Just what direction is the system moving in?

The system is moving in the right direction, Professor James Crooks wrote in the Folio Weekly about our school system because of reports that our graduation rates were improving and that the district has reported a decrease in discipline problems. The good professor however left out a couple of important things.

First there is the fact that the formula for graduation rates was dramatically changed recently, which led to our bump. It gets worse than that however. I have six kids in my classes who I have never met and despite me reporting them to the attendance team several times they have yet to be withdrawn, extrapolate that county wide and that could be thousands of kids who have effectively dropped out but have stayed on our rolls. Nor does he mention the loophole that prevents kids who enter adult education classes (GED, etc.) from being withdrawn, which probably counts for about a five percent improvement in out rates.
(http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2010/12/is-duval-countys-graduation-rate.html)

His claim that discipline has improved is also laughable. He failed to mention how the average teacher (probably because he doesn’t know any) would completely disagree with the statement that discipline has greatly improved. However what has improved is teachers ignoring bad behavior and enduring toxic learning environments. It’s common for administrators to “with quote marks” say, if a teacher writes to many referrals, his or her evaluation, performance pay and even job can be in jeopardy.

Professor Crooks with all due respect in the future when you write about Jacksonville why don’t you stick with the climate, the golf courses or special neighborhoods like Fernandina Beach or Avondale because you obviously have no idea what is happening in our schools and when you regurgitate statistics issued by self serving parties you do our city and it’s children a disservice.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

NAACP grows a pair, school board should follow

The local NAACP fired a shot across the bow of the school board today when they said they would sue if they allowed an out side agency to take over the four predominantly black schools that are in danger of being taken over by the state and I say good for them. It’s about time we had somebody stand up to the state. I however don’t think we should stop there.

We need a leader to stand up and say, we remember how for decades the state didn’t think Jacksonville kids were as important as those in South Florida, we believed your promise abut the lottery only to see funds originally intended for education diverted, we are tired of the f-cat which has turned our schools from a place where kids got a well rounded education to a place where all they know how to do is pass a test, we want an end to unfunded mandates and your data driven education policies have turned our teachers into stat taking drones and we’re not going to put up with it any more. Try and take our schools and we’ll expose you for the uniformed hacks that you are. Not that it is much of a secret.

We need our superintendent and our school board to follow the NAACP’s lead and after years of just going along start fighting for what is best for our children.

Isn’t that what they should have been doing all along?

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

Mayor Peyton calls Duval County school district colossal failure

In a Times Union editorial Mayor John Peyton referred to the Duval County Public School District as a colossal failure. Wow right, not just a failure but a colossal failure. Why didn’t he just say a failure of biblical proportions?

The Times Union said they wouldn’t go that far, after all the district has received a B grade from the state. Sorry to disappoint the Times Union but it is a gentlemen’s B as the district has become an expert at massaging certain numbers like more kids taking A.P. classes, giving fewer suspensions and making it nearly impossible to withdraw kids to inflate our grade. Though to be honest I wouldn’t go as far as “colossal failure” either.

The truth is there are incredible things going on at all our schools; even our supposed worse schools and for the most part they are the interactions between our teachers and our students. The thing is the district cannot continue to put our students and teachers in no win situations and then scratch their heads when they don’t succeed to the level that they wanted. It’s a wonder and a credit to our fine teachers dedication and professionalism that we are doing as well as we are.

We can’t continue to push kids through with out the skills they need, ignore discipline and over load and dump on teachers. We must try to address our most struggling kids problems most of which aren’t school related and also have more than the one size fits all, everybody is going to go to college curriculum which serves fewer and fewer children that we have now. If we want to be successful that is. If we don’t do those things then it probably won’t be long before the Times Union as most of the city already does, agrees with the mayor.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

Opportunity Lost

Ribault, Raines and Jackson provide the city an opportunity.

The Times Union called the situation our most struggling schools find themselves in an opportunity. In case you haven’t been following the story, if Ribault, Raines and Jackson high schools and North Shore Junior High fail to improve they could be in store for some drastic changes, which could include shutting the schools down. The state rewriting the school grade rules and the district forcing advanced academic programs into their halls thus far has not been enough.

In a way the Times Union is right but it’s not just the schools that have an opportunity, it’s the district and the city itself. That’s right we the citizens of Jacksonville have an opportunity to examine how the district is run and demand changes be made. The district has an opportunity to finally start doing things the right way. It’s no wonder kids at the three high schools struggle as many have been pushed there without the skills they need to succeed. Most can’t read a grade level and less than half can do math yet some how they find themselves in high school, where after ninth grade there is nowhere left for them to be pushed to.

Is that the responsibility of the teachers at the fore mentioned schools who are asked to make years worth of gains in a few months or is it the fault of the district who has all but ordered teachers to pass kids whether they have the skills to or not. The answer is neither; it’s the citizens of Jacksonville through electing casual observers and politicians on their way up or way down to the school board. It’s the citizens of Jacksonville who have either tuned a blind eye to the problem or have just accepted the skewed reality being sold by those at 1701 Prudential Drive who are more concerned with protecting their niche than doing what is right for our children, that are ultimately responsible.

Kids should not be passed along without the skills they need and if they need extra help it should be provided, with legitimate and mandatory after school and summer school opportunities. Isn’t that the bare minimum of what our schools should be doing?

We find ourselves as a city and as a school district in a very precarious situation but the Times Union is right. The district has an opportunity to start doing things the right way the way they should have been doing things all along, or we the citizens of Jacksonville have the opportunity to say enough is enough, if you are not going to do it we will find somebody who will. All other opportunities are nearly too terrible to contemplate.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

Education and crime, what's the difference

When the crime rate in Jacksonville was up and we were the murder capital of the state and had been for years nobody said lets take funds away from the police department and have several different ones take care of our protection. Where there were critics of the police for the most part nobody was saying the police were only in it for a paycheck and that the police union was protecting bad police officers. There was also no suggestion of merit pay for officers who made more arrests. No, we said lets come up with ways to fix the problem. And we did, we put more police on the street, we engaged the citizens to get them involved and we got proactive with our young people. It took awhile, things did not improve over night but our crime rate has steadily gone down.

Yet with schools it seems like there is a significant amount of people and powerful people at that, who think public schools are beyond saving and the whole system should be dismantled. Teachers and unions have become the scapegoats for all the problems despite the fact they don’t set policy. These powers-that-be want to create and pay for with public money competing schools even though they won’t play by the same rules as public schools and will pick and choose whom they take. They with a wink say they want to give vouchers to all but they have to know only those that are already well off will be able to use them.

It would not take reinventing the wheel, breaking the bank or demonizing our teachers to improve things and do so greatly. Lets bring back discipline and have real consequences for behavior. Lets have rigorous classes and safety nets like after school programs and legitimate summer school for those that need more help. Lets have social workers and counselors to figure out why that ten percent of kids try to ruin it for the rest, so often why kids act up at school has nothing to do with school. Lets make the standardized test a component of education not the end all be all that it has become. Then finally lets have multiple curriculums that teach trades, skills and the arts, that play to our children’s strengths, abilities and desires rather than forcing them into the one size fits all curriculum we have now.

When Jacksonville was riddled with crime we rolled up our sleeves and committed the resources to see things improve, we did not dismantle our police force and start over. Why don’t we try to do the same thing with our public schools, don’t our children, all of our children deserve that.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

High Test Scores, Low Ability

Jacksonville is facing the same problem China seems to be. We have graduates ill prepared for college and the work force, but they some how graduated. It’s too bad there isn’t a job where recent grads could just take the F-Cat. –cpg

By Yong Zhao, he is the University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education at Michigan State University. The author of "Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization," he often blogs about education issues.

