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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Knowing we have a Superintendent and Board that, in most cases, doesn't have the skills to manage and lead a school system the size of FCPS what do we to bring FCPS back to being one of the premier school systems in the United States?  Where would you cut funding and where would you increase while looking to maintain a flat or reduced overall budget?  [/quote]

1-cut a bunch of high priced Gatehouse positions, and also the instructional services ones where people are paid to make boring slide shows and deliver bad PD that teachers absolutely loathe
2-cut all the school-based instructional coaches and anyone else in a non-administrative but also non-teaching position

That right there would make life much better for teachers and maybe allow us to actually do our jobs instead of checking boxes for the county's "accountability."

[/quote]

You sound like a teacher who doesn’t want to be held accountable for what you teach and how you teach it. Teaching methods and curriculum constantly shift, you’re employed to keep up and teach using specific methods as dictated by Gatehouse. [/quote]

Gatehouse has entered the chat.[/quote]

In this instance gatehouse is right. Do you seriously think letting thousands of teachers teach what they want and how they want is the right way to run things? Name a single company that lets their employees go to work with no oversight, training, or accountabilityth. That’s ridiculous.

Whether it’s brand new teachers who need guidance and support, or veteran teachers who need help keeping up with the latest teaching methods, professional development and oversight are both necessary.

This is not to say that teachers should have no say, but there’s a difference between having a say and expecting to do your job with no accountability and consistent expectations. [/quote]

Silly.  You are not understanding how these positions work.  There is a curriculum, the teachers are all accountable to teach the curriculum and the principal and assistant principal are the ones who make sure the teachers use it.

Coaches go to central meetings that teachers could attend and disseminate information to the classroom teachers.  The coaches may help one or two new staff members occasionally, but other than that they create letters about interventions and make copies.  Coaches often have taught 1 or 2 of the 6 different grades or classes they are supposed to coach.  They know nothing about the other grades and the classroom teachers often have to explain to the coach how the curriculum works in their grade.

They do not perform evaluations.  They are not responsible for keeping classroom teachers in line and the principal “professional development” they give could easily ahve been given directly to the classroom teachers rather than the coach. [/quote]

As usual, it's a good idea that FCPS ruined. I honestly love most of our coaches - they're very capable and know what they are talking about.  Unfortunately, they aren't getting to do the job they thought they signed up for.  Instead of helping teachers when they need it, they mostly do county-required tasks. A lot of it is record-keeping.

For example, the county requires that everyone in every school do a special lesson that a coach will observe. There are different choices for the lesson - about a hundred different ones, just guessing. It's not difficult. But the coach has to keep records of every single teacher and which lesson they will do and what day and time, and then observe every single one and fill out a bunch of forms. Trust me, there are no consequences if the teacher cannot even do the lesson he/she chose effectively. There isn't even a follow-up. It's just checking off boxes and filling out forms and it all goes into some kind of county system that is apparently designed to just create a paper trail showing the county is trying to improve instruction.

They also have to present slide shows for PD days and staff meetings, but they don't even get to make them. It's just the same slide show that went to everyone, and sometimes the same one from last year, and they just have to stand there and read it and do a bunch of other paperwork.

So ultimately these positions don't benefit teachers or students at all. There may be exceptions out there, but not at my school.  And like I said, our coaches are actually smart people who know their stuff.  [/quote]

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