Antwan Wilson to be announced as new Chancellor

[Anonymous]

I don't think this is going to end well. At all.

[Anonymous]

Doesn't matter. Katherine Bradley is still in charge, no matter who the mayor is, no matter who the chancellor is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The unfortunate reality, as we have experienced in DC through the last 3 chancellors, is that education administration is filled with con artists.

DC schools are far and away improved over the term of those 3. I know I shouldn't feed the simple minded trolls, but jeez. Either come with something coherent or just go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The unfortunate reality, as we have experienced in DC through the last 3 chancellors, is that education administration is filled with con artists.

DC schools are far and away improved over the term of those 3. I know I shouldn't feed the simple minded trolls, but jeez. Either come with something coherent or just go away.

I think we've only had 2 chancellors - Rhee and Henderson, right? Position was created under Fenty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just spent an hour reading local news reports on Wilson from Denver and Oakland. My strong concern is that the narrow focus of his career has been to boost charter enrollment to improve test scores for low SES kids. A friend in CO tells me that she moved to the Denver burbs partly because he and his team proved inept on MS reform there. I'd much rather have seen a Chancellor come in from a city doing a good job drawing high SES families to neighborhood schools, and retaining most of them through HS. DC has missed an opportunity to import mature talent from Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, or NYC.

This man is clearly not the Chancellor to introduce the test-in programs DCPS desperately needs to fill by-right middle schools in gentrifying areas, expensive-to-maintain buildings that sit nearly 3/4 empty, supporting student populations that are more than 3/4 OOB. McFarland, Jefferson Academy, Eliot-Hine and other by-right middle schools can't possibly turn around under this Chancellor. They have great potential, with spacious grounds and decent facilities, unlike the 5th-12th grade charters most of their in-bounds families flock to after 4th grade. Yet so many of their classrooms sit empty that ES populations camp out in them during renovations (Watkins at Eliot-Hine this SY with nearly 500 kids, Maury heading there next year with 400 kids).

Antwan Wilson is obviously the wrong Chancellor to provide the leadership, and make the policy changes, to fill neighborhood middle schools across the city, and, by extension, neighborhood high schools. This is no small matter for DC.

until dc offers more tracking or test in at middle schools where the gap is the biggest, they will not retain high SES families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just spent an hour reading local news reports on Wilson from Denver and Oakland. My strong concern is that the narrow focus of his career has been to boost charter enrollment to improve test scores for low SES kids. A friend in CO tells me that she moved to the Denver burbs partly because he and his team proved inept on MS reform there. I'd much rather have seen a Chancellor come in from a city doing a good job drawing high SES families to neighborhood schools, and retaining most of them through HS. DC has missed an opportunity to import mature talent from Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, or NYC.

This man is clearly not the Chancellor to introduce the test-in programs DCPS desperately needs to fill by-right middle schools in gentrifying areas, expensive-to-maintain buildings that sit nearly 3/4 empty, supporting student populations that are more than 3/4 OOB. McFarland, Jefferson Academy, Eliot-Hine and other by-right middle schools can't possibly turn around under this Chancellor. They have great potential, with spacious grounds and decent facilities, unlike the 5th-12th grade charters most of their in-bounds families flock to after 4th grade. Yet so many of their classrooms sit empty that ES populations camp out in them during renovations (Watkins at Eliot-Hine this SY with nearly 500 kids, Maury heading there next year with 400 kids).

Antwan Wilson is obviously the wrong Chancellor to provide the leadership, and make the policy changes, to fill neighborhood middle schools across the city, and, by extension, neighborhood high schools. This is no small matter for DC.

until dc offers more tracking or test in at middle schools where the gap is the biggest, they will not retain high SES families.

they don't care about retaining high SES families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This came across my timeline. Personally, I am underwhelmed. No advanced degrees yet he was offered $400K by OUSD ANOTHER struggling school district. WTH
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Sources-Oakland-Superintendent-Named-New-DC-School-Chancellor-402362595.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand

-Previous experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent in Denver.
-Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District
-An advanced degree from Friends University in Kansas
-Friends (?) is a nondenominational Christian school in Wichita, Kansas.
-What type of advanced degree does he have? Is it an online degree?
-What input did others have in making this decision?
-He is trained in the Broad tradition, so will this administration become a privatizer's heaven?

