The system is moving in the right direction, Professor James Crooks wrote in the Folio Weekly about our school system because of reports that our graduation rates were improving and that the district has reported a decrease in discipline problems. The good professor however left out a couple of important things.
First there is the fact that the formula for graduation rates was dramatically changed recently, which led to our bump. It gets worse than that however. I have six kids in my classes who I have never met and despite me reporting them to the attendance team several times they have yet to be withdrawn, extrapolate that county wide and that could be thousands of kids who have effectively dropped out but have stayed on our rolls. Nor does he mention the loophole that prevents kids who enter adult education classes (GED, etc.) from being withdrawn, which probably counts for about a five percent improvement in out rates.
(http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-duval-countys-graduation-rate.html)
His claim that discipline has improved is also laughable. He failed to mention how the average teacher (probably because he doesn’t know any) would completely disagree with the statement that discipline has greatly improved. However what has improved is teachers ignoring bad behavior and enduring toxic learning environments. It’s common for administrators to “with quote marks” say, if a teacher writes to many referrals, his or her evaluation, performance pay and even job can be in jeopardy.
Professor Crooks with all due respect in the future when you write about Jacksonville why don’t you stick with the climate, the golf courses or special neighborhoods like Fernandina Beach or Avondale because you obviously have no idea what is happening in our schools and when you regurgitate statistics issued by self serving parties you do our city and it’s children a disservice.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
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