Students Speak Out: Minnesota
Oh, how FRESH it is in Minneapolis!
I have a question for you guys...you thinkers and problem-solvers! Both students and adults! You have probably heard that a few high schools in Minneapolis have been "freshstarted"...this is when all staff is fired (well not fired, they still have a job in the district, just not at that building) and a completely new staff is hired.
Washburn, my neighborhood school (I don't go there, I go to Southwest...but I live right by Washburn) is one of the schools being freshstarted. It's very controversial, and yet, the reasons for doing this remain undeniably vague. Usually this only happens when a school doesn't reach Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in standardized testing for over 4 consecutive years. Or 8. I don't remember exactly. But Washburn is nowhere near that. One speculation is that they did it because of the uproar of parents whose 8th graders didn't get into their top choice for high school and ended up at Washburn...the idea is that a whole new, handpicked staff will make parents more comfortable with their kid going there.
On a personal note, my dad works there. Or he does right now at least. The staff is quite unnerved about the whole thing and is worried about the future of Washburn.
What do you all think about this? Do you think fresh-starting is the way to go? Is it ever an appropriate fix?
Washburn, my neighborhood school (I don't go there, I go to Southwest...but I live right by Washburn) is one of the schools being freshstarted. It's very controversial, and yet, the reasons for doing this remain undeniably vague. Usually this only happens when a school doesn't reach Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) in standardized testing for over 4 consecutive years. Or 8. I don't remember exactly. But Washburn is nowhere near that. One speculation is that they did it because of the uproar of parents whose 8th graders didn't get into their top choice for high school and ended up at Washburn...the idea is that a whole new, handpicked staff will make parents more comfortable with their kid going there.
On a personal note, my dad works there. Or he does right now at least. The staff is quite unnerved about the whole thing and is worried about the future of Washburn.
What do you all think about this? Do you think fresh-starting is the way to go? Is it ever an appropriate fix?
Tags: fresh, freshstart, teachers, washburn
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Holly on -
I think that completely changing the staff at a school is not always a good thing. If the teachers have been working together for any amount of time then they usually have some kind of connection, and are fimiliar with the school and the students. I wonder, is the low AYP weight to be placed on the teachers' shoulders? On the school? On the students? I dunno...
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Permalink Reply by Victoria Ford on
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Does anyone know any students at Washburn? I would love to hear from them about what they think of this whole situation!
(BTW, I went to Washburn - and my mom taught there until last year!)
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Permalink Reply by Annie Wood on -
Yeah...is there anyone on here from Washburn? I've heard students there aren't happy...because only about 1/3 of the teachers were hired back after interview-and-select.
I feel like this doesn't help the district at all..because all the "bad" teachers that aren't hired back go elsewhere in the district...so if these teachers are "bad", they're still teaching someone else's kids. Which doesn't make sense. So if there's really a problem, you're just shifting it. (I don't think the problem at Washburn was the teachers at all)
As far as students speaking out, I heard that some students decided to plan a walk-out for a certain teacher that didn't get hired back...the teacher discouraged it, saying that it's better to be in school. Yet this teacher got blamed for igniting the idea of a walk-out. Oppression of student opinions/voice? I think so!
But I'd love to hear from a Washburn student first hand...anyone? Or anyone know someone?
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Permalink Reply by Brett on -
I HATED when this happened to my previous school! It was horrible! Almost all of our teachers with less than so many years under their belt were removed from the school. It was awfull, especially with the wonderful abilities and system those teachers had perfected. Not only did they bring in new staff, but in my personal opinion it really has hurt the school. The real problem, was with the system the school was being run with. Also the district does some crazy stuff no one understood and it was just a complete mess. The teachers within the school were the least of the problems, in fact they held the place together! I don't know why we are not presuring our districts to do something different NOT involving a change for or with teachers.
Health class was cut for example which I believe is like crucial to education if we want healthy people in society because school is the best place to initiate a health program. Also I think it kept a lot of students on the right track who had it, and for a lot who lost the program young have not stayed on the clear paths in many ways. It all goes back to our communication component we are working on at SSO. I was at a NPR event recently talking about civic engagement in our youth. I talked with someone previously in House of Rep. If we write our local legislatures and represenatives and they recieve about ten different letters from different people around the same subject, that is a lot. Enough to really encourage them to take that issue seriously because it clearly appears as a serious problem worthy addressing. I think not only should Students Speak Out members write our local reps. but we should encourage our friends to become involved because these types of changes in this form should not be occuring without for sure more communication. I do not think it is always easy for that to happen, but if they really want change for the better we need that component.
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