We have a young friend who is a freshman at a local school that prides itself in its International Baccalaureate program, and its number of AP classes.
They informed me that they did not have a textbook for the first month of class. I understand that people are not good about registering their kids ahead of time, and Metro doesn't always know how many students are showing up. I have also been told by folks on the inside that Metro has a hard time getting textbooks from vendors because they're not very accomplished at paying the bills.
The student said that for their AP class they had spent the month coloring in maps. The Honors level class in the same subject, as compared to the supposedly higher level AP class, is apparently taught by someone who had a little more gumption. That teacher assigned what sounded like fairly strenuous term papers.
I've had several students, and their parents, tell me that our high school of zone collects up all the textbooks a month before school ends. So two months without textbooks in this scenario is maddening to someone who pays taxes to educate children and sees the dismal results. When I see ten kids lined up for the high school bus in the morning, only about six of them will graduate. Sad indeed.
I had no idea the Upper Midwest educational systems were rated so highly. I grew up in one of those states, regularly in the top five nationally. I guess it's just that the other states are doing so much worse.
It was just a given that we worked hard in school. My parents made sure of that. But many parents don't, and many schools don't hold up their end of the bargain either. The big losers are the kids, and society on the whole.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Monday, October 4, 2010
Friday, August 28, 2009
Well, it will be a cost saver...
Memphis has announced they will not flunk children between kindergarten and third grade, and only flunk a child once time between fourth and eighth grades.
It's a totally sticky wicket, I know. I have lots more experience in this than the average childless person. ;-) So I have opinions:
*Basically, I think it will be a money saver for Memphis. Less years of school for a kid, at 10K a pop (which is considerably higher than Nashville, but still with dismal results). Cynical, I know, but I've seen enough in direct contact with Metro Nashville administrators and teachers to see it that way.
*Unless the teachers and administrators really buckle down with the interventions mentioned, it will be very easy to just let the kids cruise through, without adequate learning measures being met. As the article says, otherwise they just get the same curriculum and approaches as the previous year, likely without different results.
*Unless parents care and get involved in their kids' education, there isn't that much that schools can do on their own. That's something I know profoundly, first hand.
*The kid doesn't need to work, doesn't need to even show up, and the parent doesn't need to even try to do anything. The kid isn't getting retained, no matter what.
I really hope I'm wrong.
A quote from the article...
"If the schools in Memphis are determined to identify students who are struggling and apply different interventions, it's possible it could do the trick," said Jay Greene, endowed professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
"Unfortunately, the track record on this approach is not that good," he said.
It's a totally sticky wicket, I know. I have lots more experience in this than the average childless person. ;-) So I have opinions:
*Basically, I think it will be a money saver for Memphis. Less years of school for a kid, at 10K a pop (which is considerably higher than Nashville, but still with dismal results). Cynical, I know, but I've seen enough in direct contact with Metro Nashville administrators and teachers to see it that way.
*Unless the teachers and administrators really buckle down with the interventions mentioned, it will be very easy to just let the kids cruise through, without adequate learning measures being met. As the article says, otherwise they just get the same curriculum and approaches as the previous year, likely without different results.
*Unless parents care and get involved in their kids' education, there isn't that much that schools can do on their own. That's something I know profoundly, first hand.
*The kid doesn't need to work, doesn't need to even show up, and the parent doesn't need to even try to do anything. The kid isn't getting retained, no matter what.
I really hope I'm wrong.
A quote from the article...
"If the schools in Memphis are determined to identify students who are struggling and apply different interventions, it's possible it could do the trick," said Jay Greene, endowed professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
"Unfortunately, the track record on this approach is not that good," he said.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
What the you-know-what am I paying for, anyway?
I haven't posted about education for a long time, probably because of my high frustration level both with our local public school district. I literally don't know any student who has actually graduated from any of the three high schools on our side of town.
If you know me you know that I am also very disappointed in the extremely lax education of kiddo's current private school. Kiddo calls their school "more like a day care" and unfortunately, they're right. Unless kiddo's mom does something, and God comes through, there isn't a whit I can do about that.
But that's not why I'm posting.
Kiddo's public school of zone had the students turn in all their textbooks at least five weeks before the end of the school year "for inventory." Might have been six weeks, I need to check.
What the heck are those kids doing for the last five weeks of school? If that's six weeks in actuality, that's almost 14% of the school year with no books.
I know at least a couple of the parents at the school are aghast, but I have no dog in the hunt so I can go ahead and call it what it deserves: a stupid action. Arrgh.
