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this fascination with school rankings and "good schools" isn't healthy.
No parent should be blamed for doing what they think is best for their child. The shame is that these ratings don't guarantee success and in many ways may limit growth and development for children who would find benefit in other schools with supposedly "lower" ratings.
The ratings themselves are flawed and are a huge smack in the face to many dedicated students, teachers and parents that pour countless hours into learning communities that may not attain a high rating.
The bottom line is that sites like these are less helpful for our community than they are misleading. Unfortunately, and understandably, they are popular.
Are parents the best critics to determine teacher effectiveness?
What is your background in the education field? Is your experience based on teaching, administrating or as a student/parent?
Do you really believe there isn't a substantial correlation between areas where parents are involved and good teachers?
Do you think it's common for areas where the parents are involved and show interest in their kid's education but have awful schools with awful teachers?
I'm still shocked that we let teachers with no math/science degree background teach math/science, no wonder so many people are confused when it comes to science since they lack a good basic understanding.
Forgive my ignorance, but does this actually happen beyond elementary school?
Do you really believe there isn't a substantial correlation between areas where parents are involved and good teachers?
Do you think it's common for areas where the parents are involved and show interest in their kid's education but have awful schools with awful teachers?
I bet we could have a productive discussion in person, but I can't see it happening on a message board. I've interacted with enough parents in schools that are struggling to know their problems and challenges enough to know they deserve the best. Our community would be better with more empathy and connectiveness. You have more in common with those parents than you realize, or care to admit.
Forgive my ignorance, but does this actually happen beyond elementary school?
Unfortunately yes, some teachers teach way outside their bachelor degree expertise.
The lack of logical understanding of both middle and HS math teachers turns off smart kids when they are told they are wrong to solve in a different way when the teacher memorized procedure is the only way to solve it.
I have issues when a teacher who memorizes a solution cannot accept & understand that there are other methods on solving a mathematical problem. Also when a kid asks questions about a subject and the teacher is confused and gives wrong answers.
Sadly I have personally experienced (in my discussions with some of my kids teachers) the lack of subject understanding of some math teachers (top UC schools). Others are so bad in explaining, that kids only chance is to get help outside school.
And we wonder why not many students are interested in the much needed STEM programs...
this fascination with school rankings and "good schools" isn't healthy.
If I can build on your point, I have two issues with using these kind of rankings to form an overall opinion over a school (similar to Post #41):
1.) As articulated in an earlier post (#30 made some particularly eye opening points), school quality should not be based entirely on test scores. That can be one of the criteria to determine if a school is a good fit for a particular student, but using it as the only tool if full of perils. Although I have no opinion on the schools mentioned in the thread, I have encountered situations or known of people who have encountered situations that are very similar to Post #30 with supposedly the "best" schools.
2.) As much as I can appreciate someone wanting to send their kids to the very "best" school, the huge downside to when lots of people with kids who are more advantaged from Day 1 of school cluster together in the same town or neighborhood, the neighborhoods that feed into the schools that have less stellar test scores continue to languish with other issues because they're unable to attract more advantaged kids and their parents who have more to give (and I'm not necessarily talking about $) to improve the schools. This often leads to a vicious cycle with "bad" neighborhoods staying "bad".
When did we decide that making life as easy as possible for our kids would prepare them adulthood? Helicopter parenting along with effective fear mongering by status based parent groups to denounce many schools in our area have created an issue we need to tackle as a community in Charlotte.
Unfortunately yes, some teachers teach way outside their bachelor degree expertise.
The lack of logical understanding of both middle and HS math teachers turns off smart kids when they are told they are wrong to solve in a different way when the teacher memorized procedure is the only way to solve it.
I have issues when a teacher who memorizes a solution cannot accept & understand that there are other methods on solving a mathematical problem. Also when a kid asks questions about a subject and the teacher is confused and gives wrong answers.
Sadly I have personally experienced (in my discussions with some of my kids teachers) the lack of subject understanding of some math teachers (top UC schools). Others are so bad in explaining, that kids only chance is to get help outside school.
And we wonder why not many students are interested in the much needed STEM programs...
DPI regulations regarding teacher licensing in subject area:
Do you really believe there isn't a substantial correlation between areas where parents are involved and good teachers?
No not really, unless there is a substantial difference in pay or a legitimate fear for one's safety, which isn't the case in the majority of Charlotte's schools (probably unlike some in Baltimore for example). In fact I bet some might hypothesize that a high-performing teacher would rather be challenged by teaching in an environment where the students have less resources available outside of the school, so that the teacher is able to make a bigger difference.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eristic1
Do you think it's common for areas where the parents are involved and show interest in their kid's education but have awful schools with awful teachers?
Probably not common, but you'd be naive to think there aren't bad teachers in "good" schools. I think the argument is that "good" schools are good moreso due to collective parental support than the quality of the teachers, and I'd mostly agree with that argument. But, I do think there is value in that situation, because an initially low-performing student most likely has a better chance to improve their performance if they are surrounded by high-performing students.
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