More control on lower performing schools

Under the somewhat misleading headline, "MPS to take back control of teaching," this morning's Journal Sentinel reports that a number of low performing schools will be required to give "60 to 90 minutes a day on reading and 30 to 45 minutes on math" under the direction of the administration. Despite the rather sweeping headline, it appears that only 19 schools are covered by this program.

The schools were chosen based both on low test scores and low growth on scores by individual students from one year to the next. Including the latter measure makes it less likely that schools were singled out just because they served academically needy students. Even if students start low, their scores should improve over time.

The article says little about how the central administration hopes to improve skills in reading and math, and that is a concern. Picking effective reading and math programs has not been an MPS strength in the past. Perhaps the best approach would be to try a variety of programs and carefully monitor which ones work with the target population. The article does note that MPS intends to intensively monitor student progress. Ideally the central administration will apply the same tests of effectiveness to its own programs as to the schools.