Thoughts from a Florida teacher and parent about the school reform.

[madfloridian]

Letter from a Florida Teacher and Mother

She teaches at a Title I school. Title 1 funds aim to bridge the gap between low-income students and other students. The U.S. Department of Education provides supplemental funding to local school districts to meet the needs of at-risk and low income students.

At my Title I school, I work as a Reading Interventions Teacher with our school’s struggling readers, K – 5. I enjoy teaching and especially love working with poor children who need a little extra love and attention to help them battle the ills of poverty. At the school I’m at, the job is high pressure and extremely fast paced requiring numerous hours of preparation and documentation. We maximize every minute of our day to push students along in their academic growth. We cannot work any harder or smarter (without working even more insane hours) at what we do and we have made great strides in the learning gains of our students. However, year after year, the scores of our students are never quite good enough to be worthy of celebration or genuine praise. Every year we are pushed to work harder and told, “no excuses” when we express that poverty is a huge factor in our scores and that we need to address those issues.

That is what zero tolerance means. It means that every child is expected to perform just like every other child in the country. It means there are no allowances made for those students with differing abilities, with emotional or learning problems, or with poverty at home. No exceptions ever, none.

We recently received last year’s FCAT results and we are still a “C” school. We missed a “B” by less than 1 point (happens just about every year). Because of this, we are labeled a failure and will require closer scrutiny by the DOE and numerous highly paid consultants who will parade in and observe us to the nth degree to document why we are a “failure” and what we need to do to bring up our FCAT scores. It’s all a pretty sick game, and it is becoming increasingly more oppressive. We have teachers in my school who are barely hanging on…full of fear. They are so overworked and emotionally exhausted that I often see them near tears…walking down the hallways looking beat up. This is the environment that they work in everyday and it’s going on in schools across America. It’s inhumane.

I can’t express enough in words what it does to me and my colleagues, knowing that all of the intense effort we put into educating our students is considered a failure. We have been labeled and dismissed by people who have no idea of the realities in our classrooms. Our school is not much different from the school in Rhode Island that fired all of its teachers and publicly shamed them. When President Obama and Arne Duncan publicly backed the massive firing of those teachers in Rhode Island, I realized then that what is going on in education is truly wrong…bordering on corrupt.

She talks about Race to the Top, in which Arne Duncan and buddies get to decide who gets needed money and who does not. They set the criteria, and it is zero tolerance. One standard is to reward districts that undo reforms teachers have made through unions. It is called union-busting.

All that has happened lately with RTTT has been a huge blow to the stomachs of hardworking teachers. It has changed my perception of my world and it has eroded away my trust in what I thought was a democracy in America. The push for mayoral control in cities to make unproven and ill-advised changes in education without including the voices of parents and educators has really demonstrated that Americans are no longer participating in a democracy; we are now a part of what I would call a dictatorship. This top-down, “shut-up and do as I say” dictatorship is leading our nation into a high stakes test-taking environment that is actually stealing away education from our students, who now are taught with a narrowed curriculum and less learning opportunities in the arts, music. PE, etc.

The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss said it well.

"There’s something sadly desperate about Race to the Top" WP today.

There’s something sadly desperate about Race to the Top.

Educating young people from different backgrounds is actually harder than rocket science, and there is no one big fix that will lift up ailing schools. But since President George W. Bush persuaded Congress to pass No Child Left Behind, government officials -- Republican and Democrat -- have acted as if there is, and if they tinker enough, they will find it.

In a mad dash to fix schools, the Obama administration set up the contest (so much for equitable federal education funding) and set deadlines for states to submit their plans.

Duncan went on a “talking and listening” tour across the country, but clearly didn’t listen to anybody who didn’t agree with him; he told the New York Times recently that there was no public opposition to his views, which is a startling statement, given the fact that 15 states opted out of the second round of Race to the Top.

Valerie Strauss is right. There's a hopeless feeling when states are passing laws that are ill-planned and ill-researched just to get Arne's money.

