Posted on 01/19/2007 5:47:08 AM PST by Loud Mime
Is there a bigger scandal in America than the low state of inner-city schools? Oprah Winfrey, utterly frustrated with the problem, last month discussed the $40 million she has spent building the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls--in South Africa. Ms. Winfrey said South African students want to learn, but in U.S. schools, "the sense that you need to learn just isn't there." Where'd it go?
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One measure of the tenure decision for New York City teachers would be their students' test scores. News accounts said the city teachers' union is "certain to fight" linking test scores to tenure. This, too, is among the multitude of correct answers for why students have no incentive to learn in big-city schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
What's that tell you?
Here's a better idea, put them on commission. Pay elementary school teachers a small base and large incentives for each student they pass on with elevated reading and math skills.
For middle school, add civics.
Delete all sex ed as being expensive and properly the province of parents.
For high school, compare the levels of each freshman in the core subjects and pay for each based on competency levels upon entering the next grade, so you pay on net improvement, giving remedial teachers the greatest opportunity for incentive money.
Delete tenure at all educational institutions, we are all temporary-get used to it.
If salesmen were compensated like teachers, we'd have the best certified, laziest profession around. The country would be in a perpetual state of economic depression.
Delete tenure. I agree. We are all subject to removal for doing "a lousey job". Teachers are exempt, why??
I think my suggestion would improve the performance of the average teacher while chasing the lazy and lame outof the profession.
This bonus plan caused the test scores of low income black students to increase by 17% in one year. So naturally, the teachers unions are against it.
I'm convinced that our education system focuses on having nice jobs instead of taking the educational problem by the horns.
Having a high school diploma used to mean something.
Going to college meant that you spoke a foreign language.
What the edu-pros have done is terrible.
When I was in college I could tell who the tenured professors were. They were different from the professors who took their jobs to heart.
Good points.
Moreover, I believe that all members of congress should be paid out of the government surplus. No surplus, no pay.
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