16959: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Students sick about medical class cuts (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Oct. 15, 2003


SCHOOLS
Students sick about medical class cuts
Cutting popular medical classes at Edison Senior High will give students
more time with reading and math, but no one warned families about losing the
beloved programs.
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
mpinzur@herald.com

Wearing scrubs to school made Esther Agledor and Nadeige Jean proud, their
uniforms announcing them as part of the special medical program at
beleaguered Miami Edison Senior High School.

Their parents, friends and neighbors saw those girls and more than 100 of
their classmates as symbols that the Little Haiti school -- with its years
of poor test scores and failing state grades -- could produce something
special and vital.

''I wish you could see them in their uniforms,'' said Chanel Charles,
president of Edison's Parent-Teacher-Student Association. ``It was so
important to them, and the community felt so positive seeing these students
doing something so positive.

But an aggressive plan to immerse Edison students in basic reading and
writing prompted administrators to cancel the nursing, first-responder and
medical technician classes at the school. A handful of students in the
magnet program who are training to become nurse practitioners will be bused
to another school so they can continue their studies.

Most of the rest will return to regular classes at Edison, the only high
school in the state to receive three F grades for poor performances on the
statewide assessment test.

''Until we can raise the scores in that school and have a homegrown
population that can participate in these kinds of programs, we need to
address the critical issues that these kids cannot read, write and compute
at a high enough level to get a high school diploma,'' said Mercedes Toural,
Miami-Dade schools' chief education officer.

The cancellations came with no warning -- most students found out when they
were given new schedules on Friday.

''Now we feel like we have nothing else,'' said Nadeige Jean, a 16-year-old
junior who was in the nurse's assistant program.

`SLAP IN OUR FACE'

Many of the students and their parents said the pain was magnified by
administrators' attitudes. No one told them about the change, Charles said,
even though Edison principal Theron Clark had met with the PTSA and the
Educational Excellence School Advisory Council two days earlier.

''They didn't sit down to see what we were feeling -- they just did it,''
she said. ``It's really a slap in our face.''

Clark did not return calls to the school, and an administrator at Edison's
campus on Northwest 62nd Street ordered a Herald reporter and photographer
to leave the property. Some students were interviewed on the sidewalk beyond
the gates.

''They don't care about our education,'' said 16-year-old Wilna Christian,
also a junior in the nurse's assistant class.

More than 90 percent of upperclassmen at Edison have yet to pass the reading
exam on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, Toural said, and nearly
that many have failed the math portion. Until they pass both, state law bars
them from receiving a diploma.

''When we can bring the school out of a hole, we'll bring [medical classes]
back,'' Toural said.

The next battery of FCAT exams are in February and March.

It was unclear Tuesday how many Edison students were formally enrolled in
the medical magnet program, which was created four years ago. That magnet is
being moved to Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center, district
administrators said, and Edison's 15 participants will be bused there for
classes. It includes only the nurse practitioner students, who also receive
clinical training at area hospitals.

The vast majority of students enrolled in Edison's medical program were
simply signing up for elective classes offered at many schools, said Michael
Bell, director of the school choice office. But those classes, like most art
and elective classes at Edison, were canceled last week.

Part of the problem was a dramatic enrollment drop of 600 students from last
year to around 1,800. Officials say the school cannot support as many
nonessential courses because of the decrease.

READING AND MATH

Primarily, though, the classes were dumped so students can receive double
doses of math and reading, district officials said.

''The overall intent is to provide experiences so those youngsters grasp
basic reading and mathematics skills,'' said George Koonce, associate
superintendent for educational operations.

Those students believed they were in the magnet program, they said, and
teachers uniformly referred to them as part of it.

''We wore scrubs, we took the classes,'' Esther Agledor said. ``If it wasn't
the medical magnet, how were we going to get certified?''

Bell said he could not explain the apparent disconnection between the
district and Edison's administration.

Some of Edison's programs prepared students for state certifications in
several medical fields, but Bell referred questions about details to Clark.

''The school may have counted them as magnet students, but that probably
should not have been the case,'' Bell said.

Edison's former principal, who fought to start the programs, said he thinks
the district underestimated the educational and social significance of the
medical training.

''One of the reasons we implemented that program was because nursing was a
revered profession in the Haitian community,'' said Santiago Corrada, who is
still beloved in Little Haiti nearly a year after he quit Edison to work for
the city of Miami.

Before Edison received its medical magnet, the brightest students from
Little Haiti traveled to magnets in other neighborhoods, Corrada said.

''What [other magnets] did was suck out a lot of the intellectual capability
from Edison,'' he said. ``When I arrived at Edison five years ago, one of
the things I fought for was a magnet program to not only bring in bright
kids, but keep bright kids in the community.''

Many of the students' schedules are still in flux, and Bell said his staff
will try to allow students who have already passed both parts of the FCAT to
take the medical classes at other schools.

That will not help Esther. She said she passed the math exam last year, but
failed the reading test. She may, however, pay to take the same classes at
night school.

''I'm going to find a way to keep going,'' she said.

_________________________________________________________________
Want to check if your PC is virus-infected?  Get a FREE computer virus scan
online from McAfee.
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963