The core city is only as good as its schools
Robert Rivard - Robert RivardWeb Posted: 06/20/2010 12:00 CDT
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You and I might not have children attending an inner-city public school, but the San Antonio Independent School District board's pending performance evaluation of Robert Durón, its reform-minded superintendent, could have lasting effects on us all.
Durón was hired four years ago to attack SAISD's chronic dropout rate and to improve academic achievement in a low-income environment where fewer than one in five graduating students attends a four-year university.
He was hired as a change agent in an improving, still-troubled district, not as a caretaker of the status quo. Will the board summon the unity and purpose to allow him to succeed?
A key element in Durón's strategy — endorsed by a blue ribbon commission that studied the issue for a year — has been to shut down failing schools in inner-city neighborhoods with declining populations. Closing schools was seen as the best way to reallocate funds to rebuild the schools that would retain and attract families in the district and provide their children with the teachers, programs and facilities necessary to achieve academic success.
Building a suburban-quality high school campus inside Loop 410 would be a transformative act in a district long accustomed to making do. It would inspire inner-city students, most of them minorities, and give them a tangible reminder they are every bit as smart and important as students in wealthier districts, and every bit as deserving of a first-class public school education.
But closing worn-out schools isn't easy because they are such an important part of any community's sense of place and history. Alumni have a sense of nostalgia for their alma mater, even if the school is underperforming and producing mostly alumni trapped in a world of low incomes and equally low expectations.
Durón was hired four years ago to attack SAISD's chronic dropout rate and to improve academic achievement in a low-income environment where fewer than one in five graduating students attends a four-year university.
He was hired as a change agent in an improving, still-troubled district, not as a caretaker of the status quo. Will the board summon the unity and purpose to allow him to succeed?
A key element in Durón's strategy — endorsed by a blue ribbon commission that studied the issue for a year — has been to shut down failing schools in inner-city neighborhoods with declining populations. Closing schools was seen as the best way to reallocate funds to rebuild the schools that would retain and attract families in the district and provide their children with the teachers, programs and facilities necessary to achieve academic success.
Building a suburban-quality high school campus inside Loop 410 would be a transformative act in a district long accustomed to making do. It would inspire inner-city students, most of them minorities, and give them a tangible reminder they are every bit as smart and important as students in wealthier districts, and every bit as deserving of a first-class public school education.
But closing worn-out schools isn't easy because they are such an important part of any community's sense of place and history. Alumni have a sense of nostalgia for their alma mater, even if the school is underperforming and producing mostly alumni trapped in a world of low incomes and equally low expectations.