There's a frustrating paradox in Chinese education. On the one hand, millions of college graduates cannot find a job -- at least a desirable job that pays substantially more than what a migrant worker makes. On the other hand, businesses that want to pay a lot more can't seem to find qualified employees.

A McKinsey study found that fewer than 10 percent of Chinese graduates are considered suitable to work at multinational companies based in China.

Multinational companies in China are having a difficult time finding qualified candidates for their positions. According to a recent survey of U.S.-owned enterprises conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, 37 percent of the companies that responded said that finding talent was their biggest operational problem. A separate study by McKinsey Quarterly found that 44 percent of the executives in Chinese companies reported that insufficient talent was the biggest barrier to their global ambitions.

The explanation: a test-oriented educational environment.

China invented the keju system, which used tests to select government officials. It was a great invention because it enabled talents from across the society to join the ruling class regardless of their family backgrounds. Hence, a great meritocracy could be created. But it evolved into a nightmare for China as the system gradually changed into one that tested memorization of Confucian classics.

Keju is dead now but its spirit is very alive in China today, in the form of gaokao, or the College Entrance Exam. It's the only exam that matters since it determines whether students can attend college and what kind of colleges they can attend. Because of its life-determining nature, gaokao has become the “baton” that conducts the whole education orchestra.
Students, parents, teachers, school leaders and even local government
officials all work together to get good scores. From a very young age, children are relieved of any other burden or deprived of opportunity to do anything else so they can focus on getting good scores.

The result is that Chinese college graduates often have high scores but low ability. Those who are good at taking tests go to college, which also emphasizes book knowledge. But when they graduate, they find out that employers actually want much more than test scores. That is why another study by McKinsey found that fewer than 10 percent of Chinese college graduates would be suitable for work in foreign companies.

Chinese educators are well aware of the problems with the gaokao system and have been trying to move away from the excessive focus on testing. But seeking other valid indicators of strong academic records will take time, especially in a country of 1.3 billion people.

Taken from the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/12/02/what-is-a-college-degree-worth-in-china/high-test-scores-low-ability

Enhanced graduation requirements dumb down education

The suits, dumb down education…again

When I read about the increased graduation requirements for all of Florida, I first thought to myself, how the suits, the far off policy makers, the vast majority who had never been teachers or had anything to do with education until by virtue of being elected they somehow became experts on the subjects had once again got it wrong. Then I thought to myself, self how often do you think our legislators use advanced algebra, physics or chemistry in their everyday lives, I thought this even though I already knew the answer.

I think I can safely say they do as often as I and the vast majority of you do which is never. However that fact did not prevent them from passing a law requiring public school students to pass algebra II and one of the two sciences before they graduate.

My mind them meandered back to the mundane as I also wondered where they were going to put these new classes. At my high school and at most “low performing” high schools many of the classrooms are already occupied by reading and remedial math classes. We have 12 reading teachers at my high school. That’s 12 teachers, teaching 72+ classes of reading to over a thousand students. Think about this, most of our kids can’t read at grade level but at the same time we expect them to take and pass algebra II and chemistry. We also have a half dozen intensive math teachers, one of whom told me the other day, he would be happy if his kids learned long division by the end of the year. However once again, we expect these kids to take and pass algebra II and chemistry or physics. Does anybody else see the insanity here?

Once again (if you have read my stuff before) I am not saying advanced math’s and sciences don’t have a place in education. What I am saying is they are not the end all be all, panacea that our legislatures think will solve the ills of education. Look at Duval County for instance. Years ago the powers-that-be at 1701 Prudential drive became caught up in the success of Stanton and Paxon, annually regarded as two of the best schools in the nation and thought, if kids can do it there they can do it at any school and increased the graduation requirements accordingly. This despite the fact the typical kid at the accademic magnet school is greatly different from the typical kid at the neighborhood school. Why am I teaching algebra II to a kid who wants to drive a truck a colleague once lamented.

And Let me tell you Duval County after a temporary drop has been graduating kids with these enhanced graduation requirement too, and like how no good deed goes unpunished, and there is an admitted inherent goodness in wanting kids to do well in advanced subjects, many of these kids however, through a lack of skills have paid the price for it. You see just because these students have been graduating it definitely does not mean they have all been learning. To the contrary many have just been shuffled from one grade to the next, teachers under pressure from administrators to pass them along. How much evidence do you need that this is going on? How about the fact that most of our high school kids don’t read at grade level and barely half can do math. How about the fact that Florida State College at Jacksonville reports seventy percent of our grads have to take remedial classes or businesses report having trouble finding qualified workers from the pool of recent graduates? What is it going to take to convince you? How about walking through the hallways of a neighborhood school or sitting in a few of its classes. Ask a principal if you can sometime as it may be eye opening. Don’t just take my word or it, but likewise don’t just believe that the legislature is getting it right either.

Think about it this way, the economy is terrible right now and many people who want to work can’t find a job but what should also have you and me concerned is the amount of people who are working but are underemployed. They have jobs but aren’t working at the level their education would normally dictate nor as many hours as they normally would. If we were to count them then then our unemployed/underemployed rate would be about 25%. Well like the economy has the underemployed, Duval County and now I fear so too will the rest of the state have great numbers of the under educated. Sure they will have graduated but what will they be prepared for? If you answered college or the workforce, you are probably both a lot more optimistic than me and/or not a public school teacher. If our graduation rate is sixty-six percent, imagine what our percentage of kids prepared for college or the job force is. Where I have no empirical figures as nobody I know studies it, I would bet the true percentage of kids prepared for what comes next to be under fifty.

Friends it’s even worse than that. You hear all the times in the halls and in the teachers’ lounge about the extreme measures that teachers go to, to get kids to pass. 0-20 is an F in my class a former teacher of the year said, 21-40 is a D and a 41 is a C, passing. My study guide is basically the test and I let them use the study guide on the test is another teachers strategy. Some teachers give extra credit for just showing up. If you come and don’t get a referral you will walk out of my class with a C. Another teacher gives points for professional dress, you can literally get a C in my class if all you do is wear a tie daily, I was told. I could go on and on and on. Then there is learning recovery which says, if a kid for any reason fails a class, and that includes bad behavior, lack of effort or failing to attend, they can turn an F into a C if they complete some assignments on the computer.Would any o that lown 20 years ago coincidently when we didn't have to take algebra at all and the United States education standing was much higher?

Friends we have dumbed down education to the point it is nearly unrecognizable. None of the kids in one of my science classes new their states, in another nobody could identify Australia and in a third I had to explain to the kids that the chemical formula for water was H2O. These are all things I learned in middle school as I was passing through Duval Counties school system, and then the so called education experts’ answer to the problems we are having is to raise the graduation requirements. I feel like education has become a Dilbert cartoon, where the engineer says he doesn’t know anything about nuclear power and the pointy haired boss instructs him to build a nuclear powered whatsit. Can somebody with a straight face who isn’t going to profit from the big business that education has become explain to me how this isn’t madness. By the way look out friends somebody is going to get rich creating end of course exams, just like somebody got rich on the FCAT.

We don’t need to ratchet up the requirements, if anything we need to tone them down and make sure what’s important is both rigorous and legitimate. Kids don’t need a half baked algebra II class they need a legitimate algebra I class. A colleague told me only about half of his algebra II kids could pass a legitimate algebra I class. We need to slow things down and make sure we get the basics right first before we push kids into classes, which quite frankly, like you and me and our legislatures, will never use.

