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I would like parents to take an actual STAND against the school boards. Instead of just talking about the changes, how about get together and formulate a list of actionable items that the board needs to address?
If the board refuses to address them, TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL FOR ONE DAY. All of them.
What a message that would send -- an EMPTY SCHOOL. Reconvene with the board, get actionable items in front of them again. And if they refuse to look at them. TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL FOR ANOTHER DAY.
Lather rinse repeat. Parents hold all the power. They just refuse to take it.
And it amazes me that parents subject their own kids to situations that they themselves would never accept.
1. No more inclusion. Teach kids at the level they are at. This works best for everybody involved.
2. No promoting kids to the next grade when they can't read/do math.
3. Get rid of standardized testing. It is meaningless and doesn't teach kids anything except how to cry during a test and how their worth is tied to a test.
And 4. Reduce reliance on computers in elementary school. Have kids focus on pencil/paper and books. When they reach 5th-6th grade then bring computers in. Teach the kids to LEARN first, then add in learning the technology, which are two separate skills.
What 3 things would you suggest to significantly improve America's K-12 public schools.
If you respond, please include what your role in schools is (e.g., administrator, teacher, parent, non-parent community member, etc.).
1. Bring back quality vocational schools and training.
2. Differentiate schools along county lines via thematic or other "personalized" education issues.
3. De-emphasize athletics. All students should have the opportunity to play rec level sports even in high school, and start a culture of school before sports.
Stop using the phrase " teaching to the test". Isn't that what they always did? Did you walk into an English Lit class and have to take an Algebra test? No. You learned the info that you were going to be tested on, so you/we were taught to test.
Give teachers a paid one year sabbatical every five years.
stop letting every Tom dick and Harry become a teacher just because they have a degree. Do other professions allow this?
Interesting range of responses and I think we will get a lot more. I think there is a big difference between education in this country from state to state, and within states there are huge differences between inner city, suburban, and rural schools, and between differences in size. There are numerous schools where I live in Western PA with very small enrollments. I'm looking at the stats on one district that has 109 students enrolled this year in grades 9-12. How can you compare the difference in education between this district and a large wealthy suburban district?
My point is that each of us looks at education from our own unique perspective. I went to a large high school (2,000 students) that was brand new my sophomore year. We had strict tracking starting in 7th grade, and my entire school career from 7th through 12th grade was with the top 20% of the student body. Discipline problems were few and I had a total of one minority student in all my classes. We had one Hispanic student student in the school. I think many parents tend to look at education from their own experience, regardless of whether it was good or bad, because they have nothing else to compare it to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tnff
Well obviously three things is a very simplified solution to a complex problem, but here goes.
1. Be willing to differentiate and provide different education to the top 25% from the middle 50% and the bottom 25% of students. We have to be willing to acknowledge that not all students are the same and that typical one size fits all education moves at the pace of the slowest person in the classroom. That does no one any good. It doesn't really help the bottom students, but frustrates them and hurts the top students. I'm not advocating the top students jump ahead but that they get more depth and breadth to both challenge them and build that foundation for the next class. We have no problem distinguishing between top athletic performers from average athletes and non athletes. Why is this concept so hard to accept academically?
I agree. The better you can group classes academically, outcomes will improve accordingly. The other thing that can be done is the higher performing classes can be larger and lower performing classes smaller. Class size makes more of a difference with low performing classes.
2. Elevate teaching from a trade to a profession commensurate in pay and status to professions like engineering. This will require some big changes in the expectations on teachers and the training program. Not just pay for performance, but pay for teaching the more challenging courses. Yes, pay the math, physics, and chemistry teachers more than the biology teacher and the bio teacher more than social studies. I know, doesn't fit the education model, but we need to consider what it will take to get top STEM performers to go into teaching. To effect this change the profession will need to demonstrate why the higher pay brings results.
Mixed feelings about this. I don't have a problem with paying more for teachers who are hard to find. I've only seen a shortage of physics teachers in my area. Of the STEM teachers I've encountered, one graduated from an Ivy League school and several have their PhD. This may be one of those differences based on where you live.
3. Teach students how to study and how to learn. Learning good study techniques pays off not just in school, but especially in college and even life as people become lifelong learners.
I think teachers already do this a great deal. I think there is more to this topic. I'll discuss below.
Parent and STEM material provider.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldhag1
Roles at various times: Parent, Teacher, Administrator, Affiliated Education Professional
1) Bring back meaningful Vocational Education and stop the nonsense that every child should go to college. We do kids a huge disservice that ends up making them feel like failures and denies them a meaningful, dignified career.
