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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > May > 29 > Entry
Scott Elliott: Ward must let parents have school choices
Soon-to-be Superintendent Lori Ward is working on a plan to convert Dayton to neighborhood-based elementary schools. On paper, assigning kids to a particular school, close to home, makes a lot of sense.
The problem is, people don’t live on paper. In the real world, she could be trapping kids in poor-performing schools or driving more kids out of the district. Unless the rules are flexible and allow parents to look outside their neighborhoods, the idea isn’t going to go over well.
When Ward talks about her vision, she sees as many students as possible attending a good-quality, nearby school, one that’s strongly supported in the neighborhood. There would be little need, she hopes, for parents to shop around, as the district’s goal is to eliminate inequities among schools.
That’s a nice vision, but it’s unrealistic, at least by 2011. There are huge disparities among the city’s elementary schools, which is partly why some parents look beyond the closest school in search of a better one.
On the whole, Dayton’s elementary schools are very low-scoring when measured by state achievement tests.
Consider this: The lowest-rated elementary school in Huber Heights — Monticello Elementary — has a “performance index score” of 91.9, or 3.5 points higher than the Charity Adams Earley Academy for Girls. It’s the best-scoring Dayton elementary school.
All Dayton elementary schools are in the bottom quarter of all schools rated by the state. (The performance index, with a maximum score of 120, represents total test performance across all grades.)
Twelve of 23 Dayton schools that serve elementary grades are in “academic emergency,” Ohio’s lowest rating. No schools rate higher than the third of six rating categories. The low end of Dayton’s scale is very low. Three elementary schools — Rosa Parks, E.J. Brown and Westwood —Â have index scores below 60, ranking them in the bottom 3 percent of Ohio’s 3,527 schools that received ratings.
There are many reasons. A big one is that most schools have students that come from extreme poverty. Charity Adams Earley, with two-thirds of its girls qualifying as poor, has the fewest poor kids of any elementary school in the city. Ten schools have at least 80 percent who are poor. (For a family of four, that means an annual income of less than $41,000.)
How can Ward tell parents who live near Westwood Elementary School that they must send their children to a school that is among the highest-poverty schools in the city and one of the worst-scoring schools in the state?
Ward will counter that those parents could apply to one of three districtwide elementary magnet schools —Â Charity Adams Earley, Dayton Boys Preparatory Academy or a new Montessori school that will open soon. All are solid options, but three decent choice schools simply isn’t enough.
Ward’s argument that neighborhood schools will, by their very existence, create more community cohesiveness and better support for children is weak. There certainly are benefits to the neighborhood school approach, but they all depend on the local school demonstrating at least a decent level of performance.
Until Dayton gets there, any attendance zone policy will have to offer flexibility. It’s perfectly logical for the district to make the local school each child’s default option. But when parents request something better, the district’s answer simply cannot be a blanket “no.”
If conscientious parents aren’t able to send their children to the school they want, they will look to a handful of decent charter schools or elsewhere. The district can have its attendance zones and head off an exodus with a liberal policy at the start. As the schools improve, the district will have a stronger argument for stricter boundaries.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Columns, Education, Scott Elliott
Comments
By Max
May 29, 2010 10:21 AM | Link to this
I totally agree with Ward’s thinking. On paper and as a philosphical point of view school choice (add charter schools to this) appears to be a concept and design from the social engineering workshop. The problems with ‘choice’ far outweigh any theoretical benefit; these include the least chosen schools lag behind in performance, the transportation issue, and the application acceptance/denial process. Instead of creating more problems, Ward is looking at the sources of DPS’s lacking performance. I think she should be commended for that although the Board probably will not go along with it even if proven to be fiscally responsible. Parents have an initial choice in where they live BEFORE having kids. They also have a choice in where to live AFTER having kids. That is where parents do have choices and having additional choices available at District expense is fiscally irresponsible. Fix the schools and place them all on equal performance footing. Parental choice should never be part of a district’s operational planning; education, however, is.
By Max
May 29, 2010 10:32 AM | Link to this
Elliot has it ALL wrong; “If conscientious parents aren’t able to send their children to the school they want, they will look to a handful of decent charter schools or elsewhere. The district can have its attendance zones and head off an exodus with a liberal policy at the start. As the schools improve, the district will have a stronger argument for stricter boundaries.” Elliot’s premise is exactly what’s wrong weith the district; everything is baased on the speculation “as the schools improve.” DPS history has shown the district cannot do two things at once and waiting for school improvement before addressing the neighborhood schools/budget concerns is dooming DPS to a legacy of systematic failure. Ward has the right idea. It is responsible, it is focused and has a clear direction, and it makes financial sense. Elliot’s assumption that schools ‘can’ improve in the current structure is nonsense.
By No Good Decision
May 29, 2010 9:35 PM | Link to this
Having a choice of schools in Dayton has been an interesting experiment. Dayton came to the realization decades ago that it was impossible to fix the neighborhood-based schools and place them all on equal performance footing. (Separate but equal never did work in Dayton.) So, they experimented with “choice” to spread the pain around, hoping that some of the students would rise to the top and succeed. That has turned out not to work very well, either. So, now they’re going back to a neighborhood-based system they know won’t work. Without changes in the family unit’s ability to support the children, guess what the outcome is sure to be?
