This is a problem the school district has. They cherry pick stats that support their points, they disregard stats when they don’t report what they want (this past years FCAT for example) and then they make stuff up, discipline problems are not way down, instead teachers ignoring bad behavior and enduring toxic learning environments is way up. The district does all this why Rome is burning down around them. -cpg
From the Florida Times Union
I am writing in response to Betty Burney's guest column in which she suggests that students at Raines, Ribault and Jackson high schools may be achieving better than tests are indicating.
The basis of Burney's argument is that the postsecondary reading readiness rates reported for these schools under the state's high school grading rule are substantially higher than the reading performance reported based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
What Burney fails to report is that the two tests measure different groups of students:
- The FCAT reading performance is based on all students in these schools.
- The postsecondary reading readiness standard is based on a very small number of the students in these schools.
It is commendable that the small number of students in these schools who score at level 3 or above in FCAT reading and math and graduate on time perform comparably with their peers around the state in terms of postsecondary reading readiness rates.
However, it is a gross misrepresentation to suggest that the performance of this small number of students is indicative of the performance of these schools.
The unfortunate truth is that these schools are not adequately serving the vast majority of their students.
As a service to readers, an "apples to apples" comparison of the FCAT reading performance and the college readiness rate for the entire cohort of students who entered the ninth grade in fall 2007 is attached.
These three high schools - Jackson, Raines and Ribault - are included among a group of 12 public schools around the state that have been identified as critically low performing based on requirements of Florida statutes.
This represents 12 schools out of over 4,000 public schools in the state.
A student entering one of these three high schools between 1999 and 2006 had on average less than a 50 percent chance of graduating on time, if at all.
Misrepresenting the facts to defend the status quo is a disservice to the students, families and surrounding communities these schools serve.
T. Willard Fair is chairman of the Florida Board of Education
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/letters-readers/2011-02-16/story/guest-column-state-tests-high-schools-are-consistent-and#ixzz1EEZk3exj
http://jacksonville.com/opinion/letters-readers/2011-02-16/story/guest-column-state-tests-high-schools-are-consistent-and
Showing posts with label Ribault high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ribault high school. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
How I would save our schools
I write about education issues a lot but a recent commenter on my work said I am pretty good at pointing out things that were wrong but I am a little light on solutions. I thought I was pretty good at putting ideas out there but if they thought differently let me clear that up. This is how I would turn around the four struggling schools, Jackson, Ribault, Raines and North Shore K-8.
The first thing I would do is start a come home campaign. At a recent school board meeting Becki Couch said there were over 3000 students who could be attending those schools but who had chosen to go elsewhere. I would try and get those kids back and I would do so by convincing them and their families that those schools would become academically rigorous and safe schools to attend.
The next thing I would do is make those schools safe and academically rigorous schools to attend.
I would tell the teachers that I trusted them and end arbitrary amounts of students they could or could not fail. I would have them teach the material and make it rigorous, which would mean that if somebody passed their class it was because they earned it and not because a teacher gave them a grade or pushed them through. I would tell the teachers they could go as slow as they felt their kids needed, they could reteach if necessary and that the pacing guide was a suggestion, nobody was going to get in trouble for being more than five days behind. After a few weeks I would move kids around and have groups that were quickly moving through the material and groups that needed extra time.
Then at the same time I would make sure the teachers and students had good learn environments. Rudeness, disrespect and violations of the code of conduct would not be tolerated and consequences would be swift and strict. If you came to learn you would have nothing to be afraid of. If you came to cut up or steal learning time from your peers or teachers then you would have a tough time. The adults not the children would be running the schools.
I wouldn’t dismantle the staffs but in my system everybody would be teaching. Academic coaches would have nearly full loads and even assistant principals would be expected to teach a class too. It would be all hands on deck and this would stop admins and psuedo admins from losing touch with the jobs that teachers do. It would also help keep classes smaller and hopefully allow us to have some electives.
I would tell my teachers to be prepared to work long hours. However I am not worried about volumes of data notebooks, two-page lesson plans and complicated board configurations. Put up a daily agenda and then go. Spend the time you have been doing those things the last few years figuring out how to connect with the kids and keeping the families involved. I would want my principals and A.P.s in the classrooms looking for quality instruction not word walls.
Then not only would I instruct my teachers not to teach to the F-Cat but I would tell them not to even mention it. About a week before it was taken the principals could have an assembly to discuss it’s importance and that would be it.
That is how I would turn around those schools. With our current structure in place that is what I would do but that’s not to say I wouldn’t have a wish list too.
I would like the kids to have six one-hour periods a day, with no A/B block. 90 minutes is way to long for many of our kids and teachers. If the students had class everyday I believe the transfer of knowledge would happen quicker. With A/B blocks, weekends, holidays and absences can lead to four, five and sometimes six days between class meetings.
After the first nine weeks kids failing a class would be required, not asked if they wanted to, to stay after school for tutoring.
Every student would have at least one elective each day so they could have a safe spot in their schedule. I would want the schools at a minimum to have art, graphics, shop, home economics, music/band, and drama.
If some kids would not get with the program I would suspend them for five days at a time, which could be shortened if a parent would come and spend the day with their child going to their classes.
There would be a zero tolerance policy for fighting and bullying. Kids that did so would be sent to alternative schools.
I would ban cell phones and high heels because neither are necessary for learning.
I would like to have several different curriculums that serve more of the kids needs including a skills acquisition program for kids not interested in college who would like to learn a trade.
Real summer school classes not grade recovery would be offered, where kids could get extra help, get ahead or make up credits.
I would like to have social workers and mental health counselors on campus. The social workers could provide wrap around services and the counselors could try and get to the root of some of the kids problems. Why kids do poorly in school often has nothing to do with school.
I would have monthly meetings with the community and businesses to discuss education issues and get their input. I would look for internships and mentors under every rock.
These last few suggestions are outside of what we do now but would be helpful.
The first thing I would do is start a come home campaign. At a recent school board meeting Becki Couch said there were over 3000 students who could be attending those schools but who had chosen to go elsewhere. I would try and get those kids back and I would do so by convincing them and their families that those schools would become academically rigorous and safe schools to attend.
The next thing I would do is make those schools safe and academically rigorous schools to attend.
I would tell the teachers that I trusted them and end arbitrary amounts of students they could or could not fail. I would have them teach the material and make it rigorous, which would mean that if somebody passed their class it was because they earned it and not because a teacher gave them a grade or pushed them through. I would tell the teachers they could go as slow as they felt their kids needed, they could reteach if necessary and that the pacing guide was a suggestion, nobody was going to get in trouble for being more than five days behind. After a few weeks I would move kids around and have groups that were quickly moving through the material and groups that needed extra time.
Then at the same time I would make sure the teachers and students had good learn environments. Rudeness, disrespect and violations of the code of conduct would not be tolerated and consequences would be swift and strict. If you came to learn you would have nothing to be afraid of. If you came to cut up or steal learning time from your peers or teachers then you would have a tough time. The adults not the children would be running the schools.
I wouldn’t dismantle the staffs but in my system everybody would be teaching. Academic coaches would have nearly full loads and even assistant principals would be expected to teach a class too. It would be all hands on deck and this would stop admins and psuedo admins from losing touch with the jobs that teachers do. It would also help keep classes smaller and hopefully allow us to have some electives.
I would tell my teachers to be prepared to work long hours. However I am not worried about volumes of data notebooks, two-page lesson plans and complicated board configurations. Put up a daily agenda and then go. Spend the time you have been doing those things the last few years figuring out how to connect with the kids and keeping the families involved. I would want my principals and A.P.s in the classrooms looking for quality instruction not word walls.
Then not only would I instruct my teachers not to teach to the F-Cat but I would tell them not to even mention it. About a week before it was taken the principals could have an assembly to discuss it’s importance and that would be it.
