Failing Schools Almost Impossible to "Turnaround"

[Anonymous]

Pre-Thanksgiving data dump from ED tells the sad story. Chronically under-performing schools in DC and elsewhere must be replaced. Take a look:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/11/initial_school_improvement_ana.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre-Thanksgiving data dump from ED tells the sad story. Chronically under-performing schools in DC and elsewhere must be replaced. Take a look:

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2012/11/initial_school_improvement_ana.html

Both underperforming charters and DCPS schools need to be cut back as soon as possible. Turnarounds (even with A Billion dollars from ED) rarely happen. Triumph of experience over hope is what DC's children need now.

[Anonymous]

Andy Smarick gets it right in his book on The Urban School System of the Future:

"Unfortunately, efforts to fix long-broken schools simply don’t work like we need them to. The evidence shows forcefully that turning around failing schools is not a scalable strategy for improving urban systems. Moreover, by putting so much of our energy into preserving failing schools, we have actually impeded the development of other activities central to the healthy management of our portfolio of schools."

[Anonymous]

It's "turn around," two words, when used as a verb OP. Not "turnaround" (noun).

[Anonymous]

So if you close a school that you have labeled "failing", where do those children go to school, and do they then thrive in a new environment?

Or have you simply robbed a community of a school that is benefits that you don't know how to measure?

[Anonymous]

insert "providing" after is

[Anonymous]

How do they define "failing" schools? Test scores? Enrollment?

[Anonymous]

I would assume the issues facing most "failing schools" have more to do with poverty than the actual system. There is an ugly culture that is often associated with it. You can hire the best teachers in the world but little will change if students come from homes that do not value education. Until we can change that than those schools will continue to fail.

[Anonymous]

As for "failing schools", how about demonstrations of basic proficiency, for example DCPS graduates who are functionally illiterate, Horrendously bad scores on DC-CAS and other exams.

[Anonymous]

So what happens to all of the grant money that some of theclosing schools received at the end of last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what happens to all of the grant money that some of theclosing schools received at the end of last year?

It's funneled to Kwame Brown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you close a school that you have labeled "failing", where do those children go to school, and do they then thrive in a new environment?

Or have you simply robbed a community of a school that is benefits that you don't know how to measure?

I realized there are all sorts of intangible benefits that schools provide to their communities, but sorry, if "providing an education" is not one of the tangible benefits, they need to be shut down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would assume the issues facing most "failing schools" have more to do with poverty than the actual system. There is an ugly culture that is often associated with it. You can hire the best teachers in the world but little will change if students come from homes that do not value education. Until we can change that than those schools will continue to fail.

This.

In another decade or two, the poverty rate in DC will be roughly the same as the rest of the region. And the schools will be some of the best in the country. Gentrification works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you close a school that you have labeled "failing", where do those children go to school, and do they then thrive in a new environment?

Or have you simply robbed a community of a school that is benefits that you don't know how to measure?

I realized there are all sorts of intangible benefits that schools provide to their communities, but sorry, if "providing an education" is not one of the tangible benefits, they need to be shut down.

Define "providing an education"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would assume the issues facing most "failing schools" have more to do with poverty than the actual system. There is an ugly culture that is often associated with it. You can hire the best teachers in the world but little will change if students come from homes that do not value education. Until we can change that than those schools will continue to fail.

This.

In another decade or two, the poverty rate in DC will be roughly the same as the rest of the region. And the schools will be some of the best in the country. Gentrification works.

Only if you define "best" by how students score on standardized tests. These same schools may not be very good if judged by the quality of educational opportunities offered.