Baseball is a great sport. Think about it. What other sport are you considered great if you fail 70% of the time?

The .300 batting average is what hitters wish to attain. Hit over .300 in a season you did well. Have a lifetime .300 batting average over a career you are considered one of the finest hitters of all time. Of the 18,274 (Including pitchers) players to play Major League Baseball since 1876 only 178 have a lifetime .300 average (Based on 1,000 games played). That is less than 1%!!!!!!!

From the highest, Ty Cobb with a lifetime average of .366 to a lowest .300 on the dot for 11 players, that .300 average is a mark of success.

Even the last player to he .400, Ted Williams in 1941 when he hit .406, failed to get a hit in 60% of his at bats (When I was a kid my dad always said Williams would have hit 800 if he didn't miss 5 years due to military service).

The great Mickey Mantle finished with a career .298 average. Mickey always lamented playing his last two seasons, 1967 and 1968 in which he hit .245 and .237 respectfully (He hit .300 or better 10 times in his career). Take away those two seasons, Mick winds up hitting over .300 lifetime.

The point?

Why is it acceptable for a NYC school to have 80% of it's 5th graders and over 80% of its 3rd graders unable to read or write and then go into middle school where they have no skills at all.

This school? PS 154 in the Bronx, led by that purveyor of all things Lucy Calkin, DR Alison Coviello, Principal and Ed.D, this is what is happening the students on East 135th St in the South Bronx.

These are the scores that came out last week. Of the 57 fifth graders tested at PS 154 31.6% scored a 1 and 54.4% scored a 2. That is over 80% This is acceptable? Yes, 14% scored a 3, but this comes out to only 7.98 students. EIGHT STUDENTS!!!!


In 3rd grade 58 students were tested Of these, 55.2% of the students recieved a 1 and 29.3% a 2. This totals 84% of students out of a class who apparently weren't taught well from K-2 and especially 3rd grade. Again, to be fair, 15.5% received a 3 in 3rd grade, only 8.99 students. NINE STUDENTS!!!

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE IN THE COMMUNITY???

The students and the community of PS 154 are being short changed by a failed writing and reading curriculum brought into PS 154 by DR Alison Coviello; Principal and Ed.d of PS 154 in the Bronx. Can/should DR Alison Coviello; Principal and Ed.d of PS 154 in the Bronx be trusted to impart the right reading and writing program into PS 154 when she has close ties to Lucy Calkins and her failed methodology?

The community of PS 154 needs to know that they can do something. Demand to whomever will listen that an 80 percent failure rate is not acceptable and demand accountability. This is your community, your school, and your children.

Would these scores be acceptable in Scarsdale? HECK NO! How fast would the Scarsdale superintendent clean house? Think about it. So why is it acceptable in the South Bronx?

Because they believe they have a compliant population that will not contradict what they are told and how they are told to think. 

The parents, the community of PS 154, are the only ones capable of taking charge of your child's education. The parents and community are the best and only advocates. But to do this parents must always question what they are told and come up with their own answers.

It is up to the parents and the community to put and end to the NYCDOE allowing a 80% failure rate to be seen as a success. 

If Mickey Mantle had failed to get a hit 80% of the time he would have been a .200 hitter. He would not have lasted in the Majors for 18 years and would not be in the Hall of Fame.

I remember when I was a young lad my dad telling me that if Ted Williams did not have to spend 5 years in the service during his baseball career, that he would have easily hit 800 home runs. If you look at the stats of Williams you could say by dad was exaggerating a bit. But, if you tool what my dad claimed and put Williams playing for the Yankees with that short right field porch. then maybe he would have hit 800 home runs if he did not miss those five years.

My dad was even wiser, but first a little background.
Alison Coviello
In 1969, Teddy Ballgame was named manager of the Washington Senators, now the Texas Rangers. Kind of made sense at the time? The greatest living hitter, one can say he had his doctorate in hitting, managing young ballplayers and imparting his wisdom upon them. Of course the Senators would soon become an American League juggernaut and march through the AL and win pennant after pennant.
Alison Coviello
Williams had one winning record, his first year as manager, and losing records the next 3 years after that. Williams never managed again.
Alison Coviello
Why? Because of what dear old dad had told me. Williams was so great, such a great hitter, that he had impossible expectations that everyone would be as great as him. Also, Williams had no respect for pitchers and did not know how to work and encourage them and constantly spoke down to them.
Alison Coviello
So what you may ask does Ted Williams have to do with education and in particular, PS 154 in the Bronx?
Alison Coviello
Let's imagine, if we can, that Ted Williams was an educator and that Ted Williams came to PS 154 to be its principal. So set your imaginations on the Splendid Splinter in the principal's office.

Ted Williams, who knew everything there was to know about education is a nice thing. But it does not translate into being a leader. Just because someone know a lot about a subject does not mean that person has the leadership qualities and mental capabilities to be a true leader.

A teacher that fails to measure up to the greatness that Ted Williams believes is only reserved for himself as a teacher and a principal is doomed to fail. Teachers set up to fail and incapable of succeeding as long as a someone like Williams is the principal of the school will be blamed by Williams as failed teachers not capable teachers being put in impossible surroundings and situations.

As Ted Williams the baseball player had total dedication, Ted Williams the manager, and now the principal at PS 154 has total dedication. But as Ted Williams the manager could not comprehend the total immersion and dedication of his players, Ted Williams the principal can't comprehend that teachers have outside lives which are equally if not more important.

When saddled with mediocre educators, or at least mediocre in the eyes of Williams -- the sort Williams the perfectionist could not abide by, not only did he lack the leadership qualities to have them rise, he is disdainful of such educators and will conjure up fiction to oust such teachers.

Just remember this, it does not take greatness to be a MLB manager or a NYC principal. Look at the likes of Bobby Cox, Sparky Anderson, Walter Alston, Earl Weaver, Tony LaRussa and many more accomplished managers. None of them could carry Ted Williams' jock.

But Ted Williams, could not carry the jock of so many managers of today and yesterday. What does that tell you?