McKinley Magnet receives national Blue Ribbon honor

Minutes before the final bell sounded Friday, Principal Herman Brister Jr. stood before a hastily called assembly in McKinley Middle Magnet School auditorium and said he had some news: The school had just been named a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School.

“This means that you’re among the best in the entire nation,” Brister said to ecstatic cheers from the school’s more than 700 students and almost 60 faculty and staff.

Brister learned the news earlier that day in a news release from the U.S. Department of Education. The federal agency bestows the award every year on schools that are either very high performing or have shown significant improvement with challenging student bodies.

McKinley Middle is one of five schools in Louisiana, all of them public, and one of 269 nationwide being recognized. The 219 public and 50 private schools will be honored at a recognition ceremony Nov. 12 and 13 in Washington, D.C.

Nine schools in the East Baton Rouge Parish school system have earned a Blue Ribbon since the federal government created the program in 1982. McKinley, along with Baton Rouge Magnet High, are the school system’s only repeat winners.

For McKinley, Friday’s honor represents a return of sorts to former academic glory. The school won its first Blue Ribbon in 1984, soon after it was first converted from a neighborhood school to a selective magnet school.

That 1984 plaque hangs on the wall of Brister’s office as a motivation, prodding him to strive to win another one.

“I hate to look at it,” Brister admitted. “So now, I can finally take it down.”

In the late 1990s, McKinley Middle was the subject of an experiment. The school regained an attendance zone. The magnet program remained, albeit smaller, just a part of the middle school. The program’s quality, however, declined and enrollment dwindled.

In 2003, in a bid to revive the school’s reputation, the school system agreed to convert McKinley back into a dedicated, or schoolwide, magnet. It was one of four new dedicated magnet schools created as part of the final settlement of the parish’s long-running desegregation, which went for 51 years before finally concluding in 2007.

It took awhile for the new McKinley Middle to come into its own. It’s the last of the four dedicated magnet schools created in that settlement to achieve the honor.

The school has shown steady growth over that time. In 2007, its school performance score was 101.2. By 2011, it had grown to 115, earning the school a “B+” under Louisiana’s new letter grade system. When the next batch of school performance scores are released in October, Brister said he expects that his school will finally earn an “A” grade.

“After this one, we’re gonna get there,” he said.

The return to glory was boosted in 2006 when the school moved into a brand new, completely rebuilt campus at 1550 Eddie Robinson Drive. The modern school features state-of-the art visual and performing arts spaces, a key draw for the middle school.

The Blue Ribbon honor will make the school only more popular, Brister said.

“We have a waiting list a mile long,” he said. “It’s going to get longer.”

Still the school has not achieved the racial integration of other magnet schools in town. On Friday, its population was about 86 percent black. Also, about 75 percent of the students qualify for free lunch or reduced-price lunches, an indicator of poverty.

Brister attributes the school’s success to its family atmosphere.

“Everybody is willing to go the extra mile, and to make the right decisions for kids,” he said. “I know that can be difficult sometimes.”

The success of McKinley Middle also raises the stakes in Brister’s biological family.

His mother, Darlene, won a Blue Ribbon in 2009 while principal of Ryan Elementary. Brister’s father, Herman Brister Sr., is a former principal, and is now an associate superintendent for the school system, but never won a Blue Ribbon himself.

The elder Brister was on hand at the school assembly and had a big smile on his face. His hopes now rest on his daughter-in-law, Jessica Brister, principal of Park Elementary, in Baton Rouge, to continue the family tradition.

“It’s on, it’s on,” said the father.

The four other Louisiana public schools that learned they are Blue Ribbon schools Friday are Claiborne Fundamental Elementary Magnet in Shreveport; Gretna No. 2 Academy for Advanced Studies in Gretna; Oak Park Microsociety Elementary in Shreveport; and T.S. Cooley Elementary Magnet in Lake Charles.

