I try and repost as little as possible from the Times Union prefering to write about the topics. I am sure I will do that about below as soon as I get a chance. Reading this however was like how I imagine a high school kid must feel after asking a girl to the prom 29 times only to have her say no but then asking one more time and hearing her say yes; a combination of elation, relief and vindication. After years of writing about our school board and our education system, I finally feel like somebody heard me. I also feel like somebody finally cares which is what I hoped would happen. -cpg
From the Florida Times Union
by Topher Sanders
Key members of Jacksonville’s business community jumped into the heated discussion about plans for improving Jacksonville’s four most struggling public schools.
The Duval County School Board should immediately form an independent body “empowered to hire and fire principals, teachers and school personnel,” the business leaders wrote in an opinion letter appearing today in The Times-Union.
Written by Chris Corr of AECOM, Steve Halverson of The Haskell Co., John Rood of Vestcor Cos., Peter Rummell of Rummell Co. and Michael Ward of CSX Corp., the letter said students in Duval’s intervene schools are “doomed” unless the community responds now.
The independent body would determine the intervention response for the schools, the leaders wrote.
The letter piggybacks on an opinion piece from T. Willard Fair, chairman of the state Board of Education, which criticized School Board member Betty Burney for a letter she wrote the previous week comparing FCAT scores and college readiness data.
The schools in question are Andrew Jackson, Raines and Ribault high schools and North Shore K-8.
State law requires the school system to pick between turning the schools into charter schools, hiring an outside management organization to run the schools or closing them. The School Board is pitching a governance structure that would allow it to maintain control while it received input from a community-based organization on key functions of the schools.
The business leaders said that plan isn’t strong enough.
“It’s time for bigger thinking, more radical thinking and more radical change,” Halverson said.
He said he knows their proposal isn’t exactly what state law requires either, but it’s more aggressive than the district’s plan. And the business community must play a bigger role.
“We also think it’s important for the business leadership to step up,” he said. “There needs to be greater commitment of resources, both people and financial to help.”
The schools need more than the resources and funding provided by the state to improve, he said.
School Board Chairman W.C. Gentry said he respected the letter’s authors, but wishes they would have talked with the School Board and Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals to better understand the impact of the state’s requirements and the district’s plans.
“I hope this means they will be energetic partners with us in solving the problems that they have discussed in their article,” he said.
Burney said the point she intended with her opinion piece is that every student in the intervene schools is not failing.
“One thing I hope is that they decide to visit the schools and assist them, since they are so interested now,” Burney said.
Fair had called into question Burney’s use of college readiness data supplied by the state. Burney’s piece focused on students eligible for college readiness scores while Fair’s did the same but looked at the entire graduating group.
For example, there were 339 ninth graders in the 2006-’07 year at Andrew Jackson. Four years later, only 41 of those students were eligible for college readiness scores. Of those, 31 were found to be college ready in reading.
Rummell said the city’s future is dependent on the district’s improvement.
“It’s not just an education problem, it’s a Jacksonville-wide economic development problem because a good school system is fundamental to a strong economic development climate,” he said.
The first thing companies evaluate if they are considering operating in a new community is its school system, Rummell said.
Rummell and Halverson said the letter was not a vote of “no confidence” in the School Board regarding the four schools, but Rood said for him that’s exactly what the letter means.
“How could anyone have any confidence; they’re not doing anything different,” Rood said. “You’ve got all these kids going through year after year, and they’re not learning. These are kids’ lives. How are they going to catch up and what kind of a future do they have?”
The state Board of Education will make the final decision on the district’s plan.
topher.sanders@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4169
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-02-24/story/duval-school-board-challenged-think-big#ixzz1EycXvfdn
Showing posts with label Jacksonville Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jacksonville Florida. Show all posts
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The bare minimum our schools should be doing...
I wrote this last summer but I thought it was relevent because a commenter asked what I thought we should do. Well how about we start with the bare minimuim. -cpg
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 (at that time) 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 more to be truly successful but hey we got to start somewhere.
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 (at that time) 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 more to be truly successful but hey we got to start somewhere.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
History will judge
History will Judge
History will judge the current generation by its ability to solve the public education crisis, is what a local business leader and former governor of West Virginia Bob Wise told Jacksonville CEOs Wednesday at the graduate now summit hosted by the United Way. What a ridiculous statement because if things continue on the path they are now, future generations won’t be able to judge anything through history because they both won’t understand it or be able to read it.
Once again business and community leaders met to discuss the state of education in Jacksonville. If that sounds familiar it’s because it happens every few months or so. They do it so they can both point to statistics that say high school graduates make and spend more money, while shaking their fists, demanding something must be done and so they can appear to be doing something. I say appear because they have been having meetings like this for years now and they have almost nothing to show for them. In fact many people, who are in the know, teachers and parents, think things are getting worse. Jacksonville has a graduation rate of 65% which sadly is a bit misleading because a significant amount of new graduates aren’t prepared for college, working or anything.
If Jacksonville’s business and community leaders are truly interested and serious about improving education and to be honest I have my doubts after all it’s much easier to talk about change than do what is necessary to make sure it happens, the first and far the most important thing they need to do is lobby the state government to properly fund education. Mentors, community tutors and blue ribbon commissions are nice but what the school system needs is money.
Education needs mandatory longer days and summer school opportunities for children who need extra help. Education needs social workers and mental health counselors because quite often why children act up or don’t try at school has nothing to do with what is going on in school. Education needs more restrictive alternative programs to send children that hijack the learning environment to. Then education also needs multiple tracks so children can learn the arts, skills and trades as well. What do all these things have in common besides the fact we aren’t either doing them now or to the degree we should be? They cost money.
At the summit superintendant Pratt Dannals said “…we’re one great community away from being a great school system. It takes both.” In a way he’s right. Schools are not platforms for fixing the ills of society, though if done correctly school districts can enhance a city and can be immensely beneficial. Some cities crown jewels are its school system. Jacksonville’s schools unfortunately aren’t doing it right; instead of making things better they are exacerbating our cities problems. It’s not just the abysmal drop out and graduation rates that I am talking about either. In our city we can’t go a day without hearing about a young person committing some terrible crime. Businesses are likewise having difficult times finding capable, productive, and reliable workers. These are also some of the problems that Jacksonville’s public school system is contributing to.
When children don’t get consequences for their behavior it worsens. When children are pushed along from grade to grade they are rendered incapable of learning or being productive. When all children are forced into a one size fits all curriculum we shouldn’t be surprised when more and more don’t make it. When children drop out of school, don’t know how to behave or function in society we also shouldn’t be surprised that many turn to public assistance, crime or worse.
Jacksonville has serious problems that aren’t going to fix themselves either through cooking the books which is what the school board has been doing, by ignoring discipline, scrubbing children’s grades and encouraging children to take advanced placement tests they aren’t ready for or by having summits where the business elite get together to pat each other on the back and say something must be done. After all this is what we have been doing for a while and if you want proof of how successful it’s been, look at Duval Counties graduation rates over the last few years, 02-03, 63.7%, 03-04, 67.2%, 04-05, 65.5%, 05-06, 60.5%, 06-07,64.3%, 07-08 65.9%.
That’s our recent history. You be the judge of how we are doing
History will judge the current generation by its ability to solve the public education crisis, is what a local business leader and former governor of West Virginia Bob Wise told Jacksonville CEOs Wednesday at the graduate now summit hosted by the United Way. What a ridiculous statement because if things continue on the path they are now, future generations won’t be able to judge anything through history because they both won’t understand it or be able to read it.
Once again business and community leaders met to discuss the state of education in Jacksonville. If that sounds familiar it’s because it happens every few months or so. They do it so they can both point to statistics that say high school graduates make and spend more money, while shaking their fists, demanding something must be done and so they can appear to be doing something. I say appear because they have been having meetings like this for years now and they have almost nothing to show for them. In fact many people, who are in the know, teachers and parents, think things are getting worse. Jacksonville has a graduation rate of 65% which sadly is a bit misleading because a significant amount of new graduates aren’t prepared for college, working or anything.
If Jacksonville’s business and community leaders are truly interested and serious about improving education and to be honest I have my doubts after all it’s much easier to talk about change than do what is necessary to make sure it happens, the first and far the most important thing they need to do is lobby the state government to properly fund education. Mentors, community tutors and blue ribbon commissions are nice but what the school system needs is money.
