107 thoughts on “Education Forum to be held this week in Peoria”

1. ” Site-based management is a significant reform initiative that promises to place more authority in individual schools through the adoption of a more democratic decision-making process.”

   This is the thrust of the Dolan Group’s program of organizational restructuring.

   Eliminate the centralized control and give the individual schools authority and responsibility… sound familiar???

2. It is good to see that they are finally including the teachers in the discussions to improve conditions in our schools. Nothing is too be gained by Administrators and community “leadership” pitting themselves against teachers. Now let’s see the Board of Education give the teachers more than a one year contract. It will make the teachers feel more secure and valued, and save the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees over contract negotiations. On the flip-side, I’m glad to see the PFT acknowledge there are teachers among the ranks that should be looking for another line of work.

3. District Watcher, do you have any specifics about the teachers being included in these discussions? What discussions? What teachers? This certainly could be happening–I just haven’t heard about it.

4. To Sharon:

   “The forum will include a presentation by Bob Darling, President of the Peoria Federation of Teachers Union”

5. Sorry, District Watcher, I don’t think that’s much more than window dressing–not the same as asking individual teachers about specific areas before decisions are made. For instance, do you think teachers are ever asked if the dress code is working, if the discipline policy is working, if inclusion is working, if this program or that program is effective? Only the people who use the programs can tell whether or not they are effective. I wonder how many teachers have been contacted with regard to the on-going study of programs (to be completed by March).

6. Sharon, with all due respect, the teachers ELECTED him as their spokesperson and representative. How is that window dressing?

7. And there will soon be another election. Of course, I am conflicted because I like Bobby–belongs to that group I call my former students. I think he has the misfortunate of serving as president during some really tough times. The bigger question to ask, of course, is whether or not a union president seeks out feedback from all teachers. I will let other teachers speak to that question.

8. All teachers are allowed to go to the Union meetings, Sharon.

9. Bobby Darling couldnt give a rip about the students or teachers in D150. Sitting on his high horse over on Wisconsin Ave. He is all about anything self-serving. He does not have the “misfortune” to be president of the pft during “hard” times. D150 is ALWAYS falling on tough times. He ran. He was elected….why? few teachers understand. Go to a union meeeting. He talks incessantly about all he and the union have accomplished. Name one thing that the teachers collaborated in. He just wants a head basketball coaching job next year. Charles Manson has a better chance of getting elected than Bobby being re-elected. Just sayin…..sometimes the truth hurts.

10. average teacher–I know. I have kept my membership up–well, on my list of things to do. I have been to meetings but no one has ever asked my opinion about anything (and I don’t expect them to do so). 🙂 However, I can vote in the election and have in the past.

11. Unfortunately, the PFT is a bit too split to settle on a candidate that everyone can support. The last two elections have proved that. I hope the next election will result in a stronger majority for the winner than has been the case. I really expected Jeff to win the last election (surprise!), but he accepted the loss graciously and was appreciative of the considerable support he did have. He continued to support Bobby and maybe was even a bit relieved to have lost the election. 🙂 I know that I was relieved for him because that job does take a toll on the president–gets it from all sides.

12. “time for a change” – haven’t all PFT Presidents had an office in the Admin Headquarters on Wisconsin Avenue? Did it start with Bobby’s presidency? I don’t think so.

13. No. Bobby Darling has his OWN office at the admin building because he is the head of the drivers ed dept. in the morning and in the afternoon he is the pft president in a little room called the pod. all the other presidents actually taught students during the day and spent afternoons at the “pod”. I WILL TELL YOU THAT THE PEOPLE THAT ARE RUNNING FOR OFFICE IN april will not be taking the afternoons off. they intend on handling PFT business when school is OUT. Don’t forget that Bobby makes 20 grand a year for being PFT president on top of getting a fulltime paycheck for working part time. Dist 150 has been very very good to Mr. Darling.

14. Teaching Drivers’ Ed is not teaching.

15. if our leadership is going to actually make a change and NOT spend all it’s time just “talking” about it and putting on a dog and pony show maybe there would REALLY be change! i think Bob and his buds.. THE BRIANS…need to get into the classrooms and see what’s really going on rather than sucking up OUR union dues to travel all over the united states for “workshops” and traveling and staying in luxury hotels on our DIME! just ask them how many places the union has sent them too this year alone! Have ANY of them brought back change from these so called conventions? no… no change, just an empty wallet that once held OUR money….

