Bibb school chief sees miracle. Parents see mayhem in his ambitious reform blueprint.

LOL! Couldn’t he just change how the % graduation is calculated?

After all, isn’t that what happend with the federal government’s way to calculated the % unemployment?

What if he said that the calculation is that he can ensure that 100% graduation rate is for all seniors in school after Christmas? LOL!

• Link
• Report this comment

If you want your children in Macon to get a good education in a safe environment you have to send them to private schools or move out of Macon.

• Link
• Report this comment

It definately reads like a throw in everything but the kitchen sink type of a approach. The potential boondoggle involving the technology plan alone is enough to bring me pause.

Purhaps if this plan in its sum total was focused a cluster of schools one level at a time or something to that effect it would have some merit. As written I believe it would be a recipe for disaster and huge waste of taxpaper funds.

• Link
• Report this comment

Education ? What education in GA ……? Not until we figure out what it is we really want to have!

Do read again………………

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/staiv.htm

• Link
• Report this comment

As a Dekalb county resident, I am very glad someone is trying to one up our duma$$ness; especially the part about whacking all the teachers and bringing in Communists to teach Mandarin.

Give this guy a massive school building corruption case and he trumps us right out the door.

Makes me wonder…..is their a education requirement for school board members? And I don’t mean these faux PhD’s from unaccredited Strayer, Devry, or the University of the United States.

• Link
• Report this comment

Just another social experiment designed to bring the average test scores of black students up to the white level. If implemented, it will fail for the same reason all the other experiments have failed.

• Link
• Report this comment

:::Yawn:::

Another majority black school system in disarray. Knock me over with a feather….
—————————-

“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…”

ROFLMAO. I feel sorry for the taxpayers.
——————————–

“In 2010‐2011, almost 8,000 students were suspended for a total of 48,000 days of missed instruction. Nearly 500 students were expelled…”

Sounds like a lovely school system. Feel sorry for the students who actually want to learn being caught up in that hellhole.

• Link
• Report this comment

Smoke and mirrors….Dr. D. is employing his friends and cronies in a con-game. Read all about his trail of glory creating mayhem throughout the USA. He came with this agenda, had meetings for the entire district, and as Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, it’s his plan from Rochester, Minnesota.

The Macon Miracle will be if they can survive this fiasco.

• Link
• Report this comment

“The system would drop from 1,179 teachers to 856 teachers”

I’m not sure the Book (Leviticus?) but Jesus said it best.

The Educrat spoke to Jesus and said, “I’m going to get a 100% percent graduation by drastically reducing the number of teachers. Please help me with this miracle.”

And Jesus said, “Why would I set myself up to FAIL by promising a miracle so preposterous? I’ll stick to DOABLE things, like healing the sick and raising the dead. Seriously, do you PRACTICE being stupid, or have you just been naturally blessed with the gift of stupidity?”

• Link
• Report this comment

“We as adults have to deal with behavior and learn why they behave the way they are.”

WRONG. The STUDENT has to learn NOT to misbehave. The onus to behave MUST be on the student (as Dr. Trotter might say.) Asking the teacher to figure out the “why” is a rabbit hole (does mommy favor one child over the other? is daddy having a midlife crisis? does grandma enable misbehavior?)

Who knows? What we DO know, is that SWIFT, SURE and CONSISTENT consequences WORK, and work one HECK of a lot better than ANY edu-psychobabble that has come down the pike the last several decades in education.

• Link
• Report this comment

“More – later – on my thoughts regarding Bibb County’s innovative educational plan, after I have fully digested its various concepts and plans.”

@MaryElizabeth: Seriously, I tend to believe from your posts that you have a genuine concern for students, but pray tell what exactly is “innovative” about a plan that you know going in YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY DELIVER ON?

And after the “Atlanta Miracle” and the “Houston Miracle” how TONE DEAF does one have to be to bill a plan a “miracle”.

If JESUS promised this plan and his flock asked “Do you really mean it?” He would respond, “H3LL NO! Don’t you know when someone is blowing smoke up your arse? Learn to THINK CRITICALLY.”

Leviticus I think, but the biblical scholars among us may correct me.

• Link
• Report this comment

Beverly Fraud, 1:00 pm

@MaryElizabeth: Seriously, I tend to believe from your posts that you have a genuine concern for students, but pray tell what exactly is “innovative” about a plan that you know going in YOU CAN’T POSSIBLY DELIVER ON?
======================================

Beverly, in all due respect, you misread my statement. Here is what I said:

“More – later – on my thoughts regarding Bibb County’s innovative educational plan, after I have fully digested its various concepts and plans.”
=================================================

I have not offered any opinion about this plan until I analyze it more thoroughly, and I have other things to do this afternoon, but I will be back with an opinion, later.

