How to fix our public schools:

I believe that everyone involved in the education system should be held accountable. Accountability means we will no longer tolerate mediocrity and no longer allow failure. Accountability applies to states, school districts, schools, teachers, students, and parents. Everyone must do their part. Nobody can shirk their responsibility.

Consistently bad schools should be shut down. No excuses. No exceptions. Every state and school district should identify failing schools and turn them around with all necessary measures and all necessary resources. Students in those schools should get first priority in transferring to a better-performing public school in the district and getting intensive after-school academic help to make sure they are not left behind while their school is being turned around. Failing schools that do not improve should be quickly shut down and reopened with a new principal and new teachers.

States should be held accountable for reducing drop-out rates, increasing graduation rates, and raising student achievement. Working together with teachers, school principals should be able to
hire on the basis of qualifications and fit, not just on the basis of seniority.

Teachers should be answerable for what goes on in their classroom. New teachers who answer the call to join this honorable profession should get the mentors and professional support they need to make the transition into teaching – and then should have to pass a rigorous and fair test before they step foot into a classroom.



<but

wait -


here's the surprise!>








Quoted from the 2000 Democratic National Platform. OK, so I substituted "I" for "Democrats" in the first line.

Are these elements still valid? Is this what we think would improve education in the U.S. today?

who are in the trenches and deal with kids and, even worse, non-supportive parents, every damn day, what schools need.

I seriously doubt that any of them would say, "gee, we need some more tests."

Yeah, there are shitty teachers and principals and schools. But the whole accountability thing ASSUMES that most don't care and need to be forced to perform. It ASSUMES that teachers and schools somehow don't want to do a good job. And, more and more, education isn't about teaching and learning - it's about bloody TESTING.

Most teachers I have known (and I actually was one for awhile) DO need to be backed up by their administrators when some kid takes a swing at them, DO need parents to back them up when their kid isn't doing squat, DO need the community to back them up when levy time rolls around so they can get paid competitive wages and don't have to spend their own money on supplies and go to work in a building that's falling down.

Sorry for the rant. I'm just sick of reading stuff about what our schools "need" from people who've never been in a classroom in their lives. From politicians, no less. Sheesh.

One of my hot buttons, I guess.

eileen from OH

In my illustrious year in the Racine (WI) Unified School District, the following things happened, in no particular order (names are changed):
• HS junior Chrissy stabs senior Amy in the back, literally, several times with a pocket knife, leaving superficial wounds. This was outside of school. Chrissy remains IN MY CLASSROOM for the rest of the school year; Amy gets transferred to the "at-risk" school because she technically started it -- a fist-fight.
• HS junior Jake makes a pager into a countdown timer in my classroom, during a movie. Hmm. Wonder what use a kid would have for a countdown timer. He was back in class the next day.
• Sophomore Marie tries to sell me acid, offering me $5 chocolate chips. When I get the vice principal up to cart her off, she felt betrayed, and also amazed that I immediately implied a connection between the price of the chocolate chips and what's on them. She was back in class the next day.
• Last day of schools before finals. Very large, football player Dennis gets mad because I wrote him up for cussing out the educational aide. He responded by throwing a desk at me. He missed, but since there was no phone or intercom in the classroom, and I didn't have a cell phone, I had to make a choice between leaving the classroom to go get a police officer, or sending a student out to do the same and hoping Dennis wouldn't retaliate. Luckily, someone in the office across the hall heard the ruckus and called on my behalf. Talked to the vice principal, and requested that Dennis be removed from school for finals, or at least MY final. Vice principal denied my request, because if Dennis didn't take the final , he would fail and be ineligible to play football in the fall.
• At least six pregnancies I can think of, and another dozen or so children already born to my students. One of the girls gave birth the first week of school, and both she and the baby ended up in foster care (together, thankfully) because her stepfather hit her, hard, and threatened to send her baby away. The school district never bothered to inform me of the correct way to report suspected child abuse, and instead told me to talk to her guidance counselor. (We were given a two-hour bus tour during orientation; the district mandatory-reporting coordinator tried to get on the schedule for that week but was turned down.) The girl got help in spite of the system, not because of it.
• I found myself in another vice principal's office, "explaining my conduct." It seems another teacher (never identified) reported me to him because I was "stepping on the senior teachers' toes." Apparently, I caused this stir by asking what books were taught in the science-fiction class, and expressing an interest in science fiction. I am positive it wasn't the sci-fi teacher who reported me, but someone felt I wanted to come in and take over instead of paying my dues. (BTW: My senior education thesis was on sci-fi in the classroom.)
• In WI, teachers aren't allowed to strike, and can actually go to jail for it. We had rolling sickouts (new teachers and building union heads were instructed to go to school by the union; otherwise, I would have participated). The district responded by shutting down. The town newspaper, which had avidly supported UPS strikers a while before, had nothing but vitriol for the greedy teachers who dared to ask for more than a 1% raise in a robust economy. (Perspective -- Extra-duty pay was 17 cents a minute -- $10.20 an hour, regardless of base pay, regardless of
• A sophomore, Kora, cut class twice. She forged my signature on a "change of status" form, so the attendance secretary would think I just made a mistake. She only got caught because she misspelled my name. Penalty? Two detentions. Back in class the next day.

