The editorial in the Times Union began, "Don’t look now, but Jacksonville is one of the most progressive, reform-minded cities in the nation when it comes to schools". Well, Friends, you should look - and when you do, you should also wince in pain like many of the city's students and teachers do.
Let’s examine some of our reforms:
We have created magnet schools which have divided the city's students into have and have-nots; where what school they go to determines the educational experience they receive. In our zeal to have every student go to college, regardless of aptitude or desire, we have just about reformed the teaching of trades, skills and the arts right out of the district. Then, we ratcheted up the requirements for graduation - which sounds good on paper. Unfortunately, in doing so, we have destroyed rigor in many classes, and at the same time have ill-prepared many students for college. This is evidenced by the fact that 70% of graduates have to take remedial classes once they get to Florida State College at Jacksonville. And as for the vaunted performance pay system that the district and the Florida Times-Union like to point to, it has more holes in it than a colander. The teacher who makes the most gains in his classroom may be barred from receiving any performance pay - at the whim of his principal - as a teacher's evaluations do not and have never considered their student's performance. Then the worst teacher in the school can get performance pay if they are the principal's pet as well. If only it was about student performance.
I wonder if anybody at the Florida Times-Union looked at the report issued by the Thomas Fordham Institute; the main methodology consisted of asking education leaders how they thought things were going. (And, frankly, Friends - they may have ulterior motives for painting a rosy picture). Furthermore, many of the scores attributed to Jacksonville, like state policies and the Kipp school, have very little (or nothing) to do with how the district runs its public schools. Though, in the end, while reading the report, I couldn’t help having the feeling that it had been written by a pretty smart 11th grader bluffing their way through a paper. Maybe the Florida Times-Union was so eager to give it notoriety because it wanted to refute the part which said, "The Florida Times-Union, however, is less supportive of education reform than newspapers in other cities in this analysis".
Then there is the fact that the whole premise of the report (reform) is flawed. A willingness to try different things to improve a situation is only admirable if the situation improves; reform just for the sake of reform can often have a harmful effect. If you don’t believe me, take a sampling of teachers aside and ask them if they think things are improving. Just because somebody reads a pamphlet while waiting for a flight or goes to a workshop and in between coffee breaks hears something that sounds interesting, it doesn’t mean the school district should try it. Reform at 1701 Prudential Drive is the equivalent of throwing paint against a wall and hoping some of it sticks and it does so to the detriment of not just the city’s students and teachers, but the city itself.
The article reports that Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals said in a news release, "The district continues to be open to new ideas and reform that will allow us to continue to provide a quality education to our students in preparation for a post-secondary education or the world of work." Parents and stakeholders might disagree with that statement, (as the school board seems to make up their mind and then ask for input) but let's go ahead and take the superintendent's statement of genuine. Well, Mr. Superintendent, how about these suggestions?
We bring discipline back to the city's classrooms, and give children who misbehave consequences. (A little tough love can go a long way).
We make the teaching of skills, trades and the arts as important as teaching math and science. If we want kids to succeed, they will have a better chance if we play to their strengths and desires.
We make school enjoyable by ensuring children have multiple electives. If school is drudgery to children, it’s not a leap to think they will not do very well.
We make graduation requirements reasonable. Enhancing the requirements doesn’t do any good if it destroys rigor at the same time. Let’s teach a little less but make sure that kids understand it before we move on.
Instead of having so many academic coaches, we hire more social workers and therapists. So often, when a kid acts up or doesn’t try at school, it has very little to do with school. How can we expect our most troubled students to be successful for 6 hours a day when we ignore the other 18 hours?
Instead of passing kids along with the skills they need to be successful, we make after school opportunities and summer school mandatory - and if that doesn't work, we hold them back until they can be successful.
Then most importantly, how abut instead of overwhelming teachers with superfluous task-after-task (that, at best, only has a peripheral relationship with education); instead of destroying teacher’s creativity and flexibility with learning schedules and pacing guides; instead of blaming teachers for the problems in education, (the editorial mentions "teacher quality" as if we have an epidemic of poor teachers and the report also mentions our "lack of human capital") giving them all the responsibility and none of the authority, while giving politicians, policy makers and parents a pass; instead of cajoling teachers with threats of bad evaluations or the loss of their jobs if they write too many referrals or fail too many kids; instead of doing all that to the most valuable resources the district has, how about we treat them with respect - we give them autonomy, and support and encourage creativity? Try those things, Mr. Superintendent - and stand back and watch things improve, and do so dramatically.
Are there good things going on in the district? Yes, and thousands of good things happen daily. Those good things, however, aren’t the reforms coming from the district, they are the interactions that happen between teachers and their students that often happen in spite of the district's reforms. Is the district leadership an unmitigated disaster, and do they have no policies that have proven effective? I’ll let you be the judge of that; but the Florida Times-Union, in light of our graduation and drop-out rates (some of the worst in the state) and the epidemic of youth violence, (undoubtedly exasperated by the district ignoring discipline) does the city and its children a disservice when it paints such a rosy picture. Though, by doing so, perhaps they will get a more favorable mention in next year's report.
If we want things to improve in Jacksonville, it’s going to take more than rosy articles and reforming for the sake of reform. It’s going to take more than the superintendent just saying things are fine and the Times Union shaking its head in agreement. Friends, we are in trouble, our city and its children; and it’s going to take all of us working together to get out of the hole we are in.
When Nero played his fiddle while Rome burned, no matter how good the music was, reasonable people did not shake their head in agreement. One report from a little known Ohio based school no matter how glowing it is should distract us with the help of the Times Union from the real and serious problems we have.
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