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Thread: Detroit High School Protest: Students Suspended After Demanding 'An Education'

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    Default Detroit High School Protest: Students Suspended After Demanding 'An Education'

    About 50 students were suspended Thursday from the all-boys Frederick Douglass Academy in Detroit, Mich. for walking out of classes in protest, demanding "an education."

    Among their complaints: a lack of consistent teachers, the reassignment of the school principal, educators who abuse sick time and a shortage of textbooks.


    "We've been wronged and disrespected and lied to and cheated," senior Tevin Hill told the Detroit Free Press. "They didn't listen to us when we complained to the administration. They didn't listen to the parents when they complained to the administration, so I guess this is the only way to get things solved."


    One math teacher, parent Sharise Smith tells WJBK-TV, has been absent for more than 68 days.


    The students marched outside the school and chanted, "We want... education! When do we want it? Now!"


    Students and parents became increasingly alarmed when Frederick Douglass was no longer listed as an application school in the district -- current students had to apply to attend. Smith told the Free Press that her son was given an A in geometry without taking a final exam.


    "It was by default, just for showing up
    . It wasn't because he earned an A," she said.


    The Frederick Douglass boys are just some of many students in a city that proved to be the worst-performing urban school area among 21 surveyed across the country. Despite its national rank, Detroit's overall performance increased on the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress.


    U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2009 branded Detroit "ground zero" for education reform, but changed his tone to a more optimistic one last year. Still, the district is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and faces dwindling enrollment -- the first day of academic year 2011-2012 saw a 55 percent attendance rate.


    Detroit Public Schools spokesperson Steve Wasko noted that Frederick Douglass teachers who abuse sick time "will be reprimanded," and the district aims to keep the school open while adding new courses like debate and engineering.


    The 17-year-old Hill told The Detroit News that so many teachers have been simultaneously absent from school that dozens of students had been forced to gather in the gym or other common school areas. Students also went for long periods without homework, and Hill said he struggled on a recent placement exam at Bowling Green State University, where he's been accepted to attend next year.


    "I literally couldn't answer a question on there," Hill said. "Right now, I'm not going to be as successful as I should be because I haven't been properly taught."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1392436.html

    What I don't understand, why did they get suspended? Was if for bringing attention on how bad the school really is.

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    A legitimate thread? From Webbway? Holy fuck.
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    Good thing they are going to 'reprimand' those teachers who are cheating the students of a good education. These kids should be applauded for demanding better. The district should remove the suspensions.
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    Quote Originally Posted by Superfreak View Post
    Good thing they are going to 'reprimand' those teachers who are cheating the students of a good education. These kids should be applauded for demanding better. The district should remove the suspensions.
    Never gonna happen. Not with the union here.
    WATERMARK, GREATEST OF THE TRINITY, ON CHIK-FIL-A
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigmund Freud View Post
    The fields of mediocre chicken sandwiches shall be sowed with salt, so that nothing may ever grow there again.
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    www.gunsbeerfreedom.blogspot.com

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    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Rocketfingers View Post
    Never gonna happen. Not with the union here.
    Hence the sad state of our public education system. Unless of course you listen to liberals who proclaim 'they just need more money'
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    You get what you pay for.
    War Is Peace
    Freedom Is Slavery
    Ignorance Is Strength

    George Orwell

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    Quote Originally Posted by Crashk View Post
    You get what you pay for.
    Oh wow, that's the funniest statement you've ever made. Please tell me that you actually intended it as a joke.
    WATERMARK, GREATEST OF THE TRINITY, ON CHIK-FIL-A
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigmund Freud View Post
    The fields of mediocre chicken sandwiches shall be sowed with salt, so that nothing may ever grow there again.
    www.gunsbeerfreedom.blogspot.com

    www.gunsbeerfreedom.blogspot.com

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    Quote Originally Posted by Crashk View Post
    You get what you pay for.
    Except we are not. Liberals like to compare the US spending per capita on health care vs. other countries... care to do the same with education....

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ed...school-student

    We spend more than all but a few smaller countries... where do you think we stack up in terms of quality of education? We spend twice as much as countries like France, Germany, the UK, Spain etc... are our students coming out vastly superior?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...cience-reading
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    Quote Originally Posted by Superfreak View Post
    Except we are not. Liberals like to compare the US spending per capita on health care vs. other countries... care to do the same with education....

