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Monday, September 30, 2013

Has the Times Union lost its ever-loving mind? The Wright way?

In what has to be the worst piece of Education Reporting to ever come out of the Times Union and there has been no shortage of humdingers, Khristopher Brooks wrote a piece extolling the virtues of former Jackson Principal and current area chief Iranetta Wright.

The article started: When Iranetta Wright became principal at Jackson High School five years ago not only was it the lowest performing school in Duval County public schools but it was ranked lowest in Florid but today it was ranked a B.

The article never mentioned the grades the school received while she was principal there, which were F, D, F and B and that the B probably had as much to do with almost half the student body leaving during her four years, a change in the state grading system which saw grades all across the state rise and the fact the district put a heroic amount of resources into the school. At the very least the Times Union could have waited to see what the schools grade will be this year before throwing her the parade on page one.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2013/06/lets-look-at-vittis-data-driven.html

Where is the context, where are the details? As usual they are missing. I submit an alley cat randomly batting balls around with all the resources and change in grading formula could have done as well at Jackson high school and would definitely been more popular.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2012/04/friends-dont-let-friends-go-to-jackson.html

Later she talked about how she improved the schools grade saying she kept teachers who were dedicated to their children as if that was a problem before she arrived and I guess must have been a problem her first three years too. There was also no mention of the grading formula change, half the student body leaving or the extra resources.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2012/12/so-just-how-much-did-your-high-school.html

I don’t know if Mrs. Wright has a monkey’s paw or is a siren from old charming men in her wake as she chugs towards the top but evidence doesn’t bear out either her meteoric rise or the papers gushing review of her performance.

Look I hope she gets an epiphany, the schools under her charge are going to need it and I hope she does a great job but the Times Union shouldn’t report that she did a good job when the facts do not bear that out. Also couldn’t the Times Union have written the article without her? All it did was provide more evidence that the Times Union is out of touch.

5 comments:

  1. A few months ago many current and former AJHS teachers would have agreed with your article. However after 6 weeks with the new principal, Floyd-Hatcher, many would do anything to get Wright back at AJHS. Despite Wright's flaws, she was an excellent leader who motivated teachers and valued quality education. Floyd-Hatcher and her crew obviously don't value teachers. They also don't understand the difference between middle and elementary schools and high schools- especially a high school located on North Main Street. Keep an eye on AJHS under Floyd-Hatcher's leadership. Things are going downhill quickly.

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  2. The Times-Union's reporters get their stories from specific sources: in this case, DCPS district spokespersons. Since reporters can't just walk into schools and do the investigative thing (because minors are there and safety concerns exist), they must rely upon district spin for valuable news hole. So, if truth is desired, one must go to outside information sources such as CG's blog.

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  3. My biggest concern with the article is the piece about plans to fire principals and half the staff at the "focus" schools. I work at one of those schools and I am beyond frustrated. This is the seventh week of school and ELA teachers still don't have most of the novels they were promised and there is a severe shortage of SRA materials. Not to mention all of the time that has been spent testing between IOWA, CGA's, district timed writing, etc. Are these things going to be taken into account when they decide to take away jobs? I doubt it.

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  4. That's what caught my eye too -- plans to fire principals and teachers! As mentioned above, this is Week 7 - in two weeks one quarter of the school year will have been completed - and schools still lack textbooks & other teaching/learning materials. Some schools are still getting additional teachers which means students are still being moved around. All the pretesting has taken up lots of time too.
    If "they" really wanted to focus on those "focus" schools, they could give the teachers very small classes and sufficient materials instead of bringing in more "experts" to tell them what to do.

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  5. Kristopher can't spell his own name.

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