EDITORIALS

‘We aren’t settling’

For the students’ sake, let’s hope not

SOMETIMES YOU just have to start over. That’s true of cars, investing, marriages, college majors, careers, gardening, Eagle Scout projects, dinner, brick-laying and certainly writing. If nothing’s going right, clear the decks and set sail again.

Over at Forest Heights Middle School in Little Rock, it’s time to start over. Past time.

Forest Heights is one of the worst-performing schools in the state. Of the 871 schools in the state, Forest Heights is either among the lowest2.5 percent of all Arkansas schools or the lowest 3 percent, depending on whether you’re tabulating test scores in math or literacy in general. The conclusion is unavoidable: Forest Heights is failing its students. And if it’s failing them, so are the adults responsible for keeping up with public education.

So the school district can either do something about it or not. And-hard as it is to believe-there are some who think Not.

Now before Little Rock’s school board is a proposal to convert Forest Heights to not only a better school but an innovative one. Come January 9th, the school board is to vote on whether to turn Forest Heights into a science-and-math academy. Along with another worthy proposal: Let’s turn Geyer Springs Elementary into a school for gifted and talented students. Both campuses would be redesigned for the 2014-15 school year.

Dexter Suggs, bless his heart, is the new superintendent of Little Rock’s school district, and he seems determined to-get this-improve the public schools. No telling how long he’ll last in the job with that kind of attitude. ’Cause we seen ’em come and we see ’em go, and the best of ’em tend to get run off by the deadwood on the school board.

Here’s hoping those days are gone and this school board can recognize quality when it sees it. Not just in educational programs but in school superintendents. Which means Superintendent Suggs is going to have to overcome the opposition of those who’d always prefer the status sorry quo. He’ll have to come to grips with objections like this one to any change for the better:

-What about the kids who attend those schools now and don’t qualify for the new up-tempo curriculum? Huh?Huh? What about them?

Well, they’d get to switch to a different school, for starters. Which would probably be a decided improvement. Those students would at least be able to get into a school that’s not 849th out of 871 schools in the state. In the case of Forest Heights, change, almost any change, is bound to be good for the students.

Norma Johnson, a member of the school board who has been the most vocal critic of the superintendent’s plans, says the district should be concentrating on helping under-achievers throughout the district. Which is just what Dr. Suggs’ plans are designed to do. But if Ms. Johnson has a better proposal, surely the board would be glad to hear it.

Greg Adams, another member of the board,seems to understand what’s going on here, and what’s at stake. He says the school district is bleeding students and has to show parents that the district is striving to make Little Rock’s public schools what they should be, not just a continuation of the same old underperformance. The superintendent’s proposal, he says, “tells the community we aren’t settling. We are taking a risk.” A risk that is very much needed in the Little Rock School District. Why settle for safe, comfortable, self-perpetuating failure?

CHANGING THE mission of Forest Heights to that of a STEM academy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) would be akin to giving the Astros the Cardinals’ lineup. What a change that would be for the fans. In the case of Forest Heights, converting to a science-and-math school would be a big change-for the better. From a creepy crawler to a butterfly.

If it doesn’t happen, if the school board votes down the idea come January 9th, then at least Forest Heights should be re-organized with a new principal authorized to make big changes-like being able to hire and fire any teacher the new principal chooses.

Let’s face it: If Forest Heights were a charter school, it would have been shut down years ago. Which has always been one of the great advantages of charter schools. There’s no reason it needs to be an advantage of only charter schools.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 12/23/2013

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