Friday, August 5, 2011

Civil rights lawyers joining anti-testing forces in CMS

Add the Advancement Project, a national civil rights group, to the list of organizations pushing back against the expansion of high-stakes testing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The Washington, D.C.-based project, which bills itself as a civil rights "action tank," has been in Charlotte this week interviewing parents at the local NAACP office. Jasmine Harris, a staff attorney with the project, said the group believes high-stakes tests like North Carolina's end-of-grade and end-of-course exams are narrowing the curriculum, squeezing out creativity and frustrating minority students.

Harris said the new 50-plus local tests CMS rolled out this spring to help evaluate teacher performance won't help matters. She said parents from all backgrounds and colors told the project about their frustrations with the new testing regime, which sparked protests from teachers and parents who called the new exams too ill-prepared, costly, time-consuming and unnecessary. Harris said the Advancement Project plans to produce a report by year's end summarizing its findings, and hopes to help push for alternative ways of judging student and teacher performance. She mentioned portfolio-style assessments as one. Asked if the Advancement Project might file some sort of lawsuit against CMS, she suggested that was unlikely, or at least a last resort. She voiced hopes that Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, who presides over the long-running Leandro school-quality lawsuit, will hold a hearing on high-stakes testing and allow the group to present its findings.

The group's presence comes as the NAACP plans what it calls a "March Against Educational Genocide" on Saturday Aug. 13 at Marshall Park. The NAACP says it is calling the march to bring attention to the "grave inequities" in CMS concerning effective teachers, fair discipline, equitable resources and challenging curriculum. N.C. NAACP President William Barber will speak. CMS has won praise nationally in recent years for narrowing the achievement gap, but judging from the title of the march, the civil rights group isn't impressed.

60 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Fight the test monster. It foolish! It's killing REAL learning.

Anonymous said...

I would like my kids to learn something in school beyond what they can put in a year-end test. Principals need to be trusted with hiring/firing decisions for good and bad teachers just as any other private sector business leader. Teachers need to go back to teaching - without fear of losing their job due to test scores - but with regard to the wishes of the person sitting in the front office. This isn't a race issue - standardized tests are bad for everyone.

Wiley Coyote said...


Jasmine Harris, a staff attorney with the project, said the group believes high-stakes tests like North Carolina's end-of-grade and end-of-course exams are narrowing the curriculum, squeezing out creativity and frustrating minority students.


Ms. Harris, I suggest you start by interviewing all of the students in EIGHT CMS schools who didn't bother to show up for tests and then correlate the fact these schools have dismal graduation rates.

Another misguided waste of money.

Anonymous said...

The NAACP says it is calling the march to bring attention to the "grave inequities" in CMS concerning effective teachers, fair discipline, equitable resources and challenging curriculum"

We've been hearing over and over recently from advocacy groups that it's not the teachers (Fannie Flono this morning writes how difficult it is to assess teachers because of "all of the factors outside the classroom that affect student learning")and we now all know that much larger sums of money are spent per pupil in high poverty schools than in the suburbs. Many teachers would probably question the notion of unfair discipline. So exactly will the NAACP be marching for? And who in this community has been egging them on for years?

Wiley Coyote said...

Another example of the "Bunker Mentality" sweeping the nation...

Blame it all on someone else instead of taking responsibility for your own actions.

The problems in CMS is not teachers, but parents, students, educrats and politicians and toss in outside aggitation groups for good measure.

Obama has been doing it since he became President but has ramped it up over the past few weeks in the budget debate as well as both political parties.

Bunker mentality is a slang phrase for a phenomenon that occurs when an individual or group stops taking into account new, pertinent information and begins viewing outsiders as enemies due to an isolation resulting from being under attack.

Political campaigns and figures are often accused of having this mentality, particularly when a leader, administration or party has become unpopular or is in some sort of trouble.

