FAILURE NOT AN OPTION
by YourSFPublicSchools Team ~ September 24th, 2009
Author: Carlos Garcia, San Francisco Superintendent
Five decades ago I went to my public elementary school. Three decades ago I started teaching. Two decades ago I sent my own children through public schools. In my lifetime I have been to thousands of schools and I can say that this simple assessment has been one of the most important ones: Is it good enough for my kids? If a school is not somewhere I would feel confident placing my own children, I have no right to expect any other parents to send their children there.
Accountability is one of our three main goals in SFUSD. In our strategic plan we define this as keeping our promises to students and families. Each school and, ultimately each teacher and principal, must define what promises they make and show how they aim to keep them.
I promise to organize our system around what is best for students. We have multiple standards for student achievement and we are cultivating better and better tools to monitor adult job performance in service of student achievement. This year every school will be focusing on meeting the objectives set forth in their scorecards and every central office of the district will be finalizing their department scorecards to align with meeting the needs of schools. Everyone in the community will be able to see our progress.
It is our collective responsibility – parents, teachers, and other caring adults – to make sure that our children get what they need to be successful in school and in life. With dwindling resources this will not be easy – there are fewer adults to look out for our kids and fewer services for those most vulnerable to falling through the cracks. Our children rely on us; regardless of the tough economic times they ask for the same amount of love and the same opportunities to learn. What are the promises you make to our city’s children? Your children? What promises do you think our schools must make and live up to?
September 24th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
If only you were the one making the decisions. I commend you. However, how do parents remove the Board of Education from the process? Only then will real progress be made. Sadly the citizens of San Francisco elect members to the BoE who prefer promoting their own politically correct race-baseed ideology over bettering our schools. Unless the BoE is stripped of their powers, not much will change. How many more years will the BoE analyze “data” before making a decision on anything?
As for me, moving out of San Francisco or homeschooling are the only choices for my children. At least that means less money that the BoE can use towards their latest, and more expensive busing schemes.
I wish you the best of luck. You do not have an easy job!
Regards,
Rebecca Dake, mother of two preschool children
September 30th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Carlos, thank you for doing such an exemplary job of leading and articulating our philosophy as a district. I would also like to respond to Ms. Dake – I hear your frustration with the long-running student assignment redesign process and I would like to extend my personal promise to do everything within my power as an elected Commissioner to bring this process to a decisive ending in time for our decision to be implemented for the 2011-12 enrollment season. It’s time, I agree.
But I would also like to say that I think you sell us short – this is the hardest and most multi-faceted problem I have ever worked on and though each Commissioner has her (or in one case, his) own particular views, I know from our intense discussions that each one of us wants only the best for each and every student in SFUSD. It simplistic and unfair to just dismiss our discussions as “politically correct race-based ideology.”
There is a rich trove of data on the district web site that I think rewards those who are interested enough to spend the time investigating — go to: http://tinyurl.com/pzh85e
I also encourage you to attend the monthly Student Assignment committee meetings: the next one is Oct. 19th. Meetings will be filmed by sfgov.tv and streamed online for those who cannot attend.
Thanks again for paying attention!
October 1st, 2009 at 1:08 am
Rebecca, you obviously haven’t looked at the statistics. There are many great schools and 80% of parents get one of their choices. To say these are the only choices is an entitled, pro-class segregation attitude that sadly exists in some SF neighborhoods. If the rich whites were truly liberal, put their money where their mouths are, they could make the public schools much better. Statistically, many SF Schools have great test scores, to say you have no other option without even applying is frankly elitist, racist, and rude. I have looked at the schools and test scores. My kids go to Feinstein, but there are 20 schools in the top 10% of California in test scores and 80% get one of their choices, more if you include appeals. To say you have no other choice is hurting our most vulnerable citizens and saying that you believe schools should still be segregated by class and race..
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:49 am
STOP THE BUSING. If you emphasize neighborhood schools, more parents volunteer, less cars are on the streets, and far more whites would send their kids to public school which would make them less segregated. You put 500 whites into all black schools every year and 10 go, the same number as would go under the old system. It isn’t causing integration. Drop it, San Francisco is integrated enough. Neighborhood first, make the good schools 10% bigger so you can let in enough minorities from other neighborhoods. Upper middle class people of all races will not add 40 minutes or more a day to their busy schedule, they don’t have the time. They’ll leave, go to private school, etc. How many San Franciscans, single or otherwise, would stay if you said to them you must do yoga 40 minutes a day or play chess or something they aren’t interested in. Driving is like that. People are too busy.
