Clean sweep of teachers in Senate parent trigger bill
Take a look at this Google doc of the newly revised Parent Empowerment bill, notable for the clean sweep of any mention of teachers or educators. See my blog yesterday on the odd changes to this bill.
Sponsored by House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, the bill initially had been called the Parent and Educator Empowerment bill, but you can’t find the words “teacher” or “educator” any longer. (I have sent Lindsey a note for comment, but have not heard from him.)
In its original form, House Bill 123 allowed a majority of teachers and parents in a low-performing school to petition to the school board for new management of their schools.
The bill, which passed the House, was discussed in a Senate subcommittee today. However, the subcommittee could not vote the bill out as it lacked a quorum at the time.
State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, explained why he excised teachers from the bill. He noted that teachers are not part of the parent trigger laws in the seven states that have such legislation, which is correct. Legislatures in Florida and Oklahoma are also now considering parent trigger laws
The existing parent trigger laws speak only to parents triggering a takeover of a failing school. However, those existing laws also don’t speak to parents at any schools, even high performing ones, seeking management conversion to charters, which is a key provision in the proposed Georgia law.
One point that Millar raised would seem to have some validity: If teachers go to the school board to petition for a management takeover, they could be subject to retaliation if the petition fails and they have to go back to work for the same bosses.
Lindsey addresses that possibility in his bill by allowing the teacher vote to seek a management change to be a secret ballot. However, the bill requires that a majority of teachers support the petition. The argument can be made that the school management would be angry at the entire staff or, at the very least, suspicious of all of them.
Some theories making the rounds in the Gold Dome for why teachers were struck from the bill: The bill has opposition, and this issue could be volatile enough to derail it. Teachers were only included in the bill initially to gain passage in the House. The teacher petition takeover smacked too much of teacher unions so the Senate eliminated it.
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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102 comments Add your comment
Dunwoody
March 20th, 2013
10:36 am
I can speak only for my kids’ schools. No way would I want their teachers taking over the school. DeKalb has done a poor job of hiring the past three years. If this Bill passes and parents take control of the school, at least 1 in 3 teachers will be replaced with better quality educators. Lots of dead weight in the classrooms, unfortunately. Thanks to the Senate for changing the Bill.
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
10:43 am
Maybe , just maybe, the teachers didn’t give both political parties a seat at THEIR table and this is the blowback. Hint- Paybacks are…Well, you know what they are.
Eddie Hall
March 20th, 2013
10:58 am
It seems we are changing the WHOLE state because metro Atlanta cannot manage it’s schools properly.
Just A Teacher
March 20th, 2013
11:03 am
What does “new management” mean? I’m not sure I understand how this is supposed to work.
catlady
March 20th, 2013
11:14 am
Astropig–what table do teachers have?
Captain Kirk
March 20th, 2013
11:17 am
I agree with Astro. The teachers have given the Repubs the back of their hands for decades and now that the political winds are blowing a different way, they are screaming foul. The next time they have the levers of power they may want to remember that with a few notable exceptions (slavery, racial equality), there are no permanent political victories in our form of government.
Maureen Downey
March 20th, 2013
11:18 am
@Just, I wrote about the bill earlier this year and here is how I explained it:
MiltonMan
March 20th, 2013
11:20 am
“Maybe , just maybe, the teachers didn’t give both political parties a seat at THEIR table and this is the blowback. Hint- Paybacks are…Well, you know what they are.”
Given that teachers are in the back pocket of democrats, the above statement is hilarious.
MiltonMan
March 20th, 2013
11:22 am
“It seems we are changing the WHOLE state because metro Atlanta cannot manage it’s schools properly.”
Keep the high performing schools of North Fulton out of the conversation there chief.
Brasstown
March 20th, 2013
11:24 am
The new management team will be made up of all of those talented people who can run schools to perfection, but don’t get a chance because of the choke hold unions, communists, blacks, immigrants, foreign cars and rock and roll have on the public schools. Did I miss any in the Ga Republican mythology?
Not Afraid to Say So
March 20th, 2013
11:29 am
The tide is turning in GA public schools and I couldn’t be happier.
Parents and tax payers are now empowered to make real changes for their children other than move out of State.
This statement from Get Schooled particularly excites me:
“Recently, the specter of a parent trigger takeover led administrators and teachers in one Los Angeles school to sit down with parents and begin a collaborative effort to improve the school, according to Parent Revolution spokesman David Phelps.”
The parent trigger.
Teachers and schools will either respect it or — POW!
“
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
11:29 am
“The new management team will be made up of all of those talented people who can run schools to perfection, but don’t get a chance because of the choke hold unions, communists, blacks, immigrants, foreign cars and rock and roll have on the public schools. Did I miss any in the Ga Republican mythology?”
-EXACTLY the attitude that I mentioned earlier. You people are slow learners. This is a political battle.In politics,your friends come and go,your enemies ACCUMULATE. Why would any Republican legislator listen to you when you have this “my way or the highway” attitude? Yeah, it makes you feel good and puffs up your self esteem ,but it ensures that when you are on the wrong side of the voting equation,the other side is going to bring the pain.
But, hey, keep on telling yourself that you’ll win with vitriol instead of collaboration.It makes it easier for the reformers when they read your posts.
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
11:35 am
Ms Downey,
If I can interrupt your opinion shaping and comment deletion for a minute, your title seems to be superimposing one concept “Clean sweep of teachers” upon another unrelated concept. I can reduce my commenting but it gives me concern regarding the idea-herding that may be occurring by deleting commentary. Basically, your sin is thus: you introduce a topic and then delete commentary (at least mine) that provides context. This creates a situation like a ping pong ball bouncing around inside a refrigerator. Certainly that is not the legacy you intent. Have a good day.
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
11:39 am
Brasstown, they created a choke-hold exception for “Kia.” It’s part of the new “peasant-tech” intitiative. In other news, sales of Pearson Education UK (owner of Georgia certification tests) has doubled to $6 billion annual. although I do not seem to recall that being featured in this “education” blog with appears to have an allergy to anything involving big business.
Maureen Downey
March 20th, 2013
11:39 am
@Private, We have a mechanism by which readers can complain about comments. Enough of them complain with valid concerns and comments come down. That is what is happening. I disagree that all your comments meet the relevancy test.
