This just blew me away. Compare Mellon Middle School with Jefferson Middle School.
Mellon Middle School 72.9
Look at the range of scores within the elementary schools. Lincoln (where parents were asking for more teachers) scored 81.6, while Markham scored 99.3.
All this whileTimmy keeps tweeting about theater productions and sporting events, and the board wants to spend millions on turf, instead of text books and technology.
Update 11/14/17 5:34 PM Comparisons of the elementary schools' academic performance are below. In order to get reports for all the schools, a comparison was made to Howe.
Foster, Hoover, Markham, and Howe and Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, and Howe
Mellon Middle School Academic Performance
The link to the November 13, 2017 School Board meeting is http://multimedia.mtlsd.org/Play.asp?12065119097741230!5
Update November 15, 2017 5:47 PM You wouldn't know that there are big problems at Mellon when the district posts news such as Outcomes Report Show Gains in Student Achievement (saved in Google Docs)
17 comments:
I assume it's in reference to the Outcomes Report? Variatiability is a generic term under which variance, a specific formula based measure of dispersion, falls (I aasume that's what's going on)? Since the standardized tests were likely analyzed beyond using just the variance formula (standard deviation squared), it discussed Variatiability. Am I close???
I wasn't there, so I will find out after I watch the meeting video. I think you nailed it though, 11:23 PM.
Elaine
Looks like the parents at Lincoln have another strong argument for more teachers to reduce class size. Although the parents at Markham would probably rather spend tax dollars to turf some more fields for their all stars. You see, that's the problem. MTL itself has growing income disparity. It is still generally upper middle class, though increasingly not so - with greater gaps between families.
Did anyone else find it odd that the focus is only on Advanced and proficient but is entirely lacking information pertaining to basic and below basic PSSA scores? Adding those 2 categories, we would
get the below. What conclusions can be drawn??
Follow the test scores as the kids age. For example a 3rd grader in 2014-15 is a 4th grader in 2015-16 and a 5th grader in 2016-17.
2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
JES-3rd grade seems to rebound as they go through the 4th and 5th curriculums.
3 29.7 25.6 32.3
4 27.7 18.3 20
5 35.9 26.8 7.4
LES -4th grade issue??
3 21.8 25.3 15.3
4 24.6 39.3 33.8
5 20.9 29.5 24.7
MES
3 19 21.6 7
4 2.2 11.9 11.6
5 21.6 13 8.3
MMS
6 37.8 36.1 39.8
7 40.4 28.6 30
8 42.3 40.7 38.7
JMS
6 18.3 21.2 25.5
7 26.8 29.2 24.7
8 31.4 32.2 28.4
I just finished watching the November 14, 2017 school board meeting and saw some inconsistencies. first, the Josephine Posti reset presentation was pulled off the agenda. No discussion of the capital campaign at all.
Second, when resident Bruce Slater spoke during Citizen Comments, Mary Birks got answers to him immediately from Timmy, Dr. Davis, Jan Klein, boom, boom, boom. Then Paula spoke. No answers for her. Remember the Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi? No soup for you! Finally, David Huston spoke. I hope a reader can make a snippet of his comments along with Mary Birks and Timmy's responses. Timmy said that David's assessments were inaccurate. Nobody wants to talk about Mellon's performance.
Mellon is tanking. When the eighth graders from Mellon meet up with the eighth graders from Jefferson next year, they are in for a rude awakening. As David said, the Mellon kids are set for failure. Mellon feeds in approximately half of the student population at the high school.
Elaine
I think the Auditor was a little deceptive when she said the district has no control over PSERs liabilities. That’s not exactly true!
If you hand out things like 6% raises and $20,000 bonuses, especially in a depressed economy, it is going to effect your pensions liabilities.
Therefore the administration and the board DO have some control over PSERs liabilities.
Dr. Steinhauer met Mr. Houston's concerns with hostility and arrogance. He should get off his high horse and ride off on a house trained miniature horse.
For those Lebo Citizens readers who did not watch the meeting, 7:23 AM's reference to miniature horses pertains to the new service animal policy which will be approved next week. Service animals include dogs and miniature horses.
Elaine
It's a given that there will be anonymous comments criticizing me for the service horses comment. It would be discriminating not to allow horses in the classroom.
Elaine
So according to Dr. Margolis, there is increasing income disparity in Lebo and the evidence thereof are the different priorities of Lincoln parents (the haves) and Markham parents (the have nots).
Elaine then suggests that the Mellon kids, one third of whom originated at Lincoln, are ill equipped to compete with the Jefferson kids.
