Believe it not, as liberal as I probably seem to many of you, I'd make schools much more strict than they currently are.
There's so many things I'd change about our educational system, starting with how its funded, who runs them, and how they'd be run, that you wouldn't recognize the editecian eduucational system.
For instance?
We'd have one national school system (funded nationally) with one standard set of classes and requirements for graduation.
I have absolutely no confidence in the theory that school ought to be run locally.
And if one looks at the wildly different outcomes that one gets between school districts, one ought to be able to see why I have no confidence in the system we have in place now.
Two nearby school districts whose students are demographically similar can have very different student outcomes.
Why?
Because the management of the schools can be so very very different and much of that stems from very different school board expectations.
This does a great disservice to students, folks.
Sorry Ed. But the fact that schools are under a big umbrella is the problem, not the solution. You have to think of school like any other business. Though instead of business measurements like quality ratings of products and profits you measure the success of a school by things like graduation rates and avg. grades.
You just got done in another thread about how socialized systems bring the whole down, but that's exactly what you want to do for the education of our children?
No, schools need to have the reigns taken OFF and be allowed to do things their own way. To figure out what actually works. The more schools do things differently the more we will be able to see what actually works in terms of producing smart, globally competitive intelligence.
The other reason for "UN-standardization" if you will. Is that all kids don't learn the same way or at the same pace. If the goal is to get kids through school with necessary skills to advance to the next level and be competitive in a global economy than our schools need the ability to teach customize curriculums on an individual level.
We need to really think outside the box. Concepts like doing away with the k-12 grade structure that focuses more on a child's age than where they are mentally.
As to your differing outcomes. GOOD. Let parents see what works and what doesn't and allow them the ability to 'shop' for the school that they feel will provide the best outcome for their children.
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