Kaya Leaving; John Davis in as interim

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree Abigail Smith would be a good choice. I think she understands the scope of the problems facing DCPS and would listen to parents and teachers. She really does care and doesn't seem arrogant.

As a parent at a school that was dismissed as "collateral damage" during the boundary redistricting, there's no way I'd accept Abigail Smith. She's a clueless social engineering ideologue.

Exactly how would you go about blocking it if she were appointed?

Organize for Catania again. He'd beat Bowser this time. Only the cronies and the hacks still like her.

[Anonymous]

Most of you are under the impression that if it isn't WHITE then it isn't RIGHT! You truly believe that only white leadership is credible and yet all of those foolish White boys in the GOP continue to poop on Washington DC, forcing unnecessary furoughs, refusing funding for the mosquito virus, trying to cutback funding for women's issues etc. This is WHITE leadership. So please stop being so smug and behaving as though DC will only improve with white leadership. If DC is such a despicable region, go back to the 'burbs or do something to improve it instead of getting on blogs and making snide remarks about African Americans in leadership!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of you are under the impression that if it isn't WHITE then it isn't RIGHT! You truly believe that only white leadership is credible and yet all of those foolish White boys in the GOP continue to poop on Washington DC, forcing unnecessary furoughs, refusing funding for the mosquito virus, trying to cutback funding for women's issues etc. This is WHITE leadership. So please stop being so smug and behaving as though DC will only improve with white leadership. If DC is such a despicable region, go back to the 'burbs or do something to improve it instead of getting on blogs and making snide remarks about African Americans in leadership!!!

Jesus! This is why we can"t have anything nice in DC!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree Abigail Smith would be a good choice. I think she understands the scope of the problems facing DCPS and would listen to parents and teachers. She really does care and doesn't seem arrogant.

As a parent at a school that was dismissed as "collateral damage" during the boundary redistricting, there's no way I'd accept Abigail Smith. She's a clueless social engineering ideologue.

Exactly how would you go about blocking it if she were appointed?

Organize for Catania again. He'd beat Bowser this time. Only the cronies and the hacks still like her.

Gross. Both choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was in tears when she announced it to central office staff.

Girl, bye...

Yo OP, if you feel that way YOU need to quit. I'm so TIRED of DCPS employees posting here like they aren't part of the problem too. Good riddance to you, OP!

How so?

Central Office employees who have time to post on this thread while I'm waiting in the lobby, waiting on email, waiting on the phone, waiting on paperwork, waiting on the new gal to tell me she'll call me back next thursday when "She has time free", --are-part-of-the-problem. You don't do your job you gossip. You joke. You make fun of my kid. I hope the next C has a BIG BROOM for all of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of you are under the impression that if it isn't WHITE then it isn't RIGHT! You truly believe that only white leadership is credible and yet all of those foolish White boys in the GOP continue to poop on Washington DC, forcing unnecessary furoughs, refusing funding for the mosquito virus, trying to cutback funding for women's issues etc. This is WHITE leadership. So please stop being so smug and behaving as though DC will only improve with white leadership. If DC is such a despicable region, go back to the 'burbs or do something to improve it instead of getting on blogs and making snide remarks about African Americans in leadership!!!

Agreed!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of you are under the impression that if it isn't WHITE then it isn't RIGHT! You truly believe that only white leadership is credible and yet all of those foolish White boys in the GOP continue to poop on Washington DC, forcing unnecessary furoughs, refusing funding for the mosquito virus, trying to cutback funding for women's issues etc. This is WHITE leadership. So please stop being so smug and behaving as though DC will only improve with white leadership. If DC is such a despicable region, go back to the 'burbs or do something to improve it instead of getting on blogs and making snide remarks about African Americans in leadership!!!

Agreed!!!!!!

People aren't allowed to criticize a poor leader who happens to be African American? What a bizarre expectation.

[Anonymous]

No one in DC likes whites but everyone wants to have the white kids in the schools. What a laugh lol! How bout night income blacks ride in and fix the schools in Capitol Hill , se , sw...

[Anonymous]

Putting a business person as Chancellor worked out well for NYC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree Abigail Smith would be a good choice. I think she understands the scope of the problems facing DCPS and would listen to parents and teachers. She really does care and doesn't seem arrogant.

If you recall, several years ago, she wanted to do away with elementary school boundaries in favor of a system like Boston's, where parents are only guaranteed a spot at one of several schools in a local cluster. Our local cluster would have included a school with a DC-CAS proficiency pass rate of 80% and two in the 30s. Parents buying million dollar houses so their children could attend school #1 were really shaken up. She was the architect of the madness. Parents rose up in protest all over the city, and not just in upscale neighborhoods like Upper NW and Cap Hill. She squandered far too much political capital in the process to make an effective chancellor. The woman clearly lacks common sense in a big way. No thanks.

To be equally as fair in presentation, most of those community meetings used DC CAS scores as coded race discussions. I'm not a charter fan and agree that was the wrong approach, but let's keep in mind that at some point DC will have to address its growing classist and re-segregating schools.

Personally I feel it needs to be an outside candidate, hopefully with Fortune 500 experience. I want a buisness woman, not an DC politico.

[Anonymous]

+100,000 *slow clap* rises to roaring standing ovation! Yes! This a million times over!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you all think PARCC results came in? Last year's scores were really, really low.

I saw the writing on the wall when Bowser started making the calls during the snowstorm. If Kaya had it her way, schools would not have closed. Not one single day. But Bowser took over and started calling the shots before the first flake hit the ground instead of allowing Kaya to do her "Wait and see then I'll make a decision at the last minute" approach.

It seemed to me she didn't completely trust Kaya or care for her way of doing things. And that Kaya didn't like having her authority usurped. I knew it was just a matter of time and told everyone who would listen that I didn't see Kaya remaining in the role too much longer or making it to her 2017 deadline.

