Voyage Ministries

Code Your Heart Out: A Valentine’s Day #CodedWithLove

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:12:00 +0000

Posted by Kate Parker, Manager, Made with Code

Locker decorations. Teddy bears. Cupid Cards. For teens, Valentine’s Day can be a fun holiday, but it can also sometimes be an isolating and a shallow portrayal of love (source). We know love is about so much more than crushes and candy, so Google’s Made with Code initiative is teaming up with teen girls across the U.S. to reframe Valentine’s Day around the types of love that can bring the world closer together.

Today, Made with Code is launching its newest coding project, #CodedWithLove, inviting students to make their mark on Valentine’s Day by coding a unique digital heart with millions of possible combinations, and sharing a message expressing what love means to them. The project is available at www.madewithcode.com/projects/codedwithlove for all students and educators—no prior experience required.

Also launching today are five new Made with Code role models who are using computer programming to put more love out into their communities. These inspiring young women and brilliant minds are perfect examples of how community change and problem solving can make a positive impact.

The coding rockstars being celebrated today are inventors behind Instakarma, Parihug, PraisePop, Spectrum, and We Read Too. Learn more about their causes to bring the world closer together with code:

Instakarma
Looking for volunteering opportunities for students can be practically impossible because a lot of sites don’t cater to that age group, even though giving back has been shown to lower stress lives, improve moods and boost self-esteems (source). So Meera, Shreya and Leslie created InstaKarma, an app where volunteers can search for opportunities to help in their local communities with everything from small tasks to official community service events. Their advice to their peers is simple, “Just go for it. If you see a problem in the world around you, build an app to fix it.”

Parihug
What if technology could add a dose of humanity back into connections? That’s what two young women, Harshita and Xyla (pictured), wanted to accomplish when they created Parihug, a Wi-Fi enabled teddy bear that lets users send a virtual long-distance hug. When one bear is hugged, a signal is sent to its mate— activating soft, fabric-based, sensors, and sending a hug across thousands of miles. They have this advice to other teen girls getting into this field: “Combine technology with other things that you love! If you love drawing, bring your art to life with animation. If you love gaming, try building a videogame from scratch. If you love explosions, safely give yourself a capacitor fireworks show and learn about circuits in the process. The best way to learn is through projects that you are passionate about,” says Xyla.

PraisePop
After surveying their high school, friends Sloane, Jenny, Moe and Qiqi learned that only 11 percent of peer responders thought that their school was a “very kind community.” So, they set out to change that by building a mobile app to create a way for people to recognize each other, brighten each other's days, and see positivity all around them. The best part of being app creators so far? “It’s not about the number of likes. It’s about the joy you bring to someone else’s life,” says Jenny.

Spectrum
Inspired by the lack of safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community to communicate on the Internet, five programmers from San Diego created Spectrum, an app that provides a social media network for the LGBTQIA+ community looking for a safe support system. When these friends came together to start building, they didn’t want to make just another app. They wanted to create something that would be able to reach out to youth who are struggling and make a true difference in their lives.

We Read Too
Kaya’s been in love with reading since a very young age, but she found herself consistently disappointed with the lack of books on display featuring diverse characters and writers that were relatable to her. She realized that if she wanted to see positive change, she’d need to take the first step. That’s why Kaya put her technology skills to work by creating We Read Too, an app that makes it much easier for people of color to find books about and written by people of color. “Knowledge is power and coding is an outlet to create technology that makes positive impacts on communities,” affirms Kaya.

These young women are just a few examples of leaders in the Made with Code community and our partner organizations, like Technovation, Code.org, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology, who are changing the world for the better.

Google’s Made with Code initiative is focused on inspiring teen girls to try coding and to see it as a means to pursue their dream careers. Today, we hope you will join us in celebrating people who are using code to make an impact in the world by spreading love and positivity, and encourage the students in your life to take their first step with code.

Love is what we make it. If we work together, we can transform Valentine’s Day into something greater than ourselves. Join us in celebrating at #CodedWithLove.
POST BY : http://googleforeducation.blogspot.co.id/

Meet Pastor Kurt Simon & Family

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:03:00 +0000

Pastor Kurt Simon

Simon Family

Rhonda and I have been married 26 years. We met in New Mexico at college and returned together to her home state of Missouri to serve God and make our home. We have 5 sons; Ethan (25), Eric (22) Elijah (19) Ezekiel (14) and Eaen (8). They love music, the arts (visual and performance), books, movies, sports, anything outdoors and pets. Baseball, kayaking, camping, and water-sports top the list. But if you asked each one it would be for Rhonda (teaching and music) Ethan (guitar and music), Eric (soccer), Eli (long boarding and coffee), Zeke (football football and a little rugby thrown in), Eaen (anything with bugs and books and ipads).

My family and I were called by the remaining members of FBC Waimea to restart the church in October of 2013. We moved in August of 2014 to begin the process of replanting this church. As part of the process, we knew we had to change the name as part of replanting. We settled on the name Voyage Ministries.

1987 GOD PLACED A CALLING TO SURRENDER TO THE MINISTRY

I was obedient to God’s calling to serve Him as his minister as a vocational path in my life. I felt this most completely when I had the opportunity to serve as a summer missionary in Israel. God has been faithful to place godly men in my life to mentor and disciple me throughout numerous blessing-filled ministry opportunities. Each time that He has moved me I have felt that He has shown me that He has a better way to use me as I mature. The calling has never changed; to be His servant in whatever He asks. Only the role and place has changed. I have served on mission in Houston, TX; Saskatchewan, Canada; Antigua, Guatemala; and Senegal, Africa. Ministries during these missions ranged from building church buildings, ministering to orphans, establishing “first points of contact” with unreached people groups, and inner city outreach events.

POST BY: http://www.voyagewaimea.com/pastor-kurt-simon/

Did superintendent Vitti just admit the QEA was a failure?

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 22:28:00 +0000

It's no secret that I have not been a fan of the Quality Education for All initiative that sent extra resources into what are now called the Duval transformation Office schools. 36 schools in the Jackson Ribault and Raines feeder patterns.

Now I believe these schools could use extra resources but most of the money went into Teach for America and a merit pay scheme not based in evidence. Furthermore it eroded democracy as most of the plans were made in secret and gave school privatizers a foot hold in some of our most delicate schools. I don't think it is just a coincidence that Gary Chartrand one of the big donors to the QEA was just the keynote speaker at a symposium attended by many of our students on the North and West sides of town whose theme was charter schools.

I will say this however despite my grave concerns that we were wasting money that could have been better used I hoped I was wrong. I really hoped the district could have went, geeze Chris you really blew that one. Unfortunately at just a little way past the half way mark of the QEA grants Superintendent Vitti seems to be signaling it was a failure.