Then don’t believe the hype that these so called experts have come up with. It’s a disingenuous argument that the advanced classes will help children think and figure things out even if they never use what they “supposedly learn” again; that these classes provide critical thinking skills. Well won’t learning a trade or a skill develop the same skills? Furthermore doesn’t leaning about the arts open up a child’s creative side and aren’t these skills and classes ones that children will use again. You think classes teaching skills, trades and the arts are already in short supply now; well just wait until a school needs a dozen more science and math teachers but wasn’t been given any money to pay for them.

Furthermore we are not going to have a society of just engineers and doctors no matter how much the legislature wants it, no matter how high they set the bar. After all we don’t have the children they wish we had, we have the children we do and it’s time we stated acting accordingly. If not more and more children despite the fact they “managed to graduate” won’t manage to do much more.

I get it though, we want kids to meet their potential and we want that potential to be sky high. I just wish the people who worked with the kids who are forced to implement these edicts from far off ivory towers and the kids themselves were sometimes consulted about what was best for them and what they wanted to do with their lives. These far off suits, who look at an idea like enhanced graduation requirements and then don’t apply any of the same critical thinking that they want kids to have, shouldn’t be making these future altering decisions after all they don’t have to take algebra II or chemistry and physics.

Even in failure the St. Johns County school district gets it right

Even in failure the St. Johns County public school system got it right.

The Florida Times Union recently ran a story about St. Johns County’s lone failing school, St. Johns technical high school. This is a big deal for several different reasons. First because St. Johns County is the highest achieving district in the state and any news of failure is big news and second because even in failure the St. Johns County school district has gotten it right.

The vast majority of the kids that go to St. Johns vocational high school are unlike the kids in the rest of the county, they aren't going to go to college and quite frankly they have struggled throughout their academic carrers. “Most since the first day of kindergarten” the piece mentions, and perhaps the main reason for this is because many of the kids have disabilities. At this school however instead of just struggling as they would at a typical high school, they can also earn a certificate in a variety fields such as cosmetology, landscaping or culinary arts. They learn a skill that prepares them or life that far more than learning the quadratic formula and how to conjugate verbs does. This is how St. Johns County got it right.

Capable disabled students in Duval County have no such option and very little in the way of opportunity. Despite their disabilities we are in the process of shoving them into the same one size fits all, everybody is going to go to college curriculum that the district has deemed is appropriate for everybody. What’s the difference in curriculum between a highly motivated student at Stanton with an IQ of 120 who wants to be an engineer and a learning disabled student at Ed White who has an IQ of 80 and who wants to drive a truck? The answer is, there is none.

Also since we are doing away with special diploma options, I believe partly because kids that earn them will begin to count against a schools grade, we are forcing kids who after ten years of school and who can’t do their times tables into algebra classes where they will either fail or receive the “gentlemen’s C” that dominates so many teachers grade books. Also, you ever wonder why kids act out in class? Well one of the biggest reasons is the material is too much for them and it leads to frustration which leads to bad behavior. Many of our disabled children act out the most. See a correlation?

I get that the powers that be think that some of these students haven’t been given the proper opportunities to test their academic mettle and that they hope when put in these advanced for them academic settings they will be able to be successful. What they don’t get however is that if wishes were real we would all be riding rocket powered unicorns. Instead of blowing the system up, why don’t we here in Duval County do something realistic and put the kids in situations they can not only potentially be successful in but will also give them a tangible benefit like earning a certificate. Why don’t we do something like St. John’s County does? Though I guess there is a reason why they are considered one of the best school districts in Florida and Duval County is considered something different.

I am a special education teacher and it does my heart good to see one of my kids succeed in the regular education setting but likewise it breaks my heart to see kids thrust into those situations who have no real chance at being successful and it frustrates me to know end that we are teaching these kids things they most likely will never get and if by some miracle they did would never use. We should not just be okay with these kids learning a technical skill but we should encourage it and celebrate it when they earn them. However once again we have designed our schools around the kids we wish we had preparing them for the jobs we want them to do and in the process almost assured that the kids we do have won’t be successful post school.

Many of Duval Counties disabled kids will graduate ill prpared to continue their education and unlike their counterparts in St. Johns county without a skill. Well what do you think is going to happen to them? The best and brightest will get menial dead end jobs and the others will continue on the dole of society either recieving public assistance or for some who when faced with few options make bad choices a period of enforced residency at the behest of the state.

Perhaps what’s most frustrating in all this is it wasn’t that long ago that Duval County got it right. We had award winning skill centers that kids would go to half a day where they could learn the trades and skills that they and their parents thought would better suit them and the other half of the day they would be at their home schools where they would learn their academics. The skill centers have now sadly gone away replaced with academic magnets that many of our regular and most of our special education students cannot be successful in. Every year kids trickle away from Frank Peterson because they couldn’t cut the mustard, heading back to their neighborhood schools where they often continue to languish.

We desperately need an option or our disabled kids and our kids that either don’t have the aptitude or interest in going to college. Our one size it’s all curriculum, where we have devalued the teaching of the trades, skills and arts has led directly many of the districts problems. Furthermore I know we want every kid to go to college and that’s a laudable goal, sadly it’s also an unrealistic goal. Instead of having a school system for the kids we wish we had, I think it would do us, them and the district well to have a school system appropriate for the ones we do. Even though they knew it would be hard and extra work in St. Johns County, even though they realized they might not be successful when it was factored into the states cookie cutter system that rarely takes the concerns of the children into consideration, they did it anyways. They made a place for all their students, why can’t we.

In the end, even in "failure" because they made their special needs children a priority St. Johns County got it right.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

School board member speaks out

A school board member responded to my current piece in the Times Union, this is her note and my responce unedited. I'll let you be the judge.

Dear Mr. Guerrieri:

I am writing to you in response to your letter to the editor regarding the members of the Duval County School Board's visit to Jean Ribault High School. I found your letter to be not only factually inaccurate but also potentially detrimental to the Jean Ribault High School family. Your letter feed into many stereotypes regarding the Ribault High community and the public perception that there are not diverse high performing students in the school. I must admit that I was surprised when I saw your letter because you had not struck me as someone who would form superficial, snap judgments about any school or its students.

Your letter starts off by saying that we did not meet with a truly representative sample of students at Ribault High. I found that assessment to be particularly odd in light of the fact that we meet with a group of students remarkably similar to the group of students we meet at your school, Ed White, in the spring of last school year. Just as was done at Ed White and Terry Parker High School, we allowed the school based administrator and his faculty to select the students that represented a true cross section of the school and that was the group of students we met with. Your letter would suggest that Ribault High does not have a cross section of diverse high achieving students but rather a monolith of students who all need remediation.

The next point you raise is this view that the visit to Ribault High School is the only visit by board members to schools. As a member of the board for almost eight years, the mother of four children who have all matriculated in the Duval County Public Schools during my tenure on the board, the wife of a teacher at Ribault High School, and the daughter of a former long time Duval County Public School teacher, I have always been engaged and active in our district's schools and have spent time working in and with them every week of my tenure on the board and prior to. My experience with the schools is remarkably similar to the level of involvement by each member of the Duval County School Board.

Whether I have tutored students one-on-one or in small groups for ACT/SAT test to prepare them to obtain concordant scores or achieve satisfactory admission scores for college, or cooked meals for entire members of the football team, or meet with groups of teachers, parents, and administrators in schools to address concerns, advised parents/guardians of curricular implications for their children, or talked with various faith based and civic organizations, I worked to ensure that my decisions as a board member were truly representative of the community that elected me.

My vision when initially running for office was to help instill the pride and high quality instruction back in my alma mater, Jean Ribault High School, and to prepare young people all over this district to match their infinite potential with steller academic performance. As I leave the board, some of my dreams as a member have been actualized and others have much work yet to be done. Nevertheless, I know that through grace my time was well spent.

