What to do about schools

[JakeStarkey]

Good for you, Baruch Menachem, that's awesome.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

That is all that is achieved anyway..... But meanwhile the jerkasses slow everyone down.

They do?

are you saying there are no Honors, or Advanced Placement classes in US public schools?

And you know who is in them too... The ones with the parents who always show up for band recital, field trips and the like.

Pretty much, education is split between kids whose parents care, and kids whose parents don't.

 

[Samson]

That is all that is achieved anyway..... But meanwhile the jerkasses slow everyone down.

They do?

are you saying there are no Honors, or Advanced Placement classes in US public schools?

And you know who is in them too... The ones with the parents who always show up for band recital, field trips and the like.

Pretty much, education is split between kids whose parents care, and kids whose parents don't.

And?

I thought you'd be happy?

 

[JakeStarkey]

The answer is simple while accomplishing it may be impossible: hold all parents accountable who have children in public schools. If they want their children in extracirricular activities, parents have to complete and educational awareness course, sign a contract for parental involvement with homework and activities at school, and then keep it.

The failure has flatly been the primary responsibility of parental lack of involvement with their children's education.

 

[Samson]

The answer is simple while accomplishing it may be impossible: hold all parents accountable who have children in public schools. If they want their children in extracirricular activities, parents have to complete and educational awareness course, sign a contract for parental involvement with homework and activities at school, and then keep it.

The failure has flatly been the primary responsibility of parental lack of involvement with their children's education.

"Hold Parents Accountable!!"



OMG!!.... you're fucking hilarious

 

[JakeStarkey]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

 

[Samson]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I'm for drinking more bubble-up, eating more rainbow stew, and teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony, but outside making our government a mirror of North Korea, you aren't gonna "hold parents accountable" to caring what happens in school any more than you can hold them accountable for driving the speed limit.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Nonsense, Samson, as if holding parents accountable for their children's education is similar to North Korea. You're being silly. If you have a better plan, let's hear it.

 

[Intense]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I like what the charter schools are doing. Seems a pure Federalist approach.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I like what the charter schools are doing. Seems a pure Federalist approach.

Tell me more. I know very little about charter schools, and I have heard some complain and some cheer for them.

 

[Eccgmike]

I believe the public schools should be privatized. It is a fact that anything the govt. Does,(with the exception of the military) the private sector typically does better, and with something as important as our Children's education,....we shouldn't take any chances. In Florida we have what is called the "FCAT",.... Or the Florida Comprehensive Aptitude Test. My mother is a foster mom and this past year she had a third grader. She came home one day with an FCAT test titled "City Gardens". The body of the story basically said that sometimes in cities, there were empty lots. Sometimes people in the community would obtain permission from the owners of the lot to plant gardens there. Then sometimes evil developers would show up to build a building on the lot and the whole community would be upset. It went on to say that sometimes when this happened, you might need to contact city authorities and protest the construction. It even went on to say that sometimes you might need to physically sit on the lot to prevent the work from starting. Besides the obvious problems with this story, the last question was "who does the lot belong to?", and the correct answer was " the community"!! I couldn't believe it! I crossed out the teachers comment and proceeded to write in "whomever the lot is deeded to, who in this case seems to be the developer". Story # 2: About a month later, she came home with another FCAT titled "Guest Workers" he just of it was that these "Guest Workers" would come from other countries to pick fruit and send money back to their families. That part didn't bother me, but then it went on to say that sometimes these guest workers would have to form unions to ensure that they were treated fairly and it proceeded to elaborate on the importance of "unionized labor". Is this what is important for a third grader to learn?,....... the importance of unionized labor?? Unbelievable!! I believe that, if it's possible, parents should homeschool their children. I realize it's not so easy, my work prevents me from doing so, but the govt. Is now deciding what, and when our children should be learning. I'm in agreement with the poster of this thread...

 

[Intense]

Overview


Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The "charter" establishing each such school is a performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the charter may renew the school's contract. Charter schools are accountable to their sponsor-- usually a state or local school board-- to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is that they exercise increased autonomy in return for this accountability. They are accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them, and the public that funds them.

For the legal definition of a charter school in a particular state, consult that state's charter school law through our State Profiles area. We also provide a sampling of other charter school Definitions. To find research on charter schools, visit our Resources area.



Benefits

The intention of most charter school legislation is to:

Increase opportunities for learning and access to quality education for all students
Create choice for parents and students within the public school system
Provide a system of accountability for results in public education
Encourage innovative teaching practices
Create new professional opportunities for teachers
Encourage community and parent involvement in public education
Leverage improved public education broadly
People establish charter schools for a variety of reasons. The founders generally fall into three groups: grassroots organizations of parents, teachers and community members; entrepreneurs; or existing schools converting to charter status. According to the first-year report of the National Study of Charter Schools, the three reasons most often cited to create a charter school are to:

Realize an educational vision
Gain autonomy
Serve a special population
Parents and teachers choose charter schools primarily for educational reasons--high academic standards, small class size, innovative approaches, or educational philosophies in line with their own. Some also have chosen charter schools for their small size and associated safety (charter schools serve an average of 250 students).


For more detailed information on each state and the status of its charter school efforts, please see our State Profiles area or visit the Center for Education Reform's Web site.



US Charter Schools Overview Page

 

[Samson]

Nonsense, Samson, as if holding parents accountable for their children's education is similar to North Korea. You're being silly. If you have a better plan, let's hear it.

