Left In Lowell

Congrats Dr. Baehr, Staff, Principals & Teachers (and Parents)!

22 Responses to “Congrats Dr. Baehr, Staff, Principals & Teachers (and Parents)!”

1. waittilnextyr Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 10:09 am

   A couple of corrections - the header is 10 yrs behind the times (what does the tendency to make this error imply?) and the 8th grade Science looks like a 4.40 improvement, whereas it is negative in the table.

   Bottom line is a good improvement, let’s hope it continues.

2. Mimi Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

   Wait:

   Thanks for noting the error. I made the correction.

3. joe Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

   No you didn’t. Still says ‘96 and ‘97.

4. joe Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 1:02 pm

   I had a good time last year, telling my relatives in Westford that they should send their kids to school in Lowell. Where they’ll be safe.

   Neener neener nee-ner.

5. MVP Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 1:38 pm

   How about “Congrats” to students and parents as well? As a parent I can tell you that a lot of children have worked very hard and a lot of parents have assisted in countless ways. Lets not forget them!

6. Right in Lowell Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

   WOW! The MCAS scores went up! Yippee! Yippee! Let’s all hail the great Karla Brooks Baher!

   But before you go getting too excited Mimi, remember; the scores went up throughout the entire state, which is to be expected as school systems learn what’s required under the new guidelines and how to best achieve those goals. It’s only natural. And we’ll give credit to Baher for these scores, as long as you remember that Lowell still performs below the state average. They always did, which means they had more room to grow.

   It’s like that TV show The Biggest Loser. Sure, some hefty dude drops 62-pounds, but when he weights 412, it’s not that difficult to do. Dropping 10-pounds when you weigh 175 is much more difficult. Same with raising grades. Going from B+ to A- is much more difficult than going from C to B.

   So let’s not go getting all excited and spewing our anti-establishement propaganda uncecessarily Mimi.

7. Mimi Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

   Thanks Joe, I think I got it now.

   RIL: If something goes badly in the Lowell public school system, the Superintendent is to blame; if something goes right, she had nothing to do with it. Is that how it works? That might be the formula the MSM in this town uses, but it is not mine.

   “Spewing anti-establishment propaganda…” Isn’t Dr. Baher part of the establishment?

8. Mimi Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

   MVP: I changed it. I think I should make this a group post.

9. Right in Lowell Says:
   October 5th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

   No Mimi, she gets full credit from me. But we have to be careful not to fawn over these figures, as the tone of your post suggested you were doing. It’s a big improvement, yes. But why on earth were we so low to begin with? It’s not like she’s in her first year on the job.

   FYI, no, the good Doctor is not part of the establishment. She’s an “outsider” who’s looking to clean out members of the old establishment and putting in her own people. Nothing wrong with surrounding yourself with people you trust, but if anyone is pursuing personal vendettas at the expense of our children’s education, it’s Dr. Baher.

   I don’t know if you yourself have any kids at Lowell High, but before you go spouting off about things, you might want to reach out and listen to what some of the parents have to say about the person Dr. Baher has been trying to drive out for a couple of years now. If she would just drop this vendetta against Samaras, she might find people more willing to listen to her other ideas.

10. Prince Charming Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 2:54 pm

    When the proficient outnumber the Warnings, then we’ll have something to celebrate. Somehow I don’t feel that I’m getting my money’s worth out of the school department.

11. Mimi Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    RiL: I respect loyalty but if you are a card carrying member of the Lowell version of FOB, please come clean. As far as me “spouting” that is what a blog is about.

    And Prince, even with the name change, once a cynic, always a cynic.

12. EaBo Clipper Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 4:35 pm

    Ms. Brooks-Baeher has hired a professional standards improvement professional to help the Lowell Schools improve. This person worked at the state in the same roll and he has done an amazing job. Great Job!

13. Jackie Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 5:08 pm

    Sorry, but the editor in me has to correct the spelling: it’s Baehr. I agree, we still have a way to go. When you have a school district as big and complex as Lowell(fourth largest in state, highest number of second language learners, 65% poverty level etc), turning the ocean liner around takes time. Under Baehr’s leadership, we now have district-wide consistency in math/ELA curriculum, teaching standards, and assessments; These improvements happened while the district also sustained major cuts to its 2003/04 budget that resulted in a 12% reduction in staff. Due to her leadership in managing resouces, merging schools, and reusing space (creating the LeBlanc Therapeautic Program saved $1 million), she enabled the district to continue to make progress in tight fiscal times. Since her evaluation and bonus(which she didn’t receive this year, based in part, on unmet LHS goals)are directly connected to the performance of her leadership team, it would be stupid not to renew someone she saw as capable of fulfilling her vision of excellent schools. (I’m not buying she has a personal vendetta.)

14. Prince Charming Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    I don’t think I’m being cynical at all. How can we all feel so good when that many of our students are not proficient in the three major subjects? I’m not laying blame with teachers and/or the administration but maybe if the teachers could spend more time teaching and less time dealing with administration work and discipline, those numbers would be much higher.

