Code Blue Schools

Ms. Frisco attacks Urban League charter school

2011-12-22T11:06:00.006-05:00

Might as well attack the NAACP while you're at it Karen. If you're not careful what you say, someone might try to paint you as a racist. Weren't you part of the "silent minority" at one of the meetings?

Having replenished her venom from recent attacks on Brown Mackie and Imagine Schools before that, FWCS' fanged mouthpiece today went after the new charter school legislation and the new Thurgood Marshall Academy in particular. Among the highlights of her piece are the following gems with a translation:

The legislation creates unhealthy competition - government run monopolies including failing urban school districts are good and have to be preserved forever while privately run schools are bad. Any which make a profit are unconscionable. As Reagan said, the closest thing to immortality on earth is a government bureaucracy.

Legislation undermines local authority and the "ludicrous" suggestion of a state board member that those who didn't speak at the public hearing were a "silent majority" - Well perhaps. The only people who spoke at the meeting were the "local authorities" including FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta, a Chevy salesman who drives Toyotas. He along with Wendy and other board members have been favoring us with ludicrous drivel for years. None of their drivel has EVER elicited any criticism from Ms. Frisco.

There is a direct connection between closing of Elmhurst, Pleasant Center and Monroeville and the opening of dozens of untried charters - Dozens? Please! Thurgood Marshall is a result of the closing of Harding in EACS. Harding was actually doing the same academically as the FWCS high schools south of Coliseum. It would also have escaped a state takeover. Why it took SE Ft. Wayne parents so long to wake up to the Harding fiasco is a mystery. I asked that question at one of the meetings but didn't get a good answer. But it's the same with the fiasco at FWCS.

As far as other charters, it's the chicken and the egg question.

Troubling baggage with American Quality Charter schools - perhaps. But then FWCS has a ton of baggage as well. It's just that Ms. Frisco has NEVER expounded on that. You don't rock a sinking boat.

Legislation was passed under the guise oYf the mantle of parental choice - Karen doesn't think this is a good idea unless "parents are capable of making the best choice". In other words they are incapable of making the best choice.

Karen, if you want to do the taxpayers a real service, go back to that $119MM project and give us the details that FWCS refuses to disclose for fear of losing votes on the referendum. Show us that transparency reigns at the JG, if not at FWCS.

Happy New Year!

State board approves SE charter school

2011-12-20T10:23:00.005-05:00

The Thurgood Marshall Academy charter school proposed by the Urban League was unanimously approved by the state charter school board yesterday. FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta predicted the school would ultimately fail because FWCS has a "better product" and those in charge of the new school "don't have a clue" how to run a school. Maybe he should wait until we see what the Thurgood Marshall "product" looks like before pronouncing the FWCS product better. Most of the FWCS board doesn't have a clue about how to run a school either. They don't have a clue about what goes on in a classroom. That's what determines the quality of a school, not what the Superintendent tells them.

We'll see. The first, key task will be to hire a principal. Then find a building with suitable "infrasructure" (air conditioning). Then, fortunately, parents will ultimately decide on the quality of the product. Not GiaQuinta.

In related developments FWCS has been sued to stop the transfer of the former Pleasant Center building to the Airport Authority. The building is supposed to be kept available for charters for four years. Apparently the Tomothy Johson Academy had expressed an interest. Nice try though, Wendy. And the voucher lawsuit had another day in court with a decision promised in thirty days. Nate Snellenberger, president of the the ISTA, whose mission is to preserve the separation of church and state, said they would take it to the Indiana Supreme Court if necessary.

What do we want? hvAC!!...and some other stuff.

2011-12-13T09:45:00.002-05:00

Last night the board held the mandatory public hearing and voted unanimously to put a $119MM bond issue on the ballot in May. Well, actually, they only voted on the amount. Nothing was said about how it would get on the ballot. If you haven't been to a public hearing, that's where the public hears the board pontificate and then the board doesn't hear the public pontificate. Watching it on TV, it looked like the attendance was sparse. Only three members of the public spoke which was followed by a roll call vote. Much better than the circus Wendy orchestrated at Anthis last time. No bands or balloons either.

Each board member gave a brief explanation of their vote except of course GiaQuinta, who weighed in from the center of the podium sitting behind a banner with a big "A" on it. The mute button came in handy at that point. Then it was just his lips moving.

We're still waiting for more transparency in the details on the building breakouts. Don't hold your breath. They're probably thinking if voters see "AC" anywhere in there, it won't pass.

Later two administrators came in and were asked by GiaQuinta to report on the Thurgood Marshall charter school hearing they had just left. They gleefully related that a lot of the "Public" had expressed opposition to the new school. It later turned out that the "Public" who objected consisted mostly of EACS and FWCS officials, including GiaQuinta himself. How clever is that?

JG is fully padded on FWCS project

2011-12-05T10:33:00.011-05:00

Today's JG editorial page, renowned for making stuff up, lamented the criticism being heaped on the district's $119MM first phase of a $240MM building project proposal. The criticism sounded a lot like what's been said here, but as Mark GiaQuinta pointed out, only three people read this blog (four counting him), so it must be someone else saying the same thing.

They are quick to disavow that this project is about air conditioning. By doing that the district's mouthpiece has confirmed that it is about air conditioning. It's being spent on "infrastructure". Except by the district's own figures, $80MM (plus professional fees and contingency or $110MM of the $240MM eventual total project) of that "infrastructure" is for the "red herring", HVAC, i.e. AC, i.e. Air Conditioning. The building by building "details" under "infrastructure replacement"on the FWCS web site don't break that out so we can see it, however. Their unpublished handout (on the eventual project) to board members does break it out calling it "replacement of HVAC" ($75MM) and the addition of some chillers ($5MM).

Are all the HVAC systems shot? Or are they adding central air in buildings that have window units or no AC at all? What exactly are they proposing? Enquiring minds want to know lest they spread the disinformation further, like maybe to Indianapolis.

Roughly 45% of the $240MM eventual project is related to HVAC. If Wendy doesn't want any misconceptions out there on the first $119MM phase, then she needs to spell out exactly what "replacing infrastructure/HVAC" means in each building on the list and how that breaks down in cost. That's what this blog has been asking for since day one but we haven't seen it. Until we do we have to assume there are no misconceptions. Wendy's primary objective on day one in her job was to get all the buildings air conditioned. That's all she talked about in her initial town hall meetings. It wasn't test scores. That's what her $500MM well orchestrated con job was really about four years ago.

Spell it out in detail, justify it to the voters and perhaps they will approve it in May. The 10% contingency looks reasonable but tell us why you need 25% added for professional services for fixing stuff that's broken while you're at it. Otherwise it deserves to go down to defeat like last time.

Survey says: "??????"

2011-11-23T11:08:00.002-05:00

Monday night the board decided to bond for $119 million of the $240 million they say they need. The NS said only 800 non district employees responded to the online survey and 0nly 140 attended the four public meetings. Since the total dollars are unchanged, apparently what they found out in the survey and meetings had no influence on the scope of the project. They picked a number for the May referendum which will have a chance of success with the voters. They can come back and try for the rest later after demonstrating their competence in the first phase.

Their spreadsheet scope listed about $23 million for structural (the buildings are falling, the buildings are falling) repairs. The assumed 25% professional costs are way more than they need for fixing what's broken so they will actually have over $90 million to spend any way they want. They're supposed to put a detailed scope on their website so it doesn't look like we're giving them a blank check. Then we'll have to see if they stick to it.

The mandatory public hearing and vote will be on Dec.12. If you're thinking of going and speaking, just remember it will already be a done deal and the vote a formality. But there might be a band playing.

FWCS project - "Air conditioning , etc."

2011-11-10T09:45:00.006-05:00

The FWCS entourage gave another presentation about their $250 million building proposal at Harrison Hill, my former Jr. High School, a classic building from 1924 which still looks great. The dozen or so in the audience who were not district employees were honored with some Mark GiaQuinta oratory followed by a slide show on various building problems and an explanation of the financial aspects by Kathy Friend.

There was little detail given on the actual work to be done in each building. The work is listed in three catgories - structural, learning environment and safety. The structural part was almost all HVAC with a heavy emphasis on AC, accounting for nearly 50% of the total project dollars. Actually fixing structural stuff like walls, windows, masonry, etc. accounts for about 15%. That's the aging and deterioration they've been whining about for years. Learning environment is about improving the cosmetics. If I had presented something like this to corporate management, they would have picked it apart in five minutes and sent me packing. That's what the board should do but that won't happen. GiaQuinta gets pissed off driving to work past Imagine on Broadway every morning knowing it's air conditioned. This will allow him arrive at the office in a better mood to deal with turnip bombs.

Apparently the project will be tackled and bonded in three phases of $120 MM, and two more at $60 MM. The district may actually put the first phase on the May primary ballot themselves. If it doesn't make it to the ballot, the project would take money still available under the caps away from all the other taxing entities that might want to use it. If it's approved in a referendum it all goes on top of the caps, and won't affect anyone else. At least that's the way Kathy Friend explained it and I tend to believe her.

They tried to explain how this "deterioration" all came about without mentioning the $150 million diverted to racial balance over the last 22 years. Last time that was their excuse although then they couldn't explain what the other $350 million was for. Now they're only talking about the money they've lost more recently to the caps and the bad economy, although they're still spending millions on racial balance every year. When I brought that up at the end of the meeting, it didn't go over well with Wendy.

Last time the JG called $500 million "sensible". In the Sunday Perspective Karen Frisco called $250 mllion "modest". (Another columnist on Page 3 called American public education "abysmal".) So now we know mathematically that "sensible" x 1/2 = "modest". By extension we could postulate that "arrogance" x 2 = ("M" + "W").

What do voucher defections mean?

2011-11-05T12:22:00.002-05:00

At this point, not much. Since this is the first year of the program, there is no precedent to gauge the significance of 400 departures. The number is roughly the same as Indianapolis and South Bend. About 85% of them were on free or reduced lunch, so they're probably not losing the better students. But those that left all had some experience in district schools which presumably factored into their decisions.

If I were running We Are Your Schools, I would try to talk to every parent who pulled their kids out and find out why they did that. Of course sharing what you hear with We Are Your Taxpayers is a different question.

JG fabricating the news again

2011-10-31T09:22:00.006-05:00

This morning's JG editorial page claimed I was already organizing against the FWCS bond issue. Apparently part of their editorial ethos is stating their opinions as facts. Keep that in mind whenever you read their editorial page.

I'm not encouraged by what I've heard at board meetings so far and no one should take FWCS word for what they need as a fact either. So go to one of the four upcoming information sessions (sales jobs?) and decide for yourself. Fowler Finn said there were no major building issues remaining after NSHS was remodeled. The building deterioration issue only appeared on Wendy's radar after she failed to get the board to approve air conditioning. So her end run used building deterioration as cover for a grand remodeling project which would have included air conditioning. By repeating the deterioration theme about their "aging buildings" long enough they think they can jack up the number.

Pay attention and make up your own mind. My aging house, by the way, is 90 years old.

Take the FWCS Facilities survey

2011-10-28T14:11:00.002-05:00

FWCS has a survey on its website to get voter sentiment on their building project. That's a big improvement over last time when they assumed everyone would go along with them. Hopefully they'll take the feedback seriously and give us a report on what they learned. (After all we paid for the survey.) Then, again hopefully, they'll use the results to come up with a reasonable strategy.

There's only one way to find out.

Wanna buy Elmhurst for a buck?

2011-10-23T11:06:00.006-05:00

The new charter school legislation gives anyone the option to buy a closed government shool for $1 and turn it into a charter school. The JG ran an article on that subject today citing Elmhurst as an example of a (perfectly sound) building standing empty. In addition to some other inane comments, FWCS spokesperson Krista Stockman added that they were "open to anyone who wants to make a reasonable offer."

OK, Krista, my offer is $1. Anybody want to go halfies? We can go together for $.50 each and create our own "high school of the future" (we get to define that ourselves like the board gets to define "fiscal responsibility") for one dollar instead of $100 million a new Snyder. And we can look at the FWCS "high schools of the present" as a model for what not to do.

It's all absolutely essential and long overdue

2011-10-18T09:51:00.005-05:00

Last night the board heard from their bonding expert who went through the financing scenarios and estimates for homeowner tax increases. For a median priced home of $89,000 a ball park number the additional tax for the full $242 million looks like around $60-$80/year. The cost rises sharply for more expensive homes because the exemptions have less effect. They'll have to come out with more detailed information as they get further into the process.

Then they got into a discussion of categorizing and prioritizing the work, which went off track, so I left. Apparently the consensus (as reported by this morning's JG) was that everything in the scope was essential so prioritizing wasn't necessary. We'll just have to take their word for that. The only mention of the Capital Fund which is intended for building upkeep was that the tax caps have decreased their money and there was no prospect of getting more from the legislature. There was no mention of the money that's been diverted for "racial balance" and whether that will continue.

Also proposed was relacing Snyder altogether with a new building at double the cost ($100 million) of renovation. That has nothing to do with looking for a cost effective solution for taxpayers. That's a Mark Giaquinta strategy to get votes for the project in the NE part of town, which is crucial to getting it past the voters.

Fixing the buildings is the bill for "Racial Balance"

2011-10-11T12:02:00.006-05:00

Four years ago, School Board Member for Life Steve Corona was asked in a Ch. 15 interview how he could have let the buildings deteriorate to the tune of $500 million. He didn't answer because he hadn't. He had let them deteriorate to the tune of about $150 million. That's how much had been diverted from the capital fund, which maintains and upgrades the buildings, to pay for the "racial balance" program the district agreed to fund to avoid a lawsuit. The expenditures were supposed to be "tax neutral" but as we see now they were not.

The rest of the $500 million fell into the "This is not a wish list." category. But he couldn't say that either. The diversion of money to "racial balance" continues even though after 22 years there is no quantifiable benefit for any of that program. The choice to continue is a political decision.

Now the district is floating a number of $250 million. The wish list items were pointedly taken out of the scope this time. Why the hell were they in there last time, Steve? Although $250 million is closer to the actual amount they've lost, there's no way for taxpayers to determine if it's a realistic number. We'll have to take their word for it when the final amount shows up on a ballot referendum next spring. We'll have to take the word of people who only tell us what they want us to hear. Like when they brag about the improvement in ISTEP scores but don't tell us about the deterioration of the high school scores the last two years.