And it goes on and on.
Needless to say, if my entire career rested on the test scores of kids who threw desks, didn't know where their next meal was coming from, had kids of their own to take care of and didn't even bother to show up, well, I guess I'd be in the exact same place I am now -- out of teaching. But so would plenty of good teachers (I was iffy at it, and got laid off but would have quit anyway) in bad situations.

I honestly don't think I've ever really read through the Democratic Party platform. Obviously, we need to be heard more.

it assumes that just as truck drivers need to take a test to get a liscence so should teachers.

It assumes that teachers should be profficient in the subjects that they are teaching, and should be able to demonstrate that proficiency.

And before you implement anything in the original post you would have to get rid of the NEA, because they have fought all of this

Why is nobody responsible for the missing TRILLIONS of dollars from the Department of Defense?

Just curious.

Fix that and the money for fixing the schools becomes available.

btw, that can't really be an accurate quote from the 2000 DNC platform...or, oh well, never mind.

on edit: grammar clean-up time

Cut and pasted directly. Eye-opening, huh?

>>btw, that can't really be an accurate quote from the 2000 DNC platform...or, oh well, never mind.<<

Fund them adequately.

Expect the best from every student.

Get the administrators off the backs of the teachers.

Get the federal government out of it altogether.

Stop bitching and moaning and making schools a political football.

My parents are both teachers. (retired).

is to ask a teacher "would you send your own kid to this school"? Just dont ask this question in front of their boss or peers.

Its sad how many top democrats send their own kids to private schools.

The question shouldn't be so much focuses on which are the bad schools and let's get rid of them. The question should be, which are the bad schools and WHY ARE THEY BAD. And then correct those erros in ALL schools not just the bad ones.

Another important thing is that schools need to be funded. You can't provide a good education if you can't afford the materials to do so. Majority of the time bad schools are poorly funded schools.

It's also important that education can take place without teachers and administrators in fear that some parent is going to come in railing about what their kids are learning. The best example of this is a science class room. Teachers have to tip toe around subjects like evolution and the big bang, and the age of the earth because they are afraid the Christian Right will come storming into the school condeming them all to Hell.

After having seen these tests, IMO most adults couldn't pass them. And, too many students don't take the tests seriously, and just fill in any answer. Some of them make cute pictures or patterns on the answer sheet. But no matter, these tests are still used to determine which schools are "failing".

Schools don't fail, students do. I teach in a "failing" "low-performing" school. Currently, three of our graduates are attending Harvard, and many more are attending schools in the UC system and elsewhere. These things aren't taken into account, however, when deciding if the school is "failing". Only the test matters.

Our students, and our community, consider the school a "failing" school, and they don't expect students to get a good education there. So, there is little community support, and many students use the "failing" status as an excuse to not complete their assignments.

Has anyone heard of National Board Certification for Teachers? Teachers who have achieved National Board Certification are considered the best of the best. The most "failing" school in my district also has the highest percentage of NBC teachers. But, the school's "failing", so let's fire them all and hire all new teachers. Yeah, that's the ticket. That'll solve the problem.

