Jackson Jambalaya

That's depressing......

Where's Cecil and Dorsey?

Thanks, KF, for sharing these scores. It's easy to shrug them off and hope things will get better, but we should be outraged. Our students deserve for us to be outraged. Thank you for being the only media outlet who exhibits some sort of discontent with mediocrity (or heck, with failure).

"A clueless and out of touch school board that is more interested in blowing money and rewarding friends than educating children." - This kinda of stuff goes on a lot around here. Board of Supervisors, City Council, etc.

This only says that they are failing.
We have a STATE Dept of Education that ought to have explanations and make them public.
What are the IQs of the students? How exceptional children are in the school system and do they have adequate resources to deal with the numbers?
Is Bailey doing well because the best and brightest are being farmed to Bailey?
What are the greatest areas of failure?

Didn't I see where the state board of education is appointing Jane Sargeant as the supt of one the school districts being taken over by the state?? JPS was her last victim and state board of education hiring here to fix a failing system?

To 8:51AM, of COURSE the best are farmed to Bailey APAC. To my knowledge it's the only school you have to "test" into and demonstrate academic and/or performance skills. Since you have to test into it, that means the kids want to be there and their parents CARE about their kids success (because they went to the trouble of seeking out the best and making sure their kids took the test).

And the APAC kids go on to Murrah and are usually the ones at the top of the curve for that HS.

I don't see Davis Elementary on the list.

@8:20 My campaign two years ago focused on way too much spending at the administrative level (it was around 25% at the time at JPS), and not enough of the funding finding its way to the classrooms. It has only gotten worse since then, but I don't see any of our leaders beating the drum on that. I am proud that there are some bright spots with schools like McWillie, where my daughter attends, but way, way too many others in JPS are failing. A good start would be for the Legislature to limit administrative expenses to no more than 15% of a district's budget. Money won't solve all the problems, but lack of putting money in the right place--in the classroom--is a recipe for disaster. Thank you for your concern for my well-being.

Jim Barksdale offered to pay for the search to find the best, most qualified Superintendent in the USA. I can't remember for sure, but I believe he was going to supplement the salary also.

The JPS Board turned him down. I have wondered if the reason they rejected such a fine offer was because he would not have been limited to one race.

The JPS should try separating middle school classes by gender, i.e. having classes of males only and females only.

10:24AM, can you show any studies that prove separate-gender education has made a difference?

I totally agree with 8:46 When I visit other parts of the state, people are always concerned about how Jackson and Hinds are going downhill. They just don't understand how this can happen. Well, when you have leadership that is bent on doing as they please, and spending money in ways that do not benefit the citizens and taxpayers this is the result. All I can see is that they are totally in it for themselves and their buddies. They disregard right and wrong as though they are all powerful.

The news that the schools are getting worse is very depressing. How will things ever get any better? I cannot believe that the school system would turn down money from Mr. Barksdale to find someone to come in and make some positive changes. They obviously have the same agenda that the other leaders in Jackson and Hinds County have. They are all a disgrace.

9:47am, I remember that Barksdale offer also.

Would that even be legal? Paying for the search might be OK, but supplementing the salary seems way overboard. Basically, Barksdale would be calling the shots. Not saying that would be a bad thing, but I can see why a board would not be interested in turning over their power to an outside party. If Barksdale wants to help improve JPS, then he should get on the board.

But Barksdale's input not withstanding, what we suffer from is a lack of accountability and ownership. No one but the kids suffer, and no one really owns solving the problem. I know JPS has a superintendant and a board that supposedly "own" the problem, but given that things have not improved for decades I submit that the super and board have demonstrated that they do not own the problem and have no interest in solving it.

Reliable Donkeycrat Sam Hall wrote this past weekend:

Public education proponents say schools in general are under-funded; an argument that cannot be proved or disproved because we have not had enough consistent years of fully funding the Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

However, if you extend from this premise to say schools that are better funded should perform better, the argument falls apart. Clinton Public Schools performed at the highest and most consistent level in the state for the past few years. However, it’s per-pupil funding ranks 141st out of 152 districts.

