I hope that isn’t the case.

I teach about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to my students. Under FERPA, school districts are not allowed to share grades or other “personally identifiable information” with those who do not have a valid educational interest. In fact, if these scores have been posted in a public place and have names attached, HCS is taking a huge chance that it could be in non-compliance with federal regulations.

For any parent who feels that HCS is not in compliance with FERPA regulations, I encourage you go go to the website http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html and educate yourself on what schools can and cannot share regarding personal information. Bernie Cieplak is the person who works in this office and he and I have spoken before regarding other issues. Know your rights parents and stick up for the privacy of your children.

And yes, Education is the hope of the republic.

The board and superintendent are sick of you and wish you would just go away, but many in the community who attend the meetings or watch online are behind you 100%. Who wins if you just go away? Not the parents, teachers, support personnel, and students that’s for sure.

You said-I hate spending every other Thursday night away from my family. I hate sitting and watching the board members (not all, but the overwhelming majority) fall all over themselves praising Wardynski (pretty much as they did in the article above). I would much rather spend my evenings at home helping with homework and playing with the kids.
I go for one reason: I believe it is the right thing to do. I believe standing up for our kids, our teachers, our principals and schools is my duty as a parent and citizen.
And so I go: if only to remind the superintendent and the board that they work for us.

Again, you don’t have to apologize for or defend your actions. If not you, who? Silence helps the oppressor, not the oppressed. Education is the hope of the republic.

The Charter School people are coming, what do you want to bet the lastest new hire from Virginia is no coincidence?

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2012/02/virginia_principal_to_join_hun.html

http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/9304/procharter-lobbying-group-headed-by-embattled-exdc-schools-superintendent-focusing-on-alabama

Dr.W claims title one schools have “200 or 300 percent higher turn over than other schools.” This may be true. But as with all things, he needs to be a bit more transparent in how he arrived at these numbers. Does turn over include teachers who were fired, RIFed, or Otherwise left the system or school not by their own choice? Or does it include retirement, which may point to an older population at those schools. What exactly is the turnover from? If by turnover it is meant willingly leaving, then we may have an issue of small numbers working here. If most schools average one or two who leave, then four at a title one school is 200% more, but still not a huge problem. As you eloquently pointed out, he loves to throw something out without backing it up or explaining what it means.

I’d also like to know what resources HCS provided current teachers in low performing schools. If turn over is such a problem, what has been done to mitigate it? What professional development has been arranged for existing teachers that is specifically targeted toward their under performing students? I happen to know that the current model of development is to send a single teacher off for training and have that teacher share the knowledge with teammates. You’d think Dr.W would be a big fan of this method, since he comes from a background of weekend seminars.

He also mentioned in his interview that the state of Tennessee did a study and Teach for America – Memphis and Teach for America – Nashville both did very well. Of course he didn’t provide information about where that study actually might be found. I took the time to look and found the Tennessee Teaching Program Scorecard, and it paints a significantly less rosey picture than I expected from his words. While true that TFA-Memphis did well in some categories, they performed average in Math. But the far more telling figure was the turn over rate. I’ve seen the number of 80% in three years, but according to the score card the number coming back for their fourth year is truly awful, and the worst of any other program I could find. In four years, the return rate drops to under 9%. That just over 91% of TFA teachers will have to be replaced every four years.

Why would Dr.W go for such a plan? Perhaps it is because of the over 95% return rate in year two. Of course the “teachers” have a serious financial motivation to return. So Dr.W gets to bolster the turn over rate for two years in these schools. And as we’ve seen in the past with other Broad Supers, he might not be here by the time these TFA people bail out on our kids.

1. TFA receives “48,000 applications for 5,200 teaching positions.”
What does this mean? Surely there are more than 5,200 open teaching positions in the US. The Bureau of Labor statistics are that there were 3,476,200 K-12 teachers in 2008 and projects there will be employment for 3,944,900 in 2018. So that must mean the 5,200 are what? — number of positions TFA has contracted to fill, I guess.

2. TFA has “$309,115,182.00 in NET assets.” If TFA were dedicated to saving America’s youth through its program, maybe it could lower its contract price and train more teacher without its investors suffering too greatly. What I really don’t understand is how TFA can be an AmeriCorps program — a non-profit that also includes VISTA [historically the domestic version of the Peace Corps] — and charge what it does for placements and have the net assets it does.

And those 48,000 applications? I always have to laugh when I see that. Of course they are flooded with applicants. But they aren’t engineering majors. They are liberal arts majors who borrowed tens of thousands of dollars, didn’t get a scholarship for graduate study or didn’t get into law or med school and can’t quite face borrowing still more money for another degree that still won’t get them a callback from any one of the zillions of places they’ve sent resumes. Duh.

I’m beginning to wonder if we really have the first amendment and academic freedom on our side, or are they just slogans to make us think we have the first amendment and academic freedom on our side.

I am praying for everyone.

Jas

Now we know how employess of the school system feel and why they are afraid to speak out.

I honestly don’t think he feels like he has to present data to justify decisions. His military background (sorry, but there it is again) interferes with this. I honestly feel like he expects people to obey his orders. Three meetings ago at the school board, Dr. Wardinski basically said to the board “You hired me now let me do my job” and the board agreed.

The next year is going to be really interesting as we watch the effects of the new policies.

Thanks for interacting, I appreciate the intelligent discourse.

Jason

bests,

:@)

Since you brought this up, I will add this. The fact that Dr. Wardinski has never been a classroom teacher nor an administrator yet was hired to run an entire school district is one of the things that are really wrong with HCS. If I were to hire a doctor or lawyer who went to a three month “summer doctor institute” to learn to be a physician, would you have faith in his ability to heal? If the city hired an engineer who went to a five week course to learn how to build bridges, would you be willing to drive on that bridge?

The questions are rhetorical, but I think I know the honest answer. Dr. Wardinski is an efficiency expert who has (in my opinion) very little understanding of what happens in real classrooms. I’m not sure whether the direction of HCS is moving in a positive direction right now, but I know that it’s important for me to do what I can to help “right the ship” because I have five students attending HCS currently.

Thanks for the response.

The argument about Wardinski not having teaching experience is one which, if accepted, denies him legitimacy in any decision he makes. I don’t think we can simply oppose whatever he does as superintendent on that basis, and further if we do it weakens our otherwise strong arguments which are based not on authority (educator vs “non-educator”) but on data, law and fairness, such as the division of cuts.

bests,

Jim

You make an interesting point about the centralized hiring decision, however here are two points that are troubling. Dr. Wardinski is taking control from principals who actually work in schools and who have education experience. I might sound like I’m being petty here, but Dr. Wardinski has never been a teacher nor has be been a principal.

HCS is not having trouble finding qualified applicants for teaching positions, rather hiring through the central office is a way to weaken the influence of individual principals. To be fair, in some cases this might be a good idea (e.g., the nepotism case at Hampton Cove) but it seems that the principal would be more able to tell which candidates are the best “fit” fore individual schools.

This is one of those decisions that makes sense from an “efficiency” standpoint (which Dr. Wardinski is really good at improving, based on his military accomplishments) but has nothing to do with “having student achievement in mind” (which is what one board member was quoted as saying in today Times.