Reply to Thoughts on Interim Chancellor Dr. Amanda Alexander?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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

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
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