Why now? That's the question CCSD parents should ask themselves.Oh, yes. I know what Janet Rose said--that there were too many qualified applicants for Academic Magnet High School (AMHS), and to avoid its being "elitist," a lottery should select those admitted.
Why now? Because AMHS enjoys national recognition now.
And those parents who previously sent their children away to Choate and Phillips Andover or signed them up for Porter-Gaud or Ashley Hall are thinking to themselves, "Wait a minute. Why spend tens of thousands per year for what we can get for free in a nationally-ranked local school"?
Everything was going along so swimmingly for CCSD until AMHS became full about four years ago; then, based on a School Improvement Committee recommendation, the school began to rank applicants on four criteria--and admit them according to that ranking. No wonder we've been hearing rumblings on this blog regarding Buist Academy students who haven't made it into AMHS.
Yes, that's correct. Graduation from Buist Academy is no longer an automatic ticket to the Academic Magnet High School! Gregg Meyers and his ilk should breathe a sigh of relief that their children have already completed their public school education!
Of COURSE, rankings will eliminate some Buist applicants; no one (except a few deluded Buist parents) claims that the school has cornered the market on the brightest students in CCSD. Certainly, the YCAT doesn't test for that, as everyone who's paying attention already knows.
Logic would seem to suggest that the solution for so many bright, well-qualified students would be to make AMHS larger to accomodate them.
When did CCSD ever operate according to logic? No, CCSD self-interest suggests the lottery solution.
Why, if AMHS took all of those qualified students, their high schools' test scores would drop; their principals and the district superintendent would look bad! That's logical, also.
If the most talented CCSD students will attend AMHS on a roll of the dice, CCSD needs to ask itself why it has a magnet high school at all. What philosophy justifies leveling by lottery?
To put the icing on the cake, in Wednesday's P & C article, Courrege stated that "District officials . . . say they have to adhere to the county school board's policy on the process, but they're not sure what that policy is. To figure it out, they are going through nearly 20 years of archived paper records."
In fact, they'll let us know when they finish inventing it.
Do they really believe they can manipulate admission into AMHS as they have for Buist?
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36 comments:
I think they've got it backwards. Change Buist not AMHS. Someone has gone so far as to suggest that they change Buist Academy to a system more like AMHS. Drop K thru 3rd and then only admit the top applicants by rank on PACT scores and established classroom performance. That would solve two major problems at Buist: The farce known as YCAT wouldn't be needed & address cheats would all but disappear.
Yes, CCSD clearly wants to "dumb down" AMHS just like they did Buist. With Janet Rose's lottery system in place they will be able to justify why the son of a well connected person in town is admitted while another more qualified student isn't admitted. Buist has gone downhill dramatically both academically and in terms of discipline since Ms. Triffiletti was replaced by our good friend Sallie Ballard. Don't be surprised if Janet Rose and Sallie Ballard choose some sort of ridiculous eighth grade version of the YCAT for AMHS admissions. This will enable the Buist establishment to have what they have now on the high school level.
Thanks for helping to explain how the admissions process to these two schools differ. I wasn't aware they were so different until it was pointed out on this blog. Part of CCSD's problem is they make everything so mysterious and secret. No wonder they have a public trust problem. I agree with those who say leave the current process at AMHS alone if it works.
I would not worry too much about this. Parents at Academic Magnet are generally opposed to lowering admissions standards because doing so would hurt our children’s chances of getting into top tier schools. The Buist alums will have to compete on a level playing field based on merit.
The cheaters may not know it, but now that their children have been identified, the “sins of the parents” will be visited upon the children. If the child of a known cheater is competing with a child of a non-cheater for a slot at Academic Magnet, I suspect the non-cheater will get some extra consideration. This is not official policy of course, but it is how many of us think this should play out.
Maybe there are still some examples of integrity after all to be found within a system as big and as corrupt as CCSD.
Anonymous 11:05 p.m. (first commenter) has a good point about raising Buist's admissions standards--make it a fourth through eighth grade school and double the size of those classes as they are now. Use the admissions process now in place at AMHS. Sounds good to me. Of course, Janet Rose will say that's elitist.
