There are actually three choices on the table: Closure, Charter Conversion/Privatization… and handing all 5 of Christina’s city schools to Red Clay. No matter what, Christina loses these schools.
The Christina school board must choose by Feb. 27 whether to close its three Priority Schools or hand them over to charter schools or other education management organizations, the Department of Education said in a letter to district staff Tuesday.
The letter leaves one possible alternative: If Christina works with the state on the possibility of redistricting schools so that it no longer operates city schools, it could be removed from the Priority Schools saga altogether.
The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) is very good at closing down schools. Go speak with anyone at these six Priority Schools and ask them when DDOE showed up to “help” them. Surely DDOE has been in these schools for years – since these six schools have been struggling for a long, long time? Surely, DDOE can point to all the support they’ve given these schools over the years? I hear that DDOE didn’t step foot in these schools or offer assistance prior to Governor Markell’s Priority School announcement last fall. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe DDOE has been working with the six priority schools for years and drastic action was needed because they exhausted all other options?
I’ve always been neutral on the State and Federal Department of Education, but I’m changing my mind. They really do more harm than good. It would be one thing if these DOEs actually supported and worked with the schools they oversee, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Instead, it appears they sit in their offices and issue edicts from on high while rarely, if ever, stepping foot into the schools they are in charge. Perhaps it’s time for DDOE to have a small Dover Office while relocating its other offices inside public schools? That way every public school would have at least one DDOE employee in their school on a daily basis. And in the technological age, this is not only possible, it’s easy.
Please don’t forget that these six schools were designated Priority Schools by the DDOE based on a test that the DDOE scrapped because it wasn’t good enough to base results on. Also keep in mind, despite claims last fall, these schools were not the lowest scoring.
My youngest graduates this year. She took the Smarter Balanced test last year (her school was a pilot school) and said it was a confusing mess. Don’t believe her? Take the test. Kavips has them. My husband and I looked at the beginning of the 5th grade reading test and the 3rd and 5th grade math test. It’s really quite poorly written and almost deliberately confusing. We found ourselves rereading questions several times to determine their meaning – and even then we got answers wrong. My husband argued for his (wrong) answers, explaining why – given the question – he was right. (FYI, he’s an engineer with an engineering graduate degree. His main complaint with the test was that it was so poorly written that its scores couldn’t be used to judge student subject knowledge.) I agree with him, and am still bracing myself for the parent explosion when these test scores are released. Get ready for more Priority Schools, because these scores are going to be bad.
Moving on… Let’s take a look at the 3rd option:
The letter leaves one possible alternative: If Christina works with the state on the possibility of redistricting schools so that it no longer operates city schools, it could be removed from the Priority Schools saga altogether.
[…]
If the advisory council’s recommendations are implemented, Red Clay would get Christina’s city schools, including the three Priority Schools. That district has already struck a deal with the state on its three Priority Schools.
Hear the applause? That’s the entire Christina suburban community clapping. But what about the Red Clay (RCCD) community? I honestly don’t know what their reaction to this plan is. If this redistricting plan goes through then RCCD would be adding 3 more Priority Schools (Stubbs Elementary, Bancroft Elementary and Bayard Middle School) to its plate, plus 2 additional Christina elementary schools (Palmer and Pulaski). That’s over 1800 (as of today) new children, most of which are high needs, moving through Red Clay’s elementary, middle and high schools. Can Red Clay’s middle and high school buildings handle the additional population? I’m not sure.
Will RCCD receive additional funding? It should. Or will the standard of the “money following the student” only apply? What are the capacity numbers at RCCD’s middle and high schools? Will RCCD receive support, not only financial, when its 3 Priority Schools turns into 6? I have questions. That doesn’t mean I’m against this plan, I’m just curious as to why RCCD would agree to a plan that would increase its high poverty/high needs population. After all, RCCD hasn’t done so well with its existing high poverty schools and I’m having trouble seeing the RCCD non-city residents being okay with this plan – especially given the Cooke Elementary freak out over including a Lancaster Court Apartments (low income students) into their attendance zone. Something tells me the RCCD suburban community isn’t going to be happy with this idea.
And what about the Christina teachers? What happens to them if the schools close (not going to happen) or convert to charter/privatize? What happens to them if RCCD takes over Christina? Questions, questions, questions. Hopefully, our readers have some answers.