This thing is a joke and it shows why so many Americans were willing to say, Hey, you love jokes? Well, here you have Trump. Enjoy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just spent an hour reading local news reports on Wilson from Denver and Oakland. My strong concern is that the narrow focus of his career has been to boost charter enrollment to improve test scores for low SES kids. A friend in CO tells me that she moved to the Denver burbs partly because he and his team proved inept on MS reform there. I'd much rather have seen a Chancellor come in from a city doing a good job drawing high SES families to neighborhood schools, and retaining most of them through HS. DC has missed an opportunity to import mature talent from Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, or NYC.

This man is clearly not the Chancellor to introduce the test-in programs DCPS desperately needs to fill by-right middle schools in gentrifying areas, expensive-to-maintain buildings that sit nearly 3/4 empty, supporting student populations that are more than 3/4 OOB. McFarland, Jefferson Academy, Eliot-Hine and other by-right middle schools can't possibly turn around under this Chancellor. They have great potential, with spacious grounds and decent facilities, unlike the 5th-12th grade charters most of their in-bounds families flock to after 4th grade. Yet so many of their classrooms sit empty that ES populations camp out in them during renovations (Watkins at Eliot-Hine this SY with nearly 500 kids, Maury heading there next year with 400 kids).

Antwan Wilson is obviously the wrong Chancellor to provide the leadership, and make the policy changes, to fill neighborhood middle schools across the city, and, by extension, neighborhood high schools. This is no small matter for DC.

until dc offers more tracking or test in at middle schools where the gap is the biggest, they will not retain high SES families.

they don't care about retaining high SES families.

It's because what you all really want is segregated schools. High SES or white does not equal g&t. Large majority are just plain average. Nothing wrong with average but you want to create a test in option to keep away the undesirables so they don't get in the way of your average student getting an average education. Stop insisting that you all have advanced kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just spent an hour reading local news reports on Wilson from Denver and Oakland. My strong concern is that the narrow focus of his career has been to boost charter enrollment to improve test scores for low SES kids. A friend in CO tells me that she moved to the Denver burbs partly because he and his team proved inept on MS reform there. I'd much rather have seen a Chancellor come in from a city doing a good job drawing high SES families to neighborhood schools, and retaining most of them through HS. DC has missed an opportunity to import mature talent from Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, or NYC.

This man is clearly not the Chancellor to introduce the test-in programs DCPS desperately needs to fill by-right middle schools in gentrifying areas, expensive-to-maintain buildings that sit nearly 3/4 empty, supporting student populations that are more than 3/4 OOB. McFarland, Jefferson Academy, Eliot-Hine and other by-right middle schools can't possibly turn around under this Chancellor. They have great potential, with spacious grounds and decent facilities, unlike the 5th-12th grade charters most of their in-bounds families flock to after 4th grade. Yet so many of their classrooms sit empty that ES populations camp out in them during renovations (Watkins at Eliot-Hine this SY with nearly 500 kids, Maury heading there next year with 400 kids).

Antwan Wilson is obviously the wrong Chancellor to provide the leadership, and make the policy changes, to fill neighborhood middle schools across the city, and, by extension, neighborhood high schools. This is no small matter for DC.

until dc offers more tracking or test in at middle schools where the gap is the biggest, they will not retain high SES families.

they don't care about retaining high SES families.

It's because what you all really want is segregated schools. High SES or white does not equal g&t. Large majority are just plain average. Nothing wrong with average but you want to create a test in option to keep away the undesirables so they don't get in the way of your average student getting an average education. Stop insisting that you all have advanced kids.

No -- just g&t, whatever the racial breakdown. I suspect a bunch of us here do have children for which DCPS's current elementary and middle school offerings are insufficiently challenging.

Your ascribing racial motives to something with zero basis, which seems to be DC's national sport.

[Anonymous]

"Maybe. This is just another Kaya. She might as well had stayed. Overpaid and under qualified. It's the DC way!"


+1 million

Should we start taking bets on whether his writing abilities are as bad as the Wilson principal's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Maybe. This is just another Kaya. She might as well had stayed. Overpaid and under qualified. It's the DC way!"


+1 million

Should we start taking bets on whether his writing abilities are as bad as the Wilson principal's?

Kaya at least was local talent, so I was glad to she got a chance.

But why do we import mediocre, unproven folks?

It's like some kind of stupid anti-gentrification program.

[Anonymous]

Yes. And it reflects such flawed thinking. Won't get good results and makes all involved look foolish.