The word “innovative” simply means “the introduction of something new” according to Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary. The word “innovative” makes no value judgment as to whether what is introduced as new is of value or not.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, I didn’t see any mention of start-up charter schools. So, he is not trying EVERYTHING. Too bad, the super seems like he is from another planet.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ carlosgvv: Why exactly is “race a legitimate issue here”? I don’t see a word in the news story about it. This is a cuckoo educational plan, whether the school district is majority black, white or Hispanic.

• Link
• Report this comment

Argosy……hahahahahaha

• Link
• Report this comment

Fewer teachers is obviously the wrong direction.

• Link
• Report this comment

Well, after scanning through all 25 pages of his Macon Miracle, it becomes obvious that this guy is a loon. True, there are a few ideas I actually like…I’d be surprised if someone couldn’t find something in there they agree with; there’s something for everybody! And Mr. Dallemand has certainly mastered “eduspeak”. Unfortunately, it’s all pie in the sky without the ability to implement. As previously mentioned, the devil is in the details.

To the question – what are schools supposed to provide? – Mr. Dallemand’s answer seems to be: EVERYTHING:

-provide free home internet service for all students.

-provide dormitory housing for students “experiencing unforseeable circumstances”.

-provide mandatory weekend and evening instruction for students…as an alternative to suspension.

-deliver foundational and customized parent training that establishes parents as key partners

-move the Central Office and turn the existing building into a student/adult learning center.*
*Conveniently, Mr. Dallemand has nothing to say regarding the “NEW” Central Office building.

-reassign building and department administrators every five years.

-provide training and computer access to parents to monitor grades.

-develop and implement a delivery model for nursing services and school‐based clinics.

-deliver language instruction in Mandarin Chinese to all preK‐12 students.

It’s like this guy searched, pasted, and copied 15 or 20 reform “blueprints” and rolled it all into one great big pie in the sky document.

And can someone explain to me how going from block to nonblock schedules is going to save up to $3 million dollars?

• Link
• Report this comment

Bev Fraud….you’ve outdone yourself this time. I’m falling out laughing…..wish this stuff was really laughable through. It’s unreal it’s so sad that this is actually coming out of the mouth of those in charge of education.

• Link
• Report this comment

The superintendent needs to remember some of the courses he took: there is a limit on how much change you can implement at a given time. Go over that, and the whole thing implodes.

• Link
• Report this comment

The only thing that is going to save our schools and our country is birth control.

• Link
• Report this comment

You save money with a 7 period day because fewer teachers are needed as teachers teach 6 classes a shorter time period than the 4 block. Thus teacher load is increased – more students total, more papers to grade, and less planning along with less time to help studnets in need.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Dr. Proud Black Man– I’m not the same poster as “the prof.”

• Link
• Report this comment

According to the report itself given in the link Maureen provides above, in the school district 73% are African-American, 21% white, 3% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 1% multiracial. 77% are on free/reduced lunch programs. I should have written, “minority, poor schoolchildren.”

• Link
• Report this comment

I have said it before, we must reform our society before we can reform our educational system.. There is a reason why so many students are suspended or expelled…think about it!

• Link
• Report this comment

What is Argosy? Is it contagious? By the way, I wouldn’t mention the Bell curve. It is definitely NOT your friend.

• Link
• Report this comment

Darn, Tony Roberts will be on this fiasco like a spider monkey!

• Link
• Report this comment

The Bibb census may be 52% black but the schools’ student ratio is 80% black and increasing daily.

• Link
• Report this comment

@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!!

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

“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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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

• Link
• Report this comment

@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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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

• Link
• Report this comment

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/

• Link
• Report this comment

@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?

• Link
• Report this comment

@ 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.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Pseudo DPBM…..only “nearly 6 figures”…..hahahahahaha…..Argosy…..hahahahaha

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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. . .”

• Link
• Report this comment

@ 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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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

• Link
• Report this comment

“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.

• Link
• Report this comment

Thanks again for sharing your personal experiences and your heartfelt blog on 3:09.
I wish we could clone you.
Good ma

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

Starting in November, Dr. Dallemand released registrars and data clerks from the school system. Our reason for being fired was so ” teachers wouldn’t have to be furloughed any days.” This was the first of subversive actions that no one really is hearing about. Technology specialists have been told same thing the registrars/data clerks were told for months, “if you can find a job, take it.” Maintenance personnel about about to lose their jobs, and it be contracted out to UPS AND FED EX. The plan has already been put in action, except we weren’t mentioned in the plan. Quietly in the background he has been implementing his ideas. At the registrar/data clerk meeting 2 days before Thanksgiving we were told Dr. Dalleman had a ” tear” in his eyes when he heard about us having to lose our jobs and that we were to be assured we had PRIORITY in hiring. HR has held applications, not sent out interested parties names to principals, dragging their feet in any of us being hired for available jobs.
He is opening a Welcome Center, that is supposed to handle all registrations, report cards, updating of information. Does he really believe everyone is going to stop going to the schools, and allow themselves to be redirected to a central office and wait there to give new phone numbers?Phone numbers change every week along with addresses. Parents that don’t give the schools new numbers won’t be going to a central spot to do this either. With just one person in the school office working, they won’t have time to help anyone that comes in the building. Most buildings will just have one person in their front office, this being the office manager. As a rule, two people at least handle most of the same jobs, answering phones, tending to sick children ( which because we can only have a nurse in building two days a week we have to tend to,) doing clerical work, bookkeeping work, redirecting and greeting the public that walks in the door, taking teacher requests, putting away mail, doing reports and scheduling, handling the principals schedule and seeing that everyone stays on task. While our pitiful salaies might add a drop in the bucket for the no furlough fund, it is going to cause extreme hardship in the buildings. Someone that hasn’t done the tasks before will have to check attendance, correct it, excuses and tardies put in the system, run report cards, check on why teachers haven’t posted yet, adding to whatever their duties are already.
Do not assume his ” plan” isn’t already being implemented it is. We were told the decision was made in November to let us go, but really it was made in June, but we were told in November. 6 months versus a year to find a job, yes I believe he had a tear, and I believe the schools will having flying pigs soon as well.

• Link
• Report this comment

Maureen, thanks for terming this “ambitious reform blueprint.” vs. a plan. Plans have details and action items with milestones. It also has not real focus or underlying principle. Some of the ideas seem to have some merit; while others appear ludicrous. The 1.5 hour reading block is needed. But, looking a elementary kids, they need to be awake during that time. Lots of kids come to school to sleep because they have none at home; same for food, they’re starving when they come to school (no food at home). He wants to put county purchased PC’s in these homes. When I’ve read about programs like this they all had HUGE percentages of those PC’s hocked shortly. Learning language, multiples, has some proven roots in intelligence and education. However, the choice or Mandarin is fairly bizarre with many other natural choices that make perfect sense.

• Link
• Report this comment

I am so glad that I was not raised in Georgia.I was raised by my parents not to see color of anyone. We were raised that everyone has the right to all things that are available because we live in the United States. When are all the parents and educators going to stand up for the children? When I was in school it was three strikes and you were out. It is time for us to go back to the basics and let teachers teach and stop looking for a miracle tool. We need to offer trade schools again because not everyone is going to go to college wants to go. We are lying to these children and setting them up to fail.We need to take back our children’s education and stand up for what is right. We need to support our teachers and give them back the ability to discipline their classrooms and if that doesn’t happen then get them out and let their parents teach them. This whole thing in Bibb County is a joke! Parents and teachers need to stand united and get rid of the board as well as this superintendent. If we could take all of the money that has been spent on this so called plan that has not even been approved we could have done lots of things to better our schools that would have benefited our children.I see kids everyday that have made it all the way to 5th grade and cannot read a simple sentence or work a math problem because they do not know their multiplication facts. What is wrong with how we were taught ,spelling tests every week and writing our multiplication facts every night. We at least learned them. It is time t get back to the basics.

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Beverly Fraud: I have been out of the country for a few weeks, but I just saw this thread on Bibb County tonight. As usual, you are the Mike Tyson of this blog, knocking out all bums and pretenders…and with great wit. I have been laughing down here in the sunshine. This crazy asz sh1t that this new superintendent is pushing in Bibb is not new at all; it is the same stuff that other fraudulent educational slutts have been pushing for years, to no academic avail but to the downward spiral of the affected school systems. His malarkey is nothing but a sham and a farce, and he needs to be run out of Macon on a quick rail line!

How absurd for a foolish Bibb County School Board to hire someone who is selling the same snake oil that has been fraudulently peddled for years among naive and woefully simple-minded school board members. This guy is just another educational Elmer Gantry. It appears to me that when I get back in town, I need to lead the MACE Strike Force in a nice, juicy picket against this Superintendent Clown along Mulberry Street near the office of the Macon Telegraph. We can eat at Janeane’s on Mulberry before the picket. A good pre-picket meal. The best fried cornbread in town!

• Link
• Report this comment

MAUREEN have you heard that the RAPE CHARGES have been dropped and now that student is being charged. She is not what you called MENTALLY-special needs. In her after school program last school term 2010-2011 due to her not being on her grade level a teacher that worked with that program suggested that she put in the program that she is in due to her academic in lieu of being special needs mentally or physically. Regardless to the circumstances it’s a sad situation for all that were involved. My prayers are with all of them

However, I think before jumping to conclusion we should look at the WHOLE MATTER. All the ones that are petitioning–what great ideas do they have? Have any of them read the 100+ pages and gotten clarity. If everything was centered around all the people of Bibb County instead of one group of people we wouldn’t be where we are now. ALL schools should have been magnet schools when initiated. Someone stated you start with a school and then implement it from there. We started with a few school being magnet school, so why wasn’t all the schools over the last 20 25 years converted to magnet schools if that was the solution and not just certain schools?

• Link
• Report this comment