Secret recording exposes teacher pressure to 'pass and promote' students; DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congressional oversight is definitely not the answer.

Members of Congress rightly care about their own constituents, not DC. The only time they mess in DC things is when they have some pilot project to try out that they can't get support for back home.

Here's a question for the reporter. Are there ANY urban school districts, with demographics roughly equivalent to DCPS, that are succeeding in both 1) raising achievement among poor students and 2) increasing graduation rates.

Let's find someplace that has done it -- if there is one -- and emulate it.

If anyone had looked at DC over the last few years, we certainly looked like a model in raising achievement and increasing graduation rates. To find a true model to emulate, DC needs to add to your two points a third -- 3) with publicly available attendance data. And perhaps a fourth -- 4) and data on college attendance and persistence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it seems like DCPS is unwilling to bring in outside expertise for anything, which ensures that the corruption and dysfunction continues. The fact that Wilson has "created" some new office of integrity and puts someone already part of the DCPS bureaucracy at the head of it tells me it will be worthless. Not to mention his credentials don't inspire much confidence. A PHD from a for-profit online "university"? Seriously? This is the best we can do in DC?

+1
If you're going to create an ombudsman, it needs to be someone with a reputation for integrity and the skills to exercise meaningful oversight. Ideally, someone from outside the system who isn't potentially implicated in the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:it seems like DCPS is unwilling to bring in outside expertise for anything, which ensures that the corruption and dysfunction continues. The fact that Wilson has "created" some new office of integrity and puts someone already part of the DCPS bureaucracy at the head of it tells me it will be worthless. Not to mention his credentials don't inspire much confidence. A PHD from a for-profit online "university"? Seriously? This is the best we can do in DC?

+1
If you're going to create an ombudsman, it needs to be someone with a reputation for integrity and the skills to exercise meaningful oversight. Ideally, someone from outside the system who isn't potentially implicated in the problem.

Come on. DCPS will put this guy "over" the office but hire consultants to do most of the work, whatever that turns out to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens in hundreds of districts across America. Teachers and admins are judged by how many kids pass, so pass every one you possibly can.

They are not judged by how ready their students are.

-teacher

When I taught, years ago in a different state, we sat at a table at the end of the school year and discussed every child who "EARNED" a failing grade. We then decided which kids would actually benefit from failing the grade and which kids would likely not benefit. Out of the 10 or so kids we discussed, maybe 2 were actually held back. The rest got fudged grades and were sent on to the next year.

I lasted less than 2 years in teaching because this type of stuff was something you just couldn't fight against.

[Anonymous]

NathanBacaABC7 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is happening in Montgomery County too. I personally know of 2 cases where the kids where graduated despite never going to school and failing classes.

Please email me at [e-mail]. You can remain anonymous.

I'll keep the anonymity of this board. Look into Einstein HS. The non-magnet program.

[NathanBacaABC7]

Anonymous wrote:The article does not identify any person from Central Office (other than Kaya Henderson, who it says was at the meeting) who was pressuring principals to pass and graduate students. Does the recording identify any persons other than Henderson who were applying the pressure?

Only by title - and not by name. Multiple people held the title at the time, so I felt it unfair to add names without certainty.

[Anonymous]

Nathan, I used to work in the DCPS Central Office but left recently. I'm sure you could find a good story there.
The turnover is huge, probably even worse than teacher turnover. It is hard to get things done because there are constantly new people being hired who don't know anything. Some good people are forced out because they raise uncomfortable questions, others leave. You really have to be Rah! Rah! and act like DCPS is amazing, otherwise your superiors view you as a negative jerk who needs to be removed.
The Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs run their offices like fiefdoms. They are a huge part of the dysfunction especially the ones who have been there a while. They really protect their turf.
Communication between different groups and offices is terrible. Everyone is doing their own thing in isolation. It is not a happy place. Everyone is stressed out but not in a productive way.
Money is used very inefficiently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nathan, I used to work in the DCPS Central Office but left recently. I'm sure you could find a good story there.
The turnover is huge, probably even worse than teacher turnover. It is hard to get things done because there are constantly new people being hired who don't know anything. Some good people are forced out because they raise uncomfortable questions, others leave. You really have to be Rah! Rah! and act like DCPS is amazing, otherwise your superiors view you as a negative jerk who needs to be removed.
The Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs run their offices like fiefdoms. They are a huge part of the dysfunction especially the ones who have been there a while. They really protect their turf.
Communication between different groups and offices is terrible. Everyone is doing their own thing in isolation. It is not a happy place. Everyone is stressed out but not in a productive way.
Money is used very inefficiently.

From your insider's perspective, how would you suggest re-creating the bureaucracy so it's not an inefficient waste machine and a respectful place to work? Would entirely new management at the top do it, or would more drastic changes be necessary?

[Anonymous]

It's unfortunate that every time DCPS seems to rise there's always a scandal behind it. We are pulling DD out of DCPS because we don't want her diploma to be worth less than the paper it's printed on.

[Anonymous]

Why hasn't IMPACT been suspended for this year, in light of everything that has come out? This proves that they aren't out to change anything.

[Anonymous]

How many of these people in central office were teachers?

[Anonymous]

I also wonder how many of the highly effective teachers were truly highly effective or were given a bonus to keep quiet and pass kids along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congressional oversight is definitely not the answer.

Members of Congress rightly care about their own constituents, not DC. The only time they mess in DC things is when they have some pilot project to try out that they can't get support for back home.

Here's a question for the reporter. Are there ANY urban school districts, with demographics roughly equivalent to DCPS, that are succeeding in both 1) raising achievement among poor students and 2) increasing graduation rates.

Let's find someplace that has done it -- if there is one -- and emulate it.

MCPS. An urban school district with all of the DC gentrification cast-offs and the El Salvadoran kids abandoned at the border.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happens in hundreds of districts across America. Teachers and admins are judged by how many kids pass, so pass every one you possibly can.

They are not judged by how ready their students are.

-teacher

Oh! This explains why MCPS teachers always said our son was “fine.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This happens in hundreds of districts across America. Teachers and admins are judged by how many kids pass, so pass every one you possibly can.

They are not judged by how ready their students are.

-teacher

This is what we should be talking about more. We need better measures that students know the right stuff before leaving the city's schools. This is what we as parents should be pushing for - maybe this is an opportunity to get on a better track.

dp: Well, that's the Holy Grail of education. Education is not just "knowing stuff" -- being a critical thinker and knowing how to learn are the most important outcomes of a good education, and those things are hard to test for. In the old days, teacher performance was assessed subjectively by the principals. That model has flaws. Recently, ed reformers have been trying to use more objective testing to assess teachers. That model has flaws.

It's a tough problem. Clearly, setting unrealistic goals is not the answer. But finding an answer that can be systematicallyimplemented, without flaws, is an enormous (impossible?) challenge.

Really? My grandmother had only an 8th grade graduation (circa 1917) and my father was a high school drop out (circa 1937) yet they both were able to write and speak properly, unlike many of today’s H.S. graduates.