There is not much that public education can do to defend itself against this onslaught. The other side has all the money and power it needs to put forth its position.

[Bozita]

1. The unreccers have already visited this thread

I just cancelled one out.

[madfloridian]

2. Yes, I know, and they will continue to do so.

I have gotten word it is organized. But I intend to keep on posting about the injustice of this school "reform".

Thanks for the rec, though. Even it if doesn't show.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. They are also unreccing my thread on school attendance

So much to hate about THAT topic. LOL

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9335621

[madfloridian]

25. Well, I just gave it a rec. It did not move.

This is ridiculous.

[madfloridian]

4. well...

There were 2 finally, now down to zero. It's like a freaking contest. :shrug:

[mbperrin]

3. Very well said.

The whole idea that one test can tell everything going on in a school is just about the dumbest thing I've heard of, yet I teach in a state where the policy is that the TAKS test gives you all you need to know. For example, I had a class of 24 children who had all failed to pass the 10th grade TAKS test. 94% of them passed the exit level 11th grade TAKS, but since the AP teacher with 6 students got a 100%, I had to explain why I was not as good a teacher as she is, along with suggestions for my "remediation."

The one card I hold is that no one else wants to teach remediation children, so I have support within the department. Isn't that terrible?

This thing is ruining education, period.

[madfloridian]

14. Thanks for sharing that, and it is sad.

It's harming children, confusing parents, and angering teachers.

And this administration seems totally unaware of the havoc they are wreaking.

[dkf]

5. This whole accusation that the goal is to privatize education and testing is all a plot to achieve

this just seems so tin foil hat to me.

If anything teachers left themselves open by allowing the system to deteriorate so badly. If we were still producing the best college prep students and graduating the vast majority of our kids where is there room to criticize? Where was the effort to reform before the pols realized our students are not where we need them to be? Where is the proactive move to ask teachers to put in extra instructional days into the contract without asking for more funds and adding flexibility to do what is needed?

I don't think that teachers realized that when they concentrated on preserving their salaries and their contracts they should have been concentrating on what was needed to improve student achievement on their terms. Now they have let things get away from themselves and others are dictating how the improvements will be achieved.

[madfloridian]

7. That does it for me.

I could respond to every point you make, but it would not matter.

So bye for now. Fighting this privatization...yes, privatization is too painful in itself to find myself having to defend myself from the same ones every thread.

Teachers deserve respect, not contempt. This administration could stop the way they are being treated, but they have decided not to do so.

[dkf]

8. Fighting privitization necessitates offering a better solution.

If teachers and their unions decided to do it better they probably could. But keeping civil service protections cannot be paramount. That is a losing argument.

Start with students, not with the pressure on teachers. We can sympathize with teachers but that does nothing to improve our kids education and offers no hope.

Good luck in your fight. Those are my comments on how to truly change minds.

[donco6]

20. Privatization is no solution at all.

Privatization is simply allowing some schools to skim off the kids they want, while leaving the rest to fend for themselves. And PRESTO! The private schools perform on test scores!

Surely you're not that dense.

[dkf]

37. Well get the for profits banned from the charter program then.

I have no problem with that. But charter schools are simply a vehicle to be more flexible and they can be abused but not all are. It's like saying all teachers suck when obviously not all do. But the advantage is that charter schools can have their charters revoked as needed.

Frankly I would prefer the problems be fixed in all schools, not in having to use charter schools to get around issues like tenure.

[donco6]

38. It's not an issue of "for profit".

Charters can and do pick and choose the kids they want. That's not a public school, nor is it a solution. It has nothing to do with for-profit status.

[dkf]

39. A public school is one that is paid for by the government.

And if the "leftovers" aka the excluded kids got extra attention I have no problem with them being singled out. Anything can be compensated for with enough flexibility. If we showed some success maybe people would be willing to pony up extra funds. But asking for more money to fund the number of dropouts we currently are producing seems impossible. People do not pay for failure.

