To: Metro Nashville School Board, Sharon Dixon Gentry, Dr. Jo Ann Brannon, Jill Speering, Anna Shepherd, Elissa Kim, Cheryl D. Mayes, Will Pinkston, Michael W. Hayes, and Amy Frogge
Nashville School Board Keep Your Promises to our 5th & 6th graders!
Nashville School Board: Keep your promise to our fifth and sixth graders!
Why is this important?
Our children have worked hard for this opportunity! This is the last year of the TCAPS and the new Common Core standardized tests will be implemented. We suggest the MNPS school board wait and see how the students perform on these tests before changing anything. The problem may resolve itself.
Allow the students who are currently enrolled at HEAD to fulfill the promise that was given to them of attending MLK in the 7th grade if they qualify. Dr. Tonja Williams stood at the podium in the auditorium in August and said our children WILL QUALIFY FOR MLK by scoring an advanced/proficient in both math and English on the TCAPS, as well as being on the A/B honor roll. By changing this and not allowing them to be grandfathered in, and then subjecting them to new testing procedures puts these particular children in grades 5 & 6 at Head in double jeopardy, while at the same time being used as guinea pigs in the new system. Moving forward, the incoming 2014 fifth graders will know what is expected of them instead of changing the rules midstream on the current student body.
Making this sudden change puts the cart before the horse when we are entering a completely new way of qualifying children and their academic performance. No one has seen these new tests, yet alone knows how any child will perform. It may cut the number of children qualifying back anyway...it remains to be seen, does it not? So the predictability of increasing volumes of children qualifying for MLK are not entirely true are they? There is simply no way of knowing at this point.
Parents were told at the meeting on Sept. 16th that the Head and Rosa Parks pathway does not allow for other countywide seats to be open for MLK, but in essence it does. If children want to attend MLK, they can enter Head in the 5th grade just like our kids did through the lottery when there are over 250 seats WIDE OPEN! Just like Meigs leads to Hume Fogg.
Show Nashville that there are wise people on the board...people who actually care about our children's education and do what is right by voting NO. After that, let's implement more opportunities for all of the incredibly smart and gifted children in the system. The low economic and academically challenged children are served with more charter schools. As the Tennessean newspaper reported on Sept. 10th, "Metro school officials have raised alarm over the $61.3 million price tag expected to cover 22 charter schools that will operate by next year." This all became an issue because of a deficit in funding. These charter schools have an expected 6,212 students attending them! What about our kids? Where are they suppose to go? They deserve a challenging and exemplary education without having to go to a private school. Plan a two year change where the current 5th and 6th graders at Head will continue on to MLK as promised, at the same time, make Head an all academic magnet school like Meigs. With the number of children on waiting lists for Meigs this district can certainly use another all academic magnet if not two. Vote NO on the MLK/Head change.
Allow the students who are currently enrolled at HEAD to fulfill the promise that was given to them of attending MLK in the 7th grade if they qualify. Dr. Tonja Williams stood at the podium in the auditorium in August and said our children WILL QUALIFY FOR MLK by scoring an advanced/proficient in both math and English on the TCAPS, as well as being on the A/B honor roll. By changing this and not allowing them to be grandfathered in, and then subjecting them to new testing procedures puts these particular children in grades 5 & 6 at Head in double jeopardy, while at the same time being used as guinea pigs in the new system. Moving forward, the incoming 2014 fifth graders will know what is expected of them instead of changing the rules midstream on the current student body.
Making this sudden change puts the cart before the horse when we are entering a completely new way of qualifying children and their academic performance. No one has seen these new tests, yet alone knows how any child will perform. It may cut the number of children qualifying back anyway...it remains to be seen, does it not? So the predictability of increasing volumes of children qualifying for MLK are not entirely true are they? There is simply no way of knowing at this point.
Parents were told at the meeting on Sept. 16th that the Head and Rosa Parks pathway does not allow for other countywide seats to be open for MLK, but in essence it does. If children want to attend MLK, they can enter Head in the 5th grade just like our kids did through the lottery when there are over 250 seats WIDE OPEN! Just like Meigs leads to Hume Fogg.
Show Nashville that there are wise people on the board...people who actually care about our children's education and do what is right by voting NO. After that, let's implement more opportunities for all of the incredibly smart and gifted children in the system. The low economic and academically challenged children are served with more charter schools. As the Tennessean newspaper reported on Sept. 10th, "Metro school officials have raised alarm over the $61.3 million price tag expected to cover 22 charter schools that will operate by next year." This all became an issue because of a deficit in funding. These charter schools have an expected 6,212 students attending them! What about our kids? Where are they suppose to go? They deserve a challenging and exemplary education without having to go to a private school. Plan a two year change where the current 5th and 6th graders at Head will continue on to MLK as promised, at the same time, make Head an all academic magnet school like Meigs. With the number of children on waiting lists for Meigs this district can certainly use another all academic magnet if not two. Vote NO on the MLK/Head change.