“Research has repeatedly demonstrated the link between a student’s economic background and academic performance. Children from poor families perform worse than those from more affluent backgrounds. Poverty is strongly tied to race and ethnicity, so frequently schools with large proportion of minority students are also predominately low-income. And when low-income children attend schools where almost every other student is also from a poor family, the negative impact on performance is even more pronounced.”

Is it possible that students from low-income families feel “less than” or not “as smart” as students whose families are self-sufficient?

The inner creates the outer and it is our job as educators to ensure that students develop an awareness that does not allow their outer circumstances to dictate their inner world.

What follows is an article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on 2/19/10, which indicates a relationship between the achievement gap and a student’s state of mind that can be managed with the proper leadership.

Placebos: It’s Mind Not Matter

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) – When it comes to the placebo effect, it really may be mind over matter, a new analysis suggests.

In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body.

The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient’s brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal.

“It’s not that placebos or inert substances help,” said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. “It’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.”

While doctors have long recognized that placebos can help patients feel better, they weren’t sure if the treatments sparked any physical changes.

In the Lancet review, researchers cite studies where patients with Parkinson’s disease were given dummy pills. That led their brains to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical, and also resulted in other changes in brain activity.

“When you think you’re going to get a drug that helps, your brain reacts as if it’s getting relief,” said Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown and Tufts University. “But we don’t know how that thought that you’re going to get better actually translates into something happening in the brain.”

“You’d think that Indianapolis teacher Dan Stroup would have major writer’s cramp by now. That’s because every past and present student of his eighth-grade Bible class receives a personal, handwritten birthday letter from him every year. “I want them to know that I not only cared about them in the classroom, but outside the classroom,” says Stroup, 54, who teaches at Heritage Christian School. Stroup figures he’s penned about 33,000 letters to 2,500 students over 25 years, using regular pens and tablets of lined paper. “If students know I care about them, they’re more open to what I teach,” he says.”

However, passion and curiosity are not enough to insure that students are engaged and paying attention, instructors must also:

• Inspire students to get excited about their future.
• Clearly define the class’s objectives and strategies.
• Discuss the role that respect plays in the educational process.
• Present the material within a context that entices students to learn.
• Teach students the mechanics of self-esteem.
• Ask open ended questions that require a thought process.
• Recognize accomplishments as they occur.

 Connecting, building emotional bridges creates a safe place for students to explore, what is in their heart, which will serve them for the rest of their life. To learn more about this unique style of class management, log on to www.coachmerich.com and click on “Workshops.”

What is a good teacher? Depending upon who you talk to i.e. students, parents and administrators, the definition will vary. When Googling, for example, “What is a good teacher,” I came upon an article entitled, “What is a good Teacher,” by Catherine Taylor, Lagos who said,

Good teachers:

1. See each student as an individual with hopes and dreams
2. Know their students on many levels e.g. strengths and weaknesses
3. Promote self esteem
4. Allow students to know them
5. Value the parent/teacher relationship
6. Put themselves in the shoes of the student
7. Are not afraid to try new things
8. Make learning exciting
9. Networks with other teachers about “what works.”

Most would agree a “good teacher” values these qualities, which raises another question. Are teachers communicating their values? This is where leadership comes in.  

A “good” military leader, for example, will communicate the order of battle and the manner in which it is to occur. Good teachers do much the same by making students aware of what they value.

Number seven says, “Not afraid to try new things.” Would you like to learn about a new style of class management that enables students to be…

• Aware of the factors that move a class forward and those that hold it back?
• Mentally present?
• Conscious of their choices?
• In harmony with their studies? 

If the answer is yes, then I invite you to log on to www.coachmerich.com and click on “Workshops” to learn more.

As the California legislative battle lines are drawn over school reform, and as attempts are being made to put the state on track to Race to the Top by seeking its share of the $4.3 billion federal fund, what seems to be sorely missing is any informed discussion on the strategy to improve teaching.

Our public school systems are blessed with well-conceived curricula, textbooks and constructed tests. The weakest link in this educational chain is classroom teaching.

Our conversation with teachers, parents and students associated with top public schools in the South Bay reveal a clear pattern: They are all concerned about what actually happens in the classroom.

