Comments on: Can PPS get it right at Madison?

By: Steve Rawley

Steve Rawley — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:33:53 +0000

The encouraging thing about Madison is that PPS can make small changes that actually save money and, at the same time, give students considerably more choice and opportunity.

Whether they make these changes is yet to be seen, and will be the first real litmus test of Carole Smith’s intentions.

Will she do what’s right for the students, or will she continue to side with administrators who have critical elements of the small schools model flat-out wrong?

By: mary

mary — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:58:31 +0000

Bev Pruitt was area coordinator for the Madison cluster and Lincoln cluster. She is now are coordinator for the Grant and Lincoln cluster. I don’t know the name of the Madison cluster director.

I would like to see Madison’s small learning communities function similarly to the career pathways that are in place at other schools. Small communities or pathways that facilitate closer relationships between people and curriculum components would be fine. Currently my understanding is that students can’t take classes they need and/or want due to the “silos” approach. I know several parents in the Madison cluster who were feeling positive about Madison precisely because it has NOT been split into 3 autonomous small schools. As a parent with an elementary aged child in the Madison cluster I am cautiously optimistic about Madison. There is some movement among families toward wanting to support Madison and advocate for our neighborhood school instead of hoping for the transfer out. I hope a middle ground approach is found based on the educational needs of the students.

By: Zarwen

Zarwen — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:58:56 +0000

Was the Gates Grant actually that specific? I had understood that the grantee schools were supposed to form work groups to figure out how it would be done. I think VP would have borne the greater responsibility for the mess: we all know now what her idea of a “work group” is.

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:56:09 +0000

Yeah, I have an idea about where the “warped idea” of how small schools –academies– are supposed to work came from:

Bill Gates and his $40 billion dollar foundation. And of course his employee-to-be, Vicki Phillips.

By the way, Steve, great post. I especially appreciate your reference to the role poverty plays in “school success”.

By: Zarwen

Zarwen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:58:34 +0000

Anyone know how PPS got such a warped idea of how these “small learning communities” are supposed to work? Was it just an excuse to create more high-paying administrative positions?

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:47:40 +0000

Bev Pruitt is area director for the Madison cluster K-8s (or K-7s, in the case of Scott and Rigler). High schools have a different area director. At a meeting at Rose City Park to discuss the merging of RCP with GH, a parent asked her what the current enrollment at Madison HS was and she answered that she didn’t know – she wasn’t the Madison HS director. No doubt she will have to become more familiar with Madison HS now that it will house Scott and Rigler’s 8th graders.

By: David

David — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:54:52 +0000

Steve, Excellent synthesis of the problems at Madison. I am aware that the current master course schedules for each of the three communities have problems……when only 55% of your schedules run leaving 45% of the students without the full complement of classes needed to graduate, there is a problem. When I returned to the 2007/08 school year I was met with similar circumstances and needed to put in an additional 25 hours to make schedules work so that students had 7 classes. When I arrived I was met with only 29 schedules that worked and it was nearly the end of September before all students were properly placed in the correct classes. When Madison had 1300 students ten years ago when I started at that school, working together the counselors and the vice-principal in charge of the master course schedule were able to get a 96% run for the coming year mid-June. What I am describing is only a fraction with what is wrong with the small school model that has been evolving at Madison. No one ever built the capacity to make it work properly. I am heartsick……..David

By: Marian

Marian — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:38:50 +0000

I suspect Madison Cluster Area Director Bev Pruitt is involved in much of the blunder that has occurred at Madison. Does anyone have information on her? She was the cause of a lot of problems when Rose City and Gregory Heights were merging, and was virtually removed from the process by Vicki Phillips after the school community raised a big fuss about her interference. But I hear she is still the cluster head and this should worry students and teachers at Madison.