A Popular Principal, Wounded by Government’s Good Intentions

[AUJarhead]

Based on this, the healthcare experiment should be fun.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/education/19winerip.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

BURLINGTON, Vt. — It’s hard to find anyone here who believes that Joyce Irvine should have been removed as principal of Wheeler Elementary School.

John Mudasigana, one of many recent African refugees whose children attend the high-poverty school, says he is grateful for how Ms. Irvine and her teachers have helped his five children. “Everything is so good about the school,” he said, before taking his daughter Evangeline, 11, into the school’s dental clinic.

Ms. Irvine’s most recent job evaluation began, “Joyce has successfully completed a phenomenal year.” Jeanne Collins, Burlington’s school superintendent, calls Ms. Irvine “a leader among her colleagues” and “a very good principal.”

Beth Evans, a Wheeler teacher, said, “Joyce has done a great job,” and United States Senator Bernie Sanders noted all the enrichment programs, including summer school, that Ms. Irvine had added since becoming principal six years ago.

“She should not have been removed,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview. “I’ve walked that school with her — she seemed to know the name and life history of every child.”

Ms. Irvine wasn’t removed by anyone who had seen her work (often 80-hour weeks) at a school where 37 of 39 fifth graders were either refugees or special-ed children and where, much to Mr. Mudasigana’s delight, his daughter Evangeline learned to play the violin.

Ms. Irvine was removed because the Burlington School District wanted to qualify for up to $3 million in federal stimulus money for its dozen schools.

And under the Obama administration rules, for a district to qualify, schools with very low test scores, like Wheeler, must do one of the following: close down; be replaced by a charter (Vermont does not have charters); remove the principal and half the staff; or remove the principal and transform the school.

And since Ms. Irvine had already “worked tirelessly,” as her evaluation said, to “successfully” transform the school last fall to an arts magnet, even she understood her removal was the least disruptive option.

“Joyce Irvine versus millions,” Ms. Irvine said. “You can buy a lot of help for children with that money.”

Burlington faced the difficult choice because performance evaluations for teachers and principals based on test results, as much as on local officials’ judgment, are a hallmark of the two main competitive grant programs the Obama administration developed to spur its initiatives: the stimulus and Race to the Top.

“I was distraught,” said Ms. Irvine, 57, who was removed July 1. “I loved being principal — I put my heart and soul into that school for six years.” Still, she counts herself lucky that the superintendent moved her to an administrative job — even if it will pay considerably less.

“I didn’t want to lose her, she’s too good,” Ms. Collins said, adding that the school’s low scores were the result of a testing system that’s “totally inappropriate” for Wheeler’s children.

Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the United States Department of Education, noted that districts don’t have to apply for the grants, that the rules are clear and that federal officials do not remove principals. But Burlington officials say that not applying in such hard times would have shortchanged students.

At the heart of things is whether the testing system under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 can fairly assess schools full of middle-class children, as well as a school like Wheeler, with a 97 percent poverty rate and large numbers of refugees, many with little previous education.

President Obama’s Blueprint for Reform says that “instead of a single snapshot, we will recognize progress and growth.” Ms. Collins says if a year’s progress for each student were the standard, Wheeler would score well. However, the reality is that measuring every student’s yearly growth statewide is complex, and virtually all states, including Vermont, rely on a school’s annual test scores.

Under No Child rules, a student arriving one day before the state math test must take it. Burlington is a major resettlement area, and one recent September, 28 new students — from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan — arrived at Wheeler and took the math test in October.

Ms. Irvine said that in a room she monitored, 15 of 18 randomly filled in test bubbles. The math tests are word problems. A sample fourth-grade question: “Use Xs to draw an array for the sum of 4+4+4.” Five percent of Wheeler’s refugee students scored proficient in math.

About half the 230 students are foreign-born, collectively speaking 30 languages. Many have been traumatized; a third see one of the school’s three caseworkers. During Ms. Irvine’s tenure, suspensions were reduced to 7 last year, from 100.

Students take the reading test after one year in the country. Ms. Irvine tells a story about Mr. Mudasigana’s son Oscar and the fifth-grade test.

Oscar needed 20 minutes to read a passage on Neil Armstrong landing his Eagle spacecraft on the moon; it should have taken 5 minutes, she said, but Oscar was determined, reading out loud to himself.

The first question asked whether the passage was fact or fiction. “He said, ‘Oh, Mrs. Irvine, man don’t go on the moon, man don’t go on the back of eagles, this is not true,’ ” she recalled. “So he got the five follow-up questions wrong — penalized for a lack of experience.”

