From the Miami Herald
By Kathleen McGrory, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE -- While education isn’t likely to take center stage in Tallahassee this year, one message is clear: Florida lawmakers want to continue growing charter schools.
At least two proposals are poised to help the state’s charter school movement in a big way.
One would require local school districts to share their construction and maintenance dollars with their charter schools. Another would allow charters to offer programming for parents.
“The legislation you are seeing is a reflection of some of the core values and beliefs we have,” said Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, vice chair of the House Education Committee. “Any time you have choice, it encourages everyone to excel.”
There is, however, pushback from the other side of the aisle.
Some Democrats want the Legislature to slow down when it comes to charter school growth — and to hold charter schools more accountable. To that end, two South Florida lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would require charter schools to disclose more information about their finances on their websites.
The bills were filed after a Miami Herald investigation found that the charter school movement has given rise to a cottage industry of for-profit management companies, some of which have almost total control over the charter schools they run.
Charter schools are funded by tax dollars, but run by independent governing boards. Some are managed by for-profit companies.
Enrollment in charter schools now tops 175,000 students statewide, accounting for one out of every 16 children in Florida’s public schools. The results have been mixed. On average, charter school students and their counterparts in traditional public schools post comparable scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests.
Last year, state lawmakers made it easier for high-performing charter schools to replicate and increase their enrollment.
This year, the focus is funding.
Charter schools receive less state money than traditional public schools – partly because traditional public schools have the power to levy taxes to support maintenance and construction projects.
A proposal currently under consideration would require school districts to share some of those capital dollars with charter schools based on student enrollment numbers.
“Our public resources should be fairly and equitably distributed among all public schools,” said Adkins, who is sponsoring the bill in the House.
Cheri Shannon, president of the Florida Charter School Alliance, said equal funding has long been a priority for charter school advocates.
“Why should one child’s education be worth less because that child is in a charter school?” she said.
But opponents of the bill say tax dollars shouldn’t support charter school facilities, which are often privately owned and not a public asset.
What’s more, school district officials say that revenue is needed to pay down the debt on existing schoolhouses.
“The capital outlay dollars are needed in the public schools,” said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, who is also Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.
Another charter school initiative – this one sponsored by Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs – would allow charter school operators to establish “family charter academies” where parents could take adult education classes.
“Many charter school parents believe in education – so much so that they themselves want to stay at the schools and take classes,” Simmons said. “This would make charter schools like a one-stop shop.”
Simmons envisions parents taking vocational, language and lifelong learning classes, he said.
But whether the charter schools would be eligible for the state dollars that fund adult education programs remains to be seen. “That would be the next step,” Simmons said.
Shannon, of the Florida Charter School Alliance, said the bill “would make good use of the school buildings.”
The state teachers’ union sees its differently.
“These bills are taking money away from traditional schools and giving them to charter schools that have no accountability,” Florida Education President Andy Ford said. “And we as taxpayers don’t even know if charter schools are a good investment.”
Ford said lawmakers should instead be focusing on providing adequate funding for traditional public schools so they can provide a broader array of class offerings and services for children.
Not every charter school bill is aimed at expansion.
Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, and Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach, have legislation that would require charter schools to post information about their management companies prominently on their websites. Charter school operators would have to disclose if they are managed by for-profit companies, and if so, how much they pay in fees. They would also have to report the management company’s management and administrative personnel.
“People are now profiting from charter schools,” Bullard said. “That was not the intent of the law.”
Kathleen McGrory can be reached at kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/28/v-fullstory/2612310/lawmakers-want-charter-schools.html#storylink=cpy
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Duval County creates criminals by ignoring discipline
My friend leaned forward to better hear what the administrator was saying. At first he wasn’t sure because he couldn’t imagine a school administrator saying anything close to what he thought he had just heard.
If you want to make merit pay, the first thing we look at is referrals, if you have written a lot of referrals you will not get merit pay. Also If you think you are on the bubble of being retained or being surplused the first thing we look at is referrals, if you have written a lot you may have room for concern. Not even with a wink and a nod here was this leader of teachers telling her staff not to write referrals that to do so could cost them both money and or their jobs.
Sometimes a lot of referrals can be indicative of poor classroom management other times however it can be indicative of poor classes. If a kid doesn’t respond to my teacher voice or look, doesn’t care if I call home, can get on the computer or where they sit. If a kid doesn’t care about school then there is no other option but tot send them out on a referral that way I can teach and other kids can learn. But what do I do now that money and my job are on the line. Well some teachers scared for their futures will endure toxic leaning environments in their classrooms and that leads to a whole host of other problems.
Duval County doesn’t get it. When we fail to discipline, the problems don’t miraculously go away. On the contrary they get worse and they create other problems as well.
This year the Duval County school system will create doctors and lawyers, teachers and business men, they will create engineers, scientists, and accountants too but sadly they will also create more than their fair share of criminals and bad citizens as well. And they will do it at the same schools that your sons and daughters, your nieces or nephews or your neighbor’s kids go to.
If you want evidence think about my friend who was pistol whipped last January during a robbery or my neighbor who was recently gang raped in broad day light on the street or the residents of 45th street and Moncrief who were terrorized for over a year by a gang of street punks. Of the thirteen young men arrested for crimes ranging from homicide to drug possession four are still teenagers. Over the summer a half dozen young men all under the age of 18 were convicted of murder one case involved a pizza another three dollars
If you want further evidence just walk through the halls between classes at most neighborhood schools there is little fear of or respect for authority.
I can point them out to you, the second year freshmen with six F’s and one D on their latest report card. The junior who doesn’t bring any materials to class and tells me he can’t write with a pen only a pencil when I offer him a pen. The multitude of students who have massed dozens of tardies in my class with no penalty, or seem both outraged and confused when I announce to them that we have work to do, something we do even on Fridays. You can also see the girl that hijacks my forth period class every day, yelling at me telling me no, even when I ask the most reasonable of requests like please take your seat and quietly do your work. I could go on and on.
For the most part day after day I let it go. You see I have to pick my battles. If I fight everything then I am considered the problem and my classroom management skills are questioned, or if I write up to many black students it’s whispered that I might be a racist. These are things that as a teacher you don’t want to be thought of as.
In my class students get several opportunities to be disrespectful to me or to refuse my reasonable requests, instead of just the one they should, before I send them out. When I do some students question my logic, they tell me nothing’s going to happen to them and that I will be the one that gets in trouble, though when they say it, expletive deletes usually accompany their words.
Sometimes they are back in a few minutes with cat eating grins on their faces because they were just asked not to do it again, though administrators call it counseling. Other times they receive the most minor of inconveniences, I say inconveniences because for something to be a consequence it has to be meaningful. That’s if even that happens.
A colleague of mine recently stumbled across boxes of unprocessed referrals from last year. I suspect they weren’t processed because referrals affect a schools grade, the only alternative I could think of is the administration is either lazy and doesn’t care or they were directed to ignore the referrals by higher ups. Who cares if children are taught its okay to be defiant, disruptive and disrespectful, which is what happens if they receive no consequences for their actions as long as the school grade improves.
Above isn’t exclusive to my class or school by any means, it happens all across the county and at every grade too. First graders threatening teachers, fifth graders caught having sex, middle schoolers assaulting school board employees and wore are all nearly daily occurrences here in Duval County. A few here and there are removed but most are sent back to their classes with no real consequences where quite often their behavior worsens. A student attacking a teacher and scratching their cornea gets a one dy suspension in at least one county school. Looking up a teachers adress on google maps so they can come visit them later gets a period of in school suspension at another.
When we ignore bad behavior or don’t deliver a real consequence for it, it invariably worsens and why wouldn’t it. I am not a bring swats back to school kind of guy, but what about having children work all day Saturday or after school. Why can’t schools mandate community service hours like the legal system can, and then have the police pick them up to make sure they do it. What do you think happens to children who receive no consequences, well I will tell you, they grow up to be adults who think they can do whatever they want and are easily angered when they can’t. They join gangs, they commit crimes and they are not the person you want sitting next to you at work.
Involved parents of good children don’t think this doesn’t apply to you or your family. What does your child think we he sees no consequences given to the disruptive student, do they think they are cool; do they mimic their behavior or fall into that crowd? Do we want to even take the chance that they might. Furthermore even if they don’t, if a teacher spends just ten percent of his or her time dealing with the unruly student, then your student is missing 18 days worth of instruction. I know teachers who say they spend up to fifty percent of their time working with the students who are discipline problems or don't care. If your child is in one of those classes, do you know how much instruction they are missing? Also what about the child thaat just needs that consequence one time to straighten out, to see the light. Whats going to happen to them if they never get it.
I know what you are thinking and you are right, of course it’s the parents of disruptive children’s responsibility, and yes it is their job to keep these children in line, to raise them right. The thing is, if we know some parents are abdicating their responsibilities, and it is painfully obvious that more than a few are, then isn’t it up to us, society, and the school system to step up and do something because if not us then who. Isn’t it time we stopped just hoping they did the right thing and did the right thing ourselves, regardless of effort or cost.
And the cost being prohibitive is another tired argument, because make no mistake we are already paying for it. Its’ not pay now or pay later, it’s we are already paying now and we are going to have to pay a lot more later. Think about it, we are already paying for it through higher insurance rates, crime and more police on the streets; we are footing the bill with violence and blood. How much is it worth for your daughter not to be raped or your son not to be murdered, or are you just content hoping it doesn’t happen to them, you or somebody else you know or love.
How many of those kids in the 45th street gang did schools make by ignoring their behavior or by giving them no real consequence for it. How many mothers are saying he was such a good boy until he got mixed up in the wrong crowd? How many could we have saved had we done something, my bet is more than a few.
