WARNING : Every family with students in the Quakertown Community School District needs to read this. Here is your worst nightmare: The district's own secret surveys reveal - in no uncertain terms - that our students are not being properly prepared for college. But it hasn't been publicly acknowledged because certain administrators and board members seem more concerned with justifying their own bad decisions than properly educating your sons and daughters.
The school board is currently debating whether to offer a choice between traditional math, or the current integrated math, starting in September. Five members initially were opposed, Kelly Van Valkenberg, Nancy Tirjan, Robert Leight, Linda Martin, and Zane Stauffer, but I understand that Stauffer has changed his mind. At the January 25 meeting, the math task force will summarize its findings, and almost certainly will recommend traditional, perhaps with some elements of IM.
No one has told you, but the data gathered by the task force is beyond embarrassing. Even QCSD's Pollyannas can't ignore all of this bad news, no matter how they spin it. They are holding back results from four surveys: 2006 graduates are overwhelmingly negative about IM; parents of those 2006 graduates are even more upset; 2005 graduates were totally unprepared for college math; QCSD math and science teachers are almost unanimous that IM is a failure here. And our graduates are proving it...
Sixty-three percent of the 2006 graduates gave QCSD math preparation a "D" or "F". Only four percent rated it an "A". There are dozens of angry comments, which all sound like this one: "I am completely disgusted with Quakertown's math program. There was no preparation for my first college math course whatsoever. Because of this, I have now failed, and have to retake, my pre-calculus course in college. Because I have failed, it significantly lowers my GPA. Because I have to retake the class, I will now be behind in all of my courses and may not graduate in four years."
Parent responses echo this. Sixty-six percent rated preparation "D" or "F". None said "A". Sample: "My son always enjoyed math and performed very well in his math courses until IM. His love for the subject turned to genuine dislike. He felt his teachers were not prepared to teach the course. In his first year of college he had to take a basic refresher course because he was not prepared for his math course."
Page after page of complaints. And those families' only sins were trusting that QCSD was properly educating their kids. Misplaced trust. We have been sentencing our children to failure, additional classes and semesters, lower grade points, and extra tuition just so some administrators don't have to admit they were wrong!
How can the district implement a program dealing with our children's futures without having any procedures to measure its effectiveness? Debra Kopp, who oversees curriculum development, insisted that they could not obtain information on students' college performances. Apparently they didn't try very hard. One dedicated parent, Lou-Ellen Renshaw, received complete details with only a couple of e-mails. Read this and weep...
Fifty-five QCSD graduates in 2005 took the Bucks County Community College math placement test. It has nine levels. Our kids averaged just above level three: basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In the real world, they are performing between fourth and sixth grade levels. For all other BCCC freshmen, the average is level five, or eighth grade material. This is pretty pathetic in itself, but what does it say about our students? And our schools?
This test does not contain any "word" problems, just straight computation, without the use of a calculator. Of course our kids struggle. QCSD has taught them only integrated math. But many of our board members still don't get it: colleges are traditional math all the way. They expect - demand - basic competence and skills, and we are just not preparing our kids for that.
The data also shows what actual courses BCCC freshmen end up in. Thirty-four percent of 2005 QCSD graduates at Bucks are from the upper half of their graduating class, meaning that they should be at the calculus level. Not a single one took calculus. Not a single one took pre-calculus. One freshman took college algebra. Three quarters of QCSD students ended up in basic algebra, or below, the lowest courses available at BCCC. And 34% of those kids received grades of D, F, or withdrew!!!
Gathering this information should not be the job of a private citizen like Renshaw. Either the board and staff were negligent, or this data has been deliberately ignored. Board member Paul Stepanoff praised Renshaw: "If it wasn't for her efforts, the school district would not even know what questions to ask, or even where to get data. We would continue to fly blind on this issue. She is the unspoken hero of the story and has had to put up with personal attacks from the staff to boot".
Those "personal attacks" came in a letter from Mary Bogle, the head of guidance. She has written them before. Administrators even tried to throw out everything Lou-Ellen had gathered. Stepanoff was furious: "The immediate response of these educators was 'damn the real data and stay the course'. They have done everything to demonize Renshaw, and the BCCC data, instead of actually trying to figure out what it means."
And now Renshaw fears retaliation. "I am supposed to be on the task force for the elementary and middle school math, too, unless they can find some way to remove me - and I have no doubt they probably will." Based on the way certain board members and staff have attacked opposition, she has every reason to be concerned. And so should you. Without her, both the board and community would be in the dark. Just like our graduates.
Classes of '07, '08, and '09 - be very afraid.
Have you wondered why Quakertown ex-manager Dave Woglom surprisingly departed January 2, giving only three days notice? When we heard back in early November that his severance package included vacation pay, people naturally assumed that it was for his unused 2006 days. Wrongo! His January 4 voucher to borough council, totaling over $33,000, included $8653 for five weeks vacation pay, and $1384 for four personals days - all from 2007!!!
He worked only two days in January, but received his full benefits for the entire year. In fact, until mid-February he will be triple-dipping from your tax dollars - three months severance, five weeks vacation, plus $75 per hour for "consulting".
This outrage is actually prohibited by the borough's own regulations, which state that vacations must be taken between May and November. Several former employees report that Woglom denied them any such pay when they resigned, even many months into a year. But the rule can be waived by one person - Woglom himself!
I asked council for an explanation. Only Jim Roberts was willing. He claimed that the payments were not "severance", but "consideration for certain releases and waivers the borough received". Like an agreement that neither side would "disparage or make any negative statement" about the other. Damn convenient. You shut my mouth and I'll shut yours. Good riddance.