Time for Plan B

I always think it's funny. Buffalo has so many failing schools, but then is also has one of the top ten public schools in the country.

Buffalo's poor public school performance is honestly a big reason I think the suburbs are growing while our city is shrinking. People are willing to pay higher taxes for Williamsville, Kenmore, and Clarence so that their kids have better schools. There needs to be some serious changes in Buffalo schools if we hope to attract new families and workers into the city.

Here's another 'duh'... cyclical poverty and indifference is cyclical. Unless something is done to break the cycle, it will continue unabated.

I personally believe (and I'm sure many will disagree with me) that our schools spend too much time trying to bring up the rear rather than leading the way for students. Parents view schools as free day care and are either unable or unwilling to help their children succeed, much less get by.

As much as this isn't an easy solution, I think that worlds could be gained by extending education to the parents as well as the children. As teenagers and young adults, too many people simply don't value their education... but when they see their children failing and are unable to do anything about it, they tend to realize what they missed out on.

By day schools are there for the kids. But by night, they should also be available to parents, if not to learn history and algebra then at least how to assist in their children's education.

I particularly like the idea of what I believe is called the inverted classroom, where students learn their lessons at home on a website, so that they can spend their classtime putting those lessons into practice under the guidance of the teacher. It is a complete reversal of the traditional lecture-at-school/homework-at-home model. Obviously this is a difficulty for families without a computer, but we are well enough into the 21st century that even this is rare, and provisions can certainly be made in those cases.

All that said, there is also the concept that not everyone can grow up to be an astronaut. We've convinced ourselves that no child should be left behind, while ignoring the fact that wasting our educational resources on the hopeless only holds back the ones who truly are in a position to succeed. There is nothing wrong with advanced classes and remedial classes for those who are ahead of or behind the curve. But treating every student as an equal on a standardized test just isn't the answer.

As a teacher, I'm very suspicious of the charter school movement, especially the plans to take over Waterfront and East High. Those schools are struggling not because they have both been cursed with inadequate teachers/administration, but because of their student demographics. Many of their students are trapped in poverty, do not live in environments where education is a priority, and often arrive to school malnourished, without a proper night's sleep, and probably sick. Do these make for a strong learning environment?

Converting to charter schools is a copout. Yes, they will probably get better test scores, but charters can also kick out students who might pose a risk to those test results, including special education students. That is a crime if they're receiving public money. I say no. Let Waterfront and East continue. They finally have strong administrations and deserve to operate under their current structure. The only students they fail are the ones who fail themselves, or who are failed by their families.

Buffalo Rising used to feature more about the Buffalo BoE than just this privatizing v. public school issue. Is Elena Cala still involved in what gets into print at Buffalo Rising?

That's why it will be important to watch the progress of the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood Initiative as it attempts to take a holistic approach to addressing issues with the urban education system.

UB's Regional Institute put out a very thorough analysis and needs assessment of the BPN last year: http://www.buffalopromiseneighborhood.org/public/files/BuffaloPromiseNeighborhoodNeedsAssessment.pdf
Especially important are the 14 indicators that have been identified as critical to a student's academic success. Fostering a cradle to career mentality and putting the appropriate support networks in place will be critical to breaking the cycle of poverty.

If this initiative is successful, it will provide a model that can be replicated across the city.

We need to move back to neighborhood schools. I'd bet my next paycheck that if we did, neighborhoods would flurish and graduation rates would increase to 70 percent in the next decade. If you can guarantee someone that if they move to a specific neighborhood they'll be guaranteed a certain school, instead of playing this guessing game with school selection, I bet many suburban house holds would move back into the city.

No Illusions nailed it, this is about poverty first, school performance is directly related to the wealth (or lack of) of the district. Until we as a society address this fundamental problem there will be only incremental progress.
That said Buffalo offers many opportunities for a quality education if the parent and student are willing to make the effort. I have four children, all attended Buffalo schools including PS #51, PS #17, McKinley, Our Lady of Black Rock, Olmstead, City Honors, and DaVinci. My youngest just started at Huch Tech, a great school with a solid reputation. My children have all done well and are well rounded, tolerant, and able to navigate out in the real world.
My experience has been very positive in sharp contrast to the simplistic and often repeated criticism by those with little or no exposure to Buffalo's schools.

one of the best solutions for a more equitable school system is to establish one county-wide school system. large, booming cities such as charlotte have done this, with better educational outcomes than us. lots of buffalonians have moved there, so it isn't a deterrent to attracting a workforce.