They had no credibility four years ago and they don't have any now. If they want to continue funding programs beyond their budget, they should tell the taxpayers exactly what they're doing and submit it on a separate referendum. But that would require an honesty and transparency which would be a radical departure from the past.

How does $250 million sound?

2011-10-04T09:12:00.003-05:00

Last night FWCS chief financial officer Kathy Friend along with Steve Parker, Darren Hess and Pat Casey of the facilities group presented their cost estimate for a plan to fix what's broken in 20 of the district's buildings. There is no way for me to know the details and justifications of the projects or the accuracy of the estimates. However, the group did a creditable job. In fact if this group had been in charge of the effort five years ago, they might well have succeeded.

But that's just my opinion. Times have changed and, even more so than last time, people will vote their pocket books. The most relevant comment of the night from the board came from Lisa Olinger, who said that they needed to consider what the community could afford. That might require breaking the project up into smaller chunks, being open about more to follow as the economy improves.

Tony Bennett smoo..oothly complements FWCS

2011-10-02T09:15:00.007-05:00

This morning's JG Perspective contains a letter from State Superintendent Tony Bennett complementing FWCS for getting with the program and saving NSHS and SSHS from a state takeover. How they escaped after looking at their ECA passing rates is still a mystery but nobody cares about that now. What the letter illustrates is Bennett's skill in turning a phrase to make shoving reforms down their throats palatable. Here are some excerpts followed by their translations:

"FWCS, under Robinson's leadership , implemented robust reforms....."
She accepted the reforms mandated by the Cambridge group on behalf of the IDE.

"The district was proactive and compressed a five year turnaround plan into one year..".
They sat on their butts for five years and got serious one year before being taken over.

"FWCS board president Mark GiaQuinta even recognized the state's role in encouraging swift improvement at NS and SS."
He admitted nothing would have changed without the threat of a state takeover.

"FWCS took on the status quo directly by eliminating seniority based placements.."
They complied with Cambridge mandates and the reforms passed by the Republican legislature, reforms which Mark and brother Phil, who ran away to Peoria to try and stop them, publicly opposed.

"FWCS proves that more can be done with less and funding is not an impassable obstacle.."
Quit whining about money.

"But don't forget Robinson's words: it's not enough. Keep up the momentum..."
I'm going to be breathing down your neck from now on.

Couldn't have said it smoo...oother myself. Obviously.

FWCS high school ECA test scores still suck

2011-09-22T11:42:00.018-05:00

Ever since all five FWCS high schools got off probation, I've been waiting to see the actual results of the ECA exams that helped get them off the hook. No results have been announced by the district or their mouthpiece at the JG, so I dug around on the IDE web site and found them. And they're still pathetic. But the "improvement" required to get off probation was based on the 8th grade scores and ECA scores for "cohort" groups which obviously bears no relation to actual passing rates in the high schools, which are shown below (sorry, but for some reason making a table doesn't work):

State, FWCS, Wayne, SSHS, NSHS. Northrup, Snyder

Algebra I
63.9 (61), 36.54 (43), 29.15 (20), 28.35 (19), 32.46 (32), 33.63 (47), 36.9(47)

English 10
63.6 (63), 50.27 (52), 44.31 (38), 39.83 (53), 46.09 (48), 58.84 (61), 58.9 (57)

Last year's passing rates are shown in parentheses. Overall FWCS declined in both areas. Wayne was the only school which improved in both categories. , The algebra scores are roughly the same as Gary and Indianapolis. I'm confused how the high schools in a "high performance", "A" rated district could perform this poorly. How could they get off probation? Maybe I got the numbers wrong.

No doubt these results will be announced to the public and discussed in a press conference and an upcoming board meeting after they're done "analyzing" them, although they may turn off the TV first. That's part of their policy of "engaging the public" by telling us what they want us to hear. I'm looking forward to the meeting.

High performance home schooling

2011-09-11T10:28:00.009-05:00

After graduating from SSHS (without the benefit of social promotion) when that school was the academic equivalent of a Canterbury and spending decades surviving the brutality of the private sector (performance accountability and the constant threat of extinction) I lost track of the changes in the education system. I could only infer from the declining quality of our company hires that something was amiss. We adapted by hiring high school "graduates" only as temps. Permanent hires had to have two years of "college" remedial education.

After I retired and had time to wander around during the day I was puzzled by all the kids walking around during school hours. When asked why they weren't in school, the answer was usually "we're home schooled, sir". Sir? Home schooled? What's that? First of all how can anybody duplicate the services of the government education system at home? Second, why would anybody want to?

The answer to the first question became apparent through my ten year acquaintance with a home schooling family. The two kids were home schooled until they were through the equivalent of middle school and were then enrolled in a small public high school. The eldest is now a senior who will graduate at or near the top of his class.

The second question was answered the first day I set foot in my former high school.

Both papers have recently run a letter from a home schooling mother complaining about the unfairness of the the voucher law because it requires kids to spend at least a year in public school. She wants to avoid the current "poorly performing" school system, if she chooses to enroll them in a private school. Obviously this mother has not been attending FWCS board meetings or reading the JG or she would have learned from Mark GiaQuinta that we now have a "high performance" district. It just changed overnight. Or perhaps she 's spent some time in FWCS classrooms and saw something closer to the truth.

Why, she then asks, would the legislature restrict access to vouchers when the average private school spends $4500 per student versus $9900 spent by government schools? The state could save a ton of money for every voucher they give out. Obviously this mother doesn't realize that she's over-simplifying the situation. That extra money buys the government system all kind of added features. Nicer ("decent" as GiaQuinta puts it) buildings, more bureaucracy, sports programs, and teachers unions. It buys newspaper stories about home schooling run amuck so they can agitate for restrictions on home schooling which costs the taxpayers nothing. It buys Democratic legislators and lobbyists to keep that extra $4700 coming.

The Republican legislators had to offer the Democrats some kind of sop to come back from Peoria which they did by putting in some obstacles to vouchers. So there's your answer. You should at least hire some lobbyists.

Will the Feds remodel Wendy's buildings?

2011-09-08T08:21:00.010-05:00

The JG reported that Pres. Obama may use FWCS as an example of a "high performance" school district with budget constraints that have prevented them from fixing/remodeling their aging buildings. "High performance"? Well, whatever that means, if Obama and Mark GiaQuinta say so it must be true.

Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan actually do deserve some credit in education reform. The "Race to the Top" initiative led to the revision of laws on teacher seniority, teacher evaluations and charter schools in many states, including Indiana, reforms that were panned by the GiaQuinta brothers. Proposing those reforms took some courage considering teachers' unions were Obama's biggest campaign contributors. In fact, Arne Duncan was honored with boos and jeers when he spoke about reforms at the National Education Association convention. That's the national teachers union that counts the ISTA and FWEA as affiliates. (I've only been booed by FWEA teachers at SSHS.) While we're doling out the credits we should include Tony Bennett, who held the gun to Wendy's and the FWEA's heads. Obama won't mention that.

GiaQuinta went on by whining about the age of Harrison Hill where he went to kindergarten and where I went to Jr High School before that. He might have added that Bishop Luers where he went to high school, didn't spend anything on it's building for fifty years. Somehow 90% of their kids pass the state tests every year. How does that compare to SSHS and NSHS where we spent $100 million? Oh yeah, they were almost converted to charter schools.

Whatever. The BS is never going to stop but if we can get money from the Feds, go for it.

Five Indiana schools face charter conversions

2011-08-30T08:15:00.005-05:00

During a lengthy meeting Monday, the State Board of Education voted to assign turnaround operators to run one Gary high school (Roosevelt), one Indianapolis middle school and three Indianapolis high schools (Arlington, Howe and Manual). Indianapolis Washington and Broad Ripple (a magnet school) will be assigned to improvement specialists, leaving them under IPS control but subject to takeover if they don't improve. The IDE pointed out that the schools that were taken over refused to sign a memorandum of agreement for restructuring with the IDE last year. In other words they were uncooperative. Although no one said why during the meeting, it's probably because the Indianapolis teachers union wouldn't go along.

FW South Side and North Side undoubtedly would have faced the same fate if they had refused to restructure and raise their passing rates. But Wendy and FWEA (kicking and screaming) wisely went along. IPS superintendent Eugene White said Howe and Arlington were graded unfairly because they have combined with middle schools, whose scores were figured in with the high schools. He's threatened to sue the IDE, which makes it look like it's all about control instead of the kids.

At least Tony Bennett has shown that he's serious. Being willing to take over failing schools will keep some pressure on the ones that escaped takeovers. But as he said in a press conference, being able to escape for another five years by making "minuscule" improvement one year is not acceptable. PL 221 needs to be tightened to avoid backsliding. At the same time he should look at his rating system. When almost half the schools in the state get a grade of "A", he's made that meaningless.

No injunction against vouchers

2011-08-16T08:57:00.002-05:00

A Marion county judge refused to issue an in junction to stop Indiana's new voucher program from going into effect this fall, saying the ISTA's case against vouchers didn't have enough merit to succeed. That meas that at least this year about 2800 students will be attending private schools with taxpayer funded scholarships. After that anything can happen in the legal system through further trials and appeals. Different judges can have different opinions. But this judge said the law was written for the benefit of students, not religious schools. He also said state scholarships to private universities would be at risk if they were unconstitutional in K-12. Next thing you know, professors at state universities will unionize to stop private college scholarships.

So far, the 2800 students who will receive scholarships this year seem like a small impact. We'll just have to wait and see how this develops as the legal challenges play out and parents become more knowledgeable on their options. But at least they have an additional option for the time being.

NSHS, SSHS off the hook

2011-07-23T08:21:00.006-05:00

SS and NS were among eleven of the 18 Indiana schools that were removed from probationary status by the IDE yesterday. Ironically another one was Harding, which was closed in anticipation of being taken over by the state. Six Indianapolis schools and Gary Roosevelt are still in trouble, their future to be decided by the State Board of Education at the end of August.

The "improvement" was not based on raw passing rates but on the difference between eighth grade and high school scores for the classes that took the tests in 2010 and 2011. The statewide results have not been published. so from the data given on the IDE site it's not possible to tell if test difficulty changed. But I'm sure nobody on Clinton Street cares about that.

Tony Bennett said FWCS improved by "compressing a five year improvement plan into one year". In other words they sat on their ass until he put a gun to their heads. He mentioned an incredible sense of urgency which took ten years to materialize. Well, we can't be taking FWEA out of their comfort zone just for the sake of academic improvement. Heckuva job Wendy.

JG proves worst schools are the best schools

2011-07-19T11:35:00.002-05:00

In another astounding extension of apologist logic, Karen Frisco argues it's better to send your kids to a lousy school (can you say FWCS) than use a voucher to send them to a good school. Since we're now into the "growth" era, lousy schools with lousy passing rates are more likely to improve than good schools with high passing rates. Therefore, schools with more potential to "grow" are more desirable than those who don't need to "grow". Wonder which category the Ball State School of Jounalism falls into.

Who's the target audience for this kind of drivel? Five years ago an elementary school principal told me that only 6% of the families with kids in FWCS get a newspaper at home. Maybe now that it's available for free on line the readership has expanded.

Finally, an improvement in ISTEP scores

2011-07-16T11:45:00.004-05:00

Now that we're in the second year of spring testing, with some confidence in a new baseline, it looks like FWCS made some progress . Overall math scores went up 3% versus the state average while language arts went up 2% versus the state. They even said the results had improved relative to the state, although they only gave out the raw numbers (about 4% in each category). No doubt their $355,000 PR consultant helped them craft the message for maximum positive spin. The numbers look more reasonable this year, however. The 6% they claimed last year did not, especially when last year's high school scores went down 6%, a fact which they never publicized.

It also looks like scores improved more in the early grades, which is also more logical than having the same increase across the board. Eighth grade language arts scores did not improve, however. FWCS middle schools dominate among the bottom five categories in NE Indiana. That's not a good omen for the high schools which are all on probation, especially SSHS and NSHS which are in their fifth year. The high school ECA scores have not been released yet but, based on 8th grade scores last year and this year, it would be surprising if high school scores improved without an easier test.

Even if they can keep it up at 2-3% a year, it's going to be a long haul. Too bad they didn't get serious about ten years ago.

JG mischaracterizes Mitch's "mischaracterization"

2011-07-06T09:00:00.003-05:00

Off to the side of their editorial today the JG listed the parties in the lawsuit against the state's voucher law. They used that list to show that the lawsuit was not filed to preserve the financial interest of the ISTA as the governor charged. Included along with the ISTA were the superintendent of the Lafayette schools (no financial interest there?) a member of the Lafayette school board and several others with no apparent ties (who knows?) to the government education establishment.

Balony. If the suit had been filed by parents or other parties with no financial interest in government schools then we might buy the argument that these parties were concerned solely about the (Indiana) constitutional questions. That would be fine. But as the governor said, the ISTA puts it's interest above those of the kids. The ISTA's charter is to look after its members first. The JG's charter is to look after Wendy.

ISTA gets religion

2011-07-04T09:08:00.002-05:00

Well, actually it's the religion they've always had, namely keeping union teaching jobs. Claiming that because the vast majority of private schools where vouchers could be used are religious schools, the union says the voucher law is unconstitutional. Wasn't that issue settled by the Supreme Court a few years ago, saying that vouchers were constitutional if the kids were not given religious instruction? Well no matter, there was no way the ISTA was going to let this pass. The IDE said they expected the suit.

The biggest use of vouchers and the biggest impact on school budgets by far would be in urban areas where government schools are uniformly failing and where they are uniformly resistant to change because of resistance from teachers' unions. Their tenacity in holding on to their jobs traps kids without means in failing urban government schools. The "common schools" provided per the Indiana constitution are interpreted by the ISTA as government run and union dominated are common indeed.

All the reforms passed by the legislature are long term efforts, even without court challenges and delaying tactics. A far quicker tool for change is the strict enforcement of PL221 to take over schools in their sixth year of academic probation. No dumbing down the tests to get them off the hook. No second chances if they don't make it by year six. When they've had five years to change and did nothing until the fifth year they deserve no more time and no more sympathy.

What planet was I on?

2011-06-22T09:15:00.004-05:00

On what planet would a high school going from one of the top ten in the state to one of the bottom ten be a cause for celebration? A hallelujah, born again moment. Where staying the course and watching it happen is considered strong leadership. Only on the Mork and Mendy public education planet.

