Positive changes prove students worth effort
In a recent strategic planning session, I was asked, “If you were given $10,000 to give to any organization, which would it be?”
My answer was, “I would give the money to Dayton Public Schools’ music study department.”
I believe our students in our music programs will have the connection they need to have to come to school, to want to come to school, to need to come to school because they are part of a bigger project other than themselves. That connectedness is major in any kind of school environment. Certainly, they come to school to learn, but they also become connected to what’s happening in school in some way. Music study supports mathematical thinking and, because it’s creative, also develops the right side of the brain.
Resurging the district’s music program is one of the key initiatives we have developed to make positive changes to DPS student academics. That includes increasing the number and quality of our professional development sessions for our teachers and staff, making changes to our leadership team and moving forward in academic initiatives. All of those are examples of how we are putting forth massive efforts to show that our students are worth whatever effort we need to put into to changing the way we instruct them in our classrooms.
They are worth the time that we need to put into changing the curriculum to meet their needs, to make Dayton Public Schools a school system that is much higher than the “F” that we are currently rated.
In fact, our schools need to be in the B-to-C range, and as a school system we need to show that our students, administrators and teachers are much better than what we have received on the Ohio Department of Education report card.
Change will take three to five years, but incremental change should be seen every year in a district. If we are to avoid academic distress, we have to show significant changes in those buildings where we have straight F’s.
In the schools that have a mixture of grades, anywhere from several C’s and some D’s and maybe a couple of F’s, we are still working with them as well to make sure those F’s turn into a higher grade, those D’s turn into C’s and C’s into B’s. We don’t want to slide backward by any means. We want to keep moving forward in every school.
Much rests on our teachers. I don’t think there is any teacher who wants to do a bad job because high-quality teachers all want the best from their students, to do what’s right and to teach the best they can teach. With their hearts and minds focused on what’s best for students in the classroom and what the requirements are of the curriculum of the school district — all are at the forefront of a high quality teacher’s thinking.
DPS teachers are eager to be the best they can be and eager to turn this district around. I think our high quality teachers are the hope of the district because they have the most profound effect on a student.
DPS has a new hope that this is our time to move upward, to change the face of education in Dayton Public Schools.