High Stakes Testing

Testing of some sort has always been a part of the evaluation process to determine if a student was properly retaining the information he/she was being taught.  As far back to the days of the one-room classrooms, to the current era of multi-building complexes, professors and teachers alike have labored over both test and its effectiveness in assessing a student’s level of proficiency. Therefore, the idea of high stakes testing has always been a part of the academic landscape.  All one has to do is simply walk into a classroom on the day of a test no matter the level elementary school, middle or high school or a college campus and the anxiety can be felt.  However, in this climate of high stakes testing the bar has been raised and the repercussions are far reaching.  In this research we will examine the ethics associated with the politics of high stakes testing, as well as the ethics of motivation of those very same test and the implications it has on all parties involved. 

History of High Stakes Testing

            In an era when so much is impacted by high stakes testing it’s easy to assume that this is a recent phenomena.  However, research shows that the premise of high stakes testing is one that dates back to the late 1840’s in Boston (Moon, 2009).  During the 1960’s high stakes testing took on a different twist as the government began evaluating educational outcomes and student performance.   This was in large part due to the perception that America’s education system had fallen behind the Russian’s with the launching of the Sputnik satellite (Donner & Shockley, 2010).  Therefore, prompting the federal government to pass the National Defense Education Act, which focused on the core areas of science, math and foreign languages.  Although the focus of the 1970’s shifted to science and math the 1970’s and through much of the 1980’s the system of education evaluation was stilled based upon students being proficient with the minimal level of skills.  However, it wasn’t until the late 1990’s, in particular during the George W. Bush administration did we transition to the concept of high stakes testing as we have come to know it today.  The No Child Left Behind Legislation, which passed and became law in 2002, fostered a culture of test as the measure of accountability in terms of whether or not schools were performing and students were accurately learning.  Born out of the idea that by setting high standards and holding all parties accountable including school administrators and teachers you get a better product (Beardsley, 2009).  Also, as part of that accountability model you attached sanctions and incentives to that achievement.  

            The NCLB legislation as it known today was a reaction to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which gave way to Title 1.  The goal of Title 1 was to “provide financial assistance to local educational agencies for the education of children to low income families”  (Public Law 89-10, Section 201).  Therefore, at its core NCLB had the intentions of tying financial incentives to the notion of moving children who had been customarily disenfranchised (Donner & Shockley, 2010).  However, unlike its predecessor in 1965, NCLB looked to attach student’s success in those core areas previously mentioned to teacher and subsequently school effectiveness.  Therefore, equating performance on one test, given on one day during the entire school year with the quality or lack thereof education a student receives. 

Ethics and Politics of High Stakes Testing

            As with every other element of American life education is both politics and business, with a case that can be made for each being more important that the other However, in the case of the ethical political behavior surrounding high stakes testing one has to question is the greater good of the students being represented?  It is a common practice that each administration comes into office with its own educational agenda, but no administration has lead with such an arguably destructive agenda as George W. Bush.  Armed with the questionable success of his policies in Texas while governor, President Bush suggested that he be known as the “Education President” (Beardsley, 2009).    While as a candidate then Governor Bush presented enormous gains on statewide assessments as proof of his strong record regarding education.  However, what many failed to see was the success came at the cost of a large number of children being excluded from participating in statewide exams (Beardsley, 2009).  

            Although the initial aim of NCLB legislation and it’s over reliance on high stakes testing may not have had any political agenda attached to it since 2002 the process has become increasingly political.  The politics of high stakes testing has placed politicians at odds with teachers’ unions and public school advocates against alternative school advocates.  This narrow scope of learning evaluation has left each side with questionable behavior when it comes to the outcomes of children and their ability to learn.   As such what you are seeing from teachers and school districts alike is behavior that reflects:  (1) Gaming the System, (2) Teaching to the Test, (3) Narrowing the Curriculum, (4) Exclusion and Exemption, (5) Bubble Kid Focus, (6) Cheating, and (7) Administration Manipulation (Beardsley, 2009).  All of this with the end goal of appearing to have significant accomplishments to attract the dollars that often come with meeting NCLB federally mandated goals. Thus reducing both students and their schools to data points on the political trail for politicians looking to score points with voters (Behrent, 2009).

