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The high performing students are clearly a positive influence on the lower-performing students, peer learning, modeling, group projects and all. Big plus for the school system and the lower-performing students.
But at the expense of the high performing students.
Ask any high-performing student their opinion of group projects in public schools.
Our kids and nieces and nephews complained constantly about group projects. Classmates who didn't do their part or did it poorly. Yet they all got the same grade. Our kids adopted the strategy of picking up the slack and doing the final editing of any project.
The teachers all told them this was good preparation for life when you have to work with people of all skill levels.
Know what. All are grown up and none work with folks who don't carry their share of the load. They either don't get hired or get fired fairly fast.
Our public school system shortchanges higher performing students in favor of helping the lower performing students.
Vouchers are going to be a cluster duck with schools springing up and falling by the wayside and some getting a decent education and others not at all.
And the siloing of students into spending their days with people of their same faith will do nothing to help the melting pot business.
But public schools are just not working for a lot of kids. These are likely the ones who will be opting into voucher supported schools.
Group projects are a way of life though. Not just for public schools. I did them in my undergrad and am now doing them in my grad program.
So what's your opinion of public school group projects?
For MS/HS, I'm 100% okay with them. Undergrad I'm 50/50 and grad, no way.
With MS/HS, you're all in the same class together day after day. Teachers almost always provide in-class time to work on projects and it is a good way to learn how to divvy up workloads, which is used in the real world.
Undergrad - I say it depends. Kids might have class together 1-2x/week and everybody is balancing school, side jobs, sports, clubs etc. Group meetings weren't impossible to schedule, but we had to be flexible. Had some great projects though (especially in my 3 marketing classes).
Grad school - no way. I'm taking it online and there's students in pretty much every time zone. We all have jobs with different schedules and outside lives. It's near impossible to find a common time to work. You're also at the point where it becomes more frustrating than what you can actually learn from.
However, cut-rate tuition schools will likely spring up in churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, and empty malls so that with a few thousand dollars of supplemental tuition, they will be affordable for middle-income families.
High performing students from lower-income families will be eligible for scholarships to make up the difference.
In an ideal world, the public schools would hustle up programs and schools that will retain higher performing students.
In the real world, the districts that are already doing well will lose some students but will continue on providing the education that families already appreciate and approve of. The rest will soon find themselves with the most difficult-to-educate students.
I would agree with you- IF the money for vouchers or for funding for profit charters did not come out of the current school budgets, but they don't and unless there is a way to fund these vouchers through private donations then there is no way that public schools can sustain huge cuts without it impacting their ability to teach kids.
As far as public schools 'hustling up programs', I live in the San Juan School District (Sacramento County) and to their credit they have done exactly what you suggested. They turned one failing school into an International Baccalaureate school and prior to that they had hundreds of students opting out of attending the school through open enrollment but since they started the IB program they have long waiting lists of kids wanting to attend the school. They did the same thing with two other schools, one of them is heavy on arts and music and attendance involves a high degree of parental involvement, and another has become a fundamental school which means kids are groomed for STEM from kindergarten. Both of those schools have become successful, schools with uniformly good test scores.
There are still a few failing schools around here and I absolutely hate to say this but I think they might be leaving them that way in order to get Title I funding. My grandson is in this school district and I'm seriously thinking about running for the school board so they will have to deal with the wrath of a cranky grandma
I would agree with you- IF the money for vouchers or for funding for profit charters did not come out of the current school budgets, but they don't and unless there is a way to fund these vouchers through private donations then there is no way that public schools can sustain huge cuts without it impacting their ability to teach kids.
As far as public schools 'hustling up programs', I live in the San Juan School District (Sacramento County) and to their credit they have done exactly what you suggested. They turned one failing school into an International Baccalaureate school and prior to that they had hundreds of students opting out of attending the school through open enrollment but since they started the IB program they have long waiting lists of kids wanting to attend the school. They did the same thing with two other schools, one of them is heavy on arts and music and attendance involves a high degree of parental involvement, and another has become a fundamental school which means kids are groomed for STEM from kindergarten. Both of those schools have become successful, schools with uniformly good test scores.
There are still a few failing schools around here and I absolutely hate to say this but I think they might be leaving them that way in order to get Title I funding. My grandson is in this school district and I'm seriously thinking about running for the school board so they will have to deal with the wrath of a cranky grandma
Go for it.
Sounds like you live in a progressive school district in which few families will opt for the vouchers.
Except in this case, you want to save 1 child while shooting the rest. Private schools, even with vouchers do not have to take kids with disabilities and special needs. If we want to attach provisions to vouchers that say Private schools MUST adhere to IDEA (look it up if you don't know) and cannot refuse special needs kids then we can talk. This was asked of Devos during the confirmation hearings and she absolutely refused to answer.
Look, it's a complex issue with many facets. I get why you want that 1 kid to choose and go to another school. I get it...let's talk about that autistic kid or the kid in the wheelchair. Everyone keeps ignoring it. What do we do with those that public school has a responsibility to teach and who cannot use the voucher system?
"while shooting the rest."
Please find better word then "shooting"
No ONE is FOR "shooting the rest"
If "shooting" is going on, it is ANOTHER reason to get them out of that school.
And why do you support failing schools?
Why send ANY kid to a failing school when they can go to different school that is NOT failing?
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