Superintendet Vitti just recommended that Jackson be changed from a neighborhood school to a magnet school in the same vein as Paxon and Stanton, something I imagine he wouldn't be doing if the QEA was working.

Jackson joins R.L.Brown, S.P, Livingston, John Love elementary, Long Branch elementary, as DTO schools that the superintendent has targeted for radical changes. Why would he do that if the QEA was working? The answer is he wouldn't.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2016-02-16/story/vitti-board-talk-school-changes-tuesday-workshop-are-mum-controversial

That's the thing too, just a year and a half into a three year plan, the super has said, lets switch gears and try something else. what's going to happen if his latest plan doesn't match up either?

To see a list of the DTO schools, click the link, http://www.duvalschools.org/Page/15135

A rare victory in Duval for parents and teachers

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 20:46:00 +0000

Despite overwhelming disapproval of the elementary school ELA curriculum Engage NY/Duval reads, the superintendent was poised to expand it to middle school. Then something happened.

From WJCT

In Cowart’s classroom at Frank H. Peterson, she said she can’t deny Paths is the most aligned with state standards, but it’s too repetitive and not engaging. She doesn’t like it.

“You spend so much time going over and over and over the same two or three pieces of literature for literally weeks, and the fact that it is so scripted,” she says. “I said in the committee meeting, 'If we are trying to make kids hate school, we couldn’t do a much better job of it than we’re doing right now.'”

The School Board shared some of Cowart’s hesitation at a January meeting. So Vitti enlisted 29 middle-school teachers to review Paths and its runner-up. This time they also looked at user-friendliness, and 70 percent of the teachers picked the runner-up, Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt Collections, or HMH.

School Board member Becki Couch says she’s more comfortable with that one because it provides more supplemental materials like online help, Weekly Reader-style booklets and textbooks.

“I think that's been a big complaint that we’ve heard with the K-through-5, and I just wanted to make sure that we don’t really go down that road with middle-school curriculum,” she says.

That elementary curriculum came from the same developer as Paths.

This week, Vitti changed his recommendation to HMH, though he says most principals prefer Paths. HMH is also a little cheaper, at around $2.2 million over three years.

http://news.wjct.org/post/proposed-duval-middle-school-curriculum-balances-rigor-user-friendliness

What gave the board hesitation? Well it had to be all the teachers and parents speaking up letting them know what a disaster the current curriculum has been. It goes to show that the super cannot just bulldoze his way through the district. That he has bosses and the school board have bosses too, and those are the people of Jacksonville.

Now we just have to hope this is just step one and by the start of next year elementary schools will once again have a decent curriculum and Engage NY is in the dust heap where it should be with all the other latest and greatest curriculums.

So parents and teachers embrace this victory as they have been far and few between but not only that let it embolden you to not only believe things can be better but to work to make them so.

Scott Shine escalates his war of words.(rough draft)

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 01:33:00 +0000

From Florida Politics

Shine tells FloridaPolitics.com, “Chris Guerrieri routinely makes false and misleading comments in his blog that he knows or should know are false. Citizens often see things differently and I welcome that discourse. All I ask is that Chris do this in a truthful manner and stop lying to the public.”

http://floridapolitics.com/archives/201991-duval-school-board-tensions-simmer-charter-fight-escalates

I get the vibe I hit a nerve there.

First I would ask Scott Shine to point out one instance where the blog or I was deceptive, just one. Now I imagine he could find plenty of instances where he may disagree with what I write but there is a difference between disagreeing with someone and them lying.

You know who Mr. Shine reminds me of? He reminds me of someone who bopped his way through life never having to work to hard while receiving lots of pats on the backs and at-a-boys along the way, very rarely if ever hearing the word no, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Except because of it now he can't take criticism. He lashes out whenever anybody disagrees or dares to question him. He doesn't want discourse he wants people to fall into his way of thinking and if you don't you had better watch out. He is like the kid in the check out line who is perfect until his mom says he can't have a snickers bar and then has a tantrum. Shine's nothing more than a bully lashing out because he doesn't agree with me, a baby having a tantrum because an adult had the audacity to say no to him. He calls me a liar yet at know point can he point to a lie and also friends don't you think if he could have caught me in a lie I would have some sort of legal papers in my hand right now?

But worse than him trying to bully me is that he has been a terrible school board member for district 2. District 2 has some of the greatest schools not just in Jax but in the state and he voted for a charter school that the super himself said he wouldn't have approved if it was going into a less affluent neighborhood. His reason basically boiled down to, just because.

Shine has routinely represented the interests of charter schools and their supporters that he took money from, though as he put it, he didn't need to but just took it anyways.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2014/08/scott-shine-i-didnt-need-money-but-i.html

District 2 you deserve more than a bully who is only on the board to fill some bucket list line on a resume. You deserve somebody who cares about and is going to fight for your schools. Somebody who knows what they are doing and you definitely don't have that in Shine and if you don't believe me look at what Ashley Smith Jurez and Becki Couch, two other school board members have pointed out.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2015/07/ashley-smith-juarez-makes-scott-shine.html

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2015/11/becki-couch-points-out-fischer-and.html

District two, you deserve better,

What is a D school? What is an F school? What is an A school? Does anyone know?

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:06:00 +0000

By Greg Sampson

Florida has released new school grades for the previous school year. What do they mean?

School grades mimic the traditional report card that parents receive for the children. Four times a year, teachers assign grades to the learning of children. Even those grades can be hard to interpret. If a child failed, that is, received an F, why is that? Do they fail on tests and that is the overwhelming factor in the report card grade? Or does the teacher weight homework heavily and the child who refuses to do it will fail regardless of work done in school and test results? Or is it a gifted student who is bored and refuses to do work, but can ace a test if she feels like it? Or does the teacher believe that no child should fail and never assigns a grade lower than a C? Even individual grades must have context to have meaning.

Those school grades: What do they mean?

They are not comparable to previous years. Every year, the State has changed the grading rules until the grades have become meaningless, a result pointed out by the State’s Association of School Superintendents.

For 2015, because of new standards and new tests, learning gains are not part of the formula. This year, learning gains overall and for the bottom 25% will be part of the grade. So if a school rises or drops in their grade, does that mean they performed better or worse? How can anyone tell?

What do these grades mean? Can anyone tell me?

What does it mean when a school’s entire worthiness, it’s justification to exist, relies upon test results of only one reading test, one math test, and a few other selected tests that are not given every year?

Science, for example: Students only take it in their 5^th year, 8^thyear, and 11^th year. But it covers the previous years since the last test. Is it a true measure of student learning that they don’t remember in 8^thgrade what a zygote is because that was in the 6^th grade curriculum? If you think so, you don’t understand children and you don’t understand pedagogy (how children learn). Do you remember what a zygote is? And if you don’t, should we go back and close the schools you attended because you had to go to Wikipedia to look it up?

