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January 03, 2009 08:01 PM UTC
120 Comments
Link.
If you want to know what’s wrong with the schools, you need to spend some time in classrooms, working with and interacting with children. Policy makers generally don’t. The answers, unfortunately, are society-wide: what’s wrong with the schools is what’s wrong with society.
Within the schools, you first have to divide kids into those that CAN learn, and those whose brains will never be average, due to drugs, alcohol, the poor diet that generally comes with poverty, and the mental disorders that are both environmental and genetic. This is not PC, but it’s factual that we have probably 25% of kids in bad neighborhood schools whose brains aren’t all there. They start down the drug/gang path early and drop out.
That leaves a generous proportion with the ability to learn. In bad neighborhoods (drug and crime infested where kids either are related to or know someone who gets shot nearly every year), they deal with many outside-of-school factors that inhibit learning. Parenting is a factor. Many parents work itinerantly in stressful, poor-paying jobs, with hours that don’t account for kids. Children are on their own and parents often don’t understand how to get them engaged with schoolwork because they don’t have much of an education themselves and don’t read. Walk into their homes and you will see a huge TV, video games, and no reading materials.
There are many single-parent and guardian-parent families. Many kids have an incarcerated parent. They often witness or experience abuse – violent or sexual. They often live with someone who abuses drugs or alcohol; they are related to gang members. Families move, causing the child to change schools multiple times. Children then lack consistency (a huge need of childhood) both at home and at school.
Privileged folks – and that’s anybody who’s logged on and reading this – generally don’t understand why people of little means don’t employ “self discipline” to engage themselves or their children. Walk into their worlds and you will begin to understand.
And I am merely tipping the iceberg, but I don’t blame Bennet for moving on up. Did you see him on TV yesterday, shaking hands with the kids? They were completely disengaged with him.
So you know, I work for a non-profit that directly aids minority, inner-city kids. The nature of my job is very hands-on.
Great post, though. Thanks.
Cool. I just lost my job w/ similar – our major funder backed out on funding for 09. Ouch.
I didn’t mean YOU; I actually meant the pontificating leaders in the news going on and on about education when they’re so far removed from the day-to-day realities.
It’s a critical topic; I’m grateful that you brought it up.
Good food for thought.
I’ve volunteered in our school district and the biggest impact, especially on testing, is families moving from school to school. Sometimes that is following a job, but I’ve also seen families moving to another part of the district. Much of that has to do, IMO, with the cost of living in Colorado. Trying to find a better place to live, the family moves and transfers the kids to the local school. Trying to make more, they move to another area in the state. Trying to leave the “bad parts” of wherever, they move. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem that helps much because they move again in a year or two. It’s heartbreaking to watch these kids; they just start making friends and relationships and have to move.
The mobility factor far outweighs the other ones listed, though I don’t deny they can be a factor.
My answer on responding to violence (from peers, adults, in society): include a program that teaches kids how to deal with violence and avoid it. Also, I would like to see media literacy included in the curriculum. It should be included in various disciplines like math, reading, writing, and science. I wouldn’t add it as an additional program, the schools don’t need more programs.
I would like to see some kind of backup on the claim that 25% of kids aren’t all there. That seems like a pretty high percentage to me.
I am not talking about all kids; I am talking about those living in bad, unsafe neighborhoods who attend inner city schools. And this figure is actually generous, in my mind. It comes from working w/ kids in DPS, teaching and counseling, for the past 15 years or so. Purely qualitative, so it’s easy to debunk and ignore.
It’s not PC, and it’s not tested for. But inner city schools have had a disproportionate number of kids in Special Ed. There are many other children who may have only “mild” learning disabilities (and that bar keeps getting raised – kinda like the official poverty level), and those are very difficult minds to reach, with all the outside factors affecting them as well.
Now a lot of families have moved outside of the city, and other districts are encountering the same issues that formerly only belonged to city districts. But I don’t know what kind of figure an insider in a suburban district would proffer.
The kind of anti-violence program you suggest exists, and makes a difference, but still doesn’t change the neighborhood and the volatile lives that way too many young people live. BTW, on violence, Columbine, mental illness, PTSD, substance abuse, I highly recommend the novel The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb.
You seem to want to delineate one major underlying factor in kids’ not learning, and pick the high rate of mobility. I say, there are MANY factors and that is one.
Relax. I’m not attacking you personally. I’m pointing out that there are many factors, too. What I was trying to emphasize was that for the many kids I have seen as a volunteer, not staff so I’m not there every day, the most common factor for kids doing poorly was mobility. The estimate we came up with was 20%, more or less, for the classroom turnover from year to year. And much of that was during the school year. Moving a student from one school to another is incredibly destructive, but happens all of the time.
I would argue that mobility is causative. Some of the other factors are indicators of problems but can’t really be solved if that student keeps changing schools.
Schools cannot solve every problem but they can give us the tools to deal with problems. I agree that factors outside of school can be very debilitating for a student. Someone being abused is not going to learn. Period.
And, no, I am not suggesting that families should not be allowed to move. One of the larger causes I have seen for families to move is housing affordability. I consider it a cause for many other problems. Until a family can live affordably, many other problems won’t be addressed. It’s an area I think we can do much to improve but isn’t directly involved in this particular diary.
First, you left off the kids who are drug damaged even before birth. Especially Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Second, you point out a typical minority home w/o books. I’ve seen that myself when I lived in duh hood. Not one book, but a huge video “library.”
I was being taken to the library since I was a toddler. Do you think that might have influenced my thinking about books and using my brain? Of course! The other kids are just parked in front of a TV.
OK, third comment. The diet factor also goes to prenatal times. Frankly, with food stamps and banks, poor folk in America don’t eat too badly and eat far better than a lot of the world does. If you watch the grocery carts of those on “Quest” (what a misnomer!) cards, you can see the problem. Lots of sugar and starch and not so many vegetables and fruits.
Changing a whole culture of poverty is the probably impossible part, even if we have changed poverty to include telephones, heat, and food.
1. Give every kid an IQ test and place them in appropriate classes. It was called “tracking” when I attended elementary-high school.
2. Fire the lowest 5% of the teachers every year. I don’t what the measurement system is. Just measure performance and can the bottom 5%.
3. Crush the teachers’ union. Take a strike if you have to.
4. Fire 50% of the administrators. Submit fewer and briefer reports to the various levels of government, especially the Feds.
This sounds like a TABOR kind of solution. How about we institute a process that allows parents to file a report on a teacher? Principals would need to have a system of evaluation of the report, i.e., did the teacher violate state / district policies. If a certain number is reached over a couple of years the teacher is on probation and loses tenure.
