Misty Fronk is running for Decatur School Board because she went to an event hosted by the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) and was told that Illinois schools had a graduation rate of 80% in 2019, but only 12% of students were proficient in reading & writing and 6% of students were proficient in math, according to her WAND Interview.
Illinois Family Institute is a right-wing political advocacy organization that "encourage[s] parents to remove their children from government schools" according to Kathy Valente, a writer for IFI. IFI also opposes LGBTQ friendly legislation.
Statewide in 2019, 36.3% of students who took the SAT met standards in English and Language Arts (ELA) & 34.4% were proficient in math. In DPS 61 for 2019, those figures drop to 11.3% proficient in ELA & 8.9% proficient in math. An additional 22.7% in Decatur were approaching standards in math and 29.7% approaching standards in ELA.
Families leaving Decatur
Misty Fronk says that "we as citizens of Decatur are failing our children. We're setting them up to fail." Her daughter left the state "because of the public school systems here" and her grandkids are "thriving" in their new schools.
Fronk says "we need to do something locally to keep families in Decatur." She says she's talked to other grandmothers at her job whose families have left Illinois because of the education system. She says taxes are part of why families leave Illinois, but the education system is a big contributor too.
Misty Fronk would like to see student proficiency rates in math and reading around 60% or 70%, and says that the "6%" rate is "pathetic" and that she "feel[s] sorry for the children."
Fronk says there's not enough people speaking for the kids, so she wants to "give them a voice," adding that she'd like to sit down with any parents, teachers, or students who have a concern for the School Board to address.
Improving student learning
At the time they left Illinois, her twin grand-daughters were in 4th grade, and one, who had an Individualized Education Program (IEP), only read at a 1st grade level. Fronk says her grand-daughter was "being pulled out of classes at the critical time when she needed to learn." Fronk says at the new district they "push her to be in a classroom with her peers," but they have extra teachers in the classrooms to assist struggling kids.
She says the new district's teachers don't "point [struggling kids] out in front of everybody", which she thinks helps prevent bullying. She says there are not enough teachers for the students, so it could help to get extra teachers in Decatur just to help with the struggling kids.
She talks about an after-school reading lab & math lab that the new district has, run by teachers who volunteer their time. She says "if a student feels like they're struggling," they can ask their teacher to get into the programs. She says many of the volunteers are college students who are training to become teachers.
She says programs like this, which are volunteer driven, would not cost the district any money.
Violence in Schools
She says violence in schools is largely a product of the schools failing the kids - saying some kids don't believe they can "become something" in society, so some kids look for alternate means to feed themselves, like crime or gang activity. She thinks if we can get the children to believe they can "be somebody," it will help with "what's going on in the society".
School Security has been a recent topic of concern due to fights in schools. The District recently hired a new security administrator, Valdimir Talley Jr, who is implementing new efforts including increased patrols, upgraded security cameras, teaching de-escalation tactics to school security officers, and looking for areas in schools that bullying might be taking place. Talley says that "97% of our students" are doing the right thing and that "when we have those three fights or four fights in a week, it makes it seem as if we're not safe, and that's not the case."
Current School Programs
She says "I'm not real familiar with what exactly" the current school board is doing well or what existing programs should be expanded. She turns the focus to parents getting "more involved in their childrens' educations," which she says can be hard in single-parent households.
She says we need more volunteers to help students. She says kids in single-parent homes can especially struggle because parents are busy working, sometimes caring for other kids, and may unintentionally forget to handle school work.
She says when a kid is failing, people in society "blame the parents." Fronk blames the parents, but also blames the teachers and voters for electing school board members that "don't really care that our proficiency levels are this low."
Lastly
She says she'd like to see all schools nationwide, and especially Illinois schools, get "back to the basics" of reading, writing, and math. She's concerned that it's hard to fill out a job application or do common job duties if these skills aren't developed.
She says our district doesn't need 100% efficiency, but at least 60% or 70% to show that we really are educating the students of Decatur. She says she will push for reading, writing, and math proficiency if she is elected.
Proficiency Rates and context
In DPS 61 for 2019, student proficiency rates are 11.3% proficient in ELA & 8.9% proficient in math. An additional 22.7% in Decatur were approaching standards in math and 29.7% approaching standards in ELA.
These rates are a general decline from 2017 when over 16% of Decatur students met standards in math & ELA across DPS 61 SAT tests, and over 36% were approaching standards.
Low Income students and Black students have lower scores than white students overall. In 2019 for English and Language Arts, 22.9% of white DPS 61 students, 5.2% of black students, and 8.6% of low income students met standards on the SAT. These all show a decline from 2017. For 2021-2022, 31.4% of white students met standards, but both black and low income student performance declined on the SATs.
In math for 2019, the overall numbers are a bit lower than ELA, but the trend is similar. 17.4% of white students, 4.3% of black students, and 6.6% of low income students met standards. Scores, again were higher in 2017, with 2022 scores being higher for white students and lower for low income students and black students.
The 2021-2022 Report Card shows that 73.3% of Decatur's 8,147 public school students are low income, nearly 20% have individualized education programs, 31.1% of students are white, and 49% black. In 2017, 53.3% of DPS students were low-income.
I emailed Dr. Rochelle Clark, DPS 61 Superintendent, and Melissa Bradford, School Board Secretary, for comment on student proficiency rates. Bradford replied that she "[does] not engage and/or discuss anything that deals with politics." Clark did not respond. Denise Swarthout, DPS's Chief Communications Officer, directed me toward the School Report Cards but did not provide any additional comment.
Notes & Disclaimers
- After reviewing statewide proficiency rates, I wrote a first draft "correcting" Misty Fronk, then sent it to her, asking for her sources. We talked on the phone twice & she said she would send sources but never did. I then reviewed disrict-wide proficiency rates, and found her numbers to be quite close to the district's real proficiency rates. The email I sent, and my notes from one of our phone calls are listed in the sources below.
- Illinois Family Institue is a 501(c)3 non-political Not-For-Profit, but their website and subscriber-emails take a significant tone of political advocacy. Additionally, there is a related organization Illinois Family Action, a 501(c)4 political Not-For-Profit, which has the same Executive Director, according to IFA's 2018 Tax Return.
- I filed a discrimination complaint against the Decatur Hotel & Conference Center in connection with the Institute's event. I was already on my way out when police officers ordered me off the premises and accused me of being part of a protest that I was not part of. I have a male body and am non-binary and was wearing women's clothing. No behaviors were cited as cause for my being asked to leave, so I believe that was discrimination. The investigation is ongoing.
- I previously attended an Illinois Family Institute event on August 16th and wrote an opinion piece about the event and Illinois Family Institute. Reading this may help you understand my biases.