If you didn't get to watch the board meeting, there was a small spat between Matt Avila and Ann Sutherland. We were watching as Sutherland explained that more testing is not the solution. Avila using his touted degrees and expertise in psychology and went on to insult Sutherland with rhetoric that shows how out of touch he is with education. Teaching about behaviors and such has nothing to do with how our students are struggling. You can waive all the degrees you want but Avila is out of touch. He went to praise the "experts" that abound with Sorum saying that he cannot think that they would harm our students and that they "know" what to do. Where has he been? Has he truly kept up with FWISD or what reason did he have to join the board. But let's also recall that Needham and former board members financed his campaign. Read the curriculum audit, we don't need a PHD to see that things have not changed.
So teachers, it looks like more testing every three weeks on scantrons unless they change it. So Kinder kids get ready to bubble your life away. If Mr. Avila truly believes that Sorum and company have it right, then I am sure he will ask for the specifics on their plan to test more. Show how it connects to the district objectives and provide data to prove that it is working. Then they need to tell how that is impacting the classroom when it comes to time away from instruction.
Mr. Avila, let us tell you how it works. Just because we say teachers have a full day to teach does not mean that's all they have to do. Don't forget there are announcements in the morning with pledges, get students ready, teach what they have to teach by minutes, recess, lunch (which is at times 15 minutes) because elementary teachers have to take students to lunch and the little ones have to be watched for a bit. Upper grades not as much but some teachers who don't get a break in between have to run to the restroom. But they don't get 30 minutes because they have to use 5 minutes to get to the room. So not only will upper grades get more as well, high school you have enough with SAT, ACT, etc. and now more. In some places their planning time is taken away and so they don't have the time to do other things. So now aside form their regular instructional duties, six weeks tests, benchmarks, teaching to the test prior to STAAR, now you add more tests? Tell me Mr. Avila when will the teachers meet to discuss the results, create a plan to intervene, time to intervene and time to come back and show the data of how it worked? So are you testing on week three or four of the six weeks? Do you meet on week 4 or 5 of the six weeks to discuss results? Then have a week to intervene before the end of the six weeks? Then start a new six weeks with different standards but teachers have not finished intervening from the last ones before the next three weeks they have to test. Wait I forgot the second three week test in the six weeks. So when do they meet for that one before giving the benchmark? How do they incorporate the data from 2 tests plus a benchmark when standards and needs will be different? Hire us to teach assessment since obviously you depend on outside people and not your "experts" like Sorum and company. Why hire if you have your gurus?
So let me see, teachers will receive "formative assessment training" that your buddies approved and so they will be trained while they have to give tests and not before. We all know the tests are not aligned to the standards and if someone can show that, then publish results. We never hear of results from benchmarks only when STAAR results come out. Why doesn't Sorum report on Academics like the budget is done more during the year? What is being hidden?
So tell me if they taught you that in your graduate classes and if they told you just how teachers are being bombarded and expected to create miracles when all they need to do is teach the standards and put their magic to it. What is disgrace to see this happening when we were expecting better. Sutherland was right and you all have such a distaste for her that you will do what it takes to discredit her. She does her homework, the rest of you get an F. Use your imagination on what that means!
God help us. Where did they find this guy? Another "looks good on paper" expert. If he thinks that loser Sorum is competent - well that should tell you all you need to know about Avilla. For being so "educated' he obviously does not know what he is talking about and has not reviewed Sorum's performance results. He should also know that the most effective thing we can do to immediately enhance student performance is reduce classroom size to 24. And with the decisions that have been coming out of this Board, it is obvious he is neither a research or trial attorney. Also, I think we need a more current picture. On Saturday he looked more like a homeless guy I know.
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ReplyDeleteRemember, Avila wasn't elected. He got the job by default when the other 2 running for that seat withdrew. He has no mandate from the people. He may be an expert in his filed but that isn't public education and how to properly teach FWISD kids.
ReplyDeleteHad completely forgotten about the election circumstance. You are correct - he was not elected. This is sickening. How in the world do we get these immoral, unethical and ignorant people?
