Many people in the country believe that America's schools are in trouble. Census data shows that only about 85% of Americans over 25 have a high school diploma. That's a big number but it also means that 15% do not and that represents 45M people without even a rudimentary education. Add some evidence that even those with high school diplomas lack the necessary skills to read a newspaper, fill out a job application, or interpret information gleaned from TV news. College admission officers regularly complain that they are spending the first year in college teaching freshmen what they should have learned in high school.
The US response has been to establish "accountability" for the schools by setting up systems of high-stakes testing aimed at finding those schools which are not performing according to the state standards. They have not addressed such issues as adequate school funding, parental involvement in the education process, or a lack of standardization across the various states.
This is a complex issue involving funding, shifts in cultural values in the U.S. and one of the most Byzantine regulatory environments in the world.
What *is* the problem with America's schools?
What can we do to fix public education?
my parents spent a lot of their time teaching me things. They were involved. These days people spend more time teaching their pets how to roll over and play dead, then blame the PS because their kid who spends his/her life planted in front of the Tv cant think out a single problem.
My view ... parenting is lacking big time.
PS is meant to be a guide not an end all.
First, there has to be a rapport and understanding of expectations between the teacher - student - parents or care takers. If a child is brought up in a home that is chaotic and unsupportive of the child's success as a student, it is nearly impossible to have child learn and retain the info conveyed.
There has to be different methods of teaching to reach children and students. Some teaching methods are antiquated and uninteresting. This generation embraces technology so why use it to present the swubject material?
Discipline issues must be dealt with immediately. A child going to school is no different than an employee going to work. A hostile work environment is not tolerated in the workplace and nor should a learning environment be any different. Parents must be held accountable and if nothing else...truly problem children should be sent to a reform school. Parents must also be made to provide better support and parenting.
Education should be year-round so that students retain the info they learn versus having to review and catch up when the new year starts.
I also disagree with tenured school teachers. Job security is based on performance and not guaranteeing job security not based on results.
Public education can be successful if there is an agreement or contract which outlines expectations. For those students not able to perform due to circumstances beyound their control or intentionally choosing to be a trouble-maker, they have to be separated and reconditioned. Students who do not get educated and skilled because a statistic....either a sponge on the taxpayers, a criminal, or a mental case.
Betsy Luther - Mobile, AL
Support Unity '08
My beloved grandson, Brandon is 11 years old. His home situation is deplorable and my son is desperately seeking residential custody.
Meantime - Brandon is floundering in school - they just promoted him to 6th grade - but I'm not sure he learned anything in 5th. His teachers and guidance counsellors are aware of the chaos in his home - yet he receives no "special" or "at risk" benefits.
Brandon aspires to go to college and become a professional (right now it's a doctor) - he's going to need a big assist in getting his grades up this year and I cannot imagine where to turn.
There needs to be an alternative in every school for kids in Brandon's situation that will not place them in a classroom filled with violence and ignorance. He's a bright boy but gets no motivation or support at home .. he wants to go live with his dad and new baby sister. K - University paid for by the government like in England is the answer to this. His mother will never be in a position to pay for his college education.
To whom may my son turn to get someone to assist him is saving Brandon from his mother and brothers
Help me please!
Noo! I don't know how great of an idea that is. Yes, it is true that kids can forget some of the material over summer break, but another plan ought be suggested. Kids look forward to few things. Summer vacation, or a vacation is one of them. And I'm not just some stupid kid who is saying for the sake of summmer vaca. I say it because kids freak out with school. School is the main point of stress, homework due dates, societal stress, since you are always around these certain people, and if you aren't at the the "top" of the social pyramid, you may get beaten down alot by these people. When summer comes, you don't have to see them for about 3 months. Without summer, I think there just might be more teen suicides. Think of a better idea :)
When I worked on my doctorate, in several classes we had debates on what the heck is the real problems with education, public and private. The general consensus of our small group (I forget how many - less than 20 I think!) is the problems, not symptoms which everyone seems to want to treat by throwing money at education, are real and fair educational accountability. And this starts with those in charge of education who fight to the death the implemntation of "accountability" and identifyfing and rewarding higher performers! We also agreed that developing, implementing, and maintaining real and fair accountability and reward processes will not be easy, and will have multiple difficulties. It will not be perfect and there will be errors made. But, heck that is life in general! I am retired now. In my 20+ years in private industry and 24+ years in government, there was always some errors and unfairness. However, that does not mean accountability and rewards for quality performance should not exist in public and private education.
