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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 15, 2015 7:55:58 GMT -5
Newsday: "A four-year moratorium on use of student scores on Common Core state tests to evaluate job performances by teachers and principals gained quick and overwhelming preliminary approval from the state Board of Regents." (Link to article) Overwhelming(ly) = 15 Yes; 1 No. The lone "No" vote was cast by (lame duck) Chancellor Merryl Tisch. This is NOT the final vote, but I expect the final vote to be the same.
Will this decision, when finalized, end the revolt against the Common Core? What do you think? Chris Wendt chriswendt117@gmail.com
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Post by bnjasper on Dec 16, 2015 10:39:43 GMT -5
How can you have faith in any of these folks. WE have the smartest (supposedly) sitting down and now they need FOUR more years. I can tell you now the teacher's union will oppose any attempt to have teachers evaluated on any objective scenario. The only hope for the education of our kids is for the governor to stick to his guns and force some evaluation. FOUR more years to develop a plan that has been in the works for the past decade. That's FOUR years!!!!
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Post by truthbtold on Dec 16, 2015 21:32:10 GMT -5
Teachers are evaluated every single year of their employment by multiple administrators.
The recent moratorium has nothing to do with "caving in." It has to do, hopefully, with "waking up" to the reality of whose performance is really being assessed on state tests, that of the students, not the teachers.
Teachers cannot control all of the variables that affect a child's performance on an exam. Things like:
Parents overseeing, or not, the completion of homework. Parents overseeing, or not, their children studying for tests. Parents over-scheduling, or not, their children for after-school activities. Parents signing their children out of school for extended vacations and supposed sick days. Parents allowing their children to stay up too late playing video games. Parents not monitoring their children's use of technology, like cell phones. Parents completing their children's work for them. Parents preventing the school from disciplining their children. Parents providing alcohol to their children. Parents who are abusive to each other and /or their children. Parents who are not present at all in their children's lives. Parents who are dealing with substance abuse. Parents who are struggling financially. Children using technology to cheat off of one another. Children using technology to plagiarize. Children using study guides instead of reading. Children experimenting with alcohol and marijuana. Children not eating and/or sleeping enough.
And when, and if, all that's in check, teachers cannot control the degree to which a child tries to do his or her best work. That's called good old-fashioned effort for those who have forgotten.
Oh, and let's not forget the message that parents transmit to their children, as well as their children's classmates, when they opt their kids out of the tests that are going to be used to measure a teacher's efficacy, the message that "education is unfair and that you have the right to refuse to do your work." That's some message to teach your children. Great parenting.
When teachers can control all of the above, then use student performance to measure them.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 17, 2015 12:25:33 GMT -5
There is truth and wisdom in both of the previous responses. Well, at least there are two divergent point of view for readers to consider. I want to digress to review "The Common Core" for the sake of better understanding and perhaps provide some facility to parse the various issues attached to The Common Core. The Common Core is not one simple thing; it is five component things: - The Common Core Concept, or master framework within which each of the following four (4) components are supposed to fit and function cohesively;
- The Common Core Curriculum, or the stuff that is supposed to be taught across multiple states for the sake of establishing common learning outcomes;
[/ul] - The Common Core Assessments, or those tests which are intended to measure performance against the outcomes inculcated within the CC Curriculum, and which, as was the case with NCLB, should form an objective basis for providing supportive or remedial services to students who are identified as needing those services by the results of their individual assessments. There are Four groups of States Assessments:
[/ul] [/ul][/ul]
- Rogue states that left either of the above consortia and did their own assessments (as NY did, despite being a member of the PARCC consortium)
- those states that do not participate in the Common Core Concept.
[li]APPR - Teacher & Principal Evaluations, based in large (or at least meaningful) part on the results of the CC Assessments, which, again, are supposed to provide an objective (if not foolproof) means of measuring individual teachers and principals in comparison with their peers, locally, state-wise, and nationally;[/li][/ul][/ul] - The Common Core Database, meaning the collection of all results from all assessments into a database which can be queried and analyzed by any number of cohorts and attributes.
