Will Toledo Public Schools be in Academic Watch?
13 Aug 2007
It appears that tomorrow morning at the press conference it will be announced that Toledo Public Schools will be in Academic Watch rather than Continuous Improvement according to sources at the Urban Coalition of Toledo. The information is expected to be formally released tomorrow so I will update as soon as formal numbers are available.
Surely that fact ought not surprise too many folks who live in the city. Here are some contributing factors that I see:
1. Toledo is losing population to the suburbs and it is the more affluent who are moving, taking their more advantaged children with them, thus lowering achievement scores;
2. Thanks to Sally Perz and the Republicans in the Ohio Legislature, charter schools are sucking both money and top students from TPS, thus lowering achievement scores;
3. The TPS School Board follies and the shenanigans with the choice of superintendent clearly did not inspire the students nor the teachers to excel in their academics this year;
4. With a faltering economic picture and a continual loss of jobs, Toledo is not seen as a place to relocate and therefore new students are not entering TPS from other, possibly higher-functioning schools;
5. In more impoverished areas of the city, children/students are finding their lives much less structured, less safe, less healthy, and less supervised during this economic downturn in Toledo as parents work more hours to make ends meet.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:06 pmIt will be interesting to see what the numbers end up being, it’s been suggested that TPS was very close to maintaining continuous improvement but it does definitely show that they scored lower than last year.
The only one of your suggestions I’m really not sure on is 3, especially when related to students, as I doubt many of them even know or care who is superintendent. It’s just as likely that the morale issue with teaching and other staff is related to their belief that they were promised an increase in wages and have not gotten it.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:12 pmThis reminds me, I haven’t even started on my opinions on TPS.. I’ll delve into in the comming weeks. It’s a frightful situation when things have come to this point. I don’t even have children, we had an exchange student and he did a year at Libbey. It was quite an experience for us, and for our student.
My Mother In law works for an elementary school and has brought home many stories for several years. Education, employment and commerce are the 3 foundational factors in a successful city.
Toledo sucks at all 3 of them. It’s time to change the way this city operates. We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the future generations. Same ole’ produces the same ole’. Things have gone from sketchy to bad and soon to get worse.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:52 pmI agree with what mud_rake is saying if I may add…that it’s imperative that the parents, business community, and the residents to be involved with the schools and help the students achieve their goals as much as possible.
The teachers, administrators, and aides cannot do it all, this is where the community has to embrace their own public schools to offer opportunities and get involved in being a big brother or a big sister to the students. Whether it’s sports, music, extra-circular activties, or etc we owe to the next generation for where we are today. I know for certain that I am forever grateful for all the teachers, aides, and volunteers for providing me a great atmosphere and education for me to experience. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them, along with my parents.
We need to remember what is important for our community and we must share the responsibility and take action.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:59 pmso the tps teachers haven’t rec’d any wage increases?
predictably, public school apologists will blame everything/ everyone except the actual school systems. they can do no wrong. the kids and families receiving the insufficient education may disagree, though.
i have the governor is watching. he may want to consider backing off his fight against school choice.
August 13th, 2007 at 10:59 pmChad,
We have no one to blame but ourselves for the situation that TPS is in right now.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:01 pmWhat went wrong with public schools is that the power in the classroom was taken away from teachers. That is the first step to total failure, the teachers needs the control in the classroom and support from administrators when need back-up in making decisions, this where the students can look up to and respect them. But when the parents, board members, and administrators take over with their “It’s for the children, feel for the children, ooooh, ooooh…..” mantra their learning experience and control has gone to pots. Children are given way too much power and they are already running the classroom, it’s time to go back to raising, disciplining, and mentoring the kids until legal age of 18. No more feng-shuing the kids. Enough is enough!
August 13th, 2007 at 11:09 pmrocket man, i think you make a good point regarding control. i think the biggest concern is the lack of control by the principals. they have little input in the issues (ie budget, personnel) within their own schools.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:25 pmDespite where your children attend school, always encourage and promote them. A state distinction is meaningless. You know going into to TPS that you are the lowest of the low in the area, but you also know that what you do at home makes them who they are. Make your children the greatest. TPS is no different than any other district, just do what you can at home.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:48 amRockets..I agree. This is why I think it’s time to change the makeup of the school board..bring balance by voting the idiots off that we can and replacing them with intelligent and proactive people like Chris Meyers. We, the people, must strike the balance needed to make an effective and productive school system.
