BTW Academy parent blogs on Petrilli departure

The rhetoric and the reality of modern school reform crashed head long into each other recently at Booker T Washington Academy.

After decades of unsatisfactory student performance, Fayette County Schools Superintendent Stu Silberman (and lots of community partners) launched a full-scale assault on ignorance and failure in Lexington's west end. He outlined an aggressive program of instruction for children in the Georgetown Street neighborhood that was based largely on the close monitoring of student progress and quick adjustment of teaching techniques to address deficiencies. It was to be a showcase for success.

There is an old adage: The two things you don't want to see being made are laws and sausage. Perhaps there is a third. School reform has an ugly underbelly.

When a principal is called in to clean up a mess, you can count on the fact that not every one sees it as a mess. In such circumstances, many teachers and parents are happy with the status quo and blame poor performance on poverty, as though it poverty was an obsolute preventative for success and we shouldn't bother to try. Sure, they wish the children would perform better, but they may be very resistant to personnel and other kinds of changes that alter the culture of the school - some of which must change for progress to be made.

The process of converting a school culture from one of failure to one of high expectations always causes discomfiture among adults - as it should. Deadwood must be pruned. Greenwood must be nurtured. But still, reasonable people can disagree on which is which and what methods are best for creating change.

A new blog has sprung up in the wake of Peggy Petrilli's departure from the Booker T Washington Academy. The "discussion of issues surrounding the education of Students at Booker T Washington Academy" is the stated purpose for the BTWA blog. It's early, but so far the blog is long on inuendo - lots of questions - but short on info and ideas.

Author and BTWA parent Buddy Clark is rumored to have had an axe to grind with Petrilli.

Clark says, "The extreme emphasis on testing in the public schools has had some unfortunate consequences at BTWA. Administrators were so focused on testing that they forgot about education. Those administrators forgot their obligation to “teach” honesty and integrity."

He applauds Petrilli's demise and says,

We recently learned that because 5th graders are not tested on science, some (if not all) 5th graders at BTWA were not taught science.

The principal was thought to excel because of increased test scores. Scores that increased through trickery, deception, and coercion. Tests that did not measure competence in required subjects.

I was at the Wednesday meeting where those so-called “concerns” were raised and what follows is my recollection of the issues. Without identifying attendees, it was more than just parents:

Testing irregularities: not all students tested, inappropriate test procedures
Curriculum irregularities: teaching the test rather than teaching required subjects
Placement irregularities: students with good grades held back because they did not test well, students held back over parents objection
Misapplication of funds
Retaliation
non-compliant teachers punished or dismissed
Failing to respond to higher authority
Non-compliance with SBDM rules and regulations
Potential legal liability

Referring to a Herald-Leader article, he says it "sounds like she got her feelings hurt by some whining parents."

That's one way to characterize it. Another brings to mind villagers storming the castle with torches.

In any case, Mr. Clark has chosen to make some thoughts public. Perhaps he will offer some more specifics in the future. If he has some ideas...let's hear 'em.