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True, but I have to say I am tired of the mass of IEPs at the high school level. Not necessarily relevant to the post you are addressing, but it is something that is really starting to annoy me. I think most experienced Sp.Ed. teachers will tell you that by 12th grade your average student should be exited. Why some high schools have a quarter of their student population on IEPs is beyond me.
And perhaps that's an individual school or districts problem. That is not the case with our local HS.
At present school districts are very protective of their boundaries. They don't use armed guards but many employ sleuths to ferret out nonresident students. Perhaps easing of boundaries would help. Out of district students would have to pass a test to meet standards. Yes, expel disruptive students.
At present school districts are very protective of their boundaries. They don't use armed guards but many employ sleuths to ferret out nonresident students. Perhaps easing of boundaries would help. Out of district students would have to pass a test to meet standards. Yes, expel disruptive students.
And this would be fundamentally unfair to the taxpayer who finance the district.
And this would be fundamentally unfair to the taxpayer who finance the district.
That depends on if there is room or not. If you're running your schools with an average of 18 students per classroom and can easily run with an average of 20 the extra money brought in from the state is well worth it. If OTOH you're at capacity and you'd have to hire more teachers or over crowd classrooms to cover outside students it's not worth it.
My district has started taking outside students because our enrollment is falling and that is negatively impacting our bottom line. The buildings must be maintained whether we take in the extra students or not so there is no additional cost to the district. What these students do is fill empty seats in classrooms and we get the state money for having them in our district. This is good for the district because we can justify offering all the classes we offer if we're filling the seats.
A. Remove all unneeded requirements. Colleges do it to bring more income into the school. They have an exit and entrance exam. Then they also make you take up extra course via each requirement
B. Drop the passing to 55% as it was back in 1980's or before that. Somehow passing became 65% and then 75%. With todays issues they think more work means more passing college students butt they are just holding kids back for fun.
C. Crack down on socialist schools. You have kids being passed because of the religion, race, or other. They get the same piece of paper then you but they also get jobs faster then you. They sleep with what should be your wife and bury you in debt, laws, and sins. They do this to hold you back in life. like taking a U-turn for no reason at all.
Make sure all teachers are married, have kids, and are male. I have nothing against female teachers. In fact I love female teachers better for some reason as they are more motherly and most women have an K-12 education. You need to be married and have kids yourself to be an teacher. Or at least have had kids yourself.
Remove health, sexual harassment, and aids talk. Those are things your parents should teach you not the school. It damaged part of my year because of this.
Remove psychologists and social workers from school. I know people needs jobs but seriously prescribing pills to telling a parent is bad because there kids are showing behavior of being straight. Again trying to tear families apart for no reason and basing there lives on studies is not helping nobody. I knew a guy who was in an adoption agency and even if his grades dropped from being with his real family, he ended up being a truck driver. Shows how these requirements are doing nothing but supporting these bum families. One PSX and no privacy. Give me a break.
Teaching qualification: BA in liberal arts (grades K-8) or a specific subject (art, music, theater, film, dance, math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, Russian, PE) with a high grade point average from a reputable college/university, plus one year of courses in pedagogy (elementary, middle school, high school.)
For junior college, an MA/MS in the subject from a reputable university.
For college/university, a Ph.D or equivalent from a reputable university. Exceptions: distinction in the field can substitute for a degree if you are in the arts or in business. For professional school, the highest degree needed for your teaching level.
Grades 5 - 8: grammar, English literature, various kinds of writing, advanced arithmetic, history (world, Western, U.S.), science with lab, geography, civics, art, music, theater, foreign language.
Grades 9 - 12: apprenticeship OR academic track. The latter would include English literature, history (world history, Western history, American history and politics), philosophy (logic, epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of science, history of philosophy -- all at an introductory level), foreign language and literature, biology, chemistry, physics (all with lab), algebra, plane and solid geometry, advanced algebra, trigonometry, art studio, music studio, art history, music history, PE and sports.
College: Foreign language and literature (continuing from high school), English literature, history (survey of Western Civilization, American history and government), philosophy (informal logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, history of philosophy), and electives of the student's choosing, which might or might not comprise a major.
Graduate school: Acceptance based on a detailed research or thesis proposal and professors who are willing to supervise.
Professional school: Schools determine the requirements.
Funding: No government funding of any kind, including grants and loans. Schools may award scholarships if they have the money. All scholarships based on merit.
College (and above) selection process: Based on anything OTHER than race, gender, etc.
All schools/colleges/universities are private, not public.
Apprenticeships: These are paid positions, by the employer.
Let the marketplace rule. That includes teachers, professors and administrators not having tenure.
For all the polemics on the subject, the modern American education system is inadequate in the 21st century world.
I am not saying tracking is perfect. I am well aware of the criticisms that dog European methods of tracking and vocational preparation, but there are a great many benefits that seem more consistent with the demands of the modern day. My family back in Europe loves it, even those who fell into the abyss that is Hauptschule.
