Friday, April 7th, 2006,
by Fred (,
KTRS, NAACP, Nathaniel Cole, politics, St. Louis
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Bill McClellan makes a good point in a column about the KTRS/Lenihan flap
Still, whether the NAACP is right or wrong seems beside the point. So much of the work I see done today is done by other, more focused organizations. Girls Inc. tries to prepare girls for an uncertain future. The Matthews-Dickey Boys’ and Girls’ Club does the same for boys. CHIPS provides health care for those who cannot afford it. Rabble-rousers like Eric Vickers fight for jobs and economic justice.Meanwhile, the NAACP gets embroiled in a flap about a word. It’s enough to make a person think that the NAACP is as outdated as its name.
In St. Louis at least, the NAACP seems more interested in making the front page of the Post than in contributing to meaningful discussions. In the KTRS matter, they jumped in with both feet, praising the station for firing Lenihan 20 minutes after he referred to the possibility of the NFL hiring Condoleezza Rice as Commissioner as a “real coon” [Lenihan says he meant to call it a “real coup”]. Then, after Lenihan addressed the group, the NAACP came out in favor of his rehiring by the station. The vitriol facing Lenihan seems out of proportion, given that he has no track record of such statements and his explanation seems feasible, if not exactly probable. But why the about-face, unless it was the chance to get two headlines out of one pseudo-controversy?
This has been the pattern of late for the NAACP. Such as when the NAACP attacked the St. Louis police when the police chased 23 year old punk Robert Smith after Smith pulled a gun on police in a traffic stop, a chase that led to the death of Nathaniel Cole. Cole and Smith were both black. In all the controversy over the chase, the NAACP could have encouraged their constituency not to draw down on the cops on a busy city street, but they didn’t. That would be productive, and wouldn’t get the headlines that a press conference blaming the cops for Cole’s death did.
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Thursday, February 16th, 2006,
by Fred (,
NAACP, Nathaniel Cole, police, pursuit, St. Louis
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Want to know about how long you’ll wait at the airport to clear security? Check the TSA’s Wait Times page. Here’s the page for Lambert International on Monday mornings.
[Via the Post-Dispatch Aero and Defense Beat]
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Thursday, February 16th, 2006,
by Fred (,
Edmon Burns, NAACP, Nathaniel Cole, police, pursuit, St. Louis
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Tuesday’s Talk of the Day question in the Post-Dispatch asked what’s your favorite “school reformâ€?
Most of the responses centered on school uniforms and discipline. Which, as it turns out, is where the Superintendent is headed:
The reforms scheduled for the 2006-07 academic year include mandatory school uniforms for students system-wide, ninth-grade academies for students attending the city’s three largest high schools, year-round school for ninth-graders, gender-specific academies and the introduction of more “small school” learning academies throughout the district.
Pundits describe the reforms as “ambitious.” And it will be, if ambitious means “expensive.” $57 million in the first year, which probably doesn’t capture all the costs of the new gender-specific academies and ninth-grade academies at the three largest high schools. Why limit year-round school to the summer after eighth grade? Is there reason to believe that the extra three months will turn underachieving students around? How will the school environment change? How will teachers produce results that they are not producing now?
And by ninth grade, some of the damage has already been done. According to the city’s 2004-05 School Accountability Report Card, 36% of third-graders scored Advanced or Proficient on the math portion of the MAP exam. The seventh graders were at 8.1%. These students clearly need academic intervention and higher expectations before a summer of extra school after eighth grade.
And are smaller academies the answer? St. Louis city has a student to classroom teacher ratio of 19:1, which is average for Missouri districts. Suburban Rockwood has a ratio of 18:1.
These reforms seem destined to fail like previous efforts. Year-round schooling will be controversial, and the district already has a shortfall, without adding an additional $57 million. What about expecting students and teachers to succeed, and holding back or removing those that don’t? Superintendent Williams hints at this:
Students who fail to attain the credits necessary to finish ninth grade will continue in school for a second consecutive summer. “From now on, if you go into the 10th grade of the St. Louis Public Schools you will be a true 10th-grader,” Williams said.
Shouldn’t that be the expectation for all students in all grades? And maybe, just maybe, we’re asking the wrong questions, as “elliott” points out in his comment:
What is the purpose of a public school system?
Who should it serve?
What should it look like?
How big should the system, and the schools, be?
Should there even be a public school system?
If not, what would replace it?
I don’t feel that these questions are being looked at systematically and publicly, and therefore, I think the reform efforts that have gone forward are little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Reminiscent of Reason’s discussion of school reform from December 2005.
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