Hi,
Just held this meeting. Here are the charts that were presented. There was a full agenda (see below). The meeting ran a little over. Next time we'll try to give more time for Q/A and try to include fewer agenda items to make sure we end on time.
Agenda
Agenda for MB Cluster Mtg
Crown Point Introduction
[See minutes below]
Meeting Charts
120321 Cluster Meeting
YMCA Presentation
PB Middle School Expansion Proposal 2012 - Community
Meeting Minutes
MB Cluster meeting minutes for Mar 21, 2012
I don't understand the comparisons to other schools made in the presentation. I agree comparing PB schools to the district is valid, but the other comparisons make no sense. MBHS and PBMS have nothing in common with other coastal area schools other than geography.
ReplyDeleteI looked at a few demographic areas quickly:
English Language Learners
MBHS - 15% of population
LJHS - 6%
UC - 9%
PBMS - 23%
MMS - 10%
SMS - 10%
Even a more telling statistic...Free and Reduced Lunch
MBHS - 78.2%
LJHS - 30%
UCHS - 50.7%
PBMS - 71.2%
MMS - 32.4%
SMS - 41.6%
Obviously MBHS and PBMS need to do better, but a comparision to other coastal schools is unfair. The demographics couldn't be any more dissimiliar.
Well, that is one way to interpret the information...it depends upon your perspective.
ReplyDeleteIf you take the viewpoint of the district, it has made a promise that all students, regardless of background should have a great education. Using that standard, MBHS does worse than the average SDUSD and it should not.
If you take the viewpoint that the system of education is biased against certain ethnic or economic groups, then it appears the bias is stronger at MBHS than at UCHS because students at UCHS, regardless of whether they are rich or poor do much better than students at MBHS.
If you take the viewpoint that certain students have a harder time learning in a given environment, then apparently students that are poor have a harder time learning from teachers at MBHS (harder than their peers at other schools). In addition, the "smartest" students (GATE) have a harder time learning (performing on tests) than their peers at UCHS, LJHS, ...
If you take the viewpoint that poor students get funding from Title 1 to compensate for their challenges, then you may conclude that either this is not enough money or it is not being spent well at MBHS since LJHS and UCHS don't have much Title 1 money.
It seems the only argument for explaining the test scores at MBHS that does not include teacher performance/administrator performance/school culture is that the MBHS has so many disadvantaged students that it inhibits the performance of both disadvantaged students and students with no disadvantages. This may be true. However, if it is true, then the conclusion is counter to the philosophy at SDUSD and something needs to change.
The philosophy at SDUSD is:
1. All students are capable of achieving at the same level.
2. Title 1 funds compensate for disadvantages
3. Students should not be grouped by ability or advantage/disadvantage because that leads to segregation (racial, ethnic, and economic)
4. Students with disadvantages should not be displaced from their neighborhoods and spread across the district equally.
I call these viewpoints because in a way they are hypotheses. They are difficult to prove and candidly, the leadership at SDUSD has not been cooperative in helping us understand which ones of these might be true.
What is your viewpoint? Why do you think that all demographics at MBHS and PBMS do worse than all other schools nearby? Why do you think all demographics at MBHS do worse than the district average?
I'll respond further when I have a little more time to do so, but I wanted to say something now...
ReplyDeleteI don't think there was any interpretation in my comments, save one. That interpretation is the same one that I assume many attendees at the meeting made: By multiple measures many PB schools aren't preforming to the level that that local community desires. I was simply making an observation and a point that when you compare schools, it makes more sense to compare demographically similar schools. You might find similar statstics that you found in your current comparisons, I don't know.