South Tahoe elementary makes list of low-performing schools
By Diana Lambert, Sacramento Bee
Four Sacramento-area schools have made the list of the state’s lowest-performing schools.
The California Department of Education released the list of roughly 200 schools this morning. The schools on the register are in the bottom 5 percent of the state’s lowest-performing schools, based on how students have scored on state tests, and will have to undergo dramatic reforms.
In Sacramento County, they are Oak Ridge Elementary in Sacramento City Unified and Natomas High School in Natomas Unified. Woodland Senior High School in Woodland Joint Unified in Yolo County and Bijou Community School in Lake Tahoe Unified in El Dorado County also are on the list.
And of course the teachers all want raises!!
We don’t have enough teachers who are bilingual and probably more important, not enough parents who are bilingual. I feel for the poor kids who don’t get enough at school or at home. Love, yes. Help, no.
Many of my ancestors and family members came here and did not speak English.They feel they learned English faster because they did NOT have bi-lingual teachers and because their parents encouraged them to speak more English than their native language. I once heard a Hispanic teacher say that it was an insidious form of racism to allow second language learners to keep leaning on their native language. Most feel immersion is the best way to learn a language and it is a handicap NOT to get them to speak English fast in an English speaking country. Something to think about.
JoAnn is a realist and Steven doesn’t even begin to get the 5X7!!!!
Are other schools with immersion programs on the list too? Don’t be so quick to blame the immersion program.
Laurie
You are right, I don’t get the 5X7! What is it?
And since the school district is looking to cut over a million dollars, maybe they should just close the elementary school. If the kids can only score well enough to be in the bottom 5% of the worst schools in the state, either fire all the teachers and start over or close that day care center, that is called a school, all together! Come on Tahoe, you are better than the bottom 5%!!
Kids in low performing schools often do not get enough academic help at home. The schools cannot raise kids 24/7 in 6 hours, 5 days a week when school is in session. For those who have not been inside Bijou school, the kids are all learning English but No Child Left Behind requires that each new group learn it faster than the group before. It’s not a question of whether they are learning, it’s all about how fast. The Spanish speaking kids in the Spanish immersion program are also learning better English quickly, even more so when they spend time with families of friends who speak mostly English.
If we keep the same students, would any of these solutions work No Child Left Behind magic?
We could integrate the Magnet School so it has the same proportion of lower socioeconomic English learners as the other schools (instead of being a white flight higher socioeconomic refuge).
If we’re going to get rid of the principal and 50% of the teachers, why stop there? Why not get rid of the whole district office, the school board, all of the county and state public education officials? This doesn’t make any more sense than punishing the principal and teachers for the failure of parents to educate their children at home. There may be some value to getting rid of No Child Left Behind though.
The school’s low test performance is not a matter of parents not speaking and teaching English at home. It is the result of parents not educating their children at home, regardless of what language they speak. The schools are doing a good job and do better when parents participate more, at home and at school.
I would encourage anyone who questions the efforts made by the staff of Bijou school to contact the principal, visit the site. Education isn’t all about test scores. Even the presidential advisor who authored the No Child Left Behind Act has now questioned it’s merit.