"Murphy was an optimist!"
School Performance: Apples to Apples April 13, 2007 1:27 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy SubjectsWould you like to know how your new school performs compares to others? Visit SchoolMatters and follow these steps:
- Enter the name of a school that interests you.
- Select the appropriate school and click "Add to favorites"
- Click "My Favorites"
- Select 5 schools to compare. Then click "Compare up to 5".
- Enjoy the results. Click everything because much data is beneath the table!
You should end up with these results but if you click on the school names and others areas of the table (not mine..your results found at SchoolMatters) you will receive a wealth of information and charts.
| School | Reading | Math | ACT Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin East | 73.9 | 61.7 | 17.4 |
| Bearden | 97.8 | 94.1 | 23.3 |
| Farragut | 97.9 | 93.5 | 23.7 |
| Powell | 90.6 | 89.4 | 21.1 |
| West | 87.5 | 82.6 | 22.1 |
| Fulton | 83.9 | 77.6 | 18.3 |
| Gibbs | 87.0 | 80.6 | 20.3 |
| Halls | 90.4 | 89.2 | 22.0 |
| Karns | 92.7 | 95.2 | 21.4 |
| South Doyle | 85.1 | 79.6 | 20.7 |
| Carter | 90.3 | 87.0 | 20.0 |
| Central | 88.6 | 86.5 | 21.6 |
| Data provided by SchoolMatters, a service of Standard and Poor’s. | |||
I have a rezoning plan! April 13, 2007 12:36 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics
My proposal would be based on distance from the school. Rezone with a 10 mile diameter (or other appropriate number). If you fall in one circle then that is the school you attend. If you fall within more than one circle you get to participate in open enrollment based on available slots in the school of choice. If you are in no circle you can participate in open enrollment county wide but with transportation provided only to the nearest circular zone.
What of socio-economic fairness? It will work out naturally. What of population densities? I don’t have data on that but dollars to donuts, it too will pan out. I am not suggesting that this be the plan. I suggest this type of basis to begin a plan would make better sense than what Mullins is proposing.
Update: Brian Hornback points out that some of the circles stretch outside of Knox County. He’s right that I never intended to imply that other counties would come into the Knox County system. I see I also completely overlooked Central.
Update: What of natural barriers like rivers? I suppose that if you had to bus through a school zone that you were not zoned for in order to circumvent that natural barrier, then you would also be considered for that other school zone (for instance, West on the South Doyle side of the river).
1 comment so farHow are people feeling about the rezoning? April 13, 2007 9:44 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy SubjectsMichael Silence has a poll online. Add your opinion! At the time of this post, 39% of responders said "accept it" while 61% opposed the plan (36% tweak it; 25% scrap it). The percentages at this time were based upon 28 votes.
2commentsDo Bearden High School and West perform the same? April 12, 2007 4:37 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Politics, Touchy SubjectsNo. So, does this mean my children’s college opportunities have been reduced? Data from SchoolMatters a service of Standard and Poor’s.
More info on Bearden and West.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Student Proficiency on State Tests – 2005 |
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|
|
97.8 | 87.5 | ||||
|
Math Proficiency (%) |
94.1 | 82.6 | ||||
|
Reading and Math Proficiency (RaMP) (%) |
96.1 | 85.2 | ||||
|
Reading Proficiency by Subgroup (%) – 2005 |
||||||
|
All Students |
97.8 | 87.5 | ||||
|
White |
98.3 | 89.2 | ||||
|
|
90.9 | 83.1 | ||||
|
|
100.0 | 90.0 | ||||
|
|
100.0 | n.a. | ||||
|
American Indian/Alaska Native |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Multi-Racial |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Female |
98.7 | 88.7 | ||||
|
|
97.1 | 86.3 | ||||
|
|
91.8 | 74.7 | ||||
|
|
98.5 | 95.9 | ||||
|
English Language Learners |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Students with Disabilities |
85.4 | 33.9 | ||||
|
|
98.9 | 95.7 | ||||
|
|
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
94.1 | 82.6 | ||||
|
|
94.4 | 85.5 | ||||
|
Black |
95.3 | 73.6 | ||||
|
Hispanic |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Asian/Pacific Islander |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
American Indian/Alaska Native |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Multi-Racial |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Female |
94.1 | 83.1 | ||||
|
Male |
94.4 | 82.2 | ||||
|
Economically Disadvantaged |
87.8 | 63.2 | ||||
|
Non-Disadvantaged |
95.1 | 92.6 | ||||
|
English Language Learners |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
Students with Disabilities |
67.4 | 27.7 | ||||
|
