Where do good teachers come from? UPDATED

At Monday’s school board meeting, local activist, Terry Knapp raised the issue of the District hiring more African-American teachers…

Superintendent Lathan responded to Knapp's suggestion to hire more minority teachers by saying she would begin by recruiting more from North Carolina. That state's numerous historically black colleges offer a pool of potential applicants. Lathan also took issue with tallies of the number of people she has hired from North Carolina already. "It's getting old," she said, pointing out the North Carolina transplants were now living in Peoria and paying taxes. Source

Personally, I like the thought of our students getting the opportunity to learn from teachers from historically black colleges (HBCUs). North Carolina is certainly not the only state with HBCUs, but they sure got some good ones and this whole issue makes me curious about which HBCUs the ever growing NC contingent may have attended.

Curious, because my niece is an experienced teacher, educated at Bradley University, who recently left the area to work on the East Coast. I know what her experiences are and what the folks on the East Coast liked about her. So for comparison, I took a quick look at the Vite’ of one of the District’s most recent hires from NC, Cenithia Tice, Assistant Principal at Irving and Lincoln; and sure enough she came from an HBCU:

Current
Natural Hair Stylist at Studio Evolutions
Event Planner at Fields of Enticing Events
Teacher at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools

Education
Gardner-Webb University
Rowan Cabarrus Community College
North Carolina A&T State University

North Carolina A&T State University is impressive. However, I refuse to believe that the District's current hiring practice is that teachers (African-American or otherwise) who are from the area and locally educated at Bradley, Western, ISU, etc., are not good at what they do, or that Illinois colleges are not turning out teachers who are just as capable as teachers from North Carolina. I would encourage locals who are looking to work with the District to go ahead and apply, the District just might have you.

UPDATED with some Facebook response...

Related article: Is there still a stigma to going to school in the South?

Jumping to conclusions: Where does it get you?

An anonymous commenter has posted a couple of times hinting at a situation over at PHS involving a teacher, Terry Knapp and Wisconsin Avenenue (knowing how intriguing such a tidbit would be). Let's try and put two and two together.

Anonymous said on Emerge Peoria...
"What's going on with the teacher @PHS that Terry is writing letters and delivering them to Wisc ave? Is he doing this because it's what's good for the students and district? Or is it about tenure? C'mon fess up. "

Sharon Crews said on Emerge Peoria...
"I am taking a wild guess that this particular Anonymous is someone who received a letter. Anyway Terry will be happy to explain it all to you--call him at 370-5523 (number given with Terry's permission). Terry doesn't blog. My two cents is that a system that is unfair to teachers will be unfair to students, also. It's all about doing what is right and in the right way.

By the way, Terry didn't write any letters, but he did take them to Wisconsin Avenue."

PHS Parent keeps dropping lugs like this over on Peoria Chronicle...
PHS parent December 3, 2010 at 9:14 pm
"Sharon – how can I FOIA info on a teacher and see if they are doing the job we pay them for? Why does my child have to suffer for bad teaching? How do I FOIA and deal with that?" "...Mr. Simmons is a great principal. He has some teachers who can’t teach. Why should my baby suffer? Just lookin for help and direction..."

I found this on Peoria Story...
"Activist Terry Knapp talked about bullying at all levels including administrators recently bullying three teachers trying to get them to resign. At least one of these teachers is highly experienced and has tenure, but was placed in a different school with an overcrowded classroom, Knapp has said.

The teachers union contract forbids outright firing and instead offers remediation.

"It's incredible," Knapp said. Bullying "should never occur administration to teacher.""

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Okay, let's jump to some conclusions from what we have above... Sounds like there is a teacher(s) at PHS that some seem to think is/are not up to par. That/those teacher(s) may have been asked to resign. One teacher apparently has tenure and has called in Terry Knapp for assistance because they are being bullied?

Hmmmmmm...so where does that leave us? The question shown above, which was asked by the first Anonymous poster on Emerge Peoria, appears to be a good one, yes? I guess that leaves us right back where we were when Anonymous left the first hint about a situation at PHS.