Bibb school chief sees miracle. Parents see mayhem in his ambitious reform blueprint.
I am leery of anything described as a miracle, but that is what the new Bibb superintendent is pledging for the 25,000 students in his district under his ambitious plan for reviving the district.
One of the most miraculous goals is a 100 percent high school graduation rate by 2023
Last week, Superintendent Romain Dallemand fulfilled his promise to shake up the sluggish system, unveiling his Macon Miracle blueprint to decidedly mixed responses. (There are more than 400 comments on the Macon Telegraph website, most of which could be described as skeptical and angry.)
The Macon Miracle blueprint is candid about the district’s challenges: With 41 schools in the District, only 24 of them made Adequate Yearly Progress for 2010‐2011. Discipline data also raises concern for the future of Bibb County, Georgia, and the United States. In 2010‐2011, almost 8,000 students were suspended for a total of 48,000 days of missed instruction. Nearly 500 students were expelled, 703 students dropped out of school completely and the District’s 9th grade cohort graduation rate was 44.6%.
The plan contains 100 action points, including closing schools, a dramatic restructuring of grade configurations, a move to year-around schools, Chinese classes for all students from pre-k to grade 12 (they would be phased in starting next year with teachers hired from China), schools of choice that students could pick based on their interests and dorms for students in need.
Bibb would move to k-3 elementary schools, grades 4-through-7 middle schools and grades 8-through-12 high schools. (I am not sure of the research underpinnings for this configuration. In my earlier reporting on k-3 models, I found the research suggests that children lose ground in transition years so fewer transitions are better)
Bibb students would go to school longer each day for a weekly gain of 10 hours. K-3 students would have 90-minute reading blocks every day.
The system would drop from 1,179 teachers to 856 teachers through attrition for a savings of $19 million in a five-year period. Bibb would shutter 12 elementary schools and save $4.5 million. The high school schedule would change from the current four block schedule to a seven period day, which somehow would save $1.5 to $3 million dollars.
I get the sense reading the blueprint that almost every conceivable reform has been tossed into the mix. I am not sure that a document with so many layers and so many moving parts is the answer. It seems to me that successful turnaround models begin in a single school with a community-wide commitment to put students first.
I have getting e-mails all week from unhappy parents and teachers in Macon. One of their complaints — Beverly Fraud, are you listening? — is that discipline has eroded under Dallemand.
Even students are complaining about the lack of discipline in their schools. The community is still reeling from the alleged rape of a student with special needs during the day in a school rest room. Two hundred students protested the plan Thursday at the Bibb school board offices.
There is already a parent petition under way to fight the plan.
The Bibb board expressed some concerns at the unveiling of the plan last week, according to the news story in the Macon Telegraph:
Board member Lynn Farmer asked about the plan’s costs, but school administrators said those details would not be known until the plan is approved by the board and administrators begin working out details of how the plan would work.
School officials need to be upfront about the costs required in setting the plan in motion, Farmer said.
“The devil is in the details, and there are not a lot of details,” she said after the meeting.
During the presentation, board member Gary Bechtel asked Dallemand what part of the plan addressed school safety, alluding to the report of a rape at Northeast High School last month.
School administrators responded by saying that the plan includes more training for students, teachers and staff, as well as creating two alternative schools.
“What are you (doing) to address … in this particular plan that we’re serious about keeping schools safe?” Bechtel asked again.
That’s where providing “wrap-around” services such as counseling and mental health services come in, to reach students before they misbehave, several administrators responded.
Often, students who misbehave don’t have the same opportunities as others, said Jane Drennan, deputy superintendent for teaching and learning.
“We have to treat every child if they can learn. We have to do everything so they can be successful,” Drennan said. “There’s the idea if someone misbehaves, they have to get out of schools. We as adults have to deal with behavior and learn why they behave the way they are.”
Incidents such as the alleged Northeast rape could have happened anywhere and point to the need for change, Barnes said.
“It’s not symptomatic of a school. It’s symptomatic of our district,” he said.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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111 comments Add your comment
skipper
February 10th, 2012
5:08 pm
Race sometimes does enter because of the culture aspects. This is not a sweeping accusation, just a fact. Until a ton of the “thug” culture, “acting white” because you make good grades culture, or acceptance of mediocrity on a good day culture is overcome, it will be what it is. In Georgia, the vast majority of schools that are in heavily black areas are performing terribly. That is a fact. Of course there were past injustices and lots of reasons things are like they are, but to overcome it all the many (not all, but many) inner city folks are gonna have to set some examples and at least be accountable to a lifestyle that promotes education. I was a volunteer coach for many years and really tried to help. I likewise am not so old-fashioned that I don’t realize society has changed and things we were previously taught that were unacceptable have now become the norm. However, right or wrong, the culture has to change! The blacks I went to college with that were from the suburbs made good grades with the best of them. I am not “blaming the victims”, but its gotta change for Macon schools to do better!
EH
February 10th, 2012
5:42 pm
Darn, Tony Roberts will be on this fiasco like a spider monkey!
mountain man
February 10th, 2012
5:44 pm
The good news is the only requirement for graduation is to be able to sign your name with an X. That and be able to count to one. Attendance requested but not required.
MalcolmTen
February 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
The Bibb census may be 52% black but the schools’ student ratio is 80% black and increasing daily.
Brandy
February 10th, 2012
6:04 pm
Has anyone seen any actual figures here? It looks like hundreds of millions of dollars in plans, with a few million in cuts? How does that add up?
Some of the ideas are good, but, come on, unless there’s a whole grove of money trees down in Macon, there’s no money for even a fifth of the things proposed.
