I recently came across this interesting article from the NY Times regarding San Francisco’s Public School System. Parents in San Francisco, like Denver, have many options when it comes to their children’s education. However, if parents there are choosing public school, the student-assignment process is complex and flawed. The Superintendent hopes to replace the current system with an alternative one but this doesn’t seem to be easing the mind of many parents. Read the article below to see what I mean.

New Plan on School Selection, but Still Discontent by Jesse McKinley

After years of complaints from parents, the San Francisco Unified School District has just taken a serious step toward revamping its well-meaning but labyrinthine student-assignment system, which decides the educational homes for tens of thousands of children.

The current system — designed to meet the terms of a settlement in a long-fought federal desegregation case — involves a complicated computer algorithm that creates student “profiles,” using various economic and educational factors, with the aim of sending students of different backgrounds to the same schools.

It has resulted instead in more segregation and has aggravated parents to a point where efforts to manipulate the system have become endemic.

This month, the school district rolled out a new plan. It is designed to more closely consider proximity between a student’s home and classroom. It is to be applied to every child headed for kindergarten.

And once again, no one seems completely happy.

“I’ll be honest with you; we’re really frustrated,” said Michelle Menegaz, the chairwoman of the Parent Advisory Council, which was established by the school board and has made recommendations on how to fix the assignment system. “We’re really concerned that what’s being put forward now doesn’t reflect the best of our research and it doesn’t reflect the needs the community expressed.”

What everyone agrees on is that the current system is broken. In a quarter of San Francisco’s public schools, more than 60 percent of the student body is of a single race, and academic performance by black, Latino and Samoan students continues to lag. In theory, parents choose up to seven schools for their child, but 20 percent of kindergarteners get none of their parents’ choices.

All of which has been a boon for private schools; San Francisco has a larger percentage of students in private schools — nearly 3 out of 10 — than any other major city in the state. Others families simply move away.

And while advocates of the new plan say it offers more flexibility and simplicity, whether that will be the case is unclear.

At a school board meeting on Wednesday, Commissioner Jill Wynns seemed perplexed as to whether the plan would meet the board’s elusive goals of diversity and transparency.

“If you don’t know it can be done,” Ms. Wynn said of the redesign team, “how can we trust it will be done?”

Such questions are ringing in the ears of parents throughout the city, especially those — like this reporter — who have a child entering kindergarten in the fall.

Here is how the current system works: Let’s say a 5-year-old — we’ll call him Jake, like my son — wants to go to kindergarten. His parents fill out an application and list seven schools they prefer.

The more desirable schools get more applications than they have seats; in some cases that ratio is 20 to 1. That’s where the Diversity Index comes in. Known as “the lottery,” the index uses five factors to determine a child’s profile: poverty level, socio-economic status, English-language proficiency, academic achievement and, for upper grades, the quality of the student’s previous school.

Once that profile is built, the child is placed in one of his selected schools, in a class of students whose collective profile is as different from his own profile as possible. As each child is added, the class profile is adjusted, and more “most different” children are placed. Students living near their selected schools are considered first. The district also gives preference to children who have siblings at the same school and apply on time.

But there is no guarantee that a child will get in a selected school. And once the lottery has filled all the slots, those soon-to-be kindergartners who get into none of their choices are offered a place in a school with open positions. Proximity to their home and transportation are considered.

Designed to be race-neutral, the system has instead been widely criticized as too complex and opaque. “It’s all magic and voodoo,” Ms. Menegaz said, only half joking.

Next page of article

The second Early Education Scoop will take place on Thursday, Jan. 7th at Valdez Elementary School in Denver from 6:30-8:30 pm. Please read below for more details about the event.

Register here: http://www.dpsk12.org/scoop/

Registration is not mandatory, however we would like to get a sense on who’s coming.  Spread the word!

Click on images below to enlarge the information!

The School Scoop category of our blog is a compilation of our impressions on both public and private schools around Denver. These “profiles” include vital facts about the school along with our impressions from visits, discussions with parents and interviews with staff.  We plan to add quite a few more profiles this fall so keep checking back for schools that you have interest in learning more about!

We hope to also educate you on the vision of each school from multiple perspectives, provide information on special & core programs that each school has to offer as well as provide a forum for parents to comment on their experiences with the school.