The parents need to take back the schools, get off their duffs and help police and secure the schools, keep the students under control and be very active in policy setting. We need to take back the right to punish and correct behaviorial issues and stop the insanity of children having more power than adults.
If parents did their job, we wouldn’t need to hire Police to police the schools.
When I was a kid, had I done or said some of the crap I’ve seen and heard children doing to teachers and parents, I’d have wound up on my ass and all that anyone would have said would have been” it’s about time”, not “Oh, what a crime!”.
What we have these days is an overly liberal court system that has robbed the rights and responsibilities of adults to do what can and should be done. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
August 14th, 2007 at 6:04 amYes charter schools take away the top kids i agree. Why because of parents who want the best for there kids and care about there education. Charter school provides a better environment for education to happen because the parents all care. U cant give the kids updated school buildings and technology without the parents of public schools getting upset there aged and beloved school is gonna be torn down. They worry more about the building than the education of there kids. TPS sucks period! We cant get rid of ineffective teachers protected by unions. School admin really controls too much and kills good teachers creativity. I love unions but when they fail it make things better, and actually hurt our kids maybe they don’t belong in public school. Maybe TPS can look at how charter schools do it…. and emulate, but until then u will find my kid in charter school. I don’t blame this one Carty, its clearly the union, school admin, and its teachers. Maybe if they saw it as a opportunity to teach the kids instead of a job things would work better. They need to think of the kids first despite the fact the parents dont.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:37 amAs a parent who is involved, I think it’s about more than getting the parents involved in the school, they also need to be involved in the home as well. I’m a full time college student who also works part time and takes care of a home, two teenagers and 3 dogs. Because of my school and work schedules it isn’t possible for me to involve a ton of time during the kids’ school day. I do, however, make sure that I am 100% involved in what my children are doing when they are in my care. They know what is and isn’t acceptable and they know that there will be consequences if they break the rules of my home. Too many parents today want to be their child’s best friend rather than being an authority figure. What they don’t realize is that if they become the authority figure first, their child will end up realizing that they are also a friend. Kids need parents to keep the upper hand with them, they need to know that there are consequences when they make a mistake, and that just because they make a mistake it doesn’t mean they are a mistake. Parents also need to stand up and set the example for their kids because we all know that kids learn more from example than anything else.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:39 amRight on Holly – this is a systemic problem and it will take all of us to get our children educated.
Talk all you want about Chris Myers and I think he would make a good board member. But we already have a great board member in Darlene Fisher. She is the only one that talks straight to the community, works to get the board and the educational establishment to be accountable and do something, and she has done this while the establishment has went after her. She needs our support – she is the right kind of board member. She did not do this to gain a political career. She was a mom whose children attended TPS and knew it could be better for her children and everyone else.
We need more like her. I’m supporting Myers and Catlin!! With Fisher this would make a great team – problem solvers instead of complainers.
Catlin has a website at catlin4qualityeducation.com. She will have a plan unlike others that are running for school board including Jack Ford.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:59 amI too like Mrs. Fisher, and am in support of balancing the Boad politicly so that forward progress can be achieved.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:21 pmWhen you read the Blade one of my primary complaints is that the ODE changes the number of indicators – it makes it very hard to do an actual comparison from year to year.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:31 pmLisa – I have been saying that for years – the district did an apples to apples that I got at the press conference today. However, you have to be careful here as well.
I’ll try and put up a citizens report of the conference with some observations and the handouts later today or early tomorrow. I’ve got a real hectic schedule today. Later we will do some analysis of the results. We will let you know when they are available at tpsinfo.com.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:34 pmSteven, if it were done the right way there would be no need for an apples to apples comparison which no matter which school district it is, there is going to be a natural desire to present the information in the best light possible.
