Submitted by John Arbeeny.
In response to Superintendent Banner’s presentation before Lakewood United on 23 September 2021, I’d like to give a truer picture of the state of Clover Park School District.
Don’t blame COVID for “challenges” in academic performance. Every school district has had the same challenges so it’s a common factor not unique to Clover Park School District. Don’t expect the District’s “equity policy” to change its dismal academic performance in 3-5 years. Banner does not have definitive information on the academic impact of “equity, diversity, inclusion”. It’s all just part of critical race THEORY; not proven FACT. Indeed the District’s equity policy in earlier form has been around for a couple of decades since the “social justice” days with then Superintendent Dr. Doris Walker with the results we see today: academic failure.
As an aside, I have to wonder why neither Board President Schafer nor Vice President Pearson bothered to attend the Lakewood United meeting. Indeed I have to wonder why there weren’t the presenters of the state of Clover Park School District in 2021. They are the public’s elected representatives and owe that public the interface and accountability for the District’s current status. Superintendent Banner is an employee and answers to the Board while the Board is supposed to answer to the people who elected them.
So let’s take a look at the District’s academic performance through 2019 before the COVID pandemic. The following information is available at the OSPI Report Card website below:
- 50.6% of students are grade level for English Language Arts (ELA)
- 38.4% of students are grade level for Math
- 39.8% of students are grade level for Science
- 85.4% of students attend class regularly
- 88% of students graduate after 4 years
These State supplied statistics are shocking: what would you give as a grade to a test or term paper that warranted a 50.6% or 38.4% or 39.8%? Probably a well deserved “F”! Despite these grades and that only 85.4% of students regularly attend school, the District still manages to graduate” 88% of students after 4 years! This is astounding! Who is it exactly that the District is graduating. Answer: students ill prepared for adult life after high school.
https://washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/ReportCard/ViewSchoolOrDistrict/100047
If this wasn’t bad enough then take a look at the District’s performance overall as shown by the “schooldigger” webpage below:
The District stands at 160th out of 247th districts or 35.2 percentile in academic performance: very nearly the bottom third of all districts within the State. 64.8% of the districts are doing better than Clover Park School District.
The District has dropped from a “high” (if it can be called that) of 46.3% down to a low of 35.2%, a drop of 11.1% in just 4 years. This is not progress!
The District between 2018 and 2019 dropped 23 places from 137th to 160th. This is not progress.
https://www.schooldigger.com/go/WA/district/01410/search.aspx
Academic performance, or lack thereof, however doesn’t seem to bother either the Clover Park School Board or Superintendent as evidenced by the apparent lack of any real discussion or corrective actions proposed by the Superintendent or Board and passed by a formal vote. My research of 123 Board meeting minutes is detailed in the Suburban Times 12 September 2021 article “Letter: Clover Park School Board: Leading from behind with predictable results”.
What the Superintendent and Board have chosen to do instead is launch out on an ill defined “equity journey”, essentially “critical race theory lite” to nowhere academically. Rather they seek to create graduating classes of indoctrinated “social justice warriors” who will remain just as ill prepared for adult life after high school. Is that really the purpose of our schools and tax dollars that fund them? Should our children be the “guinea pigs” in this theoretical experiment?
That is the sad state of Clover Park School District in 2021 which will continue unless change comes to the Board and Superintendent. You have that chance to change that on 2 November 2021. Vote for David Anderson and Jeff Brown if you think things need to change. Doing the same thing over and over , now for over 20 years, and expecting change is the definition of insanity. Our students, parents and community deserve better. The choice is up to you.
AMEN !
Keep the Republican politics out of school critiques if you want people to take you seriously.
Facts are facts. Facts are not opinion: they are facts. It has nothing to do with either Republican or Democrat politics. It has to do with factually based assessments of CPSD’s academic performance as detailed in the Washington State OPSI and non-partisan education organization assessments. I suggest you Google the supplied websites. What grade would you give a 35% test score? How bad does it have to get before you “get it”?
Current Board President Schafer recently crowed, during a 30 September 2021 League of Women Voters candidate forum, that in the 16 (yes 16) years he has been on the Board that graduation rates have gone from 60% to over 80%: a fact perhaps but devoid of the central fact that in the same period District academic performance has dropped precipitously. So who is it we are graduating? Students unprepared for adult life. That is not an accomplishment to crow about or a reason to vote for Schafer in this election.
