Category: K-8 Transistion
March 20, 2008
by Steve Rawley
Parent Nicole Legget posted her letter to the school board and superintendent on the forum yesterday. It’s a very good read, and includes analysis of effective FTE cuts at Peninsula that ring true for many schools in the district, like Madison High School. (Jefferson is also rumored to be losing a lot of FTE next year, a situation that is aggravated by a rumored shift of additional FTE from Jefferson proper to the gender-segregated academies.)
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
Comments Off on Penninsula Parent on Budget: Enrichment Under-Funded
March 18, 2008
by Steve Rawley
On the theme of equity, which has become a very popular word at PPS, I’ve been thinking more about the K-8 transition.
The locations of the remaining middle schools seems to be entirely capricious, which is typical of the entire K-8 transition, but, not surprisingly, the only two clusters to lose 6-8 schools entirely are clusters hit hard by the enrollment drain of open transfers: Jefferson and Madison.
Ironically, these two clusters have unique issues that could have been avoided entirely if they’d kept 6-8 options.
In the Jefferson cluster, Chief Joseph only has room for Pre-K-5, and there is no place for sixth graders to go, besides one of the K-8 schools or the 6-12 gender-segregated academies at Jefferson. Robert Gray, on the west side, has been the default middle school for Chief Joseph for years. Why should these kids have to take TriMet across town for middle school?
We also could have avoided this problem by keeping Kenton open, instead of merging with Chief Joseph. The Kenton building, now leased to a private religious school, could have housed K-8 or a comprehensive 6-8.
In the Madison cluster, the K-8 schools are too small to house eighth graders, so they’re sending them to Madison. These students may be lucky compared to eighth graders at schools like Beach, in the Jefferson cluster, where there were five eighth graders enrolled last fall.
So I ask again: where’s the equity in all this? Why are students in the Jefferson and Madison clusters denied not only comprehensive high schools, but comprehensive middle schools, too? How is it equitable for the Cleveland and Wilson clusters to have two comprehensive middle schools and comprehensive high schools, while our Jefferson and Madison cluster kids get nothing?
Pushing ahead with the K-8 transition is moving us away from equity, not toward it.
Here are the middle schools by cluster:
Cleveland: Hosford, Sellwood
Franklin: Mt. Tabor
Grant: Beaumont, da Vinci Arts
Lincoln: West Sylvan
Marshall: Binnsmead, Lane
Roosevelt: George
Wilson: Gray, Jackson
Jefferson: none
Madison: none
Thoughts?
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
17 Comments
March 1, 2008
by Steve Rawley
You won’t hear me say that very often, but with Friday’s editorial, “Firing up the bulldozers”, the Oregonian’s editorial board correctly questions whether Portland Public Schools should “reverse course on any recent program changes to avoid costly fixes or unnecessary facilities upgrades.”
The O cites the hasty reconfiguration started by “Hurricane” Vicki Phillips, the inadequacy of many former elementary school buildings to handle K-8 schools, and the temporary housing of eighth graders at Madison High as reasons to rethink things before committing to radical, long-lasting and expensive physical plant changes.
Most surprisingly, the O acknowledges “anecdotal enthusiasm among the stroller set,” which augurs an end to declining enrollment in the district, as long as we can keep our “schools attractive enough for families to stay.” This is the demographic change that those of us with young children in the district are keenly aware of, but is not accounted for by the PSU demographic studies PPS depends on.
We may finally be seeing baby steps in the right direction from Portland’s elites on public school policy. I’ve been asking for a few weeks now for the district to state the reason for continuing with Phillips’ K-8 conversion. I appreciate that the Oregonian editorial board is asking the same question.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
Comments Off on On the Same Page with the Oregonian
February 27, 2008
by Steve Rawley
I’m trying to see Carole Smith’s first budget in the best possible light. I know we don’t have the kind of funding needed to do things right. I also understand Smith’s desire to stabilize things. With those things considered, it’s nice to see a budget that doesn’t have any obvious cuts, and that actually adds some staffing to reduce kindergarten class sizes and restore some curriculum that was lost with the cuts of the ’90s and the switch to K-8.
But if you refer back to the superintendent’s presentation to the school board February 11 (296 KB PDF), a couple of salient points stand out. First, we’re apparently going to “examine everything through the lens of race and equity” from here on out.
