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What people need to understand is that the average academic performance represents a huge achievement gap, not an overall middling performance. In a truly bad school system. nobody does well. But Harvard, Princeton and Stanford are turning away more qualified applicants than ever before. Some schools turn out so many graduating valedictorians that they have to draw straws to select one to give the graduation speech for the whole group. More students are also flunking out of school than ever before. Kids who are raised in a pro-education home culture tend to do very well in public schools, whether in Santa Fe or elsewhere. Kids raised by parents who did poorly in school tend to inherit their parents' contempt for education. Show me that kids failed to do well because they maxed out the opportunities that their schools offered them and then we can reform the schools. The poor craftsman blames his tools...the poor parent blames the schools.
Well, my child will be going to a public school after being at a private school for 3 years. Her class size will actually be SMALLER at the public schoolModerator cut: Inappropriate language ??
Last edited by Poncho_NM; 08-12-2010 at 12:43 AM..
Students at only 3 out of 30 public schools in Santa Fe met their adequate yearly progress goals last year. Woohoo... let's give it up for another finely run government organization! My local elementary is one of the three that passed, but regardless, I would never send my own child to public school here and it disgusts me that I have to pay for this crap.
I'm not going to spend time analyzing data and my own opinion to try and give you an answer. I am however going to tell you some information I know. I apologize in advance for the following novel.
Don't get so hung up on AYP. BECAUSE......
The student population at a school is broken up into different categories. Among those categories are Students with disabilities, and Economically disadvantaged students. There are also other categories based on race, or other types of identifiers or classification.
One of the biggest problems is that the federal government mandates that Special Ed. students be included in state testing. The government also requirers scores from students with disabilities to be taken into account, just like scores from any other student.
And I'm not talking about students with a "normal functioning brain", who just happen to have an orthopedic impairment. I'm talking about student with mild to severe mental retardation, Down's Syndrome, moderate to severe Autism, brain injuries, students with multiple disabilities.... Students who cannot talk, cannot articulate, cannot write, are echolalic, throw test items across the room for fun or eat them...
They typically must be given an alternative assessment. Often, these students fail because they cannot problem solve, they do not understand, or simply do not respond. The teacher HAS to administer the test and has to write the "answers". The answer sheet is then sent away to be marked - come what may.
If the students with disabilities as a whole fail their assessment, the entire school fails. If they pass, but students at an economic disadvantage fail, the entire school fails. Got it?
I'm not signaling out any category of students. I am a Special Ed. educator who works with students who are moderately to severely disabled. And yes, sometimes I work with a student who has a profound disability for an entire year. It's true that most students are so profoundly disabled that they are exempt from being tested. In my experience, those students are the exception, not the rule.
This shouldn't be the case but it is. And this just one example why schools fail AYP.... Are you one of those arm-chair teachers? Are you the type of parent who blames the teachers for the shortcomings of schools and the students? If so, please do not send your child to a public school. The teachers and administrators have enough to deal with. They don't need another yet another parent blaming them for everything.
This shouldn't be the case but it is. And this just one example why schools fail AYP.... Are you one of those arm-chair teachers? Are you the type of parent who blames the teachers for the shortcomings of schools and the students? If so, please do not send your child to a public school. The teachers and administrators have enough to deal with. They don't need another yet another parent blaming them for everything.
AMEN. It's probably the most thankless job in the world to me, as one who left it over 30 years ago and never looked back.
One other factor (among many) that can pull the scores/progress down is limited-to-no-English proficiency.
Oh yeah another two things that can pull scores down are;
Students who do not participate in the tests. Parents can refuse, but they are counted anyway and are considered as not passing.
Students can be counted in up to 5 different areas. A SpEd student who's primary language is Japanese, and who's parents make it known they are poor could be counted as "Asian", "Student with a disability", "economically disadvantaged" and ELL. And if he/she doesn't pass, their score just contributed to four different categories.
Personally, I think we should do away with the race category and just count these students (because they MUST be put into a category) as ELL, students with disabilities, or neither. Being black, white, hispanic, or economically disadvantaged does not warrant "specialized" instruction so why categorize them as such?
Santa Fe seems to me a retirement city rather than a city for families. If you are raising children and want a good education for them, then home schooling or a place outside of (probably) New Mexico would be a consideration. Private schools in SF are a possible but expensive choice.
When my daughter was in school, her mom and I did some volunteer work for the school. What we noticed is the students doing well had the support of their parents. At school functions, open houses, and some other things we set up such as counseling. The only students (and their parents) that showed up for free counseling were the kids that were doing well. At open house, the regular classrooms were almost empty, but the AP rooms were full of students and parents. It seems to me there is a direct correlation between parent involvement and the success of students.
The problems with the Santa Fe public schools is the result of Federal Policies passed by Republican administrations designed to allow “private” schools, subsidized by federal taxes, skim the top students and force the children of the untermensch to attend overcrowded and underfunded public schools. These policies are designed to achieve three things:
Enhance class separation by subsidizing the parents rich enough to afford private schools in the first place.
Reduce funding for the public education on the Federal level.
Create a set of nearly ignorant voters susceptible to the RW blather and distraction suitable for little more than minimum wage employment.
This policy has been mostly rejected by the people that would see the education of their children become effectively eliminated. There is no need for vouchers or Federal testing. Local schools should be funded and operated on a local level with some funding from the state and the federal government in the poor areas of the country. This, along with a lot more parental involvement (what good is parental involvement if the parents are dolts?) and school discipline (educate the special needs, disruptive and uncooperative kids in separate classrooms) so the kids that want to learn are taught and not just ignored.
Interesting theory, GregW, and one with which I totally disagree, except for a couple of points in your last paragraph. Having lived in four states, including New Mexico since 1970, my observation is that performance in public school has declined as the federal and state governments have poured more and more and more money and influence into the schools, which coincides with declining test scores and poor student performance.
I do not believe money is the answer. I believe the problem stems from not expecting students to do well, lowering standards and expectations all the time, social promotions, lack of expectations from teachers that students perform well, less parental involvement, less discipline in public schools, and teacher's unions which fight things like competency tests for teachers and support for tenure and achievement tests to track student progress.
My solution? Stop running education as a function of the federal government and powerful teachers unions. Return education to the local level. STOP with the social promotion and expect a student to EARN the right to move on to the next grade. Disband the powerful national teacher's unions like the NEA, and return to the days of PTA at the local level with no input or agenca from the federal government.
Not all public schools in the Santa Fe area are poor. Eldorado Elementary School where I live has an excellent reputation as a very good school. In our community, I believe parental involvement is the key.
I also favor school vouchers, private schools and home schooling. I think it is great for parents to have a choice in where their kids are educated. In my experience, the BEST education to be found is in private schools and homeschooling. Parents who desire that for their children should be applauded, not attacked as victims of "RW blather and distraction." That is patently insulting to millions of parents who are seeking the best choices for their kids.
Why defend the federal government educational system when it is failing so miserably, when other better choices can be made for one's children? For me it comes down to this -- is our goal to continue to defend the federal and state government, or care about what is best for our children's future?
My solution? Stop running education as a function of
the federal government and powerful teachers unions.
Also, stop running education as a day care center.
Some kids are too disruptive or out-of-control to be in school.
Making them attend isn't going to make them any smarter/more
educated, but it will damage the more well-behaved students.
Kick the bumpkins out for a year and let them try again next year.
If no improvement, repeat as often as necessary.
What's the difference between an uneducated 18-year-old who
has been forced to attend all those years and one who has stayed
at home and watched TV?
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BECAUSE......
Got it?