He also gloated that CPSD has higher credit requirements than neighboring districts. But you can have high “requirements” with low standards. He’s making CPSD look like a self aggrandizing diploma mill.
A total disgrace and total failure. Sad and pathetic.
Parents of JBLM and Lakewood with students attending Clover Park SD high school programs should be very depressed about these numbers. The graduation rate increases are not reflective of reality. CPSD grads seem to be pushed out the door – Lakes High School especially – without anything close to on grade level or above grade level skill mastery.
Look not only at the superintendent/lt. superintendent and school board, but also look within the core of the district staff- Diane Carver in charge of Career and College Readiness, Susan Kontos in charge of Teaching and Student Learning, Tim Stults, Rene McCord, Matt Fiteny, Ray Kurtz, Karen Mauer-Smith, Chelle Gallow, DeWayne Lindh, Angela Brooks, Kevin Rupprecht and Tracy Lund – all of the individual administrators at district high schools, Kevin Ikeda who’s job is Asst Supt for Secondary Schools & Student Services, Kristi Smith who is the lead person in Student Services below Kevin’s direction, and for those families that have students in the district not able to receive review for services like an IEP, 504 Plan, or IHP, ask Michaela Clancy in Special Education why Clover Park is particularly neglectful when it comes to identifying and assisting in need students.
Go ahead Clover Park families, start asking them some questions!
The district’s main offices number is 253-583-5000.
Systems can only achieve what they are designed to achieve and design starts at the top: Board and Superintendent. Cadillac may make great cars but you can’t drive one from Seattle to Honolulu! Wrong design! During the recent (23 September 2021) League of Women Voters candidate forum, Board President Schafer actually stated:
“Even attendance, test scores, grade completion, those are indicators but they do not define whether a student is successful.”
WOW! Really? So quantifiable metrics of academic success don’t determine student success? Then what does? Un-quantifiable esoteric emotionally based policies, like “equity” do for which accountability is nearly impossible? I think I just discovered the systemic problem here! Is it any wonder that this mentality has infected the entire District and its personnel and has been doing so for the last two decades in pursuing the “social justice” utopia?
Change has to come from the top. The current Board can claim academic excellence is the District’s goal but that comes to naught in a system that denigrates the very measures of that excellence. Indeed, indicators of academic failure are debased as a way of avoiding academic accountability ; a smoke screen that lets Board, Superintendent, administration and staff off the hook for the education of our children. That has to change with change on the Board to begin with.
As Mr Arbeeny says, facts are facts. Sure, attendance and graduation rates have improved tremendously, but they are only part of the solution. Are the people we graduate going to be contributing members of our society? Is that possible if they can barely read or if they cannot cope with basic math? What happened to the 3R’s? Our district spends more time teaching students how to get along with each other than actually teaching students.
Before my husband retired from his former business in Lakewood he faced a significant challenge in finding employees with basic writing and math skills. Community colleges have to provide courses in these basic skills to high school graduates before the students are capable of succeeding in college level classes. 88% of Clover Park School District students may graduate, but that doesn’t mean they graduate with competent basic language and math skills, Statistics show that Clover Park School District employees and the School Board of Directors are failing their students and the communities in which they will live and work. Several of the School Board Directors have served for multiple years; yet statistics have not improved, only declined. My in-depth, multiple conversations with David Anderson and Jeff Brown, who are candidates for the two open positions for School Board Directors, have convinced me that they are well acquainted with multiple education issues at hand and are committed to exploring approaches to address them. New procedures and ideas are necessary before the district’s dismal statistics can improve. We, the voters, are responsible for the consequences of the elections on November 2. Will we maintain the status quo or provide opportunity for improvement?