It’s been a kvetch of mine since this whole report card issue started too, this whole blah out of blah one year then blah out of a higher blah the next year…I realize they are trying to set goals for increasing performance but you’d think there would be an easier way to make it something you’d actually be able to gauge real results from year to year, without having to go through the hours of work I’m sure it will take figure that out.
I’ll look forward to reading what you come up with.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:44 pmI think they keep it as confusing as it is so that we can’t figure it out. The Blade article stated that TPS missed continuous improvement by only 0.9%, but Mr Foley states that the test scores are better than last year. If they would just put this info into laymens terms so that anyone can read/understand it, it’d be that much better. And yes, they also need to quit changing it and find a set of standards that can stay in place for a long period of time. You can’t compare if the standards are different from year to year!
August 14th, 2007 at 1:33 pmI would like to share with you my thoughts on today’s announcement regarding the district’s performance. While it is comparable to last year, the results released today show TPS has returned to the Academic Watch state ranking. With the results now available, it is time to focus on the opportunities and challenges ahead of us to improve student achievement. I am very aware that our district is supported through federal, state or local tax dollars so it is important that we discuss the positive results but it is more important to discuss and address the challenges before us and our community in an open, honest and proactive manner.
The board, administration, teachers and support staff along with our community have to collaboratively and proactively identify the underlying facts, discuss the problem areas and focus on a plan to address the issues including the evaluation of successful programs that can be replicated and to implement best practices and innovative solutions where gaps now exist. Understanding where and why the gaps exist is the first step in this process.
The answers and solutions are not going to come easily, but we must develop an ongoing process that assures issues are adequately researched and solutions implemented with appropriate benchmarks to evaluate performance on a continuous basis. If there are issues, history and practices that have created problems, now is the time to admit the problems and move forward in a transparent manner. If improvement plans and solutions are not fully formulated, the board and administration must layout a process to our community and obtaining input from the teaching staff, administrators and parents is key to this process. These plans must include specific implemental plans that everyone can buy into and support and they can not be created in a vaccum or some key steps may be missed.
As I did as a parent in the district and now as a board member, I plan on dedicating myself to creating an public school system that is focused on attaining the goals and direction noted in this posting. I’m also very concerned that the urban districts can’t seem to go beyond meeting 8 of the state standards out of 30 when all other districts are meeting 20+ standards. We’ll have to focus on that issue as well in the coming months. One step is for the board to identify which standards are most important to be met and include them in the goals we’re setting for the Superintendent and the Board. The stategies that we develop must be far reaching even if we need to look at restructing the classroom schedule or how we deliver educational services in some instances.
I look forward to more dialogue and comments on this important topic.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:30 pmDarlene Fisher
I was going to comment on this topic but changed my mind. I have come to the realization that everyone is an expert on education, so there is very little I can offer.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:13 pmI’m far from an expert on education, so I would be very interested in your thoughts on this topic.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:17 pmI’m far from an expert…all I know is management
August 14th, 2007 at 9:38 pmFew points, coming from a family of several generations of school teachers, the teachers are underappreciated, underpaid, and they need all the support they can get from parents, board, administrators, and community. Help a teacher to achieve their goal in the classroom that is the key to succes. It is very hard to maintain a class of 25-30 students (can you imagine all of them being high on sugar at the same time?), so by being an aide, speaker, Big Brother/Big Sister, after-school mentor, volunteer to help out musical plays, sports, bands, activities, whatever you can do to bring that “community love” into the classroom and school.
So Darlene, you need to get the entire community involved in the schools, embrace the diversity and enhance teamwork among everyone, reward them for that effort. So by embracing all of this, it will bring back the much-needed pride among all of us in the community and including the students.
Stop the bickering, stop the politicking, stop the naysaying, stop the media-hyping, stop the nonsense, etc, etc because the students and teachers end up being the loser. We all have to remember the usual saying “It takes a village to raise a child….”
August 14th, 2007 at 10:29 pmI’ll second that..all in favor say I……
August 14th, 2007 at 10:31 pmMuck Rake,
Passing the buck is not the way to change things and your reasoning are doing nothing but that. Maybe having more board members who won’t do that can actually turn things around.
