To be clear, this is not a snipe at Unit 4 as a whole. Allow me to say up front that I have had many positive interactions with Beth Shepperd, Dorland Norris, Sandra Duckworth, Dave Tomlinson, Greg Novak and Tom Lockman. It is my observation that these individuals, who form my perspective and interface of Unit 4 as a body, work exceptionally hard, often above and beyond their written job descriptions, and for the most part, have a pure intent to see our students achieve excellence. I have never felt like I was being lied to, deceived, pushed away or swept under the rug by these folks; rather, I perceive a sincere, honest attempt at open communication. No matter how many times I bug Beth Shepperd or Sandra Duckworth (and it was a bit, my apologies), they always say "thank you for being interested in Unit 4".
What I do want to explore is how there appears to be a great disconnect between Unit 4, specifically as a unit, and the community it is supposed to serve, the taxpayers. In fact, let me state my "big picture" right here, and I'll fill in the details for those that want to read more:
We live in a community that has given birth to and is a petri dish of awesome intellect, generations of devoted citizens full of charisma, talent, and are hard working. How the heck did we end up in a situation where there is much infighting, particularly along lines of privilege and class? Why are private schools so popular? Why do folks move out of town for the sole reason of the schools?
I am not going to answer these questions. I could not even hope to begin answering them. And I do not particularly care about all the vitriol that is often associated with these queries. What I really want to do is erase urban legends, demystify things like "Controlled Choice", point out the exemplary work of our teachers, and lastly, Hey Champaign, let's get our act together. How we handle the education and the nurturing of our children is going to determine what our future is like.
Myth: "White Flight"
Fact*: From the comprehensive 2008 Demographic Study, we see that the White population of Unit 4 has decreased by 10.37% between 2004 and 2008, while Black, Hispanic an Asian have each gone up for the same time period (page 8). We do not know "why" (we can guess). We do not know how many Blacks, Latinos or Asians left Unit 4 for other alternatives. LocalSchoolDirectory.com tells me that there is a huge difference in the racial makeup between the public schools and the private schools (46% white in public, 88% white in private). The same site has an even starker picture for Mahomet schools; 97% white in public, 100% white in private. Is this "White Flight". Maybe. My point is that folks toss this term around and rarely have the numbers to back it up.
Myth: The elementary schools in the southern, more affluent parts of Champaign are better.
Fact*: "Better" is entirely subjective. So let us again look at numbers. The Interactive Illinois Report Card (IIRC - currently down at the time of this writing) gives a listing of schools in rank order by the results of standardized tests, and assigns a label of "Academic Yearly Progress" (aka, AYP). Typically, schools like Barkstall, Bottenfield and Robeson are the top 3. Coincidentally, these schools are the most frequently "overchosen", making it harder for students to get in. I put the Kindergarten lottery information in a database and answer some of those questions: http://66.197.160.69/~sacrophy/lottery/ . So here is my challenge before you swallow this "better" argument - talk to parents of students from a variety of schools. It is my experience and observation that each elementary school is awesome in its own right, staffed by ingenious, loving and intelligent teachers. It is my personal opinion that standardized test scores are wreaking havoc in our school systems. Another topic for another article.
[*"Fact" assumes that what I am finding on the referenced websites is accurate. That may be a huge assumption.]
From the handful of folks I have talked to about Unit 4, I get the impression that most consider the elementary schools to be doing great, but these parents start to question middle school, and definitely question the high schools. Why is that? The Education Equity Excellence Committee has been tracking issues at the higher grade levels, including discipline, expulsion and AYP, and I am led to believe they are taking steps to address the issues. But what exactly? How is it measurable? This is somewhat addressed in the Great Schools, Together - Strategic Long Term Plan, but I am having a hard time finding how we track that, the necessary accountability that we as a responsible community need to hold our School District to.
Which brings me to issues of communication. This is something I will address more fully in my next article. Unit 4 has had a problem communicating what they know to the public. The meeting minutes and agendas are usually tucked away on the website, which is itself not exactly user-friendly. The Key Communicators Network was a great inception, but I have not found it used nearly to its maximum potential. I find that the public news media outlets only marginally scratch the surface and there is not as much investigative reporting as I would like.
Other references:
Charles Schultz has been in the Champaign Educational community since 1992, first as a college student, then as an employee and finally as a parent. He has honed his skills as a database administrator, but his passion has turned to the inequities in our current social architecture, and one facet of that is in the racial issues exhibited in the Champaign School District and brought to the forefront of attention by John Lee Johnson via the now expired Consent Decree.
My first inclination is that I have been paying taxes into the system since 1992, so I have a vested interest (albeit, somewhat small) to make sure the system is working. More over, it has dawned on me that when a community focuses the right kind of nurturing attention upon the underprivileged, the entire community gains. I am but one person, and I will do what I can to see this come to fruition. I do this first by asking a ton of questions and learning, gathering facts, perspectives and opinions. Next I get involved. I see myself still on the first leg, but putting a foot down, slowly, on the other.