Did anyone in your debate have proof of poor educators? Or, were you guys just spouting off at the mouth like the radio talk show hosts who get so many facts wrong but don't really seem to care (Rush Limbaugh is a perfect example, but there are many more). How does an educator give any type of meaningful presentation of material and evaluation of student work with over thirty students in a section and, sometimes, more than eighty students to evaluate at any given time. I doubt that you had to face anything as overwhelming and depressing as that in private industry. How do you hold a teacher accountable for an untenable situation? Your analysis is cheap and based on a specious argument. The consensus you reached seems based on no real evidence or understanding of the nuances involved in the topic. How many of your group investigated education? How many understood the student-teacher ratio? How many supplied any evidence that could be corroborated, or where they just supplying personal anecdotes that they passed off as evidence? Come on, let's have real debates with real information.
--Think also of the comfort and rights of others
If the schools were run in a way to promote jobs rather than promote diversity, the kids would benifit more. I mean why do rich kids get better schooling than poor kid? The solution is to make all schools public and then allow the students a chance to succeed. This solution would then make the tech-students go to tech school and the bright students go to advanced schools and the regular students proceed as into their careers.
Is the problem bad parents, poor parents, poor schooling, religion itself, etc.? but the government and the teachers should guide our kids better!?
Start giving our young - and not so young "the desire to learn" !!
popo
...This piece by John Stossel. Good stuff.
It seems to me that our educational system as it was once conceived, no longer exists. The idea of educations at its core, for lack of a better phrase is, “knowledge is power”. However in today’s world, education is: a political position, a career, a day care center, a social club, a fund raising institution, a place for social engineering.
When my father went to school in the 1930’s school was place for one thing; collage preparation. My father’s primary education focused on three critical learning areas: reading, writing and arithmetic. Stuff like music and sports were a privilege.
The answers as I see it are:
1 Breakup all school districts to less than 50,000 students each
2 Give the State the power of oversight and return core curriculum decisions to the local Districts.
3 Limit the three “R” to reading books, sentence structure and boring repetitive math skills.
4 Eliminate tenor.
5 Eliminate all grades based on age, but be age appropriate.
6 No student graduates until they have passed a 12th grade competency test. Even if the student is 40years old or we have to educate the student in prison.
I propose “No child can escape education”.
And who will be responsible? All of us: The Government Leaders, State Superintendents, Administrators, Union Leaders, Educators, Parents and Students. Completing a 12th grade education is (in my opinion) an idea as critical to our future as Constitution it’s self.
My proposed #6 is not meant to mean, minors or adults will go to jail if they do not graduate. What I meant was: if you wish to remain in school as an adult until you graduate, we as a society will continue to educate you even if you are 40years old. Conversely, if you wish to drop out if school on your 18th birthday and find your self incarcerated down the road, we as a society will educated you in prison.
That piece Dan linked to makes an interesting point. I guess our school system is pretty socialistic. We certainly need to make schools more capitalist in some way or another (local control should work). "Encouraging competition" in the system as it is right now will not fix the system.
If all else fails we can make it legal for parents to go and "instruct" teachers who are not performing well. :) yes, that's a joke..
News flash--the schools are currently controlled locally. Charter schools (the privatization that I imagine you would support) have been largely hit-and-miss. Again, the real problem in the PS lies in teacher-student ratio and an untenable work load for teachers trying to evaluate upwards to eighty students at a time. You could not do a good job of that; nobody could.
--Think also of the comfort and rights of others
For the first hundred years the government did not provide education in America. During this period our literacy rate was 96%. Now that the government runs most of our schools what is our literacy rate? It's time for separation of school and state. Check out www.sepschool.org/ for more information.
