The Education Wonks
And oh, before I forget, I saved the best for last: According to Spellings and Co., schools will be held 100% accountable for getting 100% of students at or above grade-level in reading and math by 2014.
Let's stop calling this a "goal." It's a mandate with a death penalty attached.
"Let's stop calling this a "goal." It's a mandate with a death penalty attached."
It is a goal, no matter how unrealistic each of us find it. I know many very high poverty, no parental support, public schools that are making great strides, and I believe will meet these. Maybe we just need a little less pessimism, and a little more elbow grease and best practices.
"I know many very high poverty, no parental support, public schools that are making great strides, and I believe will meet these."
Talk is cheap. Name your schools so that we can all see if we are talking about the same thing.
You go, Wonks! Here, here!
The very best for the children will only come when the extortionistic unions are removed from the education equation.
Children only become a priority when the unionized public school district demands more money - or else. The you hear the typical phrases like "support our children", "believe in our kids", etc. More money gets pumped in, nothing gets pumped out - until the next round of contract talks.
"They need to be given accurate and timely data about academic performance, and the resources and flexibility to improve it. They must be encouraged in their efforts to take on the toughest assignments in the most challenging schools and communities. And they need to know that positive results will be rewarded." ooo ooo when does this start? I can't wait!
Actually Texas has a wide variety of tools to use in the classroom and school. One problem here is that most Superintendents and Principals are too scared to use them.
A second problem is ignorance. To use a tool correctly, you have to know how and why it works. I have met very few people in the ed biz that have any clue as to the proper uses and workings of any discipline from how to keep a classroom quiet to In School Suspension to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs.
The result is that classrooms are becoming more chaotic.
"It is a goal, no matter how unrealistic each of us find it. I know many very high poverty, no parental support, public schools that are making great strides, and I believe will meet these."
If it's an unrealistic goal, it can't be met, no matter how great the strides are. At the same time we have to strive for 100%, but the idea that a school could be labeled failing while passing 95% of their kids is odd.
but the idea that a school could be labeled failing while passing 95% of their kids is odd.
It's only because the bar has been lowered, and thus more kids pass. These poorly taught children are no match academically if compared to children from the public schools 40 years ago. Most can barely read and comprehend, let alone solve a quadratic equation.
Talk is cheap. Name your schools so that we can all see if we are talking about the same thing.
How about the City Springs School in the worst part of the inner city of Baltimore City.
In 2003, the school's fifth grade TerraNova scores were:
Reading: 87th precentile (up from 14th percentile).
Math: 79th percentile (up from 9th percentile).
Based on these scores almost all students are performing at grade level (50th percentile).
I went to the City Springs School web page which you so kindly provided. One cannot really know about a school from its web page but it certainly does not look like a school with no parental support.
Which was the original point; if you work at a school where, for whatever reason, the parents are not involved the chances of success are very poor. Blaming the classroom teacher for that borders on the criminal.
You can be teaching in a mud hut and using wet clay tablets instead of paper, and if the parents care and are involved the kids will learn. You can also be teaching in a million dollar classroom and if the parents do not care and are not involved the kids will learn relativly little.
I suspect that the same can be said about the quality of teaching provided. If the Educrats really cared about the education of children they would pour more effort and money into adult education and literacy and into teaching parents how to intill a desire for learning into their children.
it certainly does not look like a school with no parental support.
Which was the original point; if you work at a school where, for whatever reason, the parents are not involved the chances of success are very poor. Blaming the classroom teacher for that borders on the criminal.
My understanding is that this is a typical inner city school with typical inner city parents, which is to say that to the extent that these parents are giving support it's probably not very effective.
Also, the instructional program in use does not mandate nor require parental support because they know it probably won't be forthcoming in these neighborhoods. For the same reason little homework is given, it's all done in school. The point is that this school does not make excuses for factors that are external to the schools, such as parental support. The parents' only real responsibility is to make sure the kids come to school, and even then there's no guarantee.
