just play whale calls and sometimes I would play the whale calls over other music and the music would sink up with the whale calls, it was beautiful!"

Oh, Jon. Between his awkward comments and the figure eight, 4 flights of stairs death march of a tour he led us on, we will certainly never forget NMU.

- Eating in a dining hall. For any of you readers still in college, enjoy the dining hall while it lasts, you will never get this much variety again! Victoria and I certainly took full advantage, and it earned Victoria the nick name "Chompy Chomp".

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun and I was amazed by how well behaved all of the students were. NMU is an interesting school that I probably will encourage a number of my students to apply to. To end this post, I will leave you with the poem that David, Victoria, and I wrote about our trip to share with people at work:

Over Spring Break to Northern Michigan University we did go.
We thought the bus ride would be a low.
When we had to watch Dodgeball it was, but OHHH…well.
The school, dear Jeron did try to sell.
To our delight the students fell….. in love.
It was so cold that you almost needed a glove.
We laughed, we climbed, we swam- so fun!
The students were certainly sad when the trip was done.

The campus tour was excellent, but wet and dreary.
To the students who wore flip flops, we were kind of leary.
They had Starbucks on campus, we wish we could have stopped.
But luckily in the bookstore for sweatshirts everyone shopped.
The panels were informative and held in a room that was fanc—y.
When the students seemed low energy we made them danc—y?

Staying in a hotel was certainly a highlight.
At midnight we checked to make sure the students had gone night-night.
We stocked the hotel with nail supplies, cards, and games.
The students certainly did not find the tiny swimming pool lame—s.
The food on campus was all you can eat.
And eat we did, it was such a treat!

We went to the gym- Oh me oh my
On the Rock wall, went up towards the sky
Ping pong and Wallyball were popular sports
There were lots of other things to do- all sorts
Back in the hotel we had to recover
But could have stayed more days- at least another

On the way back to Minnesota.
We weren’t surprised that there was snow—duh.
The students were pleased to watch Despicable Me.
However they did not cry, like in Toy Story 3.

Overall the trip was a success.
Our students saw a great University, which did impress
We hope some of these students will call Northern Michigan home
And everyday will get to see that big beautiful wooden dome.

Blog Revival?

So, months ago I set out on this noble mission to blog about my life and my work and share some issues of college access, privilege, education, etc. with anyone willing to read. Once my weekly work hours became 50-60, I mysteriously lost time for blogging. Shocking, right?

Anyways, fear not, loyal readers, I still am having lots of education related thoughts, I'm just keeping them in my mind more these days. In an effort to revitalize the blog (and maybe decrease the amount of things swimming through my brain), I will provide you with a list of the topics I would like to blog about in the future (as in hopefully one post every few days, wouldn't that be nice?) if any of these seem particularly interesting, you should leave me a comment, which might give me that boost I need to start posting here again:

- Stories/Quotes from the recent 2 night/ 3-day campus visit I chaperoned
- ACT score updates
- Racism in the hallways?
- Our favorite sophomore interview moments
- Students doing drugs
- Recreating the campus tour to be more accessible to first generation students
- Reflections on "the power of one" concept
- who needs our services?
- The privilege of being "undecided"
- My biggest teaching mistake
- The stigma against 2-year/community colleges
- My new (part time) job!
- A summer opportunity
- Unpredictability in my students lives

Please do give me some input, or maybe I'll just go down the list and use this as my guide. Hope you're still out there, dear readers!

BTCS goes political, briefly.

Some of you may know that there is currently some legislation in Congress that proposes a number of budget cuts, including the elimination of funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the umbrella organization over Americorps, of which I am a member. With the hope that with more awareness will come more action against such legislation, I wanted to share a letter the CEO of the organization I work for will be sending to all of our supporters:

"Dear Friends,

We need your help to Save Service. The United States Congress is considering legislation to eliminate funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) from the budget, jeopardizing thousands of service initiatives around the country, including our own. Contact your Member of Congress today to get involved in the conversation and sign up for “Save Service District Day” at the link below.

With CNCS programs like AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve and Senior Corps at risk, our communities could potentially lose the support of organizations providing needed services like Teach For America, Admission Possible, Foster Grandparents, Habitat for Humanity, Public Allies, City Year, YouthBuild and many other local organizations, jeopardizing services in education, youth development, elderly services, healthcare and nutrition. At our organization in this year alone, 72 AmeriCorps and VISTA members provide college access and success services to 7,400 low-income students, and we hope to continue to grow in those communities and others nationwide.

