We are losing all perspective on Milwaukee Public Schools. The drumbeat of criticism is so constant it’s become difficult for a new story of any kind to stand out. Even the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel may be suffering from test score fatigue, judging by how it underplayed last week’s story on the performance of MPS students compared to other big city systems.
Milwaukee test scores routinely trail the nation and the state because it’s an urban school district with an extraordinarily high percentage of low-income students. But last week’s report for the first time offered a comparison to other urban school districts – and the results were shocking. Among 18 urban school districts, only four had worse fourth-grade math skills than Milwaukee and only Detroit had worse eighth-grade math scores. Wow. This is stunning news. It should have been a front-page story.
The results may mean this is one of the worst districts in America. Or it could reflect the fact that MPS has one of the most concentrated populations of low-income and special education students. Nearly a third of Milwaukee students now go attend schools outside MPS. More than 20,000 get vouchers to attend private schools and nearly 5,000 attend charter schools outside MPS, and both groups are far less likely to be eligible for special education than students at MPS. Nearly 5,200 now use open enrollment to attend schools in other districts, and 58 percent of these students are white. Some 2,400 minority students attend suburban schools under Chapter 220, and these tend to be higher-achieving students from more motivated families.
Whatever the benefits of all this educational experimentation, it probably results in MPS being ever less successful. Every year, the concentration of low-income, emotionally disturbed and cognitively disabled students increases in MPS. I wonder if any urban district in America has so concentrated the toughest population of students in its public schools.
About 20 percent of all MPS high school students are now special education certified, who require special help and far more resources (leaving less for other students). But the percentage varies widely: Just 10 percent of students are special education certified at Reagan High School, a college prep school that declares itself an International Baccalaureate World School; but an incredible 33 percent of students fall into this category at Custer High School.
Recently, the Milwaukee School Board discussed whether to spread out the special education students more evenly through the high schools. That’s arguably fairer. But it could be disruptive for college prep schools like Reagan and Rufus King and ultimately make them less attractive in the local educational marketplace. The reality is that MPS can’t afford to lose more students to choice and charter and open enrollment, and it may be more strategic to protect some of its higher-performing schools. But that, in turn, dooms schools like Custer to deal with an ever-growing percentage of special education students.
I make this analysis not to excuse poor results at MPS or to argue against educational reform, but as a reality check. Any attempts to improve or reform MPS must take into account the massive challenges facing this system.
Virtual Schools Not So Bad?
Whew, did I get beat up in the comments section last week regarding my piece on virtual schools. Said one reader, echoing several: “Bruce, did you bother to do any research for this article?” Said another: “Please [don’t] paint us all with your prejudiced brush.” And then there’s this response: “A … spewing of hearsay and uninformed opinion. I’m shocked at reading this from someone with your reputation.” (Well, thanks for that last thought, anyway.)
Some saw me as a dangerous social reformer (“Mr. Murphy seems to want us all to march lock step with his brand of social engineering”) or as a reason why virtual schools are becoming popular (“You are exemplifying one of the reasons parents are choosing to leave traditional public schools: Not all information presented as fact is correct.”)
I must humbly concede that my column item was a tad long on hot air and short on facts. I did indeed misread state Department of Public Instruction statistics on virtual schools. I also stretched (or was it spewed?) way too far in my interpretations. Let me correct myself and reconsider what it all means.
For starters, there are not 708 students going to virtual schools in rural Grantsburg. I had things reversed. The Grantsburg school district is actually one of 11 school districts in Wisconsin with a virtual school, and students enrolled at this school may come from districts all over the state, since it’s essentially an online classroom. The same goes for the other two districts I mentioned: Northern Ozaukee has a virtual school with 830 students enrolled from districts across the state, and Waukesha has a virtual school with 871 students enrolled.
In all, there are 13 virtual schools in the state. Two districts, Appleton and Monroe, each have two virtual schools. Students from about 350 school districts are enrolled at these 13 schools.
Virtual schools arose as a result of the state’s open enrollment and charter school laws. Since districts could create charter schools, some eventually chose to create a charter school contract with a virtual school, probably because some parents within the district demanded it.
Ten of the virtual charter schools have unionized teachers (from the school district in which the virtual school is located) and three have nonunionized (but still certified) teachers.
I clearly stretched in trying to closely connect virtual schools to fundamentalist Christians. But it’s worth noting that home schools, which had been steadily growing, have gone through a big change. Since the advent of virtual schools early in this decade, “the total number of home-schooled students stopped increasing and started decreasing,” notes Bob Soldner, director of management services for DPI. I think it’s quite likely some families who were home schooling have switched to a virtual school model.
I still think it makes no sense for the state to pay $6,000 for virtual schools where staffing is so light, and pay about the same amount for choice schools. At this point we know very little about virtual schools or how they spend their money. But the Legislative Audit Bureau, as it happens, is undertaking a study of virtual schools that is due Dec. 30. Let the bureau be warned: There are some fierce defenders of virtual schools out there, and they won’t tolerate any spewing of hearsay.
The Buzz
-A smart Journal Sentinel story comparing the proposed takeover of Milwaukee Public Schools to mayoral control in other cities suggests a flaw in the proposed legislation. It is too much power for the mayor to appoint the superintendent or pass the budget with no approval of a legislative body. I’d opt for a majority vote of the school board in both cases, with the mayor able to veto the board and an overrule of the mayor possible by two-thirds vote of the board. I think the board is better suited for this oversight role than the Common Council because they are more immersed in the education issues.
-A New York Times story on congressional travel junkets led off with Republican 5th District U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner. Under the new federal law, lobbyists are not supposed to pay for a lawmaker’s travel. Sensenbrenner took a $14,708 trip to Liechtenstein and Germany organized by a nonprofit group. But the group’s president is a lobbyist and the trip was underwritten by European companies that often lobby in the U.S. Sensenbrenner, however, said his trip had been approved beforehand by the House ethics staff.
Meanwhile, though the Journal Sentinel has been death on local politicians doing travel junkets, they passed on running this story.
-If you’re looking for tips on looking sharp, our new column, Fashion Seen, will help you out. I’m already starting to dress much better.
-And the Sports Nut loves new Brewers pitcher Randy Wolf. Mostly.