Education needs mandatory longer days and summer school opportunities for children who need extra help. Education needs social workers and mental health counselors because quite often why children act up or don’t try at school has nothing to do with what is going on in school. Education needs more restrictive alternative programs to send children that hijack the learning environment to. Then education also needs multiple tracks so children can learn the arts, skills and trades as well. What do all these things have in common besides the fact we aren’t either doing them now or to the degree we should be? They cost money.
At the summit superintendant Pratt Dannals said “…we’re one great community away from being a great school system. It takes both.” In a way he’s right. Schools are not platforms for fixing the ills of society, though if done correctly school districts can enhance a city and can be immensely beneficial. Some cities crown jewels are its school system. Jacksonville’s schools unfortunately aren’t doing it right; instead of making things better they are exacerbating our cities problems. It’s not just the abysmal drop out and graduation rates that I am talking about either. In our city we can’t go a day without hearing about a young person committing some terrible crime. Businesses are likewise having difficult times finding capable, productive, and reliable workers. These are also some of the problems that Jacksonville’s public school system is contributing to.
When children don’t get consequences for their behavior it worsens. When children are pushed along from grade to grade they are rendered incapable of learning or being productive. When all children are forced into a one size fits all curriculum we shouldn’t be surprised when more and more don’t make it. When children drop out of school, don’t know how to behave or function in society we also shouldn’t be surprised that many turn to public assistance, crime or worse.
Jacksonville has serious problems that aren’t going to fix themselves either through cooking the books which is what the school board has been doing, by ignoring discipline, scrubbing children’s grades and encouraging children to take advanced placement tests they aren’t ready for or by having summits where the business elite get together to pat each other on the back and say something must be done. After all this is what we have been doing for a while and if you want proof of how successful it’s been, look at Duval Counties graduation rates over the last few years, 02-03, 63.7%, 03-04, 67.2%, 04-05, 65.5%, 05-06, 60.5%, 06-07,64.3%, 07-08 65.9%.
That’s our recent history. You be the judge of how we are doing
Monday, December 27, 2010
Northeast Florida Schools jilted again
It’s funny how when you are rich people will listen to you even when you speak about subjects that didn’t make you rich. The thing is who doesn’t cringe when an actor or a singer gives their opinion about something political? Well I am cringing now, you see Bill Gates, he who made billions on computer software has thrown has hat into the education arena and people are listening, though I think it’s more because of the money he throws around rather than what he is saying.
He recently said when talking about teacher experience, why would I pay somebody more to cut my lawn just because they have been cutting lawns longer. That’s right folks to him kids are as important as having his lawn cut and teachers are the equivalent of the little black kid with chubby cheeks that I pay ten bucks to do so, and let me tell you I get what I pay for. Experience and advanced degrees have no place in Bill Gates world, they don’t matter at all. What do you think? Can you think of a place or a job where education and/or experience might matter?
Well Bill Gates has already sunk his hooks into Florida by giving Hillsborough County a 100 million dollar strings attached grant and now he seeks to expand his influence. His foundation will be here in Florida holding talks, they will be held in January in Tallahassee, Panama City, Gainesville, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Naples. They are being supported by Village Square, a nonprofit organization that promotes civility in public discourse, more so however if your way of thinking is on the right. Fair enough though right, we should all be talking about education even if our point of views don’t always sync up but did you notice what city was left off the map. If you immediately said Jacksonville you are right.
The foundation has decided to snub the 23rd largest school district in the entire nation and is unconcerned with what the 1.5 million residents of North Florida have to say. I guess they don’t have time for us what with visiting the huge metropolitan areas of Naples, Panama City and West Palm Beach. It’s also my guess the foundation, which will of course be giving its suggestions to the Governor, picked areas where the opinions they already have will be reinforced.
I think this is a bit shameful, why can’ they do one more or six more talks after all the foundation can afford it and their suggestions may influence what happens to children all throughout the state not just in those areas visited. That’s what I say, though since I am not rich, or an actor or a singer, just somebody who has been a public school teacher for a decade my opinion probably won’t carry much weight. After all, teachers experience don’t seem to matter not even when the subject is teaching.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
He recently said when talking about teacher experience, why would I pay somebody more to cut my lawn just because they have been cutting lawns longer. That’s right folks to him kids are as important as having his lawn cut and teachers are the equivalent of the little black kid with chubby cheeks that I pay ten bucks to do so, and let me tell you I get what I pay for. Experience and advanced degrees have no place in Bill Gates world, they don’t matter at all. What do you think? Can you think of a place or a job where education and/or experience might matter?
Well Bill Gates has already sunk his hooks into Florida by giving Hillsborough County a 100 million dollar strings attached grant and now he seeks to expand his influence. His foundation will be here in Florida holding talks, they will be held in January in Tallahassee, Panama City, Gainesville, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Naples. They are being supported by Village Square, a nonprofit organization that promotes civility in public discourse, more so however if your way of thinking is on the right. Fair enough though right, we should all be talking about education even if our point of views don’t always sync up but did you notice what city was left off the map. If you immediately said Jacksonville you are right.
The foundation has decided to snub the 23rd largest school district in the entire nation and is unconcerned with what the 1.5 million residents of North Florida have to say. I guess they don’t have time for us what with visiting the huge metropolitan areas of Naples, Panama City and West Palm Beach. It’s also my guess the foundation, which will of course be giving its suggestions to the Governor, picked areas where the opinions they already have will be reinforced.
I think this is a bit shameful, why can’ they do one more or six more talks after all the foundation can afford it and their suggestions may influence what happens to children all throughout the state not just in those areas visited. That’s what I say, though since I am not rich, or an actor or a singer, just somebody who has been a public school teacher for a decade my opinion probably won’t carry much weight. After all, teachers experience don’t seem to matter not even when the subject is teaching.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Friday, December 10, 2010
Disabled Children: The state is clueless as what to do once agin
The idiots, err excuse me, the administrators in Tallahassee think one size fits all for children, they are sadly mistaken. The girl below is on the high end for disabled kids, most of my kids are on the low end, they all deserve a chance -cpg
I am part of the problem....
It definitely won’t make the news, but Duval County failed another student today, though they are not alone as I failed another student today as well. I am not talking about failed in the sense we gave them a bad grade, and F, I am talking about it in the sense we let them down, we set them back, we have just made the rest of their lives more difficult.....
If you aren’t already fired up by the county failing students (the second version) something they annually do to hundreds if not thousands of them, don’t feel alone because sadly very few people are, and if that’s the case then don’t get fired up about me failing this last one either, as she definitely won’t be the last one I let down. I teach a special education science class at Ed White high school and I am part of the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, everyday I come to class prepared to teach. I roll up my sleeves and jump right in it’s just as my peers do, unfortunately like many of them I also feel like I am chipping away at a mountain with a plastic spoon. Teachers and students alike are handicapped by the FCAT, unrealistic graduation requirements, a lack of discipline and other policies and procedures mandated by the district or state that don’t make sense, nor do they seem to be in the best interest of us or the children. Everyday so many teachers who want to do well, who want to help the students in their charges do as well as they can go to work feeling like the deck is stacked against them and stacked very high.
My group of students has what we call varying exceptionalities, which means we group, educable mentally handicapped, emotional handicapped and students with specific learning disabilities together. Not only do I have students from all three categories in most of my classes, but I usually also have all four high school grade levels represented as well, and then during a few classes I am expected to teach a few different subjects.
All of my students including those that are capable of doing so much more are on what’s called a special diploma track. When they graduate they won’t receive a high school diploma, instead they will get a certificate of completion, which has more in common with three squares of toilet paper than it does with a diploma.
A lot of my students could achieve so much more if they were in classes with low teacher pupil ratios (two of my classes have more than twenty students in them) and received intensive remediation in reading, writing and math, in fact if those services were provided I may just be able to find a rocket scientist or two, but the powers that be don’t think they those things are important, so instead I am turning out students who at best after many years of dedicated service might make it to lead associate at a box retail store, if they aren’t jailed, living on the streets or on welfare that is.
Instead of giving my students what they need, what would make sense and prove beneficial to them giving their circumstances, I break open my fifteen year old text books that recently talked about an exciting new technology called laser discs, and has used the twin towers in several examples, and try to introduce them to topics they should have learned about years ago, but aren’t nearly as important when considering the fact many can’t read or write or do math on any level approaching their grade level. I have a friend that teaches fifth grade science and I am amazed at how often what the two of us are teaching overlaps.