You will notice that, despite intense parent rebellion against the Common Core Assessments, that the NYS Board of Regents DID NOT DELAY STUDENT ASSESSMENTS, but rather they DID CAVE-IN TO THE DEMAND OF THE TEACHERS UNIONS. So are the Regents, is the State Education Department, in reality the State Educators Department? Chris Wendt[/ul]
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Post by truthbtold on Dec 17, 2015 19:40:25 GMT -5
Ah. It appears that typing in all capital letters that are boldfaced is the equivalent of stomping your foot and saying, "I'm right and you're wrong." Let me give that a try- "I want to digress to review "The Common Core" for the sake of better understanding and perhaps provide some facility to parse the various issues attached to The Common Core." WHY DO YOU ASSUME THAT WE ARE UNINFORMED?"The Common Core Curriculum, or the stuff that is supposed to be taught across multiple states for the sake of establishing common learning outcomes." THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A NATIONALIZED "CC CURRICULUM." IT DOES NOT EXIST. THERE ARE CC STANDARDS TO WHICH SCHOOLS ARE TO ALIGN THEIR INDEPENDENTLY DEVELOPED CURRICULA. IN NYS, OF COURSE, EACH SCHOOL'S CURRICULA MUST ALSO BE ALIGNED TO THE STATE STANDARDS, THE MASTERY OF WHICH ARE ASSESSED ON THE STATE EXAMS. THIS HAS BEEN COMMON PRACTICE IN NY SINCE THE LATE 1800s.
"The Common Core Assessments, or those tests which are intended to measure performance against the outcomes inculcated within the CC Curriculum, and which, as was the case with NCLB, should form an objective basis for providing supportive or remedial services to students who are identified as needing those services by the results of their individual assessments." LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE. NO ONE IN HIS OR HER RIGHT MIND WOULD ARGUE THAT WE SHOULD NOT ASSESS KIDS' PROGRESS PERIODICALLY IN ORDER TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY ARE ON-GRADE LEVEL OR NOT. THIS PRACTICE, LIKE THE STATE EXAMS, EXISTED FOR MANY DECADES PRIOR TO THE INCEPTION OF THE CC. I, FOR EXAMPLE, RECALL TAKING THE IOWA TESTS OF BASIC SKILLS EVERY SINGLE YEAR WHEN I ATTENDED PAROCHIAL SCHOOL IN THE 1970s. FUNNY, I DON'T REMEMBER A BUNCH OF MOMS WHINING ABOUT THE TESTS BACK THEN. I GUESS WE WERE EXPECTED TO TOUGHEN UP AND DEAL WITH OBSTACLES.
"APPR - Teacher & Principal Evaluations, based in large (or at least meaningful) part on the results of the CC Assessments, which, again, are supposed to provide an objective (if not foolproof) means of measuring individual teachers and principals in comparison with their peers, locally, state-wise, and nationally" THIS, OF COURSE, WAS THE FOCUS OF THIS DISCUSSION. AND I THINK THAT I HAVE FULLY EXPLAINED, AS WELL AS SUPPORTED, MY RATIONALE FOR WHY THIS METHOD OF ASSESSING TEACHERS IS NOT "FOOLPROOF;" IT'S FOOLISH.
"You will notice that, despite intense parent rebellion against the Common Core Assessments, that the NYS Board of Regents DID NOT DELAY STUDENT ASSESSMENTS, but rather they DID CAVE-IN TO THE DEMAND OF THE TEACHERS UNIONS." AN EXAMPLE OF REVISIONIST HISTORY AT BEST.
i feel much better now.
