Numbers can be serious business. Educators in particular have a lot at stake in statistics.
And so it was last fall when I reported that Milwaukee Public Schools were on the short end of the budgetary stick when it came to public vs. private school enrollment counts.
As I wrote in the November issue of this magazine, the former principal of MPS’ Sherman Elementary claimed that a flood of students had shown up on Sherman’s doorstep from choice and charter schools following the enrollment head count in late September. Many of the students had “special needs,” said Erma Cannon, severely taxing her school’s resources.
The implication: Voucher schools were reaping state funds for students they did not educate for the full year, “problem” students the private schools could not or would not serve.
The article set off howls of objection by choice activists, who proceeded to knock down Cannon’s claims – and the reporting of yours truly, a.k.a. the messenger. A researcher from Howard Fuller’s Institute for the Transformation of Learning was dispatched to gather records from MPS.
According to MPS, only 12 students transferred to Sherman from non-MPS schools in 2001-’02. Just four of those were from choice or charter schools, none with “special needs.”
The new numbers were a stark contrast to what I had reported. In fact, the mere existence of the figures defied what I was told by the district’s central office: that MPS did not track the number of choice or charter transfer students.
Nevertheless, George Mitchell, a reporter turned paid school choice propagandist, swiftly disseminated the stats, declaring vindication and demanding a correction in Milwaukee Magazine. The magazine ran a clarification on its Web site, detailing the number of transfers, but stood by the original story.
Mitchell went away in a huff – for a while. A few weeks later, he persuaded Journal Sentinel reporter Alan Borsuk to examine his numbers. Borsuk wrote a somewhat contradictory article, saying MPS officials did not have “reliable statistics” to analyze the flow of students in and out of schools, while at the same time repudiating the claims of the Sherman principal.
Seizing the moment, talk show host Charlie Sykes – a friend of Mitchell’s, a former reporter and current school choice propagandist himself – leaped onto the bandwagon, alleging “journalistic malpractice.” Ouch.
I went back to my own original sources, and others, pressing MPS’ central office for more data. But the figures didn’t add up. A new, supposedly more complete list by MPS disclosed just a fraction of the transfers that took place in 2001-’02. Numbers from the Division of Special Services didn’t match numbers Mitchell circulated. Several interviews with Ken Holt, director of student services and a source of the figures, failed to clear up the inconsistencies. On one occasion, Holt remarked that the MPS statistics seemed to be “written in hieroglyphics.”
To top it off, those who compiled the figures, including Holt, admitted they were unsure of the distinction between “special needs” and “special education.” A broad grouping, special needs can include children with behavioral or attendance problems, those in foster care or residential treatment – the very kids principal Cannon said were showing up at Sherman. The MPS stats comprised only students in special education programs. Indeed, Holt told me that the number of students with special needs cannot be quantified by the central office.
Cannon, meanwhile, supplied me with more information, including a running log of incoming Sherman students. Made on-site by school staff and based on interviews with students and parents, the log offers the clearest picture of transfers. It shows 77 transfers from non-MPS schools, with at least 27 students coming from choice and charter schools.
Yet even Sherman’s log was incomplete, says Cannon. Because choice schools aren’t required to keep student records and forward them to MPS, some students showed up at Sherman with no “cumulative folder.” Some transferred repeatedly – from a private school to other MPS schools, then at last to Sherman.
The issue is not isolated to Sherman. Janie Hatton, principal of North Division High School, says she, too, has seen choice and charter transfers following the September count. A former deputy superintendent with MPS, Hatton has her counselors log transfer students. “But the district does not ask the school to turn that list in,” she says.
Whether clueless or afraid of controversy, MPS needs to get a better grip on the movement of transfers systemwide. Last fall, at the direction of Superintendent William Andrekopoulos, Ken Holt circulated a memo to all principals asking them to record the entry of choice and charter students. But those statistics still are not added to the district’s enrollment database. Perhaps the School Board should weigh in.
Likewise, private schools have a responsibility to provide accountable records. In a city of high mobility, voucher schools at the very least should collect and pass along vital student information – test scores, special needs assessments, attendance records, suspension/expulsion reports, disciplinary actions and the like – with students who leave their schools.
More and more, education is a game of numbers. In the highly politicized match between choice and public schools, the last thing we need is a missing piece of the puzzle.
