glitch
Devil's Advocate
You don't have a choice anymore since the Fair Share legislation passed. You pay whether or not you are a member.
St. Mary's County $6 million School Deficit
- Thread starter mcgraw
- Start date
You don't have a choice anymore since the Fair Share legislation passed. You pay whether or not you are a member.
What country is that in?? oh..wait..
I would guess that it is better than nothing. The association engages in collective bargaining, dispute resolution, and as a voice for the employees. It helps provide some professional services. without it an employee would be totally at the mercy of the employer. Remember, the Peter Principal was based on the education system.
Folks need to do some actual research about charter schools rather than relying on cable news and the like.
Here are some other thoughts and sources of info from Jeff Bryant:
Opening the truth telling about charter schools was a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute on a call for public schools to be replaced by charter schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, you should note, is the city that has experienced the nation’s longest running experiment, more than 20 years, with charter schools and vouchers as replacements for traditional public schools. The consensus view is that charter schools in Milwaukee do no better than the public schools they replace, and many of the charter schools that perform the worst are never held accountable and continue to remain open after years of failure.
Despite this humble track record for charters in Milwaukee, the EPI report “Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” explores the latest demand from state officials who are for “enamored with a new type of charter school represented by the Rocketship chain of schools.”
The study’s author, Gordon Lafer, looked closely at Rocketship’s practices and found “everything is built around the tests.” However, tests scores for students in the Rocketship programs – as measured by California’s Academic Performance Index (where Rocketship is primarily based) – have declined by just over 10 percent from 2008–2009 to 2012–2013. “Indeed, in 2012–2013, all seven of the Rocketship schools failed to make adequate yearly progress according to federal standards.”
Despite this poor performance, Rocketship executives are bent on an “unshakeable pursuit of large-scale growth.” But instead of good education practice, what drives Rocketship model is profit. As the report explained, along with a test-driven instructional method, the Rocketship model relies heavily on substituting extensive online instruction for personal instruction from teachers. However, this model leads to clear conflicts of interest when the charter network partners with its own for-profit providers of curricula, and two leaders of the charter venture both sit on Rocketship’s Board and are primary investors in a for-profit company that provides the math curriculum used by Rocketship.
Thus, as Lafer concluded in his report, “Rocketship promotes itself as a dynamic learning organization, and indeed the company is continually experimenting. However, its innovation appears to be restricted within specific boundaries: It seems that it will not adopt education reforms that have no potential to make money for investors.”
This profit over pedagogy mentality “would likely be prohibited as illegal conflicts of interest if they took place in a public school system,” but, “Rocketship is not bound to uphold the same standard of ethics demanded of public officials.”
Here are some other thoughts and sources of info from Jeff Bryant:
Opening the truth telling about charter schools was a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute on a call for public schools to be replaced by charter schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, you should note, is the city that has experienced the nation’s longest running experiment, more than 20 years, with charter schools and vouchers as replacements for traditional public schools. The consensus view is that charter schools in Milwaukee do no better than the public schools they replace, and many of the charter schools that perform the worst are never held accountable and continue to remain open after years of failure.
Despite this humble track record for charters in Milwaukee, the EPI report “Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” explores the latest demand from state officials who are for “enamored with a new type of charter school represented by the Rocketship chain of schools.”
The study’s author, Gordon Lafer, looked closely at Rocketship’s practices and found “everything is built around the tests.” However, tests scores for students in the Rocketship programs – as measured by California’s Academic Performance Index (where Rocketship is primarily based) – have declined by just over 10 percent from 2008–2009 to 2012–2013. “Indeed, in 2012–2013, all seven of the Rocketship schools failed to make adequate yearly progress according to federal standards.”
Despite this poor performance, Rocketship executives are bent on an “unshakeable pursuit of large-scale growth.” But instead of good education practice, what drives Rocketship model is profit. As the report explained, along with a test-driven instructional method, the Rocketship model relies heavily on substituting extensive online instruction for personal instruction from teachers. However, this model leads to clear conflicts of interest when the charter network partners with its own for-profit providers of curricula, and two leaders of the charter venture both sit on Rocketship’s Board and are primary investors in a for-profit company that provides the math curriculum used by Rocketship.
Thus, as Lafer concluded in his report, “Rocketship promotes itself as a dynamic learning organization, and indeed the company is continually experimenting. However, its innovation appears to be restricted within specific boundaries: It seems that it will not adopt education reforms that have no potential to make money for investors.”