            The final element of the questionable ethics surrounding the politics of high stakes testing has to do with the business of it all.  Within a ten year period between 1997 and 2007 revenue from the sale of test and the accompanying materials has gone from $260 million to well over $700 million (Supovitz, 2009).  With that kind of revenue at stake one only has to imagine the level of political influence that has been given to test manufactures.   Therefore, introducing market driven priorities, where profits are the motive into an arena where learning outcomes are not often measured by one prescribed method.  What NCLB and high stakes testing has essentially done is politicized student needs through free market forces by channeling competition through standardization of test that fail to take into account individual learning modalities (Parkinson, 2009).

Motivation of High Stakes Testing   

            At any point where human interest is involved there can always be a question of ethics.  Although most teachers will say they entered the profession of education with the goal of educating young people; the pressure of high stakes testing has dissolved the profession into a revolving door of personnel changes (Supovitz, 2009).  Again putting the collective future of students in the hands of those who have reduced them down to mere data points.   However, some would argue that with the proper motivation teachers and districts alike could be motivated to improve student performance.  The author takes particular aim with this because it reduces the ethics surrounding the pedagogy of teaching to dollars and cents.  Again assuming that teachers lack the motivation to want to see students succeed (Supovitz, 2009).

            All one has to do is simply enter the halls of most urban schools and spend time with the teachers who have been there for a number of years and the question of motivation quickly goes away.  Many would suggest that the era of high stakes testing rather than the students has generally changed their perspective.  In many schools particularly those in areas dealing with issues of poverty, instruction has been reduced to nothing more than scripted reading and an endless cycle of test preparation (Parsons, Metzger, Askew & Carswell).   Teaching in this manner paired with the enormous pressure to move students based upon AYP have lead to many instances of unethical behavior.  Therefore, the motivation has moved from one of wanting to see students learn to one of survival.  Beardsley, Berliner and Rideau (2010) went as far to suggest that incidences of cheating on the part of teachers are underreported and underestimated.  Even going as far to suggest a sort of code of silence similar to the Blue Wall associated with many police departments throughout the country. 

            The final issue surrounding the ethics of motivation and its effects on high stakes testing leads the writer to question those that may game the system for personal benefit, power and control.  Without question the issues surrounding education and the way we go about educating students are some of the most difficult to address.  However, as long as we have a system in place that puts value over substance the question of ethics and motivation will always occur.  Matter of fact the imprecise and ambiguous nature of the current system will always leave room for a certain amount of unethical behavior (Beardsley, 2009).  One could also assume based upon the current system the motivation to maintain a state of economic disparity is the primary motivation, which is unethical within itself.

Implications of High Stakes Testing

             The implications of high stakes testing can be felt throughout all ethos of our society.  In major cities like Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA cheating on standardized test have rocked entire school districts.  However, when you attach such high rewards to students’ achievement then its only natural to expect artificially inflated gains.  Especially in light of the financial strain many large school districts are under.  Also, the precedent of unethical reporting surrounding high stakes testing can be traced back to the author of NCLB. (Beardsley, 2009).  Therefore, creating cottage industries under the guise of high stakes testing gaming and cheating the system has become the norm rather than isolated instances (Beardsley, Berliner & Rideau, 2010). 

            Another implication involving the ethics of high stakes testing that often gets mentioned is the water down nature of curriculum. Although, an unintended consequence of a high stakes testing environment the narrowing of the curriculum forced teachers to teach to what they ultimately thought would be on the test (Supovitz, 2009).  Rather than teaching a fact driven curricular, education in a high stakes testing environment has been transformed to one of coverage and pacing (Donnor & Shockley, 2010).  In essence reducing the learning and teaching experience down to a mere script (Parsons, Metzger, Askew and Carswell, 2011).  Therefore, leaving one to question if the pedagogy of teaching in today’s classroom environment even exist.  High stakes testing forces both teachers and administrators to remove the human element from the classroom again reducing students down to data.  Furthermore, this creates an environment in which faculty pours over for countless hours trying to create ways to improve the numbers (Behrent, 2009).   However, the efforts have only netted results that can be classified as shallow and not provided any deeper educational experiences for students (Supovitz, 2009).

