MPS faces challenges money alone can’t solve
I wrote in this space a week ago about the referendum on increasing property taxes in the city of Milwaukee so that Milwaukee Public Schools will receive an additional $87 million a year. It’s on the ballot for some weird kind of election that is coming to a head, maybe.
One of the things I said was that when it comes to improving student outcomes, there are a lot of things that an infusion of money, if it is approved, wouldn’t or couldn’t accomplish. A reader asked what I meant by that. Good question. There are quite a few things, but let’s focus on two of them.
The lives of kids in the city
Schools can have an impact on kids and the better schools in Milwaukee have bigger positive impact than many others, even when dealing with students from similar backgrounds.
But, overall, there is no doubt that the circumstances of a child’s life outside of school make a big difference in success in school. And there are thousands of kids in the city whose lives lack a lot of things — stable shelter, food, nurturing adults, good early childhood experiences — that strengthen educational success. No need to belabor the point.
Simply put, bless all the parents and other adults who do their best to raise kids, but what goes on in a lot of homes is not well allied with what helps a child’s success in school. And the referendum isn’t going to change that.
Milwaukee Public Schools itself
The question on the ballot says the $87 million a year would go to “sustaining and expanding educational programming, including more career and technical education programs, attracting and retaining certified educators, and expanding art, music, physical education and language programs.”
But, if voters approve this, saying it is going to happen and having it actually happen may be two different things. For one example, music teachers are in short supply. And recruiting and keeping high-quality teachers is unlikely to be easy for MPS when there is an overall shortage of top-quality teachers and keeping them in the demanding settings of high-poverty schools isn’t easy.
More broadly, change and improvement do not come easily to MPS. It is a big, entrenched, and embattled system.
Critics question how much high expectations for student achievement are really part of the chemistry of the system. I agree that if I’m looking for schools with great learning cultures that combine rigor and warmth, the ones in Milwaukee that come to mind are generally not MPS schools.
There have been so many times when claims have been made that things are going to change for the better in MPS. In the big picture, they haven’t improved or have not improved very much.
A good example: The Neighborhood Schools Initiative of almost 20 years ago led to spending more than $100 million
on buildings and many elementary schools were changed to kindergarten through eighth grade schools. The result? Frankly, not much that’s positive.
Graduation rates have gotten better in recent years, but are students actually more prepared for life beyond high school? That’s not clear. Reading and math scores remain terrible overall, the gaps by race and income are chronically among the biggest in the country, attendance remains a real weak spot. Will any of these things get better with an infusion of money? Maybe, maybe not.
Are there lessons right now in how schools are responding to the nationwide extended closings due to the coronavirus?
I praise everyone in education who has waded with creativity and dedication into helping school kids. That certainly includes a lot of people in MPS.
Superintendent Keith Posley painted a generally positive picture in a conversation with me Thursday. A big priority for schools and, in some cases, early childhood centers and social agencies has been getting food to children.
Posley said MPS distributed 38,200 meal packs (intended to provide breakfast and lunch) in week one of the shutdown and 51,296 in week two. It was almost to 50,000 by Thursday of the third week.
Posley said thousands of academic work packets for kids were also distributed. He said they offered good material and advice on how to keep learning. But they did not call for any student-teacher interaction, they were not individualized and there was no way to monitor their impact.
Some teachers in some schools have shown praiseworthy initiative, but systemwide, little has been offered.
Posley said a second phase is beginning in which students will be given more direction and opportunities for online learning, including by using programs such as Khan Academy. There also will be more interaction between teachers and students, he said.
And phase three, with expanded opportunities for online learning and teacher-student interaction, is intended to be launched later in April. Posley said it will include making equipment such as Chromebooks, the inexpensive computers designed for school use, available to thousands of students at home and offering online access to those who don’t have it now, including through hotspots to be set up around the city.
But there is a big “but” attached to this. I’ve been hearing frequently from the better non-MPS schools that also serve high-needs students and that responded much faster and more effectively in providing equipment and learning programs, including interaction with teachers. There is cool stuff going on in town, and homework packets aren’t what I’m talking about.
Based on what I’ve been reading, some other large urban districts have also been faster than MPS to get into action. Places such as the Miami-Dade school district shifted into online learning academies with a lot of teacherstudent contact. Online equipment has been provided to almost every student.
School districts nationwide are buying huge supplies of Chromebooks. Posley said MPS is aiming to do that but supplies are short at the moment. He said he has been in touch frequently with other urban districts, including Miami, and those districts are not really ahead of MPS in making the enormous adjustments the current circumstances require.
Nonetheless, I wish I was reading about MPS doing stuff like other schools, here and elsewhere, are doing.
What does this have to do with the referendum? Voters get to decide, of course. More music and arts, better teachers — these are good things. MPS kids need them.
But real change? That’s an even better thing. And that’s going to take more than a referendum.