Cheating fears cast doubt on Rhee’s legacy in DC public schools
Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C., became a conservative star of sorts for her willingness to take on the teachers’ union and the education establishment, among other things by firing teachers whose students did not improve on standardized testing. As chancellor, Rhee also instituted a lucrative bonus program for teachers and principals at schools that did show significant improvement.
The policy change had an effect; standardized scores rose significantly during Rhee’s three-year tenure. Eventually, however, her brash, combative style contributed to the re-election defeat of her most important champion, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, and last year Rhee was forced to resign as DC chancellor.
However, that career setback conferred martyr status on Rhee, who launched a nationwide speaking tour to spread her message of reform. Earlier this year, she was welcomed at the Georgia Capitol with a hearing in her honor in the Legislature and a private session with Gov. Nathan Deal.
However, as USA Today reports, the claim of sudden, significant improvement in DC schools might not bear close scrutiny. Consider, for example, Washington’s Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, which was lauded by Rhee and others as a shining illustration of what her new approach could accomplish. In 2006, only 10 percent of Noyes students tested as profiicent or advanced in math; two years later, that number had jumped to 58 percent.
A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.’s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes’ classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones….
In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.
On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.
Is any of this beginning to sound familiar? How about this part?
“In 2008, the office of the State Superintendent of Education recommended that the scores of many schools be investigated because of unusually high gains, but top D.C. public school officials balked and the recommendation was dropped.
After the 2009 tests, the school district hired an outside investigator to look at eight D.C. public schools –– one of them was Noyes, USA TODAY learned — and to interview some teachers.
John Fremer, president of Caveon Consulting Services, the company D.C. hired, says the investigations were limited. The teachers were asked what they knew about the erasure rates but not whether cheating had taken place, Fremer says. They told Caveon that they “did what they were supposed to do and they didn’t do anything wrong,” he says.
Henderson, the D.C. chancellor, says D.C. educators interviewed by Caveon “gave specific reasons for high erasure rates. … Some emphasized to their students that (they) … should always go back, review their answers and make corrections, if needed.
“Other teachers,” she says, “encouraged students to eliminate wrong answers in the test booklet by marking an ‘X’ next to wrong answers, which could account for an unusual number of erasures if students marked their ‘X’ on the answer sheet instead of the test booklet.”
School district officials would not release the reports Caveon compiled. Caveon has been hired again to investigate the results of 2010 tests in which 41 DCPS schools, including Noyes, had at least one classroom flagged for high erasure rates. USA TODAY could not determine which schools are being scrutinized.”
Like Superintendent Beverly Hall, her counterpart in Atlanta, Rhee put great stress on standardized testing results. In fact, Rhee offered both more severe consequences for failure and more lucrative rewards for success than Hall has. And as in Hall’s case, she apparently showed little curiosity about how those results were being achieved. Pushing the story about reform became more important than pushing the mission of reform.
– Jay Bookman
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322 comments Add your comment
WOW
March 28th, 2011
10:46 am
“If you remove government and replace it with private companies, all you get is the same boot pressing on your neck, but this time with no accountability.”
Adam must have been edumacated in public schools.
jm
March 28th, 2011
10:46 am
US Public Schools: Dial up service.
ROW: Broadband.
williebkind
March 28th, 2011
10:47 am
Speaking of teachers how about that young teacher who deserted her class with only a few months on the job to go to mecca. The federal government via Eric the racist Holder is assisting her in the law suit. Now that is education. Who will pay for all that litigation on both sides?
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:47 am
“You dropped out so you are jealous of intellectual superiority.”
No, BBA and MBA here, with 98th percentile scores on both SAT and GMAT.
You find any of those $500 lies I posted yet? I’m sure you could use the cash. Oh I know…it’s right next to Mary Elizabeth’s lis tof for-profit K-12 schools.
getalife
March 28th, 2011
10:47 am
harry,
The last thing I want to do today is read your lies.
Again.
No thanks.
Time to go see my drug dealer.
My doctor.
AmVet
March 28th, 2011
10:47 am
These miserably failing schools are entirely under the thumb of leftist/Democrat beaurocrats (sic) and teachers unions, by the way, and have been for over a generation.
