It's Butt Kickin' Time in Jefferson County

The part I could never wrap my mind around, was not so much what was said, but who said it.

When a judge wants to make a strong point about some long-standing injustice, it is perhaps necessary and proper for the court to make crystal clear the strength of its convictions. So when North Carolina Judge Howard Manning used the term "educational genocide" to describe inequities in the school system, it was purposeful, and that purpose was to kick the collective butts of school administrators high and low. The court was not responsible for creating the problem or administering whatever changes were necessary. The court reviews whether the law is being followed and provides feedback to the public.

But the role of state Education Commissioner is not the same as a judge. As the commissioner rightly stated, "The state is just as guilty as Jefferson County." Is the commissioner kicking himself in the butt? Is Holliday saying that the state is guilty of allowing the Jefferson County Board of Education to operate a system of educational apartheid - for decades apparently - and because of that, the state now needs to takeover as many as 18 low-performing JCPS schools?

First, let's be realistic. The General Assembly has decimated the Kentucky Department of Education to the point that no true "takeover" is possible. But KDE can sure give JCPS writer's cramp and some variety of in-your-face oversight that the department apparently did not see fit (or perhaps, lacked the capacity) to provide before.

But were the commissioner's 'academic genocide' and 'apartheid' comments really meant to provide ammunition (in the way of protest sign slogans) for groups seeking solutions that lie outside of the JCPS system - most notably through a renewed push for charters? He suggested charter schools and recovery zones to the C-J editorial board.

He says he wants to work cooperatively with the JCPS Board. He and the Board agree on most elements of what must be done. But clearly, his comments weren't designed to engender cooperation with the Board. They seem to have been aimed at the public with the hope that the public will aim their frustrations at the Board - but not necessarily the state.

This from The Courier-Journal:

JCPS school board rejects 'academic genocide' tag for low-performing schools 

Kentucky education chief's language called reckless

Calling his statement “reckless,” Jefferson County’s school board on Friday issued a joint statement rejecting sharp criticism by Kentucky’s education commissioner in which he compared the lack of progress among the district’s low-performing schools to “academic genocide.”

“Dr. (Terry) Holliday accused JCPS of committing ‘academic genocide’ on Louisville students and compared JCPS to ‘apartheid,’ ” the Jefferson County Public Schools board said in its statement. “We emphatically reject this characterization of our district and the work of JCPS’s 16,000 employees. We are concerned this reckless language will distract from the real issue of increasing student achievement by starting yet another squabble among adults, about adults.”

School board chairman Diane Porter said the board decided to send a “united response” after The Courier-Journal submitted questions Thursday to all seven members requesting that each respond to Holliday’s criticism of the district and his warning that the state may take over oversight of some of the district’s 18 low-performing schools.

A recent state analysis found that 16 of those 18 schools were failing to make adequate progress, despite receiving more than $1 million worth of resources to help their turnaround efforts.

Holliday was traveling Friday from Washington and could not be reached for comment.

But he said recently that Louisville should be “outraged” by wide learning gaps between schools such as duPont Manual and Valley High School. And at a Courier-Journal editorial board interview Tuesday, he agreed that Jefferson County had effectively created a system with two different levels of expectations, saying it was tantamount to “apartheid.”

Holliday also said he purposely used the inflammatory phrase “academic genocide” to provoke a community response. And he told the editorial board that some of the county’s persistently low-achieving schools could face a state takeover of their overhaul efforts as early as this fall unless they show improvement soon.

This from the JCPS Board of Education by way of C-J:

The JCPS school board statement

Communication is the glue of cooperation. It’s what holds together partnerships between many people with different views and ideas and keeps them working toward common goals. When problems arise, we should talk about solutions and formulate plans to overcome these problems. In the absence of communication, goals are compromised and partnerships can come apart.

Over the last week, Kentucky Commissioner of Education Dr. Terry Holliday has spoken with the media concerning the lack of progress in the Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) District’s lowest-achieving schools. Dr. Holliday accused JCPS of committing “academic genocide” on Louisville students and compared JCPS to “apartheid.” We emphatically reject this characterization of our district and the work of JCPS’s 16,000 employees. We are concerned this reckless language will distract from the real issue of increasing student achievement by starting yet another squabble among adults, about adults.

We share Dr. Holliday’s sense of urgency; however, it would be far more constructive if he communicated directly to the superintendent the specifics of what his staff is seeing in order to help students at these schools. When the commissioner met with The Courier-Journal editorial board this week, he expressed dismay at the board’s failure to ask hard questions regarding this issue during last Monday’s school board meeting. That’s a fair point for someone on the outside to make. Although a presentation on persistently low-achieving (PLA) school performance was on the agenda and the board heard testimony from principals of three of these schools, we were frankly unprepared to respond to Dr. Holliday’s accusations. We pledge that future meetings will better explain to the public what the district is doing to turn around our weakest schools and how effectively our plan is being executed.

