A delegation from China visited Perpich and Crosswinds this week. Take a look at this wonderful post in the Woodbury Patch, “Music reaches across cultures when Chinese students visit Crosswinds Arts and Science School,” to see more pictures and learn more about the visit.
Here is a bonus picture, that also includes a glimpse of the new orchestra teacher and our students playing for the Chinese visitors.
UPDATE, now looking like the press conference is more likely between 3 and 4pm. Note, as a House event, we have no control over this one.
The Minnesota House leadership is holding a press conference about Crosswinds and Harambee at the Capitol today at 2:30. Please meet in the Capitol Rotunda at 2:15 to join up with other families, students, and teachers. Now is the moment! Come to the Capitol if you can. Bring your signs.
Please spread the word.
The House is very upset at the manipulations of the Senate against Crosswinds. Let’s help them make a strong showing!
The legislature did NOT include Crosswinds in the education omnibus bill, dooming our state-of-the-art $26M east metro integration magnet school to lie empty and disbanding our fine teaching staff and families. We are coming together one more time to ask legislators and the governor to do everything possible before the legislative session ends to continue this important integration magnet program.
Please join us TODAY (for most of you), Sunday at 11am, in the State Capitol just outside the Governor’s Office. Students from theater and orchestra will be present, Mr. Bass and some parents will hold a press conference. We need to ask for action to save Crosswinds.
See our press release for more details.
Sorry about the short notice, but if you can get to Crosswinds at 2:30pm this afternoon (5/16), please do! After a press conference there, a number of families will also be heading to the capitol. The session ends Monday and the Crosswinds situation has not be resolved! We need to demand the legislature take action to allow Perpich to run Crosswinds. The Crosswinds program must be preserved!
We have learned that some Washington County area state senators are demanding the House strip its bonding bill of Crosswinds related language. They want EMID to run the school for another year if District 833 is not allowed to take the building for its own use. We know that can’t work and we need to let the press and our legislators know how important it is to support Perpich and Crosswinds NOW.
Please join us at Crosswinds. If you are available later in the afternoon, please come to the capitol as well.
One of the things EMID families have learned to take with a large grain of salt are MCA test results. Even though now-Commissioner Brenda Cassalius was once our Superintendent, she has done nothing to reform the MCA testing calendar that so disadvantages year-round schools like ours. The MCA is still administered within a calendar-year window, and our kids have had roughly six weeks less time with their teachers when that window rolls around each year. This means that comparing our scores with schools that use a typical calendar is not very meaningful.
This year we have seen a number of efforts by other school districts to reform MCA testing calendar policies, or their own school calendar policies, to adjust for much smaller deviations from the norm. For example, just today Tim Post ran a story on MPR about rural districts worried about the impact of snow days on their MCA scores.
Officials in the Morris School district pushed some of testing in May back by a week to give students and teachers time to catch up after the disruptions of several snow days and late starts.
“A week matters,” Morris High School Principal Craig Peterson said. “Five more days of instruction matters, it matters for our kids.”
Such efforts show just how nervous school officials can get around the results of MCA tests.
Other districts have been trying to get the legislature to allow earlier school start dates in order to boost test scores.
The Le Sueur-Henderson School District has taken an approach similar to St. Peter’s, discussing the possibility of changing the calendar, but holding off on making any firm plans or asking for community input.
“If you look at our calendar, we have used the same one for a long time,” Hanson said during a recent school board meeting. “We have the problem of finishing the semester after students get home from their break. If we started school earlier, it would also give us two weeks more to prepare for state testing. What we’re looking for is how we can use that time best for our students to learn the best and get the best instruction.”
A study by Education Next in 2010 shows the impact missed education days can have. They point out that decision makers often overlook the contribution of time to standardized test results.
One implication of this oversight is that accountability systems are ignoring information relevant to understanding schools’ performance. Year-to-year improvements in the share of students performing well on state assessments can be accomplished by changes in school practices, or by increases in students’ exposure to school. Depending on the financial or political costs of extending school years, those with a stake in education might think differently about gains attributable to the quality of instruction provided and gains attributable to the quantity.
All of these concerns are about schools missing days or at most a week or two of instructional time before testing. Now recall that EMID schools are at a six week deficit when the MCA window rolls around. Six weeks. Our students are still in the midst of their third quarter when tested, while traditional schools are well into the fourth quarter during this statewide testing window.
