Home 
Past Issues November 2005 Elementary thoughts and questions
| Elementary thoughts and questions |
|
|
|
|
By Michael Brownstein 1. Chicago Public Schools thanked a great number of individuals in an e-mail from Beth Swanson for their work on recruiting 80,000 students for the SES program, but almost half will not be able to participate. (SES is a tutoring program offered to schools who have been designated as schools in need through the No Child Left Behind rulings.) The Board’s email from Beth Swanson, dated October 6, 2005, states: “If you do not have forms that have been entered by 5:30 PM on October 7th, you should still input them immediately, as final enrollment lists will be created Tuesday, October 11th. “Our intent is to have enrollment lists finalized in STARS by the end of Tuesday, October 11th. At that time, we will send you an email informing you of the process of how to view those enrollment lists in STARS...As you know, per NCLB, if we enroll a greater number of students then we have SES funding to serve, we must prioritize the students based on student performance... “Thank you for all of your hard work during registration! Because of your efforts, we are close to meeting our goal of registering 80,000 students for SES. Hopefully we’ll exceed this goal by the end of tomorrow.” On October 12th, Beth Swanson sent the following email: “After a successful registration period, we are pleased to announce that approximately 75,000 students registered to receive SES during the 2005-2006 school year. Unfortunately, the number of registrants far exceeds the SES budget...” Swanson states that 74,000 students registered, but there is only money available to fund 43,504 students. Furthermore, she states it costs $1,600 to fund one student in non-CPS programs. On the other hand, Arne Duncan, the CPS Superintendent, stated at a principal’s meeting held October 19th, that the average cost to fund a CPS student is about $380. This is less than one-fourth of the cost with a non-CPS vendor. A school administrator who asked not to be named claimed her school had over 130 students enroll, but only about 45 accepted. Swanson also states in her email that fifty million dollars has been set aside for the programs, but more than ninety-seven million dollars is needed to fund all of the registered students. My questions: Why recruit so many students and not know the costs involved? How come the Board actually thought parents would want to sign up for a CPS program when there were a number of name brand players? 2. Overheard at the Walt Disney School: Principals were walking through the Walt Disney School when one of them said, “Look how colorful everything is.” The Area Officer answered her: “But what is wrong?” “Oh,” answered the principal, “there is no student work.” 3. A big question that had been asked in Chicago after last summer’s announcement that the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills would no longer be used to determine promotions has been answered. A section of the ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Tests) test taken in March will be utilized to determine who will pass or fail. The section will be “embedded” in the test. The test will be given with three months of instruction to go. When the Iowa tests were used, they were given at the beginning of May. Now elementary children will be facing retention based on a test that is given before the last snow melts. My questions: Why are we still utilizing high stakes testing? Haven’t we seen the negative effect of failure on our students? Research continues to show students repeating a grade do not improve; they actually begin a life-long trend of downward cognitive behavior. Why is the test offered so early in the year? |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|