I was in another small school that replaced a closed comprehensive high school in Southeast Queens and am quite pleased to have survived the experience. At one time this school was superior to the school it replaced but then the DOE stopped supplying the school with extra funding and exempting them from taking "high needs students". Therefore, of late, the school struggles (and fails) to attract good students and has found it with a student body of only a smidgen over 300 rather than the 425 the school was built for. The composition of the student body is 70% Black and 30% Hispanic.
The freshman and sophomore classes are populated by level "1' and low level "2" students and they run the hallways, rather than go to class, overwhelming the one dean and administration. The Regents passing rates, never good in the first place, has plummeted last year and the teachers expect even worse results this year. The students are disrespectful to their teachers and curse words are common even when talking to the teacher. I don't need to tell you how they treat the ATRs. Every day I was there a fight occurred, sometimes two and the girls are just as bad as the boys. The school is slowly unraveling and the students see it. Many of the students appear to be "marking time" before they transfer, dropout, or end up in the juvenile justice system.
Staff morale is bad, real bad. Many teachers privately told me that they would leave if they could while the newer teachers are seriously thinking of finding a new profession. It appears many of the teachers ended up with an "ineffective" observation that doesn't sit well with the staff considering the student body they are working with. There were three other ATRs at the school with me and every day we all had coverages since at least four teachers are absent on any given day during my stay there.
The only positives I found was that they had an excellent teacher room, with computers, a friendly staff, and onsite parking.
Would I take a job there if offered one. "No way Jose"! "D-"
sounds like 90 percent of the schools that I have been to - definitely a campus magnet or springfield gardens type place - they are awful places - shouldn't our lives as atrs be better than surviving- personally this life is having terrible effects on my health - my stress level is through the roof from places like the one you just described
ReplyDeleteSounds like Springfield to me.
ReplyDelete