THE TEN TOP SMARTEST DOG BREEDS IN THE WORLD
Hey wait a minute! All dogs bleed red blood. If some are smarter than others they must have been raised in better kennels.
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KNOW NOTHINGS AND THEIR OPINIONS ON FAILING 'SCHOOLS' ON THE WESTSIDE
Contrary to what you'll read in Steve Smith's column and some of his readers' comments, there are no failing schools on the Westside.
I'll repeat that. There is not one failing school on the Westside.
The school facilities are every bit as good as schools in the rest of the district. The principals are every bit as good. The teachers are every bit as good. The money spent on the schools is on a par with the other schools.
The three schools in question--Pomona, Whittier and Wilson elementary schools--are not failing schools. They have failing students. Period.
Take all the students from those three schools and put them in three schools in the district with the highest API scores and put the students from those high API schools in the three Westside schools and change not one other thing and you'd see a total reversal in scores.
The reason the Westside schools have low API scores is because of demographics.
And, unless the demographics of the Westside are changed, these schools will continue to have low API scores. The problem with these three schools isn't an NMUSD problem. It's a Costa Mesa city problem.
Doubt me? Then prove me wrong. I have an open mind.
But please don't give me the usual false cause BS. Do your homework. Log on to other school district websites anywhere in the state and come up with three elementary schools with very close demographics to Pomona, Whittier and Wilson that have top API scores. Then send me the link so I can analyze their data.
I won't hold my breath. Why? Because you won't find any.
To fix the Westside schools (that aren't failing) we need to improve the Westside (which is failing) and change it from an illegal alien sanctuary area with too many cheap apartments and into the nice area that it should be.
We need to make the Westside a place where upwardly mobile people want to be instead of the place that they want to flee.
I'll even make it easy for you to try to prove me wrong. HERE's the link to the School Accountability Report Cards (SARCs) for all the schools in the NMUSD.
Don't just send me your opinions or tell me what you think. I don't care what your opinions are or what you think.
Send me the statistics.
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CM Press, if you believe the key to fixing Westside schools is fixing the Westside, why are you so lukewarm to the Banning Ranch development? Won't it have an uplifting impact on the Westside?
ReplyDeleteTo CM Resident: If I could be convinced that Banning Ranch would blend seamlessly into the Westside, such that the folks from Banning Ranch would shop on Costa Mesa's Westside and help transform the area, I'd be more in favor of the project. So far, I haven't been convinced, but I have an open mind.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if the developer put some of those millions $ on our side of the border by building lofts virtually identical to the ones up by the train station in Santa Ana, I'd become a true believer.
To anonymous do not post: You're dealing with the wrong people. They are not liked and they do nothing but talk. There will be those on your side who can help at....
ReplyDeleteMartin: I understand the point you're trying to make, but your call for data is not typical of the process. A position has been taken that there are failing schools on the Westside. You write that some believe otherwise, yet you do not provide any supporting information, factual or anecdotal. The discussion is worthwhile, but you're asking your readers to take a position opposite to one you have yet to prove. Recommendation: Provide the support showing that there are some in the city who "believe there is not one failing school on the Westside."
ReplyDeleteTo A good discussion: Huh? The position that the schools are failing is wrong. It is the students who are failing. It is the students who take the tests that give a school an API score. The schools don't take tests. And, as to your Recommendation. I am the one who says there is not one failing school on the Westside. Put the students from the top API schools into the low API Westside schools and the Westside schools would be top API schools. Put the students from the low API Westside schools in the top API schools, and they would be the worst schools.
ReplyDeleteMy larger point is that the Westside schools have low API scores because there are forces in Costa Mesa keeping the Westside downscale and chasing off upwardly mobile young familes that should be having their kids in these schools. It is time to break the hold of these forces--these slum gods and goddesses--on the Westside and let the area improve to be what it should be given its closeness to the ocean and Newport Beach.
In most cities near the ocean, that don't have working ports, the closer you get to the ocean the nicer are the neighborhoods. It is obscene that this is not the case in Costa Mesa. This has to change.
"A good discussion, but... said...
ReplyDeleteMartin: I understand the point you're trying to make, but your call for data is not typical of the process."
"You write that some believe otherwise, yet you do not provide any supporting information, factual or anecdotal."
I'm confused so you want data or not? I believe the writer is asking YOU to connect the dots and come to YOUR own conclusion rather than rely on his word alone.
Now you're splitting hairs. Of course schools do not take tests. A school is made up of students and if you look at any API data, it scores and indexes "school," not "student." They are interchangeable. Now, if you want to get stuck on this small point, feel free, but it is secondary to the original challenge, which was your call for information. You wrote, "I am the one who says there is not one failing school on the Westside," but don't insult me - I read your blog regularly and I know that you don't believe that. So, you have a choice: We can continue the discussion on an honest, scientific level using available data, or we can spout off and lob suppositions based on our feelings. I prefer the former.
ReplyDeleteTo Good discussion, part 2: With all due respect, your comments on this subject are just as silly as the frequent negative ones you make to me about Mansoor.
ReplyDeleteTry to focus on these four simple declarative sentences that form the core of my assertions: a) The reason that the three schools mentioned on the Westside have low API scores is because of the make-up of the student body in each school.
b) The way to bring up the API scores at these schools is to change the make-up of the student body in the schools.
c) The student body of the schools is related to the demographics of the neighborhoods that supply students to the schools.
d) Improve the neighborhoods so more upwardly mobile people will buy homes there and the student body in the schools will change.
And, as far as asking readers who disagree with me on the above to come up with their own data to disprove my assertions, I made it clear that I don't think there is any such data. So, if you want to prove me wrong, the burden is upon you to supply some data. I stand by my assertions and they are backed up by the API reports/demographic data on every school I've looked at in the NMUSDand elswhere.