Are You "Empowered" or Micromanaged?

Posted by Slim

In the name of NCLB, many administrators have chosen to micromanage teachers. Empowerment has the opposite approach, allowing those of us in the trenches to make the judgments necessary to get results. Do you feel "Empowered" or micromanaged?

Easing Rules Over Schools Gains Favor
State, district leaders debate when to grant autonomy.
By Catherine Gewertz

Massachusetts' recent decision to offer charterlike freedom to four of its lowest-performing schools has renewed debate about the role autonomy plays in school improvement: Should it be earned through good performance, or given as a vital tool for improvement? Is it risky to extend it to struggling schools?
Interest in the issue is keen. The New York City and Chicago school districts are engaged in high-profile experiments with giving schools autonomy. Both the governor of Nevada and a coalition of groups in Connecticut are proposing legislation to give principals more authority to decide the pathways to better student achievement.

You can read the complete article here.

Philadelphia Addresses Student Violence Against Teachers

Posted by Slim

National media attention has finally forced the Philadelphia School District to address student violence against teachers. If only districts could do what is right on their own. What major changes would we see in Nevada if the media paid attention?

Phila. Cracks Down on Assaults by Students
Violent incidents against teachers prompt new policies.
By Lesli A. Maxwell

A recent wave of violence in Philadelphia public schools has left several teachers injured, led to dozens of student arrests and expulsions, and prompted a crackdown on student offenders.
Paul G. Vallas, the chief executive officer of the district, has announced that students 10 years or older who assault teachers or other school employees will receive automatic 10-day suspensions, pending expulsion to an alternative school. Offenders, he said, will be charged with aggravated assault, a felony.
And, amid growing complaints that some principals do not report every violent incident, the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s safe schools advocate this month set up a hotline for teachers to independently report assaults.

You can read the entire article here.

Here's a Real Pisser

Posted by Slim

MUNCIE, Ind. — An eighth-grader faces expulsion after admitting he put urine in a teacher's coffee pot, officials said.

The Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal, Muncie Community Schools officials said. A student who overheard classmates discussing it also reported the incident to officials.

Urine was found in the locker of the eighth-grade boy, who admitted to putting some in the coffee, authorities said.

The eighth-grader has been suspended pending a recommendation for expulsion, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Edwards.

"This type of student behavior will not be tolerated," Wilson principal DiLynn Phelps and Superintendent Marlin B. Creasy wrote in a letter to parents. "No student will be permitted to deliberately attempt to cause bodily harm to any other student, teacher or staff member."

Source: FOX News

Are You Tired of the System Coddling Disruptive Non-Students?

Posted by Slim

Isn't it time to make parents pay for their kids (non-students) peeing in the educational pool? As we know, it only takes a few real pissers to disrupt the learning for an entire class (the educational pool). All your preparation and work is dissipated by these non-students who are not attending school to be students and intent on undermining your right to teach and the other students' right to learn.

Across the school level, it is the same few bozos who undermine education with repeated visits to administration. Whether the administrators do anything about it is another story as it varies greatly from administrator to administrator and school to school.

There's good news in that this problem is finally being recognized by lawmakers and reported in the media. Ray Hagar's article "Lawmakers want parents to pay for unruly students" in the March 20th Reno Gazette-Journal reads:

Two Clark County senators want unruly students in Nevada schools put in on-campus detention sites and fines levied against their parents.

Sens. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, and Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, told a Senate committee Monday that slapping a fee on the parents of unruly students might help get them more involved in their children's education.

"Maybe we will get the parents' attention if by no other way than hitting them in the pocketbook," Nolan said.

The students assigned detention would be those who consistently disrupt the classroom and the learning of other students, Nolan said. The pay-for-detention concept would be the last resort before students are expelled, he said.

You can read the entire article here.

Do Nevada Teachers Feel Safe?

Posted by Slim

How extensive is violence against teachers in Nevada? Recently it was reported by Bill O'Reilly that a teacher in Philadelphia was attacked by an 8th grade female student. The teacher repeatedly asked the student to get off her cell phone in class. The teacher said the student responded with obscene verbal versions of "no", finally hitting him in the face several times with the cell phone.

O'Reilly further reported the student received only 10 days suspension, and that 56% of teachers in the Philadelphia school district do not feel safe. You can view the interview with the teacher who was assaulted by clicking here.

How safe are teachers in Nevada? The Nevada Department of Education's latest figures show there were 189 assaults against teachers in the last reporting period. It also lists 9,863 violent incidents against other students and 749 weapons possessions.

• How safe do you feel as a teacher?

• What do you think should be done?

• What do you think of Sen. Beers' proposal allowing teachers to pack a pistol?

Do you feel pressured to raise grades or pass students?

Posted by Slim

Are good grades becoming an entitlement? A number of veteran teachers report seeing expectations of good grades with less effort from students. While these reports are experiential and anecdotal, a new study finds this is a measurable trend in the United States. Have you had this experience and what can be done to protect teachers when the pressure to inflate grades is from the administration?

By Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A01

High school seniors are performing worse overall on some national tests than they did in the previous decade, even though they are receiving significantly higher grades and taking what seem to be more rigorous courses, according to government data released yesterday.
You can read the rest here.

Destroying education to save it

Posted by Flatnose

Tom Shuford, a retired teacher in North Carolina who writes for EdNews.org, last week published a wonderful analysis of how the "we're-from-the-government-and-we're-here-to-help-you" types have, for decades, been progressively destroying effective local community education.

No doubt Southern Nevada, with its massive, inhuman schools and its distant Egyptian-priesthood of educrats, is a perfect example. Its metastasizing centralization necessarily ends up classifying teachers, families and neighborhoods as "problems" to solve and pawns to move about on its chess board. And the result of this runaway centralization is the education wasteland that we all face.

With great clarity and many examples, Tom illuminates how government-wielding "reformers" systematically gut the basic social & community infrastructure upon which successful community schools depend. His essay is at http://ednews.org, specifically here.