            The final ethical implication of high stakes testing centers around what often happens to the surrounding communities in which many of the schools that are labeled failing come from.  Since it can be deduced that communities are built around schools and schools often become the identifier of those very same communities it is logical that the end or negative connotation associated with a school can spell the end of the effected neighborhood.  They both exist to keep the other vibrant and functional to some extent.  Therefore, the decay of one based upon high stakes testing generally spells the end for the other.  Again putting children and now the communities in which they come from as an unintended consequence of the NCLB legislature. 

            Accountability in a NCLB era has removed the brightest children from schools in their neighborhood for perceived brighter opportunities elsewhere, a fact that was echoed by Diane Ravitch, a scholar at the Brookings Institute (Ravitch, 2010).  This is by no means to suggest that teaching or lack thereof is not going on in their neighborhood schools.  This is just to point out the unintended community consequence of high stakes testing.   Furthermore, you will find most of the “failing” schools located in areas where there are high instances of both crime and poverty.  However, there is very little factoring of those social determinants into the equation of high stakes testing.  Thus what you have is African-American and Hispanic students being disproportionally impacted (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005). 

Conclusion

            Without a doubt no one questions whether or not there should be an accountability model when it comes to schools and the larger educational system.  Prior to NCLB and its introduction of high stakes testing the model was simply a concentrated effort on providing resources without a sense of reciprocity on the part of states and local school districts (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005).  Hence leaving an ethical hole when it came to fulfilling the obligation of making sure every child received a quality education.  Furthermore, very few would argue with a system of checks and balances that sought to bridge the gap between educational successes and failures.  However, the inability of high stakes testing to deliver a true sense of accountability has lead to what many have termed “default” education where test drive the curriculum (Moon, 2009).

            Again the ethical dilemma comes into play when you take a system of accountability and add an economic component that becomes punitive in nature.  Therefore, creating a system of rewards and punishments based upon an assessment that has some obvious ethical holes.  Very little if any value is attached to the things that schools, in particular those that deal with challenged populations do (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005).   Rather they are lumped together as if all student populations are equal.    As such those with resources continue to get resources and those without continue to be without.

As stated earlier anytime there is a profit motive the human condition of competition has the potential to soil the outcome.  No one wants to be seen as incompetent when it comes to their career endeavor.  Therefore, behavior such as cheating, gaming the system and teaching to the test become par for the course (Beardsley, 2009).  As such the behavior of many tasked with teaching becomes an ethical dilemma.  Furthermore, those that they are charged with teaching become victims of a system that has robbed them of an otherwise meaningful educational experience. 

Finally, high stakes testing does not under any circumstance provide or develop students to be competitive in a global economy (Donnor & Shockley, 2010).  Learning in the “real world” is a comprehensive experience that forces workers to mesh data with feelings and experiences.  None of which occurs with high stakes testing.  As such what high stakes testing does do is marginalize the learning experience of those involved.  It also robs communities of the steady presence that good schools provide through arbitrary rating systems (Ravitch, 2010).  Therefore, reducing communities down to data point and that is truly unethical.  

References

Beardsley, A.A. (2009).  The Unintended, Pernicious Consequences of “Staying the Course” on the United States ‘ No Child Left Behind Policy, International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 6, pp 1-13.

Beardsley, A.A., Berliner, D.C.  Rideau, S. (2010).  Cheating in the First, Second and Third

Degree:  Educators’ Responses to High–Stakes Testing, Education Policy Analysis, Vol. 18, No. 14, pp 1-36. 