Public school reformers who believe our current system is broken say too much money goes to administrative costs and not enough in the classroom. By this philosophy, Clinton should have among the lowest percentages of administrative costs in the state, and it does. It ranks 36th. However, Jackson Public Schools, which performs consistently far worse than Clinton, spends even less on administration.

The problem is lack of parenting. Show me a school anywhere in the world that has involved parents, who care, yet is unsuccessful. You cannot. Unfortunately, that answer lies in a place that no amount of money shuffling can correct. It is a moral fabric issue in our society, for which a solution will be elusive. It will be particularly elusive for the liberal set who hold any morals in disdain, and who unfortunately control the City. It is a shame.

I thought we brought in that guy from Tennessee with the bow-tie to make it all better.

Just curious. Saw where some school districts were upgraded because of a change in the way they were rated.(madison) Wonder if Jackson would be even worse if the system had not been gamed. Also wonder how many districts would have received A or B under the old system.

Clinton schools--by testing are the 2nd best in the entire state. Over 50% of the students in that district are black. Proves that race is NOT the issue with JPS. It's the leaders AND the parents of the kids of JPS that are failing, and by default failing the kids of JPS. Also proves that something in Hinds County is worthy-even better than something in Madison and Rankin.

September 16 @11:13 AM, you hit the nail on the head. A child is a product of the environment they grow up in. Within the JPS system there are too many students with parents who do not take an active role in their child's education and do not support their child's teachers or school.

Socioeconomics is a big part of the problem. Jackson needs people in leadership positions who will help promote business opportunities for its citizens for better paying jobs, and hopefully pare down the number of people on government handouts. We live in a society where too many people would rather stay on the welfare rolls than work for a living and the children in that lifestyle often follow the same path.

No doubt 12:16 PM the ratings formula was jiggered to reduce the number of school districts in the D and F categories.

JPS is nothing more than a Good Ol Boy (make that Good Ol Brother) payoff program. I know a woman who taught in JPS for 25 years. Over that time she had something like 10 principals. She said there was only one that was worth a damn. The others were just being shuffled around and collecting lucrative pay packages (some in the 6 figures) for doing little more than warming a seat and antagonizing teachers.

I have a relevant question: Why are the public schools not bathing in money? Every controversial proposal for the last 50 years has been sold as money for schools, from casino gambling to sales tax increases to legalizing liquor sales. It's always about the kids and schools (because how can anyone oppose that?) and it's always sold as "the schools will never need a millage increase again!" So how many JPS classes are held in temporary buildings still?

My wife taught in JPS for 20+ years and she told me that a student can not fail more than 2 times. So if they fail 1st and 2nd grades, (and they do) JPS policy is to push them through. She said that her previous principle would over ride a teachers decision to fail a child so it would not reflect negatively on the school. She also said that is was policy not to give a student a grade below a 50. Then administration encourages the teachers to award points in other ways. Child turns in blank test, he/she gets a 50, not a 0.

yes indeed! and those of us left in NE Jackson are sick and tired of paying most of the taxes that support that sewer called JPS...Crow loud and long Bert!

Makes me sad and mad at the same time. Can never thank my teachers enough for their dedication. Hard, even-handed, smart, dedicated. I wish all students could experience that.

We just need more money so that the childrun can be saved. An assistant supt. and at least 3 studies and 12 consultants should be a great start.

One of Gov. Bryant's priorities was to stop "social promotion". He wants no one to leave the 3rd grade who cannot read. Third Grade reading scores can predict how many beds we will need in prisons in 10-12 years. Frightening stat. I believe the Legislature may have addressed this last year?

This is inevitable, though. The only way to save cities is to let them die. They must be exposed for the utterly corrupt, failed states they are in every possible respect. As long as there is a fig leaf left to hide behind, no one will have the moral courage to take decisions away from people incapable of governing themselves.

You just have to let the horrible decisions play themselves out, and --by all means-- let the Barksdales and Loomes shout as loudly as they like, so that they have no credibility when it's all over.

