Struggling schools might get to 're-create' themselvesBy Diette Courrégé (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Melissa Haneline Third-graders Eric Dilligard (left) and Lindasia Fyall compare results on a computer game during Tammie's Granger's technology class at Memminger Elementary School Friday. The technology class is a new addition to the curriculum this school year. Struggling downtown, Johns Island and North Charleston schools would be transformed into partial magnet schools under a new and bold proposal presented Friday by Charleston Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley. The superintendent's plan is to shake up the school system by creating a "portfolio of options" that would give students more educational choices. It's an effort to accelerate student achievement in areas where it's needed most. "We need to make more dramatic changes," she said. "It gives schools an opportunity to re-create themselves, it helps parents choose the school that's right for the child and it's motivating for the children." Her idea is in line with a statewide push to increase opportunities within schools and districts. Charleston schools are making progress, but the academic gains are incremental, McGinley said. Racial and economic achievement gaps exist among students, and school leaders need to think differently to change historic patterns of low achievement in high-poverty neighborhoods and in schools that are racially and economically isolated, she said. School choice is a way to improve student achievement and educational equity, increase parent support and decrease the number of racially isolated schools, she said. Planning teams of educators, parents and community members would come up with themes for their neighborhood schools. Possibilities could include single-gender, foreign language or Montessori programs. Schools would generate proposals for district officials to approve, and those given the go-ahead would get $6,000 planning grants. Up to 10 theme schools would open in 2009, with the program expanding to other schools later. Downtown and Johns Island would become choice school districts, meaning every school would have a theme and open its enrollment to students not in its attendance zone. McGinley called those areas "ripe for reinventing" because of the number of low-achieving schools and the outcry of community members for better options. North Charleston middle schools — Alice Birney, Brentwood and Morningside — each would have a theme, and students could apply to attend any of those schools. McGinley also proposed an option for schools outside those three initial geographic areas. Those schools could apply to redesign themselves through expanded services and hours for parents and students. In every case, students who are zoned to attend a themed school would get priority admission, students in the same constituent district would be admitted next and students across the county would be accepted last. The plan will be up for approval during the school board's Jan. 14 meeting. The board eventually would have to approve the necessary money, estimated at $40,000 per school, for programs to have necessary materials and staff. Some called the changes the furthest reaching the district has led in recent history. "I think this is a bold step, and I think we need innovative things to take place to improve our performance," said School Board Chairman Hillery Douglas. The plan would get parents involved, and that's the key to successful schools, he said. School board Vice Chairwoman Nancy Cook said she supported the plan because the district can't continue doing what it's doing on the peninsula and Johns Island and expect different results. The board hears parents saying they want more for their children and that they should have just as much opportunity in their neighborhoods without having to transfer to another constituent district, she said. Downtown constituent school board Chairwoman Pam Kusmider said she liked that McGinley's plan would involve a diverse community group picking a school's theme. But she said she worried about what will happen to students until the plan becomes a reality. "I'm optimistic that at least she's proposing a plan," she said. "But our kids needs an excellent-rated school today, and they are denying our kids that opportunity by keeping the doors closed at Buist Academy. ... It's going to take years to get schools up to where we want them to be." Buist Academy is the only excellent-rated school downtown, but downtown students get only one-fourth of its kindergarten spots. The constituent school board has fought for years to allow downtown students priority admission. Kusmider also wondered whether the plan will come to fruition. Burke High alumnus Harvey Gantt proposed a plan years ago that would have changed the grades that downtown schools served as well as give themes to each school. The plan wasn't funded or followed. Jon Butzon is executive director of the Charleston Education Network. He was hopeful that McGinley's plan would work but said he thought school choice shouldn't be relied on so heavily. He said he'd like to see a more direct and definite approach, such as what Principal MiShawna Moore did to turn Sanders-Clyde Elementary from an unsatisfactory-rated school to one that's rated "good." "She's made that work without fancy stuff," he said. "That's what I prefer to see us doing. If we know what to do, let's just do it. We don't have to be clever." Memminger Elementary Principal Diane Ross said she liked that schools would be able to pick their focus and thought schools with themes would attract more parents to public schools. She already is brainstorming ideas for what she'd do at Memminger, such as making it a year-round school. Her concern was that schools solicit students' applications at the same time so everyone doesn't apply to the same program. Reach Diette Courrégé at dcourrege@postandcourier.com or 937-5546. |
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Comments
This article has 7 comment(s)
Posted by karmann on December 15, 2007 at 8:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I just hope that the plan included increasing the academic requirements of these schools. I also hope that CCSD will do more to hold parents accountable for their children's discipline and academic issues also. The schools are to teach, the family is to take care of the rest.
Posted by mlm on December 15, 2007 at 9:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The reporter said, "Buist Academy is the only excellent-rated school downtown, but downtown students get only one-fourth of its kindergarten spots."
Since when? Everyone knows that the downtown spots are given to friends of insiders or to people who use fake addresses with the approval of school officials. I think the District 20 group might just be happy to know that these spots were really downtown residents.