Your facts are dead wrong. In the South alone, at the time of the Civil War, many Americans were illiterate. Here is some proof for you: "Where northerners recognized the benefits of an educated work force for their growing manufacturing economy, agriculturally oriented southerners rejected compulsory education and were relcutant to tax property to support schools..... For most whites, the only available schools were private. White illiteracy thus remained high in the South as it declined in the North."--from "The Enduring Vision: A History fo the American People", Paul S. Boyer, Clifford Clark, et. al. 2024
According to the CIA World Factbook, 99% of Americans are literate; we are the most lierate country in the world. We are also the most educated country in the world.
The government involvement in education was needed to gain compulsory education across the country in the face of strong opposition from elite southerners. The problem today is that local politicians on school boards run the show. They pay administrators great sums of money to keep them quite and happy while teachers are forced to attempt to teach in overcrowded classrooms.
Get your facts straight! Find good sources to corroborate facts. Stop spreading disinformation.
---Think also of the comfort and rights of others
I went to school in the ghetto. There were 50 to 60 children in every class. Up to 80% could have gone to college. We could all read and write at a college level in 8th grade. However that was 1968 and I went to a catholic school. The public schools were failures back then and have never improved. Since you feel that you have all the facts to defend this abject failure. The teachers are incompetent, The unions run the school system. Every teacher and administrator should be fired and only rehired after they could pass a competency exam. While you are demanding facts from others, please explain the need for over half of the graduates from a public school, that go off to college, need remedial math and reading.
I went to public school, and yes the math and english programs are complete shit (excueses my french), but it true. I'm still trying to improve my writing skills to this day, if they spent more time on this in school I'm sure I wouldn't have to work so hard now.
Although I will say reading 4-5 books a month is a great help. Maybe the need to choose more books that intrest the students to get them involed instead of telling to read the most boaring books in the world. Although that would be tough to pull off.
As for math, I have no answers there.
------http://www.myspace.com/sketical_believer OR zappafication@hotmail.com------
------PROPS 4 BUDDHA------
Mike has asserted that "For the first hundred years the government did not provide education in America. During this period our literacy rate was 96%."
Can I ask, respectfully, that you define these terms and provide evidence to support these claims?
One might also respectfully point out that the Alliance for the Separation of School and State is not an unbiased organization. (See http://www.home-school.com/news/drdobson.html for Focus on the Family founder James Dobson's statement in support.)
Take two dozen children from different ethnic, cultural, economic and religious backgrounds. They come with a variety of language, academic or social skills but try to ignore things like visual impairment, lack of motor skills or things like autism. You may improve their skills and enrich their lives but if they don't meet the standard you have failed as a teacher. I think I might head for Iraq before I would face the challenge of an American classroom.
I see in an earlier post someone said the litercay rate was 96% before they government got involved. Since they are talking about the early years of our country I doubt they included (forgive the terms) indians or slaves. I doubt the validity of the figure but then I was still a boy when Abe was president.
Before I get to anything else, I just have to get this off my chest. I live in California. Depending on which figures you look at, we have (roughly) a 48% high school dropout rate. FORTY-EIGHT PERCENT. And our State Legislature is debating....Should our schools (we're talking K-12 here) be teaching the gender orientation of historical personages. I watched them on CSPAN and thought my head would explode.
My degree is in Psychology, and the only diagnosis I could come up with was: These people are barking mad.
Reading is key. Testing is important. But the critical item is remediation. When a kid falls behind, they've got to be caught _quickly_, before they have a chance to become permanently convinced they can't succeed. That will take aides or tutors, afterschool programs, and coordination with parents.
The earlier comment about parents being involved is on target as well, but the relationship between school and parent has to be a collaborative one. And it also has to be realistic. Schools need to make it possible for parents to contact them, realizing that quite a lot of parents are in jobs that don't allow them to make long phone calls during the middle of the day.
Our school has already lost P.E. and next year, will not have a librarian. They are also eliminating the music program and visual arts program from lack of funding.
My son struggled in math, and could not comprehend what he was being taught. And, quite frankly, either could my husband or I. When we were kids, math was taught in simple steps, and required mass memorization. His teachers explained that they were required to teach math in the "new math" format, with boxes and grids.
As soon as I began working with my son at home, teaching him the old fashioned way of memorization, carrying, and borrowing, he began excelling. I don't understand what is going on in schools today.
