Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the ^^PP. Most of the teachers leave TC and other ACPS schools because of ACPS administration and not the students. If you talk to teachers then you know that most of them are attracted to some of our most difficult Alexandria schools because of, not in spite of, the challenging demographics. There should be exit interviews of all departing teachers. There is something very wrong going on in Alexandria.

I'm speaking from experience. One friend left TC because she was tired of being called a "white bitch" by multiple black boys and another left Macarthur after being punched in the face by an adult-sized 5th grader.

One, if not both, of those things are exacerbated by poor admin/central office.

Did that 5th grader get expelled? If not, there is no reason for the teacher to be back. If yes, then it is still understandable as to why the teacher left. I would bet even money that the kid did not get expelled, much less suspended for more than 10 days.

Kids cursing at the teacher in that manner should also result in suspension in a decent running school. Nothing probably happened to the kid with respect to discipline and therefore the teacher left. Lack of disciplinary accountability is a problem wholly in the hands of admin and central office.

Anonymous wrote:ACPS elementary teacher here. At my school, teachers leave for a variety of reasons. Some are moving to other parts of the country to be closer to family. Several left to pursue other opportunities within Alexandria (EL specialist, assistant principal, etc.). Some left because they realised they’d rather do something other than teaching. I haven’t seen or heard about anyone leaving because of Central Offce or our school administration.

I teach at TC. More than 50% of the teachers leave because of ineffective / misguided admin and central office.

ACPS elementary teacher here. At my school, teachers leave for a variety of reasons. Some are moving to other parts of the country to be closer to family. Several left to pursue other opportunities within Alexandria (EL specialist, assistant principal, etc.). Some left because they realised they’d rather do something other than teaching. I haven’t seen or heard about anyone leaving because of Central Offce or our school administration.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the ^^PP. Most of the teachers leave TC and other ACPS schools because of ACPS administration and not the students. If you talk to teachers then you know that most of them are attracted to some of our most difficult Alexandria schools because of, not in spite of, the challenging demographics. There should be exit interviews of all departing teachers. There is something very wrong going on in Alexandria.

I'm speaking from experience. One friend left TC because she was tired of being called a "white bitch" by multiple black boys and another left Macarthur after being punched in the face by an adult-sized 5th grader.

I agree with the ^^PP. Most of the teachers leave TC and other ACPS schools because of ACPS administration and not the students. If you talk to teachers then you know that most of them are attracted to some of our most difficult Alexandria schools because of, not in spite of, the challenging demographics. There should be exit interviews of all departing teachers. There is something very wrong going on in Alexandria.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Friends who still work there say she’s managed to run off some really talented teachers already-pretty impressive for 1st year back.

Considering TC/ACPS is all over social media pleading for teachers, this seems particularly unfortunate. I would wonder if anyone could put 2+2 together to recognize cause and effect, but that would require someone to care and I think we’re long past that point.

Forget talented teachers - places like ACPS cannot afford to run off even average teachers. In TC it seems like the average tenure is less than 3 years. The churn of teachers cost money - HR efforts and onboarding training cost a lot of money - and it is costly on a day to day, week to week basis when new staff needs to learn all the unwritten policies of the building. All the knowledge is swept aside every year.

You should try to make average teachers better, not just trying to recruit talented teachers. TC lost a lot of staff this year. 30%?

The churn has less to do with the board or central office and more to do with the fact that a huge chunk of the school is comprised of the offspring of feral inhabitants of public housing. School is free lunch to these people and nothing else. Generations and generations of impoverished, illiterate, criminals living off our tax dollars and contributing nothing positive. Disagree all you want but it's the truth and we all know it. TC is a de facto juvenile detention facility for many.

Nice language there.

The churn has to do with central office and the admins at the school (APs included).

The vast majority of teachers who take a job at TC know about the student demographics and challenges. The vast majority who leave do not leave because of the kids, but leave because of the admin (and central office and board's) response to the kids.

Not what I heard.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Friends who still work there say she’s managed to run off some really talented teachers already-pretty impressive for 1st year back.

Considering TC/ACPS is all over social media pleading for teachers, this seems particularly unfortunate. I would wonder if anyone could put 2+2 together to recognize cause and effect, but that would require someone to care and I think we’re long past that point.

Forget talented teachers - places like ACPS cannot afford to run off even average teachers. In TC it seems like the average tenure is less than 3 years. The churn of teachers cost money - HR efforts and onboarding training cost a lot of money - and it is costly on a day to day, week to week basis when new staff needs to learn all the unwritten policies of the building. All the knowledge is swept aside every year.

You should try to make average teachers better, not just trying to recruit talented teachers. TC lost a lot of staff this year. 30%?

The churn has less to do with the board or central office and more to do with the fact that a huge chunk of the school is comprised of the offspring of feral inhabitants of public housing. School is free lunch to these people and nothing else. Generations and generations of impoverished, illiterate, criminals living off our tax dollars and contributing nothing positive. Disagree all you want but it's the truth and we all know it. TC is a de facto juvenile detention facility for many.

Nice language there.

The churn has to do with central office and the admins at the school (APs included).

The vast majority of teachers who take a job at TC know about the student demographics and challenges. The vast majority who leave do not leave because of the kids, but leave because of the admin (and central office and board's) response to the kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Friends who still work there say she’s managed to run off some really talented teachers already-pretty impressive for 1st year back.

Considering TC/ACPS is all over social media pleading for teachers, this seems particularly unfortunate. I would wonder if anyone could put 2+2 together to recognize cause and effect, but that would require someone to care and I think we’re long past that point.

Forget talented teachers - places like ACPS cannot afford to run off even average teachers. In TC it seems like the average tenure is less than 3 years. The churn of teachers cost money - HR efforts and onboarding training cost a lot of money - and it is costly on a day to day, week to week basis when new staff needs to learn all the unwritten policies of the building. All the knowledge is swept aside every year.

You should try to make average teachers better, not just trying to recruit talented teachers. TC lost a lot of staff this year. 30%?

The churn has less to do with the board or central office and more to do with the fact that a huge chunk of the school is comprised of the offspring of feral inhabitants of public housing. School is free lunch to these people and nothing else. Generations and generations of impoverished, illiterate, criminals living off our tax dollars and contributing nothing positive. Disagree all you want but it's the truth and we all know it. TC is a de facto juvenile detention facility for many.

^^^ This is all true. Sadly, ACPS professional development runs about as well as everything else. The people in charge of it shouldn't be and the "experts" they bring in present busywork and/or things that anyone who has taught in another district learned 4-5 years ago.

As has been said before, nothing short of a total housecleaning will fix it.

Anonymous wrote:

Friends who still work there say she’s managed to run off some really talented teachers already-pretty impressive for 1st year back.

Considering TC/ACPS is all over social media pleading for teachers, this seems particularly unfortunate. I would wonder if anyone could put 2+2 together to recognize cause and effect, but that would require someone to care and I think we’re long past that point.

Forget talented teachers - places like ACPS cannot afford to run off even average teachers. In TC it seems like the average tenure is less than 3 years. The churn of teachers cost money - HR efforts and onboarding training cost a lot of money - and it is costly on a day to day, week to week basis when new staff needs to learn all the unwritten policies of the building. All the knowledge is swept aside every year.

You should try to make average teachers better, not just trying to recruit talented teachers. TC lost a lot of staff this year. 30%?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen ACPS weigh in on other threads here. Funny they're not touching this one

Actually, an ACPS Rep who regularly posts placed several comments around p 6, basically denying that several linked ACPS documents say what they say, and accusing at least three different commenters of being the same person. Typical ...

That was me, and I have never been inside ACPS HQ, let alone work for them. I AM a citizen of Alexandria, and have seen you post the same BS before, and decided to call you out on it. Again, you link to multi page documents, don't quote the exact wording you are referring to, and usually don't even point to a page - basically counting on people to not check your claim.

and yeah, I am not touching the topic of the particular admin, because I know nothing about her, because I DO NOT work at ACPS. Of course ACPS should do a better job of giving TCW better leadership, and it sounds like they may have fallen down on the job. I don't defend ACPS leaders, I would love to hear about better ones running for school board.

But the claim that two geographich high schools is decided on, and that those docs show it, is BS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen ACPS weigh in on other threads here. Funny they're not touching this one

Actually, an ACPS Rep who regularly posts placed several comments around p 6, basically denying that several linked ACPS documents say what they say, and accusing at least three different commenters of being the same person. Typical ...

That was me, and I have never been inside ACPS HQ, let alone work for them. I AM a citizen of Alexandria, and have seen you post the same BS before, and decided to call you out on it. Again, you link to multi page documents, don't quote the exact wording you are referring to, and usually don't even point to a page - basically counting on people to not check your claim.

Anonymous wrote:I've seen ACPS weigh in on other threads here. Funny they're not touching this one

Actually, an ACPS Rep who regularly posts placed several comments around p 6, basically denying that several linked ACPS documents say what they say, and accusing at least three different commenters of being the same person. Typical ...

I've seen ACPS weigh in on other threads here. Funny they're not touching this one

Friends who still work there say she’s managed to run off some really talented teachers already-pretty impressive for 1st year back.

Considering TC/ACPS is all over social media pleading for teachers, this seems particularly unfortunate. I would wonder if anyone could put 2+2 together to recognize cause and effect, but that would require someone to care and I think we’re long past that point.