As I return back to my private life as a wife, mother, attorney, educator, and servant oriented civic citizen, I will continue to work to ensure that the Duval County Public School District addresses the needs of all of its students. I am hopeful that teachers like you will continue to call attention to the areas where we need to improve; however, I would hope that your message comes from a positive place and is based on factually accurate information.

Peace,
Brenda Priestly Jackson, Chairman
Member District IV
Duval County School Board

Thanks for your note, though I can't help but think the long list of ccs was meant to intimidate me some and I'll let you know it worked, I am duly intimidated and not looking forward to Monday at all. Though I hope you understand that agree with my individual points or not my mission is to make things better for children and teachers.

You are absolutely right though. I was saying you didn’t meet a cross representation of the children at Ribault high school, but if you are as involved as you say, then you know that. I would also say you didn’t meet an accurate representation of students at my school last year and I would bet Terry Parker as well. Furthermore I don’t think visiting three schools in the last year is something to be proud of.

The average students at these schools is marginally interested in their education and many feel over whelmed or are having their joy for learning robbed from them. Unrealistic curriculum requirements (algebra II really) that have seen the skills, trades and arts all but eliminated are a chief cause of this. My school recently lost an award winning art teacher who dedicated 15 years to Ed White all to be replaced by a more than likely out-of-field first year reading teacher. Kids today have been pushed through many without consequences for behavior or mastering the material it takes to be successful. We have destroyed rigor and eroded discipline. We have put them all in a one-size fits all curriculum that every year sees more and more fall through the cracks ill prepared for life.

If you add destroying teacher morale and giving teachers all the responsibility and blame but none of the authority to educate children then this is the legacy that you and many members of the current school board have left behind. In the last ten years we have seen our school system transform from one growing and filled with potential to one that is contracting and serves only some of the districts children; leavening the rest unprepared for either a post secondary education or a job in the workforce.

Also I think it’s unfortunate that you think I was talking negatively about Ribault high school because I wasn’t. I have friends that work there and they think that after years of mismanagement it is finally heading in the right direction, I wish them and the students there nothing but success. I thought that was clear in the piece. Though I readily admit I think one of the biggest problems we have as a district, is we have been mismanaged by politicians, who have looked at the school board as a stepping-stone up or down and casual observers filled with hubris who think to themselves, hey I can fix that. Mrs. Priestly-Jackson I also remind you that you don’t just represent the administration at 1701 Prudential Drive but you represent the cities, teachers, parents, children and stakeholders as well.

Finally I don’t question your heart or that of any members of the school board. I question the school boards depth and think many of them are out of it and I feel it would be better that if school board members weren’t serious about education and three school visits in a year, not meeting with teachers and walking lock step with the superintendent would seem to indicate they weren’t; then they stepped aside. The cities children and teachers can’t handle much more.

Chris Guerrieri

Here is a link to my blog with the original unedited piece.

Even numbered Star Trek movies don’t suck

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, puppies are cute and the combination of chocolate and peanut butter was masterful. These are irrefutable truths. Another irrefutable truth is even numbered Star Trek movies don’t suck.

Star Trek First Contact was the second film with the next generation cast and is no exception to the rule. In fact some people think before the latest film it was the best the series had to offer. It featured a sleek new enterprise traveling in time to fight the, you will be assimilated, Borg.

If you don’t know, the Borg are like locus descending on a lush green field. Then once they leave it’s barren, devoid of anything meaningful. Their goal is to assimilate everything into their collective and to make everything the same.

During one dramatic moment where things looked particularly grim, it was suggested to Captain Piccard that they give up and run away. He however chose not to saying; I will not sacrifice the Enterprise. We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And *I* will make them pay for what they've done. It’s an awesome, memorable speech if you haven’t seen the movie and it make me wish we had a Captain Piccard in charge of education.

In education we to have made too have made many compromises. We have allowed behavior to become a secondary concern. We have practically eliminated the teaching of the trades, skills and arts to appease the “everybody most go to college and be an engineer or doctor crowd.” Those that think every child is suited for and wants to go college, that every child should be lumped into that one group are the Borg of this little narrative and they have been just as devastating to educating, as Captain Picard’s adversaries were to his ship and crew. We have retreated into a one size fits all curriculum that sees so many children fall through the cracks and we have made teachers the scapegoats for all that is wrong in education and like Captain Piccard said, a line must be drawn, and why can’t we draw it here in Jacksonville, Florida.

The powers-that-be have long touted how they are on the cutting edge of education, what with their magnet schools, magnet programs and advanced graduation requirements. The thing is despite these innovations the district and the city as a whole have languished in recent years. Our graduation and dropout rates are high and are reading rates are low. Many of our graduates that go to college have to take remedial classes and those that don’t have trouble finding jobs that are appropriate for their skills. We have created a generation of children that is capable of taking one test, the f-cat but not much else. Why doesn’t Jacksonville say enough is enough and become a real leader in education? Why doesn’t Jacksonville say we’re no longer going to do it the way the experts who have led us to the abyss say we need to do it, we’re drawing a line here and we’re going to start with behavior.

Kids need consequences for their behavior and remember or a consequence to be effective it must be meaningful. If we don’t give them consequences at school then how are they going to know how society works, because society will give them consequences for their behavior? Then not everybody is going to win a trophy either and kids must be allowed to fail so they can have a second opportunity to succeed to get the skills they need. Pushing them along hoping they will somehow these lost skills will miraculously appear, only serves to compound the problem and like not disciplining them will, this too will have grave consequences when they enter adult hood.

We also can’t keep putting kids and teachers in impossible situations and then wondering why they don’t succeed. High school is eight classes, many kids have no electives and they are tested nearly into a coma. Students are in classes many aren’t interested in or prepared for too is it any wonder they don’t do well? How would you do? Also teachers are overwhelmed with task after tasks that only have a peripheral relationship with education, and they have had their creativity, initiative and moral all but destroyed. They are also held responsible for how a child does, regardless of the lack of support and resources they receive, or the ability and desire that the kids in their classes have.

Friends we need to draw a line in the sand and go enough is enough? We have to say we will not stand to have education eroded any farther because quite frankly we can’t have education eroded any farther. Ask a long time teacher if they think it has changed for the better and then ask an employer if they think society has changed for the better too. Captain Piccard said he would make the Borg pay, well friends our children and our city are already paying a step price for the lines that we have allowed to be crossed. How much more of a price are we willing to pay?

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, puppies are cute and the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is masterful and even numbered Star Trek movies don’t suck, these are irrefutable truths. Another is we are headed on the road to ruin unless we say enough is enough, unless we draw a line. Why not here Jacksonville? Why not here?

The Death of Duval County Public Schools

Things have really improved in the district this year. Last year the district lost 2000 students well this year it only lost 1800. The school district, which puts a positive spin on everything, would probably say, losses down a whopping ten percent.

Folks however you slice it we lost another 1800 kids and that’s not good but worse is it’s our third enrolment decline in a row. This has also happened during the same time our city has seen appreciable growth. If you weren’t worried before you should be worried now.

Also nowhere else in the state except Jacksonville during these trying difficult time are private school and home school enrollments going up. Then to make matters even worse businesses report they don’t want to move here because of our public schools. So what do we as citizens of Jacksonville do? Well thus far all we have done is to take a page out of the citizen’s of London during the blitz play book and solider on, well that and form committees, panels and study groups.

Friends our school system may not be dying, though in biology teachers teach if it isn’t growing it is dying, it is certainly sick and it’s effecting the rest of the city, making it sick too. Crime was out of control, unemployment is up and civility is down and all these things can find their roots in education.

