By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
One of Bernadette Lopez’s friends asked her if she was using witchcraft. The third grade teacher at
Lopez, a
Their attitude and their kids’ responses produced a miracle worth remembering as another school year begins on Monday.
In 2006-2007,
Little wonder, then, that Lopez’s friend Rudy Garcia, himself a Denver Public Schools teacher, accused his young pal of casting a spell on her students.
“For me in my classroom†Lopez said, “I feel like I’m making it a business, teaching the children responsibility for themselves. I have a work-hard, play-hard philosophy. I don’t take long lunches. I stay after school if I have to. If I need to spend more time on a subject, I do.â€
If she and O’Grady, who now works in real estate, needed to rewrite the curriculum, they did.
“She and I ate lunch together every day,†Lopez said. “Sometimes we’d say, ‘This lesson is ridiculous. Let’s come up with something better.’ We’d come up with our own thing rather than the cookie cutter.â€
Lopez and O’Grady demanded as much of their students as they did of themselves.
“I have extremely high expectations for my children,†Lopez said. “Homework every night with no excuses. I run a really tight ship. I’m tough, but loving. My kids all give me a hug at the end of the day.â€
Nearly nine in ten students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, the traditional measure of poverty in school record-keeping. The non-Latino student population is negligible.
The miracle of
The performance at the high end of the scale was just as impressive. No third grader at
In reading, the numbers weren’t quite as good, but they were still noteworthy. Unsatisfactory performances shrank from 20 percent to 8 percent, while advanced scores rose from zero to 11 percent.
One reason why: Lopez, a 25-year-old classroom neophyte, saw her parents in her students.
“Both of my parents are first-generation college graduates,†Lopez said. “My father grew up as one of 10 kids raised by a single mom in a welfare family. All he wanted to do was graduate high school and go to work to help his family. One of his teachers took him under her wing and told him, ‘If you go to college, you can help your family four times more.’â€
That’s the message Lopez carries to her students, a missive of hope based in hard work, an un-jaded perspective about possibilities.
To grasp how far outside the box Lopez’s and O’Grady’s thinking went, look at
Along with demographic similarities, attendance at all three schools was above 90 percent.
Nobody is quite sure what
In an ironic twist, Lopez doesn’t even hold a teaching certificate. She’s working on getting one to go along with her biology degree from Duke. For now, she said, “according to the No Child Left Behind Act, I’m not qualified to teach.â€
Thing is, you don’t need a teaching certificate to care.
“If I don’t believe in these students,†Lopez asked, “who will?â€
That’s a great question.
Then try to cast that spell across the city.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
11 users commented in " Miraculous Scores lnvolve Caring, Not Magic "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe world needs more Bernadette Lopezes. What an intelligent, caring woman with an insider’s view to what it takes to succeed in our society. Go Bernadette!
I note also that Ms. Lopez has a degree in a real subject - Biology - not in Education. I feel this makes a big difference. People who apply themselves to a substantive discipline know how to learn, ergo, know how others will learn, know how to teach. Teaching should remain a certificated subject, not a major or a degree. Even as far as running a school, PAD (public administration) courses should provide the necessary expertise. Death to Education degrees!
In teaching, as in parenting, as in just getting along in this world, caring about the other person means more and accommplishes more than all the book-learning and rule-following you can have. Thanks, Bernadette
This is a remarkable story and Bernadette Lopez deserves every accolade for her extraordinary work. But, it is also said that it is so remarkable. Other than the accolades, the union will not allow Bernadette to be compensated or even rewarded more highly than her lackluster colleagues. In fact, Bernadette is a threat to the status quo. When it can’t be explained away by magic, then it really becomes a question of competence, dedication, and hard work and that indicts everyone else in the system who says it can’t be done.
I know the secret . . . and I know those teachers. The “secret” is they are young, smart, hard working, and always willing to go the extra mile.
Unfortunately, the (relatively small) percentage of young, hardworking teachers willing to do what Bernadette and Amanda are willing to do is hindered by so many things. The teachers union and is a disgrace, DPS a disaster, no child left behind a joke.
Bernadette and Amanda also recieve solid support from their principal, the same principal that hired them both. He has an eye for talent. He knows what can keep the school going in the right direction.
Bring on “pay for performance”. Then the real stars will shine in the the classroom. Getting rid of the “dead weight” in DPS wild be tremendously beneficial to the children and the community.
I agree with Kevin about the “dead weight” in DPS. I first became familiar with it in 1966,and eventually put my children in private school. It was even worse in 2001, my last experience with DPS, with a grandchild.
Maybe the tenure system should be looked into,and look into the adminstration being top-heavy. I agree 100 percent,let’s reward these young hard-working, innovative people.instead of punishing them with the tenure system.
And I agree that “no child left behind”, the program of our current DC administration, isn’t working, it’s a joke.What a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Conservatives continue to chime in an promote your “anyone can teach” and “privatization of all services including education” is the way to go. How insulting to suggest “anyone can teach” and all you have to have is a degree, and you’re a better teacher than a teacher who has a teaching degree. This is the mindset of naive people who don’t respect teachers or the profession. The abililty to “teach” is not just a gift, and while Ms. Lopez may be blessed with this gift, it’s something that not everyone can or wants to do. If it were, where are these long lists of people wanting to make sub-standard pay for a profession that requires more education than most other professions?
