School Board Quibbles
Here’s what we think the School Board should talk about instead of the pettiness of the last few meetings!
We’re sorry we haven’t posted for a while. There’s plenty of things to write about:
Career and Technical Education (CTE) in DPS, and are we doing enough?
Should DPS follow the Mississippi model to attempt to improve 4th grade reading scores?
DPS cost per student vs. other Illinois and border-state schools.
Reimagining Middle School
Make 9th grade a triage year for all DPS students?
Is Robertson Charter a success?
And we hope to explore these issues this year. But in the meantime, and to keep you entertained, have you watched the recent school board meetings? Depending on your ideological perspective, I’m sure you think someone’s looked foolish during the past few meetings. We, the voting public, have listened to board members argue over whether DPS should use grant money to send administrators to a free conference; questioning our Superintendent over personnel decisions; provide strange excuses for abstaining from votes; and crazy, random reasons for not being prepared to do the job of a board member - I’m talking about “the dog ate my homework” type of stuff. Quibbles, which are certainly the category these items fall into, are best handled outside board meetings, and there is never a good reason to abstain from voting or to appear unprepared in a public meeting.
We can only guess at the reason for this strange lack of concern for professionalism during the recent board meetings, but the best thing Duane and I can come up with is that we now have a battle between ideologically Progressive and Conservative board members, and instead of arguing over substantive issues, board members have decided to be petty and mean to each other. We look forward to real board battles (after all, it gives us things to write about!) but we would rather if the fights are over things that:
Fall within the School Boards purview (personnel decisions usually do not),
Make a difference in children learning, or
Affect the economic state of the district.
So, with that said, let’s look at a few of the issues Duane and I have written about over the past year – things we think the Board should be discussing instead of their current quibbles - and unabashedly frame the arguments for our newly formed ideological sides.
1. Close One High School
Conservatives:
This will save District 61 a large amount of money each year from a reduction in teachers, administrators, and ancillary staff.
We will be able to offer a more diverse course selection in a larger school.
A single larger school will allow a broader range of extracurricular activities too.
We will probably be around 1,600 students in attendance in the combined high schools in the next year or two. In 1980, when Duane and I were at MacArthur (we’re old), the enrollment there was around 1,600. If not now, when?
Progressives:
Students get lost in large schools. Kids, especially today, need individual attention and a large school will prevent the holistic educational experience students need.
Research consistently shows that smaller class sizes and personalized attention from teachers contribute to improved academic outcomes.
We will lose some of the community engagement we’ve spent 60 years fostering for our high schools. Now is no time to ruin what has taken years to achieve.
Where we stand:
Much of the nation, particularly in Illinois and including District 61, has attempted to solve academic problems by spending more money. The chart below shows how DPS tuition (this is what we charge out of district students; and is the district calculated cost to educate one student for a year, less costs for a few ancillary funding items, including special education and transportation, among others) has increased over 25%, even after adjusting for inflation, from the 2014-2015 school year till 2021-2022. The chart also shows, using the right side vertical axis, how the number of 8th grade students in DPS who meet state standards for math and ELA has dropped from approximately 13 percentage points below the state average in 2015 to somewhere around 24 percentage points below the state average in 2021.
While I’m not trying to imply a correlation between these values, it is clear that spending more money has not helped in any demonstrable way student learning.
It’s time to start thinking about:
What is the best use of our DPS money? To us, at least, the expense of two high schools is not worth the cost.
What we can we do to help alleviate the teacher shortage issues.
If a broader course selection list might help students achieve.
And how CTE integration will be easier from the confines of one campus.
Our vote: Close a High School now!
Your turn:
2. Ban cell phones in the classroom.
(I’m not sure this is as much a conservative vs progressive issue as it is an old-school vs young person issue, but since Conservativism is more associated with old-school, I’ll keep the same ideological labels. I’ll let the Progressives start this time.)
Progressives:
Parents need to stay in touch with their children to prevent abuse from adults and other children.
Students need to learn to use technology to their advantage. Taking cell phones away does not help this learning process.
Students might need a phone in the case of an active shooter.
Conservatives:
Study after study shows that phones are a huge distraction and prevent learning. Anybody that doesn’t recognize this hasn’t spent much time in a school building.
Districts around the country are addressing this issue and by banning cell phones in the classroom are gaining an advantage over our kids. Let’s give DPS kids an advantage this time!
We aren’t taking phones permanently away from kids – they simply won’t be able to have them in the classroom.