It comes down to what a "good school is"...is it statistics? At the moment the system thats in place encourages anyone with the resources and a head on their shoulders to flee to the suburbs. (Made even worse by the current housing situtation for middle class residents) What has been proven since busing started..is that taking a hungry "poor" student and bussing them to the other side of town doesn't magically make them not hungry and a great student.

The majority of the BPS problems are social issues..I think a great start would be letting kids go to school with those that live around them..walking to school making friends..connections..meeting other parents from their neighborhood that may be able to set them up with a meal or a shower..or a place to crash after school for a few hours. We've seperated children from their neighborhoods here..its amazing what strangers will do for eachother, when they're from the same street and kids are involved.

Unfortunately..the environment doesn't encourage anyone who can stay to stay..hence the situation we have now. Concentrated levels of poverty..and a school system that doesn't serve good students. Your schools would be "better" if where you went to school was not up to chance. Your boundries would change as would your statistics..ideally for every Burgard (which you will always have in a district this size)..you would have a Bennett, which would serve a larger/wider income demographic on both sides of Main Street (thus better statistics)..or a Grover Cleveland that seems to ride right down the middle covering a higher income section of town..a solid middle class section and a lower income section as well.

This would have to be followed by one of Mayor Browns good old fashioned "clean sweeps"..drugs/guns/gangs should be zero tolerance..no exceptions. Ontop of a highly dysfunctional management structure, multiple BPS schools seem to be like the Wild West. I'd like to see school seen as a privledge..its not a right. If you want to act like a fool..fight/deal/not go whatever..the district shouldn't force you to..enlist or hit the workforce.

Lastly, we're the 3rd poorest city in the country...there will need to be some sort of heavy handed "social/charitable" actions (I don't know what those could be) to give those children who have no one to care for them a fighting chance. We (myself included) all have no idea what its like to not have a coat in the winter..or 2-3 meals a day..or a clean bed to go to sleep in. I have got multiple relatives in accademia that teach all over the spectrum and the stories/condition of numerous students is enough to make a grown man tear up at the way "parents" treat their children.

I taught in Buffalo Public Schools. I think we can stand to risk some ideas and suggestions for changes.

My hunches tell me that there are serious economic and social factors at play. Perhaps they are all economic factors at heart.

And there are other important questions, as mentioned here, including deciding what a "good" school is. Does a good school mean high test scores? High graduation rates? Does it mean students learn what to fear, and what to be uncertain of? Does it mean students have been equipped with personal honor?

Once we decide what we want, there must be a huge body of research to help guide us figure out how to get it, right?

Regarding turning East and Waterfront into charter schools, I'm all ears. When I first heard of this proposal, I was hesitant, and I had an ideological knee jerk reaction. But the original poster is correct - East, Waterfront, and a number of other BPS schools are not putting students on a path to graduation. I think Waterfront should be given a chance at redemption as a BPS school given their new principal - one that is especially well liked and seems to have the capacity to turn the school around. But I think East is a prime candidate as a charter restart, and I would like to know more about what Chameleon plans to do differently that the BPS system was not able to accomplish. Where can the public access the charter proposals? Also, why did Chameleon not involve the Board of Education in forming their proposals? Most importantly, do the parents and students at East and Waterfront support their schools being converted to charter schools?

Regarding the topic of neighborhood schools in Buffalo, there is no perfect student placement policy option. Parent preferences are almost always at odds with the values of equity, diversity, and segregation in schools. Parents prefer to place their children in schools where there are other parents like them who hold similar educational philosophies and values. Buffalo has a low cost of living. When parents, by the luck of a lottery usually, are not given the opportunity to place their child in a school that has other parents like them, they take the disposable income they have, not spent on more expensive housing, and either put it into a private/Catholic school education, or move to the suburbs. If you drew lines around neighborhoods, and guaranteed parents placement in a certain school, you may see property values rise slightly in North Buffalo, Elmwood, and parts of South Buffalo, and a trickle of middle-income parents moving to those areas to take advantage of a Say Yes to Education scholarship. But you won't see an influx of suburbanites suddenly moving into East and West Buffalo, sending their kids to the higher-poverty schools.

