Schools - early dismissal on Wednesdays

[cassjho]

As a former teacher in Orlando, Florida, we also had early Wednesday release. The students were released one hour earlier. The time was used for teachers to hold our weekly "team" meetings (all kindergarten, all first grades, etc). Perhaps once a month, we would have training sessions as well. Even though teachers have to report 45 minutes before students and leave an hour later (and that's if you leave on the dot, most don't), there just isn't enough time in the day to plan as a group. Don't forget, we have parent meetings, other meetings, etc. Early Wednesday is valuable and tolerated rather well by Florida parents.

[jenlion]

In 1988, I moved from outside Erie, PA, to Austin. I finished fourth grade in PA and started fifth grade in Austin.

I was a year or two, at LEAST, ahead of my new classmates at Robert E. Lee Elem. in Austin. And that was moving into their "Aim High" so-called gifted classes. It was a terrible year. Everyone was mad that I already knew the stuff they were talking about. Even the teachers would get frustrated because I knew some of the material better than they did. Wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Some pathetic stuff, and tough for a 10-year-old to realize that adults aren't all they're cracked up to be! I did have my come-uppance though. I had to ask what a "jolly rancher" was. Oh, I was the laughingstock that day.

So, obviously, there are regional differences. The kids in PA are expected to do long division and be experts in manipulating fractions by fourth grade (at least they were 20 years ago). The kids in Austin were pretty much never challenged to do anything more than watch the nice TV show about whales. My older sister had to be pulled out of jr high because she witnessed a fight between rival gangs, who BOTH then threatened to kill her. Kind of hard to learn in that environment.

I've assumed all this time that the schools were SO bad because we were in the city, rather than suburban. Jenbar, if you have any idea of how Robert E. Lee compares to Redmond schools, I'm all ears. I've always said I'd never do private school - we tried a cheap one in Austin when I was in sixth grade because public schools were so bad - and it was WORSE. (Then we homeschooled the next year, and that was worse yet, but for totally different reasons). But I'm much more open to the idea now than I used to be. I'd just find a better school and work more to pay for it.

In Dallas suburbs that I just moved from, the standards were ridiculously low. Neighbors of ours had kids in 1st and 2nd grade. The 1st grader couldn't read, end of story. The 2nd grader was pretty bright, but she wasn't challenged at all. They had hours of homework to do, all of it busywork. It was a nightmare for the family to get homework done - and that's a common story, I'm learning. (I didn't do a bit of homework till 11th grade. And I turned out fine. I got my "homework" done in the time alloted at the end of class to start working on it. Apparently that's not good enough anymore; it's TIME that they're after).

The schools in suburban Dallas spend more time worrying about dress codes (some neighbors stopped talking to each other because they were on different sides of the uniform issue) and making sure the kids' butts are in chairs than they do about actually teaching anything. It's pathetic. Story is they can arrest you for going on vacation now, even if your kid is miles ahead of the rest. But I'm going off-topic. The schools in poorer areas - like Wilmer-Hutchins - are simply abysmal. A huge shame.

So far, my impression of the kids up here is that they are way ahead of the ones in suburban Dallas. That's just the impression from listening to a handful of them speak. They can speak clearly and have decent vocubularies -- probably a product of the more educated parents here than suburban Dallas. Hard to know if the schools have much of a hand in that, or if it's the parents.

I understand that the teachers need time to plan. When I was in high school, they met from 7-8, and class started at 8. Other meetings happened 3-5, just not every day or week. My understanding was that teaching is still a full-time job (just a woefully unpaid one), and that the time spent preparing lessons/meeting/grading papers rounded out the approximately 40-hr workweek in the end. (I know GOOD teachers spend much more time than that. I've just met only a very, very, very few good teachers to date). That's why I don't get the Wednesday thing. Seems like it would be better to have the same schedule every day than screw up everyone's week with a wacky routine. I guess we'll have to live with it, but it still seems really strange!

[jwb123]

Don't compare the schools today, in Austin - to the schools of Austin 20 years ago!