I only went to the state's "public" hearing at South Side last night. As expected almost all the speakers were officialdom or teachers. Less than a handful of parents spoke. They were all committed to the reform bandwagon. Amazing what the threat of a state takeover did for their motivation after five decades of excuses. Like the JG said this morning they all asked for more time, if scores didn't improve this year.

That's probably what they'll get and I can't say I disagree with that, although they did nothing for six years. One year to turn around the deplorable situation at SSHS will not be nearly enough and the teachers who signed on to fix these schools would get the shaft if they're taken over after only a year. But as I said last night to Mr. Bennett and Co., continuous improvement will require continuous pressure from the state. The district showed that it couldn't reform itself without intervention and the continued threat of state takeover has to be maintained. The problem is really in the middle schools, and unless that's fixed, the high schools will have a tough time improving.

So stay tuned.

D-Day the 21st of June

2011-06-05T08:47:00.009-05:00

In case you're among the (less than) 30% of Americans who know about the D-Day on the 6th of June, 1944 this is not that D-Day. That D-Day the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy to liberate Europe and eventually my former country from the Wehrmacht. On the June 21 D-Day the Indiana Department of Public education will land at my former high school Fort Wayne South Side to liberate it from Wendy and Mark GiaQuinta. Well, I hope, maybe.

If they don't show sufficient improvement in the 6th year of academic probation under PL 221 SSHS (and NSHS) could be taken over by the state and put under new management (read charter school). The state will conduct a public hearing on the 21 st to get community input on that or other options. The hearing will precede the release of the latest test scores so an actual decision will have to wait on the data, which will be based on the delta between the ECA scores and the 8 th grade scores for the same kids the previous year. Since these two high schools are dependent on the k-8 schools that feed them, I don't see much chance of significant improvement until the feeder schools improve. That will take years. But there's probably not much chance the state would step in right away. Most likely they will get a pass for a year or two.

Both papers have recently run lengthy articles on the LEAD school process,which by and large were pretty well balanced, outside of Karen Frisco's tiresome, obligatory potshot at charter schools. Of course the district claimed in both JG articles that they consider this process as having started ten years ago. No way. Ten years ago Wendy and the FWEA were concerned only about getting all the buildings air conditioned. That turned into the $850 million remodeling wish list rejected in a remonstrance by property owners. Losing that may have caused a change priority but they didn't get serious until the state threatened to step in last year. That's what it took get the FWEA to "do the right thing".

The SSHS hearing will start at 5 pm in the (air conditioned) auditorium. According to IDE director of school improvement Lee Ann Kwiatkowski, the meeting will be conducted by Tony Bennett, who will talk for 5 minutes followed by Wendy who will explain the program at SSHS. So the IDE won't be dodging bullets on Omaha Beach. Instead they will face a barrage of feel good propaganda. Hopefully GiaQuinta can hold himself in check. After that the members of the public can talk for 2-3 minutes each, but they have to sign up ahead of time. I wouldn't put it past Wendy to stack the sign up sheet with friendly speakers, so you might want to get there early. They'll be leaving for NSHS at around 7 pm. Actually, I'd recommend writing Ms Kwiatkowski a note and sending it in the mail or giving it to her at the meeting. Written input will be considered in their recommendation.

I can hardly wait.

Social promotion is a lie

2011-06-01T12:33:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the NS published an article quoting David Chow, superintendent of the Anderson, Indiana public schools who said that social promotion is a disservice to students. Today the NS followed with an editorial which put the burden on public schools to justify continuing the practice. Social promotion is a lie to the student who thinks he is doing well enough to get a diploma that's not worth the paper it's written on. It's a lie to the taxpayers who think their sacrifice pays for graduates who can meet meet a minimum standard. It's a lie to the business community and colleges who think a high school graduate is prepared for the next step. Most important it's a lie that keeps the money flowing.

The blanket social promotion practiced by districts like FWCS is an admission of failure so obvious that they won't even talk about it. They're afraid of a lower graduation rate if kids are told the truth and held accountable. What's the difference between a drop out and a kid who gets a worthless diploma? None for all practical purposes. But it's proof of a failing system with a gutless school board and administration.

FWCS to participate in designing teacher evaluation process

2011-05-20T08:56:00.004-05:00

Nikki Kelly of the JG reported today that FWCS will be one of six Indiana districts working with the IDE to develop a merit based teacher evaluation system. The new system will consider improvement in standardized test scores as part of the evaluation, although how much weight they will get is not clear. Also unclear is what will be used for those teaching subjects which are not covered by standardized test.

In spite of the difficulty and their past resistance to the reforms, participation is a good move for FWCS. Being part of the process, they can influence the product with the participation of teachers and administrators and get better buy in from both. And by working with the IDE they'll get points for cooperation, which will help in keeping SSHS and NSHS from being converted to charters if their scores don't improve this year.

All four major reforms now law

2011-05-05T08:57:00.003-05:00

Now that the legislature has passed all of the reform bills for government schools, we can speculate on what their effect will be. These reforms will not "kill public education " as we know it, especially with respect to vouchers and charter schools. The pressure will be mostly on urban districts. Government schools have not been motivated to change by competition as yet, preferring just to circle the wagons and stay the course. Actually the best tool for rapid change would be the strict enforcement of PL 221. But that depends on consistency in the testing program and the willingness of the IDE to step in, both of which are doubtful.

Vouchers - will pay up to $4700 for a student to attend a private school, depending on family income. That would be enough to pay tuition in parochial elementary and middle schools. The catch is that they have to attend a government school for at least a year and kindergarten doesn't count. That makes things awkward. But then what? The choice of private high schools is more limited, so are they then going to go end up having to go to a goverment high school?

Charters - it's hard to start a school, so I don't anticipate a slew of charter start ups. High schools are especially difficult and expensive. And they won't be able to control enrollment. If they end up admitting too many unprepared government school kids, a charter high school is going to have the same problems as a govenment high school. Having $1 access to a closed government school building will help but there will still be initial building outlays for revisions and repairs.

Teacher evaluations - have the potential to improve teacher quality, although slowly, if it's done right. Each district will have to set policies and salary administration factoring in test score data for at least 50% of the evaluation. An annual system based on competence and data instead of seniority can be a big step forward depending on how it's set up.

Collective bargaining - will now be limited to pay and benefits. Contracts last no longer than the state budget cycle, so they are forced to renegotiate every two years. Districts now have the opportunity to redefine their work rules and regain the flexibility they lost under collective bargaining agreements. Reasonable provisions of current contract can be kept so those will probably be used as a starting point. Again the benefits of this change will depend on how districts structure their new policies.

All in all teachers will be working under systems similar to those most professionals see in the private sector. Less job security with opportunity for higher pay. It will take years to see how this all pans out, so don't expect any dramatic change.

Charter school bill passes both houses

2011-04-28T08:52:00.003-05:00

Both houses of the legislature have passed the bill to allow expansion of charter schools in Indiana. Although much decried by the government education establishment, its effect will mainly be felt in urban districts where government schools are "under performing". Those areas already have charters in place. Establishing a new school is a difficult task, especially to serve the population in urban areas. The best outcome would be for the existing charters to stabilize and improve their operations before seeing a new wave of schools being opened. We may also see some failing government schools taken over by the IDE under the provisions of PL 221 and given to charter operators. That mechanism, rather than new charters, is the best means to put pressure on government schools to change.

Meanwhile the JG continues to beat a dead horse, attacking for profit charter operators for paying no property taxes on their schools. Charters got no funding for obtaining their buildings or fixing them up to serve as schools. To recoup that outlay they have come up with various arrangements like sales and leasebacks. They have increase the value of the property, but in the case of for profit operators are being challenged in court over property tax liability. This situation incenses Karen Frisco who wrote a long, excruciatingly detailed piece on the topic in the Sunday Perspective.

Fine, let for profit charters pay property taxes. No problem, end of story.

So why did Harding fail?

2011-04-20T08:42:00.003-05:00

Throughout the fiasco at Harding no one has talked about the cause of its closing. It didn't just get bad overnight. Like all failing urban schools, it has been in a long decline, which nobody seemed to notice or care about. It would have gone on like that forever absent state intervention. As Winston Churchill said "Americans always do the right thing, when they have no other choice".

Kids in urban districts start school behind in basic skills. The elementary and middle schools fail to get them caught up and pass them into high school unprepared. So they fail. Upset parents are now trying to turn Harding into a charter school. They didn't seem to be upset when their kids were coming out of Harding undereducated, but are now outraged about long bus rides to the remaining district high schools where the culture is unwelcoming. Other than avoiding busing, what else would turning Harding into a charter accomplish? The kids will still be coming from the same homes and passing through the same elementary and middle schools that couldn't prepare them for high school. A charter school won't do any worse, but the improvement will be limited.

But why pick on Harding? In FWCS Wayne has virtually identical scores on the ECA, about 4 points lower in math and about 4 points higher in English. Considering that Harding has 30% English challenged Burmese you could argue they were actually doing better than Wayne, which also just fired its principal, apparently because he wasn't with the program either. Then there's SSHS which is only a bit better and is now run by the principal who couldn't fix Wayne?

Well, as Henny Youngman's most famous one liner would have put it to Tony Bennett, "Take my high schools .....please!" More likely the he'll dumb down the ECA's.

If "research suggests", it must be true

2011-04-12T14:45:00.003-05:00

NAC announced it will be offering full day kindergarten, for a $2000 a fee for those who can pay. Superintendent Chris Himsel said "research and evidence for those who participate in early childhood learning programs are much, much more likely to graduate from high school". Note he didn't say those who participate in full day kindergarten vs. half day kindergarten. There is no conclusive evidence that full day kindengarten is more beneficial than half day once kids are past the third grade. Studies at Indiana University and the University of Southern California "suggest" the benefit is gone after grade three. In other words Mr. Himsel is blowing smoke. Just like FWCS saying eliminating full day kindergarten to save money (and keep Elmhurst open) is off the table. It's a popular baby sitting service and now that we have it it's not going away.

"Cash strapped" dismal district votes $355K for PR consultant

2011-03-29T14:53:00.021-05:00

Last night the board voted to let Wendy spend $355,000 for a Virginia "communications consultant". According to the Sentinel's Sarah Janssen, the company will first evaluate the effectiveness of the district's current surveys. Say what? Mark GiaQuinta said the contract related to the importance of board's number 2 goal, "engage the community". He didn't explain how that squared with their other goal "fiscal responsibility', which is apparently much farther down their list. This isn't quite as bad as the $450K of taxpayer money they pissed away on Schmidt & Associates to do a sales job on taxpayers for their failed $500mm bond issue. Although $50K of that did go to a friendly city councilman to benefit the local economy (and him). Make no mistake. This money is being spent to do a better sales job on us "stakeholders" the next time.

Here we go again

2011-03-21T13:15:00.003-05:00

Kathy Friend and Krista Stockman were on WBOI today parroting the company line about the dire and dismal buildings. Kathy lamented the loss of money in the capital fund because of the tax caps. She failed to mention that most of the hit to the fund has been to pay for the failed "racial balance" program, which is Wendy's sacred cow. They haven't learned that transparency and honesty might be the best way to approach this issue. They still think spin works better.

Then Krista chimes in and says we need air conditioning because more of the kids come from air conditioned homes and can't adjust to non air conditioned schools. What I see in the statistics is more kids in FWCS on free lunch, living in poverty and homelessness every year. But at the same time more of them have air conditioning? Come on . They think we're idiots.

This is going to end up as a ballot referendum. Taxpayers will vote their pocketbooks. If FWCS overshoots the acceptable number they will get nothing, just like last time.

Let's try this again

2011-03-18T09:08:00.006-05:00

Writing a blog the other day after reading Sarah Janssen's article about Wendy sobbing about her "dismal" buildings, was not a good idea. Better to try be objective.

Twenty or so years ago the district agreed to spend additional money for a "racial balance" fund to improve the educational fortunes of the district's black kids. That spending had to be "tax neutral" (no property tax increase) so they took it from the capital fund which was used to fix, upgrade, remodel the buildings. Over the years roughly $150 MM was diverted from the buildings about 2/3 of it to hire more teachers. The results were predictable. The buildings suffered, although it's hard to say how much, and the money did nothing to lower the achievement gap.

Four years ago the district tried to get $500 MM do "fix" the building. Why $500 MM you ask? Well why not? "This is not a wish list". Pick a number and as long as you have a pretense maybe taxpayers will fall for it. Well they didn't, Wendy got nothing and the buildings are still (supposedly) a problem. We'll just have to take their and Karen Frisco's word for that word for it. So now, in the new age of ballot referendums (instead of remonstrances) a housing collapse and enormous government debt they're revisiting the topic.

I have no clue what they're going to ask for. Whatever it is, the problem will resurface again as long as money is being diverted from capital projects to keep more teachers employed for "racial balance". I don't necessarily have a problem with the extra teachers even though they have totally failed in their original objective. But what they're doing is not "tax neutral". Sooner or later we will get another tab for building repairs. If you want to keep those teachers, then ask for that on another referendum like SAC did. And when you do that let's air out the "racial balance" issue. That discussion is long overdue.

Stanford U says Indiana charters better than government schools

2011-03-12T10:50:00.003-05:00

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University just released a comparison of academic performance for Indiana charter schools versus traditional government schools. The statistical comparison concluded that in Indiana, charter schools performed "dramatically" better than traditional schools. In reading all the charters but two were better, while in math all were better.

The comparisons were presented in terms of standard deviations, a statistical comparison which makes it hard to translate the data to differences in actual passing rates. This is the same measure CREDO used to do a national comparison, which called charter performance a mixed bag. But the national study, which did not include Indiana, was used by the JG's Karen Frisco to discredit charters schools across the board. We will, no doubt, see a follow up from Ms. Frisco, now that we have the Indiana data.

Charter schools are obviously not a panacea, but can be a viable option to failing government schools, depending on circumstances. In Indiana, they provide a comparable or better education for less cost to the taxpayer. The challenge for the charter advocates is to close down the ones that don't work academically. That's something that doesn't happen at all in government schools, as the closing of Elmhurst vividly demonstrated here.

I can't believe they (the NS) printed the whole thing

2011-03-03T10:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the News Sentinel for printing my letter in its entirety. I can't say it's the best thing I ever wrote but at least it makes more sense than the abridged version that came out in the JG.

