On another post Anonymous wrote:
"A little help please. Can anyone expand on any portion of the students'
bill of rights? The A+ site provides articles on teen bloc and the
rights, for example,
http://wesa.fm/post/high-school-students-unveil-pittsburgh-student-bill-rights.
What
does positive discipline look like? Who determines the limits of free
expression? If you go to the meeting scheduled on the 29th will your
presence indicate that you support the rights when in fact you don't
understand them enough to do so?"
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4 comments:
A+ schools inserts themselves in anything related to "teacher effectiveness"
I'm sure Linda Lane & Co. will LOVE this. It will be another tool to undermine teachers. We are there already to protect the rights of students!! We are the ONLY ones terrified of how the current administration has trampled all over the rights of students and teachers!
This is not surprising, next they'll have the students campaigning for RISE!!!
Anything to keep the Gates money flowing. Right now there are too many spoons in the pot. The mayor, a+ schools, gates, etc.
The people shaping thing should be teachers, EXPERIENCED administrators, and parents. Everyone else should stay out of it. There are very few organizations that truly have the best interest of students and teachers in mind. Most have their own agenda related to money, power, or politics.
Yinzercation is the only group have I seen advocating in the interest of children, teachers, and parents.
I agree with your premise that teachers, EXPERIENCED administrators and parents should be the three groups working together but therein lies the problem.....The EXPERIENCED principals and VP's who had a handle on student behavior RETIRED! They got tired of the inept folks at Bellefield who have been running the show since 2006. It's no secret. My principal would have remained but grew weary of the failed leadership of those at Central Office. Good luck finding experienced principals and VP's because there's only a handful left and to get along, you have to go along. It's the Bellefield Kool-Aid mentality.
The article in today's P-G (on the front page no less) about the Student Bill of Rights, mentions that the survey finds "large inequities" in PPS, and the more "vulnerable" schools have "fewer effective teachers." Of course, A+ Schools is involved with this survey and TeenBloc members. I view this as just more PR to keep the Gates' money coming.
I'm sure Westinghouse is considered one of the "more vulnerable" schools. What has Bellefield done for this school? They used it as an experiment. Don't fault the teachers for that. And when Bellefield keeps cutting staff and teachers are shuffled school to school, what do you expect?
And Perry with their problems - they have many consultants and are they making any great inroads? No, so blame it on having "fewer effective teachers."
Let's ask Jeannine French at Peters Township School District, if we moved her staff to Perry, would there be a significant turn around in scores and behaviors at Perry? Likewise, take the Perry staff and place them at Peters, would their students' scores and behaviors deteriorate? I think not.
I'm sure we do have some ineffective teachers in PPS schools just like we have ineffective lawyers, principals, administrators, politicians, doctors, bosses, etc. in our society. That's life. But the schools that are not performing very well, are not FULLY staffed by ineffective teachers. The media makes PPS sound like we have many ineffective teachers and they are to blame for low scores, discipline, etc. The blame needs to be placed squarely on the shoulders of Bellefield and their ever-changing programs, consultants, various curriculums, corporate ties, a bloated Bellefield with their salaries, etc. Westinghouse High School used to be a great school many years ago. We need to ask how it got to this point? How did PPS in general get to the mess we are in? How have we lost so many students, but our budget has skyrocketed?
The district's own reporting shows very few ineffective teachers. Why don't we see that repeated over and over again?
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