Maureen
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
11:40 am
Milton Man-That was my very point.The teachers are in the pocket of Dems.Maybe you didn’t get that. I’d rather have two parties working for me at the capitol than just one.
This is crazy!
March 20th, 2013
11:48 am
Georgia parents….in another 2-3 years, who do you think will be teaching your kids? For the last 2-3 years I’ve watched the brightest and best teachers leave. Normal, grounded, well-educated people are over being treated so unfairly/poorly. Who do you think will be left?
It’s really easy to say to someone that if you don’t like your job, then leave. When this happens, who’s left? If you want to have a future where you’re kids aren’t sleeping on your couch at 30 it may be time to start respecting the teaching profession again (notice I said teaching, not the overly bloated beurocratic business model that seems to permeate our schools)
Brasstown
March 20th, 2013
11:50 am
This may help in some of the horribly run school systems such as Dekalb and Clayton. I agree with Eddie though that those situations are being used to push a much broader agenda.
Otherwise, Astro and others, you are fighting an “enemy” that just isn’t there. Teachers and administrators are members of your community that have the same hopes for your children that you do. You’ve bought a bill of goods from the Republican party. Most schools work amazingly well with kids and parents. You only hear about those cases where it isn’t going so well. There is no panacea out there that will miraculously “fix” education. Some kids don’t do well because of issues they bring to the table. Excellent educators can sometimes have a positive impact on that; sometimes not.
You’re boxing at shadows while they gut your child’s school. I’m saddened and angry to have a front row seat at this disaster. You think that new administrators or teachers will solve this problem and in a few cases it will. Mostly, it’s just more lies to reduce funding.
Maureen Downey
March 20th, 2013
11:58 am
@Private, There are many valid news stories that aren’t getting the coverage they deserve. But this blog is not the place to detail them. This is an education blog. We promise the AJC readers that if they come here, they will read about education policy, educators and schools. I suggest you create a blog where you can highlight the issues that you feel matter and aren’t getting adequate attention from the public. But you can’t do it here.
Maureen
charles
March 20th, 2013
12:06 pm
The bottom line is that it really does not matter. Parents are Parents not educators and Senators are not educators. I graduated in 1965 when teachers were respected and supported. Even my segregated school system prepared me for the world. Our students are not being educated – because everybody thinks they know how to HELP students learn. After all of this “change in whatever” Georgia Students will be ranked even lower. How can there be improvement, if the main operators are excluded. Remember the Students and forget about satisfying adult egos.
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
12:19 pm
@Brasstown
“You only hear about those cases where it isn’t going so well. There is no panacea out there that will miraculously “fix” education. ”
I have never seen or heard one responsible person in a policy making position ever ONCE claim that any one magic bullet exists.That is just NEA talking points stuff that I see repeated on a regular basis by people that are getting schooled (pardon the pun) politically. If there was a “magic bullet” approach,it would be the only reform attempted.No, school reform advocates favor a “toolkit” approach that realizes that no one answer is the only answer. Lots of teachers,educrats and their ilk are mad because their politics don’t work very well right now and it’s hard for them to adapt.That’s probably why the higher ups in the school systems have their own “my way or the highway” approach to new programs .Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.
Republicans Don't Lead
March 20th, 2013
12:20 pm
So Astropig.
Republicans have been in control of GA government since they changed their names from Dixiecrats…
But they dont own any of the states problems.. or the fix.
They just want to punish their political enemys.
Patrick Edmondson
March 20th, 2013
12:24 pm
Unfortunately the GOP seems to be eager to do any harm it can to education. They seem to feel they have private schools where they can control both who gets in and what is taught. (No danger your kid will ask uncomfortable questions because they will be too ill informed) Public schools are for training their servants, who only get “uppity” if they learn too much or have opened horizons. We won WWII because of our educated, thinking population who had the skills to jerry-rig a solution to most problems on the fly. The new generations are mostly lacking this skill because it “wasn’t on the test”.
RepublicansLead?LOL
March 20th, 2013
12:28 pm
So Astropig,
Even though Republicans have been in control of GA state government for decades. The only responsibility they have is to punish their political enemies?
No wonder GA schools and Government are terrible… They are both products of each other. Ignorant GA children grow up to be ignorant GA republicans… *still* hating their teachers, just like middle school.
Bernie
March 20th, 2013
12:31 pm
Welcome to The State Of Georgia and Education – Where Nothing IS as it appears to be. Where Education is viewed through a prisim of only a select few should be entittled to a Quality Education.
Where the vast majority of students are viewed as field hands or as cogs in a wheel. To be used in that wheel as an interchangable tool, to be managed by the successful educated ones.
A modern day Plantation system of implementation if you will, unlike the Plantation of old this new one, is no longer a system specifically based on the color of one’s skin, but a system based on economic accessibility.
If you have the economic where with all, the chances of a Quality Education is greater than 70%. if you are from the latter the chances one Receives a Quality Education decreases to 20%.
A system that is being currently established right before our very eyes in the bright light of Day by our own political Leaders. As we sit by quietly and watching it being built brick by brick. To our own and our own Childrens detriment.
Clutch Cargo
March 20th, 2013
12:31 pm
“We won WWII because of our educated, thinking population who had the skills to jerry-rig a solution to most problems on the fly. ”
No. We won WWII because of our vast,immense industrial capacity and access to petroleum.Our soldiers were not nearly as well educated by todays standards (because of the draft) as they are with our all volunteer military.And our president at the time even had Republicans in his cabinet (Secretary of War Henry Stimson and Secy’ Of The Navy Frank Knox were Republican stalwarts),so why can’t teachers and educrats work WITH the other party for the good of all? Why does every comment toward the GOP have to be laced with partisan invective? I guess that ideaology (as it pertains to education) has become a blood sport.
Mary Elizabeth
March 20th, 2013
12:38 pm
Theory for the removal of teachers from House Bill 123, as stated in the article, above: “Teachers were only included in the bill initially to gain passage in the House. The teacher petition takeover smacked too much of teacher unions so the Senate eliminated it.”
=========================================
I will restate that House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey (R), and state Sen. Fran Millar (R) are both members of ALEC. I will let readers judge for themselves how much influence ALEC might have had regarding this bill’s existence, either directly or indirectly.
