Meg...you lit a fire under me. I read the article on the candidates and the forum that was held last Thursday. What am I missing here? The disparity within our schools in this school district as to the state rankings is embarrassing! Can anyone tell me what can be done about this? Why do I have to drive to Diamond Bar everyday in order for my children to have the benefit of a school that ranks 10 as opposed to attending the one that they should be going to that has a rank of 1? I'm referring to API scoring and school ranks for the state of California.
Throwing the responsiblility back into the laps of parents as to motivating their children when upwards to 50% of them haven't even finished high school themselves is insane. Pomona school rankings & API Scores The education ship in our district is sinking folks. How can we help these kids when the teachers and parents need so much help themselves.
I suck at math and I have a college degree. So how do I help with Algebra?? The last time I studied for Algebra and Geometry was to cram for the CBEST and I prayed through the whole thing. Our kids are getting Algebra in 7th grade now. Lucky for Lizzie that she was able to get tutoring every morning last year from her Algebra teacher. But, she had to get up extra early for the whole year and get to school an hour early every day. God Bless Mr. Tim over at Lorbeer. Last week she got her progress report and there was an A+ in Algebra.
Credit recovery programs are helpful, but this is after the fact. If we can't take care of these kids on the elementary/middle school levels, they are certain to be candidates for a credit recovery program once they start to fail on the high school level because we have let them down.
What I want to hear is how we can get Lincoln, Lopez, Kingsley, Madison, etc. which all have ranks of 1, 2 or 3 up to the rank of Decker (rank 8) and Ranch Hills Elementary with a rank of 10. How do schools here in MY neighborhood such as Palomares Middle school (rank 1) get to the level of Lorbeer Middle school with a rank of 10. How do we get Garey HS (rank 3), Ganesha (rank 2) with Diamond Ranch which has a rank of 9 and is also listed along with Village Academy as one of the top 500 high schools in the United States. What can we do for the parents of these kids that have to struggle in this depressed economy, so that they can motivate their children? What do we do for the kids that want to attend these higher ranking schools but can't get lucky enough in the lottery? And why do we have to even think about busing them when we should able to offer them the same opportunity here in our neighborhood. Do we just keep handing out bandaids when they start dropping out??
I know the state is out of money and that our schools have been stripped naked. It was very painful to watch really great teachers having to fear for their jobs earlier this year. I wish I had a wand to wave over the whole place...because I really feel deeply about our children and that they should each and every one of them be entitled to a very rich education. My hat is off to all our teachers that have had their hands tied by this sorry state of affairs we are living with in California.
So candidates....let's put some meat into this. Dazzle me. The Diva needs to be dazzled.
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4 comments:
Had the board informed the teachers and public as to why they felt the need to notify a third of the teachers that they might be laid off, much of the upheaval of last year would not have happened. Consider the number of lay-offs that were required to keep the district afloat.
The difference that I will make is the due diligence that I put in to ensure that we are giving our students the best possible education, wringing the last penny out of every dollar, and asking questions about the recommendations to the board and ensuring there isn't a better way to accomplish the same goals.
I will direct administration, teachers, and all employees of the district to treat each other, the students, parents, and community members with the utmost respect. I will also check to ensure that this is accomplished and give support to any employee that has difficulty meeting this basic standard.
I will move to have board meetings at a different school each month. Parents, children, and community members will have unprecedented access to the board because the board will be in their community. The board cannot sit downtown and expect the world to come them.
I will look for more cost cutting measures that can be implemented across the district with as little impact on students as possible and for as short a time as possible. Community input is a valuable asset in this decision making process, but we also need to be able to sit down with the employee groups to look at possible cuts. These are the people that know the schools and what they need and what they can give up. Unfortunately, they are the same people that were unnecessarily threatened with lay-offs last year.
Your question about the API scoring answers itself. Educational success is built on the foundation that parents lay with the assistance of teachers, other staff, administrators, extended families, community members, and religious organizations. Parents that are able to offer a better foundation because of the opportunities that they have taken advantage of in life will have students that have a step up in the educational process. Children who are not afforded the same opportunities have more difficulty being successful. Some children are speaking a foreign language at home. Some children have a parent at home checking their homework and showing an interest in their school work. Other parents are so busy trying to put food on the table or have medical or social problems that keep them from offering the same support to their children that the children fall through the cracks. We can not expect the same level of involvement of every teacher in every student's life when we have doubled the number of students per teacher and increased the complexity and depth of the education we strive to offer.
