Five principals could lose posts over a second D [Superintendent gets tough in Jeb's system]

Palm Beach Post ^ | April 24, 2006 | Nirvi Shah

[summer]

Two D's and you're out.

At least five Palm Beach County principals' jobs are on the line this year as the school year moves into its home stretch, Superintendent Art Johnson said. Two years, he believes, is plenty of time for middle- and high-school principals to turn their schools around, even if they have long-standing reputations of student underachievement.

"My position has been double-D schools get a new administrator," Johnson said. "Sometimes my staff says two years is not enough. At other schools, a principal has made a change in almost no time."

Johnson's prime example is Jon Prince, who led Palm Beach Gardens High from a D to a B in a single year.

But Ed Harris at Glades Central High, Ana Meehan at Lake Worth High, Reginald Myers at John I. Leonard High, Glenn Heyward at Santaluces High and Floyd Henry at Lake Shore Middle could have different jobs this fall if their schools don't make similar headway. At all of those schools, a D this year would be the second or more in a row.

And at several of these schools, more than half the students are poor and black or Hispanic — groups of students the entire district struggles to educate...

[summer]

I thought this was a great article, and kudos to this superintendent for sensing the URGENCY in his mission to improve education.

Meanwhile, in NY, they're wondering if they should grade schools. Well, I think they should.

Yes, folks, it's tough out there in the wonderful world of public education. But, the clock is ticking...

[summer]

FYI.

[summer]

FYI.

[summer]

Amelia, thanks for your recent ping to me on that other thread. I didn't have a chance to comment on it, but it was very interesting.

[Born Conservative]

[mbynack]

There are several problems with this. For one thing the grading criteria they use (FCAT) isn't a valid tool for what they're using it for. The schools are only partially responsible for the education mess. If the parents don't encourage the students to study and don't force them to go to school, it has a major influence on the student's success. It's difficut to get decent teachers in inner city schools. Not only do they have to put up with thugs for students, they're punished for not making the thugs scholars. The system is set up to reward schools that do well by giving them more money and cutting funding to poor performing schools. That means that the teachers who have the worst working conditions get paid the least, so the only ones you can attract are the ones who can't get jobs in better schools.

Teachers can't punish students anymore and get a lot of pressure to pass them on to the next grade. If a teacher punishes a kid, the parent(s) are calling the school and hiring lawyers.

I went to school with a teacher that taught special education classes in Mobile, Alabama. She told me that, by the end of the year every kid in her class will have either hit, kicked, punched, or spit on her. She had a Master's degree and was getting paid $24,000 a year.

When you place teachers and administrators in a position where they have only a little control over the outcome and they are punished for failing, it encourages cheating. Teachers spend most of their in class time trying to teach the students the test instead of teaching the curriculum. In the end the students don't learn and the teachers and administrators get punished.

[AppyPappy]

It's relative. I worked with a guy who retired from Sara Lee as a manager and took a teaching job that was more than his SL salary. And he didn't even have a teaching ticket. It's all politics.

Show me a system with high spending per student and I'll show you a failing system.

[mbynack]

Show me a system with high spending per student and I'll show you a failing system.

Studies have shown that there's very little correlation between spending per student and quality of education. The most important factor in a student's success is the parents. A kid with a single parent who isn't there when he or she gets home to make the study and encourage them already has one strike against them.

[AppyPappy]

I'll disagree slightly. A child that does not do their homework is at a severe disadvantage in testing. Boys and Girls Club run an after-school study program that has proven very successful. Sara Lee created an after school program for a low-score school in Winston-Salem and saw test scores jump for the school.

[mbynack]

A child that does not do their homework is at a severe disadvantage in testing. Boys and Girls Club run an after-school study program that has proven very successful. Sara Lee created an after school program for a low-score school in Winston-Salem and saw test scores jump for the school.

My daughter attended one that our church ran. The church picked the kids up from school and then helped them with their homework. It helped her out a lot.

I told my dad that I wanted to drop out of school when I was in the tenth grade. He told me that he would kick my butt if I tried it. I finished high school and went on to get a Master's in Education.

If he hadn't cared enough to threaten me I couldn't have joined the military and I would have probably ended up in a dead end factory job.

[latina4dubya]

"Sometimes my staff says two years is not enough.

in what other jobs do you get two years to correct your failures? two years is a long time for students to "wait" for their schools to catch up... the kids only get 12 years... that's it... i'm disgusted to no end when i hear the teachers' unions and administrations and even some parents say, "it takes time." they've had decades, and still no real change to show for it... in fact, the only real change is that things are worse!

