Education Reform- Rewarding excellence - I Believe You Have to Start by Looking at the Principals of Failing Schools (interview, Obama)
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As part of President Obama's new education reform, her is calling for rewarding good teachers and weeding out the bad. I think that's a wonderful concept but I believe that you have to begin by taking at look at principals of the failing schools.
I believe that the Principal is at the heart of a good school. The principal is responsible for interviewing new prospective teachers, over-seeing the relationship between parent and school, guiding students and establishing effective communication with teachers, parents and students.
Bad principals are unaware of what's going on in classrooms, ineffective at handling of discipline problems, and inattentive to the concerns of the parents, students and teachers. Those principals are less likely to retain good teachers and encourage involvement of the parents.
The teachers and students become unmotivated. Teachers sometimes feed student's test answers in order to boost their class achievement level because that becomes the school's main focus. Student's aren't given the individual attention needed and aren't taught the value of receiving a real education. The teachers are more likely to burn-out and students more likely to drop out.
I believe that in most cases the principals at failing schools should be removed before any real changes can take place.
Last edited by Awakening Escapade; 03-13-2009 at 09:39 AM..
I agree with you. I also think that a huge part that has been missing from all of the education plans is outreach to parents. They need to get them connected to the school and supporting school efforts at home.
Considering the rewards will be based on testing scores I think it is an awful idea. Just because test scores are low does not mean a teacher is bad! There are many factors that influence the learning the process. This will just put more pressure on teachers to teach the test.
You have to understand that the pressure on principals to get high scores comes from thier superiors...this pressure is then trickled down to the teachers from the principal. The problem starts at the top!!!
There is a LOT more to education that the ability to take a test. Testing is a bureaucratic way to eliminate judgment from the determination of educational level. It is used to eliminate having the judges take responsibility for the results of the determination.
I think we need TRADE SCHOOLS starting in 9th grade. Let's face it, not every kid is going to be a scholar. And frankly, those types of kids don't do well in the classroom enviroment, and slow down those that are studying. Train them for a skill.
public schools wont change. no matter how good the principle and teacher, a dozen gangbangers can shut down a school. the schools are rabid with thugs and our disfunctional justice system will not remove them. shut down the schools voucher now.
I think as long as we continue to teach to the test...basically teach kids to answer mulitple choice questions...we are not preparing them properly for the real world. The public school system is awful and it got worse with NCLB.
Schools are failing because everything Liberal is a failure by design. Look at states like NY, NJ and CA I did my first 2 years of high school in CT, and although the high school was excellent, kids were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted, they even had a smoking area for students, we were free to leave the high school during our open blocks and there were not a lot of rules. I moved in TX in the beginning of my sophomore year and although it was a culture shock, I really like the "no BS" attitude down there. The principals of the school was very tough and respected, we referred to our teachers as Sir and Ma'am, they did not teach any Liberal BS like "Heather has 2 Mommies" or other godless Liberal crap. As you can see I am a product of the TX high school system and I turned out just fine!
In Texas we TOTALLY teach to the TAKS Test.
PE is once a week, art and music on a 5 day rotation. It's a very basic, fill in the bubble educatiion.
Get rid of the standardized testing that is used for the soul purpose of getting federal funding and we will have a better education system.
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I did my first 2 years of high school in CT, and although the high school was excellent, kids were pretty much free to do whatever they wanted, they even had a smoking area for students, we were free to leave the high school during our open blocks and there were not a lot of rules. I moved in TX in the beginning of my sophomore year and although it was a culture shock, I really like the "no BS" attitude down there. The principals of the school was very tough and respected, we referred to our teachers as Sir and Ma'am, they did not teach any Liberal BS like "Heather has 2 Mommies" or other godless Liberal crap. As you can see I am a product of the TX high school system and I turned out just fine!
