National Assessment of Educational Progress
- 20% of 4th graders
- 17% of 8th graders
- 12% of 12th graders are proficient or above for grade
Can you see the trend? Is this OK with you? Is this how we treat our future? I know Democrats want to keep things just the way they are, where the voting unions and bureaucrats are in control of the children's education. The Democrats are the same party enslaving those poorly educated children with our debts. The Democrats are also the party that is trying to destroy SSI and Medicare by keeping everything as it is. I'm not blaming teachers. I'm blaming the teachers unions and bureaucrats for this dumbing down. We can't argue with the numbers. The whole educational system is broke. Trying to patch it up hasn't worked.
It's time that parents abandon this system first. The only way we can change the system is too not put into it. We the Parents are in control. It is our job to make sure that our own children are getting the best in education. If you want to put your children in government public education that's your business. If you don't mind having one teacher to 25,30 or even 40 children it's all good. This is what we get when we put the government in charge of something.
I know how bad times are right now. And paying a few thousand dollars a year on your children's educations is going to be hard. Believe me I know how much that money is when you don't have much as it is. But that is exactly why you must do whatever it takes to make sure that your children never have to say they are too poor to get their children the best.
If you think things are only going to get better in education we just need to keep throwing money at it, you're kidding yourself. The power of pulling your children out of the system will be felt one child at a time. We need a whole new system and patchwork and status quo isn't cutting it. We need to get rid of the whole system so we can start over. The best way too change the system is to collapse the system. Liberals have been doing this for decades. Liberals want a dumb generation. It serves them best. We need to help our children in every way we can. If you would like to help get a child out of the government school system stop by a religious parochial or private school and ask how you can help. Or have a fund raiser at the next Tea Party meeting to create a fund for disadvantaged children.
I'd really like to hear what you have to say about this? Your comments mean a lot to the readers of this blog.
This comes as no surprise! Schools have to "teach to the tests" in order to keep getting funds, the tests are not inclusive of our countries history the way it should be taught.
ReplyDeleteAs a grandparent, I reccommend homeschooling when possible. If you don't have kids, mentor the ones around you, offering a tutoring program. Encourage parents to stay on the ball when it comes to what their kids are learning and to suppliment it as needed. WE have to work together on this serious issue!
School Age Children in alot of cases have the worse of BOTH worlds. Teachers that Dont Teach and Parents that DONT Parent!
ReplyDeleteWe have carried the Fuzzy Good Feeling(PC) now to Our Children and it AINT working and NEVER will. Failure is a fact of life and eliminating it from Our Young in School sets them up when they Graduate and get Fired with their boss saying to them "You are as DUMB as a ROCK"! If thats the First time they FAIL because of Inadequate Education they could be lost FOREVER in Society and set up for a life of Government Dependency which in some cases seems to be the Liberal mantra.
Politicans seem to think SPENDING more will produce more in Educating OUR Young but other Nations passing US by on the inside must be laughing their asses off at US!
If it's the parents fault then why are pre-school children way above the rest of the world in test scores? The long the government has control the lower the scores become. Anything is better then public schools.
ReplyDeleteAs Crosby, Stills & Nash once sung, "Teach your Children Well"
ReplyDeleteIf you can't afford private schooling, make sure you are on top of what your kids are being taught in the public school system.
I did, and they turned out great, smart and motivated to keep learning.
But I had to re-teach them on a number of things because what they were being taught wasn't correct.
Yes home schooling is also a great option.
ReplyDeleteHaving a child in special education and very active in his education I've found it hard to know what the kids are doing in school. That is why my wife and I ask for homework. When your kids get home work you can see what they are learning. If the child doesn't bring home their books and paper work from school it's hard to know what is being taught.
I have found that there are some great schools out there. And there are a lot of great teachers. But the odds are stacked against them. The worse part is our education is getting worse not better. I have seen schools that were once great schools fallen far behind over the last few years or so.
When I add up all the time it takes to check the public education paying for it is much cheeper and I know I'm getting the best.
Parents are also failing their kids. We need to ask that our kids get homework. We need to spend that time with our kids. Homework time is a great family time. It creates a dialogue. Something more families need help with. It gives us oportunity to modivate them to work hard.