We agree with Dr. Holliday that PLA schools must improve at a faster rate for students to leave these schools prepared for the future. We also agree with the commissioner that, since coming to JCPS, Superintendent Donna Hargens and her leadership team have made great strides in working cooperatively with the state in improving performance at these schools. Dr. Holliday is right when he describes this as a community problem that extends beyond the purview of the school. He is also correct when he says the state and JCPS share the responsibility to improve performance at an acceptable and reasonable rate.

We are united in support of Superintendent Hargens’ plan to achieve JCPS’s mission for all students to reach their full potential and graduate prepared. We will continue to operate with a sense of urgency. Some progress has been made, and we are optimistic that this plan will work. We agree with Dr. Hargens that we will do whatever it takes to improve student achievement, including revising plans to fix what’s not working. We won’t give up on our schools.

The huge challenges we face are not insurmountable. However, it will take the wisdom, intellect, engagement, and elbow grease of every stakeholder to turn the tide in these PLA schools. The commissioner and JCPS need to continue to work together and in good faith. Our children and community deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

The Jefferson County Board of Education:
Diane Porter, Chair, District 1
Carol Ann Haddad, Vice Chair, District 6
David Jones Jr., District 2
Debbie Wesslund, District 3
Chuck Haddaway, District 4
Linda Duncan, District 5
Chris Brady, District 7

Then - as if on cue - this from C-J:

Louisville black ministers lobby for charter schools to replace low-performing schools

A Louisville group of African-American ministers said Friday that it wants charter schools to replace the 18 low-performing Jefferson County public schools that have been ordered to undergo overhauls.

The group issued a press release stating they support state officials who have criticized Jefferson County Public Schools for their oversight of the schools.


The Rev. Jerry L. Stephenson, state director for the Black Alliance for Educational Options, said in a statement: “We stand with these African-American ministers, parents/grandparents and concerned community members to announce our support of Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday, who compared Louisville’s public schools to ‘academic genocide.’ The African-American community is standing with the commissioner demanding that the state and local JCPS school board take immediate action to bring these low performing/failing schools to high quality education for our black and low-income students.”


The group is demanding that the state, the legislature and the JCPS school board:

• Pass legislation during this session to turn the low-performing schools into public charter schools immediately.

• Provide full funding for churches and community organizations to provide academic tutoring and educational technology support to students living in those schools’ enrollment areas.

• Provide a state audit of the allocation of financial resources within JCPS.

The Rev. Frank Smith Jr. of the Christ Church In Our Community said in a statement: “We believe there are a great number of good teachers and educators within the JCPS, yet, they are lacking the right leadership and support that is needed for them to help our students.”


The Rev. Dr. Charles King Jr. stated: “Commissioner Holliday said exactly what we’ve all been thinking and what we’ve know for quite some time, our schools are failing our children. We’re here today to say enough.”

Apparently Hal Heiner of Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education (KARE) doesn't know how it works. When your campaign has a mantra, it must be repeated ad nauseam in order to stick in the public mind. Nowhere does he use 'academic genocide' or 'apartheid.' That's no way to run a campaign. But Rev. Stephenson gets it.

This from pro-charter guy Hal Heiner in C-J:

The recent statewide test scores confirmed what we’ve long known: There is a great divide in education. In a system built upon “one form of education fits all,” over 10,000 young Kentuckians each year drop out of school with little likelihood of returning. With this decision to quit comes a new future that often includes prison (80 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts) and harsh limits on a potentially rewarding and accomplished life. Why would anyone choose to squash their future at such a young age?...


The facts are clear: the current single form of education is failing a large percentage of our children. Nowhere is the deficiency more acute than in Jefferson County. With 32,000 out of the 100,000 current students dropping out into a difficult and often dependent life, it is past time to add a new form of education to meet the needs of at-risk children. These children and their parents need a choice.

An astoundingly successful form of education eliminating the great divide is public charter schools. 

This, of course, is not uniformly true - not by a long shot.

One visit to Tindley School in Indianapolis will convince anyone that poverty and education failure is not destiny for children with large gaps in their lives. Tindley is a public charter school located in the middle of a neighborhood previously having a 24 percent graduation rate. Students enter Tindley in the sixth grade typically three years behind academically. By eighth grade the achievement divide is eliminated, and by graduation their achievement scores actually surpass the public school average and rival those of elite public schools. It is a different form of education with a longer school day, a longer school week and a longer school year along with broadening the students’ context of life; but students and parents are choosing it! The school also eliminates physical obstacles with medical care, clothing, three meals per day and help with homework.


