Posted on 06/15/2011 6:55:12 AM PDT by edcoil
Only 35% of fourth-graders knew the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. The news was even more dire in high school, where 12% of 12th-graders were proficient.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If it wasnt so sad it would be funny.
Hell, it is funny anyhow.
How are you doing class of 98?
If you test the students for their own self-esteem (the good feelings) or the do-good purpose of their lives to change everybody and everything else, I’ll bet you get top grades.
Who says anything about teaching those traditional (but useful) topics?
Marginal teachers who normally would not be hired are now sought out because of the need for teachers in school districts that keep the class size down around 20 to 22 children.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is amazing. Teens who are taking AP courses need classes with only 20 to 25 students. Then 3 months after graduating they sit in classes of 100 to 400 students.
Also...Why not video the very best and most excellent teachers and put the content on the Internet for access by **anyone** of any age in the state!!! Hey! Don’t the taxpayer pay plenty in taxes why is this information and content confined to a mere 20 to 22 students? Hm?...Maybe if they did film the content of these classes the parents would get to see exactly how much their children are being indoctrinated in Marxism.
That's not a bad idea except for one thing, one very important thing.
I fear that the private schools would over time become self-segregating.
That's to be expected. Folks usually want to be around others like them. But that means you'd have predominately white schools, predominately black Muslim schools, etc. all funded by public money.
The melting pot concept would be gone. And that's bad for America.
Powerful commentary!
I particularly appreciate your comment about teaching to the test in math. My daughter just finished 7th grade and for the first year since she started taking the state standardized tests (SOL) in math she did not score a perfect 600, it was only a 596.
But she wasn’t “taught to the test” this year because she took 8th, not 7th grade math, but had to take that test.
My child is a bit on the bright side, but obviously these tests are geared more toward, I won’t say lowest common denominator, but definitely not toward the top tier.
The week before the tests, she took 3 this year, and the 2 weeks of the tests, there is never any homework from any class, even those without the test so that they “focus” on those SOL tests. To me, it’s a waste of valuable time.
Some teacher friends of mine went to see Palin when she spoke at a rally near here. So not all teachers are Marxists!
But you do make a good point. Taxpayers have a right - even a duty - to see what is being taught in their local schools. Schools should make it super-easy for a taxpayer to visit a classroom and observe a lesson.
Doing well.
His actual words to me were “I wanted to watch that white man squirm like a maggot in a ham hock.” now that I think about it. He was pissed because they put him in a management position with no reports. For months, the CS guy put out the monthly “Diversity Newsletter” and it was infected with a Word virus. He refused to hear that it was infected. We swore he did it on purpose.
Education is far to important to be granted to the government. Were it not ubiquitous, the concept of forced government education would be abhorrent to a free people.
Not a bad idea, I think I agree with you.
A major unacknowledged problem: students who just won’t do the work. In a system where a service is guaranteed to all, it’s just not a viable choice for the bureaucrats to say “you’re not doing sufficient work, so get out.” A shocking percentage of students just will not do enough work to pass.
Being in a position to enforce “you don’t do the work, you don’t pass the course”, I fail 1/3rd of students on a regular basis - none for being a tough grader (I’m very lenient), some for tough material (a nontrivial fraction just don’t get it and are not mentally equipped to), but most just because they don’t even attempt enough of the assignments to score a bare 60%. I’ve failed three whole classes in a row for inadequate effort from 100% of the students.
Faced with students having zero motivation, and a bureaucracy which has no exit strategy for those students, and a society which will not tolerate expulsion of students from a universal education system, the only option is to conjure up some excuse to promote them thru the system until it is sociopolitically acceptable to either graduate them or let them drop out. Unfortunately, this means when these students get to me they’re shocked to face an instructor who thinks nothing of failing anyone insufficiently motivated. They have learned to progress without effort, unequipped for a real world where great effort is required just to maintain a status quo (a la the Red Queen admonishing Alice to run fast just to stay where they are), and becoming virtual wards of a state which will not tolerate the natural consequences of inaction to manifest.