Non-Disabled Students |
97.3 | 95.6 | ||||
|
Migrant |
n.a. | n.a. | ||||
|
|
||||||
|
ACT – Average Score |
23.3 | 22.1 | ||||
|
ACT – Participation Rate (%) |
70.8 | 61.4 | ||||
|
Classroom Profile – 2004 |
||||||
|
Enrollment |
1,911 | 1,339 | ||||
|
School Facts |
||||||
|
Address |
8352 Kingston Parkway | 3326 Sutherland Avenue | ||||
|
City or Town |
Knoxville | Knoxville | ||||
|
|
Knox | Knox | ||||
|
|
Knox County School District | Knox County School District | ||||
|
Telephone Number |
(865)539-7800 | (865)594-4477 | ||||
|
Urban Status |
Mid-Size City | Mid-Size City | ||||
|
Grade Levels Served |
9-12 | 9-12 |
Rezoning unopposed: Why are we here? April 12, 2007 10:05 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy SubjectsAs a reminder, if you do not have children, this decision by the school board could impact your property value. If you have young children, they will be in high school sooner than you think, and this rezoning will likely be a model for the middle school and elementary rezoning which will follow soon.
On Aug 3 2006, Sam Anderson ran unopposed for the School Board 1st District, Dan Murphy ran unopposed for the School Board 4th District, Thomas A Deakins beat H Lee Martin by 372 votes for the School Board 6th District, Rex Stooksbury ran unopposed for the School Board 7th District, and Robert Bratton ran unopposed for the School Board 9th District. I am not sure about the other districts.
According to two commenters on No Silence Here, at least one school board member’s neighborhood seemed to escape rezoning. (can anyone verify this? are there others?)
Isn’t it amazing that Karen Carson’s neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods are no longer in the rezoning area????????? Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Gee, what a coincidence. [Source]
I noticed that Chairwoman Karen Carson’s neighborhood did not get rezoned to either Bearden or Hardin Valley even though the area is sandwiched between those being rezoned. Just curious if any school board members’ neighborhoods are being rezoned? [Source]
Are we, the people, being properly represented by our elected officials or have these elected officials found an easy way to serve their own best interests? Seems to me that if I had the foresight to want to greatly influence this rezoning that I should have simply run for the School Board. If the majority of the people do not want this rezoning approved and it happens anyway, then the democratic process is failing and we, the people, need to remove the elected officials from their duties and replace them with officials that will better represent the people’s wishes.
Now we beg the question, what does the majority want?
1 comment so farHow many police reports does a school file? April 12, 2007 8:29 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, HealthI saw a website once that allowed you to search out your child’s school and find out how many police reports that school filed each year. Now I can’t find it. Is anyone else familiar with such a site?
1 comment so farMore feelings on Knox County School Rezoning April 11, 2007 11:37 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy SubjectsIn the comment thread at No Silence Here, I was asked to justify one of my statements.
Doug, you say that “it makes no sense to bus us twice the distance when an equal number of students are being bused the other direction.” How do you know that the number of West-to-Bearden students is the same as the Bearden-to-West students? I didn’t know that data was available. … please don’t fabricate data to support your point. [Source]
My reply was spam filtered but should be visible now. This was my reply.
…Yesterday with the site overwhelmed, I was only able to pull up the Master Map and had to guess the number of houses in the rezone since the numbers do not seem to be released. It certainly would be nice to look at the numbers as well as the socio-economic demographics.
Counting plots on the West to Bearden map (and my eyes may be crossing at this early morning time) numbers at roughly 275 potential houses. Naturally, not all of those will have children but for the purposes of zoning it should be assumed that they all could provide children.
I won’t bother counting plots on the Bearden to West map because my neighborhood alone is 120 some odd houses.
I am not fabricating data but interpreting what has been provided. Mullins needs to provide more data and better explain the moves. Tell you what. Let’s not move those West students to Bearden…I guessed 275 houses. And then not move my neighborhood plus some from Bearden to West. Selfish? Yes! Why disrupt families and possibly property values by just moving eggs from one basket to another? Zone the newly developing neighborhoods (and we see them all over the place) into the schools to create the balance of students rather than disrupting existing neighborhood zones.
