In recent years, education reform has focused on raising standards, increasing graduation requirements and improving student performance on achievement and SAT exams. But, frequently, school reformers are disappointed when they speak to classroom teachers by a lack of enthusiasm for some proposals for improvement. These reformers often go away with the idea that teachers are opposed to change. But a fine report, Working in Urban Schools, written by Thomas B. Corcoran, Lisa J. Walker and J. Lynne White and just released by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) gives graphic evidence of the basis for this resistance.
The report is based on more than 400 interviews with teachers and administrators in 31 schools in five major urban school systems: Detroit, New Orleans, Denver, Indianapolis and Rochester (New York), districts with huge numbers of at-risk kids with all sorts of special education needs. Exactly what kind of deal are they getting?
According to the report, "In some schools, teachers don't even have the most basic materials-paper, pencils, textbooks, reading kits, ditto fluid-for teaching. At the same time, they face large class sizes and no resource assistance." Here are some of the painful and frustrating specifics in the teachers' own words:
□ " ... classes need desks and blackboards. I finally bought two small blackboards and pounded them into the wall."
□ "I have three classes without textbooks. We are not allowed lab workbooks."
□ "The amount of supplies is dismal. There is no lab equipment for science and persistent shortages every year with textbooks."
And one teacher finally summed it all up: "It's like they want us to build a house but not use any nails."
Twenty-seven of the 31 schools surveyed reported that they lacked enough staff Although class sizes were too large, the teachers' first priority was more support personnel-counselors, social workers and nurses. "Teachers linked the need for support staff with the complex needs of the student population. In many schools, the majority of students needed specialized attention. Counselors were needed to refer families to appropriate agencies that could help them. Many children needed support from other adults that they didn't have a home." But help is hard to find. In the high schools, one counselor was responsible for an average of 400 to 450 students, "and few counselors or other support personnel existed at the elementary level."
The physical conditions of the schools studied were equally grim. More than half had shortages of classroom space. One teacher taught in a "storage room." Another school reported that "closets are being used for classrooms," while its duplicating machine was set up in a woman's rest room. A class in still another school was held in a "small lounge" where lessons were constantly interrupted by staff members passing through to use the toilet. In addition, 20 of the 31 schools reported problems in routine maintenance, ranging from overall cleanliness to the replacement of a bulb or the repair of a clock.
According to the report, this neglect is part of a national pattern. In the largest urban districts-with some of the nation's oldest school buildings-the money spent on maintenance "is a steadily decreasing proportion of the school budget," down to 3.5% in 1987 compared to 6% in 1983 when "the backlog of school repair and renovation projects was estimated at $25 billion across the country .... "
These aren't exactly the highlights of a recruiter's pitch for new teaching applicants. As William Woodside, former chairman and CEO of Primerica and current Chairman of the IEL Board of Directors, put it in his foreward to the report, "We will never recruit and retrain in the classroom sufficient numbers of talented teachers unless we treat them with dignity and provide the satisfactory working conditions that true professionals merit .... There is no issue of greater signifigance in education, particularly in our urban school systems." Needless to say, a filthy, ill-equipped school turns off kids, too, and sends a powerful negative message about how we value education.
The teachers in this study weren't whining about the lack of designer classrooms of hi-tech supplies from the pages of a trendy magazine. They were pointing to the lack of basic conditions necessary to do their work-a productivity issue, in business terms. In fact, Working in Urban Schools found that conditions take a devastating toll in teacher productivity and morale and in student achievement and behavior. No one would expect a private business to turn out a good product or have high worker morale and productivity if the assembly line didn't have enough material or if five draftsmen had to share one drawing board or if your office staff had no supplies or no access to telephones or copying machines. Yet schools are often blamed for failing by people who don't realize that teachers are struggling in conditions that few people could endure in their own workplace.
All this doesn't mean that we should stop pushing for school improvement. But it does mean that we shouldn't blame people for not dreaming about the future because they're so busy fighting for survival in the present.