Wednesday, March 13, 2019

RDale State of the District

All families, staff and community members are invited to attend Robbinsdale Area Schools Annual State of the District Address.Thursday, March 14, 2019 6:30pm - 8:30pm Armstrong High School Auditorium 10635 36th Ave N, Plymouth, MN 55441
 
Well given the current politics going on in the district... This could be interesting... By the way, I am not getting answers to my questions...
My fear for my community is that they are falling into the trap of lowering the expectations for some students. (ie bigotry of low expectations) Which unfortunately leads to a very dark place as the students and parents who can afford to leave the district do so.  Instead of lowering behavioral and academic expectations for some kids, how do we help them to achieve the rigorous level. I have faith that they can rise to the expectation.

Cooper vs Armstrong HS Demographics
RDale General Info

21 comments:

Laurie said...

maybe the high school in question needs more counselors or behavior specialists to intervene with disruptive students.

John said...

Maybe... And maybe we should expect schools and tax payers to raise the child(ren) rather than the parent(s)?

John said...

Laurie,
So let's consider my questions and your idea further...

How does one determine if an action is racist or simply demanding a high common standard of behavioral excellence from all students and parents?

How do you want to ensure Every Child Succeeds? (ie No Child Left Behind)


One adjustment I will make to your statement since this a district wide problem.

Maybe the district needs more counselors or behavior specialists to intervene with disruptive students.

John said...

My question would be:

Would it be considered racist if a higher percentage of minority children received those services?

Or would it make sense since children in those groups have more poverty, single parent households, parents with lower education levels, etc

I mean it seems the Left thinks it is racists if more minority children get in trouble... Thoughts?


John said...

Next:

Do you think public schools without additional funding?

Or is this just another "we can fix the problem if you give us more money" fishing trip.

John said...

Finally:
How does this help to ensure parent(s)
- have their child(ren) ready for kindergarten
- provide stable homes
- promote academics at home
- ensure the homework is done
- etc.

As I often say, schools can help...
But the heavy lifting needs to be done at home.

John said...

Some Interesting District Links:

Unified District Vision

Achievement and Integration

Handbook

John said...

Behavior Resources

John said...

PATHS Rdale link is broken...

More on PBIS

The biggest problem I have heard of with most of these is that it mean troubled kids stay in the classroom longer and disrupt the learning of the other ~25 kids... Besides stressing out the teacher(s).

And to remove a very disruptive child takes a lot and lot of paper work...

John said...

Now I acknowledge that it is important to help every child...

However if the method disturbs dozens of children who have parent(s) that can easily move, open enroll, attend charters, attend privates, etc...

There goes the community's most charitable, volunteering, academic focused, etc group of people.

A long time back I took a guess at how I think the math works... Some of the funding for the straight forward well behaved easy to teach kids is used to support the more challenging kids.

I mean you can have bigger class sizes if all the kids are well behaved and interested in learning. And they don't occur much in the way of counseling, remedial, detention, etc costs. Where as the more challenging kids require more personnel, time, special services, etc.

My point simply being that programs and methods need to help the kids who need it without driving other families out of the district. Once a school / district loses those supposed "privileged" folks and the tax dollars that follow their kids, the challenges really begin...

Laurie said...

counselors or behavior specialists need to be paid so increasing this service for the kids who need it will cost money. Seems a better alternative to suspending them, which doesn't help the suspended students.

John said...

But helping them without forcing a change in the family dynamic is somewhat pointless.

Laurie said...

lots of students can be supported to do better in school with no change in the family dynamic needed.

to really make students do better we need better teachers, but that is as difficult to improve as it is to get students to improve, I think it is more difficult

John said...

It seems Jerry and you both want to hold bad parent(s) blameless.

Too bad for their kids and the schools.

John said...

Please remember my simple math...

The parent(s) have ~5 years to set all the the child's beliefs and habits in stone...

Not to mention the neurological impact of stifling their brains correct development...

Then the school gets about 1,200 hours per year... Whereas the parent(s) / community get about 7,500 hours per year...

Sorry... but schools 15,600 hrs to parents / community ~142,000 hrs... Leaves the kids and schools pretty well screwed when the parent(s) / community sucks.

Laurie said...

We teach the students we have. Many parents do not have the skills to influence their children to behave better in school. Schools do not choose their students or parents.

Laurie said...

What good does it do to go on and on blaming the parents? How does that improve anything?

John said...

Acknowledging reality is never a bad thing.

Whenever people want to truly solve a problem, they should conduct a thorough root cause analysis.

And you are correct that the public schools need to serve who ever shows up at their door. However public policy could improve the situation.

Remember my #7 idea...
7.The State must ensure that Baby Makers and the Babies receive training, care, etc until they become a functional family. (ie Parents and Kids) This includes mandatory Parenting classes, Early Childhood Education, Inexpensive quality childcare, etc. Many of the Baby Makers are in this position because their role models were Baby Makers (ie not Parents). Someone has to train them what it means to be a Parent.

John said...

By the way, the problem of not doing a thorough root cause analysis is that people start trying to treat symptoms instead of the illness... And in this case they attack people who are trying to help the kids... And may do more damage than good...

I mean the "equity folks" are demanding extra services and reduced expectations for kids because of their race / lack of wealth... And they are labeling anyone who wants hold all kids to an equal high standard as racists...

While not even acknowledging that the problem begins at home.

John said...

On the upside the Supt did note the importance of Kindergarten Readiness.

John said...

One more disturbing thing was that the Supt. stressed how wonderful it was that they were getting rid of academic requirements for advanced classes and discipline policies...

I feel for the kids and teachers...