Hey Teacher
March 20th, 2013
12:42 pm
@This is crazy — I agree completely. I work in a desirable school, but even we have trouble filling certain positions. I can’t imagine what the applicant pool would look like in a school that had been taken over by a parent trigger.
RepublicansLead?LOL
March 20th, 2013
12:43 pm
Yo Clutch,
GA is a red state. The GOP is and has been in charge for a long time. So. why cant the majority party work with anyone on education?
Because they don’t need intelligent voters to stay in office. In fact, just the opposite.
Teacherrollinghereyes
March 20th, 2013
12:43 pm
Dunwoody…if bad teachers were hired in Dekalb, they were hired by BAD ADMINISTRATORS. How do you think bad teachers end up in schools?
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
12:44 pm
“Republicans have been in control of GA government since they changed their names from Dixiecrats…”
Every governor in Georgia from Reconstruction through Sonny Perdue (2002) was a Democrat. (Perdue was a former Democrat).The GOP took over the state senate in ‘02 and began control of upper and lower houses this year. Sorry, what you assert is just not true.
Typical
March 20th, 2013
12:47 pm
Perhaps this concept ought to be expanded in all directions. If I don’t like my cable service, I can have a petition circulated to have everyone at the cable company replaced. If I am unhappy with Congress, I can with one referendum have the entire congress replaced en masse. If I don’t think the local hospital is performing, with one referendum we can remove all the doctors. What, you don’t think I’m qualified to make that judgment? Forget you. I’ve been in a hospital, used cable for years, voted in elections and sat in a classroom. I deserve empowerment!
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
12:52 pm
here are many valid news stories that aren’t getting the coverage they deserve. But this blog is not the place to detail them. This is an education blog. We promise the AJC readers that if they come here, they will read about education policy, educators and schools.
Yes, this makes sense. One a different note, since we have a brief dialogue at the moment, seems like there is a lot of big business involved in education, yet is it possible for this weblog to address “big business” or is this weblog a part of “big business?” I know little about the editorial independence of the AJC in this matter, but it seems like it would be material to the vitality or relevance of education topics. For example, Pearson’s profit doubling in the last year is a pretty big deal since so much of their effort goes to the US market. Where did that money come from? How much of it came from Georgia? Is education policy in Georgia being effected by Pearson? They’re certainly no stranger to pulling out the checkbook and paying people off, lobbying monies etc. That sort of thing? Talking about Deal, Walker, and Jester is a great thing, but meanwhile what of these intitiatives and trainings teachers have to choice to take part in? Activities attached to these companies getting education monies.
If you “follow the money” on Walker, you might find some ancillary family jobs?
If you “follow the money” on Jester, you’ll probably find a Kroger receipt?
If you “follow the money” on Deal, you probably find a golf cart receipt?
Follow the money on Pearson in Georgia, and ??
RexDogma
March 20th, 2013
12:56 pm
Who took down my earlier comment? The bill is still garbage.
RexDogma
March 20th, 2013
12:59 pm
Oh Sorry never mind. That was a comment on your earlier story about this bill.
Brasstown
March 20th, 2013
12:59 pm
“Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.”
Note to self-Never engage with this person again. Also, double check the dead bolts before going to bed.
Oscar
March 20th, 2013
1:05 pm
Politicians should never make decisions that impact education. Sadly, they have great problems just keeping our state (and national) governments in check and they always have a “special interest” or motive…Politicians rarely are able to solve any problems, especially in education. The past 20 years should prove that. It is easy for Politicans to point fingers at teachers and administrators – maybe it is time the taxpayer points a finger at the politicans (state and national) and get them out of the decision making process for education — they really have no clue!!! Just trying to get votes!!
Jeffrey
March 20th, 2013
1:23 pm
All the folks who have kids at the local charter school are very involved and work well together. I honestly believe that these folks could have organized without a charter school. They could have all joined the PTA and I believe be just as effective. My point is we need to stop looking for reasons to blow up schools and make them charters. See Sarah smith or Mary Lin. And lastly I feel sorry for people who have to deal with bad teachers. My sister was always a public school teacher who taught in award winning and inner city schools. I met hundreds of her fellow educators and never came across a single bad on. Guess I’m lucky.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
1:26 pm
when I see comments like these, I’m actually sorta glad GPC laid me off. it gave me the incentive I needed to start looking for work outside Georgia. only a fool or someone held prisoner by years of service would remain here
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
1:29 pm
the more I look at this bill, the more I’m coming to the opinion its smoke and mirrors. looks nice, makes people think they are getting something they think they want when in fact
its nothing at all
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
March 20th, 2013
1:32 pm
Private-I write a good bit about Pearson using their own documents and Michael Barber’s own words. As well as most recently John Behrens on where they see digital assessments going. Not surprised their profit is up.
But Pearson is not the point of story. I left a comment on the earlier version of this story on why I think teachers are no longer included. The fact that they are excluded in other states makes sense given the NEPC report i cite.
On the being able to convert even if a school is not failing, that actually makes sense in Georgia given that the new definition of student achievement under our NCLB waiver is tied to factors that parents may find troubling. As both a state official and an APS admin said in a public meeting I attended last year, these definitions will make us look better. So you could easily have parents correctly convinced the schools are doing nothing for their children apart from manipulating them psychologically and letting them play video simulation games and doing politically motivated projects.
And if manipulating them psychologically sounds unduly harsh, you should see the Response to Intervention PBIS for all kids report that hit my desk this morning.
I know where this is all going and parents are going to want options apart from what is being planned. And not tied to either student achievement of growth because they do not have a normal dictionary meaning in Ed World.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
1:36 pm
I’m curious: is this legal/constitutional?
Wondering
March 20th, 2013
1:37 pm
I live in Cobb and don’t see the types of issues going on here that I read about elsewhere. We have relatively low taxes. We pass our SPLOSTs. We exempt those over 62 from school taxes. And, we educate our kids. When I ask the schools why we don’t have the issues I see in other systems they give credit to the parents. Likewise, the parents give credit to the schools, both teachers and administration. What I see elsewhere is frankly reflected in most of the Boards. A complete refusal to work together towards the education of the children.