My youngest son has special learning needs. It takes him a lot longer to learn. He has more going for him then most children I know. He works at 100% his ability. That is per the special education department. He has a love of learning that we foster with the help of his teachers. He enjoys homework and his teacher loves his progress due to the work we do at home. I also make it clear that I have conservative values. And most of his teachers share those same values. I let them know that my son is a Christian and that is how we are raising him. Both my boys deserve the best education I can get them. Putting my oldest son in the public school system would only hold him back. He is testing at 4 grades or more above public schools. He also is surounded by people that are treying to be good Christians and raising their children that way. I will home school my youngest in religion.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. That’s at least according to union leader Chris Shelton.
ReplyDeleteAt a rally in Trenton, NJ today, Shelton blasted Christie, using Hitler and Nazis on multiple occasions. National Review reports:
“Welcome to Nazi Germany!” Chris Shelton, vice president of Communication Workers of America District 1, told the crowd. “We have Adolf Christie and his two generals [Democratic state legislative leaders] trying to make New Jersey Nazi Germany. Are we going to let them?”
The crowd groaned its disapproval.
“In Nazi Germany, the first thing they did — the first thing that the Nazis and Adolph Hitler did — was go after the unions,” Shelton warned. “And that’s what Christie and his two generals are trying to do in New Jersey.”
Shelton later concluded: “It’s going to take World War III to get rid of Adolph Christie.”
Politickernj.com reports at least one politician present immediately decried Shelton’s comments:
However, Sen. Ray Lesniak took umbrage, walking up to the podium in his shirtsleeves, telling the protesters to tone it down.
“We cannot be associated with that comment,” he said.
The unions are getting ready for WWIII. Are you ready?
This graduation season, The Blaze has covered a number of stories about the limitations that have been placed on students’ commencement garments and public prayer rights. Now add a ban on explaining how God changed your life to the list.
ReplyDeleteKyle Gearwar, the valedictorian of Fair Haven Union High School in Fair Haven, Vermont, says that he was told by school officials that he couldn’t include specific information about how God has changed his life in his commencement address.
Gearwar told the crowd during his ceremony last Friday that he was only allowed to deliver half of the speech he had wanted to. The Burlington Free Press has more:
“It is a fine line here. Here’s freedom of speech and here’s separation of church and state,” Fair Haven Union High School principal Brett Blanchard said. “The line is generally the difference between proselytizing and personalizing.”
Gearwar was allowed to mention God and Jesus in the accepted portion of his speech, Blanchard noted, but he said public schools have to be careful about allowing someone to preach their religion at a school-sanctioned event.
Gearwar claims that he isn’t interested in setting off a firestorm or engaging in the infamous church versus state debate. The former student said he had simply hoped his words would help others. According to the Free Press, he told the audience:
“I have always dreamed of speaking about God in front of my school as the valedictorian,” he said in his speech. “This was the message God gave to me, and I am not allowed to share it with you even though it is my testimony, the most important change my life has ever experienced, and the one thing that I stand for no matter what.”
Since the incident, the entire text of the speech has been published by The Rutland Herald. Among the likely controversial words is the following:
I wouldn’t be standing before you without the blessings God has given me through my tough situations. He is the reason I am the man I am today, made new through Jesus death on the cross.
To recap other recent Blaze stories about graduation crackdowns: two students were told they couldn’t wear Army saches, a Marine was told she couldn’t wear her uniform during her ceremony, Texas students were almost forbidden from praying by their school district and the ACLU forced a district in New Jersey to cover religious symbols during commencement.
America’s education system is in crisis. Test scores show us that students across America are performing at levels far below their peers overseas. In addition to test scores that aren’t up to par, graduation rates are shamefully low. There is no doubt that America’s students deserve better.
ReplyDeleteIn a rapidly changing world, our students are not being taught the basic knowledge and skills they need to succeed. It’s time to get to the root of the problem.
America’s teachers unions — particularly the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — are the most organized and powerful voices in education politics. These unions continue to block reforms needed to improve our nation’s schools by putting their focus on teachers rather than on the students they teach.
Our education system is in desperate need of reform and it’s time we stop letting teachers unions stand in the way.
Teachers unions are obviously getting nervous about education reform. In an effort to get in front of the movement and lead it instead of standing athwart history, yelling “stop” (and getting trampled for the effort), both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) have released plans that they claim are good-faith efforts at “reform.”
ReplyDelete“As more states and districts seek to improve teacher evaluation, the risk is that reform is done to teachers rather than with them,” said the head of the NEA in a statement accompanying the organization’s “Proposed Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability.” In a similar document released earlier this year, Randi Weingarten, the head of the AFT, released recommendations for “a procedure for teacher discipline that could be utilized as a framework for processing fairly and expeditiously allegations of teacher wrongdoing.”
