This could be the year for real changes for Kansas City Public Schools beyond the revolving door leadership or game of musical chairs for the administration.
Think about it:
- The Impending School Transfer Exodus Could Put The KCPS On The Road To Bankrupcy.
- Even The Most Strident KCPS Supporter Has To Admit The Recent Study Calling For The District To Be DISMANTLED Is Devastating.
- Read The Newest Latest KCPS Plan To Save Itself . . . There's Not A Lot There . . .
Here are the changes the KCPS suggests:
KCPS Proposal
* Focus on individual schools
* Four ratings
* Proactive - Focus on interventions and support for improvement
* Expansion of the RSIT model along with individual support to schools
* Each school establishes a School Improvement Advisory Committee
* Students stay within the district
* Interventions provided at all levels
* SIAC monitors school improvement plan
* Three-year limit to gain provisional accreditation
* Research-based models determined by individual school performance and need
* Community engagement is an essential component
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Again, that's pretty much the same plan that most people have been pushing for the past 30 years to no avail.
And in all this discussion it's important to remind those concerned with the future of the KCPS and how to save the beleaguered institution . . . Given horrific enrollment numbers, there's no arguing with the fact that people from EVERY DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP have abandoned the Kansas City Public Schools when given a choice.
LINKS
NBC Action News: KCPS unveils its own turnaround plan
KMBC: KCPS unveils own plan to reform, improve district
Newspaper Editorial: Editorial: KC school proposal intriguing but risky
KSHB: School sees success in dismantling
Dead Tree Media Notes KCPS Enrollment Down 14K: Public school enrollment shows some shifts
Channel 41: Crowd packs CEE-Trust meeting
Last Word In Kansas City Public Education: Parents react to KCPS dismantling report
Developing . . .
Better Headline: KCPS Beyond The Point Of No Return?
ReplyDeleteThe KCPS report is too vague for me. You'd think a district in this much crisis would've had something more substantial prepared. Another fail for them.
ReplyDeleteThe district has been turning around since desegregation and magnet schools. That's been years. The current system is failing the kids in KCPS. The same excuse they use for why they are failing (mainly dysfunctional minority families living in poverty) is the same reason they are allowed to continue this way. If these were majority white kids in this district, even poor white kids, this wouldn't have been allowed to continue for decades.
Time to give the kids a chance. Shame on anyone that wants to continue the cycle of failure that is the current KCPS just so they can remain in charge. The most outspoken are the board presidents friends and followers always claiming a conspiracy against them.
If they find a solution to unruly people of color there will be cities and other school districts lined up for miles to learn this valuable discovery.
ReplyDeleteA city has to have a viable public school option. It's about time people stop abandoning KCPS for charters schools and recognize that. This new plan only ensures that parents will be camping out in front of a handful of schools a few weeks before enrollment to get into the "choice" charters while the rest continue to struggle like KCPS.
ReplyDeleteThe proper way to use charters would be to provide an environment for students who have outside struggles that prevent them from learning, and provide access yo the counselling, meals, and other tools that allow them to be productive with the remaining part of their day.
That will make KCPS classrooms easier to manage, and bring the test scores and enrollment numbers back where they need to be.
As a KCPS parent I thank you for your thoughtful comment. There are no easy answers. What we need in many of our schools is smaller classrooms. There are 31 children in my daughter's classroom. Most of the kids are great, eager to learn but there are two, sometimes 3 children that become disruptive taking away precious class time from the others. However, what hurts me even more, as a single mom (my husband died of a brain aneurism) barely making it, still wanting the best for my baby I don't understand how there is this school called Cook elementary (I think) in the white neighborhood that only has 15 kids in each class. Why does my black daughter deserve less than those white kids? Check the district website if you think I'm lying, it's on there.
DeleteWhy hasn't the media reported this? TKC should look into it if no one else will.
DeleteI say go in take out all the trash, clear the building and start over with all new faces. Hire a good outsider not some fool to lead the restructuring of it who isn't afraid to tell anyone to sit down and STFU.
ReplyDeleteI agree, its time to look outside KC for graft and corruption...ha ha
ReplyDeleteI taught in the KC School system and ALWAYS had more than 30 kids.
ReplyDeleteThat number is NOT the problem. The lack of a common sense curriculum in conjunction with repetative rote commitment to basics leaves students bereft of basic skills. The lack of discipline in the classrooms is a direct result of a politically correct approach to offenders and very little cooperation from parents and administrators.
