Stronger American Schools

[GoodWitch58]

thought some of you might find this interesting. It is from the organization whose web site is listed:


"Did you know that 24 countries outscore U.S. schools in math, and 20 outscore the U.S. in science? Our schools are failing. While the rest of the developed world is preparing their children for the new century, our system continues to lag behind. The countries with the best schools attract the best jobs. If jobs move to other countries, our children's opportunities dry up. And so does our economy. Join the national debate. Act now and visit Home | www.strongamericanschools.org to improve education before more American students lose out, hurting our economy and impacting every one of us".

 

[sunspotbaby]

what does it take to get an F?

In many schools, it's impossible. Dumbing down our kids....

FOXNews.com - Are 'No-Fail' Grading Systems Hurting or Helping Students? - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

 

[scooterbug44]

I blame the parents who pitch a fit because their brat doesn't do his homework and gets bad grades and insist on these stupid grading systems.

Yes, there are some kids who work hard, study, pay attention in class, and can't get A's (they get B's and C's which used to be okay before everyone's kid was "gifted"), but in my experience the kid earning zeros and Fs is never that kid.

Hardworking kids never have a problem getting a make-up test, extra credit, etc. if there is one thing they missed or they were sick. All the grading systems I know of are set up so one bad grade doesn't hurt you - but not doing your work and consistently performing badly do.

IMO one major way we need to improve our schools is to give teachers back respect and authority in their own classrooms and teach kids that there are consequences for their actions.

Jr earned that grade, and Jr needs to get in trouble at home for it - not have excuses made and the teacher's grading system subverted by Mommy and Daddy. I don't think my parents ever questioned my teachers about a grade beyond what their kid had done (or hadn't done as was usually the case) to earn it (and would be getting in trouble for when they got home from the conference).

 

[mdd88jd]

Those statistics have always made me nervous. Most European countries do not test their non-college bound students. I do not know if that it is the case with this study, but, the sample of the tested kids needs to be looked at carefully. The U.S. educational system is set up to give kids 13 years of general education designed to make them better citizens, not necessarily give them employment skills. Traditionally, employment skils were taught post 12th grade. That is rapidly changing in the U.S. and in Florida. But, in reading those studies, we need to make sure we are comparing apples to apples.

My ideas for making schools better:
(1) Small schools (less than 800 for elementary, less that 2000 for middle and high schools).
(2) Small class sizes on average.
(3) Teacher pay that starts at $50,000 per year for bachelor degreed first year teachers and ends at $100,000 per year for 25 year experienced teachers.
(4) Outstanding, well maintained facilities.
(5) A LONGER SCHOOL YEAR AND A LONGER SCHOOL DAY, must accompany #3. We have so much more to teach now than we did 50 years ago.
(6) Continued and better teacher training, especially for our short attention span students this day and age.
(7) Fully funded art, band, choral and athletic programs, K-12.

These are general ideas, I suspect they are better and more ideas for individual schools. But, if these ideas were adopted, schools would be much better.....just one opinion.

 

[sunspotbaby]

When I was in school, if I made a 69 on a test, it was an F. Children want to live up to higher expectations. If you set the bar lower, that's as far as they're going to go. I just don't get it, but gut feeling tells me it's about money and politics, and Education should involve neither.

 

[scooterbug44]

I don't think it's money/politics as much as I think it's WAY too much parental interference and concern about "self-esteem" and "being fair" (when the fairness is actually unfair).

While I certainly think teachers should be paid better, I think $50K as the minimum starting salary for a job that only requires a bachelor's degree is excessive. 100k after 10-15 years and good evaluations seems fair.

What exactly do we need to teach "now" that we didn't need to teach a decade ago? (Aside from another 10 years of history)

Reading/literature/vocabulary/grammar, math, history & geography, government/civics, foreign language, music, art, computer science/typing, home ec or voc tech, gym/health, and science, were all standard classes when I was in school. 8 classes a day and lunch w/ all additional extracurriculars and sports occurring before or after school.

 

[traderx]

I personally believe that schools are best when run at the local level. The linked education advocacy group wants the federal government more involved along with state and local governments. We should get the federal government out of our schools.

I read a nice study a few years ago. SAT scores were negatively correlated with the following: class size, teacher pay, percentage of teachers who hold masters degrees and education spending. The study proves we have to rethink what educational success is and how to achieve it.

There are school systems that have done away with an F grade. It seem they don't want kids to feel badly about themselves if they flunk. We need to raise standards not lower them.

We now call teachers educators. Does anyone know why the change?