WE DID IT!!!

This year, my communication with our stakeholders has primarily been through direct emails, not through this blog. There is a reason for this. I felt that an open blog, during this pandemic, had the potential to draw attention to the way Houston Academy had chosen to address the health and safety of our students and faculty. In short, I didn’t want any chance for our health and safety decisions to become political. 

So, now, we are a few days away from graduation, and I’d like the world to know: WE DID IT!

We had in-person classes all year – we didn’t miss a single collective day due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, our teachers quickly adapted to provide quality, distance learning for those students who needed it. All of our sports teams finished their season, and most went deep into the playoffs (or won state championships). Again, COIVD was not a major impediment to our success. We had performances. We had Prom. We had the 2nd Grade Luau. We had Mayfair. And now, we are about to have our graduation, indoors, in our traditional location. 

Why were we able to do this, while so many other schools stayed closed or had limited in-person educational opportunities? First, I will say that our Leadership Team at the school did an outstanding job planning for and responding to potential crisis situations. They sought out the advice of leading medical experts, in addition to collaborating with other independent schools across the country. 

Secondly, our faculty has worked harder than I’ve ever seen a group of professionals work. They had to balance in-person teaching with the needs of distance learners. The technology coordination was a challenge, in and of itself, but teachers also had to struggle with varied assessment, ensuring academic integrity, and maintain curricular scope, pace, and sequence.  Truly, it has been exhausting. 

Thirdly, our students and families have been absolutely amazing. There is no way that we would have navigated this successfully without our students being careful and compliant and without our families taking our health and safety protocols seriously. In particular, our senior class showed remarkable leadership. Given what these seniors have lost over the last year and a half, it would have been very easy for them to complain and pout. However, they did no such thing. They set a positive tone for the school, and served as an example for all of us. 

Finally, we are very fortunate to have such a talented and intelligent health care community here in Dothan. I was able to regularly communicate with local pediatricians, the Alabama Department of Public Health, and the administrators at our local hospitals. Their research-based medical advice allowed us to always say that we were making decisions based on the best information from the scientific community. 

In short, I’d like to thank our entire community for helping us navigate this difficult situation.  I’ve never been prouder to be a Raider! 

Buying a Ticket Doesn't Give You The Right to Say Anything You Want!

The other night at a varsity boys soccer game I was forced to confront a group of fans from an opposing school. They were swearing and being obnoxious, but that is not what got my dander up. What made me speak to these parents is the fact that they were targeting individual HA players for harassment.

When I went over to speak to them, one mother screamed at me, "FREEDOM OF SPEECH!"

No.

Wrong.

"Freedom of speech" is a political construct. It doesn't give you the right to harass children at a sporting event. Yes, you have the right to say what you want without legal consequence, but then I have the right to let you finish your offensive speech from the confines of your car on the way back to your home.

The thing that amazed me in this instance is that these adults actually thought they were in the right. I heard one parent say to another," I thought part of being a parent was being obnoxious cheering for your kids?!"

No.

Wrong.

Being a parent doesn't give you the right to be rude and MEAN, and it certainly doesn't give you the right to be MEAN to CHILDREN. I expect to have to correct our students for calling out individual athletes on the field; I don't expect to have to tell adults not to do so.

One of the basic concepts that is necessary for a republic to succeed is for people to be able to engage in productive dialogue and act with civility. Civilization requires that we learn how to be civil to each other. Our continued existence as a nation depends on our ability to respectfully interact with each other and to compromise for the good of the whole. Frankly, it appalls me to see how we treat each other in our culture.

For example, I enjoy logging on to Facebook to see what my former and current students are up to. It used to be that reading Facebook was an uplifting experience.  Now, I usually leave either angry or sad - not because of people's political opinions, but because of the lack of respect and civility that people demonstrate towards each other. People are awfully brave behind a keyboard. People say things I don't believe they'd EVER say to someone  face-to-face. I've contemplated deleting my Facebook account, altogether.

