WeRoc Questionnaires For AAPS School Board Candidates

I was asked by WeRoc to post the AAPS school board candidates' answers to their questions. After thinking about it for a while, I've decided to share them because I like what WeRoc tries to do. Also, they have some excellent questions for the candidates, and they are a bit different from most of the other questions I have seen.

In any case, if you are really interested in my thoughts about the election, and my endorsements, you will find them here. 

Who is WeRoc?

The Washtenaw Regional Organizational Coalition (WeROC) brings together faith, labor, and community organizations and individuals to create a collective voice to impact public affairs and issues in the Washtenaw County, Michigan area. We are affiliated with the MOSES organization in S.E. Michigan (mosesmi.org) and the national Gamaliel Foundation network of community organizing projects. Our unique organizing process focuses on creating opportunities for more people of color, lower income residents, and youth to participate at the tables where decisions affecting them and the broader community are made — and finding effective ways to dismantle the structures that stubbornly maintain racism and economic inequality in our area. 

WeRoc AAPS School Board Questionnaire and Answers

You can find the WeRoc questionnaire and answers here. (The answers were a bit too long to put inside the blog post.)

To whet your interest, here are the questions:

1. In what ways would you seek to increase minority and low-income parent voice in decision-making?

2. In what ways would you seek to increase minority and low-income youth voice in decision-making?

3. What is your vision of a positive school climate and how would you like to see your district promote that vision? Would you promote Restorative Justice and/or Communities in Schools programs?

4. What is your school district’s approach to school discipline and do you think it’s working? If not, what would you like to change?

5. As a school board member, you may be asked to make decisions about non- mandatory student expulsions and long-term suspensions. What will be your guiding principles in making those difficult decisions? Are there situations you would absolutely expel? Are there situations you would not expel?

6. Nationally, there is a disturbing trend of suspending preschool and early elementary school students and some communities are responding with a strict moratorium on such suspensions. What is your position on suspensions in the early grades?

7. How will you promote transparency and regular review of expulsion, suspension and school arrest data?

8. School dropout is a problem with enormous social costs. What do you feel your district could do differently do address school dropout?

9. What role, if any, do you feel law enforcement should have in schools?

10. In your position as Board member or Trustee, you will be in a unique position to be a powerful advocate for children from marginalized groups. How do you see yourself exercising that power?

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W.E.B Du Bois: Of The Color Line, the Class Line, and a Boyhood in Western Massachusetts

Photo by Ruth Kraut, 2010

To close out Black History Month,* I thought I'd share some thoughts I had about a visit I made a few summers ago to the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite in western Massachusetts. Before that, I knew about Du Bois' as a wonderful thinker. I had read--more than once--his book The Souls of Black Folk, in which he wrote that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." [Read the Souls of Black Folk online here, check it out from the library, or invest in a copy!]

Photo by Ruth Kraut, 2010

I did not realize, until I passed this historic site, and stopped to visit, that Du Bois had graduated from the mostly white high school in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I wonder how that experience affected his thinking about education?

In Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois spends some time talking about the Talented Tenth, the idea that an elite group of intellectually-motivated black students should be encouraged in intellectual pursuits.

In Chapter 3 of Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois also takes on the legacy of Booker T. Washington, who promoted the idea of industrial/trade education for the majority of black students.

Photo by Ruth Kraut, 2010

Photo by Ruth Kraut, 2010. Part of the caption here reads,
"Violence is black children going to school for 12 years
and receiving 5 years of education."

Taken together, these two trains of thought--W.E.B. Du Bois' Talented Tenth on the one hand, and Booker T. Washington's belief in trade education on the other hand, created--and continue to elucidate--our understanding of education for people of color today.

Yet as I once heard Ted Shaw, former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund say (paraphrasing here, I wasn't taking notes at this speech! but I think I found an account of the speech here): "If the issue of the 20th century was the color line, the issue of the 21st century is likely to be the class line."

According to this account, Shaw also commented that: "Race has always masked class differences in the United States. . . Why are educational opportunities at the best universities and colleges so limited? . . .
Shaw described the tracking, sorting and labeling of young students by ability as 'diabolical.'"

Are we--should we be--training students to be automatons, cogs in an industrial machine? Or are we--should we be--training students to be intellectual leaders? And are those our only choices? I find echoes of these discussions in the arguments around the narrowing of the curriculum that is in part caused by high-stakes standardized testing and the reduction of the arts in public schools.

I'll close with this excerpt from Souls of Black Folk, Chapter 1, Of Our Spiritual Strivings, because in this excerpt Du Bois writes of his time in the western Massachusetts Berkshire Mountains:

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe. It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were. I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea. In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange. The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the worlds I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way. With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

*As it happens, I have been thinking about writing this post since I took these pictures in the summer of 2010, and because of Black History Month I decided that I should finish the post now. As I was getting ready to hit the "publish" button, I came across something that gave me Du Bois' birthdate--February 23, 1868. And the date of today's post? February 23, 2014. Today is, in fact, the 146th birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois. He died in Accra, Ghana (in self-imposed exile!), the day before the 1963 March on Washington. So much of what Du Bois wrote, over 100 years ago, is still relevant now. And that's why, if you haven't yet picked up and read the Souls of Black Folk, I'd recommend you put it on your "short list" of books to read in 2014. 


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It Should Be An Interesting Year!

The Willow Run/Ypsilanti consolidation passed, and so did the accompanying millage. (In Willow Run, the consolidation millage passed did not pass by very much.) Over the next year, we'll see how that will play out in many different ways.

The emergency manager law was repealed--it is unclear what that will mean for school districts that have emergency managers, but there are several districts that currently have emergency managers--although none in Washtenaw County.

Deb Mexicotte won in the Ann Arbor school board election, which means that we have the same school board that we have had for the past year.

Diane Friese and Karen Delhey won in the Saline school board election, which is interesting because they each ran on a slate with someone else, so essentially one person from each "slate" won. Friese is a retired teacher who now illustrates children's books. Delhey works as the senior director of marketing for The Guild of Artists and Artisans, a non-profit artist membership organization that produces five art fairs, including the Ann Arbor Art Fair. She is also vice president of the Foundation for Saline Area Schools. (Can she stay on as vice president of the Foundation for Saline Area Schools? I don't know.) Given their arts backgrounds, it would be nice if that meant that the arts got a special focus in the Saline schools. (In reality, I think giving the arts a special focus is a nice thing in any school district.)

Lincoln schools were able to renew their operating millage and their recreation and education millage.

Oh, and Landau and Morton won for Washtenaw Community College--which is a good thing because I'm not really sure how someone who was barred from the campus (Figg) could serve on the board of WCC.

On the national and state level, we'll have to see how changes affect the educational landscape.

Update: Diane Ravitch points out two of the most important national votes affecting education.

She says that the most important education related vote took place in Indiana, where the Indiana Superintendent of Education, Tony Bennett, was ousted. According to Diane Ravitch's blog, he was:

. . . the face of rightwing reform in America.
His mission was to bring the ALEC agenda to life in the Hoosier State.
He was head of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, the group of state superintendents that were most eager to privatize public education, expand charters and vouchers, turn children over to for-profit corporations, and reduce the status of teachers.
He was honored by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute as the “reformiest” state superintendent in the nation.

