School Information System

California Schools Update - The Economist

The Economist has a look at the state of eduction in California:

In Belmont, a huge high school with 5,500 pupils, security guards at the door, gangs in the classrooms and a 40% graduation rate, it is hard to imagine how children could ever learn anything in such a forbidding place. Yet even the better schools seem overrun. Placencia Elementary School, for instance, is full of smiling pupils, but like many other schools it does not have proper terms; instead, it follows a “year-round” schedule, with the students being rotated through the classrooms (three groups in, one out). But at least the pupils are being taught close to home. Every day, 6,000 children from the Belmont area are bused out to other districts. “Can it be good,” Mr Alonzo asks, “for a five-year-old to be woken up at 6am to travel two hours for a half-day of education?”

District F demonstrates what one leading Democrat calls the “these-are-not-our-children” attitude of white voters. With their own children now either educated privately or safe in smaller suburban districts, they have not stumped up the cash to build the schools needed to educate the new browner-skinned arrivals. As Roy Romer, the head of the LAUSD, points out, the same community found the money to build the sparkling Disney Concert Hall and the Staples conference centre.

Parent Comments on Strings Program

"The strings program has been very valuable to my son. It has built up his confidence, and the musical performances have really shown him how his hard work pays off. Strings are an asset to his education that benefits him beyond the musical arena."

"Why are we spending time on pennies, when there are much larger issues at play?"

"Curriculum: Lack of any sort of strategic & tactical planning (Rainwater's comment about the potential need for new schools and a 2005 referendum.... - might be so, but how does this fit into any sort of a long-term educational plan and the overall costs for that plan)?"

"How are we going to pay for our plans? I think the property tax has largely run it's course? Low income achievement.....positive opportunity."

"My son is in the 4th grade strings program. Last year he had no interest in playing an instrument at all. After his teacher gave the demonstration class, he came home and handed me the sign up sheet and said "I want to play the cello, fill this out". He has really enjoyed playing this year, he has learned a lot about music and I think it has helped with his self esteem. He is a sports kid and I never thought he would take up an instrument, let alone a string instrument. I was amazed to see what the strings program has done when I attended the Strings Festival and saw the West High Gym filled with 600 kids from all the schools. I saw so many children that I would never have thought would be interested in playing an instrument, looking so proud of themselves. It would be a terrible waste and a great shame to cut money from a program that is reaching so many children who have so little to look forward to."

"I don't have anything profound to say, but something that happened in our house recently is a testimonial to the strings program."

"Our 11 year old son, who started strings in 4th grade recently asked his piano teacher if he could play a viola solo at his piano recital. She said yes, and as a result, he not only prepared his piano pieces, he also learned Vivaldi's "Spring" on viola. For a boy who can't seem to accomplish getting his dirty socks in the hamper, initiating and completing this goal is a big deal:-)"

"The 4th and 5th grade strings programs have meant a great deal to our son and to our family. I believe exposure to this wonderful musical opportunity helps to define our schools as excellent vs. just mediocre. It is especially important to provide this opportunity to the many children that could not possibly find the funds or means for private lessons. I believe musical education can open doors for children, broaden their horizons, touch and spark creativity that can lead to other successes. Musical education has documented positive impact on math skills as well. Trends in education caused by wrongheaded government management along with funding constraints are pushing schools toward rote learning for improved standardized test scores. This can only diminish the overall learning experience for our children and society as a whole. I strongly encourage the board to find a solution that will preserve the elementary strings program."

"Two thoughts leap to mind. First, I want Madison to have excellent public schools, not schools which provide only the barest basics. Music instruction at all levels is part of the excellence Madison should offer. A district without an elementary instrumental program is saying it is not an excellent school system. If Madison wants to declare loud and clear that excellence is not a priority, the schools will quickly get much worse, a self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Second, for my own kids I could live without school strings, because my children get private music instruction from a young age. But for many children, especially for children of poverty whom the district claims it wants to serve, the chance to study a string instrument in school opens the door to a whole cultural world which may otherwise be shut to these children forever, and to a challenge which they can meet individually and learn about their own abilities. That is what school is supposed to be for."

