Thoughts on Interim Chancellor Dr. Amanda Alexander?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

I think that's the wrong way to look at things. You need to have a great partnership with a school because most parents are not expert teachers and teaching is an art that should be respected. Parents are kids' first teachers but anyone who's had a great teacher knows how magical that is too and how kids thrive from having trusting relationships with adults who are not necessarily their parents. I encourage you to read this article about Ross from the City Paper in 2006 - it shows how great parental involvement is but how it can be a double-edged sword if someone tries to look out for their kids' best interest above everyone else's. It also shows what can happen for all kids when school administration is actively involved in partnership with parents. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13033279/a-line-in-the-sandbox

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

I think that's the wrong way to look at things. You need to have a great partnership with a school because most parents are not expert teachers and teaching is an art that should be respected. Parents are kids' first teachers but anyone who's had a great teacher knows how magical that is too and how kids thrive from having trusting relationships with adults who are not necessarily their parents. I encourage you to read this article about Ross from the City Paper in 2006 - it shows how great parental involvement is but how it can be a double-edged sword if someone tries to look out for their kids' best interest above everyone else's. It also shows what can happen for all kids when school administration is actively involved in partnership with parents. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13033279/a-line-in-the-sandbox

That article is both nuts and hilarious. And wow, was that guy wrong about Ross. It now has some of the highest test scores in the District!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big plus -- she is not a Rhee/Henderson/Wilson style reformer.

Yes, she is a Rheeformer. In fact Rhee let her manage her school as she pleased and promoted her.

Upon being a principal at Bunker Hill, the school closed. (no information why).
During her first year at Ross as principal, she "reformed" the school by forcing ELL students to do the exact work as everyone else.
She changed the job description of the two ELL teachers/terminated the position at the end of the year.
The handful of in boundary students left/transferred either during or at the end of the school year.
During her second year (2009), just a few weeks after school started, she fired a number of teachers including the BEST teacher Ross had who had been a 5th grade teacher for almost a decade and loved by everyone. She had security take her away.
When the 5th grade students cried as the teacher was leaving, Ms. Alexander told them that if they did not stop crying, they would be banned from going on an upcoming field trip.
Those students who were able to move to Latin left the school in November.
She promoted a science teacher to science/math specialist, a native of an English speaking country with a degree in sciences (unsure which science) . He was unable to pass the Praxis I Exam (English/math) which all teachers should take.
I know this for sure because he himself told me so back in 2009, while explaining why he was being paid from a different fund that the school provided to hire him.
I have also been told by several sources that she is a big proponent of charter schools.
I have no beef in this as we are no longer in DC.

[Anonymous]

Then maybe you should stay out of it? Bunker Hill is still open as Brookland at Bunker Hill. Basically a merger under Rhee under her school consolidations.

[Anonymous]

As a principal, she's a big proponent of teaching to the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

I think that's the wrong way to look at things. You need to have a great partnership with a school because most parents are not expert teachers and teaching is an art that should be respected. Parents are kids' first teachers but anyone who's had a great teacher knows how magical that is too and how kids thrive from having trusting relationships with adults who are not necessarily their parents. I encourage you to read this article about Ross from the City Paper in 2006 - it shows how great parental involvement is but how it can be a double-edged sword if someone tries to look out for their kids' best interest above everyone else's. It also shows what can happen for all kids when school administration is actively involved in partnership with parents. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13033279/a-line-in-the-sandbox

That article is both nuts and hilarious. And wow, was that guy wrong about Ross. It now has some of the highest test scores in the District!

I used to live around there, I know some of the people who were involved in the episode and recognize some of the names from the article. I moved to downtown 25 years ago, and saw the same pattern play out time after time: new people would move into the neighborhood, and try to take on some dysfunctional local institution. There would be an immediate backlash, the rhetoric would get ugly, inflammatory and tinged with race and class. The new people would quit in disgust, and often move. Five years later, whatever it was they were proposing would quietly happen without incident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big plus -- she is not a Rhee/Henderson/Wilson style reformer.

Yes, she is a Rheeformer. In fact Rhee let her manage her school as she pleased and promoted her.

Upon being a principal at Bunker Hill, the school closed. (no information why).
During her first year at Ross as principal, she "reformed" the school by forcing ELL students to do the exact work as everyone else.
She changed the job description of the two ELL teachers/terminated the position at the end of the year.
The handful of in boundary students left/transferred either during or at the end of the school year.
During her second year (2009), just a few weeks after school started, she fired a number of teachers including the BEST teacher Ross had who had been a 5th grade teacher for almost a decade and loved by everyone. She had security take her away.
When the 5th grade students cried as the teacher was leaving, Ms. Alexander told them that if they did not stop crying, they would be banned from going on an upcoming field trip.
Those students who were able to move to Latin left the school in November.
She promoted a science teacher to science/math specialist, a native of an English speaking country with a degree in sciences (unsure which science) . He was unable to pass the Praxis I Exam (English/math) which all teachers should take.
I know this for sure because he himself told me so back in 2009, while explaining why he was being paid from a different fund that the school provided to hire him.
I have also been told by several sources that she is a big proponent of charter schools.
I have no beef in this as we are no longer in DC.

