Strange and demented plan

My school is 'in corrective action'. That means that we have had too many years of not making AYP- annual yearly progress- under NCLB. Our special education population is not passing the ELA exams. Part of that is that many IEP students have a disability in reading. Since 65% of the exam is reading comprehension, well...no wonder they can't pass.

My school district is losing people. The whole state is losing people. So, of course, when class sizes get too small, especially in difficult economic times, layoffs are discussed. An entire team of teachers from my school, to be exact. Most of these people are young, energetic and use some of the best practices of my profession. It would be disasterous to lose them, and keep the same-old, same-old who can't seem to understand that what they have done for 25 years IS NOT WORKING with the population of students we have.

Now, I think outside the box. Okay, I am pretty sure that I have never been INSIDE the box. So, where most people see disaster, I see opportunity.

My team, okay, I, came up with a plan (but my team whole heartedly agrees) that would allow the district to keep the new people, and, maybe (probably) help some of the students who are not succeeding. It would involve taking students with IEPs or with AIS services-about 20 to 25- who fail 7th grade and block scheduling them with our team. We would remediate 7th and teach 8th grade in the same year, allowing them to go to the high school with their class. They would learn the academics, but most importantly, find success.

My principal said he MIGHT tell the superintendent, but that there was no way we would get to do the pilot.

So we went over his head.

The woman from Central Office, with whom we spoke, is pretty sure that grant money would pay for 2/5th of each of our salaries.

She plans on presenting the plan this week.

(sorry about the foot prints, boss)