St. Louis Public Schools need a clean sweep

It is inconceivable while, over the past few years, the St. Louis Public School District has closed 25 schools,yanking the heart right out of many neighborhoods (see School closings "take the heart" out of urban neighborhoods) that SLPS has also invested over $600,000 in the ludicrous Adequacy Trial trying to sue Missouri taxpayers for more money! While the school boards and educrats in the SLPS would have you believe that more money would fix the problem, in fact, the opposite is true. Stanford Fellow and nationally lauded economics expert extraordinaire, Dr.Eric Hannushek, said recently at a presentation at St. Louis University:

"Now this is where most of the economists in the room start getting a little bit squeamish, at the idea that you develop an incentive system that says: If you fail you get more, and the more you fail the more you get. And if you succeed, you get less."

As long as SLPS remains in the adequacy trial, they continue to commit education dollars that should be spent in classrooms. People in the city should call for more withdraw. Truly people in the city need a clean sweep of their public schools. How long will they continue to cry 'poor' when they are the TOP spenders in the COUNTRY~that's right, in the entire United States of America, SLPS has among the highest per pupil spending and they are actually suing us for more money?

Fair Questions

Here's an interesting discussion on school choice I happened across...One person who supports the idea of choice in schools. One parent likes an academic approach that another one dislikes~all for different reasons.

I think what the mom is complaining about is this idiotic "6 Trait" writing style fad. I looked at writing curricula to use in our family's homeschool and 99% of what I saw was garbage.

Another, this:

Your daughter may be one of those who have good expressive language and clear and organized thinking to start with.

Unfortunately what I see is most children being encouraged to "express themselves" and having absolutely no clue how to go about writing paragraphs (even sentences) in an organized and coherent way. Frameworks like Step Up to Writing, 6 Traits or Four Square Writing allow them to get a grip on a formula (yes, it is a formula) to produce an acceptable result. As with other skills --writing poems in various formats, playing certain kinds of music -- 3-part inventions, fugues, whatever -- mastery of component skills can lead individuals to a degree of proficiency that ultimately enables them to find their own unique voice and style.

Parents know their children better than any teacher or school system could. Parents can and should have the right to choose on behalf of their children the best academic environment. Whether it's a private school, a public, a charter, a virtual school, home schooling~If a parent does not see the match for a child at a school in their zip code, shouldn't they make the better choice? Shouldn't they still have access to the tax dollars they fed into the system? Shouldn't the system serve the parents instead of the government?

I wanna be superintendent, too!

I would like to apply for the superintendant's job in Columbia Public Schools, Hazelwood, North Kansas City, Springfield.... If I could have a job like that, I would clear $200,000.00 annually plus bountiful other benefits and the public would have a hard time knowing quite how much I make and where all the money I'm tossing around on behalf of 'education' is going. I wouldn't be held accountable when my school district's children fail to reach academic achievement standards because I can blame the problems on the state's lack of funding and I could even spend educational dollars on the frivolous appeal of the adequacy trial suing the MO taxpayers for more money (an unlikely successful appeal means a $billion tax hike for MO) to fund me and my huge salary~that would keep my opposition busy and make people want to give me more money...

Then, since school districts, boards, DESE, etc. are not really required to fully disclose all of their expenditures of taxpayers' dollars, I won't really have to listen to those pesky, whining parents who complain that they are not getting the services they need (and are entitled to) out of my school~Really! Those parents don't know as well as I would how best to keep this system running and where to place their child~REALLY...we NEED those tax dollars we get off each kid! I can also count on the support of the teachers unions and the school boards to maintain my position. I'll just have to make sure to keep those teachers busy with forms and stuff..

Now, where do I send my resume?!

The Earser, Please

My sister has three kids. The oldest, Ethan, is a bright boy currently in first grade. Unfortunately, for him, the school that he was to attend was just barely meeting educational standards, with teachers aiming for the middle and barely keeping their classes under control. Because of an imaginary line passing through Ethan’s neighborhood, my sister was told Ethan would have to attend the school that was both further from her house and, for the most part, failing. This, of course, upset my sister, and rightfully so. But since she and her husband didn’t have the money to send Ethan to a private school, there weren’t really any options. She had no choice.

Of course the elementary school that was just down the street, less than a mile from their house, well it was doing wonderfully. Filled with engaged teachers and controlled classrooms, students excelled and exceeded state educational standards. But despite my sister’s reasonable attempts to get her son into the school he deserved, the school system said no. Of course, this was not the right answer. My sister was not going to just passively let Ethan’s right to a good education be thwarted.

Fortunately, for Ethan, his dad’s sister happened to live on the “right” side of the imaginary line. So my sister figured out a way to send Ethan to the better school. She signed over power-of-attorney to her sister-in-law, so that Ethan could attend the best school.

Luckily, my sister and her husband’s sister get along marvelously, so signing over power-of-attorney was really just a formality. Decisions regarding Ethan were still made by his mom. It is, however, unlucky for those millions of kids whom parents don’t have that option.

Millions of kids are affected by these imaginary lines daily. I believe it is time for the lines to be erased.

