Two important things: no GATE committee or program and they are accepting GATE money and students and the other is that test scores and reputation of the Panther Pride seemed to significantly outweigh rigorous instruction and scholarly behavior.

As a group we often say that “high stakes tests” are not a good measure – but the high stakes test scores are what gives this middle school and OUSD bragging rights. It’s on the district website as the most improved school district, and they are not talking about inclusion of students, reaching out to English language learners, debate teams, they are speaking of test scores.

I feel strongly that the district does indeed need a PR strategy. But I fear their traditional approach won’t gain nearly the traction needed to change the heavy hearts and made-up minds of the public.

Please, let’s not compare each other to animals, however jokingly… (Such a high bar for our discussions, I know.)

The thread is about OUSD’s communications and public relations plan. Let’s get back to it!

All this and high-strung, too.
EEEK!

You’re making assumptions that have no basis in reality – first, that I was being assessed for “an illness, disease, etc.” Wrong, I was required to have a full physical simply due to having a 25th birthday. When Uncle Sam says “full physical”, they really-really mean it. There were no concerns to be considered or ruled out, just a bunch of paperwork for the doc to complete, and a bunch of needles and specimen cups for me. (wink – but not everyone today is a veteran, so it’s not surprising that many don’t understand how the military treats its enlisted folks.)

Second bad assumption, everyone here is talking about the same thing as you – when the reality is that you were trying to highjack the discussion long before you accused me of doing so. The topic is the results of a self-selected survey with little validity, and the district’s response to those unlikely-to-be-useful-in-the-real-world results. Not exactly, “the district’s “been there, done that” strategic communications plan and its shortcomings,” but sort of related.

By the way, how many times did you respond to that survey, Harlemmoon? Full disclosure, I went through it once for each of the two schools my two sons attend – which we chose as the best schools in the district for our kids. While my husband and I agree that there are district-wide problems, we also are quite happy with the schools that our sons attend. Oh, and we live in the flatlands, but the schools are in the hills.

There – *really* full disclosure, and I’m all done now, so feel free to resume your thread highjack without further undisturbance from me.