This year had been amazingly frustrating, instead of teaching them the water downed science that I am, I felt I should be teaching them to read and write properly, or running a G.E.D. prep class as my students who may have aspirations of doing more will have to take it one day, that’s it had been amazingly frustrating, right up to the moment it became down right depressing.
It started when I got a new student right before winter break, she moved here from Michigan. I thought it a bit strange she came on the last day of class, but if you met this girl you might think it fit her. A little quiet and introspective she often writes in her journal when her work is finished deciphering the latest song lyrics or pondering the make up of the world. I asked her why she had come on this day of days (all we were going to do was watch movies) and she replied she didn’t want to have too many absences and since she was here she felt she should.
She has dyscalculia a math learning disorder that makes learning higher maths very difficult if not down right impossible. Except for her math classes and my science class, which I am sure they just threw her into she has all regular education classes.
Despite her above average I.Q. her disability and the absurdity of the situation, one size fits all graduation requirements, has served to seriously set this girl back in life just as it is beginning, and the thing is nobody seems to care, that she is going to earn a special diploma. I was told that for any student not in one of the work programs to graduate with a regular diploma they had to have algebra I and two other higher maths, if they couldn’t pass them regardless of disability they had to be on a special diploma track, though if they renamed it worthless diploma track that would be more accurate.
She’s not the only one, at my school for the most part we don’t even try to put capable, with accommodations, modifications and a differentiated curriculum special education students in regular education classes at my school, students that with help and accommodations could pass most subjects. After all if we don’t think they can pass the advanced math classes required what’s the point.
Here is the thing, when I was in high school, I took general math II as a junior and no math as a senior, if I were in school right now, I would be on a special diploma track, I would be graduating with a piece of paper that wasn’t worth the ink printed on it. In case you were wondering I have two college degrees from the University of North Florida, and my two degrees required a total of 7 credits of math, that’s two classes and a lab. Let me ask you a couple questions, how many of you would have received a special diploma based on our counties present requirements, how many members of the school board would, also how many of you recently used algebra II in your everyday life, and how many members of the school board do you think did.
In our mad rush to catch up with the rest of the world in math and science, despite the fact as far as I can tell we still lead the world in technology and scientific breakthroughs, I wonder how many students we are leaving behind, I don’t know the exact numbers but I know for a fact we are leaving more than a few behind in portable one at Ed White high school.
Why are kids that can barely read and write learning about the Revolutionary War and the cell, again? Why are we forcing students to learn higher maths that many who if they even go to college will not need or use again. Why are we trying to fit every child who is individual and has different needs into a one size fits all curriculum. Why do I get up everyday and go in despite the fact I know I am not giving my students what they need, despite the fact that I know I am part of the problem?.
I don’t have a good answer to any of those questions; maybe you do, because the school board doesn’t seem to have any good answers either.
I am part of the problem....
It definitely won’t make the news, but Duval County failed another student today, though they are not alone as I failed another student today as well. I am not talking about failed in the sense we gave them a bad grade, and F, I am talking about it in the sense we let them down, we set them back, we have just made the rest of their lives more difficult.....
If you aren’t already fired up by the county failing students (the second version) something they annually do to hundreds if not thousands of them, don’t feel alone because sadly very few people are, and if that’s the case then don’t get fired up about me failing this last one either, as she definitely won’t be the last one I let down. I teach a special education science class at Ed White high school and I am part of the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, everyday I come to class prepared to teach. I roll up my sleeves and jump right in it’s just as my peers do, unfortunately like many of them I also feel like I am chipping away at a mountain with a plastic spoon. Teachers and students alike are handicapped by the FCAT, unrealistic graduation requirements, a lack of discipline and other policies and procedures mandated by the district or state that don’t make sense, nor do they seem to be in the best interest of us or the children. Everyday so many teachers who want to do well, who want to help the students in their charges do as well as they can go to work feeling like the deck is stacked against them and stacked very high.
My group of students has what we call varying exceptionalities, which means we group, educable mentally handicapped, emotional handicapped and students with specific learning disabilities together. Not only do I have students from all three categories in most of my classes, but I usually also have all four high school grade levels represented as well, and then during a few classes I am expected to teach a few different subjects.
All of my students including those that are capable of doing so much more are on what’s called a special diploma track. When they graduate they won’t receive a high school diploma, instead they will get a certificate of completion, which has more in common with three squares of toilet paper than it does with a diploma.
A lot of my students could achieve so much more if they were in classes with low teacher pupil ratios (two of my classes have more than twenty students in them) and received intensive remediation in reading, writing and math, in fact if those services were provided I may just be able to find a rocket scientist or two, but the powers that be don’t think they those things are important, so instead I am turning out students who at best after many years of dedicated service might make it to lead associate at a box retail store, if they aren’t jailed, living on the streets or on welfare that is.
Instead of giving my students what they need, what would make sense and prove beneficial to them giving their circumstances, I break open my fifteen year old text books that recently talked about an exciting new technology called laser discs, and has used the twin towers in several examples, and try to introduce them to topics they should have learned about years ago, but aren’t nearly as important when considering the fact many can’t read or write or do math on any level approaching their grade level. I have a friend that teaches fifth grade science and I am amazed at how often what the two of us are teaching overlaps.
This year had been amazingly frustrating, instead of teaching them the water downed science that I am, I felt I should be teaching them to read and write properly, or running a G.E.D. prep class as my students who may have aspirations of doing more will have to take it one day, that’s it had been amazingly frustrating, right up to the moment it became down right depressing.
It started when I got a new student right before winter break, she moved here from Michigan. I thought it a bit strange she came on the last day of class, but if you met this girl you might think it fit her. A little quiet and introspective she often writes in her journal when her work is finished deciphering the latest song lyrics or pondering the make up of the world. I asked her why she had come on this day of days (all we were going to do was watch movies) and she replied she didn’t want to have too many absences and since she was here she felt she should.
She has dyscalculia a math learning disorder that makes learning higher maths very difficult if not down right impossible. Except for her math classes and my science class, which I am sure they just threw her into she has all regular education classes.
Despite her above average I.Q. her disability and the absurdity of the situation, one size fits all graduation requirements, has served to seriously set this girl back in life just as it is beginning, and the thing is nobody seems to care, that she is going to earn a special diploma. I was told that for any student not in one of the work programs to graduate with a regular diploma they had to have algebra I and two other higher maths, if they couldn’t pass them regardless of disability they had to be on a special diploma track, though if they renamed it worthless diploma track that would be more accurate.
She’s not the only one, at my school for the most part we don’t even try to put capable, with accommodations, modifications and a differentiated curriculum special education students in regular education classes at my school, students that with help and accommodations could pass most subjects. After all if we don’t think they can pass the advanced math classes required what’s the point.
Here is the thing, when I was in high school, I took general math II as a junior and no math as a senior, if I were in school right now, I would be on a special diploma track, I would be graduating with a piece of paper that wasn’t worth the ink printed on it. In case you were wondering I have two college degrees from the University of North Florida, and my two degrees required a total of 7 credits of math, that’s two classes and a lab. Let me ask you a couple questions, how many of you would have received a special diploma based on our counties present requirements, how many members of the school board would, also how many of you recently used algebra II in your everyday life, and how many members of the school board do you think did.
In our mad rush to catch up with the rest of the world in math and science, despite the fact as far as I can tell we still lead the world in technology and scientific breakthroughs, I wonder how many students we are leaving behind, I don’t know the exact numbers but I know for a fact we are leaving more than a few behind in portable one at Ed White high school.
Why are kids that can barely read and write learning about the Revolutionary War and the cell, again? Why are we forcing students to learn higher maths that many who if they even go to college will not need or use again. Why are we trying to fit every child who is individual and has different needs into a one size fits all curriculum. Why do I get up everyday and go in despite the fact I know I am not giving my students what they need, despite the fact that I know I am part of the problem?.
I don’t have a good answer to any of those questions; maybe you do, because the school board doesn’t seem to have any good answers either.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
No thanks, not the change I hoped for
A version of this, is currently in this weeks Folio
I have to say during the lead up to the '08 election, I allowed myself to be hopeful. Then Senator Obama was saying all the right things. “No child left behind” was a failed experiment that would become a thing of the past and education would finally (after much lip service) become a priority. If only I would have read the fine print as (fast forward two years) things have become worse since he was elected. Teachers now have all the responsibility but none of the authority to teach our children and have had creativity and flexibility stripped from them all in the name of data. Instead of doing what's right for our children, we have turned to “in vogue solutions”, like charter schools and merit pay that both rob public schools of valuable resources that, incongruently, the “data” says work no better than not doing them.
