Vitti took every opportunity he could this weekend to say he
was brought in to be a transformational superintendent, a change agent.
Um, no, no he wasn’t, he was brought in to help improve our
district. When he arrived we had serious issues and I don’t want to sugar coat
that, discipline was bad, teacher morale was poor, often who you know not what
you could do determined advancement and our schools on the north and west sides
of town were floundering. That being said I thought we had tons of potential
and it wouldn’t take blowing up the system to reach it. Disciplined schools, respected
and engaged teachers, and stop treating our schools on the north and west sides
of town like unwanted step siblings would have gone a long way.
Fast forward to today and discipline is bad, teacher morale
is at an all-time low, often who you know not what you can do determine
advancement and our schools on the north and west sides of town are floundering.
Then throw in the disastrous Duval Reads/Engage NY, the elimination of most
librarians and many libraries, a three hundred percent increase in charter
schools, him outsourcing the district’s functions to corporate raiders with acronyms
for names, TFA, TNTP and JPEF, and the dissolution of our neighborhood schools.
Look I don’t want to be that guy who hates puppies and doesn’t
think the sky is blue just because Vitti likes puppies and thinks the sky is. This administration has been amazing at writing grants that bring new
resources to some of our schools and he was right in bringing back the arts and
PE even if the implementation has been ham-fisted but that’s one step forward and six steps back.
At the end of the day however, yes he has changed the
district just not for the better and sadly I am not sure how much more of his
change the district can take.
Note: before anybody yells at me about graduation rates being up here are two things you should consider, they were going up before Vitti got here and do you know where else they are up? EVERYWHERE,
The best way to understand Vitti is to view him as the Superman of the school system. I know my first attempt didn't quite capture the idea, thanks for not posting, I'll work on a revision and get it to you.
ReplyDeleteGraduation rates are no indication. Teachers are brow beat to pass seniors so that graduate, even if the student did not deserve a passing grade.
ReplyDeleteStudents who do not graduate with their class can still work towards graduation months after the actual graduation day, and then they will be counted in the percentage.
Speaking of "who you know" DCPS is about as far removed from a meritocracy as you can get. How else can you explain the superintendent, half the school board, Iranetta Wright, or the Davis brothers?
ReplyDeleteI also think it's curious that the VP of Content & Operations for WJCT is married to the prinicpal over at Julia Landon Middle School who himself was at a struggling school a year ago before getting that plum assignment. Maybe that promotion is well deserved---I don't know. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature but there are just way too many of these "coincidences" to ignore.
I wholeheartedly agree that student discipline, teacher morale and nepotism are all much worse than with EPD, which none of us thought possible.
ReplyDelete