Likewise, we live in a culture where "trash talking" is considered to be a normal and integral part of competition. That is, deriding your competitor is seen as "part of the game." To cite one of the worst examples I can remember, one major college basketball fan base threw panties at a visiting player who had been accused of sexual assault.

I'm sorry, but that is just wrong. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but shouldn't we be cheering for our team, instead of against our opponent? When did taunting and humiliating your opponent become an acceptable part of American sports? Frankly, it sickens me, and it worries me.

At HA we are far from perfect in this regard. We, as parents, have been guilty of poor sportsmanship, and I'm not excluding myself from this. I've behaved in ways in the past of which I am not proud. However, I feel like I at least have good enough sense to be embarrassed about it.

Regardless, I don't think we should accept bad sportsmanship as the norm. I think it's a fight worth fighting. To be exact, reinforcing sportsmanship strikes at the very heart of the concept of honor that we are trying to impart at HA. Every year, I tell the students at our Honor Code Ceremony that "honor is not just about avoiding lying, cheating, or stealing; it's about how you treat others from whom you have nothing to gain." I believe we can tell a lot about the culture of schools by how they treat their athletic opponents "from whom they have nothing to gain."

As our spring sports season gets into full swing, I hope that you will take the time to reflect on the hard work and dedication that the athletes demonstrate over the course of the season. The best way to honor our athletes is to exhibit good sportsmanship. Briefly, let me share with you some of my views that I have partially borrowed from Dr. James Garland, the former president of my undergraduate alma mater, Miami University (OH):

• Good sports treat opposing teams and their fans with respect and courtesy. Good sports are humble when they win. They accept their victories with poise, without gloating or demeaning the other team. Good sports are not rude. 

• Good sports understand that losing is part of athletic competition. They accept their defeats gracefully, without pointing fingers or making excuses. They view their losses as opportunities for growth and further development of their skills. 

• Good sports keep their emotions in check. They understand that stress and pressure are part of athletics, and that the true test of character is when the disappointment, the bitterness, and the frustrations of a game are the greatest. 

• And finally, good sports keep a sense of perspective. They know that the other team is their opponent, not their enemy, and that the game is a contest, not a battle. They know that if they conduct themselves with dignity, they will always walk off the field as winners, no matter what the numbers on the scoreboard may show. 

Houston Academy athletics has always epitomized a winning tradition, integrity, a commitment to the academic development of players, and good sportsmanship.

I have been incredibly proud of the success of our teams over the years, but I have been even more proud of the comportment and enthusiasm of our fans and athletes.  Win or lose, I know that we will continue exhibiting good sportsmanship in all of our athletic contests.

Go Raiders!

Houston Academy's Athletic Classification

This fall, there have been many questions and much misinformation concerning our athletic program’s move from Class 2A to Class 3A of the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA). Let me start by saying that our athletic classification is not something we, as a school or administration, can predict or control. Here is what it says in the AHSAA Handbook:

High schools are divided into seven classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A) for competition in championship programs.

Classification is based on Average Daily Membership (ADM) figures furnished by the State Department of Education for the upper three grades plus ninth grade students that are retained in the ninth grade.

An index of 1.35 is used to determine the enrollment figure for classifying each private school member. Each private school student counts 1.35 for classification purposes.

Alignments are made for each sport in a class, based on the number of schools participating in a sport. Some programs may include two or more classes in a division.

 Let me explain this in layman’s terms. There are seven classifications, the assignment of which is based solely on our student population in grades 10-12. Every two years, at the beginning of the year, we submit our numbers to the AHSAA. Since we are a private school, the AHSAA believes that we have a competitive advantage over public schools in that we can select which student we admit. Therefore, the AHSAA multiplies private schools’ enrollment by 1.35. Accordingly, the AHSAA took our count of 169 students in grades 10-12 and multiplied that number by 1.35, giving us a total student count of 228.15.  For your information, that makes us the smallest school in Class 3A, even with the multiplier. As it turns out, we were .5 students above the enrollment cutoff necessary for us to be placed in Class 2A. Without the multiplier, we are 60 students smaller than the next smallest public school in our division. When we play Opp this weekend, their 10^th-12^th grade enrollment is 106 students greater than ours. If you counted 9^th graders, I would suspect that their overall enrollment is approximately 120 students larger than ours.

