More on MPS' Failed Construction Program

In a three part series, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is exposing the disastrous Milwaukee Public Schools' construction program.

The final installment--

Part III: "Buildings rise, test scores fall"-- "Spate of school expansions is no tonic for student proficiency"

$102 million was poured into a project to revive the concept of neighborhood schools.

The additions and remodeled classrooms stand vacant or are used for storage. Local and state officials screwed up when it came to assessing parents' willingness to get their children off buses. They ignored the findings of surveys showing that parents were satisfied with the status quo but plowed ahead anyway. Projections of students returning to neighborhood schools were dramatically off-base and the appeal of charter and private schools was severely underestimated. Top off that with politically based bad decisions.

As terrible as all that is, the worst part of MPS' failed construction program has to be that the bricks and mortar and the millions of dollars spent didn't translate into improvement in students' proficiency.

With a few exceptions, student achievement has shown little improvement - and in some cases it has fallen dramatically - at 22 schools that were among the largest beneficiaries of the district's school construction program.

...In 16 of the 22 schools, the percentage of fourth-graders rated as proficient or better in reading was lower last year than it was in 2002 - the year the school building initiative hit high gear. Nine schools saw their math scores drop.

Overall, combined fourth-grade reading and math scores have declined sharply at a half dozen of the22 schools where more than $1 million was spent on improvements. Only five schools have had major increases in their combined reading and math performance.

...Improving academic performance was a publicly stated goal of the school building plan, although the district didn't list specific strategies to make it happen.

"One of the underlying goals was that by updating our buildings . . . one of the byproducts would be to increase achievement," said Aquine Jackson, who directed implementation of the plan the School Board approved in 2000. "Everything we do should be focused on how to improve student achievement. The neighborhood school project was part of that mix."

But Jackson did not want to form conclusions about the success of the project based on achievement data. He said researchers would have a hard time figuring out whether the initiative in itself had a positive or negative effect on student achievement, and he views the project as one factor contributing to student success.

"What would have been the results if we hadn't done this?" he asked.

Roseann St. Aubin, spokeswoman for MPS, said the schools that got additions are still evolving.

"We are glad we went ahead with the projects," she said.

"What would have been the results if we hadn't done this?"

"We are glad we went ahead with the projects."

They've got to be kidding.

The program didn't produce results. It has been a $100 million+ debacle, an utter waste.

What it does reveal is that improved, neighborhood facilities doesn't equal improved student performance.

Bottom line: Students' academic success can't be bought with new facilities.

The effort and hard work it takes to achieve in school comes from within each student, not from a building program. Parents need to show interest in education and be involved in encouraging their children.

Blaming inadequate facilities for poor academic performance by students is misguided. It's an inadequate excuse.

It seems that MPS needs a behavioral overhaul more than anything else.