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

[Anonymous]

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?

Oh, please. Where have you been? Raising the H.S. graduation rate has been DC policy for years.

[Anonymous]

DC has been doing this for YEARS. I'm a 36 y/o graduate of a DCPS HS and couldn't believe many of my peers walked across the stage.

Many never showed up or smoked weed in the bathrooms during class.

[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.

The Mayor needs to know this. Where does she stand with all of this.

Side note: Where does the chancellor send his kids for school?

[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.

Staff at the IMPACT office cannot answer basic questions, use their first names only in official correspondence, and contradict each other on policy! Start with a FOIA request to see the filed grievances that'll keep you going for years!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The Mayor needs to know this. Where does she stand with all of this.

Side note: Where does the chancellor send his kids for school?

His daughter goes to Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only office of integrity DCPS needs is called the FBI. By year end I’m guessing there’s a good chance dc public schools will have oversight by the the federal government. What a disaster. If this all gets linked backed to Kaya Henderson I hope she get arrested.

What law did Henderson break?

Didn’t people go to jail in the Georgia grade fixing scandal. How is this any different? If federal dollars were spent on special needs kids who were promoted and shouldn’t have been, I’m sure this administration would easily find some sort of “broke the public trust” law that she violated. I’m getting my popcorn

+1 And many kids in the Atlanta City Schools paid a huge price for the deception and promotion of liars. Those students who might otherwise have qualified for special education or other services were denied that help because their scores were too high, thanks to criminal behavior on the part of their teachers and administrators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I'm going to guess that they were also smarter than a lot of the kids we're trying to educate today. Teachers are under enormous pressure to graduate kids with grade-level reading skills when those same students have cognitive ability levels that are low but not low enough to qualify for special education services (IQ scores between 70 - 84 approximately).

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20836025/malcolm-x-principal-threatens-teachers-who-talked-to-the-press

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20836025/malcolm-x-principal-threatens-teachers-who-talked-to-the-press

Great story. This gets worse and worse, with few surprises...

[Anonymous]

"n 2012, Henderson pledged to improve student proficiency on standardized test scores by 40 percentage points in the 40 lowest performing DCPS schools, including Malcolm X, by the end of this school year. School performance and funding data shows that not only did Henderson never get close to that goal, she failed to thoroughly or equitably commit the resources necessary to meet it. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"n 2012, Henderson pledged to improve student proficiency on standardized test scores by 40 percentage points in the 40 lowest performing DCPS schools, including Malcolm X, by the end of this school year. School performance and funding data shows that not only did Henderson never get close to that goal, she failed to thoroughly or equitably commit the resources necessary to meet it. "

Great story - and old story. This was published in 2016.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"n 2012, Henderson pledged to improve student proficiency on standardized test scores by 40 percentage points in the 40 lowest performing DCPS schools, including Malcolm X, by the end of this school year. School performance and funding data shows that not only did Henderson never get close to that goal, she failed to thoroughly or equitably commit the resources necessary to meet it. "

Great story - and old story. This was published in 2016.

Yeah, forgot about that!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"n 2012, Henderson pledged to improve student proficiency on standardized test scores by 40 percentage points in the 40 lowest performing DCPS schools, including Malcolm X, by the end of this school year. School performance and funding data shows that not only did Henderson never get close to that goal, she failed to thoroughly or equitably commit the resources necessary to meet it. "

Great story - and old story. This was published in 2016.

That principal was a principal in training at my child’s wotp school a couple years ago. I’d love to see her try to pull that muzzling stunt with our school community. I just checked Malcolm X’s school profile and she’s still there.