[Anonymous]

I'm a white, middle-class (lower middle by DCUM standards) parent of two DCPS students and it is obvious to me, and should be obvious to everyone who lives in this city, that the Chancellor's top priority MUST be closing the achievement gap and educating the children who still make up the majority of this district. It turns my stomach to think that most readers of this forum think otherwise--that providing test-in middle school is more important.

I'm not saying that middle schools in DCPS are fine the way they are. I don't want to send my kids to their by-right middle school. But I'm not foolish enough to think that our little problem ought to take attention away from the way more serious issues that face the 75 percent of DCPS students who are poor and have fewer options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just spent an hour reading local news reports on Wilson from Denver and Oakland. My strong concern is that the narrow focus of his career has been to boost charter enrollment to improve test scores for low SES kids. A friend in CO tells me that she moved to the Denver burbs partly because he and his team proved inept on MS reform there. I'd much rather have seen a Chancellor come in from a city doing a good job drawing high SES families to neighborhood schools, and retaining most of them through HS. DC has missed an opportunity to import mature talent from Chicago, Boston, Houston, Dallas, Miami, or NYC.

This man is clearly not the Chancellor to introduce the test-in programs DCPS desperately needs to fill by-right middle schools in gentrifying areas, expensive-to-maintain buildings that sit nearly 3/4 empty, supporting student populations that are more than 3/4 OOB. McFarland, Jefferson Academy, Eliot-Hine and other by-right middle schools can't possibly turn around under this Chancellor. They have great potential, with spacious grounds and decent facilities, unlike the 5th-12th grade charters most of their in-bounds families flock to after 4th grade. Yet so many of their classrooms sit empty that ES populations camp out in them during renovations (Watkins at Eliot-Hine this SY with nearly 500 kids, Maury heading there next year with 400 kids).

Antwan Wilson is obviously the wrong Chancellor to provide the leadership, and make the policy changes, to fill neighborhood middle schools across the city, and, by extension, neighborhood high schools. This is no small matter for DC.

You are probably right that the needs of high SES families will not be his priority.

But that's because high SES families' educational desires and needs aren't the priority of the Mayor, the Chancellor or the DC political and business community that influences our government officials. Their only educational priority is to close the achievement gap and bring underperforming students closer to grade level proficiency. Doing this is the city's only hope of breaking cyclical poverty, and it's going to take significant investments in families, social services and jobs, not just schools.

What you want would have a negligible effect on that problem and thus isn't going to happen. City leaders are just as happy to have you move to the suburbs and sell your house to young professionals without kids or with babies who will use far fewer city services and pay the same taxes.

As for this candidate - how much credit should he get for rising test scores having been in Oakland a year? I'd give the credit - if its warranted - to whomever was his immediate predecessor.

I don't agree, and I'm hardly alone.

Any US city's best of hope of triumphing over cyclical poverty is to dramatically improve public schools across the board. This can't be done without a broad-based buy-in from high SES families. The Mayor Daleys in Chicago understood this, and knocked themselves out to ensure that well-educated parents became comfortable with most city schools. The Daleys succeeded in large part, expanding the city's tax base significantly to improve services for the poor. Everybody wins.

DC professional families with teenagers generally pay a good deal more in property and income tax per capita than young professionals (with or without babies). They also invest more in the community in countless other ways. Nobody's sure how to best address "the problem," but an open-ended brain drain can't help.

Antwan Wilson and his mayor can't ignore high SES concerns as blithely and completely as you indicate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white, middle-class (lower middle by DCUM standards) parent of two DCPS students and it is obvious to me, and should be obvious to everyone who lives in this city, that the Chancellor's top priority MUST be closing the achievement gap and educating the children who still make up the majority of this district. It turns my stomach to think that most readers of this forum think otherwise--that providing test-in middle school is more important.

I'm not saying that middle schools in DCPS are fine the way they are. I don't want to send my kids to their by-right middle school. But I'm not foolish enough to think that our little problem ought to take attention away from the way more serious issues that face the 75 percent of DCPS students who are poor and have fewer options.

1) Research says the achievement gap gets solved by other social services and policy, not by schools. But, hey, why not put the burden on schools because that sure seems convenient?

2) The achievement gap should be closed by boosting the achievement of the low-performers, not holding back the high performers.

3) Wilson has only had 3 (combative) years as a superintendent and the results aren't in yet. There are surely more proven candidates out there for this high profile job.