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the feedback...it's a good conversation to have and we will be looking at it in conjunction with Michael and his team to make sure what we are doing makes sense.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Avila
FWISD Board of Education
District 8 Trustee
Mr. Avilla. I was pleased to see you are at least reading comments on this blog. Our frustration no doubt shows. Please consider what you put employees through on a daily basis. I have several Teacher friends who have brought complaints before the Board - yes, even with its new members. You do not have any idea how hard it is for someone devoted to teaching children, perhaps with a family of their own, to come before you with a problem. Though you are new, those sitting next to you are well known to us. They have been there way too long and are THE biggest part of the problem in FWISD. They have been involved in a wide variety of scandals over the years, yet each time have escaped justice. They continue to cover-up and retaliate. Some are "free lance employment agencies" for family and friends. Just this past year, one Board Member had a coach removed from his position at AHHS and replaced by a friend with no teaching or coaching experience - not even certified - who sat in a lab for most of the day playing on a computer. He collected the same pay we did. Do you have any idea how demoralizing that is? Back to my point, we see three new people who we hope will try as Ann Sutherland does, to listen and research our problem. Two of you are asleep at the wheel. When we come before you, some of you fall asleep; some eat; some can't be bothered. Some obviously already have their mind made up. For female employees who have been assaulted on the job, this is the ultimate humiliation. You continue to allow the most incompetent to run our District. Their incompetence breeds insecurity and thus retaliation which is all around. We all know what you did and continue to do to Palazzolo; Chavez, Salinas, Tennyson, Gonzalez and others. Do you not see anything wrong with that? Yet how differently you react when someone calls you out. The change starts with you. We in the trenches know what it will take to turn this around. It is not $30 million more in technology we may never see; it is not more testing; or humiliation. Its not misrepresenting what Tatum did in order to look good. Stop listening to the likes of Needham, Robbins, Sims, and Moss. Look at where their leadership has gotten FWISD. Do something to change the environment of FWISD for the better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and responding, Dr. Avila. Did "Michael" and his team of "expert curriculum specialists" in whom you expressed such great faith last night share with the Board the memo that was sent out to Principals at the end of the last school year, apologizing for the rampant errors in many of last year's CBA's? As an elementary teacher, I had to apologize myself to my students for the shoddy craftsmanship of the tests- as I said to them, "I'm sorry that the people we entrust to write these tests don't take these as seriously as we ask you to take them." Clearly, the test writers hadn't bothered to take the tests themselves before printing them and making us waste precious instructional time administering them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dr. Avila for responding and listening to many of us who are committed to our students in the FWISD. We have been subjected to same things curriculum is proposing with no good results. Teachers that have commented on here are correct, we test just to test and have no connection. Ask leadership from directors and up what they do with the pile of data they ask from principals and how they use the data to drive their support of campuses. We can guarantee you that it's for compliance because we cannot see them going through each data point. A suggestion would be that the data is looked on with the principal at the campus and use it there where it is needed and not just some piece of paper to check on the checklist. Things have to start changing soon, there is a sense of urgency that we don't see. We as teachers get put under the gun to produce but upper management seems to get away easily.
ReplyDeleteI would like to thank Dr. Avila for responding but when you go to Michael, he'll blow the same smoke into your back pocket that he's been blowing in everyone elses now for years. These tests that we give and are written by "experts" from the ad building often ask questions about things that we weren't supposed to have covered or they are written in such a way as to be misleading and overly difficult for students. Sometimes the correct answer isn't even given in the answers. That's how much real effort is put into these tests. The students are so over tested that they lose interest or give up all together. The frame work sets such a ridiculous pace, never adding in all the extras that we have to do, that it's impossible to teach it all and make sure that all of the students grasp the material fully. Therefore they keep falling farther and farther behind. The district, as I recall, was pretty successful before Michael came along and has been less so since he arrived. Why does the board, you included, continue to support a system that has repeatedly proven itself a failure. It's past time to try something new, like trusting your teachers to do what they have been trained to do, teach, without the interference of administrators who have never taught.
ReplyDeleteDr. Avila, I would like to know if you, personally and knowingly, participated in concealing the fact that Urban Public L.L.C. was owned by Kyev Tatum.
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