Tags
San Diego Unified Board of Education, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten, SDUSD Trustee John Lee Evans, SDUSD Trustee Kevin Beiser, SDUSD Trustee Mike McQuary, SDUSD Trustee Richard Barrera, SDUSD Trustee Sharon Whitehurst -Payne
Here are some interesting articles we received and discovered this past week…
ENJOY!
Learning From Student Voice – Bullying Today
Quote from Article:
Since 2016, YouthTruth has examined student perception data about bullying to
contribute to anti-bullying conversations and action in honor of October’s National Bullying Prevention Month. Previously, our analysis found that 1 in 4 students are bullied — a broad statistic widely reported elsewhere.
We know students are the true experts about their experiences, and that listening to students is a crucial part of understanding how to decrease bullying. In 2017, we analyzed anonymous feedback from over 180,000 students across 37 states in grades five through twelve. We discovered that most bullying happens in person, and the top three reasons students believe they are bullied include their appearance, their race or skin color, and because other students thought they were gay.
District Deeds Synopsis:
October is National Bullying Prevention Month and doing some research for anti-bullying we found this interesting survey. The information provided is eye-opening and especially compelling since the data comes directly from students.
In our research on Bullying in the San Diego Unified School District we have discovered the following facts:
- Searching “bullying” on the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) website produces 40 results.
- Almost ALL of the bullying material, including forms, guidelines and resources, are in English only so families that speak other languages are out of luck.
- Policies to address bullying vary at every SDUSD school site…some are very structured, other not so much. There is no consistent application of written SDUSD Central Office Bullying Policy.
- The SDUSD Quality Assurance Department process to report bullying is a confusing 7 step process whose main aim is to PREVENT Students and Families from reporting Bullying.
Remember, a non-publicized fact is that the Quality Assurance Department reports to the SDUSD Legal Department. In other words, Parents are encouraged to tell their full story of the Bullying damage done to their children to a department that reports to Lawyers who will be fighting them in court!!!
Here is the Quality Assurance…as mentioned earlier…in english only:
With the knowledge that over 30% of our Students have been bullied and no well-defined and universal SDUSD process to prevent it, it is clear that our Students are again woefully underserved and unsafe under dysfunctional Elementary Superintendent Cindy Marten and her crony Board of Education.
Just in case, here it is in Spanish:
Con el conocimiento de que más del 30% de nuestros estudiantes han sido acosados y no hay un proceso SDUSD universal bien definido para prevenirlo, está claro que nuestros estudiantes están nuevamente mal atendidos e inseguros bajo la disfuncional Superintendente de Primaria Cindy Marten y su Junta de Educación.
Teacher of the year: How schools silence girls — and how I played a part
Quote from Article:
It is hard as an educator to watch the Kavanaugh events unfold while understanding innately that the obvious and more nuanced facets of the issues facing our country at this moment begin and develop in classrooms.
I’ve felt this truth as both a parent and an educator. Just this past summer, while picking up my 5-year-old from preschool, she came running up to me as soon as I arrived, excited to share that on this particular day, she received two stickers on her sticker chart, rather than the usual one. Then, a young teaching assistant who couldn’t have been older than 20, said to her in encouragement, “Yes, you have been so good today. You were so quiet and did exactly as you were told.”
I felt such a jolt of anger rush through me at that moment, and later I realized that I was so angry because my daughter was openly being praised for her silence and compliance. It is the same anger that at this moment drives protesters into the streets — the deep understanding that from a young age, women are praised for being silent, while Christine Blasey Ford and other sexual assault victims simultaneously are criticized for not speaking up.
I don’t blame this young teacher. She was not a trained educator, but simply a young person with a part-time afternoon job supporting preschool teachers as they roll off of their various shifts. Yet I have found myself coming back to this moment over and over again in my mind. She was not a trained educator, but I am. And I had to recognize right then, that whether I liked it or not — whether I had openly agreed to it or not — I had also taken part in the silencing of young girls.
And…
Research over several decades has indicated that teachers provide an uneven distribution of time to male students — asking more questions, providing more feedback to them and allowing more interruptions or talking out of turn from them.
Meanwhile, girls are called on less frequently and therefore volunteer or raise their hands less often. Teachers spend nearly two-thirds more time interacting with boys than with girls, and they allow boys to interrupt girls, rather than vice versa. They provide more wait time to boys and prompting for critical thinking and deeper answers, while praising girls for being quiet or neat.
