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Building Administrators Making a Difference in Public Education in GA - Chris Lindsey     “Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.”  Chris Lindsey heard that from his Dad at least a million times, and has made the biblical saying a key pillar in his beliefs and methods.  Mr. Lindsey has been Principal of George Washington Carver High School in Columbus GA since August 2005.  His Dad, Dr. Eddie T. Lindsey Sr. began his teaching career at Carver in the 1950’s, and in 1975 was appointed as the first black Assistant Superintendent in Muscogee County.  Chris’ Mom taught PE in the District until her retirement, and his older brother Eddie Jr. is Principal at Key Elementary School in Columbus.  Both sons were expected to do well in school, earn a college degree and put their educational achievements to use helping others in the community.  “Dad told us the keys to success began with e...

Common Core and the Titanic     Common Core is a standardized national curriculum.  You might debate the difference in standards and curriculum till the cows come home, but when the standards drive textbook production and, in systems starved financially by the cumulative effects of years of austerity cuts, are used by classroom teachers to develop daily lesson plans, the standards become the curriculum.  The debate over whether or not the standards are curriculum is a diversion to distract parents from the real issue of Federal intrusion into what is a state issue.      From an historical context, a centralized school curriculum serves the goals of totalitarian states.  It’s also illegal.  The General Education Provisions Act, the Department of Education Organization Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act all forbid or protect against the USDOE sticking its nose into the curriculum choices of state and l...

Building Administrators Making a Difference in Georgia Education - Alan Long     Alan Long is Principal at Jefferson County High School in Louisville GA.  He began his teaching career as a coach and PE teacher 28 years ago, and has served as a school administrator for 10 years.  Alan raised his two sons as a single parent, and is proud of the fact both of them volunteered for military service after high school.  “They took my ideas of service to another level” he said, “and I am very proud of their accomplishments.”  He was elected to serve as President of the Georgia Association of Secondary School Principals and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders.  Under Alan’s leadership GASSP has placed finalists in the NASSP High School and Middle School Principal of the Year process 6 of the last 8 years. He was encouraged by a former Principal to become an administrator, and took the opportunity...

No Governor Left Behind - Part Deux     Name a state program or agency that you would describe as a model of efficiency, effectiveness and progress.  I know.  Me neither.  One of the last solutions anybody would come up with that really wanted to solve a problem would be more governmental involvement. So why does Governor Deal think that a new state agency disguised as the Opportunity School District would fare any better?  I’m not sure he does.  I think he promised himself into an educational corner during the heat of an election and had to come up with something, and Bobby Jindal happened to visit on his way to Washington and said “you should see what we pulled off in New Orleans.  We nearly doubled the number of charter schools and things are going so well I might even run for President.”  But wait a minute.  Are things in New Orleans really going that well for education?  In the early fall of 2014 the Cowen Instit...

Building Administrators Making a Difference in Georgia Education - Richard Green     The role of the building Principal in providing an effective and meaningful educational experience for students has long been recognized as a key to school success.  Great schools do not happen by accident, and are always the result of the vision, planning, hiring effectiveness and leadership skills of the building Principal.  One such leader is Richard Green, Principal of Aaron Cohn Middle School in Columbus, a new addition to the Muscogee County School District.  ACMS is in its second year of operation, and Richard was appointed its educational leader by the MCSD Board before the building was finished.  The building is located on Garrett Road in Midland, and is within the boundaries of Muscogee County.  ACMS has 34 teachers, 2 administrators, a total staff of 63 and 546 students grades 6-8.  About 36% of the students are FRL (free or reduced lunch...

    There’s a wolf in the closet.  He’ll stay there until after the elections, but somebody will open the door for him once the votes are in.  Count on it.  Both candidates for Governor of the state of Georgia have expressed an interest in letting this wolf out, and once out he won’t go back in again.  The lure of $59 billion dollars, regardless of the source of those funds and especially in the ethically challenged Georgia system of politics, is just too much for politicians to ignore.  Both candidates might hem and haw and say they would only use the money “with the backing of teachers and the TRS board of directors,” but that’s Georgia politics at its finest.  Tell the voters what you think they want to hear before the election, and forget you ever said it once you’re in office.  If that doesn’t work, blame someone else for following through on what you really wanted in the first place.     The Georgia...