I have also argued that we need a way for teachers to change paths without having to give everything away. If you have taught for fifteen years, it can be nearly impossible to walk away from a good pension. Many burned out teachers can use a change of venue or subject. We had a teacher who went from the classroom to teaching PE. There were some parents who protested that he wasn’t fully accredited for PE but he already had experience as a coach and planned to get the rest of the PE accreditation in his first two years. The kids seem to really like him for PE so I would say it has been a successful transition. We need to find ways for that to happen more often. Right now the option is to keep teaching the same thing every year or quit.
Instead of crushing the teachers union, I would suggest reducing the pay of superintendents and other admin. They make 2 to 3 times median income. Also, we should allow districts to compensate school board members. Only those with independent incomes can really do the job well. If you want to do more that just show up, it requires a lot of work (and education is not the most transparent entity).
dmindgo … da’ mind go … I nominate you for Union hack parading as a concerned parent.
More of the same … McSame, McUnion, McGoof, …
How about we put the $7grand in the pocket of the parent and let them make the choice. Put some responsibility on them.
Competition and responsibility … words of fear for some community leaders.
Perhaps we could avoid the name calling?
I don’t belong to a union. Never have. Don’t have family in one. Receive no compensation from one. But if simply pointing out the obvious – teachers aren’t the problem – earns me the title of hack, why, thank you.
School vouchers: the program brought to us by the same people who want to privatize Social Security. I think I’ll pass on that one, thanks.
Have you researched the voucher programs being proposed and by whom?
Have you looked at the success rates?
It doesn’t sound like it.
That if my only 2 choices were vouchers or continue with the existing system – I’d take vouchers.
Why?
Because the present system is a disaster. Vouchers could be better. The existing system won’t be.
…those private schools have to take everyone and have to take the CSAP. All kids, no matter the disability.
And provide transportation, just like the public schools.
With those equivalents in place, I think the voucher programs would dry up.
Wouldn’t kids with particular disabilities (depending on the severity) be better served by having their own private schools for at least some of their education?
Nothing wrong with the government providing transportation. Plus, they already own the infrastructure.
The voucher programs I’ve seen start from the bottom. Milwaukee’s made only 125% of the poverty level and below eligible, and their graduation rate was 50% higher right out of the box.
First of all, let me say, in all seriousness, how very much I respect your decision to examine education. I think having three little kids and trying to decide what schools will work for them is one of the most important decisions which parents have to make. I wish you well.
Now for the history. Up until 1974, children with disabilites were routinely excluded from public schools. Schools had the right to refuse to educate the developmentally disabled (mentally retarded and physically handicapped) as well as those with emotional difficulties. These kids were kept at home, or institutionalized or educated in private facilities with a crazy quilt combination of charity, government and parent funding.
In a landmark Supreme Court decision ( which, of course, I cannot find to cite) in a suit brought by parents of these kids, the Court held that these students had a constitutional right to a public education in the “least restrictive environment.” So, all of these kids are now in the public school system. Some are in private facilities, paid for by public school systems.
I support that decision. However, there are consequences which ought to be part of any discussion on educational problems.
1) The cost to educate these students is incredibly high.
It is one of the factors which needs to be identified when the cost per pupil is calculated. So, it is wrong to compare the cost per pupil today with costs prior to the time when these kids were in the school system. The cost for these special ed kids should be reported separately from the kids who are not special ed.
2) These students do not necessarily achieve to proficiency standards which kids w/o disabilities do. Therefore, there scores should not be rolled into the overall scores of a class, a school, or a school system. They should be reported separately.
3) No other industrialized country is educating disabled students within the general population of school aged kids, to the best of my knowledge. Therefore, when scores of US kids are compared to other countries, this fact should be made mention. Such comparison should show who is being compared to whom.
For every non-disabled child a private school educates, there is a commensurate tax to provide for equal education for a disabled child.
For instance: if there is one disabled child for every 20 healthy kids, voucher schools would have to provide 5% of the total tuition of a disabled kid at a set rate for another, more specialized private school in taxes for every kid they have enrolled.
If I understand the plan correctly, you would mandate that schools which accept vouchers would have to pay a tax to educate disabled kids in another school. Can not do.
If public funds are used for vouchers, and schools accept those vouchers, then they could not discriminate in any way against disabled kids.
Disabled kids would be entitled to the use of vouchers on the same constitutional basis as any other kid. IMHO
But it’s hard because of the broad definition of disability. My idea could be used as a benchmark, and then they’d have to educate the kids they could handle.
For example, if a child is mentally acute but has a physical limitation, that’s more possible to integrate into a school setting with construction. However, if a kid is severely mentally challenged, being with a standard academic class does nothing for their self esteem, but the money would help to get them better attention elsewhere.
LB, you have been talking to teachers. There is a whole segment of the public school system dedicated to working with disabled kids. The problems are legion. BUT THE BOTTOM LINE is that the law dictates the parameters within which school systems must operate. These kids cannot be arbitrarily sent elsewhere; there cannot be discrimination.
It is tough.
Just trying to get creative and not leave anyone without options.
What did you think about the separate immersion schools for English proficiency?
LB, we are tripping over each other with the responses! This is what I think, separate immersion schools would be considered discriminatory. And again, the voters rejected mandatory English immersion.
But, you might be on to something. If there were English Immersion schools which were voluntary, and the parents could choose to send their kids there AND there was school transportation to the schools, they might work.
What is happening, LB, is you are approaching problems logically and rationally. But IMHO, DPS is NOT a rational system. It is a political culture. There are political solutions to educational problems and they usually don’t work. Kids get caught.
What we are doing now is an abject failure, and I see people in charge like Merrifield being trite and flippant about the fact that hanging onto power at the expense of these kids’ education is actually costing some of them their lives.
Every week we lose kids to gang violence, and on many levels I can’t really blame them for taking the risks in order to make the money they need.
Big city schools mostly in the SW have a huge disadvantage in state wide tests. Students who have not been in the country for, say, four years should have their scores set aside as a separate group. That would truly focus educational needs for the ESL types and the test scores for native speakers will shoot up and represent what is really being done for the linguistically prepared student.
Right as rain. we should have nominated you for Secretary of Education…hell, DPS needs a superintendent.
An ESL immersion school, like a civilian equivalent of the DLI in Monterey, but for school-age children?
In 2003, there was a Colorado ballot amendment which would have mandated English immersion classes for all non-English speaking kids. The voters roundly defeated it.
But do you think that’s best? I mean, what’s the most valuable thing we could teach ESL kids that want to excel in this country in terms of employment?
