The Observation Deck

Jim,

On May 1, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit granted an en banc hearing in the case of School Dist. of the City of Pontiac v. Secretary of U.S. Dept. of Educ. “The effect of the granting of a hearing en banc shall be to vacate the previous opinion and judgment of this court, to stay the mandate and to restore the case on the docket sheet as a pending appeal.â€￾ 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 12121, *1.

As a result of the upcoming en banc hearing, the issue of whether a school district needs to comply with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act’s requirements where federal funds do not cover the increased costs of compliance has yet to be decided by the Sixth Circuit. I do not believe that the hearing has been set yet.

Matt

The LCS district report card can be viewed by clicking here.

Each LCS school building report card can be viewed by clicking here.

I was wondering if there is a online link to get a hold of the standards in each grade?

Thanks,
Toni

Toni, I searched through the ODE sight (as I am sure you did) and could find nothing. The schools did hand out those booklets for each grade during open house if you need one for a specific grade I am sure you can get one from the school office. Although I agree it would be nice to have them online. And it would be nice for the ODE sight to be a little more user friendly.

Yes you can see them online. Under the ODE website "Academic Standards" is a link on the left and lists them for all grades.

Thanks Justine. I probably looked right at that and missed it.

It can be easy to miss and is not the most user friendly site.

As a parent thinking a couple years ahead and looking for information on schools, this report seems a tool of tremendous value. I have to admit that I'm a bit puzzled though. As the discussion of schools has come up in the past, the argument has been that Lakewood should be my choice over other west side communities. The report cards that I was comparing recently were Lakewood and Rocky River.
Since this is a site to promote Lakewood, this seems an appropriate place to discuss what the finer points in such a comparison. I'm listening. Convince me that 24 out of 30 is better than 30 out of 30 and that "effective" is better than "excellent with distinction". What qualitative aspect has been left out of this comparison. If anyone would also care to hazard an explanation of why/how the fifth graders and 8th graders did worse than their counterparts, I'd be interested to hear that as well.

The other direction that plays into this of course is cost. Before introducing the price tag of the two districts though, I'd like to understand why I should be convinced that the local product is better.

As an alum whose family has "gone back to the well" 3 times, I will always argue no other community can match what I perceive as one of Lakewood City Schools' greatest strengths: offering a rich, heterogeneous learning environment, based on academic growth alongside those with vast differences in economic, religious, and now, more than ever, racial backgrounds. Poor kids, rich kids, smart kids, dumb kids. Lakewood has them all. I would even argue, that so far as "America is a melting pot" might be out of vogue, right now, Lakewood's schools are so full of diversity, state testing penalizes us for it. Lakewood will be better in spite of it. I have 2 toddlers myself, and look forward to them having the same type of educational growth and development both my wife and myself have had within the Lakewood system.

What do you define as "cost"? Paying more for a smaller home (on average) for the sake of educational homogeneity? Some would argue this as a cost-benefit. OK, let's say it is a benefit. Whom does it benefit: the kids, bussed to a tidy little neighborhood school, where almost everyone is exposed to a "white"-collared worldview for 13 years and then outraged 15-20 years later, when that same opportunity in the same community cannot be afforded their own children? (I've got LHS classmates who believe this to be true about Lakewood), or the parents, who might feel that, if they chose a community with "perfect" credentials, they've done the "best" for their children. Schools, and their surrounding community are what we make of them, no matter how some state hacks quantify them, or how the local rag may deride them.

Shawn I have 5 children in this district and my children have always done fabulous. It should be noted that I have two children in the gifted program, two children with disabilities and one children in the regular classroom. I know that my school received and effective but to me my children are getting and excellent program. Of my three children that have taken the standardized all of them have scored above the state averages, and by looking at the scores that have come home my children's school has scored above average. As for our school the area that we did not pass was the economically disadvantaged 5th graders in reading. So our school did good everywhere but there. All I can say about the report cards is that they are a small part of the story. I know that in Lakewood my children are taught art, music and have gym. Many districts are cutting those programs and I believe each of those are essential to our children. Another thing that is important to me is that my children are exposed to many cultures and are able to be able to make friends without caring about their race or religion. That is one of the reasons we live in Lakewood and one of the things I love about the schools. Another thing that I love about our schools is the community feel of them. I feel welcomed at my children's school and I know most of the staff members by name. I feel very comfortable asking them about my children and their educations. The things that I love about this district can't be shown on a report card. A report card won't tell you that kids love going to school a report card won't tell you that they are learning art and music, a report card won't say that they feel safe. A report card will only say how each subset did on a test and children are more complex than that. They all learn things at different times, they all have their struggles. I will tell you that this year our school had to offer school choice because it must offer it two years in a row regardless of how we did last year. And even with being offered school choice not one family that had children in the school the year before decided to pull their children out. That tells me that parents love the school and wouldn't want their kids anywhere else. I know that my family will never put our children anywhere else. I know my children are getting the best education that they could possible get and I don't need a state report card to tell me that. One last thing is that my husband with his jobs has many customers in the outer ring suburbs and many of them used to live in Lakewood and many of them say that they miss the schools. We left this city twice and came back both times and for us the main reason we came back was for the schools. So I would encourage anyone that is worried about the report cards to talk to parents, talk to the kids, this is a great district and most parents don't have too many complaints about the education their kids are getting.

Sorry this is so long, I could go on and on and on. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask away.

I think one thing the NCLB scheme doesn't handle well is comparison of student bodies. A community that has a lot of new immigrants, such as Lakewood, has to do a lot more work to achieve comparability with a community that does not have many immigrants (dare I say Rocky River?) When you have children who are just learning English, and who may not get a lot of reinforcement in this area at home, it is harder to teach all subjects, and an individual student is not going to catch up in a week or two; it will probably take years.

