Other material related to educational issues:
Public
education: Put it out of business. Education is, after all, a service just like doctors,
restaurants and insurance agents provide. Thankfully, Washington does not run our hospitals, dining
establishments, or insurance companies so why continue to allow it to run the majority of schools? Like
nearly everything else it touches, government can ruin what is otherwise good with gross inefficiencies and
rampant corruption.
When Numbers Mislead:
Mayor Bloomberg announced this week that test scores are up across the city and in some schools as much as
double digits. The mayor considers the improved test scores as proof that public schools have improved
under his administration's takeover of the Board of Education. I hate to burst his bubble, but numbers
don't always tell the true story.
Why Shakir Can't Read:
Why Shakir can't read is the same reason many black kids in America can't read: the kid's own lack of
interest in education, his unstable home life with a single parent who doesn't care, a community that regards
education as being destructive of black authenticity, and school systems which are burnt out with the stress
of dealing with such kids.
Big
Brother at school: Nobody would want the government to run 90 percent of the nation's entertainment
industry. Nobody thinks that 90 percent of all housing should be owned by the state. Yet the
government's control of 90 percent of the nation's schools leaves most Americans strangely unconcerned.
But we should be concerned.
Sailer's Four-Point Plan For Improving Schools:
[Scroll down] There is a gigantic conflict of interest in current K-12 testing. The No Child
Left Behind act tells the states to make up their own tests, administer their own tests, grade their own
tests, then report back to Washington on whether the test scores have gone up enough for the states to keep
getting federal bucks. That's why Mississippi has, officially, the highest percentage of proficient
readers in the country.
Sailer Is Right: Measure School Achievement Relative
To IQ! We are constantly, shrilly condemning "failing schools" when we should be condemning
"failing students." But no, that's not quite right either. We should not condemn the students
since they are in most cases doing their best with the intellectual talent that they were born with. No,
condemnation is not justified, either of a school or its students, when both are giving all they have to
give. And as I have seen, that is generally the case.
Teacher still out after beating by
student. Vanesta Marshall, a home economics teacher at Worthing who is 5 feet 4 inches
tall, said she remembers a ninth-grade male student punching her in the face two or three times before she
blacked out Friday [5/11/2007]. … She said school officials didn't inform her about the student's
discipline history. "We're just regular-ed teachers," she said. "We don't know how to
handle violent behavior."
Back to the 1950s:
Africentric school to open in 2009.
After years of debate that has divided communities of every colour, Toronto's public school board voted tonight
to open an Africentric alternative school in September 2009. The junior kindergarten to Grade 5
school — believed to be a first in Canada — is expected to help tackle a 40 percent dropout
rate among black students.
Elgin High School teacher lost vision in knife attack.
The Elgin High School teacher stabbed by a student lost vision in one of her eyes as a result of the attack,
district officials said Monday. Carolyn Gilbert, 50, of Bloomingdale, was stabbed multiple times in the
neck and once near the eye by a 16-year old student Friday. ... The 16-year-old male student was charged
with aggravated battery with a weapon and aggravated battery to a teacher, both felonies.
Black
Education: At Baltimore's predominantly black Frederick Douglass High School … students
are four to five years below grade level. Most of its ninth-graders read at the third-, fourth- or
fifth-grade levels. In 2006, only 24 percent of its students tested proficient in reading, in
math just 11 percent, and that's an improvement over previous years. Only one student managed
to score above 1,000 on the SAT and another student scored 440 out of 1,600. You get 400 points
for just writing in your name. Out of its 1,100 students, 200 to 300 are absent each day.
U.S. schools weigh extending
hours, year. One model that traditional public schools are looking to is the Knowledge is Power
Program, which oversees public charter schools nationwide. Those schools typically serve low-income
middle-school students, and their test scores show success. Students generally go from 7:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m. during the week and for a few hours every other Saturday. They also go to school for
several weeks in the summer.
Hearings
add weight to anti-obesity bills. Two legislative hearings were transformed into forums about
child obesity Tuesday [2/27/2007] as lawmakers considered adding physical education and dropping junk foods
in Oregon's public schools.
[Oregon schools don't have physical education classes already?]
Shut
down the Middle Schools. If an otherwise decent school district has a problem school, it's going
to be the junior high. And even high-functioning middle schools can be a problem for the students
in them.
Supreme
Court Justices Save Children from Educationists — Finally. As a twelve-year-old I had been
petrified at the thought of attending Ben Franklin [High School]. My fears were borne out when I was
locked into French class at the direction of the principal over the P.A. system. In the halls,
stampeding students were breaking glass and beating up teachers. The school day atmosphere rippled
with intimidation. I was "asked" for quarters at my locker. As I walked home, I was knocked on
the head — for carrying books.
The Editor says...
Sounds like my experience as well. How many times does a person have to put up
with, "Hey you, whitey, lend me a quaw-tuh?"
The Scary Truths Behind the Iconic Yellow
School Buses. Should there be a mandatory national standard for retiring school buses? Are
we as parents asking enough from the companies about the condition of the buses our kids are riding in?
Eye Scan Technology Comes to Schools. At
this point, the New Jersey program is not mandatory. When picking up a child, the adult provides a
driver's license and then submits to an eye scan. If the iris image camera recognizes his or her
eyes, the door clicks open.
