Thursday, August 13, 2009
What's Up With White?
Fellow IPS teachers, what's up with Dr. White? Do you agree with his statement the other day that the reason test scores were so bad because you don't know how to teach? Do you think you're a horrendous person? Do you think if a corporation got the same kind of results that Dr. White gets that he would still have a job? He told the same thing to the principals the day before. And he's giving the same line of crap to the elementary school teachers today. Dr. White needs to study his geography because it's clear he thinks denial is just a river in Egypt.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Seriously?? With scores that low, how could you blame anyone but the teachers? The scores were pathetic before Dr. White took over too so you can't blame him. He's right. People just don't like hearing the truth without a sugary coating on top! The teachers with those scores are the ones in denial. They actually still think they're doing a good job just because they show up for work! Shame on anyone who won't take responsibility for their own failure.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends. If administration is tying your hands regarding properly educating your class, disciplining disruptive students, or disregarding attendance policy, then that falls on administration. Also, I think if we're measuring teacher success, we have to go by interim achievement from the beginning to the end of the year, not who passes or fails ISTEP, because I can raise a child two grade levels, but if he was three grades behind, he's still not going to pass. But otherwise, yes, I think it is fair to expect teachers to teach. And even if IPS administration remained exactly the same, if we got rid of the teachers who didn't think it was their responsibility to teach (and to learn how if they don't already know how), IPS would be the best district in the nation.
ReplyDeleteThe scores Dr. White shared were end of course tests, not ISTEP. So no one to blame but the teacher responsible for teaching the class all year. I agree some admin don't do their job well, but that's not what makes the most impact on kids. Good or bad teaching does that all on it's own.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we could improve the scores of our students if Superintendent White did not constantly drag us down by telling us how lazy, worthless and stupid we were. Also if we were allowed to teach without 14 new programs that we only have part of the materials to use and then they are changed before they have a chance to work. If the leadership of the system were supportive and worked with teachers instead of AGAINST them, we might see some improvement. White has created such a hostile work enviroment that I shudder to think what is going to happen this year. Ruling by fear, intimidation and bullyism does not work and it never has.
ReplyDeleteThe end of course assesments had some major errors that needs to be corrected by the administration for proper scoring. If you fired every teacher, hired new ones, you would have the same scores for the students that showed up to take the tests. Many of the new programs installed in IPS are by administrators who have not been in a classroom in years, Dr. White needs to have a frank discussion with teachers on programs that are working for a team effort.
ReplyDeleteIn order for things to improve in IPS, I feel that a few things need to happen.
ReplyDeleteFirst, Dr. White needs to learn what the REAL attendance numbers are. When I have less than 40% of those on my roster showing up every day despite my calls home, contacts with the social workers, and reports to building administrators, there is an issue that I as a teacher cannot control. There was one student last spring who did not attend a single class, but was received a diploma. Trust me, the teachers had NOTHING to do with that. I have seen the attendance numbers for my school and have NO IDEA how our administrators came up with them. As professionals we expect each child to be in class, on time, every day. Just because they show up for the last 5 minutes of one class they are counted present for the whole day??? That just isn't right. The creative accounting has got to stop. Parents need to step up and take some responsibility here as well. It is their responsibility to make sure their student is in school, in the proper classes, every day. The court system also needs to back up the legislation and hold parents accountable for their child's attendance. Jail time and fines are both great ways to stress the importance of being a responsible parent. This year I am personally going to keep a hard copy of my attendance records so when they are mysteriously changed by an unknown entity in the computer system, I will still retain evidence of the true attendance.
Next, teachers need to be permitted to teach their students based on the individual needs of each class. There are too many benchmarks, pacing guides, scrimmages, schedules, etc. to keep up with that the true art of teaching is often lost in the shuffle. Pick one method and stick with it. Scores will rise naturally since teachers and students will not have to learn new ways of learning and teaching every time someone downtown gets a wild hair up their rear! Parents need to make sure that their child is doing their homework EVERY NIGHT to reinforce the new lessons learned that day.
