The lobbying campaign is well underway to dissuade the new school board from doing away with the weekly Wednesday early dismissals.
Here's one example of what might be considered a push poll to try to steer parents into backing Wake Wednesdays/Wacky Wednesdays. To avoid potentially embarrassing the Wake elementary school teacher who recently sent this survey to her parents, I won't identify her name or school.
The survey opens by telling parents that teachers want to know what they think about the weekly early releases. In case you don't know what the teacher thinks, she tells parents "we have found this time to be quite valuable."
Parents are then asked to check the comments they agree with and list any others they want to share. It's not hard to see how the three comments listed are meant to push the parents in a particular direction.
One comment asks whether "I feel that it is important for teachers to have this set aside time to continue to grow professionally."
The next comment says "I enjoy using this extra time with my child for outside activities."
The third comment says "I think my child benefits from a break in the week."
It's uncertain how many other teachers have been doing similar surveys.
In addition to this survey, Wake NCAE encouraged parents to attend schools on Nov, 18 to see what teachers did in their professional learning teams. Schools have been sending home more information on the PLT meetings.
Comments
Early Release Wed.
Wed, 12/02/2009 - 21:49 — richneeAs for the comment: I don't know any parent in support of Wacky Wed. - I can assure you that there are families in Wake county who don't mind it. Our family loves Wacky Wednesday as does many of our friends. I can understand the difficulty with work schedules... but lots of people are working it out.
PLC Survey
Mon, 11/30/2009 - 08:36 — RMC10Since WCAE is an affiliate of NAE and friends of the old Board, I would be very skeptical of the intent of any survey coming from them or any teacher who is a member of that group. I don't believe there needs to be a survey done at all. While this impacts the parents and children most, we did not complain when PLC was not on Wednesdays, and have voiced our opinion in, on, and for every media since then. If WCAE wants to know opinions, why don't they just make an anonymous survey and send to their teachers about how they feel. They've tried it for a while now, do they like it, is it making a positive impact on their teaching? I think that is going to be the benchmark - if it is anonymous and honest and not influenced by communications from the WCAE group. While we could go with the independent marketing company's outside survey, that could be very expensive, unneeded, and still the group that sets the questionnaire could still set leading questions. The past school board set this PLC plan, they are gone, I trust the new school board to make the right decisions, they can decide, the ball is in their court now.
Questions
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 21:36 — SDR256I have questions about the survey questions. So, is this a personal survey created by one teacher and sent to parents? I hope so because as someone who has done surveys and other research professionally for worldwide audiences, I can tell you that these questions are extremely leading and I wouldn't want to think this was the level of survey that might come from WCPSS or even a school. I agree with Dad3 that it would be a good sign to see some effort of working with parents. But I've not had the impression that it was the teacher/parent relationship that needed the most mending. It was the system/board to teacher/parent relationship that was the most broken.
Uncertain if it's being
Mon, 11/30/2009 - 01:04 — KeungHui (author)Uncertain if it's being sent by only that one teacher at that school.
Cart . . . Horse
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 19:30 — Bob_SconceIsn't this a bit late? Shouldn't the district have surveyed parents before foisting this on them?
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No thank you!
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 16:53 — g88ky07I don't know a single parent who supports it!
Where is the WCPSS
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 17:58 — woodstockWhere is the WCPSS leadership in all of this? Where are the principals and the superintendent? It seems very odd that individual teachers are taking it upon themselves to "survey" parents. Conducting surveys is more than just sending out questionnaires. How questions are asked, who they are asked of, and what questions are asked all play a role in just how valid the results will be. BTW, I am all for surveys to gain insight, but there right ways of conducting them and then there are wrong and irrelevant ways.
Good luck with that
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 10:49 — Dadof3The good news: rather than insult the parents, we might be seeing an attempt to work with us parents. About freakin' time. The bad news: regarding Wacky Wednesday; most parents understand the concept already and it's still, on the whole, an impractical idea. I feel most for the parents that have jobs that don't avail the necessary flexibility for a mid-week early dismissal.
Sorry, educrats. Give it up; move on.
The principal of the school
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 10:31 — red_balloonThe principal of the school I contacted said he will let parents know about the discussions and outcomes of the PLTs. This was about two months ago and I am yet to hear from him. How are parents expected to support something that is nebulous?