Now, yes, if there was enough money to do all of the things proposed (except for the teacher cuts, that seems misguided), I would bet that the graduation rate would rise exponentially. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough money. Let’s get real, folks.
Not A Parent
February 10th, 2012
6:24 pm
@Brandy – You say to “get real”??? Since when has anything in education been “real”? We cut number of teachers and expect scores to rise? We cut funding and expect scores to rise? We forlough teachers and expect scores to rise? We add tons of extra work (not classroom required) onto teachers and expect scores to rise?
LOL!!
Maureen Downey
February 10th, 2012
6:42 pm
@To all, A reader sent me a note explaining how Bibb can save money going from block to traditional scheduling.
Here is her note:
I have done a lot of research on block.
Here are some articles for background:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/feb/17/budget-cuts-force-schools-drop-block-scheduling/
Block scheduling requires an extra 10 percent of teachers for each school, meaning a school that should be staffed with 100 teachers would be staffed with 110. The schools now will lose those extra positions.
http://www.braidwoodjournal.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=3430&SectionID=13&SubSectionID=143&S=1
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-23-schoolschedules_N.htm
Next year, California’s Hayward Unified School District will end its three high schools’ “block” schedule, under which students take four 90-minute classes per semester, equaling eight courses per year. The schools will adopt a more traditional schedule of six courses per year and will give students the option of taking additional courses
through an extended day, Superintendent Dale Vigil says. The reduced teaching staff will save about $1 million.
TW
February 10th, 2012
6:55 pm
This state belongs to the wealthy good old boys because they know how to relate to the masses of inbred white trash that keep voting them in.
And as long as they’re in power they will never support education.
An educated electorate would mean the end of their ruse – the death penalty for the make-it-rich scheme that has become ‘conservatism.’
Cut education funding, load the DOE with incompetence, crush teachers so they’ll leave, set unrealistic expectations so the teachers who stay can be labeled ‘failing’ and the successful cycle of the uneducated southern idiot will continue vote against it’s best interests.
It’s a great way to get a people who are proud of their heritage to screw their kids.
The people of a democracy get the government they deserve.
Logic 05
February 10th, 2012
7:01 pm
All schools should be private. Give parents vouchers and let the parents decide. Any school that accept the vouchers must agree that the parents cannot be charged additional fees or cost. … then we can see what really works.
TW
February 10th, 2012
7:10 pm
“All schools should be private. Give parents vouchers and let the parents decide. Any school that accept the vouchers must agree that the parents cannot be charged additional fees or cost. … then we can see what really works”
Iran would LOVE it if we did that.
Yes, no accountability/regulation at all of our tax dollars.
Brilliant! LOL!
Besides the public schools in the rich neighborhoods are great. The only provate schools that can hang with these spend more than 2X as much per kid. The majority of private schools are little more than church basement day care centers.
Brandy
February 10th, 2012
7:54 pm
@Not A Parent
Wow, did you even read what I said…and comprehend it? I wasn’t suggesting that we should get real and think this plan is a practical and wonderful idea. Instead, I was suggesting that the school administrators (and the rest of us regular folks) should accept reality regarding how little money is available to affect real change. Sorry if I offended you, it really was not intended. Just as I hope your vitriolic response was not really intended to offend.
I completely agree that we shouldn’t cut teachers, nor should we increase their workloads–in fact, I’ve said as much here before. I just wish people would realize that schools won’t improve until we increase the money that goes to them. You can’t bleed a turnip and, right now, teachers and schools have become the turnips. Teachers are spread way, way, way, too thin, receive far too little support, and often lack access to the materials their students need. Study after study has confirmed that reduced class size is the number 1 indicator of student success. So, let’s “throw some money” at education–truly at education and not at SmartBoards, AstroTurf, or unused/unneeded building projects–and see what happens.
Interesting....
February 10th, 2012
8:07 pm
Maureen ~
I’ve done the research in Atlanta on going from block to a 6 or a 7-period day. The costs go UP for a district. They need to double the textbooks (because they’ve been able to alternate students using them each semester). Double that expense. Also, they make it sound like teachers are teaching 8 periods a year. They’re not. They’re teaching 6 periods a year. Three in the fall and three in the spring – they get a planning period each day on the block. Going to a 7-period day and SAVING money means that they need to have the teachers teach 6 out of 7 periods a day. The students on a 7-period day do require fewer courses, so overall on a 7-period day, if teachers teach 6, the district saves money (once they pay for the books). The teachers don’t want to teach 6 classes a day. Trust me.
DeKalb went through this. Some schools were on 7-period and most on block. When some schools wanted to come off of block, the cost-effective model was for the 7-period schools to go to teaching 6 classes a day. There was discussion, but the decision was to let them stay on a 5-period day…with good reason. The teachers would have been responsible for over 180 students a day. If Bibb says they’re going to save money, they’re wrong and the board is foolish to vote for this. Now you’re taking teachers from teaching 6 classes a year down to teaching 5. Even when you look at the students requiring fewer classes in their schedules, you still need the teachers. Almost as many as you did on the block. You barely cut staff. The overall costs for coming off of the block were astronomical when looking at an entire district. I wish them luck. I hope the Bibb BOE has deep pockets.
craig smith
February 10th, 2012
9:56 pm
Of course there is no research base to this plan….he received his “doctorate” from an online diploma mill, Argosy University. And as for Chinese…..wouldn’t one think that the schools should teach their students to read, write and do math first? Sorry to say this is all just posturing for Mr. Dallemand’s next job in three years.
Teacher Tantrum!