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Post by bnjasper on Dec 19, 2015 11:23:47 GMT -5
Truthbtold Your list of the issues in education today is terrific. Detailed as best I have ever seen. Since you are new to this blog I would point out that posts over the past years supports your view. I have also rated parenting and poverty as two of the major problems we face in improving education. However, as you might guess I always add the third serious problem (the teacher’s union). Our legislators are not interested in the educational welfare of our children as long as they continue to pander to the special interest groups that continually elect the same people. They cater to the two hundred pound gorilla and not the children. The teacher unions specifically are opposed to everything. They do not want anyone evaluating their members; they do not want anyone challenging there ironclad grip on contracts; they do not want merit to have any part in salary negotiations. I repeat, how can it take FOUR additional years to develop curriculum and evaluation methodology that supports educating our children.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 19, 2015 11:30:05 GMT -5
truthbtold posited: (In reply to: "APPR - Teacher & Principal Evaluations, based in large (or at least meaningful) part on the results of the CC Assessments, which, again, are supposed to provide an objective (if not foolproof) means of measuring individual teachers and principals in comparison with their peers, locally, state-wise, and nationally" -CW) THIS, OF COURSE, WAS THE FOCUS OF THIS DISCUSSION. AND I THINK THAT I HAVE FULLY EXPLAINED, AS WELL AS SUPPORTED, MY RATIONALE FOR WHY THIS METHOD OF ASSESSING TEACHERS IS NOT "FOOLPROOF;" IT'S FOOLISH. ...but he* failed to offer an alternative to objectively evaluate teachers and their principals. * he, including the Teachers Union of which I presume he is a member have taken a (deservedly) hard line against using Common Core scores to evaluate teachers and principals. So then what do we do? The current method, using subjective peer evaluations, does not work. There are, by my estimate, somewhere south of 345,000 teachers in NY State who teach classes, subjects and grade levels subject to Common Core Assessments. How should these people be evaluated, and by whom? And what about the remaining cadre of public school teachers who do not teach classes, subjects or grade levels that are subject to Common Core Assessments?
From the perspectives of parents who are not also public school teachers, and of taxpayers who are not also public school teachers...how do we improve the caliber and performance of teachers across NY State? One answer, the obvious one, is to do nothing, meaning, to change nothing, and thus perpetuate the slide into mediocrity of public education in our state. Strangely, this may be the most efficacious tact to take. Because the faster and further the decline in the quality (results) of public education, the faster will emerge an entirely new system of public education, one that is not in the chokehold of the teachers unions and of inept and corrupt politicians. Now I also feel a little better about our talk. Chris Wendt chriswendt117@gmail.com
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Post by truthbtold on Dec 20, 2015 13:41:09 GMT -5
Gentlemen, You are spinning your wheels. Let's take a step back. I fully agree that public education in America is failing miserably. Over the last ten years or so, every bit of standardized data points to the fact that America's children are ill-prepared for life beyond the K-12 system. According to some reports, as few as 30% of young adults who attend post-secondary institutions are prepared to engage in college-level work. Every report that I have read about the millennial generation's ability to function in the workforce also points their lack of preparedness for life beyond public schooling. So, yes, we have a major problem. Allow me, as a student of history, to suggest the cause: the devaluing of education in American culture. You see, education is now viewed by many as a product, or, to be more precise, a service. The public seems to think that "if I pay a lot (in the form of taxes or tuition) then my kid should receive a high-quality education in return." This logic is flawed, of course. The public seems to have conveniently forgotten that children, as well as their parents to some degree, must participate in the service if it is to be of any value. Let's say that I discontinue taking my prescribed statin, cease sticking to my physical conditioning plan, and start eating red meat and fried foods again. Do I then get to complain that my doctor caused the decline of my health. Let's say my wife decides to join one of the new high-end gyms, but does not go. Does she get to demand a refund because her fitness level has not improved at all? Let's say my son, who owns his own business, stops following the protocols that his accountant has put in place. Does he get to blame the accountant when he is audited? Let's say my youngest daughter, who is about to start her winter training program to prepare for her senior varsity lacrosse season, decides to not follow the plan that was outlined by her team trainer. Does she get to argue for a spot in the starting squad when she is not fit enough to compete? Of course not. The purpose of public schools, in the end, is not to "provide an education." Their purpose is to "provide an educational environment," one in which all students have an equal opportunity to engage in rich, meaningful, and challenging, experiences, ones that will enable them to explore their interests and develop their skills. Now, if you want to know why there seems to be such divergent views on what education is and what it should be, I highly encourage you to read a few credible articles and studies written about the attitudes toward education held by the Millennial Generation (today's young folks) and their parents, Generation X. I believe that a few well-researched ones might shed some light as to why things are increasingly worse in public schools than ever before. If that's not your cup of tea, this may work for you:
But now back to evaluating teachers.