District Deeds Synopsis:
This article caught our interest given all of the recent controversy regarding the Supreme Court nomination process and the #metoo movement.
The data and personal experience of the writer was both surprising and very sobering. As a parent we hope and trust ALL our kids are treated equally at school but this article points out how, even with the best of intentions, it is almost impossible for that to happen.
We learned quite a bit from the article and the data provided.
Well worth reading!
How Principal Effectiveness Affects Teacher Turnover
Quote from Article:
Grissom and Bartanen offer descriptive findings that add context to their examination of whether principals affect teacher turnover. Most noteworthy is that, in general, less effective teachers are more likely to turn over: 37 percent of the teachers in the least effective band turned over, compared to just 11 percent of teachers in the most effective range. Overall, 13 percent of teachers turned over each year.
As for the big question, the study echoes previous research, finding that principals with greater effectiveness have lower teacher turnover in their schools. Specifically, a 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in principal effectiveness is correlated with about a 5 percent change (0.5 percentage points) in teacher turnover.
Grissom and Bartanen also find evidence of “strategic retention,” wherein good principals are better at keeping effective teachers and getting rid of less effective teachers. A 1 SD increase in the superior rating (the superintendent’s rating of the principal) is associated with a 1.3 percentage-point decrease in turnover among teachers with comparatively high observation and student growth scores, and a 2.3 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of turnover among teachers with low marks. Their results also suggest that observation scores, rather than measures of teacher effectiveness derived from student test score growth, drive the patterns of strategic retention. This is in line with prior literature that says principals rely most on observation, and less on value-added measures because they’re opaque.
District Deeds Synopsis:
After reading this study it made us wonder if the authors could be coaxed into creating a NEW study. With about 75% Principal turnover in the past five years under incompetent Superintendent Cindy Marten, we strongly recommend the SDUSD funds a study by the authors titled “Strategic Retention: Superintendent Effectiveness and Principal Turnover in Multiple-Measure Principal Evaluation Systems”.
After reading the study, District Deeds believes the authors would determine that the “trickle down theory” applies:
Step 1: Incompetent Rookie Superintendent Marten creates massive exodus away from the SDUSD by highly experienced, tenured and credentialed Principals.
Step 2: Horrible reputation of incompetence and mismanagement of Rookie Superintendent Marten spreads through the educational community and non-threatening and beholden rookie (“lower effectiveness”) Principal candidates are chosen to fill the spots of the departed all-star Principals.
Step 3: Per the study, new inexperienced and mostly well-meaning rookie Principals are proven to be ineffective and highly credentialed and experienced TEACHERS flee the SDUSD to find better work environments. The Teacher exodus away from the SDUSD is accelerated through an “early retirement” budget band-aid that actually INCREASES the SDUSD budget deficit that was created by the financial mismanagement and incompetency of Rookie Superintendent Cindy Marten.
Step 4: SDUSD Students and Families receive poor education on unsafe campuses, Teachers, Principals and other SDUSD Employees suffer through pay reductions, lack of support services and furlough days caused by Marten budget mismanagement.
Meanwhile incompetent rookie Superintendent Marten and her senior staff get raises and contract extensions from the disgracefully incompetent SDUSD Board of Education Trustees Richard “Tricky Dick” Barrera, Kevin “Dismissal with Prejudice” Beiser, John “You Can’t Handle the Truth” Evans, Michael “Foggy Brain” McQuary and Sharon “Flying By The Seat of Our Pants” Payne with virtually no restrictions or oversight by the San Diego City Council Democrats and the San Diego County Office of Education.
Is it any wonder that the SDUSD cannot recruit enough qualified Teachers?
Welcome to the SDUSD educational disaster caused by the completely unaccountable Elementary School Superintendent Cindy Marten and her cronies!
Now for our Quote of the Week:“
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” ―
Have a great week!!!
__________________________________________________________
IF
- Your family has been injured by the San Diego Unified School District, go to the District Deeds Complaint Forms page to find instructions to fight for your Civil Rights!
- YOU ARE TIRED OF THE COVER UPS AND LIES BY SUPT. CINDY MARTEN…
Please Click the Link Below and sign the Petition Today and READ the COMMENTS to Support the REMOVAL of Marten by SDUSD Stakeholders!
District Deeds 