Years ago when the test was still the old TAKS Exams, I remember a fat bald headed man who was Chairman of the History Department at Buna High School.
I remember he made the district call the Social Studies Department the " History Department" because, well, it just sounds better. It just does. Never mind while he has a History Certification, and he holds an old school Social Studies Composite Certificate.
Never mind the Government, Economics, Geography classes were included in the department.
He was a lot of things.
He still is.
He was proud of his department....
He was proud of his history teachers. He thinks he had one of the best group of history teachers in Texas.
He had a coach sit on his desk in front of the kids, rub his bad knees, and just teach the hell out of the French Revolution. ( I include him, because he'll probably read this and I want him to know, I knew.)
The thing I was proudest of was our scores on the state exam.
History scored a 100 more than once. We had the best scores in Region 5, hell, the state of Texas.
I remember the feckin' Supt. of Schools brought in someone to improve our tests scores for the entire district. I remember not going to listen to the person talk/"instructor" us on our scores.....Why should I? We were at 100%.
Needless to say, it was another time I got into trouble....And was forced to attend the " indoctrination."
The Region 5 "person" was incensed I did not go, and challenged me why I " Did not care what she was teaching?" To which I replied. You're not going to help us.....To which she replied, don't you want to improve your scores?
She had not even looked to see we had outscored Region 5. Had a perfect 100. To which I informed her our scores.
She had no reply. And got mad....
I left during the afternoon break and went with the Chairman of the Science Department, who's department also had a perfect score, and went and got a Coke,( He was, I assume he still is, a Diet Coke man) and rode around town, only to return to school when it was time to go home.
Did we get some sort of cash incentive for our score?
No.
Did we get a pizza?( Joe Howell was cooking some dog-gone good pizzas across the road during that time.)
No.
Did we get a heartfelt thanks?
No.
We got nothing.
We got the same pay, the scrutiny, the same unhappiness that everyone else got because their scores were bad.
And like the Army, because one was bad, all suffered.
Hell, I can't remember there being much of a hoopla in the old newspaper at the time. If anything.
So, my in-box this past Friday was full of messages from people all upset about the Buna ISD making a "D" on their state scores.
The elementary made an " F" the JH a "C" and the HS a " C".....
Man, that was bad.
Really bad, and the Supt. of Schools was still praising the teaching in a memo she sent out to teachers.
Well, you have to tell them that.....I guess.
Already I am getting ( more than you know) people wonder, should I send my kids someplace else. Evadale ISD seems to be the district most seem to want to move their children to. And Evadale ISD did score a good solid "B". And a lot of Buna kids I taught ( They are grown ass people now) are sending their children to Evadale.
And my answer is.....You got to do what is best for your children.
I know we wound up sending Reid to LCM-ISD. Partly because it is more of an urban district, a larger district, and I would have loved for Reid to have attended Buna. Had me for AP Gov. AP Microeconomics, Anton for science, Tandy, Kay, Melissa, yes, even Kathy for English. But it is not his school. He is urban. He thrived at LCM.( And LCM is not really city) He lived downtown in China, in the middle of a 9 million population city and thrived......His mother, father, grandparents all have a horrible East Texas accent.....Reid's accent is a standard American accent. He worked to get rid of the twang. The best I can do is a Cork Irish or a West Coast of Scotland accent. ( Me people) He is not rural. Then again, at age 6 he was reading Machiavelli's " The Prince" because I had left it on the table one day working on something for my AP Government class, I could not find it, and he'd taken it to his room and was on his bed reading it.. ( I don't think you really understand how different my child is. He was never really a child and it concerned his parents, still does. He told us at age 8 that he might like living overseas.....And lived in Korea, China in his 20s for 6 years....I am not going to be shocked if we all don't wind up in Japan or Singapore. April has sort of planned on it.) I digress....
But, you must do what you can to prepare you children for whatever they are doing next. If you feel that Buna is doing okay, stay....If not, find another district.
Okay, let's talk a little about the Buna ISD.
Man, I wonder how much the last 2 Supt. of Schools had influence on these scores? The Buna Score certainly won't really follow them as they are both now in pretty big cities as superintendent. Some one wrote wonder about " social experiments" by the school board?
I know Wichita Falls ISD made a D......
I'm going to let you decide yourself on that one.
