Manual Override

Here are excerpts from the Matt Tully article from Sunday about Manual and the conversation between Eugene White and Tony Bennett.

As Bennett and White talked, both had before them copies of a confidential report documenting conditions at Manual. A team of researchers from Cambridge Education, a company the state hired, compiled the report after spending time at Manual last fall. Its findings were devastating. On 39 of 40 points, from classroom behavior to the quality of instruction, the school received the lowest ratings -- poor or unacceptable.

The report is a laundry list of academic failure: School leaders, it said, "have not established a clear vision for the school." The school, meanwhile, "has not been able to elicit minimum levels of parental involvement," and "low achievement in core subjects has been evident for a number of years." At Manual, one section of the report read, "the attitudes and actions of some staff reflect only a token acknowledgement of the need to focus upon the priority of improving student achievement."

Even more chilling than the report were the candid responses White gave when one of Bennett's aides from the Indiana Department of Education asked him to estimate the percentage of teachers performing at an unacceptable level at schools facing a state takeover.

They started with the teaching staff at Arlington Community High School.
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"I would say 60 percent of them would be questionable," White said.

They moved to Manual.

"Again, 60 percent," White said.

Northwest? "Sixty percent."

The state official then asked about two middle schools, Emma Donnan and Willard J. Gambold.

In both cases, White said, "I would say 40 percent."

Howe Community High School?

"We'll give them 60 percent."

George Washington?

"Definitely you have to put them in the 60 percent category," White said.

Only Broad Ripple High School, transformed into a magnet school a few months ago, escaped such low marks. Even there, though, White said one in 10 teachers is not up to par.

Dr. White is throwing you under the bus to save his fat rear end.

Afternoons With Amos

Did anyone hear Amos Brown today? Even he was ripping on IPS for kicking those Education Action group people out of the meeting. You know the administration must really be doing something wrong when Amos has turned on them.

$120,000

That's Mary Louise's salary with benefits.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Way to go Bewley! Get us sued because of your stupidity!

Kill The Messenger

Some people have posted here complaining about the recent you tube clips of students behaving poorly. They say IPS B.S. is the bad guy here. IPS B.S. did record the footage, nor did it engage in the behavior. IPS B.S. didn't raise those kids nor did it have supervision over them. There are a lot of individuals who can be blamed for what you've seen this week, but IPS B.S. isn't one of them.

Another Fight

Bad News

Do you teach at Arlington? Have you gotten the bad news yet?

IPS Fight Club

There have been a lot of comments about fights in IPS. IPS B.S. has taken all those links and put them here for your amusement or outrage.

Fight.

Another fight.

Yet another fight.

And another fight.

Dancing administrators.

Racial Tension

You may have read that Ben Davis has a gang/race problem. How are we doing?

No Pay For You

If you are a non-union IPS employee, get ready for this. IPS is drawing up plans that would only pay employees when school is in session, that means if your school is closed in the summer and other breaks, you don't go to work and you don't get paid. Of course that doesn't apply to the central office which is open all year round.

Immediate Takeover

The State Department of Education is visiting IPS schools that haven't made AYP in five years. Place your bets over which ones are under state control next year.

No hacking Required

IPS B.S. got this e-mail this week.

Blogmaster,

There's a teacher I know who claims that they have successfully "hacked" into ips-bs, and they know the names/computer addresses of people who've made comments on your blog. This arrogant little twit also stated that she "couldn't say who wrote things," because obtaining that knowledge was "illegal."

Is it possible to do this? Twit claims she has a relative who's skilled at computer forensics. If this is true, and your site has been compromised, then what? I'm sure that the majority of the people who keep this blog going do so on the condition of anonymity.

If this is a real concern, something that can indeed be done, what can you do to help? I would gladly give you this person's name, just not through an e-mail.

Please respond to this e-mail if this could become a legitimate concern.

There has been no hacking of this cite. IPS B.S. doesn't do anything on company time or use company equipment. We don't like the administration, but we obey the rules. All comments are anonymous and will stay that way.

We Work For Idiots

Has anyone else heard IPS screwed up its budget and shortchanged itself $14 million? You have now.

Question of the Day

Is tenure a good thing that protects teachers from the whims of a fickle school administration or does it protect teachers who should have been put out to pasture a long time ago?

Out of Pocket

What classroom expenses do you find yourself paying for out of pocket? Lots of small items or have you ever had to pay for big stuff as well?

More IPS BS

IPS is looking at budget cuts. Here are a couple places they could start.

1. Get rid of that billboard off of I-465 on the north side of town.
2. Make Eugene White pay back that $1,000 dinner he had at the last conference he attended.

Total IPS BS

IPS says its latest round of proposed cuts won't increase class size. Are you buying it?

Candidate Forum

If you are a candidate for school board, IPS B.S. is happy to take your positions on education issues and post them here. Send your summary to ipsbs@hotmail.com. There's no word limit, but we like to read "War and Peace" in front of a nice fire, not in front of our computer.