Another school system goes nuts

[stuckincincy]

I can't wait until these kids enter the workforce...

 

 

..."Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.

 

The new rules will be distributed when teachers return to their campuses next week. But many who have already seen the regulations say they are too lenient on slackers, and will come at the expense of kids who work hard.

 

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out."...

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...s.48e6cc22.html

[ExiledInIllinois]

Repsonse to the Baby-Boomers:

 

You reap what you sow.

 

Oh... And don't worry... Be happy Cincy!

 

[John Adams]

Do everything you can do to get your children out of public schools.

[ExiledInIllinois]

Do everything you can do to get your children out of public schools.

 

Exactly... We send our children to a private school. People alwys ask me why. I say, we can afford to and it leaves more money for the other children... That's the reason Illinois gives one a 500 buck refund for sending your child to a private school.

 

Ya... Right...

 

[PastaJoe]

And here I thought it was legal to put mentally challenged people to death in Texas.

[KD in CA]

"The purpose behind it is to ensure fair and credible evaluation of learning – from grade to grade and school to school," said Denise Collier, the district's chief academic officer.

 

Herein lies the crux of the problem. The movement toward requiring that everything and anything be measured and evaluated. Why? Because these bureaucrats are more interested in justifying their existence than in actually educating children. If there can't be a black and white evaluation of results, they don't care if a program is educationally valuable or not.

 

 

I have seen the disastrous results of this mentality first hand. Any Florida residents here? Any of you know about the Florida Learning Network?

[Ramius]

Herein lies the crux of the problem. The movement toward requiring that everything and anything be measured and evaluated. Why? Because these bureaucrats are more interested in justifying their existence than in actually educating children. If there can't be a black and white evaluation of results, they don't care if a program is educationally valuable or not.

 

 

I have seen the disastrous results of this mentality first hand. Any Florida residents here? Any of you know about the Florida Learning Network?

 

Dead on KD. Aside form the entire "my kid is so special and little johnny will be hurt if he gets a D" mentality, whats worse is the so-called "education system" in place now. Everything is geared towards a test or some type of evaluation that all kids must pass. Kids now get taught how to take and pass the test instead of learning actual material. As bad as it sounds, we're getting to the point where everyone in class is going to be given the exact same grade so to not "exclude" or "offend" the other students who are stupid.

 

I cant believe public school have gone to hell so quickly. I graduated HS in '99 and we had the standard policy that for the 1st 2 days late, your final grade was dropped 1 letter (or roughly 10 points) per day, and we were told don't even bother turning it in on the 3rd day or later.

 

And no, i've lived here for 5 years, my girl has a 12 year old brother, and neither of us have ever heard of the florida learning network until now.

[Chilly]

I can't wait until these kids enter the workforce...

 

 

..."Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.

 

The new rules will be distributed when teachers return to their campuses next week. But many who have already seen the regulations say they are too lenient on slackers, and will come at the expense of kids who work hard.

 

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out."...

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...s.48e6cc22.html

 

All I can say is.... wow. Ramius - I graduated FL HS in 03, and while late work policies were up to the individual teacher, we pretty much had the same thing (with some assignments being no late work at all).

[mcjeff215]

Dead on KD. Aside form the entire "my kid is so special and little johnny will be hurt if he gets a D" mentality, whats worse is the so-called "education system" in place now. Everything is geared towards a test or some type of evaluation that all kids must pass. Kids now get taught how to take and pass the test instead of learning actual material. As bad as it sounds, we're getting to the point where everyone in class is going to be given the exact same grade so to not "exclude" or "offend" the other students who are stupid.

 

I cant believe public school have gone to hell so quickly. I graduated HS in '99 and we had the standard policy that for the 1st 2 days late, your final grade was dropped 1 letter (or roughly 10 points) per day, and we were told don't even bother turning it in on the 3rd day or later.

 

And no, i've lived here for 5 years, my girl has a 12 year old brother, and neither of us have ever heard of the florida learning network until now.

 

I've often wondered if public schools in *general* are really that bad? Could it be the edge-cases and sheer stupidity of a few districts we hear about? My daughter is in public school here and I've been pretty impressed thus far, especially after hearing horror stories. I'll admit, though, that it does seem a lot of the material is geared towards the LCD.

 

This coming from me... my current state of residence is famous for its "Evolution is just a theory!" stickers on the science text books. She's actually in the district that pulled this...

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/80929576/

[LongLiveRalph]

Do everything you can do to get your children out of public schools.

 

This is just another example of people laying blame elsewhere. There are MORE than enough solid public schools and public school teachers. "Public schools are horrible" are just another excuse for parents and children to blame the "system" rather than looking inward. Certainly some students want to achieve, and feel they are able to achieve more in a private school setting...But the opportunities for learning and growing as a person exist in most public schools out there. It's up to the students to engage those opportunities.

