Last week, the Davis Enterprise reported on a large audience of more than 250 people who packed in at Harper Junior High, as the school board discussed changes to two South Davis elementary schools.
Of particular note is Montgomery Elementary, which as Associate Superintendent Clark Bryant noted, while the school ranks as a high-performing school, “we’re not hitting (that) mark for all our students, and that is not an issue just for Montgomery Elementary, but district wide.”
While the achievement gap is a persistent district-wide issue in Davis, the problems at Montgomery are magnified by a number of trends.
What we see is, as Clark Bryant outlined, the achievement statistics show that white students at Montgomery are scoring over 900 points on the API on average, but Latino students and students from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) score 200 points lower as a group.
The Enterprise reported: “That trend – often described as the “achievement gap” – is present at every school in the Davis district. But several factors have caused the gap to stand out in sharper relief at Montgomery, moving that school into Program Improvement status under federal No Child Left Behind legislation several years ago.”
Overall, the enrollment at Montgomery Elementary has declined from a high of 508 in 2006-07 to a low 407 in 2010-11.
Those changes in enrollment happen to coincide with the district’s decision to close Valley Oak Elementary.
The Enterprise reports: “Those factors include a declining white student population and a rising Latino population in the Montgomery attendance area, reinforced by boundary changes after the closure of Valley Oak Elementary a few years ago.”
But it is not just the influx of Latino students, but the flight of white students. What we see, then, is that while white students’ enrollment has declined, there has been a near 50% rise in the Latino enrollment at Montgomery.
Reports the Enterprise: “Some white students also leave Montgomery beginning in fourth grade to attend GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) or Spanish Immersion classes at other campuses. Montgomery hosts Spanish Immersion only in grades K-3.”
However, why would that have changed so markedly following the closure of Valley Oak, to coincide with the rise of students of Latino and disadvantaged socioeconomic background coming from the Valley Oak area?
The result of these demographic shifts have made Montgomery Elementary the school with the largest percent of low SES students in the district, by a huge margin.
Writes the Enterprise, “[Clark] Bryant outlined a range of options for Montgomery, including expanding Spanish Immersion to grades K-6, starting a “dual immersion” (Spanish and English) program or bringing in a GATE strand.”
The report continues, “Another option would divide enrollment between Montgomery and Pioneer by grade rather than by neighborhood.”
However, as other reports suggest, those might not be the problems.
The Enterprise reports that Librarian Nora Brazil, who works at both schools, and Montgomery teacher Cheri Burau read a statement signed by Montgomery staff saying, “Our primary concern is segregation, and how different this school’s enrollment looks from the rest of the district. Existing district policies have led to unintentional inequality.”
The statement continued, noting that Montgomery is “a high-ranking school (academically) when compared to others with similar populations … an imbalanced school population is never in the best interest of the community. … The status quo is unacceptable, we implore you as board members to take action.”
Moreover, the Enterprise reports that a teacher at Pioneer, Raeth Snyder, suggested any changes at Montgomery would impact other campuses.
“When you move one group of students it affects the whole district,” Raeth Snyder said. “As more kids are pulled out of the general education program, you are left with a concentrated population in general ed that may have a different type of life experience or learning challenges than those students that go into special programs.”
Adrienne Meredith, who serves on the South Davis Enrollment Committee, said “The district should mix students from high-income and low-income schools,” in accordance with federal civil rights law. Ms. Meredeth said that while such changes might “be controversial in our community,” she supports “changes that are in accord with federal diversity guidance.”
Underscoring perhaps the true nature of the problem, the president of the Pioneer PTA suggested that a poll of Pioneer parents showed only 11 percent support of the idea of merging and splitting by grade, while 65% would consider leaving the school if that were the solution.
That poll makes it very clear what this is about. The 1970s are apparently not over. We know what this is about, the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos and other lower SES Students.
