Teacher Taps Parents to Help With
Test Prep
By Bess Keller, New York (http://www.teachersnetwork.org/aboutus/edweek4.htm) |
The two-hour workshop is the
brainchild of 33-year-old Lamson T. Lam, a tall, square-jawed man who taught
4th grade for four years here, each year expanding his expectations for
involving parents in their children’s education. Mr. Lam (rhymes with "palm")
got so interested in the subject that when he was selected to the elite ranks
of the Teachers Network Policy Institute, he chose the workshops as the subject
of his research.
From data he collected, he found
that over the four years he had been holding the sessions at PS 198, student
passing rates on both the state math and the state English exams went up
dramatically. Pupils reported their parents were more involved after the
workshops. Last year, in a school with "historically low involvement," as Mr.
Lam wrote in his paper for the institute, members from 22 out of 26 families
showed up for the math workshop; two pupils came alone.
By that measure, the gathering this evening is a disappointment, says Mr. Lam, who now coaches teachers in math instruction at PS 198 and another New York City elementary school. Just under half the families in the class of 25 children are represented.
Mini-Tests for All
The workshop’s organizers are
prepared for the slow start, but they want to make every minute count, too.
Inside an orange folder that each family gets on arrival are a corrected
practice test and an individualized checklist of math trouble spots. The
teachers ask the relatives to go over the mistakes with the students, a task
that results in heads bowed together in concentration.
At April’s table, the Perezes
pour over her exam. The 9-year-old’s list shows many checkmarks.
At about 6:45 p.m., Mr. Lam and
teacher Tammy Ghirardi stand among the families and talk about the format of
the exam and test-taking strategies. Mr. Lam points out that while students are
not required to show their work on the first two parts of the math test, which
stretches over three days in early May, that’s still a good idea.
"Sometimes," adds Ms. Ghirardi,
"if you are wrong but you explain it well, you get some credit."
Then the teachers pass out an
abbreviated practice test, inviting the adults to watch their children as they
complete it or to take the mock exam themselves.
At one table, April’s classmate
Latia Shipman works and talks. "I did P-O-E on that one," she announces,
pushing her translucent pink glasses back up on her nose. "What’s that?" asks
her mother, stopping work on her own test.
"Process of elimination,"
explains Latia.
Over at the table loaded with
bagels, pretzels, and cookies, Latia selects snacks and confides that her
mother couldn’t come to the English-test workshop in January because she was
working, so a friend’s mother brought Latia.
"I want to learn more about the
ELA," she says, calling the math test by the English/language arts test’s
abbreviation, "and learn more about percentages."
When time is called on the tests,
the teachers ask the parents to note for the group anything their children have
done well. They ask the children to tell how they solved the problems. And they
give suggestions for how parents can help at home, including challenging their
children to add up the change in their pockets.
"If they need more help on
homework, just send a note in," suggests Lisa Mack, a special education teacher
who shares duties with Ms. Ghirardi.
As most of the families hurry out
the door at 8 o’clock, Frank Perez explains that he came simply to see how his
daughter was doing in class. "Now," he continues, "I know I have to work with
her. ... I think she can use help, especially in math."
Ruminating later about the
workshop, Ms. Ghirardi says she could have guessed most of the families that
came, but not all. She was surprised to see the Perezes, who have downplayed
their daughter’s difficulties.
A workshop "kind of evens out
parents," reflects Mr. Lam. "If they are anxious, they get reassured, ... and
if parents and kids have no sense of urgency, and then parents see there is a
long way to go, parents kick things into gear."
‘Incredibly Powerful’
"It’s something I’ve always felt
was incredibly powerful," says Mr. Lam, who earned a master’s degree in
sociology and worked at a half-way house for troubled youths before becoming a
teacher. "There’s a stereotype that parents are involved in high-income schools
and not in low, but it’s just a question of reaching out in the right way."
The test-prep workshops focus and
extend parents’ involvement, Mr. Lam says. But the groundwork is laid early in
the year with positive and then frequent phone calls, according to the teacher.
When he was named a fellow of the
Teachers Network Policy Institute for 2002-03, Mr. Lam decided to take a closer
look at his workshops. The institute, a national program striving to give
teachers a voice in education policymaking, requires fellows to conduct
research in their own classrooms or schools.
The fellows continue to teach
during the year, but with the support of the MetLife Foundation, meet monthly
for discussion among themselves and with policymakers. About 100 teachers are
selected by application each year by a dozen local affiliates, including one in
New York City.
For his research, Mr. Lam
investigated whether his workshops actually turned family members into
test-prep partners and raised student achievement. Parents reported last spring
that the sessions they had attended gave them substantially more knowledge of
the 4th grade tests than they had had of the comparable 3rd grade tests.
Children reported that they got more help at home in math before the exam.
As the 2002-03 school year went
on, Mr. Lam observed, parents became more likely to initiate phone
conversations, which focused more on their children’s academic performance and
less on grievances.
Most important, over several
years, his students’ passing rates on the standardized tests jumped from an
average of less than half in the 3rd grade to around 75 percent in the 4th. In
interviews last spring, students gave on average 26 percent of the credit for
their success to their families.
Ms. Ghirardi believes the session
in her classroom made a difference almost immediately. The day after the math
workshop, she says, "the kids were so much more responsive and excited about
math. It’s almost as if they felt they weren’t in this alone."
That feeling probably influenced
nine more families to attend the math workshop held the following week for the
school’s other 4th grade class, she said.
The long-term effects may be more
ambiguous. Since they came to the workshop in March, for instance, April’s
parents passed up a chance to get their daughter more help after school. But
her father also showed up to collect homework she missed while sick.
Still, a parent of a pupil in Mr.
Lam’s class last year testifies to the permanent difference the workshops made
for her and her son, Alexander. "I always worked with him, but we weren’t
working the right ways," leading to deep frustration for both, says Elizabeth
Estupinan-Paz. "For example, I learned at the workshop that it is not easy to
answer the questions [on a reading assignment] without going back."
With her new knowledge and the
confidence Alexander gained from doing better in school, "there’s no more
trouble at home," she declares, "and he is a very happy boy."
Joyce Epstein, a Johns Hopkins
University professor who is considered an authority on parent involvement, says
educators should follow the lead of teachers like Mr. Lam because schools need
new ways of getting parents in the door and enlisting their help.
"It’s hard to say to every single teacher: Plan it, do all that work yourself," she offers. "A team approach spreads that effort around." |