Is this even surprising at all? This was in the works 20+ years ago. I find it amazing that as Jackson continues to deteriorate, no leaders have emerged to do anything...

Ànd it is all so odd. It is as if the school board WANTS the minority children uneducated and forced to attend failing schools.

There is so much going on in JPS that the public has not been privy to. Some of those at the top work hard to bring in family, friends, and bed fellows at very high salaries. Grants that the district receives are not spent on the children. District admin skim the money and travel on lavish trips. Other funds are used to hire consultants, who are also in the family, friend, etc group. These consultants are being paid upwards of 700 per day. One consultant made over 240K last year. The problem is not the zip code of the students. The problem is the adults who are in it to fill their own pockets and teachers who can't speak English, much less teach it. I could write several pages, but I think you get it. JPS needs a clean start. Fire the Board and all top administrators. It's such a joke!

Jayne Sargent came to JPS to ensure a top job for her son and his new wife.

I quit reading when I got to the BS post about 'lack of parenting'. Is it suggested that kids in the JPS system live on some island where 'parenting' is different than that practiced in the rest of the state?

Given the fact that Jackson Public Schools test out lower, as a whole, than so much of the rest of the state, one MUST look deeper than such surface, random, pot-shot guesses as 'poor parenting'. Minority, poor, disadvantaged and environmentally handicapped students in the JPS system are not unlike those living in other parts of this state with the same characteristics. And you will not find that poor parenting is more poor among JPS families than those on the coast or in the Delta or in northeast Mississippi or along the Alabama border.

We MUST look deeper to discover the common denominator(s). Corrupt or self-serving black administrators can't be that different in the center of the state from those in other parts of the state. Corruption and low expectations can only be described with so many adjectives.

It cannot be shown that the student population of JPS is dissimilar, in great measure, from those in fifty other areas of the state.

It cannot be shown that 'parenting' on the JPS island is that much different from that found (or not found) in other parts of the state.

It WILL NOT be shown that school boards are composed of one set of incompetent people at JPS yet are composed of competent people in districts scattered throughout the state. These boards, by the way, don't stay stagnant in their composition. People roll on and off these boards. So why is the JPS system atypical?

Resources available to JPS schools don't suffer some deficiency not applicable to districts in 81 other counties.

Cecil is the same roadblock and the same democrat stumbling block in all 82 counties. The State Board of Education is the same monstrous, ineffective, time-warp bureaucracy in all 82 counties.

There's no invisible smog hovering over JPS schools that is filtered out over districts in the rest of the state. So, why the difference?

We could go on and on and on. So, what the hell is it? What ARE the common denominators? They cannot be race, parenting, superintendents, boards of education, teachers, student demographics or physical environment, since similarities among those factors exist all over the state in public schools. So, what the hell is left? And if my assessment is wrong, and the problem DOES lie in one or more of THOSE THINGS, which are they and why?

I quit reading when I got to your first CAPPED WORD. Good LUCK with YOUR problem.

8:12 apparently never LEARNED to read. Is he a product of JPS?

Yall be hatas. JPS be def. Dey feeds my keeeds so I can use my snap card for other thangs. I gradadted from Jim Hill and look at me. JPS goodt. Now Ima go listen to Jay Z and vote for Obama.

u's way funny 2:42pm!

The problem with JPS is discipline and funding for students and teachers. Administrators in the building from central office do not support teachers. JPS has some of the brightest and hard working teachers, but they are not supported. It is difficult to teach when you are dealing with behavior problems all day. Surrounding district have some of the same problems as JPS. However, there is one big difference, they DO NOT tolerate bad behavior and disrespect for authority, and parental involvement is a must have. JPS deals with absent parents whereby it's difficult to even make a phone call because many are always changing their number or moving or just will not answer. Teachers know children struggle, but the district makes it so difficult for you to retain a child that should not go on. Teachers in the district get a bad rap for what is done by the board and administration.

There is a meeting going on in the JPS board room that you need to pay attention to... AFT - discipline in JPS.