Second, Smith quotes New Age business guru Meg Wheatley on integrity: “If we say one thing but do another, we create dissonance in the very space of the organization…What we lose when we fail to create consistent messages, when we fail to ‘walk our talk’ is not just personal integrity…we lose the partnership…that can help bring form and order to the organization.”
My thought at the time was that she is setting the bar very high for herself. Either people concerned with equitable distribution of public investment are going to be incredibly pleased, or they’re being set up for incredible disappointment.
So let’s examine her budget proposal through the lens of equity.
Two things jump right out at me.
- We are going full steam ahead on K-8 conversions, without clarifying the purpose of this conversion, and while maintaining middle school options in some clusters and not in others. This means that we are going further down an inequitable path. The fact that the budget will pay for algebra and library books at K-8s does not make up for the fact these schools will continue to have a vastly reduced middle school curriculum compared to traditional middle schools.
- The additional funding for “enrichment” in K-8 schools, while mandating three units a week a week of art, dance, theater, world language, music, or PE, continues to leave us with a confusing patchwork of offerings, and perpetuates the existing inequities. Schools that have little or no enrichment will get some, but schools that already have it will get more.
Requiring a prescribed amount of “enrichment,” chosen from a cafeteria of options by site administrators, perpetuates a system that effectively hides inequity.
We need a core pre-K-12 curriculum in art, music and PE across the board, not at the discretion of site administrators. And no school should have more “enrichment” than another.
We also need a comprehensive middle school option in every cluster, not just the wealthy ones.
Was this proposed budget reviewed through the lens of equity? If so, I’m not seeing it.
It is a fact that students affected by poverty need more investment, not less. Where in this budget are we investing in our poorest neighborhood schools? Why isn’t the extra “enrichment” money distributed in proportion to need rather than across the board? Why aren’t we guaranteeing free pre-K and full-day K to our poorest schools instead of maintaining the current patchwork? Will the budget include restoration of the music department at Jefferson High School, a putative arts magnet? Why aren’t we reopening Rose City Park instead of putting Madison cluster eighth graders at Madison High?
I’ve got a lot more questions; these are just the start.
I understand the budget process has just begun, and I’d like to be optimistic about our chances of moving toward equity. But I’m not seeing it in the first cut.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
40 Comments
February 23, 2008
by Steve Rawley
By now most of us are aware that completing the transition from K-5 and 6-8 to K-8 is one of Superintendent Carole Smith’s top priorities. I think the rationale is that things were left in chaos, and we need to get it right.
But Terry Olson, who, like me, doesn’t think K-8 is necessarily a bad idea, thinks maybe we should put the brakes on the transition, rather than going full steam ahead.
“The bottom line is that Portland rushed into school closure and reconfiguration without a well thought out plan for what was to follow,” writes Olson, a retired middle school teacher. “And, perhaps more importantly, without a clear understanding of what genuine school reform looks like.”
It is obvious the process was not well conceived, planned or executed.
I’m still confused about why we need to make this transition. Terry lays out some good things about K-8 schools. But these aren’t the reasons Vicki Phillips stated. Her rationale was to increase test scores and “enrichment” in the lower grades by economies of scale, i.e. the higher full-time-equivalent ratios made possible by larger schools.
We now see those reasons are bunk.
Portland Public Schools needs to clearly articulate the rationale for transitioning away from middle schools. And if any cluster gets to keep a comprehensive 6-8 option, all clusters should get this option.
If equity is truly the overarching goal of Superintendent Smith’s administration, and if stability is truly important to her, this may be her first test. Can we cleanly and fairly finish the job Vicki Phillips started? Perhaps. But first we need to take stock of the situation at hand. Then, if we decide it really is the right thing for our district, we need to proactively design a process to move forward.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
1 Comment
February 20, 2008
by Steve Rawley
We know that the completing the K-8 transition is one of the top priorities of Carole Smith. We all know that to date, the transition has been rocky. Many schools do not have space. Some comprehensive middle schools seem slated to be kept open, while some clusters, like Jefferson, have had all their middle schools either closed or converted (despite having one school without enough space to even add sixth grade).
I was unable to attend the meeting last night at Rigler… Who went? How did it go?
I’ve set up a forum for this topic, since it’s probably going to be a hot one for a while. Feel free to start new topics there, or leave comments here.
Steve Rawley published PPS Equity from 2008 to 2010, when he moved his family out of the district.
39 Comments
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