My biggest disappointment with the situation at FWCS is in the teachers. They know what they're doing isn't working but they don't want to change. They've unionized to prevent change. They can't afford to tell the public what's really going inside their classrooms, so they maintain a conspiracy of silence. They know the system will eventually look like Gary and Indianapolis but they seem to think by that time "I'll be gone, you'll be gone". They're probably right in that respect as long as they can keep strangling reforms.

That was my letter, at least most of it

2011-02-28T09:11:00.004-05:00

I saw my letter to the editor on school reform in the JG today. I've written a number of them over the years. Surprisingly enough they have all been printed, although not always as I wrote them. Today's version was considerably shorter than what I wrote but I have to say it didn't change the essence of my thoughts, most of which were pretty well preserved.

My experience at my former high school, which included a year of tutoring in algebra classes after trying unsuccessfully to teach as a substitute, started my frustration with FWCS. The score at SSHS on last year's End of Course Exams (19% passing in math, omitted from the letter) show that, if anything, the situation is getting worse and meaningful reforms are not coming from within. Yet the official line from the board and administration continues to defy the reality in the classrooms. The reality is bad enough. The hypocrisy just compounds it.

FWEA "defiant" toward new legislation

2011-02-05T11:37:00.003-05:00

Sounding much like past UAW president Ron Gettlefinger defying the new reality at GM (we know how that ended), FWEA and ISTA officials set a "defiant tone" (arrogant would be a better word) against the Governor and State Superintendent of Public Instruction at Northrop HS. FWEA president Al Jaquay bemoaned that teachers were being "blamed for all the ills of public education". A more accurate assessment would be that teachers' unions are being blamed. ISTA president Nate Snellenberger said he's getting the "cold shoulder of disrespect" from legislators. After decades of paying off Democrats to do their bidding, did he and the ISTA expect hugs and kisses from Republicans?

Snellenberger also said pending legislation would set back public education 40 years. If only that were true. I could still be proud of my former high school. But the demographics changed, teachers unionized, FWCS lost flexibility and couldn't adapt.

The prospects in the legislature are sobering because, as Steve Brace put it "we're fighting against ideas for change". Well, we certainly wouldn't expect those ideas to come from FWEA. Unless they involved remodeling the buildings.

HB 1003 spells out school voucher proposal

2011-02-02T10:13:00.008-05:00

Indiana's school voucher bill , HB 1003 was submitted by Rep. Bob Behning of Indianapolis, head of the House Committee on Education. The bill would allow any student who has attended a public school for at least two semesters to apply for a taxpayer funded voucher to an accredited private school, including faith based schools. The amount of the voucher is determined by family income. Transportation is not provided. Private schools would not be required to alter their admission policies or curriculum but would be required to administer the state test to all students and receive letter grades as do government schools. There is no limit on the number of vouchers that can be given, although it's estimated that existing private schools, could accommodate about 20,000 students.

Naturally urban districts would be most affected by vouchers. Suburban parents are not the ones clamoring for alternatives through vouchers and charter schools. The country's biggest voucher program has been in existence in Milwaukee (the Viagra district) since 1989 affecting about 20,000 students. A study published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claims that there is no appreciable difference in student achievement between those accepting the vouchers and those staying in the public system. Graduation rates were higher by 18% and overall cost to Wisconsin (but not Milwaukee) taxpayers is lower. Private schools accepting state funds were not subject to to the same accountability as government school, but that would be changed as part of the effort to expand the program, which is currently limited by law. Parents were said to be happy to have the choice.

Rep. Behner says his aim is to increase competition. Milwaukee public schools are said to have improved slightly with the challenge but there was no information on whether any poorly performing public schools were closed after losing students to private schools, which would be the other goal of providing competion. All in all it doesn't appear that the effect is as dramatic as predicted by both proponents and opponents. Contrary to the claims of the Indiana Teachers Union, this (Daniels) bill is not going to kill the existing public school system.

All five FWCS high schools on academic probation

2011-01-29T10:10:00.010-05:00

In addition to the charter members of the IDE's bottom category SSHS, NSHS and WAYNE, the other two remaining FWCS high schools, Snider and Northrop, joined them last year by going on academic probation. Naturally neither the district nor the JG deemed this piece of bad news important enough to talk about it publicly. No gushing Mark and Wendy news conference. No apologist wailing by Karen Frisco. They could have legitimately claimed that the new high school test, the ECA, was more difficult than the GQE it replaced, which is true. The ECA's at FWCS were about 6% lower than the GQE's, which mirrors the 6% drop statewide. But then they would have been caught in a trap on their "improvement" on the k-8 ISTEP scores.

The IDE's recent review of NSHS and SSHS noted that FWCS seemed to be serious about reforming their high schools. That may be, but at the end of the day, they can't make a real and lasting improvement in the high schools until they improve the middle schools. How will we know if the middle schools are improving? When the district stops blanket social promotion through the middle schools and quits sending kids into high school unprepared. ECA scores will fluctuate. The state may "adjust" the difficulty but it only matters how they do relative to the rest of the state, so that's how the scores have to be viewed.

Social promotion in the middle schools is an admission of FWCS' failure to prepare kids for high school. They may be serious about improving the high schools in the face of a possible state takeover. But nothing the Superintendent, the board or the JG says about progress can be taken seriously until blanket social promotion stops. It's just more hollow rhetoric for public consumption. If they want to show us they're serious, they have a way to do so.

And speaking of vouchers....

2011-01-20T12:44:00.009-05:00

Although the legislature is reportedly working on a school voucher proposal, I haven't found the details of an actual bill submitted. Nevertheless opponents of vouchers are already telling us why they are bad. The JG has a column this morning by an IU professor of elementary education, Daniel Holm with a list of six objections (surprise, surprise) to vouchers.

1. Private schools are not held accountable for meeting state standards-

So make them accountable as a condition for taking public funds. I don't know of any private schools in our area that don't already give the state tests and they're pretty much a non-event. Passing rates in the parochial schools are around 90%. The tests are easy.

2. Private schools can refuse admittance-

True, but to what extent and why are they doing so? Lack of space or refusal to deal with poor students? Government schools expel students who can't adapt after they admit them. Why not give government schools a better way to handle expected problem students rather than mainstreaming them in with everyone else?

3. Negatively affect government school finances-

Parents who opt out of a government school and take the money elsewhere is another way to provide competition for government schools. Government monopolies in education are no more desirable than any other kind of monopolies. Giving vouchers to parents who are already paying out of their own pockets to send their kids to private school will increase the cost of public education. Personally I'm willing to pay more taxes to see that happen but that doesn't mean everyone else will.

4. Transportation issues-

Lower income parents may have trouble providing transportation to a school outside their neighborhood. Perhaps but FWCS is already busing kids to schools outside their neighborhoods in their school choice plan. Many other urban districts bus them to magnet schools. Schools are not obligated to bus anyone unless they have a physical disability or if their local school is in trouble long enough that parents can opt to send their kids to another school. The schools do it because they're getting the money from the state to operate expensive transportation systems. I can see some justification in rural district but few of them are clamoring for alternatives. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for any transportation in an urban district? Nobody rode a bus to SSHS when I went there.

5. Private schools can't accommodate special needs students-

Another can of worms that needs to be aired out. How many of these students are there? Are we talking about special-ed and ELL? FWCS has 20% of their students designated as special ed, an astounding number. Do they do that because it brings in more money? Why are they mainstreaming these kids if they have so much trouble learning? The ones that can keep up shouldn't be special ed. The ones that can't are frustrated and hold the rest of the class back. Why are non-English speakers put into regular schools before they can function in a classroom? Why are they tested before they're proficient in English?

6. Parochial schools will push religious agendas-

Nonsense. Plenty of parents send their kids to parochial schools as an alternative to bad government schools, if they can afford the tuition. If they are going to get public money, they will have to limit the religious instruction to those that want it and keep it away from those who don't. Eventually non-religious private schools will spring up to serve disenchanted government school parents. Like the one GiaQuinta sent his kids to.

The professor closes by saying more money needs to be given to government schools because they are already providing a "quality" education. What does that mean? How does he define "quality"? He doesn't. It's meaningless. Then he adds we should spend more for pre-school and full day kindergarten. Fine. Show us how well that works. With data. A study by IU concluded that full day kindergarten was "no worse" than half day. FWCS has had full day kindergarten in Title I schools for over a decade. Where's the data on the benefits of that expenditure? Taxpayer funded babysitting and more jobs for education school graduates?

It's going to be fun following the uproar from the government education establishment, not to mention the JG. It may well end up in court, with religion as the pretext for a suit but the real issue will be money.

Harding as a charter?

2011-01-19T09:47:00.002-05:00

EACS is reportedly discussing turning Harding into a non-conversion charter. That would turn its operation over to a charter operator but keep it under the district's control. It's hard to see what turning any high school into a charter would accomplish in terms of significantly improving academic performance, which is ultimately controlled by the quality of the feeder schools.

But the Harding debate has never been about academics. It's been lagging for years and nobody cared until the state threatened to intervene. Now the objections to the current EACS plan are based on the inconvenience of longer bus rides and incompatible cultures. And if the board goes along, it will only be to keep control of the money. There's no way this story can have a happy ending but the district would be better off to let the state have it and wash their hands of a can't win situation.

Education agenda going full steam

2011-01-17T09:29:00.004-05:00

Sen Dennis Kruse of Auburn has filed a bill on teacher evaluation and pay, Rep. Brian Bosma of Carmel has introduced a bill to expand charter schools while a bill on school vouchers is also in the works. Finally after decades of staying the course while urban districts continue to churn out graduates with worthless diplomas, the politicians, make that Republican politicians, are willing to force change. No it won't be perfect, there will be unintended consequences and there will be adjustments down the road.

There has been relatively muted reaction from teachers' unions since they know they can't block the tide. They'll have to start buying Republican politicians instead of Democrats now. Predictably the hysterics have come from the JG, which went on another inane tirade against charter schools in Sunday's Perspective. Today's commentary mentioned that Tony Bennett's wife is consultant for the state charter school association. Like there's no hypocrisy at the JG.

Relax guys. The threat of extinction did wonders for the US automobile industry. It will do the same for FWCS.

Mitch's speech doesn't fly with FWEA

2011-01-12T09:56:00.003-05:00

Devon Haynie's article in the JG on FWEA members reaction to Gov. Daniels speech illustrates why the public education establishment can't change itself. Steve Brace's reaction to the Governor's proposal to let high school students graduate early, for example, was a bad idea because that would mean less money (fewer teacher jobs) for school districts. Any benefits for the student and taxpayer don't matter. By preventing change from within, public schools will finally get change from without. In the meanwhile thousands of kids have been going out the doors of districts like FWCS with high school diplomas that weren't worth the paper they're written on.

That doesn't seem to bother anyone in the system enough to do anything different, certainly not enough to speak out about it. Image matters more than substance. When Wendy claims to be thrilled about the "progress" report on the LEAD schools, nobody on the board asks her why she didn't try that eight years ago. When the Cambridge group or the IDE comes to SSHS for their status review, she tries to impress them with $100,000 of new carpeting.

Maybe if Thomas Smith had recarpeted Wayne, he would still have his job.

Happy new year and principal at Wayne

2011-01-01T12:03:00.002-05:00

Although he was seen packing up his office two weeks ago, FWCS is still not commenting on Thomas Smith's departure from Wayne HS. The Sentinel's story the other day pretty much made it "official". How swapping the principals at two failing high schools was ever going to work in the first place is still a mystery. Apparently only Pamela Martin Diaz, the lone board member to vote against the switch, was astute enough to see what would happen. The rest, who have been fooled more than once, figured Wendy knew best.

The question now is whether Carlton Mable will survive at South Side. There's very little chance he can actually do better but it may be more a question of putting on a better front for the consultant, Cambridge, than Mr. Smith was able to do. Consultants are not your friends, as Smith apparently failed to realize. They can sink you. And although Mable has been anointed by FWCS, we'll see if Cambridge can see through it.

Mitch's "love for teachers" is unrequited

2010-12-28T13:56:00.002-05:00

In his interview with Mark Mellinger on Ch. 15 last night Gov. Mitch Daniels proclaimed his love for Indiana teachers. Unfortunately few teachers are going to love him back, if he's serious about using something other than seniority to determine retention and pay. Even though the Governor and Tony Bennett are talking about a growth or "value added" model to quantify teacher effectiveness, I've never heard a teacher in favor of being judged by statistics or any kind. It seems that performance in their profession can't be measured. They are the exception to the scientific rule that theories (of competence) have to be supported by data.

The use of test scores as a component of teacher evaluations seems to be gaining ground. Obama and Arne Duncan are pushing it in Race to the Top. Last fall the ACLU sued the Los Angeles Public Schools to prevent the layoffs of teachers by seniority, arguing that losing younger teachers would disproportionately affect the success of inner city schools because most older teachers refused to work there and those that did were not necessarily better teachers. They got the district and the union to modify their layoff criterion. In the recent "interview" issue of Newsweek Bill Gates challenged union leader Randi Weingartner on why teacher pay should be predictable by nothing other than the length of their tenure. Randi didn't have an answer. She defended teachers unions by saying that unions are the basis for our middle class.

Does that mean without unions teachers would be lower class?

High school graduation rates up, economy still down

2010-12-21T09:39:00.003-05:00

High school graduation rates across the state and at FWCS improved by about 2% last year, the IDE reported. What's not clear is why that happened. FWCS, of course, attributes its increase to "high school reinvent" so maybe the whole state did that as well. A more likely explanation is that job prospects for teenagers, especially black males are pretty grim in this recession so they are opting to stay in school, which improves their chances and postpones the job search. Record college enrollments are driven by the same motive.

We'll see if the trend continues when the economy picks up.

Give Harding to the state

2010-12-10T13:27:00.004-05:00

What does EACS hope to accomplish by turning Harding into a magnet school? Harding students will spend a lot of time on buses going to distant other schools. That will help them about as much as busing FWCS kids to Nothrup and Snider from the south side of Fort Wayne, namely not at all. When they establish the magnet school, students will have to be bused from distant parts of the county to Harding. It's hard to imagine who would want their kids to be bused from Leo or Heritage to Harding for a "college preparatory" course. Then there's the cost of additional busing. The effect of sending low achievers to high achieving high schools.