Thirteen percent of foreign-born students, 4 percent of special-ed students and 23 percent of the entire school scored proficient in reading.

Before Mr. Obama became president, Burlington officials began working to transform Wheeler to an arts magnet, in hopes of improving socioeconomic integration.

While doing her regular job, Ms. Irvine also developed a new arts curriculum. She got a grant for a staff trip to the Kennedy Center in Washington for arts training. She rented vans so teachers could visit arts magnets in nearby states. She created partnerships with local theater groups and artists. In English class, to learn characterization, children now write a one-person play and perform it at Burlington’s Very Merry Theater.

A sign of her effectiveness: an influx of new students, so that half the early grades will consist of middle-class pupils this fall.

Ms. Irvine predicts that in two years, when these new “magnet” students are old enough to take the state tests, scores will jump, not because the school is necessarily better, but because the tests are geared to the middle class.

Senator Sanders said that while the staff should be lauded for working at one of Vermont’s most challenging schools, it has been stigmatized.

“I applaud the Obama people for paying attention to low-income kids and caring,” said Mr. Sanders, a leftist independent. “But to label the school as failing and humiliate the principal and teachers is grossly unfair.”

The district has replaced Ms. Irvine with an interim principal and will conduct a search for a replacement.

And Ms. Irvine, who hoped to finish her career on the front lines, working with children, will be Burlington’s new school improvement administrator.

“Her students made so much progress,” Ms. Collins said. “What’s happened to her is not at all connected to reality.”

E-mail: oneducation@nytimes.com.

[Townhallsavoy]

Money doesn't equal a good education. 

An innovative and compassionate teacher with a blackboard, chalk, loose leaf paper, and 20 pencils will accomplish more quality instruction than a mediocre teacher with an Elmo, a digital projector, a smart board, and 20 laptops. 

[AUTiger1]

Money doesn't equal a good education. 

An innovative and compassionate teacher with a blackboard, chalk, loose leaf paper, and 20 pencils will accomplish more quality instruction than a mediocre teacher with an Elmo, a digital projector, a smart board, and 20 laptops. 

 


If you want to reform education (public education) and I think that THS will agree, along with most teachers, is not to throw more money at it, but parental involvement.   I am out of the education game now, but the thing I wanted most, was for the parents to become more involved in their kids school work.   Education will never be truly "fixed" and you won't get the most bang for your tax dollar until the parents get more involved and take an interest in what their kids are doing at school.

[AUJarhead]

Totally agree about parent involvement.  The number one complaint I hear from my wife about the parents are the parents who look at teachers as nothing more than babysitters.

When we lived in Atlanta, my wife taught 4th grade at a school off Bankhead Highway.  During December one year, they had their Christmas party (or Holiday party, or whatever they call it these days), and I went into the classroom to help out.  I read a book to the kids, and this girl came up to me after I had read, and told me I was the first male to ever read a book to her.  That fucking shocked me.

But here's a question for you two, how do you get parents more involved?

[GH2001]

Agree with all of you guys here.

Personally, I think No Child Left Behind is total BS and I hate Bush for it. There are some teachers out there doing so much with so little and making progress, yet things like these happen. And boom - fired. I think its total horseshit to paint a teacher with such a broad brush in a polarizing fashion. For what they put up with, the hours they log and the compensation they get in return, teachers actually have it pretty rough IMHO. So yeah, lets stick some senseless quotas on em on top of everything else. MMkkkkk, right.

As for the title of the article, I am not so sure it is good intention.

[AUJarhead]

I think No Child Left Behind is total BS and I hate Bush for it.

I'm not allowed to talk about that program in my house, my wife hates it so much.  At the school in Atlanta, my wife was their best 4th grade teacher, so the principal naturally put her best talent with the hardest kids.  She had the lower tier of students, some who could not read, who had been pushed along.  When the school year ended, she had these students reading at a kindergarten level, but the class still didn't meet the criteria outlined.  Hard to say my wife failed at teaching these kids.  Sure, they weren't reading at a 4th grade or 5th grade level, but they were light years ahead from where they started.

And really, these were good kids.  Just needed some tough love.  Someone to just push them in the right direction, and give them motivation.

[GH2001]

I'm not allowed to talk about that program in my house, my wife hates it so much.  At the school in Atlanta, my wife was their best 4th grade teacher, so the principal naturally put her best talent with the hardest kids.  She had the lower tier of students, some who could not read, who had been pushed along.  When the school year ended, she had these students reading at a kindergarten level, but the class still didn't meet the criteria outlined.  Hard to say my wife failed at teaching these kids.  Sure, they weren't reading at a 4th grade or 5th grade level, but they were light years ahead from where they started.