Outstanding educational achievements for at-risk students at Success Academy in Harlem, KIPP schools in Nashville, Tindley schools in Indianapolis and in thousands of innovative public charter schools in 42 states across the country are shouting out to Kentucky.


Shouldn’t the thousands of at-risk children in Kentucky’s schools have the opportunity to at least choose an education fully addressing their needs? Isn’t educating all children our moral responsibility? Doesn’t our future depend on education as the necessary ingredient to grow our state’s economy and create high paying jobs of the future?


We believe so. The time for public charter schools in Kentucky is now.


HAL HEINER
Chairman, Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education (KARE)
Louisville 40243

And finally, a couple of letters to the editor at C-J:

Low-achieving schools

Thanks for your excellent article on the lack of progress in improving our high number of persistently low-achieving schools. I take issue, however, with Brent McKim, president of the teachers’ union, who blames both the state and poor “parental support.” The state is not to blame, because (based on the numbers cited in your article) almost all of the 41 persistently low-achieving schools statewide have made sufficient progress with the state’s help, except in Jefferson County, where 16 out of 18 did not.

Likewise, Mr. McKim is wrong to blame parents. Poverty or another disadvantage should never be a valid excuse for failing to provide all children with a quality education. Moreover, as the number of neighborhoods served by these failing schools grows from the west to the south, central, and now eastern parts of the county, it should be obvious that most of these schools are not located in poverty-stricken areas.


I grew up in the South End, in one of the neighborhoods now served primarily by failing schools. While the typical family there may not be as wealthy, they are average, hard- working Americans; and they care just as much about their children’s future as anyone else. I also have a common-sense suggestion that will cost nothing and help narrow the achievement gap immediately.


I taught English in a Japanese public school and worked for a district not unlike Jefferson County. There, teachers and administrators were only assigned to the same school for three years, after which point, they would be re-assigned to another school in the district. If a particular school was struggling, the district had the benefit of choosing from among a large pool of experienced educators.


This system made sure that each school had the benefit of drawing from the same pool of qualified teachers and staff, and it would prevent struggling schools from being staffed primarily by the least experienced educators or those forced out of other schools. The responsibility lies with our leaders — not only JCPS administrators and union leaders but also with our mayor and council members. Stopping this “academic genocide” should everyone’s first priority.

TIM HARPER
Louisville 40204 –

Parent responsibility

Certainly we as a community, not just the leaders of our school system, can do much to prepare children for school, learning, and productive living.


My eyes have been opened to some realities not addressed by Sunday’s Courier-Journal article as I have been doing volunteer work with refugee families in all the “low-performing school” areas.


First, parent involvement makes a difference, from the infancy and prenatal stage, before the children ever enter a school. When children have at least one and preferably two parents and some extended family who care and nurture and teach them lovingly at home, they do better in school and in life.
I know a refugee mom who is teaching her one-year-old the alphabet using some books she bought at the Dollar Tree store. I saw an American man in that same shopping center throw a baby in the backseat of his car with a carseat he chose not to use. Guess which child will probably have more trouble in school in a few years?


Second, we are neglecting to focus education dollars where they can be most productive. While it is good that most income-qualified four-year-olds get free preschool in Jefferson County Public Schools, only some of the three-year-olds do. In some other states, all qualified 2- and 3-year-olds can get free preschool.


Reporters and school people can talk all they want about statistics. Common sense and a closer look at more statistics will tell you we need to get parents to take more responsibility for their children’s health, education, and well-being from the time of pregnancy, and we need to provide healthy learning environments for younger children from the low-performing school neighborhoods.


SUSAN BREEDING-CATLETT
Louisville 40299 –

Holliday's 'academic genocide' comment intended to spur community action against existing JCPS 'apartheid' system

"Now it’s clear that this is not a “school only” issue. 

This is poverty. This is low expectations in the community. 

This is isolation of these kids in certain schools. 

This is a community issue, not just a school issue."

 "You have very different systems in Jefferson County."

"The state is just as guilty as Jefferson County."

-- Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday

This from The Courier-Journal:

Holliday says 

state may take over some JCPS schools

Several of Jefferson County’s persistently low-achieving public schools could be facing a state takeover of their overhaul efforts as early as this fall unless they show improvement soon, the state’s top education chief warned Tuesday.

In an interview with The Courier-Journal editorial board, Education Commissioner Terry Holliday put Jefferson County Public Schools on notice that he is ready to order a fresh round of audits for most of the district’s 18 low-performing schools if their graduation rates and college and career readiness statistics don’t improve this spring. Those audits would be used to determine if the state needs to assume oversight of the schools’ turnaround efforts.

