"A wise and frugal government which shall restrain men
from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government."
(Thomas Jefferson)


Showing posts with label Education Reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education Reform. Show all posts

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Atlanta Teachers Involved in Cheating Scandal Told to Resign or Get Fired

This is a follow-up to what is currently happening in Atlanta schools.  We found this statement by new interim Superintendent, Erroll Davis, refreshing:

Davis told CNN that the students were the ones who were cheated amid the scandal.
"We can't allow that to happen, and we can't allow anyone who was involved with that remain in our system," he told CNN. "We will identify those children, and we will make the requisite investments to remediate the wrongs that were done against them."
Students and their education should always be the #1 priority in the public schools.  The interim Superintendent, Erroll Davis, sounds like he should be made the permanent superintendent after his actions in this matter.  We would be willing to bet there are several teachers who were whistle blowers that were named as cheaters.  With the former Administration that was in place with their history of retaliation, that would be a legitimate assumption.  It is going to take a thorough review to sort out who was involved and then get rid of those teachers through resignation or being fired.
Teachers Implicated In Atlanta Cheating Scandal Told To Resign Or Get Fired 
Atlanta Schools
First Posted: 7/17/11 01:50 AM ET Updated: 7/17/11 01:50 AM ET 
The 178 educators implicated in the Atlanta Public Schools' cheating investigation received letters in their mailboxes Friday from interim Superintendent Erroll Davis. The message: Resign by Wednesday, or get fired. 
The announcement comes after Davis replaced four area superintendents and two principals as a result of the investigation into alleged cheating by teachers, revealed early this month. APS Human Resources Chief Millicent Few resigned Monday. Investigators accused Few of illegally ordering the destruction or altering of important documents that evidenced the cheating.
The report determined that teachers in at least 44 of the 56 schools had participated in various forms of cheating, including erasing and correcting wrong answers on students' answer sheets for mandated standardized tests. 
Davis' office will accept resignations Monday through Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports. After Wednesday, the district will commence termination proceedings.

But because teachers have rights to due process, the educator wipe-out could be lengthy and take several months, AJC reports. Some teachers have already hired lawyers.
At a town hall meeting Thursday night, parents questioned districts officials about how their children will be affected by the scandal. The same evening that Davis sent the letters to implicated educators, he assured parents that those involved in the incident would not be back in front of classrooms.
"It is not an overnight process to get rid of them," WAGA-TV reports Davis telling parents. "It certainly is an overnight process to tell them not to show up." 
Excerpt:  Read more of this cheating scandal at Huffington Post

Teacher's union will have a field day with this and look for them to end up on the side of the guilty and throw whistle blowers under the bus.  First thing out of their union mouths will probably be "Bush's Fault."  Have you noticed that Democrats never mention Ted Kennedy on 'No Child Left Behind' -- it is only Bush if there is a problem.

Have no respect for teacher's unions period starting with their national Union. If you want to point one finger at what is wrong in education, point it right at the National Education Association (NEA) Union.  The sole purpose of their union seems to be to protect lackluster/bad teachers to make sure they get their raises and don't get fired.  It is sure not putting students first.  

When teachers strike, they should be fired just like the air traffic controllers were by President Reagan because they are public employees.  Striking for higher wages shows who they put first -- themselves not the students.  For years NEA had a monopoly on extra benefits for teachers but in recent years organizations have sprung up for teachers that are not involved in the unions.  The NEA hold on good teachers is rapidly disappearing as they can join these other non-union organizations in Right to Work states.  NEA is as much responsible for failing schools as anyone with their protect teachers at all cost along with low expectation on the teaching ability.  An example:

No list about government waste would be complete without a visit to one of the best… of the worst in public education: the Chicago Public School System where bad teachers survive and illiterate kids waste away. Grace Currin’s entire fourth grade class will be showing up for summer school because of her inability to educate them sufficiently to pass. That’s right, they all failed. Three different principals in her school tried to fire her. They failed due to union attack dogs who refused (and continue to refuse) to allow any dues-paying tenured member to fall off the rolls no matter how stupid they are. Witnesses to her teaching style have reported heinous behavior.
See nine more reasons why public schools are failing at:  Newsreel Blog and then ask yourself what good are teacher's unions except to keep bad teachers on the payroll.

For years the policy in Chicago schools has been not to fail students, just pass them on to the next grade and by high school you would have a whole group of illiterate students ready to hit the streets looking for jobs who cannot read.  Probably the best thing that happened to Chicago schools was Obama hiring Chicago Superintendent Duncan as Education Secretary which equates to the wrong person for leadership of America's public schools.  It shows with failing a whole class in a Chicago school that his policy is no longer in place.

How many other districts across the Country are going to be part of this cheating scandal on standardized testing?  Cannot believe that the retired Atlanta Superintendent thought that when the test scores raised so much in failing schools, someone wouldn't take notice since the same teachers were in place.  Any school that cheats on standardized tests cheats the student as well because they don't get the remedial help they require.  Time to clean up public education across the Country starting with the NEA and their state affiliates who stand in the way of ousting bad teachers.

Time for parents to get up in arms and speak out about failing schools.  Go after school board members who have been there for years in failing school districts.  Demand vouchers so you can get your children in better schools.  Money talks even in schools and enough parents complain and remove their children from that school, something will be done.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Education in Oklahoma City

Yesterday former Florida Governor Jeb Bush made a visit to Oklahoma City promoting his national agenda for education reform and what states can do to improve education. He praises Oklahoma in this video for their new bills dealing with education that will improve our Oklahoma student's education greatly because it calls for accountability.

We have high schools in the OKC School District that sit around and play games rather than learn. Teachers need held accountable along with parents to give our students a better education here in Oklahoma.  These bills are a giant leap forward after years of the Democrats following the lead of the teacher's union.

Oklahoma has some of the best schools in the Country and some of the worst. The difference between an eduction in the Norman Public School system and say Mid-Del School district about 20 miles north is worlds apart. We are both 6A schools and that is where the similarity ends. While Norman schools expect their students to perform, some of Mid-Del's schools are a bad joke. When we were transferred to Oklahoma, we chose Norman because of the advantages of their public schools over Mid Del and other surrounding districts. Norman has continued to improve the education of students where others are stagnant.

From our Administration, to our teachers, parents, and community they are providing a quality education that I would put up against any public school in the Country. We have educators from all over the Country visit to look at our Fine Arts program in our schools from the All-City Concert by all the bands/orchestras to our own TV channel run by the students. With the University of Oklahoma right here, our elementary schools are taking advantage of the mentoring provided by OU students including the athletes.

These new bills will require all the districts to put students first and sincerely hope that the parents wake-up in some areas and realize how important it is for their children to get a first rate education. From what my son is seeing as an adjunct professor that is not happening with students from some of the school districts in the Oklahoma City area. Some of his students have a lack of a basic English education. Forget the math, their grasp of English is very poor with little to no reading comprehension or writing skills as high school graduates. Ever heard of Walt Whitman? Well most of my son's one class has not.

Very happy to see Governor Bush in Oklahoma promoting education.



Source: The Oklahoman