Monday, January 11, 2010
We Told You So
IPS B.S. told you this was coming. Twenty-two teachers have been taken out the classroom for not controlling their students or mastering the material. There's no doubt we have some bad apples in our bunch, but this can also be a reason to get rid of "troublemakers who challenge authority." Watch your back, your front and your side.
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Andy Gammill's article on The Star website today was a really pathetic suck-up job for the IPS administration. I wonder if he is on their payroll?
ReplyDeleteHe makes a statement that is an opinion - that struggling IPS teachers haven't been weeded out by past administrations - but gives no supporting facts or figures to support this accusation. So, it is "someone's" opinion not attributed to the source of that accusation. Is it Andy's opinion?
If so, then it should be presented as commentary instead of news.
This article reveals two things:
1. Bush league journalism that wouldn't get a passing grade in a high school class.
2. The Star is anti-teacher and pro this administration. But I guess we already knew this.
Oh come now...we all know of teachers who have been shuffled from school to school because they were not effective. We also know that it has been too problematic to deal with these teachers. If you have never encountered a teacher who really needs to find another career, then I want to teach where you are. And the administration should bear responsibility for not putting these folks on PIPs long ago. J. Ajabu reported how few teachers have been removed in the past and the article mentioned that.
ReplyDeleteIf you think there are only a few bad apples in the bunch, then you are blind. Too many teachers bust their asses each day trying to help these students. For those that have been on improvement plans and continue to fail....get them out!
ReplyDeleteOh come on now, we know administrators that have been shufled from school to school and needs to be fired. Oh, lets see the fool at the desk at George Washington Community School will "pass" the mentor phase and was given an easy job. We have a sad school board that has no idea how to run a school system. Many of the teachers were not given the support, time, and one administrator changed dates on paperwork, lets get real most of this was personal feelings, not based on data or observation by the administrator. This will come out in the news and after the full process, that will cost IPS money.
ReplyDeleteWhen will there be a bunch of administrative "bad apples" that are put in the Cadre pool, or fired? I would love to see some of our principals actually having to go into classrooms and practice what they have preached!
ReplyDeleteSo the Cadre is a form of punishment? What makes you think you are any better than them?
ReplyDeleteIPS had a list of principals to get rid of a couple of years ago. Someone didn't inform them early enough and they were unable to terminate their contracts. IPS now uses them as the people who go from school to school looking for dirt in corners. Nice demotion.... they make as much as before, but have much less responsibility.
ReplyDeleteKay Kelley anyone???
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have access to the names of the twenty-two teachers?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indystar.com/article/20100111/LOCAL/1110358/IPS-cites-poor-performance-as-22-pulled-from-teaching
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article, these teachers will be receiving additional training the remainder of the year. They will then be GIVEN ANOTHER CHANCE to improve their performance next year under probation. I would assume they are still on salary, therefore they aren't terminated at this point. Doesn't that indicate that someone is trying to help them with their performance if they are given several months of improvement training and another opportunity?
I remember clearly the day in September of 2008 when Larry Yarrell laughed loudly to a group of educators visiting at Northwest about the loser sped teacher he had sent to Marshall on a PIP. He thought it was hilarious that he'd pulled such a fait accompli and handed off his failure to another school.
ReplyDeleteWe all knew that if a principal placed a teacher on a PIP that the principal was not allowed to send the teacher to another school without first implementing the 'performance improvement plan' he had designed and established. Larry Yarrell did not follow the guidelines.
To the contrary, he literally bragged publicly about shuffling this teacher to another school. Yarrell was so blatant that he had the nerve to say that this teacher was an early Christmas gift for the Marshall principal. How's that for professionalism?
The newspaper article stated that two of the 22 teachers will lose their jobs at the end of the year and will not get a second chance.
ReplyDeleteYes, you need to watch your back, but you also better be well liked by Jim Hill. That man has more power than most people realize.
ReplyDeleteJim Hill has ultimate power - look at how much he has managed to make off of our system. Tread lightly.
ReplyDeleteJimmy Hill is one of our neighbors from the South. Big Jimmy retired from Kentucky and now is plying his lucrative trade here in Indiana, like so many of our consultants do. Suppose he's a sort of mercenary for IPS. They pay him huge sums of money to do what they are unable or unwilling to do. Here are his credentials from the Kentucky Dept. of Education website. As predicted, he started out a PE teacher.