Harding parents are upset about the busing and "cultural" issues. It's hard to feel sorry for them. Their kids are largely responsible for the school's failure and their kids now have a chance to go to better schools. The parents who should be upset are the ones with kids going to the other four high schools. Those schools are going to go downhill and they get to pay the tab.

The lunacy of this decision is obvious in a letter from Rev. Stephen Terry in this morning's JG. He says it's about preserving local control and instituting educational "excellence". Please! Where has his concern for excellence been for the last two decades. There was no concern until the state threatened to step in and control the MONEY. And hire a new staff. Which may be just what's needed.

Is the state getting ready to pounce?

2010-12-07T15:41:00.004-05:00

If you read Karen Frisco's column today about the December meeting of the State Board of Education, you'd think the IDE was scheming to turn our failing high schools over to a greedy for profit operator as soon as possible. If you watch the video of part 2 of the December meeting ( www.doe.in.gov./stateboard/), however, you might question her hysteria at the thought of losing "local control". There are a number of steps necessary for a state takeover, like getting another round of ECA test results (not the 3-8 ISTEP+ which she erroneously refers to) this spring which have to come up by 3% to get the high schools off the hook for a while.

In the case of SSHS, for example, their math passing rate would only have to go from the current 19% to an equally pathetic 22% to meet the low bar they established last spring. That could happen with a random statistical fluctuation or an easier test, like we saw with the ISTEP+. Nevertheless Karen thinks it's ironic that we taxpayers would have to continue paying for the $30 million remodeling bond for South Side, or the $60 million bond for NSHS if they grab that one, only to have it turned into a charter school. But she saw nothing ironic with spending another $1 billion or so to remodel other district schools a few years ago which might also get taken over down the road. Pissing that money away was "sensible".

The JG and the district are in la la land. We can only hope the IDE brings them back to reality.

Where is Wolcotville?

2010-12-01T15:10:00.002-05:00

Today's Sentinel had a letter from Richard Poor of Wolcotville, suggesting to FWCS parents that they need to make their complaints about FWCS known to the school board. The only difference between talking to our school board and talking to a brick wall is that the head brick, Mark GiaQuinta, will have the police haul you out of the room if you get too uppity. Just to make sure they don't get embarrassed, they won't let the public speak until after the meeting is adjourned and the TV cameras are turned off. As board member John Peirce opined, " why let the public use our facilities to criticise us?".

Then Mr. Poor suggests using Wendy's upcoming evaluation as an opportunity to change. Apparently he doesn't know she has a no cut contract and that her performance has no bearing on her continued employment. Never did since the day she was hired for that matter.

Must be a different world up there in Wolcotville.

Gaming the tests makes AYP meaningless

2010-11-24T14:34:00.008-05:00

As expected, grades 3-8 across the state, not just FWCS, got "better" this year as test difficulty on the ISTEP+ dropped in the second year after moving to spring testing. Whereas 47% of middle and elementary schools were in the watch or probation category, that number dropped to 27% in just the last year. Anyone who would bet money that such an improvement is possible in one year, should be taking out credit default swaps.

With high school testing changing from Graduation Qualifying Exams to End of Course Assessments, the state has not yet decided how to determine AYP for the high schools. When ECA's were give two years ago, the results were not counted. The statewide passing rates were then around 40%. Last spring they came up to about 60%. Again such an "improvement" is not possible in one year without dumbing down the tests. Despite easier tests, the results for our local high schools, especially the LEAD schools are still so bad (around 50% passing in English and 20% in math) that it would be hard to get worse. All five FWCS high schools are now on academic probation. How can the high schools all get worse while the lower grades are all doing better? They can't.

So you can bet that the ECA's will get easier again next year and our high schools will dodge the bullet. The state doesn't really want to take them over anyway. But to avoid that by gaming those tests they will also lose their credibility. FWCS didn't have any credibility to start with. With the IDE declaring victory, we'll have to see if the Republican legislature figures out what's going on. But don't bet on that either.

JG finally writes about high school scores

2010-11-12T09:48:00.003-05:00

Today's JG article about the high school ECA's, coming well after the elections naturally, is pretty much on target about the miserable state of our high schools. The high schools are at the end of the line, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak and show the effect of socially promoting half our students through middle school. What the article didn't contain were the individual scores. Although no FWCS high school looks good, the LEAD schools are awful especially in Algebra I, where NSHS LEADs with 32% passing, followed by Wayne at 20% and SSHS at 19%.

In FWCS' defense the ECA's are harder than the GQE's they replaced (just as the spring 3-8 ISTEPs were easier). The state dropped 6% in both math and English vs. the GQE's, but even after adding 6% to FWCS scores they would still be bad. Well at least we won't have to endure another unctuous press conference, just the usual blather by Krtista Stockman.

We have two new board members now, Julia Hollingsworth and Lisa Olinger who actually know what's going on in our classrooms. Whether they can bring the rest of the board into reality remains to be seen. And the reality is that, even if everything went well at lower grade levels, it would be a decade or more before the LEAD high schools would come back. If I were GiaQuinta, I would be begging Tony Bennett to take them off Wendy's hands.

A "Canterbury Tale" for election day

2010-11-01T11:58:00.022-05:00

According to the recently released scores on the high school End of Course Exams ( an embarrassment still being "vetted" by Wendy until after the election) only 20 % of the students at my Alma mater, SSHS, now a "LEAD" school , passed the state test over the Algebra I course they had just taken. At Canterbury school the passing rate was 100%. There is one Canterbury student, however, who has not been able to receive credit for passing the ECA because he didn't take a course called "Algebra I" and the bureaucrats at the IDE don't know how to deal with that. Oh, yeah, the student was a fourth grader.

Forty years ago there was no Canterbury. There was no need for a Canterbury because parents with talented children wouldn't have been concerned about sending them to FWCS. But even though incumbent FWCS board President Mark GiaQuinta, wasn't intimately familiar with the situation at South Side, he knew enough to send his kids to Canterbury High School instead.

Can our high schools ever regain their former excellence? Not with a board whose purpose is celebrating the satus quo. Not with a board that wouldn't address reality without the threat of state intervention. Not with a board that isnt' willing to start with K-3 and insure the gains there eventually pay off in the high schools. Not with this board.

Mitch to Tower , " Everything looks good from 30,000 ft".

2010-10-31T12:48:00.009-05:00

At a candidates seminar for the "BIZPAC" endorsement (rigged for a predetermined outcome) incumbent Mitch Sheppard gave her philosophy for school board governance as "taking a view from 30,000 feet". If you had flown in an airplane over lower Manhattan in the summer of 2008, Wall Street would have looked great from 30,000 ft. If you had been sitting in the boardrooms of Lehman's, AIG, Merrill, Wachovia or any other financial firm about to crater, everything would have looked good from the top floors of their headquarters. If you're sitting on the board in the Grile Center everything looks as good as what Wendy tells you.

That situation will continue if the candidates endorsed by such "experts" as BIZPAC and the JG make up next board. The "experts" are only slightly less informed about the situation in our classrooms than our board members. The problem is in our classrooms. The solutions have to come from people who have been in the classrooms. No one who has been in the schools would believe that last spring's increase in 3-8 ISTEP+ passing rates showed a real improvement. But that's what our board believes because they have no first hand knowledge of the reality in our buildings. Maybe that's what the public believes as well, even after they eventually see the miserable results from the high school ECA's. We'll see Tuesday.

School Takeovers Imminent for NSHS and SSHS?

2010-10-29T09:16:00.009-05:00

The JG editorial page reported this morning that the Indiana Department of Education may be ready to turn failing schools, including NSHS and SSHS over to charter operators after the election. The state will be formulating rules for the handover, which could presumably occur any time after that.

When the district did their LEAD school shuffle it seemed likely that the state would at least give them some time to see how they performed. On the other hand, last spring's high school End of Course Examination (ECA) results for SSHS and NSHS (which have been kept out of the papers and off TV prior to the election) are so bad that the IDE may feel, as I do, that improvement is unlikely without intervention, at least until elementary school improvements filter up.

Of course at the end the JG laments the loss of control by our locally elected board. Hey, if it happens, it happened on their watch. And the JG has endorsed all but one incumbent for reelection for the "progress" they district's made, like making AYP when the tests got easier. How much more evidence of the impotence of our board do we need to see?.

By the way, "Waiting for Superman" is playing at the RAVE. If it doesn't shake you up, go ahead and vote for the incumbents.

Link to High School ECA Test scores

2010-10-27T19:47:00.011-05:00

At Monday's board meeting Wendy said they needed to "vet" the scores for the individual schools before making a public release. They are in fact already public in an EXCEL spreadsheet on the IDE web site given below:

http://www.doe.in.gov/assessment/eca_data.html

Then click on the link above the summary table "Statewide ECA 2009-10 Summary"

Maybe after the election so incumbent board members don't have to explain them before that.

FWEA is MIA

2010-10-26T11:28:00.004-05:00

So where are the endorsements and campaign contributions from the teachers' union this year? So far we haven't seen anything - no candidate interviews, no announcements, nothing. As those who primped and preened for their union money in the past have found out, the biggest obstacle to improving our schools, next to the demographics, is the teachers' union. If they were really expecting to make a difference in student achievement, they've since found that FWEA was not going to cooperate.

The union knows neither the current board nor the candidates most likely to be elected to the next board are going to pubicly talk about the situation in the classrooms. The teachers themselves won't even do that. The local board has no other stick over the teacher's union. The contract is set up so that it continues as is even if the board votes against it. The union is not willing to sacrifice to save the jobs of younger teachers in the face of budget cuts, nor are they willing to be flexible in reassignments to help in the struggling schools. The only thing that has motivated them to accept the "LEAD" school redesign so far is the threat of a state takeover and loss of Title I money. They don't want to hear about evaluations or pay based on student performance. And they won't cooperated in extending the "LEAD" concept to other schools. In other words the union is not "about the kids".

Our Democratic school board, even if they really want to do the right thing, will be stymied by the union whose money bought the support of our Democratic politicians. So the only hope for change will have to come from Indianapolis. It's possible that a Republican House and Senate would repeal the law that gave Indiana teachers the right to unionize. That would at least give give our board some degree of local control over the fate of our district. But for our Democratic board to actually support such an outcome is inconceivable.

FWCS high schools achieve record decrease in scores

2010-10-23T22:14:00.014-05:00

The Indiana Department of Education finally released the results of the End of Course Assessments (ECA's) given in the high schools last spring. These replaced the Graduation Qualifying Exams (GQE's) formerly given in Grade 10 in the Fall, as all testing including the 3-8 ISTEP+ was moved to spring. The FWCS results showed an 8% decrease in Algebra scores and a 5% decrease in English scores compared to the 2008 GQE's.

What the scores really mean, however, is only that the tests got harder. The statewide scores also decreased by about 5% in each category, so relative to the state FWCS can claim they stayed about even. I saw the algebra ECA last year and it was more rigorous than the GQE.

The problem is that when the ISTEP+ scores came out last spring FWCS claimed a record improvement in passing rates, even though their scores increased by the same amount as the state overall. In other words their improvement in the ISTEP+ was due to an easier test, like their decrease in the ECA was due to a more difficult test. That also means they made AYP because the ISTEP+ got easier, not because the kids got smarter or everybody worked harder.

The algebra passing rates at the "LEAD" high schools - 20% at Wayne, 19% at SSHS, 32% at NSHS - are pathetic. These are on a test taken right after completing the course. But that will make it easier to improve next year, right?

I'm looking forward to the explanations at the press conference and the JG editorial page.

LEAD school process can't be undone, Leo

2010-10-22T09:34:00.004-05:00

News Sentinel editor Leo Morris has urged everyone to vote in the upcoming election. He's especially concerned about the school board since he thinks a new board might undo the changes the district made under the LEAD school process. But that's not an option. The process for every school is spelled out in a lengthy agreement between the Indiana Department of Education and FWCS. In effect it's a contract that would result in a state takeover if the terms are not met. The documents are available on the IDE web site if you want to slog through them. Maybe Mr. Morris got his false information from a lawyer, probably the same one who told him he had to stay on the board to make sure Wendy would succeed.

I slogged through the agreement for Wayne High School which analyzes the causes for their failure and prescribes all the corrective actions to be taken. Unfortunately it says NOTHING about the fact that more than half the students coming into Wayne are unprepared for high school, having been socially promoted through middle school. That's something else that won't be undone until the elementary and middle schools feeding Wayne get fixed, which will take a decade under the best of circumstances. That's fine as long as they're honest about it, which they're not. Which means Mr. Morris' lawyer will have something to keep him busy for a while.

JG prints great school reform article - REALLY!

2010-10-17T09:29:00.006-05:00

Today's Perspective section of the JG featured a "manifesto" for change written for the Washington Post by the chancellors and superintendents of some of the nations largest public school systems. One of them is Eugene White, Superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools, who came from FWCS (how did we let him get away?).

Their biggest emphasis is on the importance of teacher quality and the obstacles that teachers unions place in the way of hiring, evaluating, retaining and rewarding the very best teachers for our public schools. They point out that no business, including the ones I worked in for thirty years could survive without the ability to make personnel decisions based on performance, a practice which is adamantly opposed by teachers' unions.

They call for having the courage to close or restructure low performing schools and to accept viable charter schools as an alternative to provide competition to government run public schools. In the case of FWCS that would mean having the courage to act without the threat of a state takeover and without the restraints of teacher seniority and the honesty to point out that "improvements" in test scores have to be relative to their competition. It would mean worrying about their own problems instead of fighting to keep charter schools out of the city.

It's all about how we stack up against the competition - locally, nationally and internationally. We must realize, no matter what school district we live in, that this country can't fix it's broader economic problems and economic inequities without facing up to the education gap within the US.

So, Tracy, thanks for publishing the article. The only thing better would have been if the JG had written it - like maybe about eight years ago. Maybe next time.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101017/EDIT05/310179958/1021/EDIT

FWCS makes AYP - "Mission Accomplished"

2010-10-11T11:17:00.005-05:00

In a competetive world what matters is how you compare to the next guy. For FWCS the comparisons are made against the state as a whole and against other competing districts in the county. So where do they stand now? After the spring ISTEP scores were released for grades 3-8 the District claimed a 6 point increase as a major victory. (I still haven't see the End of Course results for the high schools, so how they're being judged is a mystery). Then it turned out that the state average increased by about the same amount, so there was no real gain relative to the competition.

