Everett's Pride?

We’ve all seen the ever-present bumper stickers through out the city, proclaiming “Everett’s Schools are Everett’s Pride.” It’s been a wonderful public relations tool for Superintendent Foresteire for a number of reasons, the most important being that because people have tended to believe it, Mr. Foresteire has been somewhat insulated from criticism. Consider this -- last year a disturbing state audit of the Everett Public School System revealed wide spread mismanagement including unlicensed school teachers, bid-rigging, hundreds of thousands of dollars of misspent state and federal grant money, special education dollars spent on football parades and advertising, and misleading budgeting practices. Ordinarily, this alone would have gotten any other school superintendent fired, but the school committee via its “spokesman,” Robert Alconada, gave Mr. Foresteire an “A” as an educator, as reported in the Boston Herald.

Alas, that “A” is no more real than “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” The Boston Globe ranks Everett 10th graders 227 out of 280 in English, with 41% needing improvement or failing; in Math, Everett 10 graders rank 255 out of 280, with 52% needing improvement or failing. In English, Everett's ranking was beaten by Malden, Quincy and (gulp) Brockton. In Math - Everett's rank was beaten by Brockton, Lowell and Somerville. The "best blue collar school system?" Sadly, that's just an empty slogan.

2006 MCAS Results

The news was even more dismal on September 17, when the Boston Globe published an article indentifying two of Everett's schools, Parlin and Lafayette, as needing "corrective action" for failing to make progress in Math, English or both. Missing from the list needing corrective action was Revere. Do you still think we have the best blue collar school system? Even the Everett Independent, long a cheerleader for the superintendent, acknowledged these issues in last week's edition. Lowering the standards, however, is not the answer to the problem. Everett's school children need to have the skills to compete, whether in college or on the job, and lowering the standards won't help them achieve the skills to compete successfully.

Perhaps if the school committee stopped lowering standards for the Superintendent, we might actually get somewhere?

From the Boston Globe, 9/17/06:

State calls for action
The state Department of Education on Tuesday told 27 schools in the northern suburbs that they must take ``corrective action" to improve student performance. The schools on the list below were told that some students are failing to make adequate yearly progress in math, English l anguage a rts, or both.
District School
Amesbury Amesbury Middle School
Chelsea Chelsea High
Chelsea Clark Avenue School (5-8)
Chelsea Eugene Wright School (5-8)
Chelsea Joseph A. Browne School (5-8)
Danvers Holten Richmond Middle School
Everett Lafayette School prekindergarten-8)
Everett Parlin School (prekindergarten-8)
Gloucester Gloucester High
Gloucester Milton L. Fuller (elementary)
Gloucester Ralph B. O'Maley (middle)
Haverhill Consentino (middle)
Haverhill Haverhill High
Haverhill Silver Hill (elementary)
Ipswich Ipswich Middle School
Lynn Breed Middle School
Lynn Julia F. Callahan (elementary)
Lynn Lynn Voc Tech Institute (8-12)
Lynn Robert L. Ford (prekindergarten-8)
Lynn Thurgood Marshall (middle)
Malden Ferryway (K-8)
Malden Forestdale (K-8)
Malden Salemwood (K-8)
Masconomet Masconomet (middle)
Peabody J. Henry Higgins (middle)
Salem Collins (middle)
Saugus Belmonte Saugus (6-8)
Source: State Department of Education website
Compiled by Brenda J. Buote
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.