There is hope though. We recognized a crime problem in Jacksonville, as we became the murder capital of Florida. We recognized the problem and then took the steps to correct it and where things aren’t great, there has definitely been improvement. The thing is it took a concentrated effort to make it happen. I think a lot of people see a problem in our schools but they don’t realize the depth of the problem and maybe that’s why the powers-that-be continually come up with the same tired old cures; more mentors, early reading initiatives and get our best teachers into our worse schools. Cures we have been trying for about a decade now to know avail; if anything things are worse now.

If we don’t recognize how sick our public school system is it will continue to contract until it does die and if that happens it will take the city down with it. I wrote last year the two biggest reasons I believe we are losing kids is we don’t enforce discipline and we have a one size fits all curriculum. I wrote it when we had just lost 2000 students, I did so in an effort to stop the bleeding. I hope I don’t have to write the same again next year when we lose a few thousand more.

Discipline Problems: Many students who miss a lot of days are not interested in school and are often disciple problems when they do attend. Did you realize if a teacher spends ten percent of time disciplining a child then all the other children in that class are going to miss out on eighteen days of instruction. What is the difference between being there and not being able to learn and not being there? If your student misses five days in a year and is in a class with an unruly student your child has now missed at least 23 days of instruction but probably more. You might not want to hear it but teachers all through the district smile when certain students are absent because it means they can teach and the other students can learn. Them being there is much worse than them not being there. Without a doubt the most under served and neglected group in the district is the average kid who just comes to school. To save this group the many we may have to sacrifice the few, the ones that show no interest in being there, who only come to disrupt and fine mischief. I don’t like it but what we’re doing now ignoring discipline is destroying our schools.

Curriculum: Students that want to drive trucks are forced to take algebra II, is just one example about how the current curriculum serves only a portion of the student body. A good number of children don’t plan to go to college and you know what, that’s okay; people can be good, productive members of society without a college degree, or they can go back to school in the future when they are ready. It’s time we stopped forcing every student down that one path, which is the only one available to kids unless you go to one of the exclusive magnet schools. The district has decimated the industrial arts program and replaced them with advanced placement programs that, not surprisingly, we don’t do very well in. Furthermore each year there is fewer and fewer art, drama and music classes offered and physical education classes have become massive. We wonder why children don’t attend school, while at the same time offering them classes that are above their heads, have nothing to do with what they want to learn or will better prepare them for their future. It’s a wonder more students don’t miss more days.

When I went to school you could miss nine days in nine weeks. You only got your make up work for an excused absence and it didn’t matter what grade you earned if you missed ten days, you failed. We had the option of taking art, music, and several other electives and if you took P.E. there were no more than thirty students in the class. Kids that were interested in the trades left for half the day to go to a skills center so they could learn about those subjects. Teachers could teach instead of being overwhelmed with task after task and if you acted up you were punished. Finally at the end of the school year we took a minimum level skills test that even if we didn’t do too well on, we were allowed to graduate if we had the grades.

Now it doesn’t matter why student’s miss class, teachers are required to give them the work and they can use compass odyssey or other grade recovery programs, which are often not as rigorous or beneficial as being in class to catch back up. If a student acts up they quickly return to the classroom usually without any real consequences. Students have more classes that they dread and fewer to look forward too, teachers now have more tasks than they can possibly do and we are losing kids hand over fist.

Say you have read my stuff before and have thought, oh man you got it wrong Guerrieri, it’s not our leadership and the way we do things that’s to blame, it’s the parents, the culture or this or that we need to change, well fair enough, reasonable people can look at the same thing and disagree. I just don’t understand how reasonable people can look at the cities declining public school enrollment and not see a problem, not see a huge problem.

Friends if it’s not growing it’s dying and if our public school system dies how long will it be before the rest of the city joins it. Agree or disagree with my points but please agree we need to do something and do it quick.

Same in Same out: Why we can’t make up the black student achievement gap

The Schott foundation rolled into town to let us know how poorly the school district is doing educating black males. If this sounds familiar, it because the heritage this or the coalition that or some other group rolls into town every six months and says the exact same thing. Listen education groups I think the city and district get it.

I get a little frustrated with these various groups or organizations because the truth is we aren’t just failing black males, we’re failing white males and quite a few other students as well. Our statistics are abysmal, shocking and you would think would want to lead people to action, which leads to a few of my other frustrations.

All these community leaders and activists and whoever they get to pass for educators only have the same tired old ideas. We need early literacy programs, mentors and to get our best teachers into our worse schools. Friends we have been doing those things for about a decade now and despite our school board chairperson, Brenda Priestly Jackson’s assertion this will eventually bear fruit they haven’t thus far and there seems to be no indication that if we continue to do the same things we won’t continue to get the same disheartening results. It’s almost enough to make you question their motives and if they really do care.

We need to change how we do things and I think that change has to see us get back to the basics, that we somehow lost. We need discipline in schools; if a kid acts up he gets a consequence for his behavior and remember for a consequence to work it must be meaningful. We need to put in safety nets like social workers to provide wrap around services and counselors to get to the root of some of our children’s problems. So often when kids act up or fail at school it has nothing to do with school, instead having to do with what is happening elsewhere. We need to have more than a one size fit’s all curriculum. We need to bring back trades and skills and to make the arts a priority, preparing every child for college isn’t working; we need to prepare them for life instead. Let’s make summer school mandatory for some students but please let them have a PE or art class or both too so they don’t hate it. We can’t continue to overwhelm kids and just fill their schedules with classes they don’t enjoy; many kids have eight classes, with not one elective, also why are kids taking eight classes at a time a full time college load is four classes. Is it any stretch to think if a kid is overwhelmed or thinks school is nothing but drudgery they won’t do well? We need to stop blaming teachers for the ills of society and allow them to teach, to encourage them to use their best practices and to be honest I wouldn’t care if a teacher used the Vulcan Mind meld to get the information across as long as they were successful and neither should any body else.

Mentors are great, busses for after school learning activities and discipline are better. Early reading initiatives are fine until they lose those gains because they tune school out because they are overwhelmed or don’t enjoy it and finally we already have many of our best teachers in our most struggling schools. They are the teachers who have chosen to be there because they love the kids not because they have been bribed to do so.

If we keep doing things the same way, keep coming up with the same solutions that obviously aren’t working, then we’re going to keep getting the same results.

The, heritage this, the coalition that and the Schott foundation don’t get it but that doesn’t stop them from calling press conference after press conference does it?

Chris Guerrieri

Hello, my name is Al Brennan, I am the principal of Forrest high school and I hate teachers (revised)

Principal Brennan didn't actually say that, and I doubt he feels that way, too. Sadly, that's what numerous teachers heard when he told them at the welcome back staff meeting that if they didn't park in their designated spots he would have their cars towed; if they didn't turn in a classroom key, he would say they stole it (and words to the effect that he would prosecute them) and that if they were one minute late they would be disciplined. “ I wouldn't dream of talking to my students that way, and if I did I would rightfully get in trouble”, a teacher friend of mine said.

Principal Brennan has also taken to monitoring (or having monitored) his teacher’s social networking sites, telling teachers that they can’t have students on their pages and taking umbrage to some of his staff’s status updates. I have better things to do than look at my student’s pages, and I would hope people entrusted to run schools would, as well.

It's common practice for teachers to start the year strict with their students; that way, they have room to lighten up as the year progresses. It is also not uncommon for a principal, reappointed to an unfamiliar school, (and Mr. Brennan will be Forrest’s third principal in three years), to lay ground rules and expectations - but, like teachers shouldn’t, principals shouldn’t come off like bullies, either. Teachers try and protect their students from bullies, and should they expect any less?