If I wanted to learn a language quickly, I’d go to an immersion program in another country.
My motives aren’t racist or xenophobic, I’m trying to find the best way for our schools to offer an engaging enough curriculum to interest intelligent students no matter what their initial language is.
There’s a reason all control towers are required to have an English speaker present.
What if it were a 1-year or 9-month program? The point is not to segregate these kids, but to get them up to speed so they can compete in an English-speaking environment.
I DO want return to Colorado……
Hey, pr, you set up the website and we can start the ball rolling…..I would probably leave off the California “dreaming” piece with the motorcycle and all….However, the rest of your resume as gleamed from your posting..makes you look good to go….EXCEPT:
You do have some education experience, if I recall correctly.
That might be an automatic disqualified for DPS superintendent…
Better memory than me about myself, dwyer!
Yes, a BA in Education.
It’s a very important aspect of education that always seems to be skipped over by advocates for reform.
Absolutely.
The School Board Member job should pay $100K USD in my opinion.
A miniscule amount in terms of the total budget.
A significant amount for THE member.
Because some of the union shills on school boards get that much put into their campaign coffers.
Just outlaw any donations from members of the unions they’ll be negotiating with, and I’d be fine with giving them salaries.
No.
You can’t reduce people’s pay and expect them to put up with it.
You just have to fire 50%.
First off, firing the bottom 5%/year would not mean no teachers in 20 years – even if there were no new hires.
Second, obviously it would be replace the poorest performing 5%, not eliminate those positions.
Third you say:
I have never heard a parent ever discuss the accreditation of a teacher. We don’t care about the Ed School part. (And for good reason – it does not make one a better teacher.)
Fourth, you are right that education is not transparent – and we need to make it much more transparent. CSAP’s big help was it increased transparency some which made it clear how bad some schools were failing their children.
yes, I get the math part. It smacks of TABOR – set up an arbitrary number, doesn’t matter if 7% needs to be fired or 2%.
On the PE teacher – because you’ve never hear a parent discuss accreditation means what? Believe me, it happened. Best step, spend a year on your school’s accountability committee (or school advisory council). You better have one since it’s state law. It’s just a small taste of what a principal deals with (or avoids).
I appreciate the goal of transparency but would argue CSAP doesn’t do that. Alfie Kohn would say that once you start achieving by standardized testing, you’ve lost the game for education. He’s a very interesting voice for reforming public education. Easy to read, good communicator, and has a different take than many who push reform.
Both at the school and district level. I’ve neve rheard anyone discuss teacher accreditation except occasionally in derogatory terms. It’s not something that comes up because it has no bearing on the ability of a teacher.
If I got one wish to improve society, it would be to fix our education system – K-12 & HigherEd.
First off, this is not a funding issue. There is no coorelation between money spent and quality of education. And most other industrialized countries spend about half what we do on education. So even with TABOR, the recession, etc – we can fix this today.
Here are what I think are the major problems we face for K-12.
(Now high school football coaches are held accountable – do a bad job and you will be replaced. Apparently success in football is more important than success in academics.)
I think we need to face up to the fact that our present arangement of local school boards running school districts is an abysmal failure. Tweaking it on the edges won’t fix it.
I also don’t think a monolithic state controlled system is the answer either.
I think we need to find some system where responsibility and control of the school is pushed down to the school level. But we have oversight and requirements that come from the district level, and the districts are measured by the state.
I think we need to include a couple of things with this.
I asked my middle daughter (presently at CSU), if she could change one thing, what would it be. After a bit of thought she said “don’t make the classes so boring.”
She said that lectures are basically a waste because she then comes home, opens the book, and learns what they were droning on about.
And keep in mind she graduated from Fairview High “with honors.” So this is from a top student at one of the best High Schools in the state. If the classes are marginal there, I shudder to think about what it’s like elsewhere.
Isn’t your daughter a freshman? If so, she’s likely taking a bunch of general classes, possibly large ones, and can do as well with the textbook as with the lecture. And she’s probably taking general education requirements in topics that don’t interest her.
Presumably once she chooses a major, she’ll take the classes that are interesting to her. Frequently the lectures are much more useful in such classes: either the books are written in a very utilitarian fashion, and a professor needs to give motivation and context, or there just isn’t a great book and the professor uses his/her own notes.
And quite aside from the topics or the level of the classes, a lot of students (even really good ones) find classes the most boring part of college.
They are the worst!
In College her main complaint is that some of her professors couldn’t teach someone how to open a jar. For the rest, she finds college challenging, but is ok with the system.
Sounded like you were referring to CSU.
I found high school pretty boring, but I was always aware that things would get better in college. But now we’re talking about two different things, aren’t we?
On the one hand, we seem to want more students to graduate and everyone to have a certain basic education, which means we’re really worried about students on the lower end. Here you’re talking about keeping students on the high end entertained. I don’t know if that’s as much of a priority, to be honest.
In middle school we had various types of tracking. There was “honors” and then above that was “gifted.” The honors students would have all their regular classes as well as art and gym and such together, and pretty much never see anyone else. The gifted students would have their regular classes together, but they’d have art and gym with the vo-tech kids. It was kind of weird. Especially with the sadistic PE teacher who taught us wrestling and paired me with the biggest vo-tech guy in the class.
Wait, where was I?
Anyway, the point is there’s only so much you can do with gifted kids to keep them from getting bored. You can send them into college at 15 or so, which I’ve seen happen. I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I think peer interaction is very important, and the fact that you’re 15 and as smart as a typical 21-year-old doesn’t mean it’s good to hang out with them.
Are you prepared to pay 2 or 3 times more in property taxes? Because paying teachers what they are worth for performance will require a huge boost in pay. Teaching well is very hard work. Teaching in a mediocre way is difficult enough. If we want teachers to spend 12-15 hours per day on their classes, they need a lot more support. It does cost money.
I know we simply couldn’t afford to have our property tax double in a year. Maybe over time we could work it out, but it’s not a simple no-brainer.
Improving the way we teach – our district has been assembling teams of teachers, admin, and community members to review and select new curricula. So far, it seems to have improved the science program. It is more interesting and has terrific materials to go with it. This takes time away from something else (like class prep?) but is well worth it in the long run. Unfortunately, most textbooks out there are way to simplistic because they have to appeal to everyone, so the end up dumbed down.
On eliminating tenure, I would say fine, but then pay teachers more, provide them with better materials and support. Tenure is the big bonus we have given teachers in return for having to deal with the 20+ new critics they get every year. I would love to see anyone else deal with 20 bosses that keep changing every year and are mostly concerned about their one project – on which one is supposed to work every day. Right.
