Arlene Ackerman, Philadelphia School Superintendent, Dares Commission To Fire Her

The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Making a defiant and emotional stand Thursday, embattled Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman dared her bosses to make a decision on her future - now.

"Sentence me. I dare you. Or set me free. But I admit to you today that I am guilty. Guilty of just being me," she told hundreds of School District principals who gathered for the close of a three-day professional-development meeting.

Read the whole story

Comments

[Kindred2x]

04:07 PM on 08/22/2011

Ms. Ackerman may not have been a good manager. However, the deniers of the failing school system continue to muddle through doing things the same old way. No other profession allows you to continue to work and receives benefits with no process of how you perform over the years. Some brainiac needs to find a way to measure teachers performance in the classroom as well as school administrators. Meanwhile poor and children of color continue to fall behind or get undereducated as functional illiterates. This is occurring all over the nation. Teachers unions and connected politicians continue to do things the old way. Unless the entire system is changed no one person can fix the system. Put the children first.

[pixie66]

12:36 PM on 08/22/2011

What's this about? it's about a 20% drop in schools' meeting the required minimal expectations. This is about a mediocre person clinging to her "job" and refusing to leave. Philadelphia schools stink and are as segregated as some schools in the South in the '50 (this yime by choice). Thanks to people like her Philadelphia has become a "ghetto" ...And her whole "ssing and dance routine" is PATHETIC, undignified and shameful...like a third rate precher who robbed the collection box....

[Parade Keegan]

03:34 PM on 08/21/2011

If there was cheating the scores showing "improvement" are meaningless. Before they fire her they need facts, if they have them and she knew about cheating she should be fired.

[JessCostello]

11:34 AM on 08/21/2011

Guilty of just being me?


She should have been fired over a year ago for trying to cover up the Black-on-Asian pogroms that have occurred in Philadelphia public schools.

[Mister C]

05:08 AM on 08/22/2011

She did NOT try to cover that up...Oh hush up idi..ot!

[jazgr8]

11:56 AM on 08/20/2011

Can anyone in Philadelphia enlighten us as to any actual substance behind this piece?

I read the whole thing and still have no idea why she is embattled in the first place.

[am10]

11:05 AM on 08/21/2011

Thank you. Reading this and about corporate donations to fire her puts me on her side. But her name has been in the papers for a while, so I'm sure there is more to the story.

[JessCostello]

11:37 AM on 08/21/2011

Among other things like questions over her salary and a possibility that Philadelphia teachers might have their own cheating scandal, there's the business of her downplaying the black-on-asian pogoms that occurred under her watch.

There's also a struggle between state, city and education committtees over how the school system is going to be funded and her alliances.

[Mister C]

05:09 AM on 08/22/2011

There you go again...raci...st chickensh..it....!

[GlennWatson]

11:29 AM on 08/20/2011

Please take her up on this dare.

[rockysparks]

09:34 AM on 08/20/2011

HP's link says "Read the Whole Story." The link tells us NOTHING about what the actual issue is in this story, just that Arlene Ackerman is "embattled." What is she accused of doing? Beating students? Faking test scores? Mooning the school board?

This is one of the sloppiest, WORST pieces of journalism I've seen on HP so far. The editor that approved the posting of this little scrap of a story should be fired.

[Winkandanod]

09:17 AM on 08/20/2011

In today's accountability climate, if more thna half of a teacher's students fail, the teacher is labeled ineffective and fired.

Here we have a superintendet who declares she is happy/satisfied that half of her schools failed but, she should not be held accountable. That is shullbit!

Fire this lady now.

[stopnlisten]

09:29 PM on 08/20/2011

Always the teachers and administrators. Never the "voters"...I mean "parents" responsibility. As long as politicians tell the parents that they are off the hook then teachers will lose respect.

[corwin]

10:48 AM on 08/21/2011

I think a lot of the problems with public education stem from the "parents' selfishly wanting an education for their kids. I'm sure you'd agree.

[am10]

11:02 AM on 08/21/2011

Are they truly failing though? In my state failing, was anything below a B-.

