Steve, how long has Allendale been under State Board of Education control? Years. Decades. I think they may have been released from control once, but I am not sure as it has been so long and has made no difference. There is your answer to your question, my friend. The State has also moved a tremendous amount of funding their way with grants (that are likely not to be availalbe now) and it has not made enough difference to pull them out from State control. We have systemic problems that have to be fixed in tandem with education to make a difference. Our country (and our state) has made it clear that we are happy being the only industrialized nation without universal health care, without drug treatment programs, and pretty soon with the proliferation of AI and robotics, there will be few jobs. It will be even more bleak out there if we do not get a grip on what how to compassionately navigate our society.
I think Allendale is unfortunately an excellent example: one of the poorest, most majority-minority districts in the state, with a history of inadequate state support that probably goes all the way back to the post-Reconstruction era. And the fact that we evaluate such a district with tests that our own Education Oversight Committee has found in the past to be racially biased (I’m specifically thinking about the English EOCEP) suggests we are fine perpetuating the status quo of Allendale and similar districts “failing” (in the words of the state legislators who are mandated to fund and oversee them) rather than working on the structural problems you mention.
Steve, how long has Allendale been under State Board of Education control? Years. Decades. I think they may have been released from control once, but I am not sure as it has been so long and has made no difference. There is your answer to your question, my friend. The State has also moved a tremendous amount of funding their way with grants (that are likely not to be availalbe now) and it has not made enough difference to pull them out from State control. We have systemic problems that have to be fixed in tandem with education to make a difference. Our country (and our state) has made it clear that we are happy being the only industrialized nation without universal health care, without drug treatment programs, and pretty soon with the proliferation of AI and robotics, there will be few jobs. It will be even more bleak out there if we do not get a grip on what how to compassionately navigate our society.
I think Allendale is unfortunately an excellent example: one of the poorest, most majority-minority districts in the state, with a history of inadequate state support that probably goes all the way back to the post-Reconstruction era. And the fact that we evaluate such a district with tests that our own Education Oversight Committee has found in the past to be racially biased (I’m specifically thinking about the English EOCEP) suggests we are fine perpetuating the status quo of Allendale and similar districts “failing” (in the words of the state legislators who are mandated to fund and oversee them) rather than working on the structural problems you mention.
I would love to see a full blown case study of how the state has handled Allendale School District. If I had the time, I'd research it myself.