On the plus side, most PS parents are NOT buying school "reform"/

[Smarmie Doofus]

At least in NYC.

55% Thompson vs 43 % Bloomberg ( remember this is after a 102 million $$$ media campaign to persuade them otherwise.)

Bloomberg's one of Duncan's and Obama's educational role models and arguably the nation's school-'privatizer in chief'.

OTOH...ps families made up only 25% of total voters. Which underscores what I've been saying about the privatization movement ( sorry, I won't call it 'reform' anymore... not even in quotes ....since it is NOT 'reform', but it's *opposite*.).

And that is: it ( privatization and related concepts) sounds like a real great idea to people who DO NOT USE PUBLIC EDUCATION.




http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/04/nyregion/1104-ny-exit-poll.html

This breakdown is fascinating on a number of other levels as well. Among other things it should serve to wake up those dreamers among us who think we are moving toward a post-racial, post-religion society. Unh-unh.

And what's with GLBT's breaking 51-48 for the Republican candidate? If marriage equality is what we're after, we're going about it the hard way.

[AuBricker]

1. Duncan

I worked as a Chicago Public School teacher when Duncan ran the show here. He did a terrible job. Elementary were forced to spend much of the day teaching children on test-taking skills rather than science or history. Students even had to practice using pencils in filling in circles during rare class time. This is a nation-wide problem, created by the importance place on standardized testing. Some schools spend more money each year on practice test materials. Other schools use standardized test schools as the sole measure of rather or not a child advances to the next grade. The test has become the end, not the means to an end. If used properly. standardized tests can give a good indication as the level of learning possessed by a class of students as a whole, just basing the level of learning the students should be taught. Unfortunately, it is not used in this manner. Instead, it has become a yardstick with which to beat schools in poor neighborhoods, schools which receive little funding to teach poverty-stricken children who come from difficult backgrounds.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I am an urban teacher and you nailed it

We now spend more weeks testing than we do teaching. We have lost over half of our kids to charters, our budget is in horrible shape, 200 teachers were laid off last summer, many classified employees had hours reduced so the district does not have to provide them health insurance. But the district is spending an exhorbitant amount on a reading program that has been marginally successful. We will have to close as many as 30 schools at the end of this year.

The district has never once made AYP and doesn't have a prayer of doing so. No, most of the charters are also not making AYP.

Our kids deserve better. They deserve a vibrant, well funded public school system with an emphasis on learning instead of testing.

We also need to focus on what we do well in urban systems. My district won an award for its program serving homeless kids but there was no mention of this in local media. They are more concerned about test scores. There are a handful of schools in my district that do well and make AYP every year but no one talks about them either. The failing schools are more interesting I guess.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[msongs]

3. hmm Obama's wars or public education? never mind, that decision's been made already nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Duncan is "know-nothingism" personified. Re testing:

>>>>This is a nation-wide problem, created by the importance place on standardized testing. Some schools spend more money each year on practice test materials. Other schools use standardized test schools as the sole measure of rather or not a child advances to the next grade. The test has become the end, not the means to an end.>>>>



Agreed. I do NOT object to... and in fact FAVOR.... standardized tests. ( *Good* ones.)

I object to standardized test PREP. Test prep on school time defeats the *purpose* of testing....which is to measure the actual level of ability and degree of knowledge attained by a given student while allowing for comparisons of objective results OVER TIME to be able to measure *progress*, or lack thereof.

The frenzied push for egregious standardized testing and test PREP is purely political in nature. It is fundamentally dishonest. It yields false results (e.g Test-prepped kids will test artificially high.) It impedes... and does not facilitate... actual learning.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. We just spent 2 weeks on a predictor test

It predicts how the kids will do on the state test.

So if we already know how they are going to score, why give the state test at all? :rofl:

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Sort of like collecting data on how much teaching time each....

... educator is spending on collecting data. I'm actually supposed to be doing this, according to my union. And I *will* when I have time to catch my breath.

Who's teaching your kids while all this data is being collected and all this testing is being planned, organized,prepped, implemented, analyzed??

Well, parents, figure it out.

[LWolf]

6. At this point, I'll take any plus I can get. nt