15. Right in Lowell Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm

    FOB? No. Not at all. Know who the man is, have seen him out and about, but have never spoken with him.

    Someone who actually speaks with people outside their social circle and knows that when 9 out of 10 people I talk to rave about Samaras and what he’s meant to them and their children? Hell Yes!

    Stop worrying so much about labeling people and listen to what they say every now and then. You might learn something.

16. joe Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 7:49 pm

    School districts with large immigrant populations have lower aggregate testing scores because they have a harder job to do. It has nothing to do with the quality of the school system.

    Singling our Baehr as the reason Lowell’s schools have lower-than-average MCAS scores is like singling out TJ McCarthy as the reason our roads are in worse shape than Sherborn’s.

17. joe Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 7:49 pm

    Oh, and the chart still says ‘96 and ‘97.

18. Mimi Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

    RiL: Thanks for the lecture; I will be sure to listen and learn.

    And Joe, yes, I finally got it. I had a tough day.

19. anonymous Says:
    October 6th, 2007 at 8:30 am

    RIL: When I moved to Lowell, my daughter was a sophmore. It took six weeks to get her a shedule at LHS, and that finally happened because I went into the school and wouldn’t leave until it got straightened out. That first year she took an Honor’s Spanish class. At the beginning of the year there were 17 kids in the class. By the end all but 5 had left the class due to failing grades. The teacher was horrible but no one seemed to care at the way she harmed the students academically. She was always forcing them to bring in “Spanish” food for parties but never teaching them. Of course, Samaras also hired Wamala even though it was Baehr who took all the hits for it. When I went to enroll my younger children at the Parent Information Center, I brought in the documents from our house closing. I was treated with respect. I brought those same documents to enroll my daughter into the High School and was treated like a criminal. I had to go to City Hall and swear to the clerk that I wasn’t lying about living in the house I owned!!! Not to mention that the High School has a huge dropout problem (have you spoken with those parents?) Let me guess - you blame the kids and/or their parents, right? In this town it is not safe to talk about the problems, unless you are blaming Dr. Baehr!!! I have heard about plenty of problems and my guess is that Dr. Baehr has also. Dr. Baehr started the Freshman Academy and that has been significant in helping the new students adjust to such a large high school.
    RIL - There are 4000 students at the High School. That you know so many parents who personally interact with Samaras, and he personally interacts with their child means that you run in circles that most parents do not, so you are only hearing from those who have been sorted out for special treatment. (What do the 1 out of 10 have to say?)

20. Prince Charming Says:
    October 7th, 2007 at 9:57 am

    Yeah, but if you believe what you read in the paper it’s the Happiest Place on Earth.

21. Right in Lowell Says:
    October 7th, 2007 at 12:55 pm

    Anonymous, in a school of 4000 students, there will always be issues and unhappy parents. This is not to belittle your experience, as I’m sure there are others out there who feel the same way as you do and may have had similar experiences.

    I do not run in any social circles. I don’t know the man. I only know what I hear from an OVERWHELMING number of people with kids at the school. Your disatisfaction, and that of anyone else who may agree with you is the exception, not the rule in a school of that size. If this was the norm, there would be howls of protest against the man, but there aren’t.

    BTW, did you speak with Samaras personally and get an unsatisfactory response or none at all?

22. anonymous Says:
    October 8th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    RIL: Do you have any children? Do you know what happens if you complain to a teacher or complain to a principal? In many situations your child becomes a target in the class and the situation only becomes worse. I didn’t complain, although I wanted to. I had complained previously about a math teacher and that woman humiliated my daughter in class about her mother coming to school. When I followed up my complaint with another complaint, I was told that I was mistaken, that the teacher would never do such a thing. That teacher took every opportunity to make my daughter’s life difficult. When she experienced the problem with the Spanish teacher, she begged me not to intervene. Parents experience things like this all the time with public schools. I think that you and others really need to see beyond the issue of how nice some people think Samaras is. The real issue is how the high school functions with the majority of the students. It was losing so many kids between 8th grade and 9th grade that the Superintendant implemented the Freshman Academy. My understanding is that she got very little support from the old guard at the high school. Did Samaras do anything before that to address the issue? NO. When teachers have such a poor record as the Spanish teacher, whose job is it to get rid of her and other teachers like her? Samaras - who didn’t do it. That teacher had been treating students like my daugher for years and years. The following year my daughter took the next level of Spanish. Students called it the “Recovery Class,” as did the teacher - because everyone knew how bad that other teacher was. The high school has all kinds of problems that can’t be fixed until there’s someone there with new ideas and new energy, and willing to do the hard work. It’s not a popularity contest, which is what the Lowell Sun and people like you would like it to be. Instead of getting people’s opinion about Samaras, why don’t you ask for an assessment of the high school?

Leave a Reply