Sunday, February 29, 2004

Last week the Sun reported that many Lowell High seniors lack sufficient credits to graduate this June. While this is unfortunate, it just illustrates the dilemma faced by the urban school systems. Students who don't show up for class rarely pass their courses, so the graduation rate is low. But if the school disenrolls those who don't show up for class, the drop out rate goes up. Either way, the school is criticized. Those doing the criticism ought to spend a few minutes thinking about why the students aren't showing up for class in the first place. Certainly better instruction can lead to better attendance - that can't be ignored. But there's more to it than that. Many students have competing responsibilities - jobs, child care. Perhaps nontraditional school settings - late afternoon or night classes for example, might better suit some of today's students. But like everything else, such an innovative approach requires more money. Many just find it easier to criticize the schools.

Friday, February 27, 2004

Lt Governor Healy was in Lowell yesterday. Among other things, she talked about Governor Romney's plan to eliminate the backlog that exists in school building projects. With last year's fiscal crisis, the state declared a moratorium on new school building projects. Until now, the money to build new schools was raised through bonds that were to be repaid in 20 years. Romney's plan would double the period for paying of the debt (40 years). This would reduce the annual payment to a manageable amount and would get all of the schools currently on the list built. A hidden benefit (as someone explained to me) of this plan is that many construction jobs that were created for the Big Dig could be shifted to this project thereby keeping people employed. The downside is that the state wouldn't be able to help with the construction of additional new schools for the next 40 years. Nevertheless, this is a proposal that should be examined closely by the state legislature.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

A radio news report this morning explained that authorities in Washington DC have warned residents that children and pregnant women should not drink any tap water because of dangerously high levels of lead. No one knows where the lead is coming from. Some speculate that chemicals used in the water are causing lead to leach out of older pipes. Lead causes brain damage in young children. Recent studies indicate that relatively low levels of lead - well within the margins previously considered safe - can impair mental development. The point of this story? Urban school districts face an amazing set of challenges, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with education. Poverty, health care, housing, crime, nutrition and many other things have an impact on academic performance, but many politicians conveniently ignore these realities, content to make teachers and administrators scapegoats for society's problems.
Arizona is the next state to watch in the escalating controversy over the "No Child Left Behind" act. After more than half (half!!) of the state's school districts failed to make "adequate yearly progress" under the law's definition, bipartisan legislators introduced a bill to take Arizona out of compliance with the law, echoing actions in Utah, Virginia and Vermont. In addition, Arizona teachers are planning to make NCLB the focus of their annual education rally at the capitol on March 3. As with other states, inadequate funding is the issue. To quote Cindi Hobbs, the Mesa Schools Governing Board president, "I have no problem with the accountability, just fund it. The program is only as good as the money that follows it."

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

The New York Times' editorial page called for the replacement of U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige because of his "staggeringly stupid comment" in which he compared the National Education Association to a "terrorist organization." According to the newspaper, this is just the latest misstep by Mr. Paige who has been repeatedly criticized by Congress for failing to properly administer the No Child Left Behind act. Last year, Mr. Paige said he "preferred to have a child in Christian schools and suggested that Christians were morally superior to others." Instead of dealing with the critical issues raised by No Child Left Behind, Mr. Paige's Education Department has focused on things such as ensuring that school districts "permit the right amount of constitutionally protected prayer." No wonder federal education policy is in such disarray.

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

The nation's largest teachers' union is a terrorist organization, so says Rod Paige, President Bush's Secretary of Education. Mr. Paige slurred this country's teachers because of their opposition to the federal No Child Left Behind law. We've been consistent critics of NCLB too, so if the blog suddenly disappears, it might be due to some zealot from the federal government using the enormous powers of the so-called Patriot Act to stifle further dissent. As more and more schools are labeled as "non-performing," state legislatures across the country - including those dominated by Republicans - are revolting against this law. Just as the President and his administration have recklessly questioned the patriotism of anyone who opposes their policy in Iraq, they now label those who oppose their education policy as terrorists which, after 9/11, is pretty despicable.

Monday, February 23, 2004

The Citywide Parent Council had a very successful meeting tonight at the Pawtucketville Memorial School. Thirty-five parents, one mayor (Armand Mercier) and two school committee members (Jackie Doherty and Joe Mendonca who arrived after the Knowledge Bowl competition) were in attendance. The issue was transportation and school safety. The cut backs in busing that resulted from last springs budget cuts evoked passionate comments from many parents whose children now have to walk a mile or more along Varnum Ave and other busy streets, many of which don't have sidewalks. With justifiable concerns about the safety of their children, these parents really pressed the representatives of the school department to come up with some options that would allow more children to ride the buses. The easiest way to address this safety issue is to restore the funding necessary to allow more children to ride school buses. Hopefully, everyone will remember that during this spring's budget debate.

