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Volume VIII Number 25 December 14, 2005 |
| School District 65 Approves Concept of Afro-centric Pilot Project Evanston Township High School Food Service Makes Changes, Faces Challenges Avoiding Holidy Stress Let's face it: holiday stress comes in all shapes and sizes. For the purpose of this article, we have decided to use the age factor as the major element of stress and we have asked a few experts to help us pinpoint what the relative stressors are and how to overcome them. Nancy Flowers, ombudsman for the city of Evanston, said that for many elderly the coming holidays represent a major challenge: Going out to shop among the crowds roaming the stores can be difficult when people are not as physically fit as they used to be. The aging population may also have disabilities, such as blindness or arthritis, that can make shopping even more challenging. "We all have strong feelings about what holidays should be like. But we should take into account our new ability levels and the fact that, maybe, our financial resources have changed," Mrs. Flowers said. She suggests to "think alternatively: think about time as a gift." For instance, offer to make cookies with older people or do the shopping together; offer to trim the tree together or have them over for dinner. When a person's social network has dwindled holidays become a reminder of better times and depression sets in. As far as gift giving is concerned , Mrs. Flowers suggested being creative: " Buy hours of housekeeping for a person who can't do the hard chores any more, like scrubbing floors and washing windows," she said. The elderly, finally, should also change the old rules to accommodate their new needs: Instead of running around to buy gifts, they could celebrate the holidays by having a simple dinner or going to the movies with their family. Lynn Altschul, co-executive director of the Family Room at the Chandler-Newberger Community Center, addressed the holiday stress that affects parents with children between the ages of 1 and 4. "Young parents want everything to be perfect," she said, "and try to replicate their family traditions." She suggested that young families start their own traditions and have more reasonable expectations. "Spend time with your family, and keep things simple for children: a few well-chosen gifts are more appreciated that just a lot of them." It is also important to remember that young children need routine to feel secure, even during the holidays: Bedtime and meals should happen at regular times. "Keep everything simple: it doesn't have to be perfect," Ms. Altschul concluded. Carl Hampton, director of Community Programs at the Family Institute and coordinator of the Weissburg-Holmes Family Focus outreach site, said holidays are so commercialized that they will remind people of how much they do not have and cannot afford. Commercialization creates tension between adolescents and their parents: kids have unrealistic expectations, and parents, who cannot meet them, become depressed. Mr. Hampton suggests that parents emphasize that these celebrations are bout gift- giving and not gift- receiving. Furthermore, gifts should be something people make or they service you offer, not necessarily something they buy. Parents should also be very firm and set limits. "One big gift and three small ones, for instance – it's a reasonable expectation," he said.
NEA President Reg Weaver fields questions about his teaching philosophy from Kingsley School fifth-graders. Photo by Claire Bryant, intern. On Dec. 1, Jason Ewing's class of fifth-graders at Kingsley Elementary School welcomed Reg Weaver, the president of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' union, to the school library, where they peppered him with questions about his life and philosophy of teaching. With hearty laugh and booming voice, Mr. Weaver was clearly delighted to be in the classroom again. His stop in Evanston was just one leg of a self-created tour of schools across the country. At the national NEA convention last summer, he offered "Lunch with Reg" to the winners of a raffle. Mr. Ewing, a representative of DEC, the District 65 Educators' Council, was one of the winners. At Kingsley, Mr. Weaver told the students about his own education, his choice of a college major and his route to becoming a teacher. Mr. Weaver stressed the importance of learning "a second language, in addition to English." The students had prepared questions for Mr. Weaver, having warmed up during the previous half hour by asking questions of Mr. Ewing and Kingsley principal, Dr. Mike Martin. At that question -and-answer session, they asked such questions as "Who is better at math?", "Who is the better runner?" and "Who do you think would make a better tackle football player?" "We don't have tackle football at Kingsley," Mr. Martin replied before adding that he thought he might be better at that than Mr. Ewing. Among the questions they asked Mr. Weaver were "How did you handle kids who fight?", "Is there a school where you think you made a difference?" and "Are you going to run for president of the United States?" After the visit – during which he answered those and other questions (he said he would not run for president), he visited Chute Middle School and gave a speech to DEC members that afternoon.