These competitive CNCS grant programs are some of the strongest levers of public investment, each requiring private sector matching dollars and demanding results-based reporting. The federal investment made in faith based and community organizations through CNCS leverages nearly $800 million in matching funds from companies, foundations and other sources. At our organization, every dollar in AmeriCorps investment is matched by four private sector dollars. Additionally, these national service programs provide needed full-time and part-time career opportunities for Americans in today’s economy.

Congress is debating this bill now, and they'll be looking to their constituents to see how much -- or how little -- the American people support these cuts.

We need your help. Tell Congress that we cannot afford to lose the critical services these programs provide in our communities. Contact your Member of Congress today, and sign up today at www.saveservice.org
for your local "Save Service District Day.” Visit your representative’s local office on February 25th to make sure they hear your voice."

When I think of this legislation, I am almost silenced by how shocked I am that it exists. I consider myself a pretty reasonable and open minded person, and while I tend to fall on the liberal side of things politically, I pride myself in being able to understand the opinions of many conservatives (I owe that to my proud Republican father and, probably, my religion degree). However, I cannot, in any way, understand the reasoning behind cutting funding to CNCS.

Let's forget, for a moment, about the moral and social implications of such cuts- which would be unfathomable (can you imagine a society without these kinds of public service organizations?). Instead, let's think about money- because, after all, that's what this seems to boil down to. According to a less than perfectly trustworthy source (wikipedia), more than 85,000 people currently serve with Americorps (plus thousands more serving through other CNCS programs). We don't make a salary, we are awarded a living stipend of around $11,000 for a year of service. Based on the number of hours we end up working at my organization, that evens out to about $3 and hour- not even close to minimum wage. This means that there are more than 85,000 government slaves working for our country right now. Or, as a colleague of mine said in a slightly less abrasive way: "we're the cheapest labor out there!" I understand that the government is in need of money right now, but at this point, if nothing else, Americorps is keeping some 85,000 work eligible people at bay and paying them practically nothing to do some of the toughest jobs in our society! How is it in any way logical to cut funding for these programs, releasing these employees out into the world only to become unemployed because of the terrible job market?

So, if you're reading this and are thinking about pressuring your local politicians to oppose this legislation, I encourage you to do so! Do it for the students I'm trying to get into college, or the families moving into their first real home, or the students being helped with their reading so they can succeed in school, or simply because it makes the most financial sense- whatever your reason, I hope you'll support continuing funding to CNCS.

Photographic Reflections on the Past Few Weeks

My new years resolution of posting here has crashed and burned, but I guess that's what happens when you work 3 50+ hour weeks in a row. A lot has been going on, and while I am planning a more thought provoking post, here's a little update in picture form.

Last week was Valentine's day! Victoria and I obviously went all out:



Here is Victoria with the box of chocolates we wish we had received on Valentine's day.







And here I am the day of dressed in as much work appropriate pink and red as I could find.






We decorated our office for the special day as well:



Note the following decorative elements (outlined in hearts with arrows pointing to them):
1. Decorated foam hearts hanging from the ceiling.
2. Our awesome "Jux Stay in School" heart- sneakily making fun of our students who like to text/write the word 'jux' instead of 'just'
3. Valentine's mailboxes for me and Victoria. Unfortunately, neither of us got any notes in our boxes...
4. Calendar of Robert Pattinson, which is not actually reserved for valentine's day, Victoria just loves him.


This past week has also been the kick off for student recruitment- which means that we are attacking sophomores left and right trying to get them to join our program. The crazy excitement portion of recruitment is called "Hoopla" in our organization, and here are some ways we have been getting students excited:



We made a recruitment rocket! Please don't mind the awkward whited out areas, I'm trying to maintain some confidentiality for the organization I work for. Victoria wears this rocket with a tin foil hat and runs around scaring students. I'm honestly not actually sure this makes our organization appealing for students, but it's really entertaining for me.







We decorated the office! Doesn't it look welcoming?








We also had some of our students do a rap that we're playing during morning announcements. Here are the musical masterminds:









And here is one last image to leave you with for now: Victoria showing some attitude to a student who missed two make up ACTs after school- he looks pretty terrified to me!

A Classist ACT Prompt?

