No child left behind. Except these.

[trof]

Just got this email from a friend.
Are our kids dumbed down enough yet?
My. God.

Email: Grades: K - 3

· Faculty: 43

· Student Population: 780

· Major Concerns and issues:

o 50% of the students do not have a male adult living at home with them

o 70% of the students receive free/reduced breakfast & lunch (and for many of them, these are the only nutritious meals that they eat)

o 20% of the students do not speak English

o The teachers have a significant administrative burden due to No Child Left Behind and other standardized testing requirements

o The school will be relocating to its new building in December 2008.

Volunteer Needs

Summer

a.. Copy and Riso machine help - training provided - 30 minutes to a full day


School Year

a.. Rocking Readers - at least 1 hour a week - Cracker Barrel has donated rocking chairs for each class - all you need to do is show up and read
b.. Reading Tutors - training provided - at least 1 hour a week - working with individual students on reading skills
c.. Math Tutors - training provided - at least 1 hour a week - working with individual students on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
d.. Adopt-a-Grandparent - at least 1 hour a week - senior citizens act as mentors to children identified as needing special attention. Volunteers are asked to eat lunch with the child on a regular basis, check-in frequently, and remember special days with cards
e.. Library Volunteer - training provided - at least 1 hour a week - assist the Media Specialist in staking books and checking out media
f.. Classroom Volunteer - training provided - at least 1 hour a week - assist a teacher with tasks that take away from time with students and planning
g.. Traffic Control Volunteer - 7:25a-8a - help "herd children" from cars to classrooms
h.. Special Snack Volunteer - Thursdays or Fridays - all day - help collect money and distribute special snacks.


Moving Specific

a.. Moving Day Volunteer - all afternoon and evening - Friday, December 19, 2008 - dinner provided - move teacher material boxes ONLY from the old school to the new one
b.. Library Volunteers - all afternoon and evening - Friday, December 19, 2008 - dinner provided - move books and other media from old library to the new one
c.. New Building Volunteer - 7:25a-10a - January 6, 2009 - BILINGUAL HELP NEEDED - assist parents and students find their way around the new building
d.. Playground Construction Volunteer - January 9-10, 16-17, 23-24 - assemble and build the playground spaces for Special Needs Children, Pre-Kindergarten, and Kindergarten
e.. Landscape Volunteer - plant shrubs, trees, grass, and flowers and then help to maintain them on an ongoing basis


Fundraising

a.. Booth Volunteer - sell water, soda, etc. at the FES booth at Heritage Harbor Days, Shrimp Festival, and Fall Festival
b.. Cookbook Sales - sell School Cookbooks at various events
c.. Christmas Album Sales - sell the School Christmas Album at various events

[SheilaT]

1. If there really are 43 faculty to

780 students, that is means a classroom size of under 20, which, while not ideal, isn't too bad these days.

Even good public schools have long been dependent on lots of volunteer help not just for peripheral things, like the fundraising stuff, but for actual classroom assistance. Especially when I had children in school, I have always been torn about whether or not I should volunteer, or refuse to do so in order that the real need for more classroom teachers would be apparent.

And my kids went to well-funded public schools in the kind of neighborhoods where parents were educated, middle class, mostly professionals, who had high expectations for their children.

But I don't quite understand why you are equating the email, which outlines needs at the school, particularly during the move to the new facility, with dumbing down.

[LWolf]

2. Not all "faculty" has a classroom.

"Faculty" usually includes admins, counselors, etc..

It will also include PE and music or art teachers, if there are any. They also don't have their own classes.

the "email" doesn't give information that can be verified, such as where the school is located (CA has a class size reduction program for K-3, for example,) what grade levels it serves, how it is staffed, etc..

Please note how many of the "major concerns and issues" that affect learning, and AYP, are not within the school's sphere of influence.

[trof]

6. Rural town, coastal Alabama. 10,000 pop.

[SheilaT]

8. Faculty usually means teachers

Administration means those who fill other functions at schools.

