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Let's address root issues like high poverty. There have been studies that show the differences in number of words that a child from a poor background has been exposed to by entering school compared to that of a kid from middle or upper class background; the difference was astonishing. Or, for that matter, the kid can't fully concentrate on school because he's hungry, he's bouncing from place to place (and maybe school to school as a result) because his family can't afford the rent, his parents are too busy working to give any help or support even if they wanted to, and he's stuck in neighborhoods where everyone else is dragged down by similar problems. Teachers can and should continue to do their best, but society as a whole has to take responsibility to say that there are larger society-wide problems at work here.
How does that explain the precipitous achievement drops amongst the top and mid-level students?
"While students in the bottom quartile have shown slow but steady improvement since the 1960s, average test scores have nonetheless gone down, primarily because of the performance of those in the top quartile. This "highest cohort of achievers," Rudman writes, has shown "the greatest declines across a variety of subjects as well as across age-level groups." Analysts have also found "a substantial drop among those children in the middle range of achievement," he continues, "but less loss and some modest gains at the lower levels." In other words, our brightest youngsters, those most likely to be headed for selective colleges, have suffered the most dramatic setbacks over the past two decades--a fact with grave implications for our ability to compete with other nations in the future. If this is true--and abundant evidence exists to suggest that it is--then we indeed have a second major crisis in our education system."
"A college professor looks at the forgotten victims of our mediocre educational system--the potentially high achievers whose SAT scores have fallen, and who read less, understand less of what they read, and know less than the top students of a generation ago."
The Other Crisis in American Education - 91.11 (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/educatio/singalf.htm - broken link)
It's lengthy, but worth the read. It explains why and how the top and mid-level students have been dumbed down - particularly in 'The Incubus of the Sixties' and 'The Shock of College-Level Demands' sections.
The only thni i balme the teachers for is supporting known fails of the education system putting themselves above good education. it hard to think well of teachers unions when we see successful programs ended by their politics.Its just a matter of time until the system is changed by this failure.
IMHO, the problem has been teaching to some minimum standards, probably as a result of NCLB. What happens is that the students who start out above that standard get bored and lose interest. Some of the students will never meet those minimum standards, so the standards get lowered.
In our state, high schoolers have to pass a standards test in order to get a diploma. The first year it was required, only about 40% passed on the first try. My son who passed, said he heard from friends that they dumbed down the next test. In later years, I think they give a certificate of attendance for those who don't pass.
One thing that has irked my kids is that they mix the high achievers with the low achievers in group projects. I know the thinking is to raise the lower achievers, but what usually happens is the high achievers do all the work and the low achievers do nothing. The middle achievers, who might be helped by this arrangement, probably see they can get a good grade by following the low achievers doing nothing.
My solution to this would be to let the kids confidentially rate each other say a 1-full participation, 2-medium participation, or 3-little to no participation. They would rate everyone in the group including themselves and could give the same score to each member. On the next project, I'd place the 1's together, the 2's together and the 3's together. The idea here is to give the low group student a chance to move up (i.e., if a 3 gets rated as a 1, move them to group 2 unless their project doesn't warrant it). Of course, higher students can move down and never officially let the students know which group they fall into (although they'll likely know).
It's about 50-50 (e.g., 50% the kids, 50% the teachers).
I say that because many of the kids are too busy with facebook, twitter, WiFi'ing on their Wii's, listening to their iPod's, and texting to be concerned with opening up an actual book and learning something.
Then at the other end there are many teachers that are just disinterested in teaching anymore. My daughter is 15 and she has a math teacher that doesn't even stay in the classroom. He comes in, takes roll, tells the kids what page in their books to turn to and do the problems on the page. Then he leaves and goes into the lunch room for "coffee" and doesn't come back into the classroom until just a few minutes before the bell rings.
I'm tired of it. My tax dollars pay for the school to educate the kids. This teacher is a sorry a$$ed dirtbag that needs to be fired.
Then too, the no child left behind act doesn't help things. A kid can be passed through school all the way through his/her senior year and graduate without even knowing how to read.
The schools need an overhaul and teachers need to be reevaluated and their pay should be based on their performance. If the teachers were given a score based on the bell curve using the average of the students grades in their classrooms, and then paid accordingly -- I guarantee they'd take a sudden interest in getting those kids to learn.
Sorry, this is a hot subject for me because I have 8 kids. My kids all do well in school mainly because my wife and I push them to. We have strict rules in our house and no one gets to have any free time until they've finished their homework.
I have an adopted son that's 6 and he has down syndrome. Even he is making excellent grades in school, bless his heart. He loves learning new things and always tries very hard at everything he does.
I agree with you that your daughter's teacher is a dirtbag. There is no excuse for him to leave the classroom. It sounds like you need to discuss this issue with the principal. However, I disagree with you that performance based standards for teachers will get teachers to make students learn. It's just not that simple! It sounds like your a parent who does take interest in your childrens' learning. Research shows that when the family/parents take an interest in their childrens' educations, they will perform better. As someone who has taught in the poor schools, I struggled to get parents to care. I made phone calls on a daily basis for the first quarter, but realized that no matter how bad their children were doing in school, they just didn't care. Some parents were a lot of talk, some stopped answering the phone, and some flat out told me they didn't care. How was I supposed to instill a value of education when their main influence and role model didn't care? I did my best to teach kids in the time I had them, but what happens at home is far more influential on their learning than the 6 hours kids are in school.
There is also the issue of having to raise test scores, which is essentially how the "system" will base performance pay. I can tell you that when over 50% of your class is below grade level coming into that grade, it's going to be a lot harder to get them on level than someone who is already at grade level. In the poor schools teachers already have their cards stacked. I taught 4th grade, and on average, my students entered the grade reading at a beginning 3rd grade level. I usually had a few students who were at a 1st grade level, and only a few on grade level. By the time testing is done in the spring, most of the students advanced close to a year, but were still not considered grade level.
