Other Thursday bits
- Philadelphia's education czar Paul Vallas says he wants to stay in the city for the long haul, quashing rumors that he had political ambitions in his old hometown and eliciting hosannahs locally. He's even planning to renew his contract early. I think this is good for the region, as the school system has undertaken a wide range of reforms, and continuity at the top will give folks more faith that progress is ongoing.
- John Baer is tired of hearing from candidate spokespeople and would like to hear more from the candidates themselves. He takes the opportunity to review Casey and Santorum records on health care matters, and finds significant activity by both. More issues talk, more!
- For those who can't get enough of the federal trial of Philadelphia City Councilman Rick Mariano, the Inquirer has apparently set up a blog devoted to USA v. Mariano, which will have updates about daily developments, audio links to selected testimony, and some commentary (to an unknown degree). It has a live-blogging feel and space for reader comments. I happily pass the buck to them.
(via America's Hometown) - The Philadelphia Weekly has a story focusing on short-staffing of the local police force, which leads to officers responding only to emergency calls. Reports of burglary can wait 8 hours for a response, and sometimes the number of available cars is limiting. Seems like a mess. Councilmen Rizzo and Nutter are calling for the city to hire more police officers.
- Another PW piece looks at Philadelphia's landmarks, and particularly at ways in which they deserve improvement.
- Finally, the CityPaper offers a look at the contenders for the 175 State House district (skip down to second story at the link), with short summaries of who they are and what they hope to achieve.
posted by ACM at 1:18 PM
9 Comments:
Maybe you've already detailed them in previous posts I've missed - but I'm curious to hear more about the "wide range of reforms" you're giving as reasons you think it's a good thing Vallas is staying on.
well, (1) there's been reorganization of the school district, in part to give some attention to retaining Center City families, in part to putting more resources into nearby neighborhoods in North and South Philly. (2) there's been curriculum change (not initiated by Vallas, but implemented on his watch) to include classes on the history of nonwhite Americans and the countries that they come from, and Chinese language is now being offered in Chinatown schools. (3) there are some dozen magnet schools that have opened in the last two years or are planned for the next two, many involving the collaboration of local institutions and industries. (4) there are various programs to involve parents and grandparents more closely with the schools that their offspring attend, from coming along on the first day to working with school officials to troubleshoot throughout the year. (5) there are classes about the legal system offered in part as a deterrent to crime among young people. (6) big schools are being divided up into smaller schools to help give better focus on at-risk students and better sense of community among students and teachers. (7) there have been experiments with bringing in outside for-profit groups such as Edison and the like to run some difficult schools -- this isn't always popular, but in fact it has given some beleagured teachers a sense of fresh hope, even while generating only mixed results. (8) more information is being put online, where parents can access their children's records and get in touch with teachers. (9) grading is being standardized across the school district, with less leeway for principals to make adjustments. (10) AP classes are being offered on weekends for the benefit of smart kids in schools that don't offer any.
From last April, we had a lot of other ideas in the hopper, put thusly:
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[S]chool district officials, buoyed by powers granted under the federal No Child Left Behind law, have a growing list of measures they have already identified for implementation:
Expanding the school day by perhaps an hour, lengthening the school year to 11 months; changing curricula; partnering schools with behavioral health organizations; converting schools into public charter schools; and even closing some schools.
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So anyway, you get the sense that things are brewing on many fronts at once.
Does this help?
I'm kinda winded now....
(oh, and yeah, that's news that I've been covering the whole time this blog has existed. but I guess it was valuable to get a lot of it in one place, even if I leave the links as a reader exercise... ;)
Well, be careful what you ask for.... No, seriously, thanks for the response. I know that I could just search for the links you have posted previously, but if you have time…
As for the reorganization of the Center City district, I've seen some very conflicting opinions on that "reform." Do you see it as being unambiguously positive?
As you noted, the curricular changes were not initiated by him. I think that the changes you referred to are good changes, but do you feel they really are to his credit because they happened under his watch?
To what extent are the magnet schools, efforts at increasing family involvement, legal system classes, and on-line information a result of Vallas' efforts - as opposed to more directly attributable to others in the school system?
As for big schools being divided up - that is a great thing, but has there been any change in teacher/student ratios - which are a related factor? Teachers being able to get to know a higher percentage of the students in their school is a more or less a proven variable for increasing educational effectiveness - but it has to go hand in hand with lower ratios to really bear fruit.
