FWCS' percentage for kids passing both the Math and LA portions of the ISTEP this year improved by about 3% versus the state overall. Over the last 3 years they've improved 2%/yr on average, about what should be expected. So after nearly a decade of claims to the contrary, it seems that they can do better despite the demographics.
The improvements began when the state legislature and the IDE finally lowered the boom. The district couldn't inflict the necessary pain on itself, forcing the state to step in and dictate a plan for schools that were heading toward a takeover. That allows the administration, FWEA and Democratic politicians to paint Mitch and Tony Bennett as the bad guys, and vilify them from now on for "destroying the public schools", which in the case of urban schools were already destroying themselves.
By avoiding the tough decisions for decades the district opened the window for charter schools, vouchers and the other reforms passed by the legislature. School choice has arrived and the response from the district is to trash charter schools. The best way for FWCS to discourage losses to charters and vouchers is to get their own house in order.
It looks like the state has finally accomplished what couldn't be done under "local control".
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26 comments:
Read Michael Gerson's column in the JG this morning about arrogance and mediocrity in public education. Good description of "we are your schools".
Compare that to the drivel the other day from Karen O'Frisco about fixing EACS from within. Mediocrity fixing mediocrity gets you more mediocrity. It has to come from outside.
I will bet that FWCS loses at least 400 students, if not more.
The two new charter will take about 200. There's no way to predict how many more vouchers will take. Government schools are supposedly out campaigning to stop defections and loss of funding, which used to be all they cared about. Which is why they deserve no sympathy.
I know it is fashionable among those who are not fans of public schools, and especially common among you and your sycophants, to use the term "government schools" to refer to public schools. I wonder if you have the same issues with government roads, government military personnel, or government police officers and fire fighters. Or perhaps you just use that term to try to rile up the your followers?
At what point do you decide to give credit to the people whose efforts you've condemned for the past few years? The vitriol you've directed at FWCS, its leaders, and its teachers association over the past several years has not abated. You preached about the need for improvement, and the improvements have come. You'll note those scores have improved on both sides of Coliseum Blvd. as well.
Instead of recognizing those improvements -- which have come at the same time as the poverty rates in the district have continued to grow -- you choose to complain that it didn't happen sooner. One gets the feeling that if someone from FWCS were to save a person from drowning, you would blame FWCS for not providing swim lessons to the person.
It's time for you to find a new target for all of your anger. Maybe you could do a study concerning why FWCS doesn't serve chicken parmesan more frequently. It seems they serve ham and Swiss sandwiches and mini twin cheeseburgers far more often, even though the chicken parmesan is so good it brings a tear to the eye. I wonder if they're showing favoritism toward the Swiss and the American cheeses, and being unfair to the parmesan. That is a topic you could really sink your teeth into, you know?
Wow! Sounds like a lawyer with kids in private school. Yes I choose to complain it didn't happen sooner, not until the IDE instead of the district itself forced the changes. An arrogant, sclerotic non government organization would have gone out of business a long time ago.
Perhaps if the board had found a competent superintendent years ago I wouldn't be praising the IDE and the Cambridge group instead of FWCS.
Keep up the social promotion!
No, I'm not "a lawyer with his kids in private schools." I'm a teacher with kids in public schools in FWCS.
At what point will you concede that the progress FWCS is making, which is being done in spite of all sorts of societal and budgetary difficulties, is really quite remarkable? Does the fact that you harbor some sort of unhealthy animosity toward the FWCS Superintendent cause you to be blind to the efforts of FWCS teachers, which have resulted in improved achievement for FWCS students?
I would really encourage you to at least attempt to put your personal feelings toward Dr. Robinson aside and examine the gains students in FWCS are making. Look at other districts -- rural, suburban, and urban -- and find another group of schools showing the improvement in student achievment that is taking place in our schools.
FWCS has certainly shown it is not an "arrogant" or "sclerotic" organization. The changes the district has made have resulted in impressive academic gains, and I'll continue to hope you're able to set aside your hard feelings and recognize that fact.
Now about that chicken parmesan...
I prefer linguini and I agree the changes have led to improvement. But you still haven't told me why the changes weren't initiated by FWCS itself 10 years ago. The need was obvious ten years ago but noboby wanted to hear it let alone do it. That's poor leadership.
If ExxonMobil corporate had felt they needed to come in and tell me how to fix my plant, I would have been fired, not given a lifetime contract and a raise. What happened at SSHS (and NSHS) was a disgrace. That's my problem with Wendy and her board.
