Merrimack Valley Magazine

Education While Serving Time

November 9, 2021 by Trish Malone Schade

Teaching English Inside Prisons Might Have its Risks, but the Rewards Are Worth It

I had been teaching English and developmental English at Northern Essex Community College (NECC ) for 11 years when I decided to apply for a sabbatical. The end goal of my sabbatical project was to find a way to increase literacy for people in carceral systems and set them on a path to pursue higher education.

According to the Washington Post, our country is home to less than 5% of the world’s population, but warehouses nearly 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. Recidivism is the reason for such high rates. About 50% of incarcerated people end up back inside within five years of being released, according to a 2015 article in Slate magazine. Because a high percentage of individuals currently and formerly incarcerated lack a high school diploma or college education, good job prospects are often out of reach.

Access to education while serving time reduces recidivism and costs taxpayers less money than re-incarcerating them would, according to the Bard Prison Initiative, a college education program for incarcerated students in New York state.

Shortly after my sabbatical proposal to create a college-level English class for incarcerated students was approved, NECC was awarded a grant from the Essex County Sheriff’s Department to direct the educational programs at Middleton House of Correction and its satellite facilities in Lawrence and Salisbury.

How to place incarcerated students was my first challenge. Normally, academic placement in English and math courses at NECC relies on a high school GPA or computerized test. But many of the students we would be working with didn’t have high school diplomas, and none had access to the internet. Fortunately, a group of faculty from the English department at NECC and I had designed an alternative assessment for early college students the previous semester, and I was able to utilize this placement process.

I administered this alternative assessment to prospective incarcerated students several times in the fall of 2019, and met with other educators to teach them how to administer and evaluate the test. By January 2020, more than 20 incarcerated students had scored well enough on the test to be placed in college-level classes and were ready to enroll. Those who did not get a high enough score to be placed in college-level classes were able to enroll in the HiSET (high school equivalency test) prep class.

I also attended the 40-hour orientation that the Essex County Sheriff’s Department requires for anyone who wants to work with incarcerated people. I learned so much that week. Some of the things the orientation covered were expected, like CPR and self-defense. Other things surprised me. I learned terms like “downing a duck,” an expression used by prisoners that refers to taking advantage of a staff member who can be easily manipulated.

A lot of what I learned that week showed how the values of higher education and working in a carceral system don’t always match up. Things I took for granted in my regular college classes, like freedom of expression and talking with students after class about their families, needed to be thought about carefully “inside.”

My research also took me to two maximum-security facilities in California, where I observed a former colleague teaching college-level English classes. And I attended the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison conference in St. Louis, an eye-opening and inspiring experience.

I was finally able to put my project to work in the 2020 spring semester. To eliminate the need to use the internet, I created a course pack containing almost all the class materials: about 116 pages of step-by-step instructions, outlines, sample essays, a detailed weekly assignment schedule, writing advice and all the supplementary articles the students would be reading. Two novels, Omar El Akkad’s “American War” and Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” were also included.

The students were curious and challenging, and our discussions were insightful. At the beginning of the semester, which began in January, before COVID-19 arrived, I had some students who just wanted to take advantage of earning “good time,” and some who just liked coming to class, but didn’t do much work. However, about half of them were dedicated, determined and very invested in their own learning. These students completed their work and wrote some impressive essays.

I didn’t anticipate it when I created the course pack, but it became instrumental when COVID interrupted our programs. My students continued to do their work, even without our face-to-face classes. (At the end of the semester in May, their work was delivered to my doorstep.) I wrote a letter to the students every week, explaining the work they needed to do and trying to encourage them to keep pursuing their learning even though we had been interrupted.

by Trish Malone Schade — Photo by Kevin Harkins, courtesy NECC.

One student wrote at the end of the semester that he had already shared “American War” with five other guys inside who had not enrolled in classes, and they loved it. Another student wrote an essay about how the class gave him a community he needed, and that he had never realized that he loved to read and write until taking my English 101 class. When I told another student about “Parnassus,” NECC’s literary arts magazine, he expressed an interest in submitting a poem. Since our incarcerated students have only small pencils and yellow lined paper to work with, I typed up his poem and sent it in. It was accepted for publication.

Near the end of the semester, I also submitted an essay by this same student to the English writing awards at NECC. Out of hundreds of essays, his composition won one of the top prizes for English 101.