I know some of our citizens complain about artificial turf in our stadiums and new theaters in our schools but mostly I hear pride in our kids. We also look at our weaknesses and expect our leadership to find solutions. The one thing I would note is that it doesn’t take long for a school to fail but it takes a lot of work to right the ship. It’s best to keep them on course.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
1:57 pm
This is Crazy makes an interesting point — in 2-3 years who will teach the kids?
It depends.
When parents control schools, good teachers will flock to them because parents want to select the best teacher for the school, not the one who is the race of the board members.
In that regard, good teachers will flock to those good schools.
With a few expections, for failing traditional public schools, the same old “lifers” who just want to clock in and check out, those kinds of people breed like rabbits and will continue to flock to the failing public schools where they can make excuses for failing to teach kids.
Let’s face the facts.
With very few exceptions, the brightest and the best didn’t leave schools because they never became a teacher. Twenty years ago many more opportunties opened for women and instead of the usual teacher, nurse, secretary jobs, they entered medical school, law school and other more prestigious roles.
Afterward, men did not become teachers. So who was left? A few honest soles and a whole lot of people just killing time and collecting a pay check.
When women who are truly educated and have the best interests of the school and children in mind and come back into teaching, respect for the teaching profession will improve. Until that time, it’s the bottom of the barrel, with some notable exceptions, of course.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
2:05 pm
Jeffrey, you’re flat out wrong about Mary Lin. The PTA doesn’t make the school better. They raise money and do a good job of that. That money is limited in what it can do. The PTA cannot raise money and hire a better teacher. They can raise money and buy better playground equipment and buy Promethean boards for the teachers and have school festivals and none of that impacts learning.
What DOES?
The parents themselves. They are educated and they value education. They send their kids to school on time, with good food for breakfast and appropriate clothing and an appropriate amount of sleep and they do homework with their child and don’t need to be taught to read to their kids.
None of that improves the quality of the teachers or affects the quality of the administration of the curriculum.
Mary Lin was a sinkhole until white, middle-class families moved back into Inman Park, Candler Park and Lake Claire.
The school was horrible until the white, middle class sent their kids there. The PTA is awesome but their hands are tied in what they can do and how much they can influence what goes on in the classroom.
richard rothey
March 20th, 2013
2:17 pm
Teachers are a major component of the problem. They cannot be trusted to improve our schools. If they could, American education wouldn’t be in the sorry state that it is.
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
2:25 pm
I suggest you create a blog where you can highlight the issues that you feel matter and aren’t getting adequate attention from the public.
Can I get a url from the ajc, “the knucklehead on the side?”
But you can’t do it here.
Doh. Yes it is a productive idea / suggestion.
Me
March 20th, 2013
2:28 pm
This all looks good on the surface until you have to put in the work. Even in the homeschool community when you have things like co-ops that involve other peoples kids, you have parents that tend to either not want to be involved or get fatigued. This is generally what will happen with parent triggers. Most parents only want what is best for their own kid o kids. They eventually stop wanting to or caring to put in the work for a child or children they are not responsible for. What happens then? Let’s face it folks. Like anything else, once they take over and the glory is all gone half the people involved will disappear…. on to the next attention grabber.
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
2:29 pm
Serf’s Collar,
And if manipulating them psychologically sounds unduly harsh, you should see the Response to Intervention PBIS for all kids report that hit my desk this morning
I think I’ve been a party to about 20 of those. I’ll have to look in on your weblog, and thank you for your clearly identifying all of this weird stuff going on. It is difficult to see from ground level.
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
March 20th, 2013
2:37 pm
I do not monitor it at a ground level. Most of the interesting and actually binding stuff in education is actually coming from directions hardly anyone monitors.
Sometimes it is sitting on servers in other countries but describing what is going on here.
Some of it is in other related policy areas that people do not appreciate is related.
As I have said before, these policies will not work. They are not designed to work but destroy whatever aspects of schools do work and then obscure that fact behind poorly understood group performance assessments.
Rob
March 20th, 2013
2:47 pm
Astropig you are somewhat dense.
All teachers are not Democrats. Heck, you are lucky to find a teacher that is one in my school. I’m a Libertarian. But I do have training in education…which I’m guessing most parents, whom you think are the saviors of education, do not. I don’t let the barber operate on my kidneys….
William Casey
March 20th, 2013
2:50 pm
@CLUTCHCARGO: The Republican Party of 2013 bears NO resemblance to the Republican Party that FDR had to work with. Bob Taft is probably spinning in his grave over the antics of today’s “Republicans.” Work “with” Republicans? Not likely. Republicans today expect others to work FOR them for the lowest salary possible. No, thanks!
Typical
March 20th, 2013
2:52 pm
It doesn’t matter, Me, whether people’s vigor lasts long enough to actually accomplish school improvement. That isn’t this bill’s point. This bill is a Trojan Horse designed to get more public funds into private charter school corporations’ hands. Once the school has gone charter, it will be difficult to return back to the regular school system. The sad thing is that statistically, privately run charter schools are not as effective as public schools with similar demographics. The sadder thing is that if the charter school is forced to accept all students, and cannot expel them for behavioral or academic reasons, their record is pretty abysmal. People see the words ‘charter school’ and think ‘private school’. It wouldn’t be that way. Do you know of any private school that has to take any student who walks through the door and cannot remove them short of an act of congress? It will be too late when people figure out the game. This is al part of a long slow play to get taxpayers to fund private school tuition for schools most of their kids will never be able to attend.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
3:03 pm
touching as it is that red meat Fran would allegedly care about us….
his point is so much hooey.
reality is the sort of administrators who would launch reprisals ALREADY know who their critics are. they have their favorites spying for them, and actively sewing discord among the rank and file.
secret ballot or not, the sort of admin who would launch reprisals will do so anyway. its Lenin’s old concept of breaking eggs to make omlets
Rob
March 20th, 2013
3:09 pm
Republicansdon’tlead is right.
The Democrats of Georgia have, since the 40’s, been DINO’s. Democrats in name only. Their politics have always been conservative, not liberal. The only true liberal was Jimmy Carter, and he won because he acted like a racist conservative in his campaign. This is exactly why you, Aspiago, should have no influence over what is taught. You don’t know the history of the state’s politics. The small scale change came in the 80’s to 90’s. Nathan Deal used to be a Democrat as well. Again, his politics are still the same, he voted with Republicans even before the change.
