Common Core Education And More About Federal Government Control

[Diane Amberg]

 That's  just one state...I happen to agree, if their facts are accurate. In most states, teachers who just don't have it are easily found out before their tenure is even considered. Most are picked up even during student teaching, before they ever graduate. They might try another grade level or subject or give up altogether.
We have no problem eliminating teachers who are tenured, but burn out, lose interest or just can't do the job any longer for some reason. Kids should not be stuck with them. BUT tenure was also started to protect teachers from "political" influence and unreasonable expectations from parents as to the teachers' or schools' grading systems ,especially when a child was considered to be failing a grade.
As I have said many, many times, truancy was one of our worst problems. Even the best teacher can't help a child who isn't there, and/or has parents, usually just one..or a grandparent, who could care less or are so private they won't allow help, or because they are too embarrassed to take it.   Usually the real problem kids go on from year to year to year and it will be said that the teachers "always had it out for poor Johnie" even after poor Johnie had had many different teachers. Sounds a little suspicious, right?  There are actually surprisingly few ordinary two parent homes where the kids' actual biological father and mother are "normally" raising their children together and both real parents are home every night to spend time with their kids. Common on TV, not so much in real life.

[Ross]

That's  just one state...I happen to agree, if their facts are accurate. In most states, teachers who just don't have it are easily found out before their tenure is even considered. Most are picked up even during student teaching, before they ever graduate. They might try another grade level or subject or give up altogether.
We have no problem eliminating teachers who are tenured, but burn out, lose interest or just can't do the job any longer for some reason. Kids should not be stuck with them. BUT tenure was also started to protect teachers from "political" influence and unreasonable expectations from parents as to the teachers' or schools' grading systems ,especially when a child was considered to be failing a grade.
As I have said many, many times, truancy was one of our worst problems. Even the best teacher can't help a child who isn't there, and/or has parents, usually just one..or a grandparent, who could care less or are so private they won't allow help, or because they are too embarrassed to take it.   Usually the real problem kids go on from year to year to year and it will be said that the teachers "always had it out for poor Johnie" even after poor Johnie had had many different teachers. Sounds a little suspicious, right?  There are actually surprisingly few ordinary two parent homes where the kids' actually biological father and mother are "normally" raising their children together and both real parents are home every night to spend time with their kids. Common on TV, not so much in real life.

Tenure is just plain bullshit Diane and always has been.

It protects bad teachers from being fired across the nation, not just one state.

Every job out there from the garbage collector to the Doctor working for a major hospital faces those so called political threats of termination.

And every job out there has due process of some kind or another for termination.

Tenure insured that a teacher could not be fired after as little as a year and a half on the job.

So after a year and a half a teach could get away with doing practically nothing and be insured a pay check for the next 30 years followed by a retirement check.

Does a really good teacher require that kind of protection or just the bad teacher?

If a teacher is terminated because of political reasons, she and her student are most likely better off if the teacher moves on.

I was fired from a job without due process, a job I enjoed very much. I've told the story before, here on this forum. I wrote a 7 page type written letter to the unemployment office and because of that letter I recieved unemployeement for 14 months. And because of that letter the Vice President of the company and two of her friends were fired. You see, what goes around, comes around.

But to provide protection for treachers in the form of tenure for the possibility that the teacher my be fired for political reasons is simply popycock.

Every job has to deal with politics on one level or another, but does every job get teure because of it?

I suppose if you were to discuss Elk County and politics and who to worry about, using such methods to fire a teacher an NGO like Elk Konnected and their elite might come to mind, huh?  We do have them sitting on our School Board, you do know that of course, dont you?

We have one of them on our County Commissioners Bot that meanard and they are attempting to get another Elk Konnected member on the board so they will have the controlling votes. You know what that means don't you?

Konnected Kontrol of the Wind Farm Monies, yeah, that's right, got it?
Although they say otherwise I believe that was the sole reason Elk Konnected came about. For Kontrol of the wind farm monies. And my bet is, is one of the first things the taxpayers lose is the small property tax break we recieve.

We all have to worry about politics don't we?
We all have to worry about NGO's such as Elk Konnected, don't we?
Especially if NGO's start's jerking us around, right?
When they want political control of our City and County Governments and our School Boards, RIGHT?