That is how Florida school grades are determined. A few tests. Period. And on that basis, if a school doesn’t measure up, it and all the people working there are threatened with closure and termination of career.

Why do parents love their F schools and resist their closure? Can it be that the teachers care about their children? Those so-called non-performing teachers, who clean their children’s wounds, provide bandages, let them cry upon their clothing although that will mean dry-cleaning bills—those that attend to the whole child because that two-word phrase is not a slogan, not a talking point for the media, but something that defines them?

School grades are meaningless. If you really want to know where the good schools are, there is a simple way to find out. Ask any real estate agent. Schools are important to families moving into a town and real estate agents know where to take their clients so that they can move into the boundaries of the best.

As for me, I repeat my call for accreditation agencies to review schools and issue reports. Florida officials should look at that process and revise it. Only when committees of experienced educators and other stakeholders visit a school, stay for a week, and see what is really going on will we receive an accurate snapshot of how well a particular school is doing.

Once we go that route, we can dump the stupid testing that distorts the learning process.

Until that time, Florida school grades … cow pie bingo, anyone?

Who exactly is teaching at the local Charter Schools USA schools

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:05:00 +0000

From Greg Sampson

Recent email received. I offer it without comment for your pondering of charter schools.

Subject:

Message: Substitute Teachers Needed in Orlando & Jacksonville, FL

Teach a variety of subjects!! Substitute teaching can be FUN!

Charter Schools USA (CSUSA) is one of the oldest, largest, and fastest-growing education management companies in the United States: http://charterschoolsusa.com

Charter Schools USA is actively seeking Substitute Teachers for our schools that are located in Orlando and Jacksonville, FL. Pay range from $10.00/hr. - $12.00/hr.

Immediate Needs!!

If you are interested in a potential future employment opportunity with CSUSA in the Orlando and Jacksonville, FL area, please answer the following questions and email your resume to Lynda Aransevia at: laransevia@charterschoolsusa.com

1) Which above noted locations most interest you?

2) What is the highest level degree you have achieved?

3) Have you interviewed with Charter Schools USA previously? If so, when and at which of our schools?

4) What is your most recent salary and salary need?

============================================

Thanks for exploring and considering our instructional employment opportunities with Charter Schools USA! I look forward to receiving your emailed personal resume along with your answers to the questions noted above.

Veteran ELA teacher says Engage Duval is ridiculous at best

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 22:02:00 +0000

From a reader

Engage Duval is ridiculous at best. No regard to developmental readiness, learning modalities, age appropriateness, UBD, infusing the arts into learning and much more that those of us who've been teaching a while have known to be best practices are pretty much void from most teachers plans.

Learning "guide"? Um, guide means just that, a guide not a dictated document. Yet, teachers are interrogated about what page their on at any particular time. That's not guiding, it's dictating.

Low teacher morale - that's an understatement. Rip away our autonomy and micromanage us to death with more paperwork and over testing than ever and then be amazed that teachers are unhappy, stressed, worn out, and wanting to leave their chosen careers? Really? How is it possible that those of us who began our careers 2 and 3 decades ago were able to help students learn and grow without any curriculum or with true, not micromanaged, guides and objectives along with the autonomy to do what we knew worked with our group of kids?

When I started my career as a brand new teacher recruited to teach from rural Indiana and thrown into inner city Jacksonville I had no curriculum yet was expected to get 33 third graders with no para - professional to be proficient (70%) at a battery of IMS objectives for math and communication - i.e. Language Arts - while promoting an understanding of grammar, spelling, cursive handwriting, basic math facts, 2 areas of S.S., and health. Students were to be ready for the E.S.T. assessment in the spring, but it wasn't as "high stakes", or didn't feel that way then, as the stresses teachers, students, and parents exhibit now.

How was I successful at moving students in a low socio-economic/Title I (and I detest those and other labels) many with poor home conditions, poor conduct, poor hygiene, and emotional issues a long with no curriculum back then? Just a side note, two of those little North Shore Elementary third graders graduated college to become a district TOY candidate several years ago and one is currently an AP. Not to forget that one of those little boys is a successful business owner. How did we make it then? What's different now? I'm thinking many of you know those answers.

Scott Shine tells me to get my resume together, and attempts to belittle other board members.

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 21:22:00 +0000

Scott Shine, SB district 2 left this comment on the blog Education Matters

Chris,

Just an fYI on the social media policy, this was proposed as a policy addition from Dr. Vitti and was taken up by your liberal friends on the board in the policy review subcommittee (against my wishes)a month ago. They were unanimous in moving it to next years employee professional standards. So, you only have a few months to add to your resume of false and reckless statements. Sadly, I did not even get a chance to vote on it. So, give your thanks to Hall, Wright and Couch for the "anti-Guerrieri" code of conduct addition next fall. While I am highly disappointed I did not get in on the action, and still want to bring it forward as a policy addition as originally submitted by the superintendent, so it can take affect in before the end of this school year.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2016/02/scott-shine-proposes-anti-blogging.html

First I would like to acknowledge that above shows real growth from Scott, usually he just leaves mean and nasty comments posted anonymously.

Let’s dissect what he wrote.

The first thing that stands out is “your liberal friends”. The school board positions are supposed to be non-partisan, it shouldn’t matter if you are liberal or conservative or whatever, because what’s best for our schools should trump all political leanings. The fact that Scott sees fit to call Hall, Wright and Couch “liberal” is telling.

Furthermore was he name calling there? I get it calling somebody “liberal” isn’t like calling somebody retarded but I get the distinct impression he was trying to belittle and marginalize when he wrote that, as if liberals are somehow less worthy of respect.

Then Holy Hostile work environment Batman. He writes, “So, you only have a few months to add to your resume of false and reckless statements.” Is he telling me to get my resume ready? Is he saying that the district is going to put an end to the blog? Both are threatening. He’s a school board member and here he is threatening a teacher he disagrees with, he’s not giving an alternate point of view, he’s not defending his decisions or positions or asking readers to explore alternate points of view. He’s saying get your resume ready because next school year you are on your way out.

Connie Hall’s text was sent to a third person and seemed off the cuff and superintendent Vitti said he felt like it created a hostile work environment. Shine on the other hand addressed me and sent me a 141 word note. Should I follow the supers lead and look into legal counsel?

Then think about this. Connie Hall sent her text to one person, where Shine left his comment on a blog that on good days gets thousands and thousand of hits. He wanted to make sure his comment was widely read, and do you know who most of the readers of the blogs are? Teachers, that is who. His threat wasn't just to me, it was to teachers as well. He just said look at me, the district can silence whoever it doesn't like. That's a chilling message for a district that already has a reputation for quashing dissent and punishing teachers who speak out.

