In good company

School communities in MPS are trying hard and in many cases succeeding in the face of significant challenges. Authors and readers of this blog are not alone in trying to draw attention to what's going right in our schools.

Westside Academy principal James Sonnenberg and special education teacher Stephen Paske wrote a great column, "Critics of MPS just won't see for themselves" that was printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few days ago.

See for yourself:

You've probably heard about the proposals to fix Milwaukee Public Schools. These proposals largely stem from recent news coverage of the fights at various high schools, alleged financial abuses of School Board members and the low high school graduation rate in MPS. The perception of MPS schools, especially inner city schools, is that all students are out of control and little learning takes place.

But amid all the negativity surrounding the district, have you heard of James Ferguson? He's a Milwaukee High School of the Arts graduate who was accepted into Harvard, is a Marquette University student with plans to go to law school and is on track to graduate early.

Have you heard of Latasha Carter? She is a former MPS student who recently graduated from Ripon College, which she attended on a full academic scholarship. Or how about Tierra Terrell? She is on track to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Like Ferguson, she, too, has plans to attend law school.

How do we know of these successes? It is because these students attended our school, Westside Academy, for much of their K-8 education. And they are not alone.

The pictures of more than 50 other students who have walked through our doors and gone on to college hang on the wall of our school's main hallway. Despite coming from a neighborhood known for poverty and violence, they received an excellent education in a Milwaukee public school. Perhaps most encouraging is that stories like these are being replicated in many schools throughout MPS.

Despite their successes, you probably haven't heard of any of these students. We believe this to be a direct result of the negative image of MPS that has been perpetuated by the media and the rants of individuals who want to break up the district. Nobody writes a news article about a plane that lands safely, and seldom, if ever, does anybody write an article about the successes of MPS.

As it stands, we believe there needs to be a fairer balance in reporting, so parents receive a truly accurate portrayal of the district before deciding what educational system best fits their children. For too long, MPS has sat on its hands as individuals with no firsthand knowledge of our schools take us to task for our performance. We
believe it's time to fight back.

It's funny how when talking about MPS, nobody mentions schools like Westside Academy, which has been very successful in educating urban students. Our students come from an area of the city where the average family income is less than $20,000 annually. Yet as recently as two years ago, students who attended our school for more than one academic year matched the state average on eighth-grade standardized tests.

People love to criticize the lowest-performing schools in our district. However, have you heard that the MPS schools identified for improvement by the state Department of Public Instruction in 2005-'06 have shown a significant overall increase in their Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examination scores in reading and mathematics over the past two years?

The fact is, despite innumerable challenges, many MPS schools, even schools in the predominantly African-American central city, produce a large number of children who do end up graduating, going on to college and becoming highly productive members of society.

As a result, we, the staff at Westside, have wondered how many of the people who are suggesting a radical breakup of the district have taken the opportunity to visit an MPS school to get a firsthand look at the climate. Figuring many of them haven't, we recently sent out a letter to more than 30 prominent members of Milwaukee's media and governmental bodies, inviting them to come in unannounced to see how a typical MPS school educates Milwaukee's youth. Some names on the list included Mayor Tom Barrett, members of the Common Council, various radio talk show hosts and other prominent Milwaukeeans who will be part of the process of helping in the improvement of MPS.

Our staff sent out the letters because we are tired of people taking shots at MPS and telling everybody how it should be run when many of them have never set foot in a school to see what actually is happening. These people feel qualified to suggest how the system should be changed, yet their attitudes are solely based on what they've read or heard, not what they have witnessed. Interestingly, more than a month after the letter was sent out, only Barrett and Journal Sentinel education reporter Alan J. Borsuk have stopped in for a look.

Which leads to the question, if most of the prominent and influential members of our community who are speaking out against our schools are unwilling to take the time to visit even one MPS school to see how it functions, have they really spent the necessary time on the homework to know what changes most effectively would improve our public school system?

Or are they more interested in sticking to particular political talking points that have served their careers well over the years and are too busy to do any true investigative work that might alter their current opinion?

This is not to say MPS is without faults and that people don't have a right to criticize when criticism is just. With falling enrollment, MPS does need to more efficiently downsize. In a stagnant economy, upper-level administrative costs do need to be cut. In certain schools that are underperforming, more proactive measures need to be taken to improve the climate.

However, we feel if more people took the opportunity to visit MPS schools like Westside or any other school, there would be a far greater confidence in the district. Every day, countless teachers, administrators and schools do remarkable things despite very difficult circumstances.

Until the people who make a living bashing MPS take the initiative to come out and visit the schools, they aren't credible sources for the public to rely upon when making judgments about our city's public schools.

We implore you readers to come out and see for yourselves. We believe you'll be pleasantly surprised.