What makes a "bad" school so bad?

I had a good chat with Mason on the bus today about our respective schools. I knew we both taught at "tough" schools, but we've never really talked about our schools together. My school has been labeled "the second worst school in Mississippi" and also a place where "teachers cannot be successful." His school was taken over by the state. So what are some of the similarities of our "bad" schools?

1. People not working together
Our (I use 'our' not as in Mason and I, but as in all of us in MTC that faced the challenges of our school together) adminstrators did not work together. The top two adminstrators in our school had very different philosophies of education. One adminstrator believes that children should enjoy school, that discipline should only be used minimally to regulate problems after they occur, while the other believes that students are children and need to be guided by rules and structure provided by the staff at school. These different ways of thought resulted in students always wanting to go to one administrator when they got in trouble because they could talk their way out of any situation.

This difference in views caused harm to every other aspect of the high school. Teachers who asked about an issue would get two different answers. Each administrator would often make decisions without concurring with the other, resulting in the next similarity…

2. Complete disorganization
We often did not find out about any assemblies, bell schedule change, pep rallies, or anything else that effected the normal routine except from overhearing our students talk about it during the day. For example, we did not find out the final exam schedule (which exams will be given on which day) until the day of exams, and this changed two or three times after we received the schedule.

The most consequential implication of this disorganization is the lack of a consistent discipline ladder…

3. Lack of rules and consequences
In the beginning of the year, we were told that we were all going to enforce the rules and that the students weren’t going to get away with not wearing the uniform and using cell phones like they had done in the past. Later on in the year during an assembly in which the principal was lecturing the students on the need to be respectful and follow rules, his cell phone rang in mid-sentence, and he answered it…

We have no discipline ladder. While they tried to use detention as a consequence, it didn’t work because the next consequence was not enforced – if you skip detention, you will be suspended. Students would skip, knowing nothing would happen. They could skip class because teachers stopped writing students up because it was yielding no results.

If teachers and staff alike not only knew but actively used the rules together, perhaps they could achieve what similarity four says we don’t…

4. No common vision or unity
I have heard veteran teachers speak longingly of a past principal who had all students (and I would guess the faculty/staff) sing the school song every morning and at every assembly. Our school is extremely disconnected, with each classroom seen as a separate entity with its own set of rules and procedures. Students know which teachers make them wear uniform shirts (you can see them borrowing shirts and turning theirs inside-out) and which ones they can’t skip.

Academically, the only time our school rallies together to perform well is during state-testing. During this time, posters were put on the walls, students came regularly to tutorial, and teachers became encouraging. I wish that we could this same positive energy for learning in other ways, so that we could overcome the next problem…

5. School is for socializing, not learning.
The only reason that out of school suspension sometimes works is because our students actually want to be in school so that they can see all the fights, flirt, “show out,” and generally not get behind in the gossip. They don’t come to class prepared because they don’t take school seriously. They come to talk, and if we try to teach, we’re getting in their way.

All of what I said above certainly does not apply to every student, teacher, or staff member. There certainly are the wonderful exceptions. Our secretary works her butt off to try to make the chaos thrown at her somewhat organized. There are students who want to educate themselves with as much as our classes can provide them. There are teachers who use rules consistently and accurately, not needing any more consequences provided by administrators because it never gets past their room.

But, there is so much need for improvement. I didn’t leave because I know these kids need me (and other teachers who try and care) more than they even know, even if it might hurt me at times.