To include the parents I would get rid of homework. Send the kids home with something they accomplished that day and that they found interesting. When they have an interesting day, they will want to talk about it.
Step 1 is to eliminate most of the 55% of salary that goes to people not in the classroom.
Step 2 is to eliminate the poor teachers, which then makes it easier for the rest to teach as they don’t have to carry those not doing their job.
As to needing 12 – 15 hours/day, that is due to a poor system, both in terms of how materials are taught and how teachers prep & grade.
The trick is to change how the system operates as it presently is a mess, not to pay people more to try and work harder in an ineffective manner.
but I haven’t seen that 55% number in our district. The percentage that goes to instructors and classroom support staff is much higher, from my memory of it.
Again, maybe you’re right, but from what I have seen of our best teachers in my personal experience, they put in a lot of hours. Even the veteran teachers who have been teaching the same class for years and are still doing an exceptional job.
I guess I just don’t feel that there is an easy way to be a teacher. About the only way I know that would make the job easier is to reduce class size down to somewhere between 7 and 12. That is probably not going to happen…
(And as for the union stuff people have been adding – the teacher I have personally worked with and is considered the best teacher in the school: we had a friend with a kid in her class and she really disliked that teacher. But, I guess the answer would be to fire her because, er, Damn Unions!)
You CAN’T fire her because of the unions. Even if she was a terrible teacher, like a Jay Bennish.
The Truth about Teachers Unions from Union Facts on Vimeo.
– former LAUSD board president
So, even if all that cook does is French pastry, that’s what that guy is doing to eat? What if I want to have some vegetables? Wow. That video is so simplistic, I find it hard to believe a third-grader would find it useful. And I haven’t heard any facts. It’s opinion (like Jack Welch of GE says the bottom 10% of every profession needs to be fired.) Just sayin’, that’s opinion, not fact.
There are good points to be made about unions and their relationship to education, but each time one of the speakers approaches complexity, the talking points derail. I don’t like this kind of presentation anyway, no matter what the cause. I always know there are things not being told. I know this is simplistic, but I would say get in there and change it. Those teachers should be the reps for their schools and districts. Don’t whine about the job someone else is doing if you won’t do it. But that’s my perspective.
Because I’m freaking paying for it and they are completely failing, and I will have three daughters to put into the meat grinder of DPS the next few years unless I can save them by getting them into a private school.
Why do they deserve my money or my children if the system is completely broken?
In virtually every large group 20% of the people do 80% of the work. One of the reasons I’ve mostly worked in start-ups is it’s one of the few places where you don’t see that.
So yes, based on numerous studies of large organization after large organization, firing the bottom 10% would make the entire ogranization more productive – in total.
What teacher supporters won’t address, and because of it they are headed for a major fight, is that some teachers suck. And the ones that are bad do need to be fired.
Some ideas…
1. Bi-lingual education is a disastrous failure. Get rid of it. English proficiency is a must to be employed well in this country.
2. Get rid of bad students. Have alternatives (see #3) or not, if they are dangerous.
3. Make a vo-tech program that’s nearly the size of regular school. Partner with trade unions on apprentice programs. Yes, I just said that.
I totally support #3. Students need alternative paths. But, wood shop to computer tech, they still need to incorporate life-long learning skills. (And, my pet peeve, history.) It can be done, it’s applying good education to whatever the subject is.
I have a good idea for #2: soylent green
#1. Funny you mention that. Just watched a German movie last night, “Run, Lola, Run,” which I highly recommend. The funny thing is that the lyrics to most of the songs on the soundtrack are in English. Somehow, I have a feeling that was not seen as a problem by German audiences since they know at least one other language. However, I’m sure you are referring to a more specific criticism of education in Spanish which – I’m not going there.
Bi-lingual ed is a failure because of how it is done. There are ways to teach language that allows for retention and proficiency.
Alternatives are key to a successful system. The good students, while they may be bored in school, as is the case with David’s daughter, will understand that school is a means to an end and complete the requirements. Bad students should be diverted into alternative schools, of which we do not have enough
Union/Apprentice programs are beneficial and teach kids skills necessary for them to survive outside the classroom. These are always the first to go when budgets are cut.
A friend teaches at Jefferson Hills in JeffCO, one of the best vocational/alternative schools in the metro area. Because of the fiscal environment his program, one of the most successful in the school, is being threatened. It is alternative, matches students with internships in their interest/skill areas. The internships often turn into jobs/apprentice positions. This kind of program should be replicated not cut in favor of more traditional educational models.
I support teachers and I tried to get a bad teacher fired. Where does that leave me in the generalizations people LOVE to make about education?
In fact, a teacher we thought was the best one our son has ever had, was fired. I would go back to arguing that we need diversity (in teaching styles) in our schools and a competitive system in class selection. In other words, one should be able to refuse a teacher for oneself or one’s child. However, this would be a very difficult system to implement and could be downright chaotic (which I’m all for, but most people aren’t.)
Comparing start-ups to schools is not useful. They serve different functions, systemically and socially. A high percentage of start-ups fail miserably and a handful succeed fantastically. Uh, is that what we want for schools? Sounds rather “survival of the fittest.”
Also, large organization theory also states that there is always dead wood. Remove the lowest performer and someone will move into that role.
Is that schools that are a failure are kept in business. Schools have failures, but we need to recognize that and replace those failures.
it’s very hard not to believe in survival of the fittest.
Thanks for all your comments in this thread.
in case you didn’t notice…
I go a bit far, I’m sure, but I find schools in general and public ones very inspirational – despite all of the crap that goes on. Historically, public education is an amazing experiment and resounding success.
What if schools separated high-IQ achievers earlier and put them on education tracks while putting the below-average IQ folks on trade school tracks?
Charles Murray has pointed out that half of the kids who enter college don’t belong there because they’re not smart enough or not motivated enough to benefit from traditional college educations.
The wealthy are able to take their kids out of dumbed down public schools regardless of how smart and motivated their kids are. But politics apparently requires that dumb kids be treated the same as smart ones. And the unmotivated, natural-born trouble makers are allowed to disrupt learning by people who want to learn.
How can kids be motivated to learn at an early age? I guess it’s politcally incorrrect to ask 3rd and 5th graders whether they want to spend their lives in jail, driving trucks, sweeping floors, envying the wealthy or working their way into middle income and upper income lives.
If I were wealthy, I’d create an after-school organization that specialized in teaching kids their choices in education and life and helping those who got it make it. I know there are groups like that, but they don’t get the public attention and support that they should, and the ones I know (very generally, not specifically) about don’t seem to be doing the job they could.
But, gosh, I’m being uncharacteristically politically incorrect. Pardon me for thinking out loud.