Where we stand:
If you haven’t read our article on Cell Phones, you can read the full article here.
Our vote: Ban cell phones immediately!
Your turn:
3. Moving toward homogeneous classrooms in elementary school.
There are two primary methods for setting up student groups: homogeneous, where students are arranged so that like falls with like (usually done by ability levels); and heterogeneous, where students from different ability levels (or other factors) are intermixed so that each group has a wide representation of students. Traditionally, and during most of the 1900’s we’ve used more homogeneous classrooms in the United States. But over the past 20 years nationwide, and particularly in Decatur Public Schools over the past 5 years, we’ve moved to a heterogeneous approach where every student in a particular grade will learn the same lesson, at the same time. This proposal is to reevaluate our current model and possibly move back to the way things were done in the decades before.
Conservatives:
We are quick to recognize differences in kids from the neck down (athletics for example) but not from the neck up. In heterogeneous classrooms the middle students will usually be OK, the lower quartile never has a chance to catch up, and the upper quartile of students never has an opportunity to excel.
If we move back toward a more homogeneous approach, teacher preparation and delivery will be easier, but more importantly much more effective.
Heterogeneous classrooms invariably leave children with lower abilities behind, which can impact their self-esteem and motivation, potentially leading to negative social and emotional experiences down the road.
Progressives:
Homogeneous classrooms can perpetuate existing inequalities. Grouping students solely based on their abilities or backgrounds can create an environment where students with lower abilities or disadvantaged backgrounds are stigmatized or left behind.
Homogeneous classrooms may inadvertently perpetuate teacher biases and labeling of students. Assigning students to homogeneous groups based on their abilities or backgrounds can lead to fixed expectations and reinforce stereotypes.
Homogeneous classrooms may lack the diversity of perspectives, experiences, and abilities that can enrich the learning environment. Exposure to diversity fosters empathy, understanding, and the development of social skills needed in an increasingly interconnected world.
Where we stand:
This is probably more of an issue for our Superintendent and her staff than it is a School Board issue, but I’m including it here because it was the school board around 2017 that started taking steps to move us toward heterogeneous classrooms, and maybe it should be our current school board that asks her to begin to move us back in the other direction. Also, and to be clear, this issue isn’t as complicated as it sounds. The main elementary school classrooms can and should remain exactly as they are now - heterogeneous in nature. However, for reading and math, starting in (perhaps, but we will leave the details to the professionals) grade 2 for reading and grade 3 or 4 for math, a homogeneous approach would allow the teachers to split the students by ability, so children who are struggling can get the help, at the proper level, that they need. We understand the inequality, diversity, and biases issues that this might present, but our current heterogeneous approach is failing. Families with high achievers have left the district because their kids are not challenged, while the low achievers are never given the opportunity to catch up and succeed.
Our vote: Let’s start moving toward more homogeneous subject matter learning in the very next school year.
Your turn:
OK. If you’re a progressive you might be saying, “this wasn’t fair - you used us as strawmen to make your arguments! Where is the list of arguments that we can win on the merits?” Then to the Progressives our response is simple – WHAT IS IT YOU ARE ANGRY ABOUT AND WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH? Present your case. We clearly need changes (changes like what is occurring in Mississippi, which I’m going to write about next time) in Decatur Public Schools - what are they? We can’t wait 5 years, or even 1 year, to get us back on track. The students, the parents, and even the employers in and around Decatur should not have to wait. Don’t get mad – get going!
Also, regarding our list, we did not discuss the huge issue of safety and security primarily because Duane and I feel we have taken some important steps over the last 6 months to move our district in the right direction, and we want to give this issue a little more time before we reevaluate. We also didn’t discuss teacher retention and hiring because, at least in our minds, this is not a conservative vs progressive issue. Each Board Member should be thinking about solutions to this pressing issue. Duane and I believe that the district is not yet doing the hard, hard work it takes to address this issue. It’s easy to complain about the lack of teachers, but until we reassign a few central administration staff, putting them on the literal road to recruit teachers, we feel like there is more we could and should be doing.
So, along with the Mississippi Reading Solution the three issues we addressed above are what we feel our school board should be discussing and arguing about right now. Not second guessing our Superintendent. Not complaining about administrators attending conferences. Not giving self-aggrandizing reasons why you can’t vote on a particular issue. Have at it! Discuss! Argue! Let’s look for solutions. Let’s go!