Saturday, April 6, 2013

The argument that Innovation Schools will create "haves and have-nots" didn't get very far because, as everyone knows, there are "haves and have-nots" in the schools right now.

Dr. Laurie Robertson-Lorant is an English department adjunct at Bridgewater State University.

On Monday, the New Bedford School Committee and Mayor Jon Mitchell will decide whether to allow two brilliant "best practices" Innovation School proposals to advance to the next stage, or abort them. Killing these proposals before they even reach the cradle would demonstrate New Bedford's complete lack of vision and inability to move forward by beginning to reshape its failing schools, which will almost certainly trigger a state takeover of the city's school system that will weaken the union and eliminate many jobs.

Logic at public hearings was sorely lacking on the opposing side. Several people accused the Innovation Schools of bringing back segregation and "creating haves and have-nots." Then they told the Spanish-speaking families to establish their own separate schools — a point they underscored by pointing out that the city already has a number of small, autonomous bilingual schools that serve children from various ethnic groups. Another person said the Innovation Schools would skim the best students into smaller classes, and two, that students would be admitted to the new schools by lottery. The argument that Innovation Schools will create "haves and have-nots" didn't get very far because, as everyone knows, there are "haves and have-nots" in the schools right now.


At no time did the opposition raise substantive objections to the actual content of the Innovation School proposals themselves — either because they hadn't actually read them, or because they have no flaws in them. One person objected to having separate schools in one building and having to share space and woefully inadequate supplies with the new schools.

One of the most bizarre features of the hearings was the way teachers who opposed the schools expressed resentment against the Renaissance School on the grounds that they themselves had been asking for more music, art and gym classes and had been ignored or told there was not money for those programs. Allowing the Renaissance and Esperanza schools to go forward will prove the value of their curricula and hasten the adoption of similar programs throughout the entire school system to benefit every single child, but proponents and opponents must work together to implement these programs and cooperate to bring about their success.

Whatever happens Monday evening, everyone who cares about the welfare of the children and the future success of the city will have to find a way to work together, or the city's failure to educate all of its children well will be compounded. The accusations, name-calling, threats and redundant emotional appeals voiced by the opposition during the two recent public hearings had no pedagogical weight and undermined the credibility of the opposition. Any legitimate questions or objections are meant to be answered in the next phase of the process.

The situation that exists at the moment is tragic. The bitter divisions exposed by the hearings benefit no one — least of all the children. However the committee votes on Monday, the wounds will have to heal for the city to move forward. If opponents of the proposed schools have legitimate criticisms and concerns about safety, custodial issues, physical space, shared facilities and equal access to superior classes, they should be made in good faith and addressed in good faith by a coalition of people who are willing to listen to each other and work together to find common ground and cultivate it.

There is abundant evidence that students who attend dual language immersion schools and schools whose curriculum is based on integrated, holistic arts and physical education (especially outdoor education) not only develop superior intellects and imaginations, but achieve better emotional health as well. The best students and best citizens at the private school where I taught for 21 years were the musicians, and the best student in my African-American Literature I class at Bridgewater State University last spring was a bilingual undergraduate from the University of Beijing. Her English vocabulary was much larger than the vocabularies of my American students, and her critical thinking skills, oral and written, were far more advanced. Why? Because Chinese children begin learning English in the third grade and grow up bilingual, at the very least.

As a member of the Education Department at UMass Dartmouth for five years, I supervised and mentored student teachers in dozens of SouthCoast public schools, including some in New Bedford, and I wholeheartedly support the Esperanza School of Language and Culture and the Renaissance Community School for the Arts. They will be transformative additions to the educational and cultural landscape of the city whose motto is "Lucem diffundo" — "I spread the light."

I urge the mayor and the School Committee to live up to this motto by supporting these exciting Innovation Schools.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had there been a warning before the post, I would have put on my boots. I guess what her students say about her is absolutely true.

Anonymous said...

In her own charming way she actually makes the case against creating these schools.

Anonymous said...

The standard times is leaving no $£%#%£#. Good work, Bob.

Anonymous said...

This woman is something! She was drummed out of UMD and then Bridgewater. The reason your student from China was stellar was due to how much she, her family, her commuinity and her country value education. Does China still remove children that don't meet standards leaving the best and brightest to go on?

Parents need to be concerned about what their children are doing at home and how that supports what is taught in school. You don't need to do the work for them. It's important that they (kids) understand it. Sit with them. Ask about their day. Ask them to explain what they are doing. Just be involved. Imagine how quickly things would change if that happened in every home in New Bedford.