Why only protect one sector of the working class from such threats?
Or are those threats you suggest, only imaginary?
Why should teachers be the only ones that need protection called tenure?
Bullshit that's why?

[Ross]

Perhaps the first course for students preparing for college should be personal finance and student loans.
To include a common sense course in "Want and Need" and how to fill out a job appication.

But then, teachers would have to be educated in these features, wouldn't they, Diane?

Maybe teaching that a 2 year degree in business is only going to land you a job as a manager at a mom and pop convience store or maybe an illustrious job as mamager at McDonalds and may not be worth that $500  Scholarship that leads to a several thousands of dollars in student loans. Just maybe, that $500 Scholarship  is just not worth accepting....

Just some thought material.

[Catwoman]

That's  just one state...I happen to agree, if their facts are accurate. In most states, teachers who just don't have it are easily found out before their tenure is even considered. Most are picked up even during student teaching, before they ever graduate. They might try another grade level or subject or give up altogether.
We have no problem eliminating teachers who are tenured, but burn out, lose interest or just can't do the job any longer for some reason. Kids should not be stuck with them. BUT tenure was also started to protect teachers from "political" influence and unreasonable expectations from parents as to the teachers' or schools' grading systems ,especially when a child was considered to be failing a grade.
As I have said many, many times, truancy was one of our worst problems. Even the best teacher can't help a child who isn't there, and/or has parents, usually just one..or a grandparent, who could care less or are so private they won't allow help, or because they are too embarrassed to take it.   Usually the real problem kids go on from year to year to year and it will be said that the teachers "always had it out for poor Johnie" even after poor Johnie had had many different teachers. Sounds a little suspicious, right?  There are actually surprisingly few ordinary two parent homes where the kids' actually biological father and mother are "normally" raising their children together and both real parents are home every night to spend time with their kids. Common on TV, not so much in real life.

Exactly, Diane.  Well said.

[Ross]

Of course teachers will defend even bad teachers to keep their tenure.
Why?
Because they may even become slothen and lazy and need the protection.
Well said try to protect the tenure, but you will fail  because people are wisening up.

I had a cousin who's husband was protected by tenure until he retired and he is thakful for it.

But guess what it isn't just one state.

The article may only be about one state, but tenure is being addressed in other states and it will spread.

There is justification for it.

[Diane Amberg]

What do you mean "of course" teachers will  defend poor teachers.That is not true. I'd like your proof please. In some schools there is even a committee that meets to try to help struggling teachers and eventually decide the fate of teachers that can't cut it.
Perhaps you should stop the generalized labeling and stick to Kansas. You just don't get it and maybe I'm being too optimistic to expect you too.
How would you feel if a parent never sent their child to school on testing days, wrote notes to "forgive" them their home work and still expected their child to receive top scores?
I really did do my very best for all my students ,even going so far as to sending a report card home on myself so the parents could comment on me every report card period. The engaged parents always filled them out and I got many good ideas from them. I never stopped learning either. Guess who never returned them? The parents of the at risk and failing students of course.  Where is your objectivity?

[Ross]

What do you mean "of course" teachers will  defend poor teachers.That is not true. I'd like your proof please. In some schools there is even a committee that meets to try to help struggling teachers and eventually decide the fate of teachers that can't cut it.

You won't fight for tenure, which protects poor teachers from being terminated?
Oh, so a committee is responsible for poor teachers? I think not, that's the wrong people to make decisions, we have elected officials for the job.
It's not a committee of teachers is it?
It is not a committee's job to should decide who should be terminated?
It is the job of Elected Officials on the School Board, who should have the best interest of those that elected them, in doing a proper job, that should determine who is terminated for cause.
The public pays the bills and the wages and votes for people to make the tough decision.
If those elected officials lack the fortitude to do their jobs --- they should step aside – they lack leadership abilities.

Perhaps you should stop the generalized labeling and stick to Kansas. You just don't get it and maybe I'm being too optimistic to expect you too.

Perhaps you should stick to your own personal opinion and forget giving orders.
You do not yet own the internet or this forum.