[donco6]

40. But they obviously AREN'T getting extra attention.

They're being sent back to their "default" schools - which don't exist for real public schools. So charters end up looking successful, when it's really all a lie - the whole thing, from top to bottom.

My schools are showing success. But we've struggled for the fourth year in a row to pass a bond election to rebuild our crumbling schools. We even have a matching grant from the state to cut the cost to $1.82 per month per $100,000 of home value. I'm still not sure it'll pass. It has nothing to do with showing phony success. It has everything to do with destroying the teacher's union.

And dropouts - yeah, let's talk about dropouts. Our one charter school here has the highest dropout rate of any of our schools. Do we begrudge them of that, knowing it impacts our entire district's figures? No. Because the one charter we have is targeting a Spanish-speaking, ultra-high-risk high school population and we're working with them to succeed. It's the right thing to do - working to get these kids a diploma. But we're all getting tarred with their figure. Is that appropriate? I don't think so. But it doesn't matter to NCLB or the state. As far as they're concerned, we SUCK.

And finally, I know you guys are desperate to convince yourselves that charters are "public" - with your Wal-Mart definitions and Dept. of Ed websites. But the fact is, charters have no publicly-elected board. They're all take but no give in terms of representation. They are no more public than your local drugstore.

[JDPriestly]

63. If charter schools were just public schools that were more flexible,

schools that empowered all involved directly in the educational experience, teachers, parents and children to the extent that administrators are now empowered, we might actually get slight improvements in our education system.

But, the basic problems with education are societal, not specific to our schools.

[chervilant]

60. Surely,

he or she IS.

[JDPriestly]

62. The goal of the privatizers is, quite simply, to reduce the pay of teachers.

What the privatizers fail to understand is that teachers can barely afford to obtain a professional education for the compensation they get now. Lowering teachers' pay will mean that far fewer people can afford to go to college and invest in becoming teachers.

The quality of our teacher education and our teachers will decline severely due to privatization.

[laughingliberal]

9. +1000 nt

[Hannah Bell]

12. oooh, "tin foil hat!" "conspiracy theory!" oooh, those nutty teachers! or is it selfish teachers?

or maybe nutty, but still selfish teachers?

jeez, get your talking points straight, woman!

[Angry Dragon]

13. I am offended by your comments

[Catshrink]

17. Then she's achieved her goal

you know, getting back at her mean old 3rd grade teacher. Clearly, she knows nothing about education except Obama/Duncan/Bush/Reagan talking points.

[Catshrink]

16. You are incredible - who pissed in your Wheaties?

The teachers allowed the system to deteriorate? One word: Reagan. That's when the systematic defunding of education started. Are you aware that the number of special education students has skyrocketed but the feds only fund it at 21%? Where does the rest of the funding come from? The general education budget thereby increasing class sizes for regular ed students or increasing the number of sped kids in mainstream classes. (Mainstreaming is the goal, but how can a student reading at a 5th or 6th grade level succeed in a high school class of 35 students and one teacher? Of course, it's never one, more like 5 sped kids in the class. The teacher has to follow the IEP or get sued so the other 30 kids get shortchanged but the teacher is still held responsible for that fucking test score.)

Administrators and politicians have caused the deterioration, as you call it, in schools. Stop insulting teachers by saying that the only thing we're concerned about is salaries. We demonstrate our concern for student achievement every day, every minute of every day. I don't know what caused you to take aim at teachers with such vehemence but your stance tells far more about you and your psychology than any teacher or education policy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. + a gazillion

As if we teachers even had that level of control over the system. What a freakin ignorant thing to say!

[Catshrink]

26. No kidding.

I expect to see that kind of ignorance on another forum but not at DU.

[webDude]

49. Amen! Thank you!!

[donco6]

19. You've got to be kidding.

The TEACHERS "allowed the system to deteriorate so badly?"

When I started in my district 15 years ago, we were at 35% free/reduced and about 60% middle class white/30% Hispanic and 10% everything else. It was a pretty typical middle class district with average scores on the Iowa Basic - which is what we used back then.

