The Carver "Community" is Crumbling
By: Emmanuel Stephens & Osiris Jones
PHILADELPHIA - Teachers at Carver are currently facing backlash due to a number of students not receiving the grades administration expects from them. This could be the start of a major dispute between teachers, students, and administration if a resolution isn't established immediately.
When most people think of the Carver community they think about the great relationship all the students have with each other. That part of the community is flourishing with more and more instances of students coming together, having fun, and supporting each other. Where the community falls short is the dispute between the students, teachers, and administration. There are multiple things wrong with the community but it can be fixed if we all come together and work for each other's best interests.
The biggest problem teachers identified about students is the lack of study skills which is why they are not reaching the expectations. These problems range from simply not taking accountability for their grade to just not studying at all.
According to Grand Canyon University, “The majority of students (50.5%) study 0 to 2 hours per day.” By most schools regulations, this would be considered insufficient as the average expected amount of study time is 3 to 4 hours a day.
Mr. Rivera, a Spanish teacher at Carver, emphasizes that his main concern about students is not just about them not studying but more importantly not taking accountability for the grade they receive.
Most students mindsets are set on “you gave me, instead of I earned,” Rivera said.
Multiple students at Carver have been interviewed on this matter of accountability and studying. Of the ones interviewed, a number of them stated that they do not study often and if they do it's a “last minute cram”.
“I don't feel like studying, I got other stuff to do,” says a Carver student
Contrarily, Jerry He who is 10th grader at Carver explains the importance of studying. Jerry stresses the graveness of dedicating “a certain amount of hours a day just to studying”.
“You need to know the material well to do tests and class work” emphasizes He.
To fix this issue of study habits and help teach students what they're doing wrong, there is a program at Carver called Multi-Tiered Student Support (MTSS). The program's sole purpose is to make sure students are on track.
Mr. Mandel is a leader of this program who believes that MTSS is something that takes a while to have any effect.
Mandel emphasizes how “it’s a long term process.” When the data is observed you can see improvement but again it takes a while to see any it
“It's not something that just happens overnight,” Mandel explains.
Mr. Milton, Carver history teacher, also talks about how he typically sees the same students in MTSS every year which emphasizes how it takes time.
Recently, Milton was instructed to change up his curriculum due to a good number of students not doing too well in his African American History class. Many students describe his class as “too hard” or challenging, but others believe that it was unfair for him to have to change up his way of teaching for a multitude of reasons.
Despite the fact that this change was supposed to positively affect the classroom, it ironically did the complete opposite. Most people are not happy about the change especially the students.
"Its up to the students to study better" claims a Carver student.