Last-minute transfers to alternative school: Helping students or helping system?
The AJC has been looking at Hall County over the last few weeks because of the high number of students it moves from its regular high schools to its alternative school. The practice has long been a source of complaints from a few folks in Hall, including a regular poster here at Get Schooled who often shared troubling numbers about transfer rates.
In a data analysis, the AJC found multiple years in which a small number of graduates affected whether schools made adequate year progress, better known as AYP. The AJC found that three of Hall’s high schools missed their graduation-rate targets in 2007; East Hall missed by 14 students. Chestatee was off by three students, and Johnson High missed by one. (The AJC notes that Chestatee and Johnson still made AYP because of a second-chance option that allows schools to use a multi-year average.)
During the next two years, when transfers to Hall’s alternative school, Lanier Career Academy, jumped, the three schools posted better outcomes. East Hall made its graduation-rate goals by 10 students in 2008 and nine in 2009. Johnson did so by 12 students in 2008 and 11 in 2009. Chestatee did so by 18 students in 2008 and 14 in 2009.
The AJC data analysis found that during those two years, Hall high schools transferred a total of 79 students to Lanier at the last minute. State data obtained by the AJC does not show where the transfers originated.
In the latest piece, AJC investigative reporter Heather Vogell talked to transferred students about their experiences.
Dillan Hatcher said officials at Chestatee High School told him he was hurting the school’s chances of meeting federal standards for its graduation rate. Hatcher failed one portion of the Georgia High School Graduation Test and, as a result, expected to receive a certificate of performance instead of a diploma. Only diplomas boost a school’s graduation rate.
Hatcher said that when he arrived at Lanier Career Academy the final week of school, educators told him it was too late in the year to enroll in any programs. He said he sat in front of a computer, texted friends and stared at the wall. “I went for nothing,” he said. “I should have just gone home.”
Hall’s practice of transferring struggling students from regular high schools to Lanier days before graduation has been criticized by some who questioned whether the district simply shuffled students around to game the state’s accountability system. The pressure is much greater on regular high schools to meet graduation-rate standards than on Lanier.
Superintendent Will Schofield has vigorously defended the transfers. Last week, however, he said it is possible high schools had moved students to benefit their graduation rate in a few instances. But he said such transfers are not district practice. “I would be pretty Pollyannaish if I said that that didn’t happen at some point somewhere,” he said. “But in terms of the whole philosophy of the program, that’s not who we are.”
At one point, West Hall High School was in the running for an award — a Blue Ribbon of Excellence — but missed adequate yearly progress, or AYP, by three students, he said. All the district had to do was transfer the three, he said, but school officials “took our lumps.”
Overall, the district has defended sending students to Lanier, saying the moves are almost always voluntary and allow the district to provide assistance to students in danger of dropping out. Some are studying to retake the graduation test over the summer; others may take GED classes. Enrollment in Lanier even at the end of the year improves chances students will continue in their studies, officials said.
The Hall district in northeast Georgia is only the latest school system to face accusations of monkeying with the numbers to try to improve schools’ status under the accountability system built after the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this month that, in the past three years, at least 94 Hall County students who were due to receive certificates instead of diplomas transferred to Lanier in the final days of the school year. A 2009 email by the former principal for Lanier urged other schools to transfer their certificate students to Lanier at semester’s end “to improve your graduation rate.”
Hatcher said that, after he failed the graduation test, Chestatee High officials pulled him into the school office and told him he needed to go to Lanier. They convinced his father the move was good for him. “They said you’ll learn everything you need at LCA,” said Hatcher, who was reluctant to leave the school he had attended since freshman year.
“When I got to LCA, they said, ‘Get on the computer and do whatever,’ ” he said. “They said, ‘It’s too late in the year; we can’t get you in a program.’ ” He passed the graduation test re-test anyway. A few weeks later, he received his diploma.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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77 comments Add your comment
JM
May 31st, 2011
11:18 am
I wonder if the Hall county officials who “encouraged” these transfers are also encouraging other families not satisfied with the education of their children to seek education at charter schools.
AlreadySheared
May 31st, 2011
11:32 am
What? Some administrators are ethically challenged bald-faced liars? I don’t believe it!
Inman Park
May 31st, 2011
11:44 am
EnterI think what the practice really points out is the foolishness of rating a school up or down based on the graduation rate. The natuire of public education is such that schools must accept all commers, whether they are smart, dumb, rich, poor, black, white, Latino, or whatever. That is at once a strength and a weakness of public education. The “weakest” school in the “weakest” system in Georgia will send some kids to pretigious colleges. The “strongest” schools will have some drop outs and academic deadbeats. Look to the socioeconomic makeup of the school, and be reasonable. Recognize that in schools that serve a high number of students whose parents live at or below the poverty level you will find a relatively higher drop out rate and DON’T penalize the school for a broader social problem. We really do use public schools as a scapegoat in the country!