Behrent, M. (2009).  Reclaiming Our Freedom to Teach:  Education Reform in the Obama

Era, Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 79, No. 2, pp 240-246.

Donnor, J.K., Shockley, K. G. (2010).  Leaving Us Behind:  A Political Economic

Interpretation of NCLB and the Miseducation of African American Males, Educational Foundations, pp 43-54.

Hanushek, E.A., Raymond, M.E. (2005).  Does School Accountability Lead to Improved

Student Performance? Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp 297-327.  

Moon, T.R. (2009).  Myth 16:  High Stakes Testing Are Synonymous with Rigor and

Difficulty, The Gifted Child Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp 277-279.

Parkinson, P. (2009).  Political Economy and the NCLB Regime:  Accountability,

Standards and High-Stakes Testing, The Education Forum, Vol. 73, pp 44-57.

Parson, S.A., Metzger, S.R., Askew, J., Carswell. A.R. (2011).  Teaching Against the Grain:

One Title I School’s Journey Toward Project-Based Literacy Instruction, Literacy Research and Instruction, Vol. 50, pp 1-14.

Ravitch, D. (2010).  In Need of a Renaissance, Real reform Will Renew, Not Abandon,

Our Neighborhood Schools, American Educator, Summer 2010, pp 10-22.

Reich, G.A., Bally, D. (2010).  Get Smart:  Facing High-Stakes Testing Together, The Social

Studies, Vol. 101, pp 179-184. DOI: 10.1080/00377990903493838.

Supovitz, J. (2009).  Can High Stakes Testing Leverage Educational Improvements?

Prospects From the Last Decade of Testing and Accountability Reform, Journal Education Change, Vol. 10, pp 211-227. DOI 10.1007/s10833-009-9105-2. 

I Can See Clearly Now

Man I promise, I'm so self conscious

That's why you always see me with at least one of my watches

Rollies and Pasha's done drove me crazy

I can't even pronounce nothing, pass that versace!

Then I spent 400 bucks on this

Just to be like n_ _ _a you ain't up on this!

And I can't even go to the grocery store

Without some ones that’s clean and a shirt with a team

It seems we living the American dream

But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem

                                                Kayne West All Falls Down

The above lyrics set the stage for a discussion I have been having all day with some folks surrounding the efforts of those engaged in Occupy Wall Street and the upcoming Black Friday shopping bonanza.

The greatest trick the 1% has ever perpetrated on mankind was to make the 99% aspire to have what they had.  What the 99% did was broke that down even further and got so gangster with it they separated the economic pie based upon race.  Therefore, removing the humanity from the concept of economic fairness.  What I have come to understand in my work is poverty has no color.  It looks the same no matter if you are living on the northside of Jacksonville, FL or in the mountains of West Virginia.  However, the culprit is different based upon those same locations.

What I have also come to understand is that given the right opportunity many of “us” would jump at the chance to be a part of the 1%.  Matter of fact as I suggested in a previous post the reason we go to work everyday and drug dealers even sell drugs is not to get by, but to get closer to the 1% and further away from the bottom portion of that 99%.  Why do you think we buy nice stuff and go into debt doing it? If I were to expand beyond the basic needs of survival and that being food, clothing and shelter and allotted for Maslow's hierarchy of needs which calls for physiological and safety needs, loving and belonging, self esteem and self actualization no where in the mix would Rolex, Gucci or Mercedes be included.  However, that learned was designed by the 1% to keep the 99% on the treadmill of life.   Furthermore, ensuring a permanent class system as identified by Karl Marx, father of capitalism.  

Now don’t get me wrong I like nice things and I AM committed to going to work every day and furthering my education to ensure I can have and afford them.  However, many in the 99% are now committing what I AM defining as “1% Envy.”  What I have concluded is the crime of the 1% is that they have grown their wealth at the expense of the 99%.  Thus pushing the 99% to see them as the common enemy.   Greed and excess has been the downfall of many great nations and a hungry man in Liberty City has the same hunger pains as a hungry man in Willacoochee, GA.  Therefore, what the Occupy Wall Street Movement represents for me is the 99% developing a collective consciousness that together we have all been hoodwinked.   The ability to earn the resources that allow you to fulfill your basic needs is not an option, but a right regardless of where you are on the economic pyramid or what shade of brown you are.

