Posted on 10/29/2002 4:36:03 AM PST by chance33_98
Teacher's note causes uproar
By Marie Leech, Staff Writer
PASADENA
A teacher suspended from his job because he stated in a letter that most poorly behaved students at his school are African Americans said he had a "positive three-hour dialogue' with school district officials Monday.
Muir High School science teacher Scott Phelps was placed on paid administrative leave last week for claiming in a three- page letter that "Overwhelmingly, the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics ... are African American.'
> Click here to read Phelps' email (Posted Below)
The letter caused an uproar - and a division of opinion - in the educational community and beyond.
Phelps was on the "John and Ken Show' on KFI 640-AM Monday, which was broadcast live from outside the Pasadena Unified School District headquarters.
Phelps showed up for the four- hour segment only briefly, saying he was "impressed with the way the school district was handling' the situation.
"I reached out to the district and the district reached out to me,' Phelps said of his meeting Monday with George McKenna, assistant superintendent of secondary schools. "I'm encouraged that we'll focus on the behavior problems.'
Whether or not he'll keep his job still remains to be seen, but Phelps said he expects to know later this week. Neither Phelps nor district officials would elaborate on what was discussed in the meeting, except to say they were working on a solution to stop the disruption at the school.
Phelps was followed on the radio by district spokesman Erik Nasarenko, who was bashed by news radio hosts John Kobylt and Ken Shiampou for his "double speak and rhetoric.'
Nasarenko confirmed the meeting with Phelps and said they're all working toward a common goal.
"We want to deal with classroom issues,' Nasarenko said before being interrupted by the radio duo, who told him to stop bantering and demanded "real' answers about what the dialogue meant.
"What is this 'dialogue' thing? Isolate the (disruptive) students from the classroom until they behave,' Kobylt said. "It sounds like Muir High School kids are out of control.'
The radio show focused on supporting Phelps, who faces losing his job over the letter he distributed to Muir teachers. An airplane carrying a banner reading "Free Scott Phelps' flew overhead as Kobylt yelled into his blowhorn at district officials inside the building.
"Attention - is George McKenna up there?' Kobylt screamed. "Is 3 o'clock too late for administration to be working?'
Still, no district officials other than Nasarenko would speak on-air.
Kobylt and Shiampou said Phelps was merely pointing out the cultural differences between African Americans and other races. Phelps said he wrote the letter to make district officials aware that the poorly behaved African-American students need to be disciplined or taught in a different way than other students. African Americans have different behavioral patterns than other groups at the school, he said.
Damon Lawrence, whose 15- year-old son attends Muir, took exception to Phelps' statement.
"The mistake he made was when he brought race into it,' Lawrence told the "John and Ken Show.' "It dismays me.'
Phelps' family came to the broadcast in support. Sister-in- law Meg Phelps said people are misinterpreting the letter.
"They're taking one piece of a much larger dialogue,' she said. "Everybody's treading on thin ice because they don't want to be on the wrong side of political correctness.
"But I know Scott's fighting the good fight.'
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The Offending Letter
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hi all,
i was looking at Muir's API improvement, and it looks like it's something real. however, i want to assure the group that despite the hours of volunteer work we did on saturday mornings last year on test prep, it is most definitely NOT a real improvement and should be no cause of comfort to anyone. we went up in 2000, down in 2001 and now up in 2002. as i have indicated on this list, these fluctuations are entirely due to the presence of absence of certain cohorts.
For example, this past year we had the good cohort of the class of 2003 (the one Mary Dee got to see the homecoming candidates of, and the one to produce the just announced Rose Court princess) and a good cohort of the class of 2005. However, next year, I am announcing right now, Muir's API will not meet its target, and will probably even go down.
This is because next year, we will have two "bad" cohorts, the classes of 2004 and 2006, currently our 9th and 11th graders, taking the test. Our current 11th graders did terribly last year, and have all along their history. Their poor behavior and lack of academic focus was very noticeable last year as 10th graders. This year, I can tell you that the 9th graders are bouncing off the walls.
They are horrible. Class is something they do in between the passing periods, lunch or nutrition break, when they chase each other through the hallways, into classrooms, yelling at the top of their lungs, etc. We had three fights the other day, mostly between 9th grade girls!
I can tell you right now that the presence of these two bad cohorts cannot mathematically be overcome by our good cohort, our current 10th graders. The laws of math do not permit one grade's good scores to outweigh the bad scores of two grades. Sorry, and it has absolutely nothing to do with teachers or curriculum, although i know that many on this list, and the guy quoted in the PSN from the state about "holding schools and teachers accountable (what nonsense!)," and George McKenna, and our site administrators, would have you believe that it is we teachers' fault. Absolute rubbish.