New Bedford has been cutting programs for many many years. Do you remember a marching band with 125 musicians? They were taught basic skills when they were in the elementary schools. Instruments were given out free in a lottery system. Language classes also began in elementary school. Now we teach Math and English exclusively. After all those are MCAS subjects.

Anonymous said...

Visit ratemyprofessor.com using her name and it will reveal what some of her students think about her teaching. Very telling!

Anonymous said...

The accusations, name-calling, threats and redundant emotional appeals voiced by the opposition during the two recent public hearings had no pedagogical weight and undermined the credibility of the opposition. Any legitimate questions or objections are meant to be answered in the next phase of the process.

Really? I do not remember any name calling from people who disagree with the Innovation School proposal. I do recall name calling from supporters. One man stated that teachers "roll out of bed in the morning" and another accused teachers of giving up on him when he was "swearing and acting up" in class. Imagine, he was asked to leave the classroom.

I find this individual's comments about the two night meeting very interesting for one more reason. I did not see the "leaders" of the Innovation Schools at the second meeting. Nancy Davis was not present and from what others have said, either were the others. You propose it and do not attend the meetings? Something doesn't smell right. Maybe some behind the scene negotiating going on at luncheons or something less public? Hmmm.

August West said...

"Name-calling"? One gentleman, using that term loosely, said teachers "leave their motivation at home". He was in support of the proposal and extremely rude in that statement. Where else is there accusations,name-calling and threats? Maybe I missed something.

August West said...

Name-calling??? Other than teachers getting bashed by a supporter of the proposal who said "teachers leave their motivation at home", I didn't see any name-calling. Maybe I missed something. The "Dr" seems to have her head in the sand.

Anonymous said...

Only one day until another letter from another of the 40 thieves praising each other. DB Souza will tomorrow write about how brilliant Laurent's letter is.

All this proves is that the schools are a symbolic effort for the 40 community, political players. They've flexed their muscles and want to see it approved. That's all. The law, the schools, the funds, the students are secondary.

Anonymous said...

Does Laurent seriously think that "Chinese children begin learning English in the third grade and grow up bilingual"?
Based on one Chinese student in her one class, in her 21 years?

Anonymous said...

How does a school committee person make up their mind? Here's my math:

Weight given to community, political and editorial board pressure: 40%

Decision making based on false and misleading info by Planning teams and advocates : 20%

Decision making that completely ignores already existing innovative, Arts integration and other reform and turnaround plans led by NBEA and district: 30%

The final 10% is our committee members' general ignorance of the district they lead, the teachers they govern and the laws governing education in the Commonwealth.

Anonymous said...

She included the buzz words "best practices" again....that is so silly! Our teachers are trained, retrained, and overtrained to use the most current practices. In addition, these schools always promise to share what they have learned as "Incubators of Success"....HOGWASH! They share NOTHING(unless you include our space and money).

Anonymous said...

That tired out woman must have attended public hearings that the rest of us didn't know anything about. Her account is totally off base and designed to misinform the public.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if she really believes what wrote.

Anonymous said...

She might be the reason the UMD's Education Dept. must be folded in with another dept. The UMD teacher prep was much too weak. If she supervised them-I wouldn't want to work with them.

Anonymous said...

SATURDAY EXTRA…..
by whalingcitywatch
Welcome to a rare extra edition of Whaling City Watch.

As I was placing today’s copy of the blab sheet from Elm Street underneath the litter box, I noticed a letter from Dr. Laurie Robertson-Lorant. She is the third so-called educational “expert” that has written to the “paper” in support of the autonomous schools proposals. Gee, THREE letters in six days. It sounds like they have a well-coordinated campaign going on.

By the way, the first two authors had no credentials in education.

Dr. Robertson-Lorant is different. She claims to be “a longtime teacher who has visited K-12 classrooms in New Bedford and environs for 12 semesters over the past seven years while supervising student teachers for UMass Dartmouth and Bridgewater State University.” We’ll take her at her word.

What do the good doctor’s students have to say about her? These are apparently the words of her students. They are published at a site that rates college professors. You can read the comments here:

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=756515

Some of the more interesting posts:

“to start off i want to advise anyone interested in taking this class to not do so. if you are required to take this class to go towards your major then take it with another professor because she is absolutely useless. she is unorganized, and has a tendency to go off topic while lecturing. she lost both a paper and my end of the year portfolio..”

“Yet another poor UMD EDU teacher! Firstly, she is essentially incapable of staying on topic; in a 2.5 hour class, we spend 2 hours at least listening to lectures on everything except the course material. Even many of the in-service teachers walk out of class muttering “what a waste of time.” Stay Away!”

