I’ve been waiting to write about the Edgewood Middle School Alternative Governance Board meeting on Feb. 7 in the blog because I’ve been considering writing a letter to the newspaper or contacting someone to try to get what’s happening into the mainstream media. I still may do that, because I can’t believe that nothing’s been written about the actions being taken at this school. I know they have a small staff, and failure’s not as exciting as contaminated well water in a more well-heeled neighborhood, but I can’t believe that the items written by The Aegis gloss over the fact of why the school is looking for a new principal.
The Aegis’ coverage of a search for a new principal at Edgewood Middle School misses an important aspect of the process. Because of the school’s failure to meet testing standards for several years in a row, it is required by the state to choose among four different actions; one choice is hiring a distinguished principal. The state is required to supply candidates, but had only three available to the entire state. None were available with middle school experience.
One impossible choice presented by the state was making EMS a charter school – a two-year process that no probationary school can make because of its short time frame. EMS must have a plan approved by the spring. Another choice was to hire an outside agency to run the school. However, no agencies available have any middle school experience. The last option available was dismissing inadequate staff and hiring new staff.
These somewhat false choices shine a light on the institutional failure of the state to provide options for really improving failing schools. The group working on improving the situation at EMS, while well-intentioned, was never presented with a chance to make the real changes needed. This is not an attack on the group working to rectify the situation or EMS students. If EMS qualified for Title 1 status, which it is close to doing, students would then be presented with school vouchers and Harford County Public Schools would have to let them attend another school in the county. Faced with students heading to Patterson Mill, with its state-of-the art equipment or a school with broken water fountains – what would happen? The school system, because of overcrowding issues, would have to act and really improve the schools.
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2 comments:
Amen! The county only seems to be concerned with overcrowding, but those overcrowded schools are still performing. I have experienced all the Rte 40 corridor school prejudice, I remember when re-districting was discussed several years ago you would have thought we were talking about prison camps. Instead of trying to fix the schools people moved 5 miles up the road.
There are so many thoughts running through my mind right now, I may have a hard time articulating exactly how I feel about this.
I saw the ad in the Aegis (aka The Harford County rag) for a new principal at EMS. The upper pay range was a little over $100K. You'd be hard-pressed to find a middle school principal even in more affluent counties bringing in that kind of money just starting out.
NCLB is partially to blame for this, as there is nothing anyone can do right now that will solve the problem. I have had one child go through EMS for three years and another for 1.5 years -he spent the other 1.5 years at a magnet school in Baltimore County in a school with a very bad reputation.
We moved here to Harford County with the hopes of a better education for our children and at that time (6 years ago), EMS was not in the critical state of failure that it is now. Instead of a better education, we discovered blatant prejudice from others in the county regarding the Route 40 corridor (as the other comment mentioned) a high teacher turnover rate, and violence in the school.
My youngest child is barely getting by in high school (EHS) with the terrible education he received in EMS.
God forbid ANYBODY do ANYTHING worthwhile to help the Edgewood school district or the families that put their time and money into the school, as I did for four years. I'm not doing it anymore. I don't go to the school and have as little contact as possible with EHS because of the lack of interest I have seen there and at EMS. You cannot change the socio-economic structure of the area. You cannot force parents to make time for their children's education. However, you can give parents and students a reason to believe that their school system cares as much about them as their neighbors 5 miles up the road.
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