Everyone seem to believe the K-12 education system in the US is broken or at least not doing a good enough job. What would you do if you were put in charge of a school system? Would it be possible for the US to have the best secondary education system in the world?
It really depends on where you live and personal experience. I live in a area where the K-12 public education system is well respected and reknowned as one of the best. 4 year college acceptance rates and test scores are all top tier. Ask anyone in this area and they would tell you the education system is awesome. I suppose the the numbers could be inflated because the schools are basically filled with upper-middle class asians and caucasians with parents that reinforce the importance of education which is why they are in this area.
Is the education system awesome if you keep the same system but switch to inner city kids living below poverty line? If the answer is no, then it is not the system that is awesome but the kids going to the school that is awesome. This is exactly the case here as well. We have a school district that have kids whose parents are associated with a top tier state university,one of the best in this state. I am looking to move there right now (have to pay more tax) so my kid can be in a good environment. The superintendent of the poor performing school district nearby says he can achieve the same result with his teachers if you just switch the students. If that is the case, the school systems are not really that different, the only difference is the student population.
I live in the same situation. Since the pay is pretty much all the same or close enough not to matter, the good teachers tend to gravitate to these areas because success is "easier" when the parents are involved in the system. Contrast that to a school my wife was the school nurse for in a low income area. The kids there would come to school hungry and with one shoe on because they got themselves up and walked there. Mom and dad could care less if they go or not. You can't find a parking spot anywhere near our school on parent teacher night. My wife's school is a ghost town on parent teacher night. I think the only way to fix it is to pay teachers about triple what they make now and create a competitive situation for teaching positions. The teachers would have to show success or somebody will take their spot. So in the areas where the parents are not placing emphasis on education the teachers dang sure will be. They want to keep their jobs.
I'd take all the children at 5 years old and put them in socialist education camps until they reach some age of majority. Parents can visit on the weekend if they want. Kids can visit their parents around Christmas and the 4th of July. Otherwise they sleep in the school dorms, eat the schools' food, go to class and get career training. Education quality would be more even and probably average higher. But, I'd probably get death threats anyway.
It's all about economics. You give an inner city district school the same budget that Beverley Hills district gets, it will guarantee the improvement of the less budgeted system.
it's not all about economics but cultural too.. throw all the money you want at innner city kids but if they don't give a rat's ass about education you will just be wasting your money
That's not 100% true. We have a couple school districts with very similar per student school budget, but very different results, it is all because of student population. In this case, it is the students that make the school look great.
As a teacher of about half these grades (I teach K-5), I think I can weigh in with some opinions: 1. There is no one thing that will fix education. It is fundamentally flawed in this country from almost every perspective. 2. Teachers are underpaid. Not as much as they think they are, but still underpaid. 3. Schools need more money. But they also need to be more efficient in how money is utilized. 4. More money for schools = more taxes. And while people say they value education, when it comes time to put their money where their mouth is, they constantly balk. 5. Most parents are completely uninvolved in their children's education. They don't talk with the teachers unless something is going catastrophically wrong. They frequently blame schools for their child's shortcomings in academics without looking at environmental factors at home. There is very little collaboration between communities and schools. 6. Teaching is no longer a valued career (and I'm not just talking about money). Being a teacher is considered easy by many members of society, and generally thought of as a lesser career. "Well, if I don't make it as a ____, I can always become a teacher". Our best and brightest are not becoming teachers, and it's leading to mediocre teachers teaching mediocre students. 7. Teachers have become too stagnant, too set-in-their-ways. There's too much emphasis on status quo. Veteran teachers are almost impossible to train, because they've been doing it for so long, they think their way is the only way. 8. STAAR testing (and other standardized tests) has to go. They aren't accurate measures of success. The parents, teachers, and students all hate them. The only reason they're in place is because Pearson has a STRONG political lobby. I could go on and on, but I've got a class coming in soon... :grin:
It might not be 100% true but if you look at the majority of the school districts, the well funded districts get better education. Providing examples of exceptions does not make the claim untrue. You will never hear rich neighborhoods complaining about the level of education.
Also sometimes richer neighborhoods have additional taxes, school district taxes, fees, etc that provide more funding to schools
I'd have to disagree with the teachers are underpaid part. My wife is a first year teacher, and if you calculate her pay based off the hours she actually works (no weekends, holidays, and time off during summer) she makes over $30 an hour. Seems fair to me. And school districts like Goose Creek in Baytown start first year teachers at over $50k a year. Are there some teachers that are underpaid? Likely yes. But in the Houston area, teachers are paid well. I will admit that thier pay can and does stagnate over time though.
No, standardized testing is only good for getting teachers to figure out what is on the test and teaching to "pass the test". I don't mind the idea but the effects are bad. I'm thinking they should be measured on placement and graduation rates for vocational schools, junior colleges and colleges. Prepare kids to move on to a better life. I don't know how you track it, but employment rates and income rates would be pretty telling.
Not necessarily, there are countless other factors that affect those numbers. Wouldn't be fair at all to base a teacher's performance off of those stats. But I agree that there has to be a better way than standardized testing.
Most teachers (including myself and almost every other one I know) work nights and at least part of the weekend. I'm glad your wife has as much time off as she has, but I wouldn't count on that lasting for very much longer. Ive already posted about the fallacy of summer vacations before, so I'll leave that alone. As for salaries, the district you mentioned is most definitely an outlier. The NEA list of average teacher salaries (shown here) shows a lot of numbers starting with 3 and 4. And remember: that's top-to-bottom averages. Many start lower. And yes, some finish higher. But the highest paid teacher on my campus, a 25+ year vet, still earns only around $65k. Not peanuts, by any means. But she's not rolling in dough either.
I would agree on most of your statements that the student population is core to the success of the schoool. But it's definitely a cyclical relationship.. nicer neighborhoods generally equal nicer student populations which attracts better teachers and standards and potentially pay. Or vice versa.. nicer schools, better technology, better neighborhoods, etc generally attract famalies and populations that value those things.
