Archives for category: Administrators, superintendents
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A Teacher Grades the Houston Independent School District

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
10

This teacher in Houston reviews what is happening in HISD schools.

Anyone know the HISD superintendent Terry Grier?

The teacher’s evaluation:

Another transplanted North Carolina education experience. I teach in Texas in the largest school district that has inherited one of North Carolina’s education mediums, T. Grier. In his ready, shoot, aim masterplan, all teachers are graded on the growth of their students on a year to year basis, as the statistical junkies decide that growth will be measured on EVAAS- a nonpeer reviewed performance analyis program. This is in addition to a whole slew of other tests. We personally ran into an issue where our social studies students were passing 95% of the tests or higher provided by the State, but when the results did not grow past 95% the teachers were penalized! There is no average of, say, three years performance, or a plateau of achievement where the grading stops, but a slap for high achievement – the District refused to reconsider our highly validated protests.

Teachers were baited with the prospect of “bonus” money, and assumed we were like pipe salepersons who would do more for a bigger payday. A teacher might earn up to $7,000…great, but there have also not been any raises for over 4 years. The bonus money available has been reduced by half, so the District reduced the teachers who could obtain a bonus – no senior level teachers, art, electives, nor foreign language because??? those subjects do NOT have to be tested. In our case, high performance ran into an effective ceiling. So now, bonus money has shrunk, teachers salaries have been reduced, a bait and switch incentive atmosphere has been created. Incentives in business are great, this is not business. Teachers do not get to select inputs and the inputs change, perhaps dramatically, year to year; or we average over 37 kids in a class compared to 30, but that should’nt really effect performance. It defies good science to measure unlike test groups.

Morale in our District is terrible, particularly with the school administrators who cringe when the headquarters decides on some new hoop teachers and students need to jump through. For example, we are supposed to drop students into category buckets within the first month so we can establish their goals…what sense does that make? who knows kids after a month? and then the system crashed, or dropped data or just didn’t work. Nobody holds senior administration accountable.

So fair is fair, how are Grier and the District grading themselves in the Broad competition they flaunt? 1) on the basis of how many kids take the SAT 2) how many kids take Advanced Placement courses and 3) how many more kids graduate. Fine as it goes, but a) the District paid for the SAT for all 10th graders b) it pays for any AP tests and recruited teachers and kids who were completely unprepared for this incredibly rigorous course load (SpEd kids were enrolled in some cases!) and c) created an on-line self paced Grad Lab program that is never backstopped for performance nor any real check on comprehension. There are no effective teacher unions in Texas (no strike state), so no one can blame that factor on Texas’ dismal performance of Houston’s. Maybe it is the super? From North Carolina Greenboro, then San Diego…any comments from other teachers who taught under T. Grier and dealt with the North Carolina experience?

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Budget Cuts, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Merit pay, Testing, Texas

Big Out-of-State $$$ Floods Local Race in New Jersey: Why?

By dianeravitch
November 4, 2012 //
5

Big political contributions have poured into a local school board race in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Donors in California andColorado are supporting a slate of school board candidates in that small New Jersey district.

As Jersey Jazzman explains here, the school board in Perth Amboy has been trying to oust the district’s divisive superintendent. Acting Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf has protected her, preventing the board from getting rid of her. The election provides an opportunity to fire the board and install one that will defend Chris Christie’s agenda: anti-teacher, anti-union, anti-tenure, pro-privatization.

As Jersey Jazzman writes:

It seems absurd, and yet it’s true: four wealthy Californians and one wealthy Coloradan – heavy hitters in the tech, financial, and health care sectors – have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a slate of candidates running for the school board in Perth Amboy, a city of 50,000 with a majority Hispanic population.

“According to New Jersey election records, the slate of candidates calling themselves “Better Schools Now!” has collected $64,700, mostly from sources outside of Perth Amboy. In contrast, an opposing slate, “New Vision, New Voice” has collected $7,005, with all of its donations over $300 coming from within the city.”

There is a clear pattern emerging here and elsewhere around the country: a small number of extremely wealthy individuals are pouring huge amounts of money into elections, state and local, to buy the result they want: privatization, budget cuts, anti-union policies, a compliant school board.

It happened last year in Denver and last spring spring in Louisiana; its happening now in Perth Amboy, New Orleans, Idaho, Santa Clara County (CA), Washington State, Georgia, and elsewhere.