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Don't forget, the February Citywide Parent Council meeting is this Monday, Feburary 23 at 7 pm at the Pawtucketville Memorial School on West Meadow Road. The topic is transportation and winter safety. Bill Cobuzzi, the school department's Director of Transportation will be there to answer questions. Other areas to be discussed include snow removal, traffic congestion, crossing guards and disaster planning.

Friday, February 20, 2004

Finally, some relief from the unreasonable burdens of No Child Left Behind. The U.S. Department of Education quietly announced that the test scores of immigrant children who do not speak English will not be considered in determining whether the school they attend has met its goal of adequately yearly progress. NCLB requires each sub-group within the school to meet these goals; if a single group does not, the entire school is labeled non-performing and is subject to punitive measures. No Child Left Behind is still an unreasonable federal intrusion into education policy that, if left unchanged, will probably dismantle public education as we know it now. This retrenchment by the Department of Education just shows the enormous pressure that is building in opposition to NCLB as more and more schools are labeled non-performing.

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Today's Globe had two stories about the negative effects on local school districts that have been caused by cuts in state aid. One reported the results of a statewide survey of school that detailed the loss of thousands of teachers and cuts in countless programs, all while the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Law loom over all schools. The other article described the plight of Thomas Giancristiano, the Winthrop school superintendent who has submitted his resignation effective this coming December. Winthrop has already cut librarians, foreign language teachers, talented and gifted programs, music, home economics, remedial reading, business education, programs for at-risk youths, curriculum coordinators, secretaries, nurses and crossing cards. He will now cut all sports programs. Winthrop is certainly an extreme case, but is it a preview of coming attractions for the rest of the state if the budget cuts of the past few years continue?

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Last summer, the New York City school system overhauled its special education procedures with leaders vowing to "cut bureaucratic deadwood and shift teachers and resources to the classrooms where they are most needed." Today's New York Times reports that this reorganization has been disastrous ("With Students Overlooked and Files Lost, Special Ed Streamlining Looks Like a Train Wreck"). The problem, it seems, is that all the administrators - the rhetorical "bureaucratic deadwood" - actually played an important role. Now no one can find student files, receiving schools still have no idea that students that arrived in September should receive Special Ed services, and when parents or teachers call for information or assistance, no one answers the phone. The architects of the restructuring say all of this should be done by computer, but none of the people out in the schools have computers that work, never mind whether they know how to use them. With all the many diverse laws governing education in America today (see earlier entries re No Child Left Behind), school systems absolutely require significant administrative overhead to make the system work. If the system doesn't work, all the talk about "putting resources in the classroom" is just empty rhetoric.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Tonight's editorial in the Sun, "Costly delay," criticizes S&R Contracting Corp for causing the delays in the construction of the Stoklosa Middle School. As also reported in the Sun on Saturday, the city of Lowell is withholding the final payment of $600,000 to S&R as a penalty of the delay. The Sun's opinion is that S&R should not be hired for any additional public sector construction jobs. We agree, but there are many questions that remain unanswered. S&R's contract called for all work to be completed by April 23, 2003, ninety days from the start of the contract. Here it is almost ten months after the completion date - a delay three times as long as performance of the entire contract was supposed to take - and the city is only now penalizing this company. Why didn't the city act sooner? That's a question that needs to be answered. Left unsaid by the Sun is the fact that S&R is the same company that's been performing repair work on the O'Donnell Bridge (aka School Street Bridge) which has lasted forever. Presumably the bridge repair job was beyond it's completion date when the city awarded S&R the Stoklosa contract. The Sun's call to not use S&R seems one delayed job too late.

Monday, February 16, 2004

Happy Presidents Day. Because it's school vacation week, the blog might venture into topics other than education - movie reviews, for instance. Today I saw the new Disney movie, Miracle, the story of the 1980 gold medal winning U.S. Olympic hockey team. Overall, it's a very good movie although some parts of it seemed to drag - it's hard to sustain two hours of edge-of-the-seat excitement when you already know how the story ends. There was no lack of excitement in the hockey scenes, however, as most of the actors are also hockey players. The PG rating must have been earned by the heavy body checks since there wasn't much swearing. It's certainly a movie you can take your kids to see. And for anyone born after 1980, it's a great history lesson about what life was like back at that time, with Ford Pinto's and Dodge Darts waiting in line to buy 5 gallons of gas, max, not to mention the Soviets seemingly on a path towards world domination. I guess we know how that ended, too.

