St. Louis Public Schools needs help from many hands
(AP Photo/Chicago Tribune, Bill Hogan)
Three hundred public school professionals from districts throughout the state descended on schools throughout the St. Louis School District over several days last April and May.
They were teachers, principals, superintendents, librarians, counselors, technology advisers and special education consultants. Most worked for school districts in the St. Louis region, but also on hand were educators from Maryville, Cape Girardeau, Kirksville and Carl Junction, among others.
They formed professional SWAT teams as part of a program that performs periodic peer reviews in every school district in the state. Bob Taylor, state supervisor of school improvement and accountability for districts in the St. Louis metro area, calls them a school district’s “critical friends.”
They visited every building and evaluated resources, management, staffing and adherence to a multitude of state standards. Last month they presented a long list of deficiencies: Records and data were a mess. Curricula weren’t meeting students’ needs. Attendance, graduation and student achievement rates are low. There were few indications of any progress.
The cycle is familiar to anyone who follows St. Louis Public Schools. Outside evaluators arrive. They offer a grim assessment. The district responds with a plan to fix the problems. A new cycle begins, and then more evaluators arrive.
When will the cycle be broken?
St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams took office one year ago — just a few months before the review teams arrived. He says the findings represent “a cleansing” that washes away any uncertainty about “where we are.”
“There was no whining, fault finding or finger pointing,” he said. “This is the reality. Ownership (now) means everybody’s ownership. It’s clear what it takes to become accredited.”
Mr. Adams refuses to rule out the possibility that the district could regain provisional accreditation by the end of 2010. He concedes that it is a long shot but, he adds, city schools now have a productive working relationship with state education officials in aggressively confronting and correcting the district’s problems.
That hasn’t always been the case. “It’s like a breath of fresh air,” said Mr. Taylor, the education department’s local supervisor.
He said that Mr. Adams had identified serious deficiencies even before the review teams came to town — in many instances asking that reviewers focus on them.
He credits the Special Administrative Board that now oversees the district under state fiat for “creating the stability” that enables “a superintendent to do his job.”
“There are going to be challenges,” Mr. Taylor said, but the district is “moving in the right direction.”
Stability, collaboration and confidence from outside authorities aren’t qualities commonly attributed St. Louis Public Schools. They do not guarantee success or significant progress. But without them, progress is impossible.
Still, the district and the Special Administrative Board have their critics. Peter Downs, president of the elected school board that was stripped of power in 2007, widely circulated the list of problems identified by the review team. He sought to lay them at the feet of the Special Administrative Board even though many were years in the making.
That’s the sort of combative political approach that typified district governance before the district lost accreditation. It calls to mind President Barack Obama’s response last month to Republican critics of his handling of the national economic crisis.
Mr. Obama told a group in Miami, “I’m mopping the floor, and the folks who made the mess, they’re standing there saying, ‘You’re not mopping fast enough. You’re not holding the mop the right way. It’s a socialist mop.’”
“You know what,” the president said, “just grab a mop!”
Real school reformers are easy to identify. They’re busy working their mops.
What a nightmare. I’m sorry for those with kids stuck in this swamp and glad it’s not touched my family. My advice to parents: flee, save your kids!
If money were ever the solution, the school boards and the City
have ignored my calls for the City to provide the 11,000 seat Municipal Theater in Forest Park for million dollar nights fund raisers for the Schools. One over Memorial Day weekend, one over the Fourth and a third-over Labor Day weekend.
The money would be used for music, arts an culture in the schools-
mostly music-teachers and instruments.
The theater is there-sitting idle. Alumni would come back from
long distances and visitors and tourists would find this a worth
combination-a concert or show at MUNY to benefit music programs in
the schools.
Even in a sports town.
Egoist…Any naturalist knows that even a “swamp” is filled with interesting, amazing and life-giving things when studied deliberately. Oh yes, the slime and mud are also there, and at first glance may be all you see….but it is in the exploring that the true nature and benefits of the swamp are revealed.
