Ok, I’ve never done this one before, but this is from the interview on Channel 3 this morning.
Rob Starbuck: There is an ongoing debate in Madison about how to close the achievement gap in our schools. Superintendent Dan Nerad introduced a plan this week to solve the problem and joined them yesterday to talk about it, this morning they are joined by Kaleen Caire, the man behind Madison Prep. The superintendents plan includes things like extending the school day, diversity training for staff, parents getting involved, a student court. What are your impressions, I know it is still early in the whole process, he just introduced it the other night, but what do you think.
Kaleem Caire: There are several good things in there, I like the idea of a parent university, I know that our team is intrigued by the culture of and teaching component of it, expansion of the AVID program, expansion of the ACT preparation which we will be partnering with them on, but what we have really been looking for is, a plan that really addresses the systemic reform needs with the school district and the plan as it is currently written doesn’t rise to that yet.
Rob Starbuck: What are the reform needs? What are you talking about specifically?
Kaleen Caire: Madison has to adjust to the fact that it is a different school system than it was 20 years ago. Its a majority minority school system. They serve a majority of students with high needs. That is not going to change any time soon. The population is growing and those students have different requirements and needs. Sure they can learn at the same level as everyone else but we think that the district needs to look at fundamentally changing how it does business overall. A different way of teaching, a different way of leading schools, a different way of addressing the financing of their schools and we have proposed some solutions to that, that we hope we will still have an opportunity to work with them on.
Rob Starbuck (most uncomfortable looking white guy I have seen in a while): I think one of the key issues is, of the Superintendents Plan, and yours as well, is the parent involvement. That is extremely important, cuz you know what the school districts job is not to raise your kids, its the parent. A lot of families are single parents, maybe some parents have abuse problems, (makes drinking motion) maybe drugs or booze or whatever, and the kids are just kind of left hanging, but parent involvement is so important, now a days, as opposed to 20 years ago.
Kaleem Caire: The question tho is, when the greatest growing populations are African American and Latino, and 84% of your black students and 85% of Latino students are poor how are you going to ensure that those families are involved when, if you’re going to do that, here’s the thing, restructuring around busing. We bus families from the Broadway Simpson area all the way over to Crestwood Elementary. We bus students to four different elementary schools if you live on Allied Drive. And if you are poor and you are using public transportation most likely, it is very difficult to get to those schools. And most of those families who are poor, they are working, most of them, but they are working hourly wage jobs, not a lot of flexibility so if the district is really going to have an impact on parent involvement they need to look at more than just educating parents on how to be involved.
Rob Starbuck: Where does Madison Prep stand right now?
Kaleen Caire: We’re still going to move forward on it, but we look at is as on parallel tracks. We think this is a great opportunity to address the need for innovation throughout the school system, we actually think that the district has to focus on its two pressing issues. One is the achievement gap, but the second is middle class flight from the school system. It is accelerating. You can’t address one without the other, but we think that by establishing a real innovative, really trend setting school system, where we do believe we have the staff capacity to achieve that, we could really draw families back, stop the flow of families out of the city and address the achievement gap. Those are the things we are hoping, as we continue to vet this plan, that we will be able to impress the school system to consider.
Rob Starbuck: What is important is people are talking about this issue, it is not on the back burner.
I missed the closing remarks.
I don’t usually blog something like this, but its an interesting look into what Caire and Madison Prep are thinking so I included it. More to come, I’m sure.
