Over the weekend there was a great deal of door knocking and impressive public relations for The Kansas City, Missouri School District. Additionally, Lewis W. Diuguid wrote an inspiring, must read column on advances that need to be made in public education to make it work.
Sadly, not much has changed when it comes to test scores in the KCMSD.
Since no other news outlet really bothered to alert the locals on the details of the ongoing education disaster, so TKC is claiming EXCLUSIVE coverage of a subject that has gone mostly ignored in favor of hype.
THE KCMSD CONTINUES TO LAG BEHIND IN TEST SCORES!!!
In the 2010 Preliminary Annual Performance Report for the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) the overwhelming majority of schools in the KCMSD failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
Until September, the information isn't as clearly laid out as it should be so I clicked through every single school link on the chart and noticed only 7 schools in all of the KCMSD meet all of their requirements in Communication Arts, Mathematics and Additional Indicators. These results are essential in KC Schools earning accreditation which they have still failed to do. For the most part, last year's dire numbers for The District still stand.
While The Star summarizes PR for the District, a simple look at test scores shows very little progress. Even worse . . .
WHILE AFRIKAN (sic) CENTERED SCHOOLS ESCAPED KANSAS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT CUTBACKS, ONCE AGAIN THEY HAVE FAILED TO LIVE UP TO THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF MISSOURI EDUCATION STANDARDS!!!
In both elementary and at the secondary level ACE schools didn't meet most Missouri Standards this year according to preliminary reports.
I understand the need to improve the self-esteem of the KCMSD but in the end there's no measure of its productivity. While I admire the effort of Kansas City, Missouri School Board President Airick L. West -- It's worth noting that after years of his efforts on the board and an election slate decided in his favor the test results of Kansas City Missouri students still indicate an overwhelming failure.
Photobabe: Megan Fox promoting Jennifer's Body.
This school year with the new leadership started just a few days ago. Isn't it a bit early to declare failure?
ReplyDeleteThis crap is being fed this blog by the same losers who benefitted financially from the district for years and were a part of the disaster that produced thousands of young people wtihout the most basic skills necessary to get decent jobs and have productive lives.
The election of the new board was just a start; now we all have to support them and the superintendent to prevent the same old usual suspects from picking them to death so that they and their families and friends can get back on the gravy train.
Why don't you put an oar in the water instead of always whining, Tony?
OK, let me get this straight.
ReplyDeleteThe Star spends a week dissecting the school district. They throw ten people at it. They build a website. They toss up three years of financial data so you can figure out why A Clown Called Giggles is being paid by the district.
It's journalism at best and at worst an overload of information. A girl is on the front page Sunday saying she's not equipped to go on to college...and you call THAT good PR?
Really?
You're funny. And, as usual, wrong. And, like always, only offering hate and bile and not forthcoming with anything remotely resembling ideas or solutions. Just shit. Shit's that's as original as shit that's been chewed up, swallowed, and shit out again.
Seriously? That's all you got?
Tony, check out this definition.
ReplyDeleteid·i·ot
/ˈɪdiət/ [id-ee-uht]
–noun
1. YOU!
Geeze Tony-give em a chance. But then again, I have 3 young children about to start school, the oldest next year, and I'm desperately trying to relocate to a suburb where the schools are so much better than KCMSD. While I have hope for the newly elected slate, I won't risk my children's education. Thats a gamble I'm not willing to take.
ReplyDeleteIf the star spend a week covering KC Schools then why is the first I'm hearing about prelim. map test fail?
ReplyDeleteRiddle me that Star news fucks.
It's a fucking tragedy when a fucking joke blog brings more news than The Star.
You guys suck.
If the Star didn't exist, where would TKC get its news?
ReplyDeleteEvery other word printed in the Star isn't "f**k." The people reading this blog are obviously highly educated and insightful, but their vocabulary sure is limited.
ReplyDeleteWhen you hate on everything you eventually lose the power of the hate. You are jumping the shark Tony and people will simply stop reading.
ReplyDeleteCovington started the beginning of the last school year.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Hispanic School board guy you pushed so hard on this blog is a failure as well tony? Why not give then a chance instead of bad mouthing every chance you get?
ReplyDelete9 out of 10 Kc public educated students need remedial math and reading courses? 50% graduation rate? Average money spent per student $10 grand? Difficult not to be negative with those facts. How many "administrative" positions does the Kc school district have and at what ridiculously huge amount of $$? Are they acredited yet? Truly hope covington can turn the mess around.
