Friday, October 3, 2008
On the verge of greatness
At last night's PTA forum for school board candidates, 5th district incumbent Steve Corona said we are on the verge of becoming the nation's greatest urban school district. He knows that because the district paid a consultant $2000/day to tell us how great they are. Last year they paid another consultant $400,000 to tell us great buildings are what make a great school district. If voters believe that kind of drivel, there's no hope for our schools or our city.
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14 comments:
Seriously? On the verge....so like he means - on the verge of being better than IPS, right?!
I almost got sick at my stomach when he made those idiotic comments. Why no questions from "the local paper"?
Actually, the local paper did publish comments in their education blog. While the remarks are tongue-in-cheek, they do raise some valid concerns:
"Am I the only one who finds it odd that Fort Wayne school board candidate Evert Mol is boasting of his role in building a $500 million plant in Saudi Arabia? He mentioned it again during his appearance at the PTA candidate forum at the downtown library Thursday night.
The leader of the remonstrance against FWCS's $500 million long-term building project argued that the amount was too much to spend on 42 school buildings in Fort Wayne over a seven-year period. But apparently it's the right amount to spend on one oil company facility in the Middle East.
Yes, I know the latter would have used property tax dollars. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who realizes the former would have been built with Exxon Mobil dollars - that's the same Exxon Mobil that two months ago reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion, the biggest profit from operations ever by any U.S. corporation.
Let's see - could there be a connection between the amount of money you are pumping into your gas tank these days and the amount of money you don't have to support local schools?"
With gas at $4/gallon, it's something to consider.
Purdue Alum......
Do you think that there is a connection between the 25,000 FWCS students that are bused daily and the lack of money for the building and upkeep of the schools?
I think there are good arguments on both sides. I know school finance is a bit complicated.....there are many different funds and the money from one fund can't always be transferred to another fund; so, I can't say whether saving money in transportation will benefit the building funds.
My family lives northeast and we send our 2 children to a FWCS magnet school on the southeast side. I enjoy having the opportunity to choose the specific school/program that my children attend/receive. Hopefully, economic times won't force us to choose between school choice and building maintenance. I know that some of the FWCS extracurricular bus routes have already been eliminated due to increasing gas prices....so, I guess it's possible that tough choices may be in our future. Thanks for posing a good question.
The project I worked on in SA was a 2 billion dollar expansion of an existing plant. My part of it was $500 million. I had no part in determining that amount. Most of the funding was provided the Saudi government. If you think Exxon is making too much money then think about what Opec states are getting when you fill up yout tank.
I was pointing out (boasting) that I had experience managing a large project (like Corona pointing out he has 28 years on the board). Other than that, what a plant in SA has to do with an with the FWCS building project is beyond me, but if anyone wants to make an issue out of it, that's fine.
As an educator and a mother, I am truly disgusted at what the topic of conversation on this site holds. I would think that a possible future board member would center his or her conversations around what is the heart of our focus.... THE CHILDREN!
I don't care what you did or how you did it in the business world. My child isn't a number, my child isn't a figure, my child isn't a product and the education of my child isn't a business- my child is an eight year old second grader with dreams, hopes, and possibilites.
I don't care about the figures, test scores, NCLB,t he political discussions, the bull that is dished back and forth, what I want to know is what will you do for OUR CHILDREN? In the end, it always seems that in these conversations what I don't hear enough of is what really matters- THE CHILDREN! I am tired of hearing about code blue, about buildings, about who said what, when, where, and why. What will you do for those children in our community to make sure that when all is said and done, they know that who they are, and what they are doing in their life matters?
JB,
Thank you for putting all of this into perspective. YOUR child, and the other 31,000 + children served by FWCS SHOULD be the topics of discussion.
As a unit head I am often reminded that I need to keep our students as our number one focus. I must admit, it is often hard to do with the many distractions that come into the public school everyday, but it is parents like you that help to guide what my teachers at Maplewood and I share, a concern for the future of our students.
What are we doing for your second grader? We are adding RIGOR to our curriculum. We are preparing your student for the future by focusing our instruction on the precise skills your child needs to improve in reading. (My number one goal as a principal) We are able to do this by using a number of assessment tools that give us quick information that will help guide the instructional practices in the classroom.
Our teachers are becoming more skilled in the collaborative process. Each week when I read the collaboration notes from my teams I am more impressed how they are taking apart student data and focusing on skill sets that are necessary to increase student achievement in reading.
As equally is the RELATIONSHIP pieces our teachers are building with their students. Students learn from caring adults. Many times we go out of our way to help families in need, talk with students that are struggling with issues, or simply encourage a student as they reach their next "benchmark" in their achievement.
We are also making the education your student receives RELEVENT. A student with a head full of useless facts may do well in trivial pursuit, but that is about it. We are teaching skills such as comprehension and problem solving, asking higher-level questions, and demanding that students take the risk necessary to get off the "minimum" scores and rise to the highest levels of achievement.
Are the there yet? NO. Are we on the way? I believe so.
With all of the issues around us in this day and age, we (our community) has been given the opportunity to step up and secure the educational future for our children. Ask questions of your teachers, look at what your student brings home, and stay involved with your student's school at any level. This will make FWCS the school system of choice, which I believe we are on our way of becoming!
