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"The teachers unions are the main reason that so many poor teachers are continuing to keep their jobs and the charter schools are exempt from those ridiculous protections, they would automatically seem better."
LOL! Spoken by someone who hasn't been in the classroom within 10 miles since they got out of High School.
Charter Schools don't even have "teachers" who have BA's. Nor do they pass background checks. So a High School grad with a criminal record can teach your kids in a charter school. Sounds great, eh?
Charter Schools don't even have "teachers" who have BA's. Nor do they pass background checks. So a High School grad with a criminal record can teach your kids in a charter school. Sounds great, eh?
Where did you get this information? That is completely untrue.
SOME charter schools don't have teachers with their teaching certificate, but I will guarantee you they will all have at least a bachelor's degree in their area of expertise.
All persons in daily contact with students MUST go through an FBI background check. Some schools actually require these checks for parents that volunteer in schools.
As for the charter school where I teach, they require all teachers to have a teaching certificate, be highly qualified according to NCLB (24 college credits in your area), oh yeah and that pesky background check.
So much for a criminal record with a high school diploma.
It depends on what school(s) you are speaking of and it sounds like you must be a public school teacher who is a member of a union. I know that when I was a teacher with Teach for America that the public school I worked in truly fit some of their examples of horrible schools. There were teachers working that everyone knew were horrible, yet they couldn't fire them. Why does any profession truly need a union these days? Because in the case of education, they are protecting the bad teachers and penalizing the good teachers. JMHO because I lived through years of it. If you have to hide behind a union to keep your job, you aren't good enough in the first place. I can safely say that I have my job because I earned it and excel in it. There would be absolutely no benefit in being in a union and I know many others that are much happier without one.
Nope and nope. Don't you love it when you make wrong assumptions?
I am certainly not making an assumption that you have a chip on your shoulder regarding education as evidenced by previous posts. Some of the best teachers I have known are at charter schools, are extremely well educated and don't have to hide behind a union boss to keep their jobs. They truly care about their students and provide exceptional educations for each and every one of them. Unless you are or have been a teacher, you can't possibly understand the unions and how they affect quality of education negatively. I don't care about what works in other countries because there isn't one that can compare directly to the United States. We have had an excellent education system in the past and can get back to that point if enough people truly care. A wonderful education is something we are all entitled to. That is the only sentence I would ever put that word in. .
Why does this "documentary" promote charter schools when far more charter schools perform worse (instead of better) than public schools?
Charter schools perform poorly because they are regulated out of existence. The school officials DON'T want charter schools. So what they do is grant some charter schools, make them fail and say, "look, i told you charter schools don't work."
If you want to see results, check out finland. They rank #1 in the world for math, science and reading. They also have 100% literacy rate.
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LOL! Spoken by someone who hasn't been in the classroom within 10 miles since they got out of High School.
Charter Schools don't even have "teachers" who have BA's. Nor do they pass background checks. So a High School grad with a criminal record can teach your kids in a charter school. Sounds great, eh?
Just FYI to everyone, this guy is just making this stuff up 100%. Ulysses61 you are a flat out LIAR.
Charter schools perform poorly because they are regulated out of existence. The school officials DON'T want charter schools. So what they do is grant some charter schools, make them fail and say, "look, i told you charter schools don't work."
If you want to see results, check out finland. They rank #1 in the world for math, science and reading. They also have 100% literacy rate.
That will change since teachers are now having problems similar to those in the US. Teachers in Finland are leaving the profession as salaries and benefits are not keeping up and the profession is being badmouthed.
Just FYI to everyone, this guy is just making this stuff up 100%. Ulysses61 you are a flat out LIAR.
No, he is not making it up. This is just one example, but in Houston, there are tons of stories about bad charter schools and how the teachers are totally unfit to teach. There are some good ones, but there are a lot of bad ones.
In some states, charter schools can hire teachers regardless of state certification requirements. In other states, charter schools are like other public schools and are held to the same state requirements to hire only certified teachers. Contact your state Department of Education to find out a particular charter school's teacher certification requirements.
Here's an interesting statistical nugget I picked up yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association: The odds that a teacher in a charter school will leave the profession are 230 percent greater than the odds that a teacher in a traditional public school in their state will do so.
The disturbingly high figure comes from a study by a pair of researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. David A. Stuit and Thomas M. Smith analyzed federal data from the 2003-04 school year on 14,428 teachers from charters and traditional public schools in 16 states.
In the charter schools, nearly a quarter of the teachers ended up leaving by the end of the school year, 14 percent of them leaving the field altogether and 11 percent transferring to another school.
By comparison, the average turnover rate in the regular public schools in the same states was around 14 percent. Half the departing teachers were leavers and half were switchers.
But even keeping in mind its fictional nature does anyone still recommend it?
the debunking of the stats in the movie by a parent's blog are not convincing to me. i understand the point of the movie they are criticizing, and sure, there should be more clarification behind what the movie claimed, but even in the debunking, it's still showing that lower percentage of teachers are terminated. i don't know how anyone can intelligently argue that it's extremely difficult to fire a public school teacher.
that aside, i thought the movie was really well put together. i don't agree with all the points in the overall premise and the conclusion it seems to steer the viewer towards, but i do think they presented a lot of interesting things about public education in america.
definitely worth watching. also, someone recommended The Cartel to me, which I am going to watch soon.
It "promotes" better education by advocating for charter schools and blaming the teachers union. Never mind that 37% of charter schools perform worse than regular public schools and just 17% perform better. Never mind that other countries (South Korea, Finland, etc) that perform better than the US also have strong teachers unions.
i don't think the documentary advocates charter schools. you may have interpreted it that way, but i didn't, and I don't agree that charter schools are the answer either.
it's absolutely painting the teachers' union in a negative light, but did the director set out to do this intentionally, or does it just happen? i'm not in the least bit anti-union, but i don't think anything said in the documentary was false. i watched with my wife, and she asked me "why do teachers get tenure?"...i don't have an answer to that question. can anyone tell me why a teacher gets tenure, in a process that's much less critical than college tenure? what's the purpose? i'm for paying teachers more money to attract better candidates. i'm not for slashing benefits (though i think some should be brought in line to modern day...maybe move away from pensions and towards 401k and matching type plans, etc). i think teachers should be treated as one of the most important professions in our country...good teachers should be rewarded nicely. bad teachers should be disciplined and terminated.
here's a good article that talks a bit about why charter schools aren't a good "test" of what "works". it doesn't mean they don't work, just that we can use them as proof of a better system.
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I can safely say that I have my job because I earned it and excel in it. There would be absolutely no benefit in being in a union and I know many others that are much happier without one.
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