Advice to Kaya Henderson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They do. It's called preservice week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Resign?

There's a start.

[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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

[Anonymous]

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

Holy shit that would be expensive. I'm not against it, just saying it'd be costly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Holy shit that would be expensive. I'm not against it, just saying it'd be costly.

EXACTLY!!! You'd have to increase salaries for that. And don't forget, many educators are teaching summer school or involved in some type of DCPS program with students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

The are several problems with your idea---

1. In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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 every other single child in the class to learn.[/b][b]

I don't know why DCPS refuses to do this. It pisses off parents, students and teachers to have so many students' educations hi-jacked all in the name of inclusion, non-discrimination, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

The are several problems with your idea---

1. In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.


I am commenting on this because I am both a DC taxpayer and I have children who attended a DCPS elementary school. We are failing many of our children in the city and part of the solution is longer school days and a longer school year. I agree with you - we need to change the working conditions of teachers in the city. It needs to be a full year job because of the enormity of it.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Who is "they"? Most DC teachers jump ship over the summer--if they even make it through the year.

So who's supposed to go to these PDs?

I'll tell you this: If it's paid PD, many teachers will go even though they know full well they have no intentions of returning in the fall. (I think of all the teachers I know who worked summer school for the pay while they were looking and interviewing for jobs elsewhere. They didn't return in the fall.)

If it's unpaid, forget it. Those teachers who know they aren't returning (a large number of them), won't bother.

[Anonymous]

Resign and be finally done with the Rhee era. You have caused unnecessary tumult by intimidating principals then sweeping then to the door when they stand up to you --you are not transparent and leave people guessing on financials. You have not figured out how to disperse the bloated populations from Deal Wilson etc or managed to make other under enrolled MS and HS options good enough to draw families-- making high need neighborhood schools excellent was the challenge when Rhee and you took over so many years ago and this mission has failed. The only contribution was to ensure unsustainable numbers at the "good" schools which will turn them into poor options too, by never taking on Rhee's feeder pattern decision. Rather than toiling in the empty schools to make them better you have carried on Rhee's legacy of pissing on the high performing schools that needed no intervention, rather than gentrifying and selling the newly refurbished buildings all over town. You still feed our kids poison with the awful cafeteria food everywhere while across the river Alexandria schools enjoy healthy physicians approved meals from one of many food service vendors you never sought out--a multi million dollar fiasco with Chartwells proves this area of improvement to the students' minds was far from your own. Have you ever sat down and ate some of the offerings at a local school, and see how you function afterward? Finally what ever happened to the option of reaching kids in the 3:15 to 6:00 hours, where there is such disparity across town the huge impact a well thought out after school program could make all the difference for kids ?? None of the problems you and Rhee came to fix have been fixed, false test scores have never been properly investigated, the buildings look shiny and new but you can't take any credit for that, that is facilities management under a different umbrella. Technology is the one area your team deserves credit, it has vastly improved. Yet the achievement gap has widened and kids are still left behind. Time to hang up your hat and go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

Again, the PD needs to be useful and impactful. Currently DCPS does not provide that and teachers can find better more useful PD on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Holy shit that would be expensive. I'm not against it, just saying it'd be costly.

EXACTLY!!! You'd have to increase salaries for that. And don't forget, many educators are teaching summer school or involved in some type of DCPS program with students.

Not to mention the cost of facilities fees. Air conditioning, lunches, copier paper, toilet paper, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

The are several problems with your idea---

1. In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis. Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge. The school year for teachers needs to be longer. Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have. Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.

The are several problems with your idea---

1. In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.


I am commenting on this because I am both a DC taxpayer and I have children who attended a DCPS elementary school. We are failing many of our children in the city and part of the solution is longer school days and a longer school year. I agree with you - we need to change the working conditions of teachers in the city. It needs to be a full year job because of the enormity of it.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?

Listen, under the current contract if DC teachers are "forced" to work a full year you will be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find qualified teachers. I can guarantee that. The principals in many of the schools (not all) are horrible to work with and create mountains of unnecessary paperwork to try to make themselves look good in Ms. Henderson's eyes. On paper they look like they are doing big things but in their buildings they are an absolute nightmare. There are schools where teachers get physically ill from the stress and toxicity of the work environment - not from the kids but from the administrators and their unwavering demands on even the best teachers. Do you really think that only the ineffective teachers are leaving the classroom? I wish we could get a complete picture of who is leaving DCPS and why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Resign and be finally done with the Rhee era. You have caused unnecessary tumult by intimidating principals then sweeping then to the door when they stand up to you --you are not transparent and leave people guessing on financials. You have not figured out how to disperse the bloated populations from Deal Wilson etc or managed to make other under enrolled MS and HS options good enough to draw families-- making high need neighborhood schools excellent was the challenge when Rhee and you took over so many years ago and this mission has failed. The only contribution was to ensure unsustainable numbers at the "good" schools which will turn them into poor options too, by never taking on Rhee's feeder pattern decision. Rather than toiling in the empty schools to make them better you have carried on Rhee's legacy of pissing on the high performing schools that needed no intervention, rather than gentrifying and selling the newly refurbished buildings all over town. You still feed our kids poison with the awful cafeteria food everywhere while across the river Alexandria schools enjoy healthy physicians approved meals from one of many food service vendors you never sought out--a multi million dollar fiasco with Chartwells proves this area of improvement to the students' minds was far from your own. Have you ever sat down and ate some of the offerings at a local school, and see how you function afterward? Finally what ever happened to the option of reaching kids in the 3:15 to 6:00 hours, where there is such disparity across town the huge impact a well thought out after school program could make all the difference for kids ?? None of the problems you and Rhee came to fix have been fixed, false test scores have never been properly investigated, the buildings look shiny and new but you can't take any credit for that, that is facilities management under a different umbrella. Technology is the one area your team deserves credit, it has vastly improved. Yet the achievement gap has widened and kids are still left behind. Time to hang up your hat and go away.

The buildings LOOK gorgeous but they are falling apart within the first year. Hand rails fall off the walls. Dry wall that teachers are not allowed to hang items on, mold abatement teaming running all over town, leaks every time it rains, etc.