Fixing the Public Schools k-12

[Benton]

(11-29-2016, 12:53 PM)Mike M (the other one) Wrote: Let's try a different approach to things now instead of arguing over the Politics. We have some good minds in here with different ideas, let's see if we can come up with ways to improve public education for kids.


We all know there needs to be some major overhaul done to help public inner city schools.

I propose that all teachers that teach a required class (English, Math, Science and History) be paid at the same level, where teachers that teach electives get slightly less, and of course the base salary is based off of tenure.

Inner city teachers would get a pay boost vs those teaching in the sub-burbs.

Curriculum needs to be the same for all grade levels at all schools across the US.
I find it silly that if someone moves from 1 area to another area their kid could be behind/ahead of the other students by a significant margin. They should all be roughly taught at the same speed with the same books etc.

I'm not a huge fan of the voucher system that allows parents to move their kids from public to private, but I understand the private schools can be better run and get better results (grade wise) for their kids.

in your opinions, what other big/little things can be done to help start improving the public schools?

Why penalize the elective teachers? Sometimes those elective classes are more important to a student than the core classes (I'm thinking of content centered education like engineering or arts programs at charter schools, or vocational education which producers welders, carpenters and people who make a pretty decent blue collar living). There should be a push on reading, math and sciences, but some of the more successful model schools in the country are heading more and more to promoting and adding those electives so kids develop skills instead of just testable knowledge.

The curriculum issue is part of common core. That's already being addressed. Or was, efforts to reduce communication at the federal level will probably slow down that progress, but I think most states will continue to work in that direction. It will just take longer without federal facilitation of ideas. Common core doesn't tell districts what books they have to use — and that's a positive as districts can chose ones that work better for their students — but it does set the standards for what students need to be learning from the books.

I'd like to see more public schools able to go in the electives direction. Expand vocational schools and co-op opportunities so some of the kids learn a skill and have a chance to earn a decent wage, instead of just hoping that teaching them algebra means they won't work at McDonald's.

We also need to do a better job of identifying aptitude at a younger age. Just as an anecdote to that, it turns out my daughter is scoring off the chart in math. I can barely multiply single digits without using my fingers, so I hadn't really noticed how good she is, but it's good enough her teacher noticed. I'm thankful for that, and that she goes to a good school where it got noticed. I can encourage that skill, and so can her teachers. If it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't have known until it was too late, because I just wasn't looking. I was too busy worried that her spelling is horrible.

Schools in urban areas tend to have the highest and lowest scores. That comes, typically, from having the students from the highest and lowest economic backgrounds. But one thing I've noticed about high performing rural districts or smaller high performing schools is that they almost always have high interaction between teachers and students, and usually lots of involvement from parents. I asked the superintendent of a state top 20 district — which is one of the smallest in Kentucky and hasn't had a school funding increase since 1992 — how they do it. He said every teacher in every school knows every student's name. They know their parents. They know what they're going through at home. If a student doesn't show up for class, it's not uncommon for a teacher's aide to go to the kid's house, wake them up, take them to get something to eat and bring them to school.

That can't be applied to larger schools in metro areas, but having more teachers and more involvement and interaction would go a long way in improving student ability and interest.