Welcome to SF Schools
This is the start of a blog devoted to schooling in San Francisco. I'm KC, the founder and chief geek on this blog. I will invite other authors to post here from time to time.
The idea for this blog arose out of my experience moderating the Yahoo group, sfschools@yahoogroups.com, and much of the content here will be derived from posts found there. This will be a Best of SfSchools blog where I will invite some of the best posters from that group to express themselves in a more expoistory and less conversational format.
Lets see how it works...
The idea for this blog arose out of my experience moderating the Yahoo group, sfschools@yahoogroups.com, and much of the content here will be derived from posts found there. This will be a Best of SfSchools blog where I will invite some of the best posters from that group to express themselves in a more expoistory and less conversational format.
Lets see how it works...
1 Comments:
DON'T ASK WHO TO BLAME, ASK HOW CAN WE FIX IT.
copyright 2006 by The Left Behind
The internet provides endless opportunities to discuss the latest local public school crisis. I see a pattern, crisis after crisis, of a blame game. Take your pick on who is more evil: Teachers, Superintendents, Boards of Educations, uninvolved parents, over-involved parents, politicians, taxpayers, privatizers, the list goes on.
Recently, on a forum discussing what to do, this comment was posted.:
"the opening post on this thread implied that there were 40 (out of 115?) new principals this year...i would love to see a list of which 40...i'll bet they are mostly eastsiders.[i.e. poor schools]..."
YOU'RE NEW, YOU'RE WILLING TO TRY, BUT YOU CAN'T WIN
The implication of that comment is that if a principal isn't perfect the first year on the job we should, punish him/her? How great were you the first year on your job? You never made mistakes or missed things because you had limited (i.e. no) experience?
Why do people think there are so many NEW principals every year.? It's not because that many retire. They quit in frustration or do not have their contract renewed. Principal is a damn HARD job at poor schools. Principals typically get a two year contract. If things aren't perfect, and a group of teachers or parents goes on a jihad, you are out of a job. Principals are often blamed for long term problems that arose before they arrived. They are expected to be superman/woman and cure systemic problems in one to two years! It's not like their predecessor help clue them in, either. They are long gone before you get there.
A great example is my former school. I arrived the year of a new principal. The existing teachers helped pick him. At the FIRST faculty meeting, the LGBT 'coordinator' began screaming at him about a homophobic incident that happened the year before. This pattern of blaming administrators continued at every meeting. It was downhill from there. This guy couldn't do anything to please the teachers who were mad that the DISTRICT and BOE ( who approved his contract ) had changed administrative personnel.
EVERYONE GETS TO SHARE TO THE BLAME
Both the superintendent and the BOE have responsibility for implementing any changes. To try to play one against each other is avoiding culpability on both sides. New principals are thrown into a situation where they need support, not a winner takes all game.
This principal's second year, he hired a new VP, and she had the master schedule task dumped on her - a major task at a high school. As an intern, working on something she had never done before (and should have been done the spring before), she did the best she could. When it didn't go as smoothly, the same bitchy people ( many of whom are union reps) started agitating to fire her at the end of the year. They do not offer to help out or share their experience with her. Having won out on the principal this year, they are still trying to get this VP fired.
TEACHERS HAVE GOT TO CHANGE AND ADAPT
To be clear: the 'angry mob' mentioned above is not ALL the teachers. It's a small cohort of about ten, ( so less than 5%) but considering the high turnover in teachers in failing schools, they have big influence as they have institutional knowledge on their side. They do no hesitate to wield it accordingly - they used it to try to scare the new teachers at strike time. This group is always out to "get" someone.
I know this strum und drang doesn't succeed at the elite, good schools. Why? Because if you work there, your school is clean, well supplied, has working Xeroxes, clean functional bathroom, band and art equipment, sports equipment, decent cafeteria, etc. Stress and storm are considerably less. Studies that show that a pleasing school environment positively affects student behavior. Well they should study teachers. Think about it. If you are a student, you are only sentenced to four years in a wreck of a school - escape is imminent. If you are teacher, it could be 20 years.
FOUR STEPS TO EDUCATIONAL QUICK FIXES
So how to fix this? Let's think outside the current educational box.
1. SHAKE UP THE PERSONNEL MIX
Principals should have the right to move teachers to another school. Principals can trade amongst themselves if needed. These overly emotional agitating educational buzz-killers would lose their power, if moved to a new environment. Notice I'm NOT saying they are BAD at teaching. [Only one of these examples is - and that may be depression.] They have become power-hungry as a substitute for healthy environment. Combined with their personal unhappiness, it makes them act badly.
Putting them in a new environment give them a clean slate. There they could recharge, gain some perspective, and focus on teaching and making new colleagues. We cannot afford to lose dedicated teachers in a market where their numbers are shrinking. We need to refresh and retool them.
Unfortunately, current union leadership would never consider this as it threatens their jobs. We have to convince teachers that they need this solution, and advocate for it. Picking one school as a laboratory to try this for 5 years would might be a good compromise. It has to be sold to that school, as we can see the mixed results of the top-down Dream Schools imitative.
2. MOVE THE GOOD ( teachers) TO THE BAD ( failing schools)
At low performing schools:
a) Give a pay deferential for year 2 teachers as an incentive to stay.
b) Give a pay deferential to veteran teachers who are rated satisfactory as an incentive to stay.
c) Give an annual bonus and recognition to those teachers rated excellent. This is what private industry does to motivate and retain good workers.
d) Give a bonus to excellent teachers who will do a two+ year stint, moving from an elite to low school, with promise they can return to their old jobs eventually. Their job would be to: set a good example of teaching their subject; act as department chair if needed; assist the principal with mentoring new teachers; and coaching those whose have received undistinguished reviews.
Right now a principal has to managed 50 - 60 people first hand. That is way too many in a failing school, and in a school with problems, he/she is spread too thin to work with failing staff effectively.
3: FIX THE SCHOOL EQUITY.
Make the bathrooms clean and supplied. Make the school clean. Fix the falling tiles, the holes in the walls, the broken windows. Get decent food in the cafeteria. Get them art and band instruments, sports equipment and coaches - something to make school more rounded. Get a decent library that kids will want to go to, and up to date computers.
4. BRING BACK VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Here's a radical one: put in some vocational training again. Not everyone WANTS to go to college. We fixed the unfair 'career tracking' of the sixties, but threw out the baby with the bathwater. By ONLY offering college track, we now set up many kids for failure. Is it any wonder they are often the same kids who are vandalizing and bullying? These kids and their parents need to be offered options. Then they can see clearly when their kids' destiny isn't forcibly tied to one option: advanced academia. Such an assessment should be done at the end of 10th grade, no sooner.
While factory jobs have disappeared, we still need: people with computer skills to book reservations and take service orders, chefs to cook meals, people to fix cars and planes. We need to train people to run their own small service business, whether it be a salon, auto repair shop, drycleaner, or other 'mom and pop' retail shop! Small business owner certification would be a great offering.
This plan asks something from everyone: Administration, Board, principals, teachers, parents, students and community. With a cohesive, not piecemeal plan for overhauling the public schools.
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