 In another important set of votes in Idaho, the "Luna Laws" were defeated. According to Ravitch,

Voters in Idaho gave Mitt Romney a landslide  but simultaneously voted overwhelmingly to repeal the “Luna Laws,” the brainchild of state superintendent Tom Luna...
The Luna Laws imposed a mandate for online courses for high school graduates (a favorite of candidates funded by technology companies), made test scores the measure of teacher quality, provided bonuses for teachers whose students got higher scores, removed all teacher rights, eliminated anything resembling tenure or seniority, turned teachers into at-will employees, and squashed the teachers’ unions.
The campaign to support the Luna laws was heavily funded by technology entrepreneurs and out-of-state supporters of high-stakes testing and restrictions on the teaching profession, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The voters in this reddest of red states overturned all three of the Luna laws (which he called “Students Come First”; anything in which children or students or kids come “first” is a clear tip-off to the divisive intent of the program).

Ravitch also reports on a charter schools law that (just barely) passed in Washington state.

Title IX in My Life--And Yours

A few weeks ago I was talking to my daughter's track coach about the SHARP Title IX conference that took place in Ann Arbor. Yes, she said, she had gotten an email about it. But in the course of our conversation it became clear that she (who was born after Title IX) really didn't understand the impact of Title IX. Two weeks later, it became clear to me that my son didn't either. Maybe that's not surprising, given that he's only twelve, but he did reject it as an interesting topic to write about as a sportswriter for the school newspaper. And then last night, it became clear to me that another mom on my son's baseball team--of a similar age to me--had only the vaguest notion of how her daughter's educational opportunities were affected by Title IX. Yet in the case of the track coach, in the case of my son and his classmates, and in the case of my friend's daughter, Title IX has had a tremendous impact on their opportunities.

Title IX is a law passed in 1972 that requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding.
Many people have never heard of Title IX.  Most people who know about Title IX think it applies only to sports, but athletics is only one of 10 key areas addressed by the law. These areas are: Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology. (From TitleIX.info)

So I thought I'd set down, for the record, some ways in which I am aware that Title IX directly affected my life, and the life of the girls in my hometown. The Title IX blog recently had a post where they described these as the "little moments" of Title IX. We do need to document these! I know I was not alone. Thousands of girls around the country had similar experiences.

1. I went to a middle school that was run separately from the high school, but was physically attached to the high school and was simply in a different wing of the building. There were two gyms in the building. The small gym was in the middle school wing, and the large gym was in the high school. When I was in seventh grade, all of the girls, grades 7-12, had gym in the small gym; all of the boys had gym in the large gym. In eighth grade, the building use changed. The middle schoolers got the small gym; the high schoolers got the large gym. (Also in eighth grade, we got to stop wearing silly one-piece uniforms in gym, but that is besides the Title IX point--although it did definitely affect my enjoyment of gym, which we had four days a week!)

2. In seventh grade, I took home economics (cooking). All of the girls did. It was a requirement. All of the boys took wood shop. I didn't mind cooking, but I didn't want to take sewing. That was the eighth grade home ec. requirement for girls. They wouldn't let me sign up for metal shop though. I was a girl. My father appealed to the assistant principal. Said assistant principal told him it was against the law to let girls take industrial arts. My father asked him to cite the law. When he couldn't find it, my father left--and called the ACLU. The ACLU informed him about Title IX (which at that point was a few years old), and they wrote a letter to the school district threatening further action. They must have also put out a press release, because I remember that the issue made it into the local newspaper. The district changed its policy.

We can't leave aside the part that in the end, I was the only girl in the class, and if my dad hadn't gone to a lot of trouble for me I would have dropped out of industrial arts, because I was somewhat shy. Because the point is that my parents did go to bat for me, and actually, parent advocacy is a huge part of Title IX's success.

We can't leave aside the part that the teacher gave me an "A" for a project that was, objectively, terrible. This was an action I didn't understand until a few years later, when I realized it was his way of being supportive of the fact that I took a risk. And I do think that the industrial arts teachers--and probably the home ec. teachers too--were very supportive. If you think about it, giving students choices doubled their potential audience of students. In fact, when my brother, two years later, took home ec., one-third of the class was boys; and when he took industrial arts, one-third of the class was girls. In other words, because of one apparently small decision, things changed rather quickly.

3. I ran track in high school, but there was no girls' cross country team. When a group of us decided we wanted to start a girls' cross country team, Coach Miller was able to say yes. He was able to say yes because of the Title IX mandate.

4. And after years of advocacy on the part of my friends Denise and Anne, in our twelfth grade year the district agreed to add girls' soccer. We were on the first team. That was because of Title IX. It's not an accident that a couple of years ago the soccer team I helped start won the New York state championships. It's a legacy of Title IX.  (Two years ago I wrote about soccer, Title IX, and the Skyline soccer team here.)

What's your Title IX story? 

Testing Tales

I'm hoping to do a series about testing--talking about the MEAP, the MAP, the ACT, the SAT, the MME, etc. But it's such a vast subject and I've been a little bit stymied as to how to break it up. Add to that conundrum a busy schedule and I've been thinking about how to write this up for a couple of months now, but I haven't actually set pen to paper [rereading this, I feel I should note--that is just a figure of speech!]. Now I have decided I will move from inward to outward. In other words, I'm going to start with myself.

I've never been a particularly anti-test person. I always thought that test taking was a skill that people needed, just like writing, arithmetic, or learning how to tie a shoelace. But I also thought we shouldn't overemphasis tests.

For myself, I have pleasant memories of filing into the school cafeteria to take the Iowa tests. I was lucky that my name wasn't something long like Smolensky or Blagojevich [sneaky reference to a former Illinois governor who is going to jail this week] because they were too long to fit in the bubbles. And of course I made sure to fill in the bubbles well with my newly-sharpened #2 pencil.

Do you remember the Iowa tests? They have a long history. They were first developed in 1935. The Iowa tests are what are called "norm-referenced" tests.  In other words, they score test-takers on a bell curve. Some students will be above average; the majority will be average; and some students will be below average.  [Below, there is a drawing of a bell curve. See how it looks like a bell? Hence the name.]

The Bell Curve

The idea behind a norm-referenced test is that it describes a population's distribution. In other words, not everyone will perform well--some people will perform poorly. But in a particular population (say, for example, Lake Wobegon, where "all the children are above average,") all of the kids could score to the right of the center line--and would look good when compared Lake Woestayhere, where all the kids are below average.

On the other hand, you can see the problem. In the broader population, it is impossible for everybody to score well. Half the test-takers would have to be below average. If a large population moves its scores (everyone starts reading better), then the bell curve shifts to the right--but still, half the kids are below average. Also, norm-referenced tests tend to focus on the kinds of questions that differentiate between students, and not the kinds of questions that show proficiency in certain areas. In other words, the point of the test is to rank students.

