Can you fill the HISD board room at 5:30 pm today? Parents, families, teachers, and taxpayers, please come to 4400 W 18th St to quietly bear witness to the dismantling of public education today. This is the last board meeting until August. More details are here.
From the Texas Tribune on June 21st, “while his (Miles) management methods laid the foundation for some future success in Dallas ISD, they also left behind various scandals, caused veteran educators to leave the district and ultimately didn’t result in significant academic gains…
“Under Miles’ leadership, Dallas ISD consistently met the standards set by the state’s accountability system but failed to show any significant gains in standardized test scores. In some subject areas, test scores decreased and never really came close to reaching state averages. The number of schools that were in good standing with the state also dropped, while the number of failing schools increased…
“He spent only three years at Dallas, leaving after he failed to negotiate changes in his contract, according to The Dallas Morning News. He wanted to forbid school board members from searching for a new superintendent while he finished out his last year and wanted access to a retention bonus.” Read the full article at Texas’ pick to lead Houston’s schools used aggressive, polarizing methods in Dallas.
Also in the news:
- Miles to hold community meetings “The community meetings are like getting a second opinion after the fact; the community is an afterthought. Miles already made all of the decisions. He's just checking a box and making the public run through hoops to get no real information at all,"
- More on the scripted curriculum Amplify promoted for NES schools by TEA Morath and Miles and piloted unsuccessfully on some HISD campuses last year. Here is a 2nd-grade writing task: “Why is the War of 1812 often referred to as America’s second war for independence? In your response, describe what caused the war and Great Britain’s three-part plan for defeating the United States.” Second grade?
“Peter DeWitt, Ed.D., a former elementary school principal, author, and consultant, says that tying teacher evaluation to state testing has resulted in politicizing education, thus creating a system where states and districts work backwards from the test rather than beginning with the children.”
Aside from Amplify’s pedagogical faults which are explained in the article, it is not in the best interest of student learning and joy to require teachers to implement any curriculum with such rigid lockstep fidelity that kids begin to hate themselves.
Children everywhere deserve to be treated with respect. NES Schools will harm our kids.
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