Tonight's meeting cancelled!!

Unfortunately we've had to cancel tonight's meeting due to weather conditions. We had an informative meeting planned, so we are hoping to reschedule a taped version sometime in February. In the meantime, keep those questions/concerns about the high school coming!

January 23 meeting on Lowell High School

The next CPC meeting will be Monday, January 23, beginning at 7 pm. The topic will be Lowell High School and we are inviting high school and middle school parents especially to ask questions of high school administrators. This will be a LIVE broadcast from the Lowell Educational Television (LET) studio, Ch. 22, and parents can participate from home by calling or emailing their questions during the meeting. If you don't have cable, you can email the questions ahead of time or come down to the high school on Monday night and be a part of our studio audience. (The studio is on the third floor, above the library. Use the cafeteria entrance nearest to the canal, go up three flights and follow the hallway to the end).

Some topics to be covered are: safety and security, college paths and assistance, tardiness and attendance policies, sports programs and eligibility, the Campaign for Educational Excellence, and the different academies now available at Lowell High with a special focus on the new Freshman Academy.

School Funding Revolt

It seems that there's a revolution brewing in the suburbs over the state's school funding formula known as Chapter 70. While we in the cities recognize the urgent need for more funding for urban school systems, the fact remains that cities do receive an enormous amount of state education money and, when viewed from outside the city, that seems to be done at the expense of the suburbs. The suburban school systems have persevered as the state shifts more and more of the burden of education from the state income tax to local property taxes. With the historic explosion in property values and corresponding revenue increases, this has worked. But real estate prices are slipping as are tax collections and school financing has reached the crisis stage in many suburbs. Now, delegations from Chelmsford and other towns in the Route 495 belt are heading to the state house to lobby for changes in the school funding formula. There's an enormous risk that we will all slip into the Romneyesque trap of demaning that the school funding pie get divided differently. This debate will divide us all. What we should be advocating is to increase the size of the pie; that way there will be plenty for everyone.

Public Hearing on NCLB

I attended a public hearing in Boston yesterday about the federal legislation, "No Child Left Behind." Sponsored by PEN (Public Education Network, www.publiceducation.org ), they had community leaders, students and parents on hand to testify about what's working under NCLB, what's not working, what should be changed and what should the future of public education look like.

The general consensus seemed to be that increased accountability for schools has been a good thing, especially because of the disaggregation of data on subgroups; that is, the numbers pertaining to special needs children and English language learners now has to be examined separately and reported on separately. These requirements give more leverage to minority communities who are trying to make changes at the local level. Many people pointed to the requirement that teachers be 'highly qualified' as a positive one. Also, the parental involvement piece of NCLB earned praise, although no one could say how it should be accomplished.

Under the "Not Working" portion, came the complaint of "one size fits all" testing, testing that ignores the complexities of why children are failing and that actually leaves many children behind. If NCLB cannot or will not live up to its promise, then it becomes a "tool for dismantling public education." Senator Dianne Wilkerson from Boston highlighted the reduction in MCAS remediation funds statewide from $40 million to $0 (I've also heard that it went from $50 million to $10 million) and stated that the policy is totally disconnected from reality. Our own Phala Chea, Director of the Parent Information Center, gave testimony that got to the heart of the problem with the 'one-shot standardized test score used to determine whether students are learning and teachers are teaching.' She pointed out that "using this mehtod is contrary to all researched and respected evaluation methods, since evaluations should be done frequently and over a long period of time to get an accurate picture of a student's progress.' She went on to suggest that a "cohort analysis of test results is needed, rather than the current NCLB analysis for different groups of students." In other words, currently we are measuring the achievement of different groups of students (this year's 4th graders compared to last year's) rather than comparing this year's 4th graders to how they were doing as 3rd graders.

Some suggestions for improvement were to lengthen the timeline; that is, give struggling schools more funds for a longer period, don't just withdraw funds once a certain goal is reached. A longer school day was recommended to close the achievement and opportunity gaps for struggling students. More money should go to early childhood education as a proven way to give students a head start on their education, teachers need to respect families and children. There should be a more 'nuanced and intelligent way to use tests', children need to see themselves as learners and crucially, we need a "wider conversation;" people need to pay attention to policy discussions that are going to affect their lives. We've seen this on local issues as well - too much decision-making appears to occur in a vacuum and be cut off from the reality of people's daily experience.