Let me re-emphasize that Houston Academy has absolutely no say in our athletic classification. All we do is submit our enrollment and let an AHSAA committee decide where we fall. Moreover, it is totally impossible to predict where our enrollment will be relative to other schools’ enrollments, year-to-year. In other words, we have no way of knowing (nor do any other school have any way of knowing) what the “cut off” number will be for each division, nor do we know what the student enrollment at other schools will be. Moreover, even if we could predict the enrollment of other schools relative to ours, “kicking kids out” of HA, or denying enrollment to qualified students in order to stay in a certain athletic division would be unethical and contrary to our mission of providing educational opportunities for students in the Wiregrass. I’m sure that few of our parents would want their children in a school that would sacrifice its academic integrity for athletic success.

There is another point worth noting, as well. Two years ago, the AHSAA decided to go from 6 classifications to 7. The idea was to allow for more teams to win championships and have more opportunity for success. However, if Alabama still had 6 high school classifications, HA would fall squarely in the upper-middle of Class 2A (in terms of enrollment). So, in effect, while adding the extra division was beneficial for most schools, given our current enrollment, it has hurt us – especially in football.  

In most of our sports, however, the impact of the move to 3A will be negligible or nonexistent. In soccer and tennis, for example, we were already in a combined classification of Classes 1A-3A. In bowling, we compete across all divisions, and in swimming, we will compete against schools in divisions 1A-5A. In other sports, like baseball, basketball, volleyball, softball, and cross country, we feel like we can continue to be competitive, and even compete for state championships. The real issue is football.

This is only my 4^th year at Houston Academy, but I coached for many years at quality, independent schools in both Tennessee and Georgia.  Pretty much everywhere I’ve been, I have been a part of football programs where we have been undermanned in terms of size and speed. That is not to say that we don’t have football players at HA with size or speed, but it’s a matter of depth and number. When we played Daleville, for example, there were two spots on the line where their offensive lineman outweighed our defensive linemen by over 100 pounds. Moreover, Daleville platooned players at multiple positions, whereas we had a number of players playing both offense and defense.  It’s not so much that our players can’t hold their own on any given play, but over the course of a game, the punishment inflicted by larger players on our boys and the wear and tear of having to stay on the field for both offense and defense causes fatigue. When athletes are fatigued, they are more prone to injury. Furthermore, with our lack of depth, when our older and more experienced players get injured or experience cramping, younger players must step in. Many of our younger players have not developed physically, and in a very literal sense, we have our boys playing against their men.  Because of injuries, on Friday we will start as many as five sophomores and one freshman against one of the top ranked football teams in the state.

So with football, we are in a situation that I believe is patently unfair to our children. Many people working in public schools across the state believe that we recruit. We do NOT recruit athletes. However, we do recruit students. We recruit students based largely on academic prowess, but also based on character, assiduousness, and a myriad of other talents that our applicants possess. Yes, some of our students are outstanding athletes, but most of them look at athletics as but one facet of their lives. Very few of our students will ever go on to compete at the college level or higher.

What we definitely don’t do is give our athletes preferential treatment. In fact, the argument that HA has an unfair advantage in athletics is patently false because most high school students are not willing to do what it takes to be successful at HA. Frankly, most kids don’t want to work as hard as our students do, and they would never think of enrolling at HA. As you know, our workload is heavy, and the college preparatory curriculum is difficult. Ethically and practically, we can only admit students we believe can be academically successful at HA. Frankly, that puts us at a competitive disadvantage athletically.

