On another post Anonymous wrote:
"Superintendent Receives Nod for His Year Five Performance (Sep 13, 2010)
This above link was published tday by the Board= under the heading of Good News at PPS site-I was not able to give excerpts of Roosevelt's acheivemnent of hi set standards and his goal accimplishments.
Please purview and review-maybe this should be another blog entry after Blog Adm reads the Good News Artivle and be ready for a nwq blog wnret for comments."
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Here's the link:
http://php.pghboe.net/news/index.php/2010/09/13/superintendent-receives-nod-for-his-year-five-performance/
A friend, whose only information about Roosevelt comes from the newspaper, thinks our superintendent is doing a fine job.
It is a crime that papers don't 'report' they just 'repeat' what the board tells them. So many voters in the area are clueless about what is really going on because they don't have kids in the system
And then one day, everyone will wake up and realize that most of the same groups of students that were doing poorly five years ago are still doing poorly; enrollment is down significantly; many facilities are inadequate; and the financial situation is poor because large amounts of money were spent on consultants (Kaplan, etc.), discontinued programs (CEP), moving students around (Miller, Reizenstein), and trying to make middle school buildings into high schools (Milliones).
Google charlotte mecklenburg school district, then add Peter Gorman. He is a major Broad player, however he does have an education background.
If you are bored google both mr and Gorman's name. then start reading this blog written by a reporter From a Charlotte newspaper. Her comments and the community comments are almost identical to PPS. Same agenda, same concerns. The lack of a HR chair/interim really pinged my hinky meter.
http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/
Do the Broad/Gates foundations have a formula/agenda?
This is a better link, it is why she started the blog.
http://obsyourschools.blogspot.com/2010/06/welcome-to-your-schools.html
I wanted to share an interesting story. In my job I speak with many families who have children in the PPS who do and do not have and IEP’s. Recently I had a parent whose child does not have an IEP or GIEP. The mom said her son was removed from his school and placed into the CEP “Clayton Academy” because of his behavior. Mom said that when they placed her son there they told her that he would be there for 90 days. HOWEVER, once he was placed into CEP they made very clear that he will have to serve a mandatory 180 days and that he would have to demonstrate perfect behavior for 180 days before he could be considered to be sent back to his neighborhood school. (my first impression is prison). Remember no student who attends there has an IEP but I’m sure that there are kids who may need support but have not been identified as needing an IEP or GIEP. To get more information to help this mom I began searching through the PPS website, magnet booklet on line anywhere where you would think you could find info and much to my surprise there is NOT any information on CEP or Clayton Academy or even that is a part of the Pittsburgh Public School District. I’m also finding out that basically the only “ticket out” is to have your child evaluated for special education and get an IEP or GIEP. What a horrible situation. My question is, is anyone in the district monitoring what is happening to these kids once they get in there?? Do kids ever get out??? And is CEP practicing school wide positive behavior support strategies so the kids can be placed back into their home schools? Is there any data I can look at? Does anyone in PPS care???
Don't a child's parents have to specifically agree to their child's placement at CEP? This requirement has been noted as an explanation for why some of the most disruptive students, not with an individualized plan, remain at their schools. If parents have to agree they should be able to simply submit a letter stating that they revoke their agreement to the placement. As for the future- it appears from Board discussions that CEP is being quietly changed to a school that will focus on credit recovery.
Getting back to the original point, it's disturbing to note that once the superintendent has bolted for greener pastures, we will be left with an assistant superintendent who is waiting in the wings and a hundred times worse than what we currently have.
The current climate all comes down to two words: vindictiveness and evil. Neither should be a part of academia.
Maybe he will gun for Michelle Rhee's job if she gets fired!
Anonymous said... The current climate all comes down to two words: vindictiveness and evil. Neither should be a part of academia.
September 15, 2010 8:39 PM
This atmosphere is not conducive for our kids. This same climate is trickling down into the classrooms as the environment of testing and structure of lessons that are uncreative or allowing imaginative and constructive processes as teaching for learning. The kids feel the vindictiveness and evil as teachers are interacting with their peers and ADM. The kids know oh-I have a targeted teacher now. Alternatively, the pressure of the PSSA testing which is so obvious in the MATH Curriculum-is causing kids to want other schools as choice than PPS. If parents can find the option for their kids to move on.
vindictiveness and evil-two very bad words that can equal hate
No friend, teachers are in it for the kids. The vindictiveness is a mandate coming down from the very top offices of central administration. The ongoing effort to fire teachers over "ineffectiveness"--a charge usually hinging upon following the curriculum verbatim. Taking away someone's livelihood over such matters. That's not evil?
Anonymous @ September 16, 2010 9:36 PM
No friend, teachers are in it for the kids
Hold –the teachers are not to blame we know as parents and in the community when our kids feel the above mentioned words that are heated throughout a school that is trickled down to be known to the kids. Yes, teachers are in it for the kids-but this is going beyond your consensus when children sense the atmosphere this early in a school year. This is too much tension.
Anon, are you aware that there were walk throughs done during the first week of school? Are you aware that a number of teachers were dressed down publicly for not being within the curriculum? At a time when setting the classroom policies and atmosphere is being undertaken????
Anonymous @September 17, 2010 4:01 PM
Yes, I am aware on two fronts.
Our children felt that bad chill at their school-they feel paranoid because it is so visible to them that they are grading their teachers-as my youngest thought of this attack.
No Rumors -a teacher was eyed with huge critique and lambasted because-that teacher classroom was not ready.
The reasons were that the janitors did not clean the room and prepare it to be a classroom.
The teacher was not allowed the space and time to go over class rules, behavior and address individual student concerns. In addition, the curriculum had no open window-my child visibly seen this targeting and wants to understand the whys?
This curriculum is nothing to brag about and they should allow teachers time to settle in with the kids. Is Stalin alive? Many parents talked about this incident and felt the previous question as a legit question.
Yet, the teachers that are the pets of the ADM were given carte blanche-the above teacher is a great teacher and very creative and personal-but that is not part of making this curriculum human.
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