If the truth were told: needy schools

It’s unfortunate but you really have to take any message from 1701 Prudential drive, the school board building, and read between the lines. Patricia Willis’s letter about needy schools is no different.

In her very first paragraph she talks about allowing any student to achieve regardless of the school they attend. Well quite frankly this isn’t the case as kids at some schools have big advantages over kids at other schools. The four dedicated magnet schools play by different rules than the neighborhood schools do. Not only do you get in them through a lottery, which means some students are prohibbitted from going to them, but they have curriculums that the children who go there specifically applied for, thus greatly increasing their buy in, and children who misbehave or don’t maintain a 2.0 grade point average don’t last long. On the other hand neighborhood schools are required to educate whatever child shows up, regardless of desire, ability or behavior and often don’t have the curriculum choices that many children would like.

Mrs. Willis is correct when she writes that turn around schools often receive extra resources though at the same time they are perhaps missing out on perhaps the most important resource possible and that’s people. Opportunity scholarships and magnet schools have siphoned away many of the most involved families as well as students who would serve as leaders and examples for other students.

Then her message gets a little convoluted. One might think when she wrote, schools are able to provide additional professional development days at the start of the school year; before and after school tutoring; Saturday school; reading, math and instructional coaches; volunteer liaisons; and business and faith-based partners, that those things are just reserved for the turn around schools. In actuality all schools take advantage of many of those things and as far as I can tell the struggling schools don’t receive a lions share of those resources.

She then further muddies the waters when she says, a wide range of electives and specialized courses is available throughout the district. Where this is true on the district level, though the arts are often the first thing to be cut, it isn’t necessarily true at turn around schools. Due to curriculum requirements many of the students at the struggling schools are required to take remedial classes like read 180 and intensive math and these take the place of many electives. At my school the state recently required us to hire four new reading teachers. The teachers cut were all elective positions including an art teacher who had been there for fifteen years.

What she wrote next may have been accurate though at the same time I found it confusing. She writes that; Beginning this 2010-2011 school year, the district has implemented a process that will ensure accessibility to acceleration programs in all high schools throughout the district. If this is the case then why do we have academic magnet schools? What's the point of having specialized magnet schools if the students can get the same programs every where? Can it be because the district wants to have schools that have advantages over others?

She finished by talking about how the district remains, committed to our vision that every student will graduate from Duval County public schools with the knowledge and skills to be successful in post-secondary education and/or the workforce. It would have been more honest if she wrote, the district is committed to the same failed policies that have led us to the abyss. After all friends, in her letter she was basically saying everything is fine. Ask yourself, do you think everything is fine?

The letter writer that Mrs. Willis seeks to debunk was wrong in implying that children at the turn around schools don’t have much in the ways of resources, though Mrs. Willis was wrong or misleading on a few points as well. The truth is the turn around schools have some of the greatest resources the district offers and that’s a cadre of dedicated teachers who show up day in and day out facing many trials and tribulations. They often succeed in making a difference in the lives of their children despite the many obstacles that are put in their way.

It’s all Magnet Schools Fault

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.

Duped

Generations of African Americans were robbed of their rights and a chance of a decent education here in Jacksonville and that’s not hyperbole that’s just how it was. Exacerbating matters, our cities leaders were resistant to change even as the writing appeared on the wall during the civil rights movement of the sixties. It was kicking and screaming that they agreed to bussing in 1971 when the best solution would have been to provide the proper resources to all the schools regardless of what side of town they were in. Though I can imagine any trepidation the leaders of the black community may have had if that promise would have come through after all they were the recipients of the systematic abuse and discrimination. Unfortunately bussing didn’t work as well as well as some would have hoped.

Children were forced to travel many miles from their homes to unfamiliar parts of town when there was often a neighborhood school close by. African American opponents believed it created problems with discipline and eroded away the cohesiveness of neighborhoods. White opponents claimed their children were being sent to dangerous neighborhoods. Both groups thought it hurt parental involvement and extra-curricular activities and some people think it worsened the problems of economic and racial segregation by encouraging white flight (white families moving to suburbs). It would be disingenuous of me to blame all these problems on the school district because bussing was the nations plan and like the rest of the nation Duval County gave it the old college try.