Please don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good kids here in Duval County the vast majority in fact want nothing more but to come to school and learn. but there are kids that the schools need to look out for, because if they don’t then society will have too.
at Sunday, September 05, 2010
If you want to make merit pay, the first thing we look at is referrals, if you have written a lot of referrals you will not get merit pay. Also If you think you are on the bubble of being retained or being surplused the first thing we look at is referrals, if you have written a lot you may have room for concern. Not even with a wink and a nod here was this leader of teachers telling her staff not to write referrals that to do so could cost them both money and or their jobs.
Sometimes a lot of referrals can be indicative of poor classroom management other times however it can be indicative of poor classes. If a kid doesn’t respond to my teacher voice or look, doesn’t care if I call home, can get on the computer or where they sit. If a kid doesn’t care about school then there is no other option but tot send them out on a referral that way I can teach and other kids can learn. But what do I do now that money and my job are on the line. Well some teachers scared for their futures will endure toxic leaning environments in their classrooms and that leads to a whole host of other problems.
Duval County doesn’t get it. When we fail to discipline, the problems don’t miraculously go away. On the contrary they get worse and they create other problems as well.
This year the Duval County school system will create doctors and lawyers, teachers and business men, they will create engineers, scientists, and accountants too but sadly they will also create more than their fair share of criminals and bad citizens as well. And they will do it at the same schools that your sons and daughters, your nieces or nephews or your neighbor’s kids go to.
If you want evidence think about my friend who was pistol whipped last January during a robbery or my neighbor who was recently gang raped in broad day light on the street or the residents of 45th street and Moncrief who were terrorized for over a year by a gang of street punks. Of the thirteen young men arrested for crimes ranging from homicide to drug possession four are still teenagers. Over the summer a half dozen young men all under the age of 18 were convicted of murder one case involved a pizza another three dollars
If you want further evidence just walk through the halls between classes at most neighborhood schools there is little fear of or respect for authority.
I can point them out to you, the second year freshmen with six F’s and one D on their latest report card. The junior who doesn’t bring any materials to class and tells me he can’t write with a pen only a pencil when I offer him a pen. The multitude of students who have massed dozens of tardies in my class with no penalty, or seem both outraged and confused when I announce to them that we have work to do, something we do even on Fridays. You can also see the girl that hijacks my forth period class every day, yelling at me telling me no, even when I ask the most reasonable of requests like please take your seat and quietly do your work. I could go on and on.
For the most part day after day I let it go. You see I have to pick my battles. If I fight everything then I am considered the problem and my classroom management skills are questioned, or if I write up to many black students it’s whispered that I might be a racist. These are things that as a teacher you don’t want to be thought of as.
In my class students get several opportunities to be disrespectful to me or to refuse my reasonable requests, instead of just the one they should, before I send them out. When I do some students question my logic, they tell me nothing’s going to happen to them and that I will be the one that gets in trouble, though when they say it, expletive deletes usually accompany their words.
Sometimes they are back in a few minutes with cat eating grins on their faces because they were just asked not to do it again, though administrators call it counseling. Other times they receive the most minor of inconveniences, I say inconveniences because for something to be a consequence it has to be meaningful. That’s if even that happens.
A colleague of mine recently stumbled across boxes of unprocessed referrals from last year. I suspect they weren’t processed because referrals affect a schools grade, the only alternative I could think of is the administration is either lazy and doesn’t care or they were directed to ignore the referrals by higher ups. Who cares if children are taught its okay to be defiant, disruptive and disrespectful, which is what happens if they receive no consequences for their actions as long as the school grade improves.
Above isn’t exclusive to my class or school by any means, it happens all across the county and at every grade too. First graders threatening teachers, fifth graders caught having sex, middle schoolers assaulting school board employees and wore are all nearly daily occurrences here in Duval County. A few here and there are removed but most are sent back to their classes with no real consequences where quite often their behavior worsens. A student attacking a teacher and scratching their cornea gets a one dy suspension in at least one county school. Looking up a teachers adress on google maps so they can come visit them later gets a period of in school suspension at another.
When we ignore bad behavior or don’t deliver a real consequence for it, it invariably worsens and why wouldn’t it. I am not a bring swats back to school kind of guy, but what about having children work all day Saturday or after school. Why can’t schools mandate community service hours like the legal system can, and then have the police pick them up to make sure they do it. What do you think happens to children who receive no consequences, well I will tell you, they grow up to be adults who think they can do whatever they want and are easily angered when they can’t. They join gangs, they commit crimes and they are not the person you want sitting next to you at work.
Involved parents of good children don’t think this doesn’t apply to you or your family. What does your child think we he sees no consequences given to the disruptive student, do they think they are cool; do they mimic their behavior or fall into that crowd? Do we want to even take the chance that they might. Furthermore even if they don’t, if a teacher spends just ten percent of his or her time dealing with the unruly student, then your student is missing 18 days worth of instruction. I know teachers who say they spend up to fifty percent of their time working with the students who are discipline problems or don't care. If your child is in one of those classes, do you know how much instruction they are missing? Also what about the child thaat just needs that consequence one time to straighten out, to see the light. Whats going to happen to them if they never get it.
I know what you are thinking and you are right, of course it’s the parents of disruptive children’s responsibility, and yes it is their job to keep these children in line, to raise them right. The thing is, if we know some parents are abdicating their responsibilities, and it is painfully obvious that more than a few are, then isn’t it up to us, society, and the school system to step up and do something because if not us then who. Isn’t it time we stopped just hoping they did the right thing and did the right thing ourselves, regardless of effort or cost.
And the cost being prohibitive is another tired argument, because make no mistake we are already paying for it. Its’ not pay now or pay later, it’s we are already paying now and we are going to have to pay a lot more later. Think about it, we are already paying for it through higher insurance rates, crime and more police on the streets; we are footing the bill with violence and blood. How much is it worth for your daughter not to be raped or your son not to be murdered, or are you just content hoping it doesn’t happen to them, you or somebody else you know or love.
How many of those kids in the 45th street gang did schools make by ignoring their behavior or by giving them no real consequence for it. How many mothers are saying he was such a good boy until he got mixed up in the wrong crowd? How many could we have saved had we done something, my bet is more than a few.
Please don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good kids here in Duval County the vast majority in fact want nothing more but to come to school and learn. but there are kids that the schools need to look out for, because if they don’t then society will have too.
at Sunday, September 05, 2010
Is the superintendet lying about discipline? Ask a teacher what they think
Leave some behind
I and nine thousand of my fellow teachers roll up our sleeves and go to work every day work, sometimes excited for what the new day will bring and other times pessimistic that it will be more of the same.
When I first became a teacher nine years ago, after a decade working in special needs camps, I thought I was going to change the world, that every student who came threw my classroom would leave not only educated but a better human being as well. However the sad fact is some of my students weren't just learning they were teaching to, and what they taught me was, you can't save them all.
Way to many students come to school with no pretense of learning, they come to be with their friends, they come because society tells them they have to and more than a few come to see what trouble they can find and these few bad apples are spoiling the whole bunch. You hear it everyday, in the offices and teachers lounges of schools, if only Johnny wasn't in my classroom I could teach. If only little Suzy would stop disturbing class the other kids could learn, I had a good day today because so and so was absent, I felt like a teacher. If that one bad apple was gone the whole class could thrive.
Every year you see the same students in the hall after the tardy bell rings, they aren't carrying books and they aren't in a hurry to get anywhere; then when you ask them where they are supposed to be, they inform you often with the word fuck added in somewhere, that it's none of your business, well I say enough is enough because if not now, if not this year then when? It's time we took back from our school system from those unruly few that have hijacked it.
If you don't believe me, try this parents wait a week or two after school begins and then go ahead and ask your little Suzy and/or your little Johnny, if there is a student or two in their class that the teacher always has to discipline, and then ask them if the same student picks on their classmates or does their work, if you don't already know, I believe you will be unpleasantly surprised.
And now parents let me ask you a couple of questions, at your place of employment are you routinely threatened and harassed, and what would you do if you were, and your bosses did nothing about it, would you show up the next day? Also do you think this would be a good way to run a business; well sadly that's how some of our schools are run, and it's one of the reasons that our school system is suffering.
Did you know over half of the districts teachers have five years experience teaching or less and two of the things that make teachers leave the field so quickly are unruly students and lack of support from our administration when it comes to discipline. Teachers for the most part only write students up as a last resort when every other option has failed, but there is nothing more defeating than to see this same student returned to our classrooms a few moments later with no consequences, now something may have happened but for a consequence to be effective it must be meaningful, and what we do to the kids is not meaningful. To make matters worse often we receive visits from our administration wondering why we have written the same student up several times, instead of supporting us they question our teaching methods when the blaring reason we have done this is they haven't done anything.
Furthermore what type of message does this send to the child, well I'll tell you, that's they can do whatever they want whenever they want to and they can then expect no real punishment. I often wonder how many times these criminals we read about in the news or see on television were in trouble while they were in school or what punishments they received, I would bet the answers would be often and little.
One of the reasons discipline is so bad is it's nearly impossible to remove a student to an alternative school unless they are caught with a gun or physically assault a teacher, no matter how often they are in trouble. The thing is by letting them stay with just the meekest of consequences after they misbehave over and over is just courting tragedy. Do we need a student to be shot or a teacher to be beat up before we do anything? Instead of being reactive it's time our school system stepped up and was proactive. If you get in two fights in a year you should be gone. If you get written up five times in nine weeks you should be gone. If you miss more than nine days in nine weeks without a doctor's note you should be gone, if you are late fifteen times in nine weeks you should be gone, if you get arrested while not at school for violence, stealing or drugs you should be gone, and if you threaten a teacher or school board employee once, and just once is all it should take, you should be gone.
I and many of my colleagues are tired of ignoring bad behavior because we figure nothing will be done. We are tired of being looked at in an accusatory matter when we attempt to impose discipline. We are tired of not being backed up and seeing the same student returned to our classrooms with no consequences, but most of all we are tired of not being able to teach.