Actually comitting to and teaching kids to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and comprehend the abstract applications of same for real life success is not that tough when supported by an administration and parents who are serious about learning vis a vis any number of politically sensitive issues which poisen the entire system.
The incessant obsession with race has, is now and will continue to wreak havoc in inner city schools and result in inferior education for students.
Just look at this stupid shit.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/8/white-house-to-offer-new-rules-school-discipline/?page=all#pagebreak
If teachers are unable to remove violent and disruptive students from class, because of "QUOTAS", then and I can't emphasize this enough, NO STUDENT IN THE CLASS WILL BE AFFORDED AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN. FUCKING PERIOD.
Great language there "teach". Sorry, but this mom has a point. It's well documented that smaller classrooms are better, this isn't a new concept. I attended kc public schools and don't think I had more than 25 students in a class. I just looked at a class photo a friend pasted on Facebook from 4th grade and there were 24. Way to blame everyone BUT the teachers btw.
DeleteChuck nailed it DISCIPLINE
DeleteHowever odds go up on having unruly students with a larger class.
8:19
ReplyDeleteSmaller classrooms are better of course. However, the lady brought the problem of 30 plus students up and it seemed to me, that her take, was that large classrooms with 30 plus students were the biggest problem.
I dissagree for the reasons stated.
I think she more was offended by the fact the white kids at one school have 15 students per classroom. Hell, I'm offended and I'm no bleeding heart liberal either.
Delete7:33
ReplyDeleteSchool Funding.
School Funding
Posted on April 20, 2011 by Hunter Wallace
Jason Richwine finds that per pupil spending is higher for blacks than Whites in the South
Jason Richwine, the Heritage Foundation scholar dropped a truth bomb on Liberal America this afternoon from his perch inside the Beltway.
Richwine released a big report which aims to prove that racial differences in educational achievement cannot be explained through differences in per pupil spending.
The Report
Among the findings:
- Per pupil spending on non-White students eclipsed spending on White students in the early 1980s and has remained slightly higher ever since.
- School funding is similar across all racial and ethnic groups.
- Racial differences in educational achievement have endured for decades in spite of increased spending on black students.
- If White 15 year olds were counted as a separate group, they would rank 3rd in the world on the PISA among the 34 OECD countries, whereas American Hispanics would score 31st and American blacks would rank 33rd.
- The South is the region with the smallest racial differences in per pupil spending, but more money is actually spent on blacks, Hispanics, and Asians than White students here.
- In the Northeast, $2,000 more dollars is spent on the average black student than on the average White student.
Yeah, if we only spent more money on the KCSD. If only Judge Clark and A Bensen would sue someone for free cash for teh KCSD.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me???
What a joke.
5 BILLION, thats BILLION with a B down the rat hole in the 90 s with SHIT to show for it.
Shut the fuck up.
Southwest called the cops and fire department 1900 times last year.
ReplyDeleteChaos reigns because people are afraid to call a spade a spade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FAv81kil1o
A recent study showed that black children were three times more likely to be suspended than white students for the same offense. To that "teacher" wake up.
ReplyDeleteThis is Paseo.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwiXfg3KtGo
"Fires fights and chaos."
ReplyDeleteThis is the Kansas City School District.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQCK_OE-Lxs
Authorities will NOT enforce the needed discipline becasue of fear of being called racist.
Large classrooms are not the problem. Ask any Baby Boomer who went to school in the 1950s and 1960s. 30 would have been a small class back when chewing gum was considered a discipline problem.
ReplyDelete8:19
ReplyDeleteJust for the record, I hated teh Teacher's Union and think it is nother of the biggest detriments to education.
There are ways to quantify success in schools and reward emplyees accordingly. The Union has hurt, not helped in my opinion.
Maybe, thinking you are going to fix 3 generations of entitlement thinking, anti white hatred and culturally encouraged violence in the arena of public education is a Bridge Too Far.
ReplyDeleteJust cue up "Django" and lock them in a room.
ReplyDeleteIt is basically the same thing as public education these days.
Hale Cook is an experiment aimed at bringing (white) families who live in Waldo back into the district, and from what I understand, it's been successful.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need to do is change people's minds about the district, and the way to do that is to manage the disruptions better, even if it appears to be racist.
If there are kids disrupting the class, perhaps they're struggling with issues outside of school and could benefit from leaving the classroom and dealing with those issues. Maybe it's meeting with a counselor, maybe it's going to an alternative school, or maybe it's as simple as providing them with meals, or giving them a creative outlet or athletic incentive.
