Learning for All 5/8/05

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=130 BGCOLOR="#66CCCC" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04000820ezvthe.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#CCFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Clare Whitbeck's Web Site</B></FONT><B>   |  </B><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Clare Whitbecks Web Site"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Column 2/14/05"><U>Column 2/14/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Day of Infamy 3/7/05"><U>A Day of Infamy 3/7/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dysons Bill"><U>Dyson's Bill</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Excuses, Excuses 3/14/05"><U>Excuses, Excuses 3/14/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lots Win, Children Lose 3/28/05"><U>Lots Win, Children Lose  3/28/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Three Strikes! 4/3/05"><U>Three Strikes!  4/3/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Effects of Larger School Size 4/10/05"><U>Effects of Larger School  Size  4/10/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="It Was Inevitable 4/17/05"><U>It Was Inevitable  4/17/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Its All My Fault 4/24/05"><U>It's All My Fault 4/24/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id57.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Struggles 5/1/05"><U>Site Struggles  5/1/05</U></A>   |   <B>Learning for All 5/8/05</B>   |   <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mechanicsville Elementary Schools Feedba"><U>Mechanicsville Elementary School's Feedback Report  5/15/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adventures With Miss T 5/22/05"><U>Adventures With "Miss T" 5/22/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Less Is Better, Mr. Mattingly 5/29/05"><U>Less Is Better, Mr. Mattingly  5/29/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A Litany for the Community 6/5/05"><U>A Litany for the Community  6/5/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bits and Pieces 6/12, 6/19, and 6/26/05"><U>Bits and Pieces 6/12, 6/19, and 6/26/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Computers and Technology 7/3/05"><U>Computers and Technology  7/3/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="School Sites 7/10/05"><U>School Sites 7/10/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="11 Month School Year? 7/17/05"><U>11 Month School Year?   7/17/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Things Could Be Worse 7/24/05"><U>Things Could Be Worse  7/24/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Charter School Decision Overturned 7/31"><U>Charter School Decision Overturned  7/31/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Budget Surplus and Rumors 8/7/05"><U>Budget Surplus and Rumors  8/7/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Column 8/14/05"><U>Column 8/14/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="An Oily Situation 8/14/05"><U>An Oily Situation 8/14/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Good Things 8/25/05"><U>Good Things 8/25/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Whoopie!! 9/25/05"><U>Whoopie!! 9/25/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id88.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="School System to Improve 10/2/05"><U>School System to Improve 10/2/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id87.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Challenges, Failures? 10/9/05"><U>Challenges, Failures? 10/9/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Carver Fire 10/15/05"><U>Carver Fire 10/15/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id91.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="St. Marys County 10/23/05"><U>St. Mary's County 10/23/05</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id92.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Teachers Health Insurance 11/4/05"><U>Teachers & Health Insurance 11/4/05</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#66CCCC" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="041c8212ezvthe.png"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Columns"><U>Columns</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=350 BGCOLOR="#66CCCC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Learning for All 5/8/05</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>      The Interim Superintendent of the St. Mary's County Public School System has given her report card to the Board of County Commissioners.  A normal report card is given to the person being graded by an outside person.  This one is a report on the schools, by the schools. Hmmm.</div> <div>      According to the Superintendent, the gist of the report is that everything would be fine if it weren't for those pesky African Americans who refuse to learn like everyone else is learning, or so the School System would have us believe. </div> <div>      There is a real problem here.  By 8<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> grade, 38.0% of our African American students are “proficient” in reading as opposed to 48.2% of Maryland's African American students and  68% of St. Mary's County's  students.  By 10<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> grade, 46% of St. Mary's African American students are “proficient.”  That is probably because 10<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> graders have reached the age when they can drop out of school, and non proficient readers do tend to drop out.  </div> <div>      The School System is having a series of diversity forums throughout the county to try to relieve this problem.  At the southern forum, one participant asked to see the 1990 data.  He maintained that the system's inability to effectively teach African Americans has been well documented for the last 15 years or so.  What has been missing is the solution.  </div> <div>      Everyone who attends the Diversity Forums agrees that more African American role models as teachers and administrators would provide a more effective learning environment for African American students.  When asked what the percentage of African Americans is among teachers and administrators, no one present at one of the forums could answer, including the Interim Deputy Superintendent/Director of Human Relations Dr. Edward Weiland.  Now that's a good indicator of how much focus there is on hiring African Americans.  The School System, which spends much of its time measuring students, doesn't measure the results of any efforts they may make to recruit African Americans.</div> <div>      The Interim Superintendent talked about using research-based methods and  best educational practices to improve the test scores of African American students.  So I will once again offer a suggestion on how to improve their test scores and their learning, a suggestion which is research based and certainly could be considered a best practice.  I will not even charge for this suggestion.  </div> <div>      The following quote is from <I>School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance</I>, a survey of educational literature found on the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory web site, “Finally, whereas the research finds that small schools produce equal or superior achievement for students in general, the effects of small schools on the achievement of ethnic minority students and students of low socioeconomic status are the most positive of all.”  </div> <div>      There you have it.  Many of our schools are already too big to foster high achievement for African American and disadvantaged students.  They are actually too big to foster high achievement and positive discipline in the classroom for many of our students.  But now the St. Mary's County Public School System is  planning to up the size of elementary schools from 535 to 650 students per building and the size of middle schools to?  The School System says that Banneker and Hollywood are already at that size and nothing bad has happened.  But Banneker reached that size this year (we won't have the test results until next year), and Hollywood used to have the highest test scores in the County.  It no longer does. </div> <div>      I'm going to say it again, class size matters and SCHOOL SIZE MATTERS.  No one believes that but me (and the pesky African American students whom the School System cannot seem to teach effectively.) </div> <div>      It's all my fault.  It must be my fault.  No one else accepts the responsibility.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>