Author: jcpswatch

This letter was read to JCPS Board Members during the Jan. 26 Board Meeting.

Dear JCPS,

According to the district’s 2015-2016 budget proposal, teacher absenteeism and turnover is a costly expense to the district. As we all know, the schools with the highest need of experienced teachers are also the hardest hit by teacher turnover. According to a policy brief created for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, “The consequences of high teacher turnover are particularly dire for our nation’s low-performing, high-poverty schools…The problem is not finding enough teachers to do the job- the problem is keeping them in our schools.” JCPS does not conduct exit surveys and has no tangible explanation for the flight of teachers from our struggling schools or the district as a whole. Please allow us to share some of the top reasons why teachers leave the profession.

Richard Ingersoll, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has studied teacher retention for years. During a recent interview with NPR, he said, “One of the reasons teachers quit is that they feel they have no say in decisions that ultimately affect their teaching,” Additionally, most of the turnover is driven by demoralizing school conditions, student misbehavior and lack of discipline. The district’s recent adoption of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an example of the district making a sweeping change without input from teachers. This expensive program has an enormous impact at the classroom level, yet teachers were not involved in the process. To add insult to injury, Dear JCPS has heard from many teachers who say that PBIS is not working and that student misbehavior is worse than ever. Here are some comments from teachers in the district.

“I dread 6th period every day. It’s a daily fight to get students to put their cell phones away, stay in their seats, stay awake, and do their work. It gets worse every year. We are expected to make huge improvements with students who are increasingly unmotivated and unprepared, all while being told we aren’t doing enough.” – Anonymous JCPS teacher without tenure

“I used to enjoy coming to work every day, but the last few years I have dreaded it. I have a fear of being constantly watched, not being good enough, and being judged in a critical way. I can’t be perfect all the time. It’s like being in prison.” – Anonymous JCPS veteran teacher with over 20 years experience.

Teachers across the district are unhappy. We are scrutinized at every level, told what to teach, forced to give assessments that don’t make sense, and expected to teach in increasingly unproductive learning environments. We do not feel supported, and we do not feel valued. Absences increase when teachers can’t bear the thought of struggling through another day of verbal and sometimes physical abuse. Teachers leave the profession when they can’t take the pressure of being pulled in contradictory directions by those who are supposed to support us.

Low morale is costing the district money in teacher absenteeism and high turnover. Unfortunately, the highest cost is being paid by our students who need stability, continuity and community. Especially in struggling schools, these things are even more critical for students who need consistent relationships with adults they trust. Teachers want to teach because we care about kids. We implore the district to start including us in the decisions that ultimately affect our classrooms and our students.

This letter was read to JCPS Board Members during the Jan. 26 board meeting.

Dear JCPS,

In yesterday’s blog, Chair Jones says “JCPS can get money in two ways: It can bring in new money or reinvest money it’s been spending.”

Reinvesting needs to be the first step. But reinvesting should not be the shuffling of monies from one school to the other alone. That is not how we will move our district forward. We need to take an honest look at all the dollars that are spent that are not directly impacting student learning and achievement. And the question needs to be asked, “How are those dollars that are spent outside of the classrooms supporting student achievement?”

I would like to request that the Board follow up on a conversation you had at the November 9th meeting. Take a good, honest look at testing in our district. If you are looking for dollars to reinvest in our kids, you need to look at scaling back on unnecessary district tests. We have a copy for each of you listing every test that our students take, broken down by Federal, State and district. Not only are these District tests not mandated, they suck up a lot of district resources, both in money AND valuable instructional time for our students.

Our teachers tell us, “We have to give the diagnostics within the testing window, even if we are behind and haven’t taught it. So, they want the assessments scanned but don’t care about the content being taught. That’s a waste of money and renders that data irrelevant.”

“Our principal has been asking the district to pay for a reading diagnostic (a real one) for our freshmen so we can know on Day 1 who is struggling and where they are. The district wants us to use these diagnostic assessments instead. They tell us NOTHING.”

“The questions have absolutely nothing to do with what we are teaching in the classroom. It’s a complete disconnect for the students.”

“These types of tests are proven to be even more disadvantageous to students in poverty because these students require even more remediation, which comes at the expense of badly needed enrichment and wrap around services At my school, students were forced to consolidate all wrap around services to a single advisory period for 1 hour a week. Those who were not testing well were no longer allowed to participate in programs that were essential to their personal success because the school decided that improving test scores takes precedence over everything else.”