This is the narrative right? I have heard that Keystone Oaks is on the up and up, so that's good news I suppose. When this whole house of cards falls down, it'll be an easy commute.
Boy are you mixed up, 8:41 AM.
Elaine
There is no narrative, 8:41am, other than the one dictated by the facts. If you are suggesting that Elaine and I coordinate our thoughts like outfits, this is inaccurate. She won't even let me interview her for my final December BtB! Also, I don't look as good in purple as she does.
Finally, perhaps you should switch to a lesser-proof brand of whiskey, if your reading of the materials leads you to believe that Lincoln el is populated by the haves, and Markham by the have-nots.
Have you figured it out yet, 8:41 AM? For one thing, Lincoln kids go to Jefferson Middle School.
Elaine
Seems they cherry pick their information on artificial turf. They reference Penn State studies but fail to talk about this info.
“SiOWfa16: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy”
The course website and blog for the Fall 2016 instance of Penn State's SC200 course”
“Crumb rubber are the little black pellets that lie within the strands of artificial grass. The crumb rubber is usually made from recycled tires, and other recycled rubbers. Because it is made from recycling other objects, the exact ingredients within each granule of crumb rubber could be different. Some of these ingredients have also been proven to be harmful. A usual scrap tire contains 70% recoverable rubber, 15% steel, 3% fiber, and 12% of filler materials. In order to make the crumb rubber, the tire goes through an ambient process in which the recoverable rubber is separated out from the rest of the materials. Each company has its own ambient process and this is currently unregulated which can lead to harmful granules being produced.”
“ The four most common VOCs found within the rubber crumbs were acetonitrile, methylene chloride, methyl alcohol, and methyl isobutyl ketone. As far as compounds in the air, the SVOC Benzothiazole was the most common. Not much is known about these compounds in regards to human consumption, although they all contain acute-toxicity. Benzothiazole (BZT) is known to cause respiratory issues and dermal sensitization. BZT has also been found in salmonella during metabolic activation, which means when the compound is broken down by the body, a carcinogen could be activated and mutations could occur, which is what causes cancer.”
“Lead was found in a study by Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection where runoff from turf fields was tested for different leached metals. Along with this, high levels of zinc were found and were proved to be harmful to the surrounding groundwater and surface water.
As shown by these studies multiple toxins and possible carcinogens have been proven to be within and emitted by crumb rubber pellets. The main problem is a lack of testing. Many of these toxins have unknown effects on humans, and there potential as carcinogens is unknown. There are also an extreme amount of confounding variables as each granule can differ in what it contains, as well as the fact that each company could use different tires, materials, and methods to produce them. This makes creating a statistically significant result that is widespread very challenging There is also discrepancy on high the levels of these VOCs and SVOCs have to be to cause an effect on humans, but either way more testing has to be done in order to solve this potential issue.”
https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa16/2016/10/20/can-turf-fields-cause-cancer/
Then there is this: “The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization state that a blood lead level of 10 μg/dL or above is a cause for concern; however, lead may impair development and have harmful health effects even at lower levels, and there is no known safe exposure level.”
So it’s damn the torpedoes full speed ahead,... right sports buffs?!
A sobering thought; if we were talking about turfing Mellon field, there would be standing room only. Instead, we have one parent speaking up about tanking Mellon student outcomes.
Elaine
4:53 PM, while I truly appreciate all the studies you share here on Lebo Citizens, it is really a waste of time. We have three attorneys lobbying for artificial turf - Dave Franklin, Bill Moorhead, and Larry Lebowitz. We are also hearing from directors and parents. Paula asked for the vote to be tabled until the December reorganization meeting. I don't know what the board is afraid of. The board has committed to a full size regulation field. Actually, Mary Birks will not be able to vote on the artificial turf because it would be a conflict of interest with her husband/older gentleman who refs on those fields. The PA Ethics Commission is aware.
So thanks for all the studies and links, 4:53 PM, but no thanks. It didn't work with the municipality. It is not going to work with the school district. The board needs to hear from real people at the microphone. Not stuff posted here. They claim that they don't read the blog, but we all know they read every word. I don't need the speech about anonymity. Speaking at next week's meeting is the only thing that will be effective.
Nobody cares about education anymore. It is all about hall of champions, trophy cases, and artificial turf. To hell with academics. After the school district turfs all their fields, the municipality will be turfing McNeilly. Then there are bleachers, lights, etc.
Elaine
While this board spends an inordinate amount of time on trying to find a way to commit hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on artificial turf for years to come I wonder if they’ll be as financially committed to improving student academic perferomance.
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