The newest goal of the Charleston County School District is that all of its high school graduates will be able to read their own diplomas.
Now, some not familiar with CCSD might wonder what was going on before this. Don't ask. It's too embarrassing. The P&C should pride itself on Tuedsay's headline, Literacy Backed as Schools' Top Job. If not for a series of articles revealing the illiteracy secret within CCSD's schools, reading still would be at the bottom of the heap!
Cynics may point out that this new focus is another in a long line of promises made and not kept. The antidote is to keep the heat on. Do you hear that, Diette?
Meanwhile, it becomes clearer that the District will never share the results of last summer's enrichment programs touted as the model for future remediation. Theywould undermine confidence in and funding for the new set up. While pointing out that the literacy program needs the penalty of not promoting students if they do not participate in the summer programs meant to raise reading scores, McGinley said, "last summer's voluntary programs [are] an example [. . . where] some students came only sporadically, which lessened the programs' effect."
Translation: An analysis of the students attending last summer's voluntary programs shows little to no improvement in their reading scores.
Not encouraging. Let's hope for the best.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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Regardless of how Ann Oplinger chooses to define what constitutes a percentage of responders worthy of consideration, more than a few don't believe anything Nancy McGinley says. It is unlikely she is seriously committed to anything beyond the continued recycling of her shop worn "new" programs.
Those in the trenches say it best. I found the comments of one North Charleston middle school parent very much on the mark about the prospects of the latest "new" plan issued by the superintendent. It's even more troubling what is being said about a new state-of-the-art middle school and the people McGinley put in place to administer what was supposed to be a science and math oriented middle school. This parent has a lot to say on the P&C comments under this article earlier today (12-15-2009). Most of it is worth repeating here:
"ccsd parent wrote:
"I am the parent of a student who attends Zucker Middle in North Charleston. Let me start off by saying, that this school, which was billed as the next coming of Christ, is a complete mess. The students are out of control, the administration is completely disorganized, and the teachers do not care. My child, a seventh grade student was given the same grade for both reading and ELA, because the reading teacher left her position due to illness in October. The school has had a sub, which is not a certified teacher (I checked) and has done nothing in terms of literacy with the students. For a literacy push, something is wrong with this picture, why was my child given the same grade for two separate classes? Is this million dollar school and disrict too cheap to hire another teacher, when literacy is so important? So if my child was failing one class English, they would also be failing Reading under this logic? I spoke with another parent who brought up this issue in a conference with the principal and teachers, and NOTHING WAS SAID, ZERO EXPLANATION. I also heard from another parent and my child, that Zucker Middle had an incident of abuse by an Aide who shoved a Kleenex into a child’s mouth because they would not stop talking, but it was covered up by the administration. I also heard that the administration forced teachers to change grades so students were eligible for sports. Same cover-up BS in CCSD.
"12/15/2009 3:40 PM EST on Post and Courier."
Not very encouraging, is it?
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