Closing the Attitude Gap

How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success

Baruti Kafele

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781416617334
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

In this inspiring and thought-provoking follow-up to his 2009 best-seller Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life, Baruti Kafele makes the case that the "attitude gap" that often affects underperforming students can only be closed if educators first help students develop the will to strive for excellence. According to Kafele, educators can achieve remarkable results by focusing on five key areas:

* The teacher's attitude toward students
* The teacher's relationship with students
* The teacher's compassion for students
* The learning environment
* The cultural relevance of instruction

Replete with practical strategies and illustrative anecdotes drawn from the author's 20-plus years as a teacher and principal in inner-city schools, Closing the Attitude Gap offers a wealth of lessons and valuable insights that educators at all levels can use to fire up their students' passion to learn.

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Chapter 1

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How Climate and Culture Shape Attitude

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REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

Before reading this chapter, look into a mirror and ask yourself the following questions:

1. What do my students see in my classroom?
2. What do my students hear in my classroom?
3. What do my students feel in my classroom?
4. What do my students experience in my classroom?
5. Do I provide a learning environment that fosters the proper attitude for my students' success?

Educators have been focusing on the question of how to close the achievement gap as measured by results on state standardized assessments for as long as I've been a teacher. National data over the years reveal that the gap doesn't seem to be going anywhere. As I visit schools and school districts nationally, I notice that folks feel good when even the slightest improvements are made.

In all my time as an urban public school teacher and principal, I have maintained that my students, who happened to be majority black, were brilliant and highly capable, with the ability to achieve anything they set their sights on achieving. This was the premise underlying my mission. The achievement gap consequently did not make sense to me—it seemed to place my students at a deficit before the first lesson. I knew that I couldn't inspire my students to strive to maximize their potential if they entered my classroom or school with a deficit mindset. They had to be in the pilot's seat, ready to soar.

I began to ask questions about the achievement gap. Why is it so? What are the differences? What is it that allows one group to outperform the other? Is it biological? Is it mental? Is it social? Is it cultural? Is it economic? Is it political? I wanted answers. I wanted to know why it was that this achievement gap existed and persisted. As I began to examine the answers to each of my questions, it became clear to me that there was another type of gap that wasn't getting the attention it deserved: the attitude gap. I define the attitude gap as the gap between those students who have the will to strive for academic excellence and those who do not. The key words in the definition are "will to strive." Students need to have this will in order to succeed. Their will is their attitude; they have to want success. The challenge for teachers is that "will" can't be taught—it has to be unleashed! One of the purposes of this book is to assist you with doing just that—helping your students to unleash their will to strive for academic excellence.

Throughout my years of teaching and leading, I have worked with students who had to go home to deplorable situations. Even the walk to and from school could be a challenge for many, often more so than any course they may encounter in school. Many of my students lived in challenging neighborhoods that could easily sap the drive out of anyone. Neighborhoods that are plagued by gangs, drugs, and violence can be both psychologically and emotionally draining. The challenges of living in such neighborhoods can drastically inhibit motivation and learning. I say to educators frequently that although we should feel for students who live in such neighborhoods, we cannot feel sorry for them. Feeling sorry for them is not going to help them out of their situation. Students do not need our sympathy. They need our inspiration and encouragement to change their realities for the better. We must therefore continue to hold them accountable for nothing less than excellence. By doing so, we will show them that despite their hardships they will soar high because we are their teachers and leaders. Excuses are unacceptable. There is an African proverb that states, "He who cannot dance will say the drum is bad." We cannot afford to blame the drum. We must look deeply within ourselves and ask, "What are we doing to change our students' attitudes so that every day that they walk into my classroom, they are fired up and ready to excel?"

Attitude is everything. Consider my own experience: I went from repeating my sophomore year in high school to graduating college summa cum laude. What was the difference between these two periods in my life? What about other successful people who struggled tremendously but turned it around dramatically and became success stories? What was the commonality that enabled them to achieve? I have concluded that it is a change in attitude.

How Climate and Culture Affect Student Learning

When I was a 6th grade classroom teacher, a colleague shared with me that she was going to attend a big literacy conference over the weekend, because she felt that teaching reading to her struggling students was one of her deficiencies. She was excited about the prospect of learning new teaching strategies and was particularly eager to hear one of the featured speakers.

On Monday morning, I went to see my colleague in her classroom about a half-hour before school began. She was on fire! She told me that she could barely sleep because of all of the new strategies she'd learned at the conference that she wanted to implement immediately with her students, many of whom were at risk of failing.

