Wayne Dolcefino's latest report on teachers

[pineda]

How well did your kid's teachers do?

[KatieDidIt]

Interesting. None of our teachers are on the CISD list

[musicman]

embarassing to have principals fail multiple times. i say that the quality of teachers has definitely gone down since i was in school. this just reinforces my belief. more money is definitely wont solve the situation.

[bachanon]

two of our teachers were not on the list. two of my nephew's teachers failed and one passed by one point. two of his teachers passed with flying colors.

it is funny how the two teachers he dislikes the most are the two who did well on the competency tests (they require something of him). the two teachers who failed are his easy classes. this doesn't surprise me.

Edited May 10, 2007 by bachanon

[VicMan]

None of the teachers who teach at my school failed for the subjects they teach AND kept the failing grades. I have had a few that took tests for subjects they do not teach, failed, and never took the test again.

Do you want me to find copies of the released tests on the internet?

By the way, some of my teachers did not know that their scores were released until I told them.

Edited May 11, 2007 by VicMan

[musicman]

By the way, some of my teachers did not know that their scores were released until I told them.

watch the report tonight...some are pissed as are some parents.

[VicMan]

watch the report tonight...some are pissed as are some parents.

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/teachers/northforest.pdf

That district needs to go. This district has so many teachers that failed tests.

[Chris]

embarassing to have principals fail multiple times. i say that the quality of teachers has definitely gone down since i was in school. this just reinforces my belief. more money is definitely wont solve the situation.

I agree 100%, It is embarassing to have Administrators fail and have to test multiple times.

[Vertigo58]

I agree 100%, It is embarassing to have Administrators fail and have to test multiple times.

Major embarassing, and the ones Wayne was sticking his microphone at were grinning? Almost laughing when asked how many times they flunked. IMO I would not stand near Dolcefino he's playing with fire.

Real Oy Vey!

[Chris]

Wayne Delcefino will continue to cover this story tonight at 10pm with which Houston area school districts had the most teachers and administrators fail it multiple times. This should be interesting.

[VicMan]

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/teachers/districtgrades.pdf

Houston ISD has a "61" grade for certified teachers.

45,125 tests were administered.

27,346 passed.

17,779 failed.

Klein ISD has an "80"

6,359 tests were administered.

5,065 passed.

1294 failed.

North Forest ISD has a "34"

2,614 tests were administered.

887 passed.

1,727 failed

Someone, please, we can organize a large, loud protest where we yell at the NFISD administration and try to force the district to consolidate?

Anyway, I also notice a lot of charter schools fare worse.

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[pineda]

Your comments regarding charter schools faring worse aside, I don't agree with your constant call for consolidation and I think this report proves why. Bigger is not always better. Many tiny school districts I've never even heard of scored in the 90's, which I think shows that sometimes these smaller districts can focus more personal attention to each of these students, unlike the monster-size Houston ISD which earned its' 61, despite all the magnet programs it touts.

[Chris]

Klein ISD did pretty decent if 80 is good.

[VicMan]

Your comments regarding charter schools faring worse aside, I don't agree with your constant call for consolidation and I think this report proves why. Bigger is not always better. Many tiny school districts I've never even heard of scored in the 90's, which I think shows that sometimes these smaller districts can focus more personal attention to each of these students, unlike the monster-size Houston ISD which earned its' 61, despite all the magnet programs it touts.

Specifically, I am talking about North Forest ISD - I am not talking about rural/suburban districts that manage to perform with small sizes.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/ald...ws/4763341.html

"The North Forest Independent School District, a shrinking 9,000-student system in Northeast Houston, has been plagued by financial, academic and management problems for years.

The school board has fired or forced out three of its last four superintendents. In August, eight of the district's 11 campuses netted academically unacceptable ratings from the state, and after the district couldn't produce important financial records, Neeley in March sent in a conservator to oversee money matters."

And judging from the lack of business support and declining school population in the area, I do not believe that NFISD will be able to stand on its own weight.