That’s my Truth and I AM sticking to it.

Occupy Wall Street

This may seem as if I have something against the idea of HOPE, but I really don’t.  I AM by and large as HOPEFUL as any one person can be.  Matter of fact HOPE is intertwined with as much of my being as my FAITH.  Although, at times own up to the fact I have the miniuim as suggested by the Bible (size of a mustard seed).  Hey don’t get mad with me I didn’t make the rules, but on most days my FAITH is as deep as the deepest ocean.

That being said in my latest revelation that occurred during one of my quite moments I thought about the profitability of HOPE. 

·      The 99% are really more like 35% because the other 45% are really envious of the 1% and truly HOPEFUL that if they work really hard their jobs won’t be sent overseas and they to can be in the 1% at some point.

·      Politics has drained us all of HOPE and confused so many in the masses that you have people who get Social Security and Medicare screaming for no more entitlements.  Last I checked there was a line on my pay stub that showed I did pay into both and that is called an investment not an entitlement. 

·      Schools are no better.  The very institutions we send our children to get HOPE for a brighter tomorrow are tuning them into HOPELESS test takers with no practical skills other than how to pass or maybe not pass a test.  No disrespect to the countless teachers who do their best everyday trying to keep young people HOPEFUL. 

·      Jessie Jackson suggested “Keep HOPE Alive” and President Obama simply said “HOPE,” yet one media outlet reported on the struggles of African-American men finding a job paying $8.00 an hour let alone finding ones that pay $100K a year http://2025bmb.org/.

See what many African-Americans know and many of my White brothers and sisters are just learning is despite where we are economically we are all one corporate merger, one bad encounter with a manager, one brother, sister or cousin away from starting over again.  Also, when your linage includes slavery and Jim Crow you are born with a DNA inclusive of HOPE. 

Therefore, when the question is asked “Where are the black folk during the Occupy Movement?”  Kindly let them know we been fighting Wall Street while trying to get a job on Main Street for a minute now and we thank you for showing up to the fight with the cameras in tow.  Your support is kindly appreciated.

By the way Keep Your Head Up and oh yea Keep HOPE Alive.

That’s my Truth and I AM sticking to it.

View From The Vanguard

Within the last month I have spoken to two generationally polar opposite groups.  The first consisted of college students from the University of North Florida and the other a more senior group from a local Presbyterian church.  However, what they both shared was ethnicity and their discomfort with the state of many communities like New Town.  The fact that they identified things like parks and grocery stores and financial institutions as basic elements every “good” and “desirable” community should have and the fact none of these things existed troubled them. 

Is it that residents of these neighborhoods do not desire these basic institutions in their neighborhood?  Or is it that the residents of these same neighborhoods do not represent a big enough financial opportunity for said institutions to make a profit?  The mere fact that check cashing places exist on every corner within every challenged neighborhood throughout the country suggest likewise.  Therefore, a bank or credit union should be viable business within  these communities. 

Whatever the reason is these institutions do not exist we all can agree that they are needed in every community.  We have to make communities like New Town destinations that people want to live rather than vacate at the first opportunity.  Yes safety is a huge part of the equation (40% reduction in crime) and schools are another (S.P. Livingston is a B school) and quality housing is another (Habijax has 144 properties in the community), but access to fundamental things like banks, grocery stores and parks is another.  Therefore, I ask what are YOU prepared to do to make sure those institutions are available and young families who cannot afford homes that have soared beyond what a minimum wage or service worker can afford? 

