(06-29-2011 10:05 AM)miko33 Wrote: Even if you take the union worker mentality that a number of teachers have, the system is still broken. The trendy thing in education is to throw the majority of the resources at the preschool and primary grades. Younger grades can sponge up more knowledge easier than the upper grades, right? Except people continue to ignore the fact that these students still have to continue on the path that they started with this huge "head start" from the funding in the lower grades.
It's an economic thing. Continuing to increase the amount of resources towards a specific area results in diminishing returns. However, if some of that money would actually go towards the upper grades, the benefit would be much easier to see because it has been neglected by the gov't. I know there are great arguments to get gov't out of the schools completely, but based on the system today the gov't is failing miserably.
It's a curriculum thing too. Especially when you look at the upper grades, we are seeing teaching plans that are a mile wide but an inch deep. If they would cut the number of topics taught in math and science courses and go into depth on fewer topics, we would develop students with better critical thinking skills and can truly learn that much more quickly because their brains are truly developed through serious use. "Plug and chug" is a piss poor way to teach, but it's still the popular way to teach science today on the highschool level.
My .02, I mostly agree with you..
1) Its not money, not even close. Charters perform either at, or above Public Schools 99.9% of the time and they almost always get less money. Less money might help, the public schools should look to the charters
- Divest themselves of large expensive school building and instead Rent smaller spaces. Most inner cities have plenty of retail rental that can be converted to classrooms for 50-200 kids. This would more than pay for itself in reduced busing alone! and a smaller school would make it easier for teachers to work together and help specific at risk students
- End social promotion. If a kid can't read at the third grade level *don't* send him to the fourth Grade. This will save money in the later grades when kids can keep up without special attention.
- Solicit parents 'volunteers' pay them minimum wage if needed. If you tell a parent that you need help with dismissal time you'll often get a funny look. If you tell them they will get 7$ an hour to watch the cross walk they will find time and it frees up the higher paid teacher to collaborate after school. The #1 advantage (but not the only one) is that Parents help the teachers unload some of the busy work so they can teach.
2) Curriculum: k-4 should be only about reading and math fundamentals.
-A second grader does not really need to know the water cycle or when the Babylonian empire was at its peak.
-Many non core ideas can be taught as part of the core work. Don't have a history class on ancient civilizations find an age appropriate book about it and give the kid reading homework with an essay about that book.
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Fraud throughout the education system
