Arkansas Blog

WOW! The rest of us can punt and pun and whine and wail, but THAT'S reporting.

Kudos, John A. Arkansawyer.

MAYBE the D-G and mainstream press in this backward state will catch up, but I doubt it.

THAT'S the kind of information Arkansans need if we're ever to move from last place in everything.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Yeah, but I'm still going to pun and wail when I get the urge to--which is my graceless way of saying, "You're welcome."

I fear the LRSD is in a death spiral. Black school board leaders focused on jobs for adults rather than students. Bloated administrative budgets. Proposing to settle a case they've already won. White board members can't build a consensus and are bailing out. State funding soon to be lost. Nothing close to neighborhood schools for West Little Rock. Walker trying to protect his cash cow with outrageous arguments, white enrollment declining, facilities an embarrassment. No challengers trying to knock off incompetent incumbents, the few new board candidates are unknown, certainly not community leaders. Leadership void will continue. We can't work together as a community, and our students will pay dearly for our shortcomings. As much as I want public education to succeed in Little Rock, I can't criticize those who can afford an alternative from removing their children from the LRSD. Walker, Mitchell, et al can have their all black district. See where it gets them, watch them try to pass a millage. Wish there were some leaders trying to construct a cooperative spirit. Don't see any on the horizon; likely too late anyway.

A masterful job of reporting, John A Arkansawyer. I was, however, puzzled by this John Walker assertion:

"What you're doing with charter schools, you are trying to find a way to fund the education of white students, who are still the majority in the district."

If Walker is saying white students "are still the majority" in the Little Rock School District, he's just plain wrong. The LRSD is 68 percent black, according to an article in the Sept. 4 edition of the Arkansas Times. The same AT article reports that the Little Rock e-Stem schools are 52.7 percent black at the elementary level; 59.3 percent black at the middle school level; and 60 percent black at the high school level which this year tops out at the 9th grade, but will add a higher grade in each of the next three years.

It's interesting that Linda Chesterfield sees the LRSD board "as heading toward two entities. . ." I believe most of the community sees it that way, too, and has for a long time. It doesn't take a genius to know that there's not the slightest chance of salvaging the school district unless and until the board gets its act together and works in a constructive way.

PV - a millage would not pass in any way, shape or form for this district for a long, long time.

LRSD is hardly the only administratively bloated district. No Child Left Behind has managed to ramp up the paperwork to an unimaginable level. I truly believe we (the teachers) are being asked to do paperwork solely to justify the jobs of some(many) Vice Administrators in charge of meaningless and time consuming paperwork--all in the name of fulfilling mandates of No Child Left Behind. I have processed at least a ream of paperwork--I'm not kidding here, a REAM--per child to make sure that all forms, referrals, AIPs, IRIs, IEPs, federal programs, paperwork to document compliance of the district, test data to sort through for yet more forms, and assorted other legal CYA matters are taken care of. And understand, when the mandate from up on high comes down that you WILL have such-and-so paperwork finished today--even if you're trying, say, to TEACH--you are to drop everything and give the paperwork the full and immediate attention it deserves.
Sorry-we're on week 4 and I'm still trying to get everything back in and sorted to the correct people. I'm not finished with it all yet--and I've adopted the "take things one crisis at a time" mentality. I remember when we could get all management/legal stuff done in a week and GET ON WITH IT. I've taught for years--I'm GOOD at it--but I'm so swamped that this is the first year since 1985 that I've given serious thought to chunking it all. I want to teach--if I wanted to do paperwork, I'd have done that. And I would have been allowed to go home at the end of the day without 2 hours more work.
Hit a nerve--sorry.

durangokid,

I believe John Walker was either referring to Pulaski County as a whole or that he was talking about the population of the city and not of the school system--maybe both. I was too busy typing to ask.

PVNasby,

All three white board members were there, as was Charles Armstrong. They didn't show any sign of bailing out (although Melanie Fox did leave a few minutes before the end). The whole evening (which, granted, was only a few dozen people) had a cooperative spirit, despite the sometimes sharp conflicts between panelists. Note that John Walker also agrees there's too much spending on administrative salaries. I'm not ready to give up, and I don' t think anyone else there was, either.

I don't think that the LRSD is headed towards two entities. White participation is eroding away. As they leave so will the money. They are not going to reverse that trend when they see the quality going down the tubes and the district being viewed as primarily existing to provide employment for people who couldn't get equivalent jobs in the private sector. They are not fools. They know when they are being taken for a ride. If you want to see the future of the LRSD, simply visit Newark, N.J.

The inability of the majority to see this reality and being either incapable or unwilling to admit the real problem will make the erosion inevitable. Too many people see the LRSD as a cash cow with no consideration for the education of the children. What few competent teachers remain are only counting the days until retirement. They simply want to get out because they know that the slide is unstoppable.

strangelove says something true: "Too many people see the LRSD as a cash cow with no consideration for the education of the children."