The phrase is taken from an analogy to soldiers that have taken shelter in a bunker while under siege from enemies as well as Adolf Hitler's mental state during his last days inside the Chancellery bunker in Berlin.

Anonymous said...

Sadly, this population has ingrained within itself that it is "owed" a living just because some people of their same skin color had some history with his country 4 or 5 generations ago. In most cases, this population has no one of ancestry who was a slave. On top of that they wish to ignore the fact than there were blacks that owned slaves themselves.

Bottom line, these generationally, chronically poor people are poor because. Also the same reason they have no business having children. However, they have waged an wealth draining war on the successful people of this country and through blackmail, extortion, etc., they believe they are "entitled" to the fruits of others' works. Until this evil is washed from our land, we will not recover and thrive as a society again. We are rapidly falling to third world status in our public education, health, morals, etc.

NCAAP's campaign for public schools is clear. They want 8 to 5 schools year round with the school feeding the kids all 3 meals a day so the parents can just sit back and collect more checks for spitting out more babies. They do not want to be bothered doing "parenting" things ala get on a bus and go to Washington DC but will not go to a teacher's conference or a PTA meeting.

When will our leaders step and say, we have done all we can do without your cooperation. You can lead a horse to water but you can not make it drink. And my favorite African proverb, "One who rides on another's back has no concern how far off the next town is."

Anonymous said...

Charlotte isn't the only place where advocates of the status quo are enlising allies to stymie education reform efforts. Check out what the NAACP is doing in New York:

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-07-30/news/29848253_1_charter-schools-innovative-schools-school-buildings

Anonymous said...

So the NAACP is going to protest "grave inequities" within the school system...does this mean they are going to be complaining about the suburban schools recieving thousands of dollars less per student than the urban schools? Will they be shouting about excessive overcrowding in suburban school classrooms? Are they going to share some of the donations made to the "west side only" foundation with schools in other parts of the city?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Larry said...

Folks if you want to see what a sane group looks like go to www.TestOurKids.com and see the group I am working with.

They understand what all is really going on and I have been talking about getting Dr. Steven Perry to come to Charlotte for a talk.

http://www.dr-steveperry.com/

If any big time business or person would like to sponsor this, that would be a great idea to show that Charlotte is open to new ideas.

Be sure to go to these websites and see how people are tired of the groups using Children to keep their agendas and money flowing to them. Instead they just want the system to educate their Children.

Anonymous said...

Check out Jonathon Kozol's speech at the SOS march last weekend in DC (supported by Parents Across America and locally Meck ACTS). http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/08/jonathan-kozols-speech-at-save-our.html

Some highlights--"Savage inequalities" and "unabated and increasing resegregation". He also rails against classrooms of 42 or more (in poor schools). But I don't imagine that the NAACP will complain about that here since it's the suburbs that are enduring the crowding.

And we wonder who's egging the NAACP on!

Anonymous said...

From Meck ACTS Facebook page:

Mecklenburg ACTS
The wonderful Jonathan Kozol speaks at SOS March
Jonathan Kozol on class size at the SOS march « Parents Across America
parentsacrossamerica.org

Anonymous said...

Hmm, another national group and funding coming to meddle in Charlotte's schools (in addition to Meck Acts and others).

Yes, tests have narrowed the curriculum in dangerous ways. However, we have to have a tool to evaluate teachers to HELP them. The more that tests are demonized the further behind our children will fall.

Let's work with our schools to help them find solutions. Not continue to waste time on complaining and whining.

Anonymous said...

The NAACP, the Advancement Project, Mecklenburg Acts and other left-leaning groups continue to do the dirty work. The kids get stuck with the status quo.

We can do better than this.

Wiley Coyote said...

I suggest people get to the root of these local groups and what they stand for, because some of the people involved support and want to go back to busing.

therestofthestory said...

