Can schools get more insane?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am entertaining the shit out of myself by wondering how many days in a row I would have to go sit in the office with my laptop and giggle before the kids get out of class and I tell them they can play on the playground, and then leave them there, before the secretary would lose her shit. I bet I can get her to quit. I bet I could do it in only 15 minutes a day.

[Reginald Ret]

Nice!

[Dimocritus]

I'm a little late, per usual, but I'm glad this worked out. Otherwise I'd be all like 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Thanks! I am too, because it's the best fucking school in town and I'd be pissed if it let me down, or that, fuck-all forbid, the whole DISTRICT let me down, it being a district I hold in some esteem.

[East Coast Hustle]

but I thought you lived in the PPS district?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

but I thought you lived in the PPS district?

Yes. Nonetheless, I hold it in some esteem, mostly for doing something with nothing.

[East Coast Hustle]

True. They have managed to achieve a high school graduation rate of nearly 60%!

[East Coast Hustle]

Needless to say, ECHGF and I will be moving when it's time to have a kid, unless we're in a position to be able to afford Lake Oswego schools.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Needless to say, ECHGF and I will be moving when it's time to have a kid, unless we're in a position to be able to afford Lake Oswego schools.

Fuck Lake Oswego schools, are you kidding me? Why would you want your kids to go to school with those fucks? It'll just scar them emotionally and socially.

PPS has a 68.5% graduation rate (this does not count kids who get their GEDs), which of course varies a great deal from school to school; For example, Benson's graduation rate is 92.9, Lincoln's is 94.6, MLC's is 96.8, and Grant (the one my kids want to go to) is 91.5. The main predictor of school success and high school graduation is parental involvement. People like to blame the school districts and the teachers, but kids will do a lot with a little if the parents are involved. PPS also has a number of excellent magnet schools and charter schools, including a dedicated magnet school for kids in the 99th percentile for academic potential/achievement. Compare this with many districts which offer TAG kids nothing but an unfunded mandate.

There are also several high schools in the PPS system with astonishingly low graduation rates, which pulls the average down profoundly. BizTech High School has 46.4, and Alliance High School has 44.1. Alliance is in the same area as Grant, so of course, it makes sense to ask why the graduation rate is so incredibly low: http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/profiles/?id=313.

Oh.

It doesn't explicitly say, but it gives enough reference to gather that this is a high school for special-needs students.

Then I look up Biztech and find that it's on the Marshall Campus, which houses the other three lowest-scoring schools in the district. http://www.marshall.pps.k12.or.us/ A little more digging reveals that these are ALL special needs/struggling student schools. These are the schools that bring down PPS's graduation rate, but in my opinion they should not serve as a condemnation of the PPS system; many other school systems don't even TRY to accommodate these kids. This is not to say that there isn't a place for special-needs kids in the regular high schools; they are not pushed out. It is the parent's choice, and in the case of older struggling students,  the students' own choice to transfer to these schools. In some districts, these are kids who wouldn't be tracked at all because they would never enter high school in the first place.

Speaking as a mother, I am not only satisfied with, but impressed by what PPS does for its students, all on a shoestring budget.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh yeah, here's a chart:

http://www.pps.k12.or.us/news/392.htm

[East Coast Hustle]

wow, that was actually really educational and eye-opening. PPS should consider hiring you for its PR team.

seriously though, thanks for the info!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

They don't call me "Spin Doctor K" for nothing.

[Jenne]

This is the nastiness that is "judging a school on its test scores alone" schtick that a lot of folks apply while choosing schools/neighborhoods.  We have an EXCELLENT school, but its API has been slowly dropping and not really stabilizing much because we DO get an inordinate amount of IEPs.  The school district  has given us a lot of quality teachers, and we have some fabulous parents (if I do say so myself) who've been filling in the gaps, but we also have a lot of IEP students as well.  Those will ALWAYS drive down your API scores.  Always.  It's up the to the school district to make the caveat when speaking with parents about the scores, but of course they probably CAN'T since that's probably dilatory and against the state laws or some such shit.

I'm not DOWN on IEP kids, btw.  Their parents and teachers have to work so fucking hard.  But I do expect the district to make up for the need for extra support by GIVING it, federal (unfunded, fuckitall) mandates aside.  Nothing's shittier than realizing that your administrator can't handle her/his shit because s/he's always dealing with the IEP kids...so your kid gets to be bullied for 5 years.  That shit sucks ass.

Districts who can take care of bidness and figure out where to help ALL, EQUALLY are the ones you want to look for--and schools that show that are the ones you want to "patronize."