That is how I would turn around those schools. With our current structure in place that is what I would do but that’s not to say I wouldn’t have a wish list too.
I would like the kids to have six one-hour periods a day, with no A/B block. 90 minutes is way to long for many of our kids and teachers. If the students had class everyday I believe the transfer of knowledge would happen quicker. With A/B blocks, weekends, holidays and absences can lead to four, five and sometimes six days between class meetings.
After the first nine weeks kids failing a class would be required, not asked if they wanted to, to stay after school for tutoring.
Every student would have at least one elective each day so they could have a safe spot in their schedule. I would want the schools at a minimum to have art, graphics, shop, home economics, music/band, and drama.
If some kids would not get with the program I would suspend them for five days at a time, which could be shortened if a parent would come and spend the day with their child going to their classes.
There would be a zero tolerance policy for fighting and bullying. Kids that did so would be sent to alternative schools.
I would ban cell phones and high heels because neither are necessary for learning.
I would like to have several different curriculums that serve more of the kids needs including a skills acquisition program for kids not interested in college who would like to learn a trade.
Real summer school classes not grade recovery would be offered, where kids could get extra help, get ahead or make up credits.
I would like to have social workers and mental health counselors on campus. The social workers could provide wrap around services and the counselors could try and get to the root of some of the kids problems. Why kids do poorly in school often has nothing to do with school.
I would have monthly meetings with the community and businesses to discuss education issues and get their input. I would look for internships and mentors under every rock.
These last few suggestions are outside of what we do now but would be helpful.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
CEO of Communities in Schools blames teachers
I can appreciate Jon Heymann, CEO of Communities in Schools interest in education if not his points. After talking about how Jacksonville has some of the best schools in the nation, he brings up the fact that several of our schools are struggling and adds, it's not all the schools, nor all the teachers, nor all the principals. But it's enough of them that give us the unsatisfactory results that we deplore.
He says this while at the same time dismissing poverty as the, scapegoat of education. My Heymann a scapegoat is what Charlie Brown was after his team lost the game; poverty on the other hand is quantifiably the number one factor in determining a child’s success in school.
This is especially disingenuous on his part because his organization works with numerous children who live in poverty and if poverty is not a factor Jon, then why do so? Instead he passes the blame for our underachieving results to some of our teachers and principals.
Well I have a solution and it won’t involve cutting (code for firing) the fringe, what he calls the teachers working at our poorest schools. Why don’t we switch the staff at Stanton, with one of the staffs at Jackson, Ribault or Raines, you know the staff that give us the best results with the staffs that give us the results we deplore. My Heymann might not know it but some of those results have been produced by our best and brightest as the county for years has been creating initiatives to attract those teachers to those schools but since that hasn’t made much of a dent I guess it doesn’t matter. I guess it also means that once teachers arrive at those schools they forget how to teach.
Then a school year after the switch we will know. We can say without a doubt whether it’s teaching or its poverty. It’s my bet people like Mr. Heymann would want to pass on the idea because they know that after a year Stanton would still be one of the best schools and the other school would still be struggling. Then he and the blame the blame the teacher crowd would lose their scapegoats, because ater all it couldn't be poverty, just something to blame, the ones they call the fringe, teachers.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
He says this while at the same time dismissing poverty as the, scapegoat of education. My Heymann a scapegoat is what Charlie Brown was after his team lost the game; poverty on the other hand is quantifiably the number one factor in determining a child’s success in school.
This is especially disingenuous on his part because his organization works with numerous children who live in poverty and if poverty is not a factor Jon, then why do so? Instead he passes the blame for our underachieving results to some of our teachers and principals.
Well I have a solution and it won’t involve cutting (code for firing) the fringe, what he calls the teachers working at our poorest schools. Why don’t we switch the staff at Stanton, with one of the staffs at Jackson, Ribault or Raines, you know the staff that give us the best results with the staffs that give us the results we deplore. My Heymann might not know it but some of those results have been produced by our best and brightest as the county for years has been creating initiatives to attract those teachers to those schools but since that hasn’t made much of a dent I guess it doesn’t matter. I guess it also means that once teachers arrive at those schools they forget how to teach.
Then a school year after the switch we will know. We can say without a doubt whether it’s teaching or its poverty. It’s my bet people like Mr. Heymann would want to pass on the idea because they know that after a year Stanton would still be one of the best schools and the other school would still be struggling. Then he and the blame the blame the teacher crowd would lose their scapegoats, because ater all it couldn't be poverty, just something to blame, the ones they call the fringe, teachers.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Monday, January 3, 2011
Gov.-elect Rick Scott eyes 'game-changing' education overhaul
By Leslie Postal and Dave Weber, Orlando Sentinel
Gov.-elect Rick Scott wants Florida parents in the driver's seat when it comes to their children's education, and he's considering a number of ways to put them there despite questions and criticism from school leaders.
Scott's plans might include allowing parents to choose which schools their kids attend, regardless of attendance zones or county lines.
Parents might be able to use state tax money to send their kids to private school or to cover home-schooling expenses — or, perhaps, to tuck the money away for college.
Parents also could be given direct power to make major changes at poorly performing schools. A "trigger" option would allow parents to design a fix when a majority agree that change is needed. That might include replacing the school's administration, converting to a charter school and other options.
These ideas are among a long menu of potential reforms that Scott's education transition team calls "game-changing proposals." Others include merit pay for teachers, more online learning and a new state funding plan based on what students learn rather than how much time they spend in school.
Scott is mulling all of them, but it's still not clear how many new education reforms lawmakers will embrace.
The boldest idea creates "education savings accounts" that parents would tap for private schools, home schooling or even college if they want to opt out of public schools.
School choice for all has been discussed among educators for quite some time, but Scott's proposal would be the first pushed by a governor, said Paul Peterson, director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.
"That's really planting a national flag out there," said Peterson, who supports many of Scott's ideas.
Local educators, who would have to carry out any changes, are much less enthusiastic.
"It's a great idea if you want to do away with public schools," said Judy Conte, a member of the Volusia County School Board.
They say many of Scott's ideas are unworkable, counterproductive and poorly thought out.
Dede Schaffner, chairman of the Seminole School Board, wonders how that highly regarded school system would handle a crush of students from neighboring Orange, Lake and Volusia counties if students were permitted to freely cross county lines to attend whatever school they chose.
"Are we going to get state funding for all of the students that come to us?" asked Schaffner, pointing out that county taxpayers cover a large share of school costs. "And are we going to have the facilities?"
Candace Lankford, a Volusia School Board member who heads the Florida School Boards Association, is concerned that Scott might send dwindling state tax dollars to private schools or home schools but require no accountability. It's a paradox, she said, to demand proof that public schools are succeeding while paying for students to attend private or home schools where no one knows what they are learning.
It remains to be seen whether Scott, who takes office Tuesday, can turn his far-reaching agenda into law. Florida's divisive battle last spring over a teacher-merit-pay bill proved the difficulty of transforming controversial proposals into state law.
The Legislature last session approved a sweeping merit-pay bill, but Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed it.
Even Florida lawmakers supportive of education reform are leery of school choice and other Scott initiatives with high price tags when the state faces a budget shortfall expected to run as high as $3.5 billion next year.
Legislators and educators also are concerned by Scott's vow to reduce school property taxes. Although he has said he will find replacement funding for the schools, many suspect it will be lost.
"If we have any more money taken away from us, we cannot continue to have the kind of school system we offer," said Darvin Boothe, lobbyist for Seminole County Public Schools.
Scott campaigned to expand reforms championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush and has relied heavily on his ideas. Bush ushered in A-to-F school grades, state-financed tuition vouchers and increased reliance on standardized tests — controversial moves he credits with academic gains among Florida schoolchildren.
