Gov. Walker's big, "giving the schools the tools" agenda success story, is the Kaukauna school district. Since the teachers gave in on pay and pensions right away, without the threat of Walker's collective bargaining scheme, it really wasn't part of his success story.
But the promise of smaller class sizes, extra money and flexibility, have given in to a dictatorial school board takeover by education novices or politically driven ideologues, who don't need a teachers input anymore.
As crazy as it may sound, Kaukauna teachers are now battling back in what everyone thought was budget surplus bonanza, that would magically make education better than ever, even without the teachers involvement. "Thoughtful colabrative dialogue?" Gone now. And it may be happening in other districts as well. Anyone think a divided and angry teaching staff will make things better? Good luck with that.
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Look at the WINNS data for this district. They are failing and below the state average. Before they complain that they might have to come to parent teacher conferences they might take a long hard look at the poor quality of reading instruction they provide. In 2010 more that 30% of students did not achieve prof. or adv. ratings on the WKCE in reading. My urban high school with 46% on free and reduced lunch had only 14% not prof. or adv.
ReplyDeleteI teach 6 classes, too. Long before Walker. They need to shut up and teach!