Hope comes from the passion of the teachers and students. Teachers definitely prioritize their students and actively try to fight against situations that seem to put their students up for failure. For instance, in a team meeting of several teachers, they made sure to vocalize via emails their distain for certain planned situations that would cause students to perform inadequately in their class or on the standardized tests. Instead of the usual 40% of the biology grade being dependent on the science fair, the biology teachers convinced the administration to reduce it down to 25% this year. Teachers are continuing to fight; as long as they fight, there is hope. In addition, these students are intelligent and passionate human beings. Perhaps their passions lie outside of the biology classroom, but obviously there is something that drives them despite the situation that they live in.
Students continuously have to prove themselves on their standardized tests. In addition, students are required to take a test (for ELA, mathematics, history) at the beginning of the year, mid-year, and the end of the year to ensure they are improving. However, the taking of these tests often cause problems: access to computers, time to grade the assessments, limited time in their classes, and general readjustment that is not ideal. Also, teachers and students are made accountable via grade transparency. Parents have unlimited access to their child(ren)’s grades via a website and progress reports are also sent home to be returned with a signature. I can understand how this grade transparency could encourage “helicopter” parents, causing problems for teachers and the school. However, at this school, it seems that parents generally do not have the time to be involved in their child(ren)’s academic lives (due to full-time jobs, etc.). My teacher explained how, out of over 70 students, only 17 parents made appointments with her for parent-teacher conferences. Therefore, most of the accountability most likely comes from the state. This accountability has also probably caused the loss of funding for art programs and advisory activities/lessons, which further hurts the students.
My teacher attended a small liberal arts school in order to have access to resources to help her with her learning disabilities. She came to work at a Boston public school via the Boston Teacher Residency Program. Her husband also works in the Boston public school system, currently working to improve instruction— although he encounters obstacles of his own, preventing schools from improving. There is definitely a good relationship between teachers; my teacher often remarks to the other teachers how much she enjoys talking with whichever teacher she had been talking. There is definitely a sense of community; a sense of “there is so much chaos happening but at least we’re dealing with this together”. In addition, she is mentoring a new teacher at the school to support them as they are learning about teaching. However, there is definitely a sense of teachers versus administration as the administration often makes decisions that the teachers do not agree with.
In biology, I recognize that it is more difficult to relate the subject to their real life experiences compared to the humanities and social sciences. However, for their lab reports, they have been recalling on their personal experiences to relate to their project’s purpose. The lab report asks them why their study is important to them and to other people as well. They also are asked to recall on personal experiences to support their hypothesis. These experiences are then shared with their lab group. In addition, in the AP biology class, there was an class discussion about climate change and how it is important to fight it. They continued to discuss the role that politics has in climate change and also in their lives. Although the experience they use may not be pertinent to their identity (as social justice discussions may be), this is still a good way to make biology more present in their lives.
2018 Boston Urban Teaching Initiative 