1. Are people leaving a cause of the schools or an effect? Maybe if schools were better they would not move.
2. Charter schools are around as a result of failing schools, not the opposite. Also, the district loses 5k from the State, but they retain 5k from property taxes. This allows the district to put the 5k toward the students who are still in the district. The district knows why students leave, but they do not take aggressive steps of providing better service and better academics and schools to stop it.
3. I agree
4. I would argue that again this is a result of failing schools not a cause, and a long-term failure of people not being aggressive enough in fixing the problems.
5. The Old West End Academy has 70-80% of students meeting standards and there are examples of other schools that are successful around the country so there is no law of student failure.
Since you were passing the buck, I did not see you mention the party that has been in charge of the school board and this area for decades. The tradition of using the school board as a stepping stone for many candidates of this party has hurt the school system too because the proper oversight function has failed horribly because most people were looking for the next step and not focusing on the current needs of the district.
The district knows which schools give them problems and they can choose to deal with it or just allow it to continue (to the detriment of everyone).
August 15th, 2007 at 6:19 amAlso, in looking at the other comments I agree with the control issues as well as getting everyone involved to deal with the problems. The scores do not matter. We need to deal with the issues as a community and after reading this thread, I sense there are many here willing to do this. As much as Darlene is criticized she wants the district to get better and we need more people who want to put the schools first.
August 15th, 2007 at 6:36 amChris,
I will answer your question about why people leave, from my own perspective. I have 2 children, one who is going back to TPS this year and one that I have open enrolled in a neighboring district. My child that is going back to TPS is going back because they will now be going to a different school other than the one that we dealt with for the prior 2 school years. I pulled that child out because of biased and prejudiced administration in their specific school. No, I’m not talking about teachers, because I had an excellent and open relationship with the teachers from this school, they were willing to help me with this child and this child felt supported by them. But the principal, vice principal and other support staff in that specific school were never willing to give my child a chance, every time I turned around there was some sort of problem to which their solution was to send him home for a week. Now, I do not think that my child should have any sort of special treatment, but when I spent over 1 full school year doing EVERYTHING in an attempt to get my child the help that they were legally entitled to through the school I got nothing but excuses and run around until I was at my boiling point and said enough is enough! My hope and prayer is that a new school will mean a new start with a more “fair” administration that will listen to my concerns for my child and realize that I am doing all I can to help my child.
My other child, who is open enrolled in a neighboring district, when from being a child who cried about school every morning and was in constant battles with the teacher and getting poor grades to a child that LOVES school and makes the honor roll. I went through the experience of my child being humiliated by their teacher in front of their peers to the point of being in tears before I finally said ENOUGH, and my hope now is that this child will be able to finish out the remainder of their school years at this neighboring district because it is a district committed to nurturing a child and giving them the education they deserve.
TPS has many positive things that are seemingly overlooked because of all of the negativity that keeps being broadcast over the public “PA system”. Unfortunately there are so many parents who are not involved in their childrens lives or their education that when an involved parent does come around some teachers and administration staff do not know how to handle it. They are used to being able to do what they want to do how they want to do it without being questioned. I think that is where my “problems” came in, when I started questioning and saying something just wasn’t right. But if we as parents don’t stand up for our children no one else will.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:40 amYou know……….after reading Ms. Fisher’s comments, it sounds more like a political speech than a specific step by step plan on what TPS is going to do about improving test scores.
Ms. Fisher would it be possible to give us specifics instead of politcal preamble and a long drawn out generic overview of your personal views?
August 15th, 2007 at 11:26 am“I have come to the realization that everyone is an expert on education, so there is very little I can offer.”
Mr. Hansen, you do yourself a dis-service as well as the rest of the readers when you make statements like this.
You got something to offer or say, type away. Let the consumers decide who has what to offer and whom is an expert or not.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:09 pm“Charter schools are around as a result of failing schools, not the opposite.”
