It's fundamental that teachers and parents communicate, and for me as a teacher, parents are my first and best support. The first thing I do when I see a problem I can't resolve one on one is call. And while I get a lot of feedback from commenters and colleagues who say the parents are never home, they don't care, that it's a waste of time, or whatever, I haven't found that to be the case. Of course I am pretty determined to make contact and I search under every rock for that number.

It doesn't always work. Sometimes the parents are frustrated and don't know what to do. Sometimes they are unwilling or afraid to do anything. No one's perfect. But now, after thirty years, I'm hearing about letters to limit parent access. They say they're being used unfairly against parents of color, and that white parents don't even know about them. For all I know, that's true, because I'm a white parent and this is the first I've heard of them.

In fact I know of multiple instances of parents coming to school and confronting teachers. Our UFT consultation committee has addressed this and we now have a procedure. In our school, all non-employees sign in and wear guest stickers. The guests write that they're going to this office or that, but we don't actually have anyone following people around the building.

So if some parent decides to come to my classroom and scream at me for being a terrible human being, or whatever, there's not a whole lot I can do to stop it. And we have indeed had cases where parents sought out teachers while they were working. I'm available to see parents by appointment. I cannot address parental concerns while I've got 34 students in front of me. I particularly cannot deal with disagreements in front of my students. It's especially egregious if the student happens to have done something wrong. Should I discuss it in front of her peers, so that they can talk about it all day?

I'm really kind of gobstruck that there is this mechanism and I've never even heard of it. I wonder how it even works. We have over 4,000 students in our building. When someone signs in, are the security guards expected to check the name against a limited access list? How large do these lists get? I suppose it's viable, but what happens if they have a hit? Does this person, unlike everyone else, have to make an appointment before meeting in the school?

I can understand how that would make a person angry. And it would be particularly egregious if an incompetent administrator (and yes, there are one or two of those here and there) saw fit to just shut out everyone and anyone who reflected potential inconvenience. That seems to be the case in some places. Of course, incompetent administration isn't headline worthy, and the papers are mostly focused on so-called bad teachers, who are evidently the scourge of western civilization.

I think these letters could be used for parents who've been abusive. There's no excuse for a parent stalking or confronting a teacher in a classroom setting. There's no appropriate response for a teacher beyond, "I can't discuss that at the moment," or calling security. I can understand how frustrating that would be to a parent. But there are reasons why administrators are not in classrooms, and a very good one is so they can deal with theses issues while we are.

If they're dashing off letters so as to lessen their workload, well, perhaps they ought to find jobs more suited to their talents. The problem, though, is that individuals who don't enjoy dealing with people often find their way out of the classroom. They become administrators. Quite unsurprisingly, individuals with little or no people skills are miserable administrators. Just as they deal poorly with students, they deal poorly with teachers. And just as they deal poorly with teachers, they deal poorly with parents.

Of course it's to be expected that if you give incompetent administrators a convenient tool like a limited access letter, some will abuse it. It's too bad because there are certainly cases where such a letter is appropriate. Systemic abuse, of course, could result in it going the way of the dodo bird, like suspensions for kids who publicly instruct teachers to perform unnatural acts.

There is another option of course, and that is holding administrators accountable for their lack of discretion, lack of competence, and lack of skill in dealing with humans.

But I'm a dreamer.

Last night we had parent-teacher conferences. I always like to meet parents face to face, even if I don't speak their languages. As an ESL teacher, I spend half my conference time frantically searching for translators. I can speak Spanish, but that's about it. Our school hires a bunch of translators, but some are in great demand and I drag students or anyone I can find to help.

Yesterday I was pretty lucky. One of my new students speaks a language I don't, but her mom spoke perfect English. She told me she was born here, but moved to another country.  Her daughter grew up there, but last year they moved back here.

