Will Diversity Ever Come to Burke High School?

Amid all the concerns in the Charleston County School District, ex-Superintendent McGinley decided to move "diversity" closer to the top of the list. Hence, the hiring of a "diversity expert." Evidently, diversity is the new buzz-word for quasi-quota systems (nod to the Oscar furor). 

Diversity spokesmen are now making the case that the admissions process of the Academic Magnet High School prevents diversity. The presumption is that in order to function in a multi-cultural society, students at AMHS must attend classes with a larger percentage of black students.

What about the students at Burke High/Middle? Shouldn't someone be concerned that, in order to function in a multi-cultural society, its students must attend classes with a larger percentage of white students? McGinley threw several half-hearted bandaids at the problem of 99% black enrollment at the school, but she (and the school board) was never really serious. 

Many in the community wish to continue Burke's tradition as a black high school. What would Martin Luther King, Jr., say about that goal?

CCSD Officially Crosses Insanity Line with Expanding APs

You know the definition: doing something over and over again and expecting different results.

How do you know when Charleston County School Superintendent McGinley is lying? Yes, when her lips are moving. She claims that spending another $900,000 to place 14 AP teachers in low-performing high schools is important because "we have to address the very capable students and make sure they're not being forgotten in some of our schools." Not.

No, the problem presents itself when capable students in areas served by low-performing schools petition the School Board to transfer to schools that have more AP courses. McGinley is attempting to keep more capable students in their own designated schools, thereby raising the academic climate in those schools. Nevermind that many years ago CCSD made the decision to skim off the academic cream and put it into the Academic Magnet and School of the Arts at the urging of "haves" such as Gregg Myers, thus leaving only middle-to-poor performing students in the rest of the high schools, with the exception of gigantic Wando. (CCSD could put all 300 of Burke's students into Wando with the effect of an elephant's swallowing a gnat.)

AP courses are great--for those students who have the background to succeed in them. AP preparation needs to begin as early as sixth grade for students from low-income and low-educational background to succeed. Burke's AP Academy is a case in point. Prior to AP, students need "Pre-AP," or Honors-level courses for at least three years. The accepted wisdom of the edublob is that would be discriminatory, so students who might have been otherwise capable will not qualify on the AP exam, which cannot be fudged, as with so many other measures of academic merit. No doubt Burke's AP teachers are competent and motivated and take their charges as far as possible, but spending $1.2 million over a four-year period to get a result of 10 "passes" out of 376 exams taken is wasteful. The students would be better off if the district gave each of them the $120,000 that their scores represent. Don't forget that most of the testing fees for these 366 students who did not pass were paid by the taxpayers of South Carolina. 

CCSD needs to get real about enriching programs in the lower grades feeding these high schools if it is to avoid throwing good money after bad. 

Oh, that's right. It's OPM.

Deja Vu on CCSD's Failing Schools

Burke. North Charleston HS. Stall HS. Sanders-Clyde. Burns.

"No Berkeley or Dorchester County schools were in this group," according to today's newspaper. Really? Don't you wonder why CCSD has the honor of five schools located on the peninsula and in North Charleston that have achieved the notoriety of the Palmetto Priority List? (Why, the list doesn't even include all of the failing schools that district administration has shuttered instead of improving over the last few years!)

Despite her training at and assistance from the Broad Institute, Superintendent McGinley has now proved she doesn't have the qualities and wisdom to "fix" the problem. Who else remembers the glory days when Sanders-Clyde made great strides in its test scores? Why, McGinley was so impressed that she made its principal head of two schools simultaneously. She supposedly had no clue regarding the scandal that finally came out of the closet--organized changing of answers on the tests. And the principal was allowed to escape to a district in North Carolina. Isn't it lucky?

What McGinley has managed to accomplish is new and/or expensively remodeled buildings that should be showplaces for learning. The building program has also been a boon to construction firms. Not to teachers.  Not to students. If a state-of-the-art building could fix these schools' problems, we would not be talking about them now.

Memory Lane 2010: Burke's AP Academy

This time last year, I blogged concerning the poor results of AP testing at Superintendent Nancy McGinley's much-touted AP Academy at Burke High School.

Has anything changed (i.e., improved)? It's too much to hope that my recommendations were followed!

One More Try at AP Proficiency in CCSD

Over the next three years the Charleston County School District will receive nearly $2 million in federal tax dollars to prepare for and improve Advanced Placement classes at five high-minority and high-poverty middle and high schools in North Charleston. Since CCSD's policies of placing so many magnet schools in North Charleston have drained achieving students from these schools over the last decade, the news should be welcomed.