“I have great hope that we won’t have to do this, but I don’t want anyone to be surprised come August if that’s what I have to do,” Holliday said.

His warning comes after a state analysis released last week showed that 16 of the 18 persistently low-achieving schools have made little or no progress since they were ordered to undergo overhauls — a situation that Holliday likened to “academic genocide.”

In response to Holliday’s comments Tuesday, JCPS Superintendent Donna Hargens said the district and the community “share the urgency to improve student achievement expressed by the commissioner. ... Based on the test results from the 2011-12 school year, we agree that there is much work to be done to make certain our students are college- and career-ready.

“However, based on the current analysis of our daily work, our student-centered efforts with professional learning communities in the implementation of common core standards and expansion of out-of-school-time opportunities for all students, we believe we will see a positive impact on student outcomes.”

During a meeting Monday night, JCPS officials and school board members defended their handling of troubled schools and questioned Holliday’s use of such terms as “academic genocide.”

Holliday told The Courier-Journal he chose his words intentionally.

“I used that term purposefully to get this community involved,” Holliday said, adding that he first heard the term a few years ago when a judge overseeing academics in North Carolina public schools ruled that all children have the right to obtain a sound, basic education.

In a letter to North Carolina State Board of Education, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning called Halifax County's academic performance “nothing less than an academic disaster.”

“The bottom line is that Halifax County Public Schools children are suffering from a breakdown in system leadership, school leadership and a breakdown in classroom instruction by and large from elementary school through high school,” Manning wrote. “This is academic genocide, and it must be stopped.”

Holliday said Manning’s letter prompted community groups in North Carolina to organize community forums and the NAACP to organize a “March Against Academic Genocide.”

“The community really rallied behind those schools, and that is what needs to happen in Jefferson County,” he said.

In the past three years, 41 public schools in Kentucky have been selected for overhauls because of chronically poor academics — including the 18 in Jefferson County.

The state analyzed academic measures at all 41 schools, including test scores, graduation rates and ACT scores. It found that 23 were failing to make sufficient progress, including the 16 in Jefferson County — Shawnee, Valley, Western, Doss, Iroquois, Seneca, Southern and Waggener high schools and Frost, Western, Knight, Olmsted Academy North, Myers, Stuart, Thomas Jefferson and Westport middle schools.

Only two of Jefferson County’s low-performing schools were on the right track — Fern Creek and Fairdale high schools.

Holliday said the state is already leading the turnaround effort at seven of the 41 overhauled schools because leadership assessments determined that the districts couldn’t do the job themselves. He warned JCPS that it could be next.

“It’s possible we may need to bring some more state management to some of these schools,” he said.

 Holliday said he followed the JCPS school board meeting Monday and came away with the assessment that the emphasis “is still all about the adult” — not the students.

“It was ‘Well, you know we are meeting, we are working hard’ — I know they are working hard, but the kids aren’t learning,” he said. “Some of these schools are in the bottom 2 percent in the state.”

He said Friday that Louisville should be “outraged” by wide learning gaps between schools such as duPont Manual and Valley High School.

Asked Tuesday if Jefferson County had created a system with two different levels of expectations, Holliday agreed.

“Some have suggested that I should have used the word ‘apartheid,’ because I think that is exactly what has happened,” he said. “You have two very different systems in Jefferson County, and the data would support what you're saying.“

Holliday said he hopes the school board will start asking important questions to ensure “not just equity of opportunity,” but that there is “equity of learning outcomes for all children.”

“This isn’t about the adults, its about our kids learning,” Holliday said. “That’s all we want out of this. I want to see all of Jefferson County’s schools do great.”

KSN&C submitted a question to C-J about the commissioner’s intent, which Debbie Vedder (I think, if I recognized her voice from Comment on Kentucky) worked into a larger set of questions. Here’s the exchange:

C-J: [Academic genocide] was a such a powerful expression in that [North Carolina] community that parents and different groups started having marches against academic genocide - and that was what it was called. Did you deliberately use this to try to engage the community? These numbers were out there. Everybody in the community knew about these numbers. We’ve done lots of stories. And we’ve known for years that some of these schools have languished. What is it going to take to get people up and going, and figuring this out?

Holliday: Well, you’re exactly right.  This was purposeful, to get the community involved.

C-J: Have you heard anything?

Holliday: Tons! (chuckle)

C-J: Have you been criticized for it?

Holliday: Both.  Overwhelmingly though, positive comments that I’ve received… and even the negative ones know that this situation exists. We just don’t know what to do about it as a community.  I saw the mayor this morning and said that I’d be happy to come to a community forum. I have turned around school districts. This is a big one. And I definitely want to work with the board and the current administration to help more kids be successful. But they’re not going to do it on their own.  We’ve got to have a community that says we want to change expectations.