The school district can do research, as Superintendent Winfred Roberson was instructed to do, they can look into expanding dual immersion programs, but this is not about other schools providing programs that Montgomery does not.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
“That poll makes it very clear what this is about. The 1970s are apparently not over. We know what this is about, the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos and other lower SES Students.”
No, I would say it’s about parents wanting the best education their children can get. If classrooms are purposely merged with lower performing students that tends to lower the standards (dumb down) of the program.
Jeff Hudson, Davis Enterprise, 3/9/12:South Davis parents sound off on schools ([url]http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/south-davis-parents-sound-off-on-schools/[/url])
rusty49: [i]No, I would say it’s about parents wanting the best education their children can get. If classrooms are purposely merged with lower performing students that tends to lower the standards (dumb down) of the program.[/i]
You can’t “dumb down” the standards because they are set by standardized testing. The data/graphs show that the performance of white students on standardized tests has not declined as the number of latino, ELL, and low SES students increased. What has happened is that the label of “program improvement” on Montgomery has given it a stigma, mainly because the district is required to offer families the choice of going to a “higher performing” school (one with higher overall standardized test scores) because Montgomery is in program improvement. This is a case example of what is wrong with NCLB.
She added that “when you have 14 students who are English learners in a classroom and you are trying to teach the whole class, it is an uphill struggle. Our teachers are wonderful, but their plates are so full. The school cannot continue the way it is.”
Read the quote from the Enterprise article, don’t you think that would have a dumbing down affect on any classroom?
Apparently the Enterprise didn’t print the most racist comments made, I’m trying to get a copy of the tape.
rusty49: [i]Read the quote from the Enterprise article, don’t you think that would have a dumbing down affect on any classroom?[/i]
If you’re using standardized test scores to define educational performance, then those tests show that white students’ scores are not declining. EL students get other instructional help in addition to the regular classroom teacher.
“Apparently the Enterprise didn’t print the most racist comments made, I’m trying to get a copy of the tape.”
There’s always going to be a few racists in any walk of life. But to paint all of South Davis with a broad brush “The 1970s are apparently not over. We know what this is about, the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos and other lower SES Students” is taking it way too far.
This is what comes from thinking we can create change locally and a town at a time– the “trickle over” approach. It doesn’t work. The much freer-for-some marketplace runs everything including local government priorities. Without broad-based political campaigns to promote better concepts of how society should work, the market will win the day every day.
“Smart growth” ends up being stale green lipstick on the same old nimby pig.
Schools capacity and neighborhoods naturally get out of balance when neighborhoods are developed and constructed as whole subdivisions, the profit maximizing approach for developers and construction corporations.
People of the same age cohort tend to move in, stay and age. So the school population expands and contracts a lot because there is a lack of age diversity.
[quote]No, I would say it’s about parents wanting the best education their children can get. If classrooms are purposely merged with lower performing students that tends to lower the standards (dumb down) of the program.[/quote]
I agree. Take a look at San Francisco where the majority of white parents send their children to private school and many more leave the City. Why is it racist to want the best education for your children? [FYI My child (who is in public school in Davis) is mixed race.]
wdf1…my daughter is a high school English teacher down in the Fresno area. She usually has many non-English speaking or ESL students in her classes. She often has stated to me that she feels for the smarter students in her class as she can’t push the class to a higher degree than she would like because it would leave the lower performing students even farther behind. So, as you state, the higher performing students scores haven’t declined but they might have been higher if they weren’t held back by lower performing students’ drag on their classrooms.
rusty49
“Read the quote from the Enterprise article, don’t you think that would have a dumbing down affect on any classroom? “
Not necessarily. What this assumption is based on is that all students will be affected in the same way by changes. This is demonstrably not true.
There are many lessons to be learned in school. Some are purely academic. Some are about coping skills. Some are about the value of competition, while others are about the value of collaboration. My daughter was one of the top performers in one of her elementary school classes and probably would have been bored had the teacher not decided it play to my daughters strengths. In addition to having my daughter do more advanced work for individual evaluation ( the traditional approach to keeping the advanced busy) she also challenged my daughter to lead group projects, help other students and help with project and lesson plan design and implementation. A win-win solution. I think it is the perception, not the reality of the inevitability of inferiority that is the problem here.