Last weekend my students took their third practice ACT. This is an exciting time because they have finally had a few good weeks of ACT strategy and they are eager to see if their scores have improved. This is also an important time for me to figure out which students are understanding the material and which students need some extra attention. While most of my students seemed confident that they had at least improved a little on each section, they left the test with defeated looks on their faces after finishing the last section, the essay. After reading the prompt, it's not hard to see why my students felt this way.

The prompt goes:

"Most people enjoy having a yard so that they can design both the exterior and the interior of their homes. Some people prefer landscaping that is polished and controlled, with lush green lawns, carefully trimmed shrubs or bushes, and flowers that are replaced each season so that they remain fresh and colorful. Proponents of this type of landscaping believe that the visual design of a yard is the most important factor and that neighborhoods should have standard guidelines so that the area looks uniform and consistent. Opponents of polished landscaping believe that yards require a variety of treatments, based on factors such as the climate conditions of the region, and advocate for choices that incorporate water conservation, native species, and edible plants. In your opinion, should people follow standard landscaping guidelines that focus on a yard's visual design, or should they vary their landscaping design out of consideration for other factors like climate or conservation?"



As I see it, there are two main problems with this prompt:

1. We told our students that every prompt they would get on the ACT would have something to do with their lives as students, something they could relate to. We gave examples of debates surrounding school uniforms, year round schools, single sex education, serving fast food in the cafeteria, weighted grades, the list goes on. This prompt has nothing to do with the lives of the majority of high schoolers in this country and I'm pretty sure that most high schoolers would have no opinion on the issue whatsoever (unless you're one of my good friends who worked summers with a landscaping company).

2. This prompt certainly has no relevance or context for most low income or urban students- who may be living in housing without yards or might not have the income to afford landscaping. This is the issue I will be focussing on for the remainder of this post.

Most of my students qualify for free or reduced lunch and if they don't, they definitely make well under the average income for the state. The neighborhoods surrounding the school where I work have small yards, but, as far as I can tell, no neighborhood association regulating landscaping or anything else. When I think of neighborhood associations, I think of wealthy neighborhoods where the residents can afford to pay dues to have a council that puts on BBQs and gives gifts to the mailmen. That is certainly not the kind of neighborhood my students come from. For those who don't live in single family homes, they live in apartments or town homes without yards. Thus, this prompt brings up a concept that almost none of my students have any experience with.

In fact, quite a few of my students did not know what landscaping was- and this was true among my coworkers as well. In their essays we had students argue for having landscapes instead of yards or having a back yard, or what to put in your yard (think swimming pool and playground). It was clear that besides not having any personal experience with landscaping in their own yards, they had never even encountered the term.

To me this begged the question: 'is this a classist prompt??' And honestly, I believe the answer is yes. The definition of 'classist' is "biased based on social or economic class." For a writing prompt to be classist it would have to give an unfair advantage to those of a certain social or economic class. I believe this prompt does just that. If I had this prompt when I was taking the ACT (or SAT in my case), I would have had absolutely no trouble answering the prompt. Why? Because most if not all of the neighborhoods I lived in growing up had guidelines for landscaping. More than that, I'm pretty sure that for at least the last 13 years my family has had a LANDSCAPER. I grew up seeing drawings for new gardens in our yard, hearing about the installation of underground sprinklers, and watching my parents ask permission from neighborhood councils to put fences in my yard (and wouldn't you know they even cared about what material the fences were made out of). I grew up surrounded by this information because my parents had the expendable income to pay for everything that comes with landscaping and because we belonged in a social class that expected it of us.

Most of my students do not have the same exposure to landscaping as I did, giving them an unfair disadvantage when approaching this prompt. In the words of one of my co-workers: "they might as well have asked if hired help should be full time or part time or if neighborhoods should be gated or not!"- this prompt was clearly aimed towards a set of students with a certain life style, one which, from my knowledge, most urban low income students do not share.

It's incredibly frustrating to think that a standardized test, one which is supposed to put students on an even level regardless of their high school, background, religion, race, etc. can so blatantly give an advantage to some students over others. What's worse is that it is really difficult to help our students overcome this type of disadvantage. We can teach our students how to write a well structured essay, but we cannot give them life experiences they've never had- and when a whole prompt is based on such an experience, having it can make or break one's score.

Holy Matrimony

Lest you begin to think that my life is all work and no play, here's what we did a few weeks ago:

We got engaged!
Like our rings?



<--- This one's mine.



And this is Victoria's ->




We'll keep you posted on our wedding plans!



