A lot of people are hesitant about Dance and his age/experience. Only time will tell. There are definitely parts of Bal Co that could use a boost and I hope he brings what is needed.

Sounds good - for starters can we match the pay scale that exisits in Monkey Cty and Howard Cty? Next can we match their demographics? Next, can we look at the progress they are (not) making at closing achievement gaps between the "haves" and "have nots?" They are HUGE! This guy is off to a GREAT start! Looks like we have another winner...the uneducated public is going to love this guy!

Of course he is right. No truly great school system would hire a 31-year-old with hardly any teaching or administrative experience as superintendent.

I'm excited to have a new superintendent in place. Dr. Dance sounds like he has some ideas to improve upon what we already have - one of the best school districts in the country. I'm willing to give him a chance to see what he has to offer us from his administrative posts in Houston and Fairfax County. I admit he doesn't have long resume, but sometimes that's not what it takes. We'll see what he has in the way of energy, drive, ambition for the county, communication, responsiveness and we'll look at the results after some time. Shooting him down after just a month in office, without school in session and without any just cause due to wild, unexplained, corrupt, illegal actions on his part seems quite hasty and says more about the motivation some have to denounce Dr. Dance than the new superintendent's job performance and ability to achieve.

When a new leader takes a post, there will always be those who speak against him/her. With Dr. Dance, he has articulated the direction the school system is going to take, he is in contact with his Principals as a means to go it that direction, so the last part is to see if the followers (teachers) can do their job and get students to achieve at higher levels.

To JD1, consider a career move to Montgomery County; I wouldn't want you to be a part of building something great when you can join something that was already great by the time you got there.

To Mark, nice of you to point out the obvious. The BOE is insulated in this hire. If he succeeds, they look great for identifying and retaining him at an early age. If he fails, they can chalk it up to his inexperience and their efforts to move away from the floundering "Hairston" regime. Dr Dance doesn't have a long resume of experience, but the resume he has is full of success. Unlike his predecessor, who became corrupt.

About me, I am not an employee of Baltimore County, however I do live here and have children in BCPS, so I try follow relevant issues that concern my family. Dr, Dance is not a breath of fresh air. He is a new light shining brightly to guide our education system. Will he guide BCPS in the right direction? Time will tell.

He can talk the talk, but the answers come when he can walk the walk.

Question #1, given his past job experiences and the amount of time in each, how long should we expect Dr. Dance to stay in this role before he again seeks to move up the ladder?
Question #2, as far as the students are concerned, is he going to stop the ridiculous idea that all students are college material, right out of high school? Many students need to be taught vocational skills so that when they get out of high school, they can get a job and be productive members of society. Then, when they have these jobs, they can see that the road to advancement is through advanced education and will willfully enroll in college programs.
Question #3, are gifted and talented programs going to be emphasized more so that the most able students are pushed instead of just getting by because they are in classes with less gifted students? Remember that this is the county that wanted to put all students in honors courses because the curriculum was better than the standard curriculum. So, the honors courses became very watered down because non-honors students could not/did not want to keep up with the rigors of the course.
Question #4, will increased participation in AP testing be emphasized less? Right now, the only numbers that are counted in the national lists are how many tests are being taken and not the scores of the test takers. The numbers look good until they are compared with the results.

That's enough questions for now. How about some answers?

How refreshing to have a superintendent who doesn't hose us down with a constant stream of "happy talk." And, to MikeC, if we are among the "best" school districts in the US, it's a sad statement about our country. Mediocrity is pervasive in BCPS.

So much hate around here. Microcosm of society. It's pathetic.

We can start by providing each student and staff member with the best learning/teaching conditions- and that means air conditioning in every school!

Having just returned to BC, from Orange County FL(Orlando) for the soul purpose of the education of my child, i must say it really sounds petty to be bitching about this. The Florida school are some of the worst in the nation. It is difficult to understad how people can be so upset when things here are so great. In Florida, dsylexia is not treated in the classroom, it is dealt without outside of school and on the parents time and dime! The back to school supplies list for 1st grade included 4 reams of printer paper, 4 bottles each, sanitizer and soap, 6 boxes of crayons and
30 glue sticks, all to be brought to school the first day. Then on top of this a $30 supply, there was even a chart to show who brought what, so the indigent children felt even more isolated. It just seems to be
crazy to hear all this whining while we have it so much better here than in a state where you would THINK education should be at least close to ours...

A couple thoughts:

1. It doesn't seem petty to me to not rest on our laurels and refuse to be complacent. I don't live in Orland; I don't teach in Orlando. I live and teach in Baltimore County. That said, and by the words of Dr. Dance himself, we aren't great in many regards. There is plenty of room for improvement.

2. Howard and Montgomery are apples and oranges comparisons when you look at median income, % of college grads, crime rates, housing prices, etc., Dance can say these don't matter, and show inspirational videos about people who were told they'd fail/they couldn't, but his idealism making me wonder if he is out of touch with reality. Get too far away from reality and good luck finding solutions.

3. Why is an African-American PhD. trumpeting the name of Abraham Lincoln, President of the Illinois Colonization Society? If he had his way, we'd of expelled blacks from this country. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the address and read up on Lincoln. An intellectually and educationally damning remark.

The summer is an easy time to look good; for that matter, so is the first year. When the honeymoon is over, problems start cropping up, and data doesn't come back the way he expects it to, I'm curious to see how he responds.

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