Next, the few teachers who do inflate their grades to pass students on before they are ready need to stop. These students move on but are totally unprepared for what lies ahead at the next level of education. Often it is the teachers who have the highest rates of failure who have the most academic integrity because they require students to meet standards of understanding and performance rather than merely lowering those standards.
Lastly, I believe that discipline is a very serious issue in our schools today. I think Dr. White's Six-Step Discipline Plan is a pretty good idea as written. Unfortunately, it is not being implemented as written in many schools. Referrals, interventions already tried, and evidence are often ignored by lazy deans or administrators who are too afraid to admit that their suspension and expulsion rates should be much higher. A student can assault a teacher verbally or even physically and be back in class the very next hour. This just isn't right. This policy of looking the other way and going soft on students with consequences just so it doesn't appear that there is a discipline problem in the schools has created an unsafe working environment. That is the kind of thing out union needs to more actively address!
There is no way that every teacher in IPS is a poor one, but that is what Dr. White claims since the scores across the board are poor. Sure there are a few bad apples out there, but maybe only 5%. I see much more of a problem with the students themselves, their parents, and administration than I do with our teachers.
Get rid of all of those extraneous positions like instructional coaches, administrators, and secret shoppers (compliance) and put more teachers into the classrooms to reduce class sizes. You'll quickly see how things turn around.
Sorry for the rant, but I'm tired of being blamed for the poor job performance of others who apparently have immunity!
What happens in school is a reflection of what is happening in society. There is a major difference between little Bug who arrives in kindergarten not knowing his own real first name, the alphabet, his colors, and has never been read to by his 21 year old mother, and in fact they have no books in their house, and Jerome who knows his ABC's, his colors, can write his name, and has been read to every night by both his parents. It is not a question of intellect, but of preparation. And since both children are five which teacher is responsible?
ReplyDeleteThis is not an excuse but an explanation, if you use a growth model assessment Bug might make two and a half years progress in his year in Kindergarten, bringing him up to where he should have been at age five when he entered kindergarten, while Jerome who started at 5 both chronological age and developmental age, and ends the year at age six, having made a normal years progress in one year; does that make Bug's or Jerome's teacher lazy, incompetent, or uncaring? Bug made stellar progress but still lags behind and Jerome made normal progress. I've been in IPS schools and seen the teachers perform miracles, it breaks my heart to hear Dr. White dog them over societies problems.
1:19 Many years ago I participated in SPARC's training and they told us it takes between 5 and 5000 exposures for a child to learn something.
ReplyDeleteWe present something once and expect that children will learn it, this is not how brain research says learning transfers from short to long term memory, this transfer occurs through repetition. Try that with the pacing guide. I used to teach elementary school and know the students have been taught subject verb agreement, today I gave a preliminary assessment of this skill, to seventh graders, wow, no one remembers it. Sorry to say this there is still a place for rote work, not the exact same thing, but variations that teach the same skills. While my students had been taught that skill they apparently hadn't actually learned it.
Anonymous 1:19 your right about attendance and cooked numbers, the system is rigged as if one teacher doesn't take attendance, or makes a mistake, or is absent the student is considered present. Last year I kept track of my true attendance percentages for one month and I was running about 35% absence rate, in a school that met the district standard. This is an interesting report on the smoke and mirrors of statistics and absences of students, long but worth the read. http://nccp.org/publications/pdf/text_837.pdf
ReplyDeleteThis afternoon before leaving my assigned school, I overheard a master math teacher express the truth to some other teachers. She's discovered in two days that many of her Algebra II students are not ready for Algebra II. This was not a rant from a lazy teacher; this was just a casual, truthful comment from an excellent math teacher. As I heard her say, the students do not possess the prerequisite skills to succeed in Algebra II.
ReplyDeleteFrom my point of view, this means the students passed on to her were not prepared. Someone or some unknown entity just passed them from Algebra I to Algebra II with no accounting for skill level.
