A responce to Ed Pratt Dannals

The superintendent would have you celebrate that that the graduation rate improved to 71.2 percent. He doesn’t mention the judicious use of grade recovery, which allows kids to make up classes they fail for any reason (bad behavior, lack of effort, nonattendance) in a matter of days or how the formula doesn’t count hundreds, perhaps thousands of kids who have left the school system to participate in alternate education programs.

The superintendent points to “bold steps” in creating the highest graduation requirements in the state. These same steps have led to seventy percent of our grads having to take remedial classes at Florida State College and kids being pushed through without the skills they need to be successful. I contend we need legitimate algebra one classes not watered down algebra II classes. A colleague recently told me he had maybe a handful of students in his algebra II classes that could pass a legitimate algebra Iclass. In short higher does not equal better.

The superintendent touts advanced level acceleration classes in all the high schools, which begs the question why do we have dedicated advanced level acceleration high schools. By putting the classes kids get at Paxon and Stanton in the neighborhood high schools he has eliminated the need for Paxon and Stanton and made them expensive and unnecessary luxuries.

Then he has the audacity to celebrate the improvement in many of our schools grades, largely due to a scoring change and then warn us that next year many of our schools grades will probably drop, because of a scoring change. Friends he now has his cake and has eaten it too.

He talks about rigor in the classroom while every year it becomes harder and harder for teachers to give kids grades they deserve. The onus on passing classes is completely on the teachers now, the kids, they have grade recovery not that the C has not become the new F for many teachers, the grade given to kids who show up and don’t cause problems.

Then perhaps most disingenuous of all he pleads poverty for the district just three days after he directed the board to authorize three public relation positions at a cost to the district of between two and three hundred thousand dollars. Why should the city listen to anything he has to say?

And friends, I urge you not to take my word on above, find a teacher and ask them what they think.

The superintendent is right in one aspect though, the teachers and staff of the district should be commended for a job well done, but unfortunately they often do so in spite of the administration not in conjunction with it. If the administration were more concerned with aiding good teaching rather than standard based boards, phone book sized data notebooks and two page daily lesson plans and if they would support teachers by giving children who misbehave legitimate consequences instead of forcing classes to suffer through toxic learning environments, well friends then we would have something worth celebrating.