The school district is unique but also very successful, “We regard ourselves as a district of choice,” said Bruce Coggles, an Edmonton assistant superintendent. “By offering a number of programming choices, every family can find a comfortable fit for their child’s interests, talents and abilities.” While the students have their choice of school, each school still offers a very strict curriculum. The students have choice and the district has received positive feedback as for the students doing well on standardized testing.

While the students have choice, so do the principals. What is meant by this is that the Principal’s are given about 90% control of each school’s budget. The superintendents say that by allowing the principals to spend the money they can best use it toward whatever purpose the school needs it. Rather than the state controlling 90% of the budget and the principals only controlling about 10% as is the case among American schools. This allows for the principals to be directly responsible and for the money to go to an appropriate need or concern in the school. As compared to the American system where the principal is held accountable without much input to the budget of the school.

While this system is unique it seems to be working extremely well. The students are performing in the class and having fun while learning. I believe a large part of this is the responsibilities that are placed on the principal of each school. By allowing them to control the budget of the school the principal is then free to make decisions that will best help each school be successful. It may or may not be the answer for some districts in the USA, but it is definitely worth looking into.

“State lawmakers and advocates for reform are working on a variety of bills to address Michigan’s urban education crisis. It’s great to see this much energy. But piecemeal legislation won’t be as effective as a single, comprehensive plan that addresses all the problems at once”. This makes sense because often times when you try to fix small pieces of the puzle without fixing the entire thing, the small pieces are soon forgotten and you’re back at square one.

With the state that the education system is currently in I believe with the article in that a plan that entails a total overhaul would be best suited thant several quick fix plans that will soon be forgotten. By rushing through pieces of legislature to fix the system is not the best answer. The DPS has been ina tailspin for quite sometime and attmptimg to put a band aid on a cut that requires stitches just won’t do the job. The lawmakers are better suited to take more time and come up with a complete plan of revival.

The people leading the charge will have a large mountain to climb. I recently have not many a teacher or student that was looking forward to going to school or teaching in the DPS. They will have to reform the DPS into a place where people feel comfortable sending their children. They will also have to show people that the DPS is capable of providing a quality education for its students. These statements are generalizations but are for the most part true.

The DPS might be one case where NCLB and AYP might be a good thing. Because many of the schools have not made AYP, the state now has the opportunity to shut down the schools and put people in place to reform them. This would be the best case scenario in my opinion. Sometimes the people in charge are doing a decent job but things need severe changes in order to show people that change will and can happen. The changing of the DPS will be a struggle at the beginning but it is possible. It will take the right people and the right attitude but the change can occur. It will take many people buying into the system in order for the changes to occur and stick.

The article does say that NCLB did acknowledge a struggling education system. “Many educators agree that NCLB is a good start to overhauling the system, but the law should be reshaped to give schools credit for improvement and be adequately funded. Others say the mandate, which also calls for all students in the United States to be proficient in math and reading by 2014, is unrealistic and sets schools up to fail”. What will be interesting is to see how Obama decides to change and impact the education system.

I agree with the fact that NCLB was a good starting point but I do not agree with the mandates and changes they can force upon schools. There are many theories about how and why they were mandated but I’m not going to get into that. What I am going to focus on is how the changes Obama’s campaign have said they are going to make can positivley impact the education system. By giving the school and education system the funding it needs, it will allow for some of the pressure to be taken off of the teachers and administrators. From observing the classroom I am in right now I can see the affects of NCLB. The school I am in did not make AYP and is in possibility of fines or other sanctions. This creates a lot of pressure and stress for the faculty and staff, “”When schools and school districts don’t meet all the targets but have good growth, the focus is still, ‘But you did not meet the targets.’ That’s not a good incentive for staffs to keep doing the hard work that they are doing.”

I’m not saying that President Elect Obama will have all the answers. But if what he has said in his plan is carried through, I believe the downward spiral the education system is in will improve. “We must provide the funding we were promised and give our states the resources they need, and, finally, meet our commitment to special education.”

Only time will tell what policies and procedures will come into place. Hopefully, the new legislature will provide opportunity for people to educate not feeling the pressure to meet all of the standards.

The article is interesting in the fact that it points out the significant disparities that are being found when comparing male to female education. This was an area I had little knowledge of but apparently it is becoming a significant factor in education. This can be seen when the article states, “Failing to correct the now significant disparity between boys and girls educational achievement could come at serious social cost, experts believe. Rapid technological changes, changes in economies, and the undermining role of  feminism in the 1970′s and 1980′s, have all left many men unsure of their purpose in society”. I can honestly say that if it were not for this article I would have told anyone trying to explain this to me that they were lying.

This is interesting to me because I wouldn’t expect this type of situation to happen. I have heard through my education classes that typically it is females that are afraid to outperform males but I guess these traditions are coming to an end. I can see the article’s points when I look at the classroom I am observing. Many of the male students would rather act tough then demonstrate to the class that they are intelligent. The school is a diverse low-income school where many of the students lack support from their families. I can notice some of the aspects the article points out where male students seem to think that it is more important to keep the fact that they are smart to themselves. We suggested one student go into honors English. He was accepting of the idea at first but when his friends found out he was “smart” he wanted out of the class immediately. This is just one way I see males struggling more than females.

I can see what the article is trying to get across in that young men are struggling more with education than females. I’m not sure just how much of a problem it will be, but it intrigues me in knowing that young women are doing better than young men. With all of the change with the recent Presidential Election, maybe were are not far off from having the first female president.