She enrolled her daughter in a religious school run by people from her national background. But she claimed her daughter spent a whole year there and learned nothing. I found that hard to believe. I asked how that could be. Apparently, almost all the people in that school were American-born. The teachers said, "Oh, she doesn't speak English," and pretty much dumped her in a corner by herself.

The girl was miserable. She cried every night, and begged Mom to take her back to her country. For this, Mom paid $5,000.

This year she came to our school. She was placed in the beginning ESL class, but three days ago was transferred into my near-beginner class. She took a seat between three Spanish-speaking girls who I'd previously deemed inseparable. I'd actually wanted to break them up and use them as buffers between people of our primary language group, but they thwarted my plan by behaving fairly well and speaking English virtually all the time. The new girl is best buddies with them, and now they all speak English exclusively.

She's very happy. She wakes up eager to go to school. She participates avidly, and I'm confident she will do well in my class. Her attitude strongly suggests she'll learn English quickly and do well in other classes as well. Mom is over the moon at her newly well-adjusted and contented child.

"I should have sent her to public school in the first place," concluded Mom. The papers can trash us from here to eternity, but we know how kids like that need to be treated. Clearly not everyone does.

It's not easy when you have a Very Important Job that takes all your time. You don't really have time for your kids, because the Job takes up every moment of your time. Sure, it bothers you when report cards indicate they're failing every one of their classes in school, but that's really the teacher's job, not yours, so what can you do?

Still, when you get a Very Prestigious Offer to work in the United States, that's nothing to sneeze at. And it's pretty well known that the teachers there aren't nearly as rough as the ones in your country, so why not bring the kids along and give them  a new start? This way, it's a clean page, and they'll surely excel.

Yet, after all that, coming to a new country and all, the darn English teacher has the audacity to find your private phone number and call you. In fact, he has someone who speaks your language call you, and says The Boy has cut class six times. What can you say? You say the teacher has not been taking attendance properly, and to show you're not to be trifled with, you hang up. That should end things. But no, the teacher gets someone else to call The Wife on some other number. Where does he find all these numbers? Again it's someone in your language, and now he not only wants to talk about it, but he demands someone come to school and discuss it. He says in this country people have to come to school when their children have issues. What's up with that? The Wife, not knowing the ways of the world, agrees to go.

At the guidance counselor's office, everyone apologizes. I'm sorry, says The Boy, for cutting and failing all my classes. It won't happen again. But then, at the following week's parent-teacher conference, the English teacher has the nerve to say the cutting has continued, and The Boy could pass if only he would show up and do the work. Furthermore, he says The Boy has been failing quizzes because he gives them in the beginning of the period and The Boy doesn't show up until they're half-over. Doesn't he know The Boy stays up late?  He's sleepy and can't always make it in on time. You can't send him to bed because you sleep early and you can't wake him because you have to leave early for The Job. You don't have time to waste fighting with The Boy about getting out of bed. Don't teachers in this country know anything?

The only thing to do, all things considered, is counter-attack. You ignore the request and demand bilingual classes in your son's language. What? Your school doesn't offer them? What's wrong with your school? What do you mean you told us that when we arrived? Yes, you told us you didn't offer them, but now we're telling you we want them anyway. You can't do it? You say there are other schools that offer them? But we want them here, and we want them now! Well I never.

But that's not the worst part. On Monday, that same troublesome English teacher notices The Boy is not in class. He knows the language teacher is taking the class on a trip, but he refused to sign The Boy's form, claiming he cut and came late so many times. That's bad enough, but now he picks up his cell phone, right in front of the class, and calls the teacher who organized the trip. Why does he even have the language teacher's number? Haven't these teachers got any work to do at all? He asks whether The Boy handed in a permission slip, and finds out The Boy forged his signature.

Now, it's a conspiracy. The language teacher gets involved. He not only refuses to take The Boy on the trip, but also writes him up, and The Wife has to go to school yet again. This is altogether too much. They're talking about suspending The Boy, just for cutting and forging one little signature. How can you do your Very Important Job with all these teachers bothering you about every little thing? Can't they just take care of this? Don't any of these teachers have anything better to do? Clearly there's something very wrong with this school. They do nothing to resolve problems, but complain endlessly, and about everything.

