Letter from Cancellor re moving schools - opps - I got caught moving my kid?

[Anonymous]

kaya or rhee^

[Anonymous]

If principals have any say, Amanda will not be the next Chancellor. She is an intelligent woman, however she is not a people's person at all. She doesn't inspire the workforce, or communicate well with those who work for her. I pray that she is not selected as the next chancellor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Besides, I'm not sure dcps teachers understand how hard the parent community took this

The level of anger clearly took the Council by surprise. On Fri/Sat you could tell that Grosso thought this would blow over. He did a complete reversal. I do admire him for responding to what the voters want, but his original posturing shows how much he doesn't get it.

Actually, his original posturing showed how much he DOES get that it's worse for DCPS students and teachers for him to go right now, in the middle of the school year.

But it's true, the explosion in voices of the parents was super loud and that was not going to blow over. It's too bad they couldn't figure out how to keep him and explain he was gone after the SY ended but would finish the good changes he started until then.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Amanda Alexander should have been chancellor after Henderson (and possibly Davis), not Wilson. She lives here, she breathes DCPS -and has for some time, she knows all the people and places. Glad to see she’s getting her rightful place at the top. She’s as smart and as straight-arrow as they come.

+1. Looks impressive to me.

Yup. Too bad they had to go across the country to find a male before taking a good look around. Look forward to getting to know her.

It’s not a “they” - it was Bowser herself who found him in the wreckage he left in Oakland, got all hot for him, and brought him in and basically said, he is our new chancellor. She didn’t give anyone local a fair chance at the job even though everyone said it should be an internal hire. External hires in DCPS don’t ever last long, at any level.

What's your source on this being the case? I heard there was quite a process, an actual process. What's your source that basically there wasn't?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I will, however, never forget the first presentation on PARCC. I sort of wish I had publicly quit after that meeting.

Can you elaborate?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The interim replacement for Wilson will be Amanda Alexander, chief of DCPS elementary schools

https://twitter.com/PeteJamison/status/966059982448885760

Does anyone know anything about her?

https://dcps.dc.gov/biography/dr-amanda-alexander

Dr. Amanda Alexander is the Chief of the Office of Elementary Schools for the District of Columbia Public Schools. She provides leadership and vision for the district’s elementary schools and supervises a team of instructional superintendents. She also oversees early childhood programs (Pre-K3 and Pre-K4) and the federal Head Start program.

Dr. Alexander began her career with DCPS in 1998 as a kindergarten teacher at Walker-Jones Elementary School. She later joined New Leaders for New Schools and served as an assistant principal at PS 40 and PS 2 in New York City’s highly acclaimed District 2. With a refined understanding of progressive pedagogies in reading and writing and approaches to teacher professional development, she returned to DCPS to serve as the principal at Bunker Hill Elementary School and later Ross Elementary School. Under her leadership, both schools saw double digit gains in literacy and mathematics. The successes at these diverse schools led then Chancellor Michelle Rhee to charge Dr. Alexander with the redesign of the structure for principal supervision and the management of a cluster of elementary schools as an instructional superintendent. As evidenced by student achievement outcomes, attendance and teacher quality, her cluster of schools significantly outperformed other clusters in the district.

2013, she was asked by Chancellor Kaya Henderson to serve as the Deputy Chief of Schools and focus solely on the recruitment, development, and supervision of the K-12 instructional superintendent team. By leveraging a generous grant from the Wallace Foundation, she provided extensive professional learning opportunities for instructional superintendents focused on the knowledge and skills necessary to support principals in an era of new rigorous standards for student learning. For the pioneering work in the field of principal supervision, DCPS was featured in a documentary and publication of the foundation. Over the course of her time as a central office administrator, Dr. Alexander has also led literacy initiatives and a district-wide taskforce to identify and implement evidenced-based practices to improve student performance. Her efforts in this area have been recognized by the Reading Recovery Council of North America as she is the organization’s 2018 recipient of the Excellence in Literacy Leadership Award.

Dr. Alexander has a B.A. in English and a M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from Howard University, a M.S.Ed. in educational leadership from Baruch College, and a Ph.D. in education from American University.

Nice to see someone who has taken a solid upward trajectory without skipping steps. Always frustrated that Rhee only taught for 3 years and never served in an administrative role in a school system before becoming chancellor. You need that organizational and institutional experience to understand the impacts of your policies.

Good to see someone with solid educational credentials.

Wow, she sounds actually qualified.

Team Alexander!!

so why was she passed over just a year ago?

Because the likes of Kamras, John Davis, etc. wanted the job and had more seniority etc... so picking her would have been difficult to justify vs. an outside candidate. Kamras and Davis have both gone elsewhere, thankfully. They passed over her a year ago because they’d never actually pick someone with recent, sustained school based experience and a background heavier in actual teaching and pedagogy than policy / management. Now they couldn’t get someone outside DC within their right mind to touch this job so they somewhat accidentally landed on someone with some actual school experience. I’m hopeful for her but not at all surprised she was never a top choice to begin with. If you’ve never heard of her it’s probably because she doesn’t spend her time posturing and spinning PR... and cheating. Refreshing. Signed, A DCPS Teacher

I was really impressed with Alexander as she began her rise - and she did great things with Ross. I have been less impressed with her leading elementary education. I'm wary of her approach to the upper NW elementary schools. I'm also sick to death of LEAP, and wonder where she falls on LEAP. Looking at her resume, I'd guess she was a big supporter. It's wreaked havoc with the budget of my kids' elementary school and removed specialists from classrooms. I do think she's a straight arrow, and I do think she's worked her way to the top, and I am glad the other two jokers are gone (Kamras and Davis). So, fingers crossed.

