PEORIA -- Thanks to an audience member, here are notes on the public comments at the Peoria School District 150 meeting on Sept. 27. I was out of town, so there's no audio recording, and was told the camera doing a video of the meeting broke down.
So we remember: without taking a public vote, the District 150 board decided last spring not to allow live cable TV coverage of their meetings. Instead they videotape the meetings and run then a week later, with the public comments censored out.
The District 150 Watch Group has been videoing the meetings to be placed on the WMBD-TV website, and I have done audiotapes of the public comments at most of the meetings. They are posted below, under the category Peoria District 150.Anyway here are the notes from Sept. 27: -- Elaine Hopkins
NOTES by an audience member:
Obama says give
bad teachers opportunity to get better, or be removed, but instead parents should be held accountable. Also get parents involved, not
just blame teachers.
Former teacher and activist Sharon Crews: Regarding No Child Left Behind, the federal law, by 2014 100% of schools must meet AYP, which is an impossible goal. Adults from testing groups, private schools make financial gains from testing. Woodrow Wilson School has made steady gains. See her full talk below.
Former teacher union president Terry Knapp: He wants transparency, asked whether charter school go into Woodruff, and noted Peoria will be back to 4 high schools when the charter schools grows into high school.
Regarding the graduation ceremonies and date: Richwoods should be treated fairly without. special favors to get preferred time. Use a lottery so Richwoods doesn’t always get prime time at Civic Center (it's rumored that Richwoods will get the evening slot for graduation at the Peoria Civic Center since there are more Jewish students there and Saturday, the selected date, is the Sabbath which ends in the evening.)
In addition, the CC was already rented to a wedding, but had to back out due to the school district’s graduations (Jim Stowell later said that was wrong, even though Terry had documentation).
FOIAs are harder to obtain, there are layers that lead to expensive attorneys being involved…FOIA to Quest Charter School has gone unanswered, possibly will not be answered, since it is a private school, then spoke about arrests at the Central football game which never made the PJ Star.
Charles
Williams: Likes new superintendent, says people are leaving Peoria, his
daughter was at Richwoods when there was a fight…wants more security to
make sure kids are safe…needs more vocational opportunities…said
teachers cannot teach jokesters all day long…he wants to work with
schools.
Dusty Moultrie…parent and community member of Peoria high kids: Concerned about safety of kids after school…hundreds of students on Bigelow fighting…200 kids in her front yard, she couldn’t even get there without police…a girl was also jumped before school…city police and campus police do not agree on jurisdiction boundaries.
Beth Crider-Olcott: Medical insurance changing to Personal Care, which is Methodist…OSF was not even in the ballpark.
Bryan Devine: Talked about the good things happening in the district…and upcoming Chess tourney at Glen Oak.
Karen Gast, insurance broker: Thanked D150’s insurance committee…Personal Care will save district $680,000…Methodist executives were in attendance, she introduced them. -30-
Here are Sharon Crews' comments:
My comments tonight relate to what I consider to be the futility of the NCLB efforts.
Ravitch states in her book, “As 2014 draws nearer, growing numbers of schools across the nation are approaching an abyss. Because NCLB requires states to promise that they will reach an impossible goal, the states have adopted timetables agreeing to do what they can’t do, no matter how hard teachers and principals try. .. Good education cannot be achieved by a strategy of testing children, shaming educators, and closing schools”--all of which have been District 150’s strategies.
My handout includes the AYP for all schools from 2003 through 2010. The numbers highlighted in purple are the highest AYP reached by each school. Notice that eight of the 26 schools achieved their highest AYP in the first three years of AYP reporting.
These higher scores were achieved before most of the current interventions were even in place. Ravitch’s opinion about those costly interventions is “Adult interests were well served by NCLB. The law generated huge revenues for tutoring and testing services, which became a sizable industry.” In my opinion, these opportunities for financial gain are the main reason that NCLB will be continued.
The following are some conclusions to be drawn from theAYP numbers:
Only Woodrow made steady progress from 2003 to 2010. Von Steuben’s AYP went steadily upward except for one year when its AYP declined by 10 points.
The AYP of six schools, including all four high schools, was lower in 2010 than it was in 2003. By the way, I adjusted Manual High School’s 2010 AYP to the 4.8 increase instead of the 17 points that included the 8th grade increase.
Just as an aside, who was trying to kid whom with those numbers? Please note, also, that AYP at Manual was higher from 2003 to 2006 than it has even been since. Of course, all are too low for any bragging rights. Certainly, Manual’s AYP does nothing to support the continuation of the Johns Hopkins program.
Only three schools have maintained AYP above 80%--those are Charter Oak, Kellar, and Washington Gifted.
The highest AYP of five schools is only 50 or below—that includes three high schools.
One of the most important conclusions to be made is that the AYP of almost all schools fluctuates up and down considerably. A permanent AYP gain is very rare, indeed.
Look on page 3 of my handout. Another important conclusion is that each school has its own range of AYP figures, above or below which the school does not stray.
For instance, Kellar’s lowest AYP of 83.8 is close to Woodrow’s highest of 81.4. Lindbergh’s lowest AYP of 71.4 is comparable to Columbia’s highest of 70.5. Coolidge’s lowest AYP of 60.9 is comparable to Irving’s highest of 61.
You can see those ranges spread from 9/10ths of a point at Washington to 37 points at Harrison—from the most consistent AYP to the least consistent.
Notice, also, that 15 schools have never achieved an AYP over 77.6—and remember that those high AYPs were often exceptions, not the rule.
For the most part, AYP figures are very predictable for each school.
Let’s unite whenever possible to point to the faults of NCLB instead of focusing all efforts on an impossible goal.
Also, remember why the AYP at all high schools is so low. Before NCLB, only the top students took the ACT test. Now all take it. My guess is that the AYP of each high school comes very close to being the same as the small percentage of students who took the ACT in earlier years. -30-
Ok, ok, I admit this is a shameless plug...
Experience “A New Era in Education” on CAPtions starting this Sunday. An exclusive interview with Dr. Grenita Lathan, Dist. 150 superintendent, explains her philosophies, goals…& why she brought in the team she has. Then, Engin Blackstone tells us about Quest Charter Academy & the advantages of having that choice of education. Enter the New Era Sunday, Oct. 3rd at 5 pm, Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 7 pm, and later that night at Midnight on Comcast Cable 22 in Peoria County, East Peoria, Washington, & Creve Coeur
Posted by: Dennis in Peoria | October 01, 2010 at 03:10 PM