Passing rates are the main factor in determining AYP. True, the district has to meet the requirements in way more categories than most other districts. But since passing rates in the rest of the states increased by the same amount as ours, it looks like every other district in the state will also make AYP. So relative to the competition FWCS is in the same situation it was before. Well behind.

The test difficulty probably decreased this year after increasing last year when the tests were moved to spring. (Remember those kids who were crying and giving up last year because the test was just too hard?) It's like running the 100 meter dash with a 20 kph tailwind. Everybody runs a better time but the order of finish is the same. Like a tailwind, test difficulty and cut scores are always subject to variability so what counts is the space between the runners at the finish line. If the trailing runners are able to narrow the gap over time they will eventually be competetive and able to win.

As a measure of where the average student in FWCS stands with respect to one in SAC, AYP is totally irrelevant.

JG posts answers to candidate questionnaires

2010-10-06T15:15:00.010-05:00

Surprisingly, the JG is publishing the answers to all the questions asked of this fall's candidates verbatim. Overall I thought candidates for school board did a pretty good job representing their views. Not surprisingly the (like minded) incumbents had similar viewpoints. The two questions which I think need further elaboration concern school choice and improved achievement at the "LEAD" schools.

Giving parents a choice of schools outside their normal attendance area doesn't seem to bother anyone as long as schools have room. I think it weakens neighborhood schools but it's also possible some of these "neighborhood" schools wouldn't be viable without the kids who are bused there. I think that "choice" was just part of the original program resulting from the 1989 settlement of the lawsuit to narrow the minority achievment gap. That gap has not been reduced at all but the "choice" program has persisted.

The district hired extra teachers to improve minority achievement, using money (more than $100m over the years) diverted from the capital fund. That money would otherwise have gone into building upgrades and maintenance, which the district claimed needed to be made up by the $500m bond issue. A gross overstatement, only partly true. Where are those extra teachers, what are they teaching and what difference have they made? The other, probably bigger expense is the cost of "choice" busing contained in the $27m annual transportation fund. How much is being spent for busing kids to schools outside their normal attendance area? I'm guessing $10m a year but whatever it is, is it right to ask the taxpayers to pay for it?

The incumbent board members who are running all think that the balanced scorecard and shuffling of teachers and administrators as a result of failing to meet the requirements of PL221 are going to fix the achievement gap. They also believe the increased passing rate on the 2010 spring test was real. I couldn't disagree more on either point. The die is cast for these kids by the end of the third grade. The performance of the middle schools and the high schools depend almost entirely on having kids prepared coming out of elementary school. Until that happens NO REAL GAINS RELATIVE to the REST of the STATE will be realized. The biggest push first has to be in the elementary schools and it will take years for that to filter up through the higher grades. What happens to the "LEAD" middle and high schools in the meanwhile is anyone's guess, especially if Tony Bennett is gaming the tests. But after a decade of denial and procrastination, we shouldn't have much sympathy for the district if any of them are taken over by the state.

Challenge to the JG

2010-09-26T11:21:00.002-05:00

It appears the JG editorial staff will not interview (all?) school board candidates as they have in the past. Instead they have requested candidates to respond to a questionnaire, which they will presumably use to choose whom they endorse.

I'm challenging the JG to publish the candidates' responses verbatim without editing or embellishment instead of using selected parts to support their predetermined views. If brevity is a problem tell the candidates to reduce them to a maximum word count. If the answers are incoherent, so be it. I'll stand by my answers and anything I've said in this blog over the past two years. Nothing I've written has been deleted or changed. I don't have a problem with any voter reading any blog in it's entirety, but I do have a problem with the JG using isolated pieces out of context as they've done in the past.

I would even suggest that both papers forego endorsements entirely. Print the candidates' views fairly and let the readers decide for themselves whom to vote for. But that's probably asking too much.

National Merit Scholarships, good news and bad news

2010-09-24T14:56:00.004-05:00

The National Merit Scholarship foundation recently announced the semifinalists for Northeast Indiana. The good news is that FWCS has one semifinalist, Peter Manges, from Snider High School. Congratulations to Peter and good luck toward becoming a finalist. Actually luck has nothing to do with it. If he becomes a finalist, he will have earned it.

The bad news is that one semifinalist in all five high schools ties FWCS with home schoolers. Canterbury, where FWCS school board president Mark GiaQuinta sent his kids, had eight semifinalist, Dwenger and Homestead each had two and Carroll had one. Yeah, I know, it's not "fair" to expect kids from FWCS to do as well as those from suburban districts. It's more expedient to push them though our "LEAD" schools with social promotion and give them a diploma to get them out the door. Let them find out what "fair" means when they they get into the real world.

A long, long time ago my graduating class at SSHS had ten finalists and twice that number of semifinalists. My how things have changed. For the worse.

Volunteer for tutoring with United Way

2010-09-23T08:58:00.002-05:00

United Way is trying to find 1000 volunteers to tutor in the region's elementary schools. Literacy by the end of the third grade is absolutely essential for any student's success in higher grades. The middle schools and high school's can't improve unless third grade literacy improves.

Providing one on one help works. You can only work with a few kids but on the other hand you actually see the result. Schools will never be able to pay for enough professionals to meet the need. The community has to step up or watch the slide in achievement continue.

Indy public schools almost number 2

2010-09-22T08:28:00.003-05:00

After losing over 8000 students since 2003 to charter schools and flight to the suburbs, Indianapolis Public Schools is just barely larger than FWCS. Both have about 32,000 students. What's striking is that IPS spends about $500m per year versus $300m for FWCS. Apparently more money hasn't helped to improve the academics. So where does it all go?

Indianapolis voters also approved a major bond issue (bigger than the one FWCS proposed) two years ago to redo their buildings. Looks like better buildings don't help either, especially when you have to pay the extra taxes without any benefit in academic achievement.

So far FWCS is holding even, which they attributed to being more attractive to parents than charter schools. Well, maybe, but I don't think so. Indy has more charter schools because the the state legislature allowed the mayor to create them. Fort Wayne's mayor turned down that opportunity years ago. If Fort Wayne had more charter school options, especially on the south side of town, it would be a different story. Imagine on Wells street exceeded its official charter capacity this year, which naturally triggered a critical JG editorial yesterday. Good reason for Wendy and the JG to fight charters tooth and nail.

Harding HS gets NEW principal

2010-09-21T08:41:00.003-05:00

EACS which has several schools in the same situation under PL221 as FWCS has hired a new principal, Kent Hoffman, at Harding High School. A new principal from New York City no less, not a principal transferred from another failing school like FWCS has at Wayne and South Side. Ahead of tonight's EACS board meeting to recommend a plan for reorganizing the district, it would seem that Harding might survive as is, despite the JG's never ending call for EACS to address its "academic inequalities".

What does that mean? Harding at 28.7% combined passing on the ISTEP and rising the last time the GQE was given in 2009, was doing better than Wayne at 25.7% and dropping. I've never heard any calls from the JG about FWCS needing to address academic inequality.

People who live in glass houses...

2010-09-16T09:01:00.004-05:00

The worst thing amidst all the calls for Kevin Brown to resign after his DUI arrest are the morality lectures. Today we got one from the JG citing the irony of Mr. Brown's proposal for an "ethics" code for board members at the board meeting the night of the incident. Well it may be ironic but there is in fact no 'ethics" code that has anything to do with morality so whatever happens is solely up to Mr. Brown. His term is over in three months and he will have to explain himself to voters in November to stay on the board.

So what else would be contained in an "ethics" code for school board members in addition to the DUI that could be applied ex post facto to Mr. Brown? Alcoholism, smoking pot, using hard drugs, adultery, reckless driving, conflicts of interest (like taking money from the teachers' union or building contractors), filing false campaign finance reports, unpaid parking tickets.......? Let's have a code and require all the current board members to sign a statement that they are innocent of all the above and anything else we can think of that would set a bad example for our kids.

Until that happens spare us the moralizing.

Movie "Waiting for Superman" reveals "Inconvenient Truth"

2010-09-13T17:38:00.003-05:00

Anyone wondering why a public education system conceived a hundred years ago can't adapt to the realities of the digital age should read the Sept. 20 issue of Time Magazine. The new film is by Davis Guggenheim, the director of "An Inconvenient Truth" and serves as the lead in to a 16 page report on public education. TIME describes a number of changes beginning to take hold, which it sees as a hopeful sign that reform is on the way.

Well, maybe. It's a long article but a story about teacher evaluations is indicative of the obstacles. A few weeks ago the Los Angele Times revealed that they had used improvement in test scores from students of 6000 district teachers to rate their effectiveness. Using "value added" statistical models they were able to reliably identify the worst and best teachers in their study. The results were consistent over seven years of data.

Predictably the teachers union called for a boycott of the paper but backed down. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked why it took a newspaper to do what the school district should have done years ago? A few days later the LA school board endorsed using the data as part of future teacher evaluations and is now negotiating with the union to make it happen.

Unfortunately, the shame of failure is not going to motivate much of the education establishment to change. Like FWCS, most of them will need the threat of extinction staring them in the face. With a lack of public outrage, the push has to come from politicians with more courage than we're used to seeing.

No extra credit for feigned outrage

2010-09-11T09:12:00.008-05:00

I agree Marlin Stutzman's attempt to recruit volunteers for his campaign through FWCS was inappropriate. And giving students extra credit for campaigning is also questionable, although FWCS teachers aren't all averse to such generosity, like how many cans math students collect in a can drive (can you count?), so they can give kids a passing grade.

But the official reaction is ludicrous. This incident would not even have come to light if Stutzman weren't a Republican, As far as I know every school board member is a Democrat. Krista Stockman owes her salary to their good will and as a former JG reporter probably has the same political leanings. But Stutzman's opponent for the house seat, Dr. Tom ("it's time we tried something new") Hayhurst, who campaigned for lifetime board member Steve Corona, made the biggest ass of himself by jumping on the bandwagon with his tirade. He gets no extra credit at all.

JG doesn't like Tony Bennett either

2010-08-27T12:31:00.005-05:00

I missed both broadcasts of Tony Bennett's (if I call him Dr. Bennett, I'd be dissing Wendy) "State of Education" address, but I read it on line at the IDE website. It's basically the same thing I heard him say in Columbia City two weeks ago. Today we got Karen Frisco's take on the speech which she published for the edification of "those unfamiliar with Indiana classrooms". That would include Ms. Frisco herself as well as every member of our school board except Kevin Brown.

Ms. Frisco's column has two headings, "Teacher Evaluations" and "Seniority", which are interrelated. She wants to give the "unfamiliar" ones the impression that teacher evaluations are related to a teachers ability to convey knowledge to their students and that they are therefore a factor in decisions on pay and retention. In fact the evaluations are totally subjective, usually a checklist, with no measurable substantiation. They're circular file quality.

Teachers can be fired for a number of reasons through a convoluted (union contractual) process but incompetence is not one of them. No principal is going to go through the trouble of getting rid of a teacher for incompetence when the evidence won't hold up in court. It's easier to leave them alone and hope they trip themselves up for something like insubordination. The only way to get a meaningful, quantitative reading on teaching ability is to tie it to standardized test scores, which naturally they are all adamantly against. It's "not fair". It can be made statistically fair (the LA Times newspaper even did it) but they don't want to hear that. So the only factor in pay and retention is seniority.

Under the heading of "Resources" Ms. Frisco goes off the deep end. Because there was no ISTEP testing in the seventies, she says Bennett's claims of stagnant achievement since the seventies are unsubstantiated and that the doubling of cost to educate kids since then doesn't consider inflation. Bennett's claims in fact are substantiated by national test data and the inflation adjusted cost as well as the number of adults employed per child have doubled in the last several decades. Indiana is no exception to the national trend toward mediocrity in our public schools.

OMG, Tracy Warner doesn't like me

2010-08-25T12:45:00.004-05:00

I don't subscribe to the JG anymore, so I didn't know until someone told me this morning that Mark GiaQuinta's best friend, Tracy Warner was already bad mouthing me. He referred to disparaging remarks I've made in this blog about Wendy and most of the current board. I should thank Tracy for calling attention to my blog and invite anyone who cares, to read it.

I haven't deleted anything I've posted since the last election. The blog represents a counterpoint to the self serving drivel coming from the JG and FWCS. By the way Tracy, it was Karen Frisco who recently pointed out that all the "LEAD" school were in the high poverty area south of Coliseum. And it's also Karen, the chief FWCS apologist, who's been telling us for years how difficult it is to turn an urban district around. In fact the "FWCS can't be fixed" blog was a direct response to one of Karen's columns telling us how nothing has worked to turn urban schools around.

Did I hear that right?

2010-08-17T12:59:00.002-05:00

The other night I was watching one of the local news stations (which is unusual for me). After the usual bit on the most recent freeway car chase, (Mark Mellinger used to be a creditable newscaster) they had the superintendent of SAC talking about their budget reductions. He said they were preparing for the next round of cuts with possible cuts in salaries and health care benefits for teachers. Teachers actually prepared to sacrifice on behalf of the kids?

Unbelievable! Time to join the exodus, move to Aboite and vote in their next referendum to keep more teachers employed!

Dr. Bennett and the coming state takeover

2010-08-15T09:46:00.005-05:00

Today we got Karen Frisco's take on the Columbia City presentation by Dr. Bennett and the IDE, which seemed to portend a state takeover of our FAIL schools. Eight years after the initial shock of seeing first hand the situation in the classrooms of my old high school, all I can say is "I told you so". After years of writing to board members, to Wendy, to the papers and in this blog I failed to convince anyone to change course. The Code Blue remonstrance campaign for "Academics not Buildings" had no effect. Maybe I should have been more subtle. Apparently Dr. Bennett was unimpressed with the musical chairs "reform" they just went through. He showed he's not a fool. We'll see how subtle he is if he gets his hands on the FAIL schools.

At the end Karen bemoans the possible fate of our schools under "the governor, his hand picked state board of education and the state superintendent" instead of our locally elected school board. Come on! The "local" FWCS board is hand picked by the superintendent, the teachers union, local building contractors, the Inskeeps and their editors at the JG. The state can't do any worse than the "locals", maybe they can even do better.

