Comments on: Seattle Schools and Reform: One Parent’s Perspective http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/ Curious Georges in a conversation with Seattle Wed, 18 Feb 2015 07:17:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2 By: Buzzsaw http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/#comment-2026 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:43:00 +0000 /2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective#comment-2026 Public education has been hijacked by the professional education eggheads years ago. For over 40 years colleges have been tinkering with and selling the latest snake oil cures to school districts. Teacher colleges have taught every crackpot theory and indoctrinated the new teachers with the latest fads. Do we really need our teachers to have a Masters degree to teach when it is really an in depth review and it costs them over $15-25K so they can get a beginning salary of $26K? Between teacher unions who are a power unto itself, school administrations that make more than the teachers doing the actual work, and the political nature of current education standards we have been given the short end of the stick for a long time. WA state is pays more per capita per student ($8k-$10K per student) than just about every state. I have seen schools that no longer teach basic algebra because it is too hard for the kids, no textbooks for the kids to take home to do homework because there is not enough to go around for each class, and boatloads of politically correct garbage fed to students instead of teaching them the basics. Granted uninterested parents are the bane of of any school, and uninterested and unmotivated kids are worse. I had to laugh that WA state had to implement a program to keep kids from dropping out and beg them to reconsider their life choice. Some schools have a 33% dropout rate. The plethora of alternative schools to coddle the misfits so that can feel good about themselves defies reality. Special ed classes have become the new dumping ground for problem students, so no one learns there either. Don’t even get me started on the textbooks, how any student can make sense out of them is a miracle. For too long teachers have no means to discipline students except to send him to a dean or principal, who will just suspend or shuffle the kid off to someone else. Suffice to say we will have a generation of people who will feel good about themselves, be ecological and socially conscious but won’t be able to write a complete sentence or do basic math equations. I can see sending your kids to K-3rd grade but after that you better have a charter or parochial school nearby to get them properly educated.

]]> By: Charlie Mas http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/#comment-2025 Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:13:00 +0000 /2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective#comment-2025 There’s a lot of good sense here. I’m all for focusing on the fundamental elements that need to be present for a school to work well: good principal, good teachers, parents who give a damn, a strong PTA, and solid communication on all levels. That sounds right to me. So does the idea of smaller class sizes, mentoring teachers, weeding out burnt out teachers and getting schools the right way around on leadership. All of that sounds like what the District should be doing instead of whatever else its doing.

I was pretty surprised, however, to read about myself described as “openly protests against any idea, good or bad”. I didn’t think I was like that. I’ll have to ponder the truth of that statement.

]]> By: Dan_Dempsey http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/#comment-2024 Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:34:00 +0000 /2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective#comment-2024 Consider signing the petitions for the recall of each of “5” school directors, which begins in September.

For full information read the State Auditor’s report. Volunteer signature gatherers are welcome.

http://seattle2010recall.blogspot.com/

]]> By: Dan_Dempsey http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/#comment-2023 Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:56:00 +0000 /2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective#comment-2023 Well said, in regard to Medicine, the Hutch, and Education.

Medicine was a mess in 1900 and before. Then came a revolution: evidence based decision making founded in well controlled research.

The kind of statistically based research that happens in medicine does not exist in Colleges of Education. The public seems accepting of the politically based “mumbo jumbo” that delivers a different leech for the neck every so often.

“To improve a system requires the intelligent application of relevant data.” — W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

To improve Seattle’s School System is going to require a great many more folks that care enough to demand effective changes based on proven practices and to be willing to take the time and provide the effort to be part of those solutions.

There just are no magic bullets. Stop letting the Central Administration buy them.

]]> By: Suze http://thesunbreak.com/2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective/#comment-2022 Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:23:00 +0000 /2010/08/06/seattle-schools-and-reform-one-parents-perspective#comment-2022 This is the smartest, clearest thinking I’ve read on education in a long time. Well said.

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