Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Anti-Social Promotion
The e-mails are starting to pour in about fellow teachers being forced to pass failing students to make IPS's passing and graduation rates look better than they actually are. If any administrator has ever forced or "encouraged" you to changed grades so that a failing student could pass, let the public know.
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I was "encouraged" to change the Individual Educational Plans (IEP) of well behaved MI students from self contained special ed classrooms to inclusion classes, to fill seats at the new BRHS humanities program. These students will not have success in this type of class, but fear not when they misbehave they will be put out and sent back to their home school. This won't happen until after ADM day.
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ReplyDelete"I was "encouraged" to change the Individual Educational Plans (IEP) of well behaved MI students from self contained special ed classrooms to inclusion classes..."
ReplyDeleteWho encouraged you? It's important to put the name in print if we expect IPS to improve.
Changing an IEP without an annual case conference review is illegal. Actions such as this could cause IPS to lose ALL federal funding. Administrators should know this and if they don't they need a refresher course in School Law.
There is a point when retention becomes counter productive to the school climate due to developmental issues. While the Over/Under program was not successful, IPS was on the right track to remove 16 and 17-year-old students out of the middle schools. Proper alternative education programs (as opposed to warehousing students) need to be carefully planned and implemented. (Parents do not want a 16 or 17-year-old male sitting in class with their twelve-year-old daughter.) However, high school classes are in a different category since each class is passed as opposed to the entire grade.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Over/Under Program was NOT successful last school year; however, I understand it will continue again for the upcoming school year. As you noted, there was no careful planning or implementation of the program; hence, it was not successful.
ReplyDeletePlacing all O/U students in one facility might have made more sense. They could have had the levels of support they needed to be successful. As it was, the O/U students were spread out into 3 different schools w/out added supports, such as extra counselor, additional social workers, school-wide behavior management programs, etc.
IPS has the building space to allocate one separate facility for an O/U Program and nothing else. When the students advance upward to their correct grade levels, then they can be enrolled in their home schools.
Oh that would make sense, so silly of me, we will never be able to do it.
ReplyDeleteI was told to change the Individual Educational Plans (IEP) of MI/EH/MO students from self contained special ed classrooms to inclusion classes, to fill seats at the new BRHS humanities program, so that Linda Davis would have a full house. The order came from Carl and Sandy, so that they would have the numbers needed to hire all of Linda's little darlings from Shortridge. What is a student with a Full Scale IQ of 63 doing in her program, just a failure waiting to happen? I refused and talked to the parents, teachers need to care about their students and have some moral value to their actions. I will help the parents win their lawsuite againist Linda Davis and IPS.
ReplyDelete"I was told to change the Individual Educational Plans (IEP) of MI/EH/MO students from self contained special ed classrooms to inclusion classes, to fill seats at the new BRHS humanities program,"
ReplyDeleteShame on Linda Davis. She knows better; she knows that is against both the letter and the spirit of IDEA law, but, more important, it's against all tenets of good educational practice.
If IPS keeps messing around with the misuse of IDEA funds, it will end up losing ALL its Federal funding.
Prudence Bridgwaters attended the AVID Conference with about 100 other IPS employees. We were told not to miss any of the meetings. Prudence and her girlfriend elected to skip the meeting and went sight seeing. They can't lie about missing the meeting. Dr. White and Dr Clency found but elected not to reprimand them. In other words, they endorsed their behavior.
ReplyDeletePrudence, we know you are reading this blog. Do you remember the x-mas party at Pearl's. :-)
Pamela Denny-Rohrbach, IPS Director of Art Education, Curriculum, and Instruction...is this Dr. B's special friend? If not, please let us know so the rumor can be dispelled.
ReplyDeleteI got best Prudence Bridgwaters Story:
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, she moved back to Indianapolis. She told another IPS employee that she was homeless and had no place to stay and didn't have any money. She lived and ate of the poor teacher for a year without paying for rent and food. The teacher found out the Prudence had 70k in a savings account but refused to pay the teacher rent. When the teacher kicked her out, Prudence was making a scene on the front lawn yelling "I'm homeless and broke and you are sentencing me to die." She was crying like a baby. This women is sick.
Pamela D-R jus got a divorce because of Prudence. It is not a secret.
ReplyDeleteOh, my God! What a trailer park trash scene IPS has become. I'd heard that Prudence and the Director of Art for IPS had built a new home together in Avon or Brownsburg or somewhere in Hendricks County. So, is this Pamela D-R hot or not? It's for darn sure that Prudence is not hot, except for being 'hot under the collar' more than is necessary.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely TOO rich!