Then he accuses me of being false and reckless, couldn’t I consider that to be libel or if he has said it to people slander? I have opinions about how things are being run, I do but last I checked it was still legal to have opinions. Furthermore, if I get something wrong, I own up to it on the blog because I understand it does my argument no good to get things wrong. I once wrote a blog saying Scott was a lifelong member of the government dole and after he pointed out I got it wrong I not only retracted it but I apologized.

http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2014/08/just-who-gives-bleep-who-has-endorsed.html

Then he wrote “affect” when he should have written effect, but have you read one of my blogs because if you have, you know I can really forgive that.

This just just reaffirms my thoughts about Mr. Shine and that is he is in way over his head, and that he is driven by his ideology not by what’s best for children, schools and teachers. The question I would like you to ask is how isn’t what he did today just as bad if not worse than what Connie Hall did?

Scott Shine proposes the anti-blogging Guerrieri rule

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 22:17:00 +0000

I had the following conversation with an attendee of today's afternoon school board meeting. I had left before it started as I had an important date with my couch and Netflix.

Shine has completely lost it... He called for the board to fire Michelle Begley

He also introduced a social media policy against bloggers, and etc

hahaha did he?

that should be interesting

shoot me some details and I will blog about it

All he said is you accused Gary Chartrand of using his influence to break the story and he is not okay with you as a district employee being able to get away with it. He says he is calling for a social media policy against it and the firing of Michelle Begley the board auditor

Here is the thing that Scott Shine and WJCT should know. If WJCT doesn't want me questioning their integrity they should stop taking money form Gary Chartrand. Now some people agree with him but lets not pretend for a second that he is not agenda driven and I don't know about you but I like my news sources to be above reproach.

It is also unrealistic to think that his agenda doesn't seep into the organizations he finances, JPEF anyone?

As for Shine and other board members, if they don't want me pointing out the crazy things they say, their positions that are the antithesis to supporting public education, or the money they take from special interests, then they should stop saying crazy things, stop taking money from charter school operators and start supporting our schools, children and teachers.

If I was Shine I wouldn't like the blog either, but the truth is he gives me plenty of material to write about.

Duval's much ado about nothing press conference (rough draft)

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:58:00 +0000

When I heard the district was having a press conference to discuss improved school culture, I was hot. I don’t want to say I have talked to every teacher or even all the ones that I have agree with me but most of the ones I have and know feel we are heading in the wrong direction as a district.

Then to be honest my Mel Gibson conspiracy theory inner nut took over for a minute and I thought it might have been a set up to talk about the texts that came out last weekend. I believe they were released to distract us from the real issues facing the district and to hurt a political foe of charter school interests.

I was ready to go in guns blazing and now I have to say I am a little embarrassed, I took off my pajamas early and got dressed for no reason as none of above really occurred.

Now the district did talk about improvement in several areas but they were all very vanilla.

Are your standards based on common core, does your principal care about safety, are you getting more professional development. All legitimate and fairly important topics to which most people said yes. Just like I imagine most people would say puppies are cute, and ice cream is tasty. Not exactly ground breaking topics.

I and Denise Amos of the Times Union asked if there were any questions about how the staff felt about the curriculum, i.e. a teacher may say they like their school, but they also do not like the curriculum they are required to teach and they feel it is appropriate, was there any questions like that addressed in the survey. The super admitted there were no such questions on the survey.

See that’s the thing, like many of us, we may like or love our schools but at the same time we find what we are required to teach inappropriate for a variety of reasons.

Professional development has increased (that doesn’t mean it is good) and I believe every principal cares about safety (that doesn’t mean discipline has improved) but answering those questions in the affirmative doesn’t address our issues.

So sure the survey may have some peripheral value but time and time again the district has shown they aren’t all that interested in really hearing what the staff has to say. Where are our survey monkeys about discipline, Duval reads, common core math, a lack of recess and admins in our classrooms not looking to improve instruction but for gotcha moments. If they really are interested in knowing what staff thinks then those are the questions they need to be asking about.

So to sum up, on my day off where I planned to pajama and Netflix all day long I dragged myself down to the school board building to attend a press conference where I learned exactly what I already knew. Don’t be concerned, I have my pajamas back on.

Now that I think back there was one bit of note. I asked about why only 14% of Duval’s teachers are considered highly effective where 40 percent of the states are. The super said, our distribution was more realistic than other districts. I am not so sure about that, I get it too, evaluations are on a bell curve where we should have fewer highly effective and needs improvement on the ends, but I think we have a lot of highly effective teachers not graded that way for a variety of reasons most of which have nothing to do with their teaching.

Jason Fischer of all people calls for Connie Hall to resign.

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:21:00 +0000

At today’s special school board meeting called to discuss dysfunction on the board, Jason Fischer called for Connie Hall to resign over texts revealed last week. Admittedly enough one, where she referred to Vitti as, special ed in action, was in poor taste, though I don’t think it anywhere near approaches something to resign over. Also I don’t want to come off as an expert on board relationships but I am pretty sure calling on a colleague to resign isn’t going to help the dysfunction.

You know what somebody should resign over? How about announcing just barely past the half way mark of your term that you had done all you can do and you were seeking a spot in the Florida House of Representatives? Or how about taking thousands of dollars from special interests and then voting to enrich those special interests at the expense of your constituents? How about voting for ideological and partisan causes rather than what’s best for our schools, students and teachers.

How about those things, or you know things that Jason Fischer has routinely done.

I don’t want to defend Connie Hall but I find it rich that Jason Fischer who has done more damage to the district in his first term than even I thought possible is calling or her to resign.

Yes our board is dysfunctional but culprit one is Jason Fischer and he should look in the mirror and follow his own advice. At the very least he’ll have more time to campaign for his house run.

To learn more, click the link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2016-02-15/story/duval-school-board-acrimony-and-dissent-builds-one-members-calls-another

Vitti is having a press conference saying teachers are happy. Am I missing something?

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 02:43:00 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:    Laureen Ricks
                  904.390.2211

DISTRICT IMPROVING LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR TEACHERS
Gains Demonstrated on Teacher Insight Culture Survey

WHAT:
Three years ago Duval County Public Schools started the administration of an Instructional Culture Survey to objectively determine how teachers felt about their schools’ culture in order to improve teacher retention and student achievement. The instrument was developed by The New Teacher Project (TNTP). DCPS has received results from the Winter 2015 administration and they provide strong evidence of the district’s progress in improving school culture based on the opinion of teachers.  

Media and community members are invited to join Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti, School Board members, and principals as they discuss the survey results.  

WHEN/WHERE:        
Monday, February, 15 10:00 a.m.
Duval County Public Schools 
Administration Building, Room 128
1701 Prudential Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32207

Vitti says he was brought in to be a change agent. Um no!!! (rough draft)

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 14:18:00 +0000

Vitti took every opportunity he could this weekend to say he was brought in to be a transformational superintendent, a change agent.