That's the kind of email that is frustrating to deal with because of the lack of specific information.

I'm curious, is the comment about dumbing down in the original email, or an editorial comment by the original poster?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Not all teachers have classrooms

I am in a small school. We have 14 classrooms and 9 other teachers who are not assigned to classrooms (Art, Music, etc)

[LWolf]

11. Faculty usually means teachers.

That's correct, especially beyond high school.

In an email, though, we don't know the source of the info, or whether the person who used the term "faculty" is using it correctly.

It could even include classified staff, although I doubt it. Still, in elementary schools, even if you discount administrators, you have pe teachers, music teachers, art teachers, special ed teachers, counselors (in my district, that's a teaching, not an admin, position) that don't have their own "home room." When determining class size, you need to divide the number of students by the number of teachers that actually have a class, or a home room class, assigned to them.

In my K-8 school, we average about 525 students each year. We have a counselor, 2 special ed teachers, a speech specialist, an ELL teacher, a pe teacher, and a music teacher. They are considered "faculty." If we include them in our count, along with our 18 regular classroom teachers, then our reported class size will average about 21 students per class, when in reality it's about 29 students per class.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Sheila, I think the point is the inequity in the system

Your kids went to well funded schools with plenty of volunteer help. Yet only a few miles away I teach in a lesser funded school with practically no volunteer help. And which school really needs the volunteer help? Which kids are more at risk for failure?

[SheilaT]

9. My point about the plenty of volunteer help

was that even in good, well-funded schools, for at least twenty years (when my oldest was in public kindergarten) there was an assumption that parents would do a significant amount of work that ought to have been paid for to professionals. We were expected (when he was in first grade) to fill in to help with reading, and because there were many stay-at-home moms we collectively were putting in at least 40 hours a week doing that.

Perhaps the parents in the good schools could be persuaded to volunteer at the other one, but in reality that's not going to happen. What we need is a willingness to fund schools, all schools regardless of neighborhood, sufficiently.

I eventually sent my kids to a secular private school, and what was most eye-opening was to see what a difference small classroom size made. I was very unpopular with fellow parents at that school because I did not think I should be exempt from penny one of taxes for public schools, just because I sent my kids to a private one. And I should not be exempt from school taxes just because I don't have school age kids now.

I just get furious at people who honestly think they paid for all of their kids' education when in reality it's a shared burden, and isn't really shared enough. People complain bitterly about paying taxes, without giving a lot of thought as to what those taxes give them in return. I want good schools, fire departments, libraries, police services. As well as other stuff.

[1monster]

3. Our school district just shed itself of 150 teachers for the coming school year despite

a significant rise in student population. Our budget was cut by $11,000,000 and that cut is expected to go up to $15,000,000 during the 2008-2009 school year.

Thank you so much Governor Charlie "No Cuts in Education" Crist and your endorsment of Amendment 1 in the last election.

There are currently three Amendments to the Florida Constitution on the November Election Ballot which could have an even harsher effect on school budgets if they pass.

I don't agree with our Superintendent of Schools here on a regular basis, but he spoke the truth when he said, "Fiftieth out of fifty is not acceptable." And, if Florida won't fund its schools, then it better start building more prisons...

on edit: That 150 teachers cut does not include the drastic cuts in support staff such as "para professionals" (teacher's aides, aids for the severely physically/mentally handicapped). Those cuts were very deep and we will feel it when school starts again in August.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. 780 kids in an elementary school?

There should be a law against that.

[1monster]

7. It happens all the time. Most elementary schools in our district are built for five hundred kids,

max.

But, by the time they start deciding that a new elementary school is needed, the number of actual students will be in the 700s.

And then there is the wrangle about where to put the school. That can be a real hassle because of splitting up school districts, how far students have to be bussed, whether students will be bussed past an existing neighborhood school to one much further away, dangerous intersections, etc.

That adds to the amount of time it takes to get a new school built. By the time the new school is ready to open its doors, the former (small) book storage room has become a classroom in the existing school.