ReplyDelete_____________________________________________
Education Professional Standards Board
SearchCredentialsRoles
James Gilbert Hill
Credentials
RANK1 Rank I 07-01-1975
Cert Issued
B87 Teaching Major: Health-Physical Education -
E88 Endorsement For Elementary School Physical Education 05-13-1972
FEP Endorsement For Elementary School Principal, Grades K-8 07-01-1975
FSP Endorsement For Secondary School Principal, Grades 7-12 07-01-1973 Date. Lifetime
SHM Standard High School Certificate, Grades 7-12 05-13-1972 Lifetime
Note: Suspended and revoked credentials are shown with red text with a strike through line.
Information contained on this page is subject to change, reprogramming, modifications of format, and availability at the direction of the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB), and may not at any particular moment reflect the true status of permissions for a certified educator due to ordinary limitations, delay, or error in the system's operation.
The EPSB disclaims any warranties as to the validity of the information obtained from this page. The recipient is solely responsible for verifying information received through cross-referencing the official record in the EPSB's Division of Certification. The EPSB shall not be liable to the recipient, or to any third party using the system or information obtained therefrom, for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use of this application.
Please contact the Division of Certification with any questions on credentials or permissions.
Email DCERT@KY.GOV regarding questions or concerns about any of the data displayed.
Mike Suttles is one of Jim Hill's consulant partners from Kentucky. Suttles states that he was a school principal in Kentucky, but a quick search from the KY DOE website does not verify administrative certification/licenses for Suttles. He was licensed as a special education teacher. Experts from afar -- be very skeptical of what they list as their credentials! Below are Suttles Kentucky licenses and credentials.
ReplyDelete_____________________________________________
Education Professional Standards Board
Select an ApplicationHighly Qualified CalculatorKentucky Educator Certification InquiryKEPP Report CardEPSB WebSite
SearchCredentialsRoles
Stephen Michael Suttles
Credentials
Cred Description Effective Expiration
RANK1 Rank I 07-01-1995
E03 Endorsement For Special Education--Educable Mentally Retarded, Grades 1-8 12-15-1978 Lifetime
PEB Provisional Elementary Certificate, Grades 1-8 12-15-1978 Lifetime
PLD Provisional Certificate For Teachers Of Exceptional Children-Learning And Behavior Disorder, Grades K-12 12-18-1980 Lifetime
Note: Suspended and revoked credentials are shown with red text with a strike through line.
Information contained on this page is subject to change, reprogramming, modifications of format, and availability at the direction of the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB), and may not at any particular moment reflect the true status of permissions for a certified educator due to ordinary limitations, delay, or error in the system's operation.
The EPSB disclaims any warranties as to the validity of the information obtained from this page. The recipient is solely responsible for verifying information received through cross-referencing the official record in the EPSB's Division of Certification. The EPSB shall not be liable to the recipient, or to any third party using the system or information obtained therefrom, for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use of this application.
Please contact the Division of Certification with any questions on credentials or permissions.
Email DCERT@KY.GOV regarding questions or concerns about any of the data displayed.
As for Larry Yarrell at Northwest High School, please review the website. http://mustang.doe.state.in.us/SEARCH/snapshot.cfm?schl=5483
ReplyDeleteThe enrollment and academic achievement at all grade levels has declined since he became Principal. Please come and visit our school. Its a high school built for over 2000 students and we have only 700 students. Come see it to believe it.
Regarding Jimmy Hill: One of the two teachers who were fired, (with no second chance) was in our building, and Jimmy Hill, (and others) were around and well aware of him/her.
ReplyDeleteLarry Yarrell is not what he claims to be. He is dishonest and unethical.
ReplyDelete@Yarrell above
ReplyDeleteHe also lacks professionalism and even a surface knowledge of instructional strategies. There's not another school district where he could be hired as a principal. He'd never make it through the first round of interviews.
I have questions about the 22 teachers referenced:
ReplyDelete1) young, middle-aged, or older
2) years experience - on average
3) level of education
4) gender
5) ethnicity/race
6) secondary or elementary
7) any other defining commonalities
What building did you say had the teacher with NO second chance? And what does Jim Hill have to do with it. Did he fire the person?
ReplyDeleteFire teachers who"cannot manage classrooms" and hurt the students? How about deans and principals that do this for the entire high school? Please chime in: how are your deans and principals doing creating safe atmospheres in hallways, buildings and campuses??
ReplyDeleteExcuse me, but there are far more teachers per building to supervise hallways than there are deans, assistant principals and principals. Creating safe atmospheres conducive to instruction and learning is the job of ALL school staff - period!
