Truancy program ending; mentoring program up in the air
With the end of the fiscal year fast approaching, I thought it was worth mentioning a program that fell victim to the decentralization and restructuring of the Baltimore school system and will no longer be around come July 1:
The Baltimore Truancy Assessment Center, designed to provide social services to truant kids and their families to get the kids back in school, has been the subject of much political bickering and restructuring since its founding in 2003. Originally, truancy officers who picked up students on the street during the school day dropped them off at the center in East Baltimore. Then, to target assistance to the worst offenders, officers instead began making house calls to students who had been out of school for prolonged periods. The building where the center operates had no heat and other basic necessities this year, and the executive director got fed up and retired a few months ago. The money that was used to run BTAC will instead be used toward the system's new alternative schools and programs, which serve truant kids.
Meanwhile, the fate of another program -- Blum Mentoring -- remains up in the air. Established nine years ago, the Blum program grew over time to 40 full-time mentors, who were placed in schools with a high percentage of new teachers. Under the reorganization, mentoring will still be required in schools where 20 percent or more of the teachers have three years of experience or less. But principals will be in charge of hiring the mentors, and many are saying they don't have the money in their budgets. Assuming North Avenue follows through and mandates their hiring, the question is whether the mentors will report to the principals or to a central mentorship coordinator. That's an important distinction. As one of the mentors wrote in an e-mail to me: "One of the strengths of our program was that, because we were not under the principal's control, we were able to maintain a confidential relationship with our mentees.... In addition, principals could not pull us to be substitute teachers, cafeteria monitors or test coordinators, thus taking us away from our main focus -- new teachers." There's talk that a grant might pay for a person to oversee the mentors centrally so the Blum program can continue. For now, the mentors don't know what their role will be when school resumes Aug. 25.
Keep reading to see a profile I wrote of the Baltimore Truancy Assessment Center last year.
The Baltimore Sun
February 18, 2007 Sunday
FINAL EDITION
TRACKING DOWN TRUANTS;
CASES OF HOMELESS, STARVING KIDS HINT AT LARGER ISSUES
BYLINE: Sara Neufeld, Sun reporter
SECTION: TELEGRAPH; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1733 words
About 10:30 a.m. on a school day, three teenage boys in black hats, hooded sweatshirts and puffy coats are standing on a corner known for drug-dealing. Down the block, an eviction is under way, with men throwing mattresses out an upstairs window.
The blue van pulls up to one of the few rowhouses on this West Baltimore street that isn't boarded up. Charles Washington, 69, slides out of the back seat, knocks on the door and introduces himself: a truancy officer from the city public schools.
He is looking for a 12-year-old girl who has missed 31 days of classes at William H. Lemmel Middle, but she doesn't live there anymore. The man at the door says his family took in the girl as an abandoned infant, but last summer her mother came back for her. Now, he believes she's "running wild."
"They love her like it was their own child," Washington says as he reports back to the van's driver, fellow truancy officer Walter Barnes III, 55. "They want the child back."
The men work for the Baltimore Truancy Assessment Center, a division of the city school police department and the only program of its kind in Maryland. The center works to track down chronic truants in a school system where an estimated 4,500 students - more than 5 percent of the total enrolled - are absent each day without a valid excuse.
Truancy, a problem often seen as the precursor to crime and other social ills, has gained attention in recent weeks as the state's new first lady, Baltimore District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, made it her signature cause. She has not proposed any specific action, but she says she wants to draw attention to the issue.
The attention couldn't come at a better time for the truancy center, which costs $1.1 million a year to operate and is trying to secure funding for a second location. City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr., one of the center's founders, plans to introduce a resolution later this month asking for Mayor Sheila Dixon's support.
Every weekday, Washington and Barnes ride through the city's most economically depressed and drug-infested neighborhoods trying to locate chronic truants, students between the ages of 5 and 15 who've had 20 or more unexcused absences. After students turn 16, they are free to drop out of school.
Both retired city police officers, they seek to provide whatever help is needed to get truant kids back in school. They link families with the center's in-house service providers, including counselors from the state departments of social and juvenile services and the city housing department. They also inform parents that they can face jail time for their children's prolonged absences.