February 10th, 2012
10:10 pm
The teachers of Bibb county have to be freaking out! A loss of around 300 teachers in a district that small. How does this make you feel teachers? teachertantrum.com
William Casey
February 10th, 2012
10:57 pm
Saying something and actually doing something are two very different things. As the Zen Master reminds us: “We will see.”
Brandy
February 10th, 2012
11:03 pm
@Teacher Tantrum!
You’re right! If you do the math, that puts 29+ children on every single teacher’s class load, if you assume a straight breakdown. Class sizes will probably be significantly higher since “teachers” can include anyone with a certificate, including administrators, counselors, Speech Therapists, and sometimes nurses (depending on how the school district classifies them for pay scale purposes). I’d love to know what current class sizes are in Bibb County. I’m pretty sure they are very high, as they are high across the state.
Here in Cobb, even in the best and brightest East Cobb schools, classes are so overcrowded there isn’t room to add another desk or chair to fit another student. Yet they are planning more cuts for next year (through attrition, ahem), so class sizes will go up. Attrition cuts often get ignored or brushed aside but they are as damaging as straight layoffs. If school A has 5 teachers retiring and the school district enacts attrition cuts, the next year there will be no teachers to replace the 5 retired teachers–even if enrollment goes up!
Teacher cuts are like putting a Band Aid on the gaping wound of a severed limb. It might save a few pennies in the short run, but in the long run it will probably cost the district a fortune. Raise class sizes, student performance goes down. Down student performance increases the negative perception of a district. Increased negative perceptions of a district lower property values. Lowered property values decrease local (and state) tax revenues. Lowered tax revenues lower available money for local school districts. Oops!
I’ll say it again and keep saying it until people actually listen–let’s actually try throwing money at education and see what happens.
Old Physics Teacher
February 11th, 2012
12:00 am
Dr. Proud Black Man,
I’ve been lurking, that was a good put down, but those of us in the sciences prefer the more appropriate term, normal distribution curve, as it is a better descriptor.. Still funny though.
As for this ID-ten-T running Bibb County, his program speaks volumes about the intelligence quotient of the School Board that hired him. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be hilarious. The article reads like a well-set up joke . I’m kept waiting for the punch line. DARN, I have friends that teach in this county. This is too sad for words.
I like this… GM,
I know when things are going bad, the idea of trying anything and everything is very strong. The problem is that when you throw everything out and try multiple, conflicting, programs at once, your chance of failure is orders of magnitude higher than your chance of success. You would not be able to get any legitimate bookie to take a bet on the failure of this program. The chance of failure is just fractions of a percentage point below 100%. When you factor in the reality that this idiot has NO CLUE of the cost of this idiocy – and not one of his subordinates does either, the chance of failure approaches unity.
Voice of Reason
February 11th, 2012
1:01 am
I find it odd that more often than not the districts that are majority African-American are the object of blog critique and criticism. This should concern all of us. Clearly, many respondents are not informed about the political, racial, teacher quality, cultural, and budget nuances that impact outcomes and that are often more aggrevated in majority African-American districts. As long as most large African-American districts are urban, polarized racially and economically whether internally or externally, and the scapegoat for our desire to blame, the children as a whole will never have the opportunity to attend school in a district that is at least high performing as the neighboring peers. Shame on all of us for contributing to this delimma.
catlady
February 11th, 2012
8:44 am
Interesting… Yep, I am sure that teachers would prefer not to go back to the traditional schedule, teaching 6 of 7 periods. However, having an hour and a half a day for planning (when elementary teachers are lucky to get 30 minutes) is NOT the wisest use of staff. I advocated, until we finally tossed the block schedule, that high school teachers spend a hour of their planning time at the nearest elementary school, tutoring the RTI kids. I also still advocate that for middle school teachers, who have a similiar, lengthy planning time.
Besides, for many of the students, they were not developmentally prepared for block. There was not the carryover that there needed to be.
Bill
February 11th, 2012
9:14 am
The refrain seems to be: fix out schools, improve them dramatically, but don’t change anything. I can’t judge the merit of any of these ideas, but with a cohort graduation rate of 45%, I would be willing to extend benefit of the doubt.
Inside view
February 11th, 2012
9:26 am
Beverly Fraud is a Fraud.
Punk watcher
February 11th, 2012
10:38 am
Do you know why only 17% of whites are in the Bibb School System??? Its because parents who want their children to learn in a safe environment and not be threatend by thug punks, send them to private schools!!! The private school parents , white AND black, who are worried about the 8000 loser punks who were suspended, harming their children or disrupting their learning curve!!!! The loser parents of the 8K punks could probably care less.
Tiffany
February 11th, 2012
11:02 am
There are still some great teachers in Macon that really care and want to make a difference.
someonesmom
February 11th, 2012
11:43 am
Excellent assessment of this fiasco, though you missed a few KEY issues underlying everything.
1. RACE See all references to Pacific Educational Group, Efficacy Institute, Courageous Conversations (author: the race-baiting “diversity consultant” Glenn Singleton). All promote the degradation of white people and “culture”. In your searches you might want to include the words “ashamed to be white”.
2. COMMUNISM Little justification has been provided for the Mandarin Chinese requirement other than a loose “global readiness”. It will likely be provided by the Confucius Institute, funded by Communist China’s Department of Ed. There are 300 worldwide (70 in US) “language and culture centers” where the “programming” has been dubbed “culturetainment”. No cost projections, but looks like it might be provided for free. Hey, there is a center at Kennesaw State University.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-01-04/chinese-funded-institutes-us-colleges/52378280/1
StrangerOz
February 11th, 2012
11:54 am
I think the only recourse we’re going to have now, is through the State’s Attorney General. The AG is already watching the practices of Dr. Dallemand from what I understand and ‘ordered’ him to stop the closed/private BoE meetings and make them “public meetings” – which has now finally started to happen. It was only when these ‘private’ meetings stopped that we began to understand exactly what was being ‘proposed’ for our community!
