All Articles Tagged "principals"
Fewer Principals Flee from D.C. Schools
(Washington Examiner) — Turnover among principals of the District’s chronically troubled but reforming public schools is beginning to stabilize, a Washington Examiner analysis shows. On Monday, 24 of about 125 school principals will start in D.C. Public Schools, replacing leaders who fled the system or whom school officials said weren’t making the grade. That’s fewer than the 30 replacements needed last school year and the 26 the year before that. As former Chancellor Michelle Rhee shook up the school system — even firing the principal of her children’s school — turnover among principals fluctuated from 28 to 19 to 43 to 26, year to year. ”We are actually retaining more of the principals that we want,” Rhee’s successor, Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, said at her confirmation hearing.
Merit Pay for Principals Prompts Questions
(Chicago News Cooperative) — Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a plan Monday to award merit pay to Chicago Public Schools principals who perform well on a new set of evaluative metrics as critics questioned whether the program will lead to gains in student achievement. The performance rewards—which may be based on student test scores, school climate and leadership skills, among other factors — are part of an overhaul of principal preparation and evaluation at CPS. They will be paid for over the next four years by a new $5 million fund created through charitable donations, Emanuel said. The district plans to implement a similar incentive program for teachers, he said. “You can’t throw merit pay out there like a Hail Mary pass,” Emanuel said, emphasizing that the effort to upgrade principal performance will also include targeted recruitment, training and mentoring. Performance pay for teachers and administrators has grown in popularity, but research has not shown a clear link between bonuses and improved student performance.
Report: More Illinois Principals Younger, Female
(AP) — More women are principals at Illinois schools and principals’ average ages have dropped over the last decade because baby boomers are retiring, according to a report released Monday by the Illinois Education Research Council. The age drop means more job turnover, with fewer principals keeping their positions for six years or more, the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville-based independent research group’s new report found. From 2001 to 2008 principals under age 40 doubled from 15 percent to 30 percent. Principals are either nearing retirement age or are just beginning their careers as school leaders, the report found. That turnover means more mobility, with 28 percent of first-time principals remaining in their initial jobs for at least six years — a 10 percent drop from a decade ago.
Atlanta’s Cheating Teachers and Administrators to be Removed
By Charlotte Young
Following last week’s release of an 800-page Georgia report outlining one of the nation’s biggest cheating scandals in public schools, Atlanta’s interim public school superintendent is promising reform and the removal of the teachers and administrators involved.
Erroll Davis Jr. has removed four area superintendents and two principals this week. One former Atlanta deputy superintendent who is now located in a Texas school district, has agreed to go on paid leave.
The report listed these persons by name in its detailed account of the widespread systematic cheating committed by students, teachers and administrators on Georgia’s annual standardized testing of elementary and middle schoolers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, investigators focused on testing in 2009 and allege administrators tampered with tests and intimidated teachers. Teachers were found guilty of providing students with the answers and fixing the tests themselves. Cheating was found in 44 of 56 schools in Atlanta. Eighty-two of 178 teachers and administrators implicated have already confessed.
Similar instances of cheating have also been found in school systems in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington DC, and have increased since the 2002 No Child Left Behind federal law was implemented. The law “sanctions schools that fall short of state-set goals.”
Davis says he hopes to take some of the focus off testing and place more importance on academic progress made throughout the year. But the implicated teachers and administrators must still be removed.
“You’re either going to have high integrity, or you’re not,” he told Wall Street Journal. “And if you’re not, I don’t want you in this institution.”