This certainly is not a finger-pointing exercise for the brand new administration at our school; however, it is a warning to the district that some new principals and their administrators may be set up for failure because of last year's practices. This bothers me a great deal.
1:19 and 1:29, your posts are the most accurate, well thought out, and honest statements that I have read since this blog spot began! Thank you for saying what needs to be said w/o resorting to slanderous comments and misinformation!
ReplyDelete1:49 I looked at your report, here is a very relevant section
ReplyDeleteHow Can Elementary School Daily Attendance Rates Mask
Significant Levels of Chronic Absence?
Chronic absence is easily masked by school attendance statistics, even when average daily attendance appears relatively high. Suppose, for example, a school has 200 students and an average daily attendance rate of 95%. At this rate, 10 students are absent on any given day while 190 are present. The same 10 students,
however, are not absent for all 180 days or they would be disenrolled. Rather, it is quite possible that the 10 students missing each day occurs because the school is serving 60 students who are taking turns being absent but when their absences are added together, miss a month or more of school over the course of the school year. In summary, even in a school with 95% daily attendance, 30% of the student population could be chronically absent.
To all non-IPS teacher readers of this blog:
ReplyDeletePlease do not judge IPS teachers by the small minority of whiners you see posting here. I guarantee that whoever the "Negative Nancy" is who is responsible for the daily topics on here is a worthless, do-nothing teacher who hides behind the union, and thinks she is never wrong. Most of us teachers know we need to vastly improve, and work hard at doing so. Unfortunately, a few don't see it that way, and only bitch and moan 24/7.
Sometimes you really have to shine a bright light into the dark corners to see what is going on. IPS never shines that light on anyone but teachers, it is about time there is a light shown on other areas.
ReplyDeleteAnyone can suggest a topic, why don't you suggest one, some have prompted honest, and insightful discussion. Your comment 3:42 is simply another symptom of the problem, of course I suspect you are probably an administrator.
Most teachers in the townships wouldn't survive in IPS. Your statement that we all know we need to vastly improve is not true. I recall a time when they hired an experienced teacher from a Catholic school into my department. First he gave our chair a list of supplies that he HAD TO
HAVE TO TEACH, that cost more then our entire budget for two years. Then he spent four days with the kids. Then this highly rated, experienced master teacher quit. The entire system needs vast improvement in all areas, not just the teachers.
On the first day of school I visited a number of classrooms. On one floor of one school, five of six teachers were actively engaging their students as I popped my head in and then continued on. Then I got to teacher number six. I saw a student with her head on her desk. I stepped in and said, "Don't put you head on your desk. That's disrespectful to the teacher." She said, "How is it disrespectful, we're not doing anything." I looked around and realized she was right. The teacher told me the bell was about to ring and after all, it was the first day of school. I left the room and about six minutes later, the bell rang. This is one of the big problems in IPS. We squander valuable time. Our kids can't afford to sit around while we wait for the bell to ring.
ReplyDeleteI had less then 20% attendance the first day, and no supplies. Five of my classes still have less then 50% of the kids showing up. One class that has only 9 kids has perfect attendance. It is the students and parents who are squandering valuable time. My lessons are sequential, I can't have more then half my students floundering around, I am ready, they are not. I have the students working on isolated skills.
ReplyDeleteOf course, 4:26. Anyone who finds this place ridiculous and petty has to be an administrator. There is no way I might be a proud teacher who works hard and actually enjoys my life and job. To be honest, I don't let Dr. White affect me one way or the other, and I think the poster above who blamed poor student achievement on him being mean was about the most pathetic excuse on a site rife with them. I'm not sure why you would think I am an administrator, though. Heck, most of the teachers I have talked to (and with many years of experience, I know many) have no idea about this place, but the ones that do think it is a joke.
ReplyDeleteIt's refreshing to have the freedom to comment on Dr. White and the entire IPS system in a forum where most contributors share the dedication to the profession with the ability to recognize shortcomings, then do our best in spite of those weaknesses.
