<p>I guess the point I was trying to make is that because the school has very dedicated teachers and parents as well as fairly high expectations for students, that is making more of a difference than just throwing more money at it
Bill gates has been going around the country giving money to schools who want to become smaller- but this school with 1700 students is offering economies of scale that you can't necessarily get in a smaller school. I would love to see smaller class sizes, the standard is 32 ( throughout district )although some are bigger, but I think a lot has to do with the teachers-
( even though I don't use Microsoft and Gates is a republician and lives in Bellevue- I still think he has done some great work- I just get riled when I see schools bending over backwards to get some of his money- and in the school I was previously involved with- I saw them change their transformation plan to what they were actually doing- rather than what they had intended to do in the first place- I guess they were reverse engineering their budget- but it wasn't what they needed to do )</p>
<p>Because this school has the reputation that it does, it is easier to get individuals and businesses to contribute, imo. It is the alma Mater of Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones among others and stood up to provide MLK jr a place to speak when the biggest church in town turned him down.
Meanwhile schools without such strong PTAs are really having difficulty in a climate that all but requires them to raise money to fund teaching posistions.
Our district cites schools as doing well with NCLB as compared to other schools, but when you see that the school has 8% FRL as opposed to schools with 90%, I think- "well I certainly hope they are doing that well- when the parents have professional degrees and they live in a fancy part of town, why are we patting the school on the back when the students pass a test?
I feel the same way when schools that have entrance exams or other criteria to be accepted do well, why shouldn't a school that can hand pick students do well? We need to look at what other criteria come into play besides motivated and prepared students, and at Garfield, I think it is teachers and parents.
Other schools have motivated teachers as well, but because Garfield has a strong reputation, I think it may encourage dedicated teachers to come, it must be discouraging at schools where you might have promising students, but for whatever reason, aren't getting the support from administration and parents.
I would like to see schools that are much more successful than others, redistribute outside money including money raised by PTAS to schools that have more need. We have elementary schools of about 230 students raising over $200,000 but we have other schools who don't have enough textbooks.
One high school has enough graphing calculators so that students don't even have to bring theirs to school, but another school doesn't have copy paper to make hand outs.
It is a very uncomfortable place to have PTSAs funding staff positions.
If we can raise the money for say a reading tutor or Ap physics class, it adds to the education for everyone, but then the legislature says" see, you didn't really need us to give you more money".
It reminds me of how the district told me they would handle the education of my oldest- who was all over the chart in terms of academics, easily 3 or 4 grades above in some areas, but 2 grades or so below in others. In order for her to get help, they said she would have to be two grades below in everything to qualify.
That was never going to happen, her determination and intelligence was not going to allow her to be 2 grade levels below- why do we need to wait for someone to fail to help them?
Why do we need to wait for a school or district to fail before we see what is needed? It doesn't make sense.
I hope things will change- I don't want to live in a city where the only families who are attending public schools are the ones who can't afford to live anywhere else.</p>