I put my son into a charter school, because I was given the impression that TPS was not interested in educating him, they just wanted his body in a classroom.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:56 pmPer the request of Concerned Citizen: First and foremost, the Board needs to stand together and say to our community that we recognize we have significant issues to address in the performance of particular schools and that at each board meeting we will review the plans to address the deficiencies and monitor the progress. We need to create a timeline to address such deficiencies and report our progress to the community throughout the year.
For example, in reviewing the school improvement plan for Pickett, I saw no specific tasks identified that have created any changes in how that school is operating. I stated earlier, the first task is assessing where the achievement gaps are and why.
Our Board, together with the administrative team needs to review each of the 30 state standards and understand what the obstacles or paths to success in achieving each of the 30 state standards will be. Then the board will develop goals based on what is reasonable to attempt to achieve. Beyond that, we need to establish specific goals for the Superintendent which would be tied to the district goals we agree upon. I even wanted to go so far as to tie specific measurements to the Superintendent’s contract. In February 2006, I circulated the first draft of suggested board goals – we’re still reviewing them and it would be a great start to get agreement upon such district-wide goals as a start.
August 15th, 2007 at 5:23 pmTo continue the above post on specific plans, if the Board and District at first concentrated on the schools in academic emergency and academic watch, we could review the improvement plans to see if they tie back to the district’s goals. If the school improvement plans are not specific enough then we jointly devise a plan to address the deficiencies. We have to look to see what obstacles there are to achieving improved results. For example, are there staffing issues (not enough staff, staff not trained to deal with specific issues etc.,), do we have financial resources allocated to allow us to improve, are there social concerns that groups like the United Way could be brought in to help us address, do we need additional mentoring programs at some of our lower performing schools. What this assessment does is gets everyone on the same page to understand the need for change.
In fact, several years ago when Parents for Public Schools prodded the board into undertaking a strategic planning process, Dr. Philip Schletchy created 10 standards that the district needed to follow and address. The very first standard was simply that – getting the district and those involved to understand the need for change. Specifically addressing that everyone connected to one particular school or across the district needs to collectively recognize we have a performance issue and we have to examine where specifically we can improve and how we get there. That plan could be different for each of the schools affected but the role of the board then is to support those plans, monitor them, and suggest ways for further improvement.
Noting an earlier post that it takes a village….we can not create school improvement plans in a vacuum and by creating them collaboratively by those directly affected we can create plans that everyone understands and can support. I apologize if my original statement was viewed as too political but by involving those closest to the issues, we can seek significant improvements and the board can support and assist those schools by monitoring the benchmarks and measures and suggesting policy or financial changes if plans to improve need further adjustment throughout the year.
August 15th, 2007 at 5:28 pmOK, I agree, Ms. Fisher has some good thoughts there, but I also think that the district needs to go through and do a thorough review of the administration of each school and either remove those principals and administrators that are ineffective, or move them to schools that they are maybe more suited for. I’m completely convinced that the principal and dean of my oldest childs former TPS school are completely ineffective when it comes to dealing with kids on an even plane. I’m not the only parent who had problems, and I’m also sure that I’m no the only parent who got fed up enough and pulled my child out of that specific school.What my family was put through while we dealt with that school was completely ridiculous and no parent should ever have to deal with the condescending attitude that we dealt with. But I don’t forsee situations like this changing simply because everyone points the fingers at the teachers or the parents. I’ve had wonderful principals and vice principals in TPS schools who have been removed and replaced with ineffective ones, it’s as if they are willing to allow a school to get to a good point, then they throw in a wrench and make it start all over. Yet a school can do poorly year after year after year and it’s as if they have no clue as to why. I say, look at the administration, if they don’t promote an attitude of openness and willingess, GET RID OF THEM!
August 15th, 2007 at 6:48 pmHolly,
I think there is room in the process and a necessary component of any change that a human resources inventory be completed. This would review the staff individually and collectively. I’ve advocated for regular employee evaluations with standards based upon district objectives and goals that then reinforce through incentives organizational behaviors that are focused on a common set of goals. Some will say this is to weed out poor employees. I would like to believe that it would improve individual and collaborative skills resulting in higher student achievement.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe I have heard Mr. Fisher speak in similar terms.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:04 pmSteven,
I hope that you are right, I hope that they can eventually work through the “ranks” and replace the ineffective administrators who, in my opinion, bring negativity into the schools.
