It is amazing what they discover these days. Take a gander at Reading Called Top Priority in Saturday's P & C. Reading comprehension is important in high school, so now the mandate goes out that high schools must fix students' reading problems.I've no doubt that at least half of my reluctant readers (definition: will read only when life and/or passing-for-the-year is in danger) have poor reading comprehension. I've always done what I could to address their deficiencies, but, let's face it, high school is not the place to fix them. If it is, high schools have just become reduced to elementary schools!
Let's try teaching core knowledge as well as reading strategies in earlier grades. For the first two centuries or so of public education, that worked.
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Yep. Water is wet and reading is fundamental to all learning. But what can parents do when the same school system failed them and the current administrators tell teachers to pass students who can't read on to the next grade regardless of their performance?
Read Sunday's expose on how CCSD fails so many students and then read Nancy McGinley's guest editorial in the same edition for a list of excuses.
Don't forget McGinley and Burke High School's Principal Benton chastises anyone who questions the administration's "excellent" improvement rating for the school last year. They say critics are insulting the students. It turns out the critics are fighting for the students against the gross failings of administrators like Benton and McGinley. They knowingly undermine and fail to help teachers do their job. McGinley and Benton then fail to speak truthfully to parents and the public about what's really going on.
Shame on Benton and McGinley for their dishonesty. Shame on the Charleston County School Board for covering for these liars who falsify school reports and then pad their pockets from their positions at the top of the public payroll.
What's with the Post and Courier not accepting comments on its lead news article this morning? Eventually the truth comes out on how the school district is just fixing the numbers while leaving cracks throughout the system. It also looks like the editors gave Dr. McGinley an advance copy so she could make her case in the face of a damning report. It might be OK if the public was at least given the same opportunity to respond, but that's not happening.
Speaking of "water is wet" news, how does the story of one 17-year-old with an absent mother and learning disabilities reading on a third-grade level--a case you can sadly find in every county in South Carolina (not to mention all across the country)--"expose how CCSD fails so many students?
Same observation--an incomplete story about Ridge Smith means "the school district is just fixing the numbers while leaving cracks throughout the system."
What a joke. Next thing you know, one of you will say that "parents are not a factor."
Enjoy your anti-public-education echo chamber, complaining about baseless conspiracy theories while the rest of the world actually works to solve problems.
Anonymous 4:23 is truly confused. This blog is not anti-public-education. Of course, if being pro means never being critical of what CCSD or its Superintendent does, well then. Conspiracy theories? What would they be?
McGinley says "This happened before I became superintendent." (How convenient. Wasn't she the Chief Academic Officer here for 3 years before that?)
The High School principal, Mr. Benton, who came here as a retiree from NC, said in an earlier newspaper report, his school’s failing students are the fault of the middle schools. The middle schools say it's the fault of the elementary schools. The elementary school people say these kids’ failings are their parent's fault. Didn't Ridge's mom say she thought the school system wouldn't have promoted her son if he couldn't read?
Will someone please take some friggin responsibility for this mess? We can start with the Superintendent.
1) Closing Rivers & merging it with Burke...$5 million or more in upfits...failed as parents continue to abandon Burke middle.
2) The A Plus program at Burke and Brentwood...at least $8 million...pronounced a failure & closed after 3 years.
3) Outsourcing the operation of a student jail at Murray Hill...$15 million or more...canceled.
4) Sanders-Clyde, first held up as a model...added new programs only to take them away once charges of corruption became public.
5) Increased class size and fired classroom teachers...as she increased her own senior administrative staff by 20%.
6) She outsources private meeting planners and study groups for tens of thousands on a whim...only to send them packing when they can't control the outcome.
7) She persuades the county board to give her control over expenditures for up to $100,000 at a time...Goodloe had a $10,000 limit.
8) Now she wants the school board to censure or remove any of its elected members who find fault with the superintendent...while she screams at office workers who can't give her cover and threatens board members who question her for not doing her job.
Hey, she's out of control.
McGinley's starting to look like a real piece of work. I’ll bet in addition to her op-ed on this one, just like the last one, she’s got a Power Point presentation to show none of this is her fault.
This is addressed to Anonymous 4:23. People who genuinely support public schools don't act like robotic cheerleaders. They do their homework and they roll up their sleeves to help their neighbors. That includes informing them of the truth.
I wish McGinley and some of her cheerleaders would just move on so we can begin cleaning up this mess. I would like to think Charleston County could one day have a school district leader who does take responsibility.
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