[quote]We know what this is about, the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos and other lower SES Students.[/quote]
I strongly disagree w this conclusion. This is about parents wanting the best education for their children, which they feel cannot be had at Marguerite Montgomery, a school so low performing it has been moved into Program Improvement status. If Marguerite Montgomery were instead a high performing school full of Latinos, my guess is that white families would send their kids there in a heartbeat.
[quote]However, why would that have changed so markedly following the closure of Valley Oak, to coincide with the rise of students of Latino and disadvantaged socioeconomic background coming from the Valley Oak area?[/quote]
Let’s face it – most likely this is a direct result of the DJUSD’s foolish decision to close Valley Oak, which had the most successful ESL program in the city. And now the school district is suffering the consequences of their very poor decision – it has come home to roost…
Pour money into Margarite Montgomery – give it a science teacher, a music teacher, a computer teacher, an art teacher, a full time librarian, a PE teacher, even if you have to pull resources from Pioneer, so that the regular classroom teachers have time to work with the ESL kids and not at the expense of other kids in the classroom. Make this school attractive to white parents with extra bells and whistles. Don’t think that having the same resources as Pioneer is enough. Montgomery should have more to level the playing field.
This is not the first time that I have run into veiled racism and examples of elitism from the Pioneer population. The parents bring these veiled attitudes into the Junior Highs and eventually the High School and is a dirty little secret of the Davis community.
“Underscoring perhaps the true nature of the problem, the president of the Pioneer PTA suggested that a poll of Pioneer parents showed only 11 percent support of the idea of merging and splitting by grade, while 65% would consider leaving the school if that were the solution.
That poll makes it very clear what this is about. The 1970s are apparently not over. We know what this is about, the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos and other lower SES Students.”
Wow, could we jump to any other more drastic a conclusion on any less evidence? Do you know anything more about this poll you cite than what you’ve written here? Maybe Don should pull this whole story–this statement is reminiscent of Rich’s observation re. the newest city council candidate.
Shouldn’t you have SOMETHING on which to base a charge of 1970’s style racism beyond a vague, two-question poll report?
[i]Montgomery hosts Spanish Immersion only in grades K-3.[/i]
Expand the program to include grades 4 – 6. The notion that four years out of seven was somehow ‘ok’ is at best misguided. Stating the obvious, all classrooms need to have aides, especially those with more than 20 students. Do that. It seems to me we paid for precisely that level of support by passing C. So why hasn’t the Board made those simple changes?
EM: you’re absolutely right about Valley Oak, although ‘foolish’ is being far too kind.
“There are many lessons to be learned in school…”
Well said, medwoman. Let’s remember that we are talking about ELEMENTARY SCHOOL here where important life “lessons” are learned about community,
collaboration, tolerance and respect for others who are “different”.
[quote]DMG: “Underscoring perhaps the true nature of the problem, the president of the Pioneer PTA suggested that a poll of Pioneer parents showed only 11 percent support of the idea of merging and splitting by grade, while 65% would consider leaving the school if that were the solution.
JustSaying: Shouldn’t you have SOMETHING on which to base a charge of 1970’s style racism beyond a vague, two-question poll report? [/quote]
Parents wanting to pull their kids from a poor performing school that happens to have a lot of Latino students is not proof that the underlying cause for withdrawing their kids from that school is RACISM. The more logical conclusion is the parents pulled their kids from the school bc it was not giving their kids as good an education as they could get elsewhere. What a ridiculous conclusion! That kind of reasoning is by analogy saying if I recoil from a dog bc it smells bad from rolling in a pile of manure, that my reaction must be bc I don’t like dogs rather than I just don’t care for the smell of manure! Geeeeeeeeeeeeze…
Do we completely forget the past?
Trying to mix student populations in order to achieve some idealized ethnic mix has never worked. That is one lesson of the 1970’s.