The truancy center is made possible by a city curfew law prohibiting students from being on the streets between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on school days. Officials from other school systems have visited, expressing interest in starting something similar.
Joe Sacco, the center's executive director, says unexcused absences have dropped since his program started in 2003, when the daily figure was between 6,000 and 7,000. But no other Maryland system except Prince George's County has a problem comparable to the city's.
Nationally, Sacco says, about 3.2 million students are absent from school each day. Communities use a variety of strategies to combat truancy, from denying driver's licenses for bad attendance to offering cars for good attendance. In Norwalk, Conn., families can be evicted from public housing if their children are truant.
Two Baltimore initiatives, the truancy center and a truancy court run by the University of Baltimore, focus on the problems leading to chronic absenteeism.
With a staff of 18, the center operates out of a former day care and administrative building for Sojourner-Douglass College in East Baltimore. When it first opened, kids swept off the street during the school day were transported there for a service assessment while they waited for their parents to pick them up.
But the need was overwhelming and the center was crowded, with kids waiting for hours and those from rival gangs sometimes trying to fight each other. So officials tried a new approach this year.
Now, city police officers take the kids they round up on the street - 2,604 between October and December - back to school. They forward the students' names to the truancy center, which pulls their attendance records. Then Sacco's eight truancy officers make house calls for the worst cases.
They find students who are homeless, students who are home baby-sitting younger siblings, students who are on the corners selling drugs, sometimes under orders from a parent.
Once, they found a 12-year-old girl in a bathrobe, prostituting herself to get by. Another time, they found a filthy 7-year-old boy starving and abandoned by his mother.
Barnes, who also served as a state trooper, has a quiet, gentle demeanor. He works three jobs: a truancy officer by day, a Johns Hopkins campus guard by night, and a Pentecostal church pastor on Sundays.
Washington, a witty and talkative Air Force veteran who writes novels and poetry, tries to keep Barnes laughing amid the despair they witness. But he struggles to contain his outrage.
Heading north to the Park Heights neighborhood, they pull up to another set of rowhouses. Made of brick and stone, these are all occupied, with porches and grass in front. Washington walks through a chain-link gate, past swan-shaped plant holders and a wilting poinsettia.
Inside, he finds a man sitting in a cramped living room, watching the evangelist Benny Hinn preach on television.
His name is Ernest Young, grandfather of a Northwestern High freshman who has missed 23 days. He and his wife have been caring for the boy and his twin sister since at least 2003, when their daughter - the children's mother - went to prison. She was released last fall, but she wouldn't take them back.
Young says he has lost control of the household. The twins come and go as they please. He doesn't know if they are in school.
"I don't really know what to tell you," Young tells Washington. "I'm too old to be fooling with hard-headed kids."
Washington asks Young several questions, trying to determine who's legally responsible for the twins. He explains that the responsible person can face fines and up to 30 days in jail.
He gives Young the name of a social worker who will contact him about his grandson.
"I'll see if we can help you with this," he says.
"I hope you can help me and get him out of here," Young replies.
At the next house, a wooden canopy over the doorway is collapsing. It's the home of a Garrison Middle sixth-grader, recorded absent 31 times. The boy's mother tells Washington he's probably on the corner selling drugs.
"He ain't in school - he won't go to school," Washington reports back to Barnes in the van. He says he feels grateful that his three kids are grown.
"You know what people don't understand?" Washington asks. "If jail is a step up from where you live, how can it be a deterrent? Jail is a step up for these people. You're there with your homies, three meals a day."
He sighs.
"It's depressing. That's all I can say."
A week later, Washington and Barnes are back in Park Heights. Washington is talking about how a lot of parents have been surprised lately to learn that their kids aren't in school, how administrators aren't always sending home letters and calling as they're supposed to.
When a child has three unexcused absences, someone from the school is supposed to send a letter or call home. At five absences, there's supposed to be a parent conference. After 10, legal action can be taken.
But that follow-through varies by school. The city schools' central attendance office was dismantled during a budget crisis in 2003, a few months after the truancy center opened. The office reopened this school year with a director but no employees.
The director, Tina Spears, says plans are in the works for her to hire three staff members, plus a truancy and attendance monitor at all city middle schools, which have the highest truancy rates.
The school system has an incentive to address the issue: the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which monitors attendance, in addition to test scores. Schools could face sanctions for failure to meet standards.