Change the adults in the school, and the students will - do what? Suddenly decide to start paying attention? Suddenly decide to start doing their assignments? Suddenly decide to start taking the tests seriously? Suddenly decide to attend school regularly?

Teachers must take a huge number of classes and pass many tests before they are allowed to teach, and must complete a certain amount of professional development courses in order to renew their teaching certification. Most teachers have Master's degrees or equivalents, and many have PhD's. I go to more professional training classes/courses each year than I ever did in all my years working as an accountant. Teaching is hard work, very hard work. And I'm tired of having to listen to people put me or any other teacher down because its easiest to blame teachers for student performance. Who the hell taught all of today's adults? Teachers. Some of the same teachers who are still in the schools now.

Want to help schools? Then 1) stop calling any school a failing school. That's a stigma the school and the students don't need; 2) volunteer to tutor students, and to work with the school to identify and try to solve real problems; 3) vote for school board members who have experience in education - not politicians who've never been inside a classroom; 4) support school funding. I frequently purchase materials I need in my classroom because the school doesn't have enough money; 5) hold teachers in high regard - at least as high as you value every other profession. Most teachers work very, very hard to give their students the best education they can. You wouldn't recommend firing all doctors because patients died of diseases, would you?

How about holding students responsible for their own performance?

I think you've got it Star.....mostly. Tests are indeed too often the only indicators considered when judging the quality of the education a given school offers. That is a problem we Floridians (Floridiots?) know too well.

Too many people fail to realize that often a students performance suffers for reasons that have nothing to do with their teacher. Apathetic parents, lack of textbooks and other materials, overcrowded schools, etc all play a part.

The only thing I don't agree with totally is your unwillingness to admit that there ARE in fact teachers in our schools who frankly need to seek other employment. Don't misunderstand me; I agree they aren't the majority and furthermore they are there primarily because the teaching profession isn't attractive enough to maintain a high standard.

I once cornered an Elementary school principal in her office to inquire about a particularly bad teacher. She defended the teacher, as I expected her to do, but when I pressed the issue she told me that even if that teacher were to disappear the next day it wouldn't solve anything. There was no one to replace them with you see, and it wasn't likely there would be anytime soon. Meanwhile his students would have to be redistributed to an already haggard and overworked group of decent teachers. Apparently a long term substitute wasn't an option either since the few they had were not reliable nor better in any real way then the teacher in question.

There are those who would blame everything that is wrong with public education on the schools themselves. There are others who say the problem lies with funding, or parent and community involvement. They are both right. As with so many issues, the truth is not black nor white but some difficult to define shade of grey.

Its really not a difficult shade of grey at all, but a lack of accountability on the STUDENT'S part. You still only mentioned funding, parents, and community. Why don't you hold the students responsible?

Yes, there are bad teachers, just as there are people in every profession whose performance is subpar. Are we going to allow students to be victims? Why would we do that? Students can, and do, succeed IN SPITE OF their teacher.

If we held students accountable for their own performance, radical though that seems, then the students would succeed no matter who is teaching them, and they would also learn a valuable life lesson - you are in control of your own life. A teacher doesn't put the knowledge into the child's brain - they offer the information to the student. There are many, many ways of offering this information, but if a students chooses not to learn, they won't learn no matter what the teacher does. The student chooses to learn the material or not.

We now have social promotion - Oh, poor thing, you can't read? Don't worry, you can still go on to the next grade. We wouldn't want you to feel bad that you failed, it must be the big, bad teacher who didn't teach you correctly. We're sure you'll do better next year. Poor little thing. The result of this is a crop of students who enter high school reading at a 2nd or 3rd grade level and view themselves as victims of a "failing" school. Then, the high school is held accountable for this student's lack of an education.

Here's another thing - let's say this year's 9th graders enter high school reading at a 3rd grade level. In April, they take the standardized tests (where reading the test questions and answers is the first problem). It doesn't matter if their reading level has improved to a 5th or 6th grade level, they're still reading below grade level, so the school is still labelled "failing". And to make it worse, their scores are not compared to their OWN scores from the previous year, but to the scores of the PREVIOUS YEAR'S 9th grade students. We're comparing apples to oranges every year to determine if our schools are successful or not. It's ridiculous.