This is not haphazard. These are takeover targets.

Time for an investigative journalist to find out who is coordinating this subversion of democracy.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Cerf, Chris, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, New Jersey, Teacher Tenure

NYC’s Disrespect for Its Teachers and Principals

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2012 //
13

A reader in NYC writes:

Diane,

People in Staten Island, which is the borough with the greatest loss of life, is getting very little assistance compared to lower Manhattan. Some areas are not getting food or water. Those people are desperate. When Bloomberg said yesterday that temps in the low 50s is not cold, I wanted to slap him through the TV since this is the same man who had a window-sized air conditioner installed in his SUV so the interior can remain cool during the summer when it’s parked outside City Hall. But the marathon will go on. I suppose if people from around the world and other parts of the US are already here, then maybe it should. But I worry for the people in our city who need the assistance of the police department. Looting is on the rise.

But I think you should know how heartless the DoE is being. Today teachers are to report back to work. The fear is that it’s for useless PD which I hope is not the case. But many are without gas and transit is still running slowly and the crowds are huge.

So what did Walcott do??? Late last night, when most people are asleep or not checking their DoE email, he announced a 10am arrival time.. I am sure the majority of teachers did not see that notice. This late start time could have been announced yesterday or the day before. It made perfect sense given the overcrowding on highways, buses and trains. The lack of common courtesy and respect for teachers is so evident. I wonder if Walcott informed his own daughter??? Walcott does not act without the mayor’s permission since mayoral control. This was a deliberate slap in the face to teachers, many of whom have lost property, living without hot water and electricity, or stuck in their high-rise apartments. Many of whom cannot find enough gas to get them to and from work. There was nothing to “prepare” for. Teachers know how to conduct a lesson on a hurricane and its aftermath. I just hope the teachers who show up today are given the courtesy to decide for themselves what needs to be done since report cards are soon due, along with any other paperwork for the ending of the first marking period, parent-teacher conferences, and of course preparing their classroom for November which usually requires new bulletin boards.

I sincerely hope they take the time to find out if any other staff or members of their school community need assistance and what they can do to help. Common Core and testing be damned!!

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Bloomberg, Michael, NYC

Sacramento Superintendent to Thomas Friedman: You Are Wrong

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2012 //
19

Jonathan Raymond, superintendent of the Sacramento City school district, has some lessons for New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

Friedman recently raved about the success of Race to the Top, claiming that it was preparing students for the high-skill jobs of the new economy.

Raymond says this is wrong. Race to the Top is divisive and subjects schools to derision.

It is top-down, heavy-handed and undermines the collaboration needed to make genuine improvement.

States that promise to comply with Duncan’s heavy handed mandates are “winners” while those making progress without Duncan’s script are losers.

He adds:

Meanwhile, school districts that are making real, tangible strides to increase student learning are left behind in this “race.” In Sacramento City Unified, we are turning around seven low-performing schools (called Priority Schools) through research-proven strategies for raising student achievement. Six of the seven schools have shown dramatic increases in student achievement and dramatic improvements in school culture and climate. These strategies include relevant professional development for principals and teachers; collaborative teacher planning time; data analysis and inquiry; and building strong family and community engagement. With federal funding, we could take this pilot program to scale statewide. California districts could build on each other’s successes and the gains of districts across the country. This is exactly what federal dollars should be spent on.
Yet Race to the Top’s scripted approach effectively discounts these reforms because they do not fit into the neat categories created by the prescriptive program. Moreover, forcing school districts to compete for badly needed resources is like offering a starving man food but only if he agrees to whatever strings may be attached. This is certainly the choice that school districts like ours face in California.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, California, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, US Education

What If “No Child Shows Up”?

By dianeravitch
October 31, 2012 //
15

Recently, school officials in El Paso were investigated and found guilty of pushing certain students out of school to prevent them from taking the state tests. The purpose was to boost the district’s scores and make it appear to be doing better than it was. Some children were literally excluded from school and never finished. The superintendent was convicted and sentenced to jail. This was disgraceful, and it was an indictment of the officials’ personal ethics, but also an indictment of the absurd high-stakes testing regime foisted on the nation by No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. School officials in some district will do literally anything to get their scores up, even though it hurts children. This is wrong. And the system which it incentivizes this behavior is also wrong.

This blogger has a different take on the El Paso incident. He tends to view it as an example of “opting out” of testing. He longs for the day that “No Child Shows Up.”