By Jeffrey J. Mims, Jr.
May 30, 2010 10:17 AM | Link to this
During the 70’s public schools across the nation were given the unfair responsibility to desegregate society without proper resources or direction. Significant numbers of “well to do” families left Dayton. The Dayton School community remains as one of the poorest in the nation. Busing poor students from one poor community to another defies logic. What seemed like a good idea at the time has been a formula for disaster for cities like Dayton. Moving to Attendance Areas is a good idea. More Board members, community leaders and staff are increasingly aware of the elements of successful schools ane are working to create great opportunities in all of our achools for all students. As Board members, we do not teach nor supervise anyone but the superintendent and treasurer. We are very pleased with their progress! Clearly we are not where we need or want to be in regards to overall student achievement. Positive indicators like an 83% graduation rate, 93% attandance rate, more than a year’s growth in State achievement factors, improvement in all subjects areas by all of our high schools on the Ohio Graduation Tests and another record four Gates Scholarships for Dayton Public Schools and DECA students are evidence of movement in the right direction! Our Dayton Public Schools has also been reconized with local, state and national awards in Jr. ROTC, science, robotics, art, music and athletics. All of these growth factors are directly related to the confidence and support that has been given to us by the community. With your continued support we will continue to improve.
By Spell Checker
May 30, 2010 12:44 PM | Link to this
You people can’t even spell Ward’s name right in the headline. How can we take you seriously when you can’t even get small details right. Also, the formatting is totally screwed up from pasting the text from whatever word processing or pagination program you are using. Get serious about your own product before telling people what they should do with their own.
By fortressdayton
May 30, 2010 1:12 PM | Link to this
Jeezus…. can we ever appease the “oppressed”? Busing was demnaded and happened. the result? Flight. Now back to neighborhood schools. Result? Whining. When unruly and poorly raised children attend schools, the quality of those schools declines. A scholl is more than a building. if i bus all the students of Dunbar to Oakwood, then Oakwood will suck. If I send Oakwood to Dunbar, the school will improve. It’s not the buildings, it’s the people- staff and students. And if you don’t pay property taxes, you really should practice self-restraint. You cannot value something you are not invested in.
By fortressdayton
May 30, 2010 1:17 PM | Link to this
Jeezus…. can we ever appease the “oppressed”? Busing was demnaded and happened. the result? Flight. Now back to neighborhood schools. Result? Whining. When unruly and poorly raised children attend schools, the quality of those schools declines. A scholl is more than a building. if i bus all the students of Dunbar to Oakwood, then Oakwood will suck. If I send Oakwood to Dunbar, the school will improve. It’s not the buildings, it’s the people- staff and students. And if you don’t pay property taxes, you really should practice self-restraint. You cannot value something you are not invested in.
By Rick
May 30, 2010 3:22 PM | Link to this
There is no good answer. As much as we may hate to admit it, IGID, has a point, the Dayton schools have been lousy for a long time, maybe we should follow the slogan, “If you can’t have good schools, you should have cheap schools.” I don’t think locking children into a particularly lousy school is good either. Monopolies always create poor service. What we should do is to have the local school be the first option but allow students to enroll elsewhere if they are willing to transport their child. Mssrs. Lacey and Mims, keep the pressure on! The most important thing for a school is to have a vigorous involved principle. The best thing the Kids First team did was fire something like 50% of the principles in four years; these principles were deadwood.
By Melodie Larsen
May 30, 2010 9:48 PM | Link to this
I am a kindergarten teacher in one of those low-performing schools, Scott mentioned. I have had students’ leave the district and move to schools in the suburbs and those students are on grade level in the suburban schools, thanks to the education they received in my classroom. I have also had parents that wanted to transfer their child out because as they stated it, “your expectations are too high, they are only in kindergarten.” I would challenge any teacher from the suburbs to come to my classroom and teach and show me how much scores go up. For those of you that are talking about DPS I challenge you to come into our schools, meet our students and staff and see if that opinion changes. We face challenges that are impossible to imagine, and then have to face the critics that bad-mouth us at every opportunity. I was raised in the suburbs and cried 23 years ago when Dayton was the only district hiring, and I believed all the terrible things I had heard, now I cannot believe how blessed I have been to truly make a difference in the lives of so many children! I am proud of the job I do each day and proud to tell people that I teach for Dayton Public Schools!
By It's Great in Dayton!!!!
June 6, 2010 2:19 PM | Link to this
This is why the situation with DPS is hopeless. This is an example of the unstoppable downward spiral at what is perhaps the most desirable address in Dayton:————————-When the Schuster Center was built, the prices for the condos started at $350,000 and went as high as $1,000,000. There is now a condo in The Schuster advertised for $199,000, and so far nobody is willing to pay even that much.———————————— One of the premiere residences in Dayton, and nobody wants it at a fire-sale price.———————— ‘nuff said.