Choice does work for schools

This opinion piece in The Register Guard caught my attention. The author does a great job of saying what I think. Here is a bit of it...

Why choice? No particular school can possibly meet the diverse needs of all children. To force a child to attend a school that is a poor fit is bad public policy. Having schools that fit children’s needs is important, as is balancing this with diversity and equity.

When a school district introduces magnet schools, parents’ satisfaction increases because they can find a program that better suits their educational preferences. Neighborhood schools likely will need program modifications to remain attractive to parents, and the quality of schools in the entire system improves as a result.

The author goes over the choice program in Oregon. I encourage all readers to read the rest of the article here. The public school system needs help. People need to be open to the idea of change; the schools are not doing well and something needs to happen. For some reason, various unions and school boards like to claim choice is a horrible idea. Their accusations are misleading and could be devastating of all people believe them.

It truly is bad policy to make children attend schools that do not work for them. Shouldn't every child get access to schooling that is actually effective? Bottom line is that something needs to change, for the sake of all the children.

Giant Steps forward

February 13th was a great day in the Capital building in Jefferson City. The House and Senate hearings, packed with people displaying bright red "Have a Heart" stickers, discussed special education tax scholarships. There were dozens of testimony for and against the bills, however I would personally like to add the testimonies for the bills were amazing. Parents told stories of their children that evoked tear-filled eyes in the audience. Basically, they showed how the current system was not working for all the special needs children and something needed to be done. The opponents of the bills gave their testimonies, however, they seemed to be beating a dead horse with their reasoning. While many of the testimonies were provoking, there was also the argument by Dave Roland, of the Show-Me Institute. The Show-Me Institute published Dave's testimony he gave during the Senate hearing. It reflects the reasoning behind why such a program would benefit Missouri, how the program would work, and why it does not go against the constitution. Dave Roland had this to say in his show-me daily blog:

The hearings yesterday included moving testimony from parents who have faced (and, in some cases, overcome) enormous obstacles in trying to help their children, as well as testimony from a number of parents, educators, and administrators opposed to changing the status quo. Unfortunately, this morning's news reports missed the opportunity to note that some of the points raised by those opposing the bills were clearly and thoroughly debunked. Articles in the Southeast Missourian and the Post-Dispatch try to present a relatively balanced picture of the issues, as presented at the Senate committee's hearing. Both of these articles, and the one posted at Missourinet, point out concerns raised by some educators that the programs would take money away from public schools — but (as conversations at the House committee hearing made absolutely plain) it would be impossible for the tax credit bills, as written, to divert any money away from the state's educational funding formula. If the special needs tax credit program is adopted, public schools will receive exactly the same level of funding as they would without the program.

More information on the hearing can be seen in this article as well.

The House committee voted last night and it was overwhelming in favor of it. Now, it will head to the House floor for further debate.

This is a huge step in helping the special needs children of Missouri. Let's hope it keeps going in the right direction.

Engage all types of learning

Edudiva has two recent posts: one a youtube video of students asking some big questions about the relevancy of non-digitally based education in a digital age. I’ve always been a big advocate for more visual and hands-on learning options for students. My younger brother is very gifted, but never excelled at school because our public high school, like many others, is rooted in reading and retaining that information. In visually-oriented and hands-on activities, however, he excelled. He became very interested in culinary arts I think primarily because it was something he could do, and pick up by watching someone else do it, which is the way he retains information best. I’m the reader of the family, so that never bothered me. Once in Physics class as a senior, we had a “Rube Goldberg” project in which we were asked to draw a circle with a certain diameter and incorporate all simple machines. My brother and I sat in a Chinese restaurant after church one day and in an hour had worked out, together, a diagram of what we could do (my brother was still in Middle School at the time). I wonder how many other students would excel if they had a chance at a more visual and hands-on type of instruction.

The second post was about the new KIPP charter schools and their partnership with Washington University in St. Louis. Edudiva is hopeful that Wash U will be an advocate and an active participant as a charter school sponsor, and we can expect a lot of good research and good practices to come out of that relationship. It has become clear to me over the years that more choice is not only good in terms of community impact and the benefits it can have on a group of students, but also on a personal, individual student level. Meeting the individual needs of students is the only way to make a real difference on a population of students, and offering them more choices makes having an individual education possible. Advocates against choice and finding the most appropriate education for each child, be it public, charter, private, virtual or homeschooling, often cite the fact that only public schools are held to testing standards. While that is patently false, in that the only difference is that the state (versus parents or sponsoring entities) holds them accountable, those detractors fail to see state standards as the double-edged sword that they are. A state standard and curriculum has the benefit of setting benchmarks of improvement and success, but it also necessitates a one-size-fits-all education mandate. That leaves many children behind, struggling in classes they might be able to succeed in given different techniques. What’s more, we’re living in a society where the diversity of the job market makes diversity in education and learning styles more and more requisite.

This adjustment requires what I’d like to call a ‘pervasive engagement’; from parents, teachers, administrators, the community, business and civic leaders, universities and legislators. It means being responsive to the needs of individuals.