Charter Schools—the Good News and the Bad News........
Today the DOE dumped a lot of information on the public, just in time for some significant commotion prior to the long Memorial Day weekend. As was the case a few months back and even more recently with the writing test scores fiasco, the data does not look good. The attached spreadsheet below illustrates data from 3rd grade reading and mathematics which I have downloaded from the DOE site and sorted. I’ve organized third grade reading and math results, then sorted them from highest percentage of proficient sorcerers in each subject to the lowest number. The scores for the most part are low. Much of this is due to new, tougher scoring and more rigorous standards, which we all knew would be coming.
But some of the scoring issues have to do with parents that have not 100% fully bought in to their end of the partnership with our district and their children’s schools. That’s right, it is a partnership. Teachers are not miracle workers. Schools, teachers, volunteers, administrators, the latest technological gadgetry and educational pedagogy combined with the best of intentions and stacks of Title I money cannot overcome complacent, dispassionate, and apathetic parents.
Those who are familiar with our local communities and schools will see from the chart above that the schools that are scoring the best have parental engagement, input, and “buy-in”—this is a large part of their success! Many of the schools that have low scores, unfortunately, do not have the same level of parental engagement. This is a chiefly a societal problem—not a scholastic one.
I’m not going to do the usual dissertation on Poverty in our district to explain low scores away, though;
while I know this is a significant factor in why some parents do not engage and participate in the education of their children, I believe this is becoming too easy an excuse. There are lots of poor people all around this country who, despite their economic uncertainties, still do their jobs as parents and look after their kids and keep up with their schoolwork. We need parents to commit time to help their kids with schoolwork. Give us time, and we’ll give you the tools to help your kids succeed in school in Escambia County-simple as that. So Instead of lamenting the apathetic-- I choose to focus on the positives of today’s data which are that several of our Charter schools are doing very well! Byrneville Charter School had a 95% proficiency rating for their 3rd grade mathematics--#1 in the district from a percentage standpoint. Pensacola Beach Charter Notched a 92% proficiency rating in Reading, which is #1 in the district from a percentage standpoint.Bravo to both of these excellent Escambia County Charter Schools!Not all Charters are doing well, though.At the bottom of the district’s rankings, in both reading and mathematics, is the struggling A.A. Dixon Charter School.AA Dixon is dead last in both Reading and Math in the Escambia County School District. At the bottom.At Dixon this year, 96% of the third grade students failed to score at a level of “3” or higher (proficient) in Mathematics.At Dixon this year, 91% of the third grade students failed to score at a level of “3” or higher (proficient ) in reading.Dixon continues to struggle and with these results the future appears to be very uncertain for them.
More to come on these disappointing scores and their political and economic ramifications in my next blog entry
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