Teachers Unions & poor education in America

Quote from 1prometheus:

I have yet to see the superman movie, yet I have heard it ignores the real issue:

The problem is the students, not the schools.

http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Students-Not-Schools/dp/141281345X



If you replaced the student population at these problem schools with North Asians, Northern Europeans, or Jews, and what do you know,
the schools would suddenly not be "problems" anymore.


disgusting. you are a believer in gigo. how unPC.
 
Facts are facts Z. Low IQ populations are not able to fulfill the requirements of rigorous academic program, and never will. If any student is held to a standard that is not appropriate, they will experience continual failure.

Rather than "superman" we need a truth serum and cold look at reality.

The solution is not "busting" teachers unions but rather something more along the lines of what Charles Murray suggests in his book, "real education" which I have read and recommend.
 
"The solution is not "busting" teachers unions but rather something more along the lines of what Charles Murray suggests in his book, "real education" which I have read and recommend."

the suspense overwhelms. just say what charles murrary recommends.
 
A few of his ideas:

A broader range of low cost options that are better suited to each students innate ability.

For example much of the expensive "career oriented" education could be replaced with a rigorous certification process and apprenticeships/internships.

Kids with low academic ability need to be entering the workforce sooner.

A true liberal arts education is only suitable for a small intellectual elite, perhaps the top 5 to 10% of the population, if that.

Most likely getting these things done would require hammering the teachers unions, so perhaps I was wrong on that.


At the same time we need an economy that provides gainful employment for the population that we do have, which is a different topic.

"real education" is a good book with many good ideas. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmTr2EMt66c
 
Quote from 1prometheus:

A few of his ideas:

A broader range of low cost options that are better suited to each students innate ability.

For example much of the expensive "career oriented" education could be replaced with a rigorous certification process and apprenticeships/internships.

Kids with low academic ability need to be entering the workforce sooner.

A true liberal arts education is only suitable for a small intellectual elite, perhaps the top 5 to 10% of the population, if that.

Most likely getting these things done would require hammering the teachers unions, so perhaps I was wrong on that.


At the same time we need an economy that provides gainful employment for the population that we do have, which is a different topic.

"real education" is a good book with many good ideas. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmTr2EMt66c
Just glancing at the bigger picture you've painted, yea, that's about it.
Vocational training/Certification would be a great start.
TX stopped funding Voc.Ed years ago, and we're paying for it now.
Not every kid CAN, or WANTS to attend college.
 
Quote from 1prometheus:

Facts are facts Z. Low IQ populations are not able to fulfill the requirements of rigorous academic program, and never will. If any student is held to a standard that is not appropriate, they will experience continual failure.

Rather than "superman" we need a truth serum and cold look at reality.

The solution is not "busting" teachers unions but rather something more along the lines of what Charles Murray suggests in his book, "real education" which I have read and recommend.

Not every inner city kid will be an academic genius, but the fact is that inner city schools that were largely minorities performed quite well back in the '40's and '50's. In fact, they took a great deal of pride in that fact. Walter Williams has written extensively about it. For some reason, those same schools today produce only failure. I don't think the kids suddenly got a lot dumber.
 
They should force teachers to become entrepreneurs.... Eat what you kill...

Skew the rewards to those who generate the most improvement...

In Canada, particularly - School Boards in Ontario will pay you over $80,000 to teach English after 8 yrs experience and a few night courses (can be taken during the 2 mths paid summer holidays) This can get as high as $100k in later years (10-12+)....

Retirement as early as 62 or 25 years .... $40,000 including full health benefits.... Extra extended health coverage for family members included up to the age of 25 after retirement is $3k a year.

The pension is indexed to inflation. I don't believe that this can last and no one has caught on that simple math of compound is at work.

It seems that the baby boomer teacher unionist is living in paradise.
 
Quote from hippie:

During the state of the union address, Obama praised the Bruce Randolph school in Colorado for turning themselves around rather dramatically in a few short years.

Three years ago, Bruce Randolph was one of the poorest performing schools in Colorado. In 2010, 97% of the seniors graduated. Many of the graduates were the first in their families to get admitted into college.

How did they do it?

Sen. Michael Bennet and the school's principal Kristin Waters, convinced the Colorado government to give the school almost complete autonomy from the state's education bureaucrats over budget, staffing, schedule, school calendar, and curriculum.

One of the first things they did is terminate all of their tenured teachers and told them they could re-apply for their jobs. Only 5% got their jobs back. 95% of the tenured teachers weren't up to par.

The Gate's Foundation has done significant research into why public schools fail. Their conclusion is that it's all about teachers. The producer of the movie "Waiting for Superman" came to the same conclusion. Good teachers succeed and bad teachers fail our children. It's not any more difficult than that.


http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/02/teacher-tenure-under-attack-by-gop.html

So you have figured it all out, and it turned out to be very simple: hire only good teachers and everything will be fine. :D
 
Quote from saxon22:

Teachers are unionized in all western E. countries and their standard of education is by far superior than what we get in the states.
Teachers and education systems in former socialist countries were also unionized and again their system of education was much better.

Japan built its economic power on retianing workers for life and their ed. system is not too shabby either.


But hey it is the unions right?

Teachers may be unionized in other countries, but few have the same political clout as the ones in the USA. Here it is almost impossible to get rid of incompetent or irresponsible teachers. That is how powerful public employee unions are in the USA. These kind of unions are doing a huge disservice to the country and to the community.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

Not every inner city kid will be an academic genius, but the fact is that inner city schools that were largely minorities performed quite well back in the '40's and '50's. In fact, they took a great deal of pride in that fact. Walter Williams has written extensively about it. For some reason, those same schools today produce only failure. I don't think the kids suddenly got a lot dumber.

The kids have not gotten dumber. In fact kids are smarter today because of being exposed to more information. The school system and parenting have changed.
 
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