The School District has been exploring a model that focuses specifically
on middle-school students who are struggling and at risk of being held
back a year. These students prove to be at great risk of becoming
high-school dropouts. This is a research-driven finding.
Preventing dropouts is a citywide policy, not a Penn/Drexel program. No
doubt Penn and Drexel will cooperate in their partnership schools in
some special ways. But they are not in charge of overall planning to
deal with the devastating citywide dropout rate. All those decisions are
made on N. Broad St.
Penn and Drexel provide details to the schools they are working with.
The School District, in general, does not bother to engage random
community members in theoretical debates about methodology. Like it or
not, this is a very large and very top-down bureaucracy. It is not run
like the Mariposa Coop. This is, if anything, even truer today than it
was 10 years ago.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing..." Educational research
literature is pretty deep and, as is often the case, the more you read
the less you know for sure. "Microwave experts" brandishing snippets of
something they just ran across on google, are certain to play no role in
formulating School District policy.
* *
Improved funding is essential to academic improvement. That's why Penn
provides extra funding for its three partner elementary/middle schools.
But it cannot become the role of any private partner to subsidize the
entire School District.
There are two main potential sources of added public-school funding: the
State and the City. The formula for State funding of local schools was
reduced sharply more than a decade ago, increasing the burden on local
schools' tax bases. Getting the General Assembly to increase funding is
a large-scale campaign that many legislators are now fighting for.
People like State Rep. Jim Roebuck are in the forefront. It will require
overcoming resistance in tax-averse Central Pennsylvania, however.
That leaves local funding. Local taxation is closely correlated with
local per-capita income and business prosperity. Almost without
exception, cities with high dropout rates are cities with high poverty
rates. That specifically includes Philadelphia. In these jurisdictions,
there are simply too many poor people and not enough middle-class or
prosperous people to generate extra revenue for schooling or any other
service.
In short -- what poor Philadelphians need, if they want better-funded
schools, is more non-poor Philadelphians. Or, as Glenn puts it,
"replacement residents". The poor cannot boost their tax revenue solely
by taxing each other. And they cannot tax the suburbs without going
through Harrisburg, which suburbanites also vote to elect.
-- Tony West
Newberg comments on the fourth grade slump:
"Others have shown that early school achievement is a strong predictor
of high school completion (Stroup and Robims 1972). We were also
interested in reaching students before the "fourth grade slump," the
sudden drop-off between third and fourth grade in the reading scores
of low-income students (Chall et al. 1990). Recognizing the need to
intervene earlier in the lives of the children chosen to participate
in the SYTE program, subsequent classes of SYTE have been identified
as early as kindergarten. The new model recognizes that establishing a
connection with children early allows the program the best opportunity
to capitalize on their strengths and requires less remediation of
neglected problems (Bogaines 1993)."
Newberg, Norman A 2006. The Gift of Education. How a Tuition Gaurantee
Program Changed the Lives of Inner City Youth. The State University of
New York Press, Albany: 192
In this week’s UC Review, University High School to Close in 2010 for
Two Year Renovation, consider this vague mention (the only printed
mention to date):
"Penn and Drexel have said they would work with the feeder middle
schools to better prepare those children for the more advanced
academic opportunities in their neighborhood school."
Neighbors, if the Penn/Drexel school were being designed by real Penn
experts from the school of education, they absolutely would know that
they must, first and foremost, provide details about preparing the
local kids! The effects of poverty are measurable much earlier than
middle school regardless of funded or under-funded schools!!!
How do years of underfunded schools and barriers to quality extra
curricular activities compound the problems that start early? Wilma
pointed out that lots of us don't understand the range of issues or
problems teachers do their best (and often a heroic job) to deal with
daily. Properly funded schools (and fewer students with other problems
associated with poverty) have more supporting factors. The big
problems like large class size are sometimes recognized. Teacher
turnover, low pay, low support of staff, and the resulting poor morale
can all be addressed with proper funding.
If Penn/Drexel start real quality interventions now, it would take
years before the gaps caused by decades of neglect would prepare
neighborhood kids, in any significant way, for any of the magnet high
schools.
But, the new UC high school is obviously following the history of
mapping and planning our neighborhood for Penn’s real estate goals.
The people of Phila. simply pay.
The most important details, the oblique plan for assisting the "feeder
schools," doesn’t even make sense on the surface. The need for much
earlier intervention is so obvious and established that the only
possible conclusion is that the neighborhood is being deceived.
Penn and Drexel have no intention of making a real effort to reach the
kids and families they are attempting to deceive. If I am wrong and
"the experts" are sincere, they are so out of touch with the
literature that they are incompetent. They would have made a bold and
prominent presentation of the "assistance" long before selling the
magnet school as a replacement. They are deceiving us and attempting
to transfer resources (the building and funds) from our already
under-funded public system for the purpose of attracting replacement
residents and condo buyers!
Sincerely,
Glenn
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