Why we must start at the beginning

Everyone agrees that our High School graduation rate is unacceptable. Everyone agrees (I think) that this fact serves no one's interest.

There is a line of thinking that claims the problem lies with Intermediate Centers (Junior High Schools) and/or High Schools. But it's my opinion that we could only know that if we could be certain that all our children left the Primary Centers equally equipped to succeed. Otherwise, those institutions' outcomes may only reflect problems which occurred earlier.

I see three key factors that make that outcome pretty much impossible - but I'll deal with that later. For now, lets consider the disparities we can easily observe.

The South Bend School Corporation website makes gathering information pretty tough. One needs to go to each Primary Center's website for data - which makes comparisons difficult.

For our purposes here, I'm overlooking the two ongoing magnet programs (Kennedy and Tarkington) and concentrating on the neighborhood school system. Below are links to the National No Child Left Behind summaries for three Primary Centers. Whatever one thinks of the NCLB program, it offers some opportunity for comparison within our school district.

Coquillard http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/AP/ayp2005schl.cfm?schl=7533
Wilson http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/AP/ayp2005schl.cfm?schl=7588
Hay http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/AP/ayp2005schl.cfm?schl=7313

Two of these (Coquillard and Wilson) have serious challenges. Hay is doing far better. In fact, due to Wilson being in a probationary status, a significant number of their students attend Hay. Still, Hay seems to perform well overall. In fact, it eclipses state averages.

Hay's principal, Craig Haenes, attributes much of their success to the Wilson LiPS reading program - which seems to help struggling readers quite effectively. He, in fact, pioneered the program in the SBSC.

But interestingly, unlike most schools, Hay's math scores are slightly higher than their English scores. In contrast, Coquillard has an overall English score of 54% and a math score of 49%. So there's more at work, I think

I attended a Board meeting in June of 2008, where a young mother asked the Board of Trustees why it was that the outer ring of Primary Centers seemed to be faring pretty well while the inner schools seemed to be whithering away.

I think the next Board of Trustees needs to be able to answer that question.

Donald W. Wheeler