There seems to be some sort of understanding, or lack thereof, that teachers have any control over the school….We don’t. We are told what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach. Meanwhile, a testing company, with a monopoly on the state’s testing bottom to top, evaluates what students “know.” Teachers have no power. Administrators have no power. The power comes from boards, (elected) yes, but mostly the state and federal government (also elected.) For example, Obama’s legislation for education is idiotic, can teachers do anything about it? No. Can the state? Possibly, but the don’t and won’t. Sorry, but you are blaming the wrong people. NCLB anyone?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
3:11 pm
what I’m still curious about:
when the parents lose interest in these mythical schools on a hill…the ones where teachers are vetted, approved, trained, ect by parents,
who will they blame then?
cris
March 20th, 2013
3:23 pm
.” Lots of teachers,educrats and their ilk are mad because their politics don’t work very well right now and it’s hard for them to adapt.That’s probably why the higher ups in the school systems have their own “my way or the highway” approach to new programs .Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.”
-you are certainly living up to your name Astropig…
I’m a 20-year veteran teacher- is it so hard to comprehend that I might actually know how and what to teach to the students that I have every day? More so than some legislator at the Gold Dome or even Washington? That the reason it’s so hard for us to “adapt” might be that every 3-5 years we are asked to totally scrap the curriculum, standards and evaluations and start from scratch – again? And unfortunately, teachers seem to be very “governable” right now…you don’t see any of us staging mass sick-outs or strikes, do you? I don’t pretend to understand YOUR career/job…please don’t condescend to understand mine…..
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
3:25 pm
bootney, the mythical schools do exist. Check out Drew Charter School, which educates childrne in the Coan Middle School and Toomer area in APS.
Drew consistently outperforms both Toomer and Coan, which aer traditional public schools.
Parents are happy and so are the kids and teachers.
Both Toomer and Coan are very low-performing and were huge cheaters in the biggest cheating scandal in the nation’s history.
Drew’s children are almost exclusively black and low-income.
Drew’s parents are looking for anything other than a good education for their children.
What is more apparent, Bootney, is that you are intimidated by the prospect that your formerly secure lifer government job might be in jeopardy. Should you worry? Only if you are a bad teacher. There will always be jobs for good teachers.
Perhaps you are worried you might have to listen and respond more appropriately to the parents of the children in your classroom. In that case, I recommend you throw away the hostility you frequently show to parents on these blogs and instead practice your communication skills.
Charter schools.
Ousting of local boards of schools.
Parent trigger laws.
The tide is turning and parents will have the respect and the power they need to educate their children appropriately.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
3:27 pm
CORRECTION: Instead of “Drew’s parents are looking for anything other than a good education for their children.
It should be
“Drew’s parents are NOT looking for anything other than a good education for their children.”
Toomer and Coan are to blame. The school administration, the teachers and staff and APS are to blame for the rotten learning outcomes in Coan and Toomer.
Parents don’t have to look for it, Bootney. It’s as obvious as the test scores on the APS web sites.
Brasstown
March 20th, 2013
3:48 pm
Big deal. Somebody took over failing APS school and made it work better. You could pull the administration and staff from just about any average public school in GA and put them at a miserably performing school and they could turn it around just fine. There’s nothing special about the “charter team” in your narrow example. Everyone knows that low performing schools in mostly urban areas need help. The real problem is being couched as how to bring up test scores and completion rates in all of GA’s schools? Schools that are operating very well, but still 30-40% of students aren’t succeeding. That’s a very different problem.
Dunwoody
March 20th, 2013
3:52 pm
Teacherrollinghereyes, with a parent take over you would most likely see those bad admin folks replaced as well.
And to the person in Cobb with the rose colored glasses – Gwinnett and Cobb are five-ten years away from becoming DeKalb
Political Mongrel
March 20th, 2013
4:02 pm
Hmm . . . does this parent trigger rule apply to schools that are within charter systems?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:09 pm
some things I find amusing in this:
-several of the most venomous anti teacher posters have never set foot in a classroom. I wonder if they insist on telling the mechanic or the pharmacist how to do their jobs? more, how they would feel if some “teacher” told them how to do theirs?
-in a nutshell, all the charter crazy is is: you don’t run school exactly the way I want it run, so I want to form my own so I can be in charge and tell you what to do. basically run schools like a booster club, where money and rudeness win the day.
this is fine, just own it. admit you don’t give a rats rear end about schools, just you and yours.
-the concept there will always be a place for good teachers. absolutely, but they won’t be in Georgia. at least not in public ed. they’ll be recruited to places where teaching is respected, not abused. and the nutcase zealots will be stuck with the very people they don’t want, since no one else will take the jobs.
-can’t help but wonder if the rabid dogs would allow us to spank their kid? public humiliation? actually fail them? worst of all, hold them out of football for bad grades? my guess is no way in hell, but its like asking how many GPC VPs could have been laid off and keep the bulk of the plant ops staff – answer: we’ll never know
-red meat Fran decides to give a damn about us by blocking us from participation. nothing says love like enforced silence.
I once asked a guy from DeLoitte and Touche (SP?) if layoffs really helped a company long term. the fast answer was rarely. D&T would make suggestions which involved management running leaner and meaner, but usually this was ignored in favor of the quick fix. the quick fix which usually left things worse than before.
why? simple. that would require management taking a hard look at themselves, and that rarely happens. the same concept holds for parents. unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions, they look for the easiest target.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
4:14 pm
Me, you predict the charter school run by parents will fail because parents won’t put in the work.
Me, teachers are parents too.
Many teachers often fail to put in the work and that is why many kids cannot even read.
You also fail to acknowlege the hard work that parents have done and continue to do in traditional public schools. One poster lists Mary Lin’s PTA as a good example. They work hard and tireleslly, yet they are limited by law in what they are actually allowed to do. You take those same hard-working parents and put them in a charter school where they are allowed to have more power and more influence — you’ll have an even better school. If you think a group of hard-working moms will raise money for a playground, think how much more motivated they will be if they can raise money to hire a better teacher.
All these doom and gloom predictions about parent run schools by peole like you amounts to one thing — FEAR.
