Buried in the story on the GASD’s high dropout rate (Recorder story here), the first press mention of what I’d mentioned recently:
But even before The Business Review pointed out GASD’s deficiencies, ranking it 80 out of 85 Capital District schools based on its graduation rate and assessment scores, the district had begun to take aim at the high dropout rate of the 2007-08 school year.
I hear the collective yawn now…
July 11, 2009 at 10:35 am
I would hardly call the fourth paragraph of a story buried. Maybe the second or third-to-last paragraph, but not the fourth.
July 11, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I’d meant ‘buried’ not in terms of the position but in terms of the headline ‘District deals with highest drop-out rate in the region’. The dire statistics of 80th of 85 also deal with academic performance which was not at all addressed within the piece — other than citing the statistic– or the headline. That was the issue I wanted to ‘unbury’. On the issue of dropouts, I thought it was a solid piece.
My key question remains: how do you remain competitive and desirable as a community with a school district ranked 80 of 85?
July 12, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I was just being snarky for the sake of being a snark.
Honestly, though, I don’t think the Chalmers or Via Ponte or footbridges or anything coming out of City Hall is the city’s biggest obstacle right now. I think it’s the school system.
Frankly, there are two major reasons why my wife and I won’t move into the city: the school district and the high taxes levied by Montgomery County and the school district. It has nothing to do with the quality of life in Amsterdam itself; we both think it’s a pretty funky town with a lot of potential.
I can’t offer any solutions about fixing the school system because I’m no education expert … but if the school district managed to turn itself around, I’d bet my next paycheck life in general for Amsterdam would vastly improve.
July 12, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Upon further review, “obstacle” was probably too harsh a word. “Issue,” perhaps?
July 12, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I agree that the school district is the biggest challenge for the area.
July 11, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I mean, really. Why are we spending millions of dollars on magnet schools and transportation when the district’s graduation and assessments are at rock bottom? Oh, and the district just eliminated modified sports. Maybe the public can take up a collection to pay for an outside consultant to figure out how to improve AHS?
July 12, 2009 at 8:46 am
What will it take to “fix” our schools? It is a multifaceted problem; let me suggest some facets and their causes:
1. Community unwilling to support school budgets – caused by lack of confidence in school board and failure to recognize importance of school system to the future of community.
2. School Board not effective – caused –by rose-colored glasses syndrome – legacy of Ron Limoncelli and inherent ignorance.
3. Weak teaching staff – caused – by questionable hiring practices, low starting salary, image and reality of our situation..
4. Weak students – caused – by economic and cultural demographics.
5. Alienation of students – caused – in part by Racism from the bigoted attitudes of a minority of teachers and administrators and by cultural differences.
6. Poor leadership – caused – by the system that limits selection of administrators to a “qualified few” thereby eliminating competition and options – don’t rock the boat.
7. Ludicrous resource allocation –caused – by state policies – 98% building construction aid and 0% aid for instruction.
8. Magnet Schools – caused – by lack of reliable education method research – let’s try something, maybe this will work, and they are giving away money for it!
9. Excessive teacher pay – caused – by increasing teacher pay for higher-level degrees that are not useful for education and steep longevity increases.
10. Low teacher pay – caused – by not paying hard working teachers enough.
11. Poor teacher performance – caused – by no meaningful performance measures, no monitoring of work and limited ability to do anything about it due to tenure.
12. Students and parents don’t value education – caused – by culture of irresponsibility – you don’t need an education if you will never work and your roll models never work – in fact it is a liability – an educational disability gets you SSD or SSI.
13. Teacher Certification – caused – by protectionism – Albany Academy touts the fact that they have no “certified” teachers, a selling point!
Now lets hear some simple solutions!
July 12, 2009 at 9:02 pm
It is so easy to blame poor test scores and high dropout rate on the school district. If you notice, the lowest performance schools in the Capital District Business Review survey were all city schools – Albany, Schenectady, Troy and yes, Amsterdam.
All of these schools possess some extremely talented teachers, but the problem is that some of these students come from an environment that does not put a high priority on education. It’s difficult for a youngster to develop solid study habits when they roam the streets in the wee hours of the morning. I was amazed at what I witnessed driving home from work at 1 a.m. during the spring months. I saw elementary-age kids at Amsterdam’s Fast Track at 1 a.m. on school nights and I saw hordes of kids wandering nightly on East Main Street. Do you think there were 11-year-old kids hanging out on Route 146 in Clifton Park (Shenendehowa School District) at the same time?
It’s so difficult to excel in school when some of these kids have chaos at home and throwing more money at it won’t resolve the matter or generate results. That’s why modified sports is so important to some of the kids because the teachers-turned-coaches play the role of a needed father figure to many of these youngsters.
But a youngster with a solid family background can get a good education at Amsterdam High School. Many have graduated from some of the top universities in the country.
If the education is so bad, why have so many succeeded?
Also, teacher’s pay is irrelevant. Explain why some of the area’s private schools (Albany Academy, LaSalle Institute, CBA, Bishop Maginn, Holy Names, Saratoga Catholic, etc.) possess some of the lowest salaried teachers, yet their students churn out much higher test scores when compared to the four city schools.
Again, it’s about what takes place in the home and it seems that the debate the last couple of months is about money, money, money and the more the district gets, the better off things will be.
We have some outstanding teachers in this school district but even the best teacher can only do so much during the eight-hour day.
It’s the other 16 hours where the problems need to be addressed.
July 12, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Excellent points Mr. Antonelli,why do you suppose the school voucher program never gained any traction with lawmakers? I suspect it has something to do with the NYSUT. PAL money is important to elected officials and non-elected as well. Pushing for the voucher system will turn the teachers union upside down…and they know it. You can believe the catholic school system will see an immediate surge in enrollment with the voucher system. But hey! That’s my opinion and it doesn’t carry much weight around here, one vote won’t change the system. Parents? You will never solve that one. When sports become more important than academics…well,that’s a horse of a different color.
July 14, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Mr. Antonelli. But what can the school district do to combat this? Perhaps look at what other school districts with similar socio-economic demographics have done to overcome these obstacles to achieve success.
July 14, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I found the following site fascinating in this regard:
http://www.just4kids.org/en/research_policy/best_practices/about_practice.cfm
July 12, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I’ll second what Charlie said