I am not saying bosses can’t be bosses. I am saying the teachers that are most successful are the ones that get the kids to buy into what they are teaching; the ones that get the kids to want to work for them. The teachers that bully and browbeat their kids are usually the ones that are least successful, and so to will be those principals and administrators that act in the same fashion. In education, the message is important, but how you convey the message determines if people are going to hear it or not.

Sadly, this is where we find ourselves in 2010. Principals are told to shake things up, as teachers and principals have both become the scapegoats for the district. On one hand, teachers have gone from valued colleagues to someone who can be browbeaten, intimidated, marginalized and, worse of all, disrespected, while being put in positions where success is hard to achieve. Then, on the other hand, principals (thirty seven of which were reassigned last year), are also put in almost unattainable positions as they are told they can’t discipline, and to move as many kids along as possible. This, whether they are prepared for the next level or not, and the less than forty percent of students who read at grade level at the neighborhood high school, would seem to indicate that many are not. So much about doing both jobs successfully is about fostering positive relationships, and when both groups are put under such impossible pressure and in opposite positions, it’s really a tribute to the fine professionals we have that things aren’t worse.

The chasm between the administration and teachers is widening everyday, and that can't be healthy for the Duval County school system. If you want more proof , look at how the superintendent declared a financial emergency just days before the school year began in order to stop teachers from getting their step increases. Many teachers took it as the district flexing their muscles as if to say, ‘look who the boss is’. Mr. Superintendent, our bosses, both yours and the teacher’s, are ultimately the children of the district and we should be doing whatever we can to make sure they are successful, and putting both principals and teachers in impossible positions is doing the opposite of that.

Andrew Carnegie once stated “you can take my buildings and resources, leave my workers, my greatest asset, and I'll be back on top”. The school district, in contrast, treats many of its teachers and principals as if they are disposable, while at the same time playing them against each other. The sense of comraderie and teamwork between the two groups is quickly dissipating and the esprit de corps that had both groups believing they were in this together has been replaced by ‘it’s the teacher’s fault’ and ‘if this principal doesn’t crack the whip, we’ll find another one that will’, by the county’s administration and school board.

If we want to have a truly successful school system, it's going to require a partnership between teachers and their administrators. I think teachers are the district’s number one resource and should be treated with dignity and respect. I believe the better teachers are, the better they will be for their students, as well, and I also believe if they are supported - put in positions where success is attainable, and not overwhelmed with task after task - then the district will prosper. Ater all, if the teachers didn't show up one day, then school would slam to a halt; but if a principal didn't show up, school would merrily chug along.

I also think schools need leaders - people that teachers can come to when they need help and someone students can look up. A principal is like a quarterback of a football team, or like the rudder of a ship. Quarterbacks probably get too much credit and too much blame when a team flounders, but they are still the ones who keep the ball moving. A ship may still be able to float without a rudder, but at the same time its sense of direction will be seriously impaired.

I wrote above that Mr. Brennan hates teachers, but let me make emphatically clear he did NOT say that in so many words, that’s just what several members of his staff felt after their welcome back staff meeting, and how they once again felt when he monitored their social network sites. He did not say that and I sincerely hope he does not feel that way, because if he did, then the faculty, staff and students at Forrest High School are all in store for a very long year.

In actuality, however, this piece has very little to do with him and the problems at Forrest High School, which are being repeated at numerous schools throughout the district. It is more about the deteriorating relationship between teachers and administrators because of the impossible expectations put upon them and the impossible positions they are put in. It’s about how the district is fostering a contentious relationship that, unless changes are made, will inevitably collapse upon itself.

The Times Union, doesn't get it

The Times Union just doesn’t get it. One of the biggest problems we have here in Jacksonville is that our school system is run by politicians on their way up or way down and casual observers filled with hubris who have at best a tenuous relationship to education. I am not saying they are of bad character or lack compassion and passion. I am saying they are out of their depth and the school system, our children and the entire city suffers for it.

So what does the Times Union do? It endorses a politician on his way down, Eric Smith and a politician on his way up, Fred “Fel” Lee. Admittedly, they do so while giving a nod to two teachers who have been in the classrooms and roaming the halls of schools in the county for a combined 29 years, Becki Couch and John King, saying they wouldn’t be bad choices. However a nod is not good enough.

Just like I wouldn’t turn to a Lawyer to take care of my health needs or a plumber to fly me across country no matter how good they were at their respective jobs, I don’t think Jacksonville should rely on professional politicians to run our schools. Judge for yourself the track record they have had.

Our children can no longer afford for “school board member” to be a line on a resume. Instead we need people who have been passionate about and dedicated to education. People who have been with our children and who have worked side by side with the cities teachers in the cities schools. They, not casual observers will have the best ideas of what works or what doesn’t. They, better than career politicians, will have a better idea of what the district needs to be successful. There is not one current board member who has been in a classroom in over a decade. The board is made up of lawyers, life long politicians and consultants and has been for quite some time. We don’t just need some teachers on the board; we desperately need some teachers on the board.

When the Times Union endorses politicians over teachers to run our schools it says to its readers, things are fine and things aren’t fine. It says to the people of Jacksonville lets continue to do business as usual, when the city can no longer afford to do it that way and it says, we just don’t get it.

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher

The Bare Minimum

I spoke to the Northeast Florida rotary club the other day. If you don’t know what the Rotary club is, it’s a business/civic group. They like me are concerned about the direction education in Jacksonville is heading. They like me believe that economy, crime and civility or lack thereof all has their roots in education and they like me are nervous.

Even though I was invited into talk about education issues, I started by talking about the city. I talked about how two interstate highways intersect here and how we are on the ocean and have a major river, a port, an international airport and one of the best park systems in the country. I talked about the Jags and how we are close to entertainment hubs. I talked about how we have lots of room for growth and how much of the infrastructure is already in place to do so and I finished by talking about how we are a pro business city, in a pro business state and we don’t have an income tax. I then asked them why we aren’t turning businesses away and why aren’t we picking and choosing top businesses to come here. I told them I believed it was because of our education system and the work force they are putting out.

I then gave them a few stats, like half the kids in high school can’t read or do math on grade level. That seventy percent of graduates that go to Florida State College at Jacksonville have to take remedial classes. How as the cities population continues to grow it’s school system continues to contract because families are turning to private schools and home schooling something that is only happening here in Jacksonville and nowhere else in the state. Then I mentioned how nobody on the current school board had taught in a Duval County classroom in over a decade and asked if they could see a relationship between all of this.

I then talked about teachers, what I think more so than buildings and technology are the districts number one resource and how I believe the better they are, the better they will do for our children. I wasn’t talking about education and training either because as a group they are extremely well trained and capable. I was talking about not over loading them with task after task many of which only had a peripheral relationship with education. I talked about supporting them and removing kids that were maladaptive and not putting them in unattainable positions and then blaming them when they came up short. I talked about not disrespecting them which is how many felt when the superintendent surprised them just days before they were to report with him breaking the contract. There’s nothing wrong with having lofty goals, teachers are all about accountability, and teachers know they are tough economic times. They just want to be treated like the professionals they are and to be put in a position where they and their children have a chance for success, something sadly to many teachers and students throughout the district are not.

I then took some questions and one of the questions was, what could we do to make things better? I took a deep breath and sighed before I responded. Well there are a lot of things that we can do but aren’t but why don’t we start with something that doesn’t call for reinventing the wheel or breaking the bank, why don’t we start with insisting the school board does the bare minimum, which we aren’t even close to doing now. They seemed a little puzzled as I paused.