And really, these were good kids.  Just needed some tough love.  Someone to just push them in the right direction, and give them motivation.

THIS...

Sorry to hear that jarhead.

Another real world example of this program's failure. I rest my case.  THIS is the issue people should still be pounding Bush over - not oil spills or jobless numbers that he wasn't involved in. He had many bad pieces of legislation - and this was one of them.

[AUTiger1]

I read a book to the kids, and this girl came up to me after I had read, and told me I was the first male to ever read a book to her.  That phuking shocked me.

But here's a question for you two, how do you get parents more involved?

It's shocking the first time you hear that, but it happens more often than you think.  My middle school internship was at a very poor school. I was the only adult male in the school, other than the janitor, principal, and one PE teacher.  One of the Elementary teachers (2nd grade) asked me if I would mind coming to her class one day and read something to the kids.  I went and was shocked at how much they craved something like that.  I asked the teacher about it and she said most of them don't get that kind of attention at home.  I then made it a point to go down during my planning block everyday and read to them.  Once I started teaching I carried that on.  I walked across the parking lot to the Elementary school and made it a point to come in an read to different classes.

As far as how do you go about getting the parents involved, I haven't a clue.  I would ask the parents, some were willing, some were not.  I had some that were borderline C students and knew that they could do better.  I would call their parents and talk to them about it.  Like I said, some cared enough to get involved and some didn't.  THS might have a better idea on this, he still teaches.

[AUTiger1]

THIS...

Sorry to hear that jarhead.

Another real world example of this program's failure. I rest my case.  THIS is the issue people should still be pounding Bush over - not oil spills or jobless numbers that he wasn't involved in. He had many bad pieces of legislation - and this was one of them.

Jarhead:  In my mind and opinion and most any one else that looked at that situation, wouldn't say that your wife failed at teaching those kids, but did a damned fine job.  

GH: I hate NCLB and I thank GWB for me no longer being in the education field.  I loved teaching, I loved coaching, but I didn't like the feeling that I wasn't teaching them, but rather, just getting them to a certain level so they would test well.  Utter BS.  I hate Bush for that and yes this was one of his worst moves and possibly the worst piece of education legislation that will ever be passed.

[Snaggletiger]

This conversation hits close to home.  My wife taught 2nd grade in our public school system for 19 years.  She took a pay cut of about $10K to take a 2nd grade position at a private school so she could finally "Teach" again.  My wife is extremely dedicated to her job but she had finally had enough.  During her last year, she had one...count em'...ONE parent show up all year for open house or parent/teacher conferences.  That's for the entire year.  She had 8 kids in her classroom who had IEP's.  When you talk about "babysitting", that's literally all she was doing.  She was running a 2nd grade daycare.  Every kid in there was on free breakfast/lunch program.

To her credit, she stuck it out as long as she could but when all she was doing every day was picking out of control kids up out of the floor, she made the change. 

[Townhallsavoy]

It's shocking the first time you hear that, but it happens more often than you think.  My middle school internship was at a very poor school. I was the only adult male in the school, other than the janitor, principal, and one PE teacher.  One of the Elementary teachers (2nd grade) asked me if I would mind coming to her class one day and read something to the kids.  I went and was shocked at how much they craved something like that.  I asked the teacher about it and she said most of them don't get that kind of attention at home.  I then made it a point to go down during my planning block everyday and read to them.  Once I started teaching I carried that on.  I walked across the parking lot to the Elementary school and made it a point to come in an read to different classes.

As far as how do you go about getting the parents involved, I haven't a clue.  I would ask the parents, some were willing, some were not.  I had some that were borderline C students and knew that they could do better.  I would call their parents and talk to them about it.  Like I said, some cared enough to get involved and some didn't.  THS might have a better idea on this, he still teaches.

The school will never have the ability to get parents more involved in their kids' lives.  It's a societal issue, and quite honestly, it's the worst in our nation's history.  I firmly believe that as many veteran teachers that I work with have said they've noticed a drastic change in the kids over the last five-seven years.  Guess what really kicked in about five-seven years ago?  No Child Left Behind.

No Child's a great idea (in theory like everything else) because it reaches out to many children who are usually cast aside as a failure and a reject.  However, when you give TOO much help, they don't learn how to cope on their own.  They expect an extra hand in every aspect of life.  They expect to be given an excuse and a free pass not just on their reading test but also in discipline problems, money problems, social problems, etc.  

Then, to add on, these handouts and excuses are passed on to the other non-special needs children in the room.  Because you're putting special ed, ESL, and emotionally disturbed children in the same room as them, naturally, the inclusion teacher is going to offer help to all kids in the room.  Not to mention, when Billy sees Alex getting extra help on a test or project or assignment, he's not going to understand why he doesn't receive that extra help.  