    It’s TIME for change.. and that has to start at the top! OUR UNION TOP!

16. Well, in balancing out the good with bad in local education efforts,
    Dist. 150 is having “Remarkable Times”. The next edition airs
    Sunday at 5 pm on CAPtions, Comcast Cable 22. Here is a sneak preview:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g70JPM4HJt0

17. Here we go again….

    http://www.pjstar.com/news/x617854506/District-150-suspends-No-2-leader

18. and again…..

    http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/news/local/-Substitute-Teachers-Death-Angers-Parents-117773808.html

19. District Watcher— Get your facts straight!!!! Mr. Knapp had his office at the Labor Temple and in his classroom when he was not servicing our students.

    I do think it is not easy nor practical to service our union by teaching fulltime. However, I do not think we need to be buddy/buddy with our bosses, it muddies the waters and then we do not always see things clearly.

    Union Exec’s and Admin both need to visit classes in order to make the most informed decisions for our students and the community. Anything else is just highway robbery.

    I ask…. aren’t there enough thieves out there already???

20. Why do some have to demonize those they disagree with? Bobby Darling, Ryan Spain, Mayor Ardis, Eric Turner, et al. I know none of these people, but I haven’t heard one person I trust who doesn’t think they are good people. There are some here I disagree with, but I don’t think they are evil thieves or liars.

    I disagree with CJ and Sharon on some matters, but I think they are good people who just think differently on some issues.

    Life is too short man, too short to hate people who disagree with us.

21. No hate here. Just major disappointment in the lack of communication and transparency from those in leadership positions.Is this clear???

22. The “thieves” line threw me off.

23. Let me tell you something about Bobby Darling as a teacher and administrator…

    I went to the meeting where he lectured us for nearly an hour about how difficult it is to be a teacher and get through to the kids… no discussion, no questions or comments were solicited from us… adults INTERESTED in what he had to say… JUST lecture. Gosh… no wonder students HATE school.

24. Bobby Darling is counting down the days till his retirement to Door County…..Taking his IL pension and running to Michigan……oh, and he wants to pad his retirement by running for union president AGAIN….he didn’t do anything worth hoooey in the past two years except get himself and his cronies “do nothing” jobs on Wisconsin Ave. Hell with the rest of the 1200 teachers he is paid $20,000 a year to represent (oh, that’s on top of his FULLtime salary he gets from the district)….oh, yeah, show Bobby the MONEY…..and he will follow you anywhere.

25. Sharon–I can’t find the board minutes under the district website. I’m looking for the current school year, not the last two archived school years. I did find the current agenda…but not recent minutes or HR reports. Thanks.

26. The agenda for the March 14 meeting is under the Calendar icon on the website.

    The archived minutes are missing–I plan to contact 150 about that on Monday (if I remember). I find the new website to be very inadequate, mostly because so many sites are undeveloped. Also, I hate the way the staff information is provided–by names only. On the old website teachers at each school were listed by what grade or subject they teach.

    Also, I was told during Christmas vacation that the District dashboard showing AYP scores over the last 10+ years was being worked on. They still aren’t up. Talk about transparency or lack thereof.

27. OK, thanks. Thought maybe I was losing it. I’m sure there’s a very good reason for the HR report not being posted.

28. FYI. Richwoods Scholastic Bowl won Sectionals today by defeating Normal Community(286-119), Morton(356-203) and Springfield H.S.(241-220). They will now compete in the State competition on Friday at the Civic Center. Good Luck Knights!

    PS. That is two state academic competitions for our RHS Knights.

29. Just heard that the Garfield staff was told that Garfield will close next year. Whittier is already overcrowded–just where do they plan to put these kids? I wonder if the far northend schools are experiencing overcrowded schools and overcrowded classrooms.

30. Yes, Sharon. Talk to the teachers. Lower level classes get too crowded…solution: move kids up to advanced classes they are not prepared for to make lower level classes less crowded. That is called leveling the playing field. (Don’t blame the teachers. They don’t make these decisions.)