OK, well, that was lies. Here's what actually happened:

A few weeks ago I entered to win a variety of online contests on cities97.com- something I do every week because, well, why not? I saw that one of the contests to enter was for the Wedding Fair in the Minneapolis Convention Center. I thought to myself, 'oh, I know someone who is getting married! I bet Mitch would LOVE to go to this,' so I entered the contest. Low and behold, I won the tickets! And, of course, Mitch and his fiance had plans for the day so it was up to us to come up with a creative way of using the tickets.

Solution! We decided to fake our own engagements to two of our coworkers and go to the fair pretending to be planning our weddings.

Here are the lovely couples:

D.J. and Victoria

How they met: D.J. and Victoria ended up working at the same Caribou Coffee. Victoria didn't like him at first, but eventually he grew on her and they fell in love!

How he proposed: Unknown. But it might have involved pickles.

Wedding Plans: Jungle themed wedding at the Minnesota Zoo on July 28th 2012. Yes, this is a Thursday and it will be followed by a two-day reception. The bride and groom will wear loincloths and there will be plenty of lanterns around which remind D.J. of Thailand.


Me and David

How we met: Although we went to different schools in different states, one of David's best friends went to school with me and we met when he visited her one weekend. The rest is history.

How he proposed: It was the last night of Chanukah and as I went to light the first candle, there was the ring around the candle!

Wedding Plans: Late summer/early fall 2011, with either a red/orange/fall foliage or purple color scheme. We will be married near a lake where we will have our guests light floating lanterns over the water. The ceremony will be inspired by Jewish and Unitarian Universalist customs.


We like to think we were pretty believable. I even got complemented on my $15.00 TJMaxx ring. We got to taste some different types of food and cakes. We also watched a couture wedding dress fashion show and decided which ones we liked and didn't.

All in all, a really fun way to spend a sunday and some free tickets. Unfortunately, it appears that we have not won any of the honeymoons or dinner cruises we entered contests for, maybe next time.

I'll leave you with this image: Victoria and D.J. poking some mossy center pieces.

A Zen Buddhist Story

Today we had a full corps meeting, as we do every friday and during some work time a co-worker of mine, D.J. brought up a story that I thought would be fun to share with you.

D.J. first told this story at a professional development session that he attended at his school which was addressing the concept of tracking in schools. Many schools now will assign their students to various tracks: a college prep track made up of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes and a regular or non-college bound track with regular or even remedial classes. In the meeting, someone asked: "Does academic tracking perpetuate segregation in education?" D.J. replied that it does not have to, but only if both tracks have similar expectations and a set of future plans. The college track gives students a set of defined goals and ways to achieve them. The 'regular' track, however, does not provide it's students with any rigid expectations, or plans for the future. D.J. believes that the best solution would be one where expectations are appropriately high and understandably clear for all tracks.

To illustrate his point, D.J. told this story:

There was a monastery in the mountains of Thailand that was once considered an attractive order to be a part of. It contributed a lot to the well being and spirituality of the community around it. Recently, however it had become a dying order. Monks and Nuns were leaving in droves and the spiritual vitality of the community was dwindling.

The head Abbot of the monastery decided to visit a Rabbi of a successful and vibrant community to seek some guidance. The Abbot told the Rabbi that he was worried about the future of his monastery. The Rabbi replied: 'That's just terrible, and too bad because I heard from an Abbot nearby that a member of your monastery is about to become the next to be enlightened, so it would be a shame for it to die out." Surprised, the Abbot thanked the Rabbi for his time and headed back to his monastery.

When the Abbot returned to the monastery he shared the Rabbi's news with the community. Everyone was surprised to hear that the next to become enlightened was among them, but mostly returned to their normal lives.

As time went on, the members of the monastery started treating one another a little differently- thinking that maybe the other was supposed to be the next to become enlightened. And then they thought, wait, maybe it's me! So each individual started working harder on his/her spiritual development and soon the order was rebuilt and back to it's full vitality.

The moral of the story is that it does not matter whether or not someone in the order was about to become enlightened, the expectation that someone would was enough motivation to rebuild the order. When the members of the monastery could envision a future for themselves, they were successful.

According to D.J., if all students were able to aspire to a future they could envision, they would all be successful, regardless of what track they were assigned and whether or not they end up in college in the future.

