Facts and Figures

The US Department of Education published a document (America's Educational Progress, 2008) outlining where each state and of course, our beloved city of DC is going in terms of academic achievement.

I went straight to DC data and found out that our chart, even though we are not YET where we should be, is going upwards. The SY 2007-08 data are not yet factored in. With all the Rhee Administration’s media publicity about our academic gains, I'm expecting a nice spike on next publication.

Despite the encouraging data, I was flabbergasted by this chart:

Last year, roughly 30% of our elementary teachers did not meet NCLB criteria for Highly Qualified Teachers and on the same note, a whopping 50% of our secondary teachers were not supposed to be in classrooms!

This made me ponder:

If some teachers can’t make NCLB criteria how can we expect them to make students meet NCLB AYP requirements?

It is mind boggling how this much teachers made it to the classrooms…

Horrible Day, Horrible Teacher

And when I thought I'm going to have a great group of teachers to work with this school year... A JERK came along.

Let me call the teacher, for lack of better names-- JERK.

Jerk was eating while "teaching".

Jerk was merely pretending to be "teaching".

Jerk is a new teacher who knew everything.

Jerk thinks he's doing the system a favor.

Jerk. Jerk. Jerk.