Stanky: regardless of who mandates that they must get a masters degree, the fact is that they cannot teach unless they are working toward that goal.  It's mandated, not optional.  In the private sector, an employee will--until the current economic downturn---get a COLA raise, along with other performance bonuses, profit-sharing, etc.  Further, your analogy to an unending annuity is false.   The pay increments may be $1,500 a year difference in pay, but during a 30 year career, they just equal the original $45,000 "investment."  What lineof work are you in, and would you be willing to spend $45,000 in 5 years to get a master's degree?  I would certainly think that you would expect some sort of pay-increase for that effort.   Also, and most importantly, what study are you referring to that shows that a Master's degree doesn't make one a better teacher?  It's very easy to throw that out there, but back it up with some data. CH Moore

Definition of TEACH is

1a : to cause to know something <taught them a trade> b : to cause to know how <is teaching me to drive> c : to accustom to some action or attitude <teach students to think for themselves> d : to cause to know the disagreeable consequences of some action <I'll teach you to come home late>2: to guide the studies of3: to impart the knowledge of <teach algebra> 4a : to instruct by precept, example, or experience b : to make known and accepted 5: to conduct instruction regularly in <teach school>

My son is now a proud member of Monroe Local Schools, thanks to open enrollment.

In my post I did not blame the teachers. There are bad teachers in every district. Some districts just do a better job at holding them accountable or have a better contract with the union that allows them to hold them more accountable. I place very little blame on the teachers. I place blame on the administration. I do not buy the demographic argument. Other districts with similar demographics are succeeding better then Middletown so there must be other issues. I would accept that demograpics carries with it some challenges but others are rising to the challenge while Middletown continues to accept failure because they are not failing as bad as they were before.

I am not a teacher basher.

Some my best friends are teachers!! 

Well put chmoore, and lets not get to out of hand with the numbers. 48,000 folks in town around 850 people signed up on this site (Randy correct me if i'm wrong) and I would say about 1/4 post regularly.  Comparing private sector to public is great but are the "rules" the same, I think not.  I for one am quite impressed that the Admin. cut 5mil. from the budget and didn't whine about all the services the childern wouldn't have anymore. I again won't speak for anyone on this site but if you think this is bitching you diffently don't want my childern in your classroom.  Sorry but some on this site look at the school sytem as a business (service) and we are the shareholders..  Thats how my childern are being raised, money is being spent on you and you will give 110% attention to your teachers and you will have followup with the CEO (there mother). I have posted before that many of the so called adults have flooded our system with unprepared childern and use our schools as daycare centers.  A few comments on this site shouldn't bring down the house, Mrs. Andrews certainly has know problems answering or responding to questions. See what happens Vet when you and Randy get on here and start laying out the "Facts" LOL everyones hair starts to stiffen up on the back of their necks. 

Vet - I think that is a great idea. 

I appreciate both Ms. Andrew’s and Mr. Fiora’s responses to concerns and questions that residents have. I respectfully disagree with Ms. Andrew’s statement that Garfield Alternative was not successful in educating those sent there or in improving the classroom environment at the high school. Since I know a handful of teachers who taught there for years, I rely on their assessment since they were in the “belly of the beast.” Many troubled students remained in school at Garfield because of the structured environment and the close relationships established with a caring faculty. Many learned something to some degree, and felt they had a safe place to come to every day. Everything is relative. These same kids would most likely have dropped out or been expelled at the high school.

As for their removal not “improving the classroom environment,” I will repeat what I have said before. It wasn’t their presence or absence that affected behavior in the classroom environment as much as a lack of consistent and appropriate disciplinary and academic standards throughout the district. When Garfield teachers returned to the high school after Garfield was shut down, they commented that the same behaviors that had brought students to Garfield were common in the main building.

It’s ironic (or maybe not so much) that Steve Price made it a point to shut down Garfield and then proceeded to put in place policies that made it almost impossible to expel or even suspend students. He trained the principals on how to keep the serious miscreants inside the corral, which was on the backs of teachers who wanted to teach and students who came to learn, all in the name of “cultural sensitivity and equity.” Do I need to spell out the results for the classroom environment?

By the way, let’s be clear that the district is NOT 100% low income urban kids, not by any stretch. Some of our kids come from middle and upper income families. We also have low income but stable families that support their children’s education. The fact that over 70% of the school district’s students are economically disadvantaged doesn’t automatically mean they can’t learn, don’t want to learn or that they come to make trouble.

