Colorado Schools Using Consultants To Improve Achievement Not Seeing Success

The Denver Post:

They are among the 5,000 worst schools in America, where the percentage of kids who can read or do math at grade level often hovers in the teens or 20s and only about half graduate.

These schools are sharing $5 billion in federal tax dollars in a massive, three-year rescue effort, but no one nationally is tracking how the money is spent and no one can say whether the influx of cash will end up helping kids.

Read the whole story: The Denver Post

Comments

[mrirontrain]

11:15 AM on 02/22/2012

par·a·site/ˈparəˌsīt/
Noun:
1.An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.
2.derogatory. A person who habitually relies on or exploits others and gives nothing in return.

Any adult receiving a paycheck in the school system other than THE TEACHER fits the above definition. Our local school for children grades K thru 8 has roughly 500 students. Every day there are over 100 cars in the employee parking lot. Administrators, secretaries, aids, one on ones. Parasites. Let the school board hire good teachers and pay them well. Set the curriculum then get the heck out of their way. We are failing our children. We are failing ourselves.

[vobox3343]

09:41 AM on 02/22/2012

It's all a sham. These test only ensure that these state of the art prisons will continue to be profitable and filled. No better way to defeat healthy self-esteem then to continue administering test that you continue to flunk. Spend that money on the Arts and physical education and even mental health classes and experience a more capable group of emotionally ready and prepared young folks ready to take on the challenges ahead.

[1differentdrummer]

05:38 AM on 02/22/2012

Schools are full of education consultants. They're called experienced teachers.

[Allthosewhowander]

11:24 AM on 02/22/2012

Teachers have been told by the system that their voice, insight, and experience have no value anymore. The public is eating up the propoganda.

[KelaMa]

12:06 AM on 02/22/2012

Let's get real people. Do you really think that "failing schools" exist because all the adults in that school refuse to teach kids? Do you think the kids would have been reading at grade level, not bullying, fighting, stealing, destroying property, and being truant IF ONLY THOSE LOUSY TEACHERS HADN'T COME? The reality is that by 2014 all schools will be failing because NCLB specifies that by that date every child in every school must be achieving 100% proficiency in all tested subjects. Good luck with that!
My school failed one year because two kids in the SPED group didn't make enough progress. That was two kids out of 1400. --how is that rational? Oh, and don't say we didn't care about the SPED kids. All the SPED kids made progress but two of them couldn't make enough to meet the goal for that year. Dumb law, bad execution, lack of comprehension by the public.

[1differentdrummer]

05:40 AM on 02/22/2012

Bingo. The NCLB test data are worthless numbers. They mean nothing, nada, zip. Fanned.

[sydneymoon]

06:14 AM on 02/22/2012

Exactly. A lot of the public has not taken the time to examine the absurdities of NCLB. Then folks use knee-jerk reactions to sum up the flaws...usually it's the 'inept' teachers...the ones actually in the trenches.

[perlin]

12:04 AM on 02/22/2012

The consultants have no clue what to do with the lowest performing students in so called "failing" schools. Despite a decade NCLB reforms, punitive measures for teachers and more testing, the educational outcome of the lowest performing cohort of students remain unchanged.
The charter schools are practicall­y useless in improving the educationa­l outcome of the urban districts. If the charter schools will be willing to accept the bottom 25%- 30% of the lowest performing public school students, students with learning disabiliti­es, students with severe emotional disorders, gang members, homeless students, immigrants­, then we can talk about usefulness of the prep academies. Take the problem students, the lowest performers , CHANGE THEM into the productive members of the society, the college material,a­nd then, only then, we can talk about the positive influence of the charters.
The charters schools do just the opposite. They only accept the dedicated, hard working students, students without the major problems, or just easily correctabl­e issues , usually 10%-20% top performing public school students. The top performing public school students are not in the need to go to charters, their educationa­l outcome will be the same, charter or no charter. But refusing to service or expelling the problem students, charters are proving their uselessnes­s in urban districts.

[Allthosewhowander]

09:43 PM on 02/21/2012

The "consultants" in my district are, often, retired administrators. They are collecting their retirement pay from the state, and then double dipping getting paid consulting fees from the district. Many have no connection to teaching or learning. Most have added no value to schools or the district, and done little to meet district improvement goals. The corporate consultants that come in, knowing nothing about my school are there only to critique how their company's canned program is being used, regardless of whether or not it meets the needs of students, with some kind of checklist protocol. They are not looking for quality teaching or learning. To be honest, in my 10 years in the classroom, I have seen no productive or constructive contributions from consultants. Maybe it is just my district. The con part seems to be correct.

[consultingpbh]

07:13 PM on 02/21/2012

This is why the US needs to hire a "forensic accounting" firm with very "sharp" pencils on a commission schedule based on administrators and outside contractors "fired." In CA all Jerry Brown threatens is "cutting teachers, firemen and police... Not one administrators job is on the chopping block...doers are being let go and administrators are administrating administrators. The "private sector" is L its A OFF at the "bumbling stumbling" federal, state, county and city financials and taking them for a ride on contracts and work to be done that is never done...evaluating the evaluations...all on the taxpayer's dime...which isn't there because the tax revenue is "Gone Baby Gone." See you in the collapse of 2014...Check out Grover Cleveland and the depression of 1893. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893
The unemployed marched on DC and Cleveland had them arrested...
Just read history and you will know what is ahead...Look at who was president after Cleveland...
a progressive.
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no legitimate allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people."
-----Theodore Roosevelt
“Sua Sponte”
75th Regiment
Company O
3rd Brigade
82nd Airborne (’66 -’73)

[Hlynn]

06:40 PM on 02/21/2012

Here are the main problems: they don't know how much is being spent (they don't have a budget?) or require any guarantees of change, they do it school by school instead of district wide, and they are focusing only on what happens inside school when most of the reasons students don't succeed and learn quickly are outside of school.

Consultants for schools and businesses have been around for decades. If districts are still paying these people without significant positive results then it's time to stop wasting the money. Of course, we could also say the same of those in Congress.

[dirtydog1776]

06:04 PM on 02/21/2012

These funds are not meant to achieve any type of success. It is merely pork barrel for Obama's supporters.

It is not taxpayer's right to question, just dig deep and pay.

[changing]

07:22 PM on 02/21/2012

For shame -while poor schools have no paper or computers the money lines the pocket of the consultants. Disgrace that Obama with his DOE is promoting all this turnaround and deform.

[KelaMa]

12:09 AM on 02/22/2012

We can thank the Bush family for these laws. They made quite a bit of money--especially Jeb who started a consulting company and pushed charter schools for profit. Look into it!

[changing]

11:33 PM on 02/22/2012

Obama said Jeb Bush was a great leader and went to a dinner in Florida honoring him while teachers protested. Christie said Obama and Duncan are his best allies in school deform.