Today we are more than 80% free/reduced, more than 70% Hispanic, more than 50% of our kids arrive monolingual Spanish speakers, and our zip code is rated the highest in the Denver area for unemployment and home foreclosures.

Did we sit back and do nothing while the neighborhood changed? No. We researched other schools and other reform, applied for a Gates grant and won $3 million to reinvent the entire 6000-student district. You can look it up at www.mapleton.us - I have nothing to hide.

HOWEVER - even in light of all that, and in light of the fact that our test scores are beginning to increase, and our growth scores at most schools exceed 1 year's growth in 1 year's time - WE STILL FACE SANCTIONS! We still may have to submit to a ridiculous audit by the Department of Education, where they'll bring their notebooks and checklists and demand we get more parents to SAAC committees and berate teachers for not getting scores up FASTER. We have two schools on "turnaround" status - a Montessori and a CES school. They may have to be close or be converted to charters because . . . well, because CHARTERS are MAGICAL places where kids all get better.

Right. Actually, the charters in our area only excel at dumping all their low-performing kids back to their default school (Which would be us. Our kids enroll over there to escape our small-school environment where they can't get away with everything. But after the pupil count date, the charter just kicks them all back to us again. Now they've missed two months of school on top of everything else.)

So, yeah, it is discouraging when you've created a really innovative system that's beginning to show progress, but the state and the feds just insist on coming in and kicking you around. It's completely unfair and shouldn't be tolerated.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. The Montessori issue is especially disheartening

Our Montessoris also do poorly on state tests but Montessori curriculum doesn't align with state standards - or national or international standards.

So do we abandon one of the most highly respected educational programs in history - with a great track record of success - because standardized tests can't assess the progress of students enrolled in Montessori programs? Or do we continue to yell and scream about how ridiculously STUPID this testing mandate is?

I'm using my bullhorn.

And if this doesn't PROVE we teachers have zero control over this system, I don't know what else to say.

[donco6]

28. touching finger to nose

Montessori and standardized testing are ANTITHETICAL! So we struggle constantly with, "That isn't the Montessori way" . . . "But we need to see our math scores go up!" And it isn't administration that's panicking - it's the teachers at Montessori because they're afraid for their jobs! They bring in math packets on the sly, fer chrissakes! That's just sad!

We want to see the model be implemented faithfully, but now we're all getting pressure from the state to raise the scores. They want to bring in one of those CADI audits (sp?) Have you see those? Ugh. I just think they sum up everything wrong with education in one big, thick loose-leaf notebook.

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. No. What's a CADI audit?

We are having internal audits. The directive is as follows:

Student work up IN THE HALL but not in the classroom.

One sample of student work from each subject area for each student.

Work must be up no longer than a month.

Scoring guides and rubrics, including state standards and grade level expectation must accompany the work.

Work must be graded and scored. Even failing papers must be displayed.

Classrooms must be PRINT RICH PRINT RICH PRINT RICH (that's what the email said - 3 times in all caps)

Every item in the room must be labeled with 4" Ellison letters. Desk, chair, table, file cabinet, computer, etc, etc, etc. High school classrooms also.

A Data Wall must be up in the hall and current. Data Wall contains attendance data, percent of kids who scored at each level on state and district tests and reading levels for the class.

Learning targets and essential questions for current curriculum units must be printed on big chart paper and on display in every classroom. (I have 7 grade levels, so yes, I have to put up 14 charts. It doesn't matter that I have no room for them.)

[donco6]

35. It's very much like that, except bigger.

They look at everything, not just classrooms. It's a huge notebook and this team of people come and evaluate different pieces, schools, admin, transportation, budget - all out of context and with no background as to the whys and wherefores. In a district like ours, they'll have a FIELD DAY. We don't do anything "traditionally" around here. We use a weighted formula for school funding, for example, and they'll be talking about how schools with higher free/reduced need more money and we'll say, "Yeah, we know - it's already factored in to their staffing and funding." Sheesh.

They often wind up wanting you to adopt some really rigid, scripted curriculum for reading. Again - completely antithetical to Montessori. It'll be a disaster.