I was very disheartened the other day when now President Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan came to town to visit the new KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school. The KIPP school is truly a formidable beast. Kids go to school longer, on Saturdays and all year long. They have to wear uniforms and parental involvement is mandatory. It also has resources far above and beyond the resources that local neighborhood schools have including a $500,000 grant to support its music program. That’s right, folks - this pseudo private school gets money from the government for a music program just as music programs in most middle schools are being slashed. Hey, Mr. President and Mr. Secretary of Education - how about helping the kids at P.S. this or P.S. that so they can have a music program too, before you fund one at the KIPP school. I mean aren’t the kids in public school worth it as well?
You know what scares me the most? It's what’s going to happen when the KIPP school succeeds and the man on the street says, look there, why can’t they do it at PS this or PS that. Public school teachers must be terrible. Then the powers that be in their far off ivory towers are going to have the excuses they need to further rob teachers of flexibility and creativity and buy them with even more paper work. They are going to have one more reason to take money out of the coffers of the already struggling public schools and steer money to more charter schools and voucher programs. Arne Duncan, by showing up and patting backs, has just given them tacit approval to do so.
Arne Duncan also talked about every kid going to college and this is a sentiment that his boss President Obama has echoed on many occasions, further showing us just how out of touch they are with the reality of the situation. I would just like to remind them and anybody reading that we don’t have the students and parental involvement we wish we had, we have the students and parents that we do and it’s time we made realistic plans to service their needs as well. The truth is the way we are doing things now with a one size fits all everybody is going to college mentality, regardless of ability, desire, and family support, curriculum, stacks the deck against the public school. It practically ensures failure. We need to change things so that in six or seven years from now when two sixth graders graduate, (one from the KIPP school who goes to college and one from PS that graduates with a skill and gets a steady job with room for advancement) we should applaud both. To me, that’s much better than dooming one to a life of public assistance and hopelessness, (that’s the public school kid, by the way).
In the end, however, other than a shiny bow, the KIPP school can’t make any promises that the public school can’t and their principal admits it. On the to the public school I work at, I heard him on the radio. He said, if the kids try hard and stick with the program, we’ll see them through. Well you know what - I am going to go ahead and make the same promise to all the kids in the county at all the public schools. Kids, stick with it and try hard and we will get you through, as well.
Unless you are teaching rocket science, education is not rocket science. Instead of trying extraordinary measures, charter schools and merit pay, (by the way, most teachers teach at the challenged schools because they love the kids there - not because they were bribed to do so) let's do what we should be doing anyway.
Let's put discipline in the classroom; let's not pass kids along until they have the skills to be successful at the next level; let's put in safety nets like social workers, counselors and legitimate summer school opportunities; let's have multiple curriculums that play to kid's strengths and desires, even if that means they don’t go to college right after they graduate and let's do so by making the teaching of trades and the arts as important as the teaching of math and science; let's not make school drudgery, (it’s no stretch of the imagination that if a kid doesn’t like school they aren’t going to do well); let's bring back rigor and slow things down; let's make sure they master the subjects even if that means they learn fewer subjects (we went through 157 pages in a nine week period in one of my classes as I was at the mercy of the pacing guide), and most importantly, instead of dumping on teachers and making them the scapegoats for all that’s wrong in education, we give them some autonomy - don’t overburden them with task after task that has little to do with education, and allow them to use creativity and flexibility even if it means they use data a little less.
I wish the staff and students at the KIPP school nothing but success. They have a long and hard road ahead of them, but at the same time I urge the powers that be not to forget about the neighborhood schools and the students and teachers there. I urge them that instead of funding pseudo private schools that really can’t be fairly compared to the typical public school, that where noble at the same time go to extraordinary lengths, how about they do what's right by the student and teachers at the neighborhood schools first. Then if that didn’t work, though I believe with all my heart it would, then well of course we would have to try something different.
Think about it, shouldn’t we be doing what we should be doing first and then only if that doesn’t work try something else after. Isn’t that how you do, say, everything?
Arne Duncan and his boss do not represent the change I hoped for. I hoped we would take education seriously and realistically. I hoped we would play to children's strengths and start respecting teachers. If extraordinary charter schools is the change they are selling, it is not a change I can believe in and it’s not a change that will work for most children.
I have to say during the lead up to the '08 election, I allowed myself to be hopeful. Then Senator Obama was saying all the right things. “No child left behind” was a failed experiment that would become a thing of the past and education would finally (after much lip service) become a priority. If only I would have read the fine print as (fast forward two years) things have become worse since he was elected. Teachers now have all the responsibility but none of the authority to teach our children and have had creativity and flexibility stripped from them all in the name of data. Instead of doing what's right for our children, we have turned to “in vogue solutions”, like charter schools and merit pay that both rob public schools of valuable resources that, incongruently, the “data” says work no better than not doing them.
I was very disheartened the other day when now President Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan came to town to visit the new KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school. The KIPP school is truly a formidable beast. Kids go to school longer, on Saturdays and all year long. They have to wear uniforms and parental involvement is mandatory. It also has resources far above and beyond the resources that local neighborhood schools have including a $500,000 grant to support its music program. That’s right, folks - this pseudo private school gets money from the government for a music program just as music programs in most middle schools are being slashed. Hey, Mr. President and Mr. Secretary of Education - how about helping the kids at P.S. this or P.S. that so they can have a music program too, before you fund one at the KIPP school. I mean aren’t the kids in public school worth it as well?
You know what scares me the most? It's what’s going to happen when the KIPP school succeeds and the man on the street says, look there, why can’t they do it at PS this or PS that. Public school teachers must be terrible. Then the powers that be in their far off ivory towers are going to have the excuses they need to further rob teachers of flexibility and creativity and buy them with even more paper work. They are going to have one more reason to take money out of the coffers of the already struggling public schools and steer money to more charter schools and voucher programs. Arne Duncan, by showing up and patting backs, has just given them tacit approval to do so.
Arne Duncan also talked about every kid going to college and this is a sentiment that his boss President Obama has echoed on many occasions, further showing us just how out of touch they are with the reality of the situation. I would just like to remind them and anybody reading that we don’t have the students and parental involvement we wish we had, we have the students and parents that we do and it’s time we made realistic plans to service their needs as well. The truth is the way we are doing things now with a one size fits all everybody is going to college mentality, regardless of ability, desire, and family support, curriculum, stacks the deck against the public school. It practically ensures failure. We need to change things so that in six or seven years from now when two sixth graders graduate, (one from the KIPP school who goes to college and one from PS that graduates with a skill and gets a steady job with room for advancement) we should applaud both. To me, that’s much better than dooming one to a life of public assistance and hopelessness, (that’s the public school kid, by the way).
In the end, however, other than a shiny bow, the KIPP school can’t make any promises that the public school can’t and their principal admits it. On the to the public school I work at, I heard him on the radio. He said, if the kids try hard and stick with the program, we’ll see them through. Well you know what - I am going to go ahead and make the same promise to all the kids in the county at all the public schools. Kids, stick with it and try hard and we will get you through, as well.
Unless you are teaching rocket science, education is not rocket science. Instead of trying extraordinary measures, charter schools and merit pay, (by the way, most teachers teach at the challenged schools because they love the kids there - not because they were bribed to do so) let's do what we should be doing anyway.
Let's put discipline in the classroom; let's not pass kids along until they have the skills to be successful at the next level; let's put in safety nets like social workers, counselors and legitimate summer school opportunities; let's have multiple curriculums that play to kid's strengths and desires, even if that means they don’t go to college right after they graduate and let's do so by making the teaching of trades and the arts as important as the teaching of math and science; let's not make school drudgery, (it’s no stretch of the imagination that if a kid doesn’t like school they aren’t going to do well); let's bring back rigor and slow things down; let's make sure they master the subjects even if that means they learn fewer subjects (we went through 157 pages in a nine week period in one of my classes as I was at the mercy of the pacing guide), and most importantly, instead of dumping on teachers and making them the scapegoats for all that’s wrong in education, we give them some autonomy - don’t overburden them with task after task that has little to do with education, and allow them to use creativity and flexibility even if it means they use data a little less.
