For the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board. Let’s take a look at today’s attempt to make sense of the Wellston School District.
On the one hand they attempt to address how much the Wellston Superintendent makes and on the other hand they attempt to address how poorly the District has performed. And the editorial concludes, the district needs to think about things.
Let me take a stab at it–the Superintendent is paid just below the SLPS Superintendent. The Wellston District is about to lose accreditation. The Wellston Superintendent has held the job since 1984.
From this I can conclude, the Wellston Superintendent should be fired. Call me crazy. Nearly 20 years and his biggest impact is proceeding over a district that losing accreditation should come with some accountability.
The thing is, the Post-Dispatch cannot say that. Why not? I don’t know. They seem to imply it, but an editorial about a crisis in one of the worst school districts with some of the poorest kids doesn’t need to be danced around.
Chip Taylor has some suggestions concerning the Wellston School District as well. And Chip is correct in stating that Wellston parents need a choice now. The problem is how do we provide that choice and there it gets complicated. We could and should find a way to circumvent the district. There are several problems in doing so.
First, we do not really know how to educate poor kids with high levels of lead poisoning, few family resources, 90 % eligibility for free or reduced school lunch (a reasonable approximation of poverty) and high mobility. The problem is that we don’t know how to pull a quick reform. There isn’t a simple model we can implement to improve performance quickly.
Second, there aren’t any other public school districts adjacent that are equipped to take on a significant number of students from Wellston. University City is challenged with a fairly high number of poor students and while it is making improvements, more poor students would overly burden it. The districts to the north face similar challenges and the SLPS is in no position to institute immediate change given the condition of schools in the Northwest part of the City are as poor as the Wellston schools. To give students an effective choice, students would have to be bused to districts that are not immediately adjacent to Wellston, dramatically increasing the difficulty and the costs of any such program. Public school choice is an expensive proposition with logistical nightmares.
Private school choice isn’t very realistic (at least om the short term)for many of the same reasons. The private schools in the area are close to full and getting them ot private schools farther out present two problems. One is the transportation problem, the other is many such schools are incapable of dealing with special populations. While I don’t see the number listed at DESE, the likely special ed rate is at least 25% of students or more in Wellston.
Finally, any solution has to assume parents won’t be likely to make alternative school choices in significant numbers. This may seem counterintuitive to many, but given the choice to have their children transfer, many poor parents choose not to transfer their kids. Why this is the case is complex. Many parents of kids in such districts do not understand the choices available to them and have little ability to make informed choices. I would actually argue this is true of the vast majority of parents, but most parents have the economic wherewithall to choose nicer neighborhoods and in doing so utilize rules of thumb provided by the press, real estate agencies (though often defective) and friends as to what constitutes a good school.
In the SLPS, the voluntary transfer program for African-Americans has never been fully subscribed. And in many cases, the number of African-American slots in the magnets have not been utilized forcing the SLPS district to reduce the total number of students going to the magnets. Such parents often are intimidated by schools and school officials even when such people are welcoming (and Wellston is not) largely because they had such poor experiences in school themselves.
So how does one solve the problem? Good question. No one really knows. However, in cases like Wellston, or Brooklyn, IL, or other small poor inner-ring suburbs taking over the district by the state has to be the first start. Increasing school choice is a long-term strategy, but in the short-term, giving fewer choices is probably necessary for most students.
The problem in Missouri is the State doesn’t want to do it. First, it doesn’t know how to solve the problems of poverty and learning. Second, it takes money and if the State is responsible and determines an expensive course of action is needed the State is on the hook.
Let’s consider this the first in the series on urban education problems.
UP DATE: Posted on both sites with some editing for clarity.