https://vimeo.com/142334938
School Comm Oct 13
Don Constantine: 1:20 re MCAS... (incomprehensible blather), 2:32 "Those colored-in yellow boxes going away...." WTF?
Margaret Adams: 58:00 "You see the number of students in Warning and Failure, which is concerning to the administration...." Oh really? How "concerning"?
1:00:41 WTF is this graph supposed to show? It's ridiculous!
1:26 CKK asks the only real questions of the evening about the failing science scores, getting a bunch of mumbo jumbo responses (more "thinking like a scientist", bConway "need for consistency of practice" (he has a lot of nerve since he has been here in the elementary level for many years and has been part of the failing formula!)
1:32 Direct question of CTaymore about SATs, which she tries to deflect by claiming "they're flat across the country". (This means that administration has been trying to hide that MHS students must've done poorly on the national tests again.)
1:33 Don C: "Since we're stressed for time (really?) we certainly don't want to get into a new topic..." (as he boorishly shuts down CKK who is speaking to a significant and relevant academic concern)
1:36 "When we talk about science, we talk about thinking like a scientist..." Really? Half the district students are failing science and she honestly thinks she has any legitimate claim to knowing anything whatsoever about science or "thinking like a scientist" or what it takes to teach it???
1:38 Margaret Driscoll: "This presentation has been tremendously honest and truthful. This is a professional culture....." Now that's a funny one! (Insert Margaret's angels here... unbelievable rush of gushing verbal diarrhea)
2:36 K Thorp (answering CKK about the rather large "elephant in the room" regarding Communication): I do NOT think we're secret. I do NOT think we're hiding anything.
Really????? Unbelievable! Actually hilarious.
2:38 JDugan: "For two-way communication you have to show where it started and where it ended...." WTF?
Lather, rinse, repeat. How many more times is this horrifically bad show going to play before Melrose families start to see something better?
Funny that they had the gall to talk about "trust" in their "Retention of Teachers" scene because they have squandered absolutely every bit of it as far as we're concerned! SO discouraging.
"Funny that they had the gall to talk about "trust" in their "Retention of Teachers" scene because they have squandered absolutely every bit of it as far as we're concerned! "
Yeah, ya think! Gee, now, what euphemism will they come up with to hide why Dr. Peterson left MHS? She lives north but now works in Newton (commute much worse). She wasn't pregnant. She didn't want or ask for more money. She loved, absolutely LOVED her MHS kids. She loved being at MHS. She loved arriving at 6:30 in the morning and staying all day every day until 6:30 or 7 every night. She couldn't care less about politics (ran from it, as a matter of fact). She didn't want to "move up" to being an administrator (that would probably have been abhorrent to her). She is still very esconced in Melrose culture (she is still writing college letters for our MHS kids!). She is still the First Horn of the Melrose Symphony. And she was probably the finest teacher in Math and Physics that this district has ever had and may ever have. This is a loss that can never really be fixed, and it was totally, totally unnecessary. She had survived, what, 5 superintendents and 7 principals. Only this pair was finally the last straw. But they'll never admit that this is totally their fault, and it is the most pure indictment of their absolute failure because it has absolutely nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the toxic environment they created. And of course they will not take a single shred of responsibility for the great harm they have caused. No, the outrage for this will live on long after these awful hacks have moved onto new marks.
These people represent us?????
How were the MCAS scores for science elementary.? Also when do PARCC results come out
Elem & Middle school science scores were outrageously awful, showing 50% Needs Improvement & Warning status. Hoover improved back to 2012 levels. Winthrop improved a lot but still 20% failing. Other 3 elems just incredibly bad. Middle School bad. No excuse.
They presented this as "ho hum...concerning...here are the highlights...." Listen to the super brush it all off, and the asst super sleep it all off with her blase answers, and Driscoll simper and gush, and you'd think the staff just won Nobel Prizes! Total BS. They should have been down on their knees begging our children's forgiveness for possibly/probably ruining their futures!
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/mcas/achievement_level.aspx?linkid=32&orgcode=01780000&fycode=2015&orgtypecode=5&
52% of all 8th graders in Needs Improvement/Warning
What a statement about Melrose education!