Can you imagine the humiliation that Pamela's ex-husband must feel after being dumped for Prudence? Poor guy.
An addendum: my password to type in to enter this comment is 'lickter' I could not make this up!
Re: Prudence Bridgwaters
ReplyDelete"She was crying like a baby. This women is sick."
I have heard over and over that Dr. B is ill; that she has or had a brain tumor.
Do you think these are idle rumors or is there any truth to this?
From my personal observations of the woman, she acts like someone who has neurological damage.
Does anyone have anything to add to this?
Re: Master Teachers/with the $5K bonus
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with HR filling the 16 master teacher slots for next year?
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"Has anyone heard if anybody has signed up to be a Master teacher or been asked to be one?"
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I was asked nicely by district-level adminstration, but they are getting to the point where they are not asking nicely anymore. A "master teacher" I know in another subject was told he had no choice but to go, even though his classroom is set up and ready to go at another school. I know that my subject area is getting to that point as well. They are beginning to force the people they have identified as "good teachers" to go there. What good will it do to have a building full of unhappy people?
Jane Kendrick. We know you are reading this. You are next. You removed a good assistant principal and replaced her with someone who has your same lifestyle. You will reap for you sow.
ReplyDeleteWell, anonymous 4:23 PM, please give us some names. You are safe; please know that.
ReplyDeleteInquiring minds, curious people, and the taxpayers want names! Who did Jane replace? Let us know. Again, the Internet is safe.
How does Jackie Greenwood stand to travel with Prudence Bridgwaters and Jane Kendricks? The three of them traveled to California to interview the 'dream team' that changed its mind and stayed put in CA.
ReplyDeleteWhatever folks might say about Jackie, she's a straight arrow and is not into alternative lifestyles! I suppose she's just very tolerant of the diversity of gender preferences.
Is PB's special friend Lori Elliot, the new VP at Shortridge with NO experience and making more $ than her predecessor???
ReplyDeleteLori Elliott was Bridgwaters' personal assistant (her personal TOSA) last year, that I know. From what I've read and heard, Lori is going to be an Asst or Vice Principal at Shortridge next school year.
ReplyDeleteLori was a Teacher on Special Assignment and worked as Bridgewaters' right-hand person, doing all her paper work, emailing, etc. Personally I always thought Lori knew more about Prudence's job than Prudence did.
Lori's job as Prudence's TOSA was advertised as 'Curriculum Facilitator' a few weeks ago. Does anybody know who got the job? My thoughts and prayers will be with that person.
How about sticking to the topic, there is enough about Bridgwater to write a book, and you could probably write an enyclopedia about Denny-Rohrbach, but that is not the topic.
ReplyDeleteMany people appear to be new to blogging, check back and you will find a Bridgewater thread, please post your comments there.
"How about sticking to the topic, there is enough about Bridgwater to write a book, and you could probably write an enyclopedia about Denny-Rohrbach, but that is not the topic.
ReplyDeleteMany people appear to be new to blogging, check back and you will find a Bridgewater thread, please post your comments there."
And, to you, Seasoned Blogger, what was your relevant contribution to this current thread?
Please, let's all remember we're all in this together. Be kind to one another. Life is cruel enough without barbs thrown at us from our co-workers.
At that AVID conference, the administrators were housed in an expensive hotel while teachers were put into a filthy, roach infested, mold filled cheap trashy hotel. Way to go, Jerry McLeish. Take care of your administators and screw the teachers. Some teachers slept with their clothes on while one or two checked out and went to a clean hotel....one more indication of what Eugene White and his staff think of teachers.
ReplyDeleteWell let's see, I recommended the topic to the moderator, and I posted a comment or two, there is a certain eqiquette to blogging and knowing and following these conventions makes it easier to follow the topics. I am very happy someone has finally started a blog about the inner workings of IPS, parents, other teachers, taxpayers and community leaders need to know about how corrupt and immoral it is, and keeping with the topic makes more sense to readers. It was simply a request.
ReplyDeleteThis is off the topic of the thread as someone mentioned, but I'm responding to your comment anyway.
ReplyDelete--At that AVID conference, the administrators were housed in an expensive hotel while teachers were put into a filthy, roach infested, mold filled cheap trashy hotel. --
That's terrible. I attended the AVID conference in Chicago two summers ago and all of us, teachers and administrators alike, were put up in style in one hotel. In fact, I felt the style was waaay too expensive for a school district. Each of the 200 or so attendees had private rooms which actually were suites, with a bedroom and a separate living room area. The room rate, posted on the back of the door, was somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 per night. Of course, I'm pretty sure the district got a discount, but it was probably not that big of a discount. The Chicago AVID trip was paid for out of Title 1 funds.
