Point of View in Saturday's Oklahoman

May 3, 2010 by weeinspahr

Jenni White got most but not all things right in her article "Money doesn't ensure academic progress." She was right that money does not buy success. She was right to compare U. S. Grant and NW Classen. She was right about the role of school leadership in the both schools which lead to their divergent past. However, she was wrong about the contribution of the current U. S. Grant principal. Since he was in position only a couple months prior to testing in 2009, there is no evidence that improved 2009 test scores were the result of his leadership. What is evident is the fact that Grant did not make AYP solely because it failed to test enough students. Grant did make adequate progress in Math, Reading, and Graduation Rate, but failed because of incomplete testing. Had adequate numbers of students been tested, Grant would have made AYP for the first time ever and would have been half way in getting completely off the school improvement list. Had Grant gotten half-way off the list, one must presume that Grant would not have been on the list of the worst five schools in Oklahoma, that there would not have been the need to remove 50% of the teachers, and there would not have been another $2M spent on school improvement at U.S. Grant. Who or what was responsible for the test administration failure at U.S. Grant? The prior principal - no! Teachers - no! Students - no! Parents - no! Inadequate funding - no! The current principal - Yes!