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Cape Girardeau school board discusses curriculum auditTuesday, November 18, 2008The Cape Girardeau Public School District is failing segments of students and must be more aggressive in finding ways to keep them engaged, school board members said in an unusually frank discussion Monday. The energetic conversation began when member Charles Bertrand called for a curriculum audit toward the end of the meeting. He said the district's graduation rate is a "telltale sign" of problems. This May, 64.3 percent of black students graduated. The district's overall graduation rate was 72 percent, down from 86.6 percent in 2004. "We're at a critical time in Cape Girardeau Public Schools," he said. Hiring an outside auditor to review curriculum would help the district determine whether its curriculum aligns state standards and whether the curriculum is being implemented in the classroom correctly, he said. District personnel maintained the curriculum is already aligned and that they are monitoring "at-risk" students. But some members called for more accountability, saying that they also want more routine and detailed updates of students' progress on benchmark tests. They pointed to gaps in achievement, saying populations of students are getting lost in the system. "We have National Merit Semifinalists and students that make 36s on the ACT. But there is a percentage also that is not. We need to find out why they are not getting it," Kyle McDonald said. State test data show significant gaps as well. At the high school, for example, 49 percent of students scored proficient or advanced on the Missouri Assessment Program math test, but only 18 percent of black students did. Central Middle School and Jefferson Elementary received federal sanctions this year because subgroups of students did not meet targets. "I've been on the board five years, and I keep hearing 'change takes time, change takes time.' Even though I don't want to spend $30,000 on an audit I think it could be money well spent," Laura Sparkman said. She said the district "has to address" its graduation rate. All the board members expressed support in further exploring hiring a curriculum auditor. Superintendent Dr. Jim Welker suggested looking into hiring the Show-Me Curriculum Administrators Association and said he would arrange presentations from potential auditors. But board members split over the idea of examining student achievement data more routinely or more in-depth than on a schoolwide basis. Stacy Kinder said it was "vaguely creepy" and asked what the board members would do with the information. Paul Nenninger said that with schools making little process the board could turn to the superintendent to "ask what could be done." "We're not trying to fire a teacher or anything like that," Bertrand said. Sparkman said she was "well aware of micromanaging" but asked Kinder to think of the children and parents of children who don't graduate. "We're making a statement we're holding people accountable," she said. The discussion about achievement and a curriculum audit was sparked by a presentation about a facilities audit. Earlier in the night, the board heard from Carolyn Staskiewicz of DeJONG, an education consulting firm. The company would charge about $50,000 to evaluate the district's buildings, study demographics, gather community input and make recommendations about district needs. DeJONG is one of several companies the board is considering hiring. But board members said that before they could move forward with a facilities plan, they need to know programming and curriculum needs. "If we continue to fall in the hole maybe we won't need a facilities plan because students will be going somewhere else," Nenninger said. 388-3627 Comments  Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on semissourian.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.
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parent participation is still the key to success no mattter what the curriculum is. Of the graduation rate among minorities, how many have them quit school as soon as they were 16? those should not count toward graduation rate because they weren't there to complete the process. is graduation rate based upon entering Senior class or students when they enter 9th grade? The newspaper should look at that angle in reporting.
And yes, parent participation and role models are still the key to success.
I know for a FACT that a certain counselor at Cape central actually spends time encouraging students to quit. He actualy tells them that if they quit and get their GED that there is a special scholarship they can get for a free ride at SEMO if they score high enough on their GED. He did this when my daughter was there back in 2005 and was successful at talking at least 3 of her friends into quitting. My son is at that school now and I am the one who fights to keep him in school because if it was up to this counselor he wouldn't be!
I know for a FACT that a certain counselor at Cape central actually spends time encouraging students to quit. He actualy tells them that if they quit and get their GED that there is a special scholarship they can get for a free ride at SEMO if they score high enough on their GED. He did this when my daughter was there back in 2005 and was successful at talking at least 3 of her friends into quitting. My son is at that school now and I am the one who fights to keep him in school because if it was up to this counselor he wouldn't be!
Don't worry...Obama will save them all.
frazzled:
There is no male counselor at Cape Central. Your story is already falling apart...
Curriculum audits would be a waste of money. It's not the curriculum that is causing the failure rates of this group of students. We once took parent teacher conferences to the south side of Cape to try to reach the parents of students who "couldn't" make it to conferences at the school for whatever reason. Guess what.....The same parents came to it as came to the ones held at school.
There might be programs that can help the school instill the importance of education in students, but a curriculum audit won't do it. For students to stay in school, they have to think it is important to do so. With all that some of these kids have to deal with on a daily basis, and the attitudes of their parents, their education is the least of their worries. Until they can see that an education is the way out, it's not gonna happen.....
btw...I no longer teach at Cape, so I am not concerned about what a curriculum audit would do to me.....
It is my understanding, if a student chooses to drop out and then within a certain amount of time, takes and passes the GED, then this does not count as a dropout in the computation of dropout rates for a school.
Those kids are wearing shorts with short sleeve shirts! Recycled media FTL.
There was a male counselor there in 2005 as I quoted. He was also still there my son's first year at Central...and I know this since I had to deal directly with him. And he did indeed talked kids into quitting. Call Central and ask when did he leave before you accuse me of not being honest!
I love the way teachers ALWAYS blame parents. :(
Those of you who think it is the fault of parents- explain this. Why is ONLY Cape Girardeau public school failing? Why is it that Jackson, Scott City, and other public schools located in Cape county doing so much better than Cape city? Why are these other schools in our county having a much better success rate? Are you trying to say only in Cape Girardeau city are the parents not active and totally to blame for the public school's failing? Are the parents in Jackson, Scott City, Nell Holcomb area so much more superior? SE Missourian had an article in the Newcomers guide that compared every school in Cape county- and listed in a tabled format the drop out rate and test scores of each school. Cape Girardeau city had the highest drop out rate of them all.