Andrew Romanoff proposed something along these lines (albeit in a more political way) a few years ago.
Romanoff for DPS Super?
Your idea has merit, but if we had this in place when I was in school, based on my apptitude test results I would be either a pastor or a farmer.
or a doctor.
sheesh.
…in today’s world we cannot afford for half to not go to college. 20% maybe but not half. The high school is enough jobs are not there anymore.
So we need to find some new tracks. We should definitely have a community college track as well as a 4 year college track. And maybe a track for those that are going to go from high school to work for 5 years or join the military, but then will do college.
And most important of all, we don’t lock kids in a track. What works for them will change as they move through school.
Totally agree.
That is the anti-bureaucracy part for me. Give students multiple learning paths. I always add that that should mean vo-tech learn a lot of history, math, and writing and the book-smart ones do art and wood shop. (Of course, it would be nice to have national health care before you put me in front of a table saw…)
I should have mentioned this with the comment about the school for the gifted.
Sarasota also has a huge vo-tec high school. All the usual suspect programs. A student may elect to stay in his or her own regular HS and bus to classes or attend the vo-tec one only.
So, at least in this county there are three significant school options. One requires an IQ of 130 and luck to get in, one is the standard college prep or just get a diploma, and the third – or is it fourth? – a vo-tec track.
Not bad for a system allegedly stuck where it was 200 years ago……
“Thanks to Jeb Bush”?
Pineview, the school for the gifted has been in existence for about 30 years.
The vo-tec school is pretty new, but I’m sure it was built as a need to successful vo-tec programs. And with local decision making.
You can’t tell me that the classroom of 1808 looks anything like that of 2008. Computers, lots of books and not just the McGuffey reader, maps, charts, lab equipment, on and on. Curricula was the three R’s, now we have AP classes to say nothing of trigonometry, physics, social sciences, etc.
We can tell how well a football coach is doing, not so easy for teachers and principles. You have to either judge by CSAP’s or it’s a popularity contest. Some of the best teachers lose on one or the other account, but the kids are soooooo motivated.
Lectures can be an effective teaching aid. Yes, most are boring. There are a lot of individuals – I would like to think of myself as one – that can lecture and keep interest. Humor, cadence, surprise, interaction all make lectures a decent teaching tool. There is only so much self-directed education can do. Well, at least that’s what I believe. Also, lectures are a low cost option compared to many others.
The biggest factor, I’m convinced is the home. That includes parents. Asians have come here for generations, often very poor, but their kids get the PhD’s from Berkeley. Same bad teachers and methods.
The approach is the same as 100 years ago. Some of the tools are a bit better. But it’s still mostly kids sitting at desks while a teacher speaks at the front.
For measuring, you could say that the football coach is limited by the talent of the kids he gets – like teachers. And for teachers, there is a boatload of ways to effectively measure them – but doing so is forbidden at every district I have been involved in.
Lectures can work but I still say they are generally the least effective approach. One of the best that they do at Fairview occasionally in history classes is 2 of the teachers will debate an issue and the kids love it because of the conflict – and retain the arguments that resonated for them.
We need accountability of district administrations: my solution of that is to compensate school board members enough that people who are very committed to education can afford to be on a school board (this is from personal experience).
We need transparency: this is common throughout education – teachers feel underpaid and that usually generated turfiness. So, we end up with an acronym driven system that is mystifying to non-professionals. I don’t know exactly how to get rid of that mist, but a commitment to presenting materials in a clear, coherent way would help. Example: every school has to have a School Improvement Plan that is issued in October of the school year. This is state law. Yet, when it isn’t issued until the end of December there are no repercussions. I spent several years on our local District Accountability Committee. One of the issues was simply getting them is issue the Plan with it’s name as required by the state. The district had been calling them School Accountability Reports for years. Thing is, the state issues a separate SAR every year. It seems like a minor thing, but it led to confusion and apathy on everyone’s part. Mostly because no one seemed to understand what the School Improvement Plan was supposed to do (I kid you not). So, having a system that will increase flexibility and listening ability of the district admins would be great ( don’t know if there is such a model), but I think it will take every local community concentrating on this every year as a goal unto itself.
We need less bureaucracy. Our district doesn’t allow kids to use Facebook or Myspace at school. The thing that engages more kids more of the time than anything else is outlawed as a learning tool! That is stupid. It’s not teachers, it’s not parents, it’s not admin that are at fault. It is the fear society that should be rejected. Every problem cannot be solved with a rule or guideline. We need to have more faith in educators. And the suggestions that we fire x% of teachers every year won’t help. More TABOR thinking. Yes, kids will have a bad teacher or two. But you know what? that bad teacher can engage a kid or two into really finding a new excitement in learning. For me, it wasn’t a bunch of great teachers, although most were very good, it was peer support and maybe one teacher and a Sunday school teacher who got me to actually start thinking. Formulas won’t work [Although I do like the idea of allowing students to rate teachers, like some colleges do, and allowing students to shun taking a teacher – kind of an ebay for teachers.]
And, finally, school and learning should be fun. Instead, we seek to prepare them for a lifetime working at a job they don’t like. Teach critical thinking and have fun doing it. It’s how I would want to be treated.
yes, yes, yes.
I was going to rant about a recent example I had with DS bureaucracy, but I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
Your other points in the thread are good. I don’t agree with all, but we’re saying similar things.
One thing I disagree with you on is making learning fun. Yes, learning can be fun but it shouldn’t have to be fun.
The teachers I learned the most from were not fun.
The classes I remember the most from were not fun.
School is not meant to be fun it is meant to be educational. If we are able to marry the two than more power to us, if not, teach the kids and spare the Facebook, Twitter, cell phones and anything else that gets in the way of learning.
It depends on how you define fun. There is a superb history teacher at Fairview and I don’t think my daughters ever defined him as fun. But they were constantly talking about what was discussed in his class, would argue with him on items, and would constantly complain about how hard his class was. Yet they were totally drawn in to history by him. I’d say that meets the definition of fun.
It does depend on how you define fun. What you described is what I would like to see in every classroom – in an ideal world.
It is also interesting that history teachers often fall into this category, at least from my experience. I had a history teacher who threw chalk at students who were disruptive and made gum chewers put the gum on the bridge of their nose for the class. Not very fun, but a good teacher.
Teachers that encourage discussion, offer alternative views, while imparting knowledge are good teachers, but they are rarely ‘fun’.
I don’t like the idea that education needs to be fun. Education is the building block for the rest of our lives and that is the message that must be left on our children.