It’s part of the reason many whites write papers in college praising Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, yet as soon as their kids turn 5, they’re Strom Thurmond and believe in segregation. However, most of these whites don’t, if you give them a public alternative, most whites will take it. Not all the whites who use public schools or move are racist, some just don’t have an hour to drive across town. People love living in San Francisco, but you have to change this system.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:33 am
SFUSD adopted a strategic plan two years ago and Superintendent Garcia is very much a supporter of that plan. (He wouldn’t have been hired if he wasn’t.) But do the Board and the Superintendent believe in the plan? I ask this question because the District recently acted to denied the public the very transparency and accountability that was promised in its plan entitled, “Beyond The Talk, Taking Action to Educate Every Child Now.”
On page six of that plan it states, “ From this point forward you will see our progress every step of the way as we strive to keep our promises to students and families…” This rhetoric has proved to be untrue in practice and it calls into question the actual motivations of those that are implementing the Balanced Scorecard. Shortly into the school planning process, the District moved to deny the public its lawful right of review by invoking an illegal exemption to the Public Records Act – an act that turned the strategic plan on its head and sent a message that said, “ we will not let you see our progress.”
The basis for this exemption is flawed for one simple reason: the development and adoption of the Single Plan for Student Achievement, otherwise known as the Balanced Scorecard or BSC, is a public process as defined in the Education Code 52850-52863. The development of the BSC is not the sole business of a local education agency or department thereof, but the business of the people, convened in school site councils, exercising their legally mandated right of decision-making in the school planning process. This process is not subject to exemption. It is already a public process by definition. This decision to withhold potentially damning information on a flawed process highlights the District’s intentions to keep school planning away from parents and within control of the central office. It also illustrates the intention to control the flow of information.
I believe that SFUSD has violated the Public Records Act and thumbed its nose at the law and the rights of the public, and particularly the rights of parents in their need to become informed and learn more about to the policies and procedures that affect the education of their children. This is why the SF public school community must stay alert and why we need to hold our public officials accountable, especially those that participated in this deception, either through their actions or through their inaction.
Our children deserve leadership that is committed to the mission of increasing student achievement and this demands the skills of professionals that are personally invested in the need for transparency and accountability.
Don Krause
October 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Rebecca, I’m sorry that you were subjected to the race-baiting invective of Mr. Thursby. From your comment, “politically-correct raced-based ideology”, he has attributed to you any number of racial assertions, as if he knows you well. Apparently he cannot distinguish between your reference to the racially charged policies of the district and racism itself. From this perspective he infers and stumbles from one outrageous accusation to the next without regard for your actual political, moral or ethical makeup. His post was a rambling, flow-of-consciousness diatribe of prejudicial thoughts. In you he saw all the ghosts of racism past, simply because you questioned the district’s priorities about race and education. How dare you not agree with his fantasy in advance!
You may not be well-informed as a mother of pre-schoolers about the ins and outs of district policy, but you are correct that the Strategic Plan has imbued the dialogue with race at every turn. By doing so, it has replaced much of the discussion on the fundamental mission of our schools – student achievement. Reading the school site scorecards one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the focus on social justice. And what’s wrong with that you ask? Nothing, if it were not an academic plan, the purpose of which is to foster student achievement.
For those that need to develop their scholarship and sense of personal responsibility, the focus on social justice is misplaced. And though the achievement gap highlights the challenges of educating students who start from a position of extreme disadvantage, our work in San Francisco seems to have moved away from academic achievement in order to satisfied the “equity first” agenda. The schools cannot solve all of society’s ills. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but let’s not lose sight of the proper role of a local education agency. Unfortunately, forced integration has not worked and the achievement gap has remained unmoved 25 years after consent decree. Now we can no longer afford integration’s busing costs. But we still have a job to do so let’s get busy educating and stop proselytizing.
Integrated schools can only be achieved within the context of integrated neighborhoods, which are an outcome of social mobility. And social mobility is a prime outcome of education. You cannot put the cart before the wheel or a bus before a desk and a teacher.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Dear Mr. Garcia,
Thank you for taking the time to communicate directly with the larger community and for facilitating open discussions. I am an SFUSD parent, deeply committed to a high quality of education for all students. I have volunteered at many schools in my neighborhood (pre charter Edison, Cesar Chavez, Horace Mann, Mission HS) as well as the two schools where I am currently involved as a parent – Thurgood Marshall and Lowell. My experiences overall have been very positive – especially with regard to the individual teachers, staff, parents, and administrators that it has been my pleasure to work with. I have also seen many situations that have fallen short of the “promises” I believe that you and I would agree are essential, and have tried to do what I could to rectify the situations, including sharing my concerns with all involved. When I have been supported in my efforts to effect changes, I have had the opportunity to see for myself how difficult it is to make significant inroads into the tough problems. I have never regretted the effort, because even a small inroad that is insignificant in the grander scheme of things can be very significant for the few students whose lives are touched in a positive way. I welcome your effort and your commitment to the hard work of improving educational opportunity for all students.
