THIS ARTICLE WAS DROPPED IN MY MAIL AND I WONDER HOW FOLKS FEEL ABOUT SCHOOLS IN OUR COMMUNITY WITH SIMILAR ISSUES AND UNDER THREAT OF CLOSURE?
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NEW YORK (June 22) -- Girl gangs ran rampant through the halls at Metropolitan Corporate Academy when Lennel George became principal of the public high school in Brooklyn in 2006. Two years before that, the school was rated one of the 10 most dangerous high schools in the city, according to the city's Education Department.
George has a soft voice, an imposing stature and long dreadlocks. He said he spent his first year at MCA making the school safe again so teachers could teach and students could learn. The next year he began focusing on the quality of the education. But in December, the city announced MCA was a "failing school" and would be closed along with 18 others.
"I would say that most teachers thought that the school definitely has changed over the last four or five years, and those changes at least had us on the right track to receive the satisfactory rating we needed to stay open this year," said Alex Jones, an 11th-grade social studies and history teacher and coach of MCA's award-winning debate team.
Dana Chivvis for AOL News
A sign spells out the rules for teacher Alex Jones' classroom at Metropolitan Corporate Academy in Brooklyn. He said he has seen the school make big strides in recent years. But apparently they won't be enough to keep it open.MCA may look like it is failing on paper, but the numbers don't tell the whole story, its proponents say.
For one thing, George has been trying to right a ship with a high at-risk population and few resources. MCA has no library, no auditorium, no sports teams, no cafeteria, and few textbooks.
The school has a hard time attracting better students because its facility is so lacking.
George and his assistant principal, Debbie Nagel, say that instead of branding them as "failing," the Bloomberg administration should give them the resources needed to succeed.
Their argument is echoed by many other schools, students, parents and experts across the country, where a debate is raging over which direction American education should take.
The Obama administration's education policies, led by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, fall in line with the model followed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city Department of Education Chancellor Joe Klein. Charter schools -- public schools run by private organizations -- are well regarded in this camp. A premium is put on school turnarounds, and low-performing schools are likely to be overhauled or shut down. Teacher success is determined by students' standardized test scores.
"[Klein] essentially has been telling the public, 'Our regular public schools are not very good, so we're going to replace them with charters,'" said Deborah Meier, an education expert who founded a network of highly successful public schools in Harlem. "Obama is in the same position now, unfortunately."
Seth Wenig, AP
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that while closing low-performing schools was difficult, it had to be done. "It is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education told AOL News that the administration is not in favor of all charter schools, only good charter schools, and said Duncan believes school closings should be a last resort.
"When a school continues to perform in the bottom 5 percent of the state and isn't showing signs of growth or has graduation rates below 60 percent, something dramatic needs to be done," Duncan said in a statement. "Turning around our worst-performing schools is difficult for everyone, but it is critical that we show the courage to do the right thing by kids."
But critics say the policy ignores the effects that school closings have on communities and on the population of students who have irregular obstacles to overcome in the course of their education. Many say those students -- the poor, the homeless, the English Language Learners, and those with special needs -- are constantly shoved to the side. And the teachers who sign on to the uphill battle of educating them are punished for stepping up to the challenge.
"There are very few examples one can identify where 'bad' schools have been closed and replaced by better schools," former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch said in an e-mail to AOL News. "Typically what happens is that 'bad' schools are closed, and the lowest-performing students are sent to other 'bad' schools."
This idea is often described as a shell game. The better public schools, including charter schools, hand-pick or attract the best students, leaving the kids with the highest needs to schools like MCA, causing test scores to fall lower. When test scores fall, the schools are deemed as "failing" and closed, and the kids with the highest needs move to another school where the game is played out again.
Experts worry that closing schools will cause the best teachers to avoid schools with underperforming students for fear those schools will be closed and they will be out of a job. MCA has 22 teachers for its 385 students, and last week George had to let go of four of them.
"Here we are trying to get people to work in the schools that are largely with at-risk populations, and then we have a movement in this country where any teacher in that school is likely to get fired because of the population in school," Meier said.
No One Asks: "What Do You Need?"
The lack of communication between city officials and the people who actually attend the schools troubles Stephon Adams, a 17-year-old junior on MCA's championship debate team.
"They don't come into the schools, they don't ask the students like, 'Well, what do you need in order for us to better the school or for you to get the right, proper education?'" Adams said. "At least get to know the students instead of viewing us as numbers."
Viewed as a series of numbers, MCA is a struggling school. Graduation rates are lower than 50 percent, attendance hovers around 70 percent, and the school has received low grades on its yearly progress reviews.
Viewed as a population of students, the picture looks different. Their debate team is one of the best in the city. Their teachers are dedicated. But they need the basics: text books they can take home at night, calculators they don't have to share, a library, a cafeteria, water fountains.
Part 1: Did 'Failing' School Get Failed by the System?
Part 2: Champion Debate Team Rejects City's Verdict
Part 3: How Education Reform Can Turn Into a Shell Game
Part 4: When a School Year Ends in Purgatory
"They need to figure out a way to get those schools the support that they need in order to give those kids the successes that they deserve, rather than saying your school sucks, you're part of the reason that it's failing, you need to go somewhere else," teacher Jones said.
Critics of Klein say that as more schools are closed and replaced by charters, there are fewer and fewer options for high-needs students, creating a segregated system.
"MCA takes everyone," Jones said. "They take the students that can't get into those charter schools. They take the students that have just come from Haiti or from Guyana or from China and don't speak English because those students aren't accepted into charter schools or the select academies.
"[The Education Department is] creating a segregated education system for the people that have the skills and the power to get their children into the more selective schools and the families that do not."
Danny Kanner, a spokesman for the Education Department, told AOL News that the premise is false: "Our schools accept all students and will accept all students." He says resources like gyms are important, but you can't argue with graduation rates and test scores.
Which side is right is uncertain. No one has ever done a study on the "shell game" theory, and comparing the new schools to the old schools is impossible because the students are always different.
Though neither side may be right, battle lines have been drawn. On Feb. 1, the United Federation of Teachers, the city's teachers union, sued the city, claiming the school closings were illegal. On March 26, a State Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the union. The city appealed.
The future of MCA lies somewhere on that battlefield.
Should parents feel like it is not a probelm when a school closes in their communty? What would you do if you learned your community school does not have a library or textbooks for students to take home for study/homework? Why is this acceptable to us repeatedly until the Board of Education, which is usually white people making final decisions about the future education of our students, can't see the need to give a "failing" school adequate supplies? Do you think adequate supplies can make a difference on test scores? (I hope there are some Brooklyn folks reading this). Surely we know of a district similar to this one. What are the solutions for community parents to have enough interest to support community schools?
As a part-time teacher, I could literally jump off a moving train if it would bring more African-American parents to a PTA meeting? What is wrong with us? (uugh...!)
To read the full MCA saga, visit:
http://www.aolnews.com/brooklyn-school/art...
Posted By: agnes levine
Thursday, June 24th 2010 at 1:01PM
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