Red hot
In a column in today's Record, Lawrence Aaron considers the dismay many feel at the fact that many well-funded area schools with large minority enrollments fail to meet performance standards, including Teaneck's own Benjamin Franklin Middle School. Aaron proposes a number of measures that might be taken to alleviate the problems that plague such schools, but the most notable item in his piece is the revelation that Teaneck's own Dr. Ardie Walser, a trustee of the Teaneck Board of Education, may be double-dipping! Yes, Aaron casually drops this bombshell near the end of the column:
Ardie Walser, a CUNY engineering dean elected to the Englewood School Board in 2005, took his own parental involvement to new heights. For a few hours every Saturday, the tutoring program in math and English he created with like-minded parents is like a beehive. More registrations are expected tomorrow.Is this the Teaneck Board of Ed's idea of shared services?
The good DoctorRecord correction to follow
posted by Teaneck Blog @ 10:50 AM
6 Comments:
Is there some intended satire here that escaped me, or are you actually equating a "tutoring program" with paid instructors? As far as I know, this is entirely run by volunteers, including Mr. Walser -- who, like all Board of Education trustees, also receives no salary or benefits in that capacity.
Maybe that's it: He's "double dipping" in two volunteer no-pay endeavors.
It just got it: "...elected to the Englewood School Board in 2005."
I realized all along that was a mistake (as was the year of his election, which was 2004). It just didn't occur to me right away that the Teaneck Blog guy would waste a whole post on it.
TB needs a lesson in how to write satire, I'm afraid. You lost me...
Teaneck Blog said...
".... area schools with large minority enrollments fail to meet performance standards, including Teaneck's own Benjamin Franklin Middle School." presumably based on the cited article's,
Hackensack Middle School, Teaneck's Benjamin Franklin, and Englewood's J.E. Dismus -- all schools with substantial African-American student bodies -- also failed to measure up to standards of No Child Left Behind."
However if one checks page 249 of the Final Adequate Yearly Progress Status Under No Child Left Behind Accountability Requirements: 2005 for Bergen County Benjamin Franklin met the AYP standards. The school had not passed the AYP criteria in 2004, but only in one category. "Economically Disadvantaged" students failed to meet AYP in math. Other Teaneck schools including the High School did fail to meet the AYP but no school failed in the African-American or Hispanic categories. Failures were always either for "Economically Disadvantaged" or "Students with Disabilities".
This is not meant to dispute the article's view that schools in Bergen County, Teaneck and elsewhere have yet to find solutions to providing educational methods that will work for all students. I agree with Lesson No. 2 from the article. "Reinforcing children's learning experience calls for direct parental involvement, such as working with them on reading, math and school projects." This can be difficult for households where both parents work. More so for those labeled as "Economically Disadvantaged", whose parents often work longer hours to make up for low pay. They have less time to stay involved with their children's education.
A program like BofE member Ardie Walser's are important but are not enough. Hopefully the Teaneck Public Schools ACT Initiative will provide more solutions.
DUH...of course nothing that the BOE does is enough..not if the PARENTS do not support their children in the learning process..that is WHY we have such issues in our public schools!
The schools can bend over backwards but if there is no support on the home front it is a waste of time and money, just my two cents!!!
As a supporter of the Teaneck schools, I couldn't agree more!
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