The Evils of Privatization?

The headline in the print edition of yesterday's Lowell Sun screamed about $1.7 million in wasted spending at a school for special needs students. Only in the sub-headline did the fact that it was a private school appear. The web version of the story makes that information much more prominent. The story reports on a State Auditor's report that criticizes this school for spending funds from the state on Red Sox tickets, elaborate dinners, and other questionable items. Wasn't it just last month that the Sun, in consecutive editorials ranting about all that is wrong with public education, proclaim that privatization was the salvation of educating America's youth? The type of waste reported in this story is the inevitable result of privatization of traditionally public functions such as education. With public services, the voters at least have some say in how their tax dollars are being spent. If the money is being spent unwisely, the voters have no one to blame but themselves. But when government abdicates its responsibilities to Corporate America, you get the same perks and fringe benefits that have transformed professional sports in this country into the exclusive domain of the very rich and of those with the right connections to corporations that spend their shareholders money lavishly on food and entertainment budgets. There's no place for that in government, and especially not in public education.

Goals for New Boston Superintendent

An oped piece in today's Globe suggests ten goals for the new Boston superintendent of schools, whomever that may be (the search process has just begun). Here they are:

Figure out the true school drop-out pattern of Boston students and address the reasons that affected groups are leaving school.
Develop an action plan to confront and narrow the 'STEM' -- science, technology, engineering, and math -- gap. These vitally important growth fields are the most race- and gender-segregated ones in America, and Boston students need much more support in all of them.
Systematically examine whether the needs of second language learners are being met now that bilingual education is no longer state policy.
Reopen the exam schools to appropriate numbers of students of color.
Provide high quality vocational/technical education to more students and find ways to energize business and labor support for these programs.
Make a significant commitment to expand extracurricular offerings. Remind ourselves that children will develop as scholars only as they are given opportunities to develop as people. Face the crisis of the disappearance of school clubs, organizations, social and cultural activities, and athletic opportunities. The wider problem of urban schools empty at 2 o'clock while suburban schools hum with activity and boast of ''something for everyone" is an undocumented gap that leaves too many of our youth alienated from their schools and unproductive for many hours of the day -- and some on the street.
Create effective incentives for retention of young teachers and strong educators of all ages.
Reevaluate the use and effects of standardized testing, especially MCAS, looking carefully at negative effects such as the numbing impact of multiple failures, de-emphasis on teacher creativity in favor of scripted teaching, and substitution of ''test prep" for high level and elective courses.
Face up to the militarization of many of our high schools where JROTC has replaced academic and physical education choices and where opportunities for peaceful service are not equally promulgated or even always available.
Reinvigorate public participation in schools. Neither the appointed School Committee nor the neglected School Site Councils in most of our schools motivate, involve or empower parents or other citizens to roll up our sleeves and support the Boston Public Schools.

Lowell Sun Joins the Blogosphere

A front page "Note from the editor" in today's Sun announced the creation of the newspaper's first blog. We'd like to welcome the Sun to the blogosphere. Better late than never. The first blog will be on sports and debuts in Monday's paper. Anyone interested in sports should check it out and get over your shyness and post some comments. Comments make for a better blog (which is why we'd like our many readers - we know who you are - to start doing the same here). Although today's story doesn't mention it, Sun editor Jim Campanini disclosed on WCAP last week that the sports blog should be followed in about a month by a political blog. We can't wait.

The Sun on What Ails Education

Last week the Lowell Sun repackaged its standard attack on public schools in the form of twin editorials on Wednesday and Thursday. The constant refrain that public schools get too much money and that greedy teachers unions and impotent administrators are the cause of all the evils in public education got old a long time ago. The Sun editorialists have so embraced privatization of public schools that one would think they’re heavily invested in the Edison Project. What these folks always ignore is that public schools work wonderfully in affluent suburbs where almost every student comes from a supportive, stable household, well above the poverty line where English is typically the first language, books are plentiful and promoted and high speed Internet connections are a given. Take those students as a goal, put them exclusively in any existing school in Lowell with the same staff and the same teachers and guess what will happen? Those same teachers will produce wonderfully educated students. It’s not the teachers. When students don’t get sufficient food and adequate clothing at home – never mind computers and trips to museums – those students will not become top performers UNLESS the school can provide all of those non-educational things that are typically received in the home. And that will take a lot of money, but it will be money well spent.