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. You may appreciate this

My classroom has been "audited" twice this year. Since I have been in the district forever (or so it seems), I know the 'auditors' and engaged them in small talk. 'How are the kids?' 'How is your sister? Still teaching at X School?' 'Be sure and tell your mom I said hi'

When one walked in while my kids were counting money, I asked if she had any spare change to add to our small pile of play money Hint, hint, thanks for the supply budget! - Not. LOL

Next day a brand new package of play money arrived in my mail box.

Mission accomplished! Audit, who cares? :rofl:

[JDPriestly]

64. Sounds like a visually exciting place for your students! Sarcasm!!!

Let me tell you about my amazing 6th grade teacher back in the early 1950s.

Not only did she collect dolls and share her collection with us (to our great delight), but when we had lessons on Greece and democracy, she brought in a three-dimensional model (which she had made of something she concocted herself) of the Parthenon. We were thrilled. I fell in love with Greek history. I will never forget that the moment that I saw that home-made, three-dimensional model, I resolved to go to Greece one day and visit the Parthenon. I did just that.

And so, my sixth grade teacher opened up the whole world for me.

Can you imagine a student being so thrilled with a doll collection and a three-dimensional model in these days of video games and cable TV, the internet and cell phones? Probably not.

So, again, the crass materialism of our society is a big impediment to successful teaching -- yet another societal problem that has harmed education.

Yes, the internet could be a great tool. But the fact is that our children are so overwhelmed by the amount of information we throw at them and by the things, the technology that comes between them and their teachers and the learning experience, the excitement of discovering something together as a class and with the teacher, that I just don't see much hope.

The problems are societal. And I must say great as the internet is, it has done as much harm to education as it has good. The intimacy of the classroom is lost. The excitement of discovering knowledge is lost because knowledge is just so accessible everywhere all the time. And Bill Gates and the other computer pioneers cannot turn back the clock on the Frankenstein that the created.

Learning, especially learning math, requires repetition and patience. The internet and TV do not nurture those qualities in our children. A wonderful, warm-hearted teacher in the classroom can.

Sounds like all those statistics in your classroom distract the focus from the learning experience to the competition experience. That is very, very sad.

[Catshrink]

29. You have no control, but it's still your fault.

The DU experts have deemed it so.

[madfloridian]

44. Discouraging. Did you see what this principal said?

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/6830

From Ravitch's blog:

"I received an email from Dr. DeWayne Davis, the principal of Audubon Middle School in Los Angeles, which was sent to several public officials. Dr. Davis said that local charter schools were sending their low-performing students to his school in the middle of the year. He wrote: "Since school began, we enrolled 159 new students (grades 7 and 8). Of the 159 new students, 147 of them are far below basic (FBB)!!! Of the 147 students who are FBB, 142 are from charter schools. It is ridiculous that they can pick and choose kids and pretend that they are raising scores when, in fact, they are purging nonperforming students at an alarming rate—that is how they are raising their scores, not by improving the performance of students. Such a large number of FBB students will handicap the growth that the Audubon staff initiated this year, and further, will negatively impact the school's overall scores as we continue to receive a recurring tide of low-performing students."

[donco6]

47. We see that and have documented it. The state doesn't care.

Here in Colorado, the extra whammy is we have a One Day Count - October 1 of every year is out count date. You have to be enrolled by Oct 1 and in attendance sometime during the 11-day count window. So the charters enroll the kids, get them to attend once, then dump them back on us after they've taken the money.

[Jefferson23]

57. Wow, how much more calculating can they get! Disgusting to say the least. n/t

[LWolf]

23. Teachers don't "allow the system to deteriorate."

Teachers don't control the system.

Politicians do.


"Put extra instructional days into the contract" without pay? It's proactive to ask people to work for nothing?

The extra flexibility needed doesn't come from teachers' contracts. Districts have to abide by laws that don't allow that extra flexibility. Lack of flexibility flows from the top. Politicians.

