SUMMER 2018 Harvard Ed

HARVARD ED. HARVARD SUMMER 2018 SUMMER 2018 2018 SUMMER HARVARD ED. MAGAZINE Why I Advocate One mom’s efforts to ﬁ ght for her daughter’s rights in school. HED07-FOB-Cover.indd 1 5/1/18 5:26 PM Harvard Ed. Summer 2018 ContentsSummer 2018 Features SUMMER 2018 � ISSUE N 160 Editor in Chief Lory Hough “ A letter format [email protected] allowed me to capture the Creative Director, Ed. personal nature Patrick Mitchell of one individual’s MODUS OPERANDI DESIGN experience.” MODUSOP.NET JESSICA BERGMANN, ED.M.’18 Assistant Dean of Communications Michael Rodman [email protected] 20 Contributing Writers Andrew Bauld, Ed.M.’16 Parent, Advocate, Edyson Julio, Ed.M.’18 Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, Ed.M.’17 or Both? One mom writes about the highs, the lows, and Illustrators the love as she continues to advocate for her daughter. Monika Aichele STORY BY MELANIE PERKINS MCLAUGHLIN, ED.M.’17 Josue Evilla Stina Persson Jing Wei Photographers Matt Kalinowski 28 Jonathan Kozowyk Winky Lewis Tim Llewellyn Saying Goodbye Tony Luong Bob O’Connor to Dean Ryan Ekaterina Smirnova AN ORAL HISTORY BY LORY HOUGH Copy Editors Marin Jorgensen Abigail Mieko Vargus POSTMASTER Send address changes to: Harvard Graduate School of Education Office of Communications 13 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 36 NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY © 2018 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Harvard Ed. magazine Walking in Great-Grandma’s shoes, p. 4 � Now that’s using your Departments The Other Self is published three times a year. voice, p. 6 � Handwritten letters tell a story of conflict, p. 8 � The A prison-reform educator’s response to PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. CONVO. — READER FEEDBACK 2 4 rise of Quizlet as a tool, p. 13 � A to Z: The Ed School year in review, the demands urban culture puts on young p. 14-15 � Dogs in school lend a helping paw, p. 17 � What Lecturer GRAD. — ALUMNI NEWS + NOTES 43 people to perform in order to survive. Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Ed.M.’11, Ed.D.’13, is reading, p. 18 EVILLA JOSUE LUONG; TONY AICHELE; MONIKA KALINOWSKI; MATT LEFT: FROM CLOCKWISE CAMPAIGN 49 STORY BY EDYSON JULIO, ED.M.’18 Cover illustration by Monika Aichele HED07-FOB-TOC.indd 2 4/30/18 4:37 PM HED07-FOB-TOC.indd 1 4/30/18 4:38 PM Harvard Ed. Summer 2018 Behind the Story Convo. Lory Hough, Editor in Chief JOIN THE CONVERSATION: SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO [email protected] Perhaps not surprising, the cover story on troublemakers re- Past Tense our misconceptions with eloquent 1 ceived the most attention out of our winter 2018 issue, partic- simplicity. And they challenge ularly from those on the front lines in schools. David Smith, a ignorance with presence. That is teacher in the Canandaigua City School District in New York, pointed In the fall 1977 issue of the maga- why in Feeling Free, children relate out that supporting our most challenging students is not always easy zine, ALAN BRIGHTMAN, ED.M.’71, to children. in the real world. “Rigid school schedules are a HUGE problem. Rigid wrote a piece about Feeling Free, “And, as it happens, the young expectations for when curriculum is to be taught and assessed is an- a video and television series he audience listens and responds. other HUGE problem,” he writes. “One teacher, 23 students, no other helped produce as director of the There is tremendous curiosity and adult, and one (or more?) troublemakers having a great time upend- Workshop on Children’s Aware- uncertainty among children who ing your lesson. It’s tough.” Jonathan Burack said the article did not ness. The workshop’s mandate have so far viewed segments from 2 address the issue that “the greatest number of ‘troublemakers’ in our was to develop material that would the show. Their questions are good, 3 schools are boys. This is in part,” he writes, “because our schools have increase children’s familiarity with hard, appropriate, and, I believe, become essentially hostile to typical boy male traits and tendencies.” their special needs peers. The ma- critical if the social distance be- Another reader, Lori Lyman DiGisi, an ELA department head at Full- terial was evaluated by KIM SUSAN tween disabled and nondisabled er Middle School in Massachusetts, commended the author, JESSICA STOREY, ED.D.’79, then in the doc- peers is to be reduced. When Feel- LANDER, ED.M.’15, for her willingness to look at each of her students and toral program. For the show, five ing Free is broadcast in the spring, develop a solution. “Be strong, stay caring, and keep reflecting,” she 12-year-olds with special needs it