If, by chance, you have ever had a teacher who "graded on the curve" or "curved the grades," that teacher was working toward a certain middle ground. If she or he expected that most of the class would get a B, but the average grade was a C, they might think "I guess I made that test too hard" and they would move the average up to a B. I was very thankful for that in college physics, where my C- turned into a B- thanks to a professor's curving of the final exam.

In my test-taking heyday--which might have been eighth or ninth grade--I enjoyed the tests as a break from my regular school work. I enjoyed completely filling in the circles. I didn't feel any pressure about the tests, because a) they didn't mean much of anything and b) I always scored well on tests. In other words, whether it was an Iowa test or an IQ test (which is also scored on the bell curve), I was always well along on the right-hand side of that curve.

I never had test anxiety, which definitely helped.

But it's also true that students who fit my profile tended to do well. And of course, doing well is positively reinforcing. And since I did well the first time, why get nervous about the next year's test?

What, you might wonder, is "my profile?" Well, to begin with, I lived in a primarily white, upper middle/middle class town. I had two well-educated parents, both with graduate degrees. I had lots of books in my house. Only one of my grandparents had finished high school, but they all could read in more than one language. It turns out that the confluence of a comfortable income and an educated, literate family lead a certain population to do very well on tests. And that is true, whether the test is a norm-referenced test like the Iowa tests, or a criterion-referenced test like the MEAP.

Criterion-referenced tests sound, on paper, a lot better. In a sense, they are more like the kinds of tests that we took in high school. If you were taught the future tense in a language class, you would be expected to demonstrate that knowledge on a test. Theoretically, every student in the class could get an A if they had studied and mastered the future tense. And in this simple example, that might actually happen.

In real life, in criterion-referenced tests like the MEAP, that never happens. There are a lot of reasons for this, but here are a few.
1. Students come in with different weaknesses. If one of those weaknesses is reading, that will show up in every single other test. The social studies and science tests--and even the math tests--require a lot of reading.
2. The "cut scores," as to what "proficiency" means, change. That just happened this year in Michigan, and guess what--a lot of kids who looked "proficient" last year don't look proficient this year. Even though they might have actually done better.
3. Not all teachers teach everything that might be on the tests. And even if they cover the subject matter, the questions might be unintelligible to the student. Take, for instance, an example that a teacher gave me a few years ago. Her students (upper elementary) had a question on the reading comprehension exam about logging. Yes, I'm talking about the cutting down of trees. Her students, however, had a different understanding of logging. One logs into a computer, and logs out of a computer. . .  That reading comprehension passage made no sense at all to those kids.

But anyway, back to me. I've now had two children go through the college application process. They've taken a lot of tests. Like me when I was growing up, they have two parents with graduate degrees. Like me growing up, they live in a middle class community--and an academic community too! That is another kind of privilege. Like me, they did relatively well.

And my youngest son? He said to me, "I like the tests."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"Well," he said, "we don't do any work during the testing periods!"

And that's Part I. More about testing, coming soon to a blog near you.

Is It Time for AAPS to Raise Top Administrative Salaries?

Tonight, the Ann Arbor school board is being asked to raise the salaries of three of the district's top administrators.

The salaries that are up for a vote relate to the following four administrators, two of whom are new to the district (so the ratification is for contracts that Patricia Greene, Superintendent, and Deb Mexicotte, School Board President, have already signed):

Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services Alesia Flye, hired in at a salary of $140,000. The former Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services, Lee Ann Dickinson-Kelly, had a salary in 2010-2011 of $132,000.
Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Dawn Linden, hired in at a salary of $117,900.
The former Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education was also Lee Ann Dickinson-Kelly (prior to taking on the interim appointment of Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services), and in that capacity her salary was $122,399 in 2010-2011.  It should be noted that Lee Ann Dickinson-Kelly also had 38 years in the Ann Arbor district. (This is not an increase in salary.)

The other two are current staff people:
Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Robert Allen
and
Deputy Superintendent of Human Resources and Legal Services, David Comsa

In 2010-2011, Robert Allen's salary was $130,556 (before he was interim superintendent, where he earned the same salary as our former superintendent, Todd Roberts).

In 2010-2011, David Comsa's salary was $124,524.

The proposed salary modifications for Robert Allen and David Comsa bring their salaries to the equivalent of the new deputy superintendent Alesia Flye, on the grounds that they should all be equal.

The percentage  increases, relative to 2010-2011 salaries, for the three deputy superintendent salaries are 7.2% (Allen); 12.4% (Comsa); and 6% (Dickinson-Kelly/Flye). Overall, this is an additional expense to the district of nearly $33,000. (If you include the fact that Dawn Linden is getting less pay than Dickinson-Kelly was, the cost is just over $28,400.)

I know what the superintendent is thinking...it's a big budget...it's not a lot of money. 

Wrong! That is the wrong way to think about it! It's hugely symbolic.
The school district has to cut $14 million dollars,
and says to parents, "You need to pay more for x and y."
They say to teachers, "You are going to have to give concessions of x and y." 
They say regarding using local and/or unionized companies, "We are going to go with low-ball bids." (Tonight there is also a discussion/resolution about contracting with a non-unionized, west side of the state company called DM Burr for heating and cooling.)

And then they say, "Oh, but let's raise our salaries."

THERE IS SOMETHING HUGELY WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE!

Please join me in asking the Board of Education to oppose this resolution. Email: boe@aaps.k12.mi.us or go to tonight's meeting, December 14, 2011, 7 p.m. at the Ann Arbor District Library.

Read the details about the salaries and the DM Burr contract in the board packet, here:
https://docs.google.com/a/aaps.k12.mi.us/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_EsmHYDB0_hNGRmODlmMzAtMWQxZS00MThhLWExYTMtNTdkZTVhZDViNGNm&hl=en&pli=1

Read the last board meeting's discussions about salaries, and about the DM Burr contract, in this Ann Arbor Chronicle article.

Update Thursday 12/15/2011: Early this morning, at about 1:30 a.m., the salary resolution was brought back onto the agenda (at 10 p.m. my friend was told it would be voted on at the next board meeting, and had been taken off the agenda for this meeting) and it was approved 4-3, with trustees Baskett, Lightfoot, and Thomas voting against the raises. That is very disappointing to me. And what is even more disappointing is that I wonder now, if I had realized a little bit earlier that it would be on the agenda tonight, could we have changed the outcome of that vote? It only would have taken one more school board member to vote against the resolution. I'll say this: It will get ever more difficult for the administration to convince teachers to take cuts, and to get parents to vote for the tech millage, when they are raising their own salaries.

Proud Music

I spent much of this evening at the Ann Arbor Open winter band and orchestra concert. For middle schoolers, they sounded pretty good! The improvement between the intermediate and advanced groups is very noticeable. It's so nice to really see the difference, and understand that they are really learning!

As a parent, it is always a "kvell moment" when your child is performing, and there are not enough opportunities for performance in many types of school work. (Kvell--a Yiddish word that roughly translates to "swell up with pride.")