And in the more recent past, in the 1990’s changing school boundaries and taking students away from their neighborhood schools caused huge outcry. You want to rile people up? Move their kids around.
[i]”the affluent white families of South Davis apparently do not want their kids to go to school with Latinos”
[/i]
That statement is completely, utterly preposterous, irresponsible, and offensive.
Elaine – 65% said that they would pull their kids if the school configuration was changed so that all K-3 students went to one school and all 4-6 students went to another school. Along with evidence that the 138 white students at Montgomery are high scoring (above 900), what else can we think about this threat. I smell more than just manure.
While the talk of “community,” “collaboration,” “tolerance, and “respect” are nice rhetoric, the bottom line is that so long as NCLB remains the governing standard, and the performance gap between certain demographics and white/middle class demographics remains significant enough to put Montgomery on Program Improvement status, parents will be upset… and have a right to be upset. P.I. creates significant pressures on the faculty and administration, and hurts differentiated instruction.
Spanish immersion is not a remedy, and will be harmful. While Spanish immersion is a useful experience for fluent English speakers to develop Spanish language skills, it is not useful for addressing the core issue: English Language Development, and performance on tests which, no coincidentally, are administered in English.
The funding inequities that are suggested here are imaginary. Montgomery is as well funded as any other local school; it is not on Program Improvement because of shortcomings in science, band, computers, or art. It is on program improvement because a segment of the population is not “proficient” in English, and related skills. If one follows API scores throughout the area, that lack of proficiency is a constant in the API scores at numerous schools, regardless of quality of instruction and efforts at those schools, or attempts at Spanish immersion. That’s not racism; that’s simply factual.
Parents don’t want their children at Program Improvement schools, because the top end of instruction inevitably fails, and the opportunities for their children to enjoy “band, music, computers….” wither and die, as the school progresses through the ranks of PI status, to the point where the only instruction is related to math and reading/writing.
To accuse the parents of “racism” in being upset, is overly simplistic, and unfair.
“Parents wanting to pull their kids from a poor performing school that happens to have a lot of Latino students is not proof that the underlying cause for withdrawing their kids from that school is RACISM. “
Except that it’s not a poor performing school.
And just wait until I get the quotes, even Rusty will admit they are racist. Just wait.
How David describes the school: “…the school ranks as a high-performing school….”
How Elaine describes the school: “…a school so low performing it has been moved into Program Improvement status….”
Who’d say they’d move their kids from David’s Marguerite Montgomery Elementary? Only a bunch of racists, of course.
Who’d say they’d move their kids from Elaine’s Marguerite Montgomery Elementary? Anyone concerned about their kids’ well being, regardless of their race.
wdf1 provides a logical, non-racist alternative reason for parents’ disappointment: “What has happened is that the label of “program improvement” on Montgomery has given it a stigma, mainly because the district is required to offer families the choice of going to a “higher performing” school….”
wdf1’s view offers a foundation for making improvements, while setting up a non-significant racist basis for parent attitudes sets up roadblocks for progress. If you didn’t attend–and feel obligated to track down a tape to find “the most racist comments made”–were you perhaps premature in labeling racism as what this is about?
ERM: [i]Let’s face it – most likely this is a direct result of the DJUSD’s foolish decision to close Valley Oak, which had the most successful ESL program in the city.[/i]
Is this something that you can demonstrate from data, Elaine? I can’t. If Valley Oak were still around, I think it, too, would be in program improvement by now, based on where standardized test scores were in 2008. Most of the staff that worked at Valley Oak is still employed in the district today.
This is just typical of the left to cry racism at every opportunity.
“This is just typical of the left to cry racism at every opportunity. “
I suggest you wait until I get the exact quotes before saying this.
It doesn’t matter what quotes you get, David. 65% of the parents of MM students aren’t racists. I think you have set up an unprovable assertion that you would do well to retract before this goes much further. This has all the makings of a contrived controversy.