Mac
May 31st, 2011
12:03 pm
Seems like Schofield is continuing to throw his principals under the bus for something he is responsible for. This is wholly an unethical practice and it has happened on his watch and under his leadership. It is not really different from an administrator who withdraws students with a high number of absences a day or so before the CRCT like that principal in the news a while back.
Schofield and the administrators who did this need to resign immediately or be let go. There are no excuses for this kind of cheating the system. It only serves to help the admins look good and make other systems who are not cheating look bad.
Ole Guy
May 31st, 2011
12:49 pm
This entire practice seems to attract the same attention as that toward one who just farted in church…”OH WELL”!! Never mind calls for resignation, “boo booing” and such nicities. From my position in the trenches, I call this nothing short of a breach in public trust. Big question: HAVE ANY LAWS BEEN BUSTED? If not…inasmuch as these type practices seem to be almost routine in the ever-present political quest to “look good” for the ultimate purpose of financial gain, perhaps our esteemed lawmakers should enact laws, WITH TEETH, to forstall such criminal behavior by those who are supposed to have the public’s best interests behind their behavior. Let’s get with it, you jokers in that idiotic dome.
Hall Co
May 31st, 2011
12:58 pm
“Doing more with less” is the saying in Hall County. That is one of their least offensive school improvement strategies. Just look at the ESOL students being read the CRCT in Hall. Just because a student is Hispanic doesn’t mean they can’t read and speak English.
BB
May 31st, 2011
1:02 pm
Typical Hall County. I’m so glad I’m no longer teaching!
Reality
May 31st, 2011
1:15 pm
How is this type of cheating really any different than the APS cheating? Doesn’t it all boil down to administrators wanting to fudge numbers to make AYP?
So now the question becomes….. why isn’t SACS all down Hall County’s throat as they were and have been with APS?
Mac
May 31st, 2011
1:16 pm
@Ole Guy, Are you kidding? Principals at 2 of the schools mentioned got promoted to positions at the central office this year! A reward for a job well done I guess…
Teacher4Reform
May 31st, 2011
1:33 pm
@Reality- Good point! Why don’t you ask Schofield’s friend, State Superintendent John Barge, who was the principal at Chestatee High School (school mentioned
in the AJC article) several years ago. Hall also just hired Barge’s former AP and Bartow county principal to fill the principal’s position at Johnston High that just opened when the current principal got promoted to the central office this spring.
special ed teacher 2
May 31st, 2011
1:42 pm
Practices such as this are really disheartening to the teachers trying to make a difference. My students worked HARD this year and all 13 special education students that I teach passed the CRCT tests. Does anyone think they, or I , would have put in all the effort if they only had to transfer schools instead of studying?
Dunwoody Mom
May 31st, 2011
1:48 pm
In my view, these actions are just as harmful and agregious as those perpetuated by APS. Where is the outrage here? Is it due to the Superintendent’s past role with these schools????
Ole Guy
May 31st, 2011
1:58 pm
That’s exactly my point, Mac. It’s going to take a little “kicking of the weeds”…(in more graphic words) a political squeezing of the spheroids. Look Bud, I’ve been there…both my generation and I have served time on the front lines of social justice/of leading a demand for simply what’s right. Now, all I hear/read of is complaints, complaints, and (did I mention) complaints. Despite political gladhanding, future generations are receiving nothing short of a direct path to lives of mediocrity and desperation. It’s up to you/parents of these kids to kick start the process. Once again, Mac, I implore “GET WITH IT”!
Reality
May 31st, 2011
2:04 pm
Does anyone in Hall County care? Where is the parent outrage?
Or, are they more of the ’sweep it under the rug until it goes away’ type of people?
Jerry Eads
May 31st, 2011
2:08 pm
@Inman Park gets it. It does not matter at all what field or profession or business; as soon as a measure of some event is made “high stakes,” the measure becomes corrupted.
Some years ago I had the misfortune of having to attend meetings in the department of ed concerning the reporting of discipline infractions in the schools to the state. Those “in charge” simply could not fathom that there would be a tendency to underreport. The result was not only that events went unreported, but (far worse) it’s likely that some administrators were even less likely to mete out discipline, further damaging any semblance of classroom order.
It’s the same for graduation rates and, of course, testing. The EASIEST way to raise graduation (or pass) rates is to figure out how not to report those who cannot graduate or pass. The result of such “accountability” of course is not any improvement in learning, but the waste of energy aimed at corrupting the measure that could have been devoted to helping students instead.
Now ask yourselves honestly, remembering that the same thing goes on across the world in any “high stakes” situations, including business (sales figures are a relatively popular example for “high stakes” corruption): Was moving the student to the alternative school the fault of the administrator at the school or was it the fault of the incompetents who insisted on using graduation rate by itself as a measure of school success?