While I was sitting there in the audience, I was thinking about a couple of conversations I had with my sister and sister-in-law over the past few months. They both have middle-school-age kids, and they all go to "very good public schools" (in other words, comparable to Ann Arbor). But do their kids play instruments? Not anymore. "She tried it for a week..." "After two weeks she decided she didn't like it..." "She wanted to play the flute but she could barely get a sound out of it."

Two things stand out here. First, in the Ann Arbor schools, nobody tries instrumental music for a week. Everybody has to try it for at least a year! Second, students spend a few weeks at the beginning of fifth grade trying out different instruments, and if it's hard for a student to get a sound out of a flute, the teacher will probably not assign flute to that student.

So those conversations--and tonight's concert--really made me appreciate the Ann Arbor Public Schools music scene...especially in the elementary and middle schools, before it gets super competitive. The start that AAPS gives kids in music is awesome!

Or perhaps I should say that the AAPS music program...

Is jazzy.

It's snazzy.

It rocks and 

it rolls.

It's classy and

it's brassy!

It boogies and

it bounces!

Thanks, music teachers!

P.S. I would put in a plug here for Horns for the Holidays, but I'm not sure it still exists. Does anybody know? If you have an instrument in good condition, many of our local school districts would probably welcome the donation.

Area Teens: Let's Make It Better Now

EMU is having a contest around LGBT Bullying issues. Money is involved. Yes, a $500 prize! Plus--it looks fun!

EMU's first annual advocacy speech competition! The focus of the competition is LGBT bullying among youth, titled "Let's Make It Better Now" (a spin-off of the "It Gets Better" campaign). Participants are invited to write and record a 4-7 minute persuasive speech articulating how students can "make it better now" for LGBT students within educational institutions and beyond. Speeches are due by December 1st . Participants must be EMU undergraduates and/or Washtenaw County youth (ages 16-24). Visit www.makeitbetternow.weebly.com or contact The Center for the Study of Equality and Human Rights out of the CMTA department at msage@emich.edu for more information.

Find more details here: http://makeitbetternow.weebly.com/

Athletics in AAPS: Safety, Title IX, Process

I think this message from Liz Margolis and the Ann Arbor Public Schools is so important that I am sharing it in its entirety. I suggest that you read through to the end, at least in part because that's where I put my comments.

Dear AAPS Families, This message explains high school athletic changes for next year due to budget reductions.  

AAPS High School Athletics  2011/2012

            The Athletic Directors at all respective High Schools in Ann Arbor have been pondering budget reductions.  The economic reality facing the Ann Arbor Public Schools are a result of continued State Budget Reductions. AAPS is reducing the 2011/12 budget by $15 million. Last year the district reduced by $18 million and the previous years reductions of $35 million occurred. Funding from the state continues to impact all areas of public education, in the classroom and on the athletic fields.
            These cost cutting measures translates into fewer resources to effectively operate all of our athletic programs resulting in the elimination of teams/programs.  We can no longer provide adequate resources for all 35 programs and are forced to reduce the athletic budgets.  We will be sharing the following information with parents and students via an email in the next few days. Please review this information. It is very likely that you will get questions from parents. We all need to be consistent with our response. Always know that you can direct any questions to me.

Budget Reductions:
All three high schools will contract with an outside agency (Michigan Rehabilitation Services) for athletic trainer services.  Each school will receive two certified athletic trainers who will provide the services we currently have in place.
Reduction in half time secretary in the athletic office
Coaches who are not employed by the district in another capacity will be paid through a third party management service.  The coaches will remain the same but employed by the outside services.
Ice hockey teams at each school will be responsible for the first $12,000 for ice time rental.  Skyline will implement this system when hockey is started in 2011.

Since 1990, freshman teams as well as the following sports have been added to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Sports Menu.
Men’s and Women’s Bowling (all high schools)
Crew (all high schools)
Figure Skating (Huron and Pioneer)
Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse (all high schools)
Dance (Skyline)
Men’s and Women’s Track received a third assistant coach position
The following programs will no longer be funded by the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

All Freshmen Sports with the exception of Freshman Football.  Safety issues were a major concern with the freshman competing in football at the junior varsity or varsity level, thus we will continue to run a 9th grade football program.
Fall Crew is eliminated.  (All high schools).  (Crew was the only sport to have two seasons funded).
Dance (Skyline)
Cheer (Huron)
Figure Skating (Pioneer and Huron)
Field Hockey (Second J.V. team at Pioneer/Huron will no longer be funded).
Men’s and Women’s Bowling (All high schools).
Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse (All high schools).
One assistant track coach (Huron and Pioneer as Skyline was not yet fully staffed).
Transportation to schools in Washtenaw County with the exception of Football and Track.  (Equipment concerns).

Options for Club Sport Status
A club sport is defined as an athletic program participating in interscholastic competition operated directly under the supervision of the high school building principals and funded outside of the athletic department budget.  Club sports originate only with the approval of the building principal and athletic director.

Requirements to achieve and maintain club status shall include
1.Demonstrate adequate student interest, defined as double the minimum squad size.
2.If the faculty sponsor is not the coach, the building principal and/or athletic director will approve a qualified coach.
3.There will be no minimum number of opponents or contest required to achieve or  retain club status.
4.It is not necessary for all district high schools to offer a given club sport for that club sport to be offered at one of the high schools.
5.Club sports and coaches will comply with all Michigan High School Athletic Association and Ann Arbor Public Schools rules and regulations.
6.Other factors to consider are costs, safety/risk, and Title IX participation.
7. Varsity letters will be awarded by the school and paid for by the club

Athletic Club Team Sign - up
1.     Draft a charter and have it approved by the building principal
2.     Provide the building principal with a proposed budget, which must be approved by the principal – It is recommended that the club become a 501(c)3 organization
3.     Be sponsored by a faculty member
4.     Provide the building principal with an approved transportation plan and insurance plan
5.     Complete an annual program reports
6.     Adequate administrative resources and physical facilities be available
7.     Turn in (4) copies of eligibility list (divided by team)
8.     All club members must have current physicals
9.     All club members must meet the Districts eligibility requirements
10.  All club members must pay an insurance fee
11.  All expenses are to be paid for outside the Ann Arbor School System, for examples;
                        Coaches Salary                                    Rentals          
                        Transportation                                        Awards          
                        Supplies                                                Uniform
FAQs
1. Were all the cuts consistent across all three high schools? Yes
2. Can a Varsity sport that's been cut move to club status? Yes –if funds are raised to support the fees and the requirements are followed. See above
3. How much of the overall school budget is athletics? 1%      
4. Once a team is a club can they go back to funded status? Yes
5. Since the JV coach quit can I fill that spot without having to interview? No, interviews must take place for any open coaching position including open club sport positions.
6. Whose decision was this?
The Athletic Directors were instructed that the school athletic budgets were to be reduced by $475,000. Athletic Directors were asked to assess the reductions and make recommendations to administration. These cuts are just part of the $15 million AAPS is making in response to the decrease in funding from the state.                                              8. If a team is a club do they have to pay the "pay-to-participate" fee? No, if the sport now has “club” designation participants do not have to pay the  “pay-to-participate” fee.
9. How much money has been cut from athletics over the last two years? $1.6 million has been reduced from athletics over the past two years, which  includes all three high schools.

