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Yes, and if most people who visit a hospital were mis-diagnosed and died the first thing to do would be to fire the nurses, right?
It could be. It's with teachers that students spend most of their time, so it would be a good first place to look. Though even identifying that wouldn't give you a cause - are teachers performing badly because they have to teach too many students or perhaps because schools just aren't paying high enough salaries for good teachers? Those are two reasons that would have nothing to do with whether teachers are trying or not.
Assuming they aren't just passing students to meet that standard, I'd say it's among the least things we can expect from public schools. It could be that students who don't finish high school do as well with various measures as students who do, but I think you'll find that's not the case.
Thanks for you honesty Unionist.
oops
No mystery. In the capitalist heartland, money buys good teaching and good grades. It also helps if the parents are readers. It would be those parents who are fomenting for change. Having cousins in the U.S., I know that there is severe inequity in educational opportunity. Anyone hereabouts who says that they would not act to alter that situation to further the education of their own child is being something less than honest.
Heck, there's every reason to believe that a literate nation would never have elected Bush.
The strongest correlation with students' academic success is their parents' socio-economic status.
how do you define whether a teacher is doing a good job? have the students of that teacher learned the academic skills expected for a child of their age range to be able to learn and understand? It not something abstract, especially in the early grades, it's basic skills needed to be able to participate and not just in school but in life. A child's primary teacher in life and on the subject of living it are their parents whether the parent know this and care or not.
Then compare learning outcomes at CFHS with outcomes at schools in a similar socio-economic demographic. If the outcomes are significantly different then it's not the munnee.
Yep, if there's money, they're in. And the state can either walk away from the poor (the Bush experience) or it can try to overcome the barriers to kids learning. I'll bet you aren't advocatin' the state walk away in this case, Caissa.
SNert, I'll bet you an Oxford dictionary that you are not about to add the missing data. Please. give us that comparison of outcomes across "similar socio-economic demographics" (Gaia that sounds so learned).
One means of addressing education is for the state to spend more money in areas with lower parental incomes rather than in raeas with high parental incomes.
Your dictionary is in the mail. Of course I don't have access to that kind of data. I'm just suggsting that if this school's low performance is a matter of socio-economics, not teaching, then there's a handy way to verify that. Or disprove it.
You mean, rather than targeting that $3 plus billion for schooling, Obama should have approached Congress for a few tens of billions to increase parental income...sort of like Steve's $100 a month for child care ...but paid only to lower income folks.
Are you being intentionall obtuse, George? Maybe I was unclear. I prefer the latter interpretation. Let me try to be clearer. In areas where ther is a low parental income more money should be spent on education than in areas with high parental income. Sorry if I was unclear.
SIGS and firing teachers are not the answer.
How easy is it to define failure when graduates are essentially illiterate?
Money's the answer, Caissa. Dunno where it's to come from in this economic climate. I thought the Obamas were trying to get the best results they could in that climate. And I'm asking if they should just walk away and not use this opportunity to show what more money and better teaching can do. Because it shure as shucks will be watched with great interest, everywhere.
Tell me what better teaching is George? What does it look like? How does it relate to the standards movement? What precisely is being measured in standardized tests?
What is the goal of good teaching? What are its limits? How does it fit into our goals for creating engaged citizens?
What Obama is doing is pandering to a right-wing, anti-intelectual, anti-union movement.
I'll tell you what my teacher-partner tried to do, in a mixed ethnic environment. You are ignoring everything from the background of the Obamas, man and wife, in their pursuit of a better life for the African-American. And they would probably be very interested in your ideas of how to do that differently...given the givens.
Gotta run, but will return.
I like forward to it, George. Good to hear your partner is a teacher. I have a B.Ed. as well.
I'm very interested on an elaboration of your second sentence. I think it is probably germane to your argument. I look forward to your return.
It is designed to make a teacher well-started and varies by institution.
It's probably worthwhile to note that both Canada and the US are lacking when it comes to country-wide educational efforts. Other OECD countries have federal level direction, policies, and so on. The US has a slightly larger federal role, due to control of some federal funding grants, etc., but the lion's share of decision-making, funding, etc., is at the state (US) or provincial (Canada) level.
Yea, well, it goes both ways. I would agree with you about the current regime in Ottawa. They seem "unfriendly" to education, judging by their cuts to research on women's equality, the NRC, etc., etc.. If we can make this into a general education sort of thread, the following may be of interest to babblers ...
Teachers in BC have decided to look into an increase of investigations by their employers.
... which is interesting. The current BCTF President, Irene Lanzinger is stepping down and Susan Lambert looks to be unopposed in her run for President. The following is also of interest ...
As far as I see it, this is a good thing. Let the Fraser Institute rave. They do anyway.
OK, for Quebec, I see your point. The RoC may be different.
Thanks to j.m., we find the position on March 4 was this:
"I am pleased to reassure the union their place in the planning process," Central Falls Superintendent Frances Gallo said in a statement. She said she welcomes union input in developing "a dynamic plan to dramatically improve student achievement" at Central Falls High School.
Gallo's statement followed an overture Tuesday from the Central Falls Teachers' Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The instructors have offered support for a longer school day, as well as more rigorous evaluations and training, among other steps."
But the OP tells us from a March 8 story that not all teachers will be guaranteed a place. Since the Grade ll math failure rate was 9 out of 10 students, probably those teachers without math skills will not be re-hired in the state's worst performing school. Union solidarity obviously required a show of staff solidarity.
My partner's experience was in a Grade 2 classroom, a veritable UN climate with kids coming from everywhere. What worked in the teaching of English language at that level of extra attention. Yours truly got roped in for one day a week to give extra instruction in guided reading (I too took a BEd but opted for a lwer-stress situation outside "the system"). It is difficult enough teaching to several levels of student competence in language (we usually found 5 levels requiring small-grouup sorting).
In the Rhode Island high school, extra time would be required from the get-go in Grade 9. Individual attention would be the single most important element, given the socio-economic background and the probably huge disparity in language and math skills on entry. It seems to me that extra attention/funding would have to go to the Grade 9 level and carry those improvemnts through the following grades over the next years. (Yes, Caissa, nobody should expect superhuman efforts, but clearly, there must be more openess to a longer teaching day). Hafta run again, apptmt with a doc. Be back.
Oh shit, my poor research skills! I totally overlooked that date. Thanks for clarifying!
How are we doing on the suggestions for that school in Rhode Island, Caissa? It means going beyond the normal level of concern for individualized attention, of course. The needs, the degree of catcho-up required, are too great.