Um, no, no he wasn’t, he was brought in to help improve our district. When he arrived we had serious issues and I don’t want to sugar coat that, discipline was bad, teacher morale was poor, often who you know not what you could do determined advancement and our schools on the north and west sides of town were floundering. That being said I thought we had tons of potential and it wouldn’t take blowing up the system to reach it. Disciplined schools, respected and engaged teachers, and stop treating our schools on the north and west sides of town like unwanted step siblings would have gone a long way.

Fast forward to today and discipline is bad, teacher morale is at an all-time low, often who you know not what you can do determine advancement and our schools on the north and west sides of town are floundering. Then throw in the disastrous Duval Reads/Engage NY, the elimination of most librarians and many libraries, a three hundred percent increase in charter schools, him outsourcing the district’s functions to corporate raiders with acronyms for names, TFA, TNTP and JPEF, and the dissolution of our neighborhood schools.

Look I don’t want to be that guy who hates puppies and doesn’t think the sky is blue just because Vitti likes puppies and thinks the sky is. This administration has been amazing at writing grants that bring new resources to some of our schools and he was right in bringing back the arts and PE even if the implementation has been ham-fisted but that’s one step forward and six steps back.

At the end of the day however, yes he has changed the district just not for the better and sadly I am not sure how much more of his change the district can take.

Note: before anybody yells at me about graduation rates being up here are two things you should consider, they were going up before Vitti got here and do you know where else they are up? EVERYWHERE,

Vitti says he has to endure a hostile work place. What!?!

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 23:41:00 +0000

Responding to an admittedly inappropriate text, the Superintendent has said he has had to endure a hostile workplace. What the @#$%!!!

From a letter the superintendent sent to WJCT:

“Unfortunately, the information that was included as part of the PRR is not necessarily surprising as it speaks to the hostile work environment that has been created by certain board members since I interviewed for the superintendent position and assumed the role.

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wjct/files/201602/dr._vitti_full_response.pdf

One of the biggest complaints teachers and admins whisper, and they whisper because they are too afraid to say it openly is how they are often intimidated and brow beaten by district staff. Vitti thinks he works in a hostile workplace, he obviously doesn’t understand what that means.

Disagreeing with somebody does not equal hostile.

Wanting you to stop destroying the district does not equal hostile either.

You know who works in a hostile environment? Teachers on one year contracts that is who. Teachers who are afraid for their jobs that's who. Teachers who are forced to do what they know is wrong for their kids but need the paycheck that's who. Vitti doesn't.

Another thing lost in all this is the superintendent has now threatened to sue the school board twice in the last few months if he doesn't get his way. The first was back in November when the board considered him not doing the roll out of his boundary change proposals and now over the text.

The superintendent's contract does not expire until 2019. Vitti said he's looking at possibly taking legal action, but did not elaborate.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/education/text-messages-show-rift-between-school-board-superintendent-vitti/40743863

The superintendent is in the big leagues, he should have his big boy pants on and realize people are not always going to disagree with him but once again disagreeing with somebody does not equal hostile.

The conspiracy to take down Connie Hall by “paid for” media

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 12:32:00 +0000

Unless you have been under a rock you have heard about the text messages sent by Connie hall saying “I vote fire him now” and “special ed in action” when referring to superintendent Vitti.

Where I agree with most “special ed in action” was in poor taste I believe I can make the case that Connie Hall was set up by the district along with the media and special interests and they are trying to rail road her and that more than her comment is what should outrage us.

First of all WJCT has led the coverage with most of the other media parroting what was written and reported there. WJCT is not known for breaking news, why were the text messages sent to them and not all the news outlets?

Well it may be because WJCT’s education coverage is funded by Gary Chartrand, charter school proponent and huge backer of superintendent Vitti, whose repeated actions have backed Chartrand’s corporate style reforms. The expansion of charter schools, the marginalization of teachers etc.

Then the media has said over and over they don’t know why the Miami law firm that made the public records requested that exposed the emails targeted Connie Hal.

From WJCT:

Robert H. Fernandez, an attorney with Zumpano Castro law firm, requested Hall’s texts and emails, along with those of board members Paula Wright and Becki Couch. A phone message to the firm asking why it targeted the three was not returned by this story’s deadline.

http://news.wjct.org/post/text-messages-highlight-duval-school-board-hostilities-toward-vitti

I know why and I have known since the minute the story broke and I am not an education reporter, or you know someone who is paid to know and follow these things.

Back in the fall Connie Hall along with Becki Couch and Paula Wright voted against a new Charter Schools USA project and that outraged them and since they are nothing but bullies, they have threatened to sue me twice for blogs I have written, they sent their lawyers after them to intimidate the school board members.

The following piece by Julie Delagul appeared in Context Florida, the Folio and other media last December.

First the lobbyist from the Florida Charter School Alliance wanted to meet with a sitting Duval School Board member – privately. But when former Duval School Board Chairwoman Becki Couch suggested they “notice” the meeting and invite her fellow school board members to join them, lobbyist Ralph Arza said no. He asked her again to meet privately and, in an email dated Sept. 15, Couch declined again.

Then came the vote on the application for a new Charter Schools USA operation in Jacksonville. District staff had recommended denying the charter school application twice before, but in advance of the Oct. 20 vote, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told the board that the organization had assuaged his worries. The application, however, had not changed.

With lobbyist Arza in the audience Oct. 20, the board voted 4-3 to approve the charter school. Couch and two other board members, Connie Hall and Paula Wright, were the three who voted to deny the application.

Next came the public records requests from South Florida lawyer Robert H. Fernandez, aimed at Couch, Hall, and Wright. The first one, dated Nov. 10, wanted the three members’ travel records, including reimbursements, along with salary and benefit information. Travel reimbursements are popular fodder for future ethics complaints: Just ask New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, or former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown.

Fernandez’s second public records request, dated Nov. 16, sought documents regarding the three board members’ communications – with each other and with a laundry list of nine other individuals. Fernandez even asked for cell phone text records.

http://contextflorida.com/archives/12345/12345

So when the media says he we have no idea why the law firm requested the texts it is either being disingenuous or it means we have some really crappy media.

Then why were the texts released when they were after all the requests were made months ago? Maybe it was to distract from the release of school grades or maybe because there is momentum building around the city because of the way Vitti treats teachers and the disastrous curriculum he picked, to replace him. It’s my bet the people behind the release wanted to give him cover and garner sympathy for him. They held the texts like a trump card playing it when they felt it would do the most good.