Thanks for sharing. Sobering background. Sounds like we should hope that her reign as chancellor extends no further than the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

I think that's the wrong way to look at things. You need to have a great partnership with a school because most parents are not expert teachers and teaching is an art that should be respected. Parents are kids' first teachers but anyone who's had a great teacher knows how magical that is too and how kids thrive from having trusting relationships with adults who are not necessarily their parents. I encourage you to read this article about Ross from the City Paper in 2006 - it shows how great parental involvement is but how it can be a double-edged sword if someone tries to look out for their kids' best interest above everyone else's. It also shows what can happen for all kids when school administration is actively involved in partnership with parents. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13033279/a-line-in-the-sandbox

That article is both nuts and hilarious. And wow, was that guy wrong about Ross. It now has some of the highest test scores in the District!

I used to live around there, I know some of the people who were involved in the episode and recognize some of the names from the article. I moved to downtown 25 years ago, and saw the same pattern play out time after time: new people would move into the neighborhood, and try to take on some dysfunctional local institution. There would be an immediate backlash, the rhetoric would get ugly, inflammatory and tinged with race and class. The new people would quit in disgust, and often move. Five years later, whatever it was they were proposing would quietly happen without incident.

I've seen this dynamic before, too. The newcomers may mean well, but they are kind of bulls in the china shop, crashing around and getting pissed when everything doesn't go the way they want. They aren't paying attention to or respecting the existing population--no finesse, and usually a bit of a savior complex. And the people already on the ground are a mix of justifiably annoyed and insulted and unjustifiably defensive and reactionary, and they dig in their heels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big plus -- she is not a Rhee/Henderson/Wilson style reformer.

Yes, she is a Rheeformer. In fact Rhee let her manage her school as she pleased and promoted her.

Upon being a principal at Bunker Hill, the school closed. (no information why).
During her first year at Ross as principal, she "reformed" the school by forcing ELL students to do the exact work as everyone else.
She changed the job description of the two ELL teachers/terminated the position at the end of the year.
The handful of in boundary students left/transferred either during or at the end of the school year.
During her second year (2009), just a few weeks after school started, she fired a number of teachers including the BEST teacher Ross had who had been a 5th grade teacher for almost a decade and loved by everyone. She had security take her away.
When the 5th grade students cried as the teacher was leaving, Ms. Alexander told them that if they did not stop crying, they would be banned from going on an upcoming field trip.
Those students who were able to move to Latin left the school in November.
She promoted a science teacher to science/math specialist, a native of an English speaking country with a degree in sciences (unsure which science) . He was unable to pass the Praxis I Exam (English/math) which all teachers should take.
I know this for sure because he himself told me so back in 2009, while explaining why he was being paid from a different fund that the school provided to hire him.
I have also been told by several sources that she is a big proponent of charter schools.
I have no beef in this as we are no longer in DC.

Sounds like you have beef.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big plus -- she is not a Rhee/Henderson/Wilson style reformer.

Yes, she is a Rheeformer. In fact Rhee let her manage her school as she pleased and promoted her.

Upon being a principal at Bunker Hill, the school closed. (no information why).
During her first year at Ross as principal, she "reformed" the school by forcing ELL students to do the exact work as everyone else.
She changed the job description of the two ELL teachers/terminated the position at the end of the year.
The handful of in boundary students left/transferred either during or at the end of the school year.
During her second year (2009), just a few weeks after school started, she fired a number of teachers including the BEST teacher Ross had who had been a 5th grade teacher for almost a decade and loved by everyone. She had security take her away.
When the 5th grade students cried as the teacher was leaving, Ms. Alexander told them that if they did not stop crying, they would be banned from going on an upcoming field trip.
Those students who were able to move to Latin left the school in November.
She promoted a science teacher to science/math specialist, a native of an English speaking country with a degree in sciences (unsure which science) . He was unable to pass the Praxis I Exam (English/math) which all teachers should take.
I know this for sure because he himself told me so back in 2009, while explaining why he was being paid from a different fund that the school provided to hire him.
I have also been told by several sources that she is a big proponent of charter schools.
I have no beef in this as we are no longer in DC.

Thanks for sharing. Sobering background. Sounds like we should hope that her reign as chancellor extends no further than the summer.

+1. (If this is accurate, yikes! How to reconcile this with the posts above saying some people have had positive interactions with her?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big plus -- she is not a Rhee/Henderson/Wilson style reformer.

Yes, she is a Rheeformer. In fact Rhee let her manage her school as she pleased and promoted her.

