Fixing broken or ineffective school systems

Yes, teacher's making a fair wage while not giving every second of their lives to the profession, fire 'em all.

I believe so, the article I read this morning said they were calling witnesses and telling then they wouldn't be needed.

Yes, teacher's making a fair wage while not giving every second of their lives to the profession, fire 'em all.

In January, the Education Commissioner identified this school as one of the worst in the state and recommended it either be closed or completely overhauled.

Here are the proposed changes for a high school where only 50% graduate, 50% are failing their classes, and less than 10% are proficient in math:

"The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer."

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

Central Falls to fire every high school teacher | Education | projo.com | The Providence Journal

My understanding is that in American labor a work year is measured as approximately 2080 hours. Question-

Do these teachers have summers off? If so, what is the estimated number of hours they work in a year?

I respect teachers and feel really bad for the ones who work in areas that have socioeconomic and assorted cultural challenges. And I agree that the problem often lies with parents.

But I can't help but be bothered that teachers earning 80K (and their unions) are saying no to working an extra 25 minutes per day when their schools are failing.

I like the idea of holding teachers accountable. I like the idea of firing people.

I thought it was 2000 - 50 weeks @ 40 hours. Which breaks down to $39 an hour plus benefits.

Either way, 70K+ in an area where the average salary is a fraction of that is not exactly a hardship.

How many teachers do you know who make that much - and whose students have much higher scores/grad rates? My teachers made FAR less and gave us hours after school, on the weekends etc.

I am also all for holding teachers (and everyone else) accountable. :angry:

I think the answer is to get a new way of evaluating teachers. If this district is like most, a school administrator observes each teacher for 20 minutes each year, and then decides whether to renew their contract. That's it - up or down, fire or keep.

It's disturbing that the bosses knew so little about each employee that the only answer was to fire them all, to assume that there was not a single solitary person worth keeping, because it would have been too much work to figure out who to keep and who not to keep.

25% of the employees in the average school district in this country are administrators - and I would be willing to wager that in this district, they average more than the teachers in pay.

That means that theoretically, each administrator manages 3 people. Of course, it doesn't work out that way, but let's pretend they manage 15 people (which means that there are a ton of administrators who manage no one). If you had a staff of fifteen, could you figure out who to keep and who to get rid of?

It is not just the teachers

From last week's column

www.waltonsun.com (free registration)

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Call the Obvious

Officials aren’t the only ones making bad calls
Years ago when we moved to Florida, I continued my avocation of basketball officiating.
One of the reasons I gave up the hard court was the goofy way Florida schedules high school basketball. In Georgia, varsity girls play first followed by the boys every night. On school nights, one JV game (or none) was scheduled prior to the varsity games.
Not so in the Sunshine State.
Once I worked a girls game in Vernon and met the Vernon boys bus on U.S. 20. Freeport was the opponent for both games. Standard operating procedure is a JV first followed by the varsity; rarely do you have two varsity games successively. When I asked administrators why, the answer was always, “It’s how we have always done it.”
In any situation, sooner or later, that answer and any corollary thereof almost guarantees a bad result.
In the ongoing budget crisis public schools are experiencing many extracurricular activities are reduced or eliminated, and that is a travesty. Band, sports, along with ROTC and other “fun” stuff can be equally as important as the crap you learn in high school. In my case playing high-school football kept me out of trouble. Another example is my brother Joe who carried his musical craft to The Georgia Redcoat Marching Band. While there, he cultivated a relationship with young lady musician; eventually they were wed. If he kept his nose in an organic chemistry book his life would have been much different.
This way you reduce overhead plus you don’t have to cutback on the schedule.Sure, I am a frustrated jock, but I am an even more frustrated taxpayer when I see simple solutions being ignored. If someone showed how you could increase your product by 50 percent while reducing costs by 25 percent, logic dictates you implement that strategy.
Here is my hypothetical (are you listening Superintendent Anderson?) Say South Walton girls play at home on Monday and Thursday with the boys tipping it off on Tuesday and Saturday. At the end of the week each team has played two games but the gym was open four times. Alternatively, playing Tuesday, Friday and Saturday back-to-back each squad plays one more game with the gym being opened one less time.
While my solution reduces overhead and increases the number of games, you also can reasonably project a bigger gate because varsity games are more interesting than JV games. With a bigger gate, concessions increase. Given the ongoing budget woes, concessions can help fill the funding gap teams face.
I don’t mind paying taxes for the four high schools in Walton County. Administrators should be stewards of our money. A good place to start is for Walton County schools to schedule inter-county girls/boys basketball games on the same night. Insist other districts follow our lead. If we drop a few JV games, who cares?
No good coach ever lost a job because of the score of a JV game.
This season South Walton played a few home games with a varsity girls/boys format but it appears that the standard operating procedure (i.e. JV/varsity) has not changed. Officials are chided (most often erroneously) for their judgment.
“Call the obvious” is the mantra good officials implement religiously. The logic of my recommendation is quite clear and failure to implement is fiscally irresponsible.