These things cost money, and while KCPS students are already among the most expensive to educate, running from the district to a charter school takes away the money KCPS needs to help the most needy students.
The problems come to school with the children; the district needs the resources and investment from the community to handle those problems before they disrupt the learning environment.
If a district that is primarily black has primarily black kids with problems, it's hardly racist to pull these kids out of the classroom so long as we're providing a meaningful solution, but I believe that's where the reluctance to address this problem comes from.
It's way past time to dismantle the school district. Now, the decision is who and what will be solicited to rebuild? It can not and should not be anybody currently touching the district in any way. Implode the beast.
ReplyDeleteelByran I agree, but what sounds good in the comment section of TKC's blog just doesn't bring much comfort to folks in conference rooms with lawyers preparing for courtroom battle in a discrimination suit with a lawyer like Lynn Bratcher manipulating voir dire for the racial mix needed to strip cash away from the folks, who, like you and me, think your comment makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThe racial burden in terms of financial ruin and social opprobrium make it impossible to effect discipline or educate students in American inner cities.
The Federal Government in the person of the President and Attorney General, in conjunction with their vast power, are for more interested in elections and feeling good about the "Struggle" then education.
This insanity in Washington is symptomatic of the destruction of this country and our efforts to educate our children in public schools.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/8/white-house-to-offer-new-rules-school-discipline/?page=all#pagebreak
Appearance is light years more important than substance in the American Zeitgeist.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/jindal-doj-more-interested-skin-color-education_773996.html
It costs more to educate one child in the KCPS system that most private schools charge (tuition wise) per child. What the heck is wrong with this picture.
ReplyDeleteIf someone were to find the last cost estimate..the last one I saw was about $11,700 per pupil. Private high schools in KC are somewhere between 10,000 and 11,000 tuition per year. How can a school district with this much per pupil fail so badly?! Please someone tell me how???
elBryan: Hale Cook is not "an experiment aimed at bringing (white) families who live in Waldo back into the district." It's a neighborhood school the boundaries of which include parts of Brookside and Waldo, both of which have black, white,and even (gasp! Hispanic families). It may be too early to declare Hale Cook a success, since it's been in operation l;ess than a year and will not be a K-6 school for six or so more years.
ReplyDelete10:23
ReplyDeleteYour sarcasm and condescension is the universal lubricant of failed liberal policies, that for 50 years have left minorities in the rear, necessitating even more failed govt programs to rescue them, while you clink cocktail glasses and discuss the new CNN Anchors with your elitist friends.
I don't understand your comment, 10:28, and, sorry to disappoint you, I (1) am libertarian, (2) don't drink cocktails, and (3) don't have cable. I do live within the boundaries of the Hale Cook experiment on a block with Hispanic and black children, so I may have a little more interest in the situation than you.
ReplyDeletehow dis nigga gonna be lining ma pockets ifin they do dat????
ReplyDelete1) The KCPS system has been failing for many, many years. This is not to say that there are no good schools, teachers, or students in this system.
ReplyDelete2) The school district is simply a reflection of the city of Kansas City, MO.
3) Most of those who are able to move elsewhere, or can send their children to private schools, have exercised this option.
4) KCPS leadership has been in a revolving door for decades. Currently, the Superintendent is a KS resident, and the President of the Board is a college dropout.
5) Once the district lost accreditation, the ultimate tipping point was reached, and much of the arguing becomes a moot point....like a man falling from a skyscraper who yells out "so far so good", halfway down to his certain death.
Stick a fork in it it's done. Let someone else have a shot because all the same players have failed miserably.
ReplyDeleteAll of these people chiming in now is too funny. I hate to break the news to you folks but everything has already been decided.
ReplyDeleteYou are either going to like it or not, but starting 2014-2015 the KCPS will be put out of its misery. The following year nothing will remain of the district.
It has nothing to do with the color of your skin or the number of kids in the classroom. The people who with the authority have made up their minds. They will listen to you the same way Covington did and do whatever they had planned in the first place.
5:41: I hope you're right. 30-plus years of doing the same thing over and over again isn't working.
ReplyDeleteI agree 5:41. The meeting the state is having on 1/29 is the first of 2 required public meetings before the state intervenes. Does anyone here really think they would've paid $300,000+ to a consulting firm to NOT implement their suggestions. Come on now.
ReplyDelete