I would agree that tracking can be a good thing. As things are, we don't adequately educate either the kids who struggle and could benefit from smaller class size and more individualized attention or those who would benefit from a more challenging curriculum.
Problem is Europeans are, for the most part, accepting of the reality that not all students are equally capable, that differing outcomes are inevitable and that the goal of education ought to be educating every child to the best of their individual ability. We continue to cling to the notion that a miracle will occur and someone in some educational Ivory Tower will finally hit on the way to make all American kids equally successful in exactly the same way. Never gonna happen and we're continuing to sacrifice kids every day to the idea it can.
At present school districts are very protective of their boundaries. They don't use armed guards but many employ sleuths to ferret out nonresident students. Perhaps easing of boundaries would help. Out of district students would have to pass a test to meet standards. Yes, expel disruptive students.
Not sure where you are located, but in the Northeast school districts are by town. Each town finances and overlooks their schools. If someone isn't paying taxes toward that school, why should they go to that school? The solution is for each community to provide the best schools they can. Running from a district you have financial and community ties to will not help.
Teaching qualification: BA in liberal arts (grades K-8) or a specific subject (art, music, theater, film, dance, math, biology, chemistry, physics, history, English, French, German, Latin, Greek, Italian, Russian, PE) with a high grade point average from a reputable college/university, plus one year of courses in pedagogy (elementary, middle school, high school.)
For junior college, an MA/MS in the subject from a reputable university.
For college/university, a Ph.D or equivalent from a reputable university. Exceptions: distinction in the field can substitute for a degree if you are in the arts or in business. For professional school, the highest degree needed for your teaching level.
Grades 5 - 8: grammar, English literature, various kinds of writing, advanced arithmetic, history (world, Western, U.S.), science with lab, geography, civics, art, music, theater, foreign language.
Grades 9 - 12: apprenticeship OR academic track. The latter would include English literature, history (world history, Western history, American history and politics), philosophy (logic, epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, philosophy of science, history of philosophy -- all at an introductory level), foreign language and literature, biology, chemistry, physics (all with lab), algebra, plane and solid geometry, advanced algebra, trigonometry, art studio, music studio, art history, music history, PE and sports.
College: Foreign language and literature (continuing from high school), English literature, history (survey of Western Civilization, American history and government), philosophy (informal logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, history of philosophy), and electives of the student's choosing, which might or might not comprise a major.
Graduate school: Acceptance based on a detailed research or thesis proposal and professors who are willing to supervise.
Professional school: Schools determine the requirements.
Funding: No government funding of any kind, including grants and loans. Schools may award scholarships if they have the money. All scholarships based on merit.
College (and above) selection process: Based on anything OTHER than race, gender, etc.
All schools/colleges/universities are private, not public.
Apprenticeships: These are paid positions, by the employer.
Let the marketplace rule. That includes teachers, professors and administrators not having tenure.
Spoken like someone who has no clue what it's like to work with children or teens. It doesn't work that way and every time anything slightly marketbased has been tried, it has failed. Look at the cheating scandals among districts with merit pay. Look at the current charter school scandals to see just how much cooking the books, employee abuse, nepotism and flat out lying administrators will do to maintain profit.
2. Use play-based learning in elementary school to teach concepts. For math and science, use projects that teach the ideas with practice on skills as needed. Integrate reading into math, science and social studies using great children's literature. Use story telling as well as reading books. Offer a second language to elementary school students choosing by the local culture. Start with songs and games and move on to more formal language education. Integrate music and art into all subjects at this level.
3. Loop teachers in elementary school - k to 3 and 4 to 6 would have the same teacher. Do, however, allow for a change of teachers when a student has real problems (personality clash, style of teacher wrong for this particular student)
4. Pretest students at the beginning of a grade, post test them at the end of a grade. Allow for fluid movement from grade to grade based on academic knowledge not age. Post tests can be offered at several times throughout the year so that students who are ready can move on.
5. For middle school/jr. high, integrate reading and writing into the math, science and social studies. Students should read the chapters before they come to class. A flipped classroom would be a good idea so students knew the topic and then could practice them in class with guidance from the teacher. Projects could be technology based with either a bring your own device or devices the school provided. At this point, students could be tracked by ability for their classes in math and science, but allowed to be with kids of differing abilities in English and social studies to benefit from the peer pressure and peer teaching. For students who have not taken a second language yet, offer this in 5th grade to all students. Here you might offer more than one language and students can choose.
6. For high school, make it more like college where students choose their classes based on their interests. All college requirements could be offered for students who want college, but students who want more trade orientations should have those choices available to them. Integrate the local community college with the high school having classes offered by the community college on the high school campus or have the students go to the community college campus for classes depending on how the logistics of this would play out.
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