Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > September > 27 > Entry
Yearbook “report card” pans administrators, students
It seems more than a few DDN readers got a chuckle out of Tuesday’s story of a Wayne High School teacher and yearbook moderator who gave low marks to administrators and students in Huber Heights via a yearbook parting shot.
A 30-year teaching veteran who retired at the end of the last school year created a page in the yearbook with a mock “report card” that graded the administration an F for “Failure to support staff, inconsistant (sic) lack of preparation, make Wayne a place people want to escape rather then a place they feel respected and safe.”
She also gave students a C, noting “improvement needed, lack of effort, do not pay attention, more study time needed.”
Many of our online readers saw humor in the story, pushing it up among our most viewed stories of the day at DDN.com yesterday. But I’ve got a serious question for you:
Is this story really that surprising?
In Huber Heights, where nerves are still a little frayed from a recent strike by teachers and support staff, it’s generating a lot of talk. And it’s a big problem for the district, which was not amused by the report card. They can’t just tear the page out because the back side carries a tribute to students who died in a car accident last year. They’re trying to come up with a way to cover the page. That is a costly, distracting hassle.
But are the teacher’s report card comments really that different from what other teachers said during the strike? A yearbook probably isn’t the proper forum to air complaints. That’s certainly the district’s view.
The report card noticeably assigns no blame to teachers for the district’s problems. During the strike, some in the community put all the blame on the teachers. The divisions there run pretty deep.
Perhaps it’s a sign that teachers, administrators and the community in Huber Heights need to find a way to begin a conversation about the schools to try to understand what it might take to get them all on the same page?
(Image credit: www.studentsfirst.us)
Comments
By Oldprof
September 29, 2006 4:31 PM | Link to this
This is precisely the sort of thing that inspired me to want to go into higher education 30+ years ago—and why I continue to be comparatively satisfied with the decision. Especially so, considering that I lucked into a set of administrators who have at least a modicum of leadership skills and financial acumen. The yearbook flap is only symptomatic of the bigger issues: boards of education elected despite inability to budget, lead, or delegate; a wider cultural bias against education/ teachers/ authority; government that spends billions on failed projects while cutting education to the bones. Attention to this yearbook flap is like treating one pock-mark when the patient is dying of leprosy; the headlines ought to decry rampant anti-inllectualism and point out the injuries done by elected officials who are so stupid they can’t even speak English properly.By Keith
September 29, 2006 9:48 AM | Link to this
Dave, I don’t think we want to be like Greenville. The fact that the teachers have been teaching without a contract for 2.5 years doesn’t speak well for their standing professionals. It just means the administration has them beaten down, just like they were 35 years ago. Backward school operations aren’t a model for how teachers should be treated as professionals rather than workers on the plantation.By Dave
September 28, 2006 8:58 PM | Link to this
I think it may belong on Page 1, in an article contrasting it to Greenville, where teachers have been teaching 450 days without a contract. What are they doing at Greenville that we could all learn from? Not just schools, but ANY business. What makes the difference between mutual trust and mutual animosity?By Derwood
September 28, 2006 5:15 AM | Link to this
I disagree, Rob. The front page is exactly where it belongs.. A letter to the editor or a few minutes at a board meeting just doesn’t get people’s attention anymore. This sure got the boards attention, didn’t it? It’s high time that pussyfooting around the issue is stopped and some real and straightforward conversations are had about the state of the education system in this country. Trying to be PC is what got us in the mess that we’re in right now. Time to get real about it and do something. I applaud the teacher that did this. Too bad she felt so threatened by the administration that she had to wait until she was on her way out to really tell people what she thought. thats a real sign of a problem with how HH schools are run. Just another reason why my daughter will be homeschooled until its time for her to go to college.By Rob
September 27, 2006 1:06 PM | Link to this
The yearbook was sent to the publisher last year. This was before negotiations even began. Her comments were her comments and should not speak for the teachers in HH. To set the record straight… We went on strike to improve learning conditions for the students and better working conditions for staff. Whatever the reasons for her comments..they did not belong in the yearbook. They would have been better presented at a board meeting or as a letter to the editor. The students at WHS find the humor in it. It is the administration that has problems with it..Imagine that!!!! But…this did not need to be on the front page of the paper.