Fun is for outside of school, it is the reward for working hard and learning. I do not agree that the focus of our educational system should be to make children better people with strong self worth and healthy self esteem. That is a parent’s job, not a teacher’s.
School competes with friends, constant communication, advertising directed at kids, and a million forms of entertainment.
They are also in a social whirlwind that is tearing them every which way. In somce cases the parents are checked out. And even if the parents are involved, they are not at school which is the center of a kid’s life today.
And kids do not have the maturity and long range view to do their school work because 30 years later it will pay off. That won’t get anyone through school.
School doesn’t have to be more fun than all their alternatives. But the more enjoyable we make it, and challenging kids in a way that gets them going (history class) counts, the more effort kids will put in to it.
The two fundamentals outside of the child themself is the parents pushing them and the school pulling them.
Schools shouldn’t compete with multimedia devices. They shouldn’t be allowed in the schools. Argue all you want about how cell phones and Ipods have a place in the classroom, I’ll disagree.
We lived through the social whirlwind of adolescence in school. It is horrible and kids are torn every which way. Schools can help by limiting the barrage within school walls.
Also, kids aren’t looking 30 years down the line, most aren’t looking past ten minutes. But many realize the importance of the piece of paper they need to earn.
“The teachers I learned the most from were not fun.
The classes I remember the most from were not fun.
School is not meant to be fun it is meant to be educational. ”
And all their jobs later on will be fun?
I think not. It’s in school when you learn that life isn’t all fun like playing in preschool ages.
Since we’re all highly intelligent, motivated individuals here, describe what worked for you in your educatinal history.
Was it a teacher that motivated you?
Was it an alternative to the traditional model that allowed you to succeed?
Was it a school that fit personality that helped you stay focused?
For me it was the availability of extracurricular activities that helped me stay motivated and in school. I wasn’t the best student in K-12 but I knew that I had to pull my weight if I wanted to continue doing what I wanted to outside of school.
Hence, IMO, after school programs are essential in helping kids succeed, especially when there isn’t the parental support at home.
Some of us are lucky to be born into families that make us think it’s natural to want to go to college, run a business, teach, practice medicine or the law or whatever.
We’re kinda born and bred to work and compete as well as to have fun and enjoy life.
Others, many others, aren’t so lucky. And it’s just hard for the lucky few to relate to the unlucky many. It’s hard for really bright people to understand what it’s like to be not so smart or even to be dumb.
And, I think, the inability to relate makes it hard for the smart, lucky ones to help the unlucky, the dumb, the unmotivated and demoralized, envious folks in this world.
One of the great things about public schools is that they expose the lucky few to their less fortunate age-peers.
If you’re a product of a public school, you probably know how to live with and manage employees who take longer to learn, if they learn at all, and to understand that not everyone is as smart as you are.
You also learn that there are lot of people a lot smarter than you are, but that doesn’t make them better or always more effective.
The question this leads me to is, how can we develop reasonable learning expectations and experiences for those who can’t or don’t want to learn as much as we do?
And how do we motivate teachers and parents to work with the underachievers rather than just give up on them, as many educators reportedly do?
Educators and politicians are so afraid of parents that they can’t and won’t face the facts of life and deal with them.
They can’t and won’t admit that there are smart and dumb zip codes and school districts.
They can’t and won’t come out and say that dumb parents move to dumb zips and produced dumb kids and that those kids need different kinds of educations than kids who are born to smart parents in smart school districts.
Where have dumb parents (mentally ill, substance abusers, low IQs, unmotivated) been taught to teach their equally dumb and unmotivated kids to value education and learn?
What school districts have special schools for the non learners? How many have schools that try to teach the slow ones how to cope in a competitive, woman eat woman world where you have to know how to work the system to survive even if you can’t read or write very well?
Some districts have trade schools for high-school age kids. Most have “magnet” schools, etc. for the bright and talented, most of whom would do just fine without the special attention.
Just some thoughts and questions.
are great.
I can’t express it so well. Thanks for adding that thought. It is so difficult to juggle one’s personal school experience with what is really happening and separating one’s personal goals from those for an entire district. And talk about politically incorrect, you’re there.
I would rather hear from people who weren’t considered as having the gifts you describe. Many of them have turned out successful despite school. How did that happen?
That said, I deeply support after school programs. They can really motivate kids, especially in the upper grades. I would add that I would like to see no-cut policies for athletics. (That would not mean everyone makes varsity.)
And it’s an especially important experience for the bright kids who have to learn what it’s like to fail.
Why on earth do you think that’s appropriate?
Is being cut from the 7th grade basketball or flag football team a better lesson than being on the team, learning about…uh…teamwork? Really, it’s a question…
Don’t have youth sports, and I don’t know of any that cut here in CO, even when I was a kid.
I was referring to high school.
We’re talking high school here, middle school is pretty much everyone. This won’t work.
First off, what do you do if you have enogh girls for 1½ soccer teams? Have one gigantic team and no one plays much. Or if you have enough for 5 teams – where do they practice as the school does not have that many fields.
Second, high school sports are competitive. It’s rough enough emotionally and physically for the kids that are really good. For any that don’t pass the bar, it would be a brutal experience.
Keep in mind that sports is the one place in schools where it works the same as the real world – you have to be very good and work as hard as you can just to be in the race.
He has always had a high opinion of his abilities, since he’s played forever in rec leagues. However, when he started high school and compared himself to the other students, he realized he wasn’t that good. He practiced pretty hard and talked about the areas where he wasn’t as accomplished as other kids, and frankly I thought the fear of being cut was a great thing for him. He had to take a more realistic look at his skills and his willingness to take the time to improve them, and he had to be more honest in assessing his skills compared to his peers.
He made it onto the freshman team; I don’t think anybody got cut. He’s a better player now than he was before and he enjoyed the season, but not the amount of time all the practicing took. His first quarter in public high school, after 8 years in Catholic school, was a difficult adjustment but being a member of a team helped him a lot because it gave him a built-in group of friends.
I’m glad he had the comfort of being a team member, but I’m also glad he had the fear of being cut.
The difference in required skill level must have been a shock for him – but he stepped up and got it done. Great life lesson.
A nationally ranked (national champs in 97) high school swim team. We were no cut, and nearly everyone lettered every year. We also didnt have a pool when I was there. How we did it, was the kids who were on the bottom to middle rungs swam against the teams that were not that good, and the kids who were on the middle rungs to state qualifying caliber swam against the good teams. Against teams that were like us, we would have two heats, one for “JV” one for varsity. It really wasnt that hard to accomodate everybody and we won state year after year after year.
I should have know that nothing would generate more comments than an assault on high school athletics.
