Dr. Michael Bonds
Milwaukee Public Schools is making progress. More MPS students are meeting reading standards.
The MPS Class of 2014 earned $31 million in college scholarships, an increase of $7 million from the Class of 2013 and U.S. News and World Report tapped four MPS high schools among the top 15 in the state of Wisconsin.
Under the leadership of MPS Superintendent Dr.
Darienne Driver, the district is increasing efforts to improve student achievement even more.
Over the next several months, Dr. Driver and the Milwaukee Board of School Directors will consider a series of Strategic Objectives and a Regional Development Plan. Working in tandem, these two efforts have the ability to jump start MPS improvement efforts.
The Strategic Objectives are aligned with the MPS Strategic Plan and the administration’s goals: Academic Achievement; Family, Student and Community Engagement; and Effective and Efficient Operations. Each of these goals has a series of programs that will be developed.
For example, the Academic Achievement goal will include efforts to close the gap, educate the whole child, refine the MPS experience and rethink high schools.
I am excited to work with the administration to move these efforts forward and to work with the community on shaping and implementing these plans.
The administration has also developed a Regional Development Plan which is designed to increase the number of seats in high-performing schools and improve the capacity for quality community support activities.
The Regional Development Plan has three main components: a Pathways Plan, Spotlight Projects and Community Cornerstone Projects.
Each component of the Regional Development Plan will have community input prior to Board approval.
The Pathways Plan increases the number of high performing seats and re-establishes feeder patterns that provide parents and students with program consistency from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Facility improvements, instructional program support, community building, neighborhood outreach and transportation redesign are key parts of this plan.
The Milwaukee Board of School Directors already approved a key measure of the plan which increases space for our popular Montessori program.
Spotlight projects improve enrollment and performance by aligning and restoring specialty programs and contribute to feeder patterns.
Examples of projects include an arts campus development.
Community Cornerstone Projects create, restore and expand non-classroom-based opportunities that benefit students and the community.
Projects such as Teachtown II – another housing and professional development program for new educators – an expanded Newcomers Center for immigrant families and Northside community recreation centers are among the possible projects.
These are well-thought out and well-developed plans by the MPS administration designed to improve outcomes for our students and our families.
Contrast our efforts to those in Assembly Bill 1, the school accountability bill being pushed by some Republican legislators.
It lacks details on how the program will be implemented.
It would turn public schools over to for-profit charter school companies. It hurts school districts and students across Wisconsin by syphoning money slated for all public schools to for-profit charter schools. Quite frankly, there’s more in this proposed legislation that benefits private charter companies than Wisconsin’s children.
The authors of Assembly Bill 1 are planning to make changes to the bill, but their concepts remain flawed. Assembly Bill 1 is a step backward and moves away from true transparency by allowing for a muddled grab bag of different tests.
Assembly Bill 1 experiments with Wisconsin’s students and their educational futures. Our children are too precious and the outcome is too uncertain for Assembly Bill 1 to become law.