You see we spend so much of our time on the five percent of students who create ninety-five percent of the problems, we have lost focus on those students who want to be there and want to learn, and sadly many of these students are falling through the cracks, because they aren't getting the services and attention they deserve.
These disruptive students are a cancer to our school system, and when a body has a cancer we don't say, it didn't mean it, lets give it a chance, then another chance and another, we don't ask if we think it's being serious, no what we do is cut it out, and we do so because that's the only way we can save the body, and it may be the only way we can save our school system to.
Mr. Superintendent I call on you to get your teachers back, to make sure we have a safe working environment and to reinstall discipline into our schools. You want f-cat scores to go up, you want student achievement to improve lets try that. No child left behind should be changed to; we're leaving about five percent of them behind until they shape up. By doing so we can help make sure the ninety-five percent of students who want to learn, who want to achieve can be as successful as possible.
I and nine thousand of my fellow teachers roll up our sleeves and go to work every day work, sometimes excited for what the new day will bring and other times pessimistic that it will be more of the same.
When I first became a teacher nine years ago, after a decade working in special needs camps, I thought I was going to change the world, that every student who came threw my classroom would leave not only educated but a better human being as well. However the sad fact is some of my students weren't just learning they were teaching to, and what they taught me was, you can't save them all.
Way to many students come to school with no pretense of learning, they come to be with their friends, they come because society tells them they have to and more than a few come to see what trouble they can find and these few bad apples are spoiling the whole bunch. You hear it everyday, in the offices and teachers lounges of schools, if only Johnny wasn't in my classroom I could teach. If only little Suzy would stop disturbing class the other kids could learn, I had a good day today because so and so was absent, I felt like a teacher. If that one bad apple was gone the whole class could thrive.
Every year you see the same students in the hall after the tardy bell rings, they aren't carrying books and they aren't in a hurry to get anywhere; then when you ask them where they are supposed to be, they inform you often with the word fuck added in somewhere, that it's none of your business, well I say enough is enough because if not now, if not this year then when? It's time we took back from our school system from those unruly few that have hijacked it.
If you don't believe me, try this parents wait a week or two after school begins and then go ahead and ask your little Suzy and/or your little Johnny, if there is a student or two in their class that the teacher always has to discipline, and then ask them if the same student picks on their classmates or does their work, if you don't already know, I believe you will be unpleasantly surprised.
And now parents let me ask you a couple of questions, at your place of employment are you routinely threatened and harassed, and what would you do if you were, and your bosses did nothing about it, would you show up the next day? Also do you think this would be a good way to run a business; well sadly that's how some of our schools are run, and it's one of the reasons that our school system is suffering.
Did you know over half of the districts teachers have five years experience teaching or less and two of the things that make teachers leave the field so quickly are unruly students and lack of support from our administration when it comes to discipline. Teachers for the most part only write students up as a last resort when every other option has failed, but there is nothing more defeating than to see this same student returned to our classrooms a few moments later with no consequences, now something may have happened but for a consequence to be effective it must be meaningful, and what we do to the kids is not meaningful. To make matters worse often we receive visits from our administration wondering why we have written the same student up several times, instead of supporting us they question our teaching methods when the blaring reason we have done this is they haven't done anything.
Furthermore what type of message does this send to the child, well I'll tell you, that's they can do whatever they want whenever they want to and they can then expect no real punishment. I often wonder how many times these criminals we read about in the news or see on television were in trouble while they were in school or what punishments they received, I would bet the answers would be often and little.
One of the reasons discipline is so bad is it's nearly impossible to remove a student to an alternative school unless they are caught with a gun or physically assault a teacher, no matter how often they are in trouble. The thing is by letting them stay with just the meekest of consequences after they misbehave over and over is just courting tragedy. Do we need a student to be shot or a teacher to be beat up before we do anything? Instead of being reactive it's time our school system stepped up and was proactive. If you get in two fights in a year you should be gone. If you get written up five times in nine weeks you should be gone. If you miss more than nine days in nine weeks without a doctor's note you should be gone, if you are late fifteen times in nine weeks you should be gone, if you get arrested while not at school for violence, stealing or drugs you should be gone, and if you threaten a teacher or school board employee once, and just once is all it should take, you should be gone.
I and many of my colleagues are tired of ignoring bad behavior because we figure nothing will be done. We are tired of being looked at in an accusatory matter when we attempt to impose discipline. We are tired of not being backed up and seeing the same student returned to our classrooms with no consequences, but most of all we are tired of not being able to teach.
You see we spend so much of our time on the five percent of students who create ninety-five percent of the problems, we have lost focus on those students who want to be there and want to learn, and sadly many of these students are falling through the cracks, because they aren't getting the services and attention they deserve.
These disruptive students are a cancer to our school system, and when a body has a cancer we don't say, it didn't mean it, lets give it a chance, then another chance and another, we don't ask if we think it's being serious, no what we do is cut it out, and we do so because that's the only way we can save the body, and it may be the only way we can save our school system to.
Mr. Superintendent I call on you to get your teachers back, to make sure we have a safe working environment and to reinstall discipline into our schools. You want f-cat scores to go up, you want student achievement to improve lets try that. No child left behind should be changed to; we're leaving about five percent of them behind until they shape up. By doing so we can help make sure the ninety-five percent of students who want to learn, who want to achieve can be as successful as possible.
Suspension centers, an experiment that has failed
Suspension centers, a noble experiment that should be put to bed
Being suspended is supposed to be a punishment, have we forgotten that,
has our touchy feely, politically correct society gotten to that point? If done correctly suspensions can have several positive outcomes. If disruptive children are sent home for a few days it gives the other students an opportunity to have a positive learning environment and teachers an opportunity to teach. The teachers lament is, if little Johnny or little Suzy wasn’t here I could teach, most students that get suspended are little Johnnies and little Suzies. Bottom line, the suspension of an unruly child often gives other students a chance to learn and teachers a chance to teach.
More importantly however is a child’s suspension gives a parent an opportunity to act like one. I knew if I was ever suspended from school there were far worse punishments than that waiting for me at home. Too many parents have abdicated their responsibilities or left it to the schools to discipline their children, well society isn’t supposed to work like that, parents are supposed to teach children how to behave and schools are just supposed to teach.
If instead of sending them home all we are going to do is send them to a suspension center which sounds like a glorified coddling center to me what’s the point in suspending them in the first place? Where is the punishment? If schools are to become the discipline tool of the family let’s not play around and let’s do it right. If we don’t it’s only all of society hangs in the balance and if you think I am exaggerating or using grandiose terms for effect, just read the crime report or law and disorder sections of any paper.
Discipline has become a huge problem in many of our schools as evident by another teachers lament and that’s the inmates are running the asylum. When we don’t give children consequences for their actions, and remember for a consequence to be effective it must have meaning, we are in danger of creating more problems down the line. Violent, disruptive and disrespectful children often become violent, disruptive and disrespectful adults. When a student gets to the point they need to be suspended it rarely is the first problem the school had had with the child. Furthermore many students who are suspended are often the recipients of multiple suspensions, this is because suspensions aren’t consequences to them and now inexplicably we are watering down suspensions further with suspension centers.
I personally don’t expect the suspended student to learn anything from not being in school, all I expect is now I will have a few days of peace where I can make sure my other students do.
Instead of going to a voluntary suspension center for a few days something that will unlikely make a difference, why not send the repeat offending child to an alternative school for nine weeks. A school where there is no P.E. or art, no talking in the halls or in the cafeteria, for every day you miss a day is added on and for every bad day you get an extra week. We can have character education and social workers there and then they can get those services for more than an easily forgettable few days. Then let’s make the parents responsible for getting them there and hold them accountable when they don’t. Why not do something that will matter, that has teeth, that will make a difference, because if we’re not going to do that then what is the point, and friends what we are currently doing isn’t worth of a hill of beans to far too many.
If students know going to an alternative center is a real possibility how do you think this will affect their decision making process? Furthermore as I stated above, students who are suspended are often those students who are repeatedly in trouble, after nine weeks away from their friends in a very restrictive environment how much repeat behavior do you think they will have? I’ll tell you how much affect a three day suspension has on many of them, it’s none.
To be honest though I don’t think it should stop there. Once you turn fifteen if you get in two fights in a year thanks for coming but instead of taking the risk you might assault someone else you can go home and be your parent’s problems for a year. Threaten or hit a teacher welcome to the alternative school for the rest of your academic career. Get caught at school with drugs (I recently had an 18 year old student return after just three weeks) feel free to reapply next year.
I don’t particularly like the idea of having these students on the street, but to be honest keeping them in the schools scares the heck out of me and has a detrimental effect on the other students. If a kid comes to hang out with his friends or to see what trouble they can find, it’s time to tell them they are no longer wanted because keeping them takes resources away from the kids that want to be there that have an opportunity to do well. In other words a few bad apples are threatening to spoil all the apples in the cart.
Ask your son or daughter if they know any students who are always in trouble or who never do their work, I bet many of them will know a handful. If a teacher has to constantly deal with disruptive children then that’s time taken away from your child. I hope your child just doesn’t need that little bit extra to be successful.
We have to wake up, by coddling these children, by not giving them real consequences for their actions, by sending them to suspension centers, which are voluntary by the way, we are courting more tragedies. I say more because we already have tragedies in our streets daily. Young people are committing and being the victim of crimes at a terrifying rate and it’s just a matter of time before this violence invades our schools more than it already has. Do we need a student or a teacher to be gunned down in the halls before we stand up and demand something meaningful be done.
In the last few weeks at my school there have been several vicious assaults that probably wouldn’t have taken place if the perpetrators would have received real consequences for past behavior. I say again we are courting tragedy, I just hope it’s not me or one of my peers, or your son or daughter that it happens to.