I went to college where we had a no-cut policy. It has the highest percentage of students involved in varsity and intramural sports in the country. It doesn’t win much of anything but that’s not why people do it….
Also, academics were the overwhelming necessity and interest so it’s more fun just to be involved in something different.
Was that you can have no cut sports at a premeire level. I also think it is ridiculous to equate high school sports with the “real world.” When I swam it was about supporting your teammates, getting great physical exercise, time management (practice there and back took up to 24+ hrs per week) and good sportmanship.
I like a lot of your points as far as education is concerned, but wanted to chime in on the sports. Extracuricular activities are essential to high school, in my opinion.
Yes I had a couple of teachers I really liked. And most were ok. But they taught us everything so slowly, and so much of the homework was a waste of time.
In 5th grade my parents started to get me in some gifted stuff in L.A. where I would take college level classes with other kids around my age. That stuff was great.
Then we moved to Hawaii and we were back to standard schools which had no idea how to teach gifted kids.
And boy do teachers get pissed when you disagree with them and when they challenge you, you prove them wrong. Or the math teacher that gave me a 0 on my homework because I would do it in pen. It was required in pencil so we could correct mistakes. The fact that I never had a mistake all year was irrelevant.
So I did as little as possible and counted the days until I got out of there.
And at C.U. I was totally unprepared for how to approach school because I had never had to work before – and at C.U. I needed to study and review and …
So for me K-12 was a failure.
I was selected along with about fifty others for an “English” class (two, actually) which was really humanities. Art, literature, drama, etc. Something the school had put togehter over the summer with two of the most stimulating teachers. Today it would have been an AP class. Loved it, and being in artsy Sarasota helped.
Of course, blonde willowy pretty Marcia Valberg who liked me sitting near me didn’t hurt……
(We’re all privileged in my book compared to the average public school student out there.)
Me personally? I grew up in the mountains, before TV reception was any good. Lived outdoors and in my imagination; don’t comprehend boredom and never have. Kids who complain that something is boring are passive learners, but that take is more the norm in high-tech culture where kids are constantly plugged in. I also think that over-catering to kids leads to expectations that education needs to entertain at some externally-stimulating level akin to video games. The best learners teach themselves and use teachers as guides and resources.
My mom was a doctor and my father a forester. She was a voracious reader and we had miles of books and magazines throughout the house.
My family was very screwed up, so school was my survival sport, and I was good at it.
In all of my schooling and graduate school, I would say that most of my teachers have been average, and under five have been excellent (that’s 20 years of education). I don’t think I had any really bad teachers, just a couple of not-too-bright ones.
That said, I am not wildly successful on the external level (though I’d rate my emotional satisfaction pretty high).
My brother, very intelligent, but learning-disabled (probably dyslexic) floundered, believed he was dumb, and killed himself at age 23. That’s not the schools’ issue, but they didn’t help. Nowadays, he’d receive accurate diagnosis and services. Education has actually improved on that score!
YES, we desperately need alternatives to the college track!
My son goes to a great DPS school – Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning. RMSEL is a school with engaged students (and parents), an alternative curriculum, and highly motivated teachers.
My daughter has been looking at high schools through-out the city. We have looked at: East, South, Littleton, Lakewood, Denver School of the Arts (DSA), and Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST). With the exception of South High, we have been very impressed with each high school option.
I know that David is not impressed with Boulder schools – and, there are many DPS schools that need improvement – but, in my opinion, Denver has many examples of high achieving schools.
by the standards of education in the U.S. But 30% of the children here don’t graduate high school. What’s horrible is in this country that’s considered good.
If the district admits to a 30% drop-out rate, the real rate is probably higher. They have several ways of ‘losing’ a student so the drop-out won’t show up on their graduation rate. It’s very alarming, but I would prefer to see the state tackle a way to keep track of students and give us a real number. Right now though, with NCLB, there are only disincentives for being honest. And a true reporting will probably hurt CSAPs or something, too.
DSA is a competitive school with admission based on a variety of factors to judge talent; including committee approval. Has she been accepted? If not, why are you sure that she would be? Serious questions.
DSST has a quota system, based on income brackets, and then isn’t choice by lot??? I am not currently up on their admission policy. Does your daughter have a guaranteed spot? If so, how?
Doesn’t EAST have more applicants than space? Again are you sure of her acceptance??
Yes, DSA has a highly competitive admission policy – my daughter currently goes to an arts school now – but, she did not want to apply to DSA.
For DSST, families who live in Stapleton, can bypass the lottery admission process. DSST admits approximately 45% “reduced and free lunch” students and 55% lottery based applicants.
East does not have more applicants than space.
South also has available space – although, about 1/3 of their school is “English as a second language” students. It is truly a “world school” – but, did not seem like a good fit for my daughter.
My mother helped found Pinview maybe thirty years ago. Today it is rated, year after year, as one of the best in the country. People move to Sarasota for the hope that their kid will be selected via the lottery. Minimum IQ 130.
So much for public education not changing or meeting needs.
For my youngest daughter (IQ way up there) for middle school we sent her to Rocky Mountain School which is a private school but has that same minimum IQ requirement.
It was wonderful. They have a single middle school class so she was with 6 – 8 graders and the first year she was the only 6th grader. The vast majority of their work is projects, like for English they read Hamlet, and then perform the play.
My daughter so blossomed under that. And there was no way a standard middle school would every provide that. For anyone with a kid at that level of IQ, speaking as one who did not get that advantage – send your kid.
She’s now at Fairview and it does pretty good with the IB level classes. Some teachers are better than others but the best are superb and they really draw the kids in.
For example:
by 2015
16.2 % of high-school seniors will take the AP Physics exam
and achieve an average grade of 3.2
I really don’t don’t give damn what the numbers are.
Just put a stake in the ground.
You do understand that when that goal is missed, we FIRE everyone involved. Miss your quota and get shit-canned. Not a difficult concept.
100% graduation rate by the age of 20 by 2015.
or
a high school portfolio before graduation
or
passing the US citizenship test – 100% by 2010
or, if you like numbers,
we could go for a certain level of competence in assessments before graduation.
And, yes, let’s fire everyone, especially the parents. It’s always their fault anyway. (snark)
I’m curious about the reaction to this idea:
http://www.dailycamera.com/new…
Chris King, the Boulder schools superintendent proposed firing all the teachers in Columbine elementary school. After intense protest from parents, he abandoned the plan.
I’m not so curious about what you think about the idea (I’m sure it sounds great), but rather why you think the parents protested, and how it should have been done.
You guys love talking about what you would do if you were dictator. What if you actually had to come up with a solution and worry about what teachers, parents, and students thought about it? What if you had actual responsibility?
