Full Steam Ahead

At its December 5, 2011 meeting, the Robbinsdale School Board adopted a new magnet school program for District 281.  This is in addtion to the decades old Spanish Immersion ("RSI") magnet program, recently relocated to the re-purposed Sunny Hollow elementary school building.  It remains popular to the point of using a lottery to limit enrollment to match capacity.

Now, the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) magnet program will begin operation this coming fall in the Olson elementary school in Golden Valley.  This building was built in 1970 only to be closed in 1980 when the baby boom had played through, total district enrollment dropping by a third over those ten years. 

This is a significant move for the district, in both theory and practice.  It is a bit of a financial gamble as well.  If it proves successful, as in also requiring a lottery, what remains for those students who don't draw a lucky number, "left behind" in non-magnet programs?  This has been a nagging question even now, as only RSI and one other elementary school are meeting their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals.

I will have much more to say and post after Christmas.  Some early reaction is available at Give2Attain, Community Solutions, and of course, 281 Exposed.  For now, let me provide you with an unofficial transcript of Board Chair Barb Van Heel's remarks before making the motion to adopt the STEAM proposal, edited for clarity only.  It's a good summary of the Board's overall position.

First I wanted to remind people that we have spent many hours as a Board discussing this issue as well. I believe it has been on our work session agenda probably ever since May, almost every month. I know this has probably garnered the most interest and the most questions. We have really asked a lot of questions and gotten a lot of good answers. I want to congratulate the Committee for their work because I think they did outstanding work and spent a lot of time on it.

I’m going to support opening the STEAM school. I did talk about this a little bit in our work session in November and so I wanted to re-iterate those comments that I made.

First of all, I talked about how during every public meeting that I’ve been involved in, either as a Board member or before, there were always people in the audience who would get up and say, “Why aren’t you doing anything to stem declining enrollment? Why aren’t you doing anything to increase the enrollment in our district? What measures are you doing?” And so I was so excited when the Enrollment Enhancement Committee got started and started looking at ways that we can do this.

Additionally, when we hired our Superintendent we charged him with making our district a district of choice in the metro area. And I really applaud him for starting the Budget Committee and the starting the Enrollment Enhancement Committee. I believe that we now have a well-researched plan after months of detailed study to do just that.

I think the STEAM school is going to provide choices for our families that they want. It’s going to attract families that would have looked elsewhere for educational opportunities for their children. Yes, it does require a number a certain percentage of students to open enroll in our district in order to make the financial model work. Even though these families might open enroll initially, I would hope that they eventually might move into our community, into the many affordable homes that we seem to have available right now due to the foreclosures that we’ve been experiencing.

I think this school will be a win – win for our neighborhoods with the vacant homes, a win – win for our senior citizens who are trying to sell their homes in this economy, and a win – win for our cities, and a win – win for our taxpayers. And so I most definitely support this decision.

 

Comments

[Give2Attain]

She definitely did seem excited by the prospect of taking this financial risk and opening one of the buildings that we had agreed to close and sell.

I wonder what she will tell the people near the Community Schools as the percentage of free and reduced lunch students in their buildings continue to rise? And their performance continues to slip?

From my perspective and based on history, the STEAM students will likely come from the most dedicated parents that have the financial means to participate. And many of these will therefore leave their local community schools...

By the way, have you heard what the transportation plan is for picking up and dropping of kids? Hopefully they will use the RSI buses so we don't have another set traversing the whole district.

[J. Ewing]

Here's a silly question. How does putting a failing educational model into a separate building suddenly make it a success? These outside students and lottery winners want to "win" or "buy" a better education. How will they react when they don't get it? Or, how can you guarantee that they will?

[Give2Attain]

Of course we can guarantee them a successful school. Like RSI, they will have almost no unlucky kids enrolled and lots of engaged parents. Results show up whenever this is the case...

[NumbersGuy]

J & John,

The Board has required that the new STEAM school look like the average elementary school (Free/Reduced lunch)??!!

I agree that this is a BIG GAMBLE!!!!!

See the recent post at Community Solutions regarding the UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.