We need to give students a snap shot how the real world works. If they come to school behave and work hard they will be rewarded. If they come to school and act up or don’t try then there will be consequences. Now children don’t receive true consequences for their behavior and often it worsens and we also push so many along without the skills they need to be successful. While doing so we teach other kids lessons like their behavior doesn’t matter and it’s okay not to try, lessons they shouldn’t learn anywhere let alone in schools. Then every year we graduate a significant amount of children who aren’t prepared for anything. If we did the bare minimum we could save some of those kids, maybe a lot of those kids. Lets start with the bare minimum and then go from there. That’s what I told them they could do to help.

I then asked them, don’t our city, its teachers and our children at least deserve the bare minimum? They thought so and so do I. In reality we need so much more to be truly successful but hey we got to start somewhere.

The Devil it’s Due

It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of our school board. I think they are directly responsible for many of the problems facing the district. If you look at the make up of the school board for the most part it is made up of politicians on their way up or way down or casual observers with tenuous ties to education. When I pick a doctor, I pick someone who has been to medical school, not someone who has a cousin who is a doctor or who has watched three seasons of Grays Anatomy and thinks to themselves, hey I could do that. With that being said, it would be disingenuous of me, not to “give the devil it’s due.”

When superintendent Pratt-Dannals, at the last possible moment, asked the school board to declare financial urgency in order to breech the contract with teachers, three board members voted against it. When it passed teachers were outraged and four members of the school board were sent scrambling to justify their positions. In a way this was also a very rare occurrence, not that teachers aren’t routinely in an up roar about what the school board does and school board members aren’t often scrambling to justify their positions.

What is amazing is that three board members voted against breaking the contract with teachers. If you look back at board votes over the last few years, they usual rubber stamps whatever the superintendent wants. I can’t remember the last time any vote had so many dissenters.
According to the Times Union, board members Betty Burney, Tommy Hazouri and Brenda Priestly Jackson voted against the move because they said the district had not done enough to justify pursuing it. Hazouri said the district should first consider not filling positions or spending money on consultants before breaking the contract.
The other board memebrs despite voting on tens of millions on other projects, including hundreds of thousands of dollars on travel and consultants over the last few months respectfully disagreed. Maybe they voted for breaking the contract because they thought it was a good idea but then again maybe not.

There is a quote from the movie JFK that I like a lot. One actor asks Kevin Costner, “How do you know who your daddy is? It’s because your momma said it was so.” This is pretty relevant because in Duval County because how does the school board know it’s a good idea, because the administration says it so.

Compass Odyssey, Math Investigations, Oncource, along with various other computer programs and learning curriculums that have come and gone, the rotation of the North Side middle schools, the expansions at Ed White and Lee High schools, the creation of a new high school when numerous high schools on the west and north side stand half empty, their students using magnet schools and opportunity scholarships to leave, the pushing of more and more children to take advanced placement tests, tying principals evaluations to suspensions, the hiring of a public relations person and many, many other ideas have had their detractors. In the end however they were all good ideas or so the powers-that-be at 1701 Prudential Drive would have us believe and were ideas either that the school board rubber-stamped or allowed to happen.

For some reason the school board lost it’s way and if you want to know why go reread the first paragraph, it might help you figure it out. They forgot that they don’t just represent one building on the riverfront of the south bank of downtown. They forgot they also represent the students, parent’s, stakeholders and teachers; yes teachers of the district as well.

Some might make the mistake of lumping the teachers in with Duval County School District. On the surface that seems reasonable. Unfortunately when they took away teachers creativity and semi-autonomy, began overloading them with endless tasks, adopted policies that put both teachers and their students at a disadvantage and stopped treating teachers with respect, it forced teachers into a separate camp. So many teachers consider the District and the School Board as opponents not to be trusted. Just nod and take it so many teachers say, in a few years they will be off to do something else new. That’s what happens when people who give so much and sacrifice so much are pushed into a corner and told they are not valued.

Lets face it and be realistic as well. The raises most teachers get are pretty bad. They don’t keep up with cost of living increases and teachers earning power actually decreases for about the first ten years. When I started teaching a decade ago my contract was for 26,000 dollars and I had thousands in savings. Fast-forward 11 years and even though my salary is nearly forty, I like many teachers live paycheck to paycheck in fear of an illness, a car breaking or some other ordinary occurrence.

Furthermore, the raises don’t come anywhere near compensating teachers for all the supplies they buy for their rooms and their children and they don’t nearly cover all the untold hours of over-time that teachers put in. If anything, until you have been teaching for fifteen years or so the raises are largely symbolic, a small gesture that said teachers are noticed and appreciated. Unfortunately four members of the school board and the superintendent have seemingly disagreed about that this year.

Let me at least give the devil, make that the three members of the school board who looked at the same facts and figures as the other four members and the superintendent did and said, our teachers are worth it.

Sadly I am not optimistic about this 4-3 vote even though it seemed to show the first sign of independent thought out of the school board in quite sometime. In a few days it will probably be back to business as usual and sadly if you take teachers morale as an indicator business isn’t that good.

The Death of Teaching as a Career

When I was in elementary school my third grade teacher was in her mid thirties and that was as young as I got. Back then most of my teachers were considerably older. They all had years if not decades of experience. You won’t find that now. It’s possible today for kids today to go all through school and not have a teacher who hasn’t been on the job for more than five years. Teaching isn’t a profession like it was just a generation ago, it’s a just a job and a job with a fairly high turnover rate at that and that is part of the problem.

Teaching is also a job that has tenure, which means if you do it fairly well it’s a job one can have for life. Teaching is a job that starts at a pretty decent wage and is also a job that has every holiday off. Despite all this, sadly this is a job that fewer and fewer people want to do, a job that fewer and fewer people stick with.

When John Thrasher and his ill-conceived senate bill six made the headlines a few months ago, one of his selling points was that a first year teacher could be as good as a tenth year teacher and where this is true it’s also highly unlikely. It takes years for teachers to hone their craft and I don’t know any teacher that thinks they were a better teacher when they started.

First year teachers even the ones with teaching degrees often don’t know what to expect and they don’t know what questions to ask. This is often compounded by the fact that most first year teachers are sent to the most struggling schools and are often inundated with extra paper work and tasks to do. The first few years of teaching is less about teaching and more about surviving. I have said it and it’s the same thing I heard my first year; “Just get though the first year kid, it will get better.”

In Jacksonville at the start of the 2009 school year 27 percent of teachers had less than four years experience. This matches up well with the fact that forty percent of teachers don’t last five years and this at a job that many say with a smirk gets summers off while they sit in front of their televisions and think to themselves I could do that.

Starting in year five and going through year 22 the amount of teachers in each subsequent year declines, 509 495 419 329 279 264 237 227 226 196 148 129 157 135 130 117 124 115. Over half of our teachers have less than nine years experience. Now nine years is a long time but as I stated above the teaching profession has changed.

Why do teachers leave? Well many feel overwhelmed, they are given more tasks than they can possibly accomplish or do well. If it was just teaching more would make it but sadly teaching today has less and less to do with teaching than many might think possible. Furthermore teachers are put in unattainable positions, every year the pressure on teachers seems to grow, while at the same time, parents, the community, the administration and the government seems to get a pass. Then others quickly grow weary of having to raise other people’s children. Teacher’s sighed up to teach and when they did so they knew some mentoring would go with the job. They didn’t know they would have to teach manners, basic rights from wrongs and how to be respectful as well. Others and I personally think this is the biggest reason that many have left the field is a lack of support.