Bush's influence continues with the head of his education-advocacy foundation, Patricia Levesque, leading Scott's education-transition team. The group devised a 10-point education plan centered on "reform and innovation" that even suggested the Florida Department of Education be renamed the Florida Department of Education Innovation.
Republican Scott is expected to push the GOP-controlled Legislature to pass much of his education agenda during the upcoming legislative session, which starts in March.
Other key ideas suggested by Scott's team include:
Expanding high-performing charter schools, giving universities the power to sponsor charters and beefing up charter-school funding.
Expanding Florida's two existing voucher programs — the McKay Scholarship program for children with disabilities and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for those from low-income families.
Passing a merit-pay law that changes how teachers are evaluated and paid, with their students' academic performance a key factor in both.
Ending tenure for newly hired teachers and speeding removal of ineffective teachers.
Offering higher pay to those who teach in a "high-need" school or subject area.
But the idea of giving parents access to 85 percent of the money the state would spend on their child in a public school is causing the most debate. Already, many have decried Scott's savings plan as an unconstitutional and fiscally irresponsible effort to dismantle public schools.
The Florida Education Association, the state's teachers union, fears the education savings accounts would bring an exodus of students to private or home schools and leave only a "shadow public-school system" remaining.
The union waged a successful court battle to overturn Florida's first school-voucher program, which offered private-school scholarships to students in persistently failing public schools.
"We've been down this road before. It's just a fight that the courts have already ruled on," said Andy Ford, FEA president.
Even some voucher proponents agree. Andrew Coulson, director of the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom, favors vouchers but does not believe the education-savings plan will pass review by the Florida Supreme Court, which in 2006 struck down Jeb Bush's Opportunity Scholarship program.
Coulson said a push to expand vouchers to all could jeopardize the state's two remaining voucher programs, which have not been challenged in court.
State Sen. David Simmons, R- Maitland, chairman of the Senate budget subcommittee on education, said he is a "firm believer in school choice" but remains cautious about the savings plan.
"The assurance that children are going to receive a quality education from such a proposal is obviously one of the main questions that has to be answered," Simmons said.
For Dwight Bullard, much about Scott's education agenda is cause for worry. He is a teacher at a Miami high school and a Democratic representative in the Florida House.
He thinks the governor-elect's plans push Florida schools hard in the wrong direction, and expects others will join in protest as the Legislature debates Scott's education proposals.
"Just put your seat belt on," Bullard said. "It's definitely going to be the likes that we haven't seen in a while."
Leslie Postal can be reached at lpostal@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5273. Dave Weber can be reached at dweber@orlandosentinel.com or 407-883-7885.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/state/os-governor-rick-scott-education-20110102,0,2853711.story?page=2
Gov.-elect Rick Scott wants Florida parents in the driver's seat when it comes to their children's education, and he's considering a number of ways to put them there despite questions and criticism from school leaders.
Scott's plans might include allowing parents to choose which schools their kids attend, regardless of attendance zones or county lines.
Parents might be able to use state tax money to send their kids to private school or to cover home-schooling expenses — or, perhaps, to tuck the money away for college.
Parents also could be given direct power to make major changes at poorly performing schools. A "trigger" option would allow parents to design a fix when a majority agree that change is needed. That might include replacing the school's administration, converting to a charter school and other options.
These ideas are among a long menu of potential reforms that Scott's education transition team calls "game-changing proposals." Others include merit pay for teachers, more online learning and a new state funding plan based on what students learn rather than how much time they spend in school.
Scott is mulling all of them, but it's still not clear how many new education reforms lawmakers will embrace.
The boldest idea creates "education savings accounts" that parents would tap for private schools, home schooling or even college if they want to opt out of public schools.
School choice for all has been discussed among educators for quite some time, but Scott's proposal would be the first pushed by a governor, said Paul Peterson, director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.
"That's really planting a national flag out there," said Peterson, who supports many of Scott's ideas.
Local educators, who would have to carry out any changes, are much less enthusiastic.
"It's a great idea if you want to do away with public schools," said Judy Conte, a member of the Volusia County School Board.
They say many of Scott's ideas are unworkable, counterproductive and poorly thought out.
Dede Schaffner, chairman of the Seminole School Board, wonders how that highly regarded school system would handle a crush of students from neighboring Orange, Lake and Volusia counties if students were permitted to freely cross county lines to attend whatever school they chose.
"Are we going to get state funding for all of the students that come to us?" asked Schaffner, pointing out that county taxpayers cover a large share of school costs. "And are we going to have the facilities?"
Candace Lankford, a Volusia School Board member who heads the Florida School Boards Association, is concerned that Scott might send dwindling state tax dollars to private schools or home schools but require no accountability. It's a paradox, she said, to demand proof that public schools are succeeding while paying for students to attend private or home schools where no one knows what they are learning.
It remains to be seen whether Scott, who takes office Tuesday, can turn his far-reaching agenda into law. Florida's divisive battle last spring over a teacher-merit-pay bill proved the difficulty of transforming controversial proposals into state law.
The Legislature last session approved a sweeping merit-pay bill, but Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed it.
Even Florida lawmakers supportive of education reform are leery of school choice and other Scott initiatives with high price tags when the state faces a budget shortfall expected to run as high as $3.5 billion next year.
Legislators and educators also are concerned by Scott's vow to reduce school property taxes. Although he has said he will find replacement funding for the schools, many suspect it will be lost.
"If we have any more money taken away from us, we cannot continue to have the kind of school system we offer," said Darvin Boothe, lobbyist for Seminole County Public Schools.
Scott campaigned to expand reforms championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush and has relied heavily on his ideas. Bush ushered in A-to-F school grades, state-financed tuition vouchers and increased reliance on standardized tests — controversial moves he credits with academic gains among Florida schoolchildren.
Bush's influence continues with the head of his education-advocacy foundation, Patricia Levesque, leading Scott's education-transition team. The group devised a 10-point education plan centered on "reform and innovation" that even suggested the Florida Department of Education be renamed the Florida Department of Education Innovation.
Republican Scott is expected to push the GOP-controlled Legislature to pass much of his education agenda during the upcoming legislative session, which starts in March.
Other key ideas suggested by Scott's team include:
Expanding high-performing charter schools, giving universities the power to sponsor charters and beefing up charter-school funding.
Expanding Florida's two existing voucher programs — the McKay Scholarship program for children with disabilities and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for those from low-income families.
Passing a merit-pay law that changes how teachers are evaluated and paid, with their students' academic performance a key factor in both.
Ending tenure for newly hired teachers and speeding removal of ineffective teachers.
Offering higher pay to those who teach in a "high-need" school or subject area.
But the idea of giving parents access to 85 percent of the money the state would spend on their child in a public school is causing the most debate. Already, many have decried Scott's savings plan as an unconstitutional and fiscally irresponsible effort to dismantle public schools.
The Florida Education Association, the state's teachers union, fears the education savings accounts would bring an exodus of students to private or home schools and leave only a "shadow public-school system" remaining.
The union waged a successful court battle to overturn Florida's first school-voucher program, which offered private-school scholarships to students in persistently failing public schools.
"We've been down this road before. It's just a fight that the courts have already ruled on," said Andy Ford, FEA president.
Even some voucher proponents agree. Andrew Coulson, director of the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom, favors vouchers but does not believe the education-savings plan will pass review by the Florida Supreme Court, which in 2006 struck down Jeb Bush's Opportunity Scholarship program.
Coulson said a push to expand vouchers to all could jeopardize the state's two remaining voucher programs, which have not been challenged in court.
State Sen. David Simmons, R- Maitland, chairman of the Senate budget subcommittee on education, said he is a "firm believer in school choice" but remains cautious about the savings plan.
