More Crap To Do Because The AIO Says So

Thanks to a friend for sending along this letter (Download essay_contest1.pdf) from the high schools AIO Pam Randall about a January mandatory "mini conference" that requires not just attendance, but ... effort.  According to the flyer, schools are supposed to have an essay contest in which students tell how their principals help close the achievement gap.  Then everyone goes to a conference and some of the essays are presented, along with "Katie [sic] Haycock" from the Ed Trust.  Oh, yeah, the deadline for all this is Thursday. 

Comments

The generation we are educating right now is only going to be able to take standardized tests and talk about achievement gaps.

This has to be the most useless essay contest I have ever seen.

Most high school students have no idea what the achievement gap is and know less about what principals do

What principal?

Ours got pushed down the bleachers in a fight during a pep rally held during the school day. She has not been back since.

Oh did I mention she did not take any disciplinary measures because the football players involved had a "big" game to play.

We don't need no stinkin principals.

test

[George Schmidt]

One interesting question about the "Achievement Gap" essay contest is why CPS is sponsoring a lecture by Katy Haycock. Anyone here know anything about her and the work she does?

Anyway, since the deadline for schools to send in their "Achievement Gap" essays is tomorrow, another question is how many students submitted essays, from how many schools. Does anyone have that information?

Well, George, I just got word of the contest last night in an email from my Principal (to my CPS email which often fills up and bounces things, so I don't usually receive mail there). I am busy writing the essays now.

5:04 am Just google her and you'll see her nutty stuff.

How about we turn this on its head and start a post about AIOs. Readers can submit what they've done good and bad (we'll even check the list twice). I'm sure there have got to be some useful AIOs out there, so they deserve credit, too. Otherwise, why don't we ask, what have they done for us lately? How about it, Alexander?

[Alexander]

as long as it's kept constructive, i say go for it.

remember that you might want to read the catalyst cover stories about aios before weighing in.

[1.04]

George

In my school it is an all school event.Every kid must submit an essay.Some of the ones I saw ripped the principal to schreads.They
were brutal.

I haat them schreads.

[George Schmidt]

Maybe those Katy Haycock achievement gap essays should be published somewhere, haytephulle schreaddss or not...

Haycock is a real piece of work, as a visit to her stuff and to the Ed Trust will show. Hopefully the kids who attend that Haycock event will have read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" in preparation for it. However, if they wrote their winning essays with a straight face -- and not as satire -- it will be a sad event.

Books and studies by Jerry Bracey, Angela Valenzuela, Susan Ohanian, Stephen Krashen, Dick Allington, Linda McNeill, Richard Rothstein, Walt Haney, Wayne Ross, and many other reputable scholars deal with her nonsense, directly or indirectly.

Most of them will be in Chicago in April at the AERA convention. At least some of them could be nicely scheduled to counter Haycock's lies if anyone in the CPS area offices or the high school office wanted to. Why do I think that the right wing propaganda Haycock is delivering will be the official CPS version of reality -- and the opportunity to hear all those others will be loudly ignored a few months from now?

Katy Haycock is very well subsidized and is promoted to every reporter's Roladex (and every Op Ed page) so her stuff just keeps spewing out and getting a wide audience.

Again, the question is: How did Chicago wind up sponsoring her and disrupting high schools for her?

And I guess another question is: Who is paying for her trip?

One thing guaranteed. You'll hear a lot of that "Stand and Deliver" stuff about how all you need is "high expectations" and all the kids will soar, achievement gaps will dissolve, and everyone will live happily ever after.

Anyone who is working in a real public high school classroom is the target of the negatives in her message.

THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP IS THERE BECAUSE YOU DON'T BELIEVE ALL CHILDREN CAN LEARN.

Those other problems are all in your minds, inner city teachers and principals. The implication of Haycock's stuff is that the places that have the "achievement gap" have it because the teachers and principals have "failed" -- mostly by not having high enough expectations, etc., etc., etc.

I guess one of the reasons they trot her out is that to bring the big guns on that side from the Heritage Foundation or The American Enterprise Institute (or any of their lesser clones) would be too transparent. For some reason, "Education Trust" soothes with the same silly right wing message without having to be identiified as a "conservative" outfit, like the others are.

If anyone wants to have fun with her, ask how many years she taught in which inner city schools and what happened to the kids she taught way back then. Precise Who, What, When, and Where questions. (Leave her "WhY" to the shrinks or priests). People shouldn't let her get away with that "data shows" stuff they blather on and on about...

