Texas education - from a Yankee's perspective (Austin, Highland Park: how much, house)

[GreenPlastic]

tracey - You mentioned elsewhere that you subbed at St Andrews for awhile. From that limited perspective, were you able to form an opinion on the curriculum there? Was it adequate for gifted students? Now that you have taught at a public school here, what are the pros and cons of a school like St Andrews? Thanks for any thoughts you can give.

[maadimom]

I agree with most everything mentioned. I am a secondary math/science teacher who has taught in the Houston area. I no longer teach as I was too discouraged by students in an upper middle class community that didn't even know how to multiply and had zero critical thinking skills. It is my personal opinion that the math skills are so low because Texas as well as other states went through a very long period of not having elementary kids memorize their multiplication skills. (Don't you remember the hours drilling those tables back in the 3rd grade?) If you can't multiply, then you can't divide. Can't divide, then you can't do fractions. No fractions = loads of trouble when you get to Algebra. It is a huge trickle down effect. I'll never forget the first year I got a batch of 8th graders who were multiplying on their fingers. I was shocked and sickened. Don't even get me started on calculators in the classroom. The state forced me to allow them, but I made everyone take a test first without them and when I was convinced a skill had been mastered, they could use the the calculator all they wanted.

I've been living overseas for the past few years so I don't know if it was Bush that got the TAKS thing going, but I do know that before TAKS it was TAAS which is basically the same type of testing and the same pass to graduate idea. So, although you can blame Bush for a lot of things, the testing is NOT one of them.

Fortunately, all of my kids attended international schools which has proven to be most beneficial in higher education. If nothing else, they have a huge resource for their college essays!

[TexasHorseLady]

Some of this reminds me of a friend of mine from long ago who was a research librarian at UT. Worked in the Perry Castaneda Library (before that, she worked in the main library). She used to tell stories of the questions that students - college students - would come in asking. Now, remember, this was in the 1970's. Also remember that these students were NOT all from Texas.

Example: "There was a war. I don't know when it was, or where it was, but the slaves were freed. Do you have anything on something like that?"

There was the young man who was upset with the library because it didn't have a copy of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven". He couldn't find it catalogued (back in the days of card catalogues) among the short stories. When she explained to him that it was a poem, he argued with her, because "his friend" had told him it was a short story. She finally resorted to quoting it to him.

These are minor examples. Abysmal education started WAY before the present day.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by GreenPlastic

tracey - You mentioned elsewhere that you subbed at St Andrews for awhile. From that limited perspective, were you able to form an opinion on the curriculum there? Was it adequate for gifted students? Now that you have taught at a public school here, what are the pros and cons of a school like St Andrews? Thanks for any thoughts you can give.

If you are interested in gifted programming check out ACE Academy. ACE ACADEMY: Welcome I went there yesterday for an information session. They hold them the second Wednesday of each month. I was REALLY impressed with the philosophy there. They "get" the special social and academic needs of those accelerated minds.

[Dr.Mom]

Tracey,
Thank you for taking the time to write a thoughtful and engaging post. Hopefully over the summer we will be moving from PA to Austin with two little ones. In originally researching schools there, I was overwhelmed at the class sizes. As the child of an English teacher, I know how hard my mom had to work and she never had a class size of more than 20, at most. I honestly don't know how teachers there are able to keep up with the workload. The more research I do about schools there, the more it looks like we will go the private school route. Between the housing costs and private school tuitions, it will actually cost us more to live in Austin than in our suburb of Philadelphia. I'm still trying to accept that one. Thanks again, your post was extremely helpful.

[Papillon Mom]

I think as far as teaching to the test Raleigh, NC takes the cake. I taught 6th grade there in the 2003-2004 school year. On my first day they handed me a giant three-ring binder and said, "Here are your lesson plans for the semester." I stared at them in shock. It turns out that they gave every teacher a notebook with transparencies and every student a notebook with those transparencies on paper. Your "job" as a teacher was to put up the transparency and have the students help you fill in the answers. Basically you write the answer and the kids copy it. The school was happy because our test scores did go up. The cost was that our kids never got past concrete thinking.
It is very sad when high test scores outweigh the need for our students to learn how to think.

[Trainwreck20]

I wonder if anyone has done a more reality based study....like, which people are happiest 10 years, 20 years, etc. down the road from the time they leave HS?

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by Papillon Mom

I think as far as teaching to the test Raleigh, NC takes the cake. I taught 6th grade there in the 2003-2004 school year. On my first day they handed me a giant three-ring binder and said, "Here are your lesson plans for the semester." I stared at them in shock. It turns out that they gave every teacher a notebook with transparencies and every student a notebook with those transparencies on paper. Your "job" as a teacher was to put up the transparency and have the students help you fill in the answers. Basically you write the answer and the kids copy it. The school was happy because our test scores did go up. The cost was that our kids never got past concrete thinking.
It is very sad when high test scores outweigh the need for our students to learn how to think.

Wow, with a turn-key operation like that, why does anyone need a degree to teach? I mean that's about as brain numbing as standing there and asking if you want fries with that - wait- at least in fast food you have some variety - you get to clean the grease traps too.

[love roses]

Originally Posted by Dr.Mom

Tracey,
Thank you for taking the time to write a thoughtful and engaging post. Hopefully over the summer we will be moving from PA to Austin with two little ones. In originally researching schools there, I was overwhelmed at the class sizes. As the child of an English teacher, I know how hard my mom had to work and she never had a class size of more than 20, at most. I honestly don't know how teachers there are able to keep up with the workload. The more research I do about schools there, the more it looks like we will go the private school route. Between the housing costs and private school tuitions, it will actually cost us more to live in Austin than in our suburb of Philadelphia. I'm still trying to accept that one. Thanks again, your post was extremely helpful.

I agree, the class sizes are large, but I think that's in part because the growth that's happened here in the last 5 years has been pretty phenomenal and the towns can't keep up with all the new people moving in. Most towns build a school a year and it's no time before it's over capacity.

[traceyr13]

Originally Posted by GreenPlastic

tracey - You mentioned elsewhere that you subbed at St Andrews for awhile. From that limited perspective, were you able to form an opinion on the curriculum there? Was it adequate for gifted students? Now that you have taught at a public school here, what are the pros and cons of a school like St Andrews? Thanks for any thoughts you can give.

Hi - I mostly subbed at the lower school, so I don't have a strong grasp on the upper school curriculum, to be honest. One thing that I really liked about St. Andrew's is that, a few years back, one of their wealthiest donors/parents didn't like that Brokeback Mountain was included on the reading list. He threatened the school that if they didn't remove it, he would pull his kids and his money (which, as I recall, was several million). The school stood firm.

I also really like the advisory system they have there - students meet with a small group of students and their advisor (faculty member) regularly to touch base. I attended an institute on advisories and developed and implemented the advisory program at my school in Rhode Island, and know the research on how helpful it is for students to have a program like this.

I personally have nothing but good things to say about St. Andrew's, in my dealings with them. I was a finalist for a position there, but unfortunately didn't receive the offer.