I also understand what people are saying about the discord on the board and the problems with the districts, but I honestly think when it comes down to the schools and the students, the problems that exist lie with the administration. I mean, think about it. If you work for someone who is a tyrant and promotes a negative environment in the work place, does it make it a pleasant place to work? Not in my opinion. And if that boss comes across as an arrogant a$$ that doesn’t care about how the customers feel or their opinions when they come into his place of business, does that promote a positive environment for customers to want to come into? I also don’t think so.
That is what my point is with the negative administrators and I personally have dealt with. I wanted to spend as little time possible at that specific school because of how I felt and was treated while I was there. Yet everyone says “Parents need to get involved in the schools, they need to interact with the staff, etc. etc.” I personally choose not to put myself into situations that I feel cause extreme stress.
Am I saying I could do a better job? NO WAY! I wouldn’t want to do the job of any school administrator for even five minutes. But the administrators need to know that they “set the scene” for how the school will run. If then come off negatively, then the school will follow suit. But if they come across as open and willing to listen, then the school is more likely to be the same.
I’m sorry, I could go on and on about this, as if you couldn’t tell. It’s irritating and disheartening to have to spend your days fighting with your childs school, and I truly hope that my days of fighting are over. But I also know that TPS is far from the only school that has parents feel the way I do. I’ve known Springfield parent that have gone through this as well as parents from Swanton and Delta. Nothing is ever going to be perfect as far as school goes, but if EVERYONE, parents included, try to have an open mind and are willing to work together, then the schools AND our children will reap the benefits!
August 15th, 2007 at 7:33 pmHolly,
I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I did not say I wanted to get rid of any employee. I believe that behaviors can be modified with the right environment and incentives. If individuals don’t meet performance goals, you develop and implement an action plan to address the problem and improve performance. Firing an employee should always be a last resort – especially an experienced employee (except for criminal behavior or outright insubordination). At some point termination is in order, but the employee was given the opportunity to improve and in this day and age you can document the steps taken.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:04 pmSteven,
No, I don’t mean getting rid of them either, well, maybe part of me does. But I mostly mean that if a Principal is ineffective at one school, maybe a fresh start at a different school would be something that would be better for them. Sometimes many years doing the same thing over and over isn’t always a good thing! But I think some serious changes need to be made in some of the schools to make them more effective and make them a more “people friendly” environment!
But most of the time it feels like TPS is in a stalemate!
August 15th, 2007 at 8:08 pmHolly, thanks for sharing your story. Sadly, your story is not unique and I have heard it many times. It is sad because it is controllable and can be prevented. My question was more rhetorical than anything, but you continue to confirm that there are some service issues the district must deal with.
There is no doubt the district has good stories, but the issues and challenges the district has cannot be glossed over. It may be a presentation issue more than anything. If I had a say, I would say, here are our scores, here are our challenges and here are how we will address them and we need your help as a community. Now that would be positive, it would give people hope that they are dealing with the problem and they would be transparent in the response.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:26 pmThe old saying..”if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” applies. There’s little need, other than to pat on the back, to focus on the things that are doing well and going as planned. It’s the problems that must be hashed and dealt with. Carty and other members of “leadership” want to focus only on the strenghts and ignore the problems. Strengths show themselves, weakness must be exposed to the light of day.
I hear all the time, people explaining the numbers and how you cannot just say, like I have..that 400 million divided by 30,000 students is $13,333.00 per kid. The expenses, from books, to buildings to staff are all a part of that. You cannot divide the whole and come up with less..it just isn’t rational. To the taxpayer..it’s simple math. It doesn’t matter if the monies come from local or federal sources..it’s all tax money.
Politicans love to filter the true numbers by dividing the way it’s spent..who cares?! It’s not how it’s spent, it’s what it costs that matters..and the results are showing..glaringly.