More knowledgeable parents are also aware of unique programs offered by schools in other urban school districts, often magnet programs: Montessori, arts schools, dual language/language immersion schools, STEM-focused schools, and so forth. The new superintendent herself acknowledges that she didn't send her daughter to the school nearest her home when she was young, as she wanted her daughter to be in a French immersion school. Buffalo has these magnet offerings, and some of them do draw in children from all over town, but by and large, these programs are not celebrated or highlighted or really talked about because parents see a number attached to a school on greatschools.org, and they look at the demographics of the school, and often, they run. The Buffalo Public Schools suffer from a culture of pessimism and negative storytelling, and Buffalo suffers from an ingrained/unspoken sense of racism and neighborhood divisions, whereas there are actually a lot of things to be celebrated in our schools. I've had conversations with teachers, principals, parents, and leaders of community agencies who see wonder things going on daily in our schools.

Our current student placement system at the high school level is especially problematic. Concentrating lower-income, and academically struggling teenagers into a couple "good" high schools leaves all those in other high schools with nobody to lift their achievement levels. But the alternative is to dismantle such schools, and send the students in those schools to private schools or the suburbs, and we'd be no better off as a city. Some charter schools have been successful in attracting a mix of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds - Tapestry and EVCS namely. But I've been watching the trends in these schools - as times goes on, the rate of poverty has increased in those schools, and test scores have gone down. Especially at the high school level, parents are now wary of Tapestry's High School because of their perceptions of what race, test scores, and poverty mean in a school setting. But aren't all the kids who have attended those schools and escaped failing schools better off in the short term of things, even if the diversity of those schools is not sustainable?

Regarding East - is the goal in turning it into a charter to improve the education for students currently at the school? How does it plan to do that with the same demographics? Or does it hope to offer a unique program that attracts a different demographic, potentialy leaving former students to attend one of Buffalo's other low-ranking high schools?

I'm the parents of a BPS student who attends a school with a very good reputation. But I've learned that reputation and test scores and the socioeconomic status of the kids in a school only goes so far, and that the culture and leadership at a school is so much more important than those things. My expectations were not met. So much so that I'd prefer for my child to attend a so-called "failing" school, so that we could experience a warm, nurturing school environment that welcomes parents and has a positive school culture, regardless of test sores and diagnostics. There is a small, but growing movement of parents, I've noticed that are pulling their children out of "the best" schools and putting them in schools where there are dynamic things going on - schools that are open to change and embracing parents. There are lots of opportunities to be had at our city's "failing" schools for those with the stamina to come to understand "the system" and who are dedicated to improving the city's public schools, public or charter, rich or poor.

Many ascribe failing student populations to high poverty environments. And while there is incontrovertible evidence that this correlation is intense, it is neither universal nor determinative.

Many destitute immigrants, for example, with little or no education themselves, nevertheless produce children from inner city failing schools who excel academically, despite the apathy surrounding them. Parental involvement is critical, obviously. Familial values which stress the importance of education endow these economically disadvantaged students with the necessary support to succeed. So the obvious question is: how to engage all those indifferent, apathetic parents.

What charter schools might accomplish much more easily than the typical public school is to capture the attention and focus of the parents. If parents have little choice but to send their children off to failing, indistinguishable and seemingly irrelevant schools, many parents will simply disengage. Choice, however, can interrupt this apathy.

Imagine, for instance, a charter school where African and African American histories are studied much more comprehensively. Imagine a school where students learn in great depth the trials and tribulations of those with whom they identify. Maybe Lincoln and Jefferson are covered in the same detail as all the other schools, but in this school students are taught the lives of Malcom X and Langston Hughes and many others in great detail. I'll bet there are thousands of African American parents, currently dismissive of school, who would find this curriculum relevant and attractive. Engage the parents and the students will follow.