Of course, from the public school perspective, private schools are winning a disproportionate number of state championships. What was interesting, though, was two years ago the AHSAA provided us statistics on the number state championships won by schools that have a high percentage of their students on “free and reduced lunch.”[1] Basically, the AHSAA showed us that, in Alabama, very few ”poor” schools win state championships in ANY sport. In fact, if I am remembering correctly, there was only one school with a high percentage of their students on free and reduced lunch that won a state championship in the last few years. Consequently, to me, this issue is not a private school versus public school issue; it’s a more affluent school versus poor school issue.

The fact that schools with wealthier student populations would win more state championships should surprise no one. They can afford to pay their coaches better, they have booster clubs, they have better equipment, weight rooms, and training facilities. Additionally, middle class and upper middle class parents can afford to enroll their children in recreational sports, provide private lessons and pay for “travel ball,” and afford their children access to sports like tennis and golf. In fact, most of the rural and poor high schools in Alabama don’t even field a tennis or golf team.

Regardless, I am more than aware that we are in a situation, not just where we are at a competitive disadvantage in football, but one in which the best interests and health of our student athletes is not being protected. We do not have an option to forfeit games, though, because to do so would result in sanctions against our entire athletic program.  I do believe, however, that the future could be much brighter, as we have a good bit of young talent in our football program. It is entirely possible we will be able to be much more competitive in the future. I also believe that with Coach Howard, we have one of the best strength and conditioning programs in the state. However, if we find that our student athletes continue to be put at risk, we may have to pursue membership in a league outside of the AHSAA.

Meanwhile, I will say that I’ve never been more proud of our boys. Last week, against a Daleville team that was physically superior, our team never quit. It would have been very easy for our kids to hang their heads and just try to escape the game without injury. They did not do that. Instead, they fought hard, played with passion, and actually narrowed the score differential in the second half. Importantly, too, no one was injured. Anyone who has coached football knows that the easiest way to get injured is to play with passivity or caution. Our boys are not passive. They are leaving it all on the field.

In any case, I would be happy to talk with anyone who has any questions or wants to provide input or advice. Please know, however, that we are doing everything we can do to protect our children and to put competitive athletic teams on the field and on the court.

Go Raiders!

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[1] In educational research, the percentage of students who receive free and reduced lunch is used as a proxy for the percentage of students living in poverty.

HA's Lower School - A Value Proposition

Every year, as a part of my introduction to our Lower School Holiday Concert, I make a statement about the value of the education provided at Houston Academy. In particular, I have pointed out that, while many schools across the country have cut their arts funding, Houston Academy has actually increased our commitment to the arts. One thoughtful parent, who cared enough to email me, questioned my statement, particularly in response to the value proposition of spending money on a Houston Academy lower school education.  

Before I go into the value proposition of HA, let me make one crucial point: I am a fervent supporter of our public school system. The future of the nation and the future prosperity of Dothan depends largely on the success of our public schools. Moreover, my wife and I are both products of the public school system. In fact, my wife has spent most of her career in Title I schools, including a stint in inner city Memphis, Tennessee. I have a great deal of respect for what our public school teachers and administrators do on a daily basis, especially given how they have been handicapped by inadequate funding, misguided “reform” efforts, and needless bureaucracy and paperwork -- all of which have been imposed upon them by people who are not educators. So, in enumerating the benefits of a Houston Academy education, I, in no way, mean to be critical of the public schools and the people who work in them.

In my 26 years working in independent schools, I have come to understand that independent schools must provide our students and families with some sort of “value added.” That is, we need to offer our families some benefit or advantage that they are unable to get in the public schools or elsewhere. At the core of our value proposition is our mission:

Houston Academy is an independent college preparatory institution. Our mission is to prepare all our students for responsible participation in a global society by providing an excellent learning environment and opportunities to achieve their highest academic, social, and creative potential.

These two sentences capture what makes a Houston Academy lower school education worth the tuition.  We offer a mission that is very different. The goal of the public schools is to graduate kids from high school; the goal of the local Christian schools is to provide a Christian education; the goal of Houston Academy is to graduate kids from college.