And sorry lady your opinion is of no more value than mine. (Maybe a little less valuable because of your attitude, just speculating! LOL)

The generalized labeling in national, not mine.
You might google the subject and learn!

How would you feel if a parent never sent their child to school on testing days, wrote notes to "forgive" them their home work and still expected their child to receive top scores?

If ya lack the communication skills to talk with the parent and can't handle the stress, maybe it's an attitude problem ya have.

Ya can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen. Oh that's right you did, didn't you?

I really did do my very best for all my students ,even going so far as to sending a report card home on myself so the parents could comment on me every report card period.
The engaged parents always filled them out and I got many good ideas from them. I never stopped learning either. Guess who never returned them? The parents of the at risk and failing students of course.  Where is your objectivity?

A report card on the teacher so she would know what student to retaliate against, good job?

So ya got an excuse, blame the parents for the classroom.
That engaged stuff --- Konnected B.S. huh!
How about engaging all of the students in class, where you are suppose to do the job? Ab
At risk kids are kids that teachers lack the ability to teach in my opinion.
At risk kids is a term made up to use as an excuse in my opinion.
It has been proven that children from poor family's can excel in the class room.
There is no connection between learning and money, proven by so called experts.

My objectivity? You question my objectivity?

That's real rich coming from a (use to be) teacher discussing the downfall of the education in the US, as if there is any objectivity on your part. Really, get real!

Kiss tenure goodbye, it's a fact! It's happening and it's a good thing.
A good teacher does not need that kind of protection.
Perhaps the good teachers will receive better recognition?

You with all your edumaction can't keep up with this unedumacted red neck, schmuk ---  and you try to talk objectivity, look up the word dearie, look up the word.

ROFLMAO

OBJECTIVITY !

It s always a pleasure to hear from you Diane. Bye-bye!
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Best Of The WeekFeatured StoriesNews   

This School's Prom Theme
Reveals How Truly Pathetic
Public Education Has Become

It appeared in a photo reportedly taken during a teacher protest.
B. Christopher Agee — June 13, 2014

Teachers unions claim their demands for continuously increasing salaries and perks are based only in their desire to better educate America's next generation. While most would agree that exceptional educators deserve compensation commensurate with their abilities, empirical evidence shows that students do not benefit when second-rate teachers receive raises.

A glaring example of this was found in the apparent massacre of the English language by organizers of Paul Robeson High School's senior prom. As evidenced by a local reporter, the Chicago school promoted the theme "This Is Are Story," which will strike anyone with a tenuous grasp of the language as a nonsensical phrase.

Of course, replacing 'our' with 'are' is not altogether uncommon. The word's misuse even appeared in a photo reportedly taken during a teacher protest.

What makes this case even more upsetting to many critics of the public school system is the fact that educators in the Chicago Public Schools system (CPS) bring home an average of $76,000 a year. Students, however, struggle to simply make it to graduation.

Statistics show that about 40 percent of students who enter a CPS high school do not leave with a diploma. Furthermore, just one in four are deemed ready for college, according to test results.

Of those who do manage to graduate and go on to college, more than nine in 10 must retake courses they should have mastered in high school.

Conservative blog Chicks on the Right pointed out that Paul Robeson High School's struggle with grammar is not limited to its prom theme. A number of glaring mistakes also appear on the school's official website.

Still, the shocking vocabulary gaffe has since become fodder for Twitter users.

Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/schools-prom-theme-reveals-pathetic-public-education-become/#qD5CHak4pgjkRBVv.99

[Ross]

McCLUSKEY: Common Core,
the worm in the teacher's apple

National curriculum standard is crumbling, and we know who to blame
By Neal McCluskey
Friday, June 13, 2014

Wormy Apple Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times

The reality of the Common Core national curriculum standards is finally coming out, and suddenly the Core has big parts falling off. Unfortunately, it is a contraption on which, thanks to Core supporters wielding federal power, almost the whole country has been coerced to fly — and crash.

In the past two weeks, South Carolina and Oklahoma officially chose to dump the Core. Indiana did the same in March. They join Texas, Alaska, Virginia and Nebraska, which never adopted, while Minnesota adopted only the English standards.