Exactly why is Buist not part of this plan for downtown schools?
Unless this plan corrects the lying, cheating and stealing that is currently represented by what's going on at Buist Academy, I don't think the Superintendent is serious. Fix that and we might solve many of the bigger problems associated with the nearby schools downtown much sooner.
But please don't tell us that downtown students have anything truly reserved for them at Buist, because the reality is they don't...and Dr. McGinley knows it.
Posted by gencon1 on December 15, 2007 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The state spends 10,500 on each child. Assign this 10,500.00 dollars to each child and let them go wherever they like. Make the schools compete for the kids (and money). Competition works in every other part of life. Let's try it in education.
Posted by saltwater on December 15, 2007 at 4:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Charleston Superintendent Nancy McGinley has placed her "plan" for reorganizing failing schools on the peninsula, in North Charleston, and on Johns Island on the CCSD web-site. It is full of education jargon, some that sound good and many that just make sounds. It reflects an attempt to "play catch up" and “me too” with other communities around the country that have tailored successful programs rooted in unique communities. To be fair, some locally generated ideas are included within McGinley's new plan, but most of these have been borrowed, too, (more like plagiarized) with little or no acknowledgement to sources found among Charleston’s rich, built-in cultural resources or to the help of those active within the city's many integrated communities.
Certainly the plan has its problems, which may be unintentional, but this is the worst part: there is a thinly cloaked attempt to close the barn door on CCSD's embarrassingly weak position on "county-wide" magnet schools. With one exception these only exist at the high school level. McGinley gives the "county-wide" magnet concept legal standing for the first time, without ever acknowledging that the concept was illegitimate to begin with, as it has been applied to Buist Academy. In one section of the document under the heading "A 'Partial Magnet School' Constituent District" she says, "If the constituent district has county-wide magnet schools, they will continue to operate utilizing their enrollment criteria."
What does she mean “schools”? There’s only one K-8 magnet that fits that description: it’s Buist. And, unless she meant to limit only "academic" criteria remaining unchanged, this is a naked attempt to close the back door on the scandal that has surrounded CCSD's loose-as-a-goose "enrollment criteria" at Buist.
Posted by saltwater on December 15, 2007 at 4:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Complaints against the address cheats and admissions scams at Buist have little to do with academic qualifications. If cover-up is her purpose, McGinley is not correcting a problem; she’s white washing it. She is attempting to plug the gaping hole in CCSD’s defense of having run the Buist scam as long as it has. She gives it cover. No one will ever be held accountable.
If this bad apple is still stored with the rest, how long will it take for other parts of her plan to become spoiled by this exception to consistency and fairness? If the other points in her reorganization plan are so good, then shouldn’t Buist conform to them as well?
McGinley needs to be questioned directly on this and not allowed to wiggle out of it . . . or be permitted to slip out the door before questions are answered. The truth is that Buist should be allowed to keep its "academic criteria," but it should also be required to conform to the enrollment and opportunity zone aspects of this new "partial magnet" concept that is being proposed for the other schools in the community. Buist might see its integrity restored in the process.
If McGinley refuses to budge on this exception for Buist, then her stonewalling the issue has to be seen for what it is. We all know that Buist organizers greatly fear racial inclusion. Those behind keeping Buist just as it is still share this fear, even if their fears are based on a downtown that existed 25 years ago, but no longer. Because of the academic criteria at Buist and CCSD’s failure to provide substantial early childhood education to minorities and low income children before now, the argument (and fear) that Buist will become “all black” no longer applies.
Too bad the original NAACP suit didn't use its position to change the inequity of early childhood education instead of just the appearance of "diversity" at the upper levels. Oh, I forgot. I think Gregg Meyers was their attorney so he must have just missed that point.
Posted by saltwater on December 15, 2007 at 4:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Where’s the policy that says Buist is a "county-wide" magnet? Where are other comparable K-8 "county-wide" magnet schools? Unless Buist has peers, it should not continue unless CCSD acknowledges it was established on the principal of racial minority exclusion and still functions that way.
Who came up with that "partial magnet" phrase, anyway? I thought St. Andrews was what a real magnet school was supposed to be. It’s Buist that is the crazy hybrid. We should say that Buist is at the same table, exactly like the other "partial magnets," or the county should be prepared to name about six more "county-wide" magnet schools, designed to be just like Buist and strategically located in other parts of the county. CCSD might start with converting Jennie Moore. Then watch the storm of protests go up when local residents are required to participate in a county-wide lottery just like Buist. Will they follow with forcing this on Ashley River Creative Arts? Not likely.
Posted by now_here_this on December 17, 2007 at 11:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Saltwater- If you want to see County-wide magnets, look at District #4 (North Charleston). Academic Magnet, School of the Arts, Garrett, Military Magnet and Charlestown Academy are all County-wide magnets. Only AMHS and Garrett are high-school only.
Of the remaining 19 schools in Dist #4, 16 are rated Below Average or Unsatisfactory. None are rated higher than average. Yet North Charleston residents are offered no priority admission to these schools as downtown residents are to Buist.