[summer]

You made a lot of points. I agree with some of what you said, and I disagree with some of what you said.

Let me ask you this: What does the parent do if the school lies to the parent? Is that the parent's fault, too? Some schools are well run; some are not. And, some school that are not well run, can and do lie.

What does a child do if the school makes a series of mistakes, costing that student several years of schooling all because of a paperwork mishap or any other number of mumbo jumbo mistakes? And then the school administrators, to save their *ss, lie about it. Is that the fault of the parent and child, too?

You have to actually be in these schools to see what goes on. What really goes on. And, you have to be able to see.

So, yes, the parents are important. The student must attend school and do the work. A highly qualified teacher is important, too.

But all three of those parties, together, can not overcome incompetant, ignorant, racially biased, and/or cruel decisions and actions/or inactions by school officials. They are in charge, too. They are making rules, policies and decisions that directly impact the life of every student.

So, in conclusion, I reaffirm my belief on this thread: kudos to that superintendent for kicking *ss. Because he's telling these principals in no uncertain terms: YOU ARE ACCOUNTABLE, TOO. (NOT JUST TEACHERS.) YOU, ADMINISTRATORS, TOO, ARE RESPONSIBLE.

It would not surprise me if that superintendent was shall lwe say, inspired, to say that, based on the fact the governor of this state holds everyone accountable. Not just parents, students, and teachers -- but everyone in education, each in their own way.

That's a very difficult philosophy for some people to grasp. Especially those who think because they sit in the seat of "the principal" they are now removed and immune from all responsibility. They're not. Their *ss is on the line, too, as it should be.

[summer]

See my above post #12, in response to the first poster. Also, thanks for your comments.

[summer]

Thanks for pinging those people, BC. :)

[summer]

For one thing the grading criteria they use (FCAT) isn't a valid tool for what they're using it for
And I disagree with you about FCAT because is what one new teacher told me, and I felt so bad for her when she told me this: She and an administrator had to "make up" and "invent" grades for the students when a teacher left. Invent grades. Imagine that.

Should we eliminate FCAT and just let everyone invent grades when the paperwork is not around? I guess we could do that. Maybe once in awhile you will "guess" a grade that was somewhere in the ballpark of the student's actual abilities.

But, what are doing? Playing guessing games with kids' lives? I took a test every year in my public school. No big deal. You went to school and you were expected to learn something. Not rely on adminstrators' guessing games for your grades.

And, by the way, I am not a testing freak -- I say YES to hands on projects too; YES to art, music, etc., YES to all of it. But, I aklso say: NO to throwing out a test that is in fact created in this state by committees having teachers working on creating those tests. Teacher-made tests are nothing new in education.

[summer]

I fixed some of my typos here:

For one thing the grading criteria they use (FCAT) isn't a valid tool for what they're using it for

And I disagree with you about FCAT because this is what one new teacher told me, and I felt so bad for her when she told me this: She and an administrator had to "make up" and "invent" grades for the students when a teacher left. Invent grades. Imagine that.

Should we eliminate FCAT and just let everyone invent grades when the paperwork is not around? I guess we could do that. Maybe once in awhile you will "guess" a grade that was somewhere in the ballpark of the student's actual abilities.

But, what are doing? Playing guessing games with kids' lives? I took a test every year in my public school. No big deal. You went to school and you were expected to learn something. Not rely on adminstrators' guessing games for your grades.

And, by the way, I am not a testing freak -- I say YES to hands on projects too; YES to art, music, etc., YES to all of it. But, I also say: NO to throwing out a test that is in fact created in this state by committees having teachers working on creating those tests. Teacher-made tests are nothing new in education.

[RobbyS]

However, the role of the principal is key. If he is willing and able to get tough, say by kicking out thuggish students and backing teachers who try to maintain discipline, then the school can turn rather quickly. Bad apples do spoil the barrel. Of course, this is also true of the teaching staff. Unless there is a cadre of strong teachers, nothing works.

[summer]

And, no, I do not make the FCAT tests. But I know there are teachers, from around the state, who go and work on those tests, creating those tests. Teachers. Yes, they matter.

[summer]

I agree -- and a principal sets a tone. I remember one teacher telling me she couldn't wait to retire ever since a new principal took over in her school. This was a couple of years ago. She had planned to stay on and teach, but once this new principal came in, she decided to leave, and, she was a good teacher. Everyone has a hard job in public education. I am sympathetic. Up to a point.

[summer]

FYI. :)