That’s my truth…

Habijax looks for major new impact | jacksonville.com

Habijax looks for major new impact | jacksonville.com

Miseducation in 2011

As with any of my musings they always seem to come at those moments when my body and mind are at conflict regarding the need to conduct physical exercise as if I am training for mini camp with a NFL franchise or worst yet a MMA fight.  In light of that mental and physical battle I offer you this commentary regarding the Miseducation of Today’s Negro.    However, before I do I offer you these sobering statistics:

o   42,000,000 adults are illiterate meaning they can not READ

o   Every 26 seconds a young person drops out of school

o   90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts

o   2/3 of the students who can not read by the end of the 4^th grade will end up in jail or welfare

o   85% of all who enter the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate

o   40% of minority students fail to graduate with their class.

If you are anything like me you find this not only heartbreaking, but a tragedy in light of the work that some of my friends who are educators are doing.  See what I have come to understand is that education like every other American enterprise from cars to real estate to good ole heaven has become profit centers and as any good capitalist would tell you there is money to be made and people are getting paid. 

Schools are no longer centers of intellectual curiosity as they may have once been.  In less than 15 years schools have been transformed into test mills that process young people into lines that ultimate suggest prison or college and do very little to prepare them for anything in between.  Matter of fact in a recent paper I wrote regarding high stakes testing I pointed out that within the last 10 years (1997-2007) the economics of the testing industry and all of the spin offs have gone from a $260 million dollar a year industry to an $700 million dollar a year industry (Supovitz, 2009). 

The unfortunate state of today’s formulated education system is that it is created to push square pegs into round holes without addressing all of the many variable factors that make young people round, square, triangle and any other number of geometric shapes.  The frightening part about it is young people are realizing this fact earlier and rebelling against a system that has insisted on defining them by a test that has no implications on their abilities to compete in a global economy.  Matter of fact researchers Donnor & Shockley suggested that standardized test are neither indicative nor representative of whether a person can apply or transfer the information they know in other settings (Donnor & Shockley, 2010).    

Moreover, while we test our way into nowhere American children are falling further behind their global counterparts in reading and math.   Therefore, leading kids down the path of forced servitude via America’s prison system.  However, the shortsightedness of all of this is that the prison system takes all comers and as our education system crumbles around us no one will be able to escape its impact. 

I AM Irvin PeDro Cohen

That’s My Truth and I AM Sticking To It.

Donnor, J.K., Shockley, K. G. (2010).  Leaving Us Behind:  A Political Economic

Interpretation of NCLB and the Miseducation of African American Males, Educational Foundations, pp 43-54.

Supovitz, J. (2009).  Can High Stakes Testing Leverage Educational Improvements?

Prospects From the Last Decade of Testing and Accountability Reform, Journal Education Change, Vol. 10, pp 211-227. DOI 10.1007/s10833-009-9105-2. 

Live chat with Carolyn Cohen | jacksonville.com

Live chat with Carolyn Cohen | jacksonville.com

Live chat with Cedric and PeDro Cohen, from the Letters from Carolyn series | jacksonville.com

Live chat with Cedric and PeDro Cohen, from the Letters from Carolyn series | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Family Circle | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Family Circle | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Street Life | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Street Life | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Two Sons, One Love | jacksonville.com

Letters From Carolyn: Two Sons, One Love | jacksonville.com

Raines, Ribault and Jackson

Contemplation as defined by Webster is as follows:

The act of contemplating; thoughtful observation or full or deep consideration; reflection: or even religious contemplation, meaning have spiritual purpose or intention.

Thus I find myself vacillating on writing about the state of public education but more so about the state of my alma mata William M. Raines and that of our archrival Jean Ribault High School and Andrew Jackson High School.  First and foremost allow me to say that I am personally a fan, a supporter, a volunteer and a witness to the valiant efforts that are being done and put forth by many of the people who work in all of these schools.  I also share these same sentiments for the administrators who spend countless hours away from there own families making an investment in the lives of those young people who’s futures they have been entrusted with.  No one can convince me that the efforts of Principals Wright, Maxey and Young have not made a difference in the lives of the young people who attend the aforementioned and the results of a test are indicative of the work each of these public servants are doing.   All one has to do is enter the building of each of there schools and the spirit of expected excellence permeates the building. 

