Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Soothe The Savage Beast

Maria Geryk keeping a moose in line

The long awaited -- at least by some -- annual review of School Superintendent Maria Geryk, the town's highest paid employee, is now underway.

And one tool being used is an internet survey that allows the general public to weigh in on how well she and our venerable public schools are doing from the comfortable confines of their keyboard.

Except, from my all too encompassing experience with internet commenters, me thinks the survey will get dramatically skewed results because it cannot be submitted anonymously.

Folks are far more likely to give negative feedback from under the comfortable cloak of anonymity.

Unless of course it's positive feedback you're fishing for.

Over the past seven years I've published 47,635 comments of which I would guess 45,000 of them were Anonymous.  And yes I can tell from I.P. addresses that it's not just a few people making many, many comments (other than the one who leaves his name).

Belchertown, on the other hand, is also doing a public school survey but notice they do NOT require a name.  Hmm ...

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing survey. Quintessential Geryk,

1) Anyone that makes substantive criticisms - valid or not - will be subject to scrutiny using this survey. If it turns out that their names are fake, the negative from that survey response will simply be discarded as invalid because of a lack of verification.

2) No employee with insight will be willing to make observations out of fear of retribution.


The bottom line is that this survey is totally bogus from a statistical point of view and a blatant political hack job designed to make the chief look loved. Any true evaluation must permit an independent agency to look at the results, and must not be accessible to the Super before results are analyzed.

This is not a legal document or serious inquiry into the Super. An evaluation of an important public official some believe is damaging our schools and our community needs to be undertaken by an independent third party if it is to be taken seriously. The information being generated, by design, is to show only one result: unmitigated love for the boss.

Anonymous said...

someone ought to ask at tonight's ARPS sc mtg, why the requirement for including your name of the survey. Did that come from Ms Geryk or the school committee. The survey also seeks to evaluate the school committee.

Anonymous said...

Exactly! Of course, it does allow you to put "The Parents," in as the name.

Walter Graff said...

Sad part is that a parent might want to be anonymous over reviewing the school system and the woman who runs it. The internet allows people to hide behind walls. They'll tell people who aren't even their friends on Facebook their deep dark secrets but when it comes to making sure their children have the best they can, they'll act dumb and do little. Problem with most parents is they really don't care as much about their children's future as they should. You can see that in some of the students, and you can see that in what is allowed to go on in the Amherst school system.

Nina Koch said...

Another possibility, Walter, is that many of the other parents don't agree with your assessment of the schools. I don't think it's fair to infer that people don't care about their children's future, simply because they don't complain in the way that you do. They may show their concern in other ways.

Anonymous said...

What IS allowed to go on? Outside of the lack of diversity of ideas. Pretty much a leftist indoctrination, no? But that one-sidedness seems to be what the people who live here want. Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear that respect, for example, is something which needs to be earned, not doled out "equally" to all.

Anonymous said...

Anons 1:39 and 1:40 pm:
agree wholeheartedly with you both. Anon 1:40 pm, will anyone be willing to ask such a question -- it could be seen as a criticism itself. Hopefully one of the school committee members themselves will raise this issue.

Anon 1:44 pm: yes, there are lots of ways to fill in that name box, but I have a feeling that any responses that don't have real names will be immediately discounted.

maybe we could all just write in someone else's name instead of our own. What if everyone who answered the survey wrote the superintendent's name in the box? sure our responses might not get counted, but it might be fun anyway.

Anonymous said...

Graff: What are you talking about? Your piece was incoherent. Is that what you are teaching your children, to be incoherent?

How does it feel?

Anonymous said...

Kelley,

What't matter with your picture taking hand? Do you shake in the presence of the superintendent?

Anonymous said...

some people may show their concerns & dissatisfaction with the schools by moving their children elsewhere for their education. that is a growing trend in the district & I doubt it will abate anytime soon. I have already heard of a number of families whose children will be attending other schools next year partially in response to the changes that are taking place at the middle school next year, including the reduced world language instruction. I have little doubt that once again the projected increases in charter school enrollment for FY2016 will fall short of the actual figures, just as they did this year.