I understand the need for most of the cuts, and some of them--such as cutting freshman sports, now that we have a third high school--make sense to me. But as is so often the case, I'd have to say that I don't agree with the process that was used. Where were parental and student input? I--even as a parent of a current athlete--didn't hear a word about this until today. I wonder if the parents of some of the teams that are being cut (e.g. lacrosse, bowling, figure skating) had been consulted? How convenient to share this after the schools have essentially closed for the summer. 

On the transportation issue, I foresee a lot of problems with cutting transportation to all school competitions in Washtenaw County. That includes schools that are nearly 20 miles away, and will require parents to take time off from work to transport their kids.  The alternative (for at least some kids) is to let them drive their friends.
In the past few years I've had two children get their drivers' licenses. However, between child #1 and child #2 the Michigan rules for younger drivers changed. The new regulations:

Prohibit a driver with a Level 2 graduated driver's license (GDL) from operating a motor vehicle carrying more than one passenger who is under 21 years of age, unless:
    a. passengers are members of the driver's immediate family, or
    b. travel is to or from school or a school-sanctioned event.

Now, admittedly, these student-athletes would be driving to and from school-sanctioned events, so they aren't asking students to break the law. But as a parent, I have to ask the question--would this law have been enacted if it was safe for teens to drive large groups of kids? [Don't be a smart aleck and answer, "Well, maybe, given our legislature!"] Statistically, it's not nearly as safe. Just ask the Centers for Disease Control. Their Teen Drivers fact sheet says:

The risk of motor vehicle crashes is higher among 16- to 19-year-olds than among any other age group. In fact, per mile driven, teen drivers ages 16 to 19 are four times more likely than older drivers to crash.⁴

Among teen drivers, those at especially high risk for motor vehicle crashes are:

• Males: In 2006, the motor vehicle death rate for male drivers and passengers ages 15 to 19 was  almost two times that of their female counterparts.¹
• Teens driving with teen passengers: The presence of teen passengers increases the crash risk of unsupervised teen drivers. This risk increases with the number of teen passengers.⁵
• Newly licensed teens: Crash risk is particularly high during the first year that teenagers are eligible to drive.⁴

(My auto insurance company seems to know these facts, too--my insurance is a lot higher than it used to be.) I don't want to be overly melodramatic about this, but on the other hand, I'm not interested in risking kids' lives.

There are some significant Title IX concerns embedded in these decisions. First, I think it's more likely that the reason they are continuing transportation for track is that football is only a boys' sport, and if that was the only sport being privileged by transportation "safety concerns" they felt they needed to balance that with a sport that serves both girls and boys. The track teams are a natural choice because they are large teams, and they have both genders.  

Should basketball retain the freshman teams? They field the smallest teams and often "cut" the most kids at tryouts.

Second, I wonder if the cuts to all freshmen teams except football in any way violates Title IX?
Third, does the fact that they are cutting more women's sports than men's sports violate Title IX? They are cutting 4 women's and 3 men's sports at Pioneer; and 4 women's and 3 men's sports at Huron. (At Skyline, they are cutting 3 women's and 3 men's sports.) Both Pioneer and Huron have been the subject of Title IX complaints in the past--and the district spent lots of money on those litigations.


I also wonder why there were no cuts made to the middle school sports? What about cutting all sixth grade sports? Reducing the number of middle school seasons to three, from the current five?

But most importantly--it's about the process. Why weren't there public meetings, as there were with the rest of the budget, to discuss the proposed changes? I think feedback might have changed the look of this proposal. For all I know, it still could.

Down for the Count

Yup, it's back...count day for schools. Really, there is greater count day and lesser count day...proportionally, fall count day "counts" more than winter count day.

And so I wonder about one district in particular. Is it, in fact, going to be down for the count? If so, that would be a consistent trend for more than ten years. I'm talking about Willow Run.

Ten years ago, Willow Run schools had 3,153 students.
In Fall 2010, Willow Run schools had 1,632 students.
Between Fall 2009 and Fall 2010, approximately 100 fewer students are enrolled in the Willow Run schools. And that number includes nearly 100 students who are enrolled in the Washtenaw ISD Washtenaw Alternatives for Youth program.

In September 2010, Willow Run High School had 62 twelfth-grade students, down by more than half from two years ago. There were 95 ninth-grade students. It's hard to see how that is sustainable. If I assume that the students who are the most motivated to stay in school are most likely to want higher education and challenging classes, it seems like they would also be most likely to jump ship to the Early College Alliance, Washtenaw Technical Middle College, a charter school or another school district. With continuously falling enrollment, it becomes hard to field sports teams or offer advanced classes (or remedial classes!)

This is also the district whose turnaround plan for its high school was not accepted by the Michigan Department of Education. Nor did MDE ask the district to do some minor tweaking (Ypsilanti High School's status). No, their plan got "changes required" status. That may be because their first proposal didn't meet the "turnaround" requirements.

According to state law, a district has to have a high school. So really, the life of a school district all rises and falls at the high school level. The turnaround proposal was required because Willow Run High School was designated as a failing school.

If you ask me, the big shockers in the original turnaround proposal (read it here) were these two things:
1. There are more students at every grade of the high school who live in the district but choose to go to a school outside the district, than there are students who live in the district and go to Willow Run High School
and
even more shocking--way, way more shocking--
2. The average student in the high school missed the equivalent of 16 days of school, but

teacher attendance patterns are not all that different than student attendance patterns in terms of overall absences.  There were 32 teaching staff in 2009-10 and there were 740 days of absences.  This works out to an average of 23 days per staff member.  Some of these absences were due to conferences, school business and other professional reasons.

Think there are some morale issues in the Willow Run schools? Willow Run school teachers don't get paid much, either. The starting salary for someone with a BA is a little over $33,300.

So--what's to be done? Right now, consolidation would require both consolidating districts to vote yes. And honestly, if it were your district consolidating with Willow Run, would you vote yes? What is the plus?

(Read more about the difficulties of consolidating here. Actually, there would be a financial plus for Lincoln Schools, but a major financial disincentive for Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor.)

If the Willow Run district wants to be forward thinking, perhaps it's time to think about a structured dissolution. At least, that's what I think. But my vote doesn't count (at least, not in Willow Run)--nor, I point out, should it.

MICHIGAN: Granholm vetoes legislative spending plan for federal education dollars (2010-10-12)

MICHIGAN: Granholm vetoes legislative spending plan for federal education dollars (2010-10-12)

 Why don't we plan well? Who loses? Kids...oh yeah, but kids don't really count, do they?

To I.B. or Not to I.B., That Is the Question

I've been reading that International Baccalaureate programs may be coming to Washtenaw County. I wrote about the programs before here.

Take, for instance, this article from Dexter's Squall newspaper, written by Brittany Martini (Squall co-editor) and featured in annarbor.com on March 13, 2010--it features the process that Dexter High School is going through in preparation for switching from a school with AP classes to a school with an IB program.