I'd be wary of anyone who came up under rhee, Henderson and the new leaders, new schools thing. SEL in DC schools was a breath of fresh air. I cannot emphasize the importance of having a coherent, empathy based social education approach introduced in schools that have been all about "testing" for too long (and to little achievement gap effect). I hope she keeps it, builds on it, and also has her own new ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I will, however, never forget the first presentation on PARCC. I sort of wish I had publicly quit after that meeting.

Can you elaborate?

It was one of the only times they presented raw stuff to us. I'm not going to remember the details, but PARCC was only months out and they hadn't worked out any of the kinks. Totally glossed over how kid were going to take it on computers and it would be great! Fine! Kids are more computer literate than we are! (but when a fellow parent pointed out kids were good on iPads and phones and had little to no experience with desk top/laptop computers in third grade and didn't get scroll bars and mousing etc, that was just scoffed at). Lots of hand waving over technology in the schools. Completely ignored parents concern over third graders - who had no keyboarding experience at some schools - typing essay responses. I was stunned that they could not explain how the test would be scored. In retrospect, I think that's why it took so long for individual scores to come out - I believe they forced kids to take a test and they had no idea how to really implement it nor score it and it wasn't ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In San Diego County, the school superintendent is chosen from school principals. I think DCPS should look at that model.

Like the way the pope is chosen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In San Diego County, the school superintendent is chosen from school principals. I think DCPS should look at that model.

Interesting idea, but why wouldn't the SBOE have the final say on it, like most places do it? Is it correct that the way this should be done in DC isn't actually encoded anywhere?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If principals have any say, Amanda will not be the next Chancellor. She is an intelligent woman, however she is not a people's person at all. She doesn't inspire the workforce, or communicate well with those who work for her. I pray that she is not selected as the next chancellor.

And if teachers and parents have any say I hope she is. Principals have too much power and there is no uniformity within the district. Schools just do what they want unless they are low performing school.

[Anonymous]

Not hard to find
https://www.nbcwashington.com/blogs/first-read-dmv/Schools-Chancellor-Steps-Down-Amid-Calls-for-Resignation-474574023.html

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Anonymous wrote:He resigned, or the mayor asked for his resignation.

that's just code for fired. He serves at her discretion in addition to being subject to termination due to cause.

Does he get any severance pay?

With cause $70K without case double

Where did you see that? It would be highly unusual for a contract to provide severance for a "for cause" termination. My guess is there is a dispute/discussion on whether this is for cause and there likely be a negotiated settlement that splits the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alexander seems like a great choice. Wish they’d hired her first.

I knew Wilson was out of his depth when I learned he was originally a middle school principal in Kansas. It’s so easy to see to the racism between the lines when Wash Post commenters say “go back to Oakland,” but Wilson is a guy from Nebraska.

Right! He was pretty much run out of town in Oakland. Why would he go back there? Before that was Colorado.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If principals have any say, Amanda will not be the next Chancellor. She is an intelligent woman, however she is not a people's person at all. She doesn't inspire the workforce, or communicate well with those who work for her. I pray that she is not selected as the next chancellor.

And if teachers and parents have any say I hope she is. Principals have too much power and there is no uniformity within the district. Schools just do what they want unless they are low performing school.

Do not make the mistake of thinking all DCPS teachers support her in this role. Many of us have very real reasons for being concerned about her as interim, nevermind permanent Chancellor!

[Anonymous]

What are they???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If principals have any say, Amanda will not be the next Chancellor. She is an intelligent woman, however she is not a people's person at all. She doesn't inspire the workforce, or communicate well with those who work for her. I pray that she is not selected as the next chancellor.

And if teachers and parents have any say I hope she is. Principals have too much power and there is no uniformity within the district. Schools just do what they want unless they are low performing school.

Do not make the mistake of thinking all DCPS teachers support her in this role. Many of us have very real reasons for being concerned about her as interim, nevermind permanent Chancellor!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are they???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If principals have any say, Amanda will not be the next Chancellor. She is an intelligent woman, however she is not a people's person at all. She doesn't inspire the workforce, or communicate well with those who work for her. I pray that she is not selected as the next chancellor.

And if teachers and parents have any say I hope she is. Principals have too much power and there is no uniformity within the district. Schools just do what they want unless they are low performing school.

Do not make the mistake of thinking all DCPS teachers support her in this role. Many of us have very real reasons for being concerned about her as interim, nevermind permanent Chancellor!

EXACTLY! I have major concerns about her approach as a leader. I am a teacher and I hate how rude she is and the arrogance that she displays when speaking to others. She doesn't have empathy for those who are not doing as well as her, or the school that she once led. I think many good leaders will leave if she is announced as the Chancellor for next year.