Not surprisingly, the state’s education commissioner is sending someone else to try to help the Rochester school district turn things around.
If the district and the new “distinguished educator,” Jaime Aquino, reach an agreement on his salary, he’ll arrive here in August, study the district and its problems over the next 45 days, and then he and the district’s leaders will come up with a plan to improve things.
And if the state’s education commissioner approves the plan, presumably the district will try it and see it if works.
I’m not opposed to having Aquino come here. Whatever salary he and the district settle on, it’ll increase the district’s expenses, and the money will have to come from something else. But I think this district needs some outside opinion and some outside oversight.
I’m not opposed to paying Aquino to try to help the district, either, although it seems to me that we’ve done enough studies and have enough evidence to know what’s wrong. If we don’t, I’m not sure 45 days is enough to unearth what previous studies have missed.
Those studies have identified some really basic problems, though, and the district has failed to address them. Maybe Aquino can figure out why.
But let me just repeat the Great Obvious Fact:
Through all these studies, through all the new school superintendents and new school board members and new ideas, two things have been constant: Rochester’s poverty rate has increased. And the performance of the school district’s children has dropped.
Lock step.
For half a century.
That is a fact. You can look it up.
And I am tired, and way out of patience, with the smug counter-argument: You’re saying poor children can’t learn.
No, I am not. I am saying what a gazillion credible studies show: Poverty has an effect. Generational poverty has an effect. The concentration of poverty has an effect. And Rochester has all of that – in abundance.
A school district in which nearly all children are poor is a school district with enormous challenges. Districts in affluent communities serve children whose parents are well educated and have the resources to provide not only a comfortable, safe, healthy life but also educational resources. That makes a difference.
Harvard University isn’t special because of its faculty, a former Harvard professor said in a lecture here years ago. It’s special because of its students.
The Rochester school district isn’t perfect. Far from it. Teachers, administrators, union leaders, school board members: Point to any group of people in the district, and you can find problems. And nobody should accept children’s poverty as an excuse for poor adult performance.
We should insist on excellence. We should not tolerate poor performance. But we cannot expect Rochester teachers to do the impossible. While we’re demanding improvements from teachers, administrators, union leaders, and school board members, we also have to do what they cannot do: start breaking down the concentration of poverty in this district.
How? Join with Great Schools for All and pressure suburban school leaders and state officials to create schools serving children from both the city and the suburbs. Create schools in which fewer than half of the students are poor.
Otherwise, Rochester will continue to have one of the highest-poverty, lowest-achieving districts in the nation.
The alternative is to do what we’ve been doing: beat up on the school district’s adults. Because we have to blame somebody. And we’re not willing to blame ourselves.
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2018.
Dear Mary Anna Towler,
You make good points, but I still believe that what is most missing in City schools is enough motivation, for all students and for all teachers and for all parents.
Here is a funny 4min video about the value of a college education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L…
Here you have “Father Guido Sarducci” joking about college learning. But I am sure that many students in City schools do not see the value of a college education. And if they do, they may still lack the day to day motivation to keep learning.
I mention ideas in learning motivation from Mister Rogers’ new film, http://www.MindsetWorks.com , http://www.WhyTry.org , etc, etc and I get no response.
Come up with your own list of motivational lessons. But why doesn’t the RCSD do this, for all students, teachers, and parents? Why not put ideas on their web pages for all to see?
I hope that, Dr. Aquino will make suggests on motivation, to make it official.
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http://www.SavingSchools.org
One other constant: Adam Urbanski.
Another day, another article by Towler bemoaning the state of the Rochester city schools without even mentioning the possibility of charters. It is difficult to take her seriously when she willfully ignores the progress that they are making in Rochester and elsewhere.
A year ago, the schools with the highest graduation rates in town were charters. They outperform RCSD schools on average in testing, NYC charters do the same, New Orleans schools have improved since they were converted to charters, and so on. As discussed in the NYT editorial today, why not have an honest discussion?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/opinion…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/opinion…
You can bring a horse to water, but you can/t make him drink.
You can bring motivational ideas to schools, but you can’t make them think.
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http://www.SavingSchools.org
I believe in the concept of Great Schools for All – what are our NYS officials and town leaders doing to remove the barriers? A clear example of structural racism is the way in which we establish boundaries between localities and then cast in stone our funding mechanisms to continue the disparities that exist. I also support charter schools if they can be shown to work. Children and families in poverty need a way out now.
As one of the original visitors to Raleigh with the Great Schools for All group, I have seen the success of Raleigh schools based largely on regional magnet schools with goals of no more than 40% poverty rates in each school They are not perfect, but they do a much better job than segregated Rochester. GS4A believes RCSD can no longer do it alone because of over-whelming poverty. Voluntary regional schools are needed. What is taking so long to implement them? Could it just be our racism?
Great Schools for All, is a great idea for Rochester, but what about right NOW?
What about helping every student and every teacher, now, with simple steps?
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For example, I suggest watching the new documentary film about Mister Rogers, “Won’t you be my Neighbor”. Right now, it is held over at the Little Theatre”
https://thelittle.org/event/Jul18/wont-you…
The DVD, will be out in September, but you can see it now, at the Little.
(The film is rated PG-13, but with 99% critics and 97% viewer ratings)
I can’t describe in words, what you might learn from the life of Fred Rogers.
It is about the value of early childhood and early education. But if we meditate on the life of Fred Rogers, we can may learn to fill in aspects of life, we missed…
http://www.SavingSchools.org
“…we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights.”
– CARL SAGAN
The Demon-Haunted World
(1996)
I believe if we taught our children the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially Article 1, that we are born free and equal in DIGNITY and rights, and how to complete a science project, we could fulfill Sagan’s dream for our county. We already have DASA and STEM here in New York State; what is needed is leadership that is dignity centered and supportive of the Next Generation of Science Standards.
https://www.humanrights.com
https://terrafairs.org
No mention of how the lack of a family support system contributes to poverty, and then educational struggles, job struggles. etc. If the value of an education is not supported in the home, then that makes it all the more difficult for the school to do their job. A multi-faceted problem. Home is where it all starts.