Yes I have read 2 of Kozol's books. You know the playbook. Busing, busing, busing. Be sure white kids and families never have a way to get out of a forced race based busing assignment system. Social engineering at its extreme. More and more status quo. More and more expected of the white race to carry the black race. White guilt, white guilt, on and on.

Anonymous said...

Here is another link to a speaker at the SOS rally: http://www.swannfellowship.org/
Click on first video.

Interesting that Kay McSpadden endorsed this rally and one of its sponsors, Parents Across America , several times in recent columns on the Viewpoint page.

Listen to Kozol and Kuhn speak and see what you think.

I would hope that Ann might listen to these two also, since she has been pretty supportive of Parents Across America (its website includes a link to Kozol's complete SOS speech, in which he says Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants the nation to go back to the days of Plessy vs. Ferguson.)

Anonymous said...

Can the date an exam is given impact score? Will a math exam on the first day of school likely have a lower score than the same exam given the fifth day of school. Due to first day excitement and it taking time for students to shift into gear are test results skewed. Could CMS be rewarded for making more annual progress by giving standardized tests the first day or so when students could be expected to provide the lowest result of the year? Could a teacher who gave the test on the fifth day of school (after students get into gear) be rewarded with a lower teacher rating because annual progress was not measured as high as a class who took the test on the first day? Do student test scores teach decision makers truth?

therestofthestory said...

Ah, the old left wing playbook. I can almost quote word for word what he says before he says it. Makes no difference here that the black students get 2 to 3 times per pupil spending. Makes no difference the suburban schools are the one with over 35 in the classes and kids have to sit on the floor. Makes no difference the white population has been run out of schools and do not have enough to even bus around if you forced them.

Anyway, looks like he is against schools getting extra funding outside of the BOE controlled hand. Maybe ACTS will step up and insist the $55 million for Wets Charlotte will be confiscated by the BOE to be spread about more fairly. Oops forgot, no such think as fairly distributed by the BOE.

therestofthestory said...

Well anyway, here's the bottom line. There is lttle impetus for these parents to make an effort to get their child engaged in school and get a good education. There is too much "giverment" out there to take care of them all and they have succeeded in the "extortion" of the hard working people.

Anonymous said...

"Many teachers would probably question the notion of unfair discipline"

Oops, you had me up until there. It isn't unfair, it is inconsistent discipline. Ther rules and consequences are right ther in black and white. You do the crime, you do the time and momma will just have to deal with it. Maybe while you are out, you might learn to behave and have some respect for yourself and the teachers.

Anonymous said...

I think you misunderstood my comment. I'm totally in agreement with you. I meant that the NAACP's description of discipline as unfair (meaning I assume unfair to their constituents) would probably seem absurd to most teachers.

Anonymous said...

It is change vs status quo. The activist and teacher agenda groups are against the CMS reforms that we need. Their complaints are not based on facts so they bring in whatever outside group and $ they can find to distrct the issues. MeckACTS would rather keep going down the wrong path than make the changes we need to move CMS ahead.

Larry said...

OK we have heard all the b well you know.

So what are you going to do about it Charlotte/Mecklenburg?

Are you going to be doing the same thing next year and the year after and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year andthe next year and the next year andthe next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and the next year and We could light a fire under those running and get some real changes that might be possible.

Anonymous said...

CMS has already laid out the plans for change. It is the 2014 plan.Hope the new school board will not derail that forward movement.

Anonymous said...

I despise the over-emphasis on testing but I think the NAACP is a joke! Academic genocide???? Are they serious??? When black kids, on average, do not: study, take notes, follow instructions, pay attention, do assignments, etc as the average white, Asian, or Latino kid I have news for you: it isn't genocide, it's academic suicide! I know this from personal experience. Black kids (in general) do not take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. Of course, the NAACP is just playing the same old game of blaming everyone but their own community! Last time I checked, it isn't "Whitey" who is the baby daddy, fathering kids all over the place and then running. It isn't "Whitey" who chooses to not discipline and never show up to conferences. It isn't "Whitey" who forces the kids to misbehave! Academic genocide....PLEASE!!!!!! Grow up!!!!

