From NPR's Tavis Smiley Show, The Top Ten Signs It's Time to Mount a Hostile Takeover of Your Local School District.
According to civil rights lawyer Connie Rice, all of these incidents really happened:
10. they stop counting college-track kids because the low numbers create bad press.Laugh, cry and listen to the whole thing. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 03, 2003 05:46 PM9. the superintendent orders all school bulletins rewritten in 9th grade English because too many teachers can't understand 12th grade English.
8. the school announces an academic improvement celebration because the reading scores jumped from the 11th to the 14th percentile.
7. the school board, when facing a deficit of $3 million, refuses a grant of $4 million because they don't like the name of the funding statute.
6. the dropout rate is 65% and the district can't tell you where the kids went.
5. two-thirds of black male students are labelled "mentally retarded" and other learning disabled tags.
4. the teachers' union testifies against building new schools because the schedule for over-crowded schools cuts 17 days of classes for which teachers get paid anyway.
3. the school board lays off math and history teachers but fully funds the football team. (this was the same district with the $3 million hole in the budget, see #7)
2. the school district puts the football coach in charge of building a new $200 million high school that turns out to be sited on a toxic waste dump.
1. the teachers' union files a grievance against the Teacher of the Year because he stays at school after hours to tutor struggling kids
He must be talking about the Orleans Parish School district in New Orleans, LA. Where a validictorian student had to take the graduation exam several times to pass. You know the test to see if you could make a "D" in class.
Posted by: roux on December 5, 2003 09:28 AMConnie Rice's top ten reasons to takeover your school are impressive and sad at the same time. They are also not true. These stories are urban legends. When you listen to her commentary note how she does not mention specific school or places. She give no names of any indivuals involved. She cites no news sources.
Making out administrators, teachers and union representatives ("reps") to be the bad guys is not true. The reason why it seems to us that these are real stories is that by believing them we shift the responsibility for solving the problems away from us.
I think that this is funny because its true in some cases, but not all. I hope that this changes someday, but until than im glad we can at least make fun of it. But that doesnt mean that we should just let it go, if you think theres something your school can improve on, why dont you go do something about it, make a petition, talk to the administrators,ask for the board of education policy book. Remember, knowledge is power, the more you know, the more you can do.
Posted by: Taki Chowdhury on January 26, 2005 05:51 PM