Ole Guy
May 31st, 2011
2:20 pm
Reality, the answer appears to be…(drumroll)…B.
Listen up, people…you and your stupid (yes, stupid) kids are facing nothing but disappointment. I suspect parents average somewhere around mid-40-ish which, in my book, places you at the same timeframe of educational decline. Looky here, I’ve led a somewhat checkered, though very productive life…I’m comfortable with what I’ve managed to accomplish. YOU PEOPLE are failing; YOU PEOPLE, along with your kids, are destined to lives of desperate failure, UNLESS you get your stuff together. Your early lives were proped up with financial bubbles which gave rise to your attitudes of “can’t lose”; unfortunately, your kids picked up on that “easy trails” mindset, feeling that the “system” will simply move em along with absolutely no effort required, just like you set the example with your easy come/easy go approach to leveraging your way to the easy life. YOU, for both your kids’ sakes…and yours…better take action NOW.
Hallcoresident
May 31st, 2011
2:27 pm
@Reality- I don’t think it is that people don’t care. Many of them just don’t know. The Gainesville Times has yet to report on this issue even though the AJC and channel 2 have. People in the schools are too job scared to say much.
EnoughAlready
May 31st, 2011
2:36 pm
I’ve said it before, everyone harks on what happens in Clayton, Dekalb and Atlanta schools. If you look across the entire state of Georgia you will find corruption, cheating and bald face liars; and it’s not just in our school systems.
archie@arkham asylum
May 31st, 2011
2:47 pm
@Hallcoreresident: I believe you when you say that people in the schools are too job scared to say much. This is pretty much everywhere in Georgia, not just Hall County. Teachers in particular, are afraid to stand up for others or even for themselves because they fear for their jobs (and the current job situation in Georgia doesn’t help anything, either!). One of the unwritten rules in Georgia public education is “thou shalt not rock the boat.” I should also mention that the teacher’s unions don’t scare anyone in Georgia. No teacher wants to risk losing their job and have the appelation “not a team player” on their final evaluation.
metro teacher
May 31st, 2011
3:00 pm
How about a school not letting first time juniors take the graduation test if they had not passed two credits of math, english, science and social studies? Got to keep that AYP looking good.
oldtimer
May 31st, 2011
3:13 pm
I think that most people do not care as long as it is not their kids…
Mac
May 31st, 2011
3:14 pm
@Jerry and Inman, I agree with you in regards of the idiocy of using high stakes testing and AYP.
However, if we can’t expect some semblance of integrity from school leaders and teachers even if the law of the land is horrible, then we are not just doing disservice to sales quotas and widgets but to our children.
I would also point out that Hall County Schools is one of the Race to the Top systems that is pushing for EVEN MORE high stakes accountability in terms of etcher merit pay etc. A district that can’t make the grade without cheating is going to now champion further high stakes measures??!
Schofield himself was one of the people that helped write Georgia’s application for Race to the Top and he basically says here it was OK to cheat, just blame the kids and the AYP accountability system.
JM
May 31st, 2011
3:32 pm
Some people still wonder why many families are turning to alternatives like charter, private and home schools
Tony
May 31st, 2011
4:23 pm
When do we begin to hold students responsible for their lack of effort? The students who are transferred have had multiple opportunities to pass the required exams. Based on all the arguments above, I get the idea that it’s always the mean and corrupt school officials. I have seen kids sit in classes with no intention of doing any work to make the grade. I’ve seen them mark answers on the required exams without reading the questions. The way things are presented in this article and in the media in general, it is the schools fault for the students’ behaviors.
Second, the use of high stakes testing and the current AYP requirements are idiotic. Schools are actually marked down on AYP for trying to help the very students referenced in this article. Why? Because they will not graduate on time. The graduation requirement in the AYP formula is merely an efficiency calculation – how many come out compared to how many go in. Schools only have four years to graduate even the most challenging of students. Quit penalizing schools for these kinds of insane measures.
Dr. Tom
May 31st, 2011
4:27 pm
Non-issue. Why would a failing student want to transfer to LCA if there is a possibility of him graduating with his peers? The issue is not the timing! Why do the students transfer at the end of the school year? Because that is when they know weather they will “walk” or not. These kids are getting every chance to make it in their high school. LCA is a parachute for the kids that find they are free falling. This is a good program getting a bad rep by “shock and awe” journalism.
Monise
May 31st, 2011
4:38 pm
@Archie A lot of people are under the impression that Georgia has a teachers’ union; it does not. GAE and PAGE are not unions because they do not handle collective bargaining, as it does not exist in Georgia. The state sets a teacher salary scale and counties add to it, depending on what they can afford to pay. Associations and unions are not one and the same, especially since administrators can belong to the same association as teachers. If there were a real union or anyone in Georgia with cajones, I would still be in the classroom. Not enough people willing to speak out against injustices against both students and teachers.
