------------------------------------------------
Community Forum on Job Shadowing in
St. Paul High Schools May 17 - 28
http://www.stpauljobshadow.org
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The program you heard on the radio about the Seattle school system was
broadcast on MPR in February and highlighted the Edmonton school system in
Edmonton, Alberta, where I actually had my junior high and high school
education. It was an interesting program. It is very
interesting...disturbingly so, that my education in high school in the
seventies was much more progressive than the way we are running education
here in Minnesota in the 21st century.
I had a great high school experience that completely prepared me for
college. I made choices about the times I would take my high school
classes, when and where I would take my lunch. All campuses in high school
back then were open campuses and I believe they still are. We attended
school at no cost to us, other than the taxes our parents paid, much like
here, however we were responsible to purchase our books from the school
bookstore and could resell them back to the store or sell them outright to
other students that may need them after us. This taught us responsibility
and penalized us, if we lost the books. Here in Saint Paul, we lose so many
textbooks per year, and it is difficult at best to get people to pay for
their loss.
This should not be. Poverty or no poverty, we need to make people
accountable for what they use and what they lose.
It was an interesting show, and I think it would be great for perhaps some
of our school board members to visit the schools there and get a feel for
what could be done here in Minnesota. We need to allow students to choose
their schedules based on what is good for them. If some are not morning
people, they can arrive when their first class starts. The schools are run
more like schools not like prisons.
We need to have higher expectations of student behavior and we will achieve
the behavior we wish. We lower the bar all of the time and expect the worse
from students and that is exactly what we get.
Pamela Ellison
Como Park
Saint Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Vandal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "St. Paul Issues Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 7:24 AM
Subject: RE: [StPaul] Do SPPS "suck"?
> ------------------------------------------------
> Community Forum on Job Shadowing in
> St. Paul High Schools May 17 - 28
> http://www.stpauljobshadow.org
> ------------------------------------------------
> Bob,
>
> The person which you refer to is William Ouchi and his latest book on the
topic is called Making Schools Work. Ouchi is a world renowned
organizational management researcher who is one of the people who led the
decentralization or "flattening" of organizational structures in
corporations. He coined the concept of "Theory Z" as a new way to manage
organizations.
>
> He applies his theories to education in his book. Among the things he
argues are:
>
> A) School disctrict funding needs to be tied directly to students and
that students come with a certain dollar amount based on their circumstances
(poverty level, ELL, etc.). The result is there is an incentive for schools
to have a balance of students across economic, social and cultural strata.
>
> B) Resources and decisionmaking should be focused on the school building,
not the school district. In many of the districts which he studied, schools
had direct say over between 85% and 95% of their resources. Ouchi argues
that it is not teachers who are the problems in schools, but the systems in
place. His research confirms that if those who are "on the ground" in
schools make decisions they usually yield results.
>
> C) School choice for families is a must. Parents should have full access
to all of the schools in the district, including transportation.
>
> D) Accountability is critical. Superintendents and School Boards must
have very specific measurable standards to which schools must adhere. In
other words, schools can make the decisions, but must be held accountable to
some strict standards to ensure quality. Ouchi is a proponent of No Child
Left Behind.
>
> Eric is partly right that the St. Paul School System does embody many of
these principles. However, not to the extent to which many of the
successful districts studied in Ouchi's book do. It might be interesting to
here from Ann or others more connected to the district to share how they
compare the St. Paul Schools to Ouchi's theory.
>
> Bruce Vandal
> West Side
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>
> Not so long ago, I heard someone interviewed on the radio about a better
> way to fund public education. I think he said they were doing it in
> Seattle or someplace out west.
>
> The system assigns a cost to each of several different factors that may be
> represented by a single student. The cost for all those factors is added
> up, and that amount of money follows the student wherever s/he goes.
> Because of this system good schools compete for all the students, not just
> the cheapest to educate.
>
> Some factors he mentioned:
> English learner
> Medical or special emotional needs
> disadvantage home environment
> insufficient preparation for first grade.
>
> Under this funding plan, schools were provided with several times as much
> money for hard-to-educate kids than for normal kids.
>
> Treating all kids as if they have the same cost basis isn't rational, and
> if families can move to environments, such as suburbs, where the kids are
> less costly to educate, they will naturally be able to afford better
> schools for the same money.
>
> I wish I could remember who the speaker was, and where this is done. Has
> anyone on the list heard of this system?
>
> Mary C. Zanmiller said:
> >
> >
> > Tom is just plain misinformed when he perpetrates the fallacy about a
> > purported "decline in public education."
> >
> > Public schools can successfully educate students and should be supported
> > both financially and politically to do so. Research does not support an
> > advantage to non-public schooling. An analysis of published research on
> > this question found that:
> >
>
>
> --
> Bob Treumann, Saint Paul
> Please Note: Replies to this email address all go to the trash except
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>
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