It looks like the administrators at the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) are getting ready to blame their teachers for the woes at the district’s “Persisently Low Achieving Schools.”
Below is an email that the teachers’ union sent to their members, announcing their plans to fight back against the lame administrators at the SAUSD:
Dear XXXXX,
For several weeks, SAEA has requested a copy of the Persistently Low Achieving Schools (PLAS) plan and a description on how the District plans to involve teachers in the process. Every time we were assured, by the Superintendent and members of her Cabinet that teachers would have input in the content of the application. Furthermore, at the last School board meeting, the Superintendent told the School Board that teachers would have input and this would not be a top-down process.
SAEA and the District have been in negotiations regarding the articles in the collective bargaining agreement that affect the PLAS schools. The Bargaining Team asked on several occasions to see the plan, the District told us there was no plan formulated for the six schools. Finally, on Friday afternoon, the Bargaining Team got a copy of the application and we were outraged at its content.
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I have to say I find it hard to believe that teachers would be the main reason for low performance in schools given the system they are required to work within and the unique challenges of meeting the diverse needs of kids in Santa Ana. Sometimes I wonder if the challenges they are facing are even realistic. It’s tough to deliver the quality of training they need especially in reading & writing. While blame is getting shifted around, parents & kids have to hang in there but there’s options for enhancing performance. In Irvine, there is a summer creative writing program (grades 2-9) that gives kids extra help in the fundamentals of writing. They’ll write an original story & have them collected and published in a book. http://brwi.org/project-ink-summer-camp/
It is important that all SAUSD teachers read the post just submitted by Art. I hope that you can all take away from this that now is not the time for teachers to start blaming other teachers. We are all in this together and most of us have fought very hard for our students under difficult circumstances. The current popular mode of operation is to blame the teachers and not focus on the real issues. Until the public is aware of the circumstances that cause low achievement and the government is willing to deal with causes and not symptoms, the climate for teachers will only get worse. This, in turn, only pushes the best teachers away from the most difficult students, a truly sad state of affairs. I often hear questions from my colleagues like, “What did the elementary teachers do that caused these kids to be so low?” Most of the time I respond with a story I heard from a Kindergarten teacher. She says that she has had numerous students who didn’t even know their own real name when they entered Kindergarten, they couldn’t hold a pencil or name any colors in either English or Spanish. This helps me put things in perspective when my intermediate school students are adding on their fingers. It’s tough for everyone. Until we find effective ways to educate parents and provide effective preschool programs for all kids, this will continue. Of course, no politician wants to deal with preschool, the benefits aren’t visible until at least 12 more years, long after the next election.
“She says that she has had numerous students who didn’t even know their own real name when they entered Kindergarten, they couldn’t hold a pencil or name any colors in either English or Spanish. ”
What happened to that whole Kindercarminata thingy? I thought this was addressed years ago.
http://kindercaminata.ocde.us/Home.htm
Ha! Figures. Just imagine if ‘merit’ pay would ever see the light of day. Teachers with tougher socio-economic factors to deal with would actually work harder for less while the inverse would be true for teachers in areas without those challenges…
Hey, since Arizona banned its Mexican-American studies program in Tucson, SAUSD should pick it up. Culturally responsive and relevant course work always lifts up academic performance!
“KinderCaminata also has a bilingual theme song, “¡Sí, se puede!” “Yes, you can!” that is taught to the children for the day of the event.”
Maybe if the kids sang “Si Se Puede” more they would do better in school!
The teachers union should be proud of the sterling performance of their membership.
Maybe Timeson should explain that comment. Or, maybe not.
What happened in SAUSD is the district took a two-tiered approach to their secondary schools. Every new school that was built was a fundamental school. As each new fundamental school opened, we watched the test scores drop at the neighborhood schools surrounding the fundamental schools. It was not surprising to us that the majority of our higher achieving students opted to attend the fundamental schools. Call it the brain drain, call it whatever you want – as more and more fundamental schools opened at the intermediate level the divide between the two types of schooling became more apparent. And now with fundamental high schools having opened in various locations throughout the district, the high school test scores have plummeted.
When you have one tier of schooling that requires attending on a contract with parent involvement and the right to remove the student when he/she does not perform up to the terms of the contract, you will have this huge divide which is what the district is now experiencing. It’s not about the need to provide more teacher training, offering an eight period day, adding electives, removing electives, rotating teachers, etc. It’s about acknowledging that the non-fundamental schools teach to an extremely challenging diverse student population as addressed by a previous comment.