LGP Education thread

[MWB]

Cyber schools are pretty much a joke, as far as I can tell. Fun story: Rick Santorum had his kids attend cyber school, which was certainly his right. However, he decided to claim residency in Penn Hills and have that school district foot the bill for the computers.

[count2infinity]

I have mixed feelings about cyber school. On one hand, like you said, it puts a certain burden on tax payers (not much, but some) and as you said, it gets students off a set schedule. On the other hand, there are certain students that just do not mesh well with the high school environment.

I had a student when I was teaching that could miss a month or so and come back and pick up right where we left off with out missing a beat. He was very intelligent, but he just couldn't handle the high school environment. Very little things would set him off, he'd get in trouble, he'd get suspended, causing more missing of class, so on and so forth. He ended up dropping out. He came in to visit, told me he had gotten his GED about a month after dropping out and was working somewhere or another. He is the prime type of student that cyber school would work well for. He can do his classes and not be in an environment that puts himself into troublesome situations.

I feel like it's a lot like the current state of special education. It was developed with a good idea in mind: help those that need the help, but it's been bastardized into this strange thing that so many people just take advantage of, very few people that actually need it are benefiting from it, and there are a ton of people that don't really need it but are in it anyways and know how to exploit it.

[MWB]

To counter your grumpy old man comments, maybe if the parents, administrators, PTA and teachers were all to band together and fix the problem of a broken education system, students would go to school to learn an education and not to slack off. Children should be held accountable to a degree to learn -- but only after they have a firm understanding as to what the expectations are.

You're missing a key component here: politicians. The two biggest problems in education over the last 15 years have been No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. They set absurd goals, provide few resources, and are really only designed to say, "Hey, look at us. We're fixing things!"

The other big problem with education is poverty. Fix poverty, and you fix a lot of issues in education.

[MWB]

I feel like it's a lot like the current state of special education. It was developed with a good idea in mind: help those that need the help, but it's been bastardized into this strange thing that so many people just take advantage of, very few people that actually need it are benefiting from it, and there are a ton of people that don't really need it but are in it anyways and know how to exploit it.

This.

[Hockeynut!]

I loathed school from about 7th grade on so I would have loved the opportunity to do cyber schooling instead of traditional schooling. I was also pretty self motivated and think I'd have been able to stay on track. I still don't think it should be up to the school districts and taxpayers to foot those bills though. My district spent almost $750K in cyber school costs last year. For a "poor" district with less than 2,500 students enrolled in traditional schools, that's a pretty hefty chunk of change.

[count2infinity]

Cool story:

[youtube][/youtube]

[MWB]

The education profession needs more people like that.

[jenpens325]

To counter your grumpy old man comments, maybe if the parents, administrators, PTA and teachers were all to band together and fix the problem of a broken education system, students would go to school to learn an education and not to slack off. Children should be held accountable to a degree to learn -- but only after they have a firm understanding as to what the expectations are.

You're missing a key component here: politicians. The two biggest problems in education over the last 15 years have been No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. They set absurd goals, provide few resources, and are really only designed to say, "Hey, look at us. We're fixing things!"

The other big problem with education is poverty. Fix poverty, and you fix a lot of issues in education.

[MWB]

This hits the nail on the head on a couple issues - why experience matters and why the wrong people are making decisions.

I spent a little over a year earning a master of arts in teaching degree. Then I spent two years teaching English Language Arts in a rural public high school. And I learned that my 13 years as a public school student, my 4 years as a college student at a highly selective college, and even a great deal of my year as a masters degree student in the education school of a flagship public university hadn’t taught me how to manage a classroom, how to reach students, how to inspire a love of learning, how to teach. Eighteen years as a student (and a year of preschool before that), and I didn’t know s*** about teaching. Only years of practicing my skills and honing my skills would have rendered me a true professional. An expert. Someone who knows about the business of inspiring children. Of reaching students. Of making a difference. Of teaching.

The problem with teaching as a profession is that every single adult citizen of this country thinks that they know what teachers do. And they don’t. So they prescribe solutions, and they develop public policy, and they editorialize, and they politicize. And they don’t listen to those who do know. Those who could teach. The teachers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ans ... tid=pm_pop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[count2infinity]

Interesting graph.

[columbia]

And not terribly surprising.

[MWB]

Yet some still say that poverty isn't a major factor in a child's education.

[shafnutz05]

Question for the LGP education experts....why is Common Core being pushed? It seems absolutely awful from everything I've read...but what is the motivation behind it? There's always a motive, and I'm curious to know what it is.

[shmenguin]

I imagine it's to cultivate universal standards, so comparisons between districts, states, etc will be easier. It also seems to create more of a tight regiment in the classroom. For crappy teachers, this will be helpful.