Anonymous said...

Large numbers of African American kids are getting a lousy education for a number of reasons, one of which is the public schools. There is little accountability for teachers and administrators at public schools, unlike the situation at private and charter schools.

So why would the NAACP not applaud efforts to make public schools more accountable? I suspect that special interest groups like the NCAE have enlisted the NAACP to prevent school reform.

Testing improvements, teacher merit pay and tenure reform could do a lot to help African American kids. But for the people who run the NAACP, apparently none of this matters.

Anonymous said...

I am a teacher and I don't have "little accountability." I am judged by my test scores and if my students score too low, regardless of how hard I try, I am in big trouble.

No, the reason so many black students aren't getting a good education is because they themselves choose, of their own free will, to not do well in school. How many kids are chastised for "acting white" or "not keeping it real" when they do well in school? This is a self-inflicted problem, not an issue of being oppressed by others. This is especially evident when majority black schools, where most of the kids get free/reduced (more like free) lunch, get federal Title 1 funding. The suburban schools don't get that! Want Smart Boards, great! Hold a bake sale otherwise go without.

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:40, I can see how private schools can do well since they are independent of CMS, its bureaucracy, and the idiotic school board. They can also pick and choose which students to accept, weeding out those who have problems following the rules and/or aren't academically proficient.

The question I have is about charter schools. Since they are publicly funded by the taxpayers, do they get some control over who enrolls or do they accept students based on a lottery?

Larry said...

3:33 I hope you are kidding. Change in the 2014 plan?

And Charters have waiting lists of a wide range of Kids.

People always say Cherry Picking takes place with Charters and the like when in fact schools like www.AchievementFirst.org in NY have taken Kids who the system said would never learn and have made them better Students than the Suburban counterparts.

So it can be done here and Competition and make our Public Schools even better.

Why are we holding on to the remnants of a once great system when we can make it great again?

Larry said...

4:54 The problem with you bake sale is that the system now will not let you support just one school.

You can donate but it has to go to all schools.

We had a group donate a van and it was sold and the proceeds dispersed to all the schools.

That is why we need to deconsolidate the system so we can have the already underfunded suburban schools get the help they need from the groups and the Urban schools can bask in the support of the Businesses and the concentrated tax base downtown.

Anonymous said...

Many teachers at CMS have students who don't get tested at all, unless you count the beta tests that happened this spring. Most teachers have tenure and are very hard to fire at CMS, no matter how well they do their job. Pay for performance is only an idea, not a practice at this point.

The existing CMS system promotes many things, but accountability isn't one of them. That's not to say that no teachers feel accountable for how they do their job however. Undoubtedly many do. It's just that the system is not set up to instill a sense of accountability.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Larry, I don't think your assertion is correct for fund raising efforts like fun fairs or bake sales (can you still do those?) or general fund raising effort for individual schools. The schools keep what they raise (although many partner with high poverty schools and give a percentage of what has been raised to their partner school). However, I don't think you can donate an item like a van or even a computer to an individual school. (Although high poverty schools may be an exception)
Incidentally, even though some schools are able to raise large amounts of money that money is included in their per pupil spending number and we all know how those numbers compare, suburbs to city schools despite the fund raising disparity. Think about it--if a school of 800 kids raises $80,000, that's still only $100 per child.

Anonymous said...

6:45 Tenure means basically nothing. Ask all the tenured teachers and administrators with superb scores and evaluations released throughout NC over Pete's five year reign of bogus data and administrative hires.

Wiley Coyote said...

...if charter schools are so wonderful, why not make ALL CMS schools, charter schools?

If they are the "magic bullet"...

I'll say it again. It doesn't matter where a kid goes to school, they either go to learn or they don't.

The answers to the questions will be the same, no matter school they attend.