Burdened with large classes, limited resources and loathsome paperwork, teachers are not able to give their full attention to teaching. They spend a substantial amount of class time conducting test, with little time left for giving students sufficient practice or feedback. They bitterly complain that in a system where only test scores matter, teaching takes a back seat.

If we are serious about improving instruction in our public schools, we need to devise an effective in-service program that will help teachers develop the knowledge and skill necessary to observe, analyze and evaluate their own teaching.

California can compete more effectively for top dollars by articulating a comprehensive strategy for teachers to improve their everyday practice of teaching. As legislators and negotiators wrangle over parental freedom, charger schools, accountability and other issues, they should remind themselves, “It’s the teaching, stupid.”

Leverage is “doing a lot with a little” and may be defined as the ability to influence a system, or an environment, in a way that multiplies the outcome of one’s efforts without a corresponding increase in the consumption of resources.

Leverage, from a teacher’s perspective, is having the ability to influence a student’s performance or behavior with little effort, which raises a question. How does one gain this ability? Answer, by inviting students to participate in the use of the ”Circle of Education,” which is a strategic model that is introduced during the initial classroom orientation. This new paradigm displays the factors that move a class forward and those that hold it back.

However, models are not a panacea. We must be mindful when attempting to influence the learning curve of another. This is where leadership comes in. Leadership is an energy that others find interesting, enthusiastic, supportive and productive. 

Tools, from a screw driver to a copy machine create efficiencies in our work. The “Circle of Education” is an awareness tool that provides leverage to teachers when attempting to adjust the classroom environment.

Image your students:

• Being aware of the qualities that move a class forward and hold it back.
• Being mentally present.
• Making conscious choices.
• Being in harmony with their studies.  

Teaching is a team sport. Team sports have coaches who call the plays. Plays have an order to them and are designed to move the team forward. There is an order to teaching and instructors who are co-actively skilled employ an axiom that just about every coach would agree on, “When you start true, you end true.

For example, in the report, The Silent Epidemic that was prepared for the, “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” boredom and being uninspired were listed as the two primary reasons why students drop out of school.

 Whether it’s reading a book, watching a movie, hanging out with a friend or being a student ourselves, we want to be engaged. We want that connection and when it’s not there, our minds wander.

 So what steps can teachers take to inspire that connection?

• Explain the co-active role students will play in creating educational moments.
• Communicate the goal of each class before instruction begins.
• Ask open ended, thought provoking questions that support the goal and its underlying principles.
• Stimulate the hopes and dreams of their students.
• Link the subject matter to a student’s interests.
• Celebrate a student’s progress.   

Educators’ impact lives. You never know when a word, a phrase or a look, becomes that invisible spark that motivates a student to complete their education and go on to do wondrous things.

If we are nibble enough to capture a student’s heart, there is a good chance, their diploma will follow.

Below are excerpts from his article that appeared in the San Jose Mercury News on 12/12/09.

“New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: Children covered by Medicaid are given powerful anti-psychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. Finding from a Rutgers and Columbia team is almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them, but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children?

Part of the reason is insurance reimbursements. Medicaid often pays much less for counseling and therapy than private insureers do. Families who are financially challenged are less likely to attend these sessions than their counter-part even when such sessions are available.”

“Chalk up another national-security threat -  this one looming with each excess pound, failing grade and drug bust affecting young adults.

An alarming 75 percent of Americans ages 17 to 24 would not qualify for military service today because they are physically unfit, failed to finish high school or have criminal records. So says a new report  from Mission: Readiness, an organization of education and military leaders calling for immediate action on the education front.

The report, entitled, “Ready, Willing and Unale to Serve” was endorsed by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and former NATO commander General Wesley Clark and other top retired admirals and generals.

Rear Admiral, James Barnett said, “Our national security in the year 2030 is absolutely dependent on what’s going on in kindergarten today.”

Military recruiters in Kansas city report turning away prospective recruits “in every office, every hour, every day for reasons including girths too large and credit rating too low. Increasingly, applicants are disqualified for having asthma or taking pills for depression or attention disorders. Nearly one-third of all young adults have health issues other than weight that could keep them from serving, says the report.”