You fear that charter schools or parent trigger laws will give parents more power to say who stays and who goes.
Bad teachers should be scared.
Are you scared?
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
4:18 pm
Bootney should put her money where her mouth is.
She hates her teaching job, hates the parents, hates the kids, hates her bosses and then predicts teachers will flee from schools.
So, Bootney, prove it. Put your money where your mouth is — leave. Prove your point.
We parents will be delighted to get that hostile, caustic attitude of yours away from our children.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:19 pm
all this reminds me why I prefer a classic republican government (not the current GOP, the classical term) over democracy.
democracy is mob rule, as opposed to a rule of laws. and the anti education mob is out in force in Georgia
CJae of EAV
March 20th, 2013
4:23 pm
This bill should go down in flames and is not needed. There are laws that presently exist which are designed to accomplish the same goal in large part and until they are effectively exercised such that we can identify abuses in their application there is ABSOLUTELY no need for this bill in GA.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:23 pm
@ P&J
ordinarily I ignore your caustic rants because they are so long and I’m too far past 50 to waste time on them. but since this last one was short I actually saw it and will respond
1-you are a troll of the lowest form
2-what you don’t know can fill oceans
3-since my layoff -does it make you happy I was laid off?- I am looking for work out of state. even thought it will mean splitting up my family, it will be worth it to escape the idiocy of people like you
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:25 pm
@ CJae
it does beg the question what the real motivation behind it is.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:28 pm
@ maureen
as far as you know, has anyone under the gold dome ever proposed doing away with state supported education outright? that seems to be the goal, if not intent
AJC isn't me
March 20th, 2013
4:39 pm
Too bad the misnamed Georgia Association of Educators is run by liberal-Democrat activists pursuing political agendas such as: gay rights, pro-abortion, welfare expansion, etc.
Rather than seeking to influence the political party they and their parent union hate.
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
5:13 pm
@Brasstown et al,
There was a time when your criticism stung. I would think “is this just me”? “Am I the only one that feels this way”? And then…Along came the Charter School Amendment. Now I know that about 60% of the state sees things the way we reformers do. Your spell is broken. Your nonsensical invective is a badge of honor. Fire away. It lets everybody see what we see.
Rick L in ATL
March 20th, 2013
5:29 pm
The future charter school I’ve been predicting for our neighborhood for several years now (just you wait, parents are getting good and fed up with the Inman situation, which is only going to get worse) will be a paradise for good teachers short-lived, utterly hellish experience for bad ones. So, yes, weak teachers should fear the school-choice and parent-trigger movements.
In any future school I’m helping to run, teachers will be continuously, rigorously and fairly evaluated. That’s how we’ll know whom to reward. Good teachers will not have a problem with any of this.
Parents like me who want more choice are not “anti-public education.” We’re just the opposite. We expect the state to support and play a role in whatever future educational system fills the vacuum left by the departure of the current system, which is dying and not worth resuscitating.
The folks looking to preserve the status quo, however (despite all their blather about making “reforms,” which they’ll never accomplish and which wouldn’t be enough anyway) could accurately be described as anti-public education, because the traditional system–the one they support–is a failure.
Saying “I support a bad educational system” is the same as saying “I’m against public education,” right?
Dina
March 20th, 2013
5:49 pm
Thanks Rick….all your “Flowers, Rainbows and Unicorns” talk about how wonderful your Charter School will be has made me absolutely giddy. My child attends a Fulton County School (now a Charter System). I’ll be sure to let all the really great teachers there who are presently experiencing hell that “Paradise” will soon be on the way.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
5:54 pm
@Astropig “Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.”
LOL! Astropig, let me explain how things REALLY work, since you apparently are not very well informed. Reforms are “imposed” upon teachers constantly, from what to teach, to how to teach, to what tests to give, to how the report card must took, to what grades we are allowed to give, to what you need to post on you board, to what text books to use, to what lessons to teach, to how many push pins can be in your cork board, to how your vocabulary words must be oriented on the wall, to what color ink pen you can use to grade, to what bleeping PAGE NUMBER of the text you should be covering on any particular day!
(Those of you blaming TEACHERS for the problems in the system are barking up the wrong tree. Good, dedicated teachers are probably the ONLY thing keeping some schools from utter disaster.)
Usually, teachers are called in to a meeting and told what they will be “required” to do without any imput into the decision. Then, naturally, teachers (who are actually in the classroom and trained to deal with children and parents) raise their concerns. They say, “That won’t really work for X students.” or “I tried that in my classroom and it was a disaster.” Or “What about….? ” “Have you considered the possibility of ________?” “This won’t work because of X, Y, or Z!”
And they are ignored, dismissed and told that their superiors (who have never stepped foot in a classroom, or who “failed” at teaching and fled the classroom) know much better than them what will work.
Sort of like we were ignored when we pointed out that NCLB made no sense because there was no way to get every child to score above average by the year 2014, because it is statistically impossible for 100% to be “above the average.”
And then a couple years later, then “reformers” come back and say, “Well, that didn’t work out so well. I didn’t really work for X students. We tried that in various classrooms and it was a disaster. It didn’t work because of X, Y, and Z.” And pretty much they parrot back every concern that teachers initially raised, but they will never admit they were told such by the lowly classroom teachers. Then they bring in the next dog and pony show, because now they, “have a better idea!”
Rinse.
Repeat.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:00 pm
Brasstown, you are absolutely flat out wrong when you say “Teachers and administrators are members of your community that have the same hopes for your children that you do.”
Teachers and administrators at my child’s former APS school are certainly not part of my community. They not only live outside the community, they live outside the district. Many commute in from Woodstock and Stone Mountain. They live where it is cheaper to live and then commute to work and bring their kids with them to our community’ school and goodness gracious if you dare to want a Teacher/Parent conference with them after 2:20…they’re running for their cars and headed out of town….LITERALLY.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
6:01 pm
P.S. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason “reforms” don’t actually work, is because, if they did, the “reformers” would be out of a job! Once you have actually “fixed” the schools, what could they do to keep pulling in the big fees for all their “assistance” in fixing the schools?
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:06 pm
I love teaching says exactly what parents hate to hear “Good, dedicated teachers are probably the ONLY thing keeping some schools from utter disaster.)”