So, what do we do about the people who promote that false view?

What do we do about the people who slime the good teachers and administrators and support staff who make up the Little Rock school system?

The answer is for those of us who know the Little Rock school system is a good school system--not the best in the world, nor the best that it could be, but certainly good enough for my daughter--run in the interest of the community as a whole--which certainly means putting the students first but does not mean screwing the people who work there over--to tell people as much, as often as we can.

You are an enabler. You are going to allow a corrupt system to continue on its downward spiral and the ONLY losers are going to be the children. You are too wedded to the teacher's union and katerine mitchell. If you don't admit the problem one day you will wake up to a system which is in total failure with no money to fund it. The state will have to step in and take it over. You will have lost everything. Consequences will occur regardless of what games you play. Mitchell and Walker will be long gone and the children will look to people like you who enabled their fate.

I could be convinced that local control of school boards is a bad idea. It's not Little Rock's experience that makes me think that, but a more general argument that only statewide (or federal) funding will provide equitable school funding. So a state takeover of the Little Rock School District, in the face of the sort of total collapse you predict--and any prediction you make is unreliable because your views, facts, and perceptions are unreliable--wouldn't mean I'd "lost everything". Far from it.

That's really beside the point, though. I see far too many smart, competent kids coming out of the Little Rock school system, despite all the handicaps it labors under, to believe in your vision of total systemic corruption.

What you are arguing for is despair and giving up. Sorry, I'm not buying that.

Here is an idea! Click on my name.

My gosh! John A. Arkansawyer, excellent, excellent work. Thanks for covering this, and doing it so well.

Thank you John for a love of such labor. It is good reporting. Best I've seen on these pages.

I have no dog in this fight but it seems someone needs to address the top heavy status of LSD.
And breaking into smaller districts may not be such a bad idea so long as the feared segregation
does not occur.

I had to laugh at Walker's suggestion of flight to NWA. Not only will they find higher housing prices
they often find lower wages/salaries. Too many folks had that idea so there's little advantage to it.
What is likely different is that students' behavior is highly regulated and codes are pretty strict and
strictly enforced.
.

The League of Women Voters recently asked the LRSD board about budget status. Was there ever a response to that? I am hearing the district is in serious trouble (from district employees) yet the board keeps voting to spend money on Admin. positions and retirement perks. Watson deserves her perks if the numbers are good and things are being run properly, but if there is no cash-sorry. The kids deserve it first and foremost.

Great piece, John!! Thanks for continuing to be a voice of reason in this ongoing debate about LRSD. Public education has become the whipping boy (and girl) of Right-wing adversaries. They will not admit that it was white flight and racism that brought the de facto segregation inherent in these private & charter schools. It remains mostly black vs white but it also is haves vs have-nots, rich vs poor.

Although the dissension on the LRSB has hurt, one must remember that the one fanning the spark into a flame and the flame into a conflagration was the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Instead of helping public schools, Hussman chose to hurt them. Instead of being a voice of reason, they were a voice of outrage. Instead of lending a hand, they pointed fingers.

That's the other beast that was in the room and it's time to acknowledge its terrible presence.

Thanks, Jake, but really, the voices of reason were those speaking at the forum. All I did was take it down.

We need one school district for the entire state. We cannot afford the inefficiencies of all these little turfdoms.

Click on my name for an article from CNN that talks about the new leader of the Washington DC system. I figure that we may have to let Katherine Mitchell and John Walker drive our district to these standards before we are able to hire someone to make a change.

Sounds a lot like what Roy Brooks was attempting to do to keep our LRSD from getting to the point of the DC schools.

Jake et al, what do you think about this type of reform. I'm sure you'll have a problem with it as well.

Rhee is doing something that the failed predecessors before her did not do and also which Brooks did not do: she is listening to the teachers and putting her trust in them and isn't touting herself as a savior or being touted as a savior by some local news rag (notice the slightly skeptical tone of various articles by Wahington papers).
She also is promising to clear out administrative deadwood and remove the bureaucracy that has blocked the voices of teachers from being heard.
Brooks went too far when he had numbers for reports to the state department of education altered to present a false impression of success and improvement. In other words, he cheated. This was the actions of a man who constantly said that he was "for the children."

The Washingtonian has a very long article that supplements the CNN report and I noted that NPR had also done a piece about her. Don't be too quick to judge my reaction. It would be wrong to do so just as it would be wrong to judge Rhee too quickly. We'll know more in a year or two. Her teacher credentials are excellent but she has almost no administrative experience to speak of. She appears to be cutting the red tape that comes between superintendents and teachers so often. Brooks never did such and went the opposite way in maintaining a distance between himself and teachers.

Rhee will need two personal traits to have a chance at success: a backbone to be completely honest with everyone she deals with and the sense to avoid getting entangled in the politics of the office. This has been the downfall of many a superintendent in large, urban school districts. They get sucked into the huge political arena and start meeting with everyone outside of school who has power connections. Instead, they should've met with teachers and students and worked on empowering both to do better and giving them the total support to do so.