"The assurance that children are going to receive a quality education from such a proposal is obviously one of the main questions that has to be answered," Simmons said.
For Dwight Bullard, much about Scott's education agenda is cause for worry. He is a teacher at a Miami high school and a Democratic representative in the Florida House.
He thinks the governor-elect's plans push Florida schools hard in the wrong direction, and expects others will join in protest as the Legislature debates Scott's education proposals.
"Just put your seat belt on," Bullard said. "It's definitely going to be the likes that we haven't seen in a while."
Leslie Postal can be reached at lpostal@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5273. Dave Weber can be reached at dweber@orlandosentinel.com or 407-883-7885.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/state/os-governor-rick-scott-education-20110102,0,2853711.story?page=2
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Spitballing: Should black kids be seperated by sex
Did I actually just read that black kids couldn’t learn if the sexes were together? I reread the passage three times and sure enough that is exactly what I read. Whoa, I thought, that isn’t going to go over so well. What I am talking about is the suggestion that boys and girls be separated at Ribault high school recently offered by the Florida Times Union in an editorial.
I don’t think the Times Union was being racist despite the fact it came off that way to me, a white kid from Murray Hill, on the contrary they were merely spit balling ideas to improve Ribault high school. Improving Ribault and all our struggling schools is something the whole community should all be trying to do.
There other idea was to turn part of Ribault into an advanced academic charter school with uniforms, a longer day, and contracts between parents and students, with an expectation that every student is accepted to a college, you know everything that Stanton and Paxon are supposed to be without the uniforms, contracts and longer days. Could the Times Union on the heels of suggesting that the sexes shouldn’t be mixed at black schools also be suggesting that black kids can’t achieve without contracts, uniforms and longer days too?
My mind was truly spinning though I will give the Times Union the benefit of the doubt and offer some hopefully less controversial suggestions of my own. Though my suggestions aren’t just for Ribault high school they are for all the area high schools.
Let’s start with kids in Junior High not being passed to Ribault high school or any high school without the skills they need to be successful. Then let’s get rid of the one size fits all everybody is going to college curriculum we have now, you know the one that has been failing at Ribault and a few other schools for a decade now and instead develop multiple curriculums that prepare children to be productive citizens whether than plan to attend college or not. You want a kids not that interested in school to do well in school? Well give them a skill where they can be making 15-20 dollars an hour within a few months of graduation. Teach them to be their own boss not just how to pass a test, the f-cat, that they will never use or see again. I would love for every kid to go to college, however we don’t have the kids the powers-that-be wish we had we have the kids we do and we should plan accordingly.
Then how about instead of overloading the teachers at the various schools with meeting after meeting and forcing them to do hour upon hour of superfluous paper work we encourage creativity and autonomy after all teachers teach, complicated board configurations don’t. Then lets make sure there is discipline in the classes and hallways because a few bad apples can spoil a whole classroom or a school. We also need social workers and counselors in our schools because quite often why a kid acts up or does poorly in schools has nothing to do with school. At the schools we are just addressing their symptoms while ignoring their sickness.
We could try ideas that might work, that might make a difference or we could separate the sexes.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
I don’t think the Times Union was being racist despite the fact it came off that way to me, a white kid from Murray Hill, on the contrary they were merely spit balling ideas to improve Ribault high school. Improving Ribault and all our struggling schools is something the whole community should all be trying to do.
There other idea was to turn part of Ribault into an advanced academic charter school with uniforms, a longer day, and contracts between parents and students, with an expectation that every student is accepted to a college, you know everything that Stanton and Paxon are supposed to be without the uniforms, contracts and longer days. Could the Times Union on the heels of suggesting that the sexes shouldn’t be mixed at black schools also be suggesting that black kids can’t achieve without contracts, uniforms and longer days too?
My mind was truly spinning though I will give the Times Union the benefit of the doubt and offer some hopefully less controversial suggestions of my own. Though my suggestions aren’t just for Ribault high school they are for all the area high schools.
Let’s start with kids in Junior High not being passed to Ribault high school or any high school without the skills they need to be successful. Then let’s get rid of the one size fits all everybody is going to college curriculum we have now, you know the one that has been failing at Ribault and a few other schools for a decade now and instead develop multiple curriculums that prepare children to be productive citizens whether than plan to attend college or not. You want a kids not that interested in school to do well in school? Well give them a skill where they can be making 15-20 dollars an hour within a few months of graduation. Teach them to be their own boss not just how to pass a test, the f-cat, that they will never use or see again. I would love for every kid to go to college, however we don’t have the kids the powers-that-be wish we had we have the kids we do and we should plan accordingly.
Then how about instead of overloading the teachers at the various schools with meeting after meeting and forcing them to do hour upon hour of superfluous paper work we encourage creativity and autonomy after all teachers teach, complicated board configurations don’t. Then lets make sure there is discipline in the classes and hallways because a few bad apples can spoil a whole classroom or a school. We also need social workers and counselors in our schools because quite often why a kid acts up or does poorly in schools has nothing to do with school. At the schools we are just addressing their symptoms while ignoring their sickness.
We could try ideas that might work, that might make a difference or we could separate the sexes.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Opportunity Lost
Ribault, Raines and Jackson provide the city an opportunity.
The Times Union called the situation our most struggling schools find themselves in an opportunity. In case you haven’t been following the story, if Ribault, Raines and Jackson high schools and North Shore Junior High fail to improve they could be in store for some drastic changes, which could include shutting the schools down. The state rewriting the school grade rules and the district forcing advanced academic programs into their halls thus far has not been enough.
In a way the Times Union is right but it’s not just the schools that have an opportunity, it’s the district and the city itself. That’s right we the citizens of Jacksonville have an opportunity to examine how the district is run and demand changes be made. The district has an opportunity to finally start doing things the right way. It’s no wonder kids at the three high schools struggle as many have been pushed there without the skills they need to succeed. Most can’t read a grade level and less than half can do math yet some how they find themselves in high school, where after ninth grade there is nowhere left for them to be pushed to.
Is that the responsibility of the teachers at the fore mentioned schools who are asked to make years worth of gains in a few months or is it the fault of the district who has all but ordered teachers to pass kids whether they have the skills to or not. The answer is neither; it’s the citizens of Jacksonville through electing casual observers and politicians on their way up or way down to the school board. It’s the citizens of Jacksonville who have either tuned a blind eye to the problem or have just accepted the skewed reality being sold by those at 1701 Prudential Drive who are more concerned with protecting their niche than doing what is right for our children, that are ultimately responsible.
Kids should not be passed along without the skills they need and if they need extra help it should be provided, with legitimate and mandatory after school and summer school opportunities. Isn’t that the bare minimum of what our schools should be doing?
We find ourselves as a city and as a school district in a very precarious situation but the Times Union is right. The district has an opportunity to start doing things the right way the way they should have been doing things all along, or we the citizens of Jacksonville have the opportunity to say enough is enough, if you are not going to do it we will find somebody who will. All other opportunities are nearly too terrible to contemplate.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
The Times Union called the situation our most struggling schools find themselves in an opportunity. In case you haven’t been following the story, if Ribault, Raines and Jackson high schools and North Shore Junior High fail to improve they could be in store for some drastic changes, which could include shutting the schools down. The state rewriting the school grade rules and the district forcing advanced academic programs into their halls thus far has not been enough.
In a way the Times Union is right but it’s not just the schools that have an opportunity, it’s the district and the city itself. That’s right we the citizens of Jacksonville have an opportunity to examine how the district is run and demand changes be made. The district has an opportunity to finally start doing things the right way. It’s no wonder kids at the three high schools struggle as many have been pushed there without the skills they need to succeed. Most can’t read a grade level and less than half can do math yet some how they find themselves in high school, where after ninth grade there is nowhere left for them to be pushed to.