I am hopeful that we can bring parents and students into our school communities and celebrate the diversity they have to offer. We should build educational opportunities out of our shared experiences that will help our children to understand new concepts and make real world connections to the ideas they are studying. In order for that to happen, we need to address the volunteer and field trip policies and make them more responsive to the needs of the children.
Why do you, or I, have to send our children to a different school in order to be at a school that has a higher API? We live in an area where the majority of the parents have not had the opportunities we take for granted. We live in an area where a large percentage of children are learning English at school instead of from birth and are then tested in English. We live in an area where one job may not pay enough to support a family, so parents are forced to be at work instead of home. Are any of these things related to how well your children will do in school? Maybe. Let's work together to figure out how to fix the issues we can fix and what we can do to mitigate the rest.
Hank Mollet
437-1890 mrmollet@gmail.com
Hank Mollet
Hank, I appreciate all of your comments and feel that we are probably on the same page with these issues. I am well aware of the economic structure and diversity between my neighborhood schools and those that fall within the Pomona/Diamond Bar district. I am not alone in feeling that more attention needs to be given to help these children and their parents to achieve what they are entitled to. I absolutely would love to have board meetings come to us instead of we the parents/community having to seek out the "mountain". It certainly is refreshing to have someone put "meat" to the subject. I plan to attend this evening and certainly hope that others will come out also. Thank you for your comments Hank...and I look forward to meeting you in person.
I'll disagree with the musical chair mentality of the Board meetings. Although it makes sense to attend when the meeting is at 'your' school, it doesn't when the meeting is across town. Now I'll need to remember not only when the meeting is scheduled, but where it's located. I'd suggest a better strategy would be to have focused meetings at different locations throughout the school district. Lincoln uses a 'principal's tea' concept which could be expanded to include PUSD Board members. I would guess other school's have similar events.
Mr. Mollet,
You mentioned cost-cutting and the problems with doubling "the number of students per teacher", but are you suggesting moving all the k-3 grades to 20 student maximums? Early intervention with decreased student teacher ratios is one of the solutions to the lack of educational opportunities at home, but I didn't catch in the candidate statements, anyone advocating for that position. Did I miss it?
You spent a paragraph on the API scores, but I don't see any substantive solutions. I loved field trips as a student and would encourage our schools to take more, BUT I hardly think the lack of a field trip is the reason for the low APIs. Reevaluating the volunteer restrictions is certainly a worthwhile agenda item, but bringing in more volunteers doesn't insure that you're bringing in the right ones. Sorry, I just don't see this issue as being pivotal to the success of PUSD students.
As a parent who is still using the local school, the most productive tool to decreasing the achievement gap is smaller class sizes, which will allow more individualized instruction. Educated parents and wealthier parents can supplement their children's education, but the typical student in PUSD MUST rely on the district. How can the district achieve more individualized instruction?
Please don't take this comment as criticism. I truly appreciate your willingness to expose yourself on the blogs and don't want to discourage your continued participation. I believe PUSD is heading in the right direction, but your willingness to engage in conversation is reason enough to consider you as a candidate.
PS Please take some time to think again about moving the Board meetings. I understand the goal, but cajoling Board members to attend already scheduled events or organizing town hall-type events might generate more productive dialogue. After personally meeting Board members, it might also encourage residents to attend the Board meetings.
This city is suffering from a lack of a newspaper. Any interest in spearheading a student-driven online newspaper. It could be bilingual, cover school-related events, city council meetings, and allow students from different schools to interact. It would give small, local businesses an advertising outlet. It might be the type of project that is attractive to private philanthropic organizations. The future of newspapers is digital, so let's give PUSD students the first taste.
Btw, some numbers:
Chaparral Elementary in Claremont has all K-3 classes with 20 students or less.
Lincoln Elementary in PUSD has only 1st and 2nd grades with 20 students or less.
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