I wish the staff and students at the KIPP school nothing but success. They have a long and hard road ahead of them, but at the same time I urge the powers that be not to forget about the neighborhood schools and the students and teachers there. I urge them that instead of funding pseudo private schools that really can’t be fairly compared to the typical public school, that where noble at the same time go to extraordinary lengths, how about they do what's right by the student and teachers at the neighborhood schools first. Then if that didn’t work, though I believe with all my heart it would, then well of course we would have to try something different.
Think about it, shouldn’t we be doing what we should be doing first and then only if that doesn’t work try something else after. Isn’t that how you do, say, everything?
Arne Duncan and his boss do not represent the change I hoped for. I hoped we would take education seriously and realistically. I hoped we would play to children's strengths and start respecting teachers. If extraordinary charter schools is the change they are selling, it is not a change I can believe in and it’s not a change that will work for most children.
A Brickbat for the Folio
Up is down, black is white, dogs are playing with cats, people are jumping on the furniture and the Folio gave Duval County School Superintendant Ed Pratt-Dannals a bouquet. That’s to say things are all mixed up. The Folio bestowed the ceremonial honor to the superintendant because he turned down a raise and 20 thousand dollars in cell phone and car allowances.
If you didn’t know it the superintendants base salary is 270 thousand with his total compensation approaching 330 thousand dollars. Looking just at salary, his is almost a hundred thousand more than the mayor and he makes almost the equivalent of Clay and St. Johns counties school superintendants combined. Which begs the question why had he been getting a cell phone and car allowance anyways? You would think he could have afforded them already on his quarter million dollar plus salary.
Likewise did you know that when he went from assistant superintendant to superintendant he received an over one hundred thousand dollar or about a 67% percent raise (he was already making well over 100k) a far cry from the less than one percent raise most teachers typical receive with their step increases, a raise by the way that the superintendant sought to deny them earlier this year when he declared financial urgency.
What’s next Folio? How are you going to reward the fact he has gutted discipline, destroyed teacher morale, further eroded the teaching of the trades and arts and despite his claims otherwise made no appreciable improvement to the district, in fact many think our problems have gotten much worse, in his nearly three years of stewardship; a man of the year award perhaps or how about a parade?
Here is a Brickbat for you Folio.
If you didn’t know it the superintendants base salary is 270 thousand with his total compensation approaching 330 thousand dollars. Looking just at salary, his is almost a hundred thousand more than the mayor and he makes almost the equivalent of Clay and St. Johns counties school superintendants combined. Which begs the question why had he been getting a cell phone and car allowance anyways? You would think he could have afforded them already on his quarter million dollar plus salary.
Likewise did you know that when he went from assistant superintendant to superintendant he received an over one hundred thousand dollar or about a 67% percent raise (he was already making well over 100k) a far cry from the less than one percent raise most teachers typical receive with their step increases, a raise by the way that the superintendant sought to deny them earlier this year when he declared financial urgency.
What’s next Folio? How are you going to reward the fact he has gutted discipline, destroyed teacher morale, further eroded the teaching of the trades and arts and despite his claims otherwise made no appreciable improvement to the district, in fact many think our problems have gotten much worse, in his nearly three years of stewardship; a man of the year award perhaps or how about a parade?
Here is a Brickbat for you Folio.
More of the same, School Board excludes the public
The following was in the November 9th issue of the Times Union:
The Duval County School Board is holding a special meeting at 10 a.m. today in Room 613 of the School Administration Building at 1701 Prudential Drive. The board will hold a public hearing before it votes on updates to its official policies.
The board will consider incorporating into its policies the process used to create, review and amend the district strategic plan, update the responsibilities and authority of the board, update the policy that governs professional development for non-instructional personnel, and update the policy to require all comprehensive high schools have an acceleration program.
I hope everybody sees the problems with this. First the school board announces the meeting to the public on the day of the meeting. Then they have the meeting at a time that practically ensures nobody can or will come. This my friends is not how government is supposed to work and I have to say it severely diminishes my optimism for this new board that for the first time in a long time actually has members who have worked in local classrooms.
If we want things to improve for our schools and our children, the school board is undoubtedly going to have to include the public, not think of creative ways that exclude them. They must change their ways and stop paying lip service to the citizens of Jacksonville.
I am reminded of a quote from one of our national treasures, Mark Twain, who was hopefully being studied somewhere as the new school board decided to leave out the public during their very first meeting. “First God created idiots; that was for practice, then he created the school board.”
I will hope for better but sadly after seeing how the school board has been run for the last decade and one meeting, I will prepare myself for more of the same. "
The Duval County School Board is holding a special meeting at 10 a.m. today in Room 613 of the School Administration Building at 1701 Prudential Drive. The board will hold a public hearing before it votes on updates to its official policies.
The board will consider incorporating into its policies the process used to create, review and amend the district strategic plan, update the responsibilities and authority of the board, update the policy that governs professional development for non-instructional personnel, and update the policy to require all comprehensive high schools have an acceleration program.
I hope everybody sees the problems with this. First the school board announces the meeting to the public on the day of the meeting. Then they have the meeting at a time that practically ensures nobody can or will come. This my friends is not how government is supposed to work and I have to say it severely diminishes my optimism for this new board that for the first time in a long time actually has members who have worked in local classrooms.
If we want things to improve for our schools and our children, the school board is undoubtedly going to have to include the public, not think of creative ways that exclude them. They must change their ways and stop paying lip service to the citizens of Jacksonville.
I am reminded of a quote from one of our national treasures, Mark Twain, who was hopefully being studied somewhere as the new school board decided to leave out the public during their very first meeting. “First God created idiots; that was for practice, then he created the school board.”
I will hope for better but sadly after seeing how the school board has been run for the last decade and one meeting, I will prepare myself for more of the same. "
A Pratt-Dannals Disservice
I’ll just jump right to it. Superintendant Ed Pratt Dannals is doing the city, its schools and its children a tremendous disservice. Now I am not talking about his leadership and the policies and procedures he has either put in place or endorsed, though many of them are at best suspect, no I am talking about something much more dangerous and that’s the misleading words he takes every opportunity to spew.
Despite almost overwhelming evidence to the controversy the superintendant is constantly saying, look at us we have a B district and we’re heading in the right direction. He celebrates a two percent increase in the drop put rate but doesn’t mention how it only came about after the state changed its formula. He says look at Stanton and Paxon but through omissions says please ignore the other 11 D or F public high schools. Have you seen our award winning magnet programs, he asks, while deflecting attention away from the fact we have four schools on the verge of being taken over by the state? I could go on and on and on. In short he takes every opportunity to paint a rosy picture, when the picture is far from rosy and this misinformation is holding both our city and its schools and children back.
The truth is we have real problems, problems it is going to take everybody rolling up their sleeves and pitching in to solve. How are Jack and Jill public supposed to know how dire the situation actually is when the superintendant with a wink, a nod and a don’t look at my pay check says, you know what, sure we can improve but things aren’t that bad.
The public might not understand that the uptick in youthful violent crime is a direct reflection on what is happening in the hallways of many of our schools, especially when the superintendant says look how suspensions are down 49%. They might not understand that the reason many employers despite the cities obvious plusses resist coming here is because of our school system. He glosses over the fact that over half our tenth graders have been passed along without the skills they need and can’t read at grade level and the facts that many of our kids graduate woefully unprepared for college (over 70% have to take remedial classes) or for the world of employment. The people of Jacksonville are being blinded by the superintendant and his proxies saying; look at us we have all these great things going on that has made us a B district. Well friends just like the C has become the new F in many of the district’s schools making it in many cases practically meaningless and/or deceptive, being a B district on the states scoring scale just isn’t that impressive.
Mr. Superintendant I implore you, no make that I beg you, please call a press conference and after you sigh and throw your hands up in the air tell the people of Jacksonville the truth, let them know how dire things really are, the serious trouble that we are really in. Tell them how our teachers are having their morale crushed and are overwhelmed with tasks that only have a peripheral relationship to teaching, tell them how policies and procedures are squeezing the joy of learning out of many of our children and putting fewer and fewer in situations where they can actually succeed. Tell them how you have cut the budget to the bone and so many needs are going unmet and the states unfunded mandates usurp the people of Jacksonville’s ability to choose their future for themselves. Tell them how it is going to take them getting off the sidelines, them volunteering, taking an interest, and demanding their representatives in government do what is right and that is the only way our city, our schools and our children are going to have a chance. Tell the people of Jacksonville, black white, rich or poor that we must put our differences aside and start working for the good of our schools and our children. Be a leader and put a true face on things, don’t just be a guy collecting a huge paycheck trying to protect his niche anymore. Sir, I know it was a long time ago when you get into education but it was probably because you wanted to make a difference. Well again sir right now your words are making a difference unfortunately they are not making a positive one.