It's high time the administrators stop making so much money. We do not need business school graduates heading our school systems, but teachers who have been promoted through the system, and support common sense lesson plans.
Obviously, the kids aren't learning what they should be. With administrators making less, maybe their will once again be money for music, art, P.E., and a librarian.
Thanks for leaving all the kids behind, Bush.
"I don't understand what is going on in schools today"
You have hit upon the reason for problems in education in your response. Class sizes make it difficult to impossible for teachers to give struggling students the type of attention they need. You sitting down one-on-one with your son is the type of attention that is needed. How many students are in your son's math class? How many classes does that one teacher teach? When a teacher must cram thirty to thirty-five students into a classroom and teach five to six sections of that size, it is impossible not to allow students to fall through the cracks. Demand smaller class sizes from the school board. That is the key to improving education. When they give you an average class size, delve a little into it and see if they are including speacial ed classes and small-sized honors classes. Go into school and count the number of students in your son's classes. I am sure you will find it to be upwards toward thirty or thirty-five. This is an untenable situation for the teacher to do what he/she really desires to do which is teach at high level to each student.
Think also of the comfort and rights of others
I forgot to mention in my previous post that the Christian church in our town is encouraging parents to pull their kids out of the public school system and promoting home schooling. With less kids in the system, less money comes along.
While I do not discriminate against anyone's religion, we must be realistic. I live in a neighborhood where two households of children (both of which attend the above named church) are home schooled.
My son's friend is 8, and should be in the same grade as my boy. He came over to his birthday party last week, and could not participate in some of the games we played, simply because he couldn't read. This 8 year old can't read, but can recite any Bible verse you mention to him.
The other kids across the street are 13 and 16. The 16 year old is the 13 year old's teacher. I don't know who teaches the 16 year old, but she did not know the difference between Greenland and Iceland. I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is legal.
Can someone clear it up for me?
I don't think that we should be funding your school to major in music, art, and PE. If we're spending $250,000 per class room, i think its ok to expect more of a student than to blow on a saxaphone, make a ceramic candy dish, and can do 2 chin ups.
"I'm sorry, but I don't see how this is legal. Can someone clear it up for me?"
I'll try. This is America, the land of the free. If some brain dead parent believes that scripture is all one needs in this world.. then so be it. It's their right and privilege .. and none of your business. It's part of evolution and its clear that this family's chain will dead ended in 2 generations.
When parents have the option to choose what school their children attend, when teachers and administrators know that their future depends on the good will of parents who have a choice, it is almost magical the difference in attitude and effort.
It is not necessary to allow massive migrations from failing schools. The prospect of even small migrations is enough to provide the necessary motivation to excel.
Meanwhile it is crucial that teachers have the support they need to do their job. And disruptive or dangerous students must be separated, if they cannot be encouraged to participate.
Finally, resegregation is a disaster, and needs to be reversed. There are ways to accomplish this without burdensome legislation.
This idea that we can make schools better by ignoring the fact that teachers in low performing schools are overwhelmed by student-teacher ratios as high as thirty-five to one, and all of the problems that walk into the school door from terrible home environments, is silly. The voucher system, or school choice system has not worked where it has been intiated (check out Milwaukees failure). It does not help the school in trouble to allow those who can manage to gain transportation to other schools to flee and leave the less privileged to suffer. The real problems in public education are class size and the local politics of the school boards.
Think also of the comfort and rights of others
The initial posting of this topic addresses funding, parents and standards. What about the quality of the teachers?
The teachers I had growing up were dull and uninspiring, but most of them knew their subjects. That doesn't seem to be the case so much any more, especially in math and sciences, where our PSs are falling so short by comparison to the rest of the world.
Further, every K-12 teacher I've ever met talks about loving their career because they get the whole summer off. Think about that: what they love most about their job is not doing it for a significant part of the year. What does that tell you about their mindset when they are on the job?
Competition among students and among teachers is essential. Both have to be allowed to fail. And in the event of failure, there must be quick consequences. The kids can't wait!