Deconsolidation will not work. Suburban schools will never get the same per pupil spending and your plan will wind up in court - if it were to even get that far.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad that someone is looking at this madness. When we get to the point where we are testing art and dance, we have truly crossed the line of no return. Then they talk about using multiple measures to evaluate teachers but when asked about the additional measures no one can tell us what the are. I think this new evaluation system has been poorly researched, poorly planned and poorly implemented. At the end of the day poor test scores are the result.

BolynMcClung said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BolynMcClung said...

“YOU SAY TOMATO, I SAY TOMATO. LET’S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF.”


Advancement Project says it may use Portfolio Style Assessments. Lawdy, lawdy where did that term come from? You guessed it – Wall Street.

This is just another Return on Investment analysis tool straight out of the mutual fund world. If you hated CMS’ version of ROI, will you love what a bunch of DC lawyers will do with it? An explanation of the process is available from Morningstar by Googling: “estimating portfolio style in U.S.”

After I got through reading the link, it sounded a whole lot like the Pay-for-Performance justifications we heard at the school board meetings this past winter and spring.

Get ready for the educational version of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.


Bolyn McClung
NextSuper.com
Pineville

Larry said...

Charter Schools only and Deconsolidation will not work?

Oh the zero sum game being played by those who do not want something offered to the parents.

You know how that works in the World folks.

They make it so that you only have one choice and that is it.

Why not choices in your schools? A charter in your neighborhood and a public school both working for your voucher/scholarship. How is that so disagreeable to them and the status quo?

Notice how they don't want the changes but fight them instead of offering the real changes that would make one thing we need........Education.

We know what is not working, our current system.

Any new ideas out there other than more of the same and holding on to the same failing remnants.

Anonymous said...

The NAACP is marching against "Educational Genocide".

Shouldn't that be "Suicide"?

After all, blacks are mostly doing this to themselves.

Put any other "race" of kid in the same school and they will do better
(as documented by the "performance gap") time after time.

It's not the schools, it's the kids and their parents.

And the entitlement "attitude" that organizations like the NAACP have helped propagate.

Anonymous said...

Note to NAACP:

While you're at it...

How about telling those kids it's OK to "act white" and study for a change.

Worth a shot, eh?

Anonymous said...

Larry,

Schools like your Achievement schools and KIPP aren't cure alls.

They have problems, too.

Some of the KIPP schools just flat out are not working. And their dropout rates are excessive for black students.

Google "KIPP failure" and you'll find a few examples.

So, even if they aren't "cherry picking", they are "cherry pruning", which is essentially the same thing.

Where do those kids go? Back into the "old" system, don't you think.

Don't be so gullible just because it furthers your privatization agenda.

Anonymous said...

People, don't make this issue about race or suburban vs urban schools. That's not what this is, and that doesn't help advance CMS or this dialogue. The issue, like poster said above, is change (dare we say reform) or keeping everything the same. I for one am pleased that CMS laid out a roadmap for change in the 2014 goals. (More than those tests...) It takes bold action like that to move CMS ahead.

Anonymous said...

I think most would be happy for this and other schools issues not to be presented as a racial issue or urban versus suburban. But who has been doing that?

We have advocates who routinely stand up at the school board meetings and talk about educational apartheid, "resegregation", the unfairness of it all. Some of these same people have a nice little dog and pony show that they have taken on the road to civic groups (League of Women Voters, Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club, Raleigh TV station, etc). We also have had groups like the Community Building Initiative, well funded in the past by our tax dollars, that continue to tell the minority community how mistreated they are.
These groups have been abetted by some in the media who long ignored suburban issues or portrayed them as "selfish" issues.

For many years there was definitely only one way that school issues were examined in this city and that was the urban versus suburban slant, with suburbanites being cast as the bad guys. We're paying the price for that now (and perhaps so is The Observer, with declining subscriptions).

