Follow your heart - Please!
Lori Watson is a member of the Colorado Springs Education Association executive board, and along with husband Tom, is a primary spokesperson for the local labor union. Lori is also a teacher at East Middle School, a school that is about to be closed by the D11 board of education. For the record, out of a board of seven people, Willie Breazell is the only reform board member of the bunch. Although he will likely receive blame for the closure of a public school, John Gudvangen is actually leading the charge on this closing.
In the Friday, March 16th Gazette article on the pending East closure, Lori Watson is quoted from a statement that she made during the public hearing portion of Wednesday's board meeting. She said this with regards to what would happen if East closed and she was moved to a different school to teach: "It will be hard for me to open my heart again."
Lori is an 8th grade math teacher at East. 8th grade math test scores at East hover around 13% proficient and advanced. For minority students at East, the numbers are even lower. The assumption on Lori's part is that she will certainly be transferred to another D11 school after the closure of East. Because she is a labor union big-wig, she will definitely be placed in another school. Even though D11 has been losing students to surrounding districts for over a decade now, and even though the district will soon have one less school building, the administration will not reduce the total number of teachers. The labor union will not give the administration permission to reduce teachers because that would hurt the political funding of the labor union.
In the same article on East, Lori's co-worker said this about the low performance at East: "You can’t measure what students know and what they can do based solely on a test." OK, fine, don't use the CSAP test to determine what these students know after three years of attending that school. I would challenge the apologists for mediocrity to use any tools or methods of their own choosing to determine how much these students have learned. Can they perform basic math skills that would be expected of an 8th grader? Can they read simple letters and statements (according to attendees at the public hearing from two weeks ago, 8th grade students struggled to read simple statements that their teachers had prepared for them)? What is their knowledge of science, history, and social studies? On one hand, excuse makers like Watson and Griffin claim that these East students are unable to academically achieve, so people should stop accusing the teachers of not doing their jobs. On the other hand, they say that these kids can achieve, but only in ways that are not measurable. In other words, due to the color of these students' skin or their level of income, they are very different from other kids - so different, in fact, that we can't have any level of expectations of them because there just isn't any way to measure how well they are doing.
Finally, I would advise Lori to follow her heart. If she couldn't educate those kids at East when her heart was allegedly open, the last thing we need is to put someone like that in front of somebody else's children when her heart is closed. I can't imagine any principal saying, "Hey, I want that teacher in my school building. Give me a teacher whose heart is closed to kids because they are not sitting in a specific school building."
The sad reality is that Lori has been one of the most loyal and vocal labor union laborers, so the labor union leaders will force some principal to place her in a classroom whether her heart is open or closed to kids.
You were honest enough to say that your heart will be closed to kids when East closes its doors, Lori. Please, follow your heart.
In the Friday, March 16th Gazette article on the pending East closure, Lori Watson is quoted from a statement that she made during the public hearing portion of Wednesday's board meeting. She said this with regards to what would happen if East closed and she was moved to a different school to teach: "It will be hard for me to open my heart again."
Lori is an 8th grade math teacher at East. 8th grade math test scores at East hover around 13% proficient and advanced. For minority students at East, the numbers are even lower. The assumption on Lori's part is that she will certainly be transferred to another D11 school after the closure of East. Because she is a labor union big-wig, she will definitely be placed in another school. Even though D11 has been losing students to surrounding districts for over a decade now, and even though the district will soon have one less school building, the administration will not reduce the total number of teachers. The labor union will not give the administration permission to reduce teachers because that would hurt the political funding of the labor union.
In the same article on East, Lori's co-worker said this about the low performance at East: "You can’t measure what students know and what they can do based solely on a test." OK, fine, don't use the CSAP test to determine what these students know after three years of attending that school. I would challenge the apologists for mediocrity to use any tools or methods of their own choosing to determine how much these students have learned. Can they perform basic math skills that would be expected of an 8th grader? Can they read simple letters and statements (according to attendees at the public hearing from two weeks ago, 8th grade students struggled to read simple statements that their teachers had prepared for them)? What is their knowledge of science, history, and social studies? On one hand, excuse makers like Watson and Griffin claim that these East students are unable to academically achieve, so people should stop accusing the teachers of not doing their jobs. On the other hand, they say that these kids can achieve, but only in ways that are not measurable. In other words, due to the color of these students' skin or their level of income, they are very different from other kids - so different, in fact, that we can't have any level of expectations of them because there just isn't any way to measure how well they are doing.
Finally, I would advise Lori to follow her heart. If she couldn't educate those kids at East when her heart was allegedly open, the last thing we need is to put someone like that in front of somebody else's children when her heart is closed. I can't imagine any principal saying, "Hey, I want that teacher in my school building. Give me a teacher whose heart is closed to kids because they are not sitting in a specific school building."
The sad reality is that Lori has been one of the most loyal and vocal labor union laborers, so the labor union leaders will force some principal to place her in a classroom whether her heart is open or closed to kids.
You were honest enough to say that your heart will be closed to kids when East closes its doors, Lori. Please, follow your heart.
posted by Craig Cox | 8:59 AM
1 Comments:
It is this type of irrational gibberish that has our K-12 system in so much trouble. Your heart, my dear, sizable, Lori, is not what is at stake. It is the lives of countelss thousands that have passed through your halls upon whom you have imparted nothing but ignorance.
What is most ironic (and humerous)about all of this is that this union-hack railed against the reformers on the D11 board for three years in some of the most baffonish ways imaginable. Now that they are gone her lousy school STILL has to face the reaper (10 years too late, I might add). Even that idiot board president can't cover up the depravity going on in that school anymore.
My prediction: East won't be the last school to close in D11 in the next year or two, especially after Cesar Chavez rescues another 500 D11 kids next year.
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