Why do we have crime in our streets: magnet schools. Why are so many of our schools failing: magnet schools. Why are our graduation rates abysmal: magnet schools. Why can’t Jacksonville attract big businesses: magnet schools.
Swine flu, the Mayan “end of the world” calendar, your wife made the casserole you hate; it’s all magnet schools fault. I am at a loss to explain why we haven’t grabbed our pitchforks, lit some torches and headed down to the nearest one to put these artificial monstrosities out of our misery.
I exaggerate just a bit and I do so because in actuality I think the concept of magnet schools is a good one. If we had a school system that was thriving I think they would be a noble luxury, unfortunately our school district is not thriving, it’s languishing and despite the school boards recent pat on the back that they reached some goals they set for themselves, things seem dark for so many of our children.
Just so there is no mistake, I am not talking about magnet programs at neighborhood schools, nor am I talking about the Douglas Anderson School of the arts and the Frank Peterson Academy of Technology. Where I think some things about those schools are unfair, they are basically skills center where children can go learn about things they are interested in.
No I am talking about Stanton and Paxon the jewels of the Duval County school system, nationally ranked as some of the best of the schools around. Yes that’s whom I am talking about, and make no mistake despite all their accolades and all the powerful statistics that the district can muster that support their existence; they are a big part of the problem.
I recently participated on a panel discussion about magnet schools. On the pro magnet school side there was a principal of one, the counties director of magnet schools, the counties director of business operations, and two parents whose children attend magnet schools the opposing side, me, just me. I didn’t quite feel like Custard riding into the little big horn, but it was close.
They came at me with how it takes a lottery to get in, they didn’t mention that those two schools actively recruit the best middle schoolers to go there, and they also didn’t mention that it’s just the children of parents who apply that get to be considered. So in reality it is a lottery, just a lottery for a select few.
They said they don’t get extra resources, and that’s true they might not get extra money from the county, that is if you don’t include the extra money we spend on busses to get children there. They do however have a set of parents that other schools would love to have. Many are committed and helpful; they donate both their time and money. It’s just not the kids being siphoned away from the neighborhood schools to the magnet schools it’s their involved families as well
They said they handle academic issues the same way they are handled at the neighborhood school and that is any child drops below a 2.0 they get special help and have a semester to bring it up, before they are reassigned. (Below a 2.0!?! Really!?!) That’s my entire third period class. That’s a forth of the neighborhood school I teach at. Where should we start sending the kids that don’t turn it around? Oh that’s right we are obligated to teach everybody that comes through our doors regardless of grades.
They said they handle discipline the same way it’s handled at the neighborhood school. How many kids do they have that don’t want to be there? How many kids do they have that don’t care about academics? How many kids do they have that haven’t given one thought to the future beyond what they are going to do in the next day or so. I bet the answer is not many. Now ask the same questions about neighborhood schools and the answers would be a lot more than you might think.
They said it’s the parent’s fault and that the district can’t be held responsible if they don’t apply, to which I responded why couldn’t teachers make recommendations, is it because it we would somehow upset the delicate balance they have created?
Blaming the parents for a child’s behavior, a child’s academics and using it as an out to explain why magnet schools are fair, are all reasonable arguments, there are also tired and lazy arguments. It’s apparent that a significant amount of families for whatever reason are abdicating their responsibilities, but crime in our streets being committed by young people, the high drop out rates, and low graduation rates tell me it’s time we as a society stepped up and filled the void. If the parents aren’t going to do it, and the schools is not going to do it, then who is going to do it? It’s only the future of our children and our city that is at stake.
The bottom line is, what school you attend shouldn’t determine your fate. All schools should be safe intuitions of learning and all students and teachers deserve to have the resources they need to be successful. Having Stanton and Paxon even though they just take in a combined few thousand students makes that impossible. It makes the whole system unfair.
I remember thinking as they battered my opinions one after another, is this how you justify things, do these half truths help you sleep better at night, do they mitigate the fact we are leaving thousands of children behind, or are you just mouth pieces of the school board ho celebrate every thing written about the magnet schools and sweep under the rug everything written about our failing schools. The leadership in the county is okay with the two tiered system of education we have created and they are all right with the generation of have knots woefully prepared for life, that we are putting out into the streets. I am not, and I hope you aren’t either.
