It’s hard to think of anything in the Rochester area that isn’t affected by the city school district, one way or another. Economic development, housing, neighborhood stability, wage disparity, tax base: the district, its students, and students’ achievement impact all of that.
Over the years, the district and the public have spent an enormous amount of money, time, and energy on Rochester’s public schools. And yet the academic achievement of many Rochester students remains one of the worst in the state.
Critics find plenty of people to blame, and certainly nobody in the district is perfect. But there’s way too much evidence – decades of evidence – that if most of a school district’s students live in concentrated-poverty neighborhoods, that district has a nearly impossible job.
The school district has a responsibility to try to succeed, though, so it keeps trying.
And last week, yet another superintendent came up with yet another plan to try. Barbara Deane-Williams presented what she is calling a Path Forward, based on months of discussions with students, parents, teachers, and others in the community.
The district website defines Path Forward as a “10-year Educational and Facilities Master Plan that provides a blueprint for strong schools and a strong Rochester.”
It’s a wide-ranging plan, reflecting the challenges of a high-poverty urban district. This is a district, for example, in which the number of children attending its schools continues to drop, but the number with disabilities or limited English-language skill is increasing. In which most of the teachers are white, and most of the students are not. It’s a district notorious for losing middle-income families as soon as their children approach school age.
To address all that, and the district’s poor achievement record, Path Forward includes steps like these:
- Make sure that bilingual programs, early childhood education, special-education services, and other offerings are available equitably in all three of the district’s zones.
- Hire more teachers of color and make the curriculum more culturally relevant.
- Redesign high schools so that they better prepare students for careers.
- Create new schools “that mirror the highly sought schools” in the district: School of the Arts, School Without Walls, World of Inquiry, and the Children’s School.
- Create two magnet schools that would draw students from the suburbs as well as the city.
These are big ideas, and each one raises questions. And even if all of the recommendations are worth doing, the “doing” won’t be cheap or easy. Nor is this the first time a superintendent has come up with big ideas – good, big ideas. Implementation – training, staffing, funding, oversight, support, follow-through – has been a persistent problem in this district.
But it’s heartening to see the district talking about more specialty schools like World of Inquiry and School of the Arts – and magnets to attract suburban students. These can begin to break down the concentration of poverty that is crippling the district and so many of its students.
That idea isn’t universally popular. For years, some black community leaders have argued that poor children don’t have to be in classes with wealthier children – who are often white – in order to get a good education. The district, those leaders insist, should be able to educate all children, whatever their circumstance.
That difference of opinion won’t be settled anytime soon. But at the least, adding more magnet-type schools would expand educational offerings for all of the city’s children. And it would give the district a chance to demonstrate the academic effect of integrated education.
“Path Forward” isn’t a traditional plan, with budgets and completion dates for each component. As its name suggests, it’s a “path,” a roadmap. Its unveiling last week is just the beginning. What comes of it will depend on the school board and, of course, money.
The school board and the school community will be discussing its components in the months ahead. We’ll continue to follow that discussion.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2018.
BLA, BLA, BLA, BLA, BLA. The same old same old. I seriously hope the new superintendent can bring SOME improvement, but if not, all of the usual excuses are already here in print. Concentrated poverty, teachers that aren’t culturally matched to 1/2 of the students, and of course money (lack of).
School, as I understand it is to prepare the students to solve problems as they appear through life. After decades, shouldn’t the city and it’s school district have solved their own problems by now?
Good luck ms Williams
Good luck with the “10 Year Master Plan” , but what about now? What about today, and tomorrow, in 2018? Why can’t there also be plans that can affect all students and all teachers, and all parents, now?
For example, I push ideas and programs on motivation, but no one seems to care about that, at RCSD. Here is a list of TED talks on motivation:
https://www.ted.com/playlists/497/practice…
The heading is “Practice Make Perfect.”
=============================
Why couldn’t RCSD put such a list on their web page, and on school web pages? What about the Rochester Teacher’s union, RTA? Why couldn’t they make a list of suggestions on their web page?
What would it cost to push motivation and stress management? Hello?
=====================================================
Hello? http://www.SavingSchools.org
“For years, some black community leaders have argued that poor children don’t have to be in classes with wealthier children who are often white in order to get a good education. The district, those leaders insist, should be able to educate all children, whatever their circumstance.”
“Some black leaders”? How about the general public with functional brains? How long until this statement is a broken record?
Fix. The. Family. Unit.
http://www.actrochester.org/race-ethnicity…
Everyone knows this saying:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
for want of a horse the knight was lost,
for want of a knight the battle was lost,
for want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
So a kingdom was lostall for want of a nail.
=================================
So, I suggest that RCSD, reach out to people in the community, and beyond for ideas and skills, that they lack. This is not to trivialize school problems. It just might be that some of the tools for schools are available.
It is up to school leaders to open their doors, so that outsides are welcome.
========================================================
The question is, when. When will educators open their hearts and minds?
http://www.SavingSchools.org
At either end of the spectrum, city schools simply keep cutting. The Major Achievement Program, a stand-alone program for gifted children, that operated for years in both the elementary and middle school years, has been eliminated. Special education services are abysmal, especially for parents who are not well-versed in special education regulations. I often wonder why RCSD couldn’t open an entire school for students with disabilities. I think there are economies to be found by centralizing these services. Just think, maybe dyslexic students could finally receive Orton Gillingham reading services, delivered with fidelity, by certified instructors. The possibilities are endless if they would think outside the box.
Dear Diane, and others,
Great ideas, but let me add a video on the book, “A More Beautiful Question”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dey1Rm5gUx…
I think a big part of the problem is that school officials and teachers are not curious, not open to outside ideas and people. They feel they know all they need to know.
Author, Warren Berger, suggests 3 questions: Why? What if and How?
Perhaps the most important is: How?
===========================
My focus is on easy solutions to the how question.
I think the place to start is with simple IDEAS that are posted where people can keep seeing them, over and over, again. RCSD web pages and RTA web pages might be places to start with. Other web pages could be created for schools, teachers, parents and students to explore. THANKS MUCH
(I have my own blog, below, with a few HOW ideas I am working on)
http://www.SavingSchools.org
Mention of quality Bilingual Programs is made but unlike with the other schools in the article-none is made. School 12 houses the quality Bilingual Dual Language Program others strive to emulate. Yet no mention-why?
I believe that DIGNITY should be the guiding principle for every action in the Rochester City School District. Dignity Coordinators should be drawing inspiration from the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s chosen birthday to educate our children about DIGNITY. With the school district’s new code of conduct in place, the district needs to double down on the Dignity for All Students Act and provide the Dignity Training for all teachers the law requires. As Frederick Douglass once wrote, “It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men.”