Dr. Bennett comes to Columbia City

2010-08-11T09:38:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I attended the presentation by State Supt. of Public Instruction in Columbia City. The most interesting part (to me), on school and teacher evaluation and accountability, was given by a member of his staff (impressive), who came out of "Teach America". She descibed a model based on student growth as well as their achievement level. Each student's growth would be compared to students at the same level across the state. So district, school and teacher effectiveness would be rated on how much improvement they could generate starting from the same baseline.

They're still working on the exact formula. But Dr. Bennett did point out that with the current checklist systems, 99% of teachers' performances are rated as satisfactory. In other words the current evaluations are subjective and meaningless. He claims 97% of Indiana teachers said they would prefer an objective evaluation.

They also proposed rating high schools' performance according to their ability to prepare students for work and college. That part is also a work in progress. They just changed from using the Graduating Qualifying Exam in the fall to the End of Course Exam in the spring, so high school evaluation is already in a state of flux. The three FWCS high schools now in trouble with the state could be in limbo until this gets sorted out. That may be exactly what they were hoping for to take the pressure off for a while.

Whether Dr. Bennett can get his program past the ISTA (Indiana StatusQuo Teachers' Association) remains to be seen. They wasn't a lot of applause in the room.

FWCS "turnaround under way" too late

2010-08-09T12:09:00.008-05:00

About 800 teachers are currently in training sessions for the district's 11 FAIL schools. FAIL is not an acronym for anything, like the "LEAD" schools FWCS came up with. It's just an accurate adjective for their status. Karen Frisco editorialized on the "profound" changes under way in the JG today. As always the real story is not what's printed in the JG editorial pages.

For starters, why is this happening now? When PL 221 was passed by the legislature ten (or so) years ago, it should have been obvious that there was going to be trouble in River City. So why didn't FWCS try to do something before now? Basically they just blew it off. They didn't want to hear it. Year after year we just heard about their concerns about lack of progress, that they were always striving to do better and working very hard to improve... yada, yada , yada. They were actually more concerned about remodeling their buildings. What we have now is the result of years of miserable leadership by the administration and the board. I would add FWEA but their mission has always been self preservation. The "Proven Leadership" you saw on Steve Corona's campaign billboards two years ago really meant "Proven Incompetence".

Then Karen says "not all teachers were eager" to go FAIL schools. I'll say. The law requires that 50% of the teachers in a FAIL school be changed. So about 400 teachers were forced to go through an interviewing process by giving them layoff notices. Those who got the notices were mostly the ones with less than 10 years seniority. The teachers who got to stay at their current schools without interviewing were the older ones, who may or may not have been the most competent. The "best" of the laid off teachers were then picked by the "new" (that's another story) principals of the FAIL schools. The "worst" of the laid off teachers were mostly assigned to other schools that had vacancies. So schools that were doing OK got the short end of the stick on teaching talent. How that affects those schools is of little concern at the moment. What's more important is that FWEA preserved jobs.

FWCS is actually divided into two systems by Coliseum Boulevard. The "poor" district south of Coliseum if failing and probably beyond saving. For twenty years the district has been busing (at great cost to taxpayers) as many kids as they can accommodate to schools north of Coliseum to even out the problem. But "school choice" didn't save the FAIL schools and is only speeding up the deterioration of the entire district.

Then Karen says the community leaders and taxpayers should take note and support the profound changes going on at FWCS. Never mind that their ONLY motivation for change is self preservation in light of a possible state takeover. What taxpayers should really consider is that over the last several decades the (inflation adjusted) cost of educating a student has doubled along with the number of adults employed to do that. And what do we taxpayers have to show for it in terms of academic achievement? Locally, eleven FAIL schools with more to come. If you're incensed about bailing out failing Wall Street firms and the auto industry, think about what we're doing here year after year.

On the up side.....

2010-08-07T13:50:00.003-05:00

School districts are short of money and feeling the pinch like ordinary taxpayers. Half empty schools may finally have to close. Indiana lowers the bar and adopts "common core' standards while Fordham Foundation president Chester Finn says they've done a "miserable job" implementing the ones they have. No RTT money is forthcoming and FWCS has to play musical chairs with administrators and teachers to try to fool Tony Bennett into thinking they're actually changing something.

But there is some good news coming from Milwaukee where the teachers' union is standing up for their members. Despite losing about 500 members to layoffs, the union is suing their district to get free Viagra and other erectile dysfunction meds back into their health care benefits. The school board, deciding that these were "recreational" drugs, eliminated them, saving about $800K per year. But the union disagrees, arguing that erectile dysfunction is a major problem in a profession where seniority rules reward old age instead of competence.

FWEA should take notice.

IDE will train "turnaround" principals at Marian College

2010-07-24T12:02:00.002-05:00

As an indication that the state may actually be serious about taking over chronically under performing schools, the IDE has chosen Marian College, in Indianapolis to train new principals as turnaround specialists and experts in teacher evaluation, including the use of statistics like test scores. The justification is that 60% of student achievement is tied to the abilities of principals and teachers (how they came up with that number was not explained). Naturally the state's teacher training universities who gave us our current crop of educators call this an unnecessary duplication of effort. But according to Andrea Neal's column in today's Sentinel and Indy Star the whole idea is to turn out principals who will operate differently than the ones we have now. And perhaps the IDE realizes that playing musical chairs with principals (and teachers) of failing schools a la FWCS won't fix anything.

Of course there are a lot of unanswered questions about the overall strategy. Where these new principals will come from and what their backgrounds are has not been revealed. And if they can identify bad teachers but can't improve them, what can they do to remove them? It's also unclear how well a new high school principal can succeed, if he has no control over social promotion in the middle schools feeding his school. It seems unlikely that taking over a small number of schools in a system which is systemically failing like FWCS is going to work unless the whole system is taken over.

Mitch wants empty schools available for charters

2010-07-08T10:06:00.003-05:00

Chanting their version of a Randy Newman tune the JG is still singing "Don't want no charter schools 'round here". Naturally they're opposed to making empty schools like Elmhurst available to charters because it would draw money from FWCS. It especially galls them that the charter might be run by a for profit company like Imagine. So what's the problem? If Imagine fails it will go out of business and disappear. FWCS has failed south of Coliseum but there's virtually no way to make them disappear.

We no longer have an academically viable public high school on this side of town. SSHS, NSHS and Wayne can't be fixed by this district. In the words of Abilgail and Stephan Thernstrom in "No Excuses", union dominated public districts "can't solve the problem because they are they problem". Fixing them will require a state takeover and/or competition which will force changes or put them out of business. Otherwise they will only preserve the status quo for the benefit of district employees.

At the end Ms. Frisco says Mitch's proposal will put a "long term burden on the taxpayers". When did the JG suddenly become sympathetic to the plight of the taxpayers? What is this long term burden assertion based on? Nothing more than the need to fill in some space at the end of the editorial. The ultimate burden on the taxpayers is the 50% of the kids coming out of FWCS high schools with an eighth grade education.

"Political Savvy" needed to pass school bond referendums

2010-07-07T08:48:00.003-05:00

Indiana University reported that 42% of school bond referendums submitted to voters since the adoption of the new law were approved. In contrast to predictions that no one would ever be able to pass another bond issue, IU concluded that getting a bond issue passed depended on convincing voters that the district was after "needs", not "wants". Sounds like the most important thing is to tell the truth.

What honesty has to do with "political savvy" was not explained.

FWCS answer to Elmhurst lawsuit - Stall

2010-06-26T11:38:00.003-05:00

FWCS continues trying to delay justifying in court why they decided to close Elmhurst. Undoubtedly they think that stalling until school starts and perhaps cleaning out the building before that time will make a judge more likely to agree that the issue is moot. But if their case for the closure is well justified and well documented why not just present it in court and get it over with?

Probably because their case is bogus. If you've already made up your mind what you want to do, it's no problem to come up with something, like say a matrix, that makes the numbers come out the way you want them to. Having years of experience telling management what they wanted to hear, I could have come up with a matrix to close Wayne for example. But that's not saying FWCS would stoop that low.

And why gut the building anyway unless they're afraid it will end up as a charter school? Frank Gray's column in the JG last week was searching for uses for the building, but not that one. That's one the JG would never mention. Would FWCS also spend taxpayer money to tear it down to keep it from "falling into the wrong hands"? Like in Gary which has 20 schools standing empty but is trying to figure out how to keep them away from charters. So much so that Mitch is trying to pass a law to enable charters to use them.

End of Course Exams, another log Wendy can fall off

2010-06-22T13:56:00.006-05:00

Last week every school district in the state got a gift of a five point increase in test scores courtesy of the Indiana Department of Education and State Superintendent Tony Bennett. By moving the test to spring, dumbing it down and adjusting cut scores, Mr. Bennett was able to claim victory for himself and everybody in the public schools.

But these scores were only for grades 3-8. In August the state is supposed to release the "End of Course" (EOC) or Core Forty test results given to high school students to cover their first algebra and English/language courses. These have replaced the Graduation Qualifying Exams covering similar material previously given to high school sophomores. But again they're muddying the waters and shifting the baselines so that we won't know where we're at for another few years. And you can bet that this will give FWCS another opportunity for mutual backslapping and self congratulations.

I saw a sample algebra test last year, and it was a surprisingly thorough test. Not surprising was the overall state passing rate of just 40%. The FWCS passing rate was an abysmal 20%. At Elmhurst it was 8%. These results were not published on the state web site and were not mentioned by FWCS. This is supposed to be a test given to high school freshmen the term after they have taken the course. You can bet more than 20% at FWCS passed the first algebra course and had moved on to geometry and advanced algebra even though they didn't have a clue how to do beginning algebra. It was so bad that the first 30 minutes of geometry and advanced algebra classes had to be dedicated to reteaching freshman algebra so they could do better next time. Of course that meant those courses were only able to cover 2/3 of the material they should have. But that's OK because there are no standardized tests over those courses.

So now that we have declared victory in 3-8, what's going to happen in the high schools? Mr. Bennett can't afford to see a disaster in the high school results that contradicts the 3-8 results. So look for the EOC's to show some really dramatic statewide improvement over last year, again courtesy of the IDE. Then consider our three designated failing high schools. With a change in the test and artificially inflated results, these schools may instantly be turned into incredible success stories. Had she known the IDE would make it that easy to fool us, Wendy could have avoided all those painful pink slips and administrator shuffles.

We're all looking forward to the next press release and another jubilant press conference. Let's see if the local media, like Fort Wayne's only "dedicated education reporter" on WANE, catches on this time.

If it sounds too good to be true, it's FWCS test scores

2010-06-16T13:27:00.004-05:00

The Indiana Department of Education today announced that the statewide scores for language arts improved by about 3% while the scores for math improved by about 4%. That means the real improvement for FWCS is about 2% in each category, rather than the much celebrated 5/6% we heard in the district's premature announcement. The statewide improvement may be the result of moving the test to spring or that the test got easier but either way the FWCS results are far from impressive. At least they're up but the increase is about as much as we could expect, considering the difficult task facing the district.

All the hype we heard from the district and the JG a few weeks ago was just that, hype and BS. Lets see the reruns on WANE-TV of Wendy and her buffoons patting themselves on the back. Better yet lets have another press conference or JG editorial apologizing for misleading the public about their results. Maybe John Peirce can stop drinking the Wendy Kool-Aid and write another JG column to set the record straight. Fat chance!

Outsourcing FWCS custodians

2010-06-15T09:02:00.005-05:00

Last night the FWCS board voted 6 to 1 in favor of outsourcing 200 custodial jobs to Sodexo. Current FWCS custodians will be allowed to interview for jobs with the new provider but even if they are hired, will take a beating in wages and benefits.

I'm not a fan of outsourcing but in 35 years in private industry I never worked in a building where custodians, either for cleaning or building maintenance, were on the company payroll. In the mid nineties we even outsourced the security guards at the plant I worked in. What's obvious from the pay cuts the FWCS custodians will have to take (from around $18/hr. to $11/hr) is that they were making way more than the going rates outside the public sector.

I agree with the custodians that there is a value in having district employees dealing with the kids in our schools. But how do you quantify that value? I have no information about the process leading to the board's decision. Sodexo will charge the district a management fee which will be added to the hourly pay of the custodians. If this were given to the employees, presumably they would still have done better as part of FWCS than they will when they are outsourced. But apparently they couldn't accept the necessary concessions.

So both sides lose.

JG jumps on the premature bandwagon

2010-06-05T09:45:00.003-05:00

Today Karen Frisco joined in the celebration of a 5% increase in FWCS test scores. Unfortunately, what matters is not the absolute change in scores, but how they compare to the state as a whole. It's all relative, especially when spring testing is new and tests and grading were adjusted after the change to spring testing last year. But announcing the results before the state results are published makes it look like the district's biggest concern is maximizing the boost to its image. Last year, when the district underperformed the state, the results were totally ignored.

If the improvement versus the state turns out to be smaller when all the numbers come out, which is likely, will they have another press conference? Even if the improvement holds up, the premature celebration detracts from FWCS' credibility. And if the numbers don't hold up, .... well, let's wait and see.

FWCS test scores, smarter kids or easier test?

2010-06-04T13:15:00.003-05:00

Yesterday FWCS announced it's spring ISTEP scores had increased by 5 to 6 percent across the board at all grade levels. These are preliminary numbers but the district, apparently desperate for good PR, jumped out and announced the results before the IDE put out any numbers for the statewide results. Spring testing was started last year after fall tests were given for the last time. Last year FWCS spring scores were 3.4% lower than their fall scores, while statewide the scores were 1.6% lower. I don't remember a press conference last year announcing FWCS had underperformed versus the rest of the state but maybe I just missed it.

Last year's spring tests were different from the fall tests with different benchmarks for passing. Those were adjusted last summer after complaints that the tests were too hard. Until we see statewide scores from the IDE, the rise in FWCS scores means nothing. No other district has announced their scores but I do know the Indianapolis Public Schools also saw higher scores. I would bet that when the IDE releases statewide scores, FWCS improvements will be no better than the state as a whole. In fact I'll give $100 to Wendy's favorite charity if FWCS outperforms the state wide score by 2% or more. If not, the loser will give $100 to the "Save Elmhurst" group.

Any takers? Mark? Steve? Maybe we should get all the numbers before we celebrate.