Comments

1) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 10/09/2012

@yankyny: I know you didn't ask me, but I would say ditto to civitasiveritas, for sure. And offer the following. Not all inclusive, just some thoughts to improve schools. Yep.... better prepared kids = better schools. Every time! Guaranteed! Even better than testin 'em! 1. Read to children from birth (even before, when they are in the womb). Every day. If you don't know how to read, learn, or get someone else to read to your child. Smile with them! 2. Talk to your infants and children. As often as possible. Use lots of words. Good words. Have conversations with other adults. Nice ones. And smile. 3. Have books in the home. They don't have to be expensive, or new. Buy used books. No problem. Build a bookcase and display them prominently. And smile at the books! 4. Do not yell at children, unless they are getting ready to walk into a street and you can't reach them! Yelling at and excessive scolding of children creates the wrong kind of stress; not good for their brains. True. Better to smile. 5. Turn off the television! Kids who watch more television, on average, do worse than children who watch less. And it doesn't matter what kind of shows. Watch less! No computers or electronic games either. Those can wait till they are older. Smile and make faces instead! Laugh. 6. Avoid fast foods, carbonated beverages, caffein and sweets. Their bodies (and ours) don't need any of them, they are expensive, and they damage neurological development and create obesity. Use the money you save to buy fresh vegetables and fruit. Children will love you for it! And their smiles will be prettier! 7. Grow some plants with your young children, or a real garden, even if only in a window. Watch things grow! Smiles make 'em grow sweeter, and healthier. Plants too! 8. Unless your child has physical challenges that preclude it, run, walk, and cycle with your child! Get out in a park, along the back yards, and explore. Smile! 9. Listen to classical music, or folk songs, or spirituals. All are calming and help children develop patterning, good for synaptic connections in the brain. And they will make you smile! 10. Help someone else do these things with, or for, their children. Teach your children to help others! And watch them smile! Warning: Doesn't create Einstein's overnight, or even in a year. Just creates a lifetime of better experiences, and better homes, and better communities, and perhaps even a better world.

2) Comment by civitasiveritas - 10/09/2012

Assertions? Which ones are assertions? And which ones do you agree with, or disagree with. I remember one time sharing some data with someone and they responded. "I disagree." I had to ask, do you disagree with the data? DO you believe it is incorrect? Or do you disagree because it takes you to a place you don't want to go? As for the three questions.... Perhaps we have a different view of what "political" means. We'll come back to that. Let us tackle that last comment of yours first. I don't know ANY opponents of "standards" or "teacher evaluation." Not one. Now, if you ask me, do I know people, teachers, researchers, who are against the current accountability system. Yes, of course, and so should any thinking person who can do even basic research. I, and many others who are silenced by the media and by political forces, have pointed out the flaws in the current system of accountability. Teacher evaluation? Nearly every professional organization of researchers, and scientists have pointed out the absurd nature of the Value Added system that was passed into law in what some have called a modern "blitzkrieg." Basically, the bill was bought and paid for. It was also foisted upon a willing public already primed with the disinformation campaigns I have alluded to in earlier posts, by those who will financially benefit from the changes! As to the second part, perhaps some have advocated for more money or an expansion of pre-K and more social programs. It is amazing to me that we call this "more money" but when we bring in a company we call it an investment. As for my recommendations, they are not actually about more money, or even more pre-K. I invited you to find me saying that anywhere in these posts. Education in the most important early years is a function of knowledge and information flowing to communities about helping young mothers and families educate their young children. Believe me, we don't do this very well, especially in low-income communities. At all. We have to educate, and support early learning experiences throughout the community. Doing otherwise is foolhardy. It IS the best investment we can make of time, money, and human resources. Now, back to the "political" nature of the first two questions. OF COURSE THEY ARE POLITICAL IN NATURE! How can they not be? The lies put out by administrations, from Democrats and Republicans alike, and from those who seek to benefit financially from the privatization of schools, have bought their way into the political box education finds itself in. Getting out is going to take political action. It is going to take parents saying, ENOUGH! It is going to take taxpayers disclosing the lies foisted upon a public already looking for scapegoats. And, it is going to take some civil disobedience, in my view. We cannot produce enough will and support for the last question, until we defeat the forces denying the truth to millions, and destroying an education system that has, in fact, resulted more success for more people than ever before in this country. Yeah, I can back up the latter statement too. In spite of the lies that continue to flow from the Astro-Turf groups. Read the Blueberry story. Great businessman gets an education. http://teachers.net/gazette/JUN02/vollmer.html

3) Comment by yankyny - 10/09/2012

Although agree with your assertions for the most part, I would argue your first two questions are political in nature and we should focus on your third question. If those underlying factors are the foundational reason for poor student performance, then what are the solutions? The concern to the average person in public is when opponents of standards and teacher evaluation ask for more money or the expansion of pre-k and more social programs.