While teacher-wannabe’s like Ms. Lopez are fast-tracked into the system and allowed to teach without a teaching degree, people who follow the intended route of becoming a teacher in our educational programs are required not only to have a student teaching experience which requires a “B” grade average just to enter the program, but they also have to take an “entry examp” to get a teach license. THEN they’re allowed to apply for a teacher, while non-teaching professionals like Ms. Lopez get to start a job teaching right away while taking these same education courses, the regular teaching professionals already have. It’s a way to fast-track teachers into the profession, because there is such a shortage of teachers; not “good” teachers - just teachers. If you’re going to have standards, make them universal. My daughter is in her 7th year of school at metro to become a teacher and it will be another two years before she completes the requirements just to “apply” for a teaching job, because there are more “hoops” to jump through when you want to be come a professional teacher the right way, vs coming in the back door. She’s now considering graduating without a teaching degree, going out of state to take a teacher’s job, and returning with license in hand, because of NCLB and Colorado’s rigid teaching requirements. Ms. Lopez should consider herself lucky. Is DPS providing any tuition for her classes?
If you think that “anyone can teach” go try it. My wife is a 25+ year teacher with a master’s degree, and ask any teacher how rigorous this job is. I tried it during the infamous DPS strike and as a non-teacher anyone with a degree could sub. I tried it for a week with 5th graders, and it was pure hell! You couldn’t pay me enough to put up with that.
Know what your’e talking about before you think that non-professionals can jump into this profession or it’s such a rewarding job!
Jim, et al, believe teaching is about just caring, and not being a professional or having a professional teaching ducation. “Successful teaching” is not just about “caring.” Go talk to just about any teacher and see if they are “caring” about their kids or their job. It comes with the job. Teachers who don’t care, don’t succeed, and there are few of these who are still employed - ask teachers. Every profession has it’s failures, but less so with teachers, because the pay and benefits pale in comparison to other jobs they could do. Therefore it’s almost natural for teachers to be “caring.”
Whether their “successful” is not measured by standardized tests created by non-educators like CSAP and NCLB. This is why teachers are forced to “teach to the test” rather than teach to the curriculum and to the level of each individual child. Our public education system isn’t broken it’s “bent.” Bent by those who than anyon can teach, you just have to “care” to be successful. Look into a typical teach curriculum and see what’s required to be a teacher. You can become a businessmen or get an MBA, easier than you can a teacher. Yes, teacher should be adequately educated and skilled. But this education and skills don’t come from just “caring.” If you think your teacher doesn’t “care” enough, try home schooling your kids because no one “cares” more than a parent. It takes a professional education to have the skills and knowledge to be a “successful” teacher to develop “successful” kids. And if you don’t think public education is good enoough, and feel private industry is the “caring” and “successful” solution, have at it. Just make sure you’re kids don’t have learning disabilities, special needs, and you have the $ to “buy” this “success” for your kids.
And “education reformer,” please don’t hide behind such a feel-good name. Your agenda, like Wildflower and Kevin is to let private industry educate your kids; because it’s never about all kids; it’s just about yours. The little “code” references to teacher’s unions standing in the way of good teachers and education is pure BS. Every profession deserves to have it’s job advocacy just like your jobs. My wife is 25 year teacher, and has never been a member of the teacher’s union, for personal reasons. But to villify unions, especially teacher’s unions just identifies your priorities that civil services should be privatized, because you erroneous believe private industry “cares” about your kid. Soon you will learn private schools care more about profit, like all corporations, and not education. This is why private schools refuse to take CSAP, and when they do they can’t outshine public schools, even with elite students and elitist parents who say they care more about education.
Why didn’t Ms. Lopez go teach at a “private” school if she’s such a sucessful story?” Was she “qualified” to teach at a private school that doesn’t have the requirements public schools have? Surely the private school would pay more than public schools since they are supposed to have the best teachers? Sadly not true, because profit is the first priority, and that always means reduced salaries for professional services. How come public school teachers are moving to private school jobs in droves? First because they do “care” about teaching, and they know quality education lies in public education and not the private industry. Second, they know private school jobs don’t pay as well, and don’t care about the curriculum and “caring” about the students like public education does.
Ms. Lopez is a success story because she cares about being a teacher and not a slave to rules and regulations, that I agree DPS gets too bogged down. The “dead weight” in DPS is at the administration level where over-paid program heads like “La Raza” get priority over the teacher in the trenches. But the solution is not privatization of education nor bringing in private industry professionals to teach your kids, like they’ve “stayed in a Holiday Inn Express once.”
To Keith, perhaps I should clarify, my children went to parochial schools (Lutheran) and yes the teachers did care about kids, as individuals, not as one of 30 per class, and I know the teachers worked for peanuts.
I had one very intelligent child who had his work done in a second and was bored at Public School. the private school gave him extra stimulation, i.e. when he was in 5th grade he was taking math with 8th graders, etc.
And yes, Keith it IS all about our own kids, and their needs,and it is to any parent. I defy you to find one parent who is more concerned about the “system” than they are their own child.
And don’t tell me about the special education program. My youngest was autistic and I was one of 8 parents who participated in the lawsuit in the 70’s through Attorney Rovira to require all public schools to provide education for all handicapped children.I did this because people who wanted to try to get their children an education were repeatedly turned away by the public schools.
My son, at age 5, was required to pass a math test for instance, and of course our quote unquote “normal” children were not.
very interesting.
i’m adding in RSS Reader
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