31. District Watch will meet at Monical’s on Knoxville and Lake at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 13. Anyone is welcome–that’s why we meet in a public place.

    2 cents–Of course, I know teachers aren’t to blame–they don’t make any decisions in District 150.

32. I didn’t mean to direct that portion of the comment to you, Sharon. No disrespect intended. It was more geared towards parents who go to meet with teachers when the grades are not satisfactory. There are so many variables to be considered. Anyway, hat’s off to D150 teachers. BTW: ISAT info includes years of service for teachers. Does the district website include years of service for administrators?? Would be nice to level that playing field.

33. 2Cents–No offense taken; I was agreeing with you.

34. The Illinois Interactive Report Card has probably the most detailed information available. In addition, you can easily compare multiple schools or Districts. Embedded in the site are definitions to much of the data provided, including how certain figures are calculated. It also has information about the various tests (ISAT, PSAE, etc.)

    http://iirc.niu.edu/Default.aspx

35. I agree with you, Jon. IL Interactive Report Card is a veritable wealth of information. I’ve probably spent much, too much, time on that site.

36. However, it was easier to use District 150’s site because only 150 schools are listed. On the Illinois site, each school has to be looked up separately. Making comparisons of one school’s data with others was just easier on the 150 site. Besides 150 has done much bragging about providing the data and now it as yet hasn’t been transferred to the new website.

37. Yes, Sharon, I understand how difficult it can be to enter Peoria or 150 in the Search field first. Once you have the district data, you can click on that big tab that says “Schools in District” and see every school in the district.

    Or you can just complain about what you think you don’t have, or how things change and aren’t like they used to be.

38. Welcome back, Sharon!

39. Thank you, Mortified, and look whom I brought with me–Jon and his never ending scarcasm. 🙂 But, Jon, when I click on those schools, there is much information missing. The buttons are there, but pressing them gets you nowhere. You won’t find AYP scores by punching the dashboard buttons. If I want to know who teaches English at Richwoods, there is no easy way to find out–just press the buttoms for every teacher. When things change for the worst, why not complain.

40. “You won’t find AYP scores by punching the dashboard buttons.” I thought it rather obvious that I was speaking about the Interactive Report Card site.

    “If I want to know who teaches English at Richwoods….” We’ve had this discussion before – or have you forgotten already?

41. Jon’s sense of humor would certainly thin a crowd.

42. @ Jon and Sharon….from an outsider (non-educator) like me, it appears you two are talking apples and oranges. I followed the link to the website and was able to pull up a variety of charts and statistics with relative ease. And I am not quite sure why it would matter who is teaching what course. District 150, overall, appears to be doing a pretty lousy job preparing children for the “real” world, if these statistics are correct. There appear to be many ways to manipulate the charts, but the bottom line is that most of our grade school children cannot write, and that most of our high school children leave poorly prepared for college. Since you both seem to be very concerned with this, what do you think needs to be done to change this?

43. Glad to see you’re still with us though, mortified.

    Frederick – as you probably know, there are no simple answers. The attached article about William Ouchi, however, provides what I believe is a good framework for success.

    http://www.strategy-business.com/media/file/sb43_06212.pdf

    Here’s also a powerpoint – in particular the last three slides talk about proposed solutions, including seven keys to success.

    http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/Education2.ppt

44. AYP test scores aren’t a determiner of future student success. Go to the ACT web site and take an ACT Practice test. Most successful people don’t stand a chance on excelling on every segment of that test, yet that’s the sole indicator (the PSAE) the state uses to determine a school’s success or failure. Ironically, the very people who elected to use the ACT as our standard if measurement couldn’t pass it.

    JOURNALISTS make mistakes with misplaced modifiers, split infinitives, pronoun / antecedent agreement, etc., all of the time — yet our high school juniors are supposed to be grammatical masterminds. It’s absurd, really.

    Think about it. How many people do YOU know who have received a perfect score on the ACT? I know of one (personally). Is that really the test you want to use to determine if our high schoolers are proficient in reading, science, and math? Ironically, the test I took to get into the master’s program at Bradley (the GRE) was MUCH easier than the ACT.

