Interested in ways to shake up a school system that is failing? Wondering what recommendations for firing of administrators and teachers from failing schools in CCSD McGinley is contemplating?
You may wish to take a gander at another education blog's take on what's happening in Chicago. See Right on the Left Coast's Firing Teachers At Underperforming Schools
for an interesting discussion of accountability and musical chairs in a school system with problems.
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3 comments:
This is just musical chairs. Burke was "reconstituted" last year when G-J made a big deal about replacing the principal (the one she brought in from Texas) with a new "turn around" guy (that she brought in from NC). We can expect him to be out in another year or two, but what's really changed? A-Plus, AP Academy, Low Tech High, career clusters, Neighborhood Planning Teams (NOT!). There's no real change. Nothing!
Now we hear through the grape vine that McGinley's greatly touted "A Plus" program for Burke's middle school grades has been abandoned after being recognized as a total failure. Really, that's no surprise to the parents who questioned it in the first place.
Burke High School finally has a grand facility, historically a supportive community of well placed alumni, a 100 year tradition of success (though most of this was before CCSD) and a core group of neighborhood students with untapped potential. The most consistant failures at Burke appear to be rooted in 75 Calhoun Street's inability to understand and address this unique community's needs.
Downtown public schools will continue to fail as long as they continue to be micromanaged by CCSD. How about "reconstituting" 75 Calhoun Street and the county school board before we give Burke their 7th principal in 9 years? Though I would have wished this one was a little more loyal to the community instead of just his paycheck.
Don't look now but the Save Seattle Schools blog is really running up a long list of all too familiar failed school reform plans...see "New Strategic Plan" posted on January 28, 2008 (http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com). Too bad we didn't have access to this shared bad experience now being reported from Boston to Seattle to Clayton County, Georgia...long before this. At least there's consolation in knowing that Seattle is studying Charleston very closely for some indication of what they may want to avoid. Dr. McGinley isn't avoiding the spotlight either.
This is just what they did at Rivers. They did this in San Francisco years before and it proved unsuccessful. While I applaud any attempts to fix the broken system as opposed to accepting it, can't we learn from each other's mistakes?
Oh, but those aren't in the data, are they?
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