PacMan
May 31st, 2011
4:42 pm
The CRCT is a bad test too, but we sure go after people who cheat on it. How many millions of dollars have we spent analyzing erasures? I don’t see much difference here.
Old Physics Teacher
May 31st, 2011
4:51 pm
There is a term called “Learned Helplessness.” I don’t remember the study; I don’t have access to the educational journals anymore. Nevertheless, I believe the term applies to the situation where a person tries as hard as he can to succeed at a task. After three full attempts, with analysis after each attempt of why the individual failed, the individual will quit and claim the goal is unreachable.
I believe that is where we now stand on NCLB. The odds are stacked against us; the politicians are against us, and now the politicians have turned the general public against us. In my school system, we get 30-60 students socially promoted every year. Most of these kids are reading 3-4 years behind grade and even do not know the 10 x 10 tables! There is no way for these kids to pass any 9th grade courses. Therefore there is no way, 4 years later, for us to make AYP. We do not have a single teacher qualified to teach these classes. Even if we did, class sizes and finances prevent it. Every system is in the same fix. The politicians have fixed the game for us to lose.
Therefore, I submit that any tactic, loophole, the “law” allows us to succeed is valid.
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
5:02 pm
The process of moving students to LCA is CHEATING! It is absolutely no different than what is happened in APS.
Of course nothing will happen – just saying!!! Ask John.
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
5:05 pm
*typo* Remove the second “is” in the second sentence.
Mac
May 31st, 2011
5:05 pm
Again, no one is arguing the system isn’t poor or even broken.
But cheating and gaming the system with loopholes only serves to support the flawed system and help hide the fact that it has failed. It also screams of hypocrisy when we preach about character and integrity in our school systems but resort to gross manipulation to pass such as Hall County has done here. As far as the students refusing to perform, that was a problem long before NCLB and will be after it has gone. I don’t see how this is relevant to what Hall county has done here. Adults should know better.
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
5:22 pm
williev, if you can’t tell the difference, you must have went to a APS school. What Hall is doing is gaming the system, what APS did was flat out lying and cheating. They told kids that they scored better on tests than they really did, the flat out lied. Where are students being lied to in Hall?
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
5:26 pm
Mr. Charlie – no I did not “have went” to APS. Cheating is Cheating my friend.
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
5:35 pm
How can you say that Hall is cheating? Why not give the kid the opportunity to pass and walk with his classmates? Should he have been tracked into alternative school before and not given every opportunity.
What they did can be considered unethical, but not is not a flat out lie. There can be justification.
It is not erasing freaking test answers for the entire school system.
Who is to say that this is not done at APS too? Oh thats right, they would not need to, they just change the answers on the tests.
Why would you think that Sacs would single out APS, but not Hall?
Bottom line, you do not draw a good analogy, it seems you have an agenda trying to justify what happened in APS.
Texas Pete
May 31st, 2011
5:48 pm
Mr Charlie,
LOL. Yeah, it’s called “gaming the system” until you get caught and charged with something then it’s “cheating”. BYOM society baby…Bring Your Own Morality.
Texas Pete
May 31st, 2011
5:50 pm
“Go after the blue collar criminals first so that us white collar criminals have more time to get away with our wrong doings.”
- Mr Charlie
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
5:52 pm
I am sure if you look at every school system, each one is doing something that can raise eyebrows, so what do you do?
A. Go after every school system and put them all on probation regardless of how low the impact is if the indiscretion might be, and regardless of what the justification might be? Because, “Cheatin is Cheatin”.
B. Maybe since SACs does not have the manpower and resources to put every school district on probation, they should turn a blind eye the to practice of changing test scores and allow APS continue to lie to their students? Why should they even exist at all?
C. maybe Sacs should allocate their resources and go after the worst offenders first that impact the students the most?
I say the answer is C. How about you? What is your rational explanation? “Cheatin is Cheatin” is not rational, or will that analogy get you very far on a standardized test.
Mac
May 31st, 2011
5:53 pm
The correct analogy isn’t the erasure issue.
The correct analogy is what happened when the Atlanta area administrator, Dekalb I think, removed 13 students who were going to negatively impact her school’s AYP from the rolls right before CRCT testing. The difference is her superintendent turned her in to the PSC when she was caught and did not make excuses for it or condone her actions. Do you call what that principal did cheating?
Maureen, do you remember where this happened?
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
5:58 pm
First, I do not have anything to do with APS. I do know an elementary school teacher in the school system.
