UTV Live presents"leading American Education expert" Jerry Weast!
Haven't heard of UTV? It's the television station in Belfast, Northern Ireland where Superintendent Weast is consulting this week.
Jerry Weast was interviewed on UTV yesterday to give his advice on moving the best head teachers to failing schools in order to raise academic standards in ... Belfast. Jerry Weast was speaking to the reporter from Stormont, the home of the Northern Ireland Parliament.
Watch the full UTV interview here (click on the "Teacher transfers" video).
Here are some excerpts from Weast's interview:
"There is a moral obligation to help every child in the entire nation of Northern Ireland...we needed the best teacher and the best headmaster...there had to be a whole sea-change in the entire community... Educate all children to a high standard that is acceptable in a high quality workplace or higher education... I think you've got some really good schools and I think you have some really good teachers, but I think you've got a high degree of variability... according to your own statistics about 1 out of every 4 children do not measure up on the standard that you currently have. Now that is a lot of under performance for a system of your size...I am here to show it can be done...I came to help...I am a non-paid employee. I am busy at the job that I am hired for back in America..."Meanwhile, back here in Montgomery County, Maryland, where we are paying Jerry Weast to be the Superintendent of our public school system, about 1 in 8 students are dropping out of school before graduation.
I was stunned by his response to "What advice would give to educationalists here?"
ReplyDeleteWeast: "I'm not one to give advice. I'm here to show it can be done. That would be my advice."
How much money and time was spent to deliver this helpful insight?