I have to call BS here. You are making totally unsubstantiated accuasations. You can say you have talked to anyone. I would like to know which teachers love their jobs because they get the summer off. I teach. I have to supplement my income with work over the summer. During the ten months that I am teaching I have to bring home work every night. Many nights my colleagues and I are up until two in the morning grading in order to return work to students in a timely fashion. Try evaluating sixty high school essays some time. And, I am lucky because I work in a private school that limits the class sizes and amount of sections that I teach. My colleagues in the public schools often have to deal with thirty to thirty-five students per section and five to six sections. Remember, a teacher's job does not begin with the morning bell and end with the dismissal bell. What we do in the classroom is only a part of the job. We must prepare, teach, evaluate, and discuss various situations with parents and students. Your criticism about teachers is unsuppoted and unfounded. I think you are full of it.
Think also of the comfort and rights of others
I will say not all teacher are horrible. When I was in school some teachers were great, they would get the whole calss involed and get every student to think about the lesson. Most of the teacher I had though just seemed to be going through the motions, just like their students. Probally a prolem of public schools.
In reality it all depends on who is doing the teaching, maybe their should be a better screening processe to become a teacher.
On the whole I do believe every teacher means well.
------http://www.myspace.com/sketical_believer OR zappafication@hotmail.com------
------PROPS 4 BUDDHA------
In many areas of the country teacher give up 50 to 100% of thier summers as well for what is called 'in service' work and/or continuing education credits. I have spent many evenings with teaching friends when the venue was popcorn, good company, and grading papers. It is very easy for people outside of primary and secondry education to avoiding seeing how many hours of a working day the teacher is doing paper and accounting work for the school administrators that denys them the time to complete the student related work until they get home. I'm not a teacher, I'm a retired engineer, but I know my contemporaries on the job would not have stood for it.
Bill"for what we are together"
bill713.unity08@sbcglobal.net
What you have observed is true. Its the result of 2 decades of affirmative actions, feminine agendas, policical correctness, agressive sports jocks,soccer moms union power struggles, money grabs, political hacks, and democratic ward controls. The decay of our educational system reached critical mass about 4 years ago .. and is on a uncontroled downward spiral that probably can not be corrected at this late date due to the power of the entrenched elites.
The real problem with public education lies in the massive student-teacher ratio. School districts hide this by averaging in the very small speacial ed classes and honors classes to make the ratio look manageable. The reality is that most public school teachers are dealing with too many students and sections at one time to do anything substantial. School boards are full of politics (local politics) that is why we have recently seen the call for intelligent design and an attempt to degrade the theory of evolution in the face of its overwhelming evidence. The true problem is that education has become a political football and no one wants to examine the real problem of class sizes and grading loads. I struggle to teach the interpretive essay in my history classes to about sixty students. My colleagues in the public schools are resigned to assigning boring, uninspired scan tron tests because it is impossible for them to teach critical thinking to ninety students, many of them from families that have not had the privilege of attending and graduating college. Don't give me your BS analysis of education without any real verifiable accounts. It is no wonder you submit your thoughts anonymously.
Think also of the comfort and rights of others
Not all homeschooling is poorly done, nor is religion the only reason that some parents prefer to homeschool their children. I have shopped on ebay for teaching materials for my child to use over summer vacation, and some of the better quality books are those for homeschooling. I am not a strong proponent of homeschooling, but I have met some parents who have chosen this course because their public school choices were poor, and they wanted their childrent to learn more than the public schools were providing.
In other cases I suspect that 'homeschooling' translates to 'no schooling'. This is a threat to our society. Pakistan is stuggling with its radical Islamist schools. These schools reportedly are more focused on intolerance and hatred of other cultures than they are on educating children. I do not know what the answer is, but most of us subscribe to the notion that every citizen has the right to have as many children as they like and to mess them up quite a bit, although at some point, neglect and child abuse may cause the police to step in.
As far as home schooling draining money from the system, well, yes there are fewer students, and fewer dollars spent if a fixed amount is spent per student. But if the state spends a constant amount, instead of cutting back funds, then there is more money per student, and a better student:teacher ratio. So perhaps the problem is more in the way the state chooses to spend money, than it is in whether or not some children do not attend public school.
The most obvious way to improve education, demonstrated here and in many other countries, is to increase the hours of instruction and parental involvement (which is more hours of instruction, helping their children with their homework).