So let me sum up, all this is, is Gary Chartrand’s private media source breaking a story that targeted a foe of us his and an at best willfully ignorant media that is only giving the people of Jacksonville half the story. When the media does the bidding or corporate interests we all lose and that more than what Connie Hall said should outrage us.

Discipline in Duval Couty

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 01:26:00 +0000

Now that's funny.

Duval is now a B district. How do I know? Because Superintendent Vitti told me so.

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 23:41:00 +0000

I received the following note from the superintendent and I felt since his emails are open to public records searches I would share it with you.

Chris,

It was brought to my attention that a previous blog of yours suggested that under my leadership the district's school grade dropped to a "C" for the first time. For accuracy purposes, the district's grade fell to a "C" in 2011-12, which was before I became superintendent. To that point, I would only expect that you correct that information and now highlight that we are a "B" district. It will be interesting to see how you address the matter considering the facts.

Here is the thing I will occasionally get things wrong and I encourage people to set me straight because it does me or my argument no good to get things wrong.

I went back and checked and the super is right. The district slid to a C the year before he came. It remained a C his first two years and then for the 14-15 school year the state graded Duval a B. The superintendent is right and I want to thank him for pointing that out.

I am not a big fan of our grading system. I believe it is a disaster and the only thing it can be used for is to compare districts to each other because all the districts are playing with the same crappy system. Now like the super I think it is silly to compare us to districts like Clay and St. Johns but I think it is okay to compare us to the other big, urban districts.

Overall however I feel like the system is terrible and should be disregarded and you know who agrees with me, or agrees with me when convenient that is? It’s superintendent Vitti and I will let his words do the talking for him.

Despite predicting that the number of D and F schools in the district would more than double from last year, Vitti said changes to the state’s accountability system since last year make it impossible to compare 2013-14 to 2014-15. For instance, in 2013-14 the schools were protected from dropping more than a letter grade by a state-mandated safety net. This year that provision is gone.

http://jacksonville.com/news/2015-12-10/story/projected-2014-15-school-grades-not-dire-scenario-painted-duval-superintendent

Vitti says new state standards ensure that there will be over 100 D and F schools in Duval County based on an arbitrary cut line and a test that hasn’t been fully vetted.

No one disputes the need for accountability in the public schools. But the standards must be fair. They must be reasonable.

And they should be broad enough to factor in the full school experience and not be based on just a few tests.

What concerns Vitti is that whenever the standards are changed so arbitrarily, the struggling students, teachers and administrators in low-income neighborhoods are hurt the most.

http://jacksonville.com/opinion/editorials/2015-10-01/story/floridas-misguided-school-acountability-system-will-be

“There was never a question of whether the FSA was aligned to the new standards and therefore was valid in that sense,” said Vitti. “Unfortunately, a validation study did not address what was at the center of concerns for parents, teachers, and administrators...that the use of FSA for the purposes of school grades, retention, and teacher/administrator evaluation was unfair, illogical, impractical, and defied best practice regarding proper field testing. In other words, the use of the results to make decisions about students’ future and the performance of schools, teachers, and administrators.

“The FDOE and the State of Florida missed the opportunity to make the right decision,” Vitti said. “As a result, the legacy of a needed and strong accountability system for our students will continue to be questioned. I only hope now that the test will remain the same and the measures to define proficiency and growth after this year’s changes remain the same for the purposes of consistency and transparency. If this does not happen, then Florida’s accountability system is doomed.

http://jacksonville.com/news/2015-09-01/story/test-valid-study-says-vitti-concerns-fairness-practicallity-logic

I could go on and on as the superintendent has said over and over how the accountability system has been changed to the point of irrelevancy.

When the super was predicting 100 F and D schools to everyone who would listen then the grading/accountability system was horrible. Now that State has rigged the game and that’s what the state did, they fixed it so there would basically be the same amount of A-F schools this year as last year, now the super is saying “Hey it’s okay after all. Look here Guerrieri we’re a B district now.” Fair enough but who wants to bet if the grade would have remained a C, then I wouldn’t have got that note.

And that’s the thing, every positive thing no matter how small is parade worthy to the super, he feels like he can do a victory dance and every negative thing no matter how big gets a “who me" shrug of the shoulders, it’s that the accountability system has been changed over and over or its communication between admin and teachers, or teachers just don’t know how great the new curriculum is yet. Vitti has been really great at two things, taking victory laps whether they are deserved or not and making excuses. http://jaxkidsmatter.blogspot.com/2015/02/superintendent-vitti-is-great-at-one.html

I am not the only one questioning Vitti's sincerity either.
from the Tampa Times

Florida's 2015 school grades became official Friday, concluding a months long saga over their validity and how superintendents across the state lost confidence in the new grading system. Some speculated that no one would care about the debut of the new grades based on the Florida Standardized Assessments.

But apparently Pinellas and Hernando counties, along with Duval County, still care. These three counties sent press releases Friday championing their improvements.

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/pinellas-hernando-school-districts-brag-about-derided-baseline-grades-as/2265231

So yes to use the super’s words it is a fact we slid to a C the year before he got here and the state graded us a B this year those are facts.

The truth however is we are in trouble and the main reason is we have a super who is more interested in looking good and getting the last word rather than doing what is right. We have had successes, lots of them but I believe the vast majority of them have happened in spite of the super not because of them.

Is Duval purposely low balling its teacher evaluations?

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 01:35:00 +0000

Is Duval purposely low balling its teacher evaluations?

If you are not on professional contract and you get a highly effective evaluation you just got a 2,000 dollar raise. That’s good money there.

The problem is in Jacksonville it is nearly 2.5x harder to get a highly effective evaluation than it is in the rest of the state.

In Jacksonville only 14.8 percent of teachers received a highly effective evaluation while statewide that number was 37.5 percent.

If Duval just met the state average that would be about 1,500 more teachers receiving highly effective evaluations. Which cold cost the district millions. Money Vitti couldn't spend on whatever his computer program du jour is.

Let’s face it we have a terrible and unwieldy evaluation system. The cast makes convoluted things look downright manageable and now we may know why.

I would say the district was nickel and diming teachers but the reality is the district is costing teachers real money.

Want to know how many teachers were rated highly effective at a particular school? Click the link:

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/7503/urlt/1415DistEduEvalRate.pdf

Speak to the School Board 2/11/16

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 23:52:00 +0000

I have to say these are the three members of the board that seem like they are willing to listen the most. if you have something to say now is the time.

Academic coaches are colleagues not bosses

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:59:00 +0000

I don’t want to anger any coaches that are readers, I know like teachers the vast majority of you are professionals and work just as hard as anyone else but below is a story I have heard more and more frequently as principals make coaches part of their leadership team and people think coaching is a stepping stone to administration. Academic coaches are colleagues not bosses and this is something a few of them seem to forget.

From a reader

At my school we have a fairly new principal and they are allowing our reading coach to run the entire show in regards to ELA.

