I am si gald you asked.
Each community needs to set its own standards. The idea that we can produce "job ready" graduates for any and all employers is silly.
We are being very successful here in Nashville with Academic Academies. In my school, students graduate with a high school diploma and a certificate of training...medical research has 5 pathways, and the kids who choose that path have are CNAs on graduation day. We have STEM academy, Design, Art and Communications, Cosementology and on and on. The idea here is that if you want to go to college, you can. But you leave us with a skill set that enable you to earn money even if you don't.
Not all kids are college material. If we insist that every child be ready to go to college and they all do, then there is no longer benefit in the degree, We need truckers, plumbers, electricians, HVAC etc. and in Nashville, we are addressing that need.
we also require 22 credits, in Language, Math, Science, Social Science and Humanities. If kids want to go to college and score a 21 on the ACT, they go tuition free. We have bridge classes for kids who arrived to our classrooms without the skills needed to succeed there.
How are we sure our kids are learning? We ask them, every minute, every class, every block, every day. We require them to write letters, essays, white papers, etc. We have state tests for Biology II, English II, and EOC courses in English I and US History.
Its really easy once you think about what the kids want to do after high school.we provide options. How about those apples?
-----Original Message-----
From: lew <
lewcoop@aol.com>
To: Open Debate Political Forum IMHO <
opendebateforum@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Sep 23, 2012 1:30 pm
Subject: Re: Terrific: America Lags Behind 31 Other Countries in Mathematics - Thanks unions.
What should we teach toward? How do we measure whatever you say? Mathematics seems the easiest suhbject of all to "teach to the test" toward. Can one come out with different putcoems to math problems? On Sep 23, 11:32 am, lynn...@aol.com wrote: > Where do you get this stuff? How can we be the worlds most successful economic stories and have the worst schools? > > Our so called slide came about with standardized tests which do not always measure what it says it does. The demand that all children in all schools test the same requires teachers to teach to the test which limits what can be taught. Kids remember what is taught through project based learning which goes deep. Teaching to the test goes wide...lots of different facts all in a string but not time to really get it. > > Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT&T > > > > lew <lewc...@aol.com> wrote: > > >Terrific: America Lags Behind 31 Other Countries in Mathematics - > >Thanks unions. > > >Daniel Doherty > > Web Editor, Townhall.com > >Sep 22, 2012 07:00 PM EST > > >I understand that we are more than $16 Trillion in debt and > >unemployment has been above eight percent for 43 straight months, but > >education reform is a moral imperative that cannot wait: > > >We have a crisis in our schools. This is not a new revelation, but it > >needs to be stated regardless, particularly at the start of another > >academic year and at a time when America is struggling to compete in > >the very fields — math, science, technology — that are defining the > >global economy. Consider that U.S. high school students graduate with > >just a 32 percent proficiency rate in math, according to a Harvard > >study — a figure that puts America behind 31 other countries, > >including Japan, Korea, Switzerland and Canada. > > >Wow. The United States spends more on education per pupil than other > >country on earth, except for Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Norway. And > >yet, according to the Harvard study cited above, “U.S. high school > >students graduate with just a 32 percent proficiency rate in math.” > >This is disgraceful. Sadly, however, it gets worse: > > >The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment > >(PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds > >in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of > >34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below- > >average 25th for mathematics. > > >So how is it possible we are spending massive sums of money on > >education yet student achievement remains stagnant? Perhaps one reason > >is because taxpayer dollars are increasingly going to fund teachers’ > >pension funds -- not educating children. Case in point: As Katie > >reported last week, the city of Chicago might be a microcosm of all > >that is wrong with the US public education system. Indeed, according > >to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, “by 2016 the state will spend more on > >pension contributions than education funding.” Every thoughtful > >citizen with an ounce of moral fiber in their bones should be outraged > >by that statement. Even worse, the average teacher salary in the Windy > >City is $76,000 – and yet, somehow, the high school graduation rate > >barely exceeds fifty percent. In short, how can America compete in a > >global economy if the greatest, most prosperous nation in the world > >can’t even educate its own citizens? > > >There is a solution to this crisis. We must increase competition. > >Period. For instance, even in Chicago -- a city controlled by the > >teachers unions -- charter schools have created real hope for > >thousands of American children. The graduation rate in these kinds of > >schools (which are non-union, by the way), is 76 percent. And these > >teachers make substantially less money than their unionized > >counterparts. Do people actually believe this is just a coincidence? > >When families are given more options -- and teachers are held to > >higher standards -- everybody benefits. We need to wake up. > > >-- > >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open Debate Political Forum IMHO" group. > >To post to this group, send email to OpenDebateForum@googlegroups.com > >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to OpenDebateForum-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com > >For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/OpenDebateForum?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open Debate Political Forum IMHO" group. To post to this group, send email to OpenDebateForum@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to OpenDebateForum-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/OpenDebateForum?hl=en
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