I am by no means a union lackey, but I do believe in what is fair and right. And the union, warts and all, is working tirelessly (yes, you are correct) to ensure that teachers can only be held accountable for the variables over which they have control-- meaning the teaching, evaluating, and remediating of students.
So, I oppose any attempt to hold teachers accountable for controlling variables (such as the ones that I listed in my prior post) that are beyond their control.
What's a workable solution? Well, it's not very different from what's being done now.
Regardless of what you may think, it is not that difficult to observe a teacher and determine whether he or she has prepared and implemented a well-crafted lesson that is aligned with local and state standards.
It is also easy to look at an exam, or other form of assessment, to see if a teacher has done his or her due diligence in creating one that can accurately measure student growth. Of course, an administrator is well within his or her rights to ask for samples of student performance.
It is not hard to see that a teacher has done everything that he or she can to cultivate a safe, challenging, and supportive environment in his or her classroom. When in doubt, simply ask the kids. They'll tell you everything you need to know.
It is also pretty easy to see the effect that a teacher is attempting to have by watching the way that he or she interacts with their students inside as well as outside the classroom, in places like the hallways and during after-school activities.
Teacher attendance and participation in district-implemented initiatives is very, very easy to record.
And, finally, it is very easy to document all of the support that a teacher has attempted to offer a student as well as the extent to which a teacher has gone to contact a student's parents or guardians when things are going wrong.
So, that's it in a nutshell... how to hold teachers accountable for the things that are within their control. I'd just suggest that these are done more frequently and systematically... (cue the tenure diatribe).
Not so bad.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 21, 2015 12:02:02 GMT -5
truthbetold said that he or she believes... "(I fully agree...) that public education in America is failing miserably." I generally do not agree with this assessment, and I think the reason for the divergence of our opinions is actually based upon the continuum of expectations from public education, which is a slightly different take on truthbetold's affixing causation for the state of public education on what he/she refers to the "devaluing of education in American culture". Presently, I think that education is extremely over-valued in our society. It is certainly over-priced, and, for people (parents and their children, as well as rank-and-file taxpayers) to continue agree to pay the excessive costs of public education and to assume massive college debt with asymmetrical returns on their college investments validates my postulation that the (sense of) "value" attributed to education is seriously skewed. We are told we need it; we want it; we strive for it; we shell-out good money after bad to obtain it, yet, the attained results are generally, or nationally, or globally not what most of us on here would accept as appropriate for all the efforts, including the efforts that went into the entire Common Core specter; including the efforts of our teachers to produce great results; including the striving of our kids in their AP and college-level courses in our high schools; and, including the tax efforts of all of our contributing citizens.
