Since this is our resident members county, and as a professional educator, our very own FQ, I'll throw it out there, and wait for a response.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/08/03/0803gates.html?imw=Y
Palm Beach County school district concedes major failings, says 70 percent of teachers ineffectiveBy LAURA GREEN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 03, 2009
Palm Beach County's highest rated A schools do no better than D and F schools at teaching the students who are most behind.
Seventy percent of county teachers are ineffective
And less than a quarter of county students graduate college-ready.
That stinging indictment comes directly from the Palm Beach County School District in a proposal for a $120 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Usually district administrators tout Palm Beach County as a shining star among the state's urban districts, the only one to earn an A rating five years in a row.
But the grant proposal filed at the end of last week offers a more critical view of the district's success.
Much of the 76-page plan focuses on changing the way teachers are evaluated and paid and targeting them toward students with the most needs.
Yet the overall message is that the state's system of measuring schools, which has been good to Palm Beach County, masks inequities in learning and teaching.Half of the students performing below grade level attend A-rated schools, the proposal said.
A full 90 percent attend schools rated C or better."This is a rather harsh assessment of a system which is lauded all over the state," said Robert Dow, president of the district's teachers union.
"How can you say that we're one of the best school districts in the nation and 70 percent of our teachers are ineffective?""It's been a real-eye opening experience" said school board Chairman Bill Graham, "to look at data and to look at all the places where there's lot of room for improvement."
The district is asking the Gates Foundation for $120 million and pledging to put up nearly another $210 million to create a comprehensive teacher effectiveness system. Palm Beach County was one of 10 districts nationwide invited to apply and will learn if it got the grant by the end of September.
Under the district's proposal, teachers would fall into one of four categories: associate, professional, master and Palm Beach Certified. Associate and professional would be much like the current non-tenured and, after three years, tenured positions. Master and Palm Beach Certified would signify teachers who have taken on additional mentoring and training roles.
Teachers who perform at the highest levels could be paid as much as administrators to encourage the best teachers to stay in the classroom.
"It is almost a crime that in the public schools in the United States of America, people have to leave the classroom to make more money," Graham said.
Unlike the current focus on seniority, teachers under the proposal would be paid based on their responsibilities and the complexity of their jobs.
The current structure "often results in ineffective teachers in front of high-needs students for which they are unprepared," the proposal said.Yet the district has tried unsuccessfully before to lure more effective teachers to classrooms with the highest-need students. A $10,000 bonus to teach in Belle Glade, Riviera Beach and other areas with low-performing students attracted few takers.
The proposal also seeks to remove teachers who aren't improving their students' performance. Tenured teachers who aren't effective would be placed on 90-day probation and removed from the classroom if they don't improve.District administrators estimate that 70 percent of the teaching staff is not effectively improving the performance of the lowest-performing students.
Though teachers unions typically have opposed measures similar to those in the proposal, the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association was on the committee crafting the plan. But the district and the union would have to negotiate any changes involving pay and many teacher responsibilities.
"As anyone would, I have reservations because the changes are so fast and so sweeping, and yet I do believe we do need to look at some of the very serious problems in education and those students who most need help and don't seem to be getting it," Dow said.
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Kinda makes you go Hmmmmmm.....