You call "holding parents accountable" a plan?

And I'M "being silly?"

I'd like to know what you mean by being an accountable parent? How shall we measure parental accountability? At what age does a kid's mental growth stabilize, so that we can measure how accountable a parent is? What if parents divorce? What if one dies, or becomes diseased? ETC., ETC., ETC.

Are you just blowing smoke up your ass or do you have any realistic concept of whatever the fuck you're talking about?

 

[Samson]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I like what the charter schools are doing. Seems a pure Federalist approach.

SOME Charter schools are great. Not all.

Not sure what you mean by a "Federalist approach?" If this references centralized authority, then it is inaccurate. Essentially, each Charter school has its own board. This represents a de-centralization of management authority, and allows much more control by parents: "the squeeky wheels get the grease."

On the other hand, funding comes from a "charter" granted by the state, whatever the school can scrape together from the feds, and often the local district will have some control over the location. For example, the local district might not allow a charter school to locate near one of their schools that need more students. Sometimes, the charter school will even need to raise its own funds, and will often require parents to pay a minimum "materials fee." This fee, although small, often discourages enrollment of economically disadvantaged students.

 

[Big Fitz]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I like what the charter schools are doing. Seems a pure Federalist approach.

SOME Charter schools are great. Not all.

Not sure what you mean by a "Federalist approach?" If this references centralized authority, then it is inaccurate. Essentially, each Charter school has its own board. This represents a de-centralization of management authority, and allows much more control by parents: "the squeeky wheels get the grease."

On the other hand, funding comes from a "charter" granted by the state, whatever the school can scrape together from the feds, and often the local district will have some control over the location. For example, the local district might not allow a charter school to locate near one of their schools that need more students. Sometimes, the charter school will even need to raise its own funds, and will often require parents to pay a minimum "materials fee." This fee, although small, often discourages enrollment of economically disadvantaged students.

In this, you are absolutely right. I know of a few 'international' schools that are war zones. There have been some incidents in the Twin Cities that have had terrorist recruiters get some boys to return to Somalia to fight for Al Quaeda in the civil war there, although this may have come through the mosques in the twin cities.

If you are not Muslim or black, do not expect to be able to handle the children for they will not listen and God help you if you are a woman. I've seen them tear into each other with a glee you could barely avoid calling animalistic. Discipline from the school has been meted out with an iron hand and no consistency except maybe in the school building proper, but the children are just running chaos even over the teachers they DO respect at those schools. Active parental involvement... I don't know what to make of it other than it being just as chaotic as the kids themselves.

So we must be careful to not assume that all charter programs are succeeding, or at least the results we expect to see are the ones they are aiming for. Results WILL vary.

 

[Intense]

Nope, I am right. The schools are failing because of the parents who will not get involved. If you have a better answer, let's hear it. I am all for parental accountability for their children, period.

I like what the charter schools are doing. Seems a pure Federalist approach.

SOME Charter schools are great. Not all.

Not sure what you mean by a "Federalist approach?" If this references centralized authority, then it is inaccurate. Essentially, each Charter school has its own board. This represents a de-centralization of management authority, and allows much more control by parents: "the squeeky wheels get the grease."

On the other hand, funding comes from a "charter" granted by the state, whatever the school can scrape together from the feds, and often the local district will have some control over the location. For example, the local district might not allow a charter school to locate near one of their schools that need more students. Sometimes, the charter school will even need to raise its own funds, and will often require parents to pay a minimum "materials fee." This fee, although small, often discourages enrollment of economically disadvantaged students.

What's good about Charter Schools is that each stands or falls on it's own Merit. Federalism is not centralized and uniform, but decentralized & delegated, with room for trial and experimentation. We are given the opportunity to learn from what works on an individual or small scale basis, where reform and adjustment is easier to implement.

Charter Schools are growing in NYC, an alternative to Parochial, which in the lower grades are taking a big hit, because of rising tuitions. Yes Jake, the churches are somewhat joining the parade, I understand they are required to maintain a non secular environment. In the poorer areas, the closer contact with the kids is a treasure.

 

[bodecea]

Close about 1/4 of the schools and only let in the ones that are proper students.
Throw out the dead weight.
Heck we don't have enough jobs anyway. Why spend money educating them?

It is socialist anyway So I am sure all the Tea Partiers will support this.

I agree...with the following questions:

1. what do we do with those who do not go to school while they are young?

2. what do we do with the totally uneducated once they are adults?

 

[JakeStarkey]

The major problem with private schools in the elementary and secondary levels is that they will (1) teach to Student Learning Outcomes instead of higher skills and knowledge, and (2) will put profit before educational excellence.

 

[Big Fitz]

The major problem with private schools in the elementary and secondary levels is that they will (1) teach to Student Learning Outcomes instead of higher skills and knowledge, and (2) will put profit before educational excellence.

And what exactly are the unions doing? Putting profit (benefits/job security/money) before excellence.

This argument has a track record of fail. Before public schools were the norm, all schools were private and had a very solid track record of success. Why? Because they didn't bother wasting time on those who did not desire to learn. Maybe there's an idea... end truancy laws. No... the problems that produces are worse. But then creating a school of last resort is in order.

 

[onecut39]

Right. Did you know in the twin cities, you can't be on the board of education if you are not a member of the teacher's union? Smell a conflict of interest?

That is a lie.