To complicate matters further, most teachers that work in the poor schools are new to the profession. They are learning how to teach, how to manage classrooms, and how to manage time. Once they gain these skills, they are able to move to a better school where they don't have to struggle with all the challenges a poor school has. So, now you have the experienced teachers at the schools where you have students who are on grade level, have supportive parents, and generally are easier to teach. In the mean time, the poor schools continue to to struggle with test scores because you have new teachers, unsupportive parents, and students who can be very difficult to teach. I don't see how performance based pay is going to improve this situation.
Guys, I think you missed the point I was trying to make (probably because I wasn't very clear -- bad headache today so I'm less than here).
When I outlined the grammatical issues, I meant that from the perspective of if the parent as an adult does not know correct grammar, how in the world would one expect that parent to help educate their child?
I watched a really interesting documentary last week on PBS about the epigenome and how nurturing during infancy and early childhood play a huge role in a child's ability to learn. Mothers that are attentive to their babies produce children that are more often better behaved, and more willing to learn.
Mothers that are detached, and disinterested toward their child produce children that are more prone to violent and disruptive behavior, and show little interest or willingness to learn.
Teachers have their hands full. I'm aware of this. My oldest boy and his wife are both teachers. My son teaches 9th grade English and his wife teaches 6th grade history. I hear stories about their frustrations all the time. However, it's really nice when you hear stories about how a teacher has made all the difference in a kid's life. That's very inspiring.
I just don't know what the answer to the problem is. I wish I did, but I don't. I think if maybe some retired parents/grandparents were to volunteer at schools to individually tutor children that were having learning difficulties it would help to alleviate some of the burdens the teachers are facing and by doing so would allow them to teach their students more effectively.
Just my two cents anyway.
@Ivorytickler -- I may have a suggestion for you. I'd need to know what state it is that you're teaching in, in order to provide the best advice.
I think this is an excellent point. If administrators and the government allowed teachers to teach and parents to parent we would be much better off.
Take heed my fellow friends. This quote is more true than not........but, we as parents need to take responsibility for our own actions.
IMO.........parents who take matters in their own hands where their kids are concerned could make a world of difference.
Our parents made us the way we are and it's our duty to raise our kids and make a better culture for them. If we banned together to make a change.......it could change our whole world.
It sounds like your a parent who does take interest in your childrens' learning. Research shows that when the family/parents take an interest in their childrens' educations, they will perform better.
Woe. Hold on there. What on Earth prodded you to draw that conclusion? I do take a very serious interest in the education of my children.
I have a 15 year old that's in a school for academically talented students. She's already planning her college studies. She's going for a PhD in Public Policy with a JD in Law. My 24 year old is a Teacher. I have a 17 (almost 18) year old that's studying to be a Priest.
All of my kids earn grades higher than B's. I have 3 special needs kids that were adopted from 3rd world countries. One child is blind, another deaf, and the other with down syndrome.
My daughter that's deaf does gymnastics like she was born on a balance beam. My daughter that's blind plays the piano like music runs out of her fingers. My son that has down syndrome can spell any word you throw at him and get it right.
We do things with the kids like play word tag (it helps them with spelling and they're having fun with it). We give them a weekly list of spelling words (not from their teachers) and they study it. On Friday they get a spelling test and if they get all the words correct they're given $1.00 extra on their allowance.
On Sunday we play double-down. They can put their allowance, and any extra money they earned on Friday with it, and be given one word to spell that isn't on their list and if they spell it correctly they're given twice the dollar amount back. If they get it wrong, they get nothing in return.
The money they get for allowance, and the spelling tests (including Sunday double-down) must be used to buy books.
We play math games and history games with the kids too.
I take an active role in the lives of my kids, educationally, developmentally, and spiritually.
I think it is easy to blaim the teachers and easy to blame the parents, but no one wants to admit that the fundamental structure of US education is broken. Parents take offense when the finger is pointed at them, and good teachers are tired of the finger being pointed at them as well.
The US educational system is based upon education for the masses and a one size fits all curriculum. One size does not fit all, and what works for one child does not work for another. When we address the issues within education and society we have hope of fixing education. A lot of what needs to be changed is out of the hands of teachers, and in some cases parents.
If you look at how society has changed, it really shows how poor of a job the US educational system has done at adapting. We say No Child Left Behind, although instead of looking at learning styles we are looking at demographics. Most homes have two parents working, and working more than one job. The kids are fending for themselves or taking care of little brothers and sisters, instead of doing homework. There is no one to help at home because families are trying to keep their heads above water.
There are also many more technological distractions that just were not around years ago. Instead of complaining about the technological distractions, we should be capitalizing on how to use those distractions for educational purposes.
We have more money being used in building jails and prisons than we do towards education. You have kids without supplies, and schools without technology. You have thirty three kids assigned to one teacher because of budget cuts, and little Jonny's mom is mad because he feels like just a number in the classroom. There is not enough money being spent on Special Education services, and you have kids in mainstream classrooms without the aids that they need. We are worried about test scores and bubbling in answers and kid's can not think! Sorry about the rampage, but there are so many factors out there.
In districts where there is a lot of parent support, you can get parents to "donate" supplies, yet in lower SES areas that does not happen. The playing field is not even level to start with.......so go ahead and point fingers......you just might find yourself turning around in circles.
Last edited by dez181; 10-08-2009 at 02:53 PM..
Reason: typo
So.. it is not generally the teachers fault that John does not want to learn, it is the students and his parents. So then why does the media and the establishment always blame the teachers?
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