The way life works..the strong survive, the weak do not. This is why some “mother’s” eat their young. People are part of the food chain in life…
We can preach and carry on about supporting the weaker groups while billing the stronger for it..but the weak will remain weak..the strong can be destroyed by too much sympathy. Rather than excuse failure, we need to encourage success. Not everyone is going to grow up to be a super human..some will be blue collar…or less. That’s nature.
Why do people always try to prevent the process of natural selection by saying it’s all enviormental? I’m not a doctor, lawyer, or highly paid exec…I’m a retail employee with a political habit. (recently developed). I’m also, happy, well ajusted and take care of myself with no real dependence on gov or social programs to survive. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I know some that fall into the 1st catagory that are walking disastors.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:15 pmOn the topic of specifics ideas and reading the recent posts, I too am frustrated to learn of the types of situations families have faced at times when dealing with TPS. It would be one thing if there were limited stories but over the years I’ve heard of some serious situations in which families simply had to remove their children to get them educated or out of a unresolveable situation in TPS. There needs to be a culture change to some degree. Where employees at every level understand the interactions with families have a very direct correlation if a family stays or goes. That is the signficant part of the charter school affect – once the state dollars were tied to where a child attended that was meant to get the attention of the public school entity and to some extent it has made it a real situation for TPS to see their state funding leave with the students no longer choosing TPS. The question is how do we get the culture change to occur. Mr. Foley is planning to introduce a Customer Service guide but everyone will need to buy into a new culture of addressing families’ needs to satisfactory positions when and if possible. I’ve often seen instances where a family is in the circle of no return – working to get some resolution to an issue but just passed from one administrator or department to another. The family gets tired of trying to help their child so they either leave or give up in which case the student still suffers and can be sent on the failure path then. I’d like to see some proactive ways to address the handling of such issues but it may get back to the necessary culture change.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:33 pmOne other specific thing we could do very easily is to make sure that tutors and tutoring programs that students undertake have a direct connection to what is being taught in the classroom. The direct way tutoring can affect grades or the failure track is if the teacher, tutor and student/parent all work together. For instance, a child is failing in reading – family goes to teacher and asks for suggestions. Teacher suggests additional reading or a tutor. Family is left to find a tutor on their own. Does each school have a list of active tutors? Not to my knowledge – when my family needed one the teacher had a very old list of contacts – not even current TPS teachers who may tutor on the side. The tutor I ended up employing was a Sylvania teacher. I tried very unsuccessfuly to get the teacher and the tutor to coordinate work for my child but to no avail. I even sent in a postage paid envelope addressed to the tutor so all we needed were a few specific worksheets or assignments. I thought that would make it easy for everyone involved but there was no response at all. So my child got some well needed instruction from the tutor at $35/$40 per hour but it had very little affect on their classwork because there was no coordination of activities. As a possible action step, I would like to see each school have an active and current list of possible tutors or tutoring firms and have some sort of requirement that the school staff coordiante activities so targeted success can be realized and evaluated per student.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:50 pmSpringfield had a program where they hired 7th and 8th graders who met certain grade level criteria to be tutors after school at the elementary schools to help with reading and other homework/courses. It was held a few days a week, if I remember correctly three days a week after school. Two of my older daughters were hired as tutors, not only did they earn a small amount of money but it was a great experience for them and for the students.
I do agree with you Darlene that there should be some type of online resource or printed resource listing interested tutors it would help make the finding a tutor process much faster. I realize there are times and students that require an adult tutor but I think some middle school students might be very good tutors with supervision, for those who are younger.
I personally feel our problem is related to not actually putting into action some of the great ideas out there. At both a City and a Public School level we seem to talk things to death and then years later still be at the same lack of progress. Teachers, Administration and Parents need to be less fearful of change, all too often something that doesn’t really work very well is stuck with because “that’s the way it’s done”. Parents need to be more involved but it is first up to the teachers and the school administrators to make the school welcoming, I’ll never forget the one time I walked around my daughter’s school for over an hour trying to find one of the buzzers that would work so they would unlock the door…I didn’t feel very welcome…
August 15th, 2007 at 10:04 pmFord Cauffiel put together a program called SOS. He has tried to work at the district level but was rebuffed numerous times. SOS is a program that has been successful and it hires middle school kids to tutor elementary kids. It gives the older kids some money, self esteem and a way to reinforce what they learned. It gives the younger kids the help they need, provides an older role model for them that they can more easily relate to, and it is effective.
