Our accountability system is noting more than an intricate shell game that will eventually unravel.
How does it seem like we have success when we're at best just spinning our wheels, well lets start with creating a lot of magnet and specialty schools and approving a bunch of charters. At the K-2 schools there will be practically zero accountability, don't have to take a test how will we know how the student there are doing but now we know longer have to worry about those schools bringing the district grades down.
Turn another school into a center school for autistic children and its now become another low performing school the super can check off his list.
Then there are the new magnets which were formerly low performing schools will force half of their student bodies to different schools where if they now struggle it will be years before anything has to be done or what's a letter grade drop here and there.
Then there is his charter scheme, approve a lot of charter schools and when they ultimately struggle say, you know what the district shouldn't be responsible for their performance.
We're not fixing what ills our schools were shifting the problems around.
That's the super's one trick.
Now some of you might be thinking what a hypocrite I must be for railing against the accountability system for years and then criticizing the super's way of dealing with it.
The thing is he's not dealing with it, he's shifting problems at one school to another and I think there are plenty of ways to improve things. Smaller classes and a longer school year for some would go a long long way to fixing our educational crisis, Then block scheduling is a terrible idea that should be done away with.
The super would prefer to use smoke and mirrors and kick the can down the road. Don't be fooled by these tricks.
Welcome to Duval County.
How does it seem like we have success when we're at best just spinning our wheels, well lets start with creating a lot of magnet and specialty schools and approving a bunch of charters. At the K-2 schools there will be practically zero accountability, don't have to take a test how will we know how the student there are doing but now we know longer have to worry about those schools bringing the district grades down.
Turn another school into a center school for autistic children and its now become another low performing school the super can check off his list.
Then there are the new magnets which were formerly low performing schools will force half of their student bodies to different schools where if they now struggle it will be years before anything has to be done or what's a letter grade drop here and there.
Then there is his charter scheme, approve a lot of charter schools and when they ultimately struggle say, you know what the district shouldn't be responsible for their performance.
We're not fixing what ills our schools were shifting the problems around.
That's the super's one trick.
Now some of you might be thinking what a hypocrite I must be for railing against the accountability system for years and then criticizing the super's way of dealing with it.
The thing is he's not dealing with it, he's shifting problems at one school to another and I think there are plenty of ways to improve things. Smaller classes and a longer school year for some would go a long long way to fixing our educational crisis, Then block scheduling is a terrible idea that should be done away with.
The super would prefer to use smoke and mirrors and kick the can down the road. Don't be fooled by these tricks.
Welcome to Duval County.
It is interesting that many of these schools aren't completely staffed in November. These schools are the same schools that were changed. Imagine a child in PreK, Kindergarten, 1st and second grade that have had subs from August to November. These students are already at a disadvantage on top of not receiving quality instruction.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that the super is playing a game of 3 card Monte with our schools. One of the reasons the Board is kicking back at him regarding the goals. Sigh, none of them realize that they have bought into a false game. When do they wake up and realize the sham that is the Florida grading system? Don't talk to me about an achievement gap when you measure it solely by scores on a flawed, invalid, unreliable test that is known to be biased against persons who are not white!
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