Despite all this I don’t think we should get rid of the magnet schools, we should just have different ones. I just think we should have magnet schools for the sixth grader that can’t read, the twelfth grader who is not going to graduate with a regular diploma because they can’t pass the f-cat and the capable special education student who with accommodations and modifications could graduate with a standard diploma. In short we should have magnet schools for kids who need extra help and services to become successful, not magnet schools for children who most likely would be successful anywhere they attended and that includes their neighborhood schools too.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have a few questions in response to your entry. First, if we aren't going to reward the students with parents looking out for their interests, will we force all parents to register for the magnet lottery? Will any parents be able to opt out? What about with your proposed magnet programs? If I don't want my illiterate sixth grader to attend another school, will she be forced to? Would you support Paxon and Stanton being redesignated as Gifted and Talented magnet schools? Gifted and Talented students are required to receive additional services from the state. Or do you believe that Gifted and Talented students would "be successful anywhere they attended?" I am sure your ESE students would be excited to hear that you don't believe in the philosophy that underlies their special classes. I mean, they would probably do the same in whatever section of science they were in, right? Is the culture that has been created at Paxon and Stanton of so little value that you would be willing to see it dismantled on the hope that neighborhood schools would improve? Do you think that all of these students would be best served by returning to their neighborhood schools? Do you think that the money you worry about could best be saved by not duplicating services at neighborhood schools and use economies of scale by expanding magnet offerings at Paxon and Stanton? Do you think that any number of these students when faced with the prospect of leaving their school of choice may enter actual private schools and further exacerbate the drop in student numbers you have bemoaned in previous posts? Does the new medical magnet and college preparatory focus at Darnell-Cookman fall more in line with your vision for a "good" magnet or "fake private school" magnet concept? If the enrollment numbers show that not all schools share equally with Paxon and Stanton, will you be satisfied with improving the "A" status of a school like Mandarin while not improving the "F" status of Andrew Jackson? The magnet high concept has been in town for almost three decades. Were the other schools great before then or did we just not know how bad they were before FCAT testing? Would you just prefer that Paxon and Stanton not exist or just not be touted as good schools so frequently?
Thank you for caring about education.
These are all great questions and comments and I feel your frustration, furthermore if I had a kid in high school I would want them to attend one of those two schools and not because I think the staffs are better but because there kids want to be learn and that is something that isn't as common as I would like at my school.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I think, I think we should have Stantons and Paxons but we to should have schools that serve the needs of all our children, we need to reintroduce the trades and skills and arts and push those things instead of the one size fits all curriculum we have now.
However here is the rub, where I think we disagree. I believe we should start at the bottom with those kids that need the most help and work are way up. In a public school setting I don't think where you go should determine the level of education you get and that’s what we have here, have and have not schools.
The reality is that we are not starting from scratch. Those schools are already in place. I disagree that kids at the bottom need the most help. They need a different type of help. It may be more intensive and targeted for basic skill development, but kids at the top need to be challenged too. If we inverted the magnet model to fit your plan, wouldn't you be creating your two tiers in reverse? Couldn't I come out and say that it wasn't fair that we were spending all of this money on really low level students and that that wasn't fair for average and advanced students that might want to take college-level curriculum classes? We agree that the level of instruction should not be different, but I fail to see how the existence of Paxon and Stanton affects the level of instruction at Ed White or any other high school in town. Your challenges may or may not be the same in teaching the same classes at the two schools, but the attitude, materials, and training are not dependent on Paxon's or Stanton's population of students or teachers. I am not opposed to creating new models of magnet programs and I don't know that DCPS would reject them out of hand, but the reality remains that you seem to begrudge two high schools that have developed a plan for curriculum and instruction and have succeeded with the implementation of that plan. If the two Academies of Technology continue to improve perhaps there would be a need for one or two more schools that model their curriculum after those schools, but I don't suppose you will feel like DCPS is only training a workforce of skilled laborers for the elite, will you? You constantly harp on the wrongheadedness of the "one-size-fits-all" curriculum, but you do not seem to accept that the curriculum of those schools fits what most of the students at Paxon and Stanton are looking for. Why would we take that away from them? It's time to find a new target. What will we do to improve the other schools? If you need to rebrand Ed White, then do it. If you have a model for improvement that is working, then stick with it. If your administration is too spineless or ineffective to know what they want, then speak out about it, but I think it's pretty weak to hope that Paxon and Stanton will shut down and that those students and teachers will make it all better for you. I know you say that that is not your intent and that you only are looking out for the students you feel are neglected. All I am reminding you of is this...we both want all students to be taught as well as possible. I just want all students to be considered, too. Even the smart ones.
ReplyDeleteAgain I hear you and I don't disagree with you. In a better world we would have a lot of different schools that served a lot of different children's needs and desires. But Again I think we need to help the kids that need it the most rather than those who will for the most part be succesful anywhere. Is that fair? No and I am not going to pretend it is but I think it would do the most good with the limited resources we have.