One more thing before I end this rant. Student's ability to understand the English language is not taken into account when these tests are given - the school is still held accountable. So for example, a student who has been in the country for a couple of years, whose parents don't speak english, who lives in a community where english is not the primary language, and who is not yet proficient in the english language, is tested the same as a student born in this country of english-speaking parents who lives in a community where english is the primary language. But the school is responsible for this student's lack of proficiency, don't you know.

Parents need to know what makes a school a success and how to advocate for changes when something in their school isn't functioning. Concrete and informative compiled in a nice fat booklet distributed by the Dept of Ed., with money I know isn't in the budget but it's necessary.

Schools need to have a curriculum that naturally includes the parents in the learning process. Everything the kids do in the classroom each week should have correlating handouts and projects for parents to help with at home. Even little things like asking for dried beans or unpopped popcorn when kids are learning to count gets the parents in the habit of being involved with the school.

Notify parents of every board meeting, the agenda and the minutes from the last board meeting. I've been in my current school district 6 years and have never gotten a letter or any other piece of paper from my local school board or school administrator. The last school district Administrator sent an informative newsletter once a month.

And if a parent wants a voucher out of the local public school, they should be required to spend time volunteering at that public school anyway. If that parent had done that all along, it's unlikely they'd need the voucher in the first place.

Sure, shut down bad schools, but what do you do when most of the urban school systems in the U.S. fail to make the grade and only the well-off can opt out?

All you would be doing is bussing the problem around.

I think the suggestion of just shutting down failing schools falls under the umbrella of "There is a simple solution to every complex problem and it's usually wrong".

I see two self-destructive factors that cause a lot of schools to fail.

1. The parents. Parents who fail to be parents and parents who put ALL the responsibility for their child's education on the schools. This manifests in a couple of ways: The first being the parents who do not teach their children discipline and respect for the authority of the teachers which leads to disruptive students. The second being parents who do not work to ensure their children are doing their homework and being involved in their children's education and placing importance and emphasis on the need for education and the learning environment.

2. Funding. The simple fact is that you can't expect people to work under the conditions of a lot of inner city schools for what you pay them. You end up with a few teachers constantly swimming upstream and trying to work with the lowest common denominator of what is left behind after good teachers leave for greener pastures. You give me a choice between teaching in a well funded and relatively safe suburban middle class school and working in a older inner city lower class school for approximately the same pay and I will choose the former everytime. Unless we are willing to do what it takes to ensure that these schools are well funded and well equipped and pay these teachers enough to attract a decent selection of motivated educators, we have no room to complain about bad schools that we have a part in creating.

It seems you want to hold everybody accountable except those with the most influence: parents.

As someone who comes from a family of educators and dates a teacher (who until this year, worked in a school in a housing project), I can tell you that no amount of accountability, testing, rewards, money, vouchers, or anything is going to help if parents aren't engaged.

Go ahead and shut down those schools that don't cut it; fire the teachers whose students don't perform. It won't do a bit of good. There will still be parents who park there kids in front of the TV all night, don't make it to parent/teacher conferences, don't get their kids up in time to make it to school, don't read with their kids, send their kids out the door without breakfast, and haven't ever checked to see if their kids have done their homework. There is only so much that they system can do with those kids.

Until you can find a way to hold parents accountable, all the other schemes for accounability will be effective at the periphery at best.

Democratic Platform, how would you reword the platform to improve it?

First off, bear in mind that the party platform is a high-level political document, and will, by definition, contain little of actual use in solving educational problems.

(This is a rant, but not directed at you, donco.)

I would keep the first paragraph, but rearrange the order in which "those to be held accountable" appear. IMNSHO, state policies have less direct bearing on how quality education actually happens than parents do. States, and the federal government, should fund the damned thing, set forth *minimum* curriculum requirements, and then STFU.

Consistently bad schools should be shut down. No excuses. No exceptions. Every state and school district should identify failing schools and turn them around with all necessary measures and all necessary resources.

Great idea, but are we shutting them down or turning them around? Whatever the actual deed, what happens to the kids attending the school we're either heroically shutting down or working to turn on a dime? From whom will come the "all necessary resources" part?