    I don’t know. I certainly want our youngsters to be able to read, write, and figure math problems well; however, I don’t want them deemed illiterate because they can’t correct complex errors in parallel structure. That’s the problem. People look at the dash boards, etc., and think our schools are failing miserable.

45. Frederick–which site the District’s or the Illinois Interactive? Perhaps you can’t imagine a situation where someone would want to know who teaches what subject or grade level at a particular school, but I believe that as long as the district has a website, it might just as well provide all the information possible. Before Dr. Lathan recommended the purchase of this new website (which is great in many ways), the old one did give more complete information about the staff at each school.

    Also, I called the district at Christmas time to ask when the District Dashboard information (AYP scores, etc.) would be placed on the new website. I was told they were working on it then–well, this is March.

    As to what to do about the educational problems facing all public schools, I guess it depends upon whom you wish to blame: the students themselves, parents, teachers, administrators,or society, in general, etc. The truth is that the source of the problem does have to be found before a solution can be found. However, there is enough blame to go around.

    First of all, I think there are many students in District 150 who are doing very, very well. In any given teacher’s class, I believe (at least in my 43 years’ experience) you would find that there are those who excel and those who don’t fare as well. Maybe we should start the process by asking what factors in the excelling students’ lives at home and at school contribute to their success. Then maybe we could figure out what to do to improve those factors in the lives of those not doing so well.

    What no one seems to want to acknowledge is that there are some developmental blocks to learning that are set in motion even before a child is born. Educationists aren’t equipped academically to assess these problems. Studies of the brain are in their infancy. I think once science begins to figure out how the brain functions in learning, maybe more children can be helped–when we can know which functions of the brain are not working properly. Look how long it took to diagnose what is now known to be dyslexia.

    The parents of a significant number of children in our public schools were teenagers–some of whom became pregnant while in the habit of consuming alcohol or drugs. All the teaching stragies in the world probably aren’t going to reach the children who were victims of these circumstances. The problem is that you can’t tell by looking at a child what causes the learn disabilities.

    NCLB assumes that all children enter school with the same chances of success–that simply isn’t true. However, NCLB has made the assumption that all students should be brought to grade level in x number of years. Yes, there are bad teachers, but from my own educational experience and my own observations as a teacher, I don’t believe that any child has the bad luck of having bad teachers throughout all 12 years of public education. No one teacher can possibly do the kind of damage that many seem to claim. Ask yourself–how many bad teachers did you have? In what ways did that teacher keep you from excelling? Anyway I do engage in these seemingly futile discussions on blogs–and we all seem fairly set in assessing who should be blamed for the educational problems.

46. Adkins-Dutro is so right about what is wrong with NCLB testing. I would love for all of us on this blog to be forced to take the test to see how well we fare–along with all the successful businessmen and women and leaders of our community. These tests have become the sole measure of the public schools in America. What a travesty!

47. Sharon, you’re still confused about which site?

    Let’s both take the tests and then compare scores. Deal?

48. Jon- You are all class too bad it’s all LOW.

49. A-D asks: “Is that really the test you want to use to determine if our high schoolers are proficient in reading, science, and math?,” referring to the ACT test being a measurement of a school’s success.

    My answer is a resounding YES! Why not? There is a high correlation between ACT score and performance in college. It disappointments me that you would think otherwise, as a teacher.

    I believe you exaggerate the difficulty of the test, as well. A perfect score on the ACT is 36. My daughter and her friends that do their homework, earn As and Bs in school, and take the equivalent of honors/AP courses just took the test in December and breezed through it. Some of her friends didn’t even prepare and earned scores of 28 or 29 and those that prepared scored solidly in the 30s.

    If a school is going to claim it offers a college prep curriculum, then it better be producing ACT results that indicate that, if for no other reason than students will not be able to be accepted into college majors leading to professional employment.

    Look at the student profile of any competitive college or university and see what its mean ACT score is for students accepted in its business program, accounting program, science or engineering programs and you will learn that performance on the ACT matters.

50. What’s the matter there, mortified? Sharon wished we all were forced to take the tests. I offered to take it with her and then we could compare. You know, to see how we compared to the standards set forth by the ISBE in determining AYP. What were you thinking of, and why would that make me low class?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.