Now going beyond the metaphor….The review team did find a long list of things that definitely need improvement in the district..I thank Peter Downs and Susan Turk (Watch) for publicly outlining the areas that need to be addressed for one very important reason: We, as district stakeholders, now know what we need to do to improve our schools. And as we look at the Accountability Plan that district staff has put together, we will know if we are addressing the critical areas that need to be addressed to win our accreditation back. We need to also remember, however, that this is a PROCESS. This list of deficits is not what we are being graded on. This list is just the beginning. Now the real work begins…YES, AGAIN! But if we continue to “RIGHT FIGHT” (”Your list was longer than ours in 2003, we had more points before…”) Egoist, may be right, and we may never find more than the mud and slime in our beautiful swamp! E
I like Kelvin Adams; I think he’s doing well.
But we should keep in mind that the Slay dogs have been in charge of the SLPS for 5 of the last 6 years, since they took over in 2003. They were in charge for 3 years until people kicked them out. The people were in charge for 1 year during which my friend Veronica mistook herself for the superintendent; it wasnt pretty. The SAB is essentially the successor in interest to the Slay slate since they engineered the take-over (Archibald and Jackson) when they were booted out of office. They had no problem with elected board when they were elected! So if there are problems with the schools, and there are, it’s the Slay dogs’ fault. In 2003 we had 64 of the 66 points needed for full accreditation. Now we have 4 (realy 3) of the 11 possible. Just saying, but I know.
Bill the public schools have gone down the tubes once bussing started. Millions of dollars was wasted on a federal mandate that did nothing. Had that money been invested into the schools themselves things would have looked better today maybe. The bottom line is the PARENTS(s) or lack there of in raising their kids!
There is what seems to be a huge lack of accountability, organization and communication within the entire public school system. I read and was appalled by Peter Downs evaluation. As someone who is experiencing the SLPS first hand I am shocked at the way those in charge run the schools more like a business then an educational institution. It seems as though all have lost focus on what the job at hand really is: educating our children and preparing them to be successful and productive members of society. Not just trying to get them to school in order to receive tax money, which in obviously not being put to use in the right way. I love our city and am thoroughly embarrassed that we would allow our school system to fall in such disrepair.
Any other day, this would just have been one in your long series of slanted news articles and occasional incoherent editorials in support of the Slay–Blunt–Sinquefield agenda to establish a high enough level of charter schools, to virtually destroy the st. louis public schools.
You went a step further—identifying a significant figure who has been tireless, and consistently correct in fighting your paper’s mysterious effort to make public education more like corporate healthcare. Tell him to shut up and grab a mop?
Peter Downs has written thoroughly about slps and acted effectively on behalf of St. Louis citizens. When you and your McBride and Son school chief/huge advertizing source’s buddies Slay, Blunt and Sinquefield took away the people’s right to vote, you took away Downs’ and Purdy’s and other freely elected board members’ power to do things like clean the clocks of the people you supported who were outspending them 7 to 1 at the polls, and attempt to undo their damage, so thoroughly documented by peter Downs.
Part of the legacy of the St. Louis Post Dispatch is its preppie private school snobbery towards public education in St. Louis.
Read what Mr. Downs has to say and rejoice—you are winning.
I think it should be noted that some of the requirements for gaining accreditation seem quite simple…having librarians in every school for example. The policies of the SAB have directly and negatively impacted our chances of regaining accreditation. Thank you Peter Downs (and others)for pointing out what the Post has chosen not to report accurately for many years now.
I agree with 307 that the busing program sucked millions of dollars out of the system with a very shaky record of what it achieved. Since most of the initiators (instigators) of this are dead, it is hard to take them to task. Not hard for me, but hard for them to defend. Actually it was hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention all of the diesal fuel running those buses all over the city and county. All of that pollutions (but it was for the kids!). Yeah, okay.
It achieved next to nothing. And now the St. Louis Public School system is sucked dry and is basically financally and educationally bankrupt. Thanks to all the bleeding hearts who had to make a point. But, don’t forget, their children were never a part of this system. Of couse not. They wouldn’t dream of sending their children to a “public school”. Yeah, that is how it is. Creeps. Their children are all politicians and attorneys now. Thanks for nothing.
I have one simple question: At what point should we just blow up the system and start from scratch? No one can honestly suggest that the status quo in SLPS is working, or that it has worked for the past couple of decades. When do we start discussing dissolving the district and trying something truly innovative?
Here’s my two cents: SLPS has actually done a really good job of creating a small handful of schools about which parents are excited, but the enrollment at those schools is limited. Why isn’t the district doing more to convert other schools in the city to those models? Why aren’t they opening Classical Academies (like Kennard and Metro High) all over the city?