Cheating At School The Republican Way

H

Howey

Banned
I've never been in favor of home schooling, school vouchers, and above all, charter schools - those driven by Republican donors to ensure children get an education. Not the "correct" education; the "right" education.

Such is the case here in Florida, where our Governor would rather make a quick buck than care about our children. A proponent of "grading" schools to ensure "complaince" with Bush's horrible No Child Left Behind agenda, last year he hired away Indiana's Education Director to much fanfare.

Yeah. Not a good idea.

Former Indiana and current Florida schools chief Tony Bennett built his national star by promising to hold “failing” schools accountable. But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett’s education team frantically overhauled his signature “A-F” school grading system to improve the school’s marks.

Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to ensure influential donor Christel DeHaan’s school received an “A,” despite poor test scores in algebra that initially earned it a “C.”

“They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work,” Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12 email to then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence’s chief lobbyist.

The emails, which also show Bennett discussed with staff the legality of changing just DeHaan’s grade, raise unsettling questions about the validity of a grading system that has broad implications. Indiana uses the A-F grades to determine which schools get taken over by the state and whether students seeking state-funded vouchers to attend private school need to first spend a year in public school. They also help determine how much state funding schools receive.
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For those of you educated in a charter school, that means he changed the criteria for a passing school so his school wouldn't fail.

CHEATING
 
And for the record I don't support what this guy did and he deserves whatever punishment comes his way. I do support charter schools and other schools such as KIPP. I do not agree with a top down one size fits all school structure because too many kids learn in different ways and we need different options to meet their needs.
 
cawacko said:
And for the record I don't support what this guy did and he deserves whatever punishment comes his way. I do support charter schools and other schools such as KIPP. I do not agree with a top down one size fits all school structure because too many kids learn in different ways and we need different options to meet their needs.
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I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but the education I received through the DoD Education System was about as close to a socialized public education as one could get. The difference between it and what children in our schools today get? They paid their teachers well, then recruited quality teachers as a result, then insisted upon quality and technologically innovative curriculum. You didn't need to grade the schools, you didn't need to focus on standard exams, you taught the children.

You'll see many European schools operating the same way. And the quality of education their children receives is far higher than kids in America.
 
Howey the Idiot said:
I've never been in favor of home schooling, school vouchers, and above all, charter schools
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cawacko said:
Why is Obama such a big booster of charter schools?
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Howey said:
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1236846703144490.xml&coll=2

Look...I'm not totally opposed to them...if properly run with the education of the students a priority and not the wallets of the school owners. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case.
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Obviously didn't know Obama was a supporter ..... LMAO
 
cawacko said:
Why is Obama such a big booster of charter schools?
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Because unfortunately he's a centrist, not a progressive.

Charter schools in general don't boost the quality of the education (studies have shown this). They take money away from public schools; they don't have to admit every kid; they can pay teachers less.

I'm all for alternative programs within the public schools. I'm against charter schools for profit. Non-profit charter schools I'm mixed on. There may be reasons for them - for example, in our county a public school in a particular area was closed down due to too few kids; a group of parents opened a charter school so their kids wouldn't have to be bussed as far as otherwise they would have do. They are getting kids from all over the county, so bussing is still happening. It seems to be a good school, but it's only been open a year, we'll see what happens.
 
By the way - check out schools in Finland. They pay their teachers decently; they have a tough teacher qualification program; their kids do great without excessive hours at school or anything. Their teachers are empowered.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.
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More from the article
Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Stu*dent health care is free.



Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html#ixzz2aZWKVgJF
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
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As a secondary teacher I am very interested in this part of the Finnish model:

"After their nine-year basic education in a comprehensive school, students at the age of 16 may choose to continue their secondary education in either an academic track (lukio) or a vocational track (ammattikoulu), both of which usually take three years."

It's from Wikki but it is true and what I was referencing in my response to Howeys post earlier.
 
tekkychick said:
By the way - check out schools in Finland. They pay their teachers decently; they have a tough teacher qualification program; their kids do great without excessive hours at school or anything. Their teachers are empowered.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html
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The major reason why that works in Finland is that they have an almost totally homogeneous population and Finnish children are inculcated from a very early age with the social mores of Finnish society. Although they don't start primary school until seven, prior to entering school, all children have participated in a high-quality government funded pre-school programme. As opposed to a focus on getting a jump academically, these early-childhood programmes focus on self-reflection and social behaviour. It is interesting to note that one of the most notable attributes of Finnish children is their level of personal responsibility. This early focus on self-reflection is seen as a key component for developing that level of responsibility towards learning. Whether that could translate to US schools is questionable given the social and multicultural structure of America society.
 
leaningright said:
As a secondary teacher I am very interested in this part of the Finnish model:

"After their nine-year basic education in a comprehensive school, students at the age of 16 may choose to continue their secondary education in either an academic track (lukio) or a vocational track (ammattikoulu), both of which usually take three years."

It's from Wikki but it is true and what I was referencing in my response to Howeys post earlier.
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That is a common practice in Europe.
 
From the article:
The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations
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Not as homogeneous as they used to be
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
The major reason why that works in Finland is that they have an almost totally homogeneous population and Finnish children are inculcated from a very early age with the social mores of Finnish society. Although they don't start primary school until seven, prior to entering school, all children have participated in a high-quality government funded pre-school programme. As opposed to a focus on getting a jump academically, these early-childhood programmes focus on self-reflection and social behaviour. It is interesting to note that one of the most notable attributes of Finnish children is their level of personal responsibility. This early focus on self-reflection is seen as a key component for developing that level of responsibility towards learning. Whether that could translate to US schools is questionable given the social and multicultural structure of America society.
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Yep, but I'd love to see them try it. Proper social behavior and personal responsibility are sorely lacking in the good ol' US of A.
 
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