"All students are not equal; some are more profitable than others"

[kpete]

Saturday, February 08, 2014

"All students are not equal; some are more profitable than others" --Parthenon Group

If you want to find some savvy teachers who are not afraid to speak out against their Broadie superintendent and corporate foundations that have bought Tennessee schools and the nation's schools at bargain basement prices, go to Knoxville.

Here is special ed teacher, Robert Taylor, taking his five minutes at the Feb. 5 board meeting, and making it count. This is what free speech looks like--use it!

And here is the link the powerpoint presentation by Parthenon Group's Robert Lytle in 2009. The quote in the title of this post is on page 13, which is below.




http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2014/02/all-students-are-not-equal-some-are.html?spref=tw

[RC]

1. Why would anyone think profits of third parties in public education is anything except a rip-off of

our tax payer dollars?
Charter schools on their face are frauds. When I first heard of them, it didn't sound right to me. It is even worse now. Taking money and classroom space in public schools, ear marked for public education, and giving them to private, profit making companies, is counter productive for efficient and effective use of our education tax dollars. They skim the cream from the public schools and leave the rest to fail. And still, nowhere has it been proven charter schools are better than public schools. Nowhere. The main effect is increasingly costly "public" education, at the expense of our kids being poorly educated, with only enough class room time to "Teach to the Test". Reinforced with the money the school receives based on those test scores.
No wonder this country has fallen so far behind the rest of the world in everything except war mongering and spying.
Ignorant people are easier to control. Even better if a profit can be made in the process. Yea USA!

[kpete]

2. Thank you RC

for responding

As a teacher myself, http://artcorpssd.com/ArtLessons/
I have always thought education should be
NON-PROFIT

I hope more people see this video

peace, kp

[RC]

3. I've spend some time in front of the class room, teaching a math heavy HS electronics course.

This was back in the early 1990's. Even then things were going south. Administrators, who have never been in a class room, designing curriculum. They'd go to conventions and seminars back East and come back with thick 3 ring binders of who knows what wizz-bang that would revolutionize learning. Very little of it ever worked.
When I was in High School in the early 1960's, machine learning was the latest up and coming fad. Back then, what it did best was put the student to sleep.
And don't even get me started on these Internet based computer courses on security we all had to take as part of work before I retired. A real time wasting PITA. We have a job to do and this wasn't it.
After the first year go round, someone would do screen prints and pass them around. Even though the questions and answers were reworded and in different orders, they made life much easier. Everyone thought these courses were jokes. And they were. Just give us the information already and let us read it, then file it for future reference, if we needed it.

Teachers, the only blue collar workers that are expected to get a Masters on their own dime.
However I was an instructor, not a teacher, so I got some slack.
It is a whole different view from the other side of the podium. Everybody is an expert, except the teacher in the class room, the one who is responsible to make it all happen.
</rant>

[Chiquitita]

4. Loved the video

Wanted to share my open letter to Pres. Obama on this that came out in the Washington Post Friday

Dear President and Mrs. Obama,

After hearing of the White House’s recent College Opportunity Summit, I wanted to share the story of a student in my husband’s second-grade class.

This student and her classmates, despite their daily challenges surviving the widespread poverty of rural Georgia, are doing their very best to learn. Their school is cheerful, but some kids suffer critical emotional distress from life conditions created by years of economic and social oppression. Still, they are almost all at grade level. Javier has poured in all of his caring and expertise to help them achieve this.
...
That’s the back story to Tanesha’s access to education: the fight dedicated educators are currently losing against the competitive corporate models colonizing K-12 schools, robbing them of their autonomy, and attacking teachers’ vocational identity and their historic civic role.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/07/wife-of-teacher-to-obama-please-stop-this-runaway-reform-now/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101684514

[WhoIsNumberNone]

5. Well, he's right about one thing...

His concerns will be ignored.

[cyberswede]

6. Oy. We all know they think that...

but it's still appalling to see it in print.