will encourage the asking. It will wrote. “We all benefit when we publicly discuss our good work.” Vee were filmed at home, at school, model the openness. It will help Trevino posted on Facebook: “It is not rocket science. You build rela- and out in the world. They also sat create conditions in which children I first met MELANIE PERKINS MCLAUGHLIN, ED.M.’17, in the spring tionships. Got to reach them before you teach them.” Perhaps the best down with other kids and talked feel comfortable broaching previ- before she started as a student at the Ed School. I was at a response we got for this story was when Samira (left), the artist who about their lives, including what it’s ously awkward or taboo topics. drew the illustration we used on the cover, brought the magazine to like to be stared at or asked ques- When the show is over, however, it disabilities seminar, taking notes, and Melanie was also in school for show and tell. Thanks, Samira! tions that hurt their feelings. And will be up to others to keep those the audience. At one point, she stood up and introduced none of it was scripted. “All of us conditions alive.” The excerpt we ran in the winter 2018 issue from Professor had been humbled too many times herself to the panelists. She said she was a mom who had been 2 Daniel Koretz’s new book, The Testing Charade, reignited the by underestimating how articu- CONNECT WITH ED. advocating for her daughter, but there was a gap between what discussion over standardized tests. On Facebook, Elizabeth late kids really are. The shows are Robenstein wrote, “Standardized tests only benefit the private cor- children speaking their own words the laws said and what actually happens to people. She had porations that publish them,” followed by Mary Newton, an elemen- easily, engagingly, and directly to lots of questions and fewer answers, and for those reasons, TWITTER.COM/HGSE HARVARDEDUCATION. tary school teacher, adding, “and the students learn nothing! I am other children,” Brightman wrote. TUMBLR.COM saddened by what I see happening. The students have been coddled “Who knows better about she decided to go back to school and get her master’s at the Ed so long, some of them get offended when they are expected to actu- society’s readiness to accept and/ School in the fall. I remember scribbling in the margins of my ally participate in their learning.… The losers in this scenario are the or tolerate disabled children than FACEBOOK.COM/ ISSUU.COM/HARVARD students. I don’t have the solution, but something has to change.” A children with disabilities? Our five HARVARDEDUCATION EDUCATION notebook, “Remember her for a future issue of Ed.” And I did. parent wrote about her concern for her child, particularly the pres- young pragmatists have lived the My initial idea was to include Melanie in a broader piece about sure she’s under to do well on tests. Another reader wrote that a new life of a stereotype, and while for parents as advocates, one that I would write, but once she and BRIDGET TERRY LONG way to evaluate needs to be considered. “The question is how else them combatting ‘handicapism’ YOUTUBE.COM/ MEDIUM.COM/ HARVARDEDUCATION @HARVARDEDUCATION educational systems could be evaluated,” he wrote. “We need some may not be a full-fledged, or even I sat down to talk over tea and I heard more of her story, which Watch for the fall issue of measurements to know whether a system performs or not.” And an- chosen, cause, they nonethe- included misty eyes for both of us, I knew she had to write this Harvard Ed. to learn more other wrote that as an educator, “I am dismayed with how testing has less go about busting myths with INSTAGRAM.COM/ LETTERS@GSE. about our new dean! driven teaching to become a reactionary, uninspiring task.” strategic ease. They straighten FENTON-RAHIM NADIA HARVARDEDUCATION HARVARD.EDU issue’s cover story. I’m sure you’ll agree. Photograph by Winky Lewis HED07-FOB-Convo.indd 2 5/3/18 12:54 PM HED07-FOB-Convo.indd 3 4/30/18 4:33 PM Harvard Ed. Summer 2018 The Student Mill 100 YEARS LATER, AN ALUM NEWS + NOTES FROM APPIAN WAY WORKS IN THE SAME BUILDING WHERE HIS GREAT- GRANDMOTHER MADE SHOES STORY BY LORY HOUGH After NICHOLAS LEONARDOS, ED.M.’99, was offered the job last summer as executive director of a charter school in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the first things his family said to him was, “It was meant to be.” Not only had Leonardos been teaching and leading schools since the early 4 1990s, but he had a close personal tie 5 to the building where the school was housed: his great-grandmother, Con- stantina Niarchos, had worked there in a shoe factory 100 years earlier.

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