State Education Commissioner John King offered tepid praise for Rochester’s public schools during a visit here yesterday, saying that the schools have “potential” for significant improvement. And he praised Superintendent Bolgen Vargas for the steps Vargas has taken to convert that potential into academic gains: implementing extended learning, increasing of instruction, improving attendance, and focusing on reading.
King was in Rochester on a back-to-school tour of districts throughout the state.
And he said that he not only appreciates what Vargas has done to improve Rochester’s schools, but that he’s also impressed by the superintendent’s sense of urgency.
King took a completely different tone toward Buffalo’s schools. He said that making excuses for low student achievement because the population is largely poor and has many English language learners isn’t acceptable.
When asked what else the community of Rochester should do to improve student achievement in city schools, King made two points. First, Rochester, like many urban areas, will need to increasingly turn to its corporate citizens for help with wraparound services, he said. Rochester is fortunate to have an education-minded company like Wegmans, King said.
But King also said that while it’s important for teachers to have high expectations for students, it’s just as important for parents to share those expectations.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2013.
PARENT & COMMUNITY ALERT: WE NEED TO STAY AWAKE. DON’T BE ROCKED TO SLEEP BY EMPTY TALK FROM NEW YORK STATE’S COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. REMEMBER — KING IS TO NEW YORK — WHAT VARGAS IS
TO ROCHESTER.THE ARTICLE BELOW SHOULD LEAVE US ASKING ‘WHAT?!’….. ‘WHAT?!’ ……. AND HERE’S WHY:
1. King “praised Superintendent Bolgen Vargas for steps Vargas has taken to convert potential into academic gains: implementing extended learning, increasing of instruction, improving attendance, and focusing on reading.”
a) So-called “extended learning, and increasing of instruction” amounts to longer school days for a handful of Rochester City School District (RCSD) schools — with absolutely no coherent explanations, or believable evidence — as to how this will magically result in “academic gains.”
b) We are ONLY 5 weeks into the new school year. It is virtually impossible to determine if any lasting, substantial, improvement has occurred regarding “attendance.”
c) What (specifically) has Vargas done to increase “focus on reading?” Telling parents to get library cards for their children, and telling them to read to / with their children does not count relative to increased “focus.” What else (specifically) has he done? I’m posting this on the RCSD’s face book page — let’s see if anyone in the district answers the latter question.
2. King “said that he not only appreciates what Vargas has done to improve Rochester’s schools, but that he’s also impressed by the superintendent’s sense of urgency.”
a) Anyone can SAY they have a “sense of urgency.” Considering the deep, deep-seated very old, worsening crisis within the RCSD — what in the heck else would we expect the Superintendent to SAY? We’ve heard about highly-paid people having a “sense of urgency” for decades, but the proof is in the pudding — so to speak. What (specifically) has Vargas DONE to convince us that he has a “sense of urgency”?
3. King “said that Buffalo’s schools making excuses for low student achievement because the population is largely poor and has many English language learners isn’t acceptable.”
a) IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT THAN IN ROCHESTER? Don’t we hear the exact same “excuses” on a daily basis — emanating from many who work in the RCSD? What’s the difference?
4. “When asked what else the community of Rochester should do to improve student achievement in city schools, King said Rochester will need to increasingly turn to its corporate citizens for help with wraparound services, he said. Rochester is fortunate to have an education-minded company like Wegmans,”
a) According to King, apparently, the RCSD does not need to turn to parents, ordinary citizens, and grassroots community members for help, but instead, needs to turn to “corporate citizens.” WHAT?! So, we’re suppose to view Danny Wegmans, and other such, so-called “corporate citizens” as the saviors of OUR children — right! We saw exactly how well that’s likely to succeed — by way of the mess that was made at former Frederick Douglass Campus recently.
b) Apparently all King, Vargas, Wegmans, and the big-business community needs from parents, and grassroots citizens, and community members is for us to “share high expectations for students.”
c) John King has visited Rochester at least several times over the past few months, and obviously, it never occurred to him, and/or his handlers that perhaps he should have met with those of us who have the most at stake — the most to lose, i.e., OUR children — even if all he wants from us is for us to “share high expectations for students.”
I don’t know about y’all, but I smell a dirty, stinking, political-rat, especially when considering that — as it relates to academic performance — the RCSD is literally at the bottom of the very old, status-quo-urban-education-barrel (even lower than Buffalo). We must remain alert, and astute. We can not allow snake-oil-peddling John King, Bolgen Vargas, or anyone else to bamboozle, and hoodwink us into believing that substantial academic progress, and improvement is right around the corner. There is no evidence — I repeat not one, single iota of concrete evidence that this is so. In fact, all of the concrete evidence seems to indicate the exact opposite.
WE NEED A BROAD-BASED, GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT OF PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS, STUDENTS, ACTIVISTS, RIGHTEOUS EDUCATORS AND POLITICIANS, AND ANYONE ELSE WHO IS REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT WORKING COOPERATIVELY, COLLABORATIVELY, AND CONSISTENTLY TO PRODUCE MUCH-NEEDED, WIDESPREAD, PERMANENT, SYSTEMIC CHANGE AND IMPROVEMENT, WHICH MUST NECESSARILY INCLUDE PUSHING BACK AGAINST CORPORATE-LED, SO-CALLED, “EDUCATION REFORM,” WHICH REALLY IS MORE AKIN TO DEFORM.