Comments on: Decatur High Principal to Become CSD Director of Secondary Education

By: MrFixIt

MrFixIt — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:05:06 +0000

Yep, the feeling among the DHS kids I know is that you are either top 10%-15% and are willing to give up or dramatically scale back your passions outside of school (i.e. you are a IB Diploma Candidate) or you’re pretty much nobody, at least academically. Your classes are either extremely difficult both in content level and homework load, or they are kind of a joke, and you can phone it in and still get an A… or a 6 is the correct term I believe.

This coupled with a school calendar that makes a lot of summer employment or other extended, eye opening summer experiences/commitments nearly impossible seems to have the unintended consequence of closing doors for a large number of great but not outstanding students who have a lot to offer.

My hope is that a shift in leadership on the school board, at DHS and at the admin level can change this and make sure all of our students who want to achieve great things can do so.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 06:46:31 +0000

More tracked for sure. And I think the combo of detracking and then retracking has ended up having a particularly large unintended impact. We took out the track that was most comfortable for students who were serious and conscientious about school but not at the top of the class. We haven’t replaced it. This was all done with good intentions but I think a large body of students are at risk for falling between the cracks. We need to go look at other IB high schools that have already figured this out. Maybe this is what a new director of secondary education can do.

By: MrFixIt

MrFixIt — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:25:41 +0000

Yes, IMO the high school is now as much or maybe more tracked than it was before IB. This is ironic considering how deeply dedicated Ms. McKain was to de-tracking Decatur High.

By: MrFixIt

MrFixIt — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:20:38 +0000

I second that. I’ve always thought Mr. Roaden would be great at the high school. I totally dig that guy.

By: Red Dirt Girl

Red Dirt Girl — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:47:41 +0000

In my opinion CSD central offices have been heavy on staff for too many years. The new titles are positions in large systems such as Dekalb and Gwinnett, but with our small system is it really necessary? It’s hard to say how many people we have at the central office when their website has an incomplete listing of people there. It would be helpful to have an updated list on the website.
I agree that one result of IB is tracking of students and CSD pays for this tracking.