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PrintA Columbia high school task force formed to implement increased graduation requirements for the class of 2010 has been plagued by complaints over its makeup and openness with teachers and the public.
Last year, the Missouri Board of Education mandated increased graduation requirements from 22 to 24 credits, boosting units in the four core subjects. Columbia Public Schools superintendent Phyllis Chase appointed a 36-member task force, charged with making a smooth transition with the changes over the next two years and addressing high school reform, in hopes of combating the dropout rate. Assistant Superintendent Wanda Brown heads the task force.
While Hickman and Douglass high schools have not publicly voiced concern, some Rock Bridge teachers have criticized the task force for a lack of communication and teacher representation.
A group of Rock Bridge High School teachers called a meeting with the school board on Jan. 5 to air complaints that included a lack of representation on the task force. They said only 7 percent were teachers. About 30 of the 120 Rock Bridge faculty attended the meeting.
Brown said there was sufficient educator representation, saying the nine principals on the panel, one from each high school, junior high and middle school, are educators.
Bill Priest, a teacher at Rock Bridge High School, disagrees.
“Some people who are administrators act from a different frame of reference,” he said.
And although Priest would not speak for all teachers, he said many would agree with him.
“Principals don’t represent the same insight into teaching and learning as teachers would,” he said.
Brown said she had only recently been made aware of high school teachers’ interest in the task force. She said a memo was sent to all of the teachers when the task force was created, and there were also articles in the Columbia Missourian and the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Priest said the only memo he received was after last Thursday’s meeting. He said there was no communication with teachers during the selection of the task force.
“As far as I know, there was no formal process,” he said.
Brown said the task force will add seven positions as it enters a new phase of its work, but said the meeting last week had nothing to do with the decision to add positions.
“We always planned on putting more teachers in Phase 2 of our work,” Brown said.
The task force was scheduled to meet this week to begin the transition into Phase 2, but the meeting has been postponed with no new date currently scheduled.
In the next phase, the task force will determine what would be considered an optimal high school under the new graduation requirements.
“To do that, we’re going to need the input of a lot of high school stakeholders — teachers, counselors, principals, parents and students,” Brown said.
She emphasized the need for Phase 2 to be a continuous dialogue.
“This is an opportunity to let our public know what we’re doing in our high schools,” Brown said.
The monthly task force meetings, which began in September, are closed to the public.
“We need the people (the task force) to be candid and unafraid to speak out,” Brown said.
Teachers and parents will have ample opportunity to voice opinions and give new ideas at several public forums which will be held in the future, Brown said.
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