Sincerely,
Pamela Coxson
October 12th, 2009 at 12:35 am
The achievement gap is a home gap. No one wants to say it because they’ll be called racist. I am really for integration but integration and humility in which those who are failing learn personal responsibility from those who are succeeding. The average black family in San Francisco does not give immense credit to Asians for doing better than whites in the state, for the fact that they spend many more hours a week studying than they or whites, many fewer watching TV, spend Saturday studying, see Summer as a chance to get ahead not to relax and fall behind and forget things, etc. They simply blow them off as nerds and close their mind to considering that the results show they should change. Whites in small towns are the same way, set in their ways. I know these are stereotypes but they’re predictable, you could name a city in Arizona or Southern California with 10% Asians and 10% blacks, and knowing nothing else, I am sure if I go to the public library on Saturday, I’ll see 10x as many Asians. It’s like the hardcore Christians who deny Ardi is the missing link, they never change, no evidence can sway them.
It’s a fact, Asians spend the most time studying, give up Saturdays, Sundays, Summers, evenings. They study and read 22 hours a week on average in California vs. 9 watching TV, whites are at 15 and 17, Hispanics at 9 and 19 and blacks at 4 and 30. Don’t take my word for it, google it. Therefore the results are that test scores are in order, Asians, whites, Hispanics, blacks. Then they blame the teachers. Teachers can’t change that, change the hours, if blacks go from 4 and 30 to 22 and 9, they’ll make more than whites within 30 years, guaranteed. Asians earned less than whites in 1980 and 1985, passed them in 1990 and now earn 30% more and this would be far higher if not for a substantial percentage being recent immirgrants in low wage jobs.
Personal responsibility is key. Also, two parents, Asians are far more likely to have 2 parents and involved grandparents involved, not a single mother.
So we need integration as Mr. Thursby states, yes, but one in which teachers teach what it takes to be successful. Many teachers don’t believe in the meritocracy. They don’t believe that the hardest working get the best grades and the best jobs, you hear them say Lowell is OK, Lincoln is OK. It’s nonsense. Lowell is the Harvard of high schools, Lincoln is the UC Davis, it’s a good school but not in Lowell’s league. Asians know this, whites do.
It’s not self-esteem. Many of the worst students have very high self-esteem, too high. It takes humility. It takes admitting you have a flaw. It takes giving everything you have to fix that, giving of yourself and your free time and taking on the stress it requires to be a good student. It takes sacrifice and dignity and honor and humanity.
The achievement gap won’t disappear until the home gap disappears and the home gap won’t disappear until the races who do the worst take a serious look in the mirror and decide to drastically change their basic outlook on life. You can go on and say it’s racism and so forth but it isn’t, Asians and Jews suffered every bit as much racism. It’s how many hours you study, period. Having parents help and a good teacher helps, but the achievement gap won’t go away, no kid studying 4 hours will beat a kid studying 21 based on what the teachers do; it has to be based on what they do. If we all give up free time to be be better people and make our kids do the same the achievement gap will disappear. There are other issues but this is 90% of it.
October 18th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I have lived in SF for 12 years. My first child is due next month. I am just now learning about the abomination that is the sf public schools. If the staff we hired does not make a major change in the next five years. I will move to burbs like so many others. The lottery is a joke. The lottery is joke. If there was an weak organization culture, would you even know? How many bad teachers are fired? How many bad administrated are fired? How many bad programs are terminated? I will check back to look at these balanced scorecard goals, however the bottom line, is how many people move to the burbs? If 80% of parents get one of their choices and the burbs have 95% that is a world of difference. San Francisco needs to compete.
October 21st, 2009 at 12:09 am
Good point Don. I think the administration does not agree with you. Worse they probably won’t even discuss these race issue frankly.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:39 am
We must go back to neighborhood schools, as parents are more likely to volunteer, donate and commit long-term to a school if they have certainty when they buy a house. I had 3 parent-teacher conferences this week and am at my kids’ school all the time, but many parents whose kids would increase racial and class diversity have been told they can only send their kid to a school far from home, adding to traffic, reducing involvement, and depriving the district of children who would do well and help our averages and parents who would donate and volunteer for their PTAs by driving them into private schools or to leave the City. We want these parents in SFUSD again and can achieve this by offering them a school close to home. We are the only District in the U.S. that doesn’t guarantee parents priority on getting a school close to home, and this has to change. We are a diverse city and schools would be less, not more, segregated if we offered neighborhood priority. Parents close to their kids’ schools will be more involved and studies have shown this helps children to achieve more. Put a child in a car for an hour and you deprive parents and kids of study time together and ultimately, sleep and healthy food. You make our community less connected, more stressed out, and sadder. It is hurting our communities.
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