Are you aware of the Project Follow Through results in which one of the studied models was a parental education model; it did no better than the control group?
"but the idea that a school could be labeled failing while passing 95% of their kids is odd."
It's only because the bar has been lowered, and thus more kids pass. These poorly taught children are no match academically if compared to children from the public schools 40 years ago. Most can barely read and comprehend, let alone solve a quadratic equation.
No, you misunderstand. By 2014, if 95% of students at a given school are doing graduate-level work, and 5% of students are slightly below grade level, that school will be labeled a failure. That part of NCLB needs to be changed.
I never fail to be amazed at people who accept, as a matter of faith, that not every student will play first string football, first string basketball, or even be varsity cheerleaders, yet 100% of students in every school in the country will acheive the same academic standard?!
Let's be honest. The only reason we have schools is to support football and pep rallys. The rest is essentially extracurricular. Let's substitute a standard whereby every student in the nation will, say, run the 40 yard dash in 4.9 seconds, and we'll have real hope for improvement in education! After all, that's hwere all the emphasis and resources are, no?
City Springs is a Baltimore City public charter school. Parents apply for their children to attend this school specifically. Students are assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis. The student doesn't need to "qualify", but the parent does have to fill out an application for the child to get in.
The parents of the children at this school are NOT typical Baltimore City parents. Unfortunately, the "typical" Baltimore City parent is a drug addict (or worse). Inner-city Baltimore is one of the scariest places one could ever go in the US, IMO. That these parents have the sense to get their children out of the typical gang-infested, drug-riddled neighborhoods in which they regularly live makes them heroes.
These are parents who CARE. They don't want their children to become one of the hundreds of 12 year old drug dealers in Baltimore or one of its many sad statistics.
Ed, please know that there are people out there who appreciate what you do more than words can express.
I got TWO nice emails from parents, which were very complimentary and funny, and a stress ball you can squeeze that looks like the Earth- now THAT's useful! There were doughnuts, too, but I don't eat those- unless they're Krispy Kremes....
And you know, with 35 students in a class for 50 minutes, you get to spend 1.43 minutes per kid! Y'mean you can't raise their reading levels all by yourself in that amount of time? And I want to know when we TEACHERS get to set the course?
Thank you Olivia. It is always nice when some one with more knowledge than I have jumps into the discussion with valuable information.
In all honesty KDeRosa I thought that you might be giving us a little spin when the web page itself says, "Report cards are given out very frequently at City Springs. Parents are expected to attend the Parent/Teacher Conferences during which report cards are distributed."
Olivia, the school, may be a charter school but 5 short years ago it was the worst performing school in Baltimore City. The worst. It was, and still is a public school, that was serving this community. The only reason it's called a charter is because the Baltimore Curriculum Project took it over and cahnged the management and curriculum. But it still serves the same kids. In fact, the mobility rate for this school is over 25%, which undermines your caring parent theory. Moreover, the instructional program in use here specifically insdicates that parental support is optional.
This school is in an area where the average student performs in the 20th percentile. So where are all these smart students coming from?
The fact, and you've offered nothng but conjecture so far, that these parents may care does not make these students any smarter than the average student in this inner city. The fact that these parenst are still residing in the inner city also reflects the fact that they probably don't have the skills to find more gainful employment or the skills necessary to provide the support you imply they are providing.
Do you really expect us to believe that the sole reason this school is performing so well is because the parents care? Can't be better instruction could it be? Even though everywhere the organization that provides the instructional program for this school the school gets similar results.
Curmedgeon, that's quite a lot of parental support you have there-- attending parent teacher conferences.
There are many charter and public schools that require caring parents and/or parental support that get dismal results. Most charter schools perform only marginally better than similar SES public schools so far.
The City Springs School is an anomaly in this respect, peforming about 2 standard deviations above its predicted performance based on SES.
Hi,
Just FYI, we mentioned your blog and this entry this morning on School Me, the new LA Times education blog:
http://latimesblogs.typepad.com/
...oom_annouc.html
cheers,
Janine
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