More evidence of this can be found in this College Readiness Report from the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State. The report documents:
the percentage of high school graduates from Maricopa County district and charter high schools who enter postsecondary education ready for college-level coursework
So let's go to the data and see how Cactus Shadows compares to our neighbors (click to enlarge):
While we have a mid-pack graduation rate, you can see that we are at the bottom for reading and math readiness. This just confirms what we have seen from Cactus Shadows' AIMS, Terra Nova, AP, and SAT test results.
The trend isn't very pretty either.
While higher than 4 years ago, the past three years have seen a significant reversal. Didn't we just start using Everyday Math's evil cousin Connected Math in the middle schools 3 years ago? Hmmmm...
You can find the entire report here.
College Readiness Report
What you fail to realize is that many parents in this district are completely apathetic and don't really care what their kids are taught. I would challenge that it is not the curriculum choices that are a problem, it is the parents who do not support the kids. My kids always did fine with EM and CM and are in another district without it and having no problems now. In fact they are doing quite well.
ReplyDeleteCase in point. This post is up nearly 24 hours and no one has commented. Yet, posts about school closings/prep academy (poorly timed coinciding with school closings) have everyone jumping on the bandwagon. What is sad, is that many of the bandwagon jumpers don't even have kids at DAMS yet. Of the ones that do, I will bet that those kids are athletes. You have had several other parents whose kids are at DAMS who are not necessarily thrilled with the closing, but are ok with it.
As a future DAMS parent 2010/2011 school year foro my son, I am upset with how the District has "handled" this whole year of looking for options to cut costs. Honestly, I think "most" parents are caught up in "life" that they have NO idea what is going on the CCUSD. If they did, they would be upset. Upset about scores, funding and leadership. The fact is the majority of parents do not take the time to become involved at the District level. They barely have time to get involved at the school level. There is a price for speaking out and asking questions, believe me. I am feeling it now. I have decided though, I can't complain about it unless I get involved to make a difference. So I go to the Board meetings I read the 244 page board packets I go online and research. I don't want CCUSD students and teachers to lose anything because of the budget. The fact is though, right off the bat they will. They now have to find $500,000+ to pay for all day KG. (remember, I love all day KG, when we have the money to pay for it) I would encourage every parent to get involved and know what the Board and Adminstration are doing. It effects you and your child(ren). It does take time away from your family, but you will make a difference. We parents have such great life experience that can add value to the entire conversation going on at the District and State level. It's not what is on a blog, it is what is being talked about around the baseball, soccer, football, etc fields. I think the most important part of being involved is making sure we parents make decisions with accurate information and not rumors from other parents. Even if you can't go to the meetings, download the board packet, read the minutes and go over the agenda. GET INVOLVED! That way you can make a difference.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Anonymous 5/10 5:02 AM, I hadnt planned to comment on this article until I read your assumptionas about apathy in our district.
ReplyDeleteAs parent I think its hard for many to provide a productive response about reading and math readiness for college since MOST of us have no formal training in teaching or school administration. So hear is my unqualified guess: should I blame the hs teachers? -no not directly because their apathy and poor morale is most likely a result of administrative leadership inconsistency that has plagued Cactus Shadows High School and the district for a number of years and is identifiable in the data points in the tables above.
I also think about the fact that CCUSD has had at least 3 very different Superintendants over the past 10 years. Under Superintendant Tacy Ashby in/around 2007-08 our district took on a a new group of governing board members from the former Christopher Verde school district that quite clearly had an impact on things to come. I seem to recall 3 well regarded governing board members turning in early resignations for what was discussed in local news as administrative disagreements -2 I believe were highly trained professional educators. -Whatever happened -maybe politics carried out by the "don't give a hang about curriculum gang" won...and now CSHS students are suffering the consequences. -And just perhaps CCUSD should have clarified the saying to "Students First, Sports Always" back during that time.
So here is my personal assessment of the situation: CCUSD really could use at least one highly qualified ACADEMIC DRIVER on the governing board...a No-nonsense No-BSer. Teachers...? your nominations please???
Part of the problem is you have District Adminstration playing with "new" ideas when one is the head of academics. Maybe she should be working on the Academic side and not marketing new "pet" projects. Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteI don't think parents are apathetic at all. I think as Sandy said they are busy and assume that the school district is well run because of the affluent area it is in. I think that that has actually allowed things to get out of control even further. Yes we have few free lunch kids which decreases our federal funding but because of that statistic we also have more kids who walk into kindergarten more prepared than in most districts and with more overall parent involvement at home than other areas of Phoenix. They've got almost ideal demographics to work with and they've still managed to screw things up. Maybe thats why they discovered so much time to experiment with new projects at the expense of the overall well being of our entire district.
ReplyDeleteThat they are still moving forward with the closure of DAMS even now that the "hidden costs" are being revealed makes me certain that this district is heading in the wrong direction.
Perhaps DAMS is being closed only to fund these new pet projects or that diversion channel that they discovered they need to build at the STMS campus. Wouldn't surprise me at all with this short-sighted staff.
Dear 1:20pm,
ReplyDeleteOne board member may have had administrative differences (he sided frequently with member Clancy). The other board members (if memory serves me correctly) had more of a problem with those two board members than the admin. One of these was a more highly regarded board member than the former Principal who wanted to micromanage the high school.
Anyway it is all in the archives if someone wants to go through them.
