THE REALITY OF BAY DISTRICT SCHOOLS. NEARLY FIFTY PERCENT OF BAY DISTRICT SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE NOT PROFICIENT AT READING.

THE REALITY OF BAY DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 

IS THERE HOPE?

I CALL FOR REVOLUTIONARY THINKING

It started when Florida (Panama City) was a leader of OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION. It failed and produced a generation of disabled children who became parents. The next Panacea came with COMMON CORE. And now the education system blames the parents disabled by the earlier failure for the current failure. And still the education establishment refuses to acknowledge the failure is in the curriculum and continue to blame the parents and children.

Why is reading made so difficult? Look at Susannah Wesley's one day method! She was the mother of 19 children.

If you are ever going to make something better you have to face the facts about Bay District Schools. 

https://www.niche.com/k12/d/bay-district-schools-fl/

So when Niche says that 53% of students in Bay District Schools are Proficient Readers that means that Bay District Schools failed nearly half (or 47%) in the most basic goal of our schools.

And what does that 71% Average Graduation Rate mean? It means that 29% of 9th graders did not graduate. That means NEARLY 1 OUT OF 3 who enter the 9th grade will not graduate.

Now, you know how much attention I pay to the Reading ability of children. Because I saw so many of those children in my classrooms in Henry County, Alabama unable to read their textbooks. But it was "current wisdom," Dean Kunkel assured me when he could give me no research to support Whole Language, the current and continued travesty, and it was the same everywhere! That was twenty something years ago. Things have only gotten worse. My contempt has increased for the deceit and deception of the education establishment.

So, do you do the same thing? Keep listening to the same experts? They're older now more advanced in their careers. Retired? Do you think they would give up their first born (their ideology and publications)?

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. REFUSE TO FOLLOW THE CROWD AND FOLLOW THE RESEARCH! 

Let me refer you once again to the article I wrote on the Spalding Writing Road to Reading, a program that is exceedingly effective with all children, but particularly Minority Students, as proven by John Winston of Natchitoches, Louisiana. (Remind yourself what a racist person I have been accused of being because I support traditional education as you read this and ask yourself just which group of folks are promoters of bigotry of low expectations.)

Look at these schools, Lucille Moore Elementary, Oscar Patterson Elementary, Springfield Elementary! While all students would benefit, these at least deserve a program that has been proven to be effective for this group of children. 

Those schools have scored the lowest and have the greatest deficiency in Reading, the most basic skill for which these schools exist.  Let me point out to the Administration, Board and the Public that the students in those failing schools mirror those students with whom the Black principal and Natchitochez, Louisiana, commission member, John Winston was charged to educate. Parks Elementary, served three housing projects and was a 96% minority school. The school board was desperate to find an answer and left it up to him. He took reluctant teachers to be educated in the Spalding method, but by the time of the middle of the year they were all enthusiastic. Their students went from the bottom to the top of the District.

He brought his students from the 25th percentile in reading to the 80th percentile, learning disabilities dropped from 40 to one or two and the discipline problems nearly disappeared. Shouldn't the children in Bay District Schools be given a chance? Especially since it is so inexpensive!!! No computer needed. Indeed, computers would have impeded the learning of those children because Spalding is so interactive with teacher and student.

Look at these schools! Those children, victims of the politics of low expectations deserve better! The first one in this list is Oscar Patterson Elementary. 100% Economically Disadvantaged Students, 67.9 minority, Title I. Just exactly the school type that John Winston could have turned around with the Spalding Program. (This should line up to the right of the above chart.)

Have you got that? Half of students grades 3 through 5 passed. HALF OF THE STUDENTS PASSED? Do you know what low reading scores in the third grade mean for those children? Have you any idea what a successful program could mean? 

It is not like you are taking a chance on lowering their opportunity here. You would be giving them at least a shot because what is happening now is TOTAL FAILURE. 

Why is there not rioting in the streets or has the POLITICS OF LOW EXPECTATIONS of disenfranchised minority and disadvantaged children made them throwaway children for whom they collect Title 1 money and then dismiss them? Common Core has failed our children. WHOLE LANGUAGE and PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION has failed our children.

With in depth analysis like this, the Education Reporter is well on her way to becoming Communications Director of Bay District Schools some day. Just as so many before her.

Once again the Newspaper spun the issue "More than half" passed the English Language Arts and Math Exams and they are "proud"?!!!!!!!

University Academy is using something called First In Math. 

First in Math expresses disdain for using paper tests to promote basic number skills, replacing those basics with this computer program. Of course, that increases the cost of education with a program that will have to be updated at another cost, along with maintenance, while learning to use paper and pencil computation might actually be a more important skill in the long run. But, hey, these folks have been convinced by Bill Gates and his cohorts that they are getting a Rolls Royce, while I think it is another EDSEL.

