Beena
Raghavendran once again did a kit-glove piece on a staff member of the
Minneapolis Public Schools in her recent gentle and favorable treatment of
South High School principal Ray Aponte (“A
Portrait of Change in the Schools,” Star
Tribune, April 23, 2017).
Raghavendran fails to ask any of the questions that truly matter.
Raghavendran’s
piece finds Aponte in a flurry of motion on a typical morning, handing out pats
on the back, shouting hellos, checking his email, and pondering student
schedules. Despite his exertions, he
notices little details like the new braces on the teeth of one of his
students. Like one of the new-model
principals, according to Ravhavendran’s portrayal, Aponte is no
stuck-in-his-office leader of this school site, so busy is he bolstering
achievement, supporting teacher development, and ensuring that those entering
his building feel safe and welcome.
Aponte avowedly finds gratifying his opportunity to build relationships
with students he knows are going to change the world.
Forth
goes Aponte, remembering birthdays, maintaining an ordinary position in the
lunch line, expressing concern when a student has missed a week of school,
trying to keep classrooms small and programming
coinsistent amidst budget cuts, and advocating for Advanced Placement
courses that earn college credit and save families money in the long run. As to the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments
(MCAs) that his students are currently taking and the fact that last year 60
percent of his students opted out, Aponte says, “I have to be okay with
it. I’m an advocate for South High
School.”
Beginning
with that last comment, consider the questions that Raghavendran should have
asked Aponte but did not:
She
should have asked why, if Aponte is an advocate for South High School, he would
ever be okay with students opting out of state-mandated tests. She should have asked him if the English
teacher at South High School who last spring actually sent a form home to
parents that encouraged students to opt out was ever disciplined, or if anyone
put pressure on that teacher or on Aponte himself to discourage such refusal to
take the test by which Eric Moore (MPS chief of research, innovation,
assessment, and accountability) and staff consider the main measure of student
achievement.
Raghavendran
should have further noted that according to the Acceleration 2020 Strategic Plan,
which articulates Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) strategies and goals for
academic years running from 2014 through 2020, the general body of MPS students
shall record five (5) percentage point increases in academic growth every year
and those students who have been functioning far below grade level shall record
eight (8) percentage points in academic growth.
Moore and staff measure progress toward goals mainly by MCA results. How can results be measured if students are
opting out?
According
to the most recent data available from spring 2016, South High School recorded
the second worst results on the MCA reading assessment, with just 14 percent of
students taking the test recording proficient performance; results from Roosevelt High School yielded
that same 14 percent figure, while that for North High School (5 percent) was
worse; however, comparable results from the
other traditional high schools Southwest (65 percent), Washburn (49 percent),
Henry (32 percent), and Edison (28 percent) high schools were two to three
times better the MCA reading assessment figure for South.
As
to scores on the MCA math assessment, the staff at Henry High School deserves kudos
for having their students record 59 percent proficiency on a test that is a
rigorous measure of high school math achievement; other scores ranged from 7 percent
proficiency at North High School to 33 percent proficiency at Southwest High
School; embarrassingly, so few students
at South High School took the test that the report from Aponte’s school was “No
Data.”
What,
Raghavendran should have asked, does this say about the teachers that Aponte is
developing and the academic atmosphere that he is creating? How are students likely to change the world
or go forth to successful university experiences on the strength of those
Advanced Placement courses when one-third of students graduating from the
Minneapolis Public Schools will need to take remedial courses in math and
reading?
Ray
Aponte is deeply culpable for overseeing the lamentable academic results recorded
by South High School.
Star
Tribune
reporter Beena Raghavendran is just as culpable for not asking Aponte the
questions that should be asked.
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