Having read the "official" reason for administrator musical chairs and teachers reapplying for their jobs in GiaQuinta's letter to the JG, we don't have much choice but to guess what's really going on here. Supposedly, these "high risk" moves as Wendy calls them, are being made to preserve "local control". How exactly will that work? No one has received a pink slip. Does anyone believe that merely shuffling administrators will result in improved academic performance at the affected schools? Perhaps Tony Bennett told Wendy that he would get off her case for a while if she just moved some administrators around. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with moving people around to get them out of their comfort zone and expose them to different experiences. The education establishment, however, is all about staying in your comfort zone so maybe just putting people in a different environment is "risky". But the jobs are mostly similar and there's no reason to think that these people will improve their performance or that of their students just by moving.
Take Mr. Deford (former North Side principal demoted to assistant) and Mr. Smith (former South Side principal becoming Wayne principal). Both appear to be well respected by their faculties and students. Both had the deck stacked against them by social promotion from the middle schools, although they knew what they were getting into when they took the job. In a suburban district they might have succeeded but we'll never know. Mr. Mable (Principal at Wayne, which is in the bottom 20 high schools in the state, going to South Side) doesn't appear to be getting any of the praise the other two have been getting. Maybe that move is about nepotism. The deck will still be stacked at SSHS, NSHS (for Mr. Hissong coming over from Elmhurst) and Wayne, so what else is going to change? The test scores certainly won't.
Then what about having teachers reapply for their jobs at the failing (sorry I meant "LEAD") schools? How will that improve their performance? Maybe this is the only way to weed out incompetent teachers without violating the Union contract. The union probably has to go along because the budget deficit gives the district a legal way to cut teachers. But are the only incompetent teachers at the "LEAD" schools? Why doesn't Wendy make every teacher in the district reapply?
Nothing about these changes or the official explanation makes any sense. How about some plain talk and transparency. Apparently these are "our schools" only in so far as we pay the bills.
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16 comments:
I agree with most of your opinions, but let me explain why it would not be a good idea for the FWEA or FWCS to have all teachers reapply for their teaching positions. First, Dr. Robinson would hire only young and inexpensive teachers. This would save a lot of money, but probably would not fix the academic problems in FWCS and would more than likely only exasperate the situation. Secondly, who is going to decide which teachers are qualified to teach and which ones do not make the cut? Do you believe Dr. Robinson would rehire the high school teacher that spoke for reforms at the January school board meeting? He would be thrown under the bus with every other teacher who had ever disagreed with Dr. Robinson and had the tenacity to make it public. What citizens of Fort Wayne should do is become more involved in their schools. In order to do this they need to vote against Dr. Robinson's cronies at the next school board election. Next they need to demand a return to community schools.
Spencer-
In FWCS, as in any large organization, about 10% of the employees are substandard performers. In FWCS, this 10% is not limited to the LEAD schools, so only they are being singled out while the problem goes much further.
Wendy stated she is doing this because "it's the right thing to do". Replacing experienced teachers with cheap teachers is not the right thing to do. If that is really a concern, it means she has no credibility with the teachers and your "under the bus" comment means she's vindictive as well.
Who decides which teachers ar qualified? Aren't teachers evaluated every two years? What I'm hearing here is that the evaluations are meaningless. Why give an honest evaluation, when there is no way to fire a poorly rated teacher anyway. All you'll end up with is a pissed off teacher.
Code Blue,
Teachers can be terminated for poor teaching practices, but unfortunately most administrators don't make the effort to do so. Why don't they get rid of poor teachers? I expect they are a bit lazy themselves and don't want to put in the hours it would take to rid the corporation of these employees. Under the new system it sounds like it will be easier to move bad teachers out. This sounds great until you realize that hard working teachers that don't tow the political line will also probably be dismissed. Under the new system no teacher will dare utter a word about anything. This is not a good formula for a productive educational environment. Impossible you say, ten years ago did you think FWCS would be in this position? I sure as heck did not!
Although I've seen some comments about a new "system" I haven't heard anything specific. The best way for teachers to be protected from political retribution would be to have an evaluation system based primarily on quantifiable, numerical objectives instead of subjective judgements. That's what I had for 35 years in industry.
Such a system would have to take standardized test scores into account. I believe that's also required by of "Race to the Top". There has to be a fair way to do that, although teachers right now are adamantly against it.
I have supported fwcs whole heartedly as my two older kids have thrived in this school system. (Both honors students and with great SAT/ACT scores) I have been getting concerned more recently about my younger child, still at the elemntary level.
I am hearing now that there is a 2 month waiting list for local teachers to get meetings with leaders for retirement discussion, that teachers are so upset with all the paperwork and testing that they have little time to teach, and that the curriculum is concentrated 80-90% on Everyday Math and Reading levels, that no time is left for science, social studies, music and writing. I have heard that cursive writing and penmenship will probably be removed and replaced with keyboarding. Just very concerned that most teachers will be very young and so afraid we will lose some of the old school techniques that our veteran teachers can use to inspire kids.
Science, social studies and health has gone by the way side for years. The schools with the lowest ISTEP scores have been instructed to teach ONLY math and reading for the past 4 plus years. Writing has not been ditched because of the ISTEP test, however most teachers are not allowed to teach cursive writing.