Anonymous said...

When the NAACP is involved, it is ALWAYS about race.

Anonymous said...

The NAACP needs to have a meeting among its varied "colored" constituents (assuming they are not truly single-colored) to see why some "colors" are doing better than others.

Especially when the "colors" doing better often have the handicap of English being their family's second language.

Once they figure that "gap" out, then they'll be better prepared to address the "grave inequities" they seem to think are leading to one particular color's "genocide", while apparently helping all other colors.

But, I'll never see the day when the NAACP finally admits that their favored "color" just needs to straighten up, fly right, and work harder.

Gosh, our whole economy just might improve overnight without all the slackers out there getting by on the largess of everyone else.

Wiley Coyote said...

Larry,

Our public education system can be fixed, but not until we face the real issues that have run the system into the ground for 40 years.

The problem is, people really don't want to discuss them.

We've spent 40 years trying to achieve integration with mediocre success yet some people still fight to keep it.

We have the NAACP running its mouth at every turn yet they do NOTHING to help advance education in the Black community, only hinder it.

We have educrats who are constantly implementing their own pet projects to make a name for themselves that many times don't work yet we keep funding them. Bright Beginnings is a prime example of wasteful spending on tens of millions of dollars.

Politicians, our BOE and many others, don't want to tackle these issues for fear of being labeled a racist.

Until people acknowledge that it doesn't matter what skin color you have, what your household income is or where you live and that learning is universal, nothing will change.

Until CMS stops gerrymangering magnets and school boundaries and gets over the fact people live where they live, nothing will change. The end product is education and if you’re doing your job, it doesn’t matter what school you attend.

Until all of us decide education is a top priority and hold parents accountable for their children's actions in school and all parents understand they are culpable as well, nothing will change.

Deconsolidation and charter schools is just smoke and mirrors. No different than a snake oil salesman telling you his elixir will cure your all your ills...

Anonymous said...

Agree that is a big problem for our community. Media and other give squeeky wheels too much play. We have much great for CMS and CLT Meck. We should be proud of, appreciate, and support the work with Broad and Gates and other of that significance.That's what makes us better and advances us. Make smart education a priority.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Wiley. I agree that it's probably too late to deconsolidate.
However, maybe we could just lop off District 4 (Tom Tate's district, home of the East Meck folks who are always happy to move other people's children and of the Meck ACTs movers and shakers). This would remove a large block of agitators from the school board meetings--might even be able to reason with Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell without them.

therestofthestory said...

If you want to hold teachers accoutnable for what goes on in the classroom then you have to be willing to give them the responsibility to have some control. In too many cases, adminstrators are returning uncivil students to the classroom making a mockery of the teacher's authority. When what is really needed is to have the student and their family unit "committed" to the county's mental health care unit for therapy. The student can then only be returned to their regularly assigned school following a minimum 6 month sabbatical and necessary certifications to have been theraputically cured and then subjeted to weekly evaluations by the school staff. And the school staff must be overwhelmingly convinced of their "cure" to remain in that school or sent to an alternative school. Soem of the sabbatical may be served in an alternative school.

Bottom line, do not forget the old saying, "one bad apple can spoil the barrel."

When the adminstration simply "disses" the teacher but just returning the perpetrator back to the classroom with no consequences, the teacher essentially loses control and face with the rest of the students.

Wiley Coyote said...

Teacher are not nor have they ever been, "the problem"....

Look at it this way.

Back in the 80's when Chrysler came out with K-cars, they were very inferior products. The computer chip that ran the car would constantly go bad and have to be replaced at a cost of about $300 each. Other problems kept these cars constantly in the shop.
My company had about 100 of these on the road.

Chrysler had a Board of Directors, a President/CEO, Vice Presidents, middle management, designers and line workers who assembled the cars.

CMS is similar. We have a Board of Directors (BOE), a President/CEO (Superintendent), VPs, (Clark, Hattabaugh, etc), middle management (district Superintendents, Principals) and line workers (teachers.

