I'm glad to see Geoff Chang singled out for praise. He does a great job of welcoming teachers AND students. I've been very pleased with the job he's doing at Crittenden.

I haven't read the report (link?) but I want to say that from my experiences at two schools there is as little help and differentiation for kids that are very high achievers and need to be challenged more as there seems to be for English learners and kids who are struggling.

What happened to the GATE program? Why was my kid tested, designated GATE, and then given no differentiated instruction at all? She's bored and withdrawn and the district is failing her too.

The district does a decent job of educating kids in the middle but isn't serving those at both ends of the spectrum. I hope this becomes part of the conversation too.

It'd be useful if the voice included links to the sources for their conclusions (e.g., re: Stevenson's students with disabilities point)

Here (Web Link is an independent analysis of the school district's test results. Readers are encouraged to provide comments on this independent analysis here.

Why should MV school district be any different than any other district in CA. I think if you researched other districts- the SAME issue is present in over 90% of them! There is not enough state money to go around...so education gets the bottom priority- sad as it is! We don't pay our teachers enough! Our district offices are overworked! What do we expect really...its a vicious spiral downward at this point.

Since the Voice didn't provide it, here it is if you want to read the reports yourself. For the schools that I'm most familiar with, I thought the reports did a good job of accurately capturing what's working and what isn't:

Web Link

@"Here is the link" a resident of Monta Loma

Thank you! I hadn't seen those reports before

Ok, I'm going to speak in some general ways right now.

You can't teach some kids, you just can't. Why? Because they don't want to be taught. Why? Because their parents don't value an education. Why? Who knows.. lots of reasons. Probably their parents didn't care either.

We waste so much money trying to educate people who don't want an education. It's just silly.

Talk to the teachers. Ask them how frustrating it is to send homework home with kids and have it come back untouched. No amount of attention in the classroom can beat a parent at home who doesn't value an education.

In the end the world still needs ditch diggers.

In response to the argument that you can't teach some kids because the kids don't want to be taught and the parents don't care.

Have you tried? As an individual, I mean. Have you actually sat down with a struggling kid for ten or twenty hours spread over a few weeks and tried to teach them?

I have. Sometimes it worked quite well and the student really took off. Sometimes it didn't really work at all. But it worked often enough that I don't believe the "it is all impossible" argument.

That said, I try not to send my own kids to a mixed ability "differentiated" classroom. I have met dozens of teachers who claim to differentiate. But, if you visit their classrooms, the top students are all working well below their level. Apparently it doesn't work out so well for the bottom kids either.

So, the new superintendent "to root out any deep-seated issues in the district that could be preventing students from performing well." I suggest that the first thing studied is the home environments of "underperforming" students. Interview the parents to find out important issues like 1st language at home, parents' educational levels, and parental commitment to their kids doing well in school. If the parents are unable or unwilling to support or encourage their kids at home, then there's really not much our schools can do to make their kids successful. "It all begins at home" was the mantra of public school teachers whom I have known. Has it become politically incorrect to blame kids' home environments and realize that home has a huge affect upon kids' school performance?

"Has it become politically incorrect to blame kids' home environments and realize that home has a huge affect upon kids' school performance?"

Only if it is being used *ONLY* to attack certain ethnic groups.

Just so you know...

Apologies for the omission of the link to the audit reports. It has been added to the end of the story.

What about spending some time, effort and money on English classes for pre-school kids, so that they will be already speaking English when they go to School?

Greg, so where DO you send your kids?

I'm not sure why everyone is so against the idea of tracking. Why not put kids at the same level in the same classroom so the ones who need more help can get it and kids can work at a pace that is comfortable for them? The way it is now, the advanced learners are bored and the struggling learners get their work done for them. In both cases, they wind up learning nothing.