An Interview with Lynda McDonnell: High School Graduation and Writing

Michael F. Shaughnessy - 12.7.09
Senior Columnist EducationNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University
Portales, New Mexico

1) Lynda, first of all, tell us about yourself- your education and experiences.

Michael, I'm a veteran journalist who majored in journalism at the University of Minnesota and worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Minneapolis and St. Paul for more than 25 years before coming to ThreeSixty in 2002. I've covered economics, poverty, public policy and politics.   I've also taught a lot of reporting classes at the college level and did a lot of volunteer work with teens when my kids were younger. The opportunity to build ThreeSixty, which had previously been just a two-week summer camp, into a year-round youth journalism program was a wonderful intersection of my interests in journalism, education and teens.

2) Now exactly what is your present position?

I'm the executive director of ThreeSixty Journalism, a teen journalism program based at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

3) What is this 360 Journalism all about?

ThreeSixty trains teens, particularly low-income and minority teens, who want to learn the skills of journalism and explore this field as a potential career.  Despite decades of effort, journalism - like many professions - remains overwhelmingly white and middle class.  Through summer camps, after-school programs and school partnerships, we train and mentor students in reporting and research, interviewing and writing for publication on our website - www.threesixtyjournalism.org   Happily, some of them are finding their ways into newsrooms and other communications professions.

We believe that teens should have a voice in the issues that matter in their lives, and that they have a responsibility to get the facts, weigh different opinions and share what they learn by writing with clarity, accuracy and power.

Here's our mission statement:

ThreeSixty Journalism is committed to bringing diverse voices into journalism and related professions and to using intense, personal instruction in the craft and principles of journalism to strengthen the civic literacy, writing skills and college-readiness of Minnesota teens.

4) I know that the President has focused on high school graduation. But let's truly dissect this issue. First, if the schools make everything extremely easy, sure, we can increase graduation rates. But then what?

I don't think our students are asking that schools make things easier.  If you read the essays published in the at15.com project, you'll find students complaining that schools are too undisciplined and undemanding - not that they're too hard.  The quality of American education is extremely uneven, and students know when they're cheated of quality.  That said, it may be impractical to expect every student - regardless of language skills or disabilities - to pass rigorous graduation requirements.

5) As a follow up, we already know that millions of entering freshmen need

"Developmental" or "Remedial" courses in math, writing, and language arts or study skills. Why the disjoint?

In Minnesota, roughly a third of high school graduates who enter the state college system need at least one remedial course, which wastes valuable time and money.  I meet students who got high grades in high school and are shocked to find that they lack the academic foundation and study skills to succeed in college.  High schools must take responsibility for this, but our preoccupation with standardized testing shares the blame.  A top official in the Minneapolis school system told me recently that a panel of recent graduates who are now in college told Minneapolis teachers that they got little experience writing essays longer than five paragraphs or revising their written work while they were in high school.  There's a great temptation to teach students only as much as they need to pass the standardized tests.  That frustrates many  students and prepares them poorly for college work.

6) Many, many, many teachers tell me that there are students that are simply "pushed through " with D- or D+ grades. Are we doing these kids any favors?

What should we do with students who really don't want to be in school in an economy that requires a high school degree as a bare minimum?  High school is a time to discover what you're good at and what you love doing.  Particularly for kids who aren't highly academic, we do a poor job helping them discover those things about themselves.   More apprenticeships and lab work, where students can use their hands and recognize the connection between book-work and real work, seem like an important part of this.  And closing some of the wide gap in preparation that exists before students even enter school is critical.  Places like the Harlem Children's Project are succeeding with parent education, intense preschool programs and heavy accountability for teachers and principals.  But achieving that is hard and expensive.

7) Other teachers complain to me about the influx of special needs students. Who should be drawing the line and where?

I too am concerned about unfunded mandates for special-ed services, about people who may manipulate the system because they think it advantages their child, and about the percentage of education dollars funneled into special-ed.  But my knowledge is too limited to contribute much here.

8) Sadly, Ted Sizer recently died, but I recall vividly, his Horace books- discussing how the typical high school teacher is inundated with paperwork, pep rallies, assemblies, forms and meetings. What needs to be done to help the Horaces of the U.S. do that they are paid to do---and that is teach?

Again, you ask a profound and crucial question, one for which I have no adequate answer.  Clearly one reason teachers don't demand more writing and revision from students is that they don't have time to grade and comment in detail on 150 papers - the number you receive if you teach five classes with 30 students.  We pay teachers - particularly new, young teachers - badly, and rarely provide the mentoring and coaching they need to master the arts of classroom management and teaching.   Clearly, we need to get ineffectual and defeated teachers out of the classroom.  We also need to provide the supports for committed teachers to succeed.

9) Now what is this www.at15.com, Best Buy's Web site for teens all about?

Best Buy launched this site after recognizing two things:  That foundations and government programs under-invest in teens and that teens represent an important part of Best Buy's customer and employee base.  www.at15.com  seeks to  engage teens in civic activity by giving them a chance to create profiles and express their views and by voting on youth-focused charities that receive a portion of Best Buy's charitable donations.

By collaborating with Youth Communication in New York, LA Youth in Los Angeles and ThreeSixty Journalism in Minnesota, we were able to bring a wide range of youth voices to bear on the important topic of staying in school.  Teens aren't focused on education reform; they're focused on what has helped them succeed in school and what has contributed to failure - including their own behavior.   I hope these pieces provide some insight for adults who care about quality education and cause teens to think more carefully about their own schools and education.

10) Many of us are concerned about the lack of writing. My good friend and colleague Jay Mathews recently discussed this in one of his columns. Do we need to bring back the term paper with vigor?

Absolutely, we need term papers with research, thesis statements, drafts, footnotes.  Kids in good private schools and IB classes get this training; so should other students.  One reason I love using journalistic writing with teens is that it's more conversational and deals with topics they care about.  But it requires rigor in the research, persistence in interviewing, critical thinking in sorting through evidence and clear, lively writing to engage and inform an audience.

11) I know that correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation, run on -sentences and all the rest if labor intensive and time consuming. How do we get all teachers to get involved and get on this bandwagon?

I've seen teachers use peer editing, great drills and exercises, short-hand notations, editing student work on an overhead -- all kinds of devices to drill students in these skills.  Time is a huge issue for teachers - training students in these skills needs to start earlier and be reinforced year by year.   And there may be computer programs that allow students to work through drills and measure their own progress.

12) What have I neglected to ask?

I can't think of a thing.  Please let me know if there's anything else I can be helpful with.