New Haven Independent

Posted by: Yes We Can | July 19, 2008 7:19 AM

Three Cheers for the students, teachers, parents administrators and staff of New Haven Public Schools. These test scores demonstrate that New Haven is leading the State in Urban Education. While other Districts and Charters have taken a step backward, New Haven continues along its path of steady progress. King-Robinson was one of many schools who took adantage of the Early Reading Success Program and a variety of State and local initiatives. This model should be replicated and applauded, not stripped of funding as our State leaders have done. The money should be restored now! I am sure that the usual suspects will still find ways to attack and belittle New Haven Public Schools and its students. However, any legitiamte review of the statistics reveals that New Haven is worthy of the sincere congratulations for a job well done. The small number of Charter school children tested cannot be used to compare to New Haven as a whole. A selection of comparable numbers within New Haven to the Charter schools (i.e. individual school or grade to grade comparisons) reveals that many New Haven Public Schools outpace the Charters and others are closing fast. Is this to say that the Charters are not doing a good job? No, even though they appear to have taken a step back this year they are still doing well with their particular schools and deserve congratulations as well. But New Haven Public Schools are doing well on their own. New Haven scores higher than other urban and some suburban and Charter Schools. This is not an accident. It is a credit to the students, teachers, administrators, staff and parents.

Enjoy this kids. You have proven many wrong. Good luck as you get ready for another academic year and a continuation on your steady progress. Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot achieve, you can.

Teachers, administrators, parents, staff and Dr. Mayo. Great job, take a bow...now back to work.

Posted by: In the Hood | July 20, 2008 8:41 AM

The results in New Haven are certainly heartening.

Our children and community desperately need continuous educational growth.

The district must expand its wide range of approaches; especially in light of New Haven's special education population and increasing Non-English Speaking at home population.

There is no place for silver bulletism, as no one model outshines the multiple approaches that work for a large diverse student body.

Any serious community and education activist, reformist, change agent or whatever knows that our historically disadvantaged students need a wide-range of reform, interventions and opportunities to help ensure their success and eventually close the achievement gap.

These opportunities include.
Smaller class sizes
Magnet schools
Montessori Schools
Charter Schools
Reconstituted Schools
Restructured Schools
High quality Early Childhood Education Programs
Consistent robust academic data mining
Intensive Parental Training and Involvement
Continuous Curriculum and Instructional Improvement
Increased English Language Learners support
Increased Special Education Support

All topped with high expectations by teachers and administrators who are willing to go above and beyond contract guideline.

New Haven children are benefiting from many if not all of these opportunities, but we must absolutely ensure our children and community a continued up-ward trajectory in all aspects of students performance. this is our community's hope out to help us out of our crisis.

Last but not least, district wide, New Haven need stricter student behavior rules, enforcement and consequences.

Posted by: mary | July 20, 2008 12:36 PM

Well said Yes We Can.Its nice to read such great news without all the negative crap people keep saying about the New Haven School System.We need to keep positive thoughts for the great strides all our children are doing!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | July 20, 2008 1:46 PM

Yes We Can,

What are you so proud of? In 5 out of 6 state standards, our tests are ranked still below the average. That's something to crow about? How about showing me what continues to happen in high school with the 60% dropout rates!

Our kids are now idiots instead of morons! So if we spend another trillion dollars, they can be advanced to failures? That's what you get with left wing educational politics in big cities.

Posted by: Yes We Can | July 20, 2008 3:53 PM

Fed Up:

As a New Havener I am indeed proud. Proud of our kids rising above the cost slashing mentality of the right wing who chooses to decrease funding to Public Education dramatically while creating a system of high stakes test and unfunded mandates. Tests, I might add, that are created by consultants and educational theorists, not educators. When reading is judged by comprehension of reading a passage and answering questions about it and the context of the passage is totally foreign to an urban child or a child who speaks English as a second language while not so to a suburban child who is familiar with the underlying context of the passage, the "reading" is not what is being tested. Knowlege of the context of a right wing test creators context becomes an element of the test which is simply not fair. Stop blaming the kids. They are rising above expectations and proving people like you wrong. Stop funding unjust wars, stop turning a blind eye to corporate greed, stop taking the bait of the class war mentality that makes you feel better about yourself because you can look down on urban kids and their dedicated teachers. Fund Education, support the children or get out of the way while we overcome the hurdles that the right wing continues to place in the way.

When Fed Up tells you you can't you tell Fed Up that you are Fed Up with Fed Up.

Yes We Can

Posted by: In the Hood | July 20, 2008 7:57 PM

To Fed up with liberals:

This drop up rate you crowing about is still up for debate about how it is measured.

I am still trying to figure out if my neighbor's son and others like him who got expelled for bringing a weapon into Wilbur Cross, threatening a teacher and ended up finally graduating from Adult Education should actually be counted as a "drop-out"

Look dude, if we are really serious about the drop rate, instead of just the hysterical denunciations we need to drill down the data to who these students really are and what we need to do to get them educated.