Dear George:
I say this to you most sincerely. I have been a reader of this blog and sometime (anonymous) contributor since earlier this year. (I have good reason for anonymity, since I am employed by CPS.)
I have learned much from this blog as well as read (very few), ridiculous things on it. Bottom line, I am glad it is here and have thanked Alexander for it. I also subscribe to Substance and would buy it at the CTU meetings outside of the Bismark when Jackie was there long ago. (We have even met a few times—as way back as when you taught at Amundsen, and yes, Virginia, George was an excellent teacher.)
I believe in the 1st Amendment and some of what you blog is enlightening. BUT…. You are going way off on a tangent in too many of your blog contributions. You do this is Substance, but hey, you are the editor and people could vote with their subscriptions if they do not like how you edit and write in Substance.
I have even sent you cash to help when the Hansen/CASE fiasco was going on and you were brave and you made positive change and suffered much. Thank you for that, but again, please stick to the point when on this blog. (Use EB White’s less is more editing style.)
Bloggers can skip what you say, but then they really miss the Grade A of what your point is all about. Bloggers will vote with their mouse and stop not only reading your input, but the blog all together. I really do not want to see this happen.
As for this blog about CPS, it is the only game in town and I would like it to stay that way.
Please George. Really, please. And thanks.

[I.M. Stillanoptimist]

Mr. Schmidt's is an honest, thorough, and candid voice. The machinations of CPS are rarely, if ever, reported by anyone (besides perhaps WBEZ) with the "long view" (an expression the historian Braudel used). And it is virtually impossible to understand the often contradictory, befuddling or ill-conceived policies/curriculum mandates CPS arrives at without a sense of what came before-- or, if you will, their geneaology. Mr. Schmidt is clearly a product of his U of Chicago training as well. Is there any better approach given the obfuscatory tactics CPS deploys and the high level of gullibility of the public? Who is shining a light on the BOE or CPS in print besides Substance? The Defender? The Reader?

I'll take Mr. Schmidt's prosaic reporting rather than the oversimplifications, partial truths, and mendacity present in most of CPS's "Press Releases", "Daley's Diversions" and "Duncan's Declamations". I for one, want Schmidt's Sagacity!

[1.04]

Yes I spelled shredded wrong.

1.04

I'm with 7:43. I have begun to skip George's comments mostly because of a lack of time to dedicate to pouring through his diatribes for his main point. I think he is incredibly smart but can't seem to figure out how to limit his tangential wanderings. Perhaps it is partly a matter of knowing too much about so many things. As a teacher, I know the danger of losing my main point when I know a lot about a topic. Keeping it simple does not necessarily mean dumbing it down.

If people like Jerry Bracey can refute Haycock in an understandable manner, and if Haycock's message is so damaging, why don't people like Jerry Bracey VOLUNTEER their time to debate. It would be great if people paid Haycock's opponnents, but throughout history, when have the underdogs ever been equally supported?

I just googled Haycock, knowing virtually nothing about her, and found these are some of her claims:

"First, Haycock said, U.S. schools 'are teaching different kids different things, with poor and minority kids disproportionately less likely to be taught rigorous, challenging subject matter.' Second, U.S. schools are giving some students lower-quality instruction. 'In every subject area, poor children are more likely to be taught by underqualified teachers,' Haycock said, and 'minority youngsters are vastly less likely to be taught by well-educated teachers.'

The third reason for the achievement gap "socks you in the face when you spend as much time in classrooms as my staff and I do," Haycock said. "I can only summarize what we've found by saying we've been stunned at how little [schools] expect of poor children"--stunned by how few assignments poor children get during a given week, but also by 'the miserably low level' of the assignments they do get."

Having taught in an extremely poor school for the last two years, I couldn't agree more. I could give you plenty of examples of how the students were being short-changed by their teachers. What am I missing that Haycock is saying that is so wrong?

6:42am It's not what she says is wrong with urban education (and some rural areas), it's her fixes. As with most researchers funded by right-wing think tanks, she thinks unions are the problems. If she's changed her views lately, I apologize. No malicious intent here.

George just gets caught up in his own brand of logic. Unfortunately, the "logic" itself takes over for facts and reality-checks in his writings. Skip over 'em.

10:48 Can you give some examples of how the CTU advocates for children?

regarding the essay

It will be interesting to read what the students can find to say about their principals. We don't hear enough of student voices on education.

Most high school students do not know their principals well enough to have a clue about their work in closing the achievement gap. And most of the schools on the south end of the city are segregated so it becomes even more difficult to write about this gap. This is one of the silliest things I have ever heard of. Who is this woman and where did she come from?

I believe you underestimate high school youth of color.