HISD has advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

* Major tax bases

* Magnet programs (ability to select schools of desire)

* District resources that result from tax bases

Disadvantages:

* Divisive racial politics

* Typical urban politics

* Lack of neighborhood support for education in some areas

So, the mixed HISD gets 61% - Now, the problem with North Forest is that it has all of the disadvantages and none of the advantages held by HISD. There are no alternate schools. There are few businesses willing to support NFISD.

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[bachanon]

school districts are simply too big.

Edited May 12, 2007 by bachanon

[VicMan]

school districts are simply too big.

North Forest, though, has two high schools with slightly more than 1,000 pupils each... about 9,000 kids at all. That makes it look more troublesome by comparison.

It is true that bureaucracy is one of HISD's weak points. Yet, HISD is not fatally flawed, and civil rights disputes would arise if HISD were to be broken up (racial disputes, taxation, etc would be nightmares), so, IMO, breaking HISD into pieces is not feasible.

The last time a portion withdrew from HISD was when the city of Stafford formed Stafford MSD (only a sliver of its territory comes from HISD, most comes from FBISD).

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[bachanon]

wouldn't school choice solve some, if not all, of these issues?

[VicMan]

wouldn't school choice solve some, if not all, of these issues?

Ah, good thing you brought that up. HISD is known for school choice. Well, "known" is an understatement.

"Many transfer options are available" by the Houston Chronicle explains the mechanisms of magnet programs and transfers in HISD: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/specia...06/4677688.html

"UNHAPPY with their neighborhood schools or lured away by prestigious programs miles from their homes, tens of thousands of Houston children take advantage of sometimes complicated transfer policies to attend different schools.

Some apply to prestigious magnet programs. Others capitalize on federal and state laws that make it easier for students to escape dangerous or low-performing schools.

The practice is much more common inside the boundaries of the 200,000-Houston Independent School District

[nmainguy]

.

Edited May 14, 2007 by nmainguy

[pineda]

and in a related story...

Sixty-one percent of Houston Independent School District juniors have already cleared the bar, compared with just 51 percent at this point last year.

Edited May 12, 2007 by pineda

[musicman]

Someone, please, we can organize a large, loud protest where we yell at the NFISD administration and try to force the district to consolidate?

Anyway, I also notice a lot of charter schools fare worse.

61 is embarassing for hisd........i think your protest should be expanded.

North Forest, though, has two high schools with slightly more than 1,000 pupils each... about 9,000 kids at all. That makes it look more troublesome by comparison.

It is true that bureaucracy is one of HISD's weak points. Yet, HISD is not fatally flawed, and civil rights disputes would arise if HISD were to be broken up (racial disputes, taxation, etc would be nightmares), so, IMO, breaking HISD into pieces is not feasible.

The last time a portion withdrew from HISD was when the city of Stafford formed Stafford MSD (only a sliver of its territory comes from HISD, most comes from FBISD).

vic...when you have children, i'm sure if they came home with a 61 on a test you woudln't be happy. your response sounds like a future hisd administrator.

Edited May 12, 2007 by musicman

[KatieDidIt]

Vicman: Houston citizens and to allow for a diversity of types of schools and types of education for all citizens of Houston (as well as Bellaire, West U, Southside Place, and the memorial villages)

You really want to blend SBISD with HISD so passionately. You post this all the time. Letting kids from the worst neighborhood chose to go to Memorial schools would implode the quality of safety that has been established there. Even allowing some of the SBISD kids from the far northern boundries transfer to Stratford or Memorial Senior would create havoc. Its a great utopian idea, but the fact is that the children that attend most of the SBISD schools do not have the survival skills to blend in with those from Houston's worst neighborhoods.. It will never happen, the people that pay the SBISD taxes moved there and are often making huge sacrifices to make sure their kids come home alive.

That's what happened with Grady Middle right next to Tanglewood. They starting busing in all the thugs from the Richmond area and the "Tanglewood crew" couldn't cope so they fled to private. Blending causes flight to private, and flight to private causes a district and a school to decline.

Part of HISD's problem is the conduct and behavior of its students and the apathy of its parents. The more dangerous the school, the less a quality teacher wants to be there. I think HISD should be able to kick more kids out. Its great to want to educate, but when kids rarely attend school and try to threathen the ones that are trying when they are there...get rid of them. They "don't want no education" anyway. They rather be out terrorizing and taggin' cars. No kids left behind is a great theory, but leave the ones behind that want to be there and focus on the ones that want to get out.

The base of the matter is, I don't think the QUALITY of the education in SBISD and HISD are really that different. Its the safety and security that allows the kids to learn, attracts teachers that don't want to be killed, that is the difference.

[VicMan]

The solution to that is to simply let the schools that receive transfer students kick out kids who misbehave (not too difficult to do) - In fact, that's the policy of the magnet schools here. I.E., after the 2005-2006 school year, I heard from friends that even kids with constant tardiness got the boot at Lamar.

That's different from plain-old-rezoning (I.E. Grady) where an entire apartment complex is assigned to a school and therefore not easily kicked out. In fact, according to my ideas, the zoning boundaries would NOT change much at all (the only HISD territory that would be rezoned to Memorial HS, for instance, would be the sections of Piney Point Village and Hunters Creek Village currently in HISD).

My sister, who attended the large Lamar, has no "survival" skills, whatever that means.

Vicman: Houston citizens and to allow for a diversity of types of schools and types of education for all citizens of Houston (as well as Bellaire, West U, Southside Place, and the memorial villages)

You really want to blend SBISD with HISD so passionately. You post this all the time. Letting kids from the worst neighborhood chose to go to Memorial schools would implode the quality of safety that has been established there. Even allowing some of the SBISD kids from the far northern boundries transfer to Stratford or Memorial Senior would create havoc. Its a great utopian idea, but the fact is that the children that attend most of the SBISD schools do not have the survival skills to blend in with those from Houston's worst neighborhoods.. It will never happen, the people that pay the SBISD taxes moved there and are often making huge sacrifices to make sure their kids come home alive.

That's what happened with Grady Middle right next to Tanglewood. They starting busing in all the thugs from the Richmond area and the "Tanglewood crew" couldn't cope so they fled to private. Blending causes flight to private, and flight to private causes a district and a school to decline.

Part of HISD's problem is the conduct and behavior of its students and the apathy of its parents. The more dangerous the school, the less a quality teacher wants to be there. I think HISD should be able to kick more kids out. Its great to want to educate, but when kids rarely attend school and try to threathen the ones that are trying when they are there...get rid of them. They "don't want no education" anyway. They rather be out terrorizing and taggin' cars. No kids left behind is a great theory, but leave the ones behind that want to be there and focus on the ones that want to get out.

The base of the matter is, I don't think the QUALITY of the education in SBISD and HISD are really that different. Its the safety and security that allows the kids to learn, attracts teachers that don't want to be killed, that is the difference.

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[VicMan]

61 is embarassing for hisd........i think your protest should be expanded.

vic...when you have children, i'm sure if they came home with a 61 on a test you woudln't be happy. your response sounds like a future hisd administrator.

Rather, I have this point of view:

From: http://blogs.chron.com/schoolzone/2007/01/...s.html#comments

"The passionate comments from Kathy Jones and HISDmom illustrate an interesting phenomenon in HISD schools. Among HISD's 300 campuses are a handful of academically elite schools that consistently perform among the state's best. One of those is Lamar High School, which we reported last week produced more International Baccalaureate graduates than any other school in Texas.

But Lamar is hardly representative of the typical HISD high school. Eleven of HISD's 23 traditional high schools (almost half) are considered academically unacceptable by the state.

It's also worth noting that two HISD high schools (Bellaire and Westside) account for two-thirds of the passing Advanced Placement exam scores posted by HISD students last year.

