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Monday, April 2, 2012

How to Save Duval's Schools (rough draft)

I write about education issues a lot but a recent commenter on my work said I am pretty good at pointing out things that were wrong but I am a little light on solutions. I thought I was pretty good at putting ideas out there but if they thought differently let me clear that up.

The first thing I would do is start a come home campaign. There are literally thousands and thousands of thousands of children who use friends or relatives addresses to attend schools in neighboring counties, going to fly by night charter and private schools housed in strip malls or being home schooled because their parents are afraid to send them to the neighborhood schools here in Jacksonville. I also know several couples that would prefer to live in other counties despite long communities for the sake of their children’s education.

I would try and get those kids back and I would do so by convincing them and their families that those schools would become academically rigorous and safe schools to attend.

The next thing I would do is make our schools safe and academically rigorous schools to attend.

I would tell the teachers that I trusted them and end arbitrary amounts of students they could or could not fail. I would have them teach the material and make it rigorous, which would mean that if somebody passed their class it was because they earned it and not because a teacher gave them a grade or pushed them through. I would tell the teachers they could go as slow as they felt their kids needed, they could reteach if necessary and that the pacing guide was a suggestion, nobody was going to get in trouble for being more than five days behind. After a few weeks I would move kids around and have groups that were quickly moving through the material and groups that needed extra time.

Then at the same time I would make sure the teachers and students had good learning environments. Rudeness, disrespect and violations of the code of conduct would not be tolerated and consequences would be swift and strict. If you came to learn you would have nothing to be afraid of. If you came to cut up or steal learning time from your peers or teachers then you would have a tough time. The adults not the children would be running the schools.

There is no reason to dismantle the staffs but in my system everybody would be teaching. Academic coaches would have nearly full loads and even assistant principals would be expected to teach a class too. It would be all hands on deck and this would stop admins and psuedo admins from losing touch with the jobs that teachers do. It would also help keep classes smaller and hopefully allow us to have some electives.

Teachers would still have to be prepared to work long hours. However I am not worried about volumes of data notebooks, two-page lesson plans and complicated board configurations. Put up a daily agenda and then go. Spend the time you have been doing those things the last few years figuring out how to connect with the kids and keeping the families involved. I would want my principals and A.P.s in the classrooms looking for quality instruction not word walls.

Then not only would I instruct my teachers not to teach to the F-Cat but I would tell them not to even mention it. About a week before it was taken the principals could have an assembly to discuss its importance and that would be it.

Kids should have six one-hour periods a day, with no A/B block. 90 minutes is way to long for many of our kids and teachers. If the students had class everyday I believe the transfer of knowledge would happen quicker. With A/B blocks, weekends, holidays and absences can lead to four, five and sometimes six days between class meetings.

After the first nine weeks kids failing a class would be required, not asked if they wanted to, to stay after school for tutoring.

Every student would have at least one elective each day so they could have a safe spot in their schedule. I would want the schools at a minimum to have art, graphics, shop, home economics, music/band, newspaper, yearbook, creative writing and drama.

We should have a repeat offender rule where the parents of kids who get multiple referrals are required to come spend the day.
There would be a zero tolerance policy for fighting and bullying. Kids that did so would be sent to alternative schools.

I would like to ban cell phones and high heels because neither are necessary for learning.

There needs to be several different curriculums that serve more of the kids needs including a skills acquisition program for kids not interested in college who would like to learn a trade.

Real summer school classes not grade recovery would be offered, where kids could get extra help, get ahead or make up credits.

We would get rid of grade recovery for children who didn't come, made no efort or misbehaved. Student accountability would be returned to our schools because kids need to learn a work ethic and that there are consequences for behavior.

We need to completely redo the way we do AP classes. It's a mess and could be much more effective.

We need to have social workers and mental health counselors on our campuses. The social workers could provide wrap around services and the counselors could try and get to the root of some of the kids problems. Why kids do poorly in school often has nothing to do with school.

We should have monthly meetings with the community and businesses to discuss education issues and get their input. I would look for internships and mentors under every rock.

Friends we could turn things around if we had the will and a plan. The school board has neighter.

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