Perhaps we should start with some public service announcements. I remember the ones against drugs. How about some public service announcements that are for homework, study, getting ahead? Interview adults who goofed off in school and have them explain how now they wish they had learned; adults that are taking nightschool and have lousy jobs, no jobs, or are in prison. When I look around at some of my neighbors, their children (some are illiterate teenagers who have not gone to school), and think how I live in a 'good' middle class neighborhood, I think that these people need public service announcements. Lots of them. And whatever else can be be done to energize them into teaching their kids.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sketch
Thank you A. Sullivan-Greiner,
I totally agree with your diagnosis. Although I think the actual diagnosis is Undifferentiated Schizophrenia. But I digress.
With you permission I wish to address your emphasis on “Remediation”.
My prospective is that remediation (trying to catch kids up that fall behind) is still the old-school thinking. The false thinking here is this: A 12 year old should be in 7th grade and should move forward regardless of his or her environmental, physical and mental development. I believe this leads to a social belief, that if a12 year olds is not in 7th grade we have failed. So what do we do? That’s right, we spend millions of needless dollars on programs to help these “at risk kids”. When in all actuality, we need to give the kids a little more time with the subject to let the brain comprehend it. The need to push kids through school from grade to grade predicated on their age has created a social neurosis.
If you read below this post, you will see my proposal. My proposal below is specific to a person’s ability to learn not their chronological age. Some kids are ready to do the 3-R’s before preschool. Some kids are not ready for 3-R’s until they are of 2nd grade age. Remediation is not the answer. Educating to the growth of the brain is the answer. We all know that every kid learns most everything at a different time and different rate. Each discipline should be taught separately and regardless of chronological age. I believe in some cases gender and physiological issues may be taken into consideration as well.
I believe we must think outside the box. Yes, maybe the time is right for the separation of school and state but all my proposals below will still apply. We as a society can change the laws to teach children correctly.
Because I am not a professional educator or statistician I have no data to back up my beliefs. However, being a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, 14 years of primarily education (K-12) and a dyslexic, I think I know what I am talking about. I challenge those that have access to the data; prove me wrong. I think the current situation (tragedy) of the California school system and Los Angeles Unified School District speaks volumes.
And for those of you that are laughing at California right now, I caution you. The reason our school system is in the proverbial toilet, is be cause of huge money that comes into the state via taxes. The politicians can’t keep their money grabbing hands off our kids’ money. Be warned, there is an addicted politician coming to your neighborhood soon.
Education as a institution must change. All aspects of education require evolution in ways that will increase the rate in which our children are educated and how our teachers are utilized. We must redirect funds toward laptops and automation and away from instituions, schoolbuses and the educational bureaucracy. If we don't upgrade our education process the enemy will become the upper class and we the lower.
Earn Snyder wants to kill the job. Earn, what about all the union bus drivers, union maintenance staff, union teachers, union construction workers that want to keep building and remodeling, and the federal union staff at the dept of education who spend $46 billion on .. well that part i havn't figured out yet.. but i know they must be spending it on something.
Hi Greg:
(I hope I can call you Greg)
While I would still debate federal vs. state vs. private oversight,
I agree with your 5 other statements.
On the subject of eliminating age based grades, and a 12th grade
competency test, I’d like to propose the following for discussion:
12th grade is too late to find out the kid can’t read.
You should be advancing through these competency
tests at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 12th.
Let’s replace age-based grades with multi-age classes that the
students would have the same teacher over multiple years.
When you pass the 2nd grade competency completion
exam, you move on to the next multi-age classroom
the next day.
I’d also propose a year round school year, scattered with
a few week off breaks. I admit that every teacher I know
(and some I am related to) would want to quit the profession
without all that time off. But, we can’t deny the negative
effect of the summer brain atrophy. And one more month
before going on to the next competency level class could
make a world of difference to that student’s education.
Replying to Greg Glover, John Patrick Scully, and Sketch: Bravo to the lot of you!
About remediation: If you're doing it right, that's where you find out about what the brain is doing. Then you adjust the teaching so that you can pitch the material at the 'catchable' angle. _Then_ you can progress. It's not just a question of repeating what they didn't get the first time. So I do appreciate the point Greg is making, and it speaks to my earlier point about requiring more before/afterschool programs, tutors, and so on, because to do it right, it has to be pretty individualized. On the up side, if you catch things early, and remediate them well, then you don't have problems that go on forever.