 

There is a safety issue in some public schools, and in that regard, you feel for the students and hope that they can afford a safer setting for school. However, for the most part, if a student wishes to challenge himself or herself, they will more often than not find the teachers and resources to accomodate them in the public school system.

 

A public school shouldn't be an excuse for a student's poor performance. Without a doubt, private schools CAN offer a better education, but it all comes down to the student in the end. Floating thru private school is the same as floating thru public school.

[KD in CA]

And no, i've lived here for 5 years, my girl has a 12 year old brother, and neither of us have ever heard of the florida learning network until now.

 

Well there's a reason you haven't heard of it.....it no longer exists (here's the program website). After dropping $2MM of your tax dollars over the past year, it was shut down less than a year after it launched. Why? Because of the mentality that runs the FL DOE.

 

Two years ago the FL legislature appropriated money for FL kids to get live, on-demand tutoring via the web. Currently kids in several communities have this service through their public library, so it was identified as a potentially great benefit statewide. However, despite the fact that at least one and probably several existing on-line tutoring companies had the ability to start tutoring FL kids the next day, the FL DOE decided that they couldn't offer an on-line tutoring program unless they had a way to "measure the students' progress", complete with pre- and post- testing, evaluations, etc. So, instead of contracting with an on-line tutoring company, the FL DOE contracted with......a software company, and paid them to build FL their very own on-line tutoring system! Yes, they actually decided to spend almost the entire amount of the first year's budget building a piece of software (that they wouldn't know how to maintain) rather than providing children with immediate access to tutors by a vendor that had already figured out how to build and run an on-line tutoring company.

 

And -- prepare to be shocked -- with no one at the DOE or at the software company knowing anything about how on-line tutoring works, what was built was an unreliable system that never came close to meeting the specs that were so deemed so critical in the original RFP, and was in fact so bad that they decided to shut the entire program down.

 

 

If only we dedicated more money to education in this country.

[John Adams]

This is just another example of people laying blame elsewhere. There are MORE than enough solid public schools and public school teachers. "Public schools are horrible" are just another excuse for parents and children to blame the "system" rather than looking inward. Certainly some students want to achieve, and feel they are able to achieve more in a private school setting...But the opportunities for learning and growing as a person exist in most public schools out there. It's up to the students to engage those opportunities.

 

...

 

A public school shouldn't be an excuse for a student's poor performance. Without a doubt, private schools CAN offer a better education, but it all comes down to the student in the end. Floating thru private school is the same as floating thru public school.

 

I don't blame myself for public schools. There are lots of problems in society that I don't have time to fix. Public schooling is one of them. I place my vote on election day--based at least in part on someone's view of public schooling. That's my contribution. I also pay my taxes. That's another contribution. And I I choose to send my child to a school of my choosing; one that I think is best suited to provide a good education. By giving a nice big FU to public schools, that's my third contribution.

 

Why'd I choose private? I searched out a school with a good science program. I found a school not afraid to teach religion. I liked the school because it's academically-focused, with a student population where being smart is actually kinda cool, and say what you want about teachers and parents, it's been shown that peer influence trumps both as children age.

 

I could send my child to the local public school system. It's a pretty good one. But it's in the teach-to-the-test vein. The teachers I've met don't advance based on merit, but instead on seniority. There are lots of disinterested teachers, parents, and as a result students. The top students go to good colleges but not great ones. The teaching "method" changes with politics. One year it's teach to test A, another it's teach to test B. There is no bold thinking going on in public schools. Few have the balls to seriously teach about racial, political, or religious issues. Science can be !@#$ed by the whim of a school board to teach something as insane as ID. Count me out.

 

By the way, you can blame me if it makes you feel better.

[Nervous Guy]

I can't wait until these kids enter the workforce...

 

 

..."Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.

 

The new rules will be distributed when teachers return to their campuses next week. But many who have already seen the regulations say they are too lenient on slackers, and will come at the expense of kids who work hard.

 

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out."...

 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...s.48e6cc22.html

 

now I understand why my son wants to suddenly move to Dallas...

[John from Riverside]

I have conflicting emotions about this......

 

- I have a daughter that this program was probably designed for......while she is talented in many areas school really isn't one of them. My wife and I are resigned to the fact she will probably not get a scholarship to go to college (she is however a accomplished and talented singer and that will probably go somewhere) but she needs to at least get her high school education.

 

- She gets discouraged easily...there is just no doubt about that.

 

- I am doing everything I can to help....she has to do so many hours of after school tutoring.......I make every effort to stay on top of her day to day work and in touch with her teachers.

 

- Her teachers however just cannot seem to give ME enough support. I want to know what is going on and the scores she gets in a timely manner so I can address it.....find the problems and make sure she gets help in the tutoring program on them...they are so damn unresponsive and LATE with the information no matter what I do.

 

As a parent sometimes I feel just as helpless as my daughter does. Meanwhile the teachers are frustrated because they feel their classrooms are overcrowded and cant give any/enough personal attention.

