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Critical Incidents in Teaching High Expectations for Educational…
Critical Incidents in Teaching
High Expectations for Educational Attainment
Phil Huang knew that the ninth grade was the grade at which students were most likely to drop out of school because they weren’t engaged, especially in urban schools with large numbers of students from low-income families. Therefore, he organized his ninth-grade class around project-based activities to try to engage them actively in learning and keep them in school.
Mr. Huang wanted his students to know the importance of a college degree in meeting their future goals. He created activities in which they could explore colleges and potential careers online. During that activity, he realized that most of the students had never been on the campus of a college or university even though there were eight of them in the city. Most of the students were interested in attending college but expressed concern about how their families could pay the tuition that they saw in their online searches.
Mr. Huang proposed that they invite a college admissions officer to talk with them about applying for college and financial aid. Denzel Westwood and several other students asked why they couldn’t visit one of the colleges to talk to an admissions officer. Mr. Huang agreed and received permission from the principal, contacted a local private college that could be reached via the subway, sent permission forms home with students to be signed by one of their parents or guardians, and identified several parents who were willing to chaperone the field trip.
It was a beautiful spring day when Mr. Huang, the ninth-grade students, and the chaperones boarded the subway near the school for their visit and tour of the local college. When they arrived at the admissions office, the assigned admissions officer asked to meet with Mr. Huang alone. She told him that they had never accepted a student from Roosevelt High School and that he should be careful about encouraging his students to go to college. She suggested that he should be taking them to the community college.
Nevertheless, she would try to answer their questions, but they would have to take a self-guided tour of the campus. Mr. Huang was devastated by her attitude about Roosevelt’s students but never let on to his students that their chances of attending this college or a similar one would be near impossible. He was going to do everything he could to help them know their potential and plan to attend college, even an elite college if they were qualified to do so.
Questions for Discussion
1. How can project-based education help students stay engaged with the content they are studying?
2. Why was Mr. Huang discussing college with ninth-grade students who were primarily from low-income families who would have a difficult time providing financial support for their children to attend college?
3. How important is it for students from low-income families to have a teacher with high expectations for their academic performance? What is Mr. Huang doing to help students have high expectations for themselves?
4. How would you have responded if you were met by this admissions officer during the field trip? Does Mr. Huang have unrealistic expectations for his students? Why or why not?
