Tuesday, January 15, 2008

CM PRESS # 274


WANT TO IMPROVE COSTA MESA SCHOOLS?

IMPROVER TRUTH # 3

If Costa Mesa stops being an illegal alien sanctuary city, our student test scores will improve and more upwardly mobile parents--seeing those higher scores-- will decide to buy homes here and put their kids in local schools. This will improve the student test scores more and this will cause even more upwardly mobile parents to buy homes here and put their kids in local schools.

Look folks, when we talk about "failing schools," what we really mean is that student test scores are low.

"Good schools" and "failing schools" are all about the students and nothing else.

It's never about the school buildings, the books, the teachers, the budget, happy students or teachers, good communication, having tea and coffee, visiting the school campuses, perception, or the school district. These are all PC red herrings.

Good and bad schools are about one thing and one thing only: STUDENT TEST SCORES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS GIVEN IN ALL SCHOOLS.


You'll hear all sorts of sweet nothings from the schools and the school district and various PTA types about why student test scores in Costa Mesa are so low, but it's all baloney.

The real reason our school test scores are so much lower than the schools in the Newport Beach part of the district is because of demographics.

Costa Mesa's schools are full of students of suspected illegal alien parents, because the city itself is full of many suspected illegal aliens.

Many of these students do not speak English. Many are transitory.

Teach English to non-English speaking students this year, and by next year many of these students will have moved to another city or gone back to Mexico, and they'll be replaced by other children of suspected illegal aliens who must be taught English. That's what happens in illegal alien friendly cities such as Costa Mesa.

Steve Smith has a dopey PR puff piece in the Daily Pilot today about Adams School that is worth reading as an almost text book example of how some try to hide the truth.

Here are some relevant portions of Smith's column with our comments in red [ ].
Be sure to read Smith's entire column by following the link below.
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GIVE ADAMS MORE THAN GOSSIP

by Steve Smith (Daily Pilot column 1/15/08) LINK

At last Tuesday’s Newport-Mesa Unified District school board meeting, four members of the Mesa Verde Education Committee told the panel of their concerns about the quality of the education at the schools in Mesa Verde. Adams Elementary School got slammed. [It should get slammed.]

Among his replies, Supt. Jeffrey Hubbard said, “I think Adams is a good school.” [Huh? Hasn't Hubbard read the school's report card? The school stinks.]

So, which is it? Is Adams a good school or not? [It's not.]

I asked Susan Astarita, the district’s assistant superintendent for elementary education, how Adams got to the point where parents came together to say, “This is not a good school.” [Ah, Steve, it's probably because some parents are smart enough to read the Adams School report card and understand what it means.]

“This is not the first group of parents that has approached us. It’s been ongoing — probably 10 years — where we end up with a small group of parents that comes to us every two or three years concerned about Adams. [Why do the parents keep doing this? Because they see the school scores and they want the best for their kids.]

We always greet them warmly, [So what?] and we are very interested in working with them.[So?] We’ve hosted teas, information nights, coffees in people’s homes [So, the parents came because they wanted tea and coffee?] and [board member] Dave Brooks has been a great supporter and helped us at the board level. [So?]

“So it has been ongoing and it is generally a group of parents who have incoming kindergartners. They live very close to this school, they’d love to come to this school but yet their neighbor may [send their kids to] Huntington Beach or a private school and they don’t understand why.” [Yes they do. It's because of low scores.]
(snip)

Astarita told me that the negative talk is usually neighborhood word of mouth.[Yes, parents tell each other of the low student scores and other conditions that might affect their kids.]

“We’ve encouraged these families to please give us a chance. Come and visit the school. [Adams Principal Candy Cloud] is open to tours at any time. [Always with the come and visit talk as though that will change student scores]I am so proud of the work that they have done over the last five years since we’ve refined our program for English-learners, our new language arts curriculum has come on board and the work we are doing is fabulous.”[Who cares if you're proud or not? What about the student scores?]

Fabulous it may be, but perception is reality. [Perception is not reality. Student test scores are reality.]

(snip)

Astarita, Cloud and the entire staff at Adams have given their commitment to meet with parents at any time and address any concern. [So what? The parents want their kids in a school with high performing students. They don't want smiles and hugs and more tea and coffee.]
But it takes two to dialogue. During the meeting last Tuesday, I gave my name and phone number to the president of the Mesa Verde Education Committee and asked her to call me. [It's not about dialogue. Get the student test scores up and you won't have to dialogue.]

She has not, and that says to me that the committee has to own some part of this breakdown in communication and the ongoing poor perception of the school. [It's not about perception, it's about student scores.]

The truth is that Adams is not as bad as the committee claims, nor as good as Hubbard would like us to believe — as usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. [What are the student test scores, Steve?]

Whatever the school and the district have been doing to improve the school’s image is not working after 10 years of trying. That means that it’s time to try something new. [How about getting student test scores on a First World level?]

But I’m going to err on the side of the district, which has done more than its part to try to patch things up. [It's not about patching things up, but about getting this school to have First World student test scores.]

District officials have met concerned parents more than halfway and owned part of the poor communication on the website. [Geez. I'm going to scream! It's not about meeting anyone halfway or about poor communications. It's about getting student test scores higher.]

So until I hear from the committee, my perception is that they are only interested in lobbing hand grenades and gossiping. [Smith, get over this perception nonsense and start looking at substance. Go look at the school report cards, Smith.]

And as you know, perception is reality. [Smith, stop using this tired cliche. Perception is not reality. Student scores are reality.]
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Notice how Smith talks about perception, image, etc. constantly but never once gives the school test scores. Compare this school to similar schools in Newport Beach and you'll see why parents are concerned.

Don't buy a used car from Smith. He may talk to you about the paint job and the upholstery and not mention that it doesn't have an engine.


Here's a LINK to Adams School's School Report Card.

Here's a LINK to Newport Elementary's School Report Card.

Read the entire report cards at the above links. But, here are just a few things that you'll see.

Adams has an API rank of 4 (10 is highest) and the Feds have intervened because the student scores are so low. CST results: English is 38, Math 47, Science 49 [These scores stink.]

Newport Elementary has an API rank of 9 (10 is highest). CST results: English 73, Math 75, Science 67.

Which school would you want your kid in? Would you prefer to buy a house near Adams School or Newport Elementary?

Are you going to believe Smith and his rose colored glass friends in the school establishment, or the results of the tests mandated by the state and feds so parents wouldn't constantly be given a used car salesman approach to try to hide the reality of the schools?

Folks, if a slick talker tells you that your kid's school is great or fun or that the school officials want to show you around campus or give you a cup of tea and dialogue with you, be sure you count your fingers after shaking their hands.

The reality is that the teachers and administrators quoted or mentioned in Smith's column are probably every bit as good and in some cases may be better than their peers in the Newport Beach schools. And, our school buildings and books are the same. The only difference in this equation is the students.

If you're a school administrator or teacher in Newport Beach, you're going to look good even if you just go to the beach every day.

But if you're an administrator or teacher in Costa Mesa, you're going to look bad even if you put in 80 hours a week doing your job.

That's reality folks. That's demographics. That's the result of having Costa Mesa being illegal alien friendly.

That has to change. And, it has to change at the city level. The school district can't improve the school scores in Costa Mesa until the city improves.
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