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Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

I agree with the previous comment. I have worked in several other states and ALL required five years minumum as a teacher before becoming principal eligible. I don't see how anyone could legitmately lead or evaluate teachers otherwise.

Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

Progress for the new tough bill is slow because they are changing a previous principal prep program that was poorly conceived and poorly managed. I know employees who went through the process and received low ratings in spite of the fact that they were teachers and administrators much longer than and were much more professional and knowledgable than the rooky teachers who are presently allowed to lead our failing schools. Principal candidates should be thoroughly screened through real time interviews and a solid apprenticeship program.

Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

What's really a shame is the fact that age and wisdom are now synonymous with failure. It's so like Americans to be impressed with shiny new toys that anybody with 5 seconds of experience is ready to lead. When I retire, I will return to my country where elders are respected, revered and not discarded like yesterday's trash. Especially educators. Even people who work in service positions in schools are treated with respect. What a shame!

Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

Although I work at a charter school, I also support the voucher program (and yes, I realize it would hurt the charters!).

I believe parents and children should have the right to pick which school that best fits what is desired by the family. If the family felt that School A was better than School B, then they should have the RIGHT to go to School A. If everyone starts flocking to School A, then School B should lose all of that money. Losing an entire "child" in terms of money would kill some schools, and maybe it'd hurt so badly that the schools would change to support what parents and children need. Instead of forcing children to X school, there should be a choice. If I want to drive my child 30 minutes to another school, that is my decision.

Not everyone can move to the "good" neighborhoods. Some people have houses that were once in a decent area, but are now part of a gang infested hovel. You can't expect them to sell their house and move.

Let the parents decide where the children should go. The schools that are bad will lose money until they change; the schools that are good and safe will gain money and be able to provide more resources. And the children will win.

Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

with the way Ron has filled each school with high stakes testing, a principal SHOULD only take kids with high scores (Like charters do.)
When you bring that voucher, be sure you have a high scoring kid attached to it.

Slow progress for bill to toughen principal preparation

First off, Principals, students, parents, faculty and community are the five parts of the total program it takes to re-think, re-tool and re-start a school. Of these, the Principal is the leader but he/she needs and relies on the other four partners in every step of the way.
Unfortunately, Mayor Daley thinks he is one of the partners. He is an observer from too far away to have anywhere near the level of competency of the five partners.
The Mayor has another agenda--he has brought in two inexperienced ceo's from other areas to head up our school system--a tutor whose parents were big neighborhood leaders (Arne) and now (Huberman) a bus company exec (not even a bus or 'el' driver) who left behind him a trail of mismanagement and lost money totalling in the millions. Two unqualified fellows.
Neither were/are even qualified to be teachers; neither has been a classroom teacher, counselor, playground supervisor, Assistant Principal or school engineer in a school for even a week.
Then, under the guise or disguise of 'reform' the Mayor set up three school systems--I. the regular CPS with its three levels of schools (levels: top magnet, mini-magnet and neighborhood schools or from the point of view of the man on the street: big clout and right neighborhood, fairly high clout, and poverty stricken, throw-away neighborhoods with throw-away kids), II. the charter schools and III. the contract schools.
His appointees can not even run one school system and now they have three.
One or two or three of the three are broke and deeply financially in the hole. Here's a homework assignment for you dear reader: Pick any charter in the city and read its annual report; look at the leadership at the top and see how it has changed drastically year after year. The well-intentioned people who have tried have found out it is very difficult to start a school from scratch and most people are incapable of doing so.
Then, Mr. Daley brought in a smoke screen to keep people focused on other things--the gun issue. Associating every child who gets killed in the city--at school, on the way or at home on weekends with their school--to make it look as though these were school related issues. This lays an awful and terrible burden on a local school leadership team. Though certainly every school leader grieves at the death or harm to any of his/her children, it is not fair to our dedicated local school leaders to hang these deaths at the hands of the local school leaders. They are not.
Then, to go from there, for funding sources to keep feeding cash into Mr. Daley's appointees to deal with school issues based upon the fact that he is the funnel for all funds, has lead us to this: Where is the money?
Where is the school budget? This is a great question raised by the new CTU leadership.
The same people who decide the leadership of the system are the same ones hiring the consultants and blowing away all the money being spent. Instead of going into classrooms, it is just 'gone.'
Example. Who are the new Area Instruction Officers that were appointed by Huberman? These posts had just been filled a very, very few years ago by Mr. Duncan. Why were they all of a sudden changed? Example: How many new schools has the South Shore area had in the last 50 years? Answer: the third one is being built as we speak.
When the whole educational world is calling for small schools and smaller buildings, three super monstrous schools in less than two generations. Take a look for yourself--75th and Jeffery Blvd.
Thank you, Alderman Jackson. Beautiful building with gorgeous brick work; yes, but what a waste!!
Behind his various smoke screens ("Oh, the children are being killed , give me more state, fed etc money to help the schools."), Daley then funnels all tax money and federal and state grants for all schools and channels it thru the people he has put in charge of the schools. Thus the money goes to the schools and areas but to serve other agendas--keeping the whites in the city, setting up top flight magnet schools to which most people who have high college hopes aspire, building TIF districts, etc.
Then, because the charters and contract schools are part of the business community, their business partners bring in top financial sponsors and add their own money on top.
Wait a Minute!! Just ten years ago, all schools in the city's one system were out looking for corporate partners or adopters who were to provide money for these their CPS neighborhood adopted schools. In the hubbub of the changes and playing around by the incompetent people running the CPS the last ten years, this CPS School Adoption Program has apparently gone by the boards. So, corporate money now goes to charters or to highly publicized 'successful' schools.
What other under the radar things do we detect?
-----Witness Sen Meeks slipping in a legislative bill a few months ago to try to wipe out the last voice rom the commuity within the schools, namely the Local School Councils. Already the elected councils have to battle lethargy and lack of CPS paid training programs to be productive. Now they have new found allies of Mr. Daley out subterfuging the neighborhood LSCs.
----Witness all along, the Catylst magazine bills what Daley has been struggling to do the last ten to fifteen years as 'school reform.' What a sad joke. Very little that Daley has done for the schools or to the schools can legitimately be called a reform.
So, to the point at hand, with the legislature's newly proposed Principal training program bills struggling through the legislative process, by putting the teaching requirement down to two years and placing the avenue into Principal readiness into a smaller list of approved starting sources, Daley and Mr. Huberman can control who gets in to be a Principal--thus another pipeline closed off to the general teaching public.
Let the educators work to educate. Let the co-partnering of the other four groups--teachers, families, students and community--join in as co-partners.
Ask Daley and Madigan to step out of the kitchen. They stir up confusion, take the money for their own pet projects, and have diluted whatever resources should be coming to our struggling school neighborhood CPS system into their favorites of three poorly funded school systems and to TIF districts across the metro area.
These two gents have the power in Illinois to do just about anything they want. And they do anything they want. And now, the school system stands as a totally mismanaged system and a monument to their disaster, their appointees's disaster, and these two men's total un-controlled and un-checked incomptence and short-sightedness.