Parent from Jefferson County lays out stark statistics on a low-achieving school

How can Valley High School STILL have staffing issues?Valley High School was in the very first group of schools in Kentucky to be designated a Persistently Low-Achieving School back in the spring of 2010 – almost three years ago.However, Valley graduate Joe Cantrell recited some statistics to the Jefferson County Board of Education last night that show his alma mater still suffers from inexperienced teacher staffing.Note that Cantrell indicates Valley has the fewest number of teachers with master’s degrees and only one national board certified teacher. Meanwhile, some of the school district’s elite high schools have seven or eight national board certified teachers.How can Valley’s staffing still be an obvious problem if the district really is making every effort to improve this school?How can this situation still exist if the teachers union is really doing all that it can to help?In fact, why isn’t the teachers union yelling loud and clear about the inadequate staffing at Valley?By the way, I was also struck by Cantrell’s comment that Valley High didn’t even start to offer Advanced Placement Courses until three years ago. AdvanceKentucky, an organization that establishes solid AP programs in under-served high schools, tried for years to get a school in Jefferson County to join their outstanding program. The Jefferson County Teachers Association blocked that effort because AdvanceKentucky’s program includes a form of merit pay.