The next thing the Duval County School District tried was the creation of magnet schools to be located in predominantly African American areas of town. They thought specialized programs could recruit whites to voluntarily travel out of their neighborhoods and they were right. The magnet schools have been an amazing success that at the same time created a whole new set of problems.

They have created a two-tiered system of education of have and have not’s. And however the school board twists the facts they are basically glorified private schools financed by the tax payers dime. Where your students go to school in Jacksonville partly determines what type of education they receive and in a public school system that should be unacceptable. But worse than that the school board has come to believe the hype generated by the academic magnet schools and thinks they can duplicate that success at all the schools and the reality is they can’t, though the school board keeps on trying.

Which begs the question, why do we have academic magnet schools if the graduation requirements such as taking and passing algebra II are the same at all schools. Where preparing every student for college is a laudable goal, it’s also a completely unrealistic goal. Not every child is interested in going to college but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stimulate their growth, interests and needs too.

The county has practically eliminated the teaching of trades and skills despite the fact that’s a lot closer to what many students want to do and are interested in. Plumbers, electricians, mechanics, carpenters, chefs, cosmetologists and day care workers will never be outsourced to India and many of those professions make as much if not more than professions that require college degrees. Furthermore many of the kids that do go to college will get liberal arts degrees and why don’t we cater to them as well instead of just catering to the math/science crowd.

Somewhere along the way the School Board also initiated an unwritten with a wink and a nod policy of social promotions. If you want proof of this look at the eleven of nineteen failing or turnaround high schools. Children didn’t arrive there and suddenly forget what they had learned. On the contrary they never learned it and were pushed along. I don’t blame elementary and middle school teachers for this. It’s gotten so difficult to fail children and often teachers are called to the mat if they try and do so. Because of this some teachers have told me the C is the new F. The thing is once they get to high school there is nowhere else to promote them to and they are forced to sink or swim with a lot of sinking going on. Social promotions have in effect dumbed down the district, unless of course you are attending one of the academic magnet schools.

If you don’t daily see the frustration on lost children’s faces you might be able to get a sense of the reasoning behind it. Children that fail are more prone to drop out, though what the powers-that-be didn’t take into account was children that have fallen behind don’t always catch up, in fact it’s often the opposite that happens and they fall farther and farther behind.

At the same time the school board started their push to prepare every student for college or what I like to call put every peg regardless of shape into a round hole, they also went soft with discipline too. Like with so many other things they have done I can recognize there may have been some noble reasoning behind it. There was a whole movement afoot for a while, which called for a kinder gentler approach to discipline that the county got behind, unfortunately the county got that wrong as well and have nearly gutted discipline as a result. Many teachers have stopped writing kids up preferring the toxic learning environment rather than being called to the mat for having dared written a referral or have the children receive no consequences for their actions. It’s a waste of my time they often say. Furthermore it doesn’t help that Principal’s evaluations are party determined by how many children they suspend. That effectively takes a tool out of their box when it comes to discipline.

Short of selling drugs or beating up a school board employee it is nearly impossible to remove a child from a school even if they are a constant discipline problem and are failing all their classes. These children often hijack the learning environment and not only stop teachers from doing their job but other students from learning as well. And if you were wondering where civility went to, well you won’t find it at most schools because it’s no longer required. Instead of just preparing children for college, I thought schools had a higher calling and that was to prepare children to be good and productive citizens.

Each of the School Boards quick fixes resulted in even more serious problems. And that’s the problem; they are trying to come up with quick fixes which in some cases are flat out unrealistic as well. They are doing this instead of sitting down and coming up with a cohesive plan that looks at the long term ramifications. Where there are so many students who have been successful despite the school board at the same time the school board has contributed to an ever growing band of students who lack manners and basic skills. Time after time the school board has been filled with good intentions that have gone awry and we all know what is paved with good intentions. I don’t think we as a city can take many more of them