As families, we have understand that Crosswinds is a great school because we see the results with our kids. We know they are learning, and in other tests that measure individual student growth we have even seen data of the achievement gap narrowing. We realize that the MCA test results do not show Crosswinds in the best light, but we don’t let that worry us. However, as some of this data is shared with legislators with the intentionally misleading comparison with traditional calendar schools, there is a danger they will leap to the conclusion that Crosswinds is underperforming. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The truth is that Crosswinds is doing a great job, but that job cannot be accurately reflected in a standardized test which is administered six weeks earlier to Crosswinds students than to everyone else. Let’s hope that legislators understand the data they are being shown.
Judy Spooner writes in the Woodbury Bulletin: Schools have long list of legislative concerns. The article describes the list of request school officials are making of their legislators in South Washington County.
In addition to the start date issue (833 wants a start before Labor Day), special ed, and kindergarten, the article discussed Crosswinds:
Jacobus also got legislators up to speed with information about the possibility of District 833 acquiring Crosswinds school in Woodbury.
The school is operated by the East Metro Area Integration District, which can no longer afford to operate it because 10 member school districts have withdrawn their funding in order to operate integration programs in their own districts.
On a year-round schedule with a focus on art and science with about 300 students, the school is half full of students from grades 6-10.
District 833 wants to take over the school but the Perpich Center for the Arts and Intermediate School District 916 are also interested.
Jacobus said 833 is the only metropolitan entity that can take over the school.
District 833 needs the school to address growth concerns but would not continue operating the existing program, he told lawmakers.
Tony Lonetree wrote for the Star Tribune: Woodbury school is saved, but work still needs to be done.
The board overseeing the integration school heeded parental wishes to save Crosswinds from closure by agreeing Wednesday night to turn the school over to the Perpich Center for Arts Education.
But the Perpich Center now must win legislative approval and funding by April 1 or see the building claimed, instead, by the South Washington County School District, under action taken by the East Metro Integration District (EMID) school board.
Christopher Magen wrote for the Pioneer Press: Harambee and Crosswinds: Transfer of the integration-focused magnet schools OK’d.
Crosswinds families will now turn their attention to the Capitol, where they have a short time to win over lawmakers in order to keep the school open.
“It means will still have a massive amount of work to do,” Zaiman said.
Judy Spooner wrote for the South Washington County Bulletin: South Washington County Schools in line for Crosswinds if Perpich can’t secure state money.
Deciding the future of Crosswinds, valued at $25 million including its property near Tamarack Road and Interstate 494, took a series of votes and amendments.
The final vote, to give the school to the Perpich center if it can secure funding from the Legislature, failed on a 5-5 tie.
After a short break, a second vote to amend the motion with a deadline of April 1, passed 6-4.
If District 833 acquires the school, it will be at no cost if the building is used for education. It was built with state funds.
Tony Lonetree writes in the Star Tribune: Fate of Crosswinds Arts and Science School in Woodbury may lie with Perpich Center. This article focusses more on the money and includes quotes from Perpich, our board, parents, and administration. The article ends with a not-quite-quote from Jim Gelbmann:
Wearing multiple hats in the situation is Jim Gelbmann, a South Washington County board member who also is an appointee to the EMID board.
The Perpich Center proposal has gained strength, he said, primarily as result of the hearing earlier this month. But he and a couple of EMID colleagues are concerned, he said, about the center’s ability to raise $2.5 million to $3 million as state leaders grapple with a $1.1 billion deficit.
Crosswinds, he said this month, is an expensive program, but an effective one for some students.
It’s likely, he said, that those students would not have succeeded if not for Crosswinds.
Christopher Magan wrote a story for the Pioneer Press: Crosswinds school will know its fate soon. It is a terrific summary of the current situation and the decision the board faces this coming week.
“Certainly for families, this was a light we were excited to see shine,” Crosswinds Principal Bryan Bass said of Perpich’s proposal. “These parents searched for a place to call home. and to hear and know it could be in jeopardy is an awful feeling.”
Crosswinds families have coalesced behind the Perpich proposal, but it is far from a sure thing. They need to persuade lawmakers to give Perpich the authority to govern their school, then designate a source of money to operate it.
The story also includes some wonderful pictures like this one!
Amber Kispert-Smith writes in the Woodbury Bulletin: Curriculum key for Crosswinds backers. The article describes the hearing at Crosswinds and the choice facing the EMID Board.
The EMID School will review proposals during its Jan. 16 meeting before making a final decision at its Jan. 23 meeting.
“I do not envy you at all,” said Crosswinds special education teacher Jeff Parker. “I’m not here to change your mind, but I am going to push on your mindset – it’s not wise to spend energy fighting the change, but it is wise to spend energy shaping that change.
“I don’t believe that school closure is a term that I want to hear anymore because that is a mindset of decay; I want to shift our mindset to a more preservation mindset – turn away from closing and turn toward preserving the program. I don’t believe this is the end, it does not need to be the end.”