South DeKalb Teacher on the Systemic Failures of His School System
Decatur Metro | January 21, 2011Decatur resident and South DeKalb teacher, Dr. William Blackwood, recently spoke out – in a very well-written AJC op-ed – about the widespread problems he has seen within the schools throughout South DeKalb where he teaches. From the vast number of highly paid administrators – what he calls “the bloated assistant-principal caste” at Southwest DeKalb High – to the “jury-rigged, “research-based” pedagogical approaches” to teaching, Dr. Blackwood doesn’t pull any punches.
A taste…
The bloated assistant-principal caste characterizes a system that employs more non-teaching personnel than it does teachers. This dysfunctional jobs-creation program is complicit in the invidious perpetuation of the hugely disenfranchising notion that black students are to be taught in a special way.
…The nostrum that it is necessary to focus on “doing social studies” as opposed to explicating the subject reduces teaching to a form of crowd control that is hopelessly over tasked when confronted with the need to explain such concepts as the social contract, selective incorporation, equal protection, federalism, and limited government.
Many commenters to the AJC post are expressing gratitude for Blackwood’s words, but worry that his job may be in jeopardy for speaking out so publicly. It should be interesting to see how both of these stories progress in the coming weeks and months.
Thanks to JB to pointing out this post!
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After reading the entire piece, I have my doubts about the ability of many of his colleagues to comprehend much of it.
I don’t object to Blackwood’s premise, but I do object to his language. “invidious perpetuation of the hugely disenfranchising notion…wow. must go back to school now and learn what that means,
Seriously. Language is a communication medium, not a talent show. About the only thing I was able to discern from that op-ed is that the guy is likely insufferable.
Spoken–er, written like a true administrator.
Have to agree, though, that a good deal of his grievances are muddled up in his circumlocution.
However, I don’t remember people telling William F. Buckley he didn’t have a point
All though…nevertheless…it goes without saying…head like a ——- orange….
I thought you would have seized on the irony of statements such as “…acclimating themselves into the mainstream…” and “…cohesive belonging within the larger cultural whole…” within a public op-ed that only the top 1% could digest.
really?! the ONLY thing? sad…all that does is expose your inflexible bias and lack of verbal skills, insufferable folks with the right cause are exactly what is called for
Maybe I was a little harsh. The guy seems to have excellent insight and criticisms of the DeKalb County school system. I just think his points could be made more effectively by dialing down the language degree-of-difficulty. He is, after all, writing to the AJC, to DeKalb County constituents, and the DeKalb County school system.
In a Journalism class, I was taught about a calculation called the fog index. The idea is that by plugging in a random section of a piece of writing and counting the number of sentences and “difficult” words, you get a number that roughly corresponds to the education level required to understand the writing. I was taught that twelve is the top end of the range for newspaper writing, which approximates high school graduate. Out of curiosity, I calculated this editorial and the number was over 30.
When I read this on Sunday, I somewhat presumed that he was planning on leaving.
I’m trying to visualize a man with a doctorate from Yale biking from the city of Decatur to SW Dekalb to teach Social Studies. Sounds like a movie character. As to his points, I can’t fathom why any high school needs five assistant principals. I went to a school about the size of SW Dekalb and we had two. I bet the number of teachers haven’t increased in such proportion. Just curious, how many does Decatur have?
2
BRAVO!
I worked for Atlanta Public Schools for ten years–same bloated bureaucracy run by complete and total idiots. Make that complete and total very wealthy idiots. God forbid you try to fight for change–I was written up for insubordination so many times I can’t count. Every time was for raising my voice to help a child.
