Reply to Advice to Kaya Henderson

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would vote for teachers working All of June and July.  July can be for PD and for planning.  [/quote] And you know what?  Teachers might agree to it if it is PD that is worth their time and planning time that is truly theres. As it is they already do PD and planning in June and July (School goes through almost to the end of June now) and starts back in August so July is the only full month off during the summer. [/quote]

Many children in DC are so far below grade level that we could certainly call it a crisis.   Also, advanced learners not getting the appropriate challenge.  The school year for teachers needs to be longer.  Imagine if the entire district spent July in PD and planning for every student, what a huge impact that would have.  Teachers still would have off four weeks in the summer, two weeks at Winter Break and a week at Spring Break.  [/quote]

The are several problems with your idea---

1.  In most schools no one knows who the students will be. Therefore, it's hard to predict who--if anyone--needs a more challenging curriculum, a less challenging one, etc.

2. Most schools don't even know who their teachers will be in July (or August). Many, many teachers resign from DC schools within the first week. So in comes new teachers who don't have the benefit of the July PDs.

DCPS must do something to stop the teacher hemorrhaging that happens all over this District. The turnover is insane. Once we have working conditions that true professionals are willing to work in, and our teachers are remaining in the same schools year after year, we may be able to propose something like that.

I am commenting on this because I am both a DC taxpayer and I have children who attended a DCPS elementary school.  We are failing many of our children in the city and part of the solution is longer school days and a longer school year.  I agree with you - we need to change the working conditions of teachers in the city. It needs to be a full year job because of the enormity of it.

On another note, why is a non-educator trying to dictate the work schedule of educators anyway?[/quote][/quote] Listen, under the current contract if DC teachers are "forced" to work a full year you will be scraping the bottom of the barrel to find qualified teachers. I can guarantee that. The principals in many of the schools (not all) are horrible to work with and create mountains of unnecessary paperwork to try to make themselves look good in Ms. Henderson's eyes. On paper they look like they are doing big things but in their buildings they are an absolute nightmare. There are schools where teachers get physically ill from the stress and toxicity of the work environment - not from the kids but from the administrators and their unwavering demands on even the best teachers. Do you really think that only the ineffective teachers are leaving the classroom?  I wish we could get a complete picture of who is leaving DCPS and why. [/quote]

DC is already starting to scrape from the bottom of the barrel. Remember all the Ivy leaguers you could find throughout the schools just 5...hell 2-3...years ago? You can probably count the # of Ivy degrees in our schools on one hand now. Some may drizzle in because of the spin but they run out. And why not? They can get jobs anywhere. I know of two Ivy degrees (the last 2 I know of) and they're both interviewing in other places now. One in a totally different field. You guessed it. Asshole admin[/quote] First of all who pays Ivy league money to go into teaching? Any Ivy League person going into teaching is doing it as a stepping stone or as their gap year project. Also, most Ivy League degrees do not prepare someone to be successful in an inner city classroom. Book smarts don't translate into being able to manage a classroom of students who might not look or speak like you. [/quote]

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