Learning starts at home and IS a social/economic issue. Children who come from poor homes usually do worse than children from upper middle-class homes. You only need to look at Virginia cities' test scores vs many of the state's rich counties in Northern Virginia. Compare Fredericksburg to Spotsylvania and Stafford. Yes, you hate test scores, but they do measure how localities are doing relative to their neighbors.
Until we learn how to make parents better parents who love learning and pass that on to their children, nothing will change. We will continue to blame teachers, who are not only expected to teach our kids, but to raise them as well. Maybe it's time we focused more on parents and what they don't bring to the table.
You are a pragmatist, as am I. The bottom line is that of course we should strive to help our students love learning. I don't know a teacher who doesn't want that. I also understand your point about parents. However, we can't throw kids out because their parents stink. There are some terrible, absent, and abusive parents, but their children deserve a chance. More common than the terrible parents are those who simply don't have the resources, skills, or time to nurture a love of learning in their children. They're trying to put food on the table. Their children deserve a chance too. When the family can't provide the chance, it's on the schools. That's the reality.
Even when we nurture a love of learning there has to be assessment. Teachers must have the means to measure teaching and learning and, to be brutally honest, testing is the most efficient way to do that. The problem is not the assessment, unless it is excessive as it has become. The problem is how the assessment is handled. The idea for testing is that it should be to assess learning and to inform instruction based on how students are doing per the test results. Are tests infallible? Of course not. But they are useful tools when used appropriately.
Back in 2002 when No Child Left Behind came into the picture we teachers were told, "Gotcha!" We're going to test these kids and if they aren't passing the tests we're going to punish those teachers and those schools. Rather than using tests to inform instruction, the federal government systematically punished schools where students didn't perform well on tests. Those teachers were branded as failures and so were those students. At the time, over 20 years ago, the teachers in the trenches warned that this punitive and unforgiving testing was not going to end well. And it has not. The schools and kids in poor areas were failures and the schools and kids in affluent areas were doing great! I often thought there was a perfect way to test that belief. Switch teachers. Send the teachers from the affluent schools to the poor schools and vice versa. If, indeed, test scores are dependent on quality teachers alone there would be a decided change in test scores. My idea was never put into place because those in power knew, just as teachers knew, that teaching and learning is hard, messy work and punitive testing is not going to change that.
So what's the answer? Don't we wish there were a simple answer and there is not. We do need to to fund public education, instill a trust in our educators, and (this one my turn some heads) take the cell phones out of the kids' hands during the school day. And that's for starters.
Looking at the way things are going in Spotsylvania (and elsewhere across this country) I don't see it happening unless there is an immediate change in leadership and, even then, so much damage has happened in such a short time that it will be a hard uphill climb to recover.
We in Spotsylvania have leadership on our school board and in our central office that is destroying our schools as fast as we can say "Charter Schools." For Spotsylvania, there is one chance to even start the recovery and that is at the polls in this fall's election. It is that crucial. Even if the election flips the board's majority and the stars align, there's still a lot of work ahead. Changing the anti-public school, fake parental rights mentality is not going to be easy. I'm hoping for the best with this election but, to circle back, I'm a pragmatist. . Can we fix it? We can try. If we don't make a change, we're in big trouble.
I’m reminded of the profound statement that originated with Sir Winston Churchill: “To each their comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
It is vital to learn and complete the preparation to fulfill your dreams.
Learning starts at home and IS a social/economic issue. Children who come from poor homes usually do worse than children from upper middle-class homes. You only need to look at Virginia cities' test scores vs many of the state's rich counties in Northern Virginia. Compare Fredericksburg to Spotsylvania and Stafford. Yes, you hate test scores, but they do measure how localities are doing relative to their neighbors.
Until we learn how to make parents better parents who love learning and pass that on to their children, nothing will change. We will continue to blame teachers, who are not only expected to teach our kids, but to raise them as well. Maybe it's time we focused more on parents and what they don't bring to the table.
You are a pragmatist, as am I. The bottom line is that of course we should strive to help our students love learning. I don't know a teacher who doesn't want that. I also understand your point about parents. However, we can't throw kids out because their parents stink. There are some terrible, absent, and abusive parents, but their children deserve a chance. More common than the terrible parents are those who simply don't have the resources, skills, or time to nurture a love of learning in their children. They're trying to put food on the table. Their children deserve a chance too. When the family can't provide the chance, it's on the schools. That's the reality.
Even when we nurture a love of learning there has to be assessment. Teachers must have the means to measure teaching and learning and, to be brutally honest, testing is the most efficient way to do that. The problem is not the assessment, unless it is excessive as it has become. The problem is how the assessment is handled. The idea for testing is that it should be to assess learning and to inform instruction based on how students are doing per the test results. Are tests infallible? Of course not. But they are useful tools when used appropriately.
Back in 2002 when No Child Left Behind came into the picture we teachers were told, "Gotcha!" We're going to test these kids and if they aren't passing the tests we're going to punish those teachers and those schools. Rather than using tests to inform instruction, the federal government systematically punished schools where students didn't perform well on tests. Those teachers were branded as failures and so were those students. At the time, over 20 years ago, the teachers in the trenches warned that this punitive and unforgiving testing was not going to end well. And it has not. The schools and kids in poor areas were failures and the schools and kids in affluent areas were doing great! I often thought there was a perfect way to test that belief. Switch teachers. Send the teachers from the affluent schools to the poor schools and vice versa. If, indeed, test scores are dependent on quality teachers alone there would be a decided change in test scores. My idea was never put into place because those in power knew, just as teachers knew, that teaching and learning is hard, messy work and punitive testing is not going to change that.
So what's the answer? Don't we wish there were a simple answer and there is not. We do need to to fund public education, instill a trust in our educators, and (this one my turn some heads) take the cell phones out of the kids' hands during the school day. And that's for starters.
Looking at the way things are going in Spotsylvania (and elsewhere across this country) I don't see it happening unless there is an immediate change in leadership and, even then, so much damage has happened in such a short time that it will be a hard uphill climb to recover.
We in Spotsylvania have leadership on our school board and in our central office that is destroying our schools as fast as we can say "Charter Schools." For Spotsylvania, there is one chance to even start the recovery and that is at the polls in this fall's election. It is that crucial. Even if the election flips the board's majority and the stars align, there's still a lot of work ahead. Changing the anti-public school, fake parental rights mentality is not going to be easy. I'm hoping for the best with this election but, to circle back, I'm a pragmatist. . Can we fix it? We can try. If we don't make a change, we're in big trouble.
I’m reminded of the profound statement that originated with Sir Winston Churchill: “To each their comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.”
It is vital to learn and complete the preparation to fulfill your dreams.