Here's a thought - once we figure out a way to *genuinely* identify a troubled school, what if, instead of pontificating from DC, we actually went into those schools and targeted a few basic problems that we can solve? A school doesn't get crappy overnight, and quick fixes are not going to happen. What if, instead of trying to use troubled public schools for political purposes during the next election cycle, we actually made a long-term commitment to the process of making them work and getting the community involved?

Students in those schools should get first priority in transferring to a better-performing public school in the district and getting intensive after-school academic help to make sure they are not left behind while their school is being turned around. Failing schools that do not improve should be quickly shut down and reopened with a new principal and new teachers.

Ah, ok. Let me see if I understand this - we're going to close a high school that serves several thousand students, and move them all into another school that magically has oodles of both space and extra faculty waiting to handle them. While they spend the next several weeks magically pursuing their academic studies while getting used to their new surroundings (that should be easy!), we fire the entire faculty and administration in their old school so that they can return to an old building now run by people who don't know them and the problems they face, as individuals, in their studies. Things will be magically better!

Utterly fucking brilliant.

:mad:

States should be held accountable for reducing drop-out rates, increasing graduation rates, and raising student achievement.

States should fund education adequately, set minimum academic requirements (e.g. you must teach evolution in a science class) and then get out of it. If someone wants to do more, let them be creative in the same ways that teachers have to be creative instead of requiring more testing then claiming the mantle of "education governor" or what have you.

Working together with teachers, school principals should be able to
hire on the basis of qualifications and fit, not just on the basis of seniority.

"Qualifications and fit" my ass. Fund schools at a level that makes it possible to hire an actual teacher for early high school history classes instead of utilizing the wrestling coach in his off hours, as was the case where I went to school. Fund schools at a level that allows them to hire qualified, fit teachers.

Teachers should be answerable for what goes on in their classroom.

They already are. How about we give teachers the *ability* to teach to the level of that answerability? Issue number one? Class size.

Ok, so it doesn't rewrite the platform plank, but in my world, the wording follows from this.

Think about it. What are public schools biggest problem? I'd say its obnoxious kids and parents who dont care. Well part of the reason they dont care is that they get to go to school for free. Private school parents who are paying for their kids to be their put out an effort to make sure their kids learn their.

So you are talking about accountability. How else to make those person most responsible, the students, than if they have to pay?

Lets end the freebies!!

That'd be my vote.

that a radical approach to a migraine is a bullet to the head.

Private school parents who are paying for their kids to be their put out an effort to make sure their kids learn their.

You'd be surprised.

A generation ago, a person could support a family with a job attained on the basis of a high school diploma... Companies had "on the job" training for high school grads and it was a learn while you earn proposition.. A young person had a decent shot at getting a union job, and having a pension, free health care, and decent working conditions...

That was one reason that people married younger.. A 21 yr old guy COULD support a family with just his salary..

Fast forward, and now even an MBA does not guarantee a decent job..

A whole new element has been introduced into the workplace.. FEAR... Fear that YOUR education is not good enough...Fear that you will lose that job and with it, the few perks that are there... Fear that you will start a family and then get laid off and not be able to support the family... Fear that if you do not "readily give back" , your boss will cut you out..


Our whole school system needs updating...

My plan:

K...6 yrs old.. starting kids too early is NOT the good idea once thought

1-6..elementary

7-9..jr high

10-12..high school

2 yr community college

3 yr regular college

k-community college would be FREE...

Kids are going to college too young anyway, and it takes longer than the standard 4 yrs to get a degree ...

the 3 yr college should be 50% cost for instate students...and guaranteed admission to top 5%... Kids might actually try harder if they knew they could afford college..

post grad would be totally on the student for payment..


It would mean entering the job market at an older age..(more reliable??)

The 2 yr community college requiremnet would force states to upgrade their community college systems and take some of the load off the regular colleges.. The student would have no more than 2 yrs post high school to take advantange of the "free ride"....Lots of kids would probably not even want to go anyway, so there should be room..

As far as tests go... midterm..final.. one national/state test in the spring.. Teaching "to the test" should be forbidden.. Tests should reflect what you have learned, not what you have learned in order to pass the test..