[count2infinity]

I don't necessarily disagree with the idea behind common core. Every student that graduates from high school across the country should have a minimal level of education, and if students have to move (which we all know is something that happens quite often) they can seamlessly jump (academically) right into the school year. The biggest issue, to me, is that this was very rushed, so the standards aren't written very clearly or very well. That, along with the fact that they're trying to make all schools equal, when the fact of the matter is, they aren't.

This is just like any other education reform. The good teachers will find a way to work with it and give their students the best they can, the middle ground teachers will ***** and moan about it but still conform to the standards and get by and the bad teachers wont' have any idea what's going on anyways, so what's it matter?

[MWB]

Pretty much agree with c2i. I don't really have a problem with Common Core. The standards are ok and there is some more depth to them as opposed to trying to cover a wide range in a short time. There's also better continuity from one grade to the next. I think one inaccurate critique from people is that it tells teachers how to teach. That's not the case, unless your administration is putting it that what. I have complete autonomy in how to teach.
My biggest problem is what I think it is going to lead to. This is a way of being able to create one nice big testing program that everyone can follow across the US. As c2i said, level all the schools and view them the same. Too many of the politicians in charge think that common core is an easy way to be able to have an apples to apples comparison, as if the population of the school doesn't matter. So if x school isn't performing, it must be the teachers, because y school is doing well with the same content.
It's also making some people a lot of money. Testing is a big money business.

[count2infinity]

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5941 ... z2yyws8GZc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

so let me get this straight... this kid is constantly bullied. seems as though no one believes he's being bullied, so he's pushed to recording the bullying so someone believes him. gets the evidence of being bullied and somehow he's the one in trouble? seems odd to me. Obviously there's more to this story than what I've read here, but it still seems ridiculous and shows how lazy certain teachers and administrators have become when it comes to just dealing with the situation the first time rather than letting it fester.

[Factorial]

Saw some highlights from the NH GOP shindig from last weekend and Common Core is shaping up to be a big issue in the coming years. It mostly seems to be a state rights issue complaint vs how effective it may be.

[Factorial]

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5941 ... z2yyws8GZc

so let me get this straight... this kid is constantly bullied. seems as though no one believes he's being bullied, so he's pushed to recording the bullying so someone believes him. gets the evidence of being bullied and somehow he's the one in trouble? seems odd to me. Obviously there's more to this story than what I've read here, but it still seems ridiculous and shows how lazy certain teachers and administrators have become when it comes to just dealing with the situation the first time rather than letting it fester.

That is hard to believe.

[AlexPKeaton]

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5941 ... z2yyws8GZc

so let me get this straight... this kid is constantly bullied. seems as though no one believes he's being bullied, so he's pushed to recording the bullying so someone believes him. gets the evidence of being bullied and somehow he's the one in trouble? seems odd to me. Obviously there's more to this story than what I've read here, but it still seems ridiculous and shows how lazy certain teachers and administrators have become when it comes to just dealing with the situation the first time rather than letting it fester.

This has made national news. It reeks of good 'ol boy small town BS. Principal thought it was wiretapping so he called the cops. It was not wire tapping at all, but instead of just apologizing these idiots can't admit that they were wrong so the local magistrate trumps up a bogus charge.

Either way, it is a big black eye for a school district that has an approximately 5340934850394580923485% tax rate and makes their administrators come across as complete idiots that need fired down to the last man.

[MWB]

Saw some highlights from the NH GOP shindig from last weekend and Common Core is shaping up to be a big issue in the coming years. It mostly seems to be a state rights issue complaint vs how effective it may be.

I'd like to see it become a big issue, but I doubt it will happen. Education is just not that high on the priority list on a national level.

[shmenguin]

that seems much more like a legal system failure than a school district failure.

[canaan]

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5941 ... z2yyws8GZc

so let me get this straight... this kid is constantly bullied. seems as though no one believes he's being bullied, so he's pushed to recording the bullying so someone believes him. gets the evidence of being bullied and somehow he's the one in trouble? seems odd to me. Obviously there's more to this story than what I've read here, but it still seems ridiculous and shows how lazy certain teachers and administrators have become when it comes to just dealing with the situation the first time rather than letting it fester.

...and when this kid or a kid like him shoots up the school, administrators will be all doe-eyed on the television "we don't know what caused such a tragedy"

[count2infinity]

or stabs up the school...

[King Sid the Great 87]

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5941 ... z2yyws8GZc

so let me get this straight... this kid is constantly bullied. seems as though no one believes he's being bullied, so he's pushed to recording the bullying so someone believes him. gets the evidence of being bullied and somehow he's the one in trouble? seems odd to me. Obviously there's more to this story than what I've read here, but it still seems ridiculous and shows how lazy certain teachers and administrators have become when it comes to just dealing with the situation the first time rather than letting it fester.

If I had to guess, it was probably a group of jerkoff football players who get treated like they are god's gift to the highschool.