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Earlier this week, voters in Winthrop, Massachusetts, defeated a Proposition 2 1/2 override that would have bailed out the financially strapped public schools in that town. Numerous teachers will now be laid off and all school sports will be eliminated this fall. Obviously, a situation this drastic did not happen over night. Still, the ongoing fiscal crisis in this state along with the unreasonable demands of the No Child Left Behind Law continue to drag more and more school systems, especially in urban communities, towards this kind of precipice, pitting cash-strapped home owners against advocates of the public schools in the kind of struggle that no one can win.

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Hancock v. Driscoll is a lawsuit brought by a number of public school students from urban communities of Massachusetts against David Driscoll, the state Commissioner of Education. The suit alleges that the state has failed to adequately fund these urban communities, as it was ordered to do in the 1993 decision in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education, the case that led to the historic 1993 Education Reform Bill that substantially increased state funding to many school districts. Despite the benefits of Education Reform, the plaintiffs in the Hancock case contend it is not enough; that more must be done. The case, which has been going on for seven months, is rapidly coming to a conclusion. Lawyers for both sides submitted their requests for findings to the judge yesterday. She is expected to issue findings of fact by the end of this month which she will then submit to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which will issue the appropriate orders based on those findings.

Friday, February 13, 2004

The Sun has apparently concluded that the recently increased parking fees in Lowell are newsworthy. Last night's story reported on School Committee member Jackie Doherty's assertion that the school department might be entitled to free parking at the Ayotte Garage given the history of how the land for the garage had been acquired with school building funds. Unfortunately, Mayor Armand Mercier cut her off during the meeting and told her she'd have to file a separate motion to discuss this further. Hopefully, she will. Tonight's Sun had a front page story, "Garages filled - with deals," that reviewed numerous instances where the city enticed developers to locate in Lowell by providing free or reduced cost parking at city garages. Ironically, the rush to raise parking rates is due to the city's desire to build a garage on Middlesex Street as a catalyst for development. Once that garage is build, no doubt, the city will offer free or heavily discounted parking to developers in that area to entice them into doing their projects. The same people who contemptuously ignore the history of Lowell High's involvement with the construction of the Ayotte Garage as "old news" shouldn't be so dismissive.

Thursday, February 12, 2004

More evidence of the growing recognition across the country that the No Child Left Behind law is fatally flawed: This past Tuesday, the Utah House of Representatives voted to prohibit the state's education authorities from using any local money to comply with No Child Left Behind. Essentially, the Utah legislature is calling the President's bluff when he says the law is fully funded. In Utah, they will implement the requirements of NCLB to the extent they are financed by Federal funds. If that money is insufficient, state money will not be spent to make up the difference. Utah now joins Virginia and Vermont in enacting anti-NCLB legislation. The action in Utah is particularly embarrassing to the White House, however, since the legislature of that state is overwhelmingly Republican.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Here's the background on the Ayotte parking garage. In 1978, a major addition was made to Lowell High School. This included the Riddick Field House which had/has a seating capacity of 3000. Because city councilors expected frequent events at the field house that would draw large crowds, they used the city's power of eminent domain to take a 2 acre parcel of land across Father Morrisette Blvd for parking for Lowell High School. The city paid the owner of the parcel $150,000. This money came from state funds that were provided specifically for the Lowell High School addition. Teachers used this lot for parking until 1985 when the city used federal funds to build the present parking garage. After the garage was constructed, teachers were able to park there free of charge until 1994 when the Lowell School Department started paying the city for teacher parking. For the past ten years, the school department has continued paying the city a relatively insignificant amount for parking. Now, however, the city has drastically increased the parking fees and intends to charge the school department $400,000 per year for parking that was free for 15 years. In light of this garage's history, why is the school department paying anything at all?

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

The finance subcommittees of the Lowell City Council and School Committee met last night. They discussed the heating problem at Lowell High, the cost of teacher parking, and a $900,000 rebate from the amount budgeted for unemployment. Here's some background on the parking issue: several weeks ago the city council doubled parking rates to help pay the $22 million cost of a new parking garage to be built on the site of Barney's Delicatessen on Middlesex Street. The existing teachers' contract requires the school department to provide teachers at Lowell High with free parking. To do that, the school department leases a number of spaces in the city-owned Ayotte Garage. With the parking fee increases, the School Department will have to pay the city $400,000 next year for parking. Members of the school committee argue that the School Department should be given a substantial discount in recognition of the serious budget cuts already sustained - That $400,000 could be better spent on textbooks and science labs. Read tomorrow's blog entry to learn why the School Department should not be paying anything for the use of this parking garage.