For Washington and Barnes, the first case of the new day is a 13-year-old boy, address unknown. He has missed 47 days of school, but the file doesn't say where. Washington knocks on one door, but the man who answers says it's the wrong house.
A mile away, Washington tries again, at a rowhouse with some windows boarded, others covered in plastic. A mattress, a box spring and garbage fill the porch, and dozens of bikes are piled on the ground. "Looks like a lot of stolen bikes to me," Washington says.
The woman who answers first says she doesn't know the boy. Moments later, she changes the story, saying she's his aunt and can get a letter to him. She says he used to live there, but moved. Washington doesn't buy it.
"I think it is the mother, so she got the riot act read to her," he tells Barnes as he gets back in the van, stepping over a muddy brown boot in the middle of the street. "She don't care. Human nature's not a pretty thing."
The van passes through the streets where Washington used to patrol as a city police officer. He marvels at the number of people outside doing nothing in the middle of the day.
No one answers at the next house, which has visible cracks between the bricks and cages over the windows. It stands next to an alley strewn with soda cans, empty bags of chips, plastic bags and burger wrappers. Two pit bulls roam amid the trash and growl.
"Can you imagine people living like this?" Barnes asks.
"Tell me that jail is a deterrent to that, somebody," Washington says. "I'd put in an application to go to jail if I lived here. The whole thing should be condemned."
"The whole block," Barnes replies.
They visit the home of a Garrison Middle seventh-grader who has missed 26 days. "Mother and father live there and they can't do nothing with him," Washington says. "What do you do when both the parents can't do nothing with a 13-year-old? Jesus, Lord."
Another house is filled with roaches. At the last stop of the day, the girl has been shut out of school because she's not up to date on her immunizations.
"You can see what we went through today," Washington says on the ride back to the truancy center. "We've got some real problems."
GRAPHIC: Photo(s)
1. Truancy officer Charles Washington walks through Park Heights as he tries to find the home of a child who has missed a number of days this school year. 2. A Park Heights resident answers the door as truancy officer Charles Washington (left) tries to find a student who has missed school. Guardians of truant children can face fines and jail time. 3. Truancy officer Charles Washington (right) explains to Ernest Young the possible consequences of his grandson's absences in school. Young said his grandson was beyond his control.
Photos by Glenn Fawcett : Sun photographer
Copyright 2007 The Baltimore Sun Company
All Rights Reserved
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Comments
Just to second the mentor you quote, the independence of the mentor from the principal, and thus from any role in evaluating the teacher, was absolutely essential to the success of this program. I did some of the early evaluation of this program, and that was one of the primary conclusions of the study. The system may be requiring something in those schools where 20% of the teachers have three years or less of experience, but don't call it mentoring.
Posted by: Eric | June 26, 2008 9:26 AM
As a Blum Mentor for many years, I am saddened to see the program come to an end. But I am even more saddened to see that the school system will use terms like "mentoring services" and "teacher support" to try to convince the public that this is a system that places a priority on retaining and developing promising young teachers. What made Blum Mentoring a unique program was that it was focused on nurturing new teachers and a culture of professionalism by providing support to beginning teachers based on what they believed they needed help with. Many believe they know what new teachers need and force that upon them. What the system is likely going to miss with the end of Blum Mentoring is group of people who dared to ask new teachers, "what can I do for you?"
Posted by: Andrew Basoco | June 26, 2008 9:58 PM
The Blum Mentoring Program was a catalyst for change in the BCPSS. We not only provided support for the new teachers, we also helped grow some of the new leaders of today. Many of the teachers who walked in to one of our offices saying.."I quit!!" are now serving as Principals, AP's, and lead teachers. I for one am proud of the work we have done, and maybe one day our legacy of leaders will remember the program that kept them interested in the children of Baltimore City. I would be remiss if I didn't add a warm thank you to Lois Blum and her wonderful family who provided this opportunity and chance for change.
