I've started a post on this topic four different times, but never figured out where to go with it, but the combined weight of the punditry has finally pushed me over the edge: Jack, Sunny, Doug and finally the WSJ all weigh in on the "Halloween" issue, (we have heard from a number of parents as well). For anyone who hasn't heard, Barb Berg asked students at Cottage Grove elementary not to dress up for Halloween this week (although that was later relaxed.)
About the coverage: Kudos to Doug to for actually corresponding with Principal Berg over the issue even though he disagrees. I have to take issue with Sunny's characterization of Barb's concerns about "minimz(ing) the disruption to learning that day" as "lame-o". Cultivating an environment conducive to learning should be above almost everything else on Barb's list, and she has both the experience and the position to make judgments about what is and isn't disruptive in her school. Regardless of how we feel about the issue I believe we have to take that judgment at face value. And Jack's encouragement of students to break the rules is, in my opinion, irresponsible. Communicating concerns and disagreements with the administration and the board is appropriate and welcomed (at least by me! ) But don't put the kids in the middle.
What do I think? Most of my thoughts go to the fact that it is always this kind of issue that gets attention from the public and the local pundits. It seems like it is never the good things (like the MG leadership in assessments and curriculum alignment over the last several years) or the important things (like the too high percentage of MG students who need remedial classes in college) that "make the news". Nothing would please me more than to have 200 parents show up at a board meeting to complain about academic issues! I understand that Halloween is a significant tradition and I have seen how much fun the kids have with Halloween celebrations in school. I don't see any evidence they aren't appropriate. I understand and sympathize with the concerns of the parents I have heard from, but this year there is no school the two days before Halloween (due to the WEAC convention) and if Barb thinks it is better to keep the kids focused in a different direction in the time she has, I just can't get to worked up about it.
This isn't a board decision, and there is no district wide policy on Halloween or other in-school celebrations.
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(photo ©2008 Bruce Fritz)
About Me
- Peter Sobol
- My family moved to Monona in 2003 and have been happily ensconsed in the Frost Woods Neighborhood ever since. I have 2 kids who graduated from Mg. I have been serving on the school board since April of 2007. We moved back to the Midwest in 2002 after spending 10 years in California, where I was a Department Director for Maxtor, a Fortune 500 company. In truth we left California largely because of the school situation - chronically underfunded schools did not offer the kind of programs or opportunities we wanted for our children. We picked Monona because our thorough research showed that this was a place we would really like to educate our kids. Our experience has taught us to value the quality schools we have here in Monona, and the importance of careful stewardship to maintain community support for those schools.
9 comments:
"Nothing would please me more than to have 200 parents show up at a board meeting to complain about academic issues!"
This such a cliche in our community.
I mean to say that statement is such a cliche in this district.
It may be a cliche, but it's true. Few people in the district get truly animated and involved in academic issues. It's usually buildings, bussing, and ancillary stuff like homecoming and Halloween.
Peter, I showed up three years ago to support a parent who had issues with the classroom learning environment and how it was affecting her student and other students in the class.
That parent was laughed at by the Board. Neither one of us has kids in your district anymore.
"Peter, I showed up three years ago to support a parent who had issues with the classroom learning environment and how it was affecting her student and other students in the class.
That parent was laughed at by the Board. Neither one of us has kids in your district anymore."
Yep, I agree with this poster. i have been at several meetings where this is the result. When parents do come to meetings of this nature. They are usually made to feel like they know less than everyone else.
I know the incident you are talking about: in response to concerns raised by several parents the board directed the administration to gather data and review the situation. This information was presented at a well attended public listening session of the curriculum committee and parents were allowed to speak their concerns. No one was laughed at (although some committee members were offended by the accusations made that they didn't care about safety).
After a review of the data and parent concerns it was determined that the situation was not outside the normal parameters of the district and intervention, in the form of an additional teacher, wasn't justified.
It was an open process where the parents concerns were heard and considered along with the data. The board went to the effort of gathering the information and having a special meeting to consider the question, it was a model of responsiveness. I can't imagine what more could be asked.
I followed up with the situation the following year, and found that the classes in question went very well - and those kids had some of the best teachers the district had to offer. To quote one of the teachers "We're having a great year".
What people get worked up about is buses, buildings and My Kid. That's o.k , because that stuff does matter. But groups of people do not organize around the overall quality of education, nor does the public hold board candidates accountable at election time on issues surrounding student learning. And they never will. Heck, if you were to ask board candidates to name several "performance indicators" for this district and how we're doing on them, you'd probably catch a few deer in the headlights. I wonder how many people run for the board because they are determined to, say, improve post-secondary outcomes for our students.
I have my hunches about why this is, but it is what it is and I suspect Monona Grove is not unique in this regard. I'll bet this is pretty common in middle class, relatively well-funded school districts. In other words, our community is content to settle for "pretty good" for most kids rather than demand excellence for all kids.
And I looked up the meaning of "cliche" because I'm wasn't sure if I agreed with that comment. "cliche = platitude: a trite or obvious remark" I don't think it is trite at all and I sure as heck wish it was more obvious to more people. I think board members always need to triage what matters in the long run and what does not. There's always an issue du jour, be it homecoming, halloween or a coach somebody doesn't like. It truly never ends. It's up to the board and the public who elects them as to what they should spend their time and energy on.
Mary P.
Wow, maybe you weren't at the same meeting i was at. Mike DuPlayee laughed at this parent, and she stopped to ask him what was so funny.
It made the whole board look ridiculous, and like they didn't care about the academic issues the parents were there to address.
Did you follow the standardized test scores? If i read the dpi data correctly, test scores for that cohort dropped. It might have been a "great year", but how do you define that?
and, in my opinion the board didn't graciously offer up time to research the issue and hold a public listening session. They put off the meeting until after school was out and then came armed with reasons to refute that what did happen (lower test scores) wouldn't.
"Did you follow the standardized test scores? If i read the dpi data correctly, test scores for that cohort dropped. It might have been a "great year", but how do you define that?"
First of all the DPI will argue strenously that the tests can't be used this way. Given that: tests are taken in November, meaning that they primarily reflect what happened in the prior learning year. If you want to see how 3rd graders performed you need to look at 4th grade WKCE test, in this case that would be the November 2008 results.
When that cohort was tested early in the 3rd grade year their scores were just a few points below average for the district 3rd graders - this was despite very small class sizes for the previous year. By the time that cohort was tested as 4th graders (after a year of 3rd grade with larger class size) they were right up to the district long term average for reading and way above the average for math. This gybes with what I heard from the teachers that it was an excellent class that progressed very well.
I have taken time to verify that the decision the district made was the right one, and by all the metrics I can find, it was.
(Again, I want to say that reading the WKCE tests this way is fraught with statistical landmines!)
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