Documentary on DC METROPOLITAN Airing Tonight on PBS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely consider whether the teacher is working in a high needs demographic.

Where a teacher is working is separate from how heroic or mediocre a teacher actually is.

You haven't watched the film. Watch it. You might just get it.

I saw Part I but wasn't impressed. Maybe there's some magic in Part II that I missed.
But what are you saying about whether where they teach matters? That even lousy teachers should be considered heroes and get kudos and accolades just for teaching in a challenging district?

Not saying that. But the job that teachers do in high needs schools is much more difficult. And that should be considered when evaluating teachers.

If that's all this person got out of this documentary after watching it "that even lousy teachers be considered heroes", it doesn't justify a response. They clearly weren't taught to think before putting finger to keyboard.

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed the documentary, and definitely had a positive impression of the teachers. The one thing I noticed was how casually they dressed. On the one hand, I thought they were deliberately wearing college t-shirts from their alma maters to encourage the student. On the other hand, it just seemed really unprofessional to teach a class or come to a staff meeting in t shirt or sweatshirt. I don't remember any of my teachers growing up dressed so casually!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the documentary, and definitely had a positive impression of the teachers. The one thing I noticed was how casually they dressed. On the one hand, I thought they were deliberately wearing college t-shirts from their alma maters to encourage the student. On the other hand, it just seemed really unprofessional to teach a class or come to a staff meeting in t shirt or sweatshirt. I don't remember any of my teachers growing up dressed so casually!

I don't remember my teachers dressing so casually either back in 198-sazerqerf. However, today's a totally different day.

Perhaps they're trying to seem more relatable to the kids. These kids seem to need mamas, papas, adult friends almost. The last thing they need are stuffy authority figures in suits and ties.

Or perhaps we've come to realize there's so much more important in these schools--like relating to the kids, getting them to attend school, etc.

[Anonymous]

Have you been to an airport recently? Travelers look incredibly scruffy compared to the old days.

Been to the Kennedy center Opera house on Saturday night?

I've seen people there in JEANS. Unheard of in my day!

Really, the whole world has become more casual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We should just keep firing DCPS leadership until gentrification reduces District poverty to the point where the public school system can actually function. Then we'll raise whoever's lucky enough to be sitting in the Chancellor's chair up on our shoulders and carry them around in a victory lap.

I think that's what Rhee had in mind when she said DC would the highest performing school district in the country.

Either that, or she actually believed that she and her army of 20 and 30 something Ivy-leaguers could perform a miracle by bashing experienced teachers and deifying young, inexperienced teachers.

[Anonymous]

There's no dress-code for DCPS employees but a preference to be professionally dressed. Now that runs the whole gamut of casual to comfort attire. Schools have theme days, so I didn't look at it as a bad thing because at times I did see a business look on the employees. I do believe the editing of the days gave you the impression that it was dress-down friday, quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's two sides to the coin - If there are kids who are a repeat behavior problem from class to class, regardless of teacher, it is that student who is the problem and addressing the student's bad behavior is where focus needs to be.

But at the same time, if teachers have inadequate classroom management skills, that's certainly also a huge problem - check for example YouTube for videos with teachers displaying completely ineffective or even completely inappropriate behavior - some teachers really really don't know how to manage students and classrooms effectively, and that's something that the school administration needs to diagnose and deal with effectively as well.

And with their zillion dollar IMPACT evaluation system, DCPS has surely gotten rid of all the teachers with poor classroom mgt skills.

What's your solution? Poor classroom management continues, and there are still lousy teachers. Rather than whining about IMPACT, or saying "get rid of IMPACT" the answer needs to be "what do we replace it with?" So... what is your answer?

One of great ironies of IMPACT is that many very good teachers who do a heroic job every day are being branded as minimally effective while some truly mediocre teachers who do very little have been labelled highly effective and given bonuses.

By what objective, quantifiable, independently verifiable measures were they so heroic or mediocre?

