Fixing the Public Schools k-12

[Mike M (the other one)]

(11-30-2016, 01:36 AM)Beaker Wrote: 1. Parents need to give a shit. Too many have other "more important" things to worry about. And they need to instill the value of an education in their kids. I continually hear that teachers need to get kids more engaged with more interesting lessons. I have some very innovative lessons in science using virtual labs, student led projects, collaborative activities, etc. But if there is zero internal motivation, none of that matters.

2. Fund public schools with sales taxes as opposed to property taxes.

Of course students whose parents take an active interest in their child's education will fare better than those that don't.
Is there a way we can minimize the parents activity or lack of to benefit the students more?

What about an extra required class at the end of each day that is primarily a study hall for the kids to get their homework done?

Now I could get on funding via a State Sales tax before Property tax better and distributed evenly to all schools, or should it be based on number of students? Smaller schools would need more money for the technology for web based electives.

(11-30-2016, 01:59 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Sorry, my day got busy.

Some proposals that are going to address a variety of things, because the problems with schools aren't just falling onto one group.

Teachers:

-Better education/training. Despite tons of research into best practices, these are not always being taught by post-secondary programs.
-More classroom management training.
-More student teaching.
-Funding for programs to mentor teachers in their first few years. A large chunk of teachers quit in their first few years.
-Better pay to attract better teachers. A lot of training does go in to becoming a teacher, and even more should on top of that. Pay teachers as professionals.
-Develop teacher evaluation methods catered to level and content area.
-Change tenure so that teachers who fall below an evaluation threshold can have their tenure suspended, making it easier to fire poorly performing teachers.
-No pay for student performance. In a perfect system, teachers have similar classes with similar students. In practice, teachers who suck at teaching struggling students get honors classes. Teachers who do well with those struggling students get stuck with 5 sections of regular level classes.

Good ideas there. As I have said before, I'm not looking to take salary away from them. They play a vital role in educating our children and it's not an easy job to begin with.

Mentoring for a few years is a good way for them to learn with out tossing them into the fire.

There we go, a way to fine poor teachers, and I'm not a huge fan of no pay for student performance, that has the opposite effect that it was intended for.

(11-30-2016, 01:59 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: In terms of what is being taught:

-I've stated before that I oppose a national curriculum. I prefer the use of states voluntarily adopting common standards that measure what you should be able to do by the end of a grade.
- I'd like to see more vocational training
-Some of these courses may have only a few students per school, so long distance education should be an option. We do that in my county for classes like Chinese and AP US History (US History is a 9th grade class and 9th graders cannot sign up for AP. So very few retake it as an elective their junior or senior years for college credit).
-Schools need to be held accountable for how they educated students with disabilities. Too many do not fully include those students who should be spending most of their day in the general education setting.
-Push for the use of teaching styles that address multiple learning styles. I am a big fan of using problem based learning. We tried replacing our first unit this year with a month long problem based learning where the students were working for the UN and had to recommend a new government for Burundi. Through this activity, they learned all of their introduction to government content.
-Push for the adoption of academies or majors within schools starting in 7th or 8th grade. You choose what you'll specialize in and content will be catered towards that. Let's say I am a social sciences major. In addition to my algebra and geometry class, I'd then take a statistics class that teaches me how to use numbers for research, polling, surveying, etc.

I understand opposing an national curriculum, but if your school is doing really well, why wouldn't you want to share it with other schools? It shouldn't be about bringing your school down to the level of the one across town, but about bringing that one up to yours.

Definitely more vocational options. Not everyone is college material and this would help people get certified in a field they plan to make a career out of. I went to a vocational school and I have to say, it was very challenging and rewarding. I absolutely flourished at working at my own speed. So much so that I was doing 2nd year stuff in my 1st year and by the time I started my 2nd year stuff, I was done with all of that after 1 quarter. I understand not every class will work like that, but mine was book/lab/test based, so it was easier than those that are more physically demanding. Also I was very bummed that my time spent at a vocational school was not going to count for college, that needs to be changed if it hasn't been already.

I can agree that students with disabilities should be part of the general education. no need to single them out.

Tailoring classes starting in the 7th or 8th grade would be easier to do with teleconferencing electives. No complaints here with that idea.

(11-30-2016, 01:59 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: Various:
-Standardize testing should not be mandated by the federal government.
-School vouchers do not have the intended result, unless the intended result is to help private schools
-Encourage charter schools as ways to test new ideas, but screen and monitor new charter schools.
-Stop teaching pseudo-science and revisionist history in public schools.
-Fund mentoring and after school programs. Kids need a place to go when there is none elsewhere.
-More male teachers, particularly those of color Boys are the most at risk students. They need to see positive role models that they can relate too more.

There still needs to be a test done, maybe 1 at start and end of year to make sure that the students have improved accordingly. if not then maybe consider holding them back a year, based on the teachers recommendations.

(11-30-2016, 01:59 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: There are other hosts of issues that the government won't directly fix through education policy. Poorer students do not do as well. They're less likely to have support, less likely to see the benefits of education in their life, and less likely to have received interventions when younger that make them better students. As Beaker said, if the parents do not care, the student is less likely to care. If education isn't valued at home, they won't value it.

Fail more kids in middle school. We get kids in high school who are not prepared but were passed along.

Challenge kids to be more creative.

Start writing more earlier. Encourage kids to journal at a young age.

Push kids to read for fun

Have kids practice more activities that require them to discover the answer. It is better to guide a student to an answer than to give it. I rarely give lecture notes. I try to find ways to flip the notes.

teach kids that it is ok to fail at points in life.

Yes, poorer students tend to not do as well as better off students do, but that's where the focus needs to be. The opportunity still needs to be there for them. Some will start excelling and you don't want to hold them back. The whole planning your curriculum for your career might help with that. Gets them into it at an earlier age.

Good Ideas Pat.