District 150 has hired yet another consultant.
Jeanne Williamson, an assistant superintendent of school operations at District 150 before she left in 2002 to become superintendent of Dunlap School District 323, was hired as a consultant. She retired from District 323 at the end of June.
Williamson’s job will be to devise a plan to reconfigure the district’s high schools, board President Debbie Wolfmeyer said. […]
Williamson is to be paid $350 per day up to a maximum of 120 days.
Given the number of administrators and consultants already on District 150’s staff, is there honestly no one in house who can do this job? Like, for instance, Ken Hinton?
Hat tip: MiddleAgedWomanBlogging
Jim, glad you’re back. You’re right I should find a way to get involved with kids again–but probably not in any events related to the kitchen. I don’t find it difficult to believe that a Woodruff teacher would be in your office, considering that your proposal is to close Peoria High. What “mannerisms?” Will you be “nice” when people e-mail you? 🙂 Do you see any merit at all in my idea to “repurpose” Manual into a combination alternative, non-traditional, vocational school? Even Sammy gets upset with me for what he thinks are attempts to put Manual and the south side down. That is hardly the case–Manual leadership and the 150 plan, yes! As you may or may not know, I did FOIA the reading scores of Manual students. Just from what I’ve seen, my guess (not just second-guessing 🙂 –which is why I FOIAd the information so that I wouldn’t have to guess–I don’t think these kids have any chance at all in passing the NCLB test for the next two years. That is my concern–that the administration and the board are hoping for miracles that aren’t going to happen. I believe 150 is wasting precious time hoping for the impossible at Manual–the NCLB tests will just continue to make Manual look bad and parents will continue to take kids out of Manual. I think you’re probably pinning more false hopes on boundary changes that will force more students (some with potential for higher scores) into Manual. I can’t say that won’t happen, but I think you should consider the possibility that parents will be upset if their kids are forced into Manual. By the way, for many reasons that I will share later, I do not have complete confidence in the accuracy of the reading scores. As for NCLB, I don’t know what the politicians really wanted to accomplish, but all NCLB has really done is to destroy public education. I think it’s time we all banded together to destroy NCLB–so much money spent just to spotlight the problems without offering any solutions. How much money has 150 spent on programs (since NCLB) designed to help increase the scores? Can you honestly see any improvement? Certainly, not at the high school level–as I said earlier in this post, the 11th grade test is much too difficult and there is no way to teach to the test.
P.S., Jim, it’s OK to be opinionated; we all are. And I’m sure you know that I am prone to giving you the benefit of the doubt and always willing to listen even if it’s just to disagree with you. 🙂 All in good-natured ribbing, of course, since you accused me of wasting District 150 money with my FOIAs–how much time will be spent responding to your request about where 150 teachers live and the hours teachers work in their home districts? All you have to do is look through a directory and you’ll see that a rather large percentage of teachers live outside 150.
Sharon..
I would love to talk NCLB with you. I am an advocate for the original legislation. It’s the application of the law in this state that is the problem.
I was at a low achieving school when the legislation was initiated and I saw how it changed the mindset (in a very positive manner) of the school. The thought that we had to improve made people sit down and analyze what we were doing. The school had become complacent and had developed the pattern of placing all the blame on parents and the community.
One of the main problems is that with the ACT included in the assessment (that is simply supposed to check for a minimum competency in math and English) obtaining the goals in many of our schools is far more difficult then the NCLB act demands. I don’t have the current data, but in 2006 only two states (Illinois and Colorado) included the ACT in the assessment. After 6 years of working hard and not improving the school degraded back to its old form and started searching for the magic pill solution. The danger in this is that the things that were working to prepare students in the past became secondary to the new programs.
The other main problem is that we will not hold the students accountable for the test. Florida had the HSCT (high school competency test) far before NCLB and it is mandatory to pass in order to graduate. The process works much better. Other states include the necessity to pass the assessment as a criterion for graduation.
The law wants states to ensure that it isn’t graduating kids that can’t read and can’t add. This is a great concept.
The real culprit is how we apply the law in this state.
NCLB helped Cahokia in the beginning. If Illinois had a proper application it would be a wonderful tool. I think that the feds are not happy at all with the fact that Illinois is not showing any improvement with its program.
Steve: I’m very happy to get your take on NCLB. I am in total agreement with what you have stated. In fact, your thoughts fit almost perfectly with some of the thoughts I had considered presenting to the board. I can remember that a few years before NCLB, we Manual teachers had noticed a sharp decline in reading levels–just a sense that levels had decreased. We had no reading tests to prove our feelings, and no one wanted to hear our complaints. I really believe that if the district had taken notice then, that we could have turned things around. However, the literacy problem got out of control. Then came NCLB to shine a very bright light on the problem. I was glad that the district finally had to recognize the problem–however, nothing that has happened since has offered solutions to the problem. In fact, I believe many of the district’s problems (and I might even include the financial problems) are rooted in the fallout from NCLB. I know that the states were allowed to choose their own test. Thanks for shedding light (and your opinion) on Illinois’ choice. Including the ACT is a very bad idea. These blogs do have value. You need to talk to Jeff Adkins-Dutro, English teacher at Peoria High. I believe you have had discussions with him before. Jeff has some very good thoughts on this subject. By the way, 150 did have a competency test that functioned quite well to make students accountable–they had to pass it to graduate. It was started by Harry Whitaker, superintendent in the 1980s.
Steve, one question: I know that the 11th grade test is too difficult because of the ACT, but too many 150 students are failing the tests in the lower grades, also. What are we to make of that?
“negative anonymous “voices” – some who still voice support for Royster”
Jim jim jimmyjim jim jim jim… who are you referring to? Perhaps I missed it, but I haven’t seen anyone voice anything but contempt for Royster around here.
“Change is afoot. I believe significant positive structural change is happening. Slow. Painfully slow, at times.”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
We really don’t care what you or anyone else believes Jim. What do you know?
Why not put the 4 High School principals in a room, Giving them short notice to be prepared to draw the new Lines. tell them plan is to be done in 8 hours or less.
just part of their pay/job. And we save unneccesary fee to” Another consultant.” HINTON is to be left out of process ,before and after. Board WILL accept the plan with only a reading and NO VOTE . ????????????????????????????????
More I think about it ,More I like it!
I just listened to WMBD radio–Hinton is touting Williamson as the savior for all of the problems of 150’s high schools. When she left 150 as an associate superintendent, the high schools were already in trouble. Why didn’t she solve the problems–or even call attention to them–when she was on the full-time payroll?
She took over a District that was WELL RUN and future was planned!
A NO- BRAINER !!
Ken Hinton needs SOMEONE to run this district. HE has made it clear that he CANNOT!
Sharon sorry that I didn’t respond. (since this is so late you probably aren’t going to read this.)
I went camping just after that post and have been so busy on my return I haven’t had blog time.
I don’t know why we aren’t performing in the lower levels. I do know that schools in the state are not having as rough of a time meeting PSAE standards in lower levels.
I have had some great emails with Jeff. The three of us need to go to lunch sometime.
Steve, anytime–the Adkins-Dutro family and I go out to eat often–you’re welcome to join us (probably minus the children).
Steve, as an aside–Karen and Jeff’s daughter Mahliyah will be a freshman at your school–great kid–so you will probably be seeing quite a bit of them and me. I can’t believe the freshman class is already having meetings to plan stunt shows.
I look forward to meeting her!
This year the winning stunt show class is going to get to perform their routine at the school assembly.