ONLY teachers are doing the hard work.
Way to win friends and influence people. (sarcasm font).
You see, when things go right, it’s all thanks to all teachers.
When things are bad it’s because all parents are bad and all administrators are bad.
It’s this kind of constant over the top ridiculous claims that undermine all teachers.
In the same blog we hear from teachers that they can only do what they’re told and have no power but yet also claim they are the only ones holding it all together.
There are many lousy teachers in APS and Dekalb. There are some really good ones too.
There are many lousy parents in APS and Dekalb. There are some good ones too.
Teachers, students and parents are all integral parts of the school and no genuinely good school exists without the cooperation, intelligence and effort by all three groups but listening to I love/hate teaching tell it…all of we parents are dirt bags, all kids are miscreants and all teachers are Mother Theresa.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:10 pm
To Rick, great post. Thanks.
Please tell us more about your plans for Inman. I have skin in the game and lots of it.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:14 pm
Bootney, thanks for your post. I’ve said many times before:
Good teachers will have no trouble finding a job. Only bad teachers have to worry about losing theirs.
You proved my point for me.
Bernie
March 20th, 2013
6:22 pm
Georgia Legislators Message to The Teachers Of Georgia: YOU ARE THE ENEMY!….PERIOD!
mark
March 20th, 2013
6:39 pm
As a left wing, pink-o commie teacher, i dont know why teachers here are not republicants. I sit in meetings about budgets, school law and such. All the elected Rs downtown were voted in by these folks. Not me. I have not voted for a winner in years!! But the real problem I see is the lack of forethought, about the future of Georgia. I dont see myself or my offspring staying here, but if you dont change your educationally ways, all these highly educated folks you desire for current and future jobs, will be imported from overseas.
Myth
March 20th, 2013
6:52 pm
@Pride&Joy
“Drew’s children are almost exclusively black and low-income.”
This is one of the biggest myths around. Drew Charter is rapidly becoming ANCS. Drew Charter is certainly not even close to low income….anymore.
Georgia
March 20th, 2013
7:01 pm
Education: How to teach children how to think. There is only one way to get every child to think, and that is to let them design the tests. It changes everything. It forces them to approach a subject from an angle that allows them to think.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
7:07 pm
@Pride and Joy “ONLY teachers are doing the hard work.
Way to win friends and influence people. (sarcasm font).
You see, when things go right, it’s all thanks to all teachers.
When things are bad it’s because all parents are bad and all administrators are bad.
It’s this kind of constant over the top ridiculous claims that undermine all teachers.
P&J
I was addressing Astropig’s comment concerning REFORMERS, and the input of REFORMERS. I was not addressing parental input at all…nor school administrations’, since most of the time, the school level administrator’s hands are just as tied as those of the teachers. Now, if you REALLY want to convince me that parents have any input when it comes to the “reforms” being imposed upon school systems from above, then we can talk. I am sorry you misinterpreted my post, but I was discussing how TEACHERS keep doing their best despite the reform being implemented which make no sense. Parents really have very little say in what test I must give, what EQs I must post, or what color pen I can use on my papers. Parents are often just as at the mercy of the refomers as everyone else. Isn’t that what you keep complaining about? The terrible leadership at APS and Dekalb?
NO WHERE did I say anything even remotely, close to “all parents are dirt bags, all kids are miscreants, and all teachers are Mother Theresa.” I find that highly offensive to my students and parents, and I deeply resent your implicating I would believe such a thing! Not to mention, I have many, MANY times discussed the importance of parental support on this blog. You repeatedly accuse me of saying negative things about parents, which I HAVE NOT posted, and frankly, I am weary of it.
Jack ®
March 20th, 2013
7:24 pm
Best you stay out of the street fights, Ms Downey. You are outnumbered, y’know.
Maureen Downey
March 20th, 2013
7:25 pm
@Jack, There may be more of them, but I am meaner.
Maureen
Big Mama
March 20th, 2013
7:37 pm
I am a parent (not a teacher or employee of the school system) and I am astonished at the criticism heaped on teachers by certain posters. The teachers my son has had have all been highly qualified, highly motivated, and very interested in the best for all their students. The issues I can see that make their job difficult are the overcrowded classrooms and the ineffectual, uninterested parents who never respond to requests for conferences, do not send their children into the classroom ready to learn, or even to help find lost library books. If there are bad teachers in your school, then your school administrators need to hear from you that these teachers are unacceptable.
Mary Elizabeth
March 20th, 2013
7:55 pm
@ Maureen Downey, 7:25 pm
PLEASE2
March 20th, 2013
8:00 pm
Why hate on teachers to this intesity? These are the very people that spend more hours per week with YOUR children than you do per week. Also, since these schools are low-perfroming and so much more stress is placed on their plate, why not place equal amout of extra funds for those teachers’ plates that work in under-performing schools? “You get what you pay for” is the old addage.
Just sayin`
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
8:44 pm
Bootney and Brasstown, you tell ‘em!!! Support !
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:04 pm
@ astro
when was the last time you taught in a classroom?
since you speak with such assumed authority you must have on the ground experience to back this up. don’t you?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:06 pm
we have children 5 hours a week out of 160+.
and somehow we’re the problem?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:08 pm
@ maureen
I grew up in the streets, and have and Ph.D. in streetwise nasty.
if you need any pointers, holler.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:21 pm
things we cannot effect
-the amount of time they study outside class.
-compulsory attention, much less attendence.
-student priorities
-parent priorities
-insanity from the idiots in DC
-insanity from the idiots under the gold dome
-the importance of football over education
-the quality of the work done by faculty before us
-the quality and safety of the neighborhood
-the price of textbooks
-social pressure to promote students who are not ready
-the ineptness of administration
-Fran Millar
-the political ruthlessness of administrative types
-distribution of funds and technology
-the nonstop slashing of budgets
-the scapegoating by the gold dome crowd
-incompetent leadership
-cronyism, nepotism, and graft by school boards
-SACS
-the quality of school food
-ect ect ect.
