Obama camp hits Romney over class size

The Washington Times ^ | May 25, 2012 | Dave Boyer

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Obama campaign blasted presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney Friday for his comments on a visit to an inner-city school that smaller class sizes are not a guarantee of a good education.

“I’m not sure what universe he’s operating in,” said Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, speaking to reporters on behalf of the president’s reelection campaign. “It’s clear that Mitt Romney is out of touch with reality.”

Mr. Romney visited a charter school in west Philadelphia Thursday and, during a roundtable discussion with teachers, noted that a McKinsey Global Institute study found that class size was not a factor when comparing U.S. student performance with high-achieving countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Finland.

“In schools that are the highest-performing in the world, their classroom sizes are about the same as in the United States,” Mr. Romney said. “So it’s not the classroom size that’s driving the success of those school systems.”

The former Massachusetts governor emphasized his belief that parental involvement in two-parent households, coupled with great teachers and administrators, is more important to student achievement than class size.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Obama and his union supporters want more union construction of indoctrination compounds, more union indoctrinators and no accountability -- "for the children."

[rbg81]

Of course, a good education requires kids who actually want to learn. And parents who actually care. But no politician will ever go there.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Don't Know Much About History 'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, "I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don't know." Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. "It's shocking."

He's right. This week, the Department of Education released the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which found that only 12% of high-school seniors have a firm grasp of our nation's history. And consider: Just 2% of those students understand the significance of Brown v. Board of Education.

Mr. McCullough began worrying about the history gap some 20 years ago, when a college sophomore approached him after an appearance at "a very good university in the Midwest." She thanked him for coming and admitted, "Until I heard your talk this morning, I never realized the original 13 colonies were all on the East Coast." Remembering the incident, Mr. McCullough's snow-white eyebrows curl in pain. "I thought, 'What have we been doing so wrong that this obviously bright young woman could get this far and not know that?'

......."History is a source of strength," he says. "It sets higher standards for all of us." But helping to ensure that the next generation measures up, he says, will be a daunting task.

One problem is personnel. "People who come out of college with a degree in education and not a degree in a subject are severely handicapped in their capacity to teach effectively," Mr. McCullough argues. "Because they're often assigned to teach subjects about which they know little or nothing." The great teachers love what they're teaching, he says, and "you can't love something you don't know anymore than you can love someone you don't know."

Another problem is method. "History is often taught in categories—women's history, African American history, environmental history—so that many of the students have no sense of chronology. They have no idea what followed what."........

[scooby321]

Half of Florida high school students fail reading test

Shocking details of Atlanta cheating scandal

The results confirmed the suspicions and then some: The report said that cheating on 2009 standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools was widespread and didn’t start that year, “significant and clear” warnings were ignored by top administrators, an environment of fear and intimidation ruled the system, and thousands of students were harmed. The cheating resulted primarily from “pressure to meet targets” in the data-driven system, it said.

Obama’s Budget Kills DC’s Successful School Voucher Program, Increases Subsidy on a Car No One Wants to Buy

You trust Never Educate Anyone ( NEA) or Democrats?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms......."Twenty years later, Quayle’s words seem less controversial than prophetic. The number of single parents in America has increased dramatically: The proportion of children born outside marriage has risen from roughly 30 percent in 1992 to 41 percent in 2009. For women under age 30, more than half of babies are born out of wedlock. A lifestyle once associated with poverty has become mainstream. The only group of parents for whom marriage continues to be the norm is the college-educated.

Some argue that these changes are benign. Many children who in the past would have had two married parents could have two cohabiting parents instead. Why should the lack of a legal or religious tie affect anyone’s well-being?

There are three reasons to be concerned about this dramatic shift in family life.".......

[bgill]

Of course, a good education requires kids who actually want to learn. And parents who actually care

Exactly. Case in point would be Trayvon. If he'd wanted to learn, he wouldn't have been skipping school, been on suspension, at his pretty much absent parent's girlfriend's, out scoring some iced tea and skittles in the rain when he was supposed to have been grounded, bashing a guy's head into the sidewalk and ending up six feet under.

[ruesrose]

Of course, a good education requires kids who actually want to learn. And parents who actually care. But no politician will ever go there.
************************************************************

You are so right about that. And it helps if the teacher knows how to stimulate them to learn, keeps their interest and encourages them. It is a team effort.

[EGPWS]

The former Massachusetts governor emphasized his belief that parental involvement in two-parent households, coupled with great teachers and administrators, is more important to student achievement than class size.

That about sums up a great "please 'em all, say nothing" answer.

[Tax-chick]

Smaller class size correlates with *lower* student performance in most studies. Obviously, this is not a cause-effect relationship. Rather, smaller class size is a marker for a system that prioritizes everything *except* teacher competence, student discipline, and administrative accountability.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

High school teacher suspended for telling student he can be arrested for ‘disrespecting’ Obama

[srmorton]

You are exactly right. Correlation of improved learning with smaller class size has not been borne out by research, a fact which the Democrats and their union supporters find to be “an inconvenient truth”. Factors like parental support and decorum in the classroom are better predictors of student success. Reduction of class size has one major effect - a need for more classrooms and therefore more teachers who are union members.

[Born to Conserve]

Public education should stop at the sixth grade. Graduates should know how to read, speak, and write English, they should know arithmetic inside out, and they should know true American history.

Beyond that, private school, pay as you go.

[CAluvdubya]

The former Massachusetts governor emphasized his belief that parental involvement in two-parent households, coupled with great teachers and administrators, is more important to student achievement than class size.

Wow, I actually agree with Mitty!

[SatinDoll]

I attended a Roman Catholic Parish school for First Grade. We had nearly fifty children in that class. The nun who taught our class was a lovely young woman and would tolerate no nonsense.

Class size has nothing to do with how well children learn.

My nephew attended a Roman Catholic Parish school where the teachers were all civilians and classes never exceeded thirty-two children.

I had to teach him to read phonetically. I had to teach him math. By the 6th grade he had failing grades. I took him out of the school and home taught him.

Within 28 months he was reading, writing, comprehending and doing math on a college entrance level. Turns out he has an IQ of 167. Some children should never be in an institution of learning. In our case, his mind was too busy and he learned better and quicker when alone.

[Graybeard58]

20 years later, it turns out Dan Quayle was right about Murphy Brown and unmarried moms.

Of course he was right and still is. He is remembered for that statement and held in derision for it, by leftists everywhere. That and the fact that he misspelled "potato".

Compare a simple misspelling, to Biden and his utter ignorance about anything and everything and yet Biden is held in high esteem by the left as a, "great statesman. Sickening isn't it?

[SoFloFreeper]

Remember the GREAT SHAPE Chicago schools were in when Obama left Illinois? Man, those were stellar examples of public education.

[Atlantan]

I attended a Catholic elementary school in the ‘50’s. Every year from 1st to 8th grade there were 50 students in my classes. I have no patience for this whining about class size.

[dinodino]

Obama SHOULD fire back at Romney—after all, what’s the class size in the public schools the Obama daughters attend!?

Wait, never mind...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

........"In our case, his mind was too busy and he learned better and quicker when alone."

Someone today who would be targeted as ADD with suggested drug intervention to make him acceptable for the classroom.

[PapaBear3625]

Other factors being equal, a good teacher can teach a class of 30 better than a bad teacher can teach a class of 15. The determining factors are, in order of importance:

1) Students who have an interest and aptitude in learning.

2) Parents who help kids learn.

3) Good teachers.

(distant 4th): class size.