Tentatively, in the fall of 2011, juniors and seniors will have the opportunity to either enroll in International Baccalaureate classes or enter an IB program and eventually receive an IB diploma... Dexter High School currently offers Advanced Placement (AP) classes to upperclassmen, but, according to [social studies teacher Susan] Walters, there is a definite difference between the two.“In terms of students, IB classes offer an opportunity for them to earn college credit, just like AP.... Also, the more challenging and greater variety of courses we can provide for students, the richer our curriculum will be.
"Students who take individual IB classes can test for college credit; students who only take IB classes during their junior and senior years can earn enough credits to enter college with sophomore standing or close to that.”
Besides a different approach to the test, IB and AP classes differ in price as well. 
According to Pam Bunka [Fenton English teacher]... Fenton recently adopted the IB program and has seen elective enrollements fall because of this adoption...The IB test is approximately $224 dollars, which is significantly more than the AP test.”...“The IB program allows students no room for electives,” Bunka said. “The electives a student in the diploma program has to take must be IB-approved classes. This means they can not take a band class; they have to take a band theory class instead. This applies for art classes as well. A student would have to take an art theory class instead of a regular art class."...
The IB diploma program forces students to take only IB classes...Regardless of the potential benefits and drawbacks from the program, whether DHS will become an IB school is still up in the air.

 At the same time, the WISD is looking at creating an IB program in East Middle School.  [Sarcastic side notes: 1) The WISD apparently doesn't have enough to do with taking on the "countywide" transporation; and 2) isn't it so convenient that Ypsilanti happens to have an empty middle school that could be used. Oh, but "no decisions have been made." OK, sarcasm over.]
Seriously, I am open-minded about the IB program, and I don't know much about it, but I want my questions answered.

According to this June 30, 2010 article by David Jesse,

"The Washtenaw County Superintendents Association has been talking about adding an IB program at the high school level for much of the last school year.
“This spring, they voted to move ahead with the planning of a countywide magnet high school using the IB Diploma Program, beginning with a target of 150 students with a goal of up to 600 students by year four,” Allen said."

 It happens that this article sparked a lot of comments, which I will get to in a minute. My basic problem is that I still didn't know what this program is/was.  Luckily for me, the New York Times posted an article a few days later that at least explains the details. 

The lesser-known I.B., a two-year curriculum developed in the 1960s at an international school in Switzerland, first took hold in the United States in private schools. But it is now offered in more than 700 American high schools — more than 90 percent of them public schools — and almost 200 more have begun the long certification process.
Many parents, schools and students see the program as a rigorous and more internationally focused curriculum, and a way to impress college admissions officers.
To earn an I.B. diploma, students must devote their full junior and senior years to the program, which requires English and another language, math, science, social science and art, plus a course on theory of knowledge, a 4,000-word essay, oral presentations and community service. (Emphasis added.)

Translation: devoting their full junior and senior years means no electives.

According to the New York Times article, the most common opposition comes from a belief that it is too internationally-focused (follows a "United Nations agenda"),  and the cost.

Others object to its cost — the organization charges $10,000 a year per school, $141 per student and $96 per exam — and say it is neither as effective as the A.P. program nor likely to reach as many students.

 Side note: I like the idea of a United Nations agenda.

 The Times article also looks at a school implementing the program in Maine:

Because it is so rigorous, the I.B. is not for everyone. At Greely, only 21 juniors started the full program this year, and three subsequently shifted to a mix of I.B. and regular classes. But those who stayed with it seemed enthusiastic. “It’s like a little club of scholars,” said Maggie Bower, a junior.

 In the comments on the Annarbor.com article, I thought there were some really good questions, which I will aggregate here:

Will the teachers at the IB program have to move from their current school district in Washtenaw County to the ISD? Will there be countywide busing available? How will students be selected for the program, using standardized tests or recommendations and grades? And, will students who attend the program be able to play sports at their "home school" or will the IB program also offer a sports program as a comprehensive high school? Is this just another way to funnel resources to elite students? How would this compete with the new High School program the Ypsilanti district is planning for the former Ardis elementary building? Will teachers remain employees of their home districts? How will districts fund this, and what will it cost them? How is the WISD going to be held accountable to the local voters? Will this program "cream" the most motivated students from each district, leaving fewer options for those left behind? How much money for renovations to a school building, and what will that cost/where will the money come from?

And I have a few more questions:
What kind of impact would this have on electives--music, art, gym?
What kind of impact would this have on after-school activities--theater, sports?
What kind of impact will this have on smaller schools in the county--for instance, Manchester, Willow Run, Whitmore Lake--will it mean they have to cut sports programs because they don't have enough enrollment to support them? Will this support disinvestment in local schools?
How do we keep the Washtenaw Intermediate School District accountable?
Why is the IB program preferable to AP?
We already have the Early College Alliance, connected to EMU (as well as the charter school, Washtenaw Technical Middle College). With both of those, students end up with actual college credits. Why is the IB program preferable to expanding these (ECA and WTMC) programs? 

Is there anything that I missed? Add your questions below.

The Online Learning Question

In my last post I expressed some concerns about online learning. John Sowash asked why, and I started to respond, but my answer got too long. Better to just put it in its own post!

He also references a post I haven't read yet, but you might want to look at:

Clayton Christenson, author of Disrupting Class, put up a new post recently in which he says that online learning is continuing to expand rapidly in the K-12 sector: http://bit.ly/bXoMeH

Regarding the role of online learning: I think it is fabulous for people who can't learn any other way--for instance, kids in northern Alaska wouldn't have good access to advanced science classes without online learning. Soldiers on duty around the world can now pursue college courses. And I imagine that online learning works really well for highly motivated students in any location. (Those students, of course, can probably learn under most conditions, so they may not be a good sample.) If you are motivated to (for example) learn Portuguese, and you live in northern Michigan, then an online course may be the best way to go (or the next best, after being an exchange student).
On the other hand--my daughter's friend had the experience this year of signing up for an online course to replace her 10th grade English class. She told my daughter she wouldn't do it again. Even though she is a high-performing student, she found that she was not motivated enough to do the work regularly.
Most of the studies of online learning, to date, have been done with highly motivated students. I predict that as you open the doors to less motivated students, you will see diminishing returns. It's a lot harder to identify, and motivate, slacker students in an online class. It may also be hard for students who find material difficult to get the additional help they need.

As for this prediction:

I believe that a hybrid model will emerge as the most effective solution. Students will go to school 2-3 days a week and work from home the other days. This will save districts a tremendous amount of money in heating, electricity, busing, and janitorial services.

From a parent's perspective: I have no doubt that there is a lot of interest on the part of school administrators for the very cost-saving reasons that you mention. Nonetheless, as the parent of three children, two of whom are teenagers, this makes me feel very queasy. Don't we already know that the most likely time for kids to get in trouble is after school, before parents are home from work? Aren't most high schools even afraid to create "open campuses" (students can leave school during open blocks) instead of "closed campuses" (students are restricted from leaving) for fear of the students getting into trouble? If I were to leave my kids home all day while I was at work, five days a week, year round, I would spend the whole day worrying about them.  How would I ensure that they were doing their work, and not (best case scenario) sleeping until noon? Worst case scenario? Alcohol, weed, sex... As far as I am concerned, that old quote, "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" has a lot of currency--even though I don't believe in the devil!