[Give2Attain]

Based on RSI's ~9%, they are not going to get there. Unless they are going to forcefully relocate the students....

[J. Ewing]

OK, so why don't we just give free lunches to everybody? Would that solve the problem? Or why not just engage parents at every school, and we wouldn't need magnet schools at all.

All I am hearing is the same tired old excuses for why schools cannot do the job that we pay them outrageous amounts of money to do, but that they INSIST only they can do properly.

How about this: After 5 years of STEAM, if these kids aren't vastly outperforming the RAS averages AND the state averages, we fire the whole lot and turn the District over to private management? Now THAT is a gamble I dare them to take. Don't gamble with the kids; we've played that roulette wheel so long the numbers are worn off.

[Give2Attain]

You are missing the key point.

Schools can not effectively GIVE TO / ENGAGE those that do not want to receive or be engaged. And they can not TEACH those that do not want to learn...

Now how to change this is the challenge?

One solution may be to allow the schools to truly expel students once and for all... Then what to do with these folks, send them straight to prison? At least they would not disrupt the classes and interfere with those that are truly interested in learning.

[J. Ewing]

"Schools can not effectively GIVE TO / ENGAGE those that do not want to receive or be engaged."

How do we know? Have (some of) these schools sought to give real educations to kids, or to engage parents in improving the process? Or have they claimed "we are the professionals, and your kid just isn't getting it"?

I'm just constantly amazed that we can look at the results of some schools, where graduation rates are less than half and basic skills scores are less than a third of other schools, and conclude that this is a problem caused by the parents. It just so happens that all of the "bad" parents live in this one school district? Baloney.

I will agree that a solid discipline policy is essential, but a challenging curriculum taught by teachers rewarded for good performance is the key to not needing it as much. It really is as simple as the opposite of "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

[Give2Attain]

So how do you explain RAS school performance?

Similar Teachers, Curriculum, Administration, Processes, etc, and 2 of the Elementary schools are doing great. However the others which have better funding and somewhat more staff continue to struggle with helping the unlucky...

The only significant variable is demographics.

And as the lucky continue to leave, the challenge only grows.

[Speed Gibson]

Why does the challenge grow? Are you saying that "unlucky" kids cannot learn unless "lucky" kids sit next to them? I thought we had put this question to rest when busing didn't work.

[Give2Attain]

Please clarify the busing comment.

[Speed Gibson]

I refer to the 1960s / 1970s era of forced busing, when liberals literally did claim that it was necessary for the janitors' kids to be with the bankers' kids. In rare bi-partisan but quiet agreement, both sides came to realize its futility. Kind of like NCLB today.

[Give2Attain]

So in your opinion, why didn't it work?

From what I am hearing, the unlucky kids got bused to a successful school, with a good education program, good teachers and the kids still didn't learn?

Maybe they can't be taught? Is that what you are saying?

[J. Ewing]

Demographics is not destiny and should not be. The reasons why school busing failed and why different schools within the same district perform differently are the same: people are not all alike. You can't just mix-and-match or swap one for the other like so many noodles in a soup bowl. Not all students are the same, not all teachers are the same, and not all teachers react the same to every student, nor vice versa. Even beyond that, some kids relate well to information presented in a certain way and others do not. It is the JOB of the schools to find a way to reach all of these children, not just come up with some cockamamie education flavor of the week that leaves too many kids behind. Remember new math? Same as the old math except nobody understands it? Again, show me schools trying very hard to teach every child, and when that is done we can talk about the cute kids that are "unlucky" in ways OTHER than living near the wrong public school.

[Give2Attain]

Or maybe unlucky to be living near the wrong student body...

[Speed Gibson]

Under forced busing, only some of the unlucky kids were bused to "lucky" schools and vice versa. This often added an hour to the commute as in less time for sleep, homework, or activities. The parents were also more isolated from these remote schools, never a good idea as we understood better these days. This and the expense were why the courts gradually relented when districts "re-discovered" neighborhood schools.

[Give2Attain]

Being a farm boy... I got used to an hour long bus ride. It provided some good time for doing homework.

Thanks for the clarification.