Mass. school superintendent fails must-pass English test

Associated Press ^ | 08-03-03

[Brian S]

This city's superintendent of schools, who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a basic English proficiency test, has himself flunked a required literacy test three times.

Wilfredo T. Laboy called his failing scores "frustrating" and "emotional." He blamed his performance on a lack of preparation and concentration, as well as the fact that that Spanish is his first language.

[Myrddin]

My experience was similar, but it was German grammar that forced me to get a real solid handle on English grammar. My German teacher also taught English. My English teacher was running an advanced daycare center.

[Ruth A.]

Did this bozo have any difficulty seeing "conguency" when he put similar (non-)performing teachers on unpaid leave?

I find it difficult to believe a superintendent not passing hasn't happened before in this state. What a waste of salary.

[Morgan's Raider]

This guy is the Peter Principle personified. Incompetence has risen waaaaaaay above its ability.

[Just another Joe]

Check this out.
Caught him out in a lie also.
From the link, Laboy speaking, "I'm a product of New York City Public Schools. I'm a native-language speaker..."
From the article here, "English being a second language for me, I didn't do well in writing."

CANDIDATE FOR SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LAWRENCE PUBLIC SCHOOLS -Interview, Discussion and Vote

[squarebarb]

And you misspelled grammar. It's not 'grammer'.

[Just another Joe]

You wouldn't have a prayer in Massachusetts unless you changed your screen name to "Just another Jose!!

For $156,000 a year? Hmmmm.

[squarebarb]

Same goes for you.

[evilC]

>>>
"It bothers me because I'm trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test,"
<<<

I bet he had to look up "congruence", just so he could use it akwardly in a sentence.

I am sure you could look over my posts and find many grammar errors. However for 156K per year I am prepared to hit the books.

[Nucluside]

You got THAT right. I know plenty of Hispanos whom speak and write good English. For 156K a year this NEA, Democrat, scum-sucking parasite ought to be able to, also. I detect some softness in earlier comments in this thread because some of the teachers are being fired. Well to hell with all of them. The US is an English-speaking country, English is the primary language of commerce and communication in the world, and Western Civilization is the superior civilization in the world, by far. Deal with it!

[MississippiMan]

There will no doubt be many a cry that this proves that the test should be gotten rid of, not him. OTOH, I seriously doubt I could pass a grammar test myself. I can speak and write in near-perfect grammar, but when it comes to explaining how and what the various parts are called and such, I remember very little of it. Of course, I'm not trying to run an education system, either.

MM

[Bonaparte]

Spanish was the first language of William F. Buckley Jr.

[Nucluside]

Bravo!!

[CatoRenasci]

And, I corrected myself.

[IYAAYAS]

Bishops closed about two years ago I think. If you're ever in the area again, the best restaurant in the area is the Pond View in Kingston, NH. It's about 20 mins from where Bishops used to be.

Someone posted Lawrence MA as being 89% spanish speaking. Having grown up in the area I think it's probably higher. I used to work with a few Dominican natives from Lawrence, good people and hard workers.

[Kenny Bunk]

his salary to $156,560 ...

There you have the Public School Problem in a nutshell.

An AAA "Administrator," who cannot pass an insultingly simple language exam, that I daresay the most keyboard/syntactically challenged freeper could ace after several cocktails.

This demonstrates how we have let political correctness steal our money, and how we are responsible for not doing to this idiotic part of the public sector what happened a long time ago in the private sector: downsizing. The education establishment is soaking up the school money with bloated layer upon layer of meaningless and completely ineffectual "middle management."

Look at the org chart of your Board of Ed. What exactly is a "curriculum coordinator?" Why does it take 5 administrators (and more) to supervise one teacher. How can some parochial school systems deliver uniformly better results at 1/4 the cost per pupil, and with 1/3 the administrative personnel per student? If you think this worthless Laboy is overpaid, check out what your school district pays for custodial services.

Does this Laboy really deserve a salary that would support three actual classroom teachers? Has anyone suggested firing him? I would bet not. He is a member of the vast AAA network of Federally Protected Ethnic Species. Folks, this kind of thing is largely our own fault on the local level. I ran for schoolboard (a lot)... and typically only 15% of the eligible voters among my fellow citizens bothered to show up. When you take into account the bloated school bureaucracy who voted to preserve their meal tickets, it's not exactly the voice of the people.

And that ain't sour grapes, as I have been elected to other posts... it's just that when it comes to our schools, good people have given up and common sense does not apply.

[optimistically_conservative]

MCAS Annual Comparisons for Lawrence High - Lawrence

GRADE 10 ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
PERFORMANCE LEVEL	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
ADVANCED	1	0	1	2	5
PROFICIENT	13	14	8	14	23
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT	32	28	28	32	35
FAILING	55	58	63	53	36

GRADE 10 MATHEMATICS
PERFORMANCE LEVEL	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
ADVANCED	0	1	1	2	4
PROFICIENT	4	4	5	11	12
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT	13	9	18	26	28
FAILING	83	86	77	61	57

GRADE 10 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
PERFORMANCE LEVEL	1998	1999	2000
ADVANCED	0	0	0
PROFICIENT	3	4	5
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT	26	23	24
FAILING	70	74	71

[autoresponder]

Photo?

Where's this dork's photo?

It works on Hillary.

SuperLaboy speaks with dung in cheek.

[OldEagle]

Looks good. Still wonder if he is a native-born or an immigrant. Of course either way, a product of NYCPS could be at a disadvantage. Also he probably spent a while in college studying education from a distance.

[Just another Joe]

Ask and ye shall receive.

[OldEagle]

Looks good. Still wonder if he is a native-born or an immigrant. Of course either way, a product of NYCPS could be at a disadvantage. Also he probably spent a while in college studying education from a distance.