ReplyDelete@9:51 He's had one whole school year so he should have solved all the problems that were caused by decades of abuse & neglet?
ReplyDelete12:57PM Covington did not do one thing associated with academics for a full year. Instead he was chasing the Broad Award and headlines. He met none of the academic objectives included in his $300,000 a year contract. By the way, the Board forgot his review in December, and again in June.
ReplyDeleteYour decades of abuse & neglect do not satisfy the contract requirements.
I posted this in a previous response to an article of yours about incentives in the school district, and wrote a "facebook note" about the Star's article "Saving 17,000 Kids:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the opportunity to share this with you and your readers.
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1314379791#!/note.php?note_id=144966738868046
Accountability can't be measured until there are clear and measurable assessments. At present, there are too many variables, and nothing could possibly be legally binding. As a matter of fact, if one teacher made improvements and received a bonus, and others didn't (and did not), then I believe there are serious grounds for a class action law suit. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that the students and parents haven't filed a class action lawsuit, based on the last thirty years' requirement in state and federal laws that all objectives be clear and measurable. The NCLB required it, then did just the opposite, by allowing ambiguous "standards" which created the huge mess that we're in today.
For example, imagine that you tell two people: build me a house. You don't give any requisites, no plans, no blueprints. So we each build you a house. Then, you look at one and say, oh, I like that one. And no, I don't like that one.
Or say that a football team is told to go play a game and win it, but they can't practice until championship game itself.
Or I teach you how to bake pies, but then test you on how well you can cook a turkey.
At present, if a child is from a certain socio-economic status, they will do well on the assessment tests. If they aren't, they won't. The ONLY thing that has been proven to obviate the SES factor is criterion-referenced assessment. At present, the KCMSD is sitting on a memorandum of understanding from the state, which would eventually give every single child in the state of Missouri the advantage of being well-prepared to take the end-of-year and end-of-course assessments.
No bonus is going to replace the punishing work of doing this curriculum and assessment. I'll be happy to discuss this with any interested party.
Nancy Merrill Sayed
nsayed6266@aol.com
While I am less than sanguine regarding the prospects of the KCMO SD., it would seem to me, with the recent election, and Covington in a year or so, to hang on and see.
ReplyDeleteJesus, ANYTHING including Moe Larry and Curly would be better than the ongoing corruption, malfeasance and stupidity that has called the KCMO SD home for 35 years.
Me, I think the West guy chould be given a chance. He just got there.
Covington is drawing fire, but me, I think he is the best shot they have had in a decade.
I'd let 'em run.
Did anyone read the Star and see that the Hick State of Kansas with its right of right political conservative looney tune leaders is doing a better job of education then the TOO COOL Liberal FIRST CLASS CITY of Kansas City Missouri. I thought the Chiefs and the Sprint Center would make things real good for our kids.
ReplyDeleteSo we spend the money and our kids get crap.
People ignore the stats from other districts. I read not long ago that out of thirty plus urban districts in Missouri, only seven actually made AYP. Low test scores are not exclusively problems of KCMSD and St. Louis. Poor scores have more to do with the social background and culture found in the contemporary American urban environment. Get off the backs of KCMSD teachers. Most of these teachers have many times more Professional Development training than their suburban and rural counterparts.
ReplyDeleteTony, you should be so grateful people read and Comment here. Except for one guy who comes in and uses the N word anonymously, your commenters are the ones who bring quality to this blog.
ReplyDeleteNot you. You're just hosting the party room! Don't get too big for yourself! This was a great comment thread! Thx to those who posted here.
The skool distrik is run by downtown browns. You were expecting what- success?
ReplyDeleteThe real story is that the kc star has switched formats for this series of articles and made it near impossible for comments to be made. If comments were allowed we would have seen a massive response to this suck off of covington in today's paper. Maybe Whitlock was right, this paper doesn't give a shit about it's readers, it only exists to win plaques.
ReplyDeleteWhat's a "suck off" of Covington?
ReplyDeleteMove to 64139, Kansas City address, Lee's Summit schools. My house is for sale, and it is a bargain!!!!
ReplyDelete@ 6:53 - The scenario you mentioned holds up across the country as well. I believe the graduation rates in urban districts collectively hovers around 50%.
ReplyDelete