A Failure of Leadership: CSSRP Under Fire Yet Again

A long-awaited independent review of the high school reform plan known as CSSRP was provided to the Board of Education by Leadership Capacity, Inc. at the board’s work session Monday, April 21st in Bel Air. The board received a 300-page report reiterating many of the issues brought to the board’s attention by teachers, parents, students and administrators as far back as 2005.

Particular interest was sparked by focus group reports indicating a low level of support among teachers for many aspects of CSSRP ranging from the block schedule to the mandatory class “Living in a Contemporary World”.

Board president Tom Fidler wasted no time concluding that this reflected of a “failure of leadership” on the part of Superintendent Jackie Haas and senior staff members Dave Volrath and Gerry Scarborough. Continue reading A Failure of Leadership: CSSRP Under Fire Yet Again

A Survey With Sense: Harford Students and Parents Weigh-In On Constrictive School Reform

Remember that bogus survey with the $46,000 price tag, all about high school reform in Harford County?

The Dagger just received another survey that’s full of questions the folks who got paid the $46,000 didn’t even think to ask. The new survey was created by a local high school teacher who wanted to know more about one of the Concepts of Comprehensive Secondary School Reform (CSSRP) - the one theorizing that students should choose a “career pathway” in high school, because students would be more interested in school if they had “coursework with an exit purpose.”

So let’s find out what kids really think about picking a career path when they are still freshman in high school and what happens when students are, as one of them put it, “pigeon- holed” into taking certain classes.
Continue reading A Survey With Sense: Harford Students and Parents Weigh-In On Constrictive School Reform