You would have to speak with Thomas Fowler-Finn to ask why changes were not initiated ten years ago.
No, I talked to Wendy after a town hall meeting about ten years ago after she articulated her "vision" for the district, which was to air condition all the buildings. No plan for improving scores except to "stay the course" because "the demographics are different". In other words I don't know how to deal with that except utter platitiudes and wait for the state to step in and tell me how to do it.
And that's exactly what happened.
Teacher - The biggest problem within FWCS is its own teachers! The largest number of students who have moved on to parochial schools were FWCS' teachers own kids.
Additionally, I know several teachers who have quit FWCS and took their kids with them. If they are teaching they enroll their children at their new schools - Bluffton, Oak Farm, Norwell, Carroll, Adams Central, etc. I know 2 former teachers from Wayne who took on college teaching jobs, so they could pull their children from FWCS, and homeschool!
The poverty rates have increased due to good parents have enrolled their kids in other public schools! Northern Wells has 100 students who reside in FWCS boundaries, Bluffton has 130 students in FWCS boundaries, Adams Central has 25 students from FWCS boundaries. Northwest Allen and Southwest Allen have several new families from FWCS. And, yes, several families have choosen to homeschool. Yes, FWCS has gotten poorer not due to vouchers or charters, but poor discipline and parents who were fed up. Blame the outlying public school systems and homeschooling, don't blame charter schools.
Anonymous, you've said "poverty rates have increased due to good parents have enrolled their kids in other public schools!"(sic) Does that mean you believe that kids living in poverty have "bad" parents, or are you just not communicating your position in a clear manner?
You've also said that "the largest number of students who have moved on to parochial schools were FWCS' teachers own kids." I would be willing to bet a chicken parmesan dinner that you just made up that statement as you sat there typing. While there are certainly kids in parochial schools whose parents teach in FWCS, they are nowhere near that large a group. When you make up information like that, it weakens your argument and makes people not take what you have to say seriously. If you're going to attempt to use data to strengthen your argument, you must either use accurate information or you must become much less transparent about making stuff up that is easily dismissed as prattle.
Also, just as a nugget of what I am sure will be shocking information to you, I had three students last year who each had at least one parent teaching in a parochial school.
There is an old saying that "figures lie and liars figure." To that I would add a new saying. "When Mr. or Madam Anonymous makes up information, a person with a rudimentary grasp of data analysis can refute it with little or no effort." Admittedly, my statement doesn't have the same lyrical quality as the old saying, but it's equally accurate.
I can relate many anecdotes I heard from FWCS high school teachers who live outside the district so their kids can go elsewhere. But that's not data. Wendy was asked how many FWCS teachers live outside the district at NSHS during the remonstrance but refused to answer.
We had our 50th SSHS reunion in August. One of our teachers came and waxed about the dismal current state of our high school versus the past. He said in our time it was ranked in the top 5 in the state. Now it's in the bottom twenty. That's what I saw tutoring there.
It takes agressive leadership to try to reverse such a slide in the face of changing demographics. Ultimately the impetus has to come from the boards who since my time back in Ft. Wayne have been clueless and hapless. With this system of polititcal governance outside intervention is the only way to chance course.
I blieve it's "count day" Friday so we may get some idea of this year's shifts to vouchers and charters.
A chicken parmesan dinner is below my pay-grade. If you look at my pay, Dr. Robinson should get double.
Good parents, yes, parents that care about their children don't let their children in schools ran by government controlled, Obama lovers. The good parents that read to their kids every night, feed them great dinners (non-processed foods) and ensure their kids do their homework have left FWCS. How do I know? I live in Pleasant Township? My piece of crap neighbors, who father does not care about the kids, send their kids to FWCS. My other neighbors, in my hood, send their children to Northern Wells, St. Al's, St. Joseph-Hessen Cassel and Bethlehem (Ossian), or better yet they homeschool them. How do I know about FWCS' teachers enrollment in parochial schools? I consult for parochial schools and I a numbers geek! Yes, the proof is in the pudding.
Let's watch as the numbers are released from "Count Day," shall we? I suspect that "a numbers geek" like yourself will be struck by what you learn.
As I read your comments, Mr. or Madam Anonymous who "consults for parochial schools," I suspect (as I interpret your creative disregard for the standard rules of the English language) the parochial schools who employ you may be questioning their hiring decisions. In your comment, you state that some of your neighbors send their kids to Northern Wells (one of those schools "ran [sic] by government controlled Obama lovers") or a couple of parochials, "or better yet they homeschool them." If you advocate homeschooling as a better option than sending kids to a parochial school, how does that help your parochial "clients" in their pursuit of students?
