...School board President Christopher S. Barclay and other school board members stressed the urgency of the work. Barclay called situation the school system is in with achievement gaps “a real crisis.”...
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Barclay: “We are close to economic suicide if we don’t figure out what to do for our children,” he said.
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FYI, most of the current BOE has been there 4 years, at least. And Barclay only just now thinks it is an emergency? What has he been doing the last 4 years? OH, i know, giving kudos to the staff!
ReplyDeleteA sense of crisis often produces the wrong analysis and correspondingly the wrong "solutions". That is exactly what is happening right now. MCPS thinks depriving the most prepared students of real access to advanced material in homogeneously grouped classrooms will magically fix the problems of less prepared students via "peer effects". That's not going to happen. Instead, the tax base of MCPS will flee the county, and MCPS will lose financial backing.
ReplyDeleteThe real solutions are enforced discipline in the classroom (including more detention with real work requirements during it), more serious health courses, more after school activities especially in high school, more useful courses for kids who do not plan to go to college (and the end of the pretense that all should go), and crucially, more parent involvement.
“What do we need to do to get them to achieve?” school board member Judith Docca said to the staff, near the end of the conversation. “You are not saying that.”
ReplyDeleteSpecifics? That's crazy talk!
Barclay has been satisfied with the touchy-feely pablum the MCEA mouthpieces offer until now.
It's pleasant to see him finally fed up with the mediocrity that has frustrated parents for decades.
Good luck to Docca nailing down anyone willing to take responsibility for this challenge.
ACCOUNTABILITY:
1) Empirical goals - If you can't measure the goal, you cannot determine success or failure
2) Delegation - A defined person responsible for achieving goals. Preferably ONE person.
3) Authority - sufficient power to achieve those goals as agreed upon by the person delegated. (If the power is inadequate, the delegate needs to refuse the job.)
4) Resources - Budget, materials, personnel, etc. determined to be satisfactory by the delegated authority at time of acceptance.
5) Deadlines - Accepted by the Delegated party at time of appointment.
6) Measurement - Determination of success or failure of the goals listed.
7) Rewards and Penalties - Provided for Success or Failure, agreed upon by the delegate before the project begins.
Absent any of these, accountability does not exist and no one is strongly motivated to ensure achievement of successful outcomes.
This accountability must be agreed to by the delegated party and the structure of each component made sound by elected leadership.
Implementation of project accountability should by viewed with a pass/fail mindset for voters. When you run for office, you are necessarily agreeing to the 7 steps above and voters should hold you to it.
The County doesn't know what interventions work for individual students because they have gotten rid of the very specialists who can help. Gone are trained reading specialists. Gone are the math specialists. The District has decided to invest instead in corporate programs that cost a lot and do not work. Sad to say but the people who had the knowledge have retired or left the county. There is a dearth of intellectual capital at the top of MCPS. And it's only getting worse.
ReplyDeleteMs. Docca passes the responsibility as usual. Dr. Docca, you are on the Board of Education. It is up to YOU to provide some specifics on what it would take form "them" to achieve. Achieve what, for starters? How will taxpayers know when they have spent enough? When will we know when the 'debt' has been paid? Stop sitting there like a bystander. If you don't want to be on the Board, do not run in 2014.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous Mar 25 3:31pm: it was not the "county" who 'got rid of' the specialists. It was the elected Board of Education members that you voted for and re-elect time after time. Mr. Barclay was just re-elected. And, the specialists are members of MCEA. MCEA leadership sits at the table at every secret budget session that takes place away from the eyes of the voting and taxpaying public. Yes, you can blame the voters who keep re-electing these board of ed members but there is plenty of blame all around, including the teachers who keep voting for this MCEA leadership. These teachers need to step up. Stop blaming "the county." Don't like it? step up in the MCEA and elect a responsible leadership.
ReplyDelete