Lisa you are so right – we have a plethora of great ideas, the district has put together some good plans, but still we can’t find what it takes to get it done!
August 15th, 2007 at 10:12 pmSteven, it’s been quite a few years since those two were in middle school but the description of SOS is exactly what Springfield offered and what the benefits were to both tutor and student.
I think we just have to keep looking at what has worked for other schools and districts and see what we can duplicate, and actually do it, for some of our schools it would be really hard to imagine how trying something new could make anything worse, there are successful urban school districts out there, so it is possible but we also have to first create a spirit of cooperation, I know it’s been over-done but it really does take a village to raise a child and we don’t have that feeling of community for TPS as a whole and at all of our schools that seems to be what some of the others who have been successful have.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:23 pmStatewide test scores stagnating
By Shirley Dang, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 08/16/2007 02:36:16 AM PDT
Eight years after California ushered in a new era of school accountability, statewide gains in math and English have come to a virtual standstill, according to 2007 test scores released Wednesday by the state Department of Education.
Statewide, test scores have stagnated. In math, 41 percent of students earned marks of proficient or better, the same as last year. In English, the number inched up by one percentage point to 43 percent.
“We do see this year a leveling off of test scores,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of schools, during a press conference. “This is not real surprising given the gains in our early years.”
In 1999, California unveiled the Standardized Testing and Reporting program, or STAR, to measure student success by the numbers. Today, more than 1 million of the state’s students in grades 2 through 11 take a battery of exams across multiple subjects. The state and federal government use the English and math scores to monitor schools and districts and mete out penalties if they fail to make the grade.
At the beginning of the accountability movement California improved its scores, much like other states marching to the beat of test-driven school reform.
However growth has slowed here and nationwide, said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at University of California, Berkeley, and author of a recent study about the leveling off of test scores around the country. The stagnation in rising achievement shows the challenge of sustained educational progress that politicians call so vital to the future global economy.
“We’re seeing that kids are hitting this plateau around the country,” Fuller said. “After that success, the question is how do we move them to a higher level.”
California categorizes student scores into five different tiers: far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. The state Board of Education defines the achievement target as proficient or above.
In the Livermore school district, Marylin Avenue Elementary showed gains in math and English after several years of decline. Some of the greatest success came in second grade, where the number of proficient Latino students jumped from 4 percent to 34 percent in language arts. But in fourth grade, comparable numbers for economically disadvantaged students dropped from 31 percent to 20 percent.
Under the No Child Left Behind law, schools and districts must pass a certain amount of students in math and English or face federal sanctions. In 2007, California elementary schools needed 24.4 percent of students in English and 26.5 percent in math to score proficient or advanced to pass federal muster.
The bar continually rises, and by 2013-14 schools are expected to have 100 percent of their students score at grade level under the law.
The high hurdle means that many more schools in California and around the country will eventually fall subject to federal monitoring and penalties even though they may have improved their test scores.
That is one thing Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, chairman of the House Labor and Education Committee, hopes to change as the federal law goes up for reapproval in Congress. Under his proposal, the federal government would recognize significant gains in test scores as one way to meet federal standards and avoid penalties.
“I think people believe that’s a fairer and more accurate picture of what’s going on in those schools,” Miller said.
Contact Shirley Dang at 925-977-8418 or sdang@bayareanewsgroup.com.
August 16th, 2007 at 7:27 amI agree with what Darlene Fisher is saying. I have followed her on the Board, and felt she is the most dedicated to providing. I attended a couple of Board meetings, and saw firsthand how she was systematically slapped down by the 2 cohorts. I read all of the above comments with much interest, and learned something. It all boils down to — it’s time for a change. Vote in Meyers and Catlin to join Fisher. Then maybe the students will have a chance. I’m not into the teachers, because I believe their union is a big part of the problem.
September 15th, 2007 at 3:25 am