“I cannot stress it enough, she is disorganized and unhelpful. Her workload is high for a 200 class. As a person she is nice, but she should not teach. I am sad to be writing this about her, but steer clear! Take a course with Rock, I didn’t listen to a friend about her and now am regretting it. I am an edu major and her course has dissuaded me.”

There you have it. Those students paid to be in her class and they apparently believe there are some serious issues with the quality of instruction. Yet, she is attempting to influence educational policy in our city.

Student EDU205 said...

to start off i want to advise anyone interested in taking this class to not do so. if you are required to take this class to go towards your major then take it with another professor because she is absolutely useless. she is unorganized, and has a tendency to go off topic while lecturing. she lost both a paper and my end of the year portfolio

Student EDU525 said...

Yet another poor UMD EDU teacher! Firstly, she is essentially incapable of staying on topic; in a 2.5 hour class, we spend 2 hours at least listening to lectures on everything except the course material. Even many of the in-service teachers walk out of class muttering "what a waste of time." Stay Away! (but there arent many better options at UMD!)

Student EDU207 said...

I loved Dr. Lorant. EDU 207 is easy, but it really makes you passionate about being a teacher. Dr. Lorant is very liberal which is nice to see, she's not afraid to speak her mind, and although she wanders a bit and is a little bit of a ditz she really gets you thinking about topics in the field of Education. She is VERY fair!!!!

Student EDU207 said...

Everyone makes her out to be a terrible teacher, but I thought she was pretty nice. She does give out a lot of work, but you can deff. bs the papers. just DONT MISS A CLASS, if you show up every class without doing much work, you'll get an A, she is ALLLLL about attendance

Student EDU207 said...

I cannot stress it enough, she is disorganized and unhelpful. Her workload is high for a 200 class. As a person she is nice, but she should not teach. I am sad to be writing this about her, but steer clear! Take a course with Rock, I didn't listen to a friend about her and now am regretting it. I am an edu major and her course has dissuaded me.

Student EDU207 said...

She is a nice enough lady but watch out about attendance. She keeps you the entire time and if you are late or have to leave early that is an absence. She is sometimes very snotty and can be rude. There are no tests just journal entries every week. But be careful she used to be an English teacher and will rip your writing to shreds. Participate!

ENGL299 said...

She's difficult to keep up with and has a bit of a memory issue, constantly believing something was due or something was handed out when it wasn't. Her comments on papers are offensive, and she constantly questioned if some were actually English majors. The class was intriguing and she was passionate about the subject, but she can be mean. Beware!

Anonymous said...

I am a NBPS teacher and had the displeasure of having Dr. Lorant as my supervising professor for my practicum. She is useless and knows nothing about the students in the classrooms she observes. She sees what she wants to see and hears what she wants to hear. She was an easy A and a nice lady, but she should not be teaching future teachers. I can totally see why she was forced out of UMass and Bridgewater. She is the absent minded professor in every sense of the word; disorganized, forgetful and flaky. I am a liberal thinker but she is such a liberal thinker that she forgets about rules, standards and cohesion. She is all about the pretty, warm & fuzzy. Someone needs to take her rose colored glasses off so she can see reality instead of focusing on fiction. She should just go back to studying Melville. That's really the only thing she is good at.

Anonymous said...

Laurent slammed Francis because she hadn't introduced Frederick Douglas readings as mandatory in middle schools. Laurent praised Francis when the decision came through and Douglass readings were mandated. In conclusion, the 40 thieves want what they want, when they want it and any professional educator who mildly dissents is vigorously attacked until they get their way.

( remember that school that turned around after adopting the favored text of a community lobby? Yeah, me neither).

Anonymous said...

How about Laurie RObertson Laurants bold faced lie in her recent editorial about how the innovation schools do not have a “lottery.” Please check out page 44 AND page 86 regarding the enrollment process of the proposed plan. The website is http://newbedford.massteacher.org/files/Esperanza%20(1)%20Final.pdf

Those pages of the plan explain how the lottery will work. AND yes they use the actual word “lottery” many times!

Also, please check out how social studies and science will be split three ways from 200-245 at the end of the day on the sample student schedules. AND note how there will be early release every Wednesday… what happened to time on learning????

Once again this ivory towered fake expert is lying to the whole community. Just like when she claimed that “many” ninth graders (who are 14 or 15) drop out of high school and most NBHS graduates “never heard of Frederick Douglass.” She also has stated that teachers tell the bilingual kids that the”will never amount to anything in life.” ALL LIES