But, I also noticed that First In Math acknowledges the need for SEQUENTIAL learning! "FIM employs a sequential approach to learning...."

That is very different from what our school board bylaws have been changed to since Goals 2000. The bylaws originally read that SEQUENTIAL instruction would be used. But, with the power of the Progressive Lobby that was changed to thematic instruction to bring about co-operative learning for their Radical Agenda. Read other posts on this blog to understand what I am talking about.  

I also want to bring to the attention of the public that Bay District Schools continues to use their students for their social justice agenda giving these children the charge to change society by their service learning projects. These children need the opportunity TO BE CHILDREN! They do not need to be distracted from their academic challenges. It is not their job to change the world. They do not need to know about all the sad corners of our world. Let school be a safe place for their hearts and minds in addition to their physical security! Apparently becoming community activists is more important than becoming educated citizens. 

They do not need to be humiliated by being the kid that has to be in study hall because they didn't have a can of food to bring while others prance around in their pajamas at the pizza party because they were able to do so. They demean the value of class time and the dignity of the profession with such behavior. Dress for success folks.

I cringe thinking of those administrators/teachers that go to accept the honors (humbly in behalf of, I can just hear them say) gained by manipulating the little social justice soldiers into going door to door selling stuff. 

Quit producing the need for those special programs! Quit making potential homeless people by not teaching them to READ and CALCULATE!

Schools, perform your mission. Educate our children! 

There are methods that work! TRANSFORM THOSE SCHOOLS WITH SUCCESS!

I have NO FINANCIAL INTEREST IN THIS. I JUST WANT TO SEE THOSE CHILDREN BE SUCCESSFUL!

If you see this in your classroom grab your child's hand and run. Demand a Phonics based curriculum FIRST. Don't take a chance and let bad habits develop.

RUN AWAY FROM THIS!

Dr. Sylvia Farnham Diggory reports that children who learn to read phonetically also do better in Math. Their first abstract thought is relating the letter to the sound. However, if the Whole Language Method is used, sight words doled out, and guessing is conveyed as a strategy, that undermines later conceptualization and abstract thought. So, the choice of curriculum is critical for a parent. That first choice may determine a child's future.

If a child is NOT A FLUENT READER BY THE THIRD GRADE that can be predictive of his future success. 

Reading proficiency by the end of the third grade--a major predictor of future educational outcomes-- is one of the most important benchmarks in a child's academic journey. 

And then let them read...not the morally depraved, intellectually bankrupt COMMON CORE pap, but the books on Marva Collins books list. And by the way, she taught her students with Professor Phonics Gives Sound Advice and Open Court Readers she salvaged from the garbage can when she was run out of the public schools because she actually taught the children in her class correct spelling (not inventive), correct grammar (not transformational) and the other teachers were jealous. 

We have a tendency in education to adhere to the modern premise that unless something is "relevant" to a child they cannot learn it.  Thus we forget the Bible injunction, "That which is good, that which is pure, that which is of good report...think on these things."   Many of the books below presented the "thoughts" that brought about our country's Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  Perhaps if we elevate our thoughts, we could elevate our country.  Perhaps "honor" might once again have meaning.

The books listed immediately below are those which constitute the reading list for Marva Collins Westside Preparatory School.  She took those children labeled "disadvantaged," "learning disabled," "ADHD," "not auditory," etc. and actually taught them.

Her theory is that our children are not "learning disabled," we are "teaching disabled."  

To watch her in action is indeed watching a Master Teacher at work.