"How about sticking to the topic, there is enough about Bridgwater to write a book, and you could probably write an enyclopedia about Denny-Rohrbach, but that is not the topic.
ReplyDeleteMany people appear to be new to blogging, check back and you will find a Bridgewater thread, please post your comments there.
July 21, 2009 8:01 PM"
To Anon 8:01 PM....
I didn't intend to sound so curt in my response to you, but after revisiting it, I realized I sounded more curt than intended.
I'm glad that so many IPS people are beginning to join in this conversation which is well over due. I sense that some of the bloggers are very tentative and almost afraid to write their comments for fear of 'big brother' looking over their shoulders even at home using their own computers. My intent was to convey that 'anything anyone wishes to post, whether relevant to the thread or not, is OK.'
Peace.
I'm a little upset by the gossipy nature of some of these comments, particularly concerning
ReplyDeleteindividuals sexual orientation, however there is a point to this discussion, when these relationships exist it is like silent nepotism, as we see in the promotion of some of these folks, that are apparently based on who you know rather then what you have done, or what you know.
From Andy Gammill's Classroom Insider, Indy Star:
ReplyDeleteA professor at IUPUI has published a new article analyzing Indiana students' knowledge of geography over time -- with results that he found "dismaying." Geography Professor F.L. (Rick) Bein determined that Indiana students' knowledge of geography declined from 1987 to 2002 despite intensive campaigns to boost geography education.
With the efforts we put into K-12 geography education statewide through the Geography Educators Network of Indiana during the 15-year period we anticipated an increase in geography literacy, not a decline," Bein said. "In Indiana, like in many other states, state educational standards are so focused on math and science, that geography and the other high school social studies are neglected."
Students did best on place names and worst on map skills.
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IPS has eliminated World Geography as a Social Studies required class at the secondary level. Is Gerry McLeish responsible for this decision?
The lower results are expected. The state has put geography and world history together at that high school level. If taught properly these are two totally seperate subjects. The new standards favor the history part and put little emphasis on geography over-all.
ReplyDeleteThat move (putting the two together) by our state is a step backward in educating our students and students state wide in geography.
O.K. I bashed the state not IPS, but what was mentioned in 7/21/09 9:31 post had to be addressed.
Tony Bennet needs to put GEOGRAPHY back into the curriculum and not keep this watered down version. He should also make World History and GEOGRAPHY (seperated subjects as they should be) required subjects. Just as US History, Economic, and Government are.
Mcleish, and Bob Brady don't think geography is college prep, but world history is. At AHS geography has not even been offered for the past two years in course selections.
ReplyDeleteYea, like Gerry and Bob know a lot. They're the two guys who promised us at Arlington in our small school that they'd get all these AVID tutors for us.
ReplyDeleteI personally never saw one AVID tutor in my small school at Arlington.
These are the boys who practically forced me to attend the Summer AVID Conference in Chicago when I knew that I'd never be allowed to teach an AVID class. I was a special ed teacher and knew that if I taught an AVID class it would become a case of 'supplanting funds', aka using special education funds to pay for a position that is funded by general education funds.
Guess what? I was correct. I never taught an AVID class, and IPS wasted over $1K to send me to Chicago for a week when I did not want to attend in the first place.
Anon 3:13 You should have been at Tech. Sp. Ed teachers there taught AVID.....most special ed teachers in IPS have been told to "redo" a conference because the option chosen was too expensive or not available. In fact, with the conferences online, administrators can and do just access the conference and change whatever they wish although the participants have already signed. There is a real push for inclusion because it is cheaper. I am 100% for inclusion and have seen it work wonderfully with many students but there are students where it is not the appropriate placement.....but when your boss orders you to do something or just changes it...what can a teacher do? One day the Feds will catch on and all hell will break loose.
ReplyDeleteCynthia Perkins does not have a current admin license of the state web site. It expired 06/13/2008. She will be Vice-Principal/Assistant Campus Administrator this fall at Tech.
ReplyDeleteWhen she was hired into the system as an Academic Dean she was paid as a Vice-Principal, which was more than any other AD, and she did not work 12 months.
Connectins + + + +
Jane will do what she wants, the Board Members sit in their chairs and nod their little heads like a bobble-headed doll. Cynthia Perkins is waht is called a "ghost employee" and the State of Indiana can bring in felony charges agaisnt all parties involved, yes the clueless Board Members. Keep up the good work, this shows that IPS has major problems in their administration.
ReplyDelete