There are ’so many’ items in Dr. Dallemand’s agenda that are of a considerable concern to our community. The costs, which have not been declared – as they were forced to admit were “not known”, the association with the Glenn Singleton race-baiting organization, the removal of disciplinary action from any and all school functioning, the ‘dumbing down’ of the system … and the list goes on and on and on.
There is also the matter of misappropriation of taxed – funds… The last ESPLOST projects will be cancelled and funds from that activity will be diverted to ‘other projects’ – I though that was illegal! (?) By cancelling these existing projects, we are now also opened up to litigation – launched by those companies which won the building contracts and will now be out of pocket.
The stated ’savings’ of between $23,000,000 and $27,000,000 are absolutely baseless – as they have NO IDEA of the “COSTS”…
There are so many things wrong with Dr. Dallemand’s plan that many of us simply do not know where to begin… Though I think the State’s Attorney General is a very good place to start with…
If for nothing else, the arrogance in the misappropriation of tax-payer funds… then he can start on the BoE for failing to perform due diligence and the back-room, public-’excluded’, closed door meetings… That is, at least, a starting point.
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
11:55 am
I have read through the entire 25 page document plan for Bibb County School, with the link given above, as well as having read through the links provided regarding schools that are in the process of changing from block scheduling to traditional scheduling, across the country.
I believe that Bibb County’s innovation plan is cohesive and that all of its “moving parts” fit together with a common vision for students, teachers, parents, and community, alike. This plan is dedicated to excellence and it is detailed enough to become workable. I am favorably impressed with this plan, and I urge others who would form opinions about this plan based simply on short “soundbites” of information read the entire document before forming a conclusion regarding its merit.
Specifically, what I found meritorious was a collaborate effort between students, teachers, administrators, parents, and the community to work together for the benefit of all of the students. The plan is not afraid to be bold in vision, (Nothing Ventured; Nothing Gained) and with the failure rate as high as it is presently in Bibb County Schools, I do not believe that the Superintendent had the luxury of time to develop a model plan slowly, one school at a time.
I like the fact that the assessment of where students are functioning is ongoing and that it is data based, with online scores available to teachers, students, and parents. I like the fact that instruction is developed individually to address that ongoing data for each student. I like the fact that students, and especially parents, are trained in how to use this data, as well as teachers, so that they, too, can help in the process of building individualized development for themselves. I like the fact that emphasis is “Focused on”: (1) student development, (2) staff development, (3) parent and community development related to students, (4) teaching and learning strategies, (5) technology, and (6) the overall structure of the school.
I had been the Instructional Lead Teacher in a model school which housed 1 – 3 grades in one pod for the continuous progress of each student, and “ditto” for grades 2 – 4, 5 – 7, and 6 – 8, so that I monitored the advancement of all students in grades 1 – 8. The DeKalb County Schools had a 1 – 8 and 9 – 12 model during my years there (from 1971 – 2000). The last 16 years of my 30 year fulltime teaching career, I was a Reading Department Chair who worked with teachers and counselors to assess the targeted reading levels of all 1800 high school students, so I know what innovation means in the positive connotation of that word, and I know what is possible from firsthand experience.
Although fewer transitions from K – 12 is recommended in research, I believe that the K – 3, 4 – 7, and 8 -12 model is the right choice for the Bibb County School System. Most children will start to fail in school if they have not achieved mastery of grade level concepts by the end of third grade. Therefore, in Bibb County, particularly, I believe that an emphasis in curriculum for grades K – 3 will be given intense and targeted work through the having students in that age group housed together. I very much support the implementation of a 90 minutes reading block daily for students, and a 75 minutes block for mathematical concept development. Middle School children have unique needs of preadolescent concern, especially with hormonal changes and social changes happening so rapidly, so that it is wise to house this age group together, also.
The Bibb County School Plan is a far-reaching plan which includes parents in the academic advancement of their own children and in becoming volunteers in the total school, so that they may help many other children to succeed. I very much agree with this plan to involve parents in the school’s environment. This creates an open and inviting environment in which teachers and parents are not adversaries, but comrades, in helping to achieve a mutual goal. There is, also, a plan to invite local colleges and businesses to have strategic investment in the public schools of Bibb County.
I like the fact that discipline and behavioral problems are looked into with depth, and that plans have been designed to correct this problem with depth, in terms of counseling and mental health outreach before students become discipline problems. Many people are not wise to the need for mental health programs for large segments of the population. Dr. Martin Luther King was one who recognized this need in helping African-Americans, and others, to reach their full potential. I like the fact that the fine arts will be used in helping students to build self-worth and self-esteem.
I like the fact that districtwide and local school committees will be formed to assess student growth on an ongoing basis. This will be a collaborative team effort. If any given school continues to fail – after having tried, for five years in a row, to turn that failure around – then that school will be closed and turned into a charter school. (Please note that this will be done by the local school district, and not a State Board of Charter Schools, which is disjoined from the local community, I might add.)
