Monday, August 18, 2014

Data DISD did not want shared.

On 8-14-14 DISD published their most recent copy of the CORE Network News for DISD. It included a graph documenting the increased speed with which teacher vacancies were being filled. 

CAPE Network News for 8-14-14
Click on above image to enlarge.
The Cape Network news only gave a graph underlining the increased speed with which they are now able to fill teacher vacancies in DISD.  It failed to provide additional information as to how turnover has gone up over 100% and the number of new teachers teaching their first year as a teacher has increased about 150% in the past 2 years.    See this edited copy of the graph from the CORE Network News.

Edited copy of DISD teacher vacancy graph showing the rest of the story
of the Dallas ISD growing crisis in teacher turnover.

Click on above image to enlarge.

When the numbers are compared across time you can see the number first year teachers has gone from 460 a year to 1,285 a year in just 3 years.  The percent of turnover has gone from 12.9% to 28.5%, well over a 120% increase.   

Remember, these are last years numbers.  The numbers for 2014/15 are slowly being gathered.  We already know the number of new, first year teachers is as high as last year, within 50, but that resignations are still being counted and positions filled. 
 
The 2014/15 school year is finding DISD with the smallest percentage in history of teachers with over three years teaching experience, and the highest percentage of teachers ever (32.8%)with one year or less of time with Dallas ISD. 


The Best Schools Master Relationships

This weekend there was a powerful article in the NY Times about education that said more about personal relationships that are the heart of the Time-Capsule Project than any article I have seen yet.   Here is that article from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opinion/sunday/teaching-is-not-a-business.html?smid=fb-share
                               
Below are some of the most powerful quotes from the article.

Teaching Is Not a Business

....
... It’s impossible to improve education by doing an end run around inherently complicated and messy human relationships. All youngsters need to believe that they have a stake in the future, a goal worth striving for, if they’re going to make it in school. They need a champion, someone who believes in them, and that’s where teachers enter the picture. The most effective approaches foster bonds of caring between teachers and their students.
....
 
Charter schools have been promoted as improving education by creating competition. But charter students do about the same, over all, as their public school counterparts, and the worst charters, like the online K-12 schools that have proliferated in several states, don’t deserve to be called schools. Vouchers are also supposed to increase competition by giving parents direct say over the schools their children attend, but the students haven’t benefited. For the past generation, Milwaukee has run a voucher experiment, with much-debated outcomes that to me show no real academic improvement.
 
While these reformers talk a lot about markets and competition, the essence of a good education — bringing together talented teachers, engaged students and a challenging curriculum — goes undiscussed.
...
....  public schools have been spending billions of dollars on technology which they envision as the wave of the future. Despite the hyped claims, the results have been disappointing. “The data is pretty weak,” said Tom Vander Ark, the former executive director for education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and an investor in educational technology companies. “When it comes to showing results, we better put up or shut up.”
...