The first year teacher shows up bright eyed and filled with optimism, ready to change the world, and this is an incredible feeling to have, though it is fleeting as many first year teachers have to go into survival mode. They try all sorts of methods to get the children to take care of their responsibilities, which are simple enough, come to class, listen and learn; First they come in as a strict disciplinarian, as this is the standard advice given to first year teachers. They are told to come in tough and then they can ease up as the year progresses. If this fails with some students, the first year teacher often reverts to being a social worker, trying to figure out why they act the way they do and tries to help solve their problems, then with some students they try to become their friend, figuring if they were friends, the students would treat them better, that's treat them with some with dignity and respect. They do this because it takes different strategies to get through to different students.

And for the most part with one of these strategies they are successful, as ninety percent of all students want to be there, they want to learn, or at worse are followers, which means if there ring leader isn't there they fall in line with the children who do want to learn. After a while it's just that ten percent of students that no matter what they try to do continue to cause them problems.

They talk to their mentors, as every first year teacher is assigned one, and their colleagues and department head as well. They ask what they can do to get these last few students in line. The first year teacher laments when the unruly students are absent, "it's dreamy, I can actually teach". They veterans look at the rookies with sympathetic eyes but they also have problems of their own. Just survive the first year; we tell them, it gets easier. But how do I get through to them they ask, we shrug our shoulders and suggest, try and get the parents involved maybe they can help somehow, but in our hearts we know they are fighting an unwinnable battle with some students.

So they call the parents trying to set up parent teacher conferences, to discuss the child's performance both academically and behaviorally, because often-poor performances in these areas go hand in hand. Some of the parents can't be bothered figuring it was the teacher’s problem once the child came to school, others report having the same difficulties at home where they to are at a loss. The two parties might get together and try a few interventions and some students might actually turn it around, but just as often many students don't.

Backed into a corner the first year teacher writes the student up, only to find them back in class before the period is over or at best the next day and angry that they were written up, the problem begins to worsen. You see most likely the child received no meaningful consequences for their behavior, and thus continues it. The teacher writes the child up again and again the child is back in class the next day, except this time the teacher is paid a visit by an administrator or called to the office. Why can't you control this child, they are asked, they explain all that they have done and how none of it has worked. The first year teacher is then told, that referrals are only to be written for the most extreme circumstances and then only after every alternative has been exhausted. Most likely they aren't given any new alternatives as they slump their shoulders and heads back to the classrooms. Because of this lack of support many won’t make it.

When school starts up I will meet twenty or so first time teachers. Of those twenty a few won’t last through the first semester. I say this with some assuredly because this has happened every year that I have been a teacher. They just don’t make it, preferring to get a job at the mall or waitressing instead of sticking with the job that many of them spent years preparing themselves for.

Forty percent of teaches won’t last five, over half won’t last ten and probably less than a quarter of all first year teachers make it a career.

School Board Questions

An editor for the Times Union told me they plan to interview the candidates for the school board next week and asked if I had any questions I would like to see them answer. This is what I came up with and then for fun I answered them.

Do you think principals evaluations should be tied to how many suspensions they give out? Definitely not. It takes a tool out of their toolbox and hurts discipline in general.

Do you think severely disabled students should be taught access points or learn life and employability skills? No access points are watered down academics that they will never get or use. We should be teaching them things that would be beneficial to them.

What do you think about reintroducing the teaching of skills, trades and the arts on a district wide level? I think this should be a priority.

What do you think about school board employees making in excess of a hundred thousand dollars? No school board employee should make more than a hundred thousand dollars. The argument that we have to pay to attract top talent for me doesn’t hold water especially since so many teachers are paycheck to paycheck.

Do you think students who can’t read at grade level or read several grades below grade level should be promoted? After school and summer school should not be optional for these students. If a student is more than a grade level or two behind it is going to greatly diminish the chances of them being legitimately successful.

The district currently has a one size fits all curriculum, a kid that has an I.Q. of 130 who loves school and wants to be an engineer has to take and pass algebra II just like a kid with a ninety I.Q. that doesn’t care for school and who wants to drive trucks. Do you think this one size fits all curriculum benefits all students. No it hurts many of them and leads to many of the problems we are having. We need to develop alternate curriculums.

How would you have teachers evaluated? I would have them evaluated by teams of peers from other schools, they will no what should be happening and have little concern for office politics.

Would you support making grade recovery just for students who had legitimate reasons for missing class or for students who came, participated and tried but still failed, instead of the anybody can take it for any reason system we have now? Only kids that legitimately missed class or tried should be allowed to use grade recovery.

Diploma option 2 conveys none of the same benefits as a regular diploma, kids who graduate with one cannot go to college or join the military do you think having them take GED classes instead would be more or less beneficial? GED classes should be worked into their curriculums.

How do you think enforcement of the code of conduct should be handled? It should be vigorously enforced. Kids need consequences for inappropriate behavior.

Many teachers work dozens of hours of unpaid over time a week to complete all the tasks assigned to them. What do you think about paying them overtime or prioritizing the tasks they need to complete so they don’t have to work so much unpaid over-time? Either works for me but regardless teachers should not be working dozens of hours of unpaid overtime.

Do you think being in a classroom makes one more or less prepared to be a member of the school board? More prepared by far.

Would you be willing to substitute one day a week in the schools you represent? Yes

In order, whom do you think you will represent the most too least: the administration, parents, stakeholders, students, and teachers? Students and teachers would be 1 and 1A, then parents and stakeholders with union and administration concerns coming in last.

Do you think students who are classified a level one, two or three should be allowed to take advanced placement classes as they are now? No, they are not prepared.

Superintendent Pratt-Dannals said, we are a good community away from having a good school system. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? I vigorously disagree where I think the both play a role on each other, schools have a bare minimum they should be doing, such as instilling discipline and ending social promotions and until we are doing that we are exacerbating societies problems.

What’s your big idea to turn things around? Getting back to the basics. Discipline, multiple curriculums and ending social promotions.

The Education Czar

A recent letter to the editor, I believe with tongue in cheek, suggested I become “Education Czar” for the district. The author sited my common sense approach to education and the fact that I couldn’t do any worse. It got me thinking, where I am not sure about my qualifications, I am definitely sure what my approach would be.

I’ll start by saying I don’t believe it wouldn't take reinventing the wheel or breaking the bank to dramatically improve education in Jacksonville. What we need is vigorous enforcement of the code of conduct, to stop social promotions, to put legitimate safety nets for kids struggling either with academics and or behavior in place, to develop alternative curriculums, which means we reintroduce trades, skills and the arts across the district and finally we need to start treating teachers as valued assets by giving them autonomy, encouraging creativity and by not overwhelming them with task after task that only had a superfluous relationship to education. Instead I would want them to spend that valuable time with their students. In effect I would want to do everything we should be doing now, some might say it is common sense but aren’t.

I also believe the object of a public school education should not be to prepare every child for a post secondary education so they can compete in a global economy (the districts mantra) but to prepare every child to be a productive and civil citizen in whatever path they choose to take.

Which goes back to the letter writer’s thought, if we did it that way could it be any worse? I certainly don’t think so.

Chris Guerrieri

Whose fault is it?

Superintendent Pratt-Dannals joined with several other superintendents to challenge some of the recent f-cat results. I don’t know how that will work out. I do know that in recent weeks, he blamed the college entrance test that Florida State College at Jacksonville gives for not asking the right questions and that’s what leads to seventy percent of grads having to take remedial classes. I know he said that we are a good community away from having a good school system and he has pointed the finger at parents and teachers alike for many of the woes Jacksonville’s school system is experiencing.

The community, colleges, parents, teachers, the different tests, it seems like everything is to blame for our problems but the districts leadership and it’s policies. I guess it’s good to have one good thing going for us.

Chris Guerrieri