Thursday, April 14, 2011

Going Washington Postal and other True Facts

What is it with the Washington Post? No matter what damning evidence emerges - the fake Baltimore miracle, or now Erasuregate – the Post Editorial Board, like a loyal dog, continues to stand by Michelle Rhee’s “reform” of D.C. schools. The Post editors have this harebrained idea that only she stood for reform and that there are people who are against reform. Call me naïve but is there any sentient being who does not want and see that DC public schools need to drastically improve!! Good, now we can all agree that WE ALL WANT REFORM!

Now that we have that out of the way we might get to how we can improve DCPS. (I am going to try to stop using the word “reform” since I feel it has lost any real meaning.)

I have a few ideas. One of the greatest challenges I see is a lack of quality leaders at the school level. Okay, I'm talking about principals and assistant principals (AP's). There, I said it. When you look at my building and see who works late and puts in the extra effort, it ain't the AP's! Maybe they're getting so much done during the day they don't need to work late? It's true, I don't know what's going on in those offices. And please, I'm not advocating that everyone always work late but you get my point.

But really, what is administration doing all day? Shut down the offices, get out into the halls, deal with students, and problem solve instead of hoping the problems walk on to another part of the building. Of course a principal could push these kinds of ideas but that would take strong leadership from the Principal. Clearly I'm ranting about my particular school. I wonder how it is at other schools? I’ve heard that my school is not unique in this area.

To sum that up, a lack of dynamic administrative leaders is a real problem. But does DCPS seem to value and support the school leaders, thus encouraging quality people to seek admin positions? Heck no, not in the last five years or so.

This month I realize why I never started a blog before. Frustration becomes paralyzing. There are so many things to bitch about where does one start? Ridiculous practices repeated over and over? Students' lack of motivation? A continued effort to push kids through to graduation just to have numbers?

By this time of the year, if one is honest, you have to admit the wheels have come off the wagon and the whole damn thing is broke down. There's a crisis going on and people just want to GATHER DATA! Man, if my house is burning down I don't need data, I need water!

Dear DCPS, you can stop gathering data. I'll give you some facts: 
 
Fact 1: Attendance sucks and truancy is a serious problem. What is the leadership of DCPS doing about it? I don't see any strategy. And if I can't see it as a classroom teacher, then it's not happening.

Fact 2: Parental involvement is dismal. What is the leadership of DCPS doing to change this? If I can't see it as a classroom teacher, then it's not happening.

Fact 3: Teachers are not supported. Just one example: no resources other than a textbook and a workbook. Why can't we get supplemental materials at different reading levels? Books that the classroom teacher can choose?

Fact 4: Student misbehavior is accepted. How do we build a culture of academics when students are allowed to disrupt class or walk the halls? Downtown doesn't want to deal with the mess so pressure is put upon the school to “keep a lid on it.” Yet we don't have an In-School Suspension program?

I would like to start a radical new school reform movement, it's called COMMON SENSE. I wonder if it will fly?