Larry Kelley said...

CAN 2:54 PM

It was a long distant shot (and I never use Photoshop).

Anonymous said...

When you said you have to leave your name, I was worried, but then I realized it's just a field...you can enter anything.

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:24 pm, I am assuming though that if you don't enter a legitimate name though then the survey won't be counted. why else would the name be required?

Anonymous said...

Shoulda used the drone.

Walter Graff said...

Nina, I made no reference to my feelings about Ms Geryk. I made a reference to parents who do little involving the schools. You are great at making assumptions and belive the assumptioms you create in your head. I am one of the parents who is at one Amherst school most days and I find it sad how little most parents get involved. To see the PTO have to beg for folks to even get invoiced with something towards teachers at the end if the year for their hard work is sad. There are some wonderful individuals in the Amherst schools. I hope people take time to send in their thoughts in the survey no matter what the rhink.. I know getting a parent to even fill out a three question survey for the PTO yeilds few returns. You can cheerlead all you want, there are dreams and then there is reality. As an involved parent I see the reality. Most parents are not very involved in the schools beyond making lunch.

Alli McD said...

Funny, I just assumed survey coding ineptitude on their part. The survey itself was basic plug-n-play questionnaire writing, so I find it hard to imagine any ulterior motive for asking for names... The entire thing, including Ms. Geryk's email invitation was so painfully unprofessional, that troubles me more than being required to provide a name.

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone should just ask the superintendent then: will surveys be accepted without names or not? It is hard for me to imagine that with all the highly-paid people working in the central office the requirement that people give their names on the survey was not a deliberate choice, but maybe it was.

Anonymous said...

Why would there be any consequence to leaving your name with a negative review and even more important, what could the consequence even be, what kind of power does the superintendent of schools have over adults in the community?... Is she sleeping with the assessor or something, afraid of higher taxes...

Also, do people actually believe that a survey or its results will change anything?

The survey is like voting for government officials...."here little one, have your say, feel important and then move on so we can do our real important jobs...and remember, when you don't get your way, you had a say, you agreed to not get your way in advance, oh and next year we are going to $21,000 per student, anything for the 'kids' right."

Anonymous said...

How does Graff know know what people write on facebook, he doesn't have a facebook account? Ohhhh, he must stalk people on facebook...

If they allow anonymous surveys to be accepted, how will they know whether the few excessively negative people, like Graff, won't spend two days filling out crappy evaluations? Wouldn't allowing anonymous survey evaluations be "totally bogus from a statistical point of view and a blatant political hack job designed to make the chief look" hated?

Anonymous said...

Alli McD are you Allison Bleyler McDonald?

Anonymous said...

Alli McD:
While I would like to believe that this detail was pure ineptitude, I cannot. History suggests a deliberate attempt to force certain results is the norm when it comes to the Superintendent. Her modus operandus is so brashly self serving that this survey seems natural.
I agree that it is unprofessional. I would say that that is one signature of a senior administrator that has little experience (other than in Amherst), and limited capability.
Time to request she find a job elsewhere!

Anonymous said...

Do we have a DPW worker suffering with Insomnia? Street cleaning in the 6AM hour isn't the best use of their time as It is not a quiet task! I'm sure the whole neighborhood is awake and wondering WTF is that noise!

Anonymous said...

But enough about Me. How about You? What do You think about Me??

Anonymous said...

Not everyone works first shift...

Anonymous said...

When do we get to evaluate the Chief of Police's performance?

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure I would not be allowed to mow my lawn at 6AM-

Street cleaning can definitely be done later in the morning!

Dr. Ed said...

"maybe we could all just write in someone else's name instead of our own. What if everyone who answered the survey wrote the superintendent's name in the box? sure our responses might not get counted, but it might be fun anyway."

