DESE Schools

Those in the St. Louis area are watching the implementation of state law regarding school districts who lose their accreditation. Normandy and Riverview Gardens school districts have selected the receiving districts for their transportation funds for students who wish to exercise their right to transfer out of the unaccredited district into an accredited district either in their own county or an adjoining one. 

While everyone supports the desire for children to be able to escape a "failing" district, there are many details that will need to be addressed by all four districts involved most heavily in this situation (how many students can they expect, what will be the impact on special services, how will IEPs be handled, class sizes etc.) Other districts may face similar issues though on a smaller scale as anyone transferring to any other accredited district besides Francis Howell or Mehlville will have to provide their own transportation.

Today's guest post is from someone who will be both affected by the upcoming transfers and is very knowledgeable about the operations of a school and classroom.  The author takes a look at the "DESE Schools" created in Normandy and Riverview, schools with both dollars and experts thrown at them to achieve the state's goals. Despite that and the constant attention doled out by DESE, both districts still lost their accreditation. The receiving districts will not be given the tools DESE had, but will be expected to achieve what DESE could not. Can anyone explain how they are going to do that? Does anyone have a reasonable expectation that they will succeed?

DESE Schools 

What exactly is a DESE school? A DESE school is a Missouri public school that has lost its accreditation and been designated unaccredited by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary education and our state board of education. The Normandy School District and Riverview Gardens District are among them. The state takes away accreditation and replaces the school board and staff in an attempt to fix the problem. They bring in top experts, write textbook worthy school improvement plans, apply and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money and stimulus funds, replace teachers and administrators, and even change the dress code. Upon designation of the Normandy districts downgrade, a state school board member commented that this was 20 years in the making! Twenty years!

 How many Normandy students were cheated out of an education during those twenty years? Where was DESE during those twenty years? Where were the parents? Where was the community outrage?

I truly believe a child learns best when surrounded by those closest to them. Please explain to me why the DESE model didn’t work? After all, great teachers, good intentions, new administration, more money, and a fantastic school improvement plan should equal great results or at the minimum some improvement. If we “spread the wealth”, “equally distribute” good teachers and leaders, set rigorous college and career ready standards for all students why are those districts still failing? Again, please explain to me why the DESE model didn’t work? It is based on recommendations from the US Department of Education. I believe it is a similar plan to the federal “turnaround” model.


It seems there are a lot of well-intended educrats out there that feel they know how to fix the problem. Shouldn’t we as a communities and a Nation be asking ourselves the difficult question of WHY these schools are failing? That seems to be the elephant in the room. No one wants to address the real issues. Everyone is quick to place blame everywhere else but where it belongs.

Since the DESE model didn’t work and the DESE schools are still failing, this now becomes the responsibility of the Francis Howell and Melville School Districts. Please explain why those taxpayers now have to “fix” this? Twenty years in the making! The difference between this situation and voluntary transfer programs is the fact that Francis Howell and Melville did not have a say in this decision what so ever! Normandy and Riverview Gardens were able to pick. DESE is rewarding them for failure to provide a free and appropriate education for students in their attendance area. For those who still believe that local school boards still have local control, think again. Our Missouri school districts no longer have a say in who attends their schools.


What most people don’t realize is that it will cost much more that those districts will pay for the transfers. Since those transfer students have been in failing DESE schools all of their lives, they are likely to be significantly below grade level in all areas especially reading and math. Through no fault of their own, they will now sit on a bus for hours each day and be placed in buildings based on availability and expected to be at their current grade level. The teachers in the new districts will now be tasked with trying to fix this problem. Their evaluations will be based on the achievement tests these students will be required to take at their grade levels. Why is it now all of the sudden their sole responsibility to fix the problem.

The Francis Howell School District prides itself on parent and community involvement and this is a huge factor as to why the district is so successful. Will those parents of the transferring students be involved in the education of their child? Will they drive the 20 plus miles to attend parent teacher conferences, IEP meetings, sports events and assemblies? Will they volunteer in the classroom or school library? Will they assist with homework and read to their kids each night to give them a leg up the next day? Will they make sure homework is completed and turned in? Will they support the schools if discipline issues should arise?

These are the expectations of successful districts. These are the characteristics that make great districts great! I hope those parents that are choosing to transfer their students understand fully their responsibility as a parent. I have a hard time believing this was actually going on in the transferring district. Could this be the reason these schools cannot be fixed? Even DESE cannot mandate involved parenting. DESE and the state board are setting these students up for failure if they think this is going to “fix” the problem. Until everyone decides it is time to address the real root of the problem and admit that the breakdown of communities and families play a significant role in the reasons for these failures no amount of money, best plans, uniforms, or transferring to neighboring districts is going to solve the problem.

EAGnews Buys into the "Bad Teacher" Argument

There are many factors in a failing school.  Why just blame "ineffective" teachers...and just how are there "ineffective" teachers measured?

This morning we posted how the Missouri Riverview Gardens school district scores were not better even as the state took over the district's educational delivery for the last two years.  We questioned if Missouri DESE's Chris Nicastro should be fired as an "ineffective"  administrator.  According to a letter to the editor and a former Riverview Gardens teacher who was fired, the reasons a school fails could possibly be for additional reasons, not just that "ineffective" teachers cause low student achievement.

EAGnews.org had this article on its site today:

Augsut 23, 2012

Pennsylvania teachers told no more raises until they demonstrate their value

School board should be commended for demanding higher standards

From staff reports

EAGnews.org

     BROWNSVILLE, Pa. – The truth hurts.
     That’s a lesson teachers at the Brownsville Area School District learned this week when school board members explained their reasoning for rejecting a proposed contract with the local teachers union.
     In a public meeting, school board Director Nena Kaminsky said she couldn’t vote in favor of the contract because “we have the highest paid teachers in Fayette County and we have the worst test scores in the state,” the Herald Standard reports.
     In other words, the community isn’t getting its money’s worth and the board will not settle for that.