Posted by: Jill R Hull | June 27, 2008 10:11 AM
Because our program was so different from any other program in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) it caused people to become afraid. So often people stray away from what they don't know. The powers that may be within BCPSS made no attempt in finding out what the Blum Mentoring Program was all about before dismissing it. In order for BCPSS be able to retain new and good teachers, they must get off to the right start, and the right start is being different. "Difference Make All The Difference" especially to a new teacher. To make a big difference in student sucess, one must honor differences in teaching and create a different process for learning to teach. Of course, such comprehensive changes can lead to friction, discomfort, and disagreement. Nowhere is this discomfort more evident than when a cultural and performance improvement effort exists alongside the traditional egalitarian culture of a school system. Traditionally, everyone acts as if all teachers come from the same cookie cutter except for their teaching style. Yet how can we learn from the wonderful differences we each offer and also avoid the "sibling rivalry" and resulting ostracism that can occur when teachers are singled out as unique. This is a critical question, since that is exactly what happens when a person is named as a "mentor".
Nowhere are these differences more useful than in mentoring. They are the very things that are looked for when selecting mentors to novice teachers, and they are the foundation for the expectation that considerable transfer of experience and professional learning will occur. (Much of this has been quated directly from Barry Sweeny's book Leading the Teacher Induction and Mentoring Program)
Posted by: Mentor4Life | June 27, 2008 10:39 AM
Another program that will die on the 1st of July will be the Technology Integration Analyst program. For many of our schools this was the only technology support they received. This program was very popular with teachers and principals as it was a resource they could use to help move their schools towards meeting the Technology by Eight standards that are mandated by NCLB. Now with no rooms in their budgets many of our schools will not have the personnel to help teachers integrate technology into instruction in a meaningful way. Having a person trained and focused on technology, curriculum and good instruction was a great asset to the schools. The surrounding districts have made this type of position an integral part of the staffing model for their schools- Baltimore County, Howard County , Prince George’s County have all expanded this program in the last few years while the city has all but eliminated it. The other downfall of not having the TIAs in schools is that district wide technology programs will now once again be passed back to schools and placed on the principal and or the teacher thus placing our city students on the wrong side of the digital divide once again as over worked administrators and classroom teachers struggle to learn and implement programs beyond the scope if their daily responsibilities.. I think you need to check this out as little has been reported on this backward step.
Posted by: A Former Teacher | June 27, 2008 10:50 AM
I'm delighted to read comments made by my past and present colleagues, but I think it's imperative to share the feelings of those who valued our existance; the mentee. Hear is one that touched my heart, “I strongly urge the mentoring services continue to recruit, support, and place concerned, professional, and dedicated people in our public schools. We need their support, advice, and friendship. It means so much knowing that there is someone you can communicate with, listens, understands, and willing to assist you. I know that if information, materials, supplies, workshops, courses, work room, etc. is out there you can rest assure that my mentor will bring data back to you. He will inform you of what’s “out there” to benefit, assist, and improve your skills in the teaching profession. I could go on. However, I just wanted you to know that I am proud to have a mentor to take me under his wing and provide me with services needed and rendered as a public servant.”
Posted by: Anonymous | June 27, 2008 10:50 AM
Mentor4Life, you are absolutely correct in saying that the "powers that be" made no attempt to find out what the Blum program was about. Sadly, attempts over the past few years to "systematize" the program (which was ironic considering the fact that the program was needed because the SYSTEM was broken!) certainly reflected this and even caused for greater misunderstanding. Nevertheless, I believe mentors did their best to provide new teachers with relevant support. The void that will be left by the demise of the program is sure to manifest itself in the form of low teacher morale, greater attrition, and instability in our schools. It's a situation where there will be no winners, only losers.
Posted by: avalon | June 27, 2008 3:06 PM
I wanted to write a tribute to a very special mentor. I won't mention her name to protect her privacy, but she was a mentor at the middle school where I worked in 2005-06. Her office was across the hall from my classroom. She always seemed to be available during my break time when I needed to talk, even though she was CONSTANTLY in teachers' classrooms, quietly observing, often helping, and always providing motivation to us to keep going. I was in my second year at the time, and although I technically qualified for her services, our schools that year had over 50% new teachers on faculty so she was spread fairly thin. And yet, we all felt constantly supported by her. Indeed, she was the main reason I enjoyed my second year teaching.