Myth Buster. [For
example ...] Schools perform poorly because they need more money; teachers are
underpaid; schools are performing much worse in standardized testing and graduation
rates; accountability systems impose large burdens on schools; the evidence for
vouchers is inconclusive.
Texas School Finance System
Unconstitutional. The Texas Supreme Court ruled November 22 that the state's
school finance system — commonly referred to throughout the state as "Robin
Hood"… — is unconstitutional because it levies a statewide property tax.
Alvin cheerleader's dad outraged by
suspension. The father of a 13-year-old Alvin Junior High cheerleader said the school district
overstepped its bounds when it suspended his daughter for taking a cell phone photo of another cheerleader
getting out of the shower during a sleepover in his home. "This makes me realize how little control
I have over my daughter when the school district can take action something that happened at my home on a
Saturday," Michael Bailey said.
The Editor says...
Figure it out, Mr. Bailey — The school district officials think they own your
children. Unless you tell them otherwise, they will continue this presumption.
Harry Browne's stand on
Education: There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to be
involved in education in any way whatsoever. The growing amounts of money and control coming
from Washington have been matched by lower SAT scores, declining standards, more dangerous schools,
and generations of Americans who have no basic education in history, geography, the Constitution,
mathematics, science, or literature.
The Black Hole of
Public Education. For the most part, teachers begin their educational careers idealistic and
excited about their role in the learning process. At first, money is of no concern in the mind of a
person who serves in the caretaker profession. It isn't long, though, before the rookies begin to
realize that direct instruction is frowned upon and that no significant amount of learning can take place
given the often impossible circumstances with which teachers are faced.
Politicians' Kids
Go to Private Schools. "Politicians who promote public schools don't always
send their kids to them," said ABC News journalist John Stossel in a segment of the 20/20 program
broadcast on January 28, called "Public Schools for Poor Kids, Not Politicians' Kids." … As an
example, he cited Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), who has called public education the "cornerstone
of our democracy." Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also declared he was "unalterably
opposed to a voucher system to give people public money to take to private schools." Yet when
the Clintons were in the White House, they sent their daughter Chelsea to an exclusive private
school.
Students Pin Achievement Gap on
Teachers with Low Expectations. Even when students do have higher aspirations,
their perspective often is not shared by teachers. A recent statewide survey of academic
expectations in Rhode Island found black and Hispanic students had higher hopes for their future
than they thought their teachers had. While 74 percent of black students thought
they would go to college, only 64 percent said their teachers held the same view. With
Hispanic students, the figures were 77 percent and 68 percent respectively.
Old
Problem: Student Drop-Out Rate — New Problem: Teacher Drop-Out Rate
Too Many Cooks Running
Our Schools. The curriculum in our schools has been spoiled by the fact that there are too many
cooks in the kitchen. The academic agenda of the public school system is as much determined by what is
politically incorrect to discuss in the schools, as it is by the basic assumptions about the academic skills
necessary to survive in our society.
The Dirty Dozen: Twelve
college classes YOU are paying for.
Loose Lips in American Academia and the
Press: Professors, journalists and others who have made grossly offensive remarks in the
wake of the September 11th terrorist attack are shocked that other Americans are criticizing them
for it. To them, apparently, free speech means being free of criticism by others who want to
exercise their own free speech rights.
The Usual Suspects: Osama bin
Chomsky and America's Academic al Qaeda: When the Vietnam War ended, the anti-war movement
fragmented. Many of the former protesters began what the German New Leftist Rudi Dutschke called the
"long march through the institutions." The most important of these institutions was the academy, where
from their tenured positions, the old protesters could continue to inculcate into new generations of students
the idea that the United States of "Amerika" (or Amerikkka) is irredeemably racist and oppressive.
Beer and Circus: How Big-Time
College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education: Big-time college sports are a big-time
reason why so many large universities have become nothing more than four-year parties with expensive cover
charges otherwise known as tuition. That's the opening thesis of Murray Sperber's latest book that
details how sports — often the one thing schools use to rally their diverse undergraduates — has
helped to deny those same students an education.
Inept Teacher Training: American education
will never be improved until we address a problem seen as too delicate to discuss. That problem is
teacher philosophy and incompetency.
When push comes to shovel:
State social-service bureaucrats accuse a small, rural religious school of child abuse, citing its disciplinary
emphasis on manual labor and corporal punishment. In most cases, an overmatched, underfunded school would
have to cave in. But Heartland Christian Academy is hardly typical. The school is bankrolled by an
insurance multimillionaire who hasn't forgotten his rural roots, and "Pastor Charlie," as he's known, points to
a record of success in helping steer some of the toughest wayward kids onto the straight and narrow. And
he vows to use his vast resources to fight a battle other similar schools won't — or can't.
Small Is Beautiful:
While public school officials support the idea that "smaller is better" when it is applied to reducing class
sizes, the concept meets a much cooler reception when it's applied to reducing the size of school districts.
Boy's Letter Supporting Abortion
of Disabled Babies Wins in Lutheran Contest: An eighth-grade boy who wrote a letter advocating
parents' rights to abort their potentially disabled unborn babies has been singled out for a trip to Washington
by a Christian organization. Along with his mother, James Humphery has been awarded an all-expenses-paid
trip to Washington to lobby members of Congress to pass pro-abortion legislation.
Pledge
of Allegiance Tied to Socialist Roots
Bob Jones University responds after being
characterized as a bigoted institution.
The
Influence of "Junk Science" and the Role of Science Education
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