Monday, February 09, 2004

A recent trend in the business world will make it more difficult for the graduates of Lowell public schools to obtain employment. American companies such as Microsoft, IBM and General Electric are shifting thousands of white collar jobs from the US to foreign countries, particularly India, where employment costs are less and a skilled work force is readily available. This practice will undoubtedly become an issue in the upcoming presidential campaign although both Democrats and Republicans seem to support measures that would limit this. An article in today's New York Times ("Indians Fearing Repercussions of US Technology Outsourcing") explains that the Indian economy is booming as US companies shift computer-related research and development and call center jobs to Asia. Indian business leaders and government officials argue that they are actually helping US companies by allowing them to cut costs and remain competitive. Maybe. But that doesn't help the person who can't find a white collar job here in the US.
When walking down Merrimack Street in Lowell, take a look at the artwork in the window of Barnes and Noble and in some of the vacant store windows further along the street. Giant heads grace most of the windows, some with fantastic colorful visions, another filled with sonnets, all created by students in Lowell's alternative high school program, now housed at the Molloy School. This program is for students who are temporarily removed from the high school for behavioral problems. Working with the Revolving Museum director Jerry Beck, the teens are creating meaningul works of art for public spaces. Caught on the street this morning, Mr. Beck says "there's more to come." We say it's great work and a great example of the importance of the arts in education!

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Have you seen CPC-TV? The Citywide Parent Council produces two programs that regularly appear on Lowell Education TV (Channel 22). The first program is the regular monthly CPC meeting which is broadcast on Sundays at 5 p.m., Mondays at 7 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. This month's meeting topic was "What Parents Should Know About Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs." The second CPC-TV program is "Conversations with the Superintendent," a 30 minute talk show featuring Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr. Each month, Dr. Baehr discusses an education-related issue of importance to the Lowell schools. This month's program was "School Buildings: Past and Future." "Conversations with the Superintendent" is broadcast on Channel 22 on Tuesdays at 10 am and 7:30 pm, Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 10 a.m.

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Tonight's Lowell Sun editorial ("Make it fair for all") takes a shockingly reasonable position on a topic related to public schools - Mr. Campanini must be away on vacation. The editorial responds to Governor Romney's proposal that high school graduates who finish in the top 25% on MCAS exams should receive free tuition at state colleges and universities. The newspaper points out that the governor's plan as currently structured would benefit primarily students at affluent suburban schools. A more equitable system would reward the top 25% at each school; that way, students in urban classrooms would also benefit from the program. Congratulations to the Sun for taking a stand on this issue. We might add that the proposal should be expanded to include fees as well as tuition since the amount a student must pay in fees often exceeds the cost of tuition - we know that sounds crazy, but it is unfortunately true.

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

The No Child Left Behind law has thrust the federal government into local education policy. It's ironic that a conservative administration that on almost every other issue, wants to reduce the federal government's role, is presiding over the most intrusive federal education program ever. We hope that much of the debate in this fall's presidential election will concern education policy. We know where the president stands. While we don't yet know the identity of the Democratic nominee, it looks increasingly like it will be John Kerry. To learn more about Senator Kerry's position on education issues, click HERE.

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Several years ago I visited the former Riverside School, which was and is the site of an alternative middle school program. When I arrived, I was greeted not only by a staff member but by a dog who was allowed to roam free in the halls (the dog had a calming influence). Set among all the very impressive student created artwork on the walls was a factory-style time clock and time cards (students who found arriving on time difficult were aided by the time clock). I recall close to three dozen students spread through a handful of classrooms. The most striking thing was that in every one of the classrooms, the students and teachers were reading and discussing Macbeth. Several of the sessions I witnessed were more intense and compelling than those in many college classrooms. What was going on? This was an alternative school filled with students whose disciplinary issues had caused them to be removed from a regular middle school. Yet they were all deeply engaged in learning some pretty complex material. What I learned from my visit was that all students learn differently and that even those who had great difficulty in the normal classroom environment could thrive academically under the right circumstances. And those circumstances take resources - money - which, as we've discussed in prior blog entries, is a crucial ingredient that the No Child Left Behind Law has left behind.

Monday, February 02, 2004

Congratulations to the Patriots on their victory in yesterday's Super Bowl. Back to No Child Left Behind: children receiving special education services are supposed to, as a group, show adequate yearly progress on MCAS otherwise a school will be labeled as "underperforming." All children (except for those with severe disabilities) should be held to the same standard - they're in special ed because they learn differently, not because they can't learn. But often times, this different way of learning is very resource intensive requiring more individualized instruction and highly trained teachers. This all costs a lot of money. Given the right situation, most children receiving special education services would thrive academically. Unfortunately, most school districts can only afford to do the minimum and this is often not enough. This is the real outrage of No Child Left Behind: it's proponents offer sanctimonious platitudes about wanting all children to succeed, but then siphon money from the already under funded school, pushing next year's goals further out of reach.

Sunday, February 01, 2004

We're busy watching the Super Bowl and will be back tomorrow.