Mark North is an alumnus of both Neelys Bend Middle and Madison High School. Mark sent the following letter to elected state officials in an attempt to fight the takeover of one of our Madison middle schools. Please plan to attend the meetings this Thursday, Dec. 4th at either Neelys Bend Middle or Madison Middle at 5:30. Please repost! Last week, I sent an email pointing out that the state Achievement School District (ASD) planned to takeover one of two Middle Schools in Madison that outperform the ASD. As you know, the ASD was originally intended to help school districts turn around the lowest performing schools - those schools that were chronically failing and that the school districts were unable to improve. In practice, the ASD is a predatory state agency eating up community schools, ignoring the lowest performing schools and focusing on those that will fit a business model and make the most money for the ASDs corporate friends. Attached are two charts with data taken from the State Department of Education Report Card. The first one shows the 2014 data for the ASD and for the five middle schools in Davidson County that could be targeted by the ASD. As you can tell, all 5 schools outperformed the ASD last year. Moreover, the 2 actually targeted (Neelys Bend and Madison) outperformed 2 of the other 3 schools and outperformed the ASD. And you should know that the two schools that scored lower than Madison and Neelys Bend (Bailey and Jere Baxter) have been underperforming for several years and can more accurately be termed as chronically underperforming. So, clearly the ASD is not targeting the lowest performing of the schools or the ones that have been on the priority list the longest. Perhaps, the ASD looked to see whether these schools made improvement last year. Check out the second chart. Again, Neelys Bend and Madison showed improvement in the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in all 3 subjects. Bailey showed the most improvement and appears to be moving in the right direction along with Madison and Neelys Bend. Jere Baxter however remained flat, with zero improvement overall. So, Jere Baxter has been on the list the longest and has the lowest scores of the 5 schools and did not improve last year. Apparently, Jere Baxter does not fit the business model for the ASDs corporate friends - not enough students perhaps (they are paid per student) or the ASD is afraid of competition from other corporate cohorts. For whatever reason, the choice to ignore Jere Baxter in favor of a hostile takeover of Madison or Neelys Bend exposes the ASD as a fraud and as ignoring its purpose. Here is the kicker: The ASD plans to turn the school over to a middle school that is going in the wrong direction. Lead Academys test scores plummeted in 2014 with an increase in students scoring Below Basic in all three subjects; a decrease of 7 percentage points in students scoring above proficient in Math; and a decrease of 6.5 percentage points in Science. Here is part of the attached chart to compare the 2014 improvement (or in Leads case decline) as compared to 2013: Overall Improvement Overall Math Reading Science Average ASD +2.2 +3.4 +0.4 +2.0 Madison +3.4 +0.4 +2.0 +1.93 Neely’s Bend +0.8 +2.7 +5.7 +3.07 Bailey +8.1 -0.9 +9.9 +5.7 Jere Baxter -0.6 -1.9 +2.5 0 Joelton 0.7 +0.1 +4.9 +1.9 Lead Academy -7.0 +4.0 -6.5 3.17 Ranked by Overall Improvement (average of 3 subjects) Bailey +5.7 Neely’s Bend +3.07 ASD +2.0 Madison +1.93 Joelton +1.9 Jere Baxter 0 Lead Academy -3.17 The ASD must be stopped. Its agenda is inconsistent with its purported purpose. At the very least, any takeover should await the appointment of the new Commissioner of Education. If you want to discuss the matter with an alumnus of both Madison and Neelys Bend, feel free to call me. Mark North
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 00:49:06 +0000
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