That being said.... AISD is generally not good (though, there are some feeder paths of schools that are decent), and you are right... it's the classic city quality vs suburb quality thing ... just like in Seattle.

You are currently in the Lake Washington school district, and thats a GOOD district. In my opinion and experience, the best on the east side. Are you on Education Hill? My brother is, and so I have seen his kids flourish from Elementary through High School... one is graduating this year.

[jenlion]

Yes, on Ed. Hill. I was actually warned that we want to look at a different elementary school. It was surreal... apparently, this person believes that there is a language barrier problem holding back english-speaking students.

In TX, it was children of immigrants from Mexico/central american that spoke only Spanish at home that were the issue.

Here, according to this person, it's kids with Indian parents who don't speak English at home, so "too much time" is alloted catching them up.

I can't wrap my head around it yet! Only heard that from one person. Heck, maybe it was an april fool's joke??

[jwb123]

That's total BS. Will your child (children?) go to Norman Rockwell? That's where my neice and nephew went.

[aeh]

Originally Posted by toughguy

Its funny because when I browse the TX boards, I always see people complaining that the schools are horrible, except in the affluent suburban areas like Richardson and Grapevine in Dallas and Sugarland in Houston. Dallas and Houston also have inner city magnet schools which concentrates all of the brightest students into one or two highschools, artificially inflating their prestige in the process.

The school I went to was in the Bellevue school district, and about half of the students were immigrants living in subsidized housing. We have gone over this before, if you look at test scores, WA and TX are pretty much even. I have not lived in Texas so I can't offer anecdotal evidence like you can, but the number just don't bear out your accusations that the schools there are so much better.

We have lived all over the US and outside of it, and I would say without a doubt, that there are so many great school districts in Texas. I would be thrilled if my kids could get HALF of the education that they received in the Plano Independent School District (not even one of the top ones in Texas--Highland Park, Southlake, Plano, Richardson, Lewisville, etc). Texas gets a bad rap for many of the poor rural districts or those along the border. Granted, I would never send my kids to a public school within Dallas, but the suburbs have EXCELLENT schools. It's those high property taxes.

[wannabeaTexan]

The Renton school district has late arrival every Friday. Just started this year. I'm not sure how early dismissal would be such a huge problem for working parents. My older kids get themselves to school no matter what time it is and the younger ones are in daycare, so they get there regardless of the time as well. Don't working parents generally work until after 3 or so when the kids get out on a normal day anyway? I don't see what the difference is in regard to where will the children go when there is early dismissal or late arrival.

[seattlenextyear]

I think that if you are parents, you have a schedule worked out where you maximize the amount of time spent with your kids and minimize the amount of time they're with a babysitter. This might mean that one parent goes in to work really early and gets off so they can be there when the kids get home. If you mess up that schedule once a week, you have to make alternate plans for that day. And I can imagine that being really annoying.

[wannabeaTexan]

I guess...so find before/after school childcare for a few hours once a week. These days are on the school calendar before the school year starts, so there aren't any surprises. Just like if you are a single parent, like myself, you have to figure out some kind of schedule that works for your situation. That might be annoying, but that is life.

[LookingtoLeave]

TX in general has a bad reputation for education. There are some great schools here though as I and Jenbar can attest too, however, there are TONS of bad ones too. And I'm not just talking test scores, I'm talking about crappy, rude teachers who can't manage children. My son goes to one of only two Blue Ribbon schools in SA, which is sad b/c there are a lot of elem. schools here. Overall, I believe there aren't that many in the state. There are reports of people in HS that can't even pass the TAKS test-which is so easy. I'm not sure where he got this info from, but a couple of years ago my prof and I were talking about public school education and he said TX was rated at the bottom of the list nationwide due to their low criteria in regards to its curriculum. He's a fairly good reliable source of info and I don't know if he's pulling it out of his a$$, but as an educator himself I'm sure he can find this stuff out. While I can't talk about the WA education of course, TX has nothing to brag about.