That's a great idea, Babbie.
Janet never believed in testing 4 and 5 year olds anyway. She recommended to the board years ago that Buist not start before 2nd grade.
You all may be on to something here. Talk about a level playing field. Not all parents can afford private pre-k prep schools. Until CCSD makes 4-year old kindergarten universally available, then to say testing 4 & 5 year old using any standardized test for kids that haven't been preped by the same standard is unfair and elitist. Why not start Buist later (say 2nd or 3rd grade)? They could get a much better idea what a kid's true potential is on a level playing field. All kids attend kindergarten and 1st grade somewhere, so the private pre-k prep becomes less of an advantage 2 or 3 years later.
Buist could easily improve its public image and give fair access to more children from all backgrounds if it approached its admissions process differently. I never heard anyone in D20 complain about access to AMHS. An exception might be they complained that downtown schools...those without the extras that Buist got... weren't preparing their kids to be competative on a level for AMHS. Only Buist seemed to be able to do that.
If the admissions process at Buist were to be made fair and not the fraud that it is, I'd bet D20 might even consider giving up its guaranteed seats. Of course they would want appropriate concessions to improve other downtown schools in exchange. D20's guaranteed seats at Buist have turned out to be a lie anyway.
So why not fix Buist and make it more like AMHS? CCSD might find they can solve some of the D20 issues in the process.
Oh, so from what I'm reading in Saturday's P&C the county board never approved the current policy anyway. Has anyone bothered to check to see if they really approved many of the policies they say they are following? It's getting so that when ever some CCSD bureaucrat says "You can't get there from here" a parent should simply say "Show me the policy...in writing."
One of the biggest problems in District 20 is that even a "magnet" school like Charleston Progressive did not have the course offerings to enable kids to qualify for the AMHS. Buist magnet children were given foreign language starting in Kindergarten and nearly every other middle school within CCSD also offered foreign language. Therefore, the only high school option for District 20 children was Burke if they did not get into Buist. I am told that CPA finally has one Spanish teacher this year for K-8. You might recall that Buist has 4.
Isn't it true that Mr. Tolley is gone and AMHS has only an interim principal? The same is true for School of the Arts from what I read in the paper. Did CCSD work it out this way to fundamentally change the admissions processes at both schools without having to deal with a school leader getting in their way? How would you AMHS parents feel to have Sallie Ballard promoted to run your school? She should be in line for a promotion. Clearly she is a brilliant administrator to acquire the PACT scores that Buist attains. Come on, AMHS parents, what do you think? CCSD has done things that are even more backwards before.
Buist should go to North Charleston too. Give us our school back. Call it the Academic Magnet Middle School. We don't need that kind of corruption in District 20. CCSD will get their way and change AMHS to suit their needs. However, they will be surprised to discover that it will no longer be something to boast of. It will be another Buist.
Who is the Buist establishment? I know from reading this blog that Gregg Meyers, Toya Hampton Green, Robert New, Janet Rose and many board members and higher ups at CCSD have had all of their children at Buist. That is a powerful group. It would make sense that they would like to shape the AMHS to fit the same mold as Buist. Thank God the Charter School at Rivers will happen.
One way CCSD operates is NOT to put policies in writing. For example, Charleston Progressive can be named a magnet school without receiving what people of common sense expect in a magnet school. CCSD gets away with this unequal treatment because no policy exists stating what a magnet school is. Gregg Meyers has even pointedy stated that this non-policy allows CCSD to treat CPA in an unequal fashion legally.
Are the investigators at the US Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) reading this blog? If not, someone should contact them and let them know about it. Nothing like federal investigators asking questions of lying, thieving CCSD officials but being armed with knowing what the answers should be in advance. BTW, what's the progress so far on the OCR investigation into complaints about inequities between Buist and CPA?
Don't worry about Sallie Ballard moving up into the AMHS principal's spot. Though I'm sure she'd love to have it, she's not certified as a secondary school administrator. That may also explain why she's been so unsuccessful in handling so many problems with the middle school grades at Buist.