I also think John has a point in his multi-age/grade classroom idea. Although I do think you'd want to limit that to some extent: say a K-3 cluster, a 4-6 cluster, a 7-9 cluster, and a 10-12 cluster. (Purely because the psychological and social development comes into play as well.) BUT...talk about enlisting peer support and peer pressure!
And Sketch, I just LOVE your idea about public service announcements from adults who goofed off in school! Most of my students are just that. (For the record, the rest are high school or college students, or professors who need their books edited.) For the most part, they are in low-end jobs, and they want their kids to do better. The two things I find consistently are that they have a problem reading (for a variety of reasons,) and that they don't know how to find information they don't have, or analyze it when they get it.
Greg: "Undifferentiated Schizophrenia" (lol!)...Eh, you can e-mail me (psyctutor@leapmail.net) and we can argue differential diagnosis!
Productivity by enhancing each individual working in the education process. Whether they be the teacher or administration. Transportation and maintenance staff are trained in servicing the new computer servers and the related file and software oversight to keep the systems running or work in the private sector. Public education is not the place for unproductive process and procedure. If any institution needs to be state of the art it should be education....
I believe that we should turn our education system over to Walmart. Walmart not only bring the price of education down .. but instill quality as well. I would much rather see a walmart sign over my local high school than the name of a hack politician.
Education is like losing weight- to lose bodyfat you must eat right and you must exercise. Ignore one of the two- you may make some progress albeit slower. To do well academically, both teachers and parents must be involved. To expect a school to do miracles without parental involvement is calling for a very slow progress.
I am 84 years old and retired. I spent over 28 years in the educational system and what I see in today’s schools is terrifying!
I have this to suggest and it will not be accepted in many quarters. But, these points must be considered if the Public Education System 1s to be improved.
First and foremost! Forget political correctness! Many of our educational problems exist due to politics and cannot be cured unless we change our concepts! If the Public education system is to ever improve, several steps must be taken that are now taboo. Here are a couple of examples:
1. Students should be divided into 3 groups according to their abilities, in the early grades. Fast, normal and slow learners. Those who have a natural ability to advance are punished and impeded by holding them back. The slow learner does not get the proper attention and often shows up as a dropout in later years. By having separated groups, all students are allowed to progress faster and with more confidence. AND - That’s important! . Those with the ability to advance a faster rate move ahead and not held back by slower students, those in the middle progress at their rate and the slow groups are allowed more specific personalized attention. We have long had methods to determine these groupings. This method was widely used in the US Military and in some public school systems until the Civil Rights Act was passed. Then, categorizing students was considered discrimination and discontinued.
2. We need National Standards! Why should 12 grades of students in one part of the Country be taught different than in other parts? A set of Objectives for each of the 12 grades should be approved with the testing instruments to prove that they have been achieved. A set of standard text books, work books and what ever tools are necessary to achieve the objectives , should be used by every grade in every school in the Nation.
3. Although this is a very unpopular subject, - Teachers must be evaluated - and only those who meet National Standards, be allowed in the classrooms!
Teachers and others in the education field produce the most valuable product in the entire World! - Our next generation of Citizens, some who will be deciding the future of our Communities, the Nation and the World!
In addition to educational requirements for a teacher to qualify to teach a specific class, they should be evaluated on the quality of the student who leaves their care!
Such things as:
a. How many students achieve 100%, 90%, 80% and below 70% of each of the objectives for the course on the final testing program.
b. When looking at the objectives they taught, which had the lowest scores?
c. Was remedial and/or additional training given to the teacher in the areas of lowest scores?
d. A lack of improvement should be grounds for dismissal
In short, a constant evaluation of every teacher, to maintain their proficiency is a must!
The Public Educational System is a production function much like all others who create a final product. Except, - This is the most important product of all! It's a human being, who will determine the future of our society!
If we want to improve the quality of our educational system, we must not be controlled by political correctness! Religious, ethnic, and regional profiling cannot be allowed to interfere with the quality of educating our young people.
