Parents organize to fight school health center closures

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-ci-school-cuts-reax-story-20100416,0,491054.story

As reported in the Sun this morning, the City has reported that they are going to make as much as 6 cuts to school's health centers, with maybe more to follow. The mayor is reporting that the reason for the cuts is to cut down the ginormous Baltimore budget ($121 million).

This article got me to thinking: at my school (grades 6-8), all I ever see the nurse doing ALL day is reading her People magazine. I think the only thing she is qualified to do is give students ice packs and band aids. Beyond that, I don't think there is anything she could legally do if a child was in a real state of emergency. The kids at my school use the nurse as an excuse to get out of classwork. I'm not saying that school health facilities aren't important, because they obviously are. What I am saying is that the city needs to look at what health centers are being effective and which ones aren't and then get rid of the less effective ones. Seems like an easy fix, right?

The article goes on to mention that the Mayor is going to look at a number of factors in deciding which health centers to close, with student population being one of the main one. Health center closures probably means that overall attendance at some schools could go down because the students who need daily medical attention will not be receiving it. Thoughts?

Incentivizing Students

The cover article on this week’s Time Magazine, "Should Kids be Bribed to Do Well in School", got me thinking about providing financial incentives to students in Baltimore in order to improve attendance, passing rates, and academic achievement. The idea explored in the Time article, which was largely based on information collected by a Harvard economist Ronald Fryer Jr. gathered in a multi-city performance study, is that by giving students money for superior academic behavior, student achievement (aka test scores) will increase. Ultimately, the goal is to chip away at the learning gap by paying kids to be better students. While the results of Fryer’s study are mixed and heavily contested, Fryer did find that focused, learning-based incentive programs (like paying students per book that they read) lead to better results than simply paying students for good test scores throughout the year. I guess the idea is that when students are just encouraged by money to do better on tests, they probably won’t do any better because they don’t really know how.

Nevertheless, I started to think about how creating appropriate incentives in Baltimore schools that are focused (and learning-based) might create positive results for our students. For example, paying students to participate in a certain number of review sessions for HSA tests or for completing homework assignments could lead to better city test scores (and perhaps higher graduation rates?). Obviously Baltimore schools runs into the perpetual issue of funding. What public school in its right mind is going to start doling out cash or prizes to “good” students (who are essentially doing just what they are supposed to do) when the school can’t even afford to pay for a crossing guard? (For more info on crossing guard cuts, see http://wjz.com/local/school.budget.cuts.2.1633032.html.) Schools could start tapping into private funding, but many schools might not care enough to take the time and effort to create such a program (especially if positive results are not a guarantee).

Despite the funding issues and the question of positive results, I think there are certain ideas that Baltimore City Schools can gain from the Fryer study. While giving students money might not be the solution to the city's education troubles, better motivational efforts and school-based positive reinforcements (instead of simply punishments) ought to be emphasized in schools. I truly think that good students (and schools) ought to be commended and appreciated more in Baltimore. I agree that it is difficult to overlook big problems in order to see some good in Baltimore schools, and that too much optimism can indeed be a bad thing, but some students could use a little bit more motivation and positivity in school than educators are currently doling out.

Maryland Releases Draft of Race to the Top application

As the Maryland Legislative Session wraps to a close, the Department of Education has released a draft version of their proposed application for the Race to the Top program. The 257 page document outlines Maryland's plans to close the gap, and secure itself $250 million dollars of the federal school reform pie.


Thus far, the plan is being met with mixed reviews. Many believe that the ideas are good, but some, like executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth Matthew Joseph, criticize the plan for not going "nearly far enough to address achievement gaps." Others expressed concerns that controversial points like teacher and principal evaluation reforms (namely performance based pay and evaluation systems with revised proficiency categories) may be unpopular with teachers' unions and school boards.


The application (available here) is set to be submitted to the committee for consideration in June of this year. In the meantime, local school districts will be reviewing the plan, and concerned citizens have until April 23, 2010 to submit their opinions, thoughts and comments to a dedicated e-mail address: RTTT@msde.state.md.us