Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Milwaukee Public Schools: Prime Example of a Failing School District

What is it about Milwaukee Public Schools that it just keeps failing? Is it the fact that it's an urban school district? Is it the fact that the teachers are over-worked? Is it the fact that the kids who live in the city of Milwaukee just don't care about school? Or, perhaps it's the fact that parents who send their kids to MPS don't emphasize the importance of education at home.

Regardless of which of these you might side with, the truth of the matter is simple: Milwaukee Public Schools is a prime example of a failing school district.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an article in today's paper revealing new studies that show MPS Students consistently score lower than most other urban districts in the country. According to the study, only 38% of MPS 4th graders perform at a "basic or above" level in reading. Only 13% of MPS 4th graders are at a proficient reading level, and only about 10% of 8th graders are reading-proficient.

But what does MPS do best? If it's not giving A's to the kids who can barely read, it's the fact that they continue to think it's not a big deal. MPS Chief Academic Officer Heidi Ramirez defended her schools and students when she said, "The work is complicated and difficult for everybody [other school districts], but Milwaukee is starting from farther behind than other districts." So, is Ms. Ramirez defending her failing statistics by saying "We've always been a failing district, so of course we're going to continue to under-perform national standards." And who is this again? Let me remind you: The Chief ACADEMIC Officer - so isn't her job to improve and meet ACADEMIC standards? But what does she do instead? She admits that Milwaukee Public Schools sucks, has always sucked, and there's no plan to change that. But wait, that's not entirely true...

She says that teachers are starting to be trained in new techniques for teaching math and reading. The MPS Home Page has in its "Programs & Resources" section information about the new comprehensive literacy plans, and comprehensive math and science plans, to bring students to a proficient level in these academics. But, if the Chief Academic Officer doesn't think this is a big deal that only 10-15% of her students can proficiently read, maybe we need a new CAO, or a new game plan. Isn't it the job of schools to teach students to, among other things, READ? And this is not a nationwide problem, this is a MILWAUKEE problem. The Journal Sentinel article says that most of the other districts have been steady & consistent from year to year, and several even saw improvements in Math & Reading. This is the first year MPS has participated in this test, so we don't know which direction we're going, but according to the boss of Academics, Ms. Ramirez, we've always been a low-performing district, so of course we're going to do poorly on these types of standardized testing.

What kind of society would we live in if less than 25% could read? What kind of world would we live in if less than half of the population could add and subtract? Well guess what, if we don't step up our game in places like Milwaukee Public Schools, that anti-utopia world could be just around the corner, certainly within our lifetimes.

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