Is that the responsibility of the teachers at the fore mentioned schools who are asked to make years worth of gains in a few months or is it the fault of the district who has all but ordered teachers to pass kids whether they have the skills to or not. The answer is neither; it’s the citizens of Jacksonville through electing casual observers and politicians on their way up or way down to the school board. It’s the citizens of Jacksonville who have either tuned a blind eye to the problem or have just accepted the skewed reality being sold by those at 1701 Prudential Drive who are more concerned with protecting their niche than doing what is right for our children, that are ultimately responsible.
Kids should not be passed along without the skills they need and if they need extra help it should be provided, with legitimate and mandatory after school and summer school opportunities. Isn’t that the bare minimum of what our schools should be doing?
We find ourselves as a city and as a school district in a very precarious situation but the Times Union is right. The district has an opportunity to start doing things the right way the way they should have been doing things all along, or we the citizens of Jacksonville have the opportunity to say enough is enough, if you are not going to do it we will find somebody who will. All other opportunities are nearly too terrible to contemplate.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
I hope you get me, if you read one, I hope it is this one
Often when I read a piece about teaching from the Times Union editorial staff I roll my eyes and sigh. I wonder to myself how they would feel if came in and told them how to edit a piece or that the way they wrote their editorials was all-wrong. I wonder what they would think if I said, the number one goal of the Times Union should be to improve its editorial staff. Now sometimes they get it right but they showed today was not one of those days when they wrote, The American people get it. Improving the quality of teaching should be the No. 1 goal of American education. The truth is the American people do not get it and neither does the editor who wrote the piece.
I do get it though. The public education system in the United States is failing and teachers are the ones on the front line. The last decade has seen education produce a generation of kids ill prepared for either college or the work force and seen the United State's standing in the world drop dramatically. Citizens, and rightfully so, are tired of crime in their streets and a lack of civility in our neighborhoods and in our stores, something that education needs to take at least some responsibility for. Likewise they look at the KIPP and other charter schools and see amazing things happening and wonder why that can’t be replicated at PS this or PS that. Then they hear about things like vouchers and merit pay and I admit in a vacuum they sound like good ideas and wonder why teachers as a whole are resistant. Furthermore there has been a well coordinated and I believe very misinformed campaign to improve teacher quality, waged by prominent Americans like Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg and even President Obama among others. I get it, Americans are tired of kids failing and dropping out, they are tired of kids that can’t read or do much more than play video games and the person standing in front of them with a “who me” look on their face isn’t Alfred E. Newman it’s a teacher. I understand their frustration, I feel their angst and I too worry about the future.
What the public doesn’t get and what the author of today’s editorial doesn’t get, is where teacher quality should always be an issue and we should always strive to put our best and brightest in the classroom, is the fact they have been hood winked, as we already have many of our best and brightest and perhaps just as important willing already in our schools. Sure there are bad teachers and we should do our best to remove them but nothing will improve as long as we continue to do things the way we are doing them now.
You ever wonder why the school district hasn’t just switched the faculty at Stanton one of the best schools in the whole country with one of the faculties at Ribault, Raines, Jackson or Forrest high schools, supposedly some of the worse that are about the same size. Why haven’t they done it, just pulled the trigger? Well it’s because they know it wouldn’t make the slightest difference. At the end of the day Stanton would still be one of the best schools in the nation and those others would still be struggling. Friends it’s not teachers that are destroying the American education system, it’s the policy makers, those in far off ivory towers many of who have never been in a classroom or if so it was in an era long past that are in the process of signing educations death warrant.
Teaching is the only profession I can think of run by non teachers and the only profession that anybody thinks they can do. Where is the man on the street when it comes to cancer, it’s been around for a while, shouldn’t doctors have cured it by now, you know what doctor quality must be a problem, lets replace all the doctors. Firemen and the police by-in-large, contractors, garbage workers, scientists, and engineers, and speaking of engineers where is my jet pack, if Gilligan had one in the seventies we should all have one now, the quality of our engineers must be abysmal, all get a pass from the man on the street and the editor typing away but teachers don’t.
Also if teaching is so easy, why do forty percent of teachers not last five years. If teaching is so easy why until the economy soured was there always a shortage, and if teaching is so easy, what were the five teachers who quit my school before the first nine weeks was over thinking? The truth is teaching is not easy, there are no summers off anymore and very few, despite the day for most starts well before nine, are home by five.
The system has put teachers in impossible situations and then told the public to point their fingers at them and demands their heads when they can’t succeed, well the system and editors of papers that is. Neither of who, actually get it.
Teachers did not decide to destroy discipline, I had a kid put his hands on me earlier this week and threaten to beat me up and because I was to slow getting the referal to the office they sent this charming young man back to his class and then when I asked a dean to come with me to confront another young man who refuses to come back to class after lunch, I was told she couldn’t be bothered.
Teachers did not put all kids into a one size fits all curriculum. Why are kids who want to work with their hands or who are interested in the liberal arts forced to take classes they aren’t only interested in but will never use. Not every kid is going to go to college and we need to start servicing their needs instead of sitting back and hoping somebody comes along with a magic wand and turns them into the kids we wish we had. Friends we have the kids we have, not the kids we wish we had and must plan accordingly.
Teachers did not systematically strip away the joy of learning from many children. Electives, the arts and trades have disappeared from many schools and we are forcing kids who we should be elated by if they read a comic book to read Ethan Frome or some other classic they neither want to nor can relate to.
Teachers did not decide that the massive volume of paper work that have very little to do with actual teaching is what they should be doing, nor did they decide to strip out their creativity and flexibility to adhere to learning schedules and pacing guides.
Teachers did not decide to institute high stakes testing, which is all education has become. They know a test should be a component of education not the end all be all that it is today.
Teachers did not put so many kids, influenced by their neighborhoods abandoned by their parents into yet one more no win situation, their schools. No friends, that was you man and woman on the street and editor of the paper, you did it by allowing special interests to hijack and people who have no business being anywhere near a school to be in charge of education, you did it, teachers are just playing the hand you dealt to them.
That’s not to say teachers haven’t done some things. Teachers did decide to enter the profession because they wanted to help children and because they wanted to make a difference, not to get rich or garner some authority or celebrity. Teachers also decided to sacrifice their precious time and money for the sake of their students often while their own children wait in extended day or go without and teachers by and large are doing the best they can with what they have been given, which sadly in many cases is not that much. It's should be a credit to the fine men and women who show up everyday, underappreciated and the targets of the uninformed that they are holding things together as well as they are. This is what the public and Times Union editors should get about teachers. This is what they should think about before they start talking about improving teacher quality.
Paraphrasing Lieutenant Colonel Martin Jessup: Friends we live in a country that has schools many of which are struggling and those schools have to be manned with teachers. You going to do it man on the street, you going to do it editor of the newspaper? Teachers have a greater responsibility than you can fathom. You might weep for those children left behind and fallen through the cracks, I weep too but you have a luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. Because you don’t know the truth, because you do not want to know the truth.
I hope you get me, because anybody who feels teacher quality is the problem, obviously doesn't get what is happening in our schools.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
I do get it though. The public education system in the United States is failing and teachers are the ones on the front line. The last decade has seen education produce a generation of kids ill prepared for either college or the work force and seen the United State's standing in the world drop dramatically. Citizens, and rightfully so, are tired of crime in their streets and a lack of civility in our neighborhoods and in our stores, something that education needs to take at least some responsibility for. Likewise they look at the KIPP and other charter schools and see amazing things happening and wonder why that can’t be replicated at PS this or PS that. Then they hear about things like vouchers and merit pay and I admit in a vacuum they sound like good ideas and wonder why teachers as a whole are resistant. Furthermore there has been a well coordinated and I believe very misinformed campaign to improve teacher quality, waged by prominent Americans like Bill Gates, Mike Bloomberg and even President Obama among others. I get it, Americans are tired of kids failing and dropping out, they are tired of kids that can’t read or do much more than play video games and the person standing in front of them with a “who me” look on their face isn’t Alfred E. Newman it’s a teacher. I understand their frustration, I feel their angst and I too worry about the future.