Lamar and the other two schools Ms. Jones' children attended have very different demographics than the average HISD school.

Eighty-two percent of the students at the typical HISD school come from poor families and 28 percent have limited English-speaking skills. At Briargrove, those numbers are 30 percent and 9 percent, respectively. They are 70 percent and 18 percent at Grady, and 40 percent and 4 percent at Lamar.

I'm sure parents whose children attend one of HISD's elite schools are very happy with their children's education.

"

I also like to compare HISD's situation to New York City's:

"With 1,400 schools and 1.1 million students who speak more than 100 languages, the New York City public school system is vast, complex and bewildering. At its best, it offers an unparalleled education. At its worst, it fails even to guarantee the safety of its students and staff. The good news is that Insideschools will guide you step-by-step to find the best -- and avoid the worst."

The thing is that, if I was a parent within HISD's boundaries, I would try to find a home zoned to a good school (so long as I have the money to buy one) and do all of my homework for the school. That way, as stated in the insideschools article, I can find the best and avoid the worst.

HISD is a big problem with people who do not have money (which describes a lot of residents in HISD, unfortunately) and/or do not know how to "work the system."

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[musicman]

Rather, I have this point of view:

seems like you're all over the board. how would YOU address the issue with the teachers' scores?

there's an article in today's chron that says "Sixteen percent of Texas high school seniors or about 40,200 members of the Class of 2007 won't receive their diplomas this month because they still haven't passed all four portions of the TAKS test, according to preliminary figures released Friday.

That's a 27 percent increase from last year, when roughly 32,000 seniors failed at least one portion of the high-stakes exam."

Edited May 12, 2007 by musicman

[VicMan]

seems like you're all over the board. how would YOU address the issue with the teachers' scores?

there's an article in today's chron that says "Sixteen percent of Texas high school seniors or about 40,200 members of the Class of 2007 won't receive their diplomas this month because they still haven't passed all four portions of the TAKS test, according to preliminary figures released Friday.

That's a 27 percent increase from last year, when roughly 32,000 seniors failed at least one portion of the high-stakes exam."

Okay, now, as for the issue with teacher scores, I would ask for school districts to not only release figures for teacher scores and maintain them on websites, but also organize teacher scores by individual schools (This helps in large districts, especially large districts with varying schools) - Also, I would post links to sample tests so that parents will know what course material teachers are expected to know in order to pass

In fact, I should e-mail this idea to HISD and ask the district to maintain such lists and links to sample tests so that parents may make more informed choices in schools.

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[musicman]

Okay, now, as for the issue with teacher scores, I would ask for school districts to not only release figures for teacher scores and maintain them on websites, but also organize teacher scores by individual schools (This helps in large districts, especially large districts with varying schools) - Also, I would post links to sample tests so that parents will know what course material teachers are expected to know in order to pass

In fact, I should e-mail this idea to HISD and ask the district to maintain such lists and links to sample tests so that parents may make more informed choices in schools.

so you wouldn't get rid of the failing teachers?

[VicMan]

so you wouldn't get rid of the failing teachers?

Well, for the teachers who fail 15 times and still cannot pass the tests, I would get rid of them. I find it strange that the teacher at South Houston Intermediate would fail again and again. - In fact, why not set up a "3 strikes and you are out" system with emergency certification?

Edited May 12, 2007 by VicMan

[musicman]

Well, for the teachers who fail 15 times and still cannot pass the tests, I would get rid of them. I find it strange that the teacher at South Houston Intermediate would fail again and again. - In fact, why not set up a "3 strikes and you are out" system with emergency certification?

you should email THIS idea to HISD.

[VicMan]

In many alternative certification programs, including HISD's, some teachers have to take the THEA test.

A sample of THAT test is here: http://www.thea.nesinc.com/practice.htm

Test Preparation manuals from the Texas Education Agency for Texas educator certification are here: http://www.texes.ets.org/prepMaterials/

I will try to find more teacher tests to show what teachers in TX are passing (or failing).