So you send The Boy back to your country for a few weeks of much-needed vacation, and then bring him back, so you can send him to private school. What The Boy needs is a fresh start with people who will understand his needs.

The public schools in this country are no better than the ones in your own country. What a disappointment.

That's what this piece suggests. If teachers are to be fired based on test results, what do we do about parents who can't get their kids to school? Should they be fined? Should their names appear in the NY Post so their neighbors can shun them and they can fear leaving their homes?

Probably not. Who knows why kids do what they do? They don't, in fact, come with guarantees. I know some great parents who wind up with extremely problematic kids. Of course, there is such a thing as negligence, and we ought not to accept that from parents, teachers, or anyone. In NY, parents who won't come to school to discuss their kids are negligent.

Teachers who won't help those kids are negligent too. But all the help in the world won't help a kid who, for whatever reason, is not prepared to learn. As an ESL teacher, I see kids who've been dragged from their countries and cultures and really don't want to be here. Kids like that cling to their cultures and refuse to learn English. When kids come from homes characterized by poverty and despair, teachers can't push a button and get them up to speed.

Parents have more influence over their own kids. But kids, despite our best efforts, have minds of their own. If parents do their jobs, they'll try very hard to steer kids in the right direction. They will not always succeed. If teachers to our jobs, we'll try to make kids understand and excel. But we won't always succeed either.

It's not a coincidence that so-called failing schools invariably contain high concentrations of ESL and special education students. It turns out, remarkably, that kids who don't know English have a tougher time passing tests. Furthermore, kids with learning disabilities often take longer to pass said tests. "Reformers" shout "no excuses," but these are not excuses. They are facts.

Of course parents should be accountable for responsible parenting. And of course teachers should be accountable for responsible teaching. But no one should be asked to perform miracles. I don't, for example, expect politicians to magically erase poverty. But it's absolutely unacceptable they ignore it and lay its consequences on working teachers, unions, parents, or anyone.

Pogo (pictured above) was right. We're all responsible for our society, and if we're going to change it for the better, we'll have to do more than simply point fingers at one another.

Mayor Bloomberg has finally let parents know what they can do about his policies regarding the education of their children--they can back off and butt out. There's a big debate over mayoral control going on right now, and Mayor Mike wants parents to shut the hell up, leave him alone, and let him do whatever the hell he wants. That's fairly evident in the current setup, with an educational board in which he controls the majority and fires anyone who doesn't agree with him.

Parents. of course, are free to criticize the schools and teachers. That's fine. But criticizing the mayor's policies, which are perfect in every way, will not be tolerated. Teachers are accountable. Schools are accountable. But Michael Bloomberg, the richest man in New York City, can overturn the twice-affirmed will of city voters, and if they don't like it, they cannot even lump it.

Personally, I've always felt that was more or less Mayor Mike's attitude toward parents. I've long known it was his attitude toward teachers. But as a frequent critic, I have to give the mayor credit for letting parents know where they stand. Their opinions are unwelcome, their advice is unheeded, and the fact that a majority of them are unhappy with the current system is of no consequence whatsoever.

In Mayor Bloomberg's New York, if you have enough money, and enough PR, democracy simply does not apply.

We've been saying here at NYC Educator for a long time now that we think that quality schools and quality teachers matter in education.

But we have also been saying that there are other factors that affect how well students do in school and one of the most important is what takes place in the home.

The Educational Testing Service - the fine folks who develop and administer 50 million standardized tests a year, including the SAT - have just concluded an education study that finds the same thing:

The study, “The Family: America’s Smallest School,” suggests that a lot of the failure has to do with what takes place in the home, the level of poverty and government’s inadequate support for programs that could make a difference, like high-quality day care and paid maternity leave.

