tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post4923830113759973809..comments2023-11-13T04:55:40.769-05:00Comments on Tuttle SVC: Should Houston Follow Oakland? (Or Make the Road By Walking?)Tom Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719550.post-19380755896296855692009-06-18T10:53:13.355-04:002009-06-18T10:53:13.355-04:00Tom,
I lived in Oakland for 10 years, taught the...Tom, <br /><br />I lived in Oakland for 10 years, taught there for 4 years (3 subbing) before moving up to Sacramento. I think the problem goes back farther than the "state takeover" and "reform" movements you cite (both of which happened after I left, BTW).<br /><br />There already a number of emergency permit principals at the elementary level, and vice principal level in secondary while I was there. My last year teaching featured a whopping 3 different principals (4 if you count the sub principal covering vacation under the year round calendar). The longest lived of them was the pulled out of retirement in his 80s at the personal request of the new superintendent, then given no support AT ALL, even with a crisis about mold in old portables descended on the site. Some genius at the district "volunteered" a number of schools in the district including that one, for the state's version of intervention and improvement. The school was reconstituted a few years later (strangely with the same principal, but having worked with her previously, I thought she was fine). They are now in Year 4 or 5 of federal program improvement and the district is trying to figure out if it should be reconstituted again. Remember most of this is happening before the Broad-types came in. I'm sure that was just the maraschino cherry on a turd sundae.<br />My point? The district was dysfunctional and serving as a revolving door for all levels of educators for years, something needed to change, although I would agree that it seems like the answers being offered are ill-suited to the problem.<br />I think personally the district never recovered from the white-flight during the 1960s and 1970s, and the one leader who seemed poised to deal with that effectively, Marcus Foster, was assassinated by a bunch of nuts.A. Mercerhttp://mizmercer.edublogs.orgnoreply@blogger.com