Response to New Orleans Article

Well, first of all I think this would have been easier to understand, had I been able to listen to it. But after I read it a few times, I think I got the flow.

Anyway, I find it interesting that they were talking about Vallas as a godsend. He had all these high hopes, and things that he wanted were getting done, whihc is all fine and dandy. It's good to finally see some follow-through on promises made by an administrator. But it bothers me that he himself didn't recognize that there would be problems. And the problems that were mentioned but others, were nothing related to the problems that they had.

As an administrator, shouldn't you kow how many students are registering for your schools? At that point, shouldn't you know whether or not the resources you've acquired will accomodate them. And even before that, was it right for him to change things to quickly and so dramatically, especially considering the state of the city at that point in time.

I think it would have been more responsible of him to take baby steps. Make sure students would be properly registered and would attend school on the first day. Make sure that each registered student had a schedule that they could go to on that first day. I'm glad they had books and computers, but if they didn't know where to go, how would those things be useful?

I mean it's great to want to mkae big changes and be successful, but if you can't handle the small stuff, the big stuff becomes insignificant. That broken window should have been fixed. Students and teachers should have known where to go. How do they expet to fix these things? Can they do it in a timely manner. How much classroom time is going to be wasted trying to fix them?

I'd really like to know the state of the district now, to know if all those dresms and goals came true. I'd like to know how things worked out, and I do hope that the district is successful.