What criteria does the district use to select SAGE schools?
The board has before it on Monday, June 27, a motion to drop SAGE at Lapham/Marquette (37/24% low-income) and Crestwood (23% low-income). Huegel (41%) and Sandburg (42%) will replace them. The agenda also lists all of the schools scheduled to be designated SAGE schools.
The following schools will be SAGE schools though they have a lower percentage of low income students than Lapham’s 37%: Chavez (29%), Muir (29%), Shorewood (28%), Stephens (32%).
The following schools with particularly high percentages of low-income students do not appear on the list: Glendale (67%), Lincoln (70%), Mendota (73%), Midvale (65%), and Nuestro Mundo (45%).
The MMSD Web site has a list of low-income students in all schools.
Here are the schools with the percentage of low-income students in 2004:
63% Allis
29% Chavez
23% Crestwood
62% Emerson
50% Falk
23/25% Franklin/Randall
63% Hawthorne
64% Lake View
37/24% Lapham/Marquette
53% Leopold
60% Lindbergh
54% Lowell
29% Muir
49% Schenk
28% Shorewood
32% Stephens
45% Thoreau
41% Huegel
42% Sandburg
Superintendent Rainwater provided the following answer to my question:
The motion before the Board of Education does not change the class sizes or allocations for any school in the District including Lapham/Marquette.
The District has always had some schools that are fullly funded by the state SAGE program, some that are partially funded by the program and some that are fully funded by the operating budget.
The source of funding has never been a consideration in what the staffing or class size is.
In this case we are simply moving the state SAGE dollars to other schools to gain the most income for the District. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT THE CLASS SIZE OR STAFFING ALLOCATION FOR ANY SCHOOL IN THE DISTRICT.
The Board of Education approved this shift as a part of the budget process. It would be a serious error if we do not gain the maximum reimbursement that we can from the state SAGE program since it does not affect the schools. This particular change netted $250,000 of additional revenue that avoided a llike amount of reductions in the balanced budget.
Art
A larger part of the picture for many citizens, “Does SAGE work?” I mean, during the recent referenda, many had questions about the MMSD student population being stagnant and not understanding smaller classroom size requires more space. Prior to 2000, citizens were accustom to classrooms of 30 students. Today’s dynamics include special needs children, English as a second language and a 42% average low income.
I would like to recommend the following link:
http://data.dpi.state.wi.us/data/SchoolScript.asp?SEARCHTYPE=SC&L=0&fullkey=02326903ZZZZ&DN=Madison+Metropolitan&SN=None+Chosen&TYPECODE=6&CTY=13&ORGLEVEL=DI&GRAPHFILE=GEDISA
Falk (~50%) low income has shown great success with the SAGE program. Those of you choosing to visit can click on that school; then choose to compare their 4th grade acheivement scores to those non-SAGE schools: Van Hise, Kennedy and Elvejehm.
I congratulate the staff and parents at Falk! Statisically, their acheivement matched or compared very well to 2 other district schools without this program.