Two words: "IP Address"

While it doesn't care who you are, her web server must be able to identify you as the person filling out your copy of the survey -- otherwise it has this data coming in and has absolutely no idea what to do with it.

And if it doesn't both track I addresses and block second surveys, there is nothing (other than personal integrity) to preventing someone from skewing the results by sending in 500 responses. (Or is that the intent here????)

An IP Address is like a phone number, it usually isn't that difficult to figure out who it belongs to, and it is often possible to do this with certainty. (Remember the electrician's son?) And while you can either mask your IP address or make it appear to be one other than what it really is, most folks don't know how...

Hence -- if you are going to tell the truth, don't do it from your own computer or any computer or venue which can be linked to you.

This is just like those totally bogus UMass surveys which claim that students love that purgatorial cesspool and wish to have stricter enforcement of the ETOH regulations. Some of the latter are actually rather humorous -- "you honestly found that UMass students feel that underaged drinking should be punished more harshly than hate crimes?" "Really????"

After trying to intimidate me (didn't work), Sally Linowski really didn't have an answer to that one -- I think that Maria G has taken a page from Linowski's "Community Standards" Charade and the survey results will say that Maria G is the Golden Girl who Walks on Water....

Anonymous said...

"Stalk" is kinda strong...

Anonymous said...

I always loved those 'tell me how I did as a teacher' surveys . As though they for meant to do anything but puff up the teacher's sense of importance. Whatever was done with any of those things? Also those employee self reviews. The boss didn't usually go by mine...

Anonymous said...

Again, what is there to be afraid of if you give her a bad review?

What possible consequence could there be to your or anyone?

Everyone's talking like if she knows who you are that you could end up in jail or something. Please help me understand the "sky is falling" reaction to this process.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:32 pm is obviously Kurt Geryk
He sent Allison a nasty Facebook message moments later
---Sherlock

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:49 pm
Have you lived in this town long? There are definitely repercussions for people who try to question those in authority, including the superintendent. Ask any of a number of former School Committee members or former district employees. Or take a look at the latest post on this blog.

There is a reason that so many people want to stay anonymous when making any criticisms of the powers that be, even when those criticisms are entirely valid.

Anonymous said...

Very simple. The "go along to get along" principle. If you voice views which don't agree with the liberal view, you will be the last one anyone will consider for any promotion, and could well find yourself ostracized. Much easier to be a pod-person. Just like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:39

I consider myself quite liberal. I don't think it is the "liberal view" that causes the problem. "Liberal" in my lexicon means "open to considering the view of others." In Amherst, there a many doctirinaire pseudo liberals who would shout you down because your views differ from theirs or the majority's.

I think the point of this discussion is that the Superintendent is a self serving bureaucrat that will continue to do everything she can to serve herself ever larger shares of the Amherst pie. Clearly she has been successful in her strategy having achieved the highest salary in town despite obvious incompetence.

Why is she there? In my view it was the "doctrinaire liberal" view that we needed to hire someone local even if they had a mediocre record, an irrelevant educational background, and no worldclass experience. By the way, all anyone had to do was to look into her job performance as head of Special Education before she came to her current role to get a sense of what was to come: cronyism, excessive hiring instead of innovation, under-performance, and the propensity to blame others.

The big question is why she is still Superintendent.

Anonymous said...

I have heard liberalism defined as a mental disease, but never as being "open to considering the views of others." I was as liberal as they came in the 60's and 70's, but am stiil in the process of smartening up. Still think the liberal agenda is being foisted on our kids by the schools. But I guess that's a "conversation" for another day.

Anonymous said...

Or yours.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why there was a desire to hire someone local rather than best qualified? Did race enter in?

Anonymous said...

"Maria---i've just met a girl named Maria. And suddenly that name will never be the same to me...." Oh, wait. Sry. Banned. I forgot.

Jackie M'Vemba said...

Does one pronounce the G as in Gary or as in Geritol?