The Democrat-Gazette did the Little Rock school patrons a disservice when they whitewashed the story about Brooks ordering information altered. His action was inexcusable and dishonest. To ignore such made the Democrat Gazette editors accomplices in his actions.

Jake,
You may be right on all counts but what bothers me is that this board never lets things go all the way through a legal process. Instead of proving allegations against Brooks, they paid him out. They settle lawsuits in the middle of trial that attorneys felt like they would win. They do not seem to like to make transparent decisions. The teachers at my kids' school mostly liked Roy Brooks and that is as much as I know on the subject. I would have liked to see that whole deal play out in a fair and open way instead of just writing him a check to leave. I am very fearful on how the district is doing financially and bad financial decisions are still being made.

Thanks BS. Am worried as you are about current superintendent and board. Am afraid that Watson doesn't have the inclination to make the hard, tough decisions the district needs. Am also afraid that there will be a fuss over the AYP because she keeps postponing its release when others have had their's out for some time now.
It's almost a sure thing that this year or the next, LRSD will go into Year 2 of the NCLB plan which means further monitoring and possible state takeover are coming soon. The Superintendent and the Board need to shake things up with administration soon or the news will only get worse. They've got a good corps of teachers but the admin picture is dismal and the bureaucracy is horrible.

They're paying too much attention to politics and personalities and too little heed to policy and plans. I'm still angry with the Democrat Gazette for not facing the needs and importance of public education and instead turning their backs to abandon it in such a desultory fashion. They made a bad situation worse and had the gall to condemn others in spite of their own actions.

I want to go back and touch on a point from "in the trenches." You cannot begin to imagine the amount of paperwork required for documentation in a regular classroom. Triple and quadruple that for a special education classroom. Double it for for many administrators. You wouldn't believe the number of reports done about other reports - teachers turn in reports to school staff who in turn prepare reports to district staff who in turn prepare reports to state department of education. And that doesn't include preparing and presenting summaries of the reports to administrators, board members, the public, and so on.

So, back to the special education teacher: imagine not only having to teach, but to compile a booklet filled with hundreds of student worksheets, a similar number of photos, audio tapes, and evaluation sheets for each activity, lesson or event. For each student.

Just hope never get called on to do a portfolio assessment.

The Democrat-Gazette knows what most whites know. The system is a failure and has no chance of becoming successful as it was once. If you really believe that the LRSD is a good system and represents the future, let local people have vouchers. Give black people the same choice that some whites have now with private schools. In business, we have to compete or we die. I throw that challenge out to you.

If the LRSD system is a failure for whites then why were the 2007 percentages for caucasians in the LRSD scoring proficient on the Algebra 1 EOY Exam, the Geometry EOY exam, and the 11th Grade Literacy EOY exam all higher than the state average for caucasians from all around the state on the same exams?

Better check your facts out. State Department of Education is easily accessible. Your statement is false as shown by state data. To verify, click on name for state scores. From there you can easily navigate to district scores. Look for Report Card button.

Here are the Caucasian scores shown:

Alg 1 - LRSD 78.3 State 72.7

Geo. - LRSD 76.7 State 69.8

11th - LRSD 81.3 State 61.1

Notice the huge difference in the last score!

Now, tell me again how whites are failures in the LRSD. Go ahead. The data says you're absolutely wrong.

I hope people reading your words and looking at the data realize how pathetic you are in your attempts to disparage the LRSD. The sad fact is that you'll say anything to make the LRSD look bad. This is proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that you will LIE and DISTORT to malign this school district.

Have you no decency? You have born false witness and done so for purely malevolent and diseased reasons. Shame on you.

I don't get it. What motivates this guy, Jake? He sometimes acts like there's something underneath it all he cares about that isn't a wrong thing, but from the surface, all I see is the festering wound and not the inferred splinter of possible decency at its core.

I don't know either John. The sad fact is that many more use the same flawed process to release the poisons in their own mind. I went back and compared the LRSD Caucasian scores with other school districts and have yet to find another one as high as they are on the 11th Grade Literacy scores. NLRSD was just about 69% or so. Highly touted Bryant and Benton were even lower. To be fair, they did extremely well in their math courses. NLRSD was only slightly better than LRSD in the same math courses I listed.

I couldn't find any similar data for private schools. I'm not sure what they test with, if anything at all, to measure their kids against other systems. Wouldn't it be strange (and it could be possible based on this data) if the white kids in LRSD have better scores and success than the white kids in all the private schools here? What a bizarre turn of events!! They certainly are doing better than the state average.

Where are the literacy scores in the state for Caucasian students? The Little Rock School District is certainly in the top tier.

I don't anyone who could in all honesty call that a failure. But, I do know someone who will. But, they have to be dishonest to do so.

John, I'm afraid this disease has metastasized and there's little or no hope that this patient will recover. He's stuck in denial and anger.