I must, again, be missing something here.
In a New Castle County high school things are well, unsettled. So unsettled that parents are looking for alternatives. Meeting after meeting with district brass have produced no results.
Furthermore, the parents have been told basically, “get over it’. The parents want discipline and in particular want 4 unruly students put out.
The district admits privately – how I found out – that the kids need to be tossed but fear of a lawsuit prevents such action.
Each kid brings in about 9 large a year.
So they’ll keep 4 kids for 36,000 and risk losing 9 kids who will not be returning next year for a loss of 81,000 a year. Do the math.
Now the district won’t market the school for the 9 but will for the 4.
The 9 are appplying to charter schools.
Oh, a school board member rants and rails against charter schools.
Why, because according to him, “they take our kids”.
Really? I feel that with all of this Race To The Top federal money DE is clamoring for perhaps a marketing course for administration should be required.
The district admits privately – how I found out – that the kids need to be tossed but fear of a lawsuit prevents such action.
Good. The system is working.
Now they need to spend some time figuring out how to constructively deal with those kids. Didn’t they learn anything in those endless in-service days?
In service is the biggest fraud known to man.
See the Kipp Commitment to excellent contract
http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/charter-schools-apples-and-oranges/
Parent
“We understand that our child must follow the KIPP rules so as to protect the safety, interests, and rights of all individuals in the classroom. We, not the school, are responsible for the behavior and actions of our child.”
“Failure to adhere to these commitments can cause my child to lose various KIPP privileges and can lead to my child returning to his/her home school.”
Student
“I will always behave so as to protect the safety, interests, and rights of all individuals in the classroom. This also means that I will always listen to all my KIPP teammates and give everyone my respect. ”
“Failure to adhere to these commitments can cause me to lose various KIPP privileges and can lead to returning to my home school.”
So why not allow traditional public schools the same rights? students that charter schools fail to address behavior issues are sent back to their home school.
But forget about the charter school debate. The real failure in addressing student discipline issues beyond obvious criminal activity is the fault of the state legislators and a broken family court and social services system. There is not enough support services for families in crisis which often results in dysfunctional behavior in our schools.
“I feel that with all of this Race To The Top federal money DE is clamoring for perhaps a marketing course for administration should be required.”
According to Arne Duncan the problems are with teachers who weren’t given proper training by schools of education such as the University of Delaware.
The undesirable control the unions have is a result of failed leadership in Dover. The undesirable management of education in Delaware is a result of failed leadership in Dover. The failures in the juvenile justice system in Delaware are due to the failure of leadership in Dover. Failure starts in Dover and trickles down to failures in our public schools.
Nothing will change until pressure is put on Dover.
Hmm…………….
Education courses are among the weakest going.
Planning a lesson takes 10 minutes to teach.
After that you get the history of education. That takes 20 minutes.
Then you get a course on test norming and test preparation. That takes 30 minutes.
if student teaching/observation was done in the 2nd semester of the first year it would weed out those who aren’t made to be teachers.
homegrownboy
“if student teaching/observation was done in the 2nd semester of the first year it would weed out those who aren’t made to be teachers.”
Amen to that! This way they may have time to transition into another major. Duncan has vaild points but it goes beyond teaching in training not being taught how to use data. They need courses in behavior management and crisis intervention.
Teaching is part art. Like a musician or athlete it comes naturally.
Yet good ones leave because, not because of the kids, but because of the MORONIC rules/policies/procedures that make them be form filler outers all day versus being an educator.
At a CSD high school, a history teacher got a poor evaluation from his administrator because he was teaching before the timeline. He was suppose to start at Reconstruction and soon realized his kids knew nothing about the war of 1812, etc. So he went back, got old books with lots of WORDS, hid the new book with lots of PICTURES and taught. A few weeks later he was reprimanded in writing. When he said that the kids knew almost nothing about what came before Reconstruction the response was, “you teach what you’re suppose to”.
He is now in industry.
Oh, the teachers who can fill out the forms get into administration.
In the BSD the kids get a “sponge activity” to occupy them so attendance is submitted during class time. Why in the **** would you waste 10 minutes of class time being a clerk? A sponge activity is where the kids talk about their pain the *** parents or how they need to get a job, etc. For the little guys it’s a coloring sheet. When class starts on time and you run it on time you have the time in the last 2 or 3 minutes to for a cooling down period and then you take attendance.
Charters give some kids hope for having an educator versus a government clerk pretending to be a teacher.