On a side note: I sub. for a high LES, high minority school outside of FWCS boundaries. I find it interesting that there are several subs who have escaped from FWCS, and have stated how much more enjoyable it is to teach in a disciplined manner.
And to Jules: The honors classes in FWCS are a joke. I went to Carroll, and many of mediocre classes were tougher than FWCS' AP classes.
It all comes down to one thing with reprimanding teachers and making positive changes...
U-N-I-O-N
No one has the guts to fight them at FWCS...
CoFW:
Thanks for your insight. I don't really agree that the AP classes were poorly taught. My oldest had AP Lit and AP US History, and then tested out at IU, so Northrop did a lot of things right- especially with the top 10%.
Like I said, just concerned now with my youngest. Not ready at all to move, and especially not willing to go to NWAC, but just very interested to see what happens to some of our better teachers in light of all these changes. 10 years after my older kids went thru, there are not many of the same teachers left in my elementary.
With half the kids coming into the high schools reading below grade level and unable to add single digit numbers without a calculator, I don't think the district has any choice but to concentrate on reading and math. That's what the standardized tests measure and those are this basic skills kids need to be successful higher education or business. When so many kids require so much attention from a fixed number of teachers, the kids who are keeping up are pretty much left to their own devices and go unchallenged. Magnet schools can offer more but how many parents who care want to have their kids bused across town to get a decent education? Why should they have to?
It's a monumental problem. A unionized work force is another barrier to progress, as the domestic auto industry finally realized. In their case it was too late.
I think it's also too late for FWCS as it's constituted now. It will take longer to hit bottom because it's a public entity and the politics go deeper. So the easiest thing for parents who are able to do so is to leave.
I had pretty written off the district and all their bullshit until they tried to get a billion dollars to remodel their buildings. As if that were the number one priority. What a travesty! Unfortunately the latest version of the board doesn't get it any more than the last one. Unless we get some people on there who's biggest priority isn't keeping Wendy around, all we can do is limit the damage to our pocketbooks.
Spencer Clay - you are living in a dream world if you think a teacher can be terminated in FWCS for "poor practices". The union has made sure this cannot happen. If a teacher's evaluation is poor, they are put on a MAP, some sort of improvement plan. This means the teacher has his/her pick of available jobs in the district for the next year, meaning he/she can get away from that "mean" principal doing the evaluation the next time. Needless to say, this system leads to very few terminations.
Jules-
With apologies for the BS remark, I agree with your current assessment of AP and honors courses north of Coliseum Boulevard. Until this recent uproar I would not have been too concerned about sending my child to a school like Croninger and going through to Snider (named after my principal at SSHS way back when) or even Northrup. I subbed in "academic" classes in both schools, which were not impressive, but I sat in on a few AP classes which were fine.
South of Coliseum the honors and AP classes are a different story. Eventually the whole system will go in that direction, but right now you'll be OK..
Code Blue,
The AP and honrs classes were so bad at that North Side that I my son had to go to a LOCAL private university and can only muster a 3.75 GPA with 18 credit hours. I would send my younger kids to Concordia, but nobody got their throat slit at North Side this year. Come on...you can get an education if you want it.
That's true. Some people can get an education without setting foot in a classroom, and maybe your son is one of them. But most kids in this district can't.
Last year the high schools went to spring end of course (EOC) examinations instead of the fall Graduation Qualifying Exam (GQE) given in the past. The overall passing rate for the math EOC in FWCS was 20%, versus 40% statewide. This is a standardized test over a course they had just taken. The honors math course I was tutoring (south of Coliseum) spent the first third of each class period on material from previous courses, meaning they covered one third less new material. Yeah, there were a few kids who knew the stuff and were bored stiff but most of them were clueless.
I have an honest question and I am beginning to wonder if I am just out of touch. Yes, my kids are bored stiff in parts of the AP classes. I have always held them to task on grades and schoolwork. With that being said, it seems like the schools, union, community, etc. are scared to death to ask more of the parents and students. Am I naive to question why FWCS doesn't take simple, cost free steps such as denying participation in extra-cirrucular activities to those who can't pass ISTEP and/or adhere to disciplinary codes?
Again, I ask honestly. Why is parental/student accountability the third rail in this whole discussion?
John-
Just think what your kids might have accomplished if they'd been challenged. Public schools teach to the lowest common denominator. Even in "honors" and AP classes, there are no prerequisites, not even passing the ISTEP, so those classes are also dumbed down. I turored an AP precalculus class two years ago where, out of about 25 kids, 20 had no business being in there.
I think the reason its like that is all political. If we took your suggestion about athletics for example, (going by ISTEP passing rates) the teams would lose half their players. It would be worse south of Coliseum where it would impact heavily on minority kids. The same thing would happen if they stopped social promotion. Parents would be outraged and the last thing the district wants to do is piss anyone off. They can't afford to lose sudents because their funding is based on enrollment. So union teachers, whose union finances school board candidates would lose their jobs. And on and on it goes.
This won't get fixed in my lifetime. But then it took a while for GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt.
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