Fast forward to today and the district has piled all these requirements on us with the new curriculum. In addition to that, our reading coach is forcing us to do all of this work with materials that have little to do with what we are actually teaching.

When asked how we are supposed to find time, they put up their hand up, as in talk to the hand. This was supposed professional minimizing and ignoring the concerns of another professional. A colleague not a subordinate.

So after that was added then we were told we have to work on portfolios during our rotations. We have to go through every single student and mark each standard they mastered on the scrimmage. If they didn't pass a standard we have to reteach the standard in rotations. We have to create gradual release lesson plans for each standard and at the end of each week the students will be given a test to see if they've mastered the standard. There are also weekly writing essay tests given. We don't have time to grade the essays before it's time to give the next essay.

There are 6 ELA teachers in grades 3-5 at our school. We all feel the same way….overwhelmed and at our breaking point. 4 of us got together to meet with the principal. We voiced our concerns about how they were putting too much on us and that we can't possibly do it all. We are all good teachers at an A/B school. After saying again that the reading coach is pushing us too far, and the principal backing her up, two of us began to cry.

One of us said you're just asking too much of us. Another asked him if he was willing to give up his entire ELA team so this reading coach could continue on their power trip (to many of us they seem to be trying to invent a need for themselves at our school). Their reply was, "You're welcome to transfer." That was the ultimate slap in the face. We weren't given any supplies to teach these individual standards during rotations. We've requested a TDE to check off which students have met the standards, but we just don't get a response to our emails.

A teacher crying at work because of what other adults did is unacceptable but it happens more often than people think. These teachers are frustrated, exhausted and at the end of their ropes and they deserve better than shrugs of the shoulders from their principal and a run away coach piling on.

And friends if this is happening at one of our high performing schools, what’s happening at other schools less fortunate? An entire ELA team ready to quit.

We are never going to reach our potential as long as we minimize and disregard our teachers like this, never.

JPEF says that while they support the Urban Education Symposium, they didn't create their agenda.

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 21:34:00 +0000

This years agenda was how to get more black students to attend charter schools.

JPEF says this despite the fact the symposium was promoted on their web-site, Gary Chartrand the founder and a board members of JPEF and a huge charter school proponent was a featured speaker and they admit providing materials for the conference they didn't really have anything to do with it.

Below is a note I received for Trey Csar the president of JPEF and you can decide for yourself what their motives were but I for one remain convinced their motive was to recruit students away from our public schools to attend charter schools.

...

I wanted to to take a moment to clarify for both you and your readers that the 8th Annual Urban Education Symposium (UES) held last weekend was not a Jacksonville Public Education Fund event. In some of your recent posts, the Symposium appears to be characterized as an event primarily put on or sponsored by JPEF.

This is not only an inaccurate representation of JPEF’s role in the event but also a disservice to the Jacksonville Community Engagement Group (CEG), who have been putting on this event since before JPEF existed.

While the UES is not a JPEF event, we are among a number of community organizations involved with supporting the Community Engagement Group’s efforts to bring the symposium together every year, primarily through providing a written data update that goes into the event’s program booklet. We promoted the event on our calendar (as you highlighted in a previous post) the same way we do for any relevant education event in Jacksonville.

We continue to provide that service because we have a deep commitment to improving racial equity in our city’s education system, and believe that the CEG has been instrumental in keeping the challenges facing Jacksonville’s young black men front and center in the public discussion. As I said at our ONE by ONE Convention a few weeks ago, we know our city can’t succeed until all of our children succeed, and CEG’s focus on young black men is vital to this goal.

For more information on the sponsors of this year’s UES and steering committee members, I encourage you to visit their website at http://www.urbanedsymposium.org/.

Trey Csar

Superintendent Vitti cannot serve two masters (rough draft)

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 23:06:00 +0000

On Saturday Education Matters reported that district partner the Jacksonville Public Education Fund was pushing a symposium on charter schools to the districts kids, specifically those on the north and west sides of town. Let me repeat that in case I gave the wrong impression, the district wasn’t pushing it but its partner JPEF was, this is the same JPEF that will be putting on the Teacher of the Year ceremonies in a couple weeks and manages the Quality Education for All funds and puts on various other activities.

I and many others was outraged by this. If you run a business and one of your contractors was trying to steer your customers to another business then you would probably stop doing business with that contractor. However since this is Duval JPEF might get a bonus.

Education activist Bradford Hall wrote the super a letter and the super replied and I have included that below.

Here is the thing, even if we take everything that the super wrote at face value it does not matter because the super cannot serve two masters. He cannot continue to approve charter schools that even he says have a poor chance of being successful and that as a group either under perform or are set up in neighborhoods that already have successful schools and then say look I am doing all I can to bring kids back from charter schools.

He has to decide whether he wants to be the super of our public school system or if he wants to privatize the district which I and many others think is his true agenda. This death by a thousand cuts is hurting so many.

Now say I am wrong, say he thinks he can serve Chartrand and the charter school operators and the district’s schools, teachers and students how after all that he is done doesn’t he get how wrong that is. We will be spending millions extra next year and beyond on magnet conversions and transportation, money that we desperately need elsewhere.

And I don’t know about you but I want a junk yard dog who is going to fight for our district, not one that says, it’s okay that our partners actively undermine us and who is okay with the privatizing of our schools.

I will let you decide. Bellow is his response to Bradford hall's letter.

Mr. Hall,

Friday’s activities did not include charter recruitment activities. As you lightly referred to in your email and seem to know based on your experience with the Annual Education Symposium, engagement with students in the school district has been taking place with community members involved with the Symposium for over six years, well before my superintendency. These activities are focused on building the civic capacity of our students and have had nothing to do with charter schools. In fact, the feedback from community members regarding the thoughtfulness and maturity of our students was outstanding. However, to repeat, the activities did not include direct or indirect recruitment of our students to charter schools.

As far as your other questions are concerned, I think my desire and strategies to compete with charter schools is well established. You have attended countless board meetings, workshop presentations, panel discussions, and community meetings or can review TU articles and TV interviews where this has been articulated or shared. To name a few strategies to combat charter growth: we have expanded internal district choice to limit charter enrollment; empowered principals and district staff with first-time developed and reviewed student enrollment data to retain and recruit students; developed new schools, themes, and programs to compete with charters; developed a marketing plan and strategy; expanded the Choice Expo to all schools, not just magnets to encourage parent exposure to all schools; and created a new and separate district position to recruit parents from charter and private schools as part of the Choice Office.

