Another year yet another reading program.
When discussing the implementation of yet another reading program, Becki Couch, Paula Wright and Connie Hall, the three educators on the board dissented while the non educators on the board, Shine, Smith-Juarez and Grimes sided with Superintendent Vitti who quite frankly has very limited actual teaching experience himself.
From the Times Union
When discussing the implementation of yet another reading program, Becki Couch, Paula Wright and Connie Hall, the three educators on the board dissented while the non educators on the board, Shine, Smith-Juarez and Grimes sided with Superintendent Vitti who quite frankly has very limited actual teaching experience himself.
From the Times Union
One of three board members voting against it, Constance Hall, said she couldn’t approve it because she was “heartbroken” and losing sleep over a lack of progress in closing achievement gaps. She said black and Hispanic students remain far behind their white and Asian peers, especially in reading.
“We’re in the emergency room and we need help,” she said.
In a weird way its refreshing that the actual educators on the board were ignored because it just goes to show it's not just the districts teachers who go ignored. Heck it doesn't matter how high up the ladder you get apparently.
This just isn't a Duval problem it is a disturbing trend across the nation as those people that do it or have done it are ignored for the favor of others.
From the Washington Post:
In America, however, many people believe the old adage, “If you can’t do, teach.” Even when well-meaning people say to the educators they meet, “Oh, I could never do what you do, and good for you for following your calling,” they are perpetuating the narrative that teaching is not a skillful profession full of experts in their fields, but rather a service teachers render to better society out of the goodness of their hearts. It is difficult to imagine someone telling a pilot, “Good for you for following your calling.”
Immediately after returning from Finland, I attended a national conference on education policy with other teachers where we would interact with governors, education commissioners, university leaders, and legislators from each state as well as members of the U.S. Department of Education. Upon arrival, I and many of my fellow teachers, initially felt empowered. We were trusted and respected and had been given a seat at the table.
But as the conference progressed, many of us felt like only bystanders of education policy. One of my most respected colleagues said after the first day, “I just feel so out of place. I don’t think these policymakers want to hear what I have to say about education policy.”
Her comment struck me because how could a strong, effective classroom practitioner feel as if the decisions made about education at the highest level were beyond her realm of expertise? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If I want to know how to best fly a plane, I will not ask the air traffic controllers or CEO of the airline. I will ask the pilot. It is difficult to imagine an airline conference where the pilots seem insignificant to the process of flying planes.
I have said it a thousand times now, we will never reach our potential as a district as long as we continue to ignore and marginalize, teachers, the people doing the actual job.
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