This brings me to my next point, which is while there efforts are valiant and often times reduced to simple figures we can not afford to overlook the fact that many of the young people that graduate or even attend our core schools are not reading at grade level.  Do I hold them responsible for those outcomes ABSOLUTLY NOT.  As someone who is involved with education on multiple levels I understand that the downward trajectory of reading and comprehension starts long before young people enter the halls of Raines, Ribault and Jackson.  Thus making the last stop on the public education train the depot of all that is good and bad with the system.  If you examine the reading scores of many of the city’s core middle schools you will see that this is the beginning of the end (tactile learning vs. digital learning, see me for explanation).

While I share the passion and the fervor many within our city have for these schools I also understand that simple concern does not amount to investment.  I am by all measures a 2^nd generation Viking, my brother represents a 3^rd generation and my rising 9^th grade nephew will be a 4^th generation Viking.  I have grown to understand and appreciate the investment that Coach White and countless others made in me.  I still try to live up to the expectations of Ms. Parker in all fields of human endeavors and whenever I get a chance I thank her for seeing something in me.  However, not many of my contemporaries feel the same or at least they do not feel strong enough to entrust their children to these schools.  If you were to walk the halls of the schools and look to see the sons and daughters of the class of 75, 85 or even 95 valedictorian children you would be sadly mistaken.  Thus is the same for many of the neighborhoods that feed into the core schools.  Arrival means departure.  Therefore, what you have is the left behind of those that could not escape neighborhoods that they would much rather not live in attending schools that the rich history means nothing to.  Within our communities it seems as if church is the only thing that warrants our generational appreciation, but I digress. 

In a recent post a friend, a mentor and alum suggested that he had cried his last tear for our alma mata.  While I agree with him I will even take it a step further and suggest that not only have a cried my last tear and I am completely prepared to do something different with our core schools and if that means Charter, Gender Only, etc then so be it.  This is again not to suggest that the staffs and leadership are doing anything other than a yeoman’s job.  However, it is to more than suggest that I AM without question for doing whatever it takes to ensure that my nephew and the countless other young people I am entrusted to help prepare have every opportunity to be successful.  For many who rally and meet and often times complain have a yearning for the way things use to be.  Our core neighborhoods aren’t the way they use to be and thus our core schools are symbiotic of that investment.  Nostalgia is great during homecoming and family reunions, but the world our young people are inheriting is moving at a clip that warrants their preparation with unfettered dexterity and as a larger community we have to be open to ALL avenues that allow them to be prepared. 

Without question I AM for Raines, Ribault and Jackson and all of the people that work there, but at the end of the day I am for giving our young people a chance to succeed.  And if that means that the school I remember no longer exist in its current capacity then so be it because at least I will know that I not only aided progress, but I was flexible enough to be part of the solution.

That’s my truth and I AM sticking to it

Letter to the Editor

While the recent Duval County FCAT scores have shown the local charter schools to be academic mortals.  I would suggest a level of humility as we continue the fight against their right to exist in the academic arena.  This is not to suggest that I am for or against charter schools.  However, I do believe that if you are for young people and the desire for them to have a quality education at any cost then the opportunity exist for you to support both.  The issue that reasonable adults should consider is how can one mechanism given on one day be the barometer by which we state a school is a failing school.  Young people deserve our best and if that means they get in a charter school or a public school then so be it.  I commend those who have the vision to put their resources into education and thus step out to create charter schools.  I also commend those folks who put their resources into public school system as well.  When it comes to young people we have to be prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure their academic needs or met and while some charters came up short this year so did some public schools.  Therefore, none of us have the right to gloat.  Until all schools receive the subjective grade of passing then we have all failed.  Not only have we failed children, but we also have failed our collective future and that encompasses students on both sides of the river.

I AM, Irvin PeDro Cohen

Director, New Town Success Zone