one way to reform a low-performing school

[escanlan]

So what I see in these previous posts is what I originally stated:

"If a student fails to learn then a teacher failed to teach", "If a techer failed to teach then a manager failed to manage" (or lead). In the case of the article pointed out, Duncan is an idiot to push the policy that lead to the 100% firing of all teachers and staff in that school. Add to that Superintendent Frances Gallo took advantage of that policy in an attempt to save her own butt. As a result many good teachers will feel the effects because a failure of leadership occurred.

It all boils down to the same thing, when a major failure of a system/organization occurs, the problem is at the management/leadership level!

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by escanlan

So what I see in these previous posts is what I originally stated:

"If a student fails to learn then a teacher failed to teach", "If a techer failed to teach then a manager failed to manage" (or lead). In the case of the article pointed out, Duncan is an idiot to push the policy that lead to the 100% firing of all teachers and staff in that school. Add to that Superintendent Frances Gallo took advantage of that policy in an attempt to save her own butt. As a result many good teachers will feel the effects because a failure of leadership occurred.

It all boils down to the same thing, when a major failure of a system/organization occurs, the problem is at the management/leadership level!

And all to frequently, the solution is to punish the innocent.

I heard of an organization that liked to say "Our employees are our greatest resource".

The value in the resource was mostly in freeing up some budget by laying them off.

[aceplace]

Yes, I still have a desire to point out that schools are unnatural and abnormal environments.

People are being required to work and are not compensated. I'm talking about the students.

So isn't it human nature to rebel and resist forced labor?

There is one area in the schools that has high status and a high level of participation... athletics.

Kids fight and struggle to make the football team, or the cheerleading squad.

Anybody ever wonder why that is the case?

[Pintea]

Originally Posted by loves2read

Thank you, I think, Pintea--I take your comment to be positive...

Absolutely! I only wish there were more teachers like yourself.
I think there are many teachers who are mediocre at best, but it's also true that all teachers have to deal with all kinds of students and sometimes with difficult parents.
I do believe there is much room for improvement. By the way, does anybody have an opinion about the new test that is going to replace TAKS?

Oh, I agree with the last part of your post. It is indeed a scary world!

[aceplace]

Well, it's good that we have motivated teachers like LovesToRead.

But would LovesToRead be a motivated teacher if he/she were forced to work for free?

That is essentially what happens to students... they are forced to spend the day at labor, for no compensation.

Now compensation is not necessarily monetary... there are other ways to reward performance.

But if you want a high level of performance by students, you must reward it somehow.

It's a truism in life that when you reward something you get more of it.

[aceplace]

What kind of reward would encourage students to be better?

How about staying out late after curfew?

A students get to stay out til, say, 11PM. B students til 10. The gentleman's C student? In bed by 9.

You might think that staying out til 11 would detract from student performance. For the cases where it does, then the system is self-correcting. The sleepy student would just drop down to maybe a C level, and presto, now he has plenty of time to study.

[aceplace]

By and large, the product created by a typical student has no value. Learning Medieval history or plane geometry buys the student nothing. Nobody will pay a student to perform a recitation of Shakespeare's sonnets.

There are exceptions to this rule, I can think of a couple.

Students fight and struggle to be chosen for sports teams. And students struggle to be accepted at the Arts magnet high schools, in Dallas and other cities.

What's the difference? Their product definitely has value. If the football team wins a game, the school attracts ticket buyers, the players are applauded by the crowd, and the girls are all over them. If the kid is good enough, he might get a college scholarship.

In the case of kids at the DISD Arts Magnet, they very well might be paid for their performance, which is entertaining, and they have a good shot at a solid career. People will pay to listen to them.

We need to reform our educational system so that the product, what the students learn, has some value to others.

[loves2read]

ACEPLACE--FYI--there were plenty of times I WAS working for free--there is no way that my salary paid enough compensation for all the hours and effort I put into teaching before I retired

or that MOST teachers--especially the good/committed ones--put into their jobs...

so YES--I was teaching and not being paid for all my time--and frankly I still don't really regret doing any of it--but the last year for a variety of factors was just enough--reached my stress limit and had viable reasons for retiring...

ACEPLACE--you also place too much value on the monetary side of the issue--
I guess you think students would learn better if they were paid for good grades--
take it from someone who already considered that option -- like spending some grant money to reward students who made commended on their TAKS results or who just simply passed the first time if they were in a high-risk group for failure...
Frankly it won't work
there are too many students who just want to take the easy way out---
they would try to get the reward without doing the effort, by cheating (which a lot of them do now anyway)
they value the money--not how it is obtained--and there is no gain in that senario

if you don't understand that there is value to be gained from just KNOWLEDGE in general--
from being intellectually curious about almost anything that life presents, then you are missing the true gift of education--
and frankly that is what most educators and people who think they know how to reform education have lost sight of
they have tied too much of the gain of education into something measured, dissected, quantified--
which has taken the joy out of teaching/learning...

most people are not intellectually (in the sense of just expanding their knowledge horizon) curious about anything that does not personally affect them AND add to their gain

which is tied directly to a young man who loves football/basketball/baseball and wants to get rich playing professionally--
frankly those players can be dupes for people who take advantage of them and their talent IF they don't have a decent education and know how to do something after football and how to size up the choices they are facing when they do become a viable prospect...

what happens when the knee goes out, the arm fails, the speed/reflexes lag--they better have either saved up a life-time of money--or have other skills to fall back on--including a belief that they are more valuable than their last win...

the GREATEST gift a coach can give a student athlete is to show him/her that there is more to success than winning a game or a scholarship or a pro contract -- it is about enlarging all your abilities--of the mind, the body, and the spirit...

the problem with a school like DISD ARTS magnet is that the kids are there because they LOVE what they are doing--and whether or not they are truly gifted enough to succeed professionally--they need to have skills that will carry them through IF they aren't...most people who follow a dream/mirage into the desert will die of thirst if they don't prepare well, or know how to dig a well, or navigate their way out...
IF those students graduate and want to make a career out of music/art/performance--then they have to not just be skilled but lucky to get work that pays enough to support them and eventually a family--
TRUE THIS--most of them aren't---
so they need to have something to bolster their lives and help them succeed if they can't hack it in the professional arts field--and they need EDUCATION to know what that might be and get the skills to accomplish it...

almost any person who knows about careers and the shifting face of employment over the decades since WWII--and certainly since the 80s--will tell you that it is only a minority of workers who start and stay in the same line of work --either after high school or college--
many people have had to return to school for further training--have totally changed their professional direction for a variety of reasons
and any current student/worker needs to be prepared to do the same--
a person MUST BE flexible about how to survive in the coming employment situation--and if you can't be flexible, retrainable, adaptable--then you won't cut it...
even people who have tried that route are not always lucky enough to find a decent/well-paying/rewarding job...