4) Comment by civitasiveritas - 10/09/2012

@yankyny, as to your question about underlying conditions, I will refer you to two documents put out by the Educational Testing Service. If ever there was a group that might support the idea that schools can overcome everything, it would be this group. But they don't. In fact, they put out two documents outlining many of the dominant factors that impact student achievement, and most of them are outside of school. Ok... a few of these underlying conditions, or factors impacting student achievement. 1) Parent Participation in schools where their children attend. Plays out along income and racial lines. Definite patterns. (not assigning any blame here, just reporting the data) 2) Student Mobility, or the number of times a child moves between entering first grade and finishing third grade. Plays out along income and racial lines. Definite patterns. (not assigning any blame here, just reporting the data). 3) Birthweight, this actually has a strong impact, on average, on children's physical, emotional, and mental growth. Yep, same pattern as the others... by race and household income. Add to this, lead poisoning, number of books in the home, hunger and nutrition, health care, pre-natal care... and the list goes on. I am not BLAMING anyone. But the patterns of these underlying condition are real, powerful, and devastating. Fill a school with children facing these needs and you will NOT be getting a Blue Ribbon School. McKinley Middle is NOT overcoming these odds, the children entering McKinley Middle are the exceptions to the statistical patterns, for the most part. If we did a study, we would find that (in addition to there being quite a difference in the characteristics of these underlying conditions (Obviously, not every child born in a certain "zip-code" is going to be low-birthweight, with lead paint in the home, or atmosphere, and some will have many books at home.) between the local attendance zone students and those who are selected, first by already achieving at an above-average level, and secondly by having parents who went through the process of getting into a magnet school. Internal documents from charter groups make clear that you WANT to have large waiting lists, and "lotteries" because they help create a sense of "specialness" for those who get in! When all kids get in, it isn't special anymore... and that bump to achievement is gone. Why do you think NONE of the highest performing schools, public or private, accepted vouchers unless it was only a token number. They aren't stupid. They KNOW they can't achieve great things with a high at-risk population. To see some of the reports that point out how resources and underlying conditions do NOT get distributed evenly, long before children arrive at schools, see http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/parsing.pdf and http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/PICPARSINGII.pdf and then ask yourself, what can we do to start to eliminate THESE gaps! We shouldn't be asking the question, in my view, how do we help Baker, or St. Helena and "some of the schools in Baton Rouge." The more salient questions are: 1) How do we stop the reformers who set up this totally dysfunctional accountability system from further damaging the opportunities for young children; 2) How do we educate ourselves and our neighbors about the truth, and not the myths about education and schools; and 3) How do we ACT to change the conditions for children and infants such that ALL CHILDREN enter schools ready to learn. On the latter, I am in agreement with a number of others who believe that schools themselves, whether public, private, parochial or online, are NOT the future. There are other ways to think about education, and the community that figures this out, will, in a few short years, be busting at the seams with immigrants and a sense of vitality that few can even imagine. I need to find a few communities that TRULY want to think "out of the box." And by the way, the box we are all in right now, is with the reformers... boxes on standardized tests to be filled in... computers to provide programmed instruction via well paid corporations, and boxes of classrooms. There is a different future, open to all, and able to create a totally different and more vibrant future for our kids, and our communities. Might take civil disobedience to get there... because the powers that be don't want to give up their power. And do not believe for a minute, that that power is help by teachers, unions, or what the reformers claim is the "coalition of the status quo." John White, the Chamber, the Astro-turf "non- profits and the corporate raiders are all making darn good money off education, and they aren't likely to give it up. This community has some brilliant thinkers who actually know about all this stuff... and those in power do all they can to keep them silenced!