For those of you not in the BCPSS, please don't be fooled by District lingo about "support services" for teachers. My school had a Title 1 Coordinator, 2 ISTs, a PD Professional, and a couple other positions that got paid more than me to do less work. Only my Science IST ever did anything helpful. In BCPSS, if you are even mildly successful and have fair control of your classroom, as I was in my 2nd year, you are pretty much given free reign to do as you please. The problem is, you are still a 2nd year teacher and still have A LOT to learn. I was self-sufficient and successful, but I knew I could be more successful - but NOBODY other than the Blum Mentor, my Hopkins Supervisor, and my AP ever gave me constructive critiques. Everybody else would always say I'm doing a fabulous job and they were so impressed. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the compliments, but how are we supposed to be better teachers when we are already called upon to be Team Leaders, Department Chairs, and mentors to new teachers - in our 2nd year!
I can't speak about all the BLUM Mentors, but I can speak for the Angel who was at my school. And based on how she was, I can unequivocally say this is a worthwhile program. Indeed, it is the ONLY program in BCPSS that truly helps a teacher improve. Dare I say it, based on what exists in BCPSS, the Blum Mentors are the ONLY program that can help retention.
Posted by: Artie | June 27, 2008 3:27 PM
I continue to navigate the muddy waters of BCPSS largely in part to my mentor. She was a part of the Blum Mentoring Program, the fate of which, is now uncertain. Over the course of three years, my mentor has provided me with endless support, sound advice, encouragement, supplies, ideas, and countless hours of counseling, without which, I most certainly would not still be teaching in the city.
Not only has she helped me and her target group of first through third year teachers, but she has helped teachers at my school with ten plus years of teaching experience. She gave her time and energy to a veteran teacher when she needed graduate school help. She assisted the HSA exam coordinator. She even wrote the speech my principal gave at our graduation one year. This is not by any means an exhaustive list of the things she has done at my school, but is merely meant to give an overview of just how many people she truly helped there.
My mentor was able to do all of these things with seeming great ease mostly because she is a fantastic woman whom I have grown to love and respect a great deal, (so much so that a group of us at school affectionately call her "mom"). The other reason that she was able to provide such supportive, encouraging, and most of all, honest words was because the mentors were their own independent group. Although their program was overseen by the Department of Teacher and Principal quality, they managed to rise above the "brokenness" of the system by participating in professional development activities tailored to meet the needs of the teachers they supported. The fact that I knew my mentor didn't report to my to principal and wasn't part of the evaluation process made it easier for myself and other new teachers to go to her for help without fear that our "shortcomings" would count against us as we developed our skills. It saddens me that, once again, no one in power has taken the time to truly reflect on the consequences of eliminating the Blum program as it currently exists.
Often, I felt my mentor was the only person in my corner. We would sit in her office, watching and listening to the ridiculous atrocities that occurred on a daily basis in my school. She had to remind me to write down my experiences, because if I didn't, years would go by and I wouldn't believe that they actually happened. As I sit here and look through my journal, I realize, once again, that she was right. And, most importantly, she reminds us why we are here. It's the catch phrase that administrators and North Avenue love to use, but only some dedicated parents, teachers, and administrators actually believe in: it's for the children. By nurturing teachers to become better educators, we help the ones who are the reason all of us SHOULD be here: our kids. Without the Blum program, I worry for us all.
Posted by: Jessica | June 27, 2008 5:23 PM
School transformation = collaboration
Since there is a removal of one service for new teachers, I ask what are the replace services that are being rendered?
The removal of the Blum Mentoring program will create a disservice to all stakeholders and will promote disfunction to the school's cilmate.
Posted by: MD Jones | June 28, 2008 8:48 AM
The following comes from the system's guidelines for implementing professional development;
"School leaders shall provide induction for new teachers and all new staff. Any school with over 20% first or second year teachers must provide these teachers with support from a mentor with at least one year of mentoring experience. Schools may partner in order to meet this requirement. "
First of all, if they knew anything about the program they would know that "partnering" of schools for mentoring has not been successful in the past. Too bad they didn't do their homework on that one!
Secondly, many schools still don't know what the percentage of new teachers will be as there are new vacancies resulting from the most recent crop of non-renewals. How can they hire a mentor if they don't have this information yet?
BTW, there are still teachers who have not yet received their assignment letters as of 7/02/08.
Posted by: Telluride | July 2, 2008 2:37 PM