Re: [Mpls] dropouts

[Brobson34]

It's true that in my last post I was critical of Mike Atherton's generalized
attitude toward the MPS (not him personally, I don't know the man) rather
than specific proposals he has made. Partly this was because I suspect he
relishes the attention, but even moreso it was because I'm not sure how his
proposals would come together in a practical and budgetary sense in the real
world of classroom education. Mr. Atherton has proposed a blizzard of
potential reforms and innovations, making it clear that all of them should be
tested out as to their viability. Some of them make sense to me--I too have
seen the data on English immersion in the Calfornia schools and wonder if it
might be something for the MPS to look into. Some of them, such as his recent
suggestion that children with a great disparity between their chronological
age and level of education be separated out into smaller classes, or, his
continuing education proposals for disruptive and otherwise underperfoming
students, who would be taught by highly trained professionals, seem expensive
and difficult to achieve within the current constraints of public education.
Put simply, I don't know how everything he says adds up. I suspect that it
would cost more money and seem to remember (I know he'll correct me if I'm
wrong here) that the only time he has addressed the cost of public education
in real terms was to object to the proposed levy on lowered class size.

The thrust of my last post was that the MPS faces huge obstacles due to the
area's lack of affordable housing, the huge influx of students from other
countries, and familial strife associated with poverty--problems that even
the most dedicated and well-meaning reforms will have trouble addressing--and
that critics of the system should acknowledge that fact, rather than
cavalierly asserting that a new wrinkle here or there will solve the problem.
(Maybe Atherton could supply some data to back up his inference that children
learn at sufficient levels in war zones; just a website link, since I know
that for anything further he wants to be paid for his research.)

So let's cut to the chase: Does Atherton see any scenario by which he would
send his child to a school that contained a typical cross-section of MPS
students? If so, how would that school operate differently than the way MPS
currently operates? Does he imagine that this new operation would be more or
less expensive (or the same cost) than the current budget of the MPS? And if
more, would he support a concomitant increase in his taxes? Answers to these
questions would help me and other list members get a more specific sense of
Atherton's educational philosophy so that we might get some context and more
intelligently agree or disagree with him in the numerous critiques that he
will surely file in the future.

Britt Robson
Lyndale