Whether I have a “good” class depends on me, not on my students. Whether the at-risk kids get involved, learn and enjoy my class depends on what I do. How they behave depends on how I behave. I am 100% responsible for my teaching.

At-risk students cannot be expected to increase their achievement unless teachers improve their effectiveness. And teachers cannot improve their effectiveness unless they are willing to abandon teaching procedures that have failed and adopt strategies that take into account that at-risk students begin their schooling with different experiences and different perception of themselves, school and the world.

“Wealth accounts for differences in test scores” so says Alfie Kohn, who goes on to show, “We’ve got proof.” Bill Page agrees and offers his responses and explanations. Since poverty correlates to differences in test scores, it follows that poverty needs to be “fixed” before worrying about test scores, but schools do not have that option.

Fifty percent of the students in class are below average and additionally; there is a bottom ten percent in every class. Consider what it might be like for students who spend day after day at the bottom in boredom, condescension, low scores, in competition with the top ten percent and in fear of being ridiculed and appearing stupid.

A blunt, undesirable, but definitive answer to the dilemma of teachers’ expectation of parental cooperation in their child’s schooling and the problem of parents who refuse take responsibility for assignments, homework and participation in their child’s learning. The bottom line: Teachers teach unconditionally -- no excuses, no
exceptions.

An estimated 25% of children arrive at school having been reared in poverty and undesirable conditions all their lives. It is not their fault. The children were okay when they were born. They were “damaged by an adult created- managed world. The “at-risk” label is pinned on them by schools indicating they are at-risk of not being taught. It is an insidious means of blaming the victim.

Students do not just flunk – they flunk something, and the something they flunk is what I, as the teacher, am in charge. It takes two to “ Tango”. You can’t have a “flunkee” without having a “flunker”. So long as teachers are in charge of teaching, testing and evaluating, they choose whether students learn or flunk.

A short, meaningful article from the London Times grabbed my attention and, to this day, never let go. The writer of the article asks, “How many of us really do try to give an equal chance to all members of the class?” Incredibly, a federal project modified teacher techniques so that discrimination against low-achievers could be eliminated.

If remediation works, why not take students who are behind and catch them up. Why is it schools keep remediating the same students year after year? And, they do, sometimes for their entire aborted career! If schools are still remediating them, that shows it doesn’t work. In fact if remediation works, why not use the techniques in the first place rather than after a student has encountered difficulty? Why not have all teachers use the procedures instead of just remedial teachers?

A teacher is a human being with unique characteristics, personality, interests, individual differences and abilities and knowledge. In reflecting on the three best teachers I ever had, I note that they were not all alike, they did not all have the same teaching characteristics – they were not even similar – each teacher was unique. Here are three characteristics that “good teachers” possess.

Each day, a number of unfortunate students are told in many ways they are inadequate. The most basic elements of school structure from the lockstep grade levels, to the formal, informal and subtle evaluations, to the competition, and constant comparisons are inescapable. Once a student hits the slippery slope toward failure, the only teachers who could help are often the ones who hasten the slide.

A self-contained class of the lowest achieving seventh-graders in a large school gained three to four years in achievement scores by a role reversal. Class members, themselves poor students, became tutors helping elementary students rather than being the ones tutored. Not only does the aphorism “The best way to learn something is to teach it “ applicable, but the self-concept of being “a teacher” was an obvious personal gain.

Murphy C. had been in special education in inner city St. Louis Schools all his life. At nineteen years old with good attendance but with no credits in high school he moved to a suburb that had no special education program. Becoming a part of an at-risk group of junior high students involved in tutoring early elementary level students. The tutoring program transformed his life.

If a diagnosis or its label does not lead to remediation or is not within the realm of one’s responsibility, it becomes a useless, possibly damaging bit of information. Labels can be useful in communicating about a student, but they are useless, even detrimental, in working with a student. I have never used a label of any kind to help change a student’s behavior. In lieu of a label, I use an accurate, detailed description that produces an accurate specific plan of action.

Whether students learn a little or a lot; whether they have a good day or bad; whether they improve their achievement depends on the teacher. Textbooks, classroom conditions and administrative policy can make a difference, but the teacher IS the difference.

Every kid can learn is not accurate. It should read, every kid does learn. What they learn is what they experience. If they live on a farm they learn about farms; if they live in the ghetto they learn about ghettos. I’ve noticed that kids who come from Catholic homes are usually Catholic and those from Baptist homes are usually Baptists.

My creed serves as a summative applied part of my beliefs, experiences, knowledge, and expectations. I developed it as a statement by which all of my classroom behavior could be measured and understood. My beliefs determine my actions. Upon examining my beliefs, I then make a public commitment to my behavior as a teacher.

In teacher training, they forgot to allow for individual differences in teachers. They seem to assume that all teachers have the same abilities, personalities, interpersonal skills, competencies and teaching styles. In my twentieth year of teaching it struck me that the school system did not regard me differently from a first year teacher. I had the same number of kids, same supervision, same preparation time, and same faculty meetings as though there was no difference.

Teacher effectiveness is through a relationship that acknowledges the independence of both the teacher and the student. Each functions independently; yet both are responsible and accountable to each other. The result of the merger of the teacher and student as autonomous learners is like a hybrid interaction and interrelation creating an Interdependent Paradigm.

Teachers don’t just make a difference; they are the difference in student learning. And the keys to improving their effectiveness in increasing student achievement is first, teacher empowerment and second, embedded staff development provided by building administrators as instructional leaders

One of every three students is absent each day, and “mobs of students in the halls being disruptive and refusing to go to class” is a problem at Vashon, an inner city high school in St. Louis, Mo. The problem made the front page, feature page, pictures, columns, editorials and letters to the editor in the newspaper. What they call problems; I call symptoms.

No two students are alike, learning is personal and learning is individual –so how do teachers go about teaching lessons for a group. This article offers a list of the characteristics of differentiation and how it works for all students.

These nine year olds were okay when they came into the world, whatever happened to them since then is not their fault. Don’t blame and punish the victim. Each child is living the only life he or she has. The least the schools could do is not diminish his or her life by declaring him or her to be a failure.

Every question contains a set of assumptions with built-in limitations in the parameters of our thinking about the answers. Therefore, we should always “question the question before we answer the answer.”

All seven categories are a continuous part of every kid’s learning experiences. The seven categories influence varies but it is never zero. And, it is an integral part of the school context, climate and culture

Self-reflection is the most powerful behavior changer teachers can use. It requires teachers being able to “step outside themselves” -- becoming objective observers, seeing themselves from a new perspective.

There are only two ways to control kids or make them behave – and one of them doesn’t work. Schools use the one that doesn’t work. If reward-punishment worked there would be no discipline problems in school, and yet discipline is still the number one problem year after year.

The analogy that equates the worker to the teacher and the product to the student is asinine. Kids are not products; they are human being and contrary to school policies they act like humans –there’s the problem. The goal is to teach students to behave , not to make them behave. That cannot be mandated.

One of the most powerful devices for gaining the cooperation of students; developing responsibility and motivation is getting the kids involved in feedback and decision making. At least they can talk about it!

Probably a more honest and complete story about how this book came about, its purpose, and what the reader should know about the author, his purpose and his point of viewing.