Re: Pin school failures on principals, letter, June 22.
Every time I read a letter about our schools, I want to invite the reader to visit them to see the reality we teachers face daily. I know it is unnatural to base our opinions on facts, but here are a few that should be recognized with regard to our state's school grading system.
First, the criteria for the grades change every year. Only a small part of this is "raising the bar" to have a higher level of accountability. We are never exactly sure what the criteria will be from one year to the next. Yes, we are told about them, but not many of us speak the language with which they are communicated, bureaucratese.
A student's score of 3 on the FCAT is not the same at all grade levels; this is confusing.
Second, far too many of our students are unmotivated. We struggle diligently to motivate them, but if there is no reinforcement of this in the community or home, our efforts are in vain.
Many of our students "blow off" these tests because they do not believe in their importance. They are expecting to take it again some other day and then be allowed to graduate. We need more carrots to dangle before them to make the test more real to them and insist on higher standards.
The reading portion of the test is certainly valid, but the reading selections are exceptionally boring to the students and they turn off. A good reading test can be interesting and still have validity.
Instead of criticizing our schools, take control of them. Help us make them better. By law, every public school in Florida must have a school advisory council. These groups must include parents, community members and teachers. At the high school level they also must include students. This is not a PTA to generate funds. It is a group that sets the direction in which the school will move.
Call your school. Get involved. We need to work together.
-- Don Elliott, Tampa
Clearwater police officers never responded to woman's call for help
Recently at 1:30 a.m. I had a man come to my door. I had never seen this man before. He knocked and avoided the peep hole and would not respond to any question. He stood in front of my door for 10 minutes, then drove away, only to return to my door 30 minutes later. He sat in front of my house for about an hour and a half in his car.
I called the Police Department after the first visit. I was first shuffled off the 911 line to the regular nonemergency line, then was disconnected and had to call back. I waited through the second visit and for another two hours. Not one police officer came by my house.
I am a hard-working taxpayer of this city. I deserve to feel safe in my home, in my neighborhood, in my city. I depend on the Clearwater Police Department to respond when I am in need, not to simply shuffle me around and never respond to my cry for help.
I'm more upset by the thought that this probably has happened to other women in this city. I want to extend a sincere apology to those women who have ever felt a prisoner to fear in their own homes with no help coming around the corner.
To the Clearwater Police Department, I want to extend a true feeling of disgust for my hours of sleepless fear, during which something could have happened to me or my family without any well-deserved help.
-- Chely Chryssikos, Clearwater
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