Borsuk: What does it really mean to 'never, never give up on students?'

“Never, never give up on students.”

Two weeks ago in this column, I quoted Marc Tucker, who leads the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington-based nonprofit, saying that in a talk in Madison. On its face, it’s not controversial. Who’s in favor of giving up on kids?

But what does it mean to give up or not give up? That’s a provocative matter, particularly in a city where the needle has moved so little in improving deeply distressing overall outcomes for students. (Let one fact represent the problem: Fewer than 20% of students in both Milwaukee Public Schools and the private school voucher program were rated as proficient or advanced in reading and math in tests given a year ago.)

Some teachers took Tucker’s remarks as criticism of their own efforts.

“I wonder if Mr. Tucker has ever spent a day in a classroom with kid(s) so disruptive that the rest of class cannot be given the attention they deserve because the majority of the day is being spent just maintaining order,” one said in an e-mail. “You can say never give up on a child, but the truly disruptive need to be out of the mainstream classes so the rest of the kids have a fighting chance to learn.”

A high school teacher wrote, “Often, I feel as if I am sweeping Jell-O.  My students are aces at passive disobedience.”

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Tucker called for a greater sense of urgency around student success, and the second teacher said, “Sense of urgency? If only. Many of my colleagues have it and push hard, but my students do not.”

So what is involved in not giving up on students? I had a follow-up conversation with Tucker.

”I was not talking to individual teachers,” he said. “I was talking to the schools and systems of which they are a part.”

And yes, the challenges presented by kids who have huge personal issues and who seem to have given up on themselves are great, especially for classroom teachers who don’t feel they are supported well by their school leaders or system.  

Not speaking directly about Milwaukee, he said schools and systems that are having more success have excellent leaders and teachers who aim high, work together effectively, and provide engaging education. The leaders are effective in involving a wide array of outside sources — government, nonprofit, private sector — in helping students.  

What about the teacher who said disruptive students were wrecking it for everyone else in the class?  Tucker said he hears that often. He said that in schools that are good at dealing with students’ issues, you don’t hear this much because they come up with solutions. But sometimes you hear this from the same teachers year after year, and then you have to wonder if the teacher is doing enough to figure out solutions.     

School leaders react

This all got me wondering how school leaders would react to a call to never give up. So I asked a few.

Their answers emphasized relationships and safety in school.  A key to getting kids to not give up is for them to have at least one adult in a school who they think hasn’t given up on them. 

Katrina Fisher, principal of Benjamin Franklin School, an MPS grade school on the north side, said it is crucial to create a sense of safety in school.

“Every child wants to be loved,” even those who are the hardest to reach, she said. School staff members need to find ways to connect with them.

Ramon Cruz, principal of Rogers Street Academy, an MPS grade school on the south side, said, “To me, it’s pretty basic: Give kids the support and safety they need. If something’s not working, try something else.”

Tommie Myles, executive director of Woodlands School, a charter school with two campuses in the city, said, “To say that there are more difficult students out there and imply that you should give up on some students violates the idea of being an educator. As educators, we are in a field that requires us to ‘figure it out’ by any means necessary. To me ‘never, never give up on students’ means to attempt any and every measure that it takes to reach a child.”

Tonya Adair, a senior MPS administrator, recalled an experience from when she was an assistant principal in a high school. There was a girl who no one could reach. The school had a “twins day” when staff members were supposed to dress like a student. She dressed like this girl. “That was a turning point,” Adair said.

“It showed her that someone cared about her.“  The girl’s school work improved and she went on to graduate. Adair added : “I’m very passionate about this because I had some people who didn’t give up on me.”

The most provocative thoughts came from Henry Tyson, head of St. Marcus Lutheran School. Speaking about schools of all kinds, he said, “I think it’s actually relatively rare that adults in schools give up on kids for bad reasons. ... It’s far more frequent that they go to hell and back (for kids).”

But Tyson said, “As a society, we have very much given up on a chunk of our population.”

When it comes to poor, African-American children like the ones in the neighborhoods St. Marcus serves, “we’re not doing anything close to what it would take to really believe in them and to do what they need.”

There is a relatively small number of kids who are extremely difficult to reach, Tyson said, but there is a far larger number who could attain much greater success in better schools in better environments where leaders (and everyone else) showed more concern about the whole community and less about just their own interests.  

Tyson said, “It is plainly a matter of will. I don’t know how else to interpret it.”

Alan J. Borsuk issenior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.