Without reading the story or anyone's comments and simply making an outlandish comment based upon the title of this story I just want to say that this isn't a suprise. Notre Dame and Saxony will be paving their halls with gold tile as more and more parents wise up and go private.
Parents blame the teachers, the teacher blame the parents. If you are a teacher, you have more kids per room than you should, a pitiful salary, and have to buy supplies yourself. If you are a parent you are working a full time job and trying best as possible to be a good parent. It's not 1950 anymore. Double incomes and extra work hours lead to less time.
Regardless the kids are the ones suffering.
I've heard from several people regarding one of Cape's schools. It would appear that the problem lies not with the parents, not with the students and not with the teachers. The problem lies with an inept school administration and overbearing school district bureaucrats that won't let the teachers do their jobs.
The school system already has a consultant or two dictating curriculum and how it can be taught, and it hasn't helped so far (going on four years if I understand correctly.) To throw another $50k at the problem seems ludicrous.
The teachers are on the front line, they know the problems and how to fix them... I suggest we let them do their job instead of looking to a consultant, or a bureaucrat in the board office to solve the problem.
Let the TEACHERS teach.
The greatmoseley is absolutely correct. My wife teaches in the district, for now...Micromanaging is a joke...Curriculum audit is a joke...If the kids aren't interested, then making the curriculum easier or better won't matter a bit...If we have board members that think every kid has the ability to make a 36 on the ACT then we need new board members...
The greatmoseley is absolutely correct. My wife teaches in the district, for now...Micromanaging is a joke...Curriculum audit is a joke...If the kids aren't interested, then making the curriculum easier or better won't matter a bit...If we have board members that think every kid has the ability to make a 36 on the ACT then we need new board members...
The great moseley is right
frazzled...unfortunately, I can say that within the group of children with the greatest risk of failure/drop out, parent involvement is the key. Cape also has a higher rate of that risk group than the surrounding areas you mentioned. I hate to put it that way, but that's what it comes down to. ALL parents are not to blame, even within that group, but if parents don't take an interest in their childrens' education, the kids sure won't either. 99% of parents who show up at parent teacher conferences are parents of kids doing well in school. Their kids are doing well in school because their parents have taught them, by their involvement, that education is important. They have made sure their children attend school, do their homework, study, etc. IN GENERAL parent involvement is the fastest route to increasing student success.
Don't anyone dare to correlate the black student population with the performance numbers. We should be thankful we are more diverse in the Cape school system than those more culturally competent districts in the area. Cape should be compared to the public schools in Charleston, Sikeston, and New Madrid, not Jackson, Perryville, and Scott City. And especially not Notre Dame and Saxony, because not only are they not diverse in ethnicity, but they are not even diverse in their ability not to believe in God. Unless those schools increase their numbers of blacks, atheists, and yes, homosexuals, they will never attain the appreciation of diversity that the lower achieving schools have realized.
How do they increase their numbers of black students? Either they go there or they don't. Should they start recruiting minorities and homosexuals, maybe even a few muslims to realize the dream? Read what you write before you send it.
The biggest problem is that people think this has to do with the schools and it does not for the most part. Maybe it has something to do with so many kids coming from broken homes? Maybe it has to do with kids moving every six months, or perhaps living below the poverty line?
Then there are the kids who have a family who is just fine but do not care. If you think I am about to stand on my head and do cartwheels to get this kids to pay attention you are out of your mind. Apparently, if it is not entertaining it is not good teaching. Hate to burst your bubble kids you will do a lot of things in life you don't want to. If I hear the word engaged one more time I will vomit. Either you WANT to be educated or you DON'T. It all starts at home. So stop blaming schools all the time and look in the mirror.
ithica...I think truthselfevident was being sarcastic....
truthselfevident was getting close. Parental involvement is the primary issue, but he/she brought up another issue. Some socioeconomic groups value education more than others. If your mom was a high school drop out & lives off of government money, she will see your education as something less important than if she had a college degree & works for a living. Poor, lazy people can be of any color, not just black. I've run across a lot of lazy white people in my time.
Something else to consider: More kids in the second group (educated parents) are more likely to place their children in private schools where they will not be surrounded by kids who belong in juvie. That decrease in high performing students artificially decreases test scores/graduation rates in the public school.
I don't have time to do the, but I wonder how the "free & reduced lunch" populations vary in these schools as well as attendence of Parent-Teacher Conferences.
Maybe the school system should look into the learning styles of their students and then work in a system that can help them learn better.
That is an audit they should honestly and strongly consider.
Consider Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, Frederick Douglass. Edison, Lincoln, and Douglass had little to no FORMAL school time...did they become successful? Why? Einstein was not considered a "good" student. How was he able to achieve success? The sad fact is there is a true battle for the lives of our youth. While the adults chase after this cause and that reason, wasting time and money in an endless cycle, the children keep slipping away. It is definitely time that WE, as a community, ask the questions that matter most. What IS success? What will MOST benefit our youth? How can WE ALL pull together to empower them to reach their fullest potential. Curriculum...Standardized Testing...these do not equate with SUCCESS...Kids are dropping out because they're bored, overcome by negative temptations, uninspired, and disoriented. They lack PURPOSE. Why and how did Douglass, Edison, Lincoln succeed?
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Albert Einstein