The Star: "KC school board again takes up issue of dealing with closed buildings" Potential Conflicts of Interest And The Overall Ability To Screw up Just About Anything Make School Closings Another Kansas City, Missouri School District Stumbling Block.
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Pay attention: Nothing has changed in KCMO-SD except that they have driven out the battle hardened survivors...prepare for a massive failure on all fronts...violence, dropouts, phony success stories, white guilt, midnight resignations, fire alarms, patronage, politics, gangs, layoffs... and above all, producing a defeated, depressed, uneducated, uninspired, used, student product with no future in this KC economy.
ReplyDeletewe knew this was coming. failed as schools, failing as hopes for the surrounding residents wishing for sustainable redevelopment.
ReplyDeleteWheres the chaos? From reading the article it sounds like everything is moving according to plan. Please explain tony?
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to be cynical. Consider that even if the KCMSD doesn't improve, it's at least downsized to a more appropriate and managable size.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, we've spent more money and built new schools with negative results.
You’re right 8:21: You forgot to mention that in August, students and teachers will be confronted with humongous class sizes in facilities that will also be packed to capacity. So much for research that indicates smaller, more intimate learning environments works best for improving inner-city learning. Also, how can the district survive while the city’s major player, Mr. Kauffman, shamelessly promotes his new charter school? Seriously, certainly no lack of self-confidence here . ..the promotional hype says: “The Kauffman School is recognized as the premiere public school in the state of Missouri and as a national model for the entire public school sector.”, then it goes on to say, “Kauffman is a charter public school opening fall 2011.” So my question is, how can any school be recognized as "premiere" when it isn't operational and hasn't yet done anything which would substantiate its claim of superior achievement?
ReplyDeleteIf Ewing Kauffman thinks educating the general population is a snap, I challenge his Kauffman School to aggressively recruit students randomly from the district without regard to parental support. Try to keep those students unconditionally, regardless of behavior or achievement for six years and do any better than the traditional school district on the MAP. Will the extra facilities, teacher screening (that probably includes a “Freedom through Work” mentality, lower pay, reduced benefits, and less job protection), beat an overcrowded, underfunded institution that has to accept the neediest of children? I think the results would be about even. Mr. kauffman despite your attitude or opinion, it will not transfer to student achievement without more profound social changes.
ReplyDeleteTo reenforce 4:32 on class size, see:
ReplyDeleteBarbara Martinez, Wall Street Journal, 06/23/2010
"Soon after taking over the country’s largest school system, Chancellor Joel Klein began to shutter large, failing high schools and replaced them with smaller schools. A new report released Wednesday shows how that effort has increased graduation rates for the mostly poor, minority students attending the new schools.
The 160-page report by MDRC, a nonprofit research firm, found that by the end of their first year in high school 58.5% of the students attending the new, smaller schools were on track to graduate in four years, as measured by credit accumulation and passed courses. That compared to 48.5% of students in larger high schools.
“It’s very exciting,” said Klein about the results. The report “confirms what we believed in,” he said. Klein’s administration has created more than 200 new secondary schools since 2002.
“Across the board, these are powerful results,” he said of the 20,000-student randomized study. Klein noted that the data compared students with the same demographic makeup, some of whom got into schools randomly through lotteries and some who entered lotteries but failed to win seats.
“The question is whether the gains can be sustained, and whether we can find a way to give the same benefits to the majority of New York City students who still attend the large high schools,” said Clara Hemphill, a senior editor at the Center for NYC Affairs at the New School.
Hemphill’s group did a study on small schools last year and found that their creation caused “collateral damage,” she said. “As the large dysfunctional schools were closed, thousands of students were diverted to remaining large schools” where enrollments increased and attendance and graduation rates declined.
The MDRC study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which also helped support the city’s foray into the small-schools concept."
Sorry to cite an entire article.
With more kids going to charter schools than the KCMSD, why aren't people asking about the charter school test scores? It's been over 10 years for some of these schools and only two of them are showing any kind of improvement(UA/LA).
ReplyDeleteThe mostly minority students in the district are every bit as intelligent and teachable as anyone else. The charter schools prove this every day. This achievement gap should be closed in one generation. Period. End of story.
ReplyDeleteThe mostly minority students in the district are every bit as intelligent and teachable as anyone else. The charter schools prove this every day. This achievement gap should be closed in one generation. Period. End of story.
ReplyDeleteThe charter schools are hoax. Period. End of story. Except they will allow 20 more years of failure and taxpayer rip off. Good public schools start at the grassroots, with students, parents and teachers that are willing to work, pay taxes and sacrifice for the greater good. Charters are "me, mine, give me."
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