Though both the AFT and the NEA proposals touch on issues of tenure, they are dealing with two entirely different subjects. The AFT is proposing a system that will, after a 100-day process replete with multiple hearings and meetings, allow for the termination of teachers guilty of “wrongdoing such as criminal offenses in the classroom, abusive practices toward students, and discrimination.” It quite explicitly ignores “allegations of teacher effectiveness.” The NEA proposal, on the other hand, is (supposedly) designed to improve the process of getting incompetent teachers out of the classroom.
These proposals come in reaction to nightmarish stories of dismissals that take years and cost school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are they superior to the status quo?
Short answer? No, not at all. Longer answer? See below.
Let’s look at the new NEA proposal first. What has been offered by the NEA Board is little more than a reiteration of the status quo. They want to maintain tenure (referred to as “career status” here), which would be achieved after completing “probationary status” and either meeting or exceeding expectations for the final two years of probationary status. Evaluations, meanwhile, will only consist partly of demonstrations of “a teacher’s impact on student learning and growth,” and even then, it might be determined on wishy-washy grounds instead of concrete measures (like standardized testing or value-added evaluations).
What happens if a teacher doesn’t pass muster and a principal wants him fired? Well, “ratings by more than one evaluator must be provided in support of an action.” If a teacher doesn’t like the outcome? “The teacher must have the right to contest the evaluation, and have access to the information necessary to do so. … The teacher may be counseled to leave the profession or subject to fair, transparent and efficient dismissal process that provides due process.” In other words, the same black hole of bureaucratic nonsense that we have now is what the NEA considers a brave “reform.”
What about the AFT proposal? In a way, this document is even more absurd. The long and the short of it is this: It seems that a teacher could not show up for weeks, give no excuse, and still wait out a 100 day hearing process, collecting pay all the while, and still might not be let go.
Imagine how that would play out in the real world:
Boss: “You didn’t come into work for the last two weeks. Is everything okay?”
You: “Yeah, just didn’t feel like it.”
Boss: “OK. You’re fired.”
How does this play out in the education world?
ReplyDeletePrincipal: “You didn’t come into work for the last two weeks. Is everything okay?”
Teacher: “Yeah, just didn’t feel like it.”
Principal: “OK. You’re fired.”
Teacher: “Not so fast, buddy! First off, one of my fellow teachers or a student or a parent needs to file a formal complaint with you. Then, you have to file that complaint with the superintendent. Then, the superintendent has to notify me and my AFT rep via certified mail within three days of receiving the complaint. You have to meticulously detail all the absences. I might ask for a supplementation of additional facts. Then we’ll undergo a preliminary screening process, and follow that up with a formal hearing. (You better hope you can win that formal hearing, because if you don’t, you’ll have to pay my union for the representation they provided.) After that, we’ll select a “Hearing Examiner” (approved by my union, naturally, who you, naturally, will have to compensate), before we finally have a hearing. After the Hearing Examiner hands down their decision and punishment – which can range from nothing to a suspension to a dismissal – I can then file an appeal with the courts as applicable by state law. Did you know that “the vast majority of states provide an appeals process”? Neat, huh!
And this is the improved process, according to the AFT. Leaving aside the problems with using arbitrators (as this New Yorker article demonstrates, they have a vested interest in keeping the unions happy), it’s hard to see how a reasonable person could consider this a real improvement.
In the world of the teachers unions, however, these proposals are seen as legitimate progress. That’s how topsy turvy the system has become. You want a reform proposal? Here’s a simple one for you:
Give administrators the power to fire teachers who deserve to be fired, whether or not it’s for not showing up for work/committing a felony/sexual abuse/drug use/discrimination, or for failing their students in the classroom.
There’s a one-sentence reform package that is infinitely more effective than 15 combined pages from the NEA and the AFT. I offer it to our nation’s school systems gratis.
I'm blaming the union and the teachers for these results. Damn them.
ReplyDeleteUS history Grade 4 results
1994 36 percent below basic
2001 34 %
2006 30%
2010 27%
US history Grade 8 results
1994 39% below basic
2001 38% below basic
2006 35% below basic
2010 31% below basic
How dare the unionized teachers cut 9 and 8 percentage points off the children who are below basic levels in history? Damn them to hell for bringing up the stragglers.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI think you have a great idea. Pull all the smart kids with good involved parents out of the public system (keep Taxing them) and then it will only be even more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You hatred for those not like you shows in your actions. And you lack of compassion and decency also shows. Your a sad human being.