Now, think about the lousy cars Chrysler produced.

IS it the fault of the line workers who put them together or is it the 3rd party parts suppliers or the design team and marketing whose programs were signed off on by upper management?

IS it the fault of teachers for bad management of upper management or bad parts in the form of students and parents?

Like the line workers at Chrysler, teachers are implementers.

They follow policy and deal with what they are given to work with.

Anonymous said...

Wylie....I would vote for you for school board....Please consider it!!!

Wiley Coyote said...

Anon 2:24...

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I've been asked by many to run for the past several years. But due to the travel requirements of my job (out about 50 nights per year), it would be impossible for me to attend meetings and do the job effectively.

Perhaps at some other point in time I'll consider it if travel requirements ease, but since my travel is to our last remaining expansion markets, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

Wiley, It's good that you care about these issues. But your main theme seems to be that CMS is hopeless. You seem to say there's nothing that anybody is doing that can improve CMS.

Is this accurate and if so, do you think that platform would be hopeful enough to get you elected to the BOE?

Larry said...

8:12 I have no Privatization plans, just competition that will make all the schools stronger.

Large tankers of fish that were caught off the coast had fish which would just quit swimming once they were in the tankers.

They tried all the expensive mechanical ideas they could but the fish would arrive in large numbers dead.

Then a old fisherman told them to place a shark in the tank and the few fish that the shark would devour would cost less than the numbers lost.

The rest is history and now called the shark in the fish tank.

The idea is that you can get people and organizations moving and if we ever needed an organization moving it is CMS.

therestofthestory said...

If Wiley got enough other board members to the way of thinking of turning this school system around, he could do it. Clearly, we know what does not work. Clearly what this board lacks is the will and the backbone to run this school system efficently, effectively, and with integrity. Loud ignorant people must be politely ignored.

The problem is how the districts are made up gives the wrong people the power.

Wiley Coyote said...

Anon 5:51...

Not for a second do I feel CMS is hopeless.

Having said that, unless there are drastic changes in mindset and raising the bar of what is acceptable, then nothing will change.

Look at last year.

We supposedly had a $100 million dollar shortfall. Gorman wanted to cut Bright Beginnings, a wasteful program put in place by a prior educrat that we've funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars that even he said didn't work.

The BOE handed it off to the County yet funding found its way back to keep it going. Status quo.

CMS implemented a pay to play sports scheme that bilks money from about half the students while the other half play for free, which is based on fraudulent numbers. Some BOE members and parents begged for money to keep middle school sports going while the prospect of teachers being laid off was imminent. The turn a blind eye to school lunch fraud which drives free sports and testing. Status quo.

Politicians and educrats want to put the onus on teachers for THEIR failures in implementing sound changes in what they have been doing terribly for 40 years.

Education and the business of it needs to be broken down to basics.

Anonymous said...

Wylie, I think you could skype into school board meetings if you were elected.....just saying.....

Wiley Coyote said...

Anon 6:14...

Skyping into board meetings when I'm 3 hours behind on the west coast wouldn't work.

When meetings are held in the afternoon or early evening here, I'm still working out west.

Anonymous said...

Since every child can not succeed then no one should be tested.. Read the fall of Rome. we are soo in trouble there has to be goals set and achieved for society to be successful not goals no success
Sorry

Shannon Harris said...

8:12 I have no Privatization plans, just competition that will make all the schools stronger. Large tankers of fish that were caught off the coast had fish which would just quit swimming once they were in the tankers. They tried all the expensive mechanical ideas they could but the fish would arrive in large numbers dead. Then a old fisherman told them to place a shark in the tank and the few fish that the shark would devour would cost less than the numbers lost. The rest is history and now called the shark in the fish tank. The idea is that you can get people and organizations moving and if we ever needed an organization moving it is CMS.