"I expect the girls will want to add some thought. I told them about this issue on the way to school and their responses were on the order of, "That makes me so mad! That is just *idiotic*!" We may have to tone down the language a little. : )"

Strings Community Action

A. Introduction:
There's no need for community action if the MMSD Administration and BOE state support for the current elementary strings academic curriculum. They don't. When the Board members don't say yes, it means no, given their recent history with this curriculum.

The MMSD Board of Education adopted and approved the elementary strings program as a necessary component of its Music Education Curriculum in the late 1980s. Standards and benchmarks were added in the late 1990s. The BOE has neither discussed nor changed its decisions on this curriculum.

The recent treatment of the elementary strings curriculum is another example of what happens when our BOE is lacking Long Range Plans for curriculum, for funding and for letting the Administration call the shots for kids rather than the BOE.

B. Background:
For the 2 previous MMSD budget cycles, the District Administration has used various approaches to try to eliminate the 4-5th grade strings academic curriculum.

• Spring 2002 - included elimination of Grade 4 strings on cut list - at least this approach gave parents, teachers and the community notice - opportunity to propose ideas for alternative funding, etc. There was no follow up by the Administration during the 2002-2003 school year.

• Spring 2003 - after waiting until BOE completed its budget amendments, the District administration proposed a huge fee for families (a fee so large that the BOE would have cut the program rather than charge the fee). The District Administration and the BOE did not use this interim academic year (2003-2004) to engage the community and to seek alternative options or funding by foundations, different fee structure, etc

• Spring 2004 – There is no Administration proposal to cut the elementary strings curriculum, but Board President Bill Keys has asked the District Administration for the kind of information that would justify elimination of the program.

I directly asked Mr. Keys and all of the other Board members during public appearances at the Board meeting on Monday night, April 26th, whether a cut proposal was coming – I did not get an answer. Based upon the Board’s lack of response, a rally was discussed among parents, teachers and community members. The decision to share the information and to take action on Monday, May 3, 2004 was decided.

C. Concerns/Issues:

• It was irresponsible and unfair of Mr. Keys to singularly identify this curriculum/activity without applying the same request to all district activities. It is unclear what criteria were used in the analysis the School Board received and if the same criteria have been applied to other activities/curricula. I prepared a critique of the District Administration’s analysis, which was given to the Board on Monday, April 26th.

• The District Administration said that eliminating this academic curriculum would save 5% of the needed budget cut. What does that mean out of context of educational goals and objectives for the district, etc.?

• Why doesn’t the district have a comprehensive set of criteria to use for a cost analysis which is applied to ALL programs, curricula and activities? The board does not have an understanding and agreement about what is curriculum, what an extra-curricular activity is and what a co-curricular activity is.

  Upon determining the base-line costs of all activities, then an equitable decision framework can developed as to how and to what degree such activities can/should be funded on an equitable basis across the total list. It’s not okay simply to say sports yes, elementary strings no. Attached is a proposal for equitable funding prepared by Don Severson.

• It’s not okay to eliminate a valued Board approved academic subject that is in high demand (more than 50% of 4th and 5th graders – about 1900 kids in September) by many students who cannot afford to study privately. Each year the demand from minority and low income students increases.

  Why does the School Board continue to consider cutting an academic curriculum that is part of a Board approved curriculum that has standards and benchmarks in place? Why would the School Board want to dumb down its curriculum two years? (Current 12th graders in strings would have two years fewer of study.) Colleges often look to a student’s sports and music accomplishments in addition to core academics.

• What are the motivations of board members to identify “lightening rods” of selective programs for parents, teachers, and the public to ‘fight’ against each other to ‘save’ whatever program/activity? Our excellent school system demands that we work together to problem solve the issues facing us.

• Why isn’t the Administration and the School Board working with the community?

college pressure

This is an article from several years ago. It describes the pressures and attitudes of those seriously college bound students. (I'm not a fan of Brooks as a political commentator, but I think he did his homework on this. It certainly compares to our college sophomore's experience.)
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/04/brooks-p1.htm

Cheating

Thursday, April 29,2004, ABC's Primetime will investigate cheating in high school and college. A summary is available at:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Primetime/US/cheating_040429-1.html