The students in the Hall County Schools, from all media reports, had failed the last administration of the Georgia High School Graduation Test prior to their scheduled graduation. They have an opportunity for a re-take, I’m sure, this summer. The only reason to transfer in the last week is to attempt get around the Adequately Yearly Progress Standards. The goal: To Make AYP. This is the very same goal at APS in their cheating scandal. Please do not think I am saying what APS did was ethical. They all should be fired in my opinion. However, the same should occur in Hall County.
There are several “gaming” things schools and school systems do to circumvent the process. I know you would be surprised. Let me give you another example: If a high school student is about to drop out of school; schools and school systems will encourage the student to apply for “Home-School”. Do you think I know what I’m talking about yet, Mr. Charlie? “Cheating is Cheating, my friend!”
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
6:01 pm
Oh let me explain, Mr. Charile. If you transfer to “Home-School”, you will not be considered a drop-out!
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
6:09 pm
Again, it is all about resources and priorities. Should Sacs go after Hall? Maybe, unless there is a more blatant example yet to be discovered in another school system that impacts more students.
Is murder the same as stealing a candy bar? Because Breaking the law is Breaking the law…..Again, your philosophy, while saturated in ethics, is not based in rational thought.
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
6:12 pm
Again, is Hall alone in this Drop Out rouse? Can you tell me APS does not do the exact same thing? How many other school systems do it? Is the “Drop out rouse” the most pressing thing that warrants SACS resources? Or is the some other school system doing something worse that has a higher impact? Truth is, you, nor I, really know, now do we?
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
6:13 pm
Just to take a flier, why do you think SACS “singled out” APS?
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
6:19 pm
I’m not talking about SACS. I’m talking about “Cheating”! I’m not talking about PSC. I’m talking about “Cheating”. Would you feel better if I said; “gaming the system”? Gaming the system can be defined as “[using] the rules and procedures meant to protect a system in order, instead, to manipulate the system for [a] desired outcome”. (Desired Outcome: To Make AYP!!!!)
williev2000
May 31st, 2011
6:30 pm
My last time, I promise. Is not SACS at APS because of the School Board? Is not the Governor’s Office in-charge of the cheating issue? I may be wrong.
Maureen please answer that one.
Old School
May 31st, 2011
6:31 pm
I think folks need to take a closer look at “credit recovery.” Now THERE’s a sketchy program used by some schools to allow failing students to get credits with minimal effort.
another comment
May 31st, 2011
6:33 pm
The same thing is with the graduation rates someone is fudging. My daughter told me that I believe that 420 students graduated from her Cobb County High School, yet at Freshman year the classes have about 665 students. I remember that number from her class ranks. So with 420 graduating out of 665 Freshman that is only a 63% graduation rate. Even if I heard her wrong and she said 460 graduated, that is only a 70% graduation rate. I was just shocked that there was only a low to mid 400 students graduating from a Cobb County 5A School with 2,200 students.
I went to a small high school in a small district in upstate New York that only had about 1,450 students, and I graduated from a class of 365 graduating seniors. I only know of one student who dropped out of my class in 4 years. That was in the 9th grade because she was pregnant. One other student’s family moved to Peachtree City, Ga. in High School. But no one else ever moved away. A few people moved in as their family moved out to the country or outer suburbs along the way. But we didn’t have a transient population. Most of my classmates parents worked blue collar factor jobs that were union at the Ford Plant or the Steel Mills. They lived middle class lives, but their parents expected them to graduate from high school. You had to graduate from high school to get one of these Union Factory jobs in the late 70’s.
I couldn’t beleive until I moved to Georgia in the 1980’s after College that people were still dropping out of high school. My mother did in 1942, but she was the exception in upstate NY., all her 7 younger siblings graduated.
Mr Charlie
May 31st, 2011
6:36 pm
I getcha, and it is my assumption that every school system out there tries in some way to cook the books in order to reach the mandates. I don’t like it, nor do I agree with it, I think it is a symptom of a larger broken system.
But again, is murder the same a stealing a candy bar? And you say it is not about “Sacs”, but the entire thread started when you questioned why Sacs is not going after Hall like they did APS. Maybe they will, but I point is Sacs has limited resources, so they need to go after the most blatant violators that is affecting the most students, and I have not seen anything to suggest that what is happening in Hall is impacts more students overall then what happened in APS. Cheating is cheating, but life ain’t that cut and dried, it is never that simple.
Kanarstead
May 31st, 2011
6:41 pm
“Would you feel better if I said; “gaming the system”?”
You got it right the first time, Hall County Schools are CHEATING.