What would you do in the real world?
And it’s not all the parents objecting, it’s the fact that any small group if they are loud enough in Boulder can stop anything.
Also, he has not said he won’t do it, he has merely said he is open to alternatives.
A small group of parents? Seemed like hundreds to me.
Don’t you think hundreds of parents in a single school district could stop a plan in the real world too?
Knowing that even if you were made Grand High Education Overlord, you’d still have to worry about annoying Boulderites getting in your way, what would you actually do?
If I was Lord High Poobah of BVSD I think (this is my first thought – and if I was Poobah I would think and talk to others first) I would…
Call the school staff together and tell them they had 1 month to give me a credible plan to effect significant improvement.
If they could not create a credible plan, then they’re all fired at the end of May. Each can reapply but they’re out.
If they have a credible plan, they get 2 years. If they pull it off – great. If they don’t, they’re fired.
I would also tell the parents that I would not listen to their bitching unless their kid has all Bs or better – or they have unplugged the TV in their house.
After Grand Moff Thielen rules that the plan is not credible, it seems you’d be right where King was. Has a plan like what you’re proposing ever actually worked? (I know it worked in “Lean on me,” but that doesn’t count.)
I think it would work, and it would have enough support to pass. I also think there would be a credible plan, but only because of the threat.
he or she did not fit into your Lord High Poobah ordered plan, and he/she did not have all Bs (maybe because “the plan” was defective and he/she did not operate well under a dictatorship?), you would not listen to me as a parent?
Perhaps you can teach me some of the great things accomplished by dictatorships, but my experience is that students, teachers and parents prefer working together. Tyranny (over teachers, students and/or parents) is not likely to achieve good results. And tyranny is not the role model I want set for our youth.
Accountability, yes. But what you have written here goes beyond accountability to bullying.
I said if your kid did not get all Bs and you did not unplug the TV. The concept is that you do your part at home.
If you just want to bitch, have the school do 100% of the work, and at home let your kids do whatever – then I don’t see your input as being that valuable.
No bitching if TV plugged in, OK to bitch if unplugged? Totally simple-minded, and that is why I ignored that part of the sentence. I assume that is your metaphor for parent involvement and parents taking responsibility, and I agree that is essential. But part of educating the kids is educating the parents, and you do not successfully educate with tyranny–with kids, or parents, or other adults like teachers–unless you are trying to teach the art of bullying.
Maybe I am reading too much into your term “bitching.” If by that you mean just blaming the school/teacher/administrator without trying to make improvements and seek solutions, yes, I would call that pointless bitching. But that would be true even if the kid had all Bs, so why would you listen to it then? Your “no bitching unless Bs” (even with the unplugged TV phrase) is nonsensical.
But a lot of what might be called bitching is an attempt to communicate. Some of it–perhaps a lot–is done in an ineffective way. But as a Lord Poobah, you need to learn from it. One–well, a good educator, anyway–can get through the unproductive bitching with parents and get to some understanding. One can learn what makes the kid tick, what makes the parents tick, what the kid’s situation is, what challenges and obstacles the kid faces. It just seems that your tone sets up barriers to communication–no talking except on your narrow terms–that will never lead to understanding.
Kids (and parents and teachers) are not widgets to be manufactured, and educating them is not like writing software or managing IT systems. An educator doesn’t control the raw materials, doesn’t control all the inputs, and doesn’t control all the programming. More knowledge of the outside inputs and programming can help.
I am a life-long educator. I am not advocating beating up educators with bitching. But an educator who will not listen to bitching parents and try to guide the conversation into productive dialogue that will be productive for the student had better get out of the field rather than lay down edicts.
And I would say there is a whole lot of bitching going on in this thread! Some productive, some just venting. Maybe each bitcher here should just be ignored until he or she produces a report card proving acceptable punditry standards (Bs or better, of course) or unplugs his or her modem…er, well…
What I was really trying to say was that if the parents are not stepping up to do their part, then I don’t see how they can lay all the blame on the school.
with that statement.
First, I want to give David credit: bringing the teachers together to create a plan is a great idea to start with. My experience is that they don’t have to be threatened with firing to get a good result, though.
As grand poobah, I would create a review process for the rest of this school year. All teachers would get a review by the principal and academic poobah for the district. Parents would be allowed to comment. There would be no quotas or maximums. Any complaint or shortfall would be reviewed. Comment would be solicited from staff as well. Then, if appropriate, a teacher (or staff) would receive a warning. Depending on the facts, these two would work with any teachers (or other staff) receiving a warning to improve. If the principal can document instances of failure to work with admin, staff, or other teachers, that teacher can be put on probation. If the warning is complaint-based, a teacher would continue to be monitored through the next school year or two. If teachers or the union wanted to stonewall this, then they would have to possibly face a more draconian system. The bottom line for teachers: it must be a clear process and they know where they stand at any time. For parents: any concerns or praise are taken seriously and responded to.
School plan: work on a plan would be primarily done by a small group: Principal, district administrator for academics, three to five teachers, three to five parents and, two or three community members (note that the majority lies with no single group). One of the community members might well be a trained facilitator to lead the group. They have a short timeline to produce an outline (four weeks). Before producing the plan, have a meeting with all teachers, another meeting or two with parents. After producing the plan go back to those groups (and others if needed). Create subgroups from those meetings to iron out specifics.
Meanwhile, the school is getting a new building. Also, include adequate books and teacher’s aides. I don’t the particulars about this school but I am sure there are some differences from other parts of Boulder. Work on those issues and make sure the plan does too. I would suggest a social-emotional learning curriculum as well, but that would take months, probably a year, to start since it needs support from parents and teachers.
The fact is that you can’t make students test well. As I have pointed out in other comments, mobility is a big issue. Get a three-year (or more if you can) waiver from having CSAP scores count for students who haven’t been at the school for a full year. Also for students who fall below the 95% attendance rate. I would try to get scores waived for as much as I could. It won’t help much but every bit counts.
I think I would have to add more to it, but this is a big task.
As for why the parents protested? Simple. It’s like the US Representatives. Every Rep has a significant majority (or at least most) of approval but Congress as a whole has a dismal approval rating. It’s the same issue. Parents and students like the teacher (for the most part, especially in elementary) but if the school fails as a whole we all figure it must be someone else’s kids. (Not me of course. I know that my younger one is brilliant but hates testing. Doesn’t give a fig about tests. Makes his teachers crazy.)
There. So if this isn’t seen as brilliant planning you’re all wrong, Nazis, and whatever else. If you agree, it’s because you have wonderful insight into society, culture, and politics.