Who, you ask?
Seeing the P & C's article on last year's PACT scores for CCSD whetted my appetite for (the usual) missing information. Touting the remarkable improvements at R.D. Schroder Middle School in Hollywood, Courrege writes,
"One of the district's lowest-performing schools that showed strong improvement was unsatisfactory-rated Schroder Middle School in rural Hollywood. Greater percentages of students met state standards at every grade and in every subject area [italics mine], an accomplishment not common among schools where roughly 90 percent of the students live in poverty. The improvement was dramatic; the percentage of students meeting state standards in sixth grade social studies rose 22 percentage points to 72 percent.
"Schroder students' scores in science were strong, too, with 52 percent of sixth-graders meeting state standards compared with 36 percent last year. Sixth-grade science teacher Miriam Wright attributed the upswing to adding technology — an LCD projector — to her lessons. Although she taught the same information during the 2005-06 school year with an overhead projector, students were more interested in class last year, she said.
"In addition to technology, Wright created more long-term lesson plans and used the district's standardized curriculum, which gives examples of activities and strategies to teach classes, she said."
Great news, isn't it? Not only is it not common for schools with over 90% poverty, it was a non-achievement for any other school in CCSD.
I was curious why Courrege didn't have a quote from the principal who should get credit for facilitating this remarkable improvement. As every experienced teacher knows, the principal affects the climate for school achievement far more than any new LCD projector or standardized curriculum, although those may be helpful.
What I have discovered so far is that Schroder got a new principal (Cheryl Biss) in July, replacing Rudell Burch, who seems to have been principal solely for the 2006-07 school year. If my information is incorrect, I'm sure someone can correct me.
But, assuming the one-year tenure is correct, why the musical chairs? Clearly Burch is the one to be applauded, but where is he? Did he retire? Was he reassigned? Has he worked this magic in the past at any other schools?
You see, "long-term lesson plans," as mentioned by Ms. Wright, go a LONG way towards ensuring that standards will be met. Students won't be able to answer questions on the PACT if the class never gets to the material. Presumably at Schroder the "enforcer" of long-term lesson plans is the principal. Far be it from me to suggest that good teachers aren't important to the process, but for a middle school to rise in every grade AND in every subject area takes more than individual efforts of teachers. It also takes a fully-engaged principal and improved discipline.
Does McGinley plan to study Schroder to see how to apply that experience to other low-performing middle schools? Can we clone Mr. Burch?
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16 comments:
Bable's real name is Clelia Casey.
She teaches English at Bishop England High School.
She thinks she's an expert on an array of subjects, but in reality just blows hot air.
To 8:40 poster: so, you have an automatic message, do you? How pathetic.
8:40, start your own blog and leave Babbie alone. She has some good ideas and expresses herself well. Identify yourself if you have the guts.
Why does CCSD play musical chairs with its principals. Six at Burke in seven years. How many changes at Rivers MS before they closed it down? They effectively gave Fraser 3 principals in 6 six months when they yanked Ms. Whaley out mid-year. We have more interim principals it seems than permantent ones.
Mr. Olsen, the principal of West Ashley High School from the start, was pulled out of his position in the middle of the school year and given a desk job at 75 Calhoun St. He was a good principal and was most responsible for leading West Ashley so well through its construction phase and the merger of two high schools while he was still principal of one of the schools. It seems his only unforgivable mistake, at least from the county's point of view, was that he was said to have been open to the idea of doing for WA what James Island had done. He spoke the words "charter school" and was almost as quickly removed as principal by the Superintendent. The loss of this good principal has never been fully explained either.
I am a West Ashley High School educator and the previous comment is not accurate. Please stop posting incorrect information. Mr. Olson was a great prinicpal and he was not removed for that reason.
Please clear this up. Why was Mr. Olson removed as principal of West Ashley? I recall that he was replaced after the start of a new school year. That seems like it would cause at least some disruption. Why did the superintendent do that?
It did not cause a disruption. He was moved at the end of first semester. It was announced to the students and the school in advance. Our current principal who was assistant principal made a great transition. We are now in a much better position that we ever been. Mr. Olson was a great prinicpal but the best decision was made. Expect great things from West Ashley High School.