What the public doesn’t get and what the author of today’s editorial doesn’t get, is where teacher quality should always be an issue and we should always strive to put our best and brightest in the classroom, is the fact they have been hood winked, as we already have many of our best and brightest and perhaps just as important willing already in our schools. Sure there are bad teachers and we should do our best to remove them but nothing will improve as long as we continue to do things the way we are doing them now.
You ever wonder why the school district hasn’t just switched the faculty at Stanton one of the best schools in the whole country with one of the faculties at Ribault, Raines, Jackson or Forrest high schools, supposedly some of the worse that are about the same size. Why haven’t they done it, just pulled the trigger? Well it’s because they know it wouldn’t make the slightest difference. At the end of the day Stanton would still be one of the best schools in the nation and those others would still be struggling. Friends it’s not teachers that are destroying the American education system, it’s the policy makers, those in far off ivory towers many of who have never been in a classroom or if so it was in an era long past that are in the process of signing educations death warrant.
Teaching is the only profession I can think of run by non teachers and the only profession that anybody thinks they can do. Where is the man on the street when it comes to cancer, it’s been around for a while, shouldn’t doctors have cured it by now, you know what doctor quality must be a problem, lets replace all the doctors. Firemen and the police by-in-large, contractors, garbage workers, scientists, and engineers, and speaking of engineers where is my jet pack, if Gilligan had one in the seventies we should all have one now, the quality of our engineers must be abysmal, all get a pass from the man on the street and the editor typing away but teachers don’t.
Also if teaching is so easy, why do forty percent of teachers not last five years. If teaching is so easy why until the economy soured was there always a shortage, and if teaching is so easy, what were the five teachers who quit my school before the first nine weeks was over thinking? The truth is teaching is not easy, there are no summers off anymore and very few, despite the day for most starts well before nine, are home by five.
The system has put teachers in impossible situations and then told the public to point their fingers at them and demands their heads when they can’t succeed, well the system and editors of papers that is. Neither of who, actually get it.
Teachers did not decide to destroy discipline, I had a kid put his hands on me earlier this week and threaten to beat me up and because I was to slow getting the referal to the office they sent this charming young man back to his class and then when I asked a dean to come with me to confront another young man who refuses to come back to class after lunch, I was told she couldn’t be bothered.
Teachers did not put all kids into a one size fits all curriculum. Why are kids who want to work with their hands or who are interested in the liberal arts forced to take classes they aren’t only interested in but will never use. Not every kid is going to go to college and we need to start servicing their needs instead of sitting back and hoping somebody comes along with a magic wand and turns them into the kids we wish we had. Friends we have the kids we have, not the kids we wish we had and must plan accordingly.
Teachers did not systematically strip away the joy of learning from many children. Electives, the arts and trades have disappeared from many schools and we are forcing kids who we should be elated by if they read a comic book to read Ethan Frome or some other classic they neither want to nor can relate to.
Teachers did not decide that the massive volume of paper work that have very little to do with actual teaching is what they should be doing, nor did they decide to strip out their creativity and flexibility to adhere to learning schedules and pacing guides.
Teachers did not decide to institute high stakes testing, which is all education has become. They know a test should be a component of education not the end all be all that it is today.
Teachers did not put so many kids, influenced by their neighborhoods abandoned by their parents into yet one more no win situation, their schools. No friends, that was you man and woman on the street and editor of the paper, you did it by allowing special interests to hijack and people who have no business being anywhere near a school to be in charge of education, you did it, teachers are just playing the hand you dealt to them.
That’s not to say teachers haven’t done some things. Teachers did decide to enter the profession because they wanted to help children and because they wanted to make a difference, not to get rich or garner some authority or celebrity. Teachers also decided to sacrifice their precious time and money for the sake of their students often while their own children wait in extended day or go without and teachers by and large are doing the best they can with what they have been given, which sadly in many cases is not that much. It's should be a credit to the fine men and women who show up everyday, underappreciated and the targets of the uninformed that they are holding things together as well as they are. This is what the public and Times Union editors should get about teachers. This is what they should think about before they start talking about improving teacher quality.
Paraphrasing Lieutenant Colonel Martin Jessup: Friends we live in a country that has schools many of which are struggling and those schools have to be manned with teachers. You going to do it man on the street, you going to do it editor of the newspaper? Teachers have a greater responsibility than you can fathom. You might weep for those children left behind and fallen through the cracks, I weep too but you have a luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. Because you don’t know the truth, because you do not want to know the truth.
I hope you get me, because anybody who feels teacher quality is the problem, obviously doesn't get what is happening in our schools.
Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The Dog and Pony show: The school board visits Ribault High School
The school board paid a surprise visit to Ribault High School, accompanied by the Florida Times-Union and Action News. (I say 'surprise visit' not because Ribault didn’t know they were coming, but because many people probably weren’t aware that the school board did anything but follow lockstep behind the superintendent). There the school board met with 30 hand-picked students to discuss the issues facing Ribault High School. In case you were wondering, Dog and Pony Magazine rated this visit a five out of five.
Does the school board expect the public to think they care, because of this visit (their third visit to a school in the last ten months)? Talk about an easy schedule and part-time work... There they said they met with children who represented the student body - those from the A.P. classes, student council and ROTC classes. Ummm...I am sorry, but if they wanted to get a true representation of the student body, they should have met with children in the intensive reading and math classes, the kids with no electives on their schedules.
I hope nobody thinks I am being critical of Ribault. I have a friend who works there and she believes they are truly turning it around after years of mismanagement, and that they finally have a team that is headed in the right direction. I wish her luck. Unfortunately she, the rest of the staff, the students, and- heck- the community of Jacksonville itself will need it, as long as we allow this current school board to oversee the management of the county’s public schools.
The school board somehow got mixed up with what it is supposed to do. That’s what will happen when casual observers (filled to overflowing with hubris) want to get involved and politicians use the school board as a stepping stone. Both groups think more of the position as a line on the resume than as a sacred public trust. What they have either forgotten or don’t realize is that they don’t just represent Ed Pratt-Dannals and his high-priced team at 1701 Prudential Drive, they represent the teachers, the stakeholders and the parents of the city as well - or, they should, anyway. They can’t sit back and listen to the reports that come out of the downtown high-rise because they are all glowing reports; even the drop in the F-CAT was somebody else's fault. I'll bet Martha Barret (District 1) and Nancy Bronner asked him what score they should give him (out of 5) and he said, 'oh I don’t know; 4.7...5... something around there'.
They can’t be effective if they just hear his voice. Pratt-Dannals has 270,000 reasons (his salary) to put a positive spin on everything. Instead, they need to get out and talk to the people and three visits in ten months is unacceptable. What are we paying them for anyway? If you guessed 'to rubber stamp what Ed Pratt-Dannals wants', you are probably correct, because that’s all they have done - well, that and give him a $100,000 raise in the last three years.
Not only should the school board be willing to meet with three people standing on a street corner (if they asked), but they should also be in different schools every single day. If they were in my school, they would have found 120 kids and 6 substitute teachers in the auditorium doing nothing. If they were at another, they would have found that the teachers there were told parking on campus was a privilege. I could go on and on, because there are not just a million stories in the naked city - not in Jacksonville anyway - but because there are an equal amount on its school campuses as well. (Though, going to a school is just half the battle, because when they get there, they have to look, too).