5) Comment by yankyny - 09/09/2012

@ civitasiveritas. So what are the underlying factors leading to poverty that cannot be overcome by effective teaching in the classroom? Those factors were overcome at McKinley, but not at other schools. You make a compelling case, I just feel uncomfortable saying the reason for failing schools is because the parents and students are not meeting standards. Or the worse of the worse of students are the ones in the zip code schools, that's why they are failing schools. I'm sure that's not what you mean to imply, but that's how it comes across to me - but I put it more bluntly. I venture to say that the number one factor is the education of the parents. Thank you for the insightful conversation. Wondering what can be done to help districts like Baker and some of the schools in EBR.

6) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 09/09/2012

@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 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 "diverted" 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 "homer 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! Now, stay with me here. 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. 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 everyone 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 your 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!

7) Comment by hemogoblin - 09/09/2012

There is a waiting list for McKinley Middle. Sounds like we need more magnets! Get more middle class families into the school system to get broader support for it. Congratulations again to the teachers, students, parents, and administration of McKinley Middle!

8) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 09/09/2012

@yankyny: For years reformers have called these schools supposedly are "proving" their point "miracle schools." In a 2011 article in the New York Times, Dr. Diane Ravitch called out the reformers based, in part, on the work of two individuals, working without knowledge of one another, who had researched the claims of the reformers and found that they seemed to change their tune, if you will, will claiming success for their "miracle schools." All of their claims were, shall we say, surgically enhanced? The reformers carefully altered the facts to fit their message. One of the researchers pointing this out was a former Teach For America teacher, Gary Rubinstein. He has a great blog at http://garyrubinstein.teachforus.org/ I was the other researcher. I had been noticing that most of the schools in books, articles, and press releases by the "reformers" were either schools with selective enrollment or special characteristics such as extremely high incomes. As a School Board Member for years, and because of my research and studies and teaching in the College of Education at LSU I knew that selective enrollment schools were successful, and why would they not be? I also was well aware that schools claiming that they were not selective were, how do I put this properly, hmmm... simply lying! How radical was the surgical alteration on some of these schools? How about a school that supposedly was "proving" that "turnarounds" worked-in fact, this school went from "one of the worst schools in Colorado to one of the best." Except, it was still one of the worst, using the test scores to measure the school, the way The Advocate does, and our state "accountability" system does. The students had an average score on the ACT of 14.4 and the overall scores at the schools placed it at the very bottom, the 1st percentile in the state. Not exactly a miracle, except after the miraculous surgery performed by the reformers. Gary and I have a blog to allow others around the country to get the facts on schools that are supposedly proving that schools can overcome any barriers, any challenges in turning around students with many challenges. The site is called Miracle Schools and can be found at http://miracleschools.wikispaces.com/.

