Jones' Memo to Saddleback Teachers

We asked for and did receive a copy of the smoking memo sent by Saddleback High School Principal Esther Jones to her teachers asking them to reconsider the failing grades of 98 non-graduating senior students:

Find the clearer, readable .pdf here. 

We'll revisit this issue in a few months to see what, if any, action's been taken re. Ms. Jones and her suggestion to her staff to "review" student grades for changing Fs to Ds.

Comments

[Allan Bartlett]

Well at least we know Ms. Jones has the student's backs. At least they'll get their diploma. They probably won't be able to read their own diploma, but who's counting. It's all about the benjamins for the school isn't Ms. Jones? Don't bother to actually teach the kids anything. I guess the shock value of memos like these doesn't surprise me much anymore.

Allan Bartlett

[Publius]

I love that her motive isn't helping students get to college, or helping them raise their GPAs to assist with post-high school pursuits, or to even help the students better qualify for financial aid etc.... I love that it's all about the AYP which I'm assuming is educrat-speak for funding quota. Pathetic.

[Kristopher Augsburger]

"I love that it's all about the AYP which I'm assuming is educrat-speak for funding quota. Pathetic."

And you guessed wrong. AYP stands for the Adequate Yearly Progress which is the name of criteria that are used to determince whether schools are meeting the academic requirements persuant to No Child Left Behind(NCLB). Her mistake here was in thinking that they needed a 95% graduation rate in order to achieve AYP for 2005 which isn't true. That requirement was never 95% so it seems unusual that she came to that conclusion. My guess is that she mistaked the graduation rate for the rate of paricipation in the statewide assesment which does require a 95% rate.(which does seem like an unreasonable goal although there are always some schools that seem more interested in cherry picking students rather than getting accurate data)

To make matters more confusing is why she was so worried. Saddleback met their 2004 AYP. See http://ayp.cde.ca.gov/apr2004/API/2004API_Progress_sch2.asp?DistCode=66670&SchCode=3035821&AllCds=30666703035821
According to federal law one doesn't face Program Improvement(PI), the process of sanctions for repeatly 'failing' schools, until they have failed to make AYP 2 consecutive years. Even if Saddleback was in danger of not making AYP for 2005 it wasn't like there was any danger of sanctions for the subsequent year since they would have to also fail to meet AYP for 2006 as well for their to be sanction in 2007.

It seems like Ms. Jones seems as ignorant as some of the 'armchair quarterbacks' that think they understand the rules.

[redperegrine]

Well, this bureaucratic alphabet soup would confuse almost any sensible person. Someone needs to remind me just why we have a Department of Education at all.

[Kristopher Augsburger]

"Well, this bureaucratic alphabet soup would confuse almost any sensible person. Someone needs to remind me just why we have a Department of Education at all."

Your post was ambiguous about whether you were referring to the state or federal department of education. The federal deparmtent of education primarily exists to administer federal student aid, various grants to local educational agencies, and collect national statistics. That being said it has so little power that it has become a dumping place for political appointees.

The state department oversees various categorical programs, provides oversight upon some districts, and collects a very large amount of data about student performance. I doubt you will ever see any serious effort to get rid of the state department of education because the state spends so much of it's budget on education that legislature is going to want some say over how the that money is spent. Due to the Serrano vs. California case and the limitations on local governments to raise local tax revenue that is unlikely to ever change. That being said I think that the legislature would do well to change the focus of the agency away from micro-managing district finances to one where they an independent overseer that ensures that local districts are being held accountable and providing new administration when the local officials fail to make progress towards fixing their problems.

[redperegrine]

"Your post was ambiguous about whether you were referring to the state or federal department of education."

Both, actually.