Troubled school districts are paying big bucks to lure ‘rock star’ superintendents, reports the Christian Science Monitor.
To come to work here in Clayton County, a failing school district in Georgia, former Pittsburgh superintendent John Thompson wants $275,000 in salary, a $2 million consulting budget, a Lincoln Town Car with a driver, and money to pay a personal bodyguard.
Sound a bit hefty for someone likely to pull a power lunch in a junior high cafeteria? Maybe not.
Fewer qualified candidates, rising expectations, and a near-impossible job description are creating a new breed of superintendents: Call them central office rock stars. These candidates say that, for the right price, they’re willing to do an unpopular job that can take a heavy personal and professional toll to whip underperforming districts into shape.
And, if they fail to turn around schools — or get along with the school board — the “star” superintendents can look forward to a contract buyout to get them to leave town.
Unlike the U.S., British schools follow a national curriculum backed up national exams. But a teachers’ group wants to drop traditional classes in history, geography, literature, science, languages, art and music.
Instead, schools would be allowed to decide how they teach big themes such as global warming, conflict and healthy living.
The present list of subjects would be reduced to little more than English, mathematics and computing. The National Association of Head Teachers . . . said its structure of 14 compulsory subjects should be replaced by a “minimum framework” that would be “skills and competence-based, rather than prescriptive and knowledge-based.”
No, you wouldn’t want a knowledge-based curriculum.
A middle-school principal threatened to kill science teachers and himself if students didn’t improve their scores on the Texas state exam, claims a New Braunfels teacher.
(Teacher Anita White) said (Principal John) Burks was angry that scores on benchmark tests were not better, and the scores on the upcoming Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests must show improvement.
“He said if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers,” White said. “He said ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, ‘You don’t know how ruthless I can be.’
Police are investigating.
Teachers’ union officials blame No Child Left Behind, notes Mike Antonucci. Don’t let this motivational tactic spread to Las Vegas, he warns: There’d be a massacre of math teachers.
Watch a spelling bee contender try to spell “sardoodledom.” It means “melodrama,” more or less.
Florida teachers shouldn’t have the right to teach “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution, writes Education Gadfly. The proposed “Academic Freedom Act” would let teachers “objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views” of evolution. Advocates believe “intelligent design” is a scientific view. Gadfly writes:
The “Academic Freedom Act” is an insult and fetter to principals, who will see their autonomy over school operations and personnel further diluted if the bill becomes law. They would have no way to discipline teachers who are, say, presenting to students inaccurate scientific information (“who says it’s inaccurate?”) or deviating from the state’s academic standards.
The bill also bans penalizing students for subscribing “to a particular position or view regarding biological or chemical evolution.”
So when little Johnny receives an “F” for an essay in which he has proclaimed the earth was created in a week, little Johnny’s teacher better watch out — the lawyers are coming.
Science is not supposed to be a matter of personal opinion.
Hot tutors in Hong Kong are making big bucks.
Attractive teachers are marketed like movie stars. Their schools show them off on billboards, full-page newspaper ads and TV screens in railway stations and on buses.
Some tutors have their own teams of stylists, fashion designers and photographers, Ng said. They also have personal websites, where potential students can see their photos, read their online journals and download video clips of “gag moments” in class.
One third of high school students go to tutoring centers after school. Tutorial centers have become so good at predicting what questions will be asked on exams that the centers now compete by “promoting their teachers as trendy icons consumable by students.”
Via Freeman Hunt and Instapundit.
Arizona’s House of Representatives has voted to opt out of No Child Left Behind, giving up $600 million in federal education funds for needy schools. However, the law promises districts that Arizona won’t abandon NCLB unless the state can replace the lost federal funding. Given the state deficit, that doesn’t seem likely.
The savings from not complying with NCLB mandates “would be minimal,” a legislator says.
In reading about a “pain compliance” scheme to control airborne terrorists, Darren sees a way to solve all discipline problems in school — and make teachers’ jobs more fun: Shock collars on students.
I’ve often joked that students should wear electric shock collars at school. Teachers (or perhaps just a couple of us) would carry around remote controls. We could zap students in the hallways — you know why? Just because we could. It would be a wonderful improvement on student discipline at school.
Is he serious? Well, no. It’s just a fantasy.
After a controversial decision last month saying California parents who lack a teaching credential can’t teach their children at home, the Second District Court of Appeal will rehear the case in June.
. . . the three-judge panel in the homeschooling case hinted at a re-evaluation of its entire Feb. 28 ruling by inviting written arguments from state and local education officials and teachers’ unions.
California parents have been allowed to declare their home a private school for the purposes of homeschooling; private school teachers do not need a credential.
An anti-gossip campaign at Jewish high schools is trying to get teenagers to think before they say something hurtful about a classmate. In Jewish tradition, speaking evil about others is nearly as bad as doing evil. From the New York Times:
. . . at 11:15 each morning at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls on Long Island, the voice of Emi Renov, a 17-year-old junior, buzzes over the intercom, gently reminding her fellow students to refrain from gossiping for the next 60 minutes.
. . . for one hour after Ms. Renov’s announcement, her schoolmates make an honest attempt to avoid mocking one another’s outfits or whispering the latest shocking rumor.
. . . High school girls, who often are gossip’s victims as well as its villains, have taken the lead in popularizing the program, which aims to boost self-esteem and religious adherence.
I wonder if it would be possible to spread this campaign beyond Jewish or other religious schools. It ought to be possible to stigmatize meanness.
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