Superintendent Pratt-Dannals when you paint a rosy picture you have robbed the people of Jacksonville of the choice to get involved or not and this at time when we desperately need them more than ever. Why would they and why should they get involved if our top teacher says, things could be better but they really aren’t that bad after
Despite almost overwhelming evidence to the controversy the superintendant is constantly saying, look at us we have a B district and we’re heading in the right direction. He celebrates a two percent increase in the drop put rate but doesn’t mention how it only came about after the state changed its formula. He says look at Stanton and Paxon but through omissions says please ignore the other 11 D or F public high schools. Have you seen our award winning magnet programs, he asks, while deflecting attention away from the fact we have four schools on the verge of being taken over by the state? I could go on and on and on. In short he takes every opportunity to paint a rosy picture, when the picture is far from rosy and this misinformation is holding both our city and its schools and children back.
The truth is we have real problems, problems it is going to take everybody rolling up their sleeves and pitching in to solve. How are Jack and Jill public supposed to know how dire the situation actually is when the superintendant with a wink, a nod and a don’t look at my pay check says, you know what, sure we can improve but things aren’t that bad.
The public might not understand that the uptick in youthful violent crime is a direct reflection on what is happening in the hallways of many of our schools, especially when the superintendant says look how suspensions are down 49%. They might not understand that the reason many employers despite the cities obvious plusses resist coming here is because of our school system. He glosses over the fact that over half our tenth graders have been passed along without the skills they need and can’t read at grade level and the facts that many of our kids graduate woefully unprepared for college (over 70% have to take remedial classes) or for the world of employment. The people of Jacksonville are being blinded by the superintendant and his proxies saying; look at us we have all these great things going on that has made us a B district. Well friends just like the C has become the new F in many of the district’s schools making it in many cases practically meaningless and/or deceptive, being a B district on the states scoring scale just isn’t that impressive.
Mr. Superintendant I implore you, no make that I beg you, please call a press conference and after you sigh and throw your hands up in the air tell the people of Jacksonville the truth, let them know how dire things really are, the serious trouble that we are really in. Tell them how our teachers are having their morale crushed and are overwhelmed with tasks that only have a peripheral relationship to teaching, tell them how policies and procedures are squeezing the joy of learning out of many of our children and putting fewer and fewer in situations where they can actually succeed. Tell them how you have cut the budget to the bone and so many needs are going unmet and the states unfunded mandates usurp the people of Jacksonville’s ability to choose their future for themselves. Tell them how it is going to take them getting off the sidelines, them volunteering, taking an interest, and demanding their representatives in government do what is right and that is the only way our city, our schools and our children are going to have a chance. Tell the people of Jacksonville, black white, rich or poor that we must put our differences aside and start working for the good of our schools and our children. Be a leader and put a true face on things, don’t just be a guy collecting a huge paycheck trying to protect his niche anymore. Sir, I know it was a long time ago when you get into education but it was probably because you wanted to make a difference. Well again sir right now your words are making a difference unfortunately they are not making a positive one.
Superintendent Pratt-Dannals when you paint a rosy picture you have robbed the people of Jacksonville of the choice to get involved or not and this at time when we desperately need them more than ever. Why would they and why should they get involved if our top teacher says, things could be better but they really aren’t that bad after
Friday, October 22, 2010
Oh Joy, another civic committee meets to save education
Oh Joy, another committee that is going to save education met recently. This time it was the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. and if you are scoring at home this makes about the one millionth group to have met this year thus far. I know I sound a little sarcastic but these groups are like the third year ninth grader in my science class who daily promises he is going to turn his work in... the next day. They are all talk, coming up with the same old suggestions. I am sure early reading initiatives, mentors, putting our best teachers in our worse schools (they are already there by the way and many are so by choice not because they were bribed) and getting more parents involved will be part of their no action platform. And the chief reason they recycle these same tired old ideas is they have no clue as to what they are doing.
They met Wednesday, I heard about it Thursday, hmm I wonder how many other teachers heard about it and participated. I bet not many. These groups tend to value teacher input, you know the people in the classrooms who might, just might have the best idea of what works and what doesn’t work as much as people at the park value the ants trying to make off with the potato salad.
They look at our “fab five” schools and say to themselves, well if we can do it there why can’t we do it everywhere? Well the first reason is three of those schools, the dedicated magnets, Stanton, Paxon and D.A. have cannibalized the neighborhood schools of many of their best and brightest students and most involved families and the second reason is numbers. Where we have great students and parents at all our schools, there are just a lot more at Mandarin and Fletcher but this doesn’t mean we can’t be successful at the other schools too.
My first suggestion for any committee this or panel that is to head down to Wallgreens and plop down 1.99 for a bottle of common sense because that’s what the education leaders here in town have been lacking and lacking for quite some time.
Hey, powers-that-be, yeah you, the ones always having meeting so you can at least seem like you care about education and the cities children, the first thing you have to do is realize we don’t have the children or the parental involvement we wish we had and let me tell you I have done some wishing, we have the children and level of parental involvement we do have and that means we need to plan accordingly.
It would be great if every kid could go to college. It would be great if every parent showed up for parent teacher conferences and open house, but then we would be living in the land of gum drops and unicorns because it’s not happening round here and is unlikely to happen anytime soon. We live in a city where half our kids aren’t interested in school and half our parents aren’t interested in their kids. This is the reality we find ourselves faced with and this is the reality we must work around.
We have to be willing to meet the kids where they are, not where we wish they were and we have to be willing to step up and provide for the kids if their parents have abdicated their responsibilities. All the early child hood reading programs in the world aren’t going to make a difference unless we are willing to step up, and if you are not willing fair enough go ahead and stop reading now just don’t complain when your taxes are raised to pay for social services and prisons or when your car or house is broken into.
After getting a healthy dose of common sense, which in education sadly is not that common, the next thing I believe we have to do is bring back strict discipline to the classrooms. Contrary to 1701 Prudential drives assertions, discipline isn’t getting better, us ignoring and enduring bad behavior is what has changed. This won’t be easy either, as many of our children have turned their schools hallways into an urban “Lord of the Flies” setting.
Why is this so important? Well answer this question. If kids don’t get discipline at home and then schools ignore bad behavior and reuse to discipline too, then where are kids going to learn it? If you answered unsupervised in the streets, then you are sadly misinformed. We don’t have to be cruel but we do have to be strict and if we lose some that’s terrible but we’re losing more by doing things the way we are now. Not only do we do children no favors when we don’t give them consequences for bad behavior and remember for a consequence to be meaningful it must have meaning, but we teach them they can act however they want (notice an uptick in Juvenile and young adult crime anyone)and others whose behavior might be on the fence that it’s okay to misbehave.
Next we have to provide wrap around services for our children most at risk and counseling services so we can get to the root of their problems. So often when a kid acts up at school or don’t try at school it has nothing to do with school. We have to provide more of these kids wrap around services because schools only have kids for about ten percent of their lives and it’s hard to compete with the other ninety percent, that is constantly telling them school sucks and isn’t important. Schools are running a race against the neighborhoods with their feet tied together and social workers and counselors can help us narrow the gap.
Then let’s have some realistic programs. Kids must have a wide variety of electives in their schedules. If they have nothing to look forward to and think school is drudgery then it’s not a stretch that they won’t do well.
Also kids who aren’t interested in attending a magnet program that will require them to go to college for four more years to see some tangible benefits might be interested in some programs that will see them making 15-20 dollars an hour upon graduation.
Much of the Ritalin popping, junk food eating, video game playing, sleep deprived generation we have walking through our schools halls have no concept of what they are doing tomorrow, let alone what they will be doing years from now. We have to develop programs where they can see something and see it now, or barring that not too far down the road. Let’s teach them a trade or a skill and make the arts as important as science and math. Doing so I believe will allow us to engage the kids on their level, helping them do and achieve what they want to do or achieve, not what the education powers-that-be, most of whom are far removed from the classroom, that’s if they were ever there, think they should be doing. Think about it, do you better at the things you are at best marginally interested in or don’t like (what school is too many of our kids), or do you better at the things that you enjoy and you pick? If you answered duh, what I pick, then why would you think kids would be any different?
Imagine instead of having a generation working minimum wage jobs or living on government assistance we had a generation of plumbers, mechanics, artists, carpenters and musicians. Sure everybody going to college sounds correct, politically correct but it’s also very unrealistic.
Along the way with the powerful carrot called, allowing them to do what they want to do, we can make sure these kids have the proper foundation in case they decide down the line they want to go to college. You want to be in the cosmetology program? Sure but you must maintain a 2.0 grade point average. You want to be in the art program? Sure but you must get your behavior and attendance under control.
Right now so many kids have so little to look forward to at school and little support from their families and neighborhoods. If we give them something to look forward to, a little bit of discipline and show them that we care 24 hours a day seven days a week instead of just six hours a day 180 days a year, I believe we can sit back and watch performance improve.
Mentors, putting our best teachers in our worse schools and early reading initiatives, you know the typical answers to the problems in education that these committees come up with are nice and have their place but they are also things we have been trying without success for a decade. A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome, well friends, Jacsonvillians and country men, the way we do things now is bat shit insane.
Whatever this committee or the next or one of the thirty thousand other scheduled to meet before the year ends decides to do, I urge them to do two things first. Invite or talk to some teachers, I know many people are frustrated with teachers. I get that it’s because they are the front line of what seems to be a losing battle. I just want to remind you, it’s the generals, the policy makers that put them where they are, over worked, underpaid, disrespected and without the tools they need to be successful, believe you me, we (teachers) aren’t happy with things either. That and please remember we don’t have the kids and parents we wish we had, we have the kids and parents that we do and if we start making plans with that in mind we’ll be better able to meet their needs.
Note: I spoke with some represenatives of the JCCI and they seemed like stand up guys who I wish luck as they look for solutions to some of Jacksonvilles problems.
They met Wednesday, I heard about it Thursday, hmm I wonder how many other teachers heard about it and participated. I bet not many. These groups tend to value teacher input, you know the people in the classrooms who might, just might have the best idea of what works and what doesn’t work as much as people at the park value the ants trying to make off with the potato salad.
They look at our “fab five” schools and say to themselves, well if we can do it there why can’t we do it everywhere? Well the first reason is three of those schools, the dedicated magnets, Stanton, Paxon and D.A. have cannibalized the neighborhood schools of many of their best and brightest students and most involved families and the second reason is numbers. Where we have great students and parents at all our schools, there are just a lot more at Mandarin and Fletcher but this doesn’t mean we can’t be successful at the other schools too.
My first suggestion for any committee this or panel that is to head down to Wallgreens and plop down 1.99 for a bottle of common sense because that’s what the education leaders here in town have been lacking and lacking for quite some time.
Hey, powers-that-be, yeah you, the ones always having meeting so you can at least seem like you care about education and the cities children, the first thing you have to do is realize we don’t have the children or the parental involvement we wish we had and let me tell you I have done some wishing, we have the children and level of parental involvement we do have and that means we need to plan accordingly.
It would be great if every kid could go to college. It would be great if every parent showed up for parent teacher conferences and open house, but then we would be living in the land of gum drops and unicorns because it’s not happening round here and is unlikely to happen anytime soon. We live in a city where half our kids aren’t interested in school and half our parents aren’t interested in their kids. This is the reality we find ourselves faced with and this is the reality we must work around.
We have to be willing to meet the kids where they are, not where we wish they were and we have to be willing to step up and provide for the kids if their parents have abdicated their responsibilities. All the early child hood reading programs in the world aren’t going to make a difference unless we are willing to step up, and if you are not willing fair enough go ahead and stop reading now just don’t complain when your taxes are raised to pay for social services and prisons or when your car or house is broken into.
After getting a healthy dose of common sense, which in education sadly is not that common, the next thing I believe we have to do is bring back strict discipline to the classrooms. Contrary to 1701 Prudential drives assertions, discipline isn’t getting better, us ignoring and enduring bad behavior is what has changed. This won’t be easy either, as many of our children have turned their schools hallways into an urban “Lord of the Flies” setting.
Why is this so important? Well answer this question. If kids don’t get discipline at home and then schools ignore bad behavior and reuse to discipline too, then where are kids going to learn it? If you answered unsupervised in the streets, then you are sadly misinformed. We don’t have to be cruel but we do have to be strict and if we lose some that’s terrible but we’re losing more by doing things the way we are now. Not only do we do children no favors when we don’t give them consequences for bad behavior and remember for a consequence to be meaningful it must have meaning, but we teach them they can act however they want (notice an uptick in Juvenile and young adult crime anyone)and others whose behavior might be on the fence that it’s okay to misbehave.
Next we have to provide wrap around services for our children most at risk and counseling services so we can get to the root of their problems. So often when a kid acts up at school or don’t try at school it has nothing to do with school. We have to provide more of these kids wrap around services because schools only have kids for about ten percent of their lives and it’s hard to compete with the other ninety percent, that is constantly telling them school sucks and isn’t important. Schools are running a race against the neighborhoods with their feet tied together and social workers and counselors can help us narrow the gap.
Then let’s have some realistic programs. Kids must have a wide variety of electives in their schedules. If they have nothing to look forward to and think school is drudgery then it’s not a stretch that they won’t do well.
Also kids who aren’t interested in attending a magnet program that will require them to go to college for four more years to see some tangible benefits might be interested in some programs that will see them making 15-20 dollars an hour upon graduation.
Much of the Ritalin popping, junk food eating, video game playing, sleep deprived generation we have walking through our schools halls have no concept of what they are doing tomorrow, let alone what they will be doing years from now. We have to develop programs where they can see something and see it now, or barring that not too far down the road. Let’s teach them a trade or a skill and make the arts as important as science and math. Doing so I believe will allow us to engage the kids on their level, helping them do and achieve what they want to do or achieve, not what the education powers-that-be, most of whom are far removed from the classroom, that’s if they were ever there, think they should be doing. Think about it, do you better at the things you are at best marginally interested in or don’t like (what school is too many of our kids), or do you better at the things that you enjoy and you pick? If you answered duh, what I pick, then why would you think kids would be any different?
Imagine instead of having a generation working minimum wage jobs or living on government assistance we had a generation of plumbers, mechanics, artists, carpenters and musicians. Sure everybody going to college sounds correct, politically correct but it’s also very unrealistic.
Along the way with the powerful carrot called, allowing them to do what they want to do, we can make sure these kids have the proper foundation in case they decide down the line they want to go to college. You want to be in the cosmetology program? Sure but you must maintain a 2.0 grade point average. You want to be in the art program? Sure but you must get your behavior and attendance under control.
Right now so many kids have so little to look forward to at school and little support from their families and neighborhoods. If we give them something to look forward to, a little bit of discipline and show them that we care 24 hours a day seven days a week instead of just six hours a day 180 days a year, I believe we can sit back and watch performance improve.
Mentors, putting our best teachers in our worse schools and early reading initiatives, you know the typical answers to the problems in education that these committees come up with are nice and have their place but they are also things we have been trying without success for a decade. A common definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different outcome, well friends, Jacsonvillians and country men, the way we do things now is bat shit insane.
Whatever this committee or the next or one of the thirty thousand other scheduled to meet before the year ends decides to do, I urge them to do two things first. Invite or talk to some teachers, I know many people are frustrated with teachers. I get that it’s because they are the front line of what seems to be a losing battle. I just want to remind you, it’s the generals, the policy makers that put them where they are, over worked, underpaid, disrespected and without the tools they need to be successful, believe you me, we (teachers) aren’t happy with things either. That and please remember we don’t have the kids and parents we wish we had, we have the kids and parents that we do and if we start making plans with that in mind we’ll be better able to meet their needs.
Note: I spoke with some represenatives of the JCCI and they seemed like stand up guys who I wish luck as they look for solutions to some of Jacksonvilles problems.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
I am proud of you, one teachers story (unedited)
Our dinners arrived and she dug in, twirling her spaghetti with her fork. So, I started as I cut my meatball in half, excited, having looked forward to it for quite some time now, how was your week. You know, one of those innocuous questions people throw out to keep the conversation moving.
She stopped doing what she was doing and looked up at me. Chris, it had its ups and downs. I thought; well as a teacher could it have anything but? The way she said it however, with a mixture of sadness and relief seemed to indicate her response was a little bit more than innocuous.
