The NG article is here http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/03/13/officials_disappointed_with_planning
The turnout was very low (under 100), but not surprising given the community mood. It brings to mind around a year ago when all eight BOE candidates were saying almost with one voice, "The community-school relationship is broken". It was often the first issue that came up in forums and discussions, it was likely the only issue that all of the candidates agreed about. Interestingly, there was some discussion about whether community forums are an effective way to reach 21st century Americans. It was suggested that perhaps we need blogs, chat rooms, and radio call-in-shows along with other non-electronic techniques for extracting community opinions about the school system.
One thing I know we cannot do was expressed privately by a senior administrator during the forum. That person said, "People complain all the time and then they don't come to talk, its apathy." I don't agree. The district cannot get resentful or defensive that people aren't coming to forums, they have to try something until it works. A "good faith effort" isn't good enough.
Maybe we need to come up with a controversial threat to get people riled up. (like We're going to bulldoze Barkstall and replace it with a dog park.)
Teachers like incentives and competition, perhaps we have each school host a forum and the school with the largest participation rate compared to its population gets a prize. (A cheap option would be for the winning principal to get to move five maintenance items to the top of district's 500 item todo list.)
WCIA's advertising their Home and Garden Show with raffles in place and they just want to sell you stuff. There is a $5000 prize and a $1000 prize to try and get people to come out. It couldn't hurt.
I'm really getting tired of so many people saying "we can't" rather than figuring out how to get it done. The official reason given at the forum for why we can't have an interactive blog is because there are no resources for an administrator and it takes so much time. WHAT?! It may not be trivial but isn't hearing from our community worth some resources? It doesn't feel like there is a lot of "want to" involved here.
Maybe it is as simple as simplifying the process.
Can we ask, "What are the top ten things we need to do to make Champaign Unit 4 the best K-12 education in the state?"
People with kids in school are busy. They have time to talk with their kids teachers, and maybe a quick visit with the school principal. Forums are for activists.
There's only one way out of this mess now: A state takeover. Delaying the inevitable will only make things worse down the road.
The community has failed. Time to hand over the keys.
Papa@Home, thanks for the thoughtful and constructive comments. You've got some great ideas for increasing participation in this process--I hope you're taking them to the school board folks.
"Teachers like incentives and competition"
I know 10 years ago it was difficult to a school board to give a special bonus to a deserving teacher because the other teachers were left out. I find it hard to believe this statement is true today. I would be pleasantly surprised if a teacher union allowed for individual bonuses based on performance and tolerated that C word you mentioned.
Some teachers like incentives and competition and others do not. Certainly it's not the union's job to foster it, but if you could propose a system of incentives and accountability that was positive motivation and decided by ethical, thoughtful authorities, I think you'd be surprised how many teachers supported it...
I heard from a reliable source that Governor Edgar did not qualify to teach a high school civics class because of union rules. I wonder if these are the ethical, thoughtful authorities we'd have work around to bring change.
I meet teachers all the time who impress me. I would not be surprised by anything. Then you learn about the union restrictions.
It will take an incredible amount of an activism effort to work around the union restrictions to bring change. Look how hard it was in Los Angeles at Lock HS http://www.teachersunionexposed.com/. http://www.reason.tv/video/show/60.html
“A cold day in hellâ€
—United Teachers Los Angeles President Day Higuchi, offering his estimate as to when he expects the union to accept a plan to tie teachers’ pay raises to student performance.
just to clarify, when I said teachers like incentives I meant that they like to use incentives. Student behavior is regularly modified using some sort of prize.
To respond to the other point that came up, whether the NEA is open to merit based pay or anything similar is itself a matter of incentives. What is in it for them? No one else plays this game by giving away their power, why should a union?
"What is in it for them? No one else plays this game by giving away their power, why should a union?"
It's a game where everyone loses. It's about time we played a new game with different rules.
http://www.greendot.org/results
Green Dot has a proven track record of successfully serving the highest-need students in Los Angeles. All twelve schools are addressing the needs of students who have traditionally struggled in the public school system, and they are achieving far greater results than comparable schools in standardized test scores, graduation rates, and college matriculation.
There seems to be some viable examples of success out there.