I totally agree with you both on this. Far too many schools make it far too difficult for even a parent to visit the classrooms of their own child, so I would imagine it being next to impossible for Joe taxpayer to do so. I don't know about Joe Taxpayer, but at least in my district it is very easy for parents to visit and observe. My daughter hates when I do it, but I have.
Oh, as aside, she had a fully excused absence when we took her out of school to attend a McCain/Palin rally, and in fact the teacher encouraged us to take her.
See #70.
Taking your figure at face value, I have to ask - If 95% of the teachers are good teachers, why aren't they using the NEA, with all of its clout, to improve the schools?
Such an overwhelming majority certainly has the power to make significant improvements in the situation. Why aren't they?
I made a comment on another forum yesterday about being vindicated for being the "mean mom" this school year. In one class she was acing all of her tests and so we were expecting the report card to reflect this -- nope. She was coming home with C's. She was basically blowing off doing homework assignments and not getting the concept she had to do ALL of the work. She had coasted along just on test grades that she came to the conclusion the other work wasn't necessary. She had one heck of a rude awakening. Her grades turned around and she's back on the honor roll.
I applaud you for sticking to your guns and teaching them they have to work. Grades aren't given, they are earned.....or at least they should be. Our daughter was quickly disabused of her misguided idea she was entitled to A's just because of test scores - she was not happy with the privileges she lost.
In the local elementary school, there is often an outbreak of head lice right after Christmas. This is when the students from south of the border return from their holiday family visits. When Mrs. Chandler offered to check the children for lice, she was informed that the school had already checked the children and they had found no lice. They had found nits, but no lice, so the kids had no lice. Educationalists crack me up.
What's needed is accountability. Bureaucrats love committees, boards, and councils since no single person can be held responsible.
You need one person held responsible (the superintendent) with the super either being appointed by the mayor or being elected. The super needs hire/fire authority over the principals, and the principals need hire/fire authority over the teachers. If the school system sucks, fire the super until you find a super that can make it work.
Very good question. let me offer two possible reasons.
First, it is not so easy to identify a bad teacher! Let me explain. Teaching is not like, say, running a lathe in a machine shop.
In the machine shop, all the lathe operaters use basically the same quality of raw materials. Not so with teachers.
A teacher with a 20% test fail rate might actually be a much better teacher than one with a 5% fail rate! The first teacher might be dealing with less-prepared students. Or the first teacher might have two chronically disruptive students in the class (such students can make a huge difference!).
Second reason is that it is not the job of a teacher's union to get rid of bad teachers. It is just like having a lawyer. You pay a lawyer to represent you, not to go out and seek justice for the world.
However, there ARE bad teachers. It's the job of the administrators and the school boards to identify them and get rid of them. Sure, the union might get in the way, but that's just the union doing its job, as your private lawyer would.
So what's the solution? School boards have to show some tenacity in discharging truly bad teachers. And they have to lobby the state for more power to do so. Too often, they don't want to take the trouble. It's easier to blame the unions. I've seen that over and over again.
But ... they don’t know who Hitler is, except that he was as bad and evil as Bush.
Ping for later reply.
The **entire** course should be video taped and put on the Internet. The courses should be taught by the most experienced and gifted teachers and it should be accessible by anyone, of any age, in the state. Taxpayers should at least have **complete** access to **all** of the content that would ideally be presented to students.
The information could be used in many ways:
Those parents who felt that their child didn't quite master 5th grade fractions would have access to the information by Internet.
A 45 year old woman just might wish to brush up on algebra or biology before starting the college courses needed for a nursing degree.
Inexperienced teachers would be able to quickly and easily observe how a master teacher approached a particular aspect of a course.
Taxpayers could easily and quickly determine if the course and curriculum were biased or politically correct.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.