Read Vitti’s words closely
"You
certainly want a system of monitoring and tracking of a lot of the instances
that were highlighted in the findings," he said. "But at the
end of the day, most of the findings were linked to what was properly or
improperly done by principals; and those principals, A. Did not report directly
to Mason Davis; and in many ways, it is humanly impossible to be in each of
those schools looking at each of those situations."
So
Davis gets a pass for the things that happened under his watch, its too much Vitti says, how can one
guy be responsible for all those things. How can he be responsible for what
other people do?
Well
welcome to the world of a teacher.
Teachers
are routinely given more tasks than they can possibly do if they want to have a
life outside of school that is. Furthermore so many factors beside what happens
in their classroom play an important role but you know what nobody cares if
those tests scores dip. No then its time to hit the highway.
Crippling
poverty, who cares, absentee parents, just an excuse, not enough support or
resources, stop whining or we’ll get some TFAer in here to take your
place.
Alas, nepotism and cronyism are not dead. They are alive and well in Duval County. One step forward for Vitti getting rid of some of the deadwood. Three steps back for Vitti following in the footsteps of the previous regime.
ReplyDeleteReally, in my 8 years in Duval, it never seems to matter who takes the "top" positions. They could put my cat in the position, and students would perform how they would with or without the cat. They don't care who is in charge. These obsolete positions are useless and a waste of millions of dollars. They will never solve the real problems, and if Vitti were smart, he would eliminate them. He should talk to the principals himself, or better yet, he should just let principals freedom to enact change within their schools without so much insignificant oversight.
ReplyDeleteAll of the "changes" he is making will not mitigate the issues many of our children face. Until he understands that the real issues are not school-based, he will continue to make decisions that mean nothing. Make some good changes.
1. Limit class size for the most struggling schools.
2. Allow teachers to be leaders in their own schools, not merely peons of the system.
3. Provide more counselors for the most struggling schools; most of our kids want an academic future, but they and their parents don't know the process. We have 4 counselors for 1800 students. That is 450 per counselor, which is insane!
4. Put a social worker and a psychologist in EACH struggling school.
5. Have a graduation coach for each grade level, not just 12th.
6. Revert 8 classes every other day to 4 per semester.
7. Encourage students to participate in after school clubs and provide some supplements for sponsorships.
8. Require every parent to complete OnCourse training, so they can help their children.
9. Take away ISSP and implement detention after school. We have after school buses; we may as well get our money's worth.
10. Provide more, not less security.
11. Eliminate academic coaches and allow experienced teachers to have a planning period off to provide support to those teachers. It would be a fraction of the cost of an academic coach.
12. Eliminate ALL intensive reading classes, and allow ELA teachers to teach double-blocked classes, so ALL students have more time to practice their literacy skills.
Trust me, I have more, and guess what? They don't involve useless people who walk around as if they are actually doing something for students in some abstract way.
Many good suggestions. The most important is to let the teachers, who are the professionals, teach and collaborate. Administrators should not be running the schools. Class time is not enough time for the student to master material so after school must be required for students who are unable or unwilling to spend time at home. We need to challenge these students.
ReplyDelete