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School District 65 Approves Concept of Afro-centric
Pilot Project On Dec. 5 the Program/Policy Committee of the District 65 School Board approved recommendations of both the administration and the African-American Student Achievement Committee (AASAC) to: 1) adopt a philosophy statement relating to the education of African-American children; and 2) approve the concept of pursuing a pilot project using an Afro-centric curriculum in a limited number of classrooms and/or schools. All seven School Board members participated in the Program/Policy Committee meeting and joined in the consensus, with the exception of one dissent on one of the recommendations. AASAC has met three times, and the recommendations were "the first phase of the committee's work," Dr. Murphy said. He said the work of that committee is much broader in scope. Ellen Fogelberg, director of literacy, said members of AASAC have discussed how to infuse African and African-American cultural traditions into the District's curriculum, how to recruit and retain African-American teachers, how to increase parental involvement and other issues. The philosophy statement The philosophy statement provides in part that the District's instructional model will ensure that all African-American students "meet or exceed District 65 standards in reading, writing and math" and "achieve high levels of self-esteem, self-respect and self-discipline" and that the instructional model will "affirm African and African-American Culture (Knowledge of Self and Community)." The philosophy statement also provides that the education of African-American students "will be based on current research, high teacher expectations, instructional strategies proven to most benefit students of the African Diaspora, enfranchisement of parents and community involvement." Jonathan Baum, chair of the Program/Policy Committee, framed what turned out to be the only material issue discussed by the committee about the philosophy statement: "whether we should for the first time have a philosophy statement for a group of our students as distinct from a program." In arguing that the philosophy statement should apply to all African-American students in the District rather than to just an Afro-centric program, Lloyd Shepard, co-chair of a subcommittee that drafted the statement, said, "When it comes to African-American students, we all know that we are in a crisis, a very serious crisis." He said the philosophy statement "covers educating African-American students in a way that celebrates, embraces and affirms their culture, the same way a Euro-centric curriculum celebrates, embraces and affirms European children." He added, "It is in my opinion at this point a moral issue and a human rights issue. These kids are in trouble and we all know it." On the 2005 ISATs, 43 percent of the District's black students failed to meet State standards across all grades and subjects. On the third- and fifth-grade reading portions of the ISATs, 53 and 56 percent of the District's black students failed to meet standards. Dr. Murphy said, "There's much more that we need to do, and we need to be much more effective in addressing students who are not thriving in our District." He added that the philosophy statement is "a way of affirming our effort as a District to try to develop an educational program that addresses the needs of this particular ethnic group." All Board members concurred in the philosophy statement, except Mr. Baum. He said that while he has strongly advocated for strategies targeted to improve achievement of African-American students, "I am personally uncomfortable with having for the first time a philosophy statement of the District that is for only one racial group." He told the RoundTable that he was uncomfortable with such a philosophy statement because it lumped all students in an ethnic group together as though they were all the same, and it did not seem right for a District committed to diversity to single out one racial group. The Afro-centric pilot Terri Shepard, a former School Board member and a member of ASSAC, said the committee has collected information from schools around the country that use an Afro-centric curriculum and that there are a wide variety of models. "We haven't settled on any model," she said. Ms. Fogelberg said the plan for District 65 would be to "deliver the District's curriculum with an infusion of African culture and tradition." The administration will have to draw on examples of some Afro-centric programs and make programmatic recommendations, she added. "Afro-centric programs customarily have a strong infusion of African-American traditions and culture into the entire day and they cover contributions of Africans to history, to science and to social studies," said Ms. Fogelberg. "They are designed to help African-American children understand their culture and heritage, and also to create an intrinsic motivation to want to do well in school." Dr. Murphy said some of the things members of AASAC have considered incorporating
into the pilot program include an extended day and/or an extended year.