To keep it real, some of these 17 year old drop outs (and thanks to their parents in many instances) are straight up thugs and they need an alternative setting. Their attitudes and behaviors prevent them from graduating..if ever.. with their class.

Keeping it real, I don't want them in a traditional high school traumatizing my daughter, where administrators have to spend educational time intercepting their drug deals, weapons and attacks. Send them to an alternative setting that could better deal with them..and let them graduate, albeit late.. What percentage is that?

Keeping it real, let's drill a little further, how about these 40, 50, 60 pregnant girls at Polly McCabe. What are the chances they're graduating with their class and what percentage do they make up?

And yes, what percentage of students are dropping out because their educational background is weak and they cannot cope with the high school core subjects.

If we're really serious about drop-outs the conversation have got to go past just the news headlines and the denunciations of the BOE.

Let's start talking about what really needs to happen in homes, neighborhoods, families and schools so that more students can be successful.

Christ!

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | July 21, 2008 9:11 AM

Yes We Can,

Thanks for blasting me with all the typical liberal talking points to deflect blame and responsibility. Good to mention the Iraq war, but I was disappointed that you didn't directly blame George Bush or global warming for the New Haven educational system failure to boot.

As I've stated in previous blog topics, I truly believe that repeating the same mistakes over and over again while expecting a different outcome is complete insanity. Molding the educational system around the child does him, and this society, no good. Should be just the opposite. If someone fails, so be it! They will be examples to others as what not to do with your life and slowly motivate people to take responsibility for their own lives.

Desperately seeking something to get their attention without imposing discipline and values does not prepare them for a future against fierce upcoming competitors like China, India, Japan and Russia. Do you think that they conduct their schools in the same non-competitive, non judgemental feel good way? I'm sure that if it were your own personal money going towards this situation, you would have stopped it long ago! Do you employ someone to fail at a project 40 times at ever increasing costs? I don't think so! Why should this be any different?

All I can say is that my parents generation would have never done this to their children, and it's sad that we are sacrificing the lives of our own just out of political expediency.

In The Hood,

I feel your pain, but I don't see any difference in expelling a thug and counting him as a dropout as opposed to someone who decides to opt out of the system. Both couldn't give a s*@t about school and the educational process. Your daughter deserves that environment free of morons wanting to pull the entire class down to an educational crawl. And if that alternate setting is the military or jail, so be it. Not my problem. We still get burglarized and mugged by the same population even if they were babysat in some "alternative" educational setting. May as well be out of my sight and city.

Double Christ!!

Posted by: newhavener | July 21, 2008 9:47 AM

Yes it is about time the shools did better..maybe because of teachers who are doing a good job....
But i can say it is not because of new schools with no supplies....they have no books to give students...home work is given out on copy paper ..
Same i the library very few books check out more schools and see what they have, nice buildings nothing inside.....

Posted by: in the hood | July 21, 2008 11:04 AM

To fed up with liberals;

Try expanding your knowledge base just a tad by simply googling the education systems of the countries you mentioned.

You might learn a little something about their struggles to educate All children rather than just their most competitive top tier of student. If you do a little more.. and advance the search you might learn which country they're turning to for ideas.SURPRISE!

I could only laugh out loud at your moronic comments about the drop out rates as your most recent comments dramatically contradicts your earlier concerns.

To New havener.

Which buildings have nothing inside?

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | July 21, 2008 12:36 PM

YES WE CAN:

STOP WITH THE EXCUSES: The bar needs to be raised for ALL kids regardless of their backgrounds. That's what high performing charters have taught us: We can put a MUCH higher percentage of kids on the road to college if we place them in the right school environment. It's not the kids that are the problem.

MORE MONEY?: In a state that spends $7 Billion on education ($13k per child in New Haven) it's not about the money. In fact, taxpayers as a group would have to be insane to provide more money to the same failed system.

QUESTIONS:

Why the vast differences in philosophy and managerial approach between the New Haven district and the Hartford district?

Did you know that when a student transfers to a charter school, the funding does not "follow the child"? The district continues to be paid for the students that have transferred. Why should taxpayers continue to pay the district for students who attend charter schools?

Why do students who want to go to public charter schools have to enter a "lottery"? Why is the lottery for charter schools way over-subscribed every year? Why not just open as many public charter schools to keep up with the demand? Where does parent choice come into this?

With all the wonderful teachers we have out there, why do the teacher unions in CT. try to pass state legislation aimed at de-funding and limiting the growth of the high performing public charter schools?

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | July 21, 2008 2:47 PM

In the Hood,

To think that there are nations who want to emulate this country's educational system is completely laughable. I can just see them wanting 60% dropout rates to help propel them into the first world! For our sake, you had better be right! Please provide us a credible link on the subject so that we may all be enlightened.