So what is the common theme running through this comprehensive plan for Bibb County Schools? As I see it, it is that the entire community must be invested in the targeted success for each student. It has been said that when one gives of oneself to something larger than oneself, all benefit and all become larger in spirit in the process of giving. That is what is going on with this plan, so that a trusting community with one another (teachers, parents, students, administrators, and the community-at-large), and excellence in instructional and emotional delivery are the goals within individual school settings – and not fear and intimidation among these various school constituencies. I do hope that this public school model works well. I will be watching closely and I will be praying for its success. We must succeed in public education. We must not give up on public education. This plan, as I see it, is one of the best models I have seen for developing an excellent public school system. It is visionary and cohesive, simultaneously.
A word of advice to the Bibb County plan, if I may. Emphasis needs to be placed on applied learning as an outcome as much as college preparatory as an outcome for students. All students are not meant to go to college to be successful and productive citizens. Invariably, in all settings, students will have differing aptitudes. All students who have learning disabilities must be tested and identified. All teachers must be alerted to look for this academic challenge, just as, presently, in the new Bibb county plan, all teachers will be trained to teach reading in their content areas through 12th grade. A special high school diploma for any student with a learning disability should be granted, if a100% graduation rate is expected by 2023.
In my final school, we identified a student – at age 18 – as having the learning disability called Dyslexia (in his case, very little visual memory for words), but he walked down the aisle to receive his special education diploma at age 20, instead of dropping out of school and entering a darker world, because we diagnosed his problem correctly. Better late than never. I remain proud of Robert to this day for “hanging in there” and for wanting to succeed in spite of so many odds against him. He would have dropped out of high school, and was on the verge of doing just that, when I begged him to come back to school, to be tested for a possible learning disability. He came back because of my earnest plea to him to take that test by a trained school psychologist, which was his final attempt for success. Robert now is supporting himself and his family.The last time I saw him, he introduced me to his wife and his two children, just before I retired. I will never forget Robert. He is a remarkable human being, in ways that some will never fully appreciate.
The greater the number of teachers within a school system, the more pupil-teacher ratio is reduced, but budgets must be balanced and I realize that. Good luck, Bibb County, I salute your vision and I wish you well.
Here is a story from my personal blog, which may inspire some of your teachers.
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/cyndies-story/
StrangerOz
February 11th, 2012
12:00 pm
interesting reading on what Dr. Dallemand is proposing under the Glenn Singleton plan of racial baiting and the promotion of…
‘How to make Whites ashamed of their past, present and future’
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=glenn+singleton&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSNF_enUS443
Is THIS what ANY of our modern societies need? According to Dr. Dallemand it is!
Beverly Fraud
February 11th, 2012
12:22 pm
@MaryElizabeth, I submit to you that this plan is snake oil in a PDF format.
Correct me if I’m wrong in the future, but my prediction is that NOBODY will be using the terms “education” and “miracle” in regard to Bibb County in the near, or distant future.
Unless it is in TOTAL derision, like they now do with Beverly Hall and APS and Rod Paige and his “Houston Miracle”.
I bet they had nice “plans” as well, didn’t they?
Dewaine
February 11th, 2012
12:29 pm
The Chinese would not move to Macon since the city is in great disrepair. Leadership is out of touch with reality and the public school system cannot satisfy the criteria for their graduates to attend college unless they take remedial courses. The crime situation speaks for itself. Unemeployment is high because no one wants to hire a dumb person.
I can see Warner Robins or Perry getting busines from China because their systems are more progressive that those in Macon.
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
12:34 pm
@ Beverly Fraud
And, how many years have you spent as a teacher or as a professional in education, Beverly? Seriously, I would like to know.
It is always easy to be negative. The Bibb County School System, and Dr. Dallemand especially, deserve the encouragement of others who will wish them well in the successful implementation of this well thought through and well designed vision for the students of Bibb County schools.
Dr. Proud Black Man
February 11th, 2012
12:34 pm
@ Beverly Fraud
Mary Elizibeths’s analysis is well thought out and expressed. Excuse me for not lending much credence to your four sentence rebuttal.
the prof
February 11th, 2012
12:58 pm
@Pseudo DPBM…..only “nearly 6 figures”…..hahahahahaha…..Argosy…..hahahahaha
StrangerOz
February 11th, 2012
1:04 pm
Check the comments of the ‘the local tax payers and parents’ are saying…. that’s where it counts!
http://www.macon.com/2012/02/11/1900531/reaction-mixed-on-miracle.html#disqus_thread
Macon7898
February 11th, 2012
1:16 pm
I am a product of the Bibb County system and I will be the first to admit we need change, but we need to be realistic in doing so. Being a product of the Bibb County system I can say I did not received a good education and I dropped out. BTW I am white.
The longer days will take away from the parents who actually spend time with their children. As well as will add to the drop out rate. We can’t keep the kids in school now what the heck makes anyone think they are going to be excited about staying an extra 2 hours. Also we need to think about out of school activities that children are involved in. What do you think will happen to those business?
And Glenn Singleton all I can do is drop to my knees and pray when I hear that mans name.
And if we can have 8 children uncounted for having sex in the restrooms now what will we have when the classes are over crowed and less teachers. And not to mention the larger age gap in the students. Congrats your 10 year old is a mommy!
We really need to work on the English language before we force another on the students. It would be great if the students where on the level where they could handle it. And some of the more advance students can. Just give it as an option. No one likes anything forced on them.
The placement of children who are not being cared for by their parents is the responsibly of the DFCS not the school system it is only their place contact DFCS.
This is not a race thing so let’s not make it one. My white child is affected my this as much as the next. Which I have already looked in to homeschooling if this plan is not reworked.
Observer
February 11th, 2012
1:26 pm
@ Mary Elizabeth, 11:55 am: “…..The DeKalb County Schools had a 1 – 8 and 9 – 12 model during my years there (from 1971 – 2000). The last 16 years of my 30 year fulltime teaching career, I was a Reading Department Chair….”