Suspension centers are those ideas that sound good in a vacuum, that are created by far off academics or people brainstorming around coffee and doughnuts, not by the teachers and administrators in the schools on the front lines, and I mean front lines because with some of these students it’s like going to battle daily. Suspension centers are like putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds which we will have in our halls and our classrooms if we don’t start doing something.
Being suspended is supposed to be a punishment, have we forgotten that,
has our touchy feely, politically correct society gotten to that point? If done correctly suspensions can have several positive outcomes. If disruptive children are sent home for a few days it gives the other students an opportunity to have a positive learning environment and teachers an opportunity to teach. The teachers lament is, if little Johnny or little Suzy wasn’t here I could teach, most students that get suspended are little Johnnies and little Suzies. Bottom line, the suspension of an unruly child often gives other students a chance to learn and teachers a chance to teach.
More importantly however is a child’s suspension gives a parent an opportunity to act like one. I knew if I was ever suspended from school there were far worse punishments than that waiting for me at home. Too many parents have abdicated their responsibilities or left it to the schools to discipline their children, well society isn’t supposed to work like that, parents are supposed to teach children how to behave and schools are just supposed to teach.
If instead of sending them home all we are going to do is send them to a suspension center which sounds like a glorified coddling center to me what’s the point in suspending them in the first place? Where is the punishment? If schools are to become the discipline tool of the family let’s not play around and let’s do it right. If we don’t it’s only all of society hangs in the balance and if you think I am exaggerating or using grandiose terms for effect, just read the crime report or law and disorder sections of any paper.
Discipline has become a huge problem in many of our schools as evident by another teachers lament and that’s the inmates are running the asylum. When we don’t give children consequences for their actions, and remember for a consequence to be effective it must have meaning, we are in danger of creating more problems down the line. Violent, disruptive and disrespectful children often become violent, disruptive and disrespectful adults. When a student gets to the point they need to be suspended it rarely is the first problem the school had had with the child. Furthermore many students who are suspended are often the recipients of multiple suspensions, this is because suspensions aren’t consequences to them and now inexplicably we are watering down suspensions further with suspension centers.
I personally don’t expect the suspended student to learn anything from not being in school, all I expect is now I will have a few days of peace where I can make sure my other students do.
Instead of going to a voluntary suspension center for a few days something that will unlikely make a difference, why not send the repeat offending child to an alternative school for nine weeks. A school where there is no P.E. or art, no talking in the halls or in the cafeteria, for every day you miss a day is added on and for every bad day you get an extra week. We can have character education and social workers there and then they can get those services for more than an easily forgettable few days. Then let’s make the parents responsible for getting them there and hold them accountable when they don’t. Why not do something that will matter, that has teeth, that will make a difference, because if we’re not going to do that then what is the point, and friends what we are currently doing isn’t worth of a hill of beans to far too many.
If students know going to an alternative center is a real possibility how do you think this will affect their decision making process? Furthermore as I stated above, students who are suspended are often those students who are repeatedly in trouble, after nine weeks away from their friends in a very restrictive environment how much repeat behavior do you think they will have? I’ll tell you how much affect a three day suspension has on many of them, it’s none.
To be honest though I don’t think it should stop there. Once you turn fifteen if you get in two fights in a year thanks for coming but instead of taking the risk you might assault someone else you can go home and be your parent’s problems for a year. Threaten or hit a teacher welcome to the alternative school for the rest of your academic career. Get caught at school with drugs (I recently had an 18 year old student return after just three weeks) feel free to reapply next year.
I don’t particularly like the idea of having these students on the street, but to be honest keeping them in the schools scares the heck out of me and has a detrimental effect on the other students. If a kid comes to hang out with his friends or to see what trouble they can find, it’s time to tell them they are no longer wanted because keeping them takes resources away from the kids that want to be there that have an opportunity to do well. In other words a few bad apples are threatening to spoil all the apples in the cart.
Ask your son or daughter if they know any students who are always in trouble or who never do their work, I bet many of them will know a handful. If a teacher has to constantly deal with disruptive children then that’s time taken away from your child. I hope your child just doesn’t need that little bit extra to be successful.
We have to wake up, by coddling these children, by not giving them real consequences for their actions, by sending them to suspension centers, which are voluntary by the way, we are courting more tragedies. I say more because we already have tragedies in our streets daily. Young people are committing and being the victim of crimes at a terrifying rate and it’s just a matter of time before this violence invades our schools more than it already has. Do we need a student or a teacher to be gunned down in the halls before we stand up and demand something meaningful be done.
In the last few weeks at my school there have been several vicious assaults that probably wouldn’t have taken place if the perpetrators would have received real consequences for past behavior. I say again we are courting tragedy, I just hope it’s not me or one of my peers, or your son or daughter that it happens to.
Suspension centers are those ideas that sound good in a vacuum, that are created by far off academics or people brainstorming around coffee and doughnuts, not by the teachers and administrators in the schools on the front lines, and I mean front lines because with some of these students it’s like going to battle daily. Suspension centers are like putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds which we will have in our halls and our classrooms if we don’t start doing something.
A lack of discipline hurts our schools
I have ben writing about this for years. No child left behind should be, we are leaving about ten percent of them behind until they straighten up. -cpg
From an Urban Teachers Blog
How My School and District Failed its Students
The following is by Frank Beard, a graduate of Drake University and a former Teach For America corps member (Kansas City ’08). He taught middle school science, social studies, and communication arts in the Kansas City, Missouri School District.
A large number of this country’s schools are failing its students—but not in the way that many columnists, education reformers, or school experts would have you believe.
From 2008 to 2010, I taught at the middle school level in Kansas City as a Teach For America corps member. But don’t worry, I’m not going rehash Freedom Writers, and I certainly won’t tell one of those sappy “this is why I Teach For America” stories.
Instead, I want to offer some very candid thoughts about why I think my district and school were such abysmal failures.
When people ask me what I believe was the number one barrier to student achievement at my school, I always offer the same answer: the failure of the school and district to address chronically disruptive students. It was a problem created by negligent leaders who willingly allowed a free-for-all environment that was conducive to chaos instead of learning.
I’ll never forget the first day of staff development my second year. During the “welcome back” talk, my principal handed out a sheet which detailed the number of discipline referrals submitted by each teacher the previous year. We were informed that it is wrong to submit a lot of them because discipline is a classroom-management issue and therefore must be addressed within the classroom. Sending students to the office, she said, is simply not acceptable or allowed.
I didn’t think much of that at first. After all, I had just come from an amazing summer school experience in which I had supportive principals, a fantastic assistant principal who liked to hang out in my classroom, and students who were simply a joy to be around. Even though many of my students had received no science instruction at their regular schools (that time was used for extra reading and math test preparation), they were veritable experts on the scientific method at the end of our six weeks. I was continually impressed with their hard work and desire to learn.
Coming from that experience, I ignored my fellow teachers’ warnings that the new year was going to be complete and total chaos. I also ignored the fact that losing our vice principal—who tried his best to be an effective disciplinarian—was sure to affect the school’s climate. Instead, I was excited and ready to teach. The other middle school teachers and I collaborated and developed a student handbook in which we standardized all of our rules, expectations, grading practices, behavior management systems, and other relevant policies and procedures. We were a united front, and our students were going to have a successful year.
Or so I thought.
Everything was great for the first three weeks, but then a few students began testing the limits of what was acceptable behavior. It’s one thing when a student throws a paper ball at his friend, or when someone utters a rude comment. It’s quite another thing when a student tells you that she’ll “crack” your “bitch ass” or demands that you “get the fuck out of [her] face”. Unfortunately, as the students soon discovered, our principal offered no support whatsoever. Nearly ever discipline referral sent to the office was returned with a polite reminder to please contact the students’ parents. Clear and consistent consequences simply did not exist—even though they were mandated by the district’s code of conduct.
Once that realization spread, the school effectively went from quality to chaos overnight. The following is but a sample of what an average day looked and sounded like:
- Students standing in the hall and kicking classroom doors for five to ten minutes at a time
- Students fighting
- Teachers pelted with paper, pencils, erasers, and rocks whenever they turned their heads
- Assignments torn up and thrown on the floor the moment they’re passed out
- Teachers cursed at, threatened, and sometimes even assaulted
- Classroom supplies vandalized or thrown about the room
- Groups of students running the halls and showing up to one or two classes at most
- Constant yelling and shouting from the hallways
- Gang writing written on the walls with permanent markers
- Students talking and yelling so loud in the classroom that nobody could hear the teacher
By “students”, I’m of course referring to the 15-25% that were chronically disruptive. The truth is that the overwhelming majority in each class were great kids who came every day ready to learn. Besides being from an impoverished part of town, they were no different than students at any other school.
This wasn’t just a problem at my school. When I spoke with other teachers throughout the district, they told me that the situation at their school was nearly identical to mine. Some of their stories are just as outrageous.
When students are subjected to a toxic environment that prevents learning, all other education concerns—curriculum, standards, integrating technology, etc—become totally irrelevant. Unfortunately, this is something rarely ever addressed in both local and national media. And education reformers—whether from watching Freedom Writers one too many times or just understanding that blaming teachers is politically expedient right now—repeat until they’re red in the face the idea that a teacher with leadership skills and high expectations can fix everything short of the conflict in the Middle East.
So what did our school leaders focus on, if not the toxic atmosphere in the schools? The superintendent—a product of the Broad Superintendents Academy—was concerned mostly with “right-sizing” the district, preparing to implement standards-based learning at pilot schools, and token efforts towards “community involvement”. As for the school board…well, that’s anyone’s guess. I think they were more concerned with political in-fighting and a sudden attempt to appear legitimate.
