Michael,
Starting this thread, you wrote:
>Although I share Mr. Peterson's belief that smaller learning environments
>*may* result in positive outcomes for students, I also believe that school
>programs must have measurable criteria for success and should be
>pilot tested before being implemented on a large scale. Given that we
>have just funded smaller class sizes with no reliable evidence that it has
>a positive influence on student achievement, we should evaluate the
>benefit of smaller learning environments before extending large sums
>of tax dollars.
MPS does have assessment testing going on at a range of points in each
student's career, accountability is built in to a great degree. MPS has a
great deal of information on the positive influence of small class sizes.
Have you gone to meetings and asked for that information and been turned
down? Or is the benefit that MPS believes it is receiving not a benefit
that you consider valid?
Have you contacted the School Board to confirm that the evaluation you
suggest of the benefit of smaller learning environments has not yet taken
place? Or are you expecting that that evaluation has not taken place
because you have a low opinion of the MPS?
I've noticed over the past several months a certain flavor to your posts.
So I took the time to read over your posts and to look at your home page.
I see that you are currently a graduate student at the University of
Minnesota (Twin Cities Campus) in Psychological Foundations of Education.
That could explain your interest in this subject!
I see that one paradigm you hold up as a model for public education is the
KIPP program (www.kipp.org). That does looks fascinating. One of the
central tenets of it is that each student/family that attends a KIPP school
makes the choice to be there, and by choosing to attend makes a commitment
to adhere to the principles of that school. I think many would agree that
such commitment is extraordinarily useful. That commitment means guarantees
parents' active support of their child's education, and makes parents
essentially not one of the problems you refer to in this quote (from a post
on 1/15): "There are a number of problems endemic to urban schools but most
of them are attributable to the attitudes, culture and techniques of
parents, teachers and administrators, not the students."
KIPP can be one or a number of schools within an urban school district. By
definition, a whole school district cannot implement KIPP, because not
every parent in a school district will choose to make that commitment. If
every parent in the MPLS School District made a KIPP-style commitment to
their child's education - you're right - a great deal of the problems would
go away.
MPS has to work with what it has. It needs to create the best gestalt mix
of programs and opportunities to reach every child, including those where
the parents wouldn't make a commitment to KIPP if available. The lack of
family support doesn't release MPS from their commitment to each child's
success.
I agree that academic theories and alternative programs are crucial to the
future of our educational system. The MPS is availing itself of a great
deal of research and best-practices info around the country as it seeks
evolve to best meet the needs of its students. But the MPS is subject to
constraints that I'm not sure your postings always take into account.
Small class size is thought to be valuable to the people in the system who
are struggling here, now to do the best they can. I feel a palpable benefit
in my child's class room, my child's teacher has said to me she would leave
teaching if she were forced to teach in a larger classroom. Given kids who
are inherently disruptive, given kids who are autistic, given kids for whom
english is a struggle, given kids with radically different backgrounds who
need time to develop relationships with each other because there aren't
instant bonds based on any similarities whatsoever; when my master's
prepared bi-lingual teacher with decades of experience says she wants small
class size, I listen.
Claire Stokes
SW Area Parent's Council
Citizen's Budget Advisory Committee
62B, Hiawatha Neighborhood; Ramsey Int'l Fine Arts Center Parent.
(hopefully this third version will get in under the size restriction!)
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