Bingo. They were never BFFs, like Gray and Henderson. They had to be convinced to play nice. Bowser was always clueless about education to begin with. When she demoted Henderson, the 2017 countdown sped up.

The question is not just who would want the job, but what really is the job moving forward? I'd take stability, equity, and continuity. For example, teacher contract, Cornerstones and foreign travel opportunities for all, and retention of top principals with the three-year contracts who can build attractive feeders plans together.

This is not a sexy, high-profile, White House frequent guest type of role. BTDT

My ideal, as a black parent EOTP, would be someone with Catania's smarts, tenacity, and front-line exposure to all kinds of schools in all wards. Obviously not Catania himself. Ideally someone with knowledge of the boundary and lottery issues. But there's no need to go back to that until we get the neighborhood schools in some type of stable model.

Could Davis be that Unicorn?

Whoever it is, they should have the experience and credentials of an education leader. Someone with more than 2 years in the classroom, experience as a school leader, etc. And it definitely needs to be someone who ends the "Teacher Blame Game" that places all of the focus on "fixing" teachers and none on students. It needs to be someone who ends the malicious and political nature of DCPS, someone with INTEGRITY-not simply someone interested in looking good by manipulating data and skewing the facts. For goodness sakes, it needs to be someone who actually likes teachers. How in the world can you lead a school system and not like teachers? That's like leading a classroom but not liking students! Kaya played nicely and said all of the right things that suggested she liked and respected teachers, but her actions said differently most of the time.

For goodness sakes, the person needs to end Impact, revamp how teachers are evaluated, remove test scores as part of the teachers eval and make DCPS a place that doesn't see a mass exodus of teachers all year long. Someone who addresses the behavioral issues and violence in the classrooms, unties administrators' hands and allow them to 'deal' with these issues so that actual teaching and learning can take place.

It's the antisocial, disruptive, violent behaviors that go unchecked in the lowest performing schools that keep them from improving. Instead of coddling and accommodating the behavior, they need to address it head on. Create environments that are actually conducive to learning. That's one of the biggest things Kaya got wrong, as it remains one of the biggest challenges to teaching in those schools.

On the other hand, she is to be commended for providing libraries and art in the schools, textbooks and a curriculum. The pay that she likes to tout is nice, but it's not enough to keep teachers around through the school violence and behavioral issues and horrible school "leaders". And of course improving the quality of courses and making advanced classes accessible to all kids was great. I also love that DC students are able to travel abroad.

But INTEGRITY, INTEGRITY, INTEGRITY is what DCPS schools need in its leaders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one in DC likes whites but everyone wants to have the white kids in the schools. What a laugh lol! How bout night income blacks ride in and fix the schools in Capitol Hill , se , sw...

The only ones who are pushing for white kids in the schools are white parents who don't want to pay for privates. They're the only ones crying that making schools more palatable for them will improve schools and scores. Everyone else is focused on the needs of poor and black kids. Not saying it's right but it's reality.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why the one poster is screaming about bad white leadership. I've seen no one suggest if it isn't white it isn't right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one in DC likes whites but everyone wants to have the white kids in the schools. What a laugh lol! How bout night income blacks ride in and fix the schools in Capitol Hill , se , sw...

The only ones who are pushing for white kids in the schools are white parents who don't want to pay for privates. They're the only ones crying that making schools more palatable for them will improve schools and scores. Everyone else is focused on the needs of poor and black kids. Not saying it's right but it's reality.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why the one poster is screaming about bad white leadership. I've seen no one suggest if it isn't white it isn't right.

Whites have an equal right to 'cry for' good public schools. They are citizens and/or pay taxes. It's a constitutional right.

[Anonymous]

Right! Because, you don't do any of those things on YOUR job - whatever that may be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was in tears when she announced it to central office staff.

Girl, bye...

Yo OP, if you feel that way YOU need to quit. I'm so TIRED of DCPS employees posting here like they aren't part of the problem too. Good riddance to you, OP!

How so?

Central Office employees who have time to post on this thread while I'm waiting in the lobby, waiting on email, waiting on the phone, waiting on paperwork, waiting on the new gal to tell me she'll call me back next thursday when "She has time free", --are-part-of-the-problem. You don't do your job you gossip. You joke. You make fun of my kid. I hope the next C has a BIG BROOM for all of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She was in tears when she announced it to central office staff.

Girl, bye...

Yo OP, if you feel that way YOU need to quit. I'm so TIRED of DCPS employees posting here like they aren't part of the problem too. Good riddance to you, OP!

How so?

Central Office employees who have time to post on this thread while I'm waiting in the lobby, waiting on email, waiting on the phone, waiting on paperwork, waiting on the new gal to tell me she'll call me back next thursday when "She has time free", --are-part-of-the-problem. You don't do your job you gossip. You joke. You make fun of my kid. I hope the next C has a BIG BROOM for all of you.

Um, take a Quaalude and relax, dear. You're clearly clenching a bit too tight.

[Anonymous]

I hear ya! White rights! White lives matter!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one in DC likes whites but everyone wants to have the white kids in the schools. What a laugh lol! How bout night income blacks ride in and fix the schools in Capitol Hill , se , sw...

The only ones who are pushing for white kids in the schools are white parents who don't want to pay for privates. They're the only ones crying that making schools more palatable for them will improve schools and scores. Everyone else is focused on the needs of poor and black kids. Not saying it's right but it's reality.

On the other hand, I'm not sure why the one poster is screaming about bad white leadership. I've seen no one suggest if it isn't white it isn't right.

Whites have an equal right to 'cry for' good public schools. They are citizens and/or pay taxes. It's a constitutional right.