Principal’s column shows what’s wrong with C.R. schools

By Dick Fredericks

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The Jan. 2 Gazette carried a guest column by the principal of Cedar Rapids Washington High School that serves as an arrogant example of what is wrong with the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

It touts artificial intelligence, because it does not admit anything about using dumbed-down tests and test-taking gimmicks used to raise tests scores without students learning more. Other Cedar Rapids school principals know the tactics this principal used to deviously claim 67 valedictorians in a high school that once honestly claimed a single valedictorian.

Ralph Plagman's column said nothing about Washington High School being on the federal No Child Left Behind In Need of Assistance list, for five consecutive years, for academic failures in both math and reading. The principal said nothing about any plan, or effort, to fix the failures. He ignored the failures and gets away with it in a school district that has been on the In Need of Assistance list for four consecutive years of academic failures in math, and five years in reading. Had the district and high school been Title 1, both would have been taken over and managed by the state, per NCLB mandate.

The district and high school are guilty of academic child abuse that is career limiting in a world economy that all district students face.

The principal's claim that student achievement at the school has “never been higher” is bogus. “A Nation at Risk” and the litany of reports, articles and numbers show that U.S. schools have fallen from among the top in the world in 1950, to a ranking of 28th today, and that Iowa has fallen similarly in U.S. school rankings.

The postings and charts on website

http://iowalive.net/ and Iowa school district rankings linked on websites http://www.iowalive.net/rankings%2005-07.htm, http://www.iowalive.net/school%20cheating.htm, and http://www.iowalive.net/ranking8.htm show the Cedar Rapids school district ranks near the bottom of all Iowa school districts.

Website http://

www.iowalive.net/

history%20of%20iowa%20school%20failure.htm shows the 40-year-plus history of Iowa public school decline, despite a litany of costly, failed attempts to stop it. All Iowalive postings are primarily based on public school reports and other public data.

The principal said nothing about pathetic graduation rates, or the number of graduates who cannot first-time pass the current, dumbed-down GED test (likely 65 percent) or the large percentage of students (likely at least 40 percent) who take remedial classes in college.

The principal cited cops needed to prevent intruders from entering the school. Had he honestly included but a few of the school's dismal failures, the cops would be needed to keep irate parents from entering the school. One wonders if the cops are already used for that purpose.

The principal claimed 86 percent of the 2009 Washington grads went directly to a two- or four-year college the fall after high school graduation. The claims is so absurd that I would not believe any of them, without verification by an independent audit.

The principal is herein asked to provide me, at the e-mail address below, the public records showing the college and university enrollment data he used to support such an unbelievable enrollment claim.

The principal's guest column is a blatant, self-serving attempt to grade his own paper in an arrogant attempt to boost his record before announcing his retirement, from a high school that is no longer a shadow of what it was, no thanks to him.

Kudos to any school district principal who is honestly planning and honestly expecting to improve student achievement.

Dick Fredericks of Palo is retired executive director of Rockwell Collins Organizational Development and is spokesman for Iowalive Network, a network of volunteer residents and professionals for improving Iowa. Comments:

rafia@fmtcs.com