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SCHENECTADY
New school head aims to identify issues Graduation rate tops list of problems to be addressed
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    New city schools Superintendent Laurence Spring is, frankly, just as impressed with the interim superintendent as everybody else.
    On Spring’s first day, he said he’s already come to one inescapable conclusion: John Yagielski left some big shoes to fi ll.
    “I’m not going to be John. I couldn’t be. I don’t think anyone could be,” Spring said. “Boy, is he a master at this.”
    Yagielski can have a conversation with someone about “difficult things” and leave the other person “feeling fabulous,” Spring said in amazement.
    Spring is hoping to learn a bit about that technique, but he’s also forging ahead with the sorts of plans that require long-term effort — the sort of thing an interim superintendent couldn’t hope to fi nish.
    “We’ve got some teaching and learning issues,” Spring said candidly after his first meeting with the district’s principals. “We’ve got some achievement gap and equity issues.”
    In layman’s terms, he means the district’s graduation rate of 60 per- cent is far too low and too few poor and minority students graduate.
    Making matters more complicated, the district has implemented a host of new initiatives to better teach children, but it’s hard to judge whether any of them are better than the ways teachers used before.
    State tests change so often that they can’t be used as a benchmark to compare the effectiveness of different approaches, Spring said. And incremental changes that are easy to track — such as an increase in high school attendance — might not be hitting at the real problem.
    Spring plans to start by determining exactly what’s causing the low graduation rate.
    “The very first step is, defi ne the problem,” he said. “In education, we like to reach for solutions. Well, hang on a sec, what are you solving?”
    Are high school dropouts the ones who skipped school all the time? Or did some of the tardy students stay in school, while others left?
    “Until we really dive into it — Who are our dropouts? Why are they dropping out? — we won’t know,” he said.
    In Cortland, where Spring was district superintendent for six years, student fi les showed that dropouts had many risk factors, including poor attendance and poverty. But others with the same risk factors graduated. He interviewed a representative sample of the recent dropouts to find out more.
    “What we found was when you have three or more of these risk factors and you had a very disruptive or family crisis, then you’re more likely to drop out,” he said.
    He began compiling quarterly risk factor reports so teachers and guidance counselors could develop a better safety net for those students.
    “So when the crisis does happen, they don’t pull away from school, they turn to school,” he said.
    Schenectady is much larger than Cortland — 10,000 students, compared to 2,800 — but he said it’s not too large to implement the same approach. But first, he said, they must determine whether a crisis is the breaking point for Schenectady’s dropouts.
    The problem might start in elementary school instead, he said.
    “That dropping-out moment might be eight or 10 years in the making,” he said.
    He is particularly concerned about holding students back in early grades, even if they can’t read as well as they should for the next grade level. That decision, for many students, will be made this month, and he’s opposed to it in most cases.
    Holding back a student is like dropping a nuclear bomb, he said.
    “You can never catch them back up again [with their class],” he said. “And really, you can only hold them back once.”
    But administrators shouldn’t simply choose between passing them or holding them back, he added. ..........................>>>>.........................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1

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New school head aims to identify issues Graduation rate tops list of problems to be addressed

The tests are too hard...Lower the standards...As long as they can continue to sell the lie of successful compulsory schooling to the property owners.  They don't give a sh*t about the kids, they are concerned about losing the millions of tax revenue paying their salaries and retirement.  

Quoted from CICERO

The tests are too hard...Lower the standards...As long as they can continue to sell the lie of successful compulsory schooling to the property owners.  They don't give a sh*t about the kids, they are concerned about losing the millions of tax revenue paying their salaries and retirement.  

+1

And always remeber....