ALL we can do is try for one hour a day for less than 180 days a year to teach the few who want to learn. and somehow we’re the problem.
changemaker
March 20th, 2013
9:51 pm
The parents had to take the reins in Adelanto, California, the first place the trigger was pulled, because the teachers, union, board, and several administrators were never going to change the status quo. The school had been in program improvement for almost eight years, the entire life of an elementary student. When the parents did pull the trigger, their immigration status was questioned and insults hurled. The parents persevered, however, and their new school will open in August, 2013.
10:10 am
March 20th, 2013
10:16 pm
Like moths to a flame, the blog’s chronic whiners and malcontents seem unusually drawn to this topic.
Cobb History Teacher
March 20th, 2013
10:49 pm
“Georgia parents….in another 2-3 years, who do you think will be teaching your kids? For the last 2-3 years I’ve watched the brightest and best teachers leave. Normal, grounded, well-educated people are over being treated so unfairly/poorly. Who do you think will be left?
It’s really easy to say to someone that if you don’t like your job, then leave. When this happens, who’s left? If you want to have a future where you’re kids aren’t sleeping on your couch at 30 it may be time to start respecting the teaching profession again (notice I said teaching, not the overly bloated beurocratic business model that seems to permeate our schools)”
Well put. Problem is everyone expects teachers to work for free, and based on the trust and responsibility we are given most of us feel we deserve more respect as professionals then we currently are given. Beyond the respect there is also the issue of one teacher taking on and trying to teach thirty plus students in a classroom designed for twenty well behaved on task students. The system is broke and that’s why schools fail. You have students who don’t understand why they are there (many think it’s to socialize and have “fun”) and so they fight the education they are being given because it’s not “entertaining” them.
This then causes some parents and the public blame the teachers. This is like blaming a doctor for a patient’s death when the patient refused to follow the doctor’s orders. A teacher can only do so much most of us at the middle and high school level manage more students (try 120+) than the average business owner has employees, and we do it all alone there are no teachers’ aides. Try putting one person in charge of planning and strategy (lesson plans), finance and accounting (grading and grade input), legal (enforcing school and classroom rules), marketing and sales (keeping up a blog or a homework web page), customer service (contacting and conferencing with parents) and human resources (helping students to get along in the school and classroom). Most people have no idea how much we do as they have never done it they have only sat on the student’s side of the desk.
Bottom line schools are a reflection of the community they serve. Communities without discipline, communities that are all about their “rights” but not about their “responsibilities and communities that don’t value education (at least not in action) will always have failing schools. For those that can do better get you teaching certificate join us and show us how it’s done. After all you get your summers off.
sneak peak into education
March 20th, 2013
10:57 pm
The public are being duped and drinking the reform-speak cool-aid. Whenever someone says how teachers fight against the “status-quo” you know you are listening to someone who has been fed lines from the reformy folks. There has never been status quo in the schools; they are forever in a constant state of flux as they are subjected to a constant changes in policies, as directed by those in power. However, this bill, the so-called Parent Trigger, is nothing more than a ruse by the right-wing group ALEC, whose aim is to privatize public education and turn it over to the big corporations only for the sake of pillaging tax dollars. Have a look at the states that have, for years, had charter schools, vouchers, etc… and you will not see the miracle increase in educational performance that is promised. What you will see a two-tier public education system or money being funneled into private schools that teach religion or do not have the same level of accountability that is expected from our traditional schools.
If you read about what truly happened in the first Parent Trigger in California, you won’t be surprised to read that it was led by Parent’s Revolution. This group is backed and funded by Bill Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundation (billionaires who have shown nothing but contempt for public education) not for altruistic purposes but so they can siphon money from the public coffers. There was a huge legal battle because parents were duped into signing a petition that was totally void of the real purpose of it; ie putting the local school into the hands of a for-profit charter. When the community found out, many tried to rescind their signatures but the judge wouldn’t allow them to (doing so would have meant that they didn’t have the 50% required). What the judge did do was not allow those parents who wanted to remove their signatures from having any say in the start up of the new school. It isn’t too difficult to find out what happened and the obscene way in which these parents were treated.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/23/parent-trigger-hoax/
Parent trigger on agenda today. Is the bill fatally flawed? | Get Schooled
March 21st, 2013
12:42 am
[...] But House Bill 123 underwent dramatic change in its move from House passage to Senate consideration. The Senate eliminated any mention of teachers in failing schools being able to petition for a management overhaul. The Senate version limits that power to parents. [...]
CJae of EAV
March 21st, 2013
11:36 am
@ Myth – Your comments in rebuttal to @Pride&Joy regarding Drew’s student population is more misleading and overstated that the orignal comment you were seeking to correct.
The success that Drew built in the first 10 years of its existance was without question achieved with a student population the majority of which was black and low to middle income. But the unspoken to context to your claim is the demographic surrounding Drew has shifted over throughout it’sexistance. The demographics of East Lake, East Atlanta, Edgewood & Kirkwood have shifted upward and are solidly middle income areas in large part. Therefore, its difficult to fault Drew for the shift in its student demographic considering the coorsponding shift in the primary zone they attempt to pull students from.
Its true within the last couple of years, the Drew’s student population has become abit more diverse that has been the case historically. I personally don’t see anything wrong with widening the diversity of the student population at Drew. However, I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that Drew is rapidly becoming anything close to ANCS which frankly couldn’t hold a candle to Drew. Drew benfits from a strong parent community that is dedicated to the success of the school and the academic achievement of their kids. If more schools charter or traditional had that they likely would be able to achieve some measure of the same success over time. Even Drew wasn’t an overnight success story it took some time to develop.
dave
March 23rd, 2013
9:14 am
This parent trigger is yet another means to strip teachers of their authority and relevance in the system; hence a large part of the lack of discipline and consequently progress of students. Is it any wonder teaching has one of the highest turn-over rates of any profession when teachers are increasingly told to shut up and sit down, and let others write policy. How many of these parents would welcome, in their work places, a group of untrained and inexperienced workers creating policy that effected their environment and, more importantly, productivity? To be sure, there are problems in all school systems, but to consistently, and conveniently, advocate the removal of “bad” teachers/administrators will only result in a temporary fix. How long do you think replacement personel will stay once they too begin to see their irrelevance in the governing process? The idea of a master teacher is fast becoming a thing of the past, and student progress is now showing the results of learning from teachers who have become long term substitutes as they look to other types of work with less hostile conditions.