Academic Magnet has a prinicapl, she is Carol Tempel. She is not interim.
Please tell me why certain CCSD officials and even some parents associated with AMHS have said that CCSD is conducting a "national search" for a new principal for AMHS if Carol Temple is the permanent and not interim principal?
She was given the permanent job a while back. Her old postition is now being posted on the CCSD website. I guess the national search ended with her. She was a great candidate and has done a great job.
We've screwed Carol Temple over time and time again...why stop now?
Babbie,
I think we can all agree on one thing...Gregg Meyers is NOT very bright when it comes to analyzing legal matters. Of course, that's why he surrounds himself with the people on our school board.
Remember he said "people have a constitutional right to travel" when Mario White (Buist SIC president) asked him if the Dist. 20 board's policy for students to maintain their Dist. 20 residency was legal. HUH???
If your kid is at a magnet school like St. Andrews Math & Science or at Jennie Moore, and you move out of the attendance zone you entered on, the policy says you have to give up your spot and transfer to the school in your new attendance zone at the end of the semester. Would someone please show me the WRITTEN policy that says if you entered Buist through a Dist. 20 lottery slot and you move off the peninsula, you DON'T have to change ANYTHING?
At the very minimum when a kid moves out of Dist. 20, that assignment needs to be freed up and the student should be listed as occupying a county-wide seat at Buist if one is available.
What's so hard for Gregg Meyers to understand? If he was really trying to stop the cheating he'd have come up with a fair solution long ago? Someone should ask him to answer questions like these in public. Maybe he can explain what "a Buist parent has a constitutional right to travel" means at the same time. Well doesn't a Jennie Moore parent have the same right?
Well, I learn new permutations of CCSD's convoluted "policies" almost every day. Never knew that students moving out of attendance zones for other magnet schools had to leave at the end of the semester. No doubt, Meyers will say Buist's policy makes sense because it is a COUNTY-wide magnet. Sure.
Babbie: That's exactly what Gregg Meyers has said and more than once. But he's never been made to show the differences as they appear in written policies. It's time someone called his bluff.
If CCSD can't manage its own Buist Academy lottery system or eliminate cheating on admissions forms, how can anyone feel comfortable having the same process used for the Academic Magnet High School? The public at least has some confidence in knowing how the current process works at AMHS. Only the people who get in seem to have any confidence in how the system is working at Buist.
Can someone suggest something besides the lottery? Do you know that last year the AMHS administrators not only ranked,but they also held a lottery, and most disappointing they changed scores for students that were lower than the 13.5 catagorie which in turn cheated others out of a spot.
I'm not a AMHS parent so someone may have to explain how the application to AMHS works. I'm not sure I understand what Anonymous 9:27 is saying about rankings and a lottery.
Last year:
373 applicants applied and were scored according to the criteria. The top 170 scored applicants resulting in a score that cut off at 13.75 were offered the 170 spots. When all of those did not accept the spots they dropped down to the next catagory of the 13.5 applicants and because there were more in this catagory that spots they had a lottery. Also some children had scores changed to qualify them into the 13.5 catagory prior to the lottery. Ie: if your first score was a 12.75 and your parents brought additional documentation in to the administrators the childs score was changed which now put them in the lottery. Do you see the problem?
What kind of "additional documentation" would result in a score being changed from 12.75 to 13.5? The rest of the explanation makes sense. Please forgive my ignorance, but would you also explain a little about the ratings, too? What's the significance of a 13.75, 13.5, 12.75 or a 4.5 for that matter? Thanks in advance for your patience.
The following letter to the Editor appeared in today's Post and Courier. I do not know Mr. and Mrs. Cerato, but it strikes me as disingenuous that any Buist parent would use the words "lottery" and "fair" in the same sentence. In fact, "fair lottery" when used in the CCSD context is a textbook example of an "oxymoron."
I do not believe that Mr. and Mrs. Cerato were some of the Buist cheaters. But, they certainly benefited from the actions of the Buist cheaters because their child did not have to compete against some of the cheaters for slots because the cheaters were unfairly competing against District 20 residents for slots.