I should be surprised that the toxic atmosphere wasn’t addressed, but I’m not. I came to realize a certain truth about this country’s urban schools: their leaders—especially those at the district level—rarely have any stake in whether or not the schools are successes or failures. They’re not a part of those communities, they don’t send their children to the schools they oversee (except, sometimes, the selective admissions-based ones), and at the end of the day, whatever happens doesn’t really affect them. They’re working with other peoples’ children. The only thing they have to lose is their jobs—and that’s easy to protect if they cover their rear, furnish the necessary documentation, and blame those below them.
Though I was also not a part of my district’s community, it was different for me since I was a teacher. Teachers bond with their students, become their advocates, share in the joy of their successes, and help them learn from their failures. They feel the pain of their situations at home, keep extra granola bars and juice boxes on hand for those who don’t get enough food, and go above and beyond to ensure that they get the education they need. Their students are real people and they care deeply about them. They’re not just a statistic on some document.
As a teacher, I saw firsthand the very people who were failed by my district’s leaders:
- They failed C.P., a quirky, wonderful student who was reading Plato’s Republic for fun in seventh grade
- They failed D.W., a bright, talented student who although sometimes lost his temper due to problems at home, would always apologize afterwards.
- They failed M.J., the sweetest, nicest, most prim and proper student I’ve ever met, who was forced to endure disruption day after day by one of her classmates who threatened to shoot others, was arrested for armed robbery, and made sexually harassing comments to girls
- They also failed M.W., a student who although acted as a class clown at times, was incredibly smart, motivated, and had the potential to do anything he wanted to in life
Were there other problems? Of course there were, but the chronically disruptive atmosphere was by far the most significant and destructive. It’s a problem that’s conspicuously absent from successful suburban schools—which don’t tolerate outrageous misbehavior—and is usually never mentioned by education reformers, policy experts, consultants, and the other people who pretend to know what’s best for our schools.
Perhaps my expectations are too high. After all, how can I expect them to understand the seriousness of this problem if they’ve spent little or no time working in the very schools they pretend to be experts about?
You can follow Frank Beard on twitter @FrankBeard, or email him at fbeard@gmail.com
http://www.anurbanteacherseducation.com/2011/02/tfa-alumnus-describes-barriers-to.html
From an Urban Teachers Blog
How My School and District Failed its Students
The following is by Frank Beard, a graduate of Drake University and a former Teach For America corps member (Kansas City ’08). He taught middle school science, social studies, and communication arts in the Kansas City, Missouri School District.
A large number of this country’s schools are failing its students—but not in the way that many columnists, education reformers, or school experts would have you believe.
From 2008 to 2010, I taught at the middle school level in Kansas City as a Teach For America corps member. But don’t worry, I’m not going rehash Freedom Writers, and I certainly won’t tell one of those sappy “this is why I Teach For America” stories.
Instead, I want to offer some very candid thoughts about why I think my district and school were such abysmal failures.
When people ask me what I believe was the number one barrier to student achievement at my school, I always offer the same answer: the failure of the school and district to address chronically disruptive students. It was a problem created by negligent leaders who willingly allowed a free-for-all environment that was conducive to chaos instead of learning.
I’ll never forget the first day of staff development my second year. During the “welcome back” talk, my principal handed out a sheet which detailed the number of discipline referrals submitted by each teacher the previous year. We were informed that it is wrong to submit a lot of them because discipline is a classroom-management issue and therefore must be addressed within the classroom. Sending students to the office, she said, is simply not acceptable or allowed.
I didn’t think much of that at first. After all, I had just come from an amazing summer school experience in which I had supportive principals, a fantastic assistant principal who liked to hang out in my classroom, and students who were simply a joy to be around. Even though many of my students had received no science instruction at their regular schools (that time was used for extra reading and math test preparation), they were veritable experts on the scientific method at the end of our six weeks. I was continually impressed with their hard work and desire to learn.
Coming from that experience, I ignored my fellow teachers’ warnings that the new year was going to be complete and total chaos. I also ignored the fact that losing our vice principal—who tried his best to be an effective disciplinarian—was sure to affect the school’s climate. Instead, I was excited and ready to teach. The other middle school teachers and I collaborated and developed a student handbook in which we standardized all of our rules, expectations, grading practices, behavior management systems, and other relevant policies and procedures. We were a united front, and our students were going to have a successful year.
Or so I thought.
Everything was great for the first three weeks, but then a few students began testing the limits of what was acceptable behavior. It’s one thing when a student throws a paper ball at his friend, or when someone utters a rude comment. It’s quite another thing when a student tells you that she’ll “crack” your “bitch ass” or demands that you “get the fuck out of [her] face”. Unfortunately, as the students soon discovered, our principal offered no support whatsoever. Nearly ever discipline referral sent to the office was returned with a polite reminder to please contact the students’ parents. Clear and consistent consequences simply did not exist—even though they were mandated by the district’s code of conduct.
Once that realization spread, the school effectively went from quality to chaos overnight. The following is but a sample of what an average day looked and sounded like:
- Students standing in the hall and kicking classroom doors for five to ten minutes at a time
- Students fighting
- Teachers pelted with paper, pencils, erasers, and rocks whenever they turned their heads
- Assignments torn up and thrown on the floor the moment they’re passed out
- Teachers cursed at, threatened, and sometimes even assaulted
- Classroom supplies vandalized or thrown about the room
- Groups of students running the halls and showing up to one or two classes at most
- Constant yelling and shouting from the hallways
- Gang writing written on the walls with permanent markers
- Students talking and yelling so loud in the classroom that nobody could hear the teacher
By “students”, I’m of course referring to the 15-25% that were chronically disruptive. The truth is that the overwhelming majority in each class were great kids who came every day ready to learn. Besides being from an impoverished part of town, they were no different than students at any other school.
This wasn’t just a problem at my school. When I spoke with other teachers throughout the district, they told me that the situation at their school was nearly identical to mine. Some of their stories are just as outrageous.
When students are subjected to a toxic environment that prevents learning, all other education concerns—curriculum, standards, integrating technology, etc—become totally irrelevant. Unfortunately, this is something rarely ever addressed in both local and national media. And education reformers—whether from watching Freedom Writers one too many times or just understanding that blaming teachers is politically expedient right now—repeat until they’re red in the face the idea that a teacher with leadership skills and high expectations can fix everything short of the conflict in the Middle East.
So what did our school leaders focus on, if not the toxic atmosphere in the schools? The superintendent—a product of the Broad Superintendents Academy—was concerned mostly with “right-sizing” the district, preparing to implement standards-based learning at pilot schools, and token efforts towards “community involvement”. As for the school board…well, that’s anyone’s guess. I think they were more concerned with political in-fighting and a sudden attempt to appear legitimate.
I should be surprised that the toxic atmosphere wasn’t addressed, but I’m not. I came to realize a certain truth about this country’s urban schools: their leaders—especially those at the district level—rarely have any stake in whether or not the schools are successes or failures. They’re not a part of those communities, they don’t send their children to the schools they oversee (except, sometimes, the selective admissions-based ones), and at the end of the day, whatever happens doesn’t really affect them. They’re working with other peoples’ children. The only thing they have to lose is their jobs—and that’s easy to protect if they cover their rear, furnish the necessary documentation, and blame those below them.
Though I was also not a part of my district’s community, it was different for me since I was a teacher. Teachers bond with their students, become their advocates, share in the joy of their successes, and help them learn from their failures. They feel the pain of their situations at home, keep extra granola bars and juice boxes on hand for those who don’t get enough food, and go above and beyond to ensure that they get the education they need. Their students are real people and they care deeply about them. They’re not just a statistic on some document.
As a teacher, I saw firsthand the very people who were failed by my district’s leaders:
- They failed C.P., a quirky, wonderful student who was reading Plato’s Republic for fun in seventh grade
- They failed D.W., a bright, talented student who although sometimes lost his temper due to problems at home, would always apologize afterwards.
- They failed M.J., the sweetest, nicest, most prim and proper student I’ve ever met, who was forced to endure disruption day after day by one of her classmates who threatened to shoot others, was arrested for armed robbery, and made sexually harassing comments to girls
- They also failed M.W., a student who although acted as a class clown at times, was incredibly smart, motivated, and had the potential to do anything he wanted to in life
Were there other problems? Of course there were, but the chronically disruptive atmosphere was by far the most significant and destructive. It’s a problem that’s conspicuously absent from successful suburban schools—which don’t tolerate outrageous misbehavior—and is usually never mentioned by education reformers, policy experts, consultants, and the other people who pretend to know what’s best for our schools.
Perhaps my expectations are too high. After all, how can I expect them to understand the seriousness of this problem if they’ve spent little or no time working in the very schools they pretend to be experts about?
You can follow Frank Beard on twitter @FrankBeard, or email him at fbeard@gmail.com
http://www.anurbanteacherseducation.com/2011/02/tfa-alumnus-describes-barriers-to.html
Jacksonville Schools Lack Discipline
Schools lack discipline
I find all this debate about the high school magnet programs at Paxon, Stanton and Douglas Anderson and if we should keep them as they are both sad and laughable. Laughable because parents, the district and the media are missing the real causes of the differences between the grades and sad because the same entities don't seem to be doing anything to correct the real problems. The real problem is our neighborhood schools are filled with apathy and lack discipline, problems the magnet schools don't face. Take care of those two problems and I believe we could sit back and watch the neighborhood schools grades rise.
Where I think it borderline inappropriate to celebrate the successes the magnet schools are having when so many other schools are struggling the reality is, differences between our A schools and our D and F schools aren't that great and are definitely fixable. Where I believe it's true that the magnet schools play a role in the problems that neighborhood schools are experiencing by siphoning away some of the brightest and most motivated, who coincidently are often the students that are in the least amount of trouble, this definitely isn't the neighborhood schools biggest problem.
