Assistant Principal in Florida resigns over testing issues.

[LWolf]

Here's the "official story" as it was originally reported:

<snip>

Westwood assistant principal resigns in wake of coaching debacle

A high-ranking Fort Pierce Westwood High School administrator resigned Tuesday — a few weeks after the controversial dismissal of two coaches at the school.

Former Westwood assistant principal Teri Pinney resigned from her position of three years effective April 29. She said it was for personal reasons and added, "I had to leave." She declined to explain further.

<snip>

Pinney said she was not asked to leave. But asked if the coaching mishap was a factor in her decision to resign, Pinney declined to comment further.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/19/30gtwestwood-assistant-principal-resigns/?feedback=1

It had nothing to do with the coaching situation. Here is an audio of her presentation to the school board:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ohTjtNVR6So

Here are her remarks after having spoken to the board:

<snip>

I’m not a hero, because my statement merely scratched at the surface of the ignominious practices that are taking place within the schools in this district. In an aggressive effort to boost school grades or hike up student FCAT scores, Machiavellian-type administrators have been unleashed to wreak havoc upon faculty, staff and students.

<snip>

Because I felt so strongly against the way people were being treated and because I could no longer, as an administrator, condone the methods with which changes were being implemented at Westwood, I did the unthinkable. I questioned this practice and I even comforted those teachers who felt mistreated.

And because of this, I was branded as being distrustful, regardless of my hard work at school operations.

I don’t think that standing up for what you believe is right and speaking out in public against what you know is wrong makes me a loser.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/02/teri-pinney-name-greatness/

As an educator, I greatly appreciate Ms. Pinney's efforts. I wish our schools were full of administrators like her.

[woodsprite]

1. She deserves an award. More people should stick up for what is right.

My son's teacher (2nd grade) is going a bit bonkers, and I believe it has much to do with the stress of the new requirements. She keeps harping on the "Everyone is supposed to be performing at 100% by 2014" (in a frantic way everytime I see her) and just yesterday said "I would like your son to have special services in place so he can pass the state testing next year. You don't understand. Next year's test is hard and when he takes it and fails, his self-esteem will be broken". By special services, she means she would like someone to read him his tests, he answers them verbally and the person writes the answers down - no reading or writing involved.

My son is struggling a bit with reading/writing, but we have a tutor for both. He's missing his writing 4x a week in school because he goes to a reading mentor for 30 min., so DUH, of course his writing needs more work. He's bringing home 75-85's on a majority of his writing papers, although some are even coming close to 90's or higher now. He brings home a good number of 90s and 100s in Math/Science, and Social Studies. He went from a 172 to 188 on his latest reading MAP scores, which I thought was great. The teacher told me "No, he should be at 191 by now". The teacher said that he's much more frustrated and tapping his head with his pencil, and that's a sign he needs help, even though he's improving. She actually said that he's not improving fast enough for her to feel confident he'll pass next year's test. She's THIS year's teacher - not next year's. Thank goodness!

I think the teacher needs help, because she's gonna go up in flames before 2014 just due to the stress.

During our hallway chat, a little boy tried to sneak into her classroom behind her. She made him go back to the cafeteria and start over. The whole time he's walking back to us, she's telling me "He's crazy. No, he really is. He's got alot of stuff happening and he's crazy."

Forgot to add that a friend who's retired from teaching in that district said there is always a spring 'push' to diversify special ed/special services for funding/reporting deadlines for the year, so they will run some borderline kids thru psych testing in a hurry inorder to up their numbers. Said it's been like that for the past 40 years, but it's MUCH worse now with NCLB and new requirements.

[LWolf]

2. It sounds to me like this teacher

is doing exactly what she's being pressured to do, and is afraid for her job. Students don't pay the price for test scores that do not continuously improve according to the applied formula. Districts do. Therefore admins do, and teachers do.

Of course, the kids pay the price, too. They pay it for much longer, and it's a high cost. They pay it by spending every day in a stress-filled environment with a narrowed curriculum and an atmosphere that is likely to create an intense negative reaction to school, and to the idea of learning.

Nothing is going to happen when their scores don't improve, or don't improve enough, unless they are attending one of the high schools that are tying test scores to graduation. That is on the increase, too.

It doesn't matter, though, that the sanctions are not applied directly. They pay the price anyway. We all do. :(

[woodsprite]

3. My thoughts exactly. She's so frantic, it sounds like her feet are

being held to the fire. The same way with the reading resource teacher and the school psych. My son's tutor told me if we really wanted an eval, rather than waiting for him to mature a bit more, she would suggest an independent one since the district is known for making the testing say what they want/need it to.

Yeah, our district high schools are some of the ones using state testing to determine the degree the kids get. It's stupid! A test in 10th grade determines if you get a basic degree, an honors degree or something in between (distinction maybe?). My daughter just started high school this past year, next year her degree will be determined by her state test grade and she'll have 2 more years of high school before graduation. It makes no sense at all.

[LWolf]

4. Here's a story about an assistant principal

who resigned due to the kind of pressure you're noticing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3250373&mesg_id=3250373