EBR seeks grant for magnet schools

In a bid to broaden its appeal to more families, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system is considering creating new magnet programs at up to four schools in Baton Rouge.

These programs, however, are dependent, to a great extent, on a multimillion dollar federal grant the school system plans to apply for. The system will not know if it has received the grant until a year from now, September 2013, perhaps too late to start anything for the 2013-14 school year. That might delay creating this programs for another year, until fall 2014.

Carlos Sam, associate superintendent for school leadership and instruction, said the grant, while important, is not the only possible way to fund the start of one or more magnet programs for the 2013-14 school year.

“We may not fully rely on that grant,” Sam said. “That would be up to the superintendent and the board.”

Magnet programs, common in Baton Rouge for decades, began as a desegregation tool. They are attractive, specialized programs, usually in inner-city schools, that try to generate enough appeal to draw together students from different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

Many current magnet programs have waiting lists and new Superintendent Bernard Taylor is pressing to offer them at more schools.

The four schools being considered for new magnets are Magnolia Woods and Polk elementaries, Broadmoor Middle and Lee High schools. Planning meetings are scheduled for Monday at Magnolia Woods, Tuesday at Broadmoor Middle and on Sept. 27 at Polk. All start at 5:30 p.m.

Lee High had its planning meeting in June. It’s the school that has generated the most attention so far.

The School Board agreed this past summer to reopen the high school, closed for three years to avoid state takeover, with just ninth and tenth-graders, 232 as of Thursday, and add an 11th and 12th grade in succeeding years. The plan was also to use 2012-13 as a planning year to develop specialized programs, starting in fall 2013, that would attract children attending other schools.

In June, future options discussed for the school included a visual and performing arts theme, starting a career academy, emphasizing the military, focusing on animation and digital media, and creating a science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, program.

Theresa Porter, recruiter for magnet programs, said the school system, with the help of outside consultant, plans to submit a proposal, probably in January, for as much as $4 million a year through the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. The school system, however, does not expect to know if it won the money until September 2013, and it will last between three and five years, she said.

The school system tried for this same grant in 2004, but did not get it, Porter said.

That’s when the school system ended up creating four dedicated, or schoolwide magnet programs, all requiring minimum test scores or grade point averages.

This go-around, the school system is not proposing magnets with selective admission requirements and they will all be part of, rather than occupy the whole school.

“You get dinged if you put admission criteria that’s tied to academic criteria in the grant,” Sam explained.

Sam, however, said the school system is considering other criteria, such as submitting examples of work, or having students to maintain minimum GPAs to stay in a magnet program.

Comments

1) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 16/09/2012

@hemogoblin: Then Superintendent Charlotte Placide and a majority of our School Board Members on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board pushed forward a plan that would have allowed us to open a number of new Magnet Schools in Baton Rouge that would have, as you point out, raised the opportunities to engage more middle class families in our schools in EBR. The plan was legal (there were clear letters from the Department of Education's top accountability officer that stated that such a plan was within the guidelines of the state accountability plan) and would have resulted in new options for parents in Baton Rouge. Why didn't we do it? State Education Superintendent Paul Pastorek, President of the Council for A Better Louisiana (CABL) Barry Erwin, and a bevy of special interests representing profit making ventures in education went on the warpath. Here is what happened, and I invite any of those I mentioned above to challenge the accuracy of this narrative. By the way, the guilty parties were joined by the media, especially The Advocate, in attacking out plan. The plan was to open the new schools, and to have all scores for students in the magnet programs "re-routed" back to their home schools, protecting "local attendance zone schools" from the harmful and fatal impact of "creaming" the more highly motivated students from local students. Let me explain. Magnet schools do not achieve miracles. They simply start with a majority (if not a total) student body already scoring above average before they walk in the door. This is not putting down these schools in any way, it is just a fact! So, when you take highly motivated and higher achieving students from the local attendance zones, guess what, the scores for those schools go down! It doesn't mean they don't maintain high standards and high expectations, but it DOES mean that they often start with a student body far below state and national averages when they walk in the door. Now, the precedent in place at the time was that scores for alternative schools (and students in juvenile prison facilities were already being re-routed to "home schools." Imagine how principals would feel knowing that their school scores were actually being reduced by the scores of students WHO NEVER ATTENDED THE SCHOOL! The State Superintendent, and all of the aforementioned parties, nearly went crazy when they realized that EBR, under this plan, would have NO SCHOOLS SCORING AN "F" UNDER THE STATE'S totally defective accountability plan. Why did that matter to them? They absolutely needed FAILING SCHOOLS to implement their massive "Reforms" meant to create lots of privatization and opportunities to pay off political cronies. (How about 789 vouchers for students to fill empty seats in the failing local private and parochial schools) What happened next was predictable, for those in power do not lightly give up their power. The State Superintendent overruled the head of accountability, arguing that schools did NOT have the right to "re-route" scores back to home schools, and overnight, created lots of new "failing schools." How? Out of all the schools for special needs children, for behavior issues or for students incarcerated or involved in remedial programs, nearly every one was immediately considered a failing school. Still are. And the opportunities for opening Magnets... severely curtailed. Let me explain why. As more high-achieving students from existing schools (yes, some new students enter, but other students who are succeeding, but would like to be surrounded by higher achieving students make up the bulk of students in magnet programs) enroll in the new magnet schools, local school scores go down, and their is NO district that can maintain that creaming for long. When local schools become takeover targets for the state, local revenues are severely cut and it becomes more and more difficult to support the magnets themselves. It is a declining balance proposition for a district already with one of the highest percentages of poverty and special needs students. So, if you want to blame someone for denying children the choice of being in a "great magnet program," you need to blame Paul Pastorek, Barry Erwin, and the profiteers from privatization who did not want Baton Rouge schools to succeed! If you have any questions about this, I am more than willing to back up this narrative. By the way, a final note... The Advocate and all of the other antagonists in the true story above will tell you that the "re- routing" of scores would simply mask or "hide" failing schools. One answer to this. THERE IS NOTHING IN THE ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM THAT COMES EVEN CLOSE TO MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATION OF A SCHOOL, OR A DISTRICT. THE ACCOUNTABILITY SCORES SIMPLY TRACK POVERTY AND SPECIAL NEEDS, AND THEY CAN DENY THIS ALL THEY WANT. (This is easy when they refuse to ever acknowledge the reality and truth of that reality. THEY LIE! The current Board needs to carefully examine this issue prior to starting more charters.

2) Comment by hemogoblin - 16/09/2012

East Baton Rouge Magnet Schools are some of the best, public or private, in the state. The have long waiting lists. More magnets!

3) Comment by 8point6 - 15/09/2012

Hey, my "progressive" friends/public education union members. Don't you DARE ask for more taxpayer money to create new magnet programs!! You people are all bent out of shape because some of my taxes are going to "vouchers". Well, get over it. I support the "voucher" program.

4) Comment by phil - 15/09/2012

A federal grant? Oh just great! More of that "free" money from the federal government. Where in the heck do you think that money comes from. Guess who! Taxpayers. Keep those money machines working full time to print more debt for us? Thanks a lot for nothing.