The differences between the neighborhood schools and the magnet schools are the neighborhood schools are filled with apathy and lack discipline. One set of schools battle these problems daily and the other set has received a pass. This is one of the reasons I would put the faculty of the F school I work at against any faculty in any magnet school in the district. Our amazing and dedicated group of teachers goes to work everyday, often unappreciated and then do great things with their students and that's while having to put up with the serious problems the teachers at the magnet schools don't have to. However it's not just my school that has a good staff, every school in the district has dedicated teachers doing their best to educate their students, a significant amount of who really want to learn and do well, and this is every where from Stanton, to Ribault to Ed White and all the schools in between. The differences are in the problems the staffs face.
First apathy, the students at the magnet schools want to be there where many of the students at the neighborhood school feel forced to be there. This is a hoop they must jump through on their way to adulthood. The main reason for this is that for some reason in Duval County we insist on preparing children just for a college education, when quite frankly a lot of the students in the neighborhood schools aren't interested in it or for a variety of reasons aren't ready for it. We have students taking classes they are not prepared for like algebra II, physics and chemistry (classes I didn't have to take and I am teaching at the public, neighborhood school that I went to), when they should be taking classes that teach them carpentry, plumbing, electronics, cooking, computers, etc. etc. etc. classes that will give them a skill, or prepare them for the real world. If we are going to have magnet schools for college prep., why don't we also have more magnet schools for skills preparation and not just Peterson, which every year gets harder and harder to get into?
Furthermore many students are not interested in those classes yet they are forced to take them. I'll tell you why, it's because some elected official who has never been in the classroom read a paper written by some college professor who has never been in a public school, which said we are falling behind in math and science. As the holder of multiple college liberal arts degrees that required very little background in math and science I am here to tell you we can be successful with just a cursory knowledge of advanced science and math. What about students that want to be social workers, (non math or science) teachers, writers, work in law enforcement or dozens of other fields, where is the liberal arts curriculum that serves them.
Instead of developing a practical curriculum for those students who don't want to go to college, who may want to work instead or for students interested in liberal arts subjects, the powers that be insist students take classes they will never use again. I saw a skit on the David Letterman show a few years back, it was about weird and unusual people; they introduced Mark Sampson from Tara Haute, Indian, he was weird and unusual because he had used algebra to solve an everyday problem. When I was in high school again at the school I am now teaching at, I took general math 2 as a junior and no math as a senior, I also took no sciences that required math either in high school or college. In case you are wondering I have degrees in political science and psychology, and I chose them partly based on the lack of math they required.
Its worse for some special education students working on special ed. diplomas which and I am not sure if they or their parents know this or not aren't worth the paper they are printed on. At a meeting the other day we were discussing putting some special education students in regular education classes because we thought they could do it, until somebody mentioned they would also have to take algebra 2 and chemistry. The enthusiastic attitude we had quickly changed to a defeated one as we agreed what's the point.
A worse problem than apathy however is the lack of discipline in our schools. Now don't get me wrong, most students are a treat or no worse than a momentary problem here or there, but there are also more than a few students who make educating the rest very difficult. Everyday in the teachers lounges throughout the district you hear educators lament, if only Johnny wasn't in my class I could teach, or thank goodness little Suzy was absent, I felt like a teacher today. The district has made it nearly impossible to remove these children to alternative schools unless they bring a gun to school (though not always) or beat up a teacher, as just threatening a teacher often isn't enough. By allowing these few students to skate by with little or no consequences and remember for a consequence to be effective it must have meaning, for their behavior we are courting disaster. Do we need a tragedy to happen, like a student being rushed to the hospital after a fight, something that happened at my school earlier in the week or something worse, before we bring discipline back to the classroom and get rid of these unruly few? Think about it, if a teacher spends just ten percent of his time disciplining those students who show no desire to be in school, who come not to learn but to see what trouble they can find, then all the students in the class are loosing out on 18 days of instruction in a school year, some teachers are forced to spend a lot more than ten percent. I wonder how discipline is at the magnet schools; I would guess it's not much of a problem.
Continuing when watching the news or reading the newspaper it is obvious our community has been infected by an epidemic of violence, and for the most part it is young people committing it. I wonder how these former students did while they were in school, if they were discipline problems or not, and if they were what kind of consequences they received for their behavior. My guess would be none, that they were managed instead of dealt with or socially promoted so they could be the next schools or societies problem. What do you think happens when children are allowed to do whatever they want in school with only the slightest of punishments, well they become adults without respect or care for their fellow citizens.
Imagine if students went to schools where they participated in curriculums that were relevant to their interests or desires. Imagine if students went to schools where their teachers could concentrate on teaching rather than disciplining a rowdy few. Imagine what the grades of those schools would look like. Imagine if all high schools could eject students with a 2.0 grade point average or less. I bet more parents would be involved if they knew they would have to pay for a private school if their child was evicted from public school.
Where I believe the magnet program is deeply flawed (mostly because of an unfair distribution of resources, and them being able to hand pick and drop their students, where other schools take what they get and do the best they can with them) I see the real problems at the neighborhood schools not being a brain drain but unrealistic expectations from the powers that be. We have curriculums that breed apathy and don't prepare students not headed to college for the real world. But worse neighborhood schools have students with severe discipline problems and when we coddle then we are in effect allowing the inmates to run the asylum. This serious lack of discipline impedes instruction. We must develop meaningful consequences for repeat and serious offenders, because if not, what is the point. I believe no child left behind should be changed to; we are leaving about ten percent of them behind until they straighten up. If we could fight apathy and instill discipline, then I believe we would watch the grades of neighborhood schools rise, and rise quickly and dramatically.
I find all this debate about the high school magnet programs at Paxon, Stanton and Douglas Anderson and if we should keep them as they are both sad and laughable. Laughable because parents, the district and the media are missing the real causes of the differences between the grades and sad because the same entities don't seem to be doing anything to correct the real problems. The real problem is our neighborhood schools are filled with apathy and lack discipline, problems the magnet schools don't face. Take care of those two problems and I believe we could sit back and watch the neighborhood schools grades rise.
Where I think it borderline inappropriate to celebrate the successes the magnet schools are having when so many other schools are struggling the reality is, differences between our A schools and our D and F schools aren't that great and are definitely fixable. Where I believe it's true that the magnet schools play a role in the problems that neighborhood schools are experiencing by siphoning away some of the brightest and most motivated, who coincidently are often the students that are in the least amount of trouble, this definitely isn't the neighborhood schools biggest problem.
The differences between the neighborhood schools and the magnet schools are the neighborhood schools are filled with apathy and lack discipline. One set of schools battle these problems daily and the other set has received a pass. This is one of the reasons I would put the faculty of the F school I work at against any faculty in any magnet school in the district. Our amazing and dedicated group of teachers goes to work everyday, often unappreciated and then do great things with their students and that's while having to put up with the serious problems the teachers at the magnet schools don't have to. However it's not just my school that has a good staff, every school in the district has dedicated teachers doing their best to educate their students, a significant amount of who really want to learn and do well, and this is every where from Stanton, to Ribault to Ed White and all the schools in between. The differences are in the problems the staffs face.
First apathy, the students at the magnet schools want to be there where many of the students at the neighborhood school feel forced to be there. This is a hoop they must jump through on their way to adulthood. The main reason for this is that for some reason in Duval County we insist on preparing children just for a college education, when quite frankly a lot of the students in the neighborhood schools aren't interested in it or for a variety of reasons aren't ready for it. We have students taking classes they are not prepared for like algebra II, physics and chemistry (classes I didn't have to take and I am teaching at the public, neighborhood school that I went to), when they should be taking classes that teach them carpentry, plumbing, electronics, cooking, computers, etc. etc. etc. classes that will give them a skill, or prepare them for the real world. If we are going to have magnet schools for college prep., why don't we also have more magnet schools for skills preparation and not just Peterson, which every year gets harder and harder to get into?
Furthermore many students are not interested in those classes yet they are forced to take them. I'll tell you why, it's because some elected official who has never been in the classroom read a paper written by some college professor who has never been in a public school, which said we are falling behind in math and science. As the holder of multiple college liberal arts degrees that required very little background in math and science I am here to tell you we can be successful with just a cursory knowledge of advanced science and math. What about students that want to be social workers, (non math or science) teachers, writers, work in law enforcement or dozens of other fields, where is the liberal arts curriculum that serves them.
Instead of developing a practical curriculum for those students who don't want to go to college, who may want to work instead or for students interested in liberal arts subjects, the powers that be insist students take classes they will never use again. I saw a skit on the David Letterman show a few years back, it was about weird and unusual people; they introduced Mark Sampson from Tara Haute, Indian, he was weird and unusual because he had used algebra to solve an everyday problem. When I was in high school again at the school I am now teaching at, I took general math 2 as a junior and no math as a senior, I also took no sciences that required math either in high school or college. In case you are wondering I have degrees in political science and psychology, and I chose them partly based on the lack of math they required.
Its worse for some special education students working on special ed. diplomas which and I am not sure if they or their parents know this or not aren't worth the paper they are printed on. At a meeting the other day we were discussing putting some special education students in regular education classes because we thought they could do it, until somebody mentioned they would also have to take algebra 2 and chemistry. The enthusiastic attitude we had quickly changed to a defeated one as we agreed what's the point.
A worse problem than apathy however is the lack of discipline in our schools. Now don't get me wrong, most students are a treat or no worse than a momentary problem here or there, but there are also more than a few students who make educating the rest very difficult. Everyday in the teachers lounges throughout the district you hear educators lament, if only Johnny wasn't in my class I could teach, or thank goodness little Suzy was absent, I felt like a teacher today. The district has made it nearly impossible to remove these children to alternative schools unless they bring a gun to school (though not always) or beat up a teacher, as just threatening a teacher often isn't enough. By allowing these few students to skate by with little or no consequences and remember for a consequence to be effective it must have meaning, for their behavior we are courting disaster. Do we need a tragedy to happen, like a student being rushed to the hospital after a fight, something that happened at my school earlier in the week or something worse, before we bring discipline back to the classroom and get rid of these unruly few? Think about it, if a teacher spends just ten percent of his time disciplining those students who show no desire to be in school, who come not to learn but to see what trouble they can find, then all the students in the class are loosing out on 18 days of instruction in a school year, some teachers are forced to spend a lot more than ten percent. I wonder how discipline is at the magnet schools; I would guess it's not much of a problem.