FWCS board reduces waste

2010-05-25T08:58:00.002-05:00

The board of We Are Your Schools (the WAYS) announced last night that the five minutes allotted to members of the public to address the board at the end of their meeting would be reduced to three minutes. That's a two minute reduction in waste of breath telling them what they don't want to hear.

Personal attacks on board members are no longer allowed. Since public animosity toward the board is usually a given, expressing it in a public meeting is unnecessary and a waste of time.

New Tech at Wayne, how's that going?

2010-05-10T10:16:00.003-05:00

One of the segments of "High School Reinvent" was the establishment of a high tech career school at Wayne. Operating with project based learning and separated physically from the rest of the building at a cost of $2million, the school was initially started with about 100 students, with the intention of expanding it to several hundred based on demand.

The district reportedly is having trouble even keeping the enrollment at 100. The word is that it's too challenging, too hard. There are no prerequisites for enrolling, so presumably they're getting the same 50% of the overall population that's coming into all FWCS high schools unprepared. So if they want to keep the failing kids coming they're going to have to dumb it down.

These graduates would theoretically be prepared for the kind of jobs that business leaders tell us they can't find qualified applicants for. New Tech was probably worth a shot on this scale to see how it pans out but the problem in this district goes down to the lower levels, especially the middle schools so the approach has to change. New Tech implies competency in literacy and math, which half of FWCS students don't have.

Let's see if Steve Corona comes up with another $35 million proposal for a high tech career center for kids who can't do math. If we build it will they come?

Who cares about local control of schools?

2010-05-02T16:55:00.005-05:00

Today we were treated two articles in the Perspective section of the JG lamenting the loss of local control of public schools. And who exactly is upset about losing local control? Why the "locals" who are currently in control and don't want to lose it of course. In the first article Diana Showalter, superintendent of North Manchester Schools, is quoted as saying "when we can't control our own destiny through the collection of property taxes, we are setting ourselves up for a difficult time". In other words, "When we lost the power to tax people out of their homes to preserve the jobs, salaries and benefits of our unionized teachers, we put them in the same boat as the taxpayers who have to adapt to economic reality." Well, amen to that, Diana!

The other article deals with FWCS efforts to keep the state from taking over North Side and South Side High Schools next year and nine other schools after that. Here we're told that although many districts were caught by surprise by the state's vigorous implementation of PL221 sanctions, FWCS already knew they were falling behind and work was already under way to improve these schools. Actually the state showed up unannounced and unexpected at every targeted school in the state including those in FWCS. NSHS and SSHS are failing all right but Wendy, FWEA and the board didn't want to hear it and blew off PL221 (and NCLB) until the Cambridge group was knocking on the door. They were having too much fun telling us how hard they were working and closing board meetings singing Kumbaya. Does anyone believe they would be going through this current excercise of musical chairs with administrators and teachers if the state didn't have a gun to their heads?

Then at the end Wendy lamented thay they couldn't think outside of the box when they were boxed in by the state. A unionized, urban school district that thinks outside the box? Please, we weren't all socially promoted.

The only people who care about all this are the ones who sit through those useless board meetings because nobody who doesn't work for the district bothers to attend them. So bring it on Dr. Bennett. You can't do any worse than the "locals".

The infallibility of the school board

2010-04-27T08:33:00.005-05:00

Now ms. Frisco is telling the Elmhurst supporters to get over it because the courts shouldn't be able to reverse the decision of elected school board members (like in Brown vs. the Board of Education). You voted them into office so you should accept their wisdom. As if having the courts overrule elected officials is unheard of (didn't GiaQuinta sue the mayor a while back?). Wendy's rubber stamps are sort of like the Pope and his cardinals. They're infallible between elections. To the JG, FWCS is infallible for eternity.

The reason for keeping Elmhurst open is that it's still a viable alternative to the other three failed high schools south of Coliseum. Unfortunately, even if it stays open, that won't be true much longer under a management on Clinton Street that's determined to close it.

Suit's on

2010-04-21T09:35:00.002-05:00

Yesterday the Vegeler Law Office officially filed suit on behalf of Elmhurst parents to keep the school open. How this will all play out is any one's guess, and the most urgent question at the moment is whether the school will at least be open this fall. The constitutional question about access to education to me boils down to whether someone with a child at Elmhurst should be forced to send them to Wayne. If it were me, the answer would be a resounding "NO WAY!".

A more interesting point of discovery will come in examining the district's finances to see whether there's another way to find the money needed to keep Elmhurst open. My guess is that there's enough deadwood in the "fiefdoms" in the Grile Center and the schools to pay for that and for the additional 8 million they will have to cut next year. Just finding out what FWCS has squirreled away should be worth the cost of the lawsuit. They are "Our Schools" after all.

Cambridge consultants' assessment of SSHS spot on

2010-04-17T09:19:00.005-05:00

South Side High School got mediocre (poor to fair) ratings in the recent follow-up by the Cambridge group on behalf of the IDOE. Krista Stockman's comment was "we knew most... of this already" (but we just didn't do anything about it until the state came in with a hammer). That's right. In fact I sent Wendy a letter eight years ago after subbing at South Side, describing much of what Cambridge said. I sent Mark GiaQuinta a similar letter after he was elected to the board. (wonder what happened to those letters.) Steve Brace criticized Cambridge for denigrating the staff after spending so little time and effort. Well, Steve, after spending a year at South as a volunteer tutor in freshman math classes, I can say that the consultant has a remarkably good grasp of the situation. But you know that, don't you, Steve?

The report is available on line as a PDF file
http://www.journalgazette.net/assets/pdf/JG71687413.PDF in last week's JG article. Much of the criticism falls on principal Thomas Smith who's strength is discipline and creation of an orderly environment. His weakness is lack of vision and management skill in carrying out an academic improvement strategy. He is also hampered by a top down administration on Clinton Street, which allows no discretion in devising different strategies or administering personnel. The straitjacket of a union contract was, of course, not explicitly mentioned. But now Mr. Smith is going to Wayne to straighten them out. Good luck with that.

I don't have anything against Mr. Smith. If the middle schools weren't dumping unprepared kids into South Side (as ordered by the top down administration on Clinton Street) he would probably do just fine. To expect anyone to succeed pulling up an anchor at the end of a broken chain is unrealistic, and I personally told him so. But he knew what he was getting into. And it will be worse at Wayne.

It ain't over 'till it's over

2010-04-09T09:51:00.010-05:00

As Yogi Berra said a long time ago, back when FWCS was a great school district instead of another failing urban mess. Judging by Angie Hayden Sutton's letter which appeared in the JG this morning, apparently several weeks after it was written, FWCS never had any intention of doing anything but closing the school. The "fluff" JG editorial she mentions about kids adjusting to their new schools was written before the vote was taken, so even Karen Frisco knew it was a done deal. What Angie says is right on target and it would be a shame if the "Save Elmhurst" group accepts this decision without a challenge, in the courts if necessary.

But it's up to Elmhurst parents and alumni to take up the challenge, not just with words but with their wallets. There's still one high school on the south side of Fort Wayne that works and is worth saving as long as it can remain academically viable. Send a few dollars to the cause (Paypal, credit card, whatever, .... on their website http://sosehs.com/) and give Elmhurst a chance. You never know what you can do until you try.

Wayne HS officially a failure, Elmhurst parents threaten to sue

2010-04-02T08:47:00.005-05:00

The state DOE has officially added Wayne HS to its list of failing schools. It was already unofficially included, being on the district's list of "LEAD" schools. But being on the official list has triggered more anger from Elmhurst parents, many of who's kids have been slated to go to Wayne. Somehow they have awakened to the fact that three high schools which will take in most of the former Elmhurst students are all in the bottom 5% in the state's academic rankings and are all in danger of being taken over by the DOE. None have a realistic chance of improving, so they may soon be at the mercy of Tony Bennett and the governor whom the FWCS administration has taken great pains to vilify.

So the Elmhurst parents group that tried to save the school announced on Channel 21 news last night that they want to sue FWCS because forcing their kids into failing high schools violates their constitutional right to an equal education. Here's hoping they go ahead. There are plenty of other places to find the $2 million saved by closing Elmhurst and Pleasant Center that won't compromise academic achievement. They're just more uncomfortable for the administration to confront.

FWCS can't be fixed

2010-03-28T10:24:00.002-05:00

If events over the last year or two haven't convinced you that FWCS is going down the same path as every other urban school district, you can read it into today's Karen Frisco's JG editorial. Karen laments all the failed reforms that have been attempted like vouchers, charter schools, accountability testing, ending social promotion, NCLB, etc. She even faults Bill and Melinda Gates for spending their billions trying to fix urban schools. Somehow that's undemocratic because it takes away the power of democratically elected school boards. As if these idiots (Mark Twain's observation) know better than Bill and Melinda. Stop wasting your money guys and just let taxpayers keep wasting their money.

Notice that nobody, including Karen and especially our school district, ever comes straight out and admits that urban public education doesn't work, can't be fixed and inevitably ends up in suburban flight. So there's no point in criticising or trying to push the schools into doing anything different. And we could accept that if they weren't spending half our state tax money and patting themselves on the back with one hand at board meetings while they're picking our pockets with the other. If we could be sure that FWCS wouldn't go out with a $2 billion dollar building flame out like Kansas City, we could just ignore them and let nature take its course. Better just to leave them alone, if they would leave our pocketbooks alone.

Elmhurst students to see "Magic" of failing schools

2010-03-23T14:28:00.011-05:00

Last night the board OK'd the closing of Elmhurst and Pleasant Center schools. The decision to close them was actually made four years ago by Wendy's Yellow Ribbon Task Force. Elmhurst was only taken off the table to minimize signatures on blue petitions in the remonstrance. Pleasant Center would already be closed if the bond issue had succeeded. Nothing anyone said in the recent public meetings to keep the schools open would have made any difference. People just got to vent but if they believed anyone on the board was listening with an open mind they were sadly mistaken. Actually either school could have been closed at any time after FWCS lost the petition drive, saving the taxpayers $2 million/yr. But the budget cuts gave her the political cover she needed to actually proceed. Fiscal responsibility hinges on having a good story tell angry parents.

The district will lose 91 teaching positions as well because the teachers union was unwilling to make any salary or health benefit concessions (concessions the rest of us have had to make in the recession) that would have saved fellow teachers' jobs. Retirements and turnover may reduce actual layoffs but that won't help kids in the classrooms.

Contrary to the bluster from Wendy and a board president who talked about the same "Magic" in the three "LEAD" schools as at Elmhurst, this district is in deep trouble. If you want to get another perspective on their situation read retired FWCS teacher Anne Rickert's guest column in yesterday's Sentinel. Her assessment is right on the money.
news-sentinel.com/apps/pcbs.dll/article?AID=/20100322/EDITORIAL/3220328

Worse than being waterboarded.

2010-03-19T07:53:00.002-05:00

OK, I've never been waterboarded but it can't be any worse that sitting through the FWCS public hearing on closing Elmhurst and Pleasant Center at the Grile Center last night. Admittedly the board had to listen to some inane questions and comments but the pontification they gave in their responses was almost unbearable. Like GiaQuinta and Corona explaining why they sent their kids to private school. Hey guys, I would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes but I wouldn't sit up there and bullshit my way around it like you did.

After Elmhurst closes there will be three failing public high schools south of Coliseum Boulevard. Academically they are in the bottom 5% of the high schools in the state. Wayne is ranked close to the high school in the Marion County jail (Corona's former Gary high school is worse that that.) Their teachers and administrators are being forced through a ritual of reapplying for their jobs and musical chairs to keep the state off their backs for another year or two. That won't improve anything. Those teachers are no different than the ones in the the other schools in the district.

Wendy's strategy for turning this around is to first remove the stigma of losers by calling them "LEAD" schools. Then to fix them with Freshmen Academies, "High School Reinvent" and best of all the "Balanced Scorecard". That's not going to fix them for the reason Wendy inadvertently gave last night. The middle class parents have deserted the south side of town. They will eventually desert the area north of Coliseum.

Hopefully the State will come in and take the South half of the system away from Wendy and her clueless puppets and turn it into a charter system. They've cost us the right to local control.

No concessions from FWEA. And you thought it was about the kids.

2010-03-18T15:51:00.002-05:00

The tentative teachers contract contains no salary concession and retains pay increases by seniority. FWEA representative Steve Brace said any sacrifice should "not be made on the backs of teachers. This is a community problem".

That's right Steve, the sacrifice will be made on the backs of the taxpayers and the kids. And the younger teachers who will be laid off first. Sounds like Ron Gettlefinger of the UAW talking. Why don't you guys just drop that FW"Education"A charade and have the UAW negotiate for you. Then FWCS and the Big Three can go out of business together. Kansas City, Detroit, Fort Wayne here we come.

Time for a charter high school

2010-03-15T20:36:00.005-05:00

Thursday night parents from Elmhurst will get another shot at talking to Wendy's brick wall at the Grile Center. With limited seating capacity in the board room, Wendy has at least limited the number of people who can get in and vent their frustration. You can't fault parents if they don't like the options facing their kids if Elmhurst closes. Wayne, with a 35% passing rate on the ISTEP is an academic disaster. South Side and North Side with passing rates around 45% are "LEAD" schools with virtually no chance of improving. Why should they be happy about sending their kids to South Side when school board president Mark GiaQuinta and their District 1 school board representative Steve Corona decided it wasn't good enough for their kids?

But the parents should consider that if Elmhurst stays open it will still be run and staffed from Clinton Street by an inept administration overseen by an incompetent board. FWCS has clearly shown a lack of imagination and flexibility. They're unable to adapt to the realities of their demographics and in all probability will continue to short change Elmhurst as the system's stepchild high school.

In the long run parents would be better off to organize with the goal of establishing a charter high school in the Southwest part of the district. Whether that school should occupy the existing Elmhurst building is an open question. It's an old building but still quite suitable. The reports about its deterioration were greatly exaggerated to justify closing it three years ago . Although not air conditioned, the building is still viable. Saving the building would save FWCS the demolition costs ($500,000 if I remember right from the bond issue) and provide a return from either a sale or a rental to the charter organization.

It may take some time to get the enrollment up to capacity but considering the alternatives south of Coliseum boulevard there is little doubt it could be done. With guidance from the city's existing charter school organization, a determined group of parents could make it happen. They've offered to work with the administration to find a way to keep it open, but if that doesn't work, cut the cord.