ReplyDeleteThis is far better than whispering in the lounge or griping during recess duty.
Perhaps if Dr. Adams' staff member had a place to vent his frustrations, James would be deepsea fishing in the Atlantic.
Great job, blogmaster.
Oh, so 5:53 is saying that this blog is the only thing keeping multitudes of IPS teachers from storming into White's office and attempting to murder him?
ReplyDeletePlease, if there are any readers here who are from outside IPS, do not judge us based on the sad examples of immaturity and unprofessional rantings you read here. By and large, we are not like this!
Anon 3:42 is obviously an administrator or someone at the Ed. Center...probably a relative or close friend of Dr. White....when these "trolls" appear here, they have no idea what is really happening in the schools. They are just compelled to defend their boss and try to earn points.....wait until tomorrow Aug. 14 when dozens of teachers do not receive their checks due to a major error in payroll that has thus far not been corrected. If those trolls think that so many untruths are poster here, let them start pointing out the lies...and then we will see who is telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteHey, 6:11, I think it's obvious that you are an Ed. Center denizen sent here to discredit IPS teachers and make us look paranoid and shallow. How else can you account for your post?
ReplyDelete6:44..Please reread my post....I said the same thing that you did..we are in full agreement...why the hostility [Anon 6:11}
ReplyDeleteI am a parent looking to move to Indianapolis and stumbled across this blog. I am wondering why so many of you so-called teachers are on here wasting so much energy instead of preparing great lessons for your students. Can anyone answer that? We will not be placing our children in IPS.
ReplyDeleteWe are, in fact, making our absolute best effort to develop highly organized lessons to enable your children to attain a sucessful future.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are somewhat frustrated, but your prejudicial decisions prevent us from exhibiting our expertise. Hopefully you'll visit your neighborhood IPS school before enrolling your child elsewhere. I have faith that you'll be impressed with the dedication and enthusiasm displayed by the majority of our professionals.
Have you never had a negative experience in your profession? Did you find a friendly comrad to vent your unhappiness? If not, I'd love to know exactly what you do, and how I can prepare your child to follow in your footsteps.
Inviting a perspective parent to come see your schools would certainly be an option if it were not directly followed by an insult. I have never been as unhappy with my profession as you all seem to be. If I were, I would find a new job. Why would anyone stay at a job or in a profession that makes them that unhappy? I am sorry you are feel so badly that you can't find the positives and work with them. Everyone has something about their job they dislike, but focusing on the negative will get you nowhere. And it certainly won't do anything to help your students either. I feel fortunate to have had great teachers during my public school education, but I am not sure I could find that same quality amongst IPS teachers. I am sure there are some that are great, but this forum only highlights the worst; those who look for excuses and blame everyone but themselves is all that seem to be here. Good luck in becoming a happier bunch of people. I hope that negative energy doesn't rub off too much on to your students.
ReplyDeleteIt's prospective, not perspective.
ReplyDeleteHow was that an insult? I read "Have you never had a negative experience in your profession?" as that the grass is not always greener.
Remember, it takes a bit of irritation to facilitate the formation of a pearl, and a heck of a lot of heat and pressure for diamonds to be formed.
Your children are our potential gems.
We are simply requesting the opportunity to teach without so many reports, mandated tests, disruptions in staffing and scheduling, and constant changes.
Both students and educators need structure.
Anon 7:54
ReplyDeleteI doubt that you are a parent. For one, how would a parent know of this blog? Did you happen to stumble onto it? Wouldn't it have made more sense to look up the DOE School Snapshots, or your boundary school's website?
For two, this blog is not a reflection of our teaching in the classroom. This is an area for us to vent. I agree that some of the posts are a bit angry, and that it seems that we are very negative. For 95% of us, that could not be farther from the truth. This blog is a way to vent frustrations. Would you rather us vent here (NOT on school time, and NOT on school property), and take it out on your children?
