Posted on 10/21/2004 6:17:28 PM PDT by mlmr
I have had to place some of my children in the local government schools. I am keeping the school on a fairly short leash and spend more than the usual amount of time talking to school employees.
Every school employee except for the busdriver has, each time we have spoken togher, has put in a POINTED slam of the No Child Left Behind program. All of them. All the time. One employee told me that I had to provide a reason and a note when the child is missing for a day...becasue No Child Left Behind requires it. Althoug friends in other districts deny thier schools requiring any such thing. And I certainly know that this is a FEDERAL mandate since the speakers all refer to this issue.
Is this a NEA or state union push. It is very effective for on a one to one basis with all parents during the teacher meetings this year, which are mostly held before the elections, parents are being told that the present administration is screwing up their child.
Any other government school parents experiencing this???
I am sorry I was not clear. What really fried me is that they said it was a NCLB requirment but other districts are not doing this.
That would be YOUR daughter... not our daughter. lol
I don't disagree with you. I think the Dept. of Education should be dismantled and that the federal government should get out of the education business altogether.
My daughter has also had speech problems and is very shy. She's a twin, and she has always mainly played with her twin sister. Last year, she finally started really making friends. I really think that recess is important for her social and speech development.
I can make it all legal, and I think I will. She's has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), and I think that I will add a goal that states that she will not be taken out of recess.
How timely! Just today I received a "To the Parents of: " note from the PTA. Well, goodness gracious, they have checked their records and found that I have not joined the PTA! They would like to encourage me to do so, as my child and his classroom teacher might get some goodies if I do.
The note I wrote back borders on unpleasant.
On the other hand without an Education program Bush is toast and the NEA has NEVER endorsed a republican, loves all things Clintoon and is one huge mutha of a lobby.
Yep. Federal funding inevitably results in a one-size-fits-all approach, and generally has negative unintended consequences. This program will be no different; accountability is encouraged when funding comes at the local level.
Our district San Jose Unified in California is having budget problems and they are looking at closing schools.
Now, one of the schools in the district did poorly on testing. I forget what they do to failing schools.
Our wonderful district is not going to close the failing school, they are threatening to close my kids' school which is a national blue ribbon school with good test scores.
I think that makes a whole lot of sense.
The NEA and teacher unions are getting very nervous about the "accountability" aspect of No Child Left Behind which was really authored by Ted Kennedy and his mob. The penalties for "non compliance" are severe and mandates actions beyond the control of local school officials and teachers. Parents have the absolute power in their schools, should not accept arbitrary rules/actions by school officials. Blaming No Child Left Behind has been preached by the NEA and teacher unions for their failures over the past two generations. And, yes, my wife and daughter are teachers in a public schools, both schools out of corrective action.
We try to find out what the "goodies" are, and we buy them for the whole class instead. We have several pizza parties to do this year.
...which might allow the more conservative educators to present UNrevised information.
(I couldn't see the picture.)
thanks for the explanation although i completely understand how things are working (or not) within a school district.
now let's consider what happens across school districts but within a given state. states must now pour money into school districts that have lower performing students. generally speaking, higher performing students come from middle class and upper middle class families and these families are paying a lot of local taxes for their schools. lower performing students come from lower classes of families, and these families pay little in local school taxes. no slam against them, it is just that they are not as well off and tend to reject the only taxes that they can vote on.
the state thus puts more money in the school districts with lower performing students. the problem is that genetics is left out of the equation. smarter parents tend to have smarter children. further, in a free society, smarter people tend to make more money than less intelligent people (in general). so the state (robin hood) takes from the smart and gives to the less intelligent. however, because of genetics, the less intelligent are still going to score low on standardized tests, not because they have less money, but because they are less intelligent. no amount of money can raise a person's IQ.
(and if anyone starts a discussion about embryonic stem cell research because of my post, i will scream).
I think keeping kids in from recess is a terrible practice! Kids get so little recess as it is! You are not being at all unreasonable in your request.
Just a note for the future...if your school does writing portfolios, (at least in Kentucky) NONE of that writing is allowed to come home. The school is supposed to make certain that the work is all done by the child. This is one instance where the teacher is justified in not sending work home.
Expecting a note from a parent on why the child missed school is required in my daughters private school. It has NOTHING to do with NO CHIL LEFT BEHIND.
Know what they don't like about that? They have to be ACCOUTABLE and RESPONSIBLE for a change. Prior to this they got away with all kinds of stuff. Plus since the standards are HIGHER, teachers have to WORK for a change.
I have a question to ask that no one in the district has been able to answer. This district has had a full time curiculumn developer who developed one to two grades per year of standardized curiculimn. When I asked why didnt the school just use one of the standard curiculums and tweak it...Homeschooling ones come to mind, they looked at me as if I had just orbited Pluto.
Is the not invented here operational in school districts.
>>Technically, your local PTA is not supposed to let nonmembers attend their meetings. I don't know why, but it is in the by-laws. I don't understand why so many schools do not drop the PTA and create their own organizations that keep all membership dues for use at their schools.<<
Lots of schools get around it by organizing a PTO or PTC.
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