     The comments sent the teachers union into a tizzy.

     The Brownsville Education Association held rallies at two local elementary schools where dozens of teachers held signs reading, “We deserve respect.” The rallies, union officials said, were prompted by Kaminsky’s comments, not the rejected contract.

     “Yes, we do have some schools that are struggling, but we are working toward trying to improve the test scores,” union president Barbara Gera told the newspaper. “We don’t have the worst test scores in the state. We are very upset with the school board’s perception of teachers.”

     “We are not outraged or disappointed; we are just hurt,” said high school teacher Brian Nicholson, a union negotiator.

     Sometimes the truth hurts. Whether the district’s student test scores are technically the worst in the state, or close to it, is beside the point. It’s clear that students aren’t learning as well as they could and the school board should be commended for demanding higher standards.

     Too often, school boards adopt a go-along-to-get-along mentality that does nothing to improve student instruction. In Brownsville, school officials made it clear that classroom performance matters.

     The BEA would be wise to take the criticism to heart, work with the district to improve teaching techniques, and implement new methods to help students achieve their potential. Then, with student test scores on the rise, they’ll be in a much better position to negotiate for the amount of money they believe they’re worth. But first, they will have to demonstrate their value.

     That’s the way it should be in every school district in the nation.

I'm stunned by this myopic vision of what makes a school an "effective" school and what makes an "effective" teacher.  Kids may not test well:

• If the standards and assessments are faulty or unproven/untested (common core standards)
• If students are not able to learn the material
• If students don't make the effort to learn
• If parents don't/can't/won't support their child's learning
• If the material is not appropriate for a child's' individual learning style 

EAGnews should be ashamed.  The Riverview Gardens experiment with Teach for America and firing "ineffective teachers" is just one example of how teachers are just one part of the equation in successful or non-successful schools.  EAG is blaming teachers for all the woes of education.

Why are they wrong?  Here's a tweet I received after the first article appeared this morning:

Hmm, what's worse, teaching what shouldn't be taught('what color is math', 'we are a Democracy')ineffectively or effectively?

What is most important?  An "effective" teacher or "effective" standards, assessments and curriculum?  Oh, that's right.  That idea of  standards, assessments and curriculum upon which "effectiveness" is based is now decided by the CCSSO, the NGA, and other private special interests unaccountable to taxpayers.  How this "effectiveness" is measured is mandated by the DOEd, not local districts.   Should we be celebrating that we can now measure teachers based on national standards that may or may not be appropriate in content, learning style and the fact that local communities have no voice in their crafting? 

Does EAGnews realize or care that teachers must "demonstrate their value" by teaching unproven, untested and unfunded mandates?  NCLB was a failure and common core is already raising much concern on its effectiveness.   Does this organization really believe "That’s the way it should be in every school district in the nation"?

 

Is Getting Rid of "Ineffective Teachers" THE Panacea to Education Reform?

Firing all those bad teachers hasn't helped Riverview Gardens scores. Oops.

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch letters to the editor August 19:

Absolutely failing students

Regarding "First day of school, report cards are in" (Aug. 14): Well, I guess all those bad teachers were not the problem at the Riverview Gardens School District after all. Since the state of Missouri hijacked the district two years ago under the auspices of No Child Left Behind, firing dozens of dedicated, experienced teachers, what has been accomplished there? Riverview Gardens' test scores are the absolute worst in St. Louis County, and the district's measurable academic achievement surpasses that of only a handful of the city's charter schools. One might suppose it's on the upswing, but the article on MAP scores tells us, "Riverview Gardens ... had a decline in the percentage of students passing communication arts, to less than 18 percent." The district has only 4 of the 10 points needed to gain accreditation.

What is going on in Riverview Gardens? This is not just "another unaccredited district," as the article identifies it, but rather a ward of the state of Missouri. The state, under the leadership of Riverview's former superintendent, Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro, is absolutely failing in its duty to the students there and needs to be held accountable for its educational neglect. This abject failure warrants more than a paragraph.

What's really behind this second year of abysmal scores that all of our state taxes are paying for?

Lisa M. Hummel • University City

Former teacher at Riverview Gardens

Riverview Gardens is now under the authority of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and appointed a 3 member board for the school's daily operation.  This district had many problems including incredible corruption by the superintendent who plead no contest on two counts of felony theft and three counts of tax fraud.    The St. Louis Post Dispatch article noted in 2010 three particular issues plagued the district: 

The 6,500-student district in north St. Louis County lost its accreditation in 2007, the result of financial problems, low student achievement and corruption.

We wonder if DESE and Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro has an answer to Ms. Hummel's question.   Should DESE and the 3 member board , like some fired teachers, be deemed "ineffective" and deserve termination?  Why are the fired "ineffective" teachers in Riverview Gardens blamed for low student achievement...and the low (and lower) student achievement still exists two years later?

Maybe Wendy Kopp's Teach for America teachers with their 5 weeks of experience haven't been as effective as hoped in Riverview Gardens to improve test scores:

Placement schools range from North County's Hazelwood, Riverview Gardens, and Normandy School Districts to more central locations like the St. Louis Public Schools.

Could we have a serious discussion from DESE, Chris Nicastro and state legislators about the reasons (note the plural of "reason"...it's not just that a school needs "great teachers") why abysmal scores are unchanged or trending downward?  Why is there only reform that creates mandates pushed by special interest groups?  These groups take money funneled through taxpayers and meanwhile, education "reform" can't move test scores for some schools.  Could it be that getting rid of the "bad" teachers isn't the only problem plaguing failing schools?