Baltimore City Public Schools are working towards improving its efforts to educate their students.
About 84 percent of city schools are low-income, which is based on the students’ eligibility to receive a free or reduced meal plan. Baltimore is taking steps to make sure these schools receive the same education as schools without a high low-income population.
“Everything has been improving in the school system, enrollment is rising in city schools, improvement is rising,” Research Services Coordinator for Baltimore City Public Schools, Dr. Ike Diibor said.
The education reform program and accountability system, No Child Left Behind, makes schools responsible for educating children so they can reach a certain level of proficiency, he added.
The city of Baltimore says they are making strides to improve education, and this success must be measured in some way, according to Diibor.
“They look at the schools to see if the kids are rising longitudinally,” he said.
This includes measuring students’ test scores and making sure they reach the set standard on assessments.
Teach for America is a non-profit organization working to educate all students in Baltimore equally.
“Teach for America is an alternative to teachers for the education system,” Diibor said. “Teachers in Maryland used to need to have a license, and many people who do are only from traditional schools. Teach for America takes a different route and hires people who studied subjects like math and chemistry. Then they can get into the classrooms and begin to teach.”
Craig Reinauer, a senior education and special education major at Towson University, was recently accepted into Teach for America for the upcoming school year. After going through a rigorous application process, he will start training in July and begin teaching in Baltimore in September.
He says that he thinks Teach for America has a great trickle down effect.
“It starts with people from really diverse backgrounds who have had wonderful opportunities and they seek out to do something like Teach for America. The resources we grew up with and the benefits that are brought to a low income area gets to trickle down in a way it would not have,” Reinauer said. “TFA allows us to bring in resources a community wouldn’t otherwise see.”
In Baltimore, teachers serving through Teach for America are positively impacting over 19,000 children.
Dr. Diibor said the world of teaching is an enterprise.
“There is a lot that the school system offers, but Teach for America teachers are coming in and providing a different set of skills to students. Baltimore needs kids to venture out and do something creative and with the help of teachers who have different interests and skills they are able to,” Diibor said.
High school students, especially, need people with specific content knowledge to help out, he said.
The state’s help is also needed to balance education and make sure all students are being educated equally.
Maria Lamb, Director of Program Improvement and Family Support for the Maryland State Department of Education said that Maryland’s educational organization gives federal funding to the school districts in the state.
This money is used to improve the educational opportunities available to children attending high poverty schools.
“These funds are being used to lower class sizes, provide interventions in reading and math, provide after school programs, supplemental educational services and many other strategies that the schools would not be able to afford [otherwise],” Lamb said.
According to research, Regional Communications Director for Teach for America, Kaitlin Gastrock said, “Teach for America teachers are just as effective and in some cases might even be more effective than other teachers.
This is a poster hanging up in a Teach for America middle school classroom that states the students' academic goals. The banner was displayed during Teach for America Week.
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A 2009 survey of school principals who employ Teach for America teachers found that 94 percent of the corps members made a positive impac
t in their schools and 95 percent rated these members as effective or more effective than other beginning teachers.
The success of Teach for America teachers is measured by looking at student achievement data.
“All of our teachers work with staff members to ensure that their students are working towards ambitious yet measurable goals,” Gastrock said.
The teachers are in charge of keeping track of the data, including students’ grades and their improvement throughout the year. This is to m
ake sure students are moving in the right direction.
Teach for America also participates in independent studies, such as the Urban Institute, Gastrock said. In 2008 this study found that high school students taught by Teach for America members scored higher on state-required exams, especially in math and science, than students taught by more experienced educators.
Teach for America is making an impact on corps members as well as students.
It is becoming more common for Teach for America teachers to “teach beyond,” which means staying in the school system after their required two years is finished.
Todd Dalrymple, a fourth grade teacher at Moravia Park Primary School, hopes to get two-thirds of Teach for America teachers to continue their term. Last year, 60 percent of Teach for America corps members extended their term.
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Teach for America aims to improve educational equality in Baltimore
Since its foundation in 1990, Teach for America has been employing recent college graduates to help educate students in low-income school districts. Read more…
Teach for America Week brings professionals into the classroom
Each year Teach for America holds a week where guest speakers attend schools and teach a lesson in a corps members’ classroom. Read more…