And yes...the goal is to privatize and union-bust. Educate yourself. The effort began with Ronald Reagan and has been marching forward since.

[donco6]

30. Even in our small district, the cost to add a day is huge.

733 employees. Do the maths.

Politicos love to toss off that "longer days, more days" bs - then they say nothing when our budgets are cut 6.5% like they were this year. We had to close 2 schools to stay afloat. But now we're up against it - all schools are full to bursting. There are no more schools to close or staff to lay off. Unless having English class for all 350 Freshmen in the Gym is going to be considered Good Instruction.

[Catshrink]

32. Why not lecture classes?

It will prepare them for college! We had a candidate for school board suggest that. Really. Then she said the benefit is that we'd save money on teachers. Where do these loons come from?

My classes are full to the brim - I told our admins that if one more student is added I'll stop doing science labs because of safety issues and do demos instead. They weren't happy but I told them I would not accept liability.

[LWolf]

33. It is huge. That's why we don't have enough days.

A decade or so ago, my district voted to cut days instead of staff and programs; that's why we already had fewer days than the average year in the U.S., before the current economic meltdown.

We've cut staff. We've taken pay cuts as well as day cuts, which, as you know, are two different kinds of pay cuts. We took a pay and day cut in the spring of '09 to keep school open until the end of the year. We took a pay and day cut for the '09/'10 school year, and then cut 3 more days off that year at the very end. Then we took a bigger paycut and 11 days, 8 of them student days, off the calendar for '10-'11. My gross pay will be $3,000 less for the '10-'11 year than it was for '09-'10, which was, due to the spring '09 cuts, less than the year before. I'm making less money every year.

You know, I can actually picture that. Having English class in the gym for all students at the same time. Not good instructional practice, to say the least, but it sure would be cheap, wouldn't it?

[Dappleganger]

46. Unfuckingbelievable.

Why don't you just make up a teacher pinata for halloween and hang outside to beat on everyday. That would probably make you feel better and would do less damage than what your kind is doing now.

[Radical Activist]

53. I've noticed that too.

I see that you have the usual gang going after you with very nasty responses, which is why most DUers avoid these threads.

I used to oppose charters. I started looking into the issue more after reading the more alarming claims in DU education threads. I found that many of those claims were exaggerated or conspiratorial. Now I think there's a place for a limited number of non-profit charters.

[chervilant]

59. hmm...

"...teachers left themselves open by allowing the system to deteriorate so badly"?!?!

OMG, the rest of your insupportable post is worse!!

Please read "Blaming the Victim" by William Ryan. Note that while Ryan chose to use the term 'victim,' those of us who've come through this "No Child Left Behind" morass prefer to be called "survivors." Just watch while we survive Obama's ridiculous "Race to the Top"!

Most teachers struggle to maximally utilize every opportunity we have to teach our students. That there are some teachers who should not be in a classroom must NEVER be used to justify a blanket condemnation of those of us who are working our tushies off to help educate our students!!!

Until you get a clue, I strongly encourage you to avoid posting such indefensible dribble on DU. Please educate yourself about the Corporatocracy's ongoing (for DECADES, now) assault on public education. Perhaps your energy would be better used helping rescue public education so that our precious children can get the education they deserve.

[JDPriestly]

61. Our education problems are not in our schools. They are in our society

That's just the horrible fact.

You state that we are no longer "producing the best college pre students and graduating the majority of our kids." There are some other really important things that we no longer produce. For one, manufactured goods, for another as many good jobs as we used to.

In addition to the fact that we are no longer a major manufacturing nation, we are no longer a nation of relative economic equality.

And until we become a nation in which our kids can look forward to good jobs and the opportunity to live in relative economic equality, our education system will not really improve.

Scores may go up. There are a lot of ways to make scores go up. Drill to the test. Cheat. Change the questions so that the tests are not as demanding.

But until we change our society, we will continue to have a high number of high school drop-outs and high school graduates will not be adequately prepared for university.

