Sometimes you wonder--what were they thinking? Then you remember, they probably weren't thinking at all. They were simply responding to stimuli from NCLB to get those failing schools up to standards.What else would explain taking more than 60 experienced teachers out of the classroom to make the lives of teachers IN the classroom more difficult by increasing the paper workload? Or assigning individual teacher coaches to "coach" entire faculties of larger schools? Or asking teacher coaches to "coach" outside of their academic areas?
The answer, of course, is that these *bright* ideas come from those administrators who have spent little, if any, time in an actual classroom teaching an actual academic subject.
Thanks to budget problems (!), as reported in last week's P & C, these missteps may be on their way to the dustbins of history in CCSD. Ask yourself, would CCSD's Superintendent McGinley have continued this ineffective program that has been costing the district (by my estimate) roughly $300,000 per year if there were no budgeting problems?
Or would the taxpayers of CCSD be told how the program is paying off? Of course, the P & C article neglects to mention whose idea these coaches were, but the reasonable guess is McGinley herself. Wasn't she Chief Academic Officer? Too embarrassing to remember, I guess.
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Yes, Dr, McGinley was Chief Officer Officier and she was the one that wanted this plan. She push for Dr. Goodloe to start and keep this program. And here we go again, she is getting rid of any programs started as CAO that is created.
I hope her stay in Charleston is short and yes I work at Calhoun Street. She thinks she can fix everything with a drop of a dime. She will try something new for one to two years and then end the program because of "budget" cuts
We need a superintendent had is not scared of politics. She should resign
And as usual Clelia knocks the efforts of others but offers no ideas of her own.
Again, Bable, try being part of the solution, not part of the problem.
OK, Jackass, you want a suggestion. Here's one. Why not pair schools in order to share resources and ideas (not to mention save money). The District 20 Board suggested that Buist be paired with Charleston Progressive...but that fell on deaf ears. When Burke HS alumni and organizers for the new Math and Science Charter School suggested that these two downtown public high schools might compliment each other...CCSD, City and NAACP officials ignored this innovative opportunity saying that the school would "undermine" Burke's chances for success. Not that 30 years of neglect and pre-planned failures authored by CCSD haven't already undermined Burke. McGinley is all about spin. As an administrator with no real feel for the everyday classroom she is trying to paint over the problems and in the process paints over the very assets and successful programs that still exist, especially downtown, in spite of decades of pillaging by CCSD officials.
I was in the budget meetings in Feb 2004 that created these coaches. McGinley hadn't even been hired yet. They were the brainchildren of Ann Birdseye and Marian Mentavlos, both since retired along with their cockamamie ideas based on a discussion over coffee, not data. McGinley inherited this layer of ridiculousness and is finally in the position to do the right thing and AXE it.
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