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The Board of Supervisors recently pledged they won’t replace staff with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Seeing how cumbersome and ineffective local government can be, no one should be turning down AI help if offered. We will demonstrate this by providing intelligence to our local school districts.
Our old tool, Simon-AI, was updated, upgraded, enhanced, and fed with even more data. We also renamed it Simone-AI. It’s a more gentle and even more ethical version now. But Simone-AI isn’t too shy about putting human intelligence (HI) in charge, either.
Despite whatever you heard, our School Districts, Community Colleges, Universities, SamTrans, and even Redwood City are flush with money. However, as we hear from RWCTogether, that didn’t trickle down to Redwood City’s children and youth. So let’s have another look at our local data provided by Redwood City School District (RCSD), Ed-data, Stanford, Washington Post and others and see how we can help:
- RCSD has 900 employees, but fewer than 300 are actually in classrooms (RCEF)
- RCSD has 17 campuses, but only 7 serve a neighborhood. The rest are surplus schools and obsolete buildings (RCSD)
- The average class size in RCSD’s neighborhood schools could be 15, but it is 28-30
- RCSD is the most segregated school district on the Peninsula (WaPo, ProPublica)
- CA Reading Coalition is rating RCSD at the lowest end
- A majority of children aren’t reading at grade level – math is even worse
- RCSD promises 100% of kids can read at grade level, but numbers are 50-70% below expectations
- Improvement usually only comes from magical statistics
- 44% of their 5th graders are overweight
- 25% of children are obese
- 19% of children have asthma
- 29% of elementary school students worry about bullying
- 34% of RCSD students are English Learners (EL)
As CalMatters points out: “… by the late 1990s, as court orders to desegregate were lifted, schools quietly re-segregated, and test scores and metrics began showing diminishing progress. As the 21st century began, education researchers were baffled.” – Within RCSD, this quiet re-segregation and diminished progress started around that very same time.
But in the end, school segregation is expensive, which is why RCSD’s per-student funding exceeds $20k, but only about $5-7k per child ends up in classrooms at our seven neighborhood schools.
Simone-AI says: RCSD and RCEF will finally stop School Segregation
Thirty years ago, RCSD Trustees made an inexcusable mistake by segregating their school district via a “School of Choice” project, which brought dire consequences.
Simone-AI predicts that in 2024, RCSD and RCEF will finally remedy their mistake of creating Magnet Schools in rich neighborhoods by replacing them with magnet programs at poor schools. In 2024, School Board Trustees will finally stand up for Education and support the desegregation of their district.
HI in charge: RCSD Superintendent John Baker, with the help of ALL his Trustees and RCEF
Simone-AI says: SUHSD will keep detracking
In recent discussions about honor classes and detracking, trustees promote personal opinion over science to make decisions. That doesn’t speak well for the American education-of-leadership model as they also seem to ignore widely available and historical knowledge.
Simone-AI predicts that in 2024, SUHSD trustees will dust off the classics written by James Coleman, Robert Rosenthal and others. This way, they would quickly come to the right conclusion.
HI in charge: SUHSD Superintendent Crystal Leach is hopefully looking out and embracing the Pygmalion Effect for all her students.
Simone-AI says: SUHSD won’t restart School Segregation
The most dangerous thought expressed in those detracking discussions was about having one of the schools maximize choice while the other schools continue with their current offerings.
Simone-AI predicts that in 2024, SUHSD will NOT adopt a “High School of Choice” model – a model researchers know as the fastest way to introduce School Segregation.
HI in charge: SUHSD Board Trustee Richard Ginn is in charge of NOT re-segregating his school district.
Simone-AI says: RCSD and RCEF will rid themselves of Eugenics and Anti-Semitism
The old Stanford philosophy of Eugenics is frowned upon these days. Because of their strong eugenics backgrounds, Palo Alto even renamed their elementary schools honoring David Starr Jordan and Lewis Terman. RCSD is one of only a handful of California School Districts still using Terman’s IQ-testing rooted deep in this old Stanford philosophy. Not one of those districts would be regarded as a good district.
Simone-AI predicts that in 2024, the districts will finally cut their deep ties to Stanford’s old philosophy. RCEF (financed through Stanford) will support RCSD in doing the right thing. RCSD will also rename Henry Ford Elementary School to Ford Elementary School, honoring a US president rather than a known eugenicist and anti-semite.
HI in charge: Stanford Alum and School Board Trustee Alisa MacAvoy. Instead of mandatory and unwanted eugenics-IQ testing, she will mandate dyslexia screening instead.
Simone-AI says: RCSD and SUHSD will stop calling 911
When we were young, principals and vice principals were also teachers, commanded respect, and ensured rules were followed. Today, they just call 911. San Mateo County has too many kids from RCSD and SUHSD in “Juvenile Services,” Simone-AI says that needs to change.
Simone-AI predicts that in 2024, RCSD and SUHSD finally come around and see the errors of their way and will start instilling school order in the olden ways. Principals and vice principals at RCSD and SUHSD are well paid, well trained and well equipped NOT to call 911 so often.
HI in charge: We give this job to Carrie Du Bois (SUHSD) and Cecilia Marquez (RCSD)
Simone-AI says: Get Them While They Are Young, SamTrans
Kids that grow up with public transportation will stay with it as adults. It also gives them self-esteem and additional freedom if they learn to navigate a bus or train ride by themselves. Simone-AI says we need better facilities and better service around schools.
Simone-AI predicts for 2024 that after 50 years, SamTrans will finally become a Transportation Agency to be proud of. SamTrans has tons of money to spend building and buying buildings North by Northwest. Simone-AI says that if the agency wants more ridership, they must get them when they are young. Therefore, the agency will bring back and improve all SamTrans School Routes and install SamTrans bus shelters around all our schools.