If you know me you know that I am also very disappointed in the extremely lax education of kiddo's current private school. Kiddo calls their school "more like a day care" and unfortunately, they're right. Unless kiddo's mom does something, and God comes through, there isn't a whit I can do about that.
But that's not why I'm posting.
Kiddo's public school of zone had the students turn in all their textbooks at least five weeks before the end of the school year "for inventory." Might have been six weeks, I need to check.
What the heck are those kids doing for the last five weeks of school? If that's six weeks in actuality, that's almost 14% of the school year with no books.
I know at least a couple of the parents at the school are aghast, but I have no dog in the hunt so I can go ahead and call it what it deserves: a stupid action. Arrgh.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Edu-ma-cation rant...
You know, I was just thinking about graduation rates in Metro, and I happened to talk to the teenager a couple of houses down. I asked him how things were at his school of zone, and he said "I'm not there this year". He had dropped out, presumably.
Of all the kids I know, who have went through schools on our side of town, I do not know one single one who went to Antioch, McGavock, or Glencliff that has actually graduated. I can think of six or seven who have dropped out. The only ones I know of from my side of town who graduated both went to Hume-Fogg (the academic magnet). Two of my friends' kids graduated from Hillsboro in the Green Hills area, and one more will do so this year.
These aren't good odds, folks, because only a couple of those kids are from what I would call a welfare-type family with an uncaring parent.
The Tennessean reported yesterday that at Overton High some kids sat in the auditorium for THREE DAYS waiting for their registration/class schedules. If we can't do any better than that, it's no wonder kids think that school isn't very important.
In my little town in Minnesota, the graduating class is featured in the local paper. I think maybe one of them did not have post-secondary education plans. But then again, I cannot remember a time when a school bond issue didn't pass in my small town. Schools are kind of the centerpiece of life up there; a good school keeps a town alive.
There is "open enrollment" up there now, where parents choose which school district they can send their children to. Other communities are now sending their childrent to my hometown's school. There aren't any private schools, and they spend a lot more per child there...surely some of that is because the district is a lot smaller, but a lot of it has to do with a higher level of importance placed on education--upper midwest schools are generally in the top five in the nation. Of course, it also helps a lot that they don't really have a lot of low income kids, few ELL students (illegals are inappropriately clogging our schools locally), parents who by and large care about education, etc. If you have trouble with your standardized tests up there, you are placed in remediation (I love that word!) to help you get your scores up.
Honestly, I didn't realize how good I had it growing up. The schools in the South still amaze me, and not in a good way...even nineteen years later...
Of all the kids I know, who have went through schools on our side of town, I do not know one single one who went to Antioch, McGavock, or Glencliff that has actually graduated. I can think of six or seven who have dropped out. The only ones I know of from my side of town who graduated both went to Hume-Fogg (the academic magnet). Two of my friends' kids graduated from Hillsboro in the Green Hills area, and one more will do so this year.
These aren't good odds, folks, because only a couple of those kids are from what I would call a welfare-type family with an uncaring parent.
The Tennessean reported yesterday that at Overton High some kids sat in the auditorium for THREE DAYS waiting for their registration/class schedules. If we can't do any better than that, it's no wonder kids think that school isn't very important.
In my little town in Minnesota, the graduating class is featured in the local paper. I think maybe one of them did not have post-secondary education plans. But then again, I cannot remember a time when a school bond issue didn't pass in my small town. Schools are kind of the centerpiece of life up there; a good school keeps a town alive.
There is "open enrollment" up there now, where parents choose which school district they can send their children to. Other communities are now sending their childrent to my hometown's school. There aren't any private schools, and they spend a lot more per child there...surely some of that is because the district is a lot smaller, but a lot of it has to do with a higher level of importance placed on education--upper midwest schools are generally in the top five in the nation. Of course, it also helps a lot that they don't really have a lot of low income kids, few ELL students (illegals are inappropriately clogging our schools locally), parents who by and large care about education, etc. If you have trouble with your standardized tests up there, you are placed in remediation (I love that word!) to help you get your scores up.
Honestly, I didn't realize how good I had it growing up. The schools in the South still amaze me, and not in a good way...even nineteen years later...
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Summer edu-ma-cation is over
At least formal education. Kiddo got another A. Glad I get a few weeks off of driving, although driving two hours a day was a lot easier on us than the usual 4 or 5 during the school year. I need a vacation but I don't see it happening...arrgh.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Metro, yucko...