Frank Kline
Principal
Maplewood School
Purdue Alum & JB:
Code Blue cares very much about students; thus, if the opposite there would be no blog. Does FWCS care about students? No. Purdue Alum and JB does your students' have hours of homework each night? NO! Do they know their multiplication tables? NO! I tutor several FWCS students, who unlike Kline's claims that can read, are so far below state levels they should have never made it out of kindergarten. As a long time sub. who is in 3 outlaying school district; it never ceases to amaze me that my middle school students can whip the AP Students @ FWCS' in the areas of social studies, economics, math and language arts. The last time I stepped in FWCS' MS 80% of the students were failing their classes; the opposite of outlaying districts' MS. But hey the MS teach outside of FWCS'; the students receive a healthy dose of work, hours of homework (3 hours is needed at MS: its a good idea for elem. schools to follow site) and look at their ISTEP scores. About that multiplication thing; their students know how to multiply. This is how they teach math in FWCS' grab a calculator and start the times factors. It truly amazes me how the students' in FWCS think they can go to college; and the professors I know don't want them in their class. On the campuses' of Ivy Tech and IPFW the majority of FWCS' cannot do the work and drop out, or the professors have to low their standards so much, a middle school student from an outlaying district could do the work! And don't get me started about FWCS' discipline (what the hell as that?) and let's not forget that pending ICLU lawsuit based on civil rights violations.
JD,
I don't doubt that Mr. Mol cares about students; in fact, I admire the fact that he and his wife have been active volunteers in FWCS.
While you are entitled to your own opinion(and I will not attempt to change it), it is important to always present both sides.
I believe that FWCS cares very much about my two children. Their teachers this year and in the past have been caring, hard working professionals who have pushed my children to reach their potentials.
Both my 2nd and 4th grader have homework every night. Although my second grader began pre-school with a language delay due to a hearing loss, his teachers pushed him to succeed and as a result, he is now reading above grade level. My forth grader has mastered her multiplication tables, easily passed the math portion of ISTEP, and scored a pass+ on the language arts portion(practically off the scale)...as a result, we received paperwork from Northwestern this week that identifies her as gifted and encourages her to take the SAT in two years to begin preparing for college scholarships...I credit her FWCS teachers for pushing her and ensuring that she attempt coursework beyond her grade level.
Both local papers reported this week that after the implementation of full-day kindergarten, 75% of FWCS 1st graders are reading at or above grade level, a substantial improvement from previous years. My next door neighbors on both sides of me each had a child who recently graduated from FWCS high schools; both received scholarships: one to Ohio State, the other to Manchester. When I saw the pictures of the FWCS valedictorians in the paper this spring, I noted that North Side's top student was attending Harvard.
I am sure there are things that must improve in FWCS(as in any school system); however, I personally know there are many success stories as well.
Unfortunately, trying to get FWCS to change,especially from the outside, is like pushing a rope. They view criticism that contradicts their mesage as an attack, as do many teachers and parents with children in the system. But the fact that many children receive a good education does not change the statistics that show half of them are woefully undereducated. There just does not seem to be any way to point that out without offending a lot of people, but I don't see any other way to get them to change when they just don't want to hear it. Sorry.
But, Code Blue, purdue alum makes a valid point. If a student has parents or other support who believe in education, that student CAN recieve a good education in FWCS...examples abound, as purdue alum points out. I often think that any student gets the education they work for, no matter what the system. FWCS has many fine educators, many involved parents and many good students. Unfortunately, it also has many students not really interested in education.
I also believe FWCS lost their building initiative because of a leader whose ego and arrogance over-reached her grasp...and I do not see that changing.
Siestagirl,
You make a good point about our school system having students that are not engaged. That is the real "art" of teaching, something that I am looking at this year with my teachers. The best practices in the world are worthless when students are not engaged.
Now comes the next question, why do we have un-engaged students in our classrooms? The reasons vary, some I am aware of, many I am learning about. What I do know about student engagement has a lot to do with the climate of the classroom and of the school.
Kids do not care what you know until they know that you care. We talk and walk this philosophy daily, and it was in place long before I came to Maplewood. All I have done is shown the common sense to stay out of the way of the things that were already working.
Our parents have to believe we care for their families, but more importantly our families have to make a commitment to our school that goes beyond self interest. That, in the culture of our country today, is a huge leadership challenge. I am not sure how to tackle that challenge yet, but I keep it in front of me always and constantly ponder different ideas to get our parents to contribute and believe in the "greater" idea of this thing called Maplewood School.
I believe that the discussions on this blog site are healthy for the growth of our schools, as long as you believe that growth is possible.
The work ahead for this community is not going to be easy, nor will it come quick. We can possibly get test scores up with "quick fix" practices, but in order to sustain what our children learn we need to look at best practices that impact the "whole brain" to maximize learning. We need to be held accountable, but we also need to be uplifted, supported, and celebrated when we are successful.
I have no issues with constructive criticism, and welcome ideas and suggestions that will foster growth in student achievement. At the end of the day, all I want is for my students to have an opportunity to choose their life, not have it chosen for them.
Frank,
Your last comment captures what good teachers always strive to do...convince all students that each can choose the direction of his/her own life. And not to let the negatives in some classrooms affect that belief for teachers or students.
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