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Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

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  • Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

    This is a followup to the Grading the Public Schools thread from last year.

    Last time, the discussion was based on Honolulu Magazine's survey of students', teachers', and parents' attitudes and opinions about their schools. At the time, I grumbled that this wasn't necessarily an accurate indicator of actual performance.

    Well, this time we're talking about standardized testing, and guess what: 66% of Isle schools miss No Child goals. Now, this data provides solid answers. But... are we asking the right questions?

  • #2
    Re: Grading the Public Schools, part 2

    The Advertiser editorialized:
    Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, the federal statute that drives this high-stakes testing and measuring, a series of fairly fixed sanctions and actions follow when a school misses its goals.

    The ultimate sanction is takeover by the state or by another entity. As we have already seen, this "takeover" process can involve bringing in private companies as consultants.

    Nothing wrong with that on the surface. But it can, and some fear will, lead to privatization of public schools and/or a voucher system that will allow parents to escape public schools altogether.

    Imagine the social consequences of that: Our public schools will be left to educate the least successful and often least-motivated among our young while the rest will have fled.
    <snark>The best and brightest fleeing the public schools for the privates? Gee, hasn't that already happened?</snark>

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    • #3
      Re: Grading the Public Schools, part 2

      We should be studying Asian and European school curriculums along with the way they teach. It's my understanding that they're doing better jobs at educating their youth. Just saying the schools have to do better without creating a better system is insanity. It ain't gonna work.
      Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

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      • #4
        Re: Grading the Public Schools, part 2

        So now that we know 66% of the schools don't make the grade, why is there no public outcry to replace those administrators who aren't doing thier jobs? My answer is that in my 22 years with the DOE, I rarely have heard of an administrator being disciplined for poor performance. Too many "slaps on the wrists" have made the DOE weak. If the State gets "tough" and starts holding the people in charge accountable for school performance we'll all see a change.
        Listen to KEITH AND THE GIRLsigpic

        Stupid people come in all flavors-buzz1941
        Flickr

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        • #5
          Re: Grading the Public Schools, part 2

          Originally posted by alohabear
          So now that we know 66% of the schools don't make the grade, why is there no public outcry to replace those administrators who aren't doing thier jobs? My answer is that in my 22 years with the DOE, I rarely have heard of an administrator being disciplined for poor performance. Too many "slaps on the wrists" have made the DOE weak. If the State gets "tough" and starts holding the people in charge accountable for school performance we'll all see a change.
          Ha. They're having a hard enough time recruiting new principals, and you want to get rid of the old ones?

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          • #6
            Re: Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

            I am a product of Hawai'i public education. I came to a private college on the Mainland, was able to successfully compete with my peers and ultimately graduated from a large state university (total time in undergraduate school: 4 years). If my parents had allowed me to go to Mid-Pac (my Dad's alma mater) as I so desperately wanted to, my life would probably have been different up to now, but I can't say that it would have been any better than it is today.

            It's going to take a combination of the school system, the parents and the kids to make a difference in the public school system. Parents and kids can't be complacent about the quality of education they get out of the system, and parents can't be passive about insisting that their kids study hard. Instead of spending the state surplus on rebates or other things, why not pour any surpluses into beefing up the public education system? Surely no one can object to spending money on the future of Hawai'i...its keiki.

            Miulang
            "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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            • #7
              Re: Grading the Public Schools, part 2

              Originally posted by Glen Miyashiro
              Ha. They're having a hard enough time recruiting new principals, and you want to get rid of the old ones?
              Da Micromanagers Gotta Go!
              Listen to KEITH AND THE GIRLsigpic

              Stupid people come in all flavors-buzz1941
              Flickr

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              • #8
                Re: Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

                David Shapiro of the Advertiser makes a good point: even though the scores don't meet the NCLB high bar, they're still better than they were last year, and that's something. Sometimes it takes an unreasonable push to achieve reasonable results.

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                • #9
                  Re: Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

                  Originally posted by Glen Miyashiro
                  David Shapiro of the Advertiser makes a good point: even though the scores don't meet the NCLB high bar, they're still better than they were last year, and that's something. Sometimes it takes an unreasonable push to achieve reasonable results.
                  Yeah, it's the old is the glass half empty/half full conundrum. Like Shapiro, I'd prefer to celebrate the positive improvements and then work like hell to make sure next year's scores improve even more. In QI, it's the incremental improvements that are more important than the dramatic ones.

                  Miulang
                  "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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                  • #10
                    Re: Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

                    It looks like California's schools are caught in the exact same predicament that ours are: they're improving, but not fast enough to keep up with the rising bar of the NCLB standards.

                    Many Calif. Public Schools Meet State Goals But Fail Federal Test

                    State education officials said they were pleased that 81% of the schools had met their state improvement targets, up from 64% last year. But the officials were not happy about the results under the federal system: nearly 2,300 schools that met their state targets still fell short of the No Child Left Behind goal. More than 5,100 California schools met their federal goals. That's because the federal bar rose for the first time this year, leaving many campuses unable to reach it. To pass the federal bar this year, elementary schools and middle schools had to raise at least 24% of their students to the proficient level in English-language arts, up from nearly 14% last year.

                    (Los Angeles Times)

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                    • #11
                      Re: Grading the Public Schools - Chapter 2

                      I think all the states should follow the lead of Utah and Connecticut in suing the US Department of Education for imposing such strict criteria as the NCLB Act and then making the States bear the burden of funding that Federal program. Utah didn't even bother suing the feds, their legislature just said that educational criteria were a state rights issue so the state criteria supercedes the federal criteria.

                      I know Gov. Lingle has said that she will wait to see the outcome of the CT suit, but I think if every state sued the Feds at the same time, that the Feds would either have to relax some of the criteria or cough up the money to beef up the programs, which they can't do because of that stinking oil war.

                      Miulang
                      "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

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