Oklahoma is perhaps the biggest blow to the Core, as Republican Gov. Mary Fallin is the chairwoman of the National Governors Association, which created the Core along with the Council of Chief State School Officers. The dominoes are likely to keep falling, with both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly approving Core-dumping bills last week, and the National Conference of State Legislatures reporting that 64 bills to slow or stop the Core have been introduced in state legislatures this year.

Indeed, it is in testing that the bigger exodus has occurred. Not counting states that eventually dumped the Core or never signed on, as of January, six states had left the two Common Core testing consortia selected and funded by the federal government. All of this happened before any state has officially used the Core's exams. If test scores drop significantly after full implementation, as happened in New York when it used its own Core-aligned exams, opposition is likely to go from yell to scream.

Regrettably, to shore up the Core, supporters have often resorted to calling Core opponents misinformed, while simply asserting that high standards will drive high achievement. To a lesser extent, they have argued that dropping the Core would squander time and money.

The two main arguments are hollow. Analysis from across the spectrum, including the left-leaning Brookings Institution, right-leaning Hoover Institution and my own work at the libertarian Cato Institute, has concluded that standards alone do not translate to improved achievement.

On the "misinformed" charge, while some anti-Core arguments are dubious — the Core would not impose a United Nations curriculum — most are substantive. For instance, despite Core proponents calling it "state-led" and "voluntary," Core adoption was driven by Washington, which made it crucial for states to compete for grants in the $4.35 billion Race to the Top program. Adoption was also just one of two ways to meet the "college- and career-ready standards" requirement for No Child Left Behind waivers.

On its quality, the Core has been heavily critiqued by subject-matter experts such as Stanford University's James Milgram and the University of Arkansas' Sandra Stotsky. Finally, imposing a single standard for millions of children, who learn different things at different rates, fails basic logic.

On the cost of withdrawing, though, Core supporters have a point. States have sunk significant time and money into implementation, which would be wasted if they backed out. For instance, the Core-backing Fordham Institute and Oklahoma Business Education Coalition pegged Oklahoma's cost of jumping at $125 million, and Indiana has found that quickly creating new standards is tough work.

Blame for costly withdrawal, however, lies squarely on Core supporters, who pushed adoption through Race to the Top. Indeed, the Race required that state officials promise to adopt before the final version of the Core was even published, much less robustly debated. As a result, states undertook years of implementation before the public had any idea what was happening.

Once implementation hit districts and schools about a yearthat should have been fully debated long before state adoption.

What the public has learned is that the Core is an empirically dubious creation driven by Washington. With that discovered, they have increasingly accepted that they do, indeed, have to sacrifice valuable time and money to get the education they want. For having to make that sacrifice, they have only Common Core supporters to thank.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jun/13/mccluskey-the-worm-in-the-teachers-apple/#ixzz34kUvnLv1
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[Diane Amberg]

I give up.Your mind is so closed you apparently can't or won't listen to any other view point.
No, the school board doesn't have day to day contact with the teachers. How could they know what teacher isn't cutting it unless told by the Principal or the supervising teacher and/or committee who oversees it all. You remind me of that TV commercial with the little old lady who hasn't a clue about the web, when her friend gets up and states" But that's not how it works.""That's not how any of it works" 
Ross, you don't get it and trying to insult me doesn't change that. Kids who are supposed to go to school and don't, don't get an education. Truancy laws are different from state to state. In Maryland the teachers were not allowed to go seek out the missing children. That was the principal's job. How does a teacher get to know a child they rarely ever seeand is always weeks behind the other kids?
By the way, the term "at risk" is as old as I am and has nothing to do with EK. The parents of at risk kids, who are failing a subject or grade, have been sent warning notices about it several times a year for many, many years. You must be desperate to try and connect that to EK or anything else. I give up.Go insult some one else for awhile.
I didn't win awards and certificates and get to be the school Science Dept Chair or be third in command behind the Principal by being a bad teacher. I also don't give up easily....also the mark of a good teacher. Give it up Ross.

[Jane]

The only thing I can say about this is something is wrong with our education system when the USA is ranked 25th in some subjects.