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ed...school-student

    We spend more than all but a few smaller countries... where do you think we stack up in terms of quality of education? We spend twice as much as countries like France, Germany, the UK, Spain etc... are our students coming out vastly superior?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...cience-reading
    There are a lot of problems, and you won't get a lot of arguments from me about the problems created by the teacher's union. However, to me, teacher pay is THE issue regarding American education. In most communities, they are paid like blue collar workers.

    And no offense, blue collar workers, but the job of teacher is one of the most important in the land. They should be getting paid at least double what they make now. We're simply not attracting the best people to the profession.

    Just to add - I would like to reiterate the sentiment regarding a legit thread from webbway.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Onceler View Post
    There are a lot of problems, and you won't get a lot of arguments from me about the problems created by the teacher's union. However, to me, teacher pay is THE issue regarding American education. In most communities, they are paid like blue collar workers.

    And no offense, blue collar workers, but the job of teacher is one of the most important in the land. They should be getting paid at least double what they make now. We're simply not attracting the best people to the profession.

    Just to add - I would like to reiterate the sentiment regarding a legit thread from webbway.
    To be clear... I also believe teachers are underpaid. I do not however believe we have to spend more as a country. Like the DoD, we spend far too much money on administration in the DoE. That is why we pay so much, yet it seems like the teachers and classrooms are always in want.

    I know there are teachers on this board who can better articulate the mess, but I truly believe we could eliminate half of the 'district offices' in this country and take the money saved and bump up the teachers at the lower end of the tenure.
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    Quote Originally Posted by Onceler View Post
    There are a lot of problems, and you won't get a lot of arguments from me about the problems created by the teacher's union. However, to me, teacher pay is THE issue regarding American education. In most communities, they are paid like blue collar workers.

    And no offense, blue collar workers, but the job of teacher is one of the most important in the land. They should be getting paid at least double what they make now. We're simply not attracting the best people to the profession.

    Just to add - I would like to reiterate the sentiment regarding a legit thread from webbway.
    that said, I think the reason they get paid like blue collar is because they are run like a blue collar organization. The union has made it that way. With pay relying on tenure than performance. With the union protecting the bad teachers (who seem to fade after receiving tenure) it is a disincentive to perform well. If you are going to get paid based on that, then why bother.

    note: not saying all or even a majority of teachers feel this way, but there are certainly enough of them to cause situation like we see in the Detroit example in the OP (and yes, kudos to Webb for the legit thread). In the Denver metro area, the last option, the one teachers do not want is to go to the Denver Public Schools. It is a self fulfilling prophecy, if you keep sending the worst teachers (typically ones who don't motivate students to learn) to the inner city schools, then they are going to get the worst education, not be as prepared for college/trade schools/jobs after High School, which means they are not as likely to break out of the lower income level... which means their kids end up right in the same situation.
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    Quote Originally Posted by Superfreak View Post
    Except we are not. Liberals like to compare the US spending per capita on health care vs. other countries... care to do the same with education....

    http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ed...school-student

    We spend more than all but a few smaller countries... where do you think we stack up in terms of quality of education? We spend twice as much as countries like France, Germany, the UK, Spain etc... are our students coming out vastly superior?

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datab...cience-reading

    Are you sure you are comparing public spending on non-college education in the US to other countries? I don't think that is what those numbers reflect. My guess is that that includes private spending as well, which inflates US figures. I think we're right around the OECD average.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Superfreak View Post
    that said, I think the reason they get paid like blue collar is because they are run like a blue collar organization. The union has made it that way. With pay relying on tenure than performance. With the union protecting the bad teachers (who seem to fade after receiving tenure) it is a disincentive to perform well. If you are going to get paid based on that, then why bother.
    So it's the union's fault? How novel an idea.

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    Quote Originally Posted by General Buck Turgidson View Post
    So it's the union's fault? How novel an idea.
    To a degree, yes. It is how they structure pay. Based largely on tenure. Do you think otherwise?
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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    Quote Originally Posted by General Buck Turgidson View Post
    Are you sure you are comparing public spending on non-college education in the US to other countries? I don't think that is what those numbers reflect. My guess is that that includes private spending as well, which inflates US figures. I think we're right around the OECD average.
    I am going by what the site posted, do you have evidence to the contrary?
    Quote from Cypress:
    "Scientists don't use "averages". Maybe armchair supertools on message boards ascribe some meaning to "averages" between two random data points. And maybe clueless amatuers "draw a straight line" through two random end data points to define a "trend". Experts don't.

    They use mean annual and five year means in trend analysis. Don't tell me I have to explain the difference to you. "

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