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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here’s the thing w/ TC- the teachers are doing the best they can with the resources they have available to them. Any progress they make is in spite of, not thanks to, the support of both building admin and central office. The central office is made up of people who’ve either never worked in a classroom and don’t understand the basics of a teacher’s day OR people who’ve only ever worked in ACPS and thus don’t have the frame of reference to realize that there are other, perhaps better, ways to do things (or they DO realize and just don’t care). Building admin is a mess too. The new principal is trying- he really is- but in an oversized, overcrowded cluster-eff that is a school of that size, he needs a top-notch admin staff under him. Unfortunately, they waited until almost summer to fill his roster; if you know anything about the school hiring process, you know that by May, for the most part, you’re stuck with the dregs and leftovers- the people who nobody else wanted to hire. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part that’s what TCW was stuck with- either administrators that flamed out in other districts (*cough* PG *cough* DCPS *cough*) or a bunch of people who’ve bounced around ACPS for years, never staying terribly long in one job, and in a couple cases had been demoted from significantly more senior positions. I won’t name names but a quick glance at the leadership team on the school website will tell you who’s who.

So until this cycle is broken, TCW will continue to struggle. They have two potential things working in their favor: a first-year principal who’s a marked upgrade over his predecessor and an incoming new superintendent who may be hamstrung by the school board to a degree but still has the power to do some housecleaning. Or they can just stay the course and watch the good teachers flee to other districts. 
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Thanks for this.  For those of us who are trying to support TC, what do you recommend we do as parent advocates?[/quote]

Be the squeaky wheel. Where/when possible, deal with the Principal, not the assistants. And, frankly, make yourself known to the new Superintendent. He's a former ACPS employee himself, so hopefully he's learned some lessons in his time out of the area, but make sure he knows you're not interested in the status quo. [/quote]

And bear in mind that the new Super is pals with the TC principal, and that both of them report to and are evaluated by the school board.  
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