Monday, February 13, 2012

Will school turnarounds take?

The number of  "urban turnaround schools"  is on the rise,  the U.S. Department of Education announced late last week.

That would be truly exciting if that meant those schools had turned around failing performance.  In this case, though, it's much more preliminary.  A study by the Council of Great City Schools looked at the options being chosen by districts getting federal School Improvement Grants,  and found that 54 percent have chosen the "turnaround model,"  which requires replacing the principal and at least half the faculty.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg is getting almost $13 million in SIG money for three schools:  West Mecklenburg and West Charlotte high schools and Billingsville Elementary.  Those schools are using the "transformation model,"  which requires replacing the principal and changing instruction (in cases where a principal is relatively new, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be ousted). Nationwide 36 percent of schools are taking that approach.  CMS originally planned to use "transformation" with Waddell High,  but in the back-and-forth over school closings last year,  Waddell landed among the 5 percent taking the "closure model"  --  close the school and move students to a higher-performing one (in Waddell's case,  Harding High).

If you're doing the math, another 5 percent nationwide closed traditional public schools and reopened them as charters,  which hasn't been tried in Charlotte.

Turnarounds and transformations sound great.  But as anyone who has bought a weight-loss or hair-growth product knows,  the label doesn't guarantee results.  The Education Department's news release acknowledges it's too early to know what's working,  but notes that the study found school leaders expressing optimism that the options prescribed by the grants provide a “strong chance of significantly improving student achievement in these persistently low-achieving schools.”  

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Run with it for all the CMS schools. If we could get rid of the "uptown idiots" by making them charters have at it ! All our tax money could be spent on schools that would make a difference & send the kids that dont want to learn to the north meck jail. How do we get this sytem running? How do we press charges on the current staff that is stealing our hard earned money?

Anonymous said...

Stealing money is right. Millions on testing and manipulated data.New administrators that are incompetent such as Muri and Baxter.New "PR" staff to try and sell this load of dung to the taxpayers and teachers.Bright Beginnings and on and on.What a waist!

Why cant CMS try a new idea such as Charter Schools?

Anonymous said...

Or better yet, sign the "SPARK Educational Performances" petition, asking the NC State Legislature to divide CMS into 3 smaller, separate districts.

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-north-carolina-state-legislature-divide-cms-into-three-separate-districts-each-with-its-own-taxing-authority

www.facebook.com/SPARKEducationalPerformances

Anonymous said...

Closure model? Isn't that Michelle Ree did in D.C.? How did that work?

Anonymous said...

Closure model. I need a dictionary published in China for American education lingo (21CAEL).

Today's pop quiz:

P21?
5-E?
NAEP?
NBPTS?
NEA?
IEP?
PL94-142?
Title IX?
TD?
AFT?
TFA?
CEC?
INTASC?
AAHPERD?
ACTFL?
RIF?
TESOL?
KDP?
IDEA?
NBEA?
NCSS?
TIMSS?
ADHD?
ROI?

Tomorrow:
Rural
Urban
Suburban
Public
Private
Parochial
Charter
Home-school
SPARK
SHARK
OP South

Anonymous said...

Extra credit:

ACTS?

Anonymous said...

NO DATA!
NO PEACE!

Anonymous said...

Westside of Charlotte

Less paid in Taxes
All the representation

Some folks need to start carrying the water, instead of drinking all of it.

Ann Doss Helms said...

You forgot SIOP, which has something to do with ESL and always sounds like the CIA should be running it. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Extra-extra credit:

BROAD?
E=MC2?

Anonymous said...

oops...

E=MC2?

Anonymous said...

KEEP US GREEN!
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!
SOS!

Anonymous said...

What does Andy Baxter do all day?

What does Muri do all day?

What does the new "PR" department do all day?

This is hundreds of thousands($) in salary for the taxpayers.Every person in a position of education should have to at least teach ONE class.Teachers are sick and tired of 40 students in a classroom when these dufuses cant answer simple questions after a presentation.Yes, the next SUPER should be able to teach in the classroom unlike the last one. Gorman was not able to teach a class in CMS.

Wiley Coyote said...

Buckets of money.

Buckets of wasted money.

It's amazing the tens of millions we spend (waste) in a few schools to teach the answer to 2+2 and we continue the same thing year after year.

I'm still waiting for government and school systems to try the "Urban Parental Turnaround Model" or UPTM and stop wasting millions on useless programs.

Wiley Coyote said...

Here's a good article on the turnaround approach in a school district in Rhode Island, where 93 educators were fired..

http://www.openeducation.net/2010/03/16/school-improvement-%e2%80%93-the-turnaround-aka-the-sledgehammer-approach/

Bill Maher (of all people) said of the situation:

“But isn’t it convenient that once again it turns out that the problem isn’t us, and the fix is something that doesn’t require us to change our behavior or spend any money. It’s so simple: Fire the bad teachers, hire good ones from some undisclosed location, and hey, while we’re at it let’s cut taxes more.”

Maher went on to add:

“What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child’s academic success is parental involvement. It doesn’t even matter if your kid goes to private or public school.”

Anonymous said...

Ann,
It's not ESL anymore it's ELL. Get with the program.

Wiley,
ED. ED.

Anonymous said...

Ya' know? My grandmother taught in a one room (1R) multi-age (MA) school house (SH) with no running water and no electricity. Kids pooped in the co-ed outhouse and didn't sue the school system for forcing them to carry coal to the coal stove to keep warm in the winter. One son and 3 grandchildren (out of 5) attended Ivy League schools. I know the world has changed but parents who value and support thier children's education hasn't. All the educational PhD's in the world with all of their wonderful theories and jargon can't change a family culture that doesn't care about school. And at the end of the day, this what really matters.

-AD

Wiley Coyote said...

3:55...

That pretty much nails it....

Anonymous said...

Try sending an honors graduate from CMS to a university in Canada, the UK or Europe and you will quickly see how poorly and ill-prepared our CMS kids are.

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:25.

I know what you mean.

I have a niece living in Beijing, China.

We don't even come close.

We are seriously thinking of educating our children in China.

Just so they have a fighting chance.

Anonymous said...

I met a CMS graduate who couldn't calculate 10% of her $2,000 bail bond at our world-class county courthouse. She was very polite and thanked me when I helped her out.

This was right before serving jury duty on a case involving an armed robbery at a Charlotte strip club.

I could write an award winning play.