Hall County Schools = C H E A T E R S
Dr. John Trotter
May 31st, 2011
6:47 pm
Will Mark Elgart and his SACS Joke-of-a-Team show up in Chicken Country? Nope. Nothing — at least, nothing substantive — be be laid at the feet of Superintendent Will Schofield. If he didn’t know about this “little practice,” well, he should have known. What did he know and when did he know it? Shades of a young Republican attorney, Fred Thompson, during the Watergate Hearings. Ha! What did ole Will know, and when did he know it? Before it’s over, chicken feathers may be wafting all over the Chattahoochee…didn’t Sidney Lanier write, “Out of the hills of Habersham and down through the valleys of Hall”? Why would Hall County name an academy for “failures” after this best known of Georgia poets, Sidney Lanier? These kids might not have been labeled “failures,” if the educrats in Hall County didn’t know that they had an “alternative” to which they could whisk these kids away.
My further take on the situation…
http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/
Pumpkin Eater
May 31st, 2011
7:25 pm
Thank you AJC. Without you, those of us in Hall County would know nothing about the cheating going on with our schools. We use the Gainesville Times for camping trips.
Lee
May 31st, 2011
7:51 pm
So, what I want to know is “Where is the Professional Standards Board in all this?”
I know, I know. I was just being facetious.
The most troubling thing about all this is that I am hearing some of you say that the system (AYP, CRCT, Graduation, EOCT, etc, etc) of measure is so broken, it forces you to “cook the books”.
The irony is, if a large percentage is cooking the books, it becomes the new norm.
Sorta like all the businesses who now claim they cannot stay in business without hiring illegal aliens…..
Weave that wicked web….
Mom of transfer student
May 31st, 2011
7:52 pm
I’m a parent of one of these students from this year’s senior class. The school doesn’t want them to choose to just stay at the school and finish the year. This was my daughter’s first choice. They keep telling of other options. They may it sound as if the student stays there they probably will never receive their diplomas. My daughter finally chose LCA because she said she just wanted it over with. This is hard on these students who have just a couple weeks left of their senior year. Also as the other student in the story said the only help given at LCA is setting them up on computer program a few hours a day until school is out. At this time they are on their own until test time in July. I don’t see why they can’t finish with their friends at their schools and be given these web sites to work on in the summer before the test. My school said that transferring these students didn’t affect the AYP results. Not that they would admit it if it did. I’m sure in all these schools they want these students to have school spirit and support the sports teams and stand behind them even if they come up short on game day. They definitely don’t practice what they preach. For these students who have passed all classes and earned credits but just lack one of these tests. They are ready to discard them so they don’t have to count them.
And for those who made the comments about these students being in this situation because of not trying or being lazy and not wanting to do the work. Don’t be so quick to judge unless you know each student involved. I think most of the teachers would tell you different about them. Some of these work harder beacause they have too.
Really?
May 31st, 2011
8:08 pm
“Superintendent Will Schofield has vigorously defended the transfers. Last week, however, he said it is possible high schools had moved students to benefit their graduation rate in a few instances. But he said such transfers are not district practice.”
Hate to tell you dumba$$, but if 3 or more of your high schools are doing this, it most definitely is a “district practice”.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
May 31st, 2011
8:15 pm
Until a significant percentage of those GA educrats who “cook the books” are convicted and incarcerated in state prisons, we shouldn’t expect to see a diminution in the prevalence of their test-cheating, their attendance-/enrollment-falsifications, and their manipulations of graduation data.
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[...] Get Schooled: Helping students or helping system? [...]
Really?
May 31st, 2011
8:38 pm
Seems like Schofield would be a good start Dr Spinks.
catlady
May 31st, 2011
9:05 pm
It might be believable to “help the student” if they were identified earlier and joined LCA in time to get some significant help. However, transferring them at the 11th hour? No, it is to help the schools in the system.
A scenario: You are at the beach. A person is drowning. Do you A) jump in immediately and rescue them or B) wait till Channel 2 arrives with video equipment? If your goal is to help the person who is drowning, you rescue them when you first notice they are drowning. If you are out to feather your own nest, and hedge your bets (maybe the drowning person will figure out how to swim so you won’t have to get your clothes wet), you wait till the TV cameras are on.
Dr. Schofield has SEVERAL friends in high places, BTW.
And, re earlier options via SACS, there is D) pull out of that moneymaking organization and tell them to take a flying leap.
anonymous
May 31st, 2011
9:10 pm
Thank goodness for those friends of Schofield… Without that political spotlight, this would have been swept under the rug like so many other things in Hall County.
HallTeach
May 31st, 2011
9:26 pm
Schofield is not a Dr. just for the record.
sloboffthestreet
May 31st, 2011
9:44 pm
Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!
Fourloined student
May 31st, 2011
10:17 pm
Why do de goverment all ways be picks on us dat bees lazy and trifing, and then mak us go to the allternetive school. I could be done graduated ontime wif’in my hommes if dey had let me go to
one of them Chartar Schools.
directlyintheknow
May 31st, 2011
11:01 pm
This is not news…what do you think is the primary function of Elizabeth Andrews High School in DeKalb County? Puhlease……
Reality
May 31st, 2011
11:54 pm
A few really false claims floating around on here…
1. Charter schools or other ‘alternatives’ are not the answers. They fail to make AYP at a higher rate than public schools in the State of GA.