Of course, if the superintendent in El Paso had told all children to stay home on testing day, he would now be a national hero to angry parents and educators. Instead, he is a convicted criminal because he did not have the best interests of children in mind. He told only the low-performing students to stay home or to drop out of school. He was not acting in their interest. He was acting from self-interest, trying to inflate the scores of his district.

Someday, all educators will have the courage to stop doing things that they know are educational malpractice.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Testing

Dear Dr. King: A Heartfelt Letter to the State Commissioner of Education

By dianeravitch
October 30, 2012 //
11

Tony Sinanis, a father of a third grade student in New York and principal of a school, writes a moving and sincere letter to John King, the state commissioner of education.

With all due deference to the state commissioner, he asks a series of questions about the purpose and quantity of tests now raining down on schools across the state.

Teachers are teaching to the test; children are concluding that are “no good” because they are not good at the testing.

Is this in the best interest of children?

Read the letter. Here is a sample:

First of all, our children are feeling overwhelmed, stressed out and they are starting to doubt their own abilities and it is only October. Why? Maybe it is because they are being subjected to numerous difficult tests and tasks as a result of the expectations of the Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) that have recently been put in place. Don’t get me wrong – I know pre and post assessments are critical and that various data points (when properly analyzed) can be a powerful tool for guiding future instruction and personalizing learning; but, when is enough, enough? Do they really need to take a paper and pencil test in the gym in first grade as part of a Physical Education SLO? Or do they need to take the TerraNova in kindergarten as part of a literacy SLO? Or does a second grader need to take an online assessment as part of reading and mathematics SLOs that can go on for hours? Are these types of assessments really developmentally appropriate (especially when considering some of our kindergarten students are still four years old)? Is the data we are gathering actually useful or even accurate? As I heard you recently mention, each district can negotiate their own SLOs so maybe not every first grader is taking a paper and pencil test in the gym but they are taking some type of assessment even though they have barely had a chance to get acclimated to their new teacher, classroom environment and school year. Is this really in the best interest of children? I am not sure but if it is, please let me know how so I can explain it my third grader who shut down during a mathematics SLO and said he was too stupid to finish and refused to take the test (by the way, his teacher wasn’t sure whether she should intervene because all she wanted to do was swoop in and take care of this little boy’s emotional well being but she worried that it might compromise the integrity of the test). Please understand that I am not questioning the importance of assessment nor the analysis of data to help us better instruct our students but in light of the new APPR and SLO requirements, my question is, are we actually doing what is in the best interest of our children?

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, New York, Testing

Is Tom Luna the Worst State Superintendent? CORRECTION!

By dianeravitch
October 23, 2012 //
37

If we had a race for the worst state superintendent in the nation, there would be many contenders. One thinks immediately, for example, of Tony Bennett in Indiana or John White in Louisiana.

By worst, I mean someone who has done his best to destroy public education–which is a sacred trust in the hands of the chief state school officer–and to demoralize the teachers who do the daily work of teaching the kids.

One of the top contenders for that odious distinction is Tom Luna of Idaho. Idaho is a small state and it doesn’t usually get a lot of national attention, but Luna has thrust it into the forefront of the national movement to privatize public education.

He was elected with the help of contributions from technology companies. A brilliant investigative report in the Idaho-Stateman last year documented how he raised campaign contributions from the education technology industry and became their darling.

Not being an original thinker, he called his program “Students Come First,” like Joel Klein’s “Children First” and Michelle Rhee’s “Students First.”

Despite a shrinking budget, he bought a laptop for every student and mandated that every student had to take two online courses in order to graduate. A token of appreciation to all those corporations that helped pay for Mr. Luna’s election.

He led a campaign to eliminate collective bargaining and often refers to union members as “thugs.” His reforms, known as the Luna laws, impose merit pay, which has never worked anywhere. He does whatever he can think of to demoralize the teachers of Idaho.

Is he the worst in the nation? There are many other contenders. It’s a close call.

His proposals are up for a vote this year. We will see if the people of Idaho are ready to outsource their children and public schools to for-profit corporations.

[CORRECTION: LUNA IS NOT UP FOR RE-ELECTION UNTIL 2014; HIS PROPOSALS–KNOWN AS THE “STUDENTS COME FIRST” LAWS or PROPS 1, 2, 3–ARE ON THE BALLOT NOVEMBER 6].