I like this mans thinking
------PROPS 4 BUDDHA------
1. Too many uninspired, weak and unqualified principals and teachers;
There should be standardized tests with no race norming for all education administrators; forget the quota system and hire the most-qualified.
2. Reduce the number of local and state education administrators who earn six figure salaries which takes away from the classroom budget.
3. Stop blaming the federal government for local problems
4. Institute strong discipline in the classroom; three strikes and you are out. Forget about PC.
5. No one graduates without passing a basic skills test.
6. Take the special ed kid out of the classroom and give them appropriate instruction with special ed teachers.
7. In summary give the good decent kids a chance by removing the distractions from the classroom. More money is useless without correcting these problems.
Congrats to Unity08. I'm hoping that immigration will be a top concern as it is with the people.
You see, eduction and many other problems are intertwined. California Department of Education shows K-12 is 47% Hispanic and 11% Asian. As this flood of immigrant children occurred over the past 25-plus years, state went from best in country to 48th. Only 21% of 4th graders are proficient in reading.
What a miserable future for business, our children, our democracy! CA Dept of Finance projects 18 million more Hispanics at current rates from 2024 to 2024.
Cheap labor is stealing our kids' education. Coming to other states soon unless House bill prevails.
www.slowcaliforniagrowth.com facts
Parental Involvement. One school district's NCLB report card showed 97% of students were represented at parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level, by middle school it was 60% and by high school it was down to a mere 27%. Why are parents not involved, even at a rudimentary level, in their children's education during the crucial adolescent years? Why do parents decide that by the age of 14 children are able to self-motivate and sink or swim on their own in school? Where are the parents? Schools complain that parents aren't involved, but parents complain that schools are not open to their involvement. Obviously there is a huge miscommunication happening. I believe it is happening in the bureaucracy that bogs down most progress.
Schools are asked to teach "character" traits like citizenship, responsibility, honesty, kindness, etc. These are all values that should be taught in the home. These are the real extras in education, not music, art, and P.E. Schools spend money to develop and implement character education and educators are subjected to professional development on how to teach character rather than the core subjects needed.
Have you ever tried to correct a problem that your child has with a school official? It's speaking to a computer generated progam! Return schools to the local level and let parents have at it. I've read some excellent ideas here!
Comments aobut the partcipation of parents in their childrens education and the teaching of core values in the home so the schools can concentrate on acedemics, ignore the fact that a majority of homes now are either single parent or have 2 working parents. Until we adapt, as a society, to a simpler lifestyle, find better ways to support single parents, and learn to value education over entertainment, the kids will continue to fend for themselves and schools will continue to be subsidized day care.
I am replying to the comment Anonymous made about our school loosing funding for Music, Art, PE and the LIBRARY. You said that my school should not major in music, art or chin-ups, but you did not address the lack of a LIBRARIAN.
Studies show that kids do better in Math and Reading when they are involved in Music and Arts programs. They certainly do not MAJOR in any subject in Elementary school, and with obesity in America at massive, MORBID rates, PE twice a week could prevent a young death of many of today's youth. Music and art twice a week, is certainly not taking away from the reading, writing, math, history or science programs in the school.
How can the children be excited about reading with no Librarian? I take my kids to the public library, but realistically, how many other parents actually do?
I am all for year round schooling. We are the only industrialized nation without it. Summer breaks were created to let children work on the farm. How many kids live on a farm nowadays?
Charter schools are a great idea as well, but I'm uncomfortable at the religious schools that will prosper with public funding. There is and should always be a separation of Church and State, and schools that agree to be Charters need to realize that they are accepting public money and can no longer preach any one religion.
In our school, there are two different types of classrooms. The kids who learn easily and excel in most subjects are placed in a traditional classroom grade to grade. The children who need extra help and attention, as well as those who are far beyond their grade level, are placed in a Multi-Age classroom, where they can advance in the areas they know, and get the extra help they need in the subjects that they find difficult.
The Junior High and High School teachers love this program, and have extended it in their own way into the secondary system. We have a 96% graduation rate in our town, compared to a 76% graduation rate in the nearest city.
American schools are just as messed up as the American Healthcare system, in which I work. It's going to take radical ideas in both to bring any amount of change. I'm so glad to see that so many people care about changing it.