THE THREE YEAR PLAN Two things in the West Point plan for middle schools bother me: 1 Nagliari (non-verbal ability/ IQ) test being used to determine if a student is "gifted." 2 Expand courses for high school credit. Why do we want to know if a student is gifted? We've cut nearly all our gifted classes out and diluted them all with mainstreaming. There is no need for yet another test. Why do we want to give middle school students high school credit for classes taken at their schools? Credit requirements for high school graduation are already reduced to levels that effectively dispense with the necessity of the 12th grade altogether. In the high school plan I have many problems, the first of which is the seven period day with the "flexible scheduling option for some programs and students." The whole community clearly wants the high schools to be on block schedule. The second is CTE (Career and Technical Education) grade point averages being compared to general population. Is the point that vo-tech education should be compared to academic education on a point basis? Is the ultimate idea to push high school kids into careers by granting them certifications and apprenticeships during the school day? If so, I object. Young teens should not be making career decisions this early in their lives. Being a good student is in itself a full-time job. The third is including LHS and GGHS in Lastinger collaboration. This apparently necessitates teachers enrolled as Lastinger Center (U of F) "master teacher" program mobilized to increase school performance on the FCAT through mandating School Reform using the traits, techniques and tools promulgated through _Secrets of Successful Teaching_ and _Excellence in Teaching_. Does this commitment mandate all secondary teachers embracing these very specific ideas of what "success" and "excellence" in education actually means? Will everyone be required to enter the "free masters degree program" at Lastinger? This latter is a complete capitulation to FCAT and NCLB and the School Reform Movement. The commitment to hiring more high school reading coaches and revision of our language arts curriculum with special emphasis on "word study" is an expensive mistake. A fourth area of concern is with RTI (Response To Intervention) or special education being focused on results and outcomes. This puts all our faith into "data-driven instruction" which is fundamentally associated with the flawed FCAT. Furthermore, all of this "three year plan" is dictated from the top down and manipulates the school district employees and students into conforming to questionable educational theories, theories that I believe are ill-founded and exploitative. It seems to me that this three-year plan is really a personal agenda. Colonel Thompson wants to make himself indispensable. Once in place, who can possibly manage it other than Martha, Mary, and Dennis? Given his and his team's gross unpopularity, the community's parents should not approve and certainly not embrace his three-year plan. HARVARD Another concern for the community is the core group that has spent a week at Harvard this summer. The article says that there will be, "Monthly meetings/planning sessions by the principals who attended the Harvard Institute for School Leadership." I expected this, as well as its consequent micromanagement influence in the schools' classrooms. But even worse, "asking all of the principals to attend the Harvard training" is going to cost a great deal. Also, shouldn't the public know what is taught during the Harvard training and by whom it is taught? Remember we had, ever so briefly, a superintendent with a real Harvard degree: Dr. Eric Williams. Dr. Williams was a known and highly qualified administrator squeezed out of Collier by the same forces that insisted on firing Mr. Baker. Our principals who are sent to the one-week Harvard course are going to become a problem akin to the Southern Agrarians. Look up this other group of Tennessee educators and read about The Fugitives and their racial interpretation of antiquarian history. Professor Robert S. Peterkin, the program director for our new 7-day wonders, was in charge of the Boston schools' desegregation program. Hmmm. Dr. Peterkin, according to Forbes, "has focused entirely on education during his 41-year career and is one of our nation's leading advocates for urban education reform." He's part of the School Reform Movement that is destroying public education in order to save it. I wonder about its racial underpinnings and its unquestioning reverence for "data-driven instruction." Like Dr. Peterkin, I also have a 41-year career focused entirely on education, but my career was wholly in the classroom. What does it take to be an "expert" in education? Is Colonel Thompson one?