what Makes Chicago Public Schools Bad (Golden: credit, teaching jobs, private school)

[linicx]

Dr. Cosby has PhD in Education. People who live in denial do not like truth or reality -regardless if it is spoon fed, or in-yer-face. I still watch re-runs of his TV shows.

The state and feds require children to be in school until age 16. Some states enforce it, some do not. Schools are reimbursed X dollars per every student who attends K-12 school. A school with a high attendance record receives more funds than a school with a low attendance record.

Chicago teachers will continue to wear many hats, and Chicago schools will continue to be a safety net until the Chicago School Board steps up to the plate, changes the status quo in how that it looks at truancy, violence, the incorrigible student, permanent expulsion, and the student who is not mentally able to learn. Then move them out of the regular classrooms. Maybe the others need the 3 R's and trade school skills.

Some schools: build a house as a project and sell it. Some rebuild cars and sell them. Some have flower gardens, vegetable gardens, and tree nurseries, and sell the products. Some schools repair cars and tractors and charge for it.

I believe that there are some kids who never adjust to classroom learning, but they are capable of learning a viable skills that can get them into a community college or trade school after graduation. My uncle built a patternmaker's cabinet in 1917. He was a President of DoAll before he retired. His wife was a clothing designer. Neither attended college. I have the cabinet.

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by linicx

Dr. Cosby has PhD in Education. People who live in denial do not like truth or reality -regardless if it is spoon fed, or in-yer-face. I still watch re-runs of his TV shows.

The state and feds require children to be in school until age 16. Some states enforce it, some do not. Schools are reimbursed X dollars per every student who attends K-12 school. A school with a high attendance record receives more funds than a school with a low attendance record.

Chicago teachers will continue to wear many hats, and Chicago schools will continue to be a safety net until the Chicago School Board steps up to the plate, changes the status quo in how that it looks at truancy, violence, the incorrigible student, permanent expulsion, and the student who is not mentally able to learn. Then move them out of the regular classrooms. Maybe the others need the 3 R's and trade school skills.

Some schools: build a house as a project and sell it. Some rebuild cars and sell them. Some have flower gardens, vegetable gardens, and tree nurseries, and sell the products. Some schools repair cars and tractors and charge for it.

I believe that there are some kids who never adjust to classroom learning, but they are capable of learning a viable skills that can get them into a community college or trade school after graduation. My uncle built a patternmaker's cabinet in 1917. He was a President of DoAll before he retired. His wife was a clothing designer. Neither attended college. I have the cabinet.

A lot of the youth (or even the adults for that matter) have not been taught or don't grasp the simple concept that going school, doing your homework, getting good grades, and not commiting crime is rather easy; and getting a job and working is just what responsible adults do.

If you can start your own business that's great! The older generation had a drive that the younger just didn't. And those of generations past have way fewer opportunities and resources. My grandmother was a seamstress and had her own business making plastic slip covers that she ran by herself up until she got sick and died at 65. She wasn't educated. All she had was the 3 R's. She never even drove. When my grandfather couldn't take her where she needed to go, she got on the bus with her measuring tools and a roll of plastic in hand and went to meet with her clients.

In a lot of ways I think the black power movement did more harm than good.

[elnina]

^^^ Karen Lewis: Are you the same person who just posted this?:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/26107738-post12757.html
http://www.city-data.com/forum/26107666-post1.html

Scary!!!

[ClassicStyle]

Interestingly enough, I believe the problems within the CPS school system, (i.e., low test scores, truancy, lack of funding, violence in the classroom, etc.) have been exacerbated by Chicago's willingness to turn over its schools (and public funding) to privately run for-profit schools (i.e. charter schools). What we have seen happen is a systematic selection of better performing students and a "cherry picking" ideology pull good or better students (and the dedicated funding for such) pulled out of the neighborhood schools and set up in these "alternative schools". These charter schools take the best kids and the funding and it leaves those neighborhood schools with the lowest performing students and LESS funding to educate them. Sure all the socioeconomic impediments that come from the breakdown of the community still apply (non-involved parents, unsafe communities, poor families) however, had the CPS not decided to "divide and conquer" and split the system into two seperate models, (charters- which are not held to the same standards as other CPS schools in terms of equal acess for all, class size, and testing, and other requirements) the funding for the CPS public schools would have remained intact and directed to the public schools as a whole and not had half of the funding funneled out of the system and into the bank accounts of these "for profit" corporate run entities.

Ironically, I have moved my family out of Chicago to a fantastic public school system and the parents, teachers and administrators of this system are being courted by "charter schools". The entire community has seen what has happened in places like Chicago and they are fighting tooth and nail against this states attempt to bring in these charters.

It is a well documented fact that these "charters" do not significantly effect the long term out come of a school systems overall outcomes. Long term they are equal in performance - the big difference that should be pointed out is that when the "for profit" schools start to even out and the stellar performance starts to fade, the charter- corporate run schools shut their doors and close down leaving a community stripped of all the investments it made and the tax payers in the community have no recourse. I urge you all to investigate the impact of privatization on other publicly funded "privately run" ventures. Tax payer dollars and public resources are being taken out of the public programs they were levied to support and they are lining the pockets of "some" in the private sector.

Thanks for reading.
T

[NINE BALL]

To answer the title question.

1)The environment the kids grow up in. They grow up in the ghetto. Ghetto life doesn't promote education.

2)The teacher's don't care. They get paid whether the student can read or not.

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by NINE BALL

2)The teacher's don't care. They get paid whether the student can read or not.

What an utterly ridiculous statement. Blaming teachers for what is wrong with our education system makes as much sense as blaming doctors for what is wrong with our healthcare system.

[NINE BALL]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

What an utterly ridiculous statement. Blaming teachers for what is wrong with our education system makes as much sense as blaming doctors for what is wrong with our healthcare system.

I guess I shouldn't have been so black/white with the 1-2 response. However, I've seen first hand how a great deal of CPS teachers actually teach.

Not blaming them 100% for what's wrong with CPS, the real issue is with the families/community, but the teachers are an issue also. The strike had to do with their reviews and them being held accountable for student performance. They knew if their reviews were directly correlated to their job security, they'd be in trouble since a great deal of their students are under-performers.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by ChiNaan

What an utterly ridiculous statement. Blaming teachers for what is wrong with our education system makes as much sense as blaming doctors for what is wrong with our healthcare system.

The teachers are proving they don't give a damn about the students. It's all about more money, more money, more money. They really don't care that the students are falling more and more behind this school year.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by malamute

The teachers are proving they don't give a damn about the students. It's all about more money, more money, more money. They really don't care that the students are falling more and more behind this school year.

Read 'em and weep:

The one school stat that nobody

[55degrees]

Props for CPS teachers for having gone to school day after day all these years to teach when it would have been easier to work in the suburbs. Someone needs to stick with the kids (I don't really see the strike impeding that in the long run) in the City even though most of us would not be up to the challenge. I just don't see why you'd penalize them by basing their pay, etc on school testing.