Reading List for Marva Collins Westside Preparatory School

Author's last	Author's	Title	Publisher
Adams	Russell L	Great Negroes, Past & Present	Golden Press
Adler	Irving	Mathematics	Golden Press
Aldington	Richard	The Portable Oscar Wilde	Viking Press
Alexander	Lloyd	The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian	Dutton
Alighieri	Dante	Divine Comedy
Aristophanes		The Plays of Aristophanes
Armstrong	Sperry	Call of Courage
Asimov	Isaac	Inside the Atom	Harper and Row
Aurelius	Marcus	Meditations
Austen	Jane	Pride and Prejudice
Bach	Richard	Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Bamberger	Richard	Physics Through Experiment	Sterling
Barr	George	Research Ideas for Young Scientists
Bendick	Jeanne	The First Book of Time	Franklin Watts
Blackwood	Paul	Push and Pull:  The Story of Energy	McGraw-Hill
Bleeker	Sonia	The Masai:  Herdes of East Africa	William Morrow
Bond	Michael	A Bear Called Paddington	Houghton Mifflin
Bontemps	Arna	Frederick Doublass: Slave-Fighter-Freeman	Alfred A. Knopf
Bowie	Walker	Bible Stories for Boys & Girls
Brent	Robert	The Golden Book of chemistry Experiments	Western Publishers
Bradwood	Robert J.	Archaeologists and What They Do	Franklin Watts
Bronouski	Jacob and Selsam	Biography of an Atom	Harper and Row
Bronte	Emily	Wuthering Heights
Buehr	Walter	The First Book of Machines	Franklin Watts
Bullfinch	Thomas	Book of Myths
Bunyon	John	Pilgrim's Progress
Carson	Rachel	The Sea Around Us	Golden Press
Chaucer	Geoffrey	The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov	Anton
Clarke	Arthur	The Challenge of the Sea	Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Cleary	Beverly	The Mouse and The Motorcycle	William Morrow
Cleator	P.E.	Exploring the World of Archaeology	Children's Press
Clymer	Eleanor	The Second Greatest Invention:  The Search for the First Farmers	Holt, Rinehart & Winston
Colum	Padraic	The Children of Odin
Cottrell	Leonard	Land of the Pharaohs	World Publishers
Cousteau	Jacques & Dumas, Frederic	The Silent World	Harper and Row
De Fontaine	Jeanne	Fables of LaFontaine
Dickens	Charles	Great Expectations
		David Copperfield
		The Old Curiosity Shop
		Bleak House
Dickinson	Alice	The First Book of Plants	Franklin Watts
Dostoyevsky	Fyodor	The Brothers Karamasov
		Crime and Punishment
Drisko	Clark	Unfinished March
Dunbar	Paul L.	Poetry of Paul L. Dunbar
Eaton	Jeanette	Marcus-Narciss Thitman	Harcourt Brace Jovonovich
Edel	Abraham	Aristotle
Emerson	Ralph Waldo	The Portable Emerson
Epstein	Sam and Beryl	Harriet Tubman, Guide to Freedom	Garrard
Faulkner	William	Light in August
Felton	Harold W	Nat Love, Negro Cowboy	Dodd,Mead
Fielding	Richard	Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Fleming	Ian	Chitty,Chitty Bang Bang.  The Magical Car	Random House
Foster	G. Allen	Communication	Celebration Books
Foster	Genevieve	Augustus Caesar's World 44 B.C. to A.D. 14	Charles Scribner and Sons
Franklin	Benjamin	The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Freeman	Ira and Mae	The Story of Chemistry	Random House
Gallant	Roy	Exploring the Universe	Doubleday
Golding	William	Lord of the Flies
Goldsmith,	Ilse	Anatomy for Children	Stirling
Gregor	Arthur	The Adventures of Man:  His Evolution from Pre-history to Civilization	McMillan
Gunther	John	Death Be Not Proud
Harte	Bret	The Luck of the roaring Camp
Harrison	George Russel	The First Book of Light	Franklin Watts
Haviland	Virginia	Favorite Fairy Tales told in Czehoslovakia	Little, Brown
Henry	O	The Gift of the Magi
Hardy	Thomas	The Return of the Native
Hogben	Lancelot	The Wonderful Book of Energy
Homer		The Odyssey (do background on Homer first, explain term odyssey, which now means long voyage)
Hugo	Victor	Les Miserables
Huxley	Aldous	Brave New World
Heyerdahl	Thor	Kon-tiki	Books, Inc
Irving	Washington	Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Jacobs	Joseph	The Fables of Aesop	MacMillan
Jones	Vernon	The Most Delectable History of Reynard the Fox
Judson	Clarra Ingram	Andrew Carnegie
Justier	Norton	The Phantom Tollboth	Random House
Kosinski	Jerry	The Painted Bird
Knight	David C.	The first Book of Air	Franklin Watts
Knight	Eric	Lassie, Come Home
Kohn	Bernice	The Peaceful Atom	Prentice Hall
Kredel	Fritz (illustrator)Aesop's Fables	Aesop's Fables	Crosset and Dunlap
Krylov	Ivan	Fifteen Fables of Krylov	MacMillan
Lamb	Charles	Tales from Shakespeare
Lee	Harper	To Kill a Mockingbird
Leonard	William E.	Aesop's Fables
Lindgren	Astrid	Pippi Longstocking; Pippi Goes on Board	Viking Press
London	Jack	White Fang and Other Stories
Lowie	Robert H	Indians of the Plains	Natural History Press
Malcolmson	Anne	Selections from the Tales of Chaucer
Mandell	Muriel	Physics Experiments for Children	Dover
Marlowe	Christopher	Dr. Faustus
Morgan	Alfred	First Chemistry Book for Boys & Girls	Charles Scribner and Sons
Mead	Margaret	Andthropologists and What They Do	Franklin Watts
McCloskey	Robert H	Why They Wrote: The Canterbury Tales
Mullin	Virginia L.	Chemistry Experiments for Children	Dover
McKendry	John J.	Aesop, Five Centuries of Illustrated Fables	Metropolitan Museum of Art
McLeod	Mary	King Arthur & His Knights
Murasaki,	Lady	The Tales of Genji
North	Sterling	The Wolfing
Orwell	George	Animal Farm, 1984
Olbracht	Ivan	Indian Fables	Paul Hamlyn
Poetry
Untermeyer	Louis	Story Poems: The Golden Treasury of Poetry
Poe	Edgar Allen	Edgar Allan Poe's Selected Stories & Poems
Shakespeare	William	Poems of William Shakespeare
Hughes	Langston	Selected Poems
Dickinson	Emily	Poems of Emily Dickinson
Dunbar	Paul	Poems for Young People
Epics
Sandars	N.K. (ed.)	The Epic of Gilgamesh
		Mideaval Epics
Baldwin	James (ed)	The Story of Roland
Biography
Carpenter	Francis	Pocahontas and Her World
Bontemps	Arna	The Story of George Washington Carver
Bontemps	Arna	Frederrick Douglas, Slave-Fighter-Freeman
Flenton	Harold W.	Nat Love: Negro Cowboy
Fenderson	Lewis H.	Thurgood Marshall, Fighter for Justice
Judson	Clara Ingram	City Neighbor:  The Story of Jane Addams
Seibert	Jerry	Amelia Earhart
Keller	Helen	The Story of My Life
Eaton	Jeannette	Gandhi, Fighter Without a Sword
Hahn	Emily	Mary, Queen of Scots
Baker	Nina Brown	Peter the Great
Lathan	Jean Lee	Drake, the Man They Called a Pirate
Buehr	Walter	The World of Marco Polo
Aristophanes		The Plays of Aristophanes
Plutarch		Plutarch's Lives

