Good golly, our schools desperately need new leadership

Laurie Rogers, via email:

When our school administrators speak to the public, we often hear one or more of the following:

• Blaming of others - Typical targets include teachers, parents, students, poverty, and a (fake) lack of money.
• Deceitful presentation of student outcomes - They'll speak glowingly of some stray statistic that supposedly shows them in a slightly more positive light, but which also depends on the public not knowing the entire truth of it.
• Astonishing ignorance or accidental honesty. Sometimes the truth comes out of them - in shocking or comical ways.
• Requests for more money, on the heels of low student achievement. As pass rates go down, the expense per student continues to increase.
• New policy that will serve their ulterior purpose, but which will make life more difficult for students, parents and teachers.

And so it went, at two recent gatherings for Spokane Public Schools. Teachers were blamed. Administrators praised themselves. The superintendent's comments caused a stir. And the school board voted to increase class sizes and cut 90 teachers.

.......

Increased expense for unproved programs

Taxpayers pay for scads of district and community programs devoted to reducing dropout rates and increasing on-time graduation rates. As district expenditures skyrocket, parents are still staring at students' low pass rates, high dropout rates, high rates of college remediation, and low levels of basic skills.

Dr. Stowell praised the district for obtaining a multi-million-dollar grant for Rogers High School, which suffers from particularly low graduation rates. (Please note the illogic of awarding grants to failing programs because they are failing. Failure thus results in more money.) Dr. Stowell said the grant will pay for longer school days, extra teacher pay, a homework center, and - you knew it was coming - a pilot evaluation for teachers.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 3, 2011 5:21 AM
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