Angie Sullivan is a veteran teacher of children in the early grades in Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada. She writes to a long list of legislators and journalists from time to time to let them know what is happening at the classroom level. Their discussions need to be informed by teacher knowledge, and Angie has plenty of it to share. She does this without fear of being fired. Angie Sullivan joins the honor roll of this blog for always putting the needs of her students first.

She writes:

My concerns are similar to the Trustees of Clark County School District, but they come from the practicality of the classroom.

Student Achievement:

I have concerns about student achievement as the CCSD Trustees currently implements mandates. Since testing has replaced instruction in many schools, there has been little or no achievement. There has also been little authentic achievement as teachers have been forced to teach to the test instead of teaching at each student’s instructional level to scaffold instruction. This has been particularly detrimental to limited English students and students in poverty. Forcing students with zero background, limited vocabulary, and no access to perform on a rigorous grade-level assessment – invalidates the assessment. The tests are simply too hard to show anything useful to teachers or students. That does not mean my students are not bright and capable; they are a protected class who has not yet had enough developmentally appropriate access
and participation validity is questionable. Simply: testing in English when your primary languages is not English is unfair. Trustees have created an environment where students, parents, and teachers have realized they cannot rely on these test to inform decisions – everyone failing all the time every time does what? Adequate support must be given prior to testing. Adequate instruction with background building and vocabulary building must occur. Protected groups cannot be repeatedly tested over and over and over then the data used as a weapon against children and teachers unless there has been an initial investment in learning time, supplies, and care. This is under the Trustees authority and it has not happened. Instead, labor and children are punished for things beyond our control. And unfortunately any “success” cannot be replicated in authentic situations because teaching to the test does not generalize to a different kind of test on a different day.

Equity and Civil Rights Issues:

We live in a district which has 100,000 students who are undocumented or live in families which are undocumented. We have few services for families to learn English, participate in Citizenship courses, negotiate the labyrinth of scams which take advantage of the unwary. Our students are in jeopardy of being removed from their families everyday. Family members disappear and are never seen again often. Frankly, it is a holocaust with individuals living in fear, under the radar, hiding. This is not conducive to learning and one third of our students live with this daily. My attempts at educating CCSD leadership on this issue has fallen on deaf ears – yet one-third of our students are affected by these issues. What would your life be like if your parents were taken in the night? Would your priority be graduation or something else? Students drop out to survive. I have asked over and over for some care by the Trustees to be taken.

I participated in sex education meetings. The Trustees allowed gay bashing and hate speech for 7 hours at a time. I watched Trustees brag about bringing their churches to the meetings to do this. The LGBTQ community is a protected class. Trustees openly allowed abuse of children who identity as queer. A community that is likely to consider suicide should not be exposed to long meetings where trusted authorities allow speeches about Bibles and hell. This is a human rights violation and unfortunate that Trustees participated in this.

Look at the data and you will see. It is people of color who CCSD fails. We do very very well serving the white outer ring of Las Vegas. CCSD knows how to teach students because we have some of the top schools in the nation. We are extremely successful in some areas of town – directly correlated to socio-economic status (which is the best predictor of educational success). CCSD fails to address the inner ring of the city which is soaked in social problems, poverty, and lack of care. Looking at census data for Las Vegas and you will see we have generations of adults who dropped out before the ninth grade – millions. 30 years of under-funding, crazy mandates, and hiring people who are NOT real teachers has built this. This is the extreme civil rights issue that has been built by the current Trustee leadership. The money has not gotten to the children who needed it most. This was in Trustee control and they failed.

The Department of Justice will become involved because of the severe racial inequity in the CCSD charters. These charters are successful at preventing collective bargaining, causing racial segregation, and siphoning money for questionable ventures. I have watched the Trustees admit that charters are failing and instead of closing them down – renewed their contracts. No regulation, no data, no transparency – another wasteful money pit.

It would be difficult for a new power structure to do worse than the current system which is ranked last in a state which is ranked last. The extreme inequity is difficult to measure currently since the Trustees have not been able to deliver how much money each school receives, though it has been asked repeatedly.

Employment Issues:

150 CCSD schools protested with picket signs to receive a teacher contract after the legislature sent CCSD $1 Billion which it refused to share with labor. Over 15,000 teachers in the streets each payday and marching finally lead to new language.

We fought to keep our non-profit healthcare which still struggles from being forced to spend down. Surely it is not teachers that Trustees are concerned about.

Perhaps it is support staff . . .

Who did not give support staff a raise in 8 years? Who forced support staff into a for-profit insurance that is prepared to gouge them again? Which bodies included out-sourcing in the support staff contracts? This is the current language not put there by legislators. Hint: CCSD and ESEA put outsourcing in the contract not the Nevada legislature. It is not support staff Trustees are concerned about.

Perhaps it is administration (principals) . . .

They haven’t settled a contract either.

Trustees are concerned about interviewing? I’m the one sitting in schools filled with long term subs, TFA, and ARLs. The door revolves in my community and each year the people coming through are less prepared than the year before. We filled our at-risk schools with folks who who had to have 60 college credits (no degree necessary) last year. Special Education students do not have a professional – sometimes for their whole school career? How about being concerned about stuffing warm bodies into vacancies. Those warm bodies are not ready to teach at-risk kids. I digress since that is a civil rights issue – is it not? Frankly, the white outer ring is not staffed with TFAs, ARLs and subs is it?

Equipment:

Have you ever been with 42 five year olds in a room when it is 104 degrees outside? They get sweaty and limp. Everyone gets sick and starts to throw-up. Have you ever done that as a routine for five years or more because the air conditioning routinely goes out because CCSD bought the air conditioner in Wisconsin to save money? Air conditioning and lack of it is not funny or a joke to be ignored. Trustees have failed.

Would I be sad if my principal had the right to call the AC guy who lives across the street to flip the switch so babies do not get heat-stroke? I would not be sad.

And again – I’m sure if I taught students on a different side of town we would not have to endure significant and life-threatening equipment failures. I digress- again a civil rights issues.

Student Funding:

I have taught at my current school for about five years. This week my at-risk Title I school finally received a reading series and a math series.

Yes. We have books.

I find it hard to believe that the Trustees who I have been watching spend money on lasers, trips, gadgets, and yee-haws for all sorts of schools not on my side of town – is now concerned about books, paper, and basic supplies? Because that has been my consistent concern since arriving here.

Frankly, no one has listened to teachers nor have they given us anything we really needed. But they have whipped us for not being successful with invalid data that tells no one anything.

In summary, I find Trustee concerns ironic.

They have had the power to do major change.

They could have shown an interest in civil or human rights long ago.

They could have been bold and really addressed the concerns they listed.

Instead they have mismanaged and abused their power.

Frankly it would be hard to do worse than they have done. So for my kids – I want to move forward.