ReplyDeleteif the increased number of administrators and instructional coaches would spend some time in the hallways that would make a difference. We all know that the instructional coaches are "specially talented" people and couldn't be bothered with helping maintain safe hallways. Of course, we know most of them fled the classroom because they couldn't relate to the students or maintain order in their rooms. I will be kind. I could name 3 or 4 that I personally know that is true.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I honestly don't know what the answer is. Like others, I always worry that administration will unfairly target the most expensive teachers (those with the most seniority). And in my own experience, the worst teachers are often very new teachers. But the second-worst are teachers who insist that the proper way to teach is the same as it was 20 years ago and that it is parents and students who need to adapt to their traditional way of teaching. If those teachers won't change, "refuse to be educated" so to speak, then I absolutely think the right thing to do is get rid of them. I can only think of three teachers in my entire school that are like this, but their negative impact is immense. They should have been fired years ago. And I don't think any of them were included in these 22 teachers.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe that there were only 22 teachers.
ReplyDeleteI know, right?!
ReplyDeleteI do think the bad apples are the minority, but I agree there are way more than 22 in the district.
ReplyDeleteSUBJECTIVE!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat's subjective? That bad apples are the minority? Or that there are more than 22 in the district? And what on this blog is NOT subjective. And if you think only objective criteria should be used to evaluate teachers, then what objective criteria should that be? Where do you work that bad teachers aren't a problem? Why do some teachers insist on aligning themselves with the lowest in our profession. There are too many good teachers out there and it's insulting to act like we're all the same. We're not the same AT ALL. Some of us are really good at what we do. And some of us are really bad. And it's not a betrayal to say that. And it's not a betrayal to admit that our students would be better off without them.
ReplyDeleteParents perspective. From a prior post, "Some of us are relly good at what we do". From my experience Some should be Most. Pray for those in Haiti.
ReplyDeleteIf only Jim Hill had the power that you think he has. HA!!
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to add that he ran a Blue Ribbon school in Kentucky. Also, the $$$(not from general fund) that his company is paid includes the salaries for several people who are doing other jobs for IPS ie Teah High School's InSAI plan(s). Did you really think he was getting all the money-please!!!!!
He did not have any input into the teachers that were displaced-why don't you ask your principals who decided which teachers would go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET THEIR FACTS STRAIGHT!!
You need to learn to type or communicate in a language that people understand. You Ed. Center people are all the same.
ReplyDeleteSomeone sure seems testy when it comes to Jim Hill.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me you are joking when you say that we are paying someone to do InSAI plans for Tech. I WISH someone would help me with our school's plan that I am doing by myself.
I'm not a teacher but it appears to me the InSAI plans are a cut and paste. At any rate, I don't understand what the plans are communicating. I quess I'm just part of the uneducated public.
ReplyDeleteLet's do the math. Gammill says that more than 20 principals turned in names. Twenty-two teachers were removed from their assigned classrooms. There were three removed from one building. That leaves 19 teachers who were removed from other buildings. 19+1(building with 3 teachers removed)=20 So if more than 20 principals made recommendations, some teachers who were suggested must have been pardoned. Who did this? What was the criteria? (Or was some poor schmuck who works in more than one school named by more than one principal?)
ReplyDeleteWow...that sounds like an Algebra problem...I think the "pardoned" ones were freed because some administrators and deans did not do the observations and paperwork, etc. Some who escaped have survived to deprive kids for another semester, it seems.
ReplyDeleteActually, close to 200 names were submitted by principals. The union intervened and that list was dwindled to 22. Of those, multiple lawsuits have been initiated.
ReplyDeletebullshit.
ReplyDelete"Of those, multiple lawsuits have been initiated."
ReplyDeleteKeep those lawsuits coming! Only way to keep from losing ground to the teacher-hating Nazi element.
They focused only on core subject teachers. We spend a trememdous amount of money on Title 1 and Sp. Ed. teachers and there is little accountability for them. Many spend little to no time with students. It is really a rip-off to taxpayers and to the students.
ReplyDeleteThey need to focus on the many academic coaches who do little or nothing. One at Tech does nothing but eat and talk about eating.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is the principals that need to be held accountable for the Title 1 teachers not educating students. At one elementary school, students have not been seen since before Christmas because those teachers are dibbling. That's crap. They are doing what they are told to do by their administrators but the students suffer.
ReplyDeleteThe minutes for the Jan. 19 board meeting name the two teachers who were actually terminated.
ReplyDeleteYep. And it also lists Sally Callahan's retirement. Yeah! I'm going to throw a party for her. Of course, I'm not going to invite her!! Anybody want to come?
ReplyDeleteTim Clevenger, you are such a hater. I was the only one who held you accountable.
ReplyDeleteFor the past 4 years Jim Hill has been in my building(s) working with my principals and fellow teachers...I have been teaching in IPS for 25 years. He is the first advisor, administrator, type that is direct, honest and works for his money. If you know and don't like him, you are lazy or a malcontent.
ReplyDelete