My point is this. There is a big disconnect between what the district wants to see in the data and what we see and do in the classroom. The teachers I’ve talked with would love to give meaningful and relevant assessments; ones that support our mission to actually teach the students how to think and not just pushing information down their throats so we can give them a diagnostic. Data collected this way is the data that is being used to drive this district. The collection method is flawed and therefore so is the data you are using.

Testing is meant to be a support for teaching, not the driver of education. Some testing is needed, but not at the expense of students’ education. Look at our tests this year, invite the teachers into your discussions about relevant assessments because we are the ones working with them all day. We want to help figure out what is working and not working for our students. We want to help be part of the solutions that will allow our students to thrive and not just survive. We cannot do that without you helping us to make changes to the testing policies in our district.

Together, we can do this.

As presented to the JCPS BOE on 1/11/16

Dear JCPS,

I’m here tonight on behalf of — what has grown in 6 short months to — over 5,000 Dear JCPS members. This group of taxpayers, parents, students and teachers are stakeholders in the future of public education in Louisville. We want to address the subject of raising classroom caps and what could lead to unintended consequences.

We are opposed to any proposal that allows the district to raise classroom caps, regardless if it’s positioned to shift resources around to schools in need. Stakeholders have learned from previous experiences that there’s a chance that good intentions could be lost with future decisions. For example, when the board voted unanimously to approve the creation of a magnet-only middle school. One year after opening it, the board voted to shut down another middle school and the fledgling magnet-only middle school had to take on a resides population that it wasn’t ready for and that wasn’t ready for it. The integrity of the first decision was unintentionally overwritten by another seemingly unrelated decision. Further, the lack of controls in place further allowed the loss of integrity to the school’s original goal and their scores dropped before it ever had a chance to fulfill its goals.

In life, you can pay now or pay later. However, when it comes to educating students, we all know, paying later costs significantly more. It takes much less money to educate elementary school children than it does to teach those same skills to a middle schooler and even more to a high schooler. We know this, yet our 3rd grade reading pledge has gone unfulfilled, and we are still passing some students on to high school without ensuring that they can read and do basic math; which is imperative for academic success. These types of behaviors compound and are among the reasons we already spend more money as a district than we should. It’s is not right to take resources away from ANY students by raising class sizes as this will do nothing to fix the problems our students are facing. And in fact, research shows students in poverty, with special needs as well as gifted and talented and AP students all benefit from smaller class sizes.

Public Education as a WHOLE is in crisis. We as a district need to acknowledge that there is a problem so that we, as a community working together, can start making progress to address and correct these problems and build the best school district our city has ever seen. We need for stakeholders to have a reason to believe that this time it’s different. Once this happens, the community will rally to support changes such as identifying cost savings by eliminating unnecessary busing routes, staving off charters, and contacting legislators to raise state funding and even get behind a property tax hike. But first, we have to restore our community’s faith in public education. And raising classroom caps in an already tumultuous educational environment is taking a step in the opposite direction and exposes the change to unintended consequences.

The idea of robbing from Peter to pay Paul only pits schools against each other and causes resentment among families from different schools who feel that they’ve been cheated. It causes resentment among teachers who don’t want to leave their school. It takes decision-making ability away from the local school level.

We all know it takes a village. So, instead of a competitive environment, why not create a collaborative one? Competition is only meaningful when the rules are fair. Right now, the way students are assigned and schools are measured, the game is rigged. With this proposal, the game remains rigged and only puts a bandaid on the problem.

Please vote no to raising class size caps, even by one. Please listen to the feedback of the stakeholders on both sides of this issue. Schools that would lose resources as well as those that would gain are opposed to this proposal. It’s a no win situation.

With Vision 2020, we know we have a tough road ahead. But this proposal is taking a giant step backwards.

Together we can do this.

This letter was written by a parent of a student at Minors Lane Elementary and sent to board member Steph Horne on 1/15/16.

Dear JCPS,
My name is Kim Quintela and I have a 7 year old son with Down Syndrome. He is in 2nd grade @ Minors Lane Elementary School.

When our little guy was born in 2008, the news of his diagnosis almost paralyzed me – I could not imagine what his future was going to be like. We were quickly put in contact with Down Syndrome of Louisville and this fabulous foundation showed us just how “normal” (if there is such a thing) our child’s life COULD be. Cole went through First Steps the first 3 years of his life – and then we quickly received the Michelle P. Waiver when Cole turned 3 and his therapies (Speech, Physical, Occupational & Behavioral) continued.

