This year’s Illinois School Board of Education report cards for the schools in Urbana School District are released, and the results are even worse than last year. But at least this year we are sort of paying attention, – although it still remains to be seen, if our Board of Education does1last season the members of the Board were disconnected enough to wonder, how the report can be so complimentary while our schools are obviously not so stellar..
It should be also noted, that the USD116 policy requires that the Board, not the administration presents to the citizens of the district the evaluation of the report cards. But the Board always lets the Superintendent’s office to spin the story their way, and will do it again this Tuesday.
Anyone able to read can see right away that the district is in a dire shape, and is getting worse. The ISBE nomenclature is pretty gentle, – 2/3 of all schools are deemed Commendable, and so it stands to wit that to break out from this bulk you should be really good (Exemplary, 10% best schools), or spectacularly bad (here we have Targeted schools, i.e., those failing, – meaning being among the 5% worst in the state, – some categories of students; and Comprehensive schools, failing all students). This year, new plank of shame appeared, – Intensive, meaning receiving extra funds allocated to the worst schools (Targeted and Comprehensive) for many years, yet showing no improvement.
As you probably guessed, there are no Exemplary schools here (we are too busy singing our mantra, Outstanding Schools in an Outstanding Community). The number of middling Commendable schools meanwhile shrank to 1 this year: Yankee Ridge became Comprehensive (failing all of the students), and Leal became Targeted (failing Low Income students and English Learners). The last Commendable elementary school, Wiley, the administration just disbanded, because,… well, because, Dr. J knows better (I am not sarcastic here, just repeating the argument the district employees tirelessly recited during the Board meeting that sealed the fate of Wiley).
There are many obvious problems in the district that do not need any particularly deep analysis. One can just read the top lines: the teachers’ salaries are low (wrote about it), administrators’ – high (wrote about it). And we have too many of the administrators. And, and, and.
But what really drives me nuts is the passionate intensity with which we are ruining lives of the most vulnerable kids. It is perfectly clear now, after all the outcry about the Dual Language program, that its real value to the district is to provide a free enrichment program (of questionable quality, true, but it’s free, ok?) to the middle-class families. But it is being consistently sold as the path to success for the immigrant kids, for the English Learners.
Yet, if one looks2which Board members should have done, and should have reported to us, with their eyes wide with horror at where the English Learners are actually learning English, one sees that the schools with Dual Language program are performing worse than those without. MLK does not have the coveted classes. Still the fraction of EL kids who meet (or not) the state expectation in English Language is about the same as that for the native speakers. True, the numbers are abysmal, – around 6-7% in either population. But at Leal they are 2-4% for English Learners, and 24% or so for all, the rhetoric about the virtues of the Dual Language program notwithstanding. DPW, another Dual Language stronghold: 0% of the English Learners meet the expectations. These are the kids whom the district will drag through the system, pretending to teach them algebra and chemistry, history and coding, and who will enter the world absolutely unprepared for it.
Schools matter. They matter because that’s where our kids are (mostly) safe through the day, while we are busy doing our grown-up stuff. But they also the place that is supposed to teach kids to read, to write, and so many other things, but first – to read and to write. Yet the district administration seems to conspire to deny them that skill. They try to fail everyone, true (the administration is still beholden to the Balanced Literacy cult), but they damage the weakest with abandon.
While we are looking on.
An update: I went to the meeting of the Board. I was the lone member of the public there. I guess we are not even onlookers.
Hell, even two members of the Board did not show up: do they care at all?
Those present complained the report card is “confusing.” If it is (it is perfectly manageable if you’re willing to spend an hour reading the docs), why not ask, – folks at the administration would probably explain. I would explain.
But in case they indeed are curious, comparisons are right there. Check Champaign’s district 4: out of 12 elementary schools, 9 are commendable (reminder: none in Urbana school district). Champaign also pays less to school administrators and has fewer of them. They pay more to the teachers though, and spend less per student.
Or Bloomington-Normal school district (McLean 5), – out of 16 elementary schools two are Exemplary, 11 Commendable. And yes, 13% of English Learners there meet state standards in English, against 1.9% in Urbana. Well, English Learners in BloNo meet the state standards in English at a higher rate than all students in Urbana do.
Is that so hard to parse? And isn’t it perfectly clear, what to do? But, no, – the Board members again are furrowing their brows, and in unison with the administration talk about thinking strategically, collecting all the data, doing long-term planning…
The bit about collecting the data, by the way, is rich as a Black Forest cake. We heard it when the administration was pushing for the infamous “Equity Audit.” We heard it in connection with the Dual Language schools study. Whichever happens, they say, OK, let’s gather the data, and do intentional Professional Development. Always, always they need more data; always, always they need hiring some consultants. And always, reliably, they can count on the Board to buy the administration’s story, wholesale, no haggling.
To be frank, given the status quo, the administrators here would be idiots to try to improve the district: look, each failing school brings extra funds from the state (allegedly to improve schools, but in reality, – for patronage jobs?). And the Board will approve whatever, and won’t even understand what. And the public will be indifferent, because everybody considers the public schools the daycare and not much else.
And as for those who do need to learn to read and write, we will just look away.