Last year when the school board visited my school, they didn’t go anywhere near the trainable mentally handicapped classrooms where kids were packed in like sardines and where learning couldn’t occur. It’s because they didn’t want to see it. I don’t think they wanted to know, to look at the evidence - three school visits in ten months; hand-picked students and zero teacher forums.
When the school board visits schools, they can’t just meet with the hand-picked students either; as much as I think they wish it would, it doesn’t give the most accurate snapshot of what’s actually going on. Willie C. Barron, a two-sport athlete who is also enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program, was profiled in the Florida Times-Union piece; but, for some reason, I think if he was the typical student Ribault has, the school would not be experiencing many of its problems. According to the same article, W.C. Gentry wondered where the other kids were, saying, "if all the kids were like that, you have won the war". I will tell you where they are, Mr. Gentry; they are in their intensive math and reading classes having their joy of learning sucked out of them. Now, a few might be in electives, but not many, because draconian state cuts and policies have eliminated many of the electives.
If the school board is serious (something I doubt) about improving things and getting a real picture of what is going on, it also has to visit the classrooms and see what is happening there. Furthermore, they can’t give notice (months of notice) in the case for the school visits. They have to show up unannounced, and not even the principals should know. Then, they should also meet with teachers - though they will have to meet with most of them off the record and in secrecy, as many are afraid there will be repercussions if they tell about what is actually happening. I overheard a veteran teacher the other day consoling a new teacher who was at the end of her rope because of a not-so-pleasant conversation she had with an administrator. She was told that kids could not put their heads down after the umpteenth benchmark test - instead, she should have had "enrichment work" (i.e., "busywork") for them to do. Her veteran colleague told her to just keep her head down and avoid eye contact. The school board doesn’t want to know what teachers think, and I should know, because I have given them an opportunity to hear from them. I have organized a couple of teacher forums and invited W.C. Gentry and Brenda Priestly-Jackson to the next one. Sadly, they were too busy planning their one trip to a school in the last six months to respond.
Friends, we have serious problems - and we need serious people to solve them. Not people who look at the position of school board member as a line on a resume or as a stepping stone to something else. We shouldn’t look at the "Dog and Pony Show" as an example of how well the school board is doing their job. Instead, we should look at it like it is another blaring example of how they aren’t.
Does the school board expect the public to think they care, because of this visit (their third visit to a school in the last ten months)? Talk about an easy schedule and part-time work... There they said they met with children who represented the student body - those from the A.P. classes, student council and ROTC classes. Ummm...I am sorry, but if they wanted to get a true representation of the student body, they should have met with children in the intensive reading and math classes, the kids with no electives on their schedules.
I hope nobody thinks I am being critical of Ribault. I have a friend who works there and she believes they are truly turning it around after years of mismanagement, and that they finally have a team that is headed in the right direction. I wish her luck. Unfortunately she, the rest of the staff, the students, and- heck- the community of Jacksonville itself will need it, as long as we allow this current school board to oversee the management of the county’s public schools.
The school board somehow got mixed up with what it is supposed to do. That’s what will happen when casual observers (filled to overflowing with hubris) want to get involved and politicians use the school board as a stepping stone. Both groups think more of the position as a line on the resume than as a sacred public trust. What they have either forgotten or don’t realize is that they don’t just represent Ed Pratt-Dannals and his high-priced team at 1701 Prudential Drive, they represent the teachers, the stakeholders and the parents of the city as well - or, they should, anyway. They can’t sit back and listen to the reports that come out of the downtown high-rise because they are all glowing reports; even the drop in the F-CAT was somebody else's fault. I'll bet Martha Barret (District 1) and Nancy Bronner asked him what score they should give him (out of 5) and he said, 'oh I don’t know; 4.7...5... something around there'.
They can’t be effective if they just hear his voice. Pratt-Dannals has 270,000 reasons (his salary) to put a positive spin on everything. Instead, they need to get out and talk to the people and three visits in ten months is unacceptable. What are we paying them for anyway? If you guessed 'to rubber stamp what Ed Pratt-Dannals wants', you are probably correct, because that’s all they have done - well, that and give him a $100,000 raise in the last three years.
Not only should the school board be willing to meet with three people standing on a street corner (if they asked), but they should also be in different schools every single day. If they were in my school, they would have found 120 kids and 6 substitute teachers in the auditorium doing nothing. If they were at another, they would have found that the teachers there were told parking on campus was a privilege. I could go on and on, because there are not just a million stories in the naked city - not in Jacksonville anyway - but because there are an equal amount on its school campuses as well. (Though, going to a school is just half the battle, because when they get there, they have to look, too).
Last year when the school board visited my school, they didn’t go anywhere near the trainable mentally handicapped classrooms where kids were packed in like sardines and where learning couldn’t occur. It’s because they didn’t want to see it. I don’t think they wanted to know, to look at the evidence - three school visits in ten months; hand-picked students and zero teacher forums.
When the school board visits schools, they can’t just meet with the hand-picked students either; as much as I think they wish it would, it doesn’t give the most accurate snapshot of what’s actually going on. Willie C. Barron, a two-sport athlete who is also enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program, was profiled in the Florida Times-Union piece; but, for some reason, I think if he was the typical student Ribault has, the school would not be experiencing many of its problems. According to the same article, W.C. Gentry wondered where the other kids were, saying, "if all the kids were like that, you have won the war". I will tell you where they are, Mr. Gentry; they are in their intensive math and reading classes having their joy of learning sucked out of them. Now, a few might be in electives, but not many, because draconian state cuts and policies have eliminated many of the electives.
If the school board is serious (something I doubt) about improving things and getting a real picture of what is going on, it also has to visit the classrooms and see what is happening there. Furthermore, they can’t give notice (months of notice) in the case for the school visits. They have to show up unannounced, and not even the principals should know. Then, they should also meet with teachers - though they will have to meet with most of them off the record and in secrecy, as many are afraid there will be repercussions if they tell about what is actually happening. I overheard a veteran teacher the other day consoling a new teacher who was at the end of her rope because of a not-so-pleasant conversation she had with an administrator. She was told that kids could not put their heads down after the umpteenth benchmark test - instead, she should have had "enrichment work" (i.e., "busywork") for them to do. Her veteran colleague told her to just keep her head down and avoid eye contact. The school board doesn’t want to know what teachers think, and I should know, because I have given them an opportunity to hear from them. I have organized a couple of teacher forums and invited W.C. Gentry and Brenda Priestly-Jackson to the next one. Sadly, they were too busy planning their one trip to a school in the last six months to respond.
Friends, we have serious problems - and we need serious people to solve them. Not people who look at the position of school board member as a line on a resume or as a stepping stone to something else. We shouldn’t look at the "Dog and Pony Show" as an example of how well the school board is doing their job. Instead, we should look at it like it is another blaring example of how they aren’t.
Public Speaks about SB Ribault Trip: Not Pleased
The Times Union worote about a recent trip to Ribault high school. The topic burned up the TU message board. Below is a fairly typical well measure responce by Ballantine.
Ribault isn't an F school because of a broken computer in the Guidance Office, a shortage of textbooks, or insufficient college prep programs. It is an F school because of a “one size fits all” academic curriculum, and indifferent parents who produced sullen, lazy "students."
Belying the seriousness of the problems are the fatuous statements from people who should know better. For example, W. C. Gentry, a well educated professional, says, “I’m wondering where the other kids are. If the kids are like this, you’ve won the war.” You don’t have to wonder, Mr. Gentry, and you know they aren’t like the 30 selected to meet with you.
Then there’s W. C. Barron, a very promising student, who says, “We want the same programs they have at the beach.” W.C., the programs at the beach are available at Ribault—AP courses, dual enrollment, IB. Most of your classmates don't take advantage of what is already offered. The difference between Ribault and the beaches isn’t the number or kind of academic programs. The difference is the student body and their parents’ involvement. The parents of most of those filling a seat in a Ribault classroom don’t care about education in general, their children’s education in particular, or Ribault as an educational institution—and their children reflect their parents disinterest. What Ribault needs is a curriculum that serves the students we have, not the ones we wish we did. If an opportunity is what your classmates need, it is one that prepares them, not for a college campus they'll never walk, but for a vocation for life that is within their grasp.
