Today’s Dallas Morning News editorial
at http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20141226-editorial-worthy-signs-of-progress-in-dallas-isd.ece is
a mathematical embarrassment for the Dallas Morning News and the city of
Dallas. The DISD online publication, The
Hub, like the Dallas Morning News, claims the most recent climate survey is a sign of progress. See https://thehub.dallasisd.org/2014/12/17/more-employees-believe-their-campus-dallas-isd-headed-in-right-direction/
.
To claim that this climate survey is a sign of progress can only be done if the record numbers of DISD teachers who are resigning in growing numbers, constantly breaking annual turnover records, are ignored. Teachers are not even waiting for the end of the year, or winter break, to leave! They are now leaving during this school year at a rate of about 11 teachers separating each school day!
DISD lost over 2,241 teachers in the year leading up to the 11-1-14 to 11-16-14 survey. It can safely be presumed that the 2,241+ teachers who left the year before this survey probably represented some of the most negative comments on last year’s climate survey. With over 2,241 new teachers to replace them, why was the increase in positive responses less than 300, less than 1/7th of the number of new teachers?
Would you not expect more positive responses from new hires if there were no negative factors in the district environment? Did the 2,241 new teachers turn NEGATIVE that fast in their opinion of DISD? Are more tenured teachers who were positive in the survey last year now turning negative to make up for last year’s negative responses among the 2,241+ teachers who left?
Somewhere there are over 1,900 current DISD teachers who were not negative last year, or are new to DISD and already negative before their first year is up.
This climate survey is NOT a positive reflection of improvements in DISD when such massive teacher turnover is still happening. When positive responses to a climate survey are only increasing at rate that is a tiny fraction, about one seventh, of the recorded teacher turnover, DISD under Mike Miles remains an evolving disaster!
See page 17 on the DISD Data Packet for 2014/15 Planning, online at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/docs/CILT2015/DP1000.pdf to see the 28.5% turnover rate last year. See turnover history and current teacher turnover numbers in the 30% range at http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2014/10/tenured-teachers-leaving-dallas-isd-8.html .
To claim that this climate survey is a sign of progress can only be done if the record numbers of DISD teachers who are resigning in growing numbers, constantly breaking annual turnover records, are ignored. Teachers are not even waiting for the end of the year, or winter break, to leave! They are now leaving during this school year at a rate of about 11 teachers separating each school day!
DISD lost over 2,241 teachers in the year leading up to the 11-1-14 to 11-16-14 survey. It can safely be presumed that the 2,241+ teachers who left the year before this survey probably represented some of the most negative comments on last year’s climate survey. With over 2,241 new teachers to replace them, why was the increase in positive responses less than 300, less than 1/7th of the number of new teachers?
Would you not expect more positive responses from new hires if there were no negative factors in the district environment? Did the 2,241 new teachers turn NEGATIVE that fast in their opinion of DISD? Are more tenured teachers who were positive in the survey last year now turning negative to make up for last year’s negative responses among the 2,241+ teachers who left?
Somewhere there are over 1,900 current DISD teachers who were not negative last year, or are new to DISD and already negative before their first year is up.
This climate survey is NOT a positive reflection of improvements in DISD when such massive teacher turnover is still happening. When positive responses to a climate survey are only increasing at rate that is a tiny fraction, about one seventh, of the recorded teacher turnover, DISD under Mike Miles remains an evolving disaster!
See page 17 on the DISD Data Packet for 2014/15 Planning, online at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/docs/CILT2015/DP1000.pdf to see the 28.5% turnover rate last year. See turnover history and current teacher turnover numbers in the 30% range at http://schoolarchiveproject.blogspot.com/2014/10/tenured-teachers-leaving-dallas-isd-8.html .