It’s important to remember that the impressions section on the school profiles is just that, an impression.  While visiting the school we take into consideration many factors beyond just what we see and hear. It’s your job as a parent to research and visit the schools that interest you most, so you can get a vibe, and see which schools have left an impactful impression on you.  Do not rely on our profiles or parent comments alone; see for yourself.

We are not including a full report on public school CSAP test scores in our reviews because we do not feel that they are a highly relevant part of the process.  If it’s test scores you seek, then you can find them at the Colorado School Accountability Report Website.

We are excited to bring you a new series called “Two Cents.” Every month, we will post a new topic for you to read and “talk” about. The topic may come from an article surrounding the education world, parent banter in the parking lot, or someone sharing a unique and engaging program that happened at their child’s school. Whatever it may be, we want to conjure up some conversation! Remember, the goal of these discussions is to make one think and to have your opinion be heard. We hope that you are willing to speak up and add your “two cents” to get the conversation started.

(if you would like to suggest a topic for this series, please email us at jennandkerri (at) scooptoo (dot) com)

School Lunches

Kerri’s Two Cents:

I admit I am one of those people that cringe at the thought of my children buying a school lunch in the cafeteria. Even when I visit my own children at school for lunch occasionally, I can’t help but wonder what is in that unattractive food that I see lying on the tray.  Sometimes the smell from the cafeteria gets to me. With that being said, the lunch line is always down the hall and around the corner.

Last year, my twin boys would beg me to buy hot lunch. I found myself trying to convince them repeatedly that I, your devoted mother, make the best lunch around! Whether it was a sandwich, salad, or leftovers from the night before, they were always accompanied with veggies, fruit, and some type of dairy. Every once in a while the lunch would be completed with a note from yours truly. Their lunches were healthy, nutritious and made with loving care. What more did they want? The answer was hot lunch. Yes, I caved from time to time, although it was only a handful of times, okay maybe two. One day, I even overheard one of my sons telling his grandmother, “No Nana I never buy hot lunch because it’s gross and not good for my body.” Kids say familiar things, don’t they?

Healthy or not, school lunch has not drastically changed from when I was in elementary school. Therefore, it’s always been up to the parent to make the choice for their child, cafeteria food versus a homemade lunch. I haven’t put much more thought towards this topic until recently. A friend sent me the article A Tale of Two Lunches and I can’t help but wonder a few things now. Shouldn’t we as parents be demanding better for our children when it comes to nutrition? Shouldn’t the standard school lunches be a thing of the past? What if DPS could become a candidate for a pilot program where lunch is catered by Revolution Foods? Their food is not only appealing to the eye but organic, locally grown, and prepared fresh daily. Would I allow my children to buy lunch at school more often? Would parents pay more money for a better, healthier lunch option for their child? Today, child obesity dramatically increases from year to year. While a healthy lifestyle should be taught in the home, why not have it modeled in schools?

Jenn’s Two Cents:

I ate school lunches as a child all the way up through high school, although in my elementary years, I recall having more packed lunches as opposed to a $1.10 in my pocket for a hot lunch.  Friday (pizza day) was the only exception of course.  Mostly I came sporting a PB&J with an apple and some carrots in a brown bag. It’s probably not much different than kids today with the exception of a fancy initialed lunch box.

To have organic and healthful meal options in public schools (or any school) sounds idyllic if it were not for one fact; they’re expensive.  My son’s school offers an organic daily lunch service and frankly they’re not incredibly appealing to him.  I’d rather him eat healthy foods that I know he likes than spend the money on healthy food he doesn’t like.  Now if I could pay $5.00 and have those lunches delivered to me each day, I would!

I can’t imagine it will be easy to have Revolution Foods, or any other service, partner with an entire public school system.  The enormous amount of red tape that The Odyssey School went through to get the program going will only be compounded by the lack of funding and bureaucracy surrounding Denver Public Schools.  Additionally, it seems like there are more important things for DPS to focus on like…graduation rates and enrichment programs, rather than whether students are getting organic burrito wraps and caesar salads versus chicken nuggets and french fries at school.

We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on school lunch and this article A Tale of Two Lunches?