HI in charge: Redwood City Major and SamTrans Board Member Jeff Gee will re-reimagine SamTrans’ reduced school-route service
Simone-AI says: RWCTogether will start an actual Safe-Routes-To-School program
So far, Redwood City’s record on Vision Zero is still going strong … but in the wrong direction.
Simone-AI predicts for 2024 that Redwood City will finally make some inroads by taking Safe-Routes-To-School more seriously. RWC will also considerably progress on her city’s transportation, children, and youth strategy. Simone-AI says implementing AB43 – the law Menlo Park, San Carlos, San Mateo and others have used to install 15mph school zones – would be a simple and solid start.
HI in charge: The longest serving RWCTogether member is Diane Howard, so she should know best, what went wrong for all these years.
Simone-AI says: Mr. RCSD, Tear Down This Fence and PACE yourselves.
source: publichealth.sccgov.org
RCSD’s per-student funding keeps increasing, but education outcomes keep faltering because RCSD made more fatal decisions. Like a Real Estate company, they put up fences and cameras to secure public schoolyards like they were private property. Because almost all blacktops, sports fields, and school grounds are now on constant lockdown, teenagers started to roam downtown on bicycles and ride around all these rather unsafe streets.
Simone-AI predicts for 2024: RWCTogether will push their members to adopt an Outdoor Bill-Of-Rights similar to Santa Clara County. That will keep school playgrounds open after hours. To provide security, PAL and SAL can support the city’s ACE or PACE program.
HI in charge: Simone-AI makes keeping the doors open in North Fair Oaks a job for Trustee Mike Wells, RCEF and RWCTogether.
More Information:
- Stanford: The Resegregation of American Public Schools
- Private Choices Have Public Consequences
- James Coleman Report
- Robert Rosenthal: What is the Pygmalion Effect
- Kids have more rights in Santa Clara County than here
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
There is so much FUD (Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt) in this *opinion* that I don’t even know where to start.
RCSD # of employees – There are 311 teachers and 388 non-teachers in the district. (No idea where the 900 in this piece comes from.) And of the 388 “non-teachers”, 106 are instructional aides or instructional coordinators/supervisors. Citation: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&ID2=0632130
“Only 7 serve a neighborhood” – Apparently this author doesn’t believe that the K-8 school district should serve middle school students or any student looking to learn languages early, since these are the “surplus schools and obsolete buildings” he’s referring to:
* Kennedy Middle School
* McKinley Institute of Technology
* Adelante Selby Spanish Immersion
* Mandarin Immersion / Orion Parent Participation Program
* North Star Academy
* “The average class size in RCSD’s neighborhood schools could be 15, but it is 28-30” – there is NO evidence for this claim. And the actual number is 20.54 students per teacher across the district. (6392 students, 311 teachers) Citation: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&ID2=0632130
* The author says that RCSD is “flush with money” but links to a news article about installing solar panels at RCSD campuses… an initiative that helps go carbon neutral and that will save the district >$22million over the lifespan of the panels by paying less for energy. How does this cost savings not filter down to RCSD students?
* “RCSD is one of only a handful of California School Districts still using Tenant’s IQ-testing rooted deep in this old Stanford philosophy.” – Author provides no citation for this mix of fact & opinion. I have two kids in RCSD and neither have ever had any IQ testing done – this reads like a tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory.
I’m fine with opinion pieces, but if they’re citing facts, shouldn’t they at least cite ACCURATE facts?
A lot of the data presented in this article came from the Measure S roll-out where RCSD sent out glossy material saying they have “900 Teachers & Support Staff”. Around the same time RCEF published data mentioning “13 unique schools” and “210 teachers”. The Superintendent must have seen and vetted both materials. But I believe RCEF is referring to classroom teachers, while the district numbers include teachers that have switched to administrational positions. In the budget their numbers show up as “Certificated”.
Now, there was a lawsuit how RCSD used false data and false advertising to lure voters into making the wrong decision. And if I remember correctly the judge didn’t say the advertising wasn’t false, but questioned if advertising even made a difference. (Somebody should tell Google and Facebook that advertising doesn’t work – they made a fortune out of the assumption that it works very well on the American consumer. )
RWCpulse reported about that case here:
https://www.rwcpulse.com/recent-news/2022/08/10/redwood-city-cfo-halts-legal-fight-over-889m-school-bond-measures/
I have been trying to dive deeper into the real numbers, but currently RCSD Trustees are in clear violation of California’s Public Record Act since they haven’t forwarded the correct numbers to me. They are also in clear violation of various education codes – that is why they don’t want me to deep dive in the first place.
But we don’t need to dive into numbers anyways, since the policies and methods are obvious.
Let’s first look at “flush with money”. None of the schools you mentioned have extra categorical funding from the state or federal government – they are luxuries, which only a rich district would be able to afford. For educational purposes, the district could have all 6000 students in seven neighborhood schools K-8. To spread out I give you even eight or nine, but 12 is excessive and owning 17 campuses is extremely rich in the Bay Area. The whole district administration could be run with a handful of people, it’s the complex system of lotteries, IQ testing (<- Eugenics) and "handshaking" and "backscratching" that makes the system complex and expensive.
It should be common knowledge by now that the American Right prefers "School Choice" and vouchers as a way to create competition within the Education system. The American Left is doing the same through "Choice Schools" or "School of Choice". There is plenty of research out there confirming that "School of Choice" and "School Choice" will always lead to School Segregation. There are plenty of districts that have failed – there is not one that has succeeded. The reason being Math, of course.
Or in other words, the district is trying the same thing for over 30 years now and keeps failing –
Nobody, who wants to be good, can be that bad!