After the first period, I returned to my colleague's classroom to see how the implementation of her newly acquired strategies went. When I arrived, she was sitting at her desk looking rather bewildered. I asked her what happened. She said that implementation was unsuccessful because of the behavior of her students. She shared with me that she spent more of the period disciplining her students than she spent teaching them. This did not surprise me at all. I honestly did not anticipate that the rollout of these new reading strategies would succeed because she had extreme climate and culture problems in her classroom. Despite her excitement, I knew that these problems would wind up eating the new strategies for breakfast! Clearly, the attitudes of my colleague's students prevented them from receiving the new strategies.

In classrooms across the United States, teachers are feeling the pressure to perform to a degree that I believe has never before been seen in U.S. education. Achievement levels must rise, so the number-one priority in schools is raising test scores, which is not necessarily equivalent to providing a world-class education. We have become a test prep/test score culture: If a school's scores are up and adequate yearly progress (AYP) has been met, the school is considered high-performing. The only pressure is to maintain the status quo. If, however, AYP has not been met, there is tremendous pressure on the school to improve in order to avoid sanctions in the form of negative press when test scores are published; reorganization of the school, which could include the transfer of teachers and administrators; and an inordinate amount of school-level planning throughout the course of the school year.

In my ongoing visits to schools, I get to see the panic and pressure up front and personal. I speak to educators who have thrown up their hands in frustration. Some have gone so far as to question whether or not they want to remain in the field of education. They feel that they have done all they can do and do not feel they can do any more.

One middle-aged white female teacher in an urban northeastern city spoke to me specifically about her 5th grade black males: She wanted so badly for them to be successful, but she felt she just wasn't getting through to them. As we conversed, she began to cry. She was hurting inside. She told me that she loved her kids, but that she had simply run out of strategies to reach them. She said that her students had severe behavioral problems. I told her that I would like to visit her classroom the next day, when the students returned. I suspected much of her problem was due to the climate and culture of her classroom and perhaps even the whole school. I wanted to get a bird's-eye view of what the climate and culture looked like when she and her students were in the room.

When I walked into this teacher's classroom, I immediately noticed a major problem with her classroom climate and culture. The room was chaotic and lacked organization, the walls were practically bare, and there was no clear evidence that the teacher was in charge. Many names were written on the board for after-school detention; several had a string of check marks beside their names. Looking at the students, I could literally see the brilliance in each of their eyes. I knew they were smart and that they had the potential for greatness. The problem was that the teacher focused too much on discipline and not enough on climate and culture.

What do we mean by climate and culture? I have studied school and classroom climate very intently and have read many different definitions of the term, which can be reduced to a single word: mood. When I analyze the climate of a given school or classroom, I am essentially gauging how the overall feeling and tone of the environment affects the teachers' ability to teach and the students' ability to learn. School and classroom culture can also be reduced to a single word: lifestyle. When I analyze the culture of a given school or classroom, I am essentially gauging how the overall way of life of the environment affects teachers and students. When I assess the combined climate and culture of a school or of individual classrooms, I want to gauge what the students see, hear, feel, and experience there and whether the learning environment fosters the proper attitude and decision making necessary for student success.

How Climate and Culture Affect Bullying

In schools and districts throughout the United States, heightened attention has been given to the problem of bullying. Stakeholders are increasingly being held accountable for detecting it, and consequences have become increasingly severe. Climate and culture determine whether bullying can take root in a classroom or school. The climate and culture can boldly state either that bullying is not allowed or that it is acceptable.

Climate and culture will speak to even the most subtle forms of bullying. For example, I can recall a student who appeared to fit in with everyone, but would never go to the cafeteria to eat with her peers. She would instead go to the library and read, pretty much every day. I didn't think much of it initially and concluded that this student simply wanted to read. However, upon further investigation, I discovered that the student didn't want to be in the cafeteria because her attire was a constant source of ridicule. She did not wear the latest styles and brands, and her peers would tease her about it. I later learned that she was also being teased in classrooms, but that this went undetected by her teachers. This situation was a function of the climate and culture of my school; in order to ameliorate it, I myself as principal needed to address it, as did the teachers in their classrooms. By addressing the problem and demonstrating to my students and staff that it was being taken seriously, we were in a much better position to get a handle on it and favorably affect the overall climate and culture of the school.

It works the same way with you in your classroom: You must make it a priority to ensure a welcoming climate and culture for the sake of your students' academic success. The mood of your classroom affects whether or not your students can learn at optimal levels—what your students see, hear, feel, and experience in your classroom will determine academic outcomes. Great instruction alone will not yield the results you desire for your students. You must pay close attention to the overall learning environment as well.

