"In order to shut up the clowns" at the Alabama State Department of mis-Education just change the name of failing shools

Push to drop Johnson High name still on, despite opposition from some in northwest Huntsville

  Huntsville Superintendent Casey Wardynski, center, and school board president Laurie McCaulley, right, listen Monday afternoon as Huntsville resident Carlos Mathews talks about the choosing of possible names for a new northwest Huntsville high school to replace Johnson High. Behind Mathews are pictures of astronauts Ronald McNair and Mae Carol Jemison, whose names may grace the new high school and a new junior high to be built on the same campus. (Crystal Bonvillian/cbonvillian@al.com)       

Chapman Middle to be removed from Huntsville's list of "failing schools" under the Alabama Accountability Act blares the headline. At first read it sounds wonderful, then you go inside the story to learn Chapman Middle school will soon be taken off Alabama's list of "failing schools" because the school no longer exists.

Malissa Valdes-Hubert, a spokeswoman for the Alabama State Department of Education, confirmed Friday morning that Chapman Middle will no longer be considered a "failing" school under the Accountability Act.
"Huntsville requested to close the Chapman Middle School and reconfigure a Chapman P-6 school to be a P-8 school," Valdes-Hubert said. "The students that attended the Chapman Middle School are now part of the Chapman P-8 school."
Valdes-Hubert said the process of making that change includes approval from a school's local board and a request to the state Department of Education. Both have been obtained in Chapman's case, she said.

According to the article, the school district began the process of turning Chapman elementary and middle schools into a P-8 campus in the fall of 2012.   I'm still trying to figure out when the local Board of Education presented, approved then requested State Department approval, but like other issues of importance it was probably done in secret, I mean executive session, without input from the public, you know those pesky people who pay taxes which fund the schools.  Snark

Let's recap ( some of the links inserted for emphasis are mine):

A total of 78 schools across the state were deemed to be failing under the law, which was ruled unconstitutional late last month by a Montgomery County circuit court judge. That ruling is under appeal.
On an updated list released in January, Huntsville had the most failing schools of any district in the state. It will not stay that way for long, however, since the Huntsville district is also closing Davis Hills and Ed White middle schools.
Those schools are being combined into one at the new McNair Middle School now under construction on Pulaski Pike. McNair will be located on a combined campus with the new Jemison High School, which is being built to replace Johnson High.
The new Jemison could potentially knock Johnson High off of the failing list, as well.

Once again the school district is using smoke and mirrors as a means to an end (pun intended). They aren't solving the problem, they are just slapping the good names of black astronauts on the outside of a $65 million dollar school located less than half a mile from an active rock quarry and calling it fixed. 

Mission Accomplished.

And you wonder why the Huntsville City School Board of Education not only objects to citizens' comments but the Federal Judge digging into the desegregation data as well.

U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala said she would review databases stored on the education web sites belonging to Huntsville, Alabama and the United States.
Within those three government sites, she could find relevant data on just about anything she wanted to know about Huntsville schools, from how many white students were paddled to how many teachers have advanced degrees to how many second-graders qualify for subsidized lunch.
"The websites listed in the Court's Order contain an expansive amount of information much of which falls outside the scope of scientific facts, matters of geography, or matters of political history," reads the objection from Huntsville, which is signed by board attorney J.R. Brooks.

Translation, don't believe the data stored on the education web sites, believe the data we gave you, nod, nod, wink, wink.

Changing the name is a gimmick to get off the list, a trained, certified, educator would know the performance of the students who will remain at the school is the reason the school is on the list in the first place.  Changing the name does nothing to solve the problem, but who cares as long as the school is off the list.  Snark

And why is Chapman P-8 in partnership with Athens State  University instead of the local state institutions of higher learning,  Alabama A&M University and/or The University of Alabama in Huntsville?    Why is Chapman, as well as other HCS's getting to keep their names, but Johnson, Ed White, and Davis Hills are not?  Never mind.  We know why.  It's life's unfairness.  RedEye Roll 

Rarely is the question asked, "Is the children learning?"