Equal Opportunity Schools collaboration agreement tabled
Dr. Greg Adkins
A partnership proposal to better identify and direct minority students and those among a lower economic demographic into more rigorous course work was pulled from consideration this week.
After some members of the School Board said Tuesday night they did not yet have enough information to vote on a collaboration agreement with Equal Opportunity Schools for $255,000, Lee Schools Superintendent Dr. Greg Adkins withdrew his recommendation for now.
“This is a very important matter for the school district. We, as many school districts across the nation, have difficulty making sure students that have the ability to do high rigorous work are identified and allowed that opportunity,” he said. “This is an endeavor to try to improve that within the district. Rather than pushing forward, we do have the time to step back and provide you with a little bit more information.”
The Equal Opportunity School collaboration agreement will be brought back before the board with a more focused conversation on the issue.
School Development Executive Director Clayton Simmons said Equal Opportunity Schools, an organization that approached the school district, is willing to work with them to improve rigorous courses for students of color and lower socio-economic backgrounds. He said EOS would partner with the district and survey students and find the areas in which they are strong, need help, and areas in which they have an interest.
In addition, EOS would survey the district, school and staff and find the ways in which to place the students in rigorous courses, as well as train staff to identify the students who could be placed in IB (International Baccalaureate), AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education), or AP (Advanced Placement) courses. Simmons said they can identify the student’s interests and talents and put them in an advanced curriculum based on that, rather than a score, or GPA.
“We want to broaden the opportunities for all of our students and making sure we are paying attention (to those) that are traditionally overlooked,” Simmons said, adding that principals were really fascinated by the program and want to get going and track those students.
Some of the concern the board shared on the agenda item was simply not having enough information to vote.
Board member Melisa Giovannelli said she wanted to see the data and how successful the program is, as she did not have enough information to support the motion at the time.
“Considering everything I read, sent to me, causes me to have pause,” she said.
Board member Betsy Vaughn said that she too felt the need to comment on the item, as her concerns lie in what the district is not doing.
“We absolutely need to get more of our low-income students, minority students, in our advanced courses,” she said. “It’s an issue we need to deal with.”
Vaughn said to be successful, that vertical planning with rigorous courses needs to start in middle school.
“It’s not right to some of our kids, their intellectual talents are not being nurtured or discovered in time. I will support this, but it’s one of those supports that I am counting on what I heard today to be true,” she said.
Chief Academic Officer Dr. Jeff Sprio said they have AICE coming to all of the middle school students to provide them with one experience of an AICE course to see what that kind of course rigor feels like.
“We want diversity in the most rigorous courses we have because we want to open opportunities to that,” he said.
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