Upon being a principal at Bunker Hill, the school closed. (no information why).
During her first year at Ross as principal, she "reformed" the school by forcing ELL students to do the exact work as everyone else.
She changed the job description of the two ELL teachers/terminated the position at the end of the year.
The handful of in boundary students left/transferred either during or at the end of the school year.
During her second year (2009), just a few weeks after school started, she fired a number of teachers including the BEST teacher Ross had who had been a 5th grade teacher for almost a decade and loved by everyone. She had security take her away.
When the 5th grade students cried as the teacher was leaving, Ms. Alexander told them that if they did not stop crying, they would be banned from going on an upcoming field trip.
Those students who were able to move to Latin left the school in November.
She promoted a science teacher to science/math specialist, a native of an English speaking country with a degree in sciences (unsure which science) . He was unable to pass the Praxis I Exam (English/math) which all teachers should take.
I know this for sure because he himself told me so back in 2009, while explaining why he was being paid from a different fund that the school provided to hire him.
I have also been told by several sources that she is a big proponent of charter schools.
I have no beef in this as we are no longer in DC.

Thanks for sharing. Sobering background. Sounds like we should hope that her reign as chancellor extends no further than the summer.

+1. (If this is accurate, yikes! How to reconcile this with the posts above saying some people have had positive interactions with her?)

Two posters, two different experiences. Not shocking or surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gloria Smith- pre Fenty/Rhee, with no support from anyone but DuPont Circle neighbors, many retired with grown children, with their help encouraged neighborhood families to enroll and encouraged their activist work to help Ross stay on the map, there was no waitlist.

Ximena Hartsock rolled in a minute after Smith retired, just when Rhee came aboard and shook up things in a good way for a single year there and abruptly left to become part of the bureaucracy with her new buddy Michelle.

Sandra Gonzalez was pulled from Oyster as AP before she began to interview to replace Ross. She and many original parent activists encouraged Ross with Gonzalez help to become a bilingual program, with feeder rights into the then new Oyster-Adams, right up the street. Rhee nixed the effort and OA struggled with the MS, including keeping Woodley Park enrolled. Ross still had no good feeder.

Next Rhee fired Gonzalez and Oyster principal Guzman and replaced with Alexander at Ross and at Oyster Monica Aguirre, drone married to Jesus of DPR.

Meanwhile the movement began by Gloria Smith, more and more kids with socio-Econ advantages at home were climbing in age and bringing scores up all along - it was inevitable the test score rise, if you care about that stuff.

Like Hartsock, Alexander was a good principal on an already steadying ship— then also like Hartsock, stepped from there to the fat world of instructional Super the moment Rhee invited her away from a school hands on into bureaucratic BS..

Ross parents are the reason it exists today, Going back to around 2002. I hope Alexander isn’t as corrupt and power hungry as every single other predecessor in the Chancellors office since Rhee. But let’s not pretend she saved a little ES, the parents and teachers had it covered.

Thank you for this great timeline and background. All the great admins and reformers in the world can't top parental involvement!

I think that's the wrong way to look at things. You need to have a great partnership with a school because most parents are not expert teachers and teaching is an art that should be respected. Parents are kids' first teachers but anyone who's had a great teacher knows how magical that is too and how kids thrive from having trusting relationships with adults who are not necessarily their parents. I encourage you to read this article about Ross from the City Paper in 2006 - it shows how great parental involvement is but how it can be a double-edged sword if someone tries to look out for their kids' best interest above everyone else's. It also shows what can happen for all kids when school administration is actively involved in partnership with parents. https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13033279/a-line-in-the-sandbox

That article is both nuts and hilarious. And wow, was that guy wrong about Ross. It now has some of the highest test scores in the District!

I used to live around there, I know some of the people who were involved in the episode and recognize some of the names from the article. I moved to downtown 25 years ago, and saw the same pattern play out time after time: new people would move into the neighborhood, and try to take on some dysfunctional local institution. There would be an immediate backlash, the rhetoric would get ugly, inflammatory and tinged with race and class. The new people would quit in disgust, and often move. Five years later, whatever it was they were proposing would quietly happen without incident.

I've seen this dynamic before, too. The newcomers may mean well, but they are kind of bulls in the china shop, crashing around and getting pissed when everything doesn't go the way they want. They aren't paying attention to or respecting the existing population--no finesse, and usually a bit of a savior complex. And the people already on the ground are a mix of justifiably annoyed and insulted and unjustifiably defensive and reactionary, and they dig in their heels.

Plus, in the case of Ross, it doesn't even look like it was a "dysfunctional institution." The parents were just angry they couldn't run it and weren't getting the proper kow-towing. That article made my blood boil, to be sure.

[Anonymous]

WAMU story on new interim chancellor - a couple of mentions of middle schools/high schools but nothing earth shattering IMO.

https://wamu.org/story/18/02/23/interim-chancellor-says-dcps-must-lean-regain-public-confidence/

[Anonymous]

Honestly, no one recently has been good, so lets let someone who really know the system have a chance at it.