ReplyDeleteAs far as targets though check out my blog, I think, I am hitting more than a few and am trying to spread it around.
What need is currently going unmet with the kids that need it most? School funding is based on student numbers with extra dollars allocated for special needs. Your own school, as you have pointed out, is taking part in a grant with addditional monies attached to improve student achievement. You and I are in agreement that all of the focus is, ridiculously, on the minute details of the process and is not really about results or else no one would care about your board configuration if the scores were good, but that's not what you and I were talking about, is it? I know you have multiple targets for the problems with the schools in the county. I just think that the "problem" of magnet schools, the "brain drain," the siphoning of resources, etc. are just convenient excuses to deflect attention away from the real problems at other schools. Let's not pretend that most schools wouldn't welcome these former magnet school students in with open arms and then promptly schedule them into classes that made them a school within a school. All that would do is mask the problem that already exists for the rest of the school population.
ReplyDeleteWe need to have curriculums that the kids at all schools can benefit from. We need to reintroduce trades and skils and emphasise the arts as much as we do math and science.
ReplyDeleteDo you know what the difference in curriculum is between the top student at Stanton who wants to be a doctor or engineer and the marginaly interest student at ed white who thinks he might want to drive a truck but he's not sure and school is drudgery? There is none, they have to take the same classes to graduate. where's my kids truck driving school? Why are we so concerned with the top ten percent when the bottom 90 lanquish, there needs and desires going unserviced.
Nothing you have said is wrong I just beleive there is a different group we should aim our resources to.
I don't really think the answer is to ask a teenager if he would rather drive trucks during 2nd period or do the AP Chemistry lab. Sure, truckdriving would be a great elective if you had the room...or the trucks, but is that really the best use of the school day? I am sympathetic to the argument that each kid does need something to look forward to and that the pendulum has swung too far in favor of AP/IB/AICE overload without any flexibility for student needs or interests. I disagree that the entire bottom 90% are going unserviced. You write frequently that there are many great things going on around town in the schools of Duval County that are not covered each day. Again, there might be too much emphasis on college-preparatory classes, but, in the past, some schools were underserving their population as far as these courses were concerned. The scheduling should be smart, but not restrictive. I do think many students may end up in trades or service jobs that do not require so many college-preparatory courses, but that does not make it wrong to expose them to these courses if there is the chance they will benefit. The difference here is that I find the philosophy correct, but I think the implementation has focused too much on making the curriculum changes rapidly rather than developing a comprehensive strategy to increase the number of AP/IB/AICE offerings strategically and based on real student interest and strengths. All students don't need to take Calculus or Statistics, but it's not wrong to expect all students will take Algebra II to graduate and will therefore be eligible to attend college.
ReplyDeleteTruck driving was just an example and don't get me wrong I am all for minimum standards, but raising the bar to far hurts as well. A math teacher buddy of mine told me that only a third of his algebra II students could pass a legitimate algebra I class. To keep up with the Paxon/Stanton kids the school board thinks should be everywhere, they made the requirements the same everywhere, unfortunately the type of kid isn't the same everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWe're destroying rigor and so many of our classes are just a shell of what they should be as we teach to the test and the pacing guide, which all but assures the teacher has to move to another subject before the last is mastered and then in the end teachers are forced to pass kids along. It's not Paxon and Stanton themselves, that our hurting the district per se, it’s the unrealistic expectation that every school can be Paxon and Stanton which has also crippled the district.
Also at my school we have level twos in A.P. classes, how ridiculous is that?!?
By the way when I was in high school i took general math II as a junior and no math as a senior and I now have multiple degrees.
Hey if you want to write a piece, magnet schools are great, I'll put it up unedited. I am looking for other teachers and concerned parties to add content to the site.
I agree that FCAT level 1s and 2s should not be enrolled in AP courses and that rigor is hurt by this practice. Clearly, the state and district have more than bought into the concept of access and equity in AP enrollment. My hope is that there will be some sanity restored to that process if and when AP, or any other college-curriculum program's, results matter. Right now the district can keep pointing to how many more tests are given and how many more tests are passed on a total basis, but since it is unlikely that the number of tests will increase significantly again any time soon, perhaps we'll start to wonder why more of the tests aren't being passed. of course, we might all still agree that level 1s and 2s in AP courses sounds good in case they could accidentally pass the test. if that's the case, at least we do it with some idea of where the numbers will be and what they would be without the open enrollment without any parameters based on fcat or psat data.
ReplyDeletewithout commenting on your math education, i think that students are expected to have taken algebra II to enroll in a state university. not saying you can't make it in this world with less, just saying that's their minimum.
i'll consider the magnet schools are great piece.