And yes, there will be defenders of the Buna district, but if it keeps going down, well, they don't turn it around, the state can come in and take it over.
It happening right now in Houston at HISD. It's happened at Beaumont ISD. It's happened at smaller schools.
Okay, let's change gears......
Teachers- I know a bunch of you are doing the best you can. I know this. I know there are teachers down the hall that suck, but they are professional suck ups and they'll keep their jobs. You know this. Keep plugging away. And if you hate Buna, move. Move. Don't stay and be miserable. I know the kids are different. Hate the job? Get the hell out. Yeah, everyone will bitch about everything in the school business, but everyone bitches about their jobs.
Administrators- Hire people with actual certificates. I know in my field, they are not that hard to find. Figure out a way to reward good scores. Recruit better teachers. Retain the goods. Feckin' get rid of the bad ones. Buna should have fired me a few times and crazy-ass me, pushed the envelope even harder.
Parents- Don't blame the school for your sorry ass kid. You damn well know if your kid is sorry. Don't try and hide the fact. Pay attention to your kid. Get off the damn cell phone, quit looking at Team Skeet and Brazzers and check if your kid can read and write, do their times tables. Hell, parents used to do that. So many of you are more worried about you kid with a damn ball and how many Buna kids now make an actual living playing some sport?
School Board- It's your job to make sure the school runs right. Sometimes you have to take unpopular stands. Sometimes you need to be an asshole. Sometimes you need to bit the bullet and run people off. Be moral and ethical. If it looks questionable, don't do it. Be fair. Let me reiterate, be fair.
The world is changing. I no longer recommend college degrees. Trade school, vocational degrees fields in health care. My wife has so many state certificates and national licenses in her health care field, and none required her degree. And she's never gone without job offers. And yes, I know doctors, lawyers, even teachers in the core classes need degrees, but with AI, degrees in the Classics ( What I really wanted to study in school, but 50 years ago, I couldn't get into Rice and could not afford to move to Austin and go to Texas even in the Mid-70s. The nearest schools to me with serious enough Classics programs.) or any degree really, are going to become less and less needed.
I read where a number of you are blaming the state for this entire mess, and yes, it is a mess, but who elected the Texas State Legislature, the State Board of Education( SBOE) who came up with these tests, rules? Us......We elected the people who established the tests, the rules. And we keep electing the same people over and over again. ( I know no one decent is running against them.)
And I'm no fan of the test, the scoring system, heck, how textbooks are chosen. Years ago, I was looking at one of the World History texts and included was a map of the Silk Road(s) from China. I asked my then son's girlfriend if they were correct. She had a fit saying, " No, these are wrong." When we visited China for Reid's and her wedding, she and Dr. Zhou, her father, took me to one of the Silk Roads.( I did not ask to go, they took it upon themselves to correct the SBOE's poor history.) It is a major highway now, and there was a monument marking where it crossed through Kunming. It was no place near the roads indicated on the textbook maps. Thank you SBOE,( sarcasm) and you wonder why I rarely used a textbook.
Now some of you would love to go back to the "old days" and when I first arrived at Buna I was literally told by some of the "Old Hand" teachers to graduate from Buna High School all you had to do was be able to "Say 'Tater' and wave bye-bye. "
I took that as a challenge and made my class hard. Let's bring this place up to where I know these kids need to be.
They should have "Runt me off" at that point.
I know some of you wish it was that "tater" simple. Trouble is, you will be the same people bitching and moaning saying...." Our damn kids don't know nuthin'".....
Buna, you're going to have to quit playing politics. You're going to need to take care of even the least of these. EVEN if you don't like them.
Okay the clock is running. Buna, you've got to do better. Parents keep them accountable. Teachers, administrators, board, you took the job. Don't sit around and smile thinking everything is okay, or it'll be alright. You may have to step on some toes. And I know that's hard to do, and the good Lord knows I made more enemies than friends trying to do the right thing....And other than myself knowing...I know you all hate the scoring system, but it is the game we have to play. And if you don't do what the state wants, well, you'll fail in their eyes....And fail in the eyes of everyone else.
I'm sorry Buna, but you know who else in our area made a "D?" In our area? Port Arthur ISD.....West Orange ISD....Beaumont ISD.....People are running away from those districts. Why would anyone look at Buna's scores and want their kids to come there?
No comments:
Post a Comment