What is best for low achieving students
An article in the Seattle Times quotes Eric Pettigrew (D-37) as saying "smaller school districts would improve performance for low-achieving children". I'm dying to know what data he has to support that contention. Or could it be that Mr. Pettigrew made the claim without any data to support it?
I thought about checking the data myself to test the claim. I went to the OSPI web site to review the student achievement (MSP pass rate) data for districts of various sizes. But as I did so, I realized that I had no way of determining, from that data, how the performance of low-achieving students had changed. Yes, I could compare the 2013 5th grade pass rates with the 2012 4th grade pass rates, but that wouldn't allow me to determine which of the former 4th graders accounted for which of the 5th grade scores. I couldn't parse out the change for the low performing students from a previous year.
That got me wondering how Representative Pettigrew did it. Actually, it got me suspecting that he didn't. I don't think he has any data to support his claim. That means that Mr. Pettigrew is likely proposing an extreme and expensive action - splitting Seattle Public Schools into two districts - to achieve a specific purpose without any evidence whatsoever that the action will, in fact, achieve the purpose. That would be pretty messed up.
So let's see the data, Mr. Pettigrew. Show us why you believe that smaller school districts improve the performance of low-achieving students. Please, please, please, show us the basis for this claim. Because, if you don't have any data to support this claim, then why are you making the claim and why are you proposing this action?
Comments
Perhaps there is a plan within the plan to decrease the sizes of the schools and classes as well?
Me thinks that this is called "cherry picking" the data.
-reader
Managing change in a small district would be easier and faster, plus we should be able to generate some constructive competition between the districts for students.
You wont have to move out of the City to have a choice of districts.
Split Now
The auditors never leave JSCEE and actually touch any of the $30,000 projectors or other missing equipment.
The Sup S\B able to visit each school for 4 hours every 6 months.
Geter Done
CT
SPS budget is :
Total Expenditures $912,569,384.00
Would you like 2 billion, 3 billion
How much is enough.
Other PeoplesMoney
BUT our state doesn't even fund to the national average. There is no getting around that.
As well, those states that fund at the top? Have the top scores.
This is a popular rhetorical question for anti-education advocates. They ask it thinking that there is no answer.
But there is. The state legislature defined it. The state legislature said how much is enough, so the anti-education crowd can stop asking this foolish, ill-informed question.
That's true, but it isn't because the district is so big. It's because of the district's culture.
Geter Done says that the size of the budget makes corruption and theft easier. No. It's the culture that makes corruption and theft easier. Small districts - heck, even charter schools, which are one-school districts - have problems with theft and corruption. You should hear some of the complaints from people in small, rural districts.
Also, you already don't have to move out of the city for a choice of districts. Lots of Seattle families send their kids to schools in Highline, Renton, Shoreline, and Vashon.
Dividing the school district in half is a move in the wrong direction, paving the way for privitizers to move in with charter schools, tfa, more high-stakes testing and one-size-fits-all curricula. Read:
https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/house-bill-2048-re-segregation-through-legislation/
AS
HP
Perhaps the way to improve student outcomes isn't rooted in the governance of the district. Perhaps it isn't rooted in the size of the district. Perhaps it isn't even rooted in the ownership or governance of the school.
Maybe - just maybe - the way to improve student outcomes will require changes in what happens inside the classrooms and improvements in the students' support system outside the classroom.
Then again, maybe not. Maybe we should continue to focus our efforts on splitting the district, having the mayor appoint school board directors, and on charter schools.
The last action noted on the splitting of the district bill (2048) is on Feb. 20th where it was referred to the Rules 2 Review. I suspect it will not make it out.