2 Anon said...
Emerge Peoria posted several times about the book debacle:"Okay, let's go back to this time last year. No books, virtually no reading curriculum. Teachers were on their own to build a reading curriculum. New curriculum for other subjects, with very little PD, and the books came waltzing through the classroom doors much later in the year. We all predicted it would impact student achievement.It has."
15 comments:
This is so very sad for teachers. I hope the BOE looks at this long and hard. We are so frustrated about these scores. We worked and worked and worked to help our students learn, even though we were not given a full deck last year. The missing books, scrambling to get curriculum on our own.
Teachers spent more money last year, trying to ensure our students were able to move forward.
It is also time to re-address the closing of schools. Calvin Coolidge. My, oh my, what that BOE did to that school, adding a hundred Columbia kids. Cramming too many kids into GO. Cramming too many kids into other schools, so they could close schools. Progress is stuck in reverse in Peoria!
Somebody needs to be held accountable! The BOE needs to get their heads out of the sand and STAND UP for our children! Our future! Our families deserve better!
It is too late to blame poverty, after the guest speaker at the beginning of school event at Bradley, proclaimed we can no longer blame poverty for poor test scores. But, that is what Dr. Lathan blamed Monday nite?
BOE, do your job! North Carolina did not help our children.
There is no curriculum outside of vocabulary and science. There are pacing guides and quarterly plans for reading and math which means every teacher in every classroom throughout the district is teaching the content differently using resources from various sources devoting much time to creating content instead of time spent on differentiating and expanding on content already provided. There is no writing curriculum. No language arts curriculum. Is this normal for other districts?
Thank you, Emerge. The teachers certainly didn't forget 2011. Dr. Lathan nor the BOE offer any support to the 150 staff. Every staff member is supposed to sink or swim. District 150 is completely disorganized, there is ZERO communication and the workload is obscene and unnecessary.
Something else that stands out about 2012 is the fact that the whole year was about Dr. Lathan vs. ________. Every other week she was attacking someone or calling someone out. Uhhhhh, Dr. Lathan, this is not Rickey Lake. YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL. Can you , for once, focus on kids? DAMN!
And Lathan already got her bonus. This is a board problem. Lathan wouldn't get by with her behavior in a different district.
Also, is there a shakeup at Woodruff?
I don't know about Woodruff, but I know Julie Traekenshuh, principal at 7th/8th grade Manual Academy is going to Illini Bluffs.
As I recall, well into the last school year, I was a witness to the LATE arrival of books to the gym of a particular school. The reading interventionist and principal were desperately trying to sort them for distribution. It had to be late October/early November because I remember thinking, "Good grief, these are texts for THIS YEAR???" And there were STACKS! The interventionist, who usually took a minute to update me on my kids whenever she saw me, apologized and said, "Sorry Janet, I'm not meaning to blow you off, but these need to go out". I told her no apology was needed AT ALL! She was swamped, out of breath, and working outside of her work hours. It was a sea of books that seemed to cover about a fourth of the gym. I can't recall why I didn't stop to help her, except that I'm sure I was scheduled to work in someone's classroom that day. Also, another thing I noticed: when helping my son last night with math homework, his book had clearly printed on the front (as part of the cover, NOT a sticker!) the words "State Common Core Curriculum". (We just recently moved to Indiana) Do any of the books in 150 say that? Also, my daughter, who is a freshman, is already devising her "senior project" which all seniors in Indiana are required to do for graduation. The student takes an area of personal interest and applies concepts learned in the first 3 years of high school, with the project being carried out during the entire senior year. My daughter would like to be a vet tech for a bird breeder, and we're already talking of designing an aviary in the backyard for the birds she already has, plus volunteer work along with necessary curriculum. Even I'M excited about it! I only share all this because Emerge did ask me to share from time to time what's going on in our new district, plus I always want to back up "those in the trenches" with what I've witnessed through the years, for what it's worth coming from me...
Julie Traenkenschuh as principal of the high school in Illini Bluffs....shame on Lathan for letting a good one leave.....glad some one can recognize talent.
According to the paper and the test scores, Lathan can really recognize leadership talent...WOW! Check out Woodrow Wilson...Whittier....Calvin Coolidge...Richwoods....Peoria High....Northmoor...and the opposite direction...Irving...didn't she fire Curtain...and his test scores went up.....WOW
Please someone tell the Board of Education to wake up! In 2010 the District's overall scores were 70% in math and 65% in reading making AYP and then in 2011 we have 71% in math and 64% in reading. Now we see the effects of Lathan and all her grand decisions and we have 68% in math and 61% in reading. Lathan blames the teachers and principals. Of all the schools that did make AYP she did not appoint the principals except for Washington and does Washington really count??? How many more years of damage will we have to endure before the Board of Education wakes up? Who receives a bonus for such results???
People are leaving 150 in droves. Some are being driven out, some are abandoning ship, and its all in the name of "cleaning the house".
Unfortunately, an unanticipated by product of this is that 150 and the City will get a bad reputation that will take a decade or more to erase, long after the current players have left for greener pastures.
Sigh.
What will "the children" do then?
Use the old textbooks to build a new charter school..or two..or three..heck, you might end up with a whole district....
That North Carolina experiment did not work. Somebody on the BOE please help our students before they lose much more!
Yes, the two year old textbooks that are being thrown out due to Dist150 getting a new company, please ask all schools in the area if they want them. They wouldn't cost anything if Dist150 is just dumping them. Dist 150 must have a lot of money to be able to do this, the rest of the districts don't, so please make the offer.
Curriculum defined: "The benchmarks or expectations for teaching and learning, often made explicit in the form of a scope and sequence of skills to be addressed". Therefore, a BOOK is not the curriculum but a resource to deliver the curriculum. After all, books don't teach students, TEACHERS do!
Then why do teachers make copies of the textbooks for all their students when they don't have enough textbooks or no textbooks to pass out. This happened a lot last year and is happening some this year for classes whose books aren't here yet.
Books may not "teach" students, but students sure can "learn" a lot from a book. They can't do that "learning" without a book. The textbook is an invaluable "tool" for "learning." One the students should not be without. Period.
Post a Comment