When I picked up kiddo the other day they were pretty ticked off. IMHO, they had a good reason to be. Kiddo was the only kid in the 25ish person class who had gotten an A on a math test. Well, the rest of the class is probably people who failed the class the first time, but kiddo had never taken the class before and was soaking up a semester worth of stuff in three weeks' time. Some kid in class kept whining that they didn't understand what the teacher had been asking for. The teacher said, "well, someone DID understand what I was asking for!" and pointed at kiddo...who had legitimately gotten 100% on the test. This is the kind of class where a teacher could have looked over the math answer and given partial credit for understanding the process but not getting the right answer. Instead the teacher just caved to the kid whining and said "okay, everyone else will get 100% too." Kiddo had even done the extra credit question on the test and gotten that correct too. Had to tell kiddo that even though they had a teacher who was being very lax in my estimation and kiddo's as well, it is important to remember that kiddo was the only one who legitimately got 100% and the rest of the class got 100% but they couldn't really do the work and that would come out later in their lives. I was proud of kiddo, but ticked about how the teacher handled it, obviously. Let's lower the standard because a student whines...arrgh...
Friday, June 22, 2007
Metro at it again...
The kiddo's teacher said "oh, I thought I had to go through the entire book for this four week semester, but it turns out I only have to go through half the book this three week semester and the other half the next three week semester."
It took the teacher two weeks into a three week class to figure this out. Supa-sweet. Is the administration even paying attention enough to tell the faculty what they have to cover in a class? Apparently not.
So they had rushed through almost all they had to cover in two weeks and now will be slowing down. I'm glad the teacher finally figured it out but you can imagine the stress of doing almost a half year's work in a couple of weeks. Insane.
I had to buy the kid a textbook for the class as I had mentioned before. Between that and copying pages from a "reference only, can't be removed from the library" copy of the book I have surely spent almost sixty bucks on the the book situation. Stinks.
Oh, yeah, this is ANOTHER reason I'm glad we've been out of Metro Schools for the past several years. Didn't really need any reminders, but hey--they graciously provided some.
It took the teacher two weeks into a three week class to figure this out. Supa-sweet. Is the administration even paying attention enough to tell the faculty what they have to cover in a class? Apparently not.
So they had rushed through almost all they had to cover in two weeks and now will be slowing down. I'm glad the teacher finally figured it out but you can imagine the stress of doing almost a half year's work in a couple of weeks. Insane.
I had to buy the kid a textbook for the class as I had mentioned before. Between that and copying pages from a "reference only, can't be removed from the library" copy of the book I have surely spent almost sixty bucks on the the book situation. Stinks.
Oh, yeah, this is ANOTHER reason I'm glad we've been out of Metro Schools for the past several years. Didn't really need any reminders, but hey--they graciously provided some.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Insanity of schools
A young friend of ours told us about their experience in the first day of Metro summer school. According to the student, the day consisted of the following:
***first half hour--orientation and finding classrooms
***next three hours--sitting around talking about nothing in particular because the teacher didn't have the textbooks (and of course, we certainly can't start teaching a math class because gosh, something might have changed from the last time we taught it)
***last hour--here's your textbook, but leave it here in the building at the end of class...you can't take your textbook home.
This is a class that lasts around 18-20 days, so essentially a week's worth of material each day is on tap. So the teachers/school administrators wasted about a week's worth of class time already. Sad.
This class is largely filled with kids who presumably failed the class before. So now they can't even take the textbook home to study after class and hopefully pass the class this time?
My fellow Davidson County taxpayers and I paid for those textbooks with our tax money. Now this kid is asking me (we're family friends) if we can buy them a textbook so they can actually study for the class outside of class.
Madness.
***first half hour--orientation and finding classrooms
***next three hours--sitting around talking about nothing in particular because the teacher didn't have the textbooks (and of course, we certainly can't start teaching a math class because gosh, something might have changed from the last time we taught it)
***last hour--here's your textbook, but leave it here in the building at the end of class...you can't take your textbook home.
This is a class that lasts around 18-20 days, so essentially a week's worth of material each day is on tap. So the teachers/school administrators wasted about a week's worth of class time already. Sad.
This class is largely filled with kids who presumably failed the class before. So now they can't even take the textbook home to study after class and hopefully pass the class this time?
My fellow Davidson County taxpayers and I paid for those textbooks with our tax money. Now this kid is asking me (we're family friends) if we can buy them a textbook so they can actually study for the class outside of class.
Madness.
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