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In addition to having teachers with subject degrees, we need to add more training for lateral entry teachers prior to their entering the classroom. And, that training needs to be realistic and grounded in best practices.
I mean if a teacher is a pre-schooler or 1-4 grade how will that help her having only english degree...she has to have something that generalize information which would mean an education degree wouldn't it???
The curriculum in many areas and grade levels needs to be overhauled as well so we can focus on teaching fundimental concepts in a way that allows our students to really understand the knowledge. If you can't remember it two years later, did you really learn it?
I agree with you focus on teaching fundamental concepts...and exactly teach something that kids will learn...and not be so focus on test scores so you can earn your merit pay.
1. Develop a two-track system, one for college-bound and one for technical training.
2. Stop measuring progress by how many days a student sits at a desk doing busy work, but rather by his mastery of material. Quit forcing the bright and motivated to march in lockstep with the stupid and lazy. If a 6th grader is reading at an 8th-grade level let them work at that level.
3. Eschew the factory model entirely, giving students the incentive to graduate early. Make it entirely possible for students to finish high school 2-3 years early and move on to college.
4. Go through the board of education and randomly fire 50% of the people who work there. Take the savings in salaries and benefits and give it to the teachers.
5. Anytime some politician decides that the public schools are the perfect place to fix some well-publicized social ill with some new classroom program, drag him down the capitol steps and shoot him as a warning to the others.
6. If a child is a persistent discipline problem, kick him out of the classroom. Don't shunt him to detention hall. Instead, make him do tedious, hard work on the school grounds. If there are multiple problems, kick him out entirely.
7. Stop shutting down the school for the football team. Make it about the academics again.
1. Develop a two-track system, one for college-bound and one for technical training.
2. Stop measuring progress by how many days a student sits at a desk doing busy work, but rather by his mastery of material. Quit forcing the bright and motivated to march in lockstep with the stupid and lazy. If a 6th grader is reading at an 8th-grade level let them work at that level.
3. Eschew the factory model entirely, giving students the incentive to graduate early. Make it entirely possible for students to finish high school 2-3 years early and move on to college.
4. Go through the board of education and randomly fire 50% of the people who work there. Take the savings in salaries and benefits and give it to the teachers.
5. Anytime some politician decides that the public schools are the perfect place to fix some well-publicized social ill with some new classroom program, drag him down the capitol steps and shoot him as a warning to the others.
6. If a child is a persistent discipline problem, kick him out of the classroom. Don't shunt him to detention hall. Instead, make him do tedious, hard work on the school grounds. If there are multiple problems, kick him out entirely.
7. Stop shutting down the school for the football team. Make it about the academics again.
Regarding #3, how would you accomplish this? What would your model work like? How would it work? Do you think you can do this with classrooms of 35 students? 25 students? 15 students? You are talking about individualizing education and that will take more staff. Something the american public has been unwilling to pay for.
I'll agree with #2. A good start would be common exit tests for each class/grade. Decide what mastery is, write a test that measures mastery and don't let students move on until they've mastered the material. However, you do realize that this will put even more emphasis on the bottom of the class, right? The focus won't be giving the bright child what they want but, rather, giving the novice student what they need to master the material. You'd really need a tiered system to handle the upper kids.
Tax dollars no longer go directly to the schools, but rather each child has x amount of tax dollars attached to them. Schools taking these tax dollars take only these tax dollars, cannot charge families anything extra.
Schools will have to become competitive to attract the attention of parents who then send their children to that school.
Will also decrease public school spending while increasing education quality. Schools will no longer be able to keep inept teachers on staff and administration that isn't necessary.
I graduated high school in 2007. Was one of the biggest wastes of my life. Teachers who couldn't teach. Now that high school has two vice principles, despite shrinking class sizes. All current schools do is reteach old material. I left school for 9th and 10th and came back for 11th grade and was being taught the same things as before I left.
Tax dollars no longer go directly to the schools, but rather each child has x amount of tax dollars attached to them. Schools taking these tax dollars take only these tax dollars, cannot charge families anything extra.
Schools will have to become competitive to attract the attention of parents who then send their children to that school.
Will also decrease public school spending while increasing education quality. Schools will no longer be able to keep inept teachers on staff and administration that isn't necessary.
