This from the Courier-Journal:
Kentucky has been awarded $56 million to help turn around its lowest-performing schools, including six in Jefferson County, with radical changes that could include replacing staff, closing or restructuring the school.
The federal school-improvement grants, announced Wednesday, represent a six-fold increase from last year — a boost funded by the federal stimulus program. They'll help 10 of Kentucky's worst-scoring schools with at least $1.5 million each over three years to implement strategies intended to turn them around.
Another 98 state schools, in slightly less dire circumstances, will get smaller amounts to be determined.
“It's a huge investment, and we've got a lot of work to do,” said Kentucky education commissioner Terry Holliday, “At some of these schools, less than 30 percent were passing 10th-grade competency requirements.”
The money, as well as recent leadership audits of the schools and districts, is part of a newly passed state law that prescribes an intervention system for the state's most chronically underperforming schools. In Louisville, they are Fern Creek, Western, Valley and Shawnee high schools, along with Frost and Western middle schools.
Auditors recently collected test data at each school, interviewed staff, observed teachers and spoke with parents and students. The results, which could be released in the coming weeks, will recommend one of four intervention options — restaffing, closing the school, hiring outside managers or replacing the school administration...
“Part of the challenge of turning around low performing schools is not having the dollars to do it. So this is important, especially in a time when schools are struggling with budgets,” said Cindy Heine, associate director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. “But if the infusion of his kind of money can't turn around these schools, they really should be closed.”
Holliday said closing schools won't be a likely option, at least initially.
Reforms that some schools have started could be considered fulfilling part of the requirements, he said. Decisions about which approach to take will be led by districts, with state oversight, he said.
Kentucky Department of Education officials said the money would be a big help. Struggling schools in years past often only got $100,000 to spark major changes from the grant. Now, they'll be getting five or six times that much each year.
“They're serious about this — they want changes. And if that means you get rid of staff, or close a school, that's what has to be done,” said Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education. “It's fairly dramatic compared to what's happened in the past.”
5 comments:
Dear Richard,
Some schools are run by stern disciplinarians and others are not. Do you think that at some of these poorest performing schools there is no school-wide discipline program? Are there any studies that see a correlation between lax school discipline and poor student achievement?
As the District PTA Pres for JCPS I had the honor of meeting with the audit committee. To sum up our conversation: parent involvement is key in ensuring a child's educational success. Certainly, for these schools, parents must be involved in the discussion, planning, and implementation of changes that may come from this audit. PTA provides FREE training to all our members about financial issues, how to run a board, how to advocate, etc. and have partnered here in Louisville with KYPIRC and Louisville Urban League to provide FREE parent leadership classes to engage the under engaged parent, particularily at our struggling schools. That being said, as passionate as I am about education and ensuring that my children and the children of the district have the best educational opportunities and that our parents, families, teachers, students have all the tools in which to achieve their goals...you cannot make anyone do anything unless they feel that it will make a difference. Many times our parents, at both the "successful" and "unsuccessful" schools (equally) may have felt disenfranchised from education because of their own educational experiences, they bring that with them when their child enrolls in school, even at the kindergarten (or some cases prek) level. We know that students mentally "drop out" of school in the fourth grade...when a child is only eight years old! Our goal, as we stated to the audit committee, was to help the parents at all of the schools in this district feel empowered to speak for not just their children, but their children's classmates as well. JCPS is not the only district struggling with these issues, but fortunately we have a great many tools at our disposal in which to address them. We all know that while membership numbers are great, since it shows an interest in and commitment to the mission of the PTA (on a local, state and national level), just paying dues is often only part of the story. At each school there is no doubt a dedicated core group of volunteers, willing to go above and beyond to ensure that every program, etc is supported (either thru volunteer engagement or financially thru a fundraiser). But those parents cannot shoulder the responsibility alone. Far too often the larger parent population at a school assumes that because an event took place the school and parents who participated as volunteers had it under control. Communication is crucial in these types of situations. Ultimately it is our hope that this audit will create a crucial conversation about parent engagement and how to achieve student success thru partnerships with parents. Not every school in the district does this well, but we are working in the right direction. As our district PTA motto states "Together We Can...Make A Difference"
Discipline is essential in any school because students must feel safe in order to learn effectively. But that's easier said than done in a tough school. Parents can certainly help (and in the best cases form strong partnerships with teachers) but in some cases parents are not to be found - or worse, in some cases may contribute greatly to the problem.
In New Orleans, Paul Vallas hired an private group to run some of his toughest high schools. They insisted on discipline, had law enforcement personnel stalking the halls, students were required to walk single file with their hands behind their backs....and it was a big failure. Fights broke out all the time, nobody was learning and the outside group was let go.
Now, Vallas has come back in with a district-based plan that is still tough, but that does not focus solely on discipline. He describes it as tough love. Still strict, but the focus is on helping kids get caught up (and we're talking about 17 year old 8th graders reading at the 3rd grade level). Seriously behind.
One of the strategies was to admit that the school system failed them when they were 3rd graders the first time.
Parent partnerships can make a big difference. Discipline is essential. But you can't forget the love - and that means meeting the legitimate needs of each and every child. Kids need to be able to read and use their minds, but they also must be taught to behave. KCRW's "To the Point" (San Francisco radio) did a story on this last week.
I'm glad the PTA is involved in working toward a solution in Louisville. I hear the state audits are the toughest yet, so I was a little surprised to hear that no school leaders would not be replaced at this time. But perhaps new leadership is already in place and new efforts are just getting started. I'm sure the district will be watching carefully since the heat has been turned up.
Oops. I meant to say, "surprised to hear that no school leaders would be replaced at this time."
Also, To the Point is available online: KCRW or iTunes.
Getting interviewed as part of a audit of a persistantly low performing school is hardly and "honor", it should be considered as more of an "oh sh*t" moment as those interviewed are being questioned to find out where the problems lie. I came from a district that went through the FREE training provided by PTA, and IMHO it was the equivalent of processed food, cheap but lacking nutritional value.
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