In fact, we are the ONLY school in the Wiregrass whose mission is explicitly college preparatory. This means that, in everything we do, from 3P to 12^th grade, we are working towards the goal of giving students the knowledge and skills to be a successful college graduate. Houston Academy also wants to produce global citizens and to push students to achieve their highest creative and social potential. HA has a different mission from other area schools- not better, necessarily -- just different. 

In practical terms, more than anything else, what we offer is rigor. As I have told parents and students who are worried about grades, “We will not apologize for our rigor.” We hold our students and teachers accountable to an unwaveringly high standard of excellence. At the same time, we provide a loving and nurturing environment in which our students receive the support they need to be successful. Still, no one should pay tuition for his children’s school to be easy. College will be hard; life will be hard; and we want our children to have the tools to be successful in both college and life. My own three children work hard at HA, every single day, and to them this is “normal.” They don’t get particularly stressed, they just do their job, because they are used to learning, and they are used to doing what they need to do to be successful.

Holding our teachers to a higher standard is another aspect of that rigor. No, we do not have “high stakes” testing, and our teachers do not have to fill out reams of paperwork; we prefer they spend their time teaching. As I have said in my blog, we have not adopted Common Core because we are teaching children, not standards. Our teachers are evaluated by the degree to which they pursue and achieve goals that they, themselves identify in conjunction with their Head of School.

Houston Academy also hires teachers with strong credentials who are compulsively driven to succeed.  Unlike most other schools in the Wiregrass, every single one of our 3P-6^th grade teachers has a four-year degree and is certified in her field. To me, taking your child to a preschool where teachers are neither qualified nor certified is a little like taking your child to a dentist who has never been to dental school.  Despite some people’s perception, preschool is not free play. Lessons should be planned by certified teachers to meet the developmental needs of the individual students in the class. It’s a purposeful exercise that requires a teacher to have education, training, and practice. It’s as much a science as it is an art.

Nevertheless, having outstanding teachers is not enough to ensure student success. The literature has consistently supported the notion that students thrive in a smaller classroom environment. We believe education is an intimate exercise. Fundamentally, your tuition dollars ensure that your child has a small student to teacher ratio. We have teacher assistants in every classroom through 1^st grade. Moreover, while the student to teacher ratio in the Dothan City elementary schools is 18:1 (20:1 in the magnet schools), the Houston Academy Lower School student to teacher ratio is 8:1.

Make no mistake: class size matters. The research has consistently shown wide-ranging and lasting benefits from smaller class sizes.  Smaller class sizes have a positive and significant relationship to higher standardized test scores, higher “cognitive and non-cognitive skills”[1] (e.g., effort, motivation, and self-esteem), higher academic achievement, higher salaries as an adult, higher college graduation and attendance rates, and lower incidence of poverty.[2] In fact, there have been quantitative studies that have shown that student-teacher ratio is the single most powerful predictor of student improvement in reading and math.[3] The reasons for these positive outcomes are obvious. In smaller classes, teachers are better able to meet the individual educational needs of the students, there are fewer distractions, fewer behavioral problems, and the engagement of students is increased.[4] Plus, with a decreased teaching load, teachers have more time to plan innovative lessons.

In addition to the intimate environment in the regular classroom, we have full-time enrichment teachers in every conceivable area (library, computer, foreign language, art, music, character education, and PE). Other schools may claim that they offer these enrichments, but they don’t have full-time, certified teachers dedicated to these pursuits, and the students do not take part in these disciplines with any consistency. To this end, our financial commitment, in terms of faculty development and faculty resources, is unmatched. We have a:

• Full-time teacher with a Master of Fine Arts teaching 5-6 grade chorus (pursuing a doctorate)
• Full-time band director with a music degree (pursuing a master's degree)
• Full-time lower school music teacher with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time lower school art teacher with a master's degree
• Lower school art assistant, with a bachelor's degree 
• Full-time Spanish teacher, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time PE teacher, with a master's degree
• Two, full-time PE assistants, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time computer teacher, with a bachelor's degree
• Full-time library and media specialist, with two master's degrees
• Full-time library assistant, with a bachelor's degree

