Hi CF. Early in my career I had an admin job w/ the local small urban school district. The NYS Regents Final Exams had been recently abandened in lieu of "locals" for any that chose. For 7 years I attended all the admin meetings and BoD meetings. I worked to change from an Insurance provider for employee health insurance to a self funded plan w/ a "stop loss" from Lloyds of London - which produced improved employee approval ratings at significant savings. We had sports for girls and boys, phys ed, art, music, drama,vocational training and after school programs. I negociated for the Board against the teachers' union. I resigned although I had a good clear career path, out of disgust. The BoE had been influenced by the educators (state and local) that a child's self esteem was more important than learning. Social promotion became the norm. Discipline rarely applied. My kids had three blocks to walk to school but they were bussed. There was no accountability for anybody-admin, princlals, teachers, parents or students. Although it was a good job w/ loads of time off I quit, yanked my kids and we moved to a suburban district w/ much better student performance. I did the right thing as the student performance of the district I left continued to fall year after year.
It had nothing to do w/ teacher pay. Teacher retention was high. Teacher recuitmant was easy. During my tenure teachers negociated and got one free hour per day for preparation or grading homework etc.
They also got teacher aides and "resource officers" [cops]. Admin expanded every year as enrollment declined. Head start was added as was the school breakfast program ("a hungry student can't learn"). Today there is practically no elementary phys ed, art, music. The high schools have merged sports teams - one team for each sport- for 2 high schools. Busing, free breakfast and free lunch has become universal - added has been a supper bag meal, weekend meals and summer meals. Pupil performance and attendence continues to fall below accepted standards.
What happened? What can we do? Change happened. For the vast majority both parents had to work (fortunately my wife chose not to). The US dept of Ed was established. Integration required busing and the "nanny" state emerged. A generality here: We're raising kids that are no longer dependent on their parents, they're dependant on the state - BUT worse, they don't feel that dependancy, they feel it's their entitlement. They are not the least bit embarassed about free meals, free cell phones (that's right-free cell phones), food stamps, medicare, section 8 housing, heat assistance, earned income tax credits, etc. Why learn? The Gov't has to take care of me.
Restore discipline -end social promotion, require performance, make kids pay for every meal-even if it's a dime. Make guidence couselors accountable to require each child follows the highest education path attainable for them. Head Start is child care, fix it or end it. Reward each stakeholder for good performance. Require CQI, continuous quality improvement.
By comparison, when I was a student, there was no busing except farmers' kids - everybody else walked, no "free lunch"-in fact no lunch until middle school-, only one standard - NYS regent finals (don't pass, take the course over), no social promotions - get "held back." Parents were required to attend parent/teacher conferences. OH and nobody ever heard of a Social Worker. When did that start? & school psychiatrists? Schools can't be expected to be parents, they can't do it all. Back to basics and require proficiency. Oh and I thik of myself as a orogressive.
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