It's the computers' fault. So said JPS School Board President Beneta Burt Friday evening at an impromptu press conference when she attempted to explain why JPS had an F rating. You simply can't make this up. Ms. Burt (9:48 in the video) said:
About those ratings. Just know that if you look across the state, you will see the number of schools that received much lower grades. We already said as we were going through the town hall meetings, we said we expected there to be a downgrade because we didn't expect, we were hoping we'd do better, but we, as other schools expected downgrade because of the changing of the tests that kids have done. Last year was the first time that children had to take the test completely on computers as opposed to paper and pencil. And while kids really know how to use Iphones, sometimes they don't know how to drag content from one place to the other on a computer and together with the time process adds to that anxiety so there were some trepidations among the kids and some downgrading as well.
It is sad to see a limited intellect in action. Hinds County, Rankin County, Madison County, Pearl, and Clinton all managed to keep their grades. Ms. Burt has been the Defender of the JPS Faith. Dr. Gray can do no wrong where she is concerned. She fought the longest and loudest to keep him on board. There is no excuse she is incapable of manufacturing nor anyone who is safe from her blame game. Her statements Friday night show exactly what is wrong with Jackson Public Schools.
The video begins with the School Board announcing it is going into executive session. Dr. Gray is sitting in his usual spot. The board returned from executive session (1:40) but Dr. Gray was absent. Now you see him, now you don't. Ms. Burt announced he would resign but the final date of employment and compensation was not determined at the meeting. Ms. Burt then took questions from the media (5:15).
27 comments:
6:30 is hilarious. This person is in charge. Jeezus we wonder why things are so bad. The people being educated are being governed by a buffoon.
How can there be a lower score than F?
What schools had a lower grade than an F? How far down the alphabet does the grading go?
Ms. Burt is doing some great things for Jackson as part of Roadmaps to health equity. I do not agree that this result is just because of computers.
Knowing her, I don't think she believes it is just that either.
I hope everyone comes together on all sides to fix JPS. It's important to the city.
10:31: You can have an F+ or an F- or an F++ or an F--. A plain F is in the middle of those things, don't you see?
Let's put JPS on Double Secret Probation instead...
No one wants to say what the real causes are or JPS getting an F. Too little $ gets to the classroom and instead goes to administrative overhead, parents that don't care about their child's education, absent fathers, and a school district ran by people with democrat ideology.
So, to recap what 10:32 posted, "She said it. But, I know her and I don't believe what she said and she doesn't believe it either".
Is there a convenient definition for that kind of logic?
No, it's NOT 'important to the city'. It is important to the students, the scholars. It is they who are failing and being failed. It is THEY who will wind up working at McDonald's or attending GED classes sponsored by the Department of Corrections.
Having done business with her I can say if there is a rating lower than an "F" she deserves it in my opinion.
The jive is always the same: "The children's education is our first priority". Bull! There is absolutely no insistence on academic performance at least comparable to similarly situated districts, but you will note that these jive asses always insist on, and get, compensation packages similar or better than districts performing on a much higher level. See how they fight for their money and full compensation at every stage of their employment no matter their actual performance. If they were that strident in enforcing educational standards the District would have no problem keeping up. But any discussion of merit pay would be shot down on sight. Until compensation is tied directly to performance Jackson is doomed. Doomed!
This is just another example why the State needs to takeover and fire the entire board and administration.
Screw it. Put 'me all on commission. The kids get $1 for every A and the bureaucrats get $1 for each kid who legitimately passes a nationalized standardized test. If the kids do poorly, the bureaucrats don't eat.
Is there a website or some other source where one can see where/how JPS funds were spent? Just curious as to how much admin expense there was (trips, conferences, non-teacher wages and salaries, dinners, hotels, etc.).
I think most people would agree that the two most important factors in having a successful city are safety (crime control), and good schools. I guess jobs would be third, but if you have safety and good schools jobs will come.
What is impossible to understand is how in a city of 175,000 they cannot find five competent people who are willing to serve on the school board.
KF, you've gotten too PC to avoid posting things that are truthful. Nowhere in my post did I use terms AA, black/white, minority, rich or poor, which SOMEONE might consider racist.
My statement was to seperate, or segregate, from people extremely unlike yourself because of their "thoughts and actions" being STUPID.
Perhaps that thought alone is racist?
You won't be able to have a merit system with a district run completely by democrats. They will cheat as it has been proven in several other districts and they have been caught. The only option is to have someone over the superintendent of the underperforming district that will keep them on their toes hourly, if not daily. Pretty soon they will spread the message that it won't be tolerated anymore. Nowadays it's not whitey holding them back. It's their own people.
The thing is... To the people commenting that the state should take over:
What do you really think the state is going to do?
The state may not do any better but we know for damn sure what the people in charge right now will do. The question should be, What could the state possibly do that would be worse than what has happened?
12:28
That didn't answer my question.
What can/would the state do?
1) Be able to hire a competent administrator, without regard to all the 'political pulls and pushes' of the city and the factions within it
2) Turn the administrator loose to do his/her job - require performance, not ass kissing
3) Let the administrator hire a competent staff, and get rid of a lot of the bodies that are drawing a paycheck but not performing anything other than occasionally showing up
4) Cleaning house in the S President Street office, et.al. and all the various schools. Get rid of the ones that are doing nothing all day that adds to the education of the students. Get some quality teachers in place where needed. Close down schools which no longer serve a purpose except to provide a customer base for the neighborhing fast eating place.
What could the state do that would be any better? Damn near everything they do different would be better. Start with neutering the current Board.
JPS and other city leaders are hopeless, irredeemable. Let's see these high school teachers take the same standardized tests as their students! The teachers cannot possibly educate on topic they have a tenuous grasp on themselves.
And the idea of school vouchers is a horrendous disaster waiting to infect good schools with bad students. The net result will be lowering the quality of education in those schools accepting vouchers.
Look, we all know this a problem that can't be solved under our current political paradigm. Not everyone is created equally, as far as intellect, curiosity, motivation, etc. Those that don't have it by high school should be diverted into programs designed to teach manual skills.
6:39
You know all of that stuff you're talking about has happened before and the results are still the same. Don't you think it's a bigger issue here than "Getting the right people in administration!"
6:26
Look at why the "good schools" are 'good'. You kind of killed your own argument.
Come on. Lets tell the truth for once. Very few people in the whole damn state really cares about educating the children. Never have. If anyone really cared we would not have so many different school districts. Each one is set up like their own little kingdom with the kings and queens. Many are what many people call family owned.
Ms. will always be on the bottom as long as the people do not care. Sadly the children have to pay the price for their actions and the taxpayers have to kick in the cash.
Benita Burt must be close to 70. She's been wading around in the shallow end of federal-state-local programs for at least forty-five years. We're spinning our wheels talking about who ought to be put out to pasture, while all the long, these jobs are being filled by hiring authorities who are damned-near octogenarian, repetitive retreads themselves.
This is akin to empowering Bill Minor to staff the Clarion Ledger jobs.
.....Jackson died when Dale Danks left...he being the smart man that he is, read the writing on the wall. Others, well, they still drink the cool-aid made with good ol' Jackson water and keep riding lower in their seats.
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