Continuing when watching the news or reading the newspaper it is obvious our community has been infected by an epidemic of violence, and for the most part it is young people committing it. I wonder how these former students did while they were in school, if they were discipline problems or not, and if they were what kind of consequences they received for their behavior. My guess would be none, that they were managed instead of dealt with or socially promoted so they could be the next schools or societies problem. What do you think happens when children are allowed to do whatever they want in school with only the slightest of punishments, well they become adults without respect or care for their fellow citizens.
Imagine if students went to schools where they participated in curriculums that were relevant to their interests or desires. Imagine if students went to schools where their teachers could concentrate on teaching rather than disciplining a rowdy few. Imagine what the grades of those schools would look like. Imagine if all high schools could eject students with a 2.0 grade point average or less. I bet more parents would be involved if they knew they would have to pay for a private school if their child was evicted from public school.
Where I believe the magnet program is deeply flawed (mostly because of an unfair distribution of resources, and them being able to hand pick and drop their students, where other schools take what they get and do the best they can with them) I see the real problems at the neighborhood schools not being a brain drain but unrealistic expectations from the powers that be. We have curriculums that breed apathy and don't prepare students not headed to college for the real world. But worse neighborhood schools have students with severe discipline problems and when we coddle then we are in effect allowing the inmates to run the asylum. This serious lack of discipline impedes instruction. We must develop meaningful consequences for repeat and serious offenders, because if not, what is the point. I believe no child left behind should be changed to; we are leaving about ten percent of them behind until they straighten up. If we could fight apathy and instill discipline, then I believe we would watch the grades of neighborhood schools rise, and rise quickly and dramatically.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Teachers easily hired, easily fired
From the Daily Kos
by PL Thomas
Detroit rises to the status of a major character in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex. About a fifth of the way into the novel, the narrator, Calliope/Cal Stephanides makes this observation about the arrival of the automotive industry in the Motor City:
"Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.
"But in 1922 it was still a new thing to be a machine.
"...Part of the new production method's genius was its division of labor into unskilled tasks. That way you could hire anyone. And fire anyone."
This is a chilling passage about the dawning of the assembly line era of American manufacturing, but equally as chilling is that this passage offers a clue to where we now are heading in U.S. public education and the fate of the American teacher.
A Teacher Is a Teacher Is a Teacher...
Like Henry Ford, Bill Gates has ushered in a new era in U.S. public education, shifting the already robust accountability era that began in the early 1980s and accelerated in 2001 with the passing of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) from focusing on student accountability for standards and test scores to demanding that teachers be held accountable for student test scores addressing those standards. Gates has been assisted by Michelle Rhee and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as the "No Excuses" Reformers have perpetuated narratives conjuring the myth of the "bad" teacher, which Adam Bessie has confronted by suggesting we hire hologram teachers in order to remove the greatest problem facing education: Humans.
Just as the assembly line rendered all workers interchangeable, and thus, easy to hire, and easy to fire, the current education reforms focusing on teacher accountability, value-added methods (VAM) of evaluating teachers, and the growing fascination with Teach for America (TFA) are seeking the same fact for teachers: A de-professionalized workforce of teaching as a service industry, easy to hire, and easy to fire.
All of the following are both key elements of the "No Excuses" Reformers' plans and steps to eradicating teaching as a profession in the U.S.:
• Secretary Duncan leads the chorus of "teachers are the most important factor in student achievement" despite ample evidence that teacher influence on measurable student outcomes, tests, is only about 10-20%. This refrain serves two purposes for the "No Excuses" Reformers: (1) Deflect attention from the 60-80% influence that out-of-school factors play in student achievement, and (2) insure that teachers are de-professionalized, thus creating a cheap labor force for a privatized education system.
• The propaganda continues to increase calling for TFA recruits to serve high-poverty schools. The evidence on TFA recruits is sparse, but what exists doesn't support using uncertified and inexperienced teachers to address the problem faced by many high-poverty schools: A lack of certified, experienced teachers. Thus, TFA recruits can only be attractive because they represent the Ford ideal of workers easy to hire and easy to fire (exceptionally easy to fire, in fact, because they leave of their own accord in a short time).
• From The New York Times to President Obama in his 2012 State of the Union Address, VAM propaganda remains powerful, calling for holding teachers accountable for their students' test scores. Yet, after careful examinations of the study, any claims that VAM is effective remain unfounded. Again, we must conclude that seeking ways to quickly hire and fire teachers is more important than if any method achieves the claimed goals of seeking higher student achievement. VAM is a terrible tool for identifying and rewarding excellent teaching, but, like the assembly line, it is an effective tool for reducing any worker to a cog.
• While 50 states have implemented accountability, standards, and testing without satisfactory results, "No Excuses" Reformers are committed to national standards, and the expected national tests to follow. While there is no national or international evidence that standards and testing improve education, this call for federalizing standards and testing proves to be an important lever for removing completely teacher autonomy and creating the platform upon which teachers are easily fired.
The ultimate evidence that "No Excuses" Reformers want to de-professionalize teaching, however, is the issue of professional autonomy. Accountability must be preceded by autonomy; otherwise, accountability is tyranny. Instead of creating professional autonomy for teachers, however, every aspect of the "No Excuses" Reform movement is bent on removing autonomy from teachers while reducing further all student achievement to tests so that teacher quality can be easily and quickly quantified as well.
In the wake of Obama's State of the Union speech and the prospect of where "No Excuses" Reform will go next, I think it isn't much of a stretch to consider the possibility of this sentence coming to pass:
Historical fact: teachers stopped being professionals in 2013.
It is the path we are on, and it is a path that must be avoided.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/28/1059525/-21st-Century-Teachers:-Easy-to-Hire,-Easy-to-Fire
by PL Thomas
Detroit rises to the status of a major character in Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex. About a fifth of the way into the novel, the narrator, Calliope/Cal Stephanides makes this observation about the arrival of the automotive industry in the Motor City:
"Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we've all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.
"But in 1922 it was still a new thing to be a machine.
"...Part of the new production method's genius was its division of labor into unskilled tasks. That way you could hire anyone. And fire anyone."
This is a chilling passage about the dawning of the assembly line era of American manufacturing, but equally as chilling is that this passage offers a clue to where we now are heading in U.S. public education and the fate of the American teacher.
A Teacher Is a Teacher Is a Teacher...
Like Henry Ford, Bill Gates has ushered in a new era in U.S. public education, shifting the already robust accountability era that began in the early 1980s and accelerated in 2001 with the passing of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) from focusing on student accountability for standards and test scores to demanding that teachers be held accountable for student test scores addressing those standards. Gates has been assisted by Michelle Rhee and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as the "No Excuses" Reformers have perpetuated narratives conjuring the myth of the "bad" teacher, which Adam Bessie has confronted by suggesting we hire hologram teachers in order to remove the greatest problem facing education: Humans.
Just as the assembly line rendered all workers interchangeable, and thus, easy to hire, and easy to fire, the current education reforms focusing on teacher accountability, value-added methods (VAM) of evaluating teachers, and the growing fascination with Teach for America (TFA) are seeking the same fact for teachers: A de-professionalized workforce of teaching as a service industry, easy to hire, and easy to fire.
All of the following are both key elements of the "No Excuses" Reformers' plans and steps to eradicating teaching as a profession in the U.S.:
• Secretary Duncan leads the chorus of "teachers are the most important factor in student achievement" despite ample evidence that teacher influence on measurable student outcomes, tests, is only about 10-20%. This refrain serves two purposes for the "No Excuses" Reformers: (1) Deflect attention from the 60-80% influence that out-of-school factors play in student achievement, and (2) insure that teachers are de-professionalized, thus creating a cheap labor force for a privatized education system.
• The propaganda continues to increase calling for TFA recruits to serve high-poverty schools. The evidence on TFA recruits is sparse, but what exists doesn't support using uncertified and inexperienced teachers to address the problem faced by many high-poverty schools: A lack of certified, experienced teachers. Thus, TFA recruits can only be attractive because they represent the Ford ideal of workers easy to hire and easy to fire (exceptionally easy to fire, in fact, because they leave of their own accord in a short time).
• From The New York Times to President Obama in his 2012 State of the Union Address, VAM propaganda remains powerful, calling for holding teachers accountable for their students' test scores. Yet, after careful examinations of the study, any claims that VAM is effective remain unfounded. Again, we must conclude that seeking ways to quickly hire and fire teachers is more important than if any method achieves the claimed goals of seeking higher student achievement. VAM is a terrible tool for identifying and rewarding excellent teaching, but, like the assembly line, it is an effective tool for reducing any worker to a cog.
• While 50 states have implemented accountability, standards, and testing without satisfactory results, "No Excuses" Reformers are committed to national standards, and the expected national tests to follow. While there is no national or international evidence that standards and testing improve education, this call for federalizing standards and testing proves to be an important lever for removing completely teacher autonomy and creating the platform upon which teachers are easily fired.
The ultimate evidence that "No Excuses" Reformers want to de-professionalize teaching, however, is the issue of professional autonomy. Accountability must be preceded by autonomy; otherwise, accountability is tyranny. Instead of creating professional autonomy for teachers, however, every aspect of the "No Excuses" Reform movement is bent on removing autonomy from teachers while reducing further all student achievement to tests so that teacher quality can be easily and quickly quantified as well.
