Warning, long, rather personal, post ahead, regarding a Minneapolis School.
Well, under some pressure, I've decided to post regarding the Banneker "situation" from my perspective. Some caveats, perhaps disclosures: My daughter is a first grader at Banneker, and was a kindergartner there. I'm in the Banneker PTO, the Futures Committee and the First Grade Family Network. I'm a conservative, white, middle class, single Mom, City employee, that lives outside--waaaaay outside---the District. Some of you know me as the Trash Lady. I am a competitive person that is business and customer-service oriented in my professional life, and I am a customer of the Minneapolis Public schools because I have chosen to be. Not only have Minneapolis Public schools been my choice for my daughter's school education, Banneker has been my ONLY choice. I expect that my daughter will have an excellent education, which will include "college prep" sorts of courses, and I believe that I am completely responsible for my daughter's education. I'm not a teacher, although as a graduate student I tried to teach physiology to pre-med students---I therefore understand how difficult it is to teach students information they don't believe they'll ever need. I also taught Intro Biology to "returning" students, and I completely understand how joyful it is to teach motivated students who are hungry to learn. I don't really "care" about Multiple Intelligence learning, phonics Vs other forms of reading education, or extensive data analysis of teaching methods in experimentally controlled environments. I don't have any great social agenda, nor do i consider myself some kind of do-gooder, dabbling my toes in the 'hood, nor am i aiding and abetting any conservatives, or liberals. I'm a practical person, doing my best by my daughter; trying to make our way in a changing world. A week and a half ago (4/12/2002), I was informed that my daughter's school would be "Fresh Started." This was the FIRST TIME that this was brought to me, to other parents and to the staff at Banneker. We are now told that Banneker has for years been a poorly performing school, that the District went through an extensive management "process" that made it clear to Banneker that it was failing and would be closed without tremendous improvement, that the criteria for evaluating Banneker are (and have been) clear, that the consequences for failing the criteria have been clear, and that our children's education can not "continue to be guaranteed" at Banneker. I have asked the Principal for a copy of her notification that Banneker was in trouble; she stated that she did not receive such a thing before Friday, the 12th. I have been told that the External Review Team recommended that Banneker be Fresh Started; I've read their report and don't see that recommendation (perhaps as a result of a lack of phonics in first grade). I have been told that it is specified in the NAACP Order that a school that scores a 2.0 two years in a row must be Fresh Started, I haven't made an opportunity to see that Order yet, but I will. I have asked, repeatedly, for the 33 Criteria, and what the specific scores of Banneker were for each of the Criteria in the past three years, and I still haven't seen them. I've been to the meetings regarding Fresh Starting both at Banneker, and at the District Offices, and am still very unsure of what "process" was followed, or supposed to be followed, regarding the decision to Fresh Start Banneker. Banneker was given a meeting, last Monday night, and a Public Hearing is scheduled for tomorrow night, but in reality, I understand that the Superintendent's decision to Fresh Start Banneker has been made, that the Hearing is merely a legal formality and that the School Board will support her decision. I am troubled that two "processes" have not occurred--the process of making it clear to the Banneker Community that this was a make or break year, and the process of holding a Public Hearing for community input BEFORE a final decision was made. Banneker HAS problems---students know this, staff knows this, parents know this, the community knows this, the District knows this and the Goddess knows this. We've all been well informed on Banneker's problems. There HAVE been steps taken to address these problems. A tremendous amount of time, emotion, volunteer efforts, and commitment is being expended at Banneker, and tremendous strides have been made in meeting our challenges, and solving our problems. But, we're not Great yet, and we recognize that we need to make more progress. We believed that our efforts were being recognized and that Banneker's turnaround would continue to progress. We believed that, in part because on the District's Web site, http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/about/quality_indicators.shtml , we are told that there are 33 indicators, that we are measured, yearly on those indicators, that, "schools whose overall quality performance indicators are at or below 2.2 for two consecutive years are subject to review by an external team to be appointed by the MBPS school board," and that, parents "can clearly see which schools are doing well and which will take several years to meet all the Growth and Performance Indicators." Please note that the indicators are not listed, and that no mention is made of closing, terminating, or Fresh Starting poorly performing schools, instead, mention is made of "directing focused improvements to schools that face multiple challenges." Let me discuss SOME of our challenges at Banneker, which, frankly, the District believes can be "fixed" by Fresh Starting Banneker. We have low parent involvement. We have very high "low attendance" and suspension rates. We have a huge turnover of students from year to year. We have 89% of our students below the poverty line. We have a very large ELL program. We have had individual incidents at the school that received a large amount of adverse media attention. We have kindergarten and first grade classes of more than 24 - 25 students. We have students performing below the District average, and below their grade average. These are real problems, and I do not presume to denigrate their importance. We ALSO have a dedicated group of volunteers, in the Staying Power group, who have given phenomenal assistance to students and staff, and are examples of commitment and dedication that our students need. We have ELL students that are performing ABOVE the District average, for ELL students, by every measure of the District. We have Somali parents, and African American parents and Anglo parents cooperating and jointly advocating for our kids....although when meetings are conducted in multiple languages it does make for LONG meetings! We have Math test scores that improved by 18% over last year, although all of the reading scores did not equally improve. We have students coming to school, voluntarily, an hour early each day to receive Math tutoring. We have improved test scores, each year, for the past four years. We have Banneker graduates that are ranked First in their high school classes. We have a First Grade Parent network that has brought together parents from all cultures in the First grade, to discuss and share support for real issues we face at Banneker and as parents. We've discussed Circles of support, student abuse, family support and responsibilities and respect. The First Grade Network was discussed in the External Review Team report as a model for improving parent involvement at Banneker. We have a group of energized, dedicated teachers at Banneker that with outstanding teaching skills, enthusiasm and creative ideas have given my daughter skills and knowledge that her non-Banneker second and third grade friends do not yet have. Parents and staff been told, several times, that the parents, the staff and the students of Banneker have not "failed," but I've failed at a couple of things in the past, and the consequences I suffered then were remarkably similar to a "Fresh Start." Fortunately for me, in each of my failures, I was given clear expectations, very clear benchmarks and written and/or oral evaluations of my lack of performance, and I learned from those experiences. Fortunately for me, I was also given opportunities to improve, and was given "credit" for good stuff that I was accomplishing. In all cases, I knew, before the "Final" decision was made, what I had, and hadn't accomplished. I have not been able to discover, and I certainly do not have personal knowledge, that Banneker has had those opportunities. I've been told we "should have known," but as a pretty involved parent---I'm not sure how. Fresh Starting Banneker will not solve the problems and challenges that the school has, although, as I've told the Board, it will dilute and hide them. The "fresh" school that grows in the Banneker building will inherit those problems, and, I'm afraid, have equal difficulty in solving them. I hope that the expectations of the District are clearly made to the Fresh administration, teachers, parents and students. Finally, I work for a city, I understand budgets and process. I would understand, and have different feelings and concerns although I'd be no less unhappy, if the District had been up-front, and said, "we have budget problems, we're closing Banneker because you have low parent involvement and bad press reviews and it will be less controversial to close Banneker." However, I continue to be told that there was a clear, articulated, well understood process, and that good management techniques were employed to help Banneker improve, but we just didn't do it. I haven't seen those, the process or the management. I will caution parents at Anderson Elementary, Broadway, Edison PPL, Folwell, Hall, Northeast, and Willard to ask about this "process". You have had scores of 2.2 or lower for at least one year (that I can see on the Web site). You may be Fresh Started. _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