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Buz Livingston, CFP

My understanding is that in American labor a work year is measured as approximately 2080 hours. Question-

Do these teachers have summers off? If so, what is the estimated number of hours they work in a year?

I respect teachers and feel really bad for the ones who work in areas that have socioeconomic and assorted cultural challenges. And I agree that the problem often lies with parents.

But I can't help but be bothered that teachers earning 80K (and their unions) are saying no to working an extra 25 minutes per day when their schools are failing.

I like the idea of holding teachers accountable. I like the idea of firing people.

Teaching salary summary page for the state of Florida
Salary range: $32,879 - $59,138
Average teacher salary: $45,296
Average beginning teacher salary: $30,700
Median household income: $42,433
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Don't forget that teachers can get stuck with some unpaid overtime for extra-curricular activities.

I think the answer is to get a new way of evaluating teachers. If this district is like most, a school administrator observes each teacher for 20 minutes each year, and then decides whether to renew their contract. That's it - up or down, fire or keep.

It's disturbing that the bosses knew so little about each employee that the only answer was to fire them all, to assume that there was not a single solitary person worth keeping, because it would have been too much work to figure out who to keep and who not to keep.

25% of the employees in the average school district in this country are administrators - and I would be willing to wager that in this district, they average more than the teachers in pay.

That means that theoretically, each administrator manages 3 people. Of course, it doesn't work out that way, but let's pretend they manage 15 people (which means that there are a ton of administrators who manage no one). If you had a staff of fifteen, could you figure out who to keep and who to get rid of?

All of them got fired because they were all represented by the union that refused to negotiate on these points. The School Superintendent is not just making arbitrary decisions - she is following recommended courses of action from higher up.

And one of the 6 items they refused to budge on was more rigorous evaluations.

"A month ago, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist mandated that the district adopt one of four models to fix the troubled school, which has some of the lowest graduation rates and test scores in the state.
Gallo?s first choice, the ?transformation? model, was consistent with her conditions on how to improve the high school. But if the teachers would not agree, the superintendent said she would select her second choice, the ?turnaround? model, which requires the removal of the entire staff of the school. The turnaround model allows the district to hire back no more than 50 percent of the old staff.
?I am saddened and shaken at the core by the enormous ramifications of my responsibilities,? Gallo said. ?The only solace I have is that I know I provided every opportunity possible, in fully public and transparent ways, the means to avoid this.?

All of them got fired because they were all represented by the union that refused to negotiate on these points. The School Superintendent is not just making arbitrary decisions - she is following recommended courses of action from higher up.

And one of the 6 items they refused to budge on was more rigorous evaluations.

"A month ago, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist mandated that the district adopt one of four models to fix the troubled school, which has some of the lowest graduation rates and test scores in the state.
Gallo?s first choice, the ?transformation? model, was consistent with her conditions on how to improve the high school. But if the teachers would not agree, the superintendent said she would select her second choice, the ?turnaround? model, which requires the removal of the entire staff of the school. The turnaround model allows the district to hire back no more than 50 percent of the old staff.
?I am saddened and shaken at the core by the enormous ramifications of my responsibilities,? Gallo said. ?The only solace I have is that I know I provided every opportunity possible, in fully public and transparent ways, the means to avoid this.?

You know, I went out and read more about this, and the most depressing aspect of all of this is the inability of anyone, apparently, to find any common ground anywhere, on any topic. I'm disappointed in the union, of course, but I'm disappointed in the administrators for having such a poor relationship with the union that the disagreement came to this.

I expect more of elected officials and professionals, and yet I am constantly disappointed.

Each of us has an instinct for selfishness - that voice that tells us that we're getting screwed, that Danny got more ice cream, that voice that says "Mine!", but our parents spend a lot of effort to train us out of that tendency between the ages of 2 and 4. Since there's no public shame in letting our inner 2-year old out anymore, everyone is only worried about their corner of the world.

I totally agree - there is just no accountability, shame, or responsibility anymore.

And one of the most disappointing parts of this is that the focus in not on the students or HOW INCREDIBLY BAD THIS SCHOOL FUNDED BY TAX DOLLARS IS, but on which group is right.

I actually approve of this superintendent - she called the union's bluff when they refused to negotiate.

Teaching salary summary page for the state of Florida
Salary range: $32,879 - $59,138
Average teacher salary: $45,296
Average beginning teacher salary: $30,700
Median household income: $42,433
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Don't forget that teachers can get stuck with some unpaid overtime for extra-curricular activities.

What types of retirement benefits do they receive? I've never been able to find that information.

Google Florida retirement system

The students who are caught in the middle are the biggest losers here. Shame on both parties for not hashing out an agreement to better serve them!

There are lots of school districts across the country similar to this one in Rhode Island and I don't see them resorting to mass firings as a solution to the problem. What's going to happen when new teachers are hired and they walk into the same union vs. administration mindset? Is this same scenario going to be repeated a few years down the road? Sheesh. Sometimes I think the more educated you are, the more stupid you are.

Sounds a lot like what's going on in Washington DC with our venerable senators and US reps. Systemic failure to conduct the business of governance.