You tout your experience as an educator, which indeed you have. But it seems to have ended 12 years ago. A great deal has certainly happened during those years, both in the field and in Georgia. Have you had any teaching experience since then, as a substitute teacher or an official consultant (not only a blog facilitator)?
All others who have read this “Miracle Plan”,” including many present educators and teachers, seem generally united in seeing it as impractical and expensive.
Sarah
February 11th, 2012
1:40 pm
Please excuse the length of this comment and read it anyway:
Because my children were removed from public school here I have long been silent on this subject, but no matter how many “miracle plans” are proposed, until the Bibb County Board of Education returns to the two basics of (1) only hiring well-educated and respectful teachers, and (2) then requiring respectful behavior from all students, will any plan be successful.
I recently attended a Bibb County school’s high school graduation ceremony and said I would never attend another. The noise and hijinks of the family members there ruined what should have been a memorable and most respectful event. What a shameful disgrace for Bibb County’ educational system. I grew up and attended elementary and high school in a different state, and this would NEVER have been allowed.
I know that “times have changed” since my own high school graduation, but I also recently attended the graduation ceremony of a niece back home in the SAME HIGH SCHOOL where I graduated years ago, and guess what? There was no hollering and yelling and carrying on by the family members attending. Just the same respectful behavior that was there many years ago.
What is the difference in that public school and a Bibb County school — excellent leadership — teachers and principals who are role models of respectablity and professionalism and a superintendent who requires it and enforces it — even to the extent of family and friends at graduation. The source of Bibb County’s problem of student misbehavior in the classroom (and elsewhere) begins at home. PARENTS OF BIBB COUNTY STUDENTS WHO ARE REPEAT TROUBLEMAKERS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE for their children’s behavior and should be required to attend PARENTING CLASSES. It is wrong, unfair and not acceptable for students who do not misbehave to have to daily witness chaos in the classroom — or to be “taught” by teachers who use poor grammar, can not spell, and are not good role models. Only suspending and expelling students does not work here in Bibb County. Parents also must be taught by holding them accountable and requiring some work on their part.
My children were removed from public school here in Bibb County and placed in private school. All are now college graduates with one having earned a four-year college scholarship. And, what did we as their parents find when we placed them in private school — we found the same type of education by the same type of teachers, principal and Board JUST LIKE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL I HAD ATTENDED years ago in another state.
Folks, we have to first get back to the very basics before we introduce any “miracles” . Until we get back to this, no additional programs, plans, hours, languages, additional money, etc. etc., called “Macon Miracle” or by any other name, will work. Does anyone agree? Dr. Dallemand, are you listening? Excellent leadership will begin at the root of the problem.
Parent in Bibb County
February 11th, 2012
2:01 pm
As a parent in Bibb County, this “plan” directly affects my children and I. I really find it hard to believe that anyone can read this “plan” and still refer to it as a “plan.” A list of wishes without any details as to how those wishes will become reality should be called a wish list – NOT a plan! A plan is named such because of the minute details that are included. I own a home, and I pay taxes to the county. How can Dallemand say he wants the approval first, before doing the real work of coming up with costs? I would not sign a contract to buy a home without first knowing what it’s going to cost me, so why should we be expected to sit idly by and let this wish list be voted into effect before knowing what it’s going to cost? He has a number of things that sound great in theory: dormitories for children who need them… Who will pay for the buildings? Who will staff them? Who will pay for the staffing? Who will pay for all of the food and personal items that the children will need? Free internet… Who will pay for this? Who will make sure that the service is in working order? Laptops for children in poverty… Who will be in charge of making sure the laptops remain in working order? Who will make sure that the laptops are still in the possession of the student and haven’t been lost or stolen? Who will pay for this? Decrease our budget by the loss of up to 300 teacher positions through attrition… If we already have large class sizes in many schools, how does he plan on DECREASING class sizes? This is a contradiction! Closing up to 12 schools in the district due to buildings not being at capacity… What about the numerous schools that have many trailers being utilized as classrooms due to being OVER capacity? Keeping behavior-problem children in the classroom by utilizing mental health services to prevent future behavior problems… I’m all for counseling children. However, to ask me to trust that my children will be safe sitting next to the same little Johnny that brought a gun to school 2 months ago is asking a little much. Little Johnny should receive counseling services and behavior modification programs in a setting that is safe for him and that is safe for MY children. To look at this wish list without living in the Bibb County school system and without having family and friends that teach in this system, I can understand how it would be easy to think, “Oh! What a great idea! This man must really care about all of those children!” I tell you waht, why don’t you buy a house around here, and put YOUR kids in this system; then, we’ll see what you have to say about Dallemand, the system, and all of the “Little Johnnies!” After all, there are going to be PLENTY of homes for sale pretty soon, mine included….
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
2:25 pm
Observer, 1:26 pm
I mentioned my background only to demonstrate that I have had firsthand experience enough to know that visionary innovation can be made practical. In fact, my efforts were instrumental in making it so, in my day. My last school was the top scoring south DeKalb County school for SAT verbal scores through my retirement in 2000, and for an additional seven or eight years, thereafter.
I did teach as a substitute teacher in North Fulton County schools, after I retired from fulltime teaching, for an additional 5 years, until I retired altogether in 2006. I worked in North Fulton County in approximately 10 various middle and high schools as a substitute teacher for all curriculum areas during that time. I did not begin my teaching career until I was 27 years old, immediately upon my graduation from college in New York City. I grew up in South Georgia, and attended Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, for two years in the 1960s.