Marva Collins and John Winston are my heroes. 


Compare the websites of these schools. The three lowest scoring schools compared to the highest scoring school?

Does it tell you anything about pride of the administrators in that school? Perhaps the Marketing class at Bay High that did such a good job with the Hallelujah Chorus could help these folks out a bit.


Lucille Moore Elementary

Springfield Elementary

Oscar Patterson Elementary

University Academy

Should the Board decide to give the schools (meaning all teachers and administrators at that school, and parents who want to take the training) and Spalding a chance to turn things around, I would be willing to participate in learning the method and tutoring children as well. We would organize parents and volunteers to participate, because I will guarantee you, once the results begin to be seen others will want to come into the school. They will have to be tutored in the method. 

As I told my students' parents, take your child to a specialist OUTSIDE the system. Because tutoring within the system is only more of what failed in the first place. So many of my students parents had taken their children to be tutored by Dr. Fritchie at Troy (expensive) -- the teacher that taught the teachers that failed the children. Of course, to no avail. Wasted money. So sad!

That is why we need to get this program started here in Panama City and if I have any of my Dothan friends reading this, in Dothan as well!

Sadly, I look at the population of the school board (good and honorable people all) and I see years and years of professional service in the system. I see years and years of circle the wagon, acquiescence to whatever the newest "current fad". Acquiescence to the ideology dictated by the colleges of education where they acquired their latest degree. Acquiescence to COMMON CORE, the most diabolical example of academic bankruptcy and moral depravity that ever pretended to be education. 


But what have those years of experience brought them? This fact ought to tell you. Only 50% of Bay District School Children able to read. Isn't that THE MOST IMPORTANT PURPOSE OF OUR SCHOOLS? Why do they think service projects more important than class time? Why ARE there no more subjects--disciplines to be mastered--History, English, Civics, Political Science, Mathematics that make sense, Science that is not orthodoxy to the current world view?


No one will read this blog, so my reflections really do not matter. But, I do wonder how did we get to this point. And I wonder, why I seem to be the only one (around here) challenging the status quo. Robert Sweet and the Reading Reform Foundation are fantastic national advocates of a return to the basics in teaching children.


I can predict the administration and establishment education's answer for those failing schools. More money. More computers. And I will guarantee you that those children will fall further and further behind. They cannot let a true back to basics curriculum outshine that which they have spent so much time chasing dollars and writing grants for and now they must justify their existence. As that administrator told me years ago, when i asked if he would allow his school to pilot the Spalding Writing Road to Reading, "We're already invested too much on what we've got."

The computer assisted (CAI) pretender. The one producing failure. 

I threw up my hands in retreat. 

So now, here in Panama City, the children of the parents the schools have already failed are now being blamed for the failure of the schools to teach their children. The cycle continues. 

Parental involvement? Really? Which came first?