Everyone making comments about CPSD have a lot to say and should be validated. After so many years of teaching the next generation the same old thing in the same old way, is it no wonder the students coming back to main stream “book learned” are board and are searching for education and not just out of a book. Education of the newer generation should be based on several different approaches with emphasis on friendship, acceptance, and everything else they will need to be successful after they leave school. Math should be taught by someone who understands the subject & basic “Arithmetic” as well as encouraging each person to interact with others having trouble in that subject. The same is true with all other subjects. “Current events” should be fun. “History” is something we all need to continue throughout our lifetime. This subject should include “history of the world” and “trivia”. EVERYONE has a talent; find out what it is and support that person to embellish on their special gift. Diction, manners, speech, and all other aspects of life should be taught to help everyone fulfill their destiny. Since “GOD don’t make no junk”, everyone, no matter where they come from, look like, rich or poor, deserve the best from those who can pass on knowledge from books or life lessons. There are so many opportunities for teachers and students, if we dare to enact and commit to a new direction.
John, when I read your numerous letters supporting the campaigns of David Anderson and Jeff Brown it appears you believe the district’s equity policy interferes with academic achievement. I would suggest that both academic and social lessons are important. While many of us remember being taught the three R’s, students today are not entering the segregated country that existed in the past. Of course academic achievement is important, but historical knowledge and social skills are also required for success in the world today. I support any effort to improve academic results but I do not support the elimination of equity policy. I cannot support the candidacy of anyone who would eliminate such important education.
There is a difference between education and indoctrination. Fix what education is supposed to be about first, academics, and then let’s see if there is a need for social engineering. I’ve found that those who excel at academics typically need less in the way of social engineering. What faith do you have that the current leadership will do any better with subjective “equity” than they have for objective academics?
The problem is that this Board and Superintendent have shown an inability to deal with academic achievement and instead have shifted focus (if there ever was any) on creating and graduating a new group of political activists. Focus on the individual not the racial, ethnic, religious, gender or sexuality group of which they may neatly fit into.
Have you analyzed the most probable outcomes of the current equity policy? Lower standards, segregation, emphasis on what divides us, tribalism, no real change in academic achievement. It’s already happening here and across the country: I can cite many examples. There is no reason to think that it will not happen here.
Just like the Marxist doctrine it emerged from, this sort of “collectivism” has failed everywhere it has been tried. It’s not about “doing it right” compared to other failures; it’s about it being a system, based upon a flawed philosophy, designed to fail.
This is so sad to hear, I graduated from Lakes in 1968, even then we had tough teacher’s pushing for good grades and being involved in the class. The one area that always confused me was that if I had a problem with any instruction in any of the class’s, there was no after class help period, you either got it or tough to be me. The teachers have lives and children, there way busy, even if there was class’s after school for me and other students how are we getting home? I never felt High School prepared me for the real world, the older guy’s that I worked with on the weekends and during the summer taught me the whats- up that I would be facing, Like the draft and going to Viet Nam. I went to Clover Park Voc-Tech from 10th grade to my senior year in Machine Trades, that was my saving grace, and when I returned home from the Navy I went to work as a Machinist until 2011. Ask the students what they think is wrong in there vision, Covid hasn’t helped for sure but something else is the problem, dull boring books, teachers that should never been hired, Bullies, drugs? My daughter and son went to Wilson, we supported them and had them involved in sports, kept them busy, not all parents can do that, and right now many parents are facing No current Job’s available, no home, no food. Some young men and women never feel safe at school no matter what grade, they just never fit in any group, there slang title is geek’s, and the bullies have a hay day with them. Make all schools 100% safe, remove the bullies, provide after school help for any student and bring the students spirit back, school needs to be a Safe Haven that every Student feels good to be going to every day!
Vocational training can be the saving grace for many students otherwise bored to death in “liberal arts-college prep” tracks which have little relevance in their lives. It may be just a “not ready for college” maturity issue or a desire to work with their hands by learning an applied trade to support themselves and families immediately after graduation. There is no “one size fits all” for every individual let alone grouping based upon race, ethnicity, etc.
However, there has long been a bias against vocational education by college degreed educators that has shifted the focus of education towards “everyone should go to college” which has been counter productive. That has to change. Then assistant superintendent Allan Cohen stated (2004 joint meeting CPSB and Lakewood City Council) that in the past we only supported “………….the best and brightest for college and to hell with the rest!”
Add that to the statement by then superintendent Doris Walker that the primary function of the District was “…………to support social justice” and you see why educators have often looked down their noses at vocational education while championing a college prep education to the detriment of many students who for various reasons should not go to college. The statistics regarding student unpreparedness for college entrance, drop out rates and astounding student debt bear witness to this truth.