Do you know that despite the growth of charter and private schools the public education system is getting better. Among all ages and races.
Did you know the Free lunch students in 8th grade US history went from 35% to 50% at or above basic in 9 years?
That black children increased 13 percent since 2001 to 48 percent in 8th grade history.
That 4th graders increased to 54% at or above basic in history.
Joe,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the Graduation rate in Minority School Systems?
50% of anything when defending a broken School System is not a defense,its a Disgrace! Just my uneducated Opinion!
Joe you don't care one bit about the kids and that is why you keep backing the unions. If the kids did better in their scores we would even be talking about this. If you want to put your kids in sub-standard government schools to suport the unions go right ahead. The results from public school tests tell me all I need to know.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Joe cares more about the unions then his own kid. Or maybe you just don't think your kid is worth paying a little more for a better education. My children are worth it.
As you have pointed out with your "smart kids" go to parpochial school only proves my point that public schools hold back smart kids. No child left behind has held all the kids back to the lowest common denominator. But the fact is this is not a self fulfilling proficy but rather a symptom of the real problem.
This year we will see classes in public school in Michigan go up to 40 students, mark my words. This will not help make the case for public schools. As if our schools couldn't get any worse.
While the teachers unions have placed blame on everyone but themselves the buck is now stopping with them. We have done what the unions asked for decades now and it has failed miserably. I will not put my child or do I want anyones child to be educated at such a low level.
Why do you liberals care so little about the children? Don't you care about the state of our education in America? It sure doesn't sound like it.
As AL put it perfectly and so have the rest of the great commenters.
Have you seen the Math and Science scores?
Chris,
ReplyDeleteDon't talk about my kids. They are none of your concern. Be a man and keep our children out of the discussion. You should spend more time trying to emulate Christ and less trying to emulate Beck.
You always come out on the nonsensical end of any deep discussion. By removing the smarter kids through charter and public schools that doesn't show anything about kids being held back, that's only a wild guess on your part. What it does show is that the public school system is working better even as it loses talent and active parents.
Sometimes the system works despite the attempts to destroy it on ideological grounds and you hate that. You hate that public schools are putting out smarter kids despite all the attempts to weaken the system and make unions and teachers the villians. So you and the republicans cut budgets for schools, chase good hard working teachers out and when it fails for good you'll play the "I told you so" game knowing all the while you actually destroyed it.
As much as you talk about all these fantasy liberal theories, you know the right has its games and evil intentions. Just understand that we liberals understand what your after. Create a crisis to step in and take over.
Joe When was the last time Conservative ran any large city school system? Detroit Flint Pontiac or even Benton Harbor.
ReplyDeleteTheir are several reasons for Public School failures and Joe they are and have failed their STUDENTS. Teachers Unions Superentendants and most Importantly Parents have all failed the Students.
We can and Have Spent TRILLIONS on Education but the Subjects that matter Reading Writing and Arithmetic STUDENTs do very Poorly on.
Until System is changed toward STUDENT and Family Values come back into Vouge no amount of cash will teach SMART.
No Reviewing TEST for weeks before Progress Test are given helps STUDENTS in any way. All that does is make Schools look better than they actually are. Inner city schools Graduation rate from 9th grade to Gradfuation I believe was some where around 35%. That alone shows Money Spent is NOT Money spent wisely. Getting FAMILY back into the Equation I will leave to you smart guys but in the end thats the most important Issue of all!
Al, we can agree on one thing. YOU ARE UNEDUCATED!
ReplyDeleteBruce Ifin your example of Education I win that one too!
ReplyDeleteBruce Your response to the Poor Quality of Education for Our Children says what everybody already knows about EWE! Loosen up that paper machet head EWE got it on to tight again!
Joe we haven't weakened anything. The unions and burocrats have done that. The public schools have done a poor job and you know it. Just look at any statistic on our educational system. Why would you lie about public schools doing better when they clearly don't.
ReplyDeleteJoe you never ever back up what you say. You throw a million bombs and then run. Since we have had unions and the Dept Of Education our educational system has gone to hell. And the sick think is you want to keep it that way and screw the kids all for your precious unions and Democratic Party. You, the unions and the Democratic Party want to keep the system broken. That is bring the kids into it Joe.Maybe you need to bring the kids into it and stop being so self centered. Maybe you should stop being so Satan like, unless that's your savior? LOL
Joe when you want the same education that we are giving the children know it's bring the kids into it. Your actions are just being noted and remarked on. I can't help that your actions speak poorly of you.