Also, don't know what you mean by contradictions on dropout statistics and my earlier concerns. I don't want idiots kept in classrooms where they would drag the system down to their level, especially at 13k a pop.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | July 21, 2008 3:55 PM

IN THE HOOD

You may be mistaking our PUBLIC SCHOOL system for our UNIVERSITY system when you imply that we are the envy of the world. While the U.S. is still at the top of the heap when it comes to the number of high quality institutions of higher education, we are at the opposite end when it somes to our public primary and secondary schools.

Here is just a small snippet from John Stossel's award winning ABC documentary "STUPID IN AMERICA", an enlightening piece on the state of American public schools. I urge you to see it in it's entirety.

Here is John Stossel:

"To give you an idea of how competitive American schools are and how U.S. students performed compared with their European counterparts, we gave parts of an international test to some high school students in Belgium and in New Jersey.

Belgian kids cleaned the American kids' clocks, and called them "stupid."

We didn't pick smart kids to test in Europe and dumb kids in the United States. The American students attend an above-average school in New Jersey, and New Jersey's kids have test scores that are above average for America.

Lov Patel, the boy who got the highest score among the American students, told me, "I'm shocked, because it just shows how advanced they are compared to us."

The Belgian students didn't perform better because they're smarter than American students. They performed better because their schools are better. At age 10, American students take an international test and score well above the international average. But by age 15, when students from 40 countries are tested, the Americans place 25th.

American schools don't teach as well as schools in other countries because they are government monopolies, and monopolies don't have much incentive to compete. In Belgium, by contrast, the money is attached to the kids -- it's a kind of voucher system. Government funds education -- at many different kinds of schools -- but if a school can't attract students, it goes out of business.

Belgian school principal Kaat Vandensavel told us she works hard to impress parents.

She told us, "If we don't offer them what they want for their child, they won't come to our school." She constantly improves the teaching, saying, "You can't afford 10 teachers out of 160 that don't do their work, because the clients will know, and won't come to you again."

"That's normal in Western Europe," Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby told me. "If schools don't perform well, a parent would never be trapped in that school in the same way you could be trapped in the U.S."

Posted by: John Wysolmerski | July 21, 2008 10:37 PM

I find this constant back and forth over the two models of public schools extremely frustrating. Many of the posts throughout the year as the NHI has covered school issues seem to reflect some preformed biases of the posters or perhaps attempts to spin the news from anonymous folks with some hidden stake in one side or another. I may be somewhat too idelaistic when it comes to this issue, but I am convinced that the failure to properly educate its citizens in one of the main problems that prevents New Haven from realizing its enormous potential. Just think of the transformation that might be possible 12 or 13 years from now, if next year the incoming crop of pre-school children could be brought up to par with those kids in Belgium, or Madison or Westport or fill in the blank. Maybe too much to ask for?? Well, in past generations, we relied on city schools to lift children of immigrants out of poverty and into the middle class. There is no reason why we should not demand the same today. If the regional economy is going to take advantage of the opportunities that are provided by an increasingly intellectually driven economy, then this is a necessity. Ask any local chamber of commerce what they want in a future work force. It is not 50-60% proficiency rate, which I take is a very low bar in terms of measurement anyhow. So, I agree with "fix-the-schools", that this issue needs much more urgency. You know there are great schools in this area. The city has three of the best grade schools in the Notheast in Foote, St. Thomas and Cold Spring. Hopkins and Choate are two of the best high schools in the nation. We have a wonderful teachers college in Southern and the one of the premier centers for the study of child development in the Yale Child Study Center. Yale also has a wonderful teachers preparation program. We actually have wonderful resources. They all already help some, but could be asked to do a lot more. My kids benefited from these wonderful independant schools in the area. They do not use any kind of strange voodoo to do what they do. They set the bar very high, they give a lot of individualized attention, they pile on a ton of work (at least 4-5 hours of homework a day in high school)and they invite and require active parental involvement. As far as I can tell, this is what the Amistad model tries to emulate. In addition, it seems that they strive to use the school community to shore up the support network that might not exist at home or out in the greater community for kids from more impoverished surroundings. Maybe this is not the model for everyone, but it sure seems that letting lots of kids undershoot their potential because not everyone can benefit is a specious argument. I can tell you that lots of people pay a great deal for access to this kind of an educational environment. So, for my part, I would like to see an end to these arguments over charter vs. non-charter and take a model that has been time-tested in these independant schools and reproduced in charter schools like Amistad and make it available to as many kids as possible as quickly as possible. I just don't see any reason not to do this. So, congrats to those who worked hard to make the progress we are seeing but if we know that we can do better, lets hurry up and allow many more of New Haven's kids to have access to an educational model that benefited my children. Take what works in private and charter schools and apply it in all the schools - however it needs to be done.

Posted by: Westvilee | July 22, 2008 8:27 AM

new haveners should be looking at the data for themselves. the results are indeed mixed. the information they need is available at www.ctreports.com