I try to keep abreast of current educational trends. I have been actively involved in campaigning against HR 1162 – which would establish a Statewide Charter School Commission. I believe in the creation of some charter schools, but I support those that would work in harmony with, and not against, the local school districts’ efforts to educate all of the children in their districts.
After having worked for 42 years of my life, straight up, while also being a wife and mother, I have enjoyed my full retirement for the past five years, so that I am now able to pick and choose my various interests and contributions to society. I write to have my voice heard now, both on local blogs, letters to the editors, and on my personal blog. I have always thought as an individual, as far back as I can remember, and I am not unduly influenced by the opinions of others. I saw, firsthand, the injustice and error of group thinking when I was a white teenager growing up in a segregated South, in which most white people wanted to sustain segregation. I did not. I felt segregation was spiritually wrong. Having observed, firsthand, how that era in Georgia’s history played out, I became even more determined to think for myself. Having observed the damage done during that era to so many people – black and white alike – in Georgia’s “closed society” of that day, I knew that I needed to leave the South, then, to become the person that I was innately meant to be. That was the motivating drive that caused me to leave Georgia for NYC and to remain in NYC for 7 years, during my twenties.
Now, as the following thread on this blog illustrates, and as Dr. King could foresee, the spiritual and societal problems within America have become those of economic inequality. Dr. King believed, as many do, that education would be the next civil rights vehicle for overcoming that economic inequality among America’s citizens. I hope that Thomas Jefferson’s vision that public education would be the means of educating all of America’s young is sustained, into America’s future. We must not dismantle our public schools, but we must improve them, as the Bibb County School System is courageously attempting to do.
For my life, and perhaps for America, itself, it is well to remember:
“For everything, there is a season. . .”
Observer
February 11th, 2012
2:39 pm
@ Mary Elizabeth, 11:55 am. I’ve read your blog entry on your link given, about a student in an Advanced Reading class in 1996 who in 5th grade was reading on a 2nd or 3rd grade level, and the ways in which you helped her to catch up and excel by forming subgroups within your larger class.
This was 15 years ago. Are you aware that throughout Georgia now social promotion is legally permitted, and strongly encouraqed? That, thanks to federal ADA law, “special education” students–those with IQs from 75 up or who may have problems with incontinence–are “mainstreamed” into the regular classrooms? Do you know that for the last 4 years all the Georgia counties–including Bibb County–have had their educational budget cut severely by the state legislature?
Is your solution to this one student’s problem still likely to be generally workable, especially given all of these factors that are part of the classroom of today’s teachers? Is the “Miracle Plan” likely to be workable, given all of these factors?
And is your own classroom experience typical for teachers today in schools where 77% of the students are on free/reduced lunch programs? Did you teach in such a school?
Observer
February 11th, 2012
2:53 pm
@ Mary Elizabeth. I should have noted that in Bibb County, 77% of the students are on free/reduced lunch programs.
And I’ve now had the opportunity to read your 2:25 pm post. With all due respect, I note that your teaching experience was in “the top-scoring south DeKalb high school for SAT scores” and in North Fulton schools since retirement. They are very different sorts of public schools from those in Bibb County. I think it would be well to read the “Miracle Plan” with Bibb County’s schools in mind…as the Bibb Co. parents here are doing.
elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
3:02 pm
I’m currently a senior at Howard High School in Bibb County and have been very successful. I was accepted to UGA where I will be attending in the fall. Children with parents who care about their education will continue to be successful if these reforms are not made to our school system. There is no need for change when parents are not doing their part in disciplining and teaching their children to be hard workers. Many parents encourage their children to live off welfare, drop out like they did, etc. There’s nothing the county can do about bad parenting.
I’m not racist, my friends are not racist, and there is certainly not a race problem in my school. All of the “courageous conversation” movement is ridiculous and unnecessary. My brother and sister will not be attending public schools in the coming years if this plan passes.
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
3:22 pm
Observer, 2:39 pm
I am very pleased that you took the time to read my blog. Thank you for that, but I must correct your impression that I helped Cyndie overcome her reading problems when she was in 5th grade. Her 5th grade science teacher helped her with that. I taught Cyndie when she was an 11th grade student in 1996.
Individualized instruction never goes out of date for insuring student progress. I was taught that even as far back as 1973, when I earned an M.Ed. as a Reading Specialist. I applied individualized instruction throughout my career, and was instrumental in influencing other teachers to apply it, also.
You ask me these three questions:
“Are you aware that throughout Georgia now social promotion is legally permitted, and strongly encouraqed? That, thanks to federal ADA law, “special education” students–those with IQs from 75 up or who may have problems with incontinence–are “mainstreamed” into the regular classrooms? Do you know that for the last 4 years all the Georgia counties–including Bibb County–have had their educational budget cut severely by the state legislature?”
My answer to you is: Yes, I am fully aware of all three situations. I have spoken and written against the continuation of severely cutting the educational budget in Georgia. I am also aware that this has been done not only because of budgetary reasons, but also because of an national political ideology which wants to dismantle public schools for private ones. Citizens should become active in turning this around because cutting education funds to public schools affects family’s lives, in Georgia, very directly, in ways that are not advantageous to parents or to their children.
When I was the lead teacher in a K – 8 school from 1975 – 1984, the principal had said that we cannot “keep Johnny here until he is shaving,” so social promotions have been going on for at least 35 years, if not longer. Social promotion is a more complex issue than most realize. Likewise, with mainstreaming special education students. There is neither time nor space for me to describe here all of those complexities.