Another possibility is the creation of a contract that mandates parent Mr. Shepard said, "The European curriculum has existed for years to the benefit of European students. So why do we not think this type of curriculum would not benefit African-American students…who have been devalued through American culture?" "Everything in this District and this whole country validates children of European descent," Board member Jerome Summers said. "In light of the fact our children are not thriving…I am willing to give this [the Afro-centric program] a try." Responding to comments that it would be better to take time to develop a well- thought-out program and to build community support and not rush things, Judith Treadway, a member of AASAC, said, "We don't need any more delay. Nothing else has worked. We should move forward." Mr. Baum said, "If Dr. Murphy and the professional staff say this
is a promising research-based way of increasing African-American achievement,
that's determinative for me." He said the Board needs to be open
to trying programs that show promise of dealing with some long-standing
challenges facing the District. Dr. Murphy told the RoundTable that there has not been a formal overarching study of the impact of Afro-centric programs on student achievement, but there are a number of case studies that show the program has had success in improving student achievement, self-esteem and self-confidence. He also said that if the students in the Afro-centric program achieve at very high levels, then the District may be able to take what is learned through the program and apply it to other classrooms in the District. Dr. Murphy emphasized, however, the need to gauge community interest in participating in an Afro-centric program. He said, "The first hurdle, more than anything else, is [that] we need to determine the level of interest we have out there in our community….If we can't acknowledge that, we're not being realistic." Some potential configurations of the pilot project include a K-2 model
at one, two or three schools. Another possibility is a pre-K-l model at
only one school. The 60-percent guideline Mary Rita Luecke said, "If we were talking about taking over an entire school and making it into an Afro-centric school, which would probably have a single race constituting not 100 percent, but probably close to that, then I would have some problems. We're talking at this point about a pilot program that is going to be introduced into a school. I don't think the 60 percent guideline is going to be a hindrance to this." Mr. Baum said, "I think we all know that a classroom that has the Afro-centric program is going to be more than 60 percent African-American. But the 60-percent guideline isn't the classroom guideline. It's a school guideline…I don't see it as threatening the 60-percent guideline." Mr. Baum told the RoundTable that, while he would not be disturbed if a classroom became segregated on an isolated basis as a result of the Afro-centric program, it would concern him if segregated classrooms became the culture of a school. |
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Evanston Township
High School Food Service Makes Changes, Faces Challenges The Evanston Township High School food service faces many challenges in an era of changing tastes, student independence and a growing national concern over the problem of childhood obesity and inactivity, according to Toni Fisher, director of food service for District 202. In a week when Illinois Governor Rod Blagoevich's push to ban junk food in middle and elementary schools will be considered by the State Board of Education, Ms. Fisher and Assistant Food Service Director Meghan Gibbons outlined the challenges and successes of ETHS's food service for the District 202 Board of Directors. Ms. Fisher provided a bit of history for the Board, pointing out that 2006 is the 60th anniversary of the school lunch program, started in order to correct the problems of malnutrition that had been identified when soldiers were inducted into the military during World War II. The Federal government supports the school lunch program by reimbursing the school for each meal that is served, the amount varying depending on whether the student is paying full price for the meal, or is receiving a free or reduced-price lunch. A small amount of reimbursement also comes from the State. Numerous changes have taken place over the years, according to Ms. Fisher, who has been in the school food service business since 1976. "At first, students were required to take all the components of the meal, including dessert." This led to a problem known as "plate waste" in which the undesired food was just thrown out. In the 1980s, under "Reaganomics," food service had to offer all five or six components of a meal, but students only had to take three in order for their selections to be eligible for Federal reimbursement. "In the 1990s students started letting us know they were being affected by Madison Avenue" and fast food outlets in terms of what kinds of meals they wanted to eat, said Ms. Fisher. Also in 1993, the federal food pyramid replaced former guidelines and further influenced the offerings by school lunch programs. Finally, the open campus for juniors and seniors allowed students to avoid eating in school altogether. Ms. Gibbons, who is also a registered dietician, presented information about the kinds of foods that are offered both in the cafeteria and in vending machines throughout the school. The school menu runs on a three-week cycle, with 15 different main dishes being offered during that time. "You may think it seems repetitive," she said, "but studies show that kids don't like more variety than 15 or so different selections." Although many of the offerings, like cheeseburgers, pizza and nachos grande do not seem like very healthy offerings, Ms. Gibbons stressed that wherever possible the effort is made to use lean beef, non-fat dry milk, low-fat cheese and whole grain bread. Vending machines have been the target of much criticism for contributing to the junk food problem. Ms. Gibbons indicated, however, that no extra-king-size portions are offered and there are many alternatives such as baked chips, granola bars and yogurt offered for sale. Both she and Ms. Fisher acknowledged that candy bars and pop are still offered, but "there has to be a slow transition." Pop accounts for 39 percent of the purchases from vending machines, the balance being 48 percent water and 13 percent juice. The Food Service revenue for FY05 was $1,956,569. Superintendent Allan Alson remarked that when he came to the district, "food service was a major money loser," a situation that has changed significantly due to cost savings measures such as the formation of a buying cooperative. Ms. Gibbons requested that the school review some of the practices that are used for fundraising throughout the school, like candy, Krispy Kreme, and bake sales, which send a mixed message about nutrition. Board discussion focused on the need for student input to advise how food offerings might be made more attractive to students. Dr. Alson suggested that an appropriate way for that to take place was during the development of the Wellness Policy which the school is required by law to produce by the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year.
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