Making a future for SLPS high school students
By Darnetta Clinkscale
Guest Columnist
Leaders in the St. Louis Public Schools district live with many public realities. But sometimes public reality still shields the truth.
The latest report from the state of Missouri – the Annual Progress Review – highlights the district’s “reality,” but doesn’t necessarily show us the truth. The report finds severe deficiencies in outcomes that measure the performance of middle schools and high schools. The district is failing when the attendance rate, drop-out rate, graduation rate and participation in ACT college placement tests are measured.
As a school board, we do not reject this analysis – we wholeheartedly agree. The failure after 6th grade in the St. Louis Public Schools is both heartbreaking and infuriating. And, it’s why we ran for school board.
Evidence of the truth is hidden in the numbers provided by the state. Our most recent problem (though by no means our only problem) is that by and large the 11th graders in 2004-2005 did not take the ACT test. It was in this category that the district lost points.
This deficiency is being addressed. At the request of the board, Superintendent Creg Williams has implemented an ACT Preparation Program in the district which will improve participation and eventually improve scores.
However, the bigger question is why aren’t our high-school students taking the ACT test? Why are they dropping out of school? Why do they engage in unruly behavior?
Pundits will offer many excuses, ranging from general poverty to a lack of parental involvement. Without question, these can be factors. But let’s go back to the state’s numbers. When today’s 12th graders were in middle school in 2001, only 12.6 percent of them were performing at grade level or above. These children are now in high school, faced with the academic demands that high school presents, and they don’t have the skills. Most adults know what happens when children are placed into a situation in which they cannot succeed. They act up. They drop out. And they don’t take the ACT test because they surely do not see college in their future.
That’s our district’s hidden truth – the academic condition of SLPS middle-school and high-school students. They are not equipped to succeed in high school.
And it is not the children’s failure. It’s the adults’. The school district has failed them throughout their entire academic career.
I joined the St. Louis Public Schools’ Board of Education on April 22, 2003 and was elected its president. The district had a $90 million operating deficit, crumbling buildings and academic performance scores that were among the worst in the entire nation.
In 30 months’ time, we have put the fiscal house in order; negotiated a new contract with our teachers that will put their salaries on par with some of the best suburban districts in St. Louis; extended the school day to give our children more time on-task; consolidated schools so that our efforts at building maintenance can be directed towards fewer buildings; implemented a standardized curriculum throughout our elementary, middle and high schools; purchased more than $4 million in new textbooks this year alone; dramatically increased the number of certified teachers in the district; and delivered more than 190,000 hours of teacher training. Our state MAP scores, released in August, showed dramatic improvement at the elementary-school level and gave us the first evidence that these reforms are going to work.
Despite this whirlwind of activity, we must do more. At our request, Creg Williams will be proposing some dramatic changes to our high schools in the coming weeks. We selected Dr. Williams as our new superintendent, in part, because of his past success at the high-school level. We need to intervene with our middle-school and high-school students or they’ll never have the opportunity to live up to their potential.
We cannot quit on these children. They aren’t statistics. They are real people – individuals – who deserve a chance to succeed in school and in life.
Darnetta Clinkscale is president of St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education.