Today's Morning Journal in Lorain, Ohio tells us that the districts test scores have improved in 18 or 24 categories and passed 4 of the 24 categories (up from only passing one last year). This is good news for Dr. Atkinson and for DeKalb parents who were very concerned about our proposed new superintendent's home school test scores.
Atkinson pointed out that the district was working hard to build a better high school student in the past couple of years.
With a higher focus on the basics, such as math, students entering high school have been improving over time.
“If we do what we do well,” she said, “then everyone is getting better and once they get to high school, we should see a bigger difference.”
Right now around 80 percent of students entering kindergarten are not prepared, according to Atkinson.
When Atkinson took the position of superintendent, higher standards were put in place to help the district grow.
“I’m excited with all the issues that we have rooted are now growing,” she said. Issues addressing student curriculum, getting children into school, and helping students succeed, are a few of the things she set out to address.
“We’re not perfect,” Atkinson stated. “But, we’re a lot better.”
21 comments:
No duh!
In her defense, especially when compared to what's come to light in DC and APS, slow and steady may be better than really terrific scores. The bigger question is will she have enough autonomy to make necessary changes.....
Time will tell. We all know which administrators need replaced. I’m certain that everyone with an email address in DeKalb will send Dr. Atkinson their opinion of what needs to happen. Ms. Tyson has tried to make changes, but Tom Bowen and the board have completely tied her hands. I pray they don’t do this to Atkinson too. They have been able to buy over 500 more days of high level employment for some who have no business in their job. IF Atkinson is able to derail the gravy train and put the money where the KIDS are, then I’ll be impressed. However, we all saw what happened to Johnny Brown – and the current board, led by Bowen, is even more adamant about maintaining the status quo. This is obvious – otherwise, they would have allowed Tyson to clear the path for Atkinson. But since Atkinson is not from a large district and does not appear to have access to high performing administrators, I don’t hold out much hope that she will be able to get this job done. Like I said, “We’ll see.” In the meantime, hunker down and work hard to protect your children and your schools from having any more money taken from them and “reallocated” to coaches, programs, administrators and lawyers.
vouchers?
Good news for Lorain! I hope we can see some change in our schools soon. Cere, I'm with you, time will tell.
Should be fun to watch Dr. Atkinson, with the trial of Clew and Pope, a new BOE election of 7 instead of nine, another SPLOST vote and more, just in her first year or two. whew.. I'm tired just thinking about it.
What up wit dat?
I heard that many of the top staff is falling apart trying to figure out how to keep their jobs. This may be a good sign that real change is coming...
Yeah, notice how Audria Berry is now trying to insist that she's not in charge of "school improvement", she's "just" compliance. Heck - then replace her with an accountant. Next thing you know, Moseley will be trying to sell his job description as "just" the coat check manager. And Beasley will be "just" the instructional coach's cheerleader.
Bye Bye Birdies. We need some true pros in these jobs. And a pro from the business world to head up HR. And a pro from a Big-8 firm to head up the finances.
I'm wondering if she is going to bring in Gary Brantley the technology head from Lorain. He engineered the digital textbook policy for Lorain. He seems more truly involved with technology than most of the leaders of MIS in recent times, including Tyson. He appears to have real vision, something that has long been lacking in the MIS department.
I hope that she doesn't bring anyone with her, until she cleans house. The last thing DCSS needs is another over paid position. We have too many already.
I would hope that Dr. Atkinson would need some time to access the needs of the system and the credentials of the present staff before bringing in new people. I am sure she is capable of recruiting competent experienced staff from many of the systems where she has worked or networked. It would be wrong for her to be given a "hit list" by the bloggers or the Board. It would be interesting if the lists would be similar or different. Before you begin to judge too much, think of who was giving these employees orders. Ultimately, the Supt is where the buck stops and we know what happened there. Unfortunately, Tyson wasn't given the responsibility of reorganizing or making changes. I hope a new organizational chart will reflect fewer out of the school staffers and more in the schools with direct instruction. DeKalb is too top heavy. Anyway, I will be glad to get Monday night over with and begin to move forward.
Hush, hush, be quiet and see what the new Supt does!
You realize that Lorain was at this level when Dr. Atkinson took over the district. She took them down and now they are back to where they started.
Perhaps the fine Dr. can use her skills to "locate" the E & Y salary audit that the taxpayers spent a whopping $341k on. Or maybe she can use that fancy electronic device on her desk, you know, the one near the stapler to call E & Y and request a copy. For $341k a copy should be free for sure. I know, I know, the report is most likely no longer germain, but it chaps me that a copy "cannot" be found. And they wants us to approve Splost again?
Hush, hush, be quiet?!!!??!!
Dr. Lewis once proposed the idea of having the excess highly paid people in the administration go into the classroom as teachers at the lower teacher salaries. That one never got anywhere. But I really am surprised that he proposed it.
I learned the hard way that Dr. Lewis always just said whatever needed to be said to the person in front of him. He was never sincere in my experience. He always just did what he originally planned to do anyway.
BTW- For a list of unfulfilled "promises" made by Ramona Tyson at her very first public meeting after her appointment as superintendent, read this post:
Revisiting the past with Ramona Tyson
See a pattern? These superintendents say that it was the board that prevented them from taking any action. True? We'll never really know.
I think it has been well established that the Interium Supt. had limited powers. However, she dealt with many of the ugly onstacles that she faced. These would have been hidden and ignored evan by Halford and Lewis. Brown was the only Supt. who would not b ruled or promote folk unfairly When the BOE dictates to the Supt. or Interium Supt. we are indeed going backwards to the good ole boy mess that started with Jim Cherry. I hate to say this but we haven't had a non-dictorial BOE since David Williamson and Phul McGregory were on the Board. They did not meddle in the day to day operations.
Anon 3:54 If the BOE does not direct the superintendent, then the super sets the policies.
CLew did what a majority of the BOE hired him to do, fatten the administration in numbers and salary. He was allowed to ignore educating the children. The BOE majority was complicit in letting him do this because fattening the administration was a matter of self interest (family and friends) and racial agenda to them.
Lorain school board candidate, Joyce Early, posted an article on her blog showing the test data in each area and labeling them individually as improving or not.
Of twenty-six comparable State Indicators, only 8 were better on the 2010-2011 report card than the outcomes from the 2006-2007 report, while 18 of the current state indicators were worse. Mathematics seems to be a weak area for the district with only one occurrence of a better score and 7 occurrences where is was worse.
Check the data here -
<a
href="http://voteforearly.com/?p=404<Reports Card Analysis</a>
Kind of scary. If she has similar success at DCSS, we'll be where we are now in 4 more years and before we get there, we'll be worse. Sigh.
The man may have a point ...
Call to action on superintendent contract
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