2. There are no teacher unions in Georgia. This lovely State has made them illegal. Thus, all we have are neutered ‘professional organizations’ that have exactly ZERO power to do anything, much less protect a teacher will to rat out these cheaters.
3. There really are a number of good public high schools that excel on a national level in Georgia. It is wrong to lump all public schools into one category. They prove that it is possible to succeed.
mike
June 1st, 2011
4:47 am
So SACS is only geared toward though schools that have a darker enrollment. Who would have thunk it?
Warning signs
June 1st, 2011
8:32 am
Whenever you hear educators loudly proclaim that they are acting in the best interest of a student, you know something is fishy. I’ve suggested LCA services for a student in Hall that wasn’t fitting in with a traditional school model, and a central office staff person stated, “I don’t think he will get anything out of it” The reason is that all the students sit in front of a computer for their “virtual coursework” and receive zero instruction provided by a teacher. As an example that the bigwigs in Hall really don’t care, look at the number of Sp Ed teachers and ESOL teachers that have been non-renewed over the last 4 years. The number is nearing 150. These cuts are justified due to the budget while there is room in the budget to pay In-school suspension teachers between 68,000 and 90,000 dollars a year to supervise 1 or 2 students a day. Hall County is gaming the AYP process by stopping the referral for students with disabilities to gain entry into SP ED programs. The RTI process in Hall has virtually stopped students with learning and behavioral weaknesses from receiving SP ED services thereby decreasing the size of the sub group within a school so that it doesn’t count for AYP. The gaming of the AYP system in Hall is much more involved than just a few dozen high school seniors transferring. They are reducing the numbers of students in SP ED to lower the sub group size and providing testing accommodations to students that don’t need them in ESOL. Because of a lack of intervention for struggling students in early years, guess what happens when they are seniors, that’s right; they don’t pass the high school grad. test after they have been passed along from earlier grades. If the bigwigs in Hall really cared about the best interests of the students, they would provide resources for intervention instead of saying meaningless things like “doing more with less”
Ole Guy
June 1st, 2011
9:11 am
Doc Tom, your observations, though not entirely without merit, serve as vivid illustration of the reason why so much nonesense goes by without so much as a wimper of REAL protest. While parents should be up in arms DEMANDING a little professionalism at the educational helm, good folks, like you, seem content to merely salve the situatioin with an “ALL”S OK” approach. The “shock n’ awe” journalism, to which you refer, simply points out the misuse of an otherwise fine program. The issue, indeed, is all about timing; of manipulating the program in order to place a happy political face upon systemic failure.
I could not agree with you more in the fact that this program has become a port in the storm of abject indifference and self-engineered failure; if it was up to me, this program would be closed to high school juniors and seniors. By this stage of the game, as far as I am concerned, if they haven’t gotten with the program, they should be lawfully inelligible for further publically-funded education; any further expenditures, on these kids’ behalf, only represents a waste of limited tax revenue.
That being said, Doc, the program, in it’s INTENDED function, is a fine thing. The powers that be, in the misguided notion of “NCLBesq”, wish to salvage a portion of the student population which cannot/will not get with it. You know, and I know, that 99.99% of these kids will wind up leading lives of mediocrity. As I’ve always contended, no matter how advanced our civilization becomes, there will always be need for menial labor; these kids provide that very labor pool; as long as our educational system is run by a leadership whose only concern is apeasment of the pc gods, that labor pool will always be in abundance.
Hmmm.....
June 1st, 2011
9:46 am
When does the blame fall on the students for failing to pass the graduation test on multiple attempts? When does a students own accountability come into play? Lots of folks on here are ready to skewer administrators, but come on….if a student acted responsibly, studied, and came to class and acted like a mature student, would any of the schools be in this situation to begin with?
Teacher's Husband
June 1st, 2011
9:50 am
There isn’t a county in this state that doesn’t have at least ONE administrator who doesn’t recognize ethical boundaries. The problem is that there really isn’t any **measurable accountability for school administrators** the way there is for teachers. Sure, they do go through a yearly evaluation by the county, but most of the materials that they are evaluated on are things that they gathered together themselves so that they look good on paper but instead are a complete and total nightmare when the rubber hits the road in the school house.
If you take, for example, a strong system like Walton County, who is renowned for ethical dealings, you will still find pockets of poor administration. For example, there is one administrator there now who is currently serving a one month suspension handed down by the PSC for TWO ethical violations. Has this person lost their job? No. But if a teacher were convicted of the same thing, they could kiss their career good bye.