"When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children." ---Al Shanker

Here it comes:

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He is particularly concerned about holding students back in early grades, even if they can’t read as well as they should for the next grade level. That decision, for many students, will be made this month, and he’s opposed to it in most cases.
    Holding back a student is like dropping a nuclear bomb, he said.
    “You can never catch them back up again [with their class],” he said. “And really, you can only hold them back once.”
    But administrators shouldn’t simply choose between passing them or holding them back, he added.
    Students could spend half their time in each grade level, get extra help in the new grade level or perhaps be promoted midway through the year.

Here it is.   SOCIAL PROMOTION

Kid in 3rd grade can barely read at 2nd grade level but the new Schdy super won't hold the back in 3rd grade, he's going to promote then to the 4th grade when student can barely read at 2nd grade.

Hey, all but one of us (on these boards) know that there is no miracle in the Schenectady city, that a large percentage of students can't read appropriately when they get out of the Schenectady city school system, that the money is spent on fingernail painting classes and sports instead of the basics.   Quite obvious that this new super is going to be the death of the Schenectady schools.    Mustn't hold them back you know.

Or promote them midway through the school year.   Is this guy for real?   Now think in this term.  If 2nd grade is the grade to master addition and subtraction, and then let's say that in 3rd grade you learn multiplication in the first half of the school year and after the midpoint they start learning division.   So, keep the student in 2nd grade for the addition or subtraction stuff.   But in January (of when he is repeating 2nd grade), it's time to promote him into 3rd grade.   In January, 3rd grade has already learned about multiplication and are starting division.   Here comes newly promoted student into 3rd grade at the midway through the year---that this super appears to be endorsing---and student is being taught division after missing the first have of the year learning multiplication!

Or promote midway through the year and the kid has missed out on learning the first 100 years history in an American History class and then is learning the 1900's without learning what happened from 1776 to 1875.   By the way, DV, don't even start with history of America started before 1776!   I KNOW THAT.   I'm merely trying to use an example.   OK, World History, imagine the first half of the year learning about BC and then student is promoted midway, hasn't learned anything about world history in BC, starts learning AD.   Take the end of the year exam, fails the test, promote the kid anyway, mustn't hold them back.

Yep.   Schenectady = FAILURE.    

Yep, more people are going to move to Schenectady just so little junior can get promoted to the next grade, etc.

It's getting to the point that when I have need for services of people in various fields, I'm going to ask them if they went through the Schenectady school system.    If they say yes, then I'm not going to use their services.   I don't want to use a carpenter who was promoted but doesn't know fractions.   I don't want to go to a surgeon who missed out on biology but only took chemistry classes.   I don't want an attorney that can't properly interpret things because he or she doesn't understand sentence structure.

I don't want services of anyone who got promoted and then graduated when they only got scores of 65 on a test.

The worst thing is that while many kids are in the rut because there's no emphasis at home on education, no one in power has the guts to confront the parents and charge them with neglect


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Quoted from mikechristine1

Here it comes:



Here it is.   SOCIAL PROMOTION

Kid in 3rd grade can barely read at 2nd grade level but the new Schdy super won't hold the back in 3rd grade, he's going to promote then to the 4th grade when student can barely read at 2nd grade.

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When they promote a 'non-promotable' kid to the next grade.......the kid learns many life lessons......

a. failure is celebrated
b. failure is acceptable
c. no incentive to 'try' to do better or improve
d. the student can feel 'less than' aka inadequate
e. adds to a lower self esteem...if there was any there to begin with
f. they can be a failure and still 'make it thru' life
g. education is a joke and so it the school system
h. you don't need an education
............and the list goes on and on and on............

The school system has 'no teeth'......so to say.
And how many kids from the schenectady school system actually go on to college and get a life sustaining career?

This is what the liberal socialist progressives wanted......and this is what they got!!!

The UNION teachers complain that the state has tied their hands thru mandate after mandate. Well that's bullcrap!! The teacher's UNION is huge and obviously very influential and can make the state do whatever they want.......other than pad their pensions!!! What about 'the kids'????

