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Similar Case in NYC to Lowell Investigation
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This is an interesting parallel story in NYC to the one here in SPS.
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dw said…
I guess there's some similarities, but the Lowell situation was more about the inappropriate lack of response by the principals, followed by retaliation against those who actually reported the behavior.
I don't think there were as many questions about the actual classroom behavior here, it was the response. Especially in the context of a building that already had terrible morale due to teacher-bullying.
The parallels I see are the grey areas about how principals can try to get rid of teachers. This NYC teacher said that the principal was trying to get rid of him. With grey areas, rules can be enforced in a nonuniform way, where for one person it is OK but for someone else it is not OK.
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read). end of update Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board. To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up. But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18. Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18. Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program. The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
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I don't think there were as many questions about the actual classroom behavior here, it was the response. Especially in the context of a building that already had terrible morale due to teacher-bullying.