Well, that didn’t take long – the very first post of the day is a lie…
Where’s my $500?
ROTFLMAO…
@@
March 28th, 2011
10:48 am
Just my opinion, but these are the kind of schools we need to be advocating.
http://www.hightechhigh.org/about/results.php
#100% of HTH’s graduates have been admitted to college, with approximately 80% admitted to four-year programs such as Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Howard University, University of Southern California, University of San Diego, University of California at Berkeley, New York University and Northwestern University.
# About 35% of HTH graduates are first-generation college students.
# Over 30% of HTH alumni enter math or science fields (vs. 17% national rate)
# Academic Performance Index rankings (API) place HTH schools among the highest achieving in the state.
# HTH’s African-American students outperform district and statewide peers by a wide margin vis-à-vis test scores, percentage who take chemistry, physics, and advanced math (100%), and college entry (100%).
There’s a guy name Doug Reeves, PhD, who, while supporting NCLB, has used teachers to enhance its goals. Creative thinking…that’s the key.
Inspired by Dr. Reeves’ methods, some charter schools have integrated adult education for the students’ parents. Many charter schools like HTH receive funding and personal support from the local business community.
jm
March 28th, 2011
10:48 am
Oh good. getalife is a prescription drug abuser. how am i not shocked.
kayaker 71
March 28th, 2011
10:49 am
Teaching at the Univ of Florida was a hoot, especially for all of the feminine pulchritude present at every glance. It became readily apparent, however, after about 6 mos into the job that there were a not so surprising number of these young ladies, and, yes, gentleman also, who were not as much interested in an education as they were in driving the Bimmer convertible that daddy had bought them, socializing with their friends or getting laid. A very good summary of how your college dollars are being spent is portrayed very well in Tom Wolf’s book, “I am Charlotte Summer”. A must read for a dad ready to send that special daughter off to college.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:49 am
“Where’s my $500? ”
All you gotta do is disprove what I posted.
Mr Right
March 28th, 2011
10:49 am
Thought I would check in and see what conservative Jay is bashing today and yep, there it is, he didn’t let me down. You would think he works for MSNBC!
jm
March 28th, 2011
10:50 am
@@ – I totally agree on HTH. Boston has a similar school. Atlanta’s is a shadow version of those because APS pulls the rug out from under Charters at every opportunity.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:50 am
Well, looks like getalife couldn’t stand the heat, and departed the kitchen on Mary Elizabeth’s skirttails…
Mr_B
March 28th, 2011
10:51 am
Thought I’d throw this in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xuFnP5N2uA&feature=related
Ragnar Danneskjold
March 28th, 2011
10:51 am
Good morning all. Our leftist friends will be amazed to hear this, but our respect for Ms. Rhee is not based on the performance at a single school. Were a single school the basis for our respect, we would laud the principal rather than the overlord of the system.
Our leftist friends confuse their own perverse magnification standards for ours. Here, for example, the leftists magnify the dubious performance at a single school in a troubled system as “proof” of the incompetence of the overlord. Leftist logic.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:51 am
I’m thinking Mary Elizabeth, AmVet, and Kamchak all live at the same address……….
AmVet
March 28th, 2011
10:53 am
Sure, once you provide these…
If you draw a graph of inflation-adjusted spending per pupil over hte (sic) last 50 years, and super-impose over it a graph of student achievment (sic) over the last 50 years, you’ll see a negative correlation between spending and student achievment (sic).
Now you’re down a G, for double-fibbing in the same post.
LOL…
williebkind
March 28th, 2011
10:53 am
kayaker 71
March 28th, 2011
10:49 am
Now that is interesting and good advice.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:55 am
“Now you’re down a G, for double-fibbing in the same post.”
Libbies are so funny…they think something is true just because they say so. LMAo.
Doggone/GA
March 28th, 2011
10:55 am
“Thought I would check in and see what conservative Jay is bashing today”
Where in what Jay wrote does he say she is a conservative?
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:55 am
AmVet is a socialist
You gonna claim $500 on the above?
