Posted on 07/11/2008 7:02:51 AM PDT by Amelia
Governor Sonny Perdue today announced the appointment of a working group tasked with investigating innovative ways to create long-term, comprehensive education reform to make Georgia more globally competitive. This working group...build off the work of the Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2) Task Force and review a provocative national report called Tough Choices or Tough Times to determine how Georgia might reform its education policies and practices to cause needed change for its educational system.
...focus specifically on several areas of education policy reform:
Moving students to postsecondary-level work as soon as they demonstrate the necessary ability;
Enhancing the quality of preschool education opportunities;
Improving P-12 teacher quality;
Creating high performance school systems (in collaboration with the State Board of Education);
Improving the academic performance of underachieving students;
Further enhancing and supporting a world-class P-12 curriculum; and
Ensuring the efficient use of the financial resources Georgia devotes to education....
(Excerpt) Read more at wtoctv.com ...
Tough Choices or Tough Times was an interesting study, supposed to be the new A Nation at Risk, but I haven't heard much about it since the initial publicity surge.
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“Creating high performance school systems”
The use of moronic catch phrases is not going to solve anything.
This is nice “ ...Improving the academic performance of underachieving students;”
But I’d also like to see ‘ ... AS WELL AS enhancing curricula and opportunities for the best performing and highest potential students.’
For the most part these are excellent goals but why haven’t these been in place all along?
How did we get to the place where the NEA and their local unions have taken over the system to ensure the advantage all belongs to the staff rather than the students.
Any attempt to improve the system will be met with howls of outrage.
Whether the parents are involved or not, the schools ought to be mandated to keep order, teach the basics, and maintain an environment that rewards progress.
Public school is a joke, in Georgia. Don't even get me started on "reform math" and the new Georgia HS curriculum.
You’re correct - I don’t know if they think that falls under “Moving students to postsecondary-level work as soon as they demonstrate the necessary ability” or not, but it definitely needs to be a part of whatever they come up with...
You aren't in Georgia, are you? In Georgia, the NEA is nothing but a lobbying organization, and doesn't have a lot of power.
I know exactly what you mean. We left one county for just that reason.
Have you looked into the Georgia Virtual School or the program that allows juniors and seniors to take courses at local colleges for joint HS/college credit, tuition paid by the state?
Don't even get me started on "reform math" and the new Georgia HS curriculum.
I think the new math curriculum and the idea to get rid of the tech prep track are both mistakes -- not that anyone asked my opinion before making those changes. ;-)
(By the way -the classmates in my rural Georgia HS 20 years ago, who became teachers, barely made it into college. They are now watching kids teach each other while they babysit the classroom.)
My daughter sat through the first half of 9th grade in a classroom where the male teacher handed out grades (99 to those he liked - with no testing, assignments, anything for the 99) to students. It was an “elective” class and was her lowest grade (she is not a flirt). We pulled her out of that silly class and she took a Virtual School class for half of the year. Much more challenging. I am thankful Virtual School is available. AP courses are also available through Virtual School. Georgia public schools are in sorry shape, aren’t they?
You are right. Georgia has/offers and supports a good number of get-your-kids-a-head-start-if-you-want-to programs and is very supportive of home schoolers, virtual schoolers and kids in the hospital who cannot attend. While the run of the mill public curricula are mediocre, my 3 bright kids have not suffered in Gwinnett County public schools. The teaching is fine, and the courses are generally challenging enough. (my 9th grader works at a freshman-in-college level) The policies are my issue, especially in the middle schools.
But my youngest is now out of middle school.
And lastly we have a good selection of private schools in the area, which are affordable if you choose to live within means.
You are in Rural GA too? I teach in rural GA, and I have seen what happens to the gifted kids at the expense of the regulars.
I will be really surprised to see what comes out of this, especially with the new mathematics program. I want some of the state senators kids and grandkids to fail math and watch the DoE scramble to fix it.
You are in Rural GA too? I teach in rural GA, and I have seen what happens to the gifted kids at the expense of the regulars.
I will be really surprised to see what comes out of this, especially with the new mathematics program. I want some of the state senators kids and grandkids to fail math and watch the DoE scramble to fix it.
You are in Rural GA too? I teach in rural GA, and I have seen what happens to the gifted kids at the expense of the regulars.
I will be really surprised to see what comes out of this, especially with the new mathematics program. I want some of the state senators kids and grandkids to fail math and watch the DoE scramble to fix it.
Yay Virtual School!
I teach Latin for the Virtual School. It rocks as a program.
Don’t let the b@stards grind you down???
... non sic carborundum
Rural Georgia counties typically have one elem, one middle, and one HS, with a segregation academy (small private school), that pops up every now and then but typically is not academically strong. Our closest private school is 35 miles away on a two-lane road. Vouchers are a great idea for metro areas, but insignificant in rural areas.
The lower income/or minority students tend to "suffer" the most in rural schools, as expectations are lowered to keep the dropouts in school. Mediocrity is repeatedly rewarded. Then you have the whole "who's who" in town - superintendent's kids getting online p.e. class or being advanced to select classes because they are "so much smarter" than all of the other students. I never realized a small rural town in the south could have so much liberal elitism.
I wonder how many tax dollars will be wasted to realize the obvious... For the most part ,except fire, police, military, government is nothing but a leech and does far more damage then any good for its citizens. Moreover, it is full of people that could not make it in the private sector.
I would take a private school or home school student any day over a government educated kid.
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