FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS : One day down, and only 177 to go!
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
What a gorgeous day for the first day of school. No monster thunderstorms or other weather disasters this year. It seemed as if everyone took their cue from the weather, since the first day was very smooth, all things considered.
Yes, there were a few schedule issues at the high school, as always. And a few students were tardy at every school, probably from miscalculating the time it would take to get to school and negotiate the much-heavier traffic. A few kids probably missed the bus, too. Those are all entirely normal and expected.
However, in sum, it was a great opening day for the 2008-09 school year. It's the one day of the year where every student has all A's, every team is undefeated and no teacher had to grade papers at home last night. It all changes tomorrow though.
You just never know what a new school year will bring, both in good news and the not-so-good news. We prepare and plan for each new year, but, inevitably we know that something will happen that no one anticipated or could have predicted. You just deal with these non-radar-detected issues as they arise as best you can.
A primary goal for the Fayetteville Public Schools for the 2008-09 school year will be to try and return the community focus to student learning. Several issues have hogged the attention over the last three years, including the library books debate, the future of Fayetteville High School, bullying and the superintendent search, to name a few. Collectively, we haven't focused as much as we should on the primary mission of the schools: curriculum and instruction.
Ask any veteran Fayetteville resident and she will tell you that Fayetteville students test well on average and that our schools have above average test scores when compared to the state and regional averages. That is still true, but we want to drill deeper.
One phrase you will hear a lot this coming year is achievement gap. That term refers to the test score gap between economically disadvantaged students and economically advantaged students.
There was, is and will always be a gap between the average test score of an economically disadvantaged student and an economically advantaged student. It's our job, however, to make the achievement gap as narrow as possible. There are a number of things we can do to help level the playing field so that the economically disadvantaged students can compete with their advantaged peers.
What about the other end of the spectrum ? We have students who come from rich educational and economic backgrounds and have numerous opportunities. How well are we doing with those students who are "born on third base ? "What percentage of them are actually making it to home plate ?
We'll be taking a much closer look at curriculum and instruction this year, and daily we will ask ourselves," What can we do TODAY to improve student learning ?"Yes, other issues will most definitely surface and require some of our time and energy. We're resolved, however, that we will deal with those issues and quickly return to our number one priority: student learning.
Alan Wilbourn is public information officer for Fayetteville Public Schools.
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