We chucked Vo-Tech and all the other former non-academic, career (learning) tracks and set a foolish expectation that every kid should go to college (need it or not) and get a degree (need it--use it--or not), and then we complain when we confront the inevitable result of that stupidity: not every kid should go to college, not every kid really wants to go to college, and not every kid can succeed at college for a host of valid reasons why not. We (American politics and jurisprudence) devalued education by polluting the college acceptance standards, first with racial quotas, then with "open admissions" (versus competitive), and ultimately by elevating every two-bit local college to "University" status, and in between those eventualities we societally turned a blind eye to all the remediation work required in college of our high school graduates, for decades now. I could go on, but not any more today. Chris Wendt chriswendt117@gmail.com
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 22, 2015 10:51:59 GMT -5
...continuing where I left off yesterday: At some level, the Common Core has value. To understand this, we (you, readers) need to look beyond Wantagh, beyond our immediate middle-class suburban schools of (former) excellence, and appraise ourselves of what truthbetold correctly referred to as the miserable failing of public education is those places where it has, indeed failed miserably, as revealed and underscored by CC Assessment results (in NY State) and by old fashioned metrics such as High School Cohort Graduation Rates (as reported by NCLB Report Cards as district, county, and state levels). While the premature implementation of CC Assessments in NY State clearly showed that our worst performing city and small school districts we actually not performing (education) at all, they did ZERO to improve their performance or the lot of their students. Here, in Wantagh, the CC Assessments shown a light on our own creeping mediocrity, but instead of informing instruction, they cast a glare of implied blame on our teachers for this sorry state of affairs in which we now find ourselves. The near-term result has been confusion, conflict, uproar across the educational framework of our entire state, and, most recently, the wholesale abandonment of the CC Assessments as a means of evaluating, and a tool for improving the quality (value for the dollar) of our teachers, the people who teach your kids, on the money paid by us taxpayers. So, instead of up-valuing the quality of education in middle class school districts, the Common Core has devalued the perception of the quality of our teachers (whose union apparently does not want them evaluated in any objective manner), and thus lowered the perception of the general public, including me, of the value (efficacy, return on investment, etc.) of Wantagh's slice of the public education pie in New York.
Its is time we de-emphasize how good Wantagh used to be, and start thinking about how great we could (have been /be), and figure out how we break the old mold and create a new education system in and around Wantagh, meaning one which encompasses Wantagh, our quadrant and the rest of Nassau County in amore efficient, cost effective and educationally efficacious manner. That;s all for today. Regards, Chris Wendt chriswendt117@gmail.com
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Post by truthbtold on Dec 22, 2015 20:39:37 GMT -5
On this Friday, December 25th, Christians around the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. With this on my mind, along with, to some extent, my participation on this blog, I found myself reflecting on one of my favorites of Christ's parables, "The Parable of the Sower."
In the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel According to Matthew, the narrator speaks of Jesus as He is describing a farmer who, when sowing his seeds, scatters them in a variety of places, including: a rocky path, where a flock of birds devour them before they have a chance to sprout; a stretch of shallow soil, where the plants spring up quickly but die soon after because they lack roots; and a thorny patch, where the inhospitable plants choke them to death.
Some, however, fall on fertile soil, where they sprout and produce an abundant crop.
Always moved by this tale, I wrote a full analysis and interpretation of it when taking my Philosophical Foundations of Education course during my sophomore year in college a long time ago. Why? Because, to my way of thinking, then and now, it is a brilliant analogy that illustrates the act of teaching, as explained by one whom many consider to be the greatest teacher, or rabbi, in human history.
I guess, by today's standards, it also relates, to some degree, to the act of posting on a board such as this.
A man who has over twenty-five years of classroom experience in the public school system, first teaching in Brooklyn and then in a predominantly white suburban school district in central Long Island, is told about a local blog where a member of the community posts his observations and thoughts about all things education. The man follows the blog for about a year, and finally decides to create an account (anonymous for obvious reasons) and share his thoughts based on his first-hand experience. This man has been involved in the training of nearly a dozen student teachers to date. This man has taught an AP course for nine years, and has participated in scoring the AP exam over the past three years. He plans to do so again this year. This man has traveled to Albany seven times over the past five or so years to learn about the Common Core Standards, and he has assisted in developing and implementing professional development workshops in the district in which he is employed to help his colleagues align their lessons to the standards. I'd like to think that this man is well-respected for, if nothing else, the degree to which he has dedicated his entire adult life to being the best teacher that he can be.
So, I guess that you can imagine his disappointment whenever he encounters people, whether it be in the cyber-world or the real one, who have no teaching experience yet firmly believe that they simply know how to educate kids better than him because.... well, just because. They spew allegations and concoct conspiracy theories. They write in overly generalized and, at times, contradictory statements. They play on semantics. Their opinions, as evidenced by their conclusions, are frequently either unfounded or misinformed. Some of them may write eloquently, but the problem is that this ultimately misleads others into thinking, "Well, they sound smart, so they must know what they are talking about." When all else fails, of course, they resort to the age-old gripe of all Long Islanders: "It's the taxes, stupid." As if that validates everything that they have said.
