Have I said lately how SMART DR. LATHAM is? Cause she is.
My Dad would be proud of me because I am going to quote FOX NEWS'S BILL O'REILLY.
"THE SPIN STOPS HERE!"
Let's look at some REAL MCAS numbers!
These numbers I am about to quote come from the DOE website (I'll post the actual link tomorrow if what I've got doesn't load right)..
Now let's start with overall scores for LYNN for those students who score proficient or higher;
Scores for ALL grades. Eng. Lang. Arts 50
Mathematics 40
Sci and Tech/Eng 34
(Don't you find it IRONIC that for all the crying about HOW WE ARE SADDLED WITH ALL OF THESE NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS THAT OUR BEST SCORE BY FAR IS IN ENGLISH? That's why I love POETRY - for the JUSTICE of it all.)
Now here are those same scores for the state.
Eng. Lang. Arts 69
Mathematics 59
Sci and Tech/Eng 54
Now that's about a twenty point spread. We can make ourselves feel better by manipulating the data and change who we are comparing ourselves against but at the end of the day we are compared with everybody who plays the same game. WOULD YOU FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE RED SOX IF THEY PLAYED AGAINST MINOR LEAGUE TEAMS?
WHATEVER,
we got a problem. So what is LPS'S solution?
Well we start by kicking off the year by giving LUCKY LATHAM, a THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLAR raise. That should boost something.
Also we promote KIM POWERS to CURRICULUM DIRECTER. Aside from the fact she testified TWICE at LSC meetings in ole LUCKY'S behalf, let's look at how she did. She does have this SIX YEAR PLAN that she has been using at her old school, INGALLS.
HERE GOES!
INGALLS STATE
Eng. Lang. Arts 39 Eng. Lang. Arts 69
Mathematics 34 Mathematics 59
Sci and Tech/Eng 24 Sci and Tec/Eng 54
Now HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars have been spent to implement this NEW PLAN. I started out this post quoting O'REILLY now I think I should quote PAUL SIMON:
TIME TO GET A NEW PLAN, STAN
We got problems, no doubt but who do you think has solutions?
Do you have any solutions?
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, are you happy about this? You seem none too pleased that Lynn students are not doing well on this exam so that you can use it as fodder against the school admin.
How are you working with your child or children's school to solve this issue in a constructive way? Or are you?
I sure will be working with my school to make the necessary positive changes.
The fact that I am pointing out the problem is an important contribution for all parents of all the children. There should be no doubt about my intentions. I get NO money for this BLOG. Just because some of those people who get FAT SALARIES are uncomfortable with the truth only means that not exposing the truth would be DESTRUCTIVE.
DeleteThen we have different concepts of constructive contributions. To each his own, but I do not, however, see the point in pinpointing a problem and not doing anything positive about it or working toward a real, applicable solution. Pointing out that reading scores at 'x' school are bad does essentially nothing unless you are discussing potential reasons why they are bad and better approaches to improving them. Agree to disagree on this one.
DeleteIt is extremely difficult, if not impossible for parents to get involved and express their opinions on possible solutions. The reason for this is Dr. Latham and her administration are UNWILLING to work with the parents and public. Parents cannot even get a phone call or an email response from her, the mayor and almost every member of our school committee. At every school committee meeting parents stand up and express their concerns, offer possible solutions to an issue or both. However, they are only given 3 minutes and their words fall on deaf ears. Our schools and district will NEVER improve as long as Dr. Latham is our superintendent because rather than working with teachers, students, principals, vice principals, guidance counselors, parents and the community in hopes of coming up with solutions that actually work, she chooses to operate on her own and our children and schools suffer the consequences. Also, while we do have a couple of school committee members who do their research and are knowledgeable about our schools and district, the majority of them do not. Most of the members do not even know what their role and responsibilities are as a school committee member. John Ford, for example, stated once during a school committee meeting that his job was "to support the superintendent and that was what he intended to do as long as he was on the committee" The latest MCAS scores are a great indication that Dr. Latham is not the most qualified person to lead our schools and district. She has been superintendent for over 3 years now and our scores, schools and district have shown great improvement, if any. In fact, we are not even 'the best of the worst' anymore. Dr. Latham and her administration need wake up and begin to make some drastic changes. Stop wasting the limited funding we receive on things like administrator salaries and raises and start using funds for resources and supplies that will actually improve our classrooms and schools. These MCAS scores are just the beginning of what's to come. We will see our MCAS scores continue to drop each year. We will see our classrooms and schools continue to get more over-crowded, which is a contributing factor to our low MCAS scores. We will also see more of our schools become level 3 and 4 schools. There are many contributing factors to our low MCAS scores. However, Dr. Latham and her adminstration continue to blame the ESL students. It is my understanding that even the white english speaking kids have low test scores. So what is Dr. Latham's reason or excuse for that?