The E.T.S. researchers took four variables that are beyond the control of schools: The percentage of children living with one parent; the percentage of eighth graders absent from school at least three times a month; the percentage of children 5 or younger whose parents read to them daily, and the percentage of eighth graders who watch five or more hours of TV a day. Using just those four variables, the researchers were able to predict each state’s results on the federal eighth-grade reading test with impressive accuracy.

“Together, these four factors account for about two-thirds of the large differences among states,” the report said. In other words, the states that had the lowest test scores tended to be those that had the highest percentages of children from single-parent families, eighth graders watching lots of TV and eighth graders absent a lot, and the lowest percentages of young children being read to regularly, regardless of what was going on in their schools.

Which gets to the heart of the report: by the time these children start school at age 5, they are far behind, and tend to stay behind all through high school. There is no evidence that the gap is being closed.

Richard J. Coley, director of E.T.S.’s policy information center and a co-author of the report, concludes the following:

“Kids start school from platforms of different heights and teachers don’t have a magic wand they can wave to get kids on the same platform. If we’re really interested in raising overall levels of achievement and in closing the achievement gap, we need to pay as much attention to the starting line as we do to the finish line.”

Indeed.

The reason why this study is important is because it emphasizes something educators already know - our classrooms and our schools do not exist in vacuums. Our students come to us with lives and backgrounds that are far more influential upon their academic potentials and performances than whatever I do for 45 minutes a day, 183 days a year.

This means that if we really want to address the achievement gap in education, we have to look outside the school system for some of the solutions to the education problem.

We have to look to health care so that students come to school ready and able to learn.

We have to look to day care so that students begin the education process long before they start school.

We have to look to a living wage so that single parents don't have to work three jobs in order to make ends meet and give their kids the short shrift out of necessity.

We have to look to vacation time and dinner time so that families can begin to spend time with each other instead of simply seeing each other coming and going at the door.

What we hear from the billionaire businessmen, computer company execs and hedge fund managers masquerading as education reformers is that students do not perform well in school because the school day is not long enough, the school year is not long enough and the teachers are not good enough. So if we just increase the school day and school year and add more standardized testing/accountability mechanisms for both teachers and students, we can fix the problems with education.

But as the ETS study found, these solutions are false.

At the high school I attended years ago, a Jesuit school on the West Side of Manhattan, school officials have a rule that all after-school activities must be over by 5 PM and all students must be out of the building by then.

You see, these school officials think it's important that families spend quality time together at the dinner table if at all possible and they know that if kids are still at school after 5 PM, it's difficult for families to do that.

Now many families may not be able to spend time together at the dinner table out of economic necessity, but nonetheless these school officials see families eating dinner together as part of the education process (albeit the home part of it.)

What a novel idea - an hour spent talking with mom and dad about what happened during the school day is worth more than an extra hour spend with Mr. ____ or Ms. ____ at some after school activity.

What we need to do is rebuild an American society where families that have the time and the money to be able to do this can exist.

Currently, we're heading the other way.

Many Americans have to work longer and harder to make less than their parents did.

It takes two incomes now to do what it used to take just one to do 30-40 years ago.

Increased debt has replaced wage gains for many Americans.

Until we have a conversation in America that starts with "Hey, how come only the top 5% have made an economic gains in the last 20 years...", none of this is going to change.

But the one thing we can do is fight the billionaire media moguls, the computer company execs, and the hedge fund managers who favor re-feudalization of society and want to socialize kids to it as soon as possible with their education reforms of working longer and harder to make less.

Let's see, the DoE bounced the NEST school's principal after the parents successfully fought off the arrival of the Moneybags Charter School. Then, they installed a principal who caused a bunch of those troublemakers to be hauled off in the paddy wagon.

Now, they're doing a friendly little audit on those nasty folks who dared involve themselves in the school their kids attended.

Is something going on here? Nah. It's just a coincidence.

Doubtless parents all over the city are saying, "Gee, I want to get more involved in my kid's school too."

Thanks to Schoolgal