The number of applications to Mervo when this has been a crisis year there(according to the teachers at Mervo that comment here) points up the disconnect between parents/students looking to enter a school and the reality of what a school is like. Who, of this year's applicants, knew that the policy of re-assigning students who fail to meet academic standards is no longer in place at citywides? Who knew of the increasing levels of gang activity and chaos or the lowering academic achievement that seems to be common knowlege amongst teachers at these schools?

Is it really a choice if you don't have all the information needed? It seems as if the only way to make an informed choice is to have contacts who currently teach at the schools and are willing to talk honestly about their school to you. That's just not the case for the majority of 8th graders in City Schools. Instead, most contact alumni who talk of the history of these schools, and I'm not sure if history is much good for judging the current states of these schools.

What about CARVER??? and is it true that VO-TECH education was killed by teachers unions. No longer can an expert auto mechanic teach because he (or she) does not have teaching credentials. Maybe that’s why MERVO has problems???

I hope the school turns itself around for the incomming class, or vice versa.

@OTT - The unions don't dictate state and city standards. Being certified in order to teach falls under the Maryland State Dept. of Education. Additionally, if anyone wants to teach they can get a job in Baltimore and work on their credentials as they teach. I wouldn't use a doctor who couldn't pass his exams, or a lawyer who failed the bar... why would you advocate teachers who don't get certified in their trade?

You make a good point Brandon. I think that OTT's sentiment is a common one: some people think that anyone can just walk into a classroom and be a teacher. Definitely not true! If it's important to bring in certified mechanics to teach vo-tech classes (and I will admit my total ignorance on this topic), then the schools/city/state can consider making it as easy as possible for these kinds of people to earn certification and get in the classroom as fast as possible. They already do it for other high-needs areas like math teachers (people with engineering degrees can become highly qualified, even if they didn't take enough math-specific classes in college) and I think for foreign language, too.

@OTT - I'm really interested in your thoughts here. I hadn't thought about the issue of certification and CTE/career-tech. Do you know if anyone has looked at this in more detail? Do you know of any reports, maybe not necessarily Baltimore-centered? I'm going to see what I can find as well.

Oh, whatever Simon! No one thinks you can just walk into a classroom and just teach. Everyone knows it is a challenging, physically-emotional, life-altering, sometimes rewarding and/or thankless job! But those of us who have a passion for it, do it anyway.

Plus: You don't have to be certified to teach. You have to BE ABLE TO TEACH to teach. Certification in our state-and many others- is somewhat of a joke and anyone who holds a MD certificate knows it. We only jumped through the certification hoops because we had to. Private schools aren't restricted to ceritfied teachers. Are their standards lower than ours?

Want to know what truly makes for an effective teacher and how better state policies can ensure that we have them here in MD? See NCTQ's "Increasing the Odds" here- http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/nctq_io_20071129024229.pdf

Back in the day...when I was a young pup, I had the great pleasure of taking Vo-Tech classes in construction.My teachers were a carpenter, a plumber, a draftman. They were not college trained teachers, they were trademan. My question was why/when did this stop? I have heard complaints for years that many of the vo-tech schools/classes were pushed aside by the drive to make everyone college ready.

If I was looking for someone to teach me to fix my car, I would want him(or her) certified by ASE not MSDE.

I just did a quick website comparison between Eastern Techincal in Baltimore county. That look like a Vo-tech school... Mervo,,, I don't know what they are selling....

OTT--Let me put in a couple of cents worth. For many years, CTE instructors were allowed to remain in the classroom without formal educational training in how to teach. For years, BCPSS kept saying "get certified, get certified" and they didn't listen. The ones who did still have jobs; the ones who didn't finally got pushed out by NCLB. There has been a purge of CTE teachers over the past few years because of the "highly qualified" label and how that is determined. I totally agree that CTE teachers should be qualified in their field first. However, as long as NCLB defines qualified as being certified in education, we are stuck with sometimes less than qualified people who know the book part but not the practical application of CTE courses. Feel sorry for the students who do not get the full benefit of industry training.

I really hope there is new leadership at Mervo for the sake of the incoming freshman.

I don't know where the disconnect begins, but as a school counselor responsible for the submission of high school applications and the professional guiding of student choice there seems to be a different opinion of how the high school application process works. As for percentages of students who got their "choice" of schools, I'm pleased with the outcome of my 8th grade class and their placements for next year. That satisfaction is the result of several months of hard work! Communicating with students and families the choices offered (often with little or no notice), considering a student's interests and calculation of eligibility is a time consuming process that I take very seriously. The announced closure of several high schools next year after the students had submitted applications, and the deletion of those choices with no notification to those directly involved in guiding, supporting, and ultimately responsible for those students' decisions has upset me. If we are to work with less centrally based staff, the communication with the school based personnel must improve.
And it has always been my understanding that if a student does not qualify for Poly and puts it as a first choice, they do not automatically move on to the second. In fact the opposite has been expressed to me by the office of student placement (hence effecting my guidance of students and need for clarification). While I am happy with the outcome this year, I hope for a smoother and less surprising "choice" next year.

