Win in the Classroom


As part of his recap of this weekend’s high school football action, The Register’s Cody Goodwin mentioned the consecutive win streak of suburban schools over DMPS teams is now 115. 

Just to be clear Ankeny, Centennial, Dowling, Johnston, Southeast Polk, Urbandale, Valley, and Waukee have beat up on East, Hoover,Lincoln, North, and Roosevelt 115 times in a row.

In case you are wondering, Lincoln beat Urbandale 13 to 12 on August 28, 2008.

This is a problem which has led some district officials to propose setting up a special classification for athletic competition limited to those schools with particularly high numbers of students of low socio-economic status. This proposal is debatable, but a much larger problem and tragic issue lies below the headlines on the sports page.

City schools are lagging just as badly in the classroom.

This chart shows two significant measures of academic progress: Reading proficiency and 4 year graduation rates. 


Clearly we need to change course. The football field might provide the most high-profile (and painful) example of the achievement gap, but our failures in the classrooms throughout the district have to take the highest priority. Many of the inequities involve a lack of financial resources, but others do not.


There are school board elections coming up on November 5th. Candidates need to be asked about closing the gaps and once elected, board members need to ask more of every single employee from top to bottom (including me!).

Notes: 
Today’s story can be found here.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/09/22/iowa-high-school-18-thoughts-week-4-ankeny-dm-roosevelt-southeast-polk-dowling-catholic-wdm-valley/2384868001/

Cody was off slightly in his article. The last metro win over the suburbs was in 2008, not 2009 as stated in the paper.

The academic data was gleaned from the Iowa School Report Card.
 https://www.iaschoolperformance.gov/ECP/Home/Index

Other 4A school districts with demographics similar to Des Moines were included to provide a more balanced basis for comparison.

This blog touched on the athletic side of the issue during the summer. 
https://leadershipstars.blogspot.com/2019/06/no-substitute-for-victory.html

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