Hall Co Parent
June 1st, 2011
2:32 pm
I think we need some new leadership in the Hall County School System. Schofield needs to go. Listen up Board Members.
Beaver Cleaver, Curious About SACS
June 1st, 2011
11:28 pm
Beaver Cleaver: “Wally, I don’t understand…Does SACS ever take on a white school system?” Eddie Haskel: “Shut up, kid, and do your homework!”
j4a
June 2nd, 2011
1:00 pm
I have to agree w/cat lady and question how these students were passed from k-12 and were not identified in earlier school years and given appropriate help. My third grader made a comment to me this year that I believe hit the nail on the head. My child said , ” Mom I noticed that only the real bad kids and the really smart kids get the attention and the middle kids get nothing.”
anonymous
June 2nd, 2011
7:26 pm
Does anyone think the negative press will encourage Schofield to make a move from Hall County?
Ole Guy
June 3rd, 2011
6:48 am
Teacher’s Husband, perhaps you, as a (presumably) non-educator/interested party may see the wisdom and necessity in forming a collective voice among the Georgia Teacher Corps. The example of an administrator, found guilty of an infraction which earns little more than a slap on the wrist, is more than ample reason why the educational system is in shambles. Under the current “do as I say, not as I do” doctrine, teachers’ morale/much less classroom efectiveness surely suffers. As so-called leaders/administrators behave with impunity, teachers must stand by the sidelines fearful of career-busting punishments for similar infractions. most-certainly, mutterings of protest would yield comparable results.
i have presented the drumroll of unionization among teachers for some time, yet, despite the complaints surrounding the many irregularities within the educational camp, no one has yet to initiate any progress along these lines. This inaction can only lead to one of two conclusions: 1) despite the political pressures which seem to generate a fair amount of teacher complaint, the teacher corps, as a whole, is really quite content to work with, and allow these inequities, OR 2) teachers are scared…afraid of displeasing the powers that be and, ultimately, loss of job and career. This final conclusion is somewhat perplexing in that, almost to a man/women, a teacher will expound and pontificate on the “love of children” as the primary professional goal. Yet, the very inaction, among teachers, points to self-concern over concern for the educational welfare of generations to come.
As an “interested party”, perhaps you might see the wisdom in actively pursuing a collective voice among teachers by way of unionization.
Teacher's Husband
June 3rd, 2011
12:41 pm
@ Ole Guy
I think the answer to your question as to why Georgia teachers don’t unionize IS #2: “teachers are scared…afraid of displeasing the powers that be and, ultimately, loss of job and career.”
An unethical administrator who wants to get rid of a teacher has tools in their arsenal to make it happen. All it takes is the correct paperwork. For instance, in my wife’s school, the principal currently under PSC suspension would go into “targeted” teacher’s classrooms to do an observation at 2:30 on a Friday before a holiday when school let out at 2:40. It didn’t seem to matter to this woman that observations are supposed to last at least 15 minutes or at that time of day it would almost take a whip and a chair to keep kids focused and on task. The important thing to that administrator seemed to be to intimidate and harrass teachers. (That particular teacher in question opted for early retirement as she couldn’t handle the pressure any more.)
School administrators SHOULD be in in the business of being supportive to both teachers and students and allowing them to have the tools in order to be successful. There are many good administrators out there. But there are some, like this woman at Youth Middle School, who are on a serious personal power trip. Why she is allowed to go unchecked is beyond me, but that is a decision that is supported by the Walton County BOE.
Concerned Teacher
June 4th, 2011
9:40 am
Hall County is not the only school system in Georgia that makes these last minute moves for graduation rates. As a teacher, I feel the integrity of education is being greatly undermined with this. The students certainly know how to play the game. Alternative school is not as demanding as the regular classroom (or at least that is my experience) so students just sit back and wait for the “move.” The can accomplish many “weeks” of work in just days. Amazing. And what have they learned? How to play the system without doing the work. Sweet.
Former Hall Co Student
June 5th, 2011
1:36 pm
I was a senior at Chestatee High School when this first went into place. Originally it was if you were going to fail anyway by Christmas Break you would be transferred as soon as you got back. Then it turned into you got transferred for messing anything up. The last week of my senior year I skipped school for one class period, and was called into the office and told I was a disgrace and embarrassment to the school and I would be transferred to LCA immediately. I mean we were seniors and had been going to school for 13 or 14 years of course we were going to skip once or twice at the end of the year it doesn’t mean we a disgrace. At the end of the day I was called back and had to fight my way to graduate with the class I have been with since kindergarten. They gave me what we call “senior week” to think about what I had done and I would have to sit in ISS. All of this for skipping one day. Ever since Former Principal Bill Thompson left the school went down hill all of the policies changed and it was no longer “The place to be”. Things were miserable and it still is. The school has changed three principals in two years and can not find a stable administration for its students.