Read para 6
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/03/bill-ayers-road-to-atlanta-cheating-scandal-runs-right-through-white-house/

[Anonymous]

Impact isn't magic. You can be minimally effective and keep your job for a while. Dc has a hard enough time getting teachers to stay and to stay in high needs schools. And in any case there's very few first year teachers who can be highly effective in one or two years. Meanwhile dc excesses/burns out plenty of quality educators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

It was Rhee who was trying to fix the shocking problems at Central Office of schools not having books and other materials they desperately needed. It was the prior DCPS administration that put that do-nothing, give-nothing infrastructure in place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Impact isn't magic. You can be minimally effective and keep your job for a while. Dc has a hard enough time getting teachers to stay and to stay in high needs schools. And in any case there's very few first year teachers who can be highly effective in one or two years. Meanwhile dc excesses/burns out plenty of quality educators.

You can be minimally effective for two years, then you're out. The point is to bring yourself up from ME to effective the second year. If that doesn't happen, you're fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

It was Rhee who was trying to fix the shocking problems at Central Office of schools not having books and other materials they desperately needed. It was the prior DCPS administration that put that do-nothing, give-nothing infrastructure in place.

Correct -- Rhee/Henderson are not the only ineffective school leaders DCPS has ever seen, just the most recent ones -- and the worst ones in my opinion, because they had so much more authority, via mayoral control, than their predecessors, and they still made a mess of things.

How good is it that the books are delivered on time, if kids still can't read what's in them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

It was Rhee who was trying to fix the shocking problems at Central Office of schools not having books and other materials they desperately needed. It was the prior DCPS administration that put that do-nothing, give-nothing infrastructure in place.

Correct -- Rhee/Henderson are not the only ineffective school leaders DCPS has ever seen, just the most recent ones -- and the worst ones in my opinion, because they had so much more authority, via mayoral control, than their predecessors, and they still made a mess of things.

How good is it that the books are delivered on time, if kids still can't read what's in them?

What books, they may not be in the warehouse any more but there not in the classroom either. Discouraged from using textbooks, teachers write their own curriculum folks, we still don't have a comprehensive one. Standards yes (Common Core) - curriculum NO!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

It was Rhee who was trying to fix the shocking problems at Central Office of schools not having books and other materials they desperately needed. It was the prior DCPS administration that put that do-nothing, give-nothing infrastructure in place.

Correct -- Rhee/Henderson are not the only ineffective school leaders DCPS has ever seen, just the most recent ones -- and the worst ones in my opinion, because they had so much more authority, via mayoral control, than their predecessors, and they still made a mess of things.

How good is it that the books are delivered on time, if kids still can't read what's in them?

What books, they may not be in the warehouse any more but there not in the classroom either. Discouraged from using textbooks, teachers write their own curriculum folks, we still don't have a comprehensive one. Standards yes (Common Core) - curriculum NO!!!!!

I wanted so badly to believe this was an April Fool's joke that I actually looked at the date--only to realize I'm a few days too late for that.

What a shame.

Why do we allow this/them to continue again? Now that you don't have an incompetent, self-serving board to tie a competent educator's hands in red tape and nonsense, why not get a competent school leader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This film is powerful indictment of the Rhee/Henderson leadership.

Incredibly dedicated and caring faculty. Terrific principal. The problem? DCPS. This is a school system that has no idea what education is supposed to be. Education is opportunity to learn. It's not test scores or other metrics.

DC Met needed books, computers, a science lab. Additional staff to deal with the truancy and social problems of it's students. Did you see the scene of that wonderfully talented music teacher loading up a U-Haul trailer full of instruments he personally provided? And DCPS forced them to excess him?

Shame on you, DCPS, for not supporting this school and this principal.

It was Rhee who was trying to fix the shocking problems at Central Office of schools not having books and other materials they desperately needed. It was the prior DCPS administration that put that do-nothing, give-nothing infrastructure in place.

Correct -- Rhee/Henderson are not the only ineffective school leaders DCPS has ever seen, just the most recent ones -- and the worst ones in my opinion, because they had so much more authority, via mayoral control, than their predecessors, and they still made a mess of things.

How good is it that the books are delivered on time, if kids still can't read what's in them?

What books, they may not be in the warehouse any more but there not in the classroom either. Discouraged from using textbooks, teachers write their own curriculum folks, we still don't have a comprehensive one. Standards yes (Common Core) - curriculum NO!!!!!

Thank you for bringing that up. Henderson and her staff decided to implement the Common Core Math Standards this school year, all grades in one year, without providing new textbooks that address the new standards. Henderson has apparently admitted that she expects math scores to take a dive. She has already said that she doesn't have to live or die by annual test scores. It's Group 1 teachers that have to do that.