Every grade should be required to teach
math
science
music
art
world history
US history
civics/govt
english/spelling/grammar
economics (apropos to grade level)
critical thinking


:)

I recently interviewed for a teaching post. It was fascinating, as a professional software person to chat with a teacher who had never worked in the software profession... and to discover that her view on my qualifications was questionable, yet the facts on the ground are that i've put over 20 large scale software applications from scratch to production in companies and governments the world over... and this interview was less designed to see if i could teach the students (at a community college) rather if i was a proper teacher.

As i found it, the process of becoming a teacher is the total erasure of all common sense and true learning. I told the head of the computing school that their reliance on microsoft products was foolish and that java should be core to the internet curriculum. I don't need a shit paying job with arrogant school assholes who could not write a software system if it bit them.... I told them that the job was not about money, rather a chance to inspire people to take the next step in computing education, whatever that be.

It seems that the very institutionalization that claims to improve teaching is in fact the very antithesis of quality education.

I don't have answers, but letting teachers be free to use their own materials, curriculum and license is the way to go... as long as they deliver an inspired learning classroom, let them be free.

Excerpt from Against School: How public education cripples our kids,and why - John Taylor Gatto.

Inglis, for whom a lecture in education at Harvard is named, makes it perfectly clear that compulsory schooling on this continent was intended to be just what it had been for Prussia in the 1820s: a fifth column into the burgeoning democratic movement that threatened to give the peasants and the proletarians a voice at the bargaining table. Modern, industrialized, compulsory schooling was to make a sort of surgical incision into the prospective unity of these underclasses. Divide children by subject, by age-grading, by constant rankings on tests, and by many other more subtle means, and it was unlikely that the ignorant mass of mankind, separated in childhood, would ever re-integrate into a dangerous whole.

Inglis breaks down the purpose — the actual purpose — of modern schooling into six basic functions, any one of which is enough to curl the hair of those innocent enough to believe the three traditional goals listed earlier:

1)The adjustive or adaptive function. Schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority.

(snip)

2) The integration function. This might well be called "the conformity function," because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force.

3) The diagnostic and directive function. School is meant to determine each student's proper social role. This is done by logging evidence mathematically and anecdotally on cumulative records. (snip)

4) The differentiating function. Once their societal role has been "diagnosed," children are to be sorted by role and trained only so far as their destination in the social machine merits — and not one step further.

5) The selective function. This refers not to human choice at all but to Darwin's theory of natural selection as applied to what he called "the favored races." (snip) Schools are meant to tag the unfit — with poor grades, remedial placement, and other punishments — clearly enough that their peers will accept them as inferior and effectively bar them from the reproductive sweepstakes. That's what all those little humiliations from the first grade onward were intended to do: wash the dirt down the drain.

6)The propaedeutic function. The societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers. To that end, a small fraction of the kids will quietly be taught how to manage this continuing project, how to watch over and control a population deliberately dumbed down and declawed in order that government might proceed unchallenged and corporations might never want for obediant labor.

The essay is excellent on the whole. The author also offers some antidotes:

Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your children to be adventurers and leaders. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your children to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshhold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they'll never be bored. Urge them to take on serious material - grown up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology - all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid.

That's from the September issue.

I think you're absolutely right.

moving to Canada when the going gets republican.

If you have kids in the bad school, get involved in what's going on. Bad administrators, lousy principles and poor teachers won't be able to stand prying eyes very long if you let others in the community know what you see. Force issues, be a pain in the back side. But you can also volunteer to run a homework group afterschool or help out a frazzled teacher in the classroom. Sitting back and complaining is the first step, getting up and doing something constructive about should be the second.

If you are a local business person or even a local taxpayer, you can get involved too. It matters to even average administrators what the business community thinks and even the worst ones want the support of the local community or they could be finding themselves without a job in the near future.

Fixing failing schools is complicated as there are so many components it's hard to tell which are bad and which are functioning well. There is no easy fix and there is no one fix for all.

as my mom who's an assistant principal likes to say, "I'm surprised some of our kids are as normal as they are when I meet their parents."