Alonso and progress of city schools highlighted
The New York Times today profiles Andres Alonso and his efforts to improve the city schools. There's really not a lot of news here for those who have followed his tenure in Baltimore, but it is interesting to note that he and the reform measures in Baltimore have begun to garner some national attention.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
What progress have we made when incidents like this are swept under the rug on a daily basis?
http://www.wbaltv.com/education/26000104/detail.html
Posted by: Brandon | December 2, 2010 7:00 PM
Everyone that is in the school system knows the whole things is kabuki...
1) Improving graduation rate isnt a measure of real internal change or progress, it just lowers the bar in every city school because teachers are expected to pass seniors.
2) Suspensions, follow the same guidelines as point 1, Lower Suspensions just means that kids now have no incentive/consequence to act right, because principals hands are effectively tied.
3) He cut the central staff his first year---has grown it back in the last few? i would be interested to see the numbers now vs. the numbers than, including newly created resource people and support specialists. Not to mention the fact that all the dead wood at North Ave was dispersed to the schools...
Just my thoughts.
Posted by: skeptic | December 2, 2010 8:56 PM
It's all smoke and mirrors.Anyone who has stepped foot in a city school knows it for the cess pool that it is.
Posted by: SubTeacher | December 6, 2010 12:12 PM