Yellow Bus

When the notice went out that there would be a facilities planning meeting at Reagan High School a few weeks back, the rumor shot around that the administration was considering closing Reagan and that people should pack the meeting to protest such a move. In reality, facilities planning meetings were being held all over the school district, including most high schools, to figure out the direction for the entire district. Milwaukee has more school buildings than what it needs, and we need to close some of our oldest buildings, but that does not mean Reagan is on the chopping block.…

An unlikely pair for school reformers, President George Bush and Senator Teddy Kennedy, pushed forward a major educational reform that was dubbed “No Child Left Behind.” NCLB shined a light onto the educational gap between rich and poor, black and white, on the low standards being asked for all our children. NCLB had great promise, but it never fulfilled it dream. Only a fraction of the money that would support the reforms ever came to the school districts. Reliance on one shot standardized tests meant teachers taught more to the test, and some outright cheated. Instead of helping schools meet…

Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, Marie Curie, and a host of other famous individuals had two things in common: they were extremely gifted and probably had some special educational needs.  Asperger’s syndrome, autism, hyperactivity, and dyslexia are common conditions for gifted individuals. Gifted children often get low grades and have poor behavior in school. Their special needs get in the way of learning. Even without special needs, gifted students are often bored with school work so don’t stay on task. Their minds often race ahead of their ability to act. Think of a race car engine in a…

In 2010, Principal Joan Franks was given the task of doubling the size of Armatage Montessori in Minneapolis. The school board gave her nine years to complete this task; she did it in three months. Franks sent out flyers, knocked on doors and beat the bushes looking for students. She rounded up as many new Montessori trained teachers as she could find, and for those not trained, she established a Montessori training program. For students who had no Montessori experience but would be entering the fourth or fifth grade, Franks established a two and one half week summer program to…

The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) surprised many when it announced that it wouldn’t push for local affiliates to hold certification votes to maintain their union status. But what WEAC is doing makes perfect sense.  The only thing worse in not holding a vote is holding a vote and losing. The new bargaining law sets a very high, and intentionally unrealistic, bar of an affirmative 51% of the total membership, not just those voting, to continue as a union. In some communities, WEAC is just not going to get that vote from its teachers. The new bargaining law doesn’t give…

When Mayor Tom Barrett was asked what he would do if he got control of the Milwaukee school system, he stated that he would appoint a good school superintendent and pretty much leave that person alone. All that sounds pretty good until the wrong person is selected as superintendent. When the checks and balances are missing, a superintendent can run amok. Few school boards have been shown to be more dysfunctional recently than Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission. The SRC is partly appointed by the mayor and partly appointed by the Pennsylvania governor. In August, just four months after extending Superintendent…

Previously I pointed out that Bay View Middle and High School now has the highest test scores on the 10th grade state tests of any of the regular high schools that do not have entrance requirements. This year BVMHS moved ahead of the previous leader in that category, Hamilton HS. BVHS was the only major Milwaukee high school to show a measurable increase in its Wisconsin Knowledge Concept Examination (WKCE). Now we also know that the Bay View Leadership Academies (BVLA) at BVMHS posted the highest gains. If its academies were a separate school, BVLA would have higher test scores…

Geico Insurance has a commercial where a daycare has elected to use robots instead of human daycare employees. Of course the robots are doing everything wrong, mishandling the poor children to no end. The mother in the commercial admits that the program has some flaws, but it does save money because robots work for free. This commercial would be a lot funnier if it wasn’t so close to reality. Right now South Korea is replacing teachers with robots. Rather than using English speakers in the classroom, South Korea is beginning to outsource its English language program to English speaking teachers…

Ultra-conservatives have begun calling our public schools “government schools” for a reason. “Public” implies that whatever there is out there, it is for the benefit of the public: public parks, public libraries, public museums and the like. “Private” implies that ownership and usage is restricted. In Britain, a “public school” is actually a private school because the Brits figure these schools are owned publically rather than by the government. Government-run schools are called “state schools.” Since everyone is for the public and against the government more or less, it makes sense why some conservatives are starting to call our public…

The Racine Public Schools is considering suing the state over adequate school funding after its school district was included in the voucher program in the latest state budget. Labor unions have started legal action because they believe the state bargaining law discriminates against certain employee classes in  violation of the federal constitution. Disabilities Rights Wisconsin and the ACLU have filed a complaint with the Justice contending that the voucher program discriminates against children with disabilities. The new state budget exasperates the problems, they contend. This complaint is almost certain to go to court. The legislature has passed one of the…