BTW, this is not to turn Member Clancy into a villain in anyway. While she has a strong personality,she brings a good amount of knowledge to the table. Sometimes I disagree with her opinions, often I also agree with her opinions. I think her heart is in the right place even if she does not always do what I think is best for the district.
I think that anyone who sits on the board needs to have a thick skin.
Could it be that the cited board member, asking these pointed questions regarding CCUSD operations, has more concern for the district taxpayers who fund most, if not all, of the CCUSD operations? Remember, the governing board is the district taxpayers's first line of defense in seeing that its funds are well-stewarded. The board is the taxpayer's hands-on supervisor of the CCUSD management team.
ReplyDeleteThat cited board member is correct in some situations. In others though, she has not demonstrated depth of knowledge and understanding of financial principles. For example, she has taken populist stands to demonstrate administrative lack of oversight. Case in point - the cell phone debacle. She led some taxpayers to believe that there was a spending anomaly on cell phones to the tune of $150,000 one year. Such anomaly did not exist. What happened was that there was a change in accounting procedure by the state that moved a line item from one place to another.
ReplyDeleteI am not saying that it is wrong for her to question, but she does have access to the books and to the admin and can sit down and get a better understanding with Frison. The books are quite complex and while he can give top line off his head at a governing board meeting, she sometimes asks detailed questions that would best be addressed with the books at hand.
No, this is not Shaefer. BTW, though, he is an accountant and does understand the books more thoroughly than Clancy.
I would go back and look at the minutes and see how few questions are being ask by Board Members Perkins, Warren, Schaefer and Busbee. Questions are never a bad thing. They should be asking tough questions of the Administration, but they are not. My question is, why are they not asking the tough questions publicly?
ReplyDeleteSchaefer keeps a pretty good eye on the numbers and often looks at info/asks questions outside of the meetings.
ReplyDeleteI cannot speak for why they aren't asking tough questions. Why not ask them? They are responsive people.
If the board members come prepared to the meetings they shouldn't have many questions. They have access to the administration outside of board meetings. As if the board meetings aren't long enough, can you imagine how long they would be if they all came unprepared?
ReplyDeleteFor example, the agenda presented a new idea of on line academy the meeting on April 27th with little to no supporting information, that is the first agenda with it on there, how would they ask questions if the agenda just came out on April 23rd. Assuming most of them have jobs/family/life going on that is not enough time. I have tried to get in with Dr Burdick and Dr. Miller, it can be weeks as a parent. I supported the District for years and years blindly, I don't think the private meetings should be happening, I think the Admin should be sharing the same information with all Board members.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that board meetings are the only PUBLIC opportunity for constituents to see what is going into the decisions of the board members/administration. It is imperative that board members ask questions at those meetings. There should not be a lot of "behind-the-scenes" meetings going on without details being shared at the board meetings because due to open meeting laws the board members should not be sharing that information amongst themselves in other than a public forum. So while you may be wishing to give the board the benefit of the doubt and assume that they fully understand the issues and have done their due diligence, there are laws in place that require that due diligence be done in a public forum so the constituents can actually see what is going into the decision making process. When those discussions are not public then things happen in the background that seem nefarious, like the choice to close a fully-enrolled A+ middle school (where demographers show the highest expected growth) while refusing to investigate the closure of much lower enrolled elementary schools located within 2 miles of their neighbors. Those discussions were not held in a public forum nor was detailed financial research provided to back up the decision. Yes, plenty of generic budget charts and lecture upon lecture about how they have no choice because money is in various buckets, etc., blah blah blah. Heard it all before and while there is truth to it it is also an easy way to bury political decisions and/or support weak decisions. It is very easy to make the budgetary issues sound too complex and make everyone think there is no other solution. So it is imperative that board members ask questions, challenge and request detailed research all of which should be shared in public so parents actually know what is going on.
ReplyDeleteThe board members are diligent about the open meeting laws. For example, there can be meetings outside of the public forums, as long as there aren't more than a certain amount of members at those meetings.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for meetings outside of the public forums is as one other poster pointed out. Limited time at the public forum. It is not to avoid public input.
Really, being on the board is a thankless task. It is purely voluntary, takes a lot of time and energy, and doesn't seem to get much gratitude from the community. I am not saying that you don't have the right to judge board members and have concerns about decision making, but I do think that they have sincere motives and it is ludicrous when local newspapers and bloggers try to paint it otherwise.
OK, we all can agree that there are some serious problems with CCUSD district leadership. CCSOS and CCUSDGB.org do not appear to be providing a balanced forum for discusssion (deleting parts of the board meeting from video reports) so perhaps it is time to do something about it and form a separate PAC.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is most parents/people don't agree on your statement at 7:44pm because they just don't know. They don't go to the meetings, they don't read the minutes, they don't read the board packets and they do just trust. The "hidden agenda" items that have been thrown in the agenda's during school year 2009/2010 prove they should not trust. A board should not make a decision about an "academy", Virtual On line academy, closing a school or all day KG in the matter of one or two meetings. That is not enough time devoted to research and community input. Sorry. I actually talked to a parent that went in front of the board about ALL day Kg and she had no idea to ask how they were going to pay for the $500,000 price tag. She said "if I thought they would use DAMS closing as a way to pay for it she wouldn't have got up and spoke". There you go.
ReplyDelete