Advice to Kaya Henderson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop ignoring advanced learners in elem school. Its impossible to close the achievement gap when kids are years apart in ability in one class. Stop making everything about race, life gifted classes. You need to attract as many high SES families as possible so please stop pretending you meeting those needs.

+1000

+ a million, but why stop in elem school? The goal should be to maximize learning for every kid, in every grade, especially in middle and high school -- which is when many parents leave DCPS for the suburbs or private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop ignoring advanced learners in elem school. Its impossible to close the achievement gap when kids are years apart in ability in one class. Stop making everything about race, life gifted classes. You need to attract as many high SES families as possible so please stop pretending you meeting those needs.

+1000

+ a million, but why stop in elem school? The goal should be to maximize learning for every kid, in every grade, especially in middle and high school -- which is when many parents leave DCPS for the suburbs or private.

I think that middle school is the real gap. There are application high schools, but nothing for MS.
I also think that on creating advanced programs in elementary / middle schools, there should be emphasis on finding disadvantaged / minority kids with potential and bringing them up to speed for the program.

Every child to their potential.

[Anonymous]

Stop the destruction of the only nationally ranked school in DC - School Without Walls. Give them their own principal, and don't have it be the bird brain who isn't even fit to run Francis Stevens - Trogisch sp? Who wanted the 11th graders to walk over and have courses at the elementary school! You know what? I know the kids tend to be pretty good, and they had a total right to complain, but there is another side here.

As the parent of an elementary school girl, I would feel completely uncomfortable with having 11th grade boys in the building. There is a reason for elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, and even when they happen to be close together, there is a reason for zoning.

I say this with no child thinking of going to Walls or Francis Stevens - just dismay at the way DCPS seems to dismantle things that work.

They can have a selective admissions high school, but no selective admissions middle school that adequately educates those kids beforehand except for Deal, BASIS, and Latin.

Same is true for kids going to Banneker or McKinley Tech. What about a STEM oriented decent selective admissions middle school? A lot of people defend Banneker's poor college admissions by stating that by the time they get there, it is too late for the kids to catch up. And this another one of our flagship schools.

I agree. Pay attention to the smart, the well behaved, the kids motivated to learn, and separate out the troublemakers before they completely disrupt the ability of [/b]every other single child in the class to learn.[b]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People talk all the time about the need for better teachers. As a teacher, let's talk about the need for better administrators. I would work in any school in the city with any population of kids, for the right principal. As it is, I'm seriously considering leaving the District (after several years of being rated Highly Effective) because I'm sick and tired of working for terrible administrators, and I'm afraid if I switch schools I'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There are great principals out there, but far fewer of them than their should be.

+1. Not a teacher and I totally agree. I've seen administrators up close for years through officer work on PTA and on LSAT. I've also been part of two principal panels and on hiring panels for vice principals. It is clear that Kaya doesn't give a rats ass about what the panel of parents and teachers wants. She plugs people where she wants them period. They'll send you candidates who clearly weren't selected with the school in mind. She has some AP or principal in the system that she needs to place or some fellow from the MJP program that she needs to place and she'll send them to your school without ensuring that it would be a good fit. And there is so much recycling of the same ineffective leaders that it is truly frightening.

+2 to the pp

Leaders make or break a school. Let's face it, the kids aren't going anywhere. So it's important to find leaders who won't run teachers away. The kids are left to deal with 6-7 different teacher changes in one school year. The same thing happens the following year. And the kids who need stability and to form relationships with positive adults the most lose out.

Part of the problem is that the kids are being failed so badly in DC that you can't really have integrity and lead a DC school at the same time. You have to throw teachers under the bus and blame them for poor academic achievement in order to keep your job. Rhee created a nasty system and Kaya continues it.

[Anonymous]

There's a lot of idiots on this post. Love, Kaya

[Anonymous]

Maybe if you have requests/comments/whatever instead of posting on this site perhaps you should email her. I doubt she reads this.

[Anonymous]

DCPS is doing the best they can with high-need low-SES students. I commend their efforts.

The few DCPS schools that have high #s of high-SES students are nice places. I would gladly send my kid to any of them. It's not secret that many of these schools do well because the parents essentially pay for the extras.