And, to answer your next set of questions: Yes, I did spend many years teaching in schools where most of the students were on free/reduced lunch programs. I do know the problems. The solution to Cyndie’s problem (and all other students who are behind), which is individualizing instruction, will work whatever the decade, because addressing accurate instructional levels of students (which for Cyndie was 2nd or 3rd grade reading level in 5th grade) instead teaching all students with the same delivery, from the same standard grade level textbooks, has been proven to be sound. It is called Mastery Learning.
I do not know that the “Micracle Plan” for Bibb County Schools will be “workable,” as you say, in achieving all of its goals in full, but I know that by reaching as deeply as it has, with as much individual focus upon addressing the individual needs of students as it has, and with the spirit of harmony and communication that it desires for the whole community to be a part of the process, the Bibb County School System has a solid chance for succeeding in most of its goals, if people would only believe, and roll up their sleeves and help.
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
3:59 pm
@ Observer, 2:53 pm
“With all due respect, I note that your teaching experience was in ‘the top-scoring south DeKalb high school for SAT scores’ and in North Fulton schools since retirement. They are very different sorts of public schools from those in Bibb County. I think it would be well to read the “Miracle Plan” with Bibb County’s schools in mind…as the Bibb Co. parents here are doing.”
================================================
Observer, only the last five years of my 35 year career, did I work in North Fulton schools, as a substitute teacher. In terms of the south DeKalb County school where I taught for 16 years, we had many students on free and reduced lunches and many migrated from impoverished areas of the City of Atlanta to our school. We had a wide range of achievement levels. In 9th grade alone, the range of reading levels was from 3rd grade reading level to grade level 16, with half reading on 6th grade level or below. We helped the school raise its verbal SAT scores through instructional techniques and teacher training, and that is why it scored so well, and not because the school existed within a high socio-economic community. Many students were from very impoverished backgrounds. Others were from middle class backgrounds.
You should, also, know that when I first started teaching in south Georgia, I worked in a segregated school where some children were so poor that they had to come to school without shoes. This was a very impoverished school. Thereafter, I taught children who were orphans from the local south Georgia Boys’ Ranch and these children were so emotionally deprived, and had been so neglected or abused, that they were doing well just to show up to school each day. My background has given me a very wide range of seeing the full spectrum of society’s children and their varying needs.
Others may wish to condemn the Bibb County plan, and that is their right to voice that opinion. I have given my opinion. I hope that parents will work with the school system in Bibb County to uplift the schools and their communities. In reading the plan in full, I noticed that under the section entitled, “Focus on the Parents and the Community” that centers are being created to uplift parents, themselves, and to enable them to become knowledgeable about instruction, so that they can become partners with the schools in this innovative, and hopeful, undertaking of individualizing instruction to meet students’ individual needs. I hope that the parents in Bibb County will, at least, give this plan an opportunity to work for the benefit of their children, as well as for the benefit of the community, as a whole.
Beverly Fraud
February 11th, 2012
4:00 pm
I’ll cut to the chase. It’s snake oil. It’s PATENTLY RIDICULOUS to think that a system is going to “individualize instruction” by REDUCING the number of teachers.
And with all due respect MaryElizabeth, people pushing UNWORKABLE snake oil, do NOT deserve respect. Read some of Dr. Trotter’s writings on the EPIC failure of “systemic reform”. The “Houston Miracle” the “Atlanta Miracle” Michelle Rhee’s “D.C. Miracle”
Pulliam in Clayton County had a “plan.” Hall in APS had a “plan.” Paige in Houston had a “plan.” As Mike Tyson used to say “everybody has a plan…until they get hit.”
If you want to bet dollars to donuts on ANYTHING, bet it on the fact that, a few years hence, NOBODY will be looking to Bibb County Schools and calling them “our Finland” LOL
Mary Elizabeth
February 11th, 2012
4:23 pm
@ Beverly Fraud, 4:00 pm
“If you want to bet dollars to donuts on ANYTHING, bet it on the fact that, a few years hence, NOBODY will be looking to Bibb County Schools and calling them “our Finland” LOL”
——————————————————————
If people begin any endeavor with a defeatist attitude, they will probably fail.
Good day.
Beverly Fraud
February 11th, 2012
4:27 pm
“If people begin any endeavor with a defeatist attitude, they will probably fail.
Good day.”
Agreed. But I would also put forth, if people begin any endeavor with SNAKE OIL, it’s probably gonna end up a greasy mess.
Time will tell.
FYI
February 11th, 2012
5:33 pm
Open warning: it’s hard to cap Beverly Fraud.
To Mary Elizabeth from Good ma
February 11th, 2012
7:05 pm
Thanks again for sharing your personal experiences and your heartfelt blog on 3:09.
I wish we could clone you.
Good ma
D
February 11th, 2012
9:30 pm
So what if it creates an uneven playing field. Nobody ever said that life was fair or that everybody should receive the same. I can’t afford all that extra stuff for my kids and they’re doing just fine thank you. They’re bright, respectful and successful because the emphasis for their education has been put on their shoulders, not mine. They know that their only job is to study and get good grades, period. All of you people that feel that life is unequal for some need to give it a rest already. You can’t make someone want to get an education, nor can you make them miraculously have intelligence. Some people really do need to be left behind.
Melanie
February 11th, 2012
10:55 pm
I live in Dublin and am well aware of the race politics that goes on in Macon. A simple search on the Internet will turn up tons of negative information on the Bibb Co. Superintendent, but the school board was determined to hire a black person and didn’t care. This is a guy looking to build a legacy on the backs of Bibb Co. school children so he can get s better gig.