Don't construe this as me being anti-immigrant. We are all descended from immigrants, and it is the immigrants who built this country. I think a measure of how well our country is doing is how many immigrants we are attracting; when the flow of immigrants drops off, either we are doing poorly, or other countries are doing better.

I think that the most important factor in student performance is the parents. I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood, and the parents, even if not themselves literate, recognized the value of education, and were very demanding, even physical, regarding their kids' schooling. If you cut class, you worried a little about what the teacher would do, but you really worried about what your parents would do.

I don't think the government will ever have the guts to identify poor parenting as a factor in school performance. It is not politically correct to identify people, much less groups and communities, as being a contributing factor to academic failure; its easier to just throw money at the problem, but no amount of money will solve the problem of a child being in school erratically, for five or six hours, only to be released into an environment that doesn't value academic achievement for the remaining 19 or 20 hours of the academic day.

Indeed, I would go so far as to say parental involvement is more important than the quality of the schools. A student can do poorly in even the best school if the application is not there, and that is often provided by the parents. In like vein, a student can do well in a poor school if the application is there. The apparent success of home schooled kids, with no school involved, and taught only by an involved parent (often themselves without an extended education) would seem to prove this.

In evaluating school systems, I would also consider the curriculum. I'm no longer involved the the Lakewood schools, but when my wife and I attended, and when our children attended, there was a far greater offering of classes in Lakewood than in the smaller Rocky River system. I could have taken any number of foreign languages, including Latin. My children had a similar wide menu, including, if I recall correctly, some eastern languages. Smaller systems couldn't compare. And we had opportunities for more depth; my son was able to start college with advanced math; a graduate of Bay known to me had to start college with remedial math.

I am often critical of the public schools, and I think they are still grossly inefficient, but from my experience, Lakewood is one of the best public school systems around.

William Fraunfelder III wrote:As an alum whose family has "gone back to the well" 3 times, I will always argue no other community can match what I perceive as one of Lakewood City Schools' greatest strengths: offering a rich, heterogeneous learning environment, based on academic growth alongside those with vast differences in economic, religious, and now, more than ever, racial backgrounds. Poor kids, rich kids, smart kids, dumb kids. Lakewood has them all. I would even argue, that so far as "America is a melting pot" might be out of vogue, right now, Lakewood's schools are so full of diversity, state testing penalizes us for it. Lakewood will be better in spite of it. I have 2 toddlers myself, and look forward to them having the same type of educational growth and development both my wife and myself have had within the Lakewood system.

What do you define as "cost"? Paying more for a smaller home (on average) for the sake of educational homogeneity? Some would argue this as a cost-benefit. OK, let's say it is a benefit. Whom does it benefit: the kids, bussed to a tidy little neighborhood school, where almost everyone is exposed to a "white"-collared worldview for 13 years and then outraged 15-20 years later, when that same opportunity in the same community cannot be afforded their own children? (I've got LHS classmates who believe this to be true about Lakewood), or the parents, who might feel that, if they chose a community with "perfect" credentials, they've done the "best" for their children. Schools, and their surrounding community are what we make of them, no matter how some state hacks quantify them, or how the local rag may deride them.

Wow. Very well written post. I hope it wasn't lost on the poster though. Shawn, there has been so much discussion on the deck and in the papers about the "report card" and about NCLB that I find it difficult not to view your post as more of a rhetorical question, and with sarcasm about Lakewood and its report card. You could easily read in the news about why the "value added" is there for Lakewood and as an intelligent person easily figure out that great teaching plus a high number of low income plus a high number of non-English speaking students equals a lower number on the "report card". This doesn't make the teaching anything less than what it is, which is excellent here. I am not trying to convince you though, whether to move to RR or stay in Lakewood. And frankly, I don't think you want to be convinced based on your posts about Lakewood "report cards" when the truth about the misleading bias has been written about for months. It seems like you are doing more pre-justifying about moving. If it is truly facts about Lakewood report cards and teaching you want, and why the value added was there, I suggest reading the research.

Justine Cooper wrote:You could easily read in the news about why the "value added" is there for Lakewood and as an intelligent person easily figure out that great teaching plus a high number of low income plus a high number of non-English speaking students equals a lower number on the "report card". This doesn't make the teaching anything less than what it is, which is excellent here. I am not trying to convince you though, whether to move to RR or stay in Lakewood.

Justine

You left out the special needs children Lakewood takes in from Rocky River, Westlake, Fairview, and Bay that also brings our grades down, while allowing those cities to skate through with higher marks.

It is another farce brought to you by GWB.


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Jim,
No I didn't forget to mention that, it is just that is has all been mentioned several times here, which leads me to question what the post was really about. If this were from someone considering moving to Lakewood who truly didn't understand how the testing worked or how the teachers were, it would be worth going over again. But this post was from one who has questioned it all before, read all the responses before, and yet still asks the same question in way that seems to put down Lakewood schools. My kids have had nothing but excellent teachers at Hayes, Emerson, Roosevelt, and Taft. Mo oldest has always tested in advanced (not gifted) after having grown up in Lakewood schools. The new schools are beautiful and worthy of envy from other districts. I probably won't retire or die in Lakewood as we hope to move near VA or NC one day near my parents, but I wouldn't trade the schools here for any suburb I have seen.

Justine Cooper wrote:Jim,
No I didn't forget to mention that, it is just that is has all been mentioned several times here

You know me and reading.

This is why I was asking Mr. Markling about pulling out of NCLB. Allow our schools the chance to teach what is needed, not ordered, while allowing us to continue the good deeds of helping special needs children without punishment from the state and federal level.

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