DeleteI left our an important word, NOT in my above post. I stated, "She has been superintendent for over 3 years now and our scores, schools and district have shown great improvement, if any."
DeleteWhat I meant to say was, "She has been superintendent for over 3 years now and our scores, schools and district have NOT shown great improvement, if any."
So every student in the city comes to school every day ready to learn with supportive, involved parents who help with homework and have a high regard for education?
DeleteYou're right there are many reasons test scores are low but you often miss an important one - there are many parents and students not their jobs in this city. You can change out the super, teachers, admin, but you can't change out the students who may or may not be putting in their best effort.
You want to put the truth out there, both sides need to be addressed. There are issues with the admin and there are issues the demographics as well. Both sides need to do their part equally well.
Agreed!! A major contributing factor to low scores is the lack of parental involvement. We went to the parent information night at Classical this week and there was never more than 4 students parents there. My husband and I were the only parents in one of the classes. In another class when the teacher was talking about the summer reading project that was due, there were parents actually saying that their kids refused to do it and that there was nothing they could do. My husband and I sat there in amazement. I was thinking....Are these parents serious?? So yes, parental involvement is a huge factor, but this doesn't change the fact that this administration does not make it easy for the parents who do want to be involved.
DeleteYou're giving the school admin much more power than they deserve.
DeleteI don't understand how are they preventing you or any other parent from joining your child or children's school's PTO(s) in order to work with the principal and/or teachers to find solutions. That's how you are going to see change - seeing more parents getting involved at the individual school level, doing what's necessary to turn each school around and building a strong school-home alliance. You'd probably get more traction w/ the admin by showing your work at the schools. Maybe it's happened but have not seen any posts about academic related PTO work in this city; in fact many schools don't even have them. That's not just the school's fault. Where are the parents asking about them or starting them?
More importantly, how do they prevent parents from paying attention to their kids' grades, making sure they go everyday on time, and following with teachers about any academic issues?
About parent involvement, its up to the administration to show them how, see CLEO COVERS UP ANY ATTEMPT . Now I am not saying LPS has an easy task. They don't. I am familiar with the demographics dilemma but the administration can't just throw their hands up in surrender. There are laws.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is NOT my only contribution to the problem. I belong to LYNN PARENTS ORGANIZING FOR A BETTER EDUCATION. It's a grassroots organization looking for positive ways parents can get involved in their kids education. I have been on the FORD SCHOOL SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT COUNCIL for 3 years and I spent a year working in the FORD SCHOOL library for a year keeping the books circulating when the REAL librarians were CUT until a REAL librarian was restored. Not to mention my two year involvement with PAC. So you see, I am not just another pretty poet.
Which proves the admin never prevented you as a parent from being involved as the other person commented. As was previously posted, both sides need to do their job and they are not at this time. It's not PC but parents also need to be called out in the interest of "truth"
DeleteLet me clarify that the administration cannot prevent a parent from getting involved. But they can and do hinder and restrict that involvement. I contacted every single principal merely to find out if their school had a PTO and if so, who the contact person was. Out of the 24 or so principals, only a handful responded immediately and over a week or two period I slowly got more responses. However, there were still a few who never responded, even after a follow up email was sent. You are correct, many schools do not have a PTO. However, some of those that do, also have great difficulty getting their concerns addressed. Why? Because it begins at the top with Dr. Latham. She creates and follows an organizational culture that does not promote, and in fact, hinders and restricts parental involvement. Are there some VP's and principals who encourage parental involvement....absolutely. My child goes to Classical and Gene Constantino and Dennis Thompson have been fantastic! I have never had an issue with getting any of my questions and concerns addressed. As I mentioned before, I agree that parents need to step up and that a major contributing factor to our low scores is the lack of parental involvement and control at home.
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