LMAO
godless heathen
March 28th, 2011
10:55 am
“were a not so surprising number of these young ladies, and, yes, gentleman also, who were not as much interested in an education as they were in driving the Bimmer convertible that daddy had bought them, socializing with their friends or getting laid.”
You got a problem with that?
TaxPayer
March 28th, 2011
10:56 am
What’s this about standardized tests! It would appear that more than just the tests are becoming standardized. Well, we not let No Child Left Behind fail us and the only way to do that is to pass that test.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:57 am
“Where in what Jay wrote does he say she is a conservative?”
“Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of public schools in Washington, D.C., became a conservative star of sorts for her willingness to take on the teachers’ union and the education establishment”
Doggone…surely you aren’t going to attempt to parse words and deny that Jay tried to paint Rhee as a conservative? I guess it depends on what the meaning of “is” is, right?
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:58 am
Anybody seen getalife?
Mr_B
March 28th, 2011
10:58 am
@@: Are you still teaching?
jm
March 28th, 2011
10:58 am
Obama. Just out of touch.
From the moment he stepped into the public eye as the junior senator from Illinois, nothing much had changed in Barack Obama’s sartorial world until this year, when he suddenly gussied up his closet with a rack of new suits. For the most part, the president has shed his traditional center-cut suit coats in favor of jackets sporting two side vents, a sleeker look that originated on London’s Savile Row to cater to the riding set.
http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1103/obama_suits_himself.html
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:58 am
Anybody seen Mary Elizabeth?
OverLord
March 28th, 2011
10:59 am
Ragnar,
Cleanup in stall five.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
10:59 am
I guess getalife and Mary Elizabeth are away compiling their lists of HC lies and for-profit K-12 schools.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
11:00 am
Anybody seen AmVet? I thought for sure by now he would have denied he is a socialist and claimed his $500…
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:00 am
Obama. Poser of the United State. I’m a firm believer that the clothes do not make the man, quite the contrary very often.
The President is compensating. What he really needs is a swimsuit and life preserver, not fancy new suits.
Doggone/GA
March 28th, 2011
11:01 am
“Anybody seen”
I always get a giggle out of people who are so desperate for attention that they have to beg people to respond to them. Keep it up, I need a good laugh today.
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
11:01 am
Anybody notice that Bookman isn’t touching the Obama/Libya thing with a ten-foot-pole?
Harry Callahan
March 28th, 2011
11:02 am
“I need a good laugh today.”
Go back and re-read your old posts. All the rest of us laugh at them.
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:02 am
jm,
So, would you rather him buy his suits at JCPenneys? Will you stoop to nothing about him to criticize?
jj
March 28th, 2011
11:02 am
On a return flight from the West coast I sat by a gentleman from one of the major testing companies. We talked about the mess in Atlanta and he said if I thought Atlanta is an isolated incident I couldn’t be further from the truth. In his estimation cheating is rampant across the country.
kayaker 71
March 28th, 2011
11:04 am
godless heathen,
I only have a problem with that if I am the daddy providing the credit cards and expecting good education results from the checks that I send every month. For some, it was like pouring water down a hole in the ground….. more than some, more like a lot. If I had a geiger counter that measured sex hormones in the air, the thing would have been off the scale at UF. Maybe it’s like that everywhere, I don’t know, but it was especially prevalent there. That and how much booze you could consume in a given time. The study week, if there was one, started on Tuesday morning, included Wed, and maybe Thursday. By Friday, the weekend started and lasted through Monday of the following week. Now that’s how old dad should spend his money. Seriously, read Tom Wolf’s book. It is an eyeopener for someone not familiar with the system.
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:06 am
Bosch 11:02 – I would think Brooks Brothers would be fancy enough for any POTUS.
WOW
March 28th, 2011
11:07 am
Harry Callahan 1
Dog 0
Kamchak
March 28th, 2011
11:07 am
Bosch
Did you catch the U.S. vs. Argentina game the other night?
Juan Agudelo looks to be awesome.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:07 am
kayaker @ 11:04
It’s not just UF, as most any campus is like that nowadays. The details may differ slightly, but many of the “big schools” have that same type of atmosphere.