I'm not 7:54, but I'm a parent who reads this blog, and I know at least one other who does because we talked about it at the ice cream social at our kids' school. Andy Gammill posted the link at the Star when it first started and someone from here posted links in several "reply threads" to education articles there as well. So virtually anyone who stays current on local education knows about this blog.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:54 if you really are a parent, we are probably better off if you place your child in a private school. You are judgemental and make statements and decisions without facts. If you have raised your children with these values then please select the private school of your choice.
ReplyDeleteYou've nailed the problem, 7:45. What kind of parent would allow you to educate their children, and what kind of school system would allow you to teach? IPS is the answer to both questions. Teachers who value professionalism and reform are seen as traitors. If parents are involved and complain, they are seen as judgmental, if parents leave education to the professionals, then they can easily be scapegoated. If administration is present, they are overbearing, if they try not to meddle, then they are worthless and overpaid. Everybody and everything ELSE is the reason for kids not being educated except for the person whose JOB it is to educate them. I know that there are many excellent teachers at IPS. But I think there are very few excellent teachers at IPS B.S. Not because you're venting -- if that's what this really was, who would care. But because most of you flat out don't even think you're capable of excellence.
ReplyDelete7:54 sounds like a set-up of someone pretending to be a parent to try to shame us. Well, shame on you!
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough I am a parent too who has been reading this blog. Why are all of the people who claim to be teachers on here act so defensive when your professionalism is questioned? Nothing about a public forum like this is professional. Why don't you try venting in private with your friends like most people do? Didn't I see on the news all of those kids you are looking for who haven't shown up to school? Seeing something like this is certainly not going to bring people to your district. I hope some of you lose your jobs due to this blog running people away from IPS. That would serve you right!
ReplyDelete11:27 Until IPS improves, real honest improvement, I wouldn't recommend anyone send their child to IPS. This is why teachers are so angry. We are more concerned with the well being of our students then keeping our jobs. A large percentage of us will retire in the next five to ten years. We have seen what has happened to a system and children we love, and we are not pleased. Decisions are being made that are based on the well being and reputation of administration and the system, not on the best interest of the students, and this should be our primary concern.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I stopped at McDonald's and ran into a current IPS senior, a student I know but who does not attend my school. This intelligent and thoughtful young woman express concern about the quality of the education she is receiving, and whether she will be ready for college. She attended a program this summer, not a remediation type program but an enrichment program, and discovered her skills were far below that of students from other areas. She made friends with students from outside IPS and saw the range of electives and other courses (she mentioned a range of literature course, college preparation writing courses, full art and music curriculum, and FACS courses) they were offered, and said "how will I
compete?".
11:27 http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/chs/uploads/File/chs-general/Academics/Program%20of%20Studies/POS_2009-10.pdf
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, I checked what they offer in Carmel and at North Central, IPS has nothing close.
As an IPS teacher, I become frustrated by the mantra that "children come first," when the reality of the matter is that money always comes first. Hence, the lack of college prep courses and electives that will enable our students to not only compete with other school systems, but be prepared for the world beyond IPS.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is IPS has watered down the curriculum so much it is hurting the kids on the standardized tests. It may have been last year that I looked over the test and there was a reading selection by Steinbeck. In sixth grade we had read "The Red Pony" and in ninth we read "Of Mice and Men" it would have been a snap for me if I'd have read those two books to answer the question. I asked my students and they had no idea who Steinbeck was, therefore they could not put him in historic perspective, nor understand the selection. Skills are taught through content, not in isolation, and this is the problem with Springboard. It really does not instill a love of learning.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, my kids came back from their meeting with the Emperor and he told them the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThey have no idea who he is or what he does or why.
I think that all Administrators and Teachers need to take the ISTEP and the assessments thats given at the end of the school year. If you don't pass, then you don't have a job. I firmly believe that you can not teach what you don't know and since building Administrators are considered Master Teacher that include them as well.
ReplyDeleteI be fittin to think the top man would NOT pass.
ReplyDelete