Breakfast at School Now is on the Principal
In a locally unprecedented move, the School District of Philadelphia will hold principals acｃountable for the number of students eating breakfast in their schools.
Breakfast participation will be part of the report card that rates principals each year, along with categories such as attendance and math and reading performance.
All 165,000 students in Philadelphia public schools, regardless of income, are eligible for free breakfasts. But just 54,000 ate breakfast last year, district figures show.
The new system, which begins this year, is expected to increase the number of students eating breakfast, said Jonathan Stein, a lawyer with Community Legal Services, whose efforts – along with those of Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) – helped bring about the move.
Many studies have shown that breakfast boosts student performance and health.
“This is the first acｃountability system for school meals in the history of the school system,” Stein said. “It’s very exciting.”
Wayne Grasela, senior vice president of food services for the district, said he was equally pleased. “One of our main goals is to help improve a child’s ability to learn,” he said. “We’re working with the principals to make this happen. They’re already reaching out to us.”
Not everyone is happy, however.
“You’re doing a disservice to principals by holding them acｃountable without controlling for other variables,” said Michael Lerner, president of Teamsters Local 502, Commonwealth Association of School Administrators.
Should a principal be blamed for a student who ate breakfast at home and therefore doesn’t eat in school, asked Lerner, who was a principal for 22 years. “Are we going to get to forced feedings?” he continued. “I think it’s wrong to assume no parent in Philadelphia is providing breakfast each day.”
And, Lerner added, many children wind up not eating, thereby wasting food. “If you know kids,” he said, “they’ll eat what they want and when they want.”
Advocates point out that many Philadelphia children live in high-poverty areas, and thus are more likely to be without the kind of nutritious foods that mandatory breakfasts provide.
And Grasela added that “it doesn’t ｃount against principals if kids already ate, because we already assumed that in our target numbers, which are reasonable and attainable.”
Not every principal will be held to the same numbers, he added, saying the targets are on a graduated scale, taking into acｃount established lower rates of breakfast participation at certain schools.
The goal is to increase breakfast participation by 35 percent over the next two years, so that participation would be 70,000 students by 2011, Stein said.
There is a huge disparity among schools in serving breakfast, according to a School District Division of Food Services analysis.
In some schools, participation is as low as 18 percent, while in others it’s around 98 percent. Some schools showed as much as a 50 percent increase in breakfast participation from 2007 to 2008, while others showed a decrease of as much as 20 percent.
“Some schools need the push of acｃountability,” said Kathy Fisher, PCCY family economic security associate. “We’re really pleased the district is taking this important step to support kids’ learning.”
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“Making principals acｃountable for breakfast is critical,” said Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington nonprofit that works to eradicate hunger. “School breakfast is so important that it makes sense to hold people in the system responsible.”
Weill said there were no reliable statistics on how many other U.S. school districts grade principals on breakfast.
Just how food will be served in Philadelphia schools is up to principals. Studies show, however, that more children eat when breakfast is served in the first class of the day.
Last year, the vast majority of the district’s 267 schools served food in their cafeterias before the school day began, Grasela said. Just 47 served them in classrooms, he said.
Typically, principals have resisted such service, saying it detracted from instructional time.
But in the spring, the Pennsylvania Department of Education ruled that if students throughout the state eat breakfast in their first class with a teacher present, it will be ｃounted as instructional time.
Fresh from his triumph tying principal performance to breakfast, Stein added, “First-class service [serving students breakfast during their first period class] should be required throughout the school system.”
This summer, principals received their schools’ first-ever report cards, based on goals from the 2008-09 school year. Those first report cards – which did not include the breakfast goal – will be made public this month, officials said.
The breakfast initiative represents a “fine-tuning” of the report cards, which were imposed by Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, a district spokesman said.
Article Source:https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/breakfast-at-school-now-is-on-the-principal/
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VOCABULARY WORDS
1.Eligible/adjective: having the right to do or obtain something; satisfying the appropriate conditions.
2.Acｃountability/noun: the fact or condition of being acｃountable; responsibility.
3.Disservice/noun: a harmful action.
4.Commonwealth/noun: an independent ｃountry or community, especially a democratic republic.
5.Advocate/noun: a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.
6.Mandatory/adjective: required by law or rules; compulsory.
7.Attainable/adjective: able to be attained; achievable.
8.Disparity/noun: a great difference.
9.Typically/adverb: in most cases; usually.
10.Reliablel/adjective: consistently good in quality or performance; able to be trusted.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. In the Philadelphia School District, principals are evaluated yearly through a personal ‘report card’ in areas including student attendance and math and reading performance of students. Why will Philidelphia school principals now also be held acｃountable for the number of students eating breakfast in their schools?
2. a) What income level makes a student eligible for free breakfasts in Philadelphia?
b) How many of the 165,000 Philadelphia public school students ate breakfast at school last year?
3. Why does Michael Lerner of the School Administrators ｕnion have a problem with the new mandate holding principals acｃountable for the number of students eating breakfast in their schools?
4. a) How does Wayne Grasela, the head of the food services company serving the public schools, address the issue of kids who eat at home in para. 14?
b) In addition to wanting “to help improve a child’s ability to learn,” why might the head of the food services company want the Philadelphia School District to require all principals to increase the number of students eating breakfast at school? (see para. 7-8 and 14 for Grasela’s comments)
5. Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, a Washington nonprofit that works to eradicate hunger said in para. 19, “Making principals acｃountable for breakfast is critical. School breakfast is so important that it makes sense to hold people in the system responsible.” Do you agree with Mr. Weill’s assertion? Explain your answer.
6. Is it fair to kids who eat breakfast at home to require them to come early and sit in the cafeteria so the principals can make their breakfast attendance quota, or to lose learning time during first period while some of their classmates are being served breakfast? Explain your answer.
7. Re-read para. 21-25 and answer the following:
a) Where and when do the majority of Philadelphia schools serve breakfast to students?
b) Why have principals opposed serving breakfast to students in the classroom during their first period classes?
c) What do you think of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s attempt to remove the principals’ concern (in para. 24)?
8. Instead of mandating that principals be responsible for kids eating breakfast, what are some ways the school district could encourage parents to take responsibility for providing breakfast for their kids?
9. a) Ask a parent where/when they ate breakfast as a student and what they think of the Philadelphia School District’s mandate to principals regarding student breakfast.
b) Ask at least one grandparent or older relative the same question.