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:08 am
jm,
If he’s paying for the suits himself, then what the hell does it matter?
WOODSTOCK MIKE
March 28th, 2011
11:09 am
Where is Bookman on Libya??
@getalife
Reading through the threads, do you actually have anything to say with any substance?? I see nothing but childish remarks to other people’s statements.
What’s your view on Libya? I assume you must have some kind of excuse as to why this is a justified attack on a country that poses no threat to the US…
godless heathen
March 28th, 2011
11:10 am
“Seriously, read Tom Wolf’s book. It is an eyeopener for someone not familiar with the system.”
Not familiar with it, hell I set the standard.
George W
March 28th, 2011
11:10 am
Bookman has not commented on Libya….how dare he say anything negative about his Lord Obama.
@@
March 28th, 2011
11:10 am
Mr_B:
@@: Are you still teaching?
Not as often as I’d like…filling in is more like it.
Right now, I’m spending most of my time helping our Physical Therapist. Limited physical therapy (gross motor) is integrated into daily lessons…we’ve always had to deal with it.
What I’m doing now is far more intensive. I don’t mind it that much, it’s just that all the work falls on the child…I’m just there to motivate and catch ‘em if they fall. The intensive therapy involves the most profoundly challenged students. If I can just get ‘em to laugh or smile while going thru the pain, I’ve achieved my goal while they achieve theirs.
It’s brutal, but necessary.
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:11 am
Kamchak,
Yes, I saw most of it — I thought it was a good game. I’ve always like Messi for some reason. I don’t know that much about Agudelo, but I thought the US played well.
Kamchak
March 28th, 2011
11:12 am
Agudelo has only two national caps. He’s scored in both games
Doggone/GA
March 28th, 2011
11:13 am
“All the rest of us laugh at them”
You’re quite welcome to do that. At least I don’t have to beg you to read them, or respond to them
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:13 am
Bosch – he can wear whatever he wants. People judge people, rightly or wrongly based on the clothes one wears. If he showed up in a real clown suit, people would obviously make a judgment based on that. My read: the guy is compensating.
Just a potential insight into the person, that’s all.
What to do?
March 28th, 2011
11:16 am
Let’s assume more, more, more money isn’t the solution (we spend more per student than other industrialized nations)…so, trying to hold civil servants accountable is wrong? More importantly, trying to hold PARENTS accountable is wrong? DC is an armpit of a city, any attempt to reform it will meet with massive blowback from the entrenched Democratic leadership (Marion Barry won re-election after that bi*** set him up, right)? How can a cesspool like that ever get better?
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:18 am
What to do? -
Keep testing. Convert all high schools to “charter”, go open enrollment for High Schools. And then shutdown / reconstitute poorly performing schools.
Dave R.
March 28th, 2011
11:24 am
I wonder what the corelation of allegedly increased cheating on standardized tests is to the advent of No Child Left Behind government intervention?
@@
March 28th, 2011
11:25 am
From the mouths of babes at HTH.
Now granted, we can’t let kids call the shots, but we can meet ‘em half way. Take the time to explain why. They’re eager to hear.
stands for decibels
March 28th, 2011
11:26 am
Adam must have been edumacated in public schools.
Last I checked, about 90% of Americans are/were educated in public schools.
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:27 am
Dave R – highly correlated. But the alternative (”who cares how they do”) isn’t a very good one.
stands for decibels
March 28th, 2011
11:27 am
DC is an armpit of a city
Jay, an “ignore” button/clown filter. Pretty please?
Normal
March 28th, 2011
11:28 am
Scout,
This make your blood pressure rise?
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-pacifists-arrive-in-haiphong
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:31 am
Unions. Just another special interest.
jm
March 28th, 2011
11:32 am
“And as in Hall’s case, she apparently showed little curiosity about how those results were being achieved. Pushing the story about reform became more important than pushing the mission of reform.”
Apparently faith in the honesty of teachers was sorely misplaced. Now we have to check the checkers.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 28th, 2011
11:35 am
DC is an armpit of a city?
Overall I find DC to be a great city with beautiful monuments, parks, cherry blossums, National Mall, Smithsonian, great buildings…. Anyone who calls it an armpit must have never been to NJ.