9) Comment by civitasiveritas - 09/09/2012

@yanyny, I could say that you missed my point, but that would place blame on you, and that is unfair. The truth is, perhaps I was not clear enough, which is just as likely. In the simplest terms, boiled down from the rhetoric, here is the whole point of the "High Performing-High Poverty Schools program and the Blue Ribbon Schools program (the latter was reorganized to specifically include the issue of high poverty). "See, we TOLD you that poverty is not destiny!" Oops, I was trying to do it without the rhetoric. Sorry. "Here are schools with high percentages of students in poverty, and they are getting high scores, ergo, poverty doesn't matter, or perhaps poverty matters, but schools can overcome the effects of poverty. " OK, stay with me here... poverty, or, as one of the commenters on here often says, the underlying conditions of poverty, matter greatly. They are, in fact, powerfully predictive of the future success of students, not individually, but for groups of students, for schools, and for districts. Now, let us take this counterpoint, and ask the question. If poverty matters so much, then how do we get a McKinley Middle Magnet Blue Ribbon School? Read again Charles Lussier's article. "The school won its first Blue Ribbon in 1984, soon after it was first converted from a neighborhood school to a selective magnet school." And then, "In the late 1990s, McKinley Middle was the subject of an experiment. The school regained an attendance zone. The magnet program remained, albeit smaller, just a part of the middle school. The program’s quality, however, declined and enrollment dwindled. In 2003, in a bid to revive the school’s reputation, the school system agreed to convert McKinley back into a dedicated, or schoolwide, magnet. It was one of four new dedicated magnet schools created as part of the final settlement of the parish’s long-running desegregation, which went for 51 years before finally concluding in 2007. It took awhile for the new McKinley Middle to come into its own. It’s the last of the four dedicated magnet schools created in that settlement to achieve the honor." Do you see, perhaps it was the selectivity of the students that made the school a Blue Ribbon School, each time. Now, there are very few, if any researchers, or teachers or administrators who believe in the "straw man argument" set up by the reformers, that somehow any non- reformers believe that "poverty is destiny." You and I too know this isn't true for all students, yet the data seems pretty convincing that the effects of underlying conditions, again, are pretty powerful. You will not likely EVER see charts listing the percent of poverty averaged across non-selective schools by letter grade. T'ain't happenin. The reformers MUST HAVE schools that "prove" that you can take students who have all of the challenges, and lead them into the promised land of success and opportunity. For small groups of students, for individuals, we know it happens. You are quite accurate in saying that "high standards" and "high expectations" matter, and they matter greatly. Yet almost without exception, when reformers point to a school and claim that it proves their point, there is clear evidence that it is NOT the high expectations and "great teaching" that is making the difference. In McKinley, as in all of the other schools on Louisiana's list this year, the students arrive in the school based on ALREADY HAVING THE ATTRIBUTES OF SUCCESS. In fact, in most cases, they are ALREADY scoring at or above average. Few, if any, students from the low end of the bell curve are arriving at the school. Here are the requirements to get into McKinley Middle Magnet School. Perhaps John White and Penny Dastugue don't even KNOW that these schools require the following of students before they can get in the door! "2.5 grade point average for the last 2 school years Score Basic or above on the 2011-2012 LEAP or iLEAP in English Language Arts and Math For Private schools/homeschool, provide standardized test results with a stanine of 5 or higher." To put it simply... you must be average or above to get in! So, no students are admitted from the bottom half (roughly) of the bell curve for student achievement. Again, this merely proves one thing. If you take motivated and higher performing students and concentrate them in one school, you WILL ALMOST ALWAYS get a higher performing school! If you take students with a high concentration of special needs, and challenges, and concentrate them in a school, you WILL ALMOST ALWAYS GET a "low performing school. Every school in the state that is filled with high concentrations of special needs and challenges is "labeled" by Louisiana's failed accountability system as FAILING.

10) Comment by yankyny - 08/09/2012

@civitasiveritas. I'm not quite sure I'm following your rationale. You imply that Mr. Whites comments that "proves that poverty doesn't matter" and "The success of these schools proves what we have said as part of Louisiana Believes, which is all students can achieve regardless of zip code." are somehow misleading, inaccurate or incomplete. If the selection process is from the same low income zip codes, then those statements are true. I’ve heard the argument that it has been the low income factor that connects to poor student achievement (however measured) leads to failing schools (however labeled). But when a school like McKinley is open as an “alternative”, the argument then shifts not from low income students, but to “selective low income students.” I would argue that schools like McKinley succeed for multiple reasons, but one seems clear, one is the level of expectations for parents, students and staff is high and they hold each other accountable. The question I would ask, what is in the “failing” school that may not have been able to foster that culture of success (no indictment of teachers intended)? Although I agree that more charters and magnets may not the answer, one must wonder, what is the organizational climate in those so-called failing schools? I'm a big proponent of high expectations, I've haven't seen research from the education perspective, but I've seen enough research from military to show high expectations and a culture of success are key to organizational success. The issue of course is quantifying such abstract concepts. But McKinley was the answer for a group of motivated low income families that may not have been able to succeed in their original environment. If teachers, parents and students continue to be told that academic success is based upon the size of their wallets & zip codes, then eventually you will fulfill your own self-prophecy.

11) Comment by timesright - 08/09/2012

Congrats to all who have contributed to the success and the Blue Ribbon recognition of McKinley Middle Magnet! It takes everyone from maintenance, to cafeteria personnel, to the ancillary staffs in the front office, to the school's leadership, to the dedicated teachers, to the parents and the Baton Rouge community, to most of all. the students to gain the achievements worthy of being honored as a Blue Ribbon School. Cheers to all!

12) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 08/09/2012

Congratulations to the students, parents, faculty and staff of McKinley Middle Magnet. Always nice to be recognized for your hard work! And I join in the celebratory comments made below! I also agree with the comments of civitas and ex-louisianian, and for the same reasons. We fully expect schools that select their students for their academic ability to BE the best and to lead our communities! What is a bit disturbing though, is the use of the award for political purposes, especially when the facts don't correspond to the claims. Civitas hit the nail on the head, so to speak. As ex-Louisianaian and civitas both mentioned, the students at all the schools on Louisiana's Blue Ribbon honor roll this year are magnet schools. drawing upon the most motivated students. Who is left out of these high-performing schools? Apparently, Students with disabilities. None of the schools are near the state average in the percent of students needing special services for their mental, physical, or emotional challenges. In fact, two of the High-poverty schools have an average of just under 2%. Kinda skews the numbers a bit when you take out many of the group that happens to have, by far, the lowest average scores of any group in the state. The truth is, you can't tell a book by its cover, or in this case, but its Blue Ribbon. You still have to read the story. And the story is clear, regardless of what anyone claims that Louisiana believes..... the accountability system is pre-disposed to reward schools that have figured out how to draw some of the best students. See, we can learn from private and parochial schools!

13) Comment by LawyerDan65 - 08/09/2012

The fact that the best schools in the State are public schools show that the public school system can work. Hte fact that there are still many schools recieving poor scores seems morindicative of the populations that those schools must serve. Even this school did not perform well when it was forced to serve any stutdent within an attendance zone. This seems to confirm that school success is clearly a combination fo school adminstration (including teachers) and student population.

14) Comment by civitasiveritas - 07/09/2012

What a wonderful story that highlights a wonderfully successful local family, the kind of family that represents the best kind of dedication to a career dedicated to service. The Bristers are dedicated to their community, something that will be lost when schools and teachers are just passing through, as appears to be the case in the Teach for America and Charter models of privatization. What is exciting, is that Charles Lussier was able to capture this in a superb piece of true journalism, and was not caught up in the political messages being passed out through the press release issued by the Louisiana Department of Education today. All of us in our community should congratulate the students, faculty, and administration of McKinley Middle Magnet School. We should also point out what School Board pointed out in negotiations with the plaintiffs and the U.S. Department of Justice, There is no question that a magnet school with a selective enrollment will achieve high standards. We all know that. What teachers, administrators and researchers also know, is that, by definition, a selective magnet or charter school will always draw some of the most motivated students from local attendance zone schools, and will, therefore, reduce to some extent, their "School Performance Scores." Those who claim that the answer is to simply have more magnet schools, or more charters (such as the selective charters in New Orleans with scores like McKinley Middle Magnet or Baton Rouge High) are simply ignoring the truth. The reason why a school like McKinley Magnet can have a high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced meal prices (coming for low income families) and still achieve these high scores and considerable honor, is precisely because it is a selective enrollment school. When reformers such as John White use this school and others on the Blue Ribbon List to claim that it "proves that poverty doesn't matter" they are simply ignoring the facts. ALL of the high poverty schools in Louisiana (as are most of the high poverty schools throughout the nation on the Blue Ribbon list) are simply enrolling students from the top half of the distribution of students in poverty. No one ever said students from low-income families couldn't learn. But they fact that all of these schools draw only from the top half of the distribution of all students certainly throws a monkey-wrench in John White's claim that "The success of these schools proves what we have said as part of Louisiana Believes, which is all students can achieve regardless of zip code." As a matter of fact, all of the schools are selective enrollment schools NOT limited to a local attendance zone. Nor do these schools, as Board of Elementary and Secondary Education President Penny Dastugue said "serve as a guide for the education community." The principals, students, and teachers at these schools deserve recognition. They DO NOT deserve to be used as pawns in an ideological battle to p"prove" anything short of this fact: "IF you select students from the top of any distribution, you will have outcomes that are above average!." The mathematics truth of this is much, much stronger that mathematical fictions of "Value Added" or the false claims of voucher successes! We note that there were NO PRIVATE SCHOOLS in Louisiana selected for Blue Ribbon Awards this year. Surely SOME of the voucher schools should be on the list, or? Perhaps not.

15) Comment by hemogoblin - 07/09/2012

Outstanding accomplishment for the students, teachers, and administration. Congratulations!

16) Comment by ex-louisianian - 07/09/2012

The best schools in Baton Rouge, an in LA in general, are its magnet and GT public schools.