The admissions system at Academic Magnet High School has worked well and has given a slight advantage to the truly gifted over the merely "qualified applicants"(that's what academic magnet schools are designed to do.) And everyone else has eaten from the same plate. So from time to time, the more talented win out. In short, Mr. and Mrs. Cerato, you will not always be able to put the fix in—tell your child to either work harder, perform better, or be prepared to lose out to those who are more talented.
Equal opportunity
It is amazing how many people play politics with public education. This issue is not about lowering the standards. (It never has been.)
The standards are the same high requirements that the Academic Magnet High School has always had.
This issue is only about equal opportunity. This is not a state or private college (choice and cost). This is a public high school totally paid for by the government (required).
All qualified applicants (residents) must be given an equal opportunity. If a child has met the same high standards, they must be allowed equal opportunity.
If there are too few slots, the only fair way is by lottery.
JOSEPH and KARI CERATO
2690 Burden Creek Road
Johns Island
Actually there are other public schools in SC that rank their applicants, including the School of the Arts here in CCSD and the Governors schools. Also 9 out of the 10 schools on the Newsweek top public high schools use a ranking system.
And the system of ranking is equal opportunity. If you are going to have a lottery, then you need to open it up to all.
If AMHS has a lottery, then you'll need to change the School of the Arts over to one also. Not to mention you'll have to do all of the school athletic teams by lottery. We would need to give everyone an equal chance.
Our kids will learn that there is no reason to work hard, they can all become mediocre adults who don't know how to compete for jobs.
To the anonymous commentor at 9:27 -- these are some suggestions from a letter I wrote to the school board and to the AMHS community:
-Enhance the resources of AMHS so it can accommodate more students.
-Explore ways to improve objective analysis of suitability for a hard-core academic environment in addition to (or even to replace) GPA.
-Maybe even begin to model other schools after this one’s successful traits.
-Ensure that all middle schools are providing students with the opportunity to take the classes they need to be prepared for an environment like AMHS.
But leave the merit-based system its focus and allow the Magnet’s students to retain the environment they deserve. Remember that the school's success reflects its students' successes; change the way you recruit the student body and you will change the success of the school inevitably in a negative way.
Given that CCSD claims that the admissions policy may have changed over the years, how can Mr. and Mrs. Cerato claim "The standards are the same high requirements that the Academic Magnet High School has always had?"
Buist's admissions process is not fair. It never has been. How can you determine who will be smarter a 5 year old or another 5 year old?
First of all about the admission's process, I was there when the whole riot started. Academic Magnet's guidance consueler was giving us some information about the Magnet. So someone asks about the admission's process and he said something about a lotto. All of theese parents got up and ran over to 75 Calhoun, parents who had cheated their way into Buist to begin with! Frenzied parents throwing fits about a lotto. I thought about it and was fine with it.
You see at Buist they fill out an application for you to go to the Magnet and the guidance consueler spends hours talking about the essay and how it has to be exactly. There is so much weight on our shoulders to begin with and I look over and see people who could afford private school, who have a good school in their area throwing fits about the Magnet and I was mad, I live in North Charleston and my dad live Down Town. I didn't cheat lie or steal my way into Buist. I feel just as much pressure because if I don't get into one of my top three I can't just go to Wando and I can't just go to Lawerenceville, and I can't go to the new Math and Science charter school because of my career cluster of choice. So I am stuck. When I heard the word lotto I was happy because for once in my life if I didn't make it in I wouldn't spend hours and hours doubting myself and being envious of Marie Curie. With the way the admission proccess is divided which we have studied like hawks a lotto would be so much more easy and it would take the guidance consueler off of our backs yelling "MAGNET!!!!" It gets harder to get in every year last year you had to have a 13.75 to get accepted I think, the year before it was a 12.5 or at least we were told, so it is getting harder and harder and it gets more and more stressful....
I wish there was a school that I could go to besides the few ones where I wouldn't end up working at Mc Donalds for the rest of my life.
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