There's been some discussion on the local numbers on Toledo Talk but I was curious as to how other large public school districts were doing in Ohio. For a moment I almost felt sorry for Dr. Sanders who left Toledo to become the Superintendent of the Cleveland Public School system. Cleveland Public Schools did not meet any of the 25 indicators yet somehow ended up in "Academic Watch" because of their performance score of 71.2. I guess the bright spot for Dr. Sanders is he has ample room to demonstrate improvement even if only on indicator ends up being met.
Columbus did better than Cleveland with 5 out of 25 indicators met and a performance score of 79.2. Cincinnati tied with Toledo in scoring 6 out of 25 indicators, however Cinci had a performance score of 81.5, just above Toledo's 80.4. It's often been said that from a size comparison that Dayton (16348 daily enrollment) or Akron (26827 daily enrollment) are similar to Toledo (29157 daily enrollment). Akron scored 7 out of 25 and a performance score of 85.8; Dayton fared worse than Toledo with only one out of 25 indicators met and a performance score of 73.2.
You'd think that with such low numbers the Cleveland Plain Dealer would be focusing on that but, I was surprised to see what started out as a more upbeat almost fluffy piece that didn't mention the Cleveland Public School systems ratings until page 3 then only briefly in passing. Dayton Daily News also presented the information on their area schools in a rather upbeat fashion, pointing out at least they were ranked better than Cleveland. The Akron Beacon Journal called it as they saw it, pointing out that Forty-three local districts missed this federal threshold, up six from last year.
In Cinci? The Enquirer focused first on the positive and even has a quote from Ken Blackwell's wife on Cincini's performance:
"We are very pleased with our progress," Superintendent Rosa Blackwell said. "To retain the status of continuous improvement is a good thing, but we also know we have to continue to strive for excellence."
Here in Toledo though, the almost similar rating was stated as:
Toledo Public Schools, the region’s largest school system with about 30,000 students, held on to its continuous improvement status.
Interim Superintendent John Foley promised the district would continue to improve and said the system’s five-year plan is to reach the effective rating.
In Lucas County, Toledo Public Schools was the only district not rated effective or excellent.
However what the Toledo Blade article doesn't point out is there are no larger public school systems rated effective or excellent. All but Cleveland are listed as Continuous Improvement, Cleveland is in Academic Watch. Which leads me to my pet peeve about the whole report card system, you can't even made a valid comparison of your own district from one year to the next because they change the number of indicators every year. This additional Toledo Blade article gave more information but still no specifics such as...
Some schools within the Toledo Public School system were ranked "Effective", Arlington Elementary, Crossgates Elementary, Elmhurst Elementary, Grove Patterson Academy Elementary, Hawkins Elementary, Larchmont Elementary, Navarre Elementary, Old West End Academy, Ottawa River Elementary, Bowsher High School (my former high school!) and Start High School.
Beverly (my former elementary school!) was ranked "Excellent", as well as Harvard Elementary and Toledo Technology Academy High School
Cherry was ranked "Academic Emergency" along with Hale Elementary, King Elementary, Lagrange Elementary, Pickett Elementary and Sherman Elementary. All other local elementaries and high schools were either "Academic Watch" or "Continuous Improvement". So there are some good schools within the Toledo Public School System, and some that still have a ways to go. From all reports next year will be more difficult since the indicators will again change...
:-)
UPDATE: for another parent's view on this issue stop by and visit Random Thoughts on TPS.
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5 comments:
"From all reports next year will be more difficult since the indicators will again change..."
And, we all know that schools just love shooting at a moving target.
Moving just enough to blurr the results, that is.
In the olden days teachers just taught the subject material. Now, they teach to get past the test. . .
Any way you look at it, this is NOT progress.
I'm not a big fan of this whole standardized test system either. All it's done for Aubrey was create test anxiety issues way earlier than should be happening because so much pressure is placed on these young children to perform because so much pressure is placed on the teachers for them to perform. If our children are taught properly surely there would not be the need to make these tests such an "event".
The blame for the creation of this mess rests squarely on the Federal Government and the State of Ohio. Mandating No Child Left Behind but not bothering to fund it completely places some schools in the situation where they spend valuable time teaching to tests rather than on the core cirriculum. I haven't experienced how Toledo handles it yet but in Springfield it got to the point where I told Aubrey just to ignore the hype that she would do just fine on the tests, which she did but it was no thanks to the way they were making such a huge deal about it.
Right now we have several elementary schools that are in academic emergency because of their test results. Rather than focus on them, as we saw today focus being placed on Charter Schools. While some of them are not doing great either, I think that before that system is deemed a failure a certain State Senator might want to look at the whole picture. It's real easy to try to claim no local districts are in academic emergency but several schools within our district are.
:-)
I think it is sad that so much emphasis is placed on the test- a lot of students in Toledo are not fortunate enough to have food or heat etc. at home, parents who aren't there for them, no materials, and yet they are to come to school and perform as well as the neighborhoods where all this is a given.
I like to somehow grade my success as a teacher on other things besides just a test score. My third graders last year were Proficient (on average). I can buy healthy snacks, pencils, etc. but cannot make up for the fact that parents can't get the medicines (and send sick children to school), or glasses, or send them sleepy or hungry . Who's going to really perform well under these conditions. The state report cards do not reflect these situations.
How about the student who is able to make a few friends, or enjoy school after being afraid. A lot of my students may not do well on the test but really develop good skills in the different subjects-again we don't see this reflected in the state report card. I have a lot of parents or legal guardians come up to me and tell me their child has had a good year...that should count for something, i think.....
I agree that should count for something. It does count for something with quite a few of us, me for one. I know in the larger scope of what pressures you endure as a teacher to meet these test requirements it may not mean that much.
But thank you...
Anon,
Yes, thank you for what you do!
Hopefully, you will make a diference in these children's lives.
However, having bad parents, behaving badly is awfully hard for one teacher to change.
I applaud you for making the effort ;-)
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