And let's think about the costs to families: Am I then responsible for making sure that each child in my house has a computer? That the house has a working printer? That I have a reasonable-speed cable or DSL connection? Essentially, that is a transfer of costs to me--and that may not be feasible for poorer families.

Last, but not least, there is a philosophical question: do we want kids tied to the computer all day? I have one child who loves it, and would probably learn well that way, one child who is agnostic about it, and one child who hates time on the computer.


I'm not saying that these problems are unsolvable. I'm just saying that they haven't yet been solved.

Saturday Night's Fun: Skyline Soccer, MHSAA, and Title IX

 My Saturday Night

The Skyline women's soccer team made it to the District 2 regionals and I went to see my daughter's friend play. Saturday night, at Trenton High School, this group of 9th and 10th graders played a Livonia Ladywood team (grades 9-12) that included at least one all-stater. Skyline lost, 1-0. Their best chances to score came in the last 15 minutes.  Read all about it here (with video). 
(The team runs the field--out to the bleachers and back--at the end of the game.)

Watching the game sent me down Memory Lane. I was in high school in the years post-Title IX.
 

Title IX is a law passed in 1972 that requires gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding.
Many people have never heard of Title IX.  Most people who know about Title IX think it applies only to sports, but athletics is only one of 10 key areas addressed by the law. These areas are: Access to Higher Education, Career Education, Education for Pregnant and Parenting Students, Employment, Learning Environment, Math and Science, Sexual Harassment, Standardized Testing and Technology. (From TitleIX.info)

From a Sports Perspective
What a difference a few years make! When I was in middle school, all the girls (grades 7-12--the middle school was separate, but attached to the high school) were consigned to the small gym. All the boys (grades 7-12) got the big and beautiful gym. By the time I got to high school, the powers-that-be were beginning to implement Title IX (it took them a few years). By 1976, the middle school students got the small gym, and the high school students got the big gym. Did that mean more juggling of space? You bet. And with physical education four days a week, for four years, space got tight. That is, actually, how I learned to juggle--in the wrestling room. They made it work though, and juggling space just seemed normal.
In retrospect, the physical education department at my high school seemed to want to make Title IX work--but they had a lot of catch-up to do. There were hardly any girls' after-school sports at the time. And that's probably why, when my friends Denise and Anne lobbied for a girls' soccer team (we weren't called "women's" soccer), they let us form one. So as a senior, I was on the first girls' soccer team for our high school.
Then and Now
Here are a couple of differences between then and now: the skill level of the Skyline players is vastly vastly better, and the women's game is much more physical. It was fun to watch.

Another thing that was different--and completely, totally, outstandingly cool? The men's soccer team showed up as the cheer section--with face paint and school colors. And they brought the mascot!

If we had made it to regionals back in 1980, I think we would have gotten the parents. But the boys' team? No way! (Yes, of course the parents were there Saturday night. My favorite parent line was from a parent who didn't think the ref was being fair: "Ref, you're missing a great game here!") Digression: Did you know that the chant "Go Blue" works for Skyline as well as UM?

MHSAA: Dumb Decisions, and Where Does My Money Go?
The game cost $5 per ticket to get in (I spent $15), and the tickets are stamped MHSAA: Michigan High School Athletic Association. MHSAA is, essentially, the statewide high school sports organization. I believe all of the local schools that field sports teams are members, and I'm including private, parochial, and charter schools (e.g., Greenhills, Gabriel Richard, and Central Academy).

If you want, you can think of it as a monopoly. On the one hand, maybe a monopoly makes sense for coordination purposes.
On the other hand, MHSAA spent the last ten-or-so years strenuously fighting a Title IX challenge. Remember, school districts around the state support MHSAA with their dollars (our tax dollars), and I certainly didn't support the MHSAA fight. So I started thinking about the lawsuit.

CFE v. MHSAA
Here is the very quick summary:
Communities for Equity, a Grand-Rapids-based group, sued MHSAA over the placement of sports seasons. It's not illegal to have (for instance) one season of basketball in the fall or spring, and a different season in the winter--and obviously that makes it easier to schedule gym time. However, in Michigan, the "worse" or non-traditional season was always given to the women's sports season. Under Title IX, the discriminatory practice--always giving women the less desirable season--is illegal. So--Communities for Equity sued, and won. MHSAA appealed, and lost. Appealed, and lost. . . The lawsuit went on for nine years (!). In the end, the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
During those nine years (that is nine graduating classes), other states' high school athletic associations had the same issue. But instead of pursuing ongoing legal action, and racking up millions of dollars in legal fees, those states' athletic associations changed their practice. In the end: Michigan had to align their seasons the same way that 49 other states had already done. (That's right, we were LAST to adopt a practice everyone else had already done.) As far as I'm concerned, that was the right thing to do--but it would have been the right thing to do many years earlier. Hey people, you were a little late to the party!
Further--if it were up to me, I would have changed the MHSAA leadership a long time ago. What were they thinking, fighting this for so many years? What's more, they are still whining about the change. Want some cheese with that whine?

From a Detroit News article written 2/25/2010,

 "I don't think people are much happier about it today then they were when the court ruling was made," said John "Jack" Roberts, executive director of the MHSAA, which opposed changes to the seasons.

WAIT A SECOND. Who is "people?" I'm people. And I am VERY HAPPY about the change.

Then the article quotes Connie Engel:

Engel, who lives in Grand Rapids, is one of the founders of the Communities of Equity, the group that sued the MHSAA in 1998 for what it described as discriminatory scheduling practices at the convenience of boys sports.
"Looking through the eyes of Title IX, gate receipts can't be a persuasive factor," she said. "It isn't anything about the public, it's about the children's legal rights to be treated without discrimination. I just opened the newspaper Saturday morning and there were two big spreads on each side with boys and girls basketball."

RIGHT ON!
It was MHSAA's own damn fault that they ended up with a huge legal bill at the end. They didn't need to appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. They could have changed their practice. After the final ruling stood, MHSAA started moaning and groaning. They said that they might need to file for bankruptcy. They said they might need to assess all of the high schools in the association a special (and very large) assessment.
So I wondered, after I noticed that my ticket money was going to MHSAA, what ever happened to that legal bill? It was hard to find out.
You know that iPhone commercial, "There's an app for that?" Well, it turns out that--almost whatever you are looking for--"There's a blog for that." In this case, title-ix.blogspot.com had the answer. (They have several posts on the case. If you are interested, click on the Michigan tag.)

In summary, instead of paying $7 million all at once, MHSAA is paying less and paying gradually, with final payments coming in 2014. And they can't get out of paying by filing for bankruptcy. The details of the agreement were originally covered by the Downriver News-Herald. (Which brings me back to the soccer game, I guess, since Trenton is Downriver.) What's surprising to me is how little news follow-up there was of this huge story that affects thousands of student-athletes--and all the Michigan high schools--every year.

