NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (dammit)

Falstaff

The following is an excerpt from CNN news today:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A coalition of states confirmed plans Sunday to require tougher high school courses and diploma requirements, changes that could affect one in three students.

The announcement is the most tangible sign that the nation's governors, gathered in the capital for a summit on improving high schools, want to see that progress quickly.

At least 13 states have committed to making high school classes and tests more rigorous, and to match their graduation standards with the expectations of employers and colleges.

Such changes would require significant legislative and political work, as teachers unions, school boards, legislatures and parents would be affected. Governors, state school chiefs and business executives will lead the efforts in each state.

"This is the biggest step states can take to restore the value of the high school diploma," said Republican Gov. Bob Taft of Ohio, who co-chairs Achieve, which is coordinating the effort.

The states are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Texas.

Their network will aim to enforce the American Diploma Project, an effort launched last year to prepare every high school student for college-level work. It calls for big change -- requiring every student to take rigorous math and English regardless of career plans, for example, and colleges using high school exit exams to admit and place students.

States will maintain the option to adopt what they want, project leaders said. But they have agreed to broad commitments, such as requiring students to take a test of their readiness for college or work while there is still time to help them in high school.

The participating states serve an estimated 5 million high school students, or roughly 35 percent of the public high school population in the United States, Achieve spokesmen said.

The action comes as the governors deal with what they consider a crisis an American education. Roughly one-third of students don't graduate on time, just as more jobs are requiring college-level skills and the nation's standing in such fields as math and science is slipping.

The weekend session on high schools drew most of the nation's governors, in town for a four-day meeting that includes discussions with President Bush. The governors repeatedly claimed that they -- not federal leaders -- drive education reform.

Bush, seeking to expand the No Child Left Behind law he championed, wants Congress to require two years of additional state testing in high schools. The governors on Tuesday are expected to approve a policy that does not endorse or oppose Bush's idea but spells out their conditions: input on the plan, flexibility on how it works, and federal money for any costs.

On Sunday, governors met in small groups with educators, researchers and business executives to brainstorm high school ideas.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell called for a national campaign to educate people about the struggles of high school and to build support for solutions, including more spending.

"If every American knew how poorly we were doing compared to the rest of the world, I think there would be real motivation for change," said Rendell, a Democrat.

He and other leaders said the media could help spread the message. Then, as that session closed and governors began their final one, they closed it to the media.

I was educated overseas and graduated at the age of 15 with a B average or 3.68, from a Department of Defense school in Crete, when I returned I had to attend two years of school in Tucson Arizona to meet their local standards. Even though I had attended High School and performed as well as any average student, along with some home schooling, I could not "recieve" my diploma in Arizona unless I attended mandatory classes. I was appalled at the curriculem and the teachers, it was the late 70s and high tenure teachers that refused to retire, a bankrupt school system and beaurocracy hampered or hobbled the best of students and forced them to graduate after taking worthless or meaningless courses because work study and other resources didnt exist. As an average student I was immediately disenfranchised by local busing policy and a school that had armed guards and 12 foot tall fences and guard towers on campus.....that was Tucson High circa 1977.

If only the no child left behind rule was in place. I am appalled at teachers and local governments that refuse to tow the line and get their aging and antiquated curriculem and standards upgraded to get more of our junior and senior high school students back on the academic system that works.
Just look at Japan, Europe, England, even Canada, their students are challenged and teachers are held accountable for their performance, so to should American teachers, and American Universities...no more comprimises. I want my kids to be as smart as kids from England, Germany or Japan, they deserve that. In a rich country, we owe it to our children to try. Even home schooled kids score higher on average than public school kids....and that is the rub.

BWX

I went to private school up until 8th grade and I am glad i did. I learned more in private school than most of the kids in public schools up until that point. From 8th grade on in public school, I learned what I wanted to learn, and nothing more. I was so bored in school from the lack of substance in the classes I could hardly stay awake, I went to a "good" public school too.

Vikingod

It is sad how bad the school systems have become. Things are changing, and I see it with my children, but I wonder how much it will change. I remember my high school days, you know 4 study halls and art class, and I was one of the smarter kids. The schools in my area are finaly fixing up and updating the schools, something that should have been done in the 1980's (really). I still find it distrubing that the vocational and art programs are still being cut around the US, though. It's classes like that, I think don't get the credit or attention they deserve.

pr0digal jenius

i graduated with a 3.51 even though I studied MAYBE an hour a month and my homework average in some classes was below 35% completed

Judas

Exclude Saskatchewan from that list of "canadian school" that have a "good" system going.... we are still reading out of 50 year old text books with only 79 elements on the periodic table...

Falstaff

sorry Judas, but you all can clearly see examples of how the education system you all grew up in saw teachers with low pay, clinging to tenure as if it were a dying ship. Classrooms overfilled with kids that are escaping to the streets to use drugs or hide from society, they have mortgaged their freedom and their education as well.

Judas

...never saw anything of the sort.... i saw Teachers consistantly whining about being underpayed.... to go as far as to be paid for attending typical sports... Next thing you know, a typical ballgame they don't even usually attend to... they are at.... you name it... they are getting it.

I see teachers with a frigen Corvette.... while we manage with a rusted slide.... or a broken swingset....

i watched a teachers staff room get rebuilt and referbished before getting various obvious things fixed... Sharing crap that we shouldn't even think about having to share (surgical gloves !? )

We have some grades with for example... 2 people in it... the maximum size of a class was 30 people... school has grades K-12..... 250 kids.....

Falstaff

Now I have heard of that as well, but I never saw it all, I was formally schooled by teachers overseas, poor europeans but they gave me inspiration and a love of my own country, as did my parents, they homeschooled me as well. I come to America and find comprimise, lax enforcement and knee jerk political solutions to problems that go far beyond the scope of government. Our schools weave the fabric of our society, is the mighty loom of education outmoded, outdated or broken...

Judas

My parents even stated that the schooling here is basically "Make em robots... do as you are told not as they may see"

It's outright irritating..... i myself went as far as to call it worse then 3rd world country schools.... not due to the lack of nessary tools.. but to accompany that.... terrible management.... terrible uncertified teachers..... ZERO support.... all covered up by litterly lies and garbage... do something they don't like.. they may as well chop your hands of JUST to be an example... IMO, no buddy should be made an example of... that proves the rediculiousness of it all

Falstaff

I felt the same way about Tucson HIgh, and Baldwin Junior High in Montgomery Alabama, and I was part of the bussing initiative, because I was white, I was bussed from one district to another to achieve racial balance in the towns I lived in...talk about an experiment that failed

digerati

I'm currently going to school to becoming a teacher and at least in California it comes down to this.

The school gets extra money from local property taxes. The school itself determines the salary of the teachers. And at least at my high school the starting salary was 30K per year and the top salary was 70K.

There have been controversies of teachers using school money illegally to acquire things such as vacations and cars, but trust me it's not from their salary lol