The difference between our scores and those of the vaunted surrounding, higher SES districts is, as we all know, directly correlated with SES. As I said in the Pasadena Weekly in response to McKenna's nonsense, the reason for this is lack of buy-in and seriousness of purpose. Let me be more specific.
The behavior of our 9th grade, low-SES students in no way correlates with the behavior of serious students. These are the kids whose parents I did not see tonight at Back to School night.
As an interesting observation, the parents of my BEST, and only my best, 9th graders showed up. The parents of the three students who got B's. No, the kids whose parents didn't show up are the kids who aren't in the disproportionately high SES band/choir. Their parents were not at school tonight. Teachers can tell you there is a 1 to 1 correspondence between the good students and the parents who show up.
Since Muir is about 48% African -American, most of these poorly-behaving students tend to be of that ethnicity. Obviously, there are very well-behaved African-American students. I noticed that I saw their parents tonight. But overwhelmingly, the students whose behavior makes the hallways deafening, who yell out for the teacher and demand immediate attention in class, who cannot seem to stop chatting and are fascinated by each other and relationships but not with academics, in short whose behavior saps the strength and energy of us that are on the front lines, are African-American.
Eventually, someone in power will have the courage to say this publicly. The test scores certainly bear this out, as African-Americans are our lowest scoring group by far.
This is the problem in Pasadena. Most teachers are not African-American. And as a physics type, I can tell you there is this thing called the conservation of energy. We only have so much.
The students I am speaking of, who demonstrate such behavior, seem to only behave when we get very angry at them, which saps our energy considerably. I have seen two science teachers in my department who get the lower SES students to behave very well. They are both African-American and have no trouble "going off" on the kids. One of them is considering retiring as he is tired of it. By the way, this is also one of the major reasons for the high turnover in the PUSD, poor behavior. Of course the presence of the Puzzle Palace at 351 S. Hudson adds insult to injury.
Despite the message that we teachers get beaten up with every Monday morning, i. e., that we are not doing enough, etc., curriculum standards have nothing to do with it. It is about student buy-in. Standards of behavior, or the lack thereof, do have a lot to do with it. Serious academic behavior is the reason for high scores.
Somehow, in the ridiculousness of the accountability movement, someone decided that we could force people to behave, to learn, to achieve. Sorry, that's not the way human beings work. They do get inspired by teachers, but we know, as evidenced by the district's blatant disregard for the no-teacher situation at Blair, the no-schedule situation at Marshall, that the district has little regard for its teachers and its school sites. So it's very hard for a teacher to have good morale and be inspiring.
No, for the PUSD brass it is all about looking good, as so many listmembers have shown. No serious collaboration between the new brass, and the people that actually work with our students, and know a few things, has taken place since the arrival of our country bumpkins. I doubt any real collaboration has occurred between the brass and our site administrators.
Certainly our site administrators are now just toeing the party line, passing along the simplistic mindset of the brass. As I said, what it amounts to is piling more work and blame on the teachers, and never really listening to us. Making us fill out forms that make for site plans that once again "look good." And making simplistic administrative decisions that cut promising programs that have proven records of inspiring youngsters.
How did the seemingly intelligent, good people on the Board decide to completely trust the administration of our schools to these folk downtown? People who sit in their Puzzle Palace and think of silly homework policies that bear no relation to a real classroom situation. Why do we continue to allow there to be such a structure?
Sincerely,
Scott Phelps
prisoner6
Freedom of speech - only free when the left says it is, otherwise your jailed or fired. The left is so much fun!
The truth is what the PC crowd can not tolerate.
Wisconsin student attacked because of non-PC interpretation of inner city beating death
Generally I find the 'John and Ken Show' to be a bit fragmented and quick to judge, but in the context presented yesterday, they earned their pay.
The school district spokesman knew the PC phrases to tastefully remove himself from questioning, but John and Ken pounced at the first mention of 'Thanks for the opportunity to ...' or 'Thanks for having me...'
I suspect some press memebrs have now taken some of those "How to deal with the Media" classes offered to mid-upper management CEOs at management retreats and can quickly beat the hypesters to the punch.
One facet of this issue which convinces me that the criticism by the teacher of reverse discrimination is on the mark, is the district's response that the letter was fine, EXCEPT for the race card went over the line.
I need no more justification. I'm convinced the teacher is right on target and the administration is wrong and more guilty than implied.
They all agree with this teacher.
It's probably all true. You're just Naspozda mention it.
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