"Raze Dekalb's education ghetto"?

[AcidSnake]

I was suspicious of SACS myself at first. But there is history behind them regulating the management of Georgia's education, & with good reason.

Back in the early 40's a conservative Georgia governor named Eugene Talmadge interfered in the activities of the GA Board of Regents by trying to force them to fire a dean of the University Georgia for the suspicion of being a communist & pro-integrationist. When the BOR refused, Talmadge fired some of the BOR board members & replaced them with his own cronies who went ahead & fired the dean. SACS then stepped in & decertified ALL of Georgia's state colleges & universities.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/n...e.jsp?id=h-594

It was only through the intelligent efforts of the progressive Governor Ellis Arnall that Georgia's public colleges & universities got their accreditation back.

It once again proves that Georgia sometimes need a little outside interference in order to ensure that its government is fair for all the citizens and not the just few or the majority.

Originally Posted by TakeAhike

Who is SACS, and where did they get all this power? *| ajc.com

'But it is the school boards, not teaching and learning, that have drawn so much of SACS' attention in metro Atlanta.

DeKalb and Atlanta’s problems are similar to those in Clayton, which in 2008 became the first school system in the nation in nearly 40 years to lose accreditation. All of the problems in these systems are about board governance, power struggles and unethical behavior – not teachers or lack of funding, Elgart said.

“Not one of these systems can say they lack resources. All of the metro systems are well funded,” he said. “It has nothing to do with race or whether a child comes from poverty. It’s how you use those resources to meet a child’s needs.” '

[Stars&StripesForever]

Originally Posted by Big L

As a former DeKalb County educator and the ex-husband of a current DeKalb County educator, I can attest that this article is accurate. The bureaucracy and top-heaviness that I saw in DeKalb was one of things that drove me out of the field.

Where I'm from, most schools had maybe one or two assistant principals at the most and they were always visible and vigilant. Where I taught, there were four assistant principals that simply turned their heads when they saw kids hanging out in the halls during classes or doing things that were obviously wrong. One of the assistant principals was the so-called "Dean of Discipline". In our orientation, his message to the teachers was, in his own words, "Don't send them to us". Well, if you are the Dean of Discipline and a teacher has limited disciplinary power, then what is stopping you from doing your job? What was really disheartening is that they would have the students sign the Student Handbook every year, yet they would not follow through with the actions that were detailed in the book. If you have in writing that a child should be suspended or expelled for certain actions, then that is what needs to be honored.

The administrators also bowed down to the parents as well. When I was in high school, if a teacher gave me detention or if I was written up for an offense, my parents never questioned the teacher or administration about it. The administrators where I was acted as though I had to get parental consent in order to write a child up or otherwise enforce the rules. I personally was not afraid of any parent even when they tried to threaten physical violence against me. However, the administration was. Fast forward to 2011 and that school has seen a revolving door of principals and assistant principals come through. One can assume that it is hard to establish order and consistently approve a school if your administration is changing every other year.

Great Comment!

What makes an effective school, aside from great teachers and parents who are involved in their child's education, is an administration who actually disciplines. Far too many schools these days have become afraid to discipline, fearful of a lawsuit, that they allow their schools to become outright "zoos". Instead of protecting teachers and students through effective discipline, they do not discipline, all for the benefit of the few who get free reign to destroy the atmosphere of the school.