[dkf]

6. Dupe

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dkf]

41. I see the dropout numbers.

Maybe Obama/Duncan aren't right but they sure have stirred up the pot to get everyone to move. You have got to think that someone has a good solution.

I've read some charters are being headed by their teachers. Maybe that experiment will pan out best. Who knows

[Catshrink]

42. The dropout numbers have been the same for over 30 years.

[dkf]

43. Which was unacceptable then and is unacceptable now.

Our dropouts can't compete with illegal labor. With no value added they have zero hope.

[proud2BlibKansan]

45. So why do we allow kids to drop out?

Why not raise the compulsory school attendance age to 18? Ever wonder why states don't do that? Or why that criteria isn't included in RttT applications? Seems like a simple solution.

[donco6]

52. It really wouldn't help that much.

To recover kids through truancy laws, the process takes many hours of court time, child advocate time, social services time, etc. By the time you get to a finding - the kid is going to be 18 and the whole thing will be moot.

[proud2BlibKansan]

56. But it establishes a culture of school till you're 18

We don't really have a problem with 14 year olds dropping out. And if we raise the dropout age to 18 eventually we will not have a problem with 16 year olds dropping out.

[donco6]

51. You think we don't know that?

Really? You think we don't care when a kid disappears between Jr. and Sr. year?

I can tell you what happens to our kids.

1. Pregnancy. We have a huge teen pregnancy problem here. I've known several girls who had not just one, but TWO kids in high school. By the time they're through the pregnancy and birth, they're so far behind they just give up. We have a new school to recover them, but it's really hard for them to come back. Our social services provision here is pathetic. WE'D have to start some kind of program - but with WHAT? We just got cut 6.5% in our funding coming into this year.

2. Work. We do have a significant number of undocumented kids. Going on to higher ed is almost out of the question for them, as they have to pay out-of-state tuition here in Colorado. (And in-state tuition is skyrocketing as well). So they figure, Why should I stay in school? I can get a head-start on work by leaving now. So they do.

3. Boredom. With all the focus on getting test scores up, we have to keep scaling back on anything that might remotely be considered "fun." We still have sports and activities, but we have very few elective courses anymore. It gets to a point where staying out of school is just more interesting.

I'm sure there are more reasons - but it's not that we just don't give a shit.

[JDPriestly]

65. I may be wrong, but I think that there were 1000 students in

my Sophomore (high school) class at the beginning of the year and 880 of us graduated. But then, some students mostly took shop or home economics. The core curriculum was not that demanding way back then.

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[Hannah Bell]

11. knr

[Starry Messenger]

15. k & r

[LWolf]

21. Not only are states planning "reforms" they KNOW are not good for schools,

they are doing so just for the CHANCE to get some money. There's nothing in RTTT that says every state adopting the Obama/Duncan deforms will actually GET money. They're competing.

Poor people buy lottery tickets they can't afford for the same reason.

[donco6]

31. It's like that scene in Evita where she throws the Summer Camp tickets in the air.

Isn't she a saint for caring about the little people?

[madfloridian]

48. At least it is not in negative territory....but still an amazing number of unrecs.

I hate to think what I am thinking , but...at least the majority do agree according the top tens.

General Discussion
Thoughts from a Florida teacher and parent about the school reform.
55% recs / 45% unrecs : 47 replies : By madfloridian

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=greatest_threads&topten=1

At 6:00 pm.

[Reader Rabbit]

50. I recced it, and now I'll kick it!

Even if Arne Duncan and his corporate cronies convince everyone else in society turns against us, teachers will always have each others' backs!

:grouphug:

[truth2power]

54. Recommended. n/t

[madfloridian]

55. It's permissible to be rude and disrespectful toward teachers now.

Just as many of the comments are.

That is the result of this administration's lack of respect toward public schools and teachers. It carries over.

[Riley18]

58. Well said and too bad it is also sadly accurate. The politicians should be

focused on funding public schools instead of paying for these bogus "tests" that only serve to narrow the educational experiences of the students. Not to mention that these tests are making some of their buddies millions of dollars that should be spent on the kids.