Mr_B
March 28th, 2011
11:35 am
@@: Please keep it up. I know from your posts that while we don’t share the same political outlook, we do share the important stuff, the concern for our kids. Gotta go for a while. Cioa.
Common Sense isn't very Common
March 28th, 2011
11:37 am
Blame the parents?
As a product of the public and private schools in the 60’s and 70’s the main difference I see now is lack of time the parents have available to work with their children.
When I grew up (large assumption that I ever did) mom stayed at home while dad was able to make a decent living.
Now single parent homes and lack of decent jobs has created a situation where families are in a day to day struggle for survival and the kids education is taking a back seat to that survival.
Mick
March 28th, 2011
11:38 am
fight
Jersey is fine, what with all the beaches and gardens in the south plus not being new york is a plus…
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:38 am
Keep,
“Anyone who calls it an armpit must have never been to NJ”
Or Birmingham.
How’s the healing coming along?
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:39 am
NoCom
Quit making sense. After all, common sense is not very common.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:40 am
Or Birmingham.
Birmingham, England…. right???
Doggone/GA
March 28th, 2011
11:41 am
“After all, common sense is not very common”
True…but you have to remember, that’s only apparent to those who actually HAVE commone sense!
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:42 am
Common Sense,
Yeah, I second that. I think back on many of my closest friends when I was a kid, and my mom was the only one that worked.
Common Sense isn't very Common
March 28th, 2011
11:42 am
Who scored higher Al or Ga?
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:42 am
Uh, yeah, SoCo, yeah, that’s what I meant — Birmingham….England….yeah.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:44 am
True…but you have to remember, that’s only apparent to those who actually HAVE commone sense!
As often as that plays out here, you’d think I’d have that memorized by now.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
March 28th, 2011
11:45 am
Mick, I agree south Jersey and some parts of northern Jersey….but then there is Jersey City.
Bosch, thanks for asking. Slowly healing. Unfortunately with “dirty wounds” they have to weep and stay open. No infections and that is great. Bruising is way down. Still will need some plastic surgery but hard to really fix my ugly mug much.
Doggone/GA
March 28th, 2011
11:46 am
“As often as that plays out here, you’d think I’d have that memorized by now.”
AMEN to that!
deegee
March 28th, 2011
11:46 am
You can’t set up a bonus system for educators based on test scores. The obvious outcome is that educators will teach to the test in order to get their bonus. Sadly, the breakup of the family unit is at the root of our education woes. Public school children excel in areas where there is strong support from a nuclear family that values education. How do we fix that?
stands for decibels
March 28th, 2011
11:47 am
Uh, yeah, SoCo, yeah, that’s what I meant
Don’t fret. I have it on good authority (and to quote Mick & the boys):
Wham! Bam!
Birmingham,
Alabama, don’t give a damn.
gotta run. don’t cheat while I’m away.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:47 am
Bosch
Just funnin’ wit’cha. Alabama is slowly coming out of it’s ass backwards state and is slowly transforming itself from something other than a retirement community and space filler between GA and MS.
Who scored higher Al or Ga?
It depends on which test… I think AL has more auto manufacturers now, and AL also has better SEC football. Other than that, I don’t know….
Ken Hoagland
March 28th, 2011
11:48 am
Fixing our public education system is on a much longer timeline than most are willing to accept. It’s generational.
Why? Because too many of the parents and even grandparents of today’s generation of students were, themselves, failed by poor teachers protected by union contracts and union clout, budgets favoring non-teaching jobs and fudged promotion policies. In many “drop-out factories” passing as public schools its really all about drugs, gangs, teen pregnancies and the “gotcha” mentality of administrators either unable to make a real difference or uninterested in the futility of meaningful change. The education ethic does not exist in these parent’s households and even good teachers will only make so much progress without support at home.
Time and time again intense pressure on schools to immediately do better has resulted in all kinds of mischief to obtain seemingly better results. State education agencies fudge the standards, teachers play games with the tests and teaching to a test, whole school systems look the other way. Meanwhile, even more students drop out, have kids and produce another generation without that necessary belief in the importance of homework, reading or hard work. The reformers at the top push hard, as they should, but the dysfunction is immune to just pressure, better pay or bonuses.