My father was third generation immigrant, entering school 70 years after his family arrived here. But half his school day was taught in Polish. That was his community. That culture is what his parents valued. People care about what they identify with.

Charters have much more latitude than amorphous cookie cutter schools to appeal to specific interests. This appeal is what is lacking in our poverty heavy district. All parents, even the most distant and unskilled, can be attracted to some particular fields which they find relevant. They key is developing a variety of schools which appeal to those apathetic, ignorant parents. That's not impossible. And it's easier to do that in a one-off charter than a bureaucratic institutional behemoth of a system.

Sure, there's a very strong correlation between poverty and academic failure. But that correlation can be broken. And perhaps it can only be broken by developing schools which interest the parents. Even the most ignorant parent believes some things genuinely are important. They can be appealed to. And therein lies hope for breaking that cycle of failure.

So are we supposed to give The Chameleons the benefit of the doubt when their methods are called into question? Apparently so. They circumvented what they know to be the established process by applying directly to NYSED where a charter spawned Ommissioner and his second in command Campos have been put in place to further the privatization agenda of these wine and cheese "reformers." They didn't bother with the Board of Ed or the Superintendent or the parents except for the Barber of No Illusions Mr. Fuentes who offers a military high and tight to any unfortunate soul applying to teach in Chameleonland. Neither did they confer with parties in place and currently working with students admin and faculty at both East and Waterfront. Professor Joe Gardella of U.B. asks in a letter to Artvoice why his group was blown off by Polowitz and Co. And what plans the Chameleons have to work with, without or around the program he has in place. Teachers at Waterfront too asked how the Chameleons plan to address the significant number of emerging English speakers in their student population and why the Chameleons don't seem to be aware that Canisius College is working successfully in Waterfront with full parental support. And please friends can we drop all this tartuffery about how much Chameleons, "ed reformers" and charters care so much more about "the children" than those of us who've gone into debt on student loans so we could actually teach kids m? There is no shortage of cant, rant and melodrama when the ones who claim they want to stop all the finger pointing and blaming commence to finger pointing and blaming public school teachers and our unions for the manifest failures currently taking up headlines in our schools. Their solution, introducing a profit motive and getting rid of union protection for teachers is great Capitalism but it's pathetically poor quality education. Please don't lose sight for a minute that charters are NOT public schools no matter how badly their acolytes waterboard the definition of same. They are money making operations like all others whose primary goal is to turn a profit . And in this case they have a very beguiling rhetorical angle to their sales pitch as they claim they are all about children while trousering educational funding and delivering a shoddy product that will produce test taking minimum wage compliants, not decision makers, inventors or leaders. Don't be fooled by their slick salespitch or their glossy Democrats for Ed Reform (whose Board contains 5 of 7 members managing hedge funds) pamplets or their crazy ass Walden Media fictionalized movies. If their cause is so noble why is their propaganda campaign so filled with half truths, obfuscations, ommissions and lies? I think any critical thinker whos education involved more than cramming for standardized tests knows the answer. Handing our schools over to lowest bidders will guarantee the widening gulf between 1%ers, the privately educated venture philanthropists who promote these testing madrassas and the 99% whose kids will be stuck in them and in low wage careers as consuming drones whose education gave them nothing to fall back on.

Not all charters are for profit organizations. The charter our kids attend is not for profit. Students are selected by lottery. Free lunch rates are similar to the larger public system at large. The school's culture is decidedly on the left of the spectrum, politically speaking. We are strongly opposed, as are most of the other parents that I know, to the concentration of wealth that defines the privileged 1%. The school may not be run by the doctrinaire cabal that administers the BPS, but Elmwood Village certainly IS a public school in every sense of the word, regardless of the vitriolic reaction to independent schools run outside the bureaucratic nightmare of the larger BPS.

Today, at The Buffalo News online (buffalonews.com) There is an article titled City schools chief sets graduation goat at 80%, but there is no commenting at TBN now and nothing about this article at the Buffalo BoE or Buffalo Schools on Facebook or even at city-buffalo's BoE information.

This article is jam packed with questions!