DCPS is straight-up failing middle class students from mid-SES families who want a typical middle class education for their kids with things like before care, clubs, a functional GT program, and a low occurrence of behavioral problems that interrupt learning. Particularly after K or 1st. If the lottery doesn't work out and you want to own a home in DC, you move. If that does not get fixed, DCPS will never attract the critical mass of involved, educated parents that it needs to come closer to thriving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People talk all the time about the need for better teachers. As a teacher, let's talk about the need for better administrators. I would work in any school in the city with any population of kids, for the right principal. As it is, I'm seriously considering leaving the District (after several years of being rated Highly Effective) because I'm sick and tired of working for terrible administrators, and I'm afraid if I switch schools I'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There are great principals out there, but far fewer of them than their should be.

Poor leadership is almost certainly way more to blame for the decline of our public education system than teachers.

[Anonymous]

I would vote for teachers working All of June and July. July can be for PD and for planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People talk all the time about the need for better teachers. As a teacher, let's talk about the need for better administrators. I would work in any school in the city with any population of kids, for the right principal. As it is, I'm seriously considering leaving the District (after several years of being rated Highly Effective) because I'm sick and tired of working for terrible administrators, and I'm afraid if I switch schools I'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There are great principals out there, but far fewer of them than their should be.

+1. Not a teacher and I totally agree. I've seen administrators up close for years through officer work on PTA and on LSAT. I've also been part of two principal panels and on hiring panels for vice principals. It is clear that Kaya doesn't give a rats ass about what the panel of parents and teachers wants. She plugs people where she wants them period. They'll send you candidates who clearly weren't selected with the school in mind. She has some AP or principal in the system that she needs to place or some fellow from the MJP program that she needs to place and she'll send them to your school without ensuring that it would be a good fit. And there is so much recycling of the same ineffective leaders that it is truly frightening.

+1 "Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People talk all the time about the need for better teachers. As a teacher, let's talk about the need for better administrators. I would work in any school in the city with any population of kids, for the right principal. As it is, I'm seriously considering leaving the District (after several years of being rated Highly Effective) because I'm sick and tired of working for terrible administrators, and I'm afraid if I switch schools I'd be jumping from the frying pan into the fire. There are great principals out there, but far fewer of them than their should be.

+1. Not a teacher and I totally agree. I've seen administrators up close for years through officer work on PTA and on LSAT. I've also been part of two principal panels and on hiring panels for vice principals. It is clear that Kaya doesn't give a rats ass about what the panel of parents and teachers wants. She plugs people where she wants them period. They'll send you candidates who clearly weren't selected with the school in mind. She has some AP or principal in the system that she needs to place or some fellow from the MJP program that she needs to place and she'll send them to your school without ensuring that it would be a good fit. And there is so much recycling of the same ineffective leaders that it is truly frightening.

+2 to the pp

Leaders make or break a school. Let's face it, the kids aren't going anywhere. So it's important to find leaders who won't run teachers away. The kids are left to deal with 6-7 different teacher changes in one school year. The same thing happens the following year. And the kids who need stability and to form relationships with positive adults the most lose out.

Part of the problem is that the kids are being failed so badly in DC that you can't really have integrity and lead a DC school at the same time. You have to throw teachers under the bus and blame them for poor academic achievement in order to keep your job. Rhee created a nasty system and Kaya continues it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would vote for teachers working All of June and July. July can be for PD and for planning.

And you know what? Teachers might agree to it if it is PD that is worth their time and planning time that is truly theres. As it is they already do PD and planning in June and July (School goes through almost to the end of June now) and starts back in August so July is the only full month off during the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would vote for teachers working All of June and July. July can be for PD and for planning.

And you know what? Teachers might agree to it if it is PD that is worth their time and planning time that is truly theres. As it is they already do PD and planning in June and July (School goes through almost to the end of June now) and starts back in August so July is the only full month off during the summer.

*theirs not theres.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe if you have requests/comments/whatever instead of posting on this site perhaps you should email her. I doubt she reads this.

Ha Ha. She does. She also Twitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would vote for teachers working All of June and July. July can be for PD and for planning.

+1 I don't understand why they don't do PD for a straight one or two weeks in the summer.