The FWCS layoffs of assistant principals shouldn't come as a surprise in light of state budget cuts. Although FWCS will try to spin this as part of their shakeup to get "Race to the Top" funding , it's purely a money issue. In removing the principals at North Side and South Side high schools, however, Wendy and the board probably think that this will be seen by the state as a serious effort at reform in light of the recent visits by the Cambridge Group to diagnose the reasons for their imminent failure under PL221. Two years away from possible state takeover and perhaps, God forbid, conversion to charter schools, these two high schools (well, at least SSHS when I went there) were once among the best in the state.
There may be legitimate concerns about the effectiveness of these principals. But the success of a high school is determined almost entirely by the quality of the students from the middle schools that feed into it. When almost half of the students are socially promoted through these middle schools into the high schools, unprepared and doomed to failure, the high schools and their principals don't have a chance. Social promotion is the equivalent to the moral hazard in bailing out failing banks. In a school system the high schools, being at the end of the chain, suffer the consequences of a misguided attempt to decrease the drop out rate.
Unless the district changes its blanket policy of social promotion, the new principals (sacrificial lambs) will suffer the same fate as their predecessors. FWCS may hope that these changes may turn these schools around within the two year deadline the state has imposed, but they won't.
On the bright side, Don Willis is planning to open a new Imagine charter school on Pontiac Street in the former Fruehauf headquarters building. You go, Don! Keep on truckin'!
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11 comments:
Code Blue,
I’m having a difficult time understanding your sanction of Imagine Schools. I’ll admit that I haven’t read too much of your blog site, but If I’m correct in my assumption, you embrace the idea of an educational option and you’re not thrilled with what public education has produced. I feel the same. I believe that the public school system hasn’t been producing the best results, but I also understand the restrictions that are placed on them as a public entity. I think that there should certainly be another option, but I don’t understand why you so readily would endorse another option simply because it’s another option. Charter schools may indeed be the future of education, but wouldn’t you want to be careful in what you support as the next monopoly?
You rally behind Don Willis as though he’s the messiah to education. On what do you base this? It can’t possibly be his track record of integrity. His name has been peppered across the news in such scandalous items as Kelty’s downfall, the ridiculous attempted buy-in of the philharmonic and now the recent bogus operation of a “non-profit” board. Are you basing your support on Imagine’s academic track record? Have you researched it? Have you checked ISTEP scores? – or if you don’t believe in standardized tests as true evaluations of academic advancement, do you have a true grasp on what they do indeed produce? When I taught there they had no solid curriculum other than Saxon math. The “character development” program that they so proudly touted as a high selling point was non-existent. The phrase “Joy at Work” was an inside joke that made teachers snicker quietly . You can’t possibly be content with Willis as an educator! Aside from owning educational institutions, what experience does he have in the classroom? – or in education in general? Money can buy a position anywhere (except maybe into the Fort Wayne Philharmonic), but it certainly doesn’t make you an expert. So could you possibly be rallying behind Imagine because of Dennis Bakke? His success as a CEO for AES is certainly mentionable. But is he an educator? Does he even have the slightest concept of the very individuals that he purports to serve? The man has readily shown himself to be of the mindset that he is above the common man’s law. He’s admitted that he “loves control and power.” As CEO of AES he turned the electricity and lights out on whole countries – airports, hospitals, elderly men and women, poverty stricken young families. Integrity of product before economic gain? - Really? He’s a business man. He’s not committed to the process of learning or the integrity of the product. He refuses to answer the questions of concerned parents and reporters across the country on issues such as high turn-over of teachers and sustainability of administrators, contractor disputes, withheld pay from teachers…anything deemed controversial. He's above that trivial trifling. He brags that he doesn’t read his e-mail! He sets up shop in the poorest neighborhoods throughout America and he has yet to show that given the freedom that public school systems do not enjoy, he cannot produce better results. – Some charter schools can. Do you really want education to be treated as a fast food item? Really?
Jennifer - Without competition from an alternative public system, the current public education establishment, especially in an urban setting like ours, will never reform itself. Right now Willis is the only one offering such an alternative to FWCS in Fort Wayne. If there are better charter organizations, I wish they would come here and set up shop. But I don't expect any newly founded schools to get up to speed immediately and without startup pains. Ultimately if parents are dissatisfied with Imagine Schools or any other alternative for that matter, they will go out of business. That's the way it should work.
I haven't been in any of Willis's
schools but I have been in enough FWCS buildings to welcome any other option (even if that option eventually proves to be unviable) that will motivate FWCS to change course.
Regarding the effectiveness of the South Side principal: in thirty two years in public education, thirty in FWCS, Tom Smith was the best principal I worked for.
Siesta Girl-
I heard similar comments from a number of other teachers during the year I tutored algebra at SSHS.
But as I told Mr. Smith on several occasions, I sympathized with him because he was not in control of his own destiny. His success was tied to that of the middle schools that fed into South Side.
I'm sure Mr. Deford's situation at North Side was the same
So what will this 4.8 million dollar purchase for the new IMAGINE charter school cost us tax-payers?
julesfwcs...you must not read the JG or you would have seen the full brakedown on the cost to taxpayers for Imagine Schools...much less than FWCS
Willis or one of his entities bought the building (for $80K, which is next to nothing) and will pay a few million for remodeling. He will eventually get his remodeling money back by leasing it back to Imagine with money from from the taxpayers. Although the JG seems to think he has ulterior motives (like making money or whatever) I think Willis' motivation is to provide competition for FWCS. He has plenty of money, so why try to make more at his age by starting up a school system.
...Just would like to see positive ISTEP and/or Charter school results from the location on Wells Street before taxpayers start funding additional "buildings". I thought the theme of the the Code Blue effort years ago was something like Academics before Buildings? Do charter schools get a pass on that same theme, just because they are alternative competition?
No, they don't get a pass any more than FWCS should get a pass. But the Imagine school on Broadway has been operating for 1 or 2 years and I don't expect them to get the kinks worked out in that period of time. FWCS has been going for decades and can't adapt to changing demographics. I suspect Imagine is getting some of the most challenging cases from FWCS. Kids who couldn't function there are going to be a challenge for any school.
Let's give Imagine some time to get established and see what happens. My guess is that they will match or exceed FWCS on test scores for a given population and do it for less (taxpayer) money. That's the other half of the equation that has Wendy, who also keeps reminding us how long it takes to change the system ("turn the battleship around"), and her sympathizers seething.
Every school has different method ton teach tot the students.The regulation of the these schools has been in favour of the education.
Thanks...
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