Today I have chosen to describe what I see as mistakes being made in attempting to solve serious school problems. It seems to me that a prosperous and rising American city could find better ways to serve the families supporting it.
In the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the school district’s major plan is to study school problems over four years and seek “national experts” to make school change decisions, which I consider a foolish and expensive mistakes. No matter how skilled those experts turn out to be, they would also be very expensive starting from scratch in an unfamiliar territory and unqualified to make large and locally sensitive decisions
In addition, it seems to me that the four year examination of Philadelphia’s schools, determined by district officials in order to plan for the future, is an insult to teachers, students, and parents, who have been hurting for some time already. The right thing to do would be to examine now the schools that have been losing students, and to figure out how to enable them to recover as soon as possible. For several schools it is very likely that only minor changes will be needed, but for any badly damaged schools the proper solution is complete replacement. Despite the greater costs, it might be the only way to convince parents that the school district had fulfilled its obligations.
Finally, the impression I got from reading the article was that the district chose to do everything wrong in planning to spend so much time studying school situations, selecting the wrong group of specialists to do the job, and taking only minimal actions. Personally, I see no advantages for students, parents or the school district. Someone will have to explain all of that to me before I can be pleased or supportive of the district’s actions. What do you think ?
The Treasure Hunter 
Too long. Ask the people on the front lines and you would make better and faster progress.
LikeLike
You a re right, but unfortunately I don’t get the opportunity to speak to them.
LikeLiked by 1 person