I'll take at face value what you said about there being no disruption when Mr. Olson was replaced at the end of the first semester. But what I don't understand is why he was replaced in the first place. As they say, if it ain't broke don't fix it. What was broken? Please don't say it was a promotion, because I don't know of any principal worth their salt who wants to be given a desk job. Former teachers at West Ashley give reasons more in line with manipulation from 75 Calhoun. They say professional advancement had little or nothing to do with his departure from West Ashley.
Test scores started to decline at a rapid rate. The academics success that we established at WAHS started to decline, low morale, and lack of student control. the former principal lost control of the students and the test scores and our report card rating decline. Our current principal is outstanding and we are glad to have her.
We must learn to accept change and move on.
Rudell is a woman, not a Mr. And there was a prinicpal, Mr. Raymond Davis, who actually was a principal-specialist.
Am I missing something? Out of 79 schools, why does it seems like we have so many "emergencies in management" that require principal specialists, interim principals and interim assistant principals? Why are half the schools led by principals who have been in those positions for a year or less? Dr. McGinley said so. As for Mr. Olson at West Ashley, test scores there were mixed during the last 3 years, just as they were at many other CCSD high schools. These schools didn't have a principal removed mid-year.
Pardon my skepticism but anyone who is remotely associated with CCSD who says "We must learn to accept change and move on," sounds like an Orwellian clone of MGJ. The problem we have with CCSD is we are asked to accept "change" when it looks like we are just running in circles. We are repeatedly told to "move on" without knowing where we've been or where we're going. When leadership sees those who are simply asking for information as threatening we have a serious problem.
Does CCSD expect us to approach student questions in the classroom with the same brush off? When we lock low income minority children into low performing schools with little enrichment, how often has CCSD just told the questioning parent “you have to accept this, it’s just the way it is, we have to move on”? What about the same parent’s high school student who complains that they can’t take their text books home or why their sophomore English class has had four different teachers in the course of one year? What is the answer to the parent who questions this? What do you say to them when the parent of a child in a failing school learns that some of the “rotating” teachers in a core course critical to their child’s advancement are not highly qualified or that at least one may not even be certified to teach in that field? Is the universal answer, “Gee Ms. H.S. Parent, you have to learn to accept these things and then move on.”
Would this answer be tolerated at AMHS or Wando? I hope not. The reasons for such questions would happen at those schools. So why has CCSD allow those conditions to exist anywhere in Charleston County? Because they know they can get away with answers like, “accept it and let’s move on.”
Correction to entry made above: "The reasons for such questions WOULD NOT happen at those schools." (AMHS and Wando)
I wonder if this "we have to move on" attitude reflects an unhealthy focus on “teaching to the test”. Our kids are tested to death yet they are given almost no opportunity to explore academic alternatives and to experience what will become valuable lessons to be applied the rest of their lives. No wonder so many kids appear to be left behind, when the coherent curriculum lesson plan says we need to move on to a different page than the one the student is still trying to understand. If we have placed school report cards so high on our "to do" list, then it's a depressing thought to know that for the limited value of this year's school report card our kids are being short changed for the rest of their lives. How does data driven policies without common sense advance an individual student's education or more sensitively meet their individual needs.
Don’t say the challenge is too great, won't happen without parent involvement, too expensive or that we need more money. Charleston is one of the richest school districts in the state. Poor immigrant kids whose parents spoke little English did it a generation ago. Data is important but it's of little use without common sense.
It’s already been proven that some areas of CCSD have wasted as much as a third of their budgets. Management has always resisted outside opinions or truly objective audits calling it interference or negative meddling. They have a vested interest in preserving their unquestioned authority, but is this always in the best interest of a majority of those in individual classrooms found scattered across such a large and diverse community.
We're told to accept the decisions of people who know more than the rest of us. Yet we see no evidence of common sense in the evaluation of our schools, the spending of our resources or the education of the next generation. Instead we are told "We must learn to accept [it] and move on."
Should we depend on the fox to tell us how many hens are in the hen house and where they are? And since the fox is an expert in chickens, we are told we should accept the fox’s answers without question.
Someone has already said it would be wiser to “trust them, but check them”. I'd say check them often. If the level of confidence our public schools need is so elusive, it may have something to do with a general lack of trust in management. The inability of ordinary citizens to check them regularly doesn't help. The Superintendent and the County Board are the only ones in a position to significantly improve public confidence, but only if they see grassroots public support as something more than a line item on CCSD’s annual state report card.
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