My friend teaches at a school that has been an “A” school every year she has been there and also for the six years prior. That’s a decade of excellence. It isn’t just one of the best schools in the county but also the state and perhaps the nation as well. The new principal, she continued, has really started to make things hard, all the teachers are stressed out. I have to have data notebooks this year and mine is already five inches thick (coincidently we are five weeks into the school year as well). I have to have RtI (response to intervention) lesson plans in addition to my regular lesson plans and I have to have an RtI period everyday. It’s hard too. I have to plan busy work for the other kids in the class while I do it. I feel like they are all missing out some but they aren’t the only one.
What do you mean, I asked?
She put her fork down, crossed her arms and looked directly at me. At first I didn’t know whether to continue eating or to stop and listen. I am at school till five o’clock everyday and then I take stuff home too. I have to, to be able to get all this stuff done. When I picked up my son the other day, he said mommy I miss you and it about broke my heart. He’s growing up so fast and in between the time he is at his dads and with all the time I am working I feel like I am missing it.
Wow that’s tough I said putting the meatball up to my mouth, but before I put it in my mouth it dawned on me, wow that must be really tough and it’s not an occurrence that is just exclusive to my friend. A few weeks back the mother of a pal of mine who has been teaching for over two decades told me she works from eight to six everyday and takes stuff home on the weekend, Chris, she said, it’s sucking the life out of me. A while back another friend of mine said she had to take a break from writing lesson plans to tuck her children in. Stress, overwhelmed, and all I do is work are also words and phrases that I have regularly heard from other teachers over the last few months.
This is what teachers do now. They have other children and televisions raise their children as they work on lesson plans and grade papers. They miss out on their children lives or if they are single their own lives to meet deadlines and get just part of the ever expanding mountain of paper work done. They do it for free too.
I put my fork down and wiped my lips with my napkin. I looked back at her realizing as busy as I was there was no way I could truly empathize with the feelings of despair she must be having as she missed her only child growing up.
I am sorry, I said and then nothing else for a moment. What could I? After a bit though I added, that’s the down I assume, what was the up. I got the map bonus she said smiling just a little. If you don’t know the MAP bonus is awarded to the top 25% of teachers and it’s about fifteen hundred dollars after taxes. When I got it a few years back I couldn’t use it to buy extras, I had to use it to replace my transmission. That’s awesome, I said proud of her, knowing she deserved it.
She smiled back; I could tell she was rightfully proud of herself as well. She reached for her fork and said yeah and I got it in the nick of time too. I nodded my head in agreement but as I reached for the meatball that had been waiting for me. I wondered what she meant. Nick of time, I asked.
Yeah Chris I really didn’t know how I was going to pay my mortgage this month.
I hope you just did the double take I did as I realized the situation.
This is one of the best teachers we have at one of the best schools we have and here she is missing her child grow up because she has to work all the time and if she didn’t get a one time bonus would have had to decide what bills she paid and what bills she didn’t. Well friends, welcome to teaching in Duval county 2010.
I know so many teachers that are pay check to pay check, living in fear of a flat tire a child’s illness, a broken washer or some other mundane life occurrence happening. I know others that have had to get part time jobs to make ends meet. I myself have my good check where I can afford to go out a few times and my bad check where I can’t.
I smiled at her even though I could feel my anger at her situation building and said, I am very proud of you. I was too as I am of the vast majority of teachers here in the county. People have no idea of the sacrifices and the difficult choices they make. They make them because improving children’s lives is more important to them than creature comforts and because they feel making a difference for others is more important than themselves. She smiled back as she started to twirl her spaghetti. I started at her for a moment as she did so.
I knew next month she would probably be back in the same place she was now. That’s missing her son and deciding what bill to pay and what bill not to. Sadly there isn’t a lot I can do about that. The public however could if they decided enough was enough, that it is important to them that their teachers aren’t living their lives pay check to paycheck and they have time to be with their families as well. Sadly though since that doesn’t seem like it is going to happen anytime soon, when the check came I said, hey let me get that, let dinner be on me.
Why, she asked.
Because I am proud of you, I answered.
She stopped doing what she was doing and looked up at me. Chris, it had its ups and downs. I thought; well as a teacher could it have anything but? The way she said it however, with a mixture of sadness and relief seemed to indicate her response was a little bit more than innocuous.
My friend teaches at a school that has been an “A” school every year she has been there and also for the six years prior. That’s a decade of excellence. It isn’t just one of the best schools in the county but also the state and perhaps the nation as well. The new principal, she continued, has really started to make things hard, all the teachers are stressed out. I have to have data notebooks this year and mine is already five inches thick (coincidently we are five weeks into the school year as well). I have to have RtI (response to intervention) lesson plans in addition to my regular lesson plans and I have to have an RtI period everyday. It’s hard too. I have to plan busy work for the other kids in the class while I do it. I feel like they are all missing out some but they aren’t the only one.
What do you mean, I asked?
She put her fork down, crossed her arms and looked directly at me. At first I didn’t know whether to continue eating or to stop and listen. I am at school till five o’clock everyday and then I take stuff home too. I have to, to be able to get all this stuff done. When I picked up my son the other day, he said mommy I miss you and it about broke my heart. He’s growing up so fast and in between the time he is at his dads and with all the time I am working I feel like I am missing it.
Wow that’s tough I said putting the meatball up to my mouth, but before I put it in my mouth it dawned on me, wow that must be really tough and it’s not an occurrence that is just exclusive to my friend. A few weeks back the mother of a pal of mine who has been teaching for over two decades told me she works from eight to six everyday and takes stuff home on the weekend, Chris, she said, it’s sucking the life out of me. A while back another friend of mine said she had to take a break from writing lesson plans to tuck her children in. Stress, overwhelmed, and all I do is work are also words and phrases that I have regularly heard from other teachers over the last few months.
This is what teachers do now. They have other children and televisions raise their children as they work on lesson plans and grade papers. They miss out on their children lives or if they are single their own lives to meet deadlines and get just part of the ever expanding mountain of paper work done. They do it for free too.
I put my fork down and wiped my lips with my napkin. I looked back at her realizing as busy as I was there was no way I could truly empathize with the feelings of despair she must be having as she missed her only child growing up.
I am sorry, I said and then nothing else for a moment. What could I? After a bit though I added, that’s the down I assume, what was the up. I got the map bonus she said smiling just a little. If you don’t know the MAP bonus is awarded to the top 25% of teachers and it’s about fifteen hundred dollars after taxes. When I got it a few years back I couldn’t use it to buy extras, I had to use it to replace my transmission. That’s awesome, I said proud of her, knowing she deserved it.
She smiled back; I could tell she was rightfully proud of herself as well. She reached for her fork and said yeah and I got it in the nick of time too. I nodded my head in agreement but as I reached for the meatball that had been waiting for me. I wondered what she meant. Nick of time, I asked.
Yeah Chris I really didn’t know how I was going to pay my mortgage this month.
I hope you just did the double take I did as I realized the situation.
This is one of the best teachers we have at one of the best schools we have and here she is missing her child grow up because she has to work all the time and if she didn’t get a one time bonus would have had to decide what bills she paid and what bills she didn’t. Well friends, welcome to teaching in Duval county 2010.
I know so many teachers that are pay check to pay check, living in fear of a flat tire a child’s illness, a broken washer or some other mundane life occurrence happening. I know others that have had to get part time jobs to make ends meet. I myself have my good check where I can afford to go out a few times and my bad check where I can’t.
I smiled at her even though I could feel my anger at her situation building and said, I am very proud of you. I was too as I am of the vast majority of teachers here in the county. People have no idea of the sacrifices and the difficult choices they make. They make them because improving children’s lives is more important to them than creature comforts and because they feel making a difference for others is more important than themselves. She smiled back as she started to twirl her spaghetti. I started at her for a moment as she did so.
I knew next month she would probably be back in the same place she was now. That’s missing her son and deciding what bill to pay and what bill not to. Sadly there isn’t a lot I can do about that. The public however could if they decided enough was enough, that it is important to them that their teachers aren’t living their lives pay check to paycheck and they have time to be with their families as well. Sadly though since that doesn’t seem like it is going to happen anytime soon, when the check came I said, hey let me get that, let dinner be on me.
Why, she asked.
Because I am proud of you, I answered.
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