The people leading the charge to change the constitution of S.C., are attempting to give the students more opportunities. This will place more responsibility on the teachers but it is my opinion that too many teachers often take the easy way out and can rely on the minimally adequate when it comes down to it. I’m not in any way saying that teachers are lazy. What I am getting at is the fact that teachers are the ones who will be responsible for educating the leaders of tomorrow. If teachers have the idea that they can allow students to pass through school being minimally adequate, what kind of country will we be creating for ourselves?

This idea of teacher’s allowing students to be minimally adequate frustrates me as a future teacher. This goes against everything you are taught in education classes. With the economic situation the USA is facing, high quality education can be source for helping the economic situation. But it requires teachers to innovative and attempt to make learning fun for students. It should be every teachers goal to give their students every opportunity to succeed.

The government in South Carolina thinks that changing the constitution would be a way of getting more money for the education system. This is not the case as the system simply wants to re-allocate funds to support giving every student every chance possible.

Realistically this plan seems like a good idea. This plan almost institutes teacher performance pay on its own, with the support of teachers. It will be interesting to see what happens with this matter in the future. I believe this idea should be adopted nationwide if it has not already been done.

The link to this article can be found, http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/opinion/story/688028.html

With the economic crisis forcing many school to cut jobs, teachers are being forced to move to emerging communities such as Nevada to find jobs or take jobs as substitute teachers in their local areas. With the implementation of NCLB, teachers are now more than ever being held accountable for their students education. This is not a bad aspect of the legislature but it does force some extra stress on teachers. If the student has been passed through elementary school and gets to high school without the proper skills it then is the responsibility of the high school teacher, according to NCLB, to make sure the student can pass to the next grade level. This can be extremely challenging because students often lack the skills to be in the grade level they are in let alone pass to the next grade level.

What I am getting at in this blog is the fact that it seems as though teacher performance pay may not be far off. Most teachers that i have talked to in my pre-student teaching observations are against performance pay. I believe that it would be a good thing. If a teacher is performing their job, they would not be afraid of performance pay. There would need to be things taken into account when coming up with a system for performance pay. These would include the diversity of the students, economic prosperity of the area and the support system of the school. I say this because right now the classroom I am observing is in a diverse low economic income area. The support the students get at home is minimal and it would need to be taken into account when compared to a wealthy school district.

The article that sparked the interest for this blog can be found using this link, http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/11/28/ap5753748.html This article is from Tennessee and it explains the crisis of teacher cuts going on around the country.

I think that performance pay could be extremely beneficial for our education system. It would need to be developed but I believe it would only have a positive impact on our slipping education system.

The article points to professors being afraid that if they were to give low grades the students would file poor course evalutations against the teachers. This is not the case at Wayne State as the course evaluations come before final grades are due and are not given to the professor until long after grades are submitted.

I think a large part of the problem is that too many students want to have a GPA as high as they possibly can achieve. Who doesn’t? The problem though is that students have many resources to achieve their goals. Websites such as ratemyprofessor.com have almost every teacher rated on their website. This allows students to pick the professor that is easier or assigns less work. But this is where the problems begin for the A. Student X has taken an easier professor and done less work gets an A in the class. Another student Y takes the same class but with a harder professor and gets a B in the class. Student B however has had to do more work and probably knows more about the subject matter but received a lower grade because the professor graded harder. Does the higher grade mean that student X is a better student or knows more about the information? Not necessarily.

It is an interesting point that the article brings to light. http://www.theapple.com/news/6469-doesnt-anybody-get-a-c-anymore

I think that this situation has no easy or right answer. Detroit, along with the Michigan economy and the economy of the entire US is struggling. If the students keep leaving DPS to go to neighboring schools or charter schools, the money will eventually dwindle away. In my experience observing in the classroom, students from DPS need as much help as possible. Some have the attitude that they don’t have to do the work because they are going to fail anyways.

I did not write this to spark a debate or upset people. I just found this article interesting and it started me thinking about the topic.  http://www.freep.com/article/20081008/NEWS03/81008103/1005

Another problem the article points out is that today’s youth has the ability to have all the answers at their fingertips through Google. People are becoming less motivated to study and learn because in the end all they have to do is Google something and they will know the answer. “She said part of the problem is the culture of instant gratification that has taken root among the youth. With that comes a lack of research, everything is very superficial, instantaneous and quick. With that comes a lack of broader understanding . .. All they do is Google from their cellphones. This is really affecting us as an industry of communicators.” The problem is that today’s youth are becoming more and more tech-savvy and due to this they are not required to know as much, or so they see it in their eyes.

Another aspect the article points out is that due to the fact that young people like instant gratification when performing tasks, they no longer read as much because reading takes time. “He pointed to a decline in reading as a contributing factor. If you look at what young people spend their time on, it’s instant gratification. They find their entertainment either on the computer or on Facebook. I’m not even sure how much TV they watch. Reading is not a high priority.” When student’s do not read they are not going to be exposed to deeper language or other idea’s that you can’t find through Google.

This was an interesting article. It confirmed some things that I have been noticing over the past couple of years. I’m sure this trend has been around for much longer than I have noticed. You can find this article from this link, http://www.thetimes.co.za/Careers/Article.aspx?id=850936

The article also explains how it is important to engage the students with material they are interested in, “Teaching writing skills also involves knowing the student and knowing how to engage them with interesting ideas”. We have talked about this aspect in class and I thought it was interesting that the article is on the same page as our class.

The article moves on to explain how the teachers in Malta are attempting to work as a team rather than individuals. They are sharing idea’s with each other and attempting to make the entire school motivated to write. The big push is coming from the fact that writing is used in all subjects, not simply in English.