Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith has a
guest column in today’s Oregonian titled “Progress in Portland Public Schools:
Community support helps schools aim higher.” Unfortunately, her goals for
students are too low and she leaves out part of the community. She writes (in
part) (here):
Portland
depends on schools to prepare students with the knowledge, skills and
imagination to contribute to a thriving economy and vibrant neighborhoods.
Families, volunteers, civic and faith groups, and employers all play important
roles.
In turn, schools must keep aiming higher. To accelerate our progress, Portland's students need
to see that all of the adults in our community are committed to every student,
every teacher and every school
succeeding. That's a message we want our
students to both hear and experience every single day.
First, most people agree on the importance of schools both
for individual students and our communities. What we disagree about often is
the curriculum, just what skills our students will need for a thriving economy
in the future. I think, given the rise of Asian economies, that more, different
and better foreign language skills will be needed. PPS has been unwilling, in
spite of both my pleas and strong parent demand, to expand either the Mandarin
or Japanese immersion programs. PPS added a French immersion program only when
parents formed a charter school. Think what kind of a message to students from
PPS that sends.
Second, there are parents, students, and others in the
community who want more foreign language immersion and high school study abroad
programs. They understand that globalization has altered and continues to
change the economic playing field. But there is another community group, a group of overly zealous neighborhood school advocates, who dislike all magnet,
special, and immersion programs and who are a significant component of the
political coalition which rules PPS. They are in control of both the
superintendent and the Board. They do not permit more immersion programs. They have
dumbed down the curriculum but now want us to believe they “are committed to
every student, every teacher and every school succeeding.” Baloney! It’s just
rhetoric and hypocrisy.
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