Perhaps most profound was the experience of one student who was released from Middleton in February, about a month into the semester. A quiet and respectful student who always did his work, he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to finish the class. We transferred him to my class on campus.

I will never forget his face, walking into my “regular” class that first day. He was like a kid on Christmas morning, so full of joy and expectation. He fit right in and always asked the most thought-provoking questions. He had to learn how to navigate NECC’s online Blackboard system and get used to using email, but he always rose to the challenge. After my class, in which he did very well, he enrolled in two online summer courses and two fall courses at NECC, majoring in business. I can’t wait to see what he does once he graduates.

Teaching in a prison setting was challenging and at times made me feel uneasy, but it was also extremely rewarding. I found that it really pushed me professionally and made me feel vulnerable in a way that I’ve never felt before. Just getting to my class was sometimes an ordeal.

One day, I rushed out of a meeting on NECC’s Haverhill campus later than I had planned and hit traffic on the way to the prison in Middleton. I arrived just in time, feeling stressed and weary. After going through the first security check at the door, I had to sign in with my fingerprint. I walked through the first locked door, two-way mirrors lining the wall, and paused to wait for the next door to open. Finally, I walked through the cage outside, barbed wire curling against a gray sky atop a 20-foot chain-link fence. The metal gate clicked on the pavement on the other side of the cage. I walked quickly through two more locked doors, reeling at the industrial lighting and stuffy air.

I arrived at class just before start time. I sat at my desk near the door and tried to organize my handouts. As I waited for my students, I reminded myself why I was there. My job is to create light for them, to show them a path for learning.

Five minutes passed and I wondered why the students were held up. One of the other educators popped in and told me there was some kind of shakedown happening. When my students finally lined up at the door to sign in, my anxiety lifted. Suddenly, they broke out singing “My Girl.” I’d taught for 30 years, in California, Massachusetts and Japan, and I’d never been serenaded before.

By the end of NECC’s first year working with the Essex County Sheriff’s Department we had served more than 500 incarcerated students in Essex County: teaching classes, administering the HiSET, tracking down high school diplomas, advising and offering library services. These students need us. They are capable, and they are worth it.

Gateway to a Better Life

September 21, 2021 by Sarah Comiskey

Philip Sisson Prepares to Redefine the Academic Experience at Middlesex Community College.

Accessibility, equity and student success: These will be among Philip Sisson’s focal points as he begins his first year as the president of Middlesex Community College (MCC).

The Lowell resident, whose appointment took effect in July following a vote of approval by the college’s board of trustees, already has an intimate understanding of the unique mission and needs of the Middlesex community. For the past 11 years, he has served as the college’s provost and vice president of academic and student affairs, leading MCC through a range of student pathway and inclusion initiatives.

“I’ve already been part of the change process here for over a decade and am excited to be going about it in a more external way as president,” Sisson says. “I love this place.”

Sisson’s understanding of the community college experience, and the challenges that its students face, runs much deeper than his professional history. In some ways, it’s a role come full circle.

Originally from Newport, Rhode Island, Sisson grew up in a working-class household, the son of a custodian and a dry-cleaning attendant. In his younger years, he says, the idea of one day becoming a college president never would have crossed his mind.

“I was sort of a troubled child,” he explains. “Teachers identified me as problematic in school. I couldn’t concentrate, and completed things too quickly and inefficiently.”

That all changed thanks to the influence of one teacher, who recommended Sisson for enrollment in a gifted student program after seeing a spark in him. Sisson says his love of learning really took off in the more customized project-based environment.

“It was the formative moment that laid the foundation for my love of education,” he says.

Sisson, like many of the students he serves, was a first-generation college student. By the time he graduated from high school and enrolled at a nearby state college, he had become thrilled by the prospect of all that higher education could offer — and quickly dove in. His undergraduate career included roles as student government president, orientation leader, and member of the international parliamentary debate team.

“I was sort of a ‘Joe College,’” he says with a laugh.

Sisson went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in communications, theater and secondary education from Rhode Island College. He worked as a full-time faculty member at the Wheeler School in Providence and assistant director of the school’s gifted student program, serving in the same type of environment that fostered his own love of learning.