We also offer:

• Smart boards in every classroom
• A yearly, lower school musical
• Instruments and band instruction to every student in 5^th and 6^th grade
• iPads in every lower school classroom
• 1:1 MacBook Pros in grades 5-12

Perhaps the most meaningful aspect of our “value added” is the support we provide to help our students be successful in our highly rigorous environment. HA now has three, full-time learning specialists who work with students who are struggling or who have special needs. Two of these teachers are trained in the Orton-Gillingham method for dyslexic students, one is a speech therapist, and the third has a special education degree and a master’s degree.

Finally, in my short time in Dothan, I have found that most people will concede that HA offers the finest, college preparatory education in the region, but many people feel that HA is unaffordable. For preschool, we are nowhere near the most expensive option in Dothan. For lower and upper schools, when you compare “apples to apples,” and include fees that other schools charge, our cost is quite competitive. Moreover, we offer substantial financial assistance to those who qualify, making the cost of an HA education well within the reach of most middle-class families.

In short, when you are looking at the value of paying tuition, it’s important to look long-term. In the history of Houston Academy, 100% of our graduates have been admitted to a college of his or her choice. Over the past two years, our senior classes of approximately 50 students have earned $6.4 million in college scholarships. That is remarkable, even if one controls for the educational level of our parent body. We offer smaller classes, more opportunities, more rigor, and more support than any other school in the Wiregrass. The evidence shows that a Houston Academy education gives your child a better chance to be successful in college and in life; this all begins in lower school.

Further Reading

Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J. S. (2010). The credibility revolution in empirical economics: How better research design is taking the con out of econometrics. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 3-30.

Angrist, J.D., & Lavy, V. (1999). Using Maimonides’ rule to estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(2), 533-575.

Bain, H., Lintz, N., & Word, E. (1989). A study of fifty effective teachers whose class average gain scores ranked in the top 15% of each of four school types in Project STAR. ERIC Clearinghouse; paper presented at the American Educational Research Association 1989 meeting, San Francisco, CA.

Browning, M., & Heinesen, E. (2007). Class size, teacher hours and educational attainment. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 109(2), 415-438.

Chetty, R., Friedman, J.N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D.W., & Yagan D. (2011). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project STAR. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4), 1593-1660.

Chetty, R., Friedman, J.N., & Rockoff J. (2013). Measuring the impacts of teachers II: Teacher value-added and student outcomes in adulthood (Working Paper No. 19424). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Dynarski, S., Hyman, J., & Schanzenbach, D.W. (2013). Experimental evidence on the effect of childhood investments on postsecondary attainment and degree completion. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 32(4), 692-717.

Finn, J., Gerber, S., & Boyd-Zaharias, J. (2005). Small classes in the early grades, academic achievement, and graduating from high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(2), 214-223.

Fredriksson, P., Öckert, B., & Oosterbeek, H. (2013). Long-term effects of class size. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 128(1), 249-285.

Hanushek, E.A. (1997). Assessing the effects of school resources on student performance: An Update. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19(2), 141-64.

Hanushek, E.A. (1986, September). The economics of schooling: Production and efficiency in public schools. Journal of Economic Literature, 24, 1141-77.

Hoxby, C. M. (2000). The effects of class size on student achievement: New evidence from population variation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(4), 1239-1285.

Jepsen, C., & Rivkin, S. (2009). Class size reduction and student achievement: The potential tradeoff between teacher quality and class size. Journal of Human Resources, 44(1), 223-250.

Krueger, A.B. (1999). Experimental estimates of education production functions. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(2), 497-532.

Krueger, A.B. (2003). Economic considerations and class size. Economic Journal, 113(485), F34-F63.