The unions protect the employees, not the students. It slows or stops getting rid of bad teachers. It doesn’t take many to lose a good number of kids. One year of bad math or reading resonates beyond that year as the student falls further and further behind. A bad school loses even more kids and the poor parent, trapped in this hopeless situation, doesn’t have the means to move elsewhere. They give up.
School choice and charters are the first hope of opening up the whole system to competition. Eventually, caring parents will find the best, reject the worst, and public schools will have to pay attention and change or lose their funding base. It creates pressure to do whatever it takes to improve. The unions fight this tooth and nail, of course, because this is not great for their employeees in the short run even if it helps the kids and their parents.
If a child comes alive to learning because a particular teacher at another school is good at communicating and teaching music or math or history or basket weaving then why would we keep the parent from enrolling their child where there is the best chance of this passion for learning finding purchase? Politics.
It is the parent who knows their child better than anyone else in the world but it is a street address that dictates what school the child attends. That’s crazy and designed for the ease of education employees and bureacrats, not those who pay for the system–the parents. It is also an abject failure. We don’t tell students they must attend college according to their address. Parents what they can afford and pick the best mix of subjects and teachers to prepare them for careers. The same should happen with K-12 education and paid for with taxes already being paid. Are we really required to pay for bad schools and then have no choice but to send our kids there? Yes, unless you have the money out- of-pocket for an option. So who is most hurt by thes epolicies vigously defended by liberal politicians, inmcluding monority legislators–minority and low income children. Go figure.
To outlive the damage already done and create a growing percentage of parents who care will take generations. School choice will eventually lead to a private sector explosion of new approaches and better schools. This means more parents involved, improving public schools, increased competition for good teachers (and employment opportunities) and a way out of this politics driven race to the bottom of the educated world.
Common Sense isn't very Common
March 28th, 2011
11:48 am
It’s easier to blame Josef for APS’s problems since he isn’t here to defend himself
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:48 am
SoCo,
Yeah, I shouldn’t have written that about Birmingham, I haven’t been there in years, I used to have some family there and I absolutely hated going to that city — but some friends of mine who go over quite a bit tell me the downtown area is quite the spot now.
ty webb
March 28th, 2011
11:49 am
“AL also has better SEC football.”
come on…low blow. Can’t we atleast be civil?
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
11:51 am
“School choice will eventually lead to a private sector explosion of new approaches and better schools. This means more parents involved, improving public schools, increased competition for good teachers (and employment opportunities) and a way out of this politics driven race to the bottom of the educated world.”
Yes, and all the cute fuzzy animals in the world will find loving homes, unicorns will roam through the streets, and peace will finally endure forever!!!
Lil' Barry Bailout
March 28th, 2011
11:52 am
Why do public schools in DC and Atlanta need improvement in the first place?
Because they’ve been run by Democrat governments and public employee unions.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:54 am
Bosch
I still wouldn’t live in Alabama, and I was born there. The state is slowly coming around, but it will be a while before the transformation is complete. It’s a generational thing. Most of the old money power people are afraid of losing their power, so that state has been almost like a time warp. Things are slowly modernizing, but they’re still behind the curve.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
11:55 am
ty
Don’t forget, Alabama also has Auburn….. At least the state of Georgia doesn’t have to deal with that. If you take the Univ of AL out of the picture, then Georgia has better SEC football.
ty webb
March 28th, 2011
12:02 pm
soco,
begrudgingly…your point(11:55) is taken.
Left wing management
March 28th, 2011
12:03 pm
williebkind: All school staff do is endoctrinate students toward liberalism
Dead wrong. Public schooling is neutral. What you’re calling ‘liberalism’ is the failure to advance a conservative world-view, but that’s an illusion. Only YOUR proposed curriculum, a “conservative” one, is biased. The optical illusion from which you suffer causes you to think that any curriculum that doesn’t share your pet curriculum’s concerns is equally ideologically motivated. It’s NOT.