The thought of school was quite intimidating. Our older children are now ages 21, 22, 23 and 24. The two that lived in Louisville were in private schools: Mercy Academy and Trinity. We initially reached out to the private school system – St. Rita was willing to see how Cole did in their school – but we eventually decided there would be more available in the public school system (particularly as far as funding) to assist in Cole’s needs.

We began the task of researching schools online – we saw opportunities for Special Ed classes, Functional Mental Disability classrooms, Collaborative classrooms. We chose 5 schools to shadow so we could be exposed to each of these teaching environments.

Minors Lane Elementary was actually the last school that we shadowed. When we pulled up to the school, it was not overly impressive and I actually made the remark to Mark (my husband) that “this is probably not going to happen”. THEN we walked inside – it was like something on the Andy Griffith show (Mayberry RFD). The kids were all adorable and the instructors/staff were all smiling. The counselor (Ashley Fleming) was one of the most charming individuals I ever met. Such an INVITING environment – I KNEW my child was going to attend this school. THEN – there were a group of children walking down the hall – in the middle of them was a sweet little boy with  a rather severe facial disfigurement – the group of children were all laughing & talking and no one seemed to notice anything different about this little boy. I WAS HOOKED.

I had to file a Hardship Transfer because Minors Lane Elementary was outside my district – it was approved. My little guy is actually being included in the typical classroom with an aid. It is so wonderful for him to be exposed to neuro-typical children – and it is good for the other students to be exposed to Cole. When they are exposed to other individuals with Down Syndrome they will already understand the disability. The kids in Cole’s class LOVE him.

My family has truly been blessed by Minors Lane Elementary School. When I received the news that a school board member suggested closing this school, I was heart broken. This board member has probably never visited and experienced this wonderful little school. It would be a travesty to take this education center away from Louisville.

I would like to know what I can do to prevent this from happening.
Thank you for your time and attention.

Kim Quintela

This letter was written by a select group of Minors Lane Elementary Teachers  on 1/15/16.

On January 13th, 2016, Jefferson County Board of Education member, Chris Brady, who represents District 7 in the eastern part of Jefferson County, voiced his disapproval for the district budget proposal. The budget proposal would increase class sizes, therefore reducing the number of teachers per school, and eliminate assistant principals from some JCPS schools. While we agree that a reduction in staff would be detrimental to the learning of all students in Jefferson County, we are outraged that he would suggest the closing of Minors Lane Elementary School as a cost-saving alternative.

First and foremost, Minors Lane is a neighborhood school. Brady stated that the neighborhood that once surrounded this school is gone. Although there are industrial warehouses near our school, we serve over 250 students who live directly across the street.

Minors Lane Elementary serves a unique and diverse population with distinct challenges.

•  5% “Kindergarten Ready” (lowest in JCPS, 2nd lowest in state)
•  96% Free/Reduced Lunch (yearly numbers are not finalized, but likely highest in JCPS)
•  45% English Learners (highest in JCPS)
•  25 countries represented by students
•  20 different languages spoken within student population

Our school is equipped with many resources that support and meet the diverse needs of these students and their community. We have three English as a Second Language teachers, one shared ESL Goal Clarity Coach, in-house Spanish and Arabic interpreters that serve students as bilingual instructors, multiple ECE teachers, a speech pathologist, and an accommodating Family Resource Center. Some of our students receive two or more of these services when they set foot in the building each day. They are able to attend a school where diversity is celebrated and they are not a minority. Eliminating a school that services so many needs, so extensively, would be a crime.

The location of the school provides our community easy access to resources that would otherwise be out of reach. Eliminating Minors Lane Elementary would create additional hardships for parents, specifically communication and transportation. A large number of our students’ guardians do not drive but are able to participate in parent-teacher conferences and other school activities because of the proximity to their homes. Additionally, the Family Resource Center at M.L.E. addresses many needs of these families. The TARC bus does not stop anywhere close to these neighborhoods, so the parents would not be able to get to their children’s schools if they went somewhere else. Closing our school and its many resources would put the families from the surrounding neighborhoods at a further disadvantage than they already are. These neighborhoods are already isolated and if Minors Lane Elementary is closed, a crucial part of their community and their only community resource would be taken away.

The following letter was written by a former Minors Lane Elementary student.

