After following his press conference on the Times Union’s live blog I have come to the conclusion it has to be one or the other.
He started talking about his accomplishments, not the districts but his, over and over again he talked about the things he did, not the things the district did under his watch. To hear him speak you would have thought the district was a one man operation.
Let’s talk about “his” accomplishments.
His high graduation requirements led to the districts gentlemen’s C policy where kids were pushed along without the skills they need. His high graduation requirements have led to seventy percent of grads having to take remedial classes. The state has a not quite as sad average of fifty-five percent.
The graduation rate has increased; it’s too bad it took gutting student accountability to achieve it. Before two years ago the grad rate bounced around between 51 and 57 percent, it wasn’t until he made grade recovery available for any student regardless of reason that the grad rate really started to rise. Kids that disrupt and make no effort should never have gotten a second bite at the apple but that is who mostly did.
He touted how he put accelerated programs into each high school. This is so disingenuous on many levels. Now Duval County puts level ones and twos into advanced placement classes routinely where just a few years ago level threes had to get permission. Having more kids in accelerated programs whether they are capable of not helps with the districts overall grade and finally why do we have Paxon and Stanton is kids can get the programs there anywhere. With a swoop of his pen he made them redundant.
He talked about Read it Forward Jax which may have been an accomplishment if he would have capped the class sizes: you see you can’t have huge classes of young and poor readers and expect to accomplish anything. What the district actually provided was expensive babysitting.
As for his expanded partnerships in the community, I consider myself in the know and I don’t know what he is talking about.
He is delusional to list these as “his” accomplishments. His legacy will be one of undisciplined hall ways, classes without rigor, low teacher morale and graduating way too many kids ill prepared for life.
The truth is Pratt-Dannals was a disaster for the district, well except for his cronies, pals and sycophants who he promoted to high paying district positions who did nearly as much damage as the super did.
He with his all is well message, did the district a real disservice. Though I guess he had continue to say so because if not more may have realized many of our problems are of his making. It will take us years to recover from the damage this narcissist has created.
Yes, he was a disaster for the county. He covered up for incompetent clusters and principals.He played being blind to principals immoral behaviors and discriminatory actions.He know in September of 2010 that Ed. White High school was struggling with bad administration, a lot of retaliation and low morale, which it was reflected on the school grade.
ReplyDeleteHe allowed MANY principals to behave badly. I know I appealed to him repeatedly for relief and he never responded. In fact after I complained the harassment and retaliation escalated. Ed Prattdannals has always had a condescending air towards teachers and he conveniently used them so he would have someone to blame. How can we expect the administrators(esp. those without a moral compass) to respect teachers when the superintendent didn't. Prattdannals set the tone. He did not even pretend to care about and address teachers' concerns.
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