Why My Rant About Mark Rolewski

I am a third grade teacher in Manatee County, Florida. My story began the day Mark Rolewski walked through my classroom. He is an education consultant from Tucson, Arizona. He has some association with John Hopkins University, which I believe education leaders in the five Florida school districts (Manatee, Lee, Seminole, Leon, and Putnum) he works take as blind proof he knows what he is talking about. I have found no proof he is qualified to consult Florida School Districts, beyond the John Hopkins reference. He did work there, the is or was “the director of dissemination for leadership research and the national consultant for the Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE) at Johns Hopkins University.” This is the first thing that appears in a Google search for Mark Rolewski. However if you look deeper you find this: http://alturl.com/tyij Page 6 indicates that he is the “former” director and national consultant for John Hopkins. If you look here: http://alturl.com/cnfn you find that Mark Rolewski is in business for himself. See here: http://alturl.com/drpy Manatee County School District pays him $74,000 to work for 17 days. See here http://alturl.com/xo6m [Page: 3 Item: 14] Lee County School District pays him $78,750 to work for 20 days. That is $4000 a day of tax payer money, $4000 a day that could save teachers jobs, $4000 dollars a day that could save an art program or counseling service. Mark Rolewski has only one written work, see here: http://alturl.com/guou where he basically says innovative teachers are “barriers” if they do not work as a collective. Ironically, he points out that budget is a “barrier” too. This is proof of wasted Florida tax dollars.

Why am I risking my career to shed light on this situation?

Please, keep reading to find out.

You see when Mark Rolewski walked through my classroom months ago; we were scheduled to do reading intervention. Except on this day a little girl in my class put down her head and began to cry her eyes out on her intervention booklet. The day before, Animal Control had taken away her dog, because it was malnourished and they had to euthanize him, or so she was told. The family was also reported, because no one over age 13 was home at the time Animal Control arrived. When her father came home all he did was yell, not about the dog, but about his fear of deportation. So that day, instead of doing reading intervention, I let my students use computers, play board games, and read freely, so I could sit with this little upset girl and comfort her. Mark Rolewski walked in my room, administration with him. He looked around, made a point to look at my schedule, and glared at me and my sobbing student. Then he said (and this will be with me for the rest of my life), “You are scheduled for intervention at this time. This is not explicit instruction.” And he walked out. So I was made to feel like bad teacher, because I made the choice to help an emotionally compromised student.

I am one of thousands of teachers across the state of Florida that work in Title-1 Schools. The bottom line is we work with poor students, students that live in poverty. These students come to school hungry, because there is no food at home. These students come to school unclean, because parents are working two or three jobs. These students come to school unhealthy, because the parents have no insurance. These students come to school (quite often) depressed, because no one at home has the time or care to nurture them.

Schools like mine are considered failing or in need of improvement. We are compared with schools that have students from affluent families. Our students are viewed as points of data, not persons with emotional needs. This “black” student is a bubble student, so they need more work to get them to a level 3. These four “ESL” (Latino) students need intensive instruction to move their scores to a level where the school will make Yearly Adequate Progress (AYP). They are not children anymore; they are numbers on the FCAT test. Mark Rolewski has made a lucrative business out of this fact. Mark Rolewski has made a business where he takes taxpayer money to tell Administrators to tell their teachers to work harder, with disregard for actual students