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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > February > 01
Friday, February 1, 2008
Spelling Bee: A sign of something good happening?
(Third grader Adrian Jones Jr. with his parents, Adrian Sr. and Janelle, after winning the city spelling bee Thursday.)
Let me start this post out by saying last night I watched a city spelling bee that was the best I’ve witnessed in eight years. First of all, it was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at a spelling bee. The Meadowdale High School auditorium was mostly full.
And secondly, it was a great competition. The last nine spellers were all top notch and Jones had to hold off two challengers for eight nail-biting rounds. These last three — Valerie Elementary School’s Jones, Conner Jordan from the Lutheran School and Daniel Kidd from Orville Wright Elementary School — were remarkable, ripping off very difficult words without hesitation for round after round.
After a Dayton Public Schools student won last year, I pointed out that the city school district had won three in a row now after several years of mostly private school champions in this competition. This sparked a big debate here about whether this new success suggested the district was doing better academically.
So I pose the question again. DPS has now won four straight spelling bees. Does this mean the district’s kids are stronger academically? There seems to be some evidence this might be true.
For one thing, last night’s winner Adrian Jones was stunningly good in the bee and he was one of the youngest students in the competition. In fact Jones, Jordan and Kidd were all under seventh grade in a competition that allows students up to eighth grade. Two of these young boys, who attend the district, came from pre-school into district schools in the Littlejohn/Mack era. And they were crushing much older kids, both public and private.
When the district was losing the bee every year, the correlation between that lack of success and the district’s bad academic performance seemed to make sense. Today, the district is doing somewhat better on state tests and its students are winning the bee all the time. Does this make sense too?
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