Another day, another article (make that editorial) on Don Willis and Imagine Schools, this time on their involvement setting up charters in Texas. I can't figure out if Willis has done anything wrong or unethical. If he has, Ball State Teachers College (the school that gave us the JG editorial staff and David Letterman) can easily pull his charter. What is obvious is that Wendy Robinson and by extension Harriet Inskeep and her reporters and columnists at the JG despise Don Willis for having the balls to challenge Wendy and get some of her money.
Around the time of the 1948 presidential campaign, Harry Truman was getting the same kind of treatment from the ALL the major papers. In a letter he never mailed he wrote "The prostitutes of the mind in my opinion are more dangerous to the future of mankind than the prostitutes of the body". He had a special contempt for the papers' owners, who were "character assassins" and their columnist doing the dirty work who were "no better than whores (Harry had a way with words, didn't he) in that they offered their favors for money". He did respect the reporters who were trying to make a living getting stories. But the JG articles, while written by reporters as "news" read more like a hatchet job on Imagine Schools. They belong in the editorial pages along with similarly biased opinions such as Karen Francisco's Sunday piece, "Who's Minding the Charters?".
Sunday, Karen also favored us with her opinions on revised state proposals for teacher licensing. She talks about attending a class for illiterate middle age people who had been "failed at some point by Indiana schools". "For too many years students somehow passed from grade to grade without making the connections that would somehow engage them in learning". She implies that "rigorous academic standards and accountability requirements for teachers and schools" now in place keep that from happening now.
WRONG!! Hello, Karen, get a clue. We're still "somehow passing students from grade t0 grade"! Having standards is totally different from achieving standards. In her classic story on "One School" she failed to mention that all the struggling students going through that middle school are being socially promoted from grade to grade and out the door into high school whether they meet the standards or not. These kids, about half (going by last fall's GQE scores) of the freshmen coming into our high schools, don't meet the standards and start high school unprepared. That's why our high schools are failing. "Freshman Academy" isn't going to fix that. "High School Reinvent" won't fix that. We can't do remediation in the high schools. Half of those unprepared kids will drop out. The rest, after failing five times to pass the required GQE, will get a diploma with a waiver. You'll see them in those literacy classes in the coming years, Karen.
The high schools won't do better if our elementary and middle schools don't do better. If Imagine can get kids coming out of their elementary schools ready for the next step they could put FWCS elementary schools out of business. That prospect has Wendy and the teacher's union (and by extension the JG) in hysterics. Because it's not about the kids. It's about their money and their jobs.
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6 comments:
Maybe now the JG can write about something that makes sense to us all. If they think that we are all going to complain about tax dollars at Imagine and side with FWCS FORGET IT...so Dan...sorry...your wife may have to give up her pay raise next year. Or God forbid...the job be eliminated...
Get off the subject and move on...since I found out today that I can pull the Crossword off of the internet now on Sundays perhaps we no longer need that JG paper anymore...Ads can be looked at too on line
Not just the crossword but the comics are on the web, which is all the JG had going for them.
Whilst it will never be said, in a local newspaper, it has been reported that Imagine Schools on Broadway removed 65 students during the 2008-2009 school year. From all indication from Imagine's administration, the students were removed for ongoing disruptive and violent behavior. It was reported that these young people were sent back to their respective schools, after being allowed multiple chances, within FWCS.
As a former employee of FWCS, the accepted violent behavior does not surprise me. Several times during my short-lived career, I received a number of curse-words voiced at me and a multitude of items (glass bottles, pencils, books, etc.) projected at myself and others. The later mostly took place in the middle and high schools, however this was a growing issue at the time in the FWCS' elementaries.
The majority of discipline problems, especially at the lower levels, are swept under the rug. Educators are often told to keep everything documented until the teacher can no longer take the daily emotional abuse and physical damage - either being forced to quit or find union action. In a regular place of employment, if an employee would call the manager a b*tch everyday, the hire-up would terminate the lower. However, in FWCS the teacher is blamed.
I am now in another school district that is trying to work on its students achievement and behavior program. This school system has a high school with a high rate of minorities, however it has no uniformed police in its high school, instead a passionate and dedicated leader! The result is there ARE students, not many, that take responsibility for their actions. Within some FWCS' schools, a capable adult could not find more than three or four children.
Side Note: It has always been bothersome to me that all FWCS' high school have an administrative team of six or more personnel (One Principal and 4 plus vice principals and an athletic director), while schools such as Bellmont and Norwell (similar sixed in comparison to Wayne and Elmhurst) have an administrative team of three. Too many Indians often cause a disarray, and often cost too much money. Thus, Code Blue Schools would you be willing to research this issue? I am sure that one could trim approximately $1.8 million off the annual budget (3 administrative salary and benefit packages, in addition to associated costs [$100,000] x 6 high schools = $1.8). Compound that number by 5 years and add interest from savings, and low and behold you have enough money to building a new school.
Fort Wayne Girl- I've seen the same kind of thing and talked about it but I'm only one person. I've been cussed out and had pennies thrown at me(quarters would have been better)as a volunteer tutor at the high school I graduated from. But that didn't bother me as much as the fact that most kids just didn't give a damn.
What you're saying is absolutely right but, as you pointed out, as long as it's swept under the rug its not going to change. As long as teachers on the inside won't speak out publicly because they're afraid of losing their jobs it's not going to change. Teachers and parents will just continue to do what you did and leave the district.
The bloat of the system should be evident when the system has two full time people for "public relations" and a full time attorney on their staff. If I did research the issue you suggest and talked about it, would anyone care or would anything change? I doubt it. The only thing that would force them to curb these kinds of excesses would be cuts in their funding. That will only happen when parents who don't have the option of moving out have the option to take their kids out of the system, as they do with charter schools. That's why Willis is making Wendy hysterical.
Fort Wayne Girl- As an aside on the 65 kids going back to FWCS, I have heard that discussed in a board meeting. They (Mark GiaQuinta) spun it as a sign that the parents were dissatisfied with Imagine and that FWCS welcomed their kids back with open arms.
The teachers (i.e you) really need to come out and talk about his publicly if you want to see a change. Hearing it from one person like me only has a limited impact.
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