Since November, a number of educators, parents and caregivers and community members have been meeting to discuss spending priorities for the Cambridge Public Schools. It has been an amazing and highly democratic process of collecting ideas and concerns and has resulted in “The People’s Budget.” This document addresses a range of issues: a smooth transition for Kennedy-Longfellow families and staff as their school is dismantled, funding to support family engagement, facilities priorities (especially renovations at the Fletcher Maynard Academy) and some support for high school students. I support all of these proposals. There is one in particular, though, that I would like to address: the guarantee of paraprofessional support in the elementary schools.
If you are a parent, student or teacher, you understand why having additional and consistent educator support in the classroom is so essential. But I’m not sure that others do, particularly our policymakers. So I would like to share my own experience as a retired Cambridge teacher.
As a seventh- and eighth-grade humanities teacher at Graham & Parks, I always had a part-time assistant teacher working with me (for three hours a day). In fact, from the first days of G&P until quite recently, the school made it a priority to pay for at least a part-time assistant in every classroom and a full-time one in the early grades. The school made this commitment because it was understood that teachers needed that level of support to provide individualized, high-quality education to a widely heterogeneous group of students. My assistant ran small reading groups, worked 1:1 to give students feedback on their writing, regularly helped me respond to 50 students reading response journals and other papers, took children to the library to do research, supervised small groups when we were in the middle of a project like a play and much more. Because of this, we were truly able to address each student’s needs.
All this was before the current focus on testing, data collection, standardized curriculum and ongoing communication expectations with fellow teachers, administrators and families. I am in awe of the amount of tasks teachers now routinely have on their plates beyond teaching. It seems teachers are being asked to do more and more with less support. In addition, with the increased social-emotional needs of our students, it is almost impossible for me to imagine maintaining a safe and rigorous classroom without consistent, reliable support from a para.
Another advantage of having a para in my classroom was being able to hire people of color, often young folks and sometimes parents interested in education yet not certified or even sure if education was what they wanted to do in life. I, and many of our teachers, made it a priority to bring such people into the classroom, especially given how white the teaching staff tended to be then (and now?). A number of those former assistants have gone on to become lead teachers.
I urge support for the People’s Budget, including the part providing more teacher assistants in the elementary grades. It is a wise investment for which we will get the most bang for our buck.
Kathy Greeley, Erie Street, Cambridge
A stronger
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Ms. Greeley,
I went to an inner city grade school. The students were a third white, a third black, and a third Puerto Rican (the word Hispanic didn’t exist).
We were taught by one teacher in each class. Some students did better than others, and all but one or two were promoted to the next grade. All the students were taught to read by using phonics. We were taught to learn math by learning how to add, subtract, and multiply. It seemed to work
For several generations, the Cambridge grade schools have not been successful in teaching basics.
While you called for paras, which might be a good thing, nowhere in your missive have you addressed this problem. And that seems to be the case of many who discuss school affairs. You (and the school committees over the past 35 years) need to understand that the greatest thing that teachers can do for very young students is to teach them the basics. Cut out most everything else except recreation. Enable them to grow up to be productive adults.
Old Boy,
What does that look like to you, to teach just the basics? Cutting art, music, PE, social studies, and science? Are you aware that math and reading “basics” are applied and practiced across these different areas while also engaging other critical areas of children’s learning and development?
I’m also not sure why you think Ms Greeley isn’t addressing disparities in learning outcomes with her call for better elementary classroom staffing. I read her letter as very much about investing in the most critical (and basic) aspect of delivering a high quality education to a highly differentiated student population to ensure all kids are getting what they need to succeed.
You might check out her books to learn more about Ms. Greeley’s deep expertise and understanding of where CPS and public education more broadly have gone wrong in the past 30+ years….
GandParent,
You said, “Cutting art, music, PE, social studies, and science? Are you aware that math and reading “basics” are applied and practiced across these different areas while also engaging other critical areas of children’s learning and development?”
I’m very aware of these things and don’t advocate cutting out any of them.
In my mind, the question is, has the teaching in the CPS during the past 35 years, produced grade schoolers who can read, write and do math at grade level. Very unfortunately, the answer is no.
CPS did not teach reading using phonics. Why was that ever the situation?
You read her letter “as very much about investing in the most critical (and basic) aspect of delivering a high quality education.”
Fair enough. Wonderful perspective. Now, why hasn’t that high quality education been the norm in the CPS? Why hasn’t Ms. Greeley and others, including you, addressed that key question. Until that is answered, the CPS will not educate our students properly.
I think a red herring is here in the discussion. Phonics is taught in ALL Massachusetts certified schools and is used in Cambridge. If someone has claimed otherwise I think they are misleading things.
Assistants in the classroom for the teachers helps ensure quality care, due to building limits and closures etc class sizes are up in some grades as there are only so many rooms, having an assistant help students that are having issues with the curriculum or when doing smaller group discussions or lab work makes things more effective all around.
Am pleased to hear that phonics is taught in CPS.
I stand corrected. That was not the case in the past e.g. 1990s and at least the early 2000s.
The key question remains, why, when the CPSs spend over $33,000 per pupil, can’t the majority of the students read, do math and write at grade level?
Why, for the last 35 years, has the school committee, and some of its well educated members, refused to both address that problem and do something about it? They address so many other problems, but not that one, which is the key one.
Why does the committee and the Council keep kicking the can down the road? Is it because of ineptitude (let’s hire a school Superintendent who had many problems in her prior employment), or something else?
Should Mandarin be taught at the King School, if
the students can’t read, write, and understand English, at their grade level? I think not.
No matter which way Cambridge councillors spin it, the fact remains that our children are being short changed.
“Old Boy” I am not sure where you are getting your info. CPS exceeds the rest of the State in English Language Arts and Math Across All Grades in MCAS according to the 2023-2024.
On average, all grades with the exception of grade 6 math had moderate or high growth in ELA and math from the previous year.
DESE has deemed CPS as a whole as making substantial progress towards accountability targets.
Highlights of where the district exceeded targets include:
Reducing chronic absenteeism across grades 1-8;
Progress toward attaining English language proficiency for high school students; and
Extended engagement rate, which is the sum of the five-year cohort graduation rate plus the percentage of students from the cohort that remain enrolled after five years.
See ref: https://www.cpsd.us/district_news/cps_exceeds_in_ela_and_math_across_all_grades