[mplmarine1]

06:07 AM on 08/20/2011

In 1963 the 9 WiseGuys voted to kindly remove the Almighty from our schools under the premise that we could do it better ourselves.

Most all posts under this banner of education indicate that We the People are not too good at running these affairs sans help.

We have received that for which we have asked.

[kyle76066]

05:57 AM on 08/20/2011

Such a nice, warm, fuzzy article. Makes it sound like she's being picked on wrongly, yet holds her head high against stone throwers. A few nice numbers thrown in, she's happy with a 110. I guess I could not make it to page #4, to see WHY others want her gone, and WHAT the numbers were about.
At least the writer got WHO and WHERE right.

[white dude lulz]

03:16 AM on 08/20/2011

WTH! The article was three pages of not telling me why they want to fire her! Somebody please tell me what's up.

[wakeup804]

08:45 AM on 08/20/2011

She is one of the WORST supers we have ever had in Philly. I see all these people defending her, how come Philadelphia school kids don't have textbooks to bring home?? You think the cheating in ATL was bad, Philly kids have been given the answers to the PSSA test for years. They don't know the answers, they memorize them. She should have been gone.

[TheNewShadeofBlue]

03:01 AM on 08/21/2011

Are there any particular articles or reports to substantiate and or corroborate your post?

[TheNewShadeofBlue]

07:08 AM on 08/22/2011

Your pettiness is noted.

[teasly]

11:31 AM on 08/20/2011

I agree, But it doesn't matter. She is black, she is a woman, and she is playing the victim card to the hilt. She will be fine.

[Aaron Calhoun]

02:02 PM on 08/21/2011

I disagree that her being black and female ensure her retention.

[timbeaux]

02:36 AM on 08/20/2011

PLEASE fire her. This is the woman who did NOTHING when Asian kids were being beaten up (not bullied, beaten up) in a largely Black Philadelphia school. They finally boycotted school because no one would do anything (and they were afraid to go) and asked to meet with her, and she refused, saying "I'll meet them in school, where they belong."

Not to mention everything else that's wrong with the system she's supposed to be heading.

[wakeup804]

08:47 AM on 08/20/2011

Her failing are not racial in nature. Did she mishandle the incicent at South Phila High, yes she did, but let's not make this something it is not. She doesn't serve the kids of the Philadelphia School District, and that includes waaaay more than the Asian kids in South Philly.

[timbeaux]

06:43 PM on 08/20/2011

No, her failings are not primarily racial, but what she did in South Philly was callous, stupid, and discriminatory. But her biggest problem is that she's incompetent and seems to have a very limited supply of honesty.

[JessCostello]

11:40 AM on 08/21/2011

Yes they are racial in nature. Did you not pay attention to the series of articles and tv news segments devoted to the black-on-asian pogroms in South Philly?

[Booger Lewis]

06:50 PM on 08/19/2011

If you do not fire her, there's not a pair of stones amongst you!

[dewbrotts03]

06:39 PM on 08/19/2011

this teacher (superintendent/administrator) needs to be applauded. and definitely retained. i hope they do the right thing. but whatever they do, she will be at peace with it. sometimes the struggle just gets to heavy.
go girl.

[ed insider]

12:35 AM on 08/20/2011

Applauded for failing miserably...is my sarcasm detector broken again?

[stopnlisten]

09:31 PM on 08/20/2011

Someday this month, you will be fired or retained on one hour of work that you trained someone else to do. That someone doesn't need to care and will not be affected. You cannot choose that employee either. One hour and you are in or you are out. Good luck with that junior.

[wakeup804]

08:48 AM on 08/20/2011

Go Girl???? Are you from Philly??? She is the worst thing to happen to Phily schools in decades.

[dewbrotts03]

08:59 AM on 08/20/2011

hello,
only going by the write up in the article. it seems like she did what was asked even when they moved the finish line. ultimately its the people in phily that will decide. she still seems at peace with whatever the outcome.

[blbsmurf]

06:01 PM on 08/19/2011

How about giving her forty-two percent of her salary, since that percentage is acceptable to her.