View Full Version : US Grant HS - closing or reforming?



MsDarkstar
03-22-2010, 09:24 AM
Considering the number of USG alum on the board, I thought I'd pass on this article I just read on newsok.com about Grant & what they're up against. Looks like some major changes are in store.

U.S. Grant High School faces transformation
Reform plans discussed tonight will include firing principal, most of staff
BY MEGAN ROLLAND
Published: March 22, 2010

The Oklahoma City School Board will consider reform options for one of the district’s most struggling schools tonight, and teachers at U.S. Grant High School said they are preparing for the worst.

"We’ve heard numbers from half of the staff on up to 60 percent of the staff will be removed,” said Cliff Ogle, a science teacher at U.S. Grant who is also president of the Oklahoma American Federation of Teachers. "Needless to say most of the staff is feeling very insecure.”

U.S. Grant has failed to make Annual Yearly Progress — a federally mandated benchmark — for four years in a row, requiring the district to create a restructuring plan that will be implemented next year.

F.D. Moon Academy, an elementary school in northeast Oklahoma City, also is on the list of schools to be restructured next year.

The district has five options to restructure the school. But only four options would make the school eligible for up to $2 million in federal school improvement grants. They are:

→Turnaround model: Replace the principal and rehire no more than 50 percent of the staff.

→Restart model: Close and reopen as a charter school or under independent management.

→Closure model: Close the school and enroll students in a higher achieving school.

→Transformation model: Replace the principal, institute comprehensive instructional reforms, implement longer school days, increase community participation and provide the principal with flexibility and support in curriculum and staffing.


Reform promoted
Oklahoma City School District Superintendent Karl Springer said he hopes to make a recommendation to the board for one of those models, unless the state’s application for the school improvement grants is not approved.
"We’ve gone in there and we’ve talked to those teachers (at U.S. Grant), telling them what we want to do, but it will be up to the school board to decide,” Springer said, adding he is leaning toward the turnaround model.

"I’m sympathetic to our teachers and our staff out at U.S. Grant, but we will do everything we can to focus on what is best for kids with this recommendation,” he said.

Ed Allen, president of the American Federation of Teachers for Oklahoma City, said he’s ready to see reform at U.S. Grant.

"It’s time to quit working around the edges,” Allen said. "No one wants to hear from the education establishment that the kids won’t learn, not enough parents are involved, or I don’t make enough money. What they want to see are results and it’s time for us to quit arguing about those other things. ... The union is all in on reform.”


Changing population
U.S. Grant faces a growing poverty rate and a growing student population that increasingly speaks English as a second language.
The school has struggled academically for years.

In 2007, the year the school moved to a new $32 million building, only 34 percent scored satisfactory or advanced on the state’s reading Core Curriculum Test. In the 2008 school year, scores rose considerably in almost all areas, with 42 percent of students scoring proficient and above.

The only reason that the school didn’t achieve Annual Yearly Progress status in the 2008-09 school year was that not enough students were tested. However, the school also struggles with a low graduation rate: In 2009, 50 percent of students graduated in four years; in 2008, 48 percent graduated.

Ogle, who has taught at U.S. Grant since 1986, said reform is long overdue at the school.

"We were virtually ignored by Oklahoma City Public Schools for three years,” said Ogle, who is retiring at the end of this year. "Our test scores were down and all we heard from administration was we need to get test scores up. Just about every system or program we’ve had with children at U.S. Grant that really worked and was being successful has changed.”

Ogle said there are a few among the teachers who probably need to move on.

"A majority of the staff likes being there. They like working with the kids on the south side of Oklahoma City and they enjoy the challenges,” Ogle said. "The teachers are being punished and picked out as the ones that are at fault.”



Read more: NewsOK (http://newsok.com/u.s.-grant-high-school-faces-transformation/article/3448245?custom_click=lead_story_title#ixzz0iv2XfS1 z)

FRISKY
03-22-2010, 10:59 AM
That is really sad, but just another sign of the current times.