In the wake of Obama's State of the Union speech and the prospect of where "No Excuses" Reform will go next, I think it isn't much of a stretch to consider the possibility of this sentence coming to pass:
Historical fact: teachers stopped being professionals in 2013.
It is the path we are on, and it is a path that must be avoided.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/28/1059525/-21st-Century-Teachers:-Easy-to-Hire,-Easy-to-Fire
Florida school rankings coming Monday
from the Orlando Sentinel School Zone
by Leslie Postal
Florida released its first-ever school district rankings this week and will follow that up with individual school rankings this Monday.
The state’s superintendents association said in an email this evening that it expects the new school rankings at the start of the school week.
Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said Monday that the individual school rankings would be out soon, listing Florida’s more than 3,000 schools within the categories of elementary, middle and high.
The Florida Association of District School Superintendents doesn’t like the rankings because they don’t take into account the “variables that affect student achievement.” Those variables can include poverty and a first language other than English.
State Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, the association’s executive director, told superintendents in a memo that he and key superintendents had shared those concersn with top DOE officials — but to no avail, so far.
That means the ranking of schools will be based on a formula that takes into account only student success on various FCAT exams.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2012/01/school-rankings-coming-monday-superintendents-say.html
by Leslie Postal
Florida released its first-ever school district rankings this week and will follow that up with individual school rankings this Monday.
The state’s superintendents association said in an email this evening that it expects the new school rankings at the start of the school week.
Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson said Monday that the individual school rankings would be out soon, listing Florida’s more than 3,000 schools within the categories of elementary, middle and high.
The Florida Association of District School Superintendents doesn’t like the rankings because they don’t take into account the “variables that affect student achievement.” Those variables can include poverty and a first language other than English.
State Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, the association’s executive director, told superintendents in a memo that he and key superintendents had shared those concersn with top DOE officials — but to no avail, so far.
That means the ranking of schools will be based on a formula that takes into account only student success on various FCAT exams.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2012/01/school-rankings-coming-monday-superintendents-say.html
If education was based on capitalism
ONCE UPON A TIME there was an economics professor...
She loved teaching almost as much as she loved her subject. Like most born teachers, she was much more interested in what her students learned than she was in establishing her authority in the classroom, or assigning grades. She knew that those things are necessary to the task of teaching, and to the system she taught in, but regarded them as tools to be used to increase learning.
One year she found herself teaching a class full of dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. They seemed unable to think beyond their ideology, and countered any evidence she presented with economic dogma, which they didn't even seem to have thought through.
"Free markets can be trusted to solve all problems," they said, "economic or otherwise."
"Government regulation will predictably lead to economic collapse," they said.
"Any attempt to introduce enforced 'fairness' into a system," they said, "will only undermine the market forces which make the system work."
The teacher was saddened at their closed-mindedness and narrowness of thought. She considered long and hard how to get them to connect their thinking to the real world, which she knew was much more complex than their political theories.
Finally, she came up with a plan.
She walked into class one day, faced the students, and asked a question.
"Do you see any similarities between our country as a whole and this classroom?"
The students were silent at first, then one raised a timid hand.
"Well, the country has citizens, and the classroom has students..."
"Very good," the teacher replied. "So if you represent the citizens, who symbolizes the government?"
Another hand went up.
"You do."
"Exactly. And what would be the equivalent of currency?"
"Grades?"
"Very good. Would you be willing to undertake a little experiment, in order to test whether government regulation is a good thing or a bad thing, right here in this classroom?"
The students, being a bit cocky, readily agreed.
"Fine. HERE'S WHAT I PROPOSE," the professor said. "I will grade the scheduled exams and papers just as I always have, and assign the grades as usual. However, from this moment forward, I will cease to regulate how you go about writing those papers or taking the tests."
The students, blinded by their ideology, saw no problem with this.
The first paper was due the next week. Several of the top students turned in their usual excellent work, and were very surprised to get C's when the grades were returned.
They might never have figured out what happened, except that one or two of the students who received A's couldn't resist bragging.
Those students, the others who had received A's, and most of the ones who had received B's, had simply gone to the library and found an article by a professional economist which fit the assignment. They had then copied it, changed the name to their own, and turned it in.
The students who had worked very hard on their papers only to get C's immediately went to the teacher and complained.
"But they cheated!"
"Yes. I know."
"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"
"What would you want me to do?"
"Disqualify their papers. Give them F's. Give us the A's."
"But your papers aren't as good as theirs. You're asking for government regulation. We agreed to let market forces work this out."
The next grade was on a test. By now the class had begun to figure out how the new system was working, so it was no surprise that only the very best students took their own test.
The richest students spent their inherited money to hire other professors from the economics department to sit in for them.
Some of these students were deeply disappointed, since it was mostly the more conservative professors who would agree that the deregulated approach was legitimate, and of course they had the same ideological blinders on that the students did, so they didn't do so well on a fact-based test.
Some students who were less well off hired other students in the department, with mixed results.
Some of the better students in the class dropped out, in order to take exams for wealthier students.
But that was only one exam.
By the end of the course, the market had gotten a lot smarter. Fewer mistakes were made, and consequently students pretty much got the grades they had legitimately paid for.
The richest students formed a corporation and pooled their resources to hire a burglar, who stole the answers from the teacher's office. They got all the A's.
The poorest students couldn't compete, so they dropped out, taking F's.
With a few exceptions, the students in between had grades which generally reflected how wealthy their parents were.
On the last day of class, the teacher asked the students what they thought of the experiment.
Oddly enough, the wealthiest students thought it had gone fine.
The students in the middle ranges, however, weren't so sure. In general, the more competent they were, the less they thought of the system.
And, of course, the poorest students weren't there anymore, and so had no voice.
She loved teaching almost as much as she loved her subject. Like most born teachers, she was much more interested in what her students learned than she was in establishing her authority in the classroom, or assigning grades. She knew that those things are necessary to the task of teaching, and to the system she taught in, but regarded them as tools to be used to increase learning.
One year she found herself teaching a class full of dyed-in-the-wool conservatives. They seemed unable to think beyond their ideology, and countered any evidence she presented with economic dogma, which they didn't even seem to have thought through.
"Free markets can be trusted to solve all problems," they said, "economic or otherwise."
"Government regulation will predictably lead to economic collapse," they said.
"Any attempt to introduce enforced 'fairness' into a system," they said, "will only undermine the market forces which make the system work."
The teacher was saddened at their closed-mindedness and narrowness of thought. She considered long and hard how to get them to connect their thinking to the real world, which she knew was much more complex than their political theories.
Finally, she came up with a plan.
She walked into class one day, faced the students, and asked a question.
"Do you see any similarities between our country as a whole and this classroom?"
The students were silent at first, then one raised a timid hand.
"Well, the country has citizens, and the classroom has students..."
"Very good," the teacher replied. "So if you represent the citizens, who symbolizes the government?"
Another hand went up.
"You do."
"Exactly. And what would be the equivalent of currency?"
"Grades?"
"Very good. Would you be willing to undertake a little experiment, in order to test whether government regulation is a good thing or a bad thing, right here in this classroom?"
The students, being a bit cocky, readily agreed.
"Fine. HERE'S WHAT I PROPOSE," the professor said. "I will grade the scheduled exams and papers just as I always have, and assign the grades as usual. However, from this moment forward, I will cease to regulate how you go about writing those papers or taking the tests."
The students, blinded by their ideology, saw no problem with this.
The first paper was due the next week. Several of the top students turned in their usual excellent work, and were very surprised to get C's when the grades were returned.
They might never have figured out what happened, except that one or two of the students who received A's couldn't resist bragging.
Those students, the others who had received A's, and most of the ones who had received B's, had simply gone to the library and found an article by a professional economist which fit the assignment. They had then copied it, changed the name to their own, and turned it in.
The students who had worked very hard on their papers only to get C's immediately went to the teacher and complained.
"But they cheated!"
"Yes. I know."
"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"
"What would you want me to do?"
"Disqualify their papers. Give them F's. Give us the A's."
"But your papers aren't as good as theirs. You're asking for government regulation. We agreed to let market forces work this out."
The next grade was on a test. By now the class had begun to figure out how the new system was working, so it was no surprise that only the very best students took their own test.
The richest students spent their inherited money to hire other professors from the economics department to sit in for them.
Some of these students were deeply disappointed, since it was mostly the more conservative professors who would agree that the deregulated approach was legitimate, and of course they had the same ideological blinders on that the students did, so they didn't do so well on a fact-based test.
Some students who were less well off hired other students in the department, with mixed results.
Some of the better students in the class dropped out, in order to take exams for wealthier students.
But that was only one exam.
By the end of the course, the market had gotten a lot smarter. Fewer mistakes were made, and consequently students pretty much got the grades they had legitimately paid for.
The richest students formed a corporation and pooled their resources to hire a burglar, who stole the answers from the teacher's office. They got all the A's.
The poorest students couldn't compete, so they dropped out, taking F's.
With a few exceptions, the students in between had grades which generally reflected how wealthy their parents were.
On the last day of class, the teacher asked the students what they thought of the experiment.
Oddly enough, the wealthiest students thought it had gone fine.
The students in the middle ranges, however, weren't so sure. In general, the more competent they were, the less they thought of the system.
And, of course, the poorest students weren't there anymore, and so had no voice.
The President's State of the Union address sickens some teachers
by Mike Brocoum
President Obama's speech sickened me when he spoke about education. Doesn't want teachers to teach to the test but wants their evaluations, salary raises and even job security based on test scores. Such arrogance. Did he really think the contradiction would be missed?
President Obama's speech sickened me when he spoke about education. Doesn't want teachers to teach to the test but wants their evaluations, salary raises and even job security based on test scores. Such arrogance. Did he really think the contradiction would be missed?
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