In the end, this is why the quality of education in America is steadily declining, or becoming devalued. People are too busy talking and writing when they should be listening, reading, and quietly thinking.
I don't mean that they should listen to me and read what I have written.
I mean that they should read the studies and reports that support everything that I have said. I mean that they should talk with the students with whom I and other teachers are in contact every day to see firsthand what I and many others are describing. I mean they they should read the actual Common Core Standards. I mean that they should read articles written by sociologists and educational theorists who have access to all of the most recent data and can articulate far better than I can what all of it means for students and their academic futures.
In other words, I mean that they should take the time to educate themselves.
But most, if not all, won't. It's much more comfortable, you see, for them to stay entrenched in their preconceived opinions and biases. They won't pick up the book or read the article or study when someone suggests that they do. That takes work. They'd rather just read or listen to those people who agree with them. When they don't know what to think, they'll rely on a talking head, an op-ed piece, a blog, or a group of other people who are just as disgruntled as they are so they can figure it out. Why entertain opposing viewpoints, after all? That's a waste of time.
And then they'll complain. They'll curse teachers for refusing to be held accountable for things over which they have no control. They'll accuse the education departments of the state and federal governments of betraying children. They'll scream about how children are being victimized when they are simply being assessed and then they will do everything in their power to undermine their children's education, preventing them from being held to higher academic standards. They'll blame Affirmative Action for the failings of the university system. And they'll moan about how things aren't like the good 'ol days, when their schools were excellent, but they will not acknowledge the role that they have played and continue to play in preventing their schools from being excellent once again.
They are the rocky path, the shallow soil, and the thorny patch, and, tragically, many of them are raising their children to be the same.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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greda
Junior Member
Posts: 44
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Post by greda on Dec 26, 2015 13:03:08 GMT -5
I must say a very interesting read
I have read a lot about this topic and in my humble opinion the answer is Charter Schools. Let's inject some competition into the system and at least allow some kids the chance to get a great education. The unions complain about the charter schools but you know what at least some kids are getting a great education in a nurturing environment with parents that care.
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Post by truthbtold on Dec 27, 2015 10:04:52 GMT -5
I agree with you to an extent, Greda.
The charter school system is an interesting hybrid of private and public education. The schools have certainly been able to cultivate some very competitive environments, ones with far fewer disciplinary problems and significantly higher results on academic measures.
How?
Well, like private schools, charter schools are empowered in ways that local public schools are not.
There is an application process, so they are allowed to select the students who are going attend their school, and there is usually a waiting list.
They are far more empowered to suspend and/or expel students for refusing to follow the student code of conduct. You may want to look up the suspension and expulsion rates of charter schools compared to those of their neighboring public schools.
They are empowered to place a student on academic probation and, ultimately, kick him or her out when he or she fails to meet academic standards.
They are privileged to operate independently, free of the whims and, in some places, corruption of the locally-elected Board of Education.
They are far less susceptible to parent influence in academic and disciplinary matters.
They are in total control of their curriculum writing and the selection of educational materials.
They are often subsidized by private entities and many are run for-profit.
Unfortunately, the provisions of state education law prevent public schools from operating in the same way. The law, except in the most extreme cases, is on the student's side. They can be as academically unmotivated as they want to be. The school is still responsible for providing them with the opportunity to learn.
A student can also be as unruly, within reason, as they want to be without any real fear of significant reprisal.
Therefore, in a public school setting, the students, particularly those who attend affluent / middle-class suburban schools, along with their parents, are the ones who are empowered. They are fully aware that they can essentially do or not do whatever they want, regardless of how negatively it may affect themselves or those around them. And if the school tries to say or do otherwise, the word "lawyer' gets mentioned, and everything seems to be magically wiped away.
Students, for lack of a better way of saying it, operate, for the most part, with impunity in public schools. This is especially true of the stellar athletes as well as the children, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren of those people who have obtained some sort of "position," like the BOE members and the President of the PTA.
