Why Skyrocket is Bad for Beloit School District
-Giving bonuses to teachers and staff for “strong school-wide culture and proficiency” creates a MASSIVE conflict of interest by incentivizing an environment which does not center on the well-being of the students but the score that teachers get from skyrocket.
-Skyrocket uses an “emotional constancy” rubric on teachers, which forces fake emotional states.
-The proposal will incentivize those fake emotional states in the presence of emotionally developing children.
-The proposal will incentivize strict adherence to time metrics and precise policies over addressing emotional distress of emotionally developing children.
-Teachers in the program feel exhausted, inauthentic, micromanaged, professionally disrespected, and surveilled.
-Many similar effective methods are available online for free without someone looking over our teachers shoulders.
-This board and this superintendent will not be here to do the hard work they admit they are signing up for.
-The extra tech and strangers in our schools create potential danger for our vulnerable immigrant families and others.
-Skyrocket could leak over into the district, corrupting the board
-Skyrockets or the Hendricks foundation could end up with sensitive School board information.
-If it goes badly, it could leave a lasting stain on BSD.
-Its unsustainable and could leave the district literacy scores in worse shape.
-There are no 3rd party research studies that measure Skyrockets success.
-Their coaching is only actively being used in about 60 schools
-Around 240 schools are using their frameworks only, not the full, in depth, on site coaching service that is being pushed here.
-New investigation by HGF reveals familiar M.O. with devastating literacy program implemented in St. Louis Public Schools in the early 2000's.
-Skyrocket has nothing to do with the literacy portion of this proposal, but it is the most expensive part.
-Open Literacy is being coupled with Skyrocket in this unique proposal from the Hendricks foundation, and it has been sold to the public AS a literacy program, which could be viewed as a deceptive move.
-Insisting upon implementation of this program by the fall and balking at waiting a year doesn't seem to be in the spirit of fully informing the community, either.
-Literacy scores are dropping because our families are in economic turmoil, not because of a lack of resources or programs.
LINKS TO OUR RESEARCH ON SKYROCKET
Skyrocket's "Teacher Coaching Manual"
References: “Emotions in Narratives”, Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center: https://medicine.yale.edu/childstudy/services/community-and-schools-programs/center-for-emotional-intelligence/research/current-research/emotions-in-narratives/
“How Social-Emotional Learning Transforms Classrooms”, Greater Good Magazine: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_social_emotional_learning_transforms_classrooms
“The Role of Educators in School-Based Social and Emotional Learning”: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773233925000580
“Modeling Emotional Regulation to Support Students' Growth”: https://www.edutopia.org/article/guiding-students-regulate-emotions-modeling/
“Evidence for Social and Emotional Learning in Schools”: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/evidence-social-emotional-learning-schools-report
“Teachers' Emotions and Emotional Authenticity; Do they Matter to Students Emotional Responses in the Classroom?”: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13540602.2020.1834380
“Surface Acting, Emotional Exhaustion, and Employee Sabotage to Customers: Moderating Roles of Quality of Social Exchanges”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6246630/
“The Impact of Surface acting and Mindfulness on Preschool Teachers' Burnout: The Roles of Emotional Empathy, and Perceived Organizational Support”: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1612015/full
“New Study Shows Emotional Suppression has Negative Outcomes on Children.” https://www.newyorkfamily.com/new-study-shows-emotional-suppression-has-negative-effect-on-kids/
“Editorial: The role of Teachers' Emotions in Students' Outcomes: From the Perspective of Interpersonal Emotions”: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9755833/
“The Social Consequences of Expressive Suppression”: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-02341-008
“Emotional Suppression: Physiology, Self Report, and Expressive Behavior”: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-36668-001
"Beloit School District YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BeloitschoolsOrgNews/featured
Hendricks Family Foundation BSD Core materials: https://hendricksfamilyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/BSD-Pilot-Core-Materials.pdf
BSD - Special Board Meeting Materials: https://hendricksfamilyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01-29-BSD-Special-Board-Meeting-Materials.pdf
Hendricks Family Foundation: https://hendricksfamilyfoundation.org/education/