Hello, my name is Alisa B.,

I am a former student of Minors Lane. I am now a ninth grader. I have to say that Minors Lane has been by far my favorite school I have attended in my whole life. The staff here isn’t just teachers, administrators, coaches, etcetera, they are like family. The teachers build bonds with the students. There wasn’t ever a time when I didn’t have anyone to turn and talk to. The teachers at Minors Lane will go out of their way to make sure their students are safe and okay. I was going through issues when I went to Minors Lane, and thankfully I had many people to turn to and help me through it all. Minors Lane definitely taught me a lot. I didn’t only learn my required standards, but I also learned respect, kindness, character, etc. In addition, the teachers are amazing at their jobs. My teachers never moved on to the next standard until he/she knew everyone understood everything clearly. I wouldn’t be who I am if it weren’t for Minors Lane and the staff. I always felt safe there. To this day, I still look back on the lessons I learned, the people that helped me through intervening obstacles, the fun I had, and the family I developed. I still talk to a lot of my friends I made there. I attended Minors Lane as a shy girl, and graduated as a stronger and more intelligent person. Minors Lane perfectly prepared me for middle school. My favorite thing about Minors Lane is how it’s so different from other schools I’ve attended. I have never gained close relationships at any other school like I have gained at Minors Lane.

The following is a statement from a parent at Minors Lane.

I filed a hardship transfer in order for my child to attend Minors Lane Elementary. I have a child with Down Syndrome. My husband and I shadowed five schools before deciding on Minors Lane Elementary. The other four schools we shadowed could not compare to the genuine compassion we saw at this school towards its children. Our son has been included in a typical classroom which has not only helped him grow and develop with his neuro-typical peers, but has helped his classmates understand the special needs of an individual with a disability. It would be a travesty to close this school. The team that this school has developed to help my child is beyond compare. If this school has done so much for my child, who has a diagnosis, I can’t imagine what the school is doing for the neuro-typical children. Seeing this school dismissed in this way is heartbreaking.

Minors Lane is not just a school, it is a family. We meet the needs of our students academically, socially, and emotionally. We provide stability and security to students and families who come to us impoverished. Taking away Minors Lane is like taking away our students’ extended family.

Signed,
A Group of Minors Lane Elementary Teachers

Presented to the JCPS BOE on 1/11/16

Dear JCPS,

As a parent, this past Friday was a new experience for me. But in spite of the possible threat, we made the decision to send our children to school. And you know what? We made lemonade out of lemons. Both of my children had one of the best days all year, education-wise. My son had the opportunity to enjoy a calmer class environment because there wasn’t such an overload on his senses with multiple kids chatting, multiple personalities clashing, multiple bodies shifting around and competing with one another for the attention of the teacher.

Because that is what it comes down to. When you put 25-30 kids in one room, their learning environment will become competitive in a negative way. On Friday, my kids learned that smaller class sizes allow for more collaboration, more deep learning and more relationship building within their own classroom community.

JCPS needs more collaborative systems in place. Systems that don’t pit one school against another for valuable resources, teachers and students. Collaborative systems where any child can have amazing educational opportunities no matter what part of town they are from, what they look like, or their families income. Our students need collaboration in an effort to create a “village mentality” within the city of Louisville because we are all in this together.

One parent writes, “We shouldn’t have to rob Peter to pay Paul. While my son’s school would benefit from moving teachers, that takes resources away from a school where things are working well. It is sad that because of the high stakes testing, we have created an environment of educational winners and losers. How does it benefit kids when their success is ultimately dependent on someone else’s failure? Where is the equity in that? Where is the sense of community in that? We all need to work together to make public education more of a collaboration.”

“My daughter only had 13 kids in her 2nd grade class and she said ‘I was able to get my work done because it was actually quiet’ This sentiment was echoed by several other parents. But this just shows that even a 7 year old can figure out that smaller classes equals more educational exploration and opportunity.

Think of all the other issues that would be minimized by reducing class sizes. Fewer kids in remediation because they would be able to have the attention they need to catch up at an earlier age. Fewer behavior issues because the children would be more actively engaged in their learning. Greater teacher retention because teachers would have the opportunity to focus on teaching and not correcting behavior.

Another parent said “If JCPS wants to get it “as right as they can” they need to start listening to those closest to our children. The teachers, the principals and most importantly the parents.”