I have spent the better part of decade committing myself to an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. I have established relationships with teachers and principals. I have volunteered time and self into helping those schools evolve into the system I wanted my children educated within. I have had one on one discussions with Lindsey to correct problems (one such problem took 3 years to resolve). Now, I have to start over again and I do not see a good reason for it.
West may be a great school. What makes a school successful is the community that feeds it and the attitude and efforts of its staff. If the community is aggressive in supporting the school, such as Rocky Hill Elementary, then the school will be phenomenal. I do not know the West community and staff but am familiar enough with the school to be very dejected. This dishevel feels comparable to moving into a new city but not having the luxury of evaluating the neighborhood I have moved into.
This plan is flawed and needs to be voted down.
8commentsWest High’s D.A.R.E. Hands-on Program April 11, 2007 11:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Health, Local Politics, Politics, Touchy SubjectsWith the bad news that we are being rezoned for West High School, I thought I should look for some positive information about the school. Apparently, the D.A.R.E. program gives the students beer and cigarettes so after a hard day of work I should be able to ask my daughter to pass me a smoke and a brewsky. And before someone asks, why is it bad? I have spent the better part of a decade being involved in Rocky Hill, Bearden Middle, and Bearden High. On one issue, I was on the phone regularly for 3 years including one on one chats with Lindsey to solve the problem. I have a vested interested in the school. And I feel strongly that this upheaval is socio-economic and not about overcrowding.
1 comment so farKnox County School Rezoning April 10, 2007 8:36 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, HealthStupid! Here’s hoping Roy E Mullins, Interim Superintendent’s "interim" is brief. And here’s hoping that our Board of Education has smarts enough to vote down this plan! (See also: Knoxnews report, Cathy’s letter, Cathy’s ire, Knoxviews, and a board of education member doing the right thing.)
2commentsKnox County Schools Let’s Me Know Who’s Boss March 7, 2007 12:17 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Education, Politics, Tommy, Touchy SubjectsRant. You know, it’s the schools that will lead America away from democracy.
add a commentOn Programmers – you are one or you aren’t January 31, 2007 7:32 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, History, ProgrammingI started college as a computer science student. I switched to the college of engineering because I knew "electrical engineers make all the money." One of the professors (actually, I think he was a department head) tried to convince me to stay in computers or "at least take one more class" to which I declined and he said, "you’ll be back." True to his word I returned, battered and bruised with a diminished gpa, to the college of liberal arts to study computer science. I asked why out of 500 students he tried to encourage me in such a way. He simply said, "you have a knack for computers." That remains on of the biggest compliments I have received.
I read more frequently articles that reference programmers and non-programmers. I read one that documented my case claiming that early in an intro to computer science course you can separate which students will succeed as programmers and the ones that will never understand.
But the dirty little secret of the software development industry is that this is also true even for people who can program: there’s a vast divide between good developers and mediocre developers. A mediocre developer can program his or her heart out for four years, but that won’t magically transform them into a good developer. And the good developers always seem to have a natural knack for the stuff from the very beginning. [Source]
I don’t have the ego to say I am a great programmer but my work frequently has me altering code done by lesser programmers and, although the teacher in me wants to reach out to them, I have to wonder if they wouldn’t be better served by a career change.
5commentsHave your PI and understand it too January 20, 2007 9:02 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Mathematics, Of InterestIf you never understood PI then this animation will help you visualize it.
add a commentThis number is real but irrational, transcendental, and cannot be constructed with compass and straightedge. [Source]
More Online Educational Resources January 17, 2007 11:08 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Of InterestThe Internet is packed with more than just information for your children’s education. The Internet has plenty of free online learning resources for adults too! Berkley web and pod casts.
add a commentThe Internet Is Great For Education January 9, 2007 12:24 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, Health, Mental, Of Interest, TechnologyThis year I have tried to make a better effort of going to the children’s school book’s publisher’s websites and make use of the online tools. They have quizes and tests and aides to enhance the learning. Homeschooler’s have absolutely embraced the web. I often find great sites like Presidents Secret History that make education fun for the children. Don’t forget, you can also rate your children’s teachers.
add a commentPublic School Needs to Change December 15, 2006 6:59 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Education, HealthI am becoming increasingly down on public schools. I think they are failing. Steve Olson talks about How the Public School System Crushes Souls.
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