Last week I posted on the Anaheim City School District Board of Education’s incredible decision to appeal OC Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks ruling in favor of the parents seeking to convert Palm Lane Elementary into an independent charter school.
Today, the OC Register editorial page, which has been vocally supporting the Palm Lane parents group, published an editorial also calling on the ACSD Board to call it quits in its fight with these parents:
District superintendent Linda Wagner said, in a written statement reported by the Register, that the district had to follow “two distinct courses” in the aftermath of the judge’s decision: “The first is to continue our efforts to engage all parents at Palm Lane and address their concerns, and the second is to adhere to the court’s order while we appeal the decision.”
Actually, the district only needed to follow one course – accepting Judge Andrew Banks’ decision, and the wishes of 66 percent of parents, who signed a petition to change Palm Lane into a charter school under the state’s “parent trigger” law.
Instead, the district seems bent on doubling down on the unproductive policy that Judge Banks found “procedurally unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.”
The facts are clear: Palm Lane has long demonstrated a need for reform.
You can read the entire editorial here.
The Orange County Register continues to present only selected information when discussing Palm Lane Elementary School, provides no insight regarding the instructional programs at Palm Lane, and fails to identify any real solution to any long-term problem affecting Palm Lane students.
Palm Lane Elementary School shares the same student characteristics with hundreds of other public elementary schools in the state. Most notably, for the majority of Palm Lane students, Spanish, not English, is their native language. School tests, however, are administered in English. Thus, it is not surprising that the majority of students score below the normal range for their age and grade on state reading and math tests.
To assert “Palm Lane has long demonstrated a need for reform” and “the school has performed below state standards for more than a decade” says nothing that is unique to Palm Lane and does not identify any specific action or change that potentially results in improving the academic performance of Palm Lane students. “The need for an overhaul” is not an action, change, reform or a solution.
Palm Lane Elementary School is not a “habitually underperforming school.” Habitually underperforming school is an anthropomorphism. Students, not schools, underperform. To assert that Palm Lane students underperform, however, may not be correct. It is impossible for students who lack English fluency to excel on tests administered in English, a goal analogous to requiring them to high jump six feet. To set unattainable goals ensures students will not successfully pass school tests.
Are you proposing that school tests not be given in English? Somehow I don’t think problem is that simple.
Students must learn to speak and write English fluently. Lacking English fluency, students will not score well on school tests. Increasing the difficulty of school tests and curricular goals results in lower test scores. Two principal problems affect the literacy progress of students in the nation’s public schools: teachers usually lack an understanding about how language works and how children learn.
So what is your solution?
In previous posts I noted John Hattie’s research findings. Our public schools ignore the use of effective policies, programs, and instructional practices. Instead, our schools use many ineffective policies, programs, and instructional practices.
See these previous posts:
https://anaheimobserver.com/2014/11/17/school-differences-dont-make-difference-one-matters/
https://anaheimobserver.com/2015/01/12/palm-lanes-parents-charter-wrong-course/
You’ve established issues in education. But what would you advocate for in terms of real and concrete solutions?