By this time, his passion for higher education had solidified. After returning to Rhode Island College for a master’s degree in counseling, Sisson went on to serve in many roles, first as director of the first-year experience at Nichols College, and later as a faculty member at Bristol Community College. He then worked in the administration of the Community College of Rhode Island, and as vice president for academic and student affairs at Cape Cod Community College before finding his home at Middlesex.

His recent appointment as president comes less than a year after MCC’s 50th anniversary, and during a time of transformation for the MCC community. Sisson’s work in the short-term will be focused on reimagining the community college experience in a post-pandemic world. With nearly 45% of Middlesex courses being offered in person this fall, a large part of his strategy will include the implementation of hybrid course options that will provide students more scheduling flexibility and allow them to better balance school with outside work and home obligations.

He also emphasizes that race equity, early college, and concurrent enrollment programs will be of high importance as the college continues to shape its vision.

“Lowell has the second largest Cambodian population in the U.S., and Middlesex has long been a proud designated Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution,” he says. “We will continue to focus on race equity and access so that we can set up our students for long-term success.”

Ultimately, Sisson says, the future of Middlesex Community College rests in its ability to remain attuned to its values and to the evolving needs of the Merrimack Valley region.

“It’s about asking, ‘What are we as an institution? What’s our unique proposition for the region?’” he says. “It’s about finding what needs to be articulated so that we can fight declining enrollment and bring people back to what we know is a gateway to a better life: That’s community college.”

Mass. Community Colleges Announce Vaccine Requirement

September 20, 2021 by Digital Manager

The presidents of the Massachusetts community colleges announced today that students, faculty, and staff at the commonwealth’s 15 community colleges must be fully vaccinated by January 2022.

The announcement comes amid a rise in the number of new cases of COVID-19 across the commonwealth, the increased access and availability of vaccines, the Food & Drug Administration’s full and pending approval of available vaccines, and CDC guidance that the COVID-19 vaccine has been proven to be extremely safe and highly effective at preventing infection, severe disease, hospitalization, and death.

Students who seek to register for courses that do not include any in-person component, and who do not plan to come on campus for any reason for the spring 2022 semester, will not be required to provide documentation of vaccination. All employees will be required to be vaccinated.

Twenty Years Later: How Area Educators Handle 9/11

September 10, 2021 by Katie Lovett

In the 20 years that have followed the events of Sept. 11, 2001, small memorials are still organized each fall, and the public takes time to share their memories.

However, for a younger generation of Americans, there is no memory to recall. Instead, it falls on educators to bring that lesson out of the history books and convey the impact of that morning to students.

Each of the 18 teachers in the history and social science department at Methuen High School will be talking about Sept. 11 this week as the 20th anniversary approaches, said Roger Lenfest, the chairperson of department. As a community, the entire school will also observe a moment of silence on Friday.

Inside the classrooms, teachers rely on various ways to approach the topic, Lenfest said, and each of the teachers has created their own plan for the lesson. Much of the discussion will be driven by what he or she feels the students are ready to process, he added.

Teachers can choose to talk about the events of the day itself or how the events of Sept. 11 changed society as a whole, he continued.

Some teachers will rely on the use of “powerful” first-person sources — newsclips or testimony from survivors or victims’ families, Lenfest said. Hearing the painful words can be emotional, he added, and triggering for students who may have experienced their own loss.

Teachers will take the time to talk to students about the testimony they’ll hear and let the students take a step back if needed.

Faculty find that students typically have some knowledge of Sept. 11, Lenfest said, and often build on that base knowledge to facilitate a discussion, answer questions, and fill in the gaps.

“Students are curious, when they hear bits and pieces, they want to know,” he said. “They are trying to put it together.”

Some teachers have students pursue guided research projects while others share their own personal reflections of the day.

Lenfest recalls how he was teaching that morning when a colleague came in to tell him what had happened. Cell phones weren’t as prevalent then, and it was hard to watch the news during the school day, he said.

“Teachers were trying to keep each other informed and not cause students to panic,” he said.

While some may find it hard to convey the totality of that fateful morning, Lenfest said, only by sharing the experience with new generations can we keep the promise to never forget.

“We study history to understand how we came to be and who we are,” he said. “It was more than just who was president that day. Every individual has a perception of that day. When we can center that, that’s where kids maintain interest.”

Twenty Years Later – How Area Educators Handle 9/11