DCPS teachers are quitting at an alarming rate, how can parents help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll say it: there's very little teaching going on..and teachers are taking on far too many non-teaching responsibilities - communicating with parents, student excessive absenteeism, all sorts of socioeconomic cultural issues, behavior and discipline problems, even seemingly minor health and wellness issues (needing a change of clothes for bathroom accidents or weather changes, coming to school sick, hungry, tired) all with limited school resources. Not at all the teachers' fault. Specialists, administration, everyone is tapped out.

+100

Until this changes, there is no way things will change.

It's the same issue in charters. Every year at the DCPS I teach at we receive teachers from the charter school sector in D.C and say they dealt with similar issues if not worse. The only difference is that they do not have to report their findings like DCPS has to do. Both sectors deal with this issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can replace teachers with younger, older, smarter, newer ones all day long. But you can't replace poor parents or ill-prepared, poorly mannered kids

Yes! You can't take away suspension as an option but replace it with NOTHING.

DCPS cannot discipline or eject these students because doing so would create data that would show they are doing so, which would reveal an "inequity" in the eyes of the public education pencil-pushers. Others would say it would be racist. So better not do it.

Then let the schools go to pot, as they have been, and continue to watch middle class families leave for the 'burbs. You need safety in the classroom. No safety, no go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best thing parents can do to support teachers is to actually parent their children. This includes modeling appropriate behavior (e.g., stop yelling "I'm gonna beat your ass" to your five year old at the playground), read to your child every night, make sure they get enough sleep, don't feed hem crap, don't expose them daily to rap videos and violent games etc. doing less than this means the teacher has to parent your brat instead of actually teaching.

+1. "What can parents do to help?" Parent. Demand respect for authority from children. Swift and certain consequences for unacceptable behavior would solve 93.7% of DCPS problems.

I agree. However, as an elementary school teacher, I believe the problem is that there aren't any consequences that can be enforced. Teachers are told ALL students need to participate in activities that our generation saw as rewards... fun fridays.... recess... field trips. I personally had to limit the field trips my class took because of a couple of students who I have who will cuss at adults and basically do what they want. The parents insist they don't know what to do with their kids and that between 8-3 I have to figure it out. I believe the idea that "everyone deserves..." has perpetuated the lack of respect of authority, kids no longer feel as though they need to earn anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the experiment with hiring these Ivy Teach for America types should be declared over. They will just leave anyway, and go off to work for a nonprofit or quit when they marry a banker. What's so great about "gentrifying" DCPS teachers anyway? It used to be that DCPS staff were of D.C. They were from the D.C community and they understood D.C. And they were happy to have a career and lifetime career with DCPS.

Decades of DCPS being little more than a jobs program has proven to be insufficient. "Being of the DC Community" doesn't carry a lot of weight with people who eschew the Barry years (not in a good way, at least).

This has been an underlying tension since Michelle Rhee, who used her big broom to get rid of a number of under-performing teachers and administrators. This resulted in a lot of push-back from those who purported to speak on behalf of "the community" and who claimed she was messing with settled expectations of employment with DCPS.

Her pissing off ward 9 is what Cost Fenty reelection. With bowser all but a lame duck I doubt she would make any power moves to piss off the vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ballou has no student who is proficient in math and 2% proficient in English. What's the point of pretending it's a school. Just call it a day care facility and get people in there who can stop the kids from harming each other, even if they can't teach.

What actually happens in these classrooms? Are the kids just doing remedial stuff or is the teacher teaching and the kids just f--ing off and not paying attention?

On-level DCPS classes (in my experience) are truly wild. Not only is essentially nobody paying attention, but many of the kids are just off doing their own things or talking. In some classes, other students will enter from the hallway, go through the classroom saying hi to all their friends while the teacher asks them continuously to leave, and then walk out the door. This can happen multiple times in a 90 minute class.