This profit over pedagogy mentality “would likely be prohibited as illegal conflicts of interest if they took place in a public school system,” but, “Rocketship is not bound to uphold the same standard of ethics demanded of public officials.”
C
czygvtwkr
Guest
Please tell me this is a joke
Lurk
Happy Creepy Ass Cracka
The Lafer report should be read rather than rely on a 'summation' of a phone call while Lafer had a layover between planes. The Lafer report was a one-sided hatchet job on an individual charter school solution which tried to do too much and expand too quickly. Totally objective studies of charter schools (which are really alternative public schools no matter what the pro-public school advocates tell you) demonstrate that they, just the same as public schools have good schools and bad schools and those that are neither here nor there. However, more traditional public schools do poorly than do charter public schools. This is not because the charter schools get to cherry-pick their students, they take all comers too.
I would like for Twinoaks and the other teachers on here to have an opportunity to tell us, step by step what they as professional educators would do to overcome the waste and poor outcomes we pay for every year.
kom526
They call me ... Sarcasmo
That she needs to go or that there actually is one that makes well over $100,000 a year?
That there is a Director of Diversity or that the position needs to go? Because there really is one, I believe the position was just created this school year but possibly last school year.
Edited to add: I almost beat you too it Kom but got distracted mid typing. You know what they say about great minds, I guess the rest of us think alike too LOL
kom526
They call me ... Sarcasmo
As the husband of a teacher I can tell you a couple of things.
1) Stick to one teaching method/curriculum. When my wife started, the state mandated that she teach certain things in a certain order using X method. Eventually somebody decided that the X method was no good. (i.e. state assessment tests) so with great fanfare and considerable taxpayer expense, they roll out the "Y" method which of course is eclipsed by the "Z" method. Guess how she is teaching now? The "X.1" method. The same style she was using years ago, but with new buzzwords to make it sound like it's new and shiny.
2) Put the "Directors of Curriculum" back in the classrooms for a month so they can remember what everyday teachers deal with. Require anybody that works in central office to have at least 5-10 years of CLASSROOM experience. No coming out of college, teaching for a year or two while getting your Master's so you can be a know nothing pencil pushing door holder for his royal highness Dr. MikeyMarty.
C
czygvtwkr
Guest
That there is one, ugh.
glitch
Devil's Advocate
1. Reduce class sizes drastically. Research has shown that there is a correlation between class size and student achievement. In order to do this additional teachers will need to be hired and some school sites expanded/renovated.
2. Pay teachers competitive wages. Recruit the best and the brightest to teach and pay them for their time. Finland is an excellent example of this model...and it works.
3. Increase teacher pay and their work day. If they are going to spend hours of their time outside of instructional periods developing lessons and assessing student progress, they need to be paid for it.
4. Allow teachers to take part in writing the standards that student are expected to meet. Twin has posted a number of articles on the CC and I encourage you all to read them. I think you'll find that the individuals responsible for developing the CC weren't exactly qualified to do so.
5. Hold your elected officials responsible for the decisions they make. If you want education to be their priority, tell them and if they don't represent your interests, get rid of them.
6. This one won't be popular with many teachers but as a professional educator, I'm against tenure. If you're a bad teacher, you need to be fired. Period.
Those are just a few of the ideas I have roaming around in my head at the moment. Given some time, I could sit down and come up with a comprehensive plan to address the issues that our educational system is facing. Unfortunately, solving these problems takes money and a very vocal majority at the county level pushing for change. Neither of which seem to be present in St. Mary's.
C
czygvtwkr
Guest
Sounds like the new business tools that come around every few years like TQL, Lean Six Sigma, Theory of constraints etc etc. Every time it is "oh this one is so much better, it really works..."
Having once been very personally involved in the SMCPS, I must say I couldn't agree more with your list. I worked with many professional educators who thought the same.
But I've given up..my kids are all out and those many able educators like Cinda Raley, that fought the good fight along side us, are gone now. I just watched on the news this morning where a concerned parent was hauled off in handcuffs from a BoE "public hearing" for daring to be heard. That is the "best" you can expect to result from being a concerned parent. Otherwise, its the St. Mary's County result...you are simply ignored and brushed aside.
Salvador
One Nation Under God
Hi Sally. Your new hole get too warm?..or too cold? You were so much more fun when you could just walk to the courthouse.
Salvador
One Nation Under God
Lurk
Happy Creepy Ass Cracka
You can be sure there would be no radon in the new hole. He'd make sure of that this time he moved in.