Crossway Community's Proposed Charter School Is "Ready for Prime Time"

Today, I visited the Crossway Community in Kensington, MD. Prior to the current Board of Education’s rejection of Crossway’s application for a charter school, I was unfamiliar with their work. A representative from Crossway took me on a tour of their spacious facility, and explained their existing program components: a residential program for young mothers seeking to turn their lives around, a Montessori preschool program that serves their children as well as children from the community, and a program to bring cultural and civic events to their facility, in order to foster intergenerational learning.

Crossway applied to form a charter school serving young, elementary age children, using a Montessori methodology. The BOE rejected their application, calling it "not ready for prime time." But the classrooms I visited were spacious, structured, and organized. The facility is large enough to accommodate increased numbers of children. My tour guide explained that children who originally may have come from a chaotic home environment were found to thrive in the order, exploration, and skills development inherent in the Montessori program. There was even an outdoor vegetable garden, where the children assist in growing tomatoes and peppers.

I walked away saddened that the incumbent Board members voted to deny the children of Montgomery County the chance to participate in this type of rich educational experience. It did not escape my notice that Crossway was a short distance away from Oakland Terrace Elementary School: a school that is so overcrowded that MCPS is sending kindergarten children to the basement of a middle school for their education. Families in Montgomery County who believe their children need a nurturing, developmentally based school program deserve the opportunity to choose this educational alternative.

Why Recess and PE are Important

As an advocate, it saddens me every time I get another call or email from a parent who is distressed that their child has been "kept back" from recess again. Usually, if the parent finds out at all, the reason given is that "the child chose not to finish his/her work" or that the child "chose to misbehave."
I believe that children in general do want to please adults, and do want to finish their work in class. If s/he didn't finish, are we looking at whether the child understood the directions? Understood the concepts? Maybe s/he has an undiagnosed or underserved learning disability and needs extra time to finish. Maybe they stayed up too late the night before and are having a hard time focusing this morning. In any event, keeping children in from recess seems more like a punishment than a Positive Behavioral Intervention or an effective instructional strategy. You can be sure, though, that the kids just see it as a punishment.
And why are Recess and Physical Education so important? The increase in childhood obesity is so alarming that our schools should be doing all we can to promote health and fitness. We've reduced PE time in our elementary schools, so that sometimes the only time during the day a child gets an opportunity to run around outdoors is during recess. For some kids with disabilities, recess may be their only opportunity to interact with typically developing children. PE and Recess are valuable time periods to start kids down the road towards long-term healthful habits.
pssst: Dr. Weast: there's a study out that finds that recess even contributes to academic achievement! Read it HERE.

The Seven Keys Assembly Line

I oppose MCPS's current trend towards one-size-fits-all education. Ever since the winter of 2006, when the plan to eliminate the Secondary Learning Centers for students with disabilities was developed behind closed doors and with no community input or notice, MCPS has been on an inexorable path towards uniformity in all aspects.
But children are not widgets to be put on the "Seven Keys" assembly line. Should your child take "Algebra 1" in eighth grade because a glossy brochure produced by a $10 Million dollar public relations department tells him to? Or should parents make that decision, along with input from their child's teachers about whether their child has actually mastered the necessary skills leading up to that course.
The bottom line, of course, is that there can be no "one size fits all" in education. By trying to force all children onto the same assembly line, we are guaranteeing that they won't all achieve their unique potential.

Our Next Superintendent

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked lately is about the Board of Education's role in selecting the next Superintendent. I have some definite ideas about the qualities I would like to see in our next Superintendent. He or she should:

(1) Have a local community focus, rather than concerning himself/herself with national image.
(2) Be a hands-on manager who visits schools on a regular basis for the purpose of serving the constituency.
(3) Be someone who works with the community, and doesn’t surprise them with the latest plan to eliminate a program or close a school.
(4) Be willing to be completely transparent about the day-to-day financial dealings of the school system.
(5) Be an educator who encourages his/her staff to value insight and input from parents on the education of their individual children.

The selection process for our next superintendent should be as open and public as possible. What qualities would YOU like to see in our next Superintendent? Please email me at LydaforBOE@hotmail.com with your thoughts.

Then....and Now

In the fall of 2007, I was honored to receive the local "Autism Hero" award from Autism Speaks at their annual "Walk Now" on the National Mall.

Here's an article about my efforts in the community that was published in the Washington Examiner.

In the last two and a half years since that award, my sense of urgency has only increased. Families of children with disabilities continue to need choices, options, possibilities for their children's future. And so do families of intellectually gifted children, kids with art and musical talents, and all the kids everywhere who have varying gifts, strengths, and needs. With your help, I hope to start to reverse the current trend towards "one size fits all" education that has brought us the "Seven Keys," where kids are railroaded along a pre-determined track. Do you feel that same sense of urgency: that we need to act NOW to get our school system back on track to be a flexible, responsive entity that is more interested in your child than in his MSA scores? Please email me at LydaforBOE@hotmail.com and let me know what YOUR concerns are!