Krueger, A.B., & Whitmore, D. (2001). The effect of attending a small class in the early grades on college testtaking and middle school test results: Evidence from Project STAR. Economic Journal, 111, 1-28.

Krueger, A.B., & Whitmore, D. (2002). Would smaller classes help close the black-white achievement gap? In J. Chubb & T. Loveless (Eds.), Bridging the Achievement Gap (11-46). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Molnar, A., Smith, P., Zahorik, J., Palmer, A., Halbach, A., & Ehrle, K. (1999). Evaluating the SAGE program: A pilot program in targeted pupil-teacher reduction in Wisconsin. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 21(2), 165-77.

Mosteller, Frederick (1995). The Tennessee study of class size in the early school grades. The Future of Children. 5(2), 113-127.

Unlu, F. (2005). California class size reduction reform: New findings from the NAEP. Princeton, NJ: Department of Economics, Princeton University.

Urquiola, M. (2006). Identifying class size effects in developing countries: Evidence from rural Bolivia. Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(1), 171-177.

Word, E., Johnston, J., Bain, H.P., et al. (1990). Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR): Tennessee’s K-3 class size study. Final summary report 1985-1990. Nashville: Tennessee State Department of Education.

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[1] Schanzenbach, D. (2014, February 1). Does Class Size Matter? Retrieved January 7, 2016, from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/does-class-size-matter

[2] Reducing Class Size: What Do We Know? (2010). Canadian Education Association, 1-22. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://www.cea-ace.ca/classsizereport

Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and student achievement. Education policy analysis archives, 8, 1.

Mosteller, F. (2008). The Tennessee Study of Class Size in the Early School Grades. The Future of Children, 113-113. Retrieved January 7, 2016, from https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/05_02_08.pdf

[3] Vasquez Hellig, J., Williams, A., & Jez, S. (2010). Inputs and Student Achievement: An Analysis of Latina/o-Serving Urban Elementary Schools. Association of Mexican American Educators, 48-58. Retrieved January 5, 2016, from http://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Inputs_Student_Achievement.pdf

[4] Blatchford, P., Goldstein, H., Martin, C., & Browne, W. (2002). A study of class size effects in English school

reception year classes. British Educational Research Journal, 28(2), 169-185.

Graue, E., Hatch, K., Rao, K., & Oen, D. (2007). The wisdom of class size reduction. American Educational

Research Journal, 44(3), 670-700.

J.D. (1997). Class Size: What does research tell Us? Spotlight on Student Success #20.

Teachers and Parents

Teachers all over the United States feel like they are under siege.  It’s true. Ask them. The cartoon to right illustrates how the culture has changed. Where there used to be a sense of trust in our teachers, teachers now feel attacked. As a result, teachers end up losing sight of the supportive parents and are left feeling like parents think everything they do is wrong. 

The constant barrage of attacks on our teachers, nationwide, hurts us deeply. 
Teachers have been effectively blamed for our lack of educational achievement, while at the same time, teacher pay has been cut and classroom resources have been curtailed. My brother, who teaches in one of the wealthiest school districts in the southeast, had furlough days last year for which he wasn’t paid. This, of course, is in a county that is paying $260,000,000 to build a new baseball stadium for the Atlanta Braves. 

I think we all know that teachers don’t get into education to get rich. Teachers know that they are going to make $34,000 per year, when they could make more money working in a job that requires far less education. Yet, every day, they go to work and deal with as many as 150 children and try to meet each child’s social, emotional, and educational needs. They don’t get to go home, like regular people, and enjoy their families. Teachers have to make lesson plans, grade papers, enter grades, work on individualized educational plans, communicate with parents, and probably sponsor some sort of extracurricular opportunity. Most days, we feel like doing nothing more than curling up in the fetal position when we get home! Add to that the lack of prestige, and it can be a pretty tough career choice. 

Despite popular conception, Houston Academy teachers and administrators make far less than their public school peers. We aren’t subsidized by the state. However, teachers generally come here because they feel that the teaching environment is better, and they don’t have to deal with all of the bureaucratic issues present in public schools. Also, we have much more supportive parents. 