[Anonymous]

DCPS is all about image - they love talking about 100% of Ballou kids applying to college but no mention of how Ballou kids are all failing PARCC and AP classes. It makes no sense. What are the poor kids going to do when they get to college- they have no study skills and cannot read or do math well.

[Anonymous]

Push for vouchers and more charters. End the madness. Either that or fire the entire front office and hire a new culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Push for vouchers and more charters. End the madness. Either that or fire the entire front office and hire a new culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Push for vouchers and more charters. End the madness. Either that or fire the entire front office and hire a new culture.

Did you not read what PP said that teachers are saying the same things happen st charters?

Also, how do you hire a new culture.

[Anonymous]

^^^ You need top managers that set the tone and push a policy that works. Otherwise, the middle and lower managers and worker-bees will remain entrenched in a certain regressive mind-think. But yes, the top managers need to be hands-on and push a progressive agenda. Otherwise DCPS will continue to stagnate and degenerate. If you can't do that, then yes absolutely go for more charters and vouchers. The newspaper article is snout DCPS teachers not getting support and thus quitting.

[Anonymous]

I worked in DCPS in a high poverty elementary school and now work in a high poverty school in Arlington. It's night and day difference. Yes, the demands are similar. But I actually get support from my admins and the county. DCPS was completely awful and I say this as someone who got good reviews. Behavior issues aren't addressed. SPED issues are ignored. ESOL support is awful. The principals are focused on their own careers -- not the school. Look at the tenure of a principal. They are all hustling for jobs, hopping from spot to spot because it's well paying and if you can stay ahead of the criticisms, you can have a long career.

[Anonymous]

The average teacher in Arlington County makes $78,000 a year. And Falls Church & MoCo aren't far behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average teacher in Arlington County makes $78,000 a year. And Falls Church & MoCo aren't far behind.

Really? Lots of people work much harder for less $$.

Not kidding. It's not a secret that the decline in teacher quality as measured by the universities that grant their degrees is notable, and tracked, and real.

Teachers are not exactly the stars of the universities from which they graduate.

Yuck.

[Anonymous]

I agree with many of the previous posters. As a new DCPS high school teacher, a boy came into my classroom and began dragging a girl around by her hair. She picked up the trash can and hit him with it until he let her go. Though I was shouting for security, none came. The students all knew who the boy was and ID'd him to the VP, however his behavior was never addressed in any way. He was in school the next day like nothing happened. I pestered the VP to at least have a sit down with both the girl and the boy, but it never happened.

I have SO many stories like this. I gave up long ago on security or support from the admins. I lock my classroom door from the inside to keep my students safe. The students are so far behind and have so many troubles, it is exhausting. Not to mention many students are hungry and the (free and reduced) food they feed in the cafeteria is absolutely disgusting.

The school has a nice building, a beautiful closet full of whiteboard markers, new textbooks, and supplies for activities - all things my previous school didn't have- but until basic needs are met, all those nice things are useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with many of the previous posters. As a new DCPS high school teacher, a boy came into my classroom and began dragging a girl around by her hair. She picked up the trash can and hit him with it until he let her go. Though I was shouting for security, none came. The students all knew who the boy was and ID'd him to the VP, however his behavior was never addressed in any way. He was in school the next day like nothing happened. I pestered the VP to at least have a sit down with both the girl and the boy, but it never happened.

I have SO many stories like this. I gave up long ago on security or support from the admins. I lock my classroom door from the inside to keep my students safe. The students are so far behind and have so many troubles, it is exhausting. Not to mention many students are hungry and the (free and reduced) food they feed in the cafeteria is absolutely disgusting.

The school has a nice building, a beautiful closet full of whiteboard markers, new textbooks, and supplies for activities - all things my previous school didn't have- but until basic needs are met, all those nice things are useless.

Why the hell didn't someone call the police?

If I were treated this way, it's what I would do. If my child were treated this way, it's what I'd want her to do. Why would you observe criminal assault and not file a police report?!

What school are you getting paid to show up at, and ignore criminal behavior?