Gregory Thornton, the former superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, was good at talking about the positive things underway for the schools. He’d get revved up as he rattled off initiatives and data. At the start of school a year ago, he did in a conversation with me.
Then he abruptly changed tone.
“I’ve got 15 or 20 schools that just need a lot of help,” he said.
They just needed to start over. He said he was going to propose seeking ideas for anyone who had them on how to turn around those schools. Could that include independent charter school operators? Yes, he said. Whoever had a good plan for getting better success.
It’s almost a year later, and MPS is launching a program to improve low-performing schools. Is it the shake-things-up, turn-around vision Thornton held out? For better or worse, no. This is Milwaukee. This is MPS.
I hope the tastes-milder, maybe-more-filling version of revving up low-performing schools is successful. Fourteen schools have been designated as “commitment schools” based on proposals the staff of each one made.
In broad terms, each of the proposals includes fresh ideas on what the schools will offer and how they’ll offer it, and, I’m assured by MPS leaders, fresh willingness by staff members to work together on better outcomes.
Seven of the 14 schools are large high schools with reputations for being, shall we say, challenging: Bradley Tech, James Madison, North Division, Pulaski, South Division, Vincent, and Washington. An eighth is Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, a new kindergarten through 12th-grade school combining two faltering schools in the former Custer High School building.