So, how about this: let's empower our local public schools to hold kids fully accountable for their actions. I think that the results might be extraordinary.
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Post by Chris_Wendt on Dec 29, 2015 14:05:39 GMT -5
Food for thought (a few kernels)... Greda feels: "I have read a lot about this topic and in my humble opinion the answer is Charter Schools. Let's inject some competition into the system and at least allow some kids the chance to get a great education." Charter schools are already part of the answer, but generally in majority minority school systems and school districts, but not (to my knowledge) in any white, middle class, suburban school districts. The charter school movement is dependent upon failed public schools in poor areas which motivate minority parents to demand their liberal Democrat representatives to provide alternatives to their failed neighborhood public schools, and, at the same time, also dependent upon those profit-seeking entrepreneurs who apply for charters, and, upon the business-friendly nature of their Republican representatives to authorize (increased numbers of) charters. Charter schools are anathema to the Teachers Unions who fight against adding new charters, and against approving charters within their territories. Charter schools drain state and federal funding from both their host district(s) and any other districts from which they draw their enrollment. A potential desirable suburban charter school in or easily accessible to Wantagh students would certainly (a) increase Wantagh school taxes, and (b) detract further from the caliber of education then (post-opening of such a charter school) offered in Wantagh schools. I think my biggest reservation about (against) charter schools becoming a real solution for Wantagh (and most of Long Island) is that charter schools would represent yet an additional layer of duplication of administrative costs within our myriad 126-district LI administrative boondoggles.
Truthbetold feels: "...how about this: let's empower our local public schools to hold kids fully accountable for their actions." That, of course is a rhetorical question, the answer to which truthbetold has already given in his/her litany of state and federal laws and regulations, and realities which have our public school boards and administrators hamstrung. In a corollary suggestion I made here several times previous, I suggested (paraphrasing) "how about this: let's empower our local public schools to hold teachers fully accountable for their actions"...by amending §3020a of NY Education Law, to give Principals, Superintendents, and Board of Education the power to discipline and fire teachers for poor performance or unprofessional behavior (and thus to relieve state arbitration tribunals of that authority). But, in light of the stranglehold the Teachers Unions have over the State Legislature, my suggestion will likely not ever see the light of day. Mediocre and poor teaching performance will continue across the state, and rubber rooms (for miscreant teachers) will be with us beyond my own lifetime.
Greda's kernel (charter schools) has more practical merit than Truthbetold's kernel (rolling-back decades of federal and state rulemaking which shrouds our students from accountability for their own behavior, actions, performance, parental misdirection, etc.) But there are other solutions, or, there will have to be. Your kids cannot afford a continuation of the slide into mediocrity of our public schools, and, we taxpayers will not too much longer continue to finance such a high-cost/low performance system of education.
Ultimately, the solutions will come from parents who will demand better for their children, and, because the current (traditional) system cannot deliver much better at an acceptable cost, solutions will form a new system of public education, a system not controlled by governments who are controlled by unions. Sincerely, Chris Wendt chriswendt117@gmail.com
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greda
Junior Member
Posts: 44
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Post by greda on Jan 1, 2016 17:45:29 GMT -5
I look at it this way. Although the charter schools have discretion in who they keep and ultimately toss out, at least the kids there are getting a high quality education and have great potential in the future. It isn't the answer to all the woes in the world but at least it gives those kids a chance to succeed in the world which they wouldn't get in the public system. And yes I know it doesn't really apply to our next of the woods but it is at least some hope
And truthbtold I couldn't say it better as there is definitely a two tier system as to what goes on in this district. There is no accountability for those who have some relationship with the school district. For example the behavior of one of our "stellar atheletes" at the championship football game was absolutely ridiculous but it seems the code of conduct doesn't apply to him. And then the school wants to know how come other students act out - maybe if the same rules applied to everyone in respect to accountability and responsibility things would be a better. Now I will go back to my world of unicorns and rainbows
I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year
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