I think that the increased involvement of for-profit institutions is a huge black mark on his administration. Huge.
And, I think that grading standardization, in the sense that it reduces the autonomy of individual educators, is clearly a double-edged sword. And seen alongside Vallas' hyping of standardized testing and standardized curriculum - both of which I feel are significantly detrimental trends - I'm inclined to see the negative edge of that blade.
So, what I'm getting at is that I don't quite get the willingnes of many to see Vallas' administration in a positive light. Maybe Ijust havne't been paying close enough attention, and he's staying on, so the question is somewhat mute.
But his promotion of for-profit "educators" and his pro-standardization polies really go against my grain.
Do you have a strong opinion that relative to other cities with similar problems to contend with, Vallas has done a good job? My sense is that I have heard about more interesting progressive developments in other big city school administrations.
Dumplingeater - can you share some of the progressive reforms being advanced in other cities?
One of the things that Vallas has done is - similar to what Rendell did for the City at large - was to give us hope for and make many (although not all) believe in Philadelphia School District in a way they haven't in decades. It's difficult to quantify, but the buzz he's created is palpable. I can tell you from personal experience working with Vallas and his staff to improve my local school in East Falls (The Mifflin School) that the changes that have taken place during his tenure are real and tangible, including an $8 million capital improvement program, rising test scores, plans for implementing an International Baccalaureate program, to name just a few. I am very, very happy that he's staying on...he's going to leave this District in much better shape than when he found it.
I think I've already given this most of the time that I'm going to this week, but a couple of thoughts: (1) I never said that Vallas was *responsible* for all changes being made in the district, just that people would have more confidence in the sticking power of those changes with no shift in leadership at the top. (2) Grading standardization that means no teacher leeway is bad; keeping rogue principals from passing failing students (to avoid dealing with the hard cases or the angry parents) is good, and that appears to have been the main goal. (3) I think Friedman is right that the biggest thing is a sense of optimism; that it's worth giving the school system a chance, that things are happening. It means parents may not have to be consigned to the suburbs against their inclinations, that teachers may feel there's a chance to improve conditions in the most challenged schools (which is why so many of them, much to my surprise, welcomed even Edison with open arms, just for the shot of hope), that people in general may think that the city is turning its fortunes around.
I'm not involved with the educational system in any way, and thus I have no insight into what's really happening in individual schools and classrooms (although I'm sure you can find answers to many of your questions, perhaps starting with the city school resources linked in the sidebar here). I'm just responding to what seems to be a climate shift during my time in Philadelphia, both in media coverage and in the attitudes of people I know and meet. Obviously, good intentions and hope still have a long way to go to reach good schools and student prospects...
Anonymous,
No, I don't remember the details about the reforms I've heard about in other cities - I'm just reacting viscerally - that I feel I've heard about more interesting and progressive reforms in other cities. And so, I'm asking questions.
I found a very interesting website: http://www.researchforaction.org/ (I don't know if you've linked it before) which published this rather extensive study of Philly's school reforms under Vallas:
http://www.researchforaction.org/PSR/PublishedWorks/LPSR092805.pdf
(They promise to publish a study of privatization of Philly schools soon - that should be interesting!)
In sum, their conclusion is that they don't have enough information to form a conclusion (pretty typical of educational research, unfortunately).
However, what they do have to say does reflect what Friedman and ACM have said to a large extent - that the general perception is that things are happening, and that they're happening at a rapid clip.
I don't mean to discount the value of a generally positive feel-good "gestalt" around Philly's school system. However, the teachers that I have spoken to have not expressed positive feeling about Vallas. And further, as a long time educator, I am deeply, deeply opposed to many of the philosophical, methodological, pedagogical, and political underpinnings of Vallas "reforms."
As such, I am hoping that folks will keep an eye out on the "als" I listed above, and also for "hype," when assessing Vallas' administration before pronouncing judgement.
Thanks for the dialogue
indeed, been useful.
I have to say, when the Edison stuff was being discussed, I was horrified. I still wouldn't want my kid going to a cookbook-based school like that. But a lot of other ideas seem to have worked out better and followed on good reasearch, and I think that the main thing is that they've been willing to try some things and then re-evaluate. (What I cannot judge is how well this or any system can eliminate the localized problems, whether systemic or personality-driven...)
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