And what role have administrators played in keeping our district in the basement? We had a superintendent (Price) who destroyed morale and appropriate expectations and standards during his tenure. At the high school, they had a principal who epitomized the definition of “bully,” further demoralizing and destroying any chance for achievement. These administrators ruled for years. And others like them were in place, and some still are. Now think about trying to create objective teacher evaluations under these conditions.

It took one board member, John Sauter, to step out courageously in 2009 and seek input from the district staff when he, as a relatively new member, lost all faith in Price. He clearly saw Price’s manipulative and intimidating tactics and called it for what it was. He got plenty of input. There followed the whooshing sound of the house of cards falling at the district office. Unfortunately, too many of Price’s lieutenants remained in the district to continue to poison efforts to forge ahead.

Slowly we are emerging from this dark period. We have a superintendent who is smart, articulate, and who is quick to show his appreciation for our efforts and to use two little words, “thank you,” often. His efforts to turn the ship around have been consistent and sincere.

At the high school, they have a new principal who is a veteran in the district but who has never been a part of the ugly machinations of the previous administration. Unlike the relentless negativity of the past eight years, Mrs. Cotter is positive and upbeat almost to a fault, and she has worked with the most difficult students in her role as administrator of the Success Academy, so she is neither naïve nor clueless. She has been on the battle lines right along, and sometimes at the punishing end of administrative behavior. These changes inspire hope for better things to come.

Since this thread started with comments about teacher evaluations, let me finish by quoting relevant comments made by Ms. Andrew’s in another thread about our students’ performance: “the absolute truth is that the single most predictive factor of how kids will perform on standardized tests is their socio-economic background. Generally (of course there are exceptions), if they live in a middle or upper class household, they will tend to score better than if they live in a poor household.”  

In the same thread her words echo what I have said in this forum in an earlier blog: “education is not passive. It is not the teachers’ job to pour knowledge into an empty vessel. Learning is interactive, and requires active participation from the students. Many (not all) students in our district do not put forth the required effort.” Simply, the student’s willingness to learn is the decisive factor.

However, students CAN rise above their environment and be responsible, willing learners when they are in a school culture of high expectations. That hasn’t happened yet in MCSD.

Finally, Ms. Andrew says that “The teachers union, the school board and the administration have been working together on a committee addressing discipline and safety and school climate/culture.  The committee explored many different approaches and agreed to adopt the Safe and Civil Schools/Positive Behavioral Supports approach, which each building will be implementing starting this fall.”

I am happy to hear this—this committee has been “addressing discipline and safety and school climate/culture” issues for over four years (!), and this is the first result to come out of it. All I can say is that if the district again ignores the need for high expectations and standards and, as Ms. Andrew asserts, “clear, firm rules and boundaries, with clear and firm consequences if they do not follow the rules” and falls back on a touchy feely approach, we’re dead in the water. Again.

Hear, hear, Silverbells!!!  Your words ring true…we can only hope that they actually are prologue to the improvement that is possible.

However, most likely Middletonians are fed up with the broken promises of the past, and will likely wait for results before sending any more of their hard-earned money towards another levy based solely on promises or hope of improvement.

Middletown schools begin when?  Proof is in the puddin.  Sorry, talk is cheap and back slapping ,hoping the words come true is without a doubt old news. Lets have zero phone calls to the police this year, could we try for that.  The bulk of Middletown taxpayers are doing their job, by working hard and having money removed from their pay checks every month to SUPPORT the cities school system.  Stop talking about the past and what was handed down.  Turn it around, Lead,Follow or get out of the way.  Enough with the talk.

Ms. Andrew, it is a given that we have teachers who, even under superior conditions, would still be poor disciplinarians or have low expectations (often they go hand in hand). However, rather than addressing this through mentoring or, failing success at that, encouraging these teachers to move on, our past leadership has ENABLED these types and demoralized others, causing some to give up, both with discipline and expectations. It’s hard to know who fits into which peg until we have leadership that demonstrates utter commitment to raising expectations. Then no one can blame the leadership, can they?

I wasn’t a fly on the wall, but I did get a tingle up my leg when you said a main topic at your retreat was high expectations and academic rigor. Ms. Andrew, there is so much excellent information out there about how to create such a culture that I could flood this response with links and not even begin to scratch the surface. The good news is that they all share a commonality, because you’re talking about human nature, after all. You can easily google “how achieve high expectations education” or words to that effect and get great results. Here are a few that start the ball rolling. I hope you will find them useful.

http://www.greaterexpectations.org/briefing_papers/ImproveStudentLearning.html - Note the critical difference between standards and expectations in this article: