A prime example of when a school's Principal does not collaborate with his or her staff is found at Francis Lewis High School, where the new Principal, without even bothering to discuss it with the Chapter Leader or the consultation committee, decided to honor outgoing Chancellor Dennis Walcott, by renaming it the "Dennis Walcott college office. The letter objecting to giving the Chancellor this honor was sent to the Principal by the school's Chapter Leader Arthur Goldstein and can be found on the nyc educator blog.
While its the right of the Principal to rename parts of his school as he pleased, I must question why the Principal would rename the college office for a Chancellor that oversees a school system where only 22% are "college ready" and the latest available statistics showed that 23% needed "triple remediation" in college. The Chancellor's "legacy of failure" makes it puzzling that the Principal would ignore his staff and bestow that honor on Dennis Walcott.
If teachers were able to rename a part of the school for the Chancellor then the most appropriate place would be the teachers bathroom toilet. To me, the Chancellor has dumped on teachers during his three year tenure. His policies are summarized as "Mayor Bloomberg first, students last" has resulted in the following:
- No contract.
- A punitive evaluation system that looks to terminate teachers.
- A useless ATR rotation system
- Forces schools to hire the "cheapest" not the "best" teachers.
- Closed neighborhood schools.
- Rising class sizes.
- Hypocrite when it came to disciplining teachers and administrators.
- An unacceptably wide student achievement gap.
chaz:
ReplyDeleteVery funny and very true as well.
inpaler thatedorI'm one of your biggest fans, but what's with the scatology? So vulgar and icky with the imagery. Rise to the occasion and delete the post. Walcott was a Bozo, we all know, yet he does not deserve your Duck Dynasty smear.
ReplyDeletePhillip:
ReplyDeleteIs your memory faulty? He wanted the ATRs to have a four month time limit. Called us bad teachers, and Identified me as one of the sixteen teachers who should have been terminated based upon an allegation.
He's a hypocrite, an ed deformer, and came up with the idiotic ATR rotation system. There's more but you can read my posts about his legacy of failure.
I take offense that you compare my feelings, (and many others) about Dennis Walcott with the "Duck Dynasty" loon.
If you can't see the difference between what I think of a person who was trying to terminate me and went so far as to give the newspapers a selected and incomplete report that forced a retraction by the Times and Daily News and the male patriarch of "Duck Dynasty" then I cannot continue with this conversation with you.
diane ravitch has an insider essay on her blog describing how flawed Klein/Black/Walcott policies were
ReplyDeletehttp://dianeravitch.net/2013/12/20/tweed-insider-where-the-bloomberg-administration-went-wrong-on-education/#comments
Anon 5:54 pm
ReplyDeleteI read it and except for the statement that the school system has hired better quality teachers, I find the essay on the mark.
The reality is that during the Walcott tenure the hiring freeze was not enforced and eliminated altogether and principals hired the cheapest teachers, usually untenured "newbies".
This is a brilliant idea. Come January 1st I will rename my bathroom the:
ReplyDelete"Joel Klein, Cathie Black Dennis Walcott
Executive Toilet Chamber"...plumbing licensed waived
Your best blog to date Chaz. Walcott was a disgrace as a chancellor and an unethical human being. I'll be going all out on News Years Eve because he and Bloomy are out!
ReplyDelete