And finally, to the main point, this extra help extends to the parents.  The parents suddenly see an opportunity to relinquish their responsibility of their children.  The inclusion teacher will make sure their kid has good grades.  The regular students are getting extra help too.  It's not necessarily a wrong on the parents - especially if they are young parents or inexperienced parents.  They're used to seeing their kid (special needs or not) receive a lot of extra help from the time they're in kindergarten or 1st grade.  

We're living in an era where a kid who doesn't learn to write his letters in 1st grade isn't given a failing score.  He's not told he has to learn how to write letters or else he won't move up to the 2nd grade.  He's not scolded or punished.  He's not corrected.  He's not forced to practice his letters during recess.  He's not taken out of the school play or kicked off the t-ball team.  What happens is the teacher, the administration, and the parents sit in a meeting and ask, "Why can't this kid learn to write his letters?"  Because it's not his fault. It can't be.  It has to be some other reason.  He needs extra help even if he's not special ed.  He needs the teacher to accomodate him so that he doesn't fall behind.  

Parents come to expect the "Why can't my kid..." question to be answered by the school.  And so we have a generation of kids and parents who don't think the responsibility is on their shoulders.  It's all about the teachers, principals, and counselors.  

The truth is that the parents are more important than the teachers regarding the success of their child in school.  I've had enough empirical evidence to make me 100% believe that.

/Rant

[GH2001]

The school will never have the ability to get parents more involved in their kids' lives.  It's a societal issue, and quite honestly, it's the worst in our nation's history.  I firmly believe that as many veteran teachers that I work with have said they've noticed a drastic change in the kids over the last five-seven years.  Guess what really kicked in about five-seven years ago?  No Child Left Behind.

No Child's a great idea (in theory like everything else) because it reaches out to many children who are usually cast aside as a failure and a reject.  However, when you give TOO much help, they don't learn how to cope on their own.  They expect an extra hand in every aspect of life.  They expect to be given an excuse and a free pass not just on their reading test but also in discipline problems, money problems, social problems, etc.  

Then, to add on, these handouts and excuses are passed on to the other non-special needs children in the room.  Because you're putting special ed, ESL, and emotionally disturbed children in the same room as them, naturally, the inclusion teacher is going to offer help to all kids in the room.  Not to mention, when Billy sees Alex getting extra help on a test or project or assignment, he's not going to understand why he doesn't receive that extra help.  

And finally, to the main point, this extra help extends to the parents.  The parents suddenly see an opportunity to relinquish their responsibility of their children.  The inclusion teacher will make sure their kid has good grades.  The regular students are getting extra help too.  It's not necessarily a wrong on the parents - especially if they are young parents or inexperienced parents.  They're used to seeing their kid (special needs or not) receive a lot of extra help from the time they're in kindergarten or 1st grade.  

We're living in an era where a kid who doesn't learn to write his letters in 1st grade isn't given a failing score.  He's not told he has to learn how to write letters or else he won't move up to the 2nd grade.  He's not scolded or punished.  He's not corrected.  He's not forced to practice his letters during recess.  He's not taken out of the school play or kicked off the t-ball team.  What happens is the teacher, the administration, and the parents sit in a meeting and ask, "Why can't this kid learn to write his letters?"  Because it's not his fault. It can't be.  It has to be some other reason.  He needs extra help even if he's not special ed.  He needs the teacher to accomodate him so that he doesn't fall behind.  

Parents come to expect the "Why can't my kid..." question to be answered by the school.  And so we have a generation of kids and parents who don't think the responsibility is on their shoulders.  It's all about the teachers, principals, and counselors.  

The truth is that the parents are more important than the teachers regarding the success of their child in school.  I've had enough empirical evidence to make me 100% believe that.

/Rant

You hit the nail on the head in bold above...

[CCTAU]

This conversation hits close to home.  My wife taught 2nd grade in our public school system for 19 years.  She took a pay cut of about $10K to take a 2nd grade position at a private school so she could finally "Teach" again.  My wife is extremely dedicated to her job but she had finally had enough.  During her last year, she had one...count em'...ONE parent show up all year for open house or parent/teacher conferences.  That's for the entire year.  She had 8 kids in her classroom who had IEP's.  When you talk about "babysitting", that's literally all she was doing.  She was running a 2nd grade daycare.  Every kid in there was on free breakfast/lunch program.

To her credit, she stuck it out as long as she could but when all she was doing every day was picking out of control kids up out of the floor, she made the change. 

Did you mean EIPs?