I hope that you take the time to reflect upon the positive feedback you’ve just received from stakeholders regarding the successes experienced on Friday due to smaller class sizes in JCPS. We at Dear JCPS are only here to help and we ask that you listen to our experiences and suggestions and give them careful consideration as we truly care about the success of not only our sons and daughters, but the success of all JCPS students.

Together we can do this.

As presented to the JCPS BOE on 1/11/16

Dear JCPS,

Last Friday was an unusual school day. And it is my job to teach every student who walks into my classroom. But on this particular Friday, I and many of my colleagues and students all learned something very important.

Class size really does have an enormous impact on student learning. On Friday, there were so many who saw the positive impact that class size has on learning.

On our site Dear JCPS, teachers excitedly shared their stories of the day.  One teacher wrote:

” I am a teacher and I had very few students today. I was actually able to do my job AND talk to each student and see how they were doing and answered ALL of their questions. We were able to just visit with one another and work on our relationship building. Why should we have to go through something like this to realize class sizes are too large? Why are we even considering raising the cap? If children are the most important thing to the future of a community, why would we treat them so poorly?”

A Middle school teacher shared  “I had 12 kids in 6th grade. We took two tests and still had extra time afterwards. We could be finished with the year’s curriculum by March at this rate!!! ”

“It was wonderful. The kids got SO MUCH more individual attention from me today. A writing project that would have taken a week with the whole class was done in about an hour and they produced better quality work.”

Not only were we able to impact more learning, we had the opportunity to reach children who, because of the current class sizes, are unable to get the attention they desperately need to be successful.

“Friday in my school almost all the kids that showed up had some sort of behavior history. At first, I thought, what irony. As the day progressed, we were all able to talk and enjoy each other’s company. All the kids said, “I wish it was always like this.” No behavior, no attitudes. Just a lovely day at school. I now believe the answer to all our problems revolves around class size. That’s a simple fix that would solve a lot of costly problems.”

According to the Center for Public Education:

• A class size of no more than 18 students per teacher is required to produce the greatest benefits;
• Smaller classes in the early grades can boost student academic achievement –
• Minority and low-income students show even greater gains when placed in small classes in the primary grades*

Looking at the fact that 65% of our students are poverty students, we need to be having serious conversations about how to reduce class sizes. We need to make impactful changes that will allow the students we have to blossom into the students we know are inside. But if the classrooms are set up in a way that doesn’t allow for this kind of deep, involved, relationship building style of teaching, many of our students will miss the opportunity to achieve the things we know that they have within them.

We need to change the dialogue and together come up with a way to reduce class sizes throughout JCPS so that we teachers can be the most effective and so that students can have the individualized and differentiated learning that so many of our students deserve.

Together we can do this.

*See more at: http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Class-size-and-student-achievement-At-a-glance/Class-size-and-student-achievement-Research-review.html#sthash.fotky6eO.dpuf

Submitted today by a stakeholder, in response to JCPS Chief Business Officer Tom Hudson’s statement to principals on Wednesday, “My expectation is that all of February and March will be devoted to budget issues,” he said. “We want to get it as right as we can.”

“Dear JCPS,

If JCPS wants to “Get it as right as they can”, they need to START listening to the individual SBDM (School Board Decision Making) Councils & Principals at each school. SBDM councils at each school are responsible for budgeting, school policies, selection of textbooks, hiring a principal & security for each school and many other important decisions regarding how that individual school is operated. These decisions are filed and approved by the JCPS school board. JCPS needs to start listening to the Principal’s & SBDM councils, THEY know what is best for their students & facility. Cutting teacher positions or cutting ANY of the Section 6 funding is NOT acceptable, nor is increasing class sizes in High Schools to the state max of 31 students per teacher in classrooms. The Jefferson County Teachers contract states that teachers can have a maximum of 150 students per day. My calculations indicate that each teacher could only have 4.8 classes per day, whereas most High Schools have 7 classes per day. I know the Section 6 funding helps our school hire additional teachers & security to teach & protect our children. I encourage all parents to contact your school board representative, tell them to NOT support ANY cuts to the budget that would decrease funding to our schools. If JCPS wants to “Get it as right as they can” they NEED to start listening to those closest to our children. The teachers, principals & most importantly the PARENTS! The tax paying PARENTS funding their child’s education need to speak up NOW and help JCPS “Get it as right as they can.””

Stay alert: The school board is expected to be asked to approve the district’s funding formula proposal on Jan. 26.