The Case of the Terrifying Mother

Last week we had an interesting and terrifying visitor. She is the mother of a senior in our program and she came to our office to demand that her son, a junior, be admitted to our cohorts. First, she asked why no one had recruited him for the program, to which we replied that we advertised all around the school last spring and it was up to the students to take the initiative to apply. At this point she replied that she was taking the initiative on behalf of her son now- that he is a Native American with two siblings who went through the program and that he must be accepted right away.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't always handle conflict well- emotional break downs? suicide attempts? love issues? I'm all over those- but being yelled at... not my cup of tea. My "fight or flight" instinct kicked in and I went with the "flight," immediately referring her to my supervisor and sending him a panicking e-mail (sorry, Ben!). This seemed to sedate the mother enough to leave us alone, but not without taking my business card first- now I'm screening all of my calls.

Colin was able to catch up with the student in question and found out that he had no interest in applying or joining the program. We also looked up his grades and found out that his gpa is a 1.4, well below our requirements for applicants (2.0 or higher).

When the mother finally left the office, we were so shaken that we cowered under our desks in the fetal position. See Victoria below:


While this was a kind of hilarious office story that hopefully amused you, dear reader, it points to a bigger issue of a parent's dreams for her child and her child's goals for himself. It was heartbreaking to hear how desperately this mother wanted her son in our program, wanted him to graduate high school and attend a four year college just like his sisters only to find out that the son seems to want none of that for himself. The story became even more heartbreaking when we learned that the oldest son of the family had been killed serving in the US military in Iraq and knowing that many of the hopes and expectations of this family ride on this son's shoulders now.

So often in my studies of Education in college I thought and wrote about parent involvement being key to student success. I even wrote one paper about how parent involvement/motivation/presence is one of the key issues facing our educational system today. This encounter, however, proved my entire theory wrong. Here, the parents were incredibly invested in their children's education and success, despite their low income and minority status- but it was, most likely, the son's lack of motivation which will lead to his lack of educational attainment.

Wanna Know My New Boyfriend's Name? Kaplan!

With the new year has come a new focus to our curriculum: Kaplan ACT Preparation.

In the beginning of the week we handed out 3 prep books to each student and walked them through what were essentially wedding vows betrothing them to their prep books. The goal was to emphasize how important our students should be taking their books and this prep season in general and to make things a little fun because, let's face it, the next 3 months will not be all that fun.

Teaching the Kaplan curriculum is scary and frustrating. Scary because what and how we're teaching our students really matters now. Before, we were having conversations with them: what kind of school do you want to go to? what is the best way to save money? what should you include in your resume? Now, we are entrusted with helping our students improve their ACT scores and properly teaching them the techniques to do so.

Teaching Kaplan is also frustrating because it doesn't all relate to our students. Some examples:
- Kaplan does all of these cheesy things with the word "Kap" in it. For example "Kap Wrap" is the end of the section question that is supposed to make them think. "Thinking Kap" is the question at the beginning of each unit that is supposed to use the same methods that we will be teaching later in the section. I'm assuming this was amusing for the authors of the kaplan curriculum, but my students are not amused.

- Kaplan uses language that is too technical or confusing. Here's a perfect example in a section that I have to practice teach tomorrow:
In the English sections students read an excerpt and encounter various grammatical and structural errors which they are then prompted to correct.
" I rose slowly through the wooded sections, but upon reaching the flat, open areas, I rode MORE FASTLY. (this is not really in caps, it's actually underlined"
The first step of the method is to figure out what the problem is. In my mind I say: "oh, ok, the problem is that 'fastly' is NOT A WORD" but no.... according to the Kaplan book, the issue is that 'more is incorrect with slow'- what does that even mean?? If I told my students that, they would just look at me with death stares.

In a broader sense, my issue, perhaps not just with Kaplan but with the ACT in general, is that so many of the English questions are wrong or right because they "sound right." That's great for the majority of American high school students, but not for those who have learned English as a second (or third or fourth) language. To them, things don't just "sound right" in English- partially, I would argue, because English doesn't make all that much sense in the first place, but also because they don't naturally think in English. The second language that I'm closest to fluent in is Hebrew (and, mind you, there's no way I would survive a day in an Israeli high school where I was expected to speak Hebrew)- but there are very few occasions where I could read something in Hebrew and tell you that it "sounds wrong" or "sounds right"- it's Hebrew and if I'm reading it I'm going to assume it's grammatically correct- or at least it's more grammatically correct than I could ever write it. For my ELL students who struggle so hard to write correctly in English, how can I expect them to notice someone else's mistakes?