The Importance of What Students See, Hear, Feel, and Experience in the Classroom

During a postobservation conference with the 5th grade teacher whose classroom I visited, we began by focusing on what the students saw when they walked into her room—the seating arrangement, the walls, the bulletin boards, the overall use of classroom space, the teacher herself, and the other students. What statements did each of these observations make to the students?

Next, we examined what the students heard. What kinds of initial interactions occurred between the teacher and students? What kinds of greetings took place? How did the teacher typically speak to the students, and in what tone? What kinds of interactions occurred among students? Were they cordial, orderly, and productive? Was there evidence of caring and compassion? What kind of language was used? What was considered acceptable and unacceptable speech?

We then examined what the students might feel as they entered the classroom. What emotions did they experience? Was the classroom a relaxed environment? Was it conducive to learning? Did students appear comfortable? Was there a possibility that bullying existed in the environment that the teacher may not be aware of? Did the students feel valued, appreciated, and respected in this environment? Did they feel safe and free from harassment? Did they feel good about themselves?

Finally, we examined the overall experience of the classroom. What was it like to be a student in this classroom? Was this an environment that the students looked forward to being in every day? Was instruction student-centered? Was it rigorous? Was learning occurring? What kind of impression did the experience have on the students? Were students able to learn without peer pressure to conform to counterproductive expectations? There is still an unspoken notion in far too many classrooms among children of color that to be smart is to be "acting white." The classroom experience must encourage students to display their intelligence without risking repercussions from their classmates.

As the teacher and I conversed, it became clear to me that she thought she had a classroom management problem. She felt that her students could not sit still quietly long enough to learn in her classroom and that she had run out of ideas to remedy this problem. Whenever a student broke her classroom rules, which was often, she would write the student's name on the board. For repeat infractions, she would write check marks next to the name. Halfway through the class period, several students would already have several checks next to their name. This strategy backfired, however, as it was equivalent to putting the students' names in lights: These were the students who received all of the teacher's attention. Students who persisted in misbehaving despite having check marks next to their names were sent to the vice principal's office, which could result in suspensions.

Getting Students to Drop Their Masks

I remind educators often that many children arrive at school wearing invisible masks. Many teachers spend entire careers teaching to masks instead of to children, either because they aren't aware of the masks or because they haven't figured out how to get students to take them off. These masks are the result of peer pressure, which leads students to put their guard up and to pretend that they are something they're not. The only way to effectively remove the masks is to ensure a positive classroom climate and culture.

It was not acceptable for the students whose classroom I visited to exhibit their innate brilliance. In their minds, they had to act out because this is what they were expected to do; this is how they expected each other to behave; this was their mask. The teacher's challenge, then, was to either remove the masks or to create a learning environment that would permit the students to remove the masks themselves.

My oldest son, also named Baruti, recently graduated magna cum laude from college. The contrast between his high school years and his college years is enormous. I was quite familiar with his high school: It was a stereotypical urban high school in northern New Jersey. I watched my son put on "the mask" every day throughout his high school years. It had nothing to do with academic success; the mask he wore enabled him to survive the rigors of a counterproductive school climate and culture.

In schools such as my son's, it's not the academic coursework that yields the greatest challenge for students, but rather the rigors of a climate and culture that force students to conform to peer pressure so that they can cope day to day. As a result, Baruti was an average student at best. It was virtually impossible for him to focus on academics because the school climate and culture required him to wear a mask and to always be cognizant that he was wearing it. By contrast, when he went on to college, he could be his brilliant self; he did not have to wear the mask any longer. The result was that he graduated near the top of his graduating class.

My youngest son, Jabari, had a very similar experience. When he got to high school, the climate and culture of the school forced him to adapt to its negative environment. Whenever I visited the school, it was clear to me that climate and culture issues prevented the male students in particular from exhibiting their brilliance. The students pressured each other to conform to expected behaviors. All of them put on their masks in the morning and kept them on throughout high school. As with Baruti, Jabari did just enough to complete high school but did not go that extra mile. And yet, when he got to college, he excelled. Why? The climate and culture pressures that he experienced at the high school did not exist in college. He could now remove the mask without having to look over his shoulder.

It is my firm contention that the stakeholders of a school possess the power, influence, and authority to favorably affect the school's climate and culture. It starts with the leadership and trickles throughout the building. But you can't correct a problem if you do not recognize that it exists. To acknowledge discipline or classroom management issue...