Still, it’s a labor of love. I tell the teachers that often, in our jobs, we touch thousands of lives with an impact that will last generations. However, it’s disheartening to feel like you are constantly under attack. 

New teachers now work in education an AVERAGE of 4.5 years. Studies have shown that one of the primary reason teachers leave the field is because of lack of support from parents and administration.   A recent study showed that 80% of teachers who have left the field in the last five years cited “the parents” as a primary reason. 

Now, the reality is that we have AWESOME parents here at Houston Academy. They are THE BEST group of supportive parents I have ever been around. Moreover, 
I don’t believe there is a teacher or administrator in the school who doesn’t want constructive feedback. Personally, I WANT to hear from you, but we need to do it in such a way that our children learn the right way to handle conflict. Anytime there is a situation involving your child at school or in the classroom, this is what I would ask. 

1) Ask your child, “Have you talked to the teacher or administrator?” I know that’s not appropriate for a first grader, but for older students, that should be the first step. In my experience, 99% of all our problems can be solved if there is a dialogue between student and teacher. I would assume that we all WANT our children to learn to advocate for themselves and to do so in a respectful manner. Our teachers have children’s best interest at heart. We won’t keep a teacher at Houston Academy who doesn’t love kids. 

It should be noted that in the Upper School, for issues of broad policy, we meet monthly with student government officers to talk about school issues. In each of the last two years, we have made changes in response to student concerns. Our uniform committee, which helped draft the dress code, is made up of teachers, parents, administrators, AND students. Our next five-year strategic plan is going to have students on the committees that will chart our future. Additionally, our Upper School Honor Council makes binding decisions about student conduct and it is made up entirely of students. We have all this in place because we want to give your children the opportunity to learn to be advocates for their own lives and their own learning. 

Again, there’s research behind this approach. Tammi Holman, our Head of Upper School, asked our faculty to pick a book to read over the summer.  One of those books was The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine. Dr. Levine has a psychological practice that has been built on dealing with adolescents from upper-middle class backgrounds, who despite outward signs of success, are suffering from any number of emotional issues, some of which are brought on by an overly involved parenting style:

Parents who persistently fall on the side of intervening for their child, as opposed to supporting their child's attempts to problem solve, interfere with the most important task of childhood and adolescence: the development of a sense of self. Autonomy, what we commonly call independence, along with competence and interpersonal relationships, are considered to be inborn human needs. Their development is central to psychological health. In a supportive and respectful family, children go about the business of forging a "sense of self" by being exposed to, and learning to manage, increasingly complex personal and interpersonal challenges. 

Trust me, our kids can do it, and they will gain self-efficacy and self-confidence in the process.

2) If it becomes necessary to contact a teacher, approach the meeting with the attitude of “How can we make this better for our child?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in conferences that have begun with accusations. That doesn’t make things better for anyone. Remember, too, that teachers make mistakes. Administrators make mistakes. However, I don’t know of a single person in this building who doesn’t have the best interests of the children at heart. 

3). Then, if you still aren’t satisfied, I am more than happy to meet with you. I’m also happy to meet with anyone at any time about general school issues or ideas about how we might improve. Again, though, if your child has a problem, I’d rather meet with your child first, because that is the person we want to teach. I don’t think you would talk to anyone (student or parent) who has met with me who hasn’t come away at least knowing that I listened. The same goes for Mrs. Boothe, Mrs. Holman, and Mr. Hart. Moreover, I certainly have confidence in our intelligent parent body to know when to “make that call.” 

Obviously, though, we need to keep in mind that our faculty work incredibly hard and deserve our support. This, after all, is “the HA family.” Like any family, we’re going to have hurt feelings and misunderstandings, but also like a healthy family, we can work it out. 



Here are a couple additional links to read:

The Hamlin School Embraces No Rescue Policy for Parents to Encourage Resilience in Children

If Our Kids Fail, Are We Bad Parents?