The College Board's Advanced Placement program does indeed have much to recommend it, not the least of which is that the exams are not locally graded; hence, no dumbing down to get the desired results as so happens with state testing. A solid background that begins at least as early as middle school (and preferably in elementary school) must precede the rigorous requirements of high school AP courses. One need look only to Burke for the poor results in its AP academy, caused not by its teachers, who do yeoman service, but by the weak backgrounds of students entering such courses.

If CCSD uses its dollars wisely (always questionable), such a large sum of money should go a long way towards alleviating discrepancies with other areas of CCSD. Why, even Superintendent McGinley has suggested that "she also would like to identify more gifted and talented students in elementary schools, so they can take more accelerated classes."

Does she really mean what she says? Taking children who are on or ahead of grade level and separating them from the majority of students who cannot read well? That would require--horrors--tracking. Educrats of the last two or three decades would roll over in their graves.

Of course, having a First-Grade or Third-Grade or Sixth-Grade Academy amounts to the same, just in different schools. Maybe the old ways weren't so bad after all.

Burke AP Academy = Honors Track

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

In this case, however, the name is reputation. In an effort to "rebrand" Burke High School, present Principal Charles Benton committed to an "AP Academy." [See AP Academy at Burke High School] and CCSD committed $250,000 to develop it. However, "The Charleston County School Board initially budgeted $250,000 for the new program, but the school received only a portion of that, which was enough to hire two extra teachers and provide bus transportation for its students."

Is there some reason why the P & C couldn't report how much of the original amount was spent this year? Well, Benton hoped for 100 students, so the budget must have assumed $2500 per student. Since only 30 enrolled (and 25 are left), at the same spending rate the program would have cost $75,000. It seems unlikely that two teachers and bus costs were that inexpensive, but maybe.

Frankly, I applaud the reinstituting of an honors track at Burke; I just don't see why it has to be a special program. I find it hard to believe that Burke didn't already have teachers who could teach at pre-AP level.

But $2500 per student!

Mr. Benton, how about your students (and you know you have them) who can't read? Where are the priorities?

Why Lack Details for AP Academy at Burke?

Do you think that it ever occurs to Superintendent McGinley and the rest of the staff at 75 Calhoun that more details about CCSD programs might just make them more accepted by the public that CCSD serves?

The thought occurred to me, anyway, as I read about a week-long film-making orientation at the AP Academy at Burke High School as reported in Wednesday's P & C. Oh, yes, it was publicity of a sort. However, so many details were omitted regarding the program that you wonder what the reporter had her mind on when she interviewed Juanita Middleton, the program's coordinator. Or did the reporter interview anyone?

Most of the story clearly was based on a press release, not surprisingly, given the P & C's propensity to parrot whatever the District hands it and ask no embarrassing questions. In fact, now that I look again at the short article, I do wonder if the reporter spoke to anyone. See what you think:

The Advanced Placement Academy at Burke High School kicked off orientation last week with a filmmaking workshop that ended Friday with the presentation of a film made by students titled "My Charleston."

Filmmaker Portia Cobb, currently a visiting filmmaker at College of Charleston, instructed Burke's rising ninth-graders, members of the new academy.

[snip]

"My objective is to motivate the students to explore image-making and storytelling through brief, individual autobiographical vignettes that will be edited together as a finale for the intensive five-day workshop," she said in a press release [italics mine].

[snip]

Juanita Middleton, coordinator of the AP Academy, also appeared in the film [italics mine] to talk about her belief in God and in her students.

Middleton said she faces skepticism and criticism of the academy which, beginning next school year, will offer rigorous advanced placement and honors courses to prepare participating students for college.

Is she worried about the success of the program?

Middleton responded with confidence:

"I'm not worried about it. I never worry. I just do," she said.

Was that an interview or a record of what Middleton said in the film? Of course, reporters use press releases all the time. However, it would be nice if the article had teased us with a few facts--such as why orientation took place in June, whether other activities are planned for the summer, how many students participated in the orientation, etc., especially if CCSD plans to build community support for what promises to be a difficult new venture. The last time we heard from CCSD on the subject of its AP Academy in May it had recruited 27 for the 100 spaces allotted. Did the reporter know that?

See for yourself: Burke's AP Academy Starts with Filmmaking Workshop.