"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all." - Dr. Gerald Bracey author of Rotten Apples in Education

Search This Blog

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Is This Document An Example of Quality Teaching in the Rockwood School District?


Many NEA organizations have been stating quality teachers are being squeezed out because of debate over teacher tenure. Below find a copy of the Rockwood NEA link. If this page with its numerous grammatical errors (including misspellings and run on sentences) is indicative of quality education in the Rockwood District, I am wondering if that bar is set a bit low.

This is the page as it appeared on April 6, 2010 at 8:30 AM. Please let us know the problems you spot in this document. I had an interesting thought: perhaps the Rockwood District doesn't test spelling any longer because the teachers don't know how to spell themselves. Is this informational page an example of quality teaching in the Rockwood School District? (Do you spot the irony on the magazine cover as it relates to this particular blog entry?)

**************************************

General Information

The Rockwood National Education is a progressive group of teachers representing approximately 1,350 teachers in the Rockwood School District. The teachers of Rockwood daily provide educational opportunities for about 22,000 students. The heart and soul of any school district is the classroom teachers. While school districts may have the monitary resources to provide technology, operate school facilities, and transport students, it is a quality teacher in every classroom that directly relates to the success of students and to the success of the Rockwood School District. A computer, smartboard, textbook, do nothing without a quality educator developing lesson plans to teach the student.

Contrary to popular myth the RNEA does not support and defend poor teachers. The organization does however provide and encourage continual teacher development while securing do process for its members. The organization also provides moral support to Rockwood teachers in these often educationally politically turbulent times. The RNEA above all else is an organization that promotes quality world class education for all students of Rockwood, the goals of the organization never run contrary to this core belief.

At the center of what the RNEA has accomplished besides the great education its members afford Rockwood students is the Current Agreement. This document represents over 30 years of volunteer time and dedication from Rockwood teachers for Rockwood teachers to work for the continual improvement of the working conditions of teachers in the Rockwood School District and attemp to provide teachers with benefits and salary they deserve. Rockwood is a school district that proudly acknowledges its awards from it continually being Accredited with Distinction form the State of Missouri, having many school continually recognized as Missouri Top Ten in Missouri Assessment Program testing, having many schools ranked as Missouri Gold Star schools, and many schools ranked as schools of excellence nationally.

8 comments:

  1. This is shameful! Unfortunately it's not a new problem...about 18 years ago when my son was in high school he would bring home lists of words that his history teacher would misspell on the chalkboard...pretty interesting..and sad...when your junior in high school was a better speller than the teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yep, it's very sad...

    I've posted some info about the importance of Algebra 2 for college/career on my blog here:
    http://concernedabouteducation.posterous.com/

    IMHO - Common Core Standards water-down traditional Algebra 2 content.

    You can read the U.S. Coalition for World Class Math comments on Common Core Math here: http://usworldclassmath.webs.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. YIKES!!!

    “This document represents over 30 years of volunteer time and dedication from Rockwood teachers for Rockwood teachers to work for the continual improvement of the working conditions of teachers in the Rockwood School District and attemp to provide teachers with benefits and salary they deserve.”

    The salary teachers deserve based on this document: zero. They should be fired.

    If this is any indication of the quality of education (and I fear that it is), then formal education is not only deficient, but detrimental to students’ educational and intellectual development.

    I know there are some excellent, dedicated teachers, but they are shackled by a system with standards… well, the word “sewage” comes to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Our campaign had some fun with this web site page on Mike Geller's Facebook a couple of weekends ago. Here it is two weeks later & they (the Rockwood NEA) still aren't embarrassed enough to make corrections. One can only assume they're proud of their work.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Dennis:

    Do you think the Rockwood NEA even recognizes the grammatical errors? Apparently, the NEA thinks it is performing wonderfully in the district according to the information page:

    "The RNEA above all else is an organization that promotes quality world class education for all students of Rockwood, the goals of the organization never run contrary to this core belief."

    If this information page is an example of "quality world class education", the taxpayers and students of this district are not getting their money's worth.

    ReplyDelete
  6. One member of my Facebook group page found 27 errors in this short, half-page of material. I was critical of the union but not of teachers during my campaign. This is a perfect example of why. The chances are that this was written by a TENURED teacher. Under the current system, we'd have a devil of a time getting rid of someone who was this incompetent. I just hope this person doesn't teach language arts.

    I don't think the "author" of the page is typical of Rockwood teachers, but it speaks volumes about why a merit-based system is better for students and taxpayers than tenure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Our school districts have become liberal,progressives. My tax dollar is wasted. It is no wonder that my daughter homeschools. The Girl Scouts continue to be in the school district even though they partner with Planned Parenthood while the Boy Scouts who will NOT partner with the Girl Scouts are not supported. School board are one of the most important offices to vote liberals out of. Jane

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rockwood NEA is pretty much just an administrator (not teacher) headed puppet organization that allows Rockwood school district to lock Missouri NEA or any other organization out of their contract negotiations.

    Parkway school district does the exact same thing; and if you check the domain registration for the page, it is registered by a Rockwood assistant principal and registered to the phone number and address of the Parkway NEA.
    (Meanwhile, www.parkwaynea.org is proxy registered through godaddy.com.)

    ReplyDelete

Keep it clean and constructive. We reserve the right to delete comments that are profane, off topic, or spam.

Site Meter