Guide:

Just a quick note of thanks for the insanely hard work that you and other guides do. Even in the best of times trying to figure out all of the choices and how those might make good fits for the kids you work with is difficult. I know first hand that publicizing my school has not made it to the top of the list of things to do and yet with FSF, if we can't get kids we don't get dollars. In some ways this is the ultimate markets at work example. No matter how good or bad your product really is, if you don't attract customers you will go out of business.

Again, thanks for working to make sure kids make informed choices.

certification = money to local colleges

any questions?

I'd rather give teachers the time to call parents and plan engaging instruction rather than have them do the useless work required by continuing coursework.

Toughen up the PRAXIS and leave it up to individuals to choose how they prepare. Next, beef up the teacher mentor model in schools. Last, develop teachers on the job with meaningful and on-going professional development.

Can't tell you how many horrible teachers I have observed with MS, MEd, and PhD behind their names.

Just a note of clarification in the original blog entry. You say that "(In other words, if I put Poly as my first choice but didn't have the scores to get in, and Digital Harbor was my second choice and it doesn't have entrance criteria, Digital counts as my first choice for the purpose of this calculation.)" I believe this can continue a misunderstanding of the process. As I understand from teaching at Digital for 7 years, ONLY the students who list Digital as their #1 choice are entered in the lottery. There is no "second choice" for Digital. If a student lists Digital as their #2 choice, it is as if they did not even apply. Many people get confused about this. I have heard many people say "Well, I put Digital as my #2 choice in case I didn't get in to Poly." They should know they weren't even entered in the lottery.

@Digital Teacher -
That makes no sense to me. Let's start with a theoretical student who's told that their cumulative score is marginally above the entrance requirement for their first choice school, say City. Their score is well above the entrance requirement for their second choice, say Digital. You're saying that if they are honest about listing their first and second choices, they are pretty well insured that they will be attending neither. Please tell me how that makes any sense or is in any way fair.

Digital Teacher and a parent: I was just using Digital as a hypothetical because it's a school without entrance requirements. But I'll check to see if Digital Teacher is right -- I think you are. Now that you mention it, I remember hearing something once about the school only taking kids who list it as a first choice because it has so many applicants.

I've heard the same thing myself, but my question is, how is this fair? It seems to me high school choice is pretty similar to college applications. For that you pick the schools you want to apply to and then, based on where you get accepted you pick what is then your first choice. In City Schools if you have a score that says you are elgible for a school with an entrance requirement you have to put the school that's your first choice to even be considered, but if your school has more qualified applicant than they can accept your "elegible" score might not be good enough. If your second choice school has lower (or no) entrance requirements, you might very well have gotten accepted there if it was your first choice. If it has more applicants than it can accept you won't get accepted there if it is your second choice.

I realize that the whole college acceptance procedure would be a logistical nightmare for the City Schools to implement (with acceptance letters, then a response date, and wait-listing), but if you want to say kids really have can select up to three choices (as the selection form allows you to do), you have to change the process. As it is you might as well show on the form that second choice can not be any of the schools that have excess applicants and so you really can only pick one "selective/lottery" high school.

I don't understand how two of Dr. Alonso's biggest ideas, giving kids more choices and community involvement, can coexist. It makes it that much harder for a parent to go to back to school night, PTA meetings, or parent conferences when their child's school is across the city from their house.

Which discourages parental involvement more, having to travel out of your neighborhood, or having a school that you have to send your kid to that can't meet your kids' needs and doesn't especially want your kid to be there? Personally, after spending the last six years driving across town to various magnet and special ed programs, I've seen quite a few uninvolved local parents as well as lots of non-local parents who are always pitching in.

yo son i go up mervo and that school is the stuff ya dig my trade is auto body c/o 2010 and mervo is great i cant wait to graduate and start my career thnks to mervo i can see why so many kids would wanna appply to this school the possibilities are endless and theres somethin for everyone

i have to say that i am a student from mervo c/o 2011 and i have to agree with A student. our school is great and offer's soo much opportunities. i have to say that we have a couple of bad seeds who lacks guidence, but what school doesn't? i have to say for the many people who say that our school is bad and it's controled by ignorance, gangs, violence, and drugs..IT'S NOT! in every single school in baltimore city has had there up's and down, rumor's, and fight's. but as a student of MERVO i here by say that in these years to come we will prove our down talker's WRONG. i have to say our #1 issue is that our teacher's do not care about us or have any faith in us AT ALL!..this here is what causes our students to be obruptive and feal as though our staff doesn't care..and we yet again lack guidence. as we may or may not know, many teenagers have minimum or none guidance at home and in our communities in baltimore city. so when we come to school we exspect for our teacher's and staff to have enough confidence in us to help guide us to be leaders as they ought to be leaders as well to US. i am now an on going 11th grader this up coming year and i pray that the new staff that is being brought into our environment really genuinely cares for us and are proud teacher's of mervo. my name is santia brown and i currently attend mergenthaler vo-tech highschool. and i can hear- by say that the opputunities that our school offer's is why we have so many kids who want's to come to our school. and this school year coming i can say, " they will not be disapointed with our new staff."