Quoted from bumblethru

The UNION teachers complain that the state has tied their hands thru mandate after mandate. Well that's bullcrap!! The teacher's UNION is huge and obviously very influential and can make the state do whatever they want.......other than pad their pensions!!! What about 'the kids'????

There really is nothing they can do.  They are just the pedagogue to the state curriculum.  They go to college and are taught how to present the curriculum.  The pedagogue has no influence on developing the curriculum or testing standards.  

With all the federal money spent on "developing" teachers over the past 20 years, there is a surplus of teachers available to fill these positions.  There are hundreds of state qualified teachers applying for 1 public school teaching position.  Teachers know they are expendable, so they just toe the line and collect their checks...That is what is expected of them.  That is the way the system is designed.

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Failing schools are making for a failed city

    Our educational system is doomed to fail. It is geared to fail, and the proof is quite evident by test scores, discipline problems and the dismal graduation rates. No matter how much the people in education try to sugarcoat the results, the proof is there for everyone to observe.
    The policy makers have a great shell game that fools no one. It is diffi cult for me to understand how closing schools and grouping students in a larger area benefits anyone. Studies have shown, and common sense proves, that a child learns best in a small, safe and comfortable situation, where families and neighborhoods are involved. The group feels a strong sense of pride and caring about achievement and what happens to its children. Families help, and care about each other, just as neighbors care about what affects their surroundings.
    Our education system destroys this feeling of village and groups students into large masses. What is the purpose of this? I suppose some may say for financial reasons. I wonder how much a poor education saves our district. What is the cost of the loss of neighborhoods and large dropout rates?
    If one looks at our city, tax rate and neighborhoods, we can see how the educational policies have served our city. After 38 years in education, I realize that it does take a neighborhood (village) to raise a child. Just look at our city’s neighborhoods and see the results.

JOSEPH KACZYNSKI
Schenectady

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03205&AppName=1

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    Our education system destroys this feeling of village and groups students into large masses. What is the purpose of this? I suppose some may say for financial reasons. I wonder how much a poor education saves our district. What is the cost of the loss of neighborhoods and large dropout rates?
    If one looks at our city, tax rate and neighborhoods, we can see how the educational policies have served our city. After 38 years in education, I realize that it does take a neighborhood (village) to raise a child. Just look at our city’s neighborhoods and see the results.

There is a whole class of people that have been trained to depend on government systems.  Government systems are designed to produce a predictable product.  Poverty and illiteracy are predictable, that is why there are so many not for profit "charities" surrounding this failing school district.  There are a lot of people earning their living off of the school districts predictable failure rate.  

Ås long as the people in the failing system continue to look toward the failing system for the solution, the problem will perpetuate.

the public school system mimics that of the detroit car villages....the only difference is there are kids and not cars.....churn 'em out

dancin and singin reely guud

I was at an award ceremony the other night at Schenectady High . It was for seniors ,there were many there accepting scholarships to college. My son was one of these students,he is also autistic. He has been in this school system since kindergarten.  There are many great teachers and aides in the school system you just have to use them. I have actually stayed in this cesspool of a city because I didnt want to take him out of a system that was helping him . My daughter also graduated from this school two years ago . She made good friends played sports and never had problems. There are good students and teachers at that school they just get overlooked

I should add that he was born autistic,but it was caught early and he started getting help at age two . I'm very proud of how hard he has worked . In a few weeks he will be getting a regents diploma . Thats something I would have never thought possible 17 years ago.

Congrats to Walt's son - and to Walt and Mrs Walt for their dedication to their family!

Nice job folks!

It is the parents in the end, as to what the child wants to become and then, accomplishes. Congrats, Walt.

Sadly, unlike Walt; most 'parents' out there in that system think singin' and dancin' is where its at, and "please make sure to let me have my alone time from my kids so I can party and get laid."

Thanks ,but what i was getting at is there are dedicated teachers and aides in this district.People .parents have to use them. Just because, most students dont  take advantage of the help they can get dont blame the teachers.