An analysis of the latest happenings in the area of Elementary/Secondary education with emphasis on state level policies as they affect teachers and school administrators. Send any comments or suggestions to louisianaeducator@gmail.com
By: Michael Deshotels
The children can't wait. That was the refrain used over and over by the Jindal reformers to pass huge revamps of education law privatizing and chartering education and forcing the implementation of a new evaluation system for public school teachers before it was proven. Today the Baton Rouge Advocate carries two stories that demonstrate that Louisiana should have waited before these attacks on public education and teachers were launched. Maybe the public and the business community would have realized that charter schools were not a panacea and that school takeover and mass firing of teachers and administrators only creates chaos.
Please read over both of these articles and the comments below them that show that most people are no longer willing to be fed miracle solutions that cause more damage than good. The Advocate stories are about the teacher evaluation system and about the drop in enrollment of takeover/charter schools in the Baton Rouge area.
I am also including a link to a story about the damage being done by vouchers to one of Louisiana's best large school systems.
The following are the reader comments so far on the evaluation article:
I am a retired Louisiana educator who taught science at the secondary level. I also served in various positions with the Louisiana Association of Educators culminating in the position of Executive Director prior to my retirement. More recently I have done research on the dropout problem in Louisiana and as a result helped to draft and pass legislation providing for a career diploma designed primarily for non-college bound students. With this blog I am attempting to inform educators, parents and school board members on the current issues in education from the point of view of an experienced educator