Perhaps we disagree regarding the acceptance that some charter schools are well established and welcomed by parents as too friendly to charters but I believe a counter perspective belies the reality of parent demand. You may not like KIPP or Tiger Academy; however, parents with children on the Northside do. If they did not, then they would not send their children to those schools nor would there be a waiting list. I also know you would simply recommend that we break the law and deny most, if not all, charter applications. This strategy is a waste of resources and also denies parents the opportunity to select schools they feel are best for their children. We have denied charter applications or caused applications to be withdrawn before denial votes by raising the bar of expectations for applications. Not all charter schools are weak or evil and not all charter schools are strong. Therefore, a balanced approach is necessary.

To address your other questions, the solution to improve low-performance is not only based on boundary changes and school redesigns. You are well aware of the unprecedented investment in retaining and recruiting stronger teachers for Northside schools; expanding technology investment; increasing PreK, art, music, elective, and dual enrollment offerings; and providing more school based positions to work with students who are below grade level in reading through interventionists and coaches. All of this including principal changes to strengthen instructional leadership and a research based district office model (DTO) to directly support schools and build the capacity of leaders and teachers.

I have been repeating since 2012-13 that our district and the state were experiencing a significant rise in D and F schools due to previously changed standards and more importantly, cut scores that define proficiency. From 2011 to 2014, the number of D and F schools in the state increased by 260% from 156 to 562. the district increased by 119% from 21 to 46. From 2012 to 2014, the number of D and F schools in the state increased by 125% from 249 to 562. The district increased by 109% from 22 to 46.

I have explained a number of times that schools are facing or will face state sanctions. I repeated that the community has not dealt with this reality due to hold harmless grades. I stated this to explain principal changes, school redesign, and boundary changes over the past two years. And, to be clear, “Priority Schools” are not newly defined low performing schools facing possible state sanction. Their performance prior to 2013-14 led to their designation. The strategies stated above have and will allow schools to avoid state sanctions. However, we cannot sustain the attempt to directly support a number of schools often in the same feeder pattern that face the same challenges of low performance, low enrollment, low utilization, and low or below residency growth rates.

Programs that have been strengthened or added on the Northside since my arrival to address charter enrollment growth and improve performance include:

· Aviation Programs at Ribault Senior and Middle School

· Cybersecurity Early College Program at Jackson

· Strengthening the Visual and Performing Arts Program at Raines

· Pitsco Labs at Highlands, Northwestern, Ribault, YMLA/YWLA, and Gilbert

· Strengthening the Montessori Program at John Ford

· Pre-Early College at Ribault and Gilbert

· QEA programs (unprecedented incentives for principals and teachers, Jacksonville Teacher Residency, Summer Principal Academy)

· Expansion of City Year

We do need to expand these types of programs and marketing but that cannot happen without scaling back on the overfunding and district support of multiple schools facing the same challenges. We should overfund some schools but we cannot continue to do so across multiple schools facing the same challenges. This has been done for years and does not work.

Please review the most recent board approved QEA plan, Literacy plan, and the near 10 other plans that outline the strategies to address and improve performance, including African-American performance. No, we do not have a specific, written plan outlining separate strategies and interventions for African-American students or males. However, before our district creates one, please share with me a large urban school district plan that has been created outside of Duval County where African-American performance (or male performance) is stronger in graduation rates or NAEP performance (i.e. a national assessment that is equal in standard and assessment quality and rigor). In other words, creating a plan for the sake of creating a plan does little for impact. I would like to see a plan that was developed and has yielded results stronger than our district.

How should we reward teachers?

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 01:19:00 +0000

Duval County is actively trying to push kids towards charter schools.

noreply@blogger.com (linda linklink) — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 16:06:00 +0000

Ugh last year the district allowed charters to use genesis the district’s computer program to recruit kids and this year the district and its partner the Jacksonville Public Education Fund are pushing the 8^th annual urban education symposium, whose main topic is "Charter Schools - A Viable School Choice Option".

http://www.jaxpef.org/news/8th-annual-urban-education-symposium/

Education activist Bradford Hall asked the super some hard questions in a letter.

Dr. Vitti,

I received an invite to the 8th Annual Education Symposium that I had planned to attend until I learned of this year's theme-- "Charter Schools - A Viable School Choice Option." This group claims it discusses issues related to "Reclaiming the Black Male Youth." Are you in direct support of this group's cause to recruit black students to charter schools?

Based on an article written by Denise Smith-Amos of the Florida Times-Union titled 100 young black men, youths vow to launch service projects, this group hosted a workshop for 120 black male students from North Jacksonville yesterday. "Participating schools included Raines, Ribault and Andrew Jackson high schools and Ribault, Highlands, Gilbert, and Northwestern middle schools and the Young Men’s Leadership Academy, KIPP and Valor Academy." Here is another interesting quote from the article: One Ribault High group planned to help girls set up their own clubs at the school, to cut down on fights and “drama,” the boys said.

It is no secret that the co-chairs of this group are both founders and board members of two charter schools, one located in North Jacksonville. In fact, it is in the heart of the Ribault community.

Why are students from Raines, Ribault, and Andrew Jackson high schools and Ribault , Highlands, Gilbert and Northwestern middle schools attending this event hosted by charter school operators?

Why are only students from North Jacksonville the target?

And if this has gone on in the past, why has it been allowed by your administration to go on considering several mailing pieces attacking neighborhood schools like Ribault?

Are there any recruitment attempts taking place at this workshop where you give them total access to our neighborhood school students?

I am concerned about the focus of the district. You continue to say the community should embrace school choice and competition while at the same time our poor neighborhood schools in North Jacksonville have little to no competitive course offerings and no marketing resources to aggressively recruit boundary students.

What has the district done to increase marketing resources in neighborhood schools so they can keep up with the charter and dedicated magnet schools you and the Board continue to approve?

Do the 1300 children at Ribault deserve deep investments like the ones afforded to the Young Men's Leadership Academy and the Young Women's Leadership academy? Or the GRASP Academy? Or do those students have to sit and watch the death of neighborhood schools all around them?

Again for the sake of consistency, where can I find a written plan for closing the reading achievement gap for black students?

Where can I find the district's plan to improve the number of low-performing schools?

Until I can see elsewhere, is it safe to assume the district's plan is consolidating and reconfiguring schools over fear of losing control because of low-performance? And if such, how long did you know this was your plan?

In an article written by Smith-Amos titled Vitti's proposed changes could cost Duval's school district millions, your comments support the above-referenced assumption.

When did you and your staff discover you had a significant number of schools facing sanctions or potential sanctions from the state? When did you inform the Board?

For the sake of transparency as I know you have stated you are committed to on several occasions, please "reply all" to this message.

I look forward to seeing the district's plans in writing.

Best,

Bradford Hall

At this point can there really be any doubt that the super’s overall plan is to privatize our district? On one hand the district complains about charter schools which as a group underperform when compared with the city’s public schools but on the other hand they partner with charter school operators to push our kids to them.

What the #$@%!