Betty Burney tells the Select 30, “Do not let a label define you. Not any of you are F kids. Don’t let it get inside your head.” However, don’t forget that it is the abysmal performance of the student body that makes the label that’s applied to your school. You Select 30 have to overcome the stigma created by the overwhelming majority of your classmates. You've done your part. What are your classmates doing?
Ribault isn't an F school because of a broken computer in the Guidance Office, a shortage of textbooks, or insufficient college prep programs. It is an F school because of a “one size fits all” academic curriculum, and indifferent parents who produced sullen, lazy "students."
Belying the seriousness of the problems are the fatuous statements from people who should know better. For example, W. C. Gentry, a well educated professional, says, “I’m wondering where the other kids are. If the kids are like this, you’ve won the war.” You don’t have to wonder, Mr. Gentry, and you know they aren’t like the 30 selected to meet with you.
Then there’s W. C. Barron, a very promising student, who says, “We want the same programs they have at the beach.” W.C., the programs at the beach are available at Ribault—AP courses, dual enrollment, IB. Most of your classmates don't take advantage of what is already offered. The difference between Ribault and the beaches isn’t the number or kind of academic programs. The difference is the student body and their parents’ involvement. The parents of most of those filling a seat in a Ribault classroom don’t care about education in general, their children’s education in particular, or Ribault as an educational institution—and their children reflect their parents disinterest. What Ribault needs is a curriculum that serves the students we have, not the ones we wish we did. If an opportunity is what your classmates need, it is one that prepares them, not for a college campus they'll never walk, but for a vocation for life that is within their grasp.
Betty Burney tells the Select 30, “Do not let a label define you. Not any of you are F kids. Don’t let it get inside your head.” However, don’t forget that it is the abysmal performance of the student body that makes the label that’s applied to your school. You Select 30 have to overcome the stigma created by the overwhelming majority of your classmates. You've done your part. What are your classmates doing?
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Much love for Ribault
You can tell that Tonyaa Weathersbee really loves Raines and Ribault high schools. She writes about them often and she takes any of their successes and contrary to popular opinion there are some, and shouts about them from the rooftops. Unfortunately more often than not, most of the successes fly in the face of overwhelming and systemic failure, though I believe if more people had her passion about those two chronically struggling north side schools they would undoubtedly be doing better.
She recently wrote about Ribault’s fledgling International Baccalaureate or IB program and how important it was and I have to say I agree. I have long thought we should have special programs in the neighborhood schools that play to the strengths and desires of the students. I just think it’s a shame that the program they put into Ribault High School and now several other neighborhood schools only plays to the strengths and desires of a handful of its students. The rest, the vast majority of the children are instead saddled taking a curriculum that many are neither prepared for nor interested in.
I think Tanyaa and the Duval County school district would love for every student to start, excel in and finish a rigorous academic program and if you think about it, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately our schools aren’t populated with the students they or maybe I wish they were. No, they are populated with who we have and at Ribault high school that means most can’t read or write at grade level. It means most won’t graduate on time and it means many will drop out. It means many students have schedules that don’t include electives and even though we don’t like to admit it, they go to a school where many children will have meager future prospects.
Instead of introducing programs to Raines and Ribault that the powers-that-be have created academic magnet schools to house, why don’t they introduce programs that would benefit the majority of the students those two schools have. Furthermore why does the district even have dedicated magnet schools if all the schools are going to have the same programs? And then it’s not like these neighborhood IB programs are very successful anyways. The IB program at Ribault started with about five percent of the schools population finished with less than one percent and graduated just two students.
The fifty-four students who started the program, the thirteen that completed it and the two that actually received the IB diploma should all be applauded but how about we now start serving the needs of the thousand plus other students attending Ribault as well? I’ll tell you why they are not serviced, it’s because the district thought they would throw the struggling neighborhood schools and the neighborhoods themselves a bone and that would be good enough, they figured nobody would question them. After all who would question advanced academic programs.
Well my hand is up. The top kids in the county already have two schools dedicated to them, what about dedicating resources and developing programs to those students who are a few rungs down the latter. How many kids would have graduated a graphic arts, auto mechanic or other skills program had they been offered at Ribault? I bet it would have been more than two, a lot more than two.
When Tanyaa Weathersbee beats the drum about two kids graduating an IB program, as impressive and they may be, she does the schools of Ribault and Raines a disservice. She attempts to convince people that Raines and Ribault are things they are not. She says if these two kids can do it any kid can but the sad truth is, if more could have done it, they already would have done it.
If our school system starts education the kids we have rather than educating them like they were the kids they wish they had, then we might just have a chance of getting a few more through. We might have a chance of putting a few more on the right path. Could we do worse if we decided we wanted to play to kids strengths and desires? I don’t think so, after all, all we would have to do is better than two.
I have to say though; I like Ms. Weatherbees’s passion it’s just her message that I find lacking.
She recently wrote about Ribault’s fledgling International Baccalaureate or IB program and how important it was and I have to say I agree. I have long thought we should have special programs in the neighborhood schools that play to the strengths and desires of the students. I just think it’s a shame that the program they put into Ribault High School and now several other neighborhood schools only plays to the strengths and desires of a handful of its students. The rest, the vast majority of the children are instead saddled taking a curriculum that many are neither prepared for nor interested in.
I think Tanyaa and the Duval County school district would love for every student to start, excel in and finish a rigorous academic program and if you think about it, who wouldn’t? Unfortunately our schools aren’t populated with the students they or maybe I wish they were. No, they are populated with who we have and at Ribault high school that means most can’t read or write at grade level. It means most won’t graduate on time and it means many will drop out. It means many students have schedules that don’t include electives and even though we don’t like to admit it, they go to a school where many children will have meager future prospects.
Instead of introducing programs to Raines and Ribault that the powers-that-be have created academic magnet schools to house, why don’t they introduce programs that would benefit the majority of the students those two schools have. Furthermore why does the district even have dedicated magnet schools if all the schools are going to have the same programs? And then it’s not like these neighborhood IB programs are very successful anyways. The IB program at Ribault started with about five percent of the schools population finished with less than one percent and graduated just two students.
The fifty-four students who started the program, the thirteen that completed it and the two that actually received the IB diploma should all be applauded but how about we now start serving the needs of the thousand plus other students attending Ribault as well? I’ll tell you why they are not serviced, it’s because the district thought they would throw the struggling neighborhood schools and the neighborhoods themselves a bone and that would be good enough, they figured nobody would question them. After all who would question advanced academic programs.
Well my hand is up. The top kids in the county already have two schools dedicated to them, what about dedicating resources and developing programs to those students who are a few rungs down the latter. How many kids would have graduated a graphic arts, auto mechanic or other skills program had they been offered at Ribault? I bet it would have been more than two, a lot more than two.
When Tanyaa Weathersbee beats the drum about two kids graduating an IB program, as impressive and they may be, she does the schools of Ribault and Raines a disservice. She attempts to convince people that Raines and Ribault are things they are not. She says if these two kids can do it any kid can but the sad truth is, if more could have done it, they already would have done it.
If our school system starts education the kids we have rather than educating them like they were the kids they wish they had, then we might just have a chance of getting a few more through. We might have a chance of putting a few more on the right path. Could we do worse if we decided we wanted to play to kids strengths and desires? I don’t think so, after all, all we would have to do is better than two.
I have to say though; I like Ms. Weatherbees’s passion it’s just her message that I find lacking.
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