2) Sorry, know it's not popular to say so, but tracking needs to make a come back. And while I am making myself unpopular and a subject of scorn for being an awful human, let's throw in the granddaddy, we need to have a very serious national discussion about the purpose and meaning of "free appropriate education and "least restrictive environment." The needs of the few have to be balanced with the needs of the many, right now they are superseding them.
3) Put the bulk of the responsibility for learning and behavior back where it belongs, on students and parents. No, teachers should not get a free pass but right now we are teaching kids that others owe them success and that is not reality. Students whose behavior is a detriment to others need to be removed from regular classes much sooner and put in smaller classes that focus on successful behavior.
I agree with everything you have stated here.
My top four:
1. I'll copy one from Ivorytickler here. I think there needs to be an end of course assessment to show that students have retained something from the course. Too many students I encounter don't remember anything they learned from a month ago. Some teachers don't give tests so students don't even try to learn. As long as you turn in a worksheet (that you copied from your friend), you have done everything necessary for the class.
2. Emphasize reading. Reading is not emphasized in most of the classes I have seen. Students are not responsible for learning any information that is in any reading material. Typical comments from students are, "Why read the book when we will get a study guide with what we need to know for the test."
3. Many teachers need to be more productive in the classroom. Many teachers don't make effective use of the entire class period and the entire year. In many high school classrooms, it is the norm for students to line up at the door (or go into the hallway) two to three minutes before the bell rings. Much classroom time is just spent socializing or students are on their cellphones.
4. Reduce reliance on technology. I'm a big fan of technology. I've owned a computer since 1983. Computers should be enhancing education but the opposite is occurring. When students should be using a laptop, notepad, etc., there are often issues. For example, students have been assigned Chromebooks, and they have an assignment on Google Classroom. Typically, 4-5 students in the class don't have their Chromebook, it is not charged, or is not working. In many instances, teachers make up assignments so they can report they are using the technology that has been provided. There are other issues, such as taking the first 5-10 minutes of a class for everyone to get logged in and accessing a certain website. Many networks were not designed for 25 or 30 students to log in at the same time. There are many advantages to computers but not necessarily in the classroom. BTW, I had college professors ask students not to use their electronic devices during class. Even in a college class, students who are using their laptop during class are typically on Facebook, Instagram, etc.
My role is a parent of three college graduates, one who is now an elementary school teacher. I have been subbing for a number of years at over 10 school districts in a four county area.
I'm a parent of two boys, 10 and 14, living in Sthn CA. My list would be:
1 Spend more money on education!
Money doesn't solve everything - but lack of adequate funding severely restricts the ability to provide a decent education. California spends about $9000 per annum per student and everyone squeals. And yet we think nothing of incarcerating staggering numbers of people at $60,000 pa.
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3. More teaching of critical thinking, less worksheets
I can only talk about Los Angeles specifically, but generally I find the method of instruction, in public schools at least, so old fashioned, with a lot of emphasis on rote work, memorization, worksheets,etc. I grew up in New Zealand and I was taught in the same way 40 years ago, but you wouldn't find that approach to be prevalent now. There is a place for those things, but I think it should be very limited. It seems like a slow death to curiosity by a thousand worksheets.
For the same reason, I'd like to see less homework at elementary level. There's pretty strong research that homework doesn't start to change educational outcomes until around the high school level. It does however kill a lot of the enthusiasm of younger children for school and introduce a lot of stress into families. In third grade, every night my younger child's class was getting 30 minutes of homework (yes, you guessed it, worksheets) plus another 30 minutes of reading. That's close to another 20% of their school day! It leaves little time for all the other things that are just as essential to child development - free play, sports, music, etc.
...
In terms of special Ed, maybe we've been lucky, but my kids have only found benefit from the kids mainstreamed in their classes. Empathy, an understanding that everyone is a bit different in their own way, learning how to help others, and so on. I can see, though, how it makes it tougher for teachers.
Interesting post!
You're correct, money won't fix everything, but in most communities education is done on the cheap. I'm not sure how NYS does it now, but when I was a kid, the school budget was the one governmental budget that people got to vote on. So they voted it down virtually every year, and then we would go through multiple addition votings until we had a shaky school budget. It put everything in flux every year. And it sort of exemplifies the attitude Americas (in general) seem to have toward funding out kid's education.
Yes, critical thinking over what sometimes seems to be busy work, but keeping in mind that there has to be a factual foundation to much learning, as well. And how to learn...as another poster mentioned.
The amount of homework is something I haven't settled in my own mind, but often I have seen too much, rather than not enough. I remember interviewing a French once and I asked about homework. She said, as I recall, 2-3 hours of homework a night. And I said, "And how of much of that time would be for French?" She replied, "No, the 2-3 hours is for French, then they can do their other subjects." We didn't hire her.
I believe it was Oldhag who brought up a balance of special ed inclusion. And I agree with her and you that there is actually value in kids learning to associate with all types of people, just as they will in real life. Principals in my school before me had blocked as many sped kids as they could, while I somewhat opened the doors except for truly extreme cases. It's my belief that sped kids...like every other kid...ought to be educated in their local community school, whenever possible. They may be self-contained in that local school, or mainstreamed, but their ought to be a place there for most.
1. Bring back quality vocational schools and training.
2. Differentiate schools along county lines via thematic or other "personalized" education issues.
3. De-emphasize athletics. All students should have the opportunity to play rec level sports even in high school, and start a culture of school before sports.
I am a teacher.
Could explain just a bit more about # 2? Thank you.
Interesting range of responses and I think we will get a lot more. I think there is a big difference between education in this country from state to state, and within states there are huge differences between inner city, suburban, and rural schools, and between differences in size. There are numerous schools where I live in Western PA with very small enrollments. I'm looking at the stats on one district that has 109 students enrolled this year in grades 9-12. How can you compare the difference in education between this district and a large wealthy suburban district?
My point is that each of us looks at education from our own unique perspective. I went to a large high school (2,000 students) that was brand new my sophomore year. We had strict tracking starting in 7th grade, and my entire school career from 7th through 12th grade was with the top 20% of the student body. Discipline problems were few and I had a total of one minority student in all my classes. We had one Hispanic student student in the school. I think many parents tend to look at education from their own experience, regardless of whether it was good or bad, because they have nothing else to compare it to.
My top four:
1. I'll copy one from Ivorytickler here. I think there needs to be an end of course assessment to show that students have retained something from the course. Too many students I encounter don't remember anything they learned from a month ago. Some teachers don't give tests so students don't even try to learn. As long as you turn in a worksheet (that you copied from your friend), you have done everything necessary for the class.
2. Emphasize reading. Reading is not emphasized in most of the classes I have seen. Students are not responsible for learning any information that is in any reading material. Typical comments from students are, "Why read the book when we will get a study guide with what we need to know for the test."
3. Many teachers need to be more productive in the classroom. Many teachers don't make effective use of the entire class period and the entire year. In many high school classrooms, it is the norm for students to line up at the door (or go into the hallway) two to three minutes before the bell rings. Much classroom time is just spent socializing or students are on their cellphones.
4. Reduce reliance on technology. I'm a big fan of technology. I've owned a computer since 1983. Computers should be enhancing education but the opposite is occurring. When students should be using a laptop, notepad, etc., there are often issues. For example, students have been assigned Chromebooks, and they have an assignment on Google Classroom. Typically, 4-5 students in the class don't have their Chromebook, it is not charged, or is not working. In many instances, teachers make up assignments so they can report they are using the technology that has been provided. There are other issues, such as taking the first 5-10 minutes of a class for everyone to get logged in and accessing a certain website. Many networks were not designed for 25 or 30 students to log in at the same time. There are many advantages to computers but not necessarily in the classroom. BTW, I had college professors ask students not to use their electronic devices during class. Even in a college class, students who are using their laptop during class are typically on Facebook, Instagram, etc.
My role is a parent of three college graduates, one who is now an elementary school teacher. I have been subbing for a number of years at over 10 school districts in a four county area.
Very good point about the significant differences between school districts. I was brought up in NYS where each village had its own school system. Then I spent most of my career in the 11th largest school system in the U.S. However, I think we have to look at kids more than sizes of school systems.
Your #1 -- that's why I really liked NYS' regents exams for high school subjects.
Your 2 & 3 -- agreed.
Your # 4 -- interesting. I retired before we got into technology at that level.
Stop using the phrase " teaching to the test". Isn't that what they always did? Did you walk into an English Lit class and have to take an Algebra test? No. You learned the info that you were going to be tested on, so you/we were taught to test.
...
I think when educators say "teaching to the test," they mean teaching to standardized tests, not the end of unit tests individual teachers give.
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We didn't hire her.