Style issues aside, there’s a challenge in any hierachical organization, education in particular, when administrators are paid so much more than front-line workers. If the administrative positions were truly that much more demanding and dependent on years of experience and skill, the pay differential would make sense. For example, one expects a superintendent to have years of teaching, then principal, then other senior administrative experience before becoming a the chief of a school system. But many admin positions in school systems, especially in the large systems with tons of administrative staff, really do not seem to require the high level of administrator pay compared to what teachers, working on their feet day in and day out in the classroom, are earning. Yet, good teachers and principals are going to be drawn to those administrative positions because of the increased prestige and pay. Is that really what we want? It’s especially galling because public schools should be operating like good public servants; they are not private entitities which can pay whatever they want to whoever they want as long as they make a profit and stay within legal bounds.
Well said, Karass! (And well written too!).
HOORAY! I applaud Mr. Blackwood’s courage and usage of the english language, this is the kind of thing we need a lot more of.
I am glad someone is shedding light on why the system is such a failure. I, too, am a teacher in APS and see the same kind of top heavy organization. Even in my elementary school we have 4 administrators. These are the same folks who will evaluate my performance and tell me what my pay will be (with the new Race to the Top eval. sytm). They collectively have 12 years of teaching experience.
We need one person in the school to make sure that the heat comes on and the toilets flush. That person can also deal with t-ed off parents and budgets. Everyone else should be educating the students in some way, shape or form. Until this happens, the system will always be crippled with an undersupply of teachers.
I hope he’s not suggesting that Ramona Tyson couldn’t pull down $240k, plus $24,000/year for “expenses,” plus a $500/month car allowance, plus a pension of over $100k/year,is she worked in the private sector. That’s just crazy talk.
The guy’s language does come across as pretentious, I guess he didn’t want to dumb it down for the ignorant or those not willing to use dictionaries.
I believe he should be applauded. Having googled him and read some of the blogs on SW Dekalb schools, it sounds like he is dead on regarding his points and generally loved as a teacher…he treats students as adults and holds them accountable. I hope CSD has teachers like him when my kids go there.
I currently work for Dekalb County Schools in Special Education. What amazes me is the large number of administrators (and teachers as well) that have gotten advanced “leadership” degrees from online schools. In my experience, many of these people can barely put together a grammatically correct sentence. Even more alarming is that a number of them have never even set foot inside a classroom yet are put into leadership roles. At the schools I work for, the AP is largely in charge of the curriculum, and are constantly pushing “researched” methods of teaching, many of which have already been tried (and failed) in years past. But I also believe that the blame cannot be put entirely on the teachers, administrators, and even the school system itself. Parents (should, and sadly often do not) play a huge role in their child’s education. Its hard to expect a child to do well (or even care, for that matter) about test scores, etc. when they get absolutely no support at home. Sadly, many of these children have seen way to much of the bad things in life at a very young age.
I think your point about online leadership degrees indicates a serious problem. Online degrees are a joke, even from the very, very small percentage of accredited schools. These virtual for profit colleges have been a long running scam in this country and have only recently begun to receive the scrutiny they deserve.
But I’ll bet they can field a better fottball team than UGA.
I mean “football.”
ouch.
It would have to be played online though….
Kinect Xbox match between school presidents?
As a public school teacher, I am both saddened and frustrated by the continual lowering of standards. Many of Atlanta’s students-and “educators” and administrators for that matter-wallow in seventh grade reading skills, and anyone exercising verbal aptitude is “pretentious” or engaging in “circumlocution.” Had Mr. Blackwood used vocabulary sure to be understood by all, would the article have generated as much discussion? Admittedly, I like language, but it seemed to me that the language was part of the point. How many of our students are ill-equipped to read the equally challenging texts of credit card agreements, health bills, mortgages, etc…?
How many of our students are ill-equipped to read the equally challenging texts of credit card agreements, health bills, mortgages, etc…?
________________________
Judging by recent events, most parents can’t understand the basic terms of a credit card or a mortgage, and they’ve already graduated from high school.
As for Blackwell’s language, it is a simple matter of knowing one’s audience. Sad to say, the AJC is not the place for an essay that presumes a graduate-degree level of reading comprehension and vocabularly. If his goal is to effectively communicate with most AJC readers, he has probably failed.