Isn't it a bit more likely you are a person who was frustrated by the decision of FWCS to close Pleasant Center, and that you've adopted this semi-literate "consultant" persona as a way of expressing your frustrations?
My friends in the parochial school community can't seem to figure out who you might be, and they expressed some concern that your views might be misconstrued as being the views of those in leadership positions in the diocese.
Also, no one's pay grade is too high for a fine chicken parmesan dinner.
Well, we're seeing another example of the unionized, government school teacher mentality in Chicago. Just like FWCS they have the greatest, hardest working teachers in the universe. As long as noboby tries to measure their greatness using improvement in actual student test scores, no one can dispute their claims. I didn't like being measure either.
Are you buying the chicken parmesan dinner?
I moved to Pleasant Township after the school closed. I charge my clients $75.00 - 95.00 per hour and bill at least 50 hours a week. Please do the math. I have approximately 20 clients across the nation.
Northern Wells School District is a very conservative school system. There is talk among the teachers to get rid of the union and replace it with a professional development association. Northwest Allen County School completed a similar task, and their enrollment has increased every year.
Your chick parm...is a white trash meal! Sorry, I prefer duck at Eddie Merlots.
Northern Wells teachers teach Romney is king, not Obama. :-)
So you're buying at Eddie Merlot? Never been there.
If teachers' unions were also about improving the educational outcome, then they would be a positive influence as they are in many other countries. Here they don't care any more about the quality of their students than the UAW did about the quality of their cars.
A couple of interesting points, Anonymous, even though your facts aren't quite correct. As I recall, Northwest Allen did not "get rid" of their union; they chose to separate from the state teachers' association. Also, the enrollment has been increasing in that area for more than a decade; it was not a result of your purported union changes.
It's simple demographics. For decades, all over the country, people have moved to the suburbs. Forty to forty-five years ago, families left the center of FW and headed to the 'burbs, eventually leading to Northrop and Snider becoming the largest schools in FWCS. It's not a new phenomenon, and it's no more related to teachers' unions than it is to whether I prefer Pepsi or Coke.
I did see the duck on the menu at Eddie Merlot. It's on the summer menu as one of their lower-priced options. If I choose to spend the money to visit a restaurant like that, I usually opt for something a tad more special than the ugly cousin of the chicken.
Finally, Anonymous, a person who continually harps on his/her income is usually someone who is either lying about it, or is so insecure that he/she feels the need to point out to others how special he/she is. I'll not call you a liar, but I would suggest you discuss this need to announce your income to total strangers with a professional. At $75 - $95 per hour, you can afford it.
I must close now, as I have more papers to grade. Also, I'm sure you'll be pleased to know that tomorrow is chicken parmesan day in FWCS. As I savor every last yummy bite, please know you'll be in my thoughts.
Over low-priced chicken, I will take duck. However, my diet consist greatly of lamb or goat. Goat is not available in the Fort Wayne market commercially, so a trip to Chicago or San Francisco will be in the works.
Interesting note about pay, I find people who are scared of loosing their jobs needing the union of FWCS. I don't have a union, I have a strong work ethic and a strong set of skills.
BTW: Did you notice a consultant, not a FWCS teacher, was used to write a federal grant? It's pretty simple to write a funding proposal of that magnitude. It appears to me that Wendy believes her teachers are udderly stupid and can't fill out a simple document.
The homeschoolers I see are fundamentalist, and are not Catholic.
The local teachers' association represents the overwhelming majority of teachers in FWCS. I highly doubt that most of them are "scared of loosing (sic) their jobs" as teachers in the largest school district in the state. I'm also not completely sure how that addresses your repeated need to comment about your wages
Also, this FWCS teacher is smart enough to know that "udderly" is not a word. If you meant to say "utterly" instead, you would just be incorrect and not illiterate.
I almost forgot to tell you. The chicken parmesan served in our cafeteria this week was extraordinary!
The migration north began when I went to SSHS 50 years ago. I see that the 2012 SAT (and ACT) results show a continuing decline and that the strongest predictor of a "collegege ready" score above 1500 is a family income approaching $100,000. I would guess that families at that income level will continue to opt for the suburbs or private schools. Not a good sign for any urban district.
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