MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

Editorials

Discussion

August 21, 2012

Adults at core of problem

— Allowing students to transfer from two critically low-performing Muskogee elementary schools was the legally and ethically correct thing to do.

However, allowing students at Cherokee and Grant Foreman elementaries to transfer anywhere in the district makes it more difficult to fix the problems at the two schools.

The State Department of Education had Grant Foreman and Cherokee on its list of “focus” schools in the spring.

Those schools were considered low performing.

By law, the school district was required to inform parents and allow any student to transfer.

Any parent with a desire to see their child receive the education to which they are entitled would at least explore the opportunity for a transfer.

However, moving the children to another school will not fix the problems at the schools.

The children were not low performing — the schools were low performing.

That places the problems at the feet of the adults in the equation — parents, educators and administrators.

Each parent in the equation must not just assume transferring their child will solve the problem.

Parents must become engaged in their children’s education.

Fewer students at Grant Foreman and Cherokee won’t solve the elementaries’ problems. There must be a focus on the educators and administrators to prove their worth.

Fewer students won’t get the schools off the focus list if their education remains the same.

Text Only
Editorials