In the Billie Jean King/Chris Evert/Martina Navratilova era, Virginia Slims supported the women's tennis tour, with the tag line "You've come a long way, baby."
We sure have. But we have a long way to go.
Read more about Title IX and athletics at TitleIX.info and at title-ix.blogspot.com.

Desegregation Outcomes

The primary focus of the 1985 reorganization was integrating the schools--in particular, integrating the black and white populations. The Asian, Latino, and Middle Eastern populations were much smaller than they are today.
I was interested in the immediate impacts of this reoganization, but unfortunately I did not have time to dig through the microfiche and find the 1986 enrollment numbers. As a result, this post takes a much longer view of this reorganization. On the one hand, this is somewhat unfair, since the committee that developed the reorganization was only able to estimate out about five years. In taking the long view, I also need to recognize that there have been some (relatively minor, with the exception of the re-opening of Lakewood and the opening of Skyline) changes to the individual school boundaries over the years.
[By the way, his post gets a little numbers-heavy. I think the numbers tell the story, but if you don't, skip to the end. Also, for the purposes of counting here, I count Ann Arbor Open as an elementary school.]

At the time of the report (1985), the AAPS African-American population was 17% of the total schools population, and the state considered a school out of balance if the African-American population was + or - 15% points compared to the district average, which is how the state recommended a 2-32% guideline for Ann Arbor. The Committee on Excellence chose a more restrictive +/- 5-15% range.

If we look at the racial makeup of the schools today, the African-American population average is still between 12 and 27%, the goal of the committee. In September 2009 it was at 14.5%. Some individual schools are much higher or lower.  Angell School, for instance, has an African-American population of only 3.6%, and in total, the following schools fall below 12%: 9 elementary schools (give Logan a pass at 11.8%), 2 middle schools, and Community High School.

On the other end of the spectrum, Roberto Clemente's African-American population is 82.3%--but I should note that this was true back in 1984, and I guess because Clemente and Community were and are magnet schools, the committee was unable to address the numbers through redistricting--though they did say they hoped to reduce the achievement gap. (In fact, lawsuits against the schools, and Proposal 2, have limited options on this front even more.

So, aside from Clemente, the schools that are over the 27% number today comprise a much smaller number: Mitchell, Scarlett, and Stone.

[In 2002, by comparison, 8 elementary schools and Community High School were below 12% (Not including Forsythe, at 11.7%). No elementary schools were above 27%, but Scarlett, Clemente, and Stone were above 27%.]

If we look at the 2009 African-American AAPS population percentages, however, we only get part of the story. 
For while the African-American school population has shrunk slightly as a percentage of the school population, the Asian, Latino, and Middle Eastern populations have increased greatly. Where the fall 2009 headcount counts African-American students as 14.5% of the population, the Asian population comprises 14.2% of the population.
So, using a broader lens, let's take a look at Angell School again:

3.6% African American

32% Asian, 

4.2% Middle Eastern, 

5.8% Multi-ethnic, 

.3% Native American, 

.6% Other, 

4.9% Latino/Hispanic, and 

48.5% White. 

In other words--even though Angell doesn't meet the criteria of 12-27% African American, it clearly is diverse.
You might be surprised to know that the district, on average, is now 52.8% White. If I were to say that a range of 42-62% White was acceptable as a range for desegregation, these schools would be below 42% White: 7 elementary schools (at 41.9% I will give Thurston a pass), Scarlett Middle School, and Clemente and Stone high schools. These schools would be above 62%: 4 elementary schools, Forsythe Middle School, and Community High School.

And if we were to set up a committee to strive for racial balance today, we would find that the Asian AAPS population is highly concentrated in some schools, and barely present in others. Using that same 12-27% range, there are 10 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 3 high schools that that come in under 12% Asian population, and there are 5 elementary schools that are over the 27% number.

It is worth noting, however, that the 1985 reorganization had at its core, not 1, but 2 significant goals related to racial integration. One goal was "the elimination of racial isolation," which was considered an important value in and of itself. Although I hesitate to call that the "primary goal," it was in fact the driving force behind the reorganization. And although the reorganization was not, and is not, perfect--from the point of view of eliminating racial isolation, I think the work of the committee stands on its own, and 25 years later, it stands pretty well.

At the time, the Committee on Excellence of Education noted that

On a district wide basis, the academic performance of minorities lags far behind that of the majority population. Minorities are significantly overrepresented in lower curricular paths and significantly underrepresented in advanced courses of study. Disproportionately high numbers of minorities are the subject of disciplinary action. . . Measured by the critical index of progress toward educational opportunity, the Ann Arbor School District, in this regard, is in crisis.

The second goal, then, was the goal of reducing the achievement gap. Twenty-five years later. . . countless policy papers later. . . many efforts later (and whether these efforts have been wrong or inadequate--or both--we'll leave for another time). . . this goal remains elusive, and has not been achieved.

Privatization, Take II: The Bids Are In

Well, AAPS has received the transportation and custodial privatization bids. You can read a summary of the board discussion on annarbor.com here. Surprise, surprise--rather than having the board talk about what they think of the bids (or about privatization in general) in public, which is what Susan Baskett wanted to do (thank you, Susan!) the board president wants to do that in closed session.

Also no surprise--the savings basically come from the fact that, although wages and benefits were supposed to be comparable, there would be no retirement funds for those staff.

Steve Norton from Michigan Parents for Schools (MIPFS) writes very cogently in the comments of the annarbor.com article:

Not quite spelled out in the story is the fact that, while the base bids were required to offer current employees the same pay and "comparable" medical benefits, the district has not completed a review to see if the health benefits are truly "comparable." The presentation on custodial and maintenance privatization made it clear that bidders were including benefits packages that had a huge range of costs - these can't all be comparable. The bidders' costs minus benefits were quite similar. Unfortunately, the current AAPS costs were not broken out into benefits vs. other costs, so it was hard to compare the bids to our current costs.

I, too, hear a lot of anger at unions - and also some unfortunate disdain for custodians and bus drivers, the blue collar workers in our district. Remember that our kids are not encapsulated in classrooms, and that the educational experience has to be put together by a large team, which is not limited to teachers.

Moreover, unions are not the main problem here. Nearly all the savings in the base bids comes from moving these employees out of the state retirement system (MPSERS). Mandatory contributions to that system currently stand at 17%, and are set to climb. These are the district's costs; employees must also contribute.

MPSERS is administered by the state under rules set by the state legislature....
Employees who are not close enough to "buy" enough years to vest in the system will lose everything if privatized. MPSERS benefits are not portable if you leave public school employment. (Emphases added.)

So, there you have it. I don't think I could have said it better myself.
Except for the why: WHY does anyone think it is ok to take away retirement benefits from some of the lowest-paid staff in the district? I don't think that is okay.
Michigan Parents for Schools can be found at mipfs.org, and is an organization for parents concerned about the future of our public schools and working for a better way to fund education.
 
One more thing: did you know that you can write to the entire Board of Education, in one fell swoop, by sending an email to boe@aaps.k12.mi.us? (When I did this, I only heard back from one board member--the secretary--who assured me that everyone else is reading my email--I have no confirmation of that, but I sure hope he is correct!)