I think one of the problems has been the leadership of the district and the school but I have written about that many times. They have had another serious problem for the last few years too and that’s the state has been at Jackson High for years calling the shots.
When a school gets on the intervene list or priority list or whatever they are calling it this week the scrutiny from the state becomes stifling. The state puts down mandate after mandate about how teachers have to set up their classroom, their boards, their lesson plans, teach etc, et al, heck I bet there is a desk configuration too and do you know what all this has accomplished? Nothing, the state has been there for years and the level of achievement at Jackson high school has held steady. Now the state is threatening to close Jackson, which is mind boggling if you think about it because Jackson has been doing what the state has told them to do for years. Doesn’t the state have to share some of the responsibility?
Now you might say what about Forrest and Ribault, the state has been in those schools and they have managed some pretty impressive gains. Well at Forrest they got rid of 300 kids from one year to the next and when you get rid of your 300 lowest achieving kids your grade is bound to improve. Ribault on the other hand had a principal who supported and empowered his staff and I personally believe that led to that schools turn around.
Hmm, maybe we should follow his lead. In the education world we call something that is successful that best practices, unfortunately here in the district we rarely use best practices and the state never does and we wonder why Jackson has been in trouble.
Chris Guerrieri
Stake Holder
As a candidate for District 5, it might be more useful to detail the year-by-year interventions employed to increase student achievement at Raines High School and how those strategies fared. Clearly the focus of the media coverage for schools is on high schools and investigating Raines could be a powerful example for you and for your campaign in the district. How many teachers have been there through all of the past ten years? What strategies have they found helpful? what are the worst changes in their minds? Are there positive signs coming from the elementary and middle schools that feed into Raines? What would a successful turnaround look like to you? Would it be based on FCAT measures? Attendance numbers? Referrals? School climate surveys?
ReplyDeleteAlso, did Forrest really get rid of its lowest-achieving 300 students? Would there not be a number of people who complained that Forrest lost its best 300 students when new school opportunities became available?
I know you are a passionate advocate for education and education reform and not a reporter, but the case for Jackson High School might be more compelling with some hard facts and detailed analysis. What reforms were implemented in which years? What were the FCAT numbers for each year? What does the administrative/leadership organizational chart look like there? How many state or local or other officials are there daily or weekly? I think a lot of us think we know what is happening in these schools or what is being done to assist the students, but I am pretty sure I don't really know if it's a lot of talk or if real work is being done.