WOW
March 28th, 2011
12:03 pm
““AL also has better SEC football.”’
Only state in the history of college football to have ever had two universities win back to back championships and Heisman winners.
Billings
March 28th, 2011
12:03 pm
10 Most Common Complaints Among Today’s Teachers:
1) Overworked: One of the top complaints among today’s teachers is how much they are overworked.
2) Underappreciated: Today’s teachers often feel underappreciated for their hard work and achievements.
3) Underpaid: Another major complaint among today’s teachers is their salary. Many teachers feel that they are significantly underpaid for the amount of work they do.
4) Large Class Sizes: Teachers are up in arms over the growing size of classrooms. Large class sizes have made teachers’ jobs even harder than before because they are now juggling more students, more distractions and more behavior problems.
5) Student Disengagement: Another complaint among today’s teachers is student disengagement. More and more, students are losing interest in school and feeling disconnected to their teachers.
6) Lack of Parental Involvement: Today’s teachers are upset by the lack of parental involvement in their child’s education.
7) Standardized Testing Pressures: For decades, teachers have complained about standardized testing and the pressures it puts on them and students.
9) Layoffs: As of lately, layoffs have become one of the biggest complaints among today’s teachers, and rightfully so, because most of their jobs are on the chopping block.
10) School Schedules/Breaks: Another major complaint among today’s teachers is school schedules and breaks.
BOO HOO! It is all about them. The only time students are mentioned is in the form of a complaint. The students are disengaged and their parents do not care.
WOW
March 28th, 2011
12:04 pm
“At least the state of Georgia doesn’t have to deal with that.”
In “that” I assume you mean WINNING!
ty webb
March 28th, 2011
12:05 pm
“Only state in the history of college football to have ever had two universities win back to back championships and Heisman winners.”
yeah..well regarding last year, I can’t argue with that return on investment.
Southern Comfort (aka The Man)
March 28th, 2011
12:08 pm
In “that” I assume you mean WINNING!
Once again, you assume wrong. In “that”, I meant the Univ of GA doesn’t have to deal with a 2nd best school puffing their chests up to try to be #1 just because they have one year where all good luck falls their way.
Bosch
March 28th, 2011
12:09 pm
You know Billings, you should really cite your sources when you copy and paste them. Just saying.
Left wing management
March 28th, 2011
12:10 pm
Larry barry bailout: Because they’ve been run by Democrat governments and public employee unions.
Then how do you explain the successful schools in unionized Wisconsin? Or how do you explain the fact that one of the strongest education systems in the world, Finland, is based on strong educational unions?
The answer: you can’t. The example of Finland drives a stake through the cold heart of the conservative anti-union narrative.
WOW
March 28th, 2011
12:12 pm
“Once again, you assume wrong. In “that”, I meant the Univ of GA doesn’t have to deal with a 2nd best school puffing their chests up to try to be #1 ”
Poor mullet. Even when you’re trying to be sarcastic you fail. Auburn tried to be number one? Dude, went 14-0 and produced the best team in the country in 2010. I’m so sorry if that offends you and honestly it makes me laugh to see rammer jammers all upset. Oh, and Mark Ingram sucks.
Midori
March 28th, 2011
12:13 pm
Bosch – do you know how to cook with Mexican sour cream?
WOW
March 28th, 2011
12:14 pm
“just because they have one year where all good luck falls their way.”
Guess you don’t realize that it takes a little luck to win games. We came back in 8 games last season and won every one of them. We beat the Tide in their own home stadium in front of 100,000 fans who probably didn’t even go to school there. Also, I do remember Bama barely escaping a few games back in 2009. With .52 secs left on the clock, Bammer came back and won in the 4th quarter against a 7-5 Auburn team that wasn’t even ranked.
To top that off, Auburn is 8-3 against the mullets in the last 11 years.
Have a nice day.
George W
March 28th, 2011
12:14 pm
BOokman has posted a new thread.
AmVet
March 28th, 2011
12:17 pm
SoCo, you know the joke.
I hold up my palm, tell them to go get five and come back and talk to me.
Or in the case of Bama, hold up all of your fingers and three toes and tell the wannabes to try and spell thirteen!