A Plea for More Socialism with a Small but Welcome Nod to Reality

If you haven't visited the American Association of School Administrators website lately, you might not have seen a recent paper entitled, Healthier Students are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap, written by Charles E. Basch and published by the Campaign for Educational Equity, Teacher’s College, Columbia University.
//http://www.equitycampaign.org/i/a/document/12557_EquityMattersVol6_Web03082010.pdf

The topic is "educationally relevant health disparities," which include asthma, skipping breakfast, vision, violence in schools, and physical activity. Urban minority students from impoverished areas tend to suffer from these issues to a greater degree than other students, accounting for part of the achievement gap observed in these students. Mr. Basch says all the things you'd expect from a champion of educational equity. For starters, he makes a plea for more bureaucracy and more regulation in our public schools. Don't believe me? Take asthma, one of the health risks that can negatively impact students. Mr. Basch says it's up to the schools to do something:

• have on file an asthma action plan for all students with known asthma
• use a variety of data sources to identify students with poorly controlled asthma
• provide intensive case management for students with poorly controlled asthma
• minimize asthma triggers in the school environment
• implement a policy to permit students to carry and self-administer asthma medications
• train school staff on recognizing and responding to severe asthma symptoms that require immediate action
• have a full-time registered nurse on staff at school
• provide parents and families of students with asthma information to increase their knowledge about asthma management

As any teacher can tell you, most of the above are currently being done in our public schools to one degree or another. Our public schools are generally clean and allergen free. Teachers are made aware of health issues such as asthma from reviewing the health information contained in the student's file. Conscientious teachers identify children with serious breathing issues and tell their parents. Teachers work with administrators, parents, and school nurses to allow children to use inhalants when necessary. All these things and more are being done every day in our public schools, as they have been for decades. But, according to Mr. Basch, the problem is that these efforts are "categorical and fragmented rather than strategic and coordinated."

In other words, our schools need to hire Asthma Awareness Specialists, Asthma Treatment Strategy Coordinators, and other asthma administrators to create more paperwork, conduct meetings, and make phone calls.

Alongside the plea that more bureacracy and regulation be heaped upon the schools, Basch is careful not to ask anything of students or parents. For example, skipping breakfast was identified as another "educationally relevant health disparity." As noted by Basch, the school breakfast program started as a pilot program in 1966 and became permanent in 1975. Since then, millions of children have participated in the program. Unfortunately, less than half of students currently enrolled in the free or reduced lunch program eat the school breakfast, even though they can get it for free or at a reduced price. Basch identifies two barriers to participation in the school breakfast program: 1) stigma associated with participation in a program intended for low income families; and 2) having to arrive at school early enough to eat breakfast.

To address the first problem, the stigma of participating in a program for low income families, Basch suggests making the free breakfast program universal. To address the second problem, having to arrive at school early enough to eat breakfast, he says that, "allowing students to eat breakfast in the classroom rather than the cafeteria would address the second.” Clearly, Basch's idea of educational equity does not involve personal responsibility.

Nevertheless, Basch does give a nod to reality that is most welcome. For years, teachers have been told to shut up about the problem of students who come to school in no condition to learn. Children who are chronically sleep deprived, from chaotic homes with drug use and criminal activity, among other factors, come to school unable to function in a classroom. But teachers have been told to shut up about that. At the school where I taught, the motto was "SUCCESS FOR ALL, NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCUSES!" And we are told that effective teaching can make anything happen in the classroom, no matter what's going on with the child at home.

So it was most welcome to see Mr. Basch come out against that lie in his paper:

No matter how well teachers are prepared to teach, no matter what accountability measures are put into place, no matter what governing structures are established for schools, educational progress will be profoundly limited if students are not motivated and able to learn.

We may not agree on the role of the schools or what their mission should be. But at least we agree on one thing: healthier students do learn better. It's what common sense educators have been saying for years.