Sunday, June 14, 2015

Mayor Scott Lang Launches Sharp Criticisms of PARCC and Commissioner Che...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This may be the first time I'll agree with Scott Lang. He's dead on regarding testing in education. Citizen Lang (possible candidate) feels the way the wind blows and orates passionate speeches on topics that people can relate to while Mayor Lang couldn't wait to get his hands on the Race To The Top money to use at his discretion ( not all in the school department) which led us to the PAARC and Common Core here in New Bedford.

This is no different than Mayor Lang laying off multiple fireman (worse than anything Kalisz did) yet held hands with the fireman on the steps of city hall deflecting the blame off his financial mismanagement and toward beghing the Feds in SAFER grants which has equally been a disaster.
I appreciate Scott Langs opinion on testing and I agree with him but (to use his famous phrase) "the fact of the matter is " he inherited a school system that was consistently near or at the top of gateway cities achievement wise and left behind a train wreck that has on gotten worse under Jon Mitchell.

Anonymous said...

On Wednesday, June 17th:

Former Mayor Scott Lang speaking about standardized testing on WBSM 1420 AM immediately following the 10:00 news, on "Brian's Beat."

Mark your calendars!! Call in 508-996-0500

Congratulations to Scott Lang for speaking up for students here in New Bedford!! Unlike our city official who "has bigger fish to fry"!!!

Anonymous said...

The reasons why our test scores dropped during his administration(Lang) have to do with the poverty level and not his leadership. The strongest predictor of academic success(and testing success) is family income. Undeniable. Pointing at a few outliers is weak. The tale of two cities in the NBPS is a tale of income inequality. The smoke and mirrors of today's administration will be a short lived tale of success. Data distortion is a real problem here.

Anonymous said...

Data distortion is a real real problem,check the elementary schools.....

Anonymous said...

Your post suggests that poverty only arrived in New Bedford once Scott Lang became Mayor. His leadership left the school department in shambles ( amazing how its actually gotten much worse) and had one of the largest layoffs in school department history under his watch. His micromanaging (which was in the DESE 2012 report) led to the circumstances which erupted into the disaster we are in today.

Anonymous said...

I thought the DESE report said the administration building and those who worked there were the biggest problem?

Anonymous said...

I'm not convinced that a different mayor will make a difference in our school district. The problem lays with leadership at PRAB, each school, and teacher levels. This is not inferring that students and parents are getting a pass. I predict that student behavior will get worse and parents will become more disconnected than they already are. Nobody wants to challenge the latter, and there lays the crux of the problem, the so called "elephant in the room."The superintendent started with the wrong premise, blaming teachers and their instruction as the real culprit. She has continued acting on her premise, which is flawed and has alienated the entire city's teaching body and will continue to do so until her departure. The school committee has done nothing to mitigate her charge, and should be ridden out on a rail. To have one member float a motion to extend her contract another three years make me speechless. With so many principals, assistant principals, and teaching vacancies, the near future does not look promising. Administrators need to develop policies in which a good foundation can be built, and enforce those policies. I'm talking about policies that include: not bringing a pen or pencil to class, not bringing a notebook to class, eating in class, placing and refusing to take your feet down from a desk, refusing to complete assignments, refusing to take responsibility for consequences, unacceptable tardiness or absences, student attire, skipping class, telephone policies, homework policy enforcement, verbal abuse, and just general hallway behavior. Please take note that instruction was not mention once. Until these school-basic issues are resolved and until all parties trust and respect one another this district is going to be in the doldrums.