Richmond Parents Ain’t Buying the Marketing
on August 24th, 2009 at 6:28 amUSA Today has an article in this morning’s paper where they are talking about how a growing number of public schools in urban areas are turning to marketing as a way to woo students back to their schools.
“…the brochures distributed by volunteers spell out what’s going well, including: All city high schools have met state accreditation standards; every city elementary school offers foreign-language instruction; and the number of students enrolled in advanced college prep courses grew by 275% over the last year.”
However, you will find the following line right around the middle of the article.
“In Richmond, middle-class families are starting to attend a handful of their local schools, but many continue to move to the suburbs or opt for private or Catholic education.“
A while ago I made the comment that I no longer trust drastic improvement of test scores coming from most public schools in a short period of time. Come on now! A 275% increase of students enrolled in college prep courses in one year? Standards were either lowered or thrown out the window altogether.
On a side note, GM is also finding it hard to sell their claim that their Chevy Volt can get 230 mpg. Bottom line, if it is too good to be true…you know the rest. The parents in Richmond certainly know the rest.