A reader in Idaho sent the following information:

An interesting development in Idaho politics is that not a single Democrat supports the “Students Come First” bills, or Props 1,2,3 as they are now commonly referred to, but nearly every Republican does support them, even though many Republican voters don’t. A recent poll was taken that shows props 1,2,3 losing support among voters, the real question is whether that will lead to more Democratic legislators (85/105 Idaho legislators are Republicans). Another interesting development is that the “Vote yes” folks only raised less than half of what the “Vote no” folks did ($500,000 vs $1.3 million), and I’m not really sure why. I think part of it might be that the state is trying to pay very little for the laptops (I think we’re looking for laptops and maintenance for $309/unit) and no company has taken that, and I also think the state is trying to pay half the normal rate for online courses, so for-profit education has held off on contributions.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, For-Profit, Idaho, Privatization, Teachers and Teaching, Technology, Computers

Vermillion Parish School Board Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
October 22, 2012 //
4

Vermillion Parish School Board in Louisiana joins the Honor Roll as a hero of public education because of its refusal to bow down to the unjust, unwise demands of the State Department of Education. The Louisiana State Department of Education is not at all “conservative.” It believes that bureaucracy should override local control and that the people should hand their local schools over to the whims of the state.

The Louisiana Department of Education chastised four school districts for refusing to obey the Legislature’s command to pay no attention to seniority or tenure when laying off teachers. Three of the four districts–including Vermillion–are among the top 15 districts in the state.

You see, the Legislature thinks it knows more about how to reform education than the best districts and the best educators in the state. Ditto State Commissioner John White, who has only two years teaching for Teach for America and has never been a principal or a superintendent until he was suddenly elevated to his present job by Governor Bobby Jindal, who wants to privatize public education and implement the full ALEC agenda.

The Legislature passed a law (Act 1) last spring saying that layoffs should be based “solely” on demand, performance, and effectiveness. Vermillion’s attorney says that the board has a policy based on the same criteria, but it uses experience as a tie-breaker. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the state, the high-performing Vermillion has a teachers’ union, and the district agreed with the union that seniority or tenure would be used as a secondary way to reduce staff.

Anthony Fontana, a member of the Vermillion school board, spoke plainly about what the Jindal administration was trying to do:

“This is an opportunity for Jindal’s administration to bad mouth public education,” said Fontana. “This is another attack on public education. We are not going to stand for it. We have to stand up and fight.”

Jerome Puyau, the superintendent elect of Vermission Parish Schools said, “Our policy does protect great teachers by adding more objective criteria, it takes away the possibility of politics coming into play whether it is the board or superintendent who institutes it. Vermilion Parish respects the experience, certification, and training that great teachers have achieved through the years and has always placed these criteria for major consideration in hiring which is a major reason that Vermilion Parish has been so successful with student achievement.”

This contretemps makes clear what is behind the Jindal agenda: Not improving schools, but privatizing them, even if it ruins the good schools that already exist in Louisiana.

For standing up to the Bullies of Baton Rouge, the Vermillion Parish School Board joins our H0nor Roll as a hero of public education.

 

Categories Administrators, superintendents, ALEC, Jindal, Bobby, Louisiana, Teacher Tenure

Tony Bennett: Fiasco in Indiana

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2012 //
5

Social media has allowed educators to contact one another and express their views. The news they tell does not often get covered in the local press. The educators’ insights are worth sharing.

Read this post from Indiana about State Superintendent of Education Bennett, no friend of public schools.

Bennett is running for re-election against veteran educator Glenda Ritz.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Chiefs for Change, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Indiana

Why Schools Fail

By dianeravitch
October 15, 2012 //
3

A retired principal, Pat Buoncristiani, writes to describe what she learned in many years of experience..

She writes:

When I was the principal of a struggling Title 1 school I grappled for the reasons behind my children’s difficulties. Others would make suggestions – it’s because their parents don’t care, it’s something about their race, it’s because they have bad role models and so on. It seemed apparent to me that the underlying cause of all this was simple and yet extraordinarily difficult to deal with. It was poverty. Until we deal with the rising tide of poverty in our society too many of our children will continue be swept by this wave into lives that fail to provide them with the means to be effective, enriching members of our society. The soil is poverty and the plant will not grow true and straight in such an environment. Some schools have made great gains in an environment of poverty, but they are too few and we do not seem to have the resources to apply those measures that made them succeed to every school that needs them.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Poverty
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