[LongLiveRalph]

I don't blame myself for public schools. There are lots of problems in society that I don't have time to fix. Public schooling is one of them. I place my vote on election day--based at least in part on someone's view of public schooling. That's my contribution. I also pay my taxes. That's another contribution. And I I choose to send my child to a school of my choosing; one that I think is best suited to provide a good education. By giving a nice big FU to public schools, that's my third contribution.

 

Why'd I choose private? I searched out a school with a good science program. I found a school not afraid to teach religion. I liked the school because it's academically-focused, with a student population where being smart is actually kinda cool, and say what you want about teachers and parents, it's been shown that peer influence trumps both as children age.

 

I could send my child to the local public school system. It's a pretty good one. But it's in the teach-to-the-test vein. The teachers I've met don't advance based on merit, but instead on seniority. There are lots of disinterested teachers, parents, and as a result students. The top students go to good colleges but not great ones. The teaching "method" changes with politics. One year it's teach to test A, another it's teach to test B. There is no bold thinking going on in public schools. Few have the balls to seriously teach about racial, political, or religious issues. Science can be !@#$ed by the whim of a school board to teach something as insane as ID. Count me out.

 

By the way, you can blame me if it makes you feel better.

 

All good reasons to choose private schooling. I'm wasn't trying to provide commentary on public vs. private...I think, in general, it is undebateable that a motivated student can get more out of a private education and engage in opportunities that wouldn't be available in public school.

 

My general stance is more geared toward those who do not have the resources to send a child to a private school...It shouldn't be an excuse for their child to not explore all that their public education has to offer. Just saying "The school system sucks" and allowing your child to buy into that mentality is a failure from the start. Again, the public school system has plenty of faults, and bold thinking can be rare. All the more reason to push the students to think for themselves (which I realize can be tough when the goal of many schools is to teach enough so that students get a 70% on a mulitple-choice state exam.)

 

Bottom line: A kid can "F off" their education just as easily in a private school as they can in a public school.

[KD in CA]

- Her teachers however just cannot seem to give ME enough support. I want to know what is going on and the scores she gets in a timely manner so I can address it.....find the problems and make sure she gets help in the tutoring program on them...they are so damn unresponsive and LATE with the information no matter what I do.

 

Why wouldn't your daughter have her own scores to share with you?

 

You might not want to hear this, but most teachers consider preparing their lesson plan, teaching their classes and grading the students' work to be a full time job. They really don't want to have to answer phone calls whenever 25 different parents find it convenient to call and ask how their kid did on today's quiz.

[John Adams]

I have conflicting emotions about this......

 

...

 

As a parent sometimes I feel just as helpless as my daughter does. Meanwhile the teachers are frustrated because they feel their classrooms are overcrowded and cant give any/enough personal attention.

 

I get that. The best schooling, if you have the brainpower and means to do it well, is probably home/individual-schooling. Second, with the same issue if having the means is some private school. Third is some sort of public combined with tutoring (by parents or professionals). Public school teachers, in many ways, are like prison guards. Their goal is to maintain the status quo for another day. That's why they don't want to fail students, and also why they don't feel like dealing with demanding (read: CARING) parents.

 

That, of course, is not all public school teachers. Just almost all of the ones I know teaching at the suburban public schools near me.

[John Adams]

Just saying "The school system sucks" and allowing your child to buy into that mentality is a failure from the start.

 

Bottom line: A kid can "F off" their education just as easily in a private school as they can in a public school.

 

The bolded part is entirely true. Parents who exhibit this kind of attitude in front of their kids should be shot. My daughter has had some subpar teachers but she didn't hear that from me.

 

Kids can always eff off. A school with a culture of learning (not being pretty and cool), that is supported by both parents and teachers, is good for any kid.

[erynthered]

Exactly... We send our children to a private school. People alwys ask me why. I say, we can afford to and it leaves more money for the other children... That's the reason Illinois gives one a 500 buck refund for sending your child to a private school.

 

Ya... Right...

 

 

 

Yet you continue to endorse more Goverenment intervention in every aspect of the publics life. Go Obama!!!

[John from Riverside]

Why wouldn't your daughter have her own scores to share with you?

 

You might not want to hear this, but most teachers consider preparing their lesson plan, teaching their classes and grading the students' work to be a full time job. They really don't want to have to answer phone calls whenever 25 different parents find it convenient to call and ask how their kid did on today's quiz.

 

Because they HANG ONTO THE SCORES and dont pass them out in a timely manner......

 

And as far as I am concerned....TOUGH if a teacher doesnt want to have a phone conversation with me.....if my kid is struggling in their class and and I am making an effort to fix the problem...I EXPECT them to converse with me. There are plenty of parents out there that do nothing but B word that their kids are not cutting it and just blame the teacher with no effort on their part at all....or even worse they just dont care and let their kids fail.

 

If they dont like it they can find another job....they cant just teach the kids that are easy to teach.