Unnamed Schools Feed Alice Birney's Problems

Pardon me if I seem to harp on the effects of NCLB testing and ratings, but the reading program at Alice Birney Middle School touted in Monday's P & C would not be in place today if it were not for the school's multiple years of failing grades. [See You Can't Believe They Can't Read.', the second in a series on illiteracy in Charleston County.] CCSD would be going its merry way, mostly satisfying the middle-class suburbs and ignoring the poor.

The efforts of Principal Carol Beckmann-Bartlett and school psychologist Amber Brundage to remedy a train wreck in the making are admirable. According to the school, "Some Birney students can read only 20 [words per minute]. Some students don't know the difference between consonant or vowel sounds. Others concentrate so hard on understanding individual words that they don't understand what they've read at the end of a passage." That the two agreed the nonsensical approach of ignoring the obvious must end is to be applauded; however, why weren't such efforts made earlier in the education of these students?

The article misleadingly quotes national statistics on proficient readers to show that the school's problem is a national one. We're not dealing with proficient here, just satisfactory! If the problem is so widespread, let's see the statistics on Cario Middle.

Annoyingly, Courrege's article neglects to name the elementary schools that feed into Alice Birney. Is that too sensitive? Why wasn't it appropriate to go back to those principals to ask what happened to reading in their schools? Were they informed that students must be administratively promoted? Is that going to be the next installment? It should be!

Again, we have students who have been labeled as learning disabled who simply have an education deficit. Are you angry yet? And who believes lack of money is the problem?

Lipstick on a Pig: North Charleston's Middle Schools

Question: If you had the option to send your own children to a better-performing school, would you take it? Would you decide that your child's education is too important to experiment with based on promises from CCSD's administrators? Or would you take the chance that disciplinary and academic conditions in the failing school your child is slated to attend have changed? See Thursday's North Charleston Schools Courting Students.

For most of us, that's what's known as a "no-brainer."

NCLB in this case is working quite effectively! Parents who care are opting out of Brentwood, Alice Birney, and Morningside Middle Schools in North Charleston because, because--they can! Now ordinary, middle-to-lower-income parents have the choice that richer parents have opted for all along. How American!

The P & C doesn't like this situation, and neither does CCSD. Surprised?

In the story splashed across the front of Thursday's local section, the reporter makes no mention of NCLB. If you weren't paying attention to CCSD's situation, you might have assumed that students were going elsewhere in the district on a whim! Courrege's lead says, "Hundreds of North Charleston children opt to go to middle schools elsewhere in the district rather than trying the ones in their neighborhoods." The REST OF THE STORY appears in the back pages.

According to Patricia Yandle of the District office, "Each of the three North Charleston middle schools has at least 95 students who plan to transfer to other higher-performing middle schools next school year under the federal No Child Left Behind law. . . . Most of those students were incoming sixth-graders." Of course, the schools' principals want this cadre of parents to stay. These would be the most involved in their children's education. ALMOST makes you feel sorry for them.

However, changing "perceptions" about these schools is NOT what is needed. REAL change is! And it is happening, just too slowly for these parents. Losing students like these to other schools is causing CCSD to attempt change, as can be seen from the list of "goodies" held out to the parents like an olive branch--technology, arts-infusion, single-sex core classes. Does anyone believe these attempts would have been made without the pressure of NCLB?

When the so-called "rumors" about these schools stop, when their failing status under NCLB changes, THEN these students will return. Well, not these students. By then these will have graduated from other schools that are not failing.

Principal Likes Lack of Parental Contact?

Somehow, I don't believe that Alice Birney Middle School's new principal had quite the above message in mind when she was interviewed by the P & C's reporter for Monday's article. Nevertheless, that is the gist of her delight in being able to pursue academics instead of answering to parents all day at her previous school, Cario Middle. [See Birney principal relishes tough assignment ]

According to the article

"[Carol] Beckmann-Bartlett spends more time doing what she wants to as a principal at Birney. She's able to focus on her responsibility of leading instruction.

At Cario, constant distractions pulled her away from academic work, such as parents who would demand to talk to the principal and not anyone else. If those parents had been willing to talk to the appropriate staff person at the school, their problems could've been resolved in five minutes versus the hour that it would eat up of Beckmann-Bartlett's time, she said. Entire days would pass in which she did not have a conversation about academics.

At Birney, parents respect the chain of command, which enables Beckmann-Bartlett to focus on instruction. "

Let me get this right. The district wants parents to be more involved with their children's education; however, if that involvement means that parents want to speak to the principal, that involvement is NOT wanted. Also, parents in wealthy districts, such as Cario, don't "respect the chain of command," but poorer parents do. Are you smiling, reader?

Certainly, everyone wishes Ms. Beckmann-Bartlett success in leading Alice Birney and its teachers. One wonders, however, how this particular principal came to the attention of the P & C. It's not too far a leap to assume that CCSD invited this interview in its campaign for CCSD teachers to voluntarily move from successful to failing schools.

It's also not too far-fetched to assume that Ms. Beckmann-Bartlett is following a game plan set up by Superintendent McGinley. You see, her transfer to a problem school, turning it around (or at least improving its performance), and then applying to the Broad Foundation for a fellowship to be trained as an "urban" principal is exactly the path blazed by McGinley in Philadelphia.

The article also touts how discipline is handled at Alice Birney.

The way Birney teachers handle discipline offenses is one example. They take a team approach in dealing with misbehavior and recommend consequences. In most schools, one teacher refers a student to school administrators, who decide what to do. Although Birney's process takes more time, it limits emotional recommendations from teachers and enables deeper discussions about ways to better handle students, Beckmann-Bartlett said.

I wasn't aware that this school is known for its good discipline. Is it?