I graduated high school in 2007. Was one of the biggest wastes of my life. Teachers who couldn't teach. Now that high school has two vice principles, despite shrinking class sizes. All current schools do is reteach old material. I left school for 9th and 10th and came back for 11th grade and was being taught the same things as before I left.
Tax dollars no longer go directly to the schools, but rather each child has x amount of tax dollars attached to them. Schools taking these tax dollars take only these tax dollars, cannot charge families anything extra.
Schools will have to become competitive to attract the attention of parents who then send their children to that school.
Will also decrease public school spending while increasing education quality. Schools will no longer be able to keep inept teachers on staff and administration that isn't necessary.
I graduated high school in 2007. Was one of the biggest wastes of my life. Teachers who couldn't teach. Now that high school has two vice principles, despite shrinking class sizes. All current schools do is reteach old material. I left school for 9th and 10th and came back for 11th grade and was being taught the same things as before I left.
The New Living Word School near Ruston, for example, is a church-run school that had been approved for $2.7 million of taxpayer money under the Minimum Foundations Program. The New Living Word School was granted permission to take 315 school vouchers -- the largest number for any school -- even though it has no library, and students reportedly spend most of their day watching Biblically-themed DVDs.
The problem with privitizing education is it becomes a for profit game. Schools will compete for the students who are cheap and easy to educate. Seriously, if you give me kids who want to learn, I can teach them 40 at a time and make lots of money. All I have to do is refuse to take the ones who struggle/don't want to learn or kick them out.
The one good thing that would come from privatizing education is we'd, FINALLY, accept that students actually do bear some responsibility for learning. Of course the ones who don't want to learn won't get educated because no one will want to waste their time/money on them.
The charter school I worked for was for profit. They took anyone until count day. After count day, our numbers started dropping. Once they had 75% of the money attached to that child secured, they'd start expelling the trouble makers and there was reason to expel them but it seems unfair to keep the money and send the kid packing.
When I was there, they packed our classrooms to standing room only at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, we'd be down to normal class sizes but they kept 75% of the money attached to the students who left.
What we really need to do is quit wasting our time on kids who don't want an education. We need to do what other countries do and make education a privlidge not a right. The kids who don't want to learn slow down the process for everyone else. Teachers spend 80% of their effort on the 20% of students who they'll see the least gains from. Granted that may make a considerable difference for a child here and there BUT is education about spending lots of time, money and effort on a few kids because you might make a difference or about educating the masses?
Regarding #3, how would you accomplish this? What would your model work like? How would it work? Do you think you can do this with classrooms of 35 students? 25 students? 15 students? You are talking about individualizing education and that will take more staff. Something the american public has been unwilling to pay for.
I'll agree with #2. A good start would be common exit tests for each class/grade. Decide what mastery is, write a test that measures mastery and don't let students move on until they've mastered the material. However, you do realize that this will put even more emphasis on the bottom of the class, right? The focus won't be giving the bright child what they want but, rather, giving the novice student what they need to master the material. You'd really need a tiered system to handle the upper kids.
It doesn't have to take more staff. I think it would take less.
1st - Decide what mastery is.
2nd - You can't move up a grade until you've mastered the material.
3rd - Let students see all of the course work before hand. When you enter 9th grade, you know exactly what you'll need to graduate by 12th grade.
Schools now should be incorporating tablets, laptops, internet, etc all to kind of seamlessly turn in work. Why have these arbitrary cut offs in september or june to turn in work?
1 teacher and 30 desks in a classroom seem very, very outdated in 2012. If the smart kids can do all the work in 3 months (half way through the semester), why can't they go to college for the other 3 months and earn credits? Why can't they get work experience? That would be more productive than sitting in class going over material you already know.
It wouldn't have to take more staff to let them earn college credits. Then when they're 20, 21, they're only taking 1/2 the classes they need to, and they're really ahead of the game.
-I would also offer softer skills like public speaking, presentations, brainstorming, how to network, etc. The cirriculum should be at least 1/4 intangible things. This obsession with tangible test scores is insane. There is more to life than that. Negotiating? Debate skills? How to construct arguements? Wouldn't those be valuable?
i'd say make te43achers that under perform easier to fire. The I hate to say it but eliminate students whpo fail to perform are just are their for social r4ersons.Hrsh but the probelms with just a few are ruini gth esytem for the many.Go to levels testing at end of term to judge moving forward.Vouchers to allow choice just as we do with colege.have other trinig avilable for thsoe who want vocational but have to preform even there.
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