Posted by country-dude on Fri, Jun 15, 2012, at 9:04 AM:
A great guy. Good luck Frank.
Replies (16)
Is it true that SCC is cancelling their 7th hour PE classes for basketball? Rumor has it that the team will no longer start practice during this last hour of PE and that all practices have to end before 5 pm. If this is true it might explain why Kenyon Wright left and why Semona Penrod who coaches the girls team also stepped down. With the school being in a lot of academic trouble with DESE maybe the administration is finally taking the focus off of basketball and worrying about the other 100 students in the high school for a change. Maybe these two coaches saw how this is no longer going to be a great basketball situation and decided to move on?
-- Posted by old scc alumni on Sun, Jun 17, 2012, at 2:40 PM
Focus should always be on academics!
-- Posted by catfish_162001 on Sun, Jun 17, 2012, at 10:49 PM
How could a good or bad basketball team impact academics?
How could a good basketball team impact the other 100 students in the high school?
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Mon, Jun 18, 2012, at 1:21 AM
Dustin, Here are some End of Course Tests results from DESE regarding SCC high school students. As you can see the school is struggling in all areas except English II. For your convenience here is where I got these: http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/mo/district-profile/312#eoc
I am a supporter of high school sports....but these scores really demonstrate what old scc alumni was trying to say. It is fair to say that a strong sports program is very effective at reaching out and helping a few students; however, it is equally true that we are (for whatever reason) letting far too many students fall through our educational cracks.
Scale: % at or above proficient
Government
32% (2011)
The state average for Government was 57% in 2011.
Algebra I
19% (2011)
44% (2010)
21% (2009)
The state average for Algebra I was 60% in 2011.
Source: MO DESE, 2010-2011
English 2
71% (2011)
70% (2010)
73% (2009)
The state average for English 2 was 74% in 2011.
Biology
30% (2011)
27% (2010)
18% (2009)
The state average for Biology was 61% in 2011.
-- Posted by catfish_162001 on Mon, Jun 18, 2012, at 8:13 PM
catfish_162001
There is no evidence there is a direct correlation between bad test scores and good athletes.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 1:13 AM
When I was in high school I went to a sporting event every night and was still valedictorian of my class. I did the same thing in college and graduated with a 3.93 GPA in college.
Just because students are interested in sports doesn't mean they should make bad grades.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 1:16 AM
Changing the time of basketball practice is unlikely to raise test scores.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 1:21 AM
I would also argue schools should put more emphasis on preparing their students for the ACT test than MAP tests / DESE tests.
The high school I attended had teachers who were more concerned with preparing students for state testing than preparing students for the ACT test.
It is in a student's best interest to score higher on the ACT test. It may be in a teacher's best interst for a student to score higher on a state test.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 1:42 AM
1.) DESE will close a school if tests scores are too low for too long
2.) No one enjoys supporting high school sports more than I do
3.)Schools exist to educate young people-not the other way around: math, reading, science, communication arts and social studies are not the
Extracurricular Activities
4.)Your mother should be very proud of your high school grades
-- Posted by catfish_162001 on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 5:07 PM
catfish_162001
There is no evidence there is a direct correlation between good athletic teams and bad test scores.
Without doing research I'd be willing to make the hypothesis Notre Dame had good test scores many of the years it had teams that won state titles in multiple sports.
If the test scores are bad other factors besides having a good basketball team have likely contributed to the problem.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 8:08 PM
I bet their test scores are going to skyrocket now, I know my state test scores back in the day probably would have been terrible if I wouldn't have had my P.E. classes.
-- Posted by DaleDoback on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 8:10 PM
"Accreditation is the state's way of saying that we're putting you on notice -- that you have two years to get this matter corrected," says Stephen Green, the interim Kansas City superintendent. "It is a definite signal of alarm and concern."
The above was taken from an article discussing the failure of Kansas City's schools:
Kansas City's Failed Schools Leave Students Behind
Dustin, I know that there is no direct/indirect correlation between successful verses non successful athletic school programs and academic acievement....you have missed my point.
-- Posted by catfish_162001 on Tue, Jun 19, 2012, at 9:32 PM
catfish_162001
You say focus should always be on academics. I agree.
However, my point is I don't think the athletic program at a school should be a scapegoat because of poor test scores.
-- Posted by Dustin Ward on Wed, Jun 20, 2012, at 12:15 AM
The fact they are removing the basketball PE class at SCC for boys and girls means that kids can take other classes if they need them. Think about it for a minute. You need 24 credits to graduate. I'm pretty sure you only need 1 PE credit to graduate in MO. So you have about 40 or more kids on the boys and girls basketball team out there that have been taking 3 extra years of PE for no reason. Now they can take classes they need to graduate instead or take a study hall or something to get test scores up. When the state tells you to fix it or we're shutting you down but you have over 1/3 of your entire school playing basketball every single day for all the entire four years they are in high school it just doesn't make sense. That's all people are trying to say Dustin. They could have a good team and good academics. Just practice after school like everybody else. If they do it that way fine no problem but for their school to be in serious trouble and they continue to put these 40-50 kids in a PE class for four straight years doesn't make sense to me or probably to DESE.
-- Posted by old scc alumni on Wed, Jun 20, 2012, at 7:54 AM
this is the principles idea and i think its pretty stupid!!!!!!!!!! scc has had 7th hour PE forever,taking it away will not raise the kids grades period....only the kids can do that,and the parents need to push and help their kids in there studies imo
-- Posted by kmasters on Wed, Aug 8, 2012, at 11:33 AM
I did my student teaching at SCC in the middle school in 1989 and lived and coached in the school district for 4 years. The principle at the time came to my 8th grade classes and talked to them because 2/3 of them were failing. I had many students who could barely write an intelligent essay. On top of that, many of the teachers and administrators at the time were very lackadaisical. The problems there are deep-seated and have a lot to do with the homes and communities they were/are forced to live in.
This is not to say there were not many outstanding kids, teachers, and parents at SCC then or now. In particular, the teacher I worked with at SCC was an incredible and dedicated woman. It is to say that it's going to take a lot more than cancelling a 7th hour PE class to fix SCC academically.
-- Posted by Preacher Man Fan on Wed, Aug 8, 2012, at 2:36 PM
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A great guy. Good luck Frank.
Replies (16)