Stamford Press: Toquam in the NY Times

The New York Times features the closing* of Toquam in an article called "Stamford Will Close K-5 Magnet School." The article captures the shady reasoning behind the decision to close one of Stamford's four schools (out of twenty) that meets NCLB standards.

As usual, Starr and the school board end up looking weak:
Joshua P. Starr, the district superintendent, said that closing the lowest performing schools may produce worse academic results and that the board has learned from the successful practices at Toquam.

... what have they learned, exactly?

I have never, in all of the newspaper articles from the past 7 months, heard of the school board giving a single example of what they’ve learned from Toquam. In fact, a Toquam parent told me that one reason parents are so upset is that the school board has given no indication of how they plan to replicate Toquam’s success.

If the school board has a plan to implement any of Toquam’s practices, they’re not sharing it. Instead, they’re offering empty platitudes to excuse what appears to be a careless solution to Stamford's budget issues and bad long-term planning in relation to school numbers.

On a possibly more positive note, I am very interested in how Stamford plans to racially balance every single one of its elementary schools. I think it’s an important goal, but can you imagine how many kids they’ll have to move? If they can’t even smoothly close one school, how are they going to shake up all of the eleven remaining elementary schools without creating a big, poorly-thought out mess?

Speaking of poorly-thought out:
District officials say they will keep working with the parents to find a way to keep the Toquam students together even as they integrate into the new school.
“No one wants to be in the position of having to close a school,” Dr. Starr said to the parents. “Moving them is a good idea to maintain continuity.”

That last sentence begs so many questions and “huh?”s.



Past